Transcript

Sharri | 2 December · Sharri

0:01
Speaker 1: Why on Sky needs.
0:04
Speaker 2: Sharry Good Evening. Police have tonight charged a seventy one
0:11
Speaker 2: year old grandmother over a string of anti Israel graffiti
0:15
Speaker 2: incidents in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. I can exclusively reveal that
0:20
Speaker 2: in the past hour, police have visited the home of
0:24
Speaker 2: a Rose Bay acupuncturist, Shona Baker, charging her with six
0:29
Speaker 2: graffiti offenses. She'll appear in court on January sixteenth. The
0:35
Speaker 2: grandmother is accused of being behind a wave of graffiti
0:39
Speaker 2: attacks that have defaced public property, real estate signs, and
0:44
Speaker 2: residential buildings over a six month period. The charges tonight
0:50
Speaker 2: come after a dramatic few days, and it's all thanks
0:53
Speaker 2: to the ingenuity of the local community. Frustrated by the
0:58
Speaker 2: ongoing attacks, local Jewish residents set up discreete surveillance cameras
1:05
Speaker 2: and quietly gathered evidence, determined to uncover whoever was responsible.
1:11
Speaker 2: It was only through their undercover detective work over a
1:15
Speaker 2: three month period that the mystery was cracked. When they
1:20
Speaker 2: finally saw the identity of the alleged culprit on camera,
1:25
Speaker 2: they were stunted. Here's my exclusive report.
1:36
Speaker 3: We've got neighbors who are Jewish and they've certainly expressed
1:40
Speaker 3: their disappointment and distress over these incidents.
1:44
Speaker 4: It's confronting for the kids to see as well. You know,
1:47
Speaker 4: we have such a lovely community and we have Plumme
1:50
Speaker 4: a road where everyone loves to walk down and cycle
1:52
Speaker 4: down with their kids, and you know, to have to
1:54
Speaker 4: sort of take certain routes in your own neighborhood to
1:57
Speaker 4: avoid this distressing van is not acceptable.
2:03
Speaker 2: So when did you first start noticing the vandalism and
2:06
Speaker 2: how distressing was it for the local community?
2:09
Speaker 5: Started in mid July and it didn't stop every weekend
2:15
Speaker 5: all over the place.
2:16
Speaker 6: It was.
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Speaker 1: Horrible rhetoric of.
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Speaker 5: All the usual slogans. Kids in the area seeing this
2:29
Speaker 5: in the morning when they wake up on the weekend
2:32
Speaker 5: to go to the park, and Jewish kids, non Jewish kids.
2:37
Speaker 5: No one wants to see it.
2:39
Speaker 2: Some of the people I've spoken to said that elderly
2:43
Speaker 2: Jewish residents were very distressed, were regularly in tears, and
2:47
Speaker 2: there was the sense that you couldn't escape it.
2:49
Speaker 5: Writing Gaza is a holocaust for actual survivors of a
2:54
Speaker 5: Holocaust is pretty much in your face. It's a slap
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Speaker 5: in the face.
3:01
Speaker 2: This is one of the locations that was repeatedly targeted
3:05
Speaker 2: with anti Israel graffiti. The neighbors were so sick of
3:09
Speaker 2: cleaning it off that they set up a secret motion
3:13
Speaker 2: camera overnight, and this is what they captured. So the
3:24
Speaker 2: graffiti started in mid July. By August, you'd had enough
3:30
Speaker 2: and you decided to set up cameras.
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Speaker 5: We decided to take matters into our own hands. So
3:36
Speaker 5: little by little we worked out some predictable patterns of
3:40
Speaker 5: where and when, and we thought, if we can identify
3:47
Speaker 5: her film her doing it, we could present that to
3:50
Speaker 5: the police and they could help make it stop.
3:56
Speaker 2: So in August, you parked your car with the dash
3:58
Speaker 2: can in it, and it had a motion sensor, so
4:02
Speaker 2: you left it there overnight. When you checked it in
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Speaker 2: the morning, were you surprised?
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Speaker 5: I was surprised when I saw the footage A that
4:10
Speaker 5: they had gotten up at five am routinely to do this,
4:16
Speaker 5: and b that it was a middle aged woman in
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Speaker 5: a dress.
4:23
Speaker 2: She looks like a grandmother. So that first footage, when
4:26
Speaker 2: you caught her in the act, what was she writing?
4:30
Speaker 5: So the first footage that I got her on camera
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Speaker 5: writing was Bibi Laya putin liar djt liar in brackets
4:42
Speaker 5: next to it. Assholes? How can we trust these men?
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Speaker 2: So November fifteen, with some anticipation, you set up the
4:49
Speaker 2: camera once again.
4:50
Speaker 5: So I parked the car the night before next to
4:53
Speaker 5: the golf course, and sure enough, the next morning it
4:57
Speaker 5: was all recorded, and the car there again the next night,
5:03
Speaker 5: and the next morning, Sunday morning, she turned up and
5:06
Speaker 5: wrote on the exact same spot again.
5:08
Speaker 2: Well, what was extraordinary about that is that after you
5:11
Speaker 2: caught her on the night of November fifteenth, are the
5:15
Speaker 2: residents in the area went and cleaned the sign, And
5:18
Speaker 2: then you set up your camera again, and the woman
5:23
Speaker 2: went back and vandalized it, seeing that the sign had
5:25
Speaker 2: been cleaned.
5:26
Speaker 5: And that's what's so tormenting, because locals are clearly offended
5:31
Speaker 5: and terrorized by it, they rush around to get rid
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Speaker 5: of it. There's various people who were involved in removing
5:39
Speaker 5: the graffiti, and they are expecting it. We've put a
5:43
Speaker 5: lot of effort into trying to make this stop. There's
5:47
Speaker 5: been a lot of time wasted from this individual, money spent, cleaning,
5:53
Speaker 5: products bought. It's more than just being slightly offended by
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Speaker 5: her slogans. It's wasting everyone's time and effort and money,
6:05
Speaker 5: and we just want to make it stop.
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Speaker 2: So that led to last weekend when you had three
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Speaker 2: different groups of local residents doing surveillance.
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Speaker 1: That's correct.
6:15
Speaker 5: We've just had enough of it and we thought, let's
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Speaker 5: get up four point thirty and see if we can
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Speaker 5: put a stop to this. Today there were two cars
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Speaker 5: and someone else on foot, and we found her and
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Speaker 5: we filmed her in secret. She was completely unaware that
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Speaker 5: we were onto her, and we got some great footage
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Speaker 5: of her inaction.
6:53
Speaker 2: Hi, it's Shari Maxon here from Sky News. Do you
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Speaker 2: have time for a chat. We've got footage of you
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Speaker 2: on camera vandalizing public property. Can you explain why you
7:05
Speaker 2: did this? Well, we've just dawknocked the woman who has
7:09
Speaker 2: been caught on camera. A camera is set up by
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Speaker 2: her neighbors where she's graffited anti Israel's slogans on public property,
7:18
Speaker 2: on real estate signs, on people's residential homes. This has
7:21
Speaker 2: been going on for months. The woman said she knew
7:25
Speaker 2: nothing about it. She wouldn't come downstairs to speak with us.
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Speaker 2: I confronted the culprit. She wouldn't come to the door,
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Speaker 2: She wouldn't answer questions. Does that surprise you not at all.
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Speaker 5: She's a coward. You know, she gets up in the
7:39
Speaker 5: middle of the night when no one's around and does
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Speaker 5: her thing and gets a kick out of it, and
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Speaker 5: gets a kick out of being anonymous and antagonizing everyone.
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Speaker 5: So of course she wants to hide, and you know
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Speaker 5: she won't be hiding much now.
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Speaker 2: So impressive that you and some of the other local
8:00
Speaker 2: residents took the initiative to set up these motion cameras
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Speaker 2: to actually find out who did this.
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Speaker 5: Well, we were just sick of it, and sometimes you're
8:09
Speaker 5: just going to make it happen, and we had some
8:12
Speaker 5: resources and we just made the time because we all
8:18
Speaker 5: felt compelled to make it stop.
8:22
Speaker 6: We got her.
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Speaker 4: This is it.
8:25
Speaker 2: And as I mentioned earlier, police have confirmed they have
8:29
Speaker 2: tonight charged the seventy one year old grandmother. They went
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Speaker 2: to her home around six forty five pm. A spokesman
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Speaker 2: for New South Wales Police told me and I quote
8:39
Speaker 2: Police Area Command have charged a seventy one year old
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Speaker 2: woman following an investigation into several incidents of alleged offensive graffiti.
8:48
Speaker 2: Police commenced the investigation on Sunday, thirtieth of November following
8:52
Speaker 2: reports of a graffiti near a construction site on O'Sullivan Road,
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Speaker 2: Rose Bay. During initial inquiries, police identified several other incidents
9:01
Speaker 2: of graffiti on the same street earlier this year, which
9:05
Speaker 2: offices a treating as linked. Following further inquiries, police charged
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Speaker 2: a seventy one year old woman today with intentionally mark
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Speaker 2: premises without consent aggravated four counts and intentionally marked premises
9:18
Speaker 2: without prescribed consent to counts. She was issued a court
9:23
Speaker 2: attendance notice to appear before Downing Central Local Court on
9:27
Speaker 2: Friday sixteenth of January twenty twenty six. Now, this development
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Speaker 2: this evening is entirely thanks to the commitment and detective
9:37
Speaker 2: skills of the neighborhood. As I mentioned earlier, Schooner Baker
9:42
Speaker 2: is a local acupuncturist. She declined repeated requests for comment,
9:47
Speaker 2: both in person and over the phone, but it's clear
9:51
Speaker 2: the distress the alleged vandalism has caused the local community
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Speaker 2: in Sydney's Rose Bay over a six month period, and
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Speaker 2: this is it's just a snapshot of what communities all
10:03
Speaker 2: over Australia are enduring despite the fact there's a ceasefire
10:07
Speaker 2: in the Middle East, and on this one occasion it's terrific.
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Speaker 2: The local residents were able to capture the alleged culprit
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Speaker 2: in real time and hand the evidence over to police,
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Speaker 2: and we'll keep you updated on the show tomorrow night
10:25
Speaker 2: with any developments and for more on this Let's bring
10:31
Speaker 2: It Now Daily Telegraph journalist James Willis and chief economist
10:35
Speaker 2: at the IPA Adam Crichton. Great to see you both, James,
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Speaker 2: I want to get your reaction to the secret footage
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Speaker 2: that has captured a grandmother, a Caucasian woman, you know,
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Speaker 2: seventy one years old and acupuncturist, just looks like a
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Speaker 2: normal person in a nice dress getting up at four
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Speaker 2: point thirty and five in the morning and allegedly committing
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Speaker 2: this graffiti.
10:58
Speaker 3: Well, firstly, congratulations you Sharry for an excellent report, and
11:02
Speaker 3: congratulations for all the work that you've done in this space.
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Speaker 3: You've really led the way to call these things out
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Speaker 3: more than anyone I think in media and Australia.
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Speaker 2: So well done toer you.
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Speaker 3: I think even if you weren't politically minded, you would
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Speaker 3: just to be fed up with the fact that every
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Speaker 3: time you wake up or every few days, you're hit
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Speaker 3: with offensive graffiti on the street, which no one wants
11:21
Speaker 3: to see well done to the community members for getting involved,
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Speaker 3: But I mean, to me, the overall thing is it's
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Speaker 3: just sad.
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Speaker 1: It's sad that.
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Speaker 3: Someone could go out of their way and I know
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Speaker 3: the time stamps on some of these alleged incidents were
11:32
Speaker 3: four or five in the morning across the weekend. It's
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Speaker 3: sad that someone would allegedly be going out of their
11:37
Speaker 3: way to spill that sort of hate all over the community.
11:41
Speaker 3: And look, i'd say in general terms, the majority of
11:44
Speaker 3: people that are being the most hateful about what is
11:46
Speaker 3: going on in the Middle East have absolutely no clue
11:49
Speaker 3: about what they're even arguing. They've just decided to hate
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Speaker 3: one side and they're not even looking at logic, and
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Speaker 3: stuff like this comes out as a result. So it's
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Speaker 3: just really sad it could be occurring in Sydney.
12:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so true. And Adam, you know, a local
12:03
Speaker 2: counselor from the area wrote to me this afternoon after
12:06
Speaker 2: seeing our promos for this story, and he said that
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Speaker 2: he's been pushing for the local council to install CCTV
12:14
Speaker 2: to try and find out who was behind this. But
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Speaker 2: you know, it really shouldn't be up to a couple
12:20
Speaker 2: of clever local residents to catch these alleged culprits. You know,
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Speaker 2: it should be the council, it should be the police
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Speaker 2: doing this.
12:30
Speaker 6: Yeah.
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Speaker 7: Look, I think you know, in the circumstances, you know,
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Speaker 7: given the graffiti we've seen and the you know, the
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Speaker 7: divisive rhetoric on this issue, maybe it's reasonable to have
12:38
Speaker 7: c C t V cameras in these and sobs. I would,
12:41
Speaker 7: you know, I mean, I would support that. I can
12:42
Speaker 7: understand why the community would want that. I mean, you know,
12:45
Speaker 7: it's hard to see anything good from, you know, from
12:47
Speaker 7: what this woman did. I mean, you have to wonder
12:49
Speaker 7: about her mental state really as as you know, as
12:51
Speaker 7: James was saying, I mean, why would you get up
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Speaker 7: so early in the morning to write such ridiculous things, which,
12:55
Speaker 7: you know, which obviously make make certain people feel very scared,
12:59
Speaker 7: And that's understandable. The only you know, good thing I
13:01
Speaker 7: would say from it is it was just this one woman.
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Speaker 7: It wasn't seven different people writing seven awful things. It
13:06
Speaker 7: was one person. And so you know, if there's any
13:08
Speaker 7: silver lining to this story, it's that.
13:12
Speaker 2: And of course you know, the woman has been charged.
13:14
Speaker 2: These are allegations. Any commentary on her mental state is
13:19
Speaker 2: entirely speculative, of course, on your post, Adam, you know,
13:24
Speaker 2: we don't know anything about that, and she will have
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Speaker 2: her say when she appears in court in January. Now,
13:31
Speaker 2: let's turn to some other topics now and insenate estimates.
13:35
Speaker 2: Foreign Minister Pennywong and Finance Minister Katie Gallagher have refused
13:38
Speaker 2: to accept the findings of two judges that former Defense
13:43
Speaker 2: Minister Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown
13:46
Speaker 2: did not try and cover up the rape of Britney Higgins. Now,
13:51
Speaker 2: when questioned by Liberal Senator Ann Rustin, this is what
13:55
Speaker 2: Penny Wong had to say.
13:57
Speaker 8: The allegation of a cover up had no foundation in fact,
14:01
Speaker 8: do you all, the Prime Minister except that judgment?
14:07
Speaker 9: The independence of the judiciary is an important and central
14:10
Speaker 9: feature of the Westminster system. At the heart of this
14:13
Speaker 9: matter was a young woman who a court found was
14:18
Speaker 9: raped in the office of a liberal minister.
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Speaker 8: Will you now acknowledge that accusations by you and your
14:26
Speaker 8: government of a cover up were in fact unfounded?
14:31
Speaker 9: Well, I've already given that answer.
14:34
Speaker 8: Are you prepared to admit that therese accusations made by
14:38
Speaker 8: you on many occasions were unfounded.
14:41
Speaker 9: I'd refer you to my previous answers, Senator.
14:45
Speaker 2: And this was also after Anthony Alberizi refused to acknowledge
14:48
Speaker 2: the Court's findings when he was finally pressed on this
14:52
Speaker 2: matter in wa by journalists who aren't in the press gallery. Now, James,
14:57
Speaker 2: what would it actually take for any one in the
15:00
Speaker 2: Albanzi government to acknowledge that they were wrong to accuse
15:05
Speaker 2: the Ben Morrison government of a political cover up over
15:08
Speaker 2: a rape.
15:09
Speaker 3: Well, Charry, they won't because if you go back and
15:11
Speaker 3: have a look at every interview, every bit in Parliament,
15:15
Speaker 3: every speech, this was the beginning of the end for
15:19
Speaker 3: the Morrison government. I'm not saying this was the nail
15:22
Speaker 3: and the coffin, but this was the thing that put
15:24
Speaker 3: Scott Morrison under the most pressure four years ago, and
15:28
Speaker 3: Anthony Alberinezi politicized this. He gave speeches in Parliament accusing
15:32
Speaker 3: the Prime Minister of not listening to women. We know
15:35
Speaker 3: what Katie Gallagher and Penny Wong did when they questioned
15:38
Speaker 3: Linda Reynolds and said of estimates, and they led the
15:41
Speaker 3: charge on the political cover up.
15:42
Speaker 1: And I said this last week, but I think it's
15:43
Speaker 1: worth repeating.
15:45
Speaker 3: The saddest part about this entire saga is that a
15:48
Speaker 3: court has found that Britney Higgins was raped on the
15:50
Speaker 3: balance of probabilities. Now that should be the story, but
15:53
Speaker 3: instead because of the actions from the people close to
15:56
Speaker 3: Brittney Higgins.
15:58
Speaker 1: The first thing was should have been to go to
15:59
Speaker 1: the p every day of the week.
16:01
Speaker 3: Instead they went to Channel ten fed the story, and
16:03
Speaker 3: instead they fed various labor ministers to say, hey, there's
16:07
Speaker 3: been a cover up here, we want you to go
16:09
Speaker 3: on the attack. That was all done before police got
16:13
Speaker 3: a foot on the ground and could investigate what is
16:16
Speaker 3: very tragic and horrific circumstances for anyone in any workplace
16:20
Speaker 3: and the fact that it went in that order is terrible.
16:23
Speaker 3: But unfortunately we're not going to get anywhere with this
16:25
Speaker 3: because I don't think there's any way the Greens would want.
16:28
Speaker 1: To push this issue further.
16:29
Speaker 3: They're happy to put it to bed, but there are
16:31
Speaker 3: some questions to be answered, and we still don't have
16:33
Speaker 3: the legal advice on how.
16:34
Speaker 1: This was approved in the first place, in.
16:36
Speaker 3: A single day, two point four million in a single
16:39
Speaker 3: day for Brittany and also at the same time we've
16:42
Speaker 3: got these two barristers that are being paid ten thousand
16:46
Speaker 3: dollars a day plus that the government has hired against
16:50
Speaker 3: the action from Wynda Reynolds and Fiona Browns. So jeez,
16:53
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what the never ending saga. But we
16:55
Speaker 3: need to know more.
16:56
Speaker 2: About this, Yeah, exactly. It's the media that's on picking this,
17:00
Speaker 2: not the coalition, despite the fact, Adam, I genuinely think
17:03
Speaker 2: this is one of the most grotesque things I've ever
17:07
Speaker 2: seen in politics, the way a young woman's tragic rape
17:12
Speaker 2: was weaponized for political purposes, was used against the Morrison government,
17:17
Speaker 2: and it was a large part of the reason, you know,
17:19
Speaker 2: people forget now the marches across the country. It's a
17:22
Speaker 2: large part of the reason for their electoral loss.
17:27
Speaker 7: Yeah, look, it's you know, the whole the whole episode
17:29
Speaker 7: reflects you know so badly I think on the Labor Party,
17:32
Speaker 7: on the behavior of those senators that we just mentioned earlier,
17:34
Speaker 7: and I mean their answers in set of estimates I
17:37
Speaker 7: thought were just pathetic. Look, I mean, if they disagree
17:38
Speaker 7: with the court, just say they disagree. But their answers
17:41
Speaker 7: were just so merely mouthed and hopeless. And yeah, they
17:45
Speaker 7: must know in private that they were making it up
17:47
Speaker 7: that it was politicized, as you say, and I think
17:50
Speaker 7: it's blown up in their faces. I mean, the fact
17:52
Speaker 7: that we're still talking about this now, what is it
17:54
Speaker 7: three four years later? Extraordinary, really, you know. And I
17:57
Speaker 7: think most of the bad perception I think falls on
18:01
Speaker 7: their behavior, I would say now, and certainly not Linda Reynolds.
18:04
Speaker 2: I also think it's disappointing now that the Coalition isn't
18:08
Speaker 2: pushing for an inquiry.
18:09
Speaker 6: James.
18:10
Speaker 2: There was a newspaper report that this went to Shadow
18:12
Speaker 2: Cabinet last week and they all chose not to push
18:16
Speaker 2: for an inquiry. That is disgraceful as well.
18:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the public would be on side with
18:21
Speaker 3: that largely, and I think, sure there's an argument to
18:24
Speaker 3: put this to bed, but I think enough of the
18:26
Speaker 3: I mean, keep in mind this has impacted their own side.
18:29
Speaker 3: This impacted Linda Reynolds. It also implicated Machaylia Cash, who
18:33
Speaker 3: was accused of doing things that never actually happened. So
18:36
Speaker 3: the political element of this needs to be explored. And
18:40
Speaker 3: I might just add that I'm sure there was a
18:41
Speaker 3: National Press Club speech as well where Britney spoke and
18:44
Speaker 3: also Grace Ham spoken, so this whole chapter was weaponized
18:49
Speaker 3: against the Morrison government and Scott Morrison was accused of
18:52
Speaker 3: not doing enough when the history book and the courts
18:55
Speaker 3: now show that wasn't the case, and Labor can try
18:58
Speaker 3: and duck from it. Journalists should keep asking questions about this,
19:02
Speaker 3: keep coming up at press conferences exactly.
19:04
Speaker 2: But it's amazing that when the politicians are in Canberra,
19:07
Speaker 2: you know, the press gallery doesn't ask them about it.
19:09
Speaker 2: They get questioned fine at Senate estimates, but otherwise it's
19:12
Speaker 2: you know, when they when the Prime Minister went to
19:15
Speaker 2: Perth into state, journalists really hounded him on it, whereas
19:19
Speaker 2: you just don't get that sort of interrogation from the
19:22
Speaker 2: Canbra Press Gallery, which I think is really disappointed.
19:24
Speaker 3: Well on there some media outlets that have just not
19:26
Speaker 3: touched this at all, and I think that is worth
19:29
Speaker 3: noting as well.
19:30
Speaker 2: That's very true. All right, let's turn to the economy.
19:33
Speaker 1: Now.
19:34
Speaker 2: Inflation is now persistent, it's not coming down. Electricity prices,
19:39
Speaker 2: as you should know by now, have risen thirty seven
19:42
Speaker 2: percent in a year, and economists are now predicting that
19:46
Speaker 2: there could be an interest rate rise potentially even in December. Adam,
19:51
Speaker 2: you're a chief economist and used to have cost be
19:53
Speaker 2: the economics writer at the Australian newspaper. Do you think
19:57
Speaker 2: this is possible that we could see a rate rise
19:59
Speaker 2: at the decem IRBA board meeting, and do you also
20:02
Speaker 2: think that inflation is going to come down in the
20:06
Speaker 2: next six months.
20:09
Speaker 7: Well, certainly it is possible, but probably not going to
20:12
Speaker 7: happen in December. I'd say they'll wait a few months.
20:14
Speaker 7: But if you look at the financial market pricing just
20:16
Speaker 7: this afternoon, the probability of a rate increased next year
20:19
Speaker 7: is now seventy percent, So it's more likely than not
20:21
Speaker 7: that rates are going to go up rather than down
20:23
Speaker 7: next time. That's a pretty profound point and you'd be
20:26
Speaker 7: rather concerned if you're one of those poor souls that
20:28
Speaker 7: took advantage of the five percent deposit scheme thinking that
20:30
Speaker 7: rates were going to fall, Well now you're going to
20:32
Speaker 7: be wiped out basically, So that was a very foolish policy.
20:35
Speaker 7: But more generally, look, I don't think inflation is going
20:38
Speaker 7: to come down. We've got the money supplies growing very rapidly.
20:41
Speaker 7: In the last twelve months it grew seven percent, so
20:44
Speaker 7: you know, of course you've got more money in the
20:46
Speaker 7: system in the economy, and that's basically changing the same
20:50
Speaker 7: number of goods.
20:50
Speaker 6: You're going to have inflation.
20:51
Speaker 7: And of course you've got more and more solar and
20:54
Speaker 7: wind power going into the energy system that's making power
20:57
Speaker 7: prices more expensive. So there are so many pressure points
21:00
Speaker 7: in the economy that is pushing prices up. And of
21:03
Speaker 7: course you've got the reregulation of the labor market as well,
21:05
Speaker 7: that's another factor. So I mean, it's not likely in
21:08
Speaker 7: my view that you're going to see a decline in inflation.
21:10
Speaker 7: And of course it's worth pointing out the measured rate
21:12
Speaker 7: of inflation three point eight is actually a massive understatement.
21:14
Speaker 7: The real rate of inflation is much much higher than that.
21:17
Speaker 7: It really needs to include asset prices, which are excluded
21:21
Speaker 7: from that statistic.
21:22
Speaker 2: Right, I didn't realize that. And I think the other
21:25
Speaker 2: thing that's misunderstood James about inflation is you know, when
21:28
Speaker 2: the Treasurer says, well, inflation has fallen since its peak
21:31
Speaker 2: of I think six point eight percent, you know, people
21:35
Speaker 2: that sounds like the prices of things are falling, But
21:38
Speaker 2: inflation is the rate that things are going up. So
21:41
Speaker 2: if it's above the irba's target bound if it's three
21:44
Speaker 2: point eight percent, that means goods and services, the cost
21:47
Speaker 2: of everything is still rising. So this is very difficult for.
21:51
Speaker 3: Families absolutely, and businesses, and just spare a thought for business.
21:55
Speaker 3: I mean everyone thought COVID was hard. The reality is
21:57
Speaker 3: that we had a lot of zombie businesses during COVID
22:00
Speaker 3: were propped up by very lucrative and long term government
22:03
Speaker 3: incentives which are important but probably went on for too long.
22:06
Speaker 3: And now with the ir laws that labor's put in place,
22:09
Speaker 3: with rent, with wages, and then the energy bill on top,
22:14
Speaker 3: plus the price of everything else at all, one way
22:16
Speaker 3: or another links back to energy, it's incredibly tough for
22:20
Speaker 3: small businesses. That's why we're seeing so many restaurants go
22:22
Speaker 3: to the wall. It's people saying, mate, this is it,
22:24
Speaker 3: We're out. Why are we doing this anymore. You've got
22:27
Speaker 3: big business saying, hey, we're going to need a payout
22:30
Speaker 3: because we can't keep energy prices down. And Jim Chalmers, meanwhile,
22:34
Speaker 3: he's very very tricky with his language. A few months
22:37
Speaker 3: ago he said we're heading for a soft landing. There's
22:40
Speaker 3: some soft treading ahead. Well, I'd love to know when
22:42
Speaker 3: that's coming, because at the moment, people are really really
22:46
Speaker 3: feeling it, and the fact that interest rates could be
22:48
Speaker 3: going up instead of down is the last thing that
22:51
Speaker 3: anyone needs.
22:52
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it's going to just be so difficult for
22:54
Speaker 2: families if interest rates do rise again. I mean, we
22:57
Speaker 2: all thought we were on this downward brand of the
23:00
Speaker 2: rate starting to fall, but it could be that this
23:03
Speaker 2: is as low as they're going to go.
23:04
Speaker 3: We'll keep in mind a lot of families borrow at
23:05
Speaker 3: point one percent during COVID and they're now mortgaged up
23:09
Speaker 3: to their eyeballs and in mortgage stress one way or another,
23:12
Speaker 3: paying way too much. Every percentage, one way or another
23:15
Speaker 3: does count for them.
23:16
Speaker 2: And with the spending obsession in Albaniz is going to
23:19
Speaker 2: want to throw money at at childcare as well. I mean,
23:21
Speaker 2: I think inflation is just yeah, it's not looking good.
23:24
Speaker 3: Potentially more energy rebates, which is just robbing Peter to
23:27
Speaker 3: pay Paul saying he's a rebate.
23:28
Speaker 1: But it'll go up again.
23:29
Speaker 7: It's worth pointing out, just just briefly, it's worth pointing
23:33
Speaker 7: out the only entity that actually benefits from this high
23:35
Speaker 7: rate of inflation, of course, is the government, because the
23:37
Speaker 7: income tax thresholds, as you will know are fixed, they
23:40
Speaker 7: don't change. And so if you've got four percent inflation,
23:42
Speaker 7: if wages is going up at four percent roughly the same,
23:45
Speaker 7: then of course the government gets much much more tax Yeah.
23:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, scary thought, Adam Graydon, James Ellis, thank you, thank
23:51
Speaker 2: you so much. Now, with the end of the year
23:55
Speaker 2: fast approaching, the Daily Telegraph will tomorrow publish it's annual
23:59
Speaker 2: Power one hundred list. From politicians to sports stars, celebrities
24:04
Speaker 2: and business figures. This year's list shows who's wielded the
24:08
Speaker 2: most influence over the past year. And joining me to
24:11
Speaker 2: discuss is the Daily Telegraphs editor Ben English. Ben, great
24:15
Speaker 2: to see you and congratulations on the magazine out tomorrow.
24:18
Speaker 2: Can't wait to read it. I want to start with
24:21
Speaker 2: some of the new faces who you've put in your
24:25
Speaker 2: Power one hundred list this year.
24:27
Speaker 5: Yeah.
24:28
Speaker 10: Well, it's actually been quite a big shock of a year.
24:32
Speaker 10: We've had thirty five new entrants, which is a record.
24:34
Speaker 10: This is the seventh edition of our Power one hundred
24:38
Speaker 10: and look, I don't want to cause any blushes, Shari,
24:41
Speaker 10: but you're one of the new entrants, So congratulations to you.
24:44
Speaker 2: Thank you, Ben. Word it that is going to make
24:46
Speaker 2: me blush.
24:48
Speaker 10: But look, and that's well deserved, and you know, there's
24:52
Speaker 10: very good reason for that. And we just heard earlier
24:54
Speaker 10: in the program it's your extraordinary advocacy on behalf of
24:58
Speaker 10: the Jewish community and rate reporting, and I think that
25:03
Speaker 10: that's had a serious impact. And just on that note
25:06
Speaker 10: we're talking about new entrants, we've also got Tim Storier
25:09
Speaker 10: who's also been quite an articulate advocate in area. And
25:12
Speaker 10: of course Alex Rishkin, who you know has been everywhere
25:18
Speaker 10: and prominent and also been a victim himself of some
25:20
Speaker 10: of that hatred.
25:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has outside of the anti Semitism space. Who
25:25
Speaker 2: are some of the other new entrants in the top
25:28
Speaker 2: one hundred list?
25:29
Speaker 10: I litill surprise no one that Kelly Sloan is in
25:32
Speaker 10: with a bullet of course, and we just snuck that
25:35
Speaker 10: in before the presses rolled on that one when Pearl
25:39
Speaker 10: Mark Speakman was dump. So he's out, and of course
25:43
Speaker 10: mal Lanion is very you know, he's come straight into
25:47
Speaker 10: the top ten. You do if you're in Sydney, if
25:51
Speaker 10: you're the new South Wales Police Commissioner, you exercise extreme power.
25:56
Speaker 10: So by dint of that position, he goes straight in
25:58
Speaker 10: there but there's been some other notable editions.
26:02
Speaker 6: Molly Picklum, the new World surfing champion.
26:06
Speaker 10: We've got Justice Michael Lee, who's you know, his star
26:09
Speaker 10: continues to rise.
26:11
Speaker 6: And of course you know there's you know who else
26:16
Speaker 6: we've got.
26:16
Speaker 10: We've got Paul Nicolau, who's very prominent around Sydney. You
26:19
Speaker 10: can't you know, you can't miss him anywhere where there's
26:22
Speaker 10: anything happening. And Mark Nowakua I actually can't pronounce his name,
26:28
Speaker 10: but the new Roosters winger, I.
26:31
Speaker 2: Definitely can't pronounce his name. I do not let's not
26:33
Speaker 2: go there. Do not watch spot, not because of anything else,
26:37
Speaker 2: just don't want a spot. And what about some of
26:39
Speaker 2: the people. I know this might be a bit well
26:43
Speaker 2: rude for you to perhaps speak about that, some of
26:45
Speaker 2: the other people who've fallen off the list over the
26:48
Speaker 2: past year.
26:49
Speaker 6: No, we don't mind talking about that at all.
26:52
Speaker 10: Well, if mal Lannion's come in, of course, Kerry sorry
26:56
Speaker 10: web ye she goes out. There's nothing less powerful than
27:00
Speaker 10: a former police commissioner. But there's some other pretty significant ones.
27:07
Speaker 2: Not Mike Sneeze of course, the former nine.
27:09
Speaker 6: BOSSU who is deposed.
27:13
Speaker 10: We've got probably the most prominent ones would be let's
27:18
Speaker 10: have a look David Chandler. He did a great job
27:22
Speaker 10: as a building commissioner, but his job is pretty much
27:25
Speaker 10: done there. We've got Gretel Packer's fallen out of it,
27:30
Speaker 10: not through any foul of our own. It's just so
27:32
Speaker 10: there's been a lot of people just muscling their way.
27:35
Speaker 2: You are going to be offending everyone in this conversation.
27:37
Speaker 2: I'm going to move on to the next question to
27:39
Speaker 2: say you you have a power couple, which is interesting
27:44
Speaker 2: for the first time Nathan Cleary and Mary Fowler tell
27:48
Speaker 2: me about this. So their influences as a couple rather
27:51
Speaker 2: than just individually.
27:54
Speaker 10: Well, it's undeniable how powerful they are, and it's exponentially
27:59
Speaker 10: multiplier when you bring them together. Nathan clear is obviously
28:02
Speaker 10: a superstar in his own right now. I suppose when
28:04
Speaker 10: they first got together you would think that he was
28:07
Speaker 10: slightly the more famous one.
28:08
Speaker 6: Certainly in Sydney.
28:09
Speaker 10: But since then Mary Fowler has really hit the world
28:13
Speaker 10: stage in a big way and also in a profound
28:15
Speaker 10: way with the very sensitive and articulate way that she's
28:21
Speaker 10: spoken about mental health and her own struggles with that.
28:24
Speaker 10: And I think that through doing that She's inspired many
28:28
Speaker 10: many young people, so they're undeniably on the rise.
28:31
Speaker 6: These two a true power couple.
28:34
Speaker 2: I thought it was also interesting to see Danny and
28:36
Speaker 2: Layla Abdullah are on the list. Of course, they're the
28:40
Speaker 2: couple who lost children in that tragic car accident. Their
28:46
Speaker 2: message has been of forgiveness and you obviously think this
28:50
Speaker 2: is a very influential message.
28:52
Speaker 10: Absolutely, they are an inspiration to all who meet them.
28:57
Speaker 6: I know you've met them, Sharhi.
28:59
Speaker 10: We we are massive fans of lob dollars at the
29:04
Speaker 10: Daily Telegraph and their foundation has inspired so many people
29:08
Speaker 10: and they've gone as we know, as we've found out
29:11
Speaker 10: this year, they actually the father and he went into
29:15
Speaker 10: the prison and forgave the man who was responsible for
29:18
Speaker 10: the death of his children. Now, I don't know about you,
29:21
Speaker 10: but that blows my mind.
29:22
Speaker 2: I I one hundred percent could never would never do
29:27
Speaker 2: that on behalf of not even my own children, anyone's child. Ben,
29:31
Speaker 2: while I've got you, I thought your front page today
29:33
Speaker 2: was absolutely fantastic on electricity prices that households in New
29:39
Speaker 2: South Wales are now paying one two hundred dollars a
29:42
Speaker 2: year more under the Labor government. I mean this is
29:45
Speaker 2: despite the fact that Albanezi repeatedly promised some ninety seven
29:48
Speaker 2: times that power prices would come down by two hundred
29:51
Speaker 2: and seventy five dollars. I mean, this is the biggest
29:54
Speaker 2: broken promise. But it seems like Australians, you know, don't
29:59
Speaker 2: they don't understand and that you know, a team, particularly Albanzi,
30:05
Speaker 2: who campaigned so strongly on a cheaper cost of living
30:08
Speaker 2: on lower power prices, have just been misled. They have
30:13
Speaker 2: just broken this premise so severely.
30:16
Speaker 6: Well, I think they weren't going to get away with it.
30:18
Speaker 10: If you look at around about November last year, the
30:22
Speaker 10: government was on the nose and they were looking at
30:24
Speaker 10: you know, the bookies were saying they were going to
30:25
Speaker 10: lose the election. And then the events at unfolded was
30:30
Speaker 10: that Dunton had a terrible campaign and Trump's victory didn't help,
30:34
Speaker 10: and the rebates that the Albanezi gave to households, and
30:40
Speaker 10: I think the other thing was the rate cuts and
30:44
Speaker 10: so all those sort of ease the pressure and the
30:47
Speaker 10: attention on the broken promise. But it's a ticking time bomb.
30:52
Speaker 10: I don't think it's gone away. And if they continue
30:55
Speaker 10: this drive towards this transition the only one way that
31:01
Speaker 10: power prices are going to go, and that is unfortunately
31:04
Speaker 10: for Albneasy and particularly unfortunately for Daily Telegraph readers up
31:09
Speaker 10: and so I think it's this is not going away.
31:12
Speaker 10: I think this will be a massive issue come the
31:14
Speaker 10: next election if they don't change course, and.
31:18
Speaker 2: If the Coalision actually steps up and holds them to account,
31:21
Speaker 2: which we yet to see happen as well. Ben, thank
31:25
Speaker 2: you very much for your time, and just everyone make
31:27
Speaker 2: sure you pick up your copy of the Daily Telly
31:29
Speaker 2: tomorrow or head to the Telegraph website to read the
31:32
Speaker 2: top one hundred list. Thanks Ben, thank you. Now still
31:36
Speaker 2: to come, the Islamophobia Envoid demands changes to counter terror laws,
31:41
Speaker 2: and a government commissioned report reveals that Labor is handing
31:44
Speaker 2: out top jobs to their mates. Well are these people
31:47
Speaker 2: qualified to take on senior roles? Dave Sharma will be
31:51
Speaker 2: here next welcome back. Well, Labor has been appointing senior
31:58
Speaker 2: public service roles and plumb board positions to mates, and
32:02
Speaker 2: they've been hiding this allegedly for over two years. This
32:06
Speaker 2: was exposed in a scathing government commissioned report by former
32:09
Speaker 2: Public Service Commissioner Linnell Briggs over two years ago. It
32:14
Speaker 2: said too often government appointments looked like forms of patronage
32:18
Speaker 2: and nepotism that should have no place in the modern
32:21
Speaker 2: Australian society. And joining me now to discuss is Liberal
32:25
Speaker 2: Senator Dave Sharma. Dave, thanks for your time. Now, this
32:29
Speaker 2: is quite an extraordinary accusation here. So what are the
32:34
Speaker 2: implications of this nepotism.
32:38
Speaker 11: Well, I think the thing to know here, Sherry, is
32:40
Speaker 11: that this report that the government commissioned, they've been sitting
32:45
Speaker 11: on it for well over two years now, I think
32:48
Speaker 11: almost two and a half years, and it's because the
32:51
Speaker 11: findings are quite damning, and I think it's because they
32:53
Speaker 11: wanted to rush through a large number of appointments to
32:57
Speaker 11: government agencies, diplomatic post government bold woods without this set
33:01
Speaker 11: of rules around them. Now they finally released the report.
33:05
Speaker 11: This is after the Senate voted to compel the release
33:08
Speaker 11: of the report from Finance Minister Katie Gallagher. They released it.
33:11
Speaker 11: They dropped it to the media initially with no adverse
33:14
Speaker 11: or third party comment allowed, so they got a clear
33:17
Speaker 11: run of the story. Now it's come out to the
33:19
Speaker 11: public and the government is not even going to accept
33:22
Speaker 11: all the recommendations in the report. I think it's an
33:24
Speaker 11: extraordinary evasion and a denial of transparency. I mean, you know,
33:29
Speaker 11: the government commissioned this report, they said there was a
33:31
Speaker 11: huge problem with governmental point to boards and now they're
33:35
Speaker 11: firstly they've hid the report for well over two years
33:38
Speaker 11: and now they're saying they're not going to abide by it.
33:40
Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Well, Katie Well, Finance Minister Katie Gallagher was asked
33:45
Speaker 2: why it took so long to release this report?
33:47
Speaker 12: Here she was why did the government sit on this
33:51
Speaker 12: report for two and a half years.
33:53
Speaker 5: Because we were finalizing the appointments framework, which has now
33:57
Speaker 5: been done and this review was.
33:59
Speaker 1: Informed that what did it take so long.
34:04
Speaker 13: Because the work wasn't completed?
34:09
Speaker 2: Well, what do you think about that response? The work
34:11
Speaker 2: wasn't completed.
34:14
Speaker 11: I think the truth is that the report was inconvenient
34:17
Speaker 11: to the government and the fact that they hadn't released
34:20
Speaker 11: it and they kept claiming it was cabinet and confidence
34:23
Speaker 11: meant that they could continue to appoint a number of
34:25
Speaker 11: their mates to board positions overseas, post government agencies, departmental
34:31
Speaker 11: heads without this report sort of calling into question their
34:35
Speaker 11: judgment or their ethics.
34:36
Speaker 1: In doing so.
34:38
Speaker 11: I mean, it's manifestly not true that the government could
34:40
Speaker 11: not formulate a response to this report, or that it
34:43
Speaker 11: would take them two and a half years to do so.
34:45
Speaker 11: That's just simply not plausible at all.
34:48
Speaker 2: I want to turn to this national security issue about
34:51
Speaker 2: the definition of counter terrorism. Now, this has been building
34:54
Speaker 2: for a very long time, this push from some Islamic
34:58
Speaker 2: groups to change the de definition of counter terrorism. It
35:01
Speaker 2: really has only hit the media recently. But you know,
35:04
Speaker 2: I reported some time ago that it was in the
35:07
Speaker 2: Islamophobias Islamophobia Envoys report to government and now as well,
35:12
Speaker 2: the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network has requested to remove religion
35:16
Speaker 2: as a motivation for terror acts. Here is the Special
35:21
Speaker 2: Envoyd to combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik.
35:23
Speaker 12: Have a look the wider society sees and here is
35:27
Speaker 12: Muslims recite you know, God's name or Allah work and
35:31
Speaker 12: assume that to be religion. So from them some community's perspective,
35:35
Speaker 12: it is not religious. These are actually for fringe ideological
35:38
Speaker 12: movements and from the wider society they only interpret that
35:41
Speaker 12: to be religious.
35:47
Speaker 2: Now, Dave, what's your view on this? Because extremism and
35:53
Speaker 2: you know, fundamental fundamentalist, extremist Islamist is behind a lot
36:00
Speaker 2: of the terror attacks that we have seen. So you know,
36:04
Speaker 2: how can this work?
36:07
Speaker 11: I just I don't understand and I don't accept the
36:09
Speaker 11: reasoning of that special envoy at all. I mean, as
36:12
Speaker 11: it stands currently under the law, I think it's section
36:14
Speaker 11: one hundred point one on the Criminal Code, and active
36:17
Speaker 11: terrorism is one that does or threatens serious harm, designed
36:20
Speaker 11: to intimidate the public or a section of the public
36:23
Speaker 11: or coercial government, and done for a political, religious, or
36:27
Speaker 11: ideological motive. Now is a special envoice saying that if
36:30
Speaker 11: it's done for a religious motive, it is no longer
36:33
Speaker 11: an active terrorism, but it has all the other elements.
36:35
Speaker 11: But if it's done for a political motive, it is.
36:37
Speaker 11: I mean, I think it just defies belief. I think
36:39
Speaker 11: we all know what an active terrorism is when we
36:42
Speaker 11: see it, and we all know that if it's driven
36:44
Speaker 11: by a political, religious, or ideological motive, not a criminal motive,
36:48
Speaker 11: not a personal motive, then it meets the definition of
36:51
Speaker 11: a terrorist test. I just I don't understand how you
36:54
Speaker 11: could Is this designed to say give people a pass
36:57
Speaker 11: that if they commit what we would all consider be
37:00
Speaker 11: a terrorist act. But they say it was for religious purposes,
37:02
Speaker 11: then it's no longer considered to be a terrorist offense.
37:05
Speaker 11: It's just a criminal offense. I mean, I don't think
37:07
Speaker 11: any of anyone in the public, or anyone in their
37:09
Speaker 11: right mind would accept that.
37:12
Speaker 2: Do you think the Albanezi government and the Home Affairs
37:14
Speaker 2: Minister Tony Burke will consider this.
37:19
Speaker 1: Well.
37:19
Speaker 11: I don't think they've given a response to the Special
37:23
Speaker 11: end Voyage to Combat Islamophobia's report. I think a number
37:26
Speaker 11: of the recommendations that were made and that report were
37:30
Speaker 11: far reaching, overreaching really, and I would be alarmed if
37:33
Speaker 11: the government did take on board any of those recommendations.
37:37
Speaker 11: But that said, they appointed this person, they gave him
37:40
Speaker 11: a mandate, and they will need to find a way
37:43
Speaker 11: to respond to these recommendations. But as it is, I
37:45
Speaker 11: mean that one in particular just doesn't pass the pub test.
37:49
Speaker 2: And it's extraordinary that, you know, it's been four or
37:53
Speaker 2: five months now since Jillian Siegull handed down her report
37:57
Speaker 2: into anti Semitism and many reconndations there that federal government
38:01
Speaker 2: could act on, and still nothing has happened. We're about
38:06
Speaker 2: to have the end of the year, it's about to
38:07
Speaker 2: be Christmas.
38:09
Speaker 11: No, she made a very Gillian Segul made a very
38:11
Speaker 11: comprehensive report with a lot of recommendations, and I think
38:14
Speaker 11: that the government owes her the duty to respond substantively
38:17
Speaker 11: to those. But instead we've had the Home Affairs Minister
38:20
Speaker 11: Tony Burke gaslighting any journalists who dare to ask him
38:23
Speaker 11: about it and suggests that they're somehow impugning Gillian Siegel's integrity. No,
38:28
Speaker 11: they're asking questions of the government about why they have
38:30
Speaker 11: not implemented her recommendations or what they are proposing to
38:33
Speaker 11: do in response to them.
38:36
Speaker 2: Very disappointing, but not surprising at all with his government.
38:39
Speaker 2: Dave Sharma, thanks so much, and I hope the rest
38:42
Speaker 2: of Senate estimates goes well.
38:44
Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
38:45
Speaker 2: Still to come as shark attacks rise. One surfer believes
38:49
Speaker 2: he's found a way to save lives and he'll share
38:51
Speaker 2: this with us soon. Plus the real number of Australians
38:54
Speaker 2: who can't afford to pay power bills, that's next well.
39:02
Speaker 2: New data from the Australian Energy Regulator has revealed that
39:06
Speaker 2: over two hundred and five thousand households are struggling to
39:10
Speaker 2: pay power bills. Two hundred and five thousand, so the
39:14
Speaker 2: number of households seeking electricity hardship assistance has nearly doubled
39:18
Speaker 2: since the Albanezi government has been in office. And joining
39:21
Speaker 2: me to discuss is the Australian's Environment editor Graham. Lloyd Graham.
39:26
Speaker 2: I mean this is just extraordinary. Over sixty eight thousand
39:30
Speaker 2: customers have sought assistance since the Labor government came to power.
39:34
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a lot of additional struggling families.
39:38
Speaker 2: And what I find it so, what I find so
39:40
Speaker 2: difficult to comprehend is you hear them or speaking in
39:42
Speaker 2: Parliament every day boasting about how electricity prices are coming down.
39:50
Speaker 13: It's extraordinary, isn't it show their shocking numbers, and it
39:54
Speaker 13: shows the extent to which there's real pain in the
39:57
Speaker 13: community over this. Of of course, the situation with small
40:02
Speaker 13: businesses just as graves, they've been facing extraordinary rise in
40:06
Speaker 13: power costs as well. And what we've done is we've
40:10
Speaker 13: turned electricity from being a basic good to being a
40:15
Speaker 13: luxury item. And unfortunately the trend is still going with
40:21
Speaker 13: prices rising and the measures that are being put in
40:24
Speaker 13: place to combat it overwhelmingly favor the more wealthy people
40:29
Speaker 13: who can invest some of their own money to offset it.
40:33
Speaker 13: So we're seeing a whole class of people that can't
40:37
Speaker 13: afford their power bills and really now they're getting into debt,
40:41
Speaker 13: they're unable to catch up, and this is a real
40:45
Speaker 13: political and personal problem in the community.
40:49
Speaker 2: We're also starting to see warnings from the Australian Energy
40:53
Speaker 2: Market Operator that some states like New South Wales are
40:57
Speaker 2: facing potential blackouts major qualified power stations like a wearing
41:03
Speaker 2: clothes and well if their life cycle isn't extended.
41:09
Speaker 13: Yes, and this is a very worrying report that was
41:12
Speaker 13: out yesterday and it basically said that, look, we have
41:17
Speaker 13: all these plans to sticky tape the system together with
41:20
Speaker 13: all sorts of other investments and what have you. But
41:23
Speaker 13: the problem is those machines are very difficult to buy.
41:27
Speaker 13: We haven't trilled them to see if they work yet,
41:29
Speaker 13: and this is all coming to us very quickly. So
41:32
Speaker 13: I think we're seeing a bit of sort of back
41:35
Speaker 13: covering by the Energy Market Operator and saying, well, we've
41:40
Speaker 13: warned you government, you should do something about it, but
41:43
Speaker 13: the time horizons are very slim and the options to
41:47
Speaker 13: deal with it are getting scarce.
41:52
Speaker 2: Just on another topic, Twiggy Forest. We know he's quite
41:55
Speaker 2: a climate zelot. Well, he's been in broad in this story.
41:58
Speaker 2: This was an exclusive in your paper in the Australian,
42:01
Speaker 2: this asbestos scandal. It's related to his newly opened Central
42:06
Speaker 2: Queensland wind farm and this is the third to confirm
42:09
Speaker 2: that it's got this the material in its turbines. Can
42:12
Speaker 2: you tell us about this.
42:15
Speaker 13: Yes, Well, what they've found is a lot of these
42:19
Speaker 13: wind turbines that have been imported from China, they have
42:23
Speaker 13: big lifts that operate inside them because they're so tall,
42:27
Speaker 13: and the brakes on those lifts contain asbestos. Now, it
42:32
Speaker 13: used to be quite common for asbestos to be in
42:34
Speaker 13: brake pads in cars and other things, but that was
42:36
Speaker 13: banned decades ago, and it was banned for very good
42:40
Speaker 13: reasons that when you apply the brakes, they give off
42:44
Speaker 13: a little bit of dust and if that's got its
42:46
Speaker 13: asbestos in it, it's a terrible thing. What this shows
42:50
Speaker 13: is a lack of control in the materials that are
42:54
Speaker 13: being used to build these imported wind turbines, and luckily
43:00
Speaker 13: alreadies have gone on top of it, and they should
43:02
Speaker 13: really inspect the whole thing.
43:06
Speaker 2: We talk a lot about the rise of artificial intelligence
43:09
Speaker 2: and cloud computing, but all of this requires massive data centers.
43:14
Speaker 2: This is going to drive up electricity demand over the
43:18
Speaker 2: coming decades, and in fact, it's expected to make up
43:20
Speaker 2: around eleven percent of the demand in Australia's East Coast
43:24
Speaker 2: electricity grid by twenty forty. Now you know the government's
43:28
Speaker 2: plan at the moment for electricity, it doesn't seem like
43:31
Speaker 2: it's taking into account this new demand. How will Australia
43:35
Speaker 2: cope with this?
43:38
Speaker 13: Well, this is a fundamental decision that Australia has to make.
43:43
Speaker 13: Do we want to be involved in the future of AI,
43:48
Speaker 13: and if we do, we need to have an electricity
43:50
Speaker 13: system that will sustain it. I find it passing strange
43:54
Speaker 13: that the federal government is running around saying that renewable
43:58
Speaker 13: energy is the next industrial revolution. But it's far more
44:03
Speaker 13: likely that the next industrial revolution is going to involve AI,
44:07
Speaker 13: and that involves a lot of power. These data centers
44:11
Speaker 13: they use the equivalent electricity of small cities, and we
44:16
Speaker 13: simply don't have that excess capacity. What we're seeing in
44:21
Speaker 13: the United States, particularly the big data companies and the
44:24
Speaker 13: Microsofts and Apples and what have you, they are buying
44:28
Speaker 13: or investing in nuclear power stations of their own to
44:32
Speaker 13: run their data centers.
44:34
Speaker 1: They don't have confidence in renewables.
44:36
Speaker 13: They know the amount of electricity they need and this
44:40
Speaker 13: is the sort of decisions that Australia really has to
44:43
Speaker 13: grapple with.
44:44
Speaker 2: I think there needs to be more discussion, more debates,
44:47
Speaker 2: certainly reporting and interrogation of the ministers about this topic
44:52
Speaker 2: because it is the future and there's no plan. Grame load,
44:56
Speaker 2: thank you for your time. Now the surfer is coming
44:59
Speaker 2: up now who's designed an emergency kit that he believes
45:03
Speaker 2: will save lives with the rise in shark attacks. He'll
45:07
Speaker 2: be up after the break, Ren for your company, welcome back. Well,
45:13
Speaker 2: we've been talking this week about the rise in shark
45:16
Speaker 2: attacks and joining me to discuss is surfer Danny Shuton,
45:20
Speaker 2: who's designed the community shark bite kits. Danny, welcome to
45:24
Speaker 2: the program. Now, surely if you've got an emergency kit
45:29
Speaker 2: on the beach, it's too late. Isn't the aim to
45:31
Speaker 2: stop people from being bitten?
45:34
Speaker 14: And yeah, hopefully, I mean what can you do though?
45:38
Speaker 14: You can't stop people enjoying doing what they love. Australians
45:42
Speaker 14: love the ocean, We love the beach and it's a
45:45
Speaker 14: part of our life. So yeah, to say that you
45:49
Speaker 14: want to stop shark attacks in general, like, I don't
45:53
Speaker 14: think that's possible. There's a lot of mitigation strategies a
45:57
Speaker 14: lot of people are working on, but aim of this
46:00
Speaker 14: project is just to help people be better prepared for
46:03
Speaker 14: when an attack does happen and give them the right
46:05
Speaker 14: tools and resources to hopefully save someone's life when that
46:09
Speaker 14: unfortunate event occurs.
46:11
Speaker 2: So what's your vision for this kit? To have it
46:14
Speaker 2: on major beaches across summer?
46:18
Speaker 14: Yeah, ideally like this. This project started out in my
46:22
Speaker 14: little area, Bonnie Hills Port, mcquarie on the mid North
46:24
Speaker 14: Coast with just ten kits after a close made of
46:28
Speaker 14: mine Kai was attacked last year, and since then there's
46:32
Speaker 14: over one hundred and fifty now installed across the country
46:36
Speaker 14: and the hope is to get a kit on every
46:38
Speaker 14: single beach, not just populated beaches, but most importantly our
46:42
Speaker 14: isolated beaches.
46:44
Speaker 12: Where is available.
46:47
Speaker 2: So we're just looking at an image of your friend
46:49
Speaker 2: on the screen. So did he lose half of his leg?
46:54
Speaker 1: Yeah?
46:55
Speaker 14: So that's a good mate of mine Kai who I
46:57
Speaker 14: grew up with, and yeah, he lost his leg last
47:00
Speaker 14: year to four meter white, and he's so fortunate to
47:03
Speaker 14: be with us today because the only man that was
47:06
Speaker 14: on the beach that day was a retired police officer
47:09
Speaker 14: who was trained in trauma control and how to make
47:12
Speaker 14: a makeshift tornik, and he just happened to be there
47:16
Speaker 14: at the right time and save Kyle's life. So he's
47:19
Speaker 14: incredibly fortunate. And I just thought there is no way
47:22
Speaker 14: that it should be left up to luck anymore. It
47:24
Speaker 14: shouldn't be left up to someone having to make a
47:27
Speaker 14: makeshift tornique out of a swimmer top, like we just
47:31
Speaker 14: saw the other day down at Kylie's, which is just
47:33
Speaker 14: so close to home, which we should have these resources,
47:36
Speaker 14: just like we have AEDs in public places, like we
47:40
Speaker 14: have angel rings on our headlands. We need these kids
47:43
Speaker 14: on our beaches to save our mates lives.
47:46
Speaker 2: You've convinced me I was skeptical at the start. I
47:48
Speaker 2: just want to ask you, though, what is your view
47:51
Speaker 2: about why we're seeing this apparent rise in shark attacks.
47:58
Speaker 14: I can't make an edgy, catered conclusion around that. I'm
48:03
Speaker 14: just a high school woodwork teacher trying to help my
48:05
Speaker 14: community and help the wider surfing community and Australians, so
48:10
Speaker 14: I really can't make an informed opinion on that. There's
48:14
Speaker 14: there's a lot of opinions out there, and a lot
48:15
Speaker 14: of people have strong opinions for a lot of things,
48:19
Speaker 14: and I try to just stay stay doing what I'm
48:22
Speaker 14: doing and just trying to help my mates and help
48:24
Speaker 14: my fellow Australians doing this well.
48:27
Speaker 2: It's a great initiative, great idea. Good on you for,
48:30
Speaker 2: you know, actually taking the initiative to do something and
48:34
Speaker 2: to make the country a better place and hopefully save
48:37
Speaker 2: lives before the emergency services the paramedics actually turn up
48:40
Speaker 2: on the scene. Danny, thanks for your time and thanks
48:44
Speaker 2: everyone for your company tonight. I'll see you tomorrow at eight.
48:47
Speaker 2: Here's Paul