Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 14 September

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The Kenny Report | 14 September · The Kenny Report

0:02
Speaker 1: This is The Kenny Report.
0:06
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me for another week here on The
0:07
Speaker 2: Kenny Report. Tonight, Labor's net zero nightmare plays out in Wyala.
0:12
Speaker 2: Your money wasted, industry and jobs disappear all the same.
0:16
Speaker 2: Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan will join me. Immigration and
0:20
Speaker 2: the economy. One nation puts up a policy and both
0:23
Speaker 2: the major parties go on the attack. Artificial intelligence running amok.
0:28
Speaker 2: Even AI developers are urging caution. We'll hear from an expert.
0:33
Speaker 2: As we get a stunning confession about the failure to
0:36
Speaker 2: combat anti-Semitism in our country... I'll speak with Shari Markson
0:40
Speaker 2: and Alex Rivchen about their remarkable and important book, Bondi Terror.
0:45
Speaker 2: All that and heaps more with Sophie Ellsworth in London
0:48
Speaker 2: and Gemma and Caroline in Perth. Let's get cracking. While
0:55
Speaker 2: everyone is getting head up about Pauline Hanson, the coalition
0:58
Speaker 2: is nowhere to be seen and Anthony Albanese and his
1:01
Speaker 2: Labor government are continuing on their merry way, undermining this
1:05
Speaker 2: country and jeopardising our future. This is the problem with
1:09
Speaker 2: our country and our national debate at the moment. We
1:11
Speaker 2: are fiddling while Rome is burning. Today, the bad news
1:16
Speaker 2: for our national steel industry and the steel-making town of
1:19
Speaker 2: Wyala in South Australia is that 600 workers might soon
1:24
Speaker 2: be stood down because the coal-fired blast furnace that's been
1:28
Speaker 2: out of action for months can't be restarted. The plant
1:32
Speaker 2: has been in dire straits for years and is in
1:35
Speaker 2: administration looking for a new buyer, which is why state
1:39
Speaker 2: and federal Labor tipped in billions of dollars of your money,
1:43
Speaker 2: apparently all to no avail. At the time, they claimed
1:47
Speaker 2: to be heroes, of course. This $ 2.
1:49
Speaker 3: 4 billion plan, consisting of $ 500 million, firstly, to deal
1:56
Speaker 3: with administration, to keep the steelworks going, keep people being paid,
2:00
Speaker 3: But importantly as well, investment in the future. And we have,
2:06
Speaker 3: of course, a very bright future here indeed. On top
2:12
Speaker 3: of this, of course, we will be allocating funds from
2:16
Speaker 3: our $ 1 billion green iron investment fund that we have created.
2:23
Speaker 2: I mean, heaven help anyone would invest in an upgraded
2:26
Speaker 2: coal-fired blast furnace, or the government help with that. But no,
2:32
Speaker 2: coal is seen as evil, and it's been all about
2:35
Speaker 2: net zero and so-called green steel. There was even hundreds
2:40
Speaker 2: of millions of taxpayers' dollars pumped into a neighbouring green
2:44
Speaker 2: hydrogen plant, which, like most other green hydrogen plants, has
2:48
Speaker 2: fallen over. They've burned many billions of taxpayers' dollars but
2:52
Speaker 2: haven't burned any hydrogen yet. So this is Labor's net
2:56
Speaker 2: zero agenda. They still hope to get Wyala up and
2:59
Speaker 2: running again with a new owner funding an electric arc furnace.
3:04
Speaker 2: But that'll be expensive. And, of course, it'll require reliable power,
3:08
Speaker 2: not intermittent renewables. Yet just up the road at Port Augusta,
3:13
Speaker 2: they demolished the coal-fired power stations that once powered most
3:17
Speaker 2: of that state. And, of course, electricity prices and supplies
3:21
Speaker 2: have become dastardly ever since. And, of course, even though
3:25
Speaker 2: there is a uranium mine just up the road at
3:28
Speaker 2: Roxby Downs, we wouldn't use reliable, clean nuclear power, would we?
3:33
Speaker 2: because we're stuck in some 1970s anti-uranium time warp. So
3:39
Speaker 2: industries close down, workers lose their jobs, our nation becomes
3:43
Speaker 2: poorer and our standard of living drops. What geniuses. And
3:49
Speaker 2: they pretend, of course, that they're saving the planet. Seriously.
3:54
Speaker 2: The State Labor Premier, Peter Malinowskis, visited the workers today.
3:59
Speaker 4: Look, I wanted to.
4:00
Speaker 5: Be here this morning just to be able to look
4:02
Speaker 5: everyone in the eye and express one thing to you above.
4:06
Speaker 6: All else, and that's my gratitude.
4:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, this part of South Australia used to be known
4:11
Speaker 2: as the Iron Triangle, but the power stations are gone,
4:15
Speaker 2: the shipyards are gone, the steelworks might be gone next.
4:20
Speaker 2: So it's become more of an empty triangle or a
4:23
Speaker 2: Bermuda Triangle for taxpayers' money. And I'm old enough to remember...
4:28
Speaker 2: when Labor was mocking union and coalition concerns about how
4:33
Speaker 2: the carbon tax and net zero would destroy Wayala.
4:39
Speaker 6: No Wayala wipeout there on my TV No Wayala wipeout
4:44
Speaker 6: there on my TV No Wayala wipeout there on my
4:47
Speaker 6: TV Shocking me right out of my brain Shocking me
4:51
Speaker 6: right out of my brain Yeah.
4:54
Speaker 2: I don't think they'll be singing that in Wayala tonight, mate.
4:57
Speaker 2: Labor and the left singing from the rooftops about policies
5:01
Speaker 2: that kill industries and jobs. Remember when they used to
5:05
Speaker 2: be on the side of workers? Remember when they used
5:08
Speaker 2: to think that industry and jobs were useful? Australia, we
5:14
Speaker 2: are in strife. OK, so let's stay on the economy,
5:21
Speaker 2: which at least got a bit of attention today when
5:23
Speaker 2: One Nation revealed its immigration policy.
5:27
Speaker 1: For a period of three years, we will deliver net
5:31
Speaker 1: negative migration by drastically cutting the number of temporary visa holders.
5:36
Speaker 1: We will take back control of who comes here and
5:39
Speaker 1: how many we accept.
5:42
Speaker 2: Now, the interesting thing about this is that the response
5:44
Speaker 2: from both the Labor government and the coalition focused on
5:48
Speaker 2: dire economic consequences.
5:51
Speaker 7: One Nation's policy is a recipe to destroy the Australian
5:55
Speaker 7: economy and drive the Australian economy into recession.
5:58
Speaker 8: A headline number and a few slogans, well that will
6:01
Speaker 8: send the economy into shock and potentially into recession.
6:05
Speaker 9: That would be dire for all Australians.
6:09
Speaker 2: Now there's a few things to say about this reaction. First,
6:12
Speaker 2: it demonstrates that the only thing keeping us out of
6:14
Speaker 2: recession at the moment is high levels of immigration. But
6:18
Speaker 2: we're in a per capita recession anyway. Second, it's bizarre
6:22
Speaker 2: for Labor to worry about the economic consequences of cutting
6:26
Speaker 2: immigration because it never worries about the economic consequences of
6:30
Speaker 2: its net zero policies. And third, this highlights how Labor
6:34
Speaker 2: is ignoring the most important way to grow our economy
6:38
Speaker 2: and improve our standard of living, and that is to
6:41
Speaker 2: boost productivity, something I've been focused on quite a bit
6:45
Speaker 2: here of late. In four years, we've gone backwards and
6:51
Speaker 2: our productivity has fallen sharply. We are producing less per
6:55
Speaker 2: hour worked. Our relative output has fallen. That's important for
7:00
Speaker 2: more trouble in the future. The Albanese Labor government has
7:05
Speaker 2: been making us poorer because its own policies on energy,
7:08
Speaker 2: on work from home, on union power over a range
7:11
Speaker 2: of worker entitlements, its tax increases on investments, on capital
7:15
Speaker 2: gains and on housing. and its additional red tape and bureaucracy,
7:20
Speaker 2: all these have made us less productive, not more productive.
7:24
Speaker 2: And business groups have started to call this out at last.
7:29
Speaker 2: The Business Council of Australia calls it a crisis now.
7:32
Speaker 2: And its chief executive, Bran Black, wrote in The Australian
7:35
Speaker 2: today that the data shows our productivity is at crisis levels.
7:39
Speaker 2: Tinkering is now insufficient. We must take bold action so
7:43
Speaker 2: we ease the cost of living pain Australians are feeling
7:47
Speaker 2: right now. Well, we know there won't be any bold
7:50
Speaker 2: action from Labor, at least not positive bold action. All
7:54
Speaker 2: their bold actions make our productivity prospects worse. Australia, we
7:59
Speaker 2: are in strife. OK, let's go to Pauline Hanson again.
8:06
Speaker 2: She conceded here last week that Andrew Hastie is certainly
8:10
Speaker 2: not a traitor, even though a One Nation cartoon dubbed
8:14
Speaker 2: him as such. Now old clips of Hanson have generated
8:18
Speaker 2: more outrage. She weighs in on sensitive issues with all
8:21
Speaker 2: the subtlety of a Caterpillar D11.
8:25
Speaker 1: We're actually all leaning towards this Aboriginal, you know, teaching
8:28
Speaker 1: that Aboriginal culture and language.
8:30
Speaker 6: For what? What?
8:32
Speaker 1: And I'll say it on your program.
8:34
Speaker 9: What the hell have they done in this country?
8:36
Speaker 1: For supposedly 60,000 years.
8:40
Speaker 3: They'd never invented the wheel.
8:42
Speaker 1: There was nothing there.
8:43
Speaker 4: What are we.
8:44
Speaker 6: Actually holding up?
8:46
Speaker 1: A few, you know, rock paintings?
8:48
Speaker 2: Sorry.
8:49
Speaker 1: They're the most primitive race on earth. And we're supposed
8:53
Speaker 1: to be holding up and saying what they've achieved. They've
8:56
Speaker 1: achieved nothing.
8:59
Speaker 2: Well, primitive is hardly a word we should use in
9:02
Speaker 2: this context. It's demeaning and derogatory. But if Bruce Pascoe
9:07
Speaker 2: is going to exaggerate Indigenous technological achievements, someone is always
9:11
Speaker 2: going to run a corrective. And this comes on the
9:13
Speaker 2: back of outrage over what was supposed to be Hanson's
9:16
Speaker 2: attack on Anthony Albanese's mother. An attack on the PM's
9:20
Speaker 2: mum would be terrible. But is that what this really was?
9:25
Speaker 1: Oh, this is the Prime Minister.
9:27
Speaker 9: Oh!
9:28
Speaker 1: I've actually grew up in a housing commission house. You
9:30
Speaker 1: have no idea how hard it is to grow up
9:32
Speaker 1: in a housing commission house.
9:34
Speaker 10: Oh, my God.
9:35
Speaker 1: Talk about a prime minister.
9:37
Speaker 5: Not that it would be easy to grow up in
9:38
Speaker 5: a housing commission house.
9:40
Speaker 1: Come on. I actually, you know, grew up in a
9:43
Speaker 1: street where we had housing commission houses there. It was
9:47
Speaker 1: a helping hand to those people, but they had jobs
9:51
Speaker 1: and they worked. And, yes, it is a helping hand.
9:54
Speaker 1: House Commission houses should not be there for people to
9:57
Speaker 1: live in them for 30, 40. And he said his
9:59
Speaker 1: mother lived in the same one. She was born in
10:01
Speaker 1: for 65 years. Sorry, that's not on to me. It
10:04
Speaker 1: should be limited time. You've been given a hand up.
10:07
Speaker 1: Moving on to the next ones coming through.
10:09
Speaker 2: Well, Albert, as he certainly said, it targeted his mum.
10:14
Speaker 3: I said during the last campaign, kindness is a weakness.
10:18
Speaker 3: tell you what's weakness, nastiness, nastiness and spitefulness. And I
10:27
Speaker 3: am stunned at these comments, but I'll make this point.
10:33
Speaker 3: If Pauline Hanson wants to criticise me, then that's fine.
10:38
Speaker 3: But my mother was way out of Pauline Hanson's league,
10:41
Speaker 3: way out of it.
10:43
Speaker 2: Well, of course, Albo is nasty when he feels like it,
10:46
Speaker 2: but there is no question that Albanese was criticised in
10:49
Speaker 2: that interview for constantly going on about his circumstances, and
10:53
Speaker 2: it's certainly not the first time he's been mocked for
10:56
Speaker 2: running this narrative endlessly.
10:59
Speaker 3: A single mum who raised me in public housing. I
11:02
Speaker 3: was raised in a council house not far from here
11:06
Speaker 3: by a single mum on the disability pension.
11:09
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese is.
11:12
Speaker 3: the son of a single mum who grew up in
11:16
Speaker 3: council housing in Camperdown. My mum lived in the one
11:20
Speaker 3: public housing that she was born in for all of
11:23
Speaker 3: her 65 years.
11:26
Speaker 2: You could argue it's Albanese who made his mother the issue.
11:30
Speaker 2: Cue the debate.
11:31
Speaker 7: I don't know the Prime Minister's mother. I'm sure she's
11:34
Speaker 7: a very, very good woman. And, you know, the circumstances...
11:39
Speaker 7: of Mrs. Albanese, the Prime Minister's mother, is a story
11:44
Speaker 7: about her life. But the whole log cabin story of
11:48
Speaker 7: living in a housing commission home that the Prime Minister
11:50
Speaker 7: rolls out over and over again for a person who
11:52
Speaker 7: owns multiple houses, And good luck to him and God
11:55
Speaker 7: bless him. He's about to go live in a $ 4. 5
11:57
Speaker 7: million house on the Central Coast. It just doesn't wash.
12:01
Speaker 11: I did know her. She was a gorgeous woman. She
12:04
Speaker 11: couldn't take the lid off a jar of food to
12:07
Speaker 11: feed herself. She needed help doing up her buttons. She
12:11
Speaker 11: spent half her life in and out of hospital. And
12:13
Speaker 11: during that time... Anthony was either on his own or
12:17
Speaker 11: he was, when she was home, he was caring for her.
12:19
Speaker 11: He was doing everything for her. He was cleaning the house.
12:21
Speaker 11: He was feeding them. He was helping her get dressed.
12:24
Speaker 11: He was helping her get up and down out of
12:26
Speaker 11: a chair. That is part of what has made him.
12:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Plibersek then flipped the attack onto Joyce for
12:36
Speaker 2: going to a private school. But Albanese went to a
12:40
Speaker 2: private school too. Why doesn't he add that to his
12:43
Speaker 2: log cabin story? Perhaps it doesn't fit the political narrative.
12:52
Speaker 2: Let's go to Canberra now and catch up with the
12:53
Speaker 2: Shadow Energy Minister, Dan Tehan. Thanks for joining us, Dan.
12:57
Speaker 2: Was Pauline Hanson attacking Anthony Albanese's mother or was that
13:01
Speaker 2: confected outrage?
13:04
Speaker 12: Look, I think, you know, the point she was making
13:07
Speaker 12: with its regard to the Prime Minister, fair game. I
13:11
Speaker 12: think just going into the bit about the Prime Minister's mother,
13:16
Speaker 12: she just went a step too far.
13:18
Speaker 2: And I think that's the problem.
13:19
Speaker 12: None of us, and, you know, my mother was a
13:22
Speaker 12: wonderful person, wonderful member of Parliament. But if someone criticised her,
13:28
Speaker 12: I think I would take strong umbrage of it as well.
13:33
Speaker 12: If someone criticises me and, you know, my circumstances, absolutely
13:39
Speaker 12: fair game. But I think we do have to know
13:41
Speaker 12: where the line is, and I think the line was
13:43
Speaker 12: overstepped in those comments. She was trying to make a
13:47
Speaker 12: point about the Prime Minister.
13:49
Speaker 2: But she waited too far.
13:51
Speaker 12: And I think, you know, the Prime Minister's mother should
13:54
Speaker 12: be out of bounds, like all our mothers.
13:57
Speaker 2: Should be, because.
13:58
Speaker 12: It's us who are the public face of the debate.
14:02
Speaker 12: We're the ones who voluntarily put ourselves in the public square.
14:06
Speaker 2: So go for us.
14:08
Speaker 12: But I do think we shouldn't reach an overreach and
14:12
Speaker 12: touch people's families.
14:14
Speaker 2: I think it is completely off limits. Talking about going
14:17
Speaker 2: a step too far, has One Nation's immigration policy gone
14:20
Speaker 2: a step too far, cutting by 766,000 over three years?
14:25
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a similar policy to yours in terms
14:29
Speaker 2: of numbers. It's just about 50,000 fewer migrants a year.
14:35
Speaker 12: Well, Chris, we have to see the detail. And there
14:39
Speaker 12: wasn't a press conference today that didn't outline the costings,
14:44
Speaker 12: et cetera. Now, we all know that immigration has to
14:46
Speaker 12: come down in this nation. We know that since 2022,
14:50
Speaker 12: when Anthony Albanese was elected Prime Minister, they've brought far
14:55
Speaker 12: too many people in and we do not have the services,
14:59
Speaker 12: we do not have the houses. have the schools, the
15:01
Speaker 12: hospitals to be able to deal with it. But you've
15:04
Speaker 12: also got to be able to do it in a
15:06
Speaker 12: way that you know that your community is going to
15:10
Speaker 12: be able to manage it and deal with it, especially
15:13
Speaker 12: when it comes to the economy.
15:15
Speaker 2: And that's the big unknown.
15:16
Speaker 12: And we'll have our policy out in the coming months.
15:21
Speaker 12: And I can tell you when we do it, you
15:23
Speaker 12: will have all the details there because we know the
15:26
Speaker 12: number has to come down. But we also know that
15:30
Speaker 12: you've got to do it in a way which will
15:31
Speaker 12: enable your farmers still to be able to get the
15:33
Speaker 12: workers they need, our aged care workers. still to be
15:36
Speaker 12: able to get the.
15:37
Speaker 2: Workers they need. And that is ultimately the challenge here. Yeah,
15:40
Speaker 2: but even one of your own colleagues has put that
15:42
Speaker 2: number at about $ 180, 000 a year. I mean, it's pretty
15:46
Speaker 2: clear that you're going to have a policy that has
15:48
Speaker 2: lower immigration than Labor, but you're going to be stuck
15:51
Speaker 2: saying that One Nations is cutting even lower and that's
15:55
Speaker 2: too far.
15:57
Speaker 12: Well, look, I can't announce our policy here, but it's
16:01
Speaker 12: like everything. What you've got to be able to do
16:03
Speaker 12: is get the balance right. And we're doing the work,
16:08
Speaker 12: the meticulous work that's required to do that. Now's won't
16:11
Speaker 12: be rushed out because, you know, it's been a bad
16:15
Speaker 12: week the previous week. Ours will have the thought that
16:18
Speaker 12: needs to go to these things because ultimately, in the end,
16:22
Speaker 12: the last thing we want to do when we cut
16:25
Speaker 12: migration levels, and that's what we're going to do, is
16:28
Speaker 12: send this country into serious recession because those countries key
16:33
Speaker 12: parts of our workforce that needs workers won't be able
16:37
Speaker 12: to get them. And that's why we'll get it right
16:39
Speaker 12: and we will release all the detail and we'll stand
16:43
Speaker 12: up and we will give a press conference and we'll.
16:46
Speaker 2: Detail exactly what's required.
16:49
Speaker 12: And that's what you need to be able to do
16:51
Speaker 12: and that's what we're going to do because we've got
16:54
Speaker 12: a good, experienced team that know these issues.
16:58
Speaker 2: We know we've got to cut it, but we've got
17:00
Speaker 2: to do it in a way that will work. We'll
17:01
Speaker 2: see what gives there. Now, as I reminded viewers at
17:04
Speaker 2: the top of the program, Labor in the past has
17:06
Speaker 2: mocked people for questioning the future of Wyala under net
17:10
Speaker 2: zero policies and carbon taxes and... and the like, yet
17:14
Speaker 2: now we're seeing despite hundreds of millions in billions of
17:17
Speaker 2: dollars of taxpayers' money, it's still on its knees. They've
17:22
Speaker 2: tried green hydrogen. They're trying to run it with renewables.
17:25
Speaker 2: They've got rid of coal-fired power from that region. How
17:28
Speaker 2: much of this disaster for Wayala is caught up in
17:31
Speaker 2: the net zero dream?
17:34
Speaker 4: All of it.
17:35
Speaker 12: I mean, the only thing that's missing is Craig Emerson,
17:38
Speaker 12: you know, coming onto our screen singing Wyala Wipeout. I mean,
17:43
Speaker 12: it once again shows what a complete mess Chris Bowen
17:47
Speaker 12: has made of our energy policy. And the sad reality
17:51
Speaker 12: is it foretells a story of where Australia is going
17:54
Speaker 12: to head unless we can stop this madness. Because South Australia...
17:59
Speaker 12: is where Chris Bowen wants to take every other state
18:02
Speaker 12: and territory in this nation. And, you know, net zero,
18:06
Speaker 12: they've got a safeguard mechanism, so they're taxing Wyala while
18:10
Speaker 12: they're providing billions to it through their net zero safeguard mechanism.
18:15
Speaker 12: And the green hydrogen dream, remember we were going to
18:18
Speaker 12: be a green hydrogen superpower?
18:21
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:21
Speaker 12: It hasn't delivered anything and not one new electron to
18:25
Speaker 12: that smelter.
18:27
Speaker 2: But they're saying that the way to save Wayala is
18:29
Speaker 2: an electric arc furnace. And that's great if you can
18:31
Speaker 2: find a buyer who's going to invest in that. But
18:34
Speaker 2: guess what? They need electricity, lots of it, and reliably.
18:38
Speaker 2: Yet they won't burn gas, they won't burn coal, and
18:41
Speaker 2: they won't use nuclear. They can't run that thing on
18:44
Speaker 2: renewable energy.
18:46
Speaker 12: It's the Chris Bowen pipe dream. And you watch, and
18:51
Speaker 12: this is the sad thing about all this, Chris Bowen
18:54
Speaker 12: will go off to pre-cop, in Fiji and Tuvalu with
18:58
Speaker 12: you know, the leaders that are turning up to it,
19:01
Speaker 12: and I think at this stage there's about five or six,
19:04
Speaker 12: while those poor workers in Wyala are wondering about their futures,
19:07
Speaker 12: 500 or 600 of them.
19:09
Speaker 2: Now, just quickly, a former colleague of yours who lost
19:12
Speaker 2: her job, Susan Lee, has been appointed by Labor to
19:16
Speaker 2: the board of the Snowy Hydro scheme. That thing's going
19:20
Speaker 2: to be a disaster, isn't it? Snowy Hydro 2.0 is
19:23
Speaker 2: going to cost us $ 20 billion. Why would Susan Lee
19:26
Speaker 2: sign up to that?
19:29
Speaker 12: Well, it's a good question because what she's going to
19:32
Speaker 12: have to try and do is clean up another enormous
19:36
Speaker 12: Chris Bowen mess. As you've said, we think that it's
19:40
Speaker 12: going to blow out to over $ 20 billion and that
19:43
Speaker 12: figure could even get higher. And that's because Chris Bowen
19:46
Speaker 12: changed the way the contract works for it. And you'll
19:50
Speaker 12: remember also, and this will be a good test for
19:53
Speaker 12: the board, they said they were going to do the
19:55
Speaker 12: due diligence on the finances and release those figures. Now,
20:01
Speaker 12: Chris Bowen has been asked by the media when those
20:04
Speaker 12: figures are going to be released about what is the
20:06
Speaker 12: current financial situation when it comes to Snowy Hydro, and
20:10
Speaker 12: he's refusing to answer. So the board is going to
20:13
Speaker 12: have to stand up to the minister and say, well,
20:16
Speaker 12: we're going to release all those figures so we know
20:19
Speaker 12: what's going on.
20:20
Speaker 2: And that'll be a very.
20:21
Speaker 12: Good test for Susan Lay to see whether she can
20:24
Speaker 12: be part of a board which tells the minister we're
20:27
Speaker 12: going to be transparent when you're not.
20:29
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us, Dan. I appreciate it. Dan Tehan
20:31
Speaker 2: there joining us from Canberra. I want to go to
20:34
Speaker 2: the AI issue now, which is dominating news and debate
20:38
Speaker 2: around the world at the moment because the head of
20:39
Speaker 2: an AI giant has called for a slowdown in the
20:43
Speaker 2: race to develop this technology after researcher Jacob Cox and
20:46
Speaker 2: quit-anthropic warning developers were gambling with our lives and that
20:51
Speaker 2: AI could kill us all by the end of the decade.
20:54
Speaker 2: Here's the latest from Nine News.
20:57
Speaker 4: AI is now improving itself.
21:00
Speaker 5: I think it is unacceptable to be taking like a 10%
21:03
Speaker 5: chance of killing everybody by the end of the decade, obviously.
21:06
Speaker 4: Sam Altman and Elon Musk backing calls from Claude's creator
21:11
Speaker 4: to slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities
21:14
Speaker 4: of AI models. In July, an open AI model escaped
21:18
Speaker 4: and hacked into a platform called Hugging Face.
21:21
Speaker 2: If we don't slow down, it could lead to AI takeover.
21:26
Speaker 2: by the end of the decade. Could happen as soon
21:28
Speaker 2: as next year.
21:29
Speaker 5: Some people even say six months.
21:31
Speaker 2: Let's go to Professor John Whittle. He's got 30 years
21:34
Speaker 2: of experience in developing and applying AI solutions for government
21:38
Speaker 2: and business. He's with the Melbourne Business School and joins
21:41
Speaker 2: us from Melbourne. Thanks for joining us, John. Tell us
21:44
Speaker 2: just how serious should our concerns be about AI? The
21:49
Speaker 2: idea that it could kill humanity surely is ridiculous, but
21:53
Speaker 2: what sort of fears should we reasonably hold?
21:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, look, I think it's nonsense to say that we're
21:59
Speaker 5: all going to be dead in just over three years.
22:04
Speaker 5: And this is not the first time that we've heard
22:06
Speaker 5: this playbook. We've heard these crazy claims before. There was
22:09
Speaker 5: a Google engineer back in 2022 who came out and
22:12
Speaker 5: said that AI had become conscious and the media went
22:16
Speaker 5: crazy and everybody was talking about this being the end
22:18
Speaker 5: of the world and what actually happened, well, nothing. So
22:22
Speaker 5: I wouldn't be worrying too much about humanity ending anytime soon.
22:26
Speaker 5: But it is true that these models are getting very,
22:30
Speaker 5: very capable. And if they're not used in a proper
22:34
Speaker 5: way by the humans that control them, then we could
22:36
Speaker 5: have some pretty serious problems on our hands.
22:39
Speaker 2: Isn't the great fear about autonomy, the fear that AI
22:42
Speaker 2: could autonomously could decide itself to take action against other
22:47
Speaker 2: AI bots, against infrastructure or against any computer systems?
22:52
Speaker 5: Yeah, so these AI models are really just very massive
22:56
Speaker 5: statistical engines. And the reason that everyone's starting to get
23:01
Speaker 5: worried is because they're getting bigger and people have run
23:05
Speaker 5: experiments where they've been able to hack systems. So there
23:08
Speaker 5: are worries that, you know, these systems could hack into
23:11
Speaker 5: critical infrastructure and cause all manner of damage. But it's
23:15
Speaker 5: important to understand that these models can only do what
23:19
Speaker 5: the humans allow them to.
23:21
Speaker 9: To do.
23:23
Speaker 5: They're not going rogue, as has been often reported in
23:26
Speaker 5: the media, but it's humans conducting experiments with them and
23:30
Speaker 5: giving them the freedom to kind of go off on
23:33
Speaker 5: the internet. And then because they're statistical, they end up
23:36
Speaker 5: doing things that the human designers didn't expect, but that's
23:39
Speaker 5: what statistics is.
23:41
Speaker 2: The trouble is there are plenty of malevolent humans around
23:45
Speaker 2: the place, which I guess is why one reason Donald
23:48
Speaker 2: Trump today has said that he doesn't want development slowed down.
23:53
Speaker 2: Here's the president.
23:54
Speaker 4: We're leading China in AI.
23:56
Speaker 2: We're the most sophisticated.
23:57
Speaker 3: Country in the world. And, frankly, I want to keep it.
24:00
Speaker 4: That way, because whoever wins, AI wins. And we can
24:04
Speaker 4: put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I
24:06
Speaker 4: think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing.
24:08
Speaker 1: It up that.
24:10
Speaker 13: shouldn't be bringing it up.
24:12
Speaker 4: And they're bringing up things that won't happen.
24:15
Speaker 2: That's the point, isn't it? John, you've got to keep
24:17
Speaker 2: developing this to keep bad actors at bay.
24:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there's definitely an arms race going on. China
24:24
Speaker 5: is catching up. You know, it used to be the
24:26
Speaker 5: case that we would say that the US was maybe
24:28
Speaker 5: a couple of years ahead of China. Mostly people now
24:32
Speaker 5: talk about a few months. So You know, there's definitely
24:36
Speaker 5: a role for governments to play here. You know, in Australia,
24:41
Speaker 5: for example, there's been a bit of a flip-flop, I think,
24:44
Speaker 5: going on about, you know, how much the government should
24:46
Speaker 5: get involved. Before the last election, there was an advisory
24:50
Speaker 5: body set up to put mandatory guardrails in place. That
24:53
Speaker 5: was then stopped after the election. But there needs to
24:57
Speaker 5: be a conscious decision made by governments about how we're
25:00
Speaker 5: going to regulate these things.
25:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a hell of an issue and it's hard
25:03
Speaker 2: for all of us to keep up with it. So
25:05
Speaker 2: thank you so much for sharing your insights, John. I
25:07
Speaker 2: appreciate it. Professor John Whittle there from the Melbourne Business School. Now,
25:11
Speaker 2: before we go to a break, the other side, I'm
25:13
Speaker 2: going to show you a stunning confession when it comes
25:15
Speaker 2: to our failures in this country to combat anti-Semitism. I'm
25:19
Speaker 2: going to speak to Shari Markson and Alex Rivchin about
25:23
Speaker 2: their remarkable and crucially important book, Bondi Terror. Don't go away.
25:33
Speaker 2: just on the fight against anti-Semitism and Islamist extremism, the
25:37
Speaker 2: fight our Prime Minister has manifestly failed to take up. Well,
25:41
Speaker 2: there's been a telling confession reported today. The Australian Human
25:45
Speaker 2: Rights Commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, has belatedly admitted that she and
25:50
Speaker 2: her organisation have been missing in action. Speaking ahead of
25:55
Speaker 2: ending her tenure in November... Finlay said, my greatest regret
25:59
Speaker 2: is that I did not speak out earlier and more
26:03
Speaker 2: clearly about the rise in anti-Semitism, particularly following the Sydney
26:07
Speaker 2: Opera House protests. Well, well, you don't say. She's told
26:13
Speaker 2: a Jewish women's group that she was genuinely sorry. Look,
26:18
Speaker 2: the Human Rights Commission loves to lecture Australians on racism
26:21
Speaker 2: and sexism, but it went missing during the pandemic and, yes...
26:26
Speaker 2: on Jew hatred too. I mean, here we had people
26:29
Speaker 2: in our streets celebrating the slaughter of Jewish people, of
26:33
Speaker 2: Israelis in Israel, and at the Opera House they chanted
26:37
Speaker 2: and threatened Jews in Australia, and the hatred continued in
26:41
Speaker 2: protests week after week and in the media and on
26:45
Speaker 2: social media and in political debate. But it seems because
26:48
Speaker 2: this hatred comes largely from the political left, the Human
26:52
Speaker 2: Rights Commission was struck dumb. The Human Rights Commissioner said,
26:57
Speaker 2: one lesson I will carry with me is that hatred
27:00
Speaker 2: must be confronted early, clearly and without hesitation. When institutions
27:06
Speaker 2: and leaders fail to do so, even with the best
27:10
Speaker 2: of intentions, the consequences can be profound. She is dead right.
27:16
Speaker 2: She failed. But as Finlay said, it's up to leaders
27:20
Speaker 2: to act. which is why we can never forget or
27:23
Speaker 2: forgive the disastrous lack of leadership from Anthony Albanese on this.
27:32
Speaker 2: Let me go to our next guests now because they
27:34
Speaker 2: speak on a related issue, the horrific Bondi Beach massacre
27:38
Speaker 2: last December, which took 15 lives. Bondi Terror is the
27:43
Speaker 2: book by Shari Markson and Alex Rivchin that documents this
27:46
Speaker 2: tragedy and its aftermath and plots a path forward And
27:50
Speaker 2: I'm pleased to welcome both of them to the studio
27:53
Speaker 2: right now. Thanks so much for joining me.
27:54
Speaker 13: Thank you.
27:55
Speaker 2: Congratulations on the book. Give me your thoughts firstly about
27:59
Speaker 2: the launch last Thursday and that bringing together of so
28:03
Speaker 2: many elements of Australia, Shari.
28:05
Speaker 9: Look, it was a very moving and emotional evening. It
28:08
Speaker 9: was launched by the Premier, Chris Minns, Chairman of News Corp,
28:11
Speaker 9: Lachlan Murdoch. It gave some very powerful words about how
28:15
Speaker 9: we need to do more on anti-Semitism and our company
28:18
Speaker 9: will not walk away from the Jewish community. Matilda's family
28:22
Speaker 9: got up there. Her dad spoke and, look, a lot
28:25
Speaker 9: of people were very emotional just seeing his courage and
28:29
Speaker 9: his bravery, his message about sharing the kindness and the
28:32
Speaker 9: light of his little girl who was taken too soon
28:36
Speaker 9: at Bondi. And then we also had Josh Frydenberg speak.
28:40
Speaker 9: He referenced the ongoing... offensive messages from the likes of
28:46
Speaker 9: Grace Tame. He had a panel of survivors there. Kelly
28:50
Speaker 9: Sloan is a first responder. Elon, who was shot six times. Hannah,
28:54
Speaker 9: whose father was killed. So, you know, the theme was hopeful, uplifting.
29:00
Speaker 9: That's what this book is. You know, it ends with
29:02
Speaker 9: the path forward and what we need to do to
29:05
Speaker 9: confront this crisis.
29:07
Speaker 2: Look, that's the extraordinary thing here, Alex, about this book.
29:10
Speaker 2: And I read it on the weekend. It's stunning and
29:13
Speaker 2: powerful and moving in its detail. And the two of
29:17
Speaker 2: you have recounted what went on. But you've talked about
29:19
Speaker 2: the lead up. You've talked about the aftermath and the
29:23
Speaker 2: path forward. So this is not just a book of history,
29:27
Speaker 2: of contemporary history. This is a book about where we
29:31
Speaker 2: go to from here.
29:32
Speaker 4: Right.
29:33
Speaker 13: And, you know, it covers the three year period really
29:35
Speaker 13: beginning with October 7. There's, of course, a deep focus
29:38
Speaker 13: on the massacre. on the actions of individuals, of the heroes,
29:43
Speaker 13: of the first responders. But, as you said, it goes
29:45
Speaker 13: far beyond all that, because it has to. It has
29:47
Speaker 13: to provide the context. It has to show that what
29:50
Speaker 13: occurred on that day wasn't merely an incident, a flashpoint.
29:53
Speaker 13: It was part of a process that was occurring in
29:56
Speaker 13: plain sight before our eyes. go through that in great detail.
30:00
Speaker 13: The day-by-day escalation of Australian antisemitism, the failure of leaders
30:06
Speaker 13: to take appropriate action in the moment. We look at
30:09
Speaker 13: the aftermath, and that to me was a really fascinating
30:12
Speaker 13: thing to investigate and explore, what people did in the
30:15
Speaker 13: days and hours afterwards. And we found in our interviews
30:19
Speaker 13: that people really retreat into their own universes. There was
30:21
Speaker 13: the universe of the families of the dead, which consisted
30:24
Speaker 13: of their houses of mourning and being by gravesites and
30:28
Speaker 13: just being in a real stupor of loss and tragedy.
30:32
Speaker 13: Then there were those whose families were terribly wounded and
30:36
Speaker 13: were in critical condition, and their universe became the hospital
30:39
Speaker 13: and nothing else. So we tried to pierce all of
30:41
Speaker 13: that and piece it together to show the full toll
30:44
Speaker 13: of something like this, what it does to communities, families
30:47
Speaker 13: and to the country.
30:48
Speaker 2: I want to go to some of the personal stories
30:50
Speaker 2: here so that I can give our viewers an insight
30:52
Speaker 2: into what they get from this book and And, Shari,
30:54
Speaker 2: I'm going to pinch a couple of excerpts from your documentary...
30:57
Speaker 2: Go for it... to steer that narrative. Let's have a
31:00
Speaker 2: look at this and a reminder that this is Distressing Vision.
31:05
Speaker 9: Nearby, Elon's mother lay on top of his two children,
31:09
Speaker 9: doing everything she could to protect them.
31:12
Speaker 10: But then she too was shot.
31:15
Speaker 12: My mum was ultimately exposed because she was by herself
31:19
Speaker 12: holding my two children.
31:21
Speaker 9: Elon's mother was shot three times as she huddled over
31:24
Speaker 9: her grandkids.
31:27
Speaker 2: Shari, we had that incredible detail in your documentary, but
31:31
Speaker 2: in this book you have spoken to people, so many
31:34
Speaker 2: people in such detail. I was just staggered by the
31:39
Speaker 2: number of people showing those acts of heroism, laying over
31:43
Speaker 2: children to protect them, taking bullets themselves. Some lived, some died. Look,
31:48
Speaker 2: it's extraordinary.
31:49
Speaker 9: No one ever knows how they're going to react when
31:52
Speaker 9: something like this happens, when they unexpectedly find themselves with
31:56
Speaker 9: their family in a live shooting. And, you know, in
32:00
Speaker 9: the aftermath of the terror attack, I was hearing so
32:02
Speaker 9: many stories and it was too many, even in a documentary,
32:06
Speaker 9: to properly tell, which is why we wanted to properly
32:09
Speaker 9: record them in the book. And it is extraordinary reading.
32:12
Speaker 9: And I don't think it is depressing. You know, some
32:14
Speaker 9: people have said to me, oh, I don't know about reading.
32:16
Speaker 11: It is not.
32:17
Speaker 4: It is inspiring.
32:19
Speaker 6: Yep.
32:19
Speaker 9: The courage that people showed. You know, Elon was trying
32:23
Speaker 9: to protect his children, as you just saw. His mum
32:25
Speaker 9: was trying to help.
32:26
Speaker 6: She was shot.
32:27
Speaker 9: Elon was hit six times. He didn't want to let
32:30
Speaker 9: his children see... Their father passed away, so he started
32:33
Speaker 9: crawling away, and then a 14-year-old girl in a safe
32:36
Speaker 9: spot ran in.
32:37
Speaker 2: I agree absolutely that this is inspiring. You read the book.
32:40
Speaker 2: It is horrifying. It's horrifying, the situation you're dealing with. But, Alex,
32:45
Speaker 2: you must have had the same reaction. You knew so
32:47
Speaker 2: many of these people closely, right? But you would hope
32:51
Speaker 2: to behave in the way some of them did.
32:54
Speaker 13: Yeah, look, I think it's natural that you hypothesise and
32:57
Speaker 13: speculate what would have happened if I was there.
32:59
Speaker 6: Yeah.
33:00
Speaker 12: But.
33:01
Speaker 13: I didn't really linger there for too long because when
33:03
Speaker 13: the reality is so horrible, you don't really need to
33:06
Speaker 13: be in the hypotheticals. But one thing that I found
33:09
Speaker 13: again in interviewing survivors and victims afterwards was that they were,
33:16
Speaker 13: you know, in this state of guilt, a state of confusion.
33:19
Speaker 13: They couldn't understand why someone survived and they didn't. There
33:22
Speaker 13: were instances, for example, you know, my media director, Evan,
33:26
Speaker 13: he ran when the shooting began. He was with two
33:28
Speaker 13: other people running in the same direction. Evan was shot
33:31
Speaker 13: in the back. Next to him was Dan Elkayam, who
33:34
Speaker 13: was shot through the chest and fatally wounded. And the
33:37
Speaker 13: third person didn't get a scratch. And then they wonder,
33:40
Speaker 13: why me? Why did I survive and that person didn't?
33:43
Speaker 13: And that's where different people react in different ways. I
33:46
Speaker 13: found that those with a deep religious kind of core
33:50
Speaker 13: were able to manage that better and find purpose and meaning,
33:53
Speaker 13: whereas others are still lingering in this state of kind
33:56
Speaker 13: of confusion and guilt and not really emotionally.
33:58
Speaker 2: That survivor's guilt is real.
33:59
Speaker 13: Yeah, that's right.
34:01
Speaker 2: I want to go to another hero who I think
34:03
Speaker 2: is underplayed publicly but certainly not in the book. Again,
34:07
Speaker 2: distressing vision.
34:09
Speaker 9: And here, dressed in red, is Geffen Bitton, a young Israeli,
34:14
Speaker 9: bravely running in to help Ahmed. But the shooter on
34:18
Speaker 9: the bridge, 24-year-old Navid, fires back. You can see the
34:24
Speaker 9: moment Geffen is shot.
34:28
Speaker 2: Just horrible. Shari Gethin had terrible injuries. He had war training.
34:34
Speaker 2: He might have done more with that gun if he'd
34:35
Speaker 2: taken it off Ahmed. But he's chosen not to go public.
34:39
Speaker 2: In this book, he has, yeah. But in the book...
34:42
Speaker 2: That's why I think most Australians haven't heard enough about him.
34:44
Speaker 2: But in the book, we hear from him.
34:46
Speaker 9: Well, also he was in a coma for a long
34:48
Speaker 9: period of time. He was so badly injured. I connected
34:51
Speaker 9: with his family first when he was in the coma
34:54
Speaker 9: and then he was transported back to Israel. They put
34:56
Speaker 9: me in touch with Geffen. So I've been speaking with
34:58
Speaker 9: him on and off over quite a few months now.
35:01
Speaker 9: He went on the record in the book. It's the
35:03
Speaker 9: most extraordinary story. And he talks about in the book...
35:07
Speaker 9: when he was in the coma, having to decide whether
35:09
Speaker 9: to come back to.
35:10
Speaker 11: Earth or not.
35:11
Speaker 9: You know, amazing kind of near-death experience. But, yes, he
35:15
Speaker 9: says what haunts him is that Ahmed got there a
35:19
Speaker 9: few seconds before him. He says he was in the IDF.
35:22
Speaker 9: He knows how to use a gun. And his plan
35:25
Speaker 9: was to run in and take out the shooter. And
35:28
Speaker 9: so he's haunted by the fact he got there too late.
35:31
Speaker 9: And he says that he was yelling at Ahmed, shoot,
35:34
Speaker 9: shoot him. with some swear words thrown in and you
35:38
Speaker 9: know he just replays it over and.
35:39
Speaker 2: Over just just incredible yeah as another aspect of the
35:43
Speaker 2: book that really just stands out is is that story
35:46
Speaker 2: of geth and what a hero and how he's still
35:48
Speaker 2: suffering so much now.
35:49
Speaker 9: One of the worst injured yes he says he'll never
35:52
Speaker 9: be able to walk properly again this.
35:54
Speaker 2: Is this is another aspect that comes through in the
35:56
Speaker 2: book some of these injuries horrific people's lives change forever
36:00
Speaker 2: it's not only the 15 dead. It's that ongoing suffering.
36:05
Speaker 2: I want to finish on a clip and I'll get
36:07
Speaker 2: your reaction to this, Alex, given your role in the
36:10
Speaker 2: Jewish community. This is the memorial that was held at
36:14
Speaker 2: the Opera House. Shari, you hosted it. Here's part of
36:16
Speaker 2: what Anthony Albanese had to say.
36:18
Speaker 3: You came to celebrate a festival of light and freedom
36:22
Speaker 3: and you were met with the violence of hatred. I
36:27
Speaker 3: am deeply and profoundly sorry that we could not protect
36:31
Speaker 3: your loved ones from this evil.
36:35
Speaker 2: Now, all of this aftermath is covered in the book
36:37
Speaker 2: as well. But, Alex, that wasn't really an apology from
36:41
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese. He's sorry he couldn't protect people. But there's
36:44
Speaker 2: no recognition of his failure in the two years leading
36:48
Speaker 2: up to Bondi to quash this hatred.
36:51
Speaker 13: Look, I think politicians and some more than others are
36:54
Speaker 13: limited in what they're willing to concede. And being in
36:58
Speaker 13: the audience and listening to that, it felt significant and momentous.
37:02
Speaker 13: But it also, I think, showed us the limits of
37:04
Speaker 13: government and the limits of politicians and what they're willing
37:08
Speaker 13: to accept responsibility for. Ultimately... They want to do the
37:11
Speaker 13: right thing, I believe, but they also have to think
37:13
Speaker 13: about polls and election cycles and political survival, and that
37:17
Speaker 13: inevitably numbs their response. But the thing that I remember
37:20
Speaker 13: about that evening more than any other was not the apology,
37:24
Speaker 13: it was the actions of Labor Lazaroff, a young man
37:26
Speaker 13: who was horribly wounded, shot multiple times. He had, I think,
37:30
Speaker 13: 14 surgeries to reconstruct his abdomen, and there was this
37:34
Speaker 13: anticipation where we didn't know whether he would make it
37:36
Speaker 13: out of the hospital in time for that event, and
37:39
Speaker 13: he got there.
37:40
Speaker 2: And again, covered in the book. Just incredible. From hospital
37:44
Speaker 2: to the stage.
37:44
Speaker 13: And it was one of the most uplifting moments of
37:46
Speaker 13: my life. So to me, the lesson of that is
37:50
Speaker 13: look to the individual for leadership more so than our
37:53
Speaker 13: political leaders. I think more often than not, the ordinary
37:56
Speaker 13: person can show greater courage and leadership than the politicians.
38:00
Speaker 2: Well said. I could talk to you guys about this
38:02
Speaker 2: for hours, but we are out of time. Bondi Terra,
38:05
Speaker 2: here it is. I'm so proud to know both of
38:08
Speaker 2: you as friends and you should be so proud of
38:10
Speaker 2: this book. It's incredible reading and all Australians should read it.
38:15
Speaker 2: both to know what happened and to give you some
38:17
Speaker 2: hope for the future. Thanks very much, Shari and Alex.
38:20
Speaker 2: We've got to go to a break. Up next, I'm
38:22
Speaker 2: going to cross to Sophie Ellsworth, live from the UK,
38:24
Speaker 2: where Harry and Megan have released the first images of
38:28
Speaker 2: their new life in the English countryside. Don't go away.
38:36
Speaker 2: Let's go to the UK, Westminster, in fact, and catch
38:40
Speaker 2: up with News Corp's Europe correspondent and News 24 contributor
38:44
Speaker 2: Sophie Ellsworth, of course. Good to talk to you again, Sophie.
38:48
Speaker 2: Give us a bit of an update on net zero
38:50
Speaker 2: in the UK and the warnings that provides for the
38:54
Speaker 2: same net zero obsession here in Australia.
38:59
Speaker 10: Great to be with you Chris. Yes recently I was
39:01
Speaker 10: down in Kent near Graveney where it is home to
39:05
Speaker 10: the biggest solar farm in the UK. More than half
39:10
Speaker 10: a million solar panels there and there's been a lot
39:13
Speaker 10: of outrage in this community by locals annoyed at the
39:17
Speaker 10: implementation of this solar farm. Locals telling me they have
39:20
Speaker 10: not seen their bills come down and that the UK
39:24
Speaker 10: is chasing this net zero dream similar to Australia, but
39:27
Speaker 10: it's not paying off when it comes to its bills. And, Chris,
39:30
Speaker 10: it is very much a live issue here in the
39:33
Speaker 10: UK as it is in Australia. People are annoyed at
39:37
Speaker 10: the move to net zero and the fact that it
39:39
Speaker 10: is not helping their hip pockets as the government is
39:43
Speaker 10: saying that it should.
39:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got some of those comments right here.
39:48
Speaker 6: Absolutely horrific really during the process of building the park.
39:53
Speaker 9: We're going to be losing out from agriculture and we're
39:56
Speaker 9: losing out on tourism. Whenever you drive through the village
39:59
Speaker 9: at some point you will look across and you will
40:02
Speaker 9: see this solar array.
40:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got to feel for those communities as we
40:08
Speaker 2: do for communities in Australia, and I don't know whether
40:12
Speaker 2: I'll get as much bang for their buck out of
40:14
Speaker 2: solar farms in England as they do on the western
40:18
Speaker 2: plains of New South Wales and the like. Now, also,
40:20
Speaker 2: I'm dying to know what the former royals are up to.
40:23
Speaker 2: They've released some footage.
40:27
Speaker 10: They have indeed, Chris. Yesterday afternoon here in the UK,
40:30
Speaker 10: Meghan Markle, who has vowed that she wants her privacy protected,
40:34
Speaker 10: has now released this latest Instagram reel with many clips
40:38
Speaker 10: of their family enjoying life here back in the UK.
40:42
Speaker 10: Six years. after they turned their back on Britain. Now
40:46
Speaker 10: it's shown her with Prince Harry holding hands, walking through
40:50
Speaker 10: the woodlands in what appears to be the Cotswolds and
40:53
Speaker 10: her young children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet enjoying their
40:57
Speaker 10: life here in the UK. But Chris, this is very
41:00
Speaker 10: interesting timing because it comes just a few days after
41:04
Speaker 10: that letter was issued on the direction of His Majesty
41:08
Speaker 10: saying that they are not working royals, they will remain
41:11
Speaker 10: private citizens And basically they need to stay out of
41:15
Speaker 10: the public eye. They won't be getting the treatment that
41:18
Speaker 10: the royals get here. And it seems that this couple
41:21
Speaker 10: seem to have a relevance deprivation syndrome where they have
41:24
Speaker 10: to keep putting stuff out into the media because they
41:27
Speaker 10: don't want to be forgotten about, Chris.
41:29
Speaker 2: Exactly. Their global privacy tour continues. Thanks for joining us, Sophie.
41:35
Speaker 2: I hope you stay dry there. Sophie Ellsworth, live from
41:38
Speaker 2: the UK, where they're getting... It looks like they're about
41:40
Speaker 2: to get a bit of much-needed rain. After the break,
41:43
Speaker 2: we're going to check in on Victoria's pothole problem. It's
41:46
Speaker 2: become so bad that it's costing lives. I'll catch up
41:49
Speaker 2: with Gemma Tognini and Caroline Duruso. Look out, Perth. They're
41:58
Speaker 2: both there and they're both live on The Kenny Report.
42:01
Speaker 2: Gemma Tognini from GT Communication, of course, the West Australian
42:04
Speaker 2: Liberal Party president, and News 24 contributor Caroline Derusso. Thanks
42:08
Speaker 2: both for joining us. Great to be here, Chris.
42:11
Speaker 4: Quick thoughts.
42:12
Speaker 2: Let's start with you, Caroline. Quick thoughts. Was Pauline Hanson
42:16
Speaker 2: really having a go at Anthony Albanese's mother?
42:21
Speaker 8: Oh, look, I think it's one of those things. It's
42:23
Speaker 8: probably best not to stray into that territory if you
42:27
Speaker 8: can absolutely avoid it. I think, you know, our politicians
42:33
Speaker 8: do make enough sacrifice and, yes, Albanese talks about his mum, but,
42:36
Speaker 8: you know, Morrison talked about Jen and the girls and
42:39
Speaker 8: that doesn't mean we just go open slather on Jen
42:41
Speaker 8: and the girls. So I would always just prefer that
42:44
Speaker 8: families are left out of it, of course, unless, of course,
42:47
Speaker 8: they work for a lobbyist or something like that, then
42:49
Speaker 8: we should probably know about it. But other than that,
42:52
Speaker 8: I'd rather it just be left be. There's very few
42:55
Speaker 8: red lines. I think that's probs one of them. But
42:57
Speaker 8: I hate to think I'm agreeing with Chris Bowen, so
42:59
Speaker 8: that makes me really uncomfortable.
43:01
Speaker 2: Very uncomfortable. Well, here's a little compilation of how Anthony
43:04
Speaker 2: Albanese uses his mum's story.
43:08
Speaker 3: A single mum who raised me in public housing. I
43:11
Speaker 3: was raised in a council house not far from here
43:14
Speaker 3: by a single mum on the disability pension.
43:17
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese is.
43:21
Speaker 3: the son of a single mum who grew up in
43:25
Speaker 3: council housing in Camperdown. My mum lived in the one
43:29
Speaker 3: public housing that she was born in for all of
43:32
Speaker 3: her 65 years.
43:35
Speaker 2: Gemma, I don't think anybody should attack Anthony Albanese's mum,
43:39
Speaker 2: but when he's used that story so often, I think
43:43
Speaker 2: a lot of people in this country are thinking, actually,
43:45
Speaker 2: living all your life in public housing isn't the ideal.
43:48
Speaker 2: I think Pauline Hanson has actually said what a lot
43:51
Speaker 2: of people think and are probably too afraid to say.
43:56
Speaker 14: Entirely possible, Chris, that that's the case.
43:58
Speaker 2: I think what.
44:00
Speaker 14: As in with many things, it's the execution rather than
44:03
Speaker 14: the subject matter, and I think There was a meanness
44:06
Speaker 14: to what Pauline Hanson said and a nastiness to it,
44:08
Speaker 14: which I can't abide. By the same token, though, I
44:14
Speaker 14: personally do not appreciate the way Mr Albanese tends to
44:18
Speaker 14: use this story time and again. The Australian public is
44:23
Speaker 14: well aware of how he was raised under difficult circumstances.
44:27
Speaker 14: He is not the only one. And if he constantly
44:31
Speaker 14: needs to reference that, then I think that speaks to
44:34
Speaker 14: a particular deficiency. That's my personal view. I know plenty,
44:38
Speaker 14: plenty of people in my personal circle and my wider
44:41
Speaker 14: circle who grew up in more challenging circumstances than the
44:46
Speaker 14: Prime Minister, often in violent circumstances, often in circumstances of
44:51
Speaker 14: extreme deprivation. That's their story. It's not the sum total
44:54
Speaker 14: of who they are. And if you fast forward to
44:56
Speaker 14: the fact that that man has been Prime Minister of
44:58
Speaker 14: this country for two terms, almost two full terms, and
45:01
Speaker 14: has sent the country backward, and Australians are finding it
45:05
Speaker 14: so tough.
45:05
Speaker 2: I paid $ 2. 35 a litre for 91 unleaded this week, Chris.
45:10
Speaker 14: And now there's talks of shortages and we know we
45:12
Speaker 14: have a productivity issue. Those are the things Australians want
45:16
Speaker 14: to hear this Prime Minister talk about and address because
45:18
Speaker 14: the price of leadership, Mr Albanese, is accountability and you
45:22
Speaker 14: should get to know that concept.
45:24
Speaker 2: Let's go to Victorian state politics. And, Caroline, I'm keen
45:28
Speaker 2: to get your thoughts on this because there's been a
45:30
Speaker 2: lot of talk about potholes. A tragic case in recent
45:34
Speaker 2: days where a motorcycle rider has hit a pothole and
45:38
Speaker 2: it's ended up costing him his life. But this is
45:42
Speaker 2: more than a one-off. I was speaking to a very,
45:44
Speaker 2: very senior figure in the Victorian Liberal Party on the
45:48
Speaker 2: weekend who said that this looming election... It's not about
45:51
Speaker 2: Labor versus Coalition versus One Nation. There's all sorts of
45:55
Speaker 2: independents involved and it's going to be a seat-by-seat campaign
45:58
Speaker 2: where the real issues are things like the terrible state
46:02
Speaker 2: of the roads and local crime rates. Does that resonate
46:05
Speaker 2: with what you're hearing, Caroline?
46:08
Speaker 8: Well, it does, and that's the whole point of state government,
46:11
Speaker 8: that it is service and delivery politics. And, you know,
46:16
Speaker 8: there's been a whole lot of carry-on about how fabulous
46:18
Speaker 8: is it that we're having, you know, US football matches
46:21
Speaker 8: in Melbourne. Well, I think people would really like if
46:25
Speaker 8: that state government properly executed the very, very basics. And
46:29
Speaker 8: it's things like healthcare, it's things like crime, and it's
46:33
Speaker 8: things like road infrastructure. Those things are a non-negotiable, Chris.
46:38
Speaker 8: get them right, and then you can have all the nice-to-haves.
46:41
Speaker 8: But you can't have the nice-to-haves without getting the need-to-haves
46:44
Speaker 8: done first. So no wonder Victorians are feral about this,
46:48
Speaker 8: and so they should be, because they're living in a
46:50
Speaker 8: circumstance where those very basics aren't met. And then the
46:54
Speaker 8: government wants pats on the back for all the other fluff.
46:57
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah.
46:58
Speaker 2: Hey, speaking about big sporting events in Melbourne, you'll be
47:02
Speaker 2: pleased to know that the The Minister for Sports and Communications,
47:07
Speaker 2: Annika Wells, has told us that she'll be back on
47:11
Speaker 2: the bandwagon this month. She's going to the grand final.
47:15
Speaker 4: Here she is.
47:16
Speaker 15: I will be there because it's a huge event in
47:19
Speaker 15: both the communications and sports stakeholder calendars. I see dozens
47:24
Speaker 15: of my stakeholders in that room.
47:28
Speaker 2: She's going back to the footy, Gemma. I bet all
47:30
Speaker 2: her friends and family are rapt. Who's going to go
47:32
Speaker 2: with her?
47:33
Speaker 14: The fact that she can say that with a straight
47:37
Speaker 14: face is just... It's extraordinary. There's not an ounce of
47:41
Speaker 14: sort of, you know, sheepishness or apology. Like, the fact
47:45
Speaker 14: that that minister has still got a job is an
47:47
Speaker 14: insult to every Australian who's held to a different set
47:50
Speaker 14: of standards. You and I both know, Chris, that if
47:53
Speaker 14: we had... conducted ourselves in the same way and defrauded,
47:57
Speaker 14: you know, use which word you want, found to have
48:02
Speaker 14: needed to pay back money to your employer, which is
48:04
Speaker 14: essentially the Australian taxpayer. I mean, you wouldn't have a job, right?
48:09
Speaker 2: I work for myself.
48:10
Speaker 14: I don't know, I might still have a job, but.
48:11
Speaker 8: Get out your archive box.
48:13
Speaker 13: Exactly.
48:14
Speaker 14: The fact that that minister gave that answer without a
48:17
Speaker 14: hint of context or self-awareness just tells you everything you
48:21
Speaker 14: need to know about this government and its hubris and
48:23
Speaker 14: its sense of entitlement.
48:24
Speaker 2: It's going to be a great grand final, never mind
48:26
Speaker 2: the footy. We'll get all the vision of Annika Wells
48:28
Speaker 2: in the stands and then when Kylie's doing the pre-game entertainment,
48:32
Speaker 2: there'll be cutaways of Albo with Kylie performing. What an
48:36
Speaker 2: absolute joke. Thanks for joining us, Gemma and Caroline. We'll
48:41
Speaker 2: catch you next week. Just a little bit of time
48:44
Speaker 2: for some of your feedback from what we had to
48:46
Speaker 2: say last week when Pauline Hanson joined the program and
48:49
Speaker 2: one viewer says, the throwing of dirt will only get
48:51
Speaker 2: worse when One Nation wins this. the Victorian election. We
48:55
Speaker 2: shall see. Another viewer says, choose your battles, Pauline Hanson,
48:59
Speaker 2: and this is not one worthy of fighting. That was
49:01
Speaker 2: the Andrew Hastie traitor battle. Another viewer says, I think
49:05
Speaker 2: Pauline Hanson should have the fortitude to pull the cartoon down,
49:08
Speaker 2: not for any other reason than the fact that Hastie
49:12
Speaker 2: has taken offence to it. She has said she does
49:15
Speaker 2: not think he is a traitor. I also think she
49:17
Speaker 2: would do herself and her party a favour by taking
49:20
Speaker 2: the high road and removing it. Thanks for joining me.
49:23
Speaker 2: It's good to be back. Thanks for Caleb Bond for
49:26
Speaker 2: last Thursday. I'll be back tomorrow night. Here's Peter Quedlin.