Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 22 November
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Live. This is Steve Price. Good evening, Welcome to Friday Night.
- 0:08Speaker 2: It's great to be back after celebrating my mum's ninetieth birthday.
- 0:12Speaker 2: How wonderful is that in Adelaide last weekend. Had a
- 0:14Speaker 2: great time thanks to Caroline Marcus first stepping in and
- 0:18Speaker 2: I enjoyed the road trip between Melbourne and Adelaide and
- 0:20Speaker 2: back again. Great to see the wheat growers around places
- 0:24Speaker 2: like Horsham in the Wimmera crops are all harvested, silos
- 0:27Speaker 2: are full and I'm told a bump a season not
- 0:30Speaker 2: just in Victoria but in New South Wales as well.
- 0:32Speaker 2: I guess we put that down to global warming and
- 0:35Speaker 2: climate change. Coming up on the program this Friday, we're
- 0:38Speaker 2: going to dig into this idea that Australia's Future Fund
- 0:41Speaker 2: could be used to invest in housing and energy projects.
- 0:45Speaker 2: The former Treasurer at Wayne Swan thinks it's a good idea,
- 0:49Speaker 2: which means it probably isn't. Also on the program tonight.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Luckily for me, my children were born just before social
- 0:56Speaker 2: media swamped the world and are now well past the
- 1:00Speaker 2: age of sixteen. But I've got to say I can't
- 1:02Speaker 2: work out how this new social media law for under
- 1:06Speaker 2: sixteens will actually work. I'll chat with the panel about that,
- 1:09Speaker 2: see if we can work out exactly whether it will work.
- 1:12Speaker 2: And Friday regular Australia's most awarded cartoonist Mark Knight, He'll
- 1:16Speaker 2: be right here in the studio. He is going to
- 1:18Speaker 2: have five of his best from this week. But let's
- 1:21Speaker 2: get stuck into it first up. As we all know,
- 1:24Speaker 2: history has an uncanny knack of repeating itself. Take this
- 1:28Speaker 2: week's shock decision by Federal Treasurer Gentleman Jim Charmers from
- 1:32Speaker 2: Queensland that he thinks it would be a good idea
- 1:35Speaker 2: to change the priorities of Australia's Future Fund and the
- 1:39Speaker 2: two hundred and thirty billion dollars sitting in that war
- 1:43Speaker 2: chest now hands up. When any of us had more
- 1:46Speaker 2: than a passing thought about the Future Fund, those with
- 1:49Speaker 2: long memories and a vague interest in politics and finance
- 1:53Speaker 2: would remember it as an offset account, if you like,
- 1:56Speaker 2: set up to make sure we could pay the inflated
- 1:58Speaker 2: defined benefit pensions of veteran politicians and High Court judges
- 2:03Speaker 2: and senior public servants and the like. It was established
- 2:07Speaker 2: by the Howard government. They put a sixty billion dollar
- 2:10Speaker 2: seed Fund into it from a Costello Peter Costello budget.
- 2:14Speaker 2: He went on to chair the fund after he left politics.
- 2:17Speaker 2: And given it's turned sixty billion, this is the fund
- 2:21Speaker 2: into two hundred and thirty billion, or you'd say, good job,
- 2:24Speaker 2: well done. Subsequent labor governments in Canberra think rud Gillard, Rudd. Well,
- 2:29Speaker 2: they let the financial experts in charge do their thing.
- 2:32Speaker 2: Until now Jim Charmers, in the shadow of an election
- 2:36Speaker 2: and the prospect of being the only first term government
- 2:39Speaker 2: to lose an election since the nineteen thirties, suddenly thinks
- 2:43Speaker 2: he knows better than those investment experts and that perhaps
- 2:46Speaker 2: national priorities like housing, green energy products projects and giant
- 2:52Speaker 2: infrastructure spends they should be looked at seriously. How is
- 2:56Speaker 2: investing in giant infrastructure progress going in Victoria for a
- 3:01Speaker 2: labor government. How are large investments in green hydrogen going
- 3:04Speaker 2: or the Aussie made solar panels in the Hunter Valley.
- 3:07Speaker 2: Then today, of course, outcomes one of our worst ever treasurers,
- 3:11Speaker 2: the efore mentioned Wayne Swan on the Today Show saying
- 3:16Speaker 2: nothing to see here.
- 3:18Speaker 3: The fact is the government has not changed the mandated
- 3:21Speaker 3: investment return at all, and that is the critical point.
- 3:25Speaker 3: I think Australians want their money invested in this country
- 3:30Speaker 3: if they can get the required return. And what's wrong
- 3:32Speaker 3: with saying that there are some national priorities. This has
- 3:36Speaker 3: just observed political criticism in the lead up to the
- 3:39Speaker 3: next election. Nothing more, nothing.
- 3:41Speaker 2: Less, good luck with labor getting a guaranteed return. Swan
- 3:45Speaker 2: calls criticism of the idea absurd. Nothing wrong with pouring
- 3:49Speaker 2: money safely locked away for things like the grid, the
- 3:53Speaker 2: energy grid. You know that that's the one. The grid
- 3:55Speaker 2: we have to completely rebuild from scratch to connect new
- 3:59Speaker 2: wind and solar at the cost of billions of dollars.
- 4:01Speaker 2: Great investment. Wayne, If that's such a great idea, why
- 4:05Speaker 2: isn't private enterprise, Why aren't they doing it? Or why
- 4:08Speaker 2: don't you go to our fund of choice? And come on,
- 4:11Speaker 2: who would you believe in talks about a sovereign fund,
- 4:14Speaker 2: Wayne Swann or John Howard and Peter Costello. John Howard
- 4:18Speaker 2: called the ideal fiscal vandalism. Costello said it wasn't meant
- 4:23Speaker 2: to be a political slash fund. Now give me those
- 4:26Speaker 2: two any day. I mentioned history repeating itself back in
- 4:30Speaker 2: Busted Broke Victoria. During the labor governments of the nineteen eighties,
- 4:34Speaker 2: John Kan and Joan kerner Or they funded and established
- 4:39Speaker 2: something after the Liberals first set it up, called the VEDC.
- 4:43Speaker 2: It was the Victorian Economic Development Fund to tip taxpayer's
- 4:47Speaker 2: money into various projects. It went broke, along with many
- 4:52Speaker 2: of the companies gifted grants and loans. They approved loans
- 4:55Speaker 2: of two hundred and thirty million dollars, which speak money
- 4:58Speaker 2: back then, and they then proceeded to write off one
- 5:01Speaker 2: hundred and ten million dollars. Victorian labor back then had
- 5:05Speaker 2: fifty billion dollars of debt and a two billion dollar
- 5:08Speaker 2: interest bill. Does that sound familiar today? The same state Victoria.
- 5:14Speaker 2: Just start adding zeros predicted debt this financial year somewhere
- 5:19Speaker 2: between one hundred and eighty seven and two hundred billion dollars,
- 5:23Speaker 2: with annual interest payments of nine point four billion or
- 5:28Speaker 2: and don't fall off your chair, twenty five million dollars
- 5:31Speaker 2: a day every day in interest. As I said, history
- 5:35Speaker 2: has a very funny way of repeating itself. Well, let's
- 5:43Speaker 2: break this down. No better person to talk to than
- 5:45Speaker 2: Judo Bank chief economic advisor, our role mate, Warren Hogan. Warren,
- 5:51Speaker 2: I mean, labor doesn't really have a great track record
- 5:54Speaker 2: of investing these sorts of funds. I mentioned the VEDC.
- 5:58Speaker 2: What do you make of what Jim Charmers is announced.
- 6:02Speaker 4: Yeah, Hi Steve, thanks for having me on the show. Yeah,
- 6:05Speaker 4: it's look at such as the Labor Party. Governments generally
- 6:07Speaker 4: don't and particularly when the decisions are made behind closed doors,
- 6:11Speaker 4: which many of these so called industry policy decisions are.
- 6:15Speaker 4: So look, I'm a bit concerned about the precedent it
- 6:18Speaker 4: sets and the direction It.
- 6:20Speaker 5: Looks reasonably harmless.
- 6:21Speaker 4: That is this investment mandate defined as what they've got
- 6:26Speaker 4: to return that's four to five over CPI plus these
- 6:30Speaker 4: areas of national priority, some of which they're already investing in.
- 6:34Speaker 5: But where does that go next?
- 6:36Speaker 4: So it isn't a great sort of trajectory that is
- 6:39Speaker 4: government directing resources in our economy where we've had forty
- 6:42Speaker 4: years where we know that that is not the way
- 6:45Speaker 4: to do it. That the private sector is best placed
- 6:47Speaker 4: to know where to direct resources.
- 6:50Speaker 2: If there are things to invest in projects, whether they
- 6:54Speaker 2: be big infrastructure or as Charmers mentioned, housing, and you've
- 6:59Speaker 2: got to guaranteed for five percent return, wouldn't private enterprise
- 7:02Speaker 2: be doing that investing?
- 7:06Speaker 4: Well, they most likely would, although there are some examples
- 7:10Speaker 4: where that may not be the case. And of course
- 7:12Speaker 4: the Future Funders said that they will still have the
- 7:17Speaker 4: primary judgment around investing as the risk adjusted return, but
- 7:24Speaker 4: you know that's a bit ambiguous too. So look, I
- 7:28Speaker 4: think the issue here is what is the Future Fund
- 7:30Speaker 4: for and is it to be used as a way
- 7:33Speaker 4: to direct resources to the government of the day's long
- 7:36Speaker 4: term desires And that seems to be where we're going,
- 7:39Speaker 4: and I don't think it is what it was set
- 7:41Speaker 4: up for at all, and that's the contradiction. But more
- 7:44Speaker 4: generally speaking, we don't want governments with industry policy making
- 7:49Speaker 4: decisions on investments in the cabinet room.
- 7:52Speaker 5: You know, I think there.
- 7:54Speaker 4: Is a role for industry policy, but it's got to
- 7:56Speaker 4: be transparent, it's got to be clear objectives, and the
- 7:59Speaker 4: private sector's got to be involved in the governance of it.
- 8:01Speaker 4: And that is not what we're seeing from this government.
- 8:03Speaker 4: We're seeing the cabinet leading the way and decisions being
- 8:07Speaker 4: made out of the blue.
- 8:10Speaker 2: And of course now we have I mean, I'm sure
- 8:12Speaker 2: he's doing a good job, but we've got in charge
- 8:16Speaker 2: of this Greg Combo, former boss of the ACTU, obviously
- 8:20Speaker 2: a labor politician. I mean, can we trust that board
- 8:26Speaker 2: that now runs the Future Fund to run it the
- 8:29Speaker 2: way it's been run. I mean, with your assessment, Warren b.
- 8:33Speaker 2: Turning sixty billion into two hundred and eighty billion over
- 8:36Speaker 2: what is it, twenty years is not a bad result.
- 8:40Speaker 5: It's an exceptional result.
- 8:42Speaker 4: And part of it is because the Future Fund has
- 8:45Speaker 4: been able to go and hire some of the best
- 8:48Speaker 4: people in the investment business, and you see it in
- 8:51Speaker 4: the returns, you see it in their way they talk
- 8:54Speaker 4: about what they're doing, and it's all part of a
- 8:57Speaker 4: culture that's been put together in the Future Fund over
- 9:01Speaker 4: this period of over ten years of excellence. And of
- 9:04Speaker 4: course that's the thing that's at risk. It is if
- 9:07Speaker 4: you do have a fundamental change in the way the
- 9:09Speaker 4: board interferes with the management and the staff of the
- 9:13Speaker 4: Future Fund, then that can undermine not only the good
- 9:18Speaker 4: culture and the good decisions that come with it, but
- 9:20Speaker 4: it could see the loss of good quality people. And
- 9:22Speaker 4: the Future Fund has been attracting some of the best
- 9:24Speaker 4: in the world to come and work for them.
- 9:28Speaker 2: So to listen to Jim Chalmers, he's defended this idea today,
- 9:31Speaker 2: have a listen.
- 9:32Speaker 6: There will always be people who pretend that the economy
- 9:36Speaker 6: is exactly as it was in two thousand and six,
- 9:39Speaker 6: or that the opportunities and challenges in our economy aren't evolving.
- 9:43Speaker 6: It's not especially unusual in the international context for governments
- 9:47Speaker 6: to communicate their economic priorities and ask that sovereign wealth
- 9:52Speaker 6: funds factor that into their decision making Warren.
- 9:56Speaker 2: It sets up an interesting argument, doesn't it in the
- 9:58Speaker 2: election campaign that might be March or May, because the
- 10:02Speaker 2: opposition's already said we're not going to change it, We're
- 10:04Speaker 2: going to leave it as it is. It's a bit rich,
- 10:07Speaker 2: is it not of charmers to make the argument that, ah, well,
- 10:09Speaker 2: all the opposition to doing is wanting to stay how
- 10:12Speaker 2: it was and it will always be that way. But
- 10:16Speaker 2: you and I have said they've done a pretty good job,
- 10:18Speaker 2: so why fix something that's not busted.
- 10:22Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I think that's very good point, because the
- 10:24Speaker 4: Future funder has done a great job, as we've talked about.
- 10:27Speaker 4: But it actually is this broader issue of industry policy
- 10:30Speaker 4: and about the deployment of government resources to support ostensibly
- 10:35Speaker 4: the private sector and the building out of priorities, whether
- 10:38Speaker 4: it's around energy or other important industry, food and grocery.
- 10:42Speaker 4: There's a whole range of different critical industries we can
- 10:45Speaker 4: talk about. But the issue is is the governance structures
- 10:49Speaker 4: around it and how you do it.
- 10:50Speaker 5: And you need to have this directed.
- 10:53Speaker 4: Not by cabinet, not by the Treasurer of the PM's offers,
- 10:56Speaker 4: but by an independent, transparent process made up a private sector,
- 11:02Speaker 4: but bureaucrats the lot and that's the issue at stake
- 11:05Speaker 4: here and I think that's the issue that needs to
- 11:06Speaker 4: be debated. I think we need to do industry policy.
- 11:10Speaker 4: We need to be modest and we need but we
- 11:12Speaker 4: need to be transparent. And unfortunately what we see with
- 11:14Speaker 4: the Future Made Australia and this decision on the Future Fund,
- 11:17Speaker 4: I don't think it's transparent.
- 11:21Speaker 2: I you know, you don't have to look fard to
- 11:24Speaker 2: see a labor government that can't manage money. The Attorney
- 11:29Speaker 2: in Victoria today the independent report out looking at Victoria's debt,
- 11:33Speaker 2: suggesting it's going to be somewhere between one hundred and
- 11:36Speaker 2: eighty seven and two hundred billion dollars by the end
- 11:39Speaker 2: of the financial year twenty five and that's going to
- 11:42Speaker 2: include Victorian taxpayer is paying twenty five million dollars a
- 11:48Speaker 2: day Warren just in interest. I mean, those figures are
- 11:52Speaker 2: just mind blowing.
- 11:55Speaker 1: They are.
- 11:56Speaker 4: And we've come from a world where our states had
- 12:00Speaker 4: extraordinarily strong balance sheet. It's very low debt and the
- 12:04Speaker 4: capacity to invest. And of course if they're investing in
- 12:08Speaker 4: infrastructure and things that will deliver a stronger and bigger
- 12:13Speaker 4: economy and the tax revenues that come with it, then
- 12:15Speaker 4: it's fine. But the problem is in the Victorian's case,
- 12:18Speaker 4: only some of this debt and these deficits are being
- 12:21Speaker 4: driven by investment. The problem we've got in this country
- 12:26Speaker 4: is that the size of government is to put it
- 12:29Speaker 4: a no simpler way out of control. And this isn't
- 12:31Speaker 4: about investment. This is the recurren spending of government, and
- 12:35Speaker 4: this is where you do not get a return over
- 12:37Speaker 4: the long term and you end up with the potential
- 12:40Speaker 4: for a debt crisis, higher interest rates, weaker currency and
- 12:44Speaker 4: of course inflation could also be part of this. So
- 12:47Speaker 4: I think the Victorian government's really done its dash and
- 12:51Speaker 4: they're going to have to consolidate, which means they're not
- 12:53Speaker 4: going to be investing once this wave of infrastructure projects
- 12:56Speaker 4: has been done at the very least and let's hope
- 12:58Speaker 4: we don't get them to any trouble as well, with
- 13:00Speaker 4: a financial crisis around the world making it hard for
- 13:03Speaker 4: them to fund that debt.
- 13:06Speaker 2: I was talking to a senior coalition politician in Victoria
- 13:12Speaker 2: and they're very fearful that the ratings agencies Warren are
- 13:15Speaker 2: going to again downgrade Victoria. What would that mean if
- 13:19Speaker 2: Victoria's already paying twenty six million a day off on
- 13:22Speaker 2: the debt would what does a downgrade do to that repayment?
- 13:27Speaker 5: Yeah, well it does. It pushes up the cost of money.
- 13:30Speaker 4: And the reality is the financial markets where the Victorian
- 13:33Speaker 4: government raises that money that debt is already doing it
- 13:37Speaker 4: and it costs the Victorian people more to raise money
- 13:40Speaker 4: than it would if they had lower debt. So if
- 13:43Speaker 4: you get a formal downgrade, that adds to that momentum
- 13:46Speaker 4: for higher interest rates on Victorian government debt and a
- 13:49Speaker 4: higher interest bill. And of course eventually there's a tipping point,
- 13:53Speaker 4: which may or may not occur, but if it does,
- 13:55Speaker 4: that's where you get the crisis point. And Victoria has
- 13:58Speaker 4: seen this before and they have to go back to
- 14:00Speaker 4: the early nineties for the kind of trouble they got themselves.
- 14:03Speaker 5: Into then.
- 14:06Speaker 1: Just finally interest rate cut. What month.
- 14:10Speaker 4: There's no interest rate cut, Steve, I don't know why
- 14:13Speaker 4: this country is fascinating with interest rate cuts. The interest
- 14:17Speaker 4: rate in this economy is not high enough to deal
- 14:19Speaker 4: with the inflation we've got, and this government's very lucky
- 14:22Speaker 4: we haven't had a hike. The RBA is showing extreme patients,
- 14:25Speaker 4: so there's no cut, and if we do get one,
- 14:27Speaker 4: it won't be for at least a year.
- 14:29Speaker 5: The risk of courses at the Reserve Bank may have
- 14:31Speaker 5: to raise rates.
- 14:32Speaker 4: Sometime next year because the inflation's too high, the government
- 14:35Speaker 4: spending too much money, and this cost of living crisis
- 14:39Speaker 4: won't go away with this level of interest rates.
- 14:43Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not great Friday news for us, but always
- 14:45Speaker 2: a pleasure to catch up with you, Warren. Warren Hogan
- 14:47Speaker 2: there from, of course, joining us, telling us not any
- 14:50Speaker 2: good use. Sadly, let's go to Queensland now suspended Townsville
- 14:53Speaker 2: mirror up there but called Troy Thompson. This is the
- 14:56Speaker 2: guy who wants to clear his name after the state
- 14:59Speaker 2: governments spended him for a year.
- 15:01Speaker 1: Now.
- 15:01Speaker 2: Thompson is the subject of a Crime and Corruption Commission
- 15:05Speaker 2: investigation into whether he misled voters during the election period
- 15:10Speaker 2: about his military history. Let Spring and Spring of the
- 15:13Speaker 2: military our Friday regular form of Queensland Premier Campbell Newman,
- 15:16Speaker 2: someone who was a member of the military. What do
- 15:19Speaker 2: you make some sense of this all for me? What's
- 15:21Speaker 2: going on in Townsville?
- 15:24Speaker 7: Well, it's quite extraordinary, Steve, just recapping, as you've said,
- 15:28Speaker 7: We've had an election for local government across Queensland in
- 15:31Speaker 7: March this year.
- 15:33Speaker 8: This gentleman has been elected.
- 15:36Speaker 7: Subsequently, there's been criticism and accusations that a whole range
- 15:41Speaker 7: of things that he said in terms of his CV
- 15:44Speaker 7: weren't actually true. That's the allegation, and there's been in
- 15:49Speaker 7: the Townsville community huge backlash. I think the politics of
- 15:52Speaker 7: it are pretty clear that my understanding is that people
- 15:57Speaker 7: really don't think this bloke should be fulfilling the old
- 16:00Speaker 7: I'm just expressing the opinion I've heard from many locals.
- 16:04Speaker 8: Now the question is what do you do about it?
- 16:06Speaker 1: Now?
- 16:06Speaker 7: The former Labor government sort of agonized over the whole thing,
- 16:11Speaker 7: and there was a Crime and Corruption Commission investigation is
- 16:14Speaker 7: supposedly happening. But then in the last sort of forty
- 16:17Speaker 7: eight hours, the Minister for local government here has announced
- 16:21Speaker 7: that he has voluntarily sort of gone into this sort
- 16:25Speaker 7: of suspension for twelve months. But you know what, they're
- 16:28Speaker 7: going to pay him two hundred and fifty grand to
- 16:30Speaker 7: not be the mayor for a year. I mean, go
- 16:35Speaker 7: figure that, mate. Look, I think frankly, and it would
- 16:38Speaker 7: have been expensive, but the government probably should have introduced
- 16:41Speaker 7: special legislation amend of the Local Government Act and actually
- 16:45Speaker 7: had another election in Townsville, at least for the mayor,
- 16:47Speaker 7: if not for the whole council. Sorry you counselors, that
- 16:51Speaker 7: you'd be dragged into that. But at least then democracy
- 16:54Speaker 7: has served. The people get to actually have a say
- 16:57Speaker 7: about who they really want their city to lead their
- 17:01Speaker 7: city and Townsville is a very important regional city in
- 17:05Speaker 7: this nation and they deserve to have a clear direction
- 17:09Speaker 7: over the next twelve months, not be in some sort
- 17:11Speaker 7: of limbo land.
- 17:14Speaker 2: Well, he's denied any wrongdoing, but I mean you think
- 17:17Speaker 2: about it. I mean, you've spent your time in the military.
- 17:20Speaker 1: I mean.
- 17:22Speaker 2: In a garrison town like Townsville, that's probably one of
- 17:25Speaker 2: the worst things you could potentially do.
- 17:27Speaker 1: If indeed that's what he's done.
- 17:30Speaker 7: Well, look, that's exactly that the point stave that there
- 17:35Speaker 7: is very strong negative sentiment towards him in Townsville. And
- 17:39Speaker 7: by the way, David christ of Foley, the Premier, who
- 17:42Speaker 7: comes from that part of the world, said a quote
- 17:46Speaker 7: in the paper has said that the mayor's position was untenable.
- 17:50Speaker 7: I would agree with that, and I think that's where
- 17:52Speaker 7: the former Labor government were. But why do you let
- 17:56Speaker 7: someone have a twelve month sort of suspension sent to
- 18:00Speaker 7: the back bench if you like, you know, sent to
- 18:02Speaker 7: the into the bleachers the buck, but you're pay them
- 18:06Speaker 7: a quarter of a million dollars to do that. While
- 18:08Speaker 7: they're don't like it's is it untenable or not? I mean, like,
- 18:13Speaker 7: I just think it's it's really strange the way that
- 18:16Speaker 7: they're dealing with this.
- 18:18Speaker 2: Yeah, and especially given that they're a new government and
- 18:20Speaker 2: they can, you know, you can be seen to be
- 18:22Speaker 2: tough on issues like that and just get on with it.
- 18:24Speaker 2: Speaking of that, you know, they've done some digging around
- 18:27Speaker 2: now and surprise, surprise, and incoming government finds, oh well,
- 18:30Speaker 2: we've got staggering cost blowouts on six major Queensland health projects.
- 18:36Speaker 2: Taxpayers are going to bear the brunt of it. One
- 18:38Speaker 2: point thirty seven billion dollar increase on the stealthily disguised
- 18:43Speaker 2: works by Labor. No one should be surprised that you're
- 18:46Speaker 2: going to find this stuff buried away.
- 18:49Speaker 1: You're just not surprised by that, are you.
- 18:52Speaker 7: Well, I'm not surprised. And it was particularly deceitful because
- 18:56Speaker 7: it was portrayed prior to the election as sort of
- 19:01Speaker 7: enhancements in the scope of these various hospitals around the state.
- 19:06Speaker 7: And what we find is that yes, there might be
- 19:09Speaker 7: a kitchen here or some administrative bit there, bolt on,
- 19:14Speaker 7: but it actually in terms of medical clinical outcomes, you know,
- 19:18Speaker 7: more beds, etc.
- 19:19Speaker 8: You can forget that, Steve. And why has it happened?
- 19:22Speaker 7: It's because of this sweetheart wrought deal that we've spoken
- 19:25Speaker 7: about on this program in the past, which is this
- 19:29Speaker 7: thing called BEEPIC Rest Practice Industry Code or Conditions, which
- 19:35Speaker 7: is really really a sort of an anagram for great
- 19:39Speaker 7: Big CFME. You wrought a dirty deal between the Labor
- 19:43Speaker 7: Party and the CFMEU to feather bed construction projects across
- 19:48Speaker 7: Queens and which leads to terrible productivity and has seen
- 19:51Speaker 7: all sorts of government project costs just go through the roof.
- 19:55Speaker 7: And one of the great things that are Christo Foley
- 19:57Speaker 7: Government's done in the last two weeks is actually that's it,
- 20:01Speaker 7: no more b pick. We need to actually get control
- 20:05Speaker 7: of how these projects are delivered.
- 20:09Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got real doubts about the crackdown on the
- 20:11Speaker 2: CFMU anywhere. I'm just not sure it's actually happening. Let's
- 20:15Speaker 2: go federal. I know you're a great defender of freedom
- 20:17Speaker 2: of speech. This misinformation bill the government's tried to ram
- 20:21Speaker 2: through the Senate looks like the Greens are not going
- 20:24Speaker 2: to vote for it and the Coalition is certainly not
- 20:26Speaker 2: going to vote for it, so it won't get up.
- 20:28Speaker 2: But when you look through the detail of what detail
- 20:32Speaker 2: there is, there's really major questions surrounding the effect on
- 20:36Speaker 2: free speech. And I'm giving someone like Akma the job
- 20:40Speaker 2: of explaining or deciding what is acceptable information and what
- 20:46Speaker 2: is disinformation.
- 20:47Speaker 1: I don't have it. They ever thought they were going
- 20:48Speaker 1: to get away with this.
- 20:51Speaker 7: Well, Steve, they almost did, because of course it has
- 20:54Speaker 7: passed the lower House and has gone through to the Senate.
- 20:58Speaker 7: And thank goodness that the Coalition finally clearly said what
- 21:04Speaker 7: they stood for and they were going to oppose, and
- 21:06Speaker 7: then successively we saw a series of independent senators come
- 21:13Speaker 7: on board, and now the Greens for frankly fairly dubious
- 21:18Speaker 7: reasons because they actually fundamentally they actually do support this legislation.
- 21:24Speaker 7: But we got to a point where it looks like
- 21:26Speaker 7: it's going to go down. But it's also interesting to
- 21:29Speaker 7: note some last few hours it's appeared in the Australian
- 21:33Speaker 7: newspaper that the United States and the new administration, senior
- 21:38Speaker 7: figures in the new administration to.
- 21:40Speaker 8: Come in January.
- 21:42Speaker 7: The Trump administration is saying that they're deeply concerned about
- 21:45Speaker 7: Australia being trying to Australia trying to censor the Internet globally.
- 21:50Speaker 8: And that is true.
- 21:51Speaker 7: And I just say this, and I've never said anything
- 21:55Speaker 7: like this in my life before, but if this had
- 21:58Speaker 7: got up, I'd be on your program calling for the
- 22:02Speaker 7: Trump administration to put extreme pressure on our own government.
- 22:07Speaker 8: To actually get this overturn. It's that bad. It is sinister,
- 22:10Speaker 8: it is Orwellian. It is the building. It is one
- 22:13Speaker 8: of the building blocks of the police state. It never
- 22:15Speaker 8: should have been put up.
- 22:17Speaker 7: And if I just segue quickly, just as bad almost
- 22:20Speaker 7: as this under sixteen social media ban, because what that
- 22:24Speaker 7: means it's not just about kids under sixteen.
- 22:27Speaker 8: It means that all of us must be ideed.
- 22:29Speaker 7: If we want to have a social media account, no anonymity,
- 22:33Speaker 7: no ability to actually have a potshot at a politician
- 22:37Speaker 7: or a public figure and actually be anonymous. And when
- 22:41Speaker 7: I post on the Internet, I get a torrent of abuse.
- 22:45Speaker 7: And I have never sought to find silence my attractive.
- 22:49Speaker 1: So it's good.
- 22:50Speaker 7: So it's good enough for me, good enough for you, mate.
- 22:52Speaker 7: Then look we can all live with it. We can
- 22:54Speaker 7: be grown up, so we can be robust. We don't
- 22:56Speaker 7: need this sort of law in Australia.
- 23:00Speaker 2: Cam when you mean, I share your views on both
- 23:02Speaker 2: of those things. We'll talk about a panel about the
- 23:04Speaker 2: under sixteen issue in social media. Thank you mate, I'll
- 23:06Speaker 2: see you next week coming up after the break. It's
- 23:09Speaker 2: been a massive week of headlines and who better to
- 23:12Speaker 2: break it down for us than Australia's most awarded and
- 23:15Speaker 2: favorite cartoonist, Mark Night. He joins me in the studio next,
- 23:19Speaker 2: plus Chris Bowen's nuclear embarrassment that's put Australia last in
- 23:23Speaker 2: the global energy race.
- 23:25Speaker 1: All to come.
- 23:29Speaker 2: Welcome back to the program. Steve Price with you on
- 23:31Speaker 2: a Friday night. That wouldn't be Friday without our next
- 23:34Speaker 2: special guest. It's been another huge week of news. We've
- 23:37Speaker 2: got the headlines, you've got the stories, you've got the
- 23:39Speaker 2: opinion pieces written by boring people like me. But you'd
- 23:43Speaker 2: much rather go through the week with our favorite cartoonists,
- 23:46Speaker 2: the most awarded cardshoonest in Australia. I was about to
- 23:49Speaker 2: say the World Mark, Knight and.
- 23:51Speaker 1: Universe a little bit of exaggeration. There's nothing wrong with that.
- 23:54Speaker 1: Sound like Donald Trump.
- 23:55Speaker 2: You are on fire, my friend, because you've got so
- 23:58Speaker 2: many great characters to draw. I mean, you know, when
- 24:02Speaker 2: Trump gets re elected, you go, oh, thank you.
- 24:05Speaker 1: That team he was putting together. I did a cartoon
- 24:08Speaker 1: this week. We may show it, and I just put
- 24:10Speaker 1: them all on the back of Elon's cyber truck and
- 24:14Speaker 1: they're just on a hay ride to Hell to to Washington.
- 24:19Speaker 2: Here were going to start with, So that's the cyber
- 24:22Speaker 2: truck that Elon tries to flog around the world.
- 24:25Speaker 1: That's right, yes, quite well. You've got the statue of
- 24:30Speaker 1: I don't think it's a three seed the mark all
- 24:32Speaker 1: it is now and she's up the big well in
- 24:36Speaker 1: the back of course, you've got Bobby Kennedy Junior and
- 24:40Speaker 1: the other bloke, Matt Gates. He actually fell out of
- 24:43Speaker 1: the truck today. Before he jumped out, I had a
- 24:47Speaker 1: bit of a strange background. He's an interesting I was
- 24:49Speaker 1: hoping he was going to get up because he was
- 24:51Speaker 1: just the material on him would be incredible. But that's great.
- 24:54Speaker 1: I mean, Elon's giving you an extra edge there. Now
- 24:57Speaker 1: the future Fund.
- 24:58Speaker 2: We've got gentleman Jim Arms, and he's suggesting that Peter
- 25:02Speaker 2: Costello's future Fund that's gone from sixty billion to two
- 25:06Speaker 2: hundred and eighty billion. Yep, he might get his hands
- 25:08Speaker 2: on it. You portrayed, am I seeing Raiders of the
- 25:12Speaker 2: Lost Arch here?
- 25:13Speaker 1: Well, when I heard about you know, when you get
- 25:16Speaker 1: these ideas for cartoons, you hear a word, and I
- 25:19Speaker 1: heard the word raid and I just went bing that
- 25:21Speaker 1: and it works. That whole cartoon just drew itself in
- 25:24Speaker 1: about one word, a one word in a nanosecond in
- 25:27Speaker 1: my brain and I just had to copy it down yesterday.
- 25:29Speaker 1: But yeah, look there he is. There's the golden idol
- 25:32Speaker 1: that how many billion did you say? Well, it started
- 25:35Speaker 1: at sixty it's now two hundred and eighty billion. Okay,
- 25:37Speaker 1: so you want to get your hell. Yeah, and as
- 25:41Speaker 1: we know in the movie, when he took the idol
- 25:43Speaker 1: off the stand, what happened, Well, you know that may happen.
- 25:46Speaker 1: Remember what happened, Well, everything came crashing down.
- 25:52Speaker 2: Your other big cuts in this week featured my favorite
- 25:56Speaker 2: former Prime minister Kevin Rudd.
- 25:58Speaker 1: Oh you know, I've had a bit of time together.
- 26:00Speaker 1: Thank god, Kevin's back. Kevin's back, and you drew him
- 26:04Speaker 1: with a he's got his foot in his mouth that
- 26:08Speaker 1: he had a habit of just mouthing off about Donald Trump.
- 26:11Speaker 1: I think he thought Donald Trump was washed up and
- 26:13Speaker 1: finished so he could go for health leg idiot. Yeah,
- 26:17Speaker 1: And now unfortunately Donald Trump is the president elect and
- 26:22Speaker 1: Kevin's going to have to work very closely with him.
- 26:24Speaker 1: Can you imagine being in the room the first time
- 26:26Speaker 1: Kevin wanders into the over office, say can we have
- 26:29Speaker 1: a chat about it? Aucas? And then really they'll be
- 26:31Speaker 1: on hands and knees. You know, Trump was talking to
- 26:34Speaker 1: his chief of staff there she's in, yes, a new boss,
- 26:37Speaker 1: and he's asking her what, well, yes she is, I
- 26:41Speaker 1: guess interpreting Kevin with his foot in his mouth what
- 26:44Speaker 1: he's actually saying which is Kevin's great line. I'm Kevin
- 26:47Speaker 1: and I'm here to help.
- 26:48Speaker 2: And of course Donald Trump, when asked by Nigel Garage
- 26:51Speaker 2: about what some of thinks Kevin had said, Donald Trump's
- 26:55Speaker 2: quote was, I don't think he's the brightest.
- 26:57Speaker 1: Bolb No, so that's going to go now.
- 27:01Speaker 2: Anthony Aberanezi, he's been on the jet again. He's over
- 27:04Speaker 2: in Peru and then he went to Rio de Janeiro
- 27:07Speaker 2: G twenty. He's had a bit of a meeting with G.
- 27:09Speaker 2: How have you loved the panda?
- 27:15Speaker 1: The gentle panda? But let me tell you, pandas have claws,
- 27:18Speaker 1: and Australia has been on the receiving end of the
- 27:20Speaker 1: pandas clause when it ripped away all our exports. What
- 27:24Speaker 1: is twenty billion in exp red wine, red wine, all
- 27:27Speaker 1: that beef. But now we're the best of friends. But
- 27:30Speaker 1: as you can see in the cartoon, Albow is bearing
- 27:33Speaker 1: the scars of our sort of downtime relationship with China.
- 27:36Speaker 1: But it's all good now, apparently, and we're back to
- 27:39Speaker 1: a big, cuddly panda bear. Albo seems to be shrinking
- 27:42Speaker 1: in size the more time you drawing. I'm just mirroring
- 27:46Speaker 1: his opinion polls.
- 27:48Speaker 2: There was a very serious one this week. I thought
- 27:50Speaker 2: it was absolutely outrageous that the window launches for kiddies
- 27:55Speaker 2: for Christmas. The pro Palestinian protests, so they turn up
- 28:00Speaker 2: and stopped that from happening.
- 28:02Speaker 1: That's brilliant, Thank you mate. The Grnch, I mean the
- 28:06Speaker 1: grinch in a Kefia I thought was a good look,
- 28:09Speaker 1: because who hassles innocent children in looking into my Christmas
- 28:16Speaker 1: window and say that they are unsympathetic and unsensitive to
- 28:20Speaker 1: kids in Gaza? I mean, how dumb is that?
- 28:24Speaker 2: It is pretty dumb. And the final one the V exams.
- 28:27Speaker 2: This is a particularly good story broken by Susio Brian
- 28:30Speaker 2: and the hero Ripper story where it turns out that
- 28:33Speaker 2: the practice notes the same as the exam.
- 28:38Speaker 1: What have we got here? I can't read that? Well?
- 28:40Speaker 1: This is the kids in the examination room. And of
- 28:43Speaker 1: course one is saying even before we start, I think
- 28:46Speaker 1: I know who's failed their VC exam this year, and
- 28:48Speaker 1: of course it was the Victorian Curriculum authority. They failed
- 28:53Speaker 1: big time and she resigned. Kylie did yeah.
- 28:57Speaker 2: And my column this week's about the demise of the
- 28:59Speaker 2: talk radio giants, Laws and Jones and Hadley and Ripping column,
- 29:04Speaker 2: rad and Neil Mitchell, a lot of them.
- 29:07Speaker 1: I couldn't but help not draw Alan Jones for this column.
- 29:10Speaker 1: I haven't seen it yet, but are going to be impressed.
- 29:13Speaker 1: It's a bit of fun. Great to see you. Good
- 29:15Speaker 1: on your buddy.
- 29:16Speaker 2: You to see you soon. Mark Knight, make sure you
- 29:17Speaker 2: catch him in the Herald Sun. Now still to come
- 29:20Speaker 2: on the program tonight. What is Labour's problem with nuclear energy?
- 29:23Speaker 2: The message from the COP twenty nine on the power
- 29:26Speaker 2: source was clear, but somehow Australia just doesn't get it.
- 29:30Speaker 2: Shadow Environment Minister John o'dunham. He'll join me next plus
- 29:33Speaker 2: later with my panel. Kyle Sandlands, he's at it again.
- 29:36Speaker 2: He's bragged about how he can broadcast explicit, filthy, rotten,
- 29:40Speaker 2: awful content on breakfast radio. All that's still to come.
- 29:48Speaker 2: Steve Price with you, Welcome back. Great to be with
- 29:50Speaker 2: you on a Friday night. Tanika de Giorgio coming up
- 29:53Speaker 2: at the top of the hour and I'll have the
- 29:55Speaker 2: panel coming up shortly. I want to have a really good,
- 29:58Speaker 2: long discussion about this side that you can ban under
- 30:01Speaker 2: sixteen year olds from all sorts of social media. I
- 30:04Speaker 2: just don't know how it can work, and I just
- 30:06Speaker 2: wonder whether it's not the shouldn't it be the parents
- 30:10Speaker 2: who are controlling what the kids see you and do
- 30:13Speaker 2: on social media?
- 30:13Speaker 1: Maybe I'm out of touch.
- 30:14Speaker 2: Maybe you know, my children are older than this and
- 30:17Speaker 2: I don't have to deal with it. But we'll talk
- 30:19Speaker 2: to the panel about that. But thanks to labor, Australia
- 30:22Speaker 2: is now falling behind as we know in the global
- 30:24Speaker 2: energy race. Now, Chris Bowen, Environment Minister, flew over there
- 30:28Speaker 2: on the government jet. Presumably he was at top twenty nine.
- 30:32Speaker 2: He was at these talks this week. Now, our climate
- 30:35Speaker 2: warrior rejected a nuclear energy pact with our Orchestral Eyes
- 30:39Speaker 2: and thirty other countries. They all signed up. We said no, no,
- 30:42Speaker 2: not for us. It's been labeled an embarrassment. Joining me
- 30:45Speaker 2: now a shadow Environment Minister, Jonathan Dunham, Great to see
- 30:50Speaker 2: you again. What's Chris Bowen know that the rest of
- 30:53Speaker 2: us don't.
- 30:56Speaker 9: Well, I think he knows how to ideologically pursue green
- 31:00Speaker 9: votes at the expense of good common sense policy.
- 31:03Speaker 1: I think that's what he knows.
- 31:04Speaker 9: Steve and frankly we're the ones who are going to
- 31:06Speaker 9: be paying the price. I mean, talk about cutting your
- 31:08Speaker 9: nose off to spite your face when it comes to
- 31:11Speaker 9: having all tools at your disposal to do the right
- 31:14Speaker 9: thing by the people you represent. Goes to Kopp stands
- 31:18Speaker 9: in the corner while everyone else gets about their business
- 31:20Speaker 9: and signs up to good common sense policy, and we
- 31:23Speaker 9: reject it for reasons that remain unknown to us. Spurious
- 31:27Speaker 9: evidence which is selective and incomplete around what they claim
- 31:32Speaker 9: to be the cost of nuclear. And we will have
- 31:35Speaker 9: more to say about what we believe to be the
- 31:36Speaker 9: cost of nuclear in the near future, and I think
- 31:38Speaker 9: your views will be very interested in the facts around
- 31:41Speaker 9: the matter as opposed to what labor are saying. All
- 31:43Speaker 9: the while, our omissions are going up. So our climate warrior,
- 31:46Speaker 9: Chris Bowen has failed that his core task are bringing
- 31:50Speaker 9: emissions down. And people are paying more than a thousand
- 31:53Speaker 9: bucks on average per power bill than they were when
- 31:57Speaker 9: they came to government. So he's failing on all counts
- 31:59Speaker 9: and he's doing doing nothing about it except pursuing green
- 32:02Speaker 9: votes at the expense of everyone's power bills.
- 32:06Speaker 2: Well, forgive the pun, but the embarrassment went nuclear because
- 32:10Speaker 2: his counterpart from the UK, I think John ed Milliband
- 32:14Speaker 2: actually had us signed up to this thing when he
- 32:17Speaker 2: announced it and then had to withdraw that statement because
- 32:21Speaker 2: Chris Bohen said, no, no, mate, we don't want to
- 32:23Speaker 2: have anything to do with this.
- 32:27Speaker 9: It's a concern when an extremely left wing UK government
- 32:32Speaker 9: thought that perhaps the Australian Labor Party might be okay
- 32:35Speaker 9: with this, and then learnt that perhaps even albow and
- 32:38Speaker 9: Bowen were further to the left on this issue and
- 32:41Speaker 9: lacking any common sense at all. I reckon, I am
- 32:43Speaker 9: pretty surprised when that happened, but again, what an embarrassment.
- 32:47Speaker 9: We are a developed nation and we should be doing
- 32:50Speaker 9: the best we can to drive down power prices to
- 32:52Speaker 9: attract investments so people do things like manufacture here and
- 32:56Speaker 9: people can pay their power bills. Ed Milliban gets it,
- 32:59Speaker 9: kir Star seems to get it. But Anthony Albernezi and
- 33:03Speaker 9: Chris Bowen and the rest of the Green Zealots in
- 33:05Speaker 9: this government that are driving our economy to ruin just don't.
- 33:09Speaker 7: Well.
- 33:09Speaker 2: I think you know, normal Australians when they hear this,
- 33:12Speaker 2: they go, well, hang on a minute. We've got a
- 33:14Speaker 2: nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights which does medical work. We've
- 33:18Speaker 2: signed up to an agreement where we're going to service
- 33:21Speaker 2: nuclear powered submarines, And you had Anthony Alberansi and Richard
- 33:27Speaker 2: Miles in Perth launching that saying, oh, well, we've just
- 33:30Speaker 2: had a tour of one of these nuclear subs. They're fantastic.
- 33:34Speaker 2: They're going to form the backbone of the defense of
- 33:36Speaker 2: our country. You're going to have, presumably at some point,
- 33:39Speaker 2: John O, either in your harbor, down in Hobart or
- 33:42Speaker 2: in Sydney Harbor, one of these nuclear submarines parked there.
- 33:46Speaker 2: What would sign in that piece of paper would have
- 33:49Speaker 2: actually what difference would it actually have made.
- 33:54Speaker 9: Well, other than it would contradict their absolute ideological opposition
- 34:01Speaker 9: to nuclear because they've said, no, we're definitely not going
- 34:05Speaker 9: to do it. It's off the table. We're not pursuing
- 34:07Speaker 9: it for a range of spurious reasons that actually don't
- 34:09Speaker 9: stand up to scrutiny. So they want it to be
- 34:12Speaker 9: at least consistent in their idiocy. But the fact is,
- 34:16Speaker 9: as you say, look at Orcust, look at what the
- 34:19Speaker 9: subs actually tangibly mean, we are going to have members
- 34:22Speaker 9: of our navy sleeping next to, in effect, nuclear reactors
- 34:27Speaker 9: for long periods of time defending our marine borders, maritime borders.
- 34:33Speaker 9: And that's okay. And as you say, they'll be tying
- 34:35Speaker 9: up at the harbor here in Hobart to resupply, and
- 34:39Speaker 9: as they patrol around the country other harbors in other
- 34:41Speaker 9: major population centers, that's fine. But in terms of generating
- 34:45Speaker 9: energy for domestic consumption and manufacturing, etc. Somehow there is
- 34:51Speaker 9: some ideological line you cannot cross. And it doesn't make sense.
- 34:55Speaker 9: Even my kids get it. So they're not even out
- 34:57Speaker 9: of high school yet. So I don't know what our
- 34:59Speaker 9: prime minister, and is any gy minister and the entire
- 35:01Speaker 9: cabinet are doing other than driving us to ruin.
- 35:05Speaker 2: Still on green energy, John, we've got the leading energy expert,
- 35:09Speaker 2: this guy, Matt Rennie. The government's renewable energy plan. He
- 35:13Speaker 2: says could cost more than wait for it, six hundred
- 35:17Speaker 2: billion dollars as delays, you know, plague the path to
- 35:22Speaker 2: net zero. I mean, that's a huge cost. But we
- 35:25Speaker 2: still have Anthony Obneasy and Chris Bowen and all of
- 35:29Speaker 2: the rest of them say, oh, nuclear is too expensive,
- 35:31Speaker 2: we can't go down that track. It's no good.
- 35:36Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 35:37Speaker 9: So this is exactly right. And so the Frontier Economics Report,
- 35:40Speaker 9: which revealed this additional five hundred billion dollars half a
- 35:44Speaker 9: trillion dollars of expenditure associated with their transition to renewables,
- 35:50Speaker 9: which isn't going to be paid for by the money
- 35:53Speaker 9: tree down the bottom of the garden near the unicorn paddock.
- 35:55Speaker 9: He's going to be paid for by the users of
- 35:57Speaker 9: the electricity system in our country, your viewers, my family,
- 36:02Speaker 9: all of us. We're going to pay that bill. It's
- 36:05Speaker 9: ridiculous that they think we can just suck that up
- 36:07Speaker 9: and that they don't need to be honest about it.
- 36:10Speaker 9: Yet this week in the Senate where I was, you
- 36:12Speaker 9: had ministers sprooking cheapest cleanest available form of energy the
- 36:18Speaker 9: renewable grid. Now, yeah, sure, I get the point. We
- 36:20Speaker 9: don't have to pay for the sun to generate solar
- 36:22Speaker 9: and wind to generate wind, but you've got to erect
- 36:25Speaker 9: the infrastructure to generate the panels and the windmills. Then
- 36:29Speaker 9: you've got to have the infrastructure to get it to
- 36:31Speaker 9: where you need it, and that comes at great cost
- 36:33Speaker 9: as well. Hence this five hundred billion dollar additional on
- 36:36Speaker 9: top of the one twenty so over six hundred billion
- 36:38Speaker 9: dollars in cost which they've hidden from Australian so they're
- 36:42Speaker 9: not being honest about it, as you say. They point
- 36:44Speaker 9: out that nuclear has a cost attached, but they won't
- 36:48Speaker 9: be honest about their own costings, which is just duplicitous.
- 36:54Speaker 1: John. I don't know why, but I was listening to
- 36:56Speaker 1: ABC News radio this morning.
- 36:57Speaker 2: I heard a story about how the New South Wales
- 37:00Speaker 2: wheat crop is a record yield and they're getting huge
- 37:04Speaker 2: amounts of money for the quality of the wheat. I
- 37:06Speaker 2: did a road trip between Melbourne and Adelaide and back
- 37:09Speaker 2: last week through the Wimmera Horsham.
- 37:12Speaker 1: All the silos full.
- 37:13Speaker 2: There was wheat everywhere, trucks everywhere. Must be global warming
- 37:17Speaker 2: or climate changement.
- 37:22Speaker 9: Well maybe there's a benefit to these sorts of things.
- 37:25Speaker 9: I mean, if you do listen to the zelots out there,
- 37:28Speaker 9: of course, and I oven heard I think Nick McKim
- 37:30Speaker 9: refer to the planet being baked just this week in
- 37:34Speaker 9: the Senate, the Green senator from Tasmania. I mean, this ridiculous,
- 37:38Speaker 9: alarmist language is if we're not going to be able
- 37:40Speaker 9: to grow vegetables and crops to feed ourselves, that livestock
- 37:44Speaker 9: are going to be sizzling in the paddocks. It's ridiculous. Yeah,
- 37:47Speaker 9: it's a warm day today. But I'll tell you what
- 37:49Speaker 9: I think things seem to be going well. This pursuit
- 37:52Speaker 9: of net zero, blindly not taking account of anything else,
- 37:56Speaker 9: cost to the consumer, cost in terms of erecting transmission networks, etc.
- 38:02Speaker 1: He is bad policy.
- 38:03Speaker 9: Making sure we should do everything we can to minimize
- 38:07Speaker 9: our impact on the environment. I've got no objection to that.
- 38:10Speaker 9: But when it is not based in science or fact,
- 38:13Speaker 9: and you don't take into account social and economic consequences
- 38:16Speaker 9: of these decisions, you are a bad government. And that's
- 38:19Speaker 9: what this government is.
- 38:22Speaker 2: Good to catch up with you, We'll talk to you
- 38:24Speaker 2: again shortly now. Coming up the new South Wales premiers
- 38:27Speaker 2: skating attack on those vandals who went on an anti
- 38:30Speaker 2: Israel rampage in the eastern suburbs of Sydney this week,
- 38:34Speaker 2: plus billionaire Elon musk ways in on the alb and
- 38:37Speaker 2: easy government's social media ban. I'll bring you that after
- 38:41Speaker 2: this quick break. Welcome Act Price with you. It's Friday
- 38:47Speaker 2: Panel time. Joining me as usual is Small Business Women
- 38:50Speaker 2: Australia's CEO, Amanda Rosa. Was great to catch up with
- 38:53Speaker 2: her and Sky News contributor Joe Hildebrand.
- 38:56Speaker 1: Joe how's your podcast going.
- 39:00Speaker 10: It's going fantastic, Thank you very much, mister Price. In fact,
- 39:04Speaker 10: we predicted this week the departure of Matt Gates, which
- 39:08Speaker 10: I know we're getting to later on. So we predicted
- 39:10Speaker 10: Donald Trump will win and Matt Gates will go.
- 39:13Speaker 1: So we're two for two so far. Where do we
- 39:17Speaker 1: find it?
- 39:20Speaker 5: It is the real.
- 39:21Speaker 10: Story with Joe Hildebrand, and you can find it wherever
- 39:23Speaker 10: you get your podcast. Thank you very much for asking.
- 39:27Speaker 2: That's okay, we've got to plug our guests now, Amanda,
- 39:29Speaker 2: you've got a podcast.
- 39:31Speaker 11: No I don't, but Joe, I expect to be invited
- 39:33Speaker 11: on yours.
- 39:36Speaker 10: Exactly to see yourself booked for next week.
- 39:41Speaker 2: Done, Let's talk about the situation in the eastern suburbs
- 39:44Speaker 2: of Sydney. I just can't believe what unfolded in Willara
- 39:47Speaker 2: across the last couple of days. Chris Min's the premiere
- 39:49Speaker 2: in New South Wales. He's come out and sent, you know,
- 39:53Speaker 2: sent what has called a stern message to the people
- 39:56Speaker 2: who torched that car and to faced all sorts of
- 39:58Speaker 2: gates and fences and stuff. He is the premier on
- 40:01Speaker 2: what he said today.
- 40:03Speaker 12: I want to make it clear that both the police
- 40:04Speaker 12: and the New South Wales government will throw the book
- 40:07Speaker 12: at anyone who is attempting to racially vilify, intimidate, or
- 40:11Speaker 12: enact anti Semitic violent acts on members of our community.
- 40:18Speaker 2: So he visited a synagogue, Amanda, But I don't even
- 40:21Speaker 2: think he was quite strong enough. I mean, I like
- 40:23Speaker 2: Chris Mins. I think he's a pretty good operator. But
- 40:26Speaker 2: they've got to now go to the police and say, right,
- 40:29Speaker 2: those streets and you two both know that that part
- 40:32Speaker 2: of Sydney as well as anyone those streets will be
- 40:34Speaker 2: full of CCTV cameras we would all expect, will be
- 40:38Speaker 2: not an arrest of whoever was involved in this pretty quickly.
- 40:42Speaker 1: Amanda.
- 40:43Speaker 11: Well, well, there's two things here. Firstly, hopefully this opens
- 40:47Speaker 11: up a discussion with politicians to look into this type
- 40:51Speaker 11: of behavior across the actual state. So this has been happening,
- 40:55Speaker 11: I think, behind the scenes for a lot of different
- 40:58Speaker 11: cultures and religions, and it's been you're not really talked about.
- 41:02Speaker 11: So this is a really great opportunity to say, actually,
- 41:04Speaker 11: this is disgusting and it shouldn't be happening. But the
- 41:07Speaker 11: second thing which is of concern is that as you
- 41:10Speaker 11: can see through our justice system, a lot of people
- 41:12Speaker 11: do get charged and arrested for you know, for being violent,
- 41:17Speaker 11: DV whatever it is, but then they get lead out
- 41:19Speaker 11: on bail. So if we keep repeating doing that, regardless
- 41:23Speaker 11: of the crime, if people are allowed to go back
- 41:26Speaker 11: out onto the streets for long periods of time, and
- 41:28Speaker 11: mind you, often they're repeat offenders, that's sending a message
- 41:32Speaker 11: that it's okay, you'll get away with it, which only
- 41:35Speaker 11: encourages this behavior to continue.
- 41:38Speaker 2: Joe, this is a national problem. Obviously we've seen issues
- 41:41Speaker 2: with MP's offices and there's been all sorts of radicals
- 41:45Speaker 2: on the streets in Melbourne, but that's the worst that
- 41:47Speaker 2: I've seen in Sydney and we can trace it all
- 41:49Speaker 2: the way back to October eight last year when what
- 41:52Speaker 2: happened on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. No
- 41:55Speaker 2: one in government and in police really, I don't think
- 41:59Speaker 2: realize what that was going to set off.
- 42:04Speaker 10: Yeah, that's right, and look, I think to be fair
- 42:06Speaker 10: to Premier Chris Mins, he has been trying to toughen
- 42:09Speaker 10: up whatever laws necessary to make sure that this is
- 42:12Speaker 10: not just treated like another act of vandalism. When you
- 42:15Speaker 10: look at what happened in Nazi Nazi Germany less than
- 42:19Speaker 10: a century ago. You know how quickly and specifically this
- 42:23Speaker 10: type of hatred can escalate. And I would just say
- 42:27Speaker 10: that this just puts the lie to that outrageous claim,
- 42:31Speaker 10: that pathetic claim by the left being extremists who provide
- 42:35Speaker 10: a fig leaf of legitimacy for these sorts of actions
- 42:38Speaker 10: by saying, oh, no, we're not anti Semitic, We're just
- 42:41Speaker 10: anti Zionist, or we're just anti Israel. Well, if you're
- 42:44Speaker 10: not anti Jews, why is it the Jewish neighborhoods, the
- 42:49Speaker 10: Jewish communities.
- 42:50Speaker 5: That you're targeting.
- 42:52Speaker 10: Why are you going specifically be it in Melbourne, you know,
- 42:55Speaker 10: in Corefield, be it Josh Burns's electorate office, be it
- 42:59Speaker 10: in Sydney, in the eastern suburbs of the city. I mean,
- 43:03Speaker 10: they weren't chanting, you know, where's the Israelites? Where are
- 43:07Speaker 10: the Zionists? On the streets of the Opera House, in
- 43:09Speaker 10: front of the Opera House, they were chanting, where's the Jews?
- 43:12Speaker 10: And yet there still is this ridiculous baar faced or
- 43:16Speaker 10: wellyan lie that in fact, this has nothing to do
- 43:18Speaker 10: with andy Semitism, It has nothing to do with being
- 43:20Speaker 10: andy jew it's just a sort of political debate. Well,
- 43:24Speaker 10: if it's a political debate, why are they coming around
- 43:26Speaker 10: to the houses of people based on their ethnicity. It
- 43:31Speaker 10: is an absolute disgrace and we need to snuff it
- 43:33Speaker 10: out before it gets any worse.
- 43:37Speaker 2: And Amanda, we've seen targeted attacks on small cafes and
- 43:41Speaker 2: restaurants there. It was that Jewish owner of a cafe
- 43:44Speaker 2: also in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney that had his
- 43:46Speaker 2: ohole front of his business absolutely covered in graffiti. And
- 43:51Speaker 2: you know that was the way that ended up. Was
- 43:54Speaker 2: good because his customers can continued to turn up when
- 43:57Speaker 2: you see stickers on the windows of shops. As Jojas said,
- 44:00Speaker 2: you as well go back to nineteen thirty Germany.
- 44:03Speaker 11: Yeah, it's really sad that we live in a time
- 44:06Speaker 11: where people are attacking the small business community, attacking actual
- 44:12Speaker 11: homes and children, and just because of what they choose
- 44:15Speaker 11: to believe, and just because of who they are and
- 44:18Speaker 11: how they identify. We've seen this across so many cultures
- 44:22Speaker 11: and faith and it's absolutely appalling, and in particular with
- 44:25Speaker 11: this poor small businesses. What I'd like to say to
- 44:27Speaker 11: people is if it's happened to a small business near you,
- 44:30Speaker 11: whether it's now or in the future, make sure you
- 44:33Speaker 11: do what you can to support them, especially coming up
- 44:35Speaker 11: to Christmas time. Support small business over big business every
- 44:39Speaker 11: chance you get.
- 44:41Speaker 2: I need to help with you two youngsters on this
- 44:43Speaker 2: social media thing, the under sixteen idea that we're going
- 44:47Speaker 2: to put a law through the Parliament and every kid
- 44:49Speaker 2: under sixteen is not going to be able to go
- 44:51Speaker 2: on anything. But TikTok elon Musks weighed in on this
- 44:54Speaker 2: whole thing. He says, you know, it's going to ban
- 44:57Speaker 2: people under the age of sixteen. We're trying to censor
- 45:00Speaker 2: the Internet. He's probably right, and what he said start
- 45:04Speaker 2: with you, Joe. You and I are very similar in them.
- 45:07Speaker 2: We look at the practical way that something like this
- 45:10Speaker 2: can happen. How is passing a bill like this going
- 45:15Speaker 2: to stop kids getting around it?
- 45:20Speaker 10: Look, it certainly won't one hundred percent. What it will do,
- 45:23Speaker 10: I think is make it much much easier for parents
- 45:26Speaker 10: to police it. They can say simply to their kids
- 45:29Speaker 10: that it's illegal, it's against the law for them to
- 45:32Speaker 10: be looking at this stuff. And that does make kids,
- 45:34Speaker 10: I think stop and think those who are really determined
- 45:36Speaker 10: to get around it will do there will be there's
- 45:39Speaker 10: a big difference for anyone with kids my age, who
- 45:41Speaker 10: are all under sixteen. They're obsessed with YouTube at the moment.
- 45:44Speaker 10: Whether that is then classified as social media, I think
- 45:47Speaker 10: that could cause some issues. It's not the content that
- 45:50Speaker 10: I think bothers most parents, or even the screen addiction,
- 45:53Speaker 10: which is its own kind of problem. But what's really
- 45:56Speaker 10: concerning about social media is that interaction that you're completely
- 45:59Speaker 10: open and vulnerable to anyone with the worst possible, most
- 46:03Speaker 10: malevolent intentions anywhere in the on the planet, anywhere in
- 46:07Speaker 10: the world, and that they can just hound you and
- 46:09Speaker 10: harangue you. And we've seen trolling on Twitter. You know,
- 46:12Speaker 10: it's bad enough for adults, let alone the sort of
- 46:14Speaker 10: bullying we've seen drive kids to take their lives. So
- 46:18Speaker 10: I think this is just a sensible, practical way to
- 46:22Speaker 10: send a very clear message that these things are inappropriate
- 46:25Speaker 10: for kids. It makes parents, makes it easier for parents
- 46:28Speaker 10: to enforce their own rules because I'm terribly soft and
- 46:30Speaker 10: I'm hopeless, and I need to outsource it to the government.
- 46:33Speaker 10: And I think it should be seen very separately as
- 46:35Speaker 10: well to the Misinformation Bill, which will be left to
- 46:38Speaker 10: quietly die in the Senate, I.
- 46:39Speaker 1: Think, Amanda.
- 46:42Speaker 2: I mean the critics of this idea is so that
- 46:45Speaker 2: you know what the government really wants is for us
- 46:48Speaker 2: all to have to register our social media practices with
- 46:53Speaker 2: some sort of I presume it will be a log
- 46:55Speaker 2: on code, and so then they'll know what everyone is
- 47:00Speaker 2: doing on their social media device. Does that argument fly
- 47:05Speaker 2: with you? Do you worry about that? And can you
- 47:07Speaker 2: see this idea of work now?
- 47:10Speaker 11: I don't think it'll work. I do think it's a
- 47:11Speaker 11: backdoor way for everyone to have a digital id online
- 47:15Speaker 11: to be able to register, and it'll extend to other things.
- 47:19Speaker 11: I just want to comment that I don't think we
- 47:20Speaker 11: should ever ever say our government should be in charge
- 47:25Speaker 11: of any decision that our children make, or govern our
- 47:27Speaker 11: children in any capacity. I think parents should hold on to
- 47:29Speaker 11: that right because the second you start letting go of
- 47:31Speaker 11: parts of it, they'll end up taking a lot more
- 47:33Speaker 11: of it. But also I just want to bring up
- 47:35Speaker 11: the point that Joe mentioned about because it's leg illegal
- 47:38Speaker 11: to do it and there's legislation, it gives parents an
- 47:41Speaker 11: opportunity to say, hey, that's illegal, but our youth crime
- 47:44Speaker 11: stats beg to differ. There's skyrocketing and through the roof.
- 47:48Speaker 11: Kids are doing so many things right now that are illegal,
- 47:51Speaker 11: and that hasn't worked. So maybe legislating something won't work.
- 47:55Speaker 11: We need to actually educate parents and help them and
- 47:58Speaker 11: give them the tools to be to say to the kids,
- 48:01Speaker 11: this is not good for you.
- 48:04Speaker 2: Joe, just briefly, you tip that Matt Gates would go
- 48:07Speaker 2: perhaps Donald Trump should read his CV's a bit a
- 48:10Speaker 2: bit more clearly.
- 48:13Speaker 10: I actually think that this is part of Donald Trump's
- 48:16Speaker 10: incredible sort of artfulness, that that people who turn their
- 48:19Speaker 10: noses up to him and think they're smarter than him
- 48:22Speaker 10: constantly miss Donald Trump. Is that a master of showbiz?
- 48:25Speaker 10: He basically did the old hat trick, the rule of three.
- 48:28Speaker 10: He needed to get Pete Hegvest from Fox News up.
- 48:32Speaker 10: He definitely needed to get RFK Junior up, who was
- 48:34Speaker 10: the most controversial pick and was going to face some
- 48:38Speaker 10: severe headwinds and resistance.
- 48:39Speaker 1: So what is it.
- 48:40Speaker 10: Dow who more controversial than RFK. Dangles that in front
- 48:45Speaker 10: of everyone. Everyone gets outraged about that. He goes, oh
- 48:47Speaker 10: my god, he says, all right, Meanwhile, he's happy with
- 48:52Speaker 10: RFK on the plane.
- 48:54Speaker 1: Thank you, good on you. Joe, thank you very much, Amanda,
- 48:57Speaker 1: thank you. Danika is up next.