Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 16 August

Transcript

Steve Price | 16 August · Steve Price

0:00
Speaker 1: Live. This is Steve Price. Welcome to Friday Night's Steve
0:07
Speaker 1: Price with you as we head into the weekend with
0:10
Speaker 1: a massive week ahead with the US Democrats staging their
0:13
Speaker 1: convention in Chicago next Tuesday morning. It's our time and
0:17
Speaker 1: it'll be live right here on Sky News featuring Course
0:20
Speaker 1: Format Treasurer Joe Hockey. Now coming up this Friday. Wouldn't
0:25
Speaker 1: you love to be a Victorian public servant? Still allowed
0:28
Speaker 1: to lounge around and work from home and soon to
0:31
Speaker 1: be paid. You won't believe this a one off lump
0:34
Speaker 1: sum cost of living payment of five six hundred dollars.
0:39
Speaker 1: I kid you not. Jess Wilson from the State Opposition
0:43
Speaker 1: coming up. She'll have details on when that check's going out. Also,
0:46
Speaker 1: migrations are massive issue globally. In the US it's all
0:50
Speaker 1: about the southern border and in the UK it's driving
0:53
Speaker 1: street rights, while here in Australia this week it's been
0:56
Speaker 1: focused on visas for migrants from Gaza. More on that
1:00
Speaker 1: in a moment, But the federal government have now been
1:03
Speaker 1: blamed for letting in too many migrants driving up inflation.
1:07
Speaker 1: Will have detail on that shortly and later with our panel.
1:10
Speaker 1: This debate over breakdown's Olympian Raygun. Surely we haven't. Have
1:15
Speaker 1: we reached the point where if someone is really bad
1:19
Speaker 1: at something and that embarrassing performance is done wearing a
1:22
Speaker 1: green and gold tracksuit at the Olympics, you can't call
1:26
Speaker 1: it out. Look. I'm sorry, but she was awful. But first,
1:31
Speaker 1: the Cambridge Dictionary definition of someone who is a racist
1:35
Speaker 1: goes like this, someone who believes that their race makes
1:40
Speaker 1: them better, more intelligent, and more moral than people of
1:44
Speaker 1: other races, and who does or says unfair or harmful
1:49
Speaker 1: things as a result. A racist. That's what Teal, independent
1:53
Speaker 1: and federal member for the seat of Woringa in Sydney,
1:56
Speaker 1: which by the way is nestled nicely along an insular
2:00
Speaker 1: ninsula of spectacular surf beaches, crammed with multimillion dollar homes
2:04
Speaker 1: and a largely non ethnic, wealthy population. Well that's what
2:08
Speaker 1: Zarie Stegger, that local member, has called Peter Dutton both
2:12
Speaker 1: inside and outside Parliament, including a couple of times right
2:16
Speaker 1: here on Sky News yesterday after question time. Okay, yes
2:21
Speaker 1: or no? Do you think Peter Dutton's a racist?
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Speaker 2: I think he is condoning racist policies.
2:26
Speaker 1: So do you think he's a racist by association.
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Speaker 3: Yes, okay, and Mike Burgess has warned about inflammatory language
2:32
Speaker 3: by politicians. Surely your statements in the same category calling
2:37
Speaker 3: the Opposition leader a racist. I mean, that's that's stirring
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Speaker 3: up a lot, isn't it.
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Speaker 2: Well, except we're in an extraordinary situation where a person
2:44
Speaker 2: behaving in a racist way should be should be allowed
2:48
Speaker 2: to do so, but a person calling out that poor
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Speaker 2: behavior should should be should be reprimanded.
2:54
Speaker 1: And Steggel again was at it this morning on Good
2:57
Speaker 1: Morning Agenda with Peter Stefanovic.
3:00
Speaker 4: Do you still believe this morning that Peter Dutton is
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Speaker 4: a racist?
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Speaker 5: Well, I think it's important to remember what the definition
3:07
Speaker 5: of racism is, and that is relating to policies and
3:12
Speaker 5: rules that result in an unfair treatment of a minority group.
3:16
Speaker 5: So yes, it is my view that this is a
3:20
Speaker 5: racist policy.
3:25
Speaker 1: Zali clearly reads a different dictionary than I do. Now,
3:29
Speaker 1: this is all over the Opposition leader's sensible and measured
3:32
Speaker 1: call to hold any more visus being issued to Palestinians
3:35
Speaker 1: from Gaza being able to come here because security checks
3:39
Speaker 1: are not being done properly. But it seems pretty sensible
3:42
Speaker 1: to me. Stegel a from a winter Olympian and skiing
3:45
Speaker 1: went and fast as fast this morning. It's to call
3:48
Speaker 1: Dutton dangerous.
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Speaker 5: Peter Dutton is dangerous?
3:52
Speaker 1: That your dangerous with this? Is it not?
3:55
Speaker 5: But no, this is the term of the dictionary to
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Speaker 5: describe the conduct that is behaved.
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Speaker 1: Quite an extraordinary performance there. The opposition leader has also
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Speaker 1: pulled the PM up over the selective use of words
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Speaker 1: from Asiero boss Mike Burgess.
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Speaker 6: Have a look the Prime Minister made Mike Burgess's words
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Speaker 6: look like they were supporting the position that the Prime
4:17
Speaker 6: Minister gave in question time yesterday. That is that Azio
4:21
Speaker 6: was checking every person who came through this process. And
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Speaker 6: I think it was a deliberate step and it is
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Speaker 6: probably the most serious, most serious case that you can
4:34
Speaker 6: make against a sitting member of Parliament is that they've
4:37
Speaker 6: deliberately misled the parliament. But that is exactly what the
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Speaker 6: Prime Minister has done.
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Speaker 1: Now blind Freddie can see what's happening here. None of
4:44
Speaker 1: the Palestinians grounded visas have arrived since last November, but
4:48
Speaker 1: the government, with an election looming and a number of
4:51
Speaker 1: seats in southwestern Sydney up for Grabs want to make
4:54
Speaker 1: sure that the heavily populated Muslim seats believe the Alp
4:59
Speaker 1: is their friend. Now, as cynical as that might sound,
5:02
Speaker 1: that's one reason, and we will look at the general
5:04
Speaker 1: migration question in a moment. It's one reason why labour
5:08
Speaker 1: continues to boost migrant numbers into your country, which many
5:11
Speaker 1: people believe is one of the reasons driving up inflation.
5:15
Speaker 1: It's also, i'd argue, deeply ingrained in the DNA of
5:19
Speaker 1: the labor left. Peter Dutton is right to beat the
5:22
Speaker 1: drum about security. I think all of us need to
5:25
Speaker 1: ask a relatively simple question. If these people, as you
5:29
Speaker 1: would be aware, are desperate to flee a war zone,
5:32
Speaker 1: why has a country on the other side of the
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Speaker 1: world become a destination of choice. Now I can understand
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Speaker 1: it if you already have relatives living here, close relatives,
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Speaker 1: close connections. But if not, why Australia and you also
5:45
Speaker 1: have to ask the question, why is it that Arab
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Speaker 1: countries in that region, and in Egypt's case, bordering Palestine,
5:51
Speaker 1: and you also have Jordan, a peaceful, economically stable country,
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Speaker 1: why are they not putting their hands up to accept
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Speaker 1: people fleeing a war zone that Egyptian borders shup, they
6:01
Speaker 1: won't let anyone in. Surely, if you had no connection
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Speaker 1: to Australia, parking yourself in the region would make much
6:07
Speaker 1: more sense. Now on the Stegle scale, that probably makes
6:11
Speaker 1: me a racist, but I'm not. But I do have
6:14
Speaker 1: a simple, common sense approach to immigration, as we did
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Speaker 1: post World War two. Seek out the people who will
6:21
Speaker 1: make Australia a better place. Go after young skilled migrants
6:25
Speaker 1: who want to learn English and work hard, and want
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Speaker 1: to embrace the Australian way of life, whatever that means
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Speaker 1: these days. Don't import trouble, don't import ethnic tensions, don't
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Speaker 1: import people who want to live off the government and
6:37
Speaker 1: make Australia a safer, richer, better place to live. It's
6:40
Speaker 1: not rocket science and it's not racist. Now, just for
6:47
Speaker 1: I get to our first guests, and further to this
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Speaker 1: debate on visas for Palestinians trying to get out of Gaza.
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Speaker 1: There are a lot of desperate people trying to muddy
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Speaker 1: the waters here, the Greens, the left of the labour parts,
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Speaker 1: the normal suspects who would up and throw open our
7:03
Speaker 1: borders to anyone, you know the types. But things this country.
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Speaker 1: We must do is learn from the overseas experience that's
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Speaker 1: happening right now and has happened in the past. Now
7:14
Speaker 1: we have the open border in the US that's been
7:16
Speaker 1: a disaster for many American communities, and we all know
7:19
Speaker 1: just how fractured Britain is right at the moment now.
7:22
Speaker 1: The leader of the Reform UK Party and semi regular
7:26
Speaker 1: here on Sky, Nigel Faraj, has gone back twenty odd
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Speaker 1: years to look at what happened in Denmark and that
7:34
Speaker 1: nation's experience with Palestinian refugees. Have a look.
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Speaker 7: In two Denmark took in three hundred refugees from Palestine.
7:43
Speaker 7: Sixty four percent of them have turned into criminals. Thirty
7:47
Speaker 7: four percent of their children have turned into criminals. I'm
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Speaker 7: not demonizing any one group, but the risk that we
7:55
Speaker 7: bring in the wrong kind of people and those who
7:57
Speaker 7: could be linked to Hammers say to me that the
8:00
Speaker 7: name of national security, the time has come to say no,
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Speaker 7: enough is enough.
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Speaker 1: Look clearly, I'm not saying every Palestinian gets out of
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Speaker 1: Gaza is going to be a Hummas supporter or turned
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Speaker 1: to a life of crime. But to quote John Howard,
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Speaker 1: we will decide who comes to this country and the
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Speaker 1: circumstances in which they come. That has stood, I reckon
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Speaker 1: the test of time. Now still on the debate on immigration,
8:33
Speaker 1: the debate about the Palestinian visas. This week there was
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Speaker 1: some new data release that showed that the alban Easy
8:39
Speaker 1: Labor government, your federal government, has overseen a record increase
8:43
Speaker 1: in population growth. Now, anyone who lives in any of
8:46
Speaker 1: the big cities, mainly Sydney and Melbourne, but any big city,
8:49
Speaker 1: they know the impact of what this has had on
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Speaker 1: their lives. Now, since the Albaneze government came to power
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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, one point one five million repeat that,
9:00
Speaker 1: one point one five million migrants have entered the country.
9:05
Speaker 1: If you can believe that number, that beats the previous
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Speaker 1: record set by the Rudd Gillard government by sixty two percent. Now,
9:13
Speaker 1: the Institute of Public Affairs undertook an analysis and research
9:17
Speaker 1: Fellow Saxon Davison joins me. Now, Saxon, these numbers are extraordinary. Now,
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Speaker 1: rather than cutting migration, this government seems to be letting
9:27
Speaker 1: it run rampant.
9:31
Speaker 8: You're exactly right, and they simply have no plan to
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Speaker 8: cut migration, even though they promise to cut net migration
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Speaker 8: in the most recent budget for the last financial year.
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Speaker 1: Now, the amount of migrants that will let.
9:42
Speaker 8: In in the last financial year resulted in a housing
9:44
Speaker 8: shortage of twenty four thousand homes, and if nothing changes,
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Speaker 8: this is going to result in a housing shortage of
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Speaker 8: two hundred and fifty thousand homes over two hundred and
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Speaker 8: fifty thousand homes by.
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Speaker 1: Twenty twenty eight.
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Speaker 8: The level of migration that this government is simply pursuing
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Speaker 8: and is attaining is simply putting Australians behind and even
10:03
Speaker 8: regardless of whether they just got here or they have
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Speaker 8: been here for generations.
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Speaker 1: What do you thinks behind those inflated numbers. I mean,
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Speaker 1: when you go back and look at your report and
10:13
Speaker 1: you go all the way back to the hawk keeping days,
10:16
Speaker 1: you can look at, as we said there, what happened
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Speaker 1: during Rudd and Gillard? Why the explosion? Is it the
10:22
Speaker 1: political nature of the left leaning federal government we now
10:26
Speaker 1: have what's driving this?
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Speaker 8: What's driving this is that they just simply have no
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Speaker 8: economic plan besides population growth. In twenty twenty three, eighty
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Speaker 8: five percent of all economic growth in Australia was led
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Speaker 8: by population growth. And when you compare that to the
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Speaker 8: Hawk and Keating years and the Howard Is in the
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Speaker 8: nineties it was as low as a third. This migration program,
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Speaker 8: this unplanned migration program that the government is running, simply
10:52
Speaker 8: masks the idea, the fact that the government has no
10:55
Speaker 8: plan economically for how to grow the economy. And that
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Speaker 8: is how it is this programmers inflationary.
11:03
Speaker 1: I remember back in the two thousands in New South
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Speaker 1: Wales in Sydney, I mean the then premiere labor premier
11:08
Speaker 1: by the way, Bob Carr said, hang on, look, look,
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Speaker 1: Sydney's full. We can't take any more people at various
11:14
Speaker 1: mayors of Western Sydney local governments saying, look, why are
11:19
Speaker 1: all these people coming into our area? We can't cope
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Speaker 1: with it. We don't have the houses, we don't have
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Speaker 1: the infrastructure, and so you know, it's one thing for
11:25
Speaker 1: the government to keep, you know, jamming people into the
11:27
Speaker 1: country to try and falsely keep the economy going. But
11:31
Speaker 1: the infrastructure doesn't exist. Does it's included to cope with it.
11:36
Speaker 8: No, the infrastructure simply doesn't exist. And a large reason
11:39
Speaker 8: for that is actually international students. International students took over
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Speaker 8: one hundred percent or of equivalent new dwellings in twenty
11:48
Speaker 8: twenty two twenty twenty three in some major cities, including Sydney,
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Speaker 8: and close to eighty percent in cities such as Melbourne
11:55
Speaker 8: and Brisbane. There are simply the infrastructure simply does not exist.
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Speaker 8: And the only policy lever available to the federal government,
12:03
Speaker 8: not the state government, but the federal government is immigration,
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Speaker 8: and it's a popular the policy lever to pull. Sixty
12:08
Speaker 8: percent of Australians, according to APA polling, want immigration to
12:12
Speaker 8: be paused, not just reduced or cut, but paused until
12:16
Speaker 8: our important social economic infrastructure such as housing can catch up.
12:21
Speaker 1: So we've got a government promising to build one point
12:24
Speaker 1: two million new homes. They're way behind on that. They're way, way,
12:28
Speaker 1: way behind. And some research that I've seen recently suggests
12:32
Speaker 1: that many of the migrants that are coming here for clearly,
12:35
Speaker 1: if you move countries, you're moving to have a better
12:39
Speaker 1: life for yourself. But many of these migrants don't want
12:41
Speaker 1: to be jammed into seeing clear into apartment blocks. They
12:44
Speaker 1: actually want what most Australians want, the Australian dreamer of
12:48
Speaker 1: a coordorator block and a house in a backyard. So
12:51
Speaker 1: many of them are arriving with money and that is
12:54
Speaker 1: then causing great pressure on the housing hocing market right
12:58
Speaker 1: around the country.
13:02
Speaker 8: Absolutely, and this is partly due to the ideological nature
13:05
Speaker 8: of the type of homes that the government want to build,
13:07
Speaker 8: build to rent is not actually the Australian way of life.
13:10
Speaker 8: Australians have always endeavored to have urban sprawl and be
13:15
Speaker 8: able to have their own backyard, and these are the
13:16
Speaker 8: type of homes that typically Australians want to live in
13:19
Speaker 8: and they want that want to be built. But unfortunately
13:22
Speaker 8: this is not the type of housing that the government
13:24
Speaker 8: is pursuing, and they're not building enough homes anyway to
13:27
Speaker 8: fill in the amount of migrants that they're bringing into
13:29
Speaker 8: the country.
13:32
Speaker 1: And just finally you're convinced there's a link between inflation
13:35
Speaker 1: and the numbers of people that we're bringing into Australia
13:40
Speaker 1: one hundred percent.
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Speaker 8: And this is simply because that all of our economic
13:44
Speaker 8: growth or eighty five percent as I mentioned earlier, is
13:46
Speaker 8: being led by population growth. This means is very little
13:49
Speaker 8: productivity into the economy from businesses and it's not being
13:54
Speaker 8: encouraged by government. We have a record amount of red tape,
13:56
Speaker 8: we have a record amount of green tape, and the
13:59
Speaker 8: government is routinely criticizing and reregulating our.
14:03
Speaker 1: Most prosperous industries.
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Speaker 8: The link between inflation and our current migration program is undeniable.
14:12
Speaker 1: See Claire, thanks for your time. I appreciate it as always. Now,
14:14
Speaker 1: one of the worst things about state governments I reckon
14:17
Speaker 1: is when they meddle in the things they know nothing about.
14:21
Speaker 1: Now take the city centric into Alan outfit and I
14:24
Speaker 1: know she lives in Bendigo, but most of her government
14:27
Speaker 1: are based in the city. Well, they are meddling in
14:31
Speaker 1: an issue they know absolutely nothing about, and that's kangaroos. Yes,
14:36
Speaker 1: believe it or not. Anyone watching tonight who's driven on
14:38
Speaker 1: a country road knows Australia and every state of the
14:42
Speaker 1: country has a massive problem with the kangaroo population, indeed
14:46
Speaker 1: feral deer as well. Now all of those country roads
14:49
Speaker 1: anyone you drive on is littered with animal carcasses, mostly kangaroos. Now,
14:55
Speaker 1: our flawed quota scheme to cul kangaroos is making things worse.
15:00
Speaker 1: Almost one hundred and forty thousand permits in Victoria issued
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Speaker 1: to shoot gray kangaroos, and they're all issued to commercial shooters.
15:09
Speaker 1: Just sixty thousand rus were shot farmers are tearing their
15:12
Speaker 1: hair out for more. I'm joined by the leader of
15:16
Speaker 1: the Victorian Nationals, Peter Walsh. Great to catch up with
15:19
Speaker 1: you again, Peter. What's gone wrong here?
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Speaker 9: What's gone wrong here, Steve, is that the Allen government
15:26
Speaker 9: of use, as you have said, has taken a very
15:29
Speaker 9: simple program that's put in place under our government, and
15:32
Speaker 9: that complicated as not working now it is impossible for
15:36
Speaker 9: the shooters to actually meet their targets. The viability of
15:40
Speaker 9: their businesses has gone down, and the government wants it
15:43
Speaker 9: to fil.
15:44
Speaker 4: The government wants it to fil.
15:45
Speaker 9: As a simple thing because they don't believe we should
15:47
Speaker 9: be shooting kangaroos. Go any panel beater in the country town,
15:51
Speaker 9: go any car insurance company, and you will hear the
15:55
Speaker 9: stories that kangaroo collisions are the biggest threat on our
15:59
Speaker 9: roads of any other COSI.
16:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I feel for you, Peter. The amount of
16:05
Speaker 1: country driving you do. I mean, if you're not trying
16:07
Speaker 1: to avoid a kangaroo, you're trying to avoid a pothole.
16:10
Speaker 1: It's a miracle you actually get home at all without
16:12
Speaker 1: damaging your car or injuring yourself.
16:15
Speaker 4: Tragically.
16:16
Speaker 9: Over the last few years, I average one kangaroo per
16:18
Speaker 9: year steven and that's.
16:20
Speaker 4: An insurance claim.
16:21
Speaker 9: Cars off the road and everyone has that problem as
16:24
Speaker 9: we go out there. And what we don't want to
16:26
Speaker 9: see is lives lost because of kangaroos. But what we
16:29
Speaker 9: do want to see is actually a system that is
16:32
Speaker 9: simple that enables the sustainable take of kangaroos. No one
16:36
Speaker 9: wants to eliminate kangaroos, but they don't want to see
16:39
Speaker 9: the population continuing to grow. And what we find is
16:41
Speaker 9: that you've got kangaroos breeding up on public land that
16:45
Speaker 9: then go out of the private land and are effectively
16:48
Speaker 9: eating farmers out of house and home.
16:52
Speaker 1: So what was the simplistic way it worked in the
16:56
Speaker 1: past that the Allen government's trashed.
17:00
Speaker 9: You could get a control wildlife permit, You could engage
17:03
Speaker 9: a commercial shooter. They were go and shoot them. There
17:05
Speaker 9: was a tag system that put them through a meat
17:08
Speaker 9: plant that where they are.
17:09
Speaker 4: Processed for pet food.
17:11
Speaker 9: You've now got a complicated process of harvesting permits, wildlife
17:16
Speaker 9: control permits. You can't use the kangaroo shot under a
17:19
Speaker 9: wildlife control permit for commercial use. They have to be
17:22
Speaker 9: shot and dropped and buried on site instead of being used,
17:26
Speaker 9: and the red tape just means that the harvesters are
17:29
Speaker 9: not getting enough product to make it viable for those
17:33
Speaker 9: to actually do it. Pet food consumers love kangaroo meat.
17:38
Speaker 9: It's lean meat.
17:39
Speaker 4: It's better for their pets than commercial animals. So there
17:43
Speaker 4: is a.
17:44
Speaker 9: Market there, but there's not the supply because the government
17:47
Speaker 9: has just made so much red tape around it.
17:49
Speaker 4: That's just not working.
17:52
Speaker 1: Peter my right. Also, the Green activists have managed to
17:54
Speaker 1: get a ban on the export of roo hides.
17:58
Speaker 9: They have and if you think about the partnerships that
18:01
Speaker 9: have been going on Victoria between the Labor Party, between
18:04
Speaker 9: the Greens and between the Animal Justice Party, this father
18:09
Speaker 9: of the whole system is effectively the bureaucracy pandering to
18:12
Speaker 9: the Greens, pandering to the Animal Justice Party because they
18:15
Speaker 9: actually don't believe in the fact that we need to
18:18
Speaker 9: control wildlife.
18:19
Speaker 4: You mentioned deer in your introduction.
18:21
Speaker 9: Huge deer issue, particularly in the eastern part of Victoria,
18:25
Speaker 9: and they are even more dangerous.
18:27
Speaker 4: You hit a big deer, they.
18:29
Speaker 9: Will cause significant damage to your car if they come
18:33
Speaker 9: through the wind screen.
18:34
Speaker 4: There's an issue of potential fatality as well.
18:39
Speaker 1: Is this a problem in other states as well? Or
18:42
Speaker 1: is it worse in Victoria because those deals that the
18:45
Speaker 1: Allen Labour governments had to do with, as you say,
18:48
Speaker 1: the Greens and Animal.
18:49
Speaker 9: Justice, Well it's worse than Victoria because effectively, if you
18:53
Speaker 9: want to buy kangaroo for human consumption, it comes from
18:57
Speaker 9: New South Wales or South Australia.
18:59
Speaker 4: We cannot have kangaroos shot in Victoria used for human consumption.
19:03
Speaker 9: And a lot of the pet food that's coming in
19:04
Speaker 9: is coming from New South Wales and South Australia as well,
19:06
Speaker 9: because they know they have to control their kangaroos and
19:10
Speaker 9: keep them as sustainable.
19:11
Speaker 4: Level or a level that doesn't lead to the over population.
19:15
Speaker 9: And all those kangaroos that are coming closer into the
19:18
Speaker 9: urban areas and all those on our highways, as you said,
19:22
Speaker 9: everywhere you drive now you'll see roadkill. Go to any
19:25
Speaker 9: country town, talk to the panel beaters and you'll find
19:28
Speaker 9: that the majority of their business is actually because of
19:31
Speaker 9: people hitting kangaroos.
19:34
Speaker 1: Staggering Pete great to catch up as usual, Thanks a lot,
19:36
Speaker 1: mate for on a Friday night. Now still ahead, Former
19:40
Speaker 1: Queensland Premier Anastasia Palishoe, You're going to love this. She's
19:44
Speaker 1: landed a cushy new role. More on Matt shortly. It
19:47
Speaker 1: is unbelievable, and next, debt riddled Victoria rolling out five
19:52
Speaker 1: thousand dollars cost of living payments for public servants. It's true,
19:57
Speaker 1: it's happening. I'll speak with the shadow Finance minister about that.
20:00
Speaker 1: Up the break. Welcome back Friday regular Campbell Newman from Brisbane.
20:07
Speaker 1: In a second, I just wonder what Campbell made of
20:10
Speaker 1: the Paris Olympics and what sort of challenge that now
20:13
Speaker 1: sets for his hometown and the twenty thirty two games
20:16
Speaker 1: in Brisbane. First though, look, I've been telling you forever
20:20
Speaker 1: how the once great state of Victoria is broke, crippled
20:24
Speaker 1: by debt run by state government and arrogantly continues to
20:27
Speaker 1: play billions of dollars into the most expensive transport infrastructure
20:31
Speaker 1: project in the state's possibly the nation's history. Debt has
20:36
Speaker 1: to be repaid, though now eventually the chickens come home
20:38
Speaker 1: to roost. What we are now seeing is vital services
20:42
Speaker 1: like health hit by budget cuts. Treasurer Tim Pallas even
20:46
Speaker 1: this week said well, the money has to come from somewhere,
20:50
Speaker 1: and he hinted at potential new taxes, saying we'll look
20:53
Speaker 1: at it. Probably won't be any new property taxes because
20:56
Speaker 1: that well has been well and truly drunk dry. Great
21:00
Speaker 1: message from him. Joining me is Jess Wilson, Shadow Finance
21:03
Speaker 1: Minister and Economic reform spokesman for the opposition. Welcome Jess.
21:08
Speaker 1: Just before we get into the bigger picture economically, I
21:12
Speaker 1: want to talk red tape in a sect with you
21:14
Speaker 1: because I know you've got a lot of views on that.
21:16
Speaker 1: I was talking this week to Victorian public servant reminded
21:18
Speaker 1: me under a wages deal struck between the public service
21:22
Speaker 1: unions and the broke Victorian state government, the public servants
21:26
Speaker 1: are all about to get a one off cost of
21:29
Speaker 1: living payment of five thousand, six hundred dollars. That can't
21:32
Speaker 1: be right, can it.
21:33
Speaker 10: It is right, and it's going to cost over three
21:36
Speaker 10: hundred million dollars at a time Victoria simply cannot afford it.
21:40
Speaker 10: And Steve, if you look at the public service here
21:42
Speaker 10: in Victoria, it has doubled over the course of the
21:45
Speaker 10: last ten years of this labor government. The growth of
21:48
Speaker 10: the public services far exceeded population growth in Victoria, and
21:52
Speaker 10: most importantly the number of executives have tripled. Now that's
21:56
Speaker 10: just simply not sustainable here at a time, as you say,
21:59
Speaker 10: we're at record at one hundred and eighty eight billion
22:01
Speaker 10: dollars twenty six million dollars a day in interest repayments.
22:04
Speaker 10: It means that we're going to have to make cuts
22:06
Speaker 10: when it comes to our health services, Schools aren't going
22:08
Speaker 10: to be built or against.
22:10
Speaker 1: It's staggering. I'm told that that payment will go to
22:13
Speaker 1: people on salaries up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
22:16
Speaker 1: I'm further told that the payment will be made to
22:20
Speaker 1: public servants who are out of the public service, that
22:23
Speaker 1: they were in the public service when this deal was struck,
22:26
Speaker 1: they will still get the check. That can't be true,
22:28
Speaker 1: can it.
22:29
Speaker 10: Well, surely that can't be true, and questions need to
22:31
Speaker 10: be put to the government as to who is receiving this.
22:34
Speaker 10: But what it does demonstrate is this government, time and
22:37
Speaker 10: time again, looks for avenues to get around what you
22:40
Speaker 10: would see is sort of on the track deals. And
22:43
Speaker 10: if you look at the public service, they're getting a
22:44
Speaker 10: three percent annual pay rise, but this is on top
22:47
Speaker 10: of that. But when you look at the executives time
22:50
Speaker 10: and time again, I see applications coming for the executives
22:53
Speaker 10: to get top up payments far at exceeding the ban
22:56
Speaker 10: and we see them on projects like the Northeast Link.
23:00
Speaker 10: The Northeast Link is the biggest project blowout history of Victoria.
23:03
Speaker 10: Work cover is an agency and collapse.
23:06
Speaker 1: On what planet does a government degree to pay a
23:11
Speaker 1: cost of living payment to their own employees of six
23:16
Speaker 1: hundred dollars when non public servants are all required to
23:19
Speaker 1: be back at work in their offices. Our public servants,
23:22
Speaker 1: unlike your South Wales, are not. That just slaps the
23:26
Speaker 1: face of every hard working, taxpayer paying Victorian.
23:31
Speaker 10: That's right, and if you think about how much pressure
23:33
Speaker 10: Victorians are under when it comes to the increased taxes
23:35
Speaker 10: in this state year on year, budget on budget, we're
23:38
Speaker 10: seeing the government put up property taxes, put up taxes
23:41
Speaker 10: on payroll, so private businesses having to pay the state
23:44
Speaker 10: for the privilege or staying open and keeping our economy productive.
23:48
Speaker 10: This is really really concerning that time and time again
23:50
Speaker 10: we're seeing this in the public service.
23:51
Speaker 1: But it's also at the.
23:52
Speaker 10: Same time where we've got protracted industrial disputes with our
23:55
Speaker 10: frontline public servants, with our paramedics, with our firefighters, with
23:59
Speaker 10: our police. The government isn't able to close those deals.
24:02
Speaker 10: But they've able to do this deal with the Public.
24:03
Speaker 1: Service, your shadow finance, the ratings agencies. They must surely
24:07
Speaker 1: be looking at this administration and going, well, we're going
24:10
Speaker 1: to have I mean, Tim Pallas, the Treasurer, says he
24:12
Speaker 1: went to New York and they said, oh, it's a
24:14
Speaker 1: little fun. That can't be true.
24:16
Speaker 10: Well, we know he had to make an emergency trip
24:18
Speaker 10: to New York to try and talk to the rating
24:20
Speaker 10: agency Standards and Pau's moodies about Victoria's creating agency ratings
24:25
Speaker 10: because it is on the precipice. We know that the
24:27
Speaker 10: ratings agency have said that the Victoria cannot continue to
24:30
Speaker 10: see it's dead go up. But we're seeing them still
24:33
Speaker 10: commit to major projects like the suburban railroop, something that
24:36
Speaker 10: isn't funded in the budget. In fact, in the budget
24:39
Speaker 10: it has a TBC lineler next to it that's going
24:41
Speaker 10: to cost more than forty billion dollars just for the
24:44
Speaker 10: first stage. The rating agencies are very very aware of this.
24:47
Speaker 1: Something just struck me. I just wonder whether the state
24:49
Speaker 1: government is hanging out for the federal government to go
24:53
Speaker 1: to the polls, have an election and get back maybe
24:57
Speaker 1: and then they'll bail out Victoria because they couldn't do
25:00
Speaker 1: that in the lead up to a federal election. They
25:01
Speaker 1: couldn't say, Okay, we're going to have to bail out Victoria.
25:04
Speaker 1: That had kill them politically. You suspect that might be
25:07
Speaker 1: something happen.
25:07
Speaker 10: We have from time to time that you know, the
25:09
Speaker 10: idea that Victoria might have to be bailed out. I
25:12
Speaker 10: don't think that Australian taxpayers would be overly pleased. More
25:15
Speaker 10: broadly by that, What we need to do is rain
25:17
Speaker 10: in spending. We need to be able to live within
25:19
Speaker 10: our means within Victoria, not see every single major project
25:23
Speaker 10: blow out forty billion dollars of cost blowout on projects
25:26
Speaker 10: to date. We know the corruption is rife within these projects.
25:29
Speaker 10: We've seen what's happening with the CFMAU and then we've
25:33
Speaker 10: got projects like the suburban rail loop on the coming
25:36
Speaker 10: forward going to cost over forty billion dollars.
25:38
Speaker 1: Well, I saw your colleague, Michael Briant, did I say
25:40
Speaker 1: scrap it? I mean, if you were doing the numbers
25:43
Speaker 1: as a responsible government, and Tim Pallace as a Treasurer
25:47
Speaker 1: and just Cindra Allen as a premier wouldn't you at
25:50
Speaker 1: some point come to the realization that you can't afford
25:53
Speaker 1: that and that you've got to stop it before it
25:55
Speaker 1: costs more money.
25:56
Speaker 10: Absolutely, if you are a responsible government and you're looking
25:59
Speaker 10: at your fine answers, you know that this does not
26:01
Speaker 10: stack up. It is a train line from box Hill
26:03
Speaker 10: to Cheltenham that services just one part of the state.
26:06
Speaker 10: It's putting all your eggs in one basket and it
26:08
Speaker 10: means that infrastructure can't be spread right across the state,
26:11
Speaker 10: particularly in our growth areas and our regions. And if
26:13
Speaker 10: you look at the state of our roads in regional Victoria,
26:16
Speaker 10: then we know that it's absolutely essential that we actually
26:19
Speaker 10: spend that infrastructure money much more widely.
26:21
Speaker 1: Especially a couple of potholes today. Talk to me about
26:23
Speaker 1: red tape. How bad is it in Victoria when you
26:26
Speaker 1: compare it to the other states.
26:27
Speaker 10: Well, Victoria's the red tape capital of the nation. It's
26:30
Speaker 10: simply the hardest place to do business. And what came
26:33
Speaker 10: out this week was a secret study that the government
26:36
Speaker 10: had undertaken with the National Australia Bank that shows that
26:38
Speaker 10: when it comes to impact and compliance, Victoria leads the
26:42
Speaker 10: nation in terms of red tape and regulatory.
26:44
Speaker 1: Would I be staggered if you went through line bighline
26:47
Speaker 1: what I would need to do to open a business.
26:50
Speaker 10: Absolutely, the licensing, whether it's the registration requirements. You talk
26:53
Speaker 10: to any small business owner and what they say, it's
26:56
Speaker 10: the time burden of having to fill out form after
26:59
Speaker 10: form after form just to keep their doors open to
27:02
Speaker 10: try and employ another person. We want to create jobs
27:05
Speaker 10: in this state, but what we're seeing is businesses exit
27:07
Speaker 10: the border.
27:08
Speaker 1: And when if you were to win the election, that's
27:10
Speaker 1: not a hard thing to reform, is it. No, that's right,
27:13
Speaker 1: you just rip it up. Well.
27:14
Speaker 10: Red tape is something we really want to focus on
27:16
Speaker 10: because it's a very easy way to actually make it
27:18
Speaker 10: easier to do business. Take that time burden off small
27:21
Speaker 10: business owners to make sure that we're in a situation
27:24
Speaker 10: where they can focus on running their business, growing their business,
27:27
Speaker 10: and not just trying to keep their doors open.
27:31
Speaker 1: How pessimistic are you about Victoria's finances.
27:36
Speaker 10: It's a big task ahead, but we have to do it.
27:40
Speaker 10: The state is depending on a response prepared.
27:42
Speaker 1: Job will be message, it'll be huge, it'll.
27:43
Speaker 10: Be huge, but we're up to the task. We're incredibly
27:46
Speaker 10: focused on thinking about how do we turn this state around,
27:49
Speaker 10: how do we drive investment back into Victoria. We've got
27:52
Speaker 10: the South Australian Premier, we've got New South Wales, Queensland
27:55
Speaker 10: all knocking on our door and saying to Victorian businesses
27:58
Speaker 10: exit the state. For the industry exiting the state. We
28:02
Speaker 10: need to look at our tax system. We need to
28:04
Speaker 10: make it something that people want to come to Victoria
28:06
Speaker 10: and invest in, and we're very focused on that.
28:08
Speaker 1: Jess Wilson, thank you very much for your time. Thank you.
28:13
Speaker 1: Right now let's bring in my Frido regular speaking of Queensland.
28:15
Speaker 1: Queensland from a Queensland Premier Campbell Newman Campbell, great to
28:19
Speaker 1: see you as always. Just with that discussion I was
28:21
Speaker 1: having with Jests there Queensland, I imagined in the business
28:25
Speaker 1: of attracting businesses out of Victoria and into Queensland.
28:29
Speaker 10: Are you.
28:31
Speaker 1: Look?
28:32
Speaker 11: I think they very much are, regardless of political persuasion.
28:36
Speaker 11: And right now I'm sure that businesses are looking at
28:40
Speaker 11: relocating if they can from Victoria because the higher taxes
28:44
Speaker 11: just keep coming to prop up this woeful financial management.
28:49
Speaker 11: That was a very scary conversation and the ratings agencies
28:53
Speaker 11: really could slam Victoria, which is a very big increase
28:57
Speaker 11: in the interest bill.
29:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's the point. If they do change the rating,
29:03
Speaker 1: that's where it really hurts. Let's talk Olympics much more fun.
29:06
Speaker 1: Paris is over. I'm sure you watched, like I did,
29:09
Speaker 1: a lot of it. The baton has been handed off
29:11
Speaker 1: to La. You've got a hard act to follow. You've
29:14
Speaker 1: got to go from Paris to La to Brisbane. I'm
29:19
Speaker 1: absolutely confident that Queensland and Brisbane can advertise themselves. Well.
29:24
Speaker 1: I mean, Queensland is one of the greatest places in
29:26
Speaker 1: the world. But let's talk about the organizers and the infrastructure.
29:31
Speaker 1: Do you think they've learned any lessons out of Paris, Well.
29:36
Speaker 11: You'd hope they would have. But I think there's a
29:39
Speaker 11: real hiatus here story even that there's a state government
29:43
Speaker 11: that is seen as likely be on their way out,
29:48
Speaker 11: and I think there's then a bit of a go
29:51
Speaker 11: sligh as people expect that there'll be a new Premier,
29:54
Speaker 11: David Christa Foley, and that he will be then sort
29:58
Speaker 11: of coming in putting his own mark on things.
30:00
Speaker 1: As to what he will do. I don't know, and
30:02
Speaker 1: I don't think we.
30:03
Speaker 11: Any of us know, But I think that's really holding
30:06
Speaker 11: things back at the moment. We need clear how, we
30:08
Speaker 11: need an election result, and then they need to step
30:12
Speaker 11: on the gas pedal because there's been quite a few
30:15
Speaker 11: years now completely wasted and there is not clarity on
30:19
Speaker 11: a range of things.
30:22
Speaker 1: What is the LMP plan for the Olympic Games in
30:25
Speaker 1: twenty thirty two. What have they said? What are they
30:27
Speaker 1: going to the vase? I don't know, I don't know.
30:31
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I really, I really don't.
30:33
Speaker 11: Look well, I think they're going to do another review
30:36
Speaker 11: that they're saying that in the first hundred days they'll
30:38
Speaker 11: provide clarity and a plan and they'll get on and
30:42
Speaker 11: the liver well, good luck and that's fantastic, that's what
30:47
Speaker 11: we need. But they're going to have to move very
30:50
Speaker 11: quickly because you know, the clock is really ticking now
30:54
Speaker 11: loudly and there's some important decisions to be made. You know,
30:58
Speaker 11: you might ask me, what about the main stadium, Well,
31:02
Speaker 11: we don't know. We know what Miles would do with
31:06
Speaker 11: the old q ET or q Sack stadium on the
31:09
Speaker 11: south side of Brisbane, but we don't know what the
31:13
Speaker 11: olmpur are going to do.
31:14
Speaker 1: And they're by the way.
31:15
Speaker 11: There are two very sort of prominent proposals, one at
31:19
Speaker 11: Victoria Park near the city, which I don't want to
31:22
Speaker 11: see happen. But there's another one that I understand there'll
31:25
Speaker 11: be a significant announcement within the week for a location
31:29
Speaker 11: down at Hamilton north Shore, which I think is extremely exciting,
31:33
Speaker 11: having been given a sneak preview. So these are still
31:36
Speaker 11: major issues which have to be resolved and resolved quickly.
31:41
Speaker 1: Twenty thirty two is not that far away. Take tears.
31:45
Speaker 1: It's not.
31:46
Speaker 11: Yeah, I know, it's just it is just absolutely crazy
31:49
Speaker 11: what's going on. And it's indictment on Anastasia Palichet as
31:54
Speaker 11: much as Stephen Miles, who has been you might say,
31:57
Speaker 11: when it comes to the Olympics, well the other things
32:00
Speaker 11: as well been past a poisoned Olympic Batton.
32:07
Speaker 1: Well he has now talking Aboutastasia Palachet. I was pretty
32:10
Speaker 1: shocked today, I must say. She's been appointed as a
32:13
Speaker 1: non executive director to the Board of Australia Post by
32:17
Speaker 1: Communications Minister Michelle Roland, who says Palachet will be quote
32:22
Speaker 1: bring a wealth of experience in service delivery to regional
32:26
Speaker 1: and rural communities really.
32:31
Speaker 11: Well as our mums always have said to us, if
32:35
Speaker 11: you can't say something nice, don't say something at all.
32:38
Speaker 11: But I am on your show and you so I
32:41
Speaker 11: will comment if Australia Posts performance objectives are to increase
32:45
Speaker 11: the head count by say twenty percent, to not worry
32:51
Speaker 11: about balancing the budget or making a profit, well, again,
32:55
Speaker 11: they've got the right person, because as a board member,
33:00
Speaker 11: you know, you've got very important responsibilities and Australia Posts
33:04
Speaker 11: has got very big challenges at the moment. We hear
33:07
Speaker 11: that from them constantly about the reduction in the normal
33:12
Speaker 11: sort of postage, the letter sort of service and have
33:17
Speaker 11: cut that back. Meanwhile the parcel business explores. But seriously,
33:23
Speaker 11: you need serious heavy hitters with commercial focus and business acumen.
33:29
Speaker 11: And I'm sorry but I don't think our former premier
33:32
Speaker 11: actually delivers on that.
33:36
Speaker 1: What would our queens and cousins in regional Queensland and
33:40
Speaker 1: in remote parts of Queensland say about Anastasia Palichet's time
33:45
Speaker 1: in government delivering services to them.
33:50
Speaker 11: Well, you know, when I was in power, we were
33:52
Speaker 11: busy return returning maternal health services and birthing services to
33:57
Speaker 11: the bush, you know, because we wanted women in the
34:02
Speaker 11: regional centers to be able to have their babies close
34:04
Speaker 11: to home instead of having to go to a coastal
34:06
Speaker 11: city in a major hospital. Well that all stopped and
34:09
Speaker 11: has sort of gone backwards, and you know, they don't
34:13
Speaker 11: have a proud track record at all. It's a dismal
34:15
Speaker 11: track record of supporting people with vital services and the
34:20
Speaker 11: health system is probably the major one that comes to mind.
34:22
Speaker 11: So again I find that a rather extraordinary assertion.
34:28
Speaker 1: Just another it seems a job for one of the
34:31
Speaker 1: boys Labor Party dishing out the jobs.
34:35
Speaker 11: Yeah, well I've got to be scrupulously fair on that.
34:38
Speaker 11: You know, both sides of politics engage in that. The
34:42
Speaker 11: LNP certainly did it with the Australia past board, so
34:44
Speaker 11: I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say it
34:46
Speaker 11: hasn't happened. But I do question the credentials of the
34:50
Speaker 11: former premier from a business sense. I mean, she was
34:54
Speaker 11: obviously a very good politicians. She won a number of elections,
34:58
Speaker 11: so she's good at that, but I don't think the
35:00
Speaker 11: commercial credentials which are needed around that board table are there.
35:04
Speaker 1: To see, you're being far too nice, cambeon Newman. Thank
35:08
Speaker 1: you as always always a great pleasure to catch up Cambe,
35:11
Speaker 1: Newman on a Friday night. Now still ahead, local lollipop man.
35:15
Speaker 1: You won't believe this has been told. Don't give high
35:18
Speaker 1: fives to kids on their way to school. It's just
35:21
Speaker 1: another example of crazy councils going too far. And on
35:25
Speaker 1: a more serious note, Iran refusing to back down on
35:27
Speaker 1: retaliation after Hamas leader was killed last month. What it
35:32
Speaker 1: means for tensions in the region. With our expert up next,
35:39
Speaker 1: welcome back to Price with you for a Friday night
35:41
Speaker 1: Tanika de Giorgio as usual coming up shortly with prime Time,
35:45
Speaker 1: But first I want to turn her attention to the
35:47
Speaker 1: Middle East and Iran has again rejected calls to refrain
35:52
Speaker 1: from retaliation for that killing of a Hummas leader in
35:55
Speaker 1: Tehran last month. Now Iran blames Israel, but so far
35:59
Speaker 1: Israel has nother confirm or denied its actual involvement. We
36:03
Speaker 1: are joined on this Friday night by the Director of
36:05
Speaker 1: Strategic Analysis Australia, Michael Schubridge. We seem to be sitting here, Michael,
36:11
Speaker 1: day after day after day with someone suggesting, oh, well,
36:15
Speaker 1: Iran might attack this week. It's not yet happened. What
36:19
Speaker 1: do he thinks behind that?
36:22
Speaker 4: Well?
36:22
Speaker 1: Steve.
36:23
Speaker 12: I think the Iranians are trying to find a Goldilock solution.
36:27
Speaker 12: They can't do nothing because it was shockingly embarrassing to
36:32
Speaker 12: them to have the Hamas leader Hanee killed right in
36:37
Speaker 12: the middle of Tehran under Republican Guard protection. So the
36:40
Speaker 12: Iranian regime needs to do something. But if they do
36:45
Speaker 12: anything that's too aggressive and big, they could well end
36:49
Speaker 12: up with an all out war with Israel on their hands.
36:53
Speaker 12: And I told her Kamena, it doesn't want that. He
36:56
Speaker 12: wants Gazans, Hamas, Lebanese, as Bollah and the Houtis all
37:01
Speaker 12: fighting and dying. He doesn't want an unpopular war involving
37:06
Speaker 12: Iran directly, so.
37:09
Speaker 1: He's happy to fund these terror groups. He's happy for
37:13
Speaker 1: them to be attacked by Israel and for them to
37:16
Speaker 1: attack Israel. It doesn't involve the death of Iranians directly,
37:21
Speaker 1: and I guess it does not threaten the leadership in
37:24
Speaker 1: Iran with an American carrier group sitting off the coast.
37:29
Speaker 12: No, and he's also running a regime that is deeply
37:33
Speaker 12: unpopular at home, and the Iranian population does not want
37:38
Speaker 12: Iran involved in a war against Israel. But his proxies
37:42
Speaker 12: are pretty hard to control. And now that Yaya Simwa
37:46
Speaker 12: is the Hamas leader. Simwa committed those atrocities on the
37:51
Speaker 12: seventh of October to start and all out war, and
37:54
Speaker 12: that's still what he wants.
37:58
Speaker 1: So Israel famously, of course, as the Iron Dome. We
38:01
Speaker 1: saw that several months ago, that burst of action where
38:06
Speaker 1: the Iranians fired off a whole bunch of rockets into Israel.
38:09
Speaker 1: Most of them didn't get anywhere, most of them were drones.
38:13
Speaker 1: If they were to ramp up the level of attack
38:16
Speaker 1: on Israel, what might it be.
38:20
Speaker 12: Well, I think what analysts have looked at is what
38:25
Speaker 12: if there's a larger number of missiles and drones. There
38:28
Speaker 12: was a couple of one hundred back in April, and
38:30
Speaker 12: they were unsuccessful, as you mentioned, But what if they
38:33
Speaker 12: also launch against a wider range of Israeli targets from
38:37
Speaker 12: a wider range of launch areas, including Hazbola's launch areas
38:42
Speaker 12: in Lebanon. So but the problem with that is what
38:46
Speaker 12: if Iran causes more devastation than they want to and
38:52
Speaker 12: that provokes an all out war. That's why I'm calling
38:55
Speaker 12: it a Goldilock strike. It's got to do just enough
38:58
Speaker 12: to damage Israel not enough to provoke an all out war,
39:02
Speaker 12: and I think that's almost an impossible balance for the
39:05
Speaker 12: Iranians to strike.
39:08
Speaker 1: It's just us talk about Ukraine for a moment. I mean,
39:11
Speaker 1: obviously the Ukrainians have gone across into Russian territory. Vladimir
39:15
Speaker 1: Putin's not going to like that. The Russian territory, of course,
39:20
Speaker 1: is now being attacked by Ukraine. Western leaders are probably
39:23
Speaker 1: a bit surprised by that. How much of an embarrassment
39:27
Speaker 1: is this for Putin? What's likely to happen there next?
39:30
Speaker 12: Michael, It's chronically embarrassing. It's not kind of progoes and
39:35
Speaker 12: mutiny level embarrassing, but it really puts the lie to
39:40
Speaker 12: Putin telling his people he's got everything under control. This
39:44
Speaker 12: isn't even a war with Ukraine and some special military operation.
39:47
Speaker 12: Because now the war has come to Russians. Tens of
39:52
Speaker 12: thousands of Russian civilians have either been captured by the
39:56
Speaker 12: Ukrainians and being looked after quite well the civilians, or
40:00
Speaker 12: they've fled from the Ukrainian advance. That is something the
40:05
Speaker 12: Russian population can't help. But knowing so, Putin is looking
40:10
Speaker 12: like he's not in control, and the big thing now
40:14
Speaker 12: is how much does he weaken the Russian forces in
40:20
Speaker 12: Ukraine to protect what's now a vulnerable Russian border.
40:26
Speaker 1: It's a very very dangerous part time for the world,
40:29
Speaker 1: I know. I thank you very much for your time tonight, Michael,
40:32
Speaker 1: Michael Shubridge. They're assessing that for us and who knows
40:36
Speaker 1: where we're going to go? Well, coming up next, Donald
40:37
Speaker 1: Trump's had a bizarre media conference today. He was surrounded
40:42
Speaker 1: by groceries. I'll get to that with my panel up next.
40:51
Speaker 1: Welcome Ack Toleep Price with you. Let's bring in my
40:53
Speaker 1: Friday panel, Sky News contributor Gary Hargrave and Small Business
40:57
Speaker 1: Women Australia founder Amanda Great to have you both now.
41:01
Speaker 1: In my long career talking about stupid people, local councils
41:07
Speaker 1: have often featured very highly, but I think we've got
41:11
Speaker 1: one here gang that can take the biscuits. The Yarrow
41:16
Speaker 1: Rangers Council happens to be in Victoria, socialist state of Victoria.
41:20
Speaker 1: It's backtracked apparently. It's condemnation of a beloved lollipop man. Yes,
41:26
Speaker 1: you heard me write, a lollipop man after he was
41:29
Speaker 1: instructed not to high five children as they cross the
41:32
Speaker 1: road on the way to school. The ban has sparked
41:34
Speaker 1: a widespread outrage and a petition following the anonymous complaint
41:39
Speaker 1: to the council. One complaint, not even the kids could
41:42
Speaker 1: make any sense of the ban. Here they are in
41:55
Speaker 1: a statement today. Apparently we haven't got that grab. The
41:58
Speaker 1: council now says they in courage school crossing supervisors to
42:03
Speaker 1: maintain their important friendly engagement and connection with children. Amanda thoughts, Please.
42:12
Speaker 13: Look, you're probably not going to like this.
42:15
Speaker 1: I what I don't like.
42:17
Speaker 13: No, no, Well, look, what I don't like is if
42:20
Speaker 13: a child feels obligated to do the high five, because
42:23
Speaker 13: you know that whole you know, say hello to that person,
42:26
Speaker 13: give that person a kiss, hug that person.
42:28
Speaker 1: Be nice.
42:29
Speaker 13: And I want children to be able to say no,
42:31
Speaker 13: I don't feel comfortable doing it, and they don't have to.
42:33
Speaker 13: But the option is there because often a person in power,
42:37
Speaker 13: someone who's older, they might think, oh I have to
42:40
Speaker 13: do this, and they might not be comfortable with that.
42:41
Speaker 13: So I think it should be the child's choice whether
42:43
Speaker 13: they want to.
42:45
Speaker 14: But I know, but I.
42:46
Speaker 1: Still they didn't.
42:48
Speaker 13: Have that's fine while they're children. So I think that
42:51
Speaker 13: there's a mix here. Yes, we should engage in you
42:54
Speaker 13: to be friendly and all of that, but also think
42:55
Speaker 13: children should feel comfortable be able to say yeah, I
42:58
Speaker 13: don't want to do that, because that would have been
42:59
Speaker 13: me as a child.
43:00
Speaker 1: Gary, Gary, We'd give Amanda one week off and look
43:03
Speaker 1: what's happened to him.
43:07
Speaker 14: Well, look, I'm not talking about a man who want
43:10
Speaker 14: to make this point, but I've been saying for a
43:12
Speaker 14: long time that the biggest growth industry in Australia are
43:16
Speaker 14: those who want to be offended on behalf of others.
43:18
Speaker 14: So one person makes a complaint, the counsel has to
43:20
Speaker 14: look into it because apparently technically in the rules there's
43:22
Speaker 14: not meant to be physically an interaction between the lollipop
43:26
Speaker 14: person and those who are being lollipopped. But I just worry,
43:32
Speaker 14: just to take it a step further, the stupidity of it, Steve,
43:35
Speaker 14: without doubt, absolutely insane, but technically correct, but absolutely insane.
43:41
Speaker 14: But kids have got to learn how to cross the
43:42
Speaker 14: road safety safely. And you know, look at the left,
43:45
Speaker 14: look to the right, look to the right, sorry, look
43:47
Speaker 14: to the right, then look to the left, then look
43:49
Speaker 14: to the right again, Walk quickly across the road, never run.
43:53
Speaker 14: And so I always thought the lollipop person was there
43:56
Speaker 14: to create a safe zone to actually allow those kids
43:59
Speaker 14: to kind of learn that rule. And we're taking kids
44:02
Speaker 14: away from those simple lessons that we had to learn
44:05
Speaker 14: before lollipops were out there when I was a kid.
44:07
Speaker 14: So I think there's a there's a kind of let's
44:10
Speaker 14: have a review of how this whole thing works kind
44:13
Speaker 14: of mentality there. But yeah, a ranger's council need to
44:17
Speaker 14: go and fix up a few potholes and collect a
44:19
Speaker 14: bit of rubbish.
44:19
Speaker 1: I reckon, Yeah, you've both lost me. I mean, leave
44:22
Speaker 1: the lollipop men alone, for God's sake. Let's talk about
44:25
Speaker 1: American politics here. Next one, Americans are also Americans are
44:30
Speaker 1: also battling high food prices, cost of living, all that stuff.
44:34
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's given a bizarre press conference today, was surrounded
44:37
Speaker 1: with groceries while having a whack at Kamala Harris have
44:40
Speaker 1: a look at this. Their infletion Reduction Act, by the way,
44:44
Speaker 1: was a disaster. It's what caused the inflation. Now, Kamala's
44:48
Speaker 1: reportedly proposing communists praise control. She wants praise controls and
44:53
Speaker 1: if they work, Dad go along with her too. But
44:55
Speaker 1: they don't work.
44:56
Speaker 11: She's in there now, she could do anything she wants,
44:59
Speaker 11: and she's still saying, if you elect me, I'll do this,
45:01
Speaker 11: I'll do Why didn't she do it?
45:04
Speaker 1: Boy, It's going to be a long couple of months.
45:06
Speaker 1: I mean, next Tuesday, live here on Sky seven in
45:08
Speaker 1: the morning Eastern you'll get the Democrat Convention out of Chicago.
45:13
Speaker 1: Amanda Kamala Harris has made a big comeback. You'd have
45:18
Speaker 1: to say Donald Trump is probably now not beaten, but
45:21
Speaker 1: on the back foot.
45:23
Speaker 13: Yes, Look, he makes a good point in the sense
45:25
Speaker 13: of she's in now, so why aren't you making these
45:29
Speaker 13: very important changes right now to help people? So that
45:32
Speaker 13: is factual, and people need to face facts that the
45:36
Speaker 13: person they voted for is actually destroying the country. What
45:39
Speaker 13: Trump needs to stop doing is attacking the person individually
45:43
Speaker 13: and really focus more on the policies and also what
45:46
Speaker 13: he will do that is different. So when I'm in
45:50
Speaker 13: I will do this. He needs to give people hope
45:52
Speaker 13: and a vision rather than just beating on the person
45:55
Speaker 13: that's currently there.
45:57
Speaker 1: Gary I reckon he just needs to continue to talk
46:00
Speaker 1: about the leaky border and the fact that the trade
46:04
Speaker 1: differences between China and America put America in a weakest place.
46:08
Speaker 1: He's just got to concentrate on a couple of things.
46:10
Speaker 1: Stop rambling.
46:13
Speaker 14: Well, look, you're quite right, Steve. But at least he
46:15
Speaker 14: gave a media conference. This bloke at least did what
46:18
Speaker 14: an hour and forty five in front of the assembled media.
46:21
Speaker 14: He talked across a whole lot of stuff, some of
46:23
Speaker 14: it anecdotal to guys as showman, but you know, he
46:26
Speaker 14: was talking about real things that affect people on the
46:29
Speaker 14: kitchen table, and I wreck a lot of people in
46:30
Speaker 14: America would have been saying, is my box of cereal
46:32
Speaker 14: on the table with him? I mean, here is the
46:35
Speaker 14: bloke who said, you know where it will be sent
46:37
Speaker 14: to jail if we were to kill a bald eagle.
46:40
Speaker 14: But we've got wind turbines running around the country butchering
46:43
Speaker 14: them to death. He called it the bird cemeteries of
46:46
Speaker 14: America at the foot of all these wind turbines. So
46:49
Speaker 14: he's actually declared war on green energy. So as far
46:51
Speaker 14: as I'm concerned, everything else doesn't matter. He's got to
46:55
Speaker 14: be the bloke we've got to get into office because
46:57
Speaker 14: we've got to kill off this green climate conn and
47:00
Speaker 14: this is the bloke that can do it. And save
47:02
Speaker 14: us all. Frankly, so, at least he's done a media conference.
47:06
Speaker 14: How she's in the basement. She won't even talk to
47:08
Speaker 14: the media. She's got to be joking.
47:11
Speaker 1: Now I'm a little lucky and I'm a little reluctant
47:13
Speaker 1: to go here, given Amanda's start this evening, I want
47:15
Speaker 1: to talk about ray Gun, the break dancing Olympian. Now
47:21
Speaker 1: she's copped it. I just asked a question, Amanda. I'm
47:26
Speaker 1: not for completely bagging it, but she was awful. She
47:29
Speaker 1: didn't know how to break dance. I don't know how
47:31
Speaker 1: she ever got there. But why is it suddenly impossible
47:35
Speaker 1: to criticize someone for doing something badly.
47:39
Speaker 13: I think the issue here is obviously shouldn't have been
47:42
Speaker 13: at the Olympics because there are other people that were better,
47:44
Speaker 13: and that's one issue. I think the second issue is
47:46
Speaker 13: that there's a lot of people that jumped on a
47:48
Speaker 13: bandwagon and shown a lot of hate, and that's just
47:50
Speaker 13: you know, that's social media. I'm quite surprised that she
47:54
Speaker 13: was surprised by the hate because it's everywhere, all the time, endlessly.
47:58
Speaker 13: So I don't believe in hating on someone for any
48:01
Speaker 13: reason at all, and a threatening them, but also I
48:04
Speaker 13: think it needs to be looked at of why she
48:05
Speaker 13: actually was there over someone else who was better.
48:09
Speaker 1: Gas. What do you reckon?
48:12
Speaker 14: Well, I'm sick of talking about her, to be honest, mate,
48:14
Speaker 14: I've done a couple of days of radio on four
48:16
Speaker 14: BC here in Brisbane. I'm sick of talking about it.
48:18
Speaker 14: I'd much rather talk about that girl Arissa True from
48:22
Speaker 14: the Gold Coast that did skateboarding. So this is your
48:24
Speaker 14: thought on anti social activity and she just blew everybody
48:28
Speaker 14: out of the park. Fourteen years and eighty six days old,
48:32
Speaker 14: won a gold medal, and she's got to get an
48:33
Speaker 14: Order of Australia. She's got to get one because she's
48:36
Speaker 14: a gold middle She.
48:38
Speaker 1: Was a star. She was an absolute star. Gary, Amanda,
48:41
Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us. We'll have you
48:43
Speaker 1: both back next week. Fear not coming up next to
48:46
Speaker 1: Nika De Giorgio is with you and I'll talk to
48:49
Speaker 1: you next Friday night.