Transcript

Credlin | 21 April · Credlin

0:01
Speaker 1: Peter Krandlin live on sky Ingins Australia.
0:07
Speaker 2: You are a Fibercris Kenny pretending you went to school
0:09
Speaker 2: in the eighties. You went to school in the seventies
0:12
Speaker 2: as I did as well. Good evening, Welcome to the program.
0:15
Speaker 2: Here's what's coming up to night on Kredline. Clearly running
0:17
Speaker 2: scared left wing activist group get up or they're pulling
0:21
Speaker 2: out all stops in the race in Farah, spending six
0:24
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars plus with attack ads targeting one nation.
0:28
Speaker 2: So does this mean the teal Michelle Millthorpe's in trouble?
0:32
Speaker 2: Looks that way? The UK trans woman doctor so a
0:35
Speaker 2: biological male now registered in Australia as a female medical practitioner.
0:41
Speaker 2: The doctor describes biological sex as a nebulous dog whistle.
0:45
Speaker 2: Yet our peak licensing body has just registered doctor Beth
0:50
Speaker 2: Upton to work here as a female. More on this
0:54
Speaker 2: in a moment plus Live to London, kirst Arma hang
0:57
Speaker 2: on by a thread, throwing his staff under the bars.
1:00
Speaker 2: This is over the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal. I'll get
1:04
Speaker 2: the latest and who could be his replacement? And the
1:08
Speaker 2: King's heartfelt tribute to the late Queen who today would
1:12
Speaker 2: have turned one hundred. Another date in history too, twenty
1:16
Speaker 2: years ago that Australia was declared debt free. But boy,
1:21
Speaker 2: how far we've fallen since then.
1:24
Speaker 1: Other than this being a gift to generations of future Austrains,
1:27
Speaker 1: we're now we've now borrowed at trillion dollars, a thousand.
1:30
Speaker 2: Billius, a thousand.
1:32
Speaker 1: We're celebrating debt free Day with a debt of a
1:36
Speaker 1: thousand billion, a trillion dollars.
1:40
Speaker 2: We'll stick with that interview. It's coming out Peter Costello
1:43
Speaker 2: with me tonight. That landmark anniversary today, But it's one
1:48
Speaker 2: that won't bring you any joy. In fact, it is
1:50
Speaker 2: likely to just anger everyone who feels it as a country,
1:54
Speaker 2: we're squandering our luck and just managing our decline. Today
1:58
Speaker 2: April twenty one marks years since Australia achieve the rare
2:02
Speaker 2: distinction of being debt free, or, as more accurately expressed,
2:07
Speaker 2: of having no net commonwealth debt. Now, few countries on
2:11
Speaker 2: Earth could even aspire to this aim, and fewer yet
2:15
Speaker 2: could achieve it, but we did.
2:18
Speaker 3: Mister speaker.
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Speaker 4: We have now eliminated the ninety six billion dollars of
2:23
Speaker 4: net debt that Labor left the Australian government when it
2:26
Speaker 4: left office. Now the Australian government is debt free in
2:30
Speaker 4: net terms. We do not have to collect taxes to
2:33
Speaker 4: pay the government interest bill.
2:37
Speaker 2: As the then treasure Repeta Costello told me in an
2:39
Speaker 2: exclusive interview that well are a little later. Paying off
2:43
Speaker 2: Labour's debt was hard work and it required real discipline,
2:47
Speaker 2: but it was in his words, about generational fairness. He
2:51
Speaker 2: did not believe that future generations should be saddled with
2:54
Speaker 2: ninety six billion dollars of debt, because every dollar spent
2:58
Speaker 2: paying back interest on that debt was a dollar that
3:01
Speaker 2: couldn't be spent on your hospitals, roads, fighter jets or
3:05
Speaker 2: life saving drugs needed today, just like it is for
3:09
Speaker 2: those of us with a mortgage. Governments pay interests too,
3:13
Speaker 2: and their interest, like ours, is dead money. That it
3:17
Speaker 2: took the Howard government a decade to payoff ninety six billion,
3:22
Speaker 2: it's sobering, to say the least, because Australia's debt tonight
3:26
Speaker 2: stands at nine hundred and ninety seven billion. Now, well
3:31
Speaker 2: we ever see it paid off again. Do you think
3:33
Speaker 2: that Albert Easy or Charmers or Finance minister caated Gallagher,
3:38
Speaker 2: are up to it?
3:39
Speaker 5: You said there's been one hundred and fourteen billion dollars
3:42
Speaker 5: of savings across your budgets. Is that net savings or
3:45
Speaker 5: gross savings?
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Speaker 6: Well, it's savings and reprioritizing, so we're saving and then
3:54
Speaker 6: real essentially to offset new priorities.
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Speaker 5: So you say that's nets of spending decisions. You reduced
4:03
Speaker 5: expenditure of one hundred and fourteen billion.
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Speaker 2: It's a grace figure.
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Speaker 3: It's gross, right, What is the net figure?
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Speaker 6: I don't have that available.
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Speaker 3: Is it positive or negative?
4:18
Speaker 6: Well, I just don't have that figure.
4:23
Speaker 2: Growth, debt, net dead which column can't add up getting
4:27
Speaker 2: the answers from the officials at the table. Are they
4:30
Speaker 2: as good as Costello? Can they payback this debt? I
4:34
Speaker 2: think we all know the answer to that one. Don't
4:36
Speaker 2: we look Victoria again and out of control crime. We
4:44
Speaker 2: could talk about this every night because home invasion, stabbings, carpeffs,
4:49
Speaker 2: car jackings, mashety attacks, violent assaults or they happen with
4:53
Speaker 2: about that much frequency in Victoria. Last night I showed
4:57
Speaker 2: you footage of brawling young thugs on the stree streets
5:00
Speaker 2: of Oakleigh as families tried to have a night out
5:03
Speaker 2: in the suburbs, but tonight images that will bring a
5:07
Speaker 2: chill and a warning. This footage can be quite disturbing.
5:11
Speaker 2: Scenes that look like they're straight out of the Middle East.
5:15
Speaker 2: Masked youths hanging out of a vehicle as they hunt
5:18
Speaker 2: down a teen on the streets of Port Melbourne. Now
5:21
Speaker 2: this is in broad daylight, about a kilometer from the
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Speaker 2: Melbourne CBD and when they catch the teen, they violently
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Speaker 2: beat him with a sledgehammer. A kid, you not now,
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Speaker 2: As I said, this is Port Melbourne at three point
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Speaker 2: thirty pm yesterday. Now I'm going to play it again
5:41
Speaker 2: because I want you to understand just how bad things
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Speaker 2: are on the streets of Melbourne. Because if you're like me,
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Speaker 2: I watched those images earlier today and I seriously thought
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Speaker 2: they must be from overseas, that this could not be Australia.
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Speaker 2: And I'm not alone. A week witness who watched the
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Speaker 2: attack told the Herald Son this was something like you
6:05
Speaker 2: would see in Baghdad and they are not wrong. By
6:09
Speaker 2: the time the police turned up, the gang and the
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Speaker 2: beaten teen had fled the scene. Police now appealing via
6:16
Speaker 2: crime Stoppers for more information, but in a state where
6:20
Speaker 2: police stations are closed or on reduced hours because the
6:24
Speaker 2: government's running out of money and they're giving away free
6:28
Speaker 2: public transport under the guise of responding to a fuel crisis,
6:31
Speaker 2: but in reality desperately trying to buy votes ahead of
6:35
Speaker 2: the Novemba state election. This is just unacceptable. Now, I
6:40
Speaker 2: hate to say it, I was born in this state,
6:43
Speaker 2: but Victoria is broken and no surprises. In data released
6:48
Speaker 2: today by the Bureau of Statistics, Victorians on average are
6:52
Speaker 2: paying more tax than anyone else in the country, just
6:56
Speaker 2: over thirty one thousand dollars each typical median wage in Australia.
7:02
Speaker 2: Well that's just sixty five thousand dollars. So if you're
7:06
Speaker 2: earning sixty five thousand, thirty one thousand in tax, that's
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Speaker 2: a big whack. Now, Victoria is a state that's drowning
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Speaker 2: in debt. It's riddled with crime, and those that can
7:19
Speaker 2: leave are leaving those that can't or they just worry
7:24
Speaker 2: that someone they love will be hurt next. And now
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Speaker 2: to this that yet another example where to be a
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Speaker 2: woman in this country under the way labor treats women
7:38
Speaker 2: is to be going backwards. Labor under Julia Gillard Gutter
7:42
Speaker 2: the Sex Discrimination Act Labor under Julia Gillard removed the
7:47
Speaker 2: word woman from the Act and ever since our rights
7:52
Speaker 2: as women have been under attack, under siege. At a
7:56
Speaker 2: state level. In Victoria, any man can go online tonight
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Speaker 2: change their birth certificate, declare that they are a woman,
8:03
Speaker 2: and get a new one posted out to them in
8:05
Speaker 2: a matter of days, and that will then give them
8:07
Speaker 2: access to every space that used to be reserved to us,
8:13
Speaker 2: like our toilets and our change rooms in other states.
8:17
Speaker 2: If you live there, you know better off now as
8:20
Speaker 2: a woman. I know that many of us prefer to
8:23
Speaker 2: see a female doctor. But what happens now when a
8:27
Speaker 2: male not only can say he's a female doctor, but
8:31
Speaker 2: can actually get registered as one. Now, this is a
8:35
Speaker 2: crazy world we are in tonight with reports at Australia's
8:39
Speaker 2: Medical regulator has registered doctor Beth Upton, a UK transgender doctor,
8:46
Speaker 2: as a female licensed to practice medicine in this country. Now. Upton,
8:52
Speaker 2: who described the concept of biological sex as quote a
8:56
Speaker 2: nebulous dog whistle, claims to be biological female on the
9:01
Speaker 2: basis that she says, I'm not a robot, so I
9:04
Speaker 2: am biological and my identity is female now for someone
9:11
Speaker 2: who claims they've got the qualifications to practice medicine, This
9:15
Speaker 2: rejection of biological science is alarming, but not as alarming
9:19
Speaker 2: as the fact reported by The Australian's Rachel Baxendale that
9:23
Speaker 2: Australia's medical licensing body, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency OPERA,
9:30
Speaker 2: registered doctor Beth Upden as an emergency medicine trainee on
9:34
Speaker 2: the ninth of April, listing the medic sex as female.
9:39
Speaker 2: Now because of this registration, Upden, who's also embroiled in
9:43
Speaker 2: a controversial legal fight back in the UK, is now
9:47
Speaker 2: permitted to work under supervision in Australia, working at both
9:52
Speaker 2: the Port Macquarie and Kempsey Hospitals on the New South
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Speaker 2: Wales Mid North Coast. Now, Baxendale's to OPERA, asking if
10:02
Speaker 2: the regulator believes it's appropriate to register biological male medical
10:07
Speaker 2: practitioners as female and to allow them to treat vulnerable
10:11
Speaker 2: patients who have specifically requested a female doctor now. The
10:16
Speaker 2: response that she's got back just confirms that Upton holds
10:21
Speaker 2: provisional registration, but it fails to address the questions that
10:26
Speaker 2: Baxendale asked around the rights of female patients to a
10:30
Speaker 2: doctor of their own sects. Last week I spoke with
10:35
Speaker 2: Nicole Mowbray, the spokeswoman for the lesbian advocacy group that
10:40
Speaker 2: recently won a case in the Federal Court regarding their
10:42
Speaker 2: right to hold events for biological women only, and we
10:47
Speaker 2: spoke about Gillard's change to the law, the stripping away
10:51
Speaker 2: of the rights of women, and she agreed that it
10:54
Speaker 2: must be overturned.
10:57
Speaker 6: So how can you protect sex rights when you don't
11:01
Speaker 6: have a definition. You need to define what you're protecting
11:05
Speaker 6: in order for the legislation to work, and that's part
11:08
Speaker 6: of the big falldown of what's happened. So absolutely I
11:10
Speaker 6: think that they need to be defined adequately in order
11:15
Speaker 6: to protect sex based rights.
11:19
Speaker 2: The Labor Party can crow all that likes about the
11:22
Speaker 2: first female is so the first female that, But when
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Speaker 2: their first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, guts women's rights,
11:32
Speaker 2: you don't get a free past Labor in public life.
11:36
Speaker 2: It's not your chromosome's account, it's your character, all right,
11:44
Speaker 2: let's get headlines now, Skinney's political reporter Judy McIntosh.
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Speaker 7: The Prime Minister is facing growing pressure from the Labor
11:50
Speaker 7: backbench to make the gas giants pay more tax.
11:53
Speaker 8: To be honest, we should stick up for our own country.
11:57
Speaker 3: We should get a better deal.
11:58
Speaker 9: Well, I'd just say to eat here.
12:00
Speaker 2: Do you want to shut down the gas industry in
12:02
Speaker 2: this country?
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Speaker 10: And do you want to have no fuel security in
12:04
Speaker 10: this country?
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Speaker 7: The gas industry has long argued a new tax would
12:08
Speaker 7: jeopardize investment, a.
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Speaker 10: Self serving claim by an industry that has done exceedingly well.
12:14
Speaker 7: As Cabinet weighs up its decision, the Western Australian Premier
12:18
Speaker 7: tells the Prime Minister it's a bad idea, no don't.
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Speaker 11: I don't support it, but I understand that that it's
12:25
Speaker 11: from many people. It seems like an attractive proposition, but
12:28
Speaker 11: I don't think it'd be good for Western Australia and
12:30
Speaker 11: I've made those views clear to the Prime Minister.
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Speaker 7: And tomorrow the Health Minister will unveil the major savings
12:36
Speaker 7: to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The NDIES is on
12:39
Speaker 7: track to cost tax payers more than fifty billion dollars
12:42
Speaker 7: this year.
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Speaker 11: It's an important national program, but it's one that has
12:46
Speaker 11: got galloping costs associated with it.
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Speaker 12: Well, it's about bloody time.
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Speaker 10: I mean, why is it taken the government four years
12:53
Speaker 10: to get to this point, to realize its own budget
12:56
Speaker 10: is spiraling out of control.
12:58
Speaker 7: And later this week the Prime is will hold another
13:01
Speaker 7: national cabinet with states on the fuel crisis. Trudy McIntosh
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Speaker 7: Sky News Canberra, all.
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Speaker 2: Right, let's stay with camera joining me now. Skar's political
13:10
Speaker 2: editor Andrew Clanel will start with the NDS and I
13:14
Speaker 2: will say if you missed Chris Kenny's interview this afternoon
13:17
Speaker 2: with Linda Reynolds, who's a former minister for the NDS,
13:21
Speaker 2: is a much watch because a lot of what she
13:23
Speaker 2: said they're on the record about the history here. I
13:26
Speaker 2: think plenty of people have forgotten. Tomorrow we're going to
13:29
Speaker 2: get this speech by Mark Butler, he's the Health Minister.
13:32
Speaker 2: They're going to reign it in. They say they'll get
13:34
Speaker 2: growth down to just five percent. It's currently running over
13:38
Speaker 2: ten percent, but I mean five percent is still more
13:41
Speaker 2: than inflation. Andrew, you know something's coming right because lay
13:46
Speaker 2: was given the green light to all of these backbenches
13:49
Speaker 2: to go out there and demand change. The worry I've
13:53
Speaker 2: got is I think the NDEs has fast become a
13:56
Speaker 2: bit of a byword for waste roots and corruption when
14:00
Speaker 2: it should be something we support for the most profoundly
14:03
Speaker 2: disabled but no one else. But there's got to get
14:06
Speaker 2: fed inkhim tomorrow, doesn't he Yeah.
14:08
Speaker 9: He does, and I'm my understanding as he will. But
14:11
Speaker 9: I still haven't heard anything other than they're trying to
14:14
Speaker 9: get it to a fort to five percent annual growth rate.
14:17
Speaker 9: So they're not sort of flattening out the cost of
14:20
Speaker 9: that scheme, which we think is already blown out. But
14:23
Speaker 9: the rumor is maybe psychological supports will be taken out
14:26
Speaker 9: of the scheme. That would make a big difference. But
14:30
Speaker 9: the issue is, is it just a cost shift to
14:32
Speaker 9: the states. If the states pick it up some of
14:35
Speaker 9: this stuff, what's the difference. It's still taxpayer money, you know,
14:38
Speaker 9: it's still a drain on the budget. So I think
14:42
Speaker 9: it's a must watch this speech tomorrow. Are they fed
14:44
Speaker 9: income or not? People tell me they are. And it's
14:47
Speaker 9: the biggest savings in the budget. Let's see, and let's
14:51
Speaker 9: see if it's more spin because you know, this government
14:53
Speaker 9: has had a lot of spin around savings and so forth,
14:56
Speaker 9: when you know, they got pretty lucky with the economic
14:59
Speaker 9: conditions in flo and mining drove their surpluses to a
15:03
Speaker 9: large extent. They found some savings, but many would are
15:05
Speaker 9: you not enough? It's such a big part of GDP
15:09
Speaker 9: still government spending the biggest ever, So I think it's
15:13
Speaker 9: a litmus test. And obviously when we went to the
15:18
Speaker 9: election campaign, it was pretty clear that they needed to
15:21
Speaker 9: be either spending cuts or higher taxes, and we go
15:24
Speaker 9: through this charade of everyone saying we're doing neither, but
15:28
Speaker 9: anyone looked at those forty billon dollar deficits are going well,
15:31
Speaker 9: of course they're going to have to do something about
15:33
Speaker 9: the NDIS, And now we think they're going to do something,
15:36
Speaker 9: although it doesn't sound that large on capital gains tax.
15:41
Speaker 2: How much do you think they're going to use cover
15:45
Speaker 2: the cover of Iran as they use the cover of
15:48
Speaker 2: Ukraine to sort of dodge the hard decisions.
15:53
Speaker 9: Well, on spending you shouldn't, right because you've got an
15:58
Speaker 9: inflation problem. So I don't think you can douct dodge
16:02
Speaker 9: a hard decision on spending like the NDIS. But on
16:05
Speaker 9: tax those enthusiasts in the Labor Party who probably want
16:09
Speaker 9: Albanezi to go further than he wants to, Albanzi can
16:13
Speaker 9: use this to not go that far. And with some justification,
16:17
Speaker 9: whether it be on negative gearing or broader sweeping capital
16:19
Speaker 9: gains tax changes. So I think that kind of might
16:23
Speaker 9: help him politically and might help the tax payer as well.
16:27
Speaker 9: The test really is around spending, because it makes sense
16:30
Speaker 9: to curve spending not just from a federal budget position,
16:34
Speaker 9: but also from an inflation position. But look, I think
16:38
Speaker 9: if the war goes on and on, Peter, we got
16:40
Speaker 9: real problems here because you know, I'm staying to hear
16:43
Speaker 9: things about and I've mentioned this on my show this afternoon,
16:48
Speaker 9: and it'd obviously been modeling every scenario. But they are
16:50
Speaker 9: modeling petrol rationing, is what I've been told. No one's
16:53
Speaker 9: denying it, and they are cognizant that, you know, a
16:58
Speaker 9: couple of months time we might see domestic and international
17:01
Speaker 9: flights having to be canceled. I mean, that's the world
17:04
Speaker 9: we could end up in if the straits of Hormus
17:07
Speaker 9: stay shut. So in budget week, all I'm saying is
17:11
Speaker 9: there might be bigger considerations than the budget by then.
17:16
Speaker 2: You know, we talked about the Prime Minister flying around
17:18
Speaker 2: the region, you know, out of that chip to Malaysia,
17:21
Speaker 2: all he got was equivalent of one day diesel supply
17:26
Speaker 2: for Australia. Was it worth it?
17:29
Speaker 8: Oh?
17:29
Speaker 3: Probably?
17:30
Speaker 9: I mean, you know, at the moment it were we
17:34
Speaker 9: go thirty nine to forty days or forty five to
17:37
Speaker 9: forty six days, everything's all win. I mean I don't.
17:41
Speaker 9: I don't really bag him that much for that is
17:43
Speaker 9: could you say? It's an exercise in spin, probably to
17:46
Speaker 9: some extent, and he flies to Viva and.
17:48
Speaker 2: Somehow photos mate, it was all about the phono whip.
17:51
Speaker 2: He could have done all of that on the fight.
17:52
Speaker 2: If it was only a day's worth of fuel, he
17:55
Speaker 2: could have saved himself the time and effort. He could
17:57
Speaker 2: have done all of that on zoom. It could have
17:59
Speaker 2: secure with the supply and set our message to Australians
18:03
Speaker 2: that you know, it's not do as I say, but
18:05
Speaker 2: not as I do. You know that he was pulling
18:07
Speaker 2: his head in well.
18:09
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean they got the fertilizer from Indonesia without
18:12
Speaker 9: a Visit could be the point you'd make, right, I mean.
18:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's the point of having depots? Right?
18:18
Speaker 9: I just think we got big aggrecia that trip. But yes,
18:21
Speaker 9: go on, please.
18:22
Speaker 2: Let's go to Pharah. Pharah. We've got the get up
18:25
Speaker 2: activist group out there. They were very quiet at the
18:29
Speaker 2: last federal election. They're going to spend six hundred thousand
18:32
Speaker 2: in this one seat alone, which is more than their
18:36
Speaker 2: entire budget for the federal election last May. They're targeting Hanson.
18:41
Speaker 2: They're going hard about connections regarding Trump and the war
18:45
Speaker 2: in Iran, her support obviously for what he's doing. There
18:48
Speaker 2: a lot of talk about fuel and fertilizer costs. Cos
18:53
Speaker 2: Samaras had this to say about the attack ADS a
18:56
Speaker 2: little earlier.
18:58
Speaker 13: Their target would be the sort of voters that we're
19:00
Speaker 13: seeing across our research that respond to this sort of treatment.
19:06
Speaker 13: That is largely people who are small sea conservatives who
19:11
Speaker 13: you know.
19:11
Speaker 3: Are clearly not fans of Trump.
19:13
Speaker 13: And what we call red one nation vote is that
19:16
Speaker 13: he's people who are former Labor Party voters who are
19:19
Speaker 13: voting for one nation. So this treatment will in some
19:23
Speaker 13: way work for the independent, but amongst the cohort that
19:28
Speaker 13: should still be voting for her.
19:31
Speaker 2: Okay, so you've got climb in two hundred raising a
19:33
Speaker 2: million dollars for the tier in that seat, You've now
19:35
Speaker 2: got six hundred k being wheeled in forget up. Does
19:40
Speaker 2: that tell you she's in a bit of trouble.
19:44
Speaker 9: Yeah, well, I am. Everyone's painting it as this one
19:49
Speaker 9: nation versus Teal contest, and I guess in the polls
19:52
Speaker 9: that's what's most likely. But it wouldn't it be funny
19:56
Speaker 9: if get Up actually helped the Libs here by depressing
19:59
Speaker 9: the one nation vote. I mean, that's the first possibility
20:02
Speaker 9: I see out of this story.
20:05
Speaker 3: That would be.
20:06
Speaker 9: That would be the biggest siroonny of them all, wouldn't it.
20:10
Speaker 9: The Left has a bigger enemy than the Liberal Party, now, Peter,
20:14
Speaker 9: isn't that interesting?
20:15
Speaker 2: That won't last long. I'm sure they'll sharpen up their run.
20:19
Speaker 2: There's spears for the Liberal Party.
20:21
Speaker 3: I don't know.
20:22
Speaker 9: I mean, I don't think this one nation I mean
20:24
Speaker 9: had dropped a couple of points, so what I think
20:27
Speaker 9: it's going to be at least the high teens come
20:29
Speaker 9: election time, unless they completely blow up somehow.
20:33
Speaker 2: We will see stranger things have happened, and you now
20:36
Speaker 2: will leave it there. Look after the break twenty years
20:39
Speaker 2: today since the Commonwealth of Australia was officially declared debt free. Boy,
20:44
Speaker 2: we're falling fast in sand, haven't we? Almost a trillion
20:46
Speaker 2: dollars in debt tonight in just two decades. It's gonna
20:50
Speaker 2: sit down with Peter Costello coming up, we'll go back still.
20:58
Speaker 2: The calm storm clouds in the UK a Kirs Starmer's
21:01
Speaker 2: Prime ministership as he attempts to shift blame from his
21:04
Speaker 2: staff to now the Foreign Office, anyone but himself, but first,
21:10
Speaker 2: As Jim Chalmers prepares to deliver his fifth federal budget
21:13
Speaker 2: in a climate of rising inflation, low productivity, and debt
21:18
Speaker 2: about to soar to one trillion dollars for the first
21:21
Speaker 2: time in Australia's history, there's an extraordinary milestone today that
21:25
Speaker 2: we cannot let pass without special attention, because just two
21:30
Speaker 2: decades ago our budget position was something that was envied
21:34
Speaker 2: the world over. Now few countries in history can say
21:38
Speaker 2: that they are or were debt free. But that's where
21:42
Speaker 2: we stood on the twenty first of April two thousand
21:45
Speaker 2: and six, a nation with no net commonwealth debt, running surplus, budgets,
21:51
Speaker 2: inflation under control, productivity strong, and a new future fund
21:56
Speaker 2: to boot in just twenty years. It's criminal how far
22:01
Speaker 2: and fast things have deteriorated. Peter Costello remains the nation's
22:05
Speaker 2: longest serving treasurer, presiding over thirteen budgets and instilling a
22:10
Speaker 2: budget discipline within the Howard government that even today is legendary.
22:16
Speaker 2: Now I sat down with him to reflect on this
22:18
Speaker 2: historic achievement, his legacy as Treasurer, of his reflections on
22:23
Speaker 2: the current state of the books and the serious economic
22:26
Speaker 2: challenges we face as a nation, the honor of the.
22:30
Speaker 4: Treasurer, Mister Speaker, we have now eliminated the ninety six
22:35
Speaker 4: billion dollars of net debt that Labor left the Australian
22:39
Speaker 4: government when it left office. Our budget is in surplus
22:44
Speaker 4: for the ninth time in ten years, a four car
22:47
Speaker 4: surplus in two thousand and sixty seven of ten point
22:51
Speaker 4: eight billion dollars. Now the Australian government is dead free
22:56
Speaker 4: in net terms. We do not have to collect taxes
22:59
Speaker 4: to pay the government interest bill. We are saving over
23:03
Speaker 4: eight billion dollars in annual interest payments.
23:08
Speaker 3: Peter cost, Hello, welcome, Thank you very much.
23:11
Speaker 2: The twenty first of April marks a remarkable anniversary. It's
23:17
Speaker 2: twenty years since Australity what so few countries in the
23:21
Speaker 2: world have been able to do, and that's to pay
23:23
Speaker 2: off the debt, to be in a position of no
23:26
Speaker 2: net commonwealth and debt. Take us back to the ninety
23:29
Speaker 2: six election. When you walk into the Treasurer's office on
23:32
Speaker 2: the first day you inherit that budget black hole from labor.
23:37
Speaker 2: What went through your mind? How did you tackle it?
23:40
Speaker 1: Well, of course it was a big shock to everybody
23:43
Speaker 1: because we've been led to believe the state of the
23:45
Speaker 1: books were much better than they were. So the bad news.
23:49
Speaker 1: The good news was election. The bad news was the
23:51
Speaker 1: Monday morning. The situation isn't what you've been told. You've
23:57
Speaker 1: got a big budget deficit and you've got a real
24:03
Speaker 1: problem of trying to now bring in your election program.
24:07
Speaker 1: You've promised an election program based on the fact that
24:10
Speaker 1: the budget's in surplus, and you're still want your election program,
24:14
Speaker 1: but the budget's in devas, what do we do?
24:16
Speaker 3: What do we do about this?
24:18
Speaker 1: And we came to the view that over two years
24:23
Speaker 1: we should drive the budget back into surplus. And that
24:27
Speaker 1: took an enormous effort of going through the budget line
24:31
Speaker 1: by line for months. And the second thing we thought
24:35
Speaker 1: is we've got to stop this ever happening again.
24:38
Speaker 2: People often say to me, why could you do then
24:41
Speaker 2: what we don't seem to be able to do now?
24:44
Speaker 2: And I remember as a ministerial staffer at the time,
24:48
Speaker 2: your ERC committee, your budget review process. You have to
24:52
Speaker 2: go through your budget in your own office, line by line.
24:55
Speaker 2: You have to fight for every bit of spending. You
24:57
Speaker 2: had yet to know your programs. You know, you wanted
25:01
Speaker 2: ministers to demonstrate that this was the best spend for
25:04
Speaker 2: that dollar. Is the program achieving what you're told it's achieving.
25:09
Speaker 2: But you also treated it every dollar that you spent
25:12
Speaker 2: like it came out of your own pocket. What's changed?
25:15
Speaker 1: Look, look there was a rigor about it.
25:20
Speaker 3: It's not your money, it's taxpayers money.
25:25
Speaker 1: They are needy people, and let's make sure that the
25:29
Speaker 1: money goes to the needy people. But gee, let's not
25:33
Speaker 1: wasted here, just like you would be with your own finances.
25:36
Speaker 1: And I sat through budget. I did twelve budgets, more
25:42
Speaker 1: budgets than anybody else in Australian history. I don't think
25:45
Speaker 1: it's a record to be so proud about. And every
25:49
Speaker 1: year it was just an exacting business fighting quite often
25:57
Speaker 1: with spending ministers. Every minister that comes into a budget committee,
26:01
Speaker 1: it will have their own little plan about if you
26:03
Speaker 1: only give them more money here and a little bit
26:05
Speaker 1: more money over there.
26:07
Speaker 3: You know, they can solve the problems.
26:09
Speaker 1: Of the country, why they're different, why and what's more,
26:12
Speaker 1: win an election. And you know, I've heard every pitch
26:16
Speaker 1: in the book, every single one. And the funny thing was,
26:19
Speaker 1: you know sometimes a minister would go and their replacement
26:23
Speaker 1: would come in and amount exactly the same argument the
26:25
Speaker 1: next year, and you knew, in fact it wasn't the
26:28
Speaker 1: ministerial argument. It was the public service argument that was
26:31
Speaker 1: coming back through different ministers.
26:33
Speaker 3: Over the years.
26:34
Speaker 1: The good thing about being there for twelve years is
26:37
Speaker 1: I actually knew more about these individual budgets and the
26:40
Speaker 1: ministers dead right. And I remember saying to a very
26:44
Speaker 1: senior person once on I think we heard this submission
26:47
Speaker 1: six years ago. Actually I'll tell you why we rejected
26:52
Speaker 1: it then, because I think we should reject it again
26:54
Speaker 1: this time.
26:55
Speaker 2: So so, okay, you pay back ninety six billion dollars
26:58
Speaker 2: a debt and we're twenty years on from that miraculous
27:01
Speaker 2: day of no net debt. What do you think when
27:05
Speaker 2: you look at the fact we're almost on the precipice
27:09
Speaker 2: of having one trillion dollars of debt.
27:11
Speaker 3: Well, it's heartbreaking.
27:14
Speaker 1: To have worked so hard and to have got Australia
27:18
Speaker 1: into such a good condition. We were strong, we were
27:23
Speaker 1: admired around the world. I mean, the Americans couldn't do this,
27:26
Speaker 1: the British couldn't do this, the French couldn't do this,
27:29
Speaker 1: the Germans couldn't do this, the Japanese couldn't.
27:32
Speaker 3: Australia stood out and we were admired around the world.
27:37
Speaker 1: We got our budget under control, we'd eliminated Commonwealth net debt.
27:43
Speaker 3: We're a shining example of a success story right now.
27:46
Speaker 2: So did you think it would go back? So far?
27:49
Speaker 2: So far?
27:50
Speaker 1: I hope this would be a gift to future generations
27:54
Speaker 1: of Australians.
27:55
Speaker 3: That was my hope.
27:57
Speaker 1: You know, we've done this incredible work. We've cleared our debt.
28:02
Speaker 1: We've actually set up a savings fund called a future Fund. Right,
28:06
Speaker 1: this is a gift to generations of Australians. In fact,
28:11
Speaker 1: what happened is the year after we left, they started
28:16
Speaker 1: borrowing again and been borrowing ever since. And rather than
28:21
Speaker 1: this being a gift to generations of future Australians, where
28:24
Speaker 1: now we've now borrowed a trillion dollars a thousand billions
28:27
Speaker 1: a thousand we're celebrating debt free Day.
28:31
Speaker 3: With a debt of.
28:32
Speaker 1: A thousand billion a trillion dollars. That's where we've gone
28:36
Speaker 1: over the last twenty years.
28:38
Speaker 3: And the thing about.
28:39
Speaker 1: It is this, it's making the future for young Australians
28:45
Speaker 1: harder because, as I said before, the debt doesn't disappear.
28:49
Speaker 1: You've got to pay the interest bill on that every year.
28:52
Speaker 1: It comes out of their taxes. And in fact, because
28:56
Speaker 1: we can't meet our expenses, we just borrow some more.
29:00
Speaker 1: You know, young Australians are in a significantly worse position
29:04
Speaker 1: today because of this debt.
29:05
Speaker 3: Now.
29:06
Speaker 1: I hear the current government talk about it in intergenerational equity,
29:09
Speaker 1: which they think means higher taxes. I started talking about
29:13
Speaker 1: intergenerational equity twenty years ago and it was all about
29:18
Speaker 1: restricting your spending so you didn't.
29:20
Speaker 3: Need higher taxes. That's what they should have been doing.
29:24
Speaker 2: What's missing, though, is that out conversation that Gunba used
29:28
Speaker 2: to have with voters, to say, this is the opportunity
29:31
Speaker 2: cost of debt. This is the hospital we can't build
29:34
Speaker 2: or the frigate we can't buy because we're paying back
29:36
Speaker 2: debt or we're bearing an interest burden. Why are we
29:39
Speaker 2: not talking about debt anymore? As we did. And do
29:42
Speaker 2: you think Australians understand the cost of debt.
29:46
Speaker 1: I think Australians would understand if someone would level with them.
29:51
Speaker 1: But nobody's leveling with them. And I think there's been
29:55
Speaker 1: fun on both sides of politics, right. If nobody's going
29:59
Speaker 1: to make this any if nobody's going to explain this,
30:03
Speaker 1: you can't expect the public to be concerned themselves if
30:07
Speaker 1: they hear from their political leaders, and sometimes from political
30:10
Speaker 1: leaders off both sides, don't worry about it. Budgets in deficit,
30:14
Speaker 1: we're crowing debt, don't worry about it. You know it'll
30:17
Speaker 1: be someone else's problem. It will be someone else's problem.
30:20
Speaker 1: That's right, it will be young Australian's problem.
30:23
Speaker 2: How do we go though, from a nation that built
30:25
Speaker 2: the snowy hydro In your case, it an intergenerational report
30:29
Speaker 2: to say, look, let's forecast out beyond election cycles and
30:33
Speaker 2: get the country in good shape. Now that we've got
30:35
Speaker 2: to the position that we've got surplus budgets, we're paying
30:37
Speaker 2: off the debt. Where do we want to be in
30:39
Speaker 2: twenty thirty, fifty years time.
30:41
Speaker 1: You know, there's an expression you'll sometimes hear, never waste
30:46
Speaker 1: a good crisis, and I think the big government people,
30:50
Speaker 1: they didn't waste their opportunity when two thousand and eight
30:53
Speaker 1: occurred the financial crisis.
30:57
Speaker 2: Big Spin, pink bats, Kasher Clunker as Kevin couldn't help himself,
31:02
Speaker 2: school halls right, nine hundred dollars checks to dead people,
31:05
Speaker 2: Peter Bristella.
31:06
Speaker 3: Checks to dead people. Here's an opportunity to really ramp
31:10
Speaker 3: up spending. Okay, we ramp it up. Next crisis comes along, COVID.
31:18
Speaker 3: Here's another opportunity to really ramp up.
31:21
Speaker 2: Job keeper, I mean your mob was in charge.
31:25
Speaker 3: I said this fight on bat sides.
31:27
Speaker 1: Job keeper, give money to companies that are actually increasing
31:30
Speaker 1: their revenue.
31:31
Speaker 3: Why would you do that?
31:33
Speaker 1: So we ramp it up again. You watch Iran comes along.
31:37
Speaker 1: Never waste a good crisis. Here's an opportunity to increase
31:40
Speaker 1: taxas some more, increase spending on some of our favorite things.
31:45
Speaker 1: You know, I from Iran? What would I be taking
31:48
Speaker 1: out I'd be taking out this. We should be developing
31:52
Speaker 1: oil and gas reserves in Australia.
31:53
Speaker 3: To me, it's obvious.
31:54
Speaker 1: The reason you run a strong economy is you know
31:57
Speaker 1: challenges are going to come. You know the international wins
32:02
Speaker 1: are blowing ill. You know there are financial crises around,
32:07
Speaker 1: You know that there are potential commodity price rises around,
32:12
Speaker 1: You know that there are energy short through So your
32:14
Speaker 1: strengthen the economy while you can. Since I left government,
32:20
Speaker 1: the tax take has been going up about one percent
32:22
Speaker 1: per annum.
32:25
Speaker 3: Per person.
32:27
Speaker 1: We're collecting more tax than ever before. But speeding has
32:30
Speaker 1: been going up about two percent per person. So speeding
32:36
Speaker 1: is just outstripping tax And that's why the government now says, oh,
32:39
Speaker 1: we need to hire taxes. You wouldn't need higher taxes
32:42
Speaker 1: if you'd kept your spending under control, you wouldn't need them.
32:45
Speaker 3: But they couldn't and they didn't. And the increase in the.
32:49
Speaker 1: Size of government is really strangling business at the moment.
32:54
Speaker 1: And it's a big reason why our productivity is so poor.
32:57
Speaker 1: You know, we used to lead the world in productivity.
33:01
Speaker 1: We are a shining example of how to grow an
33:06
Speaker 1: economy and increase wages in real terms off the back
33:11
Speaker 1: of doing things better and smarter.
33:13
Speaker 2: Okay, on budget night, can we trust the books because
33:16
Speaker 2: I've had a look at successive labor budgets and so
33:19
Speaker 2: much is off budget. You know, money here and money there.
33:25
Speaker 2: Things like the future made in Australia Fund constrained to renewables,
33:29
Speaker 2: constrained to things like green hydrogen. The private investments now
33:33
Speaker 2: walking away, and we don't get the totality of costs
33:37
Speaker 2: even on this so called green transition. We can't get
33:40
Speaker 2: the whole scale of the energy spend there. We're getting
33:44
Speaker 2: compartments of the spending, but not the whole story.
33:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of fancy accounting.
33:50
Speaker 2: That's now been creative, some would say very creative.
33:54
Speaker 1: That's now been adopted because governments are basically trying to
33:58
Speaker 1: hide the level of expenditure and so they're engaging in
34:04
Speaker 1: what's called off the books.
34:08
Speaker 3: Financing.
34:10
Speaker 1: And there have been a number of big projects, hopeless
34:14
Speaker 1: projects by the way, which we've lost a lot of
34:16
Speaker 1: money on, that have been conducted off the books.
34:20
Speaker 3: Started with the NBN. Of course.
34:23
Speaker 1: Off the books transaction. Snowy Hydro is probably one of
34:28
Speaker 1: the great financial.
34:30
Speaker 2: There's a liberal involved with both of those.
34:32
Speaker 1: As you well know, Snowy Hydro was turned into a
34:37
Speaker 1: huge expense off the books reconstruction funds off the books.
34:43
Speaker 1: You know, when I introduced the Charter of Budget, honestly,
34:46
Speaker 1: the whole idea was to stop this kind of expenditures.
34:51
Speaker 1: But as the years have gone on, you know, they've
34:53
Speaker 1: got more and more into it, and so the accounts
34:56
Speaker 1: are not nearly as clean as they.
34:58
Speaker 3: Used to be.
35:00
Speaker 1: The situation is worse than the headline figure that they
35:04
Speaker 1: will actually report, and that's why, Actually the debt figures
35:08
Speaker 1: are a much better indication of where we're going, because
35:13
Speaker 1: even though they can put some of this stuff off
35:15
Speaker 1: the books, they're still got to borrow the money to
35:17
Speaker 1: cover the costs. So the debt figures are much more
35:20
Speaker 1: and particularly the gross debt figure is much more an
35:23
Speaker 1: indicator of the true financial position. And the debt figure,
35:27
Speaker 1: as we know, is going through a trillion dollars.
35:30
Speaker 2: I'll finish with a reflection, ask you for a reflection.
35:35
Speaker 2: You're a grandpa now and you've had some time out
35:38
Speaker 2: of politics to stand back and look at our country
35:41
Speaker 2: and our community, and what I would regard is a
35:44
Speaker 2: really difficult few years in Australia in terms of social cohesion.
35:48
Speaker 2: You are a long time friend of the Australian Jewish community.
35:53
Speaker 2: Give me your thoughts about the Australia we're in now.
35:59
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I've been a longtime friend of the
36:02
Speaker 1: Jewish community in Australia since I was twenty and I
36:08
Speaker 1: always thought there was a great deal of sympathy for
36:11
Speaker 1: Jewish people and a lot of tolerance, and frankly, I'm
36:16
Speaker 1: shocked at the way in which that seems to have disappeared.
36:23
Speaker 1: I look at our economic position and I say, we
36:29
Speaker 1: lost our way. You know, let me give you two
36:33
Speaker 1: Marcus April two thousand and six, no debt April twenty
36:39
Speaker 1: twenty six, A trillion dollars. We lost our way, you know,
36:45
Speaker 1: we lost we lost the sense that we could do this.
36:50
Speaker 1: We lost the sense that we could we could be special.
36:55
Speaker 1: We lost the sense that we were prepared to work
36:59
Speaker 1: to make our country better.
37:02
Speaker 3: In economic terms.
37:03
Speaker 1: You know, you're either building the pie up or you're
37:06
Speaker 1: running the place down. And we've been running the place down.
37:10
Speaker 1: And I do feel I do feel sorry for young people.
37:16
Speaker 1: I don't think Charmers's idea to give them higher taxes
37:18
Speaker 1: is a good idea, but I do feel sorry for
37:21
Speaker 1: them because I think for twenty years their opportunities have
37:24
Speaker 1: been diminished, and you ain't turned it around with higher taxes.
37:32
Speaker 1: You've got to get you spinding under control. The best thing,
37:34
Speaker 1: you know, the best thing you can do for young
37:36
Speaker 1: people is actually cut their taxes. That's the best thing
37:38
Speaker 1: you could do for them. So somewhere we lost our way.
37:44
Speaker 1: We've narrowed our opportunities. They're more narrow now. Now it's
37:49
Speaker 1: not irreversible. You know, we've still got wonderful natural endowments.
37:55
Speaker 1: If we were prepared to actually utilize them, we have
37:59
Speaker 1: wonderful endowments.
38:01
Speaker 3: We could recover it. But gee, we've got to change direction.
38:06
Speaker 2: Peter Costello, thank you, thank you, Peter. Thanks you remember
38:11
Speaker 2: the days when the adults were in charge, isn't it Well?
38:13
Speaker 2: Tomorrow night he talks about changing direction. He'll tell you
38:17
Speaker 2: the direction Australia should head. I don't know that Jim
38:20
Speaker 2: Chalmers will be there watching tomorrow night writing things down,
38:22
Speaker 2: but it should be. He doesn't miss. He certainly doesn't
38:26
Speaker 2: miss when it comes to energy. He let's rip. I'll
38:29
Speaker 2: bring you that interview tomorrow night. As I said, all right,
38:32
Speaker 2: live to London after the break that the Prime Minister
38:35
Speaker 2: there kiss Darma, throwing everyone under the bus to save
38:38
Speaker 2: he's skin. I don't think he will. We'll get to that.
38:41
Speaker 2: And the streets of Melbourne looking more like the war
38:44
Speaker 2: torn Middle East. But the opposition getting tough on those
38:48
Speaker 2: who want to vandalize war memorials. That's after the break.
38:56
Speaker 2: Welcome back. Do I love my viewers. You guys are
38:58
Speaker 2: so quick. You're all ready on the email telling me
39:01
Speaker 2: you loved that interview. So thank you for the feedback.
39:04
Speaker 2: As I said, more tomorrow night still to come to
39:07
Speaker 2: on the show this evening, though, push for a new
39:10
Speaker 2: tax on gas exports. But you won't believe the lefty
39:14
Speaker 2: that they wheeled out today into the inquiry. I'll show
39:17
Speaker 2: you that in a moment and up to ten years,
39:19
Speaker 2: Jarling Victoria. If the Libs win, should you vandalize a
39:24
Speaker 2: war memorial? So says the Liberal leader Jess Wilson. I'll
39:27
Speaker 2: get to that too. But London, first time looking like
39:31
Speaker 2: it's running out for Keir Starmer after it emerged with
39:33
Speaker 2: Peter Mandelson, who he appointed as the US ambassador, was
39:38
Speaker 2: given the job despite failing to pass official security checks.
39:41
Speaker 2: Now in the House of Commons today, Starmer tried to
39:45
Speaker 2: duck and weave and then pivot, blaming the Foreign Office
39:50
Speaker 2: in a bid to contain the scandal.
39:52
Speaker 14: The Foreign Office officials who made that decision did not
39:57
Speaker 14: pass this information to me. To the Foreign Secretary to
40:03
Speaker 14: her predecessor, the Deputy Prime Minister, to any other minister.
40:09
Speaker 14: If I had known before he took up his post
40:13
Speaker 14: that UKSP recommendation, of course that developed vetting clearance should
40:17
Speaker 14: be denied, I would not have gone ahead with the appointment.
40:22
Speaker 2: Now, so Olie Robinson, the civil servant at the Foreign
40:26
Speaker 2: Office sistarma there tried to throw under the bus, was
40:29
Speaker 2: actually before the Parliament as we speak. So here's a
40:33
Speaker 2: little right now of what he's had to say so far.
40:36
Speaker 8: I'm afraid what that translated into for my team in
40:40
Speaker 8: the Foreign Office, and certainly the handover briefing I was
40:44
Speaker 8: getting as I arrived at post was what I felt
40:47
Speaker 8: was a generally dismissive attitude to his vetting clearance. The
40:52
Speaker 8: focus was on getting Madelson out of Washington quickly.
40:56
Speaker 2: All right, joining me now, News Court Correspondence Gynese Contributorlsworth. Well,
41:02
Speaker 2: I mean broadly, So I'll start with a tight question,
41:06
Speaker 2: then I'll come to the broad one. What staggers me
41:10
Speaker 2: here is the best mate of Starmer is Mandelssohn. I mean,
41:15
Speaker 2: it can try and blame the staff and the public service,
41:18
Speaker 2: but it was his best mate. A long standing labor
41:21
Speaker 2: grandee who they shoe horned into this job. And maybe
41:25
Speaker 2: they can put the security vetting report on the table
41:29
Speaker 2: in front of the Prime minister. But the Prime Minister
41:31
Speaker 2: knows to ask for this stuff. So if he did
41:34
Speaker 2: not ask, it's because he did not want to know
41:38
Speaker 2: and he wanted his mate in the job. And I
41:40
Speaker 2: don't think he's going to last to you.
41:44
Speaker 15: He's in a lot of hot water at the moment.
41:46
Speaker 15: His job is hanging in the balance. I'll just show
41:49
Speaker 15: you a couple of the front pages here today in
41:52
Speaker 15: front of the Daily Mail it's everybody's fault but his,
41:56
Speaker 15: and then on the front of the Daily Express for
41:59
Speaker 15: once you actually the right PM. It beggars belief. Keirs
42:03
Speaker 15: Starmer said, it beggars belief that he didn't know about
42:07
Speaker 15: this security vetting failure. But what Kirs Summer did know
42:12
Speaker 15: was that he had Lord Mandelsson had ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
42:18
Speaker 15: There were concerns over his business dealings. Previously, he'd been
42:22
Speaker 15: sacked from posts twice. You only had to google these things, Peter.
42:27
Speaker 15: It was not a secret. But consequently he's thrown everyone
42:30
Speaker 15: around him on the bus. He's sacked multiple people, including
42:34
Speaker 15: the head of the Foreign Office. He's sacked. He's chief
42:38
Speaker 15: of staff as well, Morgan McSweeney, and he has failed
42:42
Speaker 15: to take responsibility. And that is what a lot of
42:45
Speaker 15: people are criticizing them for, because not forgetting he was
42:48
Speaker 15: the head of the DPP here in the UK, and
42:51
Speaker 15: as Kemmy Badenock, the Conservative leader said yesterday, he was
42:55
Speaker 15: very curious for someone who was the head of the
42:58
Speaker 15: DPP to not be asked questions about Lord Mandelsson.
43:03
Speaker 2: Okay, eventually he goes under a red bus. So who
43:07
Speaker 2: takes the job. We've got Angela Rayner. Of course she
43:11
Speaker 2: was forced to resign as his deputy over those tax
43:14
Speaker 2: fraud allegations. Some say Shabarnama mood, but I tell you
43:18
Speaker 2: she would be a gift for reform and Nigel Farage
43:21
Speaker 2: at the moment, wouldn't she.
43:24
Speaker 15: Well, she's the one who's got the issued Shabanama mood
43:26
Speaker 15: of dealing with the illegal migration issue here in the UK,
43:31
Speaker 15: which we know is festering and they cannot get on
43:34
Speaker 15: top of. And there's also the Health secretary. Where's Streeting
43:38
Speaker 15: whose name has been thrown in the mix now interestingly
43:41
Speaker 15: to Peter Overnight, Donald Trump has tweeted about disappointment. Because
43:47
Speaker 15: we heard just a moment ago before I came on
43:50
Speaker 15: our that Oli Robin said he was pressured into he
43:54
Speaker 15: was pressured to make sure that this Lord Mandilsson's appointment happened,
43:58
Speaker 15: and he said that Trump said that Starma exercised the
44:05
Speaker 15: wrong judgment, as we can see on that tweet up there,
44:08
Speaker 15: and he agreed that Lord Mandelson was a very bad pick. So, Peter,
44:12
Speaker 15: this is a real mess for the government. It's dominating
44:15
Speaker 15: every single headline here in the UK. There's massive issues
44:19
Speaker 15: here in the cost of living, a legal migration, crime
44:22
Speaker 15: levels rising, and instead they're focusing back on a stuff
44:26
Speaker 15: up by Keir Starmer.
44:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a bit like Boris Johnson and breaking the
44:32
Speaker 2: COVID rules. This stuff gets you in the end. I
44:34
Speaker 2: leave it there, Sophie, thank you. Before the break, I
44:37
Speaker 2: want to play you a bit of a lovely tribute
44:40
Speaker 2: from the King honoring his mother, the former Queen Queen Elizabeth,
44:43
Speaker 2: the late Queen, not former Queen, the late Queen Queen Elizabeth,
44:46
Speaker 2: on what would have been today her one hundredth birthday.
44:51
Speaker 1: God bless you, darling, Mamma, you remain forever in our
44:56
Speaker 1: hearts and prayers.
45:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's nothing if you remember her fondly after break?
45:04
Speaker 2: Why was a social media commentator, a satirist, someone who's
45:07
Speaker 2: got no economics or energy back background fronting this Senate
45:12
Speaker 2: inquiry today on gas plus war memorial vandals. You're on
45:18
Speaker 2: notice in Victoria. All right, let's bring you my panel
45:26
Speaker 2: for a whole lot of issues, including net Debt Day
45:29
Speaker 2: today Sky on his host Jamie Rodgers and Page Research
45:33
Speaker 2: Center CEO Jared Holland. Well, I'll tell you what. I'm
45:37
Speaker 2: sure you watched it as I did. But when you
45:39
Speaker 2: talk to Peter Costello, when you recognize in twenty years,
45:43
Speaker 2: how I've gone from no net Commonwealth debt this time
45:47
Speaker 2: in two thousand and six to almost a trillion dollars
45:50
Speaker 2: of gross debt, but a trillion dollars, Jared, I'll tell
45:53
Speaker 2: you I almost wanted to sign Costello up for the
45:56
Speaker 2: job again.
45:58
Speaker 3: I know it. It's deeply frustrat Peter.
46:00
Speaker 10: When you think about that government of John Anderson in
46:02
Speaker 10: the nants you had John Howard and Peter Costello and
46:04
Speaker 10: the Libs, they were essentially leaving down a legacy for
46:07
Speaker 10: future generations. They left government debt free that invested in infrastructure.
46:11
Speaker 10: Our country was growing, it was thriving, it was prosperous.
46:15
Speaker 10: This trillion dollars in debt, this won't be paid off
46:17
Speaker 10: by you, probably won't to be paid off by me,
46:19
Speaker 10: be paid off by our kids and our grandkids. And
46:22
Speaker 10: in the meantime we'll enjoy a slump in living standards.
46:25
Speaker 10: Cost of living continue to rise through inflation, and eventually
46:28
Speaker 10: that borrowing start to increase as the interest on that
46:31
Speaker 10: debt ratchets up. It is such a travesty what we've
46:34
Speaker 10: done to this country in the last twenty years. And
46:38
Speaker 10: I think it's about time we reached out to Peter
46:39
Speaker 10: and ask if we can fix it.
46:40
Speaker 2: I reckon, you're that wrong. Let's go obviously to Anne's
46:44
Speaker 2: a day on the weekend, Jamie and I think it
46:47
Speaker 2: will be quite a somber anyway, but I think it
46:50
Speaker 2: will be extra somber this year, given all the events
46:54
Speaker 2: around the arrest of Ben Roberts Smith. But One Bright
46:58
Speaker 2: Light is an announcement today Tory by the Liberal opposition,
47:01
Speaker 2: and I think this should be something that everybody is
47:03
Speaker 2: taking up around the country. Jess Wilson says, if elected
47:07
Speaker 2: in NOVMBA, you vandalize a war memorial in this state,
47:11
Speaker 2: you're going to be up to ten years in jail. Well,
47:15
Speaker 2: let's hope the judge has enforced that. But you'll also
47:17
Speaker 2: be responsible for all the replacement and repair costs to
47:22
Speaker 2: the memorial.
47:23
Speaker 16: And I say about time, absolutely, Peter, well done to
47:28
Speaker 16: Jess Wilson and the Liberals with that policy, because you're right.
47:31
Speaker 16: If you're going to go and vandalize any sort of property,
47:33
Speaker 16: of course you should be paying it back, and a
47:35
Speaker 16: war memorial of all things as well. And it was heartbreaking, Peter,
47:39
Speaker 16: because in that article where they announced his policy, a
47:42
Speaker 16: serviceman has said that it's soul destroying when he sees
47:45
Speaker 16: the vandalism on these war memorials. Now Premier Cinter Allen
47:49
Speaker 16: has come out and said there's already strong policies in
47:51
Speaker 16: place and penalties. Well, Peter, since twenty twenty there have
47:55
Speaker 16: been at least eighteen war memorials that have been vandalized,
47:58
Speaker 16: and how many people have fail any charges zero, So
48:02
Speaker 16: clearly they are not that strong or the courts aren't
48:05
Speaker 16: upholding it. So well done to the Liberals. Just another
48:07
Speaker 16: reason to be voting them in, Peter.
48:09
Speaker 2: In November as if we need another reason you're seeing moggodishu,
48:14
Speaker 2: Melbourne is mogadishu if you look at that imagery I
48:17
Speaker 2: showed at the top of the show. Let's go to
48:18
Speaker 2: that parliamentary inquiry in Canberra today into gas export taxation.
48:24
Speaker 2: There was you know, all the usual big brains trust
48:27
Speaker 2: you expected something like this Jared Holland. But there was
48:30
Speaker 2: also a social media influencer, the bloke behind Punter's politics.
48:35
Speaker 2: He was there where is pushed pretty hard about his
48:39
Speaker 2: lack of expertise.
48:42
Speaker 12: So when I look at drivers of inflation, I'm not
48:44
Speaker 12: an economist. I'm not going to nitpick over which has
48:47
Speaker 12: what X driving percentage, But I am going to point
48:50
Speaker 12: at the most obvious one, the one that other countries
48:52
Speaker 12: don't seem to have an issue with. I know there
48:54
Speaker 12: is research done that shows when the East Coast is
48:57
Speaker 12: attached to the export gas market and we export our
49:00
Speaker 12: gas overseas, compare it to wa that has a gas reserve,
49:04
Speaker 12: our energy costs go up.
49:07
Speaker 2: I mean, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel
49:11
Speaker 2: when we've got influences before It's Senate inquiry, and this
49:17
Speaker 2: will be a report that will be tabled in the
49:18
Speaker 2: Parliament it will inform legislation. He admits he's not an expert,
49:23
Speaker 2: so why the heck c there, Jared.
49:25
Speaker 10: Well, Punna's politics has essentially been a front for the
49:29
Speaker 10: essentially propaganda that's come out of the Australia Institute over
49:32
Speaker 10: the last five to ten years. And let's be really clear,
49:35
Speaker 10: this isn't just about taxing gas exports. This is about
49:38
Speaker 10: destroying the social license of fossil fuels in this country
49:42
Speaker 10: and ending their mining and resource extraction altogether. The figures
49:46
Speaker 10: involved in the Australia Institute and another group called the
49:49
Speaker 10: Sunrise Project, they built the playbook in a document that
49:52
Speaker 10: we were able to obtain in our Senate submission late
49:55
Speaker 10: last year into miss and disinformation in the energy market.
49:58
Speaker 10: And essentially what they do they try and build a
50:01
Speaker 10: case against fossil fuels, against things like cole. They obstruct
50:05
Speaker 10: projects with legal lawfare in order to keep everything in
50:08
Speaker 10: the ground. Now, Punna's politics, he is another participant in
50:12
Speaker 10: this campaign, has been enormously successful. The fact we're even
50:15
Speaker 10: talking about this when we're going through an energy crisis ourselves,
50:18
Speaker 10: while our Prime Minister is going around hat in hand
50:21
Speaker 10: begging our Southeast Asian partners to keep giving us liquid
50:24
Speaker 10: fuels while we're threatening to turn off the tap towards
50:26
Speaker 10: them when they're so dependent on our gas is really
50:29
Speaker 10: really frightening. This as national security implications, and I think
50:32
Speaker 10: it's about time we got to the bottom of who
50:34
Speaker 10: is funding all of this, where is that money coming from,
50:36
Speaker 10: and understanding their tactics and how they've been so effective
50:39
Speaker 10: in rolling out these anti fossil fuel campaigns.
50:43
Speaker 2: All right, you've taken you right to the top of
50:45
Speaker 2: the show. Andrew bolts up next, but I will give
50:48
Speaker 2: you a big writer reply next week. Jamie. Thank you
50:51
Speaker 2: for joining you as well, and don't miss her show
50:53
Speaker 2: on Sunday night. It's fantastic. That's it. Cedar Barrone more,
50:57
Speaker 2: Peter Costello too. He's Andrew