Transcript

Credlin | 14 July · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Peter Krandland live on Sky News Australia.
0:08
Speaker 2: Good evening, welcome to the program. Great to have your
0:10
Speaker 2: company as we kick off the big week here on Presalent.
0:12
Speaker 2: He's what's coming up tonight at the same time as
0:15
Speaker 2: the PM's on his charm offensive in China. Fresh concerns
0:17
Speaker 2: today and of the United States about the state of
0:20
Speaker 2: the Angas Alliance Washington, asking questions about our willingness to
0:24
Speaker 2: defend Taiwan if it came to that. These are questions
0:27
Speaker 2: the PM simply can't or perhaps won't answer well. The
0:31
Speaker 2: green hydrogen boondoggle came and went, but now it's all
0:35
Speaker 2: about green metals, including the nonsense of green steel and
0:39
Speaker 2: right by Hi by the PM side as he spoke,
0:42
Speaker 2: this latest boon doogl in China was of course, twig
0:44
Speaker 2: your forest and if anyone really believed China will decarbonize
0:49
Speaker 2: last the NDS, it cost US forty eight billion a year.
0:52
Speaker 2: But who's running the show? Serious questions are being asked
0:56
Speaker 2: about the CEO, who's on leave how long we don't know,
0:59
Speaker 2: and the chair of the board is refusing to answer
1:01
Speaker 2: questions about a damning audit and as anti Israel protests
1:06
Speaker 2: become more hostile. A shocking video, currently under investigations, popped
1:10
Speaker 2: up online promising attacks against workers at a Victorian owned
1:14
Speaker 2: weapons manufacturer. Now warning these threats are pretty confronting.
1:20
Speaker 1: Every worker in this supply chain is complicit. We will
1:24
Speaker 1: decided your fate as you have decided the fate of millions.
1:30
Speaker 2: Where else at Melbourne but first. Since arriving in China,
1:33
Speaker 2: Prime Minister Anthony Albanezy it has been peppered with questions
1:36
Speaker 2: about whether Australia would help defend Taiwan in the event
1:41
Speaker 2: of a Chinese attack.
1:43
Speaker 3: I think it's important that we have a consistent position,
1:46
Speaker 3: which Australia has had for a long period of time Taiwan.
1:49
Speaker 3: We don't support any unilateral action there.
1:53
Speaker 4: Would it be reasonable for the United States to demand
1:56
Speaker 4: any sort of assurances from Australia on a Taiwan contingency
2:00
Speaker 4: given the United States itself maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity,
2:04
Speaker 4: at least in theory on Taiwan.
2:07
Speaker 3: Well, you've just answered the question yourself. I think through
2:10
Speaker 3: the comments that you've.
2:12
Speaker 4: Made, in what sense, sorry promise that I.
2:15
Speaker 3: Think you can get it private, Well, in private by definition,
2:22
Speaker 3: that's in private so you don't take private comments at
2:27
Speaker 3: a media conference.
2:31
Speaker 2: As difficult struggling at barbed wire fans, isn't it? I mean,
2:34
Speaker 2: naturally there it was KG because no one wants to
2:37
Speaker 2: preempt a decision to send troops into battle, and everyone
2:40
Speaker 2: hopes it will never come to that. But on the
2:42
Speaker 2: question of Taiwan, there's a couple of points that need
2:44
Speaker 2: to be made here. The first is the obvious point
2:48
Speaker 2: the ball is in China's court because they are the aggressor,
2:51
Speaker 2: and particularly under President G they have increased the tempo
2:55
Speaker 2: on the belligerents and the threats. The second that even
2:59
Speaker 2: the US itself maintains this policy of strategic ambiguity over Taiwan,
3:04
Speaker 2: meaning it hasn't made it clear what it would do
3:08
Speaker 2: in the event that g either invades or blockades Taiwan. Now,
3:13
Speaker 2: the third, but perhaps the most important point here isn't
3:15
Speaker 2: whether or not Australia would defend Taiwan, but whether Australia
3:20
Speaker 2: under an alban Esi government remains committed to the US alliance.
3:25
Speaker 2: If Australia remains committed to its long standing US security
3:30
Speaker 2: partnership and America does defend Taiwan, Australia will have to
3:36
Speaker 2: be involved. Now I know ifs or butts here, remember
3:40
Speaker 2: the terms of the ASAS Alliance. We're not talking about
3:44
Speaker 2: UCAS here, We're talking about ANSAs that in the events
3:48
Speaker 2: of an armed attack on any of the parties, they
3:50
Speaker 2: will and I quote act together to meet the common danger.
3:54
Speaker 2: That's what ASAS says in for Australia, that's always meant
3:59
Speaker 2: to our support and participate patient and US led military campaigns.
4:02
Speaker 2: When the Menzis government committed troops to the American defense
4:05
Speaker 2: of South Vietnam, the whole government committed navy divers to
4:09
Speaker 2: the liberation of Q eight, the Howard government committed special
4:13
Speaker 2: forces in a Navy ship to the invasion of Iraq.
4:16
Speaker 2: The Howard government and then of course the Right and
4:19
Speaker 2: Guillard governments all committed special forces to the war against
4:23
Speaker 2: the Taliban in Afghanistan. Remember it was famously why he
4:27
Speaker 2: was in the US at the time of the nine
4:30
Speaker 2: to eleven attacks, that John Howard invoked the terms of
4:33
Speaker 2: the Answers Treaty. Every previous Australian government is recognized that
4:37
Speaker 2: the alliance is a two way street and we can't
4:40
Speaker 2: expect the Americans to support us in our military campaigns
4:43
Speaker 2: if we're not prepared to support them in these And
4:48
Speaker 2: this is where the traveling press pack with the Prime Minister,
4:50
Speaker 2: I think misses the point. The question is not would
4:54
Speaker 2: Australia help Taiwan, It would Australia help the United States?
5:00
Speaker 2: And the answer has to be yes if the US
5:03
Speaker 2: alliance is to endure. But that's the issue with his government,
5:07
Speaker 2: Isn't it just how committed they are to the US Alliance?
5:13
Speaker 2: Remember when the Albertiza government refused refused to send a
5:17
Speaker 2: frigate to the Red Sea in December twenty twenty three.
5:21
Speaker 2: This was the first time since AND's was finalized in
5:24
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty one that we have officially declined into US
5:28
Speaker 2: request for military assistance. Now couple that with the PM's
5:33
Speaker 2: contrasting attitude to the American and the Chinese leaders. Albertz
5:39
Speaker 2: is currently in China for six days now. That's a
5:41
Speaker 2: remarkably long trip for any Prime minister. It's his fourth
5:45
Speaker 2: face to face with Jijiping, and yet he still hasn't
5:49
Speaker 2: had even one meeting with Donald Trump. What's more, despite
5:53
Speaker 2: US pleased to do more and the rest of the
5:56
Speaker 2: world lifting their effort in response, our PM refuses to
5:59
Speaker 2: increase his defense spending. And this is not just Donald
6:03
Speaker 2: Trump that's wanting this, but his own Defense review plus
6:07
Speaker 2: his labor predecessor, Kim Beasley, all of whom have recommended
6:12
Speaker 2: an increase of at least three percent of GDP. That's
6:17
Speaker 2: why the Orcus submarine deal is now at risk, because
6:21
Speaker 2: while would the US give us three of their submarines
6:23
Speaker 2: unless they were confident that they'd be on America's side
6:27
Speaker 2: in any fight on everything, on any fight, not just Taiwan.
6:32
Speaker 2: Because if we want the Pax Americana to survive this
6:36
Speaker 2: unprecedented era of global peace in general terms, then we
6:40
Speaker 2: cannot expect the Americans to do all the heavy lifting
6:42
Speaker 2: on their own. There's erecting on the way. I think
6:47
Speaker 2: few Australians really appreciate just how grave things are. And look,
6:56
Speaker 2: it's not just the optics of the PM being more
6:58
Speaker 2: keen to meet the leader of communist China than the
7:01
Speaker 2: leader of the free world. What's Anthony Owenezi doing leading
7:04
Speaker 2: a business delegation to China to increase our economic exposure
7:09
Speaker 2: to our great strategic competitor when what we actually need
7:13
Speaker 2: is to diversify it to get some of our eggs
7:16
Speaker 2: out of the China basket not add more to it
7:18
Speaker 2: given Beijing's increasing aggression. It's partly why Tony Abbott was
7:23
Speaker 2: so insistent during his China free trade negotiations that we
7:28
Speaker 2: also include free trade deals with South Korea and Japan
7:32
Speaker 2: and India too, all done at the same time to
7:36
Speaker 2: spread the risk of exposure to one dominant market. Remember,
7:40
Speaker 2: China has only just lifted the last of its trade
7:43
Speaker 2: boycotts against Australia, all because we had the Tamiri to
7:47
Speaker 2: ask for an independent investigation into the Wuhan virus. Now,
7:52
Speaker 2: for China, trade is politics by other means. Trade something
7:58
Speaker 2: they can turn on and off like attack to secure
8:01
Speaker 2: strategic objectives. But it's not just the folly of making
8:04
Speaker 2: Australia more economically vulnerable to China. It's the folly of
8:08
Speaker 2: turning trade into a climate crusade that's got me worried tonight.
8:13
Speaker 2: I mean, listening to the Prime Minister today, Trade is
8:16
Speaker 2: just another element in Labour's climate policy.
8:21
Speaker 3: We know that still is the backbone of the modern economy,
8:26
Speaker 3: but we also know that we need to decarbonize these
8:30
Speaker 3: processes if we are going to successfully deal with the
8:34
Speaker 3: challenge of climate change, but also the opportunity that it represents.
8:39
Speaker 3: Australia and China each have major stakes in the decarbonization efforts.
8:44
Speaker 2: This is important not.
8:45
Speaker 3: Just for our two countries, but because of the impact
8:49
Speaker 3: of decarbonization that it will have as part of addressing
8:53
Speaker 3: climate change.
8:56
Speaker 2: That meeting today, today's trade round table was all about
8:59
Speaker 2: so called greenste even though all the Chinese are interested
9:02
Speaker 2: in is cheap steel, and no one, literally no one's
9:05
Speaker 2: come up with an economically viable way to decarbonize steelmaking,
9:10
Speaker 2: not even Twiggy Forrets two, only a few months ago
9:13
Speaker 2: was springing green hydrogen until they dropped that too as
9:16
Speaker 2: a bit of a pipe dream. Now some of the
9:18
Speaker 2: so called export experts pushing this rubbish, well they need
9:22
Speaker 2: a wake up call. China doesn't buy our iron are
9:25
Speaker 2: because they're interested in green steel. They buy it because
9:29
Speaker 2: it's the best blend of price, quality and reliability. And
9:33
Speaker 2: it's all very well to talk about the one hundred
9:34
Speaker 2: billion dollars of iron ore that we currently export to China.
9:39
Speaker 2: What about the fifty billion dollars worth of coal and gas,
9:42
Speaker 2: Prime Minister, that we also export to China. I mean,
9:45
Speaker 2: aren't they just as important to the China relationship, and
9:47
Speaker 2: aren't continued exports of coal and gas also vital to
9:52
Speaker 2: our prosperity. Moreover, aren't our coal and gas exports to
9:56
Speaker 2: China going up while our iron or exports are going down?
10:01
Speaker 2: It would know from listening to the Prime Minister today,
10:03
Speaker 2: who seems to think that the Chinese leadership shares his
10:07
Speaker 2: admission's obsession, even though China has never ever committed to
10:11
Speaker 2: net zero by twenty fifty and is opening two new
10:14
Speaker 2: qualified power stations every single week. Now, how about that
10:19
Speaker 2: for the inconvenient truth. So not only is Anthony Aberesi
10:22
Speaker 2: and missing the point of national security, is also missing
10:25
Speaker 2: it on economics security as well. All right, let's get
10:33
Speaker 2: the headlines now. Reuben Spargo is on standby in Canberra.
10:38
Speaker 5: The Prime Minister maintains the Port of Darwin will be
10:41
Speaker 5: returned to Australian ownership, but won't confirm whether it will
10:45
Speaker 5: be canvassed in a looming meeting with China's president. Tomorrow's
10:49
Speaker 5: discussion in Beijing will be the most important on the
10:52
Speaker 5: trip for Anthony Albanesi.
10:54
Speaker 3: I'll have a discussion with the President. I'll treat him
10:56
Speaker 3: with the respect that I would any leader of another country?
11:00
Speaker 5: Business leaders today join The Prime Minister Anthony Albernzi was
11:03
Speaker 5: drawing a direct link between the economic relationship between China
11:07
Speaker 5: and Australia and the overall objective of securing peace in
11:11
Speaker 5: the region. In the background, a key defense figure in
11:13
Speaker 5: Donald Trump's circle is asking Australia and Japan to be
11:17
Speaker 5: clearer what role would the nations play in a potential
11:20
Speaker 5: conflict over Taiwan. It's clear Team Trump will be watching
11:24
Speaker 5: tomorrow's leaders meeting closely. Leake's Independent Treasury Advice warns the
11:30
Speaker 5: Alberzi government cannot fix the budget without raising taxes. The recommendation,
11:36
Speaker 5: which has been seen by the ABC, also suggests cutting
11:39
Speaker 5: spending on housing. Treasury says Labour's goal of creating one
11:43
Speaker 5: point two million homes over five years will not be reached.
11:47
Speaker 6: We will need to do more to meet our housing targets.
11:50
Speaker 6: We will do more to make our economy more productive
11:54
Speaker 6: and more resilient.
11:56
Speaker 7: One thing I do know is that when labor runs
11:59
Speaker 7: out of money coming.
12:00
Speaker 5: After yours, the Treasurer has not ruled out imposing new taxes.
12:04
Speaker 5: His focus is turning to the upcoming economic roundtable in Canberra.
12:10
Speaker 2: All right lock to get across tonight, tant to me now,
12:12
Speaker 2: journalist at the Daily Telegraph, James Willison, host of The
12:15
Speaker 2: Power aurp Sky News Gap Power. Well, welcome to you both, James.
12:18
Speaker 2: I want to start with this trip to China. I'll
12:21
Speaker 2: talk to a defense expert in a moment about this
12:24
Speaker 2: pretty hairy questions raised by the Pentagon overnight, but in
12:28
Speaker 2: sheer political terms. I mean, I think this trip's becoming
12:31
Speaker 2: really tricky for Anthony Albert easing Is, and they've given
12:33
Speaker 2: the sentiment here and the sentiment in the United States.
12:38
Speaker 8: Well, a couple of points have to be raised on this, Peter,
12:40
Speaker 8: and can I just echo what you set off the
12:41
Speaker 8: top in regards to how this alliance works.
12:44
Speaker 2: It's two ways.
12:46
Speaker 8: If we expect America to turn around and defend us
12:48
Speaker 8: one day, if we're under threat, then we should be
12:51
Speaker 8: helping America at any opportunity, and that includes and extends
12:55
Speaker 8: to Taiwan. On this trip to China, I certainly hope,
12:58
Speaker 8: based on what you said off the top, that the
13:00
Speaker 8: Prime Minister will be expressing his concerns about China's emission levels.
13:05
Speaker 8: They're at thirty percent of the world's emissions. We're about
13:07
Speaker 8: one point two percent that never seems to be brought
13:09
Speaker 8: up and never ever gets raised in any of the
13:12
Speaker 8: climate outrage that we have in Australia. Just how big
13:15
Speaker 8: China is in terms of emissions compared to here. But
13:18
Speaker 8: the third point is in relation to the optics of
13:20
Speaker 8: this and the idea that the Prime Minister has had
13:24
Speaker 8: meetings before in China and yet at this point in
13:27
Speaker 8: time there has not been a meeting with America and
13:30
Speaker 8: the US President Donald Trump in particular. We know Kevin
13:34
Speaker 8: rudds had a meeting, but I'm talking about the Prime
13:36
Speaker 8: Minister and the President sitting down. I spoke to a
13:38
Speaker 8: very senior political source today, Peter who said that it
13:42
Speaker 8: is crazy to think that this has not been secured
13:45
Speaker 8: by the Prime Minister getting on a plane, going over
13:48
Speaker 8: to the White House and sitting down with Donald Trump,
13:50
Speaker 8: when many.
13:51
Speaker 9: Other world leaders have done this.
13:53
Speaker 8: Already, including tiny countries in Africa and other parts of
13:56
Speaker 8: the world. We haven't done it. We need to do it,
13:59
Speaker 8: and by cut to China off the back of the
14:01
Speaker 8: tariffs the US put in place. I think the optics
14:04
Speaker 8: in terms of this relationship are terrible.
14:08
Speaker 2: I think by the end of the year by my calculation,
14:10
Speaker 2: going into summit season, the PEOM will have been on
14:12
Speaker 2: his plane about eight times, and one of those times
14:16
Speaker 2: will it land in Washington unless he pulls a rabbit
14:18
Speaker 2: out of the hat. But you're absolutely right, that's where
14:20
Speaker 2: he needs to go. Let's go to that leaked document
14:22
Speaker 2: today from Treasury. They meant to respond to an FOI GAB,
14:27
Speaker 2: but they put out a document they didn't intend to release.
14:31
Speaker 2: These was secret advice to the government. Basically, your budgets, crook.
14:35
Speaker 2: You're going to have to raise taxes to get the
14:38
Speaker 2: debt under some sort of control. And your task it
14:41
Speaker 2: says to build one point two million homes terribly, terribly,
14:45
Speaker 2: terribly behind the treasure. He was pretty dismissive of the league.
14:50
Speaker 2: Have a listen.
14:52
Speaker 6: What's happened here is a Treasury official has sent those
14:54
Speaker 6: documents in error. That sort of thing happens from time
14:58
Speaker 6: to time. I'm pretty relaxed about it, to be honest.
15:01
Speaker 6: The other reason I'm pretty relaxed about it is we've
15:03
Speaker 6: already made it really clear that we will need to
15:07
Speaker 6: do more to meet our housing targets. We've already made
15:09
Speaker 6: it really clear that we will do more to make
15:14
Speaker 6: our economy, more productive and more resilient.
15:18
Speaker 2: I tell you what, liarlight pains and fly is not relaxed.
15:21
Speaker 2: I mean, this is terrible, terrible, terrible stuff. I mean
15:24
Speaker 2: you can imagine what would have happened out of his
15:26
Speaker 2: office when he learned this was in the papers. But
15:28
Speaker 2: what's interesting in the document it says we as tax
15:31
Speaker 2: players have spent ten billion dollars and all we've got
15:37
Speaker 2: is seventeen new homes. Unbelievable. But just to pick up
15:42
Speaker 2: on treasure.
15:42
Speaker 10: Jim Chalmers response, they're telling everyone that he feels relaxed.
15:46
Speaker 10: I mean, relax is how he's supposed to feel when
15:48
Speaker 10: you go on holiday. How are the millions of Australians
15:51
Speaker 10: who are struggling to meet their mortgage repayments, their energy
15:54
Speaker 10: bills are going up and up and up, and they're
15:56
Speaker 10: suffering through a cost of living crisis supposed to feel
15:59
Speaker 10: when the tread. He's on a comfy salary of more
16:02
Speaker 10: than four hundred thousand dollars a year, and we're learning
16:05
Speaker 10: this information that if you read between the line lines,
16:09
Speaker 10: rather Labour's going to have to increase taxes. I mean,
16:12
Speaker 10: how are Australians supposed to feel? I don't think they're
16:14
Speaker 10: getting any comfort hearing that he supposedly feels relaxed. But
16:18
Speaker 10: this Lake document, it is embarrassing for the Labor government
16:21
Speaker 10: and it shows that officials suggested to the government that
16:26
Speaker 10: it needs to find additional revenue to build on its
16:29
Speaker 10: superannuation tax and raise indirect taxes, so that could be
16:33
Speaker 10: such as alcohol and tobacco, and we know that Australia
16:36
Speaker 10: already has some of the highest taxes on alcohol and
16:38
Speaker 10: tobacco in the world.
16:40
Speaker 2: And as you point.
16:41
Speaker 10: Out, Peter, the document also shows that Labour's promised to
16:46
Speaker 10: build one point two million homes over the next five
16:48
Speaker 10: years is not going to be met, not at all.
16:52
Speaker 2: In terms of meeting that target.
16:54
Speaker 10: It needs to produce two hundred and forty thousand homes
16:57
Speaker 10: each year, that's how many needs to be built, and
17:00
Speaker 10: we're nowhere near that. Now we know that the Abdez
17:03
Speaker 10: government will be holding this roundtable in August to brainstorm
17:07
Speaker 10: Australia's path forward, and there are already concerns from economists
17:10
Speaker 10: here that this is going to resolve in finding new
17:13
Speaker 10: tax revenue as opposed to actual tax reform.
17:18
Speaker 2: Let's go to Melbourne again, because it's fast becoming the
17:21
Speaker 2: global capital for jew hatred. I have to say I
17:24
Speaker 2: live in the inner City, James, and these protests are debilitating.
17:28
Speaker 2: On the weekend, Death to the IDF. The signs were
17:30
Speaker 2: prolific on the weekend at the latest round of rallies.
17:34
Speaker 2: There was even a plus a placard with swastikas on
17:38
Speaker 2: the street. I thought they were banned in Victoria, were
17:41
Speaker 2: not so if you're a left wing protester, it would
17:43
Speaker 2: seem the police are also investigating this video. It's pretty horrific.
17:48
Speaker 2: It's about someone claiming ostensibly responsibility for the fire bombing
17:53
Speaker 2: of a Victorian owned weapons manufacturer, also threatening further attacks.
17:58
Speaker 2: Now warning, it's pretty fronting. Let's watch.
18:02
Speaker 1: This is an anonymous communicate by the cell that torched
18:05
Speaker 1: three cars out of Loved Technologies on the morning of
18:08
Speaker 1: July fifth, twenty twenty five. Let there be no allusions
18:12
Speaker 1: as to what this was. This was not an accident,
18:16
Speaker 1: in nor thought miss vandalism. This is a clear and
18:19
Speaker 1: serious threat. Every worker in this supply chain is complicit.
18:24
Speaker 1: You have had years to contemplate the consequences of your actions.
18:29
Speaker 1: We will decided your fate as you have decided the
18:33
Speaker 1: fate of millions.
18:36
Speaker 2: Okay, this is not the usual renterer crowd rat bag
18:40
Speaker 2: activists that bloke their calls it a cell. You've got
18:44
Speaker 2: the palacity in the protest flag behind Let's not forget
18:47
Speaker 2: HUMMUS is a declared terror organization. But you've also got
18:52
Speaker 2: the linking there of the two indigenous flags of Australia
18:55
Speaker 2: that the Prime Minister has behind him in China. I
18:58
Speaker 2: might add, trying to represent if the flags of some
19:01
Speaker 2: of us are the flags of all of us, or
19:03
Speaker 2: they've been caught up in this video.
19:08
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's sad, but it's more importantly, Peter, it's just scary.
19:12
Speaker 8: This is scary that we have allowed this or imported
19:15
Speaker 8: this to fester in our communities in small but very
19:20
Speaker 8: frightening pockets. And we have seen this repeatedly over every
19:24
Speaker 8: weekend where there's another protest and then it just goes
19:27
Speaker 8: a little bit further and then suddenly they're attacking cafes
19:30
Speaker 8: or they're fire bombing where people are worshiping inside. And
19:34
Speaker 8: it just is now at a point where the government
19:37
Speaker 8: can come out and the Prime Minister has been far
19:39
Speaker 8: too soft on this, although I have to say when
19:42
Speaker 8: he did announce the findings of the anti Semitism envoy
19:45
Speaker 8: last week. I thought he was the strongest on this
19:47
Speaker 8: issue so far, or be it far too late, but
19:50
Speaker 8: this is really the number one issue for our police
19:53
Speaker 8: authorities now they would be tearing their hair outs. This
19:56
Speaker 8: is an all government approach thing, and we just have
19:59
Speaker 8: an enough people that are filled with hatred, filled with anger,
20:03
Speaker 8: and are willing to break the law in a name
20:06
Speaker 8: of cause that some of them might believe in, some
20:08
Speaker 8: of them might not. But the irony is that some
20:11
Speaker 8: of these scenes have seen Peter would normally be the
20:13
Speaker 8: stuff that the left would call out any day of
20:16
Speaker 8: the week, racism targeting certain individuals that would be the
20:19
Speaker 8: left's bread and butter. But instead, sadly, it's members of
20:22
Speaker 8: the left largely that have driven this kind of hate,
20:26
Speaker 8: combined with people that share those views and are just
20:29
Speaker 8: so anti Israel and anti Semitic at the same time.
20:34
Speaker 2: Let's just point out something too that the left we're
20:37
Speaker 2: carrying on today about the anti Semitism on voy Gillian Siegel,
20:41
Speaker 2: the fact that her husband, not her her husband, had
20:45
Speaker 2: made some donations to advance Australia. Now, I tell you what,
20:50
Speaker 2: since when is a woman responsible for her husband's political views.
20:54
Speaker 2: Who cares what he does with his own money? Who
20:56
Speaker 2: cares who he votes for? I think it's completely sexist.
21:00
Speaker 2: I don't care who she votes for either. I mean
21:01
Speaker 2: she was appointed by Labor to do a job in
21:04
Speaker 2: anti Semitism. That's exactly what she's doing. Her political views
21:08
Speaker 2: and particularly those of her husband gab no one's business
21:12
Speaker 2: not relevant. I think this is outrageous.
21:15
Speaker 10: I completely agree with you, Peter, and Dellian Siegel has
21:18
Speaker 10: shut down any suggestion that she has anything to do
21:21
Speaker 10: with her husband's donation to a lobby group.
21:24
Speaker 2: You make the point about it being.
21:26
Speaker 10: Sexist, and it just makes you wonder whether a male
21:28
Speaker 10: special envoy would have to answer questions about his wife's
21:31
Speaker 10: potential donations to.
21:33
Speaker 2: A lobby group.
21:34
Speaker 10: But it's really disappointing to see outlets like The Guardian
21:38
Speaker 10: try and discredit this anti Semitism report and the work
21:41
Speaker 10: that Dellian Siegel has put into it by focusing on
21:44
Speaker 10: this on focusing on donations that her not her, but
21:48
Speaker 10: her husband has made it to a lobby group. And James,
21:51
Speaker 10: as you pointed out, this was finally some strong action
21:55
Speaker 10: and some strong messaging from the Prime Minister, and the
21:58
Speaker 10: question really needs to be on web. Anthony Alberanezi will
22:01
Speaker 10: be implementing the recommendations from this report. This is a
22:05
Speaker 10: really strong report that has some sound recommendations, such as
22:09
Speaker 10: withholding fundings from universitys that failed to stamp out anti semitism,
22:14
Speaker 10: withholding funding from arts organizations, tougher screening of visa applications
22:19
Speaker 10: who may hold anti Semitic views, you know, cracking down
22:22
Speaker 10: on social media and also monitoring media organizations that may
22:26
Speaker 10: be quick to kind of repeat her master propaganda. But
22:29
Speaker 10: as we have just illustrated, we're well and truly past
22:33
Speaker 10: the point of this anti emotism reaching crisis point in
22:37
Speaker 10: this country.
22:38
Speaker 2: We're finally at the.
22:39
Speaker 10: Point too late, as you said, James, where action is
22:42
Speaker 10: about to be taken, and that should surely be the focus.
22:47
Speaker 2: If he had been a member of a union or
22:49
Speaker 2: here donated to Greenpeace, no one would care one iota.
22:54
Speaker 2: I'll leave it there, Thank you to you both. Let's
22:56
Speaker 2: go now back to the pmstrip to China. Today was
22:59
Speaker 2: all about that table with business leaders breaking our transition
23:02
Speaker 2: to so called green metals. Plenty of the usual suspects there,
23:06
Speaker 2: including Twiggy Forest keen to talk up today his latest.
23:11
Speaker 11: Foray both in China and Australia and generate a serious
23:17
Speaker 11: jobs boom in both China for green steel and particularly
23:22
Speaker 11: for Australia in green iron. We forecast hundreds of thousands
23:26
Speaker 11: of new jobs plus multiplier effects.
23:31
Speaker 2: Joining me out to discuss this, environment editor at The
23:33
Speaker 2: Australian Graham Lloyd, Well, I'll tell you what you know.
23:36
Speaker 2: We've I feel like it's back to the future. We've
23:39
Speaker 2: heard this all before. We heard all the spin about
23:43
Speaker 2: green jobs, and it was green hydrogen, and it was
23:45
Speaker 2: green taxes and schemes, and now it's green metals and
23:50
Speaker 2: green minerals and wait for it, green steel. Why is
23:55
Speaker 2: it going to be any different this time? Graham?
23:59
Speaker 12: Well, good evening, Peter. I heard your your intro. They're
24:04
Speaker 12: talking about boondoggles and the theories is it's just going
24:06
Speaker 12: to be another one. But there's a really serious sort
24:10
Speaker 12: of underpinning to all of this, and that is the
24:13
Speaker 12: extent to which the Australian i or industry is really
24:18
Speaker 12: facing some competition that's coming from minds that are owned
24:23
Speaker 12: by China in Guinea. They're very high quality minds and
24:30
Speaker 12: they are likely to displace Australian production, and they'll do
24:35
Speaker 12: so because the Chinese still industry does want to increase
24:41
Speaker 12: its efficiencies and this is how it will do it.
24:44
Speaker 12: So the response from Andrew Farus and others is to say, well,
24:47
Speaker 12: we need to jump onto the green agenda, which China's
24:52
Speaker 12: happy to talk about whether it's doing anything or not.
24:57
Speaker 12: But again, this requires downstream process thing of iron ore
25:02
Speaker 12: in Australia before it's exported. There's a long history to
25:06
Speaker 12: this and it's not a good history. It's never been
25:09
Speaker 12: economic and there's big question marks over whether this will
25:13
Speaker 12: be economic as well.
25:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, but the point you're making there via their P
25:20
Speaker 2: and G operations Chinese Zone, it's about vertical integration for
25:25
Speaker 2: the Chinese of the supply chain more than it is
25:28
Speaker 2: ever about green metals, green steel, green iron ore.
25:35
Speaker 12: Well, that's right, it's about getting an alternate supply from
25:38
Speaker 12: Australia and that's Guinea in Africa. It's a huge projects.
25:44
Speaker 12: It's about to come online at the end of this year. Yeah,
25:48
Speaker 12: and what the threat that it poses here is that
25:52
Speaker 12: it's a better quality more than we have, and this
25:56
Speaker 12: whole hydrogen pushes away to try and compete with that.
26:01
Speaker 2: But if China was serious you and I both know
26:04
Speaker 2: about reducing its emissions, it wouldn't be opening two Quali
26:07
Speaker 2: five power stations every single week, and it wouldn't be
26:10
Speaker 2: sending all the renewables infrastructure our way, the turbines and
26:15
Speaker 2: the solar panels, but not using them at home to
26:18
Speaker 2: power their heavy industry.
26:21
Speaker 12: No, that's right. They're happy to talk about it. They're
26:24
Speaker 12: happy to supply the world, and they're happy to argue
26:27
Speaker 12: on the part of developing countries to get subsidies and
26:31
Speaker 12: in terms of improving their own industry and air quality
26:36
Speaker 12: and things at home. That's all about particular emissions and
26:40
Speaker 12: other things. It's not necessarily about CO two.
26:45
Speaker 2: And what about green hydrogen. I mean, the last time
26:48
Speaker 2: you and I talked, it was almost a dead letter
26:50
Speaker 2: for private sector investment. I know it's still in the
26:54
Speaker 2: language the arsenal of the governor. I know Chris Bowen
26:56
Speaker 2: sprooks it quite often. Where do you see that at
26:59
Speaker 2: the moment?
27:02
Speaker 12: Well, I think in terms of it being a substantial
27:06
Speaker 12: export industry as a replacement for natural gas, well, it's
27:11
Speaker 12: completely a bust. It's too expensive and it's too difficult.
27:16
Speaker 12: The argument now is well, look, it does make sense
27:18
Speaker 12: if you have it as part of a linked process
27:22
Speaker 12: if you like, so you're producing some hydrogen feedstock on
27:26
Speaker 12: site and you're using it in an industrial facility there.
27:30
Speaker 12: But again that comes down to cost. There's a lot
27:35
Speaker 12: to be said that you can possibly do it, but
27:38
Speaker 12: is it worthwhile?
27:42
Speaker 2: Well over there, Graham, thank you all right after the break.
27:45
Speaker 2: Why the PM can't give a clear answer and defending
27:47
Speaker 2: Taiwan and is this really a deal breaker for the
27:50
Speaker 2: Trump administration? I mean, as I said, this is about
27:52
Speaker 2: as as much as it is about Orcus. But a
27:56
Speaker 2: lot in the media I'm picking up the distinction. Are
27:58
Speaker 2: they plus selbn easy? Is it to be g tomorrow?
28:01
Speaker 2: What can we expect? Will he raise the tough issues
28:03
Speaker 2: like how Beijing treats our military personnel or will it
28:07
Speaker 2: be just more panda diplomacy welcome back Still to come.
28:14
Speaker 2: Shocking revelations and authorities ignored warnings when it came to
28:18
Speaker 2: the alleged child rapers, the choking worker Joshua Dale Brown,
28:22
Speaker 2: but vers the Prime Minister declined to reveal whether he
28:25
Speaker 2: would help defend Taiwan in the event of a conflict
28:29
Speaker 2: between the United States and China. It comes a bit
28:31
Speaker 2: pressure from Pentagon Policy chief Elbridge Colby for Australia to
28:36
Speaker 2: commit US supplied Orcas submarines to any potential conflict over Taiwan.
28:41
Speaker 2: Join him now for some analysis strategic analysis Australia Director
28:45
Speaker 2: Peter Jennings. Well, i'll tell you what give us your
28:48
Speaker 2: sense of viz. The timing is interesting, Elbridge Colby. Was
28:52
Speaker 2: he on a frolic here or is this part of
28:55
Speaker 2: a deliberate play from the Trump administration?
29:00
Speaker 13: A deliberate play, pet no doubt about it. And we
29:03
Speaker 13: know that because we've heard it also released into the
29:06
Speaker 13: public realm. That the review that mister Colby is undertaking
29:10
Speaker 13: is that the direction of hexset. I think the Trump
29:14
Speaker 13: administration frankly has come to the end of its tether
29:17
Speaker 13: with dealing with Prime Minister Albanesi. They are puzzled at
29:21
Speaker 13: the string of insults that's been directed towards the President.
29:24
Speaker 13: They're offended by the fact that Alberanzi can't get on
29:27
Speaker 13: the phone or find a flight to where get to Washington,
29:31
Speaker 13: d C. He seems to be able to travel every
29:33
Speaker 13: place else. And so they're returning a bit of fire
29:36
Speaker 13: with fire by playing this in the public realm. It
29:40
Speaker 13: doesn't have to be this way. You know, the PM
29:42
Speaker 13: would not be having to respond to leaks from the
29:44
Speaker 13: Pentagon if he actually had a relationship with Trump where
29:48
Speaker 13: he could pick up the phone and talk to him.
29:50
Speaker 13: So there's some gamesmanship going on, but it's all in
29:54
Speaker 13: response to the lack of contact that's come from alban EASi.
30:01
Speaker 2: I made the point of the other show. You know,
30:03
Speaker 2: people confuse orcus with ass but this puts the whole
30:08
Speaker 2: ANSAs Alliance, which has been our mainstay since fifty one,
30:13
Speaker 2: under a real cloud. If we're leaving open this question
30:17
Speaker 2: about what we would do if called upon it. It's
30:19
Speaker 2: a big if because we know the strategic ambiguity aligned
30:22
Speaker 2: there between the US and Taiwan. But I mean, if
30:25
Speaker 2: we're going to get US subs and they're much needed
30:29
Speaker 2: in the United States for their arsenal well, rightly Congress
30:32
Speaker 2: is saying, what are you going to do with the
30:33
Speaker 2: Australia if we need them in some sort of battle
30:37
Speaker 2: with China? Will you deploy them as we hope you will.
30:39
Speaker 2: In our blokes sitting on the fens fence and can't
30:42
Speaker 2: even give an answer.
30:44
Speaker 13: Yes, it's a fair question to ask I think if
30:46
Speaker 13: you're American, and really, I don't think they're so concerned about,
30:50
Speaker 13: you know, making Iron Cloud commitment to a future conflict. No,
30:53
Speaker 13: no government would ask for that. They're really just asking, hey, Australia,
30:57
Speaker 13: are you still with us? You know, are you still
31:00
Speaker 13: committed to the alliance relationship? Because you're behaving in a
31:03
Speaker 13: strange way if you are. And I think it's perfectly
31:06
Speaker 13: reasonable for the Americans to be asking those questions. Seeing
31:09
Speaker 13: as it's their technology. They're proposing to sell this to us.
31:13
Speaker 13: They'd like to have some sense about what role we
31:15
Speaker 13: might play. And we can answer that question, I think
31:18
Speaker 13: very eloquently by saying, hey, there's twenty five or thirty
31:22
Speaker 13: thousand troops actually exercising across Australia's beaches even as we speak,
31:27
Speaker 13: showing how we work together. You know, we're out to
31:31
Speaker 13: deter war, and you know we've got our eyes on
31:34
Speaker 13: you China. We know what's going on. Unfortunately, the PM
31:37
Speaker 13: just seems to be incapable of saying that Petter and
31:40
Speaker 13: Albinizi is now letting himself be played by the Pentagon.
31:44
Speaker 13: He doesn't need to do that. He could just pick
31:46
Speaker 13: up the phone and talk to the President direct.
31:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right to make the point. I mean, it's
31:52
Speaker 2: like our Prime minister is on a completely different universe
31:56
Speaker 2: compared to all of our defense players who are focused
31:59
Speaker 2: to tell us me saber in our North and Australia's history.
32:02
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of other people in the
32:04
Speaker 2: Parliament are on a totally different train in relation to
32:07
Speaker 2: China and our guys over there. And we'll see what
32:10
Speaker 2: it looks like tomorrow when he meets President g whether
32:13
Speaker 2: it's going to be the handsome boy rubbish all over
32:15
Speaker 2: again where he's basically I mean, he thought it was
32:17
Speaker 2: a joke and it was funny, but in fact, you know,
32:20
Speaker 2: Chinese Australian said to me, if you look at the
32:23
Speaker 2: Mandarin speak for what was said, it was a real
32:26
Speaker 2: pat on the head.
32:27
Speaker 3: It was.
32:29
Speaker 2: Certainly wasn't a positive. So when they meet tomorrow, you're
32:34
Speaker 2: a China expert, what are you going to be looking for?
32:36
Speaker 2: I mean, are we going to see something like the
32:38
Speaker 2: Port of Daho and rays because he danced around that
32:41
Speaker 2: one today? Is he going to take the Chinese to
32:44
Speaker 2: task about how our military men and women have been
32:47
Speaker 2: treated in recent months? They're going to take them to
32:49
Speaker 2: task about incursions in our area or sphere of influence
32:54
Speaker 2: down here, or is it going to be sweetness enlightened
32:57
Speaker 2: and panda bears.
33:00
Speaker 13: Sweetness and lights and maybe a pandem bear or two Peter.
33:04
Speaker 13: You know what the Chinese require above everything else here
33:07
Speaker 13: is no surprises, and I think Albanesi will be quite
33:11
Speaker 13: comfortable with that. So in what we see of it publicly,
33:14
Speaker 13: it's going to be lots of friendly jokes and exchanges
33:17
Speaker 13: of sporting shirts and that sort of thing, and no substance.
33:22
Speaker 13: And then someone will say in the Prime Minister's traveling party,
33:25
Speaker 13: while he raised these issues behind the closed doors, frankly,
33:29
Speaker 13: he made it only in the most oblique way, because
33:34
Speaker 13: I don't think Albanesi is having difficult conversations with Sejimpink.
33:39
Speaker 13: I think both he and Premier She want to get
33:43
Speaker 13: happy snaps out of it. And that's about the level
33:46
Speaker 13: of substance that we're getting from our relationship with China.
33:49
Speaker 2: Right now, Let's play some comments of Prime Minister made
33:54
Speaker 2: when he was asked actually about the point of Darwin today.
33:57
Speaker 3: If it's raised our positions very and I'm sure that
34:01
Speaker 3: the Presidence very clear and is knowledgeable of that I'll
34:06
Speaker 3: have a discussion with the President. I'll treat him with
34:08
Speaker 3: the respect that I would any leader of another country.
34:13
Speaker 2: I mean, the more I see about the Abunezi, and
34:15
Speaker 2: I know he's been in parliament, we've both looked at
34:17
Speaker 2: him for twenty five years plus, the more I feel
34:20
Speaker 2: is he reckons a job of leadership is a pr job.
34:24
Speaker 2: And I watch him and I just think, you know,
34:26
Speaker 2: the Emperor's got no clothes. Is the rest of Australia
34:29
Speaker 2: going to wake up to this because he's just been
34:31
Speaker 2: voted in. He's unassailable in terms of where he is,
34:34
Speaker 2: in terms of the parliamentary numbers he has. But I
34:37
Speaker 2: think the world's never been more troubled in decades, and
34:41
Speaker 2: I feel like we've got a bloke in charge. He's
34:43
Speaker 2: a real lightweight.
34:45
Speaker 13: Yeah, I'm not going to disagree with you. I mean,
34:47
Speaker 13: when you never get below the surface of the talking
34:50
Speaker 13: points and no to in particular with China, it's the
34:54
Speaker 13: same talking point all the time. I mean he's added
34:56
Speaker 13: a new one with we grow our capability and we
35:00
Speaker 13: build our relationships, which is this sort of way of
35:03
Speaker 13: brushing off substantive discussion about defense. There is no substance there,
35:09
Speaker 13: and you know, I fear that the Prime Minister's thinking,
35:13
Speaker 13: Peter on China is locked in about the mid nineteen
35:17
Speaker 13: nineties when China was just beginning to grow and America
35:21
Speaker 13: was the unassailable world leader. But we're not in that
35:25
Speaker 13: world anymore. China is now an equal military power with
35:29
Speaker 13: the United States in many respects, wanting to control the region,
35:33
Speaker 13: actually saying that that's what its intention is. And here
35:36
Speaker 13: we are pretending that it's all happen to light and
35:38
Speaker 13: we have a stabilized relationship. We need more from our
35:42
Speaker 13: Prime minister. Whether Australians want this or not, I can't
35:46
Speaker 13: tell anymore, because clearly they voted for him in large
35:49
Speaker 13: numbers in the election camp. Maybe they just don't want
35:53
Speaker 13: to hear the difficult messages. Peter, that's a rather concerning thought.
35:57
Speaker 13: But we're not going to get substance in those scussions tomorrow.
36:00
Speaker 13: I can assure you. It's all surface gloss.
36:05
Speaker 11: All right.
36:05
Speaker 2: Well, we'll come back to it tomorrow night and see
36:07
Speaker 2: where we go. But I suspect you're absolutely right, Peter Jennings.
36:09
Speaker 2: Thank you. Just before we go, I want to say
36:11
Speaker 2: a big congratulations to the Sky team and Network ten
36:15
Speaker 2: because they've cut a deal which means we will be
36:18
Speaker 2: free to wear from our regional viewers right across New
36:20
Speaker 2: South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. And I know it means
36:23
Speaker 2: a hell of a lot to country communities like my
36:26
Speaker 2: friends and family in the Malleys. So I think it's fantastic.
36:29
Speaker 2: We love talking about country issues, we love talking to
36:32
Speaker 2: country people. I certainly do it here, but everyone does
36:35
Speaker 2: on Sky News. So channel fifty six if you're in
36:37
Speaker 2: regional Victoria, southern New South Wales and Queensland, and we're
36:40
Speaker 2: on channel fifty three in the northern New South Wales
36:43
Speaker 2: area and of course the Gold Coast watch us, tune in,
36:47
Speaker 2: fire up and keep us grounded. That's what I love
36:50
Speaker 2: about regional Australia. Right after the break, Victorian government ordered
36:54
Speaker 2: a cost cutting review. So why won't they release it?
36:57
Speaker 2: Why won't they take action? Because the state's debt it's soaring.
37:01
Speaker 2: Plus the latest on the shocking child abuse case out
37:03
Speaker 2: of Melbourne reports that the alleged views that was reported
37:06
Speaker 2: twice to police but nothing done about it. That's next
37:14
Speaker 2: welcome back coming out. One rule for us, one rule
37:16
Speaker 2: for them. Why the National Anti Corruption Commissions trying to
37:20
Speaker 2: protect the identity of a senior bureaucrag guilty of corruption.
37:24
Speaker 2: But first to the ongoing investigation to the renders sexual
37:27
Speaker 2: abuse allegations against a Melbourne childcare worker, Joshua Dale Brown. Well,
37:32
Speaker 2: we've now learned the brand was reported not once, but twice,
37:36
Speaker 2: and yet police, the Department of Education and the Commissioner
37:40
Speaker 2: for Children did nothing.
37:43
Speaker 14: The first investigation in twenty twenty three was after allegations
37:47
Speaker 14: mister Brown aggressively picked up and put down a child
37:51
Speaker 14: in his care by not supporting that child while they
37:54
Speaker 14: were upset. The incident was reported by three colleagues. The
37:58
Speaker 14: claim was proven and the edge ducator was given a
38:01
Speaker 14: formal written warning and took three months leave. A second
38:04
Speaker 14: investigation was sparked in January twenty twenty four after a
38:08
Speaker 14: parent and staff complained Joshua Brown allegedly forcibly grabbed the
38:13
Speaker 14: arm of one child, the leg of another and forcibly
38:16
Speaker 14: pulled off their shoe. He was immediately suspended and eventually
38:20
Speaker 14: resigned before the claims were substantiated.
38:25
Speaker 2: R So how does this happen? Victoria's a shadow witchcachy
38:28
Speaker 2: Minister Jess Wilson joins me. Now well, just I spoke
38:31
Speaker 2: to you about this all last week. It was bad
38:33
Speaker 2: last week. It's getting worse by the day. And those
38:37
Speaker 2: revelations say that this just isn't one part of the
38:41
Speaker 2: government that's rotten. It got oversight right across, fundamental failure
38:46
Speaker 2: across the board. It's still talk though, we're still talking
38:49
Speaker 2: about a review. You haven't been able to get the
38:52
Speaker 2: Premier to recall the parliament and fix the problems. Where
38:55
Speaker 2: are we up to tonight?
38:57
Speaker 7: Well, that's right, Peter. What we're seeing now is complete
39:00
Speaker 7: systemic failure when it comes to safety in childcare centers
39:04
Speaker 7: here in Victoria. The revelations over the weekend that the
39:08
Speaker 7: alleged offender was known to the Commission for Children and
39:13
Speaker 7: Young People just demonstrates how our system is failing. The
39:18
Speaker 7: allegations were substantiated, and yet no recommendations were made to
39:24
Speaker 7: the Department of Government Services to review or suspend his
39:28
Speaker 7: working with Children's check. How does this continue to happen
39:31
Speaker 7: when we have seen again and again systemic failures when
39:35
Speaker 7: it comes to our working with children's checking here in Victoria.
39:40
Speaker 2: And we have the other case of a man in Horsham,
39:43
Speaker 2: an Indigenous man attending a childcare center. Now that went
39:47
Speaker 2: on and on and on, and he's still access the
39:49
Speaker 2: childcare center even though he was under investigation for having
39:54
Speaker 2: possession of child abuse material. He's since been convicted of that,
39:58
Speaker 2: but again, how does that happen? And still so the
40:00
Speaker 2: Premier will not bring back the parliament and fix these loopholes.
40:05
Speaker 7: That's right, and the Premier was worn. The government was
40:07
Speaker 7: warned about these loopholes in twenty twenty two by the
40:10
Speaker 7: Ombardsman that made a recommendation to the government to change
40:14
Speaker 7: the Working with Children's check system so that these sort
40:18
Speaker 7: of risks could be taken into account and working with
40:20
Speaker 7: children's checks could be rejected or they could be rescinded.
40:24
Speaker 7: Yet the Premier has decided once again that we're going
40:26
Speaker 7: to have another review rather than taking the immediate action
40:30
Speaker 7: that is actually needed and making sure that when kids
40:33
Speaker 7: are dropped off at childcare centers today, their appropriate safety
40:38
Speaker 7: is in place, and that is simply not the case.
40:40
Speaker 7: We also saw over the weekend revelations that the regulator
40:44
Speaker 7: in this space, a tiny unit within the Department of
40:46
Speaker 7: Education that reports to a Deputy secretary, has seen complaints
40:50
Speaker 7: rise by forty five percent over recent years, yet action
40:54
Speaker 7: on those complaints has reduced by sixty seven percent. So
40:59
Speaker 7: clear the regular doesn't have the resources or it's not
41:02
Speaker 7: capable of doing its job either. Yet the review that
41:05
Speaker 7: the Premier stood up explicitly cuts out the performance of
41:08
Speaker 7: the regulator as part of one of the considerations.
41:13
Speaker 2: Well, part of the reason is why there is not
41:14
Speaker 2: enough money to do their jobs some of these regulators
41:17
Speaker 2: is that the state's virtually belly up bankrupt. I know
41:19
Speaker 2: it's such your portfolio. But the Treasurer today says that
41:23
Speaker 2: there is a review, an independent review in how to
41:26
Speaker 2: cut the costs of government in Victoria, but they're going
41:28
Speaker 2: to sit on it. It will not be released. And
41:32
Speaker 2: this is yet the number one issue for taxpayers and business.
41:36
Speaker 2: I mean, there's tax after tax in Victoria. As I say,
41:39
Speaker 2: the government is debt ridden. Surely we've got to move
41:42
Speaker 2: on these cost cutting measures and re reorientate the money
41:48
Speaker 2: Jess into areas like childcare regulation where it's desperately needed.
41:53
Speaker 2: That's right.
41:54
Speaker 7: This is a government that has its priority So wrong, Peter.
41:57
Speaker 7: We're heading towards one hundred and ninety four billion dollars
41:59
Speaker 7: worth of debt in this state.
42:01
Speaker 2: That will mean.
42:02
Speaker 7: Interest repayments of over one million dollars an hour in
42:05
Speaker 7: the coming years. And Victorians are already paying the highest
42:08
Speaker 7: taxes in the country. And we've seen when we saw
42:11
Speaker 7: the Treasurer of Palace put in place the COVID debt levee,
42:14
Speaker 7: we're seeing that tax take increase more than what they expected.
42:18
Speaker 7: Yet the government has failed to actually do what it
42:21
Speaker 7: said it would do and cut the number of the
42:23
Speaker 7: public service. See over the past ten years, we've seen
42:26
Speaker 7: the public service in Victoria grow by over sixty percent,
42:30
Speaker 7: but we've only seen population growth grow by around twenty percent,
42:33
Speaker 7: So it's growing by three times the rate under the
42:36
Speaker 7: labor government.
42:37
Speaker 2: And what does that mean.
42:39
Speaker 7: It doesn't mean we're getting better services here in Victoria.
42:42
Speaker 7: In fact, when we look at our frontline services, ambulances,
42:45
Speaker 7: we've got a crime crisis for our police, not enough
42:47
Speaker 7: police on the beat, we don't have enough teachers, and
42:50
Speaker 7: of course our childcare system is in desperate need of reform.
42:53
Speaker 7: We're hemorrhaging in terms of our frontline services. But this
42:56
Speaker 7: government can't take the action it needs to actually make
42:59
Speaker 7: sure we're spending when we need it.
43:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's clearly not pay on performance. Because the
43:05
Speaker 2: premier is the highest grossing premiere in the country. I'll
43:10
Speaker 2: leave it there, Jess, thanks very much. We'll come back
43:13
Speaker 2: up with the break when I talk about the ends
43:14
Speaker 2: forty eight billion a year. Yet apparently the CEO is
43:18
Speaker 2: on long term leave and no one is responding to
43:21
Speaker 2: questions about an audit. Monday Night panel, let's bring them
43:30
Speaker 2: in one nation, Chief and Stuff, James Ashby and the
43:33
Speaker 2: chief executive of the Page Research Center, Jared Holland. Gentlemen,
43:37
Speaker 2: let's go to the NDS. I'll start with you, James,
43:40
Speaker 2: over the weekends. Pretty serious questions. I mean I read
43:43
Speaker 2: this stuff with interest. Forty eight point five billion a year,
43:46
Speaker 2: we spend the chief executive on long term sort of sickly.
43:50
Speaker 2: We don't know for how long or why. The Chairman
43:54
Speaker 2: of the board Kurt Fernley, well hease refuse you to
43:56
Speaker 2: comment on a damning audit. We find the board has
43:59
Speaker 2: frow in some cases even cut the payer providers. This
44:02
Speaker 2: for the sixth year in a row. I mean, what
44:06
Speaker 2: knows happening here? I know a dozen front estimates. There's
44:09
Speaker 2: not enough scrutiny. I think people are starting to lose
44:12
Speaker 2: faith in indis.
44:16
Speaker 15: Well, particularly when it continues to blow out by eight
44:19
Speaker 15: percent every single year, year upon year upon year, we
44:22
Speaker 15: just can't seem to rain this in. Look, I might
44:25
Speaker 15: just say, Peter, there may be a real need to
44:28
Speaker 15: call this NDIA CEO before the Parliament for estimates. I
44:33
Speaker 15: know you say they don't turn up, but they have
44:35
Speaker 15: to turn up. If the Senate asks them to turn up,
44:38
Speaker 15: they must turn up. So there's a lot of questions
44:40
Speaker 15: that needs to be asked of this government, but more
44:42
Speaker 15: importantly the ANDDIA they're talking about a lot of these cuts.
44:46
Speaker 15: Look to be realistic about this. If we don't rain
44:49
Speaker 15: this in now, the service that provides dignity to those
44:52
Speaker 15: who have genuine disabilities will be gone. It was designed
44:56
Speaker 15: to bring about care and a service to those people
44:59
Speaker 15: with abilities, not make multimillionaires out of providers, and that's
45:03
Speaker 15: precisely what's gone on here. So some of those cuts
45:06
Speaker 15: have been to travel for a lot of these providers.
45:09
Speaker 15: We're talking about a physiotherapist who's having a winch here,
45:12
Speaker 15: but they're charging up to five hundred dollars an hour
45:15
Speaker 15: for travel to far and remote parts of this country,
45:19
Speaker 15: and two hundred dollars an hour for metro travel, and
45:22
Speaker 15: yet we're also on top of that providing eighty million
45:25
Speaker 15: dollars in travel to those people with disabilities. So it's
45:29
Speaker 15: almost as though the system has been double dipped at
45:32
Speaker 15: every single which way you look at it, and we've
45:35
Speaker 15: got to rein it in to preserve it for the
45:37
Speaker 15: future of those with disabilities.
45:40
Speaker 2: Well, all strength, Tom, if you can get them in
45:42
Speaker 2: front of the Senate and some tough questions asked, or
45:45
Speaker 2: probably cross that into that live if you could do
45:47
Speaker 2: it here on kredline, let's go to the National Anti
45:51
Speaker 2: Corruption Commission. This is a knack. It's shielded the identity
45:55
Speaker 2: of a corrupt Home Affairs official. This is senior bureaucrat
46:00
Speaker 2: and a whole lot of legal figures, including former judges
46:02
Speaker 2: and commissioners. Well, they've criticized this lack of transparency, Joe,
46:07
Speaker 2: what concerns me here? If you're accused of a crime
46:11
Speaker 2: or I am, other than perhaps a suppression order, at
46:14
Speaker 2: some stage our names would be out there, would have
46:17
Speaker 2: to defend our good name and go through a legal process. Well,
46:20
Speaker 2: this person's gone through a process that've been found to
46:24
Speaker 2: be corrupt, but we're not allowed to know who they are.
46:28
Speaker 9: That's exactly right, Peter, not allowed to know who they are.
46:31
Speaker 9: And as far as I can tell from looking into this,
46:33
Speaker 9: because a lot has been released, there's been no real consequences.
46:36
Speaker 9: They resigned from their positions, so we're unable to be sacked.
46:40
Speaker 9: I believe they haven't chosen to prosecute any charges and
46:43
Speaker 9: so it's really nothing to see here. Move along, but
46:45
Speaker 9: it really makes you wonder. This commission was set up
46:47
Speaker 9: a couple of years ago. Of course, it was one
46:49
Speaker 9: of the big campaigns of the Teals back in twenty
46:51
Speaker 9: twenty two, a budget of over one hundred million dollars
46:54
Speaker 9: over two hundred and sixty staff, and the only original
46:56
Speaker 9: cases that they pulled out is this one, which seems
46:59
Speaker 9: to have gone nowhere and no one's being told anything,
47:01
Speaker 9: and a bribery case with Western Sydney Airport for about
47:04
Speaker 9: two hundred thousand dollars over a five million dollar deal.
47:08
Speaker 9: So that doesn't seem like a good bang for your buck,
47:10
Speaker 9: and no one wants corruption. But really, we can't just
47:12
Speaker 9: keep hosing up taxpayers money against the wall for the
47:15
Speaker 9: fantasies of Teals and for alban easy to get out
47:18
Speaker 9: there looking like he's being this transparent Prime Minister, when
47:21
Speaker 9: really it's just wasting money, wasting people's time and resources,
47:24
Speaker 9: and hasn't achieved any results whatsoever.
47:28
Speaker 2: And of course James, they said, there's nothing to see
47:30
Speaker 2: here with that multimillion dollar payment to Britain. Higgins goodness
47:34
Speaker 2: may Hey. The Grands warned Alban easy to use his
47:37
Speaker 2: numbers of the Parliament for a federal human Rights Act.
47:40
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll be like the good old Bill of Rights.
47:43
Speaker 2: They'll try and ram that through now that they've got
47:45
Speaker 2: the numbers. I mean, I think this is just crazy,
47:47
Speaker 2: but this is the stuff we've got to watch for.
47:51
Speaker 15: Yeah, this will stifle any legislation and any approvals basically
47:56
Speaker 15: in this country. I don't know whether you realize, Peter,
47:58
Speaker 15: or certainly you probably do, but viewers at home may
48:01
Speaker 15: not realize that every bill that comes before the Parliament
48:05
Speaker 15: actually on the first few pages says this bill has
48:08
Speaker 15: been through the Human Rights Act and it passes with
48:12
Speaker 15: flying colors. So no legislation has passed in this country
48:16
Speaker 15: doesn't get reviewed for its human rights. So we don't
48:20
Speaker 15: need this.
48:21
Speaker 1: It's a duplication.
48:22
Speaker 15: We're already subjected to it internationally through the UN. We
48:26
Speaker 15: don't need a second duplication, which the Greens are very
48:28
Speaker 15: good at, by the way, they love duplication, red tape
48:31
Speaker 15: and just slowing the process up in this country.
48:36
Speaker 2: We got to watch all of these very carefully. Thank you, gentlemen.
48:38
Speaker 2: We'll leave it there. That's it for me tonight. Up next,
48:41
Speaker 2: James Ecpherson with the bulk Ford