Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 28 September

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The Kenny Report | 28 September · The Kenny Report

0:02
Speaker 1: This is the Kenny Report. Welcome to the show. Chris
0:07
Speaker 1: is taking a short break. Steve Price with you this week,
0:10
Speaker 1: a week where, of course, by this time tomorrow, mortgage
0:12
Speaker 1: holders paying off a house, an apartment or a unit
0:15
Speaker 1: look like being hit with the fourth interest rate rise
0:18
Speaker 1: this year, probably 0.25 of a percent, taking rates up
0:22
Speaker 1: by a full 1%. I'll get some reaction and a
0:25
Speaker 1: Reserve Bank assessment shortly. Coming up on the Kenny Report tonight, immigration, again,
0:30
Speaker 1: the headline issue today, with examples of student visa rorting
0:35
Speaker 1: throwing up some extraordinary examples of gaining the system. We'll
0:39
Speaker 1: catch up with Shadow Home Affairs spokesman John O'Donoghue first
0:42
Speaker 1: up today. And we'll cross to the UK and Sophie
0:45
Speaker 1: Ellsworth where... Authorities relying on a tip-off from a local
0:49
Speaker 1: farmer have foiled what is being branded as a planned
0:53
Speaker 1: terrorist attack at RAF base Fairford in southwest England, a
0:57
Speaker 1: base holding US bombers operating in the Gulf War. Plus,
1:01
Speaker 1: with the Victorian election now just a couple of months away,
1:04
Speaker 1: it's actually nine weeks, Law and order is again going
1:07
Speaker 1: to drive the Coalition's bid to stop a record-breaking fourth
1:11
Speaker 1: term for Labor with a prisoner sentencing discount scheme for
1:15
Speaker 1: good behaviour to be dumped. Shadow Police Minister himself will
1:20
Speaker 1: join us, a former prison officer, Brad Batten. He'll be
1:23
Speaker 1: up shortly. And with our Monday night panel fresh, news
1:26
Speaker 1: poll data out today shows there is no stopping the
1:29
Speaker 1: One Nation orange tsunami, with Pauline now preferred as Prime
1:34
Speaker 1: Minister over Anthony Albanese in Queensland and leading in primary
1:38
Speaker 1: votes in New South Wales. Bad news. for all of
1:42
Speaker 1: the other major parties. First, though, if you needed any
1:46
Speaker 1: further evidence on why One Nation support around Australia that
1:49
Speaker 1: I just mentioned is surging, more detail today around Labor
1:54
Speaker 1: handing out an extraordinary number of permanent residency visas to
1:58
Speaker 1: illegal boat people arrivals that came to Australia between 2009
2:02
Speaker 1: and 2014. Now, on top of that, evidence the Albanese
2:08
Speaker 1: government dropped $ 300 million in multicultural grants to guess where?
2:15
Speaker 1: Immigration groups in Labor seats. I mean, has this crowd
2:18
Speaker 1: got no shame? Apparently not. The Australian reports on the
2:22
Speaker 1: visa shock today, reporting that more than 30,000, think about
2:26
Speaker 1: that number for a moment, 30,000 asylum seekers were handed
2:30
Speaker 1: something called resolution of status visas, which were introduced by
2:35
Speaker 1: our worst ever immigration minister, Andrew Giles, back in 2023. Now,
2:40
Speaker 1: back then, Giles was telling the parliament and the media
2:44
Speaker 1: that that this change would probably, the visas, apply to
2:47
Speaker 1: around 19,000 illegal boat people, not 30,000, roughly double. So
2:53
Speaker 1: in the middle of a heated debate about migrants, where
2:56
Speaker 1: they come from, how skilled they are, how suitable to
3:00
Speaker 1: fit in here in Australia, Labor says to these people
3:04
Speaker 1: who came illegally and have been incredibly in the country,
3:08
Speaker 1: living here on temporary protection visas for years or safe
3:12
Speaker 1: haven enterprise visas, No worries, you can stay. I mean, seriously?
3:17
Speaker 1: Just those visa types and the numbers involved deserves a
3:23
Speaker 1: full overhaul of who's coming. Now, give me, please, John
3:28
Speaker 1: Howard's line. He said, we will decide who comes to
3:31
Speaker 1: this country and the circumstances in which they come. That
3:35
Speaker 1: was back in October of 2001. How times have changed. Now,
3:39
Speaker 1: One Nation's tapping the community unease about migration numbers. Here
3:43
Speaker 1: was Barnaby Joyce on News 24 with Laura Jays this morning.
3:47
Speaker 2: There's three million temporary visa holders in Australia and there's
3:52
Speaker 2: an awful lot of fat on the bone to trim.
3:56
Speaker 3: 55% of the visa holders, Laura.
3:59
Speaker 1: Are going to two places.
4:00
Speaker 3: They're going to Sydney and Melbourne. And the people in
4:03
Speaker 3: Sydney and Melbourne don't want them.
4:05
Speaker 1: He's right, and I'll get Jonathan Dunham's view on that
4:08
Speaker 1: in a moment. the Shadow Home Affairs Minister. But the
4:11
Speaker 1: history of this cohort is extraordinary. 17,000 of that total
4:15
Speaker 1: number have somehow already become or are eligible to become
4:19
Speaker 1: Australian citizens. So more than half. Not surprisingly, the current minister,
4:23
Speaker 1: Tony Burke's office, initially refused to release the numbers of
4:28
Speaker 1: resolution of status visa holders. But finally, after pressure from
4:33
Speaker 1: the Australian newspaper, confirm the numbers. And remember, with these
4:37
Speaker 1: outcomes in mind, Labor promised during the last two election campaigns,
4:42
Speaker 1: another election promise, to be resolute about maintaining the Coalition's
4:46
Speaker 1: promise that people coming by unauthorised boat arrivals would not
4:51
Speaker 1: be allowed to settle here. I mean, so much for
4:53
Speaker 1: that promise. Another broken Labor promise. And where are many
4:58
Speaker 1: of these illegal arrivals originally from? Well, 6,513 people were
5:04
Speaker 1: from Iran, and from Afghanistan, 4,573. And on the published figures, amazingly,
5:11
Speaker 1: 30 of these variety of visas a day, a day,
5:16
Speaker 1: were being handed out, 30 every day of the week. Now,
5:20
Speaker 1: of course, the department was asked to explain how these
5:22
Speaker 1: permanent visa decisions were being made. Have a listen to
5:26
Speaker 1: this public service jargon, and I'll quote it word for word.
5:30
Speaker 1: This is it. People who do not engage protection obligations,
5:34
Speaker 1: who are not awaiting merits or judicial review outcomes and
5:39
Speaker 1: who have exhausted all avenues to remain in Australia are
5:43
Speaker 1: expected to depart Australia voluntarily and may be provided with
5:48
Speaker 1: assistance to depart. I mean, what a joke. The department's
5:53
Speaker 1: basically saying there, look, we know you came here illegally
5:56
Speaker 1: on a boat and have been here for years, but
5:59
Speaker 1: would you mind going home? And if you can't afford
6:02
Speaker 1: a ticket, here's one courtesy of the taxpayer. If not, well,
6:06
Speaker 1: maybe just stay here anyway. And as I said, is
6:09
Speaker 1: it any surprise One Nation support is surging? And just
6:13
Speaker 1: on those federal Labor multicultural grants, or to put it
6:16
Speaker 1: another way, vote harvesting in migrant communities, have a listen
6:19
Speaker 1: to these numbers. $ 300 million since 2025, since the election
6:25
Speaker 1: victory in grants, with 94% of them going, guess where? Well,
6:30
Speaker 1: of course, Labor seats. And it's actually $ 325, 773, 590. One nation,
6:33
Speaker 1: speaking of them, crunched the numbers, showing the government's own
6:35
Speaker 1: website showed the grants jumped from $ 32 to $ 325 million.
6:50
Speaker 1: And as Pauline Hanson claimed, over 87% of these handouts
6:55
Speaker 1: were awarded through a closed and non-competitive selection process. A
7:00
Speaker 1: couple of examples, as reported in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph, second
7:04
Speaker 1: highest one-off grant of $ 25 million to the Australian National
7:09
Speaker 1: Iman's Council in Tony Burke's seat of Watson. I mean,
7:13
Speaker 1: talk about pork barrelling. It's outrageous. OK, let's get stuck
7:22
Speaker 1: into that story. Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonathan Dunham joins us.
7:26
Speaker 1: Does that show that Labor's just all about getting, you know,
7:29
Speaker 1: re-elected with those people in those electorates with no focus
7:33
Speaker 1: on actually overseeing good government in this area?
7:37
Speaker 4: I don't know what else it could possibly tell us, Steve.
7:40
Speaker 4: I mean, the numbers themselves are eye-watering. I mean, we
7:43
Speaker 4: just heard today about how badly we're doing as a
7:45
Speaker 4: nation financially. We've got inflation being driven out of control
7:50
Speaker 4: predominantly by government spending, and you see a tenfold increase
7:53
Speaker 4: in this economy. grant program, and I'd love to see
7:57
Speaker 4: the methodology behind the decision-making that went into awarding these grants.
8:02
Speaker 4: I would be very surprised if there was a robust
8:05
Speaker 4: process behind them, given the nature of and recipients of
8:09
Speaker 4: these grants. I think it does speak to the political
8:12
Speaker 4: nature and the cavalier way in which this Labor government
8:15
Speaker 4: treat taxpayers' money. It's all about ideology. It's all about vote-winning.
8:20
Speaker 4: It's got nothing to do with fiscal responsibility and certainly
8:22
Speaker 4: nothing to do with ensuring good outcomes for our country.
8:26
Speaker 1: We were talking about those grants. How is Tony Burke
8:29
Speaker 1: going to defend that grant of that size into his
8:33
Speaker 1: own electorate of Watson?
8:35
Speaker 4: Anyone would think Tony Burke was pulling cables out of
8:38
Speaker 4: the backs of people's iPads and video equipment, I suspect. But, look,
8:42
Speaker 4: how can you defend something that looks so patently, you know,
8:46
Speaker 4: like pork barrelling? In your electorate, huge amount of money
8:50
Speaker 4: to a specific group.
8:52
Speaker 3: Again.
8:52
Speaker 4: If the majority of these grants, as has been outlined,
8:55
Speaker 4: were provided through a closed process where there wasn't a
8:58
Speaker 4: competitive tender arrangement, then, can I say, that does stink.
9:03
Speaker 4: And this is why voters are getting fed up. You've
9:06
Speaker 4: talked about it already in the polls. This is the
9:08
Speaker 4: kind of thing we have to call out. It's the
9:10
Speaker 4: kind of thing we've got to rein in on any
9:11
Speaker 4: objective measure. When this government is handing cash out hand
9:15
Speaker 4: over fist and people can't pay their power bills, their mortgages,
9:20
Speaker 4: We're going to have another interest rate rise tomorrow. This
9:22
Speaker 4: is what's going to really annoy people.
9:25
Speaker 1: I mean, talking about the same minister, Tony Burke, I mean,
9:28
Speaker 1: he said the government was going to get tougher on
9:30
Speaker 1: visa hopping where people change their visas, particularly students, so
9:34
Speaker 1: they can stay here over and over again.
9:36
Speaker 5: I mean, the.
9:36
Speaker 1: Australian had an extraordinary... Or the Daily Telegraph, I should say,
9:40
Speaker 1: had an extraordinary investigation, found international students are now... They
9:44
Speaker 1: had one example of a student who enrolled in 16
9:49
Speaker 1: different courses and spent eight years here. I mean, how's
9:52
Speaker 1: that getting tougher on anybody? This is the problem. It
9:56
Speaker 1: is gained.
9:57
Speaker 4: There is an entire industry out there now where, people
10:00
Speaker 4: are providing support and advice on how to game our
10:04
Speaker 4: immigration system. The laws do need an overhaul. That is
10:06
Speaker 4: not getting what we need as a country out of
10:09
Speaker 4: those who are being given visas to come here to study,
10:12
Speaker 4: to work, to whatever it might be they want to
10:13
Speaker 4: do while they're here. We should be getting a contribution
10:16
Speaker 4: from people that come here to do these things. So
10:20
Speaker 4: that definitely needs tightening up. That is not in any
10:23
Speaker 4: way acceptable. I mean, we've got a Migration Act, of course,
10:26
Speaker 4: that is, what, nearly 70 years old. The Migration Act, 1958. And,
10:30
Speaker 4: of course, they've had bits bolted on. And then you
10:33
Speaker 4: have institutions, sadly, who are selling a pathway to permanency,
10:37
Speaker 4: not an education pathway. And that's what we've seen, sadly,
10:41
Speaker 4: with some of the universities with massive numbers of international students.
10:45
Speaker 4: The system isn't working in Australia's interests. And when we
10:48
Speaker 4: announce our policy in the very, very near future, Steve,
10:51
Speaker 4: can I tell you, we will be addressing exactly that.
10:55
Speaker 1: How long do we have to wait for that, do
10:57
Speaker 1: you think? Weeks, days, months?
10:59
Speaker 4: I reckon... No, we're in the weeks phase now, probably
11:02
Speaker 4: edging towards days. I did make a commitment that we'd
11:05
Speaker 4: have our policy out for all to see before Parliament returns.
11:08
Speaker 4: Parliament returns week after next. There's not long to go now,
11:11
Speaker 4: and you'll be able to pick it apart, but I
11:14
Speaker 4: am absolutely confident, given the work we've done, to ensure
11:18
Speaker 4: that this policy is about a sustainable reduction in the
11:21
Speaker 4: number of people coming to this country, but also one
11:23
Speaker 4: that doesn't destroy our economy, because there is a way
11:26
Speaker 4: of reducing numbers properly and sustainably without killing our economy,
11:30
Speaker 4: and that's what we'll be announcing in the very, very
11:31
Speaker 4: near future.
11:33
Speaker 1: Just quickly before we go, the backpacker visa had a
11:36
Speaker 1: lot of chat today, including... news out of your state, Tasmania,
11:40
Speaker 1: about the apple industry being concerned about a lack of,
11:43
Speaker 1: you know, seasonal workers. We talk about cherry picking as well. How...
11:47
Speaker 1: I know you can't give away the policy, but will
11:50
Speaker 1: you have an answer to those industries that need five, six,
11:54
Speaker 1: seven weeks of intensive working like fruit picking? Yes, we will.
11:59
Speaker 4: Our policy is going to be geared completely around making
12:03
Speaker 4: sure that our economy gets what it needs. You can
12:06
Speaker 4: reduce the numbers in a sustainable way and within the
12:09
Speaker 4: lower number that you reach, make sure that the industries,
12:12
Speaker 4: the parts of the economy that need workers through our
12:15
Speaker 4: immigration system get them. This government turned the tap right
12:19
Speaker 4: off on working holidaymakers because they couldn't do anything else.
12:23
Speaker 4: They didn't know how to control the numbers. And so
12:25
Speaker 4: you've got farmers, fruit growers, horticulturalists across the country, even
12:30
Speaker 4: the hospitality sector, of course, saying, well, hang on, Our industry,
12:33
Speaker 4: our season starts in four weeks.
12:35
Speaker 1: We need workers.
12:36
Speaker 4: We have had zero applications approved. That is not a
12:39
Speaker 4: good way of doing government. We will have an answer
12:41
Speaker 4: to that, and our policy will outline exactly how hospitality, agriculture, horticulture,
12:46
Speaker 4: all the industries that rely on working holidaymakers will get
12:49
Speaker 4: what they need under a reduced number when it comes
12:52
Speaker 4: to net overseas migration.
12:55
Speaker 1: Look forward to seeing it. Apologies for the interruption, John O'Donoghue,
12:58
Speaker 1: there in Tasmania. Let's go to Victoria now. The Coalition
13:01
Speaker 1: pledged over the weekend to abolish something that I didn't
13:05
Speaker 1: really realise existed. This is a prisoner sentence discount system
13:10
Speaker 1: that could and has let many violent criminals walk out
13:13
Speaker 1: of jail early. One would wonder why you would want
13:15
Speaker 1: to do that. Here's the latest from Nine News and
13:18
Speaker 1: I'll be joined by Brad Batten in just a second.
13:21
Speaker 6: This is the face of a monster sent to jail
13:24
Speaker 6: for almost two decades for killing his partner Katie Haley
13:28
Speaker 6: with a barbell as their child slept in 2018 and
13:32
Speaker 6: a man who won't serve his entire sentence. For years
13:36
Speaker 6: Katie's father Boyd has been calling for sentencing discounts to
13:39
Speaker 6: end that have been awarded to serious offenders impacted by
13:43
Speaker 6: COVID or strikes.
13:45
Speaker 2: I've gone directly to premiers, I've gone directly to victims
13:48
Speaker 2: of crime, I've gone directly to attorney generals.
13:51
Speaker 6: Now the opposition is promising to act if it wins
13:54
Speaker 6: this November with the equivalent of more than 2,200 years
13:59
Speaker 6: scrubbed from Victorian jail terms.
14:01
Speaker 1: This is a disgraceful policy.
14:03
Speaker 6: A policy the government now says stopped three years ago.
14:07
Speaker 1: It's trickery to talk about something that doesn't really exist.
14:11
Speaker 6: But the opposition says it has proof receiving these Freedom
14:14
Speaker 6: of Information documents from the government. showing discounts being awarded
14:19
Speaker 6: as recent as last year. Although the opposition admits it
14:22
Speaker 6: doesn't know if discounts already handed out can be reversed.
14:28
Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio, Brad Battin, the Victorian Shadow
14:30
Speaker 1: Police Minister. I mean, how does a bloke who bashes
14:33
Speaker 1: to death his wife with a barbell with an 11-month-old
14:36
Speaker 1: baby sleeping in the next room get discounts on his
14:38
Speaker 1: prison sentence?
14:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, we already know the justice system here is broken.
14:41
Speaker 7: We've spoken about this for far too long. I think
14:44
Speaker 7: the scariest part is we already know people aren't getting
14:46
Speaker 7: sentences and now you're finding out they're getting massive discounts
14:48
Speaker 7: on their sentence. But it's not an Australian problem. This
14:52
Speaker 7: is only in Victoria. They've got emergency management days. They've
14:55
Speaker 7: abused them. And for the government to come out with
14:57
Speaker 7: Anthony Carbines and try and mislead the community and say
14:59
Speaker 7: it's not happening anymore when 18,000 more days have been
15:03
Speaker 7: stripped off sentences since the change that they made in
15:07
Speaker 7: 2023 highlights that this government is approving So it's no
15:11
Speaker 7: longer just given to them.
15:12
Speaker 5: They've got to approve it for them to get the
15:13
Speaker 5: emergency management days.
15:14
Speaker 1: How does a policy like that ever get legislated?
15:18
Speaker 7: It was brought in years ago and the idea was
15:20
Speaker 7: around the management of the prisons.
15:22
Speaker 1: So numbers. The numbers question. When you've worked in prisons.
15:25
Speaker 5: I've worked in prison and management in prison is difficult.
15:27
Speaker 1: So take me to that experience of yours. So you
15:30
Speaker 1: see someone who's a violent killer. They come into jail
15:33
Speaker 1: and they behave themselves. They might keep their cell tidy,
15:36
Speaker 1: I presume, or work in the workshop or cook or whatever. never,
15:40
Speaker 1: ever threaten a guard, never do anything wrong. That doesn't
15:44
Speaker 1: take away from the fact of what they did.
15:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, it doesn't take it away.
15:47
Speaker 7: There's a difference between, though, you get out at your
15:49
Speaker 7: parole date, which is because you've been well behaved. These
15:52
Speaker 7: were when there was rolling lockdowns. Remember, we were locked
15:55
Speaker 7: down for 260-plus days in our homes.
15:56
Speaker 1: Two or ever.
15:57
Speaker 6: Yep.
15:57
Speaker 7: Well, when that happened, prisoners got four days off their
16:00
Speaker 7: sentence for every day we're locked down.
16:02
Speaker 1: Really?
16:02
Speaker 7: So at the same time we were getting locked up
16:04
Speaker 7: at home, prisoners were getting time off their sentence. That's
16:07
Speaker 7: where it started. Now they can still apply for it.
16:10
Speaker 7: They haven't got the staff in the prison system. Prisoners
16:12
Speaker 7: are getting locked down. That's why they're continuing to give
16:14
Speaker 7: out these days like they're candy. Under us, they will stop.
16:18
Speaker 1: Stop.
16:19
Speaker 5: Done, finished, gone.
16:20
Speaker 1: How pivotal is the law and order issue, do you think, Brad,
16:23
Speaker 1: going to be in nine weeks' time, where people actually
16:25
Speaker 1: go to vote?
16:26
Speaker 7: It's still very big. You've seen stabbings, aggravated burglaries. We're
16:30
Speaker 7: seeing it continuously still. We're seeing kids get out on
16:32
Speaker 7: bail continuously again. We saw another offender the other day
16:36
Speaker 7: where a person's had his face slashed and then he's
16:38
Speaker 7: ended up... The people who committed that crime were on bail.
16:41
Speaker 7: We saw a man stabbed trying to defend a neighbour's car.
16:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, good Samaritans.
16:45
Speaker 7: And when you read the story, he lost his wife
16:47
Speaker 7: a couple of years ago and now his daughter is...
16:50
Speaker 7: Imagine what it would be like as one of his
16:51
Speaker 7: kids turning around and going, well, now we could lose Dad,
16:53
Speaker 7: who's just trying to do the right thing here in
16:55
Speaker 7: violent Victoria, something the government should have done by getting
16:58
Speaker 7: knives off the street.
16:59
Speaker 1: How hard is that going to be, though, given that
17:02
Speaker 1: it's become part of the fabric, sadly, of the city
17:06
Speaker 1: that you and I live in and the state that
17:07
Speaker 1: we live in? How hard is it going to be
17:10
Speaker 1: to turn that around? I mean, I think the current
17:12
Speaker 1: police commissioner is doing a pretty good job, but he
17:15
Speaker 1: doesn't have the resources because the government's bled the police
17:18
Speaker 1: force dry... The vacancy rate and the amount of people
17:21
Speaker 1: retiring early is incredible. How do you turn it around?
17:24
Speaker 7: Yeah, Mike Bush has raised some good issues and good points,
17:26
Speaker 7: particularly around bail. He hates seeing offenders go in and out.
17:30
Speaker 7: How quickly can it happen? Well, we can get some
17:31
Speaker 7: of the legislation through within the first 100 days.
17:34
Speaker 5: We'll start it in December if we're elected.
17:36
Speaker 1: What will you be tougher on? What's the main thing
17:37
Speaker 1: you're going to be tougher on?
17:38
Speaker 5: Break bail, face jail.
17:39
Speaker 7: If you stop people getting bail when they're committing offences,
17:42
Speaker 7: they're off the streets and they're not recommitting offences. That
17:45
Speaker 7: is the priority for change. The consequences, longer sentencing, et cetera,
17:49
Speaker 7: that's all part of the package. But once you stop bail,
17:52
Speaker 7: that's the highlight of reducing the number of offenders that
17:55
Speaker 7: are available to commit crimes on the street.
17:57
Speaker 5: That keeps you safer.
17:58
Speaker 1: Is it possible, though, to break this, what appears to
18:01
Speaker 1: be an association between organised crime and there's several levels
18:06
Speaker 1: of it and they end up recruiting 14- and 15-year-old
18:10
Speaker 1: kids to steal cars on order armed with machetes? I mean,
18:14
Speaker 1: how are we going to stop that happening? Well, the priority.
18:16
Speaker 7: The government at the moment aren't really doing enough and
18:19
Speaker 7: they put machete bins out.
18:20
Speaker 1: Well, that's a joke.
18:21
Speaker 7: We need 3,000 extra police on the beat. We need
18:24
Speaker 7: to give the police the powers for stop and scanning,
18:26
Speaker 7: which is Jack's law, and make sure they can do it.
18:28
Speaker 7: Governments voted against that twice in this Victorian parliament. Now
18:32
Speaker 7: they're pretending they're going to do it next term. And
18:34
Speaker 7: we need serious consequences. The kids need to know. But importantly, Steve,
18:38
Speaker 7: we need intervention programs early and ones that work and
18:41
Speaker 7: are effective to stop kids in their tracks. Programs like
18:44
Speaker 7: Youth Start and Restart, where we engage with the young
18:47
Speaker 7: kids as they enter the justice system for stealing the
18:49
Speaker 7: Mars bar, not once they've stabbed someone, and let them
18:52
Speaker 7: know there's serious consequences. Exactly that.
18:56
Speaker 1: Just before we go, why would Premier Carroll, this is
19:00
Speaker 1: the Victorian Premier, in a media conference today, liken the
19:03
Speaker 1: election contest between you and Labor to Wharfie time? Have
19:07
Speaker 1: a look at this grab from the media conference today.
19:10
Speaker 6: Do you think that your government can have a last-minute
19:13
Speaker 6: comeback like the Lions?
19:14
Speaker 5: Look, it's Wharfie time.
19:18
Speaker 1: It's very clear that.
19:19
Speaker 7: The Liberals and One Nation think they've got this election
19:22
Speaker 7: in the bag.
19:25
Speaker 1: Some grinning colleague next to him, I mean, has he
19:27
Speaker 1: lost his marbles? I mean, Fremantle had the game won
19:32
Speaker 1: and then lost it. And look, because Wharfie time came on.
19:36
Speaker 5: I'll tell you now, Jess Wilson, you know, you've seen it.
19:38
Speaker 7: She's out there working really hard We need a strong leader,
19:42
Speaker 7: someone who can give Victoria a fresh start, and that
19:44
Speaker 7: is Jess. And you compare that to the person that
19:46
Speaker 7: was just on screen, and I was at the North
19:47
Speaker 7: Melbourne breakfast with him on the weekend.
19:49
Speaker 1: Where he actually.
19:50
Speaker 7: before we had the breakfast, said Brisbane's going to win
19:53
Speaker 7: the grand final, but in front of the crowd said
19:54
Speaker 7: there's going to be a draw. That highlights the person
19:57
Speaker 7: who was too afraid to offend anyone. That is a
19:59
Speaker 7: man that shouldn't be Premier. Jess Wilson makes decisions, will
20:02
Speaker 7: make changes, will deliver a safer Victoria and get on
20:04
Speaker 7: top of our economy.
20:05
Speaker 1: Two quick things. Why would you allow pubs to stay
20:07
Speaker 1: up until 3 o'clock in the morning?
20:09
Speaker 7: Oh, look, the whole variance in that, I'll be honest,
20:10
Speaker 7: I'm not anti with the pubs. I used to work
20:12
Speaker 7: in liquor licensing.
20:14
Speaker 5: You can't punish good licence holders. Every pub?
20:16
Speaker 7: Yeah, you don't have to go every pub, but I
20:17
Speaker 7: think the government's probably gone too far where any pub,
20:20
Speaker 7: even with bad licensees, you need to actually ensure the
20:23
Speaker 7: licensees are good operators.
20:25
Speaker 5: Then it doesn't matter if they're 24-7. If they're good operators.
20:27
Speaker 7: Unless you live next door. Unless you live next door.
20:29
Speaker 7: But most of the pubs around living in neighbour areas
20:31
Speaker 7: won't be open that late.
20:32
Speaker 1: I'd love to answer this. Are you a dog person?
20:35
Speaker 1: Am I a dog person?
20:36
Speaker 5: I actually am a dog person. My beautiful golden retriever
20:38
Speaker 5: is 13.
20:38
Speaker 1: So he wants dogs to be able to go to
20:39
Speaker 1: the hotel.
20:41
Speaker 5: This will depend where you live.
20:42
Speaker 1: I'll be honest.
20:42
Speaker 5: I go into areas in Prahran with.
20:45
Speaker 7: My sister who lives in St Kilda and nearly every
20:47
Speaker 7: pub we went to, probably against the rules, they have
20:49
Speaker 7: a dog in there. Out in the country pubs, the
20:52
Speaker 7: dogs will sit out the front. That's a whole different
20:54
Speaker 7: way of how country people and city people see their dogs.
20:57
Speaker 1: Nine weeks to go. You're not getting ahead of yourself?
20:59
Speaker 5: Never getting ahead of ourselves. Be working hard.
21:00
Speaker 7: Looking forward to meeting as many people in the community
21:03
Speaker 7: as That's travelling across Victoria, wherever I need to go
21:05
Speaker 7: to talk about crime, potholes and fixing the economy.
21:07
Speaker 1: Great to see you. Thanks a lot. Good luck on
21:09
Speaker 1: the next nine weeks. Let's talk about the RBA now
21:11
Speaker 1: and the interest rates set to rise to their highest
21:14
Speaker 1: level since 2011. That happens tomorrow, we're told, in a
21:17
Speaker 1: bid to curb inflation. I mean, the way to curb
21:20
Speaker 1: inflation is to tell the federal government to stop spending.
21:23
Speaker 1: That would be a best way to do it. That's
21:25
Speaker 1: in part thanks to that astronomical spending. But for the Treasurer,
21:29
Speaker 1: Jim Chalmers, it's all about unavoidable global shocks. Take a look.
21:33
Speaker 8: I think it is the universal or near universal expectation
21:38
Speaker 8: of economists and the market that rates will go up
21:43
Speaker 8: around the world, including in Australia. We see much more
21:47
Speaker 8: pressure on inflation from developments in the Middle East in particular.
21:51
Speaker 1: There you go. It's all about the Middle East. Obviously
21:55
Speaker 1: bad news for mortgage holders, though. Also for first home buyers.
21:59
Speaker 1: Exclusive analysis from the Daily Telegraph has found many are
22:02
Speaker 1: being forced to fork out 45% of their income on
22:06
Speaker 1: home repayments. It wouldn't be much different over rent either,
22:09
Speaker 1: with household budgets now being completely squeezed. Let's bring in
22:13
Speaker 1: Professor Richard Holden from the University of New South Wales
22:16
Speaker 1: Business School. Richard, the RBA doesn't have much choice here
22:19
Speaker 1: with inflation running so high, but do they need to
22:22
Speaker 1: be more forthright about government spending, do you think? Yes,
22:26
Speaker 1: I do, Steve.
22:27
Speaker 2: I think it's very clear that they're going to raise
22:30
Speaker 2: rates tomorrow. The three senior leaders at the RBA have
22:34
Speaker 2: been out in force over the last three weeks or so,
22:37
Speaker 2: making sure markets understand that rates are going to go up.
22:40
Speaker 2: They've used quite hawkish language by their standards. But, you know,
22:44
Speaker 2: really at the heart of this, it's not about what's
22:47
Speaker 2: going on in the Middle East. I thought it was
22:48
Speaker 2: extraordinary for the Treasurer to make that statement today, as
22:53
Speaker 2: if to say that rates are going up tomorrow because
22:55
Speaker 2: of that. You know, those energy prices barely even enter,
23:01
Speaker 2: if at all, the core inflation measure, the so-called trim
23:04
Speaker 2: mean measure, which has been well above the 2.5% target
23:09
Speaker 2: for the entire life of this government. It's currently at 3.6%.
23:14
Speaker 2: It's got everything to do with government spending and low
23:18
Speaker 2: productivity growth and very little to do with these international conditions.
23:23
Speaker 1: Into the trim mean figure, they take the price of
23:26
Speaker 1: fuel out, don't they? Because it's so variable. They lop off.
23:29
Speaker 2: It's a bit like the lopping off the East German
23:31
Speaker 2: judge back in the day with figure skating and diving
23:33
Speaker 2: and stuff. You take out the top 15% of price
23:37
Speaker 2: rises and you take out the lowest 15% and just
23:40
Speaker 2: look at that 70% in the middle. And if you
23:42
Speaker 2: get a big fuel price spike, that gets adjusted out.
23:48
Speaker 1: The fact we'll probably get a 0.25% rise, that'll make
23:51
Speaker 1: four in a row for a 1% increase on a mortgage.
23:56
Speaker 1: That really is starting to get to the area where
23:59
Speaker 1: people are going to have to make some pretty tough decisions.
24:02
Speaker 1: I have seen commentators already today suggesting it won't just
24:06
Speaker 1: be one more, it could be two, three, even four.
24:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's right.
24:10
Speaker 2: That's what a lot of us think, that it'll be...
24:14
Speaker 2: This one this month, probably another in November and almost,
24:20
Speaker 2: you know, a very real chance of another rise early
24:22
Speaker 2: in the new year. And we had Warren Hogan today
24:25
Speaker 2: saying he thinks it'll be four. I think most people
24:28
Speaker 2: think it'll be, you know, two, three or four rate
24:31
Speaker 2: rises starting tomorrow.
24:33
Speaker 1: When do we get to the territory where people are,
24:35
Speaker 1: you know, in so much financial bother that they're defaulting
24:39
Speaker 1: on home loans? Are we seeing any evidence yet that
24:41
Speaker 1: that's coming?
24:42
Speaker 2: Look, this is very, very painful for a big slice
24:45
Speaker 2: of Australian households. About 25% of Australian households have a
24:49
Speaker 2: big mortgage. This is very tough for them. If there's
24:51
Speaker 2: any good news from the kind of general economic perspective
24:55
Speaker 2: is that there isn't a lot of evidence from the
24:59
Speaker 2: Reserve Bank and the.
25:00
Speaker 1: Big four banks.
25:01
Speaker 2: Look at this very carefully. There's very little evidence of
25:05
Speaker 2: kind of defaults being triggered or early warning signs of that.
25:09
Speaker 2: That's not to diminish the pain that households feel. But
25:12
Speaker 2: from a kind of financial stability perspective, we're not seeing
25:16
Speaker 2: the early warning signs of that just yet.
25:19
Speaker 1: How's the government going to fix this productivity problem?
25:22
Speaker 3: Well, they should start.
25:23
Speaker 1: Can they?
25:25
Speaker 2: Well, they should stop making it worse. A lot of
25:28
Speaker 2: what they did in the first term, throwing a bunch
25:30
Speaker 2: of sand in the gears of the industrial relations system,
25:34
Speaker 2: you know, having wage increases not linked to productivity gains...
25:38
Speaker 2: you know, making it harder for workers to get matched
25:42
Speaker 2: to the employers where their skills are most valuable, that
25:45
Speaker 2: they should stop doing that stuff.
25:46
Speaker 1: But it really, it runs.
25:48
Speaker 2: Headlong into some of their commitments to the union movement,
25:52
Speaker 2: some of the other ideological commitments that they have. They
25:56
Speaker 2: talk a lot about getting productivity up. But what do
25:59
Speaker 2: we see? We saw stuff in the budget that was,
26:02
Speaker 2: you know, a so-called productivity package, which included things like
26:06
Speaker 2: occupational licensing across states. That's not a bad thing. But
26:09
Speaker 2: do we really think we're going to get productivity from
26:12
Speaker 2: zero back up to sort of two plus percent where
26:15
Speaker 2: it needs to be by making sure that hairdressers in
26:18
Speaker 2: Queensland can practice in Victoria as well? I mean, these
26:22
Speaker 2: little chip shots just aren't going to cut it.
26:26
Speaker 1: In a word, and I hate to ask this, are
26:30
Speaker 1: we looking inevitably at some sort of recession, even if
26:33
Speaker 1: it's just a technical one?
26:36
Speaker 2: I don't think it's inevitable, but it's certainly possible. But
26:39
Speaker 2: I think it's also important to remember, you know, a
26:42
Speaker 2: technical recession is, you know, when we have two successive
26:45
Speaker 2: quarters of negative growth, the difference between sort of negative
26:47
Speaker 2: 0.1 and positive 0.1 really isn't anything. I mean, it's
26:51
Speaker 2: a political problem for the government. But in terms of
26:55
Speaker 2: the economy, it's not that different. What we need to do,
26:58
Speaker 2: and I hope that the messaging from the RBA we've
27:01
Speaker 2: seen so far, and I hope what they say tomorrow,
27:04
Speaker 2: will show that they're finally getting serious about getting inflation
27:08
Speaker 2: back to target. They haven't been. Admittedly, the government's handed
27:12
Speaker 2: them a pretty bad set of cards with spending, but
27:15
Speaker 2: the RBA has not been tough enough on inflation. And
27:18
Speaker 2: that's where our cost of living crisis comes from. Our
27:21
Speaker 2: cost of living crisis comes from out of control, persistent inflation,
27:26
Speaker 2: and not enough wage rises because of our productivity problems.
27:30
Speaker 1: So the RBA need to.
27:31
Speaker 2: Do their part tomorrow and in months ahead.
27:37
Speaker 1: Richard Holden, appreciate your time very much. Thank you very
27:39
Speaker 1: much for that. And you'll of course see that RBA
27:42
Speaker 1: decision live on News 24 at around about 2.30 Eastern
27:46
Speaker 1: time tomorrow. Okay, let's go international. I want to talk
27:49
Speaker 1: about AI because The Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and he
27:52
Speaker 1: knows a little bit about technology, you'd think, has warned
27:55
Speaker 1: that left unchecked, the AI technology could be responsible for
28:00
Speaker 1: a billion deaths worldwide. Have a listen to what he said.
28:04
Speaker 9: AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know,
28:12
Speaker 9: cause a billion deaths. You know, so even though it's
28:16
Speaker 9: pretty hard to get to 100%, there's never been.
28:21
Speaker 9: A weapon as powerful as the combination of people with
28:26
Speaker 9: ill intent using the latest AI tools.
28:32
Speaker 1: OK, let's bring in Peter Jennings, News24' s defence analyst. Peter,
28:36
Speaker 1: pretty grim warning. I mean, is Gates exaggerating there, or
28:41
Speaker 1: should we really be listening to what he's saying?
28:46
Speaker 10: Well, if I'm right, Steve, Bill Gates cranked back his
28:50
Speaker 10: dire predictions about how climate catastrophe was going to destroy
28:54
Speaker 10: the world, and now he's focused instead on AI. I
28:59
Speaker 10: think they're devaluing the coin, these tech leaders, to get
29:04
Speaker 10: so dire. I don't know if there's any science at
29:07
Speaker 10: all between the number of billion people dead Just early
29:11
Speaker 10: last week, someone out of the Anthropic Company was saying
29:15
Speaker 10: that the entire planet was going to be.
29:18
Speaker 10: See humanity end in just four years' time, at the
29:21
Speaker 10: end of the decade. Look, my take on this is
29:25
Speaker 10: AI is enormously powerful.
29:29
Speaker 1: It really is.
29:30
Speaker 10: Another industrial revolution, and therefore it makes a lot of
29:34
Speaker 10: sense to think about how it can be managed effectively.
29:37
Speaker 10: I'm less concerned about AI going rogue... which is the
29:40
Speaker 10: phrase that everyone uses, Steve. I'm more concerned about the
29:44
Speaker 10: impact of AI in the hands of bad authoritarian actors.
29:48
Speaker 10: Let's call that China, which could be used to do
29:51
Speaker 10: significant damage against the interests of the democracies. So we
29:56
Speaker 10: definitely need to be concerned. But I think people talking about,
30:00
Speaker 10: you know, humanity ending, billions of people dying, the average
30:04
Speaker 10: citizen just kind of reacts a little bit to that
30:07
Speaker 10: by phasing out.
30:08
Speaker 1: And that's not what we need.
30:10
Speaker 10: We need people to be thinking hard, calmly in policy
30:13
Speaker 10: ways about how we can control those risks, such as
30:15
Speaker 10: they are, and harness the benefits that.
30:17
Speaker 1: Should come from AI as well. We don't really know
30:21
Speaker 1: what Xi's China is going to do here. I mean, obviously,
30:24
Speaker 1: they want to dominate the AI space. President Trump and
30:28
Speaker 1: Xi got together last week. Donald Trump, of course, says, well,
30:31
Speaker 1: we're winning, we're ahead, we're going to take AI, rename
30:35
Speaker 1: it and we'll be the world leaders. That would suggest
30:38
Speaker 1: to me there is some conflict between China and the
30:40
Speaker 1: United States about where this is all going. Did you
30:43
Speaker 1: take any comfort out of the fact that they sat
30:45
Speaker 1: down together and talked about it? I think it's better
30:49
Speaker 1: that they're talking than not.
30:50
Speaker 10: But no, there's no practical proposals really being advanced to
30:54
Speaker 10: get to grips on the substance of the issue. They're
30:57
Speaker 10: going to have an AI hotline, which I imagine will
31:00
Speaker 10: be answered by a human being if anyone actually picks
31:03
Speaker 10: it up, Steve. But fundamentally, both these powers have come
31:08
Speaker 10: to the view that it's a disaster for them if
31:11
Speaker 10: the other power gets AI technology first. And Trump is
31:15
Speaker 10: right in the sense of saying that America does have
31:18
Speaker 10: a first user advantage. They have more money, more computing
31:23
Speaker 10: power going into cracking AI algorithms than China can. China
31:29
Speaker 10: is basically still stealing a lot of the technology from
31:31
Speaker 10: the United States to be able to move forward themselves.
31:35
Speaker 10: But the risk is that China will use it in
31:37
Speaker 10: very undisciplined, dangerous ways that could be doing damage to
31:43
Speaker 10: Western critical infrastructure, that could have potential impacts on bioweapons,
31:48
Speaker 10: on the control of nuclear weapons. So the only way
31:50
Speaker 10: you can really deal with that is to be the
31:52
Speaker 10: country which gets to AI first. Fundamentally, it's all in
31:56
Speaker 10: our interests that the Americans win this particular race. And
32:00
Speaker 10: that's why I don't think we're going to see successful
32:04
Speaker 10: cooperation between the US and China, but I think we
32:07
Speaker 10: will see the US make more effort starting at the
32:10
Speaker 10: level of the tech companies, to actually manage their experimentation
32:15
Speaker 10: more effectively. And, you know, that's probably what the next
32:19
Speaker 10: few months will hold, is discussions around how that can
32:21
Speaker 10: be done.
32:23
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to London, talk to Sophie Ellsworth
32:25
Speaker 1: in a moment about this alleged terror attack on... Well,
32:28
Speaker 1: it's not alleged, this foiled attack on this airbase. But
32:33
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about the connection between this
32:37
Speaker 1: and it appears probably the Iranians. The base is in
32:40
Speaker 1: the south-west of England, staging post for US bomber strikes
32:44
Speaker 1: against Iran. I'm not sure whether the police accidentally discovered
32:49
Speaker 1: this was happening or the security authorities were onto it already.
32:52
Speaker 1: You imagine this is going to be linked at some
32:54
Speaker 1: point to Tehran?
32:57
Speaker 10: I think there's definitely a probability of that. One reason
33:00
Speaker 10: for saying that is the Tehran regime... actually named the base,
33:05
Speaker 10: RAF Base Fairford, as being a place where bombing missions
33:09
Speaker 10: and surveillance missions were flying from the UK over Iran.
33:13
Speaker 1: So it's known. And there never was a secret about that, Steve.
33:16
Speaker 10: It's a base that's actually been used for decades for
33:18
Speaker 10: that type of military operations, going back to the.
33:21
Speaker 5: Earlier Gulf War, in fact.
33:24
Speaker 10: The other thing we know is that Iran is a
33:25
Speaker 10: very active player in terms of international terrorism and it
33:28
Speaker 10: seeks to use global networks to try and deliver... terror
33:33
Speaker 10: threats around the world, as they did in Australia, as
33:36
Speaker 10: we know, against a couple of targets in the Jewish
33:39
Speaker 10: community in late 2024. So I think that's what we
33:44
Speaker 10: can know and surmise publicly. I suspect we'll see in
33:48
Speaker 10: fairly short order further information coming out that will indicate
33:52
Speaker 10: that British and American intelligence agencies had more detail, and
33:57
Speaker 10: therefore I think the potential for a link back to
34:00
Speaker 10: Tehran funding this, recruiting people to undertake it, that potential
34:06
Speaker 10: is quite high.
34:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, in fact, it looks like that is the case.
34:10
Speaker 1: Peter Jennings, I really appreciate your time. Thank you. I'll
34:12
Speaker 1: talk to you again soon. After the break, as I said,
34:14
Speaker 1: I will go to the UK. I also talked to
34:16
Speaker 1: Sophie Ellsworth about Earl Spencer's... He's facing even more backlash
34:20
Speaker 1: over his controversial memoir that dragged King Charles' name through
34:24
Speaker 1: the mud. We'll cross to Sophie shortly, live from London.
34:36
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Talk to our panel shortly. But I want
34:38
Speaker 1: to go back to the UK, this foiled bomb plot
34:41
Speaker 1: in southwest England that we just talked to Peter Jennings
34:43
Speaker 1: about before the break. We're joined now by our Europe correspondent,
34:47
Speaker 1: Sophie Ellsworth, live from London. Sophie, luckily, it turns out
34:53
Speaker 1: a local farmer, she'd been out to dinner, was on
34:56
Speaker 1: the way back home to the farm, saw suspicious people
34:59
Speaker 1: in balaclavas on her way home and then dialed 999.
35:05
Speaker 11: Yeah, this is really quite remarkable, Steve, that this mum,
35:08
Speaker 11: this farmer, was on her way home from a night
35:11
Speaker 11: out and she noticed something odd. She noticed these three
35:14
Speaker 11: vans in the Gloucestershire area, which is west of London.
35:19
Speaker 3: She called the actual base, army base.
35:23
Speaker 11: She couldn't get through and then she phoned 999, which
35:26
Speaker 11: is the emergency number here, and raised the alarm and
35:30
Speaker 11: potentially dispelled... something that could have been incredibly serious. Just
35:35
Speaker 11: looking here, Steve, on the front pages today of The Sun,
35:38
Speaker 11: we've got farmer.
35:39
Speaker 3: Foils RAF bomb plot.
35:42
Speaker 11: And then on the front of the Daily Mail, as
35:44
Speaker 11: you can imagine, this is on the front page of
35:46
Speaker 11: every paper today, Iran bomb plot at RAF base foiled
35:50
Speaker 11: by farmers, triple nine call. Really remarkable but now the
35:55
Speaker 11: questions are being asked Steve, why weren't authorities on to
35:59
Speaker 11: this before this mum had to raise the alarm and
36:03
Speaker 11: there's serious questions being asked about that.
36:06
Speaker 3: She did notice on the side of.
36:08
Speaker 11: One of the vans a weird phone number, she was
36:11
Speaker 11: concerned that something wasn't quite right, she turned back around
36:15
Speaker 11: To see what was going on, they ran away and
36:18
Speaker 11: that's when.
36:18
Speaker 3: She called emergency services.
36:21
Speaker 11: This is remarkable stuff and very concerning, Steve.
36:25
Speaker 1: So I guess the big question now is, were the
36:28
Speaker 1: security forces already aware of it? I mean, I was
36:31
Speaker 1: watching the President's Cup golf today and Donald Trump was
36:36
Speaker 1: doorstop there. He seemed to suggest, oh, we've already been
36:40
Speaker 1: working with the British authorities. He mentioned, bizarrely, Scotland Yard.
36:44
Speaker 1: But we don't have a definitive answer, do we, to
36:47
Speaker 1: the question as to whether, you know, MI5 or anti-terror
36:52
Speaker 1: police knew what was going on?
36:55
Speaker 3: Well, we don't know exactly yet, Steve, and they're still trying.
36:58
Speaker 11: To work this out. As always in this country, there's
37:01
Speaker 11: an investigation. They seem to call investigations all the time.
37:04
Speaker 11: Appropriately so, of course, but we can't jump to conclusions
37:07
Speaker 11: yet because we.
37:08
Speaker 3: Know very little.
37:09
Speaker 11: But incredibly concerning, Talkback Radio this morning is filled with
37:14
Speaker 11: people saying what is going on in this country and
37:16
Speaker 11: they don't feel safe knowing that these sorts of things
37:20
Speaker 11: are happening under their noses.
37:22
Speaker 3: Really, really worrying.
37:25
Speaker 1: Let's turn to the other tabloid appetite, and that's the royals.
37:29
Speaker 1: Earl Spencer, that memoir, you talked about it with Chris
37:33
Speaker 1: last week. You've spoken now to one of the UK's
37:37
Speaker 1: leading royal authors, I think, Dr Andrew Lowney, to get
37:40
Speaker 1: his thoughts. Here's a little grab of what he told you.
37:44
Speaker 12: I think there was, again, a lost opportunity with the book,
37:46
Speaker 12: and I think people would have had a new impression
37:50
Speaker 12: of Diana. A lot of things he says are right,
37:53
Speaker 12: but he just hasn't... He's kind of spoilt it with
37:56
Speaker 12: all sorts of other things which are, you know, petty, bittered, irrelevant,
38:03
Speaker 12: and he's undermined.
38:05
Speaker 1: His own argument. And the other thing, Sophie, we know
38:09
Speaker 1: that Earl Spencer made basic errors like putting Piers Morgan
38:12
Speaker 1: in charge of a newspaper where he didn't work until
38:15
Speaker 1: three years later after what Spencer said he did.
38:20
Speaker 11: Exactly right, Steve. The books had some very bad press
38:24
Speaker 11: here in the UK. The Royal Rota, the press pack
38:27
Speaker 11: that covers the Royals extensively, has really turned against Earl Spencer.
38:32
Speaker 11: It was really interesting that he did a sit-down interview
38:36
Speaker 11: last week with the BBC of all media outlets.
38:39
Speaker 3: Given that the BBC was the one responsible for the whole.
38:43
Speaker 11: Martin Bashir fiasco with that infamous interview with Princess Diana.
38:49
Speaker 11: But the book, I've read it from cover to cover, Steve.
38:52
Speaker 11: He's very bitter. We know he dislikes the King. And
38:55
Speaker 11: it's very much about Earl Spencer. I don't think he's
38:58
Speaker 11: done himself any favours from this. But Dr Andrew Lowney
39:02
Speaker 11: said it really was a book that was revenge served cold.
39:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you make a lot of money out of it,
39:10
Speaker 1: Earl Spencer, I expect. Sophie, fantastic. Looks like a wonderful
39:14
Speaker 1: morning there in London. I'll talk to you shortly. Sophie
39:16
Speaker 1: Ellsworth doing a fantastic job covering everything that goes on
39:19
Speaker 1: in the UK. Well, I mentioned at the beginning of
39:21
Speaker 1: the program, and you're going to hear about it all
39:23
Speaker 1: night and again tomorrow, mortgage holders bracing for another rate rise.
39:28
Speaker 1: I'm not so worried about the one tomorrow, but... economists
39:30
Speaker 1: are predicting, including Anthony Holden that we had on, that
39:33
Speaker 1: you'd get another rise in September or November, and it
39:36
Speaker 1: might be four. You might get four. And we could
39:38
Speaker 1: go back to the highest level of interest rates since
39:40
Speaker 1: the global financial crisis. Let's bring in Gemma Tonnini from GTI.
39:45
Speaker 1: Communications and WA Liberal Party President and News 24 contributor
39:50
Speaker 1: Caroline de Rosso. Great to see you both. Gemma, I mean,
39:53
Speaker 1: I saw Jim Chalmers today. He's again up there taking
39:56
Speaker 1: questions and blaming everybody, but the Labor government themselves, they
40:00
Speaker 1: blame the former coalition government, they blame everyone, including the
40:04
Speaker 1: Middle East, for inflation, but they don't take any of
40:07
Speaker 1: the blame themselves.
40:09
Speaker 13: Well, it was a short couple of weeks ago, Steve,
40:11
Speaker 13: that the IMF said to this government, you need to
40:15
Speaker 13: rein in your spending because it's having an inflationary impact
40:19
Speaker 13: and all the rest of it. But it would seem
40:22
Speaker 13: even the Archangel Gabriel could deliver a message from heaven
40:27
Speaker 13: itself to this Treasurer and this Prime Minister and they
40:30
Speaker 13: would still say, not our fault. It's extraordinary and also
40:36
Speaker 13: really telling when you look at the latest polls that
40:39
Speaker 13: came out, of course, last night and particularly in Queensland
40:43
Speaker 13: and some analysis has Mr Chalmers' seat in play. I
40:47
Speaker 13: would be very concerned if I was this government. But
40:51
Speaker 13: judging on prior behaviour, I think they just think we're
40:55
Speaker 13: a bunch of mugs who are going to let all
40:57
Speaker 13: of this stuff slide off our shoulders and And the
41:00
Speaker 13: idea that they could be blaming anyone else, given they've
41:05
Speaker 13: been in power for as long as they have, is insulting, actually.
41:10
Speaker 1: Four and a half years, Caroline. How long do you
41:14
Speaker 1: get away with blaming the government before you? And what
41:18
Speaker 1: I always get very intrigued about is whenever anyone from
41:22
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister down talks about the state of the
41:25
Speaker 1: economy under the previous Liberal coalition, They never mentioned COVID
41:31
Speaker 1: and what had to happen during the two years of
41:34
Speaker 1: COVID where you had to pump prime the economy with
41:37
Speaker 1: so much money because everyone else would have gone broke.
41:41
Speaker 14: And at the time, for those of us who were
41:44
Speaker 14: playing along back in 2020 and 2021, Labor's biggest criticism
41:49
Speaker 14: was that the coalition government wasn't spending enough. And now
41:54
Speaker 14: we're obviously out of a crisis period, but we still
41:56
Speaker 14: have crisis-level spending.
41:59
Speaker 3: There is, you know, sure, other things happen.
42:03
Speaker 14: You know, the cost of fuel, yes, that has something
42:07
Speaker 14: to do with the Middle East. Yes, different things happen
42:10
Speaker 14: in the economy.
42:11
Speaker 3: But when you look at.
42:12
Speaker 14: The principal problem and the principal architect for the inflation
42:16
Speaker 14: that we have, It is to do with domestic government spending.
42:20
Speaker 14: This is domestic inflation. And we saw today that Jim
42:23
Speaker 14: Chalmers has had a bit of a crack at the
42:26
Speaker 14: governor of the RBA about, you know, how high unemployment
42:30
Speaker 14: needs to go. Well, unfortunately, if they had have just
42:34
Speaker 14: spent less, there would be less people feeling the adverse
42:38
Speaker 14: consequences of this inflation.
42:40
Speaker 3: But they won't stop.
42:41
Speaker 14: The state governments won't stop. The state governments, with the
42:45
Speaker 14: increase until recently in property prices, are punch drunk on
42:50
Speaker 14: stamp duty receipts. which that money is going flying out
42:54
Speaker 14: the door. So when you take the state spending along
42:57
Speaker 14: with the federal spending, you have got an economy that
43:01
Speaker 14: is as high as a six-year-old after a birthday party
43:04
Speaker 14: and everyone's wondering why it's all looking a little wobbly.
43:08
Speaker 14: That is why it's looking a little wobbly.
43:11
Speaker 1: Exactly. We even had Queensland downgraded in its rate on
43:17
Speaker 1: the economy. I mean, Queensland's going backwards. Every other state, Victoria...
43:21
Speaker 1: Got an election in nine weeks. They're going to shovel
43:23
Speaker 1: money out of the door like you wouldn't believe. Gemma,
43:26
Speaker 1: just on housing, I mean, the government keeps saying, oh, yeah,
43:29
Speaker 1: we're doing all this stuff to fix the housing crisis.
43:31
Speaker 1: If I see Claire O'Neill stand up in Question Time
43:34
Speaker 1: one more time and say it's all rosy, everything's great,
43:36
Speaker 1: never be in better time to get into real estate,
43:39
Speaker 1: I'll throw up. But this survey today out showed 68%
43:43
Speaker 1: of renters think they will be renters forever. Did you
43:48
Speaker 1: ever think in this country where we used to look at...
43:51
Speaker 1: the UK and say, we don't want to be like that,
43:54
Speaker 1: we don't want to rent for life. It's happened here.
43:57
Speaker 13: No, I never did think that. And it's, I guess,
43:59
Speaker 13: another spoke in the wheel of Labor's hard left socialist agenda. Again,
44:05
Speaker 13: just coming back to the previous point around They think
44:09
Speaker 13: we're stupid. They think the electorate doesn't pay bills, doesn't
44:14
Speaker 13: look at this two-speed economy whereby the Prime Minister is
44:19
Speaker 13: swanning around the world. He just went to New York
44:21
Speaker 13: for a week to receive a nonsense... award that was
44:26
Speaker 13: literally just a vanity project for him, while back in
44:29
Speaker 13: Australia there are myriad of knotty, difficult, weighty problems. People
44:35
Speaker 13: understand that there is this two-speed economy and when people
44:39
Speaker 13: like Claire O'Neill and Jim Chalmers and the rest of them,
44:42
Speaker 13: I mean, the irony of it is that, Steve, these
44:45
Speaker 13: people have become the new elites. These are the ones
44:48
Speaker 13: who say, no, we're the party of the people and
44:51
Speaker 13: And it's nonsense and the electorate that is flocking to
44:54
Speaker 13: One Nation is saying as much by the fact that
44:58
Speaker 13: they are flocking to One Nation. You don't have a
45:02
Speaker 13: greater example of this government's disconnect from reality by the
45:07
Speaker 13: way they have managed both the budget and the housing market.
45:11
Speaker 13: Telling young people that removing policies that helped this government
45:16
Speaker 13: and its cohort get ahead was by building property portfolios
45:21
Speaker 13: and removing those policies and taking that advantage away from
45:25
Speaker 13: the next generation while in the next breath saying, no, guys,
45:29
Speaker 13: we're doing it for you. It's next level gaslighting. It's disgusting, actually.
45:35
Speaker 13: And again, the electorate gets it. They see straight through
45:39
Speaker 13: the lies and this government is heading for a conga
45:43
Speaker 13: line of manure sandwiches, Steve, of its own making.
45:47
Speaker 1: Caroline, Jim is right about One Nation. There was a
45:50
Speaker 1: news poll examination out today. They went over three months
45:54
Speaker 1: of news polls to work out the reaction toward One Nation.
45:57
Speaker 1: It shows Queenslanders not only going there in droves and voting,
46:02
Speaker 1: they want Pauline Hanson to be Prime Minister. In New
46:05
Speaker 1: South Wales, the popularity is also on the rise there.
46:09
Speaker 1: And in the state where you are, WA, it's also
46:12
Speaker 1: on the rise. In Victoria, not so much so. Everyone
46:16
Speaker 1: keeps saying, is the One Nation rise real? I think
46:21
Speaker 1: we've now got to say, sure, it really is.
46:26
Speaker 3: Well, of course it's real.
46:27
Speaker 14: And, look, it all comes down.
46:31
Speaker 14: To how it ultimately manifests and what each of the
46:34
Speaker 14: political parties do between now and their respective next state
46:39
Speaker 14: elections or federal elections. And I look at it from
46:42
Speaker 14: the point of view... Actually, I gave this analogy to
46:44
Speaker 14: someone yesterday. At the moment, it's very much an establishment
46:50
Speaker 14: v non-establishment as opposed to.
46:52
Speaker 5: Yep.
46:53
Speaker 3: You know, red or blue contest. So that's what we've
46:55
Speaker 3: been used to.
46:56
Speaker 5: Exactly... used to previously.
46:58
Speaker 1: You know, we've thrown all of the old.
47:01
Speaker 3: Totally.
47:02
Speaker 1: all of the old attitudes are just being completely thrown
47:05
Speaker 1: out the window. They are completely changed. Appreciate you both
47:08
Speaker 1: joining us. Thank you very much for that. Peter Credlin's
47:10
Speaker 1: coming up next. Reminder, of course, live on News 24 tomorrow,
47:14
Speaker 1: you will have the interest rate rise. That'll happen around
47:17
Speaker 1: about 2.30. Peter Credlin's up next.