Latest / The Kenny Report / The Kenny Report | 10 September

Transcript

The Kenny Report | 10 September · The Kenny Report

0:02
Speaker 1: This is The Kenny Report.
0:05
Speaker 2: Good evening, Australia. It's not Chris Kenny, it's Caleb Bond
0:08
Speaker 2: filling in for Chris Kenny tonight. Of course, another great
0:10
Speaker 2: South Australian he is. Here's what's coming up. The war
0:13
Speaker 2: of words between Andrew Hastie and Pauline Hanson escalates, but
0:17
Speaker 2: is the fighting playing straight into Labor's hands? 25 years
0:21
Speaker 2: on from September 11, former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer reflects
0:25
Speaker 2: on the attacks that changed the world. Donald Trump's expensive
0:28
Speaker 2: pitch to American voters, he's promising $ 5, 000 as a cheque
0:33
Speaker 2: for every adult if Republicans win the midterms. And Grace
0:36
Speaker 2: Tame issues a non-apology for calling the rape of women
0:39
Speaker 2: by Hamas members on October 7 propaganda, with the former
0:43
Speaker 2: Australian of the Year blaming everyone else for mischaracterising her comments.
0:48
Speaker 2: Let's get into it. Well, the Albanese government has clearly
0:54
Speaker 2: decided to dig its heels in on Commonwealth grants before
0:57
Speaker 2: last year's federal election. A Labor source told The Australian
1:01
Speaker 2: today that they were not putting up with this nonsense
1:04
Speaker 2: and hypocrisy from our opponents and that if people want
1:06
Speaker 2: to rip away money for community centres, women's refuges and
1:11
Speaker 2: local clubs, that's a matter for them. What an arrogant response. Now,
1:16
Speaker 2: let's be clear what all of this is about. And
1:19
Speaker 2: I'm going to put aside the $ 6 million grant to
1:21
Speaker 2: the Marrickville Golf Club in the Prime Minister's electorate. He's
1:25
Speaker 2: an honorary member of the club. But to my knowledge,
1:28
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanese isn't a golfer. So it's not like it
1:31
Speaker 2: was a grant to the PM's golf club. I think
1:34
Speaker 2: the focus on that has been a bit of a sideshow.
1:37
Speaker 2: We should be focused on the main game. The substantive issue...
1:42
Speaker 2: is that $ 560 million was handed out in grants for
1:46
Speaker 2: sporting clubs and playgrounds and swimming pools and community groups
1:49
Speaker 2: and the like before the election, and almost three quarters
1:52
Speaker 2: of it went to safe Labor seats and marginal seats. Now,
2:06
Speaker 2: it may be funny to them, but it is our
2:09
Speaker 2: money and it's not funny.
2:12
Speaker 3: $ 409.
2:12
Speaker 2: 1 million of $ 560 million to marginal and Labor-held seats. 22.6%
2:19
Speaker 2: of the money went to coalition electorates. And this was
2:22
Speaker 2: an invitation-only process. And crucially... the Centre for Public Integrity
2:27
Speaker 2: found that marginal seats where Labor was competitive received disproportionately
2:32
Speaker 2: more money. Now, maybe this is all just some really
2:35
Speaker 2: big coincidence and it was safe Labor seats and marginal
2:38
Speaker 2: seats where Labor was competitive that just happened to desperately
2:42
Speaker 2: need the money. But I have to tell you, I
2:44
Speaker 2: have my doubts. You'll remember sports rorts. It cost Bridget
2:48
Speaker 2: McKenzie her job as sports minister in the Morrison government.
2:52
Speaker 2: This is, and should be, the Albanese government sports rort saga.
2:58
Speaker 2: For one, how do you have an invite-only grant scheme?
3:02
Speaker 2: I mean, if you've ever heard of anything in your
3:04
Speaker 2: life that is open to abuse and favouritism, it's a
3:08
Speaker 2: grant scheme that's only open to the people you've tapped
3:11
Speaker 2: on the shoulder to tell them it exists. Hey, I
3:14
Speaker 2: got some money over here in the lead-up to the election.
3:16
Speaker 2: You should ask for some of it. I mean, hello?
3:20
Speaker 2: That is not a fair system. If public money is
3:23
Speaker 2: available for community groups, it should be publicly advertised and
3:27
Speaker 2: available to all. I think that is the minimum. The
3:31
Speaker 2: government should be hammered on this because it stinks. The
3:35
Speaker 2: Audit Office is considering looking into it and it must.
3:39
Speaker 2: I mean, Labor was like a dog with a bone
3:42
Speaker 2: on sports rorts. They talked day in, day out about
3:45
Speaker 2: it until they got a scalp. The Coalition and One
3:49
Speaker 2: Nation should do exactly the same thing here. The federal
3:56
Speaker 2: government introduced a new bill today to make it easier
3:59
Speaker 2: to prosecute people involved in the world of illicit tobacco. Now,
4:02
Speaker 2: as it stands, for someone to be guilty of importing
4:05
Speaker 2: or selling illegal cigarettes has to be proven that they
4:09
Speaker 2: knew the cigarettes were illegal. Now, I would have thought
4:12
Speaker 2: that was pretty obvious. I mean, if you're selling a
4:13
Speaker 2: Chinese packet of darts with double happiness and Chinese symbols
4:17
Speaker 2: and no health warnings on it, then you'd have to
4:19
Speaker 2: be a dunce to not know that they were illegal.
4:22
Speaker 2: But apparently, people just invoked the Sergeant Schultz defence.
4:27
Speaker 3: I know nothing.
4:28
Speaker 4: Nothing.
4:30
Speaker 2: So now they're planning to tighten the rules, or loosen them,
4:33
Speaker 2: as the case may be, so that obvious things like
4:36
Speaker 2: cheap prices and branded packaging can be used as evidence
4:40
Speaker 2: of tobacco being illegal. And fair enough. These people ought
4:44
Speaker 2: to be prosecuted and drummed out of business. But as
4:47
Speaker 2: the Border Force itself has said, you can't just police
4:51
Speaker 2: your way out of this. Enforcement alone... will not end
4:55
Speaker 2: the illicit tobacco trade. And so I say tonight, as
4:58
Speaker 2: I say frequently, the tobacco tax, the leading cause of
5:02
Speaker 2: all of this mess, needs to be cut. I mean,
5:05
Speaker 2: it's all good and well to say that you're cracking
5:08
Speaker 2: down and we absolutely need to arrest and prosecute criminals.
5:12
Speaker 2: But for so long as cigarettes at Woolies and Coles
5:15
Speaker 2: and the local IGA or the local servo cost upwards
5:19
Speaker 2: of $ 40 a packet, minimum now, there will be a
5:23
Speaker 2: booming illicit trade. I mean, you could arrest every single
5:27
Speaker 2: illicit tobacco pusher and importer in the country and there'd
5:31
Speaker 2: be 1,000 new ones tomorrow because it's profitable and there's
5:35
Speaker 2: a huge market for it. 80% of the tobacco sold
5:38
Speaker 2: in this country. The government's insistence that it can police
5:43
Speaker 2: its way out of this is nonsensical and it's pig-headed.
5:47
Speaker 2: But there has seemingly been a bit of a softening
5:50
Speaker 2: of the government's view on this. This was the Prime
5:52
Speaker 2: Minister on the Today Show yesterday. It won't reduce the excise,
5:56
Speaker 2: is that what you're saying?
5:58
Speaker 3: You're ruling that out?
6:01
Speaker 2: What we're saying is the big thing that we have
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Speaker 2: to do is to crack down on crime.
6:06
Speaker 5: Are you saying you guarantee there will be no cut
6:08
Speaker 5: to the tobacco excise under a Labor government?
6:12
Speaker 2: No, what I'm guaranteeing is we'll take on the criminals. Now,
6:17
Speaker 2: the government has been pretty clear to this point that
6:19
Speaker 2: it has no interest in cutting the tax. Assistant Customs
6:23
Speaker 2: Minister Julian Hill, who introduced the bill today, the new bill,
6:26
Speaker 2: that is, has previously said Australia will not get into
6:30
Speaker 2: a bidding war with organised crime on the price of
6:33
Speaker 2: tobacco or surrender our health policy. But now the PM
6:38
Speaker 2: won't rule out cutting the excise. Health Minister Mark Butler
6:42
Speaker 2: is also now leaving the door open, despite previously taking
6:45
Speaker 2: the same view as Mr Hill.
6:48
Speaker 5: You have now refused on five occasions in Question Time
6:52
Speaker 5: to answer whether you will cut the tobacco excise. This
6:56
Speaker 5: morning on the Today Show, you dodged it again. Why
7:00
Speaker 5: won't you give Australians a straight answer? Will you cut
7:03
Speaker 5: the tobacco excise, yes or no, Prime Minister?
7:07
Speaker 2: Of course we are open to other sensible ideas.
7:10
Speaker 6: About how we can fight organised crime while not prejudicing
7:15
Speaker 6: our most important public health campaign.
7:19
Speaker 2: They're open to other ideas. I mean, it's a serious
7:21
Speaker 2: softening of the language that the government is using. And look,
7:25
Speaker 2: it is a start. At least they're not... completely dismissing
7:29
Speaker 2: it anymore. I think now that One Nation and the
7:32
Speaker 2: Coalition have outlined substantial policies to cut the tax pay, 75%
7:36
Speaker 2: and 80% respectively. It is becoming harder. for the government
7:42
Speaker 2: to pretend that the tax isn't a large part of
7:45
Speaker 2: the problem. The states are basically all in agreement on
7:48
Speaker 2: it too. It is plain for all to see that
7:51
Speaker 2: the tax is the problem. But the problem all along
7:54
Speaker 2: for the government has been that it doesn't want to
7:56
Speaker 2: admit that it's got this wrong. It doesn't want to
7:59
Speaker 2: concede that this blind belief in increasing the tax to
8:03
Speaker 2: reduce smoking rates has created a huge criminal market. And
8:07
Speaker 2: to be fair, it is not just Labor. I mean,
8:10
Speaker 2: this was brewing under the previous coalition government that also
8:14
Speaker 2: jacked the tax up to high heaven. It's just that
8:16
Speaker 2: in the past couple of years, the chickens have come
8:19
Speaker 2: home to roost. But the coalition, to its credit, has
8:23
Speaker 2: now admitted that it was wrong and it's come up
8:25
Speaker 2: with a plan. I'd urge the government to do the
8:28
Speaker 2: same for the sake of this country's health and its safety.
8:32
Speaker 2: And I'd also say to the PM, it's OK to
8:35
Speaker 2: admit when you get things wrong. I know he finds
8:38
Speaker 2: it hard. Just look at all the melon business. But
8:41
Speaker 2: people will respect you more when you can admit your
8:44
Speaker 2: own faults. Now, former Australian of the Year Grace Tame
8:51
Speaker 2: issued a half-hearted apology today for calling the rape of
8:55
Speaker 2: women by Hamas members on October 7th She posted a
8:59
Speaker 2: video to Instagram, the full thing's a minute and a half.
9:02
Speaker 2: I don't have time to show all of it, but
9:04
Speaker 2: this is how it begins.
9:06
Speaker 7: There's something I've wanted to clarify for a while, which
9:09
Speaker 7: I regret not clarifying sooner. I stand with survivors of
9:14
Speaker 7: sexual violence everywhere.
9:17
Speaker 2: Now, she has to clarify her words, she says, because
9:21
Speaker 2: her words were misinterpreted. That's what she says in this
9:24
Speaker 2: minute and a half long clip. Now, keep in mind,
9:28
Speaker 2: her interview on the ABC was in March. Why she's
9:32
Speaker 2: decided to, quote-unquote, clarify things six months on, I'm not sure.
9:37
Speaker 2: But for the avoidance of doubt, this is what Miss
9:40
Speaker 2: Tame says she claims was misinterpreted.
9:44
Speaker 8: Tim Nees texted in saying, can you please ask Grace
9:47
Speaker 8: why she's selective in her outrage? She says, I've never
9:50
Speaker 8: heard her condemn or speak out on behalf of the
9:53
Speaker 8: Israeli women who were raped and killed by Hamas. On
9:56
Speaker 8: October 7th. Have you spoken about that? Have you expressed
10:00
Speaker 8: outrage about that?
10:01
Speaker 7: I'm not going to sink to the level of entertaining
10:03
Speaker 7: any kind of propaganda, Hamish.
10:07
Speaker 8: What's the propaganda included in that question?
10:10
Speaker 9: Those things have been debunked.
10:13
Speaker 2: So a listener says she hasn't heard Ms Tame speak
10:15
Speaker 2: out in support of women... who were raped and killed
10:18
Speaker 2: by Hamas on October 7. Ms Tame says it's propaganda
10:22
Speaker 2: and it's been debunked. So what exactly was misinterpreted? Well,
10:27
Speaker 2: according to Ms Tame, it's this.
10:30
Speaker 7: Human Rights Watch was unable to find evidence to support
10:34
Speaker 7: the claim that Israeli women were raped en masse on
10:37
Speaker 7: October 7, 2023. However, I do not deny the legitimate
10:39
Speaker 7: accusations of rape made by individual Israeli women, including accounts
10:49
Speaker 7: of gang rape. I believe in Jewish survivors, as I
10:53
Speaker 7: believe all survivors. While the intention of my remarks was
10:58
Speaker 7: not to imply otherwise, I acknowledge and sincerely apologize for
11:03
Speaker 7: any harm their mischaracterization has caused.
11:07
Speaker 2: Right, so she was talking about mass rape. And we
11:12
Speaker 2: all misinterpreted it, mischaracterised it even. And it's not what
11:17
Speaker 2: she said that was wrong and caused harm, but the
11:20
Speaker 2: way that the rest of us mischaracterised what she said.
11:24
Speaker 2: But the question from an ABC listener, read out by
11:27
Speaker 2: Hamish MacDonald, never mentioned mass rape. Again, for the avoidance
11:33
Speaker 2: of doubt, this is what she was asked.
11:37
Speaker 8: Timney is texted in saying, can you please ask Grace
11:40
Speaker 8: why she's selective in her outrage? She says, I've never
11:42
Speaker 8: heard her condemn or speak out on behalf of the
11:45
Speaker 8: Israeli women who were raped and killed by Hamas on
11:48
Speaker 8: October 7th.
11:50
Speaker 2: So there was never any mention of mass rape. It
11:53
Speaker 2: was simply about women who were raped and killed by Hamas,
11:58
Speaker 2: any woman who was raped and killed by Hamas. And
12:01
Speaker 2: Ms Tame said in response to that question that it
12:04
Speaker 2: was propaganda that had been debunked. The only person here
12:08
Speaker 2: who might have misinterpreted something, if we are generous enough
12:12
Speaker 2: to give her the benefit of the doubt, is Ms Tame.
12:15
Speaker 2: She might have misinterpreted the question as being about mass rape,
12:20
Speaker 2: even though that was never mentioned. This isn't an apology.
12:24
Speaker 2: She's saying it's not my fault. She's blaming everyone else
12:27
Speaker 2: for misinterpreting her and mischaracterising her comments. Well, that's false.
12:33
Speaker 2: We just took her words at face value. I don't
12:36
Speaker 2: know why she even bothered with this video. She must
12:38
Speaker 2: be under a lot of pressure financially or something and
12:41
Speaker 2: trying to dig herself out of the hole that she's dug.
12:44
Speaker 2: But she didn't apologise. She didn't say she got it wrong.
12:48
Speaker 2: She says that she was talking about something that wasn't
12:51
Speaker 2: even in the question to which she was responding. Ms
12:55
Speaker 2: Tame isn't sorry for anything, she said. She feels sorry
12:59
Speaker 2: for herself that her own stupidity has come back to
13:02
Speaker 2: bite her. I'm sure you've seen this war of words
13:08
Speaker 2: between Andrew Hastie and One Nation. Of course, it's not new,
13:11
Speaker 2: it's been going on for a while, but it's blown
13:13
Speaker 2: up over one of their Please Explain cartoons from July,
13:16
Speaker 2: mind you, which referred to Mr Hastie as a traitor.
13:19
Speaker 2: Opposition leader Angus Taylor backed Mr Hastie's call today for
13:23
Speaker 2: the cartoon to be taken down. Now, Pauline Hanson appeared
13:27
Speaker 2: on this program with Chris Kenny last night. She was
13:30
Speaker 2: pretty unequivocal in saying that she wouldn't take it down.
13:34
Speaker 2: He's the one who's got his knickers in a knot.
13:36
Speaker 10: He's the one who's carrying on.
13:38
Speaker 11: Will you own those words and delete the cartoon or
13:41
Speaker 11: do you stand by them?
13:43
Speaker 10: No, I'm not going to delete the cartoon.
13:46
Speaker 11: It is a satirical cartoon, for Christ's sake.
13:49
Speaker 4: Barnaby Joyce was classified as a beetroot.
13:52
Speaker 10: He's now part of the party.
13:54
Speaker 2: Well, Hastie responded this morning he didn't mince his words.
13:58
Speaker 11: I think that shows Pauline Hanson to be weak and glass-jawed.
14:02
Speaker 11: I asked a simple request, either own your words, own
14:05
Speaker 11: the fact that you've called me a traitor, or take
14:08
Speaker 11: down the cartoon. She's done neither. This isn't Agro's cartoon connection.
14:12
Speaker 11: This is Parliament House with serious people.
14:16
Speaker 2: Now, look, part of this is obviously about the fact
14:18
Speaker 2: that he testified against Ben Robert Smith in his defamation case,
14:21
Speaker 2: and I think it's worth noting that he was subpoenaed.
14:24
Speaker 2: to give evidence in that case. And I think it's
14:26
Speaker 2: pretty poor really to describe a former SAS soldier as
14:30
Speaker 2: a traitor, regardless of what you think of everything that's
14:33
Speaker 2: happened around BRS. And I'm on the record as defending him.
14:36
Speaker 2: But also, this fighting between the Coalition and One Nation
14:41
Speaker 2: just plays straight into the government's hands. Joining me now
14:44
Speaker 2: from Canberra is Shadow Regional Health Minister Anne Webster. Anne,
14:49
Speaker 2: what have you made of all of this? Do you
14:52
Speaker 2: know why this has come up now, given that the
14:55
Speaker 2: video came out in July? Why now in September has
14:59
Speaker 2: this become an issue?
15:02
Speaker 12: Well, Caleb, I was not actually aware of the video
15:06
Speaker 12: I don't take to watching the One Nation cartoons, but
15:11
Speaker 12: I did last night. I happened to be in this
15:14
Speaker 12: studio and Pauline was in the seat I'm occupying at
15:18
Speaker 12: the moment and I saw that she was extremely upset
15:23
Speaker 12: and was not going to back down. She wasn't going
15:27
Speaker 12: to take the cartoon down. She said that she wasn't calling...
15:31
Speaker 12: Andrew Hastie, a trader, with regard to the BRS. The
15:35
Speaker 12: cartoon didn't say that. I mean, honestly, I then went
15:40
Speaker 12: home and I watched the cartoon. I thought, I need
15:43
Speaker 12: to be informed. It's always a very good practice. And
15:47
Speaker 12: it was absolutely about the BRS and the fact that
15:51
Speaker 12: Andrew Hastie, as an SAS manager.
15:54
Speaker 10: You know, war hero. He's been there. He's done that.
15:57
Speaker 12: He's a war veteran, has been taken down by One
16:02
Speaker 12: Nation in this way.
16:03
Speaker 10: I don't blame him for being upset.
16:05
Speaker 12: I can't comment about the timing.
16:07
Speaker 10: I don't understand that.
16:09
Speaker 12: But, you know, I think Angus Taylor is perfectly right
16:11
Speaker 12: to stand with Andrew and ask One Nation to take
16:15
Speaker 12: it down.
16:16
Speaker 10: It's completely inappropriate.
16:18
Speaker 2: What is the resolution to this? Is it taking down
16:20
Speaker 2: the video or is there something else that you think
16:23
Speaker 2: the Coalition and Mr Hastie would be willing to accept?
16:28
Speaker 12: Well, I don't know what Andrew would be willing to accept.
16:32
Speaker 12: You'd have to have that conversation with him. But obviously
16:36
Speaker 12: Angus has stood with Andrew calling for the cartoon to
16:39
Speaker 12: be taken down. I think it's entirely appropriate that that
16:43
Speaker 12: take place. We've had a lot You know, being said
16:48
Speaker 12: about veteran suicide, we've had a lot to do with,
16:52
Speaker 12: in the last few weeks, we've been talking about the
16:55
Speaker 12: veteran $ 5, 000 cap that this government, that the Labor government,
17:00
Speaker 12: has put on veterans' care, which is long-term care that
17:04
Speaker 12: they need. We have been standing fast that the Labor
17:07
Speaker 12: government has need to lift that cap, take it away.
17:11
Speaker 10: There is no good reason for it to be happening.
17:14
Speaker 12: That should be our focus right now, not a cartoon,
17:18
Speaker 12: not a war with One Nation. And that is what
17:22
Speaker 12: the Coalition has been fighting for, that the Labor government,
17:25
Speaker 12: that Matt Keogh, step aside for managing our veterans so badly. And,
17:32
Speaker 12: you know, Pauline, risks being lumped in with... the Labor
17:37
Speaker 12: government in terms of how she is treating one of our,
17:42
Speaker 12: you know, acclaimed veterans.
17:43
Speaker 2: Well, I certainly agree we should be keeping our eye
17:45
Speaker 2: on the prize and that all of this, I don't think,
17:49
Speaker 2: does anything to help either party on the right of
17:53
Speaker 2: politics in Australia at the moment. I just want to
17:55
Speaker 2: ask you about... The government today has revealed that its
17:59
Speaker 2: gas reservation policy, which we thought was going to be,
18:02
Speaker 2: and they'd previously said, a minimum 20% reserve that gas
18:06
Speaker 2: exporters had to keep for Australian use, they now say
18:10
Speaker 2: it would be up to... 20%. So it's clearly been
18:14
Speaker 2: watered down. I mean, what is up to 20%? 1%?
18:17
Speaker 2: Half a percent? I don't know.
18:20
Speaker 10: Ah, exactly. What do they mean?
18:23
Speaker 12: What we're seeing from the Labor government is this constant,
18:26
Speaker 12: you know, headline story, headline legislation, and they want to.
18:31
Speaker 10: Push it through the House, push it through the Senate.
18:33
Speaker 12: If you're lucky, you get a two-week inquiry where they're
18:37
Speaker 12: going to now talk to stakeholders.
18:39
Speaker 10: I mean, for goodness sake.
18:41
Speaker 12: The appropriate way to develop legislation is talk to stakeholders
18:47
Speaker 12: in the first place. Right now, what we really need
18:52
Speaker 12: is an increase in supply, and that is the Coalition's position,
18:56
Speaker 12: is that we want to see supply increase.
18:59
Speaker 10: What we've got in Victoria... Ugh.
19:03
Speaker 12: And I groan because everybody in Victoria is groaning under
19:06
Speaker 12: the current Labor government. You know, you're not permitted to
19:09
Speaker 12: put new gas appliances in your home.
19:13
Speaker 10: You have to go electric. That is the wish of
19:15
Speaker 10: the government.
19:17
Speaker 12: Every day under Labor feels more and more like George
19:22
Speaker 12: Orwell's 1984, honestly.
19:24
Speaker 10: Indeed.
19:25
Speaker 2: Anne Webster, good to see you as always. Now, more
19:28
Speaker 2: bad news for homeowners in the big capital cities today.
19:31
Speaker 2: Half of homes in Sydney and Melbourne bought in the
19:33
Speaker 2: past year are now worth less than what they were
19:36
Speaker 2: bought for. And, of course, it puts thousands at risk
19:39
Speaker 2: of dropping into negative equity. I'm joined now by the
19:42
Speaker 2: University of New South Wales economics professor, Gigi Foster. Gigi,
19:47
Speaker 2: of course, we were told.
19:49
Speaker 1: Don't worry.
19:50
Speaker 2: There'll be no decline in house prices. It'll just grow
19:53
Speaker 2: a little slower than it otherwise would have. We are
19:58
Speaker 2: now certainly in the grips of a genuine decline in
20:01
Speaker 2: Sydney and Melbourne.
20:02
Speaker 1: Definitely.
20:03
Speaker 9: I think that's true, Caleb. Although I will say that
20:06
Speaker 9: if we actually want to make housing affordable and accessible
20:09
Speaker 9: to people, then how are we going to do that
20:12
Speaker 9: by not having a decline in house prices? If you're
20:15
Speaker 9: worried about the effect on the little guy, the young
20:18
Speaker 9: people who have trouble affording a house, for example, What
20:22
Speaker 9: seems to be the case is that these house price
20:24
Speaker 9: declines are concentrated more at the very upper end. I
20:27
Speaker 9: won't say only there, but they are concentrated more there.
20:30
Speaker 9: And so, yes, if you have a waterfront property that's
20:33
Speaker 9: worth millions and millions, then you will be one of
20:35
Speaker 9: the people holding the bag at the moment. But arguably,
20:39
Speaker 9: that's a better place to see a little bit of
20:41
Speaker 9: the heat come out of the housing market than amongst
20:43
Speaker 9: the just affordable homes for young families. So I don't
20:47
Speaker 9: see this as as bad news as some people would.
20:50
Speaker 9: But of course, you know, if you are a house
20:52
Speaker 9: owner and you cut a lot of equity, you don't
20:54
Speaker 9: want to be underwater in your house. And those people
20:57
Speaker 9: who put down a small amount on their houses and
21:00
Speaker 9: now have a huge mortgage to pay and see the
21:02
Speaker 9: value of their house declining may be really worried right now.
21:05
Speaker 2: And you mentioned mortgages. I mean, you know, it's widely
21:08
Speaker 2: tipped now that there will be another interest rate rise.
21:11
Speaker 2: The government and the RBA have been grappling with this
21:15
Speaker 2: inflation issue for quite some time. They just cannot seem
21:19
Speaker 2: to get on top of it.
21:20
Speaker 9: No. And unfortunately, I think that the RBA is starting
21:24
Speaker 9: to see the writing on the wall that inflation has
21:27
Speaker 9: been baked in a bit higher than the 2% to 3%
21:29
Speaker 9: target band. Inflation has been baked into people's expectations about
21:34
Speaker 9: price movements. And that makes it much, much harder to
21:37
Speaker 9: eradicate from the economy. And you can see in the
21:39
Speaker 9: comments from the bank personnel that they are really focused
21:43
Speaker 9: much more now on inflation. They're not worried so much
21:46
Speaker 9: about full employment or the real economy. And that's somewhat appropriate,
21:52
Speaker 9: I think, given that the news we're getting from the
21:54
Speaker 9: labor market is cautiously optimistic, I would say. We still
21:57
Speaker 9: have quite low unemployment. Of course, some of the reason
22:00
Speaker 9: why we have more jobs growth is because people need
22:03
Speaker 9: more jobs, including some of them two jobs or more,
22:06
Speaker 9: in order to pay the bills due to the cost
22:08
Speaker 9: of living crunch that they're feeling. But certainly the bank
22:11
Speaker 9: is very focused now on trying to get back to
22:13
Speaker 9: that target band that hasn't been hit for quite a
22:15
Speaker 9: while now.
22:16
Speaker 2: Indeed, and, of course, part of this discussion is productivity, right?
22:21
Speaker 2: And a question without notice. I was at the Sydney
22:24
Speaker 2: Institute last night where Peter Malinowskis, the Premier of South Australia, spoke,
22:28
Speaker 2: and he gave... A cogent and impassioned plea not to
22:33
Speaker 2: cut migration because he says we need it as a country.
22:36
Speaker 2: We need these workers. But we have a huge productivity issue.
22:42
Speaker 2: I'm not sure it's as simple as, well, we simply
22:44
Speaker 2: need the workers because what are the workers actually doing
22:47
Speaker 2: to contribute to the productivity of this country?
22:50
Speaker 9: That's exactly right, Caleb. And at the end of the day,
22:52
Speaker 9: productivity and innovation is... increases in our ability to get
22:57
Speaker 9: stuff out of our existing scarce resources is the only
22:59
Speaker 9: place where we get quality of life improvements. That's all
23:02
Speaker 9: we can do. We can improve the ways we do things.
23:05
Speaker 9: And that means improving productivity. How much are you really
23:08
Speaker 9: contributing per hour of work? And at the moment, I mean,
23:10
Speaker 9: in fact, for the last probably a couple of decades,
23:13
Speaker 9: we've really had a productivity slump, and we're not the
23:16
Speaker 9: only Western country that's had that. So I agree that
23:18
Speaker 9: the immigration question is often invoked when people start complaining about, oh,
23:23
Speaker 9: you know, we don't have enough workers, we don't have
23:25
Speaker 9: enough good workers. Well, it is a bit of a band-aid.
23:28
Speaker 9: At the end of the day, you have to fix
23:29
Speaker 9: the domestic problem of not having people increase their productivity
23:34
Speaker 9: for whatever reason that is. And it could be structural,
23:36
Speaker 9: it could be because of technology, it could be problems
23:38
Speaker 9: in education. And these are the kind of big, complex
23:41
Speaker 9: economic issues with which, unfortunately, the big government of the
23:45
Speaker 9: day does not really want to grapple.
23:47
Speaker 2: Well, indeed. And then, of course, all of that feeds
23:49
Speaker 2: back into the inflation problem. So it just becomes an
23:52
Speaker 2: endless loop. Gigi Foster, thank you for joining me tonight.
23:55
Speaker 2: Coming up, 25 years on from September 11, former Foreign
23:58
Speaker 2: Minister Alexander Downer reflects on the attacks that changed the world.
24:02
Speaker 2: Don't go away. Well, tomorrow will mark 25 years since
24:11
Speaker 2: the September 11 terror attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people and,
24:15
Speaker 2: of course, sparked the beginning of the war on terror.
24:18
Speaker 2: And in the wake of the attacks, the government here
24:20
Speaker 2: in Australia invoked the ANZUS Treaty for the first and
24:24
Speaker 2: only time since it was signed to signal support for
24:28
Speaker 2: the United States. Then Prime Minister John Howard credited his
24:31
Speaker 2: Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, with hatching the idea to
24:34
Speaker 2: activate the agreement And he joins me now from Adelaide. Alexander,
24:38
Speaker 2: good to see you as always. Just take us back
24:42
Speaker 2: to that moment in time and the thought process. To
24:46
Speaker 2: invoke ANZUS was a momentous thing to do. I assume
24:50
Speaker 2: you thought it was the only thing to do, the
24:52
Speaker 2: right thing to do in that moment.
24:55
Speaker 6: It wasn't the only thing to do, but I thought
24:57
Speaker 6: it was the right thing to do because, number one,
25:01
Speaker 6: we're a longstanding ally of the United States. This was,
25:06
Speaker 6: after all, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the
25:11
Speaker 6: ANZUS Treaty on 1 September 1951. So ANZUS was very
25:17
Speaker 6: much in my mind at that time. And secondly, we
25:22
Speaker 6: were determined to help the Americans in their struggle against
25:26
Speaker 6: terrorism in the wake of the 9-11 shocking events. So
25:34
Speaker 6: it was a good way of demonstrating our support for them.
25:37
Speaker 6: I mean, whether we invoked it or not, we would
25:40
Speaker 6: have still supported them. But I think symbolically, and if
25:44
Speaker 6: you like, more broadly, politically, it was the right thing
25:47
Speaker 6: to do.
25:48
Speaker 2: I agree. Maybe a little bit of a gratuitous question,
25:51
Speaker 2: but we know there have been issues at certain times
25:54
Speaker 2: between this government, the Albanese government, and the administration in
25:58
Speaker 2: the United States. If we were in this position today,
26:02
Speaker 2: how do you think the current government would respond?
26:07
Speaker 6: It's such a hypothetical question. It's so difficult to answer that.
26:12
Speaker 6: But they're not as committed to the American alliance as
26:16
Speaker 6: as we were, they don't see the world in geostrategic terms.
26:22
Speaker 6: As I have often argued, we now, today, we need
26:29
Speaker 6: the Americans to help balance Chinese power in the Indo-Pacific.
26:34
Speaker 6: We need the Americans to deal with the ambitions of Iran.
26:39
Speaker 6: And we need the Americans to help us deal with
26:42
Speaker 6: the ambitions of Vladimir Putin and the Russians. Without the Americans,
26:48
Speaker 6: who is going to fill that gap? Who is going
26:52
Speaker 6: to deal with these adversaries if it's not the Americans?
26:57
Speaker 6: So the present government, the present Australian government, doesn't think
27:02
Speaker 6: in those terms. It just thinks politically. So Donald Trump
27:07
Speaker 6: is not very popular, so we'd better not be too
27:11
Speaker 6: forward-leaning on the alliance with the United States. You know,
27:17
Speaker 6: they keep attacking... The present government keeps attacking the Israeli
27:22
Speaker 6: government and the Israelis more generally for domestic political reasons.
27:29
Speaker 6: So it's a completely different outfit, this government, from the
27:33
Speaker 6: Howard government. Totally different.
27:35
Speaker 2: Indeed. You would be doing things a little differently if
27:37
Speaker 2: you were still Foreign Minister, I think, Mr Downer. I
27:41
Speaker 2: talked before about it being the start of the war
27:43
Speaker 2: on terror... And, of course, you know, I think moments
27:46
Speaker 2: like this we have to reflect on the fact that
27:49
Speaker 2: terror has not gone away, it does not go away,
27:52
Speaker 2: and has very clearly visited us as a country in
27:56
Speaker 2: the past year in the form of the attack at Bondi.
27:59
Speaker 2: I fear at times perhaps we get a little too
28:02
Speaker 2: comfortable in thinking that this cannot happen again when it
28:06
Speaker 2: is still very much an ever-present threat. Yes, it is.
28:11
Speaker 6: I mean, we're talking about Islamist terror.
28:14
Speaker 3: Correct.
28:15
Speaker 6: Which is most, not all, of course, but most terrorist
28:20
Speaker 6: incidents around the world are committed by Islamist extremists. And
28:28
Speaker 6: that ideology isn't just going to go away. That ideology
28:33
Speaker 6: is still there. I mean, you have a whole regime
28:37
Speaker 6: run by extremists people, theocrats, if you like, who want
28:42
Speaker 6: to spread their ideology, and that's the Iranian regime. You
28:47
Speaker 6: have Afghanistan, which after the Americans withdrew, shamefully withdrew from Afghanistan,
28:54
Speaker 6: a few years ago, is completely run by the Taliban,
28:58
Speaker 6: another extremist, ideological, Islamist regime. So it's not just cells
29:07
Speaker 6: of these people, and the cells are important to monitor
29:11
Speaker 6: and keep track of, but it's whole countries, Iran and Afghanistan,
29:18
Speaker 6: which support this sort of activity. It remains at ever-present danger.
29:25
Speaker 2: Indeed. Just quickly, Alexander, Donald Trump was up and about today,
29:29
Speaker 2: spruiking ahead of the midterms, and he's offered, you know,
29:31
Speaker 2: $ 5, 000 to every man and woman if they win the
29:35
Speaker 2: House and the Senate, et cetera, basically buying them off.
29:38
Speaker 2: But he made comments overnight that... Iran are holding out
29:41
Speaker 2: until after the midterms in order to come to a
29:44
Speaker 2: peace deal with the war that they're currently in over there.
29:48
Speaker 2: I'm not so sure that's the case. I don't think
29:50
Speaker 2: they're holding out until after the midterms. I think they're
29:52
Speaker 2: holding out as long as they possibly can because it
29:56
Speaker 2: would seem that Donald Trump can't actually broker a deal.
30:00
Speaker 6: Well, by the way, he wouldn't be the first politician
30:03
Speaker 6: to have offered inducements to people.
30:06
Speaker 3: To vote for him.
30:07
Speaker 2: Indeed.
30:07
Speaker 6: I mean, offering $ 5, 000- watt of tax cuts, he wouldn't be
30:10
Speaker 6: alone there. No, I think you're right.
30:12
Speaker 2: I think the Iranians....
30:21
Speaker 6: Well, the Iranians, the IRGC, will hold out for as
30:25
Speaker 6: long as they possibly can. But this war requires patience
30:31
Speaker 6: on the part of the Americans and their allies and resolution,
30:38
Speaker 6: not short-term fecklessness, which is the risk. So it shouldn't
30:44
Speaker 6: be linked to a timeline of midterm elections or whatever
30:49
Speaker 6: it might be. The Americans are having huge success at
30:55
Speaker 6: the moment in undermining the Iranian economy. The Iranians are
31:00
Speaker 6: not able to export much of their oil anymore, and
31:04
Speaker 6: that is their primary source of revenue. They're running an
31:08
Speaker 6: inflation rate of around 80%. Their economy has declined by 6%
31:13
Speaker 6: over the last year. They're in all sorts of strife.
31:18
Speaker 6: So the Americans just need to keep the pressure up
31:22
Speaker 6: on the Iranians until... the IRGC, the Iranian regime, the
31:28
Speaker 6: hardliners in their regime, come to their senses. And the public,
31:33
Speaker 6: in the end, will make them come to their senses.
31:36
Speaker 3: Indeed.
31:37
Speaker 2: Alexander, good to see you as always. And by the way,
31:39
Speaker 2: happy birthday for yesterday.
31:41
Speaker 3: Thank you.
31:42
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Too many birthdays. Look, you can
31:46
Speaker 2: never have too many birthdays. Any day on this side
31:48
Speaker 2: of the earth is a good one. Alexander, good to
31:51
Speaker 2: see you. Alright, after the break, the NFL takes over
31:53
Speaker 2: the mighty MCG, plus a tiny English village of just
31:57
Speaker 2: 350 people could soon be housing thousands of asylum seekers.
32:00
Speaker 2: We'll take a look at that growing backlash next. Well,
32:06
Speaker 2: the NFL, all the way from the United States, is
32:08
Speaker 2: taking over the MCG. The San Francisco 49ers playing the
32:12
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Rams tomorrow morning. Joining me now, as always,
32:15
Speaker 2: on a Thursday on this program, sports broadcaster Mark Robinson. Robbo,
32:20
Speaker 2: good to see you. 10.35 it kicks off tomorrow. It's
32:23
Speaker 2: all sold out. I'm told that Melbourne is positively swarming
32:27
Speaker 2: with Yanks. How's it going to go down?
32:30
Speaker 1: Well, the LA Rams are the favourites, but.
32:33
Speaker 4: You know, the 49ers have been here for a week
32:35
Speaker 4: promoting the game and sending messages back to America.
32:38
Speaker 1: On their social media feeds, and they've been quite present.
32:41
Speaker 4: So I think people sitting on the fence might go
32:43
Speaker 4: for the 49ers, but it's a huge event.
32:47
Speaker 1: I think the only people who wouldn't be really pleased
32:49
Speaker 1: would be the AFL.
32:51
Speaker 4: Second week of AFL finals and a lot of editorial
32:54
Speaker 4: inches and A lot of minutes on the radio.
32:58
Speaker 1: And TV have been taken up promoting this game.
33:01
Speaker 4: But tell me another venue in Australia can get 100,000
33:05
Speaker 4: people there on a Friday morning at 10.30.
33:10
Speaker 2: Well, indeed, and I'm going because, I mean, anything at
33:13
Speaker 2: the MCG, you know, packed MCG has got to be good, right?
33:16
Speaker 2: I don't know the first thing about NFL, but anything
33:19
Speaker 2: at the G with 100,000 people in there has got
33:21
Speaker 2: to be good.
33:22
Speaker 4: Well, you've been to the MCG, of course, with the
33:24
Speaker 4: way you're talking. It's an astonishing venue. And when it's
33:29
Speaker 4: packed and the noise they're making, it's quite something else.
33:32
Speaker 4: It's an interesting sport. NFL goes for, what, three and
33:35
Speaker 4: a half hours, four hours.
33:36
Speaker 1: There's about 20 minutes of play.
33:39
Speaker 4: But it's one of the most popular sports in the world.
33:44
Speaker 4: And it's going to be beaming back into America at
33:47
Speaker 4: prime time. So Australia, Victoria, the MCG. are going to
33:51
Speaker 4: get a lot of promotion in one of the biggest
33:53
Speaker 4: countries in the world.
33:54
Speaker 2: Indeed. Now, let's talk about our footy. Of course, the
33:57
Speaker 2: AFL semis this weekend, you've got the Dockers and the
34:01
Speaker 2: Cats tomorrow night, and then Saturday night you've got my
34:05
Speaker 2: Crows and Chris Kenny's Crows. What's going to happen here?
34:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I was sort of hoping the Crows would
34:11
Speaker 2: end up with the Swans in Sydney this week, but
34:14
Speaker 2: we saw the thrashing that they gave the Lions last weekend.
34:17
Speaker 2: I suspect the Lions will be back with a vengeance
34:19
Speaker 2: this week.
34:21
Speaker 1: Well, they should be.
34:21
Speaker 4: I mean, everyone got punched in the face, didn't they,
34:23
Speaker 4: in the first week? Brisbane did.
34:27
Speaker 1: Fremantle did.
34:27
Speaker 4: It's up to them to now respond and there will
34:30
Speaker 4: be motivation there to respond, which always happens in football.
34:35
Speaker 4: But at the same time, there's a fear factor now
34:38
Speaker 4: in the back of their heads, you know, go out
34:40
Speaker 4: in straight sets. I think Adelaide are a very tough team.
34:44
Speaker 4: I can't believe you and Chris both buried for Adelaide.
34:47
Speaker 4: And I get to talk to Crows fans when I'm
34:51
Speaker 4: on Sky. But it'll be a fantastic game.
34:55
Speaker 1: But, hey, the Crows play really well at the Gabba.
34:59
Speaker 1: They've pushed them up there before, but Brisbane and home
35:01
Speaker 1: are quite formidable. But tomorrow night, Geelong v.
35:06
Speaker 4: The Dockers at Midtown, at Western Australia. I can't believe
35:11
Speaker 4: that Fremantle would play as feeble as they did last week.
35:16
Speaker 4: They didn't handle what Hawthorne dished up in terms of
35:20
Speaker 4: A simple word, but pressure. They didn't handle the pressure. Now,
35:24
Speaker 4: they've had all week to think about it. You can't
35:26
Speaker 4: train for pressure. It's the mindset that they have to
35:30
Speaker 4: prepare this week, and same with Brisbane. If they get
35:33
Speaker 4: their mindset right and be ready not to be punched
35:36
Speaker 4: in the face again, I think Fremantle can knock over Geelong.
35:40
Speaker 2: Indeed, just quickly as well, in the NRL, the Dolphins
35:43
Speaker 2: are playing in the finals this week. They only entered
35:47
Speaker 2: the league four years ago, or three years ago. This
35:49
Speaker 2: is the fourth season they've played. Third on the ladder.
35:51
Speaker 2: It's a pretty good effort.
35:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is a good effort, but every time a
35:55
Speaker 4: new team comes in, they're able.
35:56
Speaker 1: To poach a lot of very, very good players.
35:59
Speaker 4: Now, what they've got to build pretty quickly, and four
36:01
Speaker 4: years is, I think, round about the time, the chemistry
36:04
Speaker 4: and connection with all.
36:05
Speaker 1: Those words that they use in sport.
36:07
Speaker 4: Now, they can bring everyone together, but that doesn't really
36:11
Speaker 4: mean anything.
36:11
Speaker 1: You've got to gel and play as a team.
36:13
Speaker 4: And have a good leadership on and off the field,
36:16
Speaker 4: and clearly in their fourth year, the Dolphins have got
36:20
Speaker 4: a lot of things right.
36:21
Speaker 2: Mark Robinson, good to see you as always. Now to
36:24
Speaker 2: the UK. British police are launching a criminal investigation into
36:27
Speaker 2: Nigel Farage's Reform Party over allegations made in a documentary
36:31
Speaker 2: that the party planned to break electoral laws. Joining me
36:34
Speaker 2: now is writer and broadcaster Esther Krakou. Esther, what's the
36:38
Speaker 2: go here?
36:40
Speaker 13: Well, Nigel Farage's Reform Party has had two of its advisors,
36:45
Speaker 13: so James Orr and Dan Duke, step down because of
36:48
Speaker 13: claims made by a Channel 4 documentary that are now
36:51
Speaker 13: being investigated by Scotland Yard, which... basically claimed that they
36:56
Speaker 13: received funding or like foreign interference, basically that they paid
37:01
Speaker 13: a foreign company, an American company to, to, to take,
37:05
Speaker 13: to do polls on their behalf, which is obviously against
37:08
Speaker 13: the electoral rules. Now, any sort of conversations around parties
37:12
Speaker 13: breaking donation rules is not new in the UK. I mean,
37:15
Speaker 13: we had the situation of Lord Ali who infamously kind
37:20
Speaker 13: of ruined Keir Starmer's summer back in 2024 when it, when,
37:23
Speaker 13: You know, the country found out that many ministers had
37:26
Speaker 13: had their noses in the trough, including donations to what
37:29
Speaker 13: sounded like Keir Starmer's wife to buy lingerie, amongst all
37:33
Speaker 13: the other apparently interesting donations that this man had, which
37:37
Speaker 13: apparently bought him unfettered access to Downing Street. I mean,
37:40
Speaker 13: he could enter Downing Street at basically any time. He
37:43
Speaker 13: seemed to have 24-7 access. And unfortunately, Downing Street seems
37:46
Speaker 13: to be one of the most surveyed parts of the country.
37:49
Speaker 13: So you literally had paparazzi seeing this man going in
37:52
Speaker 13: and out. So funding scandals are nothing new to any
37:55
Speaker 13: political party. But the issue with reform is they're kind
37:58
Speaker 13: of the enfant terrible of British politics. So anything they
38:01
Speaker 13: do is going to be scrutinized. more intensely, especially by
38:05
Speaker 13: the major political parties that say, hey, look, we can
38:08
Speaker 13: be sleazy, but so are they, which I don't think
38:10
Speaker 13: is really going to go very far because most people
38:13
Speaker 13: are not concerned with an American company undertaking polls for
38:18
Speaker 13: a party like Reform. But it does seem to work
38:20
Speaker 13: because when you have these headlines coming out, even if
38:23
Speaker 13: nothing comes of it, it seems to do the party damage,
38:25
Speaker 13: which I'm sure is causing Nigel Farage many headaches.
38:28
Speaker 2: Well, indeed, as long as no one's buying Nigel Farage lingerie,
38:31
Speaker 2: I think is all I can say to that one.
38:33
Speaker 2: There's plenty of debate. I mean, you may be into that.
38:36
Speaker 1: I don't know.
38:36
Speaker 2: That's your business. But there's also plenty of debate in
38:40
Speaker 2: the UK at the moment about how to house asylum seekers.
38:42
Speaker 2: So this little Piddington, right, is in Oxfordshire. It's set
38:46
Speaker 2: to take in. 1,200 people, but The Sun's uncovered documents
38:50
Speaker 2: showing the town, which has a population of 350, could
38:54
Speaker 2: house up to 3,500 migrants. I mean, what on earth
38:59
Speaker 2: is going on?
39:01
Speaker 13: I mean, that larger estimate would actually put the number
39:05
Speaker 13: of asylum seekers, basically men, to villagers from 10 to 1.
39:09
Speaker 2: 10 times.
39:10
Speaker 1: Which is.
39:11
Speaker 10: Which is obscene.
39:12
Speaker 13: And even the 1,250 figure, I don't know if that's
39:15
Speaker 13: supposed to, you know, give them some sort of comfort, like, oh,
39:18
Speaker 13: there's 350 of you, but don't worry, we're only giving
39:21
Speaker 13: you 1,250 migrants. Andy Burnham has famously said that he
39:25
Speaker 13: wants to spread the burden of having, you know, more consistency.
39:30
Speaker 13: in the country taking on more asylum seekers that the
39:32
Speaker 13: country didn't ask for, ironically. But, you know, Pittington made
39:36
Speaker 13: the news back in July because they had a vote
39:39
Speaker 13: saying that if their voices are not heard, they will
39:41
Speaker 13: secede from the UK. Now, this is a constituency with
39:43
Speaker 13: no school and no supermarket. But it's these kinds of
39:48
Speaker 13: ridiculous shenanigans that small towns have to do to get
39:51
Speaker 13: noticed by Westminster because they're literally having groups of random
39:55
Speaker 13: men from God knows where being foisted upon them. A
39:58
Speaker 13: mother who was in the film speaking to Zia Youssef
40:01
Speaker 13: about this said she and her daughter have started taking
40:03
Speaker 13: self-defense classes.
40:04
Speaker 2: And whether you think that's warranted or not, clearly.
40:07
Speaker 13: You know, people are concerned about their own safety and
40:09
Speaker 13: the safety of their loved ones, having strange men from
40:12
Speaker 13: parts of the world that are not known for having respectful,
40:15
Speaker 13: you know, women or gay rights, for example, being foisted
40:19
Speaker 13: upon them in their communities, many of whom, of course,
40:21
Speaker 13: don't speak English, many of whom destroy their documentation upon
40:24
Speaker 13: landing in the UK. So it makes it a lot
40:26
Speaker 13: harder to remove them. And it's a completely ridiculous and
40:29
Speaker 13: treasonous situation. And I find it interesting where this Labor
40:33
Speaker 13: government's moral compass is. They seem to find it 2,000
40:35
Speaker 13: miles away in Gaza, but not at home. And it's
40:39
Speaker 13: quite disheartening to see.
40:40
Speaker 2: Indeed, and I don't blame them for getting self-defence lessons
40:43
Speaker 2: when your town is about to be dominated in such numbers.
40:46
Speaker 2: It is just extraordinary. Esther, thank you for joining me tonight.
40:49
Speaker 2: Coming up, Victoria's crime crisis is getting worse. New figures
40:53
Speaker 2: show that the state's recorded almost as many home break-ins
40:56
Speaker 2: as New South Wales and Queensland combined. That and plenty
40:59
Speaker 2: more with my panel up next. Alright, let's get into
41:05
Speaker 2: the panel. The Daily Telegraph's Tim Blair, a News24 contributor.
41:09
Speaker 2: James Bolt, good to see you both, as always. Let's
41:12
Speaker 2: start with this war of words between One Nation and
41:16
Speaker 2: Andrew Hastie. James, I just suspect that all of this
41:21
Speaker 2: plays right into Labor's hands. You know, it's a great
41:24
Speaker 2: distraction at a time where we should be, you know,
41:27
Speaker 2: basically talking about Labor's version of sports rules, right?
41:29
Speaker 14: Yeah, but I think if you're Andrew Hastie, you do
41:31
Speaker 14: need to defend yourself. I mean, Trader is a pretty... Heavy,
41:35
Speaker 14: lighted word. With all respect to the person whose seat
41:37
Speaker 14: I'm taking on this panel tonight, I don't think that's
41:39
Speaker 14: in good taste to call someone a traitor.
41:41
Speaker 3: And I think it's also.
41:43
Speaker 14: Created a pretty awful optics for Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce,
41:47
Speaker 14: two people that haven't served the country, seem to be
41:49
Speaker 14: calling someone who has a traitor. Look, sure, a place
41:53
Speaker 14: in the Labor's hands. I think Andrew Hastie is completely
41:55
Speaker 14: right to stand up for himself on this one.
41:57
Speaker 2: I mean, I think James is right. You kind of do,
42:00
Speaker 2: don't you, Tim? You don't take traitor lying down. Though
42:04
Speaker 2: I do wonder why it's taken this long for it
42:06
Speaker 2: to come up, because the video was posted in July.
42:09
Speaker 15: Yeah, it's more than a month old. And I think
42:12
Speaker 15: in that we find some of the answer about why
42:15
Speaker 15: it's coming out now. I think what we're seeing here
42:16
Speaker 15: is the establishment fighting back against One Nation... And, you know,
42:21
Speaker 15: nothing wrong with that. That's what establishments do. But I
42:23
Speaker 15: don't think we should mistake it for anything other than that.
42:26
Speaker 15: And in terms of Andrew Hastie being distressed over being
42:31
Speaker 15: labelled in a jocular and extreme fashion in a cartoon,
42:36
Speaker 15: being labelled a traitor, well, if we're not allowed to
42:38
Speaker 15: criticise soldiers, how did Ben Robert Smith end up in
42:41
Speaker 15: his situation?
42:42
Speaker 2: It is a good point. Now, in your state of Victoria,
42:45
Speaker 2: where you are there, Tim, burglary, I mean, it's no
42:48
Speaker 2: news to you, I'm sure, that crime is a problem
42:50
Speaker 2: in Victoria. But the number of burglaries or the burglary
42:53
Speaker 2: claims in Victoria is basically the same as New South
42:59
Speaker 2: Wales and Queensland combined. I mean, what is going on
43:04
Speaker 2: down there?
43:06
Speaker 3: Mate, it gets even worse.
43:07
Speaker 15: Because of the state of the Victorian economy, the only
43:09
Speaker 15: thing they're stealing from our houses is machetes.
43:13
Speaker 3: It's a shocking situation. Wait, you're doing the bins? Exactly.
43:17
Speaker 3: The bins have been stolen.
43:18
Speaker 15: I would advise people in Victoria to do as I've
43:21
Speaker 15: done and move seriously inland. Get away from the coastal cities,
43:26
Speaker 15: the coastal capital especially, where.
43:28
Speaker 3: Things are grisly. I mean, there are suburbs.
43:31
Speaker 15: you know, inner eastern suburbs like Paran and South Yarra
43:33
Speaker 15: that used to be almost entirely crime-free and quite posh.
43:37
Speaker 3: Now they're quite crimey.
43:39
Speaker 2: Indeed. Well, when I lived in South Melbourne for a
43:41
Speaker 2: little while, James, my car got done over twice, I think,
43:46
Speaker 2: in the time that I lived there, and that was
43:50
Speaker 2: three or four years ago now. But you're an ex-Melbourne
43:53
Speaker 2: boy as well. I mean, were you rushing back there
43:55
Speaker 2: any time soon?
43:55
Speaker 14: I wouldn't say so. I think we need a pause
43:57
Speaker 14: right now because Tim Blair has... just been broken into
44:00
Speaker 14: right now. So apologies to him. Hopefully the machetes are
44:03
Speaker 14: still where.
44:04
Speaker 1: You left them.
44:05
Speaker 2: He's hiding.
44:06
Speaker 14: Look, this is one of the stories where I'm just
44:08
Speaker 14: thinking to myself, if Labor doesn't lose this election... what
44:12
Speaker 14: could possibly get them out? Like, if all of these
44:15
Speaker 14: statistics that come out about crime, all these fears come
44:17
Speaker 14: out about crime.
44:18
Speaker 2: The car thefts are basically the same as well. It's like,
44:20
Speaker 2: you know, every other state combined and then you get
44:22
Speaker 2: Victoria's Day.
44:23
Speaker 14: And if voters still go, nah, you know what, vote Labor,
44:25
Speaker 14: I've never liked the Liberals, I just think at that
44:27
Speaker 14: point it is just, you know, a complete dictatorship of
44:30
Speaker 14: the Labor Party, stop having elections, because they're never going
44:32
Speaker 14: to lose.
44:32
Speaker 2: Well, indeed. And the other thing, of course, that's big
44:34
Speaker 2: news in Victoria, Tim, is the work from home laws.
44:37
Speaker 2: And they've been dealt a bit of a blow today.
44:41
Speaker 2: They've failed to get through the upper house and the
44:42
Speaker 2: upper house has now referred it off to a committee. So, basically,
44:47
Speaker 2: this is off the agenda until after the election in November.
44:51
Speaker 15: We work from home to protect our televisions. It's all
44:56
Speaker 15: tied together and our machetes.
44:58
Speaker 1: It's... But, yeah.
45:00
Speaker 15: Work from home has become almost as politically troublesome as, say,
45:04
Speaker 15: you know, criticising superannuation or Medicare. It's a touchy one
45:09
Speaker 15: since the last election when the Liberals at a federal
45:12
Speaker 15: level famously backtracked big time on their moves towards work
45:16
Speaker 15: from home. And, yeah, it's no surprise they're pushing things
45:19
Speaker 15: back a little.
45:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the other thing as well, of course, is
45:22
Speaker 2: that the Libs down in Victoria are kind of dancing
45:24
Speaker 2: around this at the moment, James, because they don't want
45:27
Speaker 2: to get voters offside. They saw what happened federally when
45:31
Speaker 2: the Coalition tried to take on work.
45:32
Speaker 14: Yeah, and I think that's why Jacinta Allen brought it
45:34
Speaker 14: in in the first place. It's like, well, what are
45:36
Speaker 14: you guys going to do? If I can put on
45:38
Speaker 14: my tinfoil hat for a second, does anyone else slightly
45:41
Speaker 14: get the feeling that Ben Carroll is secretly relieved these
45:43
Speaker 14: laws have gone?
45:44
Speaker 3: Because I think they are quite toxic.
45:45
Speaker 2: It was like one of.
45:46
Speaker 14: The first things that he said, like, you know, I'm
45:48
Speaker 14: getting away with this stuff, like, work from home, stop
45:51
Speaker 14: talking about it. He clearly didn't have the support of
45:53
Speaker 14: his own party to completely scrap it all together. You know,
45:56
Speaker 14: the reporting today is that Adam Somyurek, you know, he
45:58
Speaker 14: came out from his exile for two months to finally
46:01
Speaker 14: turn up to Parliament and vote this down. I have
46:03
Speaker 14: the theory the call came from Ben Carroll. Like, Adam,
46:07
Speaker 14: you're an old friend.
46:08
Speaker 2: I need you.
46:10
Speaker 4: Come on in.
46:11
Speaker 3: I need this thing off my hands.
46:12
Speaker 2: You're not branch stacking anymore. I've got another favour to
46:15
Speaker 2: call in for you. Now, of course, we saw the
46:17
Speaker 2: big Trump extravaganza today ahead of the midterms and he's promising,
46:22
Speaker 2: you know, it's a bit like an Oprah episode. You
46:24
Speaker 2: get a car, you get a car. It's $ 5, 000 if
46:26
Speaker 2: we win the House and the Senate. But of all
46:28
Speaker 2: the people that you might have thought would pop up
46:32
Speaker 2: At this event today, John Fetterman. Take a look.
46:36
Speaker 16: I'm Senator John Fetterman, Pennsylvania. Yes, I'm a Democrat. Why
46:41
Speaker 16: am I here talking to you today? Because, well, I'm
46:44
Speaker 16: a common sense Democrat. I'm always going to stand with America.
46:48
Speaker 16: I'm always going to reject the extremes and socialism and
46:52
Speaker 16: that anti-American way of life.
46:56
Speaker 2: What a turn, Tim.
46:58
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
46:58
Speaker 15: And he's been treading this way for some time. Fetterman,
47:02
Speaker 15: who I was wrong, it turns out, to have criticised
47:05
Speaker 15: when he was first elected several years ago, I think
47:08
Speaker 15: in the midterms before 2024. He is quite the shining light,
47:13
Speaker 15: the light of sanity against the rising tide of what
47:17
Speaker 15: they call democratic socialism in America's left.
47:21
Speaker 2: Indeed. It just annoys me, though, James, that it has
47:24
Speaker 2: to come from a guy who can't put a suit on.
47:25
Speaker 2: You know, he's always in his hoodie.
47:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it's the look.
47:29
Speaker 14: I mean, there's a whole branding thing. Look, I like Fetterman,
47:32
Speaker 14: and it's just one of those things that, like, we
47:33
Speaker 14: don't have enough of in Australian politics. Like, you get
47:36
Speaker 14: a little bit in Britain, you do get in the US,
47:37
Speaker 14: and people just being like, stuff the party I have.
47:40
Speaker 14: I have a point to make. I'm going to make
47:42
Speaker 14: a stand, and I'm going to make that stand quite loudly.
47:44
Speaker 14: I mean, he's probably cost himself a lot of voters.
47:46
Speaker 14: Be interesting to see what happens to his next election
47:48
Speaker 14: if he's literally campaigning with the Republicans, if he gives
47:50
Speaker 14: a speech like that. or a video like that. But, yeah,
47:53
Speaker 14: you know, it's the kind of stuff that Australian politics
47:55
Speaker 14: is missing.
47:56
Speaker 2: Indeed. Hey, very quickly, before we go, take a look
47:59
Speaker 2: at this woman over in the United States. She's drunk driving.
48:02
Speaker 2: She gets pulled over by the cops. And what's her defence?
48:06
Speaker 10: I don't know what really happened.
48:09
Speaker 2: You didn't just hit the front of the car.
48:11
Speaker 3: You just took the car completely off.
48:13
Speaker 15: I am now requesting that you submit to a lawful
48:15
Speaker 15: test of your breath for the purpose of determining alcohol content.
48:18
Speaker 3: Will you submit?
48:19
Speaker 11: No.
48:20
Speaker 3: Okay.
48:21
Speaker 10: We're all friends.
48:22
Speaker 2: We're all friends, but we still have a job to do.
48:25
Speaker 2: I know. I've only got 20 seconds, but Tim, we're friends.
48:29
Speaker 3: I thought this was America. This is America? This is
48:34
Speaker 3: a South Park episode. Look that up if you're aware
48:36
Speaker 3: of South Park. It's a great moment.
48:37
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed. I won't try that one any time soon,
48:39
Speaker 2: I don't think.
48:40
Speaker 3: I wouldn't think so.
48:41
Speaker 14: I don't think it would work too well for you.
48:42
Speaker 2: No, indeed. Tim James, good to see you. Good to
48:45
Speaker 2: see you at home as well. Go the Crows. Here's
48:47
Speaker 2: Peter Credlin.