Transcript

Credlin | 31 March · Credlin

0:02
Speaker 1: Kido Krandlin live on Sky News Australia.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good evening, Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up
0:10
Speaker 2: tonight on Credline. More tonight from inside the Victorian Liberals
0:14
Speaker 2: says the deeming preselection fiasco continues. The rot starts at
0:19
Speaker 2: the top, calls and mounting for senior party leaders to resign,
0:23
Speaker 2: and this afternoon a change dot Org petitions gone far
0:27
Speaker 2: and wide amongst rank and file party supporters.
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Speaker 3: More on that shortly, a.
0:32
Speaker 2: Plan to expand the number of MP's in the Federal Parliament.
0:35
Speaker 3: Are you serious?
0:37
Speaker 2: We need less government, not more MPs. The Prime Minister says,
0:41
Speaker 2: nothing to see here, but I can tell you that
0:43
Speaker 2: behind closed doors, labor has already begun negotigating. Too little,
0:49
Speaker 2: too late seems to be the sentiment of the group's
0:52
Speaker 2: getting the hit hardest by the fuel crisis. This includes
0:56
Speaker 2: our farmers who say, four weeks into this mess then
1:00
Speaker 2: not being heard. I'll speak to the head of the
1:02
Speaker 2: New South Wales Farmers in a moment. And another day
1:05
Speaker 2: in the Federal Parliament. With Labour ducking and weaving on fuel.
1:10
Speaker 4: How can Australians have any confidence in the Prime Minister's
1:13
Speaker 4: leadership Through this crisis when his position changes every day.
1:18
Speaker 5: How many service stations in Australia are out of fuel?
1:23
Speaker 6: How did the government allow the fuel crisis to get
1:25
Speaker 6: so bad that a central transport for vulnerable Australians is
1:29
Speaker 6: now under threat?
1:31
Speaker 2: But first, the fallout tonight from the botched Liberal Upper
1:34
Speaker 2: House pre selection in Victoria over the weekend continues. It continues,
1:39
Speaker 2: and it worsens as the contagion coming out of the
1:42
Speaker 2: party's administrative wing threatens to damage Jess Wilson's campaign to
1:47
Speaker 2: unsee Labor at the upcoming November state election. As Wilson
1:51
Speaker 2: said to The Australian Today, she was extremely disappointed and
1:54
Speaker 2: frustrated by revelations at the newly elected Liberal candidate Denesh
1:59
Speaker 2: Gurusse had given a character reference to a convicted child
2:03
Speaker 2: sex offender and in the party's vetting process this was
2:07
Speaker 2: not disclosed nor uncovered.
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Speaker 7: The situation that we found ourselves in yesterday should never
2:14
Speaker 7: have happened.
2:14
Speaker 3: The situation should not.
2:16
Speaker 8: Have occurred, and it's fair to.
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Speaker 3: Say I'm frustrated by this.
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Speaker 1: My team is frustrated by this and we need to learn.
2:25
Speaker 9: Well.
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Speaker 3: She can say that again, can't she?
2:27
Speaker 2: But as much as those involved might want to hope
2:30
Speaker 2: the swift removal of Gurusetti will wash this stain away.
2:34
Speaker 2: It won't, as rank and file party members now demand
2:37
Speaker 2: the removal of the party president, former State MP Phil Davis,
2:42
Speaker 2: and all four of his vice presidents.
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Speaker 3: It's not good enough that we learned.
2:46
Speaker 2: From crisis to crisis like this, but this idea that
2:49
Speaker 2: there are no consequences for moving to endorse someone who's
2:53
Speaker 2: supported a pedophile is unacceptable. Heads must roll, said one
2:59
Speaker 2: veteran Liberal MP to me. Already, as I revealed last night,
3:05
Speaker 2: there's a three page open letter from two State Council
3:08
Speaker 2: members that is rapidly collecting signatures that calls for the
3:12
Speaker 2: resignation of the President, Phil Davis and all for vice presidents,
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Speaker 2: one of whom I might add, actually resides in New
3:20
Speaker 2: South Wales as well, reported by Anthony Galloway and Lilli
3:24
Speaker 2: McCaffrey in The Australia in this afternoon, a member of
3:27
Speaker 2: the party's State executive has today circulated her own motion
3:31
Speaker 2: demanding the president resign. The formal motion, proposed by State
3:36
Speaker 2: Council State Executive Member Colin Harken and seconded by Marcus Lye,
3:42
Speaker 2: calls on Davis to resign immediately to quote restore confidence
3:47
Speaker 2: in the party's processes, and demonstrate accountability to members.
3:51
Speaker 3: And broader public.
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Speaker 2: The motion claims it is inconceivable that such a significant
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Speaker 2: red flag was either overlooked or disregarded, that a Liberal
4:02
Speaker 2: candidate saw fit to provide a character reference for a
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Speaker 2: convicted pedophile represents a profound.
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Speaker 3: Failure of judgment.
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Speaker 2: So says the motion, that this individual was subsequently approved
4:14
Speaker 2: through the party's pre selection and vetting process and was
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Speaker 2: midway through executive endorsement, and I can reveal that five
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Speaker 2: executive members had already endorsed Garasetti raises serious concerns about
4:28
Speaker 2: the competence, integrity, and effectiveness of that process. Responsibility for
4:33
Speaker 2: this failure rest with those who oversaw the process, says
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Speaker 2: the Hearken motion. The Candidate Review Panel exists specifically to
4:42
Speaker 2: identify risks, exercise sound judgment, and safeguard the party's reputation.
4:49
Speaker 2: And as if that wasn't enough, tonight, I can also
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Speaker 2: report to you that there is a change dot org
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Speaker 2: petition that was launched late this afternoon demanding the resignation
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Speaker 2: of the present and the VP team so as to
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Speaker 2: give the parliamentary team Jess Wilson and the front bench
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Speaker 2: at least to fighting chance at the November election. So
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Speaker 2: to say that the natives are restless is an understatement,
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Speaker 2: and you can bear that long suffering rank and file
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Speaker 2: members will use that change dot org petition to send
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Speaker 2: a message to Head Office that even those who want
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Speaker 2: to keep their heads in the sand cannot ignore. But
5:30
Speaker 2: anger amongst the rank and file has been brewing for
5:33
Speaker 2: some time. Dismayed at factional in fighting and the repeated
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Speaker 2: failure to win elections, ordinary members are at breaking point,
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Speaker 2: many telling me at a recent party of n I
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Speaker 2: attended in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood they are on
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Speaker 2: the verge of quitting the Liberal Party to join One Nation.
5:51
Speaker 2: So in the room where I spoke openly and declared
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Speaker 2: they had already left, they had already joined One Nation
5:58
Speaker 2: and were urging other rules to join them. Now, for
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Speaker 2: many it was the treatment of more redeeming that was
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Speaker 2: their tipping point, and now with Deeming losing out to
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Speaker 2: a candidate involved in a pedophile scandal who himself didn't
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Speaker 2: even last twenty four hours, they are demanding a complete
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Speaker 2: clean out.
6:17
Speaker 3: Of Head Office. And who could blame them.
6:21
Speaker 2: For twenty two of the past twenty six years, Labor
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Speaker 2: has ruled Victoria with an iron fist, and almost every economic,
6:30
Speaker 2: social crime, and budget indicator in the once proud southern
6:34
Speaker 2: state has gone backwards. Even the world's longest and harshest
6:39
Speaker 2: pandemic lockdowns saw the reelection of Labour's Daniel Andrews. Many
6:45
Speaker 2: party hard heads now believe that unless the Liberals win
6:49
Speaker 2: this time, the party's brand in Victoria is shot, and
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Speaker 2: if that's the case, it'll have severe repercussions federally as
6:58
Speaker 2: the party fights one day across the country. Liberals I
7:03
Speaker 2: spoke to today also referenced the Supreme Court action taken
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Speaker 2: by Colin Harker and other members of the state executive
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Speaker 2: against the President Phil Davis and some of his cronies
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Speaker 2: as a grave concern. They say that the decision by
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Speaker 2: the President to authorize a multi million dollar payment of
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Speaker 2: party funds to former leader John Perzudo to cover his
7:27
Speaker 2: legal damages owed to Moira Deeming after the court found
7:30
Speaker 2: he had defamed her has made Davis's position untenable. As
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Speaker 2: a former senior party official told me, we can't say
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Speaker 2: we'll fight against Jacinta Allen and CFMU corruption. If our
7:45
Speaker 2: own party has this hanging over its head, Davis must go,
7:50
Speaker 2: this person said, and everyone else mixed up in the mess.
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Speaker 3: The fact that he couldn't even.
7:56
Speaker 2: Endorse Moira and move on from this crisis, that Davis
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Speaker 2: now wants a whole new preselection shows that it just
8:04
Speaker 2: doesn't understand how hard One Nation is eating into our vote.
8:10
Speaker 2: And it is even before the events of the weekend.
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Speaker 2: One Nation's making inroads into Victoria, much to the surprise
8:20
Speaker 2: of many who thought the country's most left leaning state
8:23
Speaker 2: would resist the handsome juggernaut. As the latest Redbridge polling
8:28
Speaker 2: published in the Australian Financial Review earlier in March will show,
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Speaker 2: One Nation has moved from negligible numbers last year to
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Speaker 2: now commanding twenty four percent of the primary vote. The
8:40
Speaker 2: Coalition is slightly ahead at twenty eight percent, a Labour
8:44
Speaker 2: crashing out now at twenty five with sixteen seats needed
8:48
Speaker 2: to take.
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Speaker 3: Government from Labour.
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Speaker 2: The problem the Coalition finds itself in is that while
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Speaker 2: Labor is absolutely on the nose with voters, that anger
8:57
Speaker 2: is not translating into clear support for the Liberals and
9:02
Speaker 2: Redbridge Polster cos Samaras reiterated as much as that on
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Speaker 2: the program here last night.
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Speaker 10: One Nation could win as many as twelve to fifteen
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Speaker 10: seats in Victoria at the state election, and of those
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Speaker 10: about thirty percent of them will be lost by Labor
9:21
Speaker 10: and the rest will come off the coalition.
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Speaker 2: So we're to now for the Liberals right now, they
9:28
Speaker 2: do not have an endorsed ticket for the Victorian upper
9:31
Speaker 2: House region of Western Metropolitan and they also do not
9:35
Speaker 2: have more Deeming back in the tent now. Worryingly, I'm
9:40
Speaker 2: told tonight that while some are urging and deal with Deeming,
9:44
Speaker 2: Davis and others are said to be looking around to
9:47
Speaker 2: find a new face to stand against her in any
9:51
Speaker 2: pre selection rerun. As for Moira personally, well after the weekend,
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Speaker 2: you'd understand she told me that she's taking time out
10:00
Speaker 2: with a family to think long and hard about her
10:03
Speaker 2: career and future. As someone who has spoken publicly about
10:07
Speaker 2: her own sexual abuse as a child as a driving
10:11
Speaker 2: reason behind her advocacy for women and girls, I can
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Speaker 2: tell you that Moira has been hit hard and by
10:18
Speaker 2: the loss to Gurasetti, given his support of a convicted pedophile.
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Speaker 2: Now what's particularly galling was yesterday's claim by Gurusetti and
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Speaker 2: emails to Head offers that his court reference was being
10:32
Speaker 2: used to help mister Kayshap Patel contest the charges and
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Speaker 2: maintain his innocence, but that claim was clearly false given
10:42
Speaker 2: the reference obtained from the court yesterday and signed by Gurusetti,
10:46
Speaker 2: admitted that Gorisetti knew of Patel's child grooming and sexual
10:51
Speaker 2: assault charges. As Gurasetti wrote himself on the reference and
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Speaker 2: I quote my friend, he is very upset to be
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Speaker 2: the charges and I truly believe is extremely sorry to
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Speaker 2: the complainant.
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Speaker 3: For what he has done.
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Speaker 2: What he has done, he knew Labour's premier just into
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Speaker 2: Allen Well. Of course she has jumped on this issue.
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Speaker 7: The Victoria Liberal Party a week. They're divided and they're extreme.
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Speaker 11: If you can't run your own party, how on earth can.
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Speaker 3: You put yourself forward to run the state.
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Speaker 2: And sure you know labor was in administration for a
11:37
Speaker 2: number of years recently. Sure that's the pot called in
11:40
Speaker 2: kettle black. But she's right, I meaning the Liberals must
11:44
Speaker 2: purge everyone involved with this whole fiasco and put in
11:48
Speaker 2: charge a team it's focused on Victorians, focused on winning
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Speaker 2: the November election and focused on plans to fix a state.
11:58
Speaker 2: But tonight remains as broken and disillusions ever. And if
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Speaker 2: they can't do that, if the Liberal Party cannot do that,
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Speaker 2: and mark my words, the Liberal Party brand in Victoria
12:11
Speaker 2: is dead. Let's go to camera for the headlines. Joining
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Speaker 2: me now skun is a political reporter.
12:20
Speaker 3: Jenny Macintos, The.
12:22
Speaker 12: Prime Minister reveals fuel rationing won't take effect unless there
12:26
Speaker 12: is an extraordinary disruption to Australia's supply.
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Speaker 13: There are some who've taken more than what they need,
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Speaker 13: that's the truth.
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Speaker 11: The twenty six cent fuel excise cut will take effect
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Speaker 11: from midnight, but don't expect to see immediate relief at
12:39
Speaker 11: the bowser and.
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Speaker 5: So people should expect it would take you somewhere between
12:43
Speaker 5: maybe one and two weeks for the full benefit of
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Speaker 5: the excise to flow through.
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Speaker 11: Meanwhile, surcharges on credit and debit card payments will be
12:51
Speaker 11: banned from October, but the fee reduction is likely to
12:54
Speaker 11: be gobbled up by price increases.
12:57
Speaker 12: Then they've got on tap for a coffee actually saving
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Speaker 12: money of this will the small businesses just have.
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Speaker 3: To jack up.
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Speaker 5: Well, The difference is the small business will have that
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Speaker 5: choice to make and there'll be transparency about the price
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Speaker 5: that people pay.
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Speaker 13: Just don't believe anybody who claims you'll be wildly better off.
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Speaker 12: Five social media giants are under investigation facing allegations of
13:15
Speaker 12: not complying with the under sixteen span. Four months into
13:19
Speaker 12: the ban, the e Safety Commission is still considering fines
13:22
Speaker 12: for half of the platforms included with kids able to
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Speaker 12: get around age verification measures.
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Speaker 6: What's the hold up we commit to the government this
13:31
Speaker 6: year actually applying to levy fines.
13:35
Speaker 12: The major reason that kids are going back on accounts
13:38
Speaker 12: is because social media is prompting them.
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Speaker 3: Companies are taking the binki.
13:42
Speaker 6: Why don't you take them to court to do that?
13:44
Speaker 3: We need to build the evidence space.
13:46
Speaker 7: This social media ban is not working because the government
13:50
Speaker 7: failed to implement it properly.
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Speaker 11: Trudy McIntosh Sky News Camera right, we'll.
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Speaker 2: Say with Canberra issues and joining me now, Sky's political
13:59
Speaker 2: editor Andrew Clenell tough questioning in that press conference there
14:03
Speaker 2: with the minister. I'll get back to that issue in
14:05
Speaker 2: relation to social media band but I got to start
14:09
Speaker 2: with fuel dominated question time again today, I'll show viewers
14:13
Speaker 2: on screen the average price for unlettered and diesel across
14:16
Speaker 2: the country. Of course, plenty of concern Andrew that this
14:20
Speaker 2: will drive up inflation.
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Speaker 3: Have a listen.
14:25
Speaker 4: They will have more money to spend on other goods
14:27
Speaker 4: and services than would have been the case otherwise, because
14:30
Speaker 4: the Reserve Bank may well feel it has to respond
14:33
Speaker 4: by raising interest rates.
14:34
Speaker 14: Again, there's two and a half billion dollars in the
14:36
Speaker 14: economy that will be in there. It wouldn't have been otherwise.
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Speaker 14: It must absolutely put upward pressure on prices. Is the
14:42
Speaker 14: solution may be worse than the problem it set out
14:45
Speaker 14: court tossolve.
14:47
Speaker 2: Well, you and I were talking about inflation the other day.
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Speaker 2: We talked about the recession risk and I listened when
14:53
Speaker 2: you said your mail ahead of National Cabinet that there
14:58
Speaker 2: was that there would not have been in this cut
15:01
Speaker 2: to the fuel exercise. So what put it on the table?
15:04
Speaker 2: What changed their mind?
15:07
Speaker 6: I think polling, and the polling was pretty die the
15:10
Speaker 6: news pole. It was one of a number of options
15:12
Speaker 6: to be considered over like a couple of weeks and
15:16
Speaker 6: laid up to budget. And I believe in the last
15:20
Speaker 6: forty eight hours before the decision there was a change
15:22
Speaker 6: of mind.
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Speaker 9: Off.
15:23
Speaker 6: I have good reason to believe that Peter and that's
15:26
Speaker 6: when we saw that newspole. So Labor's probably wrote pretty
15:30
Speaker 6: die there. You had one nation the colortion together you
15:32
Speaker 6: got forty seven there. So you know, politics of the
15:37
Speaker 6: iron laws of arithmetic. You know, if you didn't show
15:40
Speaker 6: you were trying to do something ahead of ahead of
15:42
Speaker 6: the school holidays, you're going to be in a lot
15:45
Speaker 6: of political trouble. And he saw Scott Morrison come undone
15:48
Speaker 6: many times over that acting too slowly, it's not a race,
15:51
Speaker 6: and all that sort of caper. So I think the
15:54
Speaker 6: PM changed his mind.
15:57
Speaker 2: I also think because he had to be brought kicking
15:59
Speaker 2: and screaming the Royal Commission after many weeks following Bondai,
16:03
Speaker 2: given that the opposition was out there on Friday calling
16:06
Speaker 2: for a cut in exercise. If he was to resist
16:08
Speaker 2: that again, if he eventually did it, you know, if
16:10
Speaker 2: he'd come back after Easter and done it, let's say,
16:13
Speaker 2: he would have looked like again he had to be
16:15
Speaker 2: forced into doing something that he couldn't see, you know,
16:19
Speaker 2: a path through it as a leader in the initial stage.
16:22
Speaker 2: What about restrictions because I keep getting mail that they
16:25
Speaker 2: are actively looking at rationing, but they don't want to
16:28
Speaker 2: do this until after Easter.
16:32
Speaker 6: Makes sense to me. Look, the viewing government is if
16:36
Speaker 6: it goes if the war goes on for months, probably
16:38
Speaker 6: going to have to look at that because there won't
16:40
Speaker 6: be an option. It's the straits of holl News don't
16:42
Speaker 6: open up. But yeah, even that document they put out,
16:47
Speaker 6: they didn't want to use the term rationing Albanese. He
16:50
Speaker 6: told Caucus he doesn't want to do rashing. So he
16:52
Speaker 6: doesn't want to do it, and it is the states
16:54
Speaker 6: who do it, by the way, but he's hoping everyone
16:57
Speaker 6: has the same rules. That's what National Cabinet will about.
17:00
Speaker 6: But if the war keeps going, I can see it happening.
17:03
Speaker 6: I just don't know how they do it. I mean,
17:04
Speaker 6: in the seventies everyone tells me it was odds and
17:06
Speaker 6: even so you've got an odd number player and an
17:08
Speaker 6: even number player. You can go Monday Tues alternative days,
17:11
Speaker 6: and I think that kind of works because it stops
17:14
Speaker 6: everyone going all the time. So I don't even know
17:18
Speaker 6: if the Australian community would hate that that much. You know,
17:21
Speaker 6: they think, oh, we're doing our bid as long as
17:24
Speaker 6: we don't completely run out. That's when they're going to
17:26
Speaker 6: have massive political problems, whether it's a global problem or
17:29
Speaker 6: a right So.
17:33
Speaker 3: I think you're right.
17:34
Speaker 2: I'm old enough to remember the seventies when they did
17:36
Speaker 2: have the rationing. I remember being in the car with
17:37
Speaker 2: mum and day and we went to fill up once
17:40
Speaker 2: and Mum got waved through the days there were attendants
17:43
Speaker 2: at the petrol station that got waved away, so they
17:45
Speaker 2: said that she couldn't fill up. I do think if
17:47
Speaker 2: people feel that the system is orderly, they'll back the system.
17:51
Speaker 2: And this is why it's got to be national.
17:53
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you why.
17:54
Speaker 2: It'll be interesting to see whether or not it'll be
17:57
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's fault as this goes on, or whether giving
18:02
Speaker 2: you all the government and you're supposed to solve everything,
18:05
Speaker 2: whether the flag will continue to hit Labour's numbers.
18:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, Hasty's Hasty's out there saying it's Donald Trump's fault,
18:15
Speaker 6: isn't it. So Angus Taylor had a big win this week,
18:18
Speaker 6: obviously with this policy being copied by government three days later.
18:23
Speaker 6: But Andrew Hasty made some kind of undisciplined comments that
18:25
Speaker 6: took the gloss off it a bit. So that was
18:27
Speaker 6: pretty interesting. And he's buying into that, you know, it's
18:31
Speaker 6: Trump's sort of argument a little bit hasty, so he
18:35
Speaker 6: needs to get him with the leader a bit. They
18:36
Speaker 6: had a meeting yesterday. I think they had a meeting
18:39
Speaker 6: last week where they spoke a bit about direction. But
18:42
Speaker 6: he's got a bit to learn there in hasty I
18:44
Speaker 6: think in his interview today what he did on Insiders.
18:49
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, that's interesting.
18:55
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, all right, talk to me about the parliament
19:01
Speaker 2: and all this talk about increasing the numbers of MPs
19:05
Speaker 2: in the building. The Opposition have already come out today
19:08
Speaker 2: that in a press conference they said they will not
19:10
Speaker 2: support the increases. The Prime Minister had this to say
19:13
Speaker 2: in question time.
19:14
Speaker 3: Let's listen.
19:15
Speaker 4: Will the Prime Minister rule out expanding the size of
19:18
Speaker 4: the parliament.
19:19
Speaker 13: I am satisfied with the current number of seats in
19:23
Speaker 13: the House of Representatives, that's one hundred and fifty. I'm
19:27
Speaker 13: also very satisfied with the composition of the current parliament,
19:33
Speaker 13: very satisfied with the current composition order.
19:37
Speaker 2: So we got that whole no plans line from the
19:40
Speaker 2: Prime Minister a number of times during question time. Apparently
19:44
Speaker 2: the talk is twenty four extra MPs and extra fourteen senators.
19:48
Speaker 2: The costs, say the opposition there will be six hundred
19:51
Speaker 2: odd million dollars, I can tell you, and I've spoken
19:55
Speaker 2: to people on the cross bench. The government has already
19:58
Speaker 2: started to sound peopleeople out. I can tell you that
20:02
Speaker 2: there has been some level of negotiation. So is this
20:06
Speaker 2: dead or it's just on its way in the Prime
20:09
Speaker 2: Minister hasn't made a decision, so we could use those
20:12
Speaker 2: weasel words as he did in the chamber.
20:14
Speaker 3: What do you think, Andrew?
20:16
Speaker 6: I reckon, I reckon it's dead. I reckon he just
20:18
Speaker 6: killed it. And I can tell you for a fact,
20:21
Speaker 6: the Special Minister of State Don Farrell was yep. Special
20:24
Speaker 6: Minister of State Don Farrell was hot to trot on
20:26
Speaker 6: this right and the belief was the Opposition would have
20:29
Speaker 6: pose it as they said today, but the cross Bench
20:31
Speaker 6: would support it. But I reckon, Albanesi has just made
20:33
Speaker 6: the decision today. No, we're not copping this. And this
20:36
Speaker 6: comes back to the excise change and this comes back
20:40
Speaker 6: to the thirty one percent News poll number. And indeed,
20:44
Speaker 6: I believe the Prime Minister said today in the House
20:46
Speaker 6: that the National Secretary of the Labor Party, Paul Erickson,
20:49
Speaker 6: was the best official he'd ever worked for. Well, we
20:51
Speaker 6: can bet your bottom dollar what Paul Erickson is advising
20:54
Speaker 6: Albanesi at the moment. So it shows the government's worry
20:58
Speaker 6: for the first time in a long time. Not Peter.
21:02
Speaker 3: It's interesting.
21:03
Speaker 2: I know a few Liberals who'd like to get back
21:04
Speaker 2: into the Parliament who were banking on extra seats. They
21:07
Speaker 2: probably won't be happy that it's all been next this
21:10
Speaker 2: afternoon in camera, but I think if you're a taxpayer,
21:13
Speaker 2: that is a good thing. Thank you, Andrew. All right,
21:16
Speaker 2: let's go now to the pressures facing regional and rural Australia,
21:19
Speaker 2: with transport companies dismissing the Prime Minister's cuts to the
21:23
Speaker 2: fuel excise and the heavy vehicle road user Charge is
21:27
Speaker 2: too little, too late. Farmers are also unconvinced by the
21:31
Speaker 2: government's temporary fuel excise cut around twenty six cents per
21:36
Speaker 2: liter for three months, concern that it won't deliver meaningful
21:40
Speaker 2: relief in the short term and that other inputs into
21:43
Speaker 2: farming like urea are costing more even if farmers can
21:48
Speaker 2: get their supplied. Xavier Martin's a president of the New
21:52
Speaker 2: South Wales Farmer's Association. He joins me, now, Xavier, I
21:56
Speaker 2: thank you again. We spoke to you just the other day,
21:58
Speaker 2: and I wanted to circle back and see how things
22:00
Speaker 2: were on the ground. If you've seen some relief of
22:03
Speaker 2: seeing some changes, give me a sense. Do you feel
22:07
Speaker 2: now that there's been these two National Cabinet meetings, is
22:10
Speaker 2: in our fuels are in place, that the government's got
22:14
Speaker 2: its hands around the problem, and you've got confidence it
22:17
Speaker 2: will be sorted.
22:19
Speaker 15: Quite the contrary, unfortunately, Peter, what we're saying is a
22:23
Speaker 15: lot of talk and no action. I mean, how dropping
22:25
Speaker 15: the price, dropping the excise will result in anything else
22:30
Speaker 15: but more fuel ben used.
22:32
Speaker 9: When we haven't even stabilized the problem.
22:34
Speaker 15: We keep getting told by the Prime Minister and Energy
22:38
Speaker 15: Minister Chris Bowen that the vessels, the boats keep turning
22:42
Speaker 15: up and unloading at the terminals. Well, hello, it's not
22:45
Speaker 15: turning up in rural service stations and farm fuel tanks.
22:50
Speaker 15: They're rapidly running out hundreds and hundreds of them right,
22:54
Speaker 15: well thousands of them if you include farm fuel tanks.
22:57
Speaker 15: So we've got a serious problem. We need solutions to
23:02
Speaker 15: both fuel and fertilizer or it's going to jeopardize our food.
23:10
Speaker 2: I might be missing something here, but farmers already have
23:12
Speaker 2: a diesel fuel rebated. You already have a scheme to
23:16
Speaker 2: get to get cheaper fuel for farming production and on
23:21
Speaker 2: farm use, so you're not going to be greatly benefited
23:25
Speaker 2: necessarily by these changes. And as you make the point,
23:28
Speaker 2: demand then goes up in areas where, say an urban area,
23:32
Speaker 2: where there's likely to be more supply than there is
23:34
Speaker 2: in the bush. And I can't see anything on the
23:37
Speaker 2: table yet from the government in relation to fertilizer, urea
23:39
Speaker 2: and all the other inputs you need when you get
23:42
Speaker 2: into sort of the cropping season, So you don't seem
23:46
Speaker 2: to have had much of a deal here.
23:48
Speaker 15: All we've heard about is talk and more talk, apart
23:52
Speaker 15: from this underwriting of vessels, which if it does actually
23:56
Speaker 15: materially underwrite the risk of those sourcing the vessels, and
24:03
Speaker 15: it does make sure they turn up and unload, then
24:07
Speaker 15: that may be a small part of the solution.
24:10
Speaker 9: But the reality at the moment, Peter, is that there's
24:13
Speaker 9: a whole lot of farmers looking at what.
24:14
Speaker 15: Little fuel they've got left and what little fertilizer they
24:17
Speaker 15: might have had left from previous operations, and making decisions
24:22
Speaker 15: and making serious decisions, whether it's around vegetable growing, or
24:25
Speaker 15: whether it's around planting a winter crop or a pasture,
24:29
Speaker 15: if they know they have this unmanageable risk in terms
24:33
Speaker 15: of harvesting that crop eventually, let alone getting it to market.
24:37
Speaker 15: These glib comments about electric about electric trucks, I mean
24:42
Speaker 15: there's barely a handful of them in the nation. I mean,
24:44
Speaker 15: we are a big island that needs diesel. And look,
24:49
Speaker 15: the reality tonight is that you know the mess they're
24:52
Speaker 15: making on fuel and fertilizer. I don't know what they'll
24:56
Speaker 15: do when we're importing all our food. I mean, it's
24:58
Speaker 15: just going to be an absolute mesas because the way
25:00
Speaker 15: it's heading, we're not going to be producing enough food
25:03
Speaker 15: to sustain our nation unless we get this right.
25:08
Speaker 2: You know, when I worked for ministers and a PM,
25:12
Speaker 2: when a crisis would happen, a lot of the time
25:15
Speaker 2: the politicians would pick up the phone and they'd ring
25:16
Speaker 2: people like you who represent a large farming organization or
25:20
Speaker 2: an industry organization, and they want to get you onside
25:23
Speaker 2: that want to get your take on how things might
25:27
Speaker 2: best be fixed. What sort of conversations have you had.
25:30
Speaker 2: Have you been able to feed stuff in to the
25:34
Speaker 2: politicians of senior labor politicians in camera.
25:37
Speaker 15: Absolutely not. They certainly don't pick up the phone. So, Peter,
25:40
Speaker 15: I write to them. Wow, and I've written to them
25:43
Speaker 15: for years.
25:43
Speaker 9: I wrote to them. I'm just trying to think.
25:46
Speaker 15: When Prime Minister Albanez he was elected, I wrote and
25:49
Speaker 15: asked for one hundred days reserves.
25:51
Speaker 9: Not thirty. So I keep writing.
25:55
Speaker 15: I wrote last week about the problems around lowering the
26:00
Speaker 15: by removing part or all of the excise, that that
26:03
Speaker 15: would only increase demand and not stabilize the supply situation
26:08
Speaker 15: for rural surveys and farm fuel tanks. I mean, tractors
26:12
Speaker 15: do not run on fumes or a framework, Peter. And
26:15
Speaker 15: that's what we're being asked to believe that somehow this
26:18
Speaker 15: four step framework makes tractors go and makes food grow.
26:23
Speaker 9: I mean, I'm sorry it doesn't.
26:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am staggered. I am absolutely staggered, given the
26:28
Speaker 2: crisis that we are in, and given that farmers impact
26:33
Speaker 2: the national bottom line absolutely, but they put the food
26:36
Speaker 2: on the supermarket shelves that we all rely on to live.
26:38
Speaker 2: I am staggered that no one's picked up the phone.
26:40
Speaker 3: And called you.
26:41
Speaker 2: That you have to write letters of you know that
26:43
Speaker 2: probably end up in the department, and no one's run
26:46
Speaker 2: you and said, hey mate, we need the farmers with
26:48
Speaker 2: us on this.
26:48
Speaker 3: How do we fix it?
26:50
Speaker 9: And look, how we fix it is long term.
26:52
Speaker 15: We've got to We've got to produce our own fertilizer
26:55
Speaker 15: and fuel. I mean, we're a wealthy nation with a
26:59
Speaker 15: great bound of resources that we're using.
27:02
Speaker 9: Seriously well without wisdom.
27:06
Speaker 15: You know, there's no wisdom in the way we're conducting
27:09
Speaker 15: ourselves and the.
27:10
Speaker 9: Way it's leaving. The way it's leaving us at.
27:14
Speaker 15: The moment is that we're going to make decisions driven
27:20
Speaker 15: by our weather events, the timing of our season, based
27:24
Speaker 15: on what fuel and fertilizer we've got on hand. And
27:28
Speaker 15: unless the Prime Minister can actually cause the terminals every
27:32
Speaker 15: night to load at least every second wagon, every second
27:36
Speaker 15: tanker to go out to a rural service station and
27:40
Speaker 15: farm fuel tank unless at least every second one is
27:43
Speaker 15: going out into rural Australia until further notice, then we've
27:49
Speaker 15: got a serious problem.
27:52
Speaker 3: I'll just quickly make the point.
27:53
Speaker 2: You know, as people at home are filling up their
27:55
Speaker 2: car tanks that they're seeing how much of fuel has increased.
27:58
Speaker 2: I was speaking to ferentans of mine who are cropping
28:01
Speaker 2: out in the Wimra, and they said they're waiting on
28:03
Speaker 2: supply for a ten thousand liter diesel tank in order
28:08
Speaker 2: to start to put a sewing, to start to put
28:10
Speaker 2: a crop in. And of course you think what it
28:12
Speaker 2: would cost to fill a ten thousand liter tank at
28:16
Speaker 2: the moment, and you can understand the sort of scale
28:19
Speaker 2: of the risk, the financial risk that so many farmers
28:23
Speaker 2: across the country are making, Xavier.
28:25
Speaker 9: Oh exactly.
28:26
Speaker 15: And whether it's those sort of farmers tonight or a
28:28
Speaker 15: rice farmer that's trying to get the rice off in
28:31
Speaker 15: good quality in that narrow window, they're using thousands of
28:34
Speaker 15: leaders a day through the harvesters and the chaser bins.
28:38
Speaker 15: Same with cotton pickings underway at the moment. Those cotton
28:40
Speaker 15: pickers use thousands of leaders a day. That's the reality.
28:44
Speaker 15: But importantly, though Peter Animal Welfare it maybe you only
28:48
Speaker 15: need ten or twenty leaders of diesel a day to
28:50
Speaker 15: get around your check your water for your animals, but
28:53
Speaker 15: you've got to do it.
28:55
Speaker 9: You cannot run on fumes.
28:58
Speaker 2: I'll leave it there talking. I'll at least talk to Javier,
29:02
Speaker 2: I'll at least pick up the phone. But I'm stagger
29:04
Speaker 2: that the government has not thank you for joining me
29:06
Speaker 2: tonight all right after the break weeks not months, that's
29:10
Speaker 2: what we're being told in relation to Iran. But if
29:13
Speaker 2: that is the case, how long before we get things
29:15
Speaker 2: back to normal in terms of shipping supply chains.
29:20
Speaker 3: That's next, welcome man.
29:25
Speaker 2: We'll catch up with Sophie Ellsworth in London as the
29:28
Speaker 2: UK prepares for an illegal migrant crisis to spike.
29:32
Speaker 3: It'll get a whole lot worse. We'll get her.
29:34
Speaker 2: Update as to why in a moment, but first, in
29:37
Speaker 2: a somewhat surprising move, the US Secretary of State has
29:40
Speaker 2: sat down with Al Jazeera to provide more clarity around
29:44
Speaker 2: the war as questions mount over what the US endgame
29:48
Speaker 2: is in Iran.
29:50
Speaker 8: We have very clear objectives that we're trying to achieve here.
29:53
Speaker 8: Those objectives are the destruction of their air force, which
29:55
Speaker 8: has been achieved, the destruction of their navy, which has
29:58
Speaker 8: largely been achieved, a significant reduction in the number of
30:01
Speaker 8: missile launchers that they have, which were well on our
30:04
Speaker 8: way to achieving. We will achieve those objectives. We are
30:06
Speaker 8: well on our way or ahead of schedule. We will
30:09
Speaker 8: achieve them in weeks not months, and then we'll be
30:12
Speaker 8: confronted with this issue of the streets of hormones and
30:14
Speaker 8: it'll be up to Iran to decide, and if they
30:16
Speaker 8: choose to try to block the streets, then then we'll
30:18
Speaker 8: have to face real consequences.
30:21
Speaker 2: Joining me now to discuss where this is headed. Former
30:24
Speaker 2: Army Director General tried Brigadier in Langford and thank you
30:28
Speaker 2: for your time. If you heard those comments from Marco Rubio,
30:33
Speaker 2: he's saying it's weeks, not months. He talked about a
30:36
Speaker 2: whole lot of objectives that he regards as having been
30:39
Speaker 2: met weeks not months.
30:42
Speaker 3: Too ambitious. Where do you think things are at?
30:46
Speaker 7: Well?
30:47
Speaker 16: Thanks Peter, and good eating too, are you and your viewers?
30:49
Speaker 4: Look?
30:49
Speaker 16: I think again the US Secretary of State, he's really
30:52
Speaker 16: trying to outline on behalf of the President the conflict
30:55
Speaker 16: termination requirements and objectives for this phase of this active
31:01
Speaker 16: Clearly what we've seen as Secretary Rubio pointed out the
31:04
Speaker 16: destruction of a lot of military power from Marian, its
31:06
Speaker 16: ability to launch as many missiles as it has, notwithstanding
31:10
Speaker 16: it still has that capability, and really sort of codify
31:14
Speaker 16: this current action as the end of this phase. He's
31:17
Speaker 16: then sort of signaling. I think that the US would
31:19
Speaker 16: intend to ceize combat operations once all of those thresholds
31:23
Speaker 16: have been met. There's also the leadership decapitation element to
31:26
Speaker 16: this as well, in terms of dealing with a new
31:29
Speaker 16: Iranian leadership, and now the US is trying to essentially
31:33
Speaker 16: limit their obligations in the context of post conflict requirements
31:37
Speaker 16: and really starting to internationalize this issue, particularly as it
31:41
Speaker 16: relates to freedom of navigation and access in and out
31:44
Speaker 16: of the Persian Goldfire, the Straits of Horn moves.
31:48
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about the Marines and the
31:50
Speaker 2: eighty second Airborne, and I mean you're a former Special
31:53
Speaker 2: Forces soldier yourself, how you read the fact that the
31:55
Speaker 2: President has moved these particular units into the region.
32:02
Speaker 16: Well, it really is again an ace for the Americans.
32:05
Speaker 16: Having the two Marine expeditionary units, the eighty second Airborne,
32:09
Speaker 16: and elements of US special operations, it gives the US
32:12
Speaker 16: the ability at the operational level to maintain surprise. This
32:16
Speaker 16: could be, for example, in the much speculated potential capture
32:20
Speaker 16: of Cargo Island, which is a critical element of Iran's
32:23
Speaker 16: oil exporting infrastructure. They could effectively hold that at risk
32:27
Speaker 16: if they captured it, forcing the Iranians to negotiate. Alternatively,
32:32
Speaker 16: the hunt seems to go on for the four hundred
32:34
Speaker 16: and fifty odd kilos of weapons grain material that is
32:37
Speaker 16: unaccounted for, and US Special Operations Command supported by the
32:41
Speaker 16: eighty second Airborne. In that case, it really specialized and
32:44
Speaker 16: mission appropriate for that sort of task. So whilst those
32:47
Speaker 16: forces are in theater, their ability to insert rapidly in
32:52
Speaker 16: the contested areas, be able to hold facilities such as
32:55
Speaker 16: Cargo Island at risks of the Ranians, and also really
32:59
Speaker 16: sort of try and complete and exploit the program to
33:03
Speaker 16: get rid of the nuclear weapons program for Iran or
33:05
Speaker 16: I really do think that those two force elements are
33:08
Speaker 16: being held at short notice for that requirement if it
33:10
Speaker 16: becomes something the Americans choose to execute.
33:15
Speaker 2: And I sort of hope they will in the sense
33:16
Speaker 2: I hope they will finish the job. I think the
33:18
Speaker 2: biggest worry I have is because of the midterms or
33:22
Speaker 2: pressure at home, he half does this task and then
33:26
Speaker 2: we're having a conversation in decades time about a reinvigorated
33:29
Speaker 2: Iran back to the nuclear threat. We could already see
33:32
Speaker 2: now basically how crazy the regime is. You know, bombing
33:36
Speaker 2: all of its neighbors. The Wall Street Journal says today
33:40
Speaker 2: that reportedly Trump is open to end in the war
33:44
Speaker 2: without actually reopening the Straight of hor moves. Now, how
33:47
Speaker 2: on earth would that work?
33:51
Speaker 16: Well, I mean, the US would declare the end of
33:54
Speaker 16: this phase. I think would then internationalize this issue and
33:58
Speaker 16: call for countries and in particular their navies to provide
34:02
Speaker 16: a security presence and also to negotiate with Iran to
34:06
Speaker 16: open that passageway. I think the challenge will be without
34:09
Speaker 16: US leadership in the context of leading those negotiations. It's
34:14
Speaker 16: a case in the international system now of every man
34:16
Speaker 16: or woman for themselves. So you've have the Chinese, the Indians,
34:19
Speaker 16: the Japanese, the South Koreans and other powers negotiating for
34:22
Speaker 16: their own national interests and not for international interests, which
34:25
Speaker 16: Australia is highly vulnerable to.
34:28
Speaker 2: All Right, while we're all looking at the Middle East,
34:31
Speaker 2: something's going on. Obviously in Cuba, a lot of reports
34:34
Speaker 2: that the country's crippled, that it will be the next
34:37
Speaker 2: to four What do you think is happening there?
34:42
Speaker 16: Well, I think given what's happened in Venezuela, given the
34:46
Speaker 16: economic calamity that is Cuba. Given the failure on behalf
34:50
Speaker 16: of the Cuban government now to deliver ascension services for
34:53
Speaker 16: its citizenry, and given its proximity to the US, which
34:56
Speaker 16: has a strong interest in the stable and secure Southern approach,
35:00
Speaker 16: I think Cuba hugely vulnerable. I mean, the arrival of
35:04
Speaker 16: that Russian tanker in Cuba today is a demonstration of
35:08
Speaker 16: just how parlous things have become, I mean from a
35:11
Speaker 16: Russian perspective. Also, it just undermines the US effort to
35:14
Speaker 16: secure the Western Hemisphere, which is trying to do through
35:17
Speaker 16: its operations in Venezuela and to a lesser extent, securing
35:21
Speaker 16: and gaining access into Greenland. So Cuba is in a
35:25
Speaker 16: parlor state. It's inside the Western hemisphere, it directly sits
35:31
Speaker 16: above the Southern border, and it's in their interests that
35:33
Speaker 16: it is not allowed to destabilize and become a security risk,
35:37
Speaker 16: but rather its decline is managed and it aligns eventually
35:40
Speaker 16: to US interests going forward.
35:44
Speaker 2: Just a quick one, I mean, given how volatile the
35:47
Speaker 2: world is, and given how I guess mercurial United States
35:51
Speaker 2: is now, we are on paper and ally, but we're
35:54
Speaker 2: not really acting like an lay and they're.
35:56
Speaker 3: Hard to predict.
35:57
Speaker 2: I looked at that report today from the Australian National
36:00
Speaker 2: Lauded Office about the botched procurement of seven billion dollars
36:05
Speaker 2: worth of Australian armored vehicles. Give me your sort of sense,
36:11
Speaker 2: I mean that concerned me. I don't think we're as
36:14
Speaker 2: ready as we should be. I think we've got the
36:17
Speaker 2: assets ready as we should have. I don't think we're
36:20
Speaker 2: looking at drones. I think we're running around on decades
36:24
Speaker 2: old sort of strategic plans. Give me your take on
36:28
Speaker 2: this end.
36:31
Speaker 16: Well, the A and A report really points to the need,
36:33
Speaker 16: which is to deliver that infantry fighting vehicle to our
36:36
Speaker 16: soldiers who are currently operating in a platform that was
36:40
Speaker 16: first introduced into service in the army in the nineteen fifties.
36:43
Speaker 16: So any risk to delivering that platform from twenty twenty eight,
36:48
Speaker 16: as the project promises to do, will affect the mobility,
36:52
Speaker 16: the lethality and the protection of our soldiers and in
36:55
Speaker 16: the ads ability to force project into highly lethal environments.
36:59
Speaker 16: More broadly, so, this program has to work. Whatever fault
37:03
Speaker 16: has been found, whatever risk is apparent, it cannot fail
37:07
Speaker 16: and our soldiers depend on that level of protection. In particular,
37:10
Speaker 16: going forward. The other point I'd make is that many
37:12
Speaker 16: of those platforms and systems will in fact become the
37:15
Speaker 16: key integrator of drones, will become the key component on
37:19
Speaker 16: a network that allows our long range fire systems and
37:22
Speaker 16: our forces to be able to move in contested areas
37:25
Speaker 16: in the future in a way that keeps them safe
37:27
Speaker 16: but also makes the mission effective. So the A and
37:30
Speaker 16: AO report is a wake up call, more emphasis on
37:33
Speaker 16: the part of the delivery agency to ensure those platforms
37:35
Speaker 16: are delivered as rapidly as possible, because our soldiers ultimately
37:40
Speaker 16: depend on that system to work if they stay alive
37:42
Speaker 16: and achieve their missions in future conflict.
37:46
Speaker 2: And a wake up called to the Defense Minister too.
37:48
Speaker 2: He's got to do his day job and watch this stuff.
37:52
Speaker 2: It's not good enough to make an announcements. You actually
37:55
Speaker 2: have to get the implementation done and done right Air Lank,
37:59
Speaker 2: thank you.
38:00
Speaker 17: Right.
38:00
Speaker 2: Coming up, we'll go to the UK mounting pressure run
38:02
Speaker 2: the British PMQ Starma. Illegal migrant numbers are spiking across
38:07
Speaker 2: the Channel and the Brew haha with the Royals and
38:11
Speaker 2: Easter and who's allowed to go and who's not. We'll
38:14
Speaker 2: get to that in a moment, I will get back
38:21
Speaker 2: to the Victoria, the rules and Muradini and the saga
38:24
Speaker 2: about the press selection in a moment with two very
38:27
Speaker 2: outspoken women. But before that we'll go to the UK,
38:30
Speaker 2: where the Labor government is locked in a standoff with
38:33
Speaker 2: France over a new migrant deal. It comes as French
38:36
Speaker 2: officials rejected British demands from measurable targets to stop channel crossings,
38:42
Speaker 2: arguing that they are unrealistic and potentially dangerous. Here to
38:46
Speaker 2: talk us through this and more, Sky News contributor Newscoop
38:50
Speaker 2: Australia's European correspondent, Sophie Ellsworth. Sophie, look, there's a lot
38:55
Speaker 2: on the Prime Minister's played, absolutely, but there's nothing more
39:00
Speaker 2: important in the politics in the UK at the moment
39:02
Speaker 2: then stopping illegal arrivals.
39:05
Speaker 3: Key here, of course is France.
39:06
Speaker 2: The deals about to expire and then it looks like
39:10
Speaker 2: it'll all be back on.
39:14
Speaker 7: Well, that's right, Peter. So Shabanama Mood is in discussions
39:18
Speaker 7: with French officials to try and come to a new
39:21
Speaker 7: agreement to stop the arrival of illegal migrants here in
39:26
Speaker 7: the UK, which includes working with authorities in France to
39:31
Speaker 7: patrol the beachlines, the coastlines along there where. We know
39:36
Speaker 7: that in the start of this year the amount of
39:39
Speaker 7: interceptions has fallen by thirty three percent. They are not
39:43
Speaker 7: stopping the migrants still coming into this country illegally, and
39:48
Speaker 7: now she's trying to come to a new deal on
39:50
Speaker 7: the back of British Schunak's last deal that expires tonight
39:54
Speaker 7: here in the UK. But Peter, the weather here is
39:57
Speaker 7: improving in the UK's you know, we're coming into summer
40:01
Speaker 7: and the numbers are only expected to increase yet again.
40:04
Speaker 7: So this remains a problem that the UK government cannot
40:08
Speaker 7: get a grip on.
40:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to ask you about that, because
40:13
Speaker 2: of course the Channel is difficult to cross in the
40:15
Speaker 2: middle of winter, but it becomes a high traffic season
40:18
Speaker 2: as the weather improves.
40:19
Speaker 3: I've got to ask you. I want to get onto
40:21
Speaker 3: some other things. We're going to ask you.
40:22
Speaker 2: About fuel because it's a huge topic here in Australia
40:26
Speaker 2: in all the British press that I'm reading, and I'm
40:28
Speaker 2: watching a lot of the British news is at night
40:30
Speaker 2: as well. I'm not seeing the same concentration on the
40:34
Speaker 2: fuel this year as I'm seeing here in Australia. Whether
40:37
Speaker 2: that's our geography or whether our proximity the place we
40:42
Speaker 2: are in the world means we're not getting the boats
40:43
Speaker 2: that you perhaps are getting. What's it like there on
40:46
Speaker 2: the fuel crisis? How are the British public responding?
40:51
Speaker 7: Well, Peter, just behind me here in central London, on
40:55
Speaker 7: beside a Petro station behind me here, and the petrol
40:59
Speaker 7: prices on the screen here a dollar a pound fifty
41:02
Speaker 7: two for unleaded petrol and one eighty five one pound
41:07
Speaker 7: eighty five for diesels, so double that to get Australian
41:12
Speaker 7: figures and this is exorbitant. We're looking around very high
41:17
Speaker 7: prices here, record highs in decades now. The government was
41:22
Speaker 7: roasted on radio this morning for saying, what are you doing?
41:25
Speaker 7: Countries all around the world are cutting fuel excises, what
41:29
Speaker 7: are you doing here? And the best that one of
41:31
Speaker 7: the ministers here would say is that we have a
41:34
Speaker 7: fuela that we're encouraging people to look at this fuelap
41:38
Speaker 7: to get the best prices possible. And he was absolutely
41:41
Speaker 7: roasted on radio talk back radio this.
41:43
Speaker 3: Morning over this.
41:44
Speaker 7: The government seem asleep at the wheel here and it
41:48
Speaker 7: seems that the crisis will hit badly here soon. But
41:52
Speaker 7: Sekre Starma, the Prime Minister, has urged the British public
41:56
Speaker 7: not to panic buy and to carry on as business
41:59
Speaker 7: as usual, which quite extraordinary given what we are seeing
42:02
Speaker 7: around the rest of the world, including Australia.
42:07
Speaker 2: Yes, and of course we've got some states here in Australia.
42:10
Speaker 2: Victoria is a good example where they're having a freeze.
42:13
Speaker 2: In the case of Victoria, they're giving away free transport
42:16
Speaker 2: for a month to sort of deal with the immediate
42:19
Speaker 2: after Martha. This are we seeing that in the UK?
42:23
Speaker 7: Not yet, Peter. I mean they're having continual meetings here
42:27
Speaker 7: secure some met with oil company bosses here yesterday in
42:32
Speaker 7: central London, but there's been none of that, and that's
42:35
Speaker 7: why the government are really coming under pressure here. They're
42:38
Speaker 7: saying that there's a five pee discount that's applied to
42:42
Speaker 7: petrol and through until September, which was already implemented before
42:46
Speaker 7: the war broke out, but there doesn't seem to be
42:48
Speaker 7: any new measures in place. It's quite extraordinary, just a
42:53
Speaker 7: quick one.
42:53
Speaker 2: It looks like the fallout from the former Prince andrews
42:56
Speaker 2: now impacted his daughters.
43:00
Speaker 7: Well, that's right, princesses Eugenie and Beatrice will not be
43:03
Speaker 7: at their Easter celebrations at Windsor Castle on Sunday, but
43:08
Speaker 7: Peter is reported they will be welcome at future events,
43:12
Speaker 7: but there is no doubt the King and Queen will
43:14
Speaker 7: not want them in the line of sight on Sunday
43:18
Speaker 7: when all the headlines will be on them instead of
43:21
Speaker 7: the royal family as this crisis with Andrew mount Batton
43:24
Speaker 7: Windsor continues.
43:26
Speaker 2: All right, we'll come back to that next week and
43:28
Speaker 2: dig a little deeper. Sophie, thank you, quick break. After
43:31
Speaker 2: the break, we'll get back to the issues in Victoria.
43:33
Speaker 2: We're a deeming and the implosion of the Victorian the
43:37
Speaker 2: book Party. Welcome back back to Victoria where high profile
43:46
Speaker 2: mp were. Ademi may get a second chance to save
43:50
Speaker 2: her political career after it was revealed a man who
43:52
Speaker 2: won pre selection ahead of her gave a character reference
43:57
Speaker 2: to a pedophile. The big question though, if they reopen
44:01
Speaker 2: the pre selection, will she even want to run here
44:05
Speaker 2: to discuss this. A more former Liberal than Peter cole
44:08
Speaker 2: Flint and Women's Forum Australia head of advocacy Stephanie Bastian Well,
44:13
Speaker 2: Nicole I got to ask a question why would she
44:17
Speaker 2: do it? Ah, She's been battered and battered and battered
44:20
Speaker 2: by the Liberal Party. There's speculation one nation want her
44:24
Speaker 2: to join them.
44:26
Speaker 3: Where will she go? What will she do? What should
44:28
Speaker 3: you do?
44:30
Speaker 17: I would completely understand, and I think all Australians would
44:34
Speaker 17: if Moira decided that she'd had enough of the Liberal Party,
44:37
Speaker 17: Peter and I wouldn't blame her for doing that. If
44:41
Speaker 17: I was Moira, I would be saying to the Victorian
44:43
Speaker 17: Liberal Party division. First of all, I want an unreserved
44:47
Speaker 17: public apology for everything the division has put me through.
44:51
Speaker 17: I want to be number one on the pre selection
44:54
Speaker 17: ticket and I am not going through another pre selection.
44:56
Speaker 17: I've already been through that and there is no guarantee
44:59
Speaker 17: you won't do to me what you've just done over
45:01
Speaker 17: the past forty eight hours. Thirdly, I'd be insisting on
45:05
Speaker 17: a public apology from senior Liberal Party members in Victoria
45:09
Speaker 17: who made the most disgusting and disgraceful social media posts
45:13
Speaker 17: about Mora when she lost pre selection for the number
45:17
Speaker 17: one spot. And if they refuse to apologize, they should
45:20
Speaker 17: be kicked out of the party forever, because enough is enough.
45:23
Speaker 17: We shouldn't be tolerating this sort of behavior, and they
45:26
Speaker 17: are the conditions that I think Mora should be demanding,
45:30
Speaker 17: and if they are not satisfied, I do not think
45:33
Speaker 17: she should run for the Liberal Party. Because on the
45:35
Speaker 17: flip side, Peter John Pisuto, the man who created this
45:40
Speaker 17: entire mess, has just sailed through his pre selection unchallenged.
45:45
Speaker 17: I understand now it was Pursuito who was so scared
45:49
Speaker 17: by Dan Andrews that he made these wild, and as
45:53
Speaker 17: has been found in a court of law, defamatory remarks
45:56
Speaker 17: about Moira that started this entire debacle. He could have
46:00
Speaker 17: fixed it on day one, or you know, even day
46:02
Speaker 17: seven by issuing an apology to Moira, and he may
46:07
Speaker 17: well still be later now if that had happened.
46:09
Speaker 3: Instead, the Victorian.
46:11
Speaker 17: Liberal Party is up for what one and a half
46:13
Speaker 17: million dollars if not more in legal cost to under
46:18
Speaker 17: pin his part of the defamation proceedings. And we've now
46:23
Speaker 17: got this complete mess where one of their best known
46:26
Speaker 17: and strongest performers, Moira Deeming, is facing a horrible decision
46:30
Speaker 17: as to whether she runs for the Liberal Party or not.
46:33
Speaker 3: And I will.
46:34
Speaker 17: Understand if she doesn't. And Peter, I've done a couple
46:37
Speaker 17: of social media posts on this debacle and this disgraceful
46:41
Speaker 17: situation over the past twenty four hours, and I can
46:44
Speaker 17: tell you of about over five hundred comments, ninety eight
46:48
Speaker 17: percent of saying, Moira, you deserve better go and join
46:51
Speaker 17: one nation.
46:53
Speaker 2: Stephanie Nicole makes a very good point there. You know,
46:57
Speaker 2: if John Perzzuto had not been our to pay the
47:00
Speaker 2: debt he ode via the court to more redeeming after
47:03
Speaker 2: he lost the case one and a half million, perhaps
47:05
Speaker 2: even more, he would have been a bankrupt and he
47:09
Speaker 2: would have been thrown out of the Parliament. So the
47:11
Speaker 2: party dips into its pocket to give the loser one
47:14
Speaker 2: and a half million dollars to secure his preselection, and
47:18
Speaker 2: no one runs against him. He gets up unopposed, and
47:21
Speaker 2: the woman who was victimized that the court found was defamed.
47:25
Speaker 2: That woman faces this onslaught at the pre selection and
47:28
Speaker 2: loss to a bloke that within twenty four hours is
47:31
Speaker 2: gone because he wrote a reference, a character reference for
47:36
Speaker 2: someone he knew that was charged and was obviously had
47:41
Speaker 2: admitted to him he was guilty in relation to pedophilia
47:44
Speaker 2: because that is in the reference that the court released yesterday.
47:49
Speaker 2: What does that say to you about the President and
47:53
Speaker 2: the Vice president and the administration of the Liberal Party
47:56
Speaker 2: in Victoria.
47:59
Speaker 1: Well, quite frankly, Peter, if you look at the history
48:01
Speaker 1: of the division of the party, it's been killing season
48:04
Speaker 1: on conservatives and those in the center right for nearly
48:06
Speaker 1: a decade. Moirall wasn't the first case of an MP
48:09
Speaker 1: being bludgeoned in the media. If you look over the
48:12
Speaker 1: last ten years, every candidate from Bev MacArthur to Renee
48:15
Speaker 1: Heath have all gone through this sort of treatment. She
48:17
Speaker 1: was the first one to stand up to it and
48:19
Speaker 1: she's paid a heavy price ever since. This just shows
48:23
Speaker 1: there is a sick culture in the party from the
48:25
Speaker 1: leadership down to have allowed the pre selections to be
48:27
Speaker 1: run in this way. Look at the press over the
48:29
Speaker 1: last few weeks and the lead up to the preselections
48:32
Speaker 1: over the last weekend, the leaking and briefing anonymous senior
48:37
Speaker 1: Liberal sources trying to get rid of Bev MacArthur and
48:41
Speaker 1: Moira and Renee. The whole thing is a disgrace and
48:44
Speaker 1: this is an indictment on the leadership down. Quite frankly,
48:47
Speaker 1: Phil Davis has allowed this to occur. The Chair of
48:51
Speaker 1: the State Seats, Holly Burn, has allowed this to occur.
48:54
Speaker 1: There's been no intervention. They should resign. But furthermore, there
48:57
Speaker 1: actually needs to be a federal intervention because the swing
49:00
Speaker 1: is on against the Liberal Party in Victoria and if
49:03
Speaker 1: the federal election is held in the next eighteen months,
49:07
Speaker 1: they're facing over a six percent swing. Their safest seat
49:10
Speaker 1: is Monash with Mary Aldred at four percent. If something
49:13
Speaker 1: isn't done to root the rot out of the Victorian division,
49:16
Speaker 1: they are going to face an electoral oblivion.
49:20
Speaker 2: And I have to say this to Colin out of time,
49:22
Speaker 2: but I will make this point at you know this
49:24
Speaker 2: all too well. All those women that Stephanie just spoke about,
49:27
Speaker 2: all conservative women. Conservative women are always in the gun
49:32
Speaker 2: at the Liberal Party and that must change.
49:35
Speaker 3: I gree with you, Stephanie. They all should resign.
49:38
Speaker 2: Needs a complete nutter clean out or we'll have just
49:40
Speaker 2: into Alan return in November.
49:42
Speaker 3: Thank you to you both. All Right, that's it.
49:44
Speaker 2: I'll be back on this, I'm sure tomorrow night. And
49:46
Speaker 2: many other things of the Fortier Company's Andrew