Transcript

Sharri | 3 June · Sharri

0:01
Speaker 1: Live on Sky News. This is Sharry Good Evening. Well,
0:08
Speaker 1: wasn't that incredible?
0:10
Speaker 2: Well done to Chang Lay and the entire Sky News
0:13
Speaker 2: team behind the documentary. What resonates with me the most
0:17
Speaker 2: is the unfathomable agony of the years when Chang Lay
0:21
Speaker 2: didn't know if she'd ever see her children again or
0:24
Speaker 2: ever be set free, the psychological torment she went through,
0:29
Speaker 2: the relentless nothingness. And it's really hard to stomach that
0:33
Speaker 2: former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews went to China during that period,
0:38
Speaker 2: as you just saw, and failed to raise Lay's case
0:42
Speaker 2: despite being given briefing notes by defact on how to
0:46
Speaker 2: raise and handle it.
0:47
Speaker 1: And this infuriates Lay two.
0:51
Speaker 3: I am pretty beyond anger, but that does make me angry,
0:57
Speaker 3: but I think perhaps mister Andrews was more worried about
1:02
Speaker 3: his business opportunities after politics.
1:05
Speaker 2: It's really unforgivable and we can see now that sheng
1:09
Speaker 2: Lei was a high profile casualty of the Communist party
1:13
Speaker 2: system that toys with human lives as leverage. Beijing was
1:18
Speaker 2: unhappy with the Australian government's call for an inquiry into
1:22
Speaker 2: the origins of COVID nineteen, a call by the way,
1:25
Speaker 2: that was absolutely the right thing to do, and Lay.
1:29
Speaker 1: Was one of the victims. She was a human pawn,
1:32
Speaker 1: as she acknowledges.
1:34
Speaker 2: But she's not the only one who is still being
1:36
Speaker 2: held captive by the CCP. Doctor Yang heng Jhun is
1:41
Speaker 2: a Chinese born Australian writer and pro democracy advocate, first
1:46
Speaker 2: arrested in twenty nineteen under spurious accusations of espionage. He's
1:52
Speaker 2: a father of two young children, and in a far
1:57
Speaker 2: cry from open justice, he's been dealing with secretive trials
2:01
Speaker 2: for five long years and last year he received the
2:05
Speaker 2: death sentence with a two year reprieve, and so the
2:09
Speaker 2: threat of execution for him looms now. The Albenese government
2:13
Speaker 2: should be doing everything it can to secure his release,
2:18
Speaker 2: but I am worried that the Prime Minister is more
2:21
Speaker 2: concerned about preserving his personal relationship with China than standing
2:27
Speaker 2: up for Yang in the strongest possible terms. And like
2:32
Speaker 2: Cheng Lei, Yang should return to the loving arms of
2:35
Speaker 2: his wife and.
2:36
Speaker 1: Children to our country.
2:39
Speaker 2: We need to urge Albenzi to act before it's too late.
2:47
Speaker 2: It's against this backdrop of a more assertive China that
2:51
Speaker 2: British Prime Minister Kiir Stamer announced bold military plans to
2:56
Speaker 2: bring the UK to what he described as war fighting readiness.
3:01
Speaker 2: He's building twelve new attack submarines, investing billions in weapons
3:06
Speaker 2: and expanding the nuclear powered submarine fleet.
3:09
Speaker 1: Here is Keir Starmer today.
3:12
Speaker 4: Things have changed in the world of today the frontline
3:17
Speaker 4: if you like this here, the threat we now face
3:21
Speaker 4: is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at
3:27
Speaker 4: any time since the Cold War.
3:30
Speaker 1: Now.
3:31
Speaker 2: Interestingly, a UK defense expert, Malcolm Charmers, said that Britain's
3:36
Speaker 2: commitment to build more submarines was not a hedge against
3:39
Speaker 2: total US disengagement, but it can provide some assurance against
3:45
Speaker 2: a scenario in which the US is no longer prepared
3:48
Speaker 2: to export complete submarines to Australia. Now, this is an
3:54
Speaker 2: important British investment and it's bizarre our Prime Minister isn't
3:59
Speaker 2: taking the attitude during this volatile period in global politics.
4:04
Speaker 2: And it comes as new details now emerge of the
4:08
Speaker 2: stunning Ukrainian operation on Russia that hit forty one aircraft.
4:13
Speaker 1: It's like something out of a spy movie.
4:16
Speaker 2: The top secret operation code named Spiderweb, was said to
4:21
Speaker 2: be eighteen months in the making. Ukraine smuggled drones in
4:25
Speaker 2: decoy trucks driven some three four hundred kilometers through Russia
4:31
Speaker 2: by unsuspecting Russians who had no idea what they were transporting,
4:37
Speaker 2: and the drones were then remotely detonated. General Jack Keane
4:42
Speaker 2: said it was a remarkable operation that reminds him of
4:46
Speaker 2: the Israeli exploding pages targeting Hesbelah.
4:50
Speaker 5: The operation is brilliant because the Ukrainians contracted Russian drivers,
4:55
Speaker 5: they drove the trucks, no Ukrainians involved. They contract did
5:01
Speaker 5: Russian containers. They assembled those Russian containers inside of Russia.
5:08
Speaker 5: We can't verify that they were using actually Russian component
5:11
Speaker 5: parts to do that assembly, and there were Russian trucks
5:16
Speaker 5: involved in all of that. There were no Ukrainians involved
5:19
Speaker 5: in the operation on the ground once the trucks left
5:23
Speaker 5: the area where they were assembled.
5:25
Speaker 2: This was a brilliantly executed ambush and the actual hit
5:30
Speaker 2: was of cost successful, but the psychological impact as well,
5:33
Speaker 2: we'll linger far longer. There'll be suspicion over every Russian truck,
5:39
Speaker 2: and enemy military resources will be diverted to examining both
5:44
Speaker 2: drivers and their cargo. But it's also showcased just how
5:48
Speaker 2: effective the use of drones can be. It's a revolution
5:52
Speaker 2: in warfare. As The New York Post writer Rich Lowry
5:55
Speaker 2: pointed out, badly outmanned an outgunn Kun just reached far
6:02
Speaker 2: inside its adversaries territory to destroy or damage hugely expensive,
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Speaker 2: nuclear capable strategic aircraft with low cost drones basically indistinguishable
6:15
Speaker 2: from ones available on Amazon. There's also concern now about
6:20
Speaker 2: how our enemies could be planning to use low cost
6:24
Speaker 2: drone technology in the future, and this is a lesson
6:27
Speaker 2: for all of us. Lowry goes on to say that
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Speaker 2: whoever takes the technological leap ahead in war fighting capability
6:35
Speaker 2: often prevails, while the laggard is left to contemplate his
6:40
Speaker 2: castle reduced to rubble or his fleet sent to the
6:44
Speaker 2: bottom of the ocean. We've seen it now with both
6:48
Speaker 2: Israel and Ukraine. Innovation in warfare and the element of
6:53
Speaker 2: surprise on unsuspecting targets can have astonishing and deeply impressive results.
7:00
Speaker 2: But we need to keep pace with technology. Albanezi can't
7:03
Speaker 2: rest on Scott Morrison's laurels and wait for submarines to
7:07
Speaker 2: turn up in some fifteen years time, and as for.
7:11
Speaker 1: Russia and Ukraine.
7:13
Speaker 2: With the war raging on, Trump's peace talks are looking
7:17
Speaker 2: weaker and more doomed to fail each passing day.
7:22
Speaker 1: This strike was.
7:23
Speaker 2: Zelenski's sending a message to the world that he's not
7:26
Speaker 2: giving up and he's in this to win. Well, for
7:34
Speaker 2: more on that topic and the other big stories of
7:36
Speaker 2: the day, let's bring in now former Speaker of the
7:38
Speaker 2: House bron and Bishop and the Daily Telegraph journalist James
7:41
Speaker 2: willis great to see you both, I mean Bron when
7:44
Speaker 2: it seems Australia isn't keeping pace with the technology advancements
7:50
Speaker 2: in defense, and it seems from the comments we've heard
7:52
Speaker 2: from Albanzi this week that is not too concerned about
7:55
Speaker 2: it either.
7:56
Speaker 6: Absolutely, he has no will to make us able to
8:00
Speaker 6: look after ourselves, none at all. He's far more interested
8:04
Speaker 6: in closing up to the Communist Party of China and
8:08
Speaker 6: distancing himself from the United States, our traditional allies. So
8:12
Speaker 6: there is no determination in this government at all to
8:17
Speaker 6: focus on the defense of the nation, which is a
8:19
Speaker 6: primary responsible responsibility of any government. But we've seen it
8:26
Speaker 6: in other Labor Party governments, not under Beasley, who was
8:29
Speaker 6: a fierce defense minister, but that feeling that will just
8:34
Speaker 6: doesn't exist under this man. He has absolutely no desire
8:38
Speaker 6: to take on the Chinese threat at all, pushes it
8:42
Speaker 6: away is if it doesn't exist at all, and at
8:44
Speaker 6: the same time alienates our traditional allies. What about that
8:48
Speaker 6: comment about Stammer and the United Kingdom today. Oh, yes,
8:51
Speaker 6: he's in another place, he's over there.
8:53
Speaker 1: I beg your pardon.
8:55
Speaker 6: The fact of the matter, we're doing the same problems.
8:58
Speaker 1: Absolutely, of course it is in our region.
9:02
Speaker 2: And this is what is most perplexing James, because we
9:05
Speaker 2: hear from the Prime Minister constantly Richard Miles two, that
9:08
Speaker 2: we are in this very challenging strategic environment. But the investment,
9:13
Speaker 2: and again it's not just the size of the investment,
9:15
Speaker 2: but it's where the money is going towards. It just
9:18
Speaker 2: doesn't match their own ratory.
9:20
Speaker 7: Look, I think the Prime Minister deserves a fair bit
9:23
Speaker 7: to blame here, but I also think we need to
9:24
Speaker 7: blame large parts of the Defense Department who are far
9:28
Speaker 7: too top heavy, have spent a lot of money on
9:31
Speaker 7: bureaucracy and outsourcing. And let's face it, when we look
9:35
Speaker 7: at frigates, when we look at other frontline military programs,
9:39
Speaker 7: the budget's been blown out. We always get promised these
9:41
Speaker 7: projects ten to fifteen years down the track, and we
9:44
Speaker 7: sort of forget about them and wonder if they ever
9:46
Speaker 7: get delivered. There's been a lot of experts that say
9:48
Speaker 7: we need to parry there and start looking at some
9:50
Speaker 7: available equipment right now. But the other issue we've got
9:53
Speaker 7: is that the military's five thousand soldiers short of its
9:57
Speaker 7: operational capacity. People don't want to sign up. I think
9:59
Speaker 7: that's a combination of young people today. I mean, you
10:02
Speaker 7: just talked about Ukraine. When the war broke out, everyone
10:05
Speaker 7: that was of age was sent to the front line,
10:07
Speaker 7: that was fit and ready to fight. But the other issues,
10:11
Speaker 7: obviously how we've treated our soldiers when they've come home,
10:13
Speaker 7: with the Breton Report and smearing soldiers unfairly with allegations
10:19
Speaker 7: of war crimes.
10:20
Speaker 2: We've spoken about this a lot, absolutely, and adds to
10:22
Speaker 2: the treatment of the likes of Heston Russell.
10:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally.
10:25
Speaker 7: And look, I think to be honest, so I still
10:27
Speaker 7: think to this day Ben Robert Smith is part of
10:30
Speaker 7: that as well. If war is breaking out, I would
10:33
Speaker 7: be happy to hide behind someone like Ben Robert Smith.
10:35
Speaker 7: And I know that's an unpopular take, but I think
10:38
Speaker 7: anyone that is brave enough to go to the other
10:40
Speaker 7: side of the world to fight an enemy that does
10:42
Speaker 7: not play by the rules and can do that on
10:44
Speaker 7: six tours, I have some form of admiration for and
10:47
Speaker 7: I will to this day.
10:49
Speaker 3: The other issue is, and we.
10:50
Speaker 7: Have a lot to be grateful for our soldiers, absolutely,
10:53
Speaker 7: and then you know thousands have sadly taken their own
10:55
Speaker 7: lives when they've come home because they've been mistreated by
10:57
Speaker 7: this disgraceful But also a senior member of the Air
11:01
Speaker 7: Force told me recently that the next wave of soldiers
11:05
Speaker 7: and military personnel, they need the maths, wiz whizzes, people
11:08
Speaker 7: that are smart at physics, that can fly these drones
11:11
Speaker 7: and fight from miles away from the actual war zone.
11:15
Speaker 7: So we need to parry there very quickly because, as
11:17
Speaker 7: you say, the rest of the world is doing this exactly.
11:19
Speaker 2: And the reason I spoke about that comment from the
11:22
Speaker 2: UK expert is, you know, the reality is we do
11:26
Speaker 2: have to be able to stand in our own two
11:27
Speaker 2: feet to a certain extent, we can't just rely on
11:30
Speaker 2: the fact that the United States will always be that
11:33
Speaker 2: we hope they will.
11:34
Speaker 1: In ninety five percent they will, but we've got a
11:37
Speaker 1: contribute as well.
11:38
Speaker 2: Now, the Citney Morning Herald had this report today where
11:41
Speaker 2: they described the current parliamentary sitting calendar as lazy. The
11:46
Speaker 2: Parliament will sit for fewer days this year than any
11:49
Speaker 2: other in the past two decades. And yeah we've got
11:53
Speaker 2: the Prime Minister again talking about his wedding, So his
11:57
Speaker 2: parning his wedding today, but he can't seem to plan
11:59
Speaker 2: in parliamentary sitting days now.
12:02
Speaker 1: Independent Senator David.
12:03
Speaker 2: Pocock slammed the fact Parliament won't even sit now until
12:06
Speaker 2: late July.
12:08
Speaker 8: I think Australians want us to be focusing on the
12:10
Speaker 8: big issues and there's more that we can and should
12:13
Speaker 8: be doing as a parliament when it comes to things
12:15
Speaker 8: like housing, costs of living, and none of that's going
12:19
Speaker 8: to happen until the.
12:20
Speaker 5: End of July.
12:22
Speaker 2: The Prime Minister clearly has other things on his mind.
12:26
Speaker 7: The big question I've saved to a last now that
12:28
Speaker 7: the election's out of the way, Have you and Jody
12:30
Speaker 7: said a wedding date.
12:31
Speaker 6: No, we haven't, Mark.
12:33
Speaker 9: We have now had an opportunity to discuss and we
12:36
Speaker 9: have a few options between now and the end of
12:39
Speaker 9: the year.
12:41
Speaker 2: I mean, Bromwin, you know the Australian people have just
12:44
Speaker 2: dealt with months of campaigning. Can't we expect our politicians
12:47
Speaker 2: to get back to work instead of this lazy calendar.
12:51
Speaker 6: Yes, but there are perhaps three points to make. One,
12:54
Speaker 6: he certainly doesn't want to deal with the old Senate.
12:57
Speaker 6: He wants him to deal with the new Senate. Secondly,
13:02
Speaker 6: he wants to bask I think in the life where
13:06
Speaker 6: he can flit around and visit different places to say, look,
13:10
Speaker 6: I'm doing a great job here for you and you.
13:13
Speaker 6: And certainly, of course there's the winning, which will no
13:15
Speaker 6: doubt be part of his spectacular programming for all of
13:19
Speaker 6: us to enjoy it one way or another. So but
13:22
Speaker 6: there's a bright side, what is it left? Sitting? Those
13:26
Speaker 6: means less bad legislation, yes, and that could be a plus.
13:31
Speaker 2: And of course it also means there's a lot of
13:33
Speaker 2: committee work that will go on.
13:34
Speaker 1: I'm saying not that I'm not that fuss fight.
13:36
Speaker 7: I think they're that far in front labor at the
13:38
Speaker 7: moment that like, I mean, what what sort of scrupy
13:41
Speaker 7: to the opposition.
13:42
Speaker 2: It's about them going to work. I mean the Herald
13:45
Speaker 2: did the calculations. It's it's like they each earned five
13:49
Speaker 2: five hundred dollars a day.
13:50
Speaker 7: I mean, I get that, but I also think that
13:53
Speaker 7: any good MP would need to be in their electoral
13:56
Speaker 7: office and serving their own community a fair bit of
13:59
Speaker 7: time as well. I think it's way too short and
14:01
Speaker 7: not sitting into Maybe you.
14:02
Speaker 2: Should do a daily telling investigation where you turn up
14:05
Speaker 2: to the labor and piece of us they are.
14:10
Speaker 6: I can tell you from personal experience the work you
14:12
Speaker 6: do in the electorate that takes a lot of time,
14:16
Speaker 6: and you're.
14:16
Speaker 1: In that office not just nine to five, but longer house.
14:21
Speaker 2: I spoke last night at length about the attack in
14:23
Speaker 2: Colorado when there was just a peaceful rally in.
14:26
Speaker 1: Support of the hostages.
14:28
Speaker 2: Well, now it's been confirmed that Mohammed Solomon is in
14:32
Speaker 2: America illegally from Egypt. His visa from the Biden administration
14:37
Speaker 2: had expired. I mean, James, this highlights the dangers of
14:41
Speaker 2: a loose border system where you have someone who didn't
14:45
Speaker 2: have proper paperwork to be in the country.
14:47
Speaker 7: And Sharry, America is dealing with a fair hangover from
14:50
Speaker 7: what was shocking border control from Joe Biden and the
14:54
Speaker 7: Democrats from every angle, and I think it was the
14:56
Speaker 7: number one reason that Donald Trump won back office sitting
14:59
Speaker 7: on obviously fought hard on that. But we are seeing
15:01
Speaker 7: this not just in America. We're seeing this in parts
15:04
Speaker 7: of Europe, and we're sadly in Australia. I mean, this
15:07
Speaker 7: has been the biggest argument against large scale immigration is
15:11
Speaker 7: the impact that it has on the fabric of society.
15:14
Speaker 1: We have a beautiful.
15:15
Speaker 7: Country, but if people are escaping the horrors of other
15:17
Speaker 7: parts in the world, they need to be leaving those
15:19
Speaker 7: things at the door. And sadly that doesn't always happen.
15:22
Speaker 2: Bro When do you think that perhaps hasn't been enough
15:25
Speaker 2: focus on the values.
15:27
Speaker 1: It's not so much where people.
15:28
Speaker 2: Come from, but whether they hold our democratic values.
15:32
Speaker 6: Yes, I think that's vicy important and should be considered
15:35
Speaker 6: when we think about who can come into the country.
15:38
Speaker 6: But more importantly what's happening is is that this anti
15:41
Speaker 6: semitism is becoming acceptable to a degree. It is being
15:46
Speaker 6: tolerated in societies in America here where universities seem to
15:52
Speaker 6: be tolerating it. Now, once you've got that occurring, you
15:56
Speaker 6: get these outbreaks of these sorts of people who came
15:58
Speaker 6: out it with this absolute violence because they think there's
16:02
Speaker 6: some backing for me and the cause that he says
16:05
Speaker 6: he's supporting. Always remember that NASA invited XSS people from Germany,
16:13
Speaker 6: Nazi Germany after the war to come to Cairo to
16:17
Speaker 6: help him fight against the establishment of the Jewish state.
16:20
Speaker 6: So it's been a long long time festering and it
16:24
Speaker 6: has to be strongly refuted at every single time you
16:28
Speaker 6: can think about it and remember that when you look
16:31
Speaker 6: at the universities that allow these things to occur, remember
16:35
Speaker 6: that one of the first things when Hitler won office
16:38
Speaker 6: in nineteen thirty three was to send his instrument straight
16:41
Speaker 6: to the universities to say this is the policy, no
16:44
Speaker 6: Jewish professors or lecturers allowed, and get rid of the.
16:48
Speaker 1: Student brainwashing of the young. Absolutely. I think there's also
16:52
Speaker 1: as I spoke.
16:53
Speaker 2: About last night, and I'm going to all of it again,
16:55
Speaker 2: but serious concerns now about how this free Palestine move
17:00
Speaker 2: meant is excusing and justifying violence and murder against Jews,
17:05
Speaker 2: and it's just got to stop now. The Prime Minister
17:08
Speaker 2: has suggested he's open to working with a coalition to
17:11
Speaker 2: pass Labour's super tax.
17:14
Speaker 9: Have a look if the signal from the coalition is
17:19
Speaker 9: across the board. I'm not talking specifically here that they
17:23
Speaker 9: will be more constructive and not just be part of
17:28
Speaker 9: a coalition with the Greens Party, then that would be.
17:32
Speaker 2: Welcome and it comes after Deputy Liberal Leader Ted O'Brien
17:37
Speaker 2: had this to say on My show last night. Wouldn't
17:40
Speaker 2: the coalition supporting the supertax indicate that the coalition does
17:44
Speaker 2: support higher taxes and wasn't this one of the issues
17:47
Speaker 2: that the coalition had during the election campaign.
17:53
Speaker 7: Well, look, if Labor did walk away from the components
17:57
Speaker 7: of its current measure, Shari, it would depend on what
17:59
Speaker 7: they put on the table for discussion.
18:03
Speaker 2: So James, I mean clearly the coalition position is that
18:07
Speaker 2: the unrealized capital gains, the tax on unrealized capital gains
18:11
Speaker 2: is the most egregious. But there would be a lot
18:15
Speaker 2: of pushback from coalition support. Is if they do end
18:17
Speaker 2: up supporting the super attacks.
18:19
Speaker 7: Well, I would say it's against liberal values to be
18:21
Speaker 7: supporting anything close to this and for someone to work
18:24
Speaker 7: their entire life and decide, you know, if they're halfway
18:27
Speaker 7: through their working life to have decided to invest heavily
18:30
Speaker 7: in super like my mum and dad did. All their
18:32
Speaker 7: money is in superannuation to allow any changes to that,
18:37
Speaker 7: like we all know, it's the beginning of what could
18:39
Speaker 7: be two point five million dollars or two million dollars
18:42
Speaker 7: or then suddenly it's on, you know, the next step.
18:44
Speaker 7: And so my take on last night is I think
18:47
Speaker 7: Ted O'Brien's got some work to do in his new role,
18:50
Speaker 7: and I think he was a pretty effective Energy Minister.
18:52
Speaker 7: But in regards to that Treasury step up, they've got
18:55
Speaker 7: to get this right. And I don't think and I'm
18:57
Speaker 7: sure I hope Browin would agree. I don't think the
19:00
Speaker 7: Liberal Party should be going anywhere near supporting them.
19:02
Speaker 1: Well, what do you think from it?
19:03
Speaker 6: I agree with you, James. I mean the fundamental error
19:06
Speaker 6: that was made right at the beginning of the campaign
19:08
Speaker 6: is when the Liberal Party said that they were going
19:11
Speaker 6: to oppose the tax cuts the coalition, and the Liberal
19:15
Speaker 6: Party in particular is always the party of lower taxes,
19:18
Speaker 6: So this is going that same route in my view,
19:22
Speaker 6: and I don't think they should. I've said that, yes,
19:25
Speaker 6: split the discussion on the proposal by the mister Chalmers
19:30
Speaker 6: into the tax on the over three million dollar balances,
19:35
Speaker 6: and the pernicious proposal took place a tax on realized
19:41
Speaker 6: capital gains but that does not mean you support one
19:45
Speaker 6: if you eliminate the other. The important thing here is,
19:48
Speaker 6: and I went around campaigning on this issue during the
19:51
Speaker 6: campaign when I was invited to go and do so,
19:54
Speaker 6: and I was absolutely livid that it wasn't front and
19:57
Speaker 6: center of the whole campaign because it was.
20:00
Speaker 1: That's exactly the.
20:00
Speaker 6: Same sort of measure that was put up in twenty
20:03
Speaker 6: nineteen when we argued against the pernicious attitude on frankin
20:09
Speaker 6: credits and so on.
20:10
Speaker 1: Negative hearing that, well, a negative.
20:12
Speaker 2: Here just the very principle of taxing unrealized capita.
20:15
Speaker 1: It is off the page.
20:17
Speaker 2: Yah, just out of time, and I just quickly want
20:20
Speaker 2: to get you, James about New Southewest Premier Chris Min's
20:24
Speaker 2: warnings today about the tobacco tax and he's concerned that
20:28
Speaker 2: it's boosting the black market.
20:30
Speaker 7: Yeah. Well, if the Treasury was fired income about money
20:33
Speaker 7: and they want to start looking at other avenues like superannuation,
20:36
Speaker 7: they need to look at the tobacco excise. In twenty nineteen,
20:38
Speaker 7: twenty twenty, it was worth sixteen billion.
20:40
Speaker 1: Dollars, a record. They have now put it up.
20:43
Speaker 7: Incrementally every year since they're this year it will be
20:45
Speaker 7: worth seven billion dollars, so half of what it was
20:48
Speaker 7: in twenty nineteen twenty twenty. In the last five years,
20:51
Speaker 7: the number of tobacconists in New South Wales has grown
20:54
Speaker 7: by five thousand from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand. We
20:58
Speaker 7: discovered today and Chris Mins is electric of Cogra, there
21:00
Speaker 7: are six tobacconists within four hundred meters of the front door.
21:04
Speaker 7: In Alberanese's electorate. There are three hundred tobacconists orree hundred
21:10
Speaker 7: registered businesses that can sell tobacco. There's been a shocking
21:13
Speaker 7: compliance issue, but we need a full scale and I
21:16
Speaker 7: don't want to blame police, but we need police involved
21:19
Speaker 7: here door to door. And also the government needs to
21:21
Speaker 7: lower the excise because we're missing out on this money
21:24
Speaker 7: by pricing people out of the market.
21:26
Speaker 1: All right, James Willis, b'm a bishop. Great to see,
21:28
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you.
21:30
Speaker 2: Coming up after the break, the latest details in the
21:32
Speaker 2: case that's captivated.
21:34
Speaker 1: Our nation, the death Cap Mushroom trial.
21:37
Speaker 2: What exactly has Aaron Patterson admitted in the witness box
21:41
Speaker 2: today we'll get the details with Allie Dudley next. Well,
21:50
Speaker 2: let's turn to the court case that's taken the nation
21:52
Speaker 2: by storm. Accused killer Aaron Patterson returned to the witness
21:56
Speaker 2: box today to give evidence. She's of course charged with
21:59
Speaker 2: the murder of her parents in law, Don and Gail Patterson,
22:03
Speaker 2: and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson. She's also charged with the
22:06
Speaker 2: attempted murder of Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, who miraculously survived.
22:12
Speaker 2: With the attention on this case, it was a packed
22:15
Speaker 2: courtroom today, even cues outside onlookers desperate to secure a seat,
22:21
Speaker 2: and the evidence was gripping. The Australian's I Legal Affairs
22:24
Speaker 2: correspondent Ellie Dudley was there and she joins me now
22:27
Speaker 2: from molwell In Regional Victoria. Ellie, great to see you.
22:31
Speaker 2: So what were the main takeaways from Erin's evidence today?
22:36
Speaker 1: Good to see you, Sherry.
22:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
22:37
Speaker 10: As you mentioned, this was the second day of evidence
22:41
Speaker 10: from Aaron Patterson. She was called by her defense counsel
22:44
Speaker 10: Colin Mandy yesterday.
22:46
Speaker 1: And she was asked a variety of things.
22:48
Speaker 10: She was asked about her relationships with her alleged victims.
22:52
Speaker 10: She was asked about her relationships with a bunch of
22:54
Speaker 10: online friends that she befriended through true crime Facebook groups
22:58
Speaker 10: and she was asked about mushrooms, which of course go
23:00
Speaker 10: to the center the heart of this case.
23:04
Speaker 2: So in her evidence she admitted that she did indeed
23:07
Speaker 2: forage and eat mushrooms, and she even accepted that the
23:10
Speaker 2: meal she served contained death cat mushrooms.
23:14
Speaker 1: So what does this mean for the trial?
23:18
Speaker 10: So this is the first time that we've heard from
23:21
Speaker 10: Aaron Patterson. We've heard her admit that she foraged for mushrooms.
23:25
Speaker 10: Earlier in the trial, we heard in her police interview
23:27
Speaker 10: that she told police that she had never foraged for mushrooms.
23:31
Speaker 10: But today the evidence that she gave was that she
23:34
Speaker 10: gained an interest in mushrooms during the COVID lockdowns. She
23:36
Speaker 10: would go to the gardens, the local gardens with her
23:39
Speaker 10: kids and she looked at mushrooms. She eventually started finding
23:42
Speaker 10: mushrooms on her property and then after learning a bit
23:45
Speaker 10: more about them and educating herself about mushrooms, she started
23:48
Speaker 10: cooking them in a little bit of butter, eating them
23:50
Speaker 10: and feeding them to her children. So quite consequential evidence
23:54
Speaker 10: for this case that has mushrooms. So at the center
23:57
Speaker 10: of it. Aaron Patterson has of course pleaded not guilty
24:00
Speaker 10: too deliberately feeding deaf cat mushrooms to her lunch guests.
24:05
Speaker 10: But today she did accept that deaf cat mushrooms were
24:08
Speaker 10: in the beef wellington.
24:09
Speaker 1: That she served.
24:11
Speaker 2: She also told the jury that she had body image
24:13
Speaker 2: issues and spoke about how she tried every diet under
24:17
Speaker 2: the sun, and she went to the extreme of barely
24:19
Speaker 2: eating and then binging. Ellie, what was the point of
24:23
Speaker 2: this revelation to the case? Why speak about this?
24:28
Speaker 10: We're not quite sure exactly what the point of this
24:30
Speaker 10: evidence is yet sharing, but she did get quite she
24:34
Speaker 10: got a bit emotional, and she spoke as she spoke
24:36
Speaker 10: about these body image issues that she had. She spoke
24:40
Speaker 10: about her mother weighing her as a child. She spoke
24:43
Speaker 10: about these private, unhealthy eating habits that she had, that
24:46
Speaker 10: she would binge and then bring up the food that
24:49
Speaker 10: she had binged. She said that it would be while
24:51
Speaker 10: her husband was a worker, her children were at school,
24:53
Speaker 10: and she said that she no one ever knew about
24:56
Speaker 10: it until now when obviously everybody knows about it.
25:00
Speaker 2: Interesting evidence, and of course her evidence will continue tomorrow.
25:06
Speaker 10: Yes, it will continue tomorrow, So she'll continue giving her
25:08
Speaker 10: evidence in chief and then at some point the prosecution
25:11
Speaker 10: will cross examine her.
25:13
Speaker 2: All right, Well, Ellie Dudley, you're reporting in the Australian
25:15
Speaker 2: is gripping. You've got one of the rare seats in
25:19
Speaker 2: the courtroom given to the media, so will continue reading
25:21
Speaker 2: your reporting. Thanks so much for joining me, and that's
25:25
Speaker 2: all we've got time for today. And now make sure you're
25:27
Speaker 2: watching the show tomorrow at eight o'clock. I can't say who,
25:30
Speaker 2: but I've got a big interview with someone in the
25:32
Speaker 2: Trump administration, So tune in eight o'clock tomorrow night. But
25:36
Speaker 2: right now, stay tuned because Paul Murray is up next.