Transcript

Sharri | 8 December · Sharri

0:01
Speaker 1: Live on Sky News. This is Sharry.
0:07
Speaker 2: Good Evening. In breaking news, there's fresh revelations that Anika
0:11
Speaker 2: Wells failed to declare nine freebies to a list events.
0:16
Speaker 2: This in breach of parliamentary rules. The full story in
0:20
Speaker 2: a moment. The graffiti granny caught on camera by neighbors
0:25
Speaker 2: now breaks her silence with a major admission about the
0:28
Speaker 2: anti Israel vandalism that's coming up. Plus parents prepare for
0:33
Speaker 2: the under sixteen social media ban, and Oprah buys a
0:38
Speaker 2: TV reporter pancakes at bills. So coming up and it's
0:42
Speaker 2: a big show with James Patterson, Ray Hadley, Bronwyn, Bishop,
0:46
Speaker 2: Steve Price and Moore First to Night. Of course, that
0:50
Speaker 2: Anika Wells scandal deepens tonight new revelations that she failed
0:56
Speaker 2: to declare within the required period a string of free
1:00
Speaker 2: tickets to a list events, including the Oasis Concert, the
1:04
Speaker 2: Logis and the AFL Grand Final. The Courier Mail reports
1:09
Speaker 2: this is in breach of parliamentary rules, increasing the pressure
1:14
Speaker 2: on Anika Wells as she tries to survive the scandal.
1:19
Speaker 2: She's now updated her register to declare nine freebies, The
1:23
Speaker 2: Courier Male reports, including the Oasis tickets with her husband,
1:28
Speaker 2: and that's not the only new revelation, with the Ciney
1:32
Speaker 2: Morning Herald tonight reporting that she charged taxpayers almost one
1:36
Speaker 2: thousand dollars to have her chauffeur driven car wait seven
1:41
Speaker 2: hours while she watched the Australian Open tennis final. Prime
1:47
Speaker 2: Minister Anthony Albanezi is defending Wells as questions mount over
1:51
Speaker 2: her expenses and taxpayer funded travel during a cost of
1:55
Speaker 2: living crisis. No less, this is meant to be Well's
2:00
Speaker 2: biggest week as Communications Minister, with a social media band
2:05
Speaker 2: for teenagers taking effect, yet instead she's fronting curly questions
2:11
Speaker 2: about her expenses and fighting to keep her own job.
2:17
Speaker 2: Wells has been under scrutiny since revelations of a one
2:21
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars New York trip to the UN General
2:24
Speaker 2: Assembly six days ago. That was a big story, but
2:28
Speaker 2: it turns out it was just the tip of the iceberg,
2:33
Speaker 2: and what since emerged paints the picture of a minister
2:36
Speaker 2: living large on the taxpayer dime. Not just one trip,
2:42
Speaker 2: not one incident, but a pattern, and she's unrepentant. There's
2:47
Speaker 2: the Paris Mills taking her husband to the Formula one
2:51
Speaker 2: Grand Prix four thousand dollars to fly her husband to
2:55
Speaker 2: the cricket, including the boxing day test twice, nearly nine
3:01
Speaker 2: thousand dollars of taxpayer money as well, so her husband
3:05
Speaker 2: could attend three AFL ground finals with her. Then there's
3:10
Speaker 2: the nearly three thousand dollars for a family holiday in
3:13
Speaker 2: Threadboat and a taxpayer fund a trip to Adelaide coinciding
3:19
Speaker 2: with her friend's birthday party. Now, in particular, on this event,
3:24
Speaker 2: Wells has struggled to explain this Adelaide trip. She initially
3:29
Speaker 2: avoided the question when the Finn broke the story on Thursday,
3:34
Speaker 2: but even by yesterday, after having three days to think
3:38
Speaker 2: about it, she still didn't have a decent response. When
3:42
Speaker 2: Andrew Clanel interrogated her.
3:45
Speaker 3: This looks like a scenario where you want to attend
3:48
Speaker 3: your friend's birthday, so you put a couple of official
3:51
Speaker 3: engagements around it. You wouldn't be Robin Caruso and the
3:54
Speaker 3: world of politics to have done that, by the way,
3:57
Speaker 3: but I put that to you now.
4:02
Speaker 4: I had four official engagements. I visited the local new
4:05
Speaker 4: federal member for Sturt, who had only just recently been elected.
4:09
Speaker 4: We were rolling out of Play our Way program. There
4:11
Speaker 4: which is part of our massive.
4:13
Speaker 2: Producture ours participation program.
4:15
Speaker 3: Did you know about your friend's birthday party before you
4:19
Speaker 3: booked this trip and you booked your meetings?
4:25
Speaker 2: I don't.
4:26
Speaker 4: I can check the timeline for you. But Andrew, this
4:28
Speaker 4: is a work trip. I follow the guidelines. This trip
4:31
Speaker 4: adheres to the guidelines. It was work travel.
4:35
Speaker 3: Would you consider repaying any.
4:38
Speaker 4: Of this, Andrew? I work really hard. I'm grateful for
4:44
Speaker 4: the opportunity to do that. I'm really passionate about the
4:46
Speaker 4: things that I get to do in this job. And
4:50
Speaker 4: I'll continue to follow the rules and follow the guidelines.
4:55
Speaker 2: And this Adelaide trip may be the most damaging out
4:59
Speaker 2: of all the expens If it turns out that Wells
5:02
Speaker 2: dressed up a personal birthday trip as official business, this
5:07
Speaker 2: could be a sackable offense. And this story was a
5:11
Speaker 2: genuine leak from within labor rather than documents supplied through
5:15
Speaker 2: freedom of information or Senate estimates. Now, my colleague Clanel
5:20
Speaker 2: also asked Anika Wells about the taxpayer funded family trip
5:25
Speaker 2: to Threadbow.
5:27
Speaker 3: Did your family go skiing?
5:29
Speaker 2: Yes?
5:32
Speaker 4: Look separate to my work there and my work trip
5:35
Speaker 4: as the sports minister at the Adaptive Festival.
5:38
Speaker 2: Which did.
5:38
Speaker 4: Every parliamentarian has family reunion entitlements, which I followed mine.
5:44
Speaker 3: Did your family go skiing?
5:45
Speaker 1: They did?
5:46
Speaker 5: Right, Yes they did?
5:50
Speaker 2: Okay, I mean, so taxpay is paid for her family
5:55
Speaker 2: to go skiing, a family skiing holiday at taxpirit fends expense.
6:00
Speaker 2: Wouldn't you like that? Well, this wouldn't seem to be
6:04
Speaker 2: in the spirit of the family entitlement's allowance. And then,
6:08
Speaker 2: of course there's the extravagant Paris meals. The five hundred
6:12
Speaker 2: and sixty nine euro dinner equivalent to about one thousand
6:16
Speaker 2: Australian dollars, and then a second receipt that same day
6:21
Speaker 2: for another four hundred and twenty six euros more than
6:25
Speaker 2: eight hundred and fifty or so Australian dollars, and on
6:28
Speaker 2: another day a receipt for a three hundred euro lunch
6:32
Speaker 2: equal to about six hundred dollars dollars. Well, couldn't Anika
6:36
Speaker 2: Wells have paid for her own meals in Paris? Already
6:40
Speaker 2: she was getting free business class airfares and hotel accommodation.
6:46
Speaker 2: There's no benefit to the taxpayer for her and her
6:49
Speaker 2: advisor to drink wine and eat fancy meals. Well again,
6:54
Speaker 2: Andrew Clenell asked Wells about this, and.
6:59
Speaker 3: There was this lunch with your staff are for three
7:00
Speaker 3: hundred and three euros on the twenty sixth of July.
7:04
Speaker 3: You couldn't just grab a biguette at a local partitiari.
7:09
Speaker 4: Sometimes we did, Andrew, and I'm happy for us to
7:12
Speaker 4: follow up with you about what the nature of that was.
7:14
Speaker 4: But honestly, every single meal that I recall, unless it
7:18
Speaker 4: was breakfast at the hotel before we went out for
7:20
Speaker 4: the day, was a working meal. We were meeting with stakeholders,
7:23
Speaker 4: we were meeting people about work.
7:24
Speaker 2: We're there to work.
7:25
Speaker 4: I appreciate it looks a certain way because it's Paris.
7:29
Speaker 2: I mean, Colonel's right, nothing wrong with a baguette, especially
7:33
Speaker 2: in Paris. And as Colonel told Anaka Wells directly, this
7:38
Speaker 2: doesn't pass the pub test. Now. Labor ultimately maintains that
7:43
Speaker 2: all the spending was within the rules, but ministerial standards
7:47
Speaker 2: demand more than technical compliance. The Ministerial Code of Conduct
7:53
Speaker 2: demands that ministers and their staff are provided with resources
7:57
Speaker 2: and facilities at public expense for the effective conduct of
8:01
Speaker 2: public business, but such resources are not to be subject
8:05
Speaker 2: to wasteful or extravagant use and due economy is to
8:08
Speaker 2: be observed at all times, and it is within the
8:13
Speaker 2: Prime Minister's power to refer this matter, or any of
8:16
Speaker 2: the expenses scandals for investigation. But of course Alban Easy
8:22
Speaker 2: thinks that all the spending is fine.
8:26
Speaker 5: So you did approve this, of course you thought three
8:28
Speaker 5: four grand for a flat.
8:30
Speaker 6: We spoke, I didn't get all the receipts, Dave.
8:35
Speaker 2: If the Prime Minister thinks this is fine, if he
8:38
Speaker 2: doesn't have a problem with it, it shows just how
8:41
Speaker 2: out of touch he's become. Now, this is Opposition leader
8:46
Speaker 2: Susan Lee's first major crack at the Alban Eazy government,
8:50
Speaker 2: and the issue is running on the momentum of public
8:52
Speaker 2: outrage and liargesse. The question remains whether it's a problem
8:58
Speaker 2: confined to Anika Wells or if it's a cultural attitude
9:02
Speaker 2: widespread within the Albanezy government. This is no longer about receipts.
9:07
Speaker 2: It's about whether the Prime Minister thinks it's acceptable for
9:11
Speaker 2: a cabinet minister to spend big and take advantage of
9:16
Speaker 2: the taxpayer, like Anaika Wells has clearly been doing. Now
9:25
Speaker 2: you'll recall the graffiti granny who we exposed on the
9:28
Speaker 2: show last week. Well, now she's broken her silence. This
9:33
Speaker 2: is seventy one year old Rose Bay acupuncturist shown A Baker.
9:39
Speaker 2: She's been charged with six offenses for anti Israel vandalism
9:43
Speaker 2: in Rose Bay, in Sydney's Eastern suburbs. As you'll recall,
9:47
Speaker 2: it was the local residence who tracked her down after
9:51
Speaker 2: setting up secret surveillance cameras around spots that were repeatedly vandalized,
9:57
Speaker 2: and he was our reporter. A snippet from it last week.
10:02
Speaker 2: This is one of the locations that was repeatedly targeted
10:06
Speaker 2: with anti Israel graffiti. The neighbors were so sick of
10:10
Speaker 2: cleaning it off that they set up a secret motion
10:14
Speaker 2: camera overnight and this is what they captured. Now, shoon
10:27
Speaker 2: Obaker wouldn't speak to me when I approached her at
10:30
Speaker 2: her home last week.
10:32
Speaker 7: We found her and we filmed her in secret.
10:38
Speaker 1: She was completely unaware.
10:46
Speaker 2: Hi, it's Shari Maxon here from Sky News. Do you
10:49
Speaker 2: have time for a chat. We've got footage of you
10:54
Speaker 2: on camera vandalizing public property. Can you explain why you
10:59
Speaker 2: did this? It so nothing to say there, but now
11:03
Speaker 2: she's done an interview with the Daily Mail where Lucy
11:06
Speaker 2: Manley caught her walking down the street, and she's reportedly
11:11
Speaker 2: admitted to the vandalism, and she says she has no regrets.
11:17
Speaker 2: Shoon Obaker told the Daily Mail and I quote, I
11:20
Speaker 2: don't regret the words I put out. I stand by them.
11:24
Speaker 2: I wasn't thinking of the locals when I wrote those things.
11:28
Speaker 2: I was thinking of the people in Palestine. And it
11:32
Speaker 2: seems her graffiti wasn't a secret either from some of
11:35
Speaker 2: those who knew her, because Barker reportedly told The Daily
11:39
Speaker 2: Mail this. She said, I've had no hard words from
11:43
Speaker 2: family members and close friends. This wasn't a secret I
11:47
Speaker 2: was hiding from them. I had spoken with them about
11:49
Speaker 2: it previously. Well, let's see what shoon O Baker says
11:54
Speaker 2: when she fronts caught on January sixteen, But again, hats
11:58
Speaker 2: off to the local residence who took the initiative to
12:02
Speaker 2: set up the cameras that led to her being identified. Okay,
12:10
Speaker 2: Big show, James Patterson and Ray Hadley coming up, but
12:13
Speaker 2: now joining me Speaker of the House Bronwan Bishop and
12:16
Speaker 2: Sky News host Steve Price. Welcome to you both. Browin
12:21
Speaker 2: Albanzi has been supporting Anika Wells insisting it's all within
12:26
Speaker 2: the parliamentary guidelines. I mean, you've been through this yourself.
12:31
Speaker 2: Do you think Anika Wells is going to have to
12:33
Speaker 2: step down?
12:34
Speaker 8: No?
12:34
Speaker 6: I think she'll probably survive because there's one rule for socialists,
12:38
Speaker 6: there's another rule for everybody else. And I must say
12:43
Speaker 6: that Albanesi's questions on the ABC question shows that he's
12:49
Speaker 6: going to be as normal stick by socialist mates.
12:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you think about that, Steve? I mean,
12:57
Speaker 2: to all of us, this seems like patent. There's example
13:02
Speaker 2: after example. I mean about four new revelations dropping today,
13:07
Speaker 2: most of it being you know, digging from the opposition
13:10
Speaker 2: leader's office, not all of it. Not that thin review
13:12
Speaker 2: story as another example as well. But this is a
13:16
Speaker 2: big win for Susan Lee as well. On the very
13:18
Speaker 2: week when Anika Wells is meant to be announcing the
13:22
Speaker 2: social media band, which takes effect on Wednesday.
13:29
Speaker 9: Yeah, not only that, in eight weeks time she's supposed
13:31
Speaker 9: to be in Milano in Italy at the Winter Olympic Games. Well,
13:35
Speaker 9: you'd think that there is no chance that she could
13:38
Speaker 9: now go to Milan in Italy and go to another
13:41
Speaker 9: Michelin star restaurant like she did in Paris, and so
13:44
Speaker 9: sign the check with yours and my credit card. I mean,
13:46
Speaker 9: this gets worse by the minute. I mean these are
13:48
Speaker 9: reports tonight. I mean there's Bromin Knowses. There's always one
13:52
Speaker 9: of these things that stands out that people go, right,
13:55
Speaker 9: I've just had a blood enough of this. This is
13:58
Speaker 9: worse than I thought. And I reckon keeping a com
14:00
Speaker 9: car waiting for seven hours outside the Australian Open tennis
14:04
Speaker 9: while she sat in there watching tennis and the calm
14:07
Speaker 9: driver was out the front, and that cost one thousand dollars.
14:11
Speaker 9: It's always the smaller ones that obviously get you. I mean,
14:13
Speaker 9: the restaurants are bad enough, that ridiculous fear for three
14:17
Speaker 9: people to go to the un traveling business or first class,
14:20
Speaker 9: we still don't quite know. And then the husband going
14:24
Speaker 9: to three straight AFL Grand Finals costing nine grand I mean, seriously, yes,
14:29
Speaker 9: rewrite the rules. But the person who so obviously flouts
14:34
Speaker 9: them and loves the high life in a week when
14:37
Speaker 9: she's supposed to be announcing major reforms to social media,
14:40
Speaker 9: she's got to go.
14:41
Speaker 6: Surely, I still think she'll survive, after all, Tony Burke
14:46
Speaker 6: has survived despite the fact that he's seeking his family
14:50
Speaker 6: on a first wife to Uraru. That was twelve thousand dollars.
14:55
Speaker 6: Eight years later he repaid eight thousand dollars. And then,
15:00
Speaker 6: of course he took a staffer away on a trip
15:03
Speaker 6: to Europe forty eight thousand dollars and he's still there.
15:06
Speaker 6: Wayne Swann, who took chartered a plane from Brisbane to
15:10
Speaker 6: Bathist to address the labor party function as I did
15:14
Speaker 6: to address the function in Victoria, he's a chartered with
15:17
Speaker 6: seven thousand dollars, never repaid it. He was still there.
15:21
Speaker 6: Mineus five thousand dollars. I repeaid it, So I think
15:25
Speaker 6: she'll survive.
15:26
Speaker 2: But this is the issue. It's a cost of living crisis.
15:28
Speaker 2: Most families can't afford a holiday anymore. They can't afford
15:32
Speaker 2: to travel. Airfares are still high post COVID, and yet
15:37
Speaker 2: she's flying her family a tax bay expense, you know,
15:42
Speaker 2: holiday in s fred boats, flying her husband to a
15:46
Speaker 2: list events, to sporting matches up. I think this really
15:50
Speaker 2: infuriates the public, and what infuriates them even more is
15:53
Speaker 2: to hear the Prime Minister defending it and saying that
15:56
Speaker 2: there's nothing to see here, all right, We'll see where
15:59
Speaker 2: this goes, because it seems like there's plenty more examples
16:02
Speaker 2: to come. Well, after weeks of speculation, as you know
16:05
Speaker 2: by now, Barnaby Joyce has confirmed his joining One Nation.
16:10
Speaker 7: Pauline and I we didn't meet each other yesterday. We've
16:13
Speaker 7: known each other for twenty years. Twenty years, and we
16:18
Speaker 7: did make this decision overnight. It was a very considered
16:21
Speaker 7: decision over a long period of time, and I want
16:23
Speaker 7: to thank Pauline for her persevere and some patience with me.
16:31
Speaker 2: All right, I mean, Steve, that was all a very
16:33
Speaker 2: friendly interview between the two of them for the moment.
16:36
Speaker 2: How long do you think that good relationship is going
16:38
Speaker 2: to last?
16:42
Speaker 1: Well?
16:42
Speaker 9: I watched that interview with great interest on Andrew Boldt's
16:44
Speaker 9: program just before you came on, Charry, and they were
16:47
Speaker 9: standing there together, very chummy chummy. But he answered one
16:51
Speaker 9: question from Andrew to Pauline where Pauline said, look, I've
16:54
Speaker 9: had enough of people asking me when I might step down,
16:57
Speaker 9: when I might retire. I think she's seventy one, seventy two.
17:00
Speaker 9: She said I might go for two more terms, which
17:04
Speaker 9: would be twelve years, because she's a senator. I looked
17:06
Speaker 9: at Barnaby and I thought, I wonder if that was
17:09
Speaker 9: part of the negotiations, that she was going to be
17:12
Speaker 9: in charge until she's eighty three years old and Barnaby's
17:15
Speaker 9: going to hang around as her deputy. I mean, look,
17:18
Speaker 9: the big problem here is for the Coalition and the
17:21
Speaker 9: conservative side of the Coalition that this is the problem
17:24
Speaker 9: one nation surging in the polls. Barnaby going there is
17:27
Speaker 9: only going to make those numbers get stronger. They might
17:31
Speaker 9: end up having the balance of power in the Senate.
17:33
Speaker 9: It's a disaster for the Coalition. I think to lose
17:36
Speaker 9: Barnaby and the fact that he's now done it means
17:39
Speaker 9: that they've got a real problem on their hands.
17:42
Speaker 2: Obviously, it is a problem for the Coalition. But Browan,
17:44
Speaker 2: do you think this is actually a good move for
17:46
Speaker 2: Barnaby Joyce.
17:48
Speaker 6: I think he thinks it is and I think it
17:51
Speaker 6: will bring a power to one nation because he is
17:54
Speaker 6: such a good retail politician. There is a real problem
17:59
Speaker 6: for the Coalition right now, and it is that the
18:04
Speaker 6: old broad Church that John Howard used to speak about
18:07
Speaker 6: has gone and you can see a lot of people
18:09
Speaker 6: wanting their own liturgy. And I am really concerned when
18:15
Speaker 6: you get people like Senator Bragg coming out and speaking
18:18
Speaker 6: like he wants to branch out in a new party
18:20
Speaker 6: of his own, or I just.
18:22
Speaker 2: Share probably at this point.
18:25
Speaker 6: Well, he's a bit like a teal in pants, isn't he.
18:27
Speaker 6: So I just think that that Susan I think Susan
18:33
Speaker 6: ly has been She's had the best two weeks when
18:36
Speaker 6: she started to push the policy and have something to
18:38
Speaker 6: talk about. But the main things that are driving Australian
18:42
Speaker 6: people and they really care about is is that they
18:45
Speaker 6: care about the migration question. They care about the way
18:48
Speaker 6: that it is impeding housing for young people.
18:52
Speaker 2: They care about the way.
18:53
Speaker 6: That schools are too full, that the teachers that are
18:56
Speaker 6: being trained are not quite up to the job because
18:58
Speaker 6: they had to be brought on so quickly, that there's
19:01
Speaker 6: no room in hospitals and people are having to lie
19:03
Speaker 6: on the floor. These are issues which the Labor Party
19:06
Speaker 6: is exacerbating and they're not realizing that people are angry.
19:11
Speaker 6: And this is a question. If Susan Lee can get
19:15
Speaker 6: this one right, it can make a difference. But the
19:17
Speaker 6: other glaring question, and Steve, I know your concern about
19:21
Speaker 6: it too, and that is the fact that this country
19:24
Speaker 6: is facing a very uncertain future in its defense capability.
19:30
Speaker 6: And I say, this is a former minister in Defense
19:33
Speaker 6: that unless we see that there is a need for
19:38
Speaker 6: us to up our spending because we are going to
19:41
Speaker 6: have to fight for our very survival. I think people
19:44
Speaker 6: understand that. And so the three issues of this huge
19:48
Speaker 6: amount of money one point three trillion dollars off budget
19:54
Speaker 6: being spent on rewiring the nation, another trillion dollars of
19:58
Speaker 6: debt sitting on the one and other dits that have
20:02
Speaker 6: been hidden. This government is taking us down the road
20:05
Speaker 6: to ruin and people are starting to wake up about it.
20:08
Speaker 2: There are so many enormous, significant vulnerabilities with this government.
20:12
Speaker 2: But the issue is, and it should be so easy
20:17
Speaker 2: for an opposition right now, but the issue is they're
20:20
Speaker 2: not unified and there's Look, the reality is that there's
20:23
Speaker 2: just not a strong leader that's cutting through to the public.
20:26
Speaker 6: You know, the trouble for the government is going to
20:29
Speaker 6: come from the size of its backbench ninety four. You
20:32
Speaker 6: can almost hear people salivating about an Eka Will's demise
20:37
Speaker 6: so they might get into the job. I'm not surprised
20:40
Speaker 6: you're getting leaks from the Labor Party.
20:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Steve. I mean you mentioned before that one
20:45
Speaker 2: nation is surging and at the same time the coalition
20:49
Speaker 2: is at a record low of twenty six percent. I mean,
20:51
Speaker 2: some of this is just a natural protest vote and
20:54
Speaker 2: it'll come back, but ultimately the Coalition at the moment
20:58
Speaker 2: isn't in a position to hold the government to account
21:01
Speaker 2: despite all of the areas that Bromwin just spoke about.
21:08
Speaker 9: Yeah, and one of the big tests is going to
21:09
Speaker 9: come in November next year when there is a state
21:11
Speaker 9: election in Victoria. Now the Labor government in Victoria has
21:15
Speaker 9: a massive majority, just like Anthony Albanezi does. But Bromwin
21:18
Speaker 9: quite rightly points out that people are getting angrier and
21:21
Speaker 9: angrier and angrier. I mean, you talk about cost of living.
21:24
Speaker 9: Jim Chalmers had to stand up there today and say
21:26
Speaker 9: that the electricity bill relief that we've had three times
21:30
Speaker 9: over three quarters is going to go. So that means
21:33
Speaker 9: immediately people's power bills go up. I mean, imagine poor
21:37
Speaker 9: old Jim Chalmers having to be wheeled out there today
21:39
Speaker 9: to do that. But when you look at cost of living,
21:41
Speaker 9: you look at immigration, and Melbourne is just groaning at
21:45
Speaker 9: the seams. There's so many people in Melbourne now that
21:48
Speaker 9: the infrastructure can't cope, and when you add on top
21:51
Speaker 9: of that a crime crisis. I think that Victorian state
21:55
Speaker 9: election in November next year is going to be a
21:57
Speaker 9: huge barometer in what's going to have happen at the
22:00
Speaker 9: following federal election. And if this Labor government that's been
22:04
Speaker 9: re elected three times down here can get thrown out
22:06
Speaker 9: not win a fourth term, and there's a chance that
22:09
Speaker 9: might happen. Jess Wilson started pretty well, then you're really
22:12
Speaker 9: going to see Anthony Albanizi and his crowding canvas start
22:16
Speaker 9: to panic.
22:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, because they're certainly not panicking now, Steve
22:20
Speaker 2: Price from a bishop, great to see you, thank you
22:22
Speaker 2: so much. All right, well, let's return to the top
22:26
Speaker 2: story today, Anaka Wells engulfed in the scandal and shadow
22:30
Speaker 2: Finance Minister James Patterson joins me. Now, James, thank you
22:34
Speaker 2: very much for your time. We've seen a raft of
22:38
Speaker 2: new revelations in the papers tonight, the Courier, Mail and
22:41
Speaker 2: the Herald. What do you think is now most significant
22:44
Speaker 2: because you know we're approaching what some sort of eight
22:48
Speaker 2: examples over concerns about her travel and expenses.
22:54
Speaker 5: Shary I'm following this story closely, and honestly, I've got
22:57
Speaker 5: to say, I'm struggling to keep up with all new revelations,
23:01
Speaker 5: with all the new instances of Anika Wells gleefully spending
23:05
Speaker 5: public money for her own personal benefit in violation of
23:08
Speaker 5: all reasonable community standards. Have two of those stories you
23:11
Speaker 5: pointed out that have gone up tonight, One in the
23:13
Speaker 5: Courier Mail and other news limited tabloids about how she
23:16
Speaker 5: failed to declare almost a dozen events including the Logis,
23:21
Speaker 5: various Grand finals, and other sporting events oasis tickets. You know,
23:25
Speaker 5: she won't be the first or last politician to be
23:28
Speaker 5: laid on a declaration, but so many in one go
23:31
Speaker 5: really indicates, you know, poor judgment on her part. And
23:33
Speaker 5: then the other in the Herald and the Age was
23:35
Speaker 5: in relation to her attending the birthday party of the
23:38
Speaker 5: late former MP Peter Murphy, which she has charged taxpayer's
23:42
Speaker 5: expense and appears to have concocted some pretense of a
23:45
Speaker 5: visit around it. The problem for her is three other
23:48
Speaker 5: labor MPs attended that same event, and every single one
23:51
Speaker 5: of them paid their own way. They didn't attempt to
23:53
Speaker 5: charge it to taxpayers like she has, so this has
23:56
Speaker 5: now become a crisis. She has become completely engulfed in it,
23:59
Speaker 5: and there's no escaping it except for taking personal responsibility.
24:03
Speaker 2: I mean, you said there at the start of that
24:05
Speaker 2: answer that this is in violation of community standards. Does
24:09
Speaker 2: that mean that you don't think it has breached parliamentary guidelines.
24:15
Speaker 5: I think it's entirely possible it has breached parliamentary guidelines
24:18
Speaker 5: and also has breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct, which
24:21
Speaker 5: is an even higher bar, and I think the Prime
24:22
Speaker 5: Minister should refer it to both the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority,
24:27
Speaker 5: and he should commission his own review to see whether
24:29
Speaker 5: she's upheld the ministeri or Code of Conduct, because both
24:32
Speaker 5: of them require that you spend money, mindful of community
24:36
Speaker 5: expectations of the expense of that money, and be willing
24:39
Speaker 5: to publicly justify it. Now, I cannot understand how you
24:42
Speaker 5: could justify spending one thousand dollars in Paris on a
24:45
Speaker 5: meal and seven hundred and fifty dollars on alcohol at
24:49
Speaker 5: that meal. Nanikoel said to Andrew Clenel on Sunday that
24:51
Speaker 5: she thought she fell asleep at the table. Did she
24:54
Speaker 5: fall asleep at the table because she drank seven hundred
24:56
Speaker 5: and fifty dollars worth of alcohol on taxpayer tab I mean, honestly,
24:59
Speaker 5: this is coming a joke.
25:01
Speaker 2: Wow. Wow, Well, that is a big question that you've
25:04
Speaker 2: just raised there. Let's see if she is asked about
25:06
Speaker 2: that tomorrow, just before we move on to other topics
25:10
Speaker 2: like the Isis Brides, the Threadbow Ski holiday. Do you
25:13
Speaker 2: think this is within the spirit of the family Entitlement?
25:17
Speaker 1: No, it's not.
25:18
Speaker 5: That The vast majority of parliamentarians use the Family Reunion
25:21
Speaker 5: Entitlement to bring their families to them in sitting weeks
25:25
Speaker 5: in Canberra, and occasionally if they're delivering a speech in
25:28
Speaker 5: another capital city or attending a conference, they get their
25:32
Speaker 5: spouse and their children to fly to visit to spend
25:34
Speaker 5: time with them. I think that's what the public would tolerate,
25:38
Speaker 5: although they might think even that's a bit generous, but
25:40
Speaker 5: they certainly wouldn't tolerate, nor should they tolerate politicians using
25:44
Speaker 5: it to pay for family holidays. And clearly, if you're
25:46
Speaker 5: going to Threadbow, even if you have an official event there,
25:49
Speaker 5: if you want to bring your husband and your children
25:51
Speaker 5: with you to that event so that they can go skiing. Then, really,
25:54
Speaker 5: that's a family holiday and that should be paid for
25:57
Speaker 5: at your own expense and not the taxpayers expense.
26:00
Speaker 2: All right, let's turn to the Isis brides, and we
26:03
Speaker 2: broke this story on this show last week that Tony
26:06
Speaker 2: Burke set in a private meeting that he wouldn't block
26:10
Speaker 2: the return of Isis brides. He also asked a Home
26:13
Speaker 2: Affairs official to leave the room for a private conversation
26:17
Speaker 2: with the organization Save the Children, which was trying to
26:20
Speaker 2: repatriate the Isis brides and their families. Now, James, you've
26:24
Speaker 2: been leading the charge in this. You ask questions about
26:27
Speaker 2: this at senate estimates based on a tip off, which
26:29
Speaker 2: is completely extraordinary. You know, what's your reaction to how
26:36
Speaker 2: dawning these new revelations are.
26:39
Speaker 5: Well, Tony Burke should be sending a nice bottle of
26:41
Speaker 5: French champagne to Anika Wells to thank her for taking
26:44
Speaker 5: him off the front pages and frankly also making him
26:47
Speaker 5: look good in retrospect for paying back that money for
26:49
Speaker 5: his own ularu whole family holiday back in twenty twelve.
26:53
Speaker 5: But this is a really serious matter and we're going
26:55
Speaker 5: to continue to prosecute it and pursue it because Tony
26:57
Speaker 5: Burke told the public one thing about his state of
26:59
Speaker 5: NOLED and the government's commitment to bringing back these ISIS
27:03
Speaker 5: members to Australia. But these documents show something entirely different.
27:06
Speaker 5: They show that he was very well versed in the
27:08
Speaker 5: plans to bring them back, that he effectively gave it
27:11
Speaker 5: a green light, that he thanked the charity for keeping
27:13
Speaker 5: it out of the media. That he said that assistants
27:15
Speaker 5: would be provided when they got home, that he said
27:17
Speaker 5: there'd be no blockages to them coming home. And even
27:20
Speaker 5: after all of that incriminating evidence now released on the
27:22
Speaker 5: public record, there are further things he wanted to say
27:25
Speaker 5: in private to this charity without a public servant present.
27:30
Speaker 5: We still don't know what was said in that private
27:31
Speaker 5: part of the meeting, but I think the public has
27:33
Speaker 5: a right to know, and the.
27:34
Speaker 2: Fact that you got to tip off about this shows
27:37
Speaker 2: that there was obviously anger behind the scenes. James. Just finally,
27:41
Speaker 2: I want to turn to your brilliant Senate Estimates interrogations
27:44
Speaker 2: last week. Now you questioned the head of the Public
27:47
Speaker 2: Service on its failure to keep proper records.
27:50
Speaker 5: Have a look, Senator Pocock just told you when you
27:54
Speaker 5: said that public servants are writing things on stickernotes and
27:56
Speaker 5: then losing those stikeynotes, that that's illegal, and you said
27:59
Speaker 5: to him, not it wasn't.
28:01
Speaker 1: I don't have to stick you notice themselves are illegal.
28:04
Speaker 5: Failing to keep records is yeah, but no.
28:07
Speaker 7: That's for I take that, Senator.
28:12
Speaker 3: No, I understand that.
28:14
Speaker 5: I'd be very concerned if the public servants watching this
28:17
Speaker 5: thinking the head of the APSC is sanctifying writing what
28:20
Speaker 5: you really want to say on a sticky note and
28:22
Speaker 5: losing that sticky note, rather than.
28:25
Speaker 7: It's not a practice I've done or I accept or
28:29
Speaker 7: I would.
28:29
Speaker 9: I think it's right.
28:31
Speaker 2: And this reminds me of the Ross Kelly whiteboard scandal
28:34
Speaker 2: in the nineties. Just a quick answer to this because
28:37
Speaker 2: I want to play one more interaction before we go.
28:42
Speaker 5: Well, that's good. Dr Gordon de Brawer. He's the head
28:44
Speaker 5: of this rut In Public Service Commission. It's his job
28:46
Speaker 5: to set and enforce standards for public servants, and until
28:49
Speaker 5: he was challenged, he was basically saying it's fine not
28:51
Speaker 5: to keep records of advice to ministers, which is unconscionable.
28:56
Speaker 2: Another moment involved you grilling Katie Gallagher over a letter
28:59
Speaker 2: d telling the government's five percent cuts across the public service.
29:03
Speaker 5: Have a look, he said, your office contact in my
29:07
Speaker 5: office to tell us that these documents did not exist.
29:09
Speaker 5: But we now have a letter from you saying that
29:12
Speaker 5: you can't release these documents. So which is it, Do
29:14
Speaker 5: they not exist or can you not release them? I
29:18
Speaker 5: would have to check both those things. I think the
29:21
Speaker 5: original thing was a letter. There is no document. There
29:25
Speaker 5: is no document to the letter that you sought. Now
29:29
Speaker 5: love correspondence, correspondence and what form was the correspondence that
29:33
Speaker 5: was attached to the email?
29:34
Speaker 3: The Secretary referred to correspondents being sent from the acting
29:37
Speaker 3: Prime Minister that was in.
29:38
Speaker 7: The form of a letter.
29:41
Speaker 2: Oh, James, not the only time she struggled to answer
29:43
Speaker 2: your questions last week.
29:46
Speaker 5: If Rob Sitch and the Utopia team wrote that in
29:48
Speaker 5: a script for their TV show, they would think it
29:51
Speaker 5: was too implausible and that no politician would try and
29:53
Speaker 5: get away with that. But that's what Katie Gallagher tried
29:56
Speaker 5: to get away with that and actually speaks to a
29:57
Speaker 5: deeper culture of secret an aversion to transparency in this
30:02
Speaker 5: Albanezy government. They promised that they'd be the most open
30:04
Speaker 5: and transparent government ever. But I think we can all
30:07
Speaker 5: now see anything.
30:09
Speaker 2: But yeah, well you did an extraordinary job last week.
30:12
Speaker 2: As always, thank you so much for joining us. Now
30:15
Speaker 2: still to come, Oprah Buys a television reporter, Pancakes and
30:20
Speaker 2: the bushfire disaster. Ray Hadley will join me next. Welcome
30:29
Speaker 2: back and joining me now radio legend, Ray Hadley, Ray, great.
30:33
Speaker 1: To see you, very good to be with you again.
30:35
Speaker 2: We're going to start with quite a sad topic because
30:37
Speaker 2: on the weekend there were devastating fires in parts of
30:40
Speaker 2: New South Wales, including on the Central Coast, where sixteen
30:44
Speaker 2: homes were burnt down and also tragically, a fifty nine
30:49
Speaker 2: year old firefighter was killed when a tree consumed by
30:54
Speaker 2: the blaze fell on him. And Ray, you are in
30:57
Speaker 2: the area of the central Coast, so you are actually
31:00
Speaker 2: able to see the fires from your house.
31:03
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, it's a cooler Wong's a place that hit
31:06
Speaker 1: And for people that don't know, the air at Coolawong
31:09
Speaker 1: is along Brisbane Water from West Gas for de Woi
31:12
Speaker 1: Woi and many of the homes are up in the
31:15
Speaker 1: middle of the bush. But they lost a number of
31:17
Speaker 1: homes down near the railway line, which I would have
31:20
Speaker 1: thought was almost impossible, but that's where many of the
31:22
Speaker 1: homes were lost, and the poor people had no time
31:25
Speaker 1: to gather their belongings. They were just told, look, it's coming,
31:28
Speaker 1: go and some of them grabbed their pets and obviously
31:31
Speaker 1: family members and they made their way out of there.
31:33
Speaker 1: But the most interesting thing there's a place called Fagin's
31:37
Speaker 1: Bay which is on the other side of Woi Woi.
31:39
Speaker 1: And this is remarkable. The fire jumped about a kilometer
31:44
Speaker 1: of a waterway. I mean it was carried by the
31:47
Speaker 1: wind and then it didn't cause too much damage because
31:50
Speaker 1: the fire's got there and put it out quickly. And
31:52
Speaker 1: the poor fellow up but bulletdealer, which is north of Newcastle,
31:55
Speaker 1: he lost his life. And all these people, with a
31:58
Speaker 1: few exceptions of volunteers and the people who have normal
32:01
Speaker 1: jobs and all of a sudden they're part of the
32:04
Speaker 1: rural fire service and they just hundreds of them get
32:06
Speaker 1: called out. And it happens in every state, every territory
32:10
Speaker 1: where these volunteers are there to save homes and saved
32:13
Speaker 1: life and the poor people on the central cases. We've
32:17
Speaker 1: watched some of the vision and a remarkable thing my
32:20
Speaker 1: wife drove that way this afternoon and said it's bizarre
32:25
Speaker 1: and it happens all the time in bushfires. There'll be
32:27
Speaker 1: a house here and a house there, and the one
32:29
Speaker 1: in the middle saved. And they've all done the same thing.
32:33
Speaker 1: They've cleaned the garters and they've made sure that you know,
32:35
Speaker 1: the stuff around the outside of the home is not
32:38
Speaker 1: going to spark a fire. But it's just one of
32:40
Speaker 1: those things that happens, and those poor people are being housed.
32:42
Speaker 1: I think it varies clubs and locations on the central
32:46
Speaker 1: case at the moment, but I wanted to say this.
32:48
Speaker 1: Gurmes Singh, who was recently elected as the Nationals leader
32:51
Speaker 1: in New South Wales, he made the point over the
32:54
Speaker 1: course of the weekend hazard reduction burning three hundred and
32:59
Speaker 1: seventy thousand. Heck, theares were targeted from about July this
33:03
Speaker 1: year has the reduction burning eleven percent was done and
33:08
Speaker 1: then if you go from twenty four to twenty five,
33:10
Speaker 1: it's a bit better. Twenty seven percent was done. Now
33:13
Speaker 1: I'd hate to think that the Rural Fire Service are
33:16
Speaker 1: going into national parks and saying we need to do
33:19
Speaker 1: hazard reduction burning and we need to also make sure
33:22
Speaker 1: the fire trails are accessible for the trucks and for
33:25
Speaker 1: the people to get in there, and someone from National
33:27
Speaker 1: Parks are saying, I know there's flora and fauna in there,
33:30
Speaker 1: you can't go in there and do hazard reduction burning.
33:32
Speaker 2: So much resistance to hazard reduction, and it infuriates the fieries
33:36
Speaker 2: and the farmers.
33:37
Speaker 1: Well it does. And Chris Mens, he'd say if I
33:41
Speaker 1: raised it with him and say, look, they're independent, real
33:44
Speaker 1: Fire Service are in charge. But if National Parks and
33:48
Speaker 1: Wildlife are providing a roadblock to them figuratively and literally,
33:53
Speaker 1: something has to change. Now. It's too late now for
33:55
Speaker 1: this fire season. I remember in two thousand and one,
33:58
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, I started at two G On
34:00
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve two thousand and one, we had what they
34:02
Speaker 1: call Black Christmas. Hundreds of homes were lost. And again
34:06
Speaker 1: that was twenty four years ago. It was hazard reduction
34:09
Speaker 1: burning that you know could have saved the day, doesn't.
34:12
Speaker 1: You can't save it all, and you can't keep saying, oh,
34:14
Speaker 1: the weather wasn't favorable. Not every day is going to
34:17
Speaker 1: be unfavorable. But I have a feeling that someone is
34:21
Speaker 1: styning the Rual Fire Service from doing what they have
34:24
Speaker 1: to do, and that's hazard reduction.
34:25
Speaker 2: Burn such a big problem. It is just onto the
34:29
Speaker 2: Treasurer Jim Chalmers. We saw today that he announced, you know,
34:32
Speaker 2: in a story that would have been massive news any
34:35
Speaker 2: other day, but he announced that he wouldn't extend the
34:38
Speaker 2: rebate for electricity bills. Now we know, we saw the
34:41
Speaker 2: figures last week. There's more than two hundred thousand households
34:45
Speaker 2: across the country that have been unable to pay their
34:48
Speaker 2: power prices as it is, and that's with the subsidies.
34:52
Speaker 1: Well, I think the Treasurer may be listening to the
34:54
Speaker 1: Reserve Bank governor. He may be listening to her finally,
34:58
Speaker 1: because she's on the records saying you've got a curb spending,
35:01
Speaker 1: you've got to reign it in. We can't keep going.
35:04
Speaker 1: I mean, Casnober Bowen's got the energy jumping by thirty
35:07
Speaker 1: seven percent, and so all of a sudden, and look,
35:11
Speaker 1: I take issue with this. The Reserve Bank governor. She
35:15
Speaker 1: has a degree in economics, honors degree. She went to
35:18
Speaker 1: the London School of Economics. We've got Jim Charmers, who
35:22
Speaker 1: has been like Chris Bowen on the public teat his
35:26
Speaker 1: entire life. He worked for Wayne Swan then he worked
35:29
Speaker 1: for Peter Beaedy, or worked for Peter Beady, then Wayne Swan,
35:31
Speaker 1: Morris Emmer, back to Wayne Swan, and he's got a
35:35
Speaker 1: degree and his thesis for his doctorate was on Paul Keating. Now,
35:40
Speaker 1: how's he going to match wits with a woman as
35:42
Speaker 1: distinguished as a Reserve Bank governor. I'm blow off I now,
35:46
Speaker 1: But finally he may have listened to it.
35:48
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll see that it seemed to be coming back
35:50
Speaker 2: spending in any other area. I don't want to run
35:52
Speaker 2: out of time there because I know you want to
35:53
Speaker 2: rip into Annika Wells.
35:55
Speaker 1: Look, I've been observing politicians for four decades, and a
36:01
Speaker 1: lot of them, it doesn't matter, Liberal labor, green in between.
36:05
Speaker 1: They got the snouts in the trough. But what she
36:08
Speaker 1: has been responsible for over the last six to twelve
36:12
Speaker 1: months is just reprehensible. And for that one hundred thousand
36:16
Speaker 1: dollars spend in the United States of America to be
36:19
Speaker 1: approved by the Prime Minister, and now he's backing up
36:22
Speaker 1: and all the other things revealed by Andrew Klannel and
36:24
Speaker 1: all the other things that have been revealed over the
36:26
Speaker 1: last twenty four to forty eight hours. She can't survive.
36:30
Speaker 2: I mean, look, but I agree with you in normal circumstances.
36:34
Speaker 2: But the Prime Minister never sacks anyone. Remember the whole
36:37
Speaker 2: Andrew Giles debacle. He just doesn't do anything. He tries
36:41
Speaker 2: to write it out.
36:42
Speaker 1: You tell me this, okay, when you're a minister of
36:46
Speaker 1: the Crown and you make I mean, it's obscene. You
36:51
Speaker 1: make a comm car driver sit outside the tennis for
36:55
Speaker 1: seven hours because you want to come out of the
36:57
Speaker 1: tennis with your husband who's flying down for Brisbane and
37:00
Speaker 1: we paid for it, and jump straight in the com
37:02
Speaker 1: car because you can't wait five minutes for the com
37:05
Speaker 1: car to come back. It's just a sense of entitlement
37:08
Speaker 1: that I find reprehensible. And she surrenders all right to
37:12
Speaker 1: be a Minister of the Crown based on the elitism.
37:16
Speaker 1: I mean, really, in any other instance, in any other business,
37:20
Speaker 1: if you're a senior executive at a company and the
37:23
Speaker 1: boss finds out you've made a higher car wait for
37:25
Speaker 1: seven hours while you have a few tipples and watch
37:27
Speaker 1: the tenors, and the only reason did it because you
37:30
Speaker 1: didn't want to be inconvenienced when you come out and
37:32
Speaker 1: the high car drobber might be five minutes late. Any
37:35
Speaker 1: I mean, nig really hang your head in shame. I mean,
37:40
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be a leader in the community. And
37:43
Speaker 1: so instead of all the good news about social media
37:46
Speaker 1: and under sixteens this week she's the Minister of Communications.
37:49
Speaker 1: All we've put up with is this nonsense about her
37:52
Speaker 1: thinking she's better than the rest of us, and the
37:54
Speaker 1: Prime Minister going on the ABC of the course of
37:57
Speaker 1: the week and saying, oh, hunky dory, she has none
38:00
Speaker 1: any thing wrong.
38:00
Speaker 2: He signed off in the expenses, he thought it was
38:02
Speaker 2: all fine.
38:03
Speaker 1: I mean really, I mean tady Bert, we had to
38:06
Speaker 1: wait eight years for him to pay eight thousand, twelve
38:08
Speaker 1: thousand bactories much vaunted trip at the wil Aroo. But people,
38:12
Speaker 1: you know, people are sick to the back teeth of
38:15
Speaker 1: this stuff. They really are. And I'm not just targeting
38:18
Speaker 1: Wells or anyone else particularly, but politicians, for goodness sake.
38:22
Speaker 2: I mean, this happens all the time, these scandals. So
38:25
Speaker 2: don't know why none of the politicians learnt. Just very
38:27
Speaker 2: quickly before we go, because I've teased this. Oprah has
38:31
Speaker 2: been in Australia for a few days now, and she's
38:34
Speaker 2: made a big deal about getting out and about and
38:36
Speaker 2: mingling with locals. There was one funny moment though, where
38:40
Speaker 2: she bought Channel seven TV reporter Paul Caddeck Bill's pancakes.
38:47
Speaker 2: Have a look at this for lunch.
38:51
Speaker 1: No, we're back for more Ricarta pancakes. I hope they
38:54
Speaker 1: are still serving.
38:55
Speaker 9: M Oprah insisted that we try them as well, so
39:00
Speaker 9: she's ordered the serving for myself and my camel and Steve.
39:03
Speaker 2: What we didn't expect was Oprah serving them.
39:07
Speaker 1: You can't. Oh wow, thank you very much. Do you
39:09
Speaker 1: have a chair.
39:10
Speaker 2: I'm your server today. This is a very nice of
39:12
Speaker 2: you and life is better when you share it.
39:15
Speaker 1: Yes, race the color for comment.
39:18
Speaker 2: Eh, pancakes.
39:21
Speaker 1: I've never had a Ricotta pancakes and unlikely you've been to.
39:24
Speaker 2: Bills though, of course I haven't. Haven't mean to Bill, No, I.
39:27
Speaker 1: Haven't made the bills. But I'll tell you what the
39:29
Speaker 1: most famous based on Oprah going there and talking about it,
39:32
Speaker 1: and you're talking about it, there'll be a cue.
39:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, the already is tim Buktu to get in there.
39:37
Speaker 2: There already is. So Bill's is the most famous pancakes
39:41
Speaker 2: in Australia. I'm not a big fan of the ricotta,
39:44
Speaker 2: hotcakes or any pancakes.
39:46
Speaker 1: I'm a simple person. Pubs and are as sila my
39:49
Speaker 1: gale okay.
39:50
Speaker 2: And pancakes are it's too fancy.
39:52
Speaker 1: Well, pancakes on the rock so I used to get
39:55
Speaker 1: to as a young blager. They still existing, they are.
39:57
Speaker 2: And I actually went there for my son's six year
40:00
Speaker 2: old birthday because we thought he would like it.
40:02
Speaker 1: Well, you didn't take the bills, No, it took him.
40:04
Speaker 2: To come back somewhere, still going, still with all this off.
40:06
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what before Christmas or Ritter the new
40:09
Speaker 1: y you take me to bills and give me that
40:12
Speaker 1: life experience that opraa.
40:13
Speaker 2: Now feels all right right, great to see us, always
40:16
Speaker 2: thanks and still to come. The under sixteen social media
40:20
Speaker 2: ban takes effect this week. Some parents want more, and
40:24
Speaker 2: Hammas insists they won't lay down arms. We'll talk about
40:28
Speaker 2: that after the break with The under sixteen social media
40:35
Speaker 2: ban comes into effect in two days and Wednesday. It
40:39
Speaker 2: coincides with a movement led by Australian parents that's urging
40:43
Speaker 2: families to delay giving children smartphones until high school. More
40:48
Speaker 2: than fourteen thousand parents from nearly two thousand schools have
40:52
Speaker 2: signed the weight mate pledge so far and joining me
40:55
Speaker 2: now is weight Mate co founder Amy Friedlander. Welcome. So
41:01
Speaker 2: do you think the under sixteen social media ban will
41:05
Speaker 2: work because a lot of parents of teenage kids are
41:08
Speaker 2: telling me that they're already finding ways to get around it.
41:11
Speaker 8: Look showy, teenagers are built to push boundaries and try
41:15
Speaker 8: to get around things, and yes, some will get around this,
41:18
Speaker 8: just like teenagers through the ages have used fake ID
41:21
Speaker 8: to get into bars and have a drink. It doesn't
41:24
Speaker 8: mean there shouldn't be a bouncer at the door. This
41:27
Speaker 8: will definitely make a positive impact and shift the norm.
41:31
Speaker 2: And it might be impossible for teens that are already
41:34
Speaker 2: using the apps, but hopefully the younger ones it'll make
41:39
Speaker 2: a bigger difference. Now the government has cited the negative
41:42
Speaker 2: impacts of social media on teenagers, I mean, just how
41:46
Speaker 2: detrimental is it from all the research you've done.
41:50
Speaker 8: Look, we are facing an absolute epidemic in terms of
41:54
Speaker 8: mental health for our young people. The rates of suicide,
41:58
Speaker 8: self harm, anxiety, depression have absolutely skyrocketed over the last
42:03
Speaker 8: ten years. And gen z have been an absolute social
42:06
Speaker 8: experiment growing up on these addictive apps, social media apps
42:11
Speaker 8: that have taken them away from experiencing life in the
42:14
Speaker 8: real world, having real world experiences, connection, the ability to
42:18
Speaker 8: have relationships, and a normal upbringing. And we're seeing now
42:23
Speaker 8: we have the research that these experiences are so essential
42:26
Speaker 8: for resilience and the ability to function as adults. And
42:30
Speaker 8: so you know, it's just a very exciting week in
42:34
Speaker 8: Australia to be taking a global leading position and declaring
42:39
Speaker 8: these apps as not safe.
42:42
Speaker 2: Now for parents who haven't heard of your initiative weight
42:46
Speaker 2: mate yet, I mean, as I said before, there's already
42:49
Speaker 2: two thousand schools that are involved. Tell us about weight mate,
42:53
Speaker 2: What is it? How is it different? Sure?
42:55
Speaker 8: So, look, we are a grassroots movement that is very
42:58
Speaker 8: focused on empowering parents to delay smartphones for their children
43:03
Speaker 8: until at least high school, but hopefully later into the
43:06
Speaker 8: high school years. Now smartphones are the gateway to social media,
43:10
Speaker 8: but also so many other harmful apps and harmful experiences.
43:15
Speaker 8: When children have the Internet in their pockets, it's really
43:19
Speaker 8: hard to get them to just be present in the world,
43:22
Speaker 8: in their learning, in their sleep, and in their relationships.
43:24
Speaker 8: So what we do at weight mate is we make
43:26
Speaker 8: it easier for parents to say you're not getting a
43:29
Speaker 8: phone because we give getting a smartphone a smartphone correct
43:34
Speaker 8: because we give strengthy numbers in your child's specific school
43:37
Speaker 8: year groups. So parents jump into our website, they pledge
43:41
Speaker 8: that they'll delay giving their child a phone a smartphone,
43:44
Speaker 8: and once at least ten other families in their child's
43:48
Speaker 8: specific school cohort do the same, we unlock the pledge,
43:51
Speaker 8: which means we connect these parents with each other so
43:54
Speaker 8: they can stand stronger together with their people aligned like
43:57
Speaker 8: minded families.
44:00
Speaker 2: Weight Mate was inspired by an American movement. Has it
44:04
Speaker 2: been successful or what sort of impact has it had
44:06
Speaker 2: in the States? Absolutely so.
44:08
Speaker 8: In America, the movement is called Wait until Eighth. They
44:11
Speaker 8: are up to about one hundred and thirty thousand pledges
44:15
Speaker 8: across the US. They've been going for about five years,
44:18
Speaker 8: and a lot of the stronghold for them is actually
44:21
Speaker 8: in Silicon Valley, where a lot of the tech parents
44:23
Speaker 8: are saying no for their kids. There's also movements in
44:26
Speaker 8: the UK such as Smartphone Free Childhood. We're seeing a
44:30
Speaker 8: global uprising against big tech and against a digital childhood,
44:35
Speaker 8: and it is just so hopeful and exciting to know
44:39
Speaker 8: that the future generations are going to benefit from these shifts.
44:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, hopefully it will make a difference. Amy, thank you
44:44
Speaker 2: so much, thank you for having me. Now still to come,
44:48
Speaker 2: Katar and Turkey try to find ways to stop her
44:51
Speaker 2: MUSS from disarming. Plus Australia ranks among the worst in
44:55
Speaker 2: the world for anti Semitism. That's after the break welcome
45:01
Speaker 2: back with Hamas is again violating Donald Trump's peace plan.
45:05
Speaker 2: This time, Harmas's political leader has said that it won't
45:09
Speaker 2: lay down their weapons, and this comes as Israel's Wynette
45:13
Speaker 2: media outlet reports that Katar and Turkey have raised with
45:17
Speaker 2: US negotiators Harmas handing weapons to the Palestinian authority or
45:22
Speaker 2: even storing them in a warehouse. That doesn't sound like
45:26
Speaker 2: they have any plans to lay down their arms anytime soon.
45:30
Speaker 2: And joining me now to discuss his Anti defamation League
45:33
Speaker 2: Senior Vice President for International Affairs, Marina Rosenberg, and terrific
45:37
Speaker 2: to meet you in person because you have been on
45:38
Speaker 2: the show before. I mean, how concerning is this both
45:42
Speaker 2: Katar and Turkey, but also the comments from senior Hamas officials.
45:46
Speaker 10: Well sorry, first, thanks for having me, and I think
45:49
Speaker 10: nobody should be surprised that a terrorist attack, a terrorist
45:52
Speaker 10: organization whose purpose is to destroy the State of Israel
45:56
Speaker 10: is saying that it refuses to lay their arms into
45:59
Speaker 10: this are They don't want peace. They are not fighting
46:05
Speaker 10: for a posting. Instead, they are fighting to destroy the
46:09
Speaker 10: only Jewish state that exists. So we shouldn't be surprised
46:12
Speaker 10: about it. I'm hoping that the international community would put
46:15
Speaker 10: a lot of pressure on Hamas to make sure that
46:19
Speaker 10: they keep up with the agreement that President Trump laid out.
46:24
Speaker 2: I mean, this shows just how difficult Phase two of
46:27
Speaker 2: Trump's peace plan is going to be. You know, we
46:29
Speaker 2: thought the hardest part was getting the hostage as fine
46:32
Speaker 2: and well this is going to be just as challenging. Now, Marina,
46:36
Speaker 2: you're in Australia. You're usually based in Washington, DC, but
46:39
Speaker 2: you're in Australia for the first ever anti Semitism task
46:42
Speaker 2: Force of the Group of the Jews J seven, the
46:46
Speaker 2: world's largest diasporate communities. How's this been.
46:51
Speaker 10: It's been amazing. Australia is a beautiful country. But the
46:56
Speaker 10: reasons that we came, the Jewish leaders from seven, the
47:00
Speaker 10: seven biggest Jewish communities outside of Israel, is to express
47:03
Speaker 10: our solidarity with the local Jewish community who has been
47:07
Speaker 10: suffering an enormous amount of anti Semitic incidents in the
47:11
Speaker 10: past two years. Australia had the highest rise in anti
47:15
Speaker 10: semitism compared to the other J seven countries last year,
47:20
Speaker 10: and we are generally concerned and we came also to
47:25
Speaker 10: ask the local government to do better and to step
47:29
Speaker 10: up to find this tsunami of anti Jewish hate that
47:31
Speaker 10: we're seeing here.
47:33
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for helping to put the pressure on
47:34
Speaker 2: the federal government of the Albaneze government. I don't think
47:37
Speaker 2: they're going to do anything. I mean, you say that
47:41
Speaker 2: the rise has been among the worst in Australia, Well,
47:43
Speaker 2: how do our figures on antisemitism here compare globally.
47:48
Speaker 10: So in other J countries J seven countries. We've been
47:54
Speaker 10: seeing more anti Semitic incidents in numbers, but the intensity
47:58
Speaker 10: and the gravity of violent anti Semitic incidents, including two
48:03
Speaker 10: terrorist attacks that happened, one in Sydney and the other
48:06
Speaker 10: one in Melbourne, is simply shocking. We went to Melbourne
48:10
Speaker 10: to shore souldarity with the Adass Israel Synagogue that was
48:14
Speaker 10: firebombed just one year ago, and we were inspired by
48:19
Speaker 10: the resiliency. But we also want to make sure that
48:22
Speaker 10: something like this doesn't ever happen again. And you know
48:26
Speaker 10: we do global surveys within the G one hundred that
48:32
Speaker 10: shows that almost half of the population in the world
48:35
Speaker 10: have anti Semitic We're out of time.
48:38
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for being here, Thank you enormously,
48:42
Speaker 2: and thanks everyone for your company tonight. I'll see you
48:44
Speaker 2: tomorrow at eight. And his po Mari