Latest / The Bolt Report / The Bolt Report | 12 January

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The Bolt Report | 12 January · The Bolt Report

0:11
Speaker 1: It's the Fault Report. Welcome to the Vault Report. After
0:16
Speaker 1: horrendous weekend for many parts of Australia, from cyclone storm
0:20
Speaker 1: ravage Queensland to the ongoing and now deadly bush fires
0:23
Speaker 1: still burning across Victoria, Steep Price with you this week.
0:26
Speaker 1: Andrew Bolt will be back with you. You'll be pleased
0:28
Speaker 1: to know next Monday coming up tonight. As these fires
0:31
Speaker 1: continue to cause devastation, the usual suspects emerged from the
0:35
Speaker 1: sidelines to blame the natural disaster on, of course, climate change,
0:41
Speaker 1: even while volunteer firefighters who've lost their own homes are
0:45
Speaker 1: still out there on the fire ground. Former Nationals leader
0:48
Speaker 1: and Wogga resident Michael McCormick from the Nationals will join
0:52
Speaker 1: us his take plus his view post Bondi on the
0:56
Speaker 1: proposed changes to gun laws, also tonight, just a month
0:59
Speaker 1: after fifty Jewish people were gunned down in Bondai on
1:03
Speaker 1: Bondi Beach, the pro Palestinian March Mob ignored please to
1:07
Speaker 1: not hold a protest in Melbourne yesterday in the middle
1:11
Speaker 1: of the fire emergency, sucking up vital police resources and
1:15
Speaker 1: chanting globalize the infotata. How can this be allowed to happen.
1:20
Speaker 1: I'll put that to my panel Michael Danby and James Ashby,
1:23
Speaker 1: and with the Prime Minister finally dragged kicking and screaming
1:27
Speaker 1: to hold a Royal commission into the Bondi terror attack
1:30
Speaker 1: and the rise of anti Semitism, we will catch up
1:33
Speaker 1: with the former editor of the Age newspaper, Michael Gwenda
1:37
Speaker 1: and get his view on a divisive cartoon by cartoonist
1:41
Speaker 1: Kathy Wilcox published in his old paper, and I also
1:44
Speaker 1: get Michael's views on what's behind the rise in Australia
1:48
Speaker 1: of anti Semitism. But first tonight, though, it's hard to
1:53
Speaker 1: believe that people could be so obsessed with their global
1:56
Speaker 1: devotion to the idea that climate change is to blame
1:59
Speaker 1: for every natural disaster we have in this country, that
2:03
Speaker 1: way would come out before the ashes are even cold
2:07
Speaker 1: and make some crazy statements. You've got massive trees still
2:11
Speaker 1: burning from the roots up. You've got huge areas of
2:14
Speaker 1: our country still blanketed with smoke, when people are still
2:18
Speaker 1: arriving back at their properties to find nothing left but
2:21
Speaker 1: twisted metal and melted lifetime memories. And while volunteers are
2:25
Speaker 1: still fighting fires and farmers are shooting thousands of heads
2:29
Speaker 1: of livestock. They come out and they say this. This
2:32
Speaker 1: was from a column run in the Nine newspapers yesterday
2:35
Speaker 1: written by Amanda Mackenzie, who is the CEO of an
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Speaker 1: outfit I've mentioned many times before the Climate Council now
2:43
Speaker 1: Mackenzie ms Mackenzie right on Cube links the latest of
2:47
Speaker 1: Australia's deadly bush fires. We've had one man pass away
2:51
Speaker 1: with the use of coal, oil and gas and talks
2:54
Speaker 1: about more frequent, more intense and longer lasting natural disasters
2:59
Speaker 1: her words. It is a repeat performance from this Climate Council,
3:02
Speaker 1: which was I should remind people created by former members
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Speaker 1: of the taxpayer funded Climate Commission that was abolished, thank god,
3:11
Speaker 1: by Tony Abbott in twenty thirteen. It is now funded
3:14
Speaker 1: privately and one of its founding members was one of
3:17
Speaker 1: Andrew's favourite climate change zelots, good old Professor Timm Flannery,
3:22
Speaker 1: who of course once warned us all in the middle
3:24
Speaker 1: of a drought that even the rains that fall will
3:27
Speaker 1: not fill our dams. Of course, what followed were repeat
3:30
Speaker 1: is a flooding rain across much of the East Coast
3:33
Speaker 1: of Australia. But never mind Tim's exaggerated rhetoric at the
3:36
Speaker 1: time saw various state labor governments rush out and invest
3:40
Speaker 1: in multi billion dollar detail plants that never seemed to
3:43
Speaker 1: get turned on. That's another story. But as I pointed out,
3:47
Speaker 1: one of Tim's colleagues, Amanda Mackenzie, was quick to sympathize,
3:51
Speaker 1: as she should with those thousands of Victorians impacted by
3:55
Speaker 1: the worst fires since Black Saturday in two thousand and
3:58
Speaker 1: nine that saw one hundred seventy three lives lost. But
4:02
Speaker 1: just as quickly, Amanda conflated a series of fires it
4:05
Speaker 1: seems caused by lightning strikes across Victoria on Thursday and
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Speaker 1: hot wind and wild winds on Friday that took hold.
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Speaker 1: She conflated it with global climate change. Now I've heard
4:18
Speaker 1: the same knee jerk connections before they came after the
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Speaker 1: New South Wales fires of twenty nineteen and even the
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Speaker 1: Lismore floods of February twenty twenty two. What these people
4:28
Speaker 1: are not so keen to do is look at the
4:31
Speaker 1: infrastructure issues that make these events so horrific, or even
4:35
Speaker 1: to use the history of fire and flood in this
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Speaker 1: country that puts context around today's disasters. Why do they
4:42
Speaker 1: do that obvious because it doesn't suit their argument. Mackenzie
4:47
Speaker 1: even started her piece for The Age and the Sidney
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Speaker 1: Morn Herald by suggesting every time it gets hot her
4:53
Speaker 1: words into the high thirties, which is not really hot,
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Speaker 1: and even forties, she asks herself, how do I keep
5:00
Speaker 1: my kids safe? I'm not joking, seriously, tell them to
5:03
Speaker 1: stay inside and turn your air condition to which I
5:05
Speaker 1: presume you have on. I mean. Then she goes down
5:08
Speaker 1: a familiar route. She writes in that column quote summers
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Speaker 1: are getting more extreme, but the solutions are clear and
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Speaker 1: they are already underway. We need to accelerate them. End
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Speaker 1: of quote. Then she says, first, stop expanding fossil fuels
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Speaker 1: and rapidly cut climate pollution by accelerating clean energy. She
5:28
Speaker 1: goes on and on, even using the line and you
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Speaker 1: won't believe this, She says, I want my kids to
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Speaker 1: grow up in an Australia where summer still means fun,
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Speaker 1: not fear. Wow. Thanks mum. Now, as I said, history
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Speaker 1: doesn't treat this illogical fear mongering very kindly. Forget for
5:48
Speaker 1: a moment that if we in Australia shut down every
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Speaker 1: coal fired power station, ban the use of gas. Make
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Speaker 1: everyone drive an electric car, we would still have bushfires
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Speaker 1: and floods. Obviously, it's Australia, It's where we live now.
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Speaker 1: Just for Amanda's benefit and all those other global warming Zealots,
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Speaker 1: try this on for size. Let's go back to the
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Speaker 1: nineteen thirties of austraight tiny population, not a lot of cars,
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Speaker 1: not a lot of trucks, even fewer planes. New South
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Speaker 1: Wales back then had a day where the mercury hit
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Speaker 1: forty nine point seven in February nineteen thirty South Australia
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Speaker 1: and Victoria had a heap wave. Adelaide got so hot
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Speaker 1: it was forty four point six in nineteen thirty two
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Speaker 1: in New South Wales a town called Tommingley. In January
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Speaker 1: it got to forty nine point four. And fast forward
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Speaker 1: to January nineteen thirty nine, Black Friday in Victoria. Seventy
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Speaker 1: one people dead, two million hectares burnt, thousands of sheep
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Speaker 1: and cattle incinerated, with ash reportedly falling far away as
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Speaker 1: New Zealand. Now what all those events had in common
6:54
Speaker 1: as with the current fires that are still burning in Victoria.
6:57
Speaker 1: Guess what they had in common? It was summer in
7:00
Speaker 1: Australia now be joined in a second by former Deputy
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Speaker 1: Prime Minister National MP Michael McCormack. I'll get his views
7:11
Speaker 1: on those fires, but on what would normally be a
7:14
Speaker 1: quiet summer break political news. Today, the Prime Minister held
7:18
Speaker 1: a media conference in his courtyard in Canberra as he
7:21
Speaker 1: desperately tries to make up lost ground after his inexplicable
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Speaker 1: delay to call a Royal commission into the Bondi terror attack,
7:29
Speaker 1: the worst on Australian soil, we should remind ourselves, and
7:32
Speaker 1: the appalling rise of anti Semitism. Now. He was flanked
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Speaker 1: by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and the Attorney General
7:38
Speaker 1: Michelle Rowland to announce Parliament will be recalled for two
7:41
Speaker 1: days next week to debate and presumably pass what the
7:45
Speaker 1: three ministers called the toughest hate speech laws ever. Now
7:50
Speaker 1: one does wonder why it took the Bondai attack for
7:53
Speaker 1: the government to move after eighteen months of anti semitism
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Speaker 1: in Playing Sight, plus attacks on Jewish business, business and
8:00
Speaker 1: places of worship. But here we are, this was the
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Speaker 1: Prime Minister earlier today.
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Speaker 2: The motion will unequivocally condemn the terrorist atrocity perpetrated at
8:11
Speaker 2: Bondo Beach and commit our Parliament to eradicating the evil
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Speaker 2: of anti Semitism, and I'm hopeful that it can deliver
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Speaker 2: a powerful statement by all members and Senators voting for
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Speaker 2: the condolence motion.
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Speaker 1: He left it to his Attorney General to put some
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Speaker 1: detail around these new laws.
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Speaker 3: The bill introduces an aggravated hate speech offense for preachers
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Speaker 3: and leaders who promote or threaten violence against protected groups
8:38
Speaker 3: or members of groups. There will be increases in penalties
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Speaker 3: for hate speech offenses relating to advocating or threatening force
8:45
Speaker 3: or violence against protected groups or members of groups in
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Speaker 3: their property. It will make racial hatred and aggravating factor
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Speaker 3: in sentencing in a number of Commonwealth crimes. It will
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Speaker 3: create a regime for listing organizations whose leaders engage in
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Speaker 3: hate speech or promote violence or racial hatred. And it
9:03
Speaker 3: also introduces a new racial vilification offense that criminalizes inciting
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Speaker 3: hatred based on the grounds of race.
9:11
Speaker 1: As I said, what's it taken so long? Why has
9:14
Speaker 1: it taken you so long? After the dreadful performance by
9:18
Speaker 1: people with anti Semitism from month after month, year after year,
9:22
Speaker 1: why so long? I mean the opposition has already made
9:24
Speaker 1: the point they have not yet seen any of the
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Speaker 1: detail and they're going to go back to Canberra for
9:29
Speaker 1: two days next week to vote on this. Here was
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Speaker 1: Shadow Affairs Home Affairs Minister Jonathan Dunham, well.
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Speaker 4: I'm not in the business and nor is the opposition
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Speaker 4: of signing blank checks. Again, we haven't seen the legislation.
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Speaker 4: I don't know how many pages it is. We have
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Speaker 4: expressed concerns around the fact that the legislation is bundled
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Speaker 4: up into one piece of legislation and it covers a
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Speaker 4: range of different reforms, the fact that we have had
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Speaker 4: very little consultation in the community, there will be a
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Speaker 4: truncated process to examine these law all through the Senate
10:00
Speaker 4: and other committee processes. All of these things are a
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Speaker 4: cause for concern and.
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Speaker 5: So if we can pass it on Tuesday, great.
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Speaker 4: We've wanted these laws passed and action taken urgently. We
10:13
Speaker 4: will not stand in the way of getting things done,
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Speaker 4: but we want to get it right.
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Speaker 1: To me, this all seems too late to rush, too
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Speaker 1: politically motivated, and an attempt to clean up the mess
10:23
Speaker 1: that labor leaders, especially mister Albinezi himself, had made the
10:28
Speaker 1: reaction to the BONDI shootings, but it does leave the
10:31
Speaker 1: Opposition in a very difficult spot wedged really if they
10:34
Speaker 1: make too many attempts to change that bill. Join me now,
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Speaker 1: our National MP Michael McCormack. Michael, thank you very much
10:46
Speaker 1: for joining me. I'll get to the recall of Parliament
10:49
Speaker 1: and those new laws in a sect, but especially the
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Speaker 1: gun law changes that I know you'll have a view on.
10:55
Speaker 1: But I want to start with the devastating bushfires in
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Speaker 1: Victoria over the past few days, where by some miracle
11:02
Speaker 1: so far, and I call it a miracle, just one
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Speaker 1: life has been lost, ones too many, but only one.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you know on Black Saturday we lost seventy
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Speaker 1: one lives. Can you believe in the pictures you've seen
11:14
Speaker 1: that there's only been one fatality in these fires?
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Speaker 6: Well, as you say, one life is one too many,
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Speaker 6: and we mournful that cattle farmer who has lost his life,
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Speaker 6: and for his family it will be a devastation for
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Speaker 6: them that they will never recover from. But the fires
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Speaker 6: have again swept through country Australia and caused such heartache,
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Speaker 6: such loss, millions upon millions of dollars worth of livestock.
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Speaker 6: Three hundred and fifty homes. I corresponded with Premier to
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Speaker 6: cinder Allen today and I cannot believe that there are
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Speaker 6: looters out there. I cannot believe that there are even arseness.
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Speaker 6: And I appreciate that lightning strikes and other factors caused
12:00
Speaker 6: most of these fires.
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Speaker 7: And we've seen the best of Australians.
12:05
Speaker 6: That those volunteers for the Country Fire Authority from NADAMUK
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Speaker 6: who out fighting another fire came home to see that
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Speaker 6: their house was gone, was absolutely raised in these fires.
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Speaker 6: And so we see the best of Australian Steve, and
12:21
Speaker 6: we also see sadly, unfortunately, the worst of people in
12:26
Speaker 6: those times. And for those pro Palestinian protesters to march
12:31
Speaker 6: in Melbourne yesterday when police resources needed to be elsewhere,
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Speaker 6: you cannot even fathom where their mentality is.
12:40
Speaker 7: Quite frankly, you cannot understand that.
12:44
Speaker 1: I don't know how they look themselves in the mirror.
12:46
Speaker 1: I just noted in that opening editorial their marker that
12:49
Speaker 1: we've got some figures already who are trying to spin
12:51
Speaker 1: this devastation into climate change. I mean, seriously, the fires
12:55
Speaker 1: are not even out, the ashes are still hot.
12:58
Speaker 8: Well, as you said, Australia as a country where we've
13:02
Speaker 8: had so many hot days fanned by hot winds, it
13:07
Speaker 8: does cause fires, and then we have lightning strikes and
13:11
Speaker 8: country Australians know all too well that we have fires
13:15
Speaker 8: and floods and they cause great devastation.
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Speaker 6: What we should have been doing is some backburning, some
13:22
Speaker 6: lessening of the fuel load. And again we'll be having
13:24
Speaker 6: those discussions and we'll learn from this, as in where
13:29
Speaker 6: we have generators backing up. My son in law's parents
13:34
Speaker 6: nearly lost their home in Euroa and we've been on
13:38
Speaker 6: sort of knife's edge as to whether or not that
13:40
Speaker 6: house was going to go up.
13:41
Speaker 7: So I know all too well how anxious people are.
13:44
Speaker 6: And for Amanda McKenzie to write what she wrote in
13:47
Speaker 6: the City Morning Herald, and for other climate alarmers to
13:52
Speaker 6: use this to push their points all too soon.
13:55
Speaker 7: Their timing is terrible.
13:56
Speaker 6: And you know they're just straight out of the Tim
13:59
Speaker 6: Flannery book, Because you said who once? He of course
14:02
Speaker 6: one said that the you know the rivers that never
14:04
Speaker 6: run the dams, they never fall up and fill up,
14:07
Speaker 6: And then you know we were going to get all
14:09
Speaker 6: this coastal erosion. Et C then went and brought a
14:12
Speaker 6: place on the coast. I mean, yeah, just doesn't make sense.
14:17
Speaker 1: We see the best of Australians when we have disasters
14:20
Speaker 1: like that. You're in Wagga, as we know, I've heard
14:23
Speaker 1: already there are trucks on the move donating very well
14:29
Speaker 1: source quantities of feed off the back of trucks. I
14:32
Speaker 1: presume some of your constituents in Wogga would be doing that.
14:35
Speaker 1: I know it's coming from parts of other parts of
14:38
Speaker 1: Victoria as well.
14:40
Speaker 7: Well, they're doing that.
14:41
Speaker 6: And indeed the addlong and Tumber, Rumber and Tumid fire brigades,
14:45
Speaker 6: the real Fire Service a out helping those fires in Wolla,
14:49
Speaker 6: which is not far from here, while whereas just over
14:51
Speaker 6: the river Murray from Gingelic. Gingelic is the southernmost point
14:57
Speaker 6: of my elector, or one of the it's on the
14:58
Speaker 6: eastern edge of my elect southern edge of the electorate.
15:01
Speaker 6: And indeed those Waller fires are still at emergency point
15:07
Speaker 6: and you can see over the river some of the amazing,
15:10
Speaker 6: remarkable photographs at night where the glow of the sky
15:14
Speaker 6: is just red, and that is causing huge heartache. It's
15:17
Speaker 6: also taking a devastating toll on the timber industry. I
15:20
Speaker 6: was speaking to Karlie Portius earlier. She's from the Southern
15:24
Speaker 6: Forestry Hub. They're worried about how they're going to provide
15:28
Speaker 6: for their meals going forward. So there's a lot of
15:30
Speaker 6: people affected and we're certainly not through the worst of
15:34
Speaker 6: it yet.
15:35
Speaker 7: Certainly in Waller, as I say on the southern edge
15:37
Speaker 7: of my electorate.
15:40
Speaker 1: Parliament back next week recalled by the Prime Minister today,
15:43
Speaker 1: what did you make of what you heard about these
15:44
Speaker 1: new hate law changes? And I want to get your
15:47
Speaker 1: view on the fact that the changes of the gun
15:51
Speaker 1: laws are married together in the same bill. What do
15:54
Speaker 1: you make of that?
15:55
Speaker 6: Well, they've put together two days, they've given us seven
15:58
Speaker 6: days notice they haven't which she hasn't as yet. Soon
16:01
Speaker 6: as I understand the legislation, we don't know how many
16:04
Speaker 6: pages as it is. And to pack both the anti
16:07
Speaker 6: Semitism hate speech laws and the gun buyback laws into
16:13
Speaker 6: one bill, they.
16:15
Speaker 7: Need to be separated. They're two totally different issues.
16:18
Speaker 6: I was speaking to my fish and chip shop owner
16:20
Speaker 6: in Wogga Wogga last night. I went to the Australia
16:22
Speaker 6: War Moraile this morning and a fellow pulled me up
16:25
Speaker 6: at the main street to borrow it. Today they're all
16:27
Speaker 6: very worried about the gun laws because our farmers they
16:32
Speaker 6: need guns to read their farms of feral pests, and
16:36
Speaker 6: to lump that in with the anti semitism laws anti
16:39
Speaker 6: Semitism laws, which quite frankly, if the government had been
16:42
Speaker 6: doing his job over the last two years, we probably
16:44
Speaker 6: wouldn't have needed to see anyway if they had actually
16:47
Speaker 6: clamped down on.
16:49
Speaker 7: Some of the hate speech, the vile speech.
16:52
Speaker 6: It was on for full display in Melbourne again yesterday
16:56
Speaker 6: when the police had to babysit them like they always have,
16:59
Speaker 6: like in you know, one hundred and sixth protest stopping business, stopping,
17:04
Speaker 6: stopping Melbourne's CBD.
17:06
Speaker 7: I mean, this has got to stop.
17:08
Speaker 6: So I'm really pleased that the new South Wales Police
17:11
Speaker 6: Commissioner Mount Lanion has extended the protest prohibition in our state.
17:17
Speaker 6: It's a shame to Cinder Allen and her police commissioner
17:20
Speaker 6: and others can't do the same. I know the Melbourne
17:23
Speaker 6: Lord Mayor, Nicholas Reyes has urged that protest not to
17:27
Speaker 6: go ahead yesterday, but it did. They need to stop
17:30
Speaker 6: this and that's where it comes into play. There wouldn't
17:34
Speaker 6: be hate speech. If the judiciary kept our police requests
17:42
Speaker 6: to the forefront, our police, our premiers are requesting these
17:45
Speaker 6: protests are stopping. Yet they're going ahead and they're talking
17:48
Speaker 6: about the global infer Tata, the rivet of the sea,
17:52
Speaker 6: all of this nonsense, which quite frankly, we can't solve
17:56
Speaker 6: the Middle East problems from here, Steve. We can't do
17:58
Speaker 6: it from we can't do it from Swanson Street. We
18:01
Speaker 6: can't do it from Pete Street and Sydney. So I
18:04
Speaker 6: don't understand why they have to take good police resources
18:08
Speaker 6: two away.
18:09
Speaker 7: From what they should be doing, and that is helping
18:11
Speaker 7: out with the fire. So it's a shame on them.
18:14
Speaker 6: It's an absolute disgrace and I don't know how they
18:16
Speaker 6: look themselves in the mirror of the morning.
18:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's shameful. I agree completely. Michael mccormackall, it's good
18:22
Speaker 1: to catch up with you. Thank you very much. Good
18:24
Speaker 1: luck with all the helping out there with the fires.
18:26
Speaker 1: Let's bring in our panel and our joining me from
18:28
Speaker 1: the Labor MP Michael Danby and One Nation Chief of
18:31
Speaker 1: Staff James Asby. Great to see you both. Michael, what
18:34
Speaker 1: do you make of these hate laws? And my obvious
18:38
Speaker 1: question was Why did it take BONDI to happen and
18:41
Speaker 1: the federal government to wait so long to do something
18:44
Speaker 1: about the rise in anti Semitism, Steve.
18:48
Speaker 9: They've got so many laws already, you know. It was
18:52
Speaker 9: up to a private Jewish group to prosecute with some
18:56
Speaker 9: Hadad the Islamist preacher in Sydney under the controversial eighteen
19:03
Speaker 9: Sea law. Why did they have to do it? Why
19:05
Speaker 9: didn't the government do it? Why didn't the government step
19:08
Speaker 9: up when the police had all of those people shouting out,
19:13
Speaker 9: I'm sorry, they were shouting out gas the Jews? Overted
19:16
Speaker 9: a hundred times. It wasn't where's the Jews? And they
19:19
Speaker 9: had had to go and get some vocal coach to
19:22
Speaker 9: say that it was where's the Jews because they would
19:24
Speaker 9: have had to enforce the law, which is incitement to violence,
19:28
Speaker 9: if they'd said gas the Jews. So it was a
19:31
Speaker 9: let's enforce the law that we've already got. I'm pleased
19:34
Speaker 9: if they're doing these hate laws. I hope they don't
19:36
Speaker 9: constrain people's right to free speech, but I just wish
19:40
Speaker 9: they'd enforce what we've actually got at the moment. Stop
19:44
Speaker 9: keeping the peace, enforce the law.
19:48
Speaker 1: James. We've seen clip after clip of Islamic preachers celebrating
19:52
Speaker 1: October seven. I mean Sky's played those clips over and
19:55
Speaker 1: over and over again. No one did anything about it.
19:58
Speaker 1: I mean, why was why didn't the government use the
20:01
Speaker 1: laws they already had to stop those people doing what
20:04
Speaker 1: they would do exactly.
20:07
Speaker 5: Well, because it's a weak government to start with, but
20:09
Speaker 5: also too, they are trying to attract the Muslim vote
20:13
Speaker 5: throughout a number of critical seats held by front bench
20:17
Speaker 5: members of this Labor Party, and to make matters worse,
20:20
Speaker 5: the Liberal Party have been chasing those same votes as well.
20:23
Speaker 5: So it has been a case of, as Michael said,
20:27
Speaker 5: the laws are in place, they are not cracking down
20:30
Speaker 5: on them, and even if they were to, many of
20:33
Speaker 5: these judges are reluctant to crack down for fear because
20:38
Speaker 5: they don't want to be branded islamophobic. I'm sorry. We
20:41
Speaker 5: should have had these debates a long time ago. Government
20:44
Speaker 5: should have been tougher. Media outlets like Sky have done
20:49
Speaker 5: the very best they can to raise these issues, but
20:53
Speaker 5: you know, so many networks are so gagged because they're
20:58
Speaker 5: about losing their broadcast license for fear of the retribution
21:02
Speaker 5: that's taken from some of these groups because, let's face it,
21:05
Speaker 5: they make endless complaints. Your organization and so many other
21:09
Speaker 5: media outlets are forced to sit there and spend days,
21:12
Speaker 5: if not weeks, replying to them. So there's this, you know,
21:16
Speaker 5: there's this fear from media, the public and politicians to
21:21
Speaker 5: say anything about radical Islam for fear of being called islamithabic.
21:25
Speaker 5: That's got to end. One Nation should have been calling
21:27
Speaker 5: it out for a hell of a long time, and
21:30
Speaker 5: finally our words have never been truer after that devastation
21:35
Speaker 5: we witnessed in December last year.
21:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and One Nation's view on these matters would probably
21:43
Speaker 1: lend people to think that The new polling numbers that
21:45
Speaker 1: are out revealed support for the party has tripled to
21:50
Speaker 1: twenty one percent since the last election. Pauline Hanson is
21:53
Speaker 1: self picking up two million votes in that same time.
21:56
Speaker 1: I guess that doesn't surprise you.
22:00
Speaker 5: Those numbers will continue to grow, Steve, We've got some
22:03
Speaker 5: big names coming on board later this year, from February onwards.
22:08
Speaker 5: You're going to see names that people are very familiar
22:10
Speaker 5: with in the public that also back One Nation stance,
22:14
Speaker 5: and the public will recognize that too. We have not
22:18
Speaker 5: been afraid to call out issues in this country. And
22:20
Speaker 5: while the UNI Party as they call them now Labor
22:23
Speaker 5: who are terrible, and the Liberal National Party who are
22:27
Speaker 5: just slightly less terrible, they've lost their way. The Australian
22:30
Speaker 5: public recognize that, and they're turning to people who've got
22:33
Speaker 5: the courage to be able to raise the issues that
22:36
Speaker 5: matter most to the Australian public. That's why our vote
22:38
Speaker 5: continues to grow, and that's why we've also seen a
22:42
Speaker 5: six hundred percent rise in membership. Steve. That's not just
22:46
Speaker 5: people saying in polling results they're going to vote for us,
22:49
Speaker 5: they're actually moving their money, their donations, or I like
22:54
Speaker 5: to call it an investment in a party that actually
22:57
Speaker 5: represents Australia.
23:01
Speaker 1: You've already snared Barnaby. Give us a couple of the
23:03
Speaker 1: other names you're going to have at the end of
23:05
Speaker 1: the year.
23:07
Speaker 5: We're going to have a really hot economics personal announced
23:10
Speaker 5: in April. There's some others in Victoria, one in another
23:16
Speaker 5: very familiar state. I won't give too much away because
23:18
Speaker 5: it might just narrow the field a bit, but yeah,
23:20
Speaker 5: there's some significant names coming on board and people who
23:23
Speaker 5: have typically been conservative voters from the Liberal or National
23:28
Speaker 5: Party will just say if it's good enough for Barnaby
23:30
Speaker 5: and these others to join, you know what, buger it,
23:34
Speaker 5: I'm jump on the fence too, and I'm going to
23:36
Speaker 5: support One Nation, the party that represents the Australian people.
23:42
Speaker 1: Michael, what is that a'll say about the quality of
23:45
Speaker 1: the leadership of Anthony Albanezi.
23:49
Speaker 9: Well, he's a week leader. He leads a socialist left government.
23:54
Speaker 9: It's not a normal Labor administration. People are able to
23:57
Speaker 9: outflank him from the right, pulling hands improved out of
24:01
Speaker 9: sight as a salesperson for her party. I do think
24:04
Speaker 9: we have to be a bit calm about it, Steve,
24:06
Speaker 9: you'd appreciate that we have a preferential system and come
24:10
Speaker 9: closer to the elections, I expect one nation to drop
24:13
Speaker 9: back a bit, but together the two of them. I
24:17
Speaker 9: look at the two party preferred vote and I see
24:20
Speaker 9: Labor falling behind the two of them combined. So if
24:24
Speaker 9: one nation gets a big vote but the Coalition manages
24:27
Speaker 9: to stay just ahead, they could well win on one
24:30
Speaker 9: nation preferences.
24:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, James, I guess that's going to be the point,
24:36
Speaker 1: isn't it. Where the preferences end up Landing.
24:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, and look, all we need is a two party
24:43
Speaker 5: preferred in the sense that it's Labor and One Nation
24:48
Speaker 5: who lead those polls, and the Liberal and National Party,
24:53
Speaker 5: if they're not stubborn, they'll give us their preferences and
24:56
Speaker 5: help us get lower House seats and people elected to
25:00
Speaker 5: to help us down there. As much as in the Senate.
25:03
Speaker 5: I think there's every reality here that we'll see people
25:07
Speaker 5: elected in every state. In the Senate, there will at
25:10
Speaker 5: least be a balance of house scenario. In our upper house.
25:15
Speaker 5: One Nation will certainly hold that in the next period
25:18
Speaker 5: of Parliament, but very well could snatch victory away from Labor,
25:24
Speaker 5: and that may take a coalition agreement between three parties,
25:27
Speaker 5: being the coalition of one Nation. But I'll tell you
25:30
Speaker 5: what I want to see the back end of Labor,
25:34
Speaker 5: and I will do, and so will Paul En Hansen,
25:36
Speaker 5: Barnaby Joyce, Sean Bell, our other elected members, Tyrone Whitton
25:42
Speaker 5: and Malcolm Roberts. We will all work towards getting rid
25:45
Speaker 5: of Labor and we have to unite the right. As
25:48
Speaker 5: I keep saying, all those minor parties who are of
25:51
Speaker 5: conservative value, make sure your preferences come to One Nation.
25:55
Speaker 5: And don't let them bleed to Labor and other left
25:58
Speaker 5: leaning groups. That was just funnel their votes to the
26:01
Speaker 5: Greens and Labor. It's got to work that way. Unite
26:04
Speaker 5: the right. We can get rid of these dud Labor
26:07
Speaker 5: government and bring our country back on track.
26:11
Speaker 1: Michael Danby James Ashbury. Great to catch up with you both.
26:13
Speaker 1: Thank you for helping us out. Coming up, Could Donald
26:16
Speaker 1: Trump and the US really take over Greenland? The Australians
26:19
Speaker 1: Fur and needed at Greg Sheridan will join me to
26:21
Speaker 1: unpack that, plus how the UK could follow Australia's lead
26:25
Speaker 1: with a social media band for under sixteen's. That's up next.
26:34
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Steve Price with you. Andrew Bot will
26:36
Speaker 1: be back with you next Monday night. I don't normally
26:38
Speaker 1: say this, but I'm not really sure where to start
26:41
Speaker 1: with the Australians Foreuri and edd A at Greg Sheridan.
26:43
Speaker 1: There is so much globe or action, most of it
26:46
Speaker 1: as usual, swelling around Donald Trump. We've got Venezuela, we've
26:49
Speaker 1: got Greenland, and we've got Iran. Greg. Thank you very
26:52
Speaker 1: much for joining us. I mean great to be with you, Steve.
26:55
Speaker 1: We're two star. Let's start with Trump though he today
26:58
Speaker 1: commented on that situation facing Greenland is a little bit
27:02
Speaker 1: of what he had to say.
27:03
Speaker 10: We don't take Greenland Russia for China. Well, and I'm
27:07
Speaker 10: not letting that happen. If we don't take Greenland, Russia
27:11
Speaker 10: or China will take Greenland, and I am not going
27:14
Speaker 10: to let that happen.
27:17
Speaker 11: Yeah.
27:17
Speaker 10: Sure, I'd looked at him and make a deal with them.
27:19
Speaker 10: It's easier. But one way or the other, we're going
27:23
Speaker 10: to have Greenland.
27:26
Speaker 1: Is he right? Would Russia China take over Greenland if
27:29
Speaker 1: he doesn't.
27:31
Speaker 12: No, Steve, he's not. I'm in a quite pro Trump
27:34
Speaker 12: mood at the moment. I think what he's done in
27:36
Speaker 12: Venezuela with you, no no. But I try to assess
27:40
Speaker 12: his actions rather than his words. And his actions on
27:43
Speaker 12: Venezuela I think a beneffective and I think he's applying
27:47
Speaker 12: all the right pressure on Iran. I think he's doing
27:49
Speaker 12: quite a lot of good things that are working out well,
27:51
Speaker 12: but his case on Greenland is ridiculous. The Americans have
27:55
Speaker 12: a military pack. They have a military base in Greenland.
27:59
Speaker 12: They also have a military repacked, which means they can
28:01
Speaker 12: put as many military bases in as they want. So
28:04
Speaker 12: there is nothing that he could do if he owned
28:07
Speaker 12: Greenland in a military sense, which he can't do right now.
28:10
Speaker 12: Rare earths, well, it might be so innerals. It might
28:13
Speaker 12: well be about rare earths and minerals and even real
28:16
Speaker 12: estate development. But in that case there's no justification.
28:19
Speaker 1: But it can't be about the defensing position, as you say,
28:21
Speaker 1: because they could just put whatever military bases they want there.
28:25
Speaker 12: Absolutely, and the Europeans are saying that they're very happy
28:28
Speaker 12: to do joint patrols with the Americans across the top
28:30
Speaker 12: of the Arctic and so on. There is not the
28:32
Speaker 12: slightest chance that Russia or China would take Greenland. That
28:36
Speaker 12: would be an attack on a Nate own nation. But
28:41
Speaker 12: that's the thing with Trump. He says so many crazy things.
28:44
Speaker 12: But presumably this is some kind of negotiating.
28:50
Speaker 1: Law deal.
28:52
Speaker 12: Yeah, And I don't think it's a negotiating employee even
28:54
Speaker 12: to finally buy Greenland, but just to get the best concession,
28:57
Speaker 12: because apart from anything else, I don't think the Congress
29:00
Speaker 12: actually let him. I think there'd be enough Republicans who
29:02
Speaker 12: would say, you know, it's all right if you extricate
29:07
Speaker 12: a Latin American dictator, or if you bomb the world's
29:10
Speaker 12: greatest supporters of terrorism on the brink of a nuclear weapon, Iran.
29:14
Speaker 12: But we're going to draw the line at a military
29:16
Speaker 12: attack on a NATO ally. I think that wouldn't work.
29:19
Speaker 1: Venezuela. The president there now, Delsea Rodriguez. I mean, he's
29:23
Speaker 1: declared his overhall of Venezuela's oil industry is quote working
29:28
Speaker 1: out well. He talked today on a Force one about
29:31
Speaker 1: getting fifty million barrels of oil. What do you make
29:35
Speaker 1: of the Venezuela situation.
29:37
Speaker 12: Well, again, it's hard to work it out from what
29:41
Speaker 12: he says. But what he's done is very significant. So
29:44
Speaker 12: he's decapitated the Venezuelan dictatorship. He's taken the dictator out. Now,
29:49
Speaker 12: Maduro was not only a shocking, murderous dictator within Venezuela,
29:54
Speaker 12: he was a key ally of Russia, of Russia, Iran
29:58
Speaker 12: and China and of and the replacement for him doesn't
30:04
Speaker 12: want to suffer his fate and doesn't want further American
30:08
Speaker 12: military intervention. Now, I think the geostrategic dividends will be
30:13
Speaker 12: quite significant, but Trump in a sense devalues that by
30:17
Speaker 12: talking about how much oil is going to get and everything,
30:19
Speaker 12: because that looks that's what the left used to say
30:22
Speaker 12: about the Americans, They're only interested in the oil. Well,
30:27
Speaker 12: you know, Venezuela's oil infrastructure is so decrepit, and it
30:30
Speaker 12: would take tens of billions of dollars for the Americans
30:34
Speaker 12: to really redevelop that. They can buy Venezuelan oil. I
30:38
Speaker 12: suppose and give the administration there some money.
30:42
Speaker 1: That might be quite a good I think he mentioned
30:44
Speaker 1: the price that he'd put on the barrel.
30:46
Speaker 12: Yeah, so there's nothing really wrong with that. I mean,
30:49
Speaker 12: Trump's more candleist instincts sometimes plain false. But if he
30:53
Speaker 12: buys Venezuelan oil from a non Maduro, more moderate regime
30:57
Speaker 12: which has just released a swag of political prisoners, you know,
31:02
Speaker 12: I think that's a net plus. The world is better
31:04
Speaker 12: off with Maduro out of office, and the Chinese and
31:06
Speaker 12: the Russians notice that. You know, Trump is capable of
31:10
Speaker 12: taking tough action.
31:11
Speaker 1: Even and I've been round long enough to remember when
31:13
Speaker 1: Iran was ruled by the Shah of Iran. I mean,
31:16
Speaker 1: there was corruption allegations and all that, but it was
31:18
Speaker 1: a free country. Is there any chance do you believe
31:22
Speaker 1: that these protests will get to the point where the
31:27
Speaker 1: current administration, the Mullers, can be overthrown.
31:29
Speaker 12: I think there's a real chance, Steve, I still wouldn't
31:32
Speaker 12: back that as the most likely outcome. The Iranian regime
31:36
Speaker 12: seems to be holding together in the sense that it's
31:38
Speaker 12: still broadcasting its TV, it still has control of the
31:42
Speaker 12: security forces. Iranian security forces are not shy about killing
31:47
Speaker 12: huge numbers of their own civilians. What a wonderful irony, Steve,
31:50
Speaker 12: all those heartfelt, profound demonstrators so upset about the loss
31:55
Speaker 12: of Muslim life at the hands of the Israelis. I
31:59
Speaker 12: haven't seen a six demonstrator in behalf of the Iranian people,
32:03
Speaker 12: but these demonstrators are very determined. They're in huge numbers.
32:08
Speaker 12: Trump is also threatening Iran. It's pretty clear that the
32:13
Speaker 12: Islamic Revolution in Iran has brought nothing but despare, misery, poverty,
32:17
Speaker 12: and isolation. It's pretty clear that the Iranian people despise
32:21
Speaker 12: their government. You would hope that there would be someone
32:25
Speaker 12: in the government, in the elite, ahead of a security agency,
32:29
Speaker 12: who would be willing to make a break.
32:32
Speaker 1: So you need to split at the top.
32:33
Speaker 13: I think you do.
32:35
Speaker 12: Authoritarian regimes seldom collapse because they're too authoritarian. The Shark
32:39
Speaker 12: collapsed when he tried to liberalize, and North Korea you
32:45
Speaker 12: can't do anything except tyrannize its own people. But it's
32:49
Speaker 12: never been overthrown.
32:50
Speaker 1: We may never know how many people have been slaughtered
32:53
Speaker 1: during these protests.
32:54
Speaker 12: No, I'm sure that's why the Iranian government has turned
32:56
Speaker 12: off the internet so that it's impossible for Ranian citizens
33:01
Speaker 12: to post pictures of how many people have been killed
33:04
Speaker 12: and said.
33:04
Speaker 1: Today he's going to ring Elon and get starlink fighter.
33:08
Speaker 13: Yeah.
33:08
Speaker 12: Well, Starlink is providing some internet, some sort of you know,
33:12
Speaker 12: pirate internet connections to Iran. God bless the Iranian people.
33:16
Speaker 12: They're so brave. It is a magnificent a civilization, the
33:19
Speaker 12: Persian civilization.
33:21
Speaker 1: It has been betrayed by.
33:23
Speaker 12: Islamist you know, theocratic leadership, and it's led down. You know,
33:29
Speaker 12: when the Iranian Revolution came about nineteen seventy nine, it
33:32
Speaker 12: inspired Muslims all over the world. Almost every Muslim in
33:36
Speaker 12: the whole world now will be looking at Iran and saying, well,
33:39
Speaker 12: by God, we don't want to live in a society
33:41
Speaker 12: like that.
33:41
Speaker 1: You've got plenty to write about.
33:42
Speaker 12: My friend, absolutely great to be with, this Greg.
33:45
Speaker 1: Chldan, let's go to the UK now and get all
33:47
Speaker 1: the news there was gone. His contributor Adrian Hayes. Adrian,
33:51
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me. Happy New Year. I haven't seen
33:52
Speaker 1: you for a few weeks. We've just been talking about Greenland. Now.
33:57
Speaker 1: I don't even know anyone ever been there, but you have.
34:03
Speaker 6: I sure have.
34:03
Speaker 14: I've actually crossed the length of Greenland on expedition a
34:06
Speaker 14: few years ago, and I've actually probably on a few
34:09
Speaker 14: people world who has actually been on the Arctic Greenland coast.
34:12
Speaker 14: So I think your previous guest was saying some pretty
34:16
Speaker 14: sane things. You know, there's no chance of Russia or
34:19
Speaker 14: China invading Greenland, it's so inhospitable. So I think there's
34:24
Speaker 14: other ultil amount. It's a statement of power and intent.
34:26
Speaker 13: I think.
34:29
Speaker 1: How important I mean is it geographically for the US
34:32
Speaker 1: of And it's a great spot to have a forward
34:35
Speaker 1: military base I presume.
34:38
Speaker 14: Well it has the pitture Foot base at the northwest
34:40
Speaker 14: green which I've actually been as well. You know that
34:42
Speaker 14: used to have a few thousand troops is down about
34:44
Speaker 14: one hundred and fifty. But there is a Biletteral agreement
34:46
Speaker 14: between Denmark and the US deadly for nineteen fifty one.
34:50
Speaker 14: That allows the US to put military bases on the island.
34:53
Speaker 14: And look, so the Arctic Ocean of Greenland, it's covered
34:58
Speaker 14: with ice. It's never going to be it's never gon
35:00
Speaker 14: me any different. So, and the western side is on
35:03
Speaker 14: the coast of Canada, and the USA is a good
35:06
Speaker 14: luck to any Russian warship tries and go up there.
35:08
Speaker 14: There is a case of perhaps of putting something on
35:10
Speaker 14: eastern Greenland, which is bordering you know, Northways Scandinavia and
35:14
Speaker 14: the Russian continent. But as I said, it could be
35:17
Speaker 14: done with just by by the by lateral the existing
35:21
Speaker 14: arrangements that they got in place.
35:24
Speaker 1: Adrian, you know the Middle East very well. You spend
35:27
Speaker 1: a lot of time there, you go there regularly. What
35:30
Speaker 1: is your take on around I was just speaking to
35:32
Speaker 1: Greg there a bit about the potential of these protests
35:37
Speaker 1: actually unseating the Muller's what's your take on that.
35:41
Speaker 14: Yeah, you know, there's been quite a few protests over
35:44
Speaker 14: the last few years, but this one does show signs
35:47
Speaker 14: that it could absolutely topple Ali Kamani, the head Muller,
35:54
Speaker 14: And you know, this could be a real change. What
35:56
Speaker 14: is incredible about this protest and again your previous guests,
35:59
Speaker 14: you were saying, where there are the free around protests
36:01
Speaker 14: on the streets of London around the world. You know,
36:03
Speaker 14: why is the UK government and other governments not being
36:07
Speaker 14: so hard on this as they have on other certain
36:10
Speaker 14: conflicts in this in this part of the region. You know,
36:12
Speaker 14: so there's something you know, it's it's it's just because
36:15
Speaker 14: because it's not fashionable and because it's you know, you're
36:17
Speaker 14: criticizing an Islamic regime which is not all that wholeheartedly.
36:24
Speaker 1: So you've got a big Iranian population in London, a
36:27
Speaker 1: very big population. A lot of Iranians obviously left a
36:30
Speaker 1: round after the Shah was deposed. You know, are they
36:34
Speaker 1: out in the streets? Are they supporting what's going on home?
36:38
Speaker 14: There is there is an anti regime protests on the streets. Surprising,
36:42
Speaker 14: there's a pro regime one as well. One brave fellow
36:45
Speaker 14: turned climbed up the Iranian embassy and put tore the
36:48
Speaker 14: flag down just at the weekend, which you know he
36:51
Speaker 14: could have got shot for that. But there are protests,
36:54
Speaker 14: but it's nowhere near the numbers. You don't have your
36:57
Speaker 14: middle class white clids who are out in the street
37:00
Speaker 14: sort of protesting against guards or every single weekend or
37:03
Speaker 14: every sort of city in the UK because they say
37:05
Speaker 14: it's not trendy, it's not fashionable. Free Tibet was fashionable,
37:08
Speaker 14: Free free Palestiners, but free Iran isn't. It's all a
37:13
Speaker 14: little bit not in the lefty worldview.
37:17
Speaker 1: Funny that it seems to be a global way of
37:19
Speaker 1: going about things. Can I ask you about Jimmy Beden
37:22
Speaker 1: or she's promising to copy Australia's ban for children under
37:26
Speaker 1: sixteen access in social media if her party wins power.
37:31
Speaker 1: This is what she said to the BBC.
37:33
Speaker 15: What we are seeing is a lot of children spending
37:37
Speaker 15: so many hours a day on platforms that are profiting
37:41
Speaker 15: from their anxiety, from their distraction, and they're actually designed
37:46
Speaker 15: to be addictive. So what we want to see is
37:49
Speaker 15: common sense protection for children and freedom for adults.
37:54
Speaker 1: If she knew all this, why didn't she go ahead
37:56
Speaker 1: and bender come up with her own band. I mean,
37:59
Speaker 1: you know, need to follow Australia. If it's bad, fix it.
38:04
Speaker 14: Yeah, you're right, Look I follow this with great interest.
38:06
Speaker 14: The problem with any banning of online platforms, it's all
38:09
Speaker 14: got mixed up into the online harm side of things,
38:12
Speaker 14: which unfortunate politicians use this for power and control. But look,
38:16
Speaker 14: we banned smoking, we banned drugs for children. I've looked
38:20
Speaker 14: at the science of social media and smartphones and what
38:23
Speaker 14: they're doing to our brains is you know, there should
38:26
Speaker 14: be a health warning. I mean, Steve, you and we
38:27
Speaker 14: have got mature brains. Yours is even a bit more
38:30
Speaker 14: mature than mine. But even it's doing harm to us.
38:32
Speaker 14: Frontal lobe overwhelm memory, consolidation problems, lack of focus, contemplation,
38:39
Speaker 14: critical thinking, all these skills which we should be installing
38:42
Speaker 14: in our kids, and they're not getting it from this
38:44
Speaker 14: dumbing down act that they get from social media and
38:48
Speaker 14: including this whole need to get attention. This is what's
38:51
Speaker 14: making kids so anxious these days because they just strive,
38:55
Speaker 14: they have to post them posts on socials to get
38:57
Speaker 14: this attention, and that's a spiraling downward term when you're
39:01
Speaker 14: starting that line of thought.
39:05
Speaker 1: Adrianne Well said, great to catch up with you again,
39:07
Speaker 1: my friend. I see you shortly. Adrian Hayes there in
39:09
Speaker 1: London coming up. Nine's newspapers have now apologized for that
39:13
Speaker 1: controversial cartoon, But is it too little too late. The
39:17
Speaker 1: film readit of The Age Michael Gwenda will join me
39:20
Speaker 1: next to discuss that Welcome back to Steve Price within Now. Incredibly,
39:28
Speaker 1: in the middle of the debate about handling anti Semitism
39:31
Speaker 1: and the need for a royal commission, the nine newspapers,
39:34
Speaker 1: including The Age, published this cartoon by political cartoonist Kathy Wilcox. Now.
39:40
Speaker 1: It was also published by The Sidney Morning Herald, with
39:43
Speaker 1: prominent Australians calling for a royal commission into the Bondo
39:46
Speaker 1: Beach terror attack, apparently supposedly marching to the drumbeat of
39:52
Speaker 1: Israeli Prime Minister Benjaminette Yahoo Now Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson
39:56
Speaker 1: labor deeply offensive. Bondi survivor arson or top Ski described
40:00
Speaker 1: it as unadulterated jew hatred. Willcox has now taken to
40:05
Speaker 1: left wing social media platform Blue Sky to share that
40:09
Speaker 1: she's been accused of hatred. I mean she's then abused
40:13
Speaker 1: staff at Sky News about the US having the temerity
40:18
Speaker 1: to actually ask her to explain herself. You and your
40:22
Speaker 1: hit squad goons can f write off? Was her response. Classy. Now,
40:26
Speaker 1: I've known my next guest for many years. He was
40:28
Speaker 1: an outstanding editor of the Age for I think seven
40:31
Speaker 1: years at the top job and had in his time
40:34
Speaker 1: plenty of tough editorial decisions. He's proudly Jewish, the son
40:38
Speaker 1: of someone who survived the camps of World War Two.
40:40
Speaker 1: He wrote a terrific piece in The Australian and joins
40:42
Speaker 1: me now, Michael Gwenda, great to see you, Thanks for
40:45
Speaker 1: joining us. Take me back to last Take me back
40:48
Speaker 1: to last week, my friend, and what your initial thoughts
40:51
Speaker 1: were when you saw that cartoon.
40:55
Speaker 13: Well, I was absolutely shocked, shock and then really angry,
41:04
Speaker 13: angry that the paper that I had worked for for
41:07
Speaker 13: so many years, decades really and that yes, I had
41:12
Speaker 13: edited for seven years, would countenance publishing a cartoon like this,
41:20
Speaker 13: which you know, less than a month after the Bondai
41:25
Speaker 13: massacre and the call from some of the victims for
41:32
Speaker 13: commission of inquiry into how this happened, what caused it,
41:36
Speaker 13: what brought it on, Plus the support that this idea got,
41:42
Speaker 13: that the victims got from leading sports people, you know,
41:47
Speaker 13: leading AFL players and coaches, swimmers, athletes, indigenous sports people
41:57
Speaker 13: or calling for a need for some sort of inquiry
42:00
Speaker 13: into what had happened. And so then the ASU decided
42:05
Speaker 13: the size that it's perfectly to publish a cartoon in
42:09
Speaker 13: which the cartoonist is saying, all these people, all these
42:14
Speaker 13: well known, deeply patriotic Australians, are all being duped into
42:21
Speaker 13: boarding this so called Royal Commission. They're being duped by
42:27
Speaker 13: the murderock media. They're being duped by former and current
42:34
Speaker 13: politicians like John Howard, and most of all, they're being duped.
42:38
Speaker 13: These people are all being duped by Benjamin Nettiyahoo, the
42:45
Speaker 13: butcher of Gaza. And this is disgusting. This is disgusting
42:50
Speaker 13: on any level. And if she's gone on social media
42:54
Speaker 13: and she is saying that she has got some pretty
42:56
Speaker 13: awful emails and response, well, that's the job we're in.
43:02
Speaker 13: You know. I hope they weren't too abusive. They shouldn't
43:06
Speaker 13: abuse her, they shouldn't threaten her any way, but strong responses.
43:10
Speaker 13: My god, isn't that the business cartoonists are in and
43:14
Speaker 13: that we are all in? And frankly, frankly, the papers
43:21
Speaker 13: let her off the hook. You know, they made the
43:24
Speaker 13: mistake of publishing the cartoon. There's no doubt they think
43:28
Speaker 13: that they made the mistake of publishing it. Everyone I've
43:32
Speaker 13: tried to contact about this has said, well, I wasn't there,
43:37
Speaker 13: or I was there and I did you know. But
43:41
Speaker 13: they then they then decided that they would issue a
43:46
Speaker 13: mealy mouthed apology, which is not an apology at all.
43:50
Speaker 13: You know. It's one of those if we offended anyone,
43:53
Speaker 13: especially Jews, if we offended Jews, we're very sorry. We
43:57
Speaker 13: understand that they were offended. Back we're in the business
44:01
Speaker 13: of blah blah blah, you know. So there was no
44:04
Speaker 13: recognition that this was This wasn't an apology. This was
44:09
Speaker 13: I'm sorry we hurt your feelings. And in fact, there
44:14
Speaker 13: was a sort of suggestion to me, it's the Jews
44:18
Speaker 13: complaining again, right, only Jews were upset by the character
44:24
Speaker 13: Only Jews. I mean, this is just a nonsense. And
44:27
Speaker 13: so I despare I despaired out my old paper.
44:31
Speaker 1: Well, I love your passion, I love the piece you
44:34
Speaker 1: wrote in Australian at the weekend, and I think you
44:37
Speaker 1: speak so much sense. It's just a pity you're not
44:39
Speaker 1: still editing that paper. Michael Gownder, I got to cut
44:42
Speaker 1: it short, but thank you very much for joining us tonight.
44:44
Speaker 1: I mean, God have him back running the paper after
44:47
Speaker 1: the break could form a treasure at Josh Brodenberg really
44:50
Speaker 1: be making a return to politics. I'll find out from
44:52
Speaker 1: the panel. Welcome back. Let's get into our panel, sky
44:59
Speaker 1: and can a bit of kil Richards is with me?
45:01
Speaker 1: Plus senior fellow at the Menzies Research Center, Nick d.
45:04
Speaker 7: Nick.
45:05
Speaker 1: I want to start with you, Josh Friedenberg. I had
45:07
Speaker 1: someone who is quite close to Josh say to me
45:11
Speaker 1: in the last week or so that he thinks that
45:14
Speaker 1: Josh might have had his moment where he suddenly realized
45:19
Speaker 1: he needs to get back into politics. How much should
45:22
Speaker 1: the Liberals be trying to convince him to do that.
45:27
Speaker 16: I think Josh ever lost his desire to get back
45:30
Speaker 16: into politics at all. I mean, I think he was
45:33
Speaker 16: seriously thinking about going back in before the last election
45:37
Speaker 16: and wondering whether that was a possible thing. I don't
45:42
Speaker 16: think he's ever lost his desire to get into politics
45:45
Speaker 16: at a high level and to lead the country as
45:47
Speaker 16: prime minister. That's certainly in him. Whether he can do
45:51
Speaker 16: it or not, well, that's up to the voters. A
45:53
Speaker 16: coon I guess, which is probably where he'd stand. And
45:56
Speaker 16: that's a very difficult seat to get now because it's
45:59
Speaker 16: a Teal seat. The Teals have this way to hold
46:01
Speaker 16: on to it. But look, I wish him all the best.
46:04
Speaker 16: You know, his talent and his passionate the passion that
46:06
Speaker 16: we've seen in the last three to four weeks over
46:10
Speaker 16: the Bondi issue, that's desperately needed in politics.
46:14
Speaker 1: I think, kel we need more Josh Friedenberg leadership. I mean,
46:20
Speaker 1: compare him and what he's done since the Bondi shootings
46:23
Speaker 1: in even before that, when he did the Sky News
46:26
Speaker 1: documentary about anti Semitism. I mean, it just shines a
46:30
Speaker 1: light on how weak the current leadership of our country is.
46:33
Speaker 11: Yes, Steve, let me give you a scenario. Step one,
46:36
Speaker 11: as someone who is a long time member in a
46:40
Speaker 11: safe Liberal seat is persuaded to resign, take the parliamentary
46:43
Speaker 11: pension and go and Josh is parachuted into his seat
46:46
Speaker 11: and elected. Step two, the day he walks into parliament
46:49
Speaker 11: houses elected leader. Now, that would be a lovely scenario
46:52
Speaker 11: in a lot of ways. There are three problems. The
46:54
Speaker 11: first is there's no such seat. The second is it
46:57
Speaker 11: would require imagination and decisive listen to the Liberal Party and
47:00
Speaker 11: they don't do that anymore. And thirdly, we have not
47:03
Speaker 11: We've got to stop trying to switch the focus off
47:07
Speaker 11: Alberize's abject stumbling, mumbling terrible failures onto the liberal leadership.
47:12
Speaker 11: We have to keep them on Albaneze. So Nick's wright,
47:15
Speaker 11: what's likely to happen is the next election. I think
47:17
Speaker 11: that Fridenburg is likely to run in cou Yong, and
47:20
Speaker 11: I disagree with you, Nick, I don't think it'll be
47:22
Speaker 11: all that difficult. I think he will wipe the floor
47:24
Speaker 11: with Maniku Ryan. I think they're fed up with her
47:26
Speaker 11: and they would welcome Josh Friedenburg back.
47:31
Speaker 1: Nick, someone who's very close to Josh I won't name
47:33
Speaker 1: them because it would be embarrassing, but said to me
47:35
Speaker 1: that he thinks that he has had his Campbell Newman
47:38
Speaker 1: moment and that he will definitely put his hand up
47:41
Speaker 1: and he may even announce that he's coming back before
47:44
Speaker 1: he even has a seat.
47:47
Speaker 16: Well, they may be so, but as I saying, look,
47:50
Speaker 16: I mean, I don't think he even lost his his
47:52
Speaker 16: eye to get back into politics. He felt it was
47:55
Speaker 16: a hugely disappointing thing for to lose that seat, the
47:58
Speaker 16: seat of course, that Robert's held for more than thirty years,
48:03
Speaker 16: and he really wants to do something in public life.
48:07
Speaker 16: I think we've seen him on his home game, if
48:09
Speaker 16: you like, on the anti Semitism question, he feels very
48:14
Speaker 16: strongly about the state of Israel and about the right
48:16
Speaker 16: of rights of the Jewish people. That came through clearly.
48:21
Speaker 16: I think if he's going to get back into politics,
48:22
Speaker 16: if he's going to lead the party, we need to
48:25
Speaker 16: see more vision on other fronts, particularly the economic front,
48:29
Speaker 16: the fiscal front. What's he going to do about this
48:32
Speaker 16: budget blowouts? You know, I mean, this is the big, big,
48:35
Speaker 16: unspoken problem. But if anybody wants to come in and
48:38
Speaker 16: be serious about being the next prime minister, they have
48:40
Speaker 16: to address that one.
48:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's extraordinary, really, kil and Kel, thank you very
48:48
Speaker 1: much for joining us night. Sorry we've had a cut
48:49
Speaker 1: at a bit sure this evening, but we'll catch up
48:53
Speaker 1: with you next week. The late debates coming up next
48:56
Speaker 1: to We've got Cola Bond, Louise Roberts and Holly Hughes.
49:00
Speaker 1: Let's just hope that those Victorian bushfires, that the CFA
49:03
Speaker 1: can get a handle on those overnight and put them out.
49:06
Speaker 1: The weather has been a lot kind of today and
49:10
Speaker 1: I still can't believe the miracle that we've only lost
49:13
Speaker 1: one life. The late debate is up next to Sea
49:15
Speaker 1: tomorrow