Latest / Steve Price / Steve Price | 6 November

Transcript

Steve Price | 6 November · Steve Price

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Live, this is Steve Price.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good evening, welcome to the show.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Steve Price with you at the end of a week
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: of political earthquakes, both here and in the US with
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: the Democrats on the march. More on that later. Here's
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: what's coming up on the program tonight. Fresh polling in
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: the Herald Sun today predicts the 12-year-old Victorian state Labor
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: government is on track for its worst election result.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Since, can you believe it, World War I.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: With three weeks to go until polling day, the Herald
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  Speaker 3: Sun's Carly Douglas will join us first up. Friday night,
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: regular Campbell Newman on the exploding numbers of public servants
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  Speaker 3: federally under the Albanese government that is costing taxpayers, you
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: and me, billions of dollars in wages. And election years
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: always prove fruitful fodder for our brilliant newspaper cartoonists and
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: the best in the business, Mark Knight, is back with
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: us on the desk. Plus, what songs would you nominate
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: for the Great Australian Songbook? Well, the public servants have
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: had a go. We'll get some nominations from our Friday
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: night panel, Jo Hildebrand and Christy McSweeney. First, though, there are,
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  Speaker 3: as I said, just three weeks to go until Victorians
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: go to the polls on Saturday, November 28, and it's
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: even closer for the hundreds of thousands, and that's how
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: many there are now, of voters who choose to pre-poll,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: with early voting centres to open on November 18th. And
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  Speaker 3: on published polls, including one today, a lighthouse tracking poll
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  Speaker 3: done by News Limited in the Herald Sun, Labor, after
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  Speaker 3: 12 years in office, look to be in terrible trouble.
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  Speaker 3: A combination of an electorate worn down since COVID with
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  Speaker 3: a crime crisis, including soft bail laws that allow teenage
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: offenders back on the streets. after acts of violence to
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  Speaker 3: what has become a symbol of a broken, busted government.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Millions of potholes on never maintained roads. Then there's the
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: state debt, something Labor cannot escape from, with a crippling
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  Speaker 3: hourly interest rate only payment of almost $ 900, 000 each and
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: every hour. And of course, the stench of corruption surrounding
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: the big build projects like the never-needed suburban rail loop
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: that has been hijacked by the militant CFMEU and outlaw
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: motorcycle gangs, with a figure anywhere between $ 5 and $ 15
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: billion siphoned off taxpayers' money. Now, Labor, in a desperate
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: bid to survive, convinced the former Premier Jacinda Allen to
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: quit and replaced her with someone not quite as radically
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: left-leaning in Ben Carroll. Now, that appears will not save
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: them at the end of the month. The overall polling
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: numbers out today on primary vote had the Liberal National
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: Coalition on 31%, with One Nation on 23%, ahead of
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Labor on 22%, the Greens on 14%, others, independents and
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: so on, they make up about 10%. If those numbers
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: stack up and stay that way all the way to
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  Speaker 3: election day, Liberal leader Jess Wilson will be the next Premier.
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  Speaker 3: I say if because Victoria and Victorian voters are notoriously unpredictable.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: At the last election, the last state election in 2022,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Daniel Andrews, as hated as he had become during the
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: longest COVID lockdowns in the world, won an historic third
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: term and increased his seat count by one. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: much of the voter support came from larger regional towns
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: who had been promised new sporting facilities to stage the
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: 2026 Commonwealth Games. Now, Andrews, six months in as the
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  Speaker 3: returned Premier, promptly announced cancelled the event he had promised
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  Speaker 3: to stage at a cost of half a billion dollars
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: paid out to the Commonwealth Games organisation. And Glasgow got
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: money to stage the games. Not much later, Andrews quit,
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  Speaker 3: stole Jacinda Allen, and both of them are now gone
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: with fat pensions. And Carroll has been left holding the bag,
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  Speaker 3: an empty bag of promises that no one actually believes.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, desperate times call for desperate measures. I'd call
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: it made-up garbage, but Labor is now playing every negative
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: card they can think of, including ads depicting Wilson and
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: One Nation leader Warren Pickering as AI-generated Halloween figures destroying
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: the health system and sacking thousands of health workers.
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  Speaker 2: All nonsense, of course. And then yesterday... The.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Treasurer, some bloke I had to look it up called
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Colin Brooks, released a 63-page booklet claiming the Coalition has
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  Speaker 3: a massive $ 6. 35 billion hole in their costs.
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  Speaker 2: Take a look.
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  Speaker 4: This is the most poorly costed, dodgy Liberal election platform
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  Speaker 4: in Victoria's history. There's a $ 6. 35 billion gap between what
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  Speaker 4: Jess Wilson says her promises will cost with what her
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  Speaker 4: promises will actually cost. And it gets worse. 31 promises
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  Speaker 4: have no price tag at all.
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  Speaker 3: Now, you'd have to say, in all honesty, that's pretty
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  Speaker 3: rich coming from a Labor government that has plunged the
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  Speaker 3: state into a financial hole which will take decades, if ever,
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  Speaker 3: for a new government to get out of. Reporters tried
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  Speaker 3: to hand a copy... of this fantasy to the Liberal
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  Speaker 3: leader yesterday, Jess Wilson, she rightly refused to take it
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  Speaker 3: and called the Labor out the Labor dirt file not
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  Speaker 3: worth the paper it's written on.
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  Speaker 5: That document must have come from the fiction section of
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  Speaker 5: the library. I will be not lectured by the Labor
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  Speaker 5: government on costings when they have racked up $ 200.
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  Speaker 6: Billion worth of debt and seen.
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  Speaker 5: $ 40 billion worth of cost blowouts and $ 15 billion of
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  Speaker 5: taxpayer money put into the pockets of criminals.
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  Speaker 3: Well, today the opposition leader was back in front of
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  Speaker 3: the media again, being pressed on her own costings, and
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  Speaker 3: I must say, sounding for some reason quite defensive.
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  Speaker 5: Victorians will have every opportunity to look at our costings,
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  Speaker 5: but as I said, we cannot release our costings because
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: they are dependent on the pre-election budget update that the
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  Speaker 5: government needs to release. We trust the independent parliamentary budget office.
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  Speaker 5: It was established by the Labor government to provide the
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  Speaker 5: costings for other political parties.
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  Speaker 6: These are the experts.
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  Speaker 5: They rely on the information they can get from government departments.
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  Speaker 5: That is exactly how this process should work, and I
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  Speaker 5: trust the PBO.
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  Speaker 3: Now, these stunts by Labor, dirty tactics, media blow-ups, they'll
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: continue right up to polling day. But it seems that
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: the electorate has made up its mind, with that poll showing,
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: in answer to a question about if their minds were
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: actually made up, on who to vote for, 50% of
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: Liberals answered yes. Even higher, 64% of One Nation supporters said, yep,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: my mind's made up. And 47% of Labor voters, well,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: they're just rusted on. It's going to be a long
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: three weeks. Really, it was week one of the election campaign.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: It's almost at an end. We'll continue across the weekend
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: as all candidates now scramble for attention. The issue of
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: costings on promises exploded yesterday, and as I showed you
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  Speaker 3: at the top of the program, Coalition leader Jess Wilson
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  Speaker 3: is now being pressed on spending. On the Labor bus
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: this week, the Herald Sun's Carly Douglas. She's been shadowing
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  Speaker 3: Ben Carroll.
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  Speaker 2: Carly, welcome.
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  Speaker 6: Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 3: Before we get to the actual campaign trail, I mentioned
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: the first lighthouse tracking poll in your paper.
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  Speaker 2: The Herald Sun, today.
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  Speaker 3: It's found Labor's primary vote back at 22%.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Is that the feeling you're getting?
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: And would Labor be panicking if that's right?
• 7:40
  Speaker 6: You would think so. But Ben Carroll on the bus
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: seems to be kind of breezy. He's not panicking. He's
• 7:46
  Speaker 6: having a bit of fun. He's had his wife out
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: on the bus as well. He doesn't seem to be
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: panicking just yet. But as you say, this isn't the
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: first poll that we've had these sorts of numbers around. Obviously,
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  Speaker 6: this is the first one, though, in recent months. times
• 8:01
  Speaker 6: where we've seen Labor behind One Nation. When you speak
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: to pollsters, when you speak to Labor MPs, they certainly
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: feel like it will be almost impossible to get there
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  Speaker 6: on November 28.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: But you and I know that Labor are very good campaigners.
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  Speaker 3: They're very good at pulling rabbits out of a hat.
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  Speaker 3: You had Dan Andrews in 2022 promise the Commonwealth Games
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  Speaker 3: and then cancel them. You can go all the way
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  Speaker 3: back to the election before that where he promised all
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: of these crossings, railway crossing removals. because he needed to
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: win seats in the southeast of the city. Is there
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: anything left in the bag for Labor to pull out
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  Speaker 3: like those big items that convince voters to stick with them?
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  Speaker 6: No, I don't think there is.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the problem for them.
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  Speaker 6: It is the problem for them. They can't go and
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: make these big spending commitments like they have in previous elections.
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  Speaker 6: They know that debt is actually front and centre on people's...
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: It's certainly on people's minds. This election, they know that
• 8:55
  Speaker 6: we're heading towards $ 200 billion of debt. There's a real
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: campaign among business leaders, economists, to get our debt under control,
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: and Labor certainly knows that.
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  Speaker 3: Big red bus, you were on it. How carefully staged
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: is that? Does Ben Carroll actually have to deal with
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  Speaker 3: real people who would not be natural Labor supporters, or
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: are these things... so carefully managed that he's going into
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: situations where he knows he's not going to get a
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  Speaker 3: hard question from people, apart.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: From the media.
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  Speaker 6: He has been going out into the public, but those
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: circumstances have really been in Labor-held seats. He was out
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  Speaker 6: in a public park in Footscray the other day. He
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: was also at Kmart in Nidri, his own electorate. this morning,
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: where he used to work. So he is going into
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  Speaker 6: the public, but it is, in a sense, stage managed
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  Speaker 6: in that, for example, today there were obviously people who
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: had gotten the call up to be there to welcome him,
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  Speaker 6: his former manager, while he was a checkout boy at Kmart.
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  Speaker 6: So there are.
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  Speaker 3: Do they really want to see this bloke back all
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: the time? He's haunting Kmart.
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: Well, I mean, it's, what, the second time he's been
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: there since... becoming Premier. He has repeatedly been going to
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: his own seat. He feels like it's a safe place
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: for him, but in saying that, there really aren't that
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: many safe Labor seats at the moment, this election, so
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: no doubt there will be some hecklers, but it is
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: being managed.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: The costing stunt, you'd have to say that that probably
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: is worked for them. I mean, I'm not very impressed
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: with Treasurer Brooks, but this has been clever. They've done
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: this 62-page document. It seemed to put Jess Wilson on
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: the back foot yesterday. I don't know if you were there,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: but she had that four-minute media conference and one of
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: the TV journos, Paul Dowsley, I think, tried to sort
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: of get her to hand a copy of it. That
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: probably has resonated a bit with people.
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: It has, and it's done damage, I think, because you
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: actually do have business leaders and economists that are putting
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: the pressure on the Liberals. They're saying that their plan
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: to get us back to a cash surplus by 2032
• 10:56
  Speaker 6: is not going to work if she keeps on spending.
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: Labor's obviously using this to say that she's cutting too
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: far in and that she's going to end up wiping
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: a whole heap of public sector jobs. So I think
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: it did work for them yesterday, especially because that press
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: conference was only..... was less than five minutes long. It
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: did look like she was running away from the media.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: So, look, in federally, in the last election, it worked
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: for Anthony Albanese and Chalmers and the frontbench of the
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Labor Party keep saying that if you elect this mob,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: a whole bunch of public servants that we helped get
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: jobs for are.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Going to get sacked.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: And they keep talking about, destroying the health system. I mean,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Jess Wilson's got no intention of destroying.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: The health system.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: But if you say it enough over and over and over,
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: some of that sticks in people's minds. And if you're,
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: you know, an older person who wants to get health care,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: that might resonate with you.
• 11:47
  Speaker 6: Possibly, and I guess this is exactly why they're really
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: making a point of this at the moment. For about
• 11:52
  Speaker 6: a week now, they're really trying to make Ben appear
• 11:55
  Speaker 6: like he is a more fiscally responsible leader. Lots of
• 11:58
  Speaker 6: people weren't quite real at... Who's going to buy that? But, yeah,
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: you're right. She has said very carefully that she will
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: not be getting... There will be no frontline service workers
• 12:10
  Speaker 6: that are losing their jobs under this, but Labor, anyway,
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: has very much been driving that message home.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: I'm loathe to raise debates because of the... I mean,
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: it's just been such a circus. We talked about this,
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: you and I, a couple of weeks back. Last Friday,
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: I said this. Have a listen to this. When Jess
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: was refusing to join the News 24, the Herald Sun debate,
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: if Warren Pickering was there.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Let's have a look.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: A message to potential Premier Jess Wilson. Agree to a debate.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Agree to debate anyone who leads a legitimate political party
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: in the lead-up to the state.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Election in a month.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Look, I don't care if it's the Greens, the Libertarians
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: or even Animal Justice, all those independents, because this stand-off
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: with our News 24 and Herald Sun debate and others'
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: planned debates on other networks over the attendance of Warren
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: pickering from One Nation, it's going to cost you dearly
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: if you keep going with it.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Hate to say I was right, but she caved in.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: They're all in there now, four of them.
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: The four of them, yes.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Tuesday, November 17, right here at 7.30 Australian Eastern Time.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: It is 90 minutes. That's going to be fascinating.
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: It will be fascinating, absolutely. It will also be kind
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: of a good thing, I guess, to get the Greens
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: leader in there as well because we'll see it won't
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: just leave Ben Carroll able to really, you know, go
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: on the attack and have a crack at... It will
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: try to tie together Jess Wilson and Warren Pickering because
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: there will also be Alan Sandal who will be attacking
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: Ben Carroll as well. So, probably, it's even.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: It's balanced. It's a big, big ask for Warren Pickering.
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: It is, but he has proved himself to actually be
• 13:53
  Speaker 6: quite a good debater and a public speaker. I've watched
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: him debate at a housing conference or housing event recently,
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: and he was able to land a punch.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: Just a word, the spectacle of Jess Wilson's bus running
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: into a jewellery shop. Those are the sort of examples
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: on a campaign trail where things can go wrong.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: That's not a good look, is it?
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: No, it really wasn't. And it came just hours after
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: she made this big song and dance over her bus.
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: She posted a social media video of her son Patrick
• 14:25
  Speaker 6: running up and down the aisle. She was really promoting it.
• 14:28
  Speaker 6: She was beaming. And then all of a sudden they're
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: backing into a small business. And pulling a sign off.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Does a bus driver keep his job?
• 14:35
  Speaker 6: He does keep his job. Jess Wilson was asked this
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: and she said, of course, accidents happen.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Great coverage today. Well done.
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: Thank you very much.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: You've only got three weeks to go.
• 14:43
  Speaker 6: It's going to be busy.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Feels like about three years to you, I suspect. Carly
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Douglas from The Herald Sun. You can read all of
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: her breaking news stories. in the Herald Sun tomorrow, including
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: my column, of course, which is up every Saturday. OK,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: for more now on the countdown to the Victorian state election.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: The seat of Pakenham fascinates me. It's shaping up as
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: one of the most important battlegrounds in the state. Why
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: does it fascinate me? Well, Labor only holds the seat
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: by 0.4%, making it, you know, one of the most
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: marginal seats in the country. One nation's Victorian leader, Warren Pickering,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: is standing in that seat. That's another reason why it's
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: so interesting. Major contender and Labor incumbent Emma Vuelen stepping
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: down and with Pakenham an officer among the fastest growing
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: communities in Melbourne in the southeast. The big question is
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: what's going to happen in Pakenham on Saturday night in
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: three weeks' time? One man determined to make his mark
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: is an independent. Why wouldn't we have an independent candidate
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: on the program? Raymond French joins me tonight. Raymond, good
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: to see you. You're a pest controller. Why go to politics?
• 15:50
  Speaker 7: Oh, it's the perfect place for it, isn't it, mate?
• 15:53
  Speaker 7: That's where we've got to eradicate.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: All this spending.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: I would guess that's correct. A pest control is well
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: suited to actually knocking off labour. What's your chance going
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: to be, do you think?
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: Oh, look, as good as everyone else is, it's obviously
• 16:08
  Speaker 7: up to the voters on the day in pre-polling. So,
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: you know, it depends on what resonates with them and,
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: you know, with each voter out there.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: So.
• 16:16
  Speaker 7: You know, I'm a family man, I'm a small business owner,
• 16:19
  Speaker 7: so I understand daily grind that everybody's going through and,
• 16:22
  Speaker 7: you know, high tax bills and payroll tax, cost of living.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: I live it every day.
• 16:28
  Speaker 7: I'm a true local, so that also goes there for
• 16:30
  Speaker 7: that as well. So it's anyone's game. I think it's
• 16:33
  Speaker 7: more so probably looking more so out of myself, Warren
• 16:36
  Speaker 7: and Radmilia, than more so than Labor in the running.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Pakenham's a classic example of an area of big city's
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: in Australia, and I talk about mainly Melbourne and Sydney,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: that have really expanded. I mean, anyone who tries to
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: drive in from Pakenham, an officer, into the city, they
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: know how bad the transport is, they know how bad
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: the roads are, potholes everywhere. I mean, the mood in
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: that community must be a mood for change.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, definitely, mate.
• 17:08
  Speaker 7: You know, that $ 15 billion that went missing could have
• 17:11
  Speaker 7: really helped out my community. We could have got another
• 17:13
  Speaker 7: couple more lanes, couple more schools, you know, even got
• 17:16
  Speaker 7: our own emergency department.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Labor goes on that they're.
• 17:19
  Speaker 7: Opening a community hospital in Pakenham, but that's all it is.
• 17:23
  Speaker 7: It's a community clinic. It's from 8am to 10pm at night.
• 17:29
  Speaker 7: It's going to get staffs. We don't have those people.
• 17:31
  Speaker 7: There's an 18-month waiting list, I believe, waiting just for
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: more nursing staff. So we're already behind the eight ball
• 17:38
  Speaker 7: to open up this hospital that was meant to be
• 17:39
  Speaker 7: open this year, looking to be next year after the election.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Raymond, I mean, obviously Warren Pickering, the Victorian leader of
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: One Nation, obviously he's standing in that seat. You would
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: think One Nation wouldn't have chosen someone in the Pakenham
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: seat unless they thought they could win it. Do you
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: think One Nation, do you get a sense when you
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: get around the community and go to the properties that
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: you're working at that One Nation's got a lot of support?
• 18:08
  Speaker 7: Oh, look, you definitely can't say that they don't. They
• 18:10
  Speaker 7: definitely have that orange support behind them. Everywhere you look,
• 18:13
  Speaker 7: there's a hat, there's a T-shirt. I guess that goes
• 18:16
  Speaker 7: back to when you've got big dollars, you can make
• 18:18
  Speaker 7: a big presence. I'm just backed by small businesses that
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: are giving me donations to help, things like the T-shirt
• 18:25
  Speaker 7: here and things like that. I don't have a million-dollar checkbook. So, unfortunately,
• 18:31
  Speaker 7: I can't get out there like he does. I actually
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: do still have a day job. His job is to
• 18:36
  Speaker 7: obviously go out there and try and win Victoria. I'm
• 18:39
  Speaker 7: trying to do better for my community in packing them
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: an officer.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: One of the good things you've done, Raymond, is I'm
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: told that you ran a campaign to save the local
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Christmas carol service. Tell us how that came about.
• 18:54
  Speaker 7: Definitely, mate. Yeah, so the council cancelled it. And when
• 18:59
  Speaker 7: it got news to me, I just went, well, you know,
• 19:02
  Speaker 7: that's not good enough. It's something that brings our community
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: together once a year as a community. There is sub-carrels
• 19:07
  Speaker 7: all throughout the other suburbs, like Kooyarup and Lang Lang,
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: I believe.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: And a few other spots.
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: But that's not Pakenham. And Pakenham's the main district hub
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: that Kadinya Shire gets a lot of their funding from,
• 19:20
  Speaker 7: from rates. And they've just let the ratepayers down once again.
• 19:24
  Speaker 7: And So I've been luckily and successful to link up
• 19:28
  Speaker 7: with Gun Buyer World. It's not in Pakenham this year.
• 19:31
  Speaker 7: Next year it will be. But we're lucky enough to
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: have that and we're going to make it a great event.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Raymond, good luck in the election. Three weeks to go.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: I know you'll be out there campaigning hard and we'll
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: get a real idea on the night about how you went.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Nice to see you, mate. That's the independent candidate down there.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: there in the seat of Hackenham.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Mate, thank you very much for having me. All good, Raymond.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much, mate.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: OK, a reminder on Monday, Jess Wilson will actually be
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: appearing on the pub test with our very own Paul
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Murray here on News 24. He'll also be speaking... to
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Warren Pickering, speaking of Pickering, in an Ask Me Anything
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: on Tuesday. Plus, the leaders of Labor, the Libs, One
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Nation and the Greens, as we just explained, will go
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: head-to-head in the News 24 People's Forum. That's on 17
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: November at 7.30pm.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Don't miss that.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: After the break, more bad news for the Treasurer. The
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Public Service Wage Bill blown out yet again. I'll catch
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: up with Campbell Newman in Brisbane.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Welcome back. Steve Price with you.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Mark Knight, the best cartoonist in the business, will join
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: us shortly and walk us through his cartoons of the week.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: He's had plenty to play with, US elections, local elections,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: you name it. He's been in brilliant form. As I said,
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: it's been a bad week for the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: He had that interest rate decision increasing yet again five times...
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: This year, that happened on Melbourne Cup Day on Tuesday,
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: but it could be about to get a whole lot worse. Now,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: the wages bill for public servants has been swelling under Labor,
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: and we've known that for some time, but it's now
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: emerged that for the last financial year, the wages bill,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: have a listen to this, swelled to $ 43 billion. I mean,
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: for context, that's up more than $ 10 billion from when
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Labor first took office. Well, shaking my head about that.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Joining me now to discuss our Friday night regular, Queensland
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: ex-premier Campbell Newman.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Good to see you, Campbell.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: How long can Chalmers and Albanese get away with stacking
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: the public service with so many people?
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just out of control.
• 21:46
  Speaker 8: It's quite extraordinary, Steve, to contemplate that in only four
• 21:49
  Speaker 8: years the headcount has gone up by 14.7%. But the
• 21:54
  Speaker 8: wages bill, because of people getting more money as well,
• 21:58
  Speaker 8: and that's another issue here, it's gone up by 35%.
• 22:01
  Speaker 8: It's just not sustainable. And overall, the public sector in
• 22:06
  Speaker 8: Australia has been expanding. In only four years, it's gone
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: from 17.3% to 17.8% of the total Australian workforce. So
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: that's taking federal, state and local government. So, yes, I
• 22:20
  Speaker 8: think the pressure is just becoming really intense here. on
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: the Labor Party federally to actually do something about runaway spending.
• 22:29
  Speaker 8: And there are people in the background there who would
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: be talking internally and saying, look, we really have to
• 22:36
  Speaker 8: do something. By the same token, I think it's a
• 22:39
  Speaker 8: fair comment to say that state governments, whether they be
• 22:43
  Speaker 8: Labor or Liberal or LNP, in the case of Queensland,
• 22:47
  Speaker 8: aren't doing too much here to rein in.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Things as well, because public sector.
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: numbers in the state governments have gone up by about 13.4%
• 22:57
  Speaker 8: as well. It's only local government that are down around
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: about 8, 8.5% who are quite frugal in terms of
• 23:03
  Speaker 8: a level of government and are probably doing a much
• 23:06
  Speaker 8: better job of managing their costs.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, it's easy to bag public servants, but...
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: We've got this system where, in Canberra, you've got thousands
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: of people doing public service jobs. Most of us don't
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: really know what they're doing. And we have systems where
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: everything's doubled up. You know, you've got education, you've got health,
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: all in Canberra in public service jobs. And then they're
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: replicated when you come into the States, as you say,
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: doing probably the same sort of stuff. I mean, the
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: system seems to be broken, but it would appear to
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: me that Labor administrations know... that if you give someone
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: a public service job and they've got that job basically
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: for life and they're on pretty good money and a
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: good super scheme, well, who do you think they're going
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: to vote for?
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 23:53
  Speaker 8: I think there's a fair bit in that. But where
• 23:57
  Speaker 8: we need to go, Steve, frankly, is to a sort
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: of an environment where we actually focus on customer service
• 24:05
  Speaker 8: and delivery.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Are doing more.
• 24:07
  Speaker 8: With less and actually looking after the poor old men
• 24:12
  Speaker 8: and women of Australia who expect better from their government.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. They want to find productivity savings. Yeah,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I rang the ATO.
• 24:20
  Speaker 8: About an issue yesterday to do with business and trying
• 24:23
  Speaker 8: to get a certificate for something because I was having
• 24:26
  Speaker 8: a problem online.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I rang.
• 24:30
  Speaker 8: The right number and after various, you know, press button,
• 24:33
  Speaker 8: you know, three, two, whatever, I finally got an appointment
• 24:36
  Speaker 8: and said, well, you know, we've got a really.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: It's really, really busy and we can't take your call.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Click.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: It literally hung up on me.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Hung up on you?
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: It wouldn't take a message. It hung up on me.
• 24:48
  Speaker 8: And, you know, I talk to accountants and people who
• 24:51
  Speaker 8: have to regularly, you know, on behalf of businesses, ring
• 24:54
  Speaker 8: the ATO.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: The wait times are now unacceptable. That's just an example.
• 24:58
  Speaker 8: You know, I'd like to see a focus on performance.
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: Another example is ASIC. You know, I had to do something...
• 25:05
  Speaker 8: for my business with the Australian Securities Investment Commission website today. Firstly,
• 25:10
  Speaker 8: they've got these, you know, there's about four different portals.
• 25:14
  Speaker 8: I've got four different logins depending on what I have
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: to do. The technology is from 25 years ago. It
• 25:20
  Speaker 8: is clunky. It is non-intuitive. And it took 40.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Minutes to do something that should have taken 10. You know,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I could go on, mate, but everywhere you go, the.
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: Public sector do things in a way that would be
• 25:34
  Speaker 8: unacceptable for a large, reputable business in Australia. Why doesn't
• 25:39
  Speaker 8: Jim Chalmers start at home in terms of driving productivity
• 25:42
  Speaker 8: in the public sector?
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Would be a good idea.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm told, someone told me the ATO took
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: Melbourne Cup Day off, even though it wasn't a public
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: holiday in Canberra.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I hope that's not correct.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Speaking of Chalmers, his tax changes slammed by accounting businesses,
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: property bodies, you name it, at a parliamentary hearing. The
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: measures were described as a cash grab from a government
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: lacking any spending restraint, any chance of Chalmers and Albo
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: actually taking notice, do you think?
• 26:17
  Speaker 8: Again, that pressure, I think, is intensifying all the time,
• 26:21
  Speaker 8: because the more you look into what they've put up,
• 26:24
  Speaker 8: the more you see the problems. And then, and I'd
• 26:27
  Speaker 8: say this to any journalist who might be watching this evening,
• 26:30
  Speaker 8: you know, they've put up, or Jim Chalmers has put
• 26:33
  Speaker 8: up a range of things where he says, well, people
• 26:34
  Speaker 8: can transition, they can adjust, they can go, I've got
• 26:38
  Speaker 8: this transitional period where they can change the way they're structured.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Well, having gone to briefings with leading.
• 26:46
  Speaker 8: Australian, you know, Australia-wide accounting firms, the idea of trying
• 26:50
  Speaker 8: to actually take advantage of those business restructuring measures is
• 26:54
  Speaker 8: laughable because they're very complicated and if you get it wrong,
• 26:59
  Speaker 8: you can be chased by the ATO for years to come.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: It's quite incredible. By the way, in terms of giving.
• 27:05
  Speaker 8: Evidence, I'd like to deliver a big shout-out this evening
• 27:09
  Speaker 8: to Mike Zorbas from the Property Council of Australia, who
• 27:13
  Speaker 8: went up there to Canberra and absolutely said.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: It like it is to government.
• 27:19
  Speaker 8: And often these peak bodies, you know, they prance around,
• 27:22
  Speaker 8: they mince their words, they don't actually, you know, get
• 27:25
  Speaker 8: stuck in and say what the problem is.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Well, Mike Zorbas did a really good.
• 27:29
  Speaker 8: Job in the last 48 hours when he was giving
• 27:31
  Speaker 8: evidence in Canberra.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Quick one for you.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: I know how much you love the fact the Olympics
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: are going to be in Brisbane, aside from the in fact,
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: where the stadium's being built. Netball has now... They're talking
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: about adding to the roster of sports. I'd be 110%
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: in favour of that because we'd probably win a gold medal.
• 27:53
  Speaker 8: Well, look, I think netball is a fantastic sport to
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: be included in the Olympics.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: When I was in politics, I was.
• 28:01
  Speaker 8: A strong supporter of trying to lift that particular sort
• 28:05
  Speaker 8: of element of women's sport and got behind them.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: And, you know, it's an exciting game.
• 28:11
  Speaker 8: Some of those, some of the events that we used
• 28:13
  Speaker 8: to go to were real cliffhangers and Lisa and I
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: always really enjoyed it.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: So I hope they do include it. It would be great,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: I agree with you completely. See you next Friday. Campbell
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: Newman there, the former Premier of Queensland. After the break,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Cartoons of the Week with our mate Mark Knight. Plus,
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: we'll hear from one of the economists who's pleading the
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: next government of Victoria, please rein in your spending.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: Steve Price with you.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I'll catch up with Saul Eslake in a moment, one
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: of the economists that signed a letter this week urging governments,
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: state and federal, to rein in spending.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Good luck with that.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Let's get into Cartoons of the Week, though, with the
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: best man in the business, Mark Knight, who joins us
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: in the studio.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Boy, have you had a bit of stuff to play
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: with this week. Big week, Pricey. We'll get on to the.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: State election in a moment, but I want to talk
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: to you a cartoon about Donald Trump and the blue wave.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: It was a good night for the Democrats, not so
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: good for the Trumpster.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: No.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Control of Congress goes to... The Democrats, the Republicans are
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: getting swept away by a blue wave. Let's have a
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: look at how you depict it.
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: Whoa!
• 29:21
  Speaker 9: The blue wave, it's a great metaphor, and I just
• 29:24
  Speaker 9: played it pretty straight. And who doesn't love to draw
• 29:27
  Speaker 9: that fantastic neoclassical Congress building?
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure the rubber duck's going to help that.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Well, this was.
• 29:35
  Speaker 9: Look, the thing I've learned about Donald Trump is never
• 29:37
  Speaker 9: count him out.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Never say it's... over. What about him.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Sitting up there at one stage during the week talking
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: about the pipes on the pond? I couldn't work out
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: what that was about.
• 29:47
  Speaker 9: Well, as they said, this is the blue that the
• 29:51
  Speaker 9: lake was supposed to be and, boy, it's come crashing down.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: Let's head back to Australia. Obviously, Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: You have to have a horsey cartoon.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: You do. On Melbourne Cup Day. It's tradition.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: You had Jim Chalmers in your head. You had Michelle Bullock,
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: the Reserve Bank governor.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: How did we end up linking? Ah, here we go.
• 30:11
  Speaker 9: Well, this cartoon, because as we know, Kieran Maher, the
• 30:15
  Speaker 9: legendary trainer, trained the first three.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: Place getters in the Cup. Yep.
• 30:19
  Speaker 9: And I thought, look, Jim, he seems to have trained...
• 30:24
  Speaker 9: the three big place-getters in the world of politics this week,
• 30:28
  Speaker 9: which was inflation up, A rate rise and, of course,
• 30:32
  Speaker 9: cost of living off the scale.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Bare bones, too. Bare bones. They're not good-looking horses. No
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: one's got... It's bare bones. No one's got any money
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: to bet on those stupid-looking horses.
• 30:42
  Speaker 9: Well, someone said to me, they're the three horses of
• 30:43
  Speaker 9: the economic apocalypse.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Jim, you know, the way you draw Jim, a bit
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: of Gomer Pyle about him.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: You think? Most people watching wouldn't even remember Gomer Pyle.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: I remember Gomer Pyle. Gomer Pyle. Jim Neighbours. Absolutely. That's right.
• 30:57
  Speaker 9: I think he's saying a little bit like, Paul Keating,
• 31:00
  Speaker 9: which he would love.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: Is that intentional? Telling little fits? Yeah, could be.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Could be.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: Could be. There might be something in.
• 31:09
  Speaker 9: That, though.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: He's also featured in another cartoon, more on the issues
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: he's done very little to tackle.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: You had those three. What else has he not tackled?
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: This was his.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Confession!
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: This was his mount for the day, right?
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: What's Jim going to be riding? And, of course, it's
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: the inflation dragon. And I love it when all.
• 31:30
  Speaker 9: The horses go into the stalls and, you know, one
• 31:32
  Speaker 9: of them plays up. Well, Jim's... He's just showing that
• 31:36
  Speaker 9: he cannot control his mount, which is inflation.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Absolutely scary-looking dragon.
• 31:40
  Speaker 9: I love drawing dragons. I was a Game of Thrones fan.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Were you a Game of Thrones fan?
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ish.
• 31:45
  Speaker 9: Yeah, well, the dragons in that were just something to behold.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: Still in Victoria, of course, we've got the election campaign
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: and we've got a reminder for Ben Carroll that... We
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: talked about this two weeks ago. You have to pay
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: for your petrol when you fill up your car. How
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: he forgot to do that, I've got no idea. You
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: also have to pay for your spending commitments.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Well, this is your... He's back at the petrol station.
• 32:07
  Speaker 9: Inspired by your column for tomorrow, Pricey, and you were
• 32:10
  Speaker 9: talking about, you know, all these promises they're going to make,
• 32:12
  Speaker 9: how are they going to pay for them? Well, and
• 32:14
  Speaker 9: I thought that's a bit like his petrol thing where.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: He forgot to pay.
• 32:19
  Speaker 9: You do have to pay for your election promises. And
• 32:22
  Speaker 9: so there he is filling up the Labor... machine with
• 32:25
  Speaker 9: all these billions of dollars of election promises.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: No accident, the car's red.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: True, yeah, on point there.
• 32:32
  Speaker 9: And, you know, the guy at the counter is just
• 32:35
  Speaker 9: reminding him, mate, you do have to pay for all this,
• 32:37
  Speaker 9: you know.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he forgot last time.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: You've also done a cartoon this week which is a
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: reminder of the crime crisis.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Now, you know that in Victoria. Yeah, it's terrible. But
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: it was Halloween this week.
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: Did you manage to get Halloween involved somehow?
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I did.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Well, Victorians, they look out through their little peephole... Oh,
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: my God!
• 32:57
  Speaker 9: or they look out through their CCTV and they see
• 33:01
  Speaker 9: all these kids dressed up in black and this poor
• 33:04
  Speaker 9: old lady thinks it's Halloween.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I think her husband's onto it.
• 33:08
  Speaker 9: He knows what's going on here and he's... He's releasing
• 33:11
  Speaker 9: the hounds.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: No worries, I've got a treat for them, he's saying.
• 33:15
  Speaker 9: But that's the thing in Victoria is home invasions, it's
• 33:19
  Speaker 9: just we just take it for granted now.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like five years ago, three years ago, you know,
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: into COVID. Yep.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: If someone had told me that 14-year-old kids were running
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: around with machetes breaking into people's houses and saying, give
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: me your car keys.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: In Brighton.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: I would have said, you're kidding, aren't you?
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, it is frightening. And I don't think, on
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: a serious note, either side of politics... can really change
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: it because we've got a whole bunch of soft magistrates.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: These kids all get out of bail. And if you
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: recruit kids.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: Young enough, they don't even end up getting in trouble.
• 33:51
  Speaker 9: It's like the cuckoo clock. They're going in here, but
• 33:55
  Speaker 9: they're just coming out this side, just through the bail system.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: Finally, I am sad that David Jones has gone into administration.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: I mean, I haven't been there for years, so I'm
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: probably one of the people to blame a little bit.
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: But It was, like Meyer, such a part of our
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: growing up. Isn't it the Meyer windows.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Or what's happening here?
• 34:16
  Speaker 9: You know, Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne or Sydney or
• 34:18
  Speaker 9: Brisbane or wherever you are, the Christmas windows are just
• 34:21
  Speaker 9: such a delight.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: And I have drawn... Santa's got no clothes on. Well, they.
• 34:28
  Speaker 9: He lost them in the administrators' cuts. So this is
• 34:33
  Speaker 9: the David Jones Christmas window, sadly, this year.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Great cartoon. They were going in there yesterday, people grabbing stuff. Yeah.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Might go down and get a bargain. Mark, I look
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: forward to seeing your cartoon in my column tomorrow. Thank you, mate.
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: Thanks, mate.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Mark Knight, the best in the business. I mentioned Saul Eslake.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: Four of the country's top economists have clubbed together to
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: call for restraint in Victorian public spending and in Canberra.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: It's a letter spearheaded by this advocacy group, Amplify. They
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: argue that servicing the debt is diverting billions of dollars
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: away from essential services. And we can all see it.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: That's why we've got potholes and leaving the state exposed
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: to economic shocks. I'll be joined in a moment by
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: one of the signatories, Saul Eslake. But first, take a
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: look at the state treasurer's response yesterday to that actual
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: letter where he mentioned my next guest.
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: In respect to the economists, and I've got a great
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: deal of respect for people like Saul Eslake, but their
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: job as an economist, they don't have to run the
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: health system and make sure people get into hospitals. They
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: don't have to run the education system. And I think
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: they would acknowledge that as well. We have to be
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: able to do both.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: Saul Eslake joins me. He's a fan of yours, but
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: he's not a fan of the letter.
• 35:45
  Speaker 10: I thought his comment was fair enough. It's true that
• 35:48
  Speaker 10: I don't have to make decisions as to hospitals or
• 35:53
  Speaker 10: policing or schools. That's the job of the government of
• 35:57
  Speaker 10: the day, whether that's him after the election or some alternative.
• 36:02
  Speaker 10: But what all of us who signed that letter that
• 36:06
  Speaker 10: was sponsored by the group Amplify, as you explained before.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: are.
• 36:10
  Speaker 10: Offering suggestions as to how the next Victorian government, whoever
• 36:14
  Speaker 10: it is, should get on top of the problem that
• 36:17
  Speaker 10: Victoria now has, where almost 10 cents of every dollar
• 36:22
  Speaker 10: that the Victorian government gets, either from Victorian taxpayers or
• 36:26
  Speaker 10: from the federal government, is by 2029-30 going to be
• 36:31
  Speaker 10: given to bondholders in the form of interest. rather than
• 36:34
  Speaker 10: spent on the services that Victorians expect the state government
• 36:38
  Speaker 10: to provide. And in order to prevent that situation from
• 36:41
  Speaker 10: getting worse, indeed, to prevent it from getting to that position,
• 36:46
  Speaker 10: our argument is that the government, whoever it is, needs
• 36:49
  Speaker 10: to set clear targets for debt and spending. To set
• 36:54
  Speaker 10: rules to govern those, they would be helped by having
• 36:58
  Speaker 10: some kind of outside advice as to where it's possible
• 37:02
  Speaker 10: to make reductions in spending, which need to happen if
• 37:06
  Speaker 10: the government is to achieve a cash surplus, which in
• 37:10
  Speaker 10: turn it needs to have in order not just to
• 37:13
  Speaker 10: repay debt, but to stop running up even more debt
• 37:16
  Speaker 10: than it's already got. Yes, there's more that needs to
• 37:20
  Speaker 10: be done to design and figure out where spending can
• 37:25
  Speaker 10: be cut and then to implement those. And Mr Brooks
• 37:28
  Speaker 10: is right to say that's difficult, but it needs to
• 37:31
  Speaker 10: be done.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: You and I have been around a long time.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: Is this the worst budget position that you've ever seen
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: a state government in? I mean, we can think back
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: to obviously the Kane-Kernie years when we lost the state bank.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: But these numbers, I mean, Geoff Kenner took over, these
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: numbers far outweigh that, don't they?
• 37:52
  Speaker 10: Well, the level of debt which Victoria now has relative
• 37:56
  Speaker 10: to the size of the Victorian economy is bigger than
• 38:00
  Speaker 10: it was when Geoff Kennard came to office in 1992,
• 38:04
  Speaker 10: although because interest rates on government debt, though they've gone
• 38:08
  Speaker 10: up over the past two years, are still quite a
• 38:12
  Speaker 10: bit lower than they were 34 years ago, the cost
• 38:16
  Speaker 10: of servicing the debt which Victoria now has is... isn't
• 38:19
  Speaker 10: quite as bad as it was when Geoff Kennett came
• 38:22
  Speaker 10: to office, although it's certainly heading in that direction. And
• 38:26
  Speaker 10: if interest rates keep rising on government debt around the world,
• 38:29
  Speaker 10: as seems likely, then we could find ourselves in a
• 38:32
  Speaker 10: similar position if the next Victorian government doesn't take the
• 38:36
  Speaker 10: sort of actions that we've been recommending to stem the
• 38:39
  Speaker 10: rise in debt and start to pay it down. I'd
• 38:42
  Speaker 10: also say that while Victoria's position is very bad... Relative
• 38:49
  Speaker 10: to the size of its economy, the position of my
• 38:52
  Speaker 10: own state, Tasmania, is actually worse than Victoria's, and that's
• 38:55
  Speaker 10: happened under 10 years of Liberal government, whereas Victoria's position
• 39:00
  Speaker 10: has accumulated under 10 years of Labor government. The Northern
• 39:03
  Speaker 10: Territory's financial position is about as bad as Victoria's and Tasmania's,
• 39:09
  Speaker 10: and some other states, in particular Queensland, which traditionally has
• 39:13
  Speaker 10: had one of the strongest financial positions of any state,
• 39:16
  Speaker 10: sort of heading towards Victorian territory as well. And while
• 39:20
  Speaker 10: that's not the fault of the current government in Queensland,
• 39:23
  Speaker 10: the current government in Queensland isn't really doing anything to
• 39:27
  Speaker 10: correct the position. Indeed, I was surprised to see this
• 39:31
  Speaker 10: week the Treasurer of Queensland, Mr Janetsky, saying that they
• 39:35
  Speaker 10: weren't going to rein in their spending at all. which,
• 39:38
  Speaker 10: you know, for a Liberal National Party government is surprising.
• 39:41
  Speaker 10: And I'm sure your previous guest, Campbell Newman, would have
• 39:44
  Speaker 10: been a bit dismayed by what one of his successors
• 39:48
  Speaker 10: in Queensland is saying about spending in that state.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's grim, Saul. Good to talk to you. Well
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: done on the letter. I'll talk to you soon. Saul
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: Eslake there. You just wonder whether, you know, someone like
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: a Jess Wilson and her, she's going to be the
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: treasurer as well. Why wouldn't you get Saul Eslake in
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: a room with you and ask him what you should do?
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, ego gets in the way, I guess.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: Up next, what songs would you nominate for the Great
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: Australian Songbook? Well, the public servants have had a go.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: We'll get some nominations from our Friday panel, Joe Hildebrand
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: and Christy McSweeney next.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Rowan Dean coming up at the top of the hour.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: Welcome back.
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: Let's get stuck into my Friday panel. Tonight I'm joined
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: by News 24 contributor Joe Hilderand.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: He's with us every Friday night.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: And Christy McSweeney from the PR Council is with us
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: as well. I want to go back to the Victorian election,
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: both of you, and that dire polling for Labor.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: The coalition's, according to the Herald Sun News Limited poll,
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: on 31%. Ben Carroll's party is way back on 22%.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: And they're now a point behind One Nation.
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: Joe, watching it from afar, you'd have to say Labor
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: are in massive trouble.
• 41:04
  Speaker 11: Yeah, look, there's no question they are. I'm obviously very,
• 41:07
  Speaker 11: very sort of heavily invested and... involved in the Victorian election,
• 41:12
  Speaker 11: given it is my hometown after all. And I know
• 41:14
  Speaker 11: I actually know Ben. He's a good man. He's a
• 41:18
  Speaker 11: very honest man. He's been handed an absolute hospital pass.
• 41:22
  Speaker 11: I mean, talk about just You.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: Know, getting... He didn't have to take it.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: No, no, he didn't.
• 41:27
  Speaker 11: But I think he's been put there to... And he
• 41:30
  Speaker 11: tried to resist for a while, but he's been put
• 41:32
  Speaker 11: there basically to save the furniture. I'm surprised it's as
• 41:35
  Speaker 11: high as 22%, I have to say. I actually think
• 41:37
  Speaker 11: that's a pretty good result, given that you've got the
• 41:40
  Speaker 11: federal government, federal Labor... on about 25% in the last poll,
• 41:44
  Speaker 11: also behind One Nation, and they're sitting on a record
• 41:46
  Speaker 11: majority in the House of Reps. So compare that, a
• 41:49
  Speaker 11: second-term government with a record majority that's now on 25%,
• 41:53
  Speaker 11: to a Victorian Labor government where the left of the
• 41:57
  Speaker 11: party has absolutely traumatised the state. I mean, we're looking
• 42:01
  Speaker 11: at a whole state that basically has PTSD.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 42:04
  Speaker 11: And then Carol's been... sent in to basically reverse what
• 42:08
  Speaker 11: he possibly can after all the mistakes and the scandals
• 42:12
  Speaker 11: have been exposed.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: It's an impossible job.
• 42:14
  Speaker 11: It is an impossible job, but he's doing well.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: It's an impossible job.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: Christy, you've been looking at the polls. Do you believe
• 42:20
  Speaker 3: the One Nation vote? I mean, they're now, according to
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: that poll out today, running second.
• 42:25
  Speaker 12: Look, One Nation has continued to fall behind the coalition.
• 42:30
  Speaker 12: They were behind Labor, so they've moved up the last
• 42:33
  Speaker 12: couple of months since the leadership change, and we've been
• 42:36
  Speaker 12: tracking that since July. And this is sort of one
• 42:38
  Speaker 12: of the first polls out there that shows that One
• 42:40
  Speaker 12: Nation has jumped ahead of Labor. They are a long way,
• 42:45
  Speaker 12: in terms of polling, a long way behind the coalition.
• 42:49
  Speaker 12: It would be good if the coalition's vote was sort
• 42:51
  Speaker 12: of up past the mid-30s. It's not as high as
• 42:54
  Speaker 12: it should be, but it is a fragmented election with
• 42:58
  Speaker 12: the advent of One Nation.
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: And as you know, though, I mean, Victoria is not
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: fertile ground for One Nation. I mean, it's much more fertile,
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: I would say, in places like Queensland, regional rural South Australia,
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: parts of WA and parts of rural New South Wales.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: Here in Melbourne, so let's just talk about the... the
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: wider area of Melbourne, Melbourne's suburbia, One Nation, if they
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: win three or four seats, would be doing pretty.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I would have thought.
• 43:30
  Speaker 12: They would be doing really well. The surprise here is
• 43:33
  Speaker 12: the Greens polling at 14%. We had a Redbridge poll yesterday.
• 43:36
  Speaker 12: that had them at 16%. So that locks in our
• 43:39
  Speaker 12: red bridge poll. The Greens have three seats here in Melbourne.
• 43:43
  Speaker 12: There's also another four seats where they're within a 3%
• 43:47
  Speaker 12: margin of Labor. With Labor's vote continuing to go down
• 43:51
  Speaker 12: and Greens continuing to track a lot higher than they
• 43:54
  Speaker 12: have traditionally, it is the highest Green vote in the country.
• 43:58
  Speaker 12: but if for them to poll at 14%, their result
• 44:01
  Speaker 12: at the 2022 election or the last state election was 6.5%
• 44:06
  Speaker 12: of the vote. So they're way up on that if
• 44:09
  Speaker 12: that 14% there for the Greens holds and they nab
• 44:12
  Speaker 12: those extra.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Seats from Labor.
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: You and I both know well which is the seat
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: of Pran. I think the Greens will win that and
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: Liberals will lose it. So the Liberals have got to
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: win 16 seats to govern in their own right. They've
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: then got to win another one because I think they'll
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: lose that for sure. Rachel Westerway is a local member.
• 44:29
  Speaker 12: Who's a fantastic local member, but it is a very,
• 44:33
  Speaker 12: very tough competition. She's a great local member. She's got
• 44:35
  Speaker 12: high name ID. She works very hard for those diverse
• 44:39
  Speaker 12: communities there and for the Liberal-based voters, because there are
• 44:42
  Speaker 12: a lot of them too in some of those wealthier
• 44:44
  Speaker 12: suburbs around there, which should insulate her vote quite significantly.
• 44:49
  Speaker 12: But it's a tough contest there, that seat of Peratt.
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 44:52
  Speaker 6: But a great candidate.
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: Joe, Texas is now... run by the Democrats. What the
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: hell's going on over there?
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 45:01
  Speaker 11: I actually wrote a column about this phenomenon. I said,
• 45:05
  Speaker 11: them's tough trails for a cowboy.
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: It's phenomenal.
• 45:10
  Speaker 11: I think what it is, it's the economy, stupid, as
• 45:12
  Speaker 11: Bill Clinton famously said. It's the fact that Donald Trump
• 45:17
  Speaker 11: was elected because Joe Biden was hopeless and obviously suffering
• 45:21
  Speaker 11: from some form of mental decline or dementia. And he'd
• 45:26
  Speaker 11: allowed the economy to completely stagnate on his watch. Kamala
• 45:30
  Speaker 11: Harris was obviously a laughingstock. But people were suffering economically
• 45:34
  Speaker 11: in the US. And they looked again at Trump, who
• 45:36
  Speaker 11: they'd dumped in a landslide just four years earlier and said, well,
• 45:40
  Speaker 11: he can't be any worse than the current guy. We
• 45:42
  Speaker 11: might as well, you know, might as well love the
• 45:44
  Speaker 11: one you're with. So that is why Trump got swept back.
• 45:48
  Speaker 11: And the problem is that he didn't do that. He
• 45:50
  Speaker 11: didn't fix it. He pulled in a ridiculous, crazy fringe
• 45:55
  Speaker 11: economic academic who thought that whacking tariffs on everything would
• 46:00
  Speaker 11: solve all America's economic woes. That was a disaster, as
• 46:03
  Speaker 11: everyone knew it would be. He then went to war
• 46:06
  Speaker 11: in Iran, which I thought was a just war, but
• 46:09
  Speaker 11: I made the mistake of assuming they actually had some
• 46:11
  Speaker 11: kind of plan or some strategy on to how to
• 46:14
  Speaker 11: finish it. and had anticipated Iran responding the way it
• 46:19
  Speaker 11: did by closing the Strait of Hormuz and putting a
• 46:21
  Speaker 11: throttle around the neck of global oil supply.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: You know, Christy, I mean, these are the same issues
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: that are haunting Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese. Cost of fuel, petrol,
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: diesel and cost of living... interest rates all up five
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: times this year, they're exactly the same issues. I mean,
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: if you held an Australian federal election today, I think
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: Labor would be doing very well to hang on, even
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: though they've got that thumping majority.
• 46:47
  Speaker 12: Look, there's no doubt that issues like cost of living
• 46:50
  Speaker 12: and affordability in general is really.
• 46:53
  Speaker 10: eating.
• 46:53
  Speaker 12: Into the Labor Party state vote here in Victoria, that
• 46:57
  Speaker 12: dislike of the Albanese government or the upset that people
• 47:00
  Speaker 12: have around cost of living and inflation and what are
• 47:03
  Speaker 12: you going to do about it? We keep hearing about
• 47:05
  Speaker 12: the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, Ukraine. These issues have been
• 47:08
  Speaker 12: well forecasted and part of our environment now and people
• 47:12
  Speaker 12: are looking to the Albanese government for what is your plan?
• 47:15
  Speaker 12: When are we going to hear something else? That is
• 47:18
  Speaker 12: feeding into the Redbridge polling into Victoria and doing Ben
• 47:22
  Speaker 12: Carroll no favours. But, of course, you can't make promises
• 47:26
  Speaker 12: to people you can't keep, which is what Donald Trump
• 47:29
  Speaker 12: told everybody. You will be better off. I will destabilise
• 47:33
  Speaker 12: global trade.
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: And guess what?
• 47:35
  Speaker 12: You wake up and everything you buy at Walmart is
• 47:38
  Speaker 12: not cheaper.
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: It's more expensive.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: Finally, this week, we saw the release of Australia's songbook,
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: 10 tracks selected by the National Film and Sound Archive.
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: There's some classics in there. I'll sing Matilda, Friday On
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: My Mind. Joe, I'll put you on the spot here, mate.
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: If you had to choose a song to put in there,
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: what would it be?
• 47:59
  Speaker 11: I've gone a bit left field with two of the
• 48:01
  Speaker 11: greatest musicians and songwriters in the country. It's a song
• 48:04
  Speaker 11: called Bittersweet by Casey Chambers and Bernard Fanning, and it
• 48:08
  Speaker 11: is an absolute banger.
• 48:10
  Speaker 13: Waiting for a light to come on Waiting for your
• 48:18
  Speaker 13: light to guide me on.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: Got to say, I'm fighting back the tears.
• 48:26
  Speaker 12: I'm a massive Casey Chambers fan.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: I've got a few.
• 48:29
  Speaker 6: Redgum.
• 48:30
  Speaker 12: One.
• 48:30
  Speaker 6: It's only 19.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Men at Work.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: And there's me in me slouch hat With me SLR
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: and greens God help me I was only 19.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: I used to work with that bloke who sings that song, Kirstie. Fantastic.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: Kirstie and Jo, thank you very much. Thank you.