Latest / The Front / The $1.4 billion free lunch

Transcript

The $1.4 billion free lunch · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, October eighteen.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Nine.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Entertainment has a systemic cultural issue with abuse of power
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and authority, bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment. That's according to
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a review commissioned by the organization itself, But there are
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: no findings about individual incidents or allegations, leading to fears
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: nobody will be held accountable. You can read all the
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: detail right now at the Australian dot com. A free
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: lunch for every school kid sounds great, but it comes
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: with a one point four billion dollar price tag and
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: it's turning up the heat in a Queensland election campaign. Today,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: our reporter joins us from a famous pub with a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: big yarn about the man who wants to be premiere.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: What's your name, l Amelia? And what's your favorite thing
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: to have for lunch?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: This is Queensland's Labor Premier, Stephen Miles, interviewing some preschoolers.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: What's your name?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Amelia likes fruit, Azaia likes nuggets, and Miles, who's desperately
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: hoping to keep labor alive in the upcoming election, is
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: hoping their moms and dads like free lunches. That's his
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: big policy announcement of the week and it's captivated parents.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: It's also led us on a deep dive into Miles's
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: TikTok and it turns out lunch is a bit.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Of a theme, all right.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Sandwich there's a stack of tiktoks where Myles stands in
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: his kitchen wearing a series of t shirts tight enough
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to show off his gums. Making sandwiches sometimes a come
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: needed by his daughter.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Lots of announcements, including one I'm really excited in that, which.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Is a massive There's chopping and shredding and buttering. It's
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: quite gripping. He's slicing a tomato. He's what putting the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: tomato strata on the bread and then pouring salt on it. Geez, salami,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: raw onion.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: He really loves sandwiches.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: He loves making a Sunday sandwich with his ten year
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: old daughter Brady. I think it's part of his kind
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: of daggy dad stick. He's doing it a little bit
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: more convincingly than Scott Morrison did I think, Honey.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: This is one of the Australian's gun reporters. Sarah Elks
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: who's part of our team covering Queensland politics.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: And then he's supercharged that at the ALP campaign launch
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: on Sunday when he said that Queensland Labor, if re elected,
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: would provide a free school lunch for every kid between
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: prep and year six, so all of primary school, every day.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: We caught her in the middle of a busy day
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: on the campaign trail and she'd just taken her first
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: sip of a beer that looked icy and pretty delicious.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: Just excuse my beer, it's really hot.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: It's hot.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: I got up at four am to get on the plane.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Sarah's got some experience with school lunches as a real
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: life issue as well as a policy.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: Debate, and as a new school mum myself, I can
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: say that I don't love making school lunches, but I
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: also understand that.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: It's really tricky for school touch shops.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: Ours has one paid staff member and the rest rely
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: on volunteers. Sometimes it's really tricky to find volunteers. And
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: there's not been a huge amount of detail from Stephen
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Mars and Labor about exactly how he's going to roll
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: out these school lunches to every single kid, particularly in
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: regional and rural areas where some schools don't even have
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: a touch shop. But I think it goes to show
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: that labor is really focusing on cost of living relief.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: There's been a bit of scoffing about the free lunch policy,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: in particular it's one point four billion dollar price tag.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: What's your take on how ordinary Queenslanders will receive this policy?
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: From talking to my small focus group of ordinary Queenslanders,
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: you know, friends and family, I think that there is
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: some acceptance that the government is trying to relieve cost
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: of living pressures and everyone is doing it a little
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: bit tough, but I think they're really taking a leaf
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: out of say the pmc's book. The Queensland Parents and
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: Citizens Association released a statement to say thank you for
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: recognizing that cost of living is a problem, but we
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: would prefer the money being spent on the cost of
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: school expenses, stationery and uniforms and excursions and all that
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: kind of thing. So I think that there is skepticism
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: and also I think the problem with these kind of
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: measures with a third term government is people might be
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: happy to accept them, but it may not be enough
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: to win over their votes when there's such a strong
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: it's time factor that's kind of ricocheting through the electorate.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Coming up. Sarah's been breaking big yarns about David Chrisfuli's past.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: After the break what he says about his record.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: In business.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: For as life on a campaign trail can be hard going.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: The leaders load you onto buses, but you don't get
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: told where you're going or what you're doing until you arrive.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: It's political party's way of avoiding nasty surprises like protesters
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: showing up. But it makes for long days for journos.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: So where have you been today?
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: We flew from Brisbane to Townsville and we did a
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: press conference outside the Youth Detention Center in Townsville, and
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: then we drove up the road to Ingham, which is
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: David chrystop philliess hometown, and we went to the tennis club.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: He's now gone to his favorite deli and we're just
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: having a lunch in allegedly the pub that Slim Dusty
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: wrote the song Pub with No Beer About a Lot
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: of Chair of Little Place is a pub with no beer,
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: although it has beer now, which is definitely a plus.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: You're on the David Christifully come Back tour now in
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: his home town of Ingham, Sarah, and you've been digging
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: into his past what he did after losing his seat
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: in the Queensland Parliament a few years back. David chrysip
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: Fully lost his seat Munding Borough, which is a Townspall
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: seat in twenty fifteen when the Newman government was swept
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: out of power. When he found himself without a seat,
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: he looked to the private sector for employment. The first
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: thing he did was get some consulting work for a
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: company called Outcome Results, which was like a recruitment company
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: for unemployment training providers. So they found people who were
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: long term unemployed and connected them with registered training organizations.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: Outcome Results was a company that was run by a
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: gentleman called Rabbia Kraem and he is a long term
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: associate of mister Chrysa Fullies. And in the dying days
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: of the Newman government, David Chrisipfully as local member, boasted
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: that he secured a taxpayer FUNDEDRT worth about three hundred
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: and twenty one thousand dollars for Outcome Results to set
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: up a call center in Townsville to shift its operations
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: from Melbourne to towns full And what we found out
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: is that soon after mister chrysa Fully lost his seat
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: of monding Borough. He then became a consultant for mister
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: Craam's outcome results. Following that consultancy work, he then agreed
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: to be the sole director and the chief executive of
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: a registered training organization that mister Crayam was the half
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: owner of. And this is a business that has now
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: come back to haunt mister chrysa Fully in terms of
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: questions about its running. It ultimately failed. It fell into
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: liquidation a couple of months after mister chrisa Fully left
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: that business in April twenty sixteen, and while he was
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: only there for four months, I think questions do need
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: to be asked at what he knew when he entered
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: the business, what he did as its sole director and
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: the person who was in charge of running the business,
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: and then what he did afterwards.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Here's Sarah taking on Chris a Fully at a press
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: conference just before the beer in Ingham on Thursday.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: Can I ask some questions about your business if that's okay, please?
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: Why did you leave Southern Edge Training on April one
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: in twenty sixteen.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Because my promise capital been country.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: I was in the business.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Performer and I met every single one.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Of my obligations.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Sarah versus Chris A. Fooley kept going for a solid
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: eight minutes based.
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: On what Cameron Dick said, and he spent seventy two
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: hours talking about the Supreme Court of Victoria. I'm not
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: talking about the Supreme Court of Victoria, I am because
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: it's related to.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: No, it's really not. I got a statement from the
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Australian Skills Quality Authority last night to say that the
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: report I have read the report, can I it's the
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: allegation was that the company traded.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: His heart really must sink when he sees reporters from
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the Australian showing up at his press conference every day.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: We spoke to Lydia Lynch last week about his difficulty
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: answering questions about how he's going to handle the issue
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: of abortion if he's elected. What's been your sense of
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: his inability or unwillingness to answer some pretty simple questions
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: about this issue.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: It has been unfortunate as a reporter and disappointing as
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: a reporter and as a Queenslander to ask these simple
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: and relevant questions about mister Chris Fully's personal policy position
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: on things and his party's policy position on things. And
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: also issues that are on the public record about his
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: business dealings and be met with non answers. I don't
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: want anyone to feel sorry for a We're used to
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: people not answering our questions, but I think, particularly during
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: an election campaign, it's voters who deserve that transparency and
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: that accountability. I think to not answer really straightforward questions
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: is being disrespectful to voters.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Sarah Elks is a senior reporter with The Australian. You
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: can check out all her reporting and don't miss our
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Queensland team's political gossip column, Feeding the Chucks at the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot u. Thanks for joining us this
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: week on the front. Our team is Kristin Amiot, Jasper
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: leik Leat, Samaglue, Joshua Burton, Tiffany Dimac and me Claire Harvey.