Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese snubbing a NATO meeting

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has drawn criticism from the opposition over his decision to skip a NATO summit. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, will attend the meeting in Washington in his place.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says Albanese is in a no-win situation as tensions escalate.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murray Old's OZSI corresponds with us amash afternoon to you,
has Elbow done the right thing deciding not to go
to that NATO meeting in the US, Well, big call.
He's been to the last two. This is a NATO
meeting in Washington. Of course he went the last couple
of times, and he was accused of being airbus Elbow
by the opposition. You know, the more impressing that, you know,

(00:22):
the more important problems at home, Elbow, he must stay home.
Well now he's doing that, and of course the opposites
are your dereliction of duty. You should be representing Australia.
The fact of the matter is that he couldn't get
a one on one with Joe Biden. And you know
he's desperate, keen to prosecute the benefits for Australians of

(00:44):
the tade at the Stage three tax cuts that the
government managed to ram through. You know, significant benefits according
to the government for every single lossie cheaper power bills,
and the list goes on and on and on. So
he's going to send the Deputy Prime Minister instead looked
a bit like you and Keir Starmer. You know you're
damn with you do, you're damned if you don't. He

(01:07):
doesn't want to leave himself wide up into another opposition
attack about you know, being away from home when the
fires are burning. And equally now he's decided to stay.
How he's getting belted anyway, So you can't win too, right, Hey,
So it's all over for the live exports. Yeah, and
we've been here before. It's not a new movie, you know.
I went back looking because I knew you wanted to

(01:29):
talk about this. Live sheet trade has been around for
well over well and some I read somewhere that it's
been around since around the Second World War, but it
really geared up about twenty five years ago. Now it's
worth around one hundred and forty million dollars a year.
The only state that exports live animal sheep and cattle
anymore over here is Western Australia. And so the decision

(01:50):
it was a it was flagged. I mean, this was
an election promise that Labour took to the last election
and that's now been enacted. It past the up House
last night, so it's now law. Well, of course the
sky is going to fall and if you listen to
the Farmers Federation over here, but The fact of the
matter is it is a it from welfare and animal

(02:12):
welfare point of view, it's a disaster if you have
very hot temperatures. These animals are dying in vast numbers.
Thousands and thousands of animals are being being killed at
sea because you know, China or Saudi Arabia. Someone says, oh,
we've picked up scabby mouth or you know, these sheep
aren't top quality. But the poor buggers are out there

(02:33):
there and they're literally dropping dead on the high seas.
And we've had cameras in store, we've had vets, you know,
compulsory veterinary inspections on board. The fact of the matter
is it's not good for the animal's welfare, particularly over summer.
We even had the ridiculous situation where live exports were
banned during the summer months by the Morrison government. Anyway,

(02:55):
the whole thing's going to get knocked on the head
as of twenty twenty eight and Labour says, well, we
told you so and now we're monitoring a promise. So
mass listen. So the security staff in the hospitals are
going to try all these body cameras, are they to
see if that actually stops the assaults and stuff. But yeah,
this is in New South Wales. In the twelve months
to March this year, there were nearly one thousand violent

(03:18):
attacks on hospital staff. You're thinking emergency departments, you're thinking
security staff who are there in increasing numbers, and that
was an increase of twenty seven percent. There are nine
or ten hospitals that have been identified in New South
Wales has been the worst for this type of crime
and the security guards are going to start wearing body
cameras around three hundred of these cameras only recording. According

(03:42):
to the government, if there's a risk to staff or patients,
well the Australian Milical Associations is better than body cams.
How about we get decent community mental health treatment facilities
out there in the community, because this is what's happening.
A lot of people are presenting with mental health conditions.

(04:03):
They walk into an emergency department, the moment sleeping under
a bridge. The poor buggers they're walking there. That's I mean,
you know what it's like. It's crazy. It's just like
on television. There's lights as people yelling and people screaming
and crying, no wonder they are up a bit. Others
are coming in drugged off their faces or drunk. Anyway,
The AMA says that's a much better way. The Health

(04:25):
Services UT represents the security guards is saying this morning,
I interviewed the guy this morning at the ABC. He said,
guess what if this keeps going at the rate it
is twenty seven percent entries in the last twelve months,
We're going to have to have police armed police she
stationed permanently in emergency department. Yeah, that is really bad. Hey, Mars,
thank you for that. Appreciate that. Murray Ols, Australia correspondent.

(04:48):
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