July 2, 2025 • 48 mins
Yoorrook Justice Commission calls for cash payments land and education reforms, Senior public servants handed pay rises to lead Albanese’s growing bureaucracy. Plus, Donald Trump threatens to deport Elon Musk as their feud flares up again.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Peter Krandland live on sky Ingins Australia.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good evening, Welcome to Credlin steep Price sitting in for
Peter this week. He is What's coming up on the
show tonight, Victoria as we know it is heading down
the track to a state based voice to Parliament and
an indigenous treaty. More details to come and it's disturbing
to say the least. Also tonight I'll catch up with
the Australian's Environment editor Graham Lloyd as yet another part
(00:29):
of the green dream goes up in smoke and may
a major wind farm operator actually pulls out of Australia.
And also on the program tonight, Credlin regular Greg Sheridan
on the Penny Wong and Marco Rubio Washington meeting and
Donald Trump's fresh bid for a ceasefire in Gaza ahead
of Benjamin NETTNYA Who's visit to the White House on
(00:50):
Monday next week. Plus everyone's favorite word, Smith Kill Richards
on what hardened my French actually means and where it
came from off the back of Donald Trump's f bomb.
First up though, and I mentioned this treaty process being
foisted on Victorians by hard left Labor State government earlier
(01:10):
in the week. Well, we now have a lot more
detail and it's a whole lot worse than any of
us realized be included. Not surprisingly, Premier de Ciner Allen
is desperately trying to hose the whole notion of treaty
down and frantically trying to separate the failed Federal Voice
referendum and the No victory from what's being considered in
(01:32):
her state.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Here.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
She was earlier this week babbling on about constitutions.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
The key difference to the referendum that was put nationwide
a couple of years ago is that was changing the constitution.
This is not changing the Victorian constitution. It's simply taking
a common sense approach sitting the First People's Assembly, an
ongoing representative body into our existing parliamentary structures. But the
(02:00):
significant change is it'll be a body where we will
be listening, taking on their advice.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Taking it into our significant parliamentary structures. In the other words,
you got to worry about there. Note she said she
was not about changing the Australian constitution in that grab, Well,
no one is suggesting she was. Indeed, what she's doing
along with her Cabinet and a group of Indigenous activists
is a whole lot worse than that. Put Simply, a
standing royal commission, paid for by Victorian taxpayers to the
(02:29):
tune of sixty five million dollars so far, has sat
for four years. This thing's called the URUK Justice Commission,
and it's handed its down to Parliament. It's fine a report,
it's got one hundred recommendations and they expect to be
ticked off by the Parliament. This truth telling exercise wants
Indigenous Victorians offered special tax relief. It wants cash compensation.
(02:53):
It wants land given to Indigenous Victorians to compensate for colonization.
It wants Indigenous amlies given the right to keep their
children out of school and those same children be made
exempt from expulsion and suspension from the school. Now, clearly
we're dealing here with a wide ambit claim. But as
(03:14):
every Victorian would know, the most hard left government in Australia,
the Andrews Allen government, probably agrees with most of this stuff.
It was Dan Andrews who set up this whole process
in a motion back in twenty eighteen. Now, but as
it should be, it's the notion of a community divisive
treaty involving land, water and lots of cash as compensation
(03:38):
that should have not just Victorians. Worry about every Australian
because once it starts here, it will be open slatter everywhere.
Among other things, this commission wants our churches to return
what they claim this Truth Commission, what they claim a
stylen lands. They want markers erected on what they say
are fifty massacre sites across the state.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
It goes on and on.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Here's Premier Allen again today talking about how welcome the
report was and if you can believe it, promising to
carefully consider all of the recommendations.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
We're going to take our time to consider and respond
to the report. When you listen to people, when you
involve people directly impacted on decisions, you get better outcomes.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Now bear in mind there's no state election in Victoria
until November next year. Labour has a comfortable majority in
the Parliament and enjoys the support of the Greens and
various left leaning so called independence so they've got the
numbers to ram this stuff through. Alan would claim she
has a mandate to actually create a permanent Indigenous voice
attached to State Parliament, which would buy law need to
(04:51):
be negotiated with on all legislation, whether it applies to
Indigenous people or not. That's the facts of it. In
recent times, Victorian labor change the rules around public drunkenness,
turning it from a crime to preventing police from actually
arresting people drunk in public instead establishing great cost sobering
(05:12):
up facilities known as drunk tanks, one in Melbourne, several
in regional centers. Why do I mention this? And reportedly
these things are so little used, it's not funny. So
why do they exist well? In part because some Indigenous
leaders were worried about indigenous drunks being locked up, fearing
deaths in custody. Now that, my friends, is a practical
(05:34):
example of where all of this is going to go.
It's a race dividing road we should not be going down.
But sadly we are already well down that road. Get
our panels view on that in the moment, But first
I tend to camera now for tonight's political update with
Sky News political reporter Rubensbargo.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
The Foreign Minister has met her us CA to part
and walked away with renewed confidence that America understands the
importance of ORCUS, but Australia seems no closer to a
deal on tariffs. Discussions reduced a seemingly distant relationship between
the allied countries, Pennywong claims. Marco Rubio expressed regret that
Donald Trump couldn't attend a scheduled meeting with Anthony Albernezi
(06:21):
last month.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Perfectly understood why the President had to leave given the circumstances, and.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
We agree that we will reschedule this meeting.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Pennywong had a very clear job this week, which was
to get over to the United States and to strengthen
that alliance.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Pennywong will come home empty handed.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Australia and the United States, along with Japan and India,
also discussed working together to mine, refine, and share critical minerals.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
The Treasurer is.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Facing mounting pressure to dunp Lavor's three million dollars super
attax ahead of his roundtable next month. Despite no sign
of compromise. Opponents are lodging submissions arguing it will be
productivity killer.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Geological, it's flawed. Some people are saying it's criminal, it's theft.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
There's no guarantee the super tax will even be debated
as part of the Treasurer's Economic roundtable.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Have a mandate.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
That's our position. I think we've won that argument with
the Australian people.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I'm very very confident of that.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Labour only needs the support of the Greens to secure
the passage through the Senate. The government is working on
a national plan to boost protection for kids in childcare.
Victorian childcare center worker Joshua Brown's arrest prompted urgent calls
for action. He's been charged with more than seventy child
sex offenses.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
This is serious and it requires serious action.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
The potential reforms could include better cross jurisdiction information sharing
and near real time updates to working with children, checks
where criminal records change.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Well also to look at the national framework for childcare
to see if we can go even further and act
farther faster.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
The government is drafting to better control funding to childcare
centers depending on standards.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Good on your rubin, Thank you very much for that.
Let's get straight into our panel tonight, joining me Senior
reporter Caroline marcusan national affairs editor at the Daily Telegraph,
and of course Sky News host and these excellent programs
across the network. Welcome to you both. And I want
to stick if I can, with what I discussed in
that editorial at the beginning of the program. I mentioned
this earlier in the week and I've actually written a
(08:29):
column about this for The Herald Sun that will go
up at the weekend. But this final report from the
so called YURUK Commission here in Victoria, James, it's not
even been two years since the National Voice vote. Actually,
I mean the novaue got up in Victoria. It was
I think fifty four point nine percent or something. This
was rejected out of hand by Australians, and yet the
(08:51):
Victorian Premier acts like she knows best and she's going
to establish one anyway.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Well, and the fascinating thing about it, Steve, is if
you look at the Premier's comments that she made when
receiving the report. When announcing the report today, she said,
the contents of this report are confronting, and they're confronting
because they are true. So that tells me, Steve, that
what the Premier and the Victorian government there, the Victorian
Labor government, the hardness left government, I think in the
(09:18):
entire country, as you accurately describe them. Have decided to
accept Holeess Bollis everything in the report. There's one hundred
recommendations in here, you know, and they basically include everything
from separate educational systems, educational rules, basically, reparations forever, separate
representation forever. It's incredibly divisive and it stems out of
(09:39):
this whole settler colonist mentality, which is this whole you know,
hard left doctrine that Australia is essentially an illegitimate nation.
It is making demands of the government that are not
They are not the demands of you know, citizens trying
to come together on an issue. They are almost like,
you know, they've inverted history. They're trying to invert history
(10:01):
here and create a whole set of demands on the
Australian state, which I think is absolutely untenable. This whole
thing should be the entire thing should simply be rejected.
The whole process should never have even been undertaken. I
think in the first place, it's divisive, it's expensive, it's
going to hurt if it is actually implemented, an awful
(10:21):
lot of Indigenous Australians because they won't get the same
benefits of education and so on that everybody else because
the rules will be different for them and they won't
have to do things where everybody else does. It's terrible business,
it's divisive and it's really depressing. I think that in
twenty twenty five, this is where Australia is going, Carol, And.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
One of the things I mentioned there is, I mean
the rest of Australia should take notice of this. I
think South Australia has a form of voice already attached
to its state parliament, but it doesn't seem to be
very effective. We've got labor governments obviously in New South
wild so our biggest states, and in wy Goose through
in Victoria. Indigenous activists in every other state are going
(11:04):
to say, hang on a minute, we want this as well.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Surely it will certainly embolden them.
Speaker 8 (11:10):
But what makes me scratch my head about this is
that three out of five people on the commission behind
this report did not support the key findings in it
being included in that final report. So it just makes
me wonder why has this report even gone to the
government in the first place. Over there, And as you say,
(11:31):
if it goes through, if they pick up all of
these recommendations, it's going to just lead to other states
and territories eventually falling into line as well. And you know,
James made a really good argument about how divisive it is,
but I would just pick up further on his point
and how dangerous this is too, because some of the recommendations,
(11:55):
including that Indigenous children be excluded from attendance requirements at school.
I mean, we already know that attendance levels for Indigenous
children for well below the rest of the population as
it is that it's already on average one day a
(12:17):
week almost that Indigenous children don't attend school on average.
How is this going to help in closing the gap?
Actually making the situation worse for Indigenous people, and then
exempting them from school discipline strategies like suspensions and expulsions,
(12:37):
I mean, how does that teach any sort of discipline?
How does that set out them up for an adult
life in which they're expected to be responsible for their actions.
So the whole thing stinks and it just sets up
further this culture of grievance among the Indigenous, Among Indigenous Australians,
(12:57):
we have had enough.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Of that, yeah, we have.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And James, I meane we took about divisiveness. If you
want a divisive argument in this country, start telling the churches,
Catholic Church or the Anglican Church that they will be
expected under one of the recommendations of this commission to
give back Land that the Truth Telling Commission says was
taken off the First Nation's people. So they're going to
(13:23):
get the state government through legislation, presumably because it'll be
attached to the Parliament. Say to the Catholic Church or
hang on a minute, that cathedral you've got out there
in Hawthorne that used to be First Nations people Land,
they want it back or you. And they make the
point in here that churches don't pay tax. You have
to pay reparation because you stuck your church there. I mean,
(13:46):
what sort of divisive country we're going to have if
that starts.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Well yeah, well, Steve, I mean this is where it
gets really cynical and really sinister, because you know that
Australia is a fairly atheist country, right. I mean, we
know there's a lot of hostility out there, particularly on
the left, to organize religion, particularly the Catholic Church, and
particularly in Victoria. This is such a divisive and sinister
(14:13):
wedge that they're going to run, because there's gonna be
a lot of Victorias are going to say yeah, rah
rah steaking to the Catholic church, blah blah blah, and
it's going to be so divisive. I think if they
even start to go down this road, it does have
a bit of an allegory in my head to what
happened in Canada to their churches, where they were accused
of all sorts of crimes against Canadian Indigenous people that
(14:35):
didn't exist, but there was a whole series of churches
and cathedrals that were burned and all sorts of horrendous
things that happened as a result. I fear that we're
going down this same path, certainly in Victoria here, and
there's going to be an awful lot of voices on
the left, a lot of ears on the left. They're
going to be receptive to hearing this and firing up
because of it.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Sadly, we've got to talk about another piece of divisive action.
The Australian Cricket Board of decided Caroline for the second
time in thirty one years, Cricket Australia will not play
a game of cricket on Australia Day. Now Australia Day
happens to be a Monday. Next year they're going to
play i think on the Sunday and it's big Bash cricket.
It's not a Test match, a One day International. They
(15:15):
had the excuse last year that it clashed with the
men's tennis finals. This year, that is not the case, Caroline.
I mean, what is it. We are only just two
days into July and we're already having this divisit that
played again about Australia Day for god?
Speaker 8 (15:30):
I mean, you can set your clock to it, can't you. Usually,
as we're approaching the summer months, we expect, as people
who are in this news business to be talking about
this issue. But hey, it's July.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
It's just turn July.
Speaker 8 (15:43):
We're talking about it already. I mean last year Cricket
Australia could argue and it probably was just a pragmatic
decision they didn't want it to clash with the tennis fine,
but this year is clearly just a virtue signaling move
that they have been working up to for the past
four years. Because for the past four years they've cut
out the words Australia day out of all their marketing,
(16:05):
and they've been moving towards this point for quite some
time now. I'm not a big cricket fan. I'm sorry
to say pricey, but it does make me wonder how
a bunch of blokes and women as well hitting a
ball with a bat on one day of a year
or not hitting a ball with about it one day
(16:27):
of a year, is going to do anything to help
the number of Indigenous women who are being abused in
domestic relationships. We know they're eight times more likely to
be a victim of homicide than than their non Indigenous peers.
How it's going to help a single Indigenous child who
is suffering from sexual abuse and not going to school.
(16:49):
It's not going to close the gap. It's not going
to improve the lives of Indigenous people. It is just
pure virtue signaling and Australians are sick of it.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, well, said James in today's Times. It's the fourth
of July in your country of birth. Can you imagine
America is saying, well, we're not going to play baseball
on the fourth of July because the day is somehow illegitimate.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
We're not going to say the fourth of July because
July might be offensive to people named June. I mean,
where do you even start with this sort of thing.
It is just really shocking to be I mean, yeah,
Carolyn makes all the great points about you know, none
of this helps in a practical sort of sense. And
I get that Australia are practical people. We like to
have practical help and see practical assistance and things. But
there's a higher sort of level that we also need
(17:36):
to talk about this on here, which is that has
Australia has the idea of modern Australia, which you know
has for much of the last century, and certainly when
I got here twenty almost twenty five years ago, was
held up as this great beacon of this prosperous democratic
experiment on the other side of the world that's worked
out pretty well, all things considered, the envy of many
(18:00):
many nations around the world, you know, successfully integrating people
from around the globe. And now the name Australia, the
very word Australia, and the very idea of celebrating that.
You've got people out there who think it's such a
shameful thing that they think we shouldn't even say it
say the word. You know, it's like if we utter
the word, oh no, something's gonna happen if you're gonna
be offended. And then what about the people pricy at
(18:23):
Cricket Australia. You know, what about like Mike Baird and
all of these people who run the joint who go
out and you know, cowtow to this sort of idiocy
because they come from this sort of corporate, urban human
resources driven you know, even if they're on the right,
they're on the left kind of area of thinking. I
guess you could call it, you know, elitism for lack
(18:45):
of a better turmb although I don't think there's anything
particularly elite about any of these guys that says, oh no, no, no,
we have to do everything we can to avoid offending anybody,
rather than saying we're a great nation. May I'm so
proud of, you know, and let's just have the day.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Well, Caroline, you can almost go back to where we
started here with you know, the no vote getting up
at the Voice referendum. These people who run these organizations
just ignore the will of the Australian people. I mean,
every time we run a poll on Australia Day or
whether we want to keep the flag. Overwhelmingly people say yes,
I want Australiada to be on the twenty sixth of
(19:23):
January and I want to keep the flag. And then
all these people go, well, we don't care what you think.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
I know it is a.
Speaker 8 (19:29):
Big slap in the face to Australians. And we've seen
other companies like Woolworths when they stopped stocking Australia Day merchandise.
What a huge backlash that produced and then the company
had to sort of backtrack on that. So I have
no doubt it will be a similar situation for cricket Australia.
I mean the Telegraph poll. It's not a referendum, but
(19:50):
ninety seven percent of people, ninety eight percent of people
when I last checked it had voted that they wanted
cricket to be played on Australia Day. I think that's
pretty telling where mainstream Australia is on this issue, and
it is certainly not with a corporate hot shots who
are on huge salaries, who think they can fix, you know,
(20:14):
indigenous grievance in this country by not playing sport on
a certain day.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
James just quickly it's a gift that keeps on giving
for you. President Trump now says he might deport Elon Musk,
and this is when he's down visiting the Alligator alcatraz.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I mean, you can't.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You could not make this stuff up if you're trying
to write a movie about it.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
People that say you're.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Insane, well it's it's you know, it's It makes a
lot of great headline, it's a lot of fun to
talking about it. But there's some serious stuff going on
here behind the scenes. You know, Elon Musk here has
decided to play politics in a funny way because he's
a business guy, not a politician. Trump made the leap,
I think Musk hasn't, and that's where he's kind of
fallen over here. You know, Trump has a great sense
(21:00):
of humor. Musk really doesn't, and that's where he's fallen
over In all of this, Musk is now threatening to
start his own political party because he doesn't like the
big spending bill that just got pasted. And granted, there's
a lot not to like in it. So now, of course, Trump,
in is inimitable way, says, well, you know, we might
look at Elon Musk. You know, shouldn't be illegally. Maybe
we'll send it back to South Africa, maybe on one
of his rocket. It's a big, beautiful rocket. Who knows, Stevie.
(21:22):
But that's you know, that's the greatest show on Earth.
But we've also got you know, let's remember here, we've
got a president who is pressing every buttet and pulling
every lever and even if people don't like it, he
is running this office. And it's great to see a
president unlike who we had Joe Biden in the chair
and we don't know who was running the show.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, he's actually running the world. James Carolina, was a
pleasure to catch up with you too, geniuses. Thank you
very much. I'll talk to you shortly now. Moving on
to the growing delight he's facing Australia's I mean, we've
got so many topics tonight that are ridiculous. Australia's energy
energy roll at a key four billion dollar transmission project,
and I've written about this before. It's going to connect
Victoria in New South Wales. It's called the VNI West Interconnector.
(22:07):
It's needed because of all this green energy we're going
to produce can't be pumped into the current transmission systems,
so they have to build a new one. It's now
been pushed back two years, not due until late twenty thirty.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Well, what do you think that's.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Going to do to the Albanezy government's pledged to double
renewables in the grid by the end of the decade.
I mean, farmers don't want it. I've interviewed them over
and over again. They're locking their gates that I want
these transmission towers on their property. You've got a lack
of community buy in. The whole thing's running off the track.
Of course, it follows news now that Australia's largest hydrogen
project at Gladston and Queensland has just been canned. Joining
(22:44):
me to discuss this is the associated of the Australian
Graham Lloyd Graham. Welcome on to V and I West. First,
this is a crucial piece of infrastructure to have any
of what Chris Bowen and Anthony Albeniz you want to
do work connecting the two biggest states in the country.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
That's write Steve good evening. Well, it's a project that
is vital to connect Victoria to New South Wales so
that when Victoria closes down it's coal fired power. It
can bring supplies in from New South Wales when the
wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine without it,
they're in a real fix. But it should be no
(23:25):
surprise to anybody. We've seen the delays in all large
infrastructure projects that are undertaken as part of this energy transition.
Think of Snowy Hydro two point zero, and all the
interconnectors are facing the same challenge. Neighborhoods don't want them.
There's no clear negotiating path to find out the routes
(23:46):
that they will travel, and that's before you come to
the cost of putting them in places. The cost of
all the materials goes through the roof. So it's another
reminder that it's a lot easier to put these things
down on paper than it is actually produce them in reality.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Well v and Ize, you know, it's revealed a couple
of maps, and I think they've settled on a one route,
but it's been plowed through things like state forests and
national parks. So the greenies are all up in arms
and saying we don't want it, the farmers don't want it.
There's going to be a standoff, and all the time,
these deadlines for net zero keep coming and coming and coming.
(24:27):
And you even saw, of course Chris Bowen this week
have to admit and put his hand up that he
needs to now have an inquiry of all things into
gas supplies because he's now admitted that, yeah, we're going
to run out of gas, and so he wants a
reservation policy which was a policy of the coalition government
during the election that he laughed at.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
That chin of what we're saying is the only sure
thing that works is closing stuff down. So the coal
generation is on track to exit the system because it's
been run down over many years. But the stuff that
supposed to replace it just isn't coming on board. And
you'd have to say that the two year delay for
this transmission project is probably optimistic. And then we have
(25:11):
to get to the cost at the end of the
day and how that is going to be recovered by
people who are forced to use it. So there's a
big mess across the whole planning sphere when it comes
to linking up these renewable energy zones and actually enabling
them to put electricity into the market.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Every day we wake up, Graham, another project's been canceled
or delayed. You've now got this outfit, Blue Float Energy.
I think they're a Spanish company. They were had their
hand up to build offshore wind off the Gippsland coast
and they've just said, well, we consider its future in
Australia is not very good, so we're out of here.
(25:52):
So there's another one of the wind farm projects and
this is a mob who had got into trouble for
people on the South Coast and New South Wales didn't
want to have anything to do with this thing.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
That's going to fall.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Over as well unless someone else is prepared to take
the risk.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Tried.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
The biggest story here, Steve is offshore wind was never
economically viable. We're seeing it all around the world where
they've been built. They haven't performed to expectations and the
costs have been more than expected. They've turned to governments
to be bailed out. They're having a look now at
the Australian system and they're finding that the political leverage
(26:30):
is maybe not there, the business case certainly isn't there,
and all the ancillary needs they have in terms of
ports and heavy engineering and workforce doesn't exist either. So
they're going to cut their losses and they're probably in
trouble way more than simply Australia.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
What's going to happen?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I mean, you've been writing about this for years, warning
us that it was not going to be as easy
as everyone said.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Where do we go now?
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Well, it's a desperate situation, and Stephen, I must say
I have been looking at it for a long period
of time and I've made myself certainly unpopular in some
places for saying this really has got a lot of problems,
and I think where we go from here there has
to be something to backstop the system. Now you can say,
(27:22):
build new coal plants with high efficiency and compromise on emissions,
or you can say, let's bring in a lot more
gas to backstop the system when the other things are
not working. But we're only a short way down the
pipeline in terms of building out renewables, and the headaches
are a lot bigger than people anticipated.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Absolutely growing great to catch up, Thank you very much.
New coming up after the break. It much actually come
out of Pennywong's talks in Washington. She was there with
Marco Rubio today. Plus Israel has reportedly agreed to a
sixty day ceasepire in Gara the Israeli Prime Minister. Net
and Yahoo will be in Washington next week.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
That's up next.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Welcome back to Steve Price in for Peter Credlin. This
week there's a new report out a revealed just how
difficult it is, and anyone watching Usho's try to run
a small business will know exactly what I'm talking about.
How hard it is in Australia. Red tape, green tape, taxes, levies,
it's just almost impossible. But first Foreign Minister Penny Wong,
we've seen pictures of her today. She was all smiles
(28:31):
with former Ambassador Kevin Rudd yesterday and then she was
with Marco Rubio at a meeting of the Foreign Minister's
Quad meeting in Washington today. Much of the media's attention
was on her, though over the state of whether we
can get a meeting with Donald Trump. Foreign Editor The
Australian Greg Sheridan joins us, Greg welcome. How important is
(28:52):
the Quad?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
First? Just explain that to.
Speaker 9 (28:55):
Us, Steve, great to be with you. Look, the Quad
is important. It's a grouping of the US, Japan, India
and Australia, but it has not lived up to anything
like its potential. Marco Rubio today was or yesterday, whenever
it was, was very impatiently saying I want the Quad
to move on from talk and to actually do something,
(29:16):
and most of our initiatives with America they don't actually
nothing actually happens, and nothing really has happened under the Quad.
There were one or two joint military exercises and that's
been useful, but very very little has happened under the Quad. Nonetheless,
it's very good for Australia to be I mean, Albanezi
(29:37):
can't get a meeting with Trump. I don't think one
would be able to get a meeting with Rubio if
she wasn't going to something like the Quad.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
How badly is the relationship now between Australia and the US.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
I mean, you've been very strong on it. It's getting worse,
not better.
Speaker 9 (29:52):
Yeah, it's a very shabby state of the relationship now.
The alliance is in the US interest as well as ours,
so I don't think they're going to cut us a
drift altogether. But I think Joe Hockey got it absolutely
right the other day when he said we've moved from
being a first tier alliance partner to a third tier
alliance partner. So Trump has been elected for eight months
and Albanesi hasn't seen him. Albanese was stupid not to
(30:14):
go there before the inauguration. And because everything with Trump
is a personal relationship, you can be sure that the
Americans know just what they're doing in the way they're
snubbing Albanesi, and Albanesi has nothing of interest to say
to them. We've got an anemic, hopeless, really pitiful defense budget.
We've got an economy that's going backwards, negative productivity, negative
(30:38):
per capita living standards growth. We've got the smallest manufacturing
sector in the OECD, the least complex economy, and Alberzi
is a man from the left who channels every bit
of politics that Trump hates. So there's no positive agenda there.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I had a discussion on The Ball Show last week
with General Jack keen, Form, head of the US Defense Forces,
very strong views. He I asked him about Australia and
the budget and what we're spending. He said, you've got
to as a country have a serious debate and discussion
about spending more, getting more staff and doing it quickly.
Speaker 9 (31:15):
Well, of course, of course, it's just a joke. Every
European NATO partner has agreed to spend three and a
half percent of their GDP on defense. We spend just
over two percent. It was two percent when Alberzi first
came into office. It's still two percent. They tell us
we're facing the most dangerous strategic circumstances since World War Two.
Now the Americans won't cut us adrift simply because our
(31:38):
geography is very useful to them. But we are contributing
nothing to the Alliance. They contribute everything to the Alliance.
We contribute nothing.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
To the Alliance.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
When you have someone in the White House a Republicans saying,
if this aucust thing means that we build a sub
that goes there and we don't have it, then I
don't like it.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Well, that's right.
Speaker 9 (31:57):
So we're trying to pay them a bit of bride money,
to pay them three.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Billion, undred million already we.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
Can a made hundred million. We're going to give them
five billion Australian three billion US over several years. And
this is designed to get them keeping talking nice to us.
That's allegedly to enhance their industrial capacity so they'll build
subs more quickly. But the agreement says not until twenty
thirty one does a president have to decide whether he
actually sells.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
One to us.
Speaker 9 (32:25):
Now he may or may not. Whoever is a president,
then he or she may or may not decide to
sell one to us. But they are infinitely less likely
to sell one to us if we are making zero
effort on the rest of our defense force.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
And so these two things go hand in hand.
Speaker 9 (32:41):
Absolutely, if we are absolutely lacking credibility on defense. And
now Albanese won't say boo about China ever, and you
will never disagree with China publicly. He has gone into
a sort of a monastic silence on anything bad that
China does. So if we won't make an effort on defense,
have a feeble ACoM me and won't even say anything
(33:03):
about our greatest strategic competitor, why would they take a
submarine out of their order of battle? So they won't
say no. Then they'll say, well, we can't do it now,
we might be able to do it in six or
seven years, or why don't you just go ahead and
build the orcest subs with the Brits or something. But
in reality we'll end up with nothing, just like we
were in World War two. You know, World War One,
(33:23):
we had subs in World War two, we didn't.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I just want to ask you about this peace agreement
between Israel and Gaza. Donald Trump will meet Nityahu. I
think on Monday our time. Sixty day ceasefire. What's the
importance of the sixty day limit?
Speaker 9 (33:41):
Look, it's a bit hard to follow here, Steve and
no one sorry, So again.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Will the Israelis abide by that?
Speaker 9 (33:48):
Well, I'll abide by anything they sign up to. But look,
I'm just full of simbathe and support for Israel striking
back after the Hamas terror atrocities. But you're getting the
point now. There's probably nineteen or twenty Israeli civilian hostages
still alive, and it's quite right, absolutely right, that Israel
(34:10):
prioritize them. But you're getting the point now where Israel
has to tell us what it plans for Gaza and
what it's doing going forward. If there's a cease fire,
what happens after the sixty days? Does Israel resume bombing
and so forth until they get their hostages back? It's
(34:31):
a you know, the villain here is humm Us, no doubt,
absolutely the villain. This could all finish tomorrow if Hummas
released the hostages and laid down its arms. It wouldn't
even have to surrender or anything. You just have to
say we're not going to try and kill you anymore.
And then the conflicts of it. But then we have
this huge question who governs Gaza after that? And you know,
(34:53):
the Israelis have not told us what their intention is.
They might say it's going to be a negotiation. They
do have a moral responsibility in the end for the
welfare of the people of Gaza. If they are, if
they are the responsible power, well we'll.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Wait and see you. Thank you Greg for coming. Appreciate
it very much.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Coming up after the break the brutal toll in the
last year on Australia's small businesses. I mentioned it just before.
It's been revealed and the whole thing is not pretty.
Plus reports there is time to build a new home
in Australia has blown out by fifty percent over the
last decade.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
That'll surprise no one. That's coming up.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Next, Welcome back to Steve pros In for Peter and
that great segment with kel Richard's Words of the Week
coming up shortly, but I want to talk about small business.
The devastating blow for small businesses figures out today reveal
that in the last twelve months it has been the
worst on record for companies unable to pay their debts,
(35:52):
with a record ten four hundred businesses collapsing.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
You read about one every day.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Joining us now to look at this and other commentator
and athlete Jamie Rodgers and One Nation chief of staff
James Ashby. Guy's welcome. I appreciate you both being with us. James,
day doesn't go past where you don't see a business
fall over. I mean, you know, hospitality has been particularly
hard hit, construction probably the hardest because of the rise
(36:18):
in cost of materials. But we keep hearing from Jim Chalmers,
the Treasurer, that everything's great, inflation's going down, we're going
to get another interest rate cut, and the economy couldn't
be better, although I know tens and tens and tens
of people who were sitting out on the street without
a job.
Speaker 7 (36:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (36:39):
A lot of this has to do with the fact
that when the Albanezy government came to power three years ago,
they gave explicit instructions to the ATO to go hard
after those businesses that.
Speaker 7 (36:49):
Had any outstanding debt.
Speaker 10 (36:51):
And who were they, Well, they were the businesses that
were hit hardest, and that was the hospitality industry and
secondly construction because costs went up, as you rightfully pointed out,
but the hospitality industry was closed for such a long time,
which gave them an inability to actually pay down any
of those ato debts. And I might just say this,
Tore Steve. The reality of it is, you know, yes,
(37:14):
while businesses and Australians might ow one hundred and five
billion dollars to the tax office, student loans exceed eighty
billion dollars and they're.
Speaker 7 (37:24):
Not going hard after students to try and recoup that.
Speaker 10 (37:26):
They're going hard after businesses because labor don't understand small business.
And as a result of some of those builders, in
particular from going bust, what happens is here in Queensland,
and I assume it's the same across the rest of
the country. They lose their builder's license and what are
we in desperate need of right now?
Speaker 7 (37:45):
Builders and construction.
Speaker 10 (37:46):
So it's this domino effect that this labor government have caused,
hence the trouble we're in today. And I feel particularly
very sad and for a lot of these businesses that
are out there, I wouldn't go back into business. I
came from small business. I understand and the pains and
the pressures of it. And ultimately this is a labor
government responsibility for the collapse of so many Australian small,
(38:08):
mum and dad businesses.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Jamie, that we keep seeing these figures about inflation coming down,
and you know, I feel very sorry for cafe operators,
people who are trying to run a small business. You know,
they might have five or six people working there, a
couple of people behind the coffee machine. We're now paying
ten dollars for two coffees, and a lot of that
is driven by the fact that wages and over time
have gone through the roof and so to keep their
(38:33):
business alive, they've got to charge us the consumer more money.
But somehow people are telling us things are getting cheaper.
These two things don't add up, do they.
Speaker 11 (38:42):
No, Steve, It's so sad to see going into the
last federal election, we were just hearing time and time
again about businesses, small businesses really struggling and feeling terrible
about having to pass on these costs to the consumer.
We saw fourteen thousand businesses go insolvent in this past
five financial year, which is up twenty six point eight
percent from FY twenty four and it's just devastating when
(39:05):
you see the sheer volume. New South Wales had the
largest amount. And as James just mentioned, it's the cafes
that are going under in the hospitality sector, but also
in construction. And when you look at it, it's the
high rents, insurance, interest wages, electricity, gas, weaker consumer demand
is just all of these costs are continuously going up
(39:27):
and up and up, and businesses just can't do it anymore.
And as James also mentioned about the ATO coming after
that one hundred and five billion dollars in the company
tax debt, and that's now adding more so to the
pressure for these businesses not able to keep their doors open.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Jamie.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
We learned today the University of Pennsylvania is going to
revoke the records set by a transgender swimmer, Leah Thomas,
and formally apologize to those women who lee a competed against.
It follows a ruling, of course from US swimming authorities
that only biological women and can now set female records.
You've been a very very fine competitive swimmer. What's your
(40:07):
thoughts on all of this?
Speaker 11 (40:10):
Well, Steve I think it's fantastic, and whether you love
him or hate him, we have Donald Trump to thank
for this outcome. He signs that executive order earlier in
this year that stated only biological women, so those born
a female can compete in female sport. Now, I think
that Leah Thomas was the one that really threw the
spotlight on the issue of transgender athletes competing with women.
(40:34):
Leah was in the men's team and was a really
average male swimmer at that and then after transitioning, came
in in twenty nineteen and just dominated, broke all of
the records, and it just shows and highlights how a
biological female just cannot compete against a biological male. And
we did see three of those swimmers from the U
Penn University have gone on to sue the university for
(40:56):
not being able to provide a fair and equal competitive invite.
I must say, as part of all of this, I
do like that the university have said that they'll start
using biological terms like male and female. It's just simple
words that today in society seem to be so demonized.
So I like to see that some common sense is
coming back. But this is a really big Windsday for
women's sport and just ensuring that integrity is maintained and
(41:19):
that the fairness and a level playing field is upheld.
And I hope to see that we have this here
in Australia.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Well, speaking of that, James, I mean you wouldn't you
wouldn't bet your house on the fact that any Australian
university might go down that same track. I mean they
seem to be going the other direction.
Speaker 7 (41:38):
No, not here in Australia, not yet.
Speaker 10 (41:40):
Anyway, I hold hope that Bill Shorten, if he's watching,
could be the first chancellor to actually say right, we're
going to rule it out of Camber University. I'll hold
my I won't hold my breath though. Look, men in
women's sport just shouldn't be there. That's the truth to
the matter. And you know in the ki Leah Thomas,
(42:01):
well she still had a rudder. None of the other
competitors had their rudders because they are true women and
we don't want men, whether it be swimming or boxing.
Speaker 7 (42:10):
We're seeing this.
Speaker 10 (42:11):
Get much outrage across the globe in one nation for sure.
Want to see those feminists stand up and say we
only want women in women's sport, join us, we'd happily
welcome you.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, and I think Jamie put that extremely Well there, James,
what I got you. The CFMU, we know they're under
a federal corruption investigation, but they've given out of these
golden handshakes with hundreds of thousands of dollars to people
like John Setka. Well, a woman who was a member
of the CFMEU elaked telephone conversation has come out and
(42:45):
she is so cranky. She said when these laws were
brought in for the CFMU and Sally McManus, she went
on TV and said, these laws can only be used
to get rid of bikes and remove criminals people have
done highly illegal activity. Well that's not quite what's happened here.
This poor woman has been thrown out of the CFM.
You and she's none of those things.
Speaker 10 (43:08):
And I think that you know, they've got about three
hundred million dollars in their slush fund. A lot of
that's been used to get outcomes with political favor over time,
but you know a lot of that money is going
to be used for golden handshakes with a lot of
the CFMU officials, some of which are still facing the
potential of criminal charges as investigations continue.
Speaker 7 (43:29):
If I was a member, I'd be deeply concerned.
Speaker 10 (43:30):
A lot of hard working, blue collar workers out there
have parted with a lot of money over the years
to get proper representation. I don't think that included backhand
deals to bikeys and other criminal activities behind the scenes,
but you know, and not to mention, the CFMUU have
driven prices, particularly in Victoria, of construction up as much
as thirty percent. They've been behind some terrible things that
(43:54):
have happened in this country, and I just hope for
their members it's sorted out soon.
Speaker 7 (43:59):
No more golden handshakes. That should be the last thing
they receive.
Speaker 10 (44:02):
I just hope that workers get proper representation moving forward.
It won't likely be with the CFMAU, but you know,
a lot of that money that's left over after those
golden handshakes should be returned to the members.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Jamie, good to meet you, James, good to see you again.
Thank you both very much. I'll see you on the
program next week. Now coming up after the break, it's
the week in Words with our favorite man Kill Richards.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
What Peter might be a way, but I'm pleased to say.
And every time I fill in for Peter, I get
to do this on a Wednesday night regular wordsmith and
male mate broadcaster to Kel Richards Kell. Great to see
you again, and boy, we've got some treats in line
for people tonight. The first one's very serious. So we've
got this bomb cyclone, as it's called, off the coast
of New South Wales, major damage today. Where does that
(44:53):
term actually come from?
Speaker 12 (44:55):
Well, the cyclone part was coined by an English sea
captain i'm like, named Henry Pittington back in eighteen forty two,
for those really intense tropical winds that swing around in
a circle. And he took the name from an ancient
Greek word meaning a coiled serpent, which pretty much describes him.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
I guess.
Speaker 12 (45:14):
Then in nineteen forty eight, American meteorologists decided that wasn't
a strong enough term, and they added an adjective, and
they came up with bomb cyclone because they liked I
don't know whether they were being a bit hysterical or
they just liked the melodrama. And in fact when they
did that, they added it to a lot of other things.
They talk about rain bombs in America and snow bombs
and that kind of thing. It basically means something developing
(45:37):
very fast with explosive speed, where the barometric pressure in
the center of the system drops really rapidly in twenty
four hours. That makes it a bomb cyclone.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
We saw the US President Donald Trump drop the F
word last week, and we've had the Victorian Premier Jacinda
Allen talking about bull dust of cleaned that up. Polly
would like to know why people say pardon my French
when they actually go out and swear yes.
Speaker 12 (46:08):
Well, Steven goes back to the Napoleonic Wars and a
long period when there was a lot of hostility between
the English and the French. So what the English did
was they coined a lot of expressions that were very
rude about the French. They talked about things like they
called syphalis the French disease, they called condom's French letters,
they called going on leave with their permission French leave,
(46:30):
and they said bad language. Was obviously speaking French because
that's the sort of thing those dreadful French people do.
So it was the English being really rude about the French.
Early eighteen hundreds, after the Napoleonic wars.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
A lot of.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
French connection here tonight. As you know, I've been around
journalism a long time. The word cop is one in
rite when I'm writing. I tend to avoid because I
think you're going to tell me. But it seems like
a slang word, and I think it's almost disrespectful to
call a police officer a cop. And Alan wants to
(47:07):
know what's the origin of the term cop and is
it a derogatory term? As I just mentioned, he often
hears police officers referring to each other as cops.
Speaker 12 (47:16):
Look, let me take a weight off your mind, Steve.
In fact, it is not a derogatory term. It was
coined very early in the eighteen hundreds, and it comes
from an old verb, the verb to cop and to
cop meant to catch or to capture. And in fact,
the experts of the Oxford they speculate that the word
cop is a variation on the first syllable of the
word capture, CP becoming cop. So it was the right
(47:40):
verb for what they do. They were thief takers, so
they copped court captured the thieves. It's a perfectly legitimate word, Steve.
You should feel fine about using it.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
I'll slip it into a column the next time I
write one. Kel Gab is the word John wants to
know where that comes from the word gab comes from?
Speaker 12 (48:00):
What?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Citing examples of a gab, fist, gift of the gab,
where's that from?
Speaker 12 (48:05):
From the seventeen hundreds, the word gab has been used
to mean talk, often foolish, extravagant sort of talk, that
kind of thing, thet and so a gab fest is
a meeting where there's lots of talk, and the gift
of the gab is the ability to speak fluently and persuasively.
The problem is the experts tell me they can't work
out where it came from. There's one theory that it
comes from an old French word, and there's a competing
(48:27):
group of scholars to say, no, no, no, no, it
comes from an even older Germanic word. So until the
scholars have settled that, we have to say it's meant
talk since the seventeen hundreds, but before that we just
don't know.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Good on your col Great to catch up with you,
my friend. I'll see you again soon coming after me.
James McPherson is filling in tonight for Andrew Bolt, who
is also on leave. I'll see it tomorrow night at
the same time
Peter Krandland live on sky Ingins Australia.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good evening, Welcome to Credlin steep Price sitting in for
Peter this week. He is What's coming up on the
show tonight, Victoria as we know it is heading down
the track to a state based voice to Parliament and
an indigenous treaty. More details to come and it's disturbing
to say the least. Also tonight I'll catch up with
the Australian's Environment editor Graham Lloyd as yet another part
(00:29):
of the green dream goes up in smoke and may
a major wind farm operator actually pulls out of Australia.
And also on the program tonight, Credlin regular Greg Sheridan
on the Penny Wong and Marco Rubio Washington meeting and
Donald Trump's fresh bid for a ceasefire in Gaza ahead
of Benjamin NETTNYA Who's visit to the White House on
(00:50):
Monday next week. Plus everyone's favorite word, Smith Kill Richards
on what hardened my French actually means and where it
came from off the back of Donald Trump's f bomb.
First up though, and I mentioned this treaty process being
foisted on Victorians by hard left Labor State government earlier
(01:10):
in the week. Well, we now have a lot more
detail and it's a whole lot worse than any of
us realized be included. Not surprisingly, Premier de Ciner Allen
is desperately trying to hose the whole notion of treaty
down and frantically trying to separate the failed Federal Voice
referendum and the No victory from what's being considered in
(01:32):
her state.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Here.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
She was earlier this week babbling on about constitutions.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
The key difference to the referendum that was put nationwide
a couple of years ago is that was changing the constitution.
This is not changing the Victorian constitution. It's simply taking
a common sense approach sitting the First People's Assembly, an
ongoing representative body into our existing parliamentary structures. But the
(02:00):
significant change is it'll be a body where we will
be listening, taking on their advice.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Taking it into our significant parliamentary structures. In the other words,
you got to worry about there. Note she said she
was not about changing the Australian constitution in that grab, Well,
no one is suggesting she was. Indeed, what she's doing
along with her Cabinet and a group of Indigenous activists
is a whole lot worse than that. Put Simply, a
standing royal commission, paid for by Victorian taxpayers to the
(02:29):
tune of sixty five million dollars so far, has sat
for four years. This thing's called the URUK Justice Commission,
and it's handed its down to Parliament. It's fine a report,
it's got one hundred recommendations and they expect to be
ticked off by the Parliament. This truth telling exercise wants
Indigenous Victorians offered special tax relief. It wants cash compensation.
(02:53):
It wants land given to Indigenous Victorians to compensate for colonization.
It wants Indigenous amlies given the right to keep their
children out of school and those same children be made
exempt from expulsion and suspension from the school. Now, clearly
we're dealing here with a wide ambit claim. But as
(03:14):
every Victorian would know, the most hard left government in Australia,
the Andrews Allen government, probably agrees with most of this stuff.
It was Dan Andrews who set up this whole process
in a motion back in twenty eighteen. Now, but as
it should be, it's the notion of a community divisive
treaty involving land, water and lots of cash as compensation
(03:38):
that should have not just Victorians. Worry about every Australian
because once it starts here, it will be open slatter everywhere.
Among other things, this commission wants our churches to return
what they claim this Truth Commission, what they claim a
stylen lands. They want markers erected on what they say
are fifty massacre sites across the state.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
It goes on and on.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Here's Premier Allen again today talking about how welcome the
report was and if you can believe it, promising to
carefully consider all of the recommendations.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
We're going to take our time to consider and respond
to the report. When you listen to people, when you
involve people directly impacted on decisions, you get better outcomes.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Now bear in mind there's no state election in Victoria
until November next year. Labour has a comfortable majority in
the Parliament and enjoys the support of the Greens and
various left leaning so called independence so they've got the
numbers to ram this stuff through. Alan would claim she
has a mandate to actually create a permanent Indigenous voice
attached to State Parliament, which would buy law need to
(04:51):
be negotiated with on all legislation, whether it applies to
Indigenous people or not. That's the facts of it. In
recent times, Victorian labor change the rules around public drunkenness,
turning it from a crime to preventing police from actually
arresting people drunk in public instead establishing great cost sobering
(05:12):
up facilities known as drunk tanks, one in Melbourne, several
in regional centers. Why do I mention this? And reportedly
these things are so little used, it's not funny. So
why do they exist well? In part because some Indigenous
leaders were worried about indigenous drunks being locked up, fearing
deaths in custody. Now that, my friends, is a practical
(05:34):
example of where all of this is going to go.
It's a race dividing road we should not be going down.
But sadly we are already well down that road. Get
our panels view on that in the moment, But first
I tend to camera now for tonight's political update with
Sky News political reporter Rubensbargo.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
The Foreign Minister has met her us CA to part
and walked away with renewed confidence that America understands the
importance of ORCUS, but Australia seems no closer to a
deal on tariffs. Discussions reduced a seemingly distant relationship between
the allied countries, Pennywong claims. Marco Rubio expressed regret that
Donald Trump couldn't attend a scheduled meeting with Anthony Albernezi
(06:21):
last month.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Perfectly understood why the President had to leave given the circumstances, and.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
We agree that we will reschedule this meeting.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Pennywong had a very clear job this week, which was
to get over to the United States and to strengthen
that alliance.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Pennywong will come home empty handed.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Australia and the United States, along with Japan and India,
also discussed working together to mine, refine, and share critical minerals.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
The Treasurer is.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
Facing mounting pressure to dunp Lavor's three million dollars super
attax ahead of his roundtable next month. Despite no sign
of compromise. Opponents are lodging submissions arguing it will be
productivity killer.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Geological, it's flawed. Some people are saying it's criminal, it's theft.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
There's no guarantee the super tax will even be debated
as part of the Treasurer's Economic roundtable.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Have a mandate.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
That's our position. I think we've won that argument with
the Australian people.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I'm very very confident of that.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Labour only needs the support of the Greens to secure
the passage through the Senate. The government is working on
a national plan to boost protection for kids in childcare.
Victorian childcare center worker Joshua Brown's arrest prompted urgent calls
for action. He's been charged with more than seventy child
sex offenses.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
This is serious and it requires serious action.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
The potential reforms could include better cross jurisdiction information sharing
and near real time updates to working with children, checks
where criminal records change.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Well also to look at the national framework for childcare
to see if we can go even further and act
farther faster.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
The government is drafting to better control funding to childcare
centers depending on standards.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Good on your rubin, Thank you very much for that.
Let's get straight into our panel tonight, joining me Senior
reporter Caroline marcusan national affairs editor at the Daily Telegraph,
and of course Sky News host and these excellent programs
across the network. Welcome to you both. And I want
to stick if I can, with what I discussed in
that editorial at the beginning of the program. I mentioned
this earlier in the week and I've actually written a
(08:29):
column about this for The Herald Sun that will go
up at the weekend. But this final report from the
so called YURUK Commission here in Victoria, James, it's not
even been two years since the National Voice vote. Actually,
I mean the novaue got up in Victoria. It was
I think fifty four point nine percent or something. This
was rejected out of hand by Australians, and yet the
(08:51):
Victorian Premier acts like she knows best and she's going
to establish one anyway.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Well, and the fascinating thing about it, Steve, is if
you look at the Premier's comments that she made when
receiving the report. When announcing the report today, she said,
the contents of this report are confronting, and they're confronting
because they are true. So that tells me, Steve, that
what the Premier and the Victorian government there, the Victorian
Labor government, the hardness left government, I think in the
(09:18):
entire country, as you accurately describe them. Have decided to
accept Holeess Bollis everything in the report. There's one hundred
recommendations in here, you know, and they basically include everything
from separate educational systems, educational rules, basically, reparations forever, separate
representation forever. It's incredibly divisive and it stems out of
(09:39):
this whole settler colonist mentality, which is this whole you know,
hard left doctrine that Australia is essentially an illegitimate nation.
It is making demands of the government that are not
They are not the demands of you know, citizens trying
to come together on an issue. They are almost like,
you know, they've inverted history. They're trying to invert history
(10:01):
here and create a whole set of demands on the
Australian state, which I think is absolutely untenable. This whole
thing should be the entire thing should simply be rejected.
The whole process should never have even been undertaken. I
think in the first place, it's divisive, it's expensive, it's
going to hurt if it is actually implemented, an awful
(10:21):
lot of Indigenous Australians because they won't get the same
benefits of education and so on that everybody else because
the rules will be different for them and they won't
have to do things where everybody else does. It's terrible business,
it's divisive and it's really depressing. I think that in
twenty twenty five, this is where Australia is going, Carol, And.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
One of the things I mentioned there is, I mean
the rest of Australia should take notice of this. I
think South Australia has a form of voice already attached
to its state parliament, but it doesn't seem to be
very effective. We've got labor governments obviously in New South
wild so our biggest states, and in wy Goose through
in Victoria. Indigenous activists in every other state are going
(11:04):
to say, hang on a minute, we want this as well.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Surely it will certainly embolden them.
Speaker 8 (11:10):
But what makes me scratch my head about this is
that three out of five people on the commission behind
this report did not support the key findings in it
being included in that final report. So it just makes
me wonder why has this report even gone to the
government in the first place. Over there, And as you say,
(11:31):
if it goes through, if they pick up all of
these recommendations, it's going to just lead to other states
and territories eventually falling into line as well. And you know,
James made a really good argument about how divisive it is,
but I would just pick up further on his point
and how dangerous this is too, because some of the recommendations,
(11:55):
including that Indigenous children be excluded from attendance requirements at school.
I mean, we already know that attendance levels for Indigenous
children for well below the rest of the population as
it is that it's already on average one day a
(12:17):
week almost that Indigenous children don't attend school on average.
How is this going to help in closing the gap?
Actually making the situation worse for Indigenous people, and then
exempting them from school discipline strategies like suspensions and expulsions,
(12:37):
I mean, how does that teach any sort of discipline?
How does that set out them up for an adult
life in which they're expected to be responsible for their actions.
So the whole thing stinks and it just sets up
further this culture of grievance among the Indigenous, Among Indigenous Australians,
(12:57):
we have had enough.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Of that, yeah, we have.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And James, I meane we took about divisiveness. If you
want a divisive argument in this country, start telling the churches,
Catholic Church or the Anglican Church that they will be
expected under one of the recommendations of this commission to
give back Land that the Truth Telling Commission says was
taken off the First Nation's people. So they're going to
(13:23):
get the state government through legislation, presumably because it'll be
attached to the Parliament. Say to the Catholic Church or
hang on a minute, that cathedral you've got out there
in Hawthorne that used to be First Nations people Land,
they want it back or you. And they make the
point in here that churches don't pay tax. You have
to pay reparation because you stuck your church there. I mean,
(13:46):
what sort of divisive country we're going to have if
that starts.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Well yeah, well, Steve, I mean this is where it
gets really cynical and really sinister, because you know that
Australia is a fairly atheist country, right. I mean, we
know there's a lot of hostility out there, particularly on
the left, to organize religion, particularly the Catholic Church, and
particularly in Victoria. This is such a divisive and sinister
(14:13):
wedge that they're going to run, because there's gonna be
a lot of Victorias are going to say yeah, rah
rah steaking to the Catholic church, blah blah blah, and
it's going to be so divisive. I think if they
even start to go down this road, it does have
a bit of an allegory in my head to what
happened in Canada to their churches, where they were accused
of all sorts of crimes against Canadian Indigenous people that
(14:35):
didn't exist, but there was a whole series of churches
and cathedrals that were burned and all sorts of horrendous
things that happened as a result. I fear that we're
going down this same path, certainly in Victoria here, and
there's going to be an awful lot of voices on
the left, a lot of ears on the left. They're
going to be receptive to hearing this and firing up
because of it.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Sadly, we've got to talk about another piece of divisive action.
The Australian Cricket Board of decided Caroline for the second
time in thirty one years, Cricket Australia will not play
a game of cricket on Australia Day. Now Australia Day
happens to be a Monday. Next year they're going to
play i think on the Sunday and it's big Bash cricket.
It's not a Test match, a One day International. They
(15:15):
had the excuse last year that it clashed with the
men's tennis finals. This year, that is not the case, Caroline.
I mean, what is it. We are only just two
days into July and we're already having this divisit that
played again about Australia Day for god?
Speaker 8 (15:30):
I mean, you can set your clock to it, can't you. Usually,
as we're approaching the summer months, we expect, as people
who are in this news business to be talking about
this issue. But hey, it's July.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
It's just turn July.
Speaker 8 (15:43):
We're talking about it already. I mean last year Cricket
Australia could argue and it probably was just a pragmatic
decision they didn't want it to clash with the tennis fine,
but this year is clearly just a virtue signaling move
that they have been working up to for the past
four years. Because for the past four years they've cut
out the words Australia day out of all their marketing,
(16:05):
and they've been moving towards this point for quite some
time now. I'm not a big cricket fan. I'm sorry
to say pricey, but it does make me wonder how
a bunch of blokes and women as well hitting a
ball with a bat on one day of a year
or not hitting a ball with about it one day
(16:27):
of a year, is going to do anything to help
the number of Indigenous women who are being abused in
domestic relationships. We know they're eight times more likely to
be a victim of homicide than than their non Indigenous peers.
How it's going to help a single Indigenous child who
is suffering from sexual abuse and not going to school.
(16:49):
It's not going to close the gap. It's not going
to improve the lives of Indigenous people. It is just
pure virtue signaling and Australians are sick of it.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, well, said James in today's Times. It's the fourth
of July in your country of birth. Can you imagine
America is saying, well, we're not going to play baseball
on the fourth of July because the day is somehow illegitimate.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
We're not going to say the fourth of July because
July might be offensive to people named June. I mean,
where do you even start with this sort of thing.
It is just really shocking to be I mean, yeah,
Carolyn makes all the great points about you know, none
of this helps in a practical sort of sense. And
I get that Australia are practical people. We like to
have practical help and see practical assistance and things. But
there's a higher sort of level that we also need
(17:36):
to talk about this on here, which is that has
Australia has the idea of modern Australia, which you know
has for much of the last century, and certainly when
I got here twenty almost twenty five years ago, was
held up as this great beacon of this prosperous democratic
experiment on the other side of the world that's worked
out pretty well, all things considered, the envy of many
(18:00):
many nations around the world, you know, successfully integrating people
from around the globe. And now the name Australia, the
very word Australia, and the very idea of celebrating that.
You've got people out there who think it's such a
shameful thing that they think we shouldn't even say it
say the word. You know, it's like if we utter
the word, oh no, something's gonna happen if you're gonna
be offended. And then what about the people pricy at
(18:23):
Cricket Australia. You know, what about like Mike Baird and
all of these people who run the joint who go
out and you know, cowtow to this sort of idiocy
because they come from this sort of corporate, urban human
resources driven you know, even if they're on the right,
they're on the left kind of area of thinking. I
guess you could call it, you know, elitism for lack
(18:45):
of a better turmb although I don't think there's anything
particularly elite about any of these guys that says, oh no, no, no,
we have to do everything we can to avoid offending anybody,
rather than saying we're a great nation. May I'm so
proud of, you know, and let's just have the day.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Well, Caroline, you can almost go back to where we
started here with you know, the no vote getting up
at the Voice referendum. These people who run these organizations
just ignore the will of the Australian people. I mean,
every time we run a poll on Australia Day or
whether we want to keep the flag. Overwhelmingly people say yes,
I want Australiada to be on the twenty sixth of
(19:23):
January and I want to keep the flag. And then
all these people go, well, we don't care what you think.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
I know it is a.
Speaker 8 (19:29):
Big slap in the face to Australians. And we've seen
other companies like Woolworths when they stopped stocking Australia Day merchandise.
What a huge backlash that produced and then the company
had to sort of backtrack on that. So I have
no doubt it will be a similar situation for cricket Australia.
I mean the Telegraph poll. It's not a referendum, but
(19:50):
ninety seven percent of people, ninety eight percent of people
when I last checked it had voted that they wanted
cricket to be played on Australia Day. I think that's
pretty telling where mainstream Australia is on this issue, and
it is certainly not with a corporate hot shots who
are on huge salaries, who think they can fix, you know,
(20:14):
indigenous grievance in this country by not playing sport on
a certain day.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
James just quickly it's a gift that keeps on giving
for you. President Trump now says he might deport Elon Musk,
and this is when he's down visiting the Alligator alcatraz.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I mean, you can't.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You could not make this stuff up if you're trying
to write a movie about it.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
People that say you're.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Insane, well it's it's you know, it's It makes a
lot of great headline, it's a lot of fun to
talking about it. But there's some serious stuff going on
here behind the scenes. You know, Elon Musk here has
decided to play politics in a funny way because he's
a business guy, not a politician. Trump made the leap,
I think Musk hasn't, and that's where he's kind of
fallen over here. You know, Trump has a great sense
(21:00):
of humor. Musk really doesn't, and that's where he's fallen
over In all of this, Musk is now threatening to
start his own political party because he doesn't like the
big spending bill that just got pasted. And granted, there's
a lot not to like in it. So now, of course, Trump,
in is inimitable way, says, well, you know, we might
look at Elon Musk. You know, shouldn't be illegally. Maybe
we'll send it back to South Africa, maybe on one
of his rocket. It's a big, beautiful rocket. Who knows, Stevie.
(21:22):
But that's you know, that's the greatest show on Earth.
But we've also got you know, let's remember here, we've
got a president who is pressing every buttet and pulling
every lever and even if people don't like it, he
is running this office. And it's great to see a
president unlike who we had Joe Biden in the chair
and we don't know who was running the show.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah, he's actually running the world. James Carolina, was a
pleasure to catch up with you too, geniuses. Thank you
very much. I'll talk to you shortly now. Moving on
to the growing delight he's facing Australia's I mean, we've
got so many topics tonight that are ridiculous. Australia's energy
energy roll at a key four billion dollar transmission project,
and I've written about this before. It's going to connect
Victoria in New South Wales. It's called the VNI West Interconnector.
(22:07):
It's needed because of all this green energy we're going
to produce can't be pumped into the current transmission systems,
so they have to build a new one. It's now
been pushed back two years, not due until late twenty thirty.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Well, what do you think that's.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Going to do to the Albanezy government's pledged to double
renewables in the grid by the end of the decade.
I mean, farmers don't want it. I've interviewed them over
and over again. They're locking their gates that I want
these transmission towers on their property. You've got a lack
of community buy in. The whole thing's running off the track.
Of course, it follows news now that Australia's largest hydrogen
project at Gladston and Queensland has just been canned. Joining
(22:44):
me to discuss this is the associated of the Australian
Graham Lloyd Graham. Welcome on to V and I West. First,
this is a crucial piece of infrastructure to have any
of what Chris Bowen and Anthony Albeniz you want to
do work connecting the two biggest states in the country.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
That's write Steve good evening. Well, it's a project that
is vital to connect Victoria to New South Wales so
that when Victoria closes down it's coal fired power. It
can bring supplies in from New South Wales when the
wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine without it,
they're in a real fix. But it should be no
(23:25):
surprise to anybody. We've seen the delays in all large
infrastructure projects that are undertaken as part of this energy transition.
Think of Snowy Hydro two point zero, and all the
interconnectors are facing the same challenge. Neighborhoods don't want them.
There's no clear negotiating path to find out the routes
(23:46):
that they will travel, and that's before you come to
the cost of putting them in places. The cost of
all the materials goes through the roof. So it's another
reminder that it's a lot easier to put these things
down on paper than it is actually produce them in reality.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Well v and Ize, you know, it's revealed a couple
of maps, and I think they've settled on a one route,
but it's been plowed through things like state forests and
national parks. So the greenies are all up in arms
and saying we don't want it, the farmers don't want it.
There's going to be a standoff, and all the time,
these deadlines for net zero keep coming and coming and coming.
(24:27):
And you even saw, of course Chris Bowen this week
have to admit and put his hand up that he
needs to now have an inquiry of all things into
gas supplies because he's now admitted that, yeah, we're going
to run out of gas, and so he wants a
reservation policy which was a policy of the coalition government
during the election that he laughed at.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
That chin of what we're saying is the only sure
thing that works is closing stuff down. So the coal
generation is on track to exit the system because it's
been run down over many years. But the stuff that
supposed to replace it just isn't coming on board. And
you'd have to say that the two year delay for
this transmission project is probably optimistic. And then we have
(25:11):
to get to the cost at the end of the
day and how that is going to be recovered by
people who are forced to use it. So there's a
big mess across the whole planning sphere when it comes
to linking up these renewable energy zones and actually enabling
them to put electricity into the market.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Every day we wake up, Graham, another project's been canceled
or delayed. You've now got this outfit, Blue Float Energy.
I think they're a Spanish company. They were had their
hand up to build offshore wind off the Gippsland coast
and they've just said, well, we consider its future in
Australia is not very good, so we're out of here.
(25:52):
So there's another one of the wind farm projects and
this is a mob who had got into trouble for
people on the South Coast and New South Wales didn't
want to have anything to do with this thing.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
That's going to fall.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Over as well unless someone else is prepared to take
the risk.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Tried.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
The biggest story here, Steve is offshore wind was never
economically viable. We're seeing it all around the world where
they've been built. They haven't performed to expectations and the
costs have been more than expected. They've turned to governments
to be bailed out. They're having a look now at
the Australian system and they're finding that the political leverage
(26:30):
is maybe not there, the business case certainly isn't there,
and all the ancillary needs they have in terms of
ports and heavy engineering and workforce doesn't exist either. So
they're going to cut their losses and they're probably in
trouble way more than simply Australia.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
What's going to happen?
Speaker 2 (26:53):
I mean, you've been writing about this for years, warning
us that it was not going to be as easy
as everyone said.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Where do we go now?
Speaker 6 (27:01):
Well, it's a desperate situation, and Stephen, I must say
I have been looking at it for a long period
of time and I've made myself certainly unpopular in some
places for saying this really has got a lot of problems,
and I think where we go from here there has
to be something to backstop the system. Now you can say,
(27:22):
build new coal plants with high efficiency and compromise on emissions,
or you can say, let's bring in a lot more
gas to backstop the system when the other things are
not working. But we're only a short way down the
pipeline in terms of building out renewables, and the headaches
are a lot bigger than people anticipated.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Absolutely growing great to catch up, Thank you very much.
New coming up after the break. It much actually come
out of Pennywong's talks in Washington. She was there with
Marco Rubio today. Plus Israel has reportedly agreed to a
sixty day ceasepire in Gara the Israeli Prime Minister. Net
and Yahoo will be in Washington next week.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
That's up next.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Welcome back to Steve Price in for Peter Credlin. This
week there's a new report out a revealed just how
difficult it is, and anyone watching Usho's try to run
a small business will know exactly what I'm talking about.
How hard it is in Australia. Red tape, green tape, taxes, levies,
it's just almost impossible. But first Foreign Minister Penny Wong,
we've seen pictures of her today. She was all smiles
(28:31):
with former Ambassador Kevin Rudd yesterday and then she was
with Marco Rubio at a meeting of the Foreign Minister's
Quad meeting in Washington today. Much of the media's attention
was on her, though over the state of whether we
can get a meeting with Donald Trump. Foreign Editor The
Australian Greg Sheridan joins us, Greg welcome. How important is
(28:52):
the Quad?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
First? Just explain that to.
Speaker 9 (28:55):
Us, Steve, great to be with you. Look, the Quad
is important. It's a grouping of the US, Japan, India
and Australia, but it has not lived up to anything
like its potential. Marco Rubio today was or yesterday, whenever
it was, was very impatiently saying I want the Quad
to move on from talk and to actually do something,
(29:16):
and most of our initiatives with America they don't actually
nothing actually happens, and nothing really has happened under the Quad.
There were one or two joint military exercises and that's
been useful, but very very little has happened under the Quad. Nonetheless,
it's very good for Australia to be I mean, Albanezi
(29:37):
can't get a meeting with Trump. I don't think one
would be able to get a meeting with Rubio if
she wasn't going to something like the Quad.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
How badly is the relationship now between Australia and the US.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
I mean, you've been very strong on it. It's getting worse,
not better.
Speaker 9 (29:52):
Yeah, it's a very shabby state of the relationship now.
The alliance is in the US interest as well as ours,
so I don't think they're going to cut us a
drift altogether. But I think Joe Hockey got it absolutely
right the other day when he said we've moved from
being a first tier alliance partner to a third tier
alliance partner. So Trump has been elected for eight months
and Albanesi hasn't seen him. Albanese was stupid not to
(30:14):
go there before the inauguration. And because everything with Trump
is a personal relationship, you can be sure that the
Americans know just what they're doing in the way they're
snubbing Albanesi, and Albanesi has nothing of interest to say
to them. We've got an anemic, hopeless, really pitiful defense budget.
We've got an economy that's going backwards, negative productivity, negative
(30:38):
per capita living standards growth. We've got the smallest manufacturing
sector in the OECD, the least complex economy, and Alberzi
is a man from the left who channels every bit
of politics that Trump hates. So there's no positive agenda there.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
I had a discussion on The Ball Show last week
with General Jack keen, Form, head of the US Defense Forces,
very strong views. He I asked him about Australia and
the budget and what we're spending. He said, you've got
to as a country have a serious debate and discussion
about spending more, getting more staff and doing it quickly.
Speaker 9 (31:15):
Well, of course, of course, it's just a joke. Every
European NATO partner has agreed to spend three and a
half percent of their GDP on defense. We spend just
over two percent. It was two percent when Alberzi first
came into office. It's still two percent. They tell us
we're facing the most dangerous strategic circumstances since World War Two.
Now the Americans won't cut us adrift simply because our
(31:38):
geography is very useful to them. But we are contributing
nothing to the Alliance. They contribute everything to the Alliance.
We contribute nothing.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
To the Alliance.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
When you have someone in the White House a Republicans saying,
if this aucust thing means that we build a sub
that goes there and we don't have it, then I
don't like it.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Well, that's right.
Speaker 9 (31:57):
So we're trying to pay them a bit of bride money,
to pay them three.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
Billion, undred million already we.
Speaker 9 (32:04):
Can a made hundred million. We're going to give them
five billion Australian three billion US over several years. And
this is designed to get them keeping talking nice to us.
That's allegedly to enhance their industrial capacity so they'll build
subs more quickly. But the agreement says not until twenty
thirty one does a president have to decide whether he
actually sells.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
One to us.
Speaker 9 (32:25):
Now he may or may not. Whoever is a president,
then he or she may or may not decide to
sell one to us. But they are infinitely less likely
to sell one to us if we are making zero
effort on the rest of our defense force.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
And so these two things go hand in hand.
Speaker 9 (32:41):
Absolutely, if we are absolutely lacking credibility on defense. And
now Albanese won't say boo about China ever, and you
will never disagree with China publicly. He has gone into
a sort of a monastic silence on anything bad that
China does. So if we won't make an effort on defense,
have a feeble ACoM me and won't even say anything
(33:03):
about our greatest strategic competitor, why would they take a
submarine out of their order of battle? So they won't
say no. Then they'll say, well, we can't do it now,
we might be able to do it in six or
seven years, or why don't you just go ahead and
build the orcest subs with the Brits or something. But
in reality we'll end up with nothing, just like we
were in World War two. You know, World War One,
(33:23):
we had subs in World War two, we didn't.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I just want to ask you about this peace agreement
between Israel and Gaza. Donald Trump will meet Nityahu. I
think on Monday our time. Sixty day ceasefire. What's the
importance of the sixty day limit?
Speaker 9 (33:41):
Look, it's a bit hard to follow here, Steve and
no one sorry, So again.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Will the Israelis abide by that?
Speaker 9 (33:48):
Well, I'll abide by anything they sign up to. But look,
I'm just full of simbathe and support for Israel striking
back after the Hamas terror atrocities. But you're getting the
point now. There's probably nineteen or twenty Israeli civilian hostages
still alive, and it's quite right, absolutely right, that Israel
(34:10):
prioritize them. But you're getting the point now where Israel
has to tell us what it plans for Gaza and
what it's doing going forward. If there's a cease fire,
what happens after the sixty days? Does Israel resume bombing
and so forth until they get their hostages back? It's
(34:31):
a you know, the villain here is humm Us, no doubt,
absolutely the villain. This could all finish tomorrow if Hummas
released the hostages and laid down its arms. It wouldn't
even have to surrender or anything. You just have to
say we're not going to try and kill you anymore.
And then the conflicts of it. But then we have
this huge question who governs Gaza after that? And you know,
(34:53):
the Israelis have not told us what their intention is.
They might say it's going to be a negotiation. They
do have a moral responsibility in the end for the
welfare of the people of Gaza. If they are, if
they are the responsible power, well we'll.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Wait and see you. Thank you Greg for coming. Appreciate
it very much.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Coming up after the break the brutal toll in the
last year on Australia's small businesses. I mentioned it just before.
It's been revealed and the whole thing is not pretty.
Plus reports there is time to build a new home
in Australia has blown out by fifty percent over the
last decade.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
That'll surprise no one. That's coming up.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Next, Welcome back to Steve pros In for Peter and
that great segment with kel Richard's Words of the Week
coming up shortly, but I want to talk about small business.
The devastating blow for small businesses figures out today reveal
that in the last twelve months it has been the
worst on record for companies unable to pay their debts,
(35:52):
with a record ten four hundred businesses collapsing.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
You read about one every day.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Joining us now to look at this and other commentator
and athlete Jamie Rodgers and One Nation chief of staff
James Ashby. Guy's welcome. I appreciate you both being with us. James,
day doesn't go past where you don't see a business
fall over. I mean, you know, hospitality has been particularly
hard hit, construction probably the hardest because of the rise
(36:18):
in cost of materials. But we keep hearing from Jim Chalmers,
the Treasurer, that everything's great, inflation's going down, we're going
to get another interest rate cut, and the economy couldn't
be better, although I know tens and tens and tens
of people who were sitting out on the street without
a job.
Speaker 7 (36:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (36:39):
A lot of this has to do with the fact
that when the Albanezy government came to power three years ago,
they gave explicit instructions to the ATO to go hard
after those businesses that.
Speaker 7 (36:49):
Had any outstanding debt.
Speaker 10 (36:51):
And who were they, Well, they were the businesses that
were hit hardest, and that was the hospitality industry and
secondly construction because costs went up, as you rightfully pointed out,
but the hospitality industry was closed for such a long time,
which gave them an inability to actually pay down any
of those ato debts. And I might just say this,
Tore Steve. The reality of it is, you know, yes,
(37:14):
while businesses and Australians might ow one hundred and five
billion dollars to the tax office, student loans exceed eighty
billion dollars and they're.
Speaker 7 (37:24):
Not going hard after students to try and recoup that.
Speaker 10 (37:26):
They're going hard after businesses because labor don't understand small business.
And as a result of some of those builders, in
particular from going bust, what happens is here in Queensland,
and I assume it's the same across the rest of
the country. They lose their builder's license and what are
we in desperate need of right now?
Speaker 7 (37:45):
Builders and construction.
Speaker 10 (37:46):
So it's this domino effect that this labor government have caused,
hence the trouble we're in today. And I feel particularly
very sad and for a lot of these businesses that
are out there, I wouldn't go back into business. I
came from small business. I understand and the pains and
the pressures of it. And ultimately this is a labor
government responsibility for the collapse of so many Australian small,
(38:08):
mum and dad businesses.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Jamie, that we keep seeing these figures about inflation coming down,
and you know, I feel very sorry for cafe operators,
people who are trying to run a small business. You know,
they might have five or six people working there, a
couple of people behind the coffee machine. We're now paying
ten dollars for two coffees, and a lot of that
is driven by the fact that wages and over time
have gone through the roof and so to keep their
(38:33):
business alive, they've got to charge us the consumer more money.
But somehow people are telling us things are getting cheaper.
These two things don't add up, do they.
Speaker 11 (38:42):
No, Steve, It's so sad to see going into the
last federal election, we were just hearing time and time
again about businesses, small businesses really struggling and feeling terrible
about having to pass on these costs to the consumer.
We saw fourteen thousand businesses go insolvent in this past
five financial year, which is up twenty six point eight
percent from FY twenty four and it's just devastating when
(39:05):
you see the sheer volume. New South Wales had the
largest amount. And as James just mentioned, it's the cafes
that are going under in the hospitality sector, but also
in construction. And when you look at it, it's the
high rents, insurance, interest wages, electricity, gas, weaker consumer demand
is just all of these costs are continuously going up
(39:27):
and up and up, and businesses just can't do it anymore.
And as James also mentioned about the ATO coming after
that one hundred and five billion dollars in the company
tax debt, and that's now adding more so to the
pressure for these businesses not able to keep their doors open.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Jamie.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
We learned today the University of Pennsylvania is going to
revoke the records set by a transgender swimmer, Leah Thomas,
and formally apologize to those women who lee a competed against.
It follows a ruling, of course from US swimming authorities
that only biological women and can now set female records.
You've been a very very fine competitive swimmer. What's your
(40:07):
thoughts on all of this?
Speaker 11 (40:10):
Well, Steve I think it's fantastic, and whether you love
him or hate him, we have Donald Trump to thank
for this outcome. He signs that executive order earlier in
this year that stated only biological women, so those born
a female can compete in female sport. Now, I think
that Leah Thomas was the one that really threw the
spotlight on the issue of transgender athletes competing with women.
(40:34):
Leah was in the men's team and was a really
average male swimmer at that and then after transitioning, came
in in twenty nineteen and just dominated, broke all of
the records, and it just shows and highlights how a
biological female just cannot compete against a biological male. And
we did see three of those swimmers from the U
Penn University have gone on to sue the university for
(40:56):
not being able to provide a fair and equal competitive invite.
I must say, as part of all of this, I
do like that the university have said that they'll start
using biological terms like male and female. It's just simple
words that today in society seem to be so demonized.
So I like to see that some common sense is
coming back. But this is a really big Windsday for
women's sport and just ensuring that integrity is maintained and
(41:19):
that the fairness and a level playing field is upheld.
And I hope to see that we have this here
in Australia.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Well, speaking of that, James, I mean you wouldn't you
wouldn't bet your house on the fact that any Australian
university might go down that same track. I mean they
seem to be going the other direction.
Speaker 7 (41:38):
No, not here in Australia, not yet.
Speaker 10 (41:40):
Anyway, I hold hope that Bill Shorten, if he's watching,
could be the first chancellor to actually say right, we're
going to rule it out of Camber University. I'll hold
my I won't hold my breath though. Look, men in
women's sport just shouldn't be there. That's the truth to
the matter. And you know in the ki Leah Thomas,
(42:01):
well she still had a rudder. None of the other
competitors had their rudders because they are true women and
we don't want men, whether it be swimming or boxing.
Speaker 7 (42:10):
We're seeing this.
Speaker 10 (42:11):
Get much outrage across the globe in one nation for sure.
Want to see those feminists stand up and say we
only want women in women's sport, join us, we'd happily
welcome you.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, and I think Jamie put that extremely Well there, James,
what I got you. The CFMU, we know they're under
a federal corruption investigation, but they've given out of these
golden handshakes with hundreds of thousands of dollars to people
like John Setka. Well, a woman who was a member
of the CFMEU elaked telephone conversation has come out and
(42:45):
she is so cranky. She said when these laws were
brought in for the CFMU and Sally McManus, she went
on TV and said, these laws can only be used
to get rid of bikes and remove criminals people have
done highly illegal activity. Well that's not quite what's happened here.
This poor woman has been thrown out of the CFM.
You and she's none of those things.
Speaker 10 (43:08):
And I think that you know, they've got about three
hundred million dollars in their slush fund. A lot of
that's been used to get outcomes with political favor over time,
but you know a lot of that money is going
to be used for golden handshakes with a lot of
the CFMU officials, some of which are still facing the
potential of criminal charges as investigations continue.
Speaker 7 (43:29):
If I was a member, I'd be deeply concerned.
Speaker 10 (43:30):
A lot of hard working, blue collar workers out there
have parted with a lot of money over the years
to get proper representation. I don't think that included backhand
deals to bikeys and other criminal activities behind the scenes,
but you know, and not to mention, the CFMUU have
driven prices, particularly in Victoria, of construction up as much
as thirty percent. They've been behind some terrible things that
(43:54):
have happened in this country, and I just hope for
their members it's sorted out soon.
Speaker 7 (43:59):
No more golden handshakes. That should be the last thing
they receive.
Speaker 10 (44:02):
I just hope that workers get proper representation moving forward.
It won't likely be with the CFMAU, but you know,
a lot of that money that's left over after those
golden handshakes should be returned to the members.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Jamie, good to meet you, James, good to see you again.
Thank you both very much. I'll see you on the
program next week. Now coming up after the break, it's
the week in Words with our favorite man Kill Richards.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
What Peter might be a way, but I'm pleased to say.
And every time I fill in for Peter, I get
to do this on a Wednesday night regular wordsmith and
male mate broadcaster to Kel Richards Kell. Great to see
you again, and boy, we've got some treats in line
for people tonight. The first one's very serious. So we've
got this bomb cyclone, as it's called, off the coast
of New South Wales, major damage today. Where does that
(44:53):
term actually come from?
Speaker 12 (44:55):
Well, the cyclone part was coined by an English sea
captain i'm like, named Henry Pittington back in eighteen forty two,
for those really intense tropical winds that swing around in
a circle. And he took the name from an ancient
Greek word meaning a coiled serpent, which pretty much describes him.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
I guess.
Speaker 12 (45:14):
Then in nineteen forty eight, American meteorologists decided that wasn't
a strong enough term, and they added an adjective, and
they came up with bomb cyclone because they liked I
don't know whether they were being a bit hysterical or
they just liked the melodrama. And in fact when they
did that, they added it to a lot of other things.
They talk about rain bombs in America and snow bombs
and that kind of thing. It basically means something developing
(45:37):
very fast with explosive speed, where the barometric pressure in
the center of the system drops really rapidly in twenty
four hours. That makes it a bomb cyclone.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
We saw the US President Donald Trump drop the F
word last week, and we've had the Victorian Premier Jacinda
Allen talking about bull dust of cleaned that up. Polly
would like to know why people say pardon my French
when they actually go out and swear yes.
Speaker 12 (46:08):
Well, Steven goes back to the Napoleonic Wars and a
long period when there was a lot of hostility between
the English and the French. So what the English did
was they coined a lot of expressions that were very
rude about the French. They talked about things like they
called syphalis the French disease, they called condom's French letters,
they called going on leave with their permission French leave,
(46:30):
and they said bad language. Was obviously speaking French because
that's the sort of thing those dreadful French people do.
So it was the English being really rude about the French.
Early eighteen hundreds, after the Napoleonic wars.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
A lot of.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
French connection here tonight. As you know, I've been around
journalism a long time. The word cop is one in
rite when I'm writing. I tend to avoid because I
think you're going to tell me. But it seems like
a slang word, and I think it's almost disrespectful to
call a police officer a cop. And Alan wants to
(47:07):
know what's the origin of the term cop and is
it a derogatory term? As I just mentioned, he often
hears police officers referring to each other as cops.
Speaker 12 (47:16):
Look, let me take a weight off your mind, Steve.
In fact, it is not a derogatory term. It was
coined very early in the eighteen hundreds, and it comes
from an old verb, the verb to cop and to
cop meant to catch or to capture. And in fact,
the experts of the Oxford they speculate that the word
cop is a variation on the first syllable of the
word capture, CP becoming cop. So it was the right
(47:40):
verb for what they do. They were thief takers, so
they copped court captured the thieves. It's a perfectly legitimate word, Steve.
You should feel fine about using it.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
I'll slip it into a column the next time I
write one. Kel Gab is the word John wants to
know where that comes from the word gab comes from?
Speaker 12 (48:00):
What?
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Citing examples of a gab, fist, gift of the gab,
where's that from?
Speaker 12 (48:05):
From the seventeen hundreds, the word gab has been used
to mean talk, often foolish, extravagant sort of talk, that
kind of thing, thet and so a gab fest is
a meeting where there's lots of talk, and the gift
of the gab is the ability to speak fluently and persuasively.
The problem is the experts tell me they can't work
out where it came from. There's one theory that it
comes from an old French word, and there's a competing
(48:27):
group of scholars to say, no, no, no, no, it
comes from an even older Germanic word. So until the
scholars have settled that, we have to say it's meant
talk since the seventeen hundreds, but before that we just
don't know.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Good on your col Great to catch up with you,
my friend. I'll see you again soon coming after me.
James McPherson is filling in tonight for Andrew Bolt, who
is also on leave. I'll see it tomorrow night at
the same time
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