Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Peter Kuenland live on Skynings Australia.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good evening, Welcome to Credlin steep Price in the chair
again for Peter tonight. Now here's what's coming up on
the program. It's a vext question that took horrific allegations
of child abuse in a Victorian childcare centers to ask
is there any place for men working in this industry?
I'll have more to say on that shortly. Also tonight.
It took our American allies snubbing the PM and a
(00:29):
demand for US to spend more on defense. But guess
what the Governor's confirmed are more than two billion dollar
order for brand spanking new missiles. I'll talk to my
panel about that as well. Sophie Ellsworth joins us in
London on the latest revelations from Princess Kate on her
cancer battle. It's very powerful stuff. Plus Polster CAUs Samarus.
(00:50):
He's done some research seeming to confirm what for me
is the bleeding obvious younger voters have turned their back
on the coalition. Talked to Cause about that as well.
But first, a simple question for me on a very
complex issue, why has it taken the sickening allegations of
child sexual abuse by a man accused of seventy depraved offenses.
(01:12):
Why has it taken the need for twelve hundred children
to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases for this country
to now and only now start asking questions about some
of the things that go on in some of these
places where parents pay to have their children cared for
while they go to work. We had a royal commission
and it appears nothing came from it. Look, I know this,
(01:34):
that hindsight is a wonderful thing. But as this Victorian
horror show plays out, parent after parent has come forward
revealing concerns raised by them to some of these places
that went ignored and under investigated, brushed under the carpet.
And yet here we have Education Minister Jason Clare, who
I am sure is as appalled, honestly appalled at these
(01:57):
incidents anyone else. He does seem genuinely angry, But I'm
not actually sure what system he's talking about when he
says this he's talking about Is it the system of
background checks in staff working in these places, because as
we have learned, that's just a bit of paper with
minimal attention paid to be called a working with child permit.
(02:20):
If you have no police record, that's not picking you
up at all. Is Jason Clair talking about they're not
being enough staff as a system failure, or the fact
that many of these early childhood educators are paid to
pittance and the industry offer attracts last chance saloon workers
who can't get other work in education in the education system. Look,
(02:40):
we need to be careful rushing to judgment here about
any of this. As horrific as it might be, I
tell you what it reminds me. It reminds me of
the debate we have around elder abuse in age care. Now,
you will always have bad people who do really bad things.
But what makes this so much worse is the age
of the alleged victims, some of them babies, little toddlers,
(03:03):
defenseless victims, some before they can even speak. And again,
like age care, this industry is a mix of privately
owned and publicly government run childcare. Now, I'm sure there
are plenty of great private childcare centers that do marvelous work,
and any parents and grandparents watching this would probably agree. However, However,
(03:24):
there is good money to be made in running a
business that is desperately short of places, so you can
charge a premium. Profits can be maximized by hiring cheaply
and keeping staff to a minimum and down playing complaints
from parents. I mean, the explosion of solutions today goes everywhere,
from covering centers with CCTV cameras, to banning personal use
of mobile phones, to even talk, as I said, of
(03:46):
banning males from working in these daycare centers. This was
the comment from the Luise Edmonds. She's from a survivor
group and she seemed to be suggesting the male ban.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
My comment is all men should be bad and in
the intimate spaces of childcare centers, and that includes the
change room, the toilets and also the sleep quarters. If
we're in the immediate measures actually move men out of
those intimate spaces. That is one area to bring calm
and to bring security to children, but also security and
(04:19):
calm to parents.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well, that was an idea that the minister didn't seem
very keen on.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
I don't think that's going to be the solution. Here,
have a look at the Four Corners expose from earlier
this year that Adel Ferguson led on. You know that
showed abuse in our childcare centers and neglecting our centers,
and they weren't blokes.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Look in the immediate aftermath, the answer to the banning
question would seem to be yes. But we all know
young men I do who are great with toddlers and
with babies. And it's an industry that already has an
issue with sufficient staff numbers, so they need more people.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Talking to a series of women today, some make the
point that a lot of younger toddler boy already lack
of father figure at home and would blossom with interaction
with a male. But as I said, how desperately sad
it is that it took the alleged actions of a
depraved person to drag us into even having this conversation.
(05:19):
It's head to Camber now. Tonight's political headlines. Sky News
political reporter Rubensbager.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Australia is struggling to gain any traction with Donald Trump
on tariff relief. This is despite the Foreign Minister restating
the case in Washington. Speaking to Sky News, Penny Wong
insists the relationship between the two countries has a bright future.
Under the President.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
We are better in the alliance, we are stronger in
the Alliance and that we are pulling our weight in
the alliance and we will continue to demonstrate that.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
That's yet to translate to a face to face meeting
between the Prime Minister and President any more details.
Speaker 6 (05:56):
The Prime Minister said, you know, we're obviously very flexible
about those arrangements. President is a very very busy man.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Tariff negotiations are ongoing. Talk of leveraging Australia's critical minerals
as part of a quid pro quo is yet to
prove persuasive. It hasn't stopped the Trump administration pushing Australia
and other countries to mine, refine and share these resources.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
But what are they?
Speaker 5 (06:22):
They're the building blocks of modern technology, essential materials used
in smartphones and military equipment. These minerals are buried across
the country, from Western Australia's lithium mines near green Bush's
and Cowgooli to Rare Earth's projects in the Northern Territory
in Queensland. They're vital not only for economic growth, but
for supporting global efforts to reduce dependence on dominant players
(06:45):
like China. For Australia, the challenge and opportunity is clear
leverage its mineral wealth not just for exports, but to
play a strategic role in reshaping global supply chains. US
pharmaceutical manufacturers are pressuring Donald Trump to act against Australia
over its federal medication subsidy scheme. Farmer is urging the
(07:06):
President to leverage ongoing trade negotiations to combat practices that
force Americans to pay more. The powerful lobby is accusing
Australia of short changing US drug developers for their products.
The ninety day tariff pause is in effect until two
pm next Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Good on your reven Thanks for that now, all right,
plenty to get across tonight. Joining me on the desk,
Deputy executive director at the Institute of Public Affairs Daniel
Wilde and broadcaster Cara Lee Katsimbanas.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Welcome to you both.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I want to stick with this push from at least
one advocate to effectively ban men from working in childcare centers.
Cara's it's been a very emotional two days with what
we're seeing here. I mean, it's almost horrendous to talk about.
I mean I didn't raise it on Credlin the first
two days because it's just so horrendous. But is banning
(08:00):
males an answer here?
Speaker 7 (08:02):
It's horrific. Look, Steve, you can't you can't ban males.
I mean we're going to get to a situation in
all workplaces where a man will stand up and say
I apologize for being a man. That's not the answer.
We've got various advocacy groups today that have come out
to say that banning men is not the answer. This
is a small minority. The real problem is the system.
(08:23):
Now credit to Victoria, it wants to have its own
register and a national register, but we know that there
are problems with the working with children checks because while
it's a national police clearance, it's administered by the states.
I feel it really needs to be.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
A real time record.
Speaker 7 (08:39):
Get a paper, well, you get a bit of paper,
but always but also people are very mobile. You could
get someone that has, you know, things pending in Victoria
that go up to New South Wales or down to
Adelaide or across the another.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Boar, I mean, anyone who has pedophile instincts. Absolutely, they're
rock spiders and clever. They'll get it around that.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
Of course, of course they'll get around it. But I
also think it is incredibly important and I have to
say I feel very sorry for men today that are
either studying primary or secondary school teaching or even childcare educating,
because the weight of the world would be on their
shoulders for no reason. For we need good, positive male
role models.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And we had a real commission into child care. I
mean I made the link there, which I think is
a fair link. We had this conversation when we're talking
about elder abuse and age care. I mean, it's the
same thing. You get people in there who do bad.
Speaker 8 (09:30):
Things, it is, and unfortunately, I mean, this is almost
too sad to talk about really, but unfortunately this is
only the tip of the iceberg. I mean, I think
a lot more is going to be uncovered. We saw
many incidents in New South Wales which weren't just men,
they were women. When we're with these advocates saying well,
we should have no women providers of childcare. So I
don't think the childcare sector will ever be the same again.
(09:50):
It is permanently lost trust, I can guarantee you, and
I say this is a father of two young daughters
that every single parent now is thinking twice, thinking twice
about sending their child to a childcare facility on the
issue of man. Well, my view is the same as
Christy McVeigh who was quoted today in the papers. She's
a former child abuse detective and she said quite rilely
that banning male educators is a reaction, not a solution,
(10:12):
and it is not gender that creates a predator. It
is secrecy, unchecked power that is the cause of that night.
That's my view and I think the view of most Australians.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, I thought the minister handled it pretty well. I mean,
you can't be anything but angry about this. I mean
there was a bit of faux anger but there at
the start, but I think he handled it pretty well.
Speaking ministers the public service, Daniel, I mean those figures
that the Australian has dug out and under labor Australian
has done a very good analysis shows bureaucracy set to
expand by two hundred and thirteen thousand staff over the
(10:45):
next years. What did two hundred and thirteen thousand federal
public servants do? Because we're not talking here about nurses
and police, we're talking about federal public servants.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
You're talking about Canberra paper pushes. Well, there's a couple
of things. The first thing I wonder why our economy
is in the toilet when you've got these many people
that are working in camera pushing paper around. We did
some analysis a couple of months ago that showed actually
there's about one hundred and seven thousand of these public
servants that are dedicated to the creation and enforcement of
regulation and red tape alone. So these are people sitting
(11:16):
in canbra that are telling businesses what they can and
cannot do. Then you've got Jim Chalmers that's given his
big speech. The only idea he has about productivity is
to have another drum circle Kumbai talk fest with people
that have never employed anyone in their life. So look,
the number one cause of the declining productivity is to
do with all of this regulation, red tape, declining business investment.
And I think this is just another example of that.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I think we've got some of these numbers for you
to to have a look at, put them up on
the screen. But it is just extraordinary when you look
at that. You know, look at the sectors and look
at the numbers attached to them, and then we're getting
better service carelly because of those numbers.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
Definitely not there's more people working their Bureau of meteorology,
than there are the administrative, few tribunal you know, and
in the courts as well. All I can think of
is the Weather Bureau still don't get it right. And
perhaps they've got all these, as you say, camera paper
pushes to perhaps do the climate change narrative and change
all the all the climate records to suit what labor
wanted at the time.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I tell you what, Danniel, if you were thinking about
opening a business like a cafe or a hospitality business,
you do it in Canberra. I mean.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Like town got a wall around it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Everyone there has got a job and they're all well paid.
They're all got super being paid by the tax payer.
Speaker 8 (12:32):
And they've got safe jobs as well.
Speaker 9 (12:33):
So look, the.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Only Donald Trump said drain the swamp. The only maybe
Susan Lee needs to do a bit of plumbing.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Maybe nothing.
Speaker 8 (12:40):
But the only industry growing in Australia is red tape.
You know, you ge red tape is Australia's biggest industry
by far, and it's getting much bigger as this in
Alisa's shows.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
We even saw in Victoria this week horrendous numbers of
businesses that have gone out of business because they can't
cope with added taxas, levies and red tape. I mean
it makes it hard. Is the hardest place to run
a business anywhere in the country.
Speaker 7 (13:02):
Well, it's also the hardest place for people to want
to build a house or you know, or create some
kind of incentive for people to be able to rent properties,
because we are, you know, Victoria is well below the
national average. But not only that, it's not attractive investment
for either a business or for somebody to want to
be a landlord. The rules are always changing. We've seen,
(13:23):
you know, with the gas crisis. We've seen this winter.
People that are you know, that own a home, you
can actually now use a gas heater, but if you're
a landlord you have to go electric. There are too
many rules and regulations. And I think that until federal
and state labor governments give credit to private investors providing
a roof over the head of people to rent and
(13:43):
actually make it more attractive and actually do that, then
Victoria will just can keep on going backwards.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Daniel, Incredibly, I keep thinking about this. The election was
on third of May. Yeah, Parliament isn't sad yet. I
think it's still a couple of weeks away.
Speaker 8 (13:58):
Well, that's not a bad thing that they're not passing
bad laws.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
They're not passing them.
Speaker 8 (14:01):
I'll be happy they're not said all year to be honest.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well, when they go back, the Greens are going to
have tremendous power in the Senate. I mean, if you
add the Labour senators and the Green Senators, you can
just wave through any legislation. So now the Greens have
got I never even knew they had one, a shadow
treasurer who's now coming up with figures on how to
take money out of people's superannuation. Once the Greens start
(14:23):
doing calculations on how to get money out of your pocket,
that's when we're all in trouble. But Labor might have
to deal with them. This is the three million dollar
super tax. They're going to tax unrealized profits, and they're
going to take the tax from fifteen percent to thirty percent.
Greens have come up and said, hang on, why don't
we go into everyone's superannuation and raise raise the tax
(14:48):
on the profits of everybody super from fifteen percent to
twenty Great. We we're all told to put money into
superannuation because it's the most attactive, tax effective way to
save your money.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Well, that's right, and this is the problem is the
retrospective nature of it, which is okay, if we want
to have a debate about superannuation the taxes that apply,
we can do that, but it should only apply to
money that's going in there from now on. But as
you say, people put money into super year after year
for decades on and and the idea is to take
the pressure off social services, off the pension system, and
then you have lazy politicians that use it as a
(15:22):
tax grab. I will tell you what was interesting is
that the Green said that they're not in favor of
the unrealized component. And I think that what that shows
is that it's the Greens who are the party of
the rich, because it's the wealthy the most affected by it.
That but this is a real thing that's been happening,
is it's mostly wealthier people that are now likely to
vote Green than those who vote Liberal or Labor.
Speaker 7 (15:41):
And I think this reveals that I was going to say,
he's a novel idea. You've got left wing labor, left
wing Greens. Forget any idea.
Speaker 10 (15:48):
That they've got.
Speaker 7 (15:49):
We've got the system already in place. Fifteen percent, As
you say, people have paid them for the.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Last thirty thirty five years.
Speaker 7 (15:56):
Bill Kelty former ac twou selling with manners as well.
When those three are arking up about it, you know
that they're on the right thing. Leave it as it is.
You're not giving people confidence in the system.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I get a.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Sense that Charmers is not for turning. Thank you both
for coming and I appreciate it very much. Daniel and Caroly,
thank you. Talking about politics well, Moving on, the Federal
Arts Minister Tony Burke has in the last twenty four
hours backed Creative Australia. Now they made a decision to
reinstate a controversial artist who created work which featured a
(16:28):
Hezbala leader and reference the nine to eleven terror attacks.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Now an independent.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Review has found there had been quote missteps in the
earlier cancelation of appointments for the artist kayled sab Sabi
and curator Michael Dagostino, who are now likely to head
off to the Venice B Andali.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And represent Australia.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
At one point our B and Aali platform there was
going to be completely dark during that actual exhibition. Now,
Opposition art spokesman and Shadow Attorneys General Julian Lessa has
slammed the backflip. He's called it damaging to Australia's national values,
social cohesion and global reputation. I must say I tend
to agree with him, he joins me. Now, Julian, welcome,
(17:12):
thanks for joining us on this Thursday night. Now Tony
Burker addressed this issue. He is asked about it where
else but on the ABC. Here's a little bit of
what the Arts Minister had to say.
Speaker 11 (17:24):
I don't put myself out there as an art critic.
But when the criticism that was done at the time
said these were not pro terrorist works, and the artist
himself says there is nothing in this that's meant to
in any way endorse terrorism, then I don't think politicians
can say, well, you're all wrong and it is.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, at least Julian, he admits he's not an art critic,
but the minister says these were not pro terrorist works.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Is he right?
Speaker 12 (17:54):
Well, the Minister was shocked by these works back in February,
and when you look at the works we're talking about,
we're talking about a picture of Hasraun Israela, the leader
of Hesbalah, an organization that we list as a terrorist
organization in this country. The picture of mister inn Israela
is based in light. You've got another video that is
a video of the nine to eleven terror attacks with
(18:16):
George W. Bush at the end saying thank you very much.
I've seen subsequently other works that mister Subsabi has produced,
including works of flags of terrorist organizations. He has some
form in this regard, and I think these works are shocking.
(18:37):
I think what mister Burke looked at and said in
February reflected the views of reasonable Australians who'd be looking
at these works, and I think their decision to reinstate
mister Subsabi is wrong.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
As someone who is the shadow Arts Minister, what do
you think's gone on in the background here? I mean,
I can guess, but I'd like to hear from you,
Julian Well.
Speaker 12 (19:01):
I think there's a question for Tony Burke to explain here.
I mean, how back in February could he and the
Board of Creative Australia say and the CEO of Creative
Australia say that we should remove the commission of mister
Subsabi because they were shocked by these works that have
been presented to them, and then subsequently say that he
(19:24):
should be reinstated. They've got a report into the way
in which they'd made decisions, but nothing in that report
says that mister Subsabi should be reinstated. That was not
the recommendation of that report. But somehow he's been reinstated.
And I think mister Burke and Creative Australia have lots
of questions to answer.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I mean, we always get arguments from the arts industry
and from the left that you know, art should be
able to portray events as they see them. But in
this current climate, I mean you can see how people,
including yourself, including myself, and including Tony Burke originally would
be upset with portrayal of such figures in that way
(20:05):
at an event which is the biggest, Benali, biggest art
function in the world, with Australia's name plases across the
top of it.
Speaker 12 (20:13):
Well, that's exactly right, Steve. This is the Olympics of
contemporary art. The problem here isn't that mister Subsabi has
produced this artwork. He's an artist. He has the right
to produce whatever work he likes as long as it
doesn't breach the law. But the problem here is that
he is being held out as Australia's representative to the world.
There will be thousands of people that will see the
(20:35):
artwork that he produces. There'll be millions of people who
will see media reports of the artwork that he produces
around the world. And he's been given taxpayer funding to
do this and being held out as Australia's representative. One
of the things that was most critical about the report
that Creative Australia received was that it was drawn to
(20:55):
their attention that they have a responsibility to taxpayers, they
have a responsibilit to the broad Australian community and they
have to balance that against their responsibilities in relation to
the promotion of art work. And I think the decision
that they made in February got that balance right. And
I don't understand why they've revoked that decision yesterday.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yes, they need to come out and explain it. I
think just for you go and look.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
I know you're the father of two young children and
I don't intend to ask you about the status of
their childcare. But what do you make of this debate today,
after this shocking story emerged in Victoria this week, This
debate today that we need to suddenly change everything. I
did make the point at the start of the program
that you know, it's all good and well for the
(21:39):
minister to say, oh, well, we've got to crack down,
We've got to change things. It shouldn't take an event
like we've seen these horrible allegations for people to be
talking about how childcare should be run and who's working
in it should.
Speaker 12 (21:53):
It well, we obviously need much more stringent requirements around
who gets to work in childcare, and that means proper
stringent testing, because, like you, Steve, I was absolutely disgusted
by these reports and these allegations that have been made.
And to think that an individual was able to go
across a whole range of childcare centers and commit these crimes,
(22:15):
in allegedly commit these crimes across Victoria, it would send
a chill down every parent to who's got their child
in childcare, because when parents take their children to childcare,
they expect that this is one place that they'll be safe,
and so we need to make sure that we've got
measures in place to help strengthen the ability to guarantee that,
(22:36):
and that's important for all of our families.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
There's been some calls that males not be permitted to
work in childcare.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
What's your view on that, do you have one.
Speaker 12 (22:45):
I don't think we should ban men from working in childcare,
but I do think we're need to be much more
stringent about who we allow to work in childcare and
the questions that we're asking people who go to work
in childcare.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Absolutely, and anyone can get a working with job, don't
have to have a criminal record.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Julian Lessa, thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 12 (23:04):
Thanks Steve.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Now coming up after the break.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
It might come as no surprise to anybody that the
Coalition has a problem with younger voters. So what could
be actually done to fix it? And is there any
path for them back to power without the youngsters.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Voting for them?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Plus a lot of suggestions on how to reform the
childcare sector, which we've been talking about at the top
of the program, But what might actually work. I'll speak
to someone who is an actual expert. Shortly, welcome back
to price In for Peter Credlin. All this week now
still to come live to London, will go and speak
(23:42):
with Sophie Ellsworth. Princess Kate has opened up overnight about
her cancer battle and it's really heart wrenching what's happened
to her. But first up, one of the first big
polls to come out since the federal election and Susan
Lee becoming Liberal leader. It's come out overnight, Red Brick,
You've done it. Look, I don't think it will surprise
too many people to say the coalition is in real trouble.
(24:05):
Labor leads the coalition on a two party preferred basis
by fifty five point five to forty five point five.
That's about statistically the same as the election result. Now
we're the coalition that was really struggling, as I mentioned,
is younger voters. We're just nineteen percent of eighteen to
thirty four year olds nineteen percent that is supporting the coalition,
(24:27):
and that figure does not get that much better among
thirty five to forty nine year olds. Joining me now,
director of Redbridge Group who conducted that pollos I said,
because Samariskau's good to see you, I would have to say,
I mean, hasn't this always been the case. I mean,
you know how old I am. I reckon at eighteen,
I could have I voted in nineteen seventy three, first
(24:49):
time I could vote for Labour's South Australian Premier, Don
Dunstan And I'm pretty sure I've voted for Gough Whitlam
as a nineteen year old in nineteen seventy four. And
I hate to admit this on Live TV because I
actually once voted for the Greens.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
But don't you change as you get older.
Speaker 9 (25:10):
Your generation and my generation. The answer is yes to
a certain extent, to become more considered as we get older.
The long form analysis and that he's amongst the Australians
now aged in their low forties, for example, we've been
following them now for a number of years.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That's not happening.
Speaker 9 (25:28):
And we know that that's more cute when we're dealing
with gen Z that he's people born largely before nineteen
ninety so after nineteen ninety four, and they are really
bad use for the Coalition.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I mean, that's a disaster for the coalition. I mean,
you know when I make that point about younger, I
mean I'm really as you said, because talking with our generation,
probably eighteen to when you first get a job, and
then by the time you get to twenty five and
you might be thinking in the good old days you
could be thinking about buying a house. You suddenly changed
your way of thinking. Some people did. Labour holds sixty
(26:05):
eight percent to party preferred vote with gen Z.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Now, what's what do the Liberals do? Cause?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I mean, how if you're advising them and you know
what would you be saying to Susan Lee, You're not
going to just go out and do TikTok videos? I
hope how do you? How do you change it? Or
can't you?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Well they can.
Speaker 9 (26:24):
I mean a lot of these younger Australians are also
Australians that you know, we define as diverse astrains, people
from the Indian diaspora and the Chinese ouspor who are
wealth accumulators, small business people, lots of tradees in amongst
this generation that we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So there is a story there to be told.
Speaker 9 (26:42):
It's just they're not they're not pitching a small business,
small ol liberal narrative to this emerging generation. And you know,
there'll be seven hundred and fifty thousand gen Z that
will rolled to vote from from now to the to
the next election. So they need to get the skates on. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I remember during the campaign you were saying that baby
boomers and our influences on the decline and these younger
generations and now starting to take over. And that's exactly
what's happened. So I know it's dangerous to compare Australian
politics with the US politics, but Donald Trump seems to
have been able to cross this rubicon and get younger
(27:24):
people to vote for the Republicans. Is there any comparison
between the two countries that you can see. I mean,
we don't have a Donald Trump, clearly.
Speaker 9 (27:32):
That's the number one thing I'll take out of it.
So the thing about young people in the US is
that they're still very empty establishment. So Donald Trump is
exactly the type of person that are portion of them
fine appealing. In Australia, fifty percent of those are between
the ages of eighteen and thirty four voted for minor
(27:53):
parts at this election. Fifty So they are looking for
an alternative, they're just not finding one to call less
than a very big numbers. So in a way, what
Trump's doing is he's basically providing an anti establishment offering
that doesn't exist in this country. So in this country
they end up on the Greens, minor parties, independence and
(28:13):
so on, and then through preferences obviously favor labor in
a very big way.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, and that's going to be very difficult to change.
I mean, as you say, the preference. You know, if
you decided not to vote Liberal and you're in the
seat of Kuyong and you're voted for Menique Ryan, the
preference flow from that isn't just lumping itself over to
the coalition.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Is it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
It's shattering all over the place. And you know, it
was a miracle actually that Goldstein was actually able to
be won by the coalition. That was the one miracle
for them out of the election. But you're not going
to knock these tials off very easily. They're now cemented
in there, aren't they.
Speaker 9 (28:51):
Yeah, if you look at their vote, like Couyon, for example,
the overwhelming number of people that did vote for Minik
Ryan are the very that we're talking about, largely under
the age of fifty, with a university degree, largely renting,
and so there are more and more of those types
of voters in Kyeong than na are in Goldstein, as
(29:11):
perhaps one reason why the Liberal Party was able to
bring Golstein back to their column. But wherever there's high
numbers of renters, high number of young university educated professionals
in these type of former liberal seats, the liberal parties
struggles to win them back.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
God's great stuff. Thank you very much for joining us,
So I'll talk to you again soon. Now, I want
to go back to this issue of potential reform in
the childcare sector in the wake of these horrific sexual
abuse allegations that have surfaced in Victoria in the last
three days. Now, this morning, the minister responsible for the sector,
Education Minister Jason Clare, stress that the government will take
(29:54):
a hard line approach to any center that is not
meeting government standards. Now I don't know what that means,
but here's what the minister had to say.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Introduced legislation that will cut off funding the childcare centers
that aren't meeting our safety standards or our quality standards.
You know, if they're repeat offenders, if they're not meeting
the sort of safety standards that we need and we
demand as a country, and we've got to cut off
their funding. That's the big weapon that the Commonwealth government
has to wield here.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I hear his words, but I keep saying, I mean,
just look at agecare. We've been through this with agecare
before and the federal government. It doesn't seem to be
able to get a handle on these things. Someone whill
know more about this than me, and probably the Minister
is someone with extensive research experience. Professor Darryl Higgins, Director
at ACU's Institute for Child Protection Studies. Professor, do you
(30:47):
aware the ministers promise there that they'll cut funding and
miraculously this stuff won't happen again.
Speaker 10 (30:55):
I think there's a lot more to it, and I
know that the Minister is aware of that. He said
on a number of occasions that there is no one silvableet.
There's a range of different things that we need to
be thinking about across the sector, raising the profile of
the sector and not thinking about it as childcare in
terms of getting parents back to work. You know, it
(31:16):
actually has to be centered on the needs of children
and having them in kind of the front of our
minds when we're thinking about things like how much we
pay the staff and care as who are looking for them,
and how much we prioritize their training, both pre service
education and ongoing training, the staff ratios, these are all
things that go into making up quality education. So you
(31:40):
can't go to the end point of having a quality
system if you actually haven't had the inputs right building
up a great workforce that's well paid and is valued
by the community for the amazing work that they do
in child development and preparing children force for school and
(32:01):
for later life.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Daryl, I hear you, But I mean those things cost money. Now,
you know, I mentioned at the top of the program
that you've got a mix of government funded and privately
run childcare. To concentrate on the private sector. They make
profits by having as few as staff as they possibly can.
They're not endorsing what's happened here, but that's their business model.
(32:26):
And you see the people that are hired aren't well trained.
And I'm generalizing here, but to put in training and
to put in higher salaries, a lot of these childcare
centers would disappear because their business model wouldn't work. And
we already see a shortage in places for people to
have their children educated during the day. So might we
(32:50):
be destroying childcare if we insist on these things happening?
Speaker 10 (32:57):
No, I think that we actually don't have a you know,
a proper system if in fact we're not putting safety
at the center that has to be our number one priority.
Parents shouldn't be expected to drop off children at centers
that can't guarantee the safety of their children, So that
has to be, you know, our bottom line to have
a system that is safe for our children and that
(33:19):
has the trust and respect of parents. You know, we
need we're forming a partnership, if you'l like, between parents
and you know, this sector in order to care for
their children for the number of hours each day that
that is occurring. And to build that trust, you know,
we need to have a number of different actions that
are contributed to by government, by the regulators, by the
(33:44):
sector itself in terms of individual centers and operators, and
making sure that together we kind of pull this through
and raise the quality and safety of our systems because
incidents like we've seen the allegation this week are just
unacceptable and any parent is rightly disturbed and angry by
(34:07):
these failures of the system.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Just briefly, as you go, as an expert in this area,
what do you make of this discussion about not having
men working in childcare.
Speaker 10 (34:22):
Well, I think it's an understandable reaction that this is
where many people have gone to, but in fact it
takes our attention away from the real issues. It's not
gender that causes harm, it's actually the behaviors of individuals
that are doing this and what are the systems that
are allowing those behaviors to occur. So we have over
(34:43):
reliance on working with children checks when in fact we
should be having really rigorous screening processes, referee checks to
make sure that someone is suitable and doesn't have any
concerning behavior at prior employment or prior centers that they
might have worked with. To have you know, training, ongoing
training for staff in centers. In learning, how to you
(35:07):
know best practice if you like, in building the capability
of children to have you know, consent education, you know,
to understand body safety concepts, to be engaging with parents
around the rationale for teaching this, so that parents and
cares together can hear about any concerns that children might have.
You know, we can't expect children to talk about something
(35:28):
that they feel icky about or unsure about if we
haven't introduced children to the correct body part names and
had conversations as parents and as adult cares with them
that allows them to raise concerns and then takes them seriously.
Right across all of the lessons that we've learned from
the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse
(35:50):
across a range of different sectors, including early childhood education
and care, means that we really need to be lifting
the capability of.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Fessi Higgins. Thank you very much for your time. I
appreciate it very much. After the break, we're going to
go to the UK. Princess Kate has given an update
on her battle with cancer, plus a little bit later
on Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill. It's just passed another hurdle.
So how close is it actually becoming law? Welcome back
(36:24):
to price In for Peter Kretlin. Peter will be back
with you next week.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Now.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Donald Trump's so called Big Beautiful Bill could pass Congress
tonight or it may fail. It would happen in Australian
time sometime in the next couple of hours. But what
does that all mean. Well, that's coming up shortly, but
let's stay overseas. Summer temperatures are huge in the UK.
I've got a daughter living in London at the moment
it is really hot, but it's fair to say it's
the BBC that's got the most heat over the handling
(36:49):
of that ugly anti Israel chant it televised live at Glastonbury.
We talked about it earlier in the week News Corps
European correspondent Sophie Ellsworth joins us now from a barmie London. Sophie, welcome.
The BBC copped it as they should have.
Speaker 13 (37:07):
They certainly have, Steve.
Speaker 9 (37:08):
They've been in turmoil ever.
Speaker 13 (37:10):
Since this performance by Bob Villain at Glastonbury on the
weekend where he called for those chants falling for the
death to the IDF. Now the BBC has been accused
of hand handling this very poorly. They had four hundred
to five hundred staff that were at Glastonbury, Steve when
(37:31):
this was aired. The Director General Tim Davey was also
at Glastonbury when this disaster unfolded, and those comments that
had been deemed highly offensive remained on BBC's iPlayer for
up to five hours after the performer made these comments.
So there's now questions been asked by the Culture Secretary
(37:54):
Lisa Mandy about how this happened. And there's also reports
in the Daily Mail here in the UK today that
the singer is also under another police investigation for offensive
comments he made at an earlier performance at Alexandra Palace
in may So, also relating to the IDF. So this
(38:15):
is a giant mess for the BBC, and again they
are in damage control because there seems to be failures
internally about how this aired and how it was allowed
to stay on their platforms for hours afterwards.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Well quite rightly so if the UK's chief Rabbi has
joined the criticism of the way the AABC handled it,
what about the artists responsible?
Speaker 1 (38:41):
I mean these guys.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
I think one of them has had a tour of
Europe canceled, but they've faced no serious sanctions beyond being
dropped by their agent. They banned in the US, But
ultimately I guess there'll be some people who will want
to pay to go and see these people because of
their infamy.
Speaker 13 (39:00):
Well, Steve, they had an enormous platform. The BBC, as
we know, is mammoth, and so they went on air,
they did their thing, they made these comments. They've gone
viral now and a lot of people may have never
heard of these performers, and now many people do, rightly
or wrongly, as a result of those offensive remarks that
they did make. But how did this happen in the
(39:22):
first place. It seems that the performers had prior claims
of saying offensive remarks relating to Israel. And how was
there no delay button, Steve? How was the fact that
this was allowed to just go out there? And were
the BBC staff asleep at the wheel? Because it appears
(39:43):
so because Tim Davie, the boss of the BBC, was
there at Glastonbury, he was told about this and it
remained on their platform. So this is hugely problematic for
the BBC because they have been repeatedly called anti Israel,
you know, the in anti Israel in their coverage of
the war in Gaza and so forth. So this is
(40:05):
just another black mark against their name.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Let's talk about the Princess of Wales. I mean, she's
nothing if not honest, spoken very candidly about her cancer recovery. Sophie,
the Princess conceded post recovery at home has been difficult.
What can you tell us about what she had to say?
Speaker 14 (40:25):
Well, this is.
Speaker 13 (40:26):
Really interesting, Steve. The forty three year old attended a
cancer center in Essex yesterday. Let's just have a listen
of what she had to say.
Speaker 15 (40:35):
You put on a sort of free feast stericism through treatment,
treatments done.
Speaker 13 (40:41):
Yeah, so I think I can't.
Speaker 12 (40:43):
Get back some of them again.
Speaker 15 (40:44):
But actually, but the phase afterwards is really you know,
it's a really difficult one. You know, you're not necessarily
a chanical team any longer, but you're not even to
function normally at a home.
Speaker 13 (41:00):
A very raw account there, Steve, a very honest account.
We haven't heard her talk a lot about her cancer battle.
We know that she pulled out of Royal Ascot at
short notice just a few weeks ago. She was announcing
remission earlier in the year. But she has talked Steve
about those battles post cancer and people just sort of
(41:20):
expect you to get on with it, and she said
that is really difficult and that isn't the case, and
support needs to be provided for people. So I think, Steve,
these words of wisdom from Princess Catherine will be listened
to by many people around the world, as many of
us have people close to us and have their own
cancer battles. So I think these comments are incredibly important
(41:42):
for people to listen to know that her battle has
been like many other people's battles with cancer.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah, we're very well, said Sophie. You enjoy the sunshine.
We'll catch up with you soon. That Sophie ELL's worth
in London there where today's temperatures are in the low thirties.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Coming up.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Trump has announced a tariff deal with Vietnam, of all places.
Still no word on any deal though between Australia and
the US. Plus the Albanezy government announces a major investment
or is it in air defense? Our international panel up
after the break, Let's bring in our Thursday Night panel.
(42:20):
Welcome back from the break International panel. Sky News contributed
Kosher Gata and for my labour MP Michael Danby, Welcome
to you both. Let's talk about this big, beautiful bill. First, Kosher,
It's in the Congress and as we speak we could
get this passed at some stage tonight. Can you give
us that haven't followed what's in this bill as closely
(42:41):
as you have, what exactly it means to average Americans?
And do you believe it will get up great to.
Speaker 14 (42:50):
Be this Steve, in the simplest of terms, this is
trying to This bill is trying to ratify in the
legislature all of the policies that the Trump Agenda has
been pushing forward with the Trump admin right now, and
there's many things in it, but there's three things. Most importantly.
One is tax cuts. So these are the tax cuts
that Trump had passed in his first term. They were
(43:11):
due to sunset. Right now it's a permanent extension of
that that is playing to his base of working class,
middle class Americans would be beneficiaries of that. There's a little
bit of spending cuts around some of the low income
programs that we have, like Medicaid and SNAP. And the
third thing, and the most important thing, is immigration enforcement,
where it has the greatest funding package in the history
of the country for immigration enforcement, everything from the border
(43:35):
wall to more ice agents to other deportation related mechanisms
that he wants. The reason why it's been controversial among
the Republicans in particular is the spending cuts don't go
deep enough. The looming debt and deficit remains in large
part and so some of them have held back on that.
But Trump is prioritizing immigration over spending cuts because that's
(43:55):
the most pressing issue for him, and in terms of
what will it pass or not, they can afford to
lose through votes. There's six or seven Republicans right now
that are holding out. So there's lots of horse trading
going on as we speak, but I do think most
likely it will pass by the skin of his teeth.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, we saw some vision there of the bait going
on in the House, Michael speaking of Washington, speaking of
politics in the US. Critics have been pretty quick to say, look,
Penny Wong went there the Foreign minister. She'd come back
from Washington empty handed, no trade deal, no Trump meeting.
I saw Alexander Downer on earlier with Deneka and he
(44:30):
says that she's just sending the wrong message and sending
the wrong message to the Americans. What do you make
of where we're at with all of this right now?
Speaker 16 (44:39):
Well, I think she's pleased she got the meeting. She
should have because it was a quad meeting. Ominously, South
Korea was strangely not there. We don't seem who have
been able to get a special deal like the UK
has Starmer's managed to cut himself a special arrangement, and
even the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. You wouldn't have thought
(44:59):
that over popular with the Trump administration have managed to
get themselves a good deal compared to China, so they
only get a twenty percent tariff. It's ominous with that,
Polster said the other day about Kevin radnot being liked.
I saw Kevin was in the paper in the Australian
two days ago trying to say that Trump is a
(45:21):
smart guy for what he managed to do in the
Middle East. But I don't think that'll be enough. Unfortunately,
it seems that they've got him as a mark man.
I know Steve Bannon doesn't.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Like him, Kocha on all of this.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
I was impressed with Marco Rubio at that Quad press
conference at the end where he had the Japanese Foreign Minister,
the Indian Foreign Minister in Penny Wong. He said, let's
stop talking, let's start making this Quad thing work, and
he took the conversation into a conversation about rare earths
and how that could be something the Quad could get
(45:58):
together and do.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
He seemed to be sending sage, coach, I.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Don't know if you agree about let's get on with it,
Let's do something, don't let's have at meetings.
Speaker 14 (46:07):
Well, for sure, action action, action is what this administration
prides himself in being. And moving on Trump time, I
think is what Marc Ribewa said himself in the past
of how they function and the rare earths thing is
interesting because that is one of the few areas where
Australia certainly and other countries in this region have some leverage,
something to offer and to bring to the table that
(46:27):
the United States really really covets, that China covets and
has very smartly been buying up parts of land around
the world that are economically poor but rich and rare earths,
and the US definitely and Marco Ruby have a strategy
to try and rebalance that. And I think it's no
coincidence that he focused in and zeroed in on that
issue in particular.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Michael, we've got this tortuous divide about how much we
should spend on defense, and then the government I guess
it's coincidence that Penny Wong returns back to the country
and we suddenly announce a two point one billion dollar
missile purchase to boost air defense and strike power. Is
that sending a message back to the Americans that, Okay,
(47:08):
we hear you, We're going to do something.
Speaker 16 (47:11):
Maybe spere a re announcement of previous expenditure steven until
they raise the amount that they're spending on these things.
I said on Sky two nights ago that our air
bases all around the country do not have modern air
defense missiles. And one of these purchases is meant to
(47:31):
be for such air to ground missiles, but it's being
deployed by.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
A new tenth brigade. Mate.
Speaker 16 (47:38):
We're sure to five thousand people in the ADF. I
don't know where this new tenth brigade is coming from.
I'm concerned and people who are you know, in Canberra
should be digging into this more in the press gallery.
Where's this tenth brigade? Is this the re announcement of
just old expenditure? And I could provide a list on
(48:00):
if you want, And there are lots of people who
could of the kinds of things that Albo should be
should be doing this air defense. The air defense missiles
are good, but have a old expenditure.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Kosher in a word.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
Can the Donald Trump cease fire between Israel and Hamas hold?
Speaker 1 (48:20):
We hope.
Speaker 14 (48:20):
So. I think the sixty days as far as is
a starting point. I mean, this region is just so
conflicted for millennias. So we shall see. But I think
he's gotten further than anybody has in recent times, and
people are hopeful for that and for his upcoming meeting
with Natanyahu next week.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
Kosher Michael, thank you very much for joining us and
it's been a pleasure being here this week. Peter Kreblin
will be back with you next week. James McPherson is
up next, filling in for Andrew Bolt.