January 7, 2025 • 49 mins
Labor attempts a pre-election 'gimmick' to try and ease tensions with Israel, the Australia Day debate rages on just a few weeks out from celebrations, and Kamala Harris forced to certify Donald Trump's election victory.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Peter Kredlin live on Sky News Australia. Well, good evening
and welcome to the program. I'm James Borrow, filling in
this week for Peter Kredlin. Coming up tonight, We've got
a big show for you. Labor is once again playing
us for fools with the pre election given to try
and ease tensions with our supposed ally Israel after months
(00:26):
of pandering to the Greens and Muslim voters. Plus let
the Australia Day virtue signaling begin. While some companies and
councils are now embracing our national Day, others continue the
push to divide us. Why I don't know, but Kamala
Harris too. She's been forced to certify her rivals win
(00:47):
in Washington as Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau falls on
his sword. The latest from North America a bit later
on in the program. But first, well, it's two of
the unofficial election campaign and it is already clear to
me that Anthony Albanizi believes that the Australian people have
(01:09):
the memory of a goldfish. After more than a year
of increasingly hostile relations between Israel, Australia and the putative
friend Israel, the only true liberal democracy in the entire
Middle East. Weeks and months, and now more than a
year of hostile anti Israel demonstrations in our capital cities,
(01:29):
many featuring the flags of Hesbala and other terrorist organizations,
and a shocking run of anti Semitic attacks in Jewish neighborhoods,
the Albenesi government has realized, Hey, we have a problem here,
and the Jewish community and plenty of other Australians are
mightily upset about it, particularly at the way Labour's Middle
(01:53):
East policy has been driven by a cynical mix of
leftist student politics i e. The Greens and the left
wing of the Labor Party, plus a desire to pander
to Muslim voters in western Sydney and Melbourne seats held
by key Labor frontbenchers. So what's Labour's big solution to this, Well,
(02:15):
Anthony Albanezi is sending one of his ministers to Israel. Now,
not far Minister Penny Wong, mind you, the woman behind
Australia's frankly hostile stance towards the Jewish state, but rather,
in a move that spacks of tokensm and condescension, the
government's only Jewish Minister, Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss. I'm sorry,
(02:38):
but how dumb do they think we are? How short
do they think our memories are. Here's what Alex Rivkin
from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry had to say
on Sky earlier today.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Mark Dreyfus is obviously a high ranking member of the
federal government and I'm sure that his trip will be
well received by these rather but ultimately actions speak louder
than words. And when the Foreign Minister previously traveled to
Israel and refused to travel to the sites of the
October seven atrocities in the south of Israel to see
for herself why Israel is a warm what was done
(03:14):
to the people of Israel. That was really a very
bruising thing that was done, and that really shattered the
relationship to a large degree. Since that time, we've seen
visa issues with ISRAELI has been unable to come to Australia,
We've seen an increasingly hostile stance taken by Australian international
forums against Israel. So this is a positive step from
(03:35):
the Attorney Genermalan from the government, but the actions that
follower are far more important than this trip alone.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, and I think Galx was even soft pedaling it there.
And he's not the only one who thinks that all
of this from the government is just too little, too late.
Earlier today I spoke with the Jewish Liberal MP Julian Liser,
who said, quote, having focused for so long on the
politics with the inner city left, the Prime Minister now
realizes he has lost the trust of mainstream Australians when
(04:06):
it comes to the proliferation of anti Semitism in our
country and the betrayal of a long standing Australian ally unquote.
Now remember this is the same Albanese government that has
voted time and again against Israel in the UN, that
has undermined the nation's previous Biparlisan stance on Israel, that
(04:29):
refused to give a visa to a former Israeli government
minister to attend a conference in Canberra, whose Foreign Minister
Penny Wong previously and grudgingly visited Israel, but refused to
visit massacre sites in the south of that country that
were torched by Hamas on October seventh. And by the way,
(04:52):
I can tell you I have visited those sites. I
did some months ago and it was an utterly chilling,
searing experience that will be forever in my memory. And
by the way, this is also a government who's Attorney General,
the same Mark Dreifus, they are sending to Israel, mixed
an inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses. So do they
(05:19):
really expect Australians of goodwill to forget all of them,
to say, oh, no, it's okay, Mark Cravis is going
to Israel. Everything's fine now again do they think we
have the memories of goldfish? This is utterly performative, this trip.
It changes nothing and in fact, in some ways it
(05:40):
makes it worse.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
The great John Howard, echoing the thoughts of Sir John Carrick,
has long been fond of saying that with regards to elections,
you can't fatten a pig on market day. Yet here
the government is trying to tuck this in the support
of Israel's friends and supporters again not just in the
Jewish community but across the country and say, hey, don't
(06:04):
worry about it, everything's good now. Well, I'm sorry, I'm
not buying it. And let me say one more thing.
We are days away from Donald Trump coming back into
office and rewriting US policy towards the Middle East in
a much more firmly pro Israel direction than all of
(06:26):
that Obama era pro Iran nonsense that Joe Biden was
on about. Yet here we are the Albanesi government seems
to have no idea what is happening or what is
about to happen in Washington, as their campus level anti
Israel radicalism threatens to drive a wedge between Canberra and
(06:49):
Washington at precisely the moment that we should all be
together onside. Indeed, I don't want to be alarmist here,
but there is a chance that an Albanesi government with
Kevin Rudd as ambassador to Washington, God help us, will
badly bungle this crucial relationship with the Trump administration. Now
(07:11):
in recent weeks, elsewhere in the world, everywhere, from everyone
from Italy's Georgia Malone to the UK's Keir Starward of
Francis Vaniel maccral have all either made their way tomorrow
Lago or invited Trump in to meet him for a
meal and a check to build relations. All these nations
recognize that there is a new regime coming. They're making
(07:35):
their moves and they're making their plans to cope with it.
So what's us try you doing, what's Foreign Minister Penny
Wong doing, what's Albanese doing?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I'd love to know.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Now onto the campaign trail and the Prime Minister was
again in Queensland today sporting his a kubra hat that
makes him look like Willy Loman in an outback committee
the interproduction of Death of a Salesman and gosh again,
it seems like Anthony Albanezi is even snippier with reporters
than even say US President Joe Biden. Have a look
(08:12):
at what happened in Rockhampton earlier.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Today's time for you to concede that your pledge to
introduce electricity prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars
by this year, for whatever reasons, that's not going to happen.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
Is that fair?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Well.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
One of the things that we did, of course, was
I have three hundred dollars energy bill relife. The Coensland
government understood Miles had one thousand dollars additional to that
that was opposed by the coalition.
Speaker 7 (08:38):
That's not my question. In fair that was a coalition,
but the two hundred and seventy five dollars.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
I know that, but you get You get to do
the questions. I get to do the answers. That's why
it works.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
And we have we have delivered that.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Oh testy testing there, Prime Minister.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Look, I get it on.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
The two hundred and seventy five dollars promise is an
absolute albatross around Labour's neck as they crash or crash
through towards net zero and renewables that are supposedly they
keep saying the cheapest form of energy, yet which keep
driving everyone's power bills up. And the fact is our
power bills are up more than one thousand dollars per
(09:18):
household in some cases since this government took office. And
let's not even get started on the effect, the crippling
effect on businesses. They're trying to keep the lights on
and the machines going and everything else. So this two
hundred and seventy five dollars question, well, guess what it's
going to keep coming up over and over again this campaign.
(09:39):
And yet despite this fact, Anthony Albinisi doesn't have a
good answer to the question.
Speaker 7 (09:48):
Let's talk about power prices.
Speaker 8 (09:50):
You just bought it up there three years ago during
the last election you did promised to lower those power
prices by two hundred and seventy five bucks by twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Is that going to happen?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Done?
Speaker 6 (10:00):
Has put in place three hundred dollars reduction in everyone's
power bills. That's had a real impact for people in
reducing power bills here in Queensland. That was added to
by a one thousand dollars by the former Queensland government
as well. What we saw globally was a spike in
energy prices, in part due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(10:25):
That was something that has had an impact globally. We've
done what we can to insulate Australia from that global spike.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Is still blaming Ukraine despite energy prices settling right back
down to where they were before the Russian invasion. No,
I'm sorry this and the cost of living in general
has to be sheeted home to the people who've been
in power for two and a half years, weted a
whole year of that time on the voice and blame
(11:00):
those who came before them for this mess. Well, Attorney
General Mark Drayfuss, as I said before, is planning a
trip to Israel as a relationship between Alban Easy and
Bibi Netanya, who and their governments continues to fracture Following
a spate of anti Israel at Taxi City in Melbourne,
(11:21):
Sydney's most senior Jewish MP will spend a week in
Israel after canceling a planned visit in October of last year.
Joining me now to discuss this and so much more
is my very good friend Daily Telegraph journalist James Willis
and my other very good friend, Sky News host Liz Storer.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Great to see you now, James. Before I get to
this trip, though, I want to just ask you, because
you know we work together the Day Telegraph. You've got
a great story that you're working on the Telegraph. Tell
us a little bit about it because I want people
to go out and check this out tomorrow and the
paper hits the Newsteps.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, it was interesting.
Speaker 8 (11:56):
We've had a response in the last two hours, a
rare de spawn from the Australian the ADF, the Defense Force,
because we made some inquiries today off the back of
a number of people coming to us to say their
kids had waited between twelve and eighteen months from the
moment they applied to the moment they actually got in
to get it to the vents.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Now, these are fit young kids.
Speaker 8 (12:17):
They might have had, you know, a minor issue as
a kid, like an asthma or something like that, but
they were waiting eighteen months in some cases to get
into the army.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
We are meant to have this massive shortage of troops.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
We learned today that the recruitment with the ADF has
been outsourced to a Swiss firm to the tune of
one point wow billion dollars. Defense has said they're underperforming.
But the development tomorrow, which is quite amazing, James, is
that last year sixty four thousand people, which is actually
bigger than the size of our ADF, applied to get
(12:53):
into the Defense Force, and yet we can't get them
out the other end. And because they've outsourced this service,
people are just getting stick and the traps, in a
lot of cases giving up and just say I'm going
to do something else instead.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
This is absolutely sharking, Jemes, and you're wrong going to
check this out to borrow on the deal in Telegraph.
So thanks for bringing us up to spin on that.
But I want to get back now to the other
big news, this big trip here and Cheval'll stick with
you here. With Liberal MP Julian Lisa calling this a
pre election trick, it's hard to disagree with that. What
do you reckon?
Speaker 8 (13:20):
Well, I think, in isolation, I think it's difficult to
be critical of the idea of Mark Dreyfus wanting to
go to Israel. I think he's an appropriate person to go.
But the problem for Labor is whatever decisions they make
at this point in time are going to be seen
as too little, too late when based on what you've
said on the international stage, some of their reactions to
(13:40):
some of the local events that we've seen in Sydney
and Melbourne, and some of the senior in this is
particularly in Sydney where there are large Muslim electorates that
have been largely quiet on this issue. So in isolation,
I don't think this makes it any worse.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
But look, Labor has been far too slow to the
party on this issue.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Well that's right, Jemes Liz Storer, though, I mean this
seems very much like, you know, after months and months,
really more than a year of just you know, mismanagement
of this issue and going in for the most left
wing and pandering approach to Israel. Suddenly they're trying to
shift gears right before an election. Do they just expect
people to forget everything they've done, including you know, denying
(14:19):
visas to enter the country to former Israeli cabinet ministers.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
They don't just expect it.
Speaker 9 (14:26):
They are counting on it. And I got to disagree
with James because I don't think it's hard to take
a problem with Mark Dreyfus wanting to go at all.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I have often thought that if I were Mark.
Speaker 9 (14:37):
Dreyfus, I would have stepped down from cabinet by now,
because since October seven, all my government, the government that
I am serving in the cabinet of has done is
mouth off from the sidelines at what my country's up to,
just trying to defend their right to exist. Obviously, he
hasn't been among that number, but he shares a front
(14:59):
bench with me many who share very anti Israel sentiments.
They've done nothing to hide it, and he has just
been silent on them, as you've got to be if
you're part of Labor caucus.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
But if this was a man of.
Speaker 9 (15:11):
Conviction, I dare say at the very least he would
have stepped.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Down from cabinet by now.
Speaker 9 (15:16):
But this is the point where it gets so bad
it's almost comical. All of a sudden, they're like, let's
just roll out the Jewish guy on cabinet, see if
we can do damage control.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I think looking principle in the Labor Party is you
know you need to might need to find a microscope
for that. Liz A.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Wiltho note that.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
If Mark Dreyfus has any as a Jewish man serving
in this anti Israel government, surely you could expect better
from him.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
I think you're standing down though. I think I think
like he can.
Speaker 8 (15:47):
Show leadership and represent the Jewish community in his role.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Has fair enough, I think for sure. But it's exposed.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
It's rather we're not going to.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
And as he tried, the guy lost, yees. So I
don't think we should be too hash to Moa.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
We should be harsh on Alben Easy for this very
cynical attempt to tuck the Jewish community back in at
this very late date.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
We're not gonna solve. We're not gonna.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Solve the Middle East though, on this on this set,
which we like to call Camp David. But I do
want to talk more about this election that's coming up,
because you know, of course cost of living is the
other huge thing, and the Prime Minister has been spending
cash all over the place, seven million dollars for queens
Land Bruce Highway. But here's the thing, he's not saying
(16:32):
anything about whether there's gonna be any tax changes in
the platform coming up.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
To the election.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
As we now see the tax take in this country
continue to increase. Now this, James Willis, seems like there
is so much need for reform here. The tax take
in this country is now income taxes make up fifty
three point five percent of the federal income tax. That's
before booze tax, petrol tax, the other tax that they charge.
(17:02):
This is you know, this was supposed to end at COVID.
It's not ended. It's stuck. How bad is this? Well,
the figures.
Speaker 8 (17:10):
That you're highlighted the significant and is obviously an issue
for business and the taxes that they've had as well.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I think for both sides.
Speaker 8 (17:17):
One of the most uninspiring things we've seen since COVID
is the lack of genuine debate around reform about that
system and actually get.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
The economy moving in the right direction.
Speaker 8 (17:26):
Instead in the last two years, all we've had is
record government spending, a giant bureaucracy, energy rebates. The reality
is most people want to be left alone. Well, yeah,
we're able to work, earn money, and.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Governments get out of their lives. Really we've had none
of that debate.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
But Liz, we've got a bigger tax, take a bigger
share of GDP going to government, you know that we've
had in decades. Have we got to the point now
where politically it's impossible to talk about it? In that's
real reform because reform creates winners and losers, and some
people who are doing inefficient things are going to wind
up losing out because we make the ecout more efficient.
(18:01):
Are we now in a where we can't even politically
talk about reform?
Speaker 9 (18:06):
I hope not, because this is something that Trump has
certainly taken in America by the gonads and is currently
swinging around his head most gleefully.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
That's lovely.
Speaker 9 (18:16):
The entire government departments, namely the Federal Department of Education.
He's got his mates Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami heading
up dog the Department of Government Officialcy. He's talking dooge,
my bad you know, he's talking about absolutely gutting entire departments.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I often say, of.
Speaker 9 (18:38):
The ridiculous taxes that we're coping now, we wouldn't mind
so much if this was being well spent. There are
countries like Germany where an over fifty percent tax bracket
is pretty much the norm and everyone's used of it.
But things run well and a lot of things are free,
which is not the case here. What we have is
(18:59):
government and overspending on the most ridiculous things that the
average person he doesn't pass the pub test. But for me,
it doesn't matter what promises, tax related or other the
Labor government takes to the election, because we all know,
given the promises they took to the last election, they
don't last long list.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Liz, I'm glad you have mentioned Germany because of words.
Germany is a country that shut down all their nuclear
reactors and now they're relying on wind and solar and
their intercession, and they're poor. They can't make anything anymore.
But are we learning the lesson here in Australia Because
after a two billion dollar proposed project was shelved Kingston
and South Australia last week, finally some good news. It
(19:39):
seems all of South Australia's offshore wind industry is dead
in the water. Following the action of the Port McDowell
project in March last year, James Willis, it seems like
there's suddenly a big shift saying maybe we don't have
to destroy the environment to save the environment. Is it
time for labor to give up on this whole wind
(20:02):
a dry well?
Speaker 8 (20:02):
I think the thing that people have badly underestimated with
this net zero transition is the social license you need
with farmers. And there's now compensation deals going on all
over the country because people go, well, hang on, this
is a massive, you know, harbor bridge sized tower in
my backyard. And the environmental impacts which are the reason
that we block a lot of gas projects and traditional
(20:23):
fossil fuel projects and mines and stuff like that. But
we've heard people like Bob Brown in Tasmania so that
wind farms shouldn't go ahead because there's ten parrots of
this particular species left and these things are going on.
And the problem with wind is most of the time
it's not very effective, and it's being put in parts
of the country where there's not all that much wind
without issues on the Yellawarra and for most people it's
(20:44):
the social license where farmers simply don't want it in
their backyard because of their land values.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And Liz, you know, I have interviewed people who live
around these solar forums and wind forums and what they're
trying to do with the tear communities absolutely apart. I mean,
it's it seems to me that this is a situation
where the inner city greenies are forcing you know, the
rooms as they think of them, who live out in
the bush to pay the price for their green dreams.
Speaker 9 (21:11):
This is yet another class for it really is these elites,
inner city elites or MPs even it's the powerful people
punching down on the little guys.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You have to pay for it. Nobody wants it in
their backyard.
Speaker 9 (21:23):
But I must say this project falling over is such
a gift to the Libs coming up on this election
because yet again it's like Labour's never going to deliver
on their eighty two percent renewables by twenty thirty, that
is now just five years away.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
It was always pie.
Speaker 9 (21:39):
In the sky, unicorn nonsense. And once again every time
one of these projects falls over, all the Libs have
to do is sit back, laugh and say we told you.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
So well, big o, and I think we're going to
see a lot more of that. James willis Liz Door.
Thank you so much. Now let's head over to news
from the United States, where Vice President Kamala Harris has
officially certified her own election loss to Donald Trump. To
discuss this and more, I'm joined by Sky News contributor
Kosha Gatta. Kosha, great to see you and thanks so
(22:11):
much for joining me tonight on credit and what did
you make of this phenomenally unusual circumstance is seeing the
vice president certify their own election loss.
Speaker 10 (22:24):
Great to be with you, James, as always, you know
it is not very common. Nixon, Gore and Mike Pence
infamously last time come to mind in recent memory.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Is people had to do that.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
And when you zoom out and look back to the
lens of history, I think people can ascertain where those
people ended up falling out, especially Gore, Pence, etc. So
you know, it's something that ultimately will go in the
dustment of history, as they say, but at that time
when it does happen.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It's interesting.
Speaker 10 (22:51):
On the one hand, you could look at it positively
and it shows the system working and democracy and action
where people fulfill their oath of office. And on the
other hand, in this campaign, it's just kind of funny
when you look at the way Kamala Harris was thrust
into the race at the eleventh hour and then everything
that transpired in those three months after that, and now
this is sort of the cherry on the topping for
(23:11):
Trump supporters for sure.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
And Kosher, what do you make of this sort of
the blame game that's suddenly starting to play out on
the Democrat Party and certainly among a lot of media
supporters of the Democrats in the press who are now
suddenly saying, oh, well, you know, we had no idea
that Joe Biden was so bad, We had no idea
that Kamala Harris was such a bad candidate, and that
you know, she wasn't going to win. Do you think
(23:33):
that there's any sort of self reflection now on the
institutional left kind of put off a lot of the
kind of the media in the United States into that
category about the role they had in protecting Joe Biden
and then also supporting a candidate who turned out to
be as anybody would have seen the last election cycle
of dud.
Speaker 10 (23:56):
You know, I would have to imagine when they're looking
in the mirror at home, there is self reflection, for sure,
but in the public arena you're seeing very very little
of it. I think somebody on CNN just raised this
and asked Chuck tchumor actually the other day, who was
vehemently backing, how with it Biden was, and then two
weeks later, after that infamous debate, completely change his tune
(24:18):
and he was doubling down. There was no self reflection
at all, and the media was kind of going along
with it. But I'll give you credit for at least
asking the question. I think it's the only example I
can think of where they did that. And in terms
of how it's playing out, you know, the media is
in the mainstream media buy and large, with some notable exceptions,
is really in a free fall as a business model
and as in terms of a crisis of credibility, credibility
(24:39):
and legitimacy that they face right now. And this issue
I think is one of the biggest scandals ever. The
cover up of how they hid and protected Biden's very
obvious to all cognitive decline that I don't think history
is going to judge them kindly, and you might see
a lot of restructuring and consolidation of the media industry
writ large over the next five to seven years.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I would imagine, I think you're absolutely right about that, Coach,
and I'll just mind everybody to here. On Sky News,
we were right on the pace about Joe Biden's decline.
But let's go north of the border to Canada, because
I think this is absolutely fascinating. With Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau falling on his sword after nine years in power,
following a whole bunch of internal pressure within his party,
(25:19):
have a look.
Speaker 11 (25:21):
This country deserves a real choice in the next election,
and it has become clear to me that if I'm
having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best
option in that election.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Now, Conservative leader Pierre Poiliev, who looks to be the
odds on favor to become the next prime minister, has
slam Trudeau's Liberal party following the resignation announcement.
Speaker 12 (25:47):
Every Liberal MP in power today and every potential Liberal
leadership contender fighting for the top job helped Justin Trudeau
break the country over the last nine years. Their only
objection is that he is no longer popular enough to
win an election and keep them in power.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Now, Kosha, I've written about Pierre pauliev for Tomorrow's Daily Telegraph.
But what do you know about him? And what sort
of leader do you think he'll be if he becomes
Prime minister later this year at the election? Will there
be warmer relations between him and Donald Trump than between
Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau? Which we're always fairly comically frosty.
Speaker 10 (26:26):
Indeed, you know, there are always things you know about
somebody and then when they actually step into the arena
you see other things about them.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
So I think everyone will have to wait and see.
Speaker 10 (26:34):
But in general, mister Pierre, he does seem to have
populist tendencies a little bit, I would say, make Canada
great again light in terms of his positions on certain issues, immigration,
cost of living, government spending and all the rest of it.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
For an intervention and all that.
Speaker 10 (26:48):
He does also seem to have the art of rhetoric,
which is useful. There were some viral clips of him
being harassed by a reporter and an.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Orchard and how he flipped it.
Speaker 10 (26:56):
It's actually Kosha eating an apple.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Let's actually have a look at that, because we've got
that crab here. Let's play a little bit of this
for people who might not have seen this to get
a flavor of Pierre pauliev. A lot of people would
would say that you're simply taking a page out of the.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
Donald Trump like which people would say that, well, I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
A great many Canadians, but like who, I don't know who,
but you're the one who asks the question, so yeah,
you must know somebody.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Okay, I'm sure there's some out there.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
But anyways, in a sense, Kosha, doesn't that get back
to what we were speaking about a moment before about
the nature of the media and how people don't trust
the media to play it straight in the United States
or North America for that matter.
Speaker 10 (27:40):
Yes, or in liberal democracies everywhere. Indeed, Yeah, I think
that's the thing. The wide open playbook available to mister
Pierre and to anybody really in the Western world is
those two issues, immigration and inflation, because they're the biggest
that the constituency is demanding and neither party has done
a sufficient job addressing their grievances. And secondly, the art
(28:00):
of the rhetoric and being able to go into a
very by and large left leaning or left friendly media
and adversarial reporters and take them down in a cool, calm,
funny way, whatever the individual style may be. So he
definitely demonstrated that there that clip I think is what
made him shoot up to international fame from that regard.
As long as he does those two things, pursues that
policy agenda, and is able to do battle with the media,
(28:23):
he's got a real shot right now because the Labor
Party over there is very unpopular. Whoever replaces Trudeau is
only going to cement that even further, and so there's
a wide opening and we'll see if he takes it.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I think you're absolutely right there, Kosha Gatta, thank you
so much for your time, Really appreciate it. Now stick
around because after the break, with housing and migration shaping
up to be a top election issue for voters, how
are the parties going to address these vexed problems? Expert
analysis with Emily Dye after the break, welcome back to
(28:56):
the program. Well, Housing affordability and the impacts of Record
Mike are set to be two major concerns for voters
heading into this year's federal election, which is going to
be called in just a few weeks time. I reckon now.
In fact, it turns out that the housing crisis has
topped the list of concerns for business leaders in a
new survey by KPMG. KPMG part of me, with almost
(29:19):
half of these individuals pulled believing it poses a real
risk to businesses as well. For more to chat about this,
I am joined by Emily Die from the Center for
Independent Studies. Emily, thank you so much for coming on
the program tonight. We've had some really bad news out
of Camber and the statistics around housing starts and housing approvals.
(29:43):
And explain to me how in this housing market where
we have so many people who are dying to get
into a house, we're simply not even approving the houses
that we need, much less build them.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Yeah, and we're not improving them where people want to live.
Speaker 13 (29:56):
I think this survey really shows KPMG is done that
people are starting to notice that this is leaking into
other sectors because people have these long commutes. We've not
built the houses in the inner cities near the jobs,
and so they're losing all of that productivity, all that
time being forced to commute two hours in traffic, and
that has all of these flow on effects, so the
(30:19):
rest of the economy that we should be absolutely concerned about.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
It's the number one issue I would say in Australia.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Well, and I mean it's hard to untangle where the
state responsibility begins and the federal government responsibility ends.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
And all of this.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Peopolie, the new or the opposition leader in Canada who's
very likely to be the next prime minister, he has
said that he would in Canada just hold federal funding
to cities that don't approve the right number of houses.
Would you support something like that, and what is labor
doing about?
Speaker 13 (30:47):
I think he's one of the most interesting leaders that
we've seen in the Western world on this issue. And
I'm fully on board with that kind of idea. Yeah,
you don't build houses, No, you don't get the money.
Why would we put money into building say infrastructure, train
lines and that kind of thing if it's only going
to be single family housing around those train lines, Like,
if we're going to put that kind of taxpayer investment in,
then yet we should be making it so that more
(31:10):
people can use those kinds of resources.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
What do you make of the coalition's take on all
of this, which is to say, well, you know, Actually
you need to build the infrastructure out in all of
these places because actually people do people aren't going to
want to live in houses. You can't just have everybody
in apartments, you know. Is that also a worthwhile approach explored?
Speaker 13 (31:30):
Well, I think we should do all of the above,
Like people need choice, but there's a significant number of
people that do want to live in them in the
inner city, particularly younger people, and that's where we end
up with issues of people not.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Being close to those jobs.
Speaker 13 (31:41):
So yes, I think that trying to push people into
outer areas is a great idea building up more cities.
The fact that Australia has so few cities is incredibly problematic.
But the issues that are plaguing our major cities Sydney,
Melbourne are the same issues that we're seeing in small
town Australia and places like Ballarat like there are also
lots of restrictions and the same sort of thinking and
(32:03):
mindsets that are also restricting buildings. So unless we can
fix that approval process, the infrastructure is not going to
fix it.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Now we're talking about the supply here, but the other
side to this equation is of course demand, and we
have to We've spoken about this, yes here, but this
issue of migration here, we have been seeing a record
surge in migrants over the past several years. We are
in a per capita recession here. It's essentially I think
migration is the only thing the government has. It's sort
(32:31):
of propping up the official numbers. It looks been like
a Ponzi scheme. Frankly to an awful lot of people.
Why don't we just simply turn down that tap a bit,
Because the more people you bring in, the more people
are in places people going to need to live. It
is supply and demand, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Well, demand is definitely part of the equation.
Speaker 13 (32:52):
I'm not going to say that no, immigration doesn't have
any impact on the price of housing.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
However, it's not the cause.
Speaker 13 (32:59):
The cause is because we've restricted the amount of housing
we can have. If we allow that to open up
and we get those immigrants state building the houses, then
we will have we won't have the same problem that
we have right now.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
But there's only a tidy number of people who come
in on our skilled visa programs who are actually trades.
It seems like the idea that bringing in trades to
build more homes, to bring in more trades. It seems again,
it seems like you're sort of in a vicious cycle.
What do we do about this economy that is, you know,
we're not doing anything in terms of being more efficient,
We're not doing reform. We're just simply, you know, relying
(33:33):
on a few industries, and one of them is frankly,
you know, churning out visas. And what does that do
for social cohesion?
Speaker 13 (33:38):
I think the efficiency thing is really interesting, particularly around visas.
I think the right in particular, we're against the idea
that the state would micromanage capital like that's a very
pro capitalist idea, and yet when it comes to human capital,
probably one of the most important sources of capital and
growth for an economy, we want to dictate exactly what
jobs where people should be. How any put these quota
(34:01):
systems in place instead of letting the market act, And
I think that that would be the best policy is
allowing a more free market approach to immigration.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Sure, but let me just put this one out here,
because this is a fascinating discussion, and I think, you know,
there's an awful lot to unpick about this. If you
treat something like migration, if you treat people as capital
I you just sort of you know, units within an economy.
What do you do about the problem with people who
want to come here. You know, maybe they want to
make money, that is great, but they don't want to integrate,
they want to you know, we've seen all sorts of
(34:30):
problems with social cohesion in this country where people have
brought their animosities and their conflicts from overseas and are
determined to act them out on the streets of our cities.
Surely that's not a benefit of immigration.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I think there's two different questions when it comes to immigration.
Speaker 13 (34:46):
The economic question, which I think is pretty well solved
by constant immigrants are great boon. They provide lots of value,
They contribute in a bit more businesses. They are interestingly entreprenurial,
like two of us or two examples. When it comes
to culturally, I think we should be very set on
enforcing our rule of law in Australia. I don't think
(35:06):
you can commit acts of violence, acts of terrorism. If
an immigrant group is acting badly, they should have the
full fair to force the law come down on them.
As a result, as long as we're enforcing our Australian ideas,
people come and they they're signing a social contract when
they come to Australia that yes, we're going to abide
by what Australian society is.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Our girls have to go to school. If they're a
culture that teaches that girls don't go to school.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Hey, before we go, I want to talk also about
misinformation because this is I think, you know, one of
the most sinister things that Labor has tried to pull
was that Misinformation Bill. Now they pulled the bill last
year following a lot of opposition from the coalitions. And yes,
let's give them some snaps the Greens, thank you very
much for this one thing, the broken clock right twice
(35:52):
a day. But I'm concerned because I look around the
world and everywhere it seems like democracies are in the
name of protecting what they call our democracy, are trying
this again. Do you think Labor, if they come back
in with another term, are going to have another bite
of this app Oh?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Absolutely. I don't think this issue is going to bed
anytime soon.
Speaker 13 (36:11):
One of the things that I was concerned about last
year's wal the misinformation Bill failed. The under sixteen Bill
did pass, and what that does is it removes the
option for anonymity on the internet. So if you're a whistleblower,
if you want to call out politicians and you want
to do that without your name being put to it,
that's no longer the case and you could be prosecuted,
possibly like has happened in the UK. That is where
(36:33):
I'm afraid.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, no, fair enough. Listen, Emily died. Thank you so
much for your time, but really appreciate it. Now, don't
go anywhere because after the break, Yes, it's Australia just
around the corner. I'm looking forward to it, but not
everybody else is. We are in peaked virtue, singing seasoned folks.
But have we finally had enough of the divide? Have
be some hope after the break? Welcome back to the program. Well,
(37:01):
guess what Australia Day is almost here. It's fast approaching,
so of course that can mean only one thing. No,
not sausages and beer. It's the big debate about changing
the date. It's heating up once again now. Multiple local
councils are once again planning to hold their citizenship ceremonies
on a different day. Thank you Anthony Albinezi for that,
(37:23):
and you can bet there will be Invasion Day protests
around the country on January sixth, twenty six. In response,
a new historian, Professor Angela Wolcott, has claimed that the
debate around January is twenty six will go on forever. Well,
she might be right about that, but then she has
also said that a change of date is the only
(37:44):
way to quote clear the deck.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
I'm not so sure.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I'm not sure. My next guest is either Sky News
contributor Roco Lecano. Roco, thank you so much for coming
along this evening. I'm happy Early Australia Day. Do you think, though,
as in professor suggest that a new deed would actually
resolve tensions or would the activist just find something new
(38:09):
to protest.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Early Australia though? To you, James, happening in your year
as well. Look, change the data isn't going to solve anything,
and if anything, it will create more division. And we
have a poll so seriously, polls have come out of
the last few years suggesting that a majority of Australians
don't want to change, they're happy with it.
Speaker 7 (38:27):
On January twenty six.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
And look these activists, so you just can't kiss the
ring enough with them. We saw last year they were
starting on ANZAC data or was it the South Australian
government didn't even mention ANZACT Day in the official government gazette.
And I've seen arguments that we should change the national
data the first of January with the Data Federation. Well
again the activists will argue, well, the Commonwealth is a
(38:49):
product of colonization.
Speaker 7 (38:50):
Rah rah rah rah.
Speaker 5 (38:51):
Look, you can change the data as much as your life.
How many problems in remote Aboriginal communities are going to solve?
Absolutely none. Lead the day it is. It's unifying and
as we saw Bob balk on Australia Day in nineteen
ninety eight seven, the only thing needful to be in
Australian is to have a commitment to the country and
that's what most Australians have, and that's what most Australians
want from their fellow Australians.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Bingo absolutely correct, Roco. And the thing that gets me
every single year about this is, I don't know any
other nation that you know has this whole sort of
process of agony around one single day. Americans don't do
this over July fourth, The French don't do this over
Bastille Day, although arguably there are some things there they
(39:33):
should look at. Nevertheless, Australia, for some reason, seems to
be caught in this tremendous sort of orgy of self
loathing from the left every single year.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
What's that all about.
Speaker 5 (39:47):
It's about an ignorance of history more than anything else.
James look Left obviously tried to promote this idea that
as of twenty sixth January seven and ninety eight, we've
had two hundred so of massacres and the rest well,
there are lots and lots of positives that colonization brought along.
I mean Captain Arthur Phillip when he arrived on the
(40:09):
shores of Sydney Cove, was actually charged by the British
government to live in amity with the Aboriginal people when
he said, in a free land there can be no slaves.
Our responsibility is to guard Convica's, not attack the locals.
I could name another couple of episodes. We had the
mild Creek massacre in eighteen thirty eight, where twenty eight
armed Aboriginals were massacred in cold blood by settlers. Fellow
(40:33):
settlers chased down the perpetrators of this crime. These perpetrators
were brought to justice and hand. And one other thing
I'll suggest, which I think is the probably the greatest
measure of reconciliation in this country, is that to sixty
percent of relationships between Aboriginal men with Aboriginal people are
with a non Aboriginal person. As I said, what greater
(40:54):
measure of reconciliation can you have than chooting to share
your life with someone from a for bryce?
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, And I mean also there's you know, behind all this,
there also seems to be this kind of naive academic
and apologies. I know you're in academia, a view that
somehow the indigenous Australia should have just gone on forever
without any contact with the West. And yet you know,
contact with the British. Let's be frank to have that
be your first contact, and in a colonial sort of setting,
(41:23):
that's probably in many ways a much better historical outcome
for the local people than almost any other group coming
here first.
Speaker 7 (41:33):
Goal.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
I mean, the bastic thing is Jimes, it is Britain,
and the risk of Colmina of Europe started tragging with
India and the East Indies. It's Trida sooner or later
was going to be colonized. And as you say, I
think if I had my choice between the British, the French,
the Spanish dut and the Belgians, I take the British
any day of the wage.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, now, fair enough. Look, I think you're absolutely right
about that, Rockelicondo. We're gonna leave it there. After the
break here, thank you so much for retirming again, happy
earlier Strada. After the break, Sophie Elsworth from London to
tell us all about the crazy stuff that's going on
there with Elon Musk and Keir Starmer. Stick around, welcome
(42:15):
back to the program. Let's now head to the UK
where Elon Musk is using a social media platform X
to get into a giant fight not only with current
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but also Reform UK leader
Najl Farage. To tell us all about this, I'm joined
by News Corp Europe correspondent Sophie Ellsworth. Sophie, so good
(42:37):
to speak to you. Now tell us about this incredible
fight that's broken out between billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X,
and Labor Prime Minister Kiir Starmer. And it all goes
back to some very disturbing crimes from more than ten
years ago tell us about it.
Speaker 7 (42:55):
Yeah, great to be with you, James. That's exactly right.
Speaker 14 (42:58):
So there's a big scan erupting over here over whether
or not there should be a public.
Speaker 7 (43:03):
Inquiry into grooming gangs.
Speaker 14 (43:06):
This was a serious problem in the UK, as you said,
about a decade ago, and there's been calls that there
should be a national inquiry into this grooming gang scandal.
Now Sakiirs Starmer's government has said no, they are not
going to hold a national inquiry. And this has drawn
a huge criticism from Elon Musk, who is accused Keir
(43:30):
Starmer of being complicit in the grooming gang scandal when
he was the DPP Here in the UK, it's got
in a pretty ugly war of words and they've been
staushing online. Keir Starmer said yesterday that people including Elon Musk,
had been spreading misinformation.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
And lies about this.
Speaker 14 (43:52):
It's got really ugly over here, James, and even overnight
Elon Musk was still tweeting at Sakir star So peces
far from over.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
And it's far from over because it involves so many
different elements here, including I mean what we're talking about
here really was years where it seemed like in a
lot of towns there were these organized groups of mostly
Pakistani men who were sexually assaulting and getting away with
offen young white working class girls. So there's a huge
job racial element to it, there's a class element to it.
(44:26):
Are British people really annoyed about why, you know, their
own country folk were allowed to be treated the way
they were, but there weren't the sort of prosecutions that
there should have been, and that in many cases social
workers and police kind of turned a blind eye.
Speaker 7 (44:43):
Well there's fury over here, James, There's no doubt about that.
There's a lot of people very angry.
Speaker 14 (44:49):
The Safeguarding Minister has said there will not be a
national inquiry into THECE and they want to move on
from it. But there's coverage on every radio station, every
team TV station, wall to wall newspaper coverage about this.
It's engulfed the Starma government. It's not a good way
for him to start the year. He's had a shocking
(45:09):
six month since he's been in office. And yesterday really
came out on the attack and accuse the far right
of peddling misinformation and lies, and that just got people
more i rate, when really they should be focusing on
the serious problem here at hand, and that is, as
you said, the scandal around these booming gangs.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, no, look that's right. And I wonder if Sophie,
you know, we had the Brexit voting I think twenty fifteen,
and this was just when everybody knew that this was
going on, and a lot of these towns that voted
for Brexit, you know, were the ground zeros for these
sorts of gangs. How much do we now think that,
maybe in retrospect, so much of what people were voting
for there was really a protest about the way institutional
(45:54):
Britain was letting these towns be treated by this new
multicultural element that seemed to be untouchable by this government.
Speaker 14 (46:04):
Well it may have seen that case, James, but the
migration issue here now is live, It's alive and well
and it's dominating every day. Similar to Australia, where we
complain about migration issues, housing affordability is a result in
various other social issues, it's very similar here in the
UK where people are angry. They are angry that the
(46:27):
migration rates in the UK are so high and it's
causing problems for British people here themselves annoyed that so
many people are coming into the country, many people coming
in illegally as well, and this again has dominated one
of the key issues at the moment that remains a
focus of the British public.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Yeah, and now, Sophie, there's another front to this whole
fate too, and that's the one, the fight between Elon
Musk and Nigel Fara's the UK Reform leader. Elon has
come out and said that he's not fit to be
the leader of the Reform Party. This surprised me and
I didn't really see this coming. Tell us about this.
Why are these two having a blue.
Speaker 14 (47:10):
Well, this is a surprise. This is a relationship that's
blown up pretty fast. I mean, just a few weeks
ago Elon Musk was standing side by side with Nigel
Frage and billionaire business and Nick Candy and Mari Lago
and they were joined at the hip saying that they
are going to join forces and boost Reform UK, which
is proving a headache for the Conservatives over here. But
(47:34):
in between now and then, Elon Musk has said that
Tommy Robinson, who is jailed for contempt of court, who
he says, and many people argue he exposed the grooming
gang scandal. That's debatable both there's a lot of commentary
on that. He said he should be freed. Nigel frag
just sees he's not in jail for the grooming gang scandal,
(47:57):
you know information he's in jail for attempt of court.
Speaker 7 (48:01):
So now they have pea to have a falling out.
Speaker 14 (48:03):
A Musk has said Farrage is not up to the
top job, which is very interesting because this looks like
Elon Musk will pull any funding and it was up
to one hundred million for Reform UK.
Speaker 7 (48:16):
It looks like that is very much in doubt now.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
And so it sounds to me, then Sophie, like what
we've got here and we've only got about thirty seconds left,
But is this basically a purity test on the right
being opposed by Elon Muskus to who has the right
set of views on the right? That doesn't sound very
promising to get anything done? Does it.
Speaker 14 (48:37):
Look basically if you don't agree with Elon Musk, you're
in trouble. And that's what's happened here with Nigel Farage.
They haven't agreed on this point. With Tommy Robinson, they've
butted heads over it, and Elon Musk is the one
with the checkbook.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
James fair enough, Well, yeah, and he's got a pretty
big checkbook. Sophie Ellsworth coming to us from London. Thank
you so much for your time this evening explaining this
very complicated situation, which I think has an awful lot
of implications I think for countries around the world that
are grappling with issues of multiculturalism. Stick around here because
(49:12):
Danika de Giorgio is up at the Boar Report now
Peter Kredlin live on Sky News Australia. Well, good evening
and welcome to the program. I'm James Borrow, filling in
this week for Peter Kredlin. Coming up tonight, We've got
a big show for you. Labor is once again playing
us for fools with the pre election given to try
and ease tensions with our supposed ally Israel after months
(00:26):
of pandering to the Greens and Muslim voters. Plus let
the Australia Day virtue signaling begin. While some companies and
councils are now embracing our national Day, others continue the
push to divide us. Why I don't know, but Kamala
Harris too. She's been forced to certify her rivals win
(00:47):
in Washington as Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau falls on
his sword. The latest from North America a bit later
on in the program. But first, well, it's two of
the unofficial election campaign and it is already clear to
me that Anthony Albanizi believes that the Australian people have
(01:09):
the memory of a goldfish. After more than a year
of increasingly hostile relations between Israel, Australia and the putative
friend Israel, the only true liberal democracy in the entire
Middle East. Weeks and months, and now more than a
year of hostile anti Israel demonstrations in our capital cities,
(01:29):
many featuring the flags of Hesbala and other terrorist organizations,
and a shocking run of anti Semitic attacks in Jewish neighborhoods,
the Albenesi government has realized, Hey, we have a problem here,
and the Jewish community and plenty of other Australians are
mightily upset about it, particularly at the way Labour's Middle
(01:53):
East policy has been driven by a cynical mix of
leftist student politics i e. The Greens and the left
wing of the Labor Party, plus a desire to pander
to Muslim voters in western Sydney and Melbourne seats held
by key Labor frontbenchers. So what's Labour's big solution to this, Well,
(02:15):
Anthony Albanezi is sending one of his ministers to Israel. Now,
not far Minister Penny Wong, mind you, the woman behind
Australia's frankly hostile stance towards the Jewish state, but rather,
in a move that spacks of tokensm and condescension, the
government's only Jewish Minister, Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss. I'm sorry,
(02:38):
but how dumb do they think we are? How short
do they think our memories are. Here's what Alex Rivkin
from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry had to say
on Sky earlier today.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Mark Dreyfus is obviously a high ranking member of the
federal government and I'm sure that his trip will be
well received by these rather but ultimately actions speak louder
than words. And when the Foreign Minister previously traveled to
Israel and refused to travel to the sites of the
October seven atrocities in the south of Israel to see
for herself why Israel is a warm what was done
(03:14):
to the people of Israel. That was really a very
bruising thing that was done, and that really shattered the
relationship to a large degree. Since that time, we've seen
visa issues with ISRAELI has been unable to come to Australia,
We've seen an increasingly hostile stance taken by Australian international
forums against Israel. So this is a positive step from
(03:35):
the Attorney Genermalan from the government, but the actions that
follower are far more important than this trip alone.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, and I think Galx was even soft pedaling it there.
And he's not the only one who thinks that all
of this from the government is just too little, too late.
Earlier today I spoke with the Jewish Liberal MP Julian Liser,
who said, quote, having focused for so long on the
politics with the inner city left, the Prime Minister now
realizes he has lost the trust of mainstream Australians when
(04:06):
it comes to the proliferation of anti Semitism in our
country and the betrayal of a long standing Australian ally unquote.
Now remember this is the same Albanese government that has
voted time and again against Israel in the UN, that
has undermined the nation's previous Biparlisan stance on Israel, that
(04:29):
refused to give a visa to a former Israeli government
minister to attend a conference in Canberra, whose Foreign Minister
Penny Wong previously and grudgingly visited Israel, but refused to
visit massacre sites in the south of that country that
were torched by Hamas on October seventh. And by the way,
(04:52):
I can tell you I have visited those sites. I
did some months ago and it was an utterly chilling,
searing experience that will be forever in my memory. And
by the way, this is also a government who's Attorney General,
the same Mark Dreifus, they are sending to Israel, mixed
an inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses. So do they
(05:19):
really expect Australians of goodwill to forget all of them,
to say, oh, no, it's okay, Mark Cravis is going
to Israel. Everything's fine now again do they think we
have the memories of goldfish? This is utterly performative, this trip.
It changes nothing and in fact, in some ways it
(05:40):
makes it worse.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
The great John Howard, echoing the thoughts of Sir John Carrick,
has long been fond of saying that with regards to elections,
you can't fatten a pig on market day. Yet here
the government is trying to tuck this in the support
of Israel's friends and supporters again not just in the
Jewish community but across the country and say, hey, don't
(06:04):
worry about it, everything's good now. Well, I'm sorry, I'm
not buying it. And let me say one more thing.
We are days away from Donald Trump coming back into
office and rewriting US policy towards the Middle East in
a much more firmly pro Israel direction than all of
(06:26):
that Obama era pro Iran nonsense that Joe Biden was
on about. Yet here we are the Albanesi government seems
to have no idea what is happening or what is
about to happen in Washington, as their campus level anti
Israel radicalism threatens to drive a wedge between Canberra and
(06:49):
Washington at precisely the moment that we should all be
together onside. Indeed, I don't want to be alarmist here,
but there is a chance that an Albanesi government with
Kevin Rudd as ambassador to Washington, God help us, will
badly bungle this crucial relationship with the Trump administration. Now
(07:11):
in recent weeks, elsewhere in the world, everywhere, from everyone
from Italy's Georgia Malone to the UK's Keir Starward of
Francis Vaniel maccral have all either made their way tomorrow
Lago or invited Trump in to meet him for a
meal and a check to build relations. All these nations
recognize that there is a new regime coming. They're making
(07:35):
their moves and they're making their plans to cope with it.
So what's us try you doing, what's Foreign Minister Penny
Wong doing, what's Albanese doing?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I'd love to know.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Now onto the campaign trail and the Prime Minister was
again in Queensland today sporting his a kubra hat that
makes him look like Willy Loman in an outback committee
the interproduction of Death of a Salesman and gosh again,
it seems like Anthony Albanezi is even snippier with reporters
than even say US President Joe Biden. Have a look
(08:12):
at what happened in Rockhampton earlier.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Today's time for you to concede that your pledge to
introduce electricity prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars
by this year, for whatever reasons, that's not going to happen.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
Is that fair?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Well.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
One of the things that we did, of course, was
I have three hundred dollars energy bill relife. The Coensland
government understood Miles had one thousand dollars additional to that
that was opposed by the coalition.
Speaker 7 (08:38):
That's not my question. In fair that was a coalition,
but the two hundred and seventy five dollars.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
I know that, but you get You get to do
the questions. I get to do the answers. That's why
it works.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
And we have we have delivered that.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Oh testy testing there, Prime Minister.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Look, I get it on.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
The two hundred and seventy five dollars promise is an
absolute albatross around Labour's neck as they crash or crash
through towards net zero and renewables that are supposedly they
keep saying the cheapest form of energy, yet which keep
driving everyone's power bills up. And the fact is our
power bills are up more than one thousand dollars per
(09:18):
household in some cases since this government took office. And
let's not even get started on the effect, the crippling
effect on businesses. They're trying to keep the lights on
and the machines going and everything else. So this two
hundred and seventy five dollars question, well, guess what it's
going to keep coming up over and over again this campaign.
(09:39):
And yet despite this fact, Anthony Albinisi doesn't have a
good answer to the question.
Speaker 7 (09:48):
Let's talk about power prices.
Speaker 8 (09:50):
You just bought it up there three years ago during
the last election you did promised to lower those power
prices by two hundred and seventy five bucks by twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Is that going to happen?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Done?
Speaker 6 (10:00):
Has put in place three hundred dollars reduction in everyone's
power bills. That's had a real impact for people in
reducing power bills here in Queensland. That was added to
by a one thousand dollars by the former Queensland government
as well. What we saw globally was a spike in
energy prices, in part due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(10:25):
That was something that has had an impact globally. We've
done what we can to insulate Australia from that global spike.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Is still blaming Ukraine despite energy prices settling right back
down to where they were before the Russian invasion. No,
I'm sorry this and the cost of living in general
has to be sheeted home to the people who've been
in power for two and a half years, weted a
whole year of that time on the voice and blame
(11:00):
those who came before them for this mess. Well, Attorney
General Mark Drayfuss, as I said before, is planning a
trip to Israel as a relationship between Alban Easy and
Bibi Netanya, who and their governments continues to fracture Following
a spate of anti Israel at Taxi City in Melbourne,
(11:21):
Sydney's most senior Jewish MP will spend a week in
Israel after canceling a planned visit in October of last year.
Joining me now to discuss this and so much more
is my very good friend Daily Telegraph journalist James Willis
and my other very good friend, Sky News host Liz Storer.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Great to see you now, James. Before I get to
this trip, though, I want to just ask you, because
you know we work together the Day Telegraph. You've got
a great story that you're working on the Telegraph. Tell
us a little bit about it because I want people
to go out and check this out tomorrow and the
paper hits the Newsteps.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, it was interesting.
Speaker 8 (11:56):
We've had a response in the last two hours, a
rare de spawn from the Australian the ADF, the Defense Force,
because we made some inquiries today off the back of
a number of people coming to us to say their
kids had waited between twelve and eighteen months from the
moment they applied to the moment they actually got in
to get it to the vents.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Now, these are fit young kids.
Speaker 8 (12:17):
They might have had, you know, a minor issue as
a kid, like an asthma or something like that, but
they were waiting eighteen months in some cases to get
into the army.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
We are meant to have this massive shortage of troops.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
We learned today that the recruitment with the ADF has
been outsourced to a Swiss firm to the tune of
one point wow billion dollars. Defense has said they're underperforming.
But the development tomorrow, which is quite amazing, James, is
that last year sixty four thousand people, which is actually
bigger than the size of our ADF, applied to get
(12:53):
into the Defense Force, and yet we can't get them
out the other end. And because they've outsourced this service,
people are just getting stick and the traps, in a
lot of cases giving up and just say I'm going
to do something else instead.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
This is absolutely sharking, Jemes, and you're wrong going to
check this out to borrow on the deal in Telegraph.
So thanks for bringing us up to spin on that.
But I want to get back now to the other
big news, this big trip here and Cheval'll stick with
you here. With Liberal MP Julian Lisa calling this a
pre election trick, it's hard to disagree with that. What
do you reckon?
Speaker 8 (13:20):
Well, I think, in isolation, I think it's difficult to
be critical of the idea of Mark Dreyfus wanting to
go to Israel. I think he's an appropriate person to go.
But the problem for Labor is whatever decisions they make
at this point in time are going to be seen
as too little, too late when based on what you've
said on the international stage, some of their reactions to
(13:40):
some of the local events that we've seen in Sydney
and Melbourne, and some of the senior in this is
particularly in Sydney where there are large Muslim electorates that
have been largely quiet on this issue. So in isolation,
I don't think this makes it any worse.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
But look, Labor has been far too slow to the
party on this issue.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Well that's right, Jemes Liz Storer, though, I mean this
seems very much like, you know, after months and months,
really more than a year of just you know, mismanagement
of this issue and going in for the most left
wing and pandering approach to Israel. Suddenly they're trying to
shift gears right before an election. Do they just expect
people to forget everything they've done, including you know, denying
(14:19):
visas to enter the country to former Israeli cabinet ministers.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
They don't just expect it.
Speaker 9 (14:26):
They are counting on it. And I got to disagree
with James because I don't think it's hard to take
a problem with Mark Dreyfus wanting to go at all.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I have often thought that if I were Mark.
Speaker 9 (14:37):
Dreyfus, I would have stepped down from cabinet by now,
because since October seven, all my government, the government that
I am serving in the cabinet of has done is
mouth off from the sidelines at what my country's up to,
just trying to defend their right to exist. Obviously, he
hasn't been among that number, but he shares a front
(14:59):
bench with me many who share very anti Israel sentiments.
They've done nothing to hide it, and he has just
been silent on them, as you've got to be if
you're part of Labor caucus.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
But if this was a man of.
Speaker 9 (15:11):
Conviction, I dare say at the very least he would
have stepped.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Down from cabinet by now.
Speaker 9 (15:16):
But this is the point where it gets so bad
it's almost comical. All of a sudden, they're like, let's
just roll out the Jewish guy on cabinet, see if
we can do damage control.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
I think looking principle in the Labor Party is you
know you need to might need to find a microscope
for that. Liz A.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Wiltho note that.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
If Mark Dreyfus has any as a Jewish man serving
in this anti Israel government, surely you could expect better
from him.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
I think you're standing down though. I think I think
like he can.
Speaker 8 (15:47):
Show leadership and represent the Jewish community in his role.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Has fair enough, I think for sure. But it's exposed.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
It's rather we're not going to.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
And as he tried, the guy lost, yees. So I
don't think we should be too hash to Moa.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
We should be harsh on Alben Easy for this very
cynical attempt to tuck the Jewish community back in at
this very late date.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
We're not gonna solve. We're not gonna.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Solve the Middle East though, on this on this set,
which we like to call Camp David. But I do
want to talk more about this election that's coming up,
because you know, of course cost of living is the
other huge thing, and the Prime Minister has been spending
cash all over the place, seven million dollars for queens
Land Bruce Highway. But here's the thing, he's not saying
(16:32):
anything about whether there's gonna be any tax changes in
the platform coming up.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
To the election.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
As we now see the tax take in this country
continue to increase. Now this, James Willis, seems like there
is so much need for reform here. The tax take
in this country is now income taxes make up fifty
three point five percent of the federal income tax. That's
before booze tax, petrol tax, the other tax that they charge.
(17:02):
This is you know, this was supposed to end at COVID.
It's not ended. It's stuck. How bad is this? Well,
the figures.
Speaker 8 (17:10):
That you're highlighted the significant and is obviously an issue
for business and the taxes that they've had as well.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
I think for both sides.
Speaker 8 (17:17):
One of the most uninspiring things we've seen since COVID
is the lack of genuine debate around reform about that
system and actually get.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
The economy moving in the right direction.
Speaker 8 (17:26):
Instead in the last two years, all we've had is
record government spending, a giant bureaucracy, energy rebates. The reality
is most people want to be left alone. Well, yeah,
we're able to work, earn money, and.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Governments get out of their lives. Really we've had none
of that debate.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
But Liz, we've got a bigger tax, take a bigger
share of GDP going to government, you know that we've
had in decades. Have we got to the point now
where politically it's impossible to talk about it? In that's
real reform because reform creates winners and losers, and some
people who are doing inefficient things are going to wind
up losing out because we make the ecout more efficient.
(18:01):
Are we now in a where we can't even politically
talk about reform?
Speaker 9 (18:06):
I hope not, because this is something that Trump has
certainly taken in America by the gonads and is currently
swinging around his head most gleefully.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
That's lovely.
Speaker 9 (18:16):
The entire government departments, namely the Federal Department of Education.
He's got his mates Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami heading
up dog the Department of Government Officialcy. He's talking dooge,
my bad you know, he's talking about absolutely gutting entire departments.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I often say, of.
Speaker 9 (18:38):
The ridiculous taxes that we're coping now, we wouldn't mind
so much if this was being well spent. There are
countries like Germany where an over fifty percent tax bracket
is pretty much the norm and everyone's used of it.
But things run well and a lot of things are free,
which is not the case here. What we have is
(18:59):
government and overspending on the most ridiculous things that the
average person he doesn't pass the pub test. But for me,
it doesn't matter what promises, tax related or other the
Labor government takes to the election, because we all know,
given the promises they took to the last election, they
don't last long list.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Liz, I'm glad you have mentioned Germany because of words.
Germany is a country that shut down all their nuclear
reactors and now they're relying on wind and solar and
their intercession, and they're poor. They can't make anything anymore.
But are we learning the lesson here in Australia Because
after a two billion dollar proposed project was shelved Kingston
and South Australia last week, finally some good news. It
(19:39):
seems all of South Australia's offshore wind industry is dead
in the water. Following the action of the Port McDowell
project in March last year, James Willis, it seems like
there's suddenly a big shift saying maybe we don't have
to destroy the environment to save the environment. Is it
time for labor to give up on this whole wind
(20:02):
a dry well?
Speaker 8 (20:02):
I think the thing that people have badly underestimated with
this net zero transition is the social license you need
with farmers. And there's now compensation deals going on all
over the country because people go, well, hang on, this
is a massive, you know, harbor bridge sized tower in
my backyard. And the environmental impacts which are the reason
that we block a lot of gas projects and traditional
(20:23):
fossil fuel projects and mines and stuff like that. But
we've heard people like Bob Brown in Tasmania so that
wind farms shouldn't go ahead because there's ten parrots of
this particular species left and these things are going on.
And the problem with wind is most of the time
it's not very effective, and it's being put in parts
of the country where there's not all that much wind
without issues on the Yellawarra and for most people it's
(20:44):
the social license where farmers simply don't want it in
their backyard because of their land values.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
And Liz, you know, I have interviewed people who live
around these solar forums and wind forums and what they're
trying to do with the tear communities absolutely apart. I mean,
it's it seems to me that this is a situation
where the inner city greenies are forcing you know, the
rooms as they think of them, who live out in
the bush to pay the price for their green dreams.
Speaker 9 (21:11):
This is yet another class for it really is these elites,
inner city elites or MPs even it's the powerful people
punching down on the little guys.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You have to pay for it. Nobody wants it in
their backyard.
Speaker 9 (21:23):
But I must say this project falling over is such
a gift to the Libs coming up on this election
because yet again it's like Labour's never going to deliver
on their eighty two percent renewables by twenty thirty, that
is now just five years away.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
It was always pie.
Speaker 9 (21:39):
In the sky, unicorn nonsense. And once again every time
one of these projects falls over, all the Libs have
to do is sit back, laugh and say we told you.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
So well, big o, and I think we're going to
see a lot more of that. James willis Liz Door.
Thank you so much. Now let's head over to news
from the United States, where Vice President Kamala Harris has
officially certified her own election loss to Donald Trump. To
discuss this and more, I'm joined by Sky News contributor
Kosha Gatta. Kosha, great to see you and thanks so
(22:11):
much for joining me tonight on credit and what did
you make of this phenomenally unusual circumstance is seeing the
vice president certify their own election loss.
Speaker 10 (22:24):
Great to be with you, James, as always, you know
it is not very common. Nixon, Gore and Mike Pence
infamously last time come to mind in recent memory.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Is people had to do that.
Speaker 10 (22:34):
And when you zoom out and look back to the
lens of history, I think people can ascertain where those
people ended up falling out, especially Gore, Pence, etc. So
you know, it's something that ultimately will go in the
dustment of history, as they say, but at that time
when it does happen.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It's interesting.
Speaker 10 (22:51):
On the one hand, you could look at it positively
and it shows the system working and democracy and action
where people fulfill their oath of office. And on the
other hand, in this campaign, it's just kind of funny
when you look at the way Kamala Harris was thrust
into the race at the eleventh hour and then everything
that transpired in those three months after that, and now
this is sort of the cherry on the topping for
(23:11):
Trump supporters for sure.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
And Kosher, what do you make of this sort of
the blame game that's suddenly starting to play out on
the Democrat Party and certainly among a lot of media
supporters of the Democrats in the press who are now
suddenly saying, oh, well, you know, we had no idea
that Joe Biden was so bad, We had no idea
that Kamala Harris was such a bad candidate, and that
you know, she wasn't going to win. Do you think
(23:33):
that there's any sort of self reflection now on the
institutional left kind of put off a lot of the
kind of the media in the United States into that
category about the role they had in protecting Joe Biden
and then also supporting a candidate who turned out to
be as anybody would have seen the last election cycle
of dud.
Speaker 10 (23:56):
You know, I would have to imagine when they're looking
in the mirror at home, there is self reflection, for sure,
but in the public arena you're seeing very very little
of it. I think somebody on CNN just raised this
and asked Chuck tchumor actually the other day, who was
vehemently backing, how with it Biden was, and then two
weeks later, after that infamous debate, completely change his tune
(24:18):
and he was doubling down. There was no self reflection
at all, and the media was kind of going along
with it. But I'll give you credit for at least
asking the question. I think it's the only example I
can think of where they did that. And in terms
of how it's playing out, you know, the media is
in the mainstream media buy and large, with some notable exceptions,
is really in a free fall as a business model
and as in terms of a crisis of credibility, credibility
(24:39):
and legitimacy that they face right now. And this issue
I think is one of the biggest scandals ever. The
cover up of how they hid and protected Biden's very
obvious to all cognitive decline that I don't think history
is going to judge them kindly, and you might see
a lot of restructuring and consolidation of the media industry
writ large over the next five to seven years.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I would imagine, I think you're absolutely right about that, Coach,
and I'll just mind everybody to here. On Sky News,
we were right on the pace about Joe Biden's decline.
But let's go north of the border to Canada, because
I think this is absolutely fascinating. With Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau falling on his sword after nine years in power,
following a whole bunch of internal pressure within his party,
(25:19):
have a look.
Speaker 11 (25:21):
This country deserves a real choice in the next election,
and it has become clear to me that if I'm
having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best
option in that election.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Now, Conservative leader Pierre Poiliev, who looks to be the
odds on favor to become the next prime minister, has
slam Trudeau's Liberal party following the resignation announcement.
Speaker 12 (25:47):
Every Liberal MP in power today and every potential Liberal
leadership contender fighting for the top job helped Justin Trudeau
break the country over the last nine years. Their only
objection is that he is no longer popular enough to
win an election and keep them in power.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Now, Kosha, I've written about Pierre pauliev for Tomorrow's Daily Telegraph.
But what do you know about him? And what sort
of leader do you think he'll be if he becomes
Prime minister later this year at the election? Will there
be warmer relations between him and Donald Trump than between
Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau? Which we're always fairly comically frosty.
Speaker 10 (26:26):
Indeed, you know, there are always things you know about
somebody and then when they actually step into the arena
you see other things about them.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
So I think everyone will have to wait and see.
Speaker 10 (26:34):
But in general, mister Pierre, he does seem to have
populist tendencies a little bit, I would say, make Canada
great again light in terms of his positions on certain issues, immigration,
cost of living, government spending and all the rest of it.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
For an intervention and all that.
Speaker 10 (26:48):
He does also seem to have the art of rhetoric,
which is useful. There were some viral clips of him
being harassed by a reporter and an.
Speaker 7 (26:55):
Orchard and how he flipped it.
Speaker 10 (26:56):
It's actually Kosha eating an apple.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Let's actually have a look at that, because we've got
that crab here. Let's play a little bit of this
for people who might not have seen this to get
a flavor of Pierre pauliev. A lot of people would
would say that you're simply taking a page out of the.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
Donald Trump like which people would say that, well, I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
A great many Canadians, but like who, I don't know who,
but you're the one who asks the question, so yeah,
you must know somebody.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Okay, I'm sure there's some out there.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
But anyways, in a sense, Kosha, doesn't that get back
to what we were speaking about a moment before about
the nature of the media and how people don't trust
the media to play it straight in the United States
or North America for that matter.
Speaker 10 (27:40):
Yes, or in liberal democracies everywhere. Indeed, Yeah, I think
that's the thing. The wide open playbook available to mister
Pierre and to anybody really in the Western world is
those two issues, immigration and inflation, because they're the biggest
that the constituency is demanding and neither party has done
a sufficient job addressing their grievances. And secondly, the art
(28:00):
of the rhetoric and being able to go into a
very by and large left leaning or left friendly media
and adversarial reporters and take them down in a cool, calm,
funny way, whatever the individual style may be. So he
definitely demonstrated that there that clip I think is what
made him shoot up to international fame from that regard.
As long as he does those two things, pursues that
policy agenda, and is able to do battle with the media,
(28:23):
he's got a real shot right now because the Labor
Party over there is very unpopular. Whoever replaces Trudeau is
only going to cement that even further, and so there's
a wide opening and we'll see if he takes it.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I think you're absolutely right there, Kosha Gatta, thank you
so much for your time, Really appreciate it. Now stick
around because after the break, with housing and migration shaping
up to be a top election issue for voters, how
are the parties going to address these vexed problems? Expert
analysis with Emily Dye after the break, welcome back to
(28:56):
the program. Well, Housing affordability and the impacts of Record
Mike are set to be two major concerns for voters
heading into this year's federal election, which is going to
be called in just a few weeks time. I reckon now.
In fact, it turns out that the housing crisis has
topped the list of concerns for business leaders in a
new survey by KPMG. KPMG part of me, with almost
(29:19):
half of these individuals pulled believing it poses a real
risk to businesses as well. For more to chat about this,
I am joined by Emily Die from the Center for
Independent Studies. Emily, thank you so much for coming on
the program tonight. We've had some really bad news out
of Camber and the statistics around housing starts and housing approvals.
(29:43):
And explain to me how in this housing market where
we have so many people who are dying to get
into a house, we're simply not even approving the houses
that we need, much less build them.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Yeah, and we're not improving them where people want to live.
Speaker 13 (29:56):
I think this survey really shows KPMG is done that
people are starting to notice that this is leaking into
other sectors because people have these long commutes. We've not
built the houses in the inner cities near the jobs,
and so they're losing all of that productivity, all that
time being forced to commute two hours in traffic, and
that has all of these flow on effects, so the
(30:19):
rest of the economy that we should be absolutely concerned about.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
It's the number one issue I would say in Australia.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Well, and I mean it's hard to untangle where the
state responsibility begins and the federal government responsibility ends.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
And all of this.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Peopolie, the new or the opposition leader in Canada who's
very likely to be the next prime minister, he has
said that he would in Canada just hold federal funding
to cities that don't approve the right number of houses.
Would you support something like that, and what is labor
doing about?
Speaker 13 (30:47):
I think he's one of the most interesting leaders that
we've seen in the Western world on this issue. And
I'm fully on board with that kind of idea. Yeah,
you don't build houses, No, you don't get the money.
Why would we put money into building say infrastructure, train
lines and that kind of thing if it's only going
to be single family housing around those train lines, Like,
if we're going to put that kind of taxpayer investment in,
then yet we should be making it so that more
(31:10):
people can use those kinds of resources.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
What do you make of the coalition's take on all
of this, which is to say, well, you know, Actually
you need to build the infrastructure out in all of
these places because actually people do people aren't going to
want to live in houses. You can't just have everybody
in apartments, you know. Is that also a worthwhile approach explored?
Speaker 13 (31:30):
Well, I think we should do all of the above,
Like people need choice, but there's a significant number of
people that do want to live in them in the
inner city, particularly younger people, and that's where we end
up with issues of people not.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Being close to those jobs.
Speaker 13 (31:41):
So yes, I think that trying to push people into
outer areas is a great idea building up more cities.
The fact that Australia has so few cities is incredibly problematic.
But the issues that are plaguing our major cities Sydney,
Melbourne are the same issues that we're seeing in small
town Australia and places like Ballarat like there are also
lots of restrictions and the same sort of thinking and
(32:03):
mindsets that are also restricting buildings. So unless we can
fix that approval process, the infrastructure is not going to
fix it.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Now we're talking about the supply here, but the other
side to this equation is of course demand, and we
have to We've spoken about this, yes here, but this
issue of migration here, we have been seeing a record
surge in migrants over the past several years. We are
in a per capita recession here. It's essentially I think
migration is the only thing the government has. It's sort
(32:31):
of propping up the official numbers. It looks been like
a Ponzi scheme. Frankly to an awful lot of people.
Why don't we just simply turn down that tap a bit,
Because the more people you bring in, the more people
are in places people going to need to live. It
is supply and demand, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Well, demand is definitely part of the equation.
Speaker 13 (32:52):
I'm not going to say that no, immigration doesn't have
any impact on the price of housing.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
However, it's not the cause.
Speaker 13 (32:59):
The cause is because we've restricted the amount of housing
we can have. If we allow that to open up
and we get those immigrants state building the houses, then
we will have we won't have the same problem that
we have right now.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
But there's only a tidy number of people who come
in on our skilled visa programs who are actually trades.
It seems like the idea that bringing in trades to
build more homes, to bring in more trades. It seems again,
it seems like you're sort of in a vicious cycle.
What do we do about this economy that is, you know,
we're not doing anything in terms of being more efficient,
We're not doing reform. We're just simply, you know, relying
(33:33):
on a few industries, and one of them is frankly,
you know, churning out visas. And what does that do
for social cohesion?
Speaker 13 (33:38):
I think the efficiency thing is really interesting, particularly around visas.
I think the right in particular, we're against the idea
that the state would micromanage capital like that's a very
pro capitalist idea, and yet when it comes to human capital,
probably one of the most important sources of capital and
growth for an economy, we want to dictate exactly what
jobs where people should be. How any put these quota
(34:01):
systems in place instead of letting the market act, And
I think that that would be the best policy is
allowing a more free market approach to immigration.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Sure, but let me just put this one out here,
because this is a fascinating discussion, and I think, you know,
there's an awful lot to unpick about this. If you
treat something like migration, if you treat people as capital
I you just sort of you know, units within an economy.
What do you do about the problem with people who
want to come here. You know, maybe they want to
make money, that is great, but they don't want to integrate,
they want to you know, we've seen all sorts of
(34:30):
problems with social cohesion in this country where people have
brought their animosities and their conflicts from overseas and are
determined to act them out on the streets of our cities.
Surely that's not a benefit of immigration.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
I think there's two different questions when it comes to immigration.
Speaker 13 (34:46):
The economic question, which I think is pretty well solved
by constant immigrants are great boon. They provide lots of value,
They contribute in a bit more businesses. They are interestingly entreprenurial,
like two of us or two examples. When it comes
to culturally, I think we should be very set on
enforcing our rule of law in Australia. I don't think
(35:06):
you can commit acts of violence, acts of terrorism. If
an immigrant group is acting badly, they should have the
full fair to force the law come down on them.
As a result, as long as we're enforcing our Australian ideas,
people come and they they're signing a social contract when
they come to Australia that yes, we're going to abide
by what Australian society is.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Our girls have to go to school. If they're a
culture that teaches that girls don't go to school.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Hey, before we go, I want to talk also about
misinformation because this is I think, you know, one of
the most sinister things that Labor has tried to pull
was that Misinformation Bill. Now they pulled the bill last
year following a lot of opposition from the coalitions. And yes,
let's give them some snaps the Greens, thank you very
much for this one thing, the broken clock right twice
(35:52):
a day. But I'm concerned because I look around the
world and everywhere it seems like democracies are in the
name of protecting what they call our democracy, are trying
this again. Do you think Labor, if they come back
in with another term, are going to have another bite
of this app Oh?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Absolutely. I don't think this issue is going to bed
anytime soon.
Speaker 13 (36:11):
One of the things that I was concerned about last
year's wal the misinformation Bill failed. The under sixteen Bill
did pass, and what that does is it removes the
option for anonymity on the internet. So if you're a whistleblower,
if you want to call out politicians and you want
to do that without your name being put to it,
that's no longer the case and you could be prosecuted,
possibly like has happened in the UK. That is where
(36:33):
I'm afraid.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, no, fair enough. Listen, Emily died. Thank you so
much for your time, but really appreciate it. Now, don't
go anywhere because after the break, Yes, it's Australia just
around the corner. I'm looking forward to it, but not
everybody else is. We are in peaked virtue, singing seasoned folks.
But have we finally had enough of the divide? Have
be some hope after the break? Welcome back to the program. Well,
(37:01):
guess what Australia Day is almost here. It's fast approaching,
so of course that can mean only one thing. No,
not sausages and beer. It's the big debate about changing
the date. It's heating up once again now. Multiple local
councils are once again planning to hold their citizenship ceremonies
on a different day. Thank you Anthony Albinezi for that,
(37:23):
and you can bet there will be Invasion Day protests
around the country on January sixth, twenty six. In response,
a new historian, Professor Angela Wolcott, has claimed that the
debate around January is twenty six will go on forever. Well,
she might be right about that, but then she has
also said that a change of date is the only
(37:44):
way to quote clear the deck.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
I'm not so sure.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I'm not sure. My next guest is either Sky News
contributor Roco Lecano. Roco, thank you so much for coming
along this evening. I'm happy Early Australia Day. Do you think, though,
as in professor suggest that a new deed would actually
resolve tensions or would the activist just find something new
(38:09):
to protest.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Early Australia though? To you, James, happening in your year
as well. Look, change the data isn't going to solve anything,
and if anything, it will create more division. And we
have a poll so seriously, polls have come out of
the last few years suggesting that a majority of Australians
don't want to change, they're happy with it.
Speaker 7 (38:27):
On January twenty six.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
And look these activists, so you just can't kiss the
ring enough with them. We saw last year they were
starting on ANZAC data or was it the South Australian
government didn't even mention ANZACT Day in the official government gazette.
And I've seen arguments that we should change the national
data the first of January with the Data Federation. Well
again the activists will argue, well, the Commonwealth is a
(38:49):
product of colonization.
Speaker 7 (38:50):
Rah rah rah rah.
Speaker 5 (38:51):
Look, you can change the data as much as your life.
How many problems in remote Aboriginal communities are going to solve?
Absolutely none. Lead the day it is. It's unifying and
as we saw Bob balk on Australia Day in nineteen
ninety eight seven, the only thing needful to be in
Australian is to have a commitment to the country and
that's what most Australians have, and that's what most Australians
want from their fellow Australians.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Bingo absolutely correct, Roco. And the thing that gets me
every single year about this is, I don't know any
other nation that you know has this whole sort of
process of agony around one single day. Americans don't do
this over July fourth, The French don't do this over
Bastille Day, although arguably there are some things there they
(39:33):
should look at. Nevertheless, Australia, for some reason, seems to
be caught in this tremendous sort of orgy of self
loathing from the left every single year.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
What's that all about.
Speaker 5 (39:47):
It's about an ignorance of history more than anything else.
James look Left obviously tried to promote this idea that
as of twenty sixth January seven and ninety eight, we've
had two hundred so of massacres and the rest well,
there are lots and lots of positives that colonization brought along.
I mean Captain Arthur Phillip when he arrived on the
(40:09):
shores of Sydney Cove, was actually charged by the British
government to live in amity with the Aboriginal people when
he said, in a free land there can be no slaves.
Our responsibility is to guard Convica's, not attack the locals.
I could name another couple of episodes. We had the
mild Creek massacre in eighteen thirty eight, where twenty eight
armed Aboriginals were massacred in cold blood by settlers. Fellow
(40:33):
settlers chased down the perpetrators of this crime. These perpetrators
were brought to justice and hand. And one other thing
I'll suggest, which I think is the probably the greatest
measure of reconciliation in this country, is that to sixty
percent of relationships between Aboriginal men with Aboriginal people are
with a non Aboriginal person. As I said, what greater
(40:54):
measure of reconciliation can you have than chooting to share
your life with someone from a for bryce?
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, And I mean also there's you know, behind all this,
there also seems to be this kind of naive academic
and apologies. I know you're in academia, a view that
somehow the indigenous Australia should have just gone on forever
without any contact with the West. And yet you know,
contact with the British. Let's be frank to have that
be your first contact, and in a colonial sort of setting,
(41:23):
that's probably in many ways a much better historical outcome
for the local people than almost any other group coming
here first.
Speaker 7 (41:33):
Goal.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
I mean, the bastic thing is Jimes, it is Britain,
and the risk of Colmina of Europe started tragging with
India and the East Indies. It's Trida sooner or later
was going to be colonized. And as you say, I
think if I had my choice between the British, the French,
the Spanish dut and the Belgians, I take the British
any day of the wage.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, now, fair enough. Look, I think you're absolutely right
about that, Rockelicondo. We're gonna leave it there. After the
break here, thank you so much for retirming again, happy
earlier Strada. After the break, Sophie Elsworth from London to
tell us all about the crazy stuff that's going on
there with Elon Musk and Keir Starmer. Stick around, welcome
(42:15):
back to the program. Let's now head to the UK
where Elon Musk is using a social media platform X
to get into a giant fight not only with current
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but also Reform UK leader
Najl Farage. To tell us all about this, I'm joined
by News Corp Europe correspondent Sophie Ellsworth. Sophie, so good
(42:37):
to speak to you. Now tell us about this incredible
fight that's broken out between billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X,
and Labor Prime Minister Kiir Starmer. And it all goes
back to some very disturbing crimes from more than ten
years ago tell us about it.
Speaker 7 (42:55):
Yeah, great to be with you, James. That's exactly right.
Speaker 14 (42:58):
So there's a big scan erupting over here over whether
or not there should be a public.
Speaker 7 (43:03):
Inquiry into grooming gangs.
Speaker 14 (43:06):
This was a serious problem in the UK, as you said,
about a decade ago, and there's been calls that there
should be a national inquiry into this grooming gang scandal.
Now Sakiirs Starmer's government has said no, they are not
going to hold a national inquiry. And this has drawn
a huge criticism from Elon Musk, who is accused Keir
(43:30):
Starmer of being complicit in the grooming gang scandal when
he was the DPP Here in the UK, it's got
in a pretty ugly war of words and they've been
staushing online. Keir Starmer said yesterday that people including Elon Musk,
had been spreading misinformation.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
And lies about this.
Speaker 14 (43:52):
It's got really ugly over here, James, and even overnight
Elon Musk was still tweeting at Sakir star So peces
far from over.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
And it's far from over because it involves so many
different elements here, including I mean what we're talking about
here really was years where it seemed like in a
lot of towns there were these organized groups of mostly
Pakistani men who were sexually assaulting and getting away with
offen young white working class girls. So there's a huge
job racial element to it, there's a class element to it.
(44:26):
Are British people really annoyed about why, you know, their
own country folk were allowed to be treated the way
they were, but there weren't the sort of prosecutions that
there should have been, and that in many cases social
workers and police kind of turned a blind eye.
Speaker 7 (44:43):
Well there's fury over here, James, There's no doubt about that.
There's a lot of people very angry.
Speaker 14 (44:49):
The Safeguarding Minister has said there will not be a
national inquiry into THECE and they want to move on
from it. But there's coverage on every radio station, every
team TV station, wall to wall newspaper coverage about this.
It's engulfed the Starma government. It's not a good way
for him to start the year. He's had a shocking
(45:09):
six month since he's been in office. And yesterday really
came out on the attack and accuse the far right
of peddling misinformation and lies, and that just got people
more i rate, when really they should be focusing on
the serious problem here at hand, and that is, as
you said, the scandal around these booming gangs.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, no, look that's right. And I wonder if Sophie,
you know, we had the Brexit voting I think twenty fifteen,
and this was just when everybody knew that this was
going on, and a lot of these towns that voted
for Brexit, you know, were the ground zeros for these
sorts of gangs. How much do we now think that,
maybe in retrospect, so much of what people were voting
for there was really a protest about the way institutional
(45:54):
Britain was letting these towns be treated by this new
multicultural element that seemed to be untouchable by this government.
Speaker 14 (46:04):
Well it may have seen that case, James, but the
migration issue here now is live, It's alive and well
and it's dominating every day. Similar to Australia, where we
complain about migration issues, housing affordability is a result in
various other social issues, it's very similar here in the
UK where people are angry. They are angry that the
(46:27):
migration rates in the UK are so high and it's
causing problems for British people here themselves annoyed that so
many people are coming into the country, many people coming
in illegally as well, and this again has dominated one
of the key issues at the moment that remains a
focus of the British public.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Yeah, and now, Sophie, there's another front to this whole
fate too, and that's the one, the fight between Elon
Musk and Nigel Fara's the UK Reform leader. Elon has
come out and said that he's not fit to be
the leader of the Reform Party. This surprised me and
I didn't really see this coming. Tell us about this.
Why are these two having a blue.
Speaker 14 (47:10):
Well, this is a surprise. This is a relationship that's
blown up pretty fast. I mean, just a few weeks
ago Elon Musk was standing side by side with Nigel
Frage and billionaire business and Nick Candy and Mari Lago
and they were joined at the hip saying that they
are going to join forces and boost Reform UK, which
is proving a headache for the Conservatives over here. But
(47:34):
in between now and then, Elon Musk has said that
Tommy Robinson, who is jailed for contempt of court, who
he says, and many people argue he exposed the grooming
gang scandal. That's debatable both there's a lot of commentary
on that. He said he should be freed. Nigel frag
just sees he's not in jail for the grooming gang scandal,
(47:57):
you know information he's in jail for attempt of court.
Speaker 7 (48:01):
So now they have pea to have a falling out.
Speaker 14 (48:03):
A Musk has said Farrage is not up to the
top job, which is very interesting because this looks like
Elon Musk will pull any funding and it was up
to one hundred million for Reform UK.
Speaker 7 (48:16):
It looks like that is very much in doubt now.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
And so it sounds to me, then Sophie, like what
we've got here and we've only got about thirty seconds left,
But is this basically a purity test on the right
being opposed by Elon Muskus to who has the right
set of views on the right? That doesn't sound very
promising to get anything done? Does it.
Speaker 14 (48:37):
Look basically if you don't agree with Elon Musk, you're
in trouble. And that's what's happened here with Nigel Farage.
They haven't agreed on this point. With Tommy Robinson, they've
butted heads over it, and Elon Musk is the one
with the checkbook.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
James fair enough, Well, yeah, and he's got a pretty
big checkbook. Sophie Ellsworth coming to us from London. Thank
you so much for your time this evening explaining this
very complicated situation, which I think has an awful lot
of implications I think for countries around the world that
are grappling with issues of multiculturalism. Stick around here because
(49:12):
Danika de Giorgio is up at the Boar Report now
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