Speaker 1: Good evening. Welcome to the program. It's been a big week.
Speaker 2: Here's what's coming up tonight on Credlin. More on the
Speaker 2: Bondi Royal Commission. A second whistleblower coming forward. And the
Speaker 2: AFP Association said the police union, they'll join me live
Speaker 2: tonight as they confirm warnings were sent to the government...
Speaker 2: just weeks before the Bondi attack. More reasons why this
Speaker 2: Royal Commission must be reopened. An update in the fight
Speaker 2: against the highly controversial New England Renewable Energy Zone. Locals
Speaker 2: fighting a growing revolt against a 305 kilometre transmission corridor
Speaker 2: as farmers and residents.
Speaker 1: Battle to protect their land.
Speaker 2: It's National Flag Day today, 125 years ago to the
Speaker 2: day since the Australian flag was first raised in Melbourne.
Speaker 2: Plenty of you have sent me your flags. We'll get
Speaker 2: them up on the screen shortly. So we celebrate our
Speaker 2: country and our flag as we should. And the Coalition
Speaker 2: unveils its tobacco tax alternative, vowing to wipe out the
Speaker 2: illegal trade, end the tobacco wars and light a fire
Speaker 2: under Labor for creating the mess in the first place.
Speaker 3: More crime, more smoking, and the result is Australians are
Speaker 3: worse off and less tax.
Speaker 1: Revenues for the government.
Speaker 4: So it's been a complete disaster.
Speaker 2: But first, if the report by the Bondi Royal Commission
Speaker 2: is handed down as planned on the 18th of December,
Speaker 2: it will be one of our shortest ever royal commissions
Speaker 2: into our worst ever terror attack. If that happens, I
Speaker 2: don't believe it will have done what Australians expected this
Speaker 2: Royal Commission to do. To get to the bottom of
Speaker 2: how and why in a country like this, 15 innocent men,
Speaker 2: women and children could be gunned down in an act
Speaker 2: of terror. And to exhaustively examine what obviously went wrong
Speaker 2: so that we do whatever it takes to make sure
Speaker 2: acts of terror have no place in Australia. But thus far,
Speaker 2: from everything I've read, all the witness testimony I've heard,
Speaker 2: and now what whistleblowers are telling me, I just don't
Speaker 2: think that's going to happen. And we can't accept that,
Speaker 2: can we? Because unless Virginia Bell urgently reopens public hearings
Speaker 2: and this Royal Commission starts taking evidence from people like
Speaker 2: the brave police officer who made sure I saw his
Speaker 2: submission exposing critical capability flaws in counterterrorism, Well, we won't
Speaker 2: get a royal commission with fair dinkum recommendations. We won't
Speaker 2: get a royal commission that honestly deals with the acts
Speaker 2: and omissions of government and those that should have done
Speaker 2: better will never be held account. Unless Virginia Bell urgently
Speaker 2: reopens his royal commission, the risk is that she will
Speaker 2: deliver a report that's too bad, so sad, and we
Speaker 2: all move on. Remember, this is what happened in the
Speaker 2: Daniel Andrews era, that infamous coat inquiry into hotel quarantine
Speaker 2: failures that cost the lives of some 1,000 Victorians. All
Speaker 2: those MPs, the Premier, everyone, and ministers too, all there
Speaker 2: on the stand saying, I don't know, I don't remember,
Speaker 2: with the ultimate conclusion when the report was handed down
Speaker 2: that it was catastrophic failure across the board, but no
Speaker 2: one individual responsible.
Speaker 1: And that was it. That was the end of it.
Speaker 2: No consequences and definitely no changes as to how government
Speaker 2: might deal with a future pandemic crisis. Part of Cote's
Speaker 2: problem was that she never had the powers of a
Speaker 2: royal commission. to compel documents and subpoena witnesses. But that's
Speaker 2: no impediment to Bell. A Royal Commission is the most
Speaker 2: powerful vehicle we have as Australians to get to the truth.
Speaker 2: But those powers are only applicable if the Commissioner is
Speaker 2: prepared to use them. Now, I go back to the
Speaker 2: point that if Virginia Bell has not called the head
Speaker 2: of the Australian Federal Police, Chrissie Barrett, to give evidence
Speaker 2: to the Royal Commission, then how serious is it How
Speaker 2: can we have heard testimony from Netball Australia but not
Speaker 2: the boss of the AFP? Indeed, the only senior AFP
Speaker 2: evidence that's been put publicly has come from the Assistant Commissioner,
Speaker 2: Stephen Nutt, and even then he was only in the
Speaker 2: stand for 38 minutes.
Speaker 1: Well, not good enough.
Speaker 2: After I broke news of this submission here on Monday
Speaker 2: night and the detail in it, that memo from counter-terrorism
Speaker 2: commanders to the AFP top brass, where they pleaded for
Speaker 2: additional resources after other former AFP police have since now
Speaker 2: made contact with me. Tonight, I want to share you
Speaker 2: this from a man we'll call John to protect his identity. Now,
Speaker 2: John's had three decades in the job, working across a
Speaker 2: number of frontline specialist capabilities in the AFP, including counter-terrorism.
Speaker 2: He says he did not make a submission to the
Speaker 2: Royal Commission because he feared it would be ignored. But
Speaker 2: after he watched my program on Monday night, he said,
Speaker 2: I felt it was important to offer corroboration to what
Speaker 2: was being reported because he says things in the AFP
Speaker 2: need to change. As a man of integrity, John says,
Speaker 2: I'm prohibited from providing operational specifics, but I hope what
Speaker 2: I have to say adds weight to what you have reported.
Speaker 1: So here it is.
Speaker 2: He writes, I am not a disgruntled ex-employee motivated by
Speaker 2: revenge or ill will. On the contrary, I offer this
Speaker 2: information in the belief of the truth and that things
Speaker 2: could improve for those operational members who remain in the AFP.
Speaker 2: He says key covert capabilities of the AFP that support
Speaker 2: CT in the field are in fact frequently understaffed, writes John,
Speaker 2: when measured against best practice parameters. He says covert teams
Speaker 2: are often deployed with lesser numbers than what best practice
Speaker 2: requires and for extended periods of time. This is often
Speaker 2: contrary to training. He says officers frequently perform duties absent
Speaker 2: of effective command and control, that they are often in
Speaker 2: the field absent of suitable equipment needed to protect themselves
Speaker 2: and others from harm. This is particularly concerning, he says,
Speaker 2: given the targets of CT operations are within or approaching
Speaker 2: radical mindsets and considering radical responses. In the very least,
Speaker 2: the targets are suspected to be so, hence the deployment
Speaker 2: of AFP resources. As John, this former AFP officer, tells me,
Speaker 2: it's not uncommon for a member working in a counter-terrorism
Speaker 2: covert capacity for their only training to be their foundation training,
Speaker 2: their basic course, he says. That is, it is common
Speaker 2: for there to be no formal skills maintenance, recertification, or
Speaker 2: skills enhancement for some frontline members who work counter-terrorism targets.
Speaker 2: Many AFP members working in counter-terrorism are declared competent in
Speaker 2: their roles only once.
Speaker 1: He says skills atrophy.
Speaker 2: Shifts in methodology and technology are not accounted for in
Speaker 2: any credible way across some capabilities that support CT operations.
Speaker 2: The AFP commonly places managers in charge of capabilities for
Speaker 2: which they have no personal qualification or operational experience in.
Speaker 2: He says these managers therefore can have no operational empathy
Speaker 2: for members in the field and do not understand fully
Speaker 2: the practical risks. He says pressures and complications members face
Speaker 2: in the challenging counter-terrorism environment are all there. Now go
Speaker 2: back to the information I reported on out of that
Speaker 2: internal memo on Monday, the memo that was co-authored back
Speaker 2: in May 2024 by four counter-terrorism commanders, because that memo
Speaker 2: is damning if accurately describing what a former officer said,
Speaker 2: a former officer, of course, who was never called to
Speaker 2: give evidence. That internal memo reported 25% overall shortfall in
Speaker 2: counter-terrorism staffing nationally, including a 38% critical capability shortage in
Speaker 2: New South Wales. It noted unsustainable leadership vacancies, in particular,
Speaker 2: disabling the Enduring Risk Investigations team, which is responsible for
Speaker 2: monitoring high-risk terrorism offenders. And in a line that demands
Speaker 2: answers from the Albanese government and ministers, these commanders note
Speaker 2: an earlier decision of the National Security Cabinet Committee. It
Speaker 2: was to exclude the AFP from seeking additional resources due
Speaker 2: to budget constraints and that this posed a direct risk
Speaker 2: to the commands and the AFP's ability to meet Australia's
Speaker 2: national security requirements. Now, there is nothing in this information
Speaker 2: tonight from my second whistleblower that's at odds with that
Speaker 2: memo is there. Indeed, it just underscores how seriously challenged
Speaker 2: our counter-terrorism unit appear to be because they just don't
Speaker 2: have the resources that frontline officers say they need. Now,
Speaker 2: what disturbed me most in this latest material I've received
Speaker 2: from this second whistleblower is this. John says, the AFP
Speaker 2: has experienced much success in CT operations. Those operational members
Speaker 2: deserve thanks for doing great work within an internal AFP
Speaker 2: environment that is not conducive to such success. See, this
Speaker 2: is the stuff, this is the stuff that should be
Speaker 2: put under the microscope in a Royal Commission. Not Netball Australia, please,
Speaker 2: we've had enough of that.
Speaker 1: We want the.
Speaker 2: Operational reality that counter-terrorism police live under every day to
Speaker 2: try and keep us safe from terrorism. And as I've
Speaker 2: said before, I want to see the politicians under oath
Speaker 2: questioned long and hard about what they did and didn't
Speaker 2: do when it comes to Bondi. All of that must
Speaker 2: be on the table. Otherwise, why are we spending $ 130
Speaker 2: million on this Royal Commission? We don't just want a report.
Speaker 1: Do we?
Speaker 2: We want change and we want the truth. We owe
Speaker 2: the dead the truth. And if we don't get the truth,
Speaker 2: we will have failed them. Because in failing the dead,
Speaker 2: we fail ourselves as a nation to do our best
Speaker 2: to ensure this sort of terrorism never happens again. I
Speaker 2: tell you, it's a crock. Let's head to camera now
Speaker 2: for the headlines. Sky News political reporter. News 24 political reporter,
Speaker 2: there you go.
Speaker 1: Ruben Spargo.
Speaker 5: Good evening.
Speaker 6: The Coalition is pledging to slash the tobacco excise by 80%
Speaker 6: under a new plan to crush organised crime. It would
Speaker 6: also legalise, regulate and tax vapes and nicotine pouches for adults.
Speaker 6: $ 200 million would be spent on a nationwide law enforcement surge.
Speaker 6: The Coalition's plan would knock about $ 24 off a packet
Speaker 6: of cigarettes.
Speaker 1: This has got to stop.
Speaker 4: And it's got to stop now.
Speaker 5: What's wrong with that plan?
Speaker 1: It will kill people. Like, seriously.
Speaker 6: It's estimated around 80% of tobacco consumed in recent years
Speaker 6: has been illicit. Economists are telling borrowers to prepare for
Speaker 6: one or even two more interest rate rises this year.
Speaker 6: Mortgage stress is now at its highest level since the
Speaker 6: global financial crisis.
Speaker 7: And we think that probably one is not going to
Speaker 7: be quite enough, that they may very well have to
Speaker 7: come in and deliver two hikes to get inflation to
Speaker 7: head back to target.
Speaker 6: Home values are continuing to fall. HSBC is the latest
Speaker 6: bank to downgrade its price predictions. The Prime Minister is
Speaker 6: on his way home from the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau.
Speaker 4: Beijing loomed over the talks.
Speaker 6: Leaders were unable to reach a consensus statement condemning China's
Speaker 6: missile test, near Tuvalu in July.
Speaker 5: We made an immediate response to that.
Speaker 8: It's a clear response.
Speaker 5: It's unequivocal. And China has certainly heard that message.
Speaker 6: The Prime Minister opened a new Australian-funded solar farm worth
Speaker 6: $ 31 million before departing.
Speaker 2: Right, let's bring in my panel now for the issues
Speaker 2: of the day. We'll get across them all for you now.
Speaker 2: News24 contributor Carolee Katzenbarnes says And News 24 host James Morrow.
Speaker 1: Welcome to you both.
Speaker 2: I want to start with the shocking news out of
Speaker 2: New South Wales today, James. What's believed to be a
Speaker 2: second mistaken identity killing in just 48 hours. Here's the
Speaker 2: state opposition leader, Liberal Kelly Sloan.
Speaker 7: To have two people, mistaken identities, where police believe it's
Speaker 7: been a case of mistaken identity, lose their lives at
Speaker 7: their homes, in their bed, in their driveways.
Speaker 1: Is absolutely terrifying.
Speaker 7: And the people of Sydney are right to be terrified
Speaker 7: and they're right to feel like they've been let down
Speaker 7: by their government, a government that has lost control of
Speaker 7: organised crime on our streets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's right to say terrifying.
Speaker 2: It's absolutely terrifying in your bed, in your driveway, and
Speaker 2: they're never meant to kill you. You know, we know
Speaker 2: from what police have said today, James, that some of
Speaker 2: these contract killings are conducted by kids, obviously by idiots
Speaker 2: who are getting the wrong person. But it's very, very
Speaker 2: cheap now to source this stuff on the dark web
Speaker 2: and we've got ordinary civilians in the crossfire here. Are
Speaker 2: police on top of this? Is the government on top
Speaker 2: of this? because I fear people in Sydney tonight could
Speaker 2: be justifiably worried they're not.
Speaker 9: Well, particularly if you live, Peter, in Western Sydney and
Speaker 9: some of the areas where a lot of this sort
Speaker 9: of thing takes place. You know, the last 48 hours,
Speaker 9: we've had two shocking cases, one believed to be mistaken identity,
Speaker 9: where a young university student was murdered in his house.
Speaker 9: They had the wrong house. The second case... Today, it's
Speaker 9: believed to have been a tradesperson who was visiting a
Speaker 9: house that may have had a connection to some sort
Speaker 9: of organized crime activity that's all being investigated. But again,
Speaker 9: another innocent victim. The cops are doing what they can here,
Speaker 9: but the government is clearly has clearly lost control of
Speaker 9: this one. There's a lot to unpack here. Number one,
Speaker 9: of course, you said these are kids, idiot kids a
Speaker 9: lot of times doing this. But they're doing it because
Speaker 9: they know that the penalties for various crimes are less
Speaker 9: when you are a kid, when you are younger. So
Speaker 9: there's a legal issue around that. There's also a cultural issue, Peter,
Speaker 9: within the gangs where the gangs have now taken on
Speaker 9: a motivation, I think, where they think, well, anybody who's
Speaker 9: vaguely associated with a target or a target family is
Speaker 9: now fair game. So it's become quite tribal now. And
Speaker 9: it's really disturbing because if this continues, you know, it
Speaker 9: just becomes real lawless stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it becomes like, you know, those gang wars we
Speaker 2: saw in Los Angeles a couple of decades ago. Let's
Speaker 2: go to this from the Climate Change Authority today. It
Speaker 2: says concerns about the cost of energy or the impact
Speaker 2: of renewables on regional communities is, quote, misinformation. This is
Speaker 2: a new paper out. It argues that narratives that seek
Speaker 2: to Increase uncertainty about climate policies, technology solutions that focus
Speaker 2: on the cost of living, energy prices, reliability, jobs, regional impacts,
Speaker 2: all of that.
Speaker 1: They're asking whether or not this stuff should be reported on.
Speaker 2: They're claiming it's misinformation if we go down this path, Carol.
Speaker 1: Well, it's an inconvenient truth for them, but they're facts.
Speaker 1: They're facts.
Speaker 2: The prices are going up. Regional communities are cranky. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is all well and in the extreme.
Speaker 5: Absolute gaslighting of every Australian. I mean, if there's any
Speaker 5: misinformation around, isn't it the $ 275 decrease that was meant
Speaker 5: to happen with our power bills? We have spent billions
Speaker 5: on these renewable energy projects. They're just not working. I mean,
Speaker 5: the irony is we export all our uranium. 31 countries
Speaker 5: around the world get their electricity from nuclear, and yet
Speaker 5: we export it. We're not willing to actually invest in
Speaker 5: our own technology. Now, it doesn't matter how we do it,
Speaker 5: but renewables, they're not working. Wind farms, green energy, hydrogen plants.
Speaker 5: We've done all that with billions of taxpayer dollars done
Speaker 5: for subsidies. It's an absolute cheat that the Climate Authority
Speaker 5: has even done this. They're the ones responsible for the misinformation.
Speaker 2: Let's go to that news today, the policy announcement for
Speaker 2: the Coalition. They've pledged to slash the tobacco excise, a
Speaker 2: tobacco tax, by... 80%, they'll legalise vapes, they'll crack down
Speaker 2: on the illicit market if they win the election. I
Speaker 2: have to say, James, I don't think they can do
Speaker 2: anything else here. The government talks about law enforcement. Horses
Speaker 2: bolted on that. The government was critical of the coalition
Speaker 2: foregoing all this revenue.
Speaker 1: Well, memo to the government, have you look at your books.
Speaker 2: You're not getting this revenue because people are not buying
Speaker 2: legal tobacco anymore.
Speaker 1: It's got to happen, I assume. It's got to happen.
Speaker 9: Well, it has to happen. And I can tell you
Speaker 9: that me and fellow host here, Paul Murray, will be
Speaker 9: cheering this every step of the way. But, you know,
Speaker 9: it is the basic economics of this are when you
Speaker 9: tax something past a certain point, it's called the Laffer curve.
Speaker 9: You get less of the tax because you've just discouraged
Speaker 9: the activity. With tobacco, of course, you can get the
Speaker 9: illegal stuff because it's very light and easy to smuggle.
Speaker 9: And there you have the situation we are today. But
Speaker 9: it's very funny we're talking about this when we started
Speaker 9: this segment talking about organized crime. The big thing is
Speaker 9: here is that all of this money is getting shoved
Speaker 9: into organized crime. I mean, today, as the coalition announced
Speaker 9: this policy, I think there were two firebombings in Melbourne
Speaker 9: thought to be connected to this trade. It's just like
Speaker 9: the untouchables in Chicago and the old days of prohibition.
Speaker 9: You know, at some point, the government has to back down.
Speaker 9: They'll cut the excise tax dramatically. And I guarantee you
Speaker 9: they're going to get more money out of it.
Speaker 2: Carol, I was pretty outspoken last night about pill testing.
Speaker 2: I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I don't support it.
Speaker 2: I think if something is illegal, it's illegal. You can't
Speaker 2: have a mixed message on it. You're a mum of
Speaker 2: three teenagers. Let me have your take.
Speaker 5: And I'm a tough mum, and I actually wrote a
Speaker 5: column on this 10 years ago that when it did,
Speaker 5: it got shed 30,000 times, and it was.
Speaker 5: Ice addicts, why is it never their fault? I got
Speaker 5: trolled mercilessly because I don't agree with pill testing whatsoever.
Speaker 5: It is actually endorsing illicit and illegal drug use. Saw
Speaker 5: Kel Richards last night as well. Because no one ever
Speaker 5: wants to take responsibility. No one asks people to take drugs.
Speaker 5: Nobody's life ever got better by taking an illicit drug.
Speaker 5: And the problem that I've got... is that no one
Speaker 5: is prepared to actually say it as it is. You
Speaker 5: thankfully did. The problem is in Victoria, they introduced this
Speaker 5: with music festivals. Christmans had said, oh, I was a sceptic,
Speaker 5: now I'm doing it. What message are we sending young people?
Speaker 5: Why are we spending billions of dollars on Australian education?
Speaker 5: and giving them drug education use when we're actually endorsing
Speaker 5: something that actually is illegal. The other thing is, not
Speaker 5: only does it lead to a very weak stance on drugs,
Speaker 5: such as decriminalisation, but people going to music festivals that
Speaker 5: get their pills done. Where is the liability for taxpayers
Speaker 5: and the liability for the pill tester? Because if the
Speaker 5: pill tester tests it, I mean, what else are in
Speaker 5: these illegal drugs? People that are taking it know that
Speaker 5: there's solvents and all bits and pieces in there. But
Speaker 5: if you're a pill tester and you say to somebody,
Speaker 5: this is unsafe, are you really happy for them to
Speaker 5: then take their drugs, go away and do it? Where's
Speaker 5: the moral thing of grabbing it out of their hand
Speaker 5: and wanting to actually destroy it? But the one thing
Speaker 5: I do want to share with you, Peter, is I
Speaker 5: got trolled mercilessly that I had to rebuild social media
Speaker 5: because because people didn't like what I said. One person
Speaker 5: that did was the mother of a girl that had
Speaker 5: taken her own life. She was left looking after the grandchildren.
Speaker 5: She hand-wrote me a letter and sent it to where
Speaker 5: I was working, and she said, thank you for actually
Speaker 5: saying it. Nobody asked my daughter to go down the
Speaker 5: drug path. I've been left raising two grandchildren. My daughter
Speaker 5: didn't take responsibility, left a huge burden for everybody else.
Speaker 5: And she said, why is the Australian taxpayer always having
Speaker 5: to do this? pill testing, quality control for drug dealers,
Speaker 5: and it's endorsing something that is illegal in Australia. And
Speaker 5: people need to be stronger and just call it out
Speaker 5: for what it is. And no, I do not agree
Speaker 5: with it at all.
Speaker 2: Let's just have a look before we go to my
Speaker 2: next guest. This Oz poll voting intention data has been
Speaker 2: put up this afternoon, and this is really interesting. This
Speaker 2: is the first time we've seen a poll that's in
Speaker 2: positive territory like this for the Liberals in a long,
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 1: It's the 4%. move there.
Speaker 2: This is a central Guardian's poll. So Guardian's no friend
Speaker 2: of the Liberal Party. 26% there. Evens with Labor on 26.
Speaker 2: They've done a 5% drop. One Nation's at 23%. The Greens,
Speaker 2: sort of where I'd peg them at, at 13%. There
Speaker 2: you go. I think that's pretty interesting. We'll see what
Speaker 2: happens in the next sort of series of polls from that.
Speaker 2: But those people that say the Libs are dead, I
Speaker 2: think that's telling you something else.
Speaker 1: See you both.
Speaker 2: I'll see you on Sunday, James, when I watch Insiders
Speaker 2: and your show, of course. The US report on Friday night.
Speaker 2: Let's go now to Victoria. This week, the truth appears
Speaker 2: to have come back to bite, to haunt new Premier
Speaker 2: Ben Carroll. Revelations that despite claiming he was in the dark,
Speaker 2: the Labor cabinet was well and truly briefed about the
Speaker 2: secret transport tax a long time ago in 2024 and
Speaker 2: when at the time, of course, Carol was Jacinta Allen's deputy.
Speaker 2: Joining me now, Victorian political editor at The Australian, Anthony Galloway. Well,
Speaker 2: this is utter BS now, Anthony. He prevaricated, sat on
Speaker 2: the fence there for a couple of weeks. We couldn't
Speaker 2: get a straight answer from him. He can't pretend he
Speaker 2: didn't know now that we.
Speaker 1: Know he knew.
Speaker 2: And he was even dodging these questions from our own
Speaker 2: Georgie Dickerson.
Speaker 1: Have a look. Were people not.
Speaker 7: Doing their job properly if they weren't reading the cabinet
Speaker 7: brief and documents in June 2024 if no one seemed
Speaker 7: to know about this charge until now?
Speaker 10: It's very unfair to say something was put in a
Speaker 10: cabinet minute that was decided on seven months earlier. It
Speaker 10: was unfair from the very first day that that cabinet
Speaker 10: meeting occurred with Andrews, Pallison, Allen and Molino in 2021.
Speaker 10: They should have said, this is what we're looking at
Speaker 10: and being transparent with the public.
Speaker 2: Anthony Galloway, if you get pulled over by police and
Speaker 2: you say, I didn't know about that law, they'll tell
Speaker 2: you ignorance.
Speaker 1: Is no excuse.
Speaker 2: This is in his own cabinet papers. He's paid a
Speaker 2: big whack of money then to be the Deputy Premier.
Speaker 2: If he hasn't read it, not our fault, he knows.
Speaker 11: Yeah, so up until I broke this story the other day,
Speaker 11: Ben Carroll was maintaining... He only found out when he
Speaker 11: became a member of the Budget and Finance Committee in
Speaker 11: very late 24. And it was an issue that the
Speaker 11: Deputy Premier took a year. So Jacinta Allen took a
Speaker 11: year to allow her own Deputy Premier to enter what
Speaker 11: is the equivalent of the Expenditure Review Committee at the
Speaker 11: federal level. But what I revealed the other day is
Speaker 11: he should have known by at least June 2024. There
Speaker 11: were cabinet minutes presented in your briefing cabinet packs to
Speaker 11: every single minister, every single cabinet minister in June 2024
Speaker 11: that was referencing a December 2023 subcommittee meeting that decided
Speaker 11: on progressing with this $ 8 billion secret tax. And it
Speaker 11: was then being tied to the suburban rail loop. to
Speaker 11: help pay for the first stage of the suburban rail loop.
Speaker 11: No one denies that under Jacinta Allen and Daniel Andrews,
Speaker 11: there was this issue of putting too much power in
Speaker 11: these subcommittees, especially the Budget and Finance Committee. It was
Speaker 11: a kitchen cabinet being run by Andrews and then Allen.
Speaker 11: But I understand, you know, Alan's retort to that any
Speaker 11: time it was raised is, don't you read the minutes?
Speaker 11: This is actually declared at Cabinet. So clearly Ben Carroll
Speaker 11: and now Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams didn't pick it up
Speaker 11: at the time because they both found out subsequent to that.
Speaker 2: I will endorse that point you make there. In relation
Speaker 2: to Jacinta Allen saying that subcommittee decisions are endorsed or
Speaker 2: provided in the minutes to the General Cabinet, that is
Speaker 2: actually right.
Speaker 1: That's proper process.
Speaker 2: They don't stand as decisions of a subcommittee unless they
Speaker 2: are then endorsed endorsed by the next meeting of Cabinet.
Speaker 2: She was clearly following the right process. Old mate, the
Speaker 2: new Premier, was clearly not reading his papers. You wonder
Speaker 2: why we paid him what he did. Hey, you've also
Speaker 2: got another cracking yarn today, $ 134, 000 for this Dan Andrew
Speaker 2: statue that's, I suppose, going to be melted down. It's
Speaker 2: partway on its way to being created, of course. Carol's
Speaker 2: now saying it's going to be scrapped. But you've revealed
Speaker 2: Jacinta Allen personally signed this off And it's in her
Speaker 2: own handwriting.
Speaker 11: Yeah, and it's amazing, 70-odd pages of FOI documents that
Speaker 11: were released to me yesterday. And it's amazing how quick,
Speaker 11: after Daniel Andrews had resigned, that the Department of Premier
Speaker 11: and Cabinet, at the direction of Jacinta Allen's office, were
Speaker 11: expediting this process to create a statue of Daniel Andrews
Speaker 11: at the cost of $ 134 million.
Speaker 4: It just it was clearly our priority.
Speaker 11: So six days into Jacinta Allen's premiership, the work was
Speaker 11: being done. It was being approved by the departmental secretary.
Speaker 11: And then it did then take a little bit for
Speaker 11: Jacinta Allen to approve it on October 1, 2024. But
Speaker 11: she wrote this handwritten addition to her approval that said,
Speaker 11: keep me updated on negotiations with the company Meridian, which
Speaker 11: was then being engaged to do this bronze statue of
Speaker 11: Daniel Andrews. It was clearly a priority of the government.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the third leg of your
Speaker 2: news-breaking trifecta this week, this ratings agency warning telling Ben
Speaker 2: Carroll ahead of the election, don't go out there and
Speaker 2: have the usual cash splash. All of your spending commitments
Speaker 2: and other things are putting at risk Victoria's budget position
Speaker 2: and a further downgrade. It's already had a couple of downgrades,
Speaker 2: but a further downgrade of the state's credit rating.
Speaker 11: Yeah, so S & P Global Ratings and other credit
Speaker 11: agencies are clearly concerned about a number of announcements Carroll
Speaker 11: has made since taking over the premiership. He and the
Speaker 11: new treasurer, Colin Brooks, have clearly signalled that they want
Speaker 11: to exercise a lot more fiscal restraint than Daniel Andrews
Speaker 11: and Jacinta Allen. But they've announced a lot of new spending,
Speaker 11: including they upped the teacher pay deal by $ 400.
Speaker 1: Million.
Speaker 11: They've announced this week a string of new road commitments,
Speaker 11: and it seems unclear what is coming out of consolidated
Speaker 11: revenue and what is actually new money. But the credit
Speaker 11: agencies are also concerned about the axing of this $ 8
Speaker 11: billion secret tax. Yes, it was $ 8 billion all the
Speaker 11: way to 2062, but this was a tax that was
Speaker 11: originally tied.
Speaker 1: To the $ 33. 5 billion suburban rail loop.
Speaker 11: So if you're a credit agency, you're asking the Victorian
Speaker 11: government now, where else are you getting that $ 8 billion from?
Speaker 11: So they're saying it's not any one decision, but they're
Speaker 11: going to be closely watching all these decisions in totality.
Speaker 11: You know, revenue downgrades, new spending commitments to assess whether
Speaker 11: Victoria can keep its AA credit rating at the minute.
Speaker 11: And it has already been downgraded two notches since COVID,
Speaker 11: as you mentioned.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and of course, you know, if things get tough
Speaker 2: in Victoria and they lean on the federal government, as
Speaker 2: they will, it becomes every state's problem, not just poor
Speaker 2: old Victorians.
Speaker 1: Well done, Anthony. Keep it up. Let's go for a
Speaker 1: quaddie next week.
Speaker 2: Let's see what you can break next week in The Australian.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your time. All right, National Flag Day today.
Speaker 1: Just before the break, let's get into this.
Speaker 2: 125 years since the Australian flag was first raised.
Speaker 1: Points if you know where. Royal Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne.
Speaker 1: But before I.
Speaker 2: Show you the flags that you have been flooding my
Speaker 2: inbox with, what about this?
Speaker 1: Canberra today.
Speaker 2: Two rogue flags in and around the 44 that were
Speaker 2: put up to celebrate Australian Flag Day.
Speaker 1: Illegalised, tell me there. Look at those red stars.
Speaker 2: They're New Zealand flags, not even Australian flags. All right,
Speaker 2: let's go to the emails from you because you certainly
Speaker 2: know what an Australian flag is.
Speaker 1: I'll put them up at the screen now. They are fantastic.
Speaker 1: I love your front yards.
Speaker 2: I love all the native animals with them. Plenty of
Speaker 2: you are pretty good on the mower, things neat and
Speaker 2: tidy around your part of the world. Keep these pictures coming.
Speaker 2: I've got some beautiful shots of coastal areas, regional Australia,
Speaker 2: big backyards, little front verandas, the whole box and dice.
Speaker 2: I've got them on utes. I've got them on boats.
Speaker 2: I've got them on planes. I've got them wherever possibly
Speaker 2: you can put the flag up. So this really makes
Speaker 2: me happy. I know it makes a lot of the
Speaker 2: viewers happy to see them. Keep them coming into my inbox.
Speaker 2: That is absolutely fantastic. We've got to keep our culture
Speaker 2: and our identity right after the break. Pressure mounts to
Speaker 2: reopen the Bondi Royal Commission. A former Prime Minister is
Speaker 2: now weighing in.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: Coming up, the AFP union boss who also warned the
Speaker 2: federal government about staffing concerns just a month before the
Speaker 2: Bondi terror attack. but will stay with this issue and
Speaker 2: calls to reopen the Bondi Royal Commission. Former Prime Minister
Speaker 2: Tony Abbott's also joined the fight, demanding fresh hearings since
Speaker 2: revelations here on News 24 Monday night about the evidence
Speaker 2: from an AFP whistleblower who lodged a submission but was ignored.
Speaker 2: Joining me now from the Institute of Public Affairs annual
Speaker 2: dinner in Melbourne, former PM and Liberal Party President Tony Abbott.
Speaker 1: Tony, welcome. You've been pretty strong today.
Speaker 2: You say it's downright bizarre that key figures have not
Speaker 2: been called to discuss all the issues, including this stark
Speaker 2: warning to AFP leaders 20 months before Bondi about a
Speaker 2: lack of resourcing in counter-terrorism.
Speaker 1: Yes, Peter.
Speaker 12: The whole point of the Royal Commission is to ensure
Speaker 12: that something like the Bondi Massacre never happens again. And
Speaker 12: that means that we've got to learn the right lessons.
Speaker 12: But we can't learn the right lessons if you don't
Speaker 12: call the relevant ministers, if you don't call the relevant
Speaker 12: security officials, if you don't expose the Islamist hate creatures.
Speaker 12: And in particular, you won't learn the right lessons if
Speaker 12: you ignore submissions... from senior counter-terrorist police talking about the
Speaker 12: deficiencies and the gaps in our counter-terrorist program.
Speaker 1: So unless.
Speaker 12: Hearings can be resumed and people who know what went
Speaker 12: wrong are put on the stand, this is going to
Speaker 12: look like a whitewashed Royal Commission, a travesty, and the
Speaker 12: Australian people are owed better than that.
Speaker 2: You know, the whole point about responsible government, it isn't
Speaker 2: just a nice phrase.
Speaker 1: It's in the Constitution.
Speaker 2: You know, elected government officials are responsible to us and
Speaker 2: they are responsible for decisions that occur in their departments.
Speaker 2: Surely the Prime Minister should be called. Surely we should
Speaker 2: hear from the Head of Home Affairs, from the Attorney-General,
Speaker 2: from anyone who might have been able to prevent what
Speaker 2: happened last December.
Speaker 1: Exactly right, Peter.
Speaker 12: The worst terrorist atrocity in our history happened on Anthony
Speaker 12: Albanese's watch, and this is why the relevant ministers need
Speaker 12: to be called and asked what they knew, what they did,
Speaker 12: and what they should have done. And as I said,
Speaker 12: if that doesn't happen, this Royal Commission looks like it
Speaker 12: was set up to fail.
Speaker 2: What about those claims, Tony, that the Albanese government forced
Speaker 2: counter-terrorism police, and this was through the police, obviously, and
Speaker 2: Home Affairs, to shift their focus from Islamic extremism, which
Speaker 2: police tell me was the number one issue, to concerns
Speaker 2: about the far right, which police again say, between Islamic
Speaker 2: extremism and the far right, there's daylight. Surely the government,
Speaker 2: if it's true that they meddled with the focus of
Speaker 2: counter-terrorism police, have got to be called to account.
Speaker 12: And that's exactly the kind of issue, Peter, which a
Speaker 12: fair dinkum Royal Commission would have explored... And it's exactly
Speaker 12: the kind of question that should be put to the
Speaker 12: counter-terrorism officers in the field who have said to me
Speaker 12: that that is exactly the instruction that they were given.
Speaker 2: Let's go to that Perth-born paediatrician, Tarek Kamla, infamously now
Speaker 2: known as Dr Jihad. He's in jail in Iraq. There's
Speaker 2: reports today he's likely to face a mass trial.
Speaker 1: Now, the important point.
Speaker 2: To pull out here out of the reports is that
Speaker 2: Baghdad has called on countries, including Australia, to, quote, assume responsibility.
Speaker 1: For the fate of their nationals. Tony, this... I'm reading
Speaker 1: the code here.
Speaker 2: This says to me that Iraq will expect Australia now
Speaker 2: to take back this bloke, whatever the verdict. If he
Speaker 2: has to be jailed, they'll expect him to be jailed
Speaker 2: in Australia. So what are we not being told?
Speaker 12: Well, Peter, if he's committed crimes in Iraq, as almost
Speaker 12: certainly he has, he should be punished in Iraq. If
Speaker 12: people commit crimes in Australia, they're punished here. And certainly
Speaker 12: there's no way on God's green earth that we should
Speaker 12: be expected to take back someone who looks very much
Speaker 12: to be a hardened terrorist who hates our way of
Speaker 12: life and could be expected to continue to be a
Speaker 12: terrorist should he return.
Speaker 2: Why don't we get a straight answer from the government
Speaker 2: on anything to do with these ISIS-linked individuals?
Speaker 1: The government goes to ground. It's like pulling teeth.
Speaker 11: Look.
Speaker 12: Ever since the October 7 atrocity, this government has been
Speaker 12: seriously conflicted. It hasn't been able to mention anti-Semitism without
Speaker 12: in the same breath mentioning an all but non-existent Islamophobia.
Speaker 12: It's a government which has chronically failed to counter the
Speaker 12: due hatred of which there's been an abundance of evidence
Speaker 12: in our country over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: And I fear that.
Speaker 12: It will be in order to avoid upsetting certain minority
Speaker 12: groups in Western Sydney and Western Melbourne, which will drive
Speaker 12: the actions of the Albanese government.
Speaker 2: Hey, I've got to get a quick comment before we go.
Speaker 2: Shocking stories out of the Pilbara. A meth addict mother,
Speaker 2: Margaret Hawke, murdering her three children. We learned today there
Speaker 2: is not one individual on welfare in the Pilbara who
Speaker 2: is having their income managed. And this is despite warnings
Speaker 2: from Aboriginal leaders that drugs and alcohol purchased with welfare
Speaker 2: cash are exacerbating the issues with child protection.
Speaker 9: Um.
Speaker 12: Peter, this has been an epic failure at every level.
Speaker 12: Of course, welfare-dependent communities with drug and alcohol problems should
Speaker 12: be put on income management. But in this particular case,
Speaker 12: based on press reports, it seems that there was.
Speaker 1: Report after report after.
Speaker 12: Report that these kids were in danger. But the preservation
Speaker 12: of culture, in inverted commas, was put ahead of... of
Speaker 12: the protection of life and that's just dead wrong and
Speaker 12: it's got to change.
Speaker 2: And just quickly, I can see you've got a great
Speaker 2: big flag behind you. I absolutely expect the Institute of
Speaker 2: Public Affairs to honour and display our flag. But, you know,
Speaker 2: you go overseas, I know you frequently are away and
Speaker 2: you see other nations flying their one national flag. We've
Speaker 2: got to do it more often and we've got to
Speaker 2: stop flying multiple flags. We've just got to honour our
Speaker 2: one flag that unites us all.
Speaker 12: And the trouble is, Peter, that the current government is
Speaker 12: ambivalent about our history. It's uncomfortable with our core Anglo-Celtic culture.
Speaker 12: It's uncomfortable with our fundamental Judeo-Christian ethos. and this is
Speaker 12: why you can't see government ministers stand up in public
Speaker 12: without flying three flags instead of the one beautiful national
Speaker 12: flag that represents every single Australian.
Speaker 1: Well, you're not ambiguous, Tony Abbott. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for your time tonight and thanks for fighting for
Speaker 2: the reopening of justice for everyone killed at Bondi and
Speaker 2: for all Australians too. We all should care about the
Speaker 2: events of last year and hope they never happen again.
Speaker 2: All right, after the break, more on the warnings sent
Speaker 2: by the AFP's police union to the federal government before
Speaker 2: that Bondi terror attack has caused Wyden to reopen the
Speaker 2: Royal Commission.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Coming up, more news.
Speaker 2: On those warnings from the AFP union to government. But
Speaker 2: now to the campaign against the hugely divisive New England
Speaker 2: Renewable Energy Zone, in which local communities are taking up
Speaker 2: the fight against a 300 kilometre transmission corridor that the government.
Speaker 1: Wants to impose on them.
Speaker 2: Now, we've covered this closely before, but tonight I want
Speaker 2: to make sure we get you an update as Campaigners
Speaker 2: say the scale of local opposition is now impossible for
Speaker 2: the New South Wales government to ignore. Joining me now
Speaker 2: from Wolca, Wolca High Country Guardian campaigner and generational young farmer,
Speaker 2: Nathaniel Brazel. Nathaniel, thank you for your time. I am
Speaker 2: often asked by my viewers, what's happening in Wolca? Peter,
Speaker 2: you've got to get back to Wolca. We've sorted things
Speaker 2: out in Victoria. We've got to fight for New South
Speaker 2: Wales now. So give us the latest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, g'day, Peter. Thanks very much for having me.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, Penny Sharp and EnergyCo are still pushing forward
Speaker 3: with this transmission project and the infrastructure build for the
Speaker 3: whole res. So they're chasing down an ESI currently and
Speaker 3: have recently announced the workers' camps, which are going to
Speaker 3: have massive effects on local communities.
Speaker 4: And the announcement in that was a debacle in itself.
Speaker 3: So, you know, they're still pushing forward ahead really hard,
Speaker 3: despite the fact that there's been obviously quite a bit
Speaker 3: of pushback from local communities, as well as pushback and
Speaker 3: input from other government constituents and government bodies, infrastructure, energy
Speaker 3: infrastructure have also had inputs, but there's still, you know,
Speaker 3: no response from them or no likelihood of turning around.
Speaker 2: But one of the things in your favour, of course,
Speaker 2: is the March state election in New South Wales. How
Speaker 2: about this map? The Walker team has given me this
Speaker 2: map to put on the screen. I mean, it is
Speaker 2: striking just how many landowners are dead against this renewable
Speaker 2: project in your region. 508 properties mapped, 357 of them,
Speaker 2: these are the ones in red, are outright opposed to
Speaker 2: hosting renewables infrastructure of any sort. Only 28% of the
Speaker 2: property survey there, and over 500 were saying that they
Speaker 2: were willing to support renewables.
Speaker 1: Tell us more.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're exactly right, Peter.
Speaker 3: So a massive effort with this map. It would be
Speaker 3: one of the most in-depth maps of any regions in
Speaker 3: regards to renewable energy. And so, as you can see,
Speaker 3: there's lots of people that don't want it.
Speaker 4: By and large, farmers do not want the distraction of renewables.
Speaker 3: They're very passionate about their produce that they produce on
Speaker 3: their farms. They do not want it dissected by transmission
Speaker 3: lines and they don't want turbines sitting on them. And
Speaker 3: this is the kind of information that should have been
Speaker 3: done at the start. They should have had this information.
Speaker 3: EnergyCo and the government should have done this work originally
Speaker 3: instead of listening to energy.
Speaker 4: Salesmen telling them, hey, guys, green light here.
Speaker 3: Like we are two-thirds the size of the Urana Res
Speaker 3: and they expect us to produce energy. two times more
Speaker 3: than Iran-Erez. Where's the appetite for this? It's just not there.
Speaker 3: And they've been fed a lie from the start.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Well, as I said, March election coming out, where can
Speaker 2: people go to show their support and force a back
Speaker 2: down from Penny Sharp on this?
Speaker 4: You're exactly right.
Speaker 3: Like this is going to come down to an electoral issue,
Speaker 3: election issue.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: So, you know, people just need to be be talking
Speaker 3: to their um local mps and and whatnot but also
Speaker 3: throwing support behind local community groups um like ourselves there's
Speaker 3: there's 12 or 13 along the line here that that
Speaker 3: are really starting to push back and gain some traction
Speaker 3: um so if you can support them in in any
Speaker 3: way um to help make our voice louder and and
Speaker 3: make sure the regional communities are really heard um Like
Speaker 3: I said, it's not only regional communities, it's other government bodies,
Speaker 3: it's the industry as well. AEMO have said that this
Speaker 3: res doesn't need to be as large and also, you know,
Speaker 3: people like the CEO of Origin Energy have come back
Speaker 3: and said the appetite there isn't there anymore for the turbines.
Speaker 4: You know, so we just.
Speaker 3: Need to keep building that story for government to actually
Speaker 3: listen to.
Speaker 1: Well, keep it up.
Speaker 2: You've got plenty of my viewers telling me that I've
Speaker 2: got to keep on the issue, so I will. I'll
Speaker 2: catch up with you soon, but let's try and turn
Speaker 2: this into a bigger news story right around the country
Speaker 2: because what you're facing is what so many are facing
Speaker 2: around Australia. Thank you, Farmer, there, of course. Nathaniel Brazel,
Speaker 2: thank you, Nathaniel. Great to have you on the show,
Speaker 2: as always. Alex Kawana, he's the head of the AFP
Speaker 2: Police Union. He joins me after the break. Let's get
Speaker 2: straight into things with my next guest, Alex Kawana. He's
Speaker 2: the head of the AFP Association, so the police union,
Speaker 2: and he issued a message in November last year, so
Speaker 2: a month before Bondi, to the AFP about the huge
Speaker 2: workload for officers, talking about a 280% increase since 2015
Speaker 2: in counter-terrorism resourcing requirements. Alex Kawana joins me now from Canberra. Alex,
Speaker 2: just in the interest of brevity, I'm not going to
Speaker 2: speak any more. You know more about this than anyone.
Speaker 2: I have been inundated this week from officers, the people
Speaker 2: that wear the uniform, not the decision makers at the
Speaker 2: top of the AFP tree, saying that they don't have
Speaker 2: the resources they need, they're not getting what they're promised
Speaker 2: and they find it increasingly difficult to keep Australians safe
Speaker 2: and they don't feel the Royal Commission is getting to
Speaker 2: the bottom of the problem.
Speaker 8: Yeah, look, it's across the board. It's not just for
Speaker 8: national security. It's for all parts of the AFP that
Speaker 8: we're finding that members are telling me, pardon me, and
Speaker 8: their management, their bosses, that they need more resources, they
Speaker 8: need more staff. And the government imposed a 5% ban
Speaker 8: across the whole public service. And unfortunately, the government lumps
Speaker 8: us in with the public service.
Speaker 4: And we're very different from the public service.
Speaker 8: And that 5% dividend that we needed to hand back
Speaker 8: is having some real effective negative effects on us operationally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm surprised you went quarantine because at a state level,
Speaker 2: when they have cuts across public servants, they quarantine frontline services.
Speaker 1: And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2: I mean, the health department in Canberra doesn't hire doctors
Speaker 2: or nurses, but the AFP, the federal police, does hire police.
Speaker 1: Why weren't you protected?
Speaker 8: Look, I'm not sure. I think because the AFP budget
Speaker 8: is so big that it's a very easy place for
Speaker 8: the government to make savings. Certainly when it comes to
Speaker 8: EA bargaining, it's often tested in that sphere. So our
Speaker 8: concern is really about the safety of our members and
Speaker 8: the safety of the community. And when the members are
Speaker 8: consistently coming up to us to say the Commissioner has
Speaker 8: been told by the government that this is the bucket
Speaker 8: of money that we've got and it's okay to say
Speaker 8: no to jobs, none of our members are actually going
Speaker 8: to say no to a job because who wants to
Speaker 8: be the end of that public criticism or internal criticism
Speaker 8: when or if they make the decision not to go
Speaker 8: forward with the job.
Speaker 2: I've got to ask you, Alex, then have you been
Speaker 2: asked to give evidence?
Speaker 1: To the Royal Commission?
Speaker 8: No, we haven't. We've provided our statements and that's it.
Speaker 2: Are you dismayed that they were closed and we didn't
Speaker 2: hear from Chrissy Barrett, that we didn't hear from the
Speaker 2: AFP Minister, that we didn't hear from the Attorney-General at
Speaker 2: all in this Royal Commission?
Speaker 8: Look, I think it's important that it is closed because
Speaker 8: we don't want to have a lot of that information
Speaker 8: going out there and, one, creating a bit of a
Speaker 8: public fear.
Speaker 2: Now, I hear you on the confidentiality, Alex, but are
Speaker 2: you upset that we haven't had a Christy Barrett called
Speaker 2: to give evidence in camera or publicly?
Speaker 8: Look, I think all the levels of the AFP should
Speaker 8: be in there giving evidence and explaining why certain decisions
Speaker 8: were made.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm out of time.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry we've had issues with your technical end. Let's
Speaker 2: talk again next week because I think this is far
Speaker 2: too important to let go. Thank you for your time, Alex, there.
Speaker 2: Of course, the police union boss at the AFP. That's
Speaker 2: it for me. Have a lovely weekend.
Speaker 1: Go Carlton. I'm with Carlton tomorrow night. Here's the Bolt Report.