Speaker 1: From the Skying Center. This is Paul Murray Live. Thank you, Shery,
Speaker 1: loving to see you. Happy Monday. No sooks, no lefties.
Speaker 1: That's the way it's going to be. To night, James Morrow,
Speaker 1: Senator Matt Canavan, and a union buster who knows how
Speaker 1: to go after the CFMAU. We get to that all
Speaker 1: shortly before I get to a lot of news, a
Speaker 1: lot of political news, polls, cost of living, all the
Speaker 1: rest of it. I just want to focus on something
Speaker 1: that doesn't get enough national attention. There is a drought
Speaker 1: that is taking place in Victoria right now. Now. I
Speaker 1: know we've talked about extreme weather events being things like
Speaker 1: the extropical cyclone in Queensland. I know it was pretty
Speaker 1: hot this weekend in Sydney, but I want to focus
Speaker 1: on the drought in Victoria because it is causing huge
Speaker 1: troubles for farmers. Right now. Let me show you an
Speaker 1: image not just of one of the farmers here and
Speaker 1: just how dry things are, but just about a drought
Speaker 1: map right now. Now. This will give you an idea
Speaker 1: from the Bureau of Meteorology about the rainfall, which is
Speaker 1: the lowest on record. Severe severe deficiency there you go,
Speaker 1: or serious deficiency. Basically darker the red, the dryer it
Speaker 1: is now as you can see, almost like a third
Speaker 1: almost half of Victoria is in the red. The same
Speaker 1: of course stretches off into South Australia as well, and
Speaker 1: well under the herald sun for looking at this today.
Speaker 1: Because the horrific drought that is gripping Victoria, thousands of
Speaker 1: families are now turning to having to pay for drinking water.
Speaker 1: This is months of no rain that has been taking place.
Speaker 1: Water tanks and dams across Victoria are running dry, prompting
Speaker 1: thousands of households and farmers to now pay for drinking
Speaker 1: water to be trucked in by semi trailers. The water
Speaker 1: comes to towns across the state who continue to struggle
Speaker 1: the worst drout they've had in almost two decades.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: We all know about the different droughts in different parts
Speaker 1: of the country, but in certain parts of our own
Speaker 1: country it's the worst it's been in twenty years. As
Speaker 1: temperatures are set to sizzled this week, households and livestock
Speaker 1: produces are rash water and buying it in from wherever
Speaker 1: a possible after has to say months of no rain
Speaker 1: now even if it does rain. This is the evaporation map.
Speaker 1: Spent a bit too much time in the bureau's website today,
Speaker 1: but this is the evaporation map. The darker, the red,
Speaker 1: the faster, whatever rainfalls is just going to go straight
Speaker 1: back up into the air. Unsurprisingly, the areas that have
Speaker 1: had bugger all rainfall, if they got it well, the
Speaker 1: exact thing would happen again. Even if it fell, it
Speaker 1: had start to go straight back up. Meeting. Of course,
Speaker 1: it's not enough to soak the ground or to even
Speaker 1: start to fill whatever balls or dams you might end
Speaker 1: up happening having The Victorian Farmers Federation president is Brett Hosking,
Speaker 1: and he told the Herald Sun today that it's dry
Speaker 1: across vast parts of the state, but especially in the southwest.
Speaker 1: Hence the maps that I've just shown you there. That's
Speaker 1: why the need is sitting hardest, because they are now
Speaker 1: facing a feed shortage because of no rain last year
Speaker 1: for the crops, also now water shortage because the dams
Speaker 1: are drying up. Now, this gives me the opportunity to say,
Speaker 1: no matter where you are in the country, and whatever
Speaker 1: the weather is like outside, you can do your bit
Speaker 1: to help our fellow Aussies and to always take care
Speaker 1: of those people who we know you love, which is
Speaker 1: the Australian farmer. Farm Maide is the charity that does
Speaker 1: everything from financial counseling, emotional support through too getting those
Speaker 1: hay bails out to where they are needed, in this
Speaker 1: case in southwestern Victoria. Their website is farm made dot
Speaker 1: org dot au. When you go to the site, you'll
Speaker 1: see this, which is their opening title, and they are
Speaker 1: here to help. Now, what can you do? I know
Speaker 1: there's a lot of good causes, but if you just
Speaker 1: want to give a one off, for fifty dollars, you
Speaker 1: can buy hay to feed the livestock. For one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars, you can have an in person counseling
Speaker 1: session somebody goes out and helps out a farmer. For
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars you can get some clean drinking water
Speaker 1: to these people. Or for five hundred dollars you can
Speaker 1: provide a farm recovery event, meaning an awful lot of
Speaker 1: people can consume into that area, fix up things, fences
Speaker 1: and here bring some water with them. That's a one
Speaker 1: off if you have the cash, if you're able to,
Speaker 1: you can do it monthly. Now For twenty five dollars
Speaker 1: a month, you will be able to make sure that
Speaker 1: there is clean drinking water for a family. For fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a month, you can provide financial assistance packages. For
Speaker 1: seventy five dollars a month, you can provide fodder for animals.
Speaker 1: And for one hundred dollars a month a monthly gift
Speaker 1: will mean in person counselors. All of this matters because
Speaker 1: it's not just the financial health, it's their mental health.
Speaker 1: So help our farmers please. Rual aid dot org dot
Speaker 1: au is their website. I mentioned this at the start
Speaker 1: of the show before we get too hot and heavy
Speaker 1: into the world of politics. And if you are in
Speaker 1: this particular area that is being affected by drought, or
Speaker 1: anyone in regional Australia who thinks they could do with
Speaker 1: the help be at feed, be at water, b at
Speaker 1: the financial counseling or other forms of assistance. One three
Speaker 1: hundred one seven five five nine four rual lai dot
Speaker 1: org got au or all write the number down nice
Speaker 1: and slow for you one three hundred one seven five
Speaker 1: nine five nine four if you're happening to listen to
Speaker 1: us on podcast. Now, as to the politics and of course,
Speaker 1: cost of living number one issue in the country. We
Speaker 1: are hot and heavy on this issue because the Prime
Speaker 1: Minister lied his way into office. He did so three
Speaker 1: years ago. He promised to or gets ready to do
Speaker 1: so again at this upcoming election. A labor government will
Speaker 1: lower the cost of living. That was the promise from opposition.
Speaker 1: The reality, of course, is something very different. The cost
Speaker 1: of living has become the major issue. We lead with
Speaker 1: it most nights, because how can you not think of
Speaker 1: all of the things that other people want to talk about.
Speaker 1: Seventy three percent of people say the number one issue
Speaker 1: for them is cost of living. Then it's housing, which
Speaker 1: of course feeds back into cost of living. Then we're
Speaker 1: into healthcare. Crime is above the economy and even above
Speaker 1: climate change. But look how far climate change has formed,
Speaker 1: meaning potentially reality might sweep away a few of those
Speaker 1: Greens and teals. As for the amount of money that
Speaker 1: we are spending in our supermarkets, somebody who's put a
Speaker 1: tally together of just how much cost of living has
Speaker 1: gotten worse under the bloke who promised to make it better.
Speaker 1: It's a strategic battle. The Telegraph today said the grocery
Speaker 1: bills have searched thirty percent during the Alberanzi's government's first term,
Speaker 1: leveling families three thousand dollars a year poorer. Now remember this,
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars on top of the fifteen hundred dollars
Speaker 1: they took away from ten million taxpayers. So see how
Speaker 1: the numbers start. The rise, experts say, the relentless rise
Speaker 1: and the price of consumers staples has transformed what was
Speaker 1: once a routine task now into a strategic battle of
Speaker 1: what can I afford? What can we do without? Of course,
Speaker 1: none of this applies to the people who lied their
Speaker 1: way into power, because remember the Prime Minister, the Deputy
Speaker 1: Prime Minister and all of the people climbing the greasebyy
Speaker 1: poles as his ministers have got not one but three
Speaker 1: pay rises since the last election. They promised to make
Speaker 1: it better. The only people that got better for was them,
Speaker 1: including the bloke is now on over six hundred thousand dollars. Well,
Speaker 1: once you start to put in mortgages into that, the
Speaker 1: number goes through the roof. In my view, rather than
Speaker 1: photos of candidates that you either always vote for you
Speaker 1: or you've never heard of, every opposition party should be
Speaker 1: running a fact like this over and over again, and
Speaker 1: localizing it to every electorate in the country because if
Speaker 1: you have a labor mp, they lied their way to
Speaker 1: get there. According to the Financial Review, today, the typical
Speaker 1: family is now nineteen thousand dollars poorer since labour took power.
Speaker 1: This is why we talk about it every day. There
Speaker 1: are many families who three years ago would have told you, oh,
Speaker 1: we got nineteen thousand dollars under the couch, or we're
Speaker 1: just peeling up against the wall. Price rises, elevated mortgage rates,
Speaker 1: income tax bracket creep have combined to deliver the biggest
Speaker 1: fall in living standards on record. Repeat, biggest fall in
Speaker 1: living standards on record. What was their promise, they'll make
Speaker 1: everything better as measured by real household disposable income per person.
Speaker 1: Financial Review hardly some sort of hardcore right wing out
Speaker 1: goes on to say the biggest contributor to the erosion
Speaker 1: household purchasing power is inflation, with the prices of goods
Speaker 1: and services consumed by the average household up fifteen percent
Speaker 1: in the past three years, real household disposable income down
Speaker 1: almost eight percent. So everything costs more, but the power
Speaker 1: of your dollar to pay for things goes backwards. In
Speaker 1: dollar terms, it's a loss of four eight hundred dollars
Speaker 1: per person between the March quarter and twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: and the December quarter in twenty twenty four. This according
Speaker 1: to the Coalition and their economic analysis, but no one
Speaker 1: is arguing those numbers. Despite the promise of everything getting better,
Speaker 1: everything got worse. And when it comes to the stables
Speaker 1: you're buying, when it comes to the supermarket, that's about
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars backwards. And if you're trying to pay
Speaker 1: off a house, well it is of course the best
Speaker 1: part of well four and four eight hundred dollars per person.
Speaker 1: This is why there is a giant hole. And do
Speaker 1: not let them get away with it. Do not let
Speaker 1: them get away with lying, making everything worse and still
Speaker 1: hoping for your vote. This was the Opposition today on
Speaker 1: this matter with Chris Kenny.
Speaker 3: And this is Australian's paying for a labor government that
Speaker 3: simply can't manage its own budget and we pay the
Speaker 3: price for it. There's an old saying that when left
Speaker 3: wing governments run out of money, they come after yours
Speaker 3: and that's exactly what we are seeing.
Speaker 1: Apologies with Pete this morning. Now let's also talk about
Speaker 1: the single greatest source of revenue for the Australian government.
Speaker 1: You and me, anyone who pays as they go income tax.
Speaker 1: This federal government is getting more than any government has
Speaker 1: in a generation. In fact, it is a nineteen year high.
Speaker 1: Again the Financial Review of the ones banging out the
Speaker 1: stories on this. So they're going to get a good
Speaker 1: run with me because they are putting some numbers behind this.
Speaker 1: A thing tank called the E sixty one Institute, a
Speaker 1: former Productivity commissioner says, income tax is the workhourse of
Speaker 1: the Australian revenue raising system. To give you an idea,
Speaker 1: where does this mob of liars and fools get their
Speaker 1: money from income tax? Two hundred and ninety three point
Speaker 1: seven b four billion dollars, more than double the amount
Speaker 1: that they get out of company tax and multiples of
Speaker 1: the GST. Chris Richardson, who is with Access Economics or
Speaker 1: Deloitte Access Economics, often a man you'll see in and
Speaker 1: around budget time trying to push through the bs and
Speaker 1: tell you what the real numbers are. He says, the
Speaker 1: tax receipts will hit twenty three point eight percent of
Speaker 1: GDP this financial year on a cash accounting basis, the
Speaker 1: outcome would represent the highest level of taxation revenue since
Speaker 1: the Howard government was in office in two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: two thousand and six. Here he was when speaking to
Speaker 1: my colleague and friend Ross a little earlier today on
Speaker 1: business Now.
Speaker 4: Australia, its standards of living is going backwards at such
Speaker 4: a rapid rate compared with other countries because in inflation
Speaker 4: bracket creep, the amount of money that government has taken
Speaker 4: from payg taxpayers is increased incrementally.
Speaker 1: In other words, people's cost of living crisis.
Speaker 4: Largely is as a result of the government taking more
Speaker 4: money out of their pockets, and.
Speaker 5: That increase in the tax take has been part of it.
Speaker 1: Ross Greenwood, the question based off the stats again, I'll
Speaker 1: show you the straining Financial Review and their headline done off. Yes,
Speaker 1: the coalition's numbers, but nineteen thousand dollars poorer, nineteen thousand
Speaker 1: dollars poorer when it comes to households because paying off
Speaker 1: a house is more expensive, because buying any of the
Speaker 1: supermarkets more expensive, Because the government takes more than it
Speaker 1: has taken in a generation. And then it's what they
Speaker 1: decide to spend the money on and we've got plenty
Speaker 1: to say about that tonight, because aren't they trying to
Speaker 1: change the subject on that one. There is no Jedi
Speaker 1: mind trick that will work here, No weak minds watching
Speaker 1: this program. Under this government, a football stadium of people
Speaker 1: have been hired by the public service. In fact, the
Speaker 1: size of government is worth mentioning again, Chris Richardson talking
Speaker 1: to Ross.
Speaker 5: The size of government has risen in recent years. In
Speaker 5: twenty twenty two to twenty three, the size of government
Speaker 5: spending was somewhere around twenty four percent of national income.
Speaker 5: In the coming year it will be somewhere around twenty
Speaker 5: seven percent of national income.
Speaker 1: And that's a.
Speaker 5: Pretty substantial shift in a short period of time.
Speaker 1: So if you're following their income coming in more than
Speaker 1: that going out to pay for the public service wide
Speaker 1: because the modern Labor Party has one view and one
Speaker 1: view only. They view electoral strength through a triangle of
Speaker 1: dependence that you either have your handout wanting welfare, or
Speaker 1: you work for the government, or if you're in private
Speaker 1: business and the biggest client is the government, that triangle
Speaker 1: would be more than sixty percent of the Australian population
Speaker 1: if they can get it to that nice sweet spot
Speaker 1: like they have in Victoria. They did for a long
Speaker 1: time in Queensland. Then it does not matter what they do.
Speaker 1: Remember in Victoria, their triple O system resulted in the
Speaker 1: death of thirty three people. Yet we keep being told
Speaker 1: health is such a high priority that government got re elected.
Speaker 1: The government that has bankrupted the state so much so
Speaker 1: that now it is getting a greater percentage of the
Speaker 1: gst PIE than the population it has is because, of
Speaker 1: course it's a labor state, and it's a place where
Speaker 1: Albo needs to hold onto seats in order to hold
Speaker 1: onto power. What these people are doing to our country
Speaker 1: is a disgrace with your vote, with your preference, with
Speaker 1: your commitment to watching programs like this and spreading the facts,
Speaker 1: the information that I'm handing to you from multiple sources,
Speaker 1: and I show you the sources, and I pretend that
Speaker 1: I found all of this in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: I show you where it comes from. Well, this brings
Speaker 1: us to old Grimjim Charmers. Now Hey, of course has
Speaker 1: told us that he is the greatest economy managers in
Speaker 1: sliced bread. Because for the plast couple of years they've
Speaker 1: been running a budget surplus guess what's coming a budget
Speaker 1: deficit exactly. This was announced today by the Treasurer, trying
Speaker 1: to get out in front of the budget that will
Speaker 1: be formally announced on the twenty fifth, So that's not
Speaker 1: this week, but next week. And by the way, that
Speaker 1: is the first of what is going to be forty
Speaker 1: and I repeat forty budget deficits in a row. Why
Speaker 1: do I know it's forty years because Jim Chalmers also
Speaker 1: released a document called the Intergenerational Report, how Australia stacks
Speaker 1: up financially and socially for the next few decades. And
Speaker 1: despite the fact that we will have the best part
Speaker 1: of forty million people living here over the next little while,
Speaker 1: the government will still keep spending like drunken salors because
Speaker 1: what is baked into the budget only gets more rotten
Speaker 1: as the year's roll on. In fact, have a look,
Speaker 1: I circle it for you in the red every budget
Speaker 1: year between now and twenty sixty three. Anything below the
Speaker 1: line deficit this year, next year, year after year after
Speaker 1: year after year after year after year after year after
Speaker 1: year after, and they want you to vote for them.
Speaker 1: They have more money than ever before, but they are
Speaker 1: spending more than ever before. They have designed a budget
Speaker 1: to spend even more when you and I may be
Speaker 1: long gone, or it'll be our kids and grandkids that'll
Speaker 1: be paying for it. Unbelievable, right, and they have the
Speaker 1: stones to say they are the great economic managers. They
Speaker 1: took fifteen hundred dollars off ten million workers as an
Speaker 1: automatic tax return. One of the first things they did.
Speaker 1: They turned around and used every opportunity to put up
Speaker 1: every price they possibly could when it came to the
Speaker 1: little taxes fuel and smokes and booze along the way.
Speaker 1: These are the people who say cost of living is
Speaker 1: absolutely front and center, and everything we have to do
Speaker 1: reality is too little, too late. Tax cuts were fourteen
Speaker 1: bucks a week, and I'll get the interest rates in
Speaker 1: a moment. Let's just keep talking here about this budget
Speaker 1: because I want to puncture some budget bs before it
Speaker 1: starts to take hold. Now, yes, you know, I've got
Speaker 1: a dog in this fight, and it is for not
Speaker 1: for these people to remain the governor of the country.
Speaker 1: And I think after three years of running it, they've
Speaker 1: run it into the dirt and it is time to
Speaker 1: save our country. Today. Jim charmers well, he softly announces
Speaker 1: what he will not have to announce with any great fanfare,
Speaker 1: because it will be by then old news that the
Speaker 1: great economic management of two budget surpluses has now become
Speaker 1: a disaster. Now.
Speaker 6: Defining feature of our first three budgets was responsible economic management.
Speaker 6: That will be a defining feature of the fourth as well.
Speaker 6: Even this year, where we will be printing a deficit
Speaker 6: for this year, it will be much much smaller than
Speaker 6: what we inherited from our political opponents, and that shows
Speaker 6: the progress that we've been able to make.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's all do this again. Remember the reason why
Speaker 1: Fridenberg and Morrison said back in black was because before
Speaker 1: the pandemic, the joint had balanced its books. Then the
Speaker 1: introduction of a safety their job keeper as well as
Speaker 1: higher one off welfare payments meant that that only came
Speaker 1: from one place, and it wasn't from revenue. Because well,
Speaker 1: the country shut down, the state premiers decided to lock
Speaker 1: it down harder and for longer, and that meant that
Speaker 1: those payments had to go further. Meaning yes, the budget
Speaker 1: went into deficit, but if they want to pretend that
Speaker 1: it was because the Liberal Party was going crazy with
Speaker 1: a credit card, that's not the case. You know, anner,
Speaker 1: you and I remember budget night before the pandemic struck,
Speaker 1: and it was that things had leveled out and things
Speaker 1: were only going to get better. But under this bloke,
Speaker 1: he's had a couple of years where mining has boomed,
Speaker 1: where population has boomed, where company tax has gone okay,
Speaker 1: but income tax has gone through the roof, and he's
Speaker 1: about to produce a budget deficit, one that'll be not
Speaker 1: for decades. But I repeat one more time, for the
Speaker 1: next forty years. And remember, every one of those budget
Speaker 1: deficits is added to the previous, to the previous, to
Speaker 1: the previous, of the previous. So if there was a
Speaker 1: trillion dollars in debt in the handover, guess what ten
Speaker 1: twenty thirty forty years of spending more than you bring in,
Speaker 1: that'll become two trillion within a couple of blinks of
Speaker 1: the eye, and that will be a disgrace. And of course,
Speaker 1: don't forget. One of the reasons why they are going
Speaker 1: to be spending more money than money's coming in is
Speaker 1: because they are trying to buy and slide their way
Speaker 1: through an election. They lied in the last campaign. Now
Speaker 1: they just want to bribe you, thinking that you can
Speaker 1: forget about your own circumstances that I repeat for the
Speaker 1: third time are almost twenty thousand dollars worse than when
Speaker 1: this mob took over. How's the promises going?
Speaker 2: Albo a seven point two billion dollar announcement today? Five
Speaker 2: million dollars ten million dollars, two hundred million dollars, three
Speaker 2: billion dollars, three hundred and fifty million dollar, two billion dollars,
Speaker 2: thirty seven million dollars, eight hundred and forty two million dollar,
Speaker 2: two point four billion dollars eight point five billion dollar,
Speaker 2: four point eight billion dollar, one billion dollars.
Speaker 1: Oh wis is economically responsible? Feding? Yeah, I'm going to
Speaker 1: keep talking about it. Why because he just is insulting.
Speaker 1: But they believe that triangle of dependency. Once you're throw
Speaker 1: in a bit of a goodble good music under black
Speaker 1: and white images of Peter Dutton cuts cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts,
Speaker 1: all they will do is strengthen that triangle and it
Speaker 1: will be almost impossible to move. And the only time
Speaker 1: people do wake up is after you get to an
Speaker 1: absolute point of no return with disaster like Queensland. This
Speaker 1: is what we're facing right now. This is why your
Speaker 1: vote matters, your preference matters. Bugging them all is not
Speaker 1: an option. Doing any and everything you can to make
Speaker 1: sure that you spread the news is far and wide
Speaker 1: about the failure of this government matters. And what about
Speaker 1: the hoodspurt today from the Treasurer who now has got
Speaker 1: a brand new scapegoat as to why he is saying
Speaker 1: that the budget is going to be in deficit despite
Speaker 1: the fact that they knew there'd be one coming this year,
Speaker 1: despite the fact they were planning and expecting them for
Speaker 1: the next forty years. No, no, no. The reason why
Speaker 1: we're having this one this year X tropical cyclone Alfred. Now, yes,
Speaker 1: I was in the middle of it and it was
Speaker 1: not a fizzer, but fed income. This is, of course
Speaker 1: the ex tropical cyclone where Albow was definitely not campaigning.
Speaker 1: Charmers was definitely not hoping that you would confuse his
Speaker 1: orange jacket with the orange jacket of the sees because
Speaker 1: you know, he's just here to help and he's out
Speaker 1: there briefing today that the cost of the federal budget,
Speaker 1: now this is really important, not the cost of the
Speaker 1: Queensland or New Soubal's budget. Who actually pays for the
Speaker 1: fire services pays for In the Queensland's case, the electricity
Speaker 1: workers to go around. I know this is the federal
Speaker 1: budget that in taxes they're going to lose one point
Speaker 1: two billion dollars because of essentially what two and a
Speaker 1: half days shutdown in a very specific part of Australia.
Speaker 1: And of course the media, well they were cynical, weren't they.
Speaker 1: Were they willing to call bs on this? Of course,
Speaker 1: not to how just a new scapegoat when these people
Speaker 1: have promised and planned deficits for the next forty years,
Speaker 1: have baked in tens of billions of dollars that they
Speaker 1: are not currently spending and that produces a deficit. Did
Speaker 1: the media point any of that out? Let's roll the
Speaker 1: tape and learn together. But I think we know the answer.
Speaker 1: Millions of people are going into lockdown, told to stay
Speaker 1: indoors as the impact of Cyclone Alfred intensifies.
Speaker 7: You new details on Cyclone Alfred forecast to make landfall
Speaker 7: in the next seventy two.
Speaker 8: Hours and in northern New South Wales it's a race
Speaker 8: against time.
Speaker 6: The first time in more than three decades a tropical
Speaker 6: cyclone is bearing down on our state.
Speaker 1: So what is the actual reason? Again, the treasure I
Speaker 1: spoke today to my mate and friend Tom Connell here
Speaker 1: on Sky News.
Speaker 6: First of all, our focus, as you'd expect, is on
Speaker 6: the human cost of X tropical cyclone Alfred and all
Speaker 6: of the other natural disasters we've seen in recent years.
Speaker 6: But there will be a substantial economic cost and also
Speaker 6: a cost.
Speaker 1: To the budget.
Speaker 6: So the one point two billion dollars you refer to
Speaker 6: will be provisioned four in the budget. It will be
Speaker 6: one of the key influences on the budget we hand
Speaker 6: down in eight days.
Speaker 1: And this is a very very clever almost said, a
Speaker 1: clever trick. Okay. Now, I don't know what the budget
Speaker 1: deficit it's going to be. If it's going to be
Speaker 1: two hundred million dollars, five hundred million dollars, it's going
Speaker 1: to be two point four billion, six, I don't know, okay,
Speaker 1: But this number of trying to say that the loss
Speaker 1: to the federal government is one point two billion dollars
Speaker 1: is part of the excuse making about whatever the size
Speaker 1: of that deficit is going to be. Now, the reality
Speaker 1: of that deficit is that by their own projections over
Speaker 1: the next forty years, we are going to spend more
Speaker 1: than we earn. Because the Prime Minister is trying to
Speaker 1: slide his way and lie his way and buy his
Speaker 1: way back into the Prime ministership. Forty forty billion dollars
Speaker 1: worth of promises that have been made since January. That's
Speaker 1: why we're going to going to deficit. Okay, Now, is
Speaker 1: there a financial and economic impact of shutting down Southeast
Speaker 1: Queensland and find northern New South Welsh for a couple
Speaker 1: of days? Yeah? Absolutely, But I've got a workout from
Speaker 1: where Obviously airports were shut down for a couple of days.
Speaker 1: But okay, what taxation was involved in that? Nobody lost
Speaker 1: their job. Instead, people were being asked to work from home,
Speaker 1: which meant they didn't really shut down either. Yes, a
Speaker 1: couple of days willworts and coals you weren't able to
Speaker 1: go into them. But the idea that that means there's
Speaker 1: going to be lower company tax, No, does it mean
Speaker 1: that there's going to be lower income tax? Well, again,
Speaker 1: as best as I can work hard, unless you are
Speaker 1: a casual worker, your wage was guaranteed, and I would
Speaker 1: hope that major companies like Colson wooll Is honored what
Speaker 1: was supposed to be paid in those shifts. So this
Speaker 1: is nothing but an excuse. This is nothing but hoping
Speaker 1: that you are not paying attention. Now, it's a big
Speaker 1: claim what I am making right now, But do you
Speaker 1: honestly believe that the actual cost to the bottom line
Speaker 1: of the federal government, who's already employing everyone in the
Speaker 1: bro meteorology, who's already paying everyone in the defense force,
Speaker 1: it's one point two billion dollars. And just to underline
Speaker 1: my point, maybe you're thinking, well, hang on, put a
Speaker 1: lot of rain primary producers in northern New South Wales
Speaker 1: and now there was a major hit to the budget
Speaker 1: when the floods were there in twenty twenty from memory,
Speaker 1: if not to twenty twenty two. Apologies, Well, someone might
Speaker 1: want to actually alert the farmers because according to the ABC,
Speaker 1: you know that far right wing think tank, ex tropical
Speaker 1: cyclone Alfred costs Newsobels farmers millions, not billions in stock
Speaker 1: losses and damage. Farmers across northern New South Wales have
Speaker 1: reported damages of seventeen million seventeen million. Now, does anyone
Speaker 1: believe that the seventeen minion worth of crops or animals
Speaker 1: would have produced something that would resulted in one point
Speaker 1: two million billion dollars in revenue for the government. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't buy it either. You've got to pay attention
Speaker 1: to the detail. I'm glad that you're hear. I know
Speaker 1: that it's relentless, but this is the only way. The
Speaker 1: only way we push back is to know the information,
Speaker 1: share the videos, Tell your mates be here in the
Speaker 1: front row when we go live. Go to skynews dot
Speaker 1: com dot au and make sure that you share our
Speaker 1: podcast as well. Now, while much of the media is
Speaker 1: going to try to focus on the up and downs
Speaker 1: of the campaign and how wonderful his new glasses are
Speaker 1: and whatever he's got to say in his personal life,
Speaker 1: and we know that plenty of the establishment media are
Speaker 1: literally so far on his side that even in so
Speaker 1: called efforts of journalism, they're offering mates rates to host
Speaker 1: their wedding. And even though the turnbul Times is going
Speaker 1: to turn around and tell you the worst is behind us,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that a bloke who was both on
Speaker 1: Q and A and Paul Murray Live in the same
Speaker 1: week calls BS on that.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm working the two jobs.
Speaker 3: I've got three kids.
Speaker 2: He's only fifteen months old, so it's a real you know,
Speaker 2: it's really important that we have.
Speaker 1: A house to live in.
Speaker 3: I can't do anything.
Speaker 1: If all the long facts and figures become a little
Speaker 1: bit tiresome, if all of the charts become a little
Speaker 1: too much, may I speak to you in the language
Speaker 1: of the internet. There is a meme that often goes around,
Speaker 1: and there's many versions of this which puts up an
Speaker 1: example of the way things used to be and the
Speaker 1: way things that are turning out. As always, we turned
Speaker 1: to holy texts such as Star Wars, Luke Skywalker, how
Speaker 1: it started fresh and young? How's it going? Remember he's
Speaker 1: drinking that weird milk, not looking his best? The years
Speaker 1: were not there, So let's do a few of these
Speaker 1: about the Abenezy government, how it started living? Their promise
Speaker 1: was to make everything cheaper. However, how's it going?
Speaker 5: Forty seven percent of households are struggling to make ends meet.
Speaker 9: Pain being faced by families at the supermarket checkout with
Speaker 9: prices rising and eyewatering thirty percent in three years.
Speaker 1: You would have noticed fuel prices are again skyrocketing. Petral
Speaker 1: prices are disgusting.
Speaker 6: To fill my tank costs over seventy dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, new's done different anyway. When it comes to housing,
Speaker 1: how did it start? Versus how's it going well. Of course,
Speaker 1: when interest rates went up in the election campaign last
Speaker 1: time and the Labor Party was not in charge, this
Speaker 1: was what they said about interest rate rises.
Speaker 6: This is a full blown cost of living crisis on
Speaker 6: Scott Morrison's watch, and now interest rate rises are about
Speaker 6: to be part of the pain. Now this Prime Minister
Speaker 6: has an excuse for everything and for nothing.
Speaker 1: That was one interest rate rise. Well, how's it going well?
Speaker 1: Of course for Australians under this watch, not one, not two,
Speaker 1: not three, not five, not six, not ten, twelve interest
Speaker 1: rate rises. Oh but it ever came down ever so
Speaker 1: slowly and you might be able to save one hundred
Speaker 1: bucks a month. Really. Also, when it comes to the
Speaker 1: number of homes in mortgage stress right now, have a
Speaker 1: look at this number and these graphics too, another example
Speaker 1: not just how it started, but how it's going. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: there's also three million people at risk of homelessness, not
Speaker 1: to mention the difficulties at the moment about trying to
Speaker 1: find a rental property. This is how it's going.
Speaker 8: So many people they just want to stop and lay roots.
Speaker 8: And we're tired, Sarah, We're tired of moving constantly and
Speaker 8: we want our children to build a foundation.
Speaker 1: How it started versus how it's going power builds? Now,
Speaker 1: you would think this is a fairly easy layer for
Speaker 1: the government. After all, didn't they promise something by two
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five dollars in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Two hundred and seventy five dollars a year hundred and
Speaker 2: seventy five dollars for households, reducing power prices by two
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy five dollars.
Speaker 1: How it started? How's it going well? Electricity bills up
Speaker 1: forty seven percent? That was last year. And then there
Speaker 1: was the news from last week. Our prices are set
Speaker 1: to rise by up to nine percent in another blow
Speaker 1: to struggling households. Prices are going up by nearly nine
Speaker 1: percent for some households despite all the promises. The price
Speaker 1: of electricity is about to go up again. And one
Speaker 1: last one about how it started versus how it's going petrol.
Speaker 1: When Anthony Abnezy was the opposition leader, he was saying
Speaker 1: the fuel prices are at record high as major squeeze
Speaker 1: Morrison government doing nothing. He said at a dollar seventy nine.
Speaker 1: The things were so outrageous because the then Prime Minister clearly
Speaker 1: hadn't been to a petrol station recently. Well, that's how
Speaker 1: it started. How's it going? These are the photos I
Speaker 1: took my phone at the petrol stations in and around
Speaker 1: this office tonight. Prices not a dollar seventy nine, not
Speaker 1: even a dollar ninety six, two dollars twelve. This is
Speaker 1: on top of, by the way, a government that has
Speaker 1: increased multiple times, the fuel excise multiple times, the beer
Speaker 1: excise multiple times, the tobacco axis. And to make my
Speaker 1: final point the camera four sixty three percent of this
Speaker 1: bottle of booze is tax. How it started? You'd save
Speaker 1: this for a rainy day. How's it going? Hand me
Speaker 1: a glass or maybe not even a glass, or finish
Speaker 1: the bottle myself. Quick breakback. We're bre here on Paul
Speaker 1: Murray Live. I remember you're going to send me an
Speaker 1: email pull Let's go news dot com dot au, No sooks,
Speaker 1: no lefties. We're often running and some big news after
Speaker 1: the break about how you can be part of the
Speaker 1: case for change when it comes to a government. More
Speaker 1: in a second. You know how I love a pub test.
Speaker 1: We've got a very big one coming up in a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. It's going to be with the opposition
Speaker 1: leader Peter Dutton. If you would like to join us
Speaker 1: in his electorate of Dixon, you can send me an
Speaker 1: email right now. It is pubtest at skynews dot com
Speaker 1: dot Au Monday, the thirty first of March. A couple
Speaker 1: of them away, but it's going to be the first
Speaker 1: one after the budget, after the budget and reply and
Speaker 1: maybe maybe maybe the first day of an election campaign.
Speaker 1: Who knows. If you would like to be there, pub
Speaker 1: test at sky news dot com dot you, please include
Speaker 1: your question. Okay, not because I want to vet, but
Speaker 1: we just want to make sure that one person is
Speaker 1: not asking the same as the other, as the other
Speaker 1: as the other. Don't try and book ten tickets at once.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work that way, and you know if you've
Speaker 1: freshly registered it. I love the Greens at gmail dot
Speaker 1: com dot you. I don't know, but we'll all find now, okay,
Speaker 1: pub jested sky news dot com dot Au. James Murray,
Speaker 1: you can see him a million places here at skye News,
Speaker 1: read him in the Telegraph as well. Love to see
Speaker 1: a great man and man it is equally as visible
Speaker 1: on sky News, but doing his bit for the good
Speaker 1: people of Queensland. Senator from Queensland now Nationals buddy none
Speaker 1: other than Senator Matt Canevan so lots to say, but
Speaker 1: about this, how it started, how it's going. You sent
Speaker 1: me a good one, Matt. We'll get it up on
Speaker 1: screen in a moment or two's time. But if that's
Speaker 1: the case, and everything is as clear as it is
Speaker 1: having you guys, not up by ten points, not as
Speaker 1: the Morgan Pole would suggest, down by nine, well it's
Speaker 1: always going to be close.
Speaker 10: I think the tightening of the polls here is a
Speaker 10: silver lining for There is a silver lining from it
Speaker 10: for the coalition, for Liberal National Parties. It should knock
Speaker 10: out any humorous So I've been thinking all year that
Speaker 10: perhaps our biggest hurdle would be the fact that many
Speaker 10: of our supporters are lovely people, great people. Seem to
Speaker 10: think that this is in the bag. Certainly not. It
Speaker 10: is very close, th very tough to win government. It's
Speaker 10: even tougher to win government of a first term government. Now.
Speaker 10: Peter Dutton's done a remarkable job to put the coalition
Speaker 10: in a position where it is this close. But now
Speaker 10: we've got to push through to the end. I've always
Speaker 10: been an advocate too that we shouldn't die wandering on
Speaker 10: the field. That we should get out there and throw
Speaker 10: the cut out passes and do our best to score.
Speaker 10: So I would also hope that this tightening of the
Speaker 10: polls gives a bit of steal in the spine of
Speaker 10: my colleagues and we get out there and put a
Speaker 10: really strong alternative to this round people, because this cover
Speaker 10: is terrible, it is waeful. It's been a very hard
Speaker 10: time for so many extrains, and I think we owe
Speaker 10: it to those people doing it tough to go hard
Speaker 10: here and put out a clear alternative about how we're
Speaker 10: going to get rid of the terrible policies that has
Speaker 10: put this country in the shocking position where the stand
Speaker 10: of living has dropped by eight percent, more than double
Speaker 10: any country in the developed world. We should not be
Speaker 10: this way with the country this much resources, this much potential,
Speaker 10: this much greatness in its own people. We need to
Speaker 10: find a way of unleashing that potential, that latent potentially
Speaker 10: Australian people by being a much better government than this one.
Speaker 1: I love the reference to rugby league. You're representing Queensland
Speaker 1: better than the local teams did this weekend. All three
Speaker 1: of them didn't get up. But Matt's out there fighting
Speaker 1: and talking to Rugby League James again the stark reality
Speaker 1: of the promise being failed. I talked about this in
Speaker 1: great detail last week. Tony Habbaits says, I'll stop the boats.
Speaker 1: If three years later more boats have arrived, what would
Speaker 1: the reaction be They say we're going to bring everything down.
Speaker 1: Everything's more expensive has later removed with a shot.
Speaker 7: Well that's the real thing here. And you know there's
Speaker 7: a lot to say about this here, but let's start
Speaker 7: with the big point of where we are in this campaign.
Speaker 7: You know, the Libs have done a very good job
Speaker 7: getting to within striking distance of this thing. Peter Dutton
Speaker 7: has done an absolutely remarkable job as our position leader.
Speaker 7: He has made the right calls on big issues, one
Speaker 7: of them being nuclear, another one being the voice that
Speaker 7: said here we are, and we're in a position now
Speaker 7: where everybody says, I think, yeah, you know, the policies
Speaker 7: of this government are woeful. We know that our living
Speaker 7: standards have gone backwards by something like.
Speaker 1: Eight or ten percent.
Speaker 7: But if Matt, if you're gonna give us a bit
Speaker 7: of rugby league, permit me the American to give a
Speaker 7: bit of baseball here Okay, it's like basically there is
Speaker 7: and there is no shame I think for Peter, Doctor
Speaker 7: Peter doesn't need to there's no shame at all in
Speaker 7: losing to a first term incumbent government. But you're never
Speaker 7: gonna win if you don't have a big hard swing
Speaker 7: for the fences.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 7: And that's where that's where Peter Dotton is right now.
Speaker 7: And I think you know, they got spooked when that
Speaker 7: fringe benefit tax launch policy got absolutely monstered. Unfairly by
Speaker 7: the way, but it did get monstered. And we need
Speaker 7: to see, you know, some real policies around cutting taxes.
Speaker 7: We've got to in the daily telegraphed bar suggesting maybe,
Speaker 7: you know, increase of the tax rege threshold for every child.
Speaker 7: You have things that are easy to understand. They'll put
Speaker 7: more money in families pockets. That's where we need to be.
Speaker 1: I so bring back the local middle income tax officet
Speaker 1: that was fifteen hundred dollars ten million.
Speaker 7: Pace and cut and and the bracket creed index the rates.
Speaker 1: I'm with you, all right. So I was talking before
Speaker 1: about that how it started, how it ended thing. While
Speaker 1: I was in the middle of my carrying on there.
Speaker 1: Matt Canavan sent me this one, which I thought also
Speaker 1: was very clever. With the top people their parents in
Speaker 1: their thirties, a thinking Jesus is a good investment property
Speaker 1: be in my thirties. I'm kind of screwed after just
Speaker 1: buying these two things. I like it. I like it,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad you got into the spirit of things.
Speaker 10: All right, let's talk about I don't have the second
Speaker 10: the second ski village, the second house in the s
Speaker 10: My kids probably think I do, secretly away that it
Speaker 10: doesn't quite hold.
Speaker 1: All right, So let's just talk about some of the
Speaker 1: stuff and get ahead of the garbage that we're going
Speaker 1: to have to be sort of, you know, whack them
Speaker 1: playing whack them with when it comes to the budget.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys want to get involved
Speaker 1: that personally. I think the one point two billion thing
Speaker 1: and the price tag on the cyclone when use of
Speaker 1: Wels Farmers is seventeen million, seems to me that it's
Speaker 1: about trying to set narratives. But the second part of
Speaker 1: all of this is that this government has made forty
Speaker 1: billion dollars worth of promises since the start of the year.
Speaker 1: They're going to, of course spend hundreds of billions more
Speaker 1: on an energy system that of course is the three
Speaker 1: world car three wheelcar going around Bathurst when we know
Speaker 1: it ain't going to set a lap record. This doesn't
Speaker 1: surprise anyone. We know there are some gas companies saying
Speaker 1: they're going to try to bring some supply on in
Speaker 1: the Bass straight, but good luck if that becomes anything
Speaker 1: that the Greens or Teals could be involved with the
Speaker 1: minority government.
Speaker 10: Matt, Well, yeah, on the budget, it'll all be revealed
Speaker 10: next week. Everything that's said beforehand you can totally discount.
Speaker 10: Obviously the treasure is trying to set the table in
Speaker 10: a way that benefits him and his team. But just
Speaker 10: go to the table and the budget. I think in
Speaker 10: the last budget was page ninety, but it's about page ninety.
Speaker 10: Always go to the table that shows you how much
Speaker 10: the budget has changed because of the policy decisions of
Speaker 10: this government.
Speaker 1: That will not include that.
Speaker 10: That line will not include anything that came from cyclone, Alfred,
Speaker 10: but it will include the decisions as you've said that
Speaker 10: this part the Labor Party has taken since its start
Speaker 10: of the year to check money into medicare, to put
Speaker 10: money into roads that if it's unfunded.
Speaker 1: That'll be revealed there.
Speaker 10: And in that table it shows in the government's first
Speaker 10: two full budgets they increased spending through because of their
Speaker 10: own decisions, at a rate that hadn't been seen that
Speaker 10: side of COVID since Kevin Rudd's response to the global
Speaker 10: financial crisis. It was totally inappropriate. At least Kevin had
Speaker 10: the excuse of responding to a massive economic global recession.
Speaker 10: This government came to power with what was clearly a
Speaker 10: global global inflation problem and they added a huge amounts
Speaker 10: of fuel. The only gas that's been produced by this
Speaker 10: government is the gasoline.
Speaker 1: That they caught on.
Speaker 10: The inflation fire was raising this country and made it
Speaker 10: a lot lot worse for strained families.
Speaker 1: Correct, So James, are you ready to get in for
Speaker 1: the Greens in a four day work week?
Speaker 7: I love this idea, but I have a proposal, Paul,
Speaker 7: because here's the thing, Like, you know, you know, you
Speaker 7: know that I'm a busy man, both you gentlemen and
Speaker 7: jobs Jobs got all this sort of stuff here, and
Speaker 7: you know we've got the paper, I've got skins that
Speaker 7: were kind of an eighty week. So I reckon my
Speaker 7: vote should count for twice as much as a Greens vote.
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 10: Yeah, no, I like it something Paul can I How
Speaker 10: about how about that poor Morgan Coxpike you had on before? Yes, yes,
Speaker 10: you know it's you know he's having to work two jobs,
Speaker 10: right man? Ye, because partly because of these stupid Green
Speaker 10: policies that have made things so expensive in this country
Speaker 10: when the Houston should be cheap. Why don't we just
Speaker 10: let Morgan work one job. Let's focus on that. Let's
Speaker 10: focus on making a country where someone who works full
Speaker 10: time can afford to provide for their family and have
Speaker 10: a house. Great, and I'm poor Morgan'll be happy if
Speaker 10: you have to work thirty seven forty hours a week.
Speaker 10: That's better than what he's having to go through right now.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look, look, plenty of people have been in touch again.
Speaker 1: Remember Morgan's got a high fi business about cinema, putting
Speaker 1: home cinemas in all the rest of it. Right, If
Speaker 1: we'll get the number again, lots of people reached out
Speaker 1: and ordered some work from him. You know, if you're
Speaker 1: thinking about these sorts of things starting up in the
Speaker 1: household or any sort of av stuff around the house. Police,
Speaker 1: we'll keep the number coming for me. In a moment
Speaker 1: or two time. Let's get to American politics quickly, James,
Speaker 1: where lots of polls showing right track, wrong track much
Speaker 1: better at the moment, that's one thing. But the Democrats
Speaker 1: way down. This is despite the fact that Elon Musk
Speaker 1: is destroying the world, Donald Trump tariffs everywhere, the actual
Speaker 1: poll numbers for the Dems rules.
Speaker 7: Well, the Democrats don't know what they're doing. They don't
Speaker 7: know who their leaders, they don't know if their job
Speaker 7: is to oppose everything Trump does or try and work
Speaker 7: on a bipartisan basis. And they keep choosing Paul these issues,
Speaker 7: these kind of eighty twenty issues, and they wind up
Speaker 7: on the wrong side. Before the election, it was hey,
Speaker 7: we think, you know, guys should be in your daughter's
Speaker 7: locker room. Now it's like, hey, we don't think Donald
Speaker 7: Trump should deport Venezuelan trenda Arnwega narco criminals and send
Speaker 7: them off to some president al salvagor, because that's that's
Speaker 7: not on. I mean, it's like they just managed to
Speaker 7: pick the nonsensical issue. And this is before we get
Speaker 7: to Columbia University and deporting you know, this Palestinian activist
Speaker 7: who is all calling for Intifada, and you know, like seriously,
Speaker 7: normal Americans just say yes, good, more of this please,
Speaker 7: and Democrats are going out and burning down Tesla dealerships.
Speaker 1: Make it make sense, Paul well, but also Matt, Matt
Speaker 1: and James. What's really obvious too is that you know
Speaker 1: how many times does the establishment media and Eddie kick
Speaker 1: in the backside that they're in the wrong place. They've
Speaker 1: gone straight to everything is chaos, no benefit of the doubt,
Speaker 1: no sense of understanding. I said it before the election day.
Speaker 1: I repeat it even more now. They are so irrelevant
Speaker 1: you don't even double check to see what their leads
Speaker 1: story to me because it's so far away from reality.
Speaker 10: The amazing thing the mainstream media keep falling for the
Speaker 10: bait that Donald Trump throws out there, right and they're
Speaker 10: all talking about this issue of the deportation of the
Speaker 10: Venezuelan gangs, and everybody supports Trump, or or maybe percent,
Speaker 10: as James said, supports him. And I think the problem
Speaker 10: for the Democrats right now is that they seem to
Speaker 10: be focusing on form over substance. But there's a massive
Speaker 10: outrage about I mean, how Trump spoke to Zelenski in
Speaker 10: the Oval office or how this is the deportations are
Speaker 10: happening when ultimately people are going to judge a fruit
Speaker 10: a tree so and the fruit it delivers, that's how
Speaker 10: it should happen. And on the substance of what's happened
Speaker 10: so far, Trump has basically ended illegal arrivals over the
Speaker 10: Mexican border. He has ended the fighting in Gaza, an
Speaker 10: amazing result so early in the term. And they're about
Speaker 10: to save these astronauts by the look of it, and
Speaker 10: God God willing, they'll do that in the next few days.
Speaker 10: That's what people care about ultimately, and it's a good
Speaker 10: lesson for all. I think political leaders around the world
Speaker 10: focus less on the communication and all this rubbish. We
Speaker 10: go on with the strategies and the tactics and deliver
Speaker 10: good results. That's what will ultimately put you in good stead.
Speaker 1: With the electric absolutely, and I always think either whether
Speaker 1: if you're overly excited or overly annoyed, wait a week,
Speaker 1: wait a week, because it always ends up ending up
Speaker 1: somewhere else. Thank you very much. You can find out
Speaker 1: more with the US Report, Campaign Confidential and the Outsiders,
Speaker 1: or of course on the front lines of the fight
Speaker 1: each and every day. Thank your lads to appreciate it
Speaker 1: now again, Morgan Cox, he's the bloke who was on
Speaker 1: Q and A on this program talking about how he
Speaker 1: needs to work two jobs and how tough it is.
Speaker 1: And he's in a scenario where because he's rent went
Speaker 1: up by one hundred and eighty dollars, he could end
Speaker 1: up being homeless. Okay. He runs a company called Smart
Speaker 1: High Fi. Any sort of audio visual stuff around the house.
Speaker 1: He'll go as far up as well. Any job. Basically
Speaker 1: you'll go to the Hunter Valley all the way down
Speaker 1: to Wollongong one three hundred three two nine one oh four.
Speaker 1: I want to plug his business because the best way
Speaker 1: for him to be able to save his family is
Speaker 1: for you to hire him to do the work. One
Speaker 1: three hundred three to nine one four more in a second,
Speaker 1: well under sixty minutes. And I gave it to them
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago for their coverage when it
Speaker 1: came to Prime Minister versus Alternity Prime Minister. But well
Speaker 1: done to them. Nick McKenzie and everyone involved in following
Speaker 1: up on the story in and around biking gangs and
Speaker 1: construction in and around the state of Victoria. Why I
Speaker 1: like the follow up is because the politicians kind of
Speaker 1: thought this was a couple of days story starting inquiry.
Speaker 1: But guess what the inquiry wasn't into anyone making decisions.
Speaker 1: The follow up is for, among other things, just sinder
Speaker 1: Allen today to turn around and say, well, we'll get
Speaker 1: the police to investigate this. Make it sound like it
Speaker 1: was new. But according to the age tonight, the very
Speaker 1: thing she was saying with you today have already been
Speaker 1: existing since July. Now, the Building and Construction Commission was
Speaker 1: an important thing to hold the CFMU to account. John
Speaker 1: Lloyd was one of its former commissioners and he joins
Speaker 1: us now. John, thank you very much for the chat.
Speaker 1: It is plain as the nose on our faces about
Speaker 1: the problems that exist on the construction big projects and
Speaker 1: the ones in our major cities. We've had now now
Speaker 1: to sixty minutes investigations. Yet the response of the Victorian
Speaker 1: government is virtually nothing. What do you think about just
Speaker 1: how plain the problem is?
Speaker 9: Yes, look at Victorian government has obviously been asleep at
Speaker 9: the wheel. In essence, the Union controls the big bill projects,
Speaker 9: It controls the supply of labor to those projects. It
Speaker 9: seems to control the selection of contractors and that's I
Speaker 9: think the basic agenda of the unions, and from that
Speaker 9: has flown all this problems which the sixty minutes has uncovered.
Speaker 9: And then I said, there's a flurry of actor.
Speaker 1: No, no, sorry, sir said, I see tonight that the
Speaker 1: Industrial Relations Minister, the workplace Relations Minister is out referring
Speaker 1: to the coalition planning to crack down, changing laws and
Speaker 1: bringing back the organization used to work for as quote
Speaker 1: unquote reckless.
Speaker 9: Well, it's an astounding sort of observation. It's clearly that
Speaker 9: a regular, a tough cop on the beat like the
Speaker 9: ABCC is needed. The unions don't respond, the officials don't
Speaker 9: respond to reason or rational discussion. They need to have
Speaker 9: a tough response. Know that there's consequences, serious consequences of
Speaker 9: actions they take. And the ABCC, with increased penalties above
Speaker 9: what's there now, stronger powers to investigate unlawful conduct, criminal conduct.
Speaker 9: Those things are quite clearly needed and needed as soon
Speaker 9: as possible.
Speaker 1: We keep hearing about what is unacceptable in the workplace,
Speaker 1: what we know in corporate environments that would result in
Speaker 1: you sort of getting the never to be rehired attached
Speaker 1: to your permanent record. But What is it about this sector?
Speaker 1: Is it? The nature of work? Is that the totality
Speaker 1: of control of the unions. That means even when you
Speaker 1: get a dirty, big spotlight and point out what the
Speaker 1: problem is and find them and all the rest of it,
Speaker 1: all it does is just maybe sideline one person, one organization,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't change the overall issue.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Well, it's a very very good observation. The nature of
Speaker 9: work on the major construction sites is such that it
Speaker 9: tends to be the clients in this case of Victorian
Speaker 9: government pushes the risk, if you like, onto the head
Speaker 9: contractor and subcontractors and the two don't seem to Victorian
Speaker 9: government obviously as a client hasn't been keeping informed about
Speaker 9: what's going on.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 9: To me, it only get lasting change if you have
Speaker 9: the key players coming together, that is the client, the government.
Speaker 9: That means ministers and senior officials involve, Victoria Police, involve
Speaker 9: the head contrac tractors and the major subcontractors to say
Speaker 9: the old ways are over lawful conduct will be applied.
Speaker 9: The union won't dictate who's engaged. The union won't dictate
Speaker 9: who we select as contractors. If you do that, and
Speaker 9: if the head contractors are required to if you like,
Speaker 9: report any unlawful or illegal conduct to the client and
Speaker 9: the police. Then you'll get change. But without those people
Speaker 9: coming together and being resilient and tough, unfortunately, there's so
Speaker 9: many things in the industry which allow these schemes to continue.
Speaker 1: Good on you, John, I really do appreciate it. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much, John Lloyd, former a Commissioner of the
Speaker 1: Australian Building and Construction Commission. I would also add to
Speaker 1: this that we know that there is a mean social
Speaker 1: precedy that can be put onto the finance in and
Speaker 1: around projects. Hence why fossil fullard projects don't get funded
Speaker 1: by Australian banks. Where is the pressure on where the
Speaker 1: money comes from for these jets that employ these people.
Speaker 1: Obviously when it comes to something like the CFM the year,
Speaker 1: but there are when it comes to Victorian government and
Speaker 1: the CFM the year. But what about all these other
Speaker 1: plethora of projects. This is not the too hard basket.
Speaker 1: This is a statement of what we will and won't
Speaker 1: accept in our country. We'll see you again tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: Nigel Faraji our special guest at a reminder pub test.
Speaker 1: It's goynews dot com dot au for March the thirty
Speaker 1: first with Peter Dunton