Speaker 1: From the Sky News Center. This is Paul Murray Live. Well,
Speaker 1: good evening, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: I'm James Macpherson filling in for Paul Murray. Let's take
Speaker 2: a look at what's making news tonight. Coming up on
Speaker 2: the program, Hundreds of thousands have gathered at Saint Peter's
Speaker 2: Square to watch the inauguration of Pope Leo the fourteenth,
Speaker 2: including Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi, who met with the Pope
Speaker 2: just moments ago. But why was he really there to
Speaker 2: Former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennett has urged the public and
Speaker 2: his party to help John Pursuto cover his legal costs
Speaker 2: after that loss in the defamation case bought by More Redeeming.
Speaker 2: But does John Pursuito deserve help? Plus Trump and Putin
Speaker 2: set for a phone call tomorrow to discuss a potential
Speaker 2: cease fire proposal. Imagine if Trump gets a breakthrough, you
Speaker 2: reckon the world will honor him for it. All of
Speaker 2: that and more coming up in a moment. But first,
Speaker 2: while Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi is at the Vatican for
Speaker 2: Pope Leo, those inaugural mass say a prayer for the
Speaker 2: Liberal Party having been crucified at the last federal election.
Speaker 2: They're now in the process of trying to work out what,
Speaker 2: if anything, they stand for. His senior Liberal senator and
Speaker 2: Rustin on the ABC this morning.
Speaker 3: I think right now the most important thing for us
Speaker 3: to do as a Liberal Party and as a coalition
Speaker 3: for that matter, is to sit down and analyze every
Speaker 3: single contributing factor to our electoral loss. So it serves
Speaker 3: no purpose to say we're going to count this in
Speaker 3: today or that not in today. I think Susan's quite
Speaker 3: right and saying, you know, nothing's been abandoned, nothing's been adopted.
Speaker 3: Let's actually look at everything.
Speaker 2: So if nothing is abandoned, then if nothing is adopted,
Speaker 2: then right now the Liberal Party's position on everything would
Speaker 2: seem to be nothing. Do they still believe in that
Speaker 2: zero no idea? What about nuclear?
Speaker 1: Not sure?
Speaker 2: Do they still want to slash immigration? Well, it's all
Speaker 2: Greek to me.
Speaker 4: So if they need zero commitment from the Morrison era
Speaker 4: is now open for review. I'm just wondering what else
Speaker 4: is Around the same time the Morrison government signed Australia
Speaker 4: up to Orcus, is that under review.
Speaker 3: Well, Susan made it very very clear that we are
Speaker 3: going back to basics on everything. But I'm sure, luting David,
Speaker 3: I'm sure, David, there will be many many policy positions
Speaker 3: that we took to the last election that have been
Speaker 3: adopted you know, laterly across our parties that will continue.
Speaker 2: So Senator Rushton says she's sure the Liberals will still
Speaker 2: believe in many of the things they used to believe in.
Speaker 2: She just can't say which of what they used to
Speaker 2: believe they might still believe when they're through reviewing their beliefs.
Speaker 1: Can you believe it?
Speaker 2: Senator Rustin, who was the shadow Health spokesperson under Peter Dutton,
Speaker 2: was asked if the Liberal Party would stand by the
Speaker 2: health policies she was espousing just a few weeks ago.
Speaker 3: Well, look, as I said, I'm not going to rule in,
Speaker 3: rule out.
Speaker 1: No idea.
Speaker 2: The most definitive statement the ABC could get on health
Speaker 2: from the former health spokesperson was this.
Speaker 4: Your support for those billing incentives and other measures that
Speaker 4: Labor announced during the election campaign. Are they all now
Speaker 4: up in the air as well?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 3: Obviously, the first thing I want to see in the
Speaker 3: health policy area is that the Labor Party actually delivers
Speaker 3: on what it's promised, Because Australians aren't doing it really
Speaker 3: tough when it comes to health. I mean, it's never
Speaker 3: been harder or more expensive to see a doctor. And
Speaker 3: so I really wish the Labor Party well in making
Speaker 3: sure that their policies are implemented so Australians can afford
Speaker 3: to go and see a doctrin.
Speaker 2: I nearly choked on my corn flax watching that this morning.
Speaker 2: The only definitive Liberal Party position right now seems to
Speaker 2: be that the Liberal Party wish is the Labor Party
Speaker 2: well in implementing Labor Party policies. I can almost hear
Speaker 2: Anthi Alberenzi shouting Hallelujah from the Vatican. There was one issue, however,
Speaker 2: on which Senator Rustin was prepared to take a stand.
Speaker 4: Some of your Liberal colleagues and National colleagues want to
Speaker 4: change abortion laws in Australia. Your South Australian Senate colleague
Speaker 4: Alex Antik and the Nationals Matt Canavan co sponsored a
Speaker 4: bill in the last Parliament. Is that now under review
Speaker 4: as well? Your position on abortion?
Speaker 3: Well, as far as I'm concerned, the issue of abortion
Speaker 3: is something that's well and truly in the domain of
Speaker 3: the states and territories and it should stay there. But
Speaker 3: my understanding is that there is no proposal before to
Speaker 3: make any changes in relation to the small amount of
Speaker 3: responsibility that the Federal Parliament has for this issue.
Speaker 2: Liberal Senator for South Australia Alex Antik, you'll remember, co
Speaker 2: sponsored a bill that would have required doctors to provide
Speaker 2: care for babies born alive after failed abortions. Now that
Speaker 2: bill was defeated. Anyway, I just found it interesting that
Speaker 2: after not ruling anything in or anything out, and Rusten
Speaker 2: was of the understanding that that particular issue had been
Speaker 2: ruled out. Not sure about energy policy, not sure about
Speaker 2: defense policy, not sure about immigration policy, not.
Speaker 1: Sure about health policy.
Speaker 2: But she was pretty sure the Libs wouldn't be revisiting
Speaker 2: the idea of treating unwanted babies humanly. Like I said
Speaker 2: at the top of the show, say a prayer for
Speaker 2: the soul of the Liberal Party. So how will the
Speaker 2: Liberal Party work out what they do and don't believe? Well,
Speaker 2: it'd already choked once on my breakfast cereal this morning,
Speaker 2: and I was about to choke again.
Speaker 3: Well very interestingly, you know, last week after the election result,
Speaker 3: I just used some off the shelf AI just to
Speaker 3: ask what AI thought about the Liberal Party and the
Speaker 3: election result, and there was a I think probably well actually,
Speaker 3: more than anything, it showed me that there were so
Speaker 3: many different issues that Australians were considering when they went
Speaker 3: to the ballot box to vote that I think it
Speaker 3: shows us that we absolutely have to look at everything
Speaker 3: because there was no clear theme apart from quite clearly
Speaker 3: the Australian public went to the ballot box and didn't
Speaker 3: vote for us.
Speaker 1: You have got to be kidding.
Speaker 2: The Liberal Party is apparently so clueless as to why
Speaker 2: they lost the election and what they should do moving forward.
Speaker 1: They've asked AI for suggestions.
Speaker 6: I think, so what did AI tell you?
Speaker 1: Was it nuclear? Was it Peter Dutton?
Speaker 4: Was the Public service cuts?
Speaker 1: What it cit is?
Speaker 6: It didn't.
Speaker 3: There was no clear theme that came out of it,
Speaker 3: but it basically said that the product offering that we
Speaker 3: took to the Australian public were quite clearly Australians did
Speaker 3: not support, and we need to go back to the
Speaker 3: drawing board.
Speaker 2: I'm honestly not sure what's more shocking that the Liberals
Speaker 2: are hoping chat GPT might write their policies for the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty eight election, or that they're admitting it straight
Speaker 2: faced on national TV. So the Liberal Party now has
Speaker 2: a leader who added a consonant to her name because
Speaker 2: a numerologist said it would change her fortunes, and a
Speaker 2: senator who boasts on the ABC about asking Ai what
Speaker 2: their future policy direction should be the only thing missing
Speaker 2: from the Liberal Party room is a genie in lamp
Speaker 2: on this Pope Leo's inaugural mass. If you're a praying person,
Speaker 2: say a prayer for the Liberal Party, and while you're
Speaker 2: at it, for the country. Well, joining me now is
Speaker 2: former Labor advisor Darren Barnett. Darren, thanks for your time tonight.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what the Liberals have got to decide,
Speaker 2: and decide pretty fast what they stand for, don't they.
Speaker 2: I mean listening to interviews like that, I'm a Liberal
Speaker 2: Party supporter and I was shaking my head.
Speaker 7: I'm not a Liberal Party supporter, and I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 7: So everyone's going to take what they want out of
Speaker 7: that interview. Look, it's utterly remarkable that someone is asking
Speaker 7: Ai why they lost the election. That is truly extraordinary.
Speaker 7: And you put that on a comedy skit and people
Speaker 7: would think it was pretty funny. The fact that it's
Speaker 7: real makes it quite disturbing that I think they should
Speaker 7: be able to figure out what bits worked, what bits didn't,
Speaker 7: what voter cohorts liked the Liberal Party this time around,
Speaker 7: and who didn't. And I don't think they necessarily have
Speaker 7: to reinvent the wheel. At a majority of federal elections
Speaker 7: in the last twenty five years in Australia, the Liberal
Speaker 7: Party or the Coalition have been successful rather than not successful.
Speaker 7: So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but
Speaker 7: just use some common sense to figure out what bits
Speaker 7: didn't make sense, what bits contradicted each other, what bits
Speaker 7: were made impossible by global events. And I say that
Speaker 7: meaning entirely Donald Trump and the way that he was
Speaker 7: approaching his presidency. The Liberal Party was not nimble enough
Speaker 7: during the election campaign and they got caught a number
Speaker 7: of times short of their ground. And that's not a
Speaker 7: matter of chat GPT. That's a matter of just kind
Speaker 7: of getting or use a polite term, getting your stuff together,
Speaker 7: trying to make it a coherent policy offering and have
Speaker 7: people with an appropriate amount of time to chew on
Speaker 7: those policies and decide whether they liked them or not.
Speaker 7: The other thing being there was such an abundance of
Speaker 7: policies during the campaign. I don't think voters knew which
Speaker 7: ones were liberal, which ones were labor. I think the
Speaker 7: whole thing was just a mess, and Anthony Elbanesi kind
Speaker 7: of lifted himself above the fray and it became an
Speaker 7: election campaign about what Peter Dutton was doing, what Donald
Speaker 7: Trump was doing, and really not a great deal about
Speaker 7: what Anthony Elberesi was doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a really good point. I want to bring in
Speaker 1: Lisa Goddard from a DONI Media. Lisa, how did the Liberal.
Speaker 2: Party work out what was just bad policy rejected by
Speaker 2: the electorate and what was poor communication, bad strategy, poor
Speaker 2: social media policy in terms of their campaign? How do
Speaker 2: they decide which of those things lost them the election?
Speaker 2: Did they really need to reevaluate every single policy moving forward?
Speaker 8: Well, James, I think if you're talking about AI, which
Speaker 8: Darren just was, then that works on all the information
Speaker 8: that's plugged into AI. So all the Liberal Party really
Speaker 8: have to do is go back and look at what
Speaker 8: came out after loss in twenty twenty two. I would
Speaker 8: suggest it would all be there, So plug in whatever
Speaker 8: prompts you need and Arrer answers, because a lot of
Speaker 8: history was repeated. Number one, you're talking about the issue
Speaker 8: they have with women. They still have that on the
Speaker 8: table right now. Look, I think Darren, the one thing
Speaker 8: you didn't mention there was all the lies, lie after life,
Speaker 8: lie from elbow, and I think the general public just
Speaker 8: just took that on face value. And the Liberal Party,
Speaker 8: as far as I'm concerned, they're one great failing was
Speaker 8: that they didn't call those out.
Speaker 2: Maybe AI could call out labor lies in the future.
Speaker 2: Perhaps the Liberal Party could use that you mentioned, Lisa,
Speaker 2: the issue of women. The Liberal Party's new Deputy leader
Speaker 2: has called for his party to be more effective in
Speaker 2: representing modern Australia. Following their defeat, Toda O'Brien has acknowledged
Speaker 2: the need for more women within the party. He told
Speaker 2: The Guardian, I absolutely believe we need to see a
Speaker 2: bigger Liberal Party which reflects modern Australia and represents modern Australia,
Speaker 2: and that includes more women, not just running as parliamentarians,
Speaker 2: but throughout the party. Well, the Liberal Party do seem
Speaker 2: to have a woman problem. His Liberal Party Vice president
Speaker 2: Fiona Scott last week, when asked how long how.
Speaker 1: Long do you give her. I don't know.
Speaker 8: I mean, a day's a long time in politics, Carls.
Speaker 1: That's not exactly a re enforcement, Selisa.
Speaker 2: I've got to ask, what's the point of getting more
Speaker 2: women into the Liberal Party if the women already in
Speaker 2: the party are treating other women in the party like that?
Speaker 8: Very good question, James. I think the issue with that
Speaker 8: was she was trying to be funny. You would hope
Speaker 8: that that was the case, and it landed very, very badly.
Speaker 8: I think what we do need to do is support
Speaker 8: the women who are there. Look there, there's been a
Speaker 8: lot of people questioning the appointment of Susan Lee. Even
Speaker 8: now in days on now we still question whether it's
Speaker 8: Lee or Lay. You have to stop and think so
Speaker 8: her brand itself is an issue, But amongst the party,
Speaker 8: we all have to get behind all of the women,
Speaker 8: have to get behind the female leader. We have to
Speaker 8: get behind unity within the party because otherwise what chance
Speaker 8: do we have. And I think what has to happen
Speaker 8: is you need to go back to grass roots. You
Speaker 8: need to look at the branches. And I can tell
Speaker 8: you if you've been to any of those branch meetings
Speaker 8: in the back rooms of a local library or a
Speaker 8: community hall. There are plenty of women there, perhaps not
Speaker 8: of the demographic that they need, and that's where they
Speaker 8: need to work harder, but there are women there. When
Speaker 8: they're looking for their candidates, they need to do a
Speaker 8: better decision making process around where do they put the
Speaker 8: good women that they do have, because you look at
Speaker 8: what happens to female politicians, even male politicians. To put
Speaker 8: yourself forward to go into politics, you have to be
Speaker 8: a fairly brave person, I think, and you need to
Speaker 8: want to do it for the right reasons. You go
Speaker 8: in to cople lot of flak. You have to be
Speaker 8: prepared for that. I think we need to back the
Speaker 8: women in and if they are putting their hands up
Speaker 8: and they are good candidates quotas, but are good candidates
Speaker 8: on merit, put them into seats that are winnable. Don't
Speaker 8: put them into the seats where they're likely to have
Speaker 8: to go in there for the fight of their life
Speaker 8: and most likely not win.
Speaker 2: Lisa, you mentioned quotas, and that has been suggested by
Speaker 2: some in the Liberal Party.
Speaker 1: I'll get to that in a moment.
Speaker 2: But if you're going to stand for women, surely you've
Speaker 2: got to have the courage to say what a woman is.
Speaker 1: Here's Peter Dutton during the election. The British Supreme Court
Speaker 1: yesterday has ruled that a woman is defined as a
Speaker 1: biological female and not someone who identifies as a woman.
Speaker 1: Do you think that's the right call? And in light
Speaker 1: of this ruling, what is your definition of a woman? Well,
Speaker 1: that's a matter obviously, it's been before the British courts.
Speaker 9: I haven't seen the detail of the case and it's
Speaker 9: not something that's I think his front of mine's at
Speaker 9: this election. I think.
Speaker 1: So Lisa riddled me this.
Speaker 2: How can you claim to be worried about women when
Speaker 2: you won't address the issue of what a woman is?
Speaker 8: Yeah, look, I do personally I think that was a failing.
Speaker 8: The answer that he gave there is one oh one
Speaker 8: in media training. It was complete the first question, don't
Speaker 8: give it answer. It was sitting on a fence, and
Speaker 8: at some point, when you sit on a barbed wiye fence,
Speaker 8: it's going to hurt. And I think that one hurts them.
Speaker 1: It certainly did. Darren.
Speaker 2: How far is having a female leader as the Liberals
Speaker 2: now have go in helping them increase their popularity with
Speaker 2: women in the electorate.
Speaker 7: Look, I think there's a couple of different strands to this. Firstly,
Speaker 7: one problem that the Liberal Party has and is the
Speaker 7: type of women they want to encourage to run for
Speaker 7: the Liberal Party at the moment are running as teals,
Speaker 7: and that also extends to people who volunteer for those teals.
Speaker 7: If you look at the campaign launches of the various teals,
Speaker 7: a lot of it's probably at least fifty percent women,
Speaker 7: probably women of maybe women of all ages. Actually it's
Speaker 7: a sort of very progressive young environmental focus in younger women,
Speaker 7: but a lot of older women also are very supportive
Speaker 7: of the tials, and that is in many ways it's
Speaker 7: a failing of the Liberal Party to not capture that
Speaker 7: cohort of people into their structures before the tials became
Speaker 7: a thing. And beyond that, there's little voter segments. It's
Speaker 7: also the migrant vote, unusually was quite pro labor this
Speaker 7: time around, and younger voters, people under the age of
Speaker 7: twenty five, the voter that voter cohort went labor and
Speaker 7: went progressive. So there's multiple fronts that the Liberal Party
Speaker 7: needs to look at in order to try and lift
Speaker 7: its game. I think there's still a very strong future
Speaker 7: for the Liberal Party. I don't try and say that
Speaker 7: there's anything else, but they do need to really do
Speaker 7: their homework and figure out how to get people to
Speaker 7: believe in what they believe in. And as you rightly
Speaker 7: point out, then they've got to figure out what they
Speaker 7: believe in. And that's a bigger question because at the
Speaker 7: moment the rule in, rule out game, even though they're
Speaker 7: in opposition, it doesn't leave Trueboo supporters overly and amored
Speaker 7: by the current product, and that becomes an issue. Susan Lee.
Speaker 7: I agree, get behind Susan Lee as the leader, give
Speaker 7: her at least a couple of years, maybe a term,
Speaker 7: to try and figure out whether she can connect with
Speaker 7: the Australian people. But the type of things that we've
Speaker 7: seen today in the media and in general, she's not
Speaker 7: going to last that long if they can't get some
Speaker 7: discipline and figure out what they stand for.
Speaker 2: Darren, just before we move on to another topic, you
Speaker 2: know both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party now
Speaker 2: have had one female leader. Labor had Julia Gillard, now
Speaker 2: the Liberals have Susan Lee. But I'm going to argue
Speaker 2: push back on me if you want that the Liberals
Speaker 2: should have more credit with women in the electric because
Speaker 2: Julia Gillard was installed by labor factions.
Speaker 1: Where as Susan Lee she was.
Speaker 2: Elected by a popular vote of the party room. So
Speaker 2: the Liberals should get some credit for that, shouldn't they?
Speaker 7: What I would say, And as you know, I worked
Speaker 7: in Julia's office. If you come to the leadership in
Speaker 7: a close contest, or if there was someone who where
Speaker 7: the zeitgeis creates winners and losers, and the vote for
Speaker 7: Susan Lee was quite close, there's always going to be
Speaker 7: a drum beat behind you of those who frankly want
Speaker 7: to see you fail. And I think that's one of
Speaker 7: the big problems that Susan Lee faces, that that leadership
Speaker 7: ballot was very close, and there'll be a lot of
Speaker 7: people who are looking for her missteps rather than her
Speaker 7: steps forward. And that was certainly the case in the
Speaker 7: Gillard era that we could always hear footsteps behind us.
Speaker 7: There were always mine fields ahead of us, and that
Speaker 7: becomes a really difficult environment in which to operate. So
Speaker 7: I wish Susan Lee well, but it's going to be
Speaker 7: a difficult terrain ahead for her. I think.
Speaker 2: You're probably right, And of course the sound of footsteps
Speaker 2: sneaking up behind you is going to be the case
Speaker 2: whether you're a male or a female in that leadership position,
Speaker 2: Ted O'Brien, as I said, the deputy in the Liberal
Speaker 2: Party has refused to confirm if he'll become Shadow Treasurer
Speaker 2: following rumors that Susan Lee offered positions to colleagues prior
Speaker 2: to her leadership. Run O'Brien was pressed on this by
Speaker 2: Andrew Clenel this morning.
Speaker 5: Have a look, will you be taking on the shadow
Speaker 5: treasury role? Do you think.
Speaker 10: Those conversations continue to be had, Andrew, we haven't finalized them,
Speaker 10: and until they are finalized, I won't be preempting any.
Speaker 5: She promised it, and she promised it to someone else.
Speaker 5: Has she promised that job.
Speaker 10: For myself, whether it be for myself or for anybody else.
Speaker 6: In due course, Andrew, all of that will be made
Speaker 6: very clear.
Speaker 1: Early days, we've had an issue.
Speaker 5: Let me ask you, very very bluntly, sort of the
Speaker 5: yes or no question. Has susanly promised the shadow treasurer
Speaker 5: a job to some one other than yourself.
Speaker 10: I understand your wish for a yes or no answer
Speaker 10: to any question, Andrew.
Speaker 6: And I respect that I really do.
Speaker 10: But again, my answer doesn't change where you're having these discussions.
Speaker 2: At the moment, it looks absolutely shambalic. I would have
Speaker 2: thought that Susan Lee and Tedo O'Brien would have at
Speaker 2: least sorted the basics out. Maybe I'm being unfair, So
Speaker 2: I want to get two angles on this, Darren. I
Speaker 2: want to get from you the political machinations of this,
Speaker 2: and Lisa, I want to get from you whether or
Speaker 2: not you thought Ted O'Brien handled that well this morning,
Speaker 2: or if he could have done it better. I'll start
Speaker 2: with you, Darren. Is it strange that they've not sort
Speaker 2: it out ted O'Brien's role as the deputy leader. They're
Speaker 2: still trying to figure that out.
Speaker 7: He either has the option of portfolios or he doesn't.
Speaker 7: I would have thought that he did, and if he
Speaker 7: has the option of portfolios, he should say what it is.
Speaker 7: I have no doubt that he knows what job he's
Speaker 7: going to get. I'd respect at one level that they're
Speaker 7: trying to make it a flatter announcement, but those top
Speaker 7: two positions that should already be sorted So he probably
Speaker 7: should have just fessed up and given the answer as
Speaker 7: per the question.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's what I thought when I watched that
Speaker 2: interview this morning. But Lisa, you do media training, You
Speaker 2: advise politicians sometimes on how they should address difficult questions.
Speaker 1: How did he fare there? Could he have done something different?
Speaker 8: Look, he did the dance I think that he was
Speaker 8: instructed to do. He wasn't meant to give an answer.
Speaker 8: And whether he knows what portfolio will go into or not,
Speaker 8: the party ruling would be you do not talk about it.
Speaker 8: So he had to face down, clenel and do that
Speaker 8: dance where it's avoid the answer that you don't want
Speaker 8: to give it. If he doesn't, if he doesn't say it,
Speaker 8: they can't use it. So he has to hold that
Speaker 8: party line. At some point they will make that big announcement.
Speaker 8: And look, it goes towards that need for the Liberal
Speaker 8: Party to look united. They can't have one person breaking
Speaker 8: ranks and folding in an interview and giving out information
Speaker 8: that they don't want out there yet.
Speaker 1: So I think he did a good job.
Speaker 8: It looks but he did a good job as far
Speaker 8: as staying on message.
Speaker 2: A politician avoiding answering questions, I've never seen that before.
Speaker 1: He did do a good job.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about what's going on at the
Speaker 2: Vatican right now. People gathered in massive numbers today in
Speaker 2: Saint Peter's Square to witness Pope Leo the fourteenth inauguration.
Speaker 2: Many of our viewers would have been watching the broadcast earlier,
Speaker 2: and they were of course joined by world leaders, including
Speaker 2: Prime Minister Anthony Elberizi, who met with the Pope just
Speaker 2: about an hour ago. Now, I want to talk about
Speaker 2: the PM's presence of the inauguration in a moment, but first,
Speaker 2: it's interesting to me that the Christian faith, much maligned
Speaker 2: these days, is front and center in world affairs. Again,
Speaker 2: the Catholic Church and the monarchy are the oldest institutions
Speaker 2: in Western civilization, Darren, How important is the Catholic Church
Speaker 2: still and what role does it have to play in
Speaker 2: the modern world.
Speaker 7: Well, one point four billion Catholics around the globe that
Speaker 7: it is a very important job. And it's probably as
Speaker 7: political as it ever has been. And I think that
Speaker 7: Pope Leo is a good choice, is going to be
Speaker 7: an interesting pope, and I think everyone is quite excited,
Speaker 7: and certainly the Progressives are probably more excited than some others.
Speaker 7: But look I think the Pope has an incredibly valuable
Speaker 7: role to play. There's suggestions he may get involved in
Speaker 7: some sort of ceasefire discussions in Russia Ukraine, for example.
Speaker 7: I don't know if he will or he won't. Previously
Speaker 7: there was a pope who one of the popes who
Speaker 7: got involved in Chile versus Argentina or and other conflicts
Speaker 7: predominantly in Catholic nations obviously, but I think the role
Speaker 7: itself is incredibly important and therefore it's getting the respect
Speaker 7: that it deserves from world leaders, including our own.
Speaker 1: So, as I said, the Prime Minister was there.
Speaker 2: Now he's been reluctant to speak publicly about his faith.
Speaker 2: He decided not to take an oath on the Bible
Speaker 2: when being sworn in as Prime Minister just the other day.
Speaker 2: But he has made a big deal about being the
Speaker 2: first Australian PM to attend a pope's inauguration. So we
Speaker 2: write to question whether his attendance is motivated by his
Speaker 2: faith or whether it's just political. Remember back in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 2: the Labor Party did produce an internal report that said
Speaker 2: they needed to connect with people of faith in Australia better.
Speaker 2: Is this just part of that. Do we write to
Speaker 2: be cynical or do you think it's part of his
Speaker 2: personal faith journey.
Speaker 9: I don't.
Speaker 8: It does sound about the cynical James. Look, I think
Speaker 8: it's a great honor to have the opportunity to go
Speaker 8: and be there for a moment in history like this.
Speaker 8: The fact that he is Catholic, I think that would
Speaker 8: mean even more. Look, we're not always the greatest fans
Speaker 8: of Anthony Albanesi on these programs. However, I think as
Speaker 8: a Prime Minister, for him to be there representing the country,
Speaker 8: they're representing all of the Catholics in this country, including
Speaker 8: that his faith himself. I think that's a very important
Speaker 8: day for him. What I found really interesting, and yes
Speaker 8: that the pageantry of what you see in that broadcast
Speaker 8: is something to behold, is when you look at anything
Speaker 8: to do with the royal family. What I found interesting
Speaker 8: this morning was an interview where I saw Anthony Albanesi
Speaker 8: being interviewed and in the background was Keith Pitt, who
Speaker 8: we know. Normally you would never have seen Pitt standing
Speaker 8: behind Anthony Albanesi in any press conference whatsoever. He's now
Speaker 8: at the Vatican, So what a time and history for him.
Speaker 2: To be there as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it was a pretty historic event obviously, and broadcast
Speaker 2: on this network just earlier tonight. Well, Darren Barnett and
Speaker 2: Lisa Goddard, thank you for your time tonight.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your comments. Well, stick with us.
Speaker 2: Because we're about to go to get more on the
Speaker 2: Pope's inauguration.
Speaker 1: Joining me now live from.
Speaker 2: The Vatican is Sky News political correspondent Cam Redden. Cam
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me tonight. Obviously a massive day. Just
Speaker 2: describe the atmosphere there you've been taking it all in.
Speaker 1: What was it like?
Speaker 11: You can see Saint Peter's Basilica behind me here in
Speaker 11: the outskirts of the Vatican, James, It really is difficult
Speaker 11: to wrap your head around the sense of scale for this,
Speaker 11: and Peter's Square is not an enormous space in itself. Yes,
Speaker 11: there's a sense of scale with the tall marble towers
Speaker 11: and this incredible sight of just a sea of people,
Speaker 11: but more than one hundred and fifty thousand people is
Speaker 11: the estimate, with flags on display from all corners of
Speaker 11: the world crammed in here for this two hour inauguration mass.
Speaker 11: Of course, Pope Leo, the first American pope. There were
Speaker 11: plenty of American flags there. Jd Vance, the Vice President,
Speaker 11: had a front row seat to this, and about fifteen
Speaker 11: feet to his right was the Prime Minister Anthony Albanizi.
Speaker 11: It is quite a special occasion, obviously for the Catholics
Speaker 11: around the world, James, but standing here in amongst the
Speaker 11: press pack from all around the world, there were some
Speaker 11: people feeling genuinely emotional even just watching this play out.
Speaker 11: The world is such an uncertain place at the moment,
Speaker 11: and the core message really at the heart of the
Speaker 11: homily from the Pope today was one of love, of faith,
Speaker 11: and of hope and endurance in difficult times. He drew
Speaker 11: much on one of his predecessors, Pope Leo the thirteenth.
Speaker 11: He deliberately took the name Pope Leo the fourteenth, given
Speaker 11: that his predecessor, at least in terms of the name,
Speaker 11: was one who steered the world and the church through
Speaker 11: the Industrial Revolution. He's spoken about some of the changes
Speaker 11: the world faces today and the challenges of conflict, and
Speaker 11: of course also the upheaval of workforces through things like
Speaker 11: artificial intelligence. So that's why he chose that name. But
Speaker 11: the sense of scale, James, is what has really stuck
Speaker 11: with me well beyond the Basilica and the square as well,
Speaker 11: tens of thousands of people from all over the world
Speaker 11: flooding here to the streets of the Vatican and Rome
Speaker 11: to celebrate.
Speaker 2: I'm curious it's something you just said there that you
Speaker 2: said members of the press pack, And we know the
Speaker 2: press pack can.
Speaker 1: Be pretty cynical.
Speaker 2: I mean they see lots of things good, bad and ugly,
Speaker 2: but getting quite emotional as the Pope spoke.
Speaker 1: Just tell me more about that.
Speaker 11: Well, we were in amongst the international media, so there
Speaker 11: are a few was he is there? A couple of dozen.
Speaker 11: We were standing next to some reporters from Peru who
Speaker 11: were covering the inauguration mass as well, and of course
Speaker 11: the Pope's connections with Peru were well known. He was
Speaker 11: there for more than a decade. He was a figure
Speaker 11: of leadership at a time where there was constant political
Speaker 11: and presidential change in Peru. And one of the women
Speaker 11: who was there became visibly quite emotional as the homily
Speaker 11: was read out. The Peruvian Prime Minister was sitting next
Speaker 11: to JD. Vance and they were right in our eyeline
Speaker 11: as all of this was playing out. So perhaps there's
Speaker 11: just a sense of yes, the gravitas of this, James,
Speaker 11: but maybe that message hitting home as well also in
Speaker 11: the crowd there Voladimir Zelenski, who is leading his nation
Speaker 11: through a wartime and an invasion. So that message from
Speaker 11: the pope perhaps striking home, Yes, with the many tens
Speaker 11: of thousands in attendance, But sometimes us journo, as our
Speaker 11: people as well, we do have to show a little
Speaker 11: bit of emotion from time to time.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Cam Absolutely, I'm intrigued as to the competing.
Speaker 1: Attention.
Speaker 2: You've got the Pope, obviously he's the star of the
Speaker 2: show with his inauguration, but you mentioned you've got Zelenski,
Speaker 2: You've got jd Vance, So everyone will be watching their
Speaker 2: body language after that awkward interaction in the White House
Speaker 2: earlier in the year, I got Anthony Albanezi and so
Speaker 2: on and so forth. Members of the press, what are
Speaker 2: they focusing on more the actual inauguration or the body
Speaker 2: language and what's going on in the public arena where
Speaker 2: you've got some pretty high profile world leaders.
Speaker 11: It's the show and then the slideshow. James, Absolutely, there'll
Speaker 11: certainly be an attention on the inauguration. But now that
Speaker 11: that's done, this is when a lot of the diplomacy
Speaker 11: will take place. The world leaders all descended from where
Speaker 11: they were in St. Peter's Square inside the Basilica, where
Speaker 11: they've been taken to private rooms for some mingling time,
Speaker 11: and that's where the real value, at least from a
Speaker 11: diplomatic or political sense, is for those leaders. The Prime
Speaker 11: Minister is already scheduled to meet today with Ursula Vonderland,
Speaker 11: the head of the European Commission, who happened to be
Speaker 11: sitting next to Volodimir Zelenski as a part of the
Speaker 11: inauguration mass, and the Prime Minister also set to meet
Speaker 11: with Zelensky later today, as well as other world leaders
Speaker 11: potentially tomorrow, including the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Karney. So
Speaker 11: there's always that sense of when in Rome, I suppose James,
Speaker 11: and when in a room with some of the world's
Speaker 11: most powerful people, to take that opportunity to say hello,
Speaker 11: to try and get that face time, all of that
Speaker 11: at once is so valuable and so rare to happen
Speaker 11: in a forum like this. So there'll certainly be attention
Speaker 11: on what will happen inside that room, and perhaps perhaps
Speaker 11: we never know, will there be some kind of communication
Speaker 11: between the Prime Minister and Jade Vans. They were only
Speaker 11: separated by a few feet in the rows there, James.
Speaker 11: Perhaps the Prime Minister will have a chance to say
Speaker 11: gooday to the Vice President in the next few minutes.
Speaker 2: Well, cam Redden, you mentioned when in Rome. I'm not there,
Speaker 2: but you are in Rome. Hopefully you've got a chance
Speaker 2: to enjoy the place now the inauguration is finished. I
Speaker 2: appreciate you filling us in what happened tonight.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be
Speaker 2: back in just a moment with.
Speaker 1: More fired up debate.
Speaker 2: I'll be with IPA Senior Fellow John Roscombe and pr
Speaker 2: Council's managing director at Christy McSweeney in just a moment.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the program. Joining me now to chat
Speaker 2: about more of this weekend's top stories is John Roscombe,
Speaker 2: Senior Fellow at the IPA.
Speaker 1: John Senior.
Speaker 2: Figures within the Liberal Party have reaffirmed the importance of
Speaker 2: the coalition agreement they're still negotiating, obviously with the Nationals.
Speaker 2: Liberal front benches Ted O'Brien and Anne Rustin have separately
Speaker 2: claimed the Liberal Party is at its strongest it's united
Speaker 2: with the Nationals.
Speaker 1: Have a listen.
Speaker 10: There's no doubt Andrew that the Liberal Party and the
Speaker 10: National Party are at their strongest when they are in
Speaker 10: a coalition and they're working together. That's proven to be
Speaker 10: the case over many, many years, and it will continue
Speaker 10: to be the case, I believe.
Speaker 2: So there you go, John, For all the talk of
Speaker 2: a split in the coalition, there's buckleys and none that
Speaker 2: the Nets would go their own way surely.
Speaker 6: Well not necessarily, James.
Speaker 9: I'm one of these people who thinks more voices, more
Speaker 9: alternatives is better. It was the Nationals that led the
Speaker 9: way on the voice. It's been the Nationals leading the
Speaker 9: debate about why NED zero is a disastrous policy for Australia.
Speaker 9: And I'm a coalition supporter, but I'd argue in opposition
Speaker 9: now both parties need to get their house in order
Speaker 9: that the more debate, the more argument we have, the better.
Speaker 9: And I'm not sure why either the Liberal Party or
Speaker 9: the National Party would be rushing to coalition. There's much
Speaker 9: bigger issues to be debated than simply a top secret
Speaker 9: document between the leaders of the two parties and how
Speaker 9: you divvy out shadow portfolio positions.
Speaker 2: Let me bring in Christy McSweeney from pr Council. CHRISTI
Speaker 2: the Liberal Party are going to take their time to
Speaker 2: work out whether they still believe in that zero or
Speaker 2: nuclear power, or slashing migration and.
Speaker 1: A host of other issues.
Speaker 2: You would have heard at the top of the show
Speaker 2: and Rustin's saying they're ruling nothing in and nothing out.
Speaker 2: Can you remember when a political party literally put everything
Speaker 2: on the table and said, look, we don't know what
Speaker 2: we believe and we won't for a while to come.
Speaker 1: Look, I.
Speaker 6: Really can't.
Speaker 12: I don't think it's less of we don't know what
Speaker 12: we believe. It's more of what's palatable for us to
Speaker 12: hold the coalition agreement together and what's palatable to the
Speaker 12: electorate based on what we believe might not be electoral reality.
Speaker 12: So I don't remember the last time. This is extraordinary.
Speaker 12: But let's really be clear here, if we talk about
Speaker 12: coalition agreements, it nearly blew up in two thousand and six,
Speaker 12: two thousand and seven when Julian mcgarren defected to the
Speaker 12: National Party. It's always been re engineered back together by
Speaker 12: the leader of the Liberal Party and the Federal Director
Speaker 12: and the leader of the National Party. Despite the descent
Speaker 12: down the pyramid. So let's see what happens this time.
Speaker 12: Of course, the coalition is not in a coalition. The
Speaker 12: coalition parties aren't in a formal coalition in Western Australia.
Speaker 12: They are not in a formal coalition in other states
Speaker 12: from time to time. Let's see what happens. Are they
Speaker 12: right to argue for a higher representation of the front bench? Perhaps?
Speaker 2: Perhaps I'm curious to know where does Senator Price stand
Speaker 2: now in terms of things. She's moved to the Liberal Party,
Speaker 2: ran for deputy, then decided to withdraw from that race.
Speaker 1: Where does that leave her now?
Speaker 9: Well, this is something that I think the coalition MPs,
Speaker 9: especially Liberal MPs, have to decide and understand that Jasinda
Speaker 9: Nambajimbra Price is an outstanding Australian.
Speaker 6: What struck me watching her move from the National's.
Speaker 9: Party room to the Liberal Party room is that so
Speaker 9: many women who had been calling for stronger representation of
Speaker 9: women were absolutely silent about her movement, about the potential
Speaker 9: for her to become the deputy leader of the Liberal
Speaker 9: Party because she's a Conservative and what the Liberal Party
Speaker 9: have to understand is she's a huge asset.
Speaker 6: She has to be used.
Speaker 9: Peter Dunton appointed her to the doge position just before
Speaker 9: the election. He gave her no resources, he gave her
Speaker 9: no capacity to shape the debate.
Speaker 6: As she said, she was shut out of the campaign.
Speaker 9: And if the Liberal Party is to remotely make itself
Speaker 9: electable in six years, let alone three years, then she
Speaker 9: has to be a key part of the rebuild.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would have thought.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about other Liberals with problems, and
Speaker 2: that's the Victorian Liberal Party. You've got former Liberal Premier
Speaker 2: Jeff Kennett urging the public and his party to support
Speaker 2: John Pisuto after he was ordered to pay two point
Speaker 2: three million dollars in costs following that loss in the
Speaker 2: defamation case sport by Moira Deeming. An online fundraiser has
Speaker 2: been launched in a bid to help him avoid the
Speaker 2: possibility of bankruptcy. The last I saw, I think it
Speaker 2: was up to about eighteen thousand.
Speaker 1: Dollars, So it's got a way to go.
Speaker 2: Jeff can it praise the former opposition leader as a good,
Speaker 2: proper and decent MP and he told The Guardian he's
Speaker 2: on the brink of bankruptcy. And I think if the public,
Speaker 2: the Liberal Party and its organizations came together, we can
Speaker 2: prevent that happening. Christy, imagine you're a Liberal Party member.
Speaker 2: Would you be handing over your hard earned cash to
Speaker 2: help out John pursuito or are you're expecting your donations
Speaker 2: to the party to go towards campaigning to win government.
Speaker 12: Well, look, James, there's a tactical way to solve this problem,
Speaker 12: and that's a discussion for people who run the Coremac
Speaker 12: Foundation and two viewers. The Coremac Foundation is a philanthropic
Speaker 12: foundation set up in Melbourne to support the Liberal Party
Speaker 12: and it has some thirty odd million dollars, largely because
Speaker 12: it's sold a significant CBD building. And John correct me
Speaker 12: if I'm wrong, but I believe it's governed by board
Speaker 12: of people appointed who are separate to the Liberal Party,
Speaker 12: but no through you know, certainly involved in the Liberal
Speaker 12: Party and are there to support the Liberal Party. So
Speaker 12: that is the current dispute, not whether members putting forward
Speaker 12: their donations should pay John or Being said, yes, the
Speaker 12: GoFundMe does look like it's asking for that, but the
Speaker 12: main request is for this very wealthy Cormac Foundation to
Speaker 12: pay the legal bills of somebody who led the Liberal Party.
Speaker 12: Now you know, who's to say that further leaders of
Speaker 12: the Liberal Party may get into trouble in a similar
Speaker 12: way or another way. And I'm not suggesting that it
Speaker 12: was managed correctly. I'm not suggesting that you're either on
Speaker 12: that side or another side of what was the right
Speaker 12: thing to do and what wasn't the right thing to do.
Speaker 12: I'm suggesting that the Liberal Party probably has an obligation
Speaker 12: in some way to support somebody who led the party.
Speaker 12: And you know, once it's done, we can put it
Speaker 12: behind it and go on campaigning with this free of
Speaker 12: being in the media and free of being a constant
Speaker 12: cause of commotion between the party rope for twenty twenty
Speaker 12: six with the election due in November, and as I say,
Speaker 12: there's wives of getting it out the way, fair.
Speaker 2: Enough, Christy, But John tell me this, is it a
Speaker 2: matter of supporting someone who has led the party or
Speaker 2: is it a matter of avoiding a by election in
Speaker 2: the seat of Hawthorne that the Victorian Liberals could well lose.
Speaker 1: Is that the real issue, James.
Speaker 6: It's both of those issues.
Speaker 9: And the point has been made that a by election
Speaker 9: in the Melbourne seat of Hawthorne, which John Persudo holds
Speaker 9: by just fifteen hundred votes in which at the federal
Speaker 9: election the booth swam to the Labor Party would cost
Speaker 9: the Liberal Party perhaps a million dollars to win because
Speaker 9: Brad Batten, as the relatively new Liberal leader here.
Speaker 6: In Victoria, can't afford a lot.
Speaker 9: That would be a huge blow to the momentum that
Speaker 9: the Liberal Party seems to be building. So it's a
Speaker 9: very difficult choice and us we've been talking about. It's
Speaker 9: something that to most Victorians is now past. I think
Speaker 9: they're more concerned about the Victorian budget coming up and
Speaker 9: the election November.
Speaker 6: As we've just been talking about.
Speaker 2: Just one more point on this, and I'll go to
Speaker 2: you Christy, maybe you can help me get my head
Speaker 2: around this. The Liberal Party have a problem with women,
Speaker 2: so the plan is to bail out a guy who
Speaker 2: persecuted a Liberal woman for standing up for women, and
Speaker 2: that's going.
Speaker 6: To help.
Speaker 12: Well, James, you know I don't agree with that argument.
Speaker 12: They are two separate arguments. As I said, it's not
Speaker 12: about whether you agree it was the right course of
Speaker 12: action or not. It's about somebody who led the Liberal
Speaker 12: Party that deserves to not be standing out there on
Speaker 12: a limb. Now, if we can argue the toss was
Speaker 12: it the right thing or the wrong thing? But different context.
Speaker 12: I think if we look at should the Liberal Party
Speaker 12: be an organization that doesn't force someone who's let the
Speaker 12: party into bankruptcy even if they have done the wrong thing,
Speaker 12: I think we probably should be. Given that we want
Speaker 12: to wipe the slight clean and go into twenty twenty six,
Speaker 12: it's going to keep festering this wound if that is
Speaker 12: not done.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll see how everyone else views that. A group
Speaker 2: of students in far North, Queensland are taking part in
Speaker 2: a world first trial of identity verification technology that will
Speaker 2: help enforce social media age restrictions, which the government hopes
Speaker 2: will be in place by the end of this year now.
Speaker 1: According to the Career Mail.
Speaker 2: The technology being trialed includes age verification, estimation and inference
Speaker 2: applications from checking birth dates against official identity documents and
Speaker 2: biometric screening, as well as using email and phone history.
Speaker 2: John the bit that got my attention when I was
Speaker 2: reading this in the Career Mail this morning was biometric testing.
Speaker 2: Isn't this what critics of the legislation have been afraid of?
Speaker 2: That we're all concerned about young people's use of social media.
Speaker 2: But we don't want biometric testing, do we? I mean
Speaker 2: that opens a whole Pandora's box in terms of privacy
Speaker 2: and government intrusion.
Speaker 6: Or James, I'd go further, We don't want this at all.
Speaker 9: I would argue, this is not just about biometric testing.
Speaker 9: This is not just about the enormous power that and
Speaker 9: information the government will have over us. It's about the
Speaker 9: government usurping the.
Speaker 6: Role of parents.
Speaker 9: And I was terribly disappointed when the Coalition gave its
Speaker 9: unquestioning support to a very dangerous proposal that remember, isn't
Speaker 9: just going to require under sixteen.
Speaker 6: Year olds to verify their identity.
Speaker 9: Anyone using social media will have to verify their identity
Speaker 9: because you have.
Speaker 6: To prove that you're not you're not under sixteen.
Speaker 9: So at every level, at a philosophical point, this is dangerous.
Speaker 9: The level of information, the data that is going to
Speaker 9: be collected. We saw during COVID how data that was
Speaker 9: collected and meant to be used for purely medical and
Speaker 9: health purposes was quickly quickly used for other purposes as well.
Speaker 9: There is no good thing that is going to come
Speaker 9: out of this, and I think we're going to see
Speaker 9: changes before too long, because when Australians realized how dangerous
Speaker 9: this is, they're going to be up in arms.
Speaker 2: I hope you're right, John, Hey, John, Christy, stick around.
Speaker 1: I've got more things I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: after the break. Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2: Will be back in just a moment. But welcome back
Speaker 2: to Paul Murray Live. I'm James macpherson filling in for
Speaker 2: Paul with my panel John Roscombe and Christy McSweeney. Now
Speaker 2: I want to go to Victoria. They've got a budget
Speaker 2: due on Tuesday. Jacinta Allen has given Victoria's to Victorians
Speaker 2: a taste of what they can expect. On Tuesday, she
Speaker 2: announced free public transport for children up to eighteen years old.
Speaker 2: This follows her announcement yesterday where she promised free public
Speaker 2: transport for Victorian seniors aged over sixty on the weekends.
Speaker 6: Here she was.
Speaker 2: Announcing the policy while herself riding on a train free
Speaker 2: of charge.
Speaker 1: I presume, by.
Speaker 13: Focusing on what matters most, we're making public transport free
Speaker 13: for every Victorian senior every weekend, right across our great
Speaker 13: public transport network. That means every train, every tram, every
Speaker 13: bus right across Victoria every weekend, make it easier for
Speaker 13: seniors to perhaps go and see the grand kids, get
Speaker 13: out and about enjoying everything our great state has to offer.
Speaker 2: John and Christy free public transport for kids for pensioners.
Speaker 2: On current projections, Victoria's debt will reach one hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Billion dollars in just two years time.
Speaker 2: So I guess this giveaway worth an estimated three hundred
Speaker 2: and eighteen million dollars isn't going to make much difference
Speaker 2: to anything.
Speaker 1: John, Is that the way they think the debts so
Speaker 1: big would give away a few more million? What's the
Speaker 1: difference anyway?
Speaker 9: Well, that is sadly how we've been thinking in Victoria
Speaker 9: for ten years. This is bad policy, it's inequitable. It
Speaker 9: favors those families lucky enough to live close to public transport.
Speaker 9: This is a labor government that has penalized motorists, that
Speaker 9: has cut spending on road maintenance.
Speaker 6: You drive around Melbourne, we are bedeviled by potholes.
Speaker 9: Country roads are dangerous, Land taxes going up, Farmers are
Speaker 9: being smashed by new taxes in the middle of a drought.
Speaker 9: And this is what we get from a labor government.
Speaker 9: In addition to the announcement a few days ago of
Speaker 9: several hundred million dollars more to do up the albert
Speaker 9: Grand Prix Track, which is a playground for millionaires. This
Speaker 9: is what we face here in Victoria for those of
Speaker 9: us unlucky enough to live in Melbourne.
Speaker 1: Christy, you're in Melbourne too, I think, Christy, aren't you?
Speaker 2: Do people vote for a credible path back to surplus?
Speaker 2: Is that going to fly with the electric or are
Speaker 2: people just it's the shiny thing? Free public transport? You know,
Speaker 2: we're going to upgrade the Grand Prix track. Can a
Speaker 2: government win election with something as serious as we're going
Speaker 2: to present a credible and realistic path back to surplus?
Speaker 12: Well, an opposition could win an election based on a
Speaker 12: credible and a realistic path back to surplus if they
Speaker 12: presented such credible and realistic path. James and John, I'm
Speaker 12: sure you agree with me. I think the dashes up
Speaker 12: to about twenty four thousand per per person in Victoria,
Speaker 12: every man, woman and child. So I'm glad they're getting
Speaker 12: free public transport. They're going to get something back for
Speaker 12: their twenty four thousand dollars per person debt of every
Speaker 12: citizen here in Victoria. If they ever happen to take
Speaker 12: a train. It is ridiculous. Victorians are just living with
Speaker 12: debt and deficent. We've had the big build infrastructure spending
Speaker 12: that can never ever be paid back. I hate to
Speaker 12: think what's going to happen to the credit rating of Victoria.
Speaker 12: And this is we're in dangerous territory here where you
Speaker 12: know Victoria actually had to sell its state bank in
Speaker 12: the late nineties or under the Cane current government, we're
Speaker 12: getting back to being the most depressed economy in Australia.
Speaker 12: We already have the most depressed property and construction industry,
Speaker 12: the highest costs, the most gridlocked traffic. And you know,
Speaker 12: last week we're seeing that Melbourne's going to be Australia's
Speaker 12: fastest growing, most popular city, to rival New York apparently,
Speaker 12: if you believe the demographers in the next a few decades.
Speaker 12: So how we're going to cope with infrastructure to sustain
Speaker 12: that population at with a state that has enough in
Speaker 12: the coppers to do it, I don't know, But I
Speaker 12: don't think anyone in the Allen Labor government has any
Speaker 12: idea either.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they don't.
Speaker 2: Hey, one last question before we wrap it up, Donald
Speaker 2: Trump is planning on meeting with Vladimir Putin tomorrow to
Speaker 2: try and work out a negotiated peace.
Speaker 1: Settlement in Europe.
Speaker 2: John, and I just wanted to ask you this without
Speaker 2: going into all the machinations of Putin and Zelenski and
Speaker 2: Trump and whether it can all work. Imagine Trump does
Speaker 2: bring peace. Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize after just
Speaker 2: nine months in office for having bought a climate of peace.
Speaker 2: Do you reckon if Trump achieves actual peace he'll get
Speaker 2: a Nobel Peace Prize?
Speaker 6: James, what do you think?
Speaker 9: I think there is absolutely zero chance if of Trump
Speaker 9: getting the Nobel Peace Prize if he brought peace to
Speaker 9: the Middle East, to Ukraine and to sub Sahara Africa,
Speaker 9: that is not going to happen.
Speaker 1: I reckon. You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2: I don't know whether he will achieve it or not,
Speaker 2: but I do know this, if he does achieve it,
Speaker 2: everyone will be critics of it and they'll find fault
Speaker 2: with it, absolutely guaranteed. John Christy, thanks for joining me tonight,
Speaker 2: and all you at home, thanks for tuning in. Paul
Speaker 2: Murray will be back tomorrow night, but don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2: Coming right up is the Royal Report good night,