Speaker 1: Live on Sky News. This is Sharry.
Speaker 2: Good Evening tonight, alban Easy facing defeat at the polls.
Speaker 3: I'll bring you analysis from.
Speaker 2: An influential labor figure on whether his Prime ministership is terminal.
Speaker 2: Also on the show, Josh Friedenberg joins me to discuss
Speaker 2: Holocaust Remembrance Day and what today the eightieth anniversary of
Speaker 2: the Liberation of Auschwitz mean to him and his family.
Speaker 2: It's a deeply personal interview. This has more shocking videos
Speaker 2: emerged from the qu two anti racism conference. I'll show
Speaker 2: you a Palestinian speaker cruelly attacking Pete Stefanovic's childhood.
Speaker 3: But first let's start.
Speaker 2: With Australia Day and I hope everyone had a wonderful
Speaker 2: long weekend. Most of us have celebrated Australia this weekend.
Speaker 2: Yet there's a minority filled with hate. We've seen Invasion
Speaker 2: Day rallies once again in major cities. Thousands of people
Speaker 2: marched against the country they call home, waving greens, Aboriginal
Speaker 2: and Palestinian flags.
Speaker 4: See the date change, see the flag change.
Speaker 5: And allies co concolerated with Aboriginals and the Palestinians.
Speaker 2: Sixteen Neo Nazis were arrested near the Invasion Day rally
Speaker 2: in Adelaide, not related to it, and one man was
Speaker 2: charged with displaying a Nazi symbol. Others were charged with
Speaker 2: assaulting police. It's disgusting now Neo Nazis aside, these rallies
Speaker 2: are protesting the so called invasion of Australia by the British.
Speaker 3: Now it's funny because if.
Speaker 2: These people are so against the colonization of Australia, why
Speaker 2: do they live here. If they're so against Australia being
Speaker 2: invaded by the British, then again, why do they live here.
Speaker 2: They're free to practice what they preach and leave. No
Speaker 2: one's forcing them to stay in our country. For most Australians,
Speaker 2: it is possible to do two things at once. To
Speaker 2: acknowledge the dark times of our history, which our country's
Speaker 2: leaders have apologized for, but also to celebrate our great nation.
Speaker 2: That's what Australia Day is, the one patriotic public holiday
Speaker 2: when we can spend time with family and friends and
Speaker 2: recognize this beautiful, sun burnt country we live in. But
Speaker 2: unfortunately we didn't just see hatred at the Invasion Day rallies.
Speaker 2: At the Prime Minister's own official Australia Day celebrations, alban
Speaker 2: Easy posed for a photograph with a hateful activist wearing
Speaker 2: an offensive T shirt. There was such a backlash to
Speaker 2: this that Albanezi had to address it today.
Speaker 5: That's a choice that she made. We do have in
Speaker 5: this country. People are allowed to express themselves. But I
Speaker 5: thought it was disrespectful of the event and of the
Speaker 5: people who that event was primarily for.
Speaker 3: We are a democracy.
Speaker 2: Grace Taye may not like news court media and she
Speaker 2: doesn't have to consume it. She'd be better informed if
Speaker 2: she did, but no one's forcing her.
Speaker 3: But here's the irony.
Speaker 2: It was news dot com do Au, owned by the Murdochs,
Speaker 2: that spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting to change
Speaker 2: the law in Tasmania in order to bring her story
Speaker 2: into the public domain. She owes a lot to new
Speaker 2: cop journalism and she was so grateful to News Corp
Speaker 2: at the time. She turned up to our Journalism Awards
Speaker 2: and gave a speech expressing her gratitude. If it weren't
Speaker 2: for news dot com dot Au, Grace Tame's story wouldn't
Speaker 2: have been published and she never would have won the
Speaker 2: Australian of the year, but it seems she's now forgotten
Speaker 2: exactly whose journalism and whose money fought for her personal justice.
Speaker 2: And despite his words today, the Prime Minister seemed to
Speaker 2: have no problem smiling happily beside someone wearing a T
Speaker 2: shirt that's highly offensive about one of our country's greatest Australians.
Speaker 2: As he stood there beside her, Albanizi, beside Grace Tame,
Speaker 2: I couldn't help think it was like watching one radical
Speaker 2: left wing activist beside another, because we know Alberzi's history
Speaker 2: as a protester, someone who yelled into a megaphone at
Speaker 2: a rally outside the American Embassy.
Speaker 6: Of Israel.
Speaker 5: Truman children very well with checks.
Speaker 2: As I can't play that clip enough because it shows
Speaker 2: who Albanezi really is, and that's why, unfortunately under his
Speaker 2: current government, Australia isn't at its best right now. Australians
Speaker 2: know that, with polls today showing voters are turning against
Speaker 2: the Prime Minister. Personally, I'm so grateful to have been
Speaker 2: born here in Australia, to have grown up in this
Speaker 2: nation of unparalleled natural beauty and peace. John Howard today
Speaker 2: says that instinctively one embraces that ancient evocation to count
Speaker 2: one's blessing when reflecting on the miracle to have been
Speaker 2: born in Australia. His words resonate, Yet there's no denying
Speaker 2: that as we celebrate Australia Day, we know these are
Speaker 2: among the worst times our nation has seen. It's why
Speaker 2: Peter Dutton's election campaign slogan is to get Australia back
Speaker 2: on track. The very values our country is famous for
Speaker 2: and why we all chose to live here, or our
Speaker 2: parents or grandparents or great grandparents, those values are under threat.
Speaker 2: The very values our veterans risk their lives to fight
Speaker 2: for are now under threat. Instead of peace on our streets,
Speaker 2: we're seeing cars, homes, and even a preschool fire bond.
Speaker 2: Instead of makeship and kinship, we're seeing hatred, racism, and
Speaker 2: the unprovoked targeting of one minority group.
Speaker 3: We need to do better as a nation.
Speaker 2: The reason we all love Australia first and foremost is
Speaker 2: it's a safe and relaxed country to live in and
Speaker 2: raise a family. We need to see peace return to
Speaker 2: our streets urgently, or many will reconsider being Australian and
Speaker 2: may start looking for a safer place to live.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The CIA has finally come out and said that the
Speaker 2: origins of COVID nineteen are likely a lablique for an
Speaker 2: intelligence agency that collects top secret intelligence from inside sources.
Speaker 2: This is embarrassingly late. The reality is, after five years,
Speaker 2: there's no substantive evidence at all for a zoonotic origin
Speaker 2: of COVID nineteen, but there is overwhelming evidence to suggest
Speaker 2: the pandemic began with risky gain a function re at
Speaker 2: the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Anthony Fauci's agency and other
Speaker 2: US agencies were funding this risky research in Wuhan. Yet
Speaker 2: Fauci has now been preemptively pardoned, an utterly outrageous move
Speaker 2: that deprives the world of answers and accountability for their
Speaker 2: pandemic that has cost seven million lives.
Speaker 3: A pardon for Fauci.
Speaker 2: Biden obviously doesn't care about the justice for seven million families.
Speaker 3: We do care about justice.
Speaker 2: I've personally dedicated a lot of my time over the
Speaker 2: past five years to this topic, not only because we
Speaker 2: owe it to those who lost their lives, but also
Speaker 2: to prevent the next pandemic. Every single aspect of the
Speaker 2: COVID origin story, the funding, the researchers the cover up,
Speaker 2: the intelligence agencies, the scientists we've unpicked with extensive reporting
Speaker 2: an investigation. Yet throughout this investigation, as you know, the
Speaker 2: ABC ridiculed us for even examining the subject of a
Speaker 2: lab leak at all.
Speaker 6: So, how likely is it that the virus escape from
Speaker 6: that Chinese lab? Well, in short, it's not so. Given
Speaker 6: all those expert doubts, was this sensational treatment really justified
Speaker 6: Batman exclusive We think not. We also think Marksman should
Speaker 6: have told readers that almost every virus expert had dismissed
Speaker 6: the lab escape theory. As one senior source admitted to
Speaker 6: the paper, we.
Speaker 1: Can't rule it out. We can't rule out a lot
Speaker 1: of things. It's hard to prove a negative.
Speaker 6: It is, indeed, which is why conspiracy theories like this
Speaker 6: are so hard to kill.
Speaker 2: Conspiracy theories are so hard to kill.
Speaker 3: Conspiracy theories.
Speaker 2: The official word from the ABC, and if we'll ever
Speaker 2: see any corrections or apologies given the CIA and the
Speaker 2: majority of US intelligence agencies say.
Speaker 3: The lab leak was the likely cause of the pandemic.
Speaker 2: Now, this isn't about me, It's it's about how the
Speaker 2: ABC tries to suppress areas of investigation. That don't suit
Speaker 2: their agenda or aren't fashionable. They do it all the
Speaker 2: time in many subject fields, from climate change to anti semitism.
Speaker 2: On COVID origins, It's embarrassing how the ABC thought they
Speaker 2: knew better.
Speaker 3: They thought they had all the answers.
Speaker 6: And the fact that the virus wreaking havoc across the world,
Speaker 6: sarskov two, is not one the Wuhand Lab was known
Speaker 6: to be working on, and while one of it's bad viruses,
Speaker 6: RaTG thirteen, is closely related, sharing all but four percent
Speaker 6: of the genetic material. That is a significant gap.
Speaker 2: Or the ant five years ago. But it wasn't just
Speaker 2: the ABC. The Sydney Morning Herald and their science writers
Speaker 2: also repeatedly claimed over the years that there was nothing
Speaker 2: to see here.
Speaker 6: So why did the lab escape theory still dominate the story,
Speaker 6: especially when virus experts had dismissed it three days earlier
Speaker 6: in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen did not come from lab. The evidence is
Speaker 1: overwhelming that the virus that causes COVID nineteen jumped from
Speaker 1: animals to humans rather than escaping from a laboratory. Virus
Speaker 1: experts say Charry must have missed that bulletin YEP.
Speaker 2: According to The Herald and the ABC, it was case closed.
Speaker 3: There was no lab leak.
Speaker 2: The virus came from an animal, even though not one
Speaker 2: scientist could nominate which animal, and they haven't been able
Speaker 2: to ever since. Yet, as you know, it was far
Speaker 2: from case closed, and the evidence continued to unravel the.
Speaker 3: More you looked into it.
Speaker 2: We're now expecting the CIA to release the secret of
Speaker 2: intelligence that that agency has been holding. COVID investigator David
Speaker 2: Asher tells me that the CIA has emails, messages and
Speaker 2: other correspondents between those involved.
Speaker 7: Director Ratcliffe, who you've interviewed previously.
Speaker 8: Is adamant about declassifying information or releasing information actually is
Speaker 8: already declassified, and then the big question is going to
Speaker 8: be signals intelligence and how much of that gets makes
Speaker 8: its way out.
Speaker 1: Just trust me, there was a lot of it.
Speaker 2: And that full interview will be on the show tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: The new CIA Director John Ratcliffe has argued this intelligence
Speaker 2: should be in the public domain. Here's what he said
Speaker 2: on our Sky News documentary.
Speaker 9: There is more intelligence out there, and I'd like to
Speaker 9: see it declassified because it'll create additional pressure, not just
Speaker 9: on Chinese Communist Party officials, but others that still continue
Speaker 9: to deny that China is a bad actor here.
Speaker 2: And Ratcliffe has now told Fox News that it's time
Speaker 2: for the CIA to be honest with.
Speaker 3: The world about its findings.
Speaker 2: He said he spoke to the president about the need
Speaker 2: to restore trust in institutions like the CIA.
Speaker 9: I had the opportunity on my first day to make
Speaker 9: public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration,
Speaker 9: so it can't be accused of being.
Speaker 3: Political, and it does assess.
Speaker 9: The CIA has assessed that the most likely cause of
Speaker 9: this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the
Speaker 9: world was because of a laborated incident in Wuhan.
Speaker 2: And Ratcliffe hinted that Trump might even confront Chinese President
Speaker 2: she about the origins of COVID.
Speaker 9: President Trump needs to have the very best intelligence so
Speaker 9: that when he's negotiating with President g and other adversaries,
Speaker 9: he's able to confront them with the things that we
Speaker 9: know that our intelligence tells us about what our adversaries
Speaker 9: have done to us. So now that it's out there,
Speaker 9: he'll be able to use that to leverage that to
Speaker 9: have honest discussions to put America's our national security posture
Speaker 9: in a better position than it's been for the last
Speaker 9: four years.
Speaker 2: It will of course be big news if Trump does
Speaker 2: indeed decide to do this. And this is the difference
Speaker 2: between a leader like Trump an alban EASi. Trump is
Speaker 2: prepared to have tough conversations with China. Albin Ezi demanded
Speaker 2: an investigation over the accidental death of one Australian, Zomi
Speaker 2: frankm by Israel, which Israel.
Speaker 3: Was already investigating.
Speaker 2: Yet Albinizi would never dare raise with China the need
Speaker 2: for an investigation into the origins of a virus that
Speaker 2: killed more than seven million people. Worse, the Albenzi government
Speaker 2: criticized Scott Morrison for having the courage to call for
Speaker 2: the origins inquiry. Morrison was of course correct to do so.
Speaker 2: He was the first in the world. You don't tread
Speaker 2: softly to avoid agitating a dictator that's succumbing to their rules.
Speaker 2: You have to defend your own citizens now, one senior
Speaker 2: political figure told me today, Albanezi has a policy of appeasement,
Speaker 2: an acquiescence on China. It's a policy of weakness. He
Speaker 2: couldn't be in a more different space to Trump, Rubio,
Speaker 2: and Waltz, and this wedge between their ideologies and foreign
Speaker 2: policy will only become more apparent with each passing day
Speaker 2: of the new Trump administration. Now today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Speaker 2: On this day, eighty years ago, Nazi concentration camp Auschwitzberg
Speaker 2: Canal was finally liberated. In truth, it took too long.
Speaker 2: The Nazis came to power in Germany in nineteen thirty
Speaker 2: three and they were finally defeated in nineteen forty five.
Speaker 2: Six million Jews perished in the gas chambers, executed, shot
Speaker 2: into shallow graves that they dug themselves, tortured, starved, and
Speaker 2: burned in furnaces. The worst year was nineteen forty two,
Speaker 2: when two point seven million Jews were killed. It was
Speaker 2: mass murder, a genocide in the truest sense of the word,
Speaker 2: and the Jewish population has never really recovered, not emotionally
Speaker 2: or in population size.
Speaker 3: The trauma lives on.
Speaker 2: Josh Friedenberg wrote a moving piece today where he said,
Speaker 2: I still cannot comprehend how the people of Germany, living
Speaker 2: in such a cultured and civilized society, could descend to
Speaker 2: such depravity and in humanity. To their fellow man. The
Speaker 2: answer is indifference. Bad things happen when good people stay silent.
Speaker 2: We all said never again, we all said we'd never forget.
Speaker 2: We hoped we'd never see such antisemitism again. Yet here
Speaker 2: we are, eighty years on, and it's the indifference we
Speaker 2: need to fight now. The Albanese government, the police, and
Speaker 2: the judiciary showed indifference when antisemitism exploded, at first on
Speaker 2: the steps of the Opera House and ever since. It's
Speaker 2: hardly surprising that with this indifference the racism has only
Speaker 2: escalated the international community too, in forums like the United
Speaker 2: Nations and in human rights groups. Human rights groups have
Speaker 2: shown indifference even as they see with their own eyes
Speaker 2: her Musk murdering, burning, beheading and raping innocent people, including
Speaker 2: babies and children.
Speaker 3: On the weekend, we.
Speaker 2: Watched as four beautiful young women were paraded by a
Speaker 2: terror organization wearing balaclavas with guns. Those girls were stolen
Speaker 2: from their lives, from their families. We will never forget
Speaker 2: the depraved images of how her mus brutalized them.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 2: This is the place Pennywog wants to recognize with statehood.
Speaker 2: Now there's been outrage over the fact that someone who
Speaker 2: hasn't been an outspoken advocate on anti Semitism is now
Speaker 2: attending and this will be tonight our time the commemorations
Speaker 2: at Ashville. Johannes Seek summed it up in his brilliant
Speaker 2: cartoon in the Australian Today. Have a look, he wrote there, typical,
Speaker 2: not so much as a word about Islamophobia. Well, now
Speaker 2: Foreign Minister Pennywong is at the commemorations, and she made
Speaker 2: some remarks that have caused incredible offense a couple of
Speaker 2: days ago, where she appeared to say that only one
Speaker 2: million Jews had been killed in the Holocaust instead of
Speaker 2: six million.
Speaker 4: What occurred during World War II, The hatred, prejudice, the
Speaker 4: dehumanization and the murder of over a million people and
Speaker 4: a million Jews was something humanity he should never forget.
Speaker 2: Wong faced accusations she was downplaying the number of Jew's murdered.
Speaker 2: It was then curious to see that in her official
Speaker 2: transcript of the remarks she made, they'd been amended. Her
Speaker 2: office wrote in brackets, the hatred, prejudice, the dehumanization and
Speaker 2: the murder of over a million people and a million
Speaker 2: Jews at Auschwitz was something humanity should never forget. Now
Speaker 2: despite a petition, she will be there. She is there now,
Speaker 2: and let's hope her visit moves her to take antisemitism
Speaker 2: more seriously. Let's hope she learns about why the existence
Speaker 2: and the survival of Israel is so important. The late
Speaker 2: Holocaust survivor Eddie Jacou said, I cannot change the past.
Speaker 2: The past is history. I will try with all my
Speaker 2: strength and all my knowledge to change the future.
Speaker 3: That quote.
Speaker 2: His quote in hires me all the time. It doesn't
Speaker 2: matter our faith or our background. We all need to
Speaker 2: speak up and do whatever we can to stamp out
Speaker 2: the hatred that we're seeing now. It's our collective responsibility
Speaker 2: as Australians or as global citizens not to allow our
Speaker 2: country and our world to be overtaken by antisemitism. We
Speaker 2: all have this duty and let's do everything we can
Speaker 2: to change our future. And on this day, we're thinking
Speaker 2: of your memory, Eddy, and also the six million.
Speaker 3: Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Speaker 2: Also we think of those who survived but lost everything
Speaker 2: they held dear, their parents, their children, and their innocent
Speaker 2: life as they knew it. May their memories be a
Speaker 2: blessing and a lesson against complacency. Let's bring in our
Speaker 2: former treasurer and my good friend, Josh Friedenberg. Josh, on
Speaker 2: that note, can you tell me about your personal family
Speaker 2: members who were in the Holocaust and in Auschwitz.
Speaker 10: Well, my story is not unique, Shahi. It's like so
Speaker 10: many austrange Jewish families and indeed Jewish families right around
Speaker 10: the world. I lost many relatives in the Holocaust, both
Speaker 10: on my parents' side but also on my wife's family.
Speaker 10: And I grew up with a great aunt, Mary Friedenberg,
Speaker 10: who actually came to my first speech in Parliament, and
Speaker 10: she was a survivor of the concentration camps, and she
Speaker 10: carried with her for life the tattooed number on her arm,
Speaker 10: and she spoke little about her experience for good reason,
Speaker 10: but it was also a reminder that despite the Nazi's
Speaker 10: best efforts to this destroy the Jewish people, they failed,
Speaker 10: and the Jewish people continue to live on now, facing
Speaker 10: challenges again with the rise in antisemitism following October the seventh.
Speaker 10: But like many other enemies before, Hamas and their fellow
Speaker 10: travelers will fail yet again.
Speaker 2: Josh, in your powerful piece that you've written today on
Speaker 2: the sky News, website, and anyone can read it on
Speaker 2: the website if you haven't done so yet. You wrote
Speaker 2: about how if we were to observe a minute's silence
Speaker 2: for each victim, the silence would extend for more than
Speaker 2: eleven years. And you say that so devastating was the
Speaker 2: Nazis genocide that the world's Jewish population in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: five is smaller than it was in nineteen thirty five. Josh,
Speaker 2: You know, both in terms of the trauma that the
Speaker 2: children and the grandchildren carry and in terms of the.
Speaker 3: Jewish population survive. The community is never covered from the Holocaust.
Speaker 10: It hasn't recovered numerically, and it certainly hasn't forgotten the
Speaker 10: tragedies of the past. But the community is also very resilient.
Speaker 10: And the State of Israel was not established because of
Speaker 10: the Holocaust, but the Holocaust happened because the State of
Speaker 10: Israel was not established, and I think that's really important
Speaker 10: to remember. A strong Israel is important to the world
Speaker 10: Jewish community, but it's also important to the global community
Speaker 10: at large, and that's underlined by that famous quote from
Speaker 10: Bob Hawk, our own Prime Minister, who said, if the
Speaker 10: bell tolls for Israel, the bell tolls for all of
Speaker 10: mankind and right now as a democracy and a sea
Speaker 10: of hostility, they're facing enormous threats, but they are making progress.
Speaker 10: And we in the Jewish community have a lot of
Speaker 10: friends here in Australia and I'm hoping that the tide
Speaker 10: is turning. And I have been encouraged shari by comments
Speaker 10: in recent days and weeks by Christian leaders, by Hindu leaders,
Speaker 10: by other very brave individuals. Today was Marcia Langton writing
Speaker 10: in The Australian really about about the hatred that has
Speaker 10: been unleashed on university campuses by the weakness and the
Speaker 10: indifference of university leaders in our country. There are a
Speaker 10: lot of great people out there, like Nova Paris and others,
Speaker 10: and it's I think it's encouraging to have their support.
Speaker 10: And I know and you know that there are so
Speaker 10: many Australians who have been appalled by the anti Semitism
Speaker 10: that has been on the rapid rise since October the seventh,
Speaker 10: and they know that it's Australia's fight. They know it's
Speaker 10: Australian values that's been undermined, and they want to see
Speaker 10: our social cohesion restored.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I completely agree with all of those remarks
Speaker 2: you made about the incredible support from mainstream Australians who
Speaker 2: unequivocally hate the hatred and the racism that we've seen
Speaker 2: a rise. Josh, you represented Australia at the seventieth anniversary
Speaker 2: of the Liberation of Aschwitz. I mean ten years ago
Speaker 2: when you went there, anti Semitism just wasn't a daily issued.
Speaker 2: Could you ever have imagined that we'd be speaking about
Speaker 2: this on a daily basis now?
Speaker 10: Well, it was a very solemn occasion and it was
Speaker 10: a great honor to be there, and I thank Tony Abbott,
Speaker 10: Prime Minister at the time for enabling me to go.
Speaker 10: And the most moving speeches back then ten years ago,
Speaker 10: I'm sure will be repeated again when they commemorate the
Speaker 10: eightieth anniversary, And those speeches were from the Holocaust survivors themselves,
Speaker 10: and I remember a man called Raymond Ken to survivor
Speaker 10: from Oschwitz, who said, don't let our past become our
Speaker 10: children's future. And back then we needed to be on guard,
Speaker 10: and today we need to be increasingly on guard about
Speaker 10: people who want to minimize, deny the events of the
Speaker 10: Holocaust that took place. And I think we have a
Speaker 10: collective responsibility, Shari, particularly our leaders federal and state governments
Speaker 10: to ensure that people across the country understand the gravity
Speaker 10: the scale of the Holocaust and learn about that history
Speaker 10: so we don't repeat repeat it in the coming years.
Speaker 3: So important.
Speaker 2: Josh Fredenberg, thank you as always for your strong advocacy
Speaker 2: on this area. Of course, the advocacy that you are
Speaker 2: recognized for just yesterday by The Australian on the weekend
Speaker 2: by the Australian as one of their Australians of the Year.
Speaker 2: Your voice has been so powerful after over the past
Speaker 2: fifteen months, and we're also grateful for that.
Speaker 10: Well, thank you, Sharon. You not it's not about us
Speaker 10: as individuals. It's always been about the cause. And to
Speaker 10: underline for your viewers, this is austrayas fight. This is
Speaker 10: not just about the safety of the Jewish community. There's
Speaker 10: something much bigger at play and fortunately the tide is turning,
Speaker 10: but there is still a lot of work to do.
Speaker 10: And thank you personally for your advocacy, your strength from
Speaker 10: day one. You haven't taken a backward step and so
Speaker 10: many people not only appreciate that, Shari, they are safer
Speaker 10: for it.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you very much. Josh, we all have
Speaker 2: to do whatever we can. I always say to people,
Speaker 2: whatever skills you have at your disposable, use them because
Speaker 2: this is so important. Josh Fridenberg, thank you again. Now
Speaker 2: still to come speakers at that offensive QUT anti racism
Speaker 2: conference attack Mike Sky colleague Pete Stefanovic. I'll show you
Speaker 2: those clips tonight. Plus Albanizi's clifftop mansion haunts him ahead
Speaker 2: of the federal election. Political analyst Jeff Chambers will join
Speaker 2: me next. Welcome back. Let's turn to today's newspoll in
Speaker 2: The Australian and we'll be sending alarm bells right through
Speaker 2: the Albanesi government. Labour's primary vote has fallen two points
Speaker 2: since December, while in the two party preferred survey they're
Speaker 2: now trailing the opposition. And it's not much better for
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanesi personally. The Prime Minister's approval ratings have slumped
Speaker 2: to their lowest levels since he became PM. Joining me
Speaker 2: now is The Australian's chief political correspondent, Jeff Chambers. Jeff,
Speaker 2: great to see you again. Look, how do you interpret
Speaker 2: these newspoll results when it comes to Albanese's chances of
Speaker 2: winning the next election.
Speaker 10: Hi Shari.
Speaker 11: So just put it in context. At the twenty two election,
Speaker 11: Anthony Alberesi claimed a small majority government on a primary
Speaker 11: vote of thirty two point six percent that primary vote.
Speaker 11: So they're now at thirty one percent at thirty two
Speaker 11: point six which was actually worse than Bill Shortens losing
Speaker 11: election results. That was the worst result in labor history
Speaker 11: since nineteen thirty four. So what we're seeing in this
Speaker 11: preferential system is a system that benefits labor, but there
Speaker 11: are all the hard heads in labor have been perpetually
Speaker 11: concerned about that very low primary vote, and what it
Speaker 11: means is they rely on Green's preferences and they heavily
Speaker 11: relied on the rise of the Teals last time, and
Speaker 11: then they just got there with that big swing against
Speaker 11: the Liberal Party in Perth. So that's where it's looking at.
Speaker 11: It's not a good trend downwards, and if they were
Speaker 11: to go into the twenties, that's very concerning for labor
Speaker 11: and on the other side for Peter Dutton and the coalition.
Speaker 11: What we're seeing in these preferential systems is that a
Speaker 11: coalition is going to need a primary vote of forty
Speaker 11: two percent north to be in a position to win outright,
Speaker 11: So I think it's I think it's Peter Button's getting closer.
Speaker 11: But because of the system that we have, Anthony Alberesi
Speaker 11: definitely benefits from the Greens and the Teals.
Speaker 2: Although if Dutton's primary, even if it stays the same,
Speaker 2: but if it does edge a bit higher, it will
Speaker 2: be hard for the Teals to win those seats back
Speaker 2: because the Teals to win also rely on preferences as
Speaker 2: well from the Greens and Labor, won't it.
Speaker 11: Oh, certainly. And I think this is the issue with
Speaker 11: national polling though, is that it's not going to be uniform,
Speaker 11: So depending if it's a metropolitan inner city seat, a
Speaker 11: regional seat or an outer suburban seat, those preferences will
Speaker 11: flow in different ways. Book, Peter Dutton is certainly on
Speaker 11: the ascendency and we've seen these numbers dropping down and
Speaker 11: Anthony Albernese's personal appeal, He's performance ratings dropping at pace
Speaker 11: since the Voice referendum defeat.
Speaker 2: And I guess this is why the Liberal Party, at
Speaker 2: least this advert today about Peter Dutton personally have a look.
Speaker 12: As a minister. I learned that a strong economy and
Speaker 12: a safe community are central to everything that you sometimes
Speaker 12: need to stand up to vested interests and always make
Speaker 12: decisions in our national interest. The right decisions aren't always popular,
Speaker 12: but I'm not interested in taking me as you passed,
Speaker 12: because we live in the best country in the world
Speaker 12: and I'm determined to get Australia back on track.
Speaker 2: So, Jeff, this is clearly designed to personalize Dutton to
Speaker 2: voters and endear him. Yeah.
Speaker 11: Look, it's been a challenge for Peter Dutton to soften
Speaker 11: the so called hardman image, but this sixty second ad,
Speaker 11: it's pretty slick. It covers a lot of ground, it
Speaker 11: takes a lot of boxes, and I think there's a
Speaker 11: telling sign at the end of that advertisement, which will
Speaker 11: be running on tea and social media, where he says
Speaker 11: that you know that being Prime Minister you have to
Speaker 11: make decisions that aren't always popular, and he's willing to
Speaker 11: do that. So yeah, he's trying to I guess contrast
Speaker 11: his style with Anthony Albanesi's.
Speaker 2: Just before you Go, You've written that small business owners
Speaker 2: are shaping up to be key players in this election
Speaker 2: for both Albanese and Dutton, Why do they hold so
Speaker 2: much voting sway in this particular election.
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 11: So this out of two point six million companies businesses
Speaker 11: in this country, there's two point five million small businesses.
Speaker 11: They employ five point three million Australians and pump five
Speaker 11: hundred billion dollars annually into the Australian economy. So we
Speaker 11: hear a lot about big business, but as a collective,
Speaker 11: you think about the multiplier effect and the importance of
Speaker 11: small businesses across the country, but particularly out of suburbs
Speaker 11: and the regions that Peter Dutton is looking to pick
Speaker 11: seats off labor. And as we've seen I've written about,
Speaker 11: we're currently experiencing record levels of insolvencies for small businesses.
Speaker 11: Its power prices, insurance, insurance premiums and those ranks. So
Speaker 11: you know, whether it's the CBD or in the regions,
Speaker 11: we're seeing more and more businesses have to shut down
Speaker 11: and you see Peter Dutton really lining himself up there
Speaker 11: as the champion of small business.
Speaker 2: Yeah all right, Jeff Chambers, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: your analysis. Tonight, Now still to come Chump's win over
Speaker 2: Columbia and his vow to clean out Gaza, plus even
Speaker 2: more shocking clips emerge from QUT's disgraceful anti racism event.
Speaker 2: You know about Dutton's drew, but speakers also attacked Pete
Speaker 2: Stefanovic and made offensive comments about anti Semitism. I'll play
Speaker 2: them after this quick break.
Speaker 3: Welcome back.
Speaker 11: Well.
Speaker 2: An anti racism conference at Queen's University of Technology has
Speaker 2: been making headlines for being offensive and anti Semitic. Sarah
Speaker 2: Schwartz from the pro Palestinian Jewish Council of Australia mocked
Speaker 2: the idea of what she called Dutton's jew She claimed
Speaker 2: that Dutton's supporters were.
Speaker 3: Racist, evil stereotypes.
Speaker 2: It's now been, of course, rightly condemned by senior figures,
Speaker 2: including the Federal Education Minister Jason Clare. Now, this was
Speaker 2: meant to be a conference against racism, but with their
Speaker 2: lineup of speakers, it was never going to be anything
Speaker 2: but highly offensive and the university should have known better.
Speaker 2: Now Palestinian spokesman Nasamashni, he's in the past called Jew's filth,
Speaker 2: so they should never have had him there. Now, in
Speaker 2: clips that haven't yet been broadcast, Nasamashni attacked my colleague
Speaker 2: Peter Stefanovic over his childhood.
Speaker 7: Come in zephonomic A guy that couldn't have had an
Speaker 7: easy childhood either.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're meant to be at an anti racism conference.
Speaker 2: He also spoke about the right to criticize antisemitism.
Speaker 7: In Australia, where we're it mastered the art of exceptionalism
Speaker 7: when it comes to hate. You see hating black fellows
Speaker 7: of Palestinian's, Muslims, Chinese, Africans, anyone. It's nuanced cultural debate,
Speaker 7: a career enhandser for some. But don't you dare speak
Speaker 7: about antisemitism? And if you do, don't you dare add
Speaker 7: anything else to that same line? What been a way
Speaker 7: to remind blackfellows of the where they belong on the
Speaker 7: hierarchy of hate than to exceptionalize one form of bigotry
Speaker 7: and elevated above all the others and a point a
Speaker 7: special envoy.
Speaker 3: I don't know, why are you laughing, Joe? This is
Speaker 3: appalling stuff.
Speaker 2: He didn't stop there, he criticized Australia as well.
Speaker 7: There's nothing more Australian than celebrating multiculturalism while simultaneously struggling
Speaker 7: with basic impathy. Definitely colonialism wherever it is. From this
Speaker 7: comment in the West Book World cashier Western's Harbor, and
Speaker 7: of course Palestine always was always all be controu.
Speaker 2: He went on with this rubbish for ten minutes. All right,
Speaker 2: I'm Joe now bias. You know Sky News host Joe
Speaker 2: Hildebrand and former chief as Shorten Cameron Milner. Joe, the
Speaker 2: university should have stepped in earlier. I mean, mocking Pete's childhood,
Speaker 2: saying those offensive things about Australia.
Speaker 14: These people are completely idiotic. It is just so fascical
Speaker 14: I've always amazed at. How ever more ridiculous it can
Speaker 14: get the fact that this bloke has these incredibly passionately
Speaker 14: held convictions and yet has to read out all these
Speaker 14: comments from an iPhone, the fact that he has to
Speaker 14: sort of, you know, very carefully, sort of choke up
Speaker 14: when he starts to Guzza. But I think he probably
Speaker 14: had to read that off his I phone too, because
Speaker 14: I'm so emotional about it. Sorry, let me refresh the page, Guzza.
Speaker 14: I mean, it's just embarrassing, and the idea that you
Speaker 14: would have you know, Dutton's jew as a as an
Speaker 14: actual you know, I mean, these guys are so stupid.
Speaker 14: It's like they sort of want to get courts. I
Speaker 14: think maybe I don't know, but the idea that you
Speaker 14: would actually have that as a literal projection as well
Speaker 14: as an ideological projection, I think not not since slaur
Speaker 14: at Tingle. Imagine Peter Dutton being racist at a real
Speaker 14: estate auction. I think have we seen such hard evidence
Speaker 14: of racism in the community. Just imagine, if you will,
Speaker 14: you want to talk about exceptionalism, just imagine that being
Speaker 14: done about any other ethnicity. Imagine if it was Dutton's Asian,
Speaker 14: Dutton's African, you know, imagine, imagine that about anything like that.
Speaker 14: You would have be slapped with a race hate case
Speaker 14: before you'd even show the door after the conference. It's
Speaker 14: just absolutely staggering. But let them let them hang themselves
Speaker 14: with their own petad Cameron.
Speaker 2: The woman who spoke about that, who put up that slide,
Speaker 2: her name is Sarah Schwartz.
Speaker 3: Now she is Jewish.
Speaker 2: She is one of those anti israel Jews, anti Zionist Jews.
Speaker 2: She's from what's called the Jewish Council of Australia, a
Speaker 2: very misleading name, and the ABC keep having her on
Speaker 2: as if she represents the views of the Jewish community,
Speaker 2: when she might represent maybe one or two percent I
Speaker 2: mean media outlets after this, they've got to stop platforming
Speaker 2: her and Nasa Mashni surely, and.
Speaker 15: Our universities have got stopped being a hotbed of antie
Speaker 15: Israel and anti Jewish student hatred Sharhi. It's disgraceful. They're
Speaker 15: taxpayer funded institutions, and I'm over a vice chancellor coming
Speaker 15: up with the Sergeant Schultz defense. I knew nothing when.
Speaker 1: All this is going under their nose.
Speaker 3: It's terrible disgrace.
Speaker 15: And it's about time government's got serious about where taxpayer
Speaker 15: money went and which have a freeze or fine in
Speaker 15: place every single one of these instances, because then maybe
Speaker 15: the university hierarchy might do something about the hatred on
Speaker 15: a daily basis on their campuses.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent agree, Yep, it's time for that sort
Speaker 2: of action. Now let's turn to Andrew Clenell's interview with
Speaker 2: Albanezi over the weekend, where the Prime Minister defended buying
Speaker 2: his cliff top mansion.
Speaker 5: Not every decision that I make as a human being
Speaker 5: is through a focus group, is about politics. I've met
Speaker 5: someone I want to spend the rest of my life with,
Speaker 5: and what happens when people make that decision. If they're
Speaker 5: in a position too, they go and get a mortgage together.
Speaker 2: Joe, he still doesn't understand why there was public backlash
Speaker 2: to this.
Speaker 16: Yeah.
Speaker 14: I think the PM's blessing and curse is that he
Speaker 14: is incredibly confident and he is also there I say,
Speaker 14: incredibly happy. He is happy in his personal life, whereas
Speaker 14: the rest of Australians are pretty miserable and extremely anxious.
Speaker 14: And he also I think has a pretty strong sort
Speaker 14: of she'll be right attitude, even when a lot of
Speaker 14: other people in the party and from outside are thinking,
Speaker 14: hang on a minute, this is going off a cliff here.
Speaker 14: So I think I think he's certainly I think he's
Speaker 14: certainly perhaps so he's certainly getting it now and you
Speaker 14: can see that he's talking about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the way he's worried, I.
Speaker 14: Think the way that you the way that you hear
Speaker 14: him talking now. But I really appreciate Yeah.
Speaker 15: Sorry, Cameron, come on, Joe, he's got to stop. He's
Speaker 15: got to stop using Jody. He's a human shield for
Speaker 15: his mistakes. A human shield. I mean, this guy bought
Speaker 15: a four point two million dollar retirement villa, He took
Speaker 15: count Us up grades, He took freebee tickets everywhere. This
Speaker 15: guy's been on a grave train for most of his
Speaker 15: thirty years, and suddenly Jody's the excuse for this guy
Speaker 15: has a pattern of behavior which is completely dismissive of
Speaker 15: what we the public are suffering. He's cost a leading
Speaker 15: crisis and that's the Prime Minister and that's why he's
Speaker 15: so out of touch. But I think it's a terrible,
Speaker 15: terrible that Jodi gets trotted out now as some excuse
Speaker 15: for another another album mistake.
Speaker 2: Well look, if you look at the polls, you know
Speaker 2: most the majority of Australians now think that Peter Darton
Speaker 2: is going to win. I mean the figures aren't quite
Speaker 2: there yet for Darton to have majority government, but the
Speaker 2: trend certainly in his direction.
Speaker 14: Joe, Yeah, And I think, look, when you're going through
Speaker 14: an economic crisis again, people are going to be anxious,
Speaker 14: they are going to be worried. And when people are
Speaker 14: anxious and worried, they need someone to blame, and they
Speaker 14: will blame the government of the day. And that will
Speaker 14: happen no matter what color the government of the day is.
Speaker 14: And the government of the day has to show that
Speaker 14: it has a pathway out of this that is credible,
Speaker 14: that people can understand and that people can believe, and
Speaker 14: that they have the sort of the trust if you
Speaker 14: like the credit in the bank to be able to
Speaker 14: deliver it. And I think a lot of people have
Speaker 14: felt and I know that many people I've spoken to,
Speaker 14: both critics and supporters of the PM have said they
Speaker 14: like him. He's a good guy. And again, but he
Speaker 14: just doesn't seem to be getting how worried people are,
Speaker 14: how bad it is. And I think now he is,
Speaker 14: and I think we'll see from now until polling day
Speaker 14: that there will be more sort of meat on that
Speaker 14: bone and more clarity.
Speaker 2: I mean, you say people are anxious and worried and
Speaker 2: it's a crisis, But Cameron, isn't it the case that
Speaker 2: often in a crisis or a national emergency, leaders stand
Speaker 2: up and they show what they're worth and people stick
Speaker 2: with them. That's not happening here, Apps.
Speaker 15: No No one votes for a week leader in the
Speaker 15: middle of a crisis. No one votes for a week leaders.
Speaker 15: And that's what Albo is becoming. I mean, Albo is
Speaker 15: Peter Dutton's best friend in this election campaign. I mean
Speaker 15: Albo has been out since Christmas splaying money everywhere spraying
Speaker 15: at me. Which way billions and billions of dollars and
Speaker 15: his numbers are going backwards. Why because the more people
Speaker 15: see of elbow, the more they don't like labor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's exactly right, exactly right.
Speaker 2: The more they see of elbow lest they want to
Speaker 2: vote for him, all right, Joe Hildebrand, Kari Mirno, great to.
Speaker 3: Have you as always.
Speaker 2: Now, after the break, we're going to look at Donald Trump,
Speaker 2: how he's had a win over Columbia, plus his plan
Speaker 2: to clean out Gaza.
Speaker 3: That's after this quick break.
Speaker 2: Let's turn to the US now, where Donald Trump's crackdown
Speaker 2: on immigration has received a major boost, with Columbia backflipping
Speaker 2: on its earlier decision to reject deported migrants. In fact,
Speaker 2: the Columbian president has even offered to give up his
Speaker 2: presidential plane to help lighten the load. Okay, Sky News
Speaker 2: contributed Kosher Garda joins me. Now, Kosher, this is a
Speaker 2: stunning reversal.
Speaker 3: Indeed it was.
Speaker 13: It was a busy Sunday for Trump to cap off
Speaker 13: a very busy week one in his administration, and this issue,
Speaker 13: this reversal was so important both tactically and optically, so
Speaker 13: in terms of tactics. It just really shows case how
Speaker 13: in a matter of four hours, I think that's how
Speaker 13: long this episode lasted on a Sunday afternoon, America is
Speaker 13: able to wield its economic might, which is Trump's favorite
Speaker 13: form of leverage, wielding tariffs and sanctioning people and suspending
Speaker 13: visas for Colombian citizens and diplomats and all of that,
Speaker 13: and that was able to get the outcome that he wanted.
Speaker 13: It's also really important optically because it is sending a message.
Speaker 13: This has been his signature issue ever since he entered politics.
Speaker 13: This administration is taking illegal immigrations very very seriously. And
Speaker 13: next up it's going to be Guatemala and other countries
Speaker 13: that are apparently calling emergency meetings to figure out how
Speaker 13: to deal with this, because they're going to be coming
Speaker 13: up and faced with the same thing in the weeks ahead.
Speaker 3: Kosher.
Speaker 2: Trump has told reporters that he suggested to the King
Speaker 2: of Jordan that he should take more Palestinian refugees. Have
Speaker 2: a look, Okay, we'll play that clip hopefully in a minute.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I should join.
Speaker 16: I'd love to take on more because I'm looking at
Speaker 16: the whole guys, who's strip right now and it's a mask.
Speaker 16: You're talking about probably a million and a half people,
Speaker 16: and we just cleaned out that whole thing. It's literally
Speaker 16: a demolition side right now. Almost everything's demolished. The people
Speaker 16: are dying there. So I'd rather get involved with some
Speaker 16: of the Arab nations that built housing at a different
Speaker 16: location where they can maybe lived me.
Speaker 6: It's any.
Speaker 3: Hi Koch.
Speaker 2: I mean Australia has issued nearly three thousand visas to Gazans,
Speaker 2: but the Arab nations haven't been pulling their weight.
Speaker 13: Yes, those nations famously have not. They shut the door
Speaker 13: basically on any of them. Egypt certainly said that now
Speaker 13: this issue is complicated. Obviously there's different types of leverage
Speaker 13: and complexity involved. Trump's statement there approached it as a developer,
Speaker 13: which is his roots and his core competency. And I
Speaker 13: think it's also politically savvy because it steps side or
Speaker 13: steps around the issue the Jordan in Egypt or sighting,
Speaker 13: which is this is a slippery slope to ending the
Speaker 13: two state solution that BA staunchly support, and so he's
Speaker 13: coming at it from just a developer and humanitarian lens.
Speaker 13: It'll be interesting. He has frozen all new foreign aid
Speaker 13: to all countries except Egypt and Israel, and maybe that
Speaker 13: was part of his calculus where he's going to use
Speaker 13: that as another form of leverage to try and see
Speaker 13: if he can push them to take some more refugees.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now Trump's pick fit Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. He's
Speaker 2: finally been confirmed by the Senate, just very quickly. Kosha,
Speaker 2: how did this go down?
Speaker 13: So this was as many expected because he was a
Speaker 13: little bit of an embattled pick. It was a fifty
Speaker 13: to fifty tie and then Vice President Jade Vance is
Speaker 13: able to cast the tie breaking vote, So all that
Speaker 13: matters is the final outcome.
Speaker 3: He's in.
Speaker 13: He's very different from defense secretaries of the past, and
Speaker 13: he's very much on board with Trump's agenda. So disruptive
Speaker 13: times ahead.
Speaker 2: Indeed, all right, Kosha, Data, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: your time. Now, you don't want to miss my show
Speaker 2: tomorrow night. On Thursday night, as you know, I wasn't here.
Speaker 2: I went out with Strikeforce Pearl, that's the police task
Speaker 2: force investigating the anti Semitic attacks we've seen on our streets.
Speaker 2: I went out with the police on the road and
Speaker 2: I've also had a big sit down interview with the
Speaker 2: Assistant Commissioner in charge of counter Terrorism. It's a really
Speaker 2: tough interview. I ask him about the hate, why there
Speaker 2: haven't been any arrests for hate crimes, Why the hate
Speaker 2: preachers are just allowed to say whatever they like. You
Speaker 2: don't want to miss tomorrow night's show. I've also got
Speaker 2: James Patterson on the show as well, so I'll see
Speaker 2: you tomorrow at eight o'clock.
Speaker 3: But right now, here's Paul Murray.