Speaker 1: Live on Sky News. This is Sharry.
Speaker 2: Good Evening Tonight.
Speaker 3: Albanez he can't rule out raising taxes if he wins. Meanwhile,
Speaker 3: his plans for death duties scare off voters.
Speaker 2: The full details in a moment.
Speaker 3: Plus I'll give you my verdict on who's best to
Speaker 3: govern the nation a head of the election, and my
Speaker 3: prediction of how many seats Labor and the Coalition will
Speaker 3: each win. Also on the show, nine reported Nick McKenzie
Speaker 3: admits to unlawful conduct in pursuit of a story. This
Speaker 3: admission in court after Ben Robert Smith won his bid
Speaker 3: to have the secret recording hurt Well how this all
Speaker 3: unfolded a little later, Another massive show tonight with just
Speaker 3: Into nabag Imper Price, Basil zemplus James Willis, Adam Crichton
Speaker 3: and Moore. Now newspapers publish editorials right before elections, pointing
Speaker 3: readers in the direction they.
Speaker 2: Believe serves the nation best.
Speaker 3: The nine mass Heeads will almost certainly endorse Alvin Easy,
Speaker 3: while the Australian and News Court Metros couldn't in all
Speaker 3: good conscience do that. The Sunday Telly has already backed
Speaker 3: in Peter Dutton. Well tonight, for the first time in
Speaker 3: my journalistic career, I'm going to offer a pre election
Speaker 3: editorial endorsing one side of politics, not out of partisanship,
Speaker 3: but out of necessity. This election matters more than any
Speaker 3: in recent memory. At stake is our national security, social cohesion,
Speaker 3: prosperity and the very capacity to feed our families and
Speaker 3: save for retirement. With our values under threat from enemies
Speaker 3: at home and abroad, our country needs strong leadership, a
Speaker 3: prime minister prepared to defend what we stand for as
Speaker 3: a nation and govern with conviction. Well, Anthony Albinezi is
Speaker 3: not that prime minister. After three years in office, he
Speaker 3: has proven himself unfit to govern. His character, judgment and
Speaker 3: instincts are fundamentally unsuited to leadership. His far left ideology
Speaker 3: is out of step with mainstream Australia. Not only has
Speaker 3: he failed to deliver, but his government has weakened our nation.
Speaker 3: Ronald Reagan famously posed this question in the ninety eighty
Speaker 3: presidential debate against Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 4: Next Tuesday, olive, you will go to the polls, will
Speaker 4: stand there in the polling place and make a decision.
Speaker 4: I think when you make that decision, it might be
Speaker 4: well if you would ask yourself, are you better off
Speaker 4: than you were four years ago? Is it easier for
Speaker 4: you to go and buy things in the stores than
Speaker 4: it was four years ago?
Speaker 2: That question are you better off?
Speaker 3: Help deliver Reagan a landslide victory For most Australians who
Speaker 3: ask themselves this now the answer is a resounding no.
Speaker 3: So let's look at how Australia has fared under Albanezi
Speaker 3: at the kitchen table, at the national level and globally,
Speaker 3: and everything I'm about to tell you is factual.
Speaker 2: Across the country.
Speaker 3: Families are worse off as a direct result of the
Speaker 3: alban Easy government. We've been in a per capita recession.
Speaker 3: Energy bills are up thirty three percent, food has surged
Speaker 3: by fourteen percent, and a typical mortgage is now fifty
Speaker 3: thousand dollars more. Families are taking on multiple jobs to
Speaker 3: make ends meet, but their purchasing power is diminishing. Financial
Speaker 3: stress flows through to children and affects marriages. Can't afford toys, clothes, holidays,
Speaker 3: even healthcare. It's all pervasive. Charities are turning away parents
Speaker 3: who can't put food on the table, school students open
Speaker 3: empty lunchboxes, and families who've always had a roof over
Speaker 3: their heads find themselves homeless or living in cars or
Speaker 3: tents on the side of a highway. Albanize has repeatedly
Speaker 3: failed to show that he truly understands these devastating real
Speaker 3: world pressures. And how could he As he jets around
Speaker 3: in his private plane that he calls Toto I after
Speaker 3: his dog. With nearly thirty years on the public teat,
Speaker 3: he prefers to fly, then take long car trips. He
Speaker 3: says this is because of his bad back, yet then
Speaker 3: dares to argue against petrol tax relief. Now that's the
Speaker 3: picture at the family life, at the kitchen table.
Speaker 2: Then at the national level, our.
Speaker 3: Nation's piggybank is in its worst ever shape. Taxes have
Speaker 3: reached a record high under the Albanezy government, with workers
Speaker 3: paying three hundred and thirty one billion dollars last financial year.
Speaker 3: And here's another record that Australia will break under the
Speaker 3: Albanezy government, debt.
Speaker 2: Reaching a trillion dollars next year.
Speaker 3: Now, to reiterate that point, never before have Australians paid
Speaker 3: so much tax.
Speaker 2: And instead of using this wisely, the.
Speaker 3: Albaneze government is spending more than ever before ratings Agency
Speaker 3: Standards and Poor is so concerned about structural and hidden
Speaker 3: off budget spending that the agency has warned the Albanezy
Speaker 3: government that it's now at risk of losing our Triple
Speaker 3: A credit rating. And despite promising not to touch Stage
Speaker 3: three tax cuts, which were intended to correct bracket creep,
Speaker 3: Albertezi broke his word, leaving hard working Australians shouldering the
Speaker 3: tax burden of Labour's big spending agenda. Worse still, Labor
Speaker 3: plans to tax unrealized capital gains, money people haven't even received,
Speaker 3: and there are new taxes too.
Speaker 2: On cars. The price of a Forward Ranger will go up.
Speaker 3: By around fourteen thousand dollars, and death duties or an
Speaker 3: inheritance tax even looks likely under the next term.
Speaker 2: Now, turning to Australia's position.
Speaker 3: In the world, we are at our most vulnerable in
Speaker 3: the post war period.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: It is true the Albereneze government has re established trading
Speaker 3: relationships with China, but at what cost. The Albanize the
Speaker 3: government has shown weakness in the face of Chinese aggression,
Speaker 3: even when our defense personnel were injured, off threatened, and
Speaker 3: China threatens our sovereignty with live firing exercises off our coast,
Speaker 3: and there's almost no pushback from the Prime Minister. His
Speaker 3: weakness was epitomized by this cartoon of Johannes Leeks showing
Speaker 3: him on a leash held by Shijing Ping, and Albanesi
Speaker 3: was so infuriated by this cartoon that he carried it
Speaker 3: around with him in his pocket to unfurl and complain about.
Speaker 2: It's always the truth.
Speaker 3: That hurts the most, because on foreign policy, Albanesi has
Speaker 3: been diabolical. He's deliberately blurred the lines between our allies
Speaker 3: and adversaries to such an extent that he can't say
Speaker 3: the United States is a closer friend than China.
Speaker 2: Who are we better friends with China or America both?
Speaker 3: He underestimates the democratic values that bind us to America,
Speaker 3: values that our soldiers sacrifice their lives to defend, and
Speaker 3: he ignores the authoritarian practices, including the imprisonment of Cheng Lei,
Speaker 3: the murder of whistleblowers, and the suppression of free speech,
Speaker 3: that make China fundamentally incompatible with our beliefs. And likewise,
Speaker 3: his failure to stand firmly beside Israel, a democracy fighting
Speaker 3: terrorists who slaughtered and still hold hostages captive is inexplicable
Speaker 3: and alarming. His equivocation isn't diplomacy, it's moral cowardice. Threats
Speaker 3: in our region are escalating, from Russia to China. It
Speaker 3: would be prudent to prepare for the future by investing
Speaker 3: more heavily in defense.
Speaker 2: Yet Albanesi has failed to do this. He has also.
Speaker 3: Failed to establish the most basic level of communication with
Speaker 3: the President of the United States, our most critical ally,
Speaker 3: and this, in large part is in direct consequence of
Speaker 3: his own misjudgment in appointing his mate Kevin Rudd to
Speaker 3: the post of ambassador in Washington, a move, by the way,
Speaker 3: he told Australians he wouldn't make in yet another broken promise.
Speaker 3: So from the kitchen table to the nation's piggybank. In
Speaker 3: our place in the world, Albanesi.
Speaker 2: Has left us bereft.
Speaker 3: And that's not to mention the litany of broken promises
Speaker 3: and scandals too numerous to name them all here, but
Speaker 3: they include the release of criminal detainees, some who went
Speaker 3: on to re offend his high immigration policy, the housing crisis,
Speaker 3: wasting over four hundred million dollars on a device a.
Speaker 2: Voice referendum, and the crime wave in parts of the
Speaker 2: country and more. Now you may be sitting.
Speaker 3: There thinking, well, I'm a journalist on Sky News Australia
Speaker 3: and thus you'd expect me to have this perspective. Well,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you why this is not the case, because
Speaker 3: I know Albanezi personally. Yes, he came on my show
Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen, and I've interviewed him on many occasions
Speaker 3: for The Daily Telegraph as well, but it was more
Speaker 3: personal than that. I've had numerous dinners and coffees with him,
Speaker 3: sometimes with an editor as well, sometimes one on one.
Speaker 3: He's even picked me up in his car after working Canberra,
Speaker 3: or dropped into the News Corp offices in Surry Hills
Speaker 3: for a cup of coffee. This was one dinner in
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen. Now, I respect the tradition of such meetings
Speaker 3: being off the record, and so I wo divulge what
Speaker 3: was discussed on any of those occasions. But the reason
Speaker 3: I'm sharing this publicly with you tonight is to say
Speaker 3: that I did get along with Albanezi personally, I enjoyed
Speaker 3: his company, and that my comments now are not from
Speaker 3: a position of political bias, as you know I often
Speaker 3: strongly praise and endorse the centrist state labor governments of
Speaker 3: Chris Mins and Peter Malanaskis, but the truth is I've
Speaker 3: been deeply, deeply disappointed in Albanesi's leadership. And there's no
Speaker 3: greater issue where this has been the case than on
Speaker 3: anti Semitism. His betrayal of our Australian Jewish community for
Speaker 3: political and ideological purposes has been heartbreaking and shocking. We've
Speaker 3: faced anti semitism not seen since nineteen thirties pre war Europe,
Speaker 3: and it's now irreparable, and it's the Prime Minister who's
Speaker 3: allowed it to flourish. He didn't have enough courage to
Speaker 3: stand in solidarity with those unjustly demonized. He's quick to
Speaker 3: condemn white supremacists, and rightly so, but he couldn't stamp
Speaker 3: out or call out the anti semitism from the Muslim
Speaker 3: community or the pro Palestinian protest movement, where it's been
Speaker 3: the most prevalent. His decision to rush through nearly three
Speaker 3: thousand visas to a terror controlled state without adequate security
Speaker 3: checks shows how he abandoned his care for all Australians.
Speaker 3: His failure of basic leadership allowed antisemitism to spread and
Speaker 3: has directly jeopardized the safety of Jewish children in Australian schools.
Speaker 3: And it is not an exaggeration to say there's a
Speaker 3: lack of safety. The AZIO Director General, Mike Burgess said
Speaker 3: plainly that the greatest threat to life in Australia in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five is anti Semitism. This alone is unforgivable
Speaker 3: and should disqualify Albansi.
Speaker 2: From future leadership.
Speaker 3: Now, my response to his failure and anti semitism is
Speaker 3: visceral as a Jew, as a mother, and as a
Speaker 3: proud Australian, because this is about safety, equality and rejecting racism.
Speaker 3: This is not the Labor Party of Bob Hawk. It
Speaker 3: is a radicalized device, a version led by Albanesi and
Speaker 3: his inner circle Petty Wog, Tony Burke, Katie Gallagher and
Speaker 3: Chris Bowen. They've overseen crises in immigration, housing and social
Speaker 3: cohesion and their incompetence as they've damaged down Nation has
Speaker 3: only been outmatched by their arrogant I also believe that
Speaker 3: in life, most of us try to do the right thing.
Speaker 3: We're honest, we apologize if we make a mistake. But
Speaker 3: alban Easy's growing list of broken promises belies a personal
Speaker 3: failure to abide by a moral code centered on truth
Speaker 3: and integrity.
Speaker 2: There's a difference between spin.
Speaker 3: And outright lies, and alban Easy forgot that distinction a
Speaker 3: long time ago. Now, Peter Dutton hasn't run a perfect campaign,
Speaker 3: far from it, But as the Sunday Telegraphs editorial says,
Speaker 3: a superior campaign should not outweigh three years of pain.
Speaker 3: And it's a point Peter Dutton himself made today.
Speaker 5: A lot of families who are really doing it tough,
Speaker 5: for a lot of small businesses who have closed over
Speaker 5: the last three years. And this election really is a referendum,
Speaker 5: not about the election camp, but about the last three
Speaker 5: years of government. Are you better off today than you
Speaker 5: were three years ago? And what will it be like
Speaker 5: under three more years?
Speaker 3: And is the entire coalition front bench ready to govern? Well,
Speaker 3: perhaps not quite, but they won't further erode.
Speaker 2: What makes our nation great. I believe that Dutton's.
Speaker 3: Instincts, his values, and his moral clarity are solid and unwavering.
Speaker 3: He would never compromise the safety of a community for
Speaker 3: political expediency. He speaks the truth, even when it's unfashionable
Speaker 3: and leads by principle not popularity. At a time of
Speaker 3: global volatility and financial pressure. He offers the courageous and
Speaker 3: calm leadership our country needs. His strength is the antidote
Speaker 3: to the drift, weakness, and moral ambiguity we've endured under Albanezi.
Speaker 3: Another term of Labour means means three more years of confusion,
Speaker 3: division and decline. It's time to turn the page on
Speaker 3: this period of stagnation.
Speaker 2: A Dutton prime prime minister ship.
Speaker 3: Would give our great nation the fresh start that we
Speaker 3: so desperately deserve. Okay, and a bit later in the show,
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you my election prediction, how many
Speaker 3: seats precisely I think the Liberal Party and Labor will win.
Speaker 3: But now let's bring in our Thursday panel tonight WA
Speaker 3: Opposition leader Liberal Leader in Wa Basil Zemplus and the
Speaker 3: Daily Telegraphs journalist James Willis. Welcome to you both. Look,
Speaker 3: I'm going to start with you, Basil. One of the
Speaker 3: most cutting messages in this campaign has been how the
Speaker 3: Prime Minister has lied on many scare and other scare
Speaker 3: campaigns and seems.
Speaker 2: To just get away with it.
Speaker 3: Do you think this is now going to become the
Speaker 3: new normal in politics, seeing as it has been so effective.
Speaker 1: It is very unfortunate, I've got to say, and obviously
Speaker 1: people will know this. I've just been through my own
Speaker 1: election campaign and been on the receiving end of very
Speaker 1: strong arm labor tactics. Now that's fine, we're all big kids.
Speaker 1: We have to play in the environment that we're in.
Speaker 1: But it has become a repeated pattern of behavior, particularly
Speaker 1: from that side. And if it were in reverse, we
Speaker 1: know the hows that we would hear, yet that we
Speaker 1: would hear. Yet for whatever reason, it has become an
Speaker 1: acceptable policy or an acceptable position for labor in election environments.
Speaker 1: It's not what Australian people want or deserve. It's not
Speaker 1: really playing the game fairly. Although we all know it's
Speaker 1: a robust environment. You've got a cop, what you've got
Speaker 1: a cop. But I think we can do far better.
Speaker 1: And if they're the tactics you're resorting to, what does
Speaker 1: it say about the people resorting to those tactics.
Speaker 3: Indeed, and we even saw today in an interview with
Speaker 3: Andrew Klenell, the Prime Minister couldn't rule out raising taxes
Speaker 3: under the next term and office.
Speaker 6: Have a look at this do you undertake not to
Speaker 6: raise any taxes.
Speaker 4: Well, what we've got, Andrew, is our policies out there
Speaker 4: for all.
Speaker 6: To see, So you won't raise any taxes. So that
Speaker 6: what we've got out there, Andrew, is lower taxes.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's pretty appalling, James, that you know, effectively,
Speaker 3: that's an admission we probably will have new taxes, and
Speaker 3: they'll have to have new taxes to keep our triple
Speaker 3: A credit rating.
Speaker 7: Well, and just the other thing is because they're spending
Speaker 7: so much money, at some point you have to find
Speaker 7: money from elsewhere so the books don't look as disastrous
Speaker 7: as they have been. He also was asked about whether
Speaker 7: he could guarantee a surplus again and was unable to
Speaker 7: do that.
Speaker 2: But look, I think the biggest.
Speaker 7: Missopportunity of this entire campaign has been what Labor is
Speaker 7: planning to do if they win this election. In regards
Speaker 7: to what you spoke about the unrealized capital gains and
Speaker 7: the idea that this could extend beyond superannuation, there's some
Speaker 7: stories this week that talk about it being small businesses,
Speaker 7: talking about enterprise, talking about farms, and basically taxing you
Speaker 7: on money that you haven't even received physically, and the
Speaker 7: idea of raising seven billion dollars over ten years as
Speaker 7: a result. Now that's a massive problem and has the
Speaker 7: potential to hurt a lot of people that have already
Speaker 7: paid tax their entire lives. They pay tax at the
Speaker 7: petrol station, they pay text every time.
Speaker 2: They know with genst and everything else.
Speaker 7: They suddenly get to retirement and the super balance goes whack,
Speaker 7: and the Prime Minister's saying, well, it's one in twenty
Speaker 7: super funds by the time people retire that are young.
Speaker 7: Now it's going to be a lot more people that
Speaker 7: are over that threshold. And because the Greens are going
Speaker 7: to and this cross bench could likely have a big
Speaker 7: larger say that kind of policy could be far worse
Speaker 7: than what we expect. So if I was the Liberal Party,
Speaker 7: I would have been smashing that over the last few weeks.
Speaker 7: I think it's really problematic. But we also know, Sherry
Speaker 7: that the prom is to promised not to change superannuation.
Speaker 7: He wouldn't change the Stage three tax cuts. You lied
Speaker 7: about both those things, and they promise not to squirt
Speaker 7: money around. In jin Chalmer's words, well that's what they've done.
Speaker 7: There's been so much spending under this labor government and
Speaker 7: money that can't actually justify results.
Speaker 3: And the other thing that Standards and Pause is concerned
Speaker 3: about is that it is structural spending.
Speaker 2: It's built in spending.
Speaker 3: It it's not like it was during the COVID pandemic,
Speaker 3: when it lasts a couple of years, it's stimulus relief
Speaker 3: and then it comes off.
Speaker 2: This is all built in spending.
Speaker 3: Bazilo want to ask you about what James just spoke
Speaker 3: about Labour's policy, and they've got draft legislation on this
Speaker 3: to tax unrealized capital gains and potentially there's also talk
Speaker 3: that they might even have to introduce some sort of
Speaker 3: inheritance tax or death duties.
Speaker 1: That if Labor are resorting to these tactics, they seem
Speaker 1: to be getting away with them and are not held
Speaker 1: to account. That tells us I think a little something
Speaker 1: about the broader environment. But on those particular taxation raising
Speaker 1: areas that they may be going to exploit, there is
Speaker 1: no clarity, there is no truth in delivery there, and
Speaker 1: yet they are very very quick to point the finger
Speaker 1: the other way. For me, one of the issues again
Speaker 1: is why is it that they seem to be able
Speaker 1: to get away with it. What is it about the
Speaker 1: environment that we are in that they are not called
Speaker 1: out successfully on some of these mythstruths that they have
Speaker 1: told well.
Speaker 3: And the answer to that is that, you know, the
Speaker 3: Coalition needed to do a better job of pointing this out.
Speaker 2: They needed to run much tougher.
Speaker 3: Advertising campaigns highlighting the policy, and then of course the
Speaker 3: media as well. But you know, where not the opposition,
Speaker 3: the Coalition should have run those ads. And you know,
Speaker 3: I know, James, the Coalition has just now started running
Speaker 3: some pretty strong small adverts. You noticed one on X
Speaker 3: if we've got that let's have a look at that ad.
Speaker 2: It's coming now.
Speaker 7: Are you kissing your boss?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, author liberal camera, very effective ad, James.
Speaker 2: A lot of these have come too late in the piece. Yeah.
Speaker 7: We read today that Labor has spent across YouTube and
Speaker 7: Facebook and meta about five million dollars compared to two
Speaker 7: million I think from the Coalition. So with young voters
Speaker 7: plus then you've got the Greens and you've got Climate
Speaker 7: two hundred spending money in that space. They have done
Speaker 7: an excellent job at trying to create this impression that
Speaker 7: Peter Dutton is a really bad guy. The Liberals are
Speaker 7: out of date, they don't know what they're doing, they're evil,
Speaker 7: they don't care about the planet. It's all those sort
Speaker 7: of key messages while spreaking their own messages around correct yeah,
Speaker 7: or they're not going to give you a hex debt
Speaker 7: cut and all those things that add to me. And
Speaker 7: that was from a media conference the other day with
Speaker 7: a Prime minister did a quick visit to a seat
Speaker 7: that points to the PM's character. And this is a
Speaker 7: man that says that he grew up in Housing Commission,
Speaker 7: He's always been a battler.
Speaker 2: He goes to.
Speaker 7: South Sydney football games. That's a labor volunteer that has
Speaker 7: been standing out in the rain at one of his
Speaker 7: booths that says, my husband wants to say hello to you,
Speaker 7: and he says yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got
Speaker 7: to go. And that moment to me was just one
Speaker 7: of those ones where I thought the Liberal Party should
Speaker 7: be putting that on every billboard in Australia because it
Speaker 7: goes to the Prime minister's character and how out of
Speaker 7: touch he is become in this role and how as
Speaker 7: you say, he's a thirty year politician. He loves the
Speaker 7: com cars, loves the jet and has forgotten that grassroots
Speaker 7: volunteer that says, we're here, my husband wants to meet you.
Speaker 5: No time for you.
Speaker 2: Sorry, Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3: It's appalling, and that volunteer would have been there from
Speaker 3: eight to ay in the morning when creepole opens, the
Speaker 3: entire day, day and day out. She has that encounter
Speaker 3: with the Prime Minister someone presumably she idolizes and he
Speaker 3: waves her off like that.
Speaker 7: I mean she might have taken tome off work, she
Speaker 7: might have whatever she's been standing out there handing out
Speaker 7: so that he wins again and he goes, I don't
Speaker 7: have time for you.
Speaker 2: Sorry, No, I know, it's really terrible, all right.
Speaker 4: Look.
Speaker 3: One of the most egregious lies about the coalition spread
Speaker 3: by the Albnesi government has been the six hundred billion
Speaker 3: dollar figure on nuclear.
Speaker 6: Have a look the six hundred billion dollars that they'll
Speaker 6: need for their nuclear fantasy.
Speaker 8: Peter Dutton can't find the six hundred billion dollars he
Speaker 8: needs for his nuclear reactors.
Speaker 2: Now basil, of course.
Speaker 3: This was from an anti nuclear lobby group.
Speaker 1: Yes, and look, here's where we have to take our
Speaker 1: hats off to the Labor Party and particularly the team
Speaker 1: that have run this very effective campaign for them. They
Speaker 1: seize on these opportunities and then they repeat the message.
Speaker 1: They stay disciplined, and you hear it over and over
Speaker 1: and over again. And unless you can do something to
Speaker 1: break that stream of thought from the Australian public, because
Speaker 1: they keep hearing it over and over again, these numbers
Speaker 1: are going to stick and if they stick, they're going
Speaker 1: to scare people. So finding a way to be able
Speaker 1: to get what is the actual truth out there that
Speaker 1: always is the challenge for those who are on the
Speaker 1: receiving end of it. And again, we know this is misinformation.
Speaker 1: We know that this is not based on anything that
Speaker 1: is solid, verifiable or has been researched properly to be
Speaker 1: able to come up with these numbers. But the challenge
Speaker 1: in an election campaign is to get your own message
Speaker 1: out there. And if others are determining what your message is,
Speaker 1: that's when you can find it difficult to progress your arguments.
Speaker 3: No, exactly, and as you say, we know this figure
Speaker 3: isn't right, but most Australians who are seeing the television.
Speaker 2: Adverts I keep hearing it commercial.
Speaker 3: TV, yeah and radio, they don't know it's not true. Now, James,
Speaker 3: you looked into this group and when they began this campaign,
Speaker 3: I mean some six months ago. Tell us about the
Speaker 3: story you wrote today in the Daily Telly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so where this six hundred billion dollar figure came
Speaker 7: from was from a charity. They have a charitable status,
Speaker 7: but they are effectively a solar and battery lobby group
Speaker 7: who have donated to the Labour Party previously, who had
Speaker 7: Simon Holmes a Court on their board until recently Climate
Speaker 7: two hundred by the way, Yeah, until last year.
Speaker 2: He was on the board for five years.
Speaker 7: They were involved in that Chuck them Out binsticker campaign
Speaker 7: from twenty twenty two with Scott Morrison. And there's all
Speaker 7: sorts of questions about how much a charity should be
Speaker 7: weighing into one side of the political debate. The person
Speaker 7: that runs this charity, John Grimes, has certainly been standing
Speaker 7: alongside Chris Bowen. But the point is their whole business
Speaker 7: relies on solar panels and batteries and guess what, nuclear
Speaker 7: is going to be government run if it ever gets up,
Speaker 7: They're going to be government assets. So it's in his
Speaker 7: best interests to not have a nuclear industry and to
Speaker 7: have as much solar and as much battery as possible.
Speaker 7: The number they produce was based on CSIRO modeling, which
Speaker 7: said one hundred and sixteen billion dollars. They then used
Speaker 7: their own in house assumptions and there was a lot
Speaker 7: of political mayo on that to get to six hundred
Speaker 7: billion dollars. I have asked them how they got that number.
Speaker 7: They cannot tell me. I've asked repeatedly. And yet that
Speaker 7: number has become a problem for the Liberal Party because
Speaker 7: it's been used by Jim Chalmers, Anthony Alberanezi, Chris Bowen.
Speaker 7: It's been used in ads, it's been used in push polling.
Speaker 7: But it's worth calling out. It's a flimsy number. It's
Speaker 7: not backed up by science. Yes number by a charity
Speaker 7: who makes money out of lobbying for the solar and
Speaker 7: battery industry, who have no interest in nuclear power and
Speaker 7: never will.
Speaker 3: I mean, we used to look back at American elections
Speaker 3: and say we we used to feel sorry for them
Speaker 3: that there was so much fake news.
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable that this has now become the norm.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, Bows, would you remember the outrage,
Speaker 3: Remember how angry Malcolm Turnbull was when there was that
Speaker 3: mediccare campaign two days out from the election and it
Speaker 3: cost him dearly.
Speaker 2: He ended up you know, there wasn't a clear outcome
Speaker 2: on an election Nightumember, how grumpy he was.
Speaker 3: He ended up winning by about one seat I think so,
Speaker 3: or having a majority by one seat. So you know,
Speaker 3: and compare the campaign we've seen now on scare tactics
Speaker 3: to that one metiskit text message.
Speaker 2: It is so much more egregious now, it.
Speaker 1: Is, and they just get repeated and repeated, and we've
Speaker 1: seen the Prime Minister take his Medicare card out of
Speaker 1: his pocket and wave it around everywhere. We know that
Speaker 1: the policy was matched almost instantly by the coalition, Yet
Speaker 1: continually we've heard from the Prime Minister and his team
Speaker 1: how much worse off Australians were going to be if
Speaker 1: a coalition government were in place. Look at this is
Speaker 1: an issue now and the American style of politics, if
Speaker 1: you like, particularly with how misinformation is spread with social
Speaker 1: media and all of the other devices that are available.
Speaker 1: They are a part of our modern campaigning here. What
Speaker 1: is done about it becomes the challenge of this.
Speaker 2: Period that we are in right now.
Speaker 1: You've got to be good at it, or you've got
Speaker 1: to get everybody away from it. It's one or the
Speaker 1: one or the other.
Speaker 3: I think now it's probably going to become the norm. Now,
Speaker 3: before we go, I want to get both of your
Speaker 3: predictions for who's going to win, and then I'm going
Speaker 3: to give you mine.
Speaker 7: So well, I think you'd be mad to be predicting
Speaker 7: elections from now on because of the rise of the
Speaker 7: independent vote. There's talk of some safe Liberal seats being
Speaker 7: in trouble and labor seats, but I think the PM
Speaker 7: losers seats Dutton gains, the PM won't have a majority
Speaker 7: and we'll have to be doing deals with whatever is
Speaker 7: left at the other side. But I think the damage
Speaker 7: to Albertezi will be significant, and I think Peter Dutton
Speaker 7: will put on a very good show.
Speaker 3: Okay, interesting, so much closer, much closer than that, Bazil,
Speaker 3: what do you think?
Speaker 2: Super close?
Speaker 1: How about I tell you about the patch that I
Speaker 1: know a bit about. I'm very confident about Bullwinkle, the
Speaker 1: new seat Matt Moran, and I'm very optimistic about Tom
Speaker 1: White's chances of regaining Curtain and beating Kate Cheney the
Speaker 1: Teal Independent, and huge chances in both tang Me to
Speaker 1: take it back and also Piers to take it back.
Speaker 1: So on a really good night for the Coalition, there
Speaker 1: could be three seats regained and one new seat one.
Speaker 1: It could be as many as four for the Libs
Speaker 1: in Wa.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's a very optimistic outlook, Basil. Well, both of
Speaker 3: you have been more optimistic than the national polls, that's
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 2: And then most of the commentators I've had on.
Speaker 3: This week all right, Basil zamplus James Willis love having
Speaker 3: you both on. Thank you okay, And so here's my
Speaker 3: final prediction for Saturday two days out now. I think
Speaker 3: the Coalition will win around sixty six seats and I
Speaker 3: think Labor.
Speaker 2: Will win around seventy two.
Speaker 3: I think it'll be a hung parliament and we may
Speaker 3: not know a result on Saturday night. I think it
Speaker 3: could take even four days to count the seats to
Speaker 3: get those final results in on the ninfe age seats,
Speaker 3: because there are going to be a lot that are
Speaker 3: quite close or even too close to call on Saturday night. Now,
Speaker 3: Alban Ezy will then have to govern with the Teals,
Speaker 3: who he has of course already been wooing. He's had
Speaker 3: drinks at the lodge with them. But that's my final prediction.
Speaker 3: The Liberals and around sixty six seats Labor on seventy two.
Speaker 3: But I can tell you that Alban Ezy thinks he
Speaker 3: wins majority government with eighty seats. He's as cocky as
Speaker 3: he was with The Voice. Now on Saturday night, I'm
Speaker 3: going to be reporting with Paul Murray from the Liberal
Speaker 3: campaign headquarters.
Speaker 2: Will be on air at the start of every hour.
Speaker 3: So make sure you're watching Sky News for our election
Speaker 3: coverage on Saturday night. All right, Now, still to come,
Speaker 3: the nine journalists who pursued Ben Roberts Smith admits in
Speaker 3: court to unlawful conduct in pursuit of a story.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you how this unfolded. Plus just sent a.
Speaker 3: Nabagmber Price unloads on Pennywong's plans for The Voice. She's
Speaker 3: up after this quick break. Welcome back, Well, just into Namba.
Speaker 3: Jimber Price is coming up shortly. But first let's turn
Speaker 3: to the Ben Robert Smith case. Now, it was a
Speaker 3: fascinating day in the Federal Court today as Ben Robert
Speaker 3: Smith took started or kicked off, this part of his
Speaker 3: appeal to overturn the defamation finding in the case against
Speaker 3: nine Now, the days started with a fierce debate about
Speaker 3: whether that explosive audio recording that we've been playing you
Speaker 3: could be admitted at all. And this is the recording
Speaker 3: where nine journalist Nick Mackenzie admits to breaching his ethics.
Speaker 6: I shouldn't tell you I've just preached my ethics and
Speaker 6: doing that like this is where like this is position
Speaker 6: if they knew that, I knew that.
Speaker 2: The judges eventually allowed it.
Speaker 3: And Mackenzie took the stand squirming as he readied for
Speaker 3: a cross examination by Robert Smith's barrister, Arthur Moses. Uncomfortable
Speaker 3: questions were asked about his knowledge of the code of
Speaker 3: conduct that governs his role as a senior journalist at nine,
Speaker 3: and Nick Mackenzie admitted to not having read nine's code
Speaker 3: of conduct.
Speaker 2: He was also confronted.
Speaker 3: With examples of where he'd obtained information through unlawful methods
Speaker 3: in pursuit of a story. Now Arthur Moses also quoted
Speaker 3: Mackenzie back to himself from a line in his book when.
Speaker 2: He said he had his balls in a vice and.
Speaker 3: Felt that his career would be over if he lost
Speaker 3: the defamation case against Ben Roberts Smith. Now Arthur Moses
Speaker 3: wasn't his usual dramatic self. He was methodical, chipping away
Speaker 3: at Mackenzie like a surgeon, building his case that the
Speaker 3: journalist uses unorthodox, even unlawful means to obtain a story.
Speaker 3: And Nick mackenzie also admitted to having discussed the audio
Speaker 3: recording with one journalist. To that journalist, Media Watch host
Speaker 3: Linton Besser joining me now to discuss media law. Partner
Speaker 3: at hwl Absworth Lawyers Nicholas pull and Nicholas thank you
Speaker 3: very much for your time.
Speaker 8: What's good in the show?
Speaker 2: What did you make of this day in court?
Speaker 3: Which was quite nail biting at time, at times when
Speaker 3: we didn't know whether the recording was going to be
Speaker 3: admitted or not.
Speaker 8: Well, as you say, I mean, it was fascinating on
Speaker 8: a number of levels, not just today but all the case,
Speaker 8: all this week, but today especially legally fascinating because and
Speaker 8: you know, journalists take note when it comes to the
Speaker 8: use of tapes and if they're allegedly unlawful, what position
Speaker 8: they have. Now, this hasn't been tested at such a
Speaker 8: high level in the courts in the way that it
Speaker 8: has been in this case. So for any legal observer
Speaker 8: or just even taking a small interest in it, it
Speaker 8: was fascinating because even the full bench needed more guidance
Speaker 8: from the Bar table in regards to the admissibility of
Speaker 8: this tape. As you say, it was eventually admitted, but
Speaker 8: there was a lot of scrambling around. It wasn't a
Speaker 8: straightforward issue nor clearly decision.
Speaker 3: Now, Nicholas, talk us through what you made of Arthur Moses' strategy,
Speaker 3: also his style. It was different for him. I mean
Speaker 3: he seemed to be he seemed to me to be
Speaker 3: building the case there that this is a journalist who
Speaker 3: uses unorthodox methods in order to obtain a story. Also
Speaker 3: questioning him about just how much pressure he was under
Speaker 3: during that defamation case, worried about the fact that if
Speaker 3: he lost it, his career would be over.
Speaker 8: I think you've described it quite well. Methodical, clean, surgeon
Speaker 8: like and certainly not not the style that we've been
Speaker 8: used to in the past from mister Moses. But as
Speaker 8: you say, he's building a case and it needs to
Speaker 8: go through quite methodically in quite a staged way to
Speaker 8: get to the point where he wants to to make
Speaker 8: the point that he needs. There's no theatrics here. It
Speaker 8: is a clear and clean cut look.
Speaker 3: There was also some discussion about admitting evidence from another
Speaker 3: case that related to just how many times Ben Roberts
Speaker 3: Smith's email account had been accessed either by his ex
Speaker 3: wife's best friend or his ex wife. What would be
Speaker 3: the significance of those phone records being examined in this context.
Speaker 8: Well, there's a bit, there's a lot we can't go
Speaker 8: into because and also the advocates of the bar table,
Speaker 8: we're very conscious of what they couldn't go into, especially
Speaker 8: from matters that had been previously going on this week.
Speaker 8: But really what that the nature of that evidence would
Speaker 8: lead to would be to support the contention that's being
Speaker 8: made by by the lawyers for Ben Roberts Smith in
Speaker 8: that mister mackenzie had been involved in matters that related
Speaker 8: to either privileged matters or matters going taken from from
Speaker 8: Ben Robert Smith's email account. So it's more supporting material
Speaker 8: that they've tried to that they've tried to get into
Speaker 8: evidence just to support their contention.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, And by the way, if everyone at
Speaker 3: home wants to continue watching this, because the day ended today,
Speaker 3: Nick McKenzie still midway through his cross examination, and anyone
Speaker 3: can watch it. It kicks off again at nine thirty
Speaker 3: am tomorrow. All you have to do is google Federal
Speaker 3: Court YouTube and you pull up the Federal Court YouTube
Speaker 3: page and there it is. You click on it and
Speaker 3: you can watch the hearing live, and I highly recommend
Speaker 3: it starts at nine thirty am tomorrow. All right, Nicholas Pullin,
Speaker 3: really appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: Now still to come.
Speaker 3: Is Labor trying to sneak the voice referendum back onto
Speaker 3: the agenda? Just inter Namba Jibber Price. We'll discuss this
Speaker 3: with me in a moment. Plus Humus asks people to
Speaker 3: set cars on fire as Israel battles a wildfire emergency. Well,
Speaker 3: I wonder how the pro Palestinian crowd will spin this.
Speaker 3: Welcome back and let's bring you now a shadow Indigenous
Speaker 3: Affairs minister just into Nampajin for Price.
Speaker 2: Just int a great to see you again.
Speaker 3: We've heard Pettiwong firstly not completely rule out the voice,
Speaker 3: and then we have Annaka Wells and other labor minister
Speaker 3: today say that it wouldn't happen again in its current form.
Speaker 2: What did you make of her choice of words there?
Speaker 9: Look, their choice of words are very important when it
Speaker 9: comes to this particular issue. Because we've not been able
Speaker 9: to get a straight answer out of the Albanesi government
Speaker 9: ever since the Voice referendums failure, and so this suggests
Speaker 9: to me that they have a plan to possibly legislate
Speaker 9: the voice if they're successful at the next of this
Speaker 9: election on Saturday. And part of that is also as
Speaker 9: they've said, they're committed to the Ularus statement from the Heart,
Speaker 9: which involved Voice treaty and truth telling in the form
Speaker 9: of a Macarata commission.
Speaker 3: Now justinto after Penny Wong's comments, I mean, this has
Speaker 3: been a big story. I thought the Daily Telegraph front
Speaker 3: page was excellent today the petty drops. You've also fronted
Speaker 3: an advertising campaign, just very quick ad that the Liberal
Speaker 3: Party is sending out to marginal seats warning them that
Speaker 3: Labor could be planning to introduce another voice to Parliament.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen the ad yet, it is being sent
Speaker 3: to me. But is this a scare campaign or what's
Speaker 3: the nature of this advert?
Speaker 9: Well, the nature of this advert is to highlight the
Speaker 9: fact that the Prime Minister has been deceitful towards the
Speaker 9: people of this country right throughout his campaign. I mean,
Speaker 9: he has delivered nothing more than scare tactics because he
Speaker 9: doesn't have a good record to show over this last term,
Speaker 9: and so the fact that they cannot effectively completely and
Speaker 9: utterly rule out a form of a voice or treaty
Speaker 9: or macarata suggests to me that it is absolutely still
Speaker 9: on the table and that is an insult to the
Speaker 9: Australian people that they have not accepted the outcome of
Speaker 9: the referendum, and that to me is just an absolute
Speaker 9: kick in the guts for Australians. So why would Australians
Speaker 9: trust this Prime Minister to deliver, for them, to listen
Speaker 9: to them, to meet the needs of the Australian people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've also been talking on the show tonight about
Speaker 3: how the Prime Minister and interview with Andrew Cluel today
Speaker 3: refused to rule out new taxes.
Speaker 2: We know that already there are other taxes coming in
Speaker 2: a cars.
Speaker 3: Regular car is going to become more expensive if it's
Speaker 3: not an electric vehicle, unrealized capital gains tax.
Speaker 2: You know, do you think Australians.
Speaker 3: Understand that they may face higher taxes if there's another
Speaker 3: three years of labor which is looking likely now.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Look, I mean if Alberanesi comes to government, it
Speaker 9: will be in the form as probably a minority government anyway,
Speaker 9: and then that would mean that they would be absolutely
Speaker 9: reliant on the Greens and the demands of the Greens
Speaker 9: on Albanesi. I mean, we've already seen that occur in
Speaker 9: their first term of government. They will come under even
Speaker 9: more pressure from the Greens.
Speaker 2: So you know, as trying to rule out all.
Speaker 9: These taxes, but we know that that won't be the
Speaker 9: case from the Prime Minister hasn't been able to.
Speaker 2: Keep his word.
Speaker 9: As he said in the last leaders debate. He broke
Speaker 9: his word and he will do that again. That's the
Speaker 9: bottom line.
Speaker 2: Yeah, indeed, he constantly breaks his promises. Just into napujiper price.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for your time. Now, don't go
Speaker 3: anywhere yet. We're going to talk about just how much
Speaker 3: of a factor Donald Trump has been on this campaign.
Speaker 3: A new poll suggests he has been a major reason
Speaker 3: why people aren't voting for Dutton. Adam Crichton would join
Speaker 3: me in just a minute.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: They have been muted celebrations across Israel as it marks
Speaker 3: it's seventy seventh independence Day under the shadow of major wildfires.
Speaker 3: Many traditional ceremonies were canceled as the country battles, the
Speaker 3: largest blaze in a decade. Prime Minister Benjaminettaya, who has
Speaker 3: declared the situation a national emergency. And to make matters worse,
Speaker 3: these fires are believed to be potentially a terror attack
Speaker 3: orchestrated by Hamas. They have reportedly instructed the youth of
Speaker 3: the West Bank, the youth of Jerusalem and those inside
Speaker 3: Israel to set their cars ablaze, and they've said that
Speaker 3: Gaza awaits the revenge of the free, that was their message.
Speaker 3: So this would mean that Israel is under attack from
Speaker 3: the very people who started the war on October seven,
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three. This is a very sad state of affairs,
Speaker 3: particularly so as I said on Israel's independence Day.
Speaker 2: Yom Ha'atzot.
Speaker 3: All right, let's bring you now IPA senior fellow, Adam Crichton,
Speaker 3: and we're going to get straight back into election coverage.
Speaker 2: Adam Crichton.
Speaker 3: There's a poll by Redbridge that shows one of the
Speaker 3: main reasons Australians are voting against the coalition is because
Speaker 3: of concern about global uncertainty caused by Donald Trump. And
Speaker 3: we've just seen the Canadian election this week, Mark Carney
Speaker 3: stunning turnaround, how much of an impact do you think
Speaker 3: Trump has had in the Australian election.
Speaker 6: Well, certainly, showing the context of Canada, it's been a
Speaker 6: massive force in the election there. And I think an
Speaker 6: interesting point just to make off the bat is the
Speaker 6: potency of nationalism still. I mean, we often talk about
Speaker 6: a post nationalist age, but in the Canadian context, you
Speaker 6: see that when there's a perceived threat, real or perceived,
Speaker 6: it really matters and people rallied around the government, they
Speaker 6: rallied around the flag in Canada and they voted for
Speaker 6: the government. In the Australian context, I don't think Trump
Speaker 6: has been anywhere near as much a factor. But that said,
Speaker 6: certainly the left, the Labor Party, the Greens have been
Speaker 6: trying to paint to paint the opposition leader as a
Speaker 6: Trump type figure. But I think that's somewhat ludicrous when
Speaker 6: you look at the facts, because he's really been anything.
Speaker 6: But I mean, he's essentially been a labor light figure.
Speaker 6: I mean, for instance, can you imagine on the American equivalent, Well,
Speaker 6: I think so they've matched all the spending proposals, there's
Speaker 6: really you know a bit Labors set the economic agenda
Speaker 6: pretty much the whole time, and the point I was
Speaker 6: going to say, just in terms of the Donald Trump question,
Speaker 6: can you imagine Trump in America on their equivalent of
Speaker 6: Anzac Day essentially backing a welcome to country. I don't
Speaker 6: think so. So anyway, my point is that Peter Dutton
Speaker 6: is not a Trump light figure. But that said, I
Speaker 6: think it has hurt him marginally and I think that's
Speaker 6: going to be borne out when we see the results
Speaker 6: on Saturday.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Now I agree with you that it has had a
Speaker 3: genuine impact on this election. And you know, it's interesting
Speaker 3: because when Donald Trump was first elected back in November,
Speaker 3: we thought it was going to be this wave around
Speaker 3: the world and end to the woke ideology, and instead we're.
Speaker 2: Probably now seeing the reverse.
Speaker 3: Do you think this is going to be a trend,
Speaker 3: at least while Trump's in office, while he presents, you know,
Speaker 3: a chaotic style of politics, that it'll be more left
Speaker 3: wing political parties that are elected rather than conservative.
Speaker 6: It's a really good question, I think, No, it's a
Speaker 6: really good question. It's a really difficult question to answer.
Speaker 6: Trump is obviously a polarizing figure within the US, and
Speaker 6: I think outside the US he's widely loath you know,
Speaker 6: we have to be honest about that. He's not a
Speaker 6: popular figure in Australia. But more broadly, I think all
Speaker 6: the action now intellectually is on the right, not on
Speaker 6: the left. The left has become the establishment. You left
Speaker 6: used to me decades ago the party of protest, but
Speaker 6: it's no longer the party of protests because they run
Speaker 6: the media, they run the universities, they run the top
Speaker 6: of our corporations. They are essentially the establishment now, and
Speaker 6: the right is the protest movement. I mean, Trump is
Speaker 6: the protest movement. And I think right parties generally are
Speaker 6: struggling with this transition. They don't know whether they're still
Speaker 6: the party of the wealthy or the party of the
Speaker 6: working class. And I think Trump has decided the future
Speaker 6: of the Republican Party is with the working class, with
Speaker 6: working people, and you see that in the results. But
Speaker 6: I don't think parties in the UK and parties in Australia,
Speaker 6: the Conservative parties in those countries, I don't think they've
Speaker 6: really resolved that tension yet, trying to have a bit
Speaker 6: both ways, and I think that's difficult. You know, they're
Speaker 6: trying to keep the till seats. Can they do that
Speaker 6: at the same time as being champions of the poor.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I take your point, but I think they can do
Speaker 3: both things because it's about strong economic policy and it's
Speaker 3: about aspiration. And you know, if you've got a strong economy,
Speaker 3: if you've dealt with inflation, if interest rates a lower,
Speaker 3: if you've got a strong labor market, that benefits you know,
Speaker 3: the blue collar workers just as much as it benefits
Speaker 3: company executives.
Speaker 2: I suppose I want to ask you before you go.
Speaker 3: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has come out against
Speaker 3: net zero. He wrote a new report, The Climate Paradox,
Speaker 3: where he said that voters feel they're being asked to
Speaker 3: make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know
Speaker 3: the impact.
Speaker 2: Of global emissions is minimal. That's his words. Fascinating. What
Speaker 2: do you think about this changing?
Speaker 6: This is the story of the week, story of the month.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's just amazing he said this. I mean,
Speaker 6: I think there's a you know, when certain politicians reach
Speaker 6: a certain age, they're much more honest. And I think
Speaker 6: this is a glorious comment from Tony Blair, who of
Speaker 6: course is a giant of the last fifty years of
Speaker 6: center left politics and I think this is surely a
Speaker 6: wake up call to parties of the right here to
Speaker 6: dump net zero if even Tony Blair says it's insane,
Speaker 6: and he's obviously looked at the facts, and you know, frankly,
Speaker 6: anyone who's objective and reasonable and he looks at the science,
Speaker 6: who looks at the economics, they know that net zero
Speaker 6: by twenty fifty is just not possible. And that's the reality.
Speaker 6: But unfortunately it seems like in Australia when we have
Speaker 6: a re elected Labor government, we're going to have a
Speaker 6: lot of collateral damage before we realize what Tony Blair
Speaker 6: has realized.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, indeed, all right, Adam Crichton, thank you so
Speaker 3: much for joining me.
Speaker 2: Love having you on as always.
Speaker 9: Thanks sho.
Speaker 3: Now remember Saturday night might be a tough night for
Speaker 3: some viewers. Will all be there together and you've got
Speaker 3: to tune into Sky News. Like I said, I'll be
Speaker 3: with Paul Murray, will be in Brisbane at the Liberal
Speaker 3: campaign headquarters bringing.
Speaker 2: You all the coverage from the night.
Speaker 3: If it's an upset, if it's a good night, if
Speaker 3: it's a bad night, Paul Murray and I will be
Speaker 3: there with you.
Speaker 2: We'll be on at the start of every hour. Right now,
Speaker 2: here's Paul