Speaker 1: Line is sharing. Good evening everyone, Steve Price filling in
Speaker 1: for Sharry March and all this week, and I'll be
Speaker 1: back with you, of course at six pm Eastern Time
Speaker 1: on Friday. Coming up on the program, Another busy day
Speaker 1: in politics locally and overseas. Donald Trump all bandaged up
Speaker 1: revs up his Republican convention in Milwaukee without even opening
Speaker 1: his mouth, while at the same time unveiling his running mate,
Speaker 1: a thirty nine year old military vet JD. Vance. I'll
Speaker 1: catch up with Brianna Lyman in New York in our
Speaker 1: first half hour tonight. Senior State and Federal Labor MP's
Speaker 1: running for cover as new allegations emerge about the extent
Speaker 1: of that corruption running through the Building Union the CFM EU,
Speaker 1: including standover tactics, threats of bashings, and illegal demands to
Speaker 1: unionize building sites, including of course, the massive Big Bill
Speaker 1: projects across all of Melbourne. The opposition police spokesman Brad
Speaker 1: Batten will be on the program with us later. Plus
Speaker 1: what happens when a state government runs out of money
Speaker 1: and the impact that that has on medical services, especially
Speaker 1: in regional rural towns. It's a national disgrace that large
Speaker 1: regional communities are treated like the poor cousins. Regional MP
Speaker 1: Jade Benham will have the details, but first and quite rightly,
Speaker 1: as we are transfixed and glued to the coverage of
Speaker 1: the attempted assassination of the potential next President of the
Speaker 1: United States, Donald Trump at that rally last weekend, and locally,
Speaker 1: we sit back and watch what we've known for years
Speaker 1: that the radical bullies in the CFMEU have allegedly taken
Speaker 1: over lucrative government funded infrastructure projects, gouging taxpayers with wage demands,
Speaker 1: enforcing non union aligned contractors off the site. Given all
Speaker 1: of that, it is still the cost of living stupid
Speaker 1: that is of most concerned in most Australians. Now, I'll
Speaker 1: get to a survey running the news limited tabloids today
Speaker 1: that will confirm what you already know. Everything we spend
Speaker 1: on today is costing us much more. It's much more
Speaker 1: expensive than two years ago. And that survey show is
Speaker 1: a trolley of everyday items has increased in one year
Speaker 1: by fourteen percent, not the four percent of inflation, fourteen percent.
Speaker 1: I have those details in a sec but just indulge
Speaker 1: me on Premier. Just Center Allen of Victoria and her
Speaker 1: donors the CFMU. I have never witnessed a better acting
Speaker 1: performance than the one I saw from this newby premier
Speaker 1: yesterday and again today. Let's go back to last Friday
Speaker 1: night and just after six pm we hear on Sky
Speaker 1: News broke the news that longtime union heavyweight John Setka
Speaker 1: had quit as the CFMEU secretary and his resignation was
Speaker 1: effective immediately happened just after six Sector agreed to be
Speaker 1: interviewed by me on the Friday Show via Zoom and
Speaker 1: then at the last minute he pulled the pin pulled out.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was because he did not
Speaker 1: want to talk to me given our history over the
Speaker 1: years when I've called out his union's tactics, but he
Speaker 1: quit the Zoom cross and that was that. Shortly after
Speaker 1: going to air, we learned that the nine newspapers in
Speaker 1: sixty Minutes, along with the Financial Review, had been conducting
Speaker 1: a lengthy behind the scenes investigation into both that union
Speaker 1: in general and Sector and others in particular who held
Speaker 1: senior jobs there. Seka's resignation came six months before he
Speaker 1: was due to go. And when you watched that investigation
Speaker 1: on sixty Minutes and images of secor himself dumping a
Speaker 1: suitcase on the driveway with a threatening message on it.
Speaker 1: His immediate departure made more sense. Fast forward to yesterday
Speaker 1: and today to Senor Allen, the premier who replaced the
Speaker 1: much low Daniel Andrews as Victorian Premier, had the cheek
Speaker 1: to stand up two days in a row and talk
Speaker 1: about union thugs and thagish behavior and talked about how
Speaker 1: this behavior had no place in her state.
Speaker 2: This is a rotten culture that must be pulled out
Speaker 2: by its roots, which is why today I want to
Speaker 2: outline a range of immediate actions that we are taking
Speaker 2: to address this fuggish bullying, intimidatory.
Speaker 1: Behavior, crimea river. This woman was the minister in charge
Speaker 1: of those big bill projects. Everyone but blind Freddy has
Speaker 1: known for years that claims the CFMEU were using government
Speaker 1: projects to line their pockets. Sector brag publicly about it,
Speaker 1: confirming stop Go sign holders could earn over two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year while nurses and teachers were on
Speaker 1: eighty thousand. He said Ford would not have enough Ford
Speaker 1: Ranger utes to go around. As his apprentices picked up
Speaker 1: a new wage deal with increases of over twenty percent
Speaker 1: over four years. That deal has now been put on hold.
Speaker 1: Then we learned an indigenous labor higher firm was threatened,
Speaker 1: according to the nine VS instigation with extreme violence on
Speaker 1: a Monash Freeway extension project, leading to that firm writing
Speaker 1: to both the Premier Premier Allen and interestingly to the
Speaker 1: Prime Minist Anthony Albanezi, now here's how the Premier tried
Speaker 1: to weasel her way out of that little pickle.
Speaker 3: Today, we need to establish new and clear processes for
Speaker 3: whistleblowers and complainants about construction companies and construction unions because
Speaker 3: what we have seen, and I acknowledge this, what we
Speaker 3: have seen shows that there are gaps in current reporting
Speaker 3: and complainant systems.
Speaker 1: Seriously, we've had two royal commissions, you've got a Commission
Speaker 1: of corruption that looks at your own government and the
Speaker 1: own own state. But as the Federal Opposition leader Opposition
Speaker 1: Michaulia Cash said today, labor governments across the country have
Speaker 1: been relying on CFMU donations and of course the Albanezy
Speaker 1: government in one of its first moves, abolished the Union
Speaker 1: Heated Building and consus Struction Commission that was charged with
Speaker 1: stopping this very behavior.
Speaker 4: All of Australians know that the corruption, the bullying, the
Speaker 4: thuggery and the intimidation it was never limited to the
Speaker 4: Victorian branch.
Speaker 5: This is endemic across Australia. We need mister alban Easy
Speaker 5: to stand.
Speaker 4: Up front the media explain himself to the Australian people.
Speaker 1: Industry Relations Minister Tony Burgh, of course, was charged with
Speaker 1: the job of shutting the BCC and has bragged about it.
Speaker 1: Since no one should fall for this false narrative from
Speaker 1: the most senior labor politicians in the country that sorry,
Speaker 1: we didn't know, we didn't see any of this. We
Speaker 1: condemn this awful behavior, no place for it in our country.
Speaker 1: What bs that all is? And trust me, just watch
Speaker 1: how some half baked inquiry will be set up with
Speaker 1: no teeth and everyone involved will live happily ever after.
Speaker 1: And also, don't believe those promises that we will not
Speaker 1: take money from that union ever again. Some how, some way,
Speaker 1: the union money will continue to flow. It has to
Speaker 1: because the unions rely on labor governments to deal them
Speaker 1: into taxpayer funded big projects. Watch this space just for
Speaker 1: I get to my first panel tonight. That survey of
Speaker 1: grocery items I mentioned now John Rolf in the News
Speaker 1: Limited Newspapers has found that a basket of the most
Speaker 1: basic groceries you can imagine will cost you fourteen percent
Speaker 1: more today than it did a year ago. Fourteen percent.
Speaker 1: And that's all the while your mortgage payments have gone
Speaker 1: up what is it now thirteen times in a row
Speaker 1: and two years your electricity and gas bills are through
Speaker 1: the roof, albeit with some recent relief. Insurance rises are cruel.
Speaker 1: You name it. If you are being smashed, and if
Speaker 1: you have children looking to buy a first house, good
Speaker 1: luck with that. Now this basket that John found a
Speaker 1: family spending three hundred dollars a week at the supermarket,
Speaker 1: That fourteen percent adds up to one thousand dollars annual
Speaker 1: increase in food costs alone. The price of things like
Speaker 1: eggs if you can find them, bread, cereal, chocolate, chips,
Speaker 1: and canned tomatoes all up, and they're hardly luxuries. And
Speaker 1: by the way, that fourteen percent figure is based on
Speaker 1: the cheapest shopping alternative at AUDI. So as the political
Speaker 1: attention concentrates on America and its violence and union thuggery,
Speaker 1: back here, that cost of living struggle is what's capturing
Speaker 1: the attention of average Australians. Let's bring in tonight's panel.
Speaker 1: Joining me is Sky News' host Caleb Bond and former
Speaker 1: Speaker of the House Broman Bishop. Great to see you both, Broman,
Speaker 1: how's your flat tire?
Speaker 6: Well, I had a very generous neighbor who came and
Speaker 6: picked me up and got me here on time.
Speaker 7: So neighborhoods are terrific.
Speaker 1: I imagine though, that if you needed to, you could have
Speaker 1: got the wheelbrace out and whip the tire off yourself.
Speaker 1: You know how to change a tire, and so many youngs,
Speaker 1: anyone under the age of thirty wouldn't even know how
Speaker 1: to do it.
Speaker 7: Well, the unfortunate. I think it's only a half wheel.
Speaker 6: A half wheel anyway, and I don't know that I
Speaker 6: would manage that very well.
Speaker 1: Got to run, Caleb. You could have gone around the
Speaker 1: Caleb and sorted that out.
Speaker 8: I could have, but I would have paid good money
Speaker 8: to watch Bronwin do that. I reckon if you go
Speaker 8: on the Sky News Australia YouTube channel and we had
Speaker 8: vision of that, I reckon it would leave all the
Speaker 8: Trump stuff for dead tonight.
Speaker 1: I reckon you're probably right now. I mentioned Victorian Premier
Speaker 1: just sent to Alan. She's confirmed Labour's National executive has
Speaker 1: begun the process of suspending the state CFMU Construction Division.
Speaker 1: I think another state today has also suspended its division, Bromwin.
Speaker 1: This is a replay of a horror story that we've
Speaker 1: witnessed for the last forty years.
Speaker 6: This is a replay of the d registration of the
Speaker 6: BLF when Bob Hawk finally close it down in nineteen
Speaker 6: eighty six and Norm Galligher went to jail for taking
Speaker 6: bride some companies Bob Hawk had the courage to de
Speaker 6: register Burke and Co. A lot of them are all saying, oh, no,
Speaker 6: we can't deregister. It would hurt the employees. No, it
Speaker 6: wouldn't begin to start to clean up the mess that
Speaker 6: has been left after Burke delivering for the CFMU and
Speaker 6: abolishing the watchdog that commission, the Australian Building and Construction Commission,
Speaker 6: was an essential part of keeping that industry on the
Speaker 6: straight and narrow. And the Labor Party gets millions and
Speaker 6: millions of dollars from that union, and they know where
Speaker 6: that money comes from. And I am just so over
Speaker 6: socialists who lie and socialists who behave in this way.
Speaker 6: And then prepared, prepared to say, oh, look, we're indignant
Speaker 6: we didn't know about it at all, when it is
Speaker 6: quite clear known about it all the time.
Speaker 7: Hypocrisy is just.
Speaker 1: Caleb has been Caleb. It's been an open secret. I
Speaker 1: mean I've written columns about it week after week after
Speaker 1: week for the last three years. I mean everyone in
Speaker 1: Melbourne knew that the big build projects and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the suburban rail loop that no one wants. The
Speaker 1: Monash Freeway was widened, you had the Northeast Tunnel, You've
Speaker 1: got the Westgate Tunnel. It's all manned by CFME EU
Speaker 1: workers who've got John Sepka to thank for inflated wages
Speaker 1: where stop go sign holders are getting two hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year.
Speaker 8: I know, it's extraordinary, isn't it. And the idea of
Speaker 8: thuggery on these CFMU work sites. I mean, look, I
Speaker 8: have to say that the work that has been done
Speaker 8: by the Nine Papers and Sixty Minutes, and in particular
Speaker 8: Nick Mackenzie on this has been excellent. But I had
Speaker 8: to chuckle a little bit when they revealed that there
Speaker 8: was allegedly infiltration of organized crime in the CFMU. Well,
Speaker 8: I just thought the CFMU was an organized crime gang itself.
Speaker 1: To be perfectly.
Speaker 8: Honest, I remember when I was at the Herald Suner's
Speaker 8: weekend chief of staff, and I occasionally had to handle
Speaker 8: your column, Steve, and we ran a story about a
Speaker 8: proper riot that broke out on one of these big
Speaker 8: build projects, because that was the lay of the land.
Speaker 8: This is how the CFMEU operates. If someone steps out
Speaker 8: of line, if someone isn't a member of the union,
Speaker 8: if they dare to question the hierarchy, they are in
Speaker 8: big trouble. Criminality and thuggery on CFMEU sites is nothing new.
Speaker 8: It's about as old as the Bible, to be perfectly honest,
Speaker 8: and if you watch the way that the Victorian branch
Speaker 8: of the CFMU, led by Setko, then went after the
Speaker 8: South Australian branch of the CFMEU and they took that over.
Speaker 8: He was an expansionist leader who was a very good
Speaker 8: union leader. You have to say, for his members he
Speaker 8: delivered exactly what they wanted. But they have had a chokehold,
Speaker 8: a stranglehold on work sites for a very long time,
Speaker 8: and for the federal government in particular to dismantle the
Speaker 8: building and construction Commission, which I am told in the
Speaker 8: cases it pursued through the Federal Court had a success
Speaker 8: rate of more than ninety percent, which proves that the
Speaker 8: work it was doing was needed and vital and legitimate
Speaker 8: for them to pull that apart and now say, oh,
Speaker 8: we have a problem in the CFMAU. We must do
Speaker 8: something about it. Pull the other one.
Speaker 1: Rom and you sat around a cabinet table when the
Speaker 1: Maritime Union of Australia shut down the docks because Patrick
Speaker 1: Corporation was trying to make them work properly. I went
Speaker 1: down to Port Melbourne to cover that picket line that
Speaker 1: was set up there and I came back tomcar all
Speaker 1: four tires had been jabbed with a screwdriver so that
Speaker 1: I couldn't drive away. One of the presenters from our
Speaker 1: radio station went down there to broadcast and was spat at.
Speaker 1: I mean, why is everybody in the labor movement trying
Speaker 1: to pretend that the Unit the Unions of Australia are
Speaker 1: some sort of goodie two shoes.
Speaker 6: Well, the important thing about that, the memory of what
Speaker 6: happened with Costigan, the Warves and so on, was that
Speaker 6: John Howard and Peter Reath showed courage. They had courage
Speaker 6: to take them on, and they had courage to deal
Speaker 6: with it, just as Bob Hawk had shown courage in
Speaker 6: shutting down the BLF in eighty six.
Speaker 7: But the problem is this, the CFM.
Speaker 6: E U was the inheritor of the inherited the BLF,
Speaker 6: and it took over all its nastiness. But the important
Speaker 6: thing was, while Howard was the Prime Minister, that industrial
Speaker 6: relations was made an absolute tenant of presiding over peaceful,
Speaker 6: honest construction industry.
Speaker 7: And it worked. But then, of course when we had the.
Speaker 6: Loss with the shall we say, the stronger laws that
Speaker 6: went in place and allowed the labor and the unions
Speaker 6: to come back and fight against the industrial relations laws,
Speaker 6: and then it kind of went on the back burner
Speaker 6: and it's grown up again. But to the extent that
Speaker 6: we've seen the Premier Allen when she was in charge
Speaker 6: of all that big build saying that builders had to
Speaker 6: go to the CFMAU, the AWU was being pushed right out.
Speaker 6: And the story that Channel nine showed that young Aboriginal
Speaker 6: boy who had gone there to work, but because he
Speaker 6: was in the wrong union, they just bullied him and
Speaker 6: he finally took his life. I mean, how hideous is
Speaker 6: that story.
Speaker 1: It's awful, it's heartbreaking and those politicians need to have
Speaker 1: a good heart look at themselves. I'm not sure Premier
Speaker 1: Allen's going to survive this. Just quite the quiet CAYLB.
Speaker 1: What did you make of that poll in the nine
Speaker 1: papers today that showed Peter Dutton has got his nose
Speaker 1: ahead of Anthony Albanesie preferred PM. I think the two
Speaker 1: party preferreds fifty to fifty now and the Labor primary
Speaker 1: vote is down in the twenties. I mean, it's quite
Speaker 1: a turnaround, isn't it.
Speaker 8: It's not terribly surprising that I have to say. I mean, look,
Speaker 8: let's be perfectly frank. If the federal government goes to
Speaker 8: an early election, which of course has been touted as
Speaker 8: a possibility, if it's not that it'll probably be in
Speaker 8: May next year, and why would you want to give
Speaker 8: up the opportunity to govern for as long as possible
Speaker 8: unless you're worried about interest rate rises coming through and
Speaker 8: killing you, which which they very well could do. But
Speaker 8: when and if they go to an election, what are
Speaker 8: they going to sell to the public as an achievement
Speaker 8: of their government. I mean, there's very little to crow
Speaker 8: about all the things that they said they were really
Speaker 8: wanted to achieve, apart from maybe deconstructing the Building and
Speaker 8: Construction Commission, and here we are talking about the CFMU tonight.
Speaker 8: But you know, the voice was a total failure. Was
Speaker 8: the whole thing that Alberanize basically staked his political capital on. Now,
Speaker 8: it didn't kill him as Prime Minister, but the one
Speaker 8: thing he really wanted to do is PM totally failed
Speaker 8: to do. The other thing he's really wanted to do
Speaker 8: as PM is bring inflation down and ultimately deliver an
Speaker 8: interest rate cut so that he can then go into
Speaker 8: an election that he sells on We've done the hard yards,
Speaker 8: we've improved things. We need your support to help us
Speaker 8: finish the job off. Well, in all likelihood, he's going
Speaker 8: to go into an election with at least one, probably
Speaker 8: two interest rate rises between now and that point in time,
Speaker 8: so we won't be able to crow about the great
Speaker 8: work he's done to repair the economy. Alberiz he has
Speaker 8: literally nothing to point to. So people are starting to
Speaker 8: look at the opposition and Dutton, who increasingly looks like
Speaker 8: a good leader. The only problem is I think that
Speaker 8: it's probably statistically mathematically impossible for the Coalition to take
Speaker 8: government from the point it is currently in. But when
Speaker 8: we're talking about minority, it's not impossible to think that
Speaker 8: the Coalition could form a minority government on the numbers
Speaker 8: that we're starting to look at.
Speaker 1: Caleb c on late debate tonight, Bronnie, well done, Good
Speaker 1: luck with the tire, Thanks for coming in. Talk to
Speaker 1: you on the program next week. Now coming up after
Speaker 1: the break, we'll have another look at what's going on
Speaker 1: in the United States, and we'll also continue to talk
Speaker 1: with Brad Batten from the Victorian Opposition about the bugish
Speaker 1: behavior of the Union movement. More on that to come.
Speaker 1: Welcome back Steve Price in for Shari Markson. Now all
Speaker 1: eyes are on the United States, of course, as the
Speaker 1: twenty four presidential election looms. Now Today was the start
Speaker 1: of the Republican National Convention where Donald Trump was going
Speaker 1: to be officially announced as the party's nominee. You'll be
Speaker 1: sworn in actually on Thursday, a triumph Trump. He made
Speaker 1: an appearance at this conference, and of course this was
Speaker 1: just days after that would be assassin attempted to take
Speaker 1: his life. He was met with one hell of a
Speaker 1: standing ovation have I looked at this.
Speaker 7: Please welcome the next President of the United States, Donald J.
Speaker 1: Trump, And of course the crowd there is a chanting fight, fight, fight,
Speaker 1: which is what Donald Trump said as he left the
Speaker 1: stage on the weekend after that bullet clipped his right ear.
Speaker 1: Joining me now is Elections correspondent at the Federalist Brian Lyman. Brian,
Speaker 1: have you come to this is a personal question, I know,
Speaker 1: but have you come to terms yet of you're living
Speaker 1: through there at the moment?
Speaker 9: God no, I mean, these last seventy two hours have
Speaker 9: been honestly a whirlwind, and I think for someone in
Speaker 9: America right now, we have lived through way too many
Speaker 9: historical events in the past three weeks.
Speaker 1: There are thousands of conspiracy theories going around and it's
Speaker 1: probably a bit early to talk about them, but you know,
Speaker 1: a lot to deal in them. But there is a
Speaker 1: major security lapse here that happened at that rally. Now,
Speaker 1: as each hour it seems to me goes by, the
Speaker 1: more worried you get about what they didn't do to
Speaker 1: protect Donald Trump.
Speaker 9: Yeah, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered.
Speaker 9: We are hoping that the head of the Secret Service
Speaker 9: detail will step down she's not willing to step down
Speaker 9: right now. And what's really disturbing is that the more
Speaker 9: we go, as the days come on, we're finding out information,
Speaker 9: For instance, that apparently there were snipers in the very
Speaker 9: building that the assassin was resting on top of, right,
Speaker 9: So they were in that building, they clearly knew it
Speaker 9: was a location to check. There's video footage a rally
Speaker 9: go alerting police moments before the shooting, I think up
Speaker 9: to two minutes saying there's somebody on the roof, right,
Speaker 9: there's a suspicious man, and nothing was done. So you
Speaker 9: have to wonder was this a deliberate lack of security
Speaker 9: or was it just so coincidental that every single thing
Speaker 9: went wrong.
Speaker 1: I haven't read this morning ran out reports that a
Speaker 1: local policeman who saw the shooter on that roof, who
Speaker 1: turned around and pointed the gun at him, He then
Speaker 1: dropped to the ground and did nothing else.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and that's something we've also heard. I've also heard
Speaker 9: reports that that officer then radioed over and said there's
Speaker 9: someone on the roof, which is when you see I
Speaker 9: don't know if you've seen the video yet of the.
Speaker 10: Secret Service sniper.
Speaker 9: He seemingly reacts very fast and then pulls the trigger
Speaker 9: and shoots the iss. But look, when an officer takes
Speaker 9: an oath to be a police officer in the United
Speaker 9: States of America, they are effectively saying that they're willing
Speaker 9: to put.
Speaker 5: Their life on the line.
Speaker 9: And so it was a little concerning that the police
Speaker 9: officer got scared and backed away knowing that this man
Speaker 9: had a gun pointed at the potential future president and
Speaker 9: the former president.
Speaker 1: We move forward now, obviously with the November election looming,
Speaker 1: what do you think this has done for Donald Trump's chances?
Speaker 1: And what do you believe the Biden camp must be
Speaker 1: trying to work out? Now, how are they're going to
Speaker 1: react to this?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think the Biden administration has seen hurdle after hurdle,
Speaker 9: because here's the thing, they've pulled their ads down. They
Speaker 9: might have been restored today, but at least the first
Speaker 9: forty eight hours they were pulled just out of respect
Speaker 9: for Donald Trump, right, and more importantly, you know, Joe
Speaker 9: Biden has come out and he said that the United
Speaker 9: States need to tone down the rhetoric. Right, they need to
Speaker 9: lower the temperature. The temperature has only been raised because
Speaker 9: people like Joe Biden called Donald Trump hitler. And so
Speaker 9: when you call someone hitler for the better part of
Speaker 9: eight years, what do you think that does to the
Speaker 9: public sentiment?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 9: People here hitler and they rightfully think, oh my god,
Speaker 9: a horrible person who doesn't deserve to live. But Donald
Speaker 9: Trump is no hitler. They just made that comparison because
Speaker 9: they thought it made them sound good. And now they're
Speaker 9: kind of being caught flat footed because if he was
Speaker 9: really hitler like they claimed was, they wouldn't be saying
Speaker 9: thank god Donald Trump survived. And so now they have
Speaker 9: to figure out a way to essentially address their voting
Speaker 9: base and address independent voters without heeding that rhetoric up again.
Speaker 1: The Democrats language has been a treasure. Just we've gone
Speaker 1: month after month knowing Donald Trump was going to be
Speaker 1: the nominee, and the Democrats keep talking about this man
Speaker 1: needs to be targeted. And that's exactly isn't what happened, right.
Speaker 9: Right, Joe Biden recently said, you know, it's time to
Speaker 9: put I think Donald Trump like in a bulls eye.
Speaker 9: It's that type of inflammatory rhetoric that leads people to
Speaker 9: believe that Donald Trump is a legitimate threat to democracy
Speaker 9: or to the Republic and that he needs to be
Speaker 9: taken out.
Speaker 10: And it's up to democrats, I think, to one issue
Speaker 10: an apology to.
Speaker 9: Donald Trump and also, too more importantly, let the American
Speaker 9: public know that this was just, unfortunately, really an appropriate
Speaker 9: campaign jargon. And we have a show over here on
Speaker 9: MSNBC called Morning Joe. It's one of the worst shows
Speaker 9: you could watch, but the entire panel was pulled off
Speaker 9: EIR this morning. They weren't allowed to go on because
Speaker 9: MSNBC executives realize that that show is ground zero for
Speaker 9: the hostile and disgusting rhetoric that leads to people thinking
Speaker 9: Donald Trump, you know, deserves to die because you know,
Speaker 9: apparently he's hitler. So that's an important first step. But
Speaker 9: I hope to see other networks and other people kind
Speaker 9: of take that approach. You know, let's actually tone down
Speaker 9: the ruditic, let's stop playing someone hitler because we don't
Speaker 9: like their policy.
Speaker 1: The left had no shine. But you know, the Jack
Speaker 1: Black comedy band, I'm not sure if you're aware this
Speaker 1: is tearing astride at the moment one of the guitarists
Speaker 1: had this decide this Trump next time? Oh quite Rightley,
Speaker 1: I've now put the tour on Hold, what did you
Speaker 1: make of that?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I saw that video today.
Speaker 9: It's so disheartening and disgusting and it's part of a
Speaker 9: larger problem here in American Hollywood. And then clearly now
Speaker 9: unfortunately in Australia, you know, you go back to it.
Speaker 9: I think it was twenty seventeen, Kathy Griffin, a really
Speaker 9: unfunny woman. She held a decapitated Donald Trump head. She
Speaker 9: held it up with the picture. Snoop Dogg put up
Speaker 9: a video basically calling for Donald Trump to be killed.
Speaker 9: Now you have Jack Black laughing at someone saying that
Speaker 9: Donald Trump unfortunately survived an assassination attempt. And so when
Speaker 9: you have these people with these very large platforms making
Speaker 9: it permissible to say these horrible things and to do
Speaker 9: these grotesque photo shoots, it again sends the message that
Speaker 9: Donald Trump, you know, needs to be taken out, that
Speaker 9: that's okay. They're trying to downplay assassination attempts by like
Speaker 9: cushioning the blow.
Speaker 1: Essentially, Brandy, you've covered Donald Trump for a long time.
Speaker 1: Are you surprised at how calm he's been since this
Speaker 1: has all happened. Then the discipline he and his team
Speaker 1: are now showing Donald.
Speaker 9: Trump has been a very different Donald Trump than twenty
Speaker 9: sixteen and twenty twenty in this election cycle, especially this
Speaker 9: past month since the debate, he's been relatively quiet. Right,
Speaker 9: you never interrupt your enemy when they're making a mistake.
Speaker 9: Then this assassination attempt comes, and Donald Trump's initial reaction
Speaker 9: is to let the crowd know to fight. Right, It's
Speaker 9: okay to be strong. He's safe, And I think that
Speaker 9: is a great juxtaposition to someone like Joe Biden. Right,
Speaker 9: Joe Biden goes on a few international trips because he
Speaker 9: signed up to do that job as president, and then
Speaker 9: hides in his camp Camp David for a week, hides
Speaker 9: out of the public view. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is literally
Speaker 9: nearly assassinated. He this much, he almost died. And the
Speaker 9: next day he's out golfing, and then today he's out
Speaker 9: seeing the public at the RNC convention. That's his show
Speaker 9: of unity and strength that Americans are looking for right
Speaker 9: now and that we've been sorely lacking for four years.
Speaker 1: President Biden. Look, he's unusually been doing some one on
Speaker 1: one interviews. He sat down with NBC. He was asked
Speaker 1: about his ritrick that you and I just spoke about.
Speaker 1: He was his reaction, you.
Speaker 11: Called your opponent an existential threat. On a call a
Speaker 11: week ago, he said it's time to put Trump in
Speaker 11: the bullseye. There's some dispute about the context, but I
Speaker 11: think you appreciate.
Speaker 1: Crosshairs focus on.
Speaker 3: Look, the truth of the matter was that I guess
Speaker 3: I was talking about at the time was there's very
Speaker 3: little focus on Trump's agenda.
Speaker 1: Do you buy that?
Speaker 5: No, not at all.
Speaker 9: Joe Biden the reason he won in twenty twenty, what
Speaker 9: he campaigned on was I'm not Donald Trump. He didn't
Speaker 9: have a message, he didn't have politics or policies that
Speaker 9: made sense. It was simply, I'm the lesser of two evils,
Speaker 9: and that worked in twenty twenty, and polling now indicates
Speaker 9: that that same messaging doesn't work. People are disillusioned with
Speaker 9: Biden for the past four years, especially Black voters, young
Speaker 9: black voters, and so they don't really feel that same way.
Speaker 9: And Democrats have tried to make this race a referendum
Speaker 9: once again on Donald Trump. But the reality is, after
Speaker 9: four years of Joe Biden's policies versus four years of
Speaker 9: Donald Trump, hearing you know, threat to democracy doesn't hit
Speaker 9: the same way did in twenty twenty when you realize
Speaker 9: that you'd rather someone be a fake threat to democracy
Speaker 9: because he's not, and have lower gas prices than have
Speaker 9: high gas prices, can for to eat and can barely
Speaker 9: put a roof over your head, and at least have
Speaker 9: someone who you know is quiet.
Speaker 10: He doesn't say things that people necessarily don't want to hear.
Speaker 1: The big announcement today is obviously Donald Trump's running night.
Speaker 1: He has picked JD. Vance. I don't know much about him.
Speaker 1: What do you know about him?
Speaker 10: Jadie Vance was a surprising pick for me. I think
Speaker 10: Donald Trump he.
Speaker 9: Had certainly had easier pathways to reelection someone like Senator
Speaker 9: Marco Rubio, Governor Glenn Youngkin. They appeal to suburban, college
Speaker 9: educated voters, and that is one of the most important
Speaker 9: voting blocks for Donald Trump because he had them in
Speaker 9: twenty sixteen. He lost them a little bit in twenty twenty,
Speaker 9: which forced which didn't help him get over the edge
Speaker 9: in Georgia in Pennsylvania, I don't necessarily know Vance is
Speaker 9: going to be that person to bridge that gap. That
Speaker 9: being said, Vance appeals to midwesterners. He appeals to middle
Speaker 9: working class Americans and Donald Trump has now created this
Speaker 9: very geographically, very ticket. Right he has the East coast,
Speaker 9: Jade Vance has the Midwest, and so I do think
Speaker 9: jade Vance brings that to the table. He is someone
Speaker 9: who's been a senator for two years, so it's not
Speaker 9: a kind of experience. That being said, about eighty percent
Speaker 9: of people don't know who ged Vance is, and that
Speaker 9: is a benefit because Republicans will not have to run
Speaker 9: defense for ged Vance and he'll actually have the opportunity
Speaker 9: to craft his own narrative about who he is as
Speaker 9: a senator and who he will be as the vice president.
Speaker 1: Well, Branda, we're in fascinating times. I really appreciate you
Speaker 1: staying up late for us. Brianna Lyman, thank you very much.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: And of course that convention continues tomorrow. We'll have some
Speaker 1: more highlights tomorrow night on the program back Home. Now,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned at the beginning of the program tonight,
Speaker 1: with the saga with the CFMAU and the Victorian government,
Speaker 1: it's a complete not a mess today. Cindra Allen, the Premier,
Speaker 1: confirmed that a union suspension is underway. She defended her
Speaker 1: actions on the allegations the CFMEU officials were threatening violence
Speaker 1: to contractors. Joining me now is Victoria's shadow please, Minister
Speaker 1: Brad Batten. I'm not buying. I mean, it's been an
Speaker 1: open secret, hasn't it, Brad about anyone who wanted to
Speaker 1: have a look that the CFMU were acting corruptly on
Speaker 1: big building sites.
Speaker 12: Yeah, good morning or good evening, Steve. It's great to
Speaker 12: be on again. And it's very interesting you say that.
Speaker 12: I think this has been raised with Jacinta Allen when
Speaker 12: she's been the premier. And also we can't forget she
Speaker 12: was the minister in control of the big build projects,
Speaker 12: dealing with the cf for MEU, signing off on contracts
Speaker 12: and encouraging what organizations would be taking over those big
Speaker 12: build projects.
Speaker 1: This is not new.
Speaker 12: This is over ten years old, where Justinta Allen has
Speaker 12: seen what has been happening on our building sites and
Speaker 12: the changes we've had. And it's very easy to get stuck, Steve,
Speaker 12: into the financial side of it. And we know there's
Speaker 12: been cost blowouts. Every person's heard about that, but we've
Speaker 12: also seen evidence of one child now who has gone
Speaker 12: home and taken his life. We can't forget that suicide
Speaker 12: in our construction industry. It's at its highest here in
Speaker 12: this state. We've had it in a long period of time.
Speaker 12: You have to actually then go, Okay, why aren't we
Speaker 12: even investigating that? Why aren't we looking at why these
Speaker 12: young men are going into this industry and then there's
Speaker 12: got them coming out with mental health issues and taking
Speaker 12: their lives. This is something that's just beyond money. I
Speaker 12: think we need to be having a full and formal
Speaker 12: investigation into this, and two labor governments, the Victorian government
Speaker 12: and the federal government, need to start explaining why they've
Speaker 12: removed all the powers from effectively the police on construction
Speaker 12: sites in both levels of government that have allowed this
Speaker 12: to occur across the state. My answer is quite simple.
Speaker 12: They get a lot of donations from the sea for me, you,
Speaker 12: and they can't afford to not get them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, millions of dollars of donations and it shouldn't be
Speaker 1: up to And I must congratulate the nine papers and
Speaker 1: sixty minutes in the financial review they've done on our
Speaker 1: standing job on this investigation, although as you point out,
Speaker 1: some of what they've revealed is not you we already
Speaker 1: knew about it, but they pulled this whole package together
Speaker 1: to show just how corrupt this union was. And I
Speaker 1: was on air on Friday night when Seka announced that
Speaker 1: he was quitting. He was going to come on the
Speaker 1: show and speak, and then he disappeared and turned his
Speaker 1: zoom off. So I'm not quite sure what happened there,
Speaker 1: but it shouldn't take the media had to have to
Speaker 1: find this given we've had two Royal commissions, and we
Speaker 1: did have until the Federal Labor Government Brad knocked it
Speaker 1: on the head the Australian Building Construction Commission, the ABCC
Speaker 1: that was doing an outstanding job and then sector bullied
Speaker 1: the blok who used to run that, who's now running
Speaker 1: the umpiring in the AFL.
Speaker 12: IF people want a better example, and I refer to
Speaker 12: the football a lot, and you can tell by what's
Speaker 12: behind me. When he reacted the way he did when
Speaker 12: Steve McBurney got his job, that was exactly what the
Speaker 12: CFMAU is with their management and their structure. It is
Speaker 12: bullied or costs, it is ensuring they get their own way.
Speaker 12: We've seen now evidence and I know Mick Nick McKenzie's
Speaker 12: done an amazing job in what he's done in his
Speaker 12: research in this but it's actually highlighting the fact of
Speaker 12: the criminal elements that are within the sector now on
Speaker 12: the construction sites here continuously, the drug taking increase and
Speaker 12: the use sales on construction sites here in our state.
Speaker 12: These aren't private construction sites. These are government construction sites.
Speaker 12: Most of the building going on in this state at
Speaker 12: the moment is the big build project. They've effectively running
Speaker 12: everything that is being controlled in this state. We've seen
Speaker 12: it when we've had in the past with violence on
Speaker 12: the streets from the CFMU that started over ten twelve
Speaker 12: years ago, when we saw it where horses were attacked,
Speaker 12: the Victoria police were attacked on the street by these
Speaker 12: thugs who are out there not protesting, not trying to
Speaker 12: say they want to pay rise or keep their sites safe.
Speaker 12: They just wanted to attack police. So this is not
Speaker 12: new within this industry. We need to stamp it out.
Speaker 12: And the way you can do that the Victorian Liberal
Speaker 12: Party and National Parties are committed to having the construction
Speaker 12: enforcement Victoria. We want to make sure that we've got
Speaker 12: the police on the ground using organizations to ensure we
Speaker 12: can stamp this out. If the FEDS won't do it,
Speaker 12: we will. We want to make sure that's going to happen.
Speaker 12: It is essential, but we need an independent formal investigation
Speaker 12: now to find out what connections not just from John Seca,
Speaker 12: what connections come from just into Allen's office, how many
Speaker 12: connections are in government, how many members of the current
Speaker 12: Parliament who are Labor Party members are attached to or
Speaker 12: taking donations from the CFMU. We want that evidence on
Speaker 12: the table because at the end of the day, the
Speaker 12: fish rots from the head. We've seen massive concerns through
Speaker 12: Victoria and that's starting with the current Premier, the former premier,
Speaker 12: and nearly every minister that sits at the table controlling
Speaker 12: Treasury at the moment.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you who else wants to know about
Speaker 1: all of those inner details, Brad, and that's the Victorian
Speaker 1: tax players who are being ripped off as these projects
Speaker 1: blow out in costs. Brad batanall was a pleasure, Thank
Speaker 1: you very much for joining us. That's Brad Baton. They're
Speaker 1: still to come talking about communities in the regions suffering
Speaker 1: under tough budget targets. It's always the bush that cops it.
Speaker 1: A hospital in one country town in Australia is considering
Speaker 1: shutting its Emergency Department if you believe it. Plenty more
Speaker 1: to come after the break the Green's new plan for
Speaker 1: the next election, plus an investigation reveals the extent of
Speaker 1: the cost of living crisis. Welcome back to the program.
Speaker 1: Filling in of course tonight on sky Look I mentioned
Speaker 1: at the start of the program and I get sick
Speaker 1: and tired of the fact that regional and rural Australia
Speaker 1: gets treated like the poor cousins when it comes to
Speaker 1: the provision of health services. Now we all know Victoria
Speaker 1: is broke. I mean that's just a fact and it's
Speaker 1: going to be broke for a very long time. So
Speaker 1: what the treasure at Tim Pallas and the Premier to
Speaker 1: Cinder Allen, who we've talked a lot about tonight, what
Speaker 1: they've had to do is telehealth providers that they've got
Speaker 1: to cut their budgets. I mean there's simply no money
Speaker 1: around and this is going to deliver a crisis for
Speaker 1: region and rural Victoria. Now they're scrambling to cut costs
Speaker 1: in a bid to ease that crippling debt. Now tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of Victorians that's reported in the Herald Sun
Speaker 1: this week are now facing being left without critical emergency care. Now.
Speaker 1: One of the places most badly affected is the Mildurra
Speaker 1: based hospital. Now Heraldsun reported that the only way that
Speaker 1: hospital can meet Labour's tough new targets is by can
Speaker 1: you believe this and if you know Milduro, it's quite remote,
Speaker 1: very remote. In fact, it's in the most remote corner
Speaker 1: of Victoria. The only way they can meet those targets
Speaker 1: is by shutting down their emergency department, ending pediatric care.
Speaker 1: There was even talk about having to shut down other
Speaker 1: arms of the hospital. Joining me to discuss this is
Speaker 1: National's member for Mildura, Jade Benham Jade. What the hell
Speaker 1: has has this come to?
Speaker 13: I mean, it's if you needed a reality check on
Speaker 13: how dire the system is in Victoria as far as
Speaker 13: public health goes.
Speaker 5: This is it.
Speaker 13: When you have a health minister telling the local board
Speaker 13: and the local management that they need to do better
Speaker 13: than the practical measures the board had already outlined.
Speaker 5: It is just abhorrent. It's insanity.
Speaker 13: And given that our nearest health service is four hundred
Speaker 13: kilometers away and will we service a tri state area,
Speaker 13: you know we're far west New South Wales and the
Speaker 13: Riverland in South Australia as well.
Speaker 5: It's absolutely insane.
Speaker 1: So you're a proud Maley girl, you love that area.
Speaker 1: But I mean for the rest of Australia watching is tonight.
Speaker 1: I mean, just explain mil Juror's as far away from
Speaker 1: Melbourne as you can get in Victoria without going across
Speaker 1: the Murray into New South Wales or west into South Australia.
Speaker 1: Where would your nearest emergency department be if God forbid
Speaker 1: the Milgeia Hospital had to shut.
Speaker 13: THEIRS, it would be Bendigo. And we can see Bendigo
Speaker 13: and it is harder to get to than it is
Speaker 13: than it is to Melbourne. It is insane. Bendigo is
Speaker 13: our nearest. There's swan Hill, but swan Hill under construction
Speaker 13: at the moment, so their capacity is even though their
Speaker 13: population is much smaller.
Speaker 5: There is an emergency room.
Speaker 13: There, but Bendigo is where they are going to push patients.
Speaker 1: So if I'm out on a farm and I'm doing
Speaker 1: some labor that requires me to use heavy machinery and
Speaker 1: I get badly hurt, am I being flown to bendigar
Speaker 1: Or Am I being packed into the back of an
Speaker 1: ambulance and driven down the highway.
Speaker 5: It's you are being put in an ambulance now.
Speaker 13: I've been speaking to ambulance members over the weekend and
Speaker 13: ambulance members in the far northwest of the state, in
Speaker 13: fact statewide, are under such pressure. But when you've got
Speaker 13: ambulances even making the trip between robin Vale and Miljura
Speaker 13: because there's no emergency room in Robinvale, I mean, it's
Speaker 13: just how amb has already so overworked and to take
Speaker 13: them four hundred kilometers away is just insanity. I do
Speaker 13: know that there are twenty two medical flights per day
Speaker 13: already out of Mildura Regional Airport. That is almost one
Speaker 13: an hour. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: Who's paying for that?
Speaker 13: Well, I mean they're royal flying doctors and sometimes Ambulance Victoria.
Speaker 13: But Ambulance Victoria are also in huge financial strife at
Speaker 13: the moment, and I'm sure that there'll be more to
Speaker 13: come on that in the next few days. But it's
Speaker 13: essentially the taxpayer is paying for this, and it's just
Speaker 13: a brutal reminder that this allen labor government can't prioritize,
Speaker 13: certainly can't manage money or the health system, and it's
Speaker 13: people like us in Mildura and the Nali that are
Speaker 13: paying the price every single day.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Jay Benham, who's the National's member for Mildura.
Speaker 1: Explain to me, forget about emergency apartment for a second.
Speaker 1: If I'm a pregnant mum and need to give birth
Speaker 1: then suddenly something might go wrong. Or if I need
Speaker 1: peace pediatric care, what's the hospital providing in mill Dura
Speaker 1: for me with these cuts in place.
Speaker 13: Well, currently we have a new pediatric unit and we
Speaker 13: have maternity. I had my two sons in Mildura. If
Speaker 13: the maternity service is there, But what the government is
Speaker 13: asking of management and the board is to illustrate that
Speaker 13: to break even and get to a break even position,
Speaker 13: they need to cut maternity services. Now that is absolutely
Speaker 13: ludicrous for a community that.
Speaker 5: Is so far away.
Speaker 13: I mean we're the most isolated regional city in the state.
Speaker 1: What would we do.
Speaker 13: We would have to either make plans to go to
Speaker 13: Bendigo or swan Hill or somewhere else that's also under
Speaker 13: extreme pressure to birth. Now, I know that when you
Speaker 13: are pregnant and just about ready to give birth, things
Speaker 13: don't always go to plans, so that it's not practical.
Speaker 5: It's just not.
Speaker 1: On the jade. On the broader question, I mean, how
Speaker 1: does your community, the people of Milduror feel when they
Speaker 1: see the state labor government plowing more money and in fact,
Speaker 1: the Premier de center Ala last week said we are
Speaker 1: plowing ahead with a suburban rail loop, which, as I've described,
Speaker 1: a train line from nowhere to somewhere no one wants
Speaker 1: to go. How do you feel as a taxpayer of
Speaker 1: Victoria when you see all of that money going into
Speaker 1: these city based projects, which to my eye are all
Speaker 1: about saving labour seats in suburban Melbourne, of course they.
Speaker 13: Are, and keeping the unions like CFMAU happy. Meanwhile, us
Speaker 13: up here in the great northwest of the state that
Speaker 13: are producing all of the food for the city are
Speaker 13: still without a passenger rail service. We're still without an
Speaker 13: efficiently running rail freight service, and the trucks are just
Speaker 13: getting bigger, the roads are crumbling. So when we see
Speaker 13: and this is one of my biggest bugbears, when we
Speaker 13: see all of that money and paying twenty six million
Speaker 13: dollars a day in interest free payments, when we see
Speaker 13: all of that money going into huge holes under the
Speaker 13: city and a suburban rail loop, we are just befuddled.
Speaker 13: I think is the most diplomatic way I could put
Speaker 13: it at the moment.
Speaker 5: But it is just crazy and people are angry. They
Speaker 5: have had enough.
Speaker 13: They know that Labor has been on the nose for
Speaker 13: a long time. And it's just as you said earlier, Steve,
Speaker 13: we just feel like the four cousins.
Speaker 5: We're just out here to grow the food.
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's pathetic and good luck to you.
Speaker 1: Let's keep in touch and anytime you want to ere
Speaker 1: your grievances on this issue, I'd love to have you
Speaker 1: back on the program.
Speaker 5: Jade, thanks a lot, Thanks so much, Steve, appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: How impressive is Jade. I must get her regularly on
Speaker 1: the Friday Show. Plenty more to come. The Greens new
Speaker 1: plan for the next election is one little join us
Speaker 1: as well. Welcome back to Steve Price Infushari for the
Speaker 1: rest of the week. As I mentioned, Green's leader Adam
Speaker 1: Bant has outlined his plan in The Australian Today for
Speaker 1: the next election by calling his party the robin Hood Party,
Speaker 1: whatever that might mean. He says the Greens have replaced
Speaker 1: Labor as the authentic party of the center left, adopting
Speaker 1: stronger policies to fight inequality. Well, we'll see about that.
Speaker 1: Joining me to discuss this is LMP MP Garth Hamilton
Speaker 1: with us from Queensland tonight and LABOR Daniel Molino, who
Speaker 1: is in Victoria. Welcome to you both. Daniel. Just before
Speaker 1: we get onto Adam Bant, you hold the seat of
Speaker 1: Fraser in Melbourne and Derrim. It is within that seat
Speaker 1: where that dreadful fire that we saw unfold at the
Speaker 1: end of last week in the chemical factory. What's the
Speaker 1: situation there now? Is it all resolved? But boy it
Speaker 1: looked very dangerous. Oh hi Steve, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 14: Yeah, look, it was very concerning and I'll be seeking
Speaker 14: a briefing from the EPA and Melbourne Water.
Speaker 1: As to the status of that.
Speaker 14: There're state agencies, but I think it's very important that
Speaker 14: they provide briefing to all levels of government and I think,
Speaker 14: as you say, what it raises is issues around the
Speaker 14: management of those sites. But of course there are potentially
Speaker 14: longer term issues when there are incidents like that, around
Speaker 14: the water supply, around the firefighting that needs to go
Speaker 14: on in order to bring those kinds of incidents to
Speaker 14: under control, and whether or not some of the firefighting
Speaker 14: materials end up getting into the water supply. So fortunately,
Speaker 14: my understanding is that there were no serious injuries as
Speaker 14: a result of this incident, but there have been in
Speaker 14: similar incidents in the past, so it's really worth looking
Speaker 14: at closely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a miracle that nobody was heard Garth just
Speaker 1: on Adam Bant, did you I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: read that manifesto in the Australian today. I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: writing about it at the weekend. What do you make
Speaker 1: of his interpretation of where the Coalition and the Labor
Speaker 1: Party sit on the left and the right.
Speaker 15: Well, look, like all times, when Adam opens his mouth,
Speaker 15: I don't think he's being entirely honest. My good friend
Speaker 15: Dan there will know this. He's down in Melbourne having
Speaker 15: to fight the Greens. Look, why would he give up
Speaker 15: being the party of complaint. I don't believe him for
Speaker 15: a second. The Greens have got this great scheme going
Speaker 15: where they tell people that he's lovely, cuddly environmentally friendly people.
Speaker 5: They're not.
Speaker 15: They've got a very clear of view on what they
Speaker 15: want to do with your money. If you work for it,
Speaker 15: they want to take it and give it to somebody else.
Speaker 15: They've come up with all these wonderful slogans. But problemly
Speaker 15: is being in government, she held to accounts, you have
Speaker 15: to do things, you get some responsibility put on your shoulders.
Speaker 15: The Greens don't want that. This is all just make
Speaker 15: believe and quite frankly, I think it's a it's so
Speaker 15: fast that the Greens pretend or that we'd even imagine
Speaker 15: them taking on that sort of responsibility. They don't speak
Speaker 15: of that, don't want it.
Speaker 1: Daniel, have you got a Green against you? What's your
Speaker 1: margin over them?
Speaker 14: Well, look, I've got a decent number of people who
Speaker 14: vote Green in my electorate. And look, I understand that
Speaker 14: there is a bit of frustration with both major parties
Speaker 14: at the minute, but look, my concern with the Greens
Speaker 14: is that they are offering, and I agree with Garth,
Speaker 14: they're offering a populist, superficially attractive alternative. I think when
Speaker 14: you look at the Greens over the last decade or more,
Speaker 14: I went and had to look at the Greens primary
Speaker 14: vote for the last five elections. In twenty ten, their
Speaker 14: vote was around twelve percent and it's been going up
Speaker 14: and down for the period in between then and the
Speaker 14: last election in twenty twenty two, when again it was
Speaker 14: approximately twelve percent. So look, the Greens are kind of
Speaker 14: hovering around this just over ten percent, ten to twelve
Speaker 14: percent margin. And I think what that reflects is the
Speaker 14: fact that the Greens offer what I would describe as
Speaker 14: an extremist foreign policy to the Australian community, which the
Speaker 14: vast majority of people aren't interested in. And when it
Speaker 14: comes to economic policy, when it comes to their tax policy,
Speaker 14: when it comes to things like rent controls, they're not
Speaker 14: the Robin Hoods. Rather what they are economically irresponsible people
Speaker 14: who are basically trying to make everybody.
Speaker 1: For People will wake up to them, I'm sure about that.
Speaker 1: Garth Peter Dutton's got his nose in front of the poles.
Speaker 15: Well, look, you know say what all politicians say when
Speaker 15: you talk about polling, there's only one that matters, and
Speaker 15: that's the election. But I think the troubling thing for
Speaker 15: Labor would definitely be the trend that you've seen in
Speaker 15: those polling numbers, particular on the resolve pole. This has
Speaker 15: been going quite steadily downhill since mate. My take on it,
Speaker 15: like most people, I think this is what happens when
Speaker 15: you take your eye off the economy. You know, we
Speaker 15: saw eighteen months of this government focused on the voice
Speaker 15: and unfortunate during that time. I think that's when things
Speaker 15: were getting bad, and the government's done a lot of
Speaker 15: work to try and tell people that this is now
Speaker 15: their number one priority. To be honest, I think people
Speaker 15: are a little bit concerned about that. And when they
Speaker 15: see the price of everything going up around and they
Speaker 15: see the threat of inflation continuing, interest rate rises potentially
Speaker 15: continuing on into the future, they get worried and they
Speaker 15: turn a look at the government and they're making an
Speaker 15: assessment as to how seriously they've taken these challenges.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I said at the beginning of the program that its
Speaker 1: cost of living stupid, and that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1: Daniel Garth, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
Speaker 1: We'll have a bit more time next week. We just
Speaker 1: got a bit jammed by Donald Trump's goings on today.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Coming up, I'll be back to
Speaker 1: host Shari tomorrow night. Coming up on the program after me.
Speaker 1: Well that's for me tonight. I'll see you tomorrow night.