WEBVTT - The Late Debate | 19 February 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:00.480 Lately. 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:04.800 Welcome to the Late Debase. 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:09.000 Well, good evening and thanks for joining us on the 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.680 Late Debate. James Macpherson with Lucy's Alec and Caleb Bond 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.759 coming up tonight. The New Zealand tourism campaign that sounds 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.520 more like a clearance sale. We'll show you that a 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.200 little later. I'm not sure it's going to work. Plus 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:24.720 when we look at what's making news tomorrow, the asy 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.920 O boss warns of foreign state sponsored murder plots here 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:34.320 on Australian soil, journalists, politicians and activists targeted. 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:35.360 By foreign states. 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.240 Plus big news on the train strike that has hounded 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.080 commuters in Sydney over the last couple of days. We'll 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:44.800 get to all of that shortly. But first here's a 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.200 question I've been asking. Are they keeping our young people 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.800 safe or are they promoting drug use? That's a good 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.000 question to ask of the New South Wales government after 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:59.279 it announced and gave advanced notice that pill testing will 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.680 be conducted and trialed at the Woongong Music Festival in 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:06.200 March now, the Health Minister Ryan Park announced that the 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.880 government would provide free testing of illicit drugs at the 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.520 Yours and Ols Festival on March first. It's the first 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.560 time pill testing will be offered in New South Wales. 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.520 The government would decide next year whether or not to 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.959 make it permanent. Now we've heard the arguments before because 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:26.280 the Victorian government has been through this process. On the 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:28.880 one hand, they argue that young people are going to 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.440 take drugs anyway, so we might as well test them 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.120 to make sure the dangerous drugs are not completely dangerous 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.920 before they take them. On the other hand, if we're 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.080 going to say that drugs are illegal, how can we 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:44.520 then say the state will test your illegal drugs to 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.039 make sure they're not dangerous before handing you back your 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.720 illegal drugs so you can illegally take them. It doesn't 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.400 really make sense, does it. What strikes me about this 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.680 event in New South Wales is that the New South 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.920 Wales state government is effectively advertising, giving advanced notice. If 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.400 you go to the Yours and the Owls Music Festival 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.440 in Wollongong on March first, there'll be pill testing, which 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:10.880 means police will have been instructed to turn a blind 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.320 eye to people with drugs, because how else will trust 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.440 be built for the young people to go to the 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.359 pill testing center. Now this has been trialed in Victoria. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.400 The most recent trial in the last week of December. 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:30.519 They tested six hundred pills, mostly cocaine, MDMA and keeptamine 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:35.240 and they found no highly dangerous substances. So that's at 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.200 least six hundred illegal pills that were tested and then 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:42.560 handed back to young people so they could take them 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.239 as police turned a blind eye. They said it was 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.360 a resounding success, and here was their proof. They said 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:51.840 because forty percent of the young people at the pill 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:56.040 testing center told officials they would probably use less drugs 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.080 in the future. Well of course they're going to say that, 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.639 aren't they. And that's despite the fact that one person 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.320 overdosed on the first day of the pill testing regime. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.040 I think that this is simply advertising to young people. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:12.400 If you want to take a list. 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:14.320 At drugs at the music festival, I tell you there's 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.080 one in Wollongong on March the first. Police will be 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.560 going easy because pill testing will be available. 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:21.320 Isn't this encouraging drugs listening? 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.120 It's normalizing drug use. Come one, come all, here's the 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:29.840 perfect destination for you to avoid taking dodgy drugs from 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.440 your dealer who you just met on the street. Corner 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.560 one night and decided, Hey, this is going to be 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.040 a perfect score for me. Cheap drugs and I can 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.040 get them tested and make sure that I can get 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.600 away from this safely. There are so many myths and 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.200 so much propaganda when it comes to this. You know 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.400 they're arguing effectively that number one. This came from the 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.400 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. They came out a 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.880 year ago and said the pill testing could have prevented 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.320 sixty four festival deaths. How do we know that for sure? 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.560 When not only are the testing curate themselves right, they're 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.440 not actually able to identify all of the strains of 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.200 chemicals that are being tested in this instance. But how 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:08.040 can they prove that? 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:08.320 To me? 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:10.880 That sounds like propaganda? You know what would prevent sixty 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:15.600 four festival deaths and overdoses. Don't take illegal drugs, don't 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.160 do it. And what we're effectively saying to these youths 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.840 is come on, we've got a safe environment for you 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.280 where we can test them and we can normalize drug use. 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.520 But once you leave this area, there's the double standard. 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.560 Once you leave this area, if we catch you with 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.880 these drugs, they are effectively illegal and we're gonna lock 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:33.280 you up for it, and we're gonna charge you with 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.960 some kind of offense. It's outrageous. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:37.760 Well, I think we need to talk about what the 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.400 real problem here is, and that is that the music 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:42.960 at these festivals is so bad that they had to 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:44.600 take drugs in order to be able to. 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:45.040 Come with it. 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:49.200 Have you? I mean, look, I'm gonna break your heart here. No, 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.560 I've never been in too funny and funny about that, 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:52.040 isn't it. 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.239 But if you listen to the songs, clearly the musicians 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:56.360 were on drugs. 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:57.240 Correct, correct it all? 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.119 It all makes sense right, But I've always wondered how 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.440 this actually works because you have the premier standing up 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.120 and saying, you know, illegal drugs are still illegal in 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.080 New South Wales. Everyone else's illegal drugs are still illegal 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.640 in New South Wales. But you're saying there's a place 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.000 where you can take your drugs, and presumably you are 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.880 taking to have your drugs tested on the basis that 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.440 you're not going to be arrested for doing so. Otherwise, 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.600 who the hell would take their drugs to be tested. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.440 I mean it's basically saying, copper, go over there, that's 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:26.839 where you go and arrest the people. 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:27.919 Right, So they've. 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.200 Said there will be a quote unquote amnesty zone at 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.039 the site of the testing and around the side of 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.840 the testing. So you have effectively created a place in 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.599 New South Wales on this particular weekend in Woongong where 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:46.440 illegal drugs are legal, because presumably the police have agreed 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.480 that they will not be arresting anyone in that particular zone. 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.880 So that's ten square meters or twenty square meters or 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.280 whatever it is, whatever that square footage is that they're 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.559 taking up for this pill testing venue is effectively place 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.440 where illegal drugs are legal. So they're not actually illegal 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.160 drugs anymore if you're standing on that piece of land, 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:08.720 So how does the law stand. 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.560 Many of them are actually also going to this festival 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.280 for the music now, right, because that's to me, it's 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.080 kind of defeating the purpose. It's like, oh, well, this 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.000 is a music festival. If you're going to come, bring 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.719 your drugs, But how many young kids out there, who, 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.560 by the way, shouldn't be taking these drugs in the 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:24.760 first place. How many of them are going to say, hey, 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:27.720 let's just use as an excuse to go there and 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:29.800 to have them tested, and it be in a safe 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.040 environment where we know that yeah, we're going to get 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:33.960 some counselor that will come over and tell us, hey, 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.039 don't take the drugs. It's not good for you, but 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:38.120 go on, go and take them. The thing I took 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.440 the greatest issue with was when they said in the statement, 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:43.440 people will never be advised that a drug is safe 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.760 to use. I'llould come and let us test it for 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:48.240 you and then confirm yes, it is safe to use. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.280 I mean, it's just the hypocrisy and the idiocy of 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:52.640 it all. It's ridiculous. 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:54.480 Well, here's an example of the mixed messages. 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:56.920 Right, So the event organizer put out a statement on 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.520 Instagram and said, I quote, we have a zero tolerance 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:05.560 policy towards legal drugs. Then next breath said, however, we 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.559 see an abstinence only approach as unhelpful, so you won't 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:10.680 be judged. 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:12.800 And you won't get into trouble. Well, how can you 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:14.480 have a zero tolerance. 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:18.440 Approach if you're saying however, abstinence is unhelpful, We won't 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:20.200 judge you if you're taking drugs. 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:24.280 Zero tolerance, zero tolerance accept Inside this team, they wonder 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:25.920 why where the compan. 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:27.520 Where the Copplers won't come for you. 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.200 And I mean, I take drugs to understand the policy. 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:31.600 I know, and the music and the whole lot. 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:34.560 And I bang this drum all the time about tobacco, 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:35.960 as I was doing last night. 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.000 But it's the same with alcohol. There is a lot 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:39.360 of the reason I think. 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.720 The kids are taking drugs is because they're so much 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.440 cheaper than the legal products available. I mean, who's going 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:47.880 to go to a music festival and drink beers all 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.600 day or drink spirits all day because it's hideously expensive. 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.680 But they'll find someone in there who'll sell them a 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.400 pill for thirty dollars and that'll be their day's worth 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.600 of entertainment. And a lot of that comes down to 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.760 the government who says, well, we must have pill testing 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.120 to keep the kids safe. Well, if you didn't tax 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.840 up the wazoo, the product that you've deemed to be 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:09.480 safe enough for them to legally use in the first place, 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.600 maybe they wouldn't be taking the illegal one. While we're 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:14.840 talking about pill testing, which of course now happening in 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:18.760 New South Wales that started as a proposition in Victoria. 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:20.800 Things go from bad to worse for. 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.440 The Victorian government when it comes to their spending and 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.160 project planning. Now you would know if you live in 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.840 Melbourne about the Metro tunnel. They're trying to build a 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:32.880 metro like they did in New South Wales. The one 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.000 in New South Wales works quite well, i have to say, 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.360 in Sydney, so Melbourne said, oh, oh, we better do 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.280 that as well. And you would think this thing's meant 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:41.400 open later. 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:43.080 In the year that it would all be hungy dory. 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.040 The new ticketing system would be ready to go because 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:50.160 the state government has spent one point seven billion dollars 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.280 rebuilding the Miqi system, so you can use a credit 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.319 card or your mobile phone to tap on. But no, 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.760 when they open up the wiz bang new Metro later 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.560 this year, you won't be able to tap on with 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:05.800 your mobile phone, which means that they're going to put 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:10.320 in brand spanking new ticketing scanners for the old system, 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.599 which this time next year they will rip out to 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.960 replace with brand spanking new scanners for the new system. 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.800 Isn't it great what happens when government departments talk together 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:26.240 and work so well. Matthew Guy, who's the shadow a 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.360 Minister for Public Transport in Victoria, former leader of course 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.120 of the Liberal Party, down there. 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.160 And I am told a train enthusiast. 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.480 Said, it's a special link of incompetence to stuff up 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.520 a ticketing system before the new tunnel is even open. 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.280 It's hard to believe that the most expensive rail project 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.760 in Victoria's history wasn't built for twenty first century ticketing. Yes, 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.400 nothing lines up in Victoria, and that is why all 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.800 of their big projects have in just one year blown 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:59.680 out by eleven point six billion dollars. Yes, eleven billion, 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:05.080 whither be dollars? No wonder this state is effectively broke. 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:07.360 Now there's a story we'll get to in the papers. 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.200 On the front of the Herald Sound a bit later, 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.280 Jacinta Allen's coming up with a plan to try and 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.000 clause some of this money back, which is quite brave, 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.560 as Sir Humphrey, Well, then we d say for a 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:20.640 labor government. But how do you blow projects out by 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.640 eleven point six billion dollars in one year? 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.080 Well, I think you described in your opening they invented 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:30.000 this brand new ticketing system. I mean you and I 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.600 went home last night on the Metro here in Sydney 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:32.920 and we. 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:35.559 Got out our credit card. Bang, we tapped on and 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:36.360 we tapped off. 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.240 It works perfectly in Sydney, so you would have thought 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:42.360 the Victorian government didn't need to reinvent the wheel. They 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:44.680 could have just looked to another state like New South 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.960 Wales and copied the system that works perfectly here. But no, 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:52.559 they had to start from scratch and taxpayers and now paying. 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:55.040 You know, most businesses have a motto do something once 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:57.840 and do it right. In Victoria they do something three 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.000 times at ten times. And that's how Victoria has gotten 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.600 into the state it's in with what a forecast one 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.400 hundred and eighty eight billion dollars worth of debt by 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.520 twenty twenty eight. The Victorian treasurer I love this Jacqueline Sime, 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:13.960 who I'm not sure that she's that good with money, 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.640 very good with optimism and trying to ourage she. 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.120 She's no good with understanding her job because we did 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.280 the Sory couple weeks have actually told the Treasury staff 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.080 not to talk to her in economic terms, but we 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:27.240 didn't understand them. 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.640 Perhaps that explains her statement today She said, and I quote, 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:32.760 the Victorian economy is going. 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:33.959 From strength to strength. 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.320 Having said that, I'm very conscious it's not translating to 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.600 households and families well, if it's not translating to households 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.240 and families, who's it going from strength to strength fallwards? 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.760 Eyes Again, they're pushing their own propaganda to try and 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:52.199 convince everybody that this government hasn't totally destroyed this once 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.600 great state. That's what they have to do. Consider everything 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.920 that's going on down there in Victoria, right, escalating crime, 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:03.520 cops on strike, the levees that they introduced right before Christmas, 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.520 right with punished businesses, people, farmers, all of these great 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.600 people who were suffering already under the strain of the 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.880 cost of living crisis. Then the AIRB and B tax, right, 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.480 remember that only a few days ago a story emerged 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.719 where that is really impacting victims of domestic violence, right, 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.800 And how they're unable to act actually access these spaces 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.120 because of the taxes that they've introduced here and now 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.920 it's just it's almost as if it's become a running joke, 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.760 the amount of debt that they have invested in them 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.760 in the state themselves. And it's all because of the 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.480 labor government, because the labor government, and I have to 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:39.560 but I have to say this, the worst part about 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.160 the whole Nikey drama, right, is this point the NTT 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.839 data right, they're the technology company that used to have it. 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.920 Had they retained their particular contract with respect to this, 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.520 they could have grandfathered the old technology, which would have 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:57.760 saved tax pays millions of dollars. The conduit who's taken 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.760 over it don't actually have the certification to be able 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.640 to do that. So now it's just cost upon cost, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.280 poor planning. They can't manage the state, it's clear. And 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.719 the Allen government just they are as I said, they're 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.719 a running joke. How much longer did Victorians have to 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:15.800 suffer through this? What do we where? We now? We're 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:19.320 February twenty thirty five, twenty six November next year. 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.360 They still mentioned Allen government and maybe that's a key 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.400 to how why things are so bad, because just into 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:27.760 Allen before she was the premier, she was the Minister 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:32.439 for the Commonwealth Games, remember the Commonwealth Games, Williams to 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.560 not hold. She was also the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.760 We know what's happening with infrastructure costs. She was also 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:42.839 the Minister for the suburban rail loop and she was 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.319 the Minister for major projects which as we said, have 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.400 blown out by eleven billion dollars in the last twelve months. 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.320 Talk about failing upwards. Now she's the premier of the state. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.360 With a resume like that, there is no way you 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.240 would get at any job in the public sector. You 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:58.760 wouldn't be allowed to make coffee at my local cafe 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.120 with that kind of resume. And yet she's running the state. 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:04.320 And we wonder why it goes from bad to worse. 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:08.720 Speaking of money being wasted, Elon Musk continues his crusade 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.920 in the United States with DOEGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.800 trying to root out waste and fraud, and he's moved 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.960 on to the Social Security Department. He tweeted today that 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.560 the Social Security Administration in the United States might be 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:28.920 the biggest source of fraud in all of human history. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.120 Now, Michelle King, who's been. 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.160 At the Social Security Department for thirty years and is 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.480 in charge, she has resigned on Sunday in protest that 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.080 Elon Musk would dare to look through what's happening in 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:42.960 her department. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.280 It's in protest because she's running for cover already. 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.800 I think she's running for cover because Elon Musk found 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.800 get this, there are five hundred and thirty one million 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.720 unique social security numbers in circulation, which is interesting, five 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.600 hundred and thirty one million unique social security numbers, there's 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:00.720 only three hundred and fifty million Americans. 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:03.720 They found eighteen point nine. 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.680 Million people listed on the Social Security database as being 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:07.760 over one hundred years old. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:09.680 There's only eighty six thousand. 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:13.200 According to the last census, six point five million people 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.560 were listed on the database as being older than one 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.920 hundred and twelve. But I'm pretty sure the last record 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.680 says there we're only thirty five across the entire earth, 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.800 and one person on the Social Security database was listed 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.240 alive with the social security number three hundred. 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:30.240 And sixty years old. 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:34.440 Methuselah is claiming welfare benefits in the United States. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:34.720 Now. 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.320 The media have been careful to say, no, no, no, no, 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.400 This doesn't mean that fraud is happening. It just means 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.280 the database is, you know, a little old and a 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.280 little messy. Time Magazine mounted a defense. 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:47.440 They said things. 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.560 Aren't that bad because between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.960 two they paid out eight point six trillion dollars worth 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.560 of Social Security benefits and only seventy one billion dollars 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.160 had been found to be improperly paid only so only 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:00.920 one billion dollars. 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:02.920 It's not that bad. 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:06.320 They said, it's less than one percent of overpayments, and 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:07.200 they actually added. 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.840 And it was to living people, so that's a good thing. 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.840 In the month of January, the Social Security Department, perhaps 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.800 fearing what Donald Trump was going to do, clawed back 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:21.120 thirty one million dollars that went to dead people. Even 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.600 if it's only thirty one million as opposed to historic 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.640 level fraud that Elon Musk claims, it's still a hell 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.120 of a lot of money being wasted because they can't 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:34.440 keep a database up to speed. Here Elon Musk describing 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.880 why this is so important for the American public to 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:39.640 let the Trump administration do. 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.640 The overall goal is to try to get trillion dollars 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.040 out of the deficit, and if the deficit is not 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.600 brought under control, America will go bankrupt. This is a 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.600 very important thing for people to understand. A country is 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.920 not different from an individual in that an individual overspends, 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.760 an individual can go bankrupt, and so kind of country. 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.520 The massive wasteport and abuse that has been going on, 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:08.360 which is leading to a two trillion dollar a year deficit. 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.320 That's what the president was handed on Jane twenty of 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.200 a two trillion dollar deficit. Since seeing. 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:19.080 Caleb Trump reckons you can find a trillion dollars in waste, fraud, 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:24.159 just sloppy accounting. That's an astonishingly large amount of money, of. 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:24.680 Course it is. 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.040 But when you consider the size of the US government, 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.080 and that is the main problem here. You know, a 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:32.480 bit of money over here, a bit of money over there, 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.600 trillion dollars adds up very quickly, and that's the problem. 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.240 What Mask is talking about there is that when you 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.640 run your budget, or business runs its budget, it's monitoring 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.640 the dollar right down to the last cent, because every 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.040 single cent matters. But of course, when you're dealing with 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.960 other people's money, as government does, they don't particularly care. 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.440 Was it the Department of Defense or the Department of State. 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:57.320 We did a story about a couple of months ago 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.000 where they went through their books to their books and 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.600 they literally could not account for billions of dollars of 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.159 their budget, like they actually didn't know where they did 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:08.480 that's it. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:09.639 They was Defense. 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.760 They did not know where they had spent that money 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.680 when they talied it all up. How can you not 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.840 know you've spent your money, right, well. 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:20.880 That spent that money. 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.160 Somebody is marketing that money very clear. 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.160 But this is how government works. Right. 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.960 If there's no real oversight, money just goes missing into 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:31.280 the ether. And that is what Trump is trying to stop. 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.479 People are literally dying it would seem to get their 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.760 hands on taxpayers money in the US, and it has 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:38.160 to stop. 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.320 But you know what, this is not just happening in 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:40.760 the US. 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.879 I'm sure it's happening everywhere because government systems, for whatever reason, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.280 don't talk to each other. I know of someone in 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:52.080 Australia recently who got their hands on a check from 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.040 the ATO that had been signed out to their dead mother. Now, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.680 of course that the ATO seemingly didn't know that the 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:02.359 mother was dead and called up the ex husband's accountant 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.119 and said, oh, we've got this check here, where do 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:05.720 we send it? 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:06.000 Right? 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:08.920 I mean, how do these systems not talk to each 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.120 other so that they know where things go? But it's government, 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.400 so nothing talks to each other, and that's how people 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:15.080 get to raught it. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:17.480 The thing that was interesting as well is that so 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.440 Trump also sat in that interview with Elon Musk with 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:22.879 Sean Hammity on Fox and he said that this just 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:26.480 represents this is a scary part. This represents just one 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.399