Speaker 1: Showing good evening well first tonight, Peter Dutton says he
Speaker 1: suspects police officers have been instructed not to arrest pro
Speaker 1: Palestinian protesters for hate speech. I've done an exclusive interview
Speaker 1: with the opposition leader where he says that journalists at
Speaker 1: the ABC have been acting as activists. He also said
Speaker 1: that university chancellors should be named and shamed for failing
Speaker 1: to stamp out anti Semitism. But some of his strongest
Speaker 1: comments were for the Prime Minister himself and also on
Speaker 1: the question of why law enforcement has been so has
Speaker 1: been so reluctant to actually enforce the law when it
Speaker 1: comes to hate speech. Peter Dutton, who's a former coop himself,
Speaker 1: says it would be frustrating for police not to be
Speaker 1: able to take strong action when they see violence, unrest
Speaker 1: and lawlessness on our streets and in our university campuses.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt in my mind that for the average
Speaker 2: police officer that this would be completely and utterly offensive
Speaker 2: as well to be told to stand back with your
Speaker 2: hands in your pocket.
Speaker 1: So do you think they are being told that.
Speaker 2: These No doubt in my mind, because their instinct would
Speaker 2: be that if they saw somebody breaking the law.
Speaker 1: Setting Fie into a flag for example, Yes.
Speaker 3: That they would enforce the law.
Speaker 1: Now. I did this extensive forty five minute interview with
Speaker 1: Peter Dutton last night at an event to raise money
Speaker 1: for JCA, which funds security for Jewish schools. Now, Peter
Speaker 1: Dutton's view is that under the current law people could
Speaker 1: have been arrested for hate speech both at the Opera
Speaker 1: House protest and at protests on university campuses. Now, even
Speaker 1: the Prime Minister has said that chance of inter Fada
Speaker 1: and from the River to the Sea have no place
Speaker 1: in our cuntry. But the Opera House protests had worse
Speaker 1: racist chance of where's the Jews? F the Jews? And
Speaker 1: despite police denials, what many people heard gas the Jews.
Speaker 3: There is existing scope within the current.
Speaker 2: Law for some of these people to have been arrested
Speaker 2: either on the steps of the Opera House on the
Speaker 2: university campuses, and they haven't been.
Speaker 1: Could I clarify arrested for hate speech?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and everything is in context.
Speaker 2: But if you look at the chance and the intimidation
Speaker 2: that's taken place, I don't accept that is not against
Speaker 2: Australian law. And the fact that the police have been
Speaker 2: told either by the police ministers or they're taking a
Speaker 2: lead from what they see through the Prime Minister's commentary
Speaker 2: or lack of it, that they're just there to maintain
Speaker 2: the peace. This is just another Middle Eastern frakkar and
Speaker 2: that we don't want to take sides and let's just
Speaker 2: allow people to protest. That is a complete and utter
Speaker 2: outrage and I think most Australians are outraged by the
Speaker 2: inaction as well.
Speaker 1: Very strong comments. Now there will be a federal election
Speaker 1: held inside the next eleven months. Dutton said if he
Speaker 1: were Prime Minister, he would tell the head of the
Speaker 1: afp ASIO and other law enforcement agencies to be strong
Speaker 1: and actually enforce the law. That there shouldn't be some
Speaker 1: carve out of the law just because the topic relates
Speaker 1: to Israel and the Middle East. Dutton said that if
Speaker 1: there are concerns about the law, that shouldn't stop authorities
Speaker 1: from enforcing it. Instead, test it, he says, and if
Speaker 1: it needs to be changed, will then change it.
Speaker 2: In times of tragedy uncertainty, the leader of our country
Speaker 2: has to stand up and I think had I've been
Speaker 2: Prime Minister at the time, not I think I would
Speaker 2: have made it very clear to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner,
Speaker 2: to the Director General of ASIO, to the police commissioners
Speaker 2: otherwise that I had zero tolerance for this behavior and
Speaker 2: conduct and that the police should.
Speaker 3: Enforce the law without hesitation, not go beyond the law.
Speaker 3: And if the argument is that.
Speaker 2: Some elements of the current legislation are unconstitutional, that should
Speaker 2: have been tested before the courts.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: Australia's former ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, who's now a
Speaker 1: Liberal senator, well, he also spoke at this event for
Speaker 1: THEJCA last night and he backed up Peter Dutton on
Speaker 1: the need to actually use the hate laws against people
Speaker 1: who break them and breach the peace.
Speaker 5: The first step in doing that is at least to
Speaker 5: test that if the law's found to be wanting here, well,
Speaker 5: then we can fix the laws now.
Speaker 1: Peter Darton also criticized journalists out the Public Broadcaster for
Speaker 1: being activists. The ABC has not covered the anti semitism
Speaker 1: our country is facing in any in depth way. Whils
Speaker 1: Sky News has produced an entire documentary with Josh Fredenberg,
Speaker 1: along with nightly coverage on each of our primetime programs.
Speaker 1: It's simply incomprehensible that the ABC hasn't properly covered this
Speaker 1: antisemitism crisis. Well, here's what Peter Dutton said about the
Speaker 1: ABC and Fairfacts last night.
Speaker 2: I think the ABC and you could rattle off half
Speaker 2: a dozen others are full now of these protesters and
Speaker 2: advocates and they allow their own emotion and political ideology
Speaker 2: to overtake their objectivity as a journalist.
Speaker 3: And I think, as you pointed out for.
Speaker 2: The News, Stable and Sky have been without compromise, and
Speaker 2: you contrast that to what we've seen in nine.
Speaker 3: Papers or Fairfax.
Speaker 2: There is always a divide, but the abrogation here I
Speaker 2: think highlights the real problem that we've got within parts
Speaker 2: of the media that don't have that objectivity, and it's
Speaker 2: going to be a feature ongoing.
Speaker 1: On university campuses, we've seen young Australian Jews have to
Speaker 1: face hatred and aggression and anger from protesters on a
Speaker 1: daily basis. They've been videos posted to social media of
Speaker 1: activists saying they're going to chase Zionists of campus, and
Speaker 1: a professor was exposed by The Australian just last week
Speaker 1: for wrongly saying that the sexual violence of October seven
Speaker 1: was a hoax. Well, I asked mister Darton about all
Speaker 1: of this last night, and he said, university chancellors should
Speaker 1: be named and shamed. Have a look.
Speaker 2: The level lough of capitulation and frankly facilitation of the
Speaker 2: anti Semitism, or almost the encouragement of it through the inaction,
Speaker 2: the lack of leadership from not just the chancellors and
Speaker 2: the vice chancellors, but frankly the senior leadership within the
Speaker 2: universities as well. Who should all be publicly named and shamed.
Speaker 3: We do this to.
Speaker 2: Because there's a scrutiny from time to time on CEOs
Speaker 2: or chairs or board members of particular companies. We should
Speaker 2: be asking these people how on earth they justified what
Speaker 2: has happened and what, in some cases is still happening.
Speaker 2: How is it conceivable that you would ask some of
Speaker 2: these people to sit around the table with you to
Speaker 2: make future decisions, as you say, in relation to the
Speaker 2: direction of the university, when these people have been shouting
Speaker 2: from the river to the sea or a father of
Speaker 2: the harassment and the language toward young women on campus.
Speaker 3: These same people who would be.
Speaker 2: Lecturing on pronouns and gender policy, somehow their mind turns
Speaker 2: blank because that young girl is Jewish and I find
Speaker 2: it reprehensible.
Speaker 1: On the question of immigration, Peter Dutton said he thought
Speaker 1: it was incomprehensible that the Albanezy government was bringing Palestinians
Speaker 1: from the front line of the war zone into Australia
Speaker 1: without adequate security screening, and he spoke about when he
Speaker 1: helped the Zdi women enter the country during the wave
Speaker 1: of ISIS terror and how it took weeks to conduct
Speaker 1: biometric screening using data held US intelligence.
Speaker 2: I think the migration program should be in our best
Speaker 2: interest and if we're bringing people in, for example, I've
Speaker 2: been critical of the Prime Minister's decision to bring in
Speaker 2: literally thousands of people from Gaza during the.
Speaker 3: Course of a war, it's beyond my comprehension.
Speaker 2: It does take time the weeks that you were talking
Speaker 2: about before you can get confirmation back. And if we're
Speaker 2: bringing people in from a war zone at the moment
Speaker 2: with uncertainty around identification or background or motivation and those
Speaker 2: checks haven't been done, then I think it's a complete
Speaker 2: abrogation and I think it puts out country and certainly
Speaker 2: the Jewish community at even higher risk.
Speaker 1: Well, there's a lot of commentary about whether Dutton has
Speaker 1: a shot at winning the next election. Alban Easy is
Speaker 1: facing a detainee crisis and he's refused to accept his
Speaker 1: immigration minister isn't keeping our country safe. He's also presiding
Speaker 1: over a cost of living crisis with families when both
Speaker 1: parents work, struggling to afford housing and some are even
Speaker 1: living in cars. At the same time, Albanesi has been
Speaker 1: criticized for high levels of immigration that have put even
Speaker 1: more pressure on the rental crisis in Australia. Despite failing
Speaker 1: in almost every policy area, Albanizi is expected to win
Speaker 1: more seats than the coalition at the next election. Many
Speaker 1: polls predict a minority government or a hung parliament. Well
Speaker 1: I asked Peter Dutton his own assessment of whether he
Speaker 1: could win the next election.
Speaker 2: Even though the first term government hasn't lost since nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty one, that the best outcome from a Labor Party
Speaker 2: perspective is that they could form a minority government which
Speaker 2: would include the Greens and the Tials and potentially, as
Speaker 2: you say, Muslim independent candidates from Western Sydney or perhaps
Speaker 2: elsewhere in Melbourne, for example. The reality of that is
Speaker 2: that yes, they would be compromised even further in terms
Speaker 2: of their stance.
Speaker 3: And I think as.
Speaker 2: We saw during the period of the Gillard government, where
Speaker 2: there was formal compact with the Greens, there was a
Speaker 2: drag to the left and I think that is at
Speaker 2: odds with where most Australians are at.
Speaker 1: And he spoke about how most Australians just want to
Speaker 1: improve the lives for themselves and their children. Pretty basic. Well,
Speaker 1: Duta needs to win nineteen seats to form majority government.
Speaker 1: He acknowledged the challenge ahead, but said he believes he
Speaker 1: can get there. So nineteen seats, do you think you
Speaker 1: can get there?
Speaker 3: And how The short answer is yes, I do.
Speaker 2: And as I say, twelve months ago, people weren't contemplating
Speaker 2: anything other than a second term and perhaps a third
Speaker 2: term for the Albanesi government. We need to make sure
Speaker 2: that we have the policies, we have the candidates, and
Speaker 2: that we can communicate that effectively. And I believe very
Speaker 2: strongly when you go seat by seat, when you look
Speaker 2: at our prospects around the country, as we did in
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, or as John Howard did in nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 2: there are opportunities for us in Western Australia opportunities for
Speaker 2: us in South Australia, certainly in New South Wales, in
Speaker 2: Western Sydney and the Central Coast, and he went.
Speaker 1: On to outline the areas where he thinks he can
Speaker 1: pick up many seats. Dutton spoke about his concerns that
Speaker 1: the Albaneze government would form an alliance with the Greens,
Speaker 1: where you heard some of those remarks already, but he
Speaker 1: really does worry about where this would lead the country
Speaker 1: because in some of his strongest remarks on the Greens yet,
Speaker 1: Peter Dutton said that Adam Bant leads a party of hate,
Speaker 1: and Dutton went so far as to call the Greens
Speaker 1: an anti Semitic party.
Speaker 2: There is a real danger if that were scenario that
Speaker 2: somebody like Adam band who is running an anti Semitic party,
Speaker 2: they're a party of hatred, and that they would be
Speaker 2: in government. I think is a shocking consideration, but that
Speaker 2: is one of the prospects after the next election.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, under Labor, Australia's relationship with Israel has
Speaker 1: fractured in a major way. There's immense dissatisfaction with Australia's
Speaker 1: foreign policy. Since October seven from Israel's perspective, and this
Speaker 1: is at the very highest levels of the Israeli government.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 1: Peter Dartton pointed to the importance of Australia's relationship with Israel.
Speaker 1: He said as Defense and Home Affairs Minister, he received
Speaker 1: intelligence from Israel over a long period of time, intelligence
Speaker 1: that resulted in the thwarting of terror attacks and lives
Speaker 1: being saved. He said that rebuilding that trust would be
Speaker 1: a priority if he were Prime Minister.
Speaker 2: The relationship has been long standing and it's in our
Speaker 2: mutual interest for us to rebuild that relationship which has
Speaker 2: been damaged. There's no question of that, and I think
Speaker 2: we need to apply ourselves to that. And when I
Speaker 2: think of my colleagues here today in Julian Or Sarah Holly,
Speaker 2: Dave Sharma, others, James Patterson, many others, I know that
Speaker 2: in government we could in very quick fashion really reassert
Speaker 2: ourselves into the relationship and make sure that it grew
Speaker 2: with the strength that it needs to in a very
Speaker 2: quick time.
Speaker 1: So Peter Dutton there were saying all of the shadow
Speaker 1: Coalition ministers who were at the event, the JCA event
Speaker 1: to raise money for the Jewish community, including to provide
Speaker 1: security for Jewish schools. Now. He mentioned there Sarah Henderson,
Speaker 1: Holly Hughes and others Julie and Lisa Dave Sharma who
Speaker 1: were all there to support the JCA at a state level.
Speaker 1: Kelly Sloane was also there. Can you imagine? Can you
Speaker 1: even think of four or five or six members of
Speaker 1: the Albanese labor government who would turn up to a
Speaker 1: Jewish fundraiser nothing about Israel, a Jewish fundraiser to help
Speaker 1: raise money for Jewish security. I couldn't name five myself.
Speaker 1: I would love to be proved wrong.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: Last night, some of Peter Dutton's most cutting remarks were
Speaker 1: reserved for the Prime Minister himself. After viewing comments that
Speaker 1: Anthony Alberzi has made in the Parliament over the years
Speaker 1: on Israel, Peter Dutton accused him of taking an anti
Speaker 1: Israel stance throughout his career for political purposes, and Peter
Speaker 1: Dutton was brutal.
Speaker 2: Our assumption has been show as you pointed out before,
Speaker 2: that this is all about Penny Wong's influence and that
Speaker 2: Anthony Alberanze has taken direction is subservient to in the conversations,
Speaker 2: Penny Wong's views. But it's obvious that Anthony Albernezi either
Speaker 2: had a heavy influence at university or and more likely
Speaker 2: in my judgment, he's very early on in his parliamentary career.
Speaker 3: Decided that to hold his seat of Graindler, he needs
Speaker 3: to have this particular view.
Speaker 2: And in my mind, I say to school kids, as
Speaker 2: we go around to speak to the school children in our.
Speaker 3: Electorates, they are good and bad on both sides of politics.
Speaker 2: But people who sell out their values, their beliefs, or
Speaker 2: indeed their country for cheap political gain, I think of
Speaker 2: the worst people in our business.
Speaker 1: Now. Also tonight, Albanezi exposed why he couldn't call out
Speaker 1: the Upper House protest because as an MP, he yelled
Speaker 1: into a megaphone at a protest where flags were burned
Speaker 1: during the second into FATA. I'll show you this vision
Speaker 1: of the PM tonight. Also, Labor accused of lying over
Speaker 1: its use of drones to keep detainees in check. The
Speaker 1: protection racket over Andrew Giles reaches its peak, and you
Speaker 1: won't believe how much Bill Shotten's news speechwriter is being paid. First, now,
Speaker 1: let's take this to tonight's panel Sky News host Liz
Speaker 1: Storer and Sky News contributor Joe Hildebrand. Welcome to you.
Speaker 1: Hello now, Liz, you were there at this event last
Speaker 1: night where I interviewed Peter Dutton. What did you think
Speaker 1: were some of his strongest remarks, because in my view
Speaker 1: that interview was extraordinary. He didn't hold back, is not
Speaker 1: afraid to criticize the ABC, the university chancellors. You know
Speaker 1: that it's the opposite of the weakness that we've seen
Speaker 1: from the Prime minister.
Speaker 7: He was very emphatic and by the way, congratulations on
Speaker 7: a real brilliant event.
Speaker 1: It was a packed our.
Speaker 7: The only struggle was you guys getting a word in
Speaker 7: edgeways over.
Speaker 1: The constant applause.
Speaker 7: But this was so there wasn't a single week statement
Speaker 7: out of Dutton. He is emphatic and this is the
Speaker 7: kind of leadership the people are craving because we are
Speaker 7: simply not seeing it from the Albanese government. There's not
Speaker 7: a single minister that you can roll out that people say.
Speaker 7: They are comprehensive, they are strong, they are full of conviction.
Speaker 1: We're just not seeing that.
Speaker 7: So Dunton stepping into the breach and the interview that
Speaker 7: he gave last night, on every single topic, particularly when
Speaker 7: he was talking about the fact that, as a former
Speaker 7: police officer himself, he believes the current police are being
Speaker 7: gagged as it were, they're having their hands tied behind
Speaker 7: their backs because we everyday people watching these protests, particularly
Speaker 7: what happened on October the ninth on the steps of
Speaker 7: the Opera House, just wringing our hands, going how can
Speaker 7: this possibly happen? We do have laws, we do have
Speaker 7: law enforcement. This mob is about to blow and in
Speaker 7: fact the New South Wales Police are very lucky that
Speaker 7: it didn't because we were seeing animalistic behavior on display.
Speaker 7: Flags were being burnt, the chance are not to be repeated,
Speaker 7: and yet no order to send in the stored and
Speaker 7: troopers and cut this thing off at its inception, and
Speaker 7: him explaining that as a former police officer saying there
Speaker 7: is no doubt in my mind, he said that these
Speaker 7: orders to stand down and just don't do anything when
Speaker 7: we're seeing scenes like that, that is terrifying for everyone
Speaker 7: to know.
Speaker 1: Joe, what do you think I mean? This is you know,
Speaker 1: Dutton's really emerging from Michelle and he's coming swinging.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, that's very much you know, that's very much
Speaker 8: his thing. Obviously, he's renowned as a sort of tough
Speaker 8: guy politician and him very much personally. I think a
Speaker 8: lot of the certainly that the protests at the Opera
Speaker 8: House were an embarrassment to the police force and rather
Speaker 8: the leadership. You know, the police Minister obviously and the
Speaker 8: police force were blindsided by it and escalated much faster
Speaker 8: than they were able to respond to it. They should
Speaker 8: have been much tougher, and I think that's very very clear,
Speaker 8: and I think there you had very very clear examples
Speaker 8: of hate speech which could and should have been acted on,
Speaker 8: and in many ways that failure did give I think,
Speaker 8: some license to the future protests that we saw. But
Speaker 8: the Premier Christmians, to his credit, has admitted that was
Speaker 8: a mistake. He has been very much absolutely that's right,
Speaker 8: and so's.
Speaker 1: Dozens comments so on on the ABC because that's not
Speaker 1: going to win in friends on the left side.
Speaker 8: No, but he doesn't happen here and they beat him
Speaker 8: up anyway, so he's got nothing to lose there, and
Speaker 8: again he's got nothing to lose by being very very
Speaker 8: tough on this issue, and you know, good on him
Speaker 8: for being so. The abs I couldn't help but notice
Speaker 8: in the very long, fourteen hundred word essay that Laura
Speaker 8: Tingle wrote in to justify her statement that Australia was
Speaker 8: a racist country. That one of the examples she cited
Speaker 8: as proof of this, almost in an oblique way, was
Speaker 8: The Australian's coverage of the anti Semitism in the community.
Speaker 8: And I thought, well, if you're so outrageous about that,
Speaker 8: why hasn't the ABC done a documentary on it, or
Speaker 8: rather why didn't you raise anti semitism as an example
Speaker 8: of egregious Australian racism at the Sydney Writers Festival. I
Speaker 8: think we know why, because she would have been held down.
Speaker 8: And again I think that just goes to sort of
Speaker 8: point to the double said. To be honest, I thought
Speaker 8: that was quite a sort of galling comment given that
Speaker 8: given the purposes you're speaking to, and in terms of
Speaker 8: the university campuses, I think that is a bit of
Speaker 8: a different scene. I can absolutely promise you that certainly
Speaker 8: the Sydney University Vice Chancellor Mark Scott and his team
Speaker 8: they do not want the protests, that they do not
Speaker 8: like it one little bit. Their concern is under what
Speaker 8: particular auspice do they move mine generally speaking, State police
Speaker 8: do not patrol university campuses, so how do you get
Speaker 8: rid of them?
Speaker 1: Sure, many lawyers could help them find a way, but
Speaker 1: let's move on now. Billionaire James Packer has weighed into
Speaker 1: the crisis in golfing the Nine network, telling the Australian
Speaker 1: newspapers James Madden that the chair Peter Costello and I
Speaker 1: quote hasn't been good for shareholders. I think being chairman
Speaker 1: of nine is all he has left and he will
Speaker 1: try and keep the job for as long as he can.
Speaker 1: Liz Packer's intervention is fascinating in this debate because there
Speaker 1: haven't been too many people who are actually prepared to
Speaker 1: publicly criticize Costello, even though they are very critical in private. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Well there's no love loss between those two at this point,
Speaker 7: as most people would know. But his reference to shareholders
Speaker 7: obviously is quite practical. I mean it has dropped nine
Speaker 7: cents since Costello took the chair back into twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Friday saw them with the.
Speaker 7: Lowest price for their shares that then had seen in
Speaker 7: four years, So that was more of a practical point out.
Speaker 7: But you're quite right in saying he didn't even need
Speaker 7: to say anything, really but he couldn't pass up the
Speaker 7: opportunity to have a well deserved dig.
Speaker 1: And now let's turn to form a Treasurer Josh Fridenberg.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of speculation about whether he would
Speaker 1: run again for his old seat of Kuyong at the
Speaker 1: next election after redistribution on Friday took in the majority
Speaker 1: of the old seat of Higgins. But today Josh Fridenberg
Speaker 1: cold water on this. He posted on x or Twitter
Speaker 1: that I am not rushing back to politics. My position
Speaker 1: on contesting the next election remains unchanged. I will continue
Speaker 1: to support the Liberal Party and our local candidate Amelia Hammer. Now, Joe, Look,
Speaker 1: Josh has made the decision here that he wants to
Speaker 1: continue to spend time with his family. Is enjoying spending
Speaker 1: a lot of time with his kids being a footy coach.
Speaker 1: But what really bothered me is that, you know, the
Speaker 1: second there might have been a suggestion that he was
Speaker 1: going to come back, there was this outBut of anger
Speaker 1: from women's groups that how dare the former treasure the
Speaker 1: tublish politician in the country want to come back to
Speaker 1: politics in a winnable sit oh, because it might mean
Speaker 1: that a woman doesn't have her job.
Speaker 8: Come on, well, I think I suppose this is where
Speaker 8: you get sort of identity politics reaches peak stupidity. And yes,
Speaker 8: I thought Josh Fredenberg. Obviously I'm more inclined towards the
Speaker 8: labor side, but I'm friends with Josh. I think he's
Speaker 8: an outstanding parliamentary and I think we've been asset to
Speaker 8: any parliament and any party. My understanding is exactly the
Speaker 8: same as yours. That he feels that it would be
Speaker 8: unfair to his family having just you know, having them
Speaker 8: just got him back from politics to then so quickly
Speaker 8: re enter the fray, and that he has no intention
Speaker 8: of going at this election. I may be proven wrong,
Speaker 8: but that's certainly what I've what I've heard, and I
Speaker 8: think in terms of the optics, you know, he's probably right.
Speaker 8: I think the fact that you know the fact that
Speaker 8: you've got you going up against a Teal candidate, which is,
Speaker 8: you know, the Teals is an entire movement built entirely
Speaker 8: on virtue signaling, built entirely on literally a sort of
Speaker 8: you know, a template, a cookie cutter template of a
Speaker 8: you know, a white middle class of a middle class woman,
Speaker 8: you know, and that we know that they've gone around
Speaker 8: selecting candidates on that basis.
Speaker 3: I think you only have to.
Speaker 8: Look at them, and so it's an incredibly superficial movement.
Speaker 8: It is all about the optics. And I think the
Speaker 8: Liberal Party hard heads are probably right when they say
Speaker 8: the objects of removing a young woman, I.
Speaker 1: Think old man this is.
Speaker 3: There have been some of them.
Speaker 1: There have been like Charlotte Mot like, who's not a
Speaker 1: scene have been that he's saying, you know, might move
Speaker 1: aside any woman, even if it's for the former treasure
Speaker 1: and that's just.
Speaker 8: Absolutely it's objectively silly. But it would look it would
Speaker 8: look bad. Is the problem. Would not be bad, but
Speaker 8: but it would be used against It would be used.
Speaker 1: Against them, would look bad if the party didn't want
Speaker 1: one of the most senior politicians they've ever had, As
Speaker 1: Phil Corey wrote in the Finn Review, if Peter Dutton
Speaker 1: stepped down for whatever reason, there would be no obvious
Speaker 1: successor there is no second alternative leader, according to Phil
Speaker 1: Coury in the fin Review. At the moment anyway, unfortunately
Speaker 1: Josh is not coming back. The country needs more strong,
Speaker 1: talented politicians. The country needs Josh riding Buck. You're here
Speaker 1: all right, Listoro Joe Hildebrand. Thank you both very much,
Speaker 1: if you're fine. Now, coming up, we're going to get
Speaker 1: to why Bill Shorten's speechwriter is being paid six hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars plus. This is the reason Albanizi has been
Speaker 1: unable to call out the protesters. He was at a
Speaker 1: protest reportedly where flags were burned during the Second into Fata.
Speaker 1: That explosive story after the break, welcome back. Well. Last
Speaker 1: year we revealed a clip I'm about to show you
Speaker 1: of Anthony Albanesi in his younger years, passionately condemning what
Speaker 1: he could Israel's occupation of Palestine. Now, as you can see,
Speaker 1: he yells into a microphone at a pro Palestinian protest.
Speaker 4: Have a look, Israel has trulent children hing weshts as.
Speaker 1: Now. According to far left new site Criikee, the clip
Speaker 1: that we broadcast was of Albanisi at a pro Palestinian
Speaker 1: protest during the Second into Fada in October two thousand
Speaker 1: and Anthony Alberizi was not a student but already a politician.
Speaker 9: Now.
Speaker 1: Criikee, coming at this issue from a completely different perspective
Speaker 1: to us. On Sky News ran a report on Saturday
Speaker 1: that Albanesi attended that protest outside the US consulate and
Speaker 1: that both American and Israeli flags were burned. They reported,
Speaker 1: and I quote at Martin Place, where the US Consulate
Speaker 1: was located at the time, a group of some twenty
Speaker 1: men broke from a twenty five hundred strong crowd of
Speaker 1: protesters and tried to storm the building. News agency AFP
Speaker 1: reported sections of the crowd chanted slogans calling for a
Speaker 1: pan Arab g had or holy war to push the
Speaker 1: Israelis out of disputed lands. Despite appeals from their leaders
Speaker 1: for KHM, a group of about fifty protesters set fire
Speaker 1: to Israeli and US flags. The story added chance of free,
Speaker 1: free Palestine and God Is Great drowned out several speakers,
Speaker 1: including an Australian member of Parliament, and they say that
Speaker 1: was Albanisi. This is quite explosive because it explains why
Speaker 1: Albinizi has been so reluctant to unequivocally condemn the aggressive
Speaker 1: protests we've seen. It explains why he didn't I'm out
Speaker 1: swinging in defense of the Jewish community after the Opera
Speaker 1: House protests on October nine, when, as you know, the
Speaker 1: mob chanted where's the Jews and worse and burned flags,
Speaker 1: while police told Jews to stay at home and Jews
Speaker 1: were meant to be attending a vigil for the terror
Speaker 1: attacks at the opera house that very night with the
Speaker 1: sales lit blue and white. And now we learn that Albanizi,
Speaker 1: as an MP, not a student, was at a protest
Speaker 1: during the Second into Fada where God Is Great was
Speaker 1: chanted and flags were burned. I've played this clip many times,
Speaker 1: but now Kriche has tracked down the protest where Albanizi
Speaker 1: said it have a look again.
Speaker 4: Truman chi hing wess.
Speaker 1: Archy reports that he attended more protests in the next
Speaker 1: few weeks. This is massive the Second Interfada where there
Speaker 1: were suicide bombings in Israel and serious threats to Jewish
Speaker 1: institutions in Australia, and Albanisi was among the anti Israel protesters.
Speaker 1: He was an MP at the time and made similar
Speaker 1: remarks in parliament.
Speaker 5: Palestinians must be given their homeland. The occupation of Gaza,
Speaker 5: the West Bank and East Jerusalem by the Israelis has
Speaker 5: created generations of oppressed people. While many Israelis continued to
Speaker 5: demonize all Palestinians as terrorists, Palestinians experience is rallies as
Speaker 5: occupiers and employers of chief chief labor, interrogators and jailers. Meanwhile,
Speaker 5: the government of Israel continues to allow fundamentalists to build
Speaker 5: illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
Speaker 1: Let's bring in now Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Patterson. James,
Speaker 1: I think this revelation is extremely significant. What do you think?
Speaker 10: I completely agree with you, Shari. Most Australians probably assumed
Speaker 10: that the Prime minister's response, inadequate response since the seventh
Speaker 10: October of rising anti sementis amount of country was just
Speaker 10: due to the fact that he's a weak prime minister.
Speaker 3: But actually, I think what.
Speaker 10: You've demonstrated is that deep down he has hatred for Israel,
Speaker 10: a deep seated hatred which goes back decades, and what
Speaker 10: we're seeing here is that secret hatred bubbling to the
Speaker 10: surface and manifesting in his policies today. I think he's
Speaker 10: the most anti Israel prime minister we have ever had
Speaker 10: in this country, at leastens to the establishment of the
Speaker 10: State of Israel in nineteen forty eight, and no wonder
Speaker 10: he has failed to rally to the Jewish community in
Speaker 10: its hour and need no wonder he's abandoned Israel at
Speaker 10: international forums and in public debate, and no wonder so
Speaker 10: many Jewish Australians feel so abandoned at this critical time.
Speaker 1: Do you think this explains why he couldn't strongly and
Speaker 1: unequivocally condemn the Opera House and other similar aggressive and
Speaker 1: violent protests because he was at a similar protest whereas
Speaker 1: were burned.
Speaker 10: Anthony Abernese's whole history as a politician is to appeal
Speaker 10: to extremists like the people you've seen at those rallies.
Speaker 10: He has been to those rallies, He's addressed those rallies.
Speaker 10: His policies and rhetoric seeks to appease the people who
Speaker 10: go to those rallies, and I think he deep down
Speaker 10: has a lot of sympathy with their perspective. Let's remember
Speaker 10: that in recent times, In fact, in just the last
Speaker 10: Parliament when he was in opposition, he went all the
Speaker 10: way to the United Kingdom to spend time with Jeremy
Speaker 10: Corbyn and posted selfies with him on social media. In
Speaker 10: the middle of the UK Labor Party's unprecedented anti semitism crisis,
Speaker 10: Kirs Darma is trying to clean up the anti semitism
Speaker 10: of the Genery Corbyn era and expel those people from
Speaker 10: the modern Labour Party in the UK, including Jeremy Corbyn.
Speaker 10: But Anthony Obernese thought it was a good idea to
Speaker 10: post smiling selfies with him. I mean, I think this
Speaker 10: really does show that extreme antite Israel hadred that lies
Speaker 10: underneath the surface of those policies.
Speaker 1: Okay, We're going to continue to cover this and investigate
Speaker 1: Albanese's past stories. I first reported the lead up to
Speaker 1: the last election. Now Andrew Giles has claimed that drones
Speaker 1: were being used to track down released immigration detainees. He
Speaker 1: has now come out today conceding that actually this isn't true.
Speaker 1: James Patterson, the fact that the Prime Minister continues to
Speaker 1: protect his Immigration minister despite so many failures that would
Speaker 1: have cost anyone else their job really questions what is
Speaker 1: going on here? Why the Prime Minister is refusing to
Speaker 1: take leadership and move him out of this portfolio.
Speaker 10: Charrey, things have got so bad here in Canberra that
Speaker 10: we have a Minister for Immigration who is publicly hallucinating
Speaker 10: about an imaginary, secret grown surveillance program which his department
Speaker 10: has never been running, as a justification and a defense
Speaker 10: for his failure to ensure that the law is enforced
Speaker 10: and that all the release detainees are wearing ankle bloses.
Speaker 10: What prompted him to make this admission to Kieran Gilbert
Speaker 10: was the fact that at least two of the former
Speaker 10: murderers and twenty six of the former sex offenders are
Speaker 10: free in the community without ankle bracelets, despite him promising otherwise.
Speaker 10: And all he could come up is, oh, we're secretly
Speaker 10: monitoring them with drones, which turns out not to be
Speaker 10: the case at all. Now, this is a pretty shocking
Speaker 10: attempt to mislead the Australian people. He said this on Thursday,
Speaker 10: his office repeated it to journalists on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
Speaker 10: and the Minister for Agriculture Murray what was on Insiders
Speaker 10: on Sunday, still maintaining that drones had been used in
Speaker 10: some capacity, and fifteen minutes before question time today they
Speaker 10: had to reluctantly admit that Andrew Giles had just imagined
Speaker 10: this all in a feverish dream.
Speaker 1: Look, it's quite the scandal. I'm going to come back
Speaker 1: to this drone issue later in the show when I
Speaker 1: bring in my political panel James Patterson thank you very
Speaker 1: much for joining me now. Treasury Secretary Stephen Kennedy has
Speaker 1: painted a grim economic warning during Senate estimates this morning.
Speaker 1: Have a look.
Speaker 11: The contribution of household consumption to economic growth was the
Speaker 11: weakest it has been in the past decade outside of
Speaker 11: the pandemic. The run of recent week retail trade data
Speaker 11: suggests consumption is expected to remain subdued into the first
Speaker 11: half of this calendar year as households continue to prioritize
Speaker 11: essential spending. More broadly, we expect activity to be very
Speaker 11: weak in the March quarter.
Speaker 1: GDP all right, let's bring it now Macro Business Chief
Speaker 1: Economist Leith van Nonstein. Leith, thank you again for your time. Look,
Speaker 1: this was a very grim outlet outlook from the Treasury Secretary.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 9: And what to show Cherry is that the Reserve Bank
Speaker 9: of Australia is basically caught in a bind as it
Speaker 9: tries to balanced stubborn inflation with the deteriorating economy.
Speaker 3: So we obviously know that last.
Speaker 9: Week's April CPI indicator was too high, which would have
Speaker 9: irritated the Reserve Bank. At the same time, I got
Speaker 9: the consumer economy collapsing. So last week we saw the
Speaker 9: softest and your retail sales growth in more than three
Speaker 9: decades outside of the pandemic, despite the strongest population growth
Speaker 9: in around seventy years. And this week we're likely to
Speaker 9: see the QE National accounts you record the lowest annual
Speaker 9: GDP growth outside of the pandemic since the early nineties recession,
Speaker 9: despite seventy year high population growth. So the reality is
Speaker 9: that the per capita economy is collapsing Sherry, driven by
Speaker 9: the household sector. Households has been smashed by falling consumption
Speaker 9: that's been in rising unemployment, etc. And what this tells
Speaker 9: you is that interest rates are going to remain on
Speaker 9: hold for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems like a great cut that many were
Speaker 1: expecting later this year is diminishing.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 1: Two point six million Australians are set for a pay
Speaker 1: rise in July this after the Fair Work Commission lifted
Speaker 1: the minimum award wages by three point seventy five percent.
Speaker 1: Now this is currently leith higher than inflation. Are you concerned?
Speaker 1: You know that these wage rises they are needed, but
Speaker 1: are you concerned they will push inflation up further?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Look, the short answer that is no, not at that level.
Speaker 9: I think the Fairwere Commission decision was actually sensible and
Speaker 9: pretty measured. Look, the three point seventy five percent rise
Speaker 9: in the minimum ward wages was obviously well below last
Speaker 9: years which is five point seventy five percent, and I think,
Speaker 9: if anything, it should be neutral to potentially disinflationy. And
Speaker 9: it's worth pointing out the Westpact today lower at its
Speaker 9: forecast for wage growth to just three percent by the
Speaker 9: end of this year based on the Fairwork Commission's decision,
Speaker 9: and what's going to bear in mind that obviously the
Speaker 9: labor market's weaking. We've got the unemployment, underemployment rates arising,
Speaker 9: labor supply three, immigrations growing much faster than jobson be created,
Speaker 9: and as a result, wage growth is going to fall
Speaker 9: through the year anyway.
Speaker 1: All right, Leith Vanonsen, thank you very much for your
Speaker 1: time tonight. Now coming up, another major bungle from the
Speaker 1: immigration minister. Plus why is Bill short and paying his
Speaker 1: speech writerer six hundred thousand dollars? My political panel will
Speaker 1: join me next. Welcome back well. Immigration Minister Andrew ja
Speaker 1: Was last week said that detainees were being tracked by.
Speaker 5: Drones and that's enabled things like using drones to keep
Speaker 5: track of those people.
Speaker 1: Then his colleague, Labor Senator Murray Watt backed.
Speaker 12: This in My understanding is that drones are being used
Speaker 12: as part of this operation, but more in the sense
Speaker 12: of monitoring the accommodation that people are living in in
Speaker 12: for example, ensuring that it's not too close to schools
Speaker 12: or other areas that they're not supposed to be living
Speaker 12: close to. So drones do form part of the operation.
Speaker 1: But then today in Parliament the Immigration Minister conceded that
Speaker 1: actually drones aren't being used to monitor detainees. I relied
Speaker 1: on information provided by my department at the time, which
Speaker 1: has since order, which has since been clur always the
Speaker 1: department's fault when it comes to Andrew Giles. Well, let's
Speaker 1: bring in now tonight's political panel, former Press Secretary to
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Scott Morrison and current director at Headline Advisory
Speaker 1: Andrew Carswell and Labor MP Daniel Melino. Welcome to you both. Daniel,
Speaker 1: What was the story here? How can the minister keep
Speaker 1: blaming the department for these mistakes?
Speaker 13: Well, hi Shari, and hi Andrew. Look, I think this
Speaker 13: is a case of the minister receiving advice and then
Speaker 13: giving answers in Parliament and in media interviews based on
Speaker 13: that advice, and then it being clarified later. I really
Speaker 13: don't see that there's a lot to this one, and
Speaker 13: as soon as he found out he clarified both in
Speaker 13: the media and in the Parliament, and for me in
Speaker 13: the Chamber, both being someone who participated in an MPI
Speaker 13: late last week and also somebody who's seen the debate
Speaker 13: play out more broadly, what really is evolving here is
Speaker 13: that its Minister Darton in the previous government who released
Speaker 13: almost ten times as many criminals and people who had
Speaker 13: conviction as the current minister, and they didn't have any
Speaker 13: kind of monitoring. So that to me is framing the
Speaker 13: debate in a way which the Opposition is actually finding
Speaker 13: quite uncomfortable. In the Chamber, well, I think this.
Speaker 1: Is about community safety. And Andrew Giles has said you
Speaker 1: don't need to worry the detainees are being monitored, including
Speaker 1: with drones, and then we learn that's actually not the case.
Speaker 1: But Andrew Carswall, do you want to respond to this
Speaker 1: point from Daniel Molino that under the coalition government which
Speaker 1: you were part of as a media advisor, you released
Speaker 1: more detainees.
Speaker 14: Well, it's fanciful and it's completely different circumstances. I mean this, like,
Speaker 14: you know, we thought he was at rock bottom last week.
Speaker 14: He just got out the jackhammer and found a few
Speaker 14: more levels underneath his feet. I mean, this is a
Speaker 14: rolling circus now, and it's a rolling circus that is
Speaker 14: completely bewildering the Australian public. Six months ago they started
Speaker 14: hearing these stories, they started hearing that the horrific stories
Speaker 14: of crimes that were taking place as a result of
Speaker 14: these actions. They six months of stories of bungling up
Speaker 14: to bungling episodes from an immigration minister that is clearly
Speaker 14: out of his depths, and then they look on their TV,
Speaker 14: even as late as this week and think, well, why is.
Speaker 3: He still there?
Speaker 14: Well, he's there because he's Albanese's mate, and Anthony Aberze
Speaker 14: he has chosen to protect his mate and not protect
Speaker 14: the Australian public.
Speaker 3: And that's not hyperbly at all. You've got to look
Speaker 3: at the numbers here.
Speaker 14: It's one hundred and fifty three detainees that were let
Speaker 14: go by this government.
Speaker 3: Because of its policies.
Speaker 14: Half of those had ankle monitoring on their bodies and
Speaker 14: half didn't out of those that didn't that there's two murderers,
Speaker 14: twenty six sex offenders on the streets, no drones looking
Speaker 14: over them, no ankle bracelets on the street.
Speaker 3: This man has to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does seem at this point like it's a
Speaker 1: complete protection racket for Andrew Giles. Well, let's move on
Speaker 1: now to Bill Shotten's new speech writer, who, and this
Speaker 1: was revealed in Senate estimates today, secured a government contract
Speaker 1: worth about three hundred thousand dollars a year and it
Speaker 1: runs for two years. Well, here is Bill Shorton on
Speaker 1: a current affair just a little earlier, trying to defend
Speaker 1: this expense.
Speaker 15: I think that service, the hiring of a speechwriter was
Speaker 15: done by Service Australia. I had no idea what the
Speaker 15: payment was. So if you're trying to link me to that,
Speaker 15: good luck. The point about it is the person involved,
Speaker 15: who is the speechwriter, does a very good job. I'm
Speaker 15: not responsible for negotiating a contract, Daniel.
Speaker 1: The Coalition has heavily criticized Bill Shorton over this. They
Speaker 1: say it's an extravagance, especially during a cost of living crisis.
Speaker 1: The Coalition says it amounts to about twenty two thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a speech. What's your response.
Speaker 3: We'll look.
Speaker 13: Firstly, I think that there had been somebody in a
Speaker 13: very senior role writing speeches and other roles. It's not
Speaker 13: just the speeches. That this role under takes for a
Speaker 13: long time, and that person then left that role and
Speaker 13: so it needed to be filled. That process of filling
Speaker 13: that role was undertaken at complete arms length from the
Speaker 13: minister in the minister's office. They had nothing to do
Speaker 13: with selecting the person or setting the salary. The other
Speaker 13: thing I'd say is my understanding is what's been clarified
Speaker 13: today is that that figure of six hundred and twenty
Speaker 13: thousand dollars is like an outer envelope and doesn't reflect
Speaker 13: the person's salary. My understanding of the person's salary, which
Speaker 13: came out later in estimates, is that it's in the
Speaker 13: mid two hundreds, which is a very good salary. But
Speaker 13: what we're talking about is an sees Banned one or
Speaker 13: sees Ban two person undertaking just about the most senior
Speaker 13: comms or external relations role in a huge department. This
Speaker 13: is a very senior role in a major commonwealth department
Speaker 13: or a corporate or a large not for profit It's
Speaker 13: not surprising that they've got somebody with a lot of
Speaker 13: experience and expertise, So somebody in that sees banned one
Speaker 13: or two position, it's not surprising to me.
Speaker 3: That that the kind of way they pitched that role.
Speaker 1: Look, I just want to return to Peter Dutton Andrew Carswell,
Speaker 1: you attended this event last night where I interviewed Peter
Speaker 1: Dutton at length forty five minutes. One of the things
Speaker 1: he spoke about was the pathway he saw to winning
Speaker 1: the next election. He outlined the areas he could pick
Speaker 1: up seats. He was also very strong on many topics
Speaker 1: law enforcement, University Chancellor's activists at the ABC. Do you
Speaker 1: think Dutton does have a pathway to become PM or
Speaker 1: do you think the battle is just too big.
Speaker 14: There's certainly a pathway, and there's always a pathway, and
Speaker 14: particularly when you have a government that is on the
Speaker 14: nose as the Abaneze government is.
Speaker 3: But it is a difficult equation.
Speaker 14: They effectively have to pick up nineteen seats, including the two,
Speaker 14: sorry not including the two that the Crossban now have
Speaker 14: taken away from them by those two going over to
Speaker 14: the other side. So it is a difficult equation a
Speaker 14: first time. Hasn't lost government in this way since nineteen
Speaker 14: thirty one, So the weight of history is against Dutton.
Speaker 14: But he's doing an admirable job of holding this government
Speaker 14: to account. And I think he's surprising a lot of people.
Speaker 14: He's surprising the people with his patients. He's surprising a
Speaker 14: lot of people with the policies that he's putting forward.
Speaker 14: And I think he'll give it a good shake.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Andrew Carswell, Daniel Malina, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Now after the break, Donald Trump vows to fight on
Speaker 1: after becoming the first convicted bomber president in history. Welcome
Speaker 1: back Will. In his first interview since he's guilty verdict,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump told Fox that he did nothing wrong.
Speaker 3: And then you had a jury that was from a
Speaker 3: certain persuasion would have been hired to do no matter what.
Speaker 3: But I did absolutely nothing wrong.
Speaker 6: All Right.
Speaker 1: Sky News contributor Kosher Gada joins me. Now, Kosher, what
Speaker 1: did you think of Trump's interview today with Fox News?
Speaker 6: I think it was expected, Shari. Where He's going to
Speaker 6: stick with what the premise has been from his side
Speaker 6: and his team on this, which is that the entire
Speaker 6: case from the beginning to end is really politically driven
Speaker 6: as opposed to justice driven, and he was just hitting
Speaker 6: those points in that interview. And it's really all about
Speaker 6: now that, now that the conviction came out, which everybody
Speaker 6: expected would be the case, it's now all about the
Speaker 6: political aspect and fallout of that, and how much can
Speaker 6: the messaging be used to his advantage or the disadvantage
Speaker 6: of it be squashed with certain sectors of the electorate.
Speaker 6: And I would expect to see a lot more media
Speaker 6: and rallies and things of that nature tying into this
Speaker 6: from here to November.
Speaker 1: Look, Trump says he's not scared of going to jail.
Speaker 1: Sentencing will be on July eleventh, But is this a reality?
Speaker 1: Is this a realistic prospect that he could actually be
Speaker 1: in prison?
Speaker 6: You know, it's a pretty scary thought. I think most
Speaker 6: conventional wisdom says that that is a bridge too far,
Speaker 6: even for this judge, even for the jurisdiction in which
Speaker 6: he was tried, including those who believe the whole thing
Speaker 6: was unfair from start to finish, don't think that it
Speaker 6: would end up with that.
Speaker 7: But who knows.
Speaker 6: Anything is possible. We've just seen so many things have
Speaker 6: happened in an unprecedented way with Trump really since before
Speaker 6: he came into office, all the way up until now
Speaker 6: that I think we can't rule anything out. There are
Speaker 6: other versions of it where they could There could be
Speaker 6: a sentence and then they suspend it, so it sort
Speaker 6: of makes a statement. The judge could do what's called
Speaker 6: a suspended sentence where he's making a statement symbolically leading
Speaker 6: up to the election, but he wouldn't actually follow through
Speaker 6: with it. There could be other things where he does
Speaker 6: sentence him to a short time in prison, but then
Speaker 6: it would immediately go up to appeal and one of
Speaker 6: the higher courts would stay that order expecting that the
Speaker 6: appeal process would take place. So there's all sorts of
Speaker 6: versions of that that could take place, and I think,
Speaker 6: really it's anybody's guess how this is going to go.
Speaker 1: Look, it's been widely reported that tens of millions of
Speaker 1: dollars was pumped into Trump's campaign within hours, within forty
Speaker 1: eight hours of the conviction. So this does seem to
Speaker 1: have only energized support for him, it really has.
Speaker 6: I think it was fifty four million in twenty four hours,
Speaker 6: which the Trump campaign has always been behind on funding.
Speaker 6: And that was not insignificant, and it really is an
Speaker 6: indication of that support. And there's also polling that says
Speaker 6: something like seventy percent of Republicans already expected this to happen.
Speaker 6: They did not think it was a fair trial that's
Speaker 6: baked into the cake, and they want to stick with him.
Speaker 6: Same thing on the other side of Democrats were actually
Speaker 6: energized as well. And then the thing that we don't
Speaker 6: know is how the independents are going to fall out
Speaker 6: on this issue, and that's really what's going to be
Speaker 6: found out in the weeks to come.
Speaker 1: All Right, thank you so much, Kosha Gad and thank
Speaker 1: you everyone for your company this evening. I see you
Speaker 1: tomorrow at eight. And here's Paul Mari