Speaker 1: Live on Sky News. This is Shari. Good on you, James,
Speaker 1: thanks for that. Welcome to the shows. Steep Price with
Speaker 1: you in for Shari. Plenty to debate tonight, including the
Speaker 1: embarrassing failure of a plan to allow non Australian residents
Speaker 1: to join our military during a recruiting crisis.
Speaker 2: I have more on that shortly.
Speaker 1: Also coming up tonight, Good time to have Nationals Backbencher
Speaker 1: Matt Canavan on with the up first tonight with the
Speaker 1: odd decision I think odd to allow American beef into
Speaker 1: Australia regardless of where in the Americas it was actually raised,
Speaker 1: potentially raising our strict biochemistry regime, and despite there being
Speaker 1: no consumer demand for it anyway, So why are we
Speaker 1: letting it in? Except to perhaps keep Donald Trump happy.
Speaker 1: Also tonight, Peter Jennings will look for answers on why
Speaker 1: it's so hard to find those recruits young Australians and
Speaker 1: get them into the ADF and why even our key
Speaker 1: we friends are reluctant to go into the Australian uniform. Plus,
Speaker 1: it's come to this, a local council in Melbourne is
Speaker 1: going to spend a six figure sum hiring private security
Speaker 1: in the middle of a crime crisis, Victoria police can't
Speaker 1: handle it, so the council is going to hire their
Speaker 1: own security. I'll took to the mayor of that council later.
Speaker 1: First up, though, tonight, speaking of a youth crime crisis
Speaker 1: right around Australia, why is no one talking about a
Speaker 1: modern day version of compulsory military service to bolster our
Speaker 1: great diminished, greatly diminished ADF. Now, look, I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about conscription often that's where this argument goes. That's not
Speaker 1: what I'm suggesting, because without a regional war threatening our sovereignty,
Speaker 1: I don't believe the either side of politics would be
Speaker 1: gain to try it. Australia hasn't forcefully conscripted their own
Speaker 1: citizens into uniform and sent them into war since the
Speaker 1: Vietnam War. Now, I was lucky enough to miss out
Speaker 1: by a couple of years of having my birthday date
Speaker 1: marble pulled out of a barrel. Yes, that's how they
Speaker 1: did it, as conscription ended when GoF Whitlam came to
Speaker 1: power in nineteen seventy two, so I was too young. Today, though,
Speaker 1: we have a double problem. The Australian Defense Force, as
Speaker 1: we keep reading, is in a recruiting crisis. And today
Speaker 1: we learn that a federal government plan which was announced
Speaker 1: with great fanfare to allow non Australians who are from
Speaker 1: our five Eyes intelligence countries that means New Zealand, the US,
Speaker 1: the UK plus Canada. Well it's been a complete and
Speaker 1: utter dismal failure. Twelve months in a year in how
Speaker 1: many people do you think of put their hands up
Speaker 1: from any of those five countries, Well just three.
Speaker 2: Those three were Kiwis.
Speaker 1: They're the only people to put their hands up to
Speaker 1: serve the ADF, and none of them from the other
Speaker 1: Five Eyes nations. Now, at the same time, we have
Speaker 1: the worst youth crime crisis in Australian history. Teenagers, some
Speaker 1: of them as young as twelve and thirteen, are stealing
Speaker 1: cars every night, playing deadly chicken with police, invading private
Speaker 1: homes in the middle of the night and arming themselves
Speaker 1: with knives and machetes. Leftist state governments who have appointed
Speaker 1: like minded magistrates have no answer to this crisis, just
Speaker 1: like the ADF have. It seems, no answers to a
Speaker 1: lack of willingness of young Australians to put up their
Speaker 1: hands to volunteer to serve in the Army, of the.
Speaker 2: Navy, of the Air force.
Speaker 1: Would any political party, and this is a genuine inquiry
Speaker 1: from me, have the courage to go to an election
Speaker 1: with a policy of compulsory military service of one two
Speaker 1: years for anyone eighteen and over or maybe even seventeen
Speaker 1: and over. Now, of course there would have to be
Speaker 1: exemptions to be worked out those people studying, say medicine,
Speaker 1: or at university at an engineering degree, or perhaps working
Speaker 1: already in emergency services like being a police officer or
Speaker 1: a paramedic. But sixty countries, sixty countries around the world
Speaker 1: still have compulsory time. Doing military training doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: go to war. You're just training to be a soldier
Speaker 1: or a sailor or in the air force. Now, many
Speaker 1: of those nations, think Israeli or Ukraine obviously need numbers
Speaker 1: for national security. But what I am talking about, though,
Speaker 1: is using the assets we have in our military to
Speaker 1: straighten up young Australians in danger of losing their way.
Speaker 1: We've got huge resources that could train these people into
Speaker 1: a trade.
Speaker 2: For example.
Speaker 1: This could be done by training advantages sold to youngsters
Speaker 1: unable to say get an apprenticeship. It could be done
Speaker 1: by court order it could be part of our education system.
Speaker 1: Even you get enough young men and women into a
Speaker 1: scheme like this, and guess what a percentage of them,
Speaker 1: Maybe only a few will stick with it, and that
Speaker 1: could solve some of our recruiting issues. It will also
Speaker 1: get some of the repeat offenders, those who get bailed
Speaker 1: dozens of times, and we've seen examples in Victoria of
Speaker 1: people bailed forty or fifty times only to complete go
Speaker 1: out again and repeat their offending on the streets. Look,
Speaker 1: it's a bold call, and I'm not naive enough to
Speaker 1: think it'll happen anytime soon. But why can we not
Speaker 1: have a national, sensible, rational debate about this, at least
Speaker 1: as an example of how this could work, have a
Speaker 1: look at Greece.
Speaker 2: Why do I mention Greece. Well, Greece is not at war.
Speaker 1: Greece is a sophisticated country with a magnificent tourism industry.
Speaker 1: All Greek men, and I had to look this up today,
Speaker 1: I had no idea all Greek men aged between nineteen
Speaker 1: and forty five must serve between nine and twelve months
Speaker 1: in the military. Greece, as I said, is a modern
Speaker 1: nation like Australia, but it's good enough for them, why
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be good enough for us? Let's bring in
Speaker 1: our Thursday Night panel please to say West Australian Liberal
Speaker 1: leader I'd made of my Basil's semplus and National Senator
Speaker 1: Matt Canavan, gentlemen, welcome, great to see you both now. Basil,
Speaker 1: I know Perth doesn't have the crime problem that we
Speaker 1: have on the ear coast, but what do you think
Speaker 1: a bit of time in the military to straighten up
Speaker 1: some of the youngsters who are not doing too well.
Speaker 3: Certainly not the stupidest idea.
Speaker 4: My family, my sister still lives in Greece and has
Speaker 4: adult family, my nephew who's in his forties now, but
Speaker 4: he did the nine to twelve months that everyone was
Speaker 4: required to do over there, and everyone in Greece I've
Speaker 4: just returned actually a short time ago.
Speaker 3: Everyone in Greece considers it very beneficial.
Speaker 4: It's something that they look forward to, and it is
Speaker 4: something that they sign up to willingly and they know
Speaker 4: that it will be over inside a year.
Speaker 3: So it's a part of a rite of passage.
Speaker 4: I guess here there's full employment or close to full employment.
Speaker 4: Once upon a time, you joined the navy or join
Speaker 4: the army to go and see the world.
Speaker 3: Lots of people are able to travel now because the
Speaker 3: costs of traveling have come down.
Speaker 4: But I think for that youth area, those kids between
Speaker 4: sixteen and twenty four twenty five, who are struggling to
Speaker 4: find their way in life, it might.
Speaker 3: Be hugely beneficial for them.
Speaker 4: And it is not the stupidest idea and is worthy
Speaker 4: of sensible and strong consideration.
Speaker 3: It wouldn't be forever, but it might.
Speaker 4: Be something that will help make a huge difference to
Speaker 4: those young kids' lives.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 2: Well, let's see what a sensible politician thinks of it. Matt.
Speaker 1: I'm probably whistling in the wind. But you know how
Speaker 1: else are we going to bolster the numbers in the ADF.
Speaker 5: Well, look, I don't support conscription. I think we proudly
Speaker 5: have largely had a volunteer army in this country, including
Speaker 5: during two World Wars. It was a limited form of
Speaker 5: conscription world War Two, but only to protect the home front,
Speaker 5: and that served us well. I don't want to load
Speaker 5: up the military with the problems of society which are
Speaker 5: legiand keep in mind in terms of youth crime. Look,
Speaker 5: it's a very small number of juveniles that commit the crimes.
Speaker 5: Usually the police know them by name. The solution is
Speaker 5: right in front of us. It's about locking up those kids,
Speaker 5: not trying to encapture the whole of our youth in
Speaker 5: a broader scheme. Look in terms of recruitment to the military, well,
Speaker 5: I think over there in the US we could take
Speaker 5: a leaf out of Pete Hegseth's book. I mean, they've
Speaker 5: got recruitment numbers surging because they've reinstilled, reinstalled pride in
Speaker 5: the military. They've marked it as a sense of duty,
Speaker 5: Whereas when you see our recruitment ads lately in Australia,
Speaker 5: it's as if joining the army is sort of a
Speaker 5: lifestyle choice where you get to party and meet friends
Speaker 5: and network and think about career opportunities.
Speaker 3: I think we'll be much.
Speaker 5: Better selling it to young people are saying this is
Speaker 5: something you do for your nation, something you sacrifice. It's hard,
Speaker 5: it's tough, it's difficult, but that will attract the right
Speaker 5: people and more people to to boot. As we can
Speaker 5: see from the US.
Speaker 1: Well, you talk about national pride there, but I mean
Speaker 1: many of the youngsters in schools are told to not
Speaker 1: be proud of Australia. I mean they're told that, you know,
Speaker 1: we're a nation that's been invaded and we shouldn't just
Speaker 1: fly our flag but have three and I mean the
Speaker 1: pride's gone, Matt, that's the problem.
Speaker 5: Well, look, the death's definitely had an impact. But in
Speaker 5: terms of how many people do you want us to
Speaker 5: want to join the Australian military any one year, we
Speaker 5: only have an armed defense course of less than one
Speaker 5: hundred thousand people. So there are still plenty of young
Speaker 5: Australians with pride in their nation. They just need to
Speaker 5: be given the hope that joining the military will allow
Speaker 5: them to exercise and show that pride. And keep in
Speaker 5: mind too, I do think there's massive issues in their
Speaker 5: education system. That's a separate issue of how to deal
Speaker 5: with that. But I also have great faith in young Australians.
Speaker 5: You can see and you're renewed flourishing occurring in traditional values,
Speaker 5: in pride in our nation, partly because guess what, a
Speaker 5: lot of young kids tend to do the opposite of
Speaker 5: what their teachers tell them. I was one like that,
Speaker 5: and I'm proud to be breeding others that have the
Speaker 5: appropriate degree of cynicism about authority as any good Australian should, I.
Speaker 4: Think just the one other thing worth considering prices, you know, perhaps,
Speaker 4: and these young men that cohort, they might not be
Speaker 4: joining the regular army per se.
Speaker 3: They might be doing a year of national service.
Speaker 4: It wouldn't be the full blown military life for them,
Speaker 4: but what it could be is a gateway.
Speaker 3: Some of them would be exposed to it for the
Speaker 3: very first time.
Speaker 4: I would say, you know what, this is something I
Speaker 4: want to do now with the rest of my life,
Speaker 4: for at least the next ten or fifteen years. And
Speaker 4: so if you consider it a bit of a gap
Speaker 4: year after you would finish school, something that lots of
Speaker 4: people were able to do or were asked to do.
Speaker 4: If you think of it in those terms, it is
Speaker 4: not the craziest idea. And as you've said, it works
Speaker 4: in other countries and it works fight successfully, so it
Speaker 4: is worthy of consideration. But it wouldn't main necessarily a
Speaker 4: full blown military career, and those young people are off
Speaker 4: to fight in parts of the world anywhere. I think
Speaker 4: that's the differentiation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a great way to frame it.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about beef this decision today, and it's great
Speaker 1: to have Matt with US confirmation today that Australia will
Speaker 1: now remove the ban on American beef that originates outside
Speaker 1: of the US, so it might be grazed and raised
Speaker 1: in somewhere like Canada and Mexico. We've also always had
Speaker 1: a biosecurity issue with that. The government's now just dropped
Speaker 1: this quickly. In the media this morning, they say it's
Speaker 1: not a sweetener for any tariff talks. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: believe that for a second. I would ask Matt who comes.
Speaker 1: I often see him at the cattleman's an you're gathering
Speaker 1: in Queensland, or he's wolfing down stakes every night. Is
Speaker 1: there any appetite here, Matt for American beef.
Speaker 5: Look, we're not going to be inundated with American beef,
Speaker 5: primarily because we have enough of it here and it's
Speaker 5: already much more expensive in the US. They've had a
Speaker 5: terrible draft in the US in recent years, so they've
Speaker 5: got a rapacious appetite for imported beef. They're not going
Speaker 5: to be exporting large amounts of it. But the concern
Speaker 5: that myself and other Nationals colleagues have about this decision
Speaker 5: is not an economic one. There's no economic threat here
Speaker 5: to liveblihoods of Australian cattle grays is. There is, however,
Speaker 5: a safety risk to all Australians, including the farming east industry,
Speaker 5: because even if there's not going to be a large
Speaker 5: number or amounts of US beef coming in to Australia,
Speaker 5: it only takes one box, it only takes one stake
Speaker 5: to be contaminated with something like mad cow disease, and
Speaker 5: we could see tens of billions of dollars of damage
Speaker 5: to Australian farming industry and massive impacts on everyday Australian life.
Speaker 5: I think the government's botched this announcement. I look, these
Speaker 5: decisions have always and should be based on the science,
Speaker 5: on the risks to the Australian people we have. It's
Speaker 5: very important to make the point that we have allowed
Speaker 5: of US beef and that we've had some misconceptions put
Speaker 5: out there by the US administration. US beef is allowed
Speaker 5: in Australia today. It just has to prove that it
Speaker 5: is US beef. There are still there are still mad
Speaker 5: cow diseases in Mexico. So I want to know from
Speaker 5: the government how they're going to prevent those coming in
Speaker 5: next week, I will be reconvening the Senate Rural Affairs Committee.
Speaker 3: Was the chair of that committee. I hope to be
Speaker 3: re elected chair next week.
Speaker 5: I'll be pushing for us to hear from the actual
Speaker 5: departmental experts here that have made this decision, because all
Speaker 5: we've heard from is the politicians right now. I want
Speaker 5: to see the evidence of the data that should be
Speaker 5: given to the strange beef industry.
Speaker 1: Let's talk to Basil about Andrew Twiggy Forest. Now, he's
Speaker 1: had a big day to day. He's had a few
Speaker 1: issues to contend with us that ford Eskew's abandoned I
Speaker 1: think now two of its most hype green hydrogen projects
Speaker 1: they're in the US. Fordeskew says it it's not given
Speaker 1: up on becoming a major force in renewable energy. But
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's no fan of the green energy movement, so
Speaker 1: he slashed the substitution. Apparently that's why Woodside and Fordeskeuw
Speaker 1: walked away. Basil, you know twigging Forest, Well, when you
Speaker 1: read what he says about green energy and the fact
Speaker 1: that he makes most of his income of exporting iron ore,
Speaker 1: how do you put those two things together.
Speaker 3: And can be difficult the reconcile that times can't.
Speaker 4: He's clearly had an ambitious green agenda and has been
Speaker 4: very keen to push that. Yet at the same time,
Speaker 4: the bulk of the income and the bulk of his
Speaker 4: work has been in the resources industry and certainly centered
Speaker 4: around iron ore. I think, partly with Andrew Forrest, it's
Speaker 4: about really pushing the envelope, being out there and seeing.
Speaker 3: What might be achieved. Aim for the stars.
Speaker 4: You never know you might get to the moon, and
Speaker 4: it's a simple way I think of looking at his
Speaker 4: philosophy in this space. However, there's no doubt the language today,
Speaker 4: some of those announcements and just more generally, some of
Speaker 4: the projects that he was particularly bullish about over the
Speaker 4: last couple of years, even twelve months ago, he is
Speaker 4: not anywhere near as bullish about now. And that tells
Speaker 4: you a lot of what you need to know about
Speaker 4: the push to these types and forms of renewable energy.
Speaker 4: The take up and the ability for it to do
Speaker 4: what we thought it might be going to do just
Speaker 4: hasn't been there.
Speaker 1: There's still a lot of work to be done, Matt.
Speaker 1: The cost of renewables continue to stack up. How long
Speaker 1: is the Albanize government going to continue to plow down
Speaker 1: this road? And we've had offshore wind collapsing, we've had
Speaker 1: major projects canceled. It would seem to me that we're
Speaker 1: so far down the road. I describe Chris Bowen as
Speaker 1: a mad uncle last night. He just won't hear any
Speaker 1: criticism of where he's taking us. Where do you think
Speaker 1: we're at with this now? I mean net zero obviously
Speaker 1: has been a big issue this week. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of Australians are starting to query whether we ought
Speaker 1: to be going as far.
Speaker 2: As we are.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Look, I mean we're in the state right now of
Speaker 5: being hungover if you like hungover on the green kool aid.
Speaker 5: We've drunk as a nation for the last few years.
Speaker 5: And it seems like Chris Bowen and the Government's solution
Speaker 5: to being hungover is to keep drinking, just get wasted again,
Speaker 5: just keep going and you'll get ready to hangover because
Speaker 5: doubling down all this madness. So there's no indication they've
Speaker 5: recognized they're wrong. Keep in mind, when we opened the
Speaker 5: parliament three years ago, the Governor General, as the Government
Speaker 5: General does, addresses the Parliament and in that speech three
Speaker 5: years ago, the Governor General said that a Labor government
Speaker 5: would reduce power bills for Australian families and businesses by
Speaker 5: hundreds of dollars. That obviously didn't happen. They went up
Speaker 5: by hundreds of dollars instead. And this time this week
Speaker 5: when Parliament was opened, mysteriously that commitment had disappeared. There
Speaker 5: were no commitment to reduce power bills at all. And
Speaker 5: it looks like the have A Party has just then
Speaker 5: given up on giving cost of relief to Australian families.
Speaker 5: So I think the Australian people are right to ask,
Speaker 5: like Ashton k Kucher famously did a few years ago, dude,
Speaker 5: where's my cheaper energy?
Speaker 3: I was promised the cheaper energy. Where is my cheaper energy? Dude?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very interesting that you mentioned well.
Speaker 1: I don't know what he looks like. It looks like
Speaker 1: a mad uncle to me, Basil.
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's start a comedy or not,
Speaker 5: but it's not funny.
Speaker 1: No, we shouldn't be laughing. Thank you both, appreciate it
Speaker 1: very much. I'll see you shortly.
Speaker 2: God, he is a mad uncle.
Speaker 1: I've got no idea what he's going on with now.
Speaker 1: He discussed the recruitment file, which I mentioned at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the program. We've had this discussion about whether
Speaker 1: we could set up some sort of a youth program
Speaker 1: where youngsters who are in trouble might go in for
Speaker 1: some sort of military training or national services, Basil put it.
Speaker 1: Australian Director of Strategic Analysis is Peter Jennings. Peter, welcome
Speaker 1: to you. Why is it the IDF have such trouble
Speaker 1: trying to convince youngsters to sign up to a life
Speaker 1: in the military, do you think.
Speaker 6: I think there's probably a sense that the government doesn't
Speaker 6: have the defense forces back right now. That's one of
Speaker 6: the things that's contributing to a lot of people leaving
Speaker 6: the ADF. Steve defenses. People have a way of sensing this,
Speaker 6: and I think if you're in an environment where military
Speaker 6: capabilities are being cut, ships aren't going to see aircraft
Speaker 6: aren't using their flying hours, people ask themselves the question
Speaker 6: why should I join? It doesn't seem that the government
Speaker 6: actually supports us. You know, instead of spending six days
Speaker 6: in China Albanez, you could have spent one day less
Speaker 6: and come to the Talisman Saber exercise and spend some
Speaker 6: time talking to Australian soldiers. He didn't do that. I
Speaker 6: think the first Prime minister in a long time not
Speaker 6: to have been to that exercise. So people get a
Speaker 6: sense that it's not a government priority and that hardly
Speaker 6: encourages individuals to join up.
Speaker 1: And that was a massive exercise, I mean, it was
Speaker 1: impressive in its scale. And you arrays a really good point.
Speaker 1: I mean, given the number of nations involved, given the
Speaker 1: numbers of of military involved, I think it was in
Speaker 1: the twenty thirty thousand thirty five, wouldn't the Prime minister
Speaker 1: show his face? Yeah, why wouldn't the Prime minister have
Speaker 1: shown his face and something like that?
Speaker 6: Typically they have And in fact, you if you look back, Steve,
Speaker 6: you'll find that the current PM has spent very little
Speaker 6: time with Australian soldiers. Occasionally you'll see him with the
Speaker 6: top brass, but not the soldiers. And of course that's
Speaker 6: not how John Howard operated, it's not how Tony Abbott operated,
Speaker 6: or Kevin Runt or Julia Gillard. It's just not Anthony
Speaker 6: Alberonisi's priority.
Speaker 1: Yeah, most Prime ministers in the past have done, you know,
Speaker 1: drop in visits to when we were involved in places
Speaker 1: like Afghanistan and Iraq. I mean it was commonplace for
Speaker 1: that to happen, and I think Australians watching that welcomed
Speaker 1: the fact that their prime minister was happy and willing
Speaker 1: to go and do it. And you mentioned Julia Gillard
Speaker 1: cheated it too. I'll get onto some comments by spinger
Speaker 1: Scott Morrison in a moment, Peter. But it's reported we've
Speaker 1: actually quietly made another eight hundred million dollar down payment
Speaker 1: on nuclear submarines. That's one point six billion in two
Speaker 1: eight hundred million payments. That shows us that Australia believes
Speaker 1: that aucust is still healthy. But the Americans are still
Speaker 1: making some disturbing noises about it, aren't they. Do we
Speaker 1: get the money back if it doesn't go ahead?
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean the idea of
Speaker 6: this is that we're helping American industry to expand its
Speaker 6: ability to build submarines more quickly, and therefore we'll get
Speaker 6: the benefit of that. I think the American claim would
Speaker 6: be that in other respects, we're not spending what we
Speaker 6: need to on UCUS or indeed defense more widely, Steve,
Speaker 6: So you know we're not building the required new nuclear
Speaker 6: submarine based on the East Coast. We're not making progress
Speaker 6: on establishing a nuclear storage facility for nuclear waste. Yes,
Speaker 6: we're training sailors, but not in anywhere near the numbers
Speaker 6: that we need. And they're the practical concerns which I
Speaker 6: think the Americans have about is Australia really serious about
Speaker 6: doing this? The problem being that it was always meant
Speaker 6: to be above the two percent of defense spending which
Speaker 6: the previous government was allocating, in which this government has kept.
Speaker 6: And I think the reality is you can't do ORCUS
Speaker 6: on the cheap. So a payment to America to help
Speaker 6: them strengthen their industry is a lot of money. Absolutely,
Speaker 6: but if we want the submarines, we need to be
Speaker 6: prepared to engage with the Americans in that way and
Speaker 6: probably do even more, well, significantly do more than we're
Speaker 6: actually doing now.
Speaker 1: I was impressed with Scott Morrison appearing at that congressional
Speaker 1: hearing in the US talking about the threat of China.
Speaker 1: And you know it comes after that six day visit
Speaker 1: you just mentioned of Anthony Albineasi Morrison dealt with the Chinese,
Speaker 1: obviously doing COVID. He demanded that we get some answers
Speaker 1: about where it came from, how it got out of
Speaker 1: wu Han. Chinese then slapped on all those trade bands.
Speaker 1: But I thought he was very impressive today saying that,
Speaker 1: you know, Americans and Australians have got to be very
Speaker 1: wary of what the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing is
Speaker 1: up to and how aggressive they will continue to be
Speaker 1: in the region. I mean, he's making a hell of
Speaker 1: a lot more sense, I must say, than the current
Speaker 1: Defense Minister, Richard Mars or the current Prime Minister.
Speaker 6: I completely agree. I mean there's a depth to Morrison's
Speaker 6: analysis which comes out of the fact that he was
Speaker 6: dealing with China at a particularly rough time during COVID.
Speaker 6: But you know, the same intelligence information is also available
Speaker 6: to Anthony Albnizi, and the current PM is just living
Speaker 6: on this fantasy that, you know, because he goes to
Speaker 6: nice banquets and the Chinese sort of look after him
Speaker 6: and show him the Great Wall and pandas everything's fine,
Speaker 6: Albert Easy will know on the basis of what the
Speaker 6: national security system tells him that there are actually serious
Speaker 6: problems with China, problems in the Pacific, with Southeast Asia,
Speaker 6: problems with the growth of their military capability, their continued
Speaker 6: cyberspye on Australia, which is enormous, and the Prime Minister
Speaker 6: is ignoring all of those things in order to maintain
Speaker 6: the fiction that everything's fantastic, and Scott Morrison's testimony proves
Speaker 6: the point that it's not. It's such a shame that
Speaker 6: Albanezi can't talk in the same level of detail as Morrison.
Speaker 6: Depp to Congress today.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I thought it was cherlish of the Prime
Speaker 1: Minister in question time that I had enough. You saw
Speaker 1: at Peter where August came up and he said, well,
Speaker 1: don't forget it's my government that signed August. I went
Speaker 1: and met with Joe Biden and the British Prime Minister
Speaker 1: and I signed up to August. Well, work had all
Speaker 1: been done. I mean Morrison, as you say, was at
Speaker 1: the heart of getting the Orcus Agreement up and running,
Speaker 1: shaping it and pushing it and making it happen. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: he lost an election, so the timing wasn't right for
Speaker 1: him to go and sign it. But if you go,
Speaker 1: if we look forward and you look back in history,
Speaker 1: he'll be the one who's credited largely with doing most
Speaker 1: of the hard yards waiting.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, and it needs to be bipartisan. I think my
Speaker 6: message to Alberzi would be the same as the store,
Speaker 6: the sign in the China shop. You know, you break it,
Speaker 6: you pay for it. So if Alberanesi wants it to succeed,
Speaker 6: you know, why isn't he investing even half the effort
Speaker 6: into building a relationship with Donald Trump that he is
Speaker 6: with China's Shujimpen. It's very strange and in many ways,
Speaker 6: I think, calculated to make the Americans doubt that we're
Speaker 6: serious about UCUS. So what is the Prime minister's real purpose?
Speaker 6: Does he actually wantless to succeed? Does he want the
Speaker 6: Americans to take it away? It's very hard to know
Speaker 6: what Albaneze's intention is with August Now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's making much more sense, Scott Morrison than what
Speaker 1: the Prime minister is. You read the tea leaves pretty well.
Speaker 1: What do you read of the detail coming out of
Speaker 1: the United States at a senior level as to whether
Speaker 1: they are still committed. We know they're having a review
Speaker 1: into wucas as you would as an incoming Republican administration
Speaker 1: who hasn't been in charge for four years.
Speaker 2: While a lot of this happened. Do you think they're
Speaker 2: you feel they're still comfortable with it.
Speaker 6: They're worried about us, Steve. The view in the Pentagon,
Speaker 6: in the US Navy, the Department of Energy is they're
Speaker 6: not sure Australia is investing the effort that we need
Speaker 6: to invest in order to be custodians of nuclear powered submarines.
Speaker 6: They would have expected faster progress across a range of areas.
Speaker 6: And I think in the White House they're just worried
Speaker 6: that Albanesi seems determined not to make contact. You know,
Speaker 6: he refuses to go to Washington. If he gets one
Speaker 6: of these side meetings in future with Trump, well that'll
Speaker 6: be a twenty minute discussion. So how can you talk
Speaker 6: substance in that context? I think there's lots of mixed
Speaker 6: messages coming out of Canberra. The Americans look at that
Speaker 6: and say, well, frankly, why would we provide you with
Speaker 6: Virginia class submarines when we can reliably get more value
Speaker 6: from them if we use them ourselves. We're not even
Speaker 6: sure if you'll be with us. So all of these
Speaker 6: are concerns which could be addressed if our government wanted
Speaker 6: to be serious about it, But it has to start
Speaker 6: with a relationship between the PM and the president. And
Speaker 6: for reasons that no one can really explain, Albanesi just
Speaker 6: refuses to do the obvious thing, which has get on
Speaker 6: a flight and go to Washington, DC to have that conversation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I suspect the Americans might be a bit worried
Speaker 1: we're too close to you. Peter jennings All is great
Speaker 1: to catch up with you, Thank you very much. Coming
Speaker 1: up after the break, where are the police when an
Speaker 1: inner city council this is happening in Melbourne in Marabanong,
Speaker 1: they've got to fork out more than one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars annually to keep rate payers safe from violent crime
Speaker 1: on this streets. That's up next, Steeve Price with you.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, sitting in for Shari Now. I've written a
Speaker 1: lot in the Herald Sun in columns over the last
Speaker 1: two years about the youth crime crisis across Victoria. In Melbourne.
Speaker 1: We're a national program and I know there are issues
Speaker 1: in many other areas of Australia as well, the center
Speaker 1: of Australia out of Springs Darwin, parts of northern Queensland,
Speaker 1: but Melbourne seems to be a particular problem. Michael Kroger,
Speaker 1: a regular on this program, told me on Monday night
Speaker 1: that he thinks Victoria, Melbourne is now a lawless place.
Speaker 1: The youth crime is completely out of control.
Speaker 2: One of the.
Speaker 1: City's inner city councils are going to now spend a
Speaker 1: significant amount of money, I think more than one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars on around the clock private security to tackle
Speaker 1: violent crime and anti social behavior in their area. You
Speaker 1: wouldn't think this would have to happen. In twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: marabn On Council says it's cracking down on crime in
Speaker 1: footscrap with two private security guards on patrol for a
Speaker 1: six month trial. Here to explain more is Victoria's first
Speaker 1: Indian born Mayor, Pradeep Twari.
Speaker 2: Great to have you in the studio.
Speaker 7: Thanks, thank you, Steve welcome.
Speaker 2: Do you ever think when you got elected as mayor
Speaker 2: that it would come to this?
Speaker 7: Not eddy amount of training could have prepared me for
Speaker 7: what I've seen in the last eight months in council.
Speaker 2: So explain to me what the particular I mean.
Speaker 1: We know the wider issue youth crime often people kids
Speaker 1: as young as twelve or thirteen. We've got car stealings,
Speaker 1: you've got home invasions. You've had a particular issue in
Speaker 1: shopping centers.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So our CBD, which we call fo Scoed CBD, we've
Speaker 7: had our issues a bit different. Ours is more drug
Speaker 7: and alcohol related, which will lead to mental health challenges.
Speaker 7: We've also had an influx of residents being released into
Speaker 7: foot Square by the High Court order, you know, people
Speaker 7: that were out of the detention you know, with the
Speaker 7: trucker bands and some with some serious criminal history as well.
Speaker 7: So we've had those challenges which we've actually recently just
Speaker 7: learned of. We didn't know that, you know, we had
Speaker 7: that part of the society as well, but we certainly
Speaker 7: had lots of mental health challenges. We don't have as
Speaker 7: much youth crime and the other issues that you've mentioned,
Speaker 7: but the drugs and alcohol are certainly leading to the
Speaker 7: mental health challenges that we've come up with this proposal.
Speaker 1: For talk to me about that. I mean the detention
Speaker 1: centers based in the Marrabonoal Council area.
Speaker 7: No, I don't think it is no longer based there.
Speaker 2: A lot of the people have been released from detentions
Speaker 2: in that area.
Speaker 7: That's correct. They've been provided housing supports to stay in
Speaker 7: Marabano and in and around Footscray. So they certainly there's
Speaker 7: quite a number of them there that we've been told
Speaker 7: by Victoria Police.
Speaker 1: Now, give me an example of what you're concerned about.
Speaker 1: Why did counsel sit down and vote to spend a
Speaker 1: significant amount of money on private security. Can't the police
Speaker 1: handle this?
Speaker 7: It's been a long time in coming. Since I've been
Speaker 7: in councilate nine months, we've been advocating for the state
Speaker 7: government for actually increased mental health you know, support getting
Speaker 7: people the right support at the right time. Since then,
Speaker 7: we've had a couple of deaths. The crime statistics that
Speaker 7: we've been received, it's up by sixteen to almost twenty
Speaker 7: one percent over the last twelve months. The traders are feeling,
Speaker 7: you know, the brunt of it, and they've been advocating
Speaker 7: to us, to our council for at least the last
Speaker 7: four of five months for the security guard patrols. They
Speaker 7: actually trial this program themselves over a month in March
Speaker 7: and they said it, you know, yielded effective results. They've
Speaker 7: presented us with the results and short of any other support,
Speaker 7: we are getting a mental health hub by our state government.
Speaker 7: It's coming in the pipeline, which we're really excited for.
Speaker 7: But short of anything else, this was good way to
Speaker 7: increase just safety presents in the CBD that the traders
Speaker 7: and the residents wanted us to do.
Speaker 1: Do you think two security guards are really going to
Speaker 1: make a fundamental difference.
Speaker 2: I mean, we see.
Speaker 1: In the area that I live in, you've got liquor stores,
Speaker 1: clothing shops, and supermarkets where people who are drug affected
Speaker 1: or homeless simply walk in, load up, and walk out.
Speaker 1: Security guards are not able to do anything.
Speaker 2: They can't arrest anybody, they can't detain anybody.
Speaker 7: Yeah, look, I guess it comes down to, you know,
Speaker 7: the financial I mean, if we had unlimited supply of money,
Speaker 7: we'd be trying to get mental health workers into trying
Speaker 7: to adjust this problem. But we don't. It's a six
Speaker 7: month program, and two security guards with our local laws
Speaker 7: officers are better than none, you know, and you know
Speaker 7: where specifically are going out to tender where there's a
Speaker 7: tender process where we're calling for guards who are culturally appropriate, trained,
Speaker 7: have some level of unders standing of outreach work as well,
Speaker 7: so we can connect them to the other supports that
Speaker 7: we're bringing into the CBD.
Speaker 2: Have you sat down with local police and talked about this.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we have. And you know, police can't always be
Speaker 7: We can't expect them to patrol shopping centers for twenty
Speaker 7: four by seven. They've got their own, as you mentioned,
Speaker 7: youth crime, knife crime, all sorts of. It's an open statistics.
Speaker 7: The crime in Victoria is up over the last twelve months.
Speaker 7: We can't expect them to be everywhere at all times.
Speaker 7: And I mean, personally, i'd rather, you know, instead of
Speaker 7: a triple zero number, a number where we could dial
Speaker 7: to get someone mental health assistance before we get to.
Speaker 1: That le playing this issue of mental health. I mean,
Speaker 1: you seem to be saying that that's at the core
Speaker 1: of your problem. Yeah, I mean is it mental health
Speaker 1: or is it unsupervised young people? Is it drugs?
Speaker 7: It's mainly drugs and alcohol. From what you know we've
Speaker 7: learned the especially like people like the Detaineers that have
Speaker 7: been released there, they've had trauma. Obviously, they've probably been
Speaker 7: through so much trauma in their life, so they self medicate.
Speaker 7: They know they're open issued up there, they openly drink
Speaker 7: with open bottles of alcohol and all, and that leads
Speaker 7: to no good behavior and to social behavior. That's been
Speaker 7: the biggest concern. And then that antisocial behavior has now
Speaker 7: been you know, we've had our council staff being assaulted,
Speaker 7: We've had death as I've mentioned, we've had the traders
Speaker 7: being attacked to a point where they had to go
Speaker 7: to police and take out ivos against certain individuals. So
Speaker 7: it's become that severe otherwise, you know, if and this
Speaker 7: is a multic collaboration between all organizations, just the mental
Speaker 7: health hubit is taking some time. Further in the pipeline.
Speaker 7: We've got that coming out foot Scare Hospital, have a
Speaker 7: dedicated psyche board next year. We're expecting those things to help.
Speaker 7: But right now, in the interim, this is the solution
Speaker 7: that the trader has wanted and this is what we're doing.
Speaker 1: Are you getting support from the local.
Speaker 7: State government, not for the security proposal, but we are
Speaker 7: getting so our local state member, Katie or she is
Speaker 7: the one who had advocated for the outreach work Salvation
Speaker 7: Army are coming in. She's occurred over three hundred and
Speaker 7: fifty thousand dollars in funding in this is budget. It's
Speaker 7: just a matter of when that comes in. So we
Speaker 7: will build a mental health hub in for its gray eventually,
Speaker 7: but you know that could take as government processes do
Speaker 7: take time, that could take quite some time. But you're
Speaker 7: going to come back. This is just an interim program
Speaker 7: until something else happens. So does it have a support
Speaker 7: of the majority of the council. Yes, it was had
Speaker 7: a support majority of the council. There was you know,
Speaker 7: I mean this was voted on Tuesday night. There was
Speaker 7: an alternative motion put by another counselor who wanted to
Speaker 7: add things such as consultation with local groups, legal groups,
Speaker 7: trader groups, you know, or all sorts of other conditions,
Speaker 7: but the support for the security Guard proposal was unanimous
Speaker 7: by all counselors.
Speaker 2: Good to hear, predict, Thank you very much for coming.
Speaker 7: Thank you, Steve, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Good luck with it all after the break, how the
Speaker 1: renewables push in regional Australia and I talked a lot
Speaker 1: about this this week. So is Peter on her program
Speaker 1: threatening the rehab of former Australian service and women. This
Speaker 1: is a disgrace. That story up next, Welcome back Steven
Speaker 1: for Sharhi Danika coming up for Paul Murray straight after
Speaker 1: the top of the hour. Now look I'm a great
Speaker 1: advocate for looking after as well as we can our
Speaker 1: veterans when they come out of the military and often
Speaker 1: struggle to get themselves back in into a normal lifestyle.
Speaker 2: And what you go about to.
Speaker 1: Hear will annoy the hell out of you, like it
Speaker 1: annoys the hell out of me. Now we've heard about
Speaker 1: the fight against renewables in Regional Australia. We've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of stories this week about how local communities have
Speaker 1: lost control basically of their own community and a lot
Speaker 1: of these renewable projects are being jammed into the middle
Speaker 1: of them. I was in a little town last weekend.
Speaker 1: Two hundred people live there and there's one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty wind turbine surrounding the village. Now Regional Australia is
Speaker 1: about to I think arcup big time about this stuff.
Speaker 1: Some of the area's been targeted by green energy companies
Speaker 1: eager to astablished wind turbines. So they're in idyllic sittings settings,
Speaker 1: I mean places that you will have all been to
Speaker 1: and when you go back in these things there, you
Speaker 1: won't believe it. No thought on the impact of these communities.
Speaker 1: I don't believe Last week the applicants for a project faced,
Speaker 1: as we've shown on this show, a fiery response from
Speaker 1: locals at a town hall meeting. Now, Marina maguire is
Speaker 1: the owner and operator of a charity remount. It's in
Speaker 1: bounding not for profit organization delivering horsemanship programs for current
Speaker 1: and former servicemen and women and their families. She has
Speaker 1: deep concerns that this green project, more than ninety wind turbines,
Speaker 1: each as high as a city side scraper, will have
Speaker 1: a pretty big impact on anybody who comes to her
Speaker 1: property seeking rehab. Marina, welcome, Really nice to have you
Speaker 1: on the program. I've had a bit to do with
Speaker 1: organizations that use horses in this way with the return
Speaker 1: servicemen and women. It's an extraordinarily valuable thing that the
Speaker 1: horse and the veteran, the relationship gets formed.
Speaker 2: It really works, doesn't it.
Speaker 9: It's amazing.
Speaker 8: The transformations for our veterans that come to our.
Speaker 9: Remount program are just unbelievable.
Speaker 8: We've got the testimonials you'll see on our website. That's
Speaker 8: our beautiful view that you can see there. That view
Speaker 8: will be absolutely decimated if this project goes ahead. The
Speaker 8: horses not only is it the horses, because they are
Speaker 8: truly magical and are an important part of the program.
Speaker 9: But it is the rural country setting that is one
Speaker 9: of the truly.
Speaker 8: Impactful ways that help our veterans, in our first responders.
Speaker 8: It's that big open space, the place to come and breathe,
Speaker 8: where the cortisol hormones can reduce, and it just gives
Speaker 8: the hope, purpose and hand on heart. We can see
Speaker 8: from people coming through the program, transformational outcomes, totally transformational
Speaker 8: hand on heart, even to the point of saying we
Speaker 8: save lives.
Speaker 9: It's enormous.
Speaker 2: I can, I can.
Speaker 1: I can really understand what you're saying, because, as I
Speaker 1: mentioned last weekend, I was in regional Victoria and I
Speaker 1: stayed in a beautiful town called Dunkeld, which is at
Speaker 1: the back of the Grampians, and had a wonderful couple
Speaker 1: of days there, and then on the drive back toward
Speaker 1: the coast, I came across this town called Brokewood. Now
Speaker 1: there's one hundred and twenty, you know, twenty story high
Speaker 1: wind turbines on the edge of that little village, and
Speaker 1: I was absolutely shocked and horrified by what I was seeing.
Speaker 1: So I can understand exactly what's going to happen around
Speaker 1: your property. So explain to me, are there plans to
Speaker 1: put them nearby? And if so, how close?
Speaker 8: Yes, absolutely nearby. Only last week did we see the
Speaker 8: first map of what it would look like, ninety or
Speaker 8: ninety three of these Baranguru sized towers the photo you
Speaker 8: saw before, that would be littered with It would look
Speaker 8: so industrial, it would look like the Sydney seascape.
Speaker 9: It would just be so how close to you. We
Speaker 9: would where.
Speaker 8: Between two and three kilometers away from the project. But
Speaker 8: where we're situated, we're on a hill with the most
Speaker 8: beautiful view. This is a place where the veterans call
Speaker 8: it their happy place, So.
Speaker 9: We won't miss it.
Speaker 8: It'll be right there, we'll hear it, we'll see it,
Speaker 8: and it'll just totally destroy and decimate the beautiful offering
Speaker 8: of this service that we are offering, this mental health
Speaker 8: program to our veterans. These people that serve our country,
Speaker 8: our first responders who keep us safe and are always
Speaker 8: you know, on call, doing what they do every day
Speaker 8: to look after us.
Speaker 2: Is there.
Speaker 8: I think it is at risk because it just won't
Speaker 8: be the same. We just can't offer that beautiful offering
Speaker 8: that we do. It's the country hospitality, it's the come
Speaker 8: and have a breath of fresh air, it's the cooking
Speaker 8: the community. It won't you know, it will just impact
Speaker 8: the community as well, because Remount is run by a community.
Speaker 8: My husband Ben and I who co founded. We both
Speaker 8: co founded and run the run the Remount program. But yes,
Speaker 8: it will be an awful impact on our offering. It's
Speaker 8: a place where the veterans, they actually often come back.
Speaker 8: We've always got this constant flow of people coming through,
Speaker 8: which we do love. It's so rewarding because we know
Speaker 8: how helpful it can be. But it just won't be
Speaker 8: the same. It'll just be.
Speaker 9: It just won't be the same, it won't have the
Speaker 9: same impact.
Speaker 1: Having lived in New South Wales for a long time,
Speaker 1: I know how beautiful that part of the world is.
Speaker 1: The yas Maya she made it pretty clear that she's
Speaker 1: not happy have a look at this.
Speaker 10: We've done our heavy lifting. We've had four turbine state
Speaker 10: significant projects approved and under construction, another two solar projects.
Speaker 10: Our metro mates are getting plenty of energy from us.
Speaker 10: But we've also got our communities to look after.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 10: We've got agried tourism businesses, we reproduce the nation's food
Speaker 10: and fiber. Here we produce cool climate, export quality wine.
Speaker 10: It's all going to go to if this is allowed
Speaker 10: to continue in Yas Valley. And we've had a gut
Speaker 10: full as a community.
Speaker 1: Blunt but a great representative, Jasmine is I mean, she's
Speaker 1: trying her hardest, but it seems that local communities, like
Speaker 1: the ASMA and like your organization, your voices are just
Speaker 1: blown away in the wind like these bloody turbines, and
Speaker 1: no one wants to listen.
Speaker 8: We feel very let down. We feel like they don't care.
Speaker 8: At the community center last week when someone said what
Speaker 8: would it take for you to stop this project and
Speaker 8: they said.
Speaker 9: Nothing, We're going to do it anyway.
Speaker 8: In the news this week we see our new South
Speaker 8: Wales state premiere. We're made to feel guilty and we
Speaker 8: have to keep the lights on. But they're just not
Speaker 8: taking into account. The veterans and the farmers are two
Speaker 8: communities in this country that are at most risk of suicide.
Speaker 8: And these are two sets of the veterans and the
Speaker 8: farm are the people that we need for our food security,
Speaker 8: national security, and we feel like we are just not
Speaker 8: being heard and it is such a stress for the community.
Speaker 2: It's a national disgrace. Marina.
Speaker 1: I mean congratulations on the work you and your husband do.
Speaker 1: As I said, I've had some experience in that area
Speaker 1: and your work is invaluable. We'll keep talking about it,
Speaker 1: we'll keep advocating on your behalf. Thank you very much
Speaker 1: for joining us, and let's hope that somebody can see
Speaker 1: some sense all of this in all of this. Now,
Speaker 1: coming up after the break, don't go anywhere, David Pearl
Speaker 1: will join me to discuss how even labor MPs are
Speaker 1: now worried about their own supertax.
Speaker 2: Is up next.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Nika, coming up shortly now. I always
Speaker 1: enjoy speaking to David Pearl. He is a former Treasury
Speaker 1: Assistant secretary. A couple of things tonight for you, David,
Speaker 1: and I know last time we spoke, we talked about
Speaker 1: this superannuation tax and what might happen with it. The
Speaker 1: roundtable that CHARMS is going to have in a few
Speaker 1: weeks time. But the government's coping criticism on this tax
Speaker 1: now from all people host plus one of the massive
Speaker 1: superannuation funds. But Treasury, in your experience, is driving this
Speaker 1: because they see it as one of the easier ways
Speaker 1: to claw back some revenue to try and fix the
Speaker 1: bottom line is that what's happening.
Speaker 11: Thanks for having me on in part it is, although
Speaker 11: if you look at the forecasts for the tax, it's
Speaker 11: only projected to raise forty billion over ten years, and
Speaker 11: that's assuming it's not index. So we'll capture quite a
Speaker 11: few people, but it's not going to raise a lot
Speaker 11: of money. Let's bear in mind that every year the
Speaker 11: Comworth spends three quarters of a trillion dollars. That's every year.
Speaker 11: So the line Gym, charmers and some labor backbenches is
Speaker 11: running that this has to close the budget deficit or
Speaker 11: make superannuations sustainable is not true.
Speaker 2: I see.
Speaker 11: It is that this tax is intended to establish a
Speaker 11: beachhead which would allow charmers to apply the same principle
Speaker 11: that is to tax people on their returns before they
Speaker 11: have them in their pocket. More broadly, I think that's
Speaker 11: the idea behind this, because if you want to raise
Speaker 11: more money from superannuation, Ken Henry, a number of accountants
Speaker 11: many other people have proposed many ways to do that.
Speaker 11: You don't have to go after unrealized gains, and it's
Speaker 11: not going to raise a lot of money. So I
Speaker 11: think it's a beachhead, and it's intended as a precedent
Speaker 11: so that when the Treasurer eventually goes after family trusts,
Speaker 11: for example, he can say, well, we've already done this
Speaker 11: with superannuation.
Speaker 1: You're scaring me, David. You're scaring me, which is not
Speaker 1: good at the end of a program on a Thursday night.
Speaker 1: What other areas could unrealize tax on unrealized profits be applied?
Speaker 1: I mean you mentioned family trusts. Not a huge number
Speaker 1: of people have a found family trust. Could it be
Speaker 1: applied elsewhere?
Speaker 2: I mean, it could be playing.
Speaker 11: Home anywhere, sorry, Steve, It could be applied anywhere where
Speaker 11: capital gains tax applies today, So for share investors, for
Speaker 11: residential investors, anywhere a capital gains tax applies today. Let's
Speaker 11: go back to when the hawk Keating government introduced the
Speaker 11: first ever capital gains tax. They grandfathered every single existing
Speaker 11: investment in nineteen eighty three, so they never had to
Speaker 11: pay capital gains tax. They were so aware of the
Speaker 11: effect on investors. There's no grandfather in here. It's going
Speaker 11: to be whacked on immediately. So let's go back to
Speaker 11: Paul Keating and Bill Kelty Steve. They've said that if
Speaker 11: we think about young workers today accumulating over forty years
Speaker 11: over three million dollars of savings, they're going to be
Speaker 11: hit by this as well. So it really does defy logic,
Speaker 11: this whole approach. I'm sure that Treasury wouldn't have recommend it,
Speaker 11: and if they did, it says something very negative about
Speaker 11: the department I worked in.
Speaker 2: I can take you back to the eighties.
Speaker 1: I mean I was in newspapers of the day and
Speaker 1: we were fighting Paul Keating on his assets test, where
Speaker 1: they're going to apply the assets test to a family home,
Speaker 1: and we ended up going and finding a sixty five
Speaker 1: year old woman who had a run down old house,
Speaker 1: but it was on three acres of land and suddenly
Speaker 1: she was going to be hit with an assets test.
Speaker 1: The fight was long and hard, but Keating eventually backed down.
Speaker 1: I think he hated having to back down. But we
Speaker 1: could see ourselves back in that sort of battle, can't
Speaker 1: we We can.
Speaker 11: Although I think the Prime Minister Anthony Alberniz has been
Speaker 11: very cagey Steve in the way that he's defended the tax,
Speaker 11: the Treasure is clearly going to gun for his position
Speaker 11: sooner or later, let's face it. I mean, I've been
Speaker 11: in the public service when Ketting was going after Hawk,
Speaker 11: when Costello was going after Howard. It's a normal dynamic.
Speaker 11: And so I think that Anthony Abnezi should step back
Speaker 11: and consider whether he shouldn't pull the rug out from
Speaker 11: under his treasure on this tax, because I don't see
Speaker 11: any political benefit in.
Speaker 2: It at all.
Speaker 11: And we've even had Labor in peace openly backgrounding journalists,
Speaker 11: So this is a terrible idea. So I think Jim's
Speaker 11: on shaky ground, and I'm not sure that this tax
Speaker 11: is necessarily going to see the light of day. We'll
Speaker 11: see it hasn't been scheduled for introduction into Parliament yet.
Speaker 1: Well wait and see. Let's hope that they see common sense. Aw,
Speaker 1: it's great to catch up with you, David. Thank you
Speaker 1: very much for that. As David Pearl there who was
Speaker 1: Assistant Secretary in Treasury. And that round table we've already
Speaker 1: had this week, Alan Joyce saying that be careful of
Speaker 1: these roundtable things because what they normally do is rubber
Speaker 1: stamp union driven agendas. That's Alan Joyce, so be careful.
Speaker 1: Coming up next to Nika to Georgia