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Speaker 1: Talk about the goings on in federal politics at the moment.

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Speaker 1: The Australian newspaper particularly and really media everywhere have been

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Speaker 1: picking up the missteps, to say the very least of

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Speaker 1: the federal Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to have a look

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Speaker 1: at that. Another federal parliamentary antics at the moment, Zach

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Speaker 1: the Silver Federal politics reporter for nine Radio, is that

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Speaker 1: good morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, good to be with you.

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Speaker 1: Andrew Giles can't have a good day if he tried

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Speaker 1: to buy one at the shop, could he?

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Speaker 2: No? It seems to be issue after issue in the

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Speaker 2: immigration portfolio, doesn't it. The latest being last week he

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Speaker 2: said these detainees who'd been released from immigration detention, some

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Speaker 2: of them were being monitored using drones and that kind

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Speaker 2: of raised an eyebrow in a couple of places, particularly

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Speaker 2: in the press gallery, and comes out yesterday there are

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Speaker 2: no drones. They're not being used. So yeah, just issue

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Speaker 2: after issue, there isn't it.

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Speaker 1: Where could that have advice come from? Because surely, I

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Speaker 1: mean if he says he's got all this info from

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Speaker 1: his department, but there couldn't be anyone in their thinking

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Speaker 1: drones are out there monitoring people.

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Speaker 2: Could there well, and this is the thing, Like you

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Speaker 2: read the statement that he put out yesterday saying, you know,

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Speaker 2: he relied on advice from his department, and that advice

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Speaker 2: has since been clarified with the term he used, and

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Speaker 2: he says they are using aerial imagery. And it was

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Speaker 2: interesting that the way this claim evolved. He first said

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Speaker 2: they're using drones. Then murray what The Agriculture Minister who

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Speaker 2: represents Andrew Giles in the Senate went on the ABC

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Speaker 2: on Sunday and said, oh, no, we're using the drones

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Speaker 2: to see where these people live and if they're close

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Speaker 2: to schools and that kind of thing. And we all

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Speaker 2: kind of well, couldn't you just use Google Maps to that?

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Speaker 2: And so it sounds like somewhere along the way aerial imagery,

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Speaker 2: which is what they're saying, is being used essentially Google

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Speaker 2: Earth kind of thing, has morphed into drones. And I mean,

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Speaker 2: this isn't the first time that Andrew Giles has said

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Speaker 2: his depart that has led him down. We also saw

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Speaker 2: a different issue in the migration portfolio when there were

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Speaker 2: these serious criminals born overseas who were being released by

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Speaker 2: the Administrative Appeals Tribunal because of a direction Andrew Giles

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Speaker 2: gave the tribunal. He said he'd asked his department to

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Speaker 2: tell him about these cases and his department hadn't. So

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Speaker 2: I wonder how much of it there is an issue

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Speaker 2: in Home affairs and how much of it is there's

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Speaker 2: an issue in Andrew Giles office. And I suspect the

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Speaker 2: truth maybe somewhere in between.

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Speaker 1: Given he's a former immigration lawyer, you'd think this would

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Speaker 1: be bred and batter to him. You know, you should

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Speaker 1: know the ins and outs of a lot of this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent you would think that. And it's

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Speaker 2: been interesting the way that's been twisted. The opposition has

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Speaker 2: turned around and gone, well, because Andrew Giles, as I

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Speaker 2: believe it was the tamper affair, he was the lawyer

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Speaker 2: for these asylum seekers, and the oppositions turned it around

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Speaker 2: and gone, well, you've appointed an immigration minister who's lost

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Speaker 2: on asylum seekers, so they're trying to use that against him.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, this is a man who should be an

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Speaker 2: absolute expert in this area, who should be across it,

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Speaker 2: and I do have some sympathy for him. Immigration is

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Speaker 2: a really complicated area. We see that we talk about

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Speaker 2: the administrative appeals Tribunal. There's number of cases that go

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Speaker 2: through that tribunal every year, and often they are very

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Speaker 2: complicated protracted. Not all the time, but often they are

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Speaker 2: really complicated, protracted cases. You've got this huge area of

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Speaker 2: remit that is immigration, everything from kind of border protection

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Speaker 2: operations sovereign borders to things like the Administrative Appeals Tribunal

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Speaker 2: and these detainees who have been released, and a lot

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Speaker 2: of these are ongoing issues that have kind of plagued

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Speaker 2: successive government. It's not something that's unique to this government,

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Speaker 2: but it does seem to be kind of ramping up

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Speaker 2: under Andrew Giles Josh Friedenberg.

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Speaker 1: There's a bit of speculation over the weekend that he

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Speaker 1: might want to return to Higgins his or not Higgins

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Speaker 1: so much, but his seed of cou Jong. That's right,

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Speaker 1: the former Robert Menzie seat, and Andrew Peacock and others

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Speaker 1: along the way. But he seems to have hosed down

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Speaker 1: that speculation. The reason I was thinking the seat of

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Speaker 1: Higgins is because that's been abolished and it changes the

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Speaker 1: boundaries around the place, including to Kuyong, and that made

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Speaker 1: the potential of a return somewhat stronger. But it seems

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Speaker 1: to have just been speculation.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is bizarre, and I suspect it was kite

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Speaker 2: flying from either Josh Friedenberg or his allies over the

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Speaker 2: weekend when this redistribution was announced in Victoria that, like

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Speaker 2: you say, abolished the seat of Higgins, which is currently

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Speaker 2: held by Labor, changed the boundaries of all the seats

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Speaker 2: around it, and Couyong, which is held by Monique Ryan,

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Speaker 2: the Independent, was Josh Friedenberg's seat, and all of a

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Speaker 2: sudden there were people, some people in the Liberal Party saying, oh,

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Speaker 2: well maybe we can maybe we can win this seat

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Speaker 2: back off Menique Ryan. Now the boundaries have changed, it

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Speaker 2: might make it more pro liberal. As soon as actual

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Speaker 2: polster's got their hands on this redistribution and how to

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Speaker 2: look at it, they went, no, that's rubbish. It's not

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Speaker 2: really going to have any actual impact on the demographics

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Speaker 2: in the seats. But that didn't stop Josh Friedenberg letting

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Speaker 2: the story go until I think it was late morning

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Speaker 2: or early afternoon yesterday when he put out a tweet saying, actually, no,

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to run for this because the issue

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Speaker 2: here was the Liberals had already pre selected another candidate,

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Speaker 2: amerely A Hamer, and the optics of him stepping in

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Speaker 2: to boost a woman who'd already been democratically chosen by

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Speaker 2: the party wouldn't have been great.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely absolutely, that's where that ended anyway, and he

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Speaker 1: ruled it out himself, I think just in the last

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Speaker 1: twenty four hours. Yeah, Hey, one of the other issues,

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Speaker 1: and it got a lot of calls. A bit early,

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Speaker 1: about an hour ago, we were talking about Robert Males

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Speaker 1: and looking at allowing people from overseas to join our

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Speaker 1: defence force, which sparked a call by an independent state

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Speaker 1: MP here Frank Pangelo, to call for the reintroduction of

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Speaker 1: National service of conscription, essentially for people aged over eighteen.

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Speaker 1: It's an interesting situation that we'd let people, particularly from

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Speaker 1: non Commonwealth countries into our defense and I'm thinking the US,

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Speaker 1: as a caller pointed out, well does that involve us

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Speaker 1: in war? Was that the US might get involved in

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Speaker 1: the future, Not that we haven't missed out on that

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Speaker 1: exciting opportunity in the past, but it does open that

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Speaker 1: door at least. But the whole scenario is rather interesting.

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Speaker 1: We just don't have enough people, it is.

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Speaker 2: It's fascinating you look at the numbers and the ADF

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Speaker 2: is about four thousand people short of its recruitment target.

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Speaker 2: That recruitment target's going to grow as well, and they're

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Speaker 2: really struggling to fill the ranks. So this is part

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Speaker 2: of a number of measures that the government's brought in

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Speaker 2: to try and get more people into the Defense Force,

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Speaker 2: essentially because you look at it and people really aren't

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Speaker 2: that interested, and you talk about reintroducing national service and

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Speaker 2: I think bold is probably the word I would use

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Speaker 2: to describe I'm not sure there would be boat killer

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Speaker 2: than doing that, although we'll see how it goes in

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Speaker 2: the UK with that, you know, that's what the Conservatives

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Speaker 2: want to do there. But yeah, this plan to allow

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Speaker 2: foreigners to serve starts next month. If you're a permanent

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Speaker 2: resident from New Zealand, you've been living in Australia for

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Speaker 2: at least a year and you pass all the usual

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Speaker 2: security checks that you have to pass it to join

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Speaker 2: the Defense Force, you'll be allowed to join from July.

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Speaker 2: And then that's being expanded to really all other countries.

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Speaker 2: But the way it's been put to me from the

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Speaker 2: Minister's office is it's really most likely going to be

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Speaker 2: the US, the UK and Canada because they're our five

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Speaker 2: buyers allies, but there's the potential that people from Pacific Islands,

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Speaker 2: from other friendly countries could also join. One of the

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Speaker 2: other big criteria here is I think it's in the

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Speaker 2: last two years you're not allowed to have served in

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Speaker 2: any other defense force. So they're obviously really trying to

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Speaker 2: make sure that they're not you know, you're not getting

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Speaker 2: Chinese spy or anything like that in your defense force.

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Speaker 2: And the security checks are all going to be the same.

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Speaker 2: And the reason that they're saying, well, it'll mostly be

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Speaker 2: from our five buyers countries is because people have really

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Speaker 2: easily checkable histories there. It's a lot easier to do

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Speaker 2: background checks than it is if someone comes from another countries.

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Speaker 1: Mack's a bit of desperation, doesn't it, which is probably

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Speaker 1: the reality. I mean, we're going to build submarines, we

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Speaker 1: don't have people to crue them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And this is the thing. There is clearly

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Speaker 2: a broader issue that Australians just don't want to serve

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Speaker 2: in the defense force, and this has been identified in

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Speaker 2: review after review. I mean we had the Defense Strategic

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Speaker 2: Review I think that was last year, and it identified

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Speaker 2: the workforce as one of the biggest challenges facing the ADF.

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Speaker 2: So this isn't this. It's again, it's another one of

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Speaker 2: these ongoing, protracted issues, and it just happens that this

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Speaker 2: government now has to deal with it. They've been saddled

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Speaker 2: with this issue, and I think they're doing other things

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Speaker 2: like expanding eligibility. There was some medical condition that previously

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Speaker 2: rules you out, you know, things like acne. I'm told

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Speaker 2: you were you're not allowed. You previously weren't allowed to

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Speaker 2: join the Defense Force if you had acne because the

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Speaker 2: rules were written twenty thirty years ago when defense well,

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Speaker 2: we can't stock the medications that you would need for

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Speaker 2: this in the field. But now obviously you might just

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Speaker 2: be sitting behind a computer. You may not be in

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Speaker 2: the field. So they're they're broadening that as well, and

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Speaker 2: I think that'll actually add more. This adding foreigners they

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Speaker 2: think a lot about. I think it's about three hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty people a year. Expanding the eligibility in terms

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Speaker 2: of some of these medical conditions could be a couple

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Speaker 2: of thousands. So you're right, it does seem a little

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Speaker 2: bit desperate. Clearly the government's looking at this going well,

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Speaker 2: what else can we do? We need to get these

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Speaker 2: people into the defense force, but it'll be interesting to

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Speaker 2: see how much of an impact it has.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, all right, Zach, really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: Always a pleasure. Thank you, Zach the

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Speaker 1: Silver federal politics reporter for nine Radio