Speaker 1: Late General, welcome the Late Bay.
Speaker 2: Well, good evening, thanks for joining us on the Late Debate.
Speaker 3: I'm James Macpherson with Liz Staorra and Caleb Bond coming
Speaker 3: up tonight. South Australian police arrest a scooter rid for
Speaker 3: not wearing a helmet and then discover that's the list
Speaker 3: of his crimes.
Speaker 2: We'll bring you that story a little later.
Speaker 3: Plus, when we look at the papers that our energy
Speaker 3: crisis goes from bad to ridiculous, Australian states now importing
Speaker 3: gas from overseas in greater quantities, and a new cemetery
Speaker 3: opening on the Gold Coast is exactly what you would
Speaker 3: expect a Gold Coast cemetery to be. We'll get to
Speaker 3: all of that when we look at what's making news tomorrow.
Speaker 3: But first, councils right around the country are jacking up rates,
Speaker 3: and nowhere more so than right here in Sydney. Northern
Speaker 3: Beaches Council recently raised rates by a whopping forty percent.
Speaker 2: And if you thought that was bad, they're North Sydney.
Speaker 3: Well they raise their rates by can you believe it,
Speaker 3: eighty seven percent.
Speaker 2: Now, as if that's not bad enough.
Speaker 3: While councilors are crying poor as justification for these outrageous
Speaker 3: increases in rates. They're wasting huge amounts of money on
Speaker 3: overseas junkets for counselors and staff. Let me give you
Speaker 3: just four examples. I could give you dozens, but here's four.
Speaker 3: The City of Sydney Council they sent a couple of
Speaker 3: staff to Canada for a carbon neutral summit.
Speaker 2: Tell me how that's going.
Speaker 3: To benefit the rate payers in the City of Sydney.
Speaker 3: They also sent council members to a cycling conference in Belgium. Well,
Speaker 3: I guess the city of city does have a lot
Speaker 3: of bike lanes these days. Maybe that's what that was for,
Speaker 3: not to be outdone. The Canterbury Bankstown Council, Well, they
Speaker 3: sent a delegation to a leadership dialogue event in London. Now,
Speaker 3: as part of these junkets, they have to produce a
Speaker 3: report to council evaluating what benefit they derived for ratepayers.
Speaker 2: And get this, their.
Speaker 3: Reports said, quote unquote the leadership dialogue event provided valuable insights.
Speaker 2: That's pretty vague, but this one is my favorite.
Speaker 3: The Paramatta Council they sent staff to the Netherlands for
Speaker 3: a library conference because there's a lot that we can
Speaker 3: learn from those in Holland about how to improve libraries
Speaker 3: for the people of Paramatta. Now, altogether, it was about
Speaker 3: seven million dollars spent over the last financial year by
Speaker 3: Sydney councils on overseas trips, which might not sound like
Speaker 3: a lot, but how do they justify that in a
Speaker 3: cost of living crisis? And you notice it's for things
Speaker 3: like you know, carbon neutrality, libraries, cycling. They never go
Speaker 3: overseas for a graffiti removal conference, or for a pothole
Speaker 3: maintenance conference, or a for a mowing grass at the
Speaker 3: local park conference. At least those sorts of things would
Speaker 3: benefit rate payers. Northern Beaches, as I said, put up
Speaker 3: their rates by forty percent, which means about six hundred
Speaker 3: dollar extra a year for ratepayers. So here's the really
Speaker 3: upsetting thing. When rate payers build an extra six hundred
Speaker 3: bucks a year, they start looking where do we cut
Speaker 3: back expenses in order to afford our rates. But local
Speaker 3: councils they're not cutting back at all. They just keep
Speaker 3: spending and spending. In fact, Caliburn is eleven of the
Speaker 3: Greater Sydney councils. That's fully a third rend deficits last
Speaker 3: year if they're going to jack up rates for rate payers.
Speaker 2: You'd think they would at least cut.
Speaker 3: Back on some things like, oh, I don't know, going
Speaker 3: to Belgium for a cycling conference.
Speaker 1: No, that's the most important bit. Surely you know that, James.
Speaker 1: I've actually had an idea though.
Speaker 4: As you've been talking you mentioned the you know, mowing
Speaker 4: the lawn at the local park summits and the fix
Speaker 4: the pothole summit.
Speaker 1: If no one.
Speaker 4: Else is doing it, I'm going to host it right
Speaker 4: here in Sydney, and I'm going to get people from
Speaker 4: all over the world to come to Sydney for these conferences.
Speaker 4: And I'm going to make a mint while they do it,
Speaker 4: because why they hell not If they go for bloody
Speaker 4: library conference, I'm sure someone will come for a pothole
Speaker 4: conference if it means they can go for a junket
Speaker 4: on the other side of the world. One of the
Speaker 4: other ones I really liked as well was Blacktown Council,
Speaker 4: which is just up the road from you where you
Speaker 4: are James. Here, we were well, well, well, come on,
Speaker 4: it is a lot closer than I am.
Speaker 1: I going to say that in the genteel parts of Sydney,
Speaker 1: in the Inner West.
Speaker 4: But they spent twenty grand or just over twenty grand,
Speaker 4: sending three staff sorry to a sister city in Ireland.
Speaker 4: And they also spent thirty grand going to the UK, China,
Speaker 4: South Korea for summits and delegations. Now to this, the
Speaker 4: Council said, delegations from these cities visited Blacktown in return,
Speaker 4: providing economic benefit and raising the profile of our region
Speaker 4: among their communities.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm really glad to know that.
Speaker 4: You know, perhaps the three people who came from Ireland
Speaker 4: to visit Blacktown obviously boosted the economy so much while
Speaker 4: they were over here. And all the people in Ireland,
Speaker 4: from what I've heard, they're all just raving about Blacktown.
Speaker 4: These people have gone back saying you won't believe this
Speaker 4: place when you types for Blacktown. They're all walking around
Speaker 4: Ireland talking about it, the UK.
Speaker 1: Where else do they go? South Korea, China.
Speaker 5: Brazil, we've left out Brazil, the.
Speaker 4: Polical Forum and the only thing they want to talk
Speaker 4: about is Blacktown.
Speaker 1: I reckon that was money well spent.
Speaker 6: If it puts Blacktown on the map, it must have
Speaker 6: been absolutely extraordinary. Taken from someone who used to be
Speaker 6: a city councilor myself. There is literally zero justification for
Speaker 6: any of these junk kits. And I'll tell you why,
Speaker 6: because this level of government works like every other level
Speaker 6: of government, and that is the MPs in this case,
Speaker 6: the councilors that you have elected, they don't know much.
Speaker 5: Okay, they are your representatives.
Speaker 6: But the people who draw up plans, the town planners
Speaker 6: per se, they're all back.
Speaker 5: In the wings.
Speaker 6: Much like we constantly complain it's the bureaucrats that run
Speaker 6: the country, because, for example, the treasurer in Victoria has
Speaker 6: asked her treasury members please stop using economic jargon. I
Speaker 6: can't understand what you're sagging. These people aren't the experts.
Speaker 6: They are elected representatives. But the people who actually know
Speaker 6: what they're doing, we hope, are behind the scenes in
Speaker 6: the bureaucracy working for the Department of this, the Department
Speaker 6: of that, the Department.
Speaker 5: Of everything else. So particularly with.
Speaker 6: Regards to things like, oh, cycling tracks in Bildrum massive conference,
Speaker 6: you would never send the councilors anyway, because they don't
Speaker 6: know a flying fig about cycling tracks. How many of
Speaker 6: them should there be? How can we do this in
Speaker 6: an economic way? But also saving on space, et cetera,
Speaker 6: et cetera.
Speaker 2: And so on.
Speaker 6: You would send the people, the town planners in charge
Speaker 6: of how many cycling tracks you have in your little patch,
Speaker 6: You would send them over there if you were actually serious.
Speaker 5: And then, of.
Speaker 6: Course we all know you can attend anything via zoom
Speaker 6: these days, especially since we're all so mad about being
Speaker 6: carbon neutroll. There is zero justification for this, and as
Speaker 6: a moral quandary during a cost of living crisis, this
Speaker 6: is something that wouldn't even trouble a child. Do I
Speaker 6: spend tens of thousands of dollars of the rate payers
Speaker 6: cash on me having a great time in Brazil or London, Belgium, Canada,
Speaker 6: the Netherlands? Or do I stay home and just tune
Speaker 6: in online?
Speaker 1: Gee?
Speaker 5: I wonder what I want.
Speaker 3: To know about all of this is, you know, we
Speaker 3: have a local government minister here in New South Wales,
Speaker 3: as we do in every state. What does a local
Speaker 3: government minister actually do? Because Ron Holing is the minister
Speaker 3: here in New South Wales, he was asked would he
Speaker 3: hold a independent productivity review into how these councils are
Speaker 3: spending their money? I mean North Sydney County. So that
Speaker 3: jacked up their rates by an inordinate amount. They spent
Speaker 3: three point one million dollars on gender neutral facilities at
Speaker 3: the North Sydney Oval recently. But the local government minister,
Speaker 3: he said, look, ratepayers expect their money to be spent wisely.
Speaker 2: That was the extent of his action.
Speaker 3: He made a comment, but he declined to implement a
Speaker 3: review of how this is happening. I'm just wondering what
Speaker 3: does a local government minister actually do well?
Speaker 1: He was wrong.
Speaker 6: You weren't expected to be spent one I know exactly.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you what local government ministers do.
Speaker 1: They sit around in fear.
Speaker 4: Of what councils will do to them if they ever
Speaker 4: try to take their power away.
Speaker 1: I mean, the councils.
Speaker 4: Forget, and often we forget that they only exist by
Speaker 4: virtue of the state government. That the state constitutions allow
Speaker 4: councils to exist. But all the powers that councils have
Speaker 4: sit in the local government at or whatever the equivalent is.
Speaker 1: In each state.
Speaker 4: And that is something that the government or the Parliament
Speaker 4: can change it any time and take powers away or
Speaker 4: give powers to council for them to execute. The state
Speaker 4: government tomorrow could completely new to the councils and say no, actually,
Speaker 4: we're going to take over the running of parks, and
Speaker 4: we're going to take over the running of bins being
Speaker 4: emptied and swimming.
Speaker 1: Pools and libraries, et cetera.
Speaker 4: That is within the powers of the Parliament to do that,
Speaker 4: but they're all too scared to do anything about it
Speaker 4: because the councils do actually have a lot of money
Speaker 4: behind them, and then they'll launch a campaign against the
Speaker 4: state government and it'll be on for young and old.
Speaker 4: They just don't want to rock the boat, which kind
Speaker 4: of raises the question, what's the point of having a
Speaker 4: local government minister in the first place.
Speaker 1: There are a law unto themselves. Just let them be
Speaker 1: a law out of here.
Speaker 2: If you're in.
Speaker 3: Leadership to lead, if you don't want hard decisions, get
Speaker 3: out of leadership and let someone in who'll make the calls.
Speaker 6: Speaking of being in leadership to lead, unless you're living
Speaker 6: under a rock, you would have heard the President Donald J.
Speaker 6: Trump has announcer sweeping twenty five percent tariff on all
Speaker 6: aluminium and steel coming into the United States of America.
Speaker 5: Here's his rationale.
Speaker 7: Any steel coming into the United States is going to
Speaker 7: have a twenty five percent tariff. US Steel was one
Speaker 7: of our great companies, and through a lot of stupidity
Speaker 7: and bad government and also bad management of the company,
Speaker 7: it lost that luster. But it's going to gain it back,
Speaker 7: and tariffs are going to help. Tariffs are going to
Speaker 7: make it very successful again.
Speaker 6: Now, of course, is the big deal here in Australia
Speaker 6: because we sell hundreds of millions of dollars of both
Speaker 6: steel and aluminium to the States every single year. But
Speaker 6: don't worry everybody, alban Eese, he's got a call scheduled
Speaker 6: with Trump and he's going to get it sorted.
Speaker 8: I have a discussion with President Trump scheduled and I
Speaker 8: will certainly keep the House and the Australian people informed.
Speaker 8: After that discussion.
Speaker 5: Compelling and rich. My confidence is shot through the roof.
Speaker 6: But really I'm not worried about this because Trump announced
Speaker 6: similar during his first term and in twenty eighteen Australia
Speaker 6: was like, yeah, but not us, right, right and fair enough,
Speaker 6: we were given an exemption.
Speaker 5: We are mates.
Speaker 6: So I reckon that this was one of those sweeping
Speaker 6: Trumpian announcements that he does like to make, because good lord,
Speaker 6: does this man know how to make a headline he's
Speaker 6: there on Air Force One, he's talking to the reporters,
Speaker 6: he's putting his foot down, pedal to the metal. The
Speaker 6: world collectively gasps and that, of course the details come
Speaker 6: out later, and I don't think we've got anything to.
Speaker 2: Worry about it.
Speaker 3: I think you underestimate the work Joe Hockey put in
Speaker 3: back in twenty seventeen or whenever it was that Trump
Speaker 3: announced these tariffs the first time, because Joe Hockey said,
Speaker 3: he did really leverage that idea of where mates and
Speaker 3: you should grant special favors to Australia. The difference this
Speaker 3: time is that the ambassador we have in the United
Speaker 3: States hasn't sounded off regularly on Twitter about what a
Speaker 3: moro on Trump is.
Speaker 2: Albanezi himself is the.
Speaker 5: Prime ministers grudge.
Speaker 3: Tho Trump, and I'm not sure they can pull the
Speaker 3: makeship card this time. When they're on record saying such
Speaker 3: terrible things about Donald Trump, he's disinclined to listen to them.
Speaker 2: In addition to that, it's.
Speaker 3: Quite unbelievable that America is our most important ally we've
Speaker 3: seen justin Trudeau had the good sense to make a
Speaker 3: trip to the US to sit down personally with Trump
Speaker 3: for Anthony Alberezi, who has had one phone call with
Speaker 3: Donald Trump since his election and is not scheduled to
Speaker 3: meet personally with him until after the election, which probably
Speaker 3: means Albanezer will never meet personally with Donald Trumps dereliction
Speaker 3: of national duty. He should have been in the United
Speaker 3: States already sitting down with Donald Trump, especially knowing there's
Speaker 3: bad blood between himself and Kevin Rudd.
Speaker 2: And the U S. President.
Speaker 3: He should have been there in person smoothing the water
Speaker 3: so this would not be an issue as it now is.
Speaker 5: Don't think this comes down to bad blood between.
Speaker 4: The like, so I don't disagree with that point that's
Speaker 4: in Albaniz. He should should have already been over there
Speaker 4: to him, He should have been at the inauguration. As
Speaker 4: far as I'm concerned when it comes to Rudd, I mean,
Speaker 4: the rabbit will hit the road here and if for
Speaker 4: whatever reason these tariffs are slapped on us and kept
Speaker 4: on us, then.
Speaker 1: That will probably be the end of Rudd.
Speaker 4: But it's a It's a strange one with Rudd because
Speaker 4: he is actually respected by quite a few Republicans for
Speaker 4: his knowledge on China. So as much as Trump has
Speaker 4: personal beef with him. He is actually in favor with
Speaker 4: quite a number of Republicans, including a. Vivik Ramaswami and
Speaker 4: Marco Rubio, etcetera, who've publicly talked in support of him
Speaker 4: because of his knowledge on China and the knowledge he's
Speaker 4: been able to supply to them.
Speaker 1: But Trump, every time he's.
Speaker 4: Slapped the tariff on someone so far, like last week
Speaker 4: it was Mexico and Canada, he did it because he
Speaker 4: wanted something in return, and so they then come to
Speaker 4: the table with something in return, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: the tariff has gone.
Speaker 1: So even if it's not just simply.
Speaker 4: A matter of we'll wear mates, therefore it won't apply
Speaker 4: to us, surely we'll just throw them a bone and
Speaker 4: then that the tariff will be gone. I can't see
Speaker 4: any circumstance in which you would possibly put these tariffs
Speaker 4: upon your allies and then there wouldn't be some kind
Speaker 4: of out to get around.
Speaker 1: It, because that really would be blowing up.
Speaker 4: Ties that don't need to be blown up. If it
Speaker 4: means we give a concession to the US, then it's
Speaker 4: a win that Trump has and that's how we operate.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's not using tariffs simply to punish other
Speaker 4: countries for the sake of punishing other countries. He's been
Speaker 4: using tariffs to get something out of them. So if
Speaker 4: it means he gets something out of a whole bunch
Speaker 4: of countries, now I say, well, hang on, we don't
Speaker 4: want this to happen.
Speaker 1: Then he's won.
Speaker 4: He's got something for the United States and all so
Speaker 4: continued with the importance into the US.
Speaker 1: I don't see what the problem.
Speaker 3: May well be a good point, but this is a
Speaker 3: big test for Alberanzi. Could you imagine if he's not
Speaker 3: successful in removing these wells I could say about his
Speaker 3: leadership and his standing with our Oh yeah, And of
Speaker 3: course at the Albanze was very quick off the mark
Speaker 3: when China started blocking trade with Australia, when Scott Morrison
Speaker 3: was the Prime Minister, and Albanzi made that famous quotes
Speaker 3: on the front page of Tomorrow's Australian Gee, there should
Speaker 3: be someone in the government, the Liberal government at the time,
Speaker 3: that could pick up the phone. But there's nobody. And
Speaker 3: you just wonder who in this government has the ability
Speaker 3: to pick up the phone and talk to Donald Trump
Speaker 3: without having to gropel.
Speaker 6: Tell you what if I was done I would have
Speaker 6: picked up then done. Can you just make this phone
Speaker 6: call an absolute burning dumps the fire of a disaster.
Speaker 6: Then when I get in, we can just pull these.
Speaker 5: Tariffs right out.
Speaker 6: Like I wouldn't be surprised if this is some sort
Speaker 6: of electoral ploy, because Trump knows we got an election
Speaker 6: coming up, and he knows should this phone call go well, alban.
Speaker 1: Easy will be chess out.
Speaker 6: I've saved the day, Australian alimenium and Steele's.
Speaker 5: In safe hands, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 6: I told Donald Trump where to go, and that will
Speaker 6: be a massive win for him.
Speaker 5: So should Trump, for.
Speaker 6: The sake of the exercise, simply say no, I'm keeping
Speaker 6: them in place for whatever reasons, and then the Dutton
Speaker 6: camp be able to say, well, we've saved the day,
Speaker 6: We've we've broken this deal, so what you want is
Speaker 6: a coalition government and these tariffs will be bye bye.
Speaker 6: Friendly countries do that kind of stuff all the time.
Speaker 5: Is it election interference? Absolutely? But they've done it before
Speaker 5: and they would do it again.
Speaker 4: I just want a recording of the phone call between alban.
Speaker 1: Easy and FAM.
Speaker 4: Was it Andrew Peacock and Jeff Kennett who had a
Speaker 4: phone call in the nineties on like a party line,
Speaker 4: and it was the dumbest thing to do, right, remember
Speaker 4: like car phones, and they were on a party line,
Speaker 4: so anyone else could pick up the phone and listen
Speaker 4: to your conversation because there was only one line. And
Speaker 4: it's Kennet and Peacock, who was then leader. I think
Speaker 4: of the Liberal Party. We've just been deposed as leader
Speaker 4: or something crapping on about John Howard, and someone recorded
Speaker 4: the phone call and put it out there and then
Speaker 4: that was the end of Peacock in the Liberal Party. Basically,
Speaker 4: let's have a moment like that with Alban Easy, shall we.
Speaker 4: We're talking about Alban Easy. Let's come back to Australia
Speaker 4: and his Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who's been putting the heavies
Speaker 4: on brewers.
Speaker 1: Would you believe it? I mean, of all the.
Speaker 4: Things that Jim Charmers should be worried about right now,
Speaker 4: you wouldn't think he'd be going after Australian brewing companies.
Speaker 4: But here we are in twenty twenty five, steering down
Speaker 4: the barrel of an election and we talk about, you know,
Speaker 4: taxes on beer.
Speaker 1: Et cetera.
Speaker 4: Clearly the government is worried about it because at the
Speaker 4: start of the month, as happens every six months, the
Speaker 4: excise on alcohol went up. Now the excise is applied
Speaker 4: differently to spirits, beer and wine. Wine gets off all
Speaker 4: lighter than beer and spirits do. You would have seen
Speaker 4: the campaign being run at the moment via bunderbererg Rum
Speaker 4: talking about the fact that sixty three percent of the
Speaker 4: cost of a bottle of bunderberg Rum is tax that
Speaker 4: goes straight to the federal government. Will when you go
Speaker 4: down to the bottle O and you buy a slab
Speaker 4: of beer, about twenty bucks of the cost of that
Speaker 4: slab of beer is tax that goes directly to the government.
Speaker 4: And so the brewers as a collective have been saying, look,
Speaker 4: can we please just have a pause on the excise
Speaker 4: for a little while because it's becoming ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's too expensive.
Speaker 4: People aren't buying beer anymore. They're certainly buying it in
Speaker 4: less quantities than they used to because they just can't
Speaker 4: afford it. We are in a cost of living crisis.
Speaker 1: Please throw us a bone.
Speaker 4: So the Treasurer Jim Chalmers has picked up the phone
Speaker 4: to the a Triple C and said excuse me, Can
Speaker 4: you go off to the brewers and tell them that
Speaker 4: they might be in breach of consumer law for tilling
Speaker 4: tax payers exactly how much tax they are paying.
Speaker 1: This is a quote out.
Speaker 4: Of the paper today that industry groups were shocked to
Speaker 4: receive letters from the Age Triple See last week warning
Speaker 4: them of their responsibility to not misinform customers about the
Speaker 4: impact of the twice yearly tax hike, just days after
Speaker 4: mister Charmers had written asking the watchdog to investigate his concerns.
Speaker 1: That beer drinkers could be misled.
Speaker 4: Now, mister Charmers, or doctor Chalmers as I should call him,
Speaker 4: I'll get letters and complain from his department. Probably if
Speaker 4: I don't say that properly. It's been saying, oh, this
Speaker 4: is just one sent on top of your pint of beer.
Speaker 4: Who cares about one cent on top of the pint
Speaker 4: of beer? Well, Richard Adamson, who's the head brewer at
Speaker 4: Young Henry's Brewery, rightly points out that we're getting this
Speaker 4: crazy situation where beer is just getting out of the
Speaker 4: reach of the average consumer. Since twenty twenty two, the
Speaker 4: excise has gone up ten and a half percent. The
Speaker 4: disparity now is so great that you see wine products
Speaker 4: ridiculously cheap, and beer and spirits getting out of reach
Speaker 4: of the average person. So we have the federal government
Speaker 4: using taxpayer funded resources to tell a taxpayer funded body
Speaker 4: to go and tell brewers that they shouldn't be telling
Speaker 4: tax payers exactly how much tax they are paying.
Speaker 1: That is where we are at with this government.
Speaker 4: I mean, clearly they're actually a bit rattled by it
Speaker 4: that the message might get through that here in Australia
Speaker 4: we have the third highest beer tax in the world.
Speaker 4: Just let that sink in for a moment. They index
Speaker 4: it every six months. It is absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And the idea that the.
Speaker 4: Consumer watchdog would tell brewers that they're out of line
Speaker 4: for pointing that out, I think is a joke.
Speaker 2: It's a stupid fight to pick.
Speaker 3: I mean, Queen Victoria famously said give the people cheap
Speaker 3: beer and you'll never have a revolution.
Speaker 2: And there's something to be said for that. Labor meant
Speaker 2: to be the party of the working class.
Speaker 3: You would think in a cost of living crisis, they could,
Speaker 3: as you said, Caleb, throw people a bone and at least,
Speaker 3: you know, take a little bit off the cost of beer.
Speaker 3: So people can at least enjoy their misery in this country.
Speaker 3: But in addition to that, it does show the glass
Speaker 3: jaw of I mean, Anthony Albanesi's glass jaw is pretty famous.
Speaker 3: But for Jim Charmers to be sending messages through the
Speaker 3: A Triple C to brewers don't talk about the excise
Speaker 3: on beer and don't make a commentary on it two
Speaker 3: months before an election shows just how concerned the government
Speaker 3: are to deflect all criticism and try and keep things
Speaker 3: on an even key until they get to the election, because,
Speaker 3: let's face it, about the only thing they've got going
Speaker 3: for them is a potential tax interest rate cut in
Speaker 3: the next week or so.
Speaker 5: Maybe saying their prayers.
Speaker 6: God like from you guys, Jesus, you really want to
Speaker 6: get some good news? Yeah, indeed, Well this is just
Speaker 6: a money making exercise.
Speaker 5: Everybody knows it.
Speaker 6: And this is something that Caleb would call an essential service,
Speaker 6: bloody oath. Indeed, under this government, Australians have probably drunk
Speaker 6: more alcohol then under any other.
Speaker 5: No, I can't say that. Please don't quote me on that.
Speaker 1: Now you need to, that's the point.
Speaker 6: But it's never been more expensive and with this indexing nonsense,
Speaker 6: where's the end of it, Where's the end of it?
Speaker 6: It is only ever going to climb and climb and climb.
Speaker 5: We don't want to live in a country.
Speaker 6: It's not a free country if you can't afford to
Speaker 6: have a pint after knocking off work.
Speaker 5: Let's be real, it's just true.
Speaker 6: I mean, Caleb, I think you are the most passionate
Speaker 6: proponent of I would love to see you as an
Speaker 6: MB on topics like this.
Speaker 1: You could win an election.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you could win an election on We are going
Speaker 4: to slash passionate.
Speaker 1: We're going to slash the text on beer.
Speaker 4: And I've said this before that if I was running,
Speaker 4: my policy platform, or one of my policy platforms, would
Speaker 4: be that all of these syntaxes tobacco, alcohol, et cetera
Speaker 4: would be slashed to the point that the government is
Speaker 4: regaining the money that it spins on the health effects
Speaker 4: of those products.
Speaker 1: Right, because that's only fair.
Speaker 4: If we are paying public money into public hospitals to
Speaker 4: pay for people who are suffering the effects of tobacco, alcohol,
Speaker 4: et cetera, Sure we'll get the money out of them
Speaker 4: in tax that they specifically pay the users of that
Speaker 4: product pay for every dollar they make after that is
Speaker 4: simply because the government says, well, because you're doing something
Speaker 4: that we deem to be a sin, you should have
Speaker 4: to pay more tax than everyone else. The smokers and
Speaker 4: drinkers of this country are heroes.
Speaker 1: I mean they are.
Speaker 4: They are the lifters, not the leaners, because people like
Speaker 4: me who pay that tax every single day are putting
Speaker 4: more money into the coffers of the government to prop
Speaker 4: up this country than anyone else.
Speaker 1: We are doing our bit.
Speaker 4: We're doing more than our bit to support this country.
Speaker 3: If I see someone light up a fag, I'm going
Speaker 3: to go and give them a slap on the back
Speaker 3: and to say so.
Speaker 1: Deeply thank you for your support.
Speaker 2: The country that's got a Victoria for a moment.
Speaker 3: The Victorian government, I think the only thing they're good
Speaker 3: at is proving they're not very good at anything. And
Speaker 3: his episode two hundred and eighty six of that story.
Speaker 3: There's been a lot of wars between criminal gangs in
Speaker 3: the state of Victoria, particularly fighting over elicit tobacco.
Speaker 2: One hundred and thirty fire bombings.
Speaker 3: Just in the last couple of years, eighty people arrested
Speaker 3: thirty seven million dollars worth of.
Speaker 2: Illegal tobacco, sees it's a problem.
Speaker 3: People are sick of having fire bombings happen in the
Speaker 3: Melbourne CBD. Who would have thought, well, last November, the
Speaker 3: Victorian Labor government made a big announcement. That's one thing
Speaker 3: they are good at. They're very good at announcements, just
Speaker 3: not much good at the follow through. They announced last
Speaker 3: November that they would start a licensing system for retailers
Speaker 3: to sell tobacco and therefore if you didn't have a license,
Speaker 3: well you would be set upon by the regulators. This
Speaker 3: licensing system is due to come into effect in July
Speaker 3: of this month. The only problem is retailers who want
Speaker 3: the license so they can sell tobacco don't know where
Speaker 3: they go to, or who they speak to, or how
Speaker 3: this licensing system works, let alone what it's going to cost.
Speaker 3: The government haven't announced any details as yet, and as
Speaker 3: I said, this licensing system kicks into effect in about
Speaker 3: four months time. But it gets even worse. The Victorian
Speaker 3: government have just announced that they won't have any licensing
Speaker 3: inspectors on the beat until the middle of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: So you can have a licensing system kicking to effect
Speaker 3: in July of twenty twenty five. But the government are
Speaker 3: advertising it won't be policed until at least the middle
Speaker 3: of twenty twenty six, which begs the question why.
Speaker 2: The hell would you biolize it? And if you're an
Speaker 2: Leegal tobacconist, you just carry on worry about it later.
Speaker 3: David Innell, who's the CEO of Master Gross's Australia said,
Speaker 3: and you can hear the frustration in his quote. I've
Speaker 3: been in public policy for thirty two years and in
Speaker 3: my view, this scourge of illegal tobacco is the biggest
Speaker 3: policy failing of all that time. The state government hasn't
Speaker 3: engaged in any meaningful way because it doesn't have any answers.
Speaker 2: It's a complete mess.
Speaker 3: You could actually take that quote, Liz and apply it
Speaker 3: to pretty much anything in Victoria and it would be true.
Speaker 2: Everything is a mess.
Speaker 3: As I said, this is example eight hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: seven of Victorian government is crap at everything.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, And let's be real, they don't actually want to
Speaker 6: crack down on any of this. They make billions of
Speaker 6: dollars of tobacco in this country every single year. They
Speaker 6: don't want to actually make it harder, I don't think.
Speaker 6: But there's public outcry and so they say, oh, well,
Speaker 6: we're clamping down and you've got to have this special license.
Speaker 6: The retailers are now just saying this is so confusing,
Speaker 6: we have no idea what's going on, which is a
Speaker 6: very comprehensive argument given everybody else doesn't know what's going
Speaker 6: on anyway, I genuine and lee don't know a single
Speaker 6: smoker that isn't just buying.
Speaker 5: The cheap chop chop.
Speaker 6: Seriously, all of these tobacco shops and if you live
Speaker 6: in Inner Sydney, you walk for five minutes, you've passed
Speaker 6: five tobacconists like they are absolutely everywhere, and they've got
Speaker 6: the legit smokes in there as a front basically because
Speaker 6: nobody's buying the expensive stuff these days. It's like over
Speaker 6: fifty bucks for a twenty five pack.
Speaker 5: I mean, it is utterly ludicrous.
Speaker 6: I think we have, we must have the most expensive
Speaker 6: cigarettes in the world here in Australia. And then you've
Speaker 6: got the people crowing about the fact that in the
Speaker 6: year twenty three to twenty four, revenue from tobacco in
Speaker 6: this country is down to nine point eight billion dollars,
Speaker 6: which is a far cry from its peak in the
Speaker 6: year nineteen to twenty twenty, which was over sixteen billions.
Speaker 6: So they say, aha, Lok, it's fallen significantly, to which
Speaker 6: I say, no, you've just made it so ridiculously expensive.
Speaker 6: Everyone's buy and in cash, and they're buying the cheap
Speaker 6: stuff that comes from China that is literally less than
Speaker 6: a quarter of the price. So it's not that we
Speaker 6: have less smokers in the country today, that's.
Speaker 5: My opinion anyway.
Speaker 6: It's that if you're going to make a system this
Speaker 6: ridiculous with your licensing and your pricing and your excise
Speaker 6: and your syntax, people as they have throughout time immemorial,
Speaker 6: simply find a way around it to circumvent all your
Speaker 6: stupid tape.
Speaker 5: And get their cigarettes at a reasonable price.
Speaker 4: And this is the thing, and I know I prattle
Speaker 4: on about this all the time, but you compare the
Speaker 4: packet of the price of a packet of daries in
Speaker 4: the US compared to here, right, the average is about
Speaker 4: twelve bucks twelve US bucks over there here it's about
Speaker 4: forty odd dollars, right, And the smoking rate is negligible.
Speaker 4: The difference in the smoking rate is negligible. So it's
Speaker 4: not the price that's causing people to stop smoking. Because
Speaker 4: they can go and get the cheaper product. It's because
Speaker 4: they've had the message drummed into them that smoking is.
Speaker 1: Bad for you.
Speaker 4: That has worked, but those who want you smoke will
Speaker 4: continue to smoke. And if they can't afford to buy
Speaker 4: the legal product, they're going to buy the illegal product.
Speaker 1: And then the illegal product.
Speaker 4: Funds underworld figures and crime gangs and bi keys, etc.
Speaker 4: Who then use that money to fund rape and murder
Speaker 4: and sex trafficking and all this sort of stuff. The
Speaker 4: government has created this market, and you're right about the
Speaker 4: excess going down, Liz, because the rate of smoking has
Speaker 4: been going like this for years, and at the same time,
Speaker 4: the revenue from the excise was going like that because
Speaker 4: they were just jacking it up and getting more and
Speaker 4: more money out of the people who were still smoking.
Speaker 4: James Martin criminologists, I think with Deacon University. I've spoken
Speaker 4: to him on air a few times. Was in the
Speaker 4: Sunday Papers this week in pleading with the federal government
Speaker 4: to cut the tobacco excise because the tobacco wars have
Speaker 4: become so ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is so lucrative.
Speaker 4: You used to think of gangs getting around dealing in
Speaker 4: illegal drugs, Well, they don't deal in illegal drugs so
Speaker 4: much anymore. They deal with what is actually illegal products,
Speaker 4: just in an illegal form because the government's not making
Speaker 4: any tax out of it. They got so greedy that
Speaker 4: the tax they're getting has actually gone down.
Speaker 1: I mean, when have you ever heard of that happening?
Speaker 4: And to point out exactly how bad this is for
Speaker 4: local business, which is what the master grosses et cetera.
Speaker 4: Are complaining about with how this scheme is being rolled out.
Speaker 4: I've spoken to the CEO of a supermarket chain in
Speaker 4: Victoria and he told me the revenue they have lost
Speaker 4: from the loss of sales in cigarettes as the tobacco
Speaker 4: wars have taken off in Victoria is about ten percent.
Speaker 1: Of their total revenue.
Speaker 4: And you think of what ten percent buys you in
Speaker 4: terms of staff and staff hours, et cetera. That's a
Speaker 4: huge chunk of your revenue that has been lost to
Speaker 4: criminals because the government centrally handed them the matter.
Speaker 3: So the crime gangs carry on as per normal in
Speaker 3: Victoria because the Victorian government cuts sort this mess out.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what the Victorian government can do.
Speaker 3: They can organize for a North American football game and
Speaker 3: played at the mc gene, which Liz is called bread
Speaker 3: and circuses.
Speaker 2: That's what they.
Speaker 5: Are, one hundred percent.
Speaker 6: They're always good at the bread and circuses helps you
Speaker 6: not to notice they're vast ineptitude to the United States now,
Speaker 6: where we know that Doge is busily fossecking through all
Speaker 6: federal employees seeing where they can.
Speaker 5: Cut the fat.
Speaker 6: And part of that process has to has been to
Speaker 6: offer all federal employees, regardless of where they're serving, a buyout,
Speaker 6: an eight month buyout.
Speaker 5: So instead of saying, Okay.
Speaker 6: We're going to figure out who needs to go and
Speaker 6: we're going to fire you forcibly, they've started by saying, hey,
Speaker 6: if you know you're useless, leave now do our jobs
Speaker 6: for us.
Speaker 5: Leave the ship. Rats.
Speaker 6: Well, three federal unions have gotten together saying we represent
Speaker 6: this people and this is an ultimatum.
Speaker 5: That is unlawful. We're not standing for it.
Speaker 6: So just hours before the deadline to say yes, I'm
Speaker 6: in I want that buyout, hours before that deadline was
Speaker 6: to occur, a federal judge has come out and says,
Speaker 6: these three unions have bought this case.
Speaker 5: I'm pressing pause on the deadline.
Speaker 6: While I decide whether this is allowed or not. So
Speaker 6: there's a lot more federal employees sweating it out over
Speaker 6: the weekend saying, actually, this offer is still open to me.
Speaker 6: Doge was hoping that this would clean out five to
Speaker 6: ten percent of the entirety of current federal employees. They
Speaker 6: served in the Biden administration, So naturally you want to
Speaker 6: get rid of as many of these inept buffoons as
Speaker 6: you can. Sixty five thousand of them have already accepted
Speaker 6: the buyout. They were hoping for more, but they've got
Speaker 6: three percent. So the Trump Admin's happy with that rather
Speaker 6: than nothing. And now the judge is coming down and
Speaker 6: this could be quashed. What a loss that would be
Speaker 6: if you're in doged and you're like, okay, three percent.
Speaker 5: Of them took our offer. We're getting rid of sixty
Speaker 5: five thousand morons, yay, And now it looks like it
Speaker 5: could be thrown out.
Speaker 3: It's a brilliant way of getting the trash to take
Speaker 3: itself out, right. I mean, they get rid of all
Speaker 3: the dead wood, by which I mean the people employed
Speaker 3: under the Biden administration's DEI policies.
Speaker 2: They create an.
Speaker 3: Exit ramp for people who don't like Donald Trump and
Speaker 3: would just be a blockage in different departments serving in
Speaker 3: his administration. So they give them an easy way out.
Speaker 3: Plus they're going to save a bucket load of money.
Speaker 3: And on top of that, if after this Trump then
Speaker 3: goes and makes and then fires a whole lot of people,
Speaker 3: then you can always fall back on the fact we
Speaker 3: offered eight months pay if you took a redundancy and
Speaker 3: you declined to take it in eight months redundancy is
Speaker 3: pretty generous, I would have thought. So Trump's provided himself
Speaker 3: cover for what he will undoubtedly do after this offer expires.
Speaker 3: Whenever the court allows it to expire, he will go
Speaker 3: through and make sure they cull at least ten percent
Speaker 3: of federal employees, which then raises the other interesting question.
Speaker 3: What percentage of government employees, whether in the US or
Speaker 3: here in Australia or anywhere round the western world, are
Speaker 3: really just warming seats and are completely unproductive yet being
Speaker 3: paid for by the taxpayer.
Speaker 1: Lots of them, lots of them.
Speaker 4: I remember last time we talked about we talked about
Speaker 4: some public service story here right, and a bloke wrote
Speaker 4: to me, that's right, it was a sorry about South Australia.
Speaker 4: They have this waiting room basically of public service employees
Speaker 4: who don't actually have a job to do at the moment,
Speaker 4: but for whatever reason, they can't be sacked.
Speaker 1: So they're sitting there on full page, just waiting for
Speaker 1: a job.
Speaker 4: And a Bloat wrote to me and so this is
Speaker 4: not just happening in South Australia. This is happening Inydney
Speaker 4: as well. And he told me about this place somewhere
Speaker 4: in Sydney where all of these public servants who are
Speaker 4: waiting for jobs go and they receive training and first
Speaker 4: aid courses and all sorts of.
Speaker 1: Stuff, and they're like they were advertising for a.
Speaker 4: Manager to manage these people who don't have jobs. This
Speaker 4: is how the public service runs here in Australia. You
Speaker 4: be sure it's what's going on in the US as well.
Speaker 4: But the Union wants to be careful because the union
Speaker 4: is challenging this in court on the basis that they
Speaker 4: don't think the government would be able to give the
Speaker 4: payouts that these people are owed because the budgets aren't
Speaker 4: short up yet. Well, if they managed to quash this deal,
Speaker 4: Trump is just going to go through and sack them all.
Speaker 1: And they're going to get no money.
Speaker 4: So I'd be careful about going after that one.
Speaker 6: Wouldn't you be angry at your union, sit.
Speaker 1: The workers and then you're like, no, no payout for you.
Speaker 1: You're just going to get sacked. Now.
Speaker 4: You'll remember in the election campaign last year that Kalala Harris,
Speaker 4: in the very few interviews she did, one with sixty
Speaker 4: minutes in the US where they edited her answers to
Speaker 4: actually bake her sound smart. Here's an example of just
Speaker 4: one of the instances where they did that.
Speaker 1: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyah who is not listening.
Speaker 9: Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted
Speaker 9: in a number of movements in that region by Israel
Speaker 9: that were very much prompted by or a result of
Speaker 9: many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen
Speaker 9: in the region.
Speaker 1: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyah, who is not listening.
Speaker 9: We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for
Speaker 9: the United States to be clear about where we stand
Speaker 9: on the need for this war to end.
Speaker 4: Now, wonder Dtya who wasn't listening, and that's what he
Speaker 4: had to listen to. But Trump's had a few legal
Speaker 4: wins lately. He got fifteen million dollars in defamation money
Speaker 4: out of the ABC because a presenter said that he
Speaker 4: was liable for rape. He's got twenty five million dollars
Speaker 4: out of Meta settling a case that he brought against
Speaker 4: them for banning his accounts back in twenty twenty one. Well,
Speaker 4: he's now he's increased the case he's taken out against
Speaker 4: CBS for that sixty minutes interview for twenty billion dollars
Speaker 4: because sixty minutes has released the full transcript.
Speaker 1: Of the interview that they did, and they.
Speaker 4: Have found so many more examples now of where they
Speaker 4: edited it to basically make Kamala Harris sound smart.
Speaker 1: So he's like, I'm going for gold here.
Speaker 4: Now he's accusing them of election interference, et cetera. He's
Speaker 4: brought another Republican in who says he's been damaged by
Speaker 4: the interview, et cetera. It's just fantastic to see.
Speaker 3: And the parent company, Paramount looking at settling this case,
Speaker 3: which would be an incredible admission. Since it's over election interference,
Speaker 3: they should have a situation where unedited interviews must be
Speaker 3: available online whatever goes to air. When it comes to
Speaker 3: political interviews and the lead up to an election. You
Speaker 3: can see the unedited version if you want. We'll go
Speaker 3: to a break. When we come back, we look at
Speaker 3: what's making news tomorrow, including Victoria and South Australia start
Speaker 3: importing gas from overseas despite the fact there's plenty of
Speaker 3: gas right under the ground.
Speaker 2: We'll get to that in just a moment. Welcome back.
Speaker 3: Let's take a look at what's making news in tomorrow's papers,
Speaker 3: and I reckon we should start with the Gold Coast
Speaker 3: bulletin because this is a great Gold Coast story.
Speaker 6: Incredibly, this is affecting the state of the nation.
Speaker 5: We're dying to see you.
Speaker 6: The splash reads mausoleums pearly gates in glam New Cemetery.
Speaker 6: The Gold Coast is getting a new symmetry with capacity
Speaker 6: for eighty thousand souls who wrote this.
Speaker 5: Their souls are gone at this point.
Speaker 6: It's just the carcasses who will enter through pearly gates
Speaker 6: adorned with angel wings. We want to create heaven on
Speaker 6: Earth on the Gold Coast, says owner Richard Douce. I
Speaker 6: mean most things on the Gold Coast. Forgive me, if
Speaker 6: you're watching from the Gold Coast is rather ghost. I
Speaker 6: went there a couple of years ago, and I was
Speaker 6: just like, not my guid to count.
Speaker 5: Okay, I'm more of a.
Speaker 6: Hippie child at heart, but gosh, so much ghoshness.
Speaker 5: Everything is very flashy and amazing.
Speaker 6: And now I'm picturing this cemetery with actual pearly gates
Speaker 6: with wings. Also rather ironic if you're a horrible person
Speaker 6: and you're definitely going to hell and they're just like, oh,
Speaker 6: wel you made it to our fake pearly gates.
Speaker 3: At least well, they'll have the best looking corpses in
Speaker 3: the country on the Gold Coast.
Speaker 6: Open casket, every single one of them.
Speaker 4: Haush on the Gold Coast though, sure if you're hanging
Speaker 4: around surfers paradise, But as you go further south on
Speaker 4: the Gold Coast, it's actually quite lovely.
Speaker 2: I've got to say, though.
Speaker 3: This cemetery is in Pimpama, which you know people in
Speaker 3: Pimpa mar who claim to live on the Gold Coast.
Speaker 3: It's a bit a stretch, not the Gold Coast. It's
Speaker 3: not Brisbane. It's it's kind of neither here nor there.
Speaker 2: So that's where you can afford a plot.
Speaker 6: I mean, they're not going to be given up Prime
Speaker 6: Beach land then.
Speaker 1: Go up to Tambourine Mountain. It's quite lovely up there.
Speaker 1: But I can't say that.
Speaker 4: This is where I want to be buried. We're having
Speaker 4: this discussion the other day group of us. A made
Speaker 4: of mine has said that. And he's got lots of
Speaker 4: cars and he's got a big garage for them, and
Speaker 4: he's got an inspection pit, and he said he wants
Speaker 4: to be dropped in the inspection pit when he dies
Speaker 4: and concrete it over the top of Now, I'm not
Speaker 4: sure whether that's legal or not, but I rather like
Speaker 4: the idea.
Speaker 1: That's his little place he wants to be lived there.
Speaker 4: I'd be quite happy to be just be dropping on
Speaker 4: the ground in a tree sapling bothered on top of me.
Speaker 1: I suspect you buried.
Speaker 5: However, your life, Well, if you are going.
Speaker 4: To sell the property and someone's going through one day
Speaker 4: and helves this body doing in the concrete.
Speaker 1: And the coppers will be called in, I suspect be
Speaker 1: some issues.
Speaker 4: But you know what, do what you want. You can
Speaker 4: actually be compacted. If you mated, you can be compacted
Speaker 4: into a diamond.
Speaker 1: Now, and I rather like the idea because the need
Speaker 1: people can wear it. Yes, exactly, so you could.
Speaker 4: Be set in a ring, and so I could just
Speaker 4: live forever on someone's finger. And then you know, my
Speaker 4: great great great great great granddaughter will go on her
Speaker 4: first date and the boy will say, oh, what's that ring?
Speaker 1: And she goes just my great great great great grandfather.
Speaker 1: I think that'd be hilarious, Melb.
Speaker 5: You know we're not going to last that long climate change.
Speaker 1: Oh true, true, true.
Speaker 4: Let's go to the Daily Telegraph tomorrow. Speaking of not
Speaker 4: lasting that long, we hope these people won't last that long.
Speaker 1: They need the doge to go through here.
Speaker 4: Northern Beaches Council is paying millions more on staffing costs
Speaker 4: than all three of the former councils.
Speaker 1: That were merged to create it.
Speaker 4: How good The revelations come two weeks after council has
Speaker 4: voted to slug residents with nearly a forty percent increase
Speaker 4: over three years in their rates, with angry rate pays
Speaker 4: calling on the New South Wales government to.
Speaker 1: Step in to prevent it.
Speaker 4: They spent nearly forty million dollars more on employee costs
Speaker 4: in the twenty twenty three twenty four financial year that
Speaker 4: they did ten years earlier.
Speaker 1: It's just insane, okay.
Speaker 4: Amalgamations are meant to deliver efficiencies. If they're done properly,
Speaker 4: they should deliver efficiencies. How do you possibly increase your staff.
Speaker 6: Bill employee costs by forty million?
Speaker 3: That's just employee is Their use of contractors went up
Speaker 3: by four hundred and sixty one percent from fourteen million
Speaker 3: in just.
Speaker 2: A couple of years ago, six years ago to seventy
Speaker 2: four million dollars last one hour year.
Speaker 3: So that amalgamation not providing great value for ratepayers. But
Speaker 3: since when we're ratepayers getting great value for anything. The
Speaker 3: Adelaide Advertiser has a sad story typical of our times
Speaker 3: here in this country. Gas import plans amid shortage. Important
Speaker 3: gas could soon be flowing into South Australia and Victoria
Speaker 3: as part of a plan to fast track new gas
Speaker 3: supplies amid looming shortages. Now, the irony, of course, is
Speaker 3: that we have gas shortages, but we also have an
Speaker 3: abundance of gas. It's just that we sit on gigantic
Speaker 3: reserves of the stuff, export it in huge quantities, but
Speaker 3: don't leave enough for ourselves, and then we import it
Speaker 3: from overseas. Even more ironic is we think we're saving
Speaker 3: the planet by not using the gassets here and instead
Speaker 3: getting it brought to us on ships run by diesel
Speaker 3: so that we can pay extra for it. The whole
Speaker 3: thing is just ludicrous. As soon as they open up
Speaker 3: those gas fields, particularly in Victoria, got just like unlimited
Speaker 3: reserves of gas. To be importing it as a company
Speaker 3: from Dubai that's setting up in South Australia just makes
Speaker 3: no sense at all. But since when did Chris Bowen's
Speaker 3: energy policy make any set well?
Speaker 6: One hope, I mean, so far this is well, they're
Speaker 6: finalizing a takeover, but one hopes that this kind of
Speaker 6: thing is what wakes up enough people to the arter
Speaker 6: tragedy taking place.
Speaker 5: I mean, I actually love Trump's tariffs.
Speaker 6: He's like, look, our steel works are suffering, so we're
Speaker 6: slapping tariffs on everybody else's so ours can get back
Speaker 6: on our feet and the demand for our steal will
Speaker 6: go through the roof, especially here at home. I'd love
Speaker 6: to see more of that here in Australia. I mean,
Speaker 6: even with our citrus growers, we have rotten fruit falling
Speaker 6: on the ground going in the bin, while we import
Speaker 6: oranges from Florida and wherever the heck else your sticker
Speaker 6: tells you it's from It is utterly ridiculous that we
Speaker 6: neglect our own and think that we're doing any kind
Speaker 6: of favors to the nation. It drives me up the
Speaker 6: wall to the front page of the Mercury. Now, state
Speaker 6: deficit blows out to five hundred.
Speaker 5: Million, our half billion hole.
Speaker 6: The state budget deficit has blown out by half a
Speaker 6: billion dollars and is expected to reach one point three
Speaker 6: billion in twenty twenty four to twenty five, the second
Speaker 6: worst result on record. Odd new Treasury figures show the Treasurer,
Speaker 6: Guy Binett, blamed the sixty two percent increase on the
Speaker 6: federal government because.
Speaker 1: That is what you do.
Speaker 6: That's what you do if you are a state or
Speaker 6: territory treasurer.
Speaker 5: You always blame the Feds.
Speaker 6: For half a billion half a billion dollars, but our
Speaker 6: budget blowout.
Speaker 2: So how bad is it to be an host?
Speaker 3: State government blames the federal government, The federal government blames
Speaker 3: Vladimir Putin.
Speaker 4: And we're just left sitting here saying, no, well, I
Speaker 4: guess we just have to pay not responsible. I mean,
Speaker 4: that must be what they're playing down a treasury. Because
Speaker 4: we had the story the other day from the front
Speaker 4: of the Canberra Times where where it's basically exactly the
Speaker 4: same thing that's happened in the Act, where the budget
Speaker 4: is blown out by basically two thirds or the deficit
Speaker 4: is blown out by two thirds. I mean, how can
Speaker 4: these people actually be expected to look after anything if
Speaker 4: they get their numbers that vitally wrong.
Speaker 1: I mean, they can blame it.
Speaker 4: On the Federal until the cows come home.
Speaker 1: But your job, if you are.
Speaker 4: The treasurer and all the people sitting in your treasury,
Speaker 4: is to be on top of this stuff. And even
Speaker 4: if it is because of a lack of money coming
Speaker 4: from the Federal commandent, you're meant to be able to
Speaker 4: know this stuff. He's going and then you go, oh jeez,
Speaker 4: did know that was going to happen?
Speaker 5: And it was within the last six months. So six months.
Speaker 6: Ago they said the deficit is going to be seven
Speaker 6: hundred and ninety two million. Here we are six months later,
Speaker 6: just a five hundred million more.
Speaker 5: Five million extra.
Speaker 6: It's fine, it's fine, everything's fine.
Speaker 5: Is the Fed's fault.
Speaker 3: It's just one of those things. We're going to take
Speaker 3: a break when we come back. South Australian police pull
Speaker 3: over a scooter rider for not wearing a helmet and
Speaker 3: discover that was the list of his crimes that's coming
Speaker 3: up in just a month. Well, a lot of people
Speaker 3: around the country watched the Super Bowl today. Liz dressed
Speaker 3: in the colors of the winning Super Bowl team. Well done,
Speaker 3: you'll nod to American football. But Canada is the anthem
Speaker 3: that's got a lot of people talking.
Speaker 1: Did it was because John Batiste? Apparently he's a Grammy winner.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of the.
Speaker 4: Bloke, but he decided to jazz up quite literally, the
Speaker 4: Star Spangled banner.
Speaker 1: Have a listen.
Speaker 4: Ya, you see bad at.
Speaker 1: What's a roundly we appel nastily.
Speaker 4: Now, look, there are lots of songs you can jazz
Speaker 4: up or pop up or rock up or whatever it
Speaker 4: might be. But surely the national anthem is just one
Speaker 4: that you leave alone so you can sing along with it.
Speaker 4: And by the way, when for one hundred and twenty
Speaker 4: seconds you could bet on the length of the national
Speaker 4: anthem sung at the Super Bowl and the betting line
Speaker 4: was one hundred twenty and a half seconds, there were
Speaker 4: all these people up in arms about whether it was
Speaker 4: over or under, et cetera.
Speaker 2: So that there are.
Speaker 3: Some songs that should just be sung the way they're
Speaker 3: supposed to be.
Speaker 6: From Christmas carols especially, you want people to sing all
Speaker 6: everyone's like, I want to sing my anthem, and then
Speaker 6: he comes out with this whatever, No one can sing along.
Speaker 6: They're all amped to sing their anthem. It would have
Speaker 6: been awesome to see that many thousands of people on
Speaker 6: their feet for the anthem.
Speaker 2: Nor ruined it really quickly before we go.
Speaker 3: Funny story in South Australia, police were patrolling just randomly
Speaker 3: eleven a m in Woodville when they noticed a forty
Speaker 3: three year old guy riding a scooter without a helmet.
Speaker 3: Now these police were in plain clothes, so they stopped
Speaker 3: the guy on his scooter and were chatting to him about, you.
Speaker 2: Know, not wearing a helmet, need to be responsible.
Speaker 3: When in the middle of that chat, a woman walks
Speaker 3: up and asks the scooter writer if he can supply
Speaker 3: her with some drugs like he's done previously. Well, evenize
Speaker 3: all knowledge of the woman, but the woman persists oblivious
Speaker 3: to the presence of the police. The police then think
Speaker 3: maybe we ought to frisk you, and they allegedly find
Speaker 3: drugs all over him, then go back to his house
Speaker 3: and he's got a taser gun in his home as well.
Speaker 3: Turns out, if he just bought his helmet, he would
Speaker 3: have been fine. There's the lesson from tonight. Always we're
Speaker 3: a helmet, we're riding a scooter. Things will go better
Speaker 3: for you. That's it from us stick Around. Coming up
Speaker 3: is the readA Penny Show.
Speaker 2: Good Night,