Speaker 1: Pedo Kredlin live on Sky News Australia.
Speaker 2: Well, good evening and welcome to the show. I'm Jamie
Speaker 2: Rogers filling in for Peter Kredlin. Here's what's coming up
Speaker 2: on Credlin. Australia signs a landmark uranium deal with India,
Speaker 2: helping fuel their nuclear vision for the future. So why
Speaker 2: is nuclear still off the table here at home? Plus,
Speaker 2: house prices in Sydney and Melbourne continue to plummet, the
Speaker 2: fastest fall since twenty twenty two, but warnings today the
Speaker 2: worst is yet to come. Telstra under pressure over the
Speaker 2: outage it says was caused by a software defect, So
Speaker 2: what guarantees do we have that it won't happen again?
Speaker 2: And President Donald Trump has reportedly given approval for Ukraine
Speaker 2: to build Patriot air defense systems. What does this mean
Speaker 2: for Vladimir Putin? Australia will help power India's future thanks
Speaker 2: to a landmark uranium agreement between the two nations.
Speaker 3: The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help
Speaker 3: increase the share of non fossil fuel power capacity, providing
Speaker 3: an additional market for the Australian resources sector.
Speaker 2: India wants to increase their nuclear generation from just eight
Speaker 2: gigawatts today to one hundred gigawatts by twenty forty seven. Why,
Speaker 2: Because India understands something Australia seems determined to ignore. Reliable,
Speaker 2: affordable energy isn't just about keeping the lights on. It's
Speaker 2: the foundation of economic growth, powers manufacturing, AI and data centers.
Speaker 2: It attracts investment and boosts productivity. Tania Constable from the
Speaker 2: Minerals Council Australia said this is an opportunity Australia should
Speaker 2: be seizing. She said, this deal is a big step
Speaker 2: forward for Australia.
Speaker 4: It puts us in the box seat.
Speaker 2: To meet India's ambitious goals on nuclear power. It sends
Speaker 2: a strong clear message that Australian uranium and Australian mining
Speaker 2: is of great strategic importance to India. Australia will fuel
Speaker 2: India's nuclear future, yet here at home, we still have
Speaker 2: a legislated ban on nuclear power. Australia has almost one
Speaker 2: third of the world's known uranium reserves, but mining bans
Speaker 2: across most of the country mean we are leaving a
Speaker 2: huge economic opportunity in the ground.
Speaker 4: According to MCA data.
Speaker 2: Australia generated one point two billion dollars in export earnings
Speaker 2: from uranium in twenty three to twenty four, and many
Speaker 2: Australian uranium miners have significant operations overseas in places like Africa.
Speaker 4: So here's the question.
Speaker 2: If Australian uranium is good enough to power India, why
Speaker 2: isn't it good enough to power Australia. The contradiction is
Speaker 2: impossible to ignore. We are happy for other countries to
Speaker 2: strengthen their economies and improve their energy security.
Speaker 5: Nuclear is not an answer for Australia. Any time when
Speaker 5: we have such cheap and abundant renewables we can harness
Speaker 5: with the right policy approaches. Nuclear is the slowest form
Speaker 5: of energy to build, the most expensive. Now I would
Speaker 5: rather go with the fastest form of energy to build
Speaker 5: and the cheapness. That's a difference.
Speaker 2: Nuclear isn't right for Australia. This is at a time
Speaker 2: when we are facing energy poverty. We're helping other countries
Speaker 2: with a resource that we're not prepared to use ourselves.
Speaker 6: You know that I believe in nuclear energy. It's been
Speaker 6: proven that it works in many countries like France. It's
Speaker 6: about seventy personality nuclear. This is where I live at
Speaker 6: the moment. Nuclear should be considered by Australia.
Speaker 7: We have a lot of union, we have the capability
Speaker 7: we were not, We have skills, have offers now. But
Speaker 7: nuclear is really one of the very skey is not
Speaker 7: the only zero emission sources that run regardless or weather.
Speaker 2: And there is another reason this meeting between India and
Speaker 2: Australia is so important. Prime Minister Modi will also have
Speaker 2: access to Australia's critical minerals and rare earths. And these
Speaker 2: are the minerals that power the modern economy for things
Speaker 2: like military technology, electric vehicles, wind turbine, smartphones and AI.
Speaker 2: They're becoming some of the most strategically important resources on Earth,
Speaker 2: and right now, China dominates that market. It controls around
Speaker 2: sixty percent of global rare earth mining and ninety percent
Speaker 2: of processing. Australia has an opportunity to encourage countries to
Speaker 2: bypass China and come to us instead, not just to
Speaker 2: dig these resources out of the ground, but to process them,
Speaker 2: manufacture them, create jobs from them, build new industries around them.
Speaker 2: That's why today's announcement matters around the world. Countries are
Speaker 2: moving in one direction. India is dramatically expanding nuclear. The
Speaker 2: United States and Britain are both investing in nuclear, yet
Speaker 2: Australia continues to ban it. Opposition leader Angus Taylor says
Speaker 2: it's time Australia started using one of its greatest natural advantages.
Speaker 8: Uranium, as I say, as I've always said, is a
Speaker 8: huge part of our mineral production and experts in this
Speaker 8: country and it should continue to be. And I'd like
Speaker 8: to see some of our uranium used in Australia, which
Speaker 8: it hasn't been, but.
Speaker 9: It should be in the future.
Speaker 4: And that's the question.
Speaker 2: If the rest of the world sees Australian uranium as
Speaker 2: part of its future, why don't we. The Treasurer said
Speaker 2: rents go up a couple of dollars, That was the
Speaker 2: claim after the budget changed negative gearing and capital gains tax.
Speaker 4: Well tell that to renters.
Speaker 2: New data shows average house rents in Sydney jumped fifty
Speaker 2: dollars a week in just three months. That's two six
Speaker 2: hundred dollars more a year, and unit rents are up
Speaker 2: thirty dollars a week. The average weekly house rent in
Speaker 2: Sydney is now at a record eight hundred and fifty dollars,
Speaker 2: so much for just a couple of bucks.
Speaker 10: Tax changes we think will have a very modest impact
Speaker 10: on rents, a couple of bucks a week.
Speaker 1: The budget means more homes, and more homes puts downward
Speaker 1: pressure on rents.
Speaker 2: So the Treasure is right about one thing. More homes
Speaker 2: put downward pressure on rents. But that's the problem. We
Speaker 2: don't have more homes, and when there are fewer homes,
Speaker 2: rents goer. That's not complicated economics, and too often it
Speaker 2: feels like the people making these decisions just aren't living
Speaker 2: in the real world.
Speaker 9: The main reason rents have gone up in Sydney over
Speaker 9: the last six months, I think, is because the market
Speaker 9: has tightened. The vacancy rate this time last year was
Speaker 9: about one point five percent according to SQM Research. It
Speaker 9: fell during the JOm quarter to less than one point
Speaker 9: four percent. And while that's a relatively small change when
Speaker 9: the vacancy rate is under two percent. So property people
Speaker 9: and others say the market power rests with landlords and
Speaker 9: they set the rent at whatever the market will bear.
Speaker 2: So that's the market Australia was already facing. But here's
Speaker 2: the crucial point. The budget didn't create the housing shortage,
Speaker 2: it's making it worse. Aria Group economist and Flannery put
Speaker 2: it simply.
Speaker 11: It's still too soon to see the impact on the
Speaker 11: rental market now. I think that even without the budget,
Speaker 11: rents are on track to increase. With the budget, the
Speaker 11: rate which rents are going to increase over the coming
Speaker 11: years will be higher because of course it's going to
Speaker 11: be less invested participation in the market than they otherwise
Speaker 11: would be.
Speaker 2: And that's the concern. The rental market was already tight.
Speaker 2: The budget risks making it worse.
Speaker 12: The reality of the budget is that will put up rents.
Speaker 12: Investors are going to demand higher rents now to compensate
Speaker 12: for the loss of negative gearing benefits capital gains benefits.
Speaker 12: So I think the impact from the budget on rents
Speaker 12: is still to be seen. And I think it's said,
Speaker 12: you know, it's obvious that rents are going to go
Speaker 12: higher than what we've seen.
Speaker 2: Already because this isn't happening in isolation. Two hundred and
Speaker 2: seventy five thousand new homes must be built each year
Speaker 2: to reach the one point two million target the government
Speaker 2: has set. Now, data shows in the twelve months to
Speaker 2: March of this year, Australia's annual rate of home completions
Speaker 2: was one hundred and seventy four thousand, so we aren't
Speaker 2: even close. And compare that to the current annual rate
Speaker 2: of migration, which sits at more than three hundred thousand.
Speaker 2: And all these people need somewhere to live. The government
Speaker 2: refuses to address the supply equation, as if ignoring it
Speaker 2: makes it less real. The Treasurer said rents would rise
Speaker 2: by a couple of dollars and unless the government gets
Speaker 2: serious about supply, migration, investment and construction, this rental crisis
Speaker 2: is just the beginning. Well, let's head to Camber Now
Speaker 2: for tonight's political headlines with Sky News political reporter Ruben Spargo.
Speaker 13: Good evening, India's Prime Minister and Anthony Alberizi are meeting
Speaker 13: in Melbourne, Nearentromodi's visit is advancing a multi billion dollar
Speaker 13: trade in Australian uranium to help meet India's growing energy needs.
Speaker 13: New Delhi is giving assurances that the fuel will not
Speaker 13: be weaponized. The leaders are also expected to strengthen bilateral
Speaker 13: defense cooperate.
Speaker 3: Australia's relationship with India has never been more consequential than
Speaker 3: it is today. Our partnership has never been stronger.
Speaker 13: Australia's Indian diaspora is tonight gathering at Marvel Stadium for
Speaker 13: a glimpse of Narendramodi. More than six hundred calls failed
Speaker 13: to connect to Triple zero during Telstra's nationwide outage. A
Speaker 13: secondary technical issue caused delays across transport networks. Today Telstra
Speaker 13: is promising a full investigation into the glitch.
Speaker 1: I want to again apologize for the disruption these issues
Speaker 1: have cause to our customers and to.
Speaker 9: The broader community.
Speaker 1: We know how important it is to stay connected and
Speaker 1: we take this responsibility very seriously.
Speaker 13: Telstra's chief executive is returning from a family holiday tomorrow morning.
Speaker 2: Well, the fallout from the nationwide outage continues to be
Speaker 2: felt from small businesses to the hallways of Parliament House.
Speaker 2: Here to discuss this and plenty more news of the day.
Speaker 2: Sky News contributor Kalli kats and Bars and Federal Liberal
Speaker 2: Member for Barker Tony Passen, welcome to you both. A
Speaker 2: lot of blame shifting here from the government. There was
Speaker 2: also that political spin with the attack on Sarah Henderson.
Speaker 2: She has called on the government to urgently deliver mobile
Speaker 2: network reliability standards. Angus Taylor also spoke about the attack
Speaker 2: on Senator Henderson.
Speaker 4: Here is the.
Speaker 8: Major response from the government to this was to send
Speaker 8: out the spin merchants to get them onto the phone
Speaker 8: to wherever they could.
Speaker 4: So Tony, I will start with you.
Speaker 2: Has the government offered enough transparency here and how can
Speaker 2: we ensure that this won't happen again?
Speaker 14: Nowhere near enough, Jamie. The reality here is this is
Speaker 14: a government that he's always looking to blame someone else
Speaker 14: or to run a distraction operation. This government needs to
Speaker 14: stand up on behalf of Australians and say there weren't
Speaker 14: a sufficient redundancy and resilience in the network. It needs
Speaker 14: to reassure Australians that it is going to ensure that
Speaker 14: the telcos, not just Telstra, but Telstra on this occasion,
Speaker 14: understands its obligations and will meet their obligations, particularly when
Speaker 14: it comes to emergency situations.
Speaker 9: I live in.
Speaker 14: Rural, regional or remote Australia. Regional Australians have no faith
Speaker 14: in the telcost because we live in the world in
Speaker 14: which our mobile phones work occasionally. I think what we're
Speaker 14: seeing now is that lack of resilience and redundancy is
Speaker 14: playing out in metropolitan Australia and it should never be
Speaker 14: playing out in an emergency situation. And the government on
Speaker 14: behalf of all Australian should be standing up and holding
Speaker 14: the telcos Telstra in particular, to account, and instead, I
Speaker 14: think what they're trying to do is not be part
Speaker 14: of the story and leave it for Telstra to be
Speaker 14: kind of taking all the hits. Now, let's hear from
Speaker 14: the government what think I'll do make telsher meet their
Speaker 14: obligations and exceed them.
Speaker 2: Currently, another element of the Telstra outage really impacted regional
Speaker 2: commuters and in Victoria they endured a second day of
Speaker 2: canceled V line services. It certainly highlights the vulnerabilities that
Speaker 2: we all rely on with the system. But you know, Caroly,
Speaker 2: Melbourne is on set to become the largest city in Australia.
Speaker 2: What's the government doing to strengthen the transport network to
Speaker 2: ensure that these errors don't cause more chaos in the future.
Speaker 15: Sadly very little. Then, not a day goes by without
Speaker 15: disruptions to the V line service anyway, So what has
Speaker 15: happened is shocking, of course, the vline service didn't realize
Speaker 15: that they put their faith in Telstra that their whole
Speaker 15: network would grind to a halt because of course they
Speaker 15: were reduced to having to use two ways, but they
Speaker 15: couldn't work out how trains could enter and exit station safely.
Speaker 15: But it also shows you that this is a glaring
Speaker 15: gap in what is being offered, not only in Victoria,
Speaker 15: but there were other cities around Australia that are affected.
Speaker 15: But the whole of Melbourne just ground to a halt.
Speaker 15: And as I said, the basic things, especially here in Victoria,
Speaker 15: are just not being attended to. The population is on
Speaker 15: track for six million people, yet the investment into infrastructure
Speaker 15: in the last few years just hasn't been there and
Speaker 15: the system couldn't cope anyway. And it is absolutely you know,
Speaker 15: it's buckling under the weight of all these frustrations. Commuters,
Speaker 15: no matter what their reason is, they're now one hundreds
Speaker 15: of dollars out of pocket their time. We're just lucky
Speaker 15: that nobody, as far as we know, has lost their
Speaker 15: lives due to this outage. But what I would say
Speaker 15: is that last September we saw the optus outage. This
Speaker 15: time it was Telstra. This should be number one on
Speaker 15: the Communication Minister's list to actually get it fixed and
Speaker 15: ensure that nothing like that this ever happens again, because
Speaker 15: it just exploses the vulnerability of how Australia is. We
Speaker 15: really are becoming like a third world country.
Speaker 2: We really are, and it's incredibly distressing. But Tony, I
Speaker 2: do want to get your thoughts around an alarming story
Speaker 2: today that argues the Albanizi government has helped fuel organized
Speaker 2: crime through the high tobacco Excise and by them abolishing
Speaker 2: the Building and Construction Watchdog. And on top of that,
Speaker 2: this report suggests that support for victorious suburban rail loop
Speaker 2: risks entrenching CFMU linked corruption and warrants a royal commission.
Speaker 2: You know, you do have to look at the tobacco
Speaker 2: walls that are playing out in Melbourne, Businesses going up
Speaker 2: in flames and livelihoods destroyed. Do you think this is
Speaker 2: a result of the excise?
Speaker 14: Well, the exercise is clearly creating an incentive for organized
Speaker 14: crime to involve itself in the illegal bacco trade. You
Speaker 14: mentioned two areas where I think government should be doing
Speaker 14: more in relation to dealing with organized crime and in
Speaker 14: particular the corruption that is becoming endemic sadly, but you
Speaker 14: can add to that, Jamie Ndis, As a former criminal lawyer,
Speaker 14: I know that there are organized crime groups involving themselves
Speaker 14: in that scheme. So where you create the environment where
Speaker 14: there are soft or easy targets or easy money to
Speaker 14: be made, then you are going to see those opportunities
Speaker 14: filled by organized crime. Now, we need to address this
Speaker 14: as a nation, both at the state level in terms
Speaker 14: of better enforcement, but we also need to remove the incentives.
Speaker 14: We need to find ways to make it hard for
Speaker 14: organized crime to profit from their activities. And I'm really
Speaker 14: struggling when I visit local supermarkets as I did today,
Speaker 14: to talk to store managers who tell me tony tobacco
Speaker 14: sales are almost non existent, and we see on Facebook
Speaker 14: that you can go to a car park and access
Speaker 14: these illegal cigarettes. Now, if the local store manager can
Speaker 14: see these Facebook posts, surely the relevant police authorities can
Speaker 14: as well. We need to stamp this out, but we
Speaker 14: also need to think again about the incentives that exist.
Speaker 9: And those incentives.
Speaker 14: Are created by the very significant difference between the taxes
Speaker 14: paid on legitimate cigarettes and no tax at all, and
Speaker 14: that environment is allowing organized crime to funish and they
Speaker 14: are the other consequences that flow from that, the likes
Speaker 14: of which you talked about, violence, property lost, the inability
Speaker 14: of landlords to ensure properties, et cetera, et cetera. Not
Speaker 14: to mention it's harming legitimate businesses who go about meeting
Speaker 14: all the requirements, employ people and our part and parcel
Speaker 14: of our community, and we want them to survive. All
Speaker 14: that's being under my.
Speaker 2: Mind, Caroly, Before I let you go, I do want
Speaker 2: to get your thoughts on a deeply disturbing summary of
Speaker 2: the state of anti Semitism in Australia now.
Speaker 4: And this came from HELLEL.
Speaker 2: Newman, Israel's ambassador to Australia, and he said in The
Speaker 2: Australian Today, throughout my twenty six year career as an
Speaker 2: Israeli diplomat, I have never seen such levels of hatred
Speaker 2: of Israel and of Jews as I experience and witness
Speaker 2: here in Australia. And I just think, with what we've
Speaker 2: seen on the streets of Australian cities, this is just
Speaker 2: I look at them and I think, how on earth
Speaker 2: did we get here?
Speaker 4: How has Australia become this place? Well, look, we got here.
Speaker 15: I do have to say twenty twenty three when it happened.
Speaker 15: We all saw what happened on the steps of the
Speaker 15: Sydney Opera House. Whether it was gas the Jews or
Speaker 15: where are the Jews? It was no condemnation made by
Speaker 15: the Prime Minister. Then there was the visit by Foreign
Speaker 15: Minister Pennywong to Israel. She didn't even go to the site.
Speaker 15: That's unheard of for a foreign minister. Again no condemnation.
Speaker 15: Then we had the recognition of Palestine where Albanesi and
Speaker 15: Pennywong decided to do that, flying in the face of
Speaker 15: official advice as well. Trump said it, everybody did. It's
Speaker 15: sort of like this green light thing that happens. Then
Speaker 15: there was the Bondai massacre and again yes, this token thing.
Speaker 15: I commented at the time on Peter's show that it
Speaker 15: was disgusting that Albanesi went to the Bondai pavilion holding
Speaker 15: a bunch of flowers that look like they've been picked
Speaker 15: up on the way from Aldi didn't even wear a
Speaker 15: yalmuka or a kipper on his head as actually as
Speaker 15: actually showing respect. And nothing has been condemned because it
Speaker 15: sounds awful to say, but Jewish people have a massive
Speaker 15: connection to the land. They're one of the oldest races
Speaker 15: in history. And when we keep having the thing with
Speaker 15: Gillian Siegel's anti Semitism. She's the committe you know, she's
Speaker 15: the envoy. She's suggested all these things. They say they'll
Speaker 15: be implemented, but there isn't. There's always a tacit thing.
Speaker 15: Now there are teachers saying, oh, we can't teach the
Speaker 15: Holocaust because we don't know how to do it with
Speaker 15: the backdrop in the Middle East. I mean, Israel is
Speaker 15: a Western democracy. It's all about fighting for the West,
Speaker 15: and it's just disgraceful. And I can say the ABC
Speaker 15: is a national broadcaster, yet again more mistakes. We've had
Speaker 15: gunshots added because editors didn't know what to do. We've
Speaker 15: had the incorrect reporting on George Pell they didn't know
Speaker 15: with this testimony by Gavin Fang, they knew about it,
Speaker 15: yet they still didn't correct it until the advice shown them.
Speaker 15: We have a national broadcaster that actually barracks against Australia
Speaker 15: and it's disgraceful and the true irony. I think Australia
Speaker 15: was the second country in the world to recognize the
Speaker 15: legitition democratic state of Israel. Those people that know their
Speaker 15: history know that Israel has always been supportive of a
Speaker 15: two state solution. But when you're dealing with terrorists, and
Speaker 15: when you're dealing with people that just want to wipe
Speaker 15: a democratic country off the map, doesn't leave much chance.
Speaker 15: And all it is it's about getting Western Sydney votes.
Speaker 4: Well, Caroly and Tony, I will leave it there, thank
Speaker 4: you all.
Speaker 2: Right, after the break, we dig back into the landmark
Speaker 2: uranium deal between Australia and India. What does that mean
Speaker 2: for our nation and why it points out Labour's nuclear hypocrisy.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, It's great to have your company. Coming up,
Speaker 2: we take a closer look at the state of Australia's
Speaker 2: property market, with auction results continuing to drop off amid
Speaker 2: warnings it's just the beginning. But now India is rapidly
Speaker 2: expanding its nuclear industry and Australia has just signed a
Speaker 2: major uranium export deal to help fuel that growth. Yet
Speaker 2: here at home, nuclear power remains banned, despite Australians helping
Speaker 2: to develop some of the world's most advanced reactor technology overseas.
Speaker 2: At the same time, new figures show the Greens accepted
Speaker 2: significant donations from unions, raising fresh questions about whether there's
Speaker 2: one rule for the Greens and another for everyone else.
Speaker 2: Let's bring in now Environment editor at The Australian Graham
Speaker 2: Lloyd Graham.
Speaker 4: Welcome.
Speaker 2: Let's start with the uranium export deal with India and Australia.
Speaker 2: Many countries around the world are moving towards nuclear energy,
Speaker 2: but we are stuck on this renewable only path. Do
Speaker 2: you think a deal like this will make the government
Speaker 2: consider at least overturning the moratorium.
Speaker 16: Britny Jamie Well, Unfortunately, Australia still seems to be stuck
Speaker 16: in this ideological loop on the is shue of nuclear energy,
Speaker 16: and the comments from Chris Byron at the top of
Speaker 16: the show indicated that he's in Nomu to change his mind,
Speaker 16: which is a big shame because if you look at
Speaker 16: the substance of the India deal, it really grows out
Speaker 16: of an agreement that was negotiated and signed by Tony
Speaker 16: Abbott ten years ago. We've been sorting out all the
Speaker 16: issues about not using uranium for military purposes and now
Speaker 16: we're really backing their energy system with nuclear. They have
Speaker 16: plans to increase their nuclear energy over the next twenty
Speaker 16: years to the equivalent of one third of Australia's total
Speaker 16: energy consumption in electricity, and it'll play the role that
Speaker 16: Cole plays here. They'll have a lot of solar and
Speaker 16: wind and other things, but the nuclear will always be
Speaker 16: there to back it up. And surely there's a lesson
Speaker 16: there for Australia. It's emissions free and it's what the
Speaker 16: world's doming.
Speaker 2: How important is the critical minerals of this deal?
Speaker 16: Well, the deal we've done with India really solidifies if
Speaker 16: you like our relationship as opposed to what's going on
Speaker 16: with China. The world is at the moment really held
Speaker 16: hostage by China in terms of supply of critical minerals.
Speaker 16: The rest of the world, the United States, India, Australia,
Speaker 16: Europe are trying to build an alternate supply. India has
Speaker 16: really come on board with that non China capacity and
Speaker 16: that's a good thing.
Speaker 4: Graham.
Speaker 2: The Greens are always very vocal about political donations of
Speaker 2: other parties, but I was just reading a report that
Speaker 2: shows that they have received a large donation from unions themselves.
Speaker 4: What can you tell us about this.
Speaker 16: Well, this is an interesting thing on a couple of levels.
Speaker 16: As you say, the Greens are always berating others for
Speaker 16: taking large political donations, and here we have a single
Speaker 16: union group, the electrical trades groups. They've given the Greens
Speaker 16: six hundred thousand dollars that was reported in the last declarations.
Speaker 16: It's the biggest donation to the Greens and it really
Speaker 16: comes at a time when the Greens have sort of
Speaker 16: moved away from what they used to stand for, which
Speaker 16: was the environment, and they're taking a lot more hard.
Speaker 9: Left positions on things.
Speaker 16: They even campaigned before the last election in Brisbane in
Speaker 16: support of the CFMEU, which is a bedfellow for the ETU,
Speaker 16: So it goes to show they're now right out on
Speaker 16: the left fringe. They're being given large donations from unions
Speaker 16: who are hostile essentially to the Albanesi government and they
Speaker 16: found a new home.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Again, just the hypocrisy that we keep copying from all
Speaker 2: these different parts is I do want to go back
Speaker 2: to the energy discussion around nuclear, because while Australia is
Speaker 2: still years away from embracing nuclear, there's a really interesting
Speaker 2: Australian company that's just achieved a major breakthrough in advanced
Speaker 2: reactor technology. Over in the United States, and when I
Speaker 2: was reading this article, whilst it's amazing and so wonderful
Speaker 2: for this company to have so much success overseas, I
Speaker 2: couldn't help but think, what are the opportunities that we're
Speaker 2: missing when our talent is now going offshore to find
Speaker 2: these sort of hits.
Speaker 16: Right, this is one of the great tragedies. I mean,
Speaker 16: the opportunity that's lost. There's been this narrative that Australia
Speaker 16: is not in the nuclear business. Well, actually we're very
Speaker 16: much involved in the global nuclear industry. It's just all
Speaker 16: our best brains are heading off to other parts of
Speaker 16: the world. The race is on in the United States
Speaker 16: to develop new forms of nuclear electricity generation. This is
Speaker 16: a very peeing Australian company. They've got a few prototypes going.
Speaker 16: They're all under the auspices of the White House push
Speaker 16: to develop nuclear power over there, and very small scale
Speaker 16: reactors so rather than large facilities, they can be very
Speaker 16: very small, to the size that they could run a
Speaker 16: data center or something with their own power unit. So
Speaker 16: this is really where the big research grunt is going
Speaker 16: in the US and it's pleasing to see that Australian
Speaker 16: brains are at the.
Speaker 9: Front of it.
Speaker 2: And Graham just very quickly the Ourica Green Hydrogen Hub
Speaker 2: project and Newcastle in New South Wales. It's made headlines.
Speaker 2: So it's going to cost taxpayers a fortune. And I
Speaker 2: just feel like every time we talk about renewable projects,
Speaker 2: the next line is always how expensive they really are?
Speaker 16: Well, I think that's right, and if you look at
Speaker 16: this project in particular, the whole of the corporate worlds
Speaker 16: has run away from hydrogen, saying look, it's too expensive,
Speaker 16: it can't be done. Ourica has agreed it's going to
Speaker 16: proceed with a plant in a Hunter Valley, but taxpayers
Speaker 16: are going to be picking up more than half the cost.
Speaker 16: The cost of the energy that will be produced for
Speaker 16: Ourica is way more expensive than the gas that they're replacing,
Speaker 16: and in terms of saving carbon dioxide emissions, it's many
Speaker 16: thousands of dollars per ton abatement, which really is just ridiculous.
Speaker 4: Well, Gray Am, I appreciate your insights. Have a good night.
Speaker 2: Well let's turn our focus now to the housing market.
Speaker 2: It's certainly heading in the wrong direction, with house prices
Speaker 2: falling across the country and rents hitting record highs. Plus
Speaker 2: there's growing concerns Labour's tax changes will make an already
Speaker 2: chronic housing shortage even worse. So where does the market
Speaker 2: go to from here? Let's bring in research director at Cotality,
Speaker 2: Tim Lawless.
Speaker 4: Tim.
Speaker 2: Housing is still in the headlines with property prices in
Speaker 2: Sydney and Melbourne falling at the fastest pace into twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two. What is driving this correction? Are you putting
Speaker 2: it to a mixture between the higher interest rates but
Speaker 2: then also Labour's tax changes or is it both of those?
Speaker 17: Good evening, Jamie, Well, it's both of those, but it's
Speaker 17: other things as well. We actually started to see the
Speaker 17: housing markets slowing down late last year simply due to
Speaker 17: affordability constraints, and then of course rate hikes seventy five
Speaker 17: basis points of them have shirley dampen demand. Very low
Speaker 17: levels of consumer confidence, especially when petrol prices jumped, is
Speaker 17: another factor. And then you've got the downside impact of
Speaker 17: the federal budget as well, which isn't just about a
Speaker 17: pullback an investment. It's also about a lack of confidence
Speaker 17: in policy. So we're not seeing it's only it's not
Speaker 17: just investors pulling back. I think first home buyers are
Speaker 17: also waiting on the sidelines simply out of fear of
Speaker 17: how far will prices fall.
Speaker 2: That was what I wanted to ask you, was about
Speaker 2: the first home buyer market, because the government has said
Speaker 2: their tax Changers was all about getting first home buyers
Speaker 2: to actually get their foot on the ladder and into
Speaker 2: the property market. But are they actually buying or as
Speaker 2: you said, they are sort of sitting back and waiting
Speaker 2: for the market to level out a bit more.
Speaker 17: Well, absolutely, it does look like most segments of the
Speaker 17: marketplace are in wait and see mode. I mean, put
Speaker 17: yourself in the mindset of a first home buyer. You're
Speaker 17: spending hundreds of thousands of dollars's not millions to buy
Speaker 17: an asset to buy your home. You're probably not going
Speaker 17: to do that if you think the value of that
Speaker 17: property is going to be lower, particularly substantially lower over
Speaker 17: the coming months. So I think a lot of people
Speaker 17: are going to be waiting on the sidelines until some
Speaker 17: confidence returns to the marketplace.
Speaker 2: And is this why you think auction clearance rates are
Speaker 2: going down as well? Because this has certainly been a
Speaker 2: talking point I feel every Sunday, that's what is the headlines,
Speaker 2: is that the auction clearance rates have gone low again.
Speaker 2: And do you think the challenge is that buyers and sellers,
Speaker 2: because they can't agree on what a profit is worth,
Speaker 2: buyers are probably thinking they can get a bargain and
Speaker 2: as a result, then the sellers decide to hold on
Speaker 2: and not pursue with the sale. Is that where we're
Speaker 2: starting to see this lower auction clearance rate?
Speaker 17: Well, that's definitely part of it, Jamie. So clearance rates
Speaker 17: are generally around the low forty percent range. Now, it's
Speaker 17: really rare to see clearance rates that low. The last
Speaker 17: time was during the onset of the pandemic, so back
Speaker 17: in early twenty twenty. Before that, it was when the
Speaker 17: market was moving through its largest correction on records, So
Speaker 17: in twenty nineteen, just as the market was starting to
Speaker 17: bought them out from an eight percent decline. Or are
Speaker 17: seeing clearance rates this low as well, so really does
Speaker 17: highlight it. As you suggest, there's a disconnect between what
Speaker 17: buyers are willing to pay and what they think is
Speaker 17: fair value and what vendors are expecting to achieve in
Speaker 17: the market. And we've got to remember this downturn, it's
Speaker 17: still pretty fresh. Even though the rate of growth has
Speaker 17: been been slowing down. Our national index is down over
Speaker 17: the past three months, so I think vendors probably need
Speaker 17: a bit of time to get used to the new normal.
Speaker 2: Tim, I want to have a look at the vacancy
Speaker 2: rate because that remains incredibly tight in the rental market.
Speaker 2: It's currently below two percent nationally. Now for me and
Speaker 2: the viewers at home, can you just explain to us
Speaker 2: why that number is so important and what it does
Speaker 2: for renters?
Speaker 17: Absolutely, so, the vacancy rate nationally is just one point
Speaker 17: six percent. Every capital city is under two percent, So
Speaker 17: healthy vacancy rate would be somewhere up around me three
Speaker 17: to three and a half percent. That's where it was
Speaker 17: pre pandemic, and a ten year average is up around
Speaker 17: that level. So when a vacancy rate is a really low,
Speaker 17: it simply means there's a real scarcity of rental supply.
Speaker 17: And when you have a real scarcity like this, that's
Speaker 17: when you can start to see rental costs being passed on.
Speaker 17: So if a vacancy rate was quite high and interest
Speaker 17: rates were moving up and there is additional rental costs
Speaker 17: or maintenance costs, it'd be much harder for investors to
Speaker 17: pass those costs through. To renters. What we're seeing now,
Speaker 17: of course, is with a vacancy rate very low, it's
Speaker 17: much easier for investors to pass on additional costs to
Speaker 17: the extent where we're now seeing renters are paying about
Speaker 17: a third of their pre tax income just to pay
Speaker 17: the rent. So it'll be interesting to see how high
Speaker 17: can rents actually go when rental affordability is already this stretched.
Speaker 2: And Tim, before I let you go, you know, we
Speaker 2: obviously talk a lot about the budget changes when it
Speaker 2: came to negative gearing and capital gains tax, and one
Speaker 2: of the warnings that came out of this is it's
Speaker 2: going to reduce the investor demand and as.
Speaker 4: A result, we'll shore up slow up the rental supply.
Speaker 2: And is this the evidence that we're starting to see
Speaker 2: and based on the trend that you're starting to analyze,
Speaker 2: is it going to get worse as investors flee the
Speaker 2: market or will it start to be bigger in the
Speaker 2: new development and we'll start to see some of the
Speaker 2: more existing dwellings won't be so much used for renters
Speaker 2: as such.
Speaker 17: Well, I think this is the trend we're seeing pre budget,
Speaker 17: so absolutely we are expecting a very sharp pullback and
Speaker 17: investment activity, and of course investors are generally responsible for
Speaker 17: delivering rental supply to the market. In fact, around about
Speaker 17: eighty five to ninety percent of all rental dwellings in
Speaker 17: Australia are owned by what we've called mum and dad investors.
Speaker 17: So I think there is a real risk here that
Speaker 17: rental supply is going to remain very tight leading into
Speaker 17: the budget that was definitely the case, and with a
Speaker 17: pullback and investment demands, I don't think there's a plan B.
Speaker 17: It's going to take some time for build a rent
Speaker 17: get up off the ground. Social and community housing probably
Speaker 17: isn't being funded enough either, so I think for renters
Speaker 17: absolutely they're going to be between a rock and a
Speaker 17: hard place going forward.
Speaker 2: Well, Tim Lawless, thank you for joining me tonight. All right,
Speaker 2: after the break, more on the Telstra adage. We'll dig
Speaker 2: into the wider impact on everyday Australians and how the
Speaker 2: nation can put itself from happening again.
Speaker 4: That's next welcome back coming up.
Speaker 2: Pressure on Russia as Ukraine targets it's oil refineries. More
Speaker 2: with our international panels soon. But now to the fallout
Speaker 2: from the Telstra outage. The impact of The blackout has
Speaker 2: been widely felt, with big questions over what we have
Speaker 2: learned since the similar optasatage that left users in the
Speaker 2: lurch last year. Here to tell us more is tech
Speaker 2: Guide editor Stephen Fenik. Stephen, Welcome. A lot of finger
Speaker 2: pointing is going on at the moment, but what do
Speaker 2: we know around how this actually happened? And more importantly
Speaker 2: White snowballed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hi, Jamie ye. It's well, what they said happened
Speaker 1: was like a timing issue. There's all the systems communicate
Speaker 1: when they're all synchronized at the same time. That's when
Speaker 1: they could talk to each other. So when they're not synchronized,
Speaker 1: there's an issue. And what had happened apparently the time
Speaker 1: on one of the systems went back twenty years to
Speaker 1: two thousand and six instead of twenty twenty six, and
Speaker 1: that system was then isolated and that's what caused the
Speaker 1: initial problem to occur. So that was a software bug
Speaker 1: caused that little timing error, and then it then had
Speaker 1: a flow on effect to the rest of the network.
Speaker 9: So there was the.
Speaker 1: Link in the chain that was broken and then had
Speaker 1: the flow on effect that unfortunately affected the whole network.
Speaker 2: And one of the issues here is definitely around not
Speaker 2: being able to access triple zero. Why can't a change
Speaker 2: be implemented to ensure triple zero automatically reverts to networks,
Speaker 2: say like a WhatsApp or a messenger.
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 1: The current situation is if you say you're a Teltra customer,
Speaker 1: yesterday you could see SOS on your phone. Normally if
Speaker 1: you can still ring triple zero. And what happened in
Speaker 1: this situation it camps on to another network. That's the
Speaker 1: term and so it looks for Vodafone, looks for Optus.
Speaker 1: Now that process can take up to sixty seconds, and
Speaker 1: that's sixty seconds of silence. So if you're in an emergency,
Speaker 1: that sixty seconds is going to seem like an eternity.
Speaker 1: And more often than not, people aren't waiting that full
Speaker 1: minute for the camp on to take place to connect
Speaker 1: them to triple zero. So that I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the cases reported where they're saying triple zero wasn't
Speaker 1: they couldn't connect to triple zero, it's because they didn't
Speaker 1: wait that that time. There may have been other times
Speaker 1: where there was no connection there at all, but often
Speaker 1: that's the case. Now, what you suggested there should be
Speaker 1: a fallback position. It seems pretty archaic that the only
Speaker 1: way you can contact Triple zero through a phone network
Speaker 1: like it's twenty twenty six. We should be able to
Speaker 1: text Triple zero or contact them through WhatsApp or FaceTime
Speaker 1: or Messenger, so that way were covered.
Speaker 9: So if you we've.
Speaker 1: Lost our cellular connection, at least we still get our
Speaker 1: Wi Fi, our broadband connection to then facilitate this that call,
Speaker 1: which would come at the worst possible time. You'd want
Speaker 1: to make sure that you've got the ability to connect there.
Speaker 2: You know, when you look at this incident, what does
Speaker 2: it tell you about our country's resilience when it comes
Speaker 2: to communications and infrastructure, but more so how much we
Speaker 2: rely on them And when you see something like a
Speaker 2: Telstra go down, everything else falls around it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it doesn't fill customers with a lot of
Speaker 1: confidence like this one little probably one line of code
Speaker 1: is brought the whole network down. So it is an issue.
Speaker 1: I think when and I'm sure that there were some
Speaker 1: learnings they took from the Optice situation last year, including
Speaker 1: the Triple Zero, it's just remarkable that this has happened again.
Speaker 1: So I think that there should obviously be more redundancies
Speaker 1: built into systems. Like I'm not a network engineer, but
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure or there'd be a way for you
Speaker 1: to sort of hive off the part of the network
Speaker 1: that wasn't working and go and reroute it somehow to
Speaker 1: prevent the whole nation having the outage. It's like having
Speaker 1: a road network where one accident in New South Wales
Speaker 1: is going to close down the entire country. That was
Speaker 1: the way that the network acted yesterday, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there has to be I think the engineers
Speaker 1: to be hard at work not only sifting through the
Speaker 1: rubble of this outage, but also ensuring that it doesn't
Speaker 1: happen in the future, because it could like some hacker
Speaker 1: looking in on our situation things. Okay, well, is that
Speaker 1: all it takes to cripple their triple zero to completely
Speaker 1: get rid of retailers not being able to do business
Speaker 1: trains aren't running, then I'm sure that our security is
Speaker 1: pretty strong, but you'd want to make sure we're not
Speaker 1: vulnerable here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a very good point, Stephen, because I know
Speaker 2: that that was coming up a lot yesterday, where if
Speaker 2: we could so easily become undone off. As you said,
Speaker 2: it looks like a line of coding was incorrect.
Speaker 4: Imagine if it was.
Speaker 2: A targeted cyber attack where criminals actually were trying to
Speaker 2: destroy our communications systems as a national security issue, if
Speaker 2: you can't communicate within your country, how can you possibly
Speaker 2: go and defend yourself?
Speaker 1: Absolutely right, I think that's the There's a lot of
Speaker 1: agencies in Australia where that's their job to protect all
Speaker 1: our systems and the networks respectively too. Have robust security
Speaker 1: not only on the actual network itself that we use
Speaker 1: for our messages and calls, but also the system that
Speaker 1: creates that network as well, so the back, the background,
Speaker 1: the servers in the background that it's doing all the work.
Speaker 1: They would you'd expect to have super strong and really
Speaker 1: resilient security. But yeah, I think that as cyber criminals do,
Speaker 1: they're always looking for ways in, as we've seen in
Speaker 1: the past with some pretty big data breaches from some
Speaker 1: of the biggest companies that we've had in that we've
Speaker 1: known in Australia. So it is does give us, I think,
Speaker 1: pause to think, well, what if we need to be
Speaker 1: prepared to keep ourselves safe.
Speaker 2: Well, Steven, I appreciate your time tonight, and we will
Speaker 2: keep a close eye on any developments with at Telstra.
Speaker 2: All right, coming up more on the escalation with Iran?
Speaker 2: Does Trump really want to re engage in an all
Speaker 2: out war?
Speaker 4: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: Let's jump into all the news happening beyond our borders,
Speaker 2: and there's plenty to get through. Joining us is Sky
Speaker 2: News contributor Kosher Gata and former Labor MP Michael Danby. Guys,
Speaker 2: welcome a peace deal in tatters. Some blistering words came
Speaker 2: from Donald Trump. Where do you think this is all happened?
Speaker 4: In Kosher?
Speaker 10: It feels like every week we're kind of on this
Speaker 10: merrig around or some semblance of positive momentum in the
Speaker 10: piece steel or the MOUs. We should say, the market stabilize,
Speaker 10: oil prices come down, everybody's maybe cautiously optimistic, and then
Speaker 10: you see something else like this happen, more rhetoric from
Speaker 10: President Trump or threats from Tehran, and it's sort of
Speaker 10: all I wouldn't say fine and dandy, not the right words,
Speaker 10: but as long as it stays contained in that, it
Speaker 10: just feels like we're waiting out time and they're waiting
Speaker 10: out Given the US political pressures, that they know helps them.
Speaker 10: The longer that goes, and the in terms of who's
Speaker 10: in charge of America might change with the midterms and beyond,
Speaker 10: or there's always this risk of an escalatory event happening.
Speaker 10: They've threatened that they might attack US basis in the region.
Speaker 10: If that happens, the US will retaliate, and then the
Speaker 10: escalatory ladder continues. So it's unfortunately anybody's guests, and this
Speaker 10: continues to be something that we have to take week
Speaker 10: by week, day by day.
Speaker 2: Michael, I want to look at some of the dramatic
Speaker 2: footage that came out overnight, and these with those strikes
Speaker 2: by Ukraine on Russian oil refineries and also on arms
Speaker 2: and technical plants. Trump has apparently given Zelenski permission to
Speaker 2: build patriot air defense in Ukraine. Can you tell us
Speaker 2: what this now will mean for Putin but also the
Speaker 2: war now over there.
Speaker 18: Well, let's be clear, Jamie. The Russians ascending missiles, including
Speaker 18: Iskandar missiles into civilian centers in fifty cities across Ukraine,
Speaker 18: killing Ukrainian civilians. The Ukrainians are taking down the infrastructure,
Speaker 18: the oil refineries and chemical plants that run the weapons
Speaker 18: industry that fund the Russian war machine and push the
Speaker 18: Russian war machine. So it's not the same thing. And
Speaker 18: unfortunately the patriots, even if they get the license now
Speaker 18: will take too long to be being built. But the
Speaker 18: Ukrainians are causing petrol cues in Moscow and other cities
Speaker 18: all over Russia. So there's a huge amount of domestic
Speaker 18: public pressure on Putin and the Russian elite. Now he
Speaker 18: was told on Russian state TV by a very prominent
Speaker 18: former supporter that he should give up the war. So
Speaker 18: it seems that President Zelensky has the card. He was
Speaker 18: asked by President Trump if he'd visit Moscow Zelensky, and
Speaker 18: he quite wittily said, well, I would, but it's quite
Speaker 18: dangerous there now there are a lot of Ukrainian drones
Speaker 18: and missiles.
Speaker 2: And kosher Is it as easy as that, as what
Speaker 2: Michael was saying, that Putin has now just been told
Speaker 2: to give up the war, Can he simply now just
Speaker 2: walk away off the back of the destruction that he
Speaker 2: has caused.
Speaker 10: I find that hard to believe. He does see this
Speaker 10: as existential. He sees all of these moves that happened,
Speaker 10: whether it's the permission for Ukraine to build patriot missiles,
Speaker 10: whether it's discussions of entering into NITO even if they
Speaker 10: don't come to fruition, whether it's other members like the
Speaker 10: Scandinavian countries entering into NITO. He sees all of that
Speaker 10: as provocative, he sees it as existential, and he seems
Speaker 10: to be in this for the long haul. Whether there
Speaker 10: might be a little bit rounding around the edges, some
Speaker 10: seeding of territory that he has taken, maybe, but walking
Speaker 10: away quote unquote seems to me very hope to believe
Speaker 10: that that is something he would consider unless he absolutely
Speaker 10: against the piner and he's not there yet.
Speaker 18: But he may be dragged by his own population who
Speaker 18: are now in petrol cues. They've never had this in Russia.
Speaker 18: They've never had to suffer in Russia like the poor
Speaker 18: Ukrainians have, and it may not be a matter of
Speaker 18: being willing.
Speaker 2: To yes forced too, especially when in your country in
Speaker 2: Russia you see those cues with the eighteen hour waits
Speaker 2: to be able to get petrol. That surely is not
Speaker 2: good for him in a political sense. Michael, I do
Speaker 2: want to ask you about these imprisoned Australian men who
Speaker 2: are suspected of being ISIS fighters. Now they could be
Speaker 2: freed from an Iraqi jail under renewed efforts to deport
Speaker 2: members deemed as non combatants of the terrorist group. Surely
Speaker 2: you would hope that the government is seeking briefings here.
Speaker 4: What do you make of this?
Speaker 18: Well, I agree with the former American Senator Galbraith who
Speaker 18: said that he can't believe some of these stories that
Speaker 18: they're telling that they were never involved in combat. Yes,
Speaker 18: they're in an ISIS dominated country, but never never did
Speaker 18: anything while they're over there. There seems to be one
Speaker 18: young person who has been imprisoned there a long time
Speaker 18: and who was brought there as a child, so that's
Speaker 18: worth evaluating seriously. But I was joking to your staff
Speaker 18: that as I'll have to establish a caravan park where
Speaker 18: they put the ISIS brides and these guys if they
Speaker 18: come back, so they can monitor them without it costing
Speaker 18: the Australian tax by hundreds of millions of dollars to
Speaker 18: monitor all of these guys. They're very dangerous and believe
Speaker 18: Senator Galbraith that they were doing things when they were
Speaker 18: over there.
Speaker 2: It just blows my mind, Michael, that we would be
Speaker 2: bringing them back, but we might not have a choice
Speaker 2: in their sense.
Speaker 4: I don't know. It just seems like an absolute mess. Kosher.
Speaker 2: I am interested though, before I let you go to
Speaker 2: get your take on the drama surrounding Democratic nominate Graham Plattna.
Speaker 2: He said he's going to suspend his campaign for the
Speaker 2: Senate in Maine and ending around that has brought grassroots support,
Speaker 2: but it was just plagued in controversy. This seems like
Speaker 2: a real mess for the dams.
Speaker 10: Right, it is drama was the perfect word to describe
Speaker 10: this because he sort of came out of nowhere, not
Speaker 10: a career politician, a military vet. Sounded great on paper,
Speaker 10: handily won the primary something like seventy five percent plus
Speaker 10: of the vote, and this has always been a very
Speaker 10: tricky seat for the Republican. Susan Collins is a moderate
Speaker 10: Republican has held onto the seat for many many cycles,
Speaker 10: but always just by the skin of her teeth, and
Speaker 10: this was a real challenge to her because of his
Speaker 10: popularity with the very Democrat electorate in the state of Maine,
Speaker 10: and now at the eleventh hour, all these allegations come
Speaker 10: out he's stepping aside. Despite that grassroots support and I
Speaker 10: think the real story behind the story is why because
Speaker 10: all of this opposition research.
Speaker 4: On him was known.
Speaker 10: It has always known, the party knew it, everybody knew it.
Speaker 10: And yet the Democrats tend to be very loyal at
Speaker 10: sticking behind their candidates, flowed as they may be. But
Speaker 10: sometimes it gets pushed to the limit where whether we
Speaker 10: saw it with Joe Biden or we see it here,
Speaker 10: they push them to the side. That's what's happening here,
Speaker 10: and that I think is the more interesting thing that
Speaker 10: is going to be revealed in the weeks ahead.
Speaker 2: Well, Kosher and Michael, thank you for your time tonight,
Speaker 2: Thank you, and thank you for your company. You'll see
Speaker 2: me again right here on Sunday night. The Bolt Report
Speaker 2: is up next