Speaker 1: Line is Sharry Good evening Steep Price with you filling
Speaker 1: in for Sharry again and back tomorrow night at six
Speaker 1: with my Friday program coming up on the show tonight,
Speaker 1: The spectacle, it is the way the Americans select their
Speaker 1: next president, goes next level.
Speaker 2: In Milwaukee, newly crowned Vice President j d Vance, with
Speaker 2: his wife and mum in the audience, makes his first speech,
Speaker 2: and tomorrow for my President Donald Trump, after surviving that
Speaker 2: assassination attempt at the weekend, he'll speak for the first time.
Speaker 2: Take you to Washington and Trudy McIntosh first up tonight.
Speaker 2: The other story, of course, that's dominated this week, the
Speaker 2: lid finally blown off the murky underbelly of activities on
Speaker 2: Australia's building sites led by the militant CFMEU. Queenslian Senator
Speaker 2: James McGrath will join us to talk about that and
Speaker 2: back to the cost of living crisis. With unemployment figure
Speaker 2: nudging a little higher today and I think it under
Speaker 2: counts the real story. By the way, we'll talk to
Speaker 2: the hospitality industry. It's a figure tipping one in ten
Speaker 2: cafes around Australia, maybe in danger of closing. But let's
Speaker 2: start in the United States. It's the center of the
Speaker 2: world at the moment. It's the big third day of
Speaker 2: the Republican National Convention. Donald Trump's running mate, jade E Vance,
Speaker 2: introduced himself to the nation and the world.
Speaker 3: You have to say.
Speaker 2: In his first speech as the nominee for Vice President,
Speaker 2: Andrew just spoke of his amazing book that he wrote.
Speaker 2: He spoke of his heart upbringing in Ohio, making the
Speaker 2: case that he and his party best understand the challenges
Speaker 2: facing Americans and the working poor. He even spoke fondly
Speaker 2: about the woman who raised him.
Speaker 4: In my life, I had a guardian angel by my side.
Speaker 4: She was an old woman who could barely walk, but
Speaker 4: she was tough as nails. I called her Mammo, the
Speaker 4: name we Hillbillies gave to our grandmothers. I mean, Memo
Speaker 4: raised me as my mother with addiction. Ma'am All was
Speaker 4: in so many ways a woman of contradiction. She loved
Speaker 4: the Lord, ladies and gentlemen. She was a woman of
Speaker 4: very deep Christian faith, but she also loved the F word.
Speaker 4: I'm not kidding. She could make a sailor blush. Now,
Speaker 4: thanks to that mamm All, things worked out for me.
Speaker 4: After nine to eleven, I did what thousands of other
Speaker 4: young men my age did in that time of soaring
Speaker 4: patriotism and love of country. I enlisted in the United
Speaker 4: States Marines.
Speaker 2: JD then go down to business speaking about what Donald
Speaker 2: Trump should be the next president of the United States.
Speaker 4: Leader who rejects Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's green news
Speaker 4: scam and fights to bring back our great American factories.
Speaker 4: We need President Donald J.
Speaker 5: Trump.
Speaker 4: For decades that divide between the few with their power
Speaker 4: and comfort in Washington and the rest of us only
Speaker 4: widened from Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to
Speaker 4: the Great Session, from open borders to stagnating wages. The
Speaker 4: people who govern this country have failed and failed again.
Speaker 4: That is, of course, until a guy named Donald J.
Speaker 3: Trump came along.
Speaker 4: President Trump represents America's last best hope to restore what,
Speaker 4: if lost, may never be found again, a country where
Speaker 4: a working class boy born far from the halls of
Speaker 4: power can stand on this stage as the next Vice
Speaker 4: President of the United States of America.
Speaker 2: Like all good speakers, he got better, I think the
Speaker 2: longer that he went. Let's get the lightest first up
Speaker 2: tonight from the US with Sky senior political reporter Trudy
Speaker 2: McIntosh's live in Washington, DC, where it's very early in
Speaker 2: the morning. I guess a lot of people sat and
Speaker 2: watched JD in America who had not seen him before.
Speaker 2: What sort of feedback are you getting, Trudy on that
Speaker 2: speech that he made today.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I think that's the key point, isn't it state that
Speaker 7: lots of Republicans, broader Americans wouldn't have known Jdvance was.
Speaker 7: If you're in the inside the Beltway, the MAGA crowd,
Speaker 7: they would have known who JD.
Speaker 3: Vance was.
Speaker 7: But it was an opportunity, as you say, to sell
Speaker 7: his hillbilly rags to riches stories. There was some great
Speaker 7: insights there into how he grew up, but drawing that
Speaker 7: together with the broader American story and trying to win
Speaker 7: over and prove kind of a generational change. Trump quite
Speaker 7: old as we know, and Jdvans at just thirty nine,
Speaker 7: a younger, fresher face as selling the same MAGA message.
Speaker 7: I also thought, though last night, there was some other
Speaker 7: fascinating parts of that convention. The fact that Donald Trump's
Speaker 7: eldest granddaughter got to the stage, an opportunity to humanize
Speaker 7: what is a very tough and polarizing figure here in
Speaker 7: American around the world. She spoke about these stories. You
Speaker 7: could see Donald Trump beaming at the time as she
Speaker 7: spoke about el he sneaks your candy and all those
Speaker 7: things that granddads liked to do. I thought that was
Speaker 7: a nice touch to show the human side of a
Speaker 7: rather polarizing man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she talked about how she goes and plays golf
Speaker 2: with him. When she's winning, he doesn't like it, he
Speaker 2: tries to beat her. It really did soften the image
Speaker 2: of Donald Trump. And given what happened last weekend and
Speaker 2: given how he has handled himself Donald Trump I'm talking
Speaker 2: of since that seems to be what the theme of
Speaker 2: this Donald Trump trying to get elected in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four is going to be like. As opposed to what
Speaker 2: you'd have to say, Trudy, back in twenty sixteen was
Speaker 2: a very bombastic Donald Trump who was very loud and aggressive.
Speaker 2: I think what happened last weekend fundamentally is going to
Speaker 2: change the way he presents himself to the world.
Speaker 7: Well, and how could it not that you are literally
Speaker 7: a centimeter or so or the head turn away from
Speaker 7: being dead That is a huge clarifying moment for anyone,
Speaker 7: let alone a man running to be president again. Donald Trump,
Speaker 7: I would think this time around, has been much more
Speaker 7: disciplined in his campaigning. We have three weeks on from
Speaker 7: that disastrous debate from Joe Biden, and in the wake
Speaker 7: of it, Donald Trump didn't go out and blow things up.
Speaker 7: He just was quiet. Whilst your opponents struggling. Let them
Speaker 7: continue to struggle publicly. The real test, I suppose, comes
Speaker 7: at his speech tonight here local time. It's slated to
Speaker 7: be around an hour and a half Donald Trump speaking
Speaker 7: at the convention, but he's promised he's rewritten the speech
Speaker 7: compared to what it was before that assassination attempt, promising
Speaker 7: a message of unity. I imagine he'll still have a
Speaker 7: few barbs in there. He's got an hour and a
Speaker 7: half plenty of time.
Speaker 2: Just briefly, back on JD. Vance, I think that's an
Speaker 2: inspired choice. I mean, I didn't know anything about him
Speaker 2: till we saw him today and people talking about his
Speaker 2: book and the Netflix movie. But this is a thirty
Speaker 2: nine year old guy who dragged himself up by his bootstraps.
Speaker 2: But more importantly, I think truty and we've seen it
Speaker 2: in Australian politics. It signifies a generational change. I mean
Speaker 2: you could say that about you know, Peter Costello shadowing
Speaker 2: John Howard or Paul Keating shadowing Bob Hawk.
Speaker 3: You always have.
Speaker 2: To have if you want to continue win elections, someone
Speaker 2: in reserve who is going to be a great replacement,
Speaker 2: which is exactly what the Democrats don't have.
Speaker 7: And I think the choice of jd Vance as well
Speaker 7: shows how secure Donald Trump feels in his position. With
Speaker 7: vice presidential picks in American history, normally presidents pick someone
Speaker 7: who's a compliment to them, who's going to help win
Speaker 7: over an area of the American voter base that they
Speaker 7: don't have. Think about John McCain picking Sarah Palin, a woman.
Speaker 7: Same with Joe Biden picking Karmala Harris, an African American woman.
Speaker 7: And normally that's the sort of reason why, a very brutal,
Speaker 7: real politic reason to pick someone with jdie Vance, that's
Speaker 7: not what this is. This is someone who now believes
Speaker 7: in Trump's agenda from those russ Belt states. Joe Biden's
Speaker 7: sons apparently as well a Steep were quite instrumental in
Speaker 7: convincing him that JD was the one.
Speaker 2: You're in them all there in Washington and the current
Speaker 2: president flew back to the East coast today. Now this
Speaker 2: is going to be a big story, obviously. President Joe Biden,
Speaker 2: he was asked in an interview would there be anything
Speaker 2: that would encourage him to step down from being the nominee.
Speaker 2: He said, well, a doctor's opinion that my health would
Speaker 2: suffer might be a reason. He then suddenly comes down
Speaker 2: with COVID, jumps on Air Force One, doesn't come back
Speaker 2: to Washington, flies to Delaware, where he and Jill will
Speaker 2: spend the weekend. Are you tipping we might see a
Speaker 2: fundamental shift from the Democrats here. Will Biden perhaps possibly
Speaker 2: step down over the weekend?
Speaker 7: Well, if this was Australian politics, let's be real, he
Speaker 7: would have been knife three weeks ago, the day after
Speaker 7: the debate.
Speaker 5: That's how it works.
Speaker 7: Back home back here, because he'd already been through this
Speaker 7: primary process, it's harder to do that. Joe Biden has
Speaker 7: to call time, essentially on himself, the huge intervention yesterday
Speaker 7: though Chuck Schumer essentially his camp. It seems leaking this
Speaker 7: meeting he had last Saturday here in a mint errecka
Speaker 7: where he told Joe Biden in no uncertain terms, you
Speaker 7: have to go. Then we saw the leak of Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker 7: She also had a meeting in the last week or
Speaker 7: so with Joe Biden showed him the polling says you
Speaker 7: can't win. Joe Biden's response, apparently is I don't believe
Speaker 7: those polls. We've seen somewhat of a softening. I'll point
Speaker 7: out the New York Times and CNN both reporting very
Speaker 7: similar lines out of the Biden advisor camp. They're saying
Speaker 7: he's now more receptive to the idea of dropping out,
Speaker 7: not that he's decided to do that. He wants to
Speaker 7: be convinced that Kamala Harris can win, but the first
Speaker 7: sign from the Biden camp that they are thinking about
Speaker 7: his future.
Speaker 2: The head of the Secret Service was in Milwaukee today.
Speaker 2: She was pursued by the media asking questions about how
Speaker 2: that rally could have been so badly treated by the
Speaker 2: Secret Service protection of Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: Is she going to hang on to her job?
Speaker 2: And I can't believe she's not already put her hand
Speaker 2: up and said, look, we screwed it up and I'm quitting.
Speaker 2: This is Kimberly cheetle.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's incredible the revelations that came out yesterday. It
Speaker 7: was overshadowed here in America by the convention and by
Speaker 7: the Biden news. But she told lawmakers apparently on this
Speaker 7: call that happened that has been leaked now, that more
Speaker 7: than an hour before the shooter, Thomas Crooks took a
Speaker 7: shot at Donald Trump, that he was a person of
Speaker 7: interest from police, and twenty minutes before snipers had seen
Speaker 7: someone on a roof of that building. So there are
Speaker 7: huge questions here. As you say, though, I'm not sure
Speaker 7: if you've seen the vision, there's this incredible moment on
Speaker 7: the floor of the convention last night, Republican lawmakers, a
Speaker 7: Senator Marcia Blackburn literally harassing this woman, the Secret Service Director,
Speaker 7: publicly in the corridors with the cameras there. That's only
Speaker 7: what journalists do to see politicians publicly doing that. It
Speaker 7: shows the pressure that's on. Just a warm up two.
Speaker 7: I'd have to say she's due to appear in Congress
Speaker 7: next Monday. That is nothing compared to what she's going.
Speaker 3: To face there.
Speaker 2: Trudy macintosha, as usually you're doing an outstanding job. I'm
Speaker 2: very jealous of you standing there on the mall in Washington, DC.
Speaker 2: Keep it up and I'll talk to you again soon
Speaker 2: and we'll see what unfolds over the weekend. Isn't she fantastic?
Speaker 2: Truly doing that? Now back home, I just need to
Speaker 2: return briefly to the scandalous behavior of the construction arm
Speaker 2: of one of Australia's most powerful unions, the CFMEU, a
Speaker 2: major labor party donor, as we know seen not from
Speaker 2: a government inquiry but from as a media investigation to
Speaker 2: have been really an alleged organized crime like outfit infiltrated
Speaker 2: by outlawd motorcycle gang members using bullyboy tactics. That's new
Speaker 2: too tame, I think, more like standover tactics, threats of
Speaker 2: violence and allegedly demands for bribe money. Now, this week's
Speaker 2: been a disaster for state labor in Queensland, New South
Speaker 2: Wales and particularly Victoria, where the current government has been
Speaker 2: too close for too long to this outfit. In my view,
Speaker 2: their leadership from the socialist left have been only too
Speaker 2: happy to take political donations and volunteer labor from the CFMAU.
Speaker 2: These boats go out and man polling boots and answer
Speaker 2: phones during election campaigns. Now this week started with a
Speaker 2: nine newspaper, nine newspapers opening a lid on this stuff,
Speaker 2: and now that it's out in the open, it needs
Speaker 2: to be properly investigated, not by the union itself but
Speaker 2: with a Royal commission led by a non politically aligned judge.
Speaker 2: Just today in the Herald Sun we learn of more
Speaker 2: shocking allegations while whistleblowers telling how secured tenders. So someone
Speaker 2: who's put in a tender to work on a Victorian
Speaker 2: government project and wins that tender only to be replaced
Speaker 2: because the union doesn't want to work with them. It's
Speaker 2: reported in some instances the unions the CFMEME used preferred
Speaker 2: contractors didn't even have equipment needed to do the job,
Speaker 2: so they had to buy it off the company that
Speaker 2: won the tender in the first place, and they were
Speaker 2: run off the site. One was allegedly told okay, mate,
Speaker 2: if you want a meeting, bring twenty thousand dollars in
Speaker 2: cash to a meeting at a footscrape pub to broker
Speaker 2: a deal via the CFMEAU to get onto a government
Speaker 2: infrastructure project. Company to their credit said no, but you
Speaker 2: can be sure someone else did, and of course in
Speaker 2: the middle of the current federal government shutdown the cop
Speaker 2: on the beat. They shut it down the ABCC in
Speaker 2: one of the first acts of the Albanezy government. Why
Speaker 2: would they do that, Well, Minister Tony Burke claimed they
Speaker 2: were being petty and investigating things like flags on building sites.
Speaker 2: So the CFMEU flag stickers on helmets, well that's where
Speaker 2: the union domination of projects start. If you have a
Speaker 2: CFMU T shirt on and someone on the site's not
Speaker 2: a member of the union, or on the crane doesn't
Speaker 2: have a CFMEU flag flying, the site doesn't work, gets
Speaker 2: shut down union domination. Then what follows is unreasonable union
Speaker 2: wage deals. If not, the whole site gets shut down.
Speaker 2: The union runs conditions on every one of these sites, lunchrooms, bathrooms,
Speaker 2: ross the days off to make a three day long weekend,
Speaker 2: I mean small beer to start with, big problems if
Speaker 2: you don't play though by those union demands, the union rules.
Speaker 2: And remember the money paying these blokes is taxpayers money.
Speaker 2: And as the Herald Sun reports, this happened on the
Speaker 2: twenty six billion dollar East North Northeast Link still being built.
Speaker 2: By the way, the thirty four point five billion dollar
Speaker 2: suburban rail loop which has hardly even started. Big money,
Speaker 2: big honeypot for this union, and we deserve to know
Speaker 2: what happened in full sight of the government funding it.
Speaker 2: We need to know about the contracts. We need to
Speaker 2: know who lobbied to shut down the ABCC. It's time
Speaker 2: for all of this to come out of the shadows.
Speaker 2: Let's bring in Liberal Senator James McGrath from Queensland. James
Speaker 2: Labour's being accused of being week on this issue. Anthony Albanez.
Speaker 2: He was in Queensland today. He was asked about the
Speaker 2: growing calls to do the right thing and de register
Speaker 2: this mob. Here was the PM's response.
Speaker 8: If you do register a union, the union officials can
Speaker 8: stay in place in an unregulated way. We don't want
Speaker 8: that and I'm surprised that Peter Dutton seems to want
Speaker 8: that to occur. What we want to do is make
Speaker 8: sure that any corrupt officials are removed.
Speaker 2: James, what what does that mean?
Speaker 9: This is alban Easy being at his most weakness. Ever,
Speaker 9: if he was a real Prime Minister, like say Bob
Speaker 9: Hawk who de registered the BLF, Albanesi would have sud
Speaker 9: have no problem about standing up to the thugs in
Speaker 9: the CFU. There's absolute nonsense what he is sprouting at
Speaker 9: the moment. It just shows how weak he is. And
Speaker 9: it just also shows that money talks in politics. And
Speaker 9: there's six point two million reasons why Albanese is not
Speaker 9: going to stand up for CFM you, and that's because
Speaker 9: that's six point two million dollars that went from the
Speaker 9: CU to the Labor Party since Albanese has been Prime minister.
Speaker 2: Go back to when the Labor government was elected. I
Speaker 2: mean they promised during the election campaign to get rid
Speaker 2: of the cop on the beat the ab CC and
Speaker 2: they said, oh, well, they were just you know, picking
Speaker 2: on people who had c FM EU T shirts on
Speaker 2: or Eureka stockade stickers on their helmet.
Speaker 3: No they weren't.
Speaker 2: They were actually in there trying to make sure that
Speaker 2: these projects were properly managed and that there was not
Speaker 2: corruption on building sites.
Speaker 9: Totally. And you look at why John Howard first brought
Speaker 9: it in and then reintroduced under Tony Abbott. There is
Speaker 9: a reason why we have to have the cop on
Speaker 9: the beat and that is because of the cf MEU.
Speaker 3: And there is a.
Speaker 9: Reason why Labor abolished it twice, and that's because the
Speaker 9: CFU are their paymasters. I speak to you from Queensland,
Speaker 9: where we've got all these projects that have gone massfully
Speaker 9: up in costs because of the demands of the CMU.
Speaker 9: You speak to anyone who's in the construction sector across
Speaker 9: Australia and they know how corrupt and how dodgy the
Speaker 9: CMU is. And it hasn't just happened in the last day.
Speaker 9: This has been going on for years. So for the
Speaker 9: Prime Minister or Tony Burke or anyone in the Labor
Speaker 9: Party to express sort of some oscar driven shock at Oh,
Speaker 9: we didn't know these people are corrupt is absolute bs.
Speaker 3: Everybody.
Speaker 9: Everyone knows they're corrupt, and that's why we needed the
Speaker 9: Australian Building Construction Commission on the beat.
Speaker 2: James, I mean, as I understand it. I mean Queensy's
Speaker 2: got an election in October. The CFMEU has not been deregistered,
Speaker 2: but it's been put in administration in places like New
Speaker 2: South Wales, Victoria, and that spills into South Australia, but
Speaker 2: not in Queensland. So presumably they're not in administration, they
Speaker 2: can continue to operate financially.
Speaker 3: What do you make of that?
Speaker 9: It shows who are owned Stephen Miles. The only reason
Speaker 9: Stephen Miles became premier was because of the union bosses.
Speaker 9: They all had a meeting decided to get rid of Palichet,
Speaker 9: and the CFM of you were intrinsically involved in the
Speaker 9: machinations to get rid of Palachee. Stephen Miles is of
Speaker 9: the left, the cf you are of the left. They're
Speaker 9: in this together. The scary thing for Queensland is should
Speaker 9: Labor win the election in one hundred days time, that
Speaker 9: means that Stephen Miles and the CFM of you will
Speaker 9: be running a mark. It shows to Queensland that Stephen
Speaker 9: Miles is all about himself, all about his union mates,
Speaker 9: and is not about the taxpayers and the voters of Queensland.
Speaker 9: It is shameful.
Speaker 2: We had a couple of members of that union in
Speaker 2: the Federal Court today. It was a case that goes
Speaker 2: back a couple of years. They'd obstructed a crane that
Speaker 2: was trying to work on a on a union site.
Speaker 2: The court find the union one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: But at the same time the minister who's now the
Speaker 2: premier to Sendor Allen of the Socialist Left, whose husband
Speaker 2: happens to be an ex CFM EU member. She says,
Speaker 2: I didn't know any of this was happening. No, I'm
Speaker 2: completely shocked. She's been the minister for all of those projects,
Speaker 2: all of those major big build projects. She was the
Speaker 2: minister responsible where all the trouble was happening. Had a
Speaker 2: letter written to her from an Indigenous labor higher firm
Speaker 2: complaining about bullying, and she took a year to reply.
Speaker 9: Well, I'm impressed that she replied at all, considering her
Speaker 9: links to the union and the links to the Labor
Speaker 9: Party of the Union, and it probably was one of
Speaker 9: those letters that has said we acknowledge you for the
Speaker 9: fact you've sent us a letter. But this is I
Speaker 9: cannot emphasize this enough. The links between the Labor Party
Speaker 9: and the CMU run deep, and the main reason it
Speaker 9: is because of the money that goes from the CU
Speaker 9: to the Labor Party. So whether it's the Premier in
Speaker 9: Victoria or the Premier here in Queensland, or Tony Burke
Speaker 9: or Anthony Albanesi or Sally McManus, for any of these
Speaker 9: people to say they're unaware of the conduct of the
Speaker 9: CVMU just says to me, what Rock have you been
Speaker 9: hiding under. Seriously, there is what rock. Queensland is hurting
Speaker 9: because of the CIM. Australia is hurting because of the CMU,
Speaker 9: and we've got a prime minister and we've got labor
Speaker 9: premiers around this country who are not standing up to
Speaker 9: these thugs. Someone needs to dig up Bob Hawk and
Speaker 9: bring him back and show Anthony Albanasi how to be
Speaker 9: a labor prime minister and stand up to the thugs
Speaker 9: in the Union movement.
Speaker 3: Now, Senator, I'm not pulling your leg.
Speaker 2: Chris Bowen in the press club yesterday actually said that
Speaker 2: this would not be a bad idea that Australians will
Speaker 2: be able to use their electric vehicles to charge their
Speaker 2: homes and be paid to put their cars stored energy
Speaker 2: back into the electricity grid under this proposal that Chris
Speaker 2: Bowen said would work. He wants this rolled out. I
Speaker 2: almost can't believe I'm saying this. Over the next year
Speaker 2: or so. Where are we living what planet are we
Speaker 2: living on? I mean, how could.
Speaker 3: This possibly work?
Speaker 2: And when you think about it, I mean I had
Speaker 2: to think about this today. So to be suburbs like
Speaker 2: tu k or Willaa in Sydney, the richest suburbs in
Speaker 2: the country. They'd all have their teslas pumping energy into
Speaker 2: the grid and being paid by the taxpayer to do it,
Speaker 2: where everybody who lives out in a normal working class
Speaker 2: suburb Western Melbourne or Western Sydney or wherever, they just
Speaker 2: be paying more for their power bill.
Speaker 9: Margaret Thatcher said, when socialists run out of money, they
Speaker 9: come after yours, or under Chris Bowen, when labor run
Speaker 9: out of energy, they come.
Speaker 3: After your electricity.
Speaker 9: This is one of the stupidest, dumbest, craziest ideas I've
Speaker 9: ever heard of. This is beyond April Fool's parody. The
Speaker 9: fact that Pete, You're going to power up the ev
Speaker 9: drive around and then come back and then power up
Speaker 9: your house. I want to say to labor, you don't
Speaker 9: need electric vehicles to do that. We've got these wonderful
Speaker 9: things called.
Speaker 5: Coal and gas.
Speaker 9: Let's bring in nuclear. Hell, let's have solar, let's have wind.
Speaker 9: Let's how that's how you power people's houses, not electric vehicles.
Speaker 9: This is something out of It's beyond yes, Minister, it's
Speaker 9: beyond utopia.
Speaker 3: This is just this is stupid. It's stupid, and he is.
Speaker 9: Taking the Australians for a ride with this type of madness.
Speaker 9: The sooner we get rid of this labor government, the better.
Speaker 2: Well, when you go out in your electric car, I
Speaker 2: don't have one and I don't intend to buy one
Speaker 2: because I don't like them. But you would go out,
Speaker 2: So you went on a trip from Brisbane down to
Speaker 2: the Gold Coast and back on a Saturday because you
Speaker 2: wanted to have a surfer, You wanted to go down
Speaker 2: and sit on the beach for a while. When you
Speaker 2: get back home, the car has less electricity in the
Speaker 2: battery than what you're left with, so you've got to
Speaker 2: recharge it. You're not putting electricity back into the grid.
Speaker 2: So what's Bowen actually talking about here? So I just
Speaker 2: can't believe that someone who you know, he has to
Speaker 2: be reasonably smart to be where he is in public life,
Speaker 2: but he's turning into a full mate.
Speaker 9: He's depriving a village somewhere of their idiot. For someone
Speaker 9: to come up with an idea like this and say
Speaker 9: it out loud at the National Press Club and expect
Speaker 9: Australians to go what you're going to power a car
Speaker 9: out of the grid, drive around, it's going to come
Speaker 9: back empty and then you're going to power the house.
Speaker 9: This guy, he's one step away from all of us
Speaker 9: putting a hamster wheels in our house to make sure
Speaker 9: that's how we power up our TVs and our heaters
Speaker 9: in the middle of inter This guy should not be
Speaker 9: sitting around a cabinet table. He shouldn't be sitting around
Speaker 9: a kitchen table. You know, he should be sent out
Speaker 9: somewhere and just be painting rocks white. That is his
Speaker 9: level of experience. I wouldn't trust him with a toaster
Speaker 9: or anything else.
Speaker 2: So gra great to catch up. Thank you very much
Speaker 2: for your time. Now after the break, another council moves
Speaker 2: to change the date.
Speaker 3: Of Australia Day. Here we go again.
Speaker 2: We do not normally wait to December to have these conversations.
Speaker 2: Plus a treaty for Victoria is one step closer to
Speaker 2: becoming reality. Welcome back Steve Price in for Shari, who
Speaker 2: will be back on Sky next Tuesday. Now I want
Speaker 2: to go regional in our double regional Council, which is
Speaker 2: of course in the central western New South Wales. Will
Speaker 2: they've come out and recommended shifting Australia Day celebrations from
Speaker 2: January twenty six, which this year is a Monday to
Speaker 2: January twenty four, so I think January twenty six must.
Speaker 3: Be the Sunday.
Speaker 2: They want to do it on the twenty fourth, a
Speaker 2: reverse long weekend if you like. Seriously, can't these local councils,
Speaker 2: and I keep saying this, concentrate on their cool businesses.
Speaker 2: I bet the state of the roads out west heading
Speaker 2: to Dubbo and heading past Dubbo are not that great.
Speaker 3: All the rural.
Speaker 2: Roads in Australia at the moment suffer from major potholes
Speaker 2: no matter which state you're in. Councils have simply run
Speaker 2: out of money. State governments haven't got money and so
Speaker 2: they're not repairing them now. The mayor of Dubbo Blow
Speaker 2: called Matthew Dickerson, says the reasons for the proposed change
Speaker 2: of date was quote convenience for council staff. Hello, as
Speaker 2: well as quote Aboriginal sensitivity. What about honoring your country
Speaker 2: on the day designated for it until a government in
Speaker 2: Canberra chooses to shift the date and then you can
Speaker 2: do it on that date. Joining me to discuss this
Speaker 2: is the Center for Independent Studies Indigenous Forum director Warren Mundine.
Speaker 2: Great to see you again, haven't spoken for a while.
Speaker 2: For an Indigenous and non Indigenous people in Dubbo would
Speaker 2: have had more important things to think about and fix
Speaker 2: than this they do.
Speaker 6: This council is totally out of touch.
Speaker 10: It actually has a bit embarrassing for me because I
Speaker 10: was a long term Dubbo City councilor and I was
Speaker 10: Deputy Mayor of Dubbo for a while.
Speaker 6: This council is totally at a touch. I'm sick and tired.
Speaker 10: Of councils making up their own minds when to celebrate
Speaker 10: Australia Day. Australia Day is a national holiday for all Australians.
Speaker 10: Now what do they do if Anzac Day falls on
Speaker 10: a Sunday? Are they going to change Anzac Day? Are
Speaker 10: they going to change every holiday just because it's convenient
Speaker 10: for their for the council staff now offenses mate, but
Speaker 10: it is our national holiday. Earlier this year we had
Speaker 10: Woolworths and a number of other corporates who are actually
Speaker 10: you know, don't actually want to support and celebrate Australia Day,
Speaker 10: didn't want to even put out banners or anything like that. Look,
Speaker 10: all I'm going to say is Matthew Dickinson and I
Speaker 10: know Matthew he was on the council in Isaiah over
Speaker 10: twenty years ago.
Speaker 3: Is that he's still there. He's still there.
Speaker 6: Well, I don't know what he does for a living,
Speaker 6: but he's still there.
Speaker 10: My suggestion is stick to the public holidays. Celebrate Australia
Speaker 10: instead of worrying about you know, some minority who's worried
Speaker 10: about this and worried about that. Actually bring Australians together
Speaker 10: and celebrate this incredible country, this multicultural, multi faith, multi
Speaker 10: everything you can think about ethnic group. We brought people
Speaker 10: from all over the world and we've built this incredible.
Speaker 6: Great country.
Speaker 10: And you know, and for over more than fifty years
Speaker 10: we've got rid of all the race laws.
Speaker 11: Here.
Speaker 10: We bend over backwards to celebrate things. Why can't we
Speaker 10: just celebrate us being together.
Speaker 3: Well, there's a double form.
Speaker 2: A Dubbo resident and someone who knows the town so well.
Speaker 2: And I've been to Dubbo. It's a great regional town
Speaker 2: of New South Wales. It has so much potential, but
Speaker 2: it does have problems. So the council should concentrate on
Speaker 2: doing the things that's voted in to do, which is
Speaker 2: pick up the rubbish, look after the roads, try and
Speaker 2: keep the rates as low as possible, make sure that
Speaker 2: they put pressure on state governments to give the region
Speaker 2: decent health care. Campaigning about things like this is just nonsensical.
Speaker 10: Well, it's a divisive it's insanity, it's sacrimonious.
Speaker 6: You're right.
Speaker 10: We had when everyone was talking about what was happening
Speaker 10: in Alice Springs and what was happening in Northern Terrety,
Speaker 10: Northern Queenslana, around Cairns and towns and other places through
Speaker 10: the Kimbles, and it was also happening in Dubbo. It
Speaker 10: was also happening in the western part of New South Wales.
Speaker 10: If Dubbo was really you know, wants to bring people together,
Speaker 10: Australia Day is a perfect day to do it.
Speaker 6: It's about all of us.
Speaker 10: Coming together, focusing on what's good about Dabba, was good
Speaker 10: about Australia, and actually make people proud of this country
Speaker 10: so that we're all working together to.
Speaker 6: Make it a better place.
Speaker 10: Rather than look, I think we should move it because
Speaker 10: we'd like to have a nice long weekend or anything
Speaker 10: about it is not about a long weekend. It's about
Speaker 10: the celebrating the wonderful people in this country. All the
Speaker 10: migrants who come here, all the people here, like myself,
Speaker 10: have been here.
Speaker 6: For thousands of years.
Speaker 10: It's about bringing it all together and making this country
Speaker 10: even better.
Speaker 2: Warren, you mentioned Alice Springs. It must break your heart
Speaker 2: to again see what's happening in the Red Center. We
Speaker 2: had a number of police officers who were assaulted by
Speaker 2: an indigenous group on the banks of the Todd River.
Speaker 2: Had to put back in the curfew. Then the curfew
Speaker 2: goes off. I mean, if the curfew works, leave the
Speaker 2: body curfew. Why are we talking about putting it on
Speaker 2: taking it off?
Speaker 3: If it works, is there not a reason to leave it?
Speaker 6: Look, excuse me.
Speaker 10: The curfew is brought in because of the failures of
Speaker 10: government after government after government at the federal and territory
Speaker 10: level to dealing with the real issues of what happening
Speaker 10: in these communities out there. You know, the curfew was
Speaker 10: brought on because it is a measure to get control
Speaker 10: of the streets again, and it did that.
Speaker 6: So you're right, we need to keep the curfews.
Speaker 10: Rolling gone and making sure that the streets are safe.
Speaker 6: That's only the beginning. The second part of that is.
Speaker 10: To deal with the real issues of why there are
Speaker 10: problems there, and that is to look at those remote communities,
Speaker 10: look at why they're coming into Alice Springs, look at
Speaker 10: the problems in Alice Springs, and I I've got a
Speaker 10: paper coming out soon about my solution to these one
Speaker 10: get every kid to school percent of the time.
Speaker 6: Get every kid to school.
Speaker 10: And get an education so they have opportunities in life
Speaker 10: to get jobs, to run a business and do things.
Speaker 10: You know, without education, you know, you can't improve your
Speaker 10: situation and can't improve your life too. Get jobs, get
Speaker 10: investment in that. And you can't get jobs and investment
Speaker 10: and businesses going to these places unless you control crime.
Speaker 10: So the second and third part is businesses jobs. The
Speaker 10: third part is get the seats safe, make sure the
Speaker 10: police are out there, support the police in their doing
Speaker 10: their job and making the community safe, and the rule
Speaker 10: of law to be enforced. And the final thing is
Speaker 10: there are more you know, one stage back in the
Speaker 10: eighties there was more money going into Alice Springs and
Speaker 10: the for Aboriginal people than the entire New South Wales.
Speaker 10: So you've got to start asking questions. You know, this
Speaker 10: community is what twenty six thousand people are, So what's
Speaker 10: happened to all that money, what's what? What's the services
Speaker 10: that were paid to do X?
Speaker 6: To fix things? Have they done x? You know? Senator
Speaker 6: sent an.
Speaker 10: Price and send it a little and even supported by
Speaker 10: Senator lydia For put a motion up in Parliament that
Speaker 10: they should have an inquiry, a performers inquiry about where
Speaker 10: the money is gone, has it achieved what it's supposed
Speaker 10: to be doing, because it obviously hasn't, And how do
Speaker 10: we fix all these things? And the Greens and the
Speaker 10: Labor Party and some of the cross benches voted against it.
Speaker 6: It's a common sense approach, you know. I do this
Speaker 6: in business every week.
Speaker 10: Everyone that we do check things out and make sure
Speaker 10: that they're working.
Speaker 6: So they should be doing the same thing.
Speaker 2: That's the problem, Warren Munday, and you talk too much
Speaker 2: common sense. Great to catch up with you, and I
Speaker 2: think your ideas absolutely need to be prosecuted. That's warrem Undine.
Speaker 2: They're plenty to come after the break beach is closed.
Speaker 2: You won't believe this. After an offshore wind herbine crumbles
Speaker 2: into pieces and falls into the sea. Is this what
Speaker 2: we can look forward to under Chris Bowen's Green Dream?
Speaker 3: Plus my panel have joined me up next.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, Steve Price, Infshari Markson and don't forget of course,
Speaker 2: Donald Trump's addressed to the Republican Convention will be tomorrow.
Speaker 2: You'll be able to see it right here on Sky Live.
Speaker 2: I presume it'll be about the surround about the same
Speaker 2: time as Jodie Vance spoke today, which was somewhere between
Speaker 2: eleven am and midday Eastern time in Australia. So that'll
Speaker 2: be live here on Sky It's going to be fascinating
Speaker 2: to see what mood he brings to that speech. Let's
Speaker 2: bring in tonight's panel. Joining me is National Affairs editor
Speaker 2: at the Australian newspaper Joe Kelly and commentator and my
Speaker 2: old mate Jason Morrison. Great to have you both with us.
Speaker 2: Can I ask you, Joe first, what did you make
Speaker 2: of JD.
Speaker 3: Vance today?
Speaker 12: Well, look, I didn't see j D. Vans today, Steve,
Speaker 12: but I think that he's very aligned with a lot
Speaker 12: of the trumpest philosophy, even though he may have had
Speaker 12: initial concerns, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. I
Speaker 12: think that there are risks though with him, and I
Speaker 12: think the questions about divisiveness in American society, and I
Speaker 12: think one of the ways we saw that was when
Speaker 12: jd Vance, following the attempted assassination on Donald Trump, put
Speaker 12: the blame squarely at the feet of the Democrats and
Speaker 12: Joe Biden for their rhetoric. Now, I think some of
Speaker 12: the criticism of Donald Trump was over the top, but
Speaker 12: I think that comment, which in large part I think
Speaker 12: helped seal jd Vance for that vice presidential pick for
Speaker 12: Donald Trump, was quite divisive, and his selection is very revealing.
Speaker 12: I believe Steve.
Speaker 2: Jason, europe and News junkie, you would have seen a
Speaker 2: bit of it today.
Speaker 3: He started slowly.
Speaker 2: I thought, I thought he might have been a bit
Speaker 2: more of a firecracker, but like all good speakers, he
Speaker 2: wound up. I thought he ended pretty well. It was
Speaker 2: a lot of emotion there. His mother, who he's described
Speaker 2: as having historically a drug addiction problem.
Speaker 3: She was in the audience. It was very US, very American.
Speaker 5: It was. It's a remarkable story.
Speaker 13: And you know, for all that is said, you look
Speaker 13: in the history of nations, including our own, we're shaped
Speaker 13: in better times by people who are prepared to put
Speaker 13: their lives.
Speaker 5: On the line for their country.
Speaker 13: And I think that's something that has been missing a
Speaker 13: lot in American politics for a long time, probably not
Speaker 13: enough of them in the Senate, enough of them in
Speaker 13: the reps, and in Australia a similar story.
Speaker 5: I don't have a problem at all with the man's background.
Speaker 13: In fact, I think that kind of you know, we
Speaker 13: hear diversity thrown around this as the word of the moment.
Speaker 5: That is diversity.
Speaker 13: Someone who's come from a rotten upbringing, has brought themselves
Speaker 13: through the walls of it and then gone to serve
Speaker 13: the country and now putting the hell up to do
Speaker 13: it again.
Speaker 5: I think it's amazing. And you can say what.
Speaker 13: You like about the man's politics, and he's speaking capabilities.
Speaker 5: He'll connect with.
Speaker 13: A lot of Americans at the time when a lot
Speaker 13: of Americans need connection.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he speaks honestly about that background. He's not
Speaker 2: using it. I don't think, you know, as a self promotion.
Speaker 2: He talks about how mates of his who he went
Speaker 2: to high school with they ended up being junkies and
Speaker 2: died overdosing on drugs. You know, you can take the
Speaker 2: road to the left or the road to the right,
Speaker 2: not politically, but you can make yourself a better person.
Speaker 2: You can go and join the Marines. You can fight
Speaker 2: for your country, you can become good enough to go
Speaker 2: to Yale Law School and then you run your own
Speaker 2: venture capitalist business. I mean, Joe, They're the sort of
Speaker 2: people I mean, put to one side, perhaps some of
Speaker 2: his more sor the right views, they're the sort of
Speaker 2: people you're wanting politics. You look at the people occupying
Speaker 2: political jobs in Australia these days and you know, on
Speaker 2: the Labor side most of them have been worked their
Speaker 2: way up through the Labor Party and those on the
Speaker 2: Liberal side are either lawyers. Doton's a bit of an
Speaker 2: exception being a copper, but we don't have enough real
Speaker 2: life experience in our parliament.
Speaker 12: Well, I think that's right, Steve. I think this goes
Speaker 12: to that idea of American exceptionalism, America being the land
Speaker 12: of opportunity and making something of yourself. And in terms
Speaker 12: of Australia's political system, I think that we see far
Speaker 12: too many politicians essentially being products of their respective political machines,
Speaker 12: so being staffers or indeed on the later side of politics,
Speaker 12: just simply coming up through the union movement. And the
Speaker 12: lack of outside experience I think is something that voters
Speaker 12: are aware of I think they like a sense of
Speaker 12: authenticity and they like Australians who have real world experience,
Speaker 12: and I do think that is something that is slowly
Speaker 12: missing from Australian politics at the moment.
Speaker 13: Hey, Steve, I'm Jason about this talk about Yeah, I
Speaker 13: was just going to say, in Australian politics people with
Speaker 13: real world experience are about as.
Speaker 5: Scarce as astronauts. It's a joke and that is desperately
Speaker 5: what we need.
Speaker 13: And Trump's brand is an outsider and He's brought another
Speaker 13: outsider into it.
Speaker 5: I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the CFMMEU. Jason, you've been around long enough.
Speaker 2: You and I both have been in television radio wherever
Speaker 2: we've covered union stories, standover tactics, you know, concrete pause
Speaker 2: that get interrupted at nine o'clock in the morning because
Speaker 2: the done he doesn't work on a CFMEU side of
Speaker 2: what else? We can give a million examples. How is
Speaker 2: it that no labor politician in the whole country had
Speaker 2: ever heard about the fact that the CFME MEU might
Speaker 2: be crook.
Speaker 13: Follow the money, follow the vote, simple as that they
Speaker 13: need the votes, the support of the CFMU types to
Speaker 13: get to their roles and then the.
Speaker 5: Money to stay in power. That's the answer.
Speaker 13: It's sick and this kind of I can't believe it
Speaker 13: when watching Sally McManus kind of carry on like.
Speaker 5: I just never knew it was this bad. Really, Like
Speaker 5: what channel you been watching?
Speaker 13: Even the ABC has been telling you for a while,
Speaker 13: has been pretty shit house. It is extraordinary that this
Speaker 13: has become for most people in politics, a week of
Speaker 13: awakening rubbish. Everyone knows what's been going on. It's been
Speaker 13: going on for a very very long time. And all
Speaker 13: those things you've talked about, they are commonplace, and they
Speaker 13: go through waves of being kind of controlled and whatever,
Speaker 13: perhaps when the governments are in or out and the
Speaker 13: labors at the back benches and whatever else. But the
Speaker 13: whole joke of it is that every person in that house,
Speaker 13: on the labor side knows this game.
Speaker 5: And to be pretending otherwise.
Speaker 13: I mean, really, do you think we're all We've got
Speaker 13: manure idea in between our ears?
Speaker 5: Is that what you think?
Speaker 3: Joe?
Speaker 2: What did you make of Tony burkein and the prime
Speaker 2: ministers react to this?
Speaker 12: Well, look, I think there's a very deep level of irony,
Speaker 12: But perhaps hypocrisy is a better word. Steve alban Easy
Speaker 12: and Labor were elected partly on a platform of integrity.
Speaker 12: We're going to do things differently, We'll change politics, will
Speaker 12: clean the place up. So they got into government and
Speaker 12: they established a National Anti Corruption Commission, but at the
Speaker 12: same time they decided that they were they were going
Speaker 12: to remove the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the tough
Speaker 12: cop on the beat in the building sector. And then
Speaker 12: they decided that they would reward the union movement by
Speaker 12: passing a whole series of industrial relations reforms giving the
Speaker 12: unions exactly what they wanted, changing right of entry arrangements,
Speaker 12: the definition of casuals, labor higher arrangements. So I think
Speaker 12: that there is a very deep level of hypocrisy and
Speaker 12: irony to this. I agree with Jason's comments that I
Speaker 12: don't think really anybody you know on the labor side
Speaker 12: of politics could have been surprised by any of this.
Speaker 12: And I think what it does is it shines a
Speaker 12: spotlight on the fact that Labor has only promised to
Speaker 12: or take an action to fight corruption in areas convenient
Speaker 12: for them, and they have delivered in spades for the
Speaker 12: union movement, including the CFMEU, since they were elected to government.
Speaker 2: Jason, knowing you were coming on tonight, I.
Speaker 3: Deliberately searched out this story.
Speaker 2: We've got a beach in the United States rolls to
Speaker 2: close you can't swim in summertime because a giant offshore
Speaker 2: wind turbine blade broke off, smashed itself apart, and were
Speaker 2: washed ashore. And we're worried little Johnny or little Jenny
Speaker 2: are going to step on the blade on the bottom
Speaker 2: of the ocean.
Speaker 3: This is unbelievable.
Speaker 5: Yes, comedy stuff, isn't it comedy?
Speaker 13: But you know that scene has coming to a beach
Speaker 13: near you in eastern Australia because the genius Chris Bowen
Speaker 13: has exactly that plan.
Speaker 5: For offshore New South Wales at the moment.
Speaker 13: And in case you think that the windmills in America
Speaker 13: are big, you ain't seen nothing yet, because the ones
Speaker 13: coming for the East coast of Australia down south off
Speaker 13: Coyama and off the Hunter area of Newcastle as high
Speaker 13: as the Barangaroo Tower the size of it. They're going
Speaker 13: to be sitting on barges floating chain to the seafloor,
Speaker 13: with chain links on the chains that are as big
Speaker 13: as I am tall.
Speaker 5: This is madness.
Speaker 13: This is madness from a country there's got coal. This
Speaker 13: is madness from.
Speaker 5: A country that's got gas.
Speaker 13: This is madness from a country that exports uranium to
Speaker 13: the world to generate power. We've got all this stuff
Speaker 13: and we're committed to these fruit loop ideas of putting
Speaker 13: these things here. And yeah, you know what you've got
Speaker 13: there in America with the polluted beaches from the bits
Speaker 13: and pieces, that's only half the story, not to mention
Speaker 13: the mangle birds and everything they're flying and.
Speaker 5: Out of these things.
Speaker 13: It is comedy stuff, yet it's Commonwealth government policy.
Speaker 5: Explain that.
Speaker 3: I knew you'd love it.
Speaker 2: Joe Bowen was at the Press Club yesterday and he
Speaker 2: endorsed this idea that you'd be able to get your
Speaker 2: electric vehicle at home, plug it into your house and
Speaker 2: keep your lights on and then export the power that
Speaker 2: you've got left over back into the grid.
Speaker 3: Is this bloke serious?
Speaker 12: Well, these are the sorts of policies that labor has
Speaker 12: to pursue, Steve. So they're caught between two worlds. On gas,
Speaker 12: they are opposed to nuclear. We have qualifired power stations
Speaker 12: preparing to exit from service. So Australia has systematically destroyed
Speaker 12: its comparative advantage and energy policy and Labour's solution is
Speaker 12: to focus on renewables. So Chris Bowen's big initiative since
Speaker 12: he came to government, and he's had a huge influence
Speaker 12: over the character of this government. His big initiative is
Speaker 12: for a five fold increase in renewable energy by twenty thirty.
Speaker 12: So increasingly there'll be real life practical differences and the
Speaker 12: way people will be living from day to day.
Speaker 5: And Chris Bowen has just.
Speaker 12: Given Australians a practical example of that.
Speaker 2: It's just it's just not going to happen. Jason Morrison, joke,
Speaker 2: Joe Kelly. I appreciate you both joining us tonight. Thanks
Speaker 2: very much. Having to have a good weekend now coming
Speaker 2: up after the break one in tent. This is a
Speaker 2: real crisis point for the hospitality industry.
Speaker 3: It's being revealed.
Speaker 2: One in ten cafes are going to go broke over
Speaker 2: the coming year.
Speaker 3: We'll have that up next.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Steve Price in for Shari James Morrow
Speaker 2: will be in for Paul Murray at the top of
Speaker 2: the hour. I keep saying cost of living crisis is
Speaker 2: the biggest issue in Australia. It certainly is that's what
Speaker 2: the next election will be fought over. Worrying data released
Speaker 2: today by creditor Watch has forecasts at almost one in
Speaker 2: ten cafes, coffee shops and restaurants is tipped to go
Speaker 2: broke be closed over the coming twelve months. Joining me
Speaker 2: to discuss this, chief economist at creditor Watch, Anika Thompson, Anka,
Speaker 2: great research. You just need to walk around your own
Speaker 2: suburb and you can see that happening. I mean I
Speaker 2: walk up and down the dan and On Road end
Speaker 2: of Chapel Street and there's more empty shopfronts than there
Speaker 2: are ones that are open. Yeah, that's right, Steve.
Speaker 11: But what the cafe and restaurant sector is really experiencing
Speaker 11: now is a perfect storm of factors and unfortunately all
Speaker 11: negative factors here in them. They've got high intrast rates,
Speaker 11: which is impacting consumer demand and discretionary spending. But at
Speaker 11: the same time, the utilities bills are increasing, their rents
Speaker 11: are increasing, and their labor costs are increasing. So they've
Speaker 11: got costs increasing at the same time as demand is slowing,
Speaker 11: and that's really having a shocking impact in the rest
Speaker 11: of on a cafe sector.
Speaker 2: At the moment, I think you you might be a
Speaker 2: little optimistic. I mean I'm not an economist like you,
Speaker 2: but I would have thought one in ten might be
Speaker 2: a good news story. I think it might be higher.
Speaker 11: Well, it'll be you know, it'll vary across. This isn't
Speaker 11: Australian wide figure that we're giving here, and very you know,
Speaker 11: depending on whether you're looking at CBD or regional areas.
Speaker 11: We're actually seeing regional areas perform better than some CBD
Speaker 11: areas and inner city areas. Instent areas really stuff are
Speaker 11: because of high rents, whereas some of those areas and
Speaker 11: regional locations can can sort of get through this because
Speaker 11: their rents.
Speaker 3: Some as high.
Speaker 11: So you're right, like if you're walking downtown on Road
Speaker 11: in Chapel Street, you might see more than one in
Speaker 11: ten shops closing, your cafes and restaurants closing. Then you
Speaker 11: wouldn't say a regional area.
Speaker 2: Well, you're in the in the once great city of Melbourne.
Speaker 2: I mean, part of the problem for these business is
Speaker 2: that we had the biggest lockdowns during COVID in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty twenty twenty one. The CBD as you'd know, and
Speaker 2: it could got hollowed out, and a lot of the
Speaker 2: businesses and particularly government departments where public servants work, they've
Speaker 2: not been forced to come back into the office. They're
Speaker 2: still allowed one or two days, maybe even three days
Speaker 2: a week to work from home. And so those little
Speaker 2: cafes suddenly, you know, probably only got twenty or thirty
Speaker 2: percent of the business they had pre COVID.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 11: Right, Melbourne's CBD has certainly seen less foot traffic come
Speaker 11: back in terms of office workers during the week. So
Speaker 11: what's happened is restaurants and cafes have seen just a
Speaker 11: structural change in the way their customers you know, shop
Speaker 11: at they'll enter their premises. So in Melbourne's CBDs you're
Speaker 11: talking about specifically, you'd have less traffic during the week,
Speaker 11: but at nighttime and weekends you'd be still quite busy.
Speaker 11: But the problem is labor costs a lot more at
Speaker 11: nighttime and that weekend, so it sort of doesn't help
Speaker 11: your cash flow. You know, they're still experiencing a lot
Speaker 11: of pain because of that weekday trade is much lower
Speaker 11: than it was pre COVID.
Speaker 2: Well, Anika, thank you very much for joining us. You're
Speaker 2: absolutely correct. Thanks for joining us tonight. I must say
Speaker 2: I was talking to a restaurant owner who owns a
Speaker 2: number of restaurants in Melbourne, and he's paying up to
Speaker 2: sixty seventy dollars an hour to his barista. You know,
Speaker 2: if you've got to pay all your wages on top
Speaker 2: of that, that makes it even worse. Don't forget live
Speaker 2: coverage of the Republican Convention tomorrow on Sky from seven
Speaker 2: in the morning. I think Donald Trump will probably speak
Speaker 2: at around about eleven eleven thirty. That's when he'll speak.
Speaker 2: James Morrow in tonight for Paul Murray