WEBVTT - Sharri | 5 May 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:03.240 Live on Sky News. 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:09.600 This is Sharry Good Evening, Big Show tonight. Liberal politician 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:14.160 Holly Hughes blasts the Coalition campaign for failing voters and 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:16.120 she unloads on Angus Taylor. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:18.160 She'll be on live tonight. 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.880 Also on the show, our scoop that the Nine network 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:24.560 paid a key witness in the Ben Robert Smith case 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.240 seven hundred thousand dollars in hush money to stop her 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:34.440 going public with allegations of misbehavior against Nick mackenzie. This 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:39.080 bombshell revelation tonight is the latest in our ongoing reporting 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.240 and we'll have all the fallout from the federal election. 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:43.640 Minique Ryan has now. 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:48.519 Retracted her winning Coupyong as final vote counting continues, and 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.600 Adam Bant could lose his seat as the Greens face 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.400 a well deserved wipe out. All of that coming up, 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.600 but let's start tonight with the recriminations and fallout from 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:00.920 the look. 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:02.080 The result was a shock. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.560 Not one polling company predicted the size of this win. 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:08.320 Nor any commentators. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.200 In fact, the only person in Australia who came close 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.880 to predicting this shock result was Albin Easy himself. Now 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:20.160 he thought he'd win majority government with eighty plus seats 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.960 under his belt, but not even he thought he'd win 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.000 eighty six or eighty seven seats, as Joel Fitzgibbon told 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:29.839 Chris Kenny earlier. 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:34.760 Not made Chris, not Peter Dutton and not Anthony ALBERSI. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.000 I think the Prime Minister has made that point himself. 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.600 No one saw this coming. The U GUP poll looked 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:43.959 like an outlier to me. Happy to say how I 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:44.440 was wrong. 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:48.440 Now Labour holds eighty seven or so seats in the 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.960 coalition thirty nine, although this will change slightly as final 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.680 votes accounted. Now, the story behind the size of this 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:02.600 election win is actually not Albanesi's popularity, because Labour's primary 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:07.160 vote only picked up by two percent or just under 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:12.360 from the last election. Thirty four percent of Australian's voted Labor. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:18.040 The story is the monumental collapse in support for the coalition. 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.760 In total, four point six eight million Australians voted Labor 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.640 and four point three two million voted for the coalition. 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.440 So that's primary votes. So it's a Labor primary of 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.960 thirty four point eight percent and a Coalition primary of 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:39.680 thirty two point one percent. Now that's a record low 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.000 for the coalition, and of course these numbers will shift 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.320 a little because votes are still being counted and some 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.960 seats are having a recount, but after preferences, that takes 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.680 the final two party preferred figure for Labor to fifty 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:59.440 four point six percent and Liberal forty five point three percent, 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:02.360 and it's a swing to Labor of two point six 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:04.880 percent on a two party preferred basis. 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:06.079 Now. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.480 Columnist and former Labor State director Cameron Milner makes the 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:14.520 point in his nightly column tonight that there's lots of 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.799 blowhard analysis and over the top age of albow headlines, 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:24.120 but despite the two pp vote, Labour's primary remains at 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:29.920 historic lows. It's only the complete collapse in the corresponding 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:35.680 Liberal primary that delivers the statistical anomaly. And he says 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.000 that Labour won in seats it never even campaigned in 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.720 some that Albin Easy didn't even visit. And I'll speak 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.560 to him about the reasons behind this when he's on 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:46.840 the show later this hour. 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:48.680 But the reasons for the. 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:52.160 Coalition's collapse that this election aren't difficult to ascertain. I mean, 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.960 it's what we've been speaking about every night. There's the 0:03:56.000 --> 0:04:01.800 Donald Trump factor, there's the Liberals Week campaign, Labour's demonization 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.680 of Dutton and their lies, poor policies from the Liberal 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.880 Front like the work from Home policy, Labour's scare campaign 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.760 on Medicare and the six hundred billion dollar cost of 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:18.599 nuclear and more. Now, the Liberal Party's polling by Freshwater 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.080 predicted a whin of sixty four to sixty six seats. 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:25.600 As I said on Saturday night, they also predicted reducing 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.280 labor to minority government. Now, there's no doubt about it 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:33.479 that polling was diabolical, It was wrong and it contributed 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.920 to how bad the campaign was because Dutton was driven 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:40.320 by the polling when deciding which seats to campaign in 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.760 and where to spend money. Just Enterprise set on air 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.760 earlier this evening that this polling played a big factor. 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:51.200 There's a lot that we have to reflect upon as 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:56.200 the coalition to determine where all our mistakes are. I mean, 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.800 obviously polling was a huge one, following the polling that 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:05.040 were presented to us without looking at alternative polling as well. 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:09.159 The work from Home policy, even though it was just 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:13.080 meant for public servants, it was rejected by most families 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.080 who didn't know that Labour said it would apply to everyone, 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.640 and most families do incorporate flexible working into their schedules. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.560 They thought they'd all have to go back into the office. 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.880 Now I'm told Jane Hume, with the support of Angus Taylor, 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.160 are the ones responsible. 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:29.480 For that policy. 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:30.760 Now. 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:32.640 I said on air on Budget Night. 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:37.359 That it would be electoral suicide to oppose Labour's tax cut. 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:39.440 Yet that's exactly what the. 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.320 Coalition did the very next day. It was never a 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:47.080 good idea. Labour also ran a tough scare campaign against 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.719 the Coalition. It worked, it was effective, Yet the Liberals 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:56.000 took a kinder, more honest approach to Labor. Now everything 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.960 here that we're talking about that other commentators have spoken 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.200 about tonight, it's all pretty obvious. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:02.520 It's not rocket science. 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.839 It's the fundamental basics of politics that the Liberal machine 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.280 should already know. And so the reality is that it's 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.640 the Coalition that has let Australia down because Australians who 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.480 didn't want to vote for Labor and their radical agenda 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:22.040 felt they had nowhere to turn. Everyone who was involved 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.840 with this coalition campaign at the senior level, from party 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:31.039 directors to the pollsters, should now explain why they deserved 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:35.480 to keep their jobs. They should be on notice because 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.560 this is one of the worst results for the Liberal 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:43.000 Party in Australian political history. Reduced to just a small 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:49.159 grouping in the Parliament, it's a humiliating result and the 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.840 Liberals now have no obvious leader. They're firmly in the 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:57.400 wilderness once again. Dante and Angus Taylor are the two 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.960 front runners for the leadership at the moment, but neither 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.600 could credibly claw back some forty or so seats in 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:11.480 just three years, which means most likely this is now 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:16.520 another a two term proposition for Labor, so six years 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:21.560 ahead of Labor governing now. When Parliament sits, there will 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:26.400 undoubtedly be arrogance from the government benches, despite the fact 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.400 that Labour's primary only ticked up by one and a 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.760 half or so percent. The Albaneze government will view the 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:37.520 landslide red wave as a vindication of their radical agenda. 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:43.240 They'll overreach now, They'll go too far with unpalatable policies 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.040 that they began in their first term. This shouldn't be 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.320 the message they take from the election. It wasn't that 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:54.559 Australians loved their agenda. It was that they couldn't vote 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:59.040 for the Coalition, as The West Australians editorial states, today 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.920 government ministers will now be prone to thoughts of invincibility 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:05.600 as they dust. 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.880 Off their policy wish lists. The editorial says this. 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:14.120 Election was ultimately a rude rejection of a woeful opposition. However, 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.360 this result will confirm in Albanesi's mind that the past 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:21.440 three years have been brilliant, stable and inclusive and the 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.920 critics of it are one hundred percent wrong. 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.000 Well, that would be a bad take. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:33.520 Labour portrayed Dutton as overly negative, and in response, the 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.400 Coalition campaign tried to soften his image, both through his 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:38.920 tone and language. 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:40.439 Well, isn't it. 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.280 Ironic that Labor painted Dutton as nasty? But in the 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.240 end he went too soft while Labor ran the tough 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.199 negative campaigns and spoken disparaging terms about. 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:53.640 Dutton and it worked. 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:56.600 Of Course, in hindsight, it was a mistake to try 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.720 and soften Dutton's image and soften the messaging because it 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:05.559 meant softening the attacks against Labor which are necessary in 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.440 election campaigns. And of course this campaign was also a 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.400 matter of timing. Had it been held in November or December, 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:19.199 the outcome may have been different. The voter sentiment swung 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:24.000 rapidly as it did in Canada. Now, if you at 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.280 home voted for Dudden, it's not the case that you 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.360 were wrong to do so. With the exception of the 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:35.800 Herald and the Age, every national newspaper editorial endorsed him 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:40.719 above Albanese's left wing agenda and mismanagement of the economy, 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.840 and for all our Jewish viewers, this result was disappointing. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.800 It's a government that failed to tackle or even care 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:55.360 about anti Semitism, and it sacrificed a community for political purposes. 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.280 And I've got to be truthful. 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.199 We can only expect further when it comes to hostility 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.200 towards Israel from the Albanese government, because it looks like 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.440 the Greens will have the balance of power in the Senate, 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:15.320 potentially led by the anti Israel marine Feruki. One silver 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.400 lining is that Green's leader Adam Bandt is struggling to 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.800 hold onto his seat of Melbourne and there's a recount 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:23.040 currently underway. 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.120 But when Albinizi inevitably. 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.280 Goes too far, as he's prone to do, I can 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.040 assure you we will hold them to account every step 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:40.959 of the way. Now the nine board is under pressure 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:44.880 to explain what it knew about a secret payment to 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.680 a key witness in their war crimes case. Now, this 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:53.200 is a major scandal. Nine paid a key witness in 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:58.079 the Ben Robert Smith defamation case seven hundred thousand dollars 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:02.280 in hush money to stop from going public with allegations 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:07.960 of misbehavior against journalist Nick Mackenzie, now Nine's own witness 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.080 in the Robert Smith case. They claimed she was a 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:16.040 domestic violence victim sent explosive emails to Nine threatening to 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:20.119 tell the court that the media company had unlawfully obtained 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:24.120 his privileged legal strategy. She said she had an audio 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:29.080 recording of Mackenzie and other evidence as proof. In response, 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.280 sources told me that Nine paid the witness, known as 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:37.360 Person seventeen, seven hundred thousand dollars under an agreement with 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:43.080 a confidentiality clause, buying her silence. Now, this payment was 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.560 made not long before Robert Smith's appeal against the network began, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.400 and it prevented the downing allegations from being raised in 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.400 public and potentially forming part of the appeal. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:56.280 The email from this. 0:11:56.240 --> 0:12:00.120 Woman and she'd had an affair with Robert Smith, her 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:04.280 email was sent to nine executive Tory Maguire an Executive 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:09.240 Council Lreena Alec in March twenty twenty three. She wrote, 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.400 and I'm quoting, there is a mountain of evidence of 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:15.920 Nick telling me what these women were supposedly saying prior 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.959 to giving evidence, which does not align with what Emma 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:22.480 has now said on oath. How do you explain that 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.720 I also know these women were passing on confidential and 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:30.480 privileged information to Nick as far back as mid to 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:34.880 late twenty twenty. What are you going to do when 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.679 all of that comes out to the judge? What are 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.040 you going to do when all of that comes out 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.040 to the judge? She wrote that in an email to 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.720 nine executives. She also claimed there'd been a behind the 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.760 scenes corrupting of the process, and she said in an email, 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.720 if you have to lie and cheat to win, then 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:59.400 you shouldn't be playing the game at all. So this 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:04.320 witness of Knights claimed in emails to nine that she 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.000 had relevant information to the court, and instead of dealing 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:13.520 with the allegations, Nine paid this woman hush money. There 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.600 are questions now about whether the information should have been 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:20.920 brought to the court's attention Now the unfiled statement of 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:25.320 claim made by Person seventeen also includes the allegation that 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:30.559 Mackenzie had obtained Robert Smith's privileged legal strategy. Now, this 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:34.200 was the audio recording that Person seventeen had, along with 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:35.120 other evidence. 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.679 Daniel d let's go yet again, you quote the movies 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:47.199 such as myself. They came actively. 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:53.160 Breaking us on his leadership to you respected you lived 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:55.719 the miss piece, and yet we're not learning about we 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:57.199 anticipated most of it. 0:13:57.600 --> 0:13:58.360 One or two things. 0:13:58.400 --> 0:13:59.920 Now we know every syst in which she's helped. 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:01.520 But the point there isne. 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.360 Told you that weished to say, like you know, we've 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:09.079 got this and and they're not hostile to year despite 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:09.840 your worst views. 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:10.160 They're not. 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:11.599 I shouldn't tell you. 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:13.559 I've just preached my ethics in doing that. 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.120 Like this is where like this is the leadership position. 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.160 Now if they knew that, impety knew that. 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:27.600 Now after we broadcast that recording in March nine, then 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:32.600 demanded that Person seventeen repay the seven hundred thousand dollars 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:37.160 hush money and even threatened to sue her despite the 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.120 fact she was their own witness who they claim was. 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:42.600 A victim of domestic violence. 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:48.320 Now, the latter from Nine's legal counsel, Lorena Alec, accused 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.000 Person seventeen without proof of leaking the audio recording to 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.400 Robert Smith and us at Sky. It says, the nine 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.880 Group requests that your client refund the settlement sum in 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.640 full within fourt in days. If payment is not received 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.440 by Monday, the seventh of April twenty twenty five, the 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.800 nine Group will commence legal proceedings against your client for 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:15.040 payment of the debt under contract law. Now, Person seventeen 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.360 sent a return legal letter rejecting the allegations Nine made 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.120 and denying that she'd leaked the audio. Now it's not 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.680 just the audio recording that leads Robert Smith in his 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.200 legal team to believe that his privileged legal strategy was 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:33.680 unlawfully accessed by night. Telstra records showed that his email 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:37.760 account was accessed one hundred and one times by his wife, 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.720 Emma Roberts close friend Danielle Scott. Robert Smith says that 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.320 one email from his lawyer was flagged and read when 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.160 he opened his email account, and his ex wife, Emma, 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.920 has admitted that she'd allowed her close friend Danielle to 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.960 access his email accounts, but claimed that it was only. 0:15:57.800 --> 0:15:59.920 In relation to their marriage breakdown. 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.760 But it's also emerged that Nine had access to emails 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:09.160 about Person seventeen. So we know that Ben Roberts Smith's 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:13.120 emails were accessed in relation to his marriage in relation 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:16.760 to Person seventeen, and this raises the question whether they 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:22.120 were also accessed in relation to other areas of the case. Now, 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:26.160 Ben Roberts Smith has claimed that Nine's lawyers subpoened specific 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.560 documents that they could only have known about with unauthorized 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.400 access of his account, and his attempts to prevent him 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.880 of Roberts from disclosing confidential information failed at the time 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.880 of the trial. However, further examples emerged in court last 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:46.680 week that Nine was being told in advance about aspects 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:52.440 of his legal team's strategy. Now, a text message from 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.920 Danielle Scott to Nick McKenzie made it clear that she 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.680 had information about what Ben's lawyers were. 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:04.080 Planning to do in advance. Here is that text message. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.639 It says, heads up MAA that stands for Monica Allen, 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:10.440 who's Ben Robert Smith's lawyer. 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:12.359 Heads up, Monica Allen. 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:16.240 Is going to write to the CDPP and notify them 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.520 that your tweet is a breach of the Family Law Act. 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.800 They are also going to apply to the Court for 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:27.520 a restraint preventing any further publications of that nature being made. 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.320 They are also going to make a second further application 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:35.840 not to disclose any further material to the respondents fairfacts 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:40.040 from the Family Court. Now, you don't have to understand 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.200 everything that's in that message, but what you have to 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:47.000 understand is that that is Danielle Scott tipping off Nick McKenzie. 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.680 The ben Robert Smith's lawyer, Monica Allen, was about to 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.040 write to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions about his tweet. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.960 Robert Smith's lawyers had sent him an email that included 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:03.560 this precise information. Danielle followed it up with another text 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.760 that said always better to be on the front foot, 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.919 I say, and know what they are planning, and then 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:14.359 she wrote that mackenzie owed her two beers. 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:17.800 The court heard last week about Robert. 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:22.360 Smith's serious concerns and mounting evidence that his privileged information 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:27.560 was unlawfully accessed by nine. Nine's lawyers told the court 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:31.359 that no such information had been provided. Nine was warned 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.640 about this allegation by Person seventeen in several. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:35.879 Emails and legal letters. 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:39.040 That's what I'm reporting tonight, and instead of dealing with 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:44.320 this potential misconduct, they paid her seven hundred thousand dollars 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.840 in hush money. The payment was made in January twenty 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.560 twenty four. The chair of the board now Catherine West, 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.160 was a director at the time the payment was made. 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.760 And today I put questions to the nine board asking 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:04.200 what they knew about the allegations from Person seventeen, and 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:08.600 whether there'd been any internal investigation about the issues they raised, 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.760 and why that hush money payment was appropriate. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.719 Nine have not responded. 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.480 Adding to Nine's arrogance is this comment mackenzie allegedly made 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:23.840 to Person seventeen. It's included in the unfiled statement of 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:28.240 claim when she was concerned whether she could trust Nick McKenzie, 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.879 she says, given he wasn't a member of the Fairfax board, 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.080 McKenzie allegedly said. 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:37.040 To her, I am Fairfax. 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:42.760 Now this entire matter looks like a financial cover up 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.760 to protect the reputation of one of their top journalists. 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.920 It's concerning conduct given that Ben Roberts Smith appeals was 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.399 about to start, and it's a corporate minefield for the 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.600 media company. Not long after its reckoning over sexual harassment 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.160 and toxic culture. I'm going to be speaking with vindicated 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.360 veteran Heston Russell about this issue shortly, and I will 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:11.119 continue to investigate this topic because, as I've said before, 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.760 if dirty tricks were used to bring down one of Australia's, 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:19.400 if not Australia's most decorated soldier, this is a matter 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:28.280 that's firmly in the public interest. And Heston Russell's coming 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:31.520 up shortly, but for more on the election on Saturday, 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:35.399 Let's bring it now Tonight's political panel GXO Strategies director 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:39.160 Bill Shorton's former chief of staff Cameron Milner, and Scott 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.280 Morrison's former advisor Andrew Carswell. 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:44.840 Great to see you both. Look, this election was a shock. 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:46.320 We were both on the you were both on the 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:47.520 show last week. 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:52.280 None of us predicted this massive majority for alban Easy. 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.960 Cameron's starting with you. You've written a brilliant column tonight. 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.720 I just referred to it earlier in the show. What's 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:00.520 your main takeaway from this result? 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:04.480 Well, I think as the week went on, everyone realized 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:06.240 that Albany is going to become Prime minister. It was 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:08.159 either going to be a majority or minority, and I 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.720 think what's happened is that Middle Australia decided they didn't 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.359 want the Greens, the revolting Greens, to have the balance 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.440 of power, so they plumb for Labor. And the reason 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:17.840 why I say that is that Labour only won seats 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.200 in Middle Australia. They were the outer Easter and Sobers, 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.520 the Perth Metro suburbs, some of the ones in Sydney. 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.560 In fact, Labor had massive swings against in his own heartland. 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.480 Labour's standing to lose five safest seats at this election. 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.600 So Middle Australia, who hate the Greens, don't stand for 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.440 their politics, didn't want them to balance of power, voted 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:38.760 for Labor, holding their nose probably while I did it. 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:40.880 But in the end that was enough to get Albo 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:42.440 the number of seats. But I think that was the 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:45.080 big shift at the end because at the end people 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.359 realized that Dunton wasn't going to get their albow was 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:49.440 so might as well have a majority, so at least 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.120 we'd have the Greens in the power, in the center 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:52.440 of power. 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:55.359 I mean, we can sit here tonight and say Labour's 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:59.720 primary was still among historic lows thirty four percent, even 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:03.440 though the coalitions is truly diabolical, which I'll get to 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.160 that in a minute, But the reality is, with eighty 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:08.200 six or eighty seven seats, it doesn't matter what their 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.120 primary is. Andrew Albanize is going to take this as 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:14.080 a mandate to basically do whatever he wants. 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:19.359 Well, he certainly will shahurry and he'll ignore the pain 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.080 that has been caused in the last three years because 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:24.679 he wouldn't. He can't see that anymore. It's been kind 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:27.800 of washed away by this result, So expect the Hebrews 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:31.159 to come. But on the flip side, I think this 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:33.479 result you've got to get back to the core reasons 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.480 why we saw the result that we did on Saturday night. 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:42.040 And I think Australians were deeply angry and frustrated with 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:46.200 the Albanizi government. But that anger and frustration wasn't enough 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:51.320 to overcome the fact that they had a major hesitation 0:22:51.480 --> 0:22:54.760 with Peter Dutton. I mean, you can't paper over that 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:59.000 fact that the coalition had a deeply unpopular leader into 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:03.199 an election. And you know, yes the campaign was terrible, 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:06.640 Yes the ads were bad and they were late. Yes 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:08.920 there was a one man wrecking ball named Donald Trump 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:12.960 that interrupted the campaign. You can lay all those excuses out, 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:16.040 but you can't paper over the fact that Peter Dutton 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:19.000 was unpopular as a leader, and I think that really 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:22.159 weighed on that vote. And Australians were very happy to 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:24.720 be convinced, given the pain that they'd gone through, But 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:27.480 by the end of that last week they just weren't convinced. 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:32.520 And it's interesting because you know, we've been analyzing the campaign, 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:36.040 but ultimately Labor had framed. 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:37.440 Peter Dutton for most of his career. 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:39.520 They'd called him I mean, I don't even want to 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:41.800 say it on air, but they called him potato head. 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:44.440 They'd called him Voldemort. You know, they had. 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:47.520 Framed him as a racist in the nastiest possible way. 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:50.480 And this is long before he even became opposition leader. 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:54.240 So Cameron, you know, perhaps it was almost impossible to 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:58.320 change voter perceptions of him when he already had that 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:00.520 image in Australian's. 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:05.080 Except he won the voice campaigns, so he did have 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:07.880 a win in the midst of this situation. Four months 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:10.240 before polling day, he was in the box seat. He'd 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:13.480 actually done the job at the demolition on Albanese's recording 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:15.760 government on cost of living. He'd done the job, but 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:17.960 he didn't do his policy team to do and I 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:21.440 think Angus Taylor is the biggest, biggest person to be 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:23.719 blame for this. They didn't do the policy work. They 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:25.480