Speaker 1: Why on Sky News.
Speaker 2: This is Sharry, Thanks Andrew Good Evening. Tonight, serious questions
Speaker 2: emerge about the independence of the RBA after cameras were
Speaker 2: called in to capture the first rate cut in four years?
Speaker 2: Did the Treasury Secretary know about this in advance? Economists
Speaker 2: are scandalized. Michael Kroger will join me shortly plus James
Speaker 2: Packer on the show. In an exclusive interview. He reacts
Speaker 2: to the rise of antisemitism and why Donald Trump makes
Speaker 2: him more confident about the prospect for peace, and the
Speaker 2: heartbreaking news that the bodies of Shiri Ariel and Kafir
Speaker 2: Bibas will be coming home. This is not how they
Speaker 2: were meant to come home. I'm going to speak about
Speaker 2: that in a moment, but first tonight. The RBA's rate
Speaker 2: cut looks like it was economically reckless and apps politically motivated.
Speaker 2: Serious economists and former RBA officials have come out to
Speaker 2: criticize the decision, which could worsen inflation and the cost
Speaker 2: of living crisis. The RBA is meant to be a
Speaker 2: prudent institution, and the prudent call would have been to
Speaker 2: hold Yet under sustained political pressure, Michelle Bullet caved into
Speaker 2: a marginal cut while at the same time warning Australians
Speaker 2: that they shouldn't expect any more in the near future.
Speaker 2: It was a telling message. Former RBA board member Warwick
Speaker 2: McGibbon said there wasn't a strong argument to cut the
Speaker 2: cash rate. He sat on the board for a decade
Speaker 2: and he said, and I'm quoting, I wouldn't be cutting
Speaker 2: rates right now. We've seen the problem with doing that
Speaker 2: in the US when they cut rates prematurely and now
Speaker 2: they're having to backtrack. That causes a lot of uncertainty
Speaker 2: and problems for the economy. Assistant professor of economics at
Speaker 2: George washing University Stephen Hamilton describes the rate cut as
Speaker 2: an error of judgment and wild. He says, completely wild
Speaker 2: to me that the RBA decided to cut interest rates
Speaker 2: at a meeting where it also revised its core inflation
Speaker 2: forecast to no longer achieving its target by the end
Speaker 2: of the forecast horizon. Very difficult to discern their objective,
Speaker 2: and Hamilton says the cut would have been to relieve
Speaker 2: the pressure from the public, politicians and the media.
Speaker 3: There were MPs coming out yesterday smashing them. There was
Speaker 3: union bosses smashing them. You know, everyone in Australia has
Speaker 3: just about had an half of these high rates, and
Speaker 3: I suspect the RBA genuinely thought there's only so far
Speaker 3: we can push people.
Speaker 4: At some point we're going to have to offer some relief.
Speaker 2: Columnist and former editor in chief Michael Stutchbury wrote on
Speaker 2: the front page of The finn Today that it took
Speaker 2: a twist of reasoning to deliver a small rate cut.
Speaker 2: He said Michelle Bullock and the Reserve Bank Board have
Speaker 2: put their inflation fighting credibility on the line by delivering
Speaker 2: a politically convenient interest rate cut without providing a compelling
Speaker 2: economic case to do so, and he also accused Albin
Speaker 2: Easy and Charmers of roughing up the Central Bank. Another
Speaker 2: former RBA official, John Simon well Here, described the RBA
Speaker 2: decision as a head scratcher. Simon only left the RBA
Speaker 2: in the middle of last year. He was their former
Speaker 2: head of the Economic Research Department, and he said there
Speaker 2: was a gap in logic between the decision and the explanation.
Speaker 2: He said. The board statement said that these factors give
Speaker 2: the Board more confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward
Speaker 2: the midpoint of the two to three percent target range,
Speaker 2: but the forecasts for inflation in the accompanying statement on
Speaker 2: Monetary Policy were revised up and for underlying inflation to
Speaker 2: flatline above the midpoint. These things appear contradictory. He speculated
Speaker 2: that perhaps there was a disagreement between the RBA staff
Speaker 2: and the board, but the issue is we just don't
Speaker 2: know because of a lack of transparency. There has been
Speaker 2: a push for the RBA to publish the votes of
Speaker 2: the board. This may happen in the future. We hope
Speaker 2: it will. It hasn't yet, so it's unclear just how
Speaker 2: much agreement there was at yesterday's board meeting for the
Speaker 2: rate cut. It's a point Wall Street Journal reporter James
Speaker 2: Glynn makes today. He writes, so tentative was the Reserve
Speaker 2: Bank of Australia's first reduction and official interest rates on
Speaker 2: Tuesday that it begs the question how much support did
Speaker 2: the cut actually get around the Senate Bank's board table.
Speaker 2: But when it came to explaining the rationale for the reduction,
Speaker 2: the Australian Central Bank was full of winnings about ongoing
Speaker 2: inflation risks, while Governor Michelle Bullock told money markets that
Speaker 2: bats on a few more cuts throughout the year needed
Speaker 2: to be rethought. Now, Bullock didn't say the Rake cut
Speaker 2: was unanimous. She said the board came to a consensus
Speaker 2: opinion after debate.
Speaker 5: It was a difficult decision in the sense that there
Speaker 5: were arguments on both sides, and what I would say
Speaker 5: is that the board had a very active debate of
Speaker 5: the arguments on both sides on this, but in the
Speaker 5: end came to the view that the better decision was
Speaker 5: to ease a little bit of the restrictiveness. Still maintain
Speaker 5: some restrictiveness, but ease a little bit of restrictiveness in
Speaker 5: recognition that we are making progress towards our goal.
Speaker 2: Sir James Glenn says her com vents implied there was
Speaker 2: dissent at the meeting and the outcome was indeed a
Speaker 2: tight rope walk. Now, there's obviously was robust debate. It
Speaker 2: wasn't a clear cut call. Stephen Kennedy, the Treasury Secretary
Speaker 2: who also sits on the RBA board, it's pretty obvious
Speaker 2: and my sources tell me he was pushing for a cut,
Speaker 2: and he has been pushing for a cut for a
Speaker 2: long time. Labor Lined IBA board members Ian Ross and
Speaker 2: Alana Reuben are also understood to have been arguing for
Speaker 2: a cut. And here's where it gets interesting. Former Treasury
Speaker 2: Assistant Secretary David pearl Well, he was on the show
Speaker 2: last night. He only left the Treasury in late twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three. He worked under Secretary Stephen Kennedy while Jim
Speaker 2: Chalmers was Treasurer. And he told us here last night
Speaker 2: that there wasn't a strong case and it wasn't even
Speaker 2: a line board decision for a rake.
Speaker 4: I was staggered because there's not a strong case at all.
Speaker 2: He felt the decision by Michelle Bullock was a political capitulation.
Speaker 2: He was also very critical of the fact a highly
Speaker 2: political figure like Stephen Kennedy would have a vote on
Speaker 2: rates at the RBA table. Again here he was last night.
Speaker 4: Stephen Kennedy, for example, is very close to Ross Garno.
Speaker 4: He's worked with him, his friends with him. They share
Speaker 4: the same views on inflation and Ross Guarano bullied Michelle
Speaker 4: Bullock late last year, and the Financial Reviewers you know
Speaker 4: revealed that Darno rang up their op ed editor to
Speaker 4: demand that his piece pretty much insisting on a rate
Speaker 4: cut last December be published, so to influenced Bullock.
Speaker 2: David Pearl also questioned the integrity of the RBA decision,
Speaker 2: and have a look at what he said about how
Speaker 2: it might have been politicized.
Speaker 4: Well, call me a cynic, but when I read in
Speaker 4: the paper yesterday that Jim Chalmers was telling the backbench
Speaker 4: to cool their horses, so I thought, well, that shows
Speaker 4: that he knows the fixers in. And then when I
Speaker 4: tuned on the television, I saw that the cameras were
Speaker 4: in the meeting room. I thought, well, Charmers or his
Speaker 4: media people wanted that because.
Speaker 1: They knew that there was going to be a favorable decision.
Speaker 2: Now, my understanding is that the treasure is that the
Speaker 2: Treasurer did not know there were going to be cameras
Speaker 2: in to capture the moment. But we just don't have
Speaker 2: an answer for what Treasury Secretary Stephen Kennedy knew. It
Speaker 2: is highly unusual for media to film an RBA board meeting,
Speaker 2: So if what David Pearl is alleging, well, it could
Speaker 2: amount to political interference and it's highly concerning and this
Speaker 2: would raise serious questions about the credibility and independence of
Speaker 2: the board meeting. I asked the RBA this evening, did
Speaker 2: the Tree Inasury Secretary requests the RBA allow cameras into
Speaker 2: the board meeting and does on this leave the RBA
Speaker 2: open to accusation, accusations that its independence is in question.
Speaker 2: The RBA said the answer to each question was no,
Speaker 2: and they said, all your allegations are untrue. Well, this
Speaker 2: is a subject we will continue investigating. You've heard all
Speaker 2: the economists here tonight disagree with the decision yesterday. So
Speaker 2: perhaps there should be an independent examination into how much
Speaker 2: political pressure was applied to the RBA board ahead of
Speaker 2: and during its meeting, and what Stephen Kennedy knew in
Speaker 2: advance of a decision that shouldn't have been made before
Speaker 2: debate at the table. So on the balance of probabilities,
Speaker 2: why was this rate cut the wrong decision? Well, the
Speaker 2: central forecast for underlying inflation has been revised up over
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, labor market data has been unexpectedly strong,
Speaker 2: there's fresh global uncertainty, and productivity growth is still sluggish
Speaker 2: and hasn't picked up. The strongest argument against a rake
Speaker 2: cut lies in RBA's own reasoning. Governor Michelle Bullock set
Speaker 2: a cut would only come once inflation had sustainably returned
Speaker 2: to target. Not only has that not happened, but forecasts
Speaker 2: indicate inflation is set to rise slightly. Despite this, the
Speaker 2: RBA is effectively declaring mission accomplished when clearly there's still
Speaker 2: work to do. Okay, you know this beautiful family well
Speaker 2: by now. This is Shiri with her two sweet babies,
Speaker 2: Kafir and Ril. She was a loving mother like any mother,
Speaker 2: her boys bringing her so much joy. As they live
Speaker 2: and grew up on near Oz Kibbutz in Israel, they
Speaker 2: were cruelly and unforgivably kidnapped by Hamas barbarians on October seventh.
Speaker 2: Kifa was nine months old, just a baby, and Ariel
Speaker 2: was four. This is how they left Israel in the
Speaker 2: greatest of distress and fear and trauma and terror. But
Speaker 2: they were alive since that dreadful moment they were dragged
Speaker 2: across the border into Gaza. Not a day has passed
Speaker 2: when we haven't thought about the Bibas family and held
Speaker 2: them in our hearts. I spoke with Yeah Keshet, the
Speaker 2: uncle of yad In Bibas, when I was in Israel,
Speaker 2: and he was desperate for the world to pay attention
Speaker 2: to this horrendous war crime. Baby Kifa, the world's youngest stitch.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you can.
Speaker 7: See him here.
Speaker 1: He was I was the picture here.
Speaker 4: Baby is kidnapped.
Speaker 8: Baby is not a soldier, is not a pilot. It's
Speaker 8: not everything. He's a little baby.
Speaker 2: Look at him now. Dad Yadin came home in the
Speaker 2: first of this month without Shiri or their children, and
Speaker 2: his pain is about to get even worse. And we
Speaker 2: all are about to experience one of the most heartbreaking
Speaker 2: days since October seven. Hamas will return the bodies of
Speaker 2: mother Shiri Bibas and her two children on Thursday, Israel time.
Speaker 2: This is the true reality of Hamas, the governing body
Speaker 2: of Gaza, the place that Penny Wang wants to reward
Speaker 2: and recognize with statehood. There are truly no words that
Speaker 2: could possibly capture the depravity, the cruelty, the evil of
Speaker 2: these people who could take a mother and her babies,
Speaker 2: take them alive and return them in body bags. We
Speaker 2: love you, baby Kafir, We love you Ariel, and we
Speaker 2: will never ever forget you. May your memories be a blessing.
Speaker 2: And let's pick up on that now with former Victorian
Speaker 2: Liberal Party leader Michael Kroger and former Labor minister Graham Richardson, Michael,
Speaker 2: this is going to be one of the hardest days
Speaker 2: ever seeing those two tiny body bags come home.
Speaker 7: Well, Sharry, that was a beautiful editorial. And I remember
Speaker 7: watching you a month ago where you subtly mentioned to
Speaker 7: the audience that they were probably dead. And I visited
Speaker 7: their home in January last year, and you've been there.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 7: What any father's worst nightmare, and we pray for him.
Speaker 7: But this is Hamas. These people are just human filth.
Speaker 7: These people are human scum. These people are inhuman. These
Speaker 7: people are idi Amin, they are Adolf Hitler. They are
Speaker 7: the worst, most atrocious humans living in the world today.
Speaker 7: The thought that they have supporters in our country here
Speaker 7: fills me with horror. Fills me with horror that people
Speaker 7: go on the internet, people receive government grants if you
Speaker 7: might who support sinhoar. You know, I think Jordan Peterson
Speaker 7: and Douglas Murray and these people are right and what
Speaker 7: they're saying, I mean, you know, Western nations have serious
Speaker 7: problems given the level of support that organizations like Hummas
Speaker 7: have in Western countries. It's an absolute and not to disgrace.
Speaker 2: It is indeed, Richo to think that they've been protesters
Speaker 2: in Australia, including medical professionals siding with Hamas. This is
Speaker 2: what Hamas has done, taken an innocent mother, an innocent baby,
Speaker 2: and innocent four year old. How can we begin to
Speaker 2: comprehend and deal with this in the coming days.
Speaker 9: I just don't understand people sometimes. I think depravity of
Speaker 9: Hamas is just so overwhelming sometimes that it staggers me
Speaker 9: that anyone can walk around the streets and support them.
Speaker 9: These people are mongrels. They deserve no support whatsoever, and
Speaker 9: it just distresses me that I share the planet with
Speaker 9: people who do in fact support them.
Speaker 2: The party, I might say, Rich, oh, there are even
Speaker 2: some people in your party and in the Greens as well,
Speaker 2: who for me to come down on the side of Yep.
Speaker 9: There are a few, And were I a little younger,
Speaker 9: I'd be working very hard to get rid of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, that is a pity.
Speaker 7: That is true. That is true, Graham, That is true.
Speaker 7: When I was a bit younger and you were a
Speaker 7: bit older than me, you're in your heyday, you you,
Speaker 7: you and the great Robert James Lee Hawk, you wouldn't
Speaker 7: have had a bar of these people, not a bar
Speaker 7: of them. And people like Michael East and Mary Alexander,
Speaker 7: Bill Shorten Conroy all the Hawk. You know that guy
Speaker 7: Tony Lupton who ran for the states that are pran
Speaker 7: in Victoria, the political descendants of Bob Hawk. You wouldn't
Speaker 7: have a bar of these people. And I pay credit
Speaker 7: to your rich o that you what you say. You
Speaker 7: speak the truth, my friend.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll have more coverage of the Bibass family
Speaker 2: on the show tomorrow night. Well, let's return to this
Speaker 2: disagreement and this concern by economists over the rate cut.
Speaker 2: Michael Horner asks you about your view of the RBA's
Speaker 2: decision to cut rates. I spoke to a lot of
Speaker 2: economists today, very senior ones, highly concerned about this decision.
Speaker 7: Willock Charry, there isn't any doubt in my mind that
Speaker 7: there was political pressure on the board. I mean, let's
Speaker 7: be frank here, Michelle Bullock, the governor did not vote
Speaker 7: for the rate increase. I mean, for goodness sake, let's
Speaker 7: just call a spade a spade here. As that fellow
Speaker 7: David Pearl said last night brilliantly on your show and
Speaker 7: is written you look at the language of the Reserve
Speaker 7: Bank Board over the last last few months, Look at
Speaker 7: the language of yesterday's statement. Look at Michel Bullet's body
Speaker 7: language yesterday. That was the press conference a defeated person.
Speaker 7: I've seen people before having to get up and give
Speaker 7: press conferences to pretend they support something they didn't vote for.
Speaker 7: She didn't vote for that decision. As you said earlier,
Speaker 7: you had Kennedy, you had Reuben, you had Ross, and
Speaker 7: of the other four members, I would think three went
Speaker 7: with the governor, two went with Kennedy. My guess is
Speaker 7: the votes five to four in favor of rating creuse.
Speaker 7: That'd be my guess. But she didn't vote for that.
Speaker 2: Someone did put to me today that she might have
Speaker 2: agreed to it with Stephen Kennedy before walking in to
Speaker 2: the board room meeting, So they might have agreed to present,
Speaker 2: you know, this is the consensus position we've arrived at, right,
Speaker 2: So she might have actually voted for it in the room,
Speaker 2: but had that conversation we would have.
Speaker 7: Spoken against it as the board meeting. If you've got
Speaker 7: the treaty secretary in the Reserve Bank Governor saying we
Speaker 7: strongly agree with this zero point two to five rate
Speaker 7: increase rate cut.
Speaker 2: Well, because the king, who was speaking well the case
Speaker 2: wasn't there, And clearly you know the RBA staff, the
Speaker 2: statement they released was more supportive of a hold. Graham Richardson,
Speaker 2: What do you think about this?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I don't think I can disagree with that. Look,
Speaker 9: there's always drama over over rates, you can't avoid it,
Speaker 9: and there's always going to be that temptation to accuse
Speaker 9: the RBA board of making decisions that are politically helpful
Speaker 9: to the government. That doesn't necessarily mean that that was
Speaker 9: the aim. Sometimes that's just the right economic decision to make.
Speaker 1: I mean, no.
Speaker 9: Impressions of the board that they are genuinely independent. I
Speaker 9: don't believe they just put their hand up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Steve Kennedy's on the board, he's not independent.
Speaker 2: He's a political animal. That's how he was described to
Speaker 2: me today.
Speaker 9: Well, I mean your definition of independent in mind may
Speaker 9: be different, but I don't believe that even he just
Speaker 9: takes his orders from charments.
Speaker 2: I know, I don't think he would be given orders
Speaker 2: from charmers. I think he would be giving the orders. Well,
Speaker 2: I don't know about that either, but I'm told he's
Speaker 2: highly political. Stephen Kennedy. All right, let's talk about today's
Speaker 2: major business news. The Whyala Steel Works has been foced
Speaker 2: into administration in South Australia. He was the South Australian Premier.
Speaker 2: Peter Malanowskas today, I.
Speaker 6: Look forward to being on the ground. In fact, I'd
Speaker 6: love to be there now, to be honest, to be
Speaker 6: our look in the eyes of people that work at
Speaker 6: the still works and assure them of their future and
Speaker 6: the fact that they're in a far better position right
Speaker 6: now than where they were this morning.
Speaker 2: Michael, Look, you'd be worried that tax payers are now
Speaker 2: going to spend more money. The Prime Minister's going there
Speaker 2: tomorrow with the Premiere. We'd invited the Prime Minister to
Speaker 2: our anti Semitism summit. He said he was going to
Speaker 2: be an adelaide. Presumably you can only assume he knew
Speaker 2: this was coming. That's why he's going to be an adelaide.
Speaker 2: But this is a hit to Labour's renewables agenda, isn't
Speaker 2: it another one?
Speaker 7: I mean green hydrogen hydrogen These sort of venture capital
Speaker 7: schemes that should be the foray of venture capital, private
Speaker 7: equity companies, debt providers, risk takers. Why Chris Bowen has
Speaker 7: to keep investing hundreds of millions into these schemes. I
Speaker 7: mean he's losing all of this money. I mean he
Speaker 7: reminds me of an amateur walking into a Las Vegas
Speaker 7: poker game full of professionals and they say a mug.
Speaker 7: I'm absolute muggs walked in an absolute mug. We can
Speaker 7: fleece him. Well, that's what Bowen looks like to me.
Speaker 7: He's given a million dollars to a billion dollars to
Speaker 7: build panels, solar panels. We're cheaper and better than the Chinese.
Speaker 7: I mean, this bloke just throws money away and there
Speaker 7: is nothing in his career which would tell you that
Speaker 7: this blake has any idea what he's doing. The worst
Speaker 7: immigration minister ever, a terrible shadow treasurer if Chris Bonon,
Speaker 7: fronted up for a job interview, and he said, I
Speaker 7: want billions to spend on something.
Speaker 2: Why would you give it to him?
Speaker 7: You say, Chris, everything else you've done failed, my friend.
Speaker 2: You hard to argue with that, Richo.
Speaker 9: No, I think he has a record of failing up,
Speaker 9: doesn't Bowan. He just keeps going out no matter what happens.
Speaker 2: Getting worse and worse. And Mike, I'm going to see
Speaker 2: you tomorrow. The anti Semitism, so that we're grateful that
Speaker 2: you're actually going to be there in person supporting it.
Speaker 7: Well, I'm very interested to ask the Attorney General a question.
Speaker 7: I'm happy to give him notice now because I don't
Speaker 7: think I've springed it on him. Why the Labor government
Speaker 7: refused to support a judicial inquiry to anti Semitism on
Speaker 7: campuses in Australia and why they won't call a Royal
Speaker 7: commission to anti Semitism around this country. I mean, given
Speaker 7: that the shocking state of this country, in the despair
Speaker 7: and fear felt by many Jewish Australians, why won't they
Speaker 7: do that? Is that a fair question? Am I being unreasonable?
Speaker 2: No, it's a it's a very good question.
Speaker 7: They support Israel and they support the Jews very very
Speaker 7: Penny Wong, big supporter, Tony Burke, you know Albo the
Speaker 7: big support and they do. And let me be clear,
Speaker 7: there's no place for andy Semits in Australia under an
Speaker 7: alban Ezy government. If you haven't heard that message, he's
Speaker 7: made that very clear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, we don't don't. We can recite his lines
Speaker 2: off by heart. We do not condain condone racism of
Speaker 2: any type.
Speaker 7: Talking about failing upwards.
Speaker 2: All right, Michael Kroger, Graham Richardson, great to see you both,
Speaker 2: Thanks you for your type.
Speaker 9: Thanks Cherry all right.
Speaker 2: On Monday I told you how more than two hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty Australian doctors had sent a letter to Federal
Speaker 2: Health Minister Mark Butler back in October twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: to talk about the level of anti Semitism in the
Speaker 2: health sector and how disappointingly but unsurprisingly, no action was
Speaker 2: taken since that letter was sent, and because of the
Speaker 2: inaction of the government and OPRAH, that anti semitism has continued.
Speaker 2: This week, we've covered such despicable cases as a doctor
Speaker 2: saying that they fear seeing Jewish names among their patients,
Speaker 2: while another doctor's social media post says live like sinoa
Speaker 2: or die trying now. The doctor who sent that letter
Speaker 2: to Mark Butler in twenty twenty three has now broken
Speaker 2: her silence on the lack of response. Doctor Jacqueline Rakov
Speaker 2: joins me. Now, doctor Rakov, I'm so pleased to have
Speaker 2: you on the program. Thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 8: Why have you decided, thanks for the invitation, Why have.
Speaker 2: You decided now to speak out publicly?
Speaker 8: Well? Sharry.
Speaker 10: I should probably say that I've not been hiding anywhere.
Speaker 10: The letter was signed clearly with my name. It went
Speaker 10: out to more than just one minister. Since then, we've
Speaker 10: met with Opera. I understand it was tabled in Senate,
Speaker 10: my name was available, and I've spoken with Health Services.
Speaker 10: I think that the climate or the tolerance for hate
Speaker 10: has allowed. That has been allowed has meant that it
Speaker 10: took such a disgusting and shocking incident that we saw
Speaker 10: last week with the Bankstown nurses for people to start
Speaker 10: finally asking questions.
Speaker 2: I mean, you sent that letter on the twenty sixth
Speaker 2: of October twenty twenty three. It was just a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks after October seven, and already you'd compiled this
Speaker 2: dossi era of offensive and anti Semitic comments. How do
Speaker 2: you feel about the lack of response from the Albaneze
Speaker 2: government to your ladder?
Speaker 10: Well, like many Australians, I feel disappointed, let down.
Speaker 8: I'm also quite confused.
Speaker 10: Not only was the letter sent, as I mentioned, the
Speaker 10: concerns were tabled at Senate the following day, Senator Ann
Speaker 10: Rustin put Aprah put questions to APRA, which they took
Speaker 10: on notice and went nowhere. We have met with Oprah.
Speaker 10: They have admitted that they're not trained to deal with antisemitism,
Speaker 10: they have refused to adopt a definition of antisemitism, and frankly,
Speaker 10: they're getting advice from people who I think are radioactively
Speaker 10: concerning appointing advisors to their notifications team, who are on
Speaker 10: the other hand, openly signing their name to petitions that
Speaker 10: tacitly support Hamas. My intuition is that the Health Ministry
Speaker 10: or the Health Department and Opera have betrayed the community
Speaker 10: and failed to uphold their mandate.
Speaker 2: I mean, at the very least, we've been covering some
Speaker 2: examples on the show this week, really shocking things that
Speaker 2: doctors have said. I mentioned a couple of moment ago,
Speaker 2: the dossia that you compiled. You know what were some
Speaker 2: of those more atrocious comments.
Speaker 10: Well, Sari, Firstly, I didn't act alone. It was just
Speaker 10: that I was willing to put my name. I wrote
Speaker 10: the letter, but I didn't compile the dossier. I think
Speaker 10: some of the worst things we've seen have included slurs
Speaker 10: and anti Semitic tropes comparing Jews to Nazis. We've had
Speaker 10: suggestions that we should all have the steadfastness of sinoa.
Speaker 10: We've heard endlessly about resistance. We've been told that if
Speaker 10: we feel something is antisemitic, or we challenge a source,
Speaker 10: that we're supporters of genocidal, colonizing regimes and apartheid.
Speaker 8: It just never ends. It's incessant.
Speaker 10: People are badly obsessed with this issue, and the regulator
Speaker 10: don't know where to be seen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an absolute travesty that APRA has been absent
Speaker 2: on this for the large part. And also the H
Speaker 2: Triple C. I had an example last night of a
Speaker 2: doctor who was referred to the H Triple C utterly
Speaker 2: appalling comments and they just said, nothing to see here
Speaker 2: under the conduct. You know, free speech. This is a
Speaker 2: complicated issue Israel and Gaza. Well fine, but anti Semitism
Speaker 2: and racism is not a complicated issue. And you just
Speaker 2: and this doctor was denying the rape of Israeli women
Speaker 2: on October seven. He was even defending the taking of hostages,
Speaker 2: which is particularly apparent, particularly on a day like today
Speaker 2: when we hear that the bodies of Shiri Kafir and
Speaker 2: Aril Bibis are going to come home in body bags.
Speaker 2: Dr Rakoff, just finally, your area of expertise is radicalization
Speaker 2: your father as a Holocaust survivor. Clearly, if you're concerned
Speaker 2: about the spread of anti Semitism, the government and APPERA
Speaker 2: should listen to you and not ignore you. You're an
Speaker 2: expert in this field.
Speaker 10: While that may be the case, Sharry, I don't think
Speaker 10: that this is an issue that takes any breadth of
Speaker 10: expertise necessarily to see how widespread and critical it's become.
Speaker 10: I mean Australia is now regarded as a country that's
Speaker 10: hostile to Jews.
Speaker 8: I mean, how embarrassing.
Speaker 10: I know many friends and doctors who are making up
Speaker 10: their plan bes and to me that's shocking because this
Speaker 10: is a country in which my family and many others
Speaker 10: sought refuge because of its tolerance. This is an issue
Speaker 10: that's going to require bipartisan leadership and action. We don't
Speaker 10: want platitudes, we don't want finger pointing at the time
Speaker 10: for that is gone. The regulator needs to do something,
Speaker 10: whether there needs to be a royal commission or some
Speaker 10: sort of external inquiry. But the status quo is absolutely
Speaker 10: not fit for purpose.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more and thank you for your courage
Speaker 2: in putting your name to it. Speaking publicly. It comes
Speaker 2: with a lot of blowback and you're very brave to
Speaker 2: do it. Thank you so much, Jacqueline Rackoff. All right,
Speaker 2: still to come one Mother's inspiring journey as she climbs
Speaker 2: the tallest mountain in the Americas in only three dates,
Speaker 2: plus my exclusive interview with billionaire James Packer. Here's a
Speaker 2: reaction to the horrific video of the Bankstown nurses. After
Speaker 2: this quick break, welcome back. Well, tomorrow we're holding the
Speaker 2: Sky News Antisemitism Summit and we've taken your ideas on board.
Speaker 2: We've had nearly nine hundred emails with your brilliant ideas
Speaker 2: to tackle anti Semitism. Now you can watch it live
Speaker 2: on the Sky News Election Channel or on our website
Speaker 2: that's skynews dot com dot au. It's from one o'clock
Speaker 2: until five o'clock and I'm going to show you the
Speaker 2: highlights from John Howard, Peter Dutton, Justice, Michael Lee, Josh
Speaker 2: Fridenberg and Moore. Here tomorrow night at eight o'clock. Now,
Speaker 2: one person who really would have loved to attend our
Speaker 2: summit was billionaire James Packer, but he can't. He's overseas.
Speaker 2: So I spoke to him about this issue in an
Speaker 2: exclusive interview. Here's our chat. James Packer, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining.
Speaker 1: Me pleasure sharing.
Speaker 2: Well, firstly, what's your reaction to this anti Semitism explosion
Speaker 2: we're seeing in Australia.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a reaction of horror. I mean, I'm a
Speaker 1: proud Australian obviously, and I will always be a proud Australian.
Speaker 1: And one of the great things about being a proud
Speaker 1: Australian is that it's such an egalitarian country. And you know,
Speaker 1: I lived in Australia for the first forty five years
Speaker 1: of my life and there wasn't you know, I didn't
Speaker 1: I didn't experience racism, and I had so many Jewish
Speaker 1: and had so many Jewish friends, and to see this
Speaker 1: this discurring the way it is at the moment is
Speaker 1: just it's horrifying.
Speaker 2: Well, the most recent incident that chucked everyone was that
Speaker 2: video of two nurses in a public hospital saying they
Speaker 2: would kill and have killed Israelis. To think that nurses
Speaker 2: in a public hospital are filled with this racism and hatred,
Speaker 2: I mean, it just makes you shudder, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: No, No, it's a scene from a it's a scene
Speaker 1: from a Hollywood movie. It's not something that you could
Speaker 1: believe was a real life, a real life situation. It
Speaker 1: doesn't sound plausible. You wouldn't you wouldn't believe it could
Speaker 1: be true. Yeah, it's beyond it's beyond imagination. It's that terrible,
Speaker 1: that's that terrible. Obviously obviously what the hatred is, So
Speaker 1: you know, the hatred, I mean, we're dealing we're dealing
Speaker 1: with hatred that's thousands of years old, and that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's the that's obviously the you know, the tragedy of
Speaker 1: of what's going on at the moment, and it's such
Speaker 1: a complex situation. Let's you know, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I think we're all more hopeful probably than we were
Speaker 1: a couple of you know, months ago. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the change of government in America is at
Speaker 1: least going to bring some impetus to the situation. But
Speaker 1: it's you know, clearly, it's you know, clearly has been
Speaker 1: a horrific, a horrific period and it's just awful. It's awful,
Speaker 1: and from from every side, from every side.
Speaker 2: Well, you refer to new President Donald Trump to hear
Speaker 2: him say we're not going to put up with her
Speaker 2: mus supports university campuses. It's such a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 2: We haven't had that leadership in Australia and everyone seems
Speaker 2: to be tiptoeing around the problem. University chancellors don't want
Speaker 2: to call it out. No one seems to want to
Speaker 2: take responsibility.
Speaker 1: Here, and that's I think that's really disappointing because and
Speaker 1: I you know, it's things like the Holocaust should be
Speaker 1: in the curriculum for the educational curriculum. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine anything more horrific that's ever happened
Speaker 1: to a religious you know too, there's half half the
Speaker 1: Jews in the world were obviously killed in you know,
Speaker 1: in the in the Second World War. It's it should be,
Speaker 1: it should it should be taught, It should be, it
Speaker 1: should be taught widely. It should be, it should be
Speaker 1: people should know about it. And you know, the fact
Speaker 1: that it's being taken out of the curriculum in certain
Speaker 1: places is wrong.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree with you more. I just want to
Speaker 2: ask you, James, about how the police recently found a
Speaker 2: caravan filled with explosives. If it would have been detonated,
Speaker 2: They say it would have created a forty meter blast wave,
Speaker 2: that sort of terror event, and Peter Dutton and the
Speaker 2: Premier Chris Mens have said this would have been a
Speaker 2: mass casualty event had it been detonated. You think about
Speaker 2: something like that if it would have happened, I mean,
Speaker 2: that would have permanently changed not just the Jewish community
Speaker 2: but all of Australia forever.
Speaker 1: No, I mean of course it would. You know, you
Speaker 1: go back to you go back to what happened in
Speaker 1: Tasmania when John how I forget that I should remember
Speaker 1: the guy's name, but when the massacre occurred and what happened, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the port ask the massacre. I mean that changed Australia.
Speaker 1: And you know, I mean John Howard deserves a lot
Speaker 1: of credit for that, But I mean this, you know,
Speaker 1: if something horrific happened, you know along the lines you're
Speaker 1: talking about with the caravan, that would have obviously been
Speaker 1: horrific and nothing good would have come out of that.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, it was a very bad analogy.
Speaker 1: Nothing good would have come out of that. It would
Speaker 1: have just been it just worn't been horrific, horrific.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just finally, do you have a message for other Australians.
Speaker 2: You've got the courage to speak up about this important issue.
Speaker 2: Do you think more Australians need to say, We're just
Speaker 2: not going to stand for this hatred.
Speaker 1: I think everyone should try and be tolerant. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to be tolerant is you know, and
Speaker 1: it's easier said than done. And I get to do
Speaker 1: that from a position of privilege, and so I try,
Speaker 1: and you know, I try and remember. I try and
Speaker 1: remember how lucky I am every day, and try and
Speaker 1: remember and try and do that through being grateful about
Speaker 1: how lucky I am. But if you can be tolerant,
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's what we need. We need. We
Speaker 1: need more religious tolerance. We need more tolerance in a
Speaker 1: whole a whole set of areas in life. But you know,
Speaker 1: we we certainly need more religious tolerance. This is this
Speaker 1: is not the right way forward, what's happening at the moment.
Speaker 2: Really appreciate your time, James Packer.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Thank you, thank you for all
Speaker 1: your your great contribution.
Speaker 2: We're so grateful for James Packer's support. He would have
Speaker 2: loved to have been at the summit, and I think
Speaker 2: his message there of tolerance is a very important one.
Speaker 2: Also love his idea about having Holocaust education return to
Speaker 2: the school curriculum. Can you believe it's no longer compulsory
Speaker 2: at every in every state around the country. New South
Speaker 2: Wales has said they're going to put it back in
Speaker 2: this school curriculum starting in twenty twenty seven. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is part of the issue people young people today,
Speaker 2: they just don't understand the past, they don't have the facts,
Speaker 2: they don't understand where anti Semitism can lead. But we're
Speaker 2: very grateful to James Packer for his support and just
Speaker 2: the quick update. Police today said that a thirty six
Speaker 2: year old man, Scott Marshall pictured here with his partner
Speaker 2: Tammy Ferusa, he's now been charged over his alleged involvement
Speaker 2: in one of the anti Semitic attacks in Wallara. Scott
Speaker 2: Marshall was also named in a search warrant related to
Speaker 2: the caravan field with explosives and the list of two
Speaker 2: Jewish targets. Police have also released this image of another
Speaker 2: man who's been seen near several other of the anti
Speaker 2: Semitic attacks, So if you recognize him, get in touch
Speaker 2: with police, all right, Still to come a mum of
Speaker 2: three who climbed one of the tallest mountains in the
Speaker 2: world in just three days. It usually takes weeks. How
Speaker 2: she did it after this quick break, plus Clive Palmer
Speaker 2: tries to pick up votes by copying Donald Trump. That's
Speaker 2: all coming up, welcome back. Well, there are so many
Speaker 2: horrible things going on in the world that it's nice
Speaker 2: to remember that there are people out there doing incredible things.
Speaker 2: So one of them is a Sydney mother of three,
Speaker 2: Mia Pharroh. She's no ordinary mum and she's just returned
Speaker 2: home after climbing the tallest mountain in the Americus in
Speaker 2: just three days. Mia is only the third woman to
Speaker 2: have ever climbed the Aconcagua Mountain. Only two other men
Speaker 2: have officially done it. That's in the three day period.
Speaker 2: This peak is one of the seventh summits, coming in
Speaker 2: at nearly seven thousand meters high. Now, this was her
Speaker 2: third attempt to make the summit solo in three days,
Speaker 2: and she did it, and she came very close to
Speaker 2: breaking the world record as well. Now husband's going to
Speaker 2: kill me for this, but she was joined by another
Speaker 2: great mountaineer, my husband. Here they are. He also made
Speaker 2: it to the top of the mountain. But unlike Mia,
Speaker 2: he took closer to what did he take Mia two
Speaker 2: or three weeks to get there. But MIA's story is
Speaker 2: very inspiring. She's one of the most determined and ambitious women.
Speaker 2: And I'm pleased to say she joins me. Now, just
Speaker 2: back from your mountain adventure on Saturday. Congratulations Mia, thank you,
Speaker 2: SHEI incredible. Thank you. So what can you explain to
Speaker 2: the audience, because it's hard to understand just how difficult
Speaker 2: it is climbing a seven thousand meter mountain like Aconcagua
Speaker 2: in three days when it's snowing.
Speaker 8: It is very difficult.
Speaker 2: It's really really hard.
Speaker 11: And just pushing by yourself from two thousand meters to
Speaker 11: seven thousand meters in such a short amount of time is.
Speaker 2: And just.
Speaker 11: Really really difficult on a body and the mind too,
Speaker 11: because you have to navigate by yourself. You don't have
Speaker 11: the guides next to you. You have to think of
Speaker 11: every step where to go, what to do, which path
Speaker 11: to take.
Speaker 2: It's mentally and physically exhausted. Now, your training for this
Speaker 2: included altitude tents here in Australia so that you could
Speaker 2: get used to breathing with less oxygen. What was that like?
Speaker 11: Yes, it was actually I think really beneficial. It worked
Speaker 11: for me obviously and con from high altitude. I've rented
Speaker 11: a tent and I've had a tent for about three months.
Speaker 11: And what you do is I slept in a tent
Speaker 11: for about three or four days a week because you
Speaker 11: have to recover. I had long days of running and
Speaker 11: training at the gym and everything, so I needed some
Speaker 11: time to recover.
Speaker 2: So I decided to do three to four days in
Speaker 2: the altitude tent. And the tent kind of comes hafter.
Speaker 11: You body is in the tent and it just simulates
Speaker 11: the altitude, so it takes the oxygen out of it.
Speaker 11: And yeah, you just try to simulate and get so
Speaker 11: most models.
Speaker 2: Who attempt that mountain, and not many people actually make
Speaker 2: it to the top, I think only forty percent or
Speaker 2: thirty percent, but they take, you know, two to three
Speaker 2: weeks to get there. You were running and made it
Speaker 2: in three days. So you were aiming to break the
Speaker 2: world record. Tell us how race UK.
Speaker 11: I came just a few hours closed from breaking it.
Speaker 2: I actually hours. Yes, the girl who.
Speaker 11: Had broken the world record, who has the record, has
Speaker 11: done it with official pacers and the porters, so you
Speaker 11: can do.
Speaker 2: It that way too.
Speaker 11: It's a lot more expensive. I mean, you have to
Speaker 11: have a professional team really.
Speaker 2: In place for that.
Speaker 11: And she's a very competitive athlete from Argentina and she's
Speaker 11: attempted it twice. So it's not people have to get
Speaker 11: to know the mountain. You have to go back a
Speaker 11: few times. You have to see the mountain from both sides,
Speaker 11: so it's not just showing.
Speaker 2: Up and doing it.
Speaker 11: It really takes years to finish this project.
Speaker 2: So I came really close. I decided to sleep.
Speaker 8: I actually took eight hours of.
Speaker 11: Sleep, so that really put me in a disadvantaged position,
Speaker 11: but it was quite safe. I wanted to keep myself.
Speaker 2: Eight hours of sleep in three days. Yes that's nothing, Yes,
Speaker 2: that's amazing. And there was a blizzard at the time.
Speaker 2: Blizzard going up.
Speaker 11: We had hail and rain and snow in the base camp.
Speaker 11: I had to wait for about an hour and a
Speaker 11: half for it to stop because it's really hard to
Speaker 11: move up when it's so muddy. You're constantly sliding sliding
Speaker 11: back down. We had snow and hall going up to
Speaker 11: the summit, and then you get to the summit and
Speaker 11: it was a clear day.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah about the clouds beautiful and it looked beautiful. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it was great.
Speaker 11: But I had a really great help for Fernando Harlis
Speaker 11: and his steam Harlist expeditions, and yeah, it was just
Speaker 11: this was a team effort.
Speaker 2: Congratulations. I think it's very much a solo effort, but congratulations.
Speaker 2: It's the most incredible in chief. And and I'm sure your
Speaker 2: three beautiful girls are so thrilled to have their mum
Speaker 2: home safe and in one piece.
Speaker 8: They are.
Speaker 11: I'm grateful to have Jacki, Lara and Sophie at home
Speaker 11: and supporting me.
Speaker 2: And right, well, John Miller, thank you so much. All right,
Speaker 2: coming up next to Clive Palmer tries to shake up
Speaker 2: Aussie politics by copying Donald Trump, who good luck with
Speaker 2: that and economous swarm. RBA acted too hastily, Sky News
Speaker 2: reported cam Redden, who joined me next. Well, you know
Speaker 2: you're an election season when political leaders start showing their
Speaker 2: softer side to the press. Peter Darton was featured in
Speaker 2: the Sunday Papers over the weekend, or the Saturday Papers,
Speaker 2: i should say, while Women Weekly sat down with Anthony
Speaker 2: Albanese's partner Jody Hayden to talk about their relationship. Let's
Speaker 2: bring in now Sky News reporter Cam Redden. Cam these
Speaker 2: rival feature pieces. You know, Albanez, he spent today he
Speaker 2: should have been talking about the rate cut, but he
Speaker 2: was talking about when he was going to get married.
Speaker 3: This is in the Australian Women's Weekly too, Shari. I
Speaker 3: think it was a joint interview with his partner, Jody Hayden.
Speaker 3: They notably have run out of time to get married
Speaker 3: before the election, so it will take place someplace after. Look,
Speaker 3: it is interesting and I do wonder how much of
Speaker 3: the US style campaign we will see over the coming weeks.
Speaker 3: Of course, these sort of pictures they typically do come up.
Speaker 3: I know Peter Dutton sat down with his wife Kirily
Speaker 3: over the weekend as well and did their piece for
Speaker 3: one of the major networks too. I think what we
Speaker 3: will see, Shari, is a little bit more of that
Speaker 3: unconventional style campaigning. You might see more, for example, pieces
Speaker 3: in the Women's Weekly, on podcast circuits in non traditional
Speaker 3: media outlets than we have in the past. That was
Speaker 3: such a fe feature successfully for Donald Trump. And I'm
Speaker 3: not saying there's a directly necessarily, but it does go
Speaker 3: to show that I guess people are getting their information
Speaker 3: and their news in different places, so the leaders have
Speaker 3: to go there, whether that's the Women's Weekly or whether
Speaker 3: it's some podcast that maybe we wouldn't have heard of
Speaker 3: a few years ago.
Speaker 2: I don't know how many people are reading the Women's
Speaker 2: Weekly anymore. I would say not many. But nonetheless, the
Speaker 2: view is that's how you reach women the cross words normally. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do. All right, Well, let's have a look at
Speaker 2: billionaire Clive Palm and he's coming up on Poul Murray's show.
Speaker 2: By the way, he is now trying to launch a
Speaker 2: new political party after his previous one, United Australia was
Speaker 2: barred from reregistering. This is a very troubled bloke. Don't
Speaker 2: like him at all. The mining magnate said, he's following
Speaker 2: in Donald Trump's footsteps, as if he could hope to
Speaker 2: do that? Can what is this play?
Speaker 8: Well?
Speaker 3: In the United States, Sharry, a billionaire became the president
Speaker 3: and in Australia this billy spent one hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: million dollars and got one Senate seat in Victorias. So
Speaker 3: not the greatest return on investment for Clive Palmer. The
Speaker 3: last time out, he said, he's going to pump millions
Speaker 3: of dollars into this party which most people will never
Speaker 3: have heard of. It's called the Trumpet of Patriots. It's
Speaker 3: existed in a whole range of forms over about two decades.
Speaker 3: It's been registered with the AAC since twenty eleven. It's
Speaker 3: never troubled the scorers at an electoral level. But basically
Speaker 3: this will be a vessel now for Clive Palmer without
Speaker 3: the UAP to try and run candidates all across the country.
Speaker 3: Now he's not necessarily committed to doing every seat, all
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty like you did last time. But Charry,
Speaker 3: this cannot given the amount of money he's got, it
Speaker 3: can't be entirely dismissed. Because if he's able to replicate
Speaker 3: what the UAP did and get something like four percent nationwide,
Speaker 3: yes that sounds like not very much, but it could
Speaker 3: be enough in razor tight seats the likes of Blair
Speaker 3: in Queensland, Bruce in Melbourne as well, some of these
Speaker 3: seats where one Nation and the UAP did pretty well
Speaker 3: a few years ago.
Speaker 8: It could be enough.
Speaker 3: Depending on where his preferences go, which he hasn't said yet,
Speaker 3: that could be enough to swing a seat either way.
Speaker 3: So it's a lot of show, but it may have
Speaker 3: some actual impact.
Speaker 2: We will see. And Cam you had an exclusive that
Speaker 2: Clive Palmer tried to pitch to Pauline Hanson that they
Speaker 2: combined forces, but that didn't go down too well.
Speaker 3: Now to be a fly on the wall for this
Speaker 3: cup of tea, Sharry, this was a meeting in November
Speaker 3: between Pauline Hanson One Nation officials and also Clive Palmer.
Speaker 3: The essence of the pitch here was to join forces
Speaker 3: and create this new entity known as it would have
Speaker 3: been called the Clive and Pauline Party running as the CAAP,
Speaker 3: but critically Clive Palmer put up. We revealed today ten
Speaker 3: million dollars of his own money offered to bank role
Speaker 3: candidates for One Nation across the country. And also we've
Speaker 3: reported there was an offer of half a million dollars
Speaker 3: to help Pauline Hanson in her defamation fight against the
Speaker 3: case brought by Marine Ferruki, the Green Senate. Paul and
Speaker 3: Hanson turned up her nose, didn't want a bar of it.
Speaker 3: She said no, And ultimately that's led us to today
Speaker 3: and Clive Palmer sounding his trumpet of patriots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there would have been big arguments about who would
Speaker 2: have been the leader of that party. You can imagine
Speaker 2: that wouldn't have lasted long had they decided to emerge.
Speaker 2: All right, cam Reid, and thanks so much for your time. Now,
Speaker 2: don't forget everyone. Tomorrow is the sky News Anti Semitism Summit.
Speaker 2: You can watch it at one pm on the sky
Speaker 2: News Election channel or on the website otherwise. I'll have
Speaker 2: all the highlights here at eight o'clock tomorrow night. Thanks
Speaker 2: so much for your company this evening, and stay tuned
Speaker 2: right now, he's Paul Murray