1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,240
Speaker 1: In Australia hour on Make Murray Old's Morning to you.

2
00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:04,800
Speaker 2: Good morning Mike, how you have some very well.

3
00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:06,840
Speaker 1: Come to the union thing, because that's the big deal

4
00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:08,800
Speaker 1: in the moment. But on the subject of jobs, those,

5
00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:11,000
Speaker 1: I mean, you're just churning them out like dollar bills

6
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:11,479
Speaker 1: at the moment.

7
00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,480
Speaker 2: Very strong jobs growth and yet unemployment went up. How

8
00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:18,120
Speaker 2: do you explain that. Well, there's a bunch of different reasons.

9
00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:22,480
Speaker 2: Lots of moving parts. More than fifty thousand jobs were

10
00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:25,239
Speaker 2: created in Australia last month, most of them full time.

11
00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:29,360
Speaker 2: But unemployment went up to four point one percent. And

12
00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:31,400
Speaker 2: why is that when more people are looking for work?

13
00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:33,919
Speaker 2: And why is that? Because the cost of living crisis

14
00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,240
Speaker 2: is biting even harder, more people are looking for extra

15
00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:39,920
Speaker 2: work as well, they want to work longer hours. This

16
00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:42,440
Speaker 2: time last year the unemployment rate was three point five

17
00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:46,920
Speaker 2: percent pre COVID five percent. So the big question here politically,

18
00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:49,600
Speaker 2: what's going to happen next month when the Reserve Bank

19
00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:53,840
Speaker 2: meets to look at you know, the cash rate over here,

20
00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:57,240
Speaker 2: the interest rate that the central Bank is setting against

21
00:00:57,680 --> 00:00:59,800
Speaker 2: against which all the other banks are lending out money

22
00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:04,760
Speaker 2: for homes and whatnot. So in the biggest enemy for

23
00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,640
Speaker 2: this economy over here, according to the Central Bank, is inflation.

24
00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:10,960
Speaker 2: You've got fifty thousand extra pay packets in the system.

25
00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,000
Speaker 2: That's going to generate more inflation is the fear because

26
00:01:14,040 --> 00:01:17,400
Speaker 2: they'll be out buying you know, you know, white goods

27
00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:19,319
Speaker 2: and you know, school shoes and all the rest of it.

28
00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:22,640
Speaker 2: So on the one hand, you've got more people in work,

29
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,160
Speaker 2: but that on the other hand, that can fuel inflation,

30
00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:26,560
Speaker 2: and that's what they're concerned about. Mate.

31
00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:30,120
Speaker 1: Well, they're sort of stuck, aren't they, because because the

32
00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:32,280
Speaker 1: reason they see you see where different to you the

33
00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:34,880
Speaker 1: reason and you're sort of the American story. The American

34
00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:36,200
Speaker 1: story is that you've got a bit of life, or

35
00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:38,200
Speaker 1: enough life in the economy for the Reserve Bank to go,

36
00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:39,920
Speaker 1: oh jeez, I don't want to cut yet, because we're

37
00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:42,480
Speaker 1: going to fire this place up where the exact opposite.

38
00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,959
Speaker 1: We're so buggered they're about to move hopefully. But a

39
00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:49,080
Speaker 1: lot of Australians wouldn't go, oh yeah, nut's going really well,

40
00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:50,560
Speaker 1: so no wonder we're not getting any cuts.

41
00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:54,320
Speaker 2: You'd be absolutely not, absolutely not. I mean very few

42
00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,040
Speaker 2: people over here are saying that. I mean, if you're

43
00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,440
Speaker 2: a politician. You know you're guaranteed to it in fifty

44
00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:02,320
Speaker 2: kye plock your bottom on the nice level seats. If

45
00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 2: you're ordinary Joe Blow, you're doing it tough. You've got

46
00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:07,920
Speaker 2: a mortgage, or you're trying to pay rent, you're trying

47
00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:10,040
Speaker 2: to find a place to live, you're trying to put

48
00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:12,920
Speaker 2: food on the table, and the hot this old cliche.

49
00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,200
Speaker 2: People are choosing. It's as simple as this, that choosing, Mike,

50
00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,800
Speaker 2: between eating and eating and if you come and this

51
00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:23,720
Speaker 2: is the first world country, for goodness sake, it's just astonishing, right.

52
00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:27,160
Speaker 1: The Union scandal, which I am embarrassed to say, with

53
00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,160
Speaker 1: the exception of the show, really hasn't been covered to

54
00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:31,120
Speaker 1: the extent in this country it should have been, because

55
00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,799
Speaker 1: the level of scandal involved in this is I mean,

56
00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:37,720
Speaker 1: this goes back correct me if I'm wrong, But as

57
00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,320
Speaker 1: a kid I used to go to Australia to visit

58
00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,400
Speaker 1: my dad and it was known then in Victoria that

59
00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,799
Speaker 1: the Union movement was as shonky as a shonky thing.

60
00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:50,920
Speaker 1: And yet here in twenty twenty four suddenly O Wat's

61
00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,160
Speaker 1: his name drops, a few you know, suitcases round at

62
00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:55,720
Speaker 1: a mate's place and we're all going, oh, hold on,

63
00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:56,799
Speaker 1: is a bit dodgy, is it?

64
00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,519
Speaker 2: Mate? The bloke you were referring to on your schoolboy

65
00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:03,520
Speaker 2: visits to this country was a guy called Norm Gallagher,

66
00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:07,280
Speaker 2: and he ran something called the Builder's Laborers Federation with

67
00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:11,000
Speaker 2: an iron fist, to the extent that mister Gallagher had

68
00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,480
Speaker 2: a lovely holiday home down on the Victorian Coach. The

69
00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:18,240
Speaker 2: allegation went built on the on the back of kickbacks

70
00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,639
Speaker 2: and all the labor supplied by the Builders Labour's Federation

71
00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,320
Speaker 2: and compliant supplies giving them, you know, ten for the

72
00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:29,400
Speaker 2: roof and plading for the walls and whatnot. And you know,

73
00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:31,959
Speaker 2: you move forward forty years, fifty years, and all of

74
00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,359
Speaker 2: a sudden there's a different name and the same ratings

75
00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:37,800
Speaker 2: going on that there are a bunch of allegations, really

76
00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,280
Speaker 2: good reporting, the journalism by the nine network over here

77
00:03:41,320 --> 00:03:46,840
Speaker 2: Television sixty minutes had it so to all the Fairfax mastertheads. Basically,

78
00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:50,960
Speaker 2: what you've got is a it's a union these days

79
00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:55,720
Speaker 2: called the Construction, the CFMU, you know, the Forestry and

80
00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:59,160
Speaker 2: so on, the bad Apple boat and this box is

81
00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:04,360
Speaker 2: the Construction. And the allegations go that it's been infiltrated

82
00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:08,960
Speaker 2: by organized crime. I'm talking serious organized crime and by bikies,

83
00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:11,560
Speaker 2: all of whom are getting really lucrative jobs to be

84
00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,360
Speaker 2: safety officers on work sites and so on. And what

85
00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:16,320
Speaker 2: that allows them to do is then if you're trying

86
00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:20,960
Speaker 2: to put a high rise development in, all of a sudden,

87
00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:24,320
Speaker 2: you have to cough up thousands and thousands of dollars

88
00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:30,200
Speaker 2: to guarantee work site peace. And there's been astonishing allegations

89
00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:33,599
Speaker 2: that have surfaced. I mean, apparently the police installed a

90
00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:36,720
Speaker 2: secret camera in the ceiling of a union office here

91
00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:40,000
Speaker 2: in Sydney, and there's a bloke handing over five thousand

92
00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:43,680
Speaker 2: dollars in cash a couple of years back to guarantee

93
00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:46,640
Speaker 2: industrial peace on his building site. And that was just

94
00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,920
Speaker 2: the cost of doing business. Well, you know, imagine poor

95
00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:54,960
Speaker 2: old alban Easy. I mean, look, labor and unions joined

96
00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:57,240
Speaker 2: at the hip, always have been, always will be. But

97
00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:00,800
Speaker 2: this is the last thing alban Easy needs. This donated

98
00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:04,279
Speaker 2: millions of dollars to state and federal coffers of the

99
00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,480
Speaker 2: Labor party all of a sudden, front page all around

100
00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:11,240
Speaker 2: the country. These guys are crooks. It stinks. So Albanesian

101
00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:13,440
Speaker 2: Company are going to cut the union loose the unions

102
00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,480
Speaker 2: saying are you kidding? There was one guy in Queensland

103
00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,320
Speaker 2: and there's knuckle dragger up there who's a union heavy

104
00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:23,039
Speaker 2: He said Albanes, he soiled his trousers and that the

105
00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,320
Speaker 2: union will never ever ever back down. Will Hello, this

106
00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:28,560
Speaker 2: is a guy who this is a guy who used

107
00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:33,560
Speaker 2: to be on the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party.

108
00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:35,560
Speaker 1: Just sent to see the letter. So they write to

109
00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:40,080
Speaker 1: concern Business Rights to do Ciner Allen, who now leads Victoria.

110
00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:43,440
Speaker 1: He doesn't reply. They get so frustrated for a year,

111
00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:45,839
Speaker 1: well while she's in charge of all of this in

112
00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:48,840
Speaker 1: the government. While they get frustrated, they then send the

113
00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,320
Speaker 1: letter to Albanizu, who also doesn't reply. I mean this goes.

114
00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:57,440
Speaker 1: I just can't overstate that you've got crooks directly connected

115
00:05:57,480 --> 00:05:59,440
Speaker 1: to the Prime Minister of Australia.

116
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,640
Speaker 2: It's the allegation that you're talking about. It's an indigenous

117
00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:07,640
Speaker 2: labor high firm. It supplies indigenous workers to building sites. Well,

118
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,200
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, this labor high firm wrote to

119
00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,840
Speaker 2: the then Infrastructure Minister in Victoria she's now the Premier,

120
00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,680
Speaker 2: and said that this stinks. She didn't do anything for

121
00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,640
Speaker 2: a year and then this Labor high firm says, well,

122
00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:22,360
Speaker 2: bugger that, I'm going to write to the Prime Minister.

123
00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:26,320
Speaker 2: He did nothing. I mean, look, nothing to see here,

124
00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:28,760
Speaker 2: move along. Well no, that's not good enough anymore. And

125
00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:31,120
Speaker 2: this is massively embarrassing for the Labor Party.

126
00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:33,120
Speaker 1: That's the truth. Hey mate, go well this weekend. We'll

127
00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:34,000
Speaker 1: catch up next Friday.

128
00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:34,719
Speaker 2: Cheers Michael.

129
00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:36,600
Speaker 1: The message good to see you again. Murray holds out

130
00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:37,160
Speaker 1: of Australia.

131
00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,599
Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

132
00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:41,279
Speaker 2: news talks.

133
00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:44,480
Speaker 1: It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast

134
00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:45,400
Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.