I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven Am. Anthony. Albanese have recently returned from a major overseas trip, rubbing shoulders with royalty and sharing the stage with world leaders. But behind the scenes there was also quiet discussions about a possible plan B for Orcus. With Parliament about to sit again, his government faces pressure from the cross bench over defense and foreign policy, while the Opposition is consumed
by internal divisions and power plays. Today, contributing editor at the New Daily, Amy remikuz or what Alberanzi really brought back from his overseas tour and how the coalition's implosion is reshaping politics in Canberra. It's Saturday, October four. Anthony Alberzi has been on a massive overseas trip. So let's talk about the itinerary. Of course in New York, where he've got a lot of coverage as he recognized Palestine at the UN but he had another meeting there which
got less attention. Can you tell me about that.
Yeah, So he had about forty minutes with Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, which is not insignificant, and it does show that while we have been focused domestically on the US alliance, Australia's alliance with certain European countries, including France, who have a lot of sway in things like NATO and the direction of the EU have kind of gone
under reported, but are no less important. And so in that discussion we know that they talked about recognition of Palestine, but we also know that they would have talked about Europe's strategic future that includes the future of NATO, which Australia is not part of but does partner with. And I think we can also surmise that Macron would have reiterated a recent offer that he made to Anthony Albanizi, which is that the friend submarines are still on the table if Australia needs them.
Now.
That hasn't got a lot of attention either, but not so long ago, Emmanuel Macron.
Said that yes, he had reiterated that.
Under the Albanese government, if Orcus fell over, France was still willing and able to set up Australia with submarines in the future.
That was politely declined.
But I think that given the two way conversation that's going on between Australia and France, that there is a little bit of a signal that a Plan B if Orcust falls over is in the works.
We'll get to that Plan B a little bit later. But from New York the Prime Minister flew to the UK. What was on the agenda there.
So the UK trip was also a bit of a whirlwind. So it was meeting with care Starmer, the Labor Prime Minister.
There.
He also got to meet with Charlie Boy with King Charles and basically kissed the ring. And he had other meetings with politicians, but not with Nigel Fara, which the UK polls tell us would be prime minister if an election was held today or tomorrow, which you know, if you're UK Labor and you're only a year or so into your government, that has to make you feel great. And he also went to the Labor conference, So the UK Labor conference.
Here in Liverpool.
We're ten thousand miles from where I joined the Labor Party. A long and winding road. Got that in early.
He called care Starmer a dear friend of he's a dear mate.
Thank you to my mate and your leader, Prime Minister Kirstar.
And he said things like, you know, being a part of the labor movement is always very difficult, but we have to remember that at the root of it is fairness and that's what we're all fighting for.
When they grasped that for Labor to continue to be the party of fairness and justice, we had to become a party for the elimination of discrimination and prejudice.
Which I think, you know, anyone who's watching UK politics and indeed Australian politics, would probably raise their eyebrows at because we're not seeing a lot of progressive fairness from either Labor government in twenty twenty five, and that is one of the issues that both prime ministers are facing, not just in their base, but in the people who have given them a chance.
I can tell us a bit about the discussions Albanezi and Starma we're having about defense.
Yeah, this is really interesting and I think this pulls into some of that Plan B that we've been talking about with Orcus, which is not really being reported at the moment. Starma, i think, is looking at the Orchist deal and having the same questions that many within Australia, including the government, are having about whether the US can
be trusted to feel their part of the deal. And so we're starting to see Australia and the United Kingdom come together and start to strengthen their part of the deal.
So if the US.
Continues to go off the deep end, we are not left holding the can here with no submarines. And that's where France comes in again, because if they do continue to make the offer for Australia to have those submarines, which is important for Australia to have some strategic capacity to defend itself. That means that there is opportunity for Australia to still have submarines if they get out of ORCAS.
And we do know, or we can at least surmise that the UK and Australia are having these conversations about what happens if the US goes completely batshit crazy.
There was report in Nicoasia that the Longer Way to Trump review into ORCUS has labeled that deal safe. What do we know about that?
So we don't have any more details in terms of like what safe actually means and whether that's going to come with any additional conditions. We do know that they've given it the tick and flick, so it will continue going to the next stage. And honestly, there's no reason why it wouldn't because this stage of the Orcist program is Australia giving billions of dollars to the United States for the United States to increase their own capacity to build the submarines, because the US has to meet its
own needs before it gets started. In Australia, we know they are not meeting their own needs and so the actual logic that they're going to be able to trevel production to ensure that Australia also gets theirs is just it's not on the table at the moment.
Now.
The UK have done a review, the US have done a review. Australia, who is handing money hand over fist to the United States, and the United Kingdom are the only people involved in this deal who have not ordered a review into Orcus, and that is something that the Crossbench are really starting to push that we really want to see a parliamentary review into Orcus, which makes sense because this was a deal that was cooked up by Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison.
It didn't go to Cabinet, it didn't go.
To Treasury, and I think that what the Crossbench is saying is that Australians really deserve to understand what this deal means and to understand and have a say in whether this deal is something that is good for us.
Coming up, how long will Susan Lee keep her job? I mean, it's going to be a big week in Canberra next week with Senate estimates. What are we likely to see the government grilled on?
So we're going to see questions over some of the changes to Australia's democracy. That includes the bill that was passed in the last parliament that essentially makes it very difficult financially for anybody who is not part of a major party to enter the parliament in coming elections that ticks in. I think at the next election we're going
to see major questions about that. We're going to see major questions about the FOI laws that the government wants to introduce, which makes it very very difficult for people to be able to get information that the government does not want you to have. We're going to have questions about the Climate Target, which is understandable because it's a range and we don't know what exactly the government is considering when they talk about that range and what actions
they're going to be put in. We're also going to start seeing a little bit more about energy policy, infrastructure spending, all of those things that are not very sexy in political terms but actually need to have some scrutiny. But what I find interesting is we have seen a shift since the May election where the cross Bench are really starting to take these issues even more seriously. Because we don't really have an opposition in Australia in the way
that we're used to having it. The coalition is in such disarray, they're not focusing on any of the policy issues that you would expect an opposition to be elevating in public discourse. And what that means is that the government gets to kind of skate through a lot of things.
If we look at the coalition, Susan Lee survived another week as leader, but the beef in the coalition seems to be spilling out all over the place. How long do you expect her to be able to hold on?
Yeah, survive another week is a really good way of putting it. I mean, I think Susan Lee is going to last for as long as the coalition pretends that it's doing all of these policy reviews. Because none of the people who want the leadership want ownership over those reviews. They don't want ownership over the policy mess, and there is an absolute policy mess happening within the coalition at
the moment. We've had Dan Tee and who's just returned from being wined and dined in the United States and other places talking about nuclear again and how that's absolutely going to have.
To be on the agenda.
What I've been hearing and what I saw while I was over in the US visiting large national laboratories at Idaho and Oakringe is basically a nuclear renaissance, the amount.
Of So you have a party that's talking about the need to lower energy costs is their number one issue, and their answer to that is choosing the most expensive form of energy that you could possibly imagine, and they're willing to die on that hill. So we know that it's getting bad enough that the tensions for the leadership are starting to spill into the public.
Go out there and listen to the punters. People are crying out for a new leader in the Liberal Party. I'm sorry, Susan.
So you have Andrew Hasty who is mobilizing to either set himself up as the leader of the Liberal Party or whatever emerges from the wreckage of the Liberal Party.
The federal Liberal MP Andrew Hasty, he has quit the shadow cabinet because of a disagreement about immigration policy. He had been appointed the shadow Home Affairs Minister under the Opposition leader Susan Lee.
Because history would say that this coalition probably won't see out the decade as the coalition as we're all used to seeing it in post war Australia, they have a very low representation in the House of Representatives, they have no authority over the branches their own members the Parliament or the Executive. They have no policy platform and they have no cohesiveness. So you see the Nationals freelancing on
policy that is not going to stop. You see the Liberals starting to freelance on policy that is not going to stop. And honestly, I think we should probably just put all of that mess back in the cupboard and then just continue on as if they weren't there, because they have zero impact on public policy at this point in time.
And it's also a sitting week for the House of Rip in these with Labour absolutely dominating by numbers. So while the Independents are the new opposition and the coalition is imploding, what are the government's priorities. How are they using this runway?
Well, so far they've basically just been carrying out their election mandate, which, if anyone remembers back to May when the election was going on, was very small target, very narrow boundaries in terms of reform.
We're seeing some of the fruits of that.
So we've seen this week the government push forward with extending its five percent deposit scheme, which basically means that if you only have five percent saved up for a house deposit, you don't have to worry about having.
Lender's mortgage insurance.
We've had Albanezi and admit that that is going to juce house prices. It didn't really get much attention because there's not much of a you know, established opposition really looking at all of this, and so it just was like, okay, yes, sure, house prices are going to continue to go up next, which is sort of where we're at. We had interest
rates where they held the RBA. Hell, despite the fact that yes, the economy is slowing down, that we're starting to see unemployment tick up again, we're starting to see that there is not as much money flowing around in the economy as you would like. Again, everyone just kind of was like, oh, yep, nope, that's what we expected.
There's a real political fatigue I feel in Australia at the moment because there is a government that is not coming through with any major reforms, any big changes that are actually going to help people's lives.
So I think people are starting to really switch.
Off from politics at the moment, which I think is a bad sign. That's how you lead to issues like what you're seeing in the UK, where people start turning more and more to populist politics who don't have the answers but give you permission to be angry. We've seen that happen in the United States as well. It's not a great place to be in. So I think that there's going to get.
A point a crunch time for labor.
They have to actually start offering people hope that there is going to be changed, that they can and will make the bold, brave changes that are necessary for people to see improvements to their lives.
Amy, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to this Saturday edition of seven AM. On Monday, we're bringing you an episode about the Parliament Sports Club, a casual get together. Are politicians, staffers and others who play sport together on Wednesday mornings during sitting weeks.
But recently that club reregistered as a lobbying organization. Its board includes the Prime Minister, its members include representaees from the major sporting codes, and one of its sponsors is the Gambling Lobbying So is this impacting the government's willingness to act on much needed gambling reform? See you on Monday for the