Live on Sky News Australia. This is Ta Nika di Giorgio.
Hello and welcome to the show. Coming up tonight.
I'll explain why Labour's Economic Roundtable has been a dud as Jim Chalmers sets his sights on your superannuation. The government minister who thinks men should be eligible to win a Woman of the Year awards.
What has the world come to?
Plus another green energy project collapses, this time a massive offshore wind farm in New South Wales had Bizarrely, Chris Bowen is blaming Donald Trump for its demise. But first tonight, Labour's three day Productivity round Table or Economic Roundtable, whatever the heck they're calling it now, has been.
A dud, a complete failure. Yet it was all hyped up, wasn't it?
As this big event, lots of fanfare, a contest of ideas to change your life. But there are no outcomes, no plans, no decisions. And it got me thinking, what does productivity look like under labor? And I think this sums it up. Yep, that is productivity under labor, A big joke, a big laugh, falling over, having no clue which direction to go in. Essentially a bumbling fumbling, dancing mess.
And that's what we've seen this week.
Jim Chalmers sprigged his big plans to lift living standards, make people better off, make our nation more resilient, when really it was just a ploy to tax us more and go after baby boomers. In fact, the Productivity Commission Chair Danielle Wood has delivered her verdict on the summer.
She says the outcomes from the round table are not enough to.
Fully repair Australia's sluggish productivity. So, in other words, politicians and bureaucrats sat in a circle for three days, singing Kumbaya, eating taxpayer funded catering, smiling for the cameras and each patting themselves on the back. As I said, it was a dud charmers can't even outline any immediate policies, but insists it's all about future policy development.
There was twenty nine hours of discussions. In the end there was by our count, something like three hundred and twenty seven different contributions made over the course of those three days.
Wow.
Yeah, all talk, but one thing is certain, and we've been warning for weeks now that this talk fest was all just a ploy to raise taxes and look out right on cue, Jim Chalmers is coming after your super reforms been considered by the Treasurer include cracking down on superannuation tax breaks for wealthy retirees, tightening family trust regulations and reducing capital gains tax concessions. So essentially, Charmers has declared war on baby boomers.
I wouldn't put it like that, Sarah. If you look at the tax changes I've made already as Treasurer that the Prime Minister's government has made. They've been all about making sure that when it comes to income tax cuts, for example, that those income tax cuts are made available to younger workers and women, people right up and down the income scale.
Yeah, it's all about punishing those who have spent their whole lives paying taxes and worked very hard to contribute to the economy under the guise of intergenerational inequality. Now, make no mistake, Labour would have known all of this prior to the election. It was written in the books. Don't forget leak Treasury documents for shadow this week's ago. The only way to get the budget in order is to raise taxes. Yet Labor took a mandate to the election and promised it.
Would not happen Antheoberanzi only said last week that the government would not make any tax changes that they didn't take to the election, and yet Jim Chalmers wasn't able to make that same commitment at his press conference yesterday and is ominously talking about what sound like quite significant tax changes to fix his spending problem.
And that is just the issue.
The talk fest has failed to address Labour's spending problem, and so Jim is coming after your super to pay for his failures. Government spending is at its highest since World War II. Debt is sitting at one hundred billion. Labor is fiscally irresponsible and you will pay for it now. I think there were missed opportunities for discussion this week. Firstly, the elephant in the room Labor does not want to address immigration.
Big Australia is getting bigger again.
More than fifteen hundred people are arriving in Australia every day every day, and that is on top of the already more than one point one million people who've come into this country since Labor was first elected in twenty twenty two. Migration has exacerbated the cost of living in housing crisis. I mean, anyone looking for a rental right
now knows just how tight the market is. Have a look at the rental vacancy rates for July one point five percent in Sydney, one point eight in Melbourne, zero point nine percent in Brisbane, just zero point seven percent in Perth and zero point eight percent in Adelaide. And if current trends continue net permanent, our long term arrivals could reach almost six hundred thousand by December. So fifteen hundred people are arriving here every day.
Where are we going to put them? Where are we going to put these people?
But it was not addressed at the talk fest, presumably because high immigration suits labor politically, and of course the left think it's racist to talk about it now.
The other key missed opportunity was energy.
How can charmers sprook lifting living standards and making our nation more resilient when we can't even keep the lights on?
Now?
I have lost count at the amount of renewables projects which have gone bust or have been delayed in recent months. Especially just today we found out that Norwegian energy giant Equinor has abandoned a ten billion dollar offshore wind project which was a cornerstone of the Hunter's clean energy transition.
They are not surviving, they're collapsing.
Yet there seems to be a serious lack of interest by labor to have a proper debate and a serious debate about cheap and reliable energy in this country.
The problems are so obvious.
Government spending is out of control, the economy is not growing fast enough. Too many people are coming into the country. Energy policy is a disaster. You didn't need a round table to tell you that. But right Alban Easy and Mao Chalmers have our lives in their hands under.
The central control system. God help us.
The New South Wales Minister for Women thinks men can be women. Now the proposition sounds about as absurd as it is. Joni Harrison is so convinced of her position she even thinks men should be eligible to win a Woman of the Year awards.
Is it the position that a man who identifies as a woman a trans woman is eligible to enter and participate in the twenty twenty six New South Wales Women of the Year Awards?
All women can be eligible to be nominated, So.
You're saying trans women can be eligible to be nominated and awarded. The New South Wales Women of the Year, the Premiers, Woman of the Year, of Excellence, Community Hero and are.
Eligible to be nominated and be awarded those categories.
Yeah, you could really see the mental gymnastics going on in there, the knots of confusion really churning away as Jodie Harrison desperately tries to explain without explaining the difference between men and women.
Now, look, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
Perhaps she missed her biology classes in school, but she can't quite compute the absurdity of the situation.
Well, is it not absurd situation that a biological man who identifies as a woman could potentially be announced on the fifth of March twenty twenty six awards event as the twenty twenty six New South Wales Woman of the Year.
As I said to.
It's the view of this government that all women should be able to be nominated and to be awarded if they meet the standards that are needed to achieve these awards, that they be rewarded for that.
Yeah, she says, if they meet the standards needed to achieve these awards.
Well, geez, surely the number one standard of Women of the Year awards is actually being.
A biological woman. But nope, the Minister doesn't seem to think so is it.
Actually fair to a biological woman that is being assessed under those various criteria? Really should be a very good It looks like an excellent program.
Yep.
Well, there is a very robust process for assessing the winners of each of those categories.
Now the question is, how can she be the Minister for Women if she doesn't even know what a woman is?
Well, it's too late, isn't it.
A man winning New South Wales Woman of the Year is coming to a local community category near you. Now, look, we are at a real crossroads in this country. What sort of a country do we want to live in?
Now?
I've asked myself many times this exact question since October seven, twenty twenty three, because since then, Labour's abandonment of Israel has seen our values collapse and our social standards decline, and the only people benefiting are the Jihades terrorists Hamas. The Israel Australia relationship is at rock bottom, and that was all but confirmed by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in an exclusive interview with my colleague Sharry Markson.
We've had a great relationship over the years. I think it's been gone astray because I think leaders did not show the strength and conviction that they should have when we're fighting, Actually we're fighting the war of Western civilization against these barbarians. And I think ultimately, I think most
Australians will get it. If they don't get it now they said about it, I think many of them will get it today, and many we'll get it once we finish this war and give a future of peace and prosperity.
And if you missed that interview, you can catch it in full on Sky News tonight at eight forty Australian Eastern Time. But look, the Israeli PM raises such an important point that I think is actually being lost in this debate. Israel is not just fighting for itself, It's not just fighting for its own survival. It's actually fighting for the West. It's the only country willing to take a stand on terror to make the West a better place, to make our lives more secure.
In the future.
Yet somehow it's been labeled as the enemy, and Albo and Wong have been an absolute, complete and utter disgrace and have put our country out of very dangerous crossroads. Johnavy now for more on this is shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, Michaylia Cash, Senator, It's good to.
Cash up with you as always.
Look Benjamin Ya, who has stepped up his criticism of Anthony Abernesi, telling Shari Markson that his record is forever tarnished by the weakness he has shown in the face of these hummas terrorist monsters. What does this mean for the relationship between the two countries now?
Well, in the first instance, Tanika, when you reward terrorists as our Prime Minister Alberanezi has done, I don't know how your record is anything but tarnished forever. That was an utterly extraordinary interview. But Danika, I think it was also a really salient reminder for all of us of what actually occurred on October the seventh, twenty twenty three.
The worst terrorists in the world savages, murdered women, raped women, beheaded men, burnt babies alive in front of their parents, took hundreds of hostages, many of whom they later murdered, and many of whom are still in the tunnel. And let's be very very clear, her Musk was not exercising its right to self defense. It was seeking to achieve its long held ambition to see the destruction of Israel.
I have a simple principle, Hamas are terrorists. They do not share, as you have said, the shame values that we share.
You do not reward terrorists.
And yet that is exactly what mister Alberanizi has done. Israel aren't just fighting for their life, if you said, they are fighting for the shared values that we live here in Australia on a daily basis, freedom, democracy, the rule of law.
He must don't care about any of them.
And yet what is mister Albanesi and Penny Wong done. They have said to Israel in their time of need, we're walking away from you and rewarding the terrorists. That is a shameful record for this government to have.
It's an absolute disgrace.
And yet here we are with the situation where Hamas is actually openly praising labor and has done multiple times, and that is an absolute blight on this country. Benjamin Etna, who also said also said this have a listen.
He called a peace feeding the crocodile. You know, you feed the crocodile that's chasing you in the hope that he will somehow spare you. But he said he's not going to spare you. He's going to eat everything you give and then eat you. And that's what the you know, the Western leaders, including unfortunately in Australia, are doing.
Look, and I agree with him is he's trying to quote Churchill there. But this could have all been resolved, Senator from the start if the world just called for the hostages to be released on October eight. Yet of course Penny one called for restraint. Labour's gone down this appeasement route from day one, as as the UK, Canada, France.
What does this mean for the future of.
The West when these leaders are essentially bowing down to terror.
You're absolutely right.
Appeasement never works and all it has done in this case is actually in Bold and.
The terrorists Daneka.
There was only one response for Penny Wong and Anthony Albernizi on October the eighth, twenty twenty three, after.
The atrocities occurred.
It was the right response, the correct response, and the moral response, and that was of course to call immediately on the terrorists to release unconditionally the hostages.
And yet they didn't.
They called for restraint and look where we are now.
Appeasement does not work. It emboldens.
But I think what was so important about last night's interview, and in particular from Australia's perspective, We wake up every day in the luckiest country in the world, and I think we're almost starting to take for granted the fact that we are a.
Country that abides by the rule of law.
We are a.
Country that has democratic elections. We are a country that has freedom of speech, that has freedom of the press. They are the values that Israel is currently fighting for. For God's sakes, Hamas are a terrorist group.
They do not share those same values. Mister Albernizi and Penny Wong.
They will go down in history as people who did not fight for the fundamental freedoms that we live and breathe in Australia on a daily basis.
Danika, this cannot end well for Australia.
Ultimately, you reward terrorists who don't just not share your values, they fundamentally oppose them and fight against them. Again, that's the country we now live in under Anthony Albnizi and Pennywong.
Yeah, I agree, and I actually think this reelected albo is more dangerous than the first. This Radi agenda is just getting fundamentally worse, and our values are being eroded day by day by these dreadful, morally bankrupt decisions that
we're seeing play out. Now, before we let you go, I just want to ask you about Chinese spies, because concerns have been raised about the influence of the Chinese Communist Party after the director of Chinese property developer Country Garden Australia said he could pay party officials to access the we chat messages of his staff in Sydney and in Melbourne.
How concerned should we be about this?
Well, I saw those reports and they are concerning. I mean any company that operates in Australia. It doesn't matter where the company is headquartered. If you are operating in Australia, you are bide by our laws and that ends upholding the principles of privacy, of transparency, but more than that, respect for employees.
And so I think that we need to make it.
Very very clear that we are concerned by those reports. And if you work in Australia and you employ people in Australia, then you abide by our laws.
That's it.
Nope, I completely agree with you.
Good good point Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Michayley Cash.
Always great to catch up with you.
Thank you so much for joining me on the show this evening. Well, as I mentioned earlier, energy giant Equinor has abandoned the ten billion dollar Novocastrian offshore wind project in New South Wales. Now this was touted as a cornerstone project of the Hunter's clean energy transition, and yet it's another blow to the renewables only magic carpet ride fantasy and of course to the minister overseeing the mess, Chris Bowen.
So that's disappointing. And also offshore wind is facing some global international investment bed wins right at the moment, partly partly driven by some uncertainty in the United States.
I yes, blame the United States. It's Aul Donald Trump's fault, isn't it. Joining me now is Adam Morrison, the Energy program director at the Centate for Independent Studies.
Aida.
Nice to meet you.
Thank you so much for joining me. Here we go again, another failed project. How big was this project meant to be?
And what does it.
Say again about this fairy tale fantasy we're living on?
Well, this project was meant to be about two gigawatts, So to put that into perspective, that's about fifty percent larger than the biggest onshore wind farms that we've got in Australia in the proposal development at the stage. But it's actually it's about ten times larger than all the floating offshore wind that exists in the world today. And that's something we don't realize is this technology of floating offshore wind as opposed to standing on piles driven to
the sand, is totally prototypical. It's just in development stage. And that's because it costs something like three or four times as much as the standing version, which is already double the cost of the onshore wind version. So that's why developers are walking away from it, because it's just absolutely impossible that the economics of this type of wind development stacks up. It's going nowhere, and it's going nowhere globally, and it'll go nowhere in New South Wales as well.
Well. Chris Brolin's blaming the US, is that fair?
Not at all?
You know, it's the fundamental economics that are working their way through the process in the US and the UK. There is simply no offshore wind being developed anywhere without governments basically having to force taxpayers to pay for it or force electricity consumers to pay for it. And again the floating offshowind variety. Again, Chris Barne was assuming this project alone would be ten times what currently exists, and that zone would be something more like, you know, forty
times what currently exists globally. So he was completely away with the fairies. There's no chance that any of that's going ahead.
No, he's always away with the fairy.
It's always somebody else's fault when it comes to this pipe drave.
Now, look, the Herald's sun.
Mood of the Bush survey reveals that the proportion of regional Victorians who are supportive of the transition to renewables has plummeted from sixty six percent three years ago to forty four percent now.
While one in.
Two people living in the regions still support pursuing net zero emissions, they're far more pessimistic about the impact on their households and communities than those in other states, and are more likely to oppose new wind and solar.
And I mean, we can't be surprised.
By this because I just feel like, really it's the regions that suffering the most from this push to get to net zero by twenty fifty.
That's exactly right, because it's such a diffuse and dispersed form of energy collection. It's not really generation they're collecting it. It has to have just such a large impact on
the land. So there are towers everywhere, these huge amounts of transmission lines, and every time I go to the bush and talk to a farmer, I learn a new way that I hadn't considered, be it not being able to move your machinery around on the lines, firefighting access, your ability to do aerial fire fighting, for example, flashing lights for aerial hazards, for wind turbines. It is just a real challenge for the people that actually have to
put up with it. So no surprise at all to see the bush is starting to sour and the more and more they experience it, yeah.
It's absolutely terrible. And if we look as well as what's happening in New South Wales, there was a really great story today the Daily Telegraph by James Willis, and he writes our quote, farmers are tearing up their contracts with green energy companies, alleging they've not been paid to allow wind farms near their property. This is a standoff near Crookwell and Regional New South Wales, and also includes claims from land owners that the new turbine have breached noise restrictions.
So people are saying it sounds like a jet engine aiden they can't sleep. It's just on and on.
But you know, you have to wonder how many landowners are in this position, possibly hoodwind of promises of wind farms and now they're stuck with noise complaints and they're not being paid.
That's exactly right.
I think it's a common story actually, and all the assessments that you hear, and I've been to some of the discussions and the planning panels, it seems like there are obvious flaws and faults in the initial assessments of how little noise there will be. One simple one I've seen is just to assume that the turbine is at ground height and you've got all the obstruction of the trees to basically mask the noise, when in fact two hundred and fifty meters in the air on top of
a ridge line. So these types of things are going to be very much more common in the future, I'm afraid and from what I hear, the noise is really disturbing if you're anywhere in the region.
Yeah, look, I feel sorry for those landowners. They're really dealing with it.
Now.
Now look, before we let you go, I've got to play you this latest die Tribe by the Minister and Charge Chris Bowen.
Have a look at this, hey boss, how's rebuilding the energy system goings?
Your report today from a EMO which actually shows that the reliability of our energy system is improving.
And what reliability do you think the minister are in charge of the mess is talking about.
Now that's a really good question.
A emo's playing massive word games here, because if you read that report, which I have, they actually specify the reliability is not actual reliability. What they mean is will there be enough energy in the system to go round? But a different question they call it security, is whether the grid would still stay stable and not collapse like it did in Spain. Because of course the Spanish blackouts occurred when it was the middle of the day, they
were drenched in soul of sunshine. But the grid is not stable in those circumstances, so the grid can still collapse and actually this report of Chris Bowen's, it actually does say that we are facing those system security collapses where the frequency in voltage might not be managed properly as soon as twenty twenty seven if coal closes as planned. So it actually does not give the rosy impression at all that Chris Bowen has presented there.
It probably were just gives us a little bit of an insight into the future. When you've got Spain blackouts, that's what we're going to be experienced.
Exactly what we're heading to. That's what that reports DoD Well.
You know, as much as a minister in charge thinks that he can hoodwink all of us, Luckily we've got experts like you to come on and tell us what's actually going on. Ada Morrison, good to see you, Thanks so much for joining me on the show this evening. Well, coming up after the break my panel, we'll discuss the new suite of safety reforms for the childcare sector, including CCTV and a ban on mobile phones.
That's next. Welcome back.
Joining me now is Sky News contributor Tina McQueen and New South Wales Independent MP Tanya Mahala. Kind of both of you. Thank you for joining me as always. Now let's start with childcare big reforms. Today, all childcare staff, including teachers, careers, cooks and cleaners will be listed on a national register to verify qualifications and track their work history. Of course, this is part of reforms endorsed by education
ministers amid allegations of child abuse in the sector. Tanya, you know other changes CEECTV will be trialed in childcare centers, workers with a banned from using their mobile phones, and there'll be a lot more trad I guess I'm surprised to be honest, we didn't have this in the first place, but welcome changes.
Well, yeah, it's a good start. It's a good start, and it is long overdue. The idea that we don't have uniform working with children checks in Australia is absurd. So it's certainly long overdue. But I do want to say it's not a silver bullet and parents shouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security to think that it's going to stop predators from getting into the system.
Yes you will be able.
To check their work history. Yes you'll be able to do criminal checks on individuals. That will be standardized across the nation, but it still won't standardize data and the collection of complaints, and that's a bigger issue because each
state regulates the early childhood and care sector separately. The Children's Guardian, for example, conceded to me at the inquiry last week that she still doesn't have a memorandum of understanding with the Department Medication over the issue and data sharing, so.
That's a concervative.
Issues already issues everywhere across the state.
So there's still a lot of work to do. I don't know about the CCTV.
A lot of the stakeholders that told us last week at the inquiry that we held in New Southall's Parliament that they were very concerned about that. That was perhaps helpful after the fact, but it doesn't weed out the bad actors that can still enter the system. Is about staffing and making sure you have qualified staff, yes, that actually got the right character to be in early childhood and care.
I agree, and I'm not sure about the CCTV. To be honest, I don't like the idea of Big Brother.
Is watching twenty seven. Well you know, I'm not sure about that.
But do you think that that this goes far enough?
Oh?
Look, you've got to try something.
I mean, it just appalls me that these things are going on in childcase centers. I still say, all the hundreds of millions that they're throwing at this, please please throw some money to the mothers.
Who want to stay home with their kids. That's always that's.
The safest bet. And I know some people have to have childcare and that's fine. But for mothers who want to and get no financial support and aren't recognize that it's a very hard job to do raising kids. I just it annoys me that government after government doesn't realize this.
I agree, give parents the freedom if that's what they use, and give them, give them a choice, don't force them into child.
Later wants every kid in child key, of course, ridiculous and I think that's just wrong.
It's a central control system absolutely.
Now, look, the cost of coffee in Sydney could hit twelve dollars just to keep businesses afloat. The Coffee Commune, which is a network supporting cafe owners and roasters, have worn that the price of a flat white or Lata could rise within three years if businesses were to regain their pre COVID COVID twenty percent profit margins. Gee, twelve dollars, I'm not surprised, to be honest, Tanya. Why would you want to go into business right now when your overheads are so big?
Well, I think these business operators need to put on the coffee cup. Why it is twelve dollars? Hey, you can say thanks to knit zero agenda, high energy prices. You can say thank you to the multitude of hidden taxes and levies that they have to pay to both the state and federal government. You just had an economic round for three days.
Did small business even get a mention in.
The probably not talkfest that they had?
And back in July a small.
Businesses, Federal Minister and Ali had a small business round.
Table as well.
We didn't the table life it was Matt Canavan's.
I thought that it was terrific.
The real, the real, well, the Prime Minister's round table. No representing from mining or can you believe it? Mining was not represented at that roundtable?
Just dismiss no. Well, as I said earlier, I thought the Bush Summit.
Thank god for I think it was a disgrace that energy really wasn't brought up in this talk fest and migration because no one wants to talk about migration, but we got fifteen hundred people coming into this country every single day, So no, I agree.
To us there.
We would we would have solved all we always every Friday, we solved the world's problems.
Brought us there. Jim, what were you doing now? This stumps me? Author JK.
Rowling has slammed the breathtaking misogyny after an Australian parliamentary inquiry into steelbirth argued that men who have transitioned to become women should be part of the conversation around miscarriage.
I mean please wait to begain.
The South Australian Women's and Children's Health Network Chief Rebecca Graham told the committee in our decision discussion today the terms women and women will be used.
It's intended to include.
Those with diverse sexualities as well, intersex women and transgender women as well. So you know, I mean men can't fall pregnant, believe it or not, shock horror, but they can be part of the conversation.
Well, Australia yet again makes international headlines for the wrong reason, doesn't it. So this was supposed to be a simple South Australian Parliamentary inquiry into the health serves that are better support women who have suffered a traumatic event like a still birth or miscarriage, and instead it became a gender ideology. You know, activism at its worst.
And JK.
Rowling was right to call it out for what it is. And it's appalling that someone has attempted to trivialize what is a very serious issue.
He's a real warrior, j he is a great warrior.
And thank god, she says, but I.
Mean it's ridiculous though, Tina, men can't fall pregnant, news flash, it's just nuts.
But where do you begin with it? Where are we coming to in this? And where does it end? Where does it end?
Where are we going to serious to pull in the reins at some point, because now it's just going beyond in any sort of sense.
No, look, I completely agree with you.
Now look before we let you both go, I've got to ask you about cash, because there is an economist who is arguing that Australia should phase out cash in the next three years and a bit to stamp out tax evasion. This is coming from Richard Holden. He says the black economy is costing the government ten billion.
Dollars a year. I don't know, Tina, is cash king? He should hush his mouth. I love this, smell of it. I love this. I love it, love it, love it, love it. No, cash will never be out of my life. So it still has a place in the country. Still the place still has a place in my place. God, so that I'll allow goodness. What do you think of course.
Cash is king? And the idea that we listen to some university academic who lives in an ivory tower and has no idea what the real world is about going out to Southwest or Western Sydney or any part of a town.
Everybody relies on your.
Green partner of how you're opposing small business?
What about the tooth ferry? You need?
You need cash for the seed. Cash will always be there, I think. But yeah, no, I agree. I I don't know why he would come out and say it's gone.
In three years. Very strange.
Tanya Mahalik, Tina McQueen, thank you so much to both of you.
Good to see you as always. We're coming up.
We'll across to the US where the President has been busy delivering pizza and hamburgers to the National Guard patrolling the streets of DC.
Welcome back.
Well, the Queensland l ANDP has become the latest branch to vote to abandon net zero. By twenty fifty hundreds of members at the L ANDP state convention in Brisbane today voted tobacc a resolution calling on the Federal Coalition to abandon its support for a net zero mandate. They now join WA, South Australia and the Northern Territory Liberals and look, great move. We emit just one percent of global emissions and this scheme over rule is sending us
broke and backwards. Joining me now is Shadow Cabinet Secretary Andrew Wallace. Andrew, good to see you as always. Do you support this move by your Queensland Party.
Well, look, Denika, the Liberal Party is a broad church and it's great that the people and members of the Liberal Party have the ability to be able to put forward these motions. Susan Lee, our leader has consistently said that we're working through all of our policies and we'll no doubt take these motions into account when we're doing that, but we'll take our time. We'll go through a very deliberative process and we won't be rushed on it.
But we will get there in the end.
Well, that's going to take twelve months though, twelve months to come up with an energy review. But now you've got Queensland, WA, South Australia and the Northern Territory saying it's time for the Federal Coalition to abandon it. I mean, surely, Susan Lee is under immense pressure.
Now.
We've got three years will over a bit under three years now to the next election. So whatever policies we come up with are not going to change people's power prices.
Now.
Just yesterday I was speaking with Howard, a local convenience store owner who's told me that his power bills have gone up by twelve hundred dollars a month.
That's just one business.
Now, he can't recoup those sort of costs by selling coffee or some Strasbourg.
Or some hand or a leader of milk.
He can't recoup those costs, those higher energy costs. So the path that Labor have us going down is simply not working. They promised Australians two hundred and seventy five dollars price reduction and that has absolutely failed. They're failing on all of their measures in relation to renewable energy.
But any decision that we make, whether it's today, next week or in six.
Months time, is not going to make a jot of difference to people's power prices. Whilst Anthony Albanezi and Chris Bowen are at the Helm, I.
Think it's more about the Coalition coming up with a strong counter policy to take to the next election and actually be a genuine alternative.
And that's three years away, Baker, and we will get there. We will have a policy for the Australian Institute.
Okay, we'll stand by for that now. Look, I mentioned this earlier. Jim Chalmers is coming after. Super Reforms being considered after the talk Fest roundtable include cracking down on superannuation tax breaks for wealthy retirees and among others. Andrew what happened to Labour's mandate that there would be no new taxes.
Well, I mean this is just another example of how Labor tell you one thing and they do another. Labor promise you the world and they deliver an atlas.
That's just what they do.
Now.
This roundtable that's come out out of during the week, not one idea has come out of this roundtable. It's much discussed much vaunted roundtable, not one idea has come out about how it's going to reduce the cost of living for Australian families. And I tell you what's really concerning me out of this roundtable is that it's a trojan horse for the reintroduction of Bill Shorten's.
Twenty and nineteen tax policies.
They failed Labor Party in twenty nineteen, and now they're with a super majority in Parliament, they're going back, what mark my words, They're going to come back and they're going to introduce these tax policies which lost in the election in twenty nineteen. Because that's what Labor does when they run out of money, they come after yours.
Yeah, they love to resurrect the ghosts of the past. So no doubt this is exactly how it's.
Going to play out. Andrew, where are you joining us from tonight? I'm joining you from your Mate's brewery.
It's an iconic brewery on the Sunshine Coast. And we're saying our farewells to Todd and Sammy, to local radio identities on Mixed FM who are retiring after many, many years. They're just absolutely fantastic locals on our coast.
And as you can tell, they are very very popular.
Oh it sounds fantastic.
I do enjoy every week you're coming on and joining us from different locations. I've always said that you're a great advocate for your local community. Andrew Wallace, good to see you as always. Thanks so much for joining me.
On the show.
Thanks to Nika, Thank you well.
Donald Trump has delivered pizza and hamburgers to a group of police and National Guard forces who are tackling rampant crime and homelessness in Washington, d C.
And they'll eat with you and we're going to have a little fun.
We're going to celebrate, but then we're going to get back to work and we're going to take care of these criminals.
We're going to put them where they have to be.
We're gonna You're going to say, don't don't play around with us.
Don't play around with us.
So let's go have something to eat.
You're going to like the hamburgers.
Would you rather have hamburgers from the White House or pizzas from a good place?
Uh?
I think you want want the hamburgers.
Johnny me Now is Sky News contributor Bo Davidson, both thanks for joining me. I've got to say Trump really is a man of the people. But how much does this show how seriously he is taking this mission to stamp out crime, that he's personally thanking law enforcements.
Well, you hit the nail on the head. He is a man of the people, and I think his style the NIKA is to go to the source, whether it's the scene of the crime or the people solving it. You have politicians that go to fundraisers and to donor meetings and things like that, they never visit their constituents.
But that's never been Donald Trump's style. You look at his visits to the southern border or where there's a natural disaster, and he wants to be at the point of action and he wants to be with those people who are solving it. Think about his work back as a real estate developer. He would go to the construction site. He wants to be hands on and to see what's happening and how to solve that problem. And more importantly, as you stated, I think it shows that there's a
solidarity with law enforcement officers. We look back at the last four years and a lot of law enforcement officers probably thought that no one had their backs. I think to go there to deliver pizza, to have a moment of camaraderie, and to show his solidarity with them speaks volumes as to who he is. But I think he has had a long trajectory of actions like this where he's gone to the source, visited with the people involved, and said, I'm going to help you solve this problem.
I'm here and I'm with you. And I think that's an important quality of.
His Yeah, great ladyship skills, I agree, And I also thought it was funny bow He even managed to take a bit of a subtle dig at Joe Biden. Have a look, Yeah, Bo, He's not wrong, is he?
And no, he's not wrong at all. There's his ever present sense of humor. That's typical Donald Trump. And you know what, I think it's kind of true. I think Biden probably would have tripped and then wished the officers of Merry Christmas on his way out. That's probably what he would have done. But in all seriousness, look at the difference in that administration versus this one. That was
a disastrous administration. It was an embarrassment of a present, it was an embarrassment of an administration, and the Trader's staff that propped him up. And as I said earlier, I just think you look at how law enforcement is now versus how they were then. Trump is supporting these people. He knows that these law enforcement officers, they don't make a big salary, Danika. People need to know that, and they put their lives on the line every single day.
They may not come home tonight to their families because of what some criminal might do. So for someone to get out there and to support these people who go into the streets of DC and are very crime ridden areas and support them, I think speaks volumes. And it's a huge transition and a welcome transition from the last four years of a joke, which was Joe Biden's administration.
Yeah, the difference is absolutely incredible. Now.
Look, we saw the meeting at the White House this week between Donald Trump and Ukraine President Zelenski. Trump has appeared to really ramp up his rhetoric overnight, saying crooked and grossly incompetent Joe Biden would not let Ukraine fight back, only defend.
How did that work out?
Regardless, this is a war that would have never happened if I were present a zero chance. Interesting times ahead, bo, How would this go down with Moscow given that he has just met with Putin?
Well, it's difficult to say. You know, Russia launched an overnight strike, huge overnight strike with ballistic missiles and cruise missiles against an American company as well, and I think it just shows it that Vladimir Putin does isn't doing good faith negotiations unfortunately. I think he can't be trusted. So you have Zelenski saying that he needs security guarantees, and you have Russia saying any discussions without them are utopia.
But I think let's look at this from a different perspective. There's a lot of things going on. You have Trump the negotiator, Trump the peacemaker, Trump the coalition builder, but you also have Trump the punisher because remember there is the carrit which are economic incentives in trade, but there's also this stick and that could be sanctions, that could be TIFFs. The US might even provide air support to
Ukraine in the future. We'll have to see. But there's a level of three D chess going on here as well. We're putting pressure on Venezuela, which is a partner of Putin's and Russia's we're putting pressure on India for buying Russian Or the million dollar question Denika is can Trump get Putin and Zelensky in the same room in about the next ten days? And that hand is on really two questions. One, what are the security guarantees? European armies are not so big anymore, so can they do that?
Number two is what does the landswap look like? This map redraw looks a lot like the old Novarosia map, and don Bass is still a strategic area of concern that Russia wants. So on the one hand, I think Trump could wield his power and put pressure on Putin himself. On the other hand, you look at this tweet and you say, well, maybe Trump allows a little Ukrainian offensive with the help of his European friends. The goal, of course,
is a bilateral meeting or probably a trilateral meeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is drafting article like five security guarantees as we speak. But at the same time, I think we have to look at this from a three D chess perspective. Sometimes something Trump is saying is also intended to have a certain effect, and in this particular case, I just don't think Vladimir Putin can be trusted. He's not negotiating in good faith, So at that point you bring out the stick rather than the carrot.
Yeah. Look, that's a really great analysis. I agree. Now. Jd.
Vance, the Vice President, has cautioned Elon Musk against forming a third political party.
This is what he said.
Disagree with me all you want, disagree with the President of the United States, but don't pretend that you can make a big difference with a third party. I think Elon would make a much bigger difference if he stayed loyal to President Trump's Republican Party.
Bo is jd Vance Right.
Could Elon Musk wield more power by sticking with the Republicans?
Yeah, I think he can.
You know.
Jdvance just has this great, organic, disarming, plainspeak way of framing his issues and disagreements, and I think he's the robin to Trump's batman. I agree with jd that must could be much more effective as a GOP architect from within than a disgruntled outsider. Musk clearly has shifted the paradigm. You go back, you look at his disenchantment with California.
You look at his purchase of Twitter, you look at his shift then to Trump, and then you look at his leadership at Doche he's very effective, but he's got to realize that Democrats will use his defection. It'll look like he sold this soul to the devil if he goes third party. Republicans on the other end, have embraced Elon Musk's acumen and his ideas, but they don't like
the infighting. Nobody does. I think there's room at the table for Elon's ideas, but there's no room at the Democratic table for Elon Musk other than maybe his money. So I think the ball is in Elon's court right now, and I'll make an analogy to American history. He can be like Alexander Hamilton, who was a great leader in the battlefield, but he was really more utilized for his brain and his mental acumen. Or he can be like Aaron Burr and switch parties on a whim and go nowhere.
That's kind of the choice that's in his court right now, and I think I really do think he'll make the right win.
Yeah, let's figures crossed.
Let's hope so Bo Davidson thank you so much for joining me as always.
Beg you, Denik. Always a pleasure.
Back in a moment with winners and losers of the week, including some good news for fans of the Beatles. Per McSwain is next time of the week where we sought the winners from the losers, and helping me to do that, as always is premixt way from communication through. But now your winner this week is a teacher who has gone viral for singing to her first grade students about body safety and consent.
Well, thanks, Prey, that's going to be my head now for the rest. I know it has been in mine all day.
But that's the thing that it resonates with people and children in particular with music, you know, absorb it all.
And I just think this is.
Brilliant way to really warn children and protect our children. And I just think, good honest, she really gets into it.
Doesn't she do.
But with all the concerns we have about childcare in the industry and just generally, children need to be warned and prepared and I just think this is fabulous and I hope that Australian schools adopted.
I think so too. It's a good way to teach kids. It's simple, it's straightforward. I absolutely agree. Now my winner this week is Beatles fans. You know I like a musical, you know a musical theme. Now this is because thirteen unreleased Beatles tracks are set to feature on a new
anthology compilation almost thirty years since the last. And in addition to this, there'll be a book at a documentary series to stream later this year on Disney Plus the Beatles Story in their own Words, and it's going to have unseen footage of the Fab four have a.
Look, I need somebody?
How does that? All will be released in November.
And what I love is a whole new generation going to discover them. They're just anthropologists will look at the Beatles ear and think wow, that was a turning point. And I just think they're wonderful. They still resonate, don't they. I don't want to have them in my brain now, I know.
Well, I prefer that over these are my private parts.
I much prefer the Beetles. Now. Your loser this week is well.
Jimbo Big Jim Jim Charvers and his unproductive talk best Look.
There was twenty nine hours of discussions. In the end, there was by our count something like three hundred and twenty seven different contributions made over the course of those three days.
Wow, what a success story. Oh wow we all hanging out. Wow, Well productivities fixed ticks that one off Gimmer. Yeah, I mean they've had four.
Years to get productivity right, but they didn't have They don't have one clue, didn't have one idea.
So they had to get this brains.
Trust of the live likely you know, suspects. And what did they get?
Nothing?
Even Daniel Woods, the Productivity Commissioner, couldn't wax it lyrical about it. I mean, blind Freddie knows what needs to be done. Get rid of this renewables fast, get rid of net zero, stop the ir issues that are plaguing business and hamstringing them. And of course the bureaucracy, the red tape, the green tape. It's just observed we cannot get on in this country. This is the loser country. We're not the lucky country because we've had in politicians for years who haven't got a bloody clue.
And now Jimbo's coming after your superannuation. That's his big thing. Now that's spending so much he needs to get up. That said he's he's got to find some money to deal with his spending problems. So no, it was a complete talk fest, no outcomes, nothing out of it. They were just thinking kumbaya basically. Now look my loser this week Women's Rights. A neo Nazi jail for hate speech is now serving time in a women's prison over in Germany after changing gender now Sven Leibick legally changed the
name and gender to Marla Savena. After being sentenced to eighteen months behind bars, the Justice Ministry said the inmate must be admitted in line with their new gender identity.
Well, you know we're seeing this around the world, aren't we.
At the moment, it's just this, you can suddenly be a woman if you put yourself yourself whatever you like.
Yeah, well, I mean jails, and you know employers generally have a duty of care.
What's going to happen to those women in those jails? I agree.
Now there is a man in jailp and you know, it's really terrifying. But I just hope that there are some repercussions when it backfires. I mean, I feel sorry for the women in the prisons who are going to be subjected to the to the threat of this.
I completely agree with you and it just shows you how far behind as well certain countries are Germany, Australia where exactly the same the UK. You know at least that there was that ruling, the court ruling, but still not great from McSwain. Good so you always, thank you for joining me, Thanks.
For your company.
I'll be back Sunday night for Deneka and James at seven. Stay with us Steve Prices next.
Good Night,