From the Sky News Center.
This is Paul Murray Live.
Good evening and welcome to the program. James Borrow here sitting in for Paul Murray Live tonight. Great to have your company on what has turned out to be a very big day in Australian politics, including bombshell allegations at bullying in the office of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. Hey, how's that changing the parliamentary culture thing going for your
Prime minister. We'll have a chat about that in a moment, And whether all the talk about fixing the parliamentary workplace and making it a safe place for women labor was on about in twenty twenty two was actually serious or whether it was just a cudgel to use against Scott Morrison. But before we talk about the goings on in Richard Marles's office, let's have a chat about another senior minister,
Jason Claire. Well Claire, of course, is the Education Minister and thought to be a future leadership contender in the Labor Party, whose name is more than whispered these days, as even diehard lefties writing in the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald asked the question, what is the point
of the Albanese government now. Claire, who is personally a lovely guy, also represents the Western Sydney seat of Blaxland, where, according to the twenty twenty one census, a large proportion of the population is second generation Lebanese and thirty one point seven percent of locals identify as Muslim, nearly ten times proportion in Australia nationally. You see where this is going, right.
I want to show you a bit of what Jason Clare told the ABC this morning and then we can have a little chat about it.
Now, for most of Australia, they see a war on the other side of the world community. The people that we see images of dying on our TV screens are often family or friends, and they're asking for a little bit more compassion and a bit more understanding. They're asking for the killing to stop, for the slaughter to stop, for the starvation of children to stop. They're asking for a ceasefire and for the war to end. And I
don't think that's too much to ask. Every country has a right to defend itself, but it also needs to comply with international law.
Is Israel complying with international law?
Well?
The bombing of schools and the bombing of hospitals I think are not complying with international law.
Now look, sure I get it war as hell, but let's not forget who started this thing. And it is true that an awful lot of civilians have lost their lives of the last year, both Israelis who were deliberately targeted by Hamas on October seven, which is again how this whole thing started, as well as of course Palestinian civilians who have been used as human shields by their terrorist government. But do you see the problem with what Claire is saying here? More broadly, he's taken up the
cause as a federal minister of his constituents. And you know, I suppose that's fire as an MP. But what he's doing as a minister is he's taking up and talking in favor of a worldview that sees Israel as a war criminal, the devil, and which wants a ceasefire so
that its terrorist enemies have a chance to regroup. Now, remember, a ceasefire only gives Hezbollah and all of our rad's other proxies who he's everybody else, time to lick their wounds, re arm and then guess what start their war against Israel at a time of their choosing, and the Almedezy government's failure to provide moral clarity on this issue has not just encouraged calls for ceasefires like what we just heard from Jason Claire, but also I think a complete
breakdown of what is sometimes called social cohesion. But again, the problem with the progressive Albanese style of multiculturalism that we saw here is that it seeks to destroy any central anchor point for our society. I mean, that's what the Voice which went down in a heap a year ago next Monday was all about undermining the foundations of our nation and casting modern post settlement Australia as something
we should all feel bad about. That's what the government's Multicultural Framework Review, which was also all about keeping us in our ethnic silos, even to the point of allowing new migrants to take citizenship tests in their old back home languages, Well that's what that was all about. What it comes down to is dividing us for the sake
of identity politics. But as we now see increasingly disastrous results, because you see, you cannot have a successful multiculturalism unless there is a central national idea on astray and dream call it that everyone still looks to a positive, forward
looking vision for the country. And I don't think the progressive left of which Albinizi is a part and which breaks out in hives when it sees the flag, is capable of managing this, which is then how we wind up with the sort of might makes right multiculturalism instead that we have now that sees everything from ugly protests at the Opera House a year ago to university professor's offices being occupied by protesters. I mean, look at this.
Yesterday students tried to occupy a building at the University of Western Sydney. They renamed it Hania's Building. Look at this, Hania. That's a reference to the Hamas terror chief who was blown up, presumably by Israel in his guesthouse in Tehran a couple of months ago. The banner, you'll notice if you look closely, is also decorated with red triangles. Now that's a symbol of the military wing of Hamas. You know, the same people who slaughtered twelve hundred Jews a year ago.
This week the New South Wales Police happily we're having none of it.
Lay my students.
He alone lay my suit.
Alone, blame my students alone, blaeve my servants alone, plea.
Alone.
All of this occurs because we have a vacuum of moral leadership in this country, as we saw with the whole debacle over commemorating October seventh in parliament. This is a government that cannot help but both sides this issue, which is a joke. Albaniasi Anthony Albanizi finds himself unable to articulate a clear position when it comes to foreign policy, drifting away from our supposedly close ally of the United States.
On the question of whether or not it would be Hey, who thinks this a good idea to eliminate Hesbelah from southern Lebanon? You reckon, Yeah, possibly not a bad idea, not necessarily the Albanesi government or Jason Clair. And while also the government seems never being able to talk about the scourge of anti Semitism without again mentioning is Lamophobia. Now, the fact that Anthony Albanizi, a left faction warrior who helped found the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, would be in
such a muddle is no surprise. Nor is the fact that the government appears to have let the identity politics of heavily Muslim seats in Western Sydy and Melbourne influence their foreign policy and national security positions. Here's the funny thing, if you can call it funny. While Labor is in a muddle and rushing through visas for gosins, even ones with terroritize, the rest of the world sees the conflict
very differently. Scot to Europe, where Italy and France have been moving to deport extremists, including people like Pakistani Ibam Zulfikar Khan, who had been preaching quote radical positions at his mosque in Bologna, lovely town, Bologna, by the way. And in the Middle East well, as Michael Schubridge writes in The Australian Today, there's an open secret among the governments of the Middle East that's driving their respective approaches
to the war between Israel and Iran. They all welcome a week in Iran and the dismantling of its terrorist proxies almost as much as Israel does. Schubert analyzes the situation with great clarity and concludes the Australian government needs to end the quote increasingly empty calls for unilateral ceasefires and tepid condemnation of the terrorism that Iran is now so obviously cultivating and enabling across this intricate and essential region of the world. Now, I've said it before, and
I'll say it again. If you want peace, if you're serious about this, if you want the killing to stop, you need one thing, not a ceasefire. You need victory, not a bogus ceasefire, and then an endless repeat of October seven or whatever other fresh horrors the terrorists have planned. Now let's get on to the other big story of the day. Bullying allegations centered around the office of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. His chief of staff, laid them
out in a bombshell press conference today. According to Joe Tarnowski, she was shut it aside by Marls and hasn't been allowed back into the office four months after she raised concerns about bullying behavior in the office.
I have been plagued with nightmares, flashbacks, symptoms of depression and anxiety, panic attacks, and suicidal thoughts. The way that I have been treated has been cowardly, cruel and completely unnecessary.
Now Samantha Maiden has obtained text messages between Tanaski and Morals, in which she complained, quote, I just need to work out if I'm still valued in this role and if you want me to stay. Richard Morles, for his part, issued a statement disputing the allegations and was asked about it in Question Time today. Have a look.
Joe is a person that I have known therefore for a long time, and she is a wonderful person. I feel deeply sad that events have got to where they have. This is obviously very difficult. Now let me say that in way in which I've tried to manage this, I have done so with Joe's welfare in mind at every moment. This matter is now in the hands of lawyers, and of course that is absolutely Joe's right. But it does mean that it is very difficult for me to say anything more on this issue.
Now. I bring all this up because, of course there's a bit of a sense of deja vous here, because recall when Scott Morrison was Prime Minister, Labor weaponized the Brittany Higgins case to create the idea that the Liberals had made Parliament an unsafe workspace, particularly for women. Here was Anthony Albanizi as Opposition leader when Sex Discrimination Commissioner Commissioner Kate Jenkins handed down her report on Gender in the Workplace at Parliament.
The Jenkins Report was the culmination of a watershed year in Australian politics, society and gender relations. While the report concerns itself with this place, it is part of something bigger and overdue national reckoning. Around this time last year, women across the country came together to call out the
inequalities of gender and power that permeate their lives each day. However, we cannot ask the people we represent to make change without also making real and lasting change in this very building. We must have put it simply walk the talk.
Well. As I say, the allegations have yet to be tested, but there's a lot of history on the Lever side as well, from the so called mean girls on down. Let's stay tuned to see whether Lever actually walks the talk. All right, let's get into the big stories now with my first pals. Note Join to note by form of Victoria Liberal Party President Michael Kroger and from the Benzies Research Center Friya Leitch joining me here in the Van Cave. Both Yes, so much, well, so much to get into
tonight and Fria. I want to return to those comments from Jason Claire I was talking about earlier. I'm going to start with you on this here. When you see a minister, a frontbencher in the government talk about you know, their constituents and a ceasefire and the situation in the Middle East like this, You've been really involved lately with a lot of the commemorations. Vigils are in Sydney, in Canberra for October seventh. How does that make you feel
and what is your response? What would you like to tell Jason Claire about this?
Well, firstly, it shows that the Labor government is completely divided on the issue of Israel and Palestine. They are taking a very unprincipled approach, probably because they have no principles, and it's frankly extremely frustrating and in and misses the whole point of this conflict, which you laid out before.
If you want peace, the way.
You achieve that is by removing the jihadest terror regime that is controlling Gaza. Every time there has been a conflict since two thousand and six and it has been resolved with a so called ceasefire, all it has done is given Harmas time to rebuild, regroup, get stronger, and now we're at a point where they've spent almost twenty years fortifying Gaza into a military complex with tunnels larger than the Sydney Trains network in a space smaller than
the North Shore and the Eastern suburbs. And the whole point of October seven was to drag Israel into an almost unwinnable urban warfare combat situation so that they could turn the world against Israel. And people like Jason Clair are playing exactly into Harmasa's hands when they turn around and blame this whole thing on Israel instead of hamas.
Well, and Michael Kroger, I mean, what do you think about all this? Because of course, you know what Israel is doing in Southern Lebanon has been you know, Joe Biden has said, you know, yep, you know that's appropriate. This also would fit within I think the guidelines of UN Resolution seventeen oh one, which ended the two thousand and six Lebanon warre and said yeah, there should be no has belond Southern Lebanon. But of course the UN couldn't manage this. How can labor not manage to get
it's story straight. On this.
Look, it's a terrible mess by the Labor Party who are just confused and not prepared to stand up for what's morally right. But on what Jason Claire said, there's a few things to remember. So five hundred years ago, a German philosopher was one of the first people to enunciate the principle that self defense in international law meant you were able to cross a border to attack the
person attacking you. And two hundred years ago and what they call the Caroline principle was with situation where you were allowed to attack someone before they attacked you in order to stop them attacking you. Fast forward than a few years ago at the UN when and it also became a principle of law that you are able to go into a country to attack non state actors such
as terrorist organizations. And so fast forward to Jason Clare's coins. So, under Article fifty one of the UN Charter, if your military action, if the expected concrete advantage of your military action is expected to exceed any harm done to any civilians, then it's lawful. So what is profoundly dishonest and ignorant by Jason Clare and we know why he's saying it.
This guy is only trying for base. It's a race to the bottom, where all he's trying to do is win Muslim votes in his own seat to hold his seat. He says, Oh, Israeli bombing schools and hospitals. No, Jason, No, Jason. They are bombing Hamas terrorists who are on October seven beheaded in innocent people, murdered and raped people. They are bombing Hamas militants who are using innocent Palestinians as shields
against international law. Jason, in schools and hospitals. That's what's actually happening, minister, So stop trying to pander to the lowest common denominator by letting people think Palestinians and Muslims in your electorate think, oh, is that what's happening? And the Jews just bombing children and sick people. No, Jason, that's what That's not what they're doing. And it's a disgrace that a minister of the Australian government would be so dishonest as to mislead his voters in that way.
James, Yeah, no, Look, I think it's absolutely shocking because we'll stick with you for a second too, because you're in Melbourne right now, where there were these shocking scenes at the University of Melbourne. A professor's office was occupied. He had to have security, I guess, you know, take care of it, make sure he was all right. But if you look at this footage here, this goes far beyond any sort of oh well, you know, we care about house and civilians. This is like attacking professors for
their Jewish district, for their stance on Israel. This feels like real nineteen thirties kind of level stuff. Michael. I feel like this, this gap in leadership here is allowing all of this stuff to rush in. Am I wrong about that?
No, You're absolutely right. I mean the universities have disgraced themselves in this country. Sydney University, Melbourne University, Australian National University, Deacon University. I mean the vice chancellors and boards of these universities have disgraced themselves. The Ay and you, in particular, where's my friend Julie Bishop Pray?
You've been involved with a couple of really big rallies on the other commemborative vigils in Canberra in Sydney, tell us about that. Ed, You know, where do you reckon ordinary, normal, mainstream Australians are on this, because I don't think they're down with this sort of hatred antisemitism, which you know feeds into a whole anti Western narrative too and frankly
anti Australian narrative as well. Where do you think what is your set for having done these rallies and these vigils that Australia, mainstream Australia is right now?
Yeah.
So the group we started is called Never Again is Now and we've put on rallies now in most of the major capital cities. We've had almost thirty thousand people attend these rallies. It's primarily led by a group of Christians and Jews who've come together to say we are going to stand as Australians united against this hate. And the response we've received has been overwhelming because you're exactly right, average Aussies, look at what is happening on our streets
week after week, fifty two weeks of consecutive protesting. Even on October seven, on the day the greatest loss of Jewish lives s into the Holocaust, they had the audacity to take to the streets and protest for a free Palestine.
It is disgusting, not.
Just for a free Palestine, because we've also at some of the is rallies seen materials that would seem to be supporting out Fitzlake Hensport.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's exactly. The free Palestine thing is just a ruse. It's about destroying Israel and the Jewish state. But we have received overwhelming support from average Australians. But it's really clear that most Aussi's dislike these protests. They don't want people, frankly protesting for either side. They just think, leave your problems in the Middle East. This is a country where we're all equal. We should all tolerate one another. We should all subscribe to our basic
Aussie values. And if you don't support the country you live in, well live in the country you support.
It's that simple.
Well yeah, but I mean I think, you know, as I talked about before, I think an awful lot of the left has a big problem with Australian values. But that's another discussion for another day. Let's talk though about fought him up Payment, the new political kingmaker in Canberra, whose first twenty four hours as a party leader. Well, let's just say they haven't really gone to plan. I guess that's what happens when you have a big announcement
for a new party without a single policy. And we saw that press conference earlier yesterday, but today or yesterday last night on seven thirty, she couldn't even give a straight answer on what she thought about October seventh. I can't believe this. I had watched like five times.
Have a look today.
In your view, were the actions of Humas on that day an act of terrorism or an act of resistance?
I think that that question really not only ignores.
The seventy five, seventy six years, but also reduces.
The Palestinian plight.
And we need to acknowledge that Palestinians and now the Lebanese community are hurting, but so are the Israeli communities.
Frier I listen to that. I feel like Kamala Harris makes more sense than that moral equivalency word Salad I just heard. What did you make of that?
There is no equivalent, absolutely no equivalents between what is happening to Palestinian people or people in Lebanon compared to what happened to Israeli's on October seven. On October seven, jihadis Terrace, up to six thousand of them invaded Israel by land, by sea, by air with the express intent of going into civilian communities and massacring, earning a live, raping, and kidnapping as many Jewish people as they possibly could.
There is no possible comparison that you can draw between that and Israel's self defense and the fact that this is what she's decided to run on is it's insane.
Well yeah, I mean, she doesn't have anything to run on because Michael, you know, she doesn't have any policies here. Tell me, though, you know, what are the consequences now of having these independent senators now starting their own parties and causing all sorts of dramas you know on the cross bench. It feels like this is just going to become an ungovernable rabble in the Upper House now.
It is, And look, I wish the major parties would get together and pass an amendment which said, if you resign or expor you are expelled from the political party that you get elected upon whose ticket you get elected to the Senate, right all the reps. If you resign or leave that party, your seat is vacated. You know, we've had them, Labor had them, the Greens had them
with that were that thought, et cetera. I mean these people who get elected, who get elected because they're on a ticket, not because Fatima payment is you know India a gandhy.
They get it.
It gives them years and years, at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year plus their staff, et cetera, et cetera, to launch their next bid. So you know it should be the case that if she resigns from the Labor paid and then we've had people on our side to and have them. Now, if you resign or you're expelled, you're out. There's a vacancy straight away. But I'd like to ask next time you're interviewing Senator Payment.
By the way, could you ask if you were Jewish who supported the existence of the state of Israel, are you allowed to join her party? Because it's for all Australians, he says, And if you if you're gay, if you're a gay person, are you allowed to join her party?
Yeah?
Because as we know, in most in every Muslim country, being gay is illegal. And I remember I remember years ago President Akmadinnerjad when he was president of Iran. He was giving a speech at American University and people asked him about gay rights in Iran and to my astonishment, to my astonishment, James, he said, we don't have that problem in Iran because there are no gay people in Iran.
And the question said what, none?
None? He said no, he said they're Australia. He said, there are no gay people in the entirety of Iran. So perhaps the question doesn't arise for Senator Payment, Well, we do have gay people in Australian they're great Australians. They contribute enormously to our country. But can they join her party? Is my question?
Well that's that's a great question. And I think you know I'm going to be hosting here another couple of nights here Michael for the great Man Paul. So I'm going to see if I can get her on the last year and have her right here, maybe get to get her in the man cave here. But before we go to a break, I want to talk to you guys about this is a pretty crazy story from the
Australian newspaper today. The country's time judicial body has endorsed a new guidebook for judges that says judges should be trauma informed and when dealing with cases involving indigenous people, they should remember they are quote still dealing with the pervasive intergenerational effects of settler colonialism. Michael, I'm sorry, but isn't the entire basis of our legal system equality before the law. Why should race or intergenerational effects come into the picture.
Well, there matters to be pleaded in mitigation when where there's a play by a barrister, someone's convicted. But I always understood the base of how law was that everyone's equal and judges make decisions on the basis of the facts and then apply the law, and in sentencing a barrister will then say you're on a mitigating factors such as they should be taken into account. That's the way
our system has run for hundreds of years. To us, the judges in applying facts and law to take these things into account runs, it runs, runs contrary to the principle of justice that's been in this country, for in Britain for hundreds of years, which is the principle that every person is equal before the court.
Yeah, but you know, we really see how this identity politics. Thing you know we were talking about before, isn't just creepy our foreign policies creeping here on the bench in frayer. Judges are going to also be told to consider the quote here we go clear moral and ethical guidelines in
the Islamic faith when ruling on cases with Muslim defendants. Now, I can only imagine how this would go had they said, you know, if a Catholic comes before you, you know, make sure you take into account of Vatican canon law or you know, Talmudic law where the Jewish defendant, this just seems bizarre to be your reac.
If you applied this to any other group of people, especially a Christian, there would be complete outrage.
Complete meltdown.
But this is actually on a serious note, extremely concerning because the probably the most fundamental institution in a liberal democracy is our legal system and the rule of law, the guarantee that every citizen, no matter what their gender, race, religion is, will be treated equally before the law. Once you start eroding that principle, there is no guarantee of freedom, There becomes no guarantee of equality between citizens, and the
very fundamentals of our society will start to crumble. So this is actually just opening the door wide open to civilizational decays, to be honest.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now Michael, before we go to a break, winner or loser of the week, Michael Kroger.
Loser in the week is Alan Yeasbek, who is the own of a restaurant Nomad and Rain and LaRue in Melbourne. He's the gentleman who equated being Jewish with being a Nazi. Who holding that sign at that rally in Sydney last weekend. What a disgusting act by him, and I hope his restaurants never see any patrons in them ever again. I will certainly never go to one of his again, and I hope everyone else.
Refuses to do so as well.
He's the loser of the week. The winner of the week, Well, I think it's Paul Murray because I've been saying it to Paul over the months.
It's time to.
Get his suitcases out, start packing. But I think it might be our time for Paul to buy a ticket to Washington for a big event in January. Not certain, just by standby ticket, Paul, But get ready.
I think I know what you're talking about there now, Freya Leitch.
Lose of the week definitely taxpayers who have to fund millions of dollars in police to police pro Palestinian rallies every week.
Week in this country. The taxpayer is the loser every single.
Well, that's all right, this week's a different so the taxpayer and the winner of the week. Apparently the Victorian Liberals are looking a little bit better at the moment, but we'll see if that last. If there's some internal division, but that's one for you to deal with.
Michael, Well, we'll see about that. Hey, thank you both so much, Fria leased, Michael Kroger. Now, don't go anywhere. We're going to be back with a lot more to talk about, including that party that was going to do politics differently after today's bullying accusations. Do not go anywhere. Lotmore Pulmury Live after the break. Hey, welcome back to the program. James Morrow here filling in for Paul on
Palmurray Live. Let's keep the debate rolling. Joining me now is PR Council's Christy mcsweety and also Lisa Goddard from a Donnie Media. Welcome to the two of you. Now let's start with one one of the major stories of the day, These weird, interesting allegations around Richard Barles's office and the severe scrutiny that's come after Joe Tarnowski, his chief of staff, raised and claimed that she was forced out of her job after she raised claims of bullying
in the workplace. Take a little more of a look at what she had said today to the media.
I have been plagued with nightmares, flashbacks, symptoms of depression and anxiety, panic attacks and suicidal thoughts. The way that I have been treated has been cowardly, cruel and completely unnecessary.
Now let's take a little bit of what the Deputy Prime Minister said in Parliament today.
Joe is a person that I have known therefore for a long time, and she is a wonderful person. I feel deeply sad that events have got to where they have. This is obviously very difficult. Now let me say that in the way in which I've tried to manage this, I have done so with Joe's welfare in mind at every moment. That this matter is now in the hands of lawyers, and of course that is absolutely Joe's right, but it does mean that it is very difficult for me to say anything more on this issue.
Look, it's all still very vague here, but Christy Joe said also says that when she raised the issue of this behavior, whatever it was, with Richard Morrows, he allegedly, according to her, told her to find another job. Christopher Sweety, what do you make of this all mess?
First of all, I find the rise of staff members becoming a story or feeling that the media is an appropriate outlet for them to talk about staff related issues is so far from the culture of Parliament from when I start that may be good.
Or that may be bad.
That parties are no longer left to manage these issues internally, and we have seen a number of coalition stuffers go to the media and our Labor Party staff as. I find that extraordinary. I would never do it, but it's
everyone's choice. Like the Deputy Prime Minister said, I don't want to comment on this too much because we've seen over the past twelve months that people on television who make comment on allegations that happen in Parliament House fine themselves excised from television, So I don't want to be in.
That position to the people involved.
The other thing I will say is that these stories are often contested and so we wait, but it will be very interesting to see how it feeds into the new parliamentary culture, parliamentary culture organization that people are establishing. And don't forget, the Teals had a significant bullying allegation as well, so we've seen three parties now in the last twelve months.
Well, this is the whole sort of thing about this, And I mean, you're absolutely right to say that these are untested allegations. They have to go through course, they have to go through whatever process and arbitration before we can really comment on them, because we don't know. We don't know what this is all about at the end of the day, at least the end of this day.
But Lisa Christy brings up some really interesting points here, and one of them is that Labor made such a huge to do about the Liberals being the culture of misogyny and making Parliament this unsafe workplace with all these
liberal bully boy misogynist types. And yet she rightly points out, you know, Labor's had their allegations around you know, mean girls and other stuff like that, the Teals have had their allegations of does this sort of at some point become kind of a mutual assured destruction sort of thing where you know you can no longer start to call one side or the other out for having a cultural problem when you know it seems like this now just
becomes part of the furniture in terms of making these allegations.
Well, James, the Jenkins report found that it was a problem sort of across Parliament House and as sad as that is, and you're right, you know, Albaneze stood up and said he would fix the culture and fix beck at a safe workplace. And clearly, as you say, there.
Is a process underway.
So we can't discuss in great detail you know, what has occurred here, But what we do know is that a woman has stood up today and made very serious allegations and spoken about real and traumatic impacts to her health and that has to be taken seriously. We have to wait and see what more Miles can say.
But what struck me, and it's what's further.
Christy said that when you look at the timing of this, So Miles stood up on the floor of Parliament today and said he's known about this for months, so has the Prime Minister, but she waited until today to.
Bring this forward. So whatever is happening with this.
Process clearly, is it happening fast enough or is it going in the right direction. So she's felt the need to stand up and speak to the media, but she's timed it deliberately. There seem to be a lot of strategy around why do it today. You've got Miles now standing up as acting Prime Minister today. Look, so no one else has picked up on it's World Mental Health Day.
Now, we'll spend a.
Third of our life at work. Work is meant to be a safe place. So she's really put that front on Saturday.
Yeah, a third of push. I spent only a third of my life at work.
But you know that's a journal exactly.
But I love her work anyway, So you know it's sus you can bring up this mental health point because there is so much talk about mental health around the place. It's not just in Parliament, it's also in schools and with young people and so on, and really interesting stuff happening today because leading US psychologists and author Jonathan Hate
I've read his book. I don't know if anyone else has, but he has applauded Australia's tough stance on social media age limits and urged leaders in this country to keep going, saying that the United States should follow the lead of Australia. Speaking at a social media summit hosted by the New South Wales and South Australian governments, Hates said quote, if a consumer product is haring millions of kids, at some point the government should step in and say, how about
you don't do that now. Australia needs you to lead, So thank you, Lisa Godard. What do you think should our leaders keep going with this idea of raising the age limit for social media, enforcing more restrictions on what kids can say? And do you know on these devices which they seem to spend all their time glued to?
Well, I do, and it starts really young.
Look at any cafe or restaurant you go to, You've got children sitting in prams or in highchairs with these devices in their hands. So I think the role of a parent plays a big part in this. But yes, big tech has a huge responsibility. And at the end of the day, if they can know enough about you to target you with the correct ads to sell you and support capitalism, then they've.
Got the ability there to verify age.
So I do think there needs to be some sort of protection in place there to limit the age that the kids are before they get on these devices and get onto social media. And case and point James with all of this happening at the summit and cuos to Chris Means for being a leader in this space. But today we had the parents of a young fourteen year old girl from Bunderberg who take it her own life
because of large bullying on social media. So if that doesn't send it home as to how important it is to try to protect their kids from what is happening in social media, I don't know what does Yeah?
I mean, Christian, I'm always sort of wary about any sort of restrictions of anything that might be limiting people's access to information and so on. But when you look at the way young people's brains are kind of rewired, and Jonathan Hate goes through this in his book The Anxious Mind, it really does seem like this is actually a dangerous product that needs more regulation.
What do you think young people's brains, you're entirely right, are developing all the time, and they're not fully developed until they're in their mid twenties. And boys are slower to have that full brain maturity than girls are. And that's not being calling out one gender over another.
That's actually true.
And the information that children dissemine to have disseminated to them through their devices, and it's really harmful and we've heard some absolutely horrific stories.
I actually work in this space.
I'll declare that there are companies operating in Australia today that have this technology. They do it for forty million kids around the world. They can block kids accessing sites very similar to how your employer can block you you accessing websites on your work owned device. The issue is that business and enterprise customers have a deeper level of safety allocation given to them from the tech companies than parents do. So we've got a two tiered safety system.
That's a great point.
Default safety controls, these default safety controls that parents set in good faith when they buy a device for their child, they're really easy for kids to dismantle.
And that's got to change too.
How are they allowed to get away with those safety settings being so easy for children to dismantle?
Yeah, absolutely right. I couldn't agree with more with both of you. Now we're going to take a little short break, but don't worry, the debate is not going to stop here because the Greens are continuing to embarrass themselves and Ethnye. Albaneza gets warned about the looming ute tax. Plus more winners and loser of the Week My Panely back here to discuss after the break. Welcome back to the program.
James Borrow here filling in for Palmary Love here in the man cave with me tonight on our panel is the PR Councils Chris mcsweetey and Lisa Gonnard from a Donnie Media. Let's keep this chat going here because I love this story. It's a day that ends and why, which means there's been another embarrassing blunder from the Greens. The party has been forced to defend its vetting process after its act candidate Hareriri Rangarajan under a pseudonym compared
al Kaeda Leader, Osalobin lead Leaden too. You guessed it, Jesus Christ. She wrote the post on substack and newsletter and blogging platform saying I've gone on to idolize several other martyrs Jesus Christ, Joan of arc Oslobin Laden etc. The Greens defense a creative writing exercise to explore the absurdity of dying for ideologies. Lisa, how embarrassing is this for the Greens?
Oh, it's a piece of fiction, James. Don't you know we don't expect to see anything about fiction coming from the Greens at all. You don't need to look at their policies for a moment to think that what they're doing is creative writing.
There, and she's following the lead.
But look what it does it is exposed is how badly their vetting process is.
And look, she's twenty, she was a university student.
I don't think she has a snowballs chance of actually being elected. But what it does is show a real insight into the types of people the Greens are recruiting and in his candidates and what we're ending up with in parliaments across the country.
Well not only that, though, Christy, the defense, I think, you know, you can excuse a twenty year old for writing something stupid if you went back to what I wrote in university, my god, you know you might find some real shockers there. But the defense that she was saying, oh, well, she's saying how absurd it is to die for or really, I guess believe in an ideology. Now, this is a political party that is supposed to have an idea at its core, at a political party that is part of
the Australian process. Doesn't that defense in and of itself show that the Greens are an entirely on serious party and that it's really just a lot of undergraduate basket weaving.
The reality is the Greens are on track.
To increase their vote, which is a national vote of twelve percent at the last twenty twenty two election.
That's tracking upwards.
They're on track to become the king maker of the government and if you believe all the polls pointing to being the preferred partner of the Albanese government to form a minority government, that's a reality that Australians are looking at. That means that it's about time the media started giving equal scrutiny to the Greens on their vetting practices, on their candidates and on the it absolutely ridiculous defense to.
That accident or created a party.
If that was if that was a mainstream political party, there's no way that that would be a five minute So what story they are going to hold the balance of power in the federal government.
These are the people that they will in which to do that.
These are the people that vote in their party for what policies go forward.
They deserve the scrutiny equal to that position.
Hey, speaking of the scrutiny, let's just have a quick copy over of the US now where there is talk of another debate with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Donald Trump took the truth social say that it's late in the process, voting has already begun. There will be no rematch. This was after some talk that there would be a rematch. Christopher Sweetey, should there be very quickly a rematch between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
I think Donald Trump would love a rematch. I think Kamala Harris thinks I've done. I've done it. I did a good job. I exposed that guy, and she did. She absolutely did. Look she's wishy, washy, she doesn't answer questions, but gosh, she's a very good presenter and convincing. And don't forget, there's a very low bar in politics all round here and in the United States. So she probably managed to convince more people than she was anticipating too. So he's done. She doesn't need to do it again.
Lisa, see you jumping in here. What do you think another debate very quickly?
No, I don't think he would, and I don't think he would. Why would he The polls are so tight at the moment. I don't think he needs to go on there and to risk it again. And she's doing it because I think she thinks that he's a major risk and she wants.
The last say well, you know what I reckon. I think another debate would actually be a lot of fun, but that's just because I want more content for the US Report, which you can watch every Friday night here at AP. Christy and Lisa, thank you so much for your time here on Paulbury Live. Really appreciate it. I'll be back on Sunday night. That's it for me tonight, but right now, stay tuned for the late debate.