From the skying In Center.
This is Paul Murray livedo Maidan God love you Australia. A constant reminder. So despite the fact that last night was the budget and tonight we'll talk about the budget and great detail. We'll have a great debate between Stephen Conroy and Broman Bishop. We'll have another heavy hitter in Megan Kelly.
Every now and.
Then Australia gets to remind the people who talk about politics for a reason exactly where they sit in the pecking order. Now, as you know, everyone's got an opinion. It's rough technical and this worked and this didn't work. About the budget, you have.
To make sure that as you rearrange the pain, you don't add to the overall pain. You don't add to the inflation which is giving us the problems around our cost of living. And the government did the first, it didn't really do the second.
The Albanezy government is copying plenty of flack for its big spending budget, giving it three hundred dollars energy rebates to everyone.
Jim Chalmers insists this budget isn't about winning votes, but we'll take that with a grain of salt. It would be the first government ever to not want to win votes with the budget.
The Treasurer spends beig on budget cost of living relief, but Sydney's lowest paid workers have wage risers delayed.
If you're struggling to pay your energy bills, you're going to have another three hundred dollars on top of whatever the state government's doing.
But you are going to pay for it.
Either you're going to pay for it or someone else is going to pay for it in higher inflation and other things and higher interest rates.
But a little reminder to Albow and to Jim Charmers.
While they think that they are the center of the universe, and the people who talk about them think that they're close to the center of the universe, and the people who talk about the people who talk about the people think they're close to the almost center of the universe. Australian television viewers sent a very big message yesterday, just one of many, many, many, many many television shows that people preferred to watch them in The Treasurer's speech.
Was this, Oh yes, come on, so it's got to give a little lateral push, paps, get down, go rides.
A bit for us as close yep yep, is it.
Here, Rob is it?
Here?
Is it?
Here?
Is it there?
Who cares?
What the GDB growthreat's gonna be, what's gonna happen, What's gonna.
Happen with the little Bittal coin?
Seriously, anyway, personally I prefer the Chase Slarry Eam does a dear friend, God love him.
Now.
The reviews are in, however, for the budget, and this is worth noticing that while the Treasurer was out there and selling it and kind of trying to pretend that he was selling you sugar when he was really trying to set you something a little less edible, the people of Australia were exactly where we were when we talked about the budget last night, kind of in a giant.
Really, we don't want cash.
Three hundred dollars.
What are you going to do with that that doesn't go to take giving me food for the nextra week.
I think it's just buying bades.
It sounds like it's to me they electricity. That's nothing it absolutely laughs.
Thir three hundred dollars won't make much of difference. No, well, okay, those are just vox pops as we call them in the business. They're hardly scientific. They're randomly about who was available when.
The camera was around.
Perhaps the labor loving analysts over on Channel two, they can tell us why this was an amazing budget.
Why do high earning Australians need a subsidy.
Multiple parts of our cost of living package. There's a tax cut for every taxpayer, and there's energy bill relief for every household.
About middle Australia. But there's a whole bunch of people who aren't in Middle Australia. Why do you need to give energy relief to those people?
But I think people are under the pump right around Australia.
Yes, but you will acknowledge there are people who are not under the pump. We hear about it a lot, the baby boomers, those people who've won the housing lottery and so on. Why are those people going to get three hundred dollars in their pocket?
Hang on, every baby boomer is rich.
That may be news to one or two people watching us right now, But you know, well, okay, maybe the guy who has seen like fifty budgets in a row, maybe his review is that this is a stunning document that is going to fix all of our problems.
Elbows each way.
Bet On our Future ahead of his article where have I heard each way elbow before?
Um? Yeah, that's right.
Okay, well okay, what about the people who actually talk about economics for a living, even more so than Ross Giddens. What about the Financial Review? What did they think of the budget? This is the most irresponsible budget in recent memory.
Okay, okay, so.
The newspapers Okay, the newspapers are probably wrong here, THEBC is probably wrong.
Voxpop's definitely wrong.
So what about the guy who works for the ABC but also writes columns for a news webs that is paid for.
By union superannuation money. He says.
That this is a risky, not responsible budget and it could mean to rate hikes.
Okay, no, no, no, no, they're all wrong. They are all wrong.
The cartoons of Australia, they're the ones who connect, They understand, they know how to take big and complicated issues and sum up what's really going on, like Johannes Sleek in The Australian, or maybe the Mark Knight Mark Knight, Mark Knight in the.
Okay, what about Warren Brown? He will really care about.
The power thing that's seventy five bucks every three months or twenty five dollars a month or six dollars a week. Okay, So that's all old media, right. Okay, so the ABC, the Financial Review, that's all old media. Like, guys, people aren't tuning into that anymore. All about social media because social media is where you can just really connect with the papa. And this was the Prime Minister really connecting my papa on the internet last night.
Hi, I wanted to talk to you about one of the major announcements we have in tonight's budget, and that's from July one, every household will get three hundred dollars off their energy bills.
Okay, So the people have seen the prominent I mean, he's looking at me right, like he filmed that himself, so he understands me.
Right. He's got a dog called Toto.
Did you also know he's from a single parent household and he grew up in Housing Commission.
I didn't know that until like today.
So the people responding to that video on the internet who were following the Prime minister was presumably they liked the Prime minister right.
Three hundred bucks yep, that'll go far.
You realize how much power bills have gone up since you came to office. We've heard all of this before. It was a lie the first time. It's a lie now. The cost of everything has gone up since Labour's taken path. These are people who follow him on the internet and therefore presumably like him. Is this like the two hundred and seventy five dollars reduction we never saw. You can't buy your way out of this. Your government drove price is up by far more than you're rebating all of
Australians now with taxpayer money. Call the election, okay, all right, So social media is wrong, mainstream media is wrong, people in the street are wrong.
Cartoonists are wrong.
Well, maybe the best person to review the budget is the guy who handed the budget down.
What we released last night will be part of the solution to this high inflation that's been in our economy for a couple of years now, not part of the problem. Some of the cost of living package is broad, a tax cut for every taxpayer, energy bill, relief for every household, and some of it is targeted ran assistance, a help with cheaper medicines.
And more an like that.
While the outlook is uncertain, Treasury's forecasts make it clear that our policies could see inflation return to target earlier, perhaps even by the end of the year. So what we're doing instead is we're providing this energy bill relief to every household.
Sure, mate, you're amazing.
Just ask yourself again.
Australia's reaction to the budget. We knew it last night. The media tried. They tried, but they didn't like it because the reality is as hard as the Prime Minister and the treasure we want to run around pat themselves on the back and say they've solved all of the world's problems. The reality is that seventy seven percent of Australians are
in extreme cost of living pressures right now. So three hundred bucks a year, which is really seventy five bucks a quarter, which is really twenty five bunks a month that you don't see by the way they're paying the power companies, that's not going to really move that needle, literally the cost of living needle.
And as has been explained by the Great Andrew Clarnel.
And you get seventy five a quarter all of us. You know, Jena Reinhart gets it, Twiggy Forest gets it, we all get it. Everyone watching gets it. And I think it just rolls pretty much straight onto your bill.
To make sure that the mansions of Australia can heat their puls.
This is a labor budget.
The problem is one of the reasons why people have gone today is firstly, there's no extra money in your pocket. There's money that has been handed to power companies and it's seventy five dollars a quarter. The average household bills when it comes to power in this country are thirteen hundred dollars in Sydney, twelve hundred dollars in Melbourne, twelve
hundred dollars in Brisbane. Now they're the annual numbers, so minus three hundred off all of that, it's still way over a grand, which is way higher than it was when they came to power.
But don't tell anyone.
And then again when it comes to workers, why are Australians a bit whatever? Because, as Jim Chalmers says, when it comes to the two little too late tax cuts.
From July one, all thirteen point six million taxpayers, we'll get a tax cut and for eighty four percent of taxpayers and ninety percent of tax paying women, a bigger tax cut than they would have under the previous government. This is about rewarding the hard work of our nurses and teachers and truckies and tradees and the two point nine million people earning forty five thousand dollars a year
or less who would have received nothing. The average benefit is one eight hundred and eighty eight dollars a year, which is thirty six dollars a week.
Wow.
You know when you're driving around listening to your favorite radio station and they've got one hundred bucks to give away because you called and you're the secret sound person who guessed and you win five hundred.
Bucks and you go, okay, Well.
That's how this feels, because it doesn't actually change anyone's life, because again, thirty six dollars a week, how does that.
Affect the car insurance that you're paying?
According to Canstar, the average cost of comprehensive insurance in Australia is twenty one hundred bucks. But thanks for the thirty six bucks a week. Oh yeah, and what about the increases in everything at supermarkets? Thirty six bucks a week doesn't really change any games, does it, Because, as we've seen over the past couple of years, food inflation, meat inflation, dairy inflation, fruit and veg and non alcoholic beverages, Up, up, up and again the MUH at thirty six bucks a week,
Thank you so much, doctor Jim. If you're trying to pay off a house, or you live in a house and paying rent to somebody's trying to pay off a house, they, of course, as we've told you many times before, have to find an extra fourteen thousand dollars than before this government came to power because of the elbow dozen of interest rate rises, or twenty nine thousand dollars if it's a million dollar mortgage. Now, all of this, of course,
is not really about changing your life. It's about changing the political fortunes of a government that has let cost of living burn is an issue all the way through twenty twenty three. You see, they thought they could distract with a year long campaign about what words should exist in our constitution, about the voice. That's why they put four hundred and thirty million dollars. They didn't add four hundred and thirty million dollars to charities that we're dealing
with cost of living. The budget last year took fifteen hundred dollars off ten million workers. That's fifteen hundred dollars that you would get automatically as a tax return, fifteen hundred dollars that you would automatically get, so you'd be able to have an actual stack of cash to pay off one of the mini bills that you haven't been able to because of all of the different squeezes that
have taken place. Instead, they are literally spending b for billions of dollars, billions of dollars to not move the needle, to not change your life, so they can have a slogan to turn the poles around. Get ready, it's tried, it's tested, it's focus grouped within an inch of its life, and you will be sick of it if you aren't already by the time they finish saying it.
A tax cut for every taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household.
And we think that every single one of your listeners deserves that energy bill relief. Every single one of your listeners watching this program deserve a tax cut.
There's a tax cut for every taxpayer, and there's energy bill relief for every household.
Listeners who are watching your program, they know you better than you do. Apparently you don't watch your program, you just listen to it. Of course, it's just about the slogan. The slogan to try to say we're helping everyone, and if you oppose any of this, then you're against helping everyone. But if that everyone doesn't actually feel the help, then it's just a bumper sticker that they're just going to
scream at us. It'll be about as impactful as those people who drive around with the bumper stickers for the past twenty years saying.
Save our ab See. However, I've got to be fair.
There is a lot of good news in the budget that we didn't get a chance to talk about last night, and we've been able to find some of the details in the budget that really are going to help people, Like they are going.
To lower taxes on sweet potatoes.
There's one hundred and seventeen million dollars for the Flying fruit Fly circus. There's more money for the ABC so that they can get kids who live in the bush to send them emails. I refer now to the Nightly and they're up late hosts to go through some other amazing initiatives.
First, back to back surpluses in nearly two decades. Apparently living within our means for two years in a row is worth a high five.
Yeah, he said, this is a budget for the here and.
Now, a responsible budget that helps people under pressure to date, like who ethne, building a million homes is something different. You can't find a trade for love nor money at the moment.
So tax cuts for all energy rebates and a million new homes and.
We're meant to believe none of that is inflation. Is the one page in all that that Jim really doesn't want you to pay attention to is this one that shows that by the end of twenty twenty eight, our national debt will be over one point one trillion dollars and the interest on that debt each year will be thirty five point six billion.
You may recall Cumberland City Council made a decision a couple of weeks ago about a book that was in the children's section that some people freaked out about. It was a book about same sex parents. Now, I haven't talked about this because I knew this would resolve itself, and there's a meeting happening with the council right now, a vote in fact, maybe will be happening as we speak, so we'll check the details for you.
But the book.
Is written for the youngest of readers, and it's like my dad is Greg and my other dad is Bill, and some people try to turn this into sort of, you know, the example of that really weird stuff that is being pushed on some kids about all sorts of stuff in the United States.
Reality is, it's not so to me.
It's obvious this thing is going to be turned around. But as you remember, people said who were in favor of the book being removed from the local library, that this is not Newtown, this is not Merrickville. So tonight is actually when the meeting has taken place to presumably overturn.
The change.
Now I'm not going to say bad, but you overturn the change to get rid of the book, certainly out of the children's section. Now, there's been a live stream on this that I've been watching for the past Wow. A lot of people screaming, a lot of people fired up. Who knew this was the one thing that would actually pull our communities apart and the police would all need to turn up and all the rest of it, you know, people being booted out every two.
Or three seconds.
Well, apparently it was but interesting and important to note that, as I say, the reason I think this thing is probably going to get overturned. Is because there was a couple councils missing from the original meeting, so they are voting as we speak. When I have a result for you, I will tell you. If not the late debate who have been watching the stream as well, and I have made sure that I was going to stay hands off on the goodness of the stream so they could bring it to you.
They will do so at the top of the hour.
Now, Australian universities are deeply reliant on China. Now we know this because of the Confucius Institutes. Not to mention the international students. The business model basically means never upset China. Well, there is a bloke who studies out an Australian university who will and truly upset China. He's done many protests, including dressing up as Winnie the Pooh, which is the number one way to pee off the Chinese president. His name, apparently,
or the name they've given him, is Aaron. But guess what happened after Aaron protested against China in Australia. According to his story, the police then went and threatened him his parents in China and they used the threats of the parents in China to pick up the phone and call him in Australia to say knock this stuff off.
The police threatened my parents about their income and their superannuation, about my relative's future ability to become public servants or get a job in a national owned company if I didn't stop, he says. Once he eventually got on the phone to his parents, it was like they were reading a script. They told me not to attend protests, or organize any protests, or to use Twitter from Monday to Friday. The University of Sydney student who prefers to be known
by the fake name as we said, Aaron. He suspects that a Chinese police officer was standing over his parents while they gave him the instructions. Now we've had planning of chats about what isn't isn't acceptable on student campuses, what protests are allowed.
And not allowed.
But is there going to be any discussion whatsoever about the pressure that is put on students from China who come to Australia via their parents back at home because of what they are doing on a free campus here in Australia. Well, of course, Australia will never stand up to China under this current government, and certainly the leadership of many of our modern universities would have no interest whatsoever in standing up to the Chinese money that is
constantly flowing their way. But maybe someone somewhere should ask a couple of questions about this incented estimates. Maybe call forward the bosses of the universities. And while we're all talking about protests in and around the Middle East, could we also talk about, so, how do you protect these people for being able to freely express themselves in this country and not being intimidated by threats to their parents in another country? And if you can't control it, then
maybe we should just cut ties with China. Oh yeah, And speaking of our universities, somebody was booted out of the country because they were apparently spying on some of our intellectual property that was being researched in our universities. I'm sure the Prime ministers talk about that when he rolls out of the red carpet for the Chinese premiere.
Oh that's right, zero chance. A couple of big things I want to talk about out of the United States now, of course, Donald Trump in court, this thing has gone on for weeks and weeks and weeks, and I'll be honest with you, if I'm a weirder tonight than I may normally be, it's because I didn't sleep all night after being so pumped up after the budget. I sat and watched the Michael Cohen stuff, and I didn't get to sleep until like after the kids left for school this morning.
So it was a long night.
But it was fascinating watching Michael Cohen because the prosecution is using Michael Cohen as the key person to be able to turn around and say Donald Trump knew everything, and therefore Donald Trump knew how the payments to him which went to Stormy Daniels were being accounted for in the business.
The only problem is none of that actually came out in evidence.
Yes, there was a lot about how Trump ran his business et cetera, et cetera, but the prosecution didn't ask and Cohen didn't say that explicitly Trump knew how it was being accounted for. He intentionally knew how it was being accounted for, because if he knew that, then that's the crime. But even reporters from the New Your Times
are saying that this has not been proven yet. Now what's fascinating about watching this if you get the chance in the middle of the night, as I do and have been, is American cable TV just has a whole bunch of people out the front of the court, and then they've got a whole bunch of people who used to work for prosecutors around the country, all just feverishly agreeing about everything's being constantly proven.
But the reality is is.
That and I followed many days, and I've had many kind of sleepless nights trying to follow the details here. The reality is is that the one person who absolutely would know whether Donald Trump told the Trump organization to write up these receipts as legal expenses when the assumption was that they weren't, but the prosecution won't call him the blowstone is Alan Weiselberg. He was the man who
was essentially the chief bookkeeper for the Trump organization. It's his name on the non disclosure agreement agreements with Stormy Daniels. Do you know whose name.
Is not on them? Donald Trump's.
In fact, they did have Donald Trump's name there for him to sign, but he never signed the document. So why won't the prosecution call the key bookkeeper? Is it perhaps because the bookkeeper will say, no, I didn't do it because he told me to do it. I did it because we were giving money to a lawyer. And that's a legal expense. Small problem, of course for the trial, but it's not stopping the media, as I say, going
over every little detail. And one of the problems with covering this is that there is no live video, There is no live audio. Everyone is reading along with a transcript. Well, thankfully the good folks at CNN have decided to take two people who I'm sure absolutely loved the idea that this is their fifteen minutes of fame, to just read from the transcripts like high school actors.
You referred to President Trump as a dictator, didn't you.
Sounds like something I said.
And on that same tech talk so again on April twenty third, you referred to President Trump when he left the courtroom. You said that he goes right into that little cage, which is where he belongs, in an fing cage, like an animal. Do you recall saying that.
I recall saying.
That that's a dramatic reading.
Abby, Yeah, I mean, that's kind of how it went down, but that's not the best that CNN has done. You see what they just did then was just read and show you photo of person, photo of person.
They did that because they had.
Been absolutely humiliated by their first attempt at this where literally you watch two people reading a script like they're rehearsing for a TV show.
Did he say anything to you at that time about how this might be viewed if.
It got out?
Yes?
What did he say in substance?
He said to me, this is a disaster, total disaster. Women are going to hate me because this is really a disaster. Women will hate me. Guys may think it's cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.
Fun to watch, right, That's not the reason that I have the sleepless night. It's the actual, live, live, live, what's happening right now coverage. But at least when it was Prince Harry, they hired actual actors who kind of sounded like them instead of.
Just you'll do read it.
Of course, Trump each and every day he speaks at the start and the end of.
The court day.
Now, I think he's at his best when he's basically talking about election stuff, but most of the time it's just reading people who agree with him about the court case and the judge this and the prosecutor that. But I wanted to show you something is the opinion polls. Now, right now, there is a tendency for you to hear a lot of polls which are Joe Biden versus Donald Trump. It's two points here, it's five points there. But just like an Australian election, there are not just two candidates
on the ballot paper. Instead, most states have many more than just those two people running for president. And obviously Robert F. Kennedy Junior is a significant factor where his vote will be high.
Here and low there.
But remember the American election, just like an Australian election, is think of the states like electorates. Like you know, we've got one hundred and fifty one electorates in our Lower House here in Australia, well, of course, fifty states, fifty separate electorates. And as you know, the electoral college means certain states based off population, have certain votes in the actual group of people who end up electing the president.
You need two hundred and seventy to get there. Now, this group of states went for Trump in sixteen, This group of states went for Biden into twenty twenty four, So even after the court case had started, even after all day every day on most cable news, it's he's guilty, This proves he's guilty, This is what's next, and guilty. These are the latest polls that are sending the left on five yard because when you actually look at a list that includes Robert F. Kennedy Junior, in all of
the swing states, Trump is winning with one exception. He's tired in Wisconsin, in Arizona forty two, thirty three in Georgia, thirty nine, thirty one in Michigan, thirty eight, thirty six in Nevada. In Nevada, which you didn't even win when he won in twenty sixteen, this has a huge Hispanic population, and these poles show that Hispanic voters are split fifty
to fifty at the moment between Biden and Trump. That's a huge change between sixteen twenty and twenty four, let alone in Pennsylvania and then, as I say, in Wisconsin. And one of the reasons why was Conson in particular ends up as a tight race has everything to do with unions and ethnic populations. But make no mistake, while I have sat back and said things like abortion probably
going to be a big issue. According to this poll and many others, it's the economy stupid, and no matter what data they tell you from the capital city, the lived experience of the economy is what people are now voting. Perhaps a little lesson for the people in Canberra who want to tell us everything is awesome, but the reality is you don't have enough money to even rent the Lego movie, let alone sing it song, big debate, let's get to it right now, Broba, Bishop Stephen Conroy. Then
after that, Megan Kelly, lots to go. We're in a funny mood with a bit of lack of sleep, so anything's about to happen on what could be the final.
Paul Murray life if I do it really wrong.
I've been pumped about this tonight, which is to have the conversation with one of them Bromber, Bishop of the wonderful Stephen Connery round two after our little leer ding dong last night. Now Stevenson camp because he's there to help always. Bromhen is here because he's always the carryover champ.
So let's talk.
About the budget. And Howard has gone down. Obviously you saw my summation of how much of the media has had.
A look at it. I even was watching seven thirty reports tonight.
Saying, yeah, it hasn't quite landed. They haven't landed on the lines yet, like they're being as polite as they possibly can. That said, do you feel Bromwin that the best case scenario of the budget is to give them the best case possible for an election this year?
Well, I've said from the time the Dunkly by election, when they first announced that they were breaking their promise on the Stage three tax cuts and doing their revamp, that there would be an early election because those tax cuts won't last till May next year.
And when I.
Saw this budget I looked at it as a barnacle cleansing exercise. The rent payments is to try and cut into the Greens debate on being the friend of renters.
The three hundred.
Dollars to every household was because they said we'll give you two hundred. Your electricity bill will be two hundred and seventy five dollars less. There was to be a permanent less, not this twelve months old, but never mind all so we gave you all three hundred dollars, which is why they didn't bother to try and do anything about means testing or whatever, because I just wanted to say, look,
we've done it. Didn't care. And then of course when you look at the rest of the budget, they're trying to create a new narrative, which is we care about manufacturing in Australia and we're going to do good things here. But of course, again you know, Twicky Forest is the big winner. I've never seen a man with his hand out so often. So it is a let's get rid of the barnacles, let's get rid of the Greens argument, let's get rid of the electricity argument, let's get here's
your tax cuts. Let's go for it. Because Jim has said.
Doctor charm, please, please please. He studied, he studied political superinuation.
And of course he said that this is anti inflationary and there will be tax cuts. There's no possibility of there being increases.
He's at dead.
Odds with the RBA, and the one thing he doesn't want to be is tested. So if you go too long, you'll get tested. And if he's wrong, he's toast all.
Right, Stephen that said, well, no doubt we can do the fighting thing. In a second clearly what this budget was about was about creating a line that every labor MP and every labor candidate at one point in time is able to look somebody in the eye who maybe was watching Tipping point or farmer wants a wife or home and away or.
Compulsory voter land.
Right, They're not in the they're not counting the grains of sand on the beach like we do. And I love what we do, but we know that, you know, there's an awful lot of people who who would prefer to not vote than to be forced to vote.
In the end, they.
Turn around and they've got this tax cut for everyone, power cut for every household. Do you think that that is as potent as it may seem to be if the lived reality of your life circumstances doesn't actually change.
Well, Paul, I think there's a couple of different points you've made there. So you and I have over the last few years enjoyed electro knights, and then we've enjoyed talking about.
What's going to be the pole reaction.
So I'm talking about over you know, the Scott Morrison the last few years and ours, and what you've consistently seen is that there's been.
No post budget bump.
I mean maybe ten years ago before media splintered in the way it has with social media, that enough people were watching on a given night that they actually absorbed it on the night and felt positive or negative about it. So the first thing to say is that there's been almost no pole bumps for Scott Morrison in his budgets and.
So far for Albow in his budget.
So I'm not expecting any significant pole bump at all. Having said that, I surprisingly Paul agreed with a lot of what broman just had to say. I thought she described it in the way I would have described it. I think that over the last few months, and to some degree in this budget, the government have been cleaning the binnacles off the ship in a way that says we want to be focused, we want to be talking
about labor issues. What difference I have with the interpretation that Bromwin had is that Labour's done this because there's labor values behind this, and so we want to make sure that people understand that a core labor value is housing, not this fantasy dreams socialists paradise that the Greens talk about. Okay, this is a core labor issue housing on energy transition. A core Labor value is to manage the energy transition.
So yes, the transition requires gas. Labor has said in.
The last few weeks gas is central to the energy transition. The costs issue, so Labor has said we're going to give energy.
Cost relief.
But their core labor values the tax cuts.
That is not valu values at all. Increase tis taxing budget in twenty years. This is big tax and you know that the Labor DNA in the Labor Party Stephen, is to have government intervention, to have more people dependent on the government so that their own initiative is to respond to what the government wants them to do. And that's exactly what this budget is. It is trying to make more people dependent on what the government wants them to do.
I'm going to have to put your secret conspiracy aside there.
I mean, I'm an history. If you go into conspiracy.
Labor wants to hook people onto the Social Security payments or one off payments. I mean, the big who master minded the one off payments? You know, I'm sorry, but the last coalition government mastered one off payments. Brommen, it was the master of them. So please don't pretend that a one off payment from labor some socialist conspiracy to hook the masses.
Even that's not about as much government dependence.
That's exactly friend, the Treasurer is saying, he's the only one who's been managed to get to.
Get a black Yeah, he's t surpluses. You're right.
Yeah, But if you had the same if you had the same if you had the same accounting method of place, which is just look at the excise alone. Paul's been talking about. The xis around fifteen billion dollars just from tobacco, correct, and you've got another what's sixteen billion coming in for fuel, which you keep pushing up the pushing up the tax component.
Now I understand this p and thimble trick that's going on here that the Treasurer says, if we actually lower the cost of electricity by the three hundred dollars, that'll come out of the basket of items that are in the CPI basket. So that will be deflationary, that's the argument. But because the tax so going to everybody, last, the people will the people will actually spend the money that they're getting in the tax cuts, which is inflationary.
Okay, now I've literally got two minutes before we're going to go to Meg and Kelly.
So speed round for everyone here if it's possible.
Stephen, Okay, if the idea is green, hydrogen is literally going to become this superpower, will fuel the world, like Wi Fi, the CSRO came up with, change the world, all of those things. Why doesn't the government not just say, here's your tax credit, but if you take the tax credit, we're going to get parts of the profits if you actually discover if you actually are able to, for want of a bit of term, split the atom and change
the world. Because it seems to me that the only thing that I resent is I don't want to happen, sort of like the Telstra style thing where the taxpayers laid all of the cables and then it became a private company and then the access to the cables.
Meant they could middle finger every other company.
Well, I think you make a good point there, Paul.
I least comfortable around some of the issues where some of the beneficiaries are some of the wealthiest people. Now they're putting their own private capital in as well, and others might not be willing to do it. I think so I think you make a fair criticism there. This is this is not one that excites me. I think there's a range of other issues in the budget that are absolutely worth selling. But they're all part of the path of transition to renewables. Whether this one comes up
or not, you know, time will tell. But Labor isn't putting all its eggs in one basket.
Now.
Is now in the agenda is because all the policies are burned, and therefore Albanesis with regard to renewables have failed.
The Madling King, Madeline King, has consistently for two years.
She's a brave warm isn't she.
To win this battle?
And she's this battle and she deserves applau Gasberg later is behind it.
She's been saying, you can't speak your transition. She saw reality and bald the cat.
All right, Bromin, give me thirty seconds.
She had been courageous and successful.
The bottom line is is that we've got to get rid of this government if we're going to solve this, save this nation. We've got nothing but increased cost of living, hiking of interest rates for mortgages. We have Are you better off than you were before this lot was elected? Nowhere not and all the out and all the adjectives and the adverbs that the Treasury uses in his speeches. If it took them all away, it'd take half the
time to deliver it. But all the grandiose language in the world is not going to convince the Australian people that they're better off since he got the job.
All right, thank you, Gang, do appreciate it.
You can have the next thirty seconds next week, Steven, do appreciate it.
Thank you. Guys were always here to help. We'll carry over champs with these guys next week. The Great Megan Kelly is next.
Everything from Donald Trump made and Markel idiot protesters plenty to come. My favorite time of the week to talk to one of our favorite people in the world, the wonderful Megan Kelly from the United States, host of The Meg and Kelly Show. You can find a lot of those highlights on YouTube or podcast, or if you're in the States ever on Serious XM. You're looking sharp, my.
Friend, Thank you very much.
Very corporate tonight.
Now the Trump trial is at it's absolute highlight. The bloke it used to work for him is saying all the right things.
The prosecution want him to say.
But it is interesting that even Trump hating journalists are noticing that they haven't actually proven the case. Maggie Haberman, she writes for The New York Times. She says, from the courtroom, we still haven't had anything directly tying Trump to the structure of the false business records outside of Cohen's words on the stand.
Isn't that the entire case?
Correct?
Yes, that's the entire case. We have spent the entire case on Irrelevan and things like whether he had a one light, one night interlude with Stormy Daniels, whether they use protection, what positions they were in all that, whether she now feels threatened because suddenly it's a me too situation, even though she's on record repeatedly saying it wasn't a me two situation. She was there, in fact, even though on the stand it was I didn't think I could get out. He was blocking the way, there was a
bodyguard out the door. Earlier in her book she said he was my bitch. I made him my bitch, Okay, So which is it now? You the poor Anyway, that's what we've spent the trial on, and the testimony about Trump had the willful intent to violate campaign finance laws and commit a fraud on insert name of victim here
hasn't happened. None of it's happened, Almost no testimony. The closest they got was Michael Cohen today or yesterday saying or late yesterday and then a little bit more today saying, Okay, he was in the room when we decided that I would submit a bill for legal expenses. He knew I was going to submit my reimbursement payment as quote legal expenses. Well,
that's not good enough. That doesn't mean that he actually submitted the bill that way, or that it was booked in the Trump organization's accounting logs that way, because that's what Trump is being charged with. Nothing about how Michael Cohen submitted the bill. That's not on Trump. What did Trump organization do and did Trump know about it? That's what they have to prove, and that it was a willful, meaning, cognizant violation of law. Trump knew it was illegal to
document it. However he did and did it anyway that they have not proven that.
Now, if the reporter from the New York Times says they haven't made the case, surely there is at least one of twelve people who maybe didn't even vote for Donald Trump, who can see they haven't proven their case yet.
You're so cute. We'd like to think that there's very little evidence in the past to suggest that a partisan jury, in dealing with a partisan man, will come out with anything other than a part as in verdict. And the reason I say that not to disparage the jury. But what's going to happen here, Paul, is this case will be made or broken by the jury instructions, and that argument hasn't entirely played out. We have yet to see what they're going to be, but a lot of it
has played out. This judge did not want to hear from an election law expert on what campaign finance law really does require in order to prove that the expensive issue falls within its purview. But we've had that kind of expert on. We had the guy who ran the FEC Federal Election Commission, which is the group that would enforce this law against Trump, but declined to do so here because they did not see a campaign finance violation. And what this man said was all this testimony about
what was in Trump's head. It was to protect Milania when we paid off the porn star. No, it was to help us electoral chances. Oh, it's dual purpose. Well, that's helpful to Trump. No, the prosecution has proven that it was all about the campaign. That's good for them. Is irrelevant. The relevant question, The only relevant question is what is the nature of this payment? Is this kind of payment a kind of payment that is only ever made to advance one's campaign or might it be used
outside of the electoral process. Well, hush money payments have been used since the dawn of time to keep women quiet about extramarital affairs, and thus it is by definition not a campaign finance expense. And therefore the underlying basis for this entire criminal prosecution comes up empty because there is no campaign finance violation. No laws relating to campaign finance were even arguably violated. But the jury is not going to be told any of that.
Speaking of Poor and Dan Trodden, Harry and Meghan, there's some trouble with their charities in the United States.
Yeah, Well, their charity arch Well has been notified that it is delinquent with respect to its tax returns and filings, and not only is it now stopped from raising future money, but it stopped from spending money right now, and if they don't pay up immediately, they could be under serious investigation. What they're claiming is, oh, the check was lost in the mail. I don't believe that. I don't believe that for one minute. Who That's not how taxes are filed
these days. Snail mail by a corporation that's a charity. No, it either gets filed electronically, or it gets fedexed with return receipt requested, or it can all be tracked. You want me to believe that somebody put it in the snail mail with a little stamp and it just got lost. That's a lie. I'm just going to say it right now. I believe they're lying because they're humiliated, and I don't
know why they didn't file the tax return. It's probably because the person likely running that branch of arch Well left in tiers because Megan was so mean, like most of the employees who work for her. But that's just
speculation of my part. I can tell you this that according to the reporting last year for the year in question, we do know that their donations dropped from some twelve million in year one down to two million, and so the donations have dried up, and even those Paul are AstroTurf because the two million reportedly came from just two major donors. Two people donated about half of each one
of those those millions. And so she's got this massive charity that she wants is to believe she's the next royal family, you know, only West Coast, based on two donors giving her two donations that are apparently so paltry and pathetic. She doesn't even want to file her tax returns so we can actually see exactly where the money went. I smell a rat and I look forward to this story developed with great anticipation.
Also, I'm a little bit fascinated.
Right, the mother was born in America, the father was born in America. But Megan is now telling us that she's forty three percent Nigerian.
This is the most ridiculous. This is the same woman who said I never even considered my blackness until the British tabloids started to make a thing out of it. Now she's like, I am Nigeria. Fellow women, hear me, roar, I mean, who is she kidding? She's as white as I am, and she's over there like leaning in. Now I'm the face of the black woman.
Okay.
How much time did she have for this when she was on suits, when she was doing the tig when she was trying to land the ginger from the royal family to marry her. Apparently none by her own admission. But now she wants us to believe. Okay, she's a Nigerian and she's gonna I believe it when I see it. I look forward to all the time she spends in Nigeria helping the Nigerian people.
Good night and good luck, Megan.
All right, thanks Paul.
Alright, we're done for tonight. The Late Debate about to begin.
But if you are in parks in beautiful New South Wales, please we are coming for ourtown in a couple of weeks time, so if you'd like to join us, Semion email outtown. It's godhus dot com dot areu. Here's the Late Debate