From the Skying Center. This is Paul Burray live can I good evening, Welcome to the man Cave.
So much to get to tonight, including another Green who apparently has such a problem with the Australian flag they're not.
Interested in handing them out. And members of the public. I'll explain more of that in a second.
How you can join us next week for the first of our twenty twenty five election pub tests.
This is as many normal polatbilla in a room as possible.
Asking whatever they want to of candidates in key electorates, and Joe Hildebrand, Christ and Abrams are here for a no muck and around conversation about everything to do from hate speech laws to kids who don't understand how a bill becomes a law. That will all make sense in a moment or two his time. Now, yes, of course I'll get to interest rates, but you've heard me and my opinion on how little the actual effect is going
to be. So let me focus on something else, which is the Prime Minister and the tactics under which he is trying to lie his way to a second term. Now we know he lied his way to his first term two hundred and seventy five dollars that they were going to save people on power bills. That was apparently going to happen. It didn't happen. They were going to lower the cost of inflation. Not going to happen. But as you know, this medi scare business and I'm pleased others are starting to talk about it.
But we were onto this last week.
It's worth talking about twenty fourteen Peter Dutton the full context.
So the government is determined to make sure that Medicare is sustainable. We are determined to send a price signal so that we can move away from the view that everything can be for free in health in this country because it can't be.
We're very clear about this.
Medicare is dead if we can't make it sustainable today. But we are absolutely determined to make Medicare sustainable. So the Labor Party can pretend to the Australian public that things are for free. They can't be for free. We have to pay for a world class medical system. We will negotiate with the Senators. We are pragmatic about the approaches that might be available to us, but we will make Medicare sustainable.
Now all of that gets well Frankenstein by the Labor Party into this.
We're very clear about this. Medicare is dead. They can't be for free. We have to pay for a world class medical system. We are determined to send a price signal so that we can move away from the view that everything can be for free in health in this country because it can't.
Be authorized by p Erickson alp camera.
Now, the editing of that is so bad that I am surprised there's not a star wipe in the middle of it. It was like somebody editing on an old JVC camcorter back in the eighties. It's about as obvious as it seems, and it is about as subtle as the sledgehammer that Labor is now using as the reason to scare people about voting for the Coalition after the three years of dysfunction and terrible decisions which this government has made.
Go ahead, Dan, you can trust me, like us, that's what will happen to medicare.
Peter Dutton and the Liberals.
Like they don't like pass, do not like pass Seriously.
Now, the reason I show you all of this again, and I know again you've seen lots of people have start to pick this one up. It's because the Prime Minister doubled down on it today despite the fact that it has been proven by Channel two that it is a lie, that it is a Frankenstein quote, that it is bs. The Prime Minister, funnily enough, back on Taxpayer
Radio was asked about it today. Watch how he doesn't really engage with the actual question, which is about, hey, do you stand by the fake quotes that you've invented for Peter Dutton? But this is why he says, medi Scare two point zero is the lie that you should fall for.
You know you, is this the way we're going to find this election? With misinformation and with with you know, ask medi scare.
Well, Peter Dutton when he was a health minister, remember he was voted astray. It's worse health minister by doctors, tried to introduce a GP tax attacks every time people went to the doctor that would have had to have made a payment. So abolishing bulk billing. Now, bulk billing is at the heart of medicare. That's why we've tripled the bulk building incentive.
So it doesn't even actually deal. After being caught red handed, let me talk about something else, someding back into the history books.
Right, and again, I just love how selective all of this is.
Right, if every decision that has been made in previous governments is to be held accountable for potential and future governments, well, that of course means that the rud Gillard Rudd mess automatically on how the policies of Albo.
You want to play that game.
We've got plenty of tape in our vaults here, I was going to say, trying to quickly think of the digital version, but you know we've got plenty of tape from that time. What about the conversations about negative gearing, What about the support that you had for the shortened policies that got rejected?
Oh no, no, no, that rule doesn't apply to us. It only applies to them.
Interesting that it's taxpayer media that at least, like a broken clock twice a day, gets something right in pushing back here.
I mentioned this at the start.
Of the show because this sort of garbage is going to flood the zone and unless people are willing to push back, and I think the opposition has done not a good enough job pushing back on the lie expecting.
Everyone else to be doing the work on their behalf.
This lie will continue to float. It needs to be branded a lie. It needs to be seen as a lie. You need to be aware of the lie. So when somebody brings it up in your social media feed, you can post a video of what I'm saying now as the proof and the pushback of their bs. Oh yeah, and by the way, the great champions of medicare and bulk billing. These are stories from just the past couple of weeks. In Anthony Albanese's Australia in the Financial Review,
medical costs are bulk billing down. I fewer people access to medicare under his government, and reporting this morning in the Australian one hundred and fifty one electorates, every electorate in the country have fewer people bulk billing when it comes to their own health expenses. That's the reality under our boat. They can say what they want, they can pass whatever performative little motions they want to in the Parliament.
That's their record.
And if everything from the past is now the present, get ready because I'll release the floodgates and gladly so, just hold them to their own standards. Also, in the battle between the Prime Minister and the alternative Prime Minister. Here, let's have a look at how the majority of Australians
view the country today. The majority of people all over the country, whether they live in the cities, the suburbs, the regions or the bush, well, fifty one percent of people believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. That is up thirty four points since just after the
twenty twenty two election. The right track is down seventeen But in the grand title of this prime ministership, thirty four percent of people change their mind from the country being on the right track and now believe it is in the wrong track. The wrong track was just twenty seven percent back in June of twenty twenty two.
It is now fifty one percent.
Another pole, more trouble for the Prime Minister, this time about his own performance. The Prime Minister's performance compared to that same pole back in twenty twenty two, his disapproval number is up by thirty points, up by thirty points to now forty eight percent. In fact, his disapproval when he was first in the job was just eighteen percent, now forty eight percent. And why wouldn't Australians had that view when we have the the lyrical gangster that is this Prime Minister.
Roses are red, violence of blue.
It's Valentine's Day and we love blue polar workers.
What are you gonna do it every night? It's that painful. It's the new version of dj Elbow. They lied their way to a first term. I'm not going to let them do it when it comes to a second. And also a massive problem came from polling from left wing organizations today, or at least the places that it turns up in the turnbul Times. Now, the Prime Minister Grim Jim and the Finance Minister you know, the one who lied to the Senate about the whole you know what
way back when. They're all very proud of themselves that they've made great, multi billion dodl of decisions because they're totally focused on the cost of living, despite the fact the same people made the decision to take fifteen hundred dollars of ten million workers. That's one of the first things they did well in the Turble Times today via the Essential poll, pretty amazing to see about whether people
are aware or not of government policies. Now at the very top of the one seventy seven percent of people are aware of are the energy bill things where three hundred dollars for a one bedroom shack their power bill in the bush all the way through to the biggest mansion in the most busy capital city. Then the changes to hex. But then we start to get down to here, only fifty five percent of people. So therefore what forty five percent of people have no idea that they received
a tax cut none. That is after all the government advertising, all the crowing, all the media bsing. Unbelievable because of course it's too little, too late. I told you they wouldn't notice. Think of how we had a whole conversation about that for almost a year. Forty five percent of people still have no idea that it happened. But apparently it was a tax cump for everyone, and this was
what was going to turn around cost of living. And only forty six percent of people even know about budget surpluses. So when they say all that southern election campaigns, it's not connecting. And have a look at this on those particular subjects. When it comes to the g gap, the dark blue blokes the light blue females. When it comes down to consecutive budget surpluses, just thirty six percent.
Of women know that that has happened.
Only forty five percent of women know about the tax cuts. And I thought it was the Liberal party that had the problem with women. So how are they going to get out of this mess? Well, they're just going to use more of your money to try to convince you that the decisions that they have taken that are too little, too late are apparently the things that have saved your family budget, despite the fact that it's been blown up for the past three years. They lied to get in
there the first time. They try to lie to keep their jobs. Another one hundred and seventy four million dollars is how much they have spent thus far on government advertising, specifically in and around things like two little too late tax cuts. Now they're going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of your money in the next little while on Facebook adds this is in between the lies, of course,
in and around when it comes to medicare. Meantime, when it comes to Peter Dutton, I need to beld the cat here because the people who think that they're already over the line and it's all going to go their way, there are some issues here.
You can't ignore them.
Yes, Peter Dutton's performance has changed in terms of how people have viewed him. Back in the same metric that had the Prime Minister through the roof, his disapproval level was at forty four percent. It is now up to forty five. Not a major change. His approval has changed from thirty six to forty one. That's good, it's all headed in the right direction.
But neither of.
Those, of course, have cracked the fifty. That's important. It's why there are people running around telling the people who've already thought, oh, look, we're going to do this mob slowly, We're definitely going to win government.
They're so damned terrible.
There are plenty of members of the opposition, including people that are known to this program, that are telling their fellow travelers, including their supporters, calm down. This is exactly the trap that Bill Shorten fell into in twenty nineteen. Now, you and I knew that nothing was inevitable in twenty nineteen, and we knew that there was a path, and we knew that there were more people that would end up rejecting that opposition and reaffirming the Morrison government back in twenty nineteen.
Now we know that.
There are plenty of people that are going to a vailable for the first time, but are there enough in enough seats. That's the asterisk we always have to have in and around the conversation. And despite how terrible the financial circumstances have been for the past three years, it is with no pleasure, but I still will point out the fact that in news Pole there is no great belief that if the Coalition was in power there would
be any substantial change to the financial circumstances. This is important if cost of living is the a one issue and Poles are telling us that only twenty four percent of people think that inflation would have been lower under a coalition government, and what fifty six percent of people say that it would be same or worse.
That's the fertile.
Ground that the Labor Party is going to be able to try to grow the seeds of their latest lies in including that everything will be worse underdone. I don't say it because I want you to see it. I want you to see it because you need to know what's actually going on.
Now.
Also, I'm trying to keep an eye not just on the news of the day, but also what is happening away from the traditional sources of news and the direct messages that they are trying to put out when it comes to social media. Again, some very big slights of hand here from the government. Pretty good game when it comes to the opposition, but I always believe that they
could be hitting even harder and even more direct. Good to see today that they were talking finally, after the months and months and months that I have been talking about about how much money people over the past couple of years have been spending extra on their mortgage. Good, now do it on social media? Taxpayer incident, they did a little deep dive to try to work out whom has the most engagement when it comes to their posts
on the incinet. Now not all of that engagement is positive, but who is making waves versus who is just putting noise out into the world of social media. According to this article, Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party significantly outperforming Anthony Abernezi and Labour in the contest for young voters,
particularly on the Chinese surveillance at my line TikTok. As the federal election edges closer since the beginning of last year, the Prime Minister has seen slightly higher than average interactions on both Instagram and Facebook, which of course are the.
Profiles with older voters.
As I showed you before, he's got like four hundred thousand people on his personal following, and I don't even think maybe a little more than a quarter of that for Peter Dutton Freemont need to be just in front shows again how the Libs might be.
Doing pretty well in all of this.
I'm going to talk about some examples, talk about some tactics, and talk about some ideas about how this thing plays out on social media because we know fewer people watch the six PM news, fewer people go to the places
they went five ten years ago. So does that mean that they are more open to lies or are they more open to social media strategies that have been used like people like Donald Trump and his supporters, where bash bash, bash, hit, hit hit, fight, fight fight is what helped win that election. I'll talk about it with Joe and Kristen in a
couple of minutes here on Paul Marink Live. All right, So Rates, I've been leading with this for a couple of weeks because I wanted to get the clear air to make my very obvious point that yes, when rates go down. Yay, I'm paying off a house too. But the reality is that if it is the rate sized cut that has just happened, and one is probably not going to happen again before the next federal election, then there is not going to be a significant change to
how people's household budgets go. This is how the media spun it today in terms of how much you'll save.
Rates started rising in May twenty twenty two. Repayments on a typical five hundred thousand dollars loan have jumped by around twelve hundred and forty dollars a month. Today's cut should save that borrow with seventy seven dollars a month.
Yeah, and the way you get to fourteen thousand, this your times that by of course twelve, because it's not just there when it comes to monthly important important. Ross Greenwood, who has seen these things go up and go down, And I've got to say, after watching him a Channel nine.
For years, working with him for years here at.
SKY, I don't know which way Ross goes politically. So I like that he just talks about the number and the data. This is what he said about why do not expect further interest rate cuts? Before the election, the Australian dollar has picked up.
Now, normally, if we thought there were a lot of interest rate cuts coming from the statement of the Reserve Bank, the dollar would have fallen and fallen significantly.
But what you can see is the reaction here look at the market has fallen.
So in other words, effectively, what they're saying is that they're now not banking on as many interest rate cuts as previously they were. If you go and have a look at the Australian dollar, it's actually risen since this decision, and so that again says don't bank on as many interest rate cuts in the future.
So, in the words of the front page of the Australian newspaper, is ARBO going to be a one cut wonder? Most likely that's the case between now and the election. And the reality is, as I have shown you many times, and you know, if you are trying to pay off the house you live in or the one that you bought as an investment property, if you borrowed four hundred thousand dollars in one year alone, you've had to pay
an extra fifteen thousand dollars. So basically the best part of the thirty thousand dollars since this bloke became the Prime minister twenty two or almost forty four thousand dollars on six hundred thirty thousand, or sixty thousand on an eighty thousand dollars loan, seventy thousand or maybe eighty eight thousand, depending on whether you're somebody who's had to borrow a big chunk of change because you want to buy the house,
the dream house for the future. And to further my point about the political consequences of four fifths of bugger all that has actually happened today in terms of your monthly or even your annual savings, that we could be talking about anywhere between one and two hundred dollars a month, and that will be the saving between now and the election.
That when the cumulative effect is the best part of anywhere between what fourteen and eighty eight thousand dollars about how much extra you have had to pay off your home loan on top of what you were already paying before this bloke became the prime minister. This is why the political effect is something that will only exist in the press gallery of Canberra and.
Not in the real world.
This is a conversation about inflation, but it applies to any of the extra pricing and any of the extra costs that all of us have had to go through, and that giant chunk of change that I have been talking about when it comes to the overall cost of home loans under Albanesi.
For a lot of people, it's not about that. It's about the difference between this and that. And when you look at the difference between this and that, that's twenty percent. And I think that's the dichotomy here between these inflation numbers where it looks normal and this which is really not normal at all.
Now I'm only a shortened fat bloke, so probably could just get a giant iPad, but how could that screen. I'd love to be able to run around and do graphics things like that. We will see what happens into the future. But perfect example, all right, the press gallery turns around and says, well, inflation has a two in front of it, has a three in front of it. But that is a comparison of this much on top of this much, on top of this much, on top
of this much. So Australians when it comes to cost of living and Australians when it comes to wanting to punish a government that in my view has not done enough, that in fact has also. Don't never forget they took fifteen hundred dollars out of ten million people's tax return, not once, twice, three years in a row. That is
the reality of the decisions that they have made. The two little too late tax cuts, fourteen bucks a week, three hundred dollars off power bills from as I said, a shack in the bush to a mansion in the city, that's twenty five dollars a month. And when you have a look at using that logic from that bloke on Sky News in the UK, have a look at this. This is the margin by which your things have cost more since the December quarter of twenty twenty one and
the December quarter of last year. Health almost thirteen percent, petrol almost fifteen percent, food almost seventeen percent, housing almost eighteen percent. So good luck if everyone thinks, oh, there's maybe one hundred bucks or two hundred dollars and somehow everyone's going to run and go voting for elbow, because it'll be worse under done. It's worse under this bloke. It's been worse under this bloke for three years. If you truly care about your financial circumstances, how could anyone
reward these vandals with three more years in power. They promised you two hundred and seventy five dollars on power bills that doesn't exist. They have promised that cost of living would be lower. Show those numbers again. They promised cost of living would be lower under a labour government. But one more time, health, petrol, food, housing, up up, up up, and an even bigger bill that is costing people money has been insurance.
Now.
I know there's a lot of people who can't afford it, but there's lots of people who want to take out insurance on their house, on their car, on their boat, on all sorts of things, because you don't want it to get damage, You don't want it to get stolen, you don't want flood waters to be causing trouble, all
the rest of it. Right, Well, the insurance companies have been making billions, billions of dollars in profit while they spend hundreds of millions of do was on ads telling us how much they love us and without them we couldn't possibly survive. Here is the reality of how much insurance has gone up under this government. Again, let's look December twenty one, five and a half percent, eight percent, five percent. Total insurance has gone up eighteen and a
half percent since December two thousand and to eat one. Oh, but there's one interest road rise cut's going to please please now the opposition later and potential prime minister is saying that it is about time that insurance companies have to pay out more and maybe have to pull their head in or maybe even have to start getting split because the costs are ridiculous. This is what he's had to say in the past couple of days.
We need competition, we need depth in the insurance pool, and we need to make sure that we're not being ripped off by insurance companies. And as we've done with the supermarkets where we have threatened vestment, if consumers are being ripped off, similarly in the insurance market, we will intervene to make sure that consumers get a fair go because at the moment, people are paying too much for their insurance and what's resulting is that people aren't taking out insurance.
So that's a person who's living in the real world. That's a person who is talking to people in the real world about the costs that are on top on top of on top of on top of on top of on top of everything else. And we're working on something that will bring you a little bit later in
the week. But some of these insurance companies in and around the floods that we've been talking about in North Queensland, you've got forty eight hours to pull your head in because they're about to copy it right between the eyes. We've got first hand examples about how these people are being ripped off.
They thought they had the.
Right policies, they were told they had everything in place, and now oh sorry, we can't possibly play out it's bs it's not acceptable. And good on Peter Dutton for at least acknowledging this is a major issue now away from politics, but something that very much is about the future of our country. That's our kids and that's what
they learn in school. It's also about what they know about some of the basics that we used to call civics way back when how does a bill become a law, what's the difference between local and federal government, etc.
Etc.
Well, today seven out of ten high school students fail civics and citizenship teasts. That is a disgrace. It is a disgrace of our education system, to be honest. It's also a disgrace of many of the families that don't try to.
Talk about basics like this. But have a look.
The number of kids who are being able to pass a civic or citizenship test in year six is forty three percent year six forty three percent. Obviously they're not getting into the absolute finite things about you know, how the Senate.
Works, but that's the basics high school.
It's even worse by year ten they get dumber on this stuff. Forty six percent falls to twenty eight percent by year ten.
What's going on?
And then have a look at this percentages of trust in civic institutions. Only seventy eight percent of kids in year six trust the parliament. Why would they not have a higher number than that? What crap are they being fed in terms of the new sources that are either taxpayer created and jeez, that's a deep dive. I'd love to do one day some of the sort of kid focused stuff or what are they.
Learning at home?
Faith in among other things, the media forty seven percent had to fifty three percent of kids in year six have an opinion, let alone a negative one about sources of information ridiculous and.
Year ten.
That falls from forty seven percent to thirty three percent.
Why because of their lefty garbage that shove down their throats as media luteracy.
Classes that they most often are doing in space of a proper education.
Now I get it.
There's plenty of things, and plenty of media outlets, and plenty of people in the media who, yes, can create scenarios where because you have a look at their record all the rest of it that you have to think twice. But the idea that that is their view you all away from the media their parents watch all the way through to the media that their parents would never engage with. That's just the media part of things. But more importantly, how does a bill become a law? What's the difference
between state, federal, and local government? That numbers are appalling. Am I suggesting that we should spend the full term talking about these things?
No?
But should we be thinking very.
Seriously about the types of information they're learning at school? And it's our job as parents and grandparents to double check some of this stuff because those numbers, they are just ludicrous, which brings.
Me to the beautiful state of Victoria. Now, I love Victoria. I love Victorians, but I hate their government.
Now there's a brand new treasurer after the former one almost well of course, ran away after running the joint into the ground, almost labor losing its seat. And guess what the new one is saying, there's a chance they're still going to keep putting up taxes because the former one ran the joint into the ground.
So not ruing the new taxes in your Furst bathroom.
I'm not ruling anything or anything out, but I want to ensure that Victorians know that I understand how tough it is.
Hang on, can we play that again? Does she have the K or the G at the end of the word? Roll it again?
So not ruing the new taxes in your Furst bathroom.
I'm not ruling anything or anything out, but I want.
To ensure that Victorians know that I understand how.
Tough it is.
Seriously, seriously, anyway, how are they trying to save money in the Victorian government? Well three outw You've got their rumor thing each and every morning, and it was confirmed.
What one of the rumors were.
This is how it played out on three OUW Breakfast where they are trying to save money by getting the Shine of Remembrance to pay for the police officers to be the guard during the weekly playing of the Last Post. They are sending a bill to the Shrine of Remembrance for the police officers to be part of the Last Post ceremony every week.
We received this yesterday from the Shrine CEO, Dean Lee Quote. The Shrine Sunday Last Post service is funded by the Victorian government. The service includes a piper and bugler and ceremonial elements performed by the Shrine Guard. The Shrine Guard are members of Victoria Police's Protective Services Unit. Their involvement in the service is provided as in kind support paid
for by Victoria Police. The Shrine has been advised by Victoria Police that it is unable to continue to pay for the Shrine Guard's participation in the Last Post service beyond Anzac Day.
Yeah, that's the way they are saving money in Victoria. Sure, there's money for pill testing so you can double check that your illicit and illegal drugs won't kill you. They've got extra money for that. They've got money up the wazoo for all sorts of garbage.
But no, no, no, no.
Where we draw the line.
Is when police officers are part of a formal guard at the Shrine of Remembrance. And this is the economic genius, the one who doesn't know how do we even say words proper and stuff.
So not ruling out in any taxes anything.
In your first backroom, I'm not ruling anything or anything out, but I want.
To ensure that Victorians know that I understand how.
Tough it is.
These people. Plenty more after the break, let's get straight into it. And then an interesting story again about a green who's not all that hot on the Australian flag and she doesn't want you to be either.
Thanks so much. All right, thank you very much for what you do. Not forget.
In the next couple we are going to have the Anti Semitism summit. You'll be able to see all the details here are on air online as well. That of course, is taking place on Thursday, so please pay attention to all of that in your socials and certainly here on air.
Now.
Also, if you would like to join us for the first pub test of the year, that one is going to be in Bateman's Bay. The seat of Gilmore, and what we want is as many people as possible in the room because we want locals asking questions of the candidates. Now, I'll be upfront laborer, probably an empty seat. The Greens may well be an empty seat, but it's there if they want it. Yes, I'll have my opinion. But anyone who's watched these things over multiple elections knows it's not
me asking the questions. Okay, So if you would like to join us, and you can get to Bateman's Bay for that show next Monday, and you would like a question of the candidates, we've got a couple locked in so that it'll be quite interesting. The open invitation there to everyone else to join. But pubtest it's gonews dot com do Au. We've got a very full room for the ourtown. If you couldn't get into that, come to the pub test and if you've got a question too,
we look forward to all of that, all right. Christin Abrams is of course with the Libertarians in Victoria. She joins us now in Melbourne. And the wonderful man who, of course you know.
Just is all that he is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a little good event. Right track, wrong track.
We'll get to that in the moment or two time is none other than Joe Hildebrands. So some huge stories in and around hate laws. New so Wales is going to introduce ones that have penalties of serious time in jail or very significant fines. Victoria is going to put things in place where previously political debate.
Was not going to be included in those laws. That will now not be the case.
So I want to talk about these because they're going to probably end up as the law of the land. Christ Then I'm going to start with you, because Victoria seems to be the one that is going to pounce on, surprise, surprise, the ones that are going to limit speech.
What's your sense of these things.
My argument around all of this stuff is that it's dangerous to play with it, but they're going to.
It's definitely dangerous to play with it, Paul. It's dangerous to have every you know, an issue come up and try and legislate every single issue when we should be looking at the root cause. And the root cause is a lack of leadership in Victoria and in Australia at the moment to kind of stamp out bad behavior that's going on. You can't legislate against hateful speech because it will still exist. It will just go behind closed doors.
And in terms of.
Governments can't even ban contraband that is in jails. Governments can't keep contraband in jails out of it. How could they possibly think that they'll take away hateful speech by legislating it. Now, About twelve months ago, I got asked a question on your show, Paul, what I thought of a labor candidate at the time saying the voice result was the worst of weight privilege that she had ever seen.
And my response was, well, if she had such a problem with weight privilege, she's more than welcome to vote for me. Now, would all of that conversation, on all of that debate be banned under these current laws. It's outrageous to think that this is where Victoria is going into an Orwellian thought police situation.
Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean, look, Joe again, I understand the issue. I'm looking forward to the something that's coming up in a couple of days time. Right, I have serious concerns about what is introduced with one hope that ends up becoming completely weaponizable by things that are completely unintended and no government will ever have the balls to change wind back or put sunset provisions into.
This eighteen to three all over again.
Yeah, So look, the last thing you want is for this to become a trojan horse for a sort of quasi blasphemy law exact example, or a curtailing of political debate.
Quick disclaimer, my wife works for Quality Australia, which is one of the groups that is.
Pushing for LGBTQ and all the rest included with that a slightly different view. But I think the purpose of these laws and the laws in New South Wales is very specifically to capture what is happening to Jewish people in the community, how they are being targeted, and making sure that police and we know that police have really really struggled to find existing grounds, existing laws with which
to prosecute people who are doing these things. Now, yes, you can prosecute them for vandalism, Yes you can prosecute them for property damage, but burning someone's car because they're a filthy Jew and kill Israel and kill the Jews or whatever is a bit different from just your standard garden variety active vandalism. So so what they're trying to do is to make sure that people who do these things can be prosecuted. The last thing you would want, and I think this is why they have not expanded
it to other groups, other cohorts. Last thing you want is for people to be able to say, well, you may someone hate me, you're nicked, You're going to jail.
So it will be very much how.
These laws are enforced, and I would expect them to be enforced in a pretty narrow way.
Well, yes, but the problem is another police commissioner, another police minister, another attorney general, another government. Now, god forbid, the Greens one day end up forming a government somewhere right.
That's why to me, I'd love to see much more in Australia when we do things like this, and yes, even some of the counterterrorism laws that we do what they do in America, which is have sunset provisions which means the law will last for two years and then basically you have to show that it works to argue to re implement it when you're doing these things.
But the homeland security stuff.
Correct, that's where I'm way more to the libertarian end of things, which I know police is at Kristen and the people in her life. But let's talk here about again a scenario where these laws, I think they are not debated as publicly as they should be, and the detail of what is in and out and all of that isn't given really much coverage because it's not like anyone's going to sit there on the six pm news and actually read the bill out loud from beginning to end.
We've got to hope that there are people in the Upper House, like David Lindbrick in Victoria Kristen that are going to be able to say, hey, well paragraph two on page three is pretty weird. But that's a lot of pressure on just a couple of individuals when if the drum beat is must pass and if you somehow oppose then your pro hate it's going to be very difficult. They have a nuanced discussion here.
Yeah, So David is definitely championing this and also showing how this will probably be used against the Greens more so than anyone, and that the Greens would be against this legislation. Also, David is appealing to anyone that he can to vote against this legislation. In terms of what Labor's doing at the moment, they are also pushing the Libs to vote for this because you know, most of it is good, even though some of it is very
poorly written. But I always kind of think back to the hypocrisy of Labor when they voted down the bill against the Frankston serial killer getting out of jail, just because the Liberals put it up, even though the bill was good and the book bill was solid. So the hypocrisy there to label the Liberal Party or anyone else being, you know, for hate speech by them not voting for a poorly formed bill is Yeah, it's I guess it's on brand.
For Labor, to be honest, Joe.
The Frankenstein quote they're trying to push around about Peter Dutton and medicare all right, and I'm sure that they have many different versions.
But if the hook on which.
They are going to hang their heat is that Constein quote, Yep, that's ridiculous.
Yeah it is.
Look, I didn't like meny scare the first time it came round, and I don't like it much this time either. I think, if that's the best weapon that Labor, I can see what they're trying to do. But if that's the best weapon they have, you know, the truth is that Labour has actually done some pretty good stuff. I know that's you know, anathemata what a lot of people think listening to this, But you know, they could talk about delivering tax cuts for everyone.
They could talk about delivering bill relief. They could talk about.
Bringing inflation down to within two to three percent, which is why we've got a rate cut today. We'd talk about more rate cuts to come, talk about you know, the two budget surpluses and the one that we're not going to have a surplus or a deficit because they've got to go to.
An election before that has to happen.
You know, the bill relief whatever you know, like and again you can you can argue the toss over whether these measures are good or whether they're inflationy or whatever.
My point is, if talk.
About the good stuff that you're doing instead of just raising pretty spurious claims against Peter Dutton because I think sooner or like, it might seem smart now, but it does come back to haunt you, just like it does when you say that, you know, Scott Morrison's fault that the cost of living so high, I think, and I know it sounds almost naive, but I guarantee in politics
you have to think about the war and not the battle. Yes, you think you can win this little battle here by jagging this little.
Kind of number here.
Well, I mean literally look at war and not having a record on which too well, and obviously two thousand and four John Coward couldn't have had a bigger win won Senate right one party having both because of course keeping interest rates low, meaning as soon as something changed, bang, So again, something that might work this week is going to be a massive problem for the next couple of
years to come. Let's talk about the election on the internet, and let's talk about social media and about what messages are around. So Kristen again from a minor party, this is the way you get the message out right, which is people are on your Facebook pages, plus you've got all of those other socials. But the reality of a lot people is that this is going to be their source of information. So let's talk about the game. You know, any lie will do.
Yeah, So you can see clearly what Donald Trump has done in America with going on live podcasts and how that changed the game of American politics. And it's understandable that labor and liberal are also going to try and have a social media game out there and you can see that by how much they're focusing on TikTok at
the moment. It'd be interesting to see how much Liberal has spent compared to labor, because Liberals are doing better at the moment on TikTok, but that's because young people generally are voting for labor, and so Liberal party does have to reach those young people. However they may be able to, so it'll be interesting to see. But I think the minor parties use it a little bit more efficiently because it's our biggest stomping ground and it's our town square.
Interestingly, there's a collection of people in sort of there's the podcast world. Podcast World in Australia not as big as it is in the United States in terms of your capacity to go around the gatekeeper. There's lots of influences and I don't know whether they are just all in, whether they're being paid, whether there's a partner whatever, right, but they seem to have the talking points of the government down pat and they're starting to turn up in people's feeds.
Joe.
What I find really effective right in social media and you saw, you know what, You're cheering on the person who's doing it, so say, in a Trump right, all the people who were pro Trump, they were taking quotes of stupid things people in the government had said, right, stupid things of this public servant, stupid things about you know, and then of course they had the president falling up the stairs and the word salad all the rest of it.
Right.
I don't see that coming through from the Libs about you know, reminding everyone of every little thing over the past couple of years, generally speaking, is it? Do people have to be cautious here that the internet is a far more left wing place in Australia than the right wing strength that was there in America.
I think the impact of social media in terms of any positive impact or any sort of coherent impact, if you like, is grossly overstated. Now I don't have all the stats, and you know, I'm not the matrix. I can't tell you every single detail, but you know that I've just been locked out of my Instagram account incidentally, right, I just got hacked up for that, so I'm very happy to be liberated from that as well.
I'm now completely social media free. Never felt better.
If I want to know what's going on in the world, I asked my barber and he says people want change. And I said, does that mean a change of government or that they want the government to change what it's doing? And he goes, mate, they just want change. Does it have to be changing government?
Of the words that whoever uses the word change that, I think.
That actually really lived zeitgeist. They do want Albanezi to do better. They do want him to be seen to be taking this more seriously, provide big solutions.
That doesn't necessarily equate to a change of government.
All the social media stuff, I think people like to get into all these algorithms and everything, and the left likes to think they can gain it, and people like get Up and their little sort of influence of people that can reach those hard to get to, you know, men males between sixteen and twenty.
Five or whatever.
I mean, if that was actually any good for the left, why have the Libs just been in power for a decade? Good point, they killed their own prime minister three times in a row.
Like if get.
Up was effective, well, get up and gone.
Now?
Why are we looking at the first one term, first term government left in government in a century?
Goodluck?
If you're any good at it, why are we so absolutely eft good point.
Thank you mate, do appreciate it. Thank you, thank you for holding bak.
You can hear his podcast on an over podcast system and also well Christin Abrams will see you again here online very soon. Quick break back with more. Let's have a chat about a Green MP who's not a huge.
Fan of the Australian flag. I'll explain why I think that's the case next.
You wouldn't think that any Australian politician would not be proud to fly the Australian flag. But that is exactly what is happening in a person who, according to some of the polie, might be a one term wonder. One of the people who is hopefully going to make this Greens MP in and around Brisbane a one term wonder is none other than Maggie Forrest and she joins us now from Queensland. Hello Maggie, Hi Paul, how are you very good? So we're talking about one of the Greens
rat bags. This one in particular is Elizabeth Watson Brown. Now, she's not exactly the most excited person in Australia to be flying the Australian flag.
Tell me about how she treats our national symbol.
Absolutely, I'm a proud Australian. I love our country and Ryan is home to thousands of people who feel the same. It's home to thousands of defense families with Annagra Barracks at its heart. Yet we've got a Greens MP who refuses to fly the Australian flag.
She hates the flag so much she won't fly it in her office.
She disrespects all those people in Ryan who are proud of our country and our flag, and in particular our defense servicemen and women.
And of course there are an extra issue here where it's not just her choice about what she does or doesn't put in her office. Federal MPs are a source of Australian flags for an awful lot of people. Some MPs have a position which is made just walk past and say the name Australia and they'll give you a flag. What's her position on giving out Australian flags.
I'm hearing now that her office is refusing to give out Australian flags, whether it's to individuals, community groups, even.
To RSLs who ask for them.
They say that they're prioritizing their budget elsewhere, which I think is absolutely appalling.
Yeah, I mean prioritizing the budget of travel to protests or all sorts of other things. The idea of not doing out the Australian flag. What do you think that this means as a sign of the type of person who Okay, we get it progressive politics, but how does progressive politics get to the point where you're not even proud of the symbols of the country that you are part of writing the laws.
For Absolutely and the current Greens MP for Ryan marketed herself as a quote independent coming into the last election, but the reality is she's just as extreme as people like Adam Bant and Max Chandler Mayber. She fully supports their policies to defund defense by over thirty percent, to decriminalize hard drugs like heroine and ice, defund the police.
We had the pro Hamas encampment down at UQ, which is also in Ryan, last year, and the Greens MP lent her support to those protesters by lending her marquees. They were in fact flying the flag of a registered terrorist organization, the PFLP.
And my question is is.
Elizabeth Watson Brown more comfortable with the flag of a registered terrorist organization than she is with the Australian flag.
It is extraordinary. Well, well I got you here.
Let's talk about what you'd like to do if you get the chance to be in parliament. Why do you want to become a politician?
Well, I'm Ryan born and bred. It's where I'm raising my young son Henry, with my husband Chris. But under the Greens. Over the last three years, I've seen things go backwards. People are telling me they're struggling to pay their mortgages and rent. I see small businesses all around us struggling to make ends meet, and even closing a cafe that's been in the gap for the last twenty years. The owner's telling me he's driving ubers on the weekend
just to make ends meet. And just down the road from me in Chapel Hill, Chaffee's Bakery closed recently after six and a half years because of the rising cost of doing business.
So I decided to put my hand up because enough was enough.
I've spent I'm a barrister and I've spent my life prosecuting, standing up for victims. I got to work in the office of the Prosecutor in the Yukoslav Tribunal in the Hague, and I want to be that strong voice for the people of Ryan to deliver for them.
Again.
Well here impressive, very much so, which leads me low on last question here, why do you think Peter dutton will end up winning this election?
Peter Dutton's the strong leader that we need when the people of Australia are waking up to the fact that Anthony Alberizi is a weak and incompetent leader. A vote for any other party other than the Coalition at the next election is a vote for a coalition of chaos between Labor and the Greens and more of their extreme policies.
How good is this, Maggie Forrest, write the name down. I got a feel and we'll be saying it for a little while to come. How can people help out your campaign? Volunteer anything else? What are your socials? How do people stay in.
Touch with you?
Absolutely?
I'm on all the socials, Instagram, Maggie Forest, LMP, Facebook, even TikTok I ventured into. We'd love you to follow, follow along, give us a like and if you're in Brisbane, any help that we can get from volunteers will always take it.
Good on you, Maggie, All the best for the next few weeks made fingers crossed. The people are Ryan, see sense, get rid of a Green, go past the Labor Party.
And put yourself into the parliament. Good on your nice to talk to you.
You two. Thanks Paul, good stuff.
See tomorrow. Our special guest is always Meghan Kelly.