From the Skying Center. This is Paul Murray Live, Happy Wednesday. Lots to get to.
Yes, obviously we'll talk about the major gamble or big idea that Peter Duddon had today, Robin Bishop, Stephen Conroy, they'll fight it out in a second. I'll tell you, well, there seems to be more censoring of what people see in Australia via Chinese social media sites. Now you saw the protests in Canberra. That's not what some people were seeing.
On we chat.
And obviously we'll talk about Biden staring off into space and how apparently your eyes are lying when you see that dude looking a little weird. But first, yeah, of course it's winter, which means it's cold, but it is a feels like single digits in Sydney, Melbourne and bruce
Ban as we speak now. Sub zero temperatures actually were there in parts of country Queensland, and the expectation is for the same tomorrow morning, and one of the coldest mornings, if not the coldest morning of the year, was experienced by Sydney and Melbourne. So I just wonder before we get into anything else, to try to explain why is this bit of winter particularly cold, and even the great people of Queensland are feeling kind of like they live in Melbourne.
Why is it so cold now? A cold outbreak is really impacting much of New South Wales, parts of Victoria and Queensland this week and it has been aided by very clear sky so that allows the best conditions for frost reform, as we saw in the New South Wales Blue Mountains this morning. And it also makes for quite sunny afternoons, which means daytime temperatures have actually been quite close to, if not a touch above average this week, despite the very cold starts for millions.
Thank you Allison for more information over on the Weather Channel. Check it out in between the stuff you normally watch on the main channel here on Sky News via Foxtel, Frederware or of course Flash or even the Sky News app, which you can get right now for just five month go to sky ONews dot com dot au.
Now let's get to it.
How many times have you heard people say I wish our politicians would come up with some idea that was bigger than just getting elected at the next election, an idea that wasn't just for the next budget or the next year. Well, presumably that's part of the thinking behind Peter Dutton going all in on nuclear as the ultimate form of being able to guarantee our electricity supply. Now,
as you know, previously that has been coal, gas and renewables. Well, as the opposition was saying today, there's still going to be renewables. No one's suggesting that we're going to stop building every single project, but certainly the speed with which they're being rolled out and cutting through the landscape. Well, obviously that would change if the government does later this year or early next year. Well, gas would also be used as firming technology for about the next ten years
before we could get to the scenario of nuclear reactors. Now, as you know, there have been multiple so which have
been announced. Now these sites are a little more specific, but generally what we have always known, which is that where there is an existing coal fire power station, most of the plans in most of the states and most of the private companies who own those sites, was to turn the existing coal fire power station into generally speaking a battery so that it would be able to hold the energy which is being made by a grid made
up of renewables. But as you can see, the expectation here is that all of those sites would be able to service the national grid without having to rewire the national grid. Now, let me explain as basically as I can, but one of the problems with renewable energy is that the wires don't quite work the same way as they do when it comes to coal fire power. Essentially, a one way stream of traffic is the only way that
that system works. One of the reasons they have to rewire the nation is because the intermittent nature of the power, the storing plus the firming plus the renewables means that you need different types of wires at certain parts in the network. That in and of itself adds hundreds of billions of dollars to the overall transition from one system
to another. Now, as you know, there is immediate pushback on this idea, but something that you have not heard on all of the other shows that quite rightly have been leading with it and talking about it tonight. Obviously the premiers will they say no. And obviously they're not unimportant here because most of the energy system, either the polls, the wires or the generation has been sold off or
least they're private companies. This is not federal Land. Now, obviously Peter Dutton may know something that the premiers don't. Otherwise why make the announcement but the premiers will They all say no, including potential premiers like David Crucifoli and Queensland.
We're not supporting nuclear power. I think our state laws are pretty clear when it comes to PA. But whether there's some overriding constitutional question that he can pursue, I think that's a matter for Himm and he's the one who's proposing the policy. But look how band stays in place. We're not repealing it.
Nuclear energy is toxic, it's risky, it's more expensive, and it is decades and decades are why I am fine with nuclear power as long as it doesn't make electricity bills more expensive.
And what we know from.
Report after report is that in the Australian context it will make power more expensive.
The South Australia question is particularly interesting because remember the former Labor Premier Jay Weatherall Well, he was all in on some form of venucular industry coming out of South Australia. If all of these sites don't happen, maybe South Australia is one that's already done the work and you hear the premier not as ardent as other premiers. For his part, Repeter dun't explains why these are the places. These are the locations where the future of our energy grid can
come from. The sites that we're looking at are only those sites where there's an end of life coal fire POWERstation. Importantly, one of the main reasons is that people in those communities know that their jobs are going when coal goes, and we have the ability to sustain heavy industry. Now, like many, I understand the ballsy nature of this politically, because the assumption is that the Australian people are somewhere completely other than where Peter Dutton is. Except that's not
the actual evidence. If you trust the polls at all, I'll go through them in a moment to give you a wide swathe of opinion that all seems to be pointing in Peter Dutton's direction. But interestingly, all but one of the locations that are being suggested are all National Party or Liberal seats. This is not a plan to put these things inside hardcore labor seats.
No.
In fact, in Queensland, both of the sites are LNP one in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, that is a labor seat. The one in Lithgow is currently an independent but formerly a National Party seat. The one in Gippsland is in a Liberal National seat, sorry, a National Party seat. Port Agusta again in the Blue and Green column, and over in Western Australia again in a
seat that he already owns. So there must be some evidence, some polling, some greater thinking that's happening here, because of course you need to add to your seats at the next election, not lose seats. And if you're willing to come up with a policy like this and you haven't listed a whole collection of labor seats but instead your own seats with populations that, let's be honest, have all
had power generation around them for generations. And as the models have been put in front of us, this concept of some super scary piece of technology going in, well it doesn't quite match up with firstly, how the rest of the.
World largely gets its power.
Certainly, one of the reasons why Europe is able to have so many nations that turn around and say things like renewable energy here, there and everywhere is because there are other countries that are totally nuclear and they end up being able to throw the extension cord over into those countries. Places like the UK have an existing nuclear
industry and are in fact planning to extend it. Let's not even start about the conversations that are happening in Asia or the reality of what is of course taking place with coal fire power right now in China. But again, Peter Dutton making his case, the start of a case that he thinks he's been making for a long time, and certainly the Liberal Party has been flirting with for a long time.
But now it's all in again.
How many times have we heard in politics why owned politicians come up with an idea that's bigger than just one term. Well, this is an idea that as well and truly bigger than one term. This is a fork in the road. Now we can go the way that the current government's doing things, or we can go the
way that Peter Dutton is advocating today. Have a look, if we want to set our country up for the future, if we're going to bring those electricity prices down, if we want to make a stable economy, and if we want to grow that economy, and if we want to grow jobs for generations to come our country must seize this opportunity now now again. For the people who openly think that this is political suicide, remember they were the same people who thought exactly the same thing when it
came to Peter Dutton coming out against the Voice. That was a time when public opinion was sixty forty against his position. It ended up being sixty forty in favor of his position. The scare campaign from the Labor Party has begun, including from MPs in the Act that were already pushing around not just the idea of the three eyed fish from the Simpsons, but no, the three eyed koala is apparently what is on its way towards Australia.
This is about us silly, low brow, underhanded but the issue they think is going to work in their way. The caption on this, by the way, from Andrew Lee is this what Peter Dutton wants Blinky Bill to look like in fifty years.
So the idea is to live.
Near these things means apparently radiation and you end up growing the second head. As for the Prime Minister, he thinks, thank goodness, he's now been bailed out of all of his own problems because this idea is just that bad.
It's fifteen years off, it's the most expensive form of new energy, and they're saying that.
Taxpayers will fund it.
Well, we'll wait and see the details of the announcement today, but this makes no economic sense as well as leaving us in a position of energy insecurity because of the time that it will take to roll out a nuclear reactor.
Well, of course, if the nuclear actor was the only thing in the power grid, then they would have a point, but it's not the renewables that currently exist. Some that of course will continue to be built, but not at the same scale, and then gas being used as a mutual technology between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party as the way to eventually get to the place that will firm up either one hundred percent renewables by the
time they're built or the nuclear power plants. But again, the conventional wisdom amongst the political class, and you may will have heard a tinge of this today, is that again this is some sort of political suicide. Peter Dutton is not only ruining his chances to win seats, but he may well end up blowing up half a dozen seats that he already owns. The problem is that all works on a false assumption, a false assumption that the Australian populace.
Hates the idea.
So let's go through a journey of the polls, all of them dated this year. This pole came from the Institute of Public Affairs. It says that fifty three percent of people agree. Well, hang on, Paul, that's the Institute
of Public Affairs, two right wing. Have you got another one? Yes, I do the Lowe Institute one where supposedly this is down the middle, and there you get the best part of sixty plus percent of people who either strongly or somewhat support Well, hang on, that's not professional polling.
That's just the thing that happens every now and then.
Okay, what about the gold standard that we have got rid of prime ministers on. That'd be the news pole, And the News pole there says fifty five percent of Australians support the concept of small modular nuclear reactors. Well, of course that's just News Corp. They'd just be pushing the Liberal party line. Well, okay, what about the essential pole published in The Guardian. It can show you that the opinion has changed from twenty nineteen, where just thirty
nine percent of people were in favor. That's the blue line at the top. Forty four percent of people oppose that's the red line in the middle. But as you can see, the trend changed, and in fact things have now warmed so much so that a clear majority fifty two percent of people, even in the lefty pole published in The Guardian, answered positively to the question to what extent do you support or repose developing nuclear power plans
for generation of electricity? The blue is the positive, the red is the no. Obviously, the don't know factor, which even if one hundred percent of that made its way over to the no column, and we all know when it came to any result, you don't get one hundred percent of unsure people moving over. Well, let's imagine if it was half. Obviously yes starts to win by an
even bigger margin. But even if every single undersided person sides with where the government is, where the establishment media is today, there would still be a majority of Australians that would support it. Well, hang on, pautially, there's just you know, you're hiding some details here.
Okay, let's have a look. Let's find the most anti of.
This policy news organization, that being the Turnbull Times and we'll get the ghost writing for them today. But as you can see, fifty three percent of people eighteen to thirty four support the idea of nuclear reactors for electricity in Australia. People over the age of fifty five, again, fifty five percent of people supporting the area that is under fifty percent, and only just the people between the ages of thirty five to fifty four. Now, these people matter,
and certainly women thirty five to fifty four. They swing elections. They certainly swung the elections the way of the Teals. Would this policy further harden the Teal position? Most probably? So that's the evidence about the paths to political victory here. Now, Peter Dunton must know something that some of these polls don't or aren't telling us up front, because if he's willing to bet half a dozen of his own electorates
on it, he knows that. From the right wing think tank to the Guardian, every opinion poll that has been published in major news outlets shows that Australians have changed
their view and Australians are now on board. Oh yeah, one last thing, by the way, in case you think that it's only one particular part of the country that's backing it in the people who support it are the people who live in the city, so presumably that might unlock some of that Teal vote, because of course it's those inner city electorates in Sydney and Melbourne that are
currently Teal seats, and their margins aren't massive. By the way, the suburbs is the least impressed, but that's forty nine percent of people who support the peri urban or provincial areas. That of course way over fifty percent and even higher in rural areas. Yet you can see the worldview that comes immediately from the same people who were absolutely certain that sixty forty yes in the referendum was the only result that was ever going to happen, and anyone else
who thought it was pedaling misinformation or didn't understand. But remember, the Australian people didn't care what the establishment, what the big money, what the lobby groups had to say when it came to that policy. Does that automatically mean that nuclear energy ends up getting support. No, of course not, but it's the obvious analogy during this particular political turn.
But you will see plenty of this.
In the coverage of those who automatically think this is the dumbest idea they've ever heard in Australian politics, despite it now having majority support of the Australian people. This was one of the immediate smart ass cartoons that popped up in the Sydney Morning Herald the age where now he's Homer Simpson, which of course links us back to the other image, which was what the Labour Party image that looked like blinky Bill in front of the Springfield
Nuclear power plant. It's almost like they have just one brain on the left, one form of reference, and they think the only way to scare people about nuclear energy is to mention the Simpsons will debate this big hot heart, big idea for the future or gambling away his own political future. Cannot wait to get to this with Stephen Conroy. Bromin Bishop, You've got the best seat in the house. Turn up the TV and lean in because this one's going to be fun. As you know, this week the
Reserve Bank made its decision to hold on to interest rates. Thankfully, interest rates are not going up as somebody who is trying to pay for a mortgage, like a solid third of the country, or I would say two thirds of the country if they're trying to pay off the investment property as well.
The squeeze is so tight at.
The moment that, let's be honest, we actually feel like we are and I say it every time right being a purple So there is no relief. It is just the same squeeze, the same python for yet another month, a python that has got twelve times tighter under the Albaneze government. And as you can see, they didn't even discuss a rate drop yesterday.
They actually considered a rate hike.
Now.
This is despite the fact that there are plenty more indications that, as we know, we're in a per capita recession right now. But there are equally painful financial situations that exist for many people around the country, people who would not be able to afford any further increases. But of course none of those people are the people who
run our country. As we first told you on Monday night, it made big news yesterday, but seems to repete it out today because how could anyone focus on one thing for longer than twenty four hours when there's the Simpsons nuclear reactor thing and the Mister Burns and all of that that's still needed to be done it's so easy.
Everyone's seen the show, right, Well, of course they have. We love it.
Because of course our own prime minister, our own prime minister, his own ministers, the opposition as well, and every backbencher and every senator. They of course don't care about any of this, and it doesn't matter whether their interest rates go up. Why because of course they are getting their third pay rise, third pay rise since this government came to power.
Oh but it's all completely independent.
Well, of course they could do what the deusei whals labor government did, which is to say no, we're not interested wage freese, We're not going to accept these rises. They could do what the previous government did in twenty one and say no, we're not.
Going to accept these rises.
But a little fact came out today, ironically from a place that is supposedly pro labor. As we know, the Prime Minister will be yet again jumping in the plane. I think this might be one of the final runs of the old jets before he gets to the new jets. Oh sorry, he didn't order them. Morrison did, but he didn't cancel them. So sorry, Yeah, he ordered the jets. He's okay with not one but two brand new planes. He will be off to the White House again, this
time to go and celebrate NATO. But guess what our prime minister will be paid more than the President of the United States after this pay rise. The US president earns less money than the Australian Prime minister. The source of that information, by the way, is a website that
is paid for with union superannuation money. With friends like these right now again, I would have expected that when the Prime Minister was speaking to the media on Monday they would have brought it up, but of course they didn't. On Tuesday, No they didn't. And today again in multiple radio interviews with lots of friendly people, guess what question he was not asked?
So about that pay rise? Are you going to take it?
Or will you like the new Soupwel's Premier or Prime Minister's before you say no thanks, we've already had too this term.
And of course the reason.
This question didn't come up because there was more important stuff to ask the Prime minister.
Apparently today rock clubsters has been on the agenda.
It hasn't It was on the menu, yes, of course it was at lunch, just as a subtle layer of pitching up for the impediments that are there for the great rock lobsters that come from here in wa.
It is amazing to me that politicians pay is always something that you know, the public cares about. Yeah, when the blokes sitting directly opposite you is getting his third pay.
Rise since he became the prime minister, just forget about it. Now.
We'll eventually get a moment where the Prime Minister will have to do a press conference. And let's hope that someone anyone who's watching right now in the camp and press gallery, perhaps throwing things at the camera like they often do but hate watching, well.
They will know.
That this broken clock is right twice a day. And when it comes to this situation, it's time to ask the Prime minister, will he accept or will he put off his third pay a rise since becoming prime minister?
Why? Because you know, cost of living all of that, because they really care about.
That right.
Now.
Of course, Chang Lai, we all know what happened when the Chinese officials were in our own country. When they were there right in the middle of course, of our own parliament and they're standing in front of her, they're blocking her off. But we had to see this nonsense. Where the Prime Minister knows what's happening. He certainly would have been informed by one of the eleven people who work for him.
In private media circles.
But because we couldn't possibly upset the Chinese, this was the rubbish that he served up on Monday.
Well, I didn't see that. I saw.
Chang Lay and we smiled at each other.
Then on Tuesday, when he had an opportunity to grow a spine, grow a pair and say sorry, this stuff is not on, he of course said this because the Chinese were still in the country and might not return his phone calls.
We have different values in different political systems, and we saw some of that yesterday. I've got to say with the attempt that was pretty ham fisted to block Chang Lay. The Australian journalists who were able to get brought home at the press conference, and there was a clumsy attempt really to just stand in between where the cameras were and Chang Lay and the Australian officials did the right
thing and intervened. Yeah, but you know that showed I think that they're the different systems that are there.
That they were practicing in our parliament House well, of course, the Chinese premier has now left the country. So guess what magically happened today? Once the Chinese had left, the Prime Minister, who saw what was happening with his own eyes, who then denied it with his own words, decided to well, not quite grow a pair, but maybe a couple of indents.
And it was entirely inappropriate, and it was rude what occurred.
On Monday? I no, no, nothing on Tuesday? Clumsy? Have they gone? Oh that was so rude.
This is the same bloke who, remember, pretended that he was engaging with China and every level of government had contacted every other level of government when they tried to blow one of our helicopters out of the sky. The reality was no minister had called anyone that came out in cented estimates. And part of what was included in the representations of Australia the Chinese government was the Prime Minister speaking at Beefweek.
So again they think you're stupid. They know that much of.
The media will move on from any sort of disquiet about the greatest prime minister of all time, and now the obsession will be Peter Dupman is in the worst possible place, just like they said he was for a whole year last year before of course he was in the place where sixty percent of Australians ended up being.
But of course the political reality for the Prime Minister is it doesn't really matter what you and I think about what happened, because, as has been written by taxpayer funded journalists in taxpayer funded media, wouldn't dare call it state media because that of course annoys them most so greatly.
Public broadcasting.
Well, they referred to a big gift pack being given to the Prime minister and what does this mean specifically going into the federal election. Why because one of the little things that did take place, and one of the little announcements from the Chinese was that there like when you go to America and you know, you don't have to actually fill out of visa, you just get that est thing and you can come and go as many
times you want in a couple of years. Well, that is exactly the system that the Chinese will be offering to Australians wanting to go back and forth to China. But there was also another little detail for those who speak the language who noticed there was a little faux pas from the greatest diplomat since Richard Nixon opening up China. Despite a minor diplomatic faux pa where Albinezi mistakenly referred to Lee as his deceased predecessor, the overall turn of
the visit was overwhelmingly positive. Terms like renew, revitalize, get
back on track, blah blah blah was constantly being said. Now, as I say, interestingly, this announcement about people who live in Australia who may will have family back in China will now have an easier path to being able to go to and from China as a result of this visit, and the perception of the reporter from the ABC is that this helps politically when it comes to Anthony Abernezi and as we know, the one point four million Australians of Chinese descent who live here and guess what vote.
This initiative surprised many and was seen as a significant diplomatic gesture, particularly to the hearts.
Of the one point four million Chinese Australians.
A bloke from a university says, it's a big gift fact from labor at the upcoming election. Beijing knows how important the Chinese votes are and how crucially they went for Albanesi towards victory in twenty twenty two. Now, of course remember the set of Chisholm in Melbourne, the seat of Benelong and read in Sydney. That would of course be the entire majority of this government, which extends us
to the types of information that Beijing senses. For the people who live in Australia who use Chinese based social media platforms now we Chat, it's not just a social media platform, it's sort of dare I say so, We're between WhatsApp, Instagram and.
A wallet as well.
So it's a significant part of the way that the community works. But as you know, this is a place that magically, when you are out of favor with the Chinese government, things like well the Prime minister's we Chat account, which was his way of trying to speak to the one point four million Chinese voters in the country who had voted for him in twenty nineteen, had voted for the Ghost in sixteen, had voted for Abbot in thirteen and ten, but then magically he was unable to communicate
with during the twenty twenty two election. This was big news, so much so that the New York Times, you know, that far right wing bright Bart esque thing, started to notice about how China yes was fiddling in part with our election. Now, the result wouldn't have changed because the government was on the nose. People had made their decision, but those three key seats that had constantly voted liberal
magically started to vote labor. Well on the we chat platform, what you saw with your own eyes out the front of our parliament was protests anti China, protests for the Wigas, for the Tibetans, for the slave labor, for the intimidation Well.
On the Financial Review today, a great story. It says we.
Chat has censored posts mentioning the clashes between the Chinese Australians over the Chinese premier's visit to Australia, hiding calls for cybersecurity experts for the social media platform to be banned. Now, of course, if they're censoring it, then some sort of warning should be there. But Australian politicians, particularly Labour ones, they won't do anything about this because they're happy for
the message to get polished by Beijing. Coming back into the mix of information here in Australia, we Chat Australia on Tuesday sense that a Mandallrin language post by a relatively unknown account which mentioned the clashes in Canberra.
So surprise, surprise.
You could see it on the news here, but you couldn't find it on the Chinese social media apps. The post was titled Australia and Chinese leaders whole talks in Canberra. Chinese Australians who support the premiere clash with protesters. Will Australia still have pandas in the future. That, of course was censored in the native tongue, meaning it's not just
the Chinese surveillance app of TikTok that. Remember, you're not allowed to use on an official government phone, you're not allowed to use on an official government computer, you're not allowed to use in your parliamentary office. But plenty of labor MPs to this day use burner phones because it's a way of talking to the young people. Nothing to see here, just an entire system being totally, constantly daily interfered with by a foreign country. Nothing to see you,
nothing whatsoever. Now we're talking about the Simpsons before, what about Star Wars? Now is our cultural reference to some of the politics happening in the world. Now, those who know and love their saga from a long, long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Know that the Jedies that's a bloke on the left, have the ability to to change weaker minds. First used on film in nineteen seventy seven when Alec Guinness was playing the Great Obi Wan Kenobi.
Let me see your identification.
You don't need to see his identification.
We don't need to see his identification.
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
He's the droids we're looking for.
He can go about his business.
You can go about your business.
Move alone.
Ah aw.
Well, did you know the Jedi Knights walk amongst us in the real world and do so at the White House in twenty twenty four? You see, you may well have seen images like this of the President of the United States looking limber and with it and energetic and focused and at the absolute prime of his mental and physical life. Well, his spokesperson and Jedi not at the White House say this is not what you think it is.
It tells you everything that we need to know about how desperate, how desperate Republicans are here. And instead of talking about the President's performance in office and what I mean by that is his legislative wins, what he's been able to do for the American people across the country. We're seeing these deep fakes, these manipulated videos.
Hey, sorry, manipulated date fikes, as in, somebody made this all up at none of that ever happened, and that wasn't actual real footage. Well, of course this became an instant talking point for the parrots at MSNBAC.
There's a growing and insidious trend in right wing media broadcasts, print and social media. It is to take highly misleading and selectively edited videos of President Biden directly from publican National Committee social media accounts, and then use those videos to spread messages virally to cast out on President Biden's fitness for office. The articles are based on chip fakes videos of real events that are intentionally manipulated to fool viewers.
Sorry, that would make sense if you took a second from here and a second from there and went like that and pretended there was nothing in between. But when you've got five seconds, ten seconds, and you can see your own eyes, what you can see? What are they talking about?
Now?
Of course, the left thought they were onto a winner because Howie kurtz Is, the media critic for Fox News, sort of called out some of this stuff being used, that it wasn't the full context, but he's now calling bs on the Jedi mind trick.
Despite a couple of misleading headlines, Fox News has not shown any distorted video of Joe Biden, though some of its commentators.
Who will paid for their opinions, have talked about what.
They see as amental decline, different kind of conflation going on here, that anything that you see now is manipulated by the media, is false, as fake, as focus and that's flat out untrue.
So let's see whether the Jedi mind trick works on you, because it works on me. And all I can see is the greatest president of all time.
I uh anyway.
And I don't want to. I don't want to. I maybe choose my words.
And uh yeah.
Go ahead, Los Angeles and uh and uh uh, I'm I doing Harriet from the h.
The power of Lefty. Always be with you, Always stay on target.
That's exactly what we'll be doing right after the break, looking forward to doing so with Brober Bishop Stephen Conroy.
Nuclear nuculear nucular I can't pronounce him. We'll debate it next. Thank you so much for watching here.
In conversation with the one of A Bromin Buoship and Stephen Conroy, you know their history. Let's get to the future. So we know that Peter Dunton has gone all in. Let's go best case scenario or glass half full. Majority of people are now on his side. As I said, everything from the IPA through the Guardian in terms of the public polling that is around. Also, how many times have we all heard why won't somebody come up with
an idea that's longer than the next election. That's clearly the case in terms of gambling with a political future.
Five of the six seats.
Are all on his turf anyway, So Bromwin, obviously Stephen will tell us that the glasses three quarters done, even though the whole thing is going to be funded the same way the NBN was, but anyway off budget.
What do you think, Well, I.
Think this There is now an option on the table that people want, and that is you can reach twenty and fifty and net zero by another means, and the means that doesn't destroy the countryside, the forest, the birds, the sea and everything else. The crazy we knewables only policy does, and that it is feasible, It is practical and affordable, and that's the proposition that dupn't put today.
Now obviously steve it in terms of the political risk, I'm going to get to it in a second right, But as somebody who has previously suggested a piece of infrastructure that some of us at the time when it was suggested said, oh it's too expensive and where's it ever going to go? But basically the same policy in terms of how to fund it. Well, if nothing else, you must like the idea that we're going to have, just like we are with the Daniel Andrews of course
and just cinder Allen. They wanted a taxpayer funded way of getting any and that'd be the renewables. Well under this one, it'll again be taxpayer funded and therefore not available to be fiddled with by the Mike Kennon Brooks of the world.
Yeah.
Look, I mean there's no question that Dutton has made a big call double down. I think you described it as I think unfortunately when I announced our national broadband network, I at least was prepared to put a number on it the day I announced it, and whether late the number or not and said it was too big or not. I at least did the policy work and put a number on it. So I think the biggest hole of credibility that Petted Dutton got tonight is not having a
costing around it. Then the second biggest hole is he's got to find a way to explain which technology is going to use.
I mean, they.
Spent twelve o eight months talking about small modulate nuclear reactors, you know, in the submarine type thing, and people.
Could sort of conceptually get that.
The problem was they couldn't find anywhere in the world commercially that they've got any of them up on working, and the first available one wasn't likely to be twenty thirty, which mean by the time we adapted it and put it in place, it will be closer to twenty forty. So they sort of put that up to the side a little while ago and they said, right, we're just going for their big traditional nuclear reactors big nuclear power stations, rather than the much smaller small modulate reactors. And so
suddenly the small modulors are back. Suddenly the small modular ones are back in the mix, just to hide them place with the single biggest problem now they actually put them aside from me, no, they didn't. So where their problem is is that to get even the small nuclear modular ones in place, it's twenty forty so you've got a circumstance where they're promising cheaper energy in twenty forty.
So I think that's the fact that it's.
Taking so long to come.
The bottom line is, could you just just pipe down from it and let me finished.
I'm nearly finished, okay.
So the two big problems are the cost and the timing of it.
Well, if you're starth interrupting, I'd be finished quicker.
So the timing to get it into the system is they're two big problems.
Yeah, now, okay, brow, I'm just going to devil's advocate on the argument here, right, which is, Okay, let's imagine wins an election. This is the policy, clearly, this is the federal you know, clearly there's and there's a way to get a ban removed in the center all the rest of it. How are you able to achieve the sites if the local state governments that presumably have some say because this is instrumentality that is formally stayed, are
now private. Is it a public domain thing? We're in the same way that governments turn around and say we're taking this bit of land because we need to build a highway. Is that the type of process that a federal government would be able to do well.
That's what he was talking about today when he talked about the power that's given under the Constitution to compulsorily acquire land with just and fair terms being paid. And also there's good old section one hundred and nine the Constitution where laws differ.
So it's great that these premiums all play their games, but there is a way to make it happen.
There is a way to make it happen. But the most important thing is this. The cost, the basic cost of renewables only requires the government and the taxpad to find one point three to one point five.
Trillion correct correct trillion correct.
Because you cannot take the wind and the sunshine and put it in your house or this studio. It has to have a huge construction cost. Now, the beauty about the proposition that mister Ducklin's put up is that the actual amount of land that is taken to deliver this cheaper energy is very small. It's the existing side of qualifire pass stations, and the existing water for cooling, and the existing grid poles and wires continue to be used.
You don't have to destroy forest, you don't have to destroy farmland, you don't have to find this huge volume of money which quite frankly, we can't afford.
So Stephen to the scare campaign. Right now.
We saw Andrew Lee for one of many I'm sure who's turned around and done. The three eyed Blinky Bill and the City Morning Heroes already off to the races with the Homo Simpson, all of this stuff. But what I did say at the start of the show, now I understand the prevailing logic instantly going hang on, well, how does.
This affect politically?
Right, the majority of the country, from the IPA to the Guardian in terms of public polling, has changed their view on this. So we're not starting from a position that maybe, yes, five ten years ago you were arguing from the thirty percent position and you're trying to push up and over the top. Now we saw when it came to the Voice, which again I understand that they're not the same thing. But again everyone's collective opinion was in one area and there's only one result that's definitely
going to happen here. But should Labor be cautious in their assumption that the majority of Australia is against an idea that apparently the majority of Australia theoretically when it's not their backyard, when it's not their money, when it's a few years away, but still they are four right.
Now, Look when it comes to the polling, and you've correctly identified it's a range of polings. I don't think it represents anybody's perspective being pushed. But the meat of the detail hasn't been included in those questions. I mean it's like saying, do you believe in world peace? I mean everyone's going to sign up to it for actually among the people have been hurting, yeah, or action on climate change agreed, So people will generally tick yes in that box. Now, what Labor has to do is deemon
strait that they are enormous flaws in Dunn's proposal. I don't think that they could just say, naturally, assume there is opposition. People are hurting and they are tempted by this idea that there is cheaper electricity prices from this source and it is renewable. When they understand that those cheaper prices can't possibly kick in until twenty forty because that's the first time one of them pretty much is
going to get switched on. Then they might begin to think, well, just a minute, you know, we're going down this path renewaballs, and we're going to be able to build enough renewaballs. People will argue about that, but buildenough renewables to supply the grid, or we could wait to twenty forty and keep doing not that much about you know, coal fire power stations which are mostly closing down. So I think labor can't just lazily think everyone's opposed to this. I
don't think that will work for them. I think they've got to do the hard assessments and demonstrate why this plan has so many holes. And the problem initially is that there's not enough detail, or there's not even close to enough detail to be able to make those arguments. So there'll be a bit of skir mashine backwards and forwards.
But it's incumbent on Dutton to say how much, say what technology, and answer a whole bunch of other questions, and then the polling will have a more substantive meaning because there'll be some meat meat of the monument rather than the slogan yeah, than the slogan's backwards and forward.
So bromwin again.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I knew it would be sixty forty No, when it was sixty forty years I just didn't know how much flexibility there was.
But you were certain. So how do they win the early.
Stages of this conversation, because again, most of the media is going to come out and go he's doing what.
Well on that basis if it's all so bad this nuclear concept, we don't think we should send any Olympians to the Paris Games because it's that all the electricity is going to come from New care POA, so we should ban sending Olympians to Paris. And the argumenty is so stupid. The rest of the world can cope with it.
And that's what Australians are seeing. And the thing is that people in Australia are saying, yes, we do want something done about climate change, but no, we don't want to pay the big bucks which are sending us broke,
are sending people manufacturing out of business. What they are seeing now from mister Ducklin, who was clear eyed and quite straightforward, and everything he had to say today is there is another option, and this one will serve the country better and it's in the national interests.
All right, good stuff. I have a feeling we'll talk about it a lot in the next few years.
Quick break back with more here on Formurray life. All right, speedround now before we get off to the late debate, and none other than from the Bishop Stephen Conry both here the paras Olympic thing very good, very clever, and we feel I'm going to be using that in arguments
within my family in the next couple of weeks. All right, let's talk about the Chinese visit, the Prime minister who didn't see anything and then it was ham fisted and have they gone, oh it was very rude bromwhen well, it kind of got there eventually, but wow, you having to wait till the bully leaves the country.
I don't think you got there at all. No, I think the whole visit was an absolute sham. But it served the Chinese Communist Party's interests because they have seen that they now have got the Albanese government just where they want them, right that they are on the way to being the vassal state. We are on the way to being the vassal state if Albernesi's government stays there.
The really really alarming parties is that they will now try and intervene in the next to try and influence the people who might change their vote, because the message comes from the Communist Party of China via their Chinese media to vote in a particular way, and that's why it's a huge success for them.
Well and again remain three seats the entire majority of the existing government, right and those three seats right now in terms of the demographic where that population is particularly based Benelong Read and Chisholm Stephen thinking about it from that perspective, right, the ABC analysis basically giant gift to Albo because this open visa system would be one that obviously appeal to people who'd like to be able to
go back pop up home. Do you read anything into that that that's the secret source that helps you hold onto three?
Look, I don't think I don't agree with that assessment at all. I think if you look at today's media, you have Penny Wong Pack, Conroyal, Richard Miles, Claire O'Neill all in Papua New Guinea or there to counter the Chinese expansionism, coercion and bullying in the Pacific.
So Labor is being clear out about this. Well talk, we'll.
Have conversations, we'll say, we'll disagree, but on the ground we've been engaged in activity across the South China Sea where they've been trying to interfere with our Maritian planes. And we are actually on the ground where the Maurice Pain and the gang from the last mob friends of Bromwin's all failed miserably.
Labor is on the ground and Solomon Islands, which you should.
Have done quite right.
There's been no success in the in changing the attitude since then.
I've literally got sixty seconds, so I need bumper stickers from both of you. A bit of fan fiction in the Daily Mail that apparently if the debate doesn't go well, there'll be a group of Democrats that go to Joe and say it's time to get out Browin. Can you imagine that scenario happening, or the debates so rigged that he'll look like a winning no matter what happens.
Well, A, the votes rigged, but B I think people are talking about change him, but whether or not they tempt to put Hillary Clinton in as the vice president so that if he carks and she goes in, anything's possible.
With Stephen Stephen, they're cutting the microphones.
There will be no cutaways, and no one's walking to the patio one candidate.
Yeah, correct.
Putting Hillary Clinton on the ticket would rarely help Donald Trump gett a lendin.
I can't see that happening at all.
All right, thank you Gang to appreciate it. So thank you for the brevity and time meaning we've done for the day. Thank you very much to appreciate it. Thank you very much for watching wherever you happen to be. Look forward to seeing you again tomorrow night. Don't forget here Sunday to Thursday each and every week. You can get the highlights at skynews dot com dot au.
Will see you. Then he comes the late debate