From the Skying In Center. This is Paul Murray Live. Thank you, Darland, thank you so much for watching tonight. We have got a lot of telling to fit into the next hour, so let's not muck around. It was the best part of three almost four months ago since the final report was handed down by the Royal Commission into the causes and the systems around members of the Australian Defense Force, both currently serving and former serving, and the shocking numbers that have taken their own lives. Now
on this show, we've talked about it for years. We have literally sat down with the mothers. We have called for and championed the Royal Commission. We're followed every single part of this, so today was a very big day.
Today was the official response of the government to the more than one hundred and twenty recommendations that Nick Callis, the former Deputy Commissioner of Police in New South Wales, made in a very lengthy, very detailed and very honest account of a system that Australians see as a national shame, something that must and had to change now. The Prime Minister spoke back in September about his response. When the report was first handed to the government.
And this is where the government will thoroughly consider every recommendation. We will to work across the Parliament on these issues and do what we can to ensure that just as our veterans and defense personnel step up for our country, we have an obligation to step up for them.
So the formal response to the report, which was released in September, has now been released. If you brush across across much of the media coverage, it will say that the government has accepted most of, if not all, of
the recommendations. Recommendations that we've talked about in the past that make common sense suggestions such chat making sure that families don't have to move around too much, making sure that the emotional intelligence of people is considered before they are promoted, That constant surveys should be done of the membership of the Defense Force, about the leadership in the Defense Force, and if there's a golf between where the men and women of the ADFR and their leaders, well
then the leaders should change. There's also a whole series of recommendations in and around brain trauma, the keeping of data so that we actually have an honest account of the number of people that have taken their own lives and some pretty confronting stuff about the Department of Veterans Affairs. But as always, the devil is in the detail. The reason that I said last night in great detail. But
because it's a weekend, you may have missed it. You need to watch this show every single night until the Christmas break, because the assumption of the government is that people are now starting to not pay attention, meaning that the news stories which came out today because most people
didn't read the original report. Most people didn't read how many of the recommendations were put forward, and most people have not followed through on the detail of how many of the recommendations are going to lead to changes versus just nodding in the direction of the report. You've got to watch us now. They hope that you're going to be distracted by whatever big bash game is on or cricket that I think starts up again later in the
week at the tests. But do me a favor, Please come back to this show nine o'clock Australian Eastern daylight time every night during summer. Please series link us on Foxtel add us to the favorites. If you're watching on
Binge or on flash. If you're watching through the sky News that favorite this program, get the podcast at skynews dot com dot stay in touch because I'll keep an eye on all of it, so you don't have to when you can get on with the preparations for that beautiful time of year that we are in right now, of parties, presence, and time with family and friends. A perfect example of that is that this announcement happened today. Now. Parliament,
of course, was around for the last two weeks. If anything was truly urgent and the government was able to get a vote through the Parliament, they would have been
able to do so in the last two weeks. But instead there's no guarantee that the parliament will resume before the next election, meaning that if anything requires legislation or a vote in the Parliament, that will not happen until potentially after the next federal election, one where this government could lose its majority and left wing people like the Greens or particularly the Victorian Teals might be the ones
that are actually going to prop up that government. In a minority situation, there of course could be a completely different minority government, but we will know why. That is the lesser of two most likely outcomes going into the election. No, we had to wait till today to the official first working day after the start of summer and the beginning of the wine down period for most people when it comes to p polytical news because guess what, they are
not implementing everything that is in this report. In fact, I can break this down for you nice and easy. There's one hundred and twenty two recommendations which Nick Caldice and the Commission made. The government has agreed to eighty five of them. Yes, that is a majority. But they've also found ways to say they agree with the report, but that I promised to do anything in the report, such as agrees in principle with nineteen of the suggestions.
There's a step down from this where they just note what's in the report seventeen times now frankly agreed in principle and noted. Feel like the too hard basket of the response to this one, which was a change to some of the pension schemes, has been just outright rejected for what reason. Of course, we didn't get into that today. In fairness to the Prime Minister, yes, I'm a hard marker on and I hope his time in office is as short as possible and to his Deputy and Defensive minis.
This is what they said today when most people were just stenographers for what they were saying about the report, rather than actually looking at the details of the report or what they are putting in the two hard basket in the recommendations.
My government willis Sabsherne Defense and Veterans Services Commission to undertake the most comprehensive reform to the culture, systems and processes across Defense, the ADF and the Department of Veterans Affairs to prevent suicide and improve the mental health and wellbeing of service personnel and veterans.
The heart of the Royal Commission's report and the government's response to it is that Defense's greatest asset is its people and we need to look after them.
So again, let's go back right if you here read or anything anywhere. Oh, most of it they're going to put in place, yes, okay, eighty five of one D and twenty two they are going to promise to act on, meaning it will change. The two hard basket has nineteen of the agreed in principles and seventeen of the government has noted. So let's have a look in the too hard basket. Which of these do you think should be acted upon versus just agreed to in principle or noted.
Here's some that stood out for me. Recommendation sixty one is that they should establish a brain injury program. Why because people who significantly are affected by concussion while serving for the country may well later in life end up developing the same type of diseases, which we know can lead to an awful lot of noise mental health issues and yes, some people choosing to win their own life. That is simply just agreed in principle. No promise to act.
Recommendation seventy eight to prevent, minimize, and treat moral injury again recognized, but no plan to act Recommendation eighty the DVA to take responsibility for supporting members transition out of the ADF. Now, the DVAS a complicated, difficult organization, one that I believe should be completely scrapped and start again.
While they do well for many people of previous wars, they do pretty poorly for more modern people that have more people who service is a little closer to today than decades ago, and people as they transition out of the ADF into quote unquote normal society. This is where people are falling out of the system. When they fall out of the system, they get themselves in a world of trouble and some of those people. How has that not been agreed to by the government. How has it
just agreed in principle? Again, this is the too hard basket. Whether I'm reading from here. Eighty one the DEVA to fund a program to support members well being during the transition to civilian life. Oh yeah, they recognize it, they agree in principle, but no plan to actually make that happen. Recommendation eighty three c to fill the gap between defense and civilian training. This is huge. Again, I wouldn't be agreeing in principle. I would be agreeing and promising to do.
Recommendation eighty seven to establish a new agency to focus on veteran well being. Well, they say there's going to be a new agency, but it's not going to be focused on veteran well being. It's going to be focused on some of the implementation of the eighty five of the one hundred and twenty two things that are not in the too hard basket. While clearly the best part of almost forty sit currently in that too hard basket. Recommendation ninety B to expand mental health support to all
reserve personnel. It's agreed in principle, but no promise for action. These are the reasons why the Royal Commission was called in the first place. These are examples of dozens and then hundreds and then thousands of people who end up not having the support that they deserve after serving our country. There's a lot of detail here, but I know you can handle it, and I want to follow the bouncing
ball out of respect for the people who serve our country. Again, Recommendation number ninety eight is in the agreed in principle, the too hard basket to strengthen the DVA performance targets. Why wouldn't that be agreed to Recommendation one hundred to improve the transparency, accountability and effectiveness of the Department of
Veterans Affairs. That would get a triple tick from me, But for some reason it is just agreed in principle, no plan for action when it comes to this Prime Minister at this Defense Minister and one hundred and six establish a suicide database for serving and ex serving members. Why is that anywhere other than absolutely agreed to underline in reading one of the first things that they could take place so we know how many people are taking their own lives who have served this country even for
a day. I find this outrageous in particular, but no giant surprise. Now again, I understand how big, I understand how complicated, I understand how costly. But let's be very clear. The men and women who defend this country, who at a moment's notice could be sent to the other side of the world or have to deal with something in this country, are like the members of our emergency services, be they volunteer or professional, are the best of us. These are people who run towards trouble when the rest
of us are running the other way. These are the people who are willing to defend every right we have in this country. Yet the government and the political leadership of this government the talk the talk, are not going to walk the walk. Even worse than the agreed to in principle is just noted. If there is any doubt whatsoever, this is the official list of the two hard basket. Of those there are the best part of nineteen of those that have now made out into the noted Sorry
seventeen that have made it into the noted basket. He's just some. I won't read them more, but I'm fixator on the detail because the detail is what matters, and what matters is everything. To make sure that men and women who defend this country do not take their own life, Recommendation one of the of the Royal Commission has been just put in as noted, the number one recommendation of
the Royal Commission is being ignored. To improve the capacity of future roy Commissions to undertake their inquiries, noted Recommendation forty two to ensure that future Inspector Generals of the ADF have not served in the ADFI E an outsider can come in to see what the problems are and they are not affected by the culture of the ADF or the slippery pole that many people in the public
service parts of the ADF climb like politicians. Noted Recommendation eighty eight to develop a national funding agreement for Veterans well being. It's not even agreed in principle, it's not agreed to, it's just noted. Recommendation one hundred and one a to enable veterans to choose their rehabilitation provider and to self manage their budget for approved household assistance in an opt in basis. Put simply, if you want an NDIS style system for you and your rehabilitation, that should
be made available to you. It is just noted by this government. It won't happen. Recommendation one hundred and eleven to achieve gold standard rating for defense data sets related to suicidality, people who make commit suicide or people who do It's just noted one hundred and thirteen to ensure commanding officers access and use quality data for continuous improvement of well being metrics noted couple more one hundred and eighteen eight to continue the existing census question for the
ADF Service in the next and future censuses. Why is this not agreed to? Why is this just noted? Why is this your service? And whether you have and when you didn't for how long? In the too hard basket? Recommendation one hundred and twenty to increase funding and research into veteran health and well being? How is this not agreed to? Let alone agreed in principle, it's just noted, And finally, enable research into the health and well being
of defense families. Noted they talk a big game. When the Royal Commission is called, they say they can't possibly have an opinion because the Royal Commission is playing itself out. They wait from September to December to respond to the Royal Commission, of which of one hundred and twenty two eighty five they say yes, nineteen they say kinder, and seventeen they say noted. One they say no. They're not going to do presumably because it costs too much money.
The shadow Defense Minister is Andrew Hasty. He is a hope of the side. He is a man who you would hope would implement all of these recommendations. I hope he gets the chance to do so sooner rather than later, but we'll have to wait for an election for that to happen.
I think it comes down to political leadership and is up to the Albanesi government to demonstrate they can lead. So far, I think they failed to lead the defense force wells. We do want to work with the government on a bipartisan basis to deliver for our defense and veteran community.
Now I guarantee in a couple of days time, what seems like universal praise for the government's response is going to start to fracture, or at least we're starting to see or we will start to see what I think is the gradience of response, the things that are in the too hard basket, all the to do list, or somewhere in between. As the days roll on, I'll pay attention to the response. I'll pay attention to the advocacy groups. I'll pay attention to the mums who called for this
Royal Commission. I'll report back to you on how they feel. And I've got a feeling eventually it's going to be the way that I feel, and hopefully you do tonight about a government that yes, has taken on the majority good, but too many things are too vague in an area that must improve. I believe the Royal Commission did fabulous work. I believe most, if not all, of its recommendations should be in place. As for the other issues that are worth dealing with as we move our way in towards
the full summer period. It's about the number of people who have been brought into the country under this Prime Minister and nowhere for them to live. It's just simple maths. If you bring it as many people to the country as they have since they first formed government, which is now a million people. Then you need to have a million places for them to be able to live somewhere.
But as you know, there's not enough rental properties for the people before we brought in a million, there's not enough units to buy before we brought in a million, and there's definitely not enough freestanding homes before we brought in a million. Again, their migration number under labor is one million, one five hundred and sixty nine. Our source
the far right wing Australian Bureau of Statistics. As I often talk about, we try to give you the data to build the bricks of an argument, and the opinion that I will add to it is the mortar that will hold it together. But I need you to see that data that when you say a million people and somebody says that's not true, the source ain't me. The
source is the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Okay, the total number of new homes and units that have been approved in the same period of time is somewhere between two hundred and sixty three. But according to my numbers that we revised just before we came on here is four hundred and thirty two thousand, eight hundred and twenty one. Now I am no genius, that is obvious. I am just a blog trying to work my way through the news like everyone else does. And my math's not fabulous.
But if you've added a million, one thousand, five hundred and sixty nine people in the same period of time that you have only approved four hundred and thirty two thousand, eight hundred and twenty one places for people to live, and I'm including social housing. Now, social housing, of course, already has a wait list of tens of thousands of people in each state. So this is the best version of the numbers, some quick editing by a team, and
I appreciate it. Four hundred and thirty two thousand, eight hundred and twenty one compared to one million, one thousand, five hundred and sixty nine people that are brought into the country. There is a problem those of us who say we need to pump the b on the number of people that are coming in until the infrastructure can
match the current population, let alone future populations. That is an issue which must and should be front and center in a national political discussion, and going into the election, you must mark harshly. A government that has presided over this system, because this is the system of their making. They control the numbers. They can pretend that it's about universities that are fiddling the books or someone finding a side door. You have to issue a visa. The visa
is coming through the Department of Immigration. The people are checked by the Australian Border Force when they come into the country. So it is the federal government who has decided, in order to cook the books of the budget, we've got to keep the tax rates as high as possible while the spending is even higher than that deficits forward for the next forty years. That's why they bring in
Aminian people. But despite the fact that it's your kids and grandkids inability to buy a house, your kids and grandkids inability to rent a house, or maybe even your inability to rent a house, they don't care no matter what they say. Perfect example, by the way, about the supercharging in population and the problem of where the hell are they going to live? The new Civils Planning Department released some numbers unrelated to the conversation and the data
that I'm showing you here. But the data in and of itself is worth having a look at. Reading from the article that wrote about it in the Channel nine newspapers, Greater Sydney will have six point seven million people by twenty forty one. That's about a one point one million more people than currently live in the biggest city in the country. The current population of usipiles eight point five million. It will go up to more than ten million by
the twenty forties. Where we are what fifteen years away from the twenty forties, which will be the first fifteen years of forty years until twenty six of budget deficits. To make it nice and clear in picture form for even government backbenches to understand. The population keeps growing and it will dramatically keep growing according to the estimates of
the Nisopwhals Department of Planning. But have a look at where people are going to live and the extreme differences in the different parts of Sydney and how they are going to grow. The area of the green and the Blue that is going to be racing well, of course, that is western Sydney where you can see the populations have gone from the twenty twenties where we are right now, all the way through to the twenty forties. They will be double trebling even in the size, but places like
Mossman will stay exactly the same as it is. With no disrespect to everyone is watching us in that beautiful part of Sydney. It does vote Teel and that's because just like everything else, the expectation is every where else has to wear the cost of Big Australia or renewable energy changes. Nothing to see here, of course, is the
way that this game works. But if you live in the areas of Sydney that has lower housing prices than the areas that have no change coming in the next twenty something years, it's not like those higher valued areas, let alone throwing twenty four hour airport noise in Western Sydney. And there's going to be quite a crisis coming our way. And everyone will say it's a crisis when it comes. But very rarely do you have somebody saying it's a crisis before it even happens. That's what I'm saying to
you right now tonight. Now again, forget about our bow and interest rates, because too often people in my position, with access to cameras and microphones, they talk about it in a political context. Well, the reality for Australians is that interest rates. As I've said for a long period of time. Now, ever since y this government came to power, there have been twelve interest rate rises. Interestrate python is so tight around about a third, maybe even a half
of the country right now is rabina purple. And it doesn't matter if the twelve becomes eleven. And somebody sent me an email the other day saying I'm against interesstrate falls. I'd love there to be eleven of them. They're not going to happen, though, Why because this government is fiddling with the inflation numbers, which means the Reserve Bank doesn't know what data they're actually dealing with, which is why we are where we are. But all of this costs money.
It costs real people, real money. And according to real estate dot com that are You today, Aussie homeowners may have to spend an extra one hundred thousand dollars on the average mortgage as a result of the interest rate hikes since this government came to power. The new research by money dot com that are You revealed that mortgages mortgagees, we'll have to pay an extra three and a half one thousand dollars a year on their home loan after the typical variable interest rate rose from six to six
point twenty seven. So remember this increase of three and a half thousand is on top of numbers that are way higher, meaning the average is about I think it's about twenty thousand dollars that they had to fined since this bloke came to power with a typical thirty year mortgage. This means an extra one hundred and seven thousand dollars over the life of a mortgage. Where does it come from, Well,
of course it comes from so called discretionary spending. And while it's great that you'll be able to hold the roof over your head for another month, another six months, another year, we have a problem in this country that, despite the fact that many people might be taking out mortgages in their thirties or even their forties, the capacity for them to maintain their current level of income all the way to when it's paid off in their fifties
or sixties becomes a major problem, meaning that yes, once eventually they play some sort of property caplunk, there may be a few hundred thousand dollars it falls over, but it's not even enough for a deposit on another place, because no one will give you a loan, meaning that's the amount of money you've got for the rental market, where of course you are competing with not just everyone who's already in the market, but in thirty years time,
millions more people competing in the same rental market. But it's okay. Some of us have got an investment property to flog off, or maybe a few so you don't even notice. But the Prime Minister who over the weekend sold one of his for one point seventy five million dollars, so an extra hundred thousand dollars on them all this doesn't matter to him, but it does matter to you and me, and it will matter at the upcoming election.
A few quick things to note. Craig Kelly has moved political houses again after leaving the Liberal Party, going to the United Australia Party, briefly to the One Nation Party. He is now going to be the Liberty Senate candidate in New South Wales at the upcoming federal election. The Tasmanian Club has made a decision that Sheila's are allowed to come into the Bob and only if they've gone a blug with them. I'll have twentieth century off them.
And you might have heard by now that Joe Biden de spot saying this multiple times about his son Hunter Biden. Does the President have any intention of pardoning him?
We've been asked that question multiple times.
Our answer stands, which is now the.
Big news today was.
Good evening.
We are coming on the air with breaking news tonight. President Biden has made a decision to pardon his son Hunter head of the transfer of power to President elect Donald Trump.
We now turn to a Fox New remarks.
President Biden is expected to issue a pardon for his son Hunter.
Shocking.
Yes, Biden said on multiple occasions that he would not pardon his son or he whispered it or commute his sentence. The pardon comes ahead of Hunter's December twelfth sentencing for his conviction on federal gun charges.
Seeing in his learned President Biden will pardon his son Hunter Biden.
But it's okay because he's lifty supporters who still exist on television, no matter how wrong they were at the election or elections before that. The people still with the Trump derangement syndrome, plenty of them still writing news copy here in Australia. They said this is an act of.
Love, Joe, Is this a politics of purity? This is a father who saw his first wife killed, his daughter killed in a carrash. His two young sons survive. One goes on to have real difficulties with addiction, another dies because of cancer. This is a family that's really trouble. I mean, are many people going to be surprised that a father who is also the president would do this for a son?
What he said he wouldn't, But that, of course was when he was running. Then they pushed him out, so he said, oh bugger, I'll do it. I'll do it the side of the same ber, I'll do it, And all weekend we'll move on to something else. The what the something else is we'll all have to find out together the start of World War three? Who knows, in fairness, Joe doesn't remember making the other promise. But that's a whole different issue, isn't it. We break back with more
loss of debate tonight. Matt Canavan on the nature positive stuff. I was seeing some discussion of it earlier today where people say the legislation's gone, it's been torn up. No, it hasn't. Anthony Albernezi himself said on taxpayer television yesterday that he would return the bills to the Parliament, meaning the threat that still existed in Western Australia and everywhere else exists today with re electing this government. Morenessing, thank
you so much for watching us. Sam Crossby joins us right now, follow the Christmas spirit and excited for a many many things. Now I should say he does a lot of great work with Vinni's Videa's a great charity and I want people, in all of their Christmas stockings and all the rest of it, find a way to back a charity. Okay, it could be food bank, it could be anything, but I would say Vinnys is doing excellent work. I please find a way to support them
if you can. Right. So, maybe it's the adults don't give presents and you're just going to give a donation. He's not asking me to make that point. I'm making it on my own. And the wonderful Matt Canavan who has given plenty of blood, sweat and teas the good people of North Queensland and so many other things. What's in the background. Are you in your man cave again tonight and you've upgraded everything. What's behind us there? I love the background.
Actually, Paul, this was a lovely donation from a gentleman who passed away a few months ago. This is all the coal mines he worked at. Oh, he's got badges from all of them, and he donated it to my office.
I'm in my office.
I've just had dinner for my son's eighteenth birthdays slipping across the road from the Italian restaurant Pacino's excellent restaurant here in Rockhampton. That's it, and live from here from.
Here mentioned my name payful price. That's the way it normally works, all right now, speaking of pubs, I've saved it till now because I wanted to throw it around with you guys. I made it clear last night that the way that that company decided to virtue signal inen around a straight a day was a reason to say, Okay, go somewhere else this summer. Now apparently found some way to slightly backtrack on it. But can I just see what they actually said today, because I think there's plenty
of pr weazel words in all of this. Australia Day is a day that causes sadness for some members of our community. So we have decided not to specifically celebrate that day because it causes harm to some of the patrons and staff. That's what they said yesterday. Today it's stern. Oh look, you know, we're open to anyone and everyone who wants to do whatever they want on Australia Day, but they're having promised to put the bunting up now, Matt, I saw you got a good run on this Today show.
I heard that the hosts were scoffing and all the rest of it. But who cares. You're funnily enough where the majority of people were, and I reckon there was a lot of people who like me, have been to plenty of these venues, in fact, have annual traditions of going to some of these venues. Who did, as I did after the show last night cancel bookings?
Well, look, I didn't need to cancel a booking. I wasn't going to one of these pubs anyway. But I mean a couple of points to make here, Paul. I know the Woolworth CEO stepped down last year. He must have found a new job already running these pubs, because I mean, how could you make this decision after seeing the Woolworths fiasco last year. They got absolutely tailed up over their decision to remove Australian products on Australian Day.
They had a big drop in their sales, although their sales growth.
Was much much lower.
But after inflation, they had a big drop in their sales in wool wors and they backtracked on it. So look, at least we're at least we're shortening the distance now, Paul, between a woke proclamation and a woke back down. It's now happening within twenty four hours, so there is a clear reaction that people spoke I think in that time. The other point I just want to make is, look, I've gon't no problem you going to pubs, but they do sell alcohol. And since when do they get to
be the moral guardians for the rest of us? I mean, we seem to have banks out there telling us what to do. I mean banks. I mean these people are effectively been Robert Barons the last decade, and I'm just sick and tied of corporations, big corporations. Often they make a lot of money, good luck to them, but you're not saints and you don't get to spouse some kind of ten commandments, like you've just come down from Mount
Sinai when you're just trying to run a business. Just go and run your business and stop trying to be the moral guardian of the rest of us.
Also, Sam, one of the pubs they own, I'm not joking in South Australia is called the Colonist. That's one of the pubs they own. Men, if not all of the pubs have got poker machines, all right. So the whole point is if you want to make your social stands, there's a whole series of things you can do. So
that's fine if that's what they want to do. But the whole point is someone in marketing decided to bang this one out nice and early, presumably someone higher than the marketing person's going, what's happened in the past twenty four hours? I mean, that's the Colonists. It's the Colonist isn't doing Australia day and the Colonist is still part of their portfolio. But is the press release right?
You know, I'll be honest, I can't remember any pub that I've gone to if they've got an Australia flag up. You know, you go in you get your beer, you sit with your mates. You fine, it's putting the press release out, you know in this sort of you know, absurd rane virtue signaling, wanky virtue signaling. You know, if you've got those views, fine, you know great. I know a lot of Australia do is. That's fine, but don't
do it. You know you stay home, hang out with your mates at home, or don't hang out, sit in the clip you know, dark round byself, do whatever you want to do.
Right.
It's the it's the telling everyone. It just it just grates, doesn't It just gets on your nerves.
The Colonist this is their website. The Colonists Gaming Room features thirty three of the latest poker machines in a welcoming atmosphere set out with ample room and each machine for your comfort and enjoyment. I continue attention to detail and cleanliness makes The Colonist a destination venue for many who play the podcast.
My tip Paw has hit the Cat of nine tails spoken machine.
That's a lucky one. That one plays out. He could again.
Right, if you're going to do it, somebody's going to find this stuff. I waited twenty four hours to double check that I did, but I'm pleased. And then look I love the Pokey's all right, you know of the Queen of the Nile. Still culturally appropriate though, I mean.
Good point, yes, mister cash Man, is you know, not gender neutral and any others we can mention here dollars stop anyway, you get the whole point. I'm across the issue rather well. Anyway, it is where it is. Took a little survey of our staff today and to go, okay, they've done the backflip. Do we go and rebook no one year ban for the venue? So a place that I've loved for a long time. No summer for me, nature positive, Matt, the Prime Minister, I want to make
this nice and clear. Over the weekend people were pretending that this thing's been torn up and disappeared. No, no, it still exists. They'll reintroduce it to the Parliament if they'd want to. Theoretically they could get a double disillusion out of it if they really want to keep voting against it. And just in case anyone doubts, the Prime Minister yesterday, not in the Parliament, not quietly spent yesterday on taxpayer television. He committed the government to the Policy of Nature positive.
Okay, there is a draft agreement though, and a letter to you that says draft agreement on the top and spells out what that No, there's not that. Well, I've seen that the draft letter from her, a draft agreement from Tanya Plibersek to the Greens laying out the amendments.
Well, there's no draft agreement to me.
Just to be clear, you're saying you weren't aware that the minister had written a draft agreement letter to the Greens laying out.
Well, we were negotiating through a series of legislation. Forty five pieces of legislation went through.
Now, Matt, we talked about it before. Give us an idea what this legislation is, because you and that plenty of others can campaign on the next election. It has not been torn up. Is still their first principle, It is still their intention to make it law.
What is it, Well, it's effectively putting the foxes in charge of the chicken coop, Paul. What this will do will put activist bureaucrats in charge of every project in this country. And so we just saw a small window into that. When the current mister Environment who seems to be doing a good job imitating an activist stopped a billion dollar gold mine for because of concerns about a mythical be It's not even impact on a real bea.
It's impact on a story about a bee. So I mean, this is what's going to happen if we let those bureaucrats providing that advice actually make the final decisions. And that's what this bill would do. Now, what's clear here to me is the Prime Minister has pulled a bunch of this stuff, not because he doesn't believe in it anymore, but because he wants to keep his powder dry. He wants to keep his powder dry. For a minority government,
it was almost inevitable if Labor is sustained power. And the positions the Labor Party has right now aren't just their policies, they're just the stuff adding point of negotiations. And what the Greens will do to form minority government is take them even further to the left and more radical and more destructive for our economy. And that is going to be what's the real choice before the Australian
people at this election. If you vote for the Labor Party, you're going to get a whole lot of scary Green policies from behind a curtain that Labor's hiding right now, that they'll pull back after the election to offer to the Greens to stay in government.
But you won't know what they are.
You would exactly know what the details are if you vote for Labor Party this time.
Now you're talking about pulling back curtains. Did one of your kids take you to Wicked this weekend? Are you making a little Wizard of Oz reference?
There?
Did you go and seeing you? You didn't see it this weekend? It's the Eat movie. It's very little campire that I would expect your tastes to be in film. But I thought they're pulling back at the curtain.
A lovely Rivers still worked up about the other sixteen social media band.
I don't stop complaining. True, we'll get all right, Sam again the principles that have just been said there by Matt. Remember Roger Cook, wa premier apparently had problems with this legislation, so much so that he thought it would be a version of his own government and the Heritage laws, which of course in part helped sink the voice quickly in Western Australia. Quinsane was never going to vote for it,
but he has said please don't do this. Prime minister double stand and says, okay, cool, we won't do it now, but maybe later.
So look, my understanding was that the Prime Minister said he wanted to negotiate this through with the Liberal Party and the coalition and had some sort of agreement or Tanya had some sort of agreement with the Greens, which he said, no, he wanted to make this a bipartisan thing. I don't have any information to contradict him on that, and so I'm taking him at faith value, and I
hope that's right. I mean, in general, I think most Australians would hope that most legislation, especially big things like this, are agreed between the major political party.
What were the chances you could do a deal on this? Sorry to interrupt, but yeah, what are the chances we don't have to?
Well, I mean this is the Labor Party's policy. It's their policy, so as remains their policies, you said, Paul, So say, you can, as seem certainly take people in their face value. So if you vote from they're going to try and implement it. And I think what's worse is with the risk of the mount of government already, it might even be made worse.
All right, let's talk about a couple of international issues in a second. But firstly, we talk about this every now and then, which is about the problems that teachers have controlling their classrooms. At the moment. There's a disgraceful number of kids that have to be booted out of classrooms or restrained because of the threats they posed to others.
There's assaults on teachers that happens way too frequently. The OECD has shown that one of the big issues in the Australian classrooms is the lack of discipline, which is why we fall, and we keep falling all the time. I don't think it costs a dollar to fix this. I just think you make the laws nice and clear to empower a teacher to have the full authority to have the discipline control in their classroom. But how the heck do we fix this?
So the short answer is no, one knows. The trend line is real. There's something happened at COVID, and we can all figure out kind of what happened at COVID, But since COVID there has been an absolute trend line on this going in the wrong direction. New South Wales has just recently repealed the previous government's directions about suspending students, so's they're making it easier for schools to suspend students.
There are a number of programs that exist that I would hope that they look more at, which is not just sending the kid home where they get to know, best case scenario, play Fortnite, worst case scenario, go home and get belted by you know, someone that's not belting them because they love them, you know, get a terrible environment.
But they're sending them to you know, community organizations like the pcy C where they do the sort of kids equivalent of a community service, you know, something like that. Now that doesn't help the kids that are frankly assaulting teachers and sure for them. You know, we're talking about different different things, but there's got to be an answer.
Yeah, glad to hear that. There are some things that are happening in and around things that look as a person who had been it's one surprise you suspended it at least twice in my high school years. The idea and also remember I'm from a system that surprised surprise when I went home. It didn't matter what the reason was. Mom and Dad weren't finding a way to appeal the decision. They were finding a way to say, Oh, okay, Pale, all right, you're in a world of trouble that in
and of itself might be part of the problem. Now, today's a very special day. I hope that you are marking it on your calendars. The second of December three years ago was when we were promised two hundred and seventy five dollar cuts in power prices. Now, to mark this important occasion, we have a message from the opposition leader.
Remember when Anthony Openezy promised to cut your power bills by two hundred and seventy five dollars a year.
That was three years ago to the day. And he didn't just promise at once.
Two d two hundred and two hundred and two hundred and seventy five DOLLARSS Labour said at ninety seven times before the last election.
But what's it delivered?
Well, electricity prices are now up to one thousand dollars more than what Labor promised.
Labour's renewables only policy.
Is driving prices up and Australian households are paying the price.
Here's the reality.
Lying solely on renewables comes with a staggering cost of six hundred and forty two billion dollars. That's more than five times what Labor claimed. And when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine, Australians put the bill for the instability. Next year, Australians face a clear choice Labour's costly renewables only agenda or the coalitions affordable balanced energy mix including zero emissions nuclear technology.
To get our country.
Back on track, we need to make these decisions that are in our country's best interests.
So one of the greatest lives told in Australian political history, Happy birthday three years young mac Kennaman.
It sure is Paul, and it's not here. It's further away than it's ever been. I mean, the average bill's gone up over five hundred dollars a year for families. That's average, some large families much more than that. When's the penny going to drop here? No country in the world that has pursued solar and wind as their major energy sources has lowered electricity prices. Not a single nation in the world has achieved that. Many of them been trying to do this now for a generation. It's not
a recent thing. And so, as I say, reality, reality is undef defeated, Champion, and the reality is that the Labor Party's energy plant is not working. They're obstinate, they're stubborn, and they're refusing to face up to reality that they need to change what they're doing soon or we're going to lose a lot of jobs in this country. And
people already are. But people are going to continue to pay through the nose for something that should be really, really cheap in the country blessed with so much energy like we are.
Sam. If only I had more time for your response, the less we're out of time right now. I appreciate it. Stand by the idea, though, give to charity this Christmas. Okay, I know everyone's doing it tough. I'm not saying about more money than ever before, but if you can, it's a great idea, and Vinie would be one of the
ones that I'd be backing in heart. Thank you, lads, will see you again before that Christmas break or a quick breakback with more here on Paul Murray Life, talking to somebody about their reaction to the government's official response when it comes to this suicide Royal Commission into members of the Defense Force, it's one thing for us to talk the talk. Does this walk the walk? We'll all
find out together. Nixt Saturday, the Federal government gave its response to the Royal Commission into Veterans' Suicide one hundred and twenty two recommendations eighty five. Yes, the rest are in some version of the too hard basket. I went through that in great detail at the start of the show. Hopefully that video will'll be up soon. It's going to news dot com dot au. But in the meantime for his view and this, I wanted to talk to Ryan Shaw,
who is a veteran's advocate. He's a member of his man who has served in the ADYF and want to get his thoughts, whether they are similar to mine or completely different. Love you to meet you again. Thank you for your service. Ryan. Have I got this right? Where it's one thing for them to say they're going to implement something, but once we start to say, oh yeah, we kind of acknowledge, and then we note that there is there is a whole lot of too hard basket that has come out of this report as well.
Thanks for having me on. I have to say, it's very refreshing to hear your rhetoric this evening, because it's a very special day to hear the government's response to this. I've had a lot of people come to me today and say it's great that they've managed to tick this box and agree on so many things. And I went back and I reviewed it, and they have agreed in
principle on so many important things. And what does that mean. Well, it might sound better than it actually looks, but it really is saying, yes, okay, we acknowledge it, but when it comes to this, we'll action it another day. And I think when I look at this in more detail, we haven't had much time to digest it. But I'm very concerned about the lack of commitment on some of
the critical recommendations that were made. I think it was Recommendation seventy one, which is to simply ask, can you align the Department of Veteran Affairs fee for service with that of other service and other social service schemes like INDIS and it was agreed in principle. And the other one was to simply I think it was Recommendation seventy two, which the recommendation to expand the healthcare services for veterans,
again agreed in principle. So how can we claim to prioritize veteran mental health and basic expansion considerations when we are just agreeing in principle. The issues we're talking about here aren't new, and it's very concerning to see some of the more larger and more extensive contributors to this national crisis, that is defense and veteran suicide, to be taken with such a broad approach is no action. We're acknowledging the problem, you know, that's just one step. We'll
think about implementing solutions in the future. When you're in defense, you learn a lot about leadership, and I don't see leadership right now. I think the next step, which is the implementation, is where that true leadership shows. That's what we need to keep an eye on. I think I just heard before it's the third birthday of the cost of living crisis. I'm still waiting for that promise, So let's see.
Yeah, exactly. I mean the other thing he Ryan is and I'm pleased with your expertise that we're basically in the same ballpark, right and again it is early days in detail and double check. But once you start getting down to seventeen of the things that are just noted, I mean, what does that even mean? You might as well just say, you know, bugger off, because it's not even the gray area of I sort of generally, how
do they just say noted? How is this an acceptable response to seventeen ideas to save people's lives?
Am I am I too bold to say that? This just seems a little like political theater to me, to tick a box to say that they did a thing. I'm sick of my mates killing themselves and that's why I advocate so hard in this. And I'm just seeing political theater with a noted and I'm seeing political theater with a greed in principle. Some of the recommendations I bought up I have mentioned several times on aring media outlets, and that is the importance of creating a sense of purpose,
and it is disappointing. I think it is political theater.
Yeah, look, obviously we'll follow up with others. I appreciate firstly your service and then your advocacy as well. Thank you to everyone, and strength and love to everyone who's dealing with the difficulties, including the people that sadly have been lost to this stuff. Appreciate it right, all the best, thanks right sure there for us. He is of course
a victim's advocate, and particularly a veteran's advocate. And there's too many veterans that ended up becoming victims of a system that has had a Royal commission that had the opportunity for everyone to be heard that the government has responded to and I am marking them quite harshly. Again. There's telephone numbers that are there for support please one one hundred zero double one zero four six the lifeline number, and plenty of other ways to have the support and
strength and love to every person who struggles. But you in the Defense Force or not, I get it. It's a tough time, it's a tough life, and we always want you here because we love you. Family, friends or drying choice, say tomor