Paul Murray Live | 25 June

he'll say one thing and that'll do another. And sometimes it'll be, you know, one day and then another day. Sometimes it'll be a week and another week. This one a little bit different. As you know, the new Governor General is apparently so amazing, is such a great friend of the Prime Minister that she's going to get an extra two hundred thousand dollars when she eventually takes over

the role in just a few days time. Now, as we know, this is the ultimate captain's pick to decide who is the person with the power to the government. After all, that is one of the key roles of the Governor General, and the more they like you, the less likely that's going to happen. Regardless of what happens in the Senate, regardless of whether you are in a minority government position. But of course this governor General, as everyone knows by now, is going to get paid and

absolute bodza. Now she's or the current governor general earns less than the Prime minister. The new governor General will earn more than the prime minister. The prime minister now is at about five hundred and something. He goes up to six hundred, which means, let's bump it up. There's a lot of ribbons to to cut. Well, why do I mention each way albow, because apparently this is all great, all above board, all good, all with the times, all

you know, yeah, with the sisterhood. The problem is, it's not always been the position of old mate Anthony Arbernezi that the highest office in the land, even more significant than the prime ministers, should receive major bump ups in money. Now we are talking today about a governor General that he has appointed will end up gearning two hundred thousand dollars more than their previous governor general. Well, let's go

back to two thousand and three. David Hurley was the man who had become our Governor General and there was a conversation about how much that person will end up being paid. Now the hike was about fifty thousand dollars, and guess it was blowing up and going off like a tubob watch because the pay rise was fifty thousand dollars as opposed to when he's in charge and it's two hundred thousand dollars. Well done to whoever dug this up.

when it comes to vapes. Now, of course Australians have given up, generally speaking on smoking, but there are those of us that are still stupid enough to do it. But the big fear about vaping is that it is a brand new generation of people that are learning how to put something in their system that's terrible, that's not natural, and therefore it must be banned.

Sure not, you know, lovely apple and cinnamon scrolls and whatever the other flavors are that some bloc will set you underneath the counter. So of course you are now going to be available to get your vapes.

more than I do. We know, mine's mostly cholesterol. But you are able to see and able to remember that they said something completely different. But that's not the real thing that I want to focus on, because, as you know, we're going from the vape shops which basically will be being shut down as soon as the first of July, and the place where you will be able to get a wide array of flavors. It'll be nicotine, mint or

menthol and that place will be your friendly chemist. Yes, the thing that kind of works like a cigarette, but because it's not a cigarette, it's now a way of getting off cigarettes. But it's still got nicotine and it still produces smoke, which means technically the person sitting next to you wouldn't really like it as much as if I was sitting there with a caheba. Anyway, follow along as you will. Now we put some calls in today to the Health Minister's office and jeez, weren't they happy

that it was us calling? Now we don't know whether code names were used, and whether this program was announced to whether they had to go. It's someone from scott News. Can we just ask a quick question? Who knows? But we did get something out of them, which is okay, how does this system work because under the new system after October of this year, you won't need a prescription anymore.

You just go to You just present yourself as if you're buying the the cold and flu tablets, and you go, oh, where's me, I've got me, I think there is, there's me, there's me, driver's license. Yeah, two packs thing. I'm feeling a bit so apparently, So how does this work? Now? When it comes to the vapes. Let's say we called the Health Minister's office and this is the best that we can work out. You can buy a month's worth of vapes at any one time. But here's the fun bit.

How do you work out how much is a month's worth of vapes that you'll be able to get from your local chemist. Well, of course that's all in the eye of the beholder, you see. Apparently, the way that this is going to work is that you customer will go to the chemist and you will tell the chemist how much you would normally smoke if it was a cigarette or a cigar or pouch tobacco or all the

rest of it. Right, that's the plan. In fact, the actual quote we have from the Health as a spokesperson was this is limited to a one month supply dependent on the person and their current nicotine intake. It's a limit on the nicotine concentration and also the quantity. So okay, now, smoking bad, right, smoking bad, smoking terrible? Advocating it on television really naughty? Right. Health department got in touch with

us and said that, you know, posters, get rid of it. Okay, I am not advertising smoking, So I let's just pluck a number. Right. Let's say I have a cigar a day, all right, So a cigar a day, thirty days, thirty one days equals one vape, two vapes because the hit of the tobacco is a little different than somebody who might be having a pack of a cigarette, or somebody who's having a pack of cigarettes a day or two

a week, or a cart in a month. I don't know, but obviously they'll be, you know, three vapes for you. This is how the system will work. Now, there's no way you will have to prove that you are somebody who is a carton a week or a packet a day, or a thirty cigars a month person, and you will end up with the vapes. And do you know an extra thing that's amazing on top of this system, you don't have to pay any tax. So if you purchase any of those existing tobacco products, of course you pay tax.

It'll be going up again, I think Versse to September a couple three times a year. They put it up. Why because they want to make you give up because it's too expensive. It's called a price disincentive, you see, which is why they keep putting the tax up. So eventually you go, look, I really like one, but Jesus expensive. All right, give it up. But now you can go to the chemist telling them that you're a pack a day, a carton a fortnite, make up a number. You don't

have to prove it. There's no way to prove it, and you will end up getting x amount of vapes, and you can have your selection whether it's going to taste like tobacco or it's going to taste like mental menthole, their choice. All of these, of course have to be stored somewhere, which means someone may start to target your local chemist when they've currently been targeting your local tobacconists. But who knows. This is the Greens idea. This is the great idea about how to deal with this system

and there's no tax. So even if you're somebody who absolutely loathes tobacco like ninety percent of the country that doesn't smoke and gets the Harry hits, when someone like May will light up somewhere and you well, of course, the taxation that comes through each and every year is the best part of what ten eleven, twelve, fourteen billion dollars that exclusively comes out of the taxes that people pay who smoke tobacco. Now, of course, that means that money goes back in and you end up with a

federal budget surplus, which is what they currently have. Or I might dangerously say you are well and truly paying for your and four other people's eventual interaction with the health system. But under this amazing new idea, no tax, no limit, no proof, just ask, and you could end up with enough vapes to get you through the month and maybe a few spare that I will predict some dodgy people will end up selling on a new black market equally, so just questions. I don't know and nobody

won Why have any details about this? Are we picking one company that makes these things? Now? If so, we'd like to know so we can all buy the shares, right, I'd love to know if is it two or three companies or are we basically handing the Australian non tobacco smoking market to one company and if so, which company? And how was this negotiated? And has this been decided or will this just be decided and one day we'll

read about it four months after it's happened. Now again, I think there is a sensible solution here, which is the use of vapes. But I believe that they should be regulated like tobacco is, and it should be taxed like tobacco is. It could be sold in the same places and obviously in the same way that the law currently exists that no one under the age of eighteen can purchase them. But yes, are there time Yes, of course there's times where it happens, but you need to

have massive penalties and massive enforcement. But instead, under the labor policy which has gone from full banning to make up how much nicotine you normally smoke and the chemist has to give you a month's work and you declare how much the month is worth a nicotine. Nothing to see here, nothing at all.

This means every single member of the party gets to go behind closed doors, and one says let's go this way, and one says that let's go that way. And then they have a vote and they decide they're going to go this way, which is not the way you wanted to go. But as soon as you walk outside, you've got to say, I completely agree. We should have always gone that way. Perfect example of this was Penny Wong.

Remember the absurdity when Julia Gillard says, yeah, not to same sex marriage for whatever reason, that would be too big a shock. When she was the Prime minister. We had to believe that this openly gay woman was completely cool with the idea that her government was going to go against same sex marriage. In fact, here's the receipt that we have way back from twenty ten. And of course we know it was all bs at the time, because of course, this was her reaction when same sex

marriage was legalized under a liberal government. Oh that's right, it happened under a liberal government. Wow, a couple of years later. But that's the way it works. Stick together. No one has a go at the system. Nobody complains. Anyone who complains, the system turns on them. Conversy, the Liberal Party much more fair and they're able to say.

People can cross the floor and disagree, and that's all fine, but in terms of message discipline, it means that generally speaking with the Liberal Party, think about it as a third of bedweatherers, third of right wingers and a third of left wingers, depending how that turned out on your screen, and at any one time the bed wedders choosed to go to the left or to the right, and whichever third are left out of the two thirds, they're the ones that you see on TV always generally are peddling

from a great height on whatever the idea is that the Liberal Party is doing. When it comes to the left, that was about they're not doing enough on climate change or where is all the same sex marriage stuff? And all of those MPs, of course were returned to parliament by Center, that's right. They were all wiped out by

the Teals anyway. So the Liberal Party then ends up in this situation where people can sort of openly question and openly have a go, and that's good for the system, but it's very bad when you're trying to have a bit of message discipline. You end up looking like you're fighting amongst yourself. But in actual fact, the Labor Party also fights amongst itself. They just do it behind a closed door. As you may have heard by now, Labour senator from Western Australia elected to the Parliament at the

last election, she's there for six years. In a vote today which was about recognizing Palestine as a country and if you would like a two state solution, probably at some point going to have to recognize both of the states. When and how that's a debate for another time, and let's not do it now. So of course she turns around and she says, I'm voting against my party. Now. The technical term in Camper they all love is across the floor. Across the floor, she voted against her own government.

To give you an idea of how rare this is. According to the ABC, it's the first time a Labor politician has crossed the floor while Labor's in government since

nineteen eighty six. Since nineteen eighty six, Yet this Prime Minister desperate not to offend Islamic voters, who, as we have shown you before, are raging up at a campaign right now, suggesting that Arab and Muslim voters, according to WESBS, are starting to get the Harry hits with Labour because they're not come out against Israel enough and they're out there saying Muslim vote matters, and we could decide twenty seats if we go this way and we go that way,

and even the left. He's over at the Saturday Paper. Yeah, I don't worry if you haven't heard of it the Saturday Paper. It's sort of really the Saturday papers. But yeah, anyway, don't worry about it. So, of course, will this person be punished for doing the first thing against her own government since nine eighty six? Of course not. Why because this is a pis week Prime Minister. Oh sorry, what's the proper ternal supposed to use? We can rattle Prime Minister.

I apologize a week and rattle Prime Minister. So the first time since nineteen eighty six a Labor person has voted against their own government for whatever reason. But it ain't the way the system works. Penny Wong had to

pretend she was against same sex marriage. This senator from Western Australia creates Labor Party history because she does because the Labor Party does not want to throw the Muslim vote away, and certainly does not want to throw them into the arms of the Greens who are the ones pushing the votes for the recognition of Palestine. In order to get two countries recognized for the two state solution, the Labor Party will take no action, none not suspended,

no inquiry, no expulsion. So I would now like to appeal to all of the other Labor MPs who would like to cross the floor when they know they're doing the wrong thing for example, nuclear ban, climate change, vape policy, because clearly there's no consequences or does that rule only apply to this senator and this issue. It's a bit like every time they fight the Greens, they're not actually

fighting the Greens. Now, I gave a challenge to my friends, my mates, my buddies, my soulmates, my pals in the wider Press gallery in Canberra. Now, look, you know, I love the sky on news people. I love a couple

of people outside of it. But generally speaking, the feelings are mutual and they're all about you know, if they wanted to, they could get all Canbra Colombo and remember who knew what and where and all of that stuff we got for a couple of years about a senator's office and who went where and who knew and what and there to lift up the cup. All the details were there to be followed, and I threw out the challenge to them, can you help us answer a couple

of questions. A couple of questions about Matt Kean joining Albo's team while heading up the Climate authority that will, among other things, set the target for twenty thirty five, which is expected to be anywhere between sixty five and seventy five percent reduction of one percent of the world's global emissions. China, of course, will continue to do whatever it wants. We're thirty percent of global emissions until twenty thirty but Matt Kean will be in charge of the

organization that will decide what those targets are. And then the government says, oh, it's not our choice. It's not our choice. It was an independent organization of taps what to do, even though you've just seen they've handpicked the guy. Well, as you remember, Matt Kean last Tuesday was still a member of the News of Oils parliament. Actually technically still a member of the News of OL's parliament because the

resignation hasn't come into effect yet. But whatever one week ago is when Matt Kean decided that he was done with politics, he was moving on to a different role, and we had five questions that one week later, if he turned up now working for the Albanese government, that maybe there's a few what do they used to say?

Questions to answer? Wasn't that the one that Katie Gallaha and the mean girls always used to ask during the stuff from a couple of years ago, The Prime ministers questions to answer, Well, here's a few questions to answer. When did the government know the current chair of the Climate Authority was going to go? Did the government interview any other candidates to replace this person? Did the government

approach Matt Kean or did he approached them? If the government approached, when did they approach And failing all of that, uka if we send this thing off to the National Integrity and Corruption Commission to have a look at well.

I predicted last night that we were going to get a couple of answers to these questions via friendly media, which is why there was this story which popped up in the Channel nine news services over the past few hours, which has told us exactly the behind the scenes about who and when and how many of those questions they can or can't can't answer now to give you an idea of the poetry that was built around this beautiful meeting of a liberal renegade and a labor prime minister

at the top of his game, I would like to invoke an impersonation or dare I say, channel the spirit of one of the greatest performance Australian radio has ever had. Do you remember Richard Mercer, otherwise known as the Love God. The Love God who appeared, of course on many stations around the country, most famously Mixed one to six point five in Sydney and many versions of it around the

Australian Radio network a few years ago. Well you may well remember that he would read out love letters and all the rest of it, and they'd be sexy music underneath it. Well, cue the sexy music, because I got a story to tell you.

agency setting climate change targets for the country. Bowen had to wait for King to hop off the train at the next stop and find some privacy at the far end of the chatsword station before they could talk undisturbed about a role that would outrage federal liberals and Nationals who believe one of their own has just joined the enemy.

five questions matter. The first one, well, it remains sadly unanswered, which is when did the government know that the current chair was leaving. Also unanswered is the question of did the government interview any other candidates. We now know that Bowen spoke first to Keane because I'm pretty sure Chris Bowen's people weren't informing the City Morning Heral today about where they were on Chatswood Station one lonely and cold afternoon. The job was discussed not in the past five days,

but act in the past five weeks. And I stand by my idea that this thing should go off to the Federal Corruption Commission. Why because let me explain in New South Wales that it is a crime in New South Wales to induce somebody to leave the parliament is with a position in the public service. Now, whether it was the public service of the same state the person was a politician in or not, that's up for debate.

I am not playing a lawyer on television but I do remember that a knew so vast premier had to resign because of this exact type of thing that a member of parliament ended up coming out of the parliament. This is something that I think is going to be before if not one, perhaps two corruption organizations. They may, of course dot all their ey's cross all their tase, be more perfect than blokes who walk on water. But here's the reality. Today. In the press we learned that

five weeks ago there was a conversation. Five weeks ago the job was being suggested by someone that seems to have been the major choice in why somebody left the parliament. This is going to get bigger if anyone has the balls to pick up the magnifying glass and get involved in a bit of Canberra Colombo. Don't write the Mills and Burne version of two star crossed politicians forbidden by their montague and capulate like political parties until they eventually

found each other in their own eyes. Did someone help Matt Kean make a decision that he wasn't already beginning to make? Matt Kean says, I was thinking about it for some time, but he said one week ago not that he was leaving for the government sector, but that he was leaving for the private sector. He gets a new job within one week in the government sector. Now, we were supposed to believe that all of this was happening really quickly, and it's been happening for five weeks.

If anyone's got the guts or the balls in the canber Press gallery after you, what do we only really care about things when they hurt the other side of politics? There's something in this. Just got a feeling there's something in this and I want somebody serious to investigate it so they can tell us whether there's nothing to see here or there was always something plenty to see here. Now and a second, we're going to get to a

debate with Holly Hughes and with Stephen Conroy. But first I want to talk of course about Trump debate and the countdown to it. All Friday Now, coverage starts all the way through the morning. I'm going to pop up with Laura Jays about ten thirty Sidney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra time. Then the event kicks off at eleven am. It goes for about ninety minutes, and then I will be watching the debate with the wonderful read of Panney and highlights of our piss take of it all will be up

at sky news dot com. That are you in the afternoon, so online, on air, in your phone, on app, Free to wear, Foxtell Flash, wherever you watch us. However you here is fire Eye, hot Radio or anything else. Sorry, the another player I should say now now if you would like to be part of it, make sure you play Attention all week in long. But anyway there could be a chance to see may not happen? Why because this happened today on CNN.

He's about to go to jail himself, but he'll be out in time to vote for the president, but he won't be able to speak on his behalf. He has got one hell of a pulpit via the War Room and Real America's Voice, where for multiple hours a day he kind of telegraphs the play of where MEGA is going to end up, and he says, because CNN did that to a representative of Trump, they clearly won't be good enough to Trump. So Trump should pull.

the show. So I'm glad you're watching. Thank you very much for watching, and thank you for those who decided to check in with me. We're having a great note tonight, none of them. The great Stephen Connry is here, and the wonderful Holly uses as well. Now, do you want to do something fun? Do you want to do some fun?

Something fun together? All right, let's all watch Stephen say exactly the opposite of what he probably actually thinks as he shows pompous discipline, which clearly was not shown by the senator who crossed the floor against Labor Party today. So Steven, serious question. No penalty for the person who voted against the government for the first time since nine eighty six.

principle of the party. I mean, when you join the Labor Party, you sign on your ticket that you agree to abide by the majority in the room. That's what on the first day you joined the Labor Party, you signed so you know from that moment going forward you will accept the majority.

would begin to build to ultimately expel her. It wouldn't surprise me if she was given maybe a three month suspension from caucus and you know, down with Penny and the leadership and just work their way through the issues. But instant expulsion on a first offense is an unusual situation. I mean, Joe Chamberlain used to run the party in Victoria a long time ago, like that, and Bill Hartley

people like that. That was how they treated it. We're a little bit more mature in numance nowadays, so I don't I wouldn't expect expulsion in this instance unless you became a repeat offender.

vote matters people all the rest of it. They're not going to run candidates, but they could run a bit of pressure here, there and everywhere. If the Labor Party expelled an Islamic woman for standing up for the state of Palestine, well then the Greens would say, darling, come and join our number, and everyone who's peedoff come and vote with us. Now, admittedly it all ends Upstill's preferences for the Labor Party. But that's the game the Greens

want to play here. They want her to become the political martyr in this moment.

would have been gone months ago. It is absolutely incorrect for Stephen to say this is her first foray we saw from the River, to see her deliberate press.

funding him us and she's writing articles for them. She is absolutely this is not her first offense and it is really Look, you know, I don't envy the Labor Party for this, because, as Comrade Conray says, you know, it is all about the majority rule and if she is allowed to slip through just because she's a woman in a hyge ab, then you know it's going to throw the doors open to everybody else who wants to say, well, actually, as a member of the labor right, I'm not going

to chase down this complete left wing warren that the Prime Minister is taking us down.

to take you through where they've landed. It feels to me like this kind of remember that TV show was around for about three weeks, but still remember the TV show was called Hole in the Wall, where you had to turn your body into the shape of the hole in the wall otherwise the war would knock you into the pool. It was on Channel nine. It's on YouTube right.

It was a Japanese game show before that. But it feels like we've got this weird contortion position, which is, we wanted to ban vapes because vapes bad, but now vapes available but only in chemists. And as we found out from behind the scenes with the Health minister today, it's up to you to tell them how much a month's worth of nicotine that you need. Now this feels like to me the recipes of the beginning of another

little black market. This feels a weird way to go about this when essentially it's the honor system for your access to something that currently is a commercial product.

sort of stuff. But what I did learn was that it helped people quit smoking, including me, and have been through a lot of investigation in this issue, and years ago recommended that this should be something that is a regulated product in the same way tobacco and alcohol is that it's not available to children, that it's sold in specific stores, that it is required to have ID and

that was knocked back. And this prescription model, which is the only prescription model in the world, was introduced, and it has been an abject failure from day one. It has opened the door to the black market. You know, where I live in Sydney, within you know, a three minute walk, I can hear it's seventeen tobacconist stores. They're selling illegal tobacco, They're selling what is technically illegal vapes. It's never been legal to buy a vape over the

counter with nicotine in it in Australia. It is an absolute face that Mark Butler has doubled down on this fail policy, but then to make it worse, he's now entered into this weird agreement with the Greens that it's all illegal from July one, but from three months after that, So in winter you can't buy them without a prescription, but by summer your spring you'll be able to buy

one over the counter and a pharmacist. Now, the concerns are not only did pharmacists come out about this saying we don't want a bar of it, but we are seeing and particularly in Victoria, there's been a number of fire bombings of stores, tobacconist stores and the vapes because they are by being run by the black market. So what risk are we putting pharmacists at by pushing them.

got to get to Matt Kean. We're here, of course, so with Holy Hughes, I think he wants to desperately talk about vapes here now, So Stephen, so again right now, imagine now, now let's go benefit of the doubt version, which is all Ies, crow Teas all the rest of are all above board. Then someone told the paper they've been talking about it for five weeks, which of course would be many weeks prior to him leaving the Parliament where his publicly stated reason was to go into the

private sector. Someone's got to have a look at this, don't they to make sure that there's above board, because does anyone remember a premier nineties New South Wales having to resign for well know your history. People.

to respond. Just watched the Great Man. He's holding on as tight as he possibly can. But we are a here and he's delivering the life. Yeah, go for it, Steven.

on to harass them people who want to harass their partners. Now, okay, all of us think that's terrible. This technology is not going to disappear. So what are we supposed to do here? Because obviously we don't want to make it easier for creeps to go after people. But conversely, we can't pretend that things like GPS doesn't exist anymore.

minds of something to do. And I think it's really hard for people who don't act in these absolutely despicable ways to actually comprehend what would what would someone ever think that this is an appropriate way to behave And the fact that they're putting air tags on their former partners cars, and I mean, this is just I wish I could sit here and say to you we need to do this or this is what needs to be done.

Independence moving away from him. So I think he needs to try and be in the debate and try and win the debate or perform well in the debate so that he can quarterize a few of the Independence and swing voters that have been moving away from him. So I think the risk for him to spit the dummy over a trivial argument there was nothing to do with him directly, would play a little worse for him than having a crack.