From the Skying Center. This is Paul Murray Live. Thank you, Sharry.
Look what she's actually doing is she's going to every disney Land in the world.
It'll take her three weeks, but all the puddles will be here, and when Sharry's back will celebrating. Enjoy your breakdown.
All right, Lots to get to tonight, including a before we get to all the obvious. Remember a couple of years ago, we're all told to go to our rooms by our government, and a lot of people did and they were all fine with it. Well, there was, of course, the absurdity that people were fighting over toilet paper.
I want my ten roles, No, I want forty roles. Now I'm buying a week's supply. I'm buying a month's supply. How deg are that bloody person?
And yes, I, like many of you, had to go from supermarket to supermarket on bloody opening birds because oh we're running out of too roll. Remember the nonsense of the toilet paper. Well, tonight, eggs are the new toilet paper, because, as you may have heard, there's.
A little bit of trouble overseas.
There's a couple of places on the fringes of our cities that are starting to cause trouble. But people are now going nutty and are buying too many eggs, so much so that the major supermarkets have now decided that's it, we are going to limit the amount of eggs you can buy.
Yes, apparently it's the height of World War two.
Apparently we're rationing things now and as a precaution, according to Woolies, to manage its stock delay, we're introducing a two pack purchase limit on eggs.
You said, whiles I see t Victoria.
Will people cross the border into Queensland to get extra ones? Will people smuggle them on flights from Adelaide? Will there be a hard border between Western Australia and the rest of the country about eggs?
Who knows?
But right now the majority of our customers are only buying one carton of egg at a time, So that's good.
You don't have to change.
But clearly they've put a limit in place because people lose it's their brain. It's a little bit like you know, before a public holiday when for some reason the shops are going to be close for one day, but people are stocking up as if it's.
The end of the world.
They encourage shoppers to be mindful and make sure that you only buy what you'd normally buy.
They're not the only ones.
Coals have also told us that the band extends there where they've limited the amount of eggs. So we've sort of seen that when there's something to worry about, sometimes we overreact to control the things we can't control, like toilet paper or the amount of eggs, or get out of my way, I'm getting the water. Well, if you are the type of person who is worried easily, I'd like to tell you remain calm. But there's an asteroid that's heading our way. Now, apparently it'll pass by about
two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers. But this thing is apparently the science of Mount Everest, So Cole's Woolly's aldi. They may turn around, and I know what they're gonna limit and how people are going to prepare for the asteroid, But that could be on its way, and in fact, there's apparently an even more concerning asteroid that is headed our way. Why do I know, because I've got this clip from Canadian News.
In about five and a half years, a massive asteroid name Apofas, after the Egyptian god of chaos will pass so close to the Earth we'll be able to see it in the sky. And that has NASA scientists on high alert.
Ah, quick bite the eggs, the toilet paper, because this thing's going to come rather close.
It's not going to hit us, apparently, but you know, science and stuff.
Now, I'm pleased to say that NASA is on this, but the emotions are pretty high at NASA.
Listen to this.
Guy absolutely not freaking out and being very calm.
But listen to what he's talking about.
We want to be able to get a spacecraft out there weeks two months to get a look at Apathas before that close encounter. We're going to send a spacecraft to knock it off its trajectory, just in case it's getting too close to us.
Again, we panic about eggs and toilet paper.
What will happen when we learn that they've sent a spacecraft to go and knock an asteroid out of the way. To knock a asteroid out of the way, well, amazingly, you know that actually already done this. Who knew this is American taxpayers dollars at work. But thankfully they still spend money on this as opposed to what we spend money on, like two new planes for the Prime Minister.
Two years ago, the double Asteroid Redirection test, known as the Dark Spacecraft smashed into an asteroid to knock a massive space rock off its gravitational course and it worked. Oh that's a pretty big deal for all of us on Earth. Now.
I'd love to play Aerosmith's Don't Miss a Thing right now, which of course was the song that they played after Bruce Willis and the rest of them were able to save the Earth.
But we don't have the budget.
So just imagine that a really boring series of scientists will head out weeks or months before an event which could well have some consequences on the Earth, and they'll just politely not shoot it, not blow it away, just push it out of the way. Now, Labor and Peace, I've got to say, while I disagree on many of their issues, I certainly admire their discipline to even argue
against reality at times, but always argue in unison. I mean, look, obviously not always Like this week, that lady crossed the floor against her own government, of fact, the first person since nineteen eighty eight to do so. And remember she got so punished. Remember not allowed to go to one meeting. Well, Penny Wong, well remember one of the mean girls. Well she was waving her finger on Telly here today, wasn't she right?
Well, it's from Minista, as I said, has sean great restraint on this occasion. He has directed that she not attend the caucus. What I would say to is that our expectation and the expectation of her colleagues is that senator payment abide by the collective solidaria. So if it happened again, well, our expectation is that she observed the solidarity that all labor people bring to their position.
The Greats are promising to put in another vote, which of course will test all of this system again. The Labor Party, well, they don't want to boot her out because they firstly create a political martyr, but secondly the numbers get a little more uncertain in the Senate, and of course they could end up pushing Muslim votes towards
the Greens. And I wish that the collective brain of our media and certainly the people who are running our country were just as in range and just focused on the issue that actually is worrying Australians, and that's not a media rite. It's not toilet paper, and it's not eggs. It's the overall cost of living. Doesn't matter when it comes to a pole or anything else. We know there are so many lies and we're in the middle of
a crisis right now. The reality, as you know, is that australis inflation rate and this is not based over the three months, but over one of the three months that puts together. The overall number has now gone up to four percent. As we showed you last night. These are all the things above four percent that make that
number particularly difficult to move. Tobacco at thirteen percent, petrol at nine point three, insurance rents, alcohol, electricity which was apparently falling but apparently no is still going up by higher than the average inflation rate. The same with health, house, education, new housing for people to live in, transport and fruit and veg, all of it up and up, up, up, and all of it way above where the Reserve Bank
needs things to be. And that of course is between two and three percent, not three and four, not four and five. And hence why the Liberal Party was asking the questions they did today in question time Prime Minister, why do Australians have to live in fear of yet another rate rise under this hopeless government. Why are Australian families paying the price for Labour's economic failures?
Prime Minister?
Why are Australian families paying the price for Labour's economic incompetence?
Fair question?
What are the consequences, of course, of ongoing high inflation that is not between two and three percent, not three to four, not four to five. It has to be two and three is that is what the Reserve Bank seedes as the only band that we should have for a good economy and for the country working at just the right the sort of Goldilocks number. This is way too high, which of course means interest rates. I'll get to that in a second.
But back to why I admire the Labor.
Party some times, and I facetiously say that why I admire the Labor Party arguing that down is up and up is down and you can't see what your lying eyes are telling you is because when they go out on television, they are out there today telling us that after inflation has started to go back up is a full percent above the upper limit of where the Reserve Bank will accept. They are out and about saying look, how good we're going.
So inflation has come down a lot, it's absolutely true that it has got further to go, and that's why the government's plan to deliver a prudent budget surplus to pursue fiscal discipline is the right path to help families.
We're doing a good job. Patting themselves on the back now.
Of course that's easy for him to say, because if times get tough, he could sell one of many properties, apparently a property portfolio with forty two million dollars. Good self made man, Good luck to it. But I'm not really going to be taking my Hey, it's okay from the bloke who's absolutely dripping in cash litt alone any other politician, because let's say it all together. They got a pay rise. They got a pay rise last week, which is the third since Labour came to power. The
PM now earning six hundred thousand dollars. So despite the fact that he's got two new planes, he's got a mansion in Sydney, he's got a mansion in Canberra, and he's paid six hundred thousand dollars, here's the Prime Minister telling you inflation going back up to a full percentage point higher than what the Reserve Bank is trying to achieve with the dozen interest rate rises since he became Prime Minister.
Here's the spin.
Australia has faster economic growth than Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK. In the G seven, we have a lower unemployment rate than Canada, trans Italy. In the UK, we have faster employment growth than Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and the UK. We have a higher participation rate France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and the UK. And Australia is the only only one with a budget surpas along with the smallest gross step.
Hang on the gross debt.
Remember was the reason to change the government, which was the trillion dollars. The gross debt will go to one point two trillion dollars within the four estimates of this federal budget. When they talk about economic growth, Australia is growing at zero point one percent zero point one percent, But the question is inflation. Inflation at four percent is higher than what the Reserve Bank is demanding. And let's
compare Australia's inflation rate with the rest of the world. Now, not Zimbabwe, not Argentina, but countries that have a lower inflation rate than as you can see on your screen, Brazil, Spain, the United States, where they will probably get rid of the current president because of inflation, their rate is lower than ours. Singapore, Canada is under three percent. Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Germany are all in the twos,
as is France. And in the United Kingdom, where they are about to get rid of their government in part because of the cost of living, their inflation rate is half that of ours.
Oh but it's okay.
Twenty five dollars a month credit is coming to everyone from the people who own mangins to one bedroom units in.
The bush to help with power bills, and.
Of course two little too late tax cuts the average fifteen dollars a week. As we've spoken about before, the best spin the government can put on it is it's about thirty something dollars. None of it touch as, none of it changes because all of those things are going up and they are now starting to speed up their race to the top. Now, are we going to go back where we were a couple of years ago. No, However, for the government to turn around and say, as they did,
our budget will do nothing when it comes to inflation. Well, the mere announcement of their budget in May compared to when it kicks in on the first of July has seen inflation go back up, let alone when the actual money starts moving around. So what are we being told in the Financial Review? Multiple interest rate rises are the only way to push it back down, back down to three, back down to two and a half. Also the Australian today, the RBA has no option but to raise rates in August,
and the Libs know this is the issue. Forget everything else, This is the issue that matters the most.
Two Australians. Here's an MP Zoey Mackenzie on Telly today.
We know that the budget has been inflationary. We know this government has put three hundred and fifteen billion dollars of extra spending into the government. We know core inflation is at four point four percent, which is what the RBA looks at.
We know that.
Inflation rate is high than the US, Canada, France, Sweden, the UK, Norway. How much more congratulations would they be asking for on no.
Basis whatsoever sounds that rates to go out.
It sounds like crazy to going out. Most people ask me to you a surprise. They didn't go up last time, so all eyes will be on August in terms of whether they go up again.
Now, remember the Reserve Bank had a conversation. It wasn't about cutting rates, it was maybe about putting them up. These numbers means the pressure on them making that decision. So the government can spin it anyway it wants the reality. We are in a tough spot which is not getting better. In fact, it's getting worse. And you can tell me is many labor mp millionaires or people that are getting pay rise. Everything's okay, it ain't now, I like you,
I've had enough of the in assane chat. As you know, I'm not going to get involved in the good guy the bad guy thing. But you may have heard his return to Australia. Yes, last night our show was taken over by press conferences and all the rest of it. But as you know, Anthony Alberanesi is well and truly washing himself in lefty joy. As he was on the phone and tweeting out pictures as he's talking to him.
There was a press conference that he was holding. As he was walking off the plane, he was talking it up in Parliament yesterday.
But despite the.
Fact that all of those things happened, the Camber Press Gallery, or at least one of its members, says albany Assane, hero or villain either way, Albanesi is keeping his distance. Sorry, he's taking photos of himself on the phone, he's doing nighttime press conferences, he's got the chest puffed out in question time, and he's standing to the ovations of Radio
National Fair Dincon. But what I thought was very important to point out to mine was don't fall for this garbage that albow is some sort of information freedom fighter, that he's a transparent figure who is okay with the most uncomfortable information being brought out, no matter what a government actually says. We've shown you how many times about the actual attitude of transparency that this bloke and this
government has. When you ask for documents, you get a whole bunch of redacted, a whole bunch of questions just don't get answered. Remember we showed you the playbook about how politicians and their public servants, which one is the master, which one's the puppy, your choice, well, about how to answer questions or not answer questions in Senate estimates. But something a little more serious than that. I want to show you this bloke. His name is David McBride, and
David McBride was a military lawyer. Now, he discovered documents that led to nationwide reporting of potential, if not proven, but let's say, potential war crimes that were taking place. This is the explanation via Channel two where he was found guilty and is currently in jail.
Former military lawyer David McBride has been sentenced to five years and eight months jail in the set Supreme Court for sharon classified military documents with journalists. Mcbrideple died guilty to three charges, including theft and sharing more than two hundred documents classified as secret with members of the press.
Now, this prosecution had been in train for some time, but obviously this government has been around for two years.
There were multiple.
Times that McBride and his supporters appealed to the Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss to drop the charges to stop the prosecution. Yet Drefus said, oh no, it's only under the most extreme circumstances that I'm going to be allowed to do so. So this government made a decision that information that the whistleblower believed the world should know because it was the apparent war crimes that were being committed in places like Afghanistan. That person is currently in jail now. Whether you think
they should or shouldn't, that's beside the point. My point is that Albo is out there pretending that he's you know, the Wikileak's best friend and Assange's best friend and on the phone and living in the glory of the guy who tells the uncomfortable secrets. But a person who told uncomfortable secrets about our country has been prosecuted by this
government that turned away from dropping a prosecution. That bloke is in jail now for multiple years because this government decided that those secrets must be kept held tight, regardless of the public's quote unquote right to know, or how many awards came out of the reporting that the documents were based off. And as Andrew Wilkie, who remember was a whistleblower himself, giving information to the then Channel nine News reporter Lourie Oakes. He made this point upon the jailing of McBride.
The first Australian to front of court and the first Australian to go to jail over the alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. Is the whistleblower that brought the allegations to the public's attention. And I'll tell you why the governments behaved this way, because governments, be they LNP or labor, they hate whistleblowers, They hate people speaking up, they hate people shining a light on official misconduct.
So when it comes to Albo, he's fine if you dump another country's secrets, but if you do it to our country, you definitely have to go to jail. Victoria is playing a very dangerous political game at the moment because even lefties don't.
Like the idea of a death tax.
Now, our death tax has been one of the great bogeymen of Australian politics now. At times people have discussed things like inheritance taxes. And inheritance taxes of course, means that the money that you would be passing from your bank account to your kid's bank account, well, it would end up.
With a big tax on top of it.
We've seen people like the United Australian Party back in twenty and nineteen run very hard on this particular issue, and in part, the mere suggestion of it cost labor votes.
Why because of course it was the suggestion that it was a plan from the Labor Party, but of course the Greens are much more friendly to this sort of stuff, and it's been a policy that essentially no major political party would ever have the balls to actually put into place, because intergenerational transfer of wealth put simply inheriting something from your parents or your grandparents or an uncle or an auntie is a very significant way that people are able
to pay off their houses or to be able to have that little bit of extra money to make things easier for themselves. It's a terrible idea. People hate it. But I mentioned Victoria where their government is apparently considering a version, pudon me, a version of this. Harold Son wrote today fascinatingly that grieving families could cop a dex a death tax by stealth under a proposed Supreme Court
probate fee hike. Now, of course, anyone who has gone through the tragedy of losing somebody that they love, and anyone who's had power of attorney and gone through all of that mess knows about probate courts. And that's why we're going to sell the house here and move the shares that you know, how all of this works well. The suggestion is is that the Victorian government should increase the size of the clip that they put on the ticket.
Now.
According to the Herald Sun today, the cost of dying is set to skyrocket with a Victoria in Victoria, with the Ollen government considering introduced what has been penned as a panda's a death tax by stealth, the move will sea grieving family slugged thousands of dollars more to enact
the wills of loved ones. With probate fees set to face massive increases, the government has fast tracked a review of the Supreme Court probate fees by three years, which increases has some increases of up to six hundred and
fifty percent being considered also massive change. Under the favored model being considered by the government, some fees would move from a fixed rate where it doesn't matter how much money you're talking about inheriting, to a a tiered system where the more you inherit, the more tax you pay.
Now, before you.
Completely freak out and start trying to buy toilet paper and buy too many eggs and worry about asteroids, let me show you what the numbers are here. The numbers are relatively low. So currently, if you are going to inherit two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the current provate fee is sixty eight dollars, it would go up then to two one hundred and sixty one dollars. If it's between two fifty and five hundred, it'd go to five hundred dollars.
If it's five hundred and a million.
It's one thousand dollars, and if it's two and a half million or above, it's two thousand, five hundred dollars. Now, all of that, of course, is not going to really break the bank when it comes to these fees, particularly if that much money is moving around, But it is the principle. It is the point that currently the government is clipping the ticket for most people by less than
one hundred bucks. But if that is about to surge by two hundred and eighty one percent, what is top cash strapped governments into the future just turning it up a little more, a little more, a little more, a little more, a little more, and then you start realizing that what is hundreds of dollars becomes thousands of dollars pretty quickly. Lazy governments slowly move these things through. So
let's see if the Allen government does it. I would hope that even labor supporters will get in touch with them and say no, thank you, hands off mum and Dad's money, hands off inheritance. If you want to tell us that there's a very mild fee for the paperwork, okay, less than.
One hundred bucks.
Anything else is clearly going to be the frog in the pot system where they're not just going to go straight to ten thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars or one hundred thousand dollars or ten percent, twenty five percent half instead, like all of these taxes, slowly but surely, and then, just like the frog in the pot of water, you don't realize it's over.
Until it's too late.
Now, also in Victoria, Australians have faith in the electoral system. We may not like the political results that come out of it, but as a rule we trust the electoral system.
Why because there are so.
Few cases that end up going anywhere near a court showing how people would attempt to influence or change the system. Now, unlike places like the United States, you have to do things like apply for postal votes apply to be able to get a ballot sent to your house, unlike in America where they will just send it to your house.
And that's a whole another issue.
Now, amazingly, the AEC has turned around and said that something that has been building for a little while is the number of people who are trying to basically double click the issues with the American system and pretend that that's.
The Australian system.
Well, while I'm not a great fan of systems, and I think that from time to time the AAC likes to get overly involved in issues like misinformation, I do trust our electoral system. We have seen when there have been issues like the Senate ballot paper issues in Western Australia, will they ends up with a revote. We've seen scenarios where hundreds of people who were accused of double voting in twenty and nineteen and that was in the Sorry
that was twenty sixteen in the seat of Herbert. But there's an issue I want to talk about, which is this bloke. Now, this bloke was prosecuted because of what he has now pled guilty to, which was behaviors in the most recent Victorian election. Now he was an endorsed labor candidate, and when we first heard about the allegations, there were eighty three suspect ballots which had apparently been
removed from people's letterboxes. There was an investigation and the tampering resulted in what resulted in a plea deal that essentially meant there was a conviction. Sorry, there was a plead of guilty that took place here. But essentially the front and center on all of this was, in a very rare example, somebody was held accountable for what was happening with ballots.
But as you can see, he's not going to jail.
He has received a fine, he has some sort of suspended or community sentence that's hanging over the top of him. It's not the AEC, but it was the Victorian Electoral Commission that decided to take on the prosecution. But you would think that if there was ever a need for
things like weekend attention. I'm not talking about hardcore prison for forty five years, but if you think there's ever an example about sending someone to a prison farm or sending somebody to weekend attention, it would be something like this, Because if we know what the consequences are for fiddling with our electoral system. They have to be disproportionate. Why because, of course that is the disincentive for anyone going about and doing it.
But I have mentioned this story.
If you are a hardcore watcher and you remember many of the topics that we have raised on the program over the years, I just wanted to tell you that it ended. Were they guilty plate but no jail? Now I think it was twenty twelve, but remember the year when Jeffrey Rush was named the Australian of the Year. Now, at the time I thought this was just weird. Spends most of his at that time, spent most of his time overseas. I didn't quite understand how anyone benefited from it,
but he was named the Australian of the Year. The reason this has always stuck in my crawl is because, as you know, each state nominates their selected Australian of the Year, and in that year, Bruce and Denise Morecambe were nominated as the Queenslanders of the Year, and I believe should have been called the Australians of the Year. Bruce and Denise Morecambe are amazing human beings and you know why their son Daniel disappeared in two thousand and three.
His murder was horrific and anyone with a child still upon hearing his name, sheds a tear for what happened to that beautiful boy and takes strength from what Bruce and Denise did.
You see.
Bruce and Denise they started a foundation. They started a foundation in Daniel's name. It is now twenty years old, and I just wanted to say, in a world where we often teach your bad news and difficult news and hard news, there are really good people amongst us, and the way that they turned their pain into helping kids is.
Something that I believe.
If there is an opportunity for them to be renominated by Queensland as the Queenslanders of the Year and a chance to be the Australians of the Year for running this foundation for twenty years, may that honor go to them. They were in Canberra this week and Bruce and Denise have visited more than a thousand schools, as you can see in the van that goes around telling the message
about safety safety to kids like their boy Daniel. They are on a twenty day, seven thousand kilometer road trip where they are going to talk to sixteen one hundred students. Daniel's father, Bruce says that we are proud to be Daniel's parents and quite move the twenty years after his abduction and those tragic events are not forgotten. His important legacy continues to grow. If like me, you are indebted to their strength, indebted to their work at admiring of
their courage, support them tonight the Daniel Morcambe Foundation. The way you can help them out is via their website Daniel Morcambe dot com dot au.
There's a big donate button there, Hit it as many times as you can and give.
As much as you possibly can, because they are beautiful people who deserve to be the Australians of the year, but more importantly, deserve to know that we care, that we love and we continue to be in awe of what they do. Tomorrow is the big debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
You are able to watch it at.
Eleven am in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra do your sums. If you live somewhere else in different time zones, you will see it here on Sky News. But I wanted to show you something that you haven't seen, which is this is what the set is going to look like. TODA.
This is what the brand new.
Presidential debate set is going to look like, not this one the CNN set. There we go, Hi, Hey everyone. It's very exciting and there's lots of CNN logos all over.
It, isn't there. That's incredible.
Well, CNN has gone out of its way today to pump up as part of its pre show for the debate, which you will see here simplcast on Sky News at eleven am Eastern tomorrow. They have decided to go very excited about telling you everything you need to know about the setting for the debate. They explain it like they're talking to children. But here is how it will work, so they know when to shut up.
Attached to the cameras in the studio and in the candidate's field of view are the timing lates. When the lates show yellow, there are fifteen seconds left, and a candidate's answer or response thank you. When the lights flash read there are five seconds left, and when the display is solid read the time is up. At that point, the candidate's microphone will be turned off and the other candidate will have their microphone turned on.
Wow I mean, that's the biggest name in news, right.
Oh there's more.
Please explain how turning a microphone on and off works.
If we go behind the podiums, you can see two green lights. When they're on, they signal to the candidate his microphone is on. When the green lights are off, they signal to the candidate his microphone is off.
Wow.
Now I want to give you a sense of what it will look like for viewers a home if a candidate whose microphone is off interrupts a candidate whose microphone is on.
So I'll play at what does interruption look off?
To come in and take the other podium And so let's say I'm answering a question. My light is green and I'm speaking because your microphone is off and his green lights are not illuminated, but they're He's going to interrupt me as I'm speaking, and this is what it will sound like. My volume remains constant, while Phil's interruption can be difficult to understand.
Wow, they're running out of topics about their own debate. So Redmin's shut up, green Main's your MIC's on. If you kind of spake normally, but if you're yelling, you will be able to hear whoever he is yelling during the debike. Megan Kelly, of course, is out wonderful friend the United States. She is hosted and moderated these debates. We'll talk to her later in the show.
Of the CNN ers who you'd have to pick, they picked the best too. I know Jake Tapper's not a big Trump fan, and I'm sure Dana Bash isn't either, but I think on this the biggest night of their careers, they're going to behave. They're smart enough to know. I mean, I've already been seeing some of Jake's coverage of like the Trump trial in New York, and he's playing it right down the middle, Paul, right down the middle. So I expect to see that that night. I'm excited to
watch it, I will say. And then to come and if I'm wrong about those anchors, I will rip them to shreds.
On our next appearance, speaking of ripping to shreds, the beautiful rate of Pannehy and I will be watching the debate as well. You will see highlights of our take of the fight the debate, the lights on, the lights off,
the mix on, the mixoft. That'll be all up tomorrow afternoon scott News dot com dot you quick break back with more ken you know, how do you think when we're in lose of the wakes, jump onto the socials and tell me thank you so much for watching all right, Julian Assange, free zone, not talking about it for the rest of the night and the week.
There you go done.
Joining me to discuss everything else though, is lovely. Linda Scott, of course from the Sydney of City Council. She's joining us now in Melbourne. She also represents local government at the national cabinet level. Very exciting and the wonderful Caroline Marcus as well, one of the best in our newsroom at skynews dot com dot aus, where you can find many of her great reports, as well as on Telly. Love to see you both. So inflation, we now are
in a scenario Caroline waere it's at four percent. That's a four percent above where the Reserve Bank needs it. I am not cheering on, but every expectation is now we're going towards an interest rate rise. Now, this is more than going to be a problem for the government, because the government, of course told us so. The budget totally uninflationary, nothing's going to happen. I think people are at their limit. I absolutely believe that it's at the limit, and if something happens.
They will blame this.
Government for it, and it won't just be them blaming the government unfairly. I mean, what came out of the Reserve Bank meeting last week was the Reserve Bank itself saying that because of the budgets that have come out federal on state, because of those big spanning budgets, this is this interest we're on the verse makes We're on the verge of it, and they don't think there's much that is going to be able to be done to
stop that from happening. So it would be a fair assessment if it does as predicted for people to blame the government for that.
Well, and again, can we if we can, guys, bring back the list of countries right ours at four percent?
Okay, we are above places like Brazil.
I think at the moment, but more importantly United States, United Kingdom, they are in the middle of election seasons that are about changing the government because of inflation.
Our numbers are higher than that, Linda.
That's going to be a concern for labor people because the assumption was, Okay, it's all the COVID staff, it's all the red it's global factors. Well, Australia's inflation rate is higher than the US, Brazil, Spain, US.
UK and so on and so on. Are you worried.
Let's put this into context. Of course, Scott Morrison and the former government left us with the highest level of debt ever in Australia. And let's not forget what we're going to look forward to for all Australians on Monday five major cost of living relief tax cuts for every single Australian are freezing of the medications on the PBS. Australians have got look to look forward to. The two point four millions Australian on award wages are going to
get a significant increase next week. We're going to see two weeks paid parental leave, and of course three hundred dollars for every household of their energy bills. These are major cost of living relief pressures that are going to have an impact from next Monday on every working Australian in various ways. You can't just look at one measure
of our economy and hang everything on that. This is about cost of living relief for every Australian household and ultimately that's what people notice, that's what matters to them.
I mean, it's part of those measures that have led to the inflation.
Well we're going to end up, Yeah, we're going to end up in a scenario where we'll see whether that stuff is even worse. Might look again, we can go uphill and down Daleen. I just think there's only one There's only one number we keep being told is what the Reserve Bank cares about. Because it's the Reserve Bank who says it. That is the number that we compare ourselves with everywhere else. I personally think many of those things are too late, but we'll all wait and see
together now. One of the teals from Western Australia who would like to be noticed before the next election is Kate Cheney. She believes that the government doesn't have the courage to ban online betting ads.
Is what she had to say.
I think they're scared, really, they're scared of the very strong gambling lobby who also made significant donation and political donations. They're scared of the power of the media and also the sports codes that stand to benefit financially from online gambling ads, which have tripled in the last decade. So the government now has to weigh up what the community wants versus what the powerful stakeholders want, and I really hope it will come out and make the right decision there now.
Of course, remember it is Peter Dunden who in a budget in reply speech has talked about the pairing back at advertising around gambling. But no, apparently it's a to your ideal, Linda. Again, there is a group of people who'll turn around and say, sugar tax, we've got to deal with that. The vaping issue, we've got to deal with that. The gambling issue now, we've got to deal with that. There's an awful lot of people who want to ban an awful lot of things the Australian seem to actually enjoy.
Can't we just be trusted to our own devices?
Well, this is about in the lead up to a federal election, isn't it. The Teals would love nothing more than to go to the election talking about the importance of these kinds of social issues. But in reality they're in a tough spot. As you point out, Paul, they in conservative mostly electorates in Australia, and they've got to find a way to think about whether or not they oppose Peter Dutton's nuclear plan, which of course they're electorates
are so overwhelmingly against. That puts them in a tough spot of indicating which of the major parties they might be supporting if there's a hung parliament, and of course they really really don't want to do that, so pivoting to gambling and gambling ads is an incredibly sensible thing
for those Teals to do. Of course, we saw Labour MP after Labour MP speaking to the condolence motion of the wonderful Peter Murphy who so steadfastly and in such a dedicated manner fought to have committee recommendations from the Parliament too and gambling advertising, and we saw Labor MP after Labor MP stand up in the Parliament and speak to her incredible legacy on that issue and the importance
of this. I think it is a reform the government's exploring, but ultimately this is about political framing for the Teals and them trying not to talk about whether or not they support nuclear power.
All right, now, speed round, But I'm going to get into specialist topics for both of you here, Caroline, you led the way with the reporting on this ridiculous bakery thing and the birthday party in the mass all this garbage, Nothing's going to happen.
Yeah.
So this is the story about a four year old who had a her Ma themed birthday cake and her themed birthday party that I did a story about a
month ago. Now at the time, due to all the outrage, I contacted New South Wales Police to see if they were investigating it, if any report had been made, and they had not received any report, but they begun investigating it, referred it to the federal police, who I have regularly been checking in with and understand that they've been looking into the laws to see whether any law had been broken.
You'd think glorifying terrorism would be in offense in this country, and in fact, the laws that the federal government brought in last year were specifically supposed to do that. That's what Mark Drefis was spooking that among the Nazi symbols and other things that they were banning, there was within the bill a clause that would deal with glorification of
terrorism praising a terrorist event. And yet the AFP confirms with me this week that it had dropped this investigation because it did not believe that any law had been broken. So it seems people can go ahead and throw their child a birthday party with a picture of a Hermas official on their cake. I'm sure the boy really asked for that. We're so sorry for that child, and nothing
will happen. And yet this government and this Prime Minister is saying that they condemn anti Semitism, they're taking strong action on radical Islamism, when they just walk past these incidents.
Look, I'm with you. Also.
I want to recognize, Linda, that there was parliamentary inquiry into funding in and around councils, but I'm slightly out of time, so we will get back to that at another time. But seven billion bucks would be a nice way to fund our councils. You've explained about how all of that has worked in the past. I'm out of time now to do it properly. But next time you're back, you go first. All right, Thank you, Linda, Thank you Caroline.
Let's take a quick break, and then the wonder of all, Meghan Kelly joins us to preview the big debate tomorrow. With the lights on in the Microsoft. It's been too long, but she's been on holiday. Welcome back to the beautiful Meghan Kelly.
Hi, how are you now?
Of course, let's talk.
About the debate all roads leading to Friday our time. You can see at eleven am here on Sky News. But I wish you were the one who was moderating, not the Trumpeters at CNN.
How are you feeling in the build up.
I don't see it like that. I'm sure they'll do a fine job.
I think of the CNN ers who you'd have to pick, they picked the best too. I know Jake Tapper's not a big Trump fan, and I'm sure Dana Bash isn't either, but I think on this the biggest night of their careers, they're going to behave. They're smart enough to know.
I mean, I've already been.
Seeing some of Jake's coverage of like the Trump trial in New York, and he's playing it right down the middle, Paul, right down the middle. So I expect to see that that night. And I will say this, you know, the one upside of not doing it is I've had a summer, you know, I've had a June.
I've traveled with.
My family, So you know, you get one of these debates, and it's your whole life. Every hour you're thinking about how can I upgrade my questions? Have I thought of everything? Can I be tougher? I need to be fair? What about this?
Anyway?
I'm excited to watch it, I will say, and then to come and if I'm wrong about those anchors, I will rip them to shreds on our next appearance.
Now we know that everyone is deeply preparing from the debate, from the people hosting it to at least one of the two participants, But Trump is not. I think this is a problem, and I know that he's going to be able to wing it with the age that he thinks he's going to. And one of the reasons why you practice is to make sure that you don't get half a sentence right, as opposed to something that stuffs up and creates a whole new world of problems for you.
Here's why I'm worried too.
It's not I think he'd still make comments that are controversial, and that's fine.
People are kind of used of it to that with Trump.
But I'm worried because as Trump has gotten older this time around, he is rambling more there's definitely there's no comparison to Biden. I'm not making that point, but he's become a bit of a rambler, and the practice would be beneficial for him to practice getting up and down on a topic. You know, just this is your in and this is your out, and these are the three points you make on that issue, right, this is your end, this is your route, these are the three points you hit.
And if he could.
Memorize, you know, six of those, on immigration, on abortion, on the economy, you go down the list, I think he'd be in good shape if he could just remember those to stop the rambling. Now there is a time limit, so that's good. That'll help stop rambling, presumably on both sides.
But I think everybody could benefit from a.
Little practice on these subjects. And look at what Trump does, what his kind of self declared practices. These rallies, Well, that's a one man show. There's no no one interrupting Trump. It's stream of consciousness in front of a loving audience.
This is the opposite of that.
The only one who's going to love Trump in this whole production is Trump. The anchors don't like him, Joe Biden can't stand him. I don't think that the topics selected are going.
To be Trump friendly.
I'm sure we're going to be doing a fair amount of January sixth, and you're going to pardon the insurrectionists and things like that, and so he's I hope he does have some concise points he can make in a way that will resonate with the viewers at home. Having said that, his biggest mission is to say something memorable that will get people talking and ideally make them laugh or make them fondly remember the moment, and I think he's very capable of that.
Now, give us a bit of an insight to somebody who's hosted one of these things before, been a debate moderator. Are you the type of person who works up to the big question which is going to produce the big moment? Or is it like you know that moment where supposedly you go to prison and the first thing you do is to go up and slap the biggest person in the yard. I wouldn't be able to do that, but you get my point. Do you go for impact first or do we build up to the biggest moment of the debate.
Well, that's my style on the debates I've done.
I like to pull no punches and you know, get them all right away. But it's on, let's go. This is adversarial. I'm not here to please you. You're not here to please me. This is about the people behind me watching at home, like, let's do this thing. I'm not going to go easy on you, and I shouldn't go easy on you, and let's see if you can handle And that was what was so great about Trump's answer to me and that debate.
He could handle it. He was funny, he wasn't thrown.
He was self deprecating in a bit, and he kind of said what we all knew, which was people have gotten sick.
Of how political politically correct we are, and you know what I say is what I say.
That was his answer after the Rosie joke, which had people laughing and on his side and showing he's not scared. He can make fun of other people of himself. So it's a big opportunity. It's a I think it's a gift to them in a way. You know, you throw your fastball and they could potentially hit a home run. If they hit a home run off of a fastball, then it's absolutely brilliant for them politically and for TV, which let's not forget.
This is not some.
Basement debate between kids. This is television and you have to make it electric and dynamic to keep the people's attention at home. You want a memorable moment, You want everybody talking about you, what you didn't keep