From the Skying Center. This is Paul Murray Live.
Thank you, Chari, see you again tomorrow night. Welcome to the program.
Wide a weekend in Queensland.
So on top of it, Erebus winning the Sunday Race at the Golf Coast.
It was a fun weekend. Thank you very much for all of your support over it.
Now, obviously we start to turn our attention towards the United States. We'll get to that a little later tonight with Analyze Nielsen. But first, of course, let's talk about Australia. For as long as we've been doing the Ourtown project was about five years and growing now.
And I look forward to it continuing for many more years.
I've had the absolute privilege of being able to see little towns, big cities, regional centers, and something is obvious every time we go to many of these places, which is that there are two Australias. There is the heavily urban eye sort of woke inner cities. There's the suburbs.
But then of course the other is regional Australia and the priorities that are often talked about by the media, that is sitting in those urbanized environments talking to other people in and around the inner cities is often a world away from the experience of those who live hundreds of kilometers away. The joy of our town is that we're able to connect and show our commitment to those regional areas every single month, and we try to talk about regional issues at the start of the program on
nights like this. And there is no greater example of the two Australias than what is playing out right now. Beautiful Broken Hill, far western New South Wales, a place we went to for our town recently. There was always a dream of mind to go to Broken Hill. The legendary television and radio broadcaster Clive Robertson had always told me that this is the ultimate place to go and see the sunset and the ultimate place to look at the stars. He wasn't wrong when we had the chance
to do so. But as you know, the story of Broken Hill is something we have been talking about for the past week or so because it's a town that has had no power. Now, no power doesn't just mean that the TV doesn't work. It means that the fridge doesn't work. It means that the that the heater or the fan you can imagine right you will know what it's like to lose power for a couple of hours, kids freak out because there's no internet. Will imagine an extended period of time that is part of ten days
that that's been taking place. Now slowly relief has made its way towards Broken Hill. Today, the New Suba's government was growing that they are sending emergency food trucks because of how much food has frankly gone rotten because you can't keep it cold for many people who don't live in the absolute center of Broken Hill. The further out you go, the more supply you end up trying to
keep in a freezer in the garage. Of course, no power, no food, food that all has to be chucked, but food that isn't just to get you through the next couple of days, It could be a whole lot longer than that. And there is an absolutely brilliant journalist writer, Rogue Larken, who I have adored following for years. Jack Marx is his name, and Jack has been a reporter who has done classic news stories. He's somebody who's done features.
He told incredible roguish stories in a fabulous book about some sort of forgotten Australian history and he feels like a bloke sometimes from a different era, but he lives in Broken Hill. And he wrote one of the most powerful things that I have read in a long time
today in the Australian newspaper. While everyone's distracted by business class flights and upgrades and elections and all of those sorts of things, this is what he wrote about the beautiful city that feels like a town that is Broken Hill. He talks about how the power has been out for ten days, the troubling town has been its own way, in its own way, entertaining. Argent Street's never been so
jammed with kids on BMX bikes. McDonald's blessed with emergency power or sold more burghers than the slaughterhouse can cope with.
Home invasions are at an.
All time low because burglars can't find their way through the front or the back doors. He knows this from personal experience, because of course it's so dark. He goes on to say, the real problem is that Australia doesn't give a hoot about Broken Hill, not since we stopped producing over half of the nation's export wealth for most of the twentieth century. The mines are pretty much empty now Broken Hill is a welfare republic. A quarter of the city is on pensions, the other quarter is on
the dole, so it's payback time. Politicians would rather us move to the coast or throw ourselves down one of the mine shafts and never climb out. We cost them too much and the money sorely needed to build stadiums where blokes can smash each other faces in and then
defecating hotel lobbies. His comment, of course, is about priorities and many of the themes that I talk about on this show, and the way that I view the world through those who lead our governments, the media who supposedly hold them to account, and the businesses that profess to have something called a social license, is that you can
see the priorities of all of those organizations. And when the city of Broken Hill went into darkness, there was the odd little mention of the news, a little brush past it here and there, but it wasn't treated as if this was a significant thing that was happening to our fellow Australians and that help should have been sent much earlier, much faster. And that includes people to talk about it, because when we talk about it, it helps force the politicians to get off their backsides and actually
do something. He goes on again, this is a spectacular piece. I won't read it all to you as much as I would love to read from the very start. At the very end, he says, I went to the letterbox. There was a bill from Essential Energy. The power was out. Fortunately, my toilet does not rely on electricity. I love Jack Marx. I honestly think he's got a unique and very special talent. If we can get him on the Telly sometime soon, He's been on the show many many years ago, I'd
love to do so. But Brokenhell should be very proud that it has a voice like Jax to be able to put it in a very straightforward manner. What they've been through for the past ten days and what for more than a week would not be acceptable if it was a suburb of Canberra, would not be acceptable if it was a place that the people in the media go to for holidays after things like bushfires. But because it's way way out, people didn't respond to it in
the fashion that they should have. This is an excellent juxtaposition two Australias people who literally sit in the dark for ten days with a trickling of attention and a trickling of hope that is now starting to catch up, and a national conversation about just how taking for granted political and media classes about things like the front of the plane, you know. Of the past couple of days, the story that is fast turning into a scandal for the Prime Minister is about the number of upgrades, free
upgrades that he got from Quantus. He of course got them while he was the Transport Minister. He got them while he was the shadow Transport Minister, and presumably the same when it came to private travel as both opposition leader. So we've got a problem here where the people who are charged with taking care of people in Broken Hill are so disconnected from the people in Broken Hill that they just take for granted that they are going to be spoilt by an airline that they are supposed to
be regulating. But they become so familiar with this airline, and this airline is very clever at being able to Dutchess politicians and the media that everyone thinks there's something normal when in actual fact it's not normal.
Now have I flown business class? Yes?
Have I been spoilt by virgin at times. Absolutely, but I'm always aware that ninety five percent of people who fly have never even been in business class once, so I never expect it, you never demand it. And of course the reality is that most Australians don't fly every day or every week. They might do it once a year when they want to go on a major holiday and it's really expensive, but because it's the taxpayer that's
paying for it, they just expect the upgrade. But if it's not the taxpayer that's paying and it's them that's paying for a holiday, well then they still expect it, even though it's their money.
And there's nothing.
Special about these people apart from the jobs that they hold. And the reality is, no doubt we will learn in the next.
Few days, is they're all in it.
All of the politicians are in on it, all of the public servants are in on it, all of the media is inornant. So it was funny to watch them squirm today when they were being asked to justify what most people think is unjustify a ball, which is to be treated like a king when you're just one of us.
I haven't asked all and Joyce, no, I'm not sure if I have received one, I don't think so, but I'd have to have a.
Look and I'll declare that, and people can make their own judgment about whether they think about what they think about that.
We've declared that, but it's not affecting the position that we've been arguing.
Are you a member of that chairman's lounge?
I am, and pretty much almost all federal politicians are.
Not everyone, but pretty much everyone is.
See this, in part is the problem right now. In absolute fairness, the reason business class exists is because there is a need sometimes so people have a little bit more space to be able to bang away on a laptop if they're working, or because they had meetings either side and they've been in four cities in three I get it right.
We understand why it's there.
But because everyone is in on the game, everyone's kind of immune from criticism because as soon as you turn around and you go after one, their defense will be, well what about you? And generally speaking, any organization or any culture where the way you get away with doing something bad is to say you did it too means nobody ends up calling anyone out. Now again, are there times when the front of the plane is the appropriate place to fly. Yes, let's not be childish about it.
Let's not pretend that they have to always sit in the last row next to the toilet. But the idea that taken for granted that this is how I should fly and this is where I should wait for my flight so people don't interrupt me is the complete anathema of what they pretend to be as politicians, which is I'm here for you, we feel your pain, we understand you can walk up to me in the street and ask me anything at any time.
When the reality is that's just what they say.
Seen it with my own eyes, and things like Broken Hill will say, like remember Alice Springs a couple of years ago with albow. There's a serious problem, serious problems in and around crime. Well, he flies in a couple of hours, shakes hands, is there to make it look like he cares, and then he bugers off after a couple of hours in and off to the tennis with
VIP seats for the next three days. When you forget that how people treat you is about your job, not about how awesome you are as the human being, then you have started to lose perspective. You've started to lose understanding and you start to lose accountability.
As you know. The Prime Minister.
Says all of this is fine, despite the fact that he was essentially the referee, the regulator and contas is the single biggest airline that he's dealing with his Transport minister, that there's nothing weird, not about his secretary calling somebody else's secretary, but him calling the CEO to say, hey, hey, about the front of the plane. Mate, Oh yeah, sure, you're sure. And the soft power. Let me put it that way. We can't use the sea word. The lawyers
will go crazy. That means they start to always give Connus the benefit of the doubt. He was the Prime Minister's defense for this rubbish.
From time to time members of Parliament receive a grades. What's important is that they are declared. All of mine have been declared. I knowe that arranging them go back a long a long period of time. That they have all been declared as appropriate.
But guess what, he wasn't telling the truth for a long time. Anthony Abernesi was married to a labor MP, a labor minister, and at one point in time, the Deputy Premier of New South Wales, Calonel Tebbett when they flow as a family, not in their parliamentary positions, but they flew as a family, they all got the upgrade.
Guess whose upgrade was not declared? Financial Review tonight with an exclusive Prime Minister Anthony Albernesi did not declare thousands of dollars in business class flights that were gifted to his former wife by Conas and its partner airline Emirates while Transport Minister. Between two thousand and nine twenty thirteen, mister Albernesi traveled to Europe, Los Angeles and Honolulu on personal travel and received up grades from economy to business class,
which he declared on his official register of interests. But the strong of Financial Review can reveal he did not declare the upgrades for Mss Tebbett on trips at the same time to the same locations, despite the rules stating upgrades for spouses and dependent children should be notified. Is this going to cost Anthony Aberneezy's job?
No? Why?
Because his defense will be you've done it too, and that's why. The story may well quickly fall away after a day or so. But does it not tell us about the difference between the way this bloke presents himself, and we all know that he's way past, way past in lifestyle expectations and economic impact and how much money
he has. He's way past his childhood. And while his childhood may have shaped part of him, the reality of who he is today is that while he professes to be comfort to bull in both a boardroom and at the footy, the reality is when he goes to the footy, he sits in the private box. When he flies, it's on the private jet or it's an expectation that even when he spends his own money doing something that has nothing to do with his job, that he should be able to upgrade it to business glass the front end
of the plane. Why do Australians have a problem with our political class because of stuff like this? Why do they have a problem with Anthony Abernezi specifically because remember, at the height of cost of living issues in twenty and twenty three, this government decided to take fifteen hundred dollars off ten million workers. Fifteen hundred dollars that was desperately needed to pay special bills will be able to
pay off debt. Instead, that money was redeployed to canceling some student debt because he needs to do well on TikTok. This is a prime minister who is amongst political class that have got not one, but three pay rises since the last election.
Three.
A prime minister who now earns six hundred thousand dollars while living in two taxpayer funded homes with a twenty four hour.
Driver staff and private planes, including.
A brand new private plane which is to be delivered on his watch. We know that because he's not paying to live where he lives currently, he can afford four and million dollars for a house that he has no plans to move into because he expects to be prime minister living in the taxpayer funded ones for the next thirty years. But then there's the other example about other people's money. This federal government is going nuts on the
amount of money that it is spending on ads. To tell you how awesome it is now government funded advertising, I can't stand. I don't believe any government, state of fed should be able to use it within twelve months of a federal election, because they all abuse it all the time and we end up having to pay the bill.
As I've told you before, this government is using your money to spend more money on ads promoting itself than it has given to the charity sectors that help feed the almost four million people in this country who do not have a plan for breakfast, lunch or dinner, the people who access food banks. They asked the federal government for less money than they are spending promoting themselves, and they didn't even get what they asked for. That's the priorities.
As again we learned today the Albanezer government is on a messaging blitz, increasing by a third its media spending on advertising campaigns on the last financial year to spirute things like the state tree cost a living relief for families and the referendum on the voice. According to the Department of Finance, Canber departments and non corporate agencies, they spend one hundred and seventy four million dollars on ads on the Internet, television and radio, as well as outdoor
and print advertising. It was the highest ever annual media outlay by a federal government in a year that did not include a federal election. And you know how on this show I talk about each Way Albow perfect example.
His government spends more than any government has in a non federal election year on taxpayer funded ads to make you think that the government's doing such a great job that you will re elect a government regardless of what that government does to you, including taking fifteen hundred dollars off ten million workers, including almost.
All of the people who work in Broken Hill.
They told you cost are living first and foremost the central priority.
They spent.
Half a billion dollars on a referendum for a question that was marginal at best. And again, why does airbus albow work?
Because it's true?
Why does each way albow work? Because it's true? And in this case, when he was the opposition waving his finger at the government, this was what he thought of taxpayer funded advertising that he himself has led a government to spend more than any before.
One of the reasons why the election isn't being called is so that the government can use taxpayer funds to make advertisements that they think advances the Liberal Party.
Two Australias once s it's in darkness for ten days while others try to cover their backsides about having not just their snout in the trough, they're swibbing in it.
Let's get to.
Queensland, where again the early days of a brand new government is in place today the Liberal Party a National party, Liberal National Party. After celebrating on Saturday night, Well Deputy Premier Premier has been sworn in today, David Cruci Foley saying this today at Government House.
We campaigned on the issues that people told us they wanted us focused on youth, crime, health, housing and cost of living.
They remain our focus. That's going to.
Be our big focus in this term of government to make sure that people see improvement across those four issues.
Latest count it is getting much better for the Liberal National Party. The Queens and Electoral Commission should be ashamed of itself about how slow the camp was on Saturday night meeting. Labour was able to get in and do the garbage that they did. But have a look here. They are at forty eight seats. They're a clear majority right now. They could add another five to that. If that's the case, they get themselves to one more seat than LAY had after the twenty twenty election, which was
considered a landslide win. Because I keep everyone thinking Queen for Queen dam Pampart Labour Party down to thirty one seats, they could add another three.
Cataiustrati party could.
Get to four Greens, look maybe two, but at this stage one and only one independent in the parliament.
As for how well did Labor do well?
On Saturday night while the votes would be encountered, they were trying to pretend the result was much better than what it was, almost seven points down in the primary vote, over six points for the Liberal National Party excellent piece today and the COREAMR, which actually pulled apart the bs that Labour's been pushing for the past couple of days.
Have a look at this graph.
It shows you the primary vote of the Labor Party over the best part of what one hundred years, with the exception of the twenty twelve smashing, this election was the second worst performance in one hundred years, one hundred years. I had to buy my tongue a million times on Saturday night when I'm sort of seeing intra LNP fighting, Oh, we should be doing better, mate.
You smashed it.
Labor got wiped from office, wiped from office.
So when people were saying this.
It was neck and neck, and Labor did put up a fight and credit.
Where credits due.
There are certainly a lot of Labor commentators today that say that Stephen Miles as the Premier, did a fantastic job to try and resurrect Labour's campaign.
Or Labor to record. The number of seats that we did was a pretty amazing result.
Gaining a seat off the Green to political party, I think sends a message as well.
The lowest primary vote with one exception in oe hundred years, one hundred years, that's how badly Labor Party did. By the way, a few people have sent me this video which was somebody getting very excited on Saturday night because Stephen Miles was saying, oh, the LMP is not going to form majority government. Pay attention to the lady wearing the glasses just screaming her lungs out because thank goodness, the evil LNP has been denied majority. She's that person
looks awfully like the former premier's chief of staff. That's the type of people who used to be running Queensland. That's why I have felt the way I have felt about the need for change in Queensland for as long as I have. Well, thankfully they go and they go. Really, that's just seriously, I mean, these people are possessed with the right to govern and the hate of anyone challenging it. Well, guess what, you didn't just lose second worst vote in
one hundred years. Stop patting yourself on the back because the people in Queensland where they booted you in the ass. As for a more sedate way of saying that, the Great Phil Couri wrote in the Australian Financial Review immediately after the election, claims that Labour did well as like saying queens in Queensland, it's like the Poms saying they won the Ashes. They caught up with the guy with the punchable face and they punched him, said a Queensland
Labour source to Phil Curry. Yes it was a landslide, yet State Labor it was still banging on like the Poms claiming it feels like we've won the twenty twenty three Ashes, no more so than Miles himself. Utterly graceless, tone deaf, ill mannered Trumpian concession, which of course wasn't speech unbelievable And guess what he will be rewarded by staying as the leader of the Labor Party in Queensland.
The bloke who.
Took them to their second worst primary vote in one hundred years, pumped up by his own bs mad staffers, fanatical and hyperpartisan people screaming about how amazing it was to deny the LNP.
Blah blah blah blah blah.
So all I say is good, a second chance perhaps to teach this bloke a lesson. We'll wait and see. By the way, interesting point. In many state parliaments around Australia. Obviously the government has more people working for it than the staff is of so the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the police minister, the Education minister.
But in many.
States the shadow will at least have a couple of people working for them, so they'll be someone working for the shadow police minister or the shadow Housing minister. In Queensland, the entire opposition has twenty three staff and a Stagia
Paliche at one point had eighty personal staff. So with a team that's moll versus a team that big and a public service and a union movement and a media, it gives you an idea about just how big it is when Queensland boots those people out, and just how impressive it is with such a small team they were able to fight and win. Labor gone in Queensland for the next four years. Whether that's going to happen at
the federal level or not. Well, as you've heard me say, I see a pole here, I see a pole there with the LNP or the Liberal or National Party could be leading fifty one, fifty two, maybe fifty to fifty and I always say to you, well, reality is, the Teals are not going to move anywhere. So if the Teals don't move, then it's very hard to get to
seventy six seats. So today we learned that the Liberal Party is going to try to go after the Teal MPs and they're basically going to paint them as exactly what they are, just a lighter shade of grain that Teal is essentially a hard left vote, just wrapped up in the veneer of pretending that these are former Liberal voters who's strayed from the Liberal Party, despite the fact that we all know that Zalie Stegel and others have openly admitted that they haven't voted Liberal when it comes
to federal elections, including against Malcolm Turnbull. But he wouldn't care about that, would he. Here's part of the ad the Libs are.
Going to run.
Since the last election, Teal independent MPs have voted most often with the Greens, followed by Labor. Teal MPs voted with the Greens against tougher laws to stop criminals getting visas. Teal MPs want higher taxes, including on capital gains, housing and a higher GST. What would that mean for our economy? The next election will be close, with many commentators predicting a hung parliament. Are Labor, Greens, Teals minority government?
Don't risk it now.
Teals are going to love this because they're going to say, great, thanks for telling everyone. We're going to be really important. Here's my idea about how you take on the Teals. Come over here. I'm going to show you something when you actually look at the results of how most of the Teals got elected. They actually had not very small but they had much smaller primary vote, and the only way they got there was with preferences like, for example, here, let's have a look here, and I have to put
my glasses on some squintings. Sadly I apologize. Curtain Western Australia Teals took this one off the Liberal Party.
Okay.
The Teal gets twenty nine percent of the vote compared to the Liberal Party's forty one percent, the Teal ends up as the MP because basically everyone else in the race gives their preferences to the Teal.
That includes fourteen.
Thousand voters who voted labor and Labor who got thirteen point nine percent. If the Labor vote was lower, the Liberals could beat the Teal. In the electorate of North Sydney now doesn't exist, but it makes a good point here. The Independent got twenty five percent of the vote. Labour got twenty eight hundred votes, which was twenty one percent of the vote. If Labour's vote was lower, the Liberals would have beaten the Teals in the seat of Wentworth.
I think you will know where this is going.
The Independent thirty five percent, Labor ten point eight or nine thousand votes. If fewer people VOTEDBA, the Teal would lose. In the seat of mckeller on the northern beaches of Sydney, the Independent vote was yes, pretty high at thirty eight percent, but Labour's vote of eight thousand, one hundred people or eight percent of the electorate. A fewer people voted Labor, then guess what, There's a chance that the Teal would
have lost. So my point is this, it's all well and good to go after the record of the Teals. It's all well and good to say. Oh, imagine if the Tales were in charge. But that's kind of the message they want because it amplifies how important they are and how they're going to keep everyone accountable and we
can change politics. But if you take on labor and you make it such a hard fight between team Red and Team Blue that team read losers votes, will you lose the amount of votes which can be handed to the Teals. So keep your eye on the ball. The ball is labor. And finally, a weeken a bit to go before that American election. I want to plan in a couple of days time. Yes, I'll see my family at some point.
Don't worry that.
Hugs and FaceTime is a wonderful way of staying in touch. Congratulations Asher on your pen Lissnse. By the way, Danny, Well, today Donald Trump was at Madison Square Garden, which just that's such a huge thing, the idea that he's able to pull that crowd, that many people, all of those endorsements. This was mega, all right, absolutely mega, And don't fall full of garbage.
Oh, it's a Nazi rally for the nineteen thirties.
Republicans have been there many times before, conventions, all the rest of it.
So just throw that to one side.
Harris in the past couple of days while she found a new accent when she was at a black church. But now because we're getting close to the day, the media is now having to actually be honest about what's happening here.
This was NBC, but we have seen.
A number four in the last four days that have shown very small but in the context of this.
Close race, potentially meaningful movement in Trump's direction.
No, can you imagine the screen again, I don't know, you don't know. I've showed you data last night that shows how Harris can get there.
Well, the propensity of data is saying how Trump's going to get there again.
I'll show you this every single night, which is the real clear politics average of all of the poles other sites that have decide and pick and choose, but in all of them, Trump is leading in the battleground states. Now, I wouldn't want to be taking anything to the bank that's zero point two or zero point five. But the point is he's grossly underperformed the polls in previous times where they just got the number wrong for him. So
if he's leading, this could be a massive blowout. Or for some reason they've overcounted Trump voters and it's going to be a massive blowout for Harris. But I think we know what's happening here. To show you about those national polls. Now, remember Trump's never won a national popular vote. Have a look here at the difference between the red lines and the blue lines. That black line in the middle, all of that to the left is before Biden, Trump leading,
Trump leading. Then the summer of vibes and the brat summer meant she went up, up, up, up up.
But look what's happened.
He's closed the deal, She's fallen off, and now he is in front.
In fact, on.
This very day four years ago, Biden led by seven point five percent in the national vote. Eight years ago, on this very day, Clinton led by four.
Point six percent.
Back to the MSG rally today Madison Square Garden in New York, there was a comedian, Tony Hinchcliff. I think he's great when it comes to roasting, but he probably wasn't the great pick to turn out here because he plays a pretty rough game, including jokes that the internet have deemed to be deeply racist, offensive, and an example of why you must not vote for Trump.
I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.
Yeah.
I think it's called Puerto Rico.
So that'll play out for the next twenty four hours. But you've heard the joke as opposed to reading about it in a.
Couple of days.
Time for Trump best part of his speech, this is the closing message. You should say this a thousand times over the next eight days. I'd like to begin by asking a very simple question, Are you better off now than you were.
Four years ago? On issue after issue? Tamala broke it, but I will fix it. We're going to fix it.
As for Kamala Harris now being confronted by the reality that the polling is not what it should be, which is she should be running away with it because she's running against Hitler, will she proved herself to be the genius that we know her to be.
So, to be very frank with you, my internal polling is my instinct.
I let the campaign people deal with all that other stuff.
And I am responding to what I'm seeing. I mean, just two nights ago we had thirty thousand people show up. I think it was actually one than thirty thousand people with an incredible amount of enthusiasm. If you see the people have shown up last night, every event that we do, and the feeling is one of energy and excitement.
I'll ask you this question, who do you think is winning more In a sec You're on pul Murray Live analyst Nilson. We will get to at a moment or two his time about the American election, but let's talk about what's happening here in Australia from airline upgrades to two Australias. Big chat coming up next here on pul Murray Life. All right, let's get right into it right now, Matt Canavan said in a Matt Canaban of course, standing by for.
Us right now.
Victorious in Queensland, Excited about a new broom, domestos being sent to the offices of all incoming ministers. Congratulations to the LNP team made over the weekend. Commiserations to Sam Crosby, who I know was just every fifteen minutes. Mate, Please please tell me it's not this bad. Please tell oh that Anthony Green says we're doing much better than we Actually the.
Night I was pretty happy. I'm sure I went to bed thinking this is okay.
I wake up. Oh yeah, well that's a bit sore. I'll give you the You read the numbers today and.
You're really a lot worth today the second lowest primary in our hundred years. All right, now, let's have the chat about the upgrade stuff. Okay, Jim Chalmers today should have just said yeah, probably, I don't know, but I never picked up the phone to Allen Joyce. This is what he had to say about him moving up to the front of the plane.
I haven't asked Alan Joyce. No, I'm not sure if I have received one. I don't think so, but i'd have to have a look.
Now, Matt is what is going to, for want of a better term, save the Prime Minister here and again, I don't believe he's about to be sent off to the Corruption Commission or he's about to resign office in the next couple of days. But it's what's going to save him here that he's going to turn around and.
Say, well, well, everyone does it. Everyone does it.
The problem is not everyone picks up the phone to the CEO of the biggest company in the portfolio that theoretically you were regulating as the Transport Minister. If you did that as the Racing Minister, I think you wouldn't last the week.
Well, exactly right, Paul. I don't think everyone does it. I certainly wasn't aware that there was a red telephone in Allan Joyce's office which we could call and just request some random upgrades. Look, I've got Jim, I think was fine answering that question. I don't believe I've got an upgrade either. I certainly haven't got one on personal flights.
We do take lots of business flights obviously, But yeah, I just I beggars belief for me that you'd call up Alan Joyce and ask personally for an upgrade, especially as you say, when you were the responsible minister regulating that company. It's completely inappropriate behavior and the Primister hasn't given a good explanation for why he conducted it. I do think there are really coal questions that need to
be asked now. I actually did ask a question of Contus when we had Alan Joyce before the Senate Cost of Living Committee last year. I asked them to provide a list of all upgrades that they'd provided to best Albineasy's family, staff or anyone else traveling with him. They refuse to do so for privacy reasons, but because of these latest allegations and the connection to the Prime Minister's ministerial responsibilities at the time, I think quite should answer
that question. And I know I've been talking to colleagues about ways and means. We could we use the Senate to force the answer to that question, because I think it's strained. People deserve to know.
Sim why is travel always a blind spot for politicians? I mean, we all know on this side of the fence.
It's a great question.
And I mean, how many MPs have lost their jobs over the last fifty years from travel roots, you know, going back from governments and governments and governments.
Look, it's a good question. I don't know.
I think, I think federally because they do so much of it, you know, I mean every week Matt calls in from a different part of Australia. You know, I don't know when any of these guys see their families because they are always on the road.
So I think they have to run absolutely big joints once a month. I get it. It's a big twenty six weeks of the year.
You've got to fly down you know, or most of them have to fly down to Canberra. Yeah, and that's you know, just to go to their other workplace.
But it's when you go on holidays to Hawaii. Yeah, yeah, it's.
About Hawaii and Australian point of course. Such trouble.
But look, you know, to your point, is he going to get out of this because he's able to say, well, everyone does it? Yeah, I kind of think he is, because I kind of think every I don't know about Matt and Jim, but certainly I know a lot of them have had upgrades.
But what happens is is that automatically.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just going to say, I just go back to what I was saying. I mean, obviously talk to politicians. I don't think any of us to do what Anthiobaneese is alleged to have done in this case. I'm certainly not aware of it. But that's the difference here. I mean, I say, I don't think I've ever got an upgrade. It must have been special enough. But from what I know, I think the upgrades normally happened when you just get to the airport. So I would you like to be upgraded?
Sir?
Okay, you're not going to say no, presumably, But this idea that you'd call ahead to the CEO of the company, come on and ask him to give you special attention. There's something fishy about that, all right.
Broken Hill, Matt.
Something that you are phenomenal in your representation of regional Australia, not just a specific part of regional Australia that you live in is and it's really opened my not open my eyes, but certainly underline my central belief over the past five years and why we do. Our town is to twenty seven million people, and they live in lots of different places, and all of them have a right to healthcare and to be happy and to have a job in housing and all.
The rest of it.
What is the broken hill ten days without power and the collective national attitude to it? Say to you about what I was mentioning when it came to those two Australias.
Well, lots of those, lots of those smaller parts of this country feel feel justifiably ignored. Obviously, if something like this had happened in a major city. It would be front page news all around the country while it was happening. Yet this is only just because news after the event, and I'm guilty myself. I didn't realize it until it was reported in Australia and I have spoken to some of my New South Wales National's colleagues today after discovering it,
and it's a shocking circumstance that Broken Hill found themselves in. Obviously, this was a freak storm that caused this, but it didn't seem to be a lot of a care or concern for what is a historic community that does produce continues to produce a lot of wealth for our country.
My news of those National colleagues are calling on the government to declare this a natural disaster and that would unlock the normal assistance that occurs for people that have lost food items and their fridge had damage and have to now have a thousand dollars in cost in some cases to respond. So I hope the government does listen to those concerns now that more Australians know about it.
I should also add too that another thing that's not yet reported to me that I have heard through the traps is that Roxby Downs is also out of power and now I'm not sure if it's the same storm, but it's a similarly from storms.
It's been out of.
Power for over a week now. While some power has been restored, the Olympic Dam mine and smelter is still not at production for production capacity. It's costing HP of fortune, costing our country a lot of money. And again just coast totally unreported for the people who have to suffer through it.
The country areas.
Correct, but you know, if there's a traffic delay on the way to the stadium because Taylor's was intown rolling coverage when it comes to the cities. All right, let's get a bumper sticker versions out of both of you about Queensland, because obviously I want to give you one shot in America before.
I head off.
Labour second lowest primary vote in one hundred years. Yes, Green's pushed a little further back.
Look, I guess it's all about expectations and when you start off like we went into that election thinking it was going to be like the Toarago election when annably got absolutely decimated because it's a bus it's better well, yes, genuinely, like in four years time, And you know, I genuinely think Stephen should do the right thing by the party and go to the back bench and give us a chance to rebuild and put up some other faces who aren't associated with the last how many years ago.
Success of the New South Wales Labor Party was the people who got booted or got flushed. The people who got elected were all brand new faces. Well, and you look at South Australia.
Peter Mallanowskis came back after one term because Jay did the right thing and left. You look at Brumby and Dan Andrews was able to come back after one term because Brummy did a really good job. And similarly, you know, I don't want to give Steven Miles two hard a Tom. I'm sure you'll help you with that more than but I do think from a labors perspective he did not embarrass himself. He should be lauded as having had a
dignified exit. But now, you know, do the right thing and go to the back Then.
As I said, whatever goodwill that may will have been built up for a couple of weeks, he blew on election, right, Matt, your thoughts on little details here, little details there, what did you think.
Well, look, I mean the reason Sam went to bed happy on Saturday night because the election day vote was a lot closer than the vote leading up to it. And the problem for the Labor Party was only a third of Queens leaders voted on election day, so when those Prepole numbers came in the two thirds the voted early, they voted very differently and voted massively against Labor. So it could have been very well the bust if that trend had continued right through election day. And look, it's
a great win for the LMP. It's been a long time since they've formed government. They deserved the plaud for achieving that. At some time, though, of course, we'll have to look at that campaign and understand why there was such a big difference in the vote on election day
compared to pre pole. My early estimation is being on the booze, is that it's a lesson that you can't fat the pig on market day, and especially trying to dock off a first term government federally, we need to have some pretty coherent and strong policies to withstand the inevitable labor Scare campaign.
When the only thing that.
The Labor Party excelled at over the last decade in Queensland was running the mother of all scare campaigns about Campbell human and we got there in the end, but we probably risk the trip the light fantastic a bit by ourselves not having a lot of policies to defend against that scare campaign.
Good stuff, lads.
I will talk to you next week, even though I'll be in America, you'll be here. The way of these America shows are going to work is yes, I'm going to talk a lot, but it was still going to talk about Australia and these lads will both look.
Probably the same. I'm slightly happier than Sam right now.
I wonder why quick break back with more here on Paulmurray Live Analysis in the US.
We'll talk to her next.
We are just over a week out from that American election. I will be in the US for all of our shows next week. Again, I'm just making it clear, yes that'll be the focus of the shows, but we're going to be doing Australian news and the normal panels as well. Okay, so I don't think it's just all data all the time, but a person, I'm very much looking forward to seeing with my own eyes is my wonderful friend Analise Nielsen,
who right now is in Pennsylvania. Analyse that's the state, that's the one that's the tipping p give us an idea. Have you finally been able to meet the one person who's absolutely sure of what the result's going to be in Pennsylvania?
Absolutely not, not at least everyone we've met here. Who's the actual who are the actual voters that are going to decide this thing? But the one thing I can tell you, Paul, from the people we've been talking to is it seems like a lot of the passion has gone on both sides. I've had volunteers tell me in multiple states they have fewer problems having their signs stolen. We talked to a bartender yesterday who said she's had fewer people fighting in her bar over politics. And that's
the mood at the moment. No one's excited about any of it.
Yeah, I'm just looking here at the latest poles in Pennsylvania. Trump leading, Trump leading, Harris leading, Trump leading, Trump leading, Trump leading, Trump leading, which is why they say he's ever so slightly in front. Do you meet people who have changed their mind in the past four years in a place like Pennsylvania, because if everyone goes back to the same corners, we know. But the whole point is the assumption is that what's happened there over the past
four years will move people in directions. Are you interacting as you go around the country. Are people willing to say I was Trump, then I was Biden, now I'm trumping.
In Absolutely, But it goes both ways. And we've heard it from Democrats who said they've supported them for a long time and now they've had a really tough four years. The economy has been bad, and a lot of them in America, in a non compulsory system, sitting it out it can have the same effect as actually casting about it. And we hear from Trump supporters who say they've fed
up with the drama. They don't want to go back to any of the kind of heightened politics of the Trump years, and they're just not excited about Kamala Harris either, So they're going to sit this out as well, which is why it's so interesting to see so many people casting their ballots early. We know Republicans have completely changed their chute on this. They said twenty twenty, don't vote early, it'll get stolen this time around, they're saying, we've got
to swamp the vote. Just get your vote in. However, but I think it's going to be interesting to see what that surge looks like in the final few days, because there are still people who haven't made up their mind quite genuinely.
Well, and also, can I caution anyone who goes sort of Twitter diving and you see people talking about, oh, the early vote for Republicans is this, and the Democrats is that there's a third group called Independence.
Okay.
Now, Independence currently in national polling Harris's slightly slightly above. So if the Republicans are just in front Democrats are just behind, well, then that can be the difference in the world and vice versa. Okay, So again, lots of people will see what's happening. We don't know until Wednesday of next week, and at least the closing arguments we know what it is. Where there's going to be sort of focus on January sixth and the shadows of it
from Kamala Harris Trump of course, Madison Square Garden. He'll cop it a bit for the comedian for a couple of days, but other than that, she broke it, I'll fix it. It feels like to me Trump has a more convincing argument than Harris.
But what do you think, Well, look on the try side of the ledger, we have an economy that people aren't happy about. Cost of living is just something everyone brings up with us. The only people who tell us they don't feel the pinch of cost of living are those retired people who are drawing on Social Security and have fixed expenses. And they're tending to lean more Republican as well because they think that Donald Trump is the
person that they trust or not touched that. When we're looking at the polling around how Americans feel the country is going to have in the sixties and seventies percent people saying that the country's going the wrong direction. That really should be fatal for anyone seeking reelection. And I guess that's the big question is do people consider Kamala
Harris new or is she considered the incumbent. We hear that cut both ways, and it tends to be based on just how much they hate Donald Trump is when they put that argument forward. But on the whole people are really suffering, and that is a really strong argument for Donald Trump to say, hey, things are pretty good when I was in If you do, I mean, we can go into all the machinations of the economy and what really made it good, what's really going to make it good. But at the end of the day, people
can't afford what they could four years ago. It is very obvious and it's a very strong campaign point for.
Trump and at least Follo I was paying attention to every word that you had to say. That beautiful tree behind you as well, can't wait to be there.
So you went about well just a few days time, Dula, thank you all the best an list's reporting.
Of course, you see it all day ready at skyies dot com that a you late to bait next to you tomorrow