Paul Murray Live | 29 October

new one, upgrade Albow. That's the best way to describe the bloke at the moment, the bloke who doesn't mind not just flying on your dollar, but whether it's his dollar. He thinks an economy ticket should equal first class upgrade Albow. That in a second. But to distract from this upgrade Elbow story that is going to get out of the Prime Minister's control much sooner before this thing is going to be over, the government today decided to distract Now.

It largely worked because if you judge the impact of news off the six pm news, most of the six pm news was distracted by the release of a report today that we weren't expecting today, which would make me think it was about changing the subject.

shot in the locker of blame Morrison. Blame Morrison. Now there's a couple of things in this, and I'm not going to get too deep into all of it, but I do want to have respect for people who, of course were affected by other people getting sick, people dying, or the millions of us who had to go through hell for a couple of years there. Well, they got the headlines that they wanted out of it, which was that inquiry founds the stroll out ie the slow rollout

of the vaccine cost lives. It also suggested that a significant amount of money had been well in their view, wasted or lost through all of this. But I want to deal with a couple of things here and put them back into context. Now we're supposed to believe that the nature of the vaccine rollout ended up costing lives and therefore blame the government. Well, of course, since twenty

twenty one, the extreme majority of Australians are vaccinated. But have a look at the actual number of deaths that have taken place during the height of the pandemic and what I credited as deaths from or with COVID nine nineteen in someone's system when the vaccine didn't exist three hundred and ninety sixty four, twenty one thousand, almost twenty two thousand since Now, this does not mean in any way, shape or form that I am commenting on the vaccine.

What I am commenting on is if the headline is the federal government response led to deaths twenty three hundred, well what do we say about now? A couple of years on from that process, when we have now got so used to so many people dying with or from that it doesn't matter anymore. And by that I mean no cause for lockdown all the rest of it. Twenty one almost twenty two thousand people that have died in

the years when the vaccine has been in existence. The Treasurer also today tried to do his bid to pretend that the COVID pandemic and the overspending by the Morrison government and Josh Friedenberg was the reason why inflation went nuts in the country. Is the hole that it's in right now.

or straight up by Virgin Airlines. That when Job Keeper officially ended and they voted the Labour Party by the way for it officially end, that they believed that it should have gone longer, and while it was in existence, it should have been available to more people and been worth more money. So forgive me if I just laugh in the face of the Treasurer today pretending that the big mistakes weren't ones that he wanted to be bigger?

with lockdowns. Apart from the idea that people don't like them. Oh, I could tell you that there was very little in the report that the absolute default position under all circumstances, at all times should be that kids go to school. Nothing in and around that. And of course the reason why I believe that the victims of COVID nineteen deserve

to be represented at a proper royal commission. As best as I could see, no reference whatsoever to the people who died alone, stories that we told you at the time, stories that we have told you every year since, these stories over and over and over again. And as always a shout out to my mate Mark Jessep, who of course was brave enough to talk about the situation involving his father and his father and many others being put into a position or incredible loneliness was a significant part

of their final days on this planet. Unforgivable stuff. But all of that the distraction from the big one today, upgrade elbow. This bloke is in a world of trouble. Okay, Now we're going to see whether he's going to try to find a way out of it. But I think think that his attempts thus far are only digging him deeper. You know the story. But for those that are half

paying attention, the story is pretty clear. Here is that he was too close to the former CEO of Cornus, Alan Joyce, that he was buying personal tickets to go on personal flights when at times he was the transport minister of the country. Yet he was being upgraded now upgraded by the way to business and potentially even first class in some situations. All right, now, you and I wouldn't get that opportunity of pay economy, fly business, the idea that Albanize he got it because at the time

he was the transport minister. Well as other people have said, it's like a finance minister asking a financial institution for fifty thousand dollars because remember, by giving the seat away, that is money that the company has chosen not to make a decision that very obviously hyper profit focused companies like Quantas do not make. Lightly amazingly, labor party people were sent out there today to try to tell us the Jedi mind trick. Nothing to see here. In fact, Elbow's the victim.

Dunn's taken up grades. Bridget McKenzie's taken upgrades. You know this is needs to be declared on the public bridge.

have been automatically given. It is about whether he asked for them or not. The Prime Minister did his best today to try to push this thing away. He's only made it worse.

is about quantus. Part of the Counts story is how it was able to use soft power, which is a very polite way of saying access to a lounge where members of the public are not allowed in, or upgrades that mean you fly a little better than you were willing to pay, including for members of your family, and how that has seen that the people who are supposed to be keeping an eye on this company have in some ways been either doing its beating or looking the

other way when very obviously there were issues in this company that we have all heard about, dealt with, and anyone who's phone recently live with. So let's get back to the heart of all of this, right, and by the way, if anyone thinks of the author is some sort of Peter Dutton acolyte. Read anything he's ever read written, right, this bloke is not going to be pro dutt't But anyway it's clearly also not pro us, definitely not pro me. Now that said, an extract of his book was available

in the Channel nine newspapers over the weekend. He works for the Financial Review. They got part of it. The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Brisbane Times got the better bit. Now let's be very clear what is this story about. The Prime Minister wants to make it seem like, well, I declared everything and everything's the same. Remember, if you are a minister and you ask for a favor, which in this case is thousands of dollars worth of upgrades,

it's as red hot as it gets. Three extracts from the book. In July two thousand and nine, when he Albanezi was the Transport Minister in the rud government but traveling in a private capacity, he received an upgrade to business class from Corners from Sydney to Los Angeles return flights. One April twenty ten, he and his son received a ticket upgrade from Sydney to Rome on return flights via

the corners partner Emirates. No classes of travel was specified, making it impossible to know the precise monetary value of this gift. But it wouldn't have been sorry, but it would have been in the vicinity of ten thousand dollars. Now again, imagine the Finance Services minister ends up getting a gift of ten thousand dollars from a bank. What

would people think again? July two thousand and eleven, third trip, Still Transport Minister Albanizi accepted upgrades from Emirates, traveling unofficially to and from Europe three flights, not as the minister but as the citizen. Yet he gets tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts from Quantus. Doesn't matter if they are declared or not. It's about whether they were requested on a personal trip to Hawaii. Here we go.

We now are in our fourth trip. De seven, twenty nine, twenty twelve, he was upgraded to business class by Quotas from Honolulu to Sydney and again March twenty thirteen. We're now at five trips. Albanzi traveled with Joyce as Quantas as an inaugural flight to Dubai as part of its partnership with Emirates. Cave in earnest Prime Minister tries to pretend that that last flight doesn't count because well, he was just along for the ride, as was the media.

Here's where it gets interesting. All of my colleagues have made reference to this tonight. I want to actually show you the text. There is a thing called the Ministerial Code of Ethics. These are put simply the rules under which many question time scandals are prosecuted, and put simply, if you are on the wrong side of these things,

then you end up in a world of trouble. Things like the conduct for ministers or their Code of Ethics is things that Anthony Abernezi, as Opposition leader, was more than happy to use as the folkroom to get rid of what he believed to be examples of the Liberal Party breaking the rules.

available tonight on the Prime Minister and Cabinets website. The section that we're going to talk about here, and apparently it is no different than previous governments, certainly the Rudd and Gillard governments of which he was the Transport Minister and was asking or still getting the tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts out of Quantus, the single biggest company in the area that as Transport Minister he was regulating. All right, we'll start here with the overall

section which deals with gifts. Don't worry. You don't have to squint or squint for you Section three point one point eight. Ministers in their official capacity may therefore accept customary official gifts, hospitality, tokens of appreciation and similar formal gestures in accordance with the relevant guidelines, but must not seek, repeat, but must not seek or encourage any form of gift

in their personal capacity. Of the five flights that we have talked about when he was the Transport Minister, when he was flying personally with his family on holidays overseas, did he get them or did he ask for them? Definitely, if he asked for them, he's in breach. That would mean that a Prime Minister of the day should have

sacked him for doing so. The second section also very clear to me that he is on the wrong side of this and he is not going to be able to find a way out of it, and it will be the focus of the rest of this week and Parliament next week. Section three point two one Ministers must not seek or accept any kind of benefit or other valuable consideration, either for themselves or for others, in connection with performing or not performing any element of their ministerial duties.

So if he asked quantus, he's in breach of the first section. If he received even with out asking, he's in breach of the second. This would result in the termination of a ministry. Now the Prime Minister is trying to kick up as much dust as possible to make the conversation about did he or did he not text or call or meet Alan Joyce. That's not the point. He could have asked the cleaner. He could have asked his cleaner to ask a quantus cleaner on his behalf.

But if he approached anyone anywhere in quantas, he's in breach by receiving those gifts. Even if not asked, he is in breach. He as Opposition leader, would demand the sacking of the relevant minister. He himself should have been sacked by previous prime ministers. This document is from his own website and this is the standard under which presumably

he sack his own Transport minister. As for the Prime Minister, pay very close attention to how he answers a very direct question, because while he's already in trouble for the accepting, he's trying to get into the gray area about who was asked, not the company being asked.

for it or not? Well, that decides whether he breaks one rule or whether he breaks two rules. Rules that would get any other minister sacked that every opposition, labor or liberal would go after. Again, if this is tens of thousands of dollars worth of benefit, imagine it was the Financial Services Minister asking a bank for something that resulted in tens of thousands of dollars changing hands. Yes,

it is that serious. Now the Prime Minister will ultimately believe that he can survive all of this, because of course it is the Prime Minister who decides whether there has been a breach of the code of conduct. The Prime Minister, if he lets himself off the hook, will have openly chosen not to apply the same standard to himself that another prime minister would be expected to apply

to all other ministers. Petter Dutton can smell that this one is not ending, despite the fact that the Prime Minister is blaming all in sundry and surprise, surprise, is not taking responsibility for himself.

the way. Pete van Onsalin, writing tonight in the Daily Mail, says the Prime Minister is in a scenario now where he should sack himself. Yes, this story is that significant? Right quickly does some other stuff? Got a great debate coming up in a moment of twos time, look for to Joe Hildebrand trying to explain how all of this doesn't matter again black and white in my view, five breaches of two sections of the ministerial we'll get to

that no moment of two's time. Also. Nigel Ferraj on the Show This Morning tonight, Stephen Miles is adjusting to his new life as the incoming opposition leader, and it's very different than any experience he's ever had. In fact, all current members of the Labor Party have never been in opposition, so they are very used to a very comfortable life. People like his chief of staff, who's seen on Saturday night was celebrating the LMP potentially not making

it into majority. Well now they are well and truly a majority, so she will be working with a much smaller team this time around. In fact, let's go back to just under the Labor Party's watch, how many people will work for each and every minister personally in their personal office. These numbers pretty extraordinary. About some of the blowout that took place under the Miles government. The Premier

thirty seven personal staff, the Minister for Resources ten. Overall two hundred and sixty four personal staff for all of the different ministers. Again, don't worry about squinting bottom of the page, two hundred and sixty four. That is how many they had as personal staff. Now, these were the people who were largely paid by the taxpayer. And we know when it comes to the premiere the very very thin line between party activity and political activity was essentially

rubbed out over much of the past ten years. Well, here's a bit of a shock for these people that have never been in opposition. Because many of the ex ministers face a pay up to two hundred thousand dollars, the two hundred and ninety four staff is about to become twenty three, not just for the leader, that's twenty three for the entire opposition. Well that one hundred labor staffers who work across eighteen ministerial portfolios will face the acts,

including personal drivers, media managers and policy writers. All surviving ministers, including the opposition leader and his deputy, will be left with a twenty three employees combined. That is why it is so hard to take on the Queensland Labor government. That is why the achievement of the LNP being able to with just twenty three staff slay the dragon and get a majority that with counting still going on, could be as big as Palichets after the pandemic of twenty twenty.

Lots of people wrote about this today on the core of Mars website the comments that they decided to publish. Miles will have to cut his sandwiches and pack his own lunch, says Alan, Well done. Steve says, OMG, how are they going to cope? Still overpaid by the sounds of it. No private jets to birthday parties, says Andrew. Remember there was a ten minute private jet that Stephen Miles took so we could go to a birthday party

for one of his MPs. It made my day. It's been a great few days, the thought of labor people losing the perose of office. So good to Tazzy where I again want to talk here about beautiful Tasmani, where we only were just a couple of weeks ago. Now they have just a few federal electorates Bass, Bradden, Lions, Franklin and Clark. Now the seat of Bass on the far left held by the Liberals, the seat of Bradden

held on the far right by the Labor Party. The seat of Lions, which is the bulk of Tasmania, but he's not a heavily populated part of Tasmani, which is why it's physically bigger, is currently held by the Labor Party, but the Libs probably should have won it in the past, but candidate issues have been one of the reasons why

Labor are able to hold onto the seat. And the assumption is that Dutton, should he be getting close to government, has to win, not just Bass but he has to win something else in Tasmania, hopefully Bradden, but theoretically Lions is up for grabs. The any problem is Lions currently has a Labor MP that doesn't plan on going anywhere until today, where the person who has been the Tasmanian Labor Party leader for two elections and lost twice of

those elections twice in pretty spectacular circumstances. Rebecca White considered such a star that, despite the fact that she was rejected not once but twice by the people of Tasmania, that she should end up taking over as the potential candidate going into the next election. Now she is from this part of the electorate and this part of Tasmania. But you should have a look here at the numbers. The Labour Party's primary vote the last in this seat

was twenty nine percent, just twenty nine percent. The Libs were at thirty seven. That was at an election where the government was being swept from office. Presumably Labour's vote goes down, Presumably the Liberal vote goes up. And I wouldn't be betting it all on Rebecca White because the primary vote in the seat of Lions at the state election, her personal vote was in the twenties the overall party

was beaten by the best part of five points. So I don't know what it is about certain people in the Labor Party who they just keep getting the opportunity to fail upwards. But it looks like Rebecca White is about to become the Christina Kanneely of Tasmanian politics. Lose, lose, lose, lose, lose you they try to find a way to keep forcing you on the electorate or pushing you up the slippery pole. Speaking of elections, local government at once have

taken place in Victoria. Most notably for us is to see how I make Nicholas reesis doing as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne. Great to see him when we're in our town just a few weeks ago in Springvale. Nicholas, of course was the deputy mayor for many years. He has now become the mayor, and we're very proud of our friend. No matter how often we disagree on Telly, he's a very good and decent man and I believe that he should continue in the position. But let's have

a look what the people who actually voted think. Well on primary votes, Nicholas Rees is well and truly leading. The Liberals have dropped out today saying they don't have enough vote. Also, people like Aaron Wood are now out of play. So the assumption is that while he's in the lead right now, he's going to have to get

a whole bunch of preferences. You've got to imagine that the Greens might go to Nick unless they've done a deal to go to Labor and then if that many end up going to Anthony Koda Fides, who may will have finished third on primary vote, but he's the not Nick Reese candidate, that there might be a preference game playing there. So pay attention. Lot's happening, state, federal, and even local politics. And I've got all of our fingers in all of those pies, which perhaps is why Paul

is such a portly boy. Now let's turn our attention to America. We will be there at the end of the week. I'm very excited. You know how much I've been talking about this election. We all know what its consequences are, we all know how high the stakes are. And as I mentioned to you last night, when Donald Trump had his rally at Madison Square Garden, that in

and of itself was an amazing story. But of course the media desperate to try to either make this out to be some sort of Hitler rally, which of course it was not. Well, they focused on the comments of a comedian, a shock comedian who always goes too far while you invite that person to a political event. I don't know, but he decided to turn a story about garbage in Puerto Rico into a joke that Puerto Rico is garbage.

that are in Pennsylvania. And we all know Pennsylvania is one of the key swing states hence why the joke is being weaponized, and hence why the Trump campaign is doing everything they can to try to take the blast out of the grenade. For his part, the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe retweeted something on X Today which was that he's really the modern version of the previous insult comic Don Rickles, who performed this at the inauguration of Ronald Reagan all

those years ago. First black kid I ever said it will definitely never play basketball. You were standing here with the band with the same Kakami music.

Trump leads fifty five to forty one. When it's women, it is Harris fifty four to Trump's forty two, Which brings me to another part of this race we should talk about. It's weil and truly good enough for you to bring your team out, but you need, of course voters either from the other team or the team in the middle. As we know, there's the Democratic Party, here's their party at the Democratic National Convention, the Republican National Convention.

Of course, was Donald Trump at his convention the DNC. If we can roll that two guys, of course, there are both sides of the aisle here, but there is a third group of people, and these are independents. See in America, you don't just register to vote, you' also

register who. Generally you align yourself with Team Red, Team Blue, or the team in the middle Independence and the New York Times poll where Independence were backing Harris by five points, that would make you think or so, if more women vote than men and she's leading with Independence, then maybe Trump's in more trouble than we think. But of course it plays out state by state. Seven swing states that

we've spoken about before. Let's go around them like a clock what are called the blue wall traditional places where the Democrats would win of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania places the Red team normally wins North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and then heavily unionized city via Las Vegas in Nevada. According to this, in Arizona, Harris is winning the Independence fifty five to forty five. In Nevada, Trump is winning them forty six to thirty nine. In Wisconsin, Trump is winning them forty

nine to forty six. In Michigan, Harris is winning them forty six to forty four. In Pennsylvania, all important Pennsylvania where three hundred thousand Puerto Ricans and who knows how they react to the joke and how the media spins the joke. Forty six percent to forty one or five point lead for Donald Trump. Donald Trump is smashing by eleven points of independence in North Carolina, where Harris is

winning in Georgia. So all of that matters, okay. And that's why a little bit of her vote disappearing, a little bit of his vote disappearing, means independence matter more. It's why you've got to overperform, overperform, and then try and take the majority of what's left in the middle. And I'm not talking about undecided. I'm talking about literally millions of people who identify themselves as not red or not blue. Quick break back with more plenty to talk about.

All right, Joe, let's talk about upgrade albow Joe Hildebrand next. I won't say I've been looking forward to this, but I've been looking forward to this. Freer Leitch of course from the Vins. His research center is here, no disrespect, but Joe Hildebrand is here as well. Now that Joe is the elbow whisperer, all right, give me the defense for upgrade albow.

she'd never done it. And if you look at what happened every time travel roots come up, and it always ends up, it starts with this big sort of furor and then it becomes self extinguishing because it comes pretty clear pretty quickly that everyone's actually in on it. And you look at the last big travel roughts scandal in the first term of the Howard government and that obviously had some really heavy consequences. But again so I don't think.

I'm sure the media and the Telly's done some great work on earthing more upgrades and they'll do a great job. But in terms of the ferocity of the opposition going after him, it's going to be muted because it's going to come about straight back up.

Prime Minister of the day. And the point is that it's up to the opposition now for to prove that he's going to let himself off.

distraction when it comes to Trump. There are other things, so I'll quickly get to it here. Let's talk about the COVID inquiry. There should be a proper royal commission. We've all screamed about why that should be the case. They obviously put it out as a way to change the subject. If you think that Australians only pay attention to the first story on the news, not the second and third, then they got what they wanted today. But what were you most disappointed about today?

But they were driving this hard line anti freedom, pro lockdown mentality really on very little evidence bace. And then two it was the state premiers, and there was chess beating to see who could be the most draconian, the most pro lockdown premier. And then the fact that one Australian supported this and two none of these premiers or public servants have really been held to account is truly remarkable.

doing it. So while today we feel like we're in the majority, I would suggest if there was a lockdown again anytime in the future for new reason, I don't place the full bet the majority of people would punish.

into state governments. Instead of saying no, no, no, they are actually saying, oh, yes, we're going to pretend your imaginary few years are all true and we're going.

almost over. The signs are that Trump is almost over the line. But that's what Hillary thought just eight years ago.

and dogs or things like that. And he's home. I mean, it's funny, but it doesn't help in a way. The Madison Square Gardens rally look totally extraordinary. I'm going to be there in Scramson for his last rally, I honestly, hand on heart believe I'm ninety percent certain he will win.

people have watched it. So if you want to get an insight into how does he talk, how does he think make your decision whether you like it or not. That is an extraordinary amount of people to get to in a weekend. And that's I mean, this only came out on Friday.

who clearly loves his family. Now, look, I think the Joe Rogan interview probably is the thing above all that seals the deal.

But if you want to come and join the party, please do so let's see over the next couple of weeks what happens. But I'm certain already I can see.