Live on Sky News.
This is Sharry Good Evening.
Tonight, Labor Insiders reveal and overly confident alban Easy is drawing up a list of those he believes turned against.
Him when it looked like he wouldn't win.
That exclusive in a moment, and I'll reveal the gobsmacking message I received from one of the Prime Minister's top advisors.
You won't believe what they've.
Sent This as Peter Dutton reassure's panicked coalition voters. Ray Hadley will be on the show live to fire up, and on the show, the ABC's Media Watch defends nine journalist Nick McKenzie's self confessed breach of ethics as a lapse in judgment and.
That he was just overly trusting.
More on that in a moment, Plus, a submarine expert will explain what Chinese intelligence is really up to with its spy ships.
That's later in the show Tonight.
Albanezi seems confident on the campaign trail, but behind the scenes there's internal disunity consuming the party. Labor Inside has revealed that Albanisi, convinced he's going to win, is drawing up a list of those who turned against him when his chips were down. The vibe around Albinizi is that he's flying now. He's set to win comfortably, even pick up some seats.
That's what he's.
Telling people, and he's looking at who's stuck with him. During the difficult months when he was flailing politically and it looked like he was in trouble, alban Ezi and those closest to him are carefully examining who peeled off, who was with.
Him and who wasn't.
One labour source told me there's definitely a list being drawn up about who's stuck with him. The treasurer is not on that list. You recall how right after the twenty twenty two election, alban Ezi unceremoni nearly dumped popular political rival Tanya Plibasek from her beloved education portfolio and stuck her in a lower profile portfolio designed to hurt her support where she'd come up against the environmentalists. This is the fate that awaits those perceived to have abandoned
alban Easy in recent months. Labor operative Cameron Milner said Albanisi has been known for being deeply paranoid and vengeful like this his whole political life Labor and Peace were expecting the election to go poorly, a minority government at best, and they were starting to prepare for that outcome, and even ministers were privately speaking about the prospect of a first term loss and a dut and win. Now we reported that Tony Burke was already making moves for a
future potential leadership run. It's a theme others knew about. Anne was canvassed in the media. The Prime Minister was less than pleased with this. Now Labor and P Josh Burns is another who's not in Albanize's good books, all for the crime of inviting Tanya Plibisek to launch his campaign office. He wrote here on Instagram a special shout out to my friend and powerhouse Tanya Plibisek for kicking us off.
And plibask meanwhile.
Has posted a selfie to Instagram with the Treasurer just last week where she wrote really proud of this guy.
So just coming out of the budget, super proud of what Treasurer Jim Chalmers delivered tonight.
And in truth, the Prime Minister considers both Jim Chalmers and Tanya Plibisek future leadership rivals and a threat to him, perhaps because they're both quite obviously smarter than him. There was also a profile pace on Plibsek in March where a source was quoted as saying that, compared to Tanya, Albo comes across as an ineffectual buffoon.
He's weak, he's.
Arrogant, he can't handle criticism, and he's not connecting with the electorate to the point where Peter Dutton, of all people, could.
Win the election. Albo's been a disaster. So there you go, in ineffectual buffoon.
That was from a labor source, no suggestion the source was connected to Plivask Now. Plivsk in this same profile piece where she was interviewed, praised Jim Chalmers's job on the economy. And meanwhile Chalmers has fielded more than his fair share of leadership speculation.
How are you feeling about the election, because if the government was to lose your favorite to become a position leader.
Look, I spent all of my time thinking about the budget and the economic plan and what we would do as a government and as a country if we win the election. I spend absolutely no time thinking about what I would do if we lost the election. I'd much rather be the Treasurer of Australia than the leader of the Opposition. I enjoy the work I do for Anthony. In our team, we work very very closely together.
Now, charmers can't be accused of disloyalty. This is all about the Prime ministers insecurities and who he perceives to be his rivals. Now I put questions to the Prime Minister's head of Communications today, Fiona Sugden. I asked about Albanezi in his inner circle, drawing up lists of who worked against him when it looked like his political fortunes were suffering. A response a laughing face emoji. Now this story has come from labor insiders.
It's of course well sourced.
Yet this is the childish response from the Prime Minister's office on day five of a five week campaign. It's extraordinary, you can genuinely say a Prime Minister's media office has never responded to questions.
With an emoji before.
It shows perhaps how arrogant Albert Easy is. And it comes a day after we learned he would adopt a single outcome from our Sky News antisemitism summit. It's incredibly disrespectful. But irrespective of this juvenile response, the reality is that Albinizi is carefully looking at who stood by him in the period.
When it looked like momentum was against him.
He's noting who was preening their own leadership credentials or cozying up to an alternative leader. This isn't about loyalty though, It's about disunity. Now it shows how for Albinizi, politics isn't about the governing of the nation. It's about personal factions and vendettas he accused Peter Dutton both yesterday and today of measuring the curtains in the lodge or in
Kiribilly House. But Albanez he is already looking at who to promote and demote from the ministry based on perceived loyalty, based on who launched their campaign or who told journalists they had leadership ambitions. This is toxic disunity from labor right at the start of an election campaign. And if the Prime Minister isn't careful, his hubris an appetite for
revenge will come back to bite him now. The ABC last night on its Media Watch program went pretty lightly on journalist Nick McKenzie over the sensational audio in which he admitted to breaching his own ethics during their war crimes case against Ben Roberts Smith. Now, the worst that Media Watch host Linton Besser said about Mackenzie was that he had a lapse in judgment and perhaps he was over trusting.
It was a private conversation which Mackenzie could not have known was being recorded, but these words would prove a major lapse of judgment from such an experienced player. Mackenzie's misguided and over trusting assurances to a witness.
Yep, a lapse in judgment and over trusting assurances.
Well, how did the ABC.
Not take Mackenzie to task for failing to publicly explain what he meant when he said he breached his ethics? No, I shouldn't tell you.
I've just breached my ethics doing that Like this is where like this is the leadership position.
Now if he knew that, impeat to you that.
Yep.
Media Watch directed questions during his program to me to Nine's witness, who nine claims is a victim of domestic violence.
So we contacted Person seventeen to ask for access to the full tape. She declined to respond to our queries.
To the West Australian newspaper and to Nine itself. I think it's telling that Media Watch thinks everyone else has questions to answer except the very person at the center of the story, the journalist who admits in a secret recording to breaching his own ethics. Now Bessa has told us today he did put questions to Mackenzie and that Nine responded. But in Nine's response they simply accused other
media of a smear campaign. It's a laughable response to the very revelation of serious recordings that have now sparked a fresh Federal court hearing. But it's not really good enough, is it for Australia's most celebrated journalists to refuse to publicly answer questions about what he means when he said he breached his ethics in a way that would have displeased his lawyers.
Of course, he used more colorful language.
Now can you imagine if a NewsCorp journalist, God Forbid, had been caught such a tape. Media Watch would have had a field day, as would The Guardian, Criichie and Nine. Yet the ABC last night even defended Mackenzie over the part of the audio recording where he divulged details of a sensitive an ongoing police investigation.
But Mackenzie was embellishing because he himself had already published to the world details of two live AFP investigations into Ben Robert Smith in the two years prior. And while it's true there'd been no reporting that AFP agents had moved into the building, a detail Sharry Markson pointed out in her statement to Media Watch, Robert Smith had already been tipped off about the AFP's surveillance and was using bernafines to avoid it, which Markson failed to tell her viewers.
Now, just a reminder, here's what Mackenzie did say on that secret recording.
No one knows about the police investigation.
It's extensive.
If I'm going place.
Investigation, phone tabs, task force, a whole new task.
Force has been still love in Brisbane, an entire new task force.
There's police living in his apartment block under assumed identities as we speak, like the guides.
Okay, But according to Media Watch, Mackenzie was just embellishing and somehow this was turned into a criticism of me. Now to be clear, as better acknowledged, Mackenzie divulged details of undercover officers living with false or assumed identities in Ben Roberts Smith's own apartment block, and yes, this could
have jeopardized the police operation. Media Watch also claimed last night that obtaining the legal strategy in relation to Person seventeen wouldn't have made a jot of difference to the outcome of the war crimes case.
And it's hard to see how those first person accounts are in any way change by Mackenzie's misguided and over trusting assurances to a witness he knew to be unreliable and who made not a jot of difference to the final outcome.
Now in the judgment, the judge said that he did not accept Robert Smith's evidence regarding Person seventeen, although he did not find her evidence sufficiently reliable to accept that her serious allegations were true. What we don't know is whether his rejection of Robert Smith's evidence on that issue might have influenced the judge's view of Ben Robert Smith's credibility when it came to the war crimes witnesses. You can never know how much this influence would have extended.
There's also the question of whether other legal strategy was obtained by nine and provided by Emma Roberts or her friend as Ben Robert Smith's father, the former Justice of the Supreme Court, Len Roberts, said there are questions about what legal strategies of Ben's was Mackenzie referring to, and how did knowledge of them affect the conduct of the case before Justice Pisanco worryingly that might be impossible to know.
The issue is whether or not it resulted in an unfair trial, and he said there were questions too about what privileged information or material Ben's ex wife, Emma and her friend Danielle Scott told Mackenzie or gave to him. Further, if Mackenzie was prepared to speak to P seventeen as he did on the recording, did he have similar conversations with other witnesses, If so, who and what did he
say to them? Now During a legal challenge, as you know, Ben Robert Smith's lawyers argued that his email account had been accessed at least one hundred and one times, including by his ex wife's friend Danielle Scott, and Emma later admitted that she had allowed her close friend Danielle to access her ex husband's email accounts, but she said only
in relation to their marriage breakdown. So there's now been an admission that ben Robert Smith's emails were accessed in relation to Person seventeen and in relation to the marriage breakdown. If McKenzie admits to obtaining the legal strategy in relation to Person seventeen, it raises questions about whether other legal
strategy or emails were also provided. Now nine is now trying to separate the domestic violence allegations relating to Person seventeen from the war crimes Once, but it was nine that wanted to use unproven domestic violence allegations to further trash Robert Smith's reputation. They joined the two accusations war crimes and domestic violence, but they're now trying to separate them and say that they're unconnected to the case.
Now I have learned that.
Nick mackenzie has been backgrounding journalists against Person seventeen, his own, who he claimed was a victim of domestic violence. He's been telling journalists that she's psychotic, she was his witnessed.
Now.
I asked nine about this today and in response, Nine sent me the same statement that they've been sending versions of to all media for over a week now. They refuse to answer specific questions or address the new issues that have been raised in recent days now, I personally think there's a long way to go in this story. From nine's end, What did nine know about McKenzie's admissions that he obtained Robert Smith's legal strategy? Did he obtain
the legal strategy in relation to other areas? Aside from person seventeen, hows nine investigated this at all?
How could they.
Come out to defend McKenzie so quickly if they hadn't done a proper investigation into his self confessed breach of ethics?
And if they have, what did the investigation find?
When was this investigation and was the nine board made aware of it?
And when?
These are all questions I have been and will continue to pursue now. Just to be clear, I don't have a side here. I've got no issue with either Ben, Robert.
Smith or Nick McKenzie.
I'm a journalist and I'm reporting on a highly concerning tape where a reporter admits to breaching his ethics in pursuit of a war hero who he claimed committed war crimes. And I also think that if you're going to doggedly pursue a Victoria Cross recipient and accuse him of war crimes. You have to play fair, and Mackenzie, in his own words on the tape, claims to have access Robert Smith's confidential legal strategy from his ex wife and her friend,
and that wouldn't seem to be playing fair. We need to know if anything else was accessed and how far this went. So let's return to the election campaign now, and joining me is Liberal Senator Holly Hughes and Skyney's contributor Steve Price.
Welcome to you both.
Well.
Peter Darton was in Victoria today trying to wider down concerns about slipping Pole numbers and he was also wants to win over marginal seats in Melbourne.
Here he was with Andrew Clennel.
Today, Labor see you personally as a drag on the Liberal vote in Victoria.
What do you say to that, Well, I've seen the Prime Minister's numbers and I wouldn't be scribing too much of I as a PM about his position. He's not far off where to CID realities and Victoria at the moment. And people know in relation to this project that if you vote for Anthony Obernizi, you're voting against this Melbourne rail link and the airport link.
How many seeds are you going to win here?
I hope to win.
I think we can win a number of seats and I think we can form government, as I've said consistently, and we will demonstrate to Victorians and Austrains that there is a much better way for our country.
All right, Well, Steve Price, we just heard Darton say there that he's hoping to win a number of seats Victoria. This is really the hope for the coalition side. What's your reaction to the mood.
On the ground.
Labour's completely toxic the brand in Victoria. You and I've talked about this before, Shari, I mean the dissenter Allen government. They're polling numbers are atrocious. She's not been able to con the public like Daniel Anders was able to do. The suburban rail loop, which now we know is not going to be funded by a coalition government if it gets elected, is a mess. There's a big hole in
the ground. It's costing billions and billions of dollars. No one wants to go from Cheltenham to box Hill, and Cinda Allen's determined to hold herself to it. So what's happened here? Is Peter Dutton, I think very cleverly has said okay, we'll put money into other projects, but not this one. But Victorians have got a great history of money being ripped up and wasted on things that never happened. I mean you go all the way back to when
Daniel Andrews became premier here. He ripped up and wasted a billion dollars of taxpayers money by not building a freeway. He then spent eight hundred million dollars giving the Commonwealth Games to Glasgow in Scotland. So there's nothing about labor that people in this state enjoy, and I think in the outer suburbs, particularly with the petrol exercise policy, which I'll being interested in what Holly says about how that's biting.
That is going to be the big thing. People filling their cars up three days a week to sit on the Monash Freeway for an hour and a half every day in and out burning up petrol. They know that the tank of petrol that they are going to get a discount from Peter Dunton is well worth it and I think he will win a swager seats in Melbourne.
Now, Holly, I was speaking earlier in the show about labor disunity. How's the coalition feeling, how a Liberal MP's feeling given the polling does show there has been a recovery for labor.
Yeah, look, I mean I think everyone was aware that we would always see a tightening up of the polls as soon as the election was called. I think for a lot of people, and us included in the bubble, we've all been looking at this for months and months and months now in anticipation of the election being called. There's a lot of Australians out there doing it really tough on cost of living. You know, there were some box pops the day after the budget and people like, what's the budget?
What are you talking about? They didn't even know what it was on.
It's so so, I think, and they have the same vote as you and I, But so I think the mood is good.
The mood is positive.
We know that we have a huge battle ahead of us. Twenty two seats is an enormous ask. There hasn't been a first term government kicked out since nineteen thirty one. This is a very big ask and we certainly are the underdogs. But we know that Australians just can't of Ford three more years of this government in the way they've already destroyed our country and what they will continue to do the wrecking ball through.
Now we've been talking about the terrifying prospect of if there is a minority government cobbled together with the Greens. Well, Adam about the leader of the Greens, would play a big role in that. He's now come out and we mentioned this briefly on the show last night. He's insinuated that Israel is somehow to blame for her mass, the terror groups, executions of the brave Palestinians who protested against the terror group. I mean, Steve, this is just beyond
the pale. This is appalling and we need to see this strongly condemned by senior government ministers.
Yes, the Prime Minister should come out and condemn it. Everybody should come out and condemn it. Adam Bant, really he is such a destructive politician. I mean, he holds this seat in Melbourne and he's held it for a number of elections. Now that's a very very Green seat
and so he's going to get re elected. But to come out and say something like that, I mean part of the problem though is and I think Hollywood agree with this that if you talk to young people, the Greens brand is still somehow seen as some sort of friendly environmental party, whereas we know that they are a dangerous bunch of activists. I do think because I talked to them. I talked to a nineteen year old kid tonight who said, oh, well, the Greens are going to
save the planet. They still believe that. They don't see that the Greens have been involved in all this activism about Palestine and bants going on. They're blaming Israel for what happened on October seven. The young people still look at Greens and go, Okay, they're going to help with windmills and solar panels and we're all going to live happily ever after. Trust me, that's what they think.
There haven't been an environmental party for a very very long time.
And you know, we know with there's zelotry over climate change. You know, if there's a koala habitat in the way of a transmission line or a solar farm, well goodbye koalas. So they're very much got their sort of triangle of priorities, and climate change is at the top. Forget about everything else, and you know, the environment has more further and further down that list.
But I think Stave's right.
You know, young people, whether it's there, indoctrinated through a Marxist education system. They then go to a university system where they continue to be fed this left wing ideology and rubbish. And so I think my daughter's going to vote for the first time this election now.
I've met her. She's not voting for the she is not voting Greens. But all of my kids know.
That if they want to be disinherited, not that there's a lot there, but you know, vote for the Greens. But my daughters makes me very very proud.
The fact that she's not there wonderful. But you know, I'm talking to her, but also her friends.
We had a couple over tonight and I was with one this afternoon and making sure that parents are having those conversations with their kids about the destruction that the Greens will create.
They will kill.
These kids, but they will literally kill these kids future.
It's they are the.
Magic putting economic party. I mean, they honestly think everything should be free, free dental stub your toe, get an MDIs like.
You know.
They are unbelievable in their economic recklessness, just.
Very quickly thirty seconds.
Steve, there's a polling in the Cinni Morning Herald today that suggests that Australians really don't like what they see when it comes to the United States president. How do you think this is playing out with the election campaign here?
Well, I think the way it's playing out here is the big problem for Anthony Albanese. You can't get Donald Trump to answer the phone. But I think Holly's party needs to concentrate in on this. The tariff decisions will come out on Thursday. But the only Australian Donald Trump is aware of currently is Minwu Lee, who won the Houston Open golf tournament on the weekend, and there's probably going to be favorite in the Master's golf when it happens in a week's time. Donald Trump won't even talk
to Anthony Albanese. When did we last have an Australian Prime minister who could not get the US President on a phone call?
Agreed story I broke.
And yet Holly, this is playing out badly for Peter Darton.
Look and I think that Labor are going to try Peter Dutton Donald Trump, But I think what if you notice Donald Trump, he was about making America great again. He wasn't about I'm going to make it great for all my friends as well. And I think what Australians are missing is we need someone that's going to stand up and say we're going to make Australia great again. And I think that's where Peter Dutton can really use
that strength and he will stand up for Australians. He'll stand for the economy in our national security, not that little handsome boy who will be busy sucking up to China.
Indeed, and it's not Clive Palmer who's taking over that slogan either.
Oh all right, Trump at Patriots I still don't understanding.
So frustrating, Holly. Here's Steve Price. Great to see you both.
Thanks Erry.
Now, today's RBA decision left interest rates on hold, and it may have been an election shaping decision. Here was the Governor, Michelle Bullock making that call.
We've come a long way and it hasn't been easy, but we have made good progress on bringing inflation down and keeping unemployment low. This is a good position for the economy to be in as we are aproach a period of uncertainty. But we have to be careful not to get ahead of ourselves. Inflation pressures remain and cost of living pressures are still very real for many Australians.
All right to discuss, let's bring in Farmer Treasury Assistant Secretary David Pearl.
David, great to see you again.
Look what's your take on the RBA's decision today. Does this show that their rate cut at the last board meeting was the wrong decision?
Absolutely, Sharry. As you reported very well at the time, the decision the RBA board made in February was probably the worst one I've ever seen. It was an unjustified rate cut based on the RBA board zone criteria, as I said on your program at the time, and it wasn't urgent. If the RBA wanted to be more convinced that inflation was under control, they could have waited until
the next quarterly inflation read out in May. So, frankly, the credibility of the RBA board was damaged in February, and that's why I didn't think there was any chance they would go anywhere near cutting the interest rate again. Today they've got some credibility to make.
Up, credibility to make up tough words. Look, the fact that the rates cuts weren't even discussed today. Do you think this leads to the case that there might have been some political interference from the Treasury secretary you worked closely with, Stephen Kennedy. Do you think this is something that should be investigated.
It should be, although there are tight lips in central banking and Treasury circles. As you know, Let's go back to the cameras being in the room. To me, that was the absolute give way, and I know that you hit upon this too, Sharry.
There are two.
Scenarios with the cameras being in the room, which was unprecedented. I don't remember it happening recently. No, it's not not what banks do. There are two scenario. One Stephen Kennedy or Jim Charmers pressured Michelle Bullock to go against her own institution's interests and let the cameras in, knowing that the rate cut was.
In the can.
Or two, Michelle Bullock, under her own initiative welcome those cameras in without any political pressure. And frankly, I don't believe the latter. So I don't know whether there's ever going to be a smoking gun. We might have to wait for some post election deep throats to start speaking up. But that decision stank. It was an urgent, it wasn't warranted.
And if you look at the RBA board statement today, Sharry, they say where on hold activity is picking up in the economy, the labor market is still tight, with labor shortages in some parts of the economy, and productivity is flatlining. So even though wages are moderating, the cost pressure from wages is rising. On the other side of the equation, you've got the Trump un certainly effect. I get that, but looking purely at the Australian economy, there's still not
a compelling reason. And let's not forget that after the energy price supports are removed at the end of this year, a headline inflation rate will be above three percent for the twelve months beyond that. So I'll leave it at that. I think it wasn't a very good decision, but the Trump uncertainty is clearly weighing on their minds at the moment.
Well, yeah, Michelle Bilick did address that. Here's which you had to say about the tariffs.
The impact on inflation is less certain because, on the one hand, if supply.
Dominates.
So if the impact on tariffs on supply dominates, then you might see arise in inflation. But it's also possible that trade diversion might end up with cheaper goods coming into Australia, So there's competing impacts there.
What do you think about the impact of the tariffs. I mean, there's the Alimini and steel tariffs. There could be further tariffs, although as they reported last night, it looks like Australia might get an exemption.
The economic impact is really through China. If there's any uncoupling between the US and China, the two most significant economies in the global economy, Australia would be seriously affected. People forget that the US and China have interlocking economic interests. The US consumer has been the source of demand for Chinese goods, and the Chinese government or Chinese investors have lent money to the US government to fund its deficits. So if you uncouple, if you pull that apart, Australia
would suffer enormously. Now we're not close to that yet, but if the Liberation Day tariff announcement later this week results in escalating trade measures, then there'll be a supply shop for the world economy and for the Australian economy ultimately, and that will make things very difficult because when there's a supply shock, just as like we saw with Opek in the seventies, output and activity comeback and prices go up. So not a good.
Time, all right, David Pearl, former Assistant Treasury Secretary, appreciate your time. Now still to come the war of words over where Peter Dutton would.
Live if he wins the next election.
Well, Albert took another site today and radio legend Ray Hadley will be live in studio for his no holds barred analysis on the election. Don't miss it, that's next, welcome back. Well, the Prime Minister is clearly trying to keep the campaign conversation on health, rolling out the tried and tested medi scare campaign. Now his other pointed whack at Peter Dutton has been rebuking Dudden's claimed that he'd live in Kurabilly and Sydney, not in the Canberra bubble
if he wins. He was alb and easy on about this again today and now.
We're going to have a Queen Zone who sees himself as been the Prime Minister of Sydney as well.
If Peter Dutton is elected. I see myself.
I'm a proud Sydney Sider as a Prime Minister for Australia.
And joining us now is radio legend Ray Hardley Ray. Great to see you again.
I missed you last week with all the budget coverage, but we're back this week. He's grasping a straw as the Prime Minister, identifying Peter Dutton as a Queenslander. Of course you're going to have to live at Kirribilly House. I mean it's just a fighter com plea if you're Prime.
Minister, unless you're Malcolm Turmble, of course, and you've got the mansion on the harbor, a better house, waterfront match.
Well, I think I saw the worst impersonation I've seen. There a lot of people that did Donald Trump magnificently both here in the US. I saw the worst impersonation of ever seen at the National Press Club from the former Prime minister.
But you see Malcolm does this all the time.
Don't forget that as a Prime minister he's responsible for snowy two. It started at two billion only about seven years ago, eight years ago. Then it went to six Now it's up to thirteen, and we don't. And when it's going to be finished, they keep the boring machines keep falling in holes. Now you look at prime ministers like John Howard, the gun buyback, Julia Gillard, God bless her, the child sex abuse. Of course we're all commission legacies.
His legacy is a hole on the ground that's not going anywhere, that's costing about eight.
Times more than we thought it would cost, low out.
In time and cost.
And yet he thinks his advice about submarines is better.
Than orcast You see what Shariov studied this extensively. He suffers with a thing called relevance deprivation syndrome. Now, when I retired full time from media, I was very scared that I'd also suffer, so I sought.
Legal help about it and medigal help.
And they said, Ray, look, because you've been a media commentator for over thirty five years, you're allowed to still come on to Shari's program and talk about things without being diagnosed with relevant deprivation syndrome. Unfortunately, for Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turble, they suffer greatly with it. It's diagnosed, but nothing's done about it.
And the thing is right, in his current role as the United States Ambassador.
To Washington, he can't say much.
He can't get on their Twitter saying undiplomatic things. Can you imagine how hard it would be every night.
Was swindling around in Vegas in his attire of I think Aaron Williams or boots like a Williams and his genes, looking a real hipster, the rudster.
But yeah to him, no, no.
I had a conversation with him a long time ago about pink bats and that's the last time I spoke about the four young men lost their lives by Peter Garrett's insanity, and then, to his credit, rud stopped it. But Rudd must be really wanting to tweet or ex or whatever you do these days about how funny is turnbulls impersonation. But it's a bit delicate given he's the
ambassador that's got to deal with Trump. And look, whether you're live Donald Trump, or you don't like Donald Trump, or you think he's crazy, he is the president of the free nation, the largest nation in the world, the free nation. He's been elected, and we've got to deal with him. We've got to try and argue about Taris.
We've got to try and argue about getting more support for defense submarines, as you've mentioned, and so you can't just put a red rag in front of him, you know, and say he get this up here for the red, call him.
A village idiot, or say he's it traded to the West. Those insults that we've seen.
Now I want to ask you about, coming back to the local election campaign, this story that your colleague Ben Fordaen broke this morning about the Teal candidate Nicole Buell.
Yeah, well he gets some good emails, Ben, and having worked with him for more than a decade, he's feracious on these. But look, this is the Teal candidate for Bradfield and that's a second crack at it now.
But this is a Liberal seat. Paul Fletcher's retire.
He lost a lot of ground in twenty twenty two but retained at her expense.
But she's a Teal now.
The Teals are captain, coach and sole selectors for political correctness and wakeness, so by any standard, in case people in other parts of Australia haven't caught up with it, she got a haircut by a nineteen year old teenager at a salon on the northern side of Sydney. Apparently it was a very good haircut, but you'd be able to explain to me, Sharry, I think ladies normally have a wash than a cut.
Is that how it works normally?
Yes?
Right, Well, blakes don't do that.
You're just gonna get your haircut, hair wash, you wash it when you get hand to get all the loose.
You've never heard this before. Men don't get a shampilla.
You've led a very sheltered life.
Maybe where I go, where it's only fifteen or twenty dollars for SENI is maybe that's.
Why it is. But anyway, so you get your hair washed and cut.
So she then looks at the nineteen year old hairdresser and says that haircut's amazing.
And I didn't have to have sex with you. Now.
That wasn't acceptable to a teenager, of course, not in nineteen sixty, let alone in twenty twenty five. And here is a woman who's part of a team hypocrisy, be thy name, political correctness, wakeness, who thought it was a joke and funny. She's now apologized. She's been barred by the salon. They don't want that sort of person coming to the salon. But I mean, you throw that in with the Teels. Mike Kennan Brooks. I spoke about him.
I'm doing a piece for the Daily Telegraph, dot com, dot au and their app and I spoke about it yesterday. The Teals are all about climate. That's basically climate two thousand climate. They're all about climate gritty, yes, and look, I'm not dirty on billionaires buying jets. That's what billionaires do. But here he is, on one hand saying.
We've got to do this. We've got to do that.
We've got to do this, We've got to do that, We've got to really rain in everything. He buys a jet to take his kids to the Formula one where he sponsors the Williams team apparently, and thinks that's going to pass muster. I mean, and then tips I think in twenty twenty two the second largest benefactor of the Teals.
I mean, if you're a fair egan Teal.
If you should say, look, Mike, it's really generous of you, but we can't take that money off you while you're flying around the world in your private jet.
It just doesn't it doesn't make any sense, No.
Exactly because they I think they've criticized in the past the Liberal Party for taking money linked to coal companies and the like, so that is Hypocrisy'd be interested to see, though, if Mike connan Brooks is donating to the tills this time around.
It's something I'm going to Maybe he'll just take them to various things in a jet so they don't have to get on Quantus Virgin or Jetstar and just one final thing. I was waiting to come on and heard my former colleague and dear old mate Steve Price, Yes, who unlike me, has got angrier, has he's got older. However, that's the story for me.
He's not retired like you now.
No, no, no, he'll do it eventually. But you see, Victoria will be crucial I think in this election. I was talking about it yesterday, thirty eight seats in Victoria, and Steve confirmed what I thought, and he knows a lot more about Victoria than I ever would. That sixteen could be up for grabs there and that could swing it the way of Peter Dutton, which is almost beyond my comprehension. The Victoria could deliver a liberal national Party government given their record running.
I mean sixteen has got a bit.
They might pick up eight surely in Victoria, but sixteen would be unheard of.
Well you need a five percent swing. That's what Peter Dutton needs. And I said yesterday in the Telly that made a combination of Harry Houdini and David Copperfield to pull some magic out of the magic round, because that's what happened in the NRL on that May weekend.
But just quickly, what do you think about if you went to the Prime Minister's office for a response and they texted you back a laughing face emoji.
Isn't that disrespectful?
Well at least i'd answer them. They never used to answer me so smiling image. You would put me.
In front of my normal response, which was neil zero zilch.
Fair enough, all right, Ray Hadley, thank you for coming on. So you're on in the Telegraph online every.
Day every day at twelve oh one and talking about basically what we're talking about tonight, the election campaign?
Are those will see you back here next week.
I'll be here for sure. Thanks a lot, all.
Right, Still to come.
A submarine expert reveals how Chinese spy ships can monitor or even sabotage cables around the world.
Plus, on the eve of Trumps.
Liberation Day, is labor doing enough to protect Australia Foreign Shadow Foreign Minister David Coleman will be up next, and joining me now is Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister David Coleman. David, good to see you again at the start of the election campaign. Look, we just saw we had the budget handed down last week and yet the Albanezy government has continued its funding of ANRA.
This is the aid.
Agency that we know has been linked to terrorism to Hermas. You know, this is a shocking judgment call to continue.
This isn't it?
Yes, it is shari.
This is wrong.
This is very simple. This should not be happening. The government committed additional funding in the budget, so another twenty million dollars. This is the organization where nine employees were sacked on suspicion of being involved in the October seven massacres. It appears the only consequence for those employees was losing their job. They don't appear to have been prosecuted. There doesn't appear to be a referral for prosecution. There is no way that Australia should be giving money to UNRA.
We should be giving money to organizations that provide humanitarian support. That's important, and humanitarian support is needed in Gaza, but absolutely not through UNRA.
The Prime Minister has compared Australia's naval actions in the South China see in near Taiwan in international waters to what this Chinese scientific research vessel is doing in our territorial waters.
Do you think this is the same.
No, it's not. And look it's pretty obvious what's going on here, Shari. The Prime Minister is trying to minimize the significance of this vessel. It is concerning, just like the circumnavigation of Australia was concerning. This is the guy who had to be told by Virgin Airlines pilot that live firing exercises were being conducted off our coast. He is just all over the place in this area. And it would be bad enough if this was any matter in the remit of the Prime Minister. But these are
obviously very important matters. They are serious matters and the PM sits completely all over the shop.
I reported last night that Kevin Right has been begging the Trump administration for a tariff exemption.
Before the election.
Do you think Australia is doing enough to secure a tariff reprieve from the Trump administration.
Yeah, it seems like a pretty low energy effort, Shari, the PM said on Sundays, relying on officials. As we know, there's been no visit, there's been no recent phone call. It's very low energy. The more positive news is reports out of the US suggest that the focus of these tariffs will be on the so called Dirty fifteen countries with large, large tariff duties on the United States. We're
not one of those countries. We've got a free trade agreement with the US and the US has got a trade surplus with US, so very strong arguments for Australia and some of that reporting out of the US is encouraging. And let's hope that Australia is exempted, although if we are, I don't think that will be due to the efforts of our low energy prime minister.
Yeah.
Indeed, and the Prime Minister has asked a lot about his handling of the US president today at the press conference.
How do you think he has responded to this?
I mean, we know we can't get the president of the United states on the phone. What more should he be doing and what would you do if you were Foreign Affairs minister.
Yeah, well, it's really important chart that we have to respond to the world as it is not how we might like it to be. And obviously the Prime Minister, as a fifty four year old deputy prime former deputy Prime minister, made very disparaging comments about the president. That probably doesn't help in building a relationship. To be frank, we know that Peter Dutton successfully built relationships with both the Trump administration and the Biden administration, got big deals done,
and that's what we do. We'll disagree where we have to, but engage in a mature and sensible way. Our relationship goes back many decades. It is a crucial relationship, but it needs energy and it needs maturity and we don't see that from this government.
All right, David Coleman, appreciate your time. Thank you.
Now after the break and expert reveals the secret activity Chinese spyships have been engaged in.
That's next.
Let's bring you now the CEO of Tealercommunications Industry, Peak Body Communications Alliance, Luke Coleman.
Luke, great to see you. Now you do a lot of work.
You're an expert when it comes to submarine cable security issues. Now, is this an innocuous ship that we're seeing circumnavigating southern Australia. What sort of activities could Chinese intelligence be undertaking on vessels like this.
We have seen examples from around the world of where what appears to be a civilian vessel or a research vessel has accidentally dropped its anchor and cut through submarine cables. It happened late last year in the Baltic Sea, it has happened more recently in Taiwan, and so I think that we should really see this as a bit of an alarm bell going off that we have a vessel that is very close to critical infrastructure off the coast of Australia. These submarine cables carry ninety nine percent plus
of Australia's Internet traffic. It is the very definition of infrastructure, and so Australia really does need to step up its efforts to protect these cables. Most people wouldn't realize that there are about twelve cables coming into Australia today that carry almost all of our Internet traffic. If you cut those twelve cables, you cut Australia off from the world.
So what more can we be doing so we know, just to backtrack of it, we know this Chinese vessel is charting a similar cost to the root of our deep sea internet cables. As you've been saying, what more can we do though to protect the cables.
Well, Australia has a thing called submarine cable protection zones. We have two zones off the coast of Sydney where most of those cables come in. We have one zone off the coast of Perth. But the fact is those zones haven't been updated since two thousand and seven. Think of how far internet connectivity has come from two thousand
and seven to twenty twenty five. We've got cables that land in Darwin, that land in Port Headland, in Marucci Door, We've got cables that are planned to land in Melbourne going over to New Zealand. Yet we don't have protection zones in any of those places. So not only do we need more protection zones, but we need active monitoring of those protection zones. At the moment you submit an application to get a cable landed in a protection zone,
but then there is no actual protection offered. Nobody is monitoring those zones. Nobody is enforcing those zones. In fact, only recently we saw two major submarine cables off the coast of Perth that were cut by a ship's anchor. This is a very regular occurrence, about eighty percent of cables that are damaged when a ship drops its anchor in a storm. Now that might appear to be perfectly innocent, it may well be malicious. It's hard to tell in
a lot of circumstances. But the fact is we don't have anybody patrolling these zones, enforcing ships that need to be out of these zones to be actively protecting those cables.
Luke, when you say that this could have been vicious, was this done by a foreign vessel, a Chinese ship or was it via local Australian ship.
I'm not actually accusing any malicious activity in this instance, but we do see around the world that there have been accusations of malicious activity from what would appear to be a cargo ship or a civilian vessel which drops its anchor and cuts through submarine cables. The point that I'm really seeking to enforce here is there is no
active enforcement regime in those cable protection zones. So not only do we not have enough cable protection zones in Australia, but we don't have agencies actively enforcing them to ensure that chips aren't dropping their anchors, whether they're doing that innocently because there's a storm and they need to quickly anchor, or if it is in the case of malicious activity, we do need to be taking a much more proactive role to ensuring that this critical infrastructure stays online.
Really appreciate your insights tonight, Luke. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for joining us. Terrifying stuff, especially when you think of Albaniz he just dismissed it or he didn't even know which agency was in charge. Now I've got to congratulate Paul Murray. Awesome pub tests with Dutton last night and here he is