Why on Sky News This is Sharry.
Good Evening tonight, the first criminal charge for the phrase that Zionists are terrorists? Well, what will this mean for other anti Israel activists like Clementine Ford who claimed Zionists are depraved monsters? My report in a moment also on the show, the Tale of Two Leaders, with Dutton's response
to cyclone Alfred showing up. The Prime Minister Steve Price and Cameron Milner will be here to discuss plus under the Albanezy government, Australians are paying more income tax than ever before and government spending at a record high due to Sloan would join me and police claim anti Semitism wasn't behind the caravan packed with explosives. We'll let police know who's behind the attack. Then why haven't they made
any arrests? That's coming up tonight. Police begin to lay charges over those who attack Zionists, which we know is code for Jews. One of the leaders of the pro Palestinian rallies in Melbourne, controversial figure Hashtaya, has been charged
by police. He was first arrested last year over alleged incitement of hatred against Jewish people, but he wasn't charged and then on Friday, Victorian police charged him with offensive remarks at Palestinian rallies under the Victorian Summary Offenses Act. He's facing four counts of using insulting words in public. The Age reported that Taya, who's become a prominent leader of the protests movement after the Hamas attacks in Israel
and October seven, repeatedly said all Zionists are terrorists. The punishment is up to two months in prison for a first offense and six months for three or more offenses. Now this is big news. It's the first charge for the phrase all Zionists are terrorists. And here was Hashtaya spreading this dangerous message at a rally where the crowd ate it up and repeated the hateful chant.
And I say it loudly, and I say it proudly.
It's fascinating because we haven't seen charges like this before. It's a very welcome move by Victorian police, and it raises the question if there should be an offense enabling others to be charged for similar conduct on social media. Take Clementine Ford for example. Here's what she said in an Instagram post just last week, and I'm quoting Zionism is terrorism and Nazism. All Zionists are Nazi and terrorist supporters.
Their denial of this makes them dishonest. Supporting Israel is incompatible with humanity and human rights, and because Zionism is a supremacy movement, Zionists also flatter themselves that they're the most moral people on earth. They're not. They're depraved, empathy free monsters, and history will remember them with the disgust
they deserve. Well, does Clementine Ford realize how depraved this is to accuse people who support a Jewish homeland be included a homeland set up after the Holocaust as Nazis, to suggest that supporting Israel set up as a supposedly safe haven for Jews after the inhumane atrocities inflicted upon them as incompatible with humanity. To describe Zionists and that's exactly what the people slaughtered by her muscle October seven were.
To describe Zionists as terrorists, and Clementine Ford describes us as having no empathy. The moral contortions required to make such statements are sickening. But that comment by Clementine Ford wasn't a one off. She's previously said that Zionists can't be victims of anything.
There is no realm in which Israel is the victim of anything, And there is no realm in which Israelis, or people who defend Israel, or Zionists anywhere, are the victims of anything but their own greed.
It was Israelis who were kidnapped and slaughtered on October seven, including babies and children. So is she saying they weren't really the victims, then, really, this is disgraceful, It's despicable. Clementine Forward has also said, and I quote, Zionists will be blocked. I don't let Nazis on my platform, and I'm one of those that she's blocked, presumably because I'm a Jew who supports Israel. Then there's also Randa abdel Fatar, who's set on social media that Zionists have no right
to cultural safety. It is the duty of those who oppose racism, misogyny, homophobia and all forms of oppressive harm to ensure that every space Zionists enter is culturally unsafe for them. And the Australian has reported that both Clementine Ford and Randa ab el Fatar were among those who sent their social media followers a link to the personal details of Jewish creatives from a WhatsApp group doxing. Well, it's now widely accepted that attacks on Zionists are equivalent
to attacks on Jews. Alex Rifchin said, to declare that all Zionists are terrorists is not only an attack on the notion of Jewish equality, it's an attack on virtually
every Jew that supports it. Zion In Victoria's Zeddi Lawrence said, given the overwhelming majority of Jews in Victoria, Australia, and indeed the world, would identify as Zionists, but smirching the latter is akin to painting a target on the former and even Federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who is clearly no friend of us at Sky said, and I quote the label Zionist is used not in any way accurately. When use that word, they actually mean Jew. They're not
really saying Zionist. They're saying Jew because they know that they cannot say Jew, so they say Zionist or words such as Zeo or Zio. So if we accept what Dreyfus says that jew and Zionists are interchangeable, then look at that. Clementine Ford post again Zionism is terrorism and Nazism. Zionists also flatter themselves that they're the most moral people on earth. They're not. They're depraved, empathy free monsters, and
history will remember them with the disgust they deserve. Well, clearly this is encouraging hatred against Jews who support Israel. I think we have to be very clear and direct about this. By making these stayments in public, she's perpetuating hatred against Jews here in Australia. She's perpetuating antagonism towards Jews. She's dehumanizing Jews who support Israel by saying we can't be victims of anything. We're depraved and where empathy free
monsters who deserve discussed. In my opinion, she seems to hold such hatred towards Jews who support Israel that she should not be given a platform at mainstream festivals. How can these events embrace Clementine Ford? Just as she ostracizes Zionists from her social media, so she should be denied these important public platforms to spew her hateful views. And worryingly, she has a very large following two hundred and forty thousand on Facebook and two hundred and thirty eight thousand
on Instagram. If her followers are led by her, they too will hate Jews who support Israel, which, as I've said, is the majority of Jews. This is e roading social cohesion. Clementine Ford is objectionable, objectionable and ugly in every sense
of the word. If Hashtaya has been charged for his offensive comments about Zionists in public, then there should be an offense for those using the Internet to say exactly the same thing, because we shouldn't have to put up with this prejudice and hatred any longer.
Now.
What we've seen over the weekend is a tale of two leaders, one who spend every day in the flood zone and the other who flew to Canberra to escape the storm. Opposition Peter Darton stood with his community and all Australians who were caught in the wild weather. He bunkered down at his home where he's now trapped by rising floodwaters.
Hopefully it received quickly that at the moment feel trapped at home, including ourselves. Fortunately our house is fine, but the water's up over our front gate, so that's the reality at the moment, and the emergency service workers accounts of workers are doing an amazing job.
Yet Albansi couldn't get away fast enough. Instead of standing with Australians, he flew out of Queensland and was in Canberra by early Friday morning. And that's where he likes it best, in the luxury of the lodge and the protection of the camera bubble. After flip flopping on the election date, Albanzi reluctantly agreed it wouldn't be a good idea to call the election on a weekend of flooding in Queensland.
I said repeatedly this week, my focus is on the lives of Australians, the risk that Alfred represents to people in southeast Queensland and in northern New South Wales, not on votes.
Such a contrast Albansy and Dutton, one who sticks with Australians as they weather the storm, the other who escapes. And it wasn't just Dutton, other politicians knew instinctively what was required of them at this time of crisis. New Southwes Premier Chris min spent the weekend in the flood zones, visiting Tweed and Lisbon, and spoke to Paul Murray last night I.
Think it's been a privilege to be here amongst emergency service workers as well as the local community. They're really tough, incredibly resilient people and they've been through Helen back over the last few years.
And Treasurer Jim Chalmers also dug in helping with soundbagging and local recovery efforts I checked out.
I don't mind it.
In fact, Albanesi is so tone deaf that it took charmers telling him that it wouldn't be a good idea to call the election when Queenslanders and those in northern New South Wales were suffering. As Clanelle reported.
The Treasurer, I understand, was one of the voices telling the PM that given the cyclone, they should hold a May election and they should have a budget. The PM then confirmed a May election on the ABC on Friday.
Night, and so they'll now likely be a budget before the election, which will be held on May third, the tenth of the seventeenth. Now Albanzi didn't want to hand down a budget, he wasn't planning on having a budget, and now they'll have to scramble to cobble one together in time. All of Albanese's dithering. The election timing has meant that the economics team have been left in the lurch.
And the reason the Albanese government was reluctant to have a budget, it's because their pre election narrative relies on the surflaces they've delivered and that will end now. There won't be a surflace in this budget. It won't be a pretty set of economic projections. It will show the extent of their policy costings and political spending at a time when the inflation battle is not yet over. And I'm going to speak with Judah Sloan about that a
bit later in the show. But Newspault today is still pointing to either a minority government for Liberal or Labor, and simonvents In reports that neither side is in a position currently on these numbers to form a majority government. Well with this polling, the later election date is advantageous to Peter Dutton. The longer election gives him more time to campaign and it gives new Liberal candidates more time
to do knock voters. This will help in seats like cou Yong, where emili A Hamer hopes to knock off Minique Ryan, and in Wentworth where Roe Knox is trying to raise her profile to defeat a legraspender. But irrespective of today's news poll, Australians can all see that Albanezi is weak and ineffective. He's not leadership material. In fact, he's one of the most indecisive and insipit prime ministers our country has ever had. He can't even make up his mind about when to go to the polls now.
A profile piece on Tanya Plibasek over the weekend even includes this extraordinary comment from a Labor insider who said, compared to Tanya, Albo comes across as an ineffectual buffoon. He's weak, he's arrogant, he can't handle critic 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, a disaster indeed, and that's from a Labor insider. And Pleversek in this piece praised Jim Chalmer's job in the economy.
When she was asked about Labour's electoral prospects, she said, I think Labor has a very good story to tell. We've turned the economy around. We've got high jobs numbers, we've got growing wages, we've got falling inflation, we've got falling interest rates, we've cut taxes, we're helping with the cost of living, she enthuses. So this is praise for Jim chalmers work, not alban Eazi's. And I've always thought
there could be a future Plibask Charmer's ticket. It just depends on who the leader is and who the deputy is. And by the way, that profile piece was headlined Tanya Plubisek, why isn't she prime minute stuff? So this shows the level of dissatisfaction inside the Labor government towards Albanzi. No one in labor thinks Albanese is doing a great job.
And if Labor losers, they'll blame him and him alone, And if they win or Tony Burke will be there before long with the metaphoric pitchfok trying to tear down Albanese's leadership. All right, let's get reaction to this with tonight's Pano Australia, The Australian's chief political correspondent Jeff Chambers and Sky News host Steve Price. Welcome to you both, Steve. What do you think about that? I mean, it really was in my mind, a picture of two leaders over the weekend.
Well, I don't think anyone's surprised about the attitude of the Australian public toward Anthony Albanesium And I think you put it to absolutely correctly. I mean, he doesn't know how to be a leader now. When he took over the Labor Party and when he eventually got to become Prime Minister, I think a lot of people hope that he would be the type of leader that we wanted. But he's turned out to be. And history has a remarkable and I'm interested in Jeffy on this, it has
a remarkable way of repeating itself. I was looking up the results in the twenty thirteen federal election today to write a column about exactly what you're talking about. Shari and Tony Abbott won eighteen seats and Kevin Rudd was seen as the comeback kid. But he was not liked. He was not warmly embraced by the majority of Australians. He might have been in two thousand and seven, but by twenty thirteen we'd all had enough for Kevin Rudd.
We wanted him out of the joint, we wanted him gone and watching people, you know, charmers filling up sandbags. Reminded me of the time that Kevin Rudd tried to do it. And so we've got here. I think history repeating itself. Ken Peter Dutton win eighteen seats. It's yet to be seen, but it's eerily like it was back then.
Yeah, that's really interesting. I mean, Jeff the newspole in your paper today, if this applied nationally, it's only a three percent three percent swing against Labor, which is around seven lost seats. But we know the polls were wildly wrong in the US election with Trump and Kamala Harris, so you know, we could be looking at a hung parliament. But I don't know. I think all the polls are showing that vote to see Albanesi as weak. I don't know how in this climate they vote someone they see
as weak. Back in Jeff Chambers, what do you.
Think, Hi, Sharry. So we're going to see a lot of movements up and down, and the News poll actually matches what I'm hearing from the major parties in terms of their internal tracking polling. So there's been some recovery for Anthony Albernezi, but it's from a very low bar, so he's still deeply unpopular. They're still on track to form a minority government and the challenge now out for them, and there's a few unknowns because they were so set
in stone. From Albanese's perspective on April twelve is how do they execute this budget and how do they perform in the campaign. And on the flip side of that, for Peter Darton is just to be presenting a vision that is a vision that will sell to the voter that they are ready to govern and that they do have the experience and obviously their catchphrase will be are you better off now than you were in twenty twenty two and that things need to be put back on track.
So I think you know, you read the polls week to week, whether it's economic indicators or things happening globally, and you're going to see some movement up and down. But either way, it's still a pretty poor position for Anthony Albanezi.
Yeah, absolutely, all right, let's have a look at and by the way, I'm going to come back to Newspoll later on my show and I've got Cameron Milne and Andrew Carswell, so we will stick with the politics in this hour. But now let's have a look at what Donald Trump said about Malcolm Turbull on social media today. Here's the remark. He said, Malcolm Turbule, the former Prime Minister of Australia, who was always leading that wonderful country from behind, never understood what was going on in China,
nor did he have the capacity to do so. I always thought he was a weak and ineffective leader, and obviously Australians agreed with me. Now it's possible that Trump was responding to an interview that Malcolm Turbull did with Bloomberg. He had this to say about Trump's tariffs.
And if this triggers a global wave of protectionism around the world, and you know, that's clearly going to be bad for business everywhere.
You know.
Trump seems to have a view that America can prosper at the expense of everybody else. But that's not going to work. It appears that the more dependent you are on the United States, the closer you are to the United States, the more he feels he can extract value from you. You know, stand over you extortship. I mean, look at the business with Greenland, well.
Steve, it looks like Malcolm Turbull might have made it even less likely that Trump gives Australia a tariff exemption.
Yeah.
Look, Donald Trump summed up Malcolm Turnbull perfectly. It's exactly what I thought about him for years, and the Australian public voted him out for that same reason. I mean, Malcolm always thinks he's the smartest bloke in the room. Just ask Jeff Field, Jenny. Malcolm always thought he was the smartest bloke going around. Trump's come out, Well, you know, he's a week week leader, a week leader, alright, he was a week leader in the Australian public. I just
mentioned Tony Abbott winning eighteen seats. Malcolm managed to lose seventeen of those when he went to the election after knocking Abo off. So look, we don't need this bickering. I mean, Turnbull has hit out again tonight. He's done an interview somewhere and he's doubled down on it, which Malcolm would you know, predictably would do and it would have just I reckon. Chari brewis the termal ego slightly to have the most powerful man in the world talking about him in such disparaging ways, or.
Maybe he'd love the fact that he's noticed him. But you know, Jeff I had a report last week on the show that Albanezy hasn't even been able to get Donald Trump on the phone. The tariffs are now due to take effect in two days time. Turnbull certainly hasn't helped the case.
No, And Malcolm Turnbull famously loves the limelight. There's some former pms that chase it and others who don't, and Malcolm Turnbull obviously enjoys this type of intervention. But as we've been talking about, Thursday Australian time is when the steel and aluminium tariffs are due to hit. We've seen Penny Wong first, then Richard Miles and then Jim Chalmers all head to the States. It's not looking likely and the government is saying that internally they're actually concerned about
other tariffs that might be coming down the line. So you know, a few days out, you know, Malcolm Turnble pops up, gets gets the linelight. I think he would like that response. But on China just quickly a bit unfounded, because you know, Malcolm turn would to give him a little bit of credit. He was an early mover on China. He banned Huawei. He put in those those tough foreign interference laws that Beijing railed against, and the US and
Five Eyes actually followed us on that. So just to add a bit of balance there for Malcolm Turnbull, Oh.
That's nice of you, Jeff, I do I.
Do record worry about balance, Gift, don't worry about that.
I was in camera at the time and James Patterson, Andrew ha C Peter Dutton were behind a lot of those moves. All right, let's talk now about this update from the AFP and New South Wales Police this afternoon relating to the caravan that was found with explosives. Now, the AFP say the plot was fabricated. It was likely to be a con job designed for police to find it. Have a look.
Today, I can reveal that the caravan was never going to cause a mass casualty event, but instead was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit.
Now news others police today, So in the same day as that press conference, they say that they've made fourteen arrests, arrested fourteen people and laid forty nine charges. But yet they say that none of them were related to the caravan or those behind it. Here's what Alex Riftin had to say.
We now have the involvement of organized crime packing caravans with explosives, referring to Jewish targets and antisemitic content for some bewildering reason which isn't really been made clear to the public. So I think this will give little comfort to the community, and if anything, it adds a dose of terror and uncertainty to what's already very volatile situation.
Steve Price, I have to say I thought this press conference was very strange. It muddy the waters between those arrests made this morning and the caravan, and they also revealed, as Alex just referred to, that there's organized crime involved. So if they know who's behind it, they say they those people aren't behind it, aren't Ati Semitic, So why haven't they made these arrests yet. There's a lot of unanswered questions here.
This whole saga from day one has been I think dogged by the fact that no one's really wanted to talk about the detail. And when you saw that news break today and the police press conference was well, the caravan was never going to be used in a mass bomb attack. The moment the investigation from day one went quiet. I think everybody thought it was very odd and very strange, and I think the public now deserves some sort of explanation.
I mean, I know there's now fourteen people facing charges and we've got to be careful about what we say, but it just biggest belief about how this is all unfolded. And they seem to suggest the police in that same media conference that these organized crime figures are behind all of the firebombings and the anti Semitic graffiti, and I just find that extremely difficult to believe. To be honest, it was.
Very strange, very strange. And if those fourteen people arrested, if that wasn't about you know, if that wasn't related to the caravan, well what was it for. I can't work out why we weren't told that information. Let's stick with this story. I'll say goodbye to you both, Jeff Chambers, Steve Price, thank you both very much for your time, and let's stick with this story and bring in the reporter who has been covering it for us at Sky News.
Julia Bradley joins me. Now, Julia, thank you for your time. Look, we've just been talking about how police have said organized crime is behind this, but yet they haven't made arrest in relation to those responsible the caravan plot, and this was something the police were asked about at the press conference today.
They were Shahi. So we did hear the AFP this afternoon say that no fresh arrests have been made in relation to this Operation Kissinger, which, as you say, is that investigation looking specifically at this caravan bomb plot in dural in Sydney's northwest back in January. No fresh arrests made in relation to this, but the AFP Deputy Commissioner wanting to reveal more what she believes, what the force
believes or alleges are the motivations behind this. So as you've been talking about in that panel, just there believing that it's an individual or individuals essentially masterminding this plot where they've got links to organized crime and they're directing local criminals on the ground to buy caravan, fill it with explosives and that anti Semitic note listing Jewish sites.
But the suggestion today, the allegation today is that this has been done for personal gain, whether this person or people want to change their criminal status or perhaps shorten their prison sentence, for example, in exchange for information that they'd handover in relation to this. So that allegation being put to the public today and the press today, but we don't have fresh arrests in relation to this investigation.
Yeah, I have to say, I think it was one of the worst press conferences I've seen because instead of giving the reassurance that they claim they wanted to give, they just left more questions unanswered. You know, they were asked, are the perpetrators here or overseas? They may be offshore, they may be here and you know here was the New Southerweld's Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson this afternoon, saying that no arrests had been made relating to the caravan have a look.
Striffle's Pearl has charged twenty nine individuals for a title of one hundred and twenty seven charges. Additionally, Operation Kissinger engaged in overt activity in conjunction with officers from the Australian Federal Police in the form of two search warrants and three fiarm Prohibition Order searches. Well. Since activity has not resulted in any arrests, it has provided valuable evidence to progress the investigation which is ongoing.
So again, Julia, we just don't know what those fought in arrests Understrike Boss Perl so relating most likely to antisemitism. We don't know exactly what they were for.
No, we don't.
So we don't know what incidents these individuals were allegedly involved in. That is the cohort who were arrested today as part of these raids. We know that eleven search warrants were executed, fourteen people arrested, and it's believed that there will then be forty nine charges to flow from that. But we don't know what exactly which exactly should I say incidents they are alleged to have taken our party in.
All we know is that this is under Strikeforce Pearl, so looking at those more serious anti Semitic incidents that have taken place here in Sydney. Now, same as that suggestion regarding that caravan bomb plot, was the suggestion here as well that this was organized crime links motivated by personal reasons. Already though this really being seized upon by
our federal politicians. Immigration Minister Tony Burke speaking about this this afternoon a tit for tat with Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Patterson over these revelations today as well.
Yeah, all right, Julia Bradley, really appreciate your update on that. And again in relation to the organized crime, they didn't say which criminal gangs, how serious they are? I mean, are these dangerous figures terrorizing the Jewish community in the eastern suburbs. You know, more questions than answers, and it's highly worrying right still to come. Why candidates and dumping the labor red to distance themselves from alban easy, some
even adopting blue on their campaign material. Plus record taxes and record government spending. Judicae Sloan will take us through how bad she thinks the budget will be. That's after this quick break, welcome back. Well, the Albenezi government was planning to trumpet two surpluses this election campaign, but that isn't going to work because the budget is likely to show a string of deficits and the extent of Labour's cash slash. For more on this, I'm joined by the
Australians contributing Economics editor Judah Sloan. Judith, great to see you again. Look, how bad are you expecting the deficits? In this budget to be.
Well, hello Chara, look, I think the deficit for this financial u is actually going to be slightly smaller than was predicted in the May budget and my EFO for that matter, because the income tax revenue is just absolutely spurting in because of bracket creep. So we've got, as you know, low unemployment, high employment, and therefore you're getting a lot of revenue from income tax and also commodity prices.
That's softened a little bit, but they've held out. So in many ways, Jim Chalmers is the luckiest treasurer that.
Ever there was. But he's allowed, he's allowed.
The revenue to burn a hole in his pocket, and he's spent up enormously, like over one hundred billion dollars extra in the space of three years. Unbelievable. We're now heading to federal government spending of eight hundred billion dollars. I remember when it used to be four hundred billion dollars, so it's absolutely extraordinary.
Well, I was actually going to ask you about both of those points next, So let's show everyone the graphs. Let's show round the actual figures here. So this is the personal income tax. So just three years ago there was two hundred and fifty five billion dollars collected by the federal government personal income tax. So we are all paying thirty eight percent more in personal income tax now
three hundred and fifty two billion. And then again the spending figures that you were just speaking about, thirty percent rise in federal government spending on average. So due to Sloan, when you look at how Australia compares with other countries around the world, we have among the highest personal income tax rates globally. Is this I mean, you know many people are playing paying close to fifty percent of their
salary in tax. Do you think this is something that ultimately there should be reform on.
Well, absolutely, but you're not going to get any reform, certainly not in the next month.
For example.
This is a this is a government that is completely committed to tax and spend. There is no notion of what you'd call physical responsibility or seeking to repair the budget. What will happen is that the gross and net government debt will increase. The gross debt's now sort of edging
towards the trillion dollar mark. Now it's interesting that a lot of countries are very bad at this too, but let's think about this Australia as a small, open economy, so we can actually afford less in terms of being bad at budget management than some of the bigger countries, particularly the US, which has its own currency and numeror currency. So I think, you know, it was two thousand and nineteen we were sort of still worried about debt and deficit.
Then we kind of forgot about it during COVID and maybe.
There was a degree of.
There was a reason for that, but now we seem to have never sort of regained the important thing, the import and principles of managing a budget and having some guidelines to guide that.
And you remember when Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey tried to tell us all that there was a budget emergency, and you know, the situations so much worse now, just in terms of the budget preparation. The federal government wasn't expecting to have to hand down a budget budget. You know, the economic meetings had been counseled. How much of a scramble will this be for officials?
Now?
Look, I think there are always two parts of the preparation that kind of you know, the routine part that will have gone ahead. They will have had to kind of work on the basis if we're not sure whether or not this is going ahead.
So that's all right.
It's this sort of last minute decision making and the last minute figures in terms of the four cars what they I mean, one of the political conundrums is this that if they make lot of announcements about new measures in the budget, so that's say twenty fifth March, and then the election is beginning of May, you know, it's a lot of time for no new announcements, right, So it's actually I think quite a political problem, which is why they always wanted April twelve and why they didn't
want this budget.
Yeah, don't forget Shari.
It also gives the opposition a bit of a time to shine too, because there's a budget and reply speech.
Yeap, indeed, all right, Judor Sloan, always appreciate your analysis. Thank you. Now, coming up, Donald Trump says he's finding it easier to deal with Russia than Ukraine. What does
this mean for Zelenski plus Murray? What's disgraceful attack on Dutton? Well, Albneasy didn't even bother to stand with Australians under siege from Alfred that's with Kama Milner and Adrea Carswell after this quick break, joining me now as always on a Monday our Political panel, former Press Secretary to Scott Morrison, Andrew Carswell and former chief of staff to Bill Shorton and former Queensland State Director Cara Milina. Great to see you both. Look, let's have a look at this attack
by Murray Watt. He slammed Dutton for leaving Queensland even though Albert Easy was in can Bro the whole weekend. Here he was.
You saw that he jetted off to a fundraiser at Sydney Harbourside this week when his own community was actually trying to get prepared for this event. So he was filling Liberal Party money bags while his own community was filling sandbags, which I think says a lot about him.
Andrew. That fundraising event was four days before Alfred hit and alber Easy was not even anywhere near the psycloid. This is hypocrisy.
Well, Charie Murray, what's clearly been chosen to be the grub in chief for Labor for this election campaign. He's very good at that job. He throws the insults left, right and center, whether that be against the opposition or whether that be other interest groups. It does come across as a bit grubby and slimy, but can I say it's sometimes it is effective and in this case it probably did land a blow for what an event that
maybe Dunton shouldn't have been at. But there's no doubt that this will not be Anthony Avnezi's role and responsibility during an election campaign. He'll keep his hands very clean. He'll leave the dirt and the smear to people like Murray White.
Yeah indeed, Cameron, I mean you're in Queensland. This is Brisbane's wettest twenty four hour period since nineteen seventy four. There's been over two hundred and seventy five millimeters recorded and it's only the tenth of the month, but it's already Brisbane's highest March rainfall in history. So you know, the cyclone impact was downgraded, but still a lot of flooding and it's been tough, it.
Has, and a lot of people lost power and a lot of people had a lot of storm damage around their houses. Local parks flooded, local roads were cut off. So unlike Wayne Swan who last Friday said there wasn't even a cyclone in Brisbane. I'm sorry Brisbane got hit pretty hard southeas Queensland is still being hit hard with flooding, so it's a major event. But I don't agree with Andrew Carswell before.
I mean, this was an own.
Goal turning up to billionaire's house in the middle of cyclone preparation, where Premier Christop Fooley was saying every single night, be prepared, to be prepared. A massive unforced error by Peter Dutton and his campaign director Andrew Hurst. Why on earth you go to a fundraiser when he should have been at the Strathpoint SS filling sandbags. It was a no brainer and to go just shows that maybe Dutton isn't quite as on his game as he should be.
Well, it was Tuesday last week, wasn't it Tuesday?
But we were already being asked by We're already being asked by Premier Christal Fouley from Sunday previously to prepare this cyclone seventeen days to come down the coastline, and.
Easy wasn't even in the date when the cyclone hit. Peter Divan is currently trapped in his home. I mean, how can Mary.
Really bad?
Look?
Sure, but how can Maray White in all good conscious attack someone who is currently trapped in his house by floodwaters when the prime minister escaped before anything got too difficult, it's extraordinary.
I agree, Murray. What is an attack dog is basically being sort of licked and slobbed on. Basically it's not very effective. But no, that's fine.
Yeah, all right. Let's have a look at the w A results. So it was very strong for Labor. Now, Andrew, what impact do you think that election result will have federally?
I think, first and foremost people trying to draw an equivalence between this result in this state and draw an equivalence with Anthony Abnetian how he will go in the federal election are probably getting ahead of themselves. I think this is a premier who is very very popular leading a government that is very very popular. Anthony Abaneze is not popular in the state and nor is his government, so seeking that equivalence is probably getting ahead of themselves.
That there are some good signs for Labor as a brand in WA, and there's some negatives for the liberal brand. But there are some also some shining lights out of that result for the Liberals, particularly in seats that correspond with those federal seats where there's eight to ten to twelve percent swings in seats that would be the equivalent of Pierce for Winkle and others in that zone that the Liberal Party would be hoping now that they can
get a decent result in. But it's the same people in Labor that Troian equivalents that don't want to draw an equivalence in Victoria. They go, there's no trouble for Albanese in Victoria, but that's just a state issue.
Well would raw, Yeah, no, exactly, good point. And it seems that even some labor candidates on some Labor and ps are trying to steer clear of the traditional Labor red branding. Instead they're using blue, purple, pink, and green, basically any other color and in some cases even liberal colors in their campaign material. This is a report in the City Morning Herald. Cameron also, some of the male out material doesn't feature the Prime Minister, some even featuring Penny.
While god knows why, that surely is a bit of a mistake. But Cameron, this is not a good sign when you've got labor candidates not wanting to use red, not wanting to feature the PM. I mean, it just shows how unpopular he is.
Well, it does, and I think it shows that Labor's desperate to do anything else that look what they're looking like, which is the Albanese Labor Party. I mean, the ALP is the Albanese Labor Party at the federal election. And that's a problem because albow is just so weak, so weak as prime minister and so weak as a leader. They're no wonders candidates want to use any other color than the Albanies red.
Yes. And it seems Labor insiders are starting to even publicly turn on Albanezi Andrew cars While I spoke about this earlier in the show, but there was a profile piece on Tanya Plibasek on the weekend and in it a Labor insider said that compared to Tanya, Albert comes across as an ineffectual buffoon. So this is interesting when you have these sort of pieces run so close to an election.
I'm not sure what's wrong with that criticism, Shari, but look, it just shows that it is a continual battle between these two leaders within the Labor Party, and it goes back a long time between back to when Tania Pilibisec chose Bill Shorten over Abenezi in the in the race for it to become leader. So it goes back a long way. And Anthony Abenezi has done a lot in the last two years to get in the way of
Tania Piliti sec and her responsibility as environment Minister. He basically crucified her her number one signature policy on environmental reform. He's getting in the way on sam and as well by supporting the salmon industry, which is the right decision to do. There's no love lost between these two and I'm sure it will continue on the other side of this.
Election, Cameron, very quickly, because we've got to go what was your take on that?
Oh, there's Tenure, there's Tony Burke, and there's Jim Chalmers. And in twelve months time, they won't be elbow.
Irrespective of the election outcome, he'll be gone. Even if he wins.
He can't survive the way he's surviving. He's only there because the election is only weeks away, not years away.
All right, Cameron Milner Andrew Carswell, thank you so much. As always, Now, don't go anywhere. Trump doubles down and his criticism of Zelensky in a new Fox News interview Koshergada after this break, welcome back. Well, Donald Trump has once again criticized Zelenski.
Here he is, we'll do it very well with the Russia, but right now they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine and Ukraine I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine, and in terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with Russia.
All right, let's bring you now. Sky News contributor Koshagata Kosa. You know what's the game plan here, because it is quite concerning to constantly hear Trump criticize the Lenski more than Putin. When Putin is the aggressor. He aggress that he did invade Ukraine. Yes, great to be Duchari.
I think you know, when we keep seeing these drips and drabs from Trump whenever he's being interviewed by the media, he's just going back to his worldview, which is policy and people. And as it relates to policy, he has
said he wants the war to end. He wants peace, even if that means that it may not be fair in terms of how it ends with respect to the aggressor and the aggressed over here, and he has this viewpoint of realism, foreign policy realism, and if we have to make concessions and even let the bad actor here take something, if that means the word ends, that's sort
of his view. The other piece of it is people, and that's I think what he was alluding to in that clip where he does talk about the personalities and maybe that's life, that their politics is a combination of the actual person at the helm of it. And he has not made it any secret that he does find Zelenski a little bit of a difficult character and on some sympathetic figure, whereas he has alluded to the fact that he finds Putin maybe brutal yes, maybe ruthless yes,
but a rational actor that he can reason with. That's sort of what he keeps intimating with those comments. And I think he's going to continue to hold ground until he can get both parties to the table and affect some sort of peace agreement and negotiated settlement, whatever that may look like.
Yeah, and we spoke about this in the show last week, that Trump does see Zelenski, rightly or wrongly, as too close to the Democrats, too close to the bidens and that is part of the problem. And I am Miranda Devine was on the show and she even mentioned that there was this one Ukrainian general who's now an ambassador in the UK that Trump or the Trump administration were eyeing to replace Zelenski. So we'll see where that goes. Now Canada has a new leader as well. Mark Karney
dominated his party's ballot to replace Trudeau. He used his first speech to attack Trump Kosher, how do you see this leadership playing out and the relationship between Canada and the US.
You know, it's really interesting because he is the first person to become PM in a long time, I think it forty years who's not a sitting MP. That's been a pretty divided issue in terms of people arguing whether that's less democratic or more democratic. But be that as in me, he now enjoys the pomp and circumstance and
the wheat of the office that comes in. He's also a former central banker, governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, so he's going to rely on those bona fides in terms of the trade war and how they're going to respond to the Trump administration's tariffs and so on. So he's going to do that, and I think he's going to be very much well liked by the left side of politics in terms of what
they can actually do to respond to Trump. I'm not sure how many new tools in his arsenal he's going to have, but he's going to certainly rely on sort of more of a central planning aspect probably to subsidizing certain sectors of Canada and then deciding how much to push back and do counter tariffs on the US and
all of that. And of course they've got an election coming up in October or sooner, so it's going to be very interesting for the other side from mister Pierre Polie to see how he's going to draw greater contrast in terms of those strategies and responses to Trump tariffs and how that's going to resonate with the Canadian people now. So it's certainly added an interesting twist to their elections.
And Pierre Okay, he's given a lot of strong speeches that have you know, we've all noticed around the world, so we'll see how that goes. All right, Koshagada, appreciate your time tonight and thanks everyone for today. Make sure you watch tomorrow Night Big Show, Ray Hadley will be on many others. Stay tuned though now poor Marie's up next.