Why on Sky News.
This is Sharry.
Good Evening. Welcome to the show. Coming up tonight. Leaked WhatsApp messages of pro Palestinian activists in Australia saying they hope Hermas kidnap Peter Dutton. I'll bring you those inflammatory messages in a moment. This comes as Peter Dutton goes on the attack over the Albanesi government flying Hermas sympathizers
into Australia. Talk about a national security crisis. On the PM's watch, our former ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, will be on the show to speak about what's at steak here and Albanizi's refusal to listen to the RBA on pay rises sparks serious concern in the business community. Meanwhile, the woke left come out to defend the indefensible. Yes, I'm speaking about Raygun.
In a Maldominated sport as the only woman and you look at the history of war we have had as women athletes has faced in terms.
Of criticism, belittlement, judgment.
Are we now living in a society where criticism of poor performance is dismissed as sexism? Or Jennie O Dowd would join me to discuss a bit later, but first we often sit here and lament that political leaders aren't taking national security seriously enough. Well, today Peter Dutton showed leadership and said that Albanesi shouldn't be issuing visas to Palestinians from the war zone in Gaza.
I don't think people should be coming in from that war zone at all at the moment.
It's not proven to do so, and I think it puts our national security at risk.
It's an utterly different approach from the Albanesi government, which has granted visas to nearly three thousand Palestinians since October seven. About half have already arrived in Australia. Visas are being granted in as little as an hour, and some aren't being sent to Azio for security checks at all. Dart And Today put the issue front and center, the topic dominating parliamentary question time. This force to left wing media outlets to finally report on the concerns around these visas
that we've been covering on this show since November. It all exposed Alberanesi's lack of answers to crucial questions about our national security or Peter Dutton today open question time by asking whether someone who supports terror terrorism should be given an Australian visa.
Prime Minister, in order to hold a visa, individuals must pass a character tist. Does supporting a listed terrorist organization like Hamas pass Australia's character tist?
Of course, Albanzi couldn't answer that question. High immigration is already an issue with voters. How could the Prime Minister possibly defend bringing people into the country who support a listed terror group? Instead, Albanzi accused Dutton of division.
This week over here he can't ever say can't ever say no to anyone on his own team, can't ever say no to attempting to raise tension in our community, and is always looking for an opportunity to create division.
And Albanize said by contrast, he seeks to bring people together, but if he truly cared about social cohesion, then he wouldn't be bringing potential He must sympathizers into Australia. The Coalition hounded the government on this issue.
Has any agency expressed any concern about any individual who has arrived from the Gaza war zone since October the seventh?
Can the Prime Minister guarantee that no individual who participated in or supported the October seven Hamas terror attacks, the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust, has been granted a visa by his government. Will applicants be eligible for a permanent or a temporary visa.
To the Minister for Immigration.
Has the minister been lobbied by anyone in his electorate or any other electorate for a visa?
That's point for an individual.
From the Gaza war zone since October seventh.
Of course, Albanizi had no real answers. He could only joke about the topic.
One of their best, one of their best.
That question is perhaps of the entire time since Federation, perhaps the most broad.
Well, I don't think he'll be laughing if God forbid as an attack from a Hamas supporter that he's flown into the country at taxpayer's expense. The truth is we don't know precisely how many Palestinians arriving from the war zone have undergone rigorous security checks. Defat officials have conceded that some visas were being granted in as little as one hour.
Some individuals claim that visit a visa for relatives were approved.
Within one hour.
It is possible, sure that how could you possibly do all the necessary security and other checks in just an hour from an applicant.
I mean that's lightning speed approval when.
We apply that vast range of information to consideration of visit divisions. So if globally a very large number of our visit a visas would be done inside an hour, the assessment is essentially looking at all the information we hold and applying that in a number of ways to.
Short the application in front it well to show just how pathetic that is. The former AZO boss Duncan Lewis said in twenty nineteen that security checks can take months.
Really the issue that I wanted to get to. If a person's a foreign national who's lived a substantial part of their lives overseas, there would be some difficulty turning around the advice for a QSA or or an ASA from AZOS perspective, getting that advice to a minister in a timely manner.
There could be yes, we would typically have to go to second and third countries to test their holdings on the individual, and that takes time.
When you say that takes time, can you give us an indication.
Of by how long that it can be?
Several months, months, several months, not an hour, not a day. Worse than this, AZIO Director General Mike Burgess has said not all visas are sent to the top spy agency. Here was that shocking admission.
And I can assure your audience that when things get referred to Asia, we deal with them effectively. And of course there might be times when they didn't get referred to.
Us in time.
There might be times when they didn't get referred to us in time. That comment is highly alarming given there are thousands of terrorists and her Must supporters in Gaza. Well, it was first on this show that we exposed the flawed security process, and I revealed back in February that a her Must sympathizer was now in Melbourne after being granted by the Albanese government a visa. Now, this right here is the list of hundreds, nearly five hundred Palestinians
who've been granted visas to leave Gaza. Eighty one of them he headed for Australia. And our revelation tonight that the Albanzi government has granted a twenty one year old her Must sympathizer a visa calls into question the adequacy of their security checks was in February, yet they just kept granting visas regardless. Australia's Israel and Jewish Affairs Councils Colin Rubinstein said today that he was concerned that Hermask
supporters could enter the country under this scheme. He said, while we understand and support the need to help Palestinian civilians affected by the war her Musk launched on October seven, it's also important to remember that opinion polls of guards or residents show a significant majority not only support her Musk but also its actions on that day. And you don't need me to remind you how horrific the actions on that day were.
Now.
Dartan has experienced backlash for his tough stance. Two weeks ago when he visited Israel, an activist in a pro Palestinian WhatsApp group posted why can't her Musk kidnap him while he's there but don't return him? I rang that activist today who'd made those remarks, and she laughed at me on the phone and she said it was an effing joke, go away and hung up the phone. The way Albanesi and Dutton approached this issue reflect how they
see Israel and the current war. Alban Ezi has been anti Israel and a pro Palestinian activist for most of his political career. Owing wes Yep, Albanzi there holding the megaphone, and he was already in federal politics. But Dutton is tough on national security. He knows that Israel is constantly under attack from terrorists on all borders. It's a daily fight for survival. Dutton knows two that Islamic extremism is
the current top terror threat facing our country. So on earth would Albanezi think it's okay to kick start in immigration program from the most radical, violent and bloodthirsty regime in the world right now, especially without adequate security screening. Albanese's obligation, not even his obligation. His duty as Prime Minister is not to save people on the other side
of the world. It's to protect his own citizens. We have unprecedented lawlessness and racism in Australia under his watch, and he risks adding fuel to the fire with a reckless immigration program. Albanize needs to wake up and realize he's no longer a radical left wing protester. He's the prime minister and he needs to govern for all Australians.
Now I'm going to come back.
To that topic with Dave Sharma in a moment, but for now, let's turn to the economy and pay rises for public sector workers. New data from the ABS has shown that public sector wages have grown at three point nine percent in the year to June. That's up from three point one percent a year earlier. Now, this zero point nine percent growth is the highest June quarter rise
in twelve years. That's a good thing if you're a worker receiving a pay rise, But for the rest of the country, these public sector pay rises are inflationary and they risk pushing up rates even higher. Albanezi gave childcare workers a fifteen percent pay rise just days after RBA Governor Michelle Bullock warned government spending was inflationary. And now unions representing aged care workers and disability care as are set to demand pay rises.
Too, And who could blame?
Who could blame them? They do deserve a pay rise, but the issue is that Michelle Bullock has specifically said that even modest wage gains, and fifteen percent isn't modest, but even modest wage gains of three and a half percent would prove inflationary if productivity growth didn't improve the fact that their strong wage growth without productivity growth is
risky and it's keeping inflation persistent. Well, to further discuss this, let's bring in tonight's political panel Labor MP and Chair of the Australian Labor Party Economics Committee, Andrew Charlton and National's leader in the Senate Bridget Mackenzie. Great to see you both back again. Andrew, you're famously an economist. Do you agree with the RBA that pay rises in the public sector are inflationary when productivity is as weak as it is at the moment.
Well, good to be with you, Shari, and you're right. We did get wages data out this week and that wages data showed that real wages have grown in Australia for the last three concents secutive quarters. And that's in contrast to the last ten years when Australian wages flatlined. There was no real wages growth for ten years. So I think it's a good thing that wages are moving in the right direction. Specifically, on the types of workers that you've been talking about and their impact on inflation,
I'd say a couple of things. First, of all, I'd say that most Australians would look at those workers and agree that they have been underpaid for a long time. And most Australians would also see that if we don't lift wages in those sectors, we're going to have a workforce crisis in critical areas areas like age care looking after elderly Australians and childcare educating the next generation of Australians.
But your point is right. If we want these wage risers to be sustainable, which we do, we have to make sure they are backed by productivity gains and that's why the government is so focused on lifting the rate of productivity growth up from the record low that the Liberals left it at.
Bridget Are you confident that the government is doing enough, as Andrew just said, to lift productivity and enough to mean that these fifteen percent pay rises that could be replicated in other sectors, that they won't be inflationary.
No, I'm not, Shahi. There's no surprise in that. And I'm not the only one that lacks confidence in the federal government. It seems the Reserve Bank governor does as well. The reality is she was very very clear that state and federal governments. Labor governments are not only increasing the pay rate of public servants, they're also increasing the headcount, which is actually leading to significant issues and keeping inflation higher than it for longer than it actually needs to be.
Economists are very, very concerned about the spending profile of state and federal labor governments and the heated nature that they having in our economy. More broadly, so Andrew talks a big game on productivity. It starts with a zero.
It has the entire time they've been in government. And when you've got productivity dampening policies such as the industrial relations policies that they've been bringing in, such as cuts to funding critical road and rail infrastructure projects that would increase the productivity, particularly of our supply chains across the country, they're pulling all the wrong levers and that is why Australians are having to have interest rates higher than they need to be for longer than they need to be
and longer than they are being in comparable countries acround the world.
Look, let's have a look at the levels of immigration. The Daily Telegraph today reporting a massive one point one five million migrants have arrived under the Alban Ezy government. That's sixty two percent more migrants than during the rud Gillard Rudd era, when it was also quite high. Now Andrew the government has argued publicly that it does intend
to cut the migration program. But do you think that this now could be delayed or should be delayed, and do you think migration might be kept high so as to keep Australia out of a recession.
Well, Charry, you're right that migration numbers have been high, and in particular they've been high in comparison to the record lows during COVID. There was a big bounce back from those record lows once international borders reopened and once students started to come back to Australia from other countries. What the government has now done is to make sure
that we manage the overall rate of migration. We are in the process of harving the net migration to Australia from its peak by the end of this financial year, and we're doing that through responsible actions to close some of the loopholes that the previous government left in the post COVID era, by making sure that we bring integrity back to our international education system, and by reforming the migration system to make sure it best suits the needs
of Australia and the skills gaps that we have in this country. So I think we're getting the migration numbers down by half and doing it in a way that will deliver lots of positive benefits to Australia over the longer term.
Bridget. The issue is the migration levels are putting more pressure on housing, no doubt about it. But without the high migration we'd been recession right now. So do you think, given the economy is still teetering and we're still walking that narrow path to avoid going into recession, do you think actually perhaps the government does need to keep migration levels high for at least the next twelve months.
No, I don't, Chari.
I think if they actually did other things, like got their spending under control and focused on productivity enhancing measures rather than politically enhancing economic measures, you'd see a different economic profile right now.
The reality is we've got record migration.
Because the Labor Party has approved a record number of visas since coming to government.
That's it, full stop.
And if you are in our suburbs or congested regional capitals, you cannot afford a house if you're in the market and you can't find a house to actually rent, and that is the reality. And anybody who's sat in the car park that are our main road arterials at peak hour it knows that we need to put a brake on migration. And I'm really tired of hearing the talking points and yet again seeing no action from the ministers responsible on behalf of the Australian people to get this under control.
Yeah, it's a huge problem, the rental crisis as well. We seeing average families becoming homeless as well. Now this is a bit of a controvert rcial idea from Government Services Minister Bill Shott, and he's announced a thought bubble perhaps that Labor is developing a digital ID program. It's known as the Trust Exchange or TEXT for shot here he was speaking about it yesterday.
Text is something brand new and world leading. It is not a wallet, nor an app nor ID, but rather it is a secure means by which to exchange with a third party who you are, your identity and what you can do your credentials.
Andrew, why do Australians need a digital ID?
Well, Australians should have the choice to have a digital ID.
Because it will significantly increase their security online. What we have at the moment is a system where if you want to prove your identity to any service provider, a healthcare provider, a bank, another utility, you are required to provide them with ID documentation, your passport, your license, and those documents are then stored by those institutions and have been the subject of cyber hacks, and that means that millions of Australians are losing valuable information which can then
put them at risk. So what Bill Shorten is talking about is providing people with an option where instead of providing those documents and putting themselves at risk that those documents could fall into the hands of cyber criminals, there'll be an alternative method for them to prove their identity which doesn't expose them to those same risks. I think
it's important for Australians to have choice. But this is a choice that many Australians I think will find attractive because it will reduce their risk of identity theft and reduce their risk of cybercrime.
Bridget There are concerns about government holding such sensitive data, given government cybersecurity is not known to be a strong point. Do you think this is a good idea and would you trust the government rather than the private sector to develop technology like this?
Shari, I'm a conservative. I don't trust the government over private citizens at all. But I think governments have shown to have data breaches regularly. I'm a Laura Biding firearm owner, and there's been numerous state governments where suddenly everyone that owns a firearm in that state has been released publicly for public disclosure where they lived and where the firearm is. I mean that is a public safety issue, not just a personal integrity issue.
So I would have significant concerns.
I think the Labor Party the last tried they tried something like an Australia card didn't go down well. So I would be wanting to see a lot more detail from Bill Shorten and the Labor Party before I'm subscribing to something a digital version of an Australia card.
Yeah, I think there is a digital version of an Australia card.
I just want to see the detail.
And very very different.
Then, how is it different from the first century thing?
How is it different?
Well, this is a way for people to avoid precisely the problem that Bridget is talking about rather than having to give over your sensitive documents in order to prove your identity when you sign up to a new service, this is an alternative that people can choose to be able to prove their identity without doing that.
Until some bright young spark in a country far away works out how to hack it.
Well, bright young sparks in countries far away are hacking our private sector systems every single day, and we've seen that in Optus, in Medibank, in medi Secure, on and on if.
So, it doesn't sound like a great idea to me, Andrew.
And what this is doing is making us safer from precisely those things, because instead of Optus having to store your license and your passport, you won't have to provide those documents to Optus. So Bridget needs to read this legislation, understand what it's doing, and appreciate that what it's doing is actually meaning that you'll have to give over fewer documents and that will increase your cybersecurity produce your risk.
Andrew, I think if she managed to read your thick economics textbook, I think she can get a handle on this legislation. We can talk about it next Wednesday. Next Wednesday on the show all Right, good to see you both, Bridget mackenzie Andrew Charlton. Thank you now. Let's return now to today's top story, Peter Dutton's demand for a Palestinian a visa ban. This has triggered a barrage of backlash from Labor and the Greens. Here was some of that criticism today.
I seek to try to.
Bring people together, not always looking for a wage or to divide.
I'm disappointed in Peter Dutton. All reasonable people know that not all people in Gaza are members of Hamas we know there's a lot of innocent people caught.
Up in a war not of their making.
Peter Dutton continues to campaign on cruelty. If politicians don't want people fleeing Gaza, then Labor and Liberal should join to put pressure on the extremist Israeli government to stop bombing Gaza.
But security experts are deeply concern to ask BE Executive Director. Justin Bassi, who used to be chief of staff to the Foreign Minister, said there needs to be clear leadership here.
If there is uncertainty, if you don't know whether someone supports or doesn't support a terrorist organization. Unfortunately, the default should be not to provide a visa to someone you're uncertain about. The policymakers and the politicians do need to come out and say any support for a terrorist organization, whether it's in starting violence or not, is unacceptable and you are unable to get a visa if you do support a terrorist organizer.
What well to discuss this further, Let's bring in someone who's been on the ground, who knows the risks in the region very clearly, Australia's former ambassador to Israel, Liberal Senator Dave Sharma. Great to see you again, Dave. Look, the Albertezi government has granted visas to nearly three thousand Palestinians from Gaza. Do you think you went into Palestinian
territories often when you were ambassador. Do you think it's likely that at least some of those nearly three thousand who've been granted visas would support HERMAS, which is the governing body in Gaza.
Well, I think there's a high risk of that, Charon, if we haven't been able to do the necessary identity, health, security and other verification checks that you would normally do on any individual, and most certainly individuals coming from a war zone. I don't see how we can have any surety of that. I mean, bear in mind that these people are in a war zone. They're in Gaza. We're not able to send Australian officials there to interview them.
There's no functioning government in Gaza with whom we can verify documents, identities, other elements that you'd want to reassure the Australian public about the views and proclivities of these people. And in those circumstances, I think it makes abundant sense to be exercise a very high degree of caution. And I don't think we've been reassured by the government that they are doing that, because, simply put, the circumstances do not exist to allow that to happen.
The Albanizi government and particularly the Prime Minister today said well, you guys in the coalition you did the same thing when it came to Afghanistan and other war Syria as well. How was the process different when it came to security checking under the coalition?
Well, look, I mean you raise a very good point. I mean, for instance, when Tony Abbott promised to resettle twelve thousand, I think it was it might have been twenty thousand people who are fleeing Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The government was criticized, The coalition government was criticized for how long it was taking, and we spent a lot of time planning that this process took time
because usually these people had gone to third countries. We had to send Australian officials, immigration officials, but also security officials to interview these people to verify their identity, to verify their claims, to check that they weren't members or
sympathizers of Islamic State. Because our first and most fundamental duty is to the security of the Australian people, and much as we might want to behave in a compassionate way and I'm all for that, we need to make sure that we're putting the security of Australian citizens and the security of our own country first before any other impulse.
And I think how we've handled these situations in the past, including in Afghanistan, is At times we've gotten a lot of criticism from civil society, human rights groups, the Labor Party two for the process taking too long, but it was necessary to take that time to make sure we could do these checks. Now, there's no evidence that the Labor government is taking the time to do these checks on this caseload from Gaza, and simply put, the circum stances do not allow it. I mean, we're not able
to send people there. This caseload is not in Egypt or in the third country where we can travel safely. So how are we possibly assuring ourselves that some of these people are not members of her Muffs or sympathizers of her Muffs. I mean, we just saw last week the UN itself admitted that its own employees in Gus exactly were actively involved in the Oktober seventh terrorist attack. Now, the UN system was not able to detect that until after the fact, and they're on the ground. There's you know,
there's hundreds of UN employees in Gaza. How can we possibly be expected to meet these sorts of checks and safeguards which the Australian people are right to demand in the circumstances that we're facing.
Dave, Apart from hermas sympathies, are you also concerned that some of these Palestinian visa holders may have just anti Western attitudes, may not share our inclusive Australian values. I mean, what are the attitudes to other sexualities in Gaza, for example, or what about women's rights.
Well, look, I think that's a very good point. I mean, anyone who is settling in Australia, we want to make sure that they sign up to Australian values, that they're going to support our system of government. And if we're
providing temporary refuge from a conflict, that's one thing. But inevitably these people who were granting visitor visas too will apply to resettle permanently in Australia, or a large proportion of them, And we need to make sure that you know, there are millions of people around the world, more than that, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, who would beat down the doors for a chance to come to Australia. We're in the fortunate position that, you know, we get to
choose who comes to Australia. That is part of our sovereign right. And we want to make sure that the people we're bringing to Australia contribute to the economy, contribute to society, help build a stronger Australia, help build the more united Australia. Those are all legitimate aims of any settlement program and no matter what your other impulses are, that needs to be front and foremost amongst these considerations.
Yeah, good pointer, No doubt this debate will continue in Parliament tomorrow. Dave Sharma, thank you very much for your time. Now coming up after the break a Ray Gun's protection racket, the left wing media and woke Olympic officials who are blaming misogyny for her viral routine that scored zero plus Australia isn't just failing in breakdancing but education too. Will have a look at the shocking naplan results with my panel Kroger and Richo a bit later. Welcome back well.
While most of the world was appalled by Rachel Gunn's breakdancing routine, some say the reaction is a case of sexism and misogyny. Here's Australia's most senior Olympics official and Emir's If you don't know Rachel's story in two thousand and eight, she was locked in a room crying being involved in a maldominated sport as the only woman. Now you look at the history of what we have had as women athletes has faced in terms of criticism, belittlement,
judgment all about gender, not performance. Well, the project also jumped in to support ray Gun.
And all anybody is talking about is ray Gun.
And can I just say right now, I.
Am so rooting for this woman, Like if you think that she was not qualified to be there, she didn't get pulled in off the street, like she had to win a championship to get there, right, And.
We'll look at that claim in a minute. But The Nightlies columnist Jennio Dowd said this had nothing to do with misogyny. She writes, the thirty six year old was criticized for thinking breaking involved hopping like a kangaroo and rolling around the floor like a dog on freshly mown grass. It had nothing at all to do with her being female. It had everything to do with her lack of talent
reflected in her score. And Jennio Dowd, the former editor of both The Sunday and The Saturday Telegraph and my former editor as well, joins me, Now, Jenny, great to have you here, Hi, So what did you think of Raygun's performance and why it received such shocking reviews?
Well, it was clearly cringe worthy, Shari. Everybody couldn't believe their eyes when they saw it. I remember the first time I saw it and I'm like, it's this for real, you know, like you know, she wasn't having a crack like the Prime Minister said, she was taking the piss. She clearly could not perform break dancing.
And then you've got people like an Emirs who try and turn this into a gender issue. Was there any sexism or misogyny involved in this at all?
It had absolutely nothing to do about gender. And it's a shame that Animeirs said that because it was all about her performance and the process of how she got to get there. There was no qualifying standard for anyone in the breaking competition. And I'll give you an example for Jessica Hole to compete in the fifteen h where she won a silver and you know what a wonderful moment that was for everyone in Australia and for jess herself.
But jess had spent years and years and years of training.
Like most athletes, she started in year two at cross country. She then went to albiam Park Little Athletics. She competed at state national competitions, international competitions, but to be selected to run in that race, she had to win the New South Wales competition. She had to actually meet a qualifying standard to even compete at Nationals, and then she
had to get in the top. To one of the competitors about the question without question, But you're looking at someone who has devoted their entire life to get to that moment, and then you look at someone else who hasn't devoted their entire life. Is a thirty six year old academic who thought she'd have a crack at breakdancing, and it's made Australia laughable around the woind.
You actually looked into the process for this column of how she did get to be selected and can you tell us a bit about that?
Yeah, well I was quite interested because I know a little bit about sport. And there was a competition at the Sydney Town Hall which I don't think anyone heard about.
It certainly wasn't advertised, but it was an Oceana competition, the first one that ever held to pick Australia's representative or the Oceana representative for breaking But she actually only competed against fifteen other women, and yes she won gold, but it was literally like she was pulled off the street because that was the only competition that she had
to do, and that was the only standard. Every other competition, like you saw it, Brandon Stark doing the high jump, like he had to meet a minimum standard to get there in the discus, Matt Denny minimum standard. But breaking, No, let's just compete against fifteen people and voila.
I'm going to the Olympics with my husband.
One of the best lines from your column you say that so unqualified was Rachel for this role. You write that it's like sending a swimmer who doggy paddles, escape boarder who unable to perform the required tricks simply rides down the half pipes sitting on their board, or runner who jogs rather than sprint as they are not fit.
It's such a great column, and you were actually quite enthusiastic about breaking, as they call it, being part of the Olympics, and you were encouraging people to have a look.
Yeah.
I was, And you know, I have to say I enjoyed it. You know, I enjoyed seeing the young people doing it, But I just what I didn't enjoy was seeing someone who wasn't qualified performing and representing our country.
And I just think it made a mockery of every other.
Athlete who's spent years and years and years to get to compete on the world stage.
And also the message that it sends to children. You know, we've got this environment at the moment where every child thinks they deserve a medal for participation. And while you want to encourage people to participate, the Olympics isn't about it's about the best of the best.
It is. It's about the best of the best.
And now kids probably are kangaroo hopping, you know, to try and get to the next Olympics. But you know, but I think even kids know better than Rachel Gunn Shari. I mean, really, the national cross country is going to be held in Tasmania in a couple of weeks, and for a kid to get there, they had to win their school competition, win their zone competition, win their regional competition, go to state, get in the top six of the state, and meet a minimum time to compete. And that we're
talking about ten year olds, eleven year olds. This is what happens in every other proper sport.
Yeah right, Jenny, Dad, great to see you again.
Thank you, Shari.
Now still to come schools getting caught up in woke ideology. Well, it's coming back to bite them. Is it any surprise that more and more children are failing basic reading, writing and arithmetic. We'll look at those Naplan results next, also show you how Kamala Harris has been caught out doctoring news headline to paint her in a positive light. All of that and more with Michael Kroger and Graham Richardson next.
Welcome back, and lots more to get through tonight. So let's bring in our Wednesday panel former Victorian Liberal Party President Michael Kroger and labor legend Graham Richardson. Welcome to you both. Let's start with the Naplan results. As you know by now, Australia has scored an F in this year's Naplan at least four hundred thousand children having who fell so far behind that they now require catch up tutoring. It's even more concerning that one in three students are
not meeting the national baseline standards. Michael Kroger, you worried that schools are getting so far off their curriculum they teach about all this other woke ideology, Now that that students are just not able to read, write, and do maths properly, the basics, and it is going.
To affect them for the rest of their life. Show. I mean, I remember when I was in school, which was a while ago. Now, there was an absolutely laser like focus on you being able to count and you being able to read. And nothing in the world has changed in terms of them still being your major priorities in your educational curriculum. But yes, the curriculum is now so full of other things without naming them all but essentially woke ideology, that it's going to destroy the lives
of young people. I mean, if you can't count, if you don't understand basic arithmetic and mass, you're in for a very locky, rocky life because everything is about maths and everything's about reading. So you know, in a number of years time, the wake earliology era will have will have died a painful death, and schools will return to normal those children going.
Through Michael Kroger from your mouth to.
God, it will happen.
This can't go on, Joe, what do you think. I mean, billions of dollars are being poed into education more every year, but the results just aren't lifting.
Yeah, there's something seriously wrong when the results plateau. No matter how much money you pour in, that means there's got to be something wrong. And when you get into all sorts of strife if you criticize teaching standards. But let's face it, to get into university teaching colleges is the lowest mark. You're in the low sixties. You know, you want to get into law, you've got to get ninety, but get not to become a teacher. And I think
that's where we go wrong. We don't value teaching the way we should.
Yeah, I agree, And maybe if the pay was higher, you'd have better people being attracted to that profession. Now, let's have a look at Kamala Harris's campaignting because they've been caught out secretly editing news headlines in Google Search to paint her in a more favorable light. This is quite an explosive story in the US. Michael, what do you think about this? I mean, this is literally fake news. They accused Donald Trump of fake news, but this actually is fake news.
Well, Harris's campaign team, I've got to have done an outstanding job so far. I mean, anyone who's watched this pro this station over the last three years and Anyone who's watched Fox in America knows that Harris is completely unqualified to be president in the United States. But you know, here's the thing. No one knew in America, apart from Fox viewers and Sky viewers. No one knew until a
month ago that Biden had dementia. Most people in America have no idea that she has not given an interview yet. That's why her ratings are so high. They're completely unaware. They see it at rallies, they see her occasionally stop by a plane. No one's aware that she hasn't given an interview. They just think they've read she's great because they left. The hard left media are so desperate to defeat Trump.
There's been this shocking protection racket of her as there was of Biden's dementia, that she's getting way with murder. So none of this surprises me, and they've done an excellent job so far. The question is can they pull the wool over the eyes of the American public for another three months. I think the answer is probably not, but they might.
Look the media is helping with that. Have a look at this front cover of the Time magazine. They're basically saying let's bring it up. It's time for Kamala Harris. I mean, rich Oh, you know Donald Trump unquestionably divisive, but there's no doubt the media would never get behind him like this.
No, I think that's probably true. Then again, if you're in my shoes, you say thank God for that. I'm looking forward to Harris presidency. I can't wait for it to happen.
And it will happen, you think it will. What's your what's your history of political predictions like when it comes to elections.
Richo, Pretty bloody good?
Look it is looking that way. I mean if you would have if you would have asked the question Michael a month ago, just after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, you would have thought he was a shoe in. But there's been this transformation of Kamala's image and it does look like, you know, she's giving him a run for his money.
Well, she's a narrow favorite to win. I would think the recent polls in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have her in front. And Pennsylvania as they go to state for this election, if she wins the nine in votes there, she probably wins. But as I said, we're in this extraordinary twilight zone of unreality as to where people are looking and thinking. Isn't she great? No, she was a hopeless vice president. She is the most left wing candidate the American public
have ever seen, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All the things that sky viewers know. She's in front of the battleground states.
Bazally, Yeah, I'm concerned. Absolutely.
He emerged over the past day or so with his links to extremists as well. Just very quickly, before we go, I want to ask you both about these ugly scenes that are Sydney council chambers last night. These are Greens led pro Palestinian protest. It forced the meeting to be abandoned over safety concerns. This was all over a motion to boycott Israel, and the eight labor counselors who voted against the motion were actually escorted by police to their cars.
One hundred strong crowd. If we have time, can we play a very quick snippet rich O, why can't these councils just collect our rubbish and start worrying about foreign policy.
I think that's a good question, because I'm not sure what their qualifications are to comment on it. But one thing's for certain. You know, you get activist councils and they'll consider themselves expert on everything and able to intervene on everything. They're not content with where council powers begin and end, and so they simply assume they can extend them travelers. They can't, and we're not going to let them anyway.
Yeah, all right, Michael Kroger, Graham Richardson, great to see you both.
Thank you so much, gentlemen.
Now up next, how universities are protecting their golden goose international students at all costs, and more on the rift between labor and the RBA. Judith Sloan will join me after this quick break.
Welcome back.
Well, let's look at the biggest story of the week, the RBA having a go at the government effectively. For more analysis on this, let's bring in the contributing economics editor at The Australian, Judith Sloan. Judith, so wonderful to have you on the program again. Look the RBA statements, and there have been many of them now, have criticized the government for its public spending but also so for
the pay rises which are inflationary. What do you think, how do you think the Albertezi government is handling this issue of public sector pay rises?
Well, I think on the spat between the bank and the government.
Is hilarious because I guess this is a sort.
Of argumentation one oh one, which is Abbot saying, oh, she didn't say that, and then you go and look at the transcript and she says, well, she actually did say that.
She did point to the.
Profligacy of the federal government and state governments pushing out aggregate demand. But the issue of wages is really important because they want to brag about the rate of increase in wages, but if you actually look at what's happening, they're very much being driven by public sector wages and they are doing that's happening in the context of there being no productivity growth, and from the point of view of the Reserve Bank, that is a very big issue because it's essentially inflationary.
Yeah, so let's drill down on that a bit more. We spoke about this early in the show. I asked Andrew Charlton about it. But what are the risks if productivity growth remains very slow and weak as it is at the moment. But you've got pay rises increasing and the Dune quarter was the highest that zero point nine percent pay rise growth in the June quarter was the highest in twelve years. So what impact would that have on the economy? What are the risks here?
So what the bank will look at as something called unit labor costs, So what that takes into account is the increase in the wages, but also what's happening to productivity, and they worry when the growth of unit labor costs is too high to meet their inflation target. So if you look at the recent monetary statement, for example, there is quite a lot of discussion of that.
The key here is that productivity growth.
It's not actually productivity growth that's just fallen in a hole, it's absolute productivity. We're actually lower than we were several years ago, and that makes the economy very difficult to manage because basically you're getting absolutely nothing from the supply side, but aggregate demand is forging ahead.
Judith, you've written a column where you're concerned about the high numbers of students that universities are relying on, but the impact that this is having on our wider community. Can you explain a bit of that to us?
Well, If we look at the immigration figures, and I think there have been some ones that have been released today under the Albanesi government, there's been a net increase of over a million new migrants, So when you think of the housing situation, that seems particularly dire. But the biggest single group within the migrant arrivals are the international students.
Now the government says that they are going to do something about this, they are considerably higher than they were in twenty nineteen going into COVID, so we're now in mid twenty twenty four. But I think, Shari, we need to watch this space because I think it's one of those things that they say they intend to do something, but they actually are very weak in terms of actually
producing any action on this. And I think it's a real issue because not only have we had this inflow of students, they actually have the ability to stay for very considerable periods of time. For example, there are graduation visas that are available to a large numbers. So it's one of those things that I think the government understands the politics, the electoral implications, but they actually find it very difficult, partly because they're beholden to the universities and
other interest groups. She find it very hard to pull back on the migrant intake.
Yeah, it does seem to be quite a powerful lobby group. The university is Judah Sloan and great to see you as always. Thank you so much and thanks everyone for your company tonight. I'll see you tomorrow at eight and don't miss the show tomorrow night. I've got a high profile US politician on. Here's Paul Murray.