Why on Sky News.
This is Shari.
Good Evening.
Major news tonight, Qatar is about to hold a press conference on the hostage deal. Will bring you breaking news as it happens, and I'll take you through where the deal's out in a moment. Plus we'll have live coverage throughout the night from Israel and with Gemma Toognini here in studio. Also tonight, a father of three who lost his home in the Los Angeles fire will join me live. His message of hope is inspiring and Albanizi's government has been dubbed one of the worst Australia has ever had.
I'll discuss this with Bronwin Bishop and Holly Hughes shortly, but first tonight to the major breaking news. Israel is on the brink of a deal with Humas to see the return of thirty three hostages in exchange for six weeks ceasefire and the lease of a reported one thousand Palestinian criminals. Joe Biden and Donald Trump have confirmed that a deal is very close, perhaps even hours away.
We are very close to getting it done, and they have to get it done. If they don't get it done, there's going to be a lot of trouble out there, a lot of trouble like they have never seen before. And they will get it done. And I understand it's it's been has been a handshake and they're getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week. But it has to take place.
In the brink proposal laid out in detailed months ago, finally coming to fruition.
And just before coming on air tonight, I learned that Katar is expected to tonight our Time, within hours hold a press conference to give an update on the hostage deal. We don't know whether they will be confirming that harm has come to the table. But the moment we see our beautiful hostages back on Israeli soil free, well, it's going to be a feeling unlike any other joy elation. The celebrations will be unimaginable.
There won't be a dry eye.
But as we sit here, let's not pretend this is the deal we all want it. The reality is, in order to bring innocent children and mothers and girls home, Israel has had to do a deal with the devil, a deal with the devil.
Is it the perfect deal?
No?
Is it even a good deal? No, No one.
Can walk away from this and say what a great deal. It's just simply not what we want. What would be a good deal is the return of our hostages, all of them, without having to release a single Palestinian terrorist from jail. That is what's right, that is what's ethical. There's no equivalence between the Palestinian criminals held in Israeli prisons and the innocent Israelis kidnapped from their beds in their pajamas by bloodthirsty savages on October seven. There is
no equivalents. The Israelis are certainly not prisoners of war.
They should never have been.
Kidnapped and taken hostage in the first place. They're blameless victims of a terror organization that is somehow absurdly captured support in the Western world. There must be total clarity on this point. A nine month old baby is not a prisoner of war. A four year old boy is not a prisoner of war. A mother of two beautiful children is not a prisoner of war.
None of the hostages are.
Anyone who claims otherwise is wrong, anti Semitic, and as hateful as those barbarians who stole them from their homes, beds and loved once so In the first stage of this deal, women and children.
The elderly and the sick will be released.
They're being called humanitarian hostages. You have to shake your head and wonder, how is it that women and children are still being held in Gaza tunnels at all?
Where's the Red Cross?
Where have the aid organizations been, the human rights organizations? This should make all of us furious, and I'm sure it does.
Yet it seems this is the deal.
We have waited fifteen months for the release of thirty three Israeli hostages, and we don't even know how many will be returned alive.
That's two thirds of the hostages.
Around sixty six people will remain in gars in captivity. Again, we don't know how many are alive for certain. Now, in exchange for just thirty three hostages, there'll be a six week ceasefire where Israel stops fighting with draws troops from most areas of the Gaza Strip, and large numbers of Palestinian criminals will be released from Israeli prisons, and some media outlets have reported that this figure will be one thousand.
We don't know that for certain.
The remaining hostages might be freed in a second stage of the deal. It's been reported that Israel will hold onto assets such as high profile Palestinian terrorists and also some territory in the Gaza strip to then use it as leverage during these second stage negotiations.
Now, on the one hand, let's look at why this is not a good deal.
On the one hat, well, how can this deal.
Be agreed to when it's only thirty three hostages and not all one hundred, or at least not all of who are alive. How can it be that Israel has been making in roads into Gaza for fifteen months, it has her Musk on its knees, with its leaders dead, and yet we still have to agree to release such a massive number of Palestinian criminals. I mean, is this
what victory looks like? Releasing so many terrorists? The deal could also allow her Musk to rebuild, They can return to northern Gaza, they can stay in power for longer, and they'll have potentially around one thousand terrorists to boost their ranks. And of course we all know what happened with the case of Gillard. Shalit Harmas held him hostage for five years until finally he was released in twenty eleven in exchange for one twenty seven Palestinian criminals in
Israe prisons twenty seven Palestinians for one Israeli. That tells you how much we in the Western world and in Israel value life.
But one of those.
Terrorists released was Yaya Sinhwa, who then went on to mastermind October seven, murdering thousands more Jews. So was the Gillard Shalit deal a good one in hindsight? And would October seven have happened anyway even without ya Ya Sinwa's release?
Or we just can't answer those questions.
But you look back at World War two and you think, would you agree to a cease fire with the Nazis in order to release those held in concentration camps.
Again, we can't answer these questions.
But we know that the Nazis had to be destroyed, and so does Hamas one prolific Israeli advocate known as Cheryl on so that this deal encourages hostage taking and emboldens her muss she told me, and I'm quoting this is Cheryl telling me this. We sacrificed hundreds of soldiers' lives for nothing.
This emboldens her musk.
Our enemies now know our weakness and that of the rest of the world.
There were no to target other.
Countries by taking hundreds of hostages. And there is some of this reaction coming out of Israel.
But now let's look at the other side of the coin.
On the other.
Hand, what wouldn't you do to bring your baby home, your child home, your parent. There are no measures on this earth you wouldn't take if your loved one was kidnapped by terrorists.
There was nothing, There's nothing you wouldn't do to hold them again and keep them safe.
It's against the very principles of Judaism and just humanity.
You would never abandon anyone to terrorists.
So of course we must do whatever it takes to bring home our people. No one deserves the life of a hostage, and Israel and her allies, like America, like Australia, must do everything possible to return these innocent families, bring them to safety, and take them out of the grips of terrorists. Aviva Siegel, she was a hostage. She spoke to me about how hard it was to stay alive when she was in the Gaza tunnels. She was kidnapped from her bed and Palestinians celebrated. They were rejoicing when
she was dragged into Gaza. She was freed, but her husband Keith is still a hostage. We don't know if he's alive, but I know that Aviva will be praying and hoping with all of her heart that she'll be reunited with him soon.
The conditions were the worst conditions that you can think about. I just thought that I'm going to die, that kid's going to die. What will happen if Kith will be in the bathroom and I'll die, Or what will happen if the ceiling falls on us and if they shoot us, or if they're going to starve us again. I want everybody to listen to my words.
They aren't just words.
It's what I went through and what the hostyges are going through. They cannot allow themselves to open the door in this stomach and then close it. We're gonna stop talking.
And that was when I spoke to Aviva when I was in Israel on October seven. Now Elina Gritzuski, she's another former hostage. She was thirty thirty years old when she was kidnapped. She was released, but her boyfriend is still in Gaza again. Her life can't move on until he's home. I spoke to her about this when I was in Israel. You've got beautiful photographs of Matan all around your apartment, but how does it feel knowing he is still in the tunnels after one year?
It's difficult with the empty bed and wake up and it's the same nightmare. It's continual, but I wake up strong because if the hostage can survive.
A you're there and fighting for her.
Life as they need to come to, wake up all morning to still fighting for dinner so they come home, so they can come home.
And it's not just the families of each of the hostages who can't move on until they're home.
It's all of Israel.
And neither would Australia be able to function properly or any other nation on Earth. So this deal is now expected to be announced this week, potential within hours.
So this is where we are right now.
There will be relief, happiness at the return of women and children hostages, but as I said, this isn't a deal to unequivocally celebrate.
It is a deal with the.
Devil, and I wonder couldn't there have been a better deal, couldn't Joe Biden. Now, Donald Trump and Qatar and Israel have worked out a better deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjaminette and Yaho has been under incredible pressure weekly protests to come to an agreement with Hamas. And perhaps we won't know the ramifications of this deal for many years to come, even decades, but we must not lose sight of what's ultimately important, that Israel prevails and that families are reunited.
I've got more on that to come later in the show. As I said, we'll bring you the breaking news if and when Katar holds the press conference. But right now, let's get into some of the other big stories of the day with former Speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop and Liberal Senator Holly Hughes. Welcome to you both. Look, let's start with this column today by Greg Sheridan. Albanzey's government has been dubbed one of the worst in Australian history. Well,
that's what Greg Sheridan writes, and I certainly agree. He writes that the albaneze government has emerged as an unmitigated failure, if not an outright disaster in foreign affairs, defense and national security. He says, it's one of the worst governments we've hadwin this is actually a dangerous proposition because it jebdizes our national security.
Yes it does.
And I'm old enough to remember with the meres and just how bad they were, full of scandal and wronged as decisions and people just rallied and said this government's got to go, and it did. And I get a feeling there's a similar feeling.
Going on now.
I mean when you look at the Prime Minister and he's a government they not only look weak, but they're grmleous. There's no sensibility, there's nothing that makes sense about the way in which they act, not even over the inauguration of President Trump. We're not even sending the Deputy Prime Minister. We're sending Penny Wong, who's done nothing but insult Donald Trump and what he's trying to achieve. We've got a defense force which is under strength, where they promise money
which won't won't be seen for years to come. So everything they've touched has turned rotten, to be honest, and we need to have back in this country the strength that petered up and starting to offer and the people around you who've got experience and know how and actually love the country. And if you don't love your country
and your culture, what are you going to defend? So it is important that we see a change in this government because if Albanesi has returned with those ghastly greens and the tills and there's no blue in Teal, it's all green, we will see the country plummet further and further. So this is a desperate time.
What do you think, Holly.
We have seen a lot of chaotic prime ministerships over the years, but do you think that the Albanese government is one of the worst in Australia's history.
Well, I'm not old enough to have been alive, or I think I was born the year Whitlam came to power, so I don't remember the Whitlam years.
But certainly it would.
Appear that this government is trying out to be the worst government ever. They seem to be doing everything that they can to out bet our best Whitlam and all
the catastrophic decisions he made. That the country I think is still reeling from the things that Whitlam did when he was in Brommen's right, it's absolutely critical that this government is shown the door, and that there are people who love this country, who want to see this country strong, who understand who our allies are, who don't want to go on a bended knee to China at every opportunity whilst insulting our allies such as the US and Israel.
And this is what this government has sought to do time and time again. And we're facing a shortage in the defense forces. And how can you go and ask people to go and fight for the country when you're allowing all of these undermining tactics to occur. Whether it's Australia Day, whether it's ANZAC Day, whether it's pride in
our history and who we are as Australians. Young people, why would they go into the defense force when they're not seeing that national pride from the Prime Minister and the leadership team.
And Alban Easy must know he is on the ropes. He's losing support with Australians. The polls show him that. He must get the sense. When he's walking around on the streets, you can't imagine people are going up to him praising him. I mean, there's nothing to praise. What will his legacy be? He doesn't have one. So to respond to this he is now it seems he's doing a repeat of the tactics he used against Scott Morrison.
Here's what he said about Peter Dutton yesterday.
We need leadership with a heart.
Peter Dutton represents a cold hearted, mean spirit.
It's sometimes just plain nasty response and that's not going to help people.
And Dutton hit back today.
Frankly, I think the promise is pretty unhinged in some of his comments at the moment. The fact is he can't tell you what this three year term has been about. I mean, what is the government achieved over the course of the last three years. If they'd achieved anything that he wouldn't have to resort daily to the personal attacks on me and my colleagues.
Brown, do you think that Albinizi is resorting to the same technique of playing the man instead of the ball like he did with Scott Morrison.
He's trying because he's got nothing else. I mean, everything he's touched has failed, right from the time of the Voice when I have no doubt that what he thought he'd do is he'd push the boys through soft and easy. Then in the next year he'd pushed through the Republic and he would be the hero of all time. In fact, he's just been what he's always been. Nobody from nowhere. As I've said before, how many twenty years I sat with him in that chamber and nobody ever said he
was leadership material. And when he resorts to say Peter Dutton's nasty, I mean, how pathetic is that?
Seriously?
There is nothing that he can attack in terms of policy initiatives coming from Peter Dutton and others in the opposition, and he's gotten nothing in his own peck to say, look what I've done except to give the most disastrous industrial relations laws to the unions, which is causing small businesses in the private sector to be squeezed out and going belly up. And if that's his legacy, let's get rid of him quick.
Yeah, he's managed to upset virtually every single sector. Holly, do you expect we're going to see much more of these negative attacks on Peter Dutton as we get closer to the campaign, which could be calld any day, although probably won't be.
Yeah.
Look, I think it's going to be a very long couple of months for Australians. It's really sad that whilst most Australians, and I was talking about this today with someone, you know, his families getting ready to go back to school.
They're having a look at.
The kids' school shoes and their trainers and their uniforms and what books they've got to get and everything they've got to get ready for the new school year, and they know that they're going to struggle to pay for all of those things, keep the groceries on the table, keep the lights on, and keep a roof over their families' heads.
Families are doing it incredibly tough, and I think it's absolutely insulting that this Prime Minister, who has made every decision, the outcome of every decision, has made it harder for Australian families to just get by every single day, and that all he's got is negative personal smears and attacks. It absolutely devastrates the total lack of substance that he and his government have shown, and I think it's a slap in the face to everyday Australians as they are
just trying to do their best. And as Bromwin said, industrial relations, but if you look at what they've done in the energy sector and all the green tape they've wrapped around the resources sector. Every single decision they've made has made every situation worse and they're continuing to do.
That and Bronwin.
Just to end on this, I think the point is that for informed viewers who read the news, they'll be frustrated at the Albaneze government in a lot of ways. But for average families who might be too busy or they just don't consume the news like we or do and all of our viewers do, they will be angry at the Albaneze government over the cost of living. That is just the biggest issue facing most families in the country.
Look, they know they were promised two hundred and seventy five dollars decrease in electricity bills. In fact it's gone up anywhere between six hundred and one thousand dollars. They know they were promised that there were going to be policies that would make it easier. We've seen twelve interest rate rises. They know this government is bad.
Yeah, they feel the pinch in their own household budgets.
All right, Browen, Bishop Polly Hughes, thank you so much, lovely to see both of you as always. All right, let's now cross to Los Angeles. Rabbi Daniel Show is one of around ten thousand families whose homes were destroyed in the fires. He has three children and lived in the Pacific Palisades, but his house is now burnt to the ground. Rabbi Daniel Show joins us now live from
Los Angeles, where the local time is around one twenty am. Rabbi, thank you so much for staying awake for us, and I just have to say we are all so sorry for what you are going through, your family and all of LA. Can you tell us about the moment that the fire ripped through your suburban when you learned that your home had been lost.
Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for having me on. Sorry it's so late, and you can see we haven't really been sleeping much, which is understandable in these moments. You know, there's a few different pieces when you see when's that moment that we knew there was a bit of collapse here Because we were all evacuated, we were trying to keep and refresh the pages and watch as the fires were growing on the cowfire map, and because of the high winds, they'd grounded the planes, which also
meant grounding the tracking software. So from about nine pm until the morning, we didn't have any updates, and it was all speculation, and it was people and community members texting each other are not sure what was going on, trying to presume based on where the fire was at
before that. But this fire was chaotic. This fire was about the winds throwing it in all different directions, and so truly we could pretend we were trying to understand, but we were using the coping mechanism of either negative or positive creativity to even try to project it and fill in some of that time.
Many in your community, about a third of your congregation, as I understand it, have lost their homes, had their homes destroyed in the fire. I mean, how is everyone possibly coping with this? Where are the families living.
Well? So, first of all, families are all over the place. Some are starting to figure out where they're living. Others are starting in a hotel and pacing themselves a little bit, or looking at airbnbs. But when you talk about coping in general, it's so much more than just the strategy of housing. Another piece of it really comes down to how they're processing. Right, we're a very small knit community.
Everyone knew each other. Walking on the streets, people truly knew their neighbor, and so part of the coping was to reach out and check on everyone else around you and to hear story after story after story. I lost my house, I've lost my house. I've lost my house. It almost shifted the way in which we were coping and processing the loss because people, you'll find it when you talk to people who've lost their homes in this fire, are almost more devastated for the loss of their community
itself the loss of their home. And that's a unique piece of this story because of just how vast the damage has been.
You've got three children, how do you even explain to your kids that there's no home to go home to. There's no toys, no kloys, no nothing.
You know, as a rabbi, I lean on three thousand years of tradition and story and strength, and the Jewish people's story is a story of building back up and making sure that whatever pain has happened in our lives becomes part of the origin story for what strength we'll find in the future, what will do and change the world for the better because of what we experience, and so we've been sharing with our kids, and we've been acknowledging our sadness, and we've even been willing to show
them all the emotional waves of processing, and we've begun to explain to them what the next steps will look like. And listen, it's hard, but when they start school in a couple of days, all the kids they're going to school with experience the same thing. So this generation is going to build up, and God willing, they're going to do something to strengthen and build up a greater resolve in their society and really stop some of these things from happening again.
Yeah, we've all been speaking on our programs this week about the political incompetence that exacerbated the fires, but I think it's just remarkable. Before we go really quickly, I just want to tell everyone at home that you lost your home.
The other two rabbis.
From your synagogue lost their homes as well, but the actual synagogue remained standing. And you know, it's kind of incomprehensible how property is just two dollars down from it burnt down, and yet it is still largely in its proper original condition.
It's fully intact, and there are no words for that. And I can't even say it as just something how we are lucky, because because our members have lost their homes, But when we were doing those checks, when we were reaching out to people right after we would console one another for our homes, they would ask what about our synagogue? And when we were able to say the synagogue still stood, there was a power to that because they may have lost that physical home, but their spiritual home, the place
where they gathered as community, that still stood. And so there's something so important about that notion that, regardless of how it happens, regardless of what comes through now, the way we heal is as a community, and we bond by knowing we have these shared spaces and these shared pieces of identity, and the people who've gone through this are community members. We've all have a new shared identity with this, and so we will heal, and Ai will be one of those symbol of that healing.
It's such a beautiful and inspiring attitude to have in your communities. Is lucky to have you a rabbi down your show. We wish you all the best with the difficult rebuild in the months and years ahead.
Thank you for joining us now coming out.
The latest excuses that local councils have come up with to avoid holding Australia Day celebrations. Plus, we'll get the latest on the breaking news on the hostage deal with Qatar. About to hold a press conference tonight, we'll get reaction from the family of a hostage member. Plus Gematognini will be here next Welcome Back, we'll return into tonight's top story. Joe Biden has announced that Israel and Hermas are on
the cusp of a hostage deal. The deal has been on the table for months and months, the best part of a year, yet Hermas has refused to agree. They're only coming to the table now because it's days away from Trump's inauguration, and he's threatened to unleash help if they don't release the hostages. But as I said at the start of the show, it's a deal with the devil. And while we will be beyond elated to have hostages home,
you couldn't call this a perfect deal. We're joining me now is GT Communications founder Gematognini, who's just recently returned home from Israel.
I'm great to see you. Thanks for having me, Sherry, lovely to be back.
I want to get your reactions to this deal, because you know, the celebrations will be beyond anything we can imagine when we have hostages home alive.
I mean to think we could have the Bibas family home. It's incredible. Potentially we don't know if they're alive or not.
But also there's the concern about the release of so many Palestinian terrorists.
I mean, the obvious thing is that the next Sinoa could be released amongst that group of however many thirteen hundred or three thousand the number, it seems to go up and down.
But yeahs have been reported. That's right.
And on the one hand, my brain immediately goes to the place, well, how about this, how about you release them all alive, because taking hostages is a war crime and you should have released them fifteen months ago.
How about you do that.
But the stark reality of this situation is we are here because in my view, at least, the international community doesn't care enough about these hostages to force come us as hand.
They simply don't.
If they did, we wouldn't be here fourteen months down the track. In my weekend column last week, I drew the comparison to the Lint siege, where hostages were taken, and the ripples that are still felt in Australia a decade later.
This is.
Exponentially worse. Obviously not diminishing the horror of what happened here in Sydney, but we're talking about two hundred civilians executed in.
Cold blood under the ground. We don't know how many you're alive.
And the international community, to its great shame, has verbaled Israel has gasedly. Israel has not united and done what should have been done from the get go, which is let them go.
Yeah, exactly, and they could have put far more pressure.
As we've discussed, absolutections on Katar and in harboring her Musk exactly.
And I think the other point that bears reminding is that there is no they can't access these hostages militarily, because we know now that there are these suicides so called suicide squads, surrounding the remaining alive hostages, which has been widely reported because.
A lot of people say, well, why can't they that's military extraction.
They will execute them as they did with the last six back it was October November last year.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's impossible.
It's impossible now, Jemma, As I said, You've just returned from Israel, and on several nights while you were over there, you had to get out of your arm and go into the bomb shelter.
I hope you don't mind it. No, I don't mind autographs of you and your pajamas. I'm gorgeous, aren't I stealing beauty?
What's life like for israelis you had a taste of it that and dig get out of bed at four am to run the bomb shelter.
It's extraordinary and I just want to stay from the the outset that I was there as a guest of AJAC, which is of course the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council, a twenty five year old organization with a bipartisan history of educating people in public life about life in Israel. And with the situation in the terror of the constant missile attacks, I sort of figured I'm probably going to be decent pajamas rather than a T shirt and a pair of jocks. And the first night it was I mean,
it was surreal both times. But the thing in hindsight that was most surreal is you're in that bomb shelter.
You're in a state of heightened awareness.
You don't know how long you're going to be in therefore, you can hear explosions in the distance, all of those things. And then at some point an announcement comes that you can go back to bed, and so you go back to bed, and you're very heightened. And then the second night, because it was two nights in a row, for it might be in my circumstances, I had to be up for a nine o'clock meeting, and I'd crawl back into bed at five o'clock. It was actually Christmas Day morning,
and that was the reality. This is how israelis live. This is how israelis lived. There were fourteen hundred missile attacks according to the UN, fourteen hundred over the last twelve months alone. We know about the Iranian rocket attack back in October.
They were truly terrifying. You were there all acounts. I was there the week after, right, So all of this is cumulative. I want people.
To try and understand that this is something so foreign to us living in safety here. And I always call it the sort of the blessing and the curse of the peace that we live in here. In Australia. The blessing is we don't know that. We don't have to live it, our children don't have to live it. The curse of it it makes us lazy, It makes us intellectually lazy, and it builds a soft underbelly where we don't like to.
Confront difficult things.
We don't like to confront difficult conversations, we don't like to confront difficult realities. That people were dragged from their homes and that they were all of those atrocities committed, that we understand, and that requires a firm response, not a response the likes of which we've seen from our government, which was all dear any of the international agencies exactly, particularly which a whole other conversation altogether.
Well, Gemma, your columns each week in The Australian are unbelievable, absolutely brilliant. They've been so strong, And thank you for going to Israel for bearings, for your strong commentary.
Thanks Sherry, thanks for having me all right.
And as I said, we'll speak to a family member of a hostage about the deal later on and she's actually a very high profile advocate as well.
But after the.
Break, is the heat really an excuse not to hold Australia Day ceremonies and also the new monster species of funne web spider that has now hit Sydney.
All of that and roll with my next panel frail Leach and.
Keith Bitt after this break, all right, let's talk about this Australia Day controversy and I'll do that with Menzies Research Centers Frail Leach and National MP Keith Pitt. Great to see you both well. As you've probably heard by now, anti Australia Day local councils have come up with some shall we say, creative excuses as to why they can't hold their celebrations on of their citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day. And this includes, if you can believe it, the hot
weather which we're barely experiencing at the moment. This after Peter Dutton said he'd mandate Australia Day ceremonies, but one Lord mayor told The Australian that her local government should be compensated for additional costs if Dutton follows through with his pledge.
Keith Pitt, what do you think about this?
How can heat in Australia in January be a legitimate excuse not to work, which is ultimately what they're.
Saying, Sharry, I'm hearing lots of excuses but no reasons. So it won't be hard for a new coalition government to put this in place to ensure that there are citizenship ceremonies on a stre because we had it before and what happened the current Labor government cut it. They claimed it was red tape. Who in their right mind would think ensuring citizenship ceremonies available on Australia Day is red tape. It is absolute nonsense. The people of Australia,
they're just over all of this. They're sick of hearing about it. They're sick of the arguments. They just want to celebrate our nation and there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. And a new coalition government they'll ensure those opportunities are there for Australia. And keep in mind, Showering, this is all about new citizens coming to our.
Country, exactly something that you think most people would want to celebrate.
Here was Peter Darton making that pledge.
Have a look, would we reinstate the requirement for counsels to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia. You bet it'll be done the first hundred days.
Freyer, what do you think of the sort of pushback against this, and even you know some activists that are on social media encouraging violence on Australia Day ceremonies.
It is characteristic of the destructive evil left that has come to dominate so many ranks within the Labor Party and certainly the activist class in Australian politics. And frankly, I think Australians have had enough. We saw in the Voice of Parliament referendum the majority of Australians said no to division, said no to dividing our country along the lines of race, said no to this narrative of pessimism
and of national shame. We want to be one country under one flag, proud of who we are because we are a remarkable nation with a great history, not perfect, but still great. And if you don't believe me, look around the world at a whole bunch of other countries. There's a reason people want to become citizens of Australia and we should celebrate that on Australia Day.
Indeed, there is a lot to love about our country, although a bit less at the moment under the Albanezy government now Peter Darfin is expected to soon firm a cabinet reshuffle. This is because Simon Birmingham is retiring.
So this leaves the highly.
Sought after Foreign Affairs portfolio vacant. It's said to be a bit of a contest between Susan Lay who's the deputy, Julian Lisa and James Patterson Keith Pitt.
Who do you think would be good in that job?
Well, I'd come into a close in terms of my career politics, chari What I know about politics is this, everyone thinks it could be them, and everyone thinks they can do a better job than herver was there before or whoever is there currently.
Anyway, so it.
Probably doesn't matter if you offend anyone. Who do you think would be best.
In the job?
I've had that which she's a fendedom in the past, Shariot no problems now either. Look, I think Dantine would be a good option. He's got a lot of experience and a strong background. All the contenders that have been talked about are very good operators. But of course Susan Lee is the deputy. She actually has a right to select her portfolio. If that's how it works out, a good luck to all of them. But regardless, unless you're at the big table and the coalition is in government,
it is still just a shadow of role. It's important, but we need to be back in government as members of the coalition because right now the Albanezi government is absolutely killing every dia Australia on cost of living.
They just can't afford to live.
Yeah, well, whoever's in that role does hold Pennylong to account. So it is a critical portfolio, and you know, sometimes the portfolios end up staying the same in government if the coalition wins. But I think the issue here, Freyer, is that because Susan Lay was appointed Deputy leader. The coalition decided after the last election, when you know, the so called women issue was such a big factor in the election outcome, so they decided they needed a woman
as deputy. There weren't too many options in the lower House to choose from.
There are more in the Senate and so that's the issue.
So Susan Lay probably has less experience in foreign affairs, but my understanding issues pushing hard for it.
I think what's important is that we or the coalition select somebody who is absolutely fearless and totally ruthless. This probably is the portfolio Foreign Affairs and Immigration where labor has bungled the most spectacularly and our standing on the
world stage has declined. We're seen is this weak middle power that is increasingly irrelevant and that is catastrophic for our national security at a time when we have an aggressive China, we have global instability, and we have a resurgent the United States that is going to be looking to Australia to see whether we actually are a strong
and reliable partner. So I think whoever it is needs to be tough and needs to be strong and ready to really hold Penny Wong, the most incompetent Foreign Affairs minister, to account.
One hundred percent. And I agree with you there.
Now, I know we're always talking about, you know, things that are concerning us in the world, and if we don't have enough to worry about now read in the papers this week that scientists have discovered a new species of funnel web spider and they're describing it as a certified monster.
And know if that's a technical term or not.
Keith, this is really concerning and it will leave a lot of us, you know, have children playing in the back garden worried.
Shari.
It's described as as big as the palm of a man's hand.
Now that is a big one.
And once again, nature never ceases to surprise me and I think everyone else. There is always something new that's out there. There's always a new discovery. It's just such a fascinating field. And would you believe there are people that they milk these things for venom. I what an extraordinary job to have. So good on the people who've discovered it. It is something new, But yep, I would like to see it in the thunderbox out the back. I think it'd be terribly terribly frightening.
Oh god, you can say that again. I mean something that big and deadly.
It's horrible.
Well I thought the fuddle web was bad, and now it's double the size. Like what is going on? Oh my gosh, so scary.
We had little spiders for Halloween a few months ago, and my kids keep putting them in my underweight draw And when I open the draw of the money as bad against me.
All of the time. It's like I never learn.
It shocks me and I scream every time all right, Frey Leach Keith Fitt, thank you both so much for joining me.
Now, don't go anywhere.
We'll cross live to high profile expert Ashley Waxman Bakshi, whose cousin is being held in Ghazla, will get her reaction to the imminent hostage deal.
That's next. Welcome back.
Well in the ad break, I've just been on the phone with a high level source in Israel and I do have breaking news on the hostage deal. I'm told that Katar is expected to hold a press conference and brief journalists at one pm Local.
Time, that's nine pm our time.
Katar is expected to go through the details of the hostage deal. From Israel's perspective, these are the last days that this deal will remain on the table. It's been on the table, remember since May twenty twenty four May twenty twenty four, and it's only in the final days of the Biden administration that Hermas is finally coming to the table. Because Trump has said they'll be held to pay, that he'll unleash hell in the Middle East if the
hostages aren't released. So there's a lot of pushback to it in Israel at the moment. There's already demonstrations that are being planned in Israel against the deal. It is controversial, as I've been reporting tonight, there will be immense, unimaginable celebrations to have the hostages home, but again, at what price? And there are concerns, real concerns that some of the
worst Palestinian terrorists will be released from Israeli prisons. We've just been waiting now to join Ashley Waxman Bakshi her car a nineteen year old Adam Berger, was taken on October seven.
He's been held hostage.
And Ashley has been working tirelessly to demand the release of the hostages. I hope we have her now. Ashley, welcome to the program. Look what will it mean to you to have your cousin home.
I mean, we've been praying for this since October seventh. I just want to correct you a gam She's a female, and she would that's okay.
And she was.
She's taken when she was nineteen, and now she has turned twenty, so she's twenty.
That's how long they've been there. Obviously, we.
Can't breathe anymore, like I could barely sleep at night.
Also because there was a ballistic.
Missile sent from Yemen, which woke us up at three o'clock in the morning. But I honestly couldn't sleep. I couldn't fall asleep because I just kept waiting for the news to come out yesterday and then only late at night they said that finally there would be more in the morning, so I understood that we should go to sleep, But I mean, what we can't breathe.
We can't breathe waiting.
And Ashley, you don't know yet.
I mean, the reports are unconfirmed, but the reports are that there'll be an initial release of thirty three Israeli hostages, women, children, the elderly, and the sick. But you haven't had it confirmed. Have you that your cousin's among those initial thirty three.
She should be because my cousin is one of the female soldiers and they are on the list, so she should be.
And we are hopeful.
You know that it were afraid to say anything at this point because, as you mentioned at the beginning, this has been on the table since May, and we've gone through this emotional rollercoaster of we're close to a deal.
Oh, it's going to happen any day, you now.
Like we we've been in this position so many times. The only thing that has changed this time is Trump. That's the only thing that has changed. So we are really really hoping that this is the game changer, this is what's going to finally allow this deal to come through.
I heard you speak a little bit about the protests here in Israel as well. I mean, I can understand the people who are protesting.
There are families who are protesting because they they're afraid for their loved ones, because they don't want the deal to go through in rounds right.
They want everyone to.
Be released that once, because they're fearful that their loved ones are going to remain in captivity. You cannot judge any family member at this point in time, and these protests are build up of so much emotion, such an emotional roller coaster that we've all felt for the past year,
that nothing really represents anybody anymore. Like we have families that are you know, half the country is divided, and like you said, we want this deal to go through because obviously I want life as a home as soon as possible. One more day is every day as hell for them, every single day.
But it's so complicated. We need everyone home. We need everyone home, and if it was possible to do a deal that everyone would be home yesterday, obviously we'd all be fighting for.
That, absolutely, And we just wish there was a better deal where all of the hostages would be released at the same time. And as I said earlier in the program, you know, an ideal deal, an ideal deal would mean no Palestinian terrorist would be released, because it's not there's no.
Equivalence here, there's no exchange here.
I mean mother's children, girls, none of them are prisoners of war.
Ashley.
It's I mean, it's absurd because an ideal deal would be no deal at all, to.
Be honest, and I don't advocate.
I happen to have studied counter terrorism in university, and you know, the first thing we learned there is that you don't negotiate with terrorists. You only incentivize them to do it again and again and again if you continue giving them what they want. But all of that goes out the window when real people and your loved ones are in Hamas captivity.
Like there's no other choice.
It is in our values, in our values as a country, in our Jewish values, that we don't leave our people behind and we bring everyone home and every life matters, and if that means that we need to let these monster murderers like murders who could you know, cold blooded murders who have stabbed women on the street and who have blown them and not blown themselves up because obviously they're not in vail, but you know who've done the worst attacks. We have to let them go to bring
our loved ones home. It's absurd, And what's most absurd is that we feel like the world just doesn't support us.
You know, if the world would support Israel more.
It's horrific how the world has let these women, children and a the innocent hostages down beyond appalling.
Ashley, thank you very much for your time tonight.
Thank you, And if a deal is announced overnight, I'll have full coverage tomorrow at eight, so don't miss it.
And here's Paul Murray