Thank you, good evening, and it's a big show tonight. The shock news that Alan Jones has been charged with twenty four offenses after an investigation into alleged indecent assault and sexual touching spanning two decades.
More details on that in a moment.
Also tonight, how Australians could be jailed for misinformation under the Albanese governments or Wellian laws. Prominent journalist Michael Schellenberger is on the show tonight for an exclusive interview.
He says Albanese's laws are the worst in the world.
Plus selfish pro Palestinian protesters want to counsel Christmas for uzzie kids. Why are police so powerless to stop them? My thoughts on this in a minute. But before we get into all of that, let's go to the breaking news now Here was Alan Jones leaving the police station after getting bail late this afternoon, charged with twenty four offenses, including aggravated in decent assault and sexual touching relating to eight individuals. Jones was surrounded by a pack of media.
He looked shaken and distraught.
Allen, any, now you don't insisted your innocent stairs.
The charge is coming to shock to you.
What about you people are a key point and what have.
I got to say to all of your listeners, the people that support you anything at all.
This is a major far from grace for the broadcaster who put the fear of God into politicians on a daily basis. That shock news of his arrest at home in Sydney breaking just this morning. Ray Hadley said he became aware of the allegations in twenty nineteen.
I first became aware of the allegations in twenty nineteen. Obviously, given there is likely to be a series of charges laid and announced by a police sometime this morning, and given there's a search warrant being executed at this moment inside of premises, that's circular key, you'd understand. I have to be careful of what I say and what I do actually know. My main concern at the moment is for the alleged victims who are obviously seeking justice in relation to these matters.
Now Jones denies the allegations, and of course he is innocent until proven guilty. This is now all in the hands of police and the Cots will come back to this with a report from Caroline Marcus from the police station. A bit later, But now the Coalition is warning that Australians could be jailed under Anthony Albanize's new misinformation laws, laws that have already passed the House of Representatives and they're set to go to a vote in the Senate
next week. These are dangerous Wellian style laws that were not only curb free speech, but provide the sort of censorship that's commonplace in totalitarian dictatorships like China and Russia. We've already seen disturbing censorship of public interest investigations in the name of misinformation, my COVID origins, reporting the Hunter Biden laptop story, those who campaigned against the Voice, and also concerns about COVID era mandates.
And that was all before these laws.
Legal experts and the Coalition are now concerned that individuals linked to digital platforms like podcasts could be imprisoned for a year if they don't cooperate with public hearings and investigations into misinformation.
There are also other penalties.
People could be fined thousands of dollars and tech giants millions simply for posting content the government bureaucrats claim is misinformation. Now the Communications Minister trying to weave away out.
Of this in an interview with Ben Fordham.
Okay, we've heard about potential jail sentences.
Under what circumstances would someone go to jail?
Well, this isn't about individuals going to jail, Ben, That is just false.
So who would go to jail?
Well, your users aren't going to jail under this.
This is purely goes to the conduct of the platforms and their systems and processes.
Okay, I understand my listeners won't go to jail. Who might go to jail?
Well, none of your listeners are going to go to jail here, Ben, But there is a graduated enforcements enforcement scheme that's under the Act that has penalties in it.
A graduated enforcement scheme that has penalties in it.
Well, as you heard.
Ultimately, she couldn't deny the fact that jail was a penalty, with The Daily Telegraph reporting that the Section two h two, if someone refuses to appear and misinformation inquiries or refuses to cooperate without a reasonable excuse, they.
Can be jailed up to a year.
Now, the legislation defines misinformation to mean anything that's reasonably verifiable as false, misleading, or deceptive. But who decides this, who's the arbiter of this bureaucrats? One lawyer Justin Quiyle points out, once they deem something false or misleading, it opens up a Pandora's box of powers, including the right to question people in investigations, and if someone doesn't cooperate,
potentially jail them. Well, what's especially terrifying and orwellian is that the Communications Minister can personally order public show trials herself. We've already seen the Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers throw around accusations of misinformation, often in Parliament. Well, there'd be nothing stopping the Minister under the law ordering a public hearing accusing X and Elon Musk of misinformation if she felt it was running more conservative views or misinformation
during an election period. And here's how the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanesi, remember has already spoken about Elon Musk.
We'll do what's necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks.
He is above the law.
Social media has a social responsibility. If mister Musk doesn't understand that, that says more about him than it does about my government.
And now this woken grotesquely out of touch Prime Minister wants to be able to find people for so called misinformation. It's an insult to the intelligence of Australians. It's taking critical thinking out of our hands. And this isn't all as far fetched as it sounds, because in the UK we're already seeing innocent people being arrested for what they've said on social media.
Now.
I've been campaigning on this issue for a long time. In fact, I was the first journalist to report on concerns about this misinformation bill. This was before the Coalition had even decided to oppose the laws, and I encouraged them to do so publicly in June last year. High profile journalist Michael Schellenberger has been fighting back against similar misinformation laws internationally. His advocacy has been incredible and he's
on my show tonight. He says what we're seeing now in Australia is the worst censorship we've seen anywhere in the world.
I think the Albanize government is treating its particular brand of woke politics as a religion.
Is right.
The Albanese government is doing a lot of damage to our country. Its lack of action on social cohesion and antisemitism is right up there. But in terms of legislation, this is the single most concerning law the government is introducing. No government of any political persuasion should be the arbiter of the truth should be given the power to determine what's factual and what's misinformation. Because free speech is part
of what distinguishes us from dictatorships. We need to fight for our values and our democracy and stop the Albaneze government from finding and even maybe jailing people who refuse
to puppet their woke ideology. The pursuit of causes that may be unfashionable or unpopular at a single point in time is fundamental for the growth of Western civilization and as I said, i'll come back to that with Michael Schellenberger a bit later, but I also want to quickly speak about the pro Hamas activists who are trying to deprive Australian children of the chance to celebrate Christmas. Christmas is a magical time for kids all over the world. Joy, sparkle, hope,
and yes presence. Well over the weekend, there were ugly scenes in Melbourne where pro Palestinian protesters hijacked the opening day of the Maya Christmas windows, even though the official event.
Had to be canceled.
Do you think there's going to be a day we don't have to deal with this every single weekend? And now the pro Palestinian extremists are saying that children in Australia can't be happy because children in Gaza are suffering.
Oh my god, my windows unveiling has been canceled. You know what else has been canceled tens of thousands of Palestinians. If you care more about the windows than Palestinian kids, then that says something about you, not protesters.
Another activist, Sara Saila, said, and I quote, oh you want to celebrate Christmas but ignore the massacres happening in the lands where Jesus was from. Well, this demand that Australian children be deprived of joy because of a war thousands of kilometers away is disgraceful. As activists Drew Pavlo responded, they would never ever demand Muslims not observe important religious holidays. They never demand the Anma suspend eed celebrations over the
imprisonment of one million week Muslims. They only attack Christian and Jewish religious holidays. If these activists truly cared about Palestinian children, then on October eighth, twenty twenty three, they wouldn't have celebrated the massacre in Israel. Instead, they would have demanded that her must release our innocent hostages. They would have demanded that her must release the hostages, lay
down arms, and stop attacking Israel. This would have not only been the right thing to do, but it also would have avoided further Palestinian suffering.
But they didn't demand this.
In my view, they don't truly care about the Palestinian cause because they don't say a word when footage emerges of her Musk mistreatment and torturing of Palestinians, or when the Channel twelve Israeli journalists went into Gaza and interviewed dozens of Palacetinians who spoke of how Hermas had ruined their lives, taken away their sons, and destroyed their families.
Here's that footage.
Login ba has hanahes.
Extraordinary reporting.
Then I had the journalist on my show on Thursday who went into Gaza and interviewed those Palestinians, but not a word from any of the pro Palestinian activists about Hermas is truly ruining the lives of Palestinians, and it has been doing so for over four hundred days, well then actually seventeen years before that too. These activists only protest because it's against Israel, against Jews, and now they
want to ruin the joy of Christmas for Australian children. Now, many families have an annual tradition of visiting department stores to see the beautiful Christmas display in the window. These are memories they'll have for a lifetime, traditions they'll continue with their own children and grandchildren. Families catch the train to go into the city and have a beautiful day out. But now this was canceled thanks to that angry mob of Israel haters. Will Ray Hadley performed an epic spray
against Albanezi over all of this on Friday morning. I was cheering in my car while listening, and here's some of his strongest comments through the.
Alban I didn't think you'd be as low as the snake's belly, but I think you're pretty low at the moment. And Penny Wong's right behind you. He is the worst Prime minister We've ever had, the worst throw all of them in Marc on on Fraser GoF Whitlam, go through the list whoever you like. He's the worst prime minister we have had by this length of the Strait, and.
The Australian public can see very clearly what's happening here, how a rabbid mob is trying to destroy the joy of Christmas here in Australia, and how Alban Easy is too weak to stand up to any of them because he's putting politics over the right of kids to enjoy Christmas in peace. Okay, let's bring in now Sky News contributed Joe hilde Brand and Liberal Senator Holly Hughes. Welcome to you both, and now Joe. Victorian Premiergistinto Allen was very strong in her comments about this.
But yet police seemed in the face of these protesters.
Yeah, well, the problem is.
You don't seem to need any permit to protest in Victoria, even though of course if you're there to protest against COVID restrictions you get locked up pretty quickly. And the difference between that and New South Wales where we have a much more moderate, sensible, right wing labor government as opposed to the left wing labor government. That's the sort of empty sort of husk of the legacy of Dan Andrews in Victoria. For one thing, there's two things here.
I think you can say whatever you want, you can call it the protesters morons or whatever. But if you have fostered a culture that basically rewards extreme leftist behavior and basically sort of you know, politicizes almost the entire state, which is what's happened under three terms of socialist left labor in Victoria, then you are going to get those things. I don't see why you can't have a permit system
to protest in Victoria. We have the exact same thing in New South Wales, and yet still we have these doesn't interfere with freedom of speech. They still have their bloody protests every single week. But when it comes to things like, you know, protesting, you know, in support of October seventh, or saying that you know, and this is these are people who sympathize with the people who launched
the October seven terrorist takes. Yeah, having their protests there, which would have been right outside the Great Synagogue in Sydney, for example, meant that police had.
The power to say, oh no, you don't, you have to move it somewhere else.
I think it's just not good enough, Holly, that these protesters effectively are bullying everyone and they get away with ruining what should have been just a simple joy, the annual tradition that so many families have of going to see the Christmas displays.
And but it just shows their idiocy watching some of the tweets you just put up that this is the land that Jesus was from. Yeah, not absolutely, that is where Jesus the Jew was from. And so they actually destroy their own argument. And for any of us that have been to Israel and know that Bethlehem is actually run by the Palestinians, I've been to the church, the Nativity where Jesus was born, what Christmas is all about, and I actually brought a Bible there and a few
other things and brought them from Palestinians. So these are people who are completely ignorant to everything about what is going on. They have no comprehension the fact that so many Palestinians actually blame Hamas for the troubles and the hardships that they've endured, the treatment of women, the treatment of gays, all of those things that Hermas has been responsible for yet these so called you know, look, they're
just they're morons. And sorry, Joe, I know you said you can say that they're completely but they are just they are idiotic.
They are stupid. They don't understand history.
You know, they refer to colonization when you know Alasco is on the top of Temple Mount.
I'm sorry, you're colonizing.
Somewhere you don't build underneath the temple, like, come on, and it's the Second Temple. I mean, you know, they don't understand the basics of the history. They don't understand the basics of the actual geography of the region. And to now say, well, you can't celebrate Christmas, well, I can tell you whether you celebrate Christmas from a religious perspective or whether you're more focused on Santa and the
presence under the tree. There aren't many Australian kids who are going to be thankful to you if those presents aren't under the tree from Santa.
And you know, maybe this is the hope.
Maybe you know, all those kids that have been indoctrinated at university, hopefully the kids in the generation after them are like, well, hang on, you try to ruin Christmas. We're not going to side with you anymore, and we might have hope for future generations because it seems like some of this one is lost.
Also worth noting that the Jerusalem that Jesus was living under was also colonized by the Romans, and Jesus absolutely refused, point blank all the exhortations from those around him to ever use violence as a political solution to that colonization. So again, you know, I'm pretty well read on old JC. And for the protest is to invoke his message or his name in their crazyness, it's great.
That just shows the house you think they are. Yeah, it really does.
Stupid and selfish and of course just adding to the history, Lisson, well, Jews were, of course indigenous to the land of Israel there for more than four thousand years. All right, let's turn to the Prime Minister now, because now China is holding Albanesi up as the role model for Western leaders. This should be an embarrassment, Joe, because you know, we're seeing that Albanizi potentially struggling to forge ties in Washington, but yet he's being praised by the communist dictatorship of China.
Yeah, I mean, obviously this is not the sort of praise that you want to hear. But this is not of Albanese's doing. This is something that this is something that China is trying to use to try to paint Albanesi and the Australian government as something that they are not in an effort to make other countries fall into line and behave similarly. And the fact that it is so.
Fall into line and behave similarly, that's exactly the point.
Yes, you're falling forward the Chinese propagandica. This is what the Chinese are trying to do and the reason they are doing it, and this is what so many people are missing, is because they are clearly and genuinely rattled by the election of Donald Trump, and that is a good thing. They are desperate and they say, oh my god, it looks like, you know, America is now this unknown quantity.
We don't know how it's going to behave. And they says, oh, look, we're going to you know, present this picture of Australia, which they know is America's greatest ally in the region, paint them as being supplicant in the hope that America will say, oh Australia is doing, will do it too. It is hopelessly naive, but and stupid and shamelessly transparent. But it does show how worried China is and that is.
A good thing.
Well, what do you think, Holly, I mean, it's the worst thing in the world, isn't it getting praise from dictators when everyone can see that Albanezy government's petrified about Donald Trump's election.
It's like paint by numbers, Joe, if they're painting a picture. Because let me tell you, when they want to present our easy as supplicate, it's because he is, you know, the handsome boy. This isn't the first time they've hate praise on him. And if you spend a minute to listen to Comrade Albanesi and his colleagues, they will all tell you how wonderful they have been at their relationship with China, which is basically just being will do what
you want us to do. They are absolutely fawning at China. We know that it is absolutely frightening for Australians to think that our Prime minister is more comfortable cozying up to left wing communist dictatorships than he is with having relationships with capitalist Western values leaders around the world. And I wouldn't be saying this is something that should be
shirked at. And if China is worried, let me tell you every Australian elector out there, if they're worried about the election of Trump, let's give them Peter Darton as well to make sure that they do have a couple of strong men, not one strong man and week supplicant there standing out for Australia.
Very good points the fact that Albinize is more comfortable criticizing our ally in Israel than he is China.
Says a lot.
All right, Holly Hughes, Johuda Brand, great to see both of you. Well, let's return to the misinformation laws, which have already passed the House of Representatives. They'll go to
a vote in the Senate next week. No doubt the government will be offering the cross bench all sorts of deals and sweeteners to try and get their support this week, and the Coalition, as I spoke about, has won that Australians could even be jailed under these new laws were Prominent journalist and author Michael Shellenberger is sounding the alarm. He's seriously concerned about these laws and their impact on free speech. Here's my exclusive interview with him, Michael Shellenberger,
thank you so much for your time. The Australian government is introducing an o'wellian Misinformation Bill, where individuals could be fined thousands of dollars if they don't take down what bureaucrats determine is misinformation.
How dangerous do you think this would be for democracy?
Well, thanks for asking.
I mean, I think it's a huge threat to democracy, not just in Australia but potentially around the world. The authors of the legislation have made clear that they think it should apply both internally and externally. We saw the e Safety Commissioner earlier this year attempt to ban a video from x formerly Twitter, not just in Australia but around the world.
If you don't have free speech, you don't have democracy.
Democracy depends on people being able to speak their mind, and so what's happening in Australia it's really one of the worst censorship efforts that we've seen anywhere over the last several years.
In the policy documentation, the Albanezy government accuses Donald Trump, the President elect, of being a source of misinformation, claiming he told people to ingest Bleach, which he never did, but in doing so, this is disinformation.
It's isn't it?
And doesn't this pose two problems? First, it's false accusations against the incoming president, but also it shows how the truth can be so easily distorted and labeled misinformation.
Well, that's exactly right. The case you're referring to, of course, is the Ministry of the Ministry of Communications had falsely suggested that Trump suggested that people should drink bleach or inject bleach. That's been widely debunked, and yet they're citing that as reason why they need these new censorship powers.
I think it points to something very important here, which is that almost always the demands for censorship are of accurate information, and almost always they are involved spreading misinformation. So you see a very funny sort of projection by the people that want censorship accusing other people of misinformation while they themselves are spreading misinformation. The reason that that happens is because the people that want censorship are really
blind to their own foibles. They are are very arrogant, they don't have very much self awareness, and so.
In fact that researchers have studied this, it's a.
Form of narcissism known as the first person effect, where people can't perceive that they themselves are guilty of the thing they're accusing others. So it's really this is the basis of tutulitarianism, that you're going to be ruled over by people that are really imagine themselves to be pure and perfect and always right, and seeking to censor people that they disagree with. I'm often on the basis of false information.
The United States is moving towards a total free speech model, particularly since Elon Musk bought X and yet the Albanesi government with its censorship bill, is moving in precisely the opposite Orwellian direction. What are the risks here with the Labor government's approach.
Well, it's pretty shocking that the Albanesi government is proposing this sweeping censorship bill. They have not made made no secret of the fact that they want to censor Trump, that they want to censor Elon Musk. That strikes me as a very unwise and counterproductive act of aggression against the incoming Trump administration.
You know, we Americans have.
Always valued our relationship with Australia. We look, you know, very kindly on all of our English speaking allies around the world.
This is just a very strange act.
Of hostility by the Albonizi government against Donald Trump and one of his main supporters, who also happens to run the largest free speech platform in the world. You Know, the funny thing is people say that Elon Musk has you know, a strong free speech standard. You know, Musk actually censors a significant amount of content that is legally allowed under our constitution, mostly under pressure from various groups that want to see a lot of censorship. So what's
being proposed in Australia is downright to talitarian. I mean, you're having the government demand that Musk censor things that are true that are income to the Albanesi government.
But I just can't understand. I don't think the people of Australia really.
Understand just how big of a fight the Australian government is picking with the incoming Trump administration. I can't see that as being in the interests of the people of Australia.
Michael, this has barely been reported at all, but actually religious leaders across many different faiths are condemning this bill because it would give bureaucrats the ability to determine whether the content of a religious belief is misinformation or not.
This is highly concerning because.
People should be able to believe whatever they like according to their religion. I mean, how can you have bureaucrats determining whether religious beliefs are misinformation.
It's just absurd.
Well, it's terrifying. I mean, this is something that we've had.
We've had protections of religious freedom for hundreds of years in the West, start starting in Europe in the you know, as early as the sixteen seventeenth centuries. What you're really seeing here is a mentality of the Inquisition. You know, one of the characteristics of totalitarianism is the penetration by politics of all realms of life. And so I think the Albaniza government is treating its particular brand of woke politics as a religion, and so they're out on a
hunt for heretics. This is a very familiar pattern of all titalitarian systems, whether it's the Inquisition or fascism or communism. The fact that this is dressing itself up as protecting people is actually precisely what or Well worried about when he wrote nineteen eighty four. So it's scary to look at it's like a Black Mirror episode to see Australia demanding censorship in the name of free speech and defending
censorship in the name of protecting people. In fact, they're going they're making very clear that they intend to use it as a tool to persecute people who have other religions than the official state religion.
Yeah, it's just so dangerous, and you articulate the risks very very well, Michael Donald. Trump has committed to transparency around information on a range of topics that are currently top secret or highly classified. You've done a lot of reporting in this space. What do you think needs to be released under Trump's administration.
Well, there's so much secrecy that has piled up over the years.
Exactly fifty years from when Trump takes office, the Senate of the United States held very big investigation.
It was called the Church Committee hearings. We need that again.
It's fifty years of secrets have accumulated. Boy, there's so many different things that the government is hiding that need to come out. I would say at the top of the list is the origin of COVID. We need to know what the government. What the US government knows that it hasn't made public. Yet Americans still don't have all the files around the investigation into the fascination of President John F.
Kennedy over sixty years ago.
We also there's been a big debate in the United States over what used to be called UFOs that are now called unidentified anomalist phenomena. I, like many others, do not claim to know what they are, but the military has taken them seriously, but it continues to refuse to release what we know are many films and videos about UAPs, something actually that is a big That's been an issue as well in Australia, where if you don't care what the if you think their weather balloons or Chinese spy
satellites or birds or some sort of optical illusion. These are things that, like all these things are best out in the open where we can have an open discussion of scientific based discussion.
So I think the key here is transparency.
Donald Trump has promised to release all that information, plus certainly the information around the corruption of the and the weaponization of federal agencies to target him and falsely claim that he was compromised by the Russian government that was disproved, But we still haven't gotten to the bottom of the weaponization, including the weaponization of the FBI and CIA, not just in twenty sixteen, but again in twenty twenty. As it
related to running a disinformation operation. This has now proven this is not a theory disinformation operation around the Hunter Biden laptop, the laptop that shows showed that the Biden family is involved in it was involved in a vast influence pedaling scheme involving the Ukrainians, the Chinese, and many other governments. So really it's time to come clean. I think that the goal should be truth in reconciliation, not revenge.
But we can't have truth in reconciliation until we have the proper disclosure and transparency of what's been kept secret from us for so long.
Michael, You're reporting has been extraordinary across so many different issues.
Thank you very much for joining us. I really appreciate your time.
Thank you so much hereon back at you. I really appreciate your reporting on the issues as well.
And I also asked Michael Schellenberger a bit more about his recent reporting on UFOs or UAPs as he said they're now called, And that'll be online at skynews dot com dot au tonight if you'd like to watch that. And Michael's on route to Australia as we speak to continue this fight on the misinformation laws and Paul Maray's going to tell you how you can help, so watch his show tonight at nine o'clock. Still to come on my program more details on the shock arrest of radio
legend Alan Jones. I'll bring you Caroline Marcus's report from the police station.
That's right after the break. Welcome back.
Well, a political polster will join me here in a minute to talk about how quickly alban Easy is losing the trust of voters. But let's return to today's biggest story now, the arrest of shock jock Alan Jones just before eight o'clock this morning. Once the most feared man in broadcasting, now he's the center of a media, police and legal storm. Detectives executed a search warranted his iconic toaster apartment in Circular Key before arresting him over allegations
he indecently assaulted young men during his radio career. We learned today he's been the subject of a highly secretive investigation by the State Crime Commands.
Child Abuse Squad. Here's more from Caroline Marcus.
Police allege Alan Jones's eight victims ranged from a seventeen year old to.
A man aged in his fifties.
They say the alleged offenses took place between two thousand and one and twenty nineteen and involved both people who had worked for him, as well as people he'd allegedly
assaulted upon first meeting. The eighty three year old has been charged with a total of twenty four offenses, including eleven counts of aggravated and decent assault where a victim has been under his authority, nine counts of assaults with act of indecency, two counts of sexually touching another person without consent, and two counts of common assault.
And as I said before, Alan Jones has denied the allegations. He's innocent until proven guilty and he'll face caught On December eighteen. Were now in the wake of the US election, a new Freshwater Strategy poll has found that nearly half of voters believe Peter Dutton would be better than Albin Easy at engaging with Donald Trump. The pole also found that Albo had all but lost his lead in the preferred prime minister survey. And I'm now joined by Director
of freshwater strategy. Leo Shanahan, Leo, thanks for your time. Look, this is concerning that Albin Easy can manage China, but voters believe he's going to have a problem with the new president of the US.
Yeah, it is an interesting one, Cherry. I think that just juxtaposician you point to is kind of telling in that he has been on stage recently with Chinese leader is trying to, you know, as you should, mend the Australia Chinese relationship. But people aren't fools, and when they see someone like Donald Trump elected, they understand that the side of politics that the Albanezi comes from is not going to work as well with the type and side
of politics that Donald Trump stands for. And I think that leads into this overall issue of management of the Trump administration by a labor government. And it doesn't really help that a former labor Prime minister in Kevin Rudd, is the ambassador there, and it's obviously on record making numerous disparaging remarks about the next president of the United States. So I don't think anyone is fooled by the fact that by the obvious alliance that Donald Trump would have
more in common. I think believe with Peter Dutton as well as it goes to personality to some degree, I think there's a recognition that Donald Trump is more of a strong man and has sympathies for other strong leaders, and I think Peter Dutton is viewed very much in that category.
Looking at how Dutt and versus Albanezi would handle some of the issues that are dominating voters concerns ahead of the next election, well, can you run us through some of those key issues?
Yeah, I think you know, once again, the cost and standard of living by far is that key issue for people. Seventy seven percent of people nominating that issue, and that's rolled up in a kind of super issue, as I've said, with housing and accommodation forty two percent people nominating that. Management and the economy once again, health and crime and social order, and among those top five the Coalition is
leading on all counts. On all five, sorry I should say on health and social care they're still but they're only marginally behind. And for a coalition opposition to be marginally behind a labor government on health and social care is a concern.
And what about immigration?
Immigration is an interesting one show because I think you know, it didn't track as a major issue immigration and asylum for a few years, and it has really grown in
people's consciousness. At sixteen percent, now, that might not sound that high, but compared to something like the environment and climate change, which we were told with such dominant issues for so many years, that's only at nineteen percent, So they almost a parity in terms of issues of importance, and the Coalition very much leading on that issue of.
Asylum and immigration.
All right, Leah Shanahan, thank you very much for joining us to explain that.
Thanks Ery.
Now coming up after the break, it's a war of words. Ray Hadley sprays alban easy while Jim Charmers flies off the handle about Peter Dutton.
I'll talk about those moments with my political panel next and move on to.
Well, let's bring in our Monday night political panel former chief of Staff to Bill Shotton, Cameron Milner and Farmer Howard Advisor David Gazard.
Great to see you both as always.
Well, I want to return to this epic spray that Ray Hadley had about Anthony Alberizi on Friday morning because it was so spot on.
Let's recap it's just infuriating, It's infuriating. It makes you just dead set angry to even contemplate that we are led by a pack of cowards, a pack of cowards. Anthony Albanesi. I thought he might make a galvet. He is the worst prime minister we've ever had, the worst.
Quite the spray, Cameron, what do you reckon? Do you agree?
Well?
It was the spray, wasn't it? And Ray Hadley's reflecting what his own viewers and what we're seeing in polling Shari. He's seen as weak, fundamentally weak in tough times when he's strong leaders and Albanize is giving us complete weakness. But he's also wounded, which is why people are after him. White people at the attack is being placed on Albanese. So Albaniz is like a wilderbeast in savannah. Further further back in the pack aging, stumbling from cliff Top mansion
to Qutas Upgrade. He's wounded and he's weak, and there's certainly the scent of blood about him in terms of where people are going after him. And no wonder Ray Hadley gave him the spray.
He said he was lower than a snake's belly. David Gazzart, I mean this perception of alban Ezy accurate perception, I would say, is starting to cut through with voters.
We haven't seen a prime minister sort of in the same position really for quite some time without a sign that he's going to be able to recover, and his numbers have been steadily sliding now for a year. He's faced with a number of intractable problems and you just don't know how Anthony Albanezi will turn the corner. Now, Ray Hadley, he's been around for a while, He's seen a lot of pms. He is leaving to GB very influential, so he can sort of speak his mind without any recriminations,
I would imagine. But he's certainly let fly there, hasn't he.
Yeah, look, I think all of us can speak our mind and we hope that there would be no recriminations at all. But you know, he is coming up to the end of his time in radio, Ray Hawdley, and this is what he thinks of Alvin easy Camra Milner, You've written a column tonight in The Nightly where you don't hold back either. You talk about the Prime Minister going on many overseas trips and just not paying enough attention to the issues that matter here in Australia.
Can you expand on that for us?
Well, he knew the present US presidential election was going to be on and so that was a known thing. He knew where APEC was on you when G twenty was on, but he scheduled Pilam at the same time so he didn't have to turn up to work. Shari, this spoke's half a world away, you know, getting backslaps and hugs from Trudeau and others and being told about how he's made in China by President Z. Well, no, he should be back here doing his job. He should
be back here taking questions in Parliament. I mean, this bloke is a guy who's absent from work, absent from work half a world away, and people and Australians are going to see that and going to vote for it. They're not going to tolerate someone who's not on the job twenty four to seven fighting the cost of living.
Yeah, it's extraordinary just how much of Parliament he is missing. But meanwhile, the Treasurer Jim Chalmers has attacked Peter Dutton on air this morning after that poll that I was just speaking about before, showing Dutton would be more effective at handling Trump.
Have a look, I think when it comes to Peter Dutton, I think he has a kind of a reckless arrogance which doesn't lend itself to foreign policy and maintaining and managing some of these complex relationships. I think he would be a risk to our economy. I think that kind of reckless arrogance doesn't lend itself to managing these relationships.
David Gazarde, I think this is the key point. Labour's entire pre election strategy was on playing the man with Peter Dutton, but it's not going to work.
I look, they've tried this before with Scott Morrison and was successful. From my position, they effectively Assassin's character. So I mean what you do when you've got an unpopular leader is you can't reverse the fortunes and make people like him. So what you do is you drag the other bloke down to a point these blow within him, and that's what they managed to do. I mean Scott Morrison was seeking a fourth term, which is always difficult, and you can do that from opposition. It's a lot
more difficult to do that from government. People expect you to govern people expect you to take responsibility for where things that are at.
And I think you know, this has been six months of.
Peter Dutton and Peter Dutton, Peter dudd and Peter dund Peter Dunnan's the fault of all the problems in society, Peter Dunnan's missed the economy. Like you just kind of want to shake them and say you've got to govern now, this is your job to govern. So I think we're in the same template now as we were before the last election. They want to drag Peter Dutton back, and you're going to see a mother of scarecamp, mother of all scare campaigns between now and the election whenever that may be.
Look and it's the same strategy that the Democrats played against Trump and the US. They made it all about him personally, but the reality is that there are some serious issues that people are worried about globally, cost of living, the economy, and social cohesion, and people are voting on those issues, not on personality. Karon Milner David Gazard, thank you both very much for your time.
We'll see you next Monday. Thank you, and don't go anywhere.
We turned to the US where Donald Trump and He's new inner circle of Elon Mascarfk and Vivek Ramezwami are the new squad taking over the Internet. Plus our look at Trump's cabinet shaping up to be a young but powerful one. All of that with Koshergata after this quick break. Remember when Taylor Swear and her girl gang with the coolest squad in town. Well now they've been overtaken by Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Vivak Ramaswami, RFK, Tolsy Gabbard and Mike Johnson.
They went to the UFC together. A bunch of them have posed for.
Pictures on private jets eating McDonald's and Moore and I was actually surprised to see RFK eating macas they're given. He has declared a war against junk food. All right, Sky News contributed Koshagada joins me. Now, Kocha, this is the new cool group in politics. You know, the fans on the internet are going crazy. But Trump and Elon Musk in particular basically joined at their hip and they're promising to shake things up.
They sure are.
They have not left each other aside as you see, and they look like they're having a time of their lives in this past week in mar Lago and elsewhere. You know, there's this famous seeing that says politics is downstream from culture. I think what Trump and Musk and this whole group are proving, at least in this instance, it's in the reverse, and culture is downstream from politics. Everything from his dance move to these photos that they're releasing and they're having fun at the UFC and flying
on jets and all of that. It's interesting because on top it's layering and packaging something about how that cool factors are saying and how this team is going to work together, this group of outsiders, on top of the actual policy pics that.
Of making a lot of news right now.
And I think it's all deliberate with Trump that he's trying to signal this cohesive team that shares the same vision and having a lot of fun at the same time.
Yeah, We've been talking about Trump's cabinet appointees in recent days. One of his latest is the new Press Secretary, the youngest ever at the White House, Carolyn Levitt. Also another controversial pick has been RFK Junior to head the Department of Health and Human Services. What's the reaction Kosher been like to these two appointments.
Yeah, I think the reaction to these two, as with all the others, is really like a tale of two cities, tale of two realities. And there's the side the losers who lost in this election, the Democrats and their allies are not happy with any of these picks because they are these outsiders, brawlers, come from a different point of view often than the traditional type. And then on the other side, the people that gave Trump the mandate are
actually thrilled with these types of picks. For these two in particular, Caroline Lovett very young twenty seven years old. She was a pretty fierce, far breathing spokesperson for him during the campaign, and she would go in and do battle with CNN and MSNBC on a regular basis. So I think she's sort of got her own fandom, and I think the press briefings are going to be spicier this time.
Around because of that.
And then RFK of course is interesting in terms of his policy positions and what he wants to look at in terms of the food supply and the vaccine complex and all of that. But I also think on that symbolic level, The fact that he is this iconic democrat that supported Trump and now has earned a position in the cabinet is really interesting. When people have spent the better part of the last decade framing Trump as this
divisive figure. It's just interesting that one of the most iconic democrat in US history is actually in his cabinet now potentially.
Yeah, it's fascinating. Kosher.
I just want to shift to Russia because Russia has targeted Ukraine in a major drone in missile attack and this comes kind of shortly after Joe Biden greenlit Ukraine's use of long range missiles against Russia.
Do you think these two things are linked. It would appear so.
And it is interesting that the Biden administration made this move at the eleventh hour, which is two months left in his presidency. And some would say that it's sort of he's pushing in or packing in a little bit of an escalatory move while he has that time left, because the Trump administration has made no secret of the fact that they're going to go a different way, probably
towards a peace settlement of some sort. And I do think that the two things are linked, and that's probably the most logical conclusion we can draw from what's happened in the last twenty four hours.
Yeah, Look, that Russia attack overnight in Ukraine has been highly concerning and it has been reported that it targeted some critical site. So look, we have to hope that that aggression from Russia doesn't escalate as well in the next two months. I mean, Trump has said he's going to sort this out. We're yet to hear the proper detail of that. His remarks, as you said during his
election campaign about Zelenski, We're very concerning. You know, let's hope he doesn't go down any weak national security path because we do need a strong US leadership on this front and not to side with Russia. All Right, Koshagada, thank you very much for your time. I won't be here tomorrow night. I'm at the Walkeley Journalism Awards. I'll be back on Wednesday at eight o'clock. But right now he's Paul Murray and he is going to fire up about those misinformation lots here.
He is