Good evening. Will we learnt today that Victoria police is treating a spate of anti Semitic attacks on political offices as individual and separate investigations led by local police. This is despite the fact it would at the very least be a credible working hypothesis that the same group of activists might be involved in each These incidents are escalating and growing more dangerous. It's astonishing these pro Hamas activists
haven't been arrested. They were still loose on the streets and free to strike Josh Burns's office in the early hours just this week. In fact, the lack of police action might be spurring these unlawful vandals on to commit even more outrageous crimes. They're not hiding, they're not shy. They are ashamed of their racist exploits. They're boasting about them online in posts that the tech companies are just
allowing to stay up and go viral. Here is a clip of pro Palestinian radicals attacking the Attorney General Mark Drefus's office.
See the probation the party policy tonight are brought together. I need commanded to Israel security Palestinians.
Maybe suffering is not the main Israeli concern now attack.
Palestinian targets without sixteen warplanes killing eleven people.
Palestinians killed was twenty Palestinians were killed today.
That was on the fifth of June. As you can see, they're shamelessly and brazenly waiving these videos under the nose of police. And that video said and the caption was the Labor government, including Mark Dreyfus, voted against recognizing the state of Palestine. We did some renovations to his office in response. Now in a warning that's only going to get worse. Their hashtag was escalate for rafa and into
farda bring it home. And they film themselves also vandalizing Bill Shotton's office to have a look.
God the government supports for people.
If the UK didn't Sayanism is not compared up the WHICHUD isn't.
The hijack fee the state and is misrepresenting Israel equals this policemen, then they're nick cleansing.
Under one on the list for being more verbal curse every saying this says the Adorers and Balfour was not a ways manchine or grosscheut between them. The worstity created and it went on. But perhaps This next video is the worst because you see the thugs violently smash labor politician Daniel Molino's office window with hammers, and they also paint the red upside down triangle that stands for hamastation.
Lists that we were and which package that lets but la camo basshutin sis and I said, you know it's leffers de famous regions for unfair again but again, but again by again, Belgada ended the game. Maybe said Tomba or Macusilader, not Lama Vic.
Daniel Milino is a regular guest on this show. He's a labor MP. His office was closed for two weeks after it was trashed, and then just as he was about to move back in, it was trashed again.
People are emailing or calling or walking off the street with individual concerns and this.
That's right, all right, right, you do not remember that's artwork, which is utiful.
Seq.
That's what he's dealing with on a daily basis. But the Insta account, the Instagram account that posted that video actually takes the credit. It says we his constituents opposed to genocide paid him a visit and it had that violent video that I just showed you before. I mean,
they're all openly posting these videos. The Victorian editor for the Australian newspaper, Damon Johnston, reports today that despite pro Palestinian vandals attacking up to a dozen federal and state electored officers in the wake of October seven terror attacks, Victoria Police confirmed it was yet to call in or
establish a dedicated task force to lead the investigation. Asked by The Australian whether it could confirm how many attacks on electored officers were being investigated, how many the arrests and charges had been laid, and whether calling in a specialist task force was being considered, Victoria Police said these incidents are investigated by local crime investigation units. We do not have overall stats. I mean, can it really be
that hard for police to do their jobs. It's likely the attacks on different politicians officers are being done by the same group of people, given they're posting their own videos to the same social media accounts with the same hashtags and the same group is taking credit for them in a sign off image at the end. So how can police treat them as separate incidents and not set up a task force? Perhaps interviewing the people that run these pro Palestinian groups linked to the social media accounts
would be one obvious place to start. Because politicians, their staff, and the entire Jewish commun unity are being intimidated. The activists themselves are warning this is going to escalate. Already. The fire and violence at Josh Burns's office this week was more dangerous than the attacks that came before, and Josh Burns is seriously worried that someone is going to get hurt or, as he says, or worse.
This morning, six people turned up to my office. They came with kerosene, They smashed in windows with a hammer. They spray painted on the outside of my office. We've seen our family on the other side of the world being caught up in conflict, and I you know, if I could, if I could do anything to stop this conflict from happening any longer, I would do it. But we can't do that in Australia. We just don't have that sort of leverage. I'm nervous about it escalating even further.
I'm nervous about someone getting hurt or worse.
Yeah, there's no indication that police or the Prime Minister is taking this seriously. Enough and this is what worries me. This lawlessness is out of control and where are the authorities. It's a point former Treasurer Josh Friedenberg made. He said, what we need is more action from our political leaders and law enforcement to protect the community. Our leaders must step up and rest control back from the mob, a mob that has had free reign since October seven to
act in a violent, hateful and UnAustralian manner. He says, it's not just the Jewish community that's under attack, it's Australia's social cohesion that is under attack and the very values that underpin it. And Josh says, as he keeps saying, this is Australia's fight, Let's be very clear. We are seeing a dereliction of duty. The truth is there's a
lack of political will to take action. When Albineasy criticizes these attacks, and he does criticize them, he often says a line that it undermines the Palestinian cause.
And how people think that they advance their cause through activities like this is beyond me.
It does nothing.
It undermines the cause that people purport to represent. It is unacceptable that misinformation has been consciously and deliberately spread by some Green senators and Mpeace.
He have engaged in this in demonstrations outside.
Offices and online. All of us have a responsibility to prevent conflict in the Middle East from being used as a platform for prejudice here at home.
And in that statement he went on to say again that it undermines the Palestinian cause, for which he said he has advocated for his whole life. Well, these are very weak statements that it undermines their cause. Because these criminals are posting the hamas symbol and slogans like Zionism is fascism. It doesn't undermine the cause because there is no cause there. Anti Semitism isn't a cause, and that shows you how morally feeble our prime minister is. But
it's not just the police and our politicians. You have to look at the media too. Now. The ABC seven thirty report had a good look at this issue, at the vandalism of politicians and their officers last week. It was a good report, but then look how they present it. They had this headline, are guars of protesters crossing the
line by vandalizing MP's offices question mark? Yes, of course they are the failure of law enforcement is so alarming that a former Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions for the Commonwealth, Mark Legrand, has been spur word to speak out. Legrand, who was also a member of the National Crime Authority, will he's going to come on my program on Monday night to speak about this. But in the meantime, he says that Jews have been abandoned by those charged with
enforcing the rule of law and equal protection. He says they've been abandoned by governments, by police, and by the so called human rights and racial vilification bodies. And he holds the Prime Minister squarely responsible because he says it's Albanese's duty to protect the people or people, not just some. And Mark LaGrand recounts that in nineteen seventy five, Asio uncovered a plan by Palestinian terrorists to assassinate Bob Hawk for his support of Israel, along with several high profile
Jewish figures. Now, Hawk at the time was a proud advocate for the state of Israel, and as you know, he said famous that if the bell tolls for Israel, it tolls for all of mankind. Well, Mark Legrand writes in the Australian that Albanesi would know this history from the official briefings, and he writes that in this context, by his failure to commit to urgent and serious action to rain in this rampant jew hatred, his government is complicit and playing with fire. This contagion of jew hatred
is expanding exponentially from past experience. It soon will become difficult to control. He writes. The blood, libels and racial tropes that have bedeviled the Jewish people for more than a millennium are being resurrected. Legrand says that to avoid a future tragedy, Albanesi must act with commitment, vigor and courage. And you have to ask is he even paying close attention?
Is ASIO are the intelligence agencies? Is the AFP? Because we cannot let this get to the point where someone is injured or worse, our political leaders and our police must act now to arrest these extremists and stop this clear escalation in violence. Everyone can see it's happening. We can't put up with the Prime Minister being weak on this issue simply for some votes in marginal Western Sydney seats. The safety of politicians, their staff and Jewish Australians are far too important.
Now.
Also coming up on the show tonight, the farcical Simpson inspired response to Peter Dutton's nuclear plan, as Labor kicks off their Scare campaign today. Also ahead the gruesome trade in illegal human old and transplants in China. Renowned international human rights lawyer David Mattis will join me live in the studio. Plus why the new ABC chair follows a predictable path, No new vision, just the same old demands
for more of your money. But first let's bring in tonight's panel, Perth Mayre, Basil Zemplus and Bill Shorten's former chief of staff Cameron Milner. Welcome to you both, Basil. Let's first discuss the editorial, the issue that I've just spoken about. Basil, are you concerned that law enforcement isn't doing enough and this is going to get to the point where there's a serious incident and someone is injured?
So I think we need to accept, don't we that whatever your view on the conflict in the Middle East is in that region, whatever people do here, certainly they can speak up and make forceful points and make their opinions known. But anything they do of a vandalism nature or of a violent nature, does nothing to address or arrest what is happening.
In the Middle East. And then to here, for example.
The ABC pose that question, have those protesters.
Cross the line?
Let's put it nice and simply, if I walked out of the building I'm in right now when and vandalize the building across the road, would media say has he crossed the line? Or would they say throw the book at him? It seems almost incomprehensible that this sort of behavior can be tolerated, and.
We need to treat it for what it is.
They are violent acts, they are acts of vandalism, they are illegal acts, and we expect our law enforcement agencies, doesn't matter who's involved or perpetrating them, we expect them to act. And if they started acting here, it might go a long way to calming the situation down.
Yeah. Look, I agree, and I just want to reiterate that I also agree with your opening statement. I say it many times that everyone has a different view on the war. We live in a free country. Freedom of speech. That's absolutely fine. What's not fine is the hatred and the lawlessness, the violence, the aggression, fires being burnt in
someone's office. Cameron, the Prime Minister must realize he's got a major problem on his hands, but it seems like he just doesn't know how to respond, or he doesn't want to respond. What do you think is going on here?
Well, Albanese is wallowing in his own complete weakness on this issue. It's disgusting to see. But worse, I mean Basil in your own state of West Australia, there's a Labor senator who's accused Israel not once, but three times of genocide and she still sits in the Labor caucus.
That demonstrates how weak Albanese is. Wong's running a protection racket for someone who's disgraced herself on Israel, written for Al Jazeera, gone to the campus protest like a Green senator, the one that Prime Minister complains about, but Albo still has her vote. She should be gone from the Labour Party of albov Sirius about this gone.
Yeah, And look, if they were serious about this, they would have the judicial inquiry into anti Semitism on university campuses instead of shutting down debate when Julian Lisa football. There's all sorts of action they should be could be taking here. They could designate his book to reer as a terrorist organization. There's a lot of action that they're
just not taking. Let's turn to nuclear now, that has been the big story we've been covering this week, and Labor is already kicking off its scare campaign into Peter Dutton's nuclear energy announcement. Well as you would have seen already on air tonight, Peter Khalil mocked Dutton's announcement of building seven nuclear reactors. He likened it to snow White and the nuclear reactors and the seven dwarves. Another Labor politician, Andrew Lee, posted a manipulated image of a three eyed
blinky bill in front of a nuclear plant. So it's I guess trying to say, this is what's going to happen to our koalas. And then the Victorian Premier just Into Allen posted an image of a three eyed fish in Gibbs that now they were, of course referencing this Simpsons episode where toxic spills caused three eight fish.
All right, we gay.
Wait a minute, one two.
Basil, given there are thirty two other countries around the world using nuclear energy as part of their energy mix. If Labour's resorting to referencing an outdated Simpsons episode. Isn't this juvenile and actually irresponsible and false?
Well, it is juvenile.
We can still find juvenile funny and hello to Pauline Hanson and Robert Irwin who are battling out their own issues in this space at the moment. But we also know, don't we, that of the top twenty economies worldwide, Australia is the only one not involved. We also know it is emissions free and we know how important that is to Australians. I wonder Sherry has Labor made a big
mistake here? We know that the Coalition's fortunes and also in particular Peter Dutton's fortunes, have been on the rise, and we've known this announcement was coming for some time. But despite that, the polls heading in the right direction for Dutton and the coalition.
He's been bold.
Have Labor backed the wrong horse here by going out all out on the scare campaign? Would they not be better off trying to put their counterfacts. I don't think Australians are as opposed as what Federal Labor are trying to tell us. And as we know, Dutton stands for something we know what he stands for.
It's bold, its conviction, and.
He's prepared to put it to the people at the next federal election. And if Labor have called it wrong, they may pay the ultimate price.
Yeah, that's a really interesting take because the common view is that it's Peter Dutton who's taken the greatest political risk here. But Basil, you mentioned the PM going all in attacking Dutton. Will let's have a look at some of what he ought to say today.
This is just a fantasy.
Instead of snow White and the seven dwarves, this is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors.
So Cameron, I mean the Prime ministers really attacking Darton over there. So what do you think on this question of political risk?
Well, I think about the fairy tale where Anthony Albanese is Pinocchio. I think that's quite funny too. But look, seriously, seriously, Labour's got a challenge. Both Peter Dutton and Anthony Albaneze have a plan to be net zero by twenty fifty. Anthony Albanese's plan is massive cost of transition, huge smashing power bills from here for the next twenty five years, or proven reliable technology. The rest of the world uses
with nuclear power. That's Peter Dutton's pan plan. So Peter and Darton can actually keep power prices down now and still meet net zero by twenty fifty. Anthony Alberanez can't do that. Peter Dutton's plan is made in the US, France, and Germany. Albow's energy transition plan is made in China.
That's the difference.
Cherry tooting Worth considering there, we know how much we know how much the Labor government have liked to throw back at the coalition, the no Alison tag, always being negative, always criticizing, not giving opportunities a chance to breathe and see what people think.
Well, that's what.
They're doing here with nuclear So I think Dutton has played this very very well.
Ultimately, he's going to live and.
Die by taking this policy forward in such a big way at the next federal election.
But he's not a mug.
He's thought it through, he's been very clear on his convictions, and he seems very confident. Shoulders pinned back making these announcements, and suddenly suddenly the emphasis is back on Labor to see their response, and so far they're throwing up for snow white and the Seven Dwarfs sorts of responses, which doesn't cover them in glory.
I don't think yeah.
And I think also when you see people like Chris Bowen stand up and say that Peter Dutton's selling a scam, well, the problem is that Chris Bowen's credibility is so smashed to smithereens that are you going to believe Chris Bowen or Peter Dutton? And ultimately it does come down to a question of trust. Cameron, don't tell me you're going to try stick up for Chris Bowen over here.
I think Chris is actually a visionary. I think he's actually done really well to put his ideas for just like Peter Dutton has. He's actually got the courage of conviction, which is something sadly lacking and missing in the Prime Minister.
All right, Cameron Milner, Basil samplis great to see you both as always on a Thursday. Thank you. After the break will bring you new polling on New Clear. This will be the polling that shows whether Peter Dutton is on the right track. It's just for us exclusively tonight, class I'll be joined live in studio by renowned human
rights lawyer David Matters, that's after this quick break, welcome back. Well, China's record on human rights abuses is appalling, yet it's an issue that failed to get much airtime during this week's visit by Chinese Premier Lee.
Well. We do have differences, and I've said we should cooperate where we can, we disagree where we must. We certainly raised all of the issues where Australia and China have differences, but we shouldn't allow those differences to solely define our relationship.
And one growing problem is China's organ harvesting practices. We don't hear much about it, but there have been extensive reports that state run hospitals have secretly harvested body parts from tens of thousands of prisoners, removing their vital organs, sometimes while they're alive. It's reportedly been common practice in
China for nearly two decades. David Matus is a renowned international human rights lawyer and he's been investigating this industry and joins me now, David, thank you very much for your time.
Thanks for inviting me.
Now. You're in Australia primarily to campaign for legislation and regulation in this area. How serious and extensive is the problem? And can you tell us just a bit about why China harvests organs?
It's throughout China. The problem, it's the numbers are large, one hundred thousand organs a year, so it's pervasive and it's been going on since the early two thousands. Why are they harvesting them? It's partly a money made scheme. There's a big demand for organs around the world, and it's partly a way of repressing political opponents. The victims are primarily prisoners or conscience practitioners of Fellongong, Wiggers, Tibetans, house Christians and.
Other particular body parts that are most commonly harvested.
Well, it's a market that it depends on demand. So the biggest demand for organs is kidneys, but they'll and in theory you can survive with the loss of kidney, but in fact nobody survives these organ extractions because they extract several organs at once and people are killed through organ extraction.
The brutal operations. And how do you go about investigating this? I mean, you know famously China it doesn't welcome journalists. So has this been a difficult area for you to examine.
It's been time consuming, for instance, for transplant volumes. What we did is we went to the individual hospitals and added up what they posted on their websites, and we went to about seven hundred hospitals. So as you can imagine, it took a lot of time to do that, but it's conceptually not very difficult. We interviewed people who got out of a prison out of China, and they told us the Fell and Gong practitioners were blood tested, organ
examined and the others were not. We had investigators calling into China pretending to be relative patients who wanted organs, asking if they had organs of Fell and Gong for sale on the basis that Talongong is an exercise regime and organs are healthy. And we got admissions throughout China recorded and transcribed translated saying yes, please come on down, we have them. So it's a concumulation of evidence.
Like we've seen the United Nations and other international bodies take a keen interest in condemning Israel in recent months, how much interest have these bodies taken in the specific issue of organ harvesting, but also more broadly, China is well recorded human rights abuses.
Well certainly is not treated with the intensity that Israel is at the UN. But there were twelve UN Human Rights rapporteurs in July or June twenty twenty one who issued a joint statement saying this credible evidence of foreign organ harvesting with prisoner of conscience victims, Well Kong victims, that the expressed serious concern, asked China to cooperate with an independent investigation, and asked Chinese to respond, which they
did with nonsense. So it's not as if they've been completely silent, but it's certainly in commensurate with the nature of the problem.
Look, since Israel was attacked by terrorists on October seven, we do need to keep pointing that out. That Israel was attacked. There has been this very confusing, bewildering, inexplicable rise in anti Semitism globally, pretty much on precedent in Australia. What you focus on this area a lot? We've all
thought about this topic a lot. What do you put this down to in twenty twenty four where in all other areas we have the most accepting, woke, you know, society that prides itself on equality and not being racist, and yet there's been this tolerance of anti Semitism.
Well, I think it's got a large part to do with the Hamas strategy, which was first of all to attack Israel and then to retreat within tunnels and use Palestinian civilians as shields and trying to engineer Palestinian victimization to the extent possible and then blame the victimization on Israel. And to a large extent, many people around the world have bought into this Hamas strategy and blame Israel for the killings that Hamas has engineered as civilian Palestinians.
David Matis really appreciate your time in you being here. Thank you very much.
Okay, thanks for inviting me.
Now let's return to the nuclear debate. I told you we would have new polling on this issue tonight. It is shaping up as the major political contest ahead of the next election, and the question is that we're all asking will vote as support Dutton's plan for nuclear energy or will they buy Labour's fear campaign. Well, we've got new polling tonight from Freshwater Strategy, and it shows that support for nuclear in the past nine months has gained
five points to reach thirty seven percent. Meantime, support for renewables since May last year has declined fifteen points from seventy four percent to fifty nine percent, and support for non renewables is up four points in the same period. And the same poll has shown that the Prime Minister is now only two points ahead of Peter Dutton, sitting at forty three percent to Dutton's forty one percent on the preferred prime minister survey. To break this down, let's
bring in Freshwater Strategy Director Leo Shanahan. Leo, thank you very much for joining us. I'm so glad you've brought us this polling because this is what it comes down to now, this nuclear debate is going to be the big political battleground ahead of the next election. What is your polling show about and Labor's relying on the fact that Australians don't want to have nuclear What is your polling show about Australians sentiment?
Well, I think it is interesting, Sherry, because, as you mentioned at the beginning, nuclear is on the rise in terms of support now comparatively compared to solar gas is actually hugely popular as well, not as popular, but it is more popular now according to our polling, than cole, which is already in the system and very much needed in the current environment. Here we are in the middle of winter, but look at thirty seven percent in our polling.
That's up five points since June last year, sorry, since September, just September last year, and that is not an insignificant rise. And it's also coincided with this increasing awareness around nuclears. So to your point, if the government wants to turn the next election into a referendum on nuclear it does probably have to be a little careful in the way it constructs that argument, as we've seen these early rollouts of memes and you know, three eyed Fish, etc. Simpson's references.
But it has to be a little careful that in doing that, people don't start to educate themselves a lot more on nuclear and the benefits of nuclear and decide this is perhaps not as scary as we thought. And in campaigns sometimes on one side pushes so hard so early, there is sometimes a corresponding pushback people to say, hang on, shouldn't we have some awareness of what this is actually about and rather than just rely on knee jerk fear mongering.
It's interesting that the period over which support for nuclear has risen coincides with when Peter Dutton said that he was going to have a nuclear policy. Yeah, it's going to take one to the next election. So you know, perhaps this also is an indication that he's able to mount an argument and he has the time to convince Australians and you know what, the fear campaign might not be as effective given we look around the world and
we see what other nations are doing. Yeah, both three eyed fish in France or Canada or the US.
Yeah, we are the outlier really in the G twenty in terms of nuclear and many aren't. I think one of the few is Indonesia that don't have nuclear and they're looking into it as well. So, I mean, I think it's interesting because it's also coincided with an increasing, shall we say, skepticism about the ability of renewables to.
Solve all our problems.
We ask a question kind of based purely upon your preference, would it be for renewable energy sources or non renewable energy sources? And yes, renewable energy source is still very high. It's still very popular generally speaking, at fifty nine percent. But that is a pretty steep decline from seventy four percent just since September, and non renewable sources growing from about fourteen to eighteen percent in the same amount of time cost of living.
Time period exactly.
So all our polling shows number one in terms of concern cost of living, one, two and three, you know, number one issues we lee I.
Want to ask you about. You know, alban Ezi had a very long honeymoon. What does your polling show about his favorability how voters are looking at him and Peter Dutton in terms of their preference for who would be PM.
Yeah, well, I mean on that primary vote, that kind of key primary vote.
We've got the Liberal.
National Coalition of forty percent that's unchanged since our last poll labored down thirty two percent. There's actually an eight point gap in that primary vote. And news poll out last week had very very similar numbers. Now, what is interesting in terms of preferred prime minister, we're now looking at almost dead even, you know, forty one forty three percent. Another poll out this week had.
Most polices should just remind people that the preferred prime minister measure that usually favors the incumbent. It usually favors the sitting prime minister because they're already in.
The job, definitely, and it's pretty rare for an opposition leader who isn't in an election winning position to start getting ahead or get ahead in preferred prime minister. So there would be a lot of comfort in Peter Tutton's campra.
And a lot of panic at labor side. You'd have to think it. Their polling is showing the same.
Maybe not panicking yet, but yeah, if that, maybe they'll be rethinking that election, Tommy, Yeah, all.
Right, Leo Shanahan, thank you very much for thank Now coming up, is former Quantus CEO Alan Joyce really worth the one hundred and seventy million dollars he's been paid over the years, while flights keep getting canceled and the Democrats boycotting net In Yahoo's addressed to Congress as anti
Israel's sentiment ramps up globally statued welcome back. Well here's the one hundred and seventy million dollar man, Alan Joyce, and an independent consultant is now tasked with deciding whether the former Quantus chief executive deserves the sixteen million dollar
bonus he was given. Alan Joyce, of course, he's pushing to keep his long term bonus of nearly fourteen million and his short term bonus of two million dollars and in total, The Australian reports that he has been paid over one seventy million over fifteen years as chief executive. Let's bring in tonight's panel, the Australians at National Affairs editor Joe Kelly and commentator Jason Morrison. Welcome to you both. Look Joe that the problems during Alan Joyce's reign as
CEO of Quantas are well recorded. An aging fleet, he outsourced a number of important services, not to mention the three hundred million dollars in taxpayer subsidies during COVID never repaid, flights constantly canceled. But he says he deserves a bonus, his sixteen million dollar bonus.
What do you think, Well, I think most Australians would think the idea of a sixteen million dollar windfall payment for Alan Joyce stinks, Sherry. That's what That's what I think. I think it's quite clear that the Quantas board is very concerned about how it will look for its image as well. This is a company going through a transition that's really asking for a fresh start and a new
beginning from dispirited Australian travelers. We've got a new chief executive and a new chair coming in and quite frankly, sixteen million dollars is huge. Recently the airline got hit with a one hundred and twenty million dollar penalty because it charged people for canceled flights. Well, Alan Joyce is asking for sixteen million dollars. That's more than a tenth
of that payment that it's just been hit with. So I think it's a bad look for the airline and I think, you know, if they can get out of it, it would make sense for them to explore those options.
Yeah, and they obviously I keen too, given there's this independent task loss trying to find terms in the clause that could get them out of paying this amount of money.
Jason, what's the board there for?
I mean, the board's job is surely you stand up for the best interests of the airline. He did incredible damage to the airline. Whether it was intentional, accidental, or just the way the man is, whatever it was, he's left them with a skullal. You never know, you never know, you never It seemed bizarre at the time. You can only wonder what the motives were at sometimes, but you look at what's going on in Quotas and you say,
what the hell is the board doing? You know, you paid a lot of money and the chair is paid a lot of money and all the representatives there are all eminent people in the business community. Why you got to go and find an external report to tell you what's absolutely blaringly obvious here The answer is no, and have some courage and stand up and say no, rather than waive a reporter around and say, oh, we've got to report and the report said, you know, so we've
got to go with the report. This is what's wrong with corporate Australia. A failure to make absolute decisions on things that are straight, plane and simple. And you know, I mean I feel sorry for the shareholders. I felt sorry for them whilst Allan Joyce was doing what he was doing, and I feel worse for them now because their board is letting them down at a moment when they actually should stand up and say.
Mate, you know you want it, you come suis.
Yeah, it's not even about their shareholders though, Isn't it about everyone who tries to catch a flight and it feels like a third of the time, doesn't matter what airline, Virgin Quantas jetsty the flights just get canceled. It's mayhem on so many days at the airports around the country now. Peter Darton came out swinging today over the Chinese officials who body blocked Australian journalist Chang Lei earlier this week. Darton said that he raised the incident immediately when he
met with the Chinese premiere. We heard on the show last night Mike Bozulo indicate that the Prime Minister was slow to land on the right response. Joe, how do you think the Prime Minister handled this issue this week? These were clear bullying tactics that all Australians could see.
Oh look, Sherry. My view on this is pretty simple. Australia is a liberal democracy with a free media. That's very important. It's a wonderful thing. Not all countries have a free media. It has to be defended, it has to be preserved, it has to be protected at the highest level. Frankly, I think this is terrible that this was allowed to happen in the first place, that an Australian journalist in Parliament House was blocked and intimidated by
Chinese officials. It should be beyond question that foreign leaders and their officials when they come to this country, particularly and especially in the Australian Parliament, respect the freedom of the Australian media. So I just think that as soon as this was realized Anthony Bees he should publicly have made clear this was unacceptable, it was a breach of what Australia expected, and that should have been conveyed privately to Premier Lee as well.
I mean, Jason, I think the issue here is that Albanezi had tried to tell the public that he'd now got the right balance, and yet the Chinese officials were able to so brazenly behave like this in our parliament. I mean, do you think the current government has the right approach?
Yes, the balance is a bit like that, isn't it really? And it stays like that. We live in fear of upsetting them, we live in fear of standing up to them, we plicate them, and it's it's just evidence that it continues on. I wonder in the briefing notes that were sent there to them as they arrived. So just a reminder, this is an open democracy where people are allowed to ask questions, even insulting questions, be prepared.
It's going to happen. I doubt it's there.
There were probably assurances given that it would be the best possible environl for the best possible outcome. I found the whole scene to be quite sickening, and I think the arming and ring that's followed since right across politics to be kind of even worse. I mean, we have to actually remember, while they're in that house and they're there to stand up for us, they're not there to play diplomat all the time.
Joe.
In the US, a number of Democrats have indicated that they might boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya, who's addressed to Congress next month. Alexandria Ocazio Cortez. She went so far as to say that his invitations should be revoked. Joe, surely the prime minister of a democratic nation should be free to address Congress and an ally of the US.
Well, there's no doubt, Sherry that Benjamin Netanya who should be free to do that. I don't think that should be questioned at all. I think the key thing about how this will play out politically in the US is what message Benjamin Netanya who comes with, what he will tell this joint meeting of Congress, and in particular, whether there is any update, progress or advancement on the achievement of Israel's political and military objectives in the Middle East.
The reason that there is such frustration, it's significant frustration between the bid administration and Netnyahu government is because the blind administration has lost confidence that Israel can achieve those objectives. So I think the key thing will be whether there's
any update there. If there's not and it's still a continuation of this stalemate, I think that will be tricky for the Binded administration and how it responds to that, as it has to meet the demands of conflicting constituencies in America.
Comes down to politics, probably over and above principle, just as it is here. All right, Jason Morris and Joe Kelly, thank you both very much for your time. National Senator Matt Canavan joins me Live with a major update on his move to have a national COVID inquiry. You don't want to miss it. Welcome back.
Well.
Australia's response to COVID nineteen has been the subject of much debate whether it's vaccines or mask mandates. But despite all the questions, we still seem no closer to any real answers about the best way to deal with a pandemic. Let's bring in National Senator Matt Canavan. Matt tell us, you've got some breaking news for us tonight. What are you planning to bring into Parliament next week?
Well, next week I plan to introduce a bill to establish what's called a Commission of Inquiry into COVID nineteen. It's effectively just another word for a Royal commission. As you probably know your viewers probably know, the Prime Minister promised to have a Royal commission or Royal commission life inquiry into COVID nineteen when he was opposition leader, and just like many other promises the primm is to make
when in government, he's broken that promise. Instead he's established a Clayton's Review stacked with people that were supportive of the most Rycranian lockdown and other measures taken during the pandemic. In contrast, what I will introduce next week is an inquiry has the powers just like a Royal commission. It's just called something different because it's established by the Parliament,
not the Executive. It is going to have a terms of reference that is based on a Senate inquiry that has just been completed, where we didn't inquiry to what the terms of reference should cover. It will cover all types of things lockdowns, vaccines, etc. And in that inquiry there were five hundred and fifty nine submissions to that Senate inquiry. Just three were opposed to a COVID nineteen proper commission of inquiry.
So this has broad support.
The Labor Party should get behind it because is what they promised the trained people to do and Australians deserve a proper inquiry into what happened during and how we can learn the lessons from what went wrong.
Yeah, well it'll come down to whether you can get the numbers in the Senate to get this over the line. But it is something that absolutely every Australian should welcome because I mean, we've just seen hearings in the United States at the moment and we saw those shocking admissions from Anthony Facci that you know, the six meters of social distancing was just a figure he effectively made up but wasn't based on any firm research, you know, vaccines.
People don't know what to believe. The interstate border closures. Again, this is a major issue. We could have another pandemic matt God forbid, but we could have one, and we need to have some research based ways to react to it if we.
Do absolutely right, absolutely right, and you know, effectively, there was an experiment conducted on the populations of many countries about what governments could get away with. We know now that many times what they were telling us were straight out lies. Sometimes I suppose they were well intentioned lies to try and get people to comply, but there's got to be real questions asked about the damage to trust
that's been done between the government and their people. I mean, a lot of people aren't taking even the normal vaccines now, we've had a massive drop off in those because, as I say, when you light to someone, you destroy that trust and it's very hard to get back once it's gone.
Yeah, and yeah, we've seen the research that even vaccines for babies and children that have been shown to be safe over decades, that people are starting not to give their kids those because of the genuine issues that have emerged with COVID vaccines. You know, a lot of people suffering well after months and even years after having the vaccine. Matt kim Williams, the new ABC chair, gave a big
speech today. He said he had a new vision for the broadcaster, yet again it came down to doubt more funding. What did you make of his vision.
Well, it's not surprising, it's not shocking. I suppose you.
Public servants always ask for more money. But what I'd like to see is more efficiency, more productivity out of all of our public service, including the ABC. They already get a budget of over a billion dollars a year and if they need to make investments in what he calls the iView app or whatever it is, just like any other business, they should be asked to look inside themselves first and then on the other side of this too, I really question why we need to put so much
money into a public broadcast of these days. There's so much alternative media out there. It's a very different environment than it was ten or twenty years ago. People can watch your show for free in regional Australia, there's podcasts, there's so.
Much media out there.
Why do we do we really need to spend a billion dollars a year on a national broadcaster.
I mean, what I find so shocking is that one point one billion dollars a year. Other media companies, by the way, are constantly looking to make saving they're having to make staff redundant. The ABC gets this amount of money and it can't cover in a meaningful way the current antisemitism crisis. What is wrong with the public broadcaster?
Well, it's bias too, right, of course.
I don't have a particular issue with people having bias, as we all have them, we all have opinions. But the issue here is it's publicly funded and you and I can turn off Sky News or turn off the mainstream media.
As I say, there's lots of alternatives now to go.
To, but the ABC are going to pay for it whether I watch it or not, and it's not living up to its charter right now, to be fair and balves. There's no doubt about that, and it definitely doesn't deserve an increase in budget because of that.
All right, Matt Canavan, thank you very much for your time tonight, and apology to everyone at home for my voice this evening. I had a bit of alergie early in the weekend. It's not quite recovered yet. I'll see you eight o'clock on Monday morning. Have a lovely weekend, but stay tuned. Paul Murray is up right now.