Sharri | 20 May

Good Evening, Well tonight, I can reveal the major scandal enveloping at nine, involving the departure of one of its top executives and the lengths the network went to cover it up, including the use of non disclosure agreements.

Nine has been.

Accused of covering up allegations that its legendary news guru, former Director of News and Current Affairs, Darren Wick, behaved inappropriately towards women. In one incident, he behaved inappropriately to a television star after the logies. In another, he refused to engage or respond to senior female staff who reported to him. His drunken behavior raised so much concern at one nine function that an employee is said to have called police when they witnessed Wik getting in his car

The nature of his alleged behavior.

There's internal revolt about the cover up, with journalists worried that it exposes the company to accusations of hipocrisy. Wick formally left nine on the fifteenth of March after being on leave in the weeks prior, while an external firm investigated a fresh complaint against him.

He claimed he was leaving because of.

Exhaustion after four decades working as a journalist, but The Australian confirmed today that his departure followed allegations of inappropriate behavior towards a female staff member, and tonight I can reveal further details about this complaint. I understand while the complaint was new, it related to an incident that occurred some years ago historical. The allegation is understood to have been made from a current female employee in the Nine network,

Was seen as the final straw in a separate incident.

It became well known at Nine that there'd been an alleged incident of inappropriate behavior by Wick towards a Channel nine star at the Logis After party on the Gold Coast in twenty nineteen. There was no official complaint and the woman has distanced herself from it, not wanting to be the subject of media scrutiny.

The woman referred us to nine's corporate.

Affairs, who denied there'd been any complaint. But when questioned on how this had been handled, whether Wick had faced any formal repercussions, or whether the board chaired by former Treasurer Peter Costello or executive management had shown a duty of care to the female employee, Victoria Buckin said, we do not discuss our processes on any instances of this kind publicly about anyone. These processes are always confidential and it is important for all parties that they remain so.

That is our policy.

I made several attempts today to contact wik for comment. I sent him questions. So far he has not responded now.

As well as these.

Alleged incidents of inappropriate behavior, there are also a number of instances where Wick allegedly deliberately ghosted senior employees, refusing to engage with them even though they reported to him.

It's understood to be a tactic to keep female.

Employees on edge and make them feel insecure in their jobs. But there was one transgression that was thrust into the public domain, which was when Wick pled guilty to high range drink driving in January twenty twenty one.

The boss of nine News has narrowly avoided doing jail time after pleading guilty to high range drink driving. It's the second time Darren Wicks being convicted. This time he was almost five times the legal limit, but.

He won't do time behind bars. Instead, a nine month's intensive corrections order means the news boss is free to live a normal life in the community. He could be jail if he puts.

A foot wrong outside court.

Wick was remorseful and apologized for his behavior.

I'm in a position where I do know better, and I should have known better in a terrible mistake where I could have harmed others or harm myself, which would have harmed my family and harm my friends and colleagues. So I own it completely.

Wick had been driving home from a work function at nine in October twenty twenty.

When he was stopped by police.

The word inside nine is that Wick was only caught because a concerned colleague phoned police worried that he'd be a danger to others or himself behind a wheel after consuming so much alcohol, and when police breathalyzed him, he recorded a blood alcohol reading of more than four times over the legal limit. Wick held onto his job after this.

There's a strong view that.

Nine journalists can't investigate, pursue and attack others, whether it's politicians, media companies, or big corporations, over internal scandals and inappropriate conduct when it covers up its own problems. And multiple Nine sources have accused their own.

Company of covering up this scandal.

They say there shouldn't be a veil of secrecy over allegations of inappropriate behavior. One source said to me there's been an extraordinary degree of secrecy around it. The key thing that people are annoyed about is the fanfare of his departure versus what happened. In fact, at precisely the same time the spotlight scandal was unfolding at Channel seven nine, the publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The finn Review didn't say a peep about why Wick

Our backs roll at seven Spotlight program in June last year was to help the show's executive producer Mark Llewellyn lockin Lurreman for an exclusive interview deal with the.

Network tailor made package. Apparently no expense spared check book, journalism laid bare in a hotbed of allegations aired before the federal court, Channel seven racking up I watering expenses to nail down their prized scoop.

The Cydney Morning Herald has published stories about Alan Jones, Craig McLaughlin and Channel seven Spotlight, and I do understand that investigative journalist Kate mcclemont has been chasing the story about.

What unfolded with Darren Wick.

I also put to nine's corporative Affairs Today the hypocrisy of nine's journalism arm reporting on similar topics and allegations in the world of politics and rival media organizations, yet covering up a scandal within their own organization. Victoria Buckin said nothing has been swept under the carpet or covered up. Will Nine's cover up of this scandal at the very top of its news division is laughable given the ferocity with which it pursued their commercial rival at seven across

Also ahead, new.

Data dropping Tonight revealing Labour's failure to improve Australia's unemployment problem with a million people still claiming welfare benefits, and Around's president, known as the Butcher of Tehran, confirmed dead

Have a look.

Parents are worried seek about what the kids have access to online. It is a major social issue in this country. We want to respond positively too the request from parents that we do somethingut this. We want to make sure that any measures that are put in place effective because one of the concerns which is there is that age protocols may be circumvented by users.

Okay, let's bring in sky News host Liz Storra and contributor Joe hilt.

A brand Joe.

In a sense, wouldn't this be a relief to parents that they don't have to say to the sets, you're banned from TikTok. You know, in their young teenage years, they can say, well, the government's bounding this.

That's right. This is an absolute god's end. Good on the PM for doing this. Chris Means also came out very early the Premier of New South Wales and said, yep, I'm all on board. I cannot punch a hole in it. I cannot see I've been saying for years now, I cannot see pretty much any benefit from social media. Certainly no benefit which outweighs the downside to it. It's been an absolute force for destruction right across the globe, particularly in the West, and I think it has really harmed

It's definitely one of the stories as a journalist that will never leave me is interviewing the parents of a ten year old, a ten year old who took her own life.

After she was cyberbullied so badly.

And of course bullying is terrible in the playground, but the cyberbullying. It follows the children into their bedrooms. The parents don't know what's going on.

Liz, only makes sense.

To have an enforcible ban here, raising the age limit to sixteen.

I can't imagine any irrational person disagreeing. My biggest question is what took so long? We have had such comprehensive data for so long that has been screaming at us worldwide that the effect of social media on children is massively detrimental, socially, mentally, you name it.

It is no good. So why now? Better late than never?

But why now is the government suddenly taking measures?

And I've said it before.

My only question mark here is how on earth you can enforce such a ban without really railroading absolutely everybody else's rights. We heard the Morrison government talk in late twenty twenty one, No no, I, Like I said, no rational person would oppose a ban of children accessing social media, especially if they visited any amount of the study that's

You know what, I wouldn't need to show them my idea.

I just have tonkles up.

But the.

People are going to go and behave like monsters online, should they not at least not be accountable for that. I mean, that's what free speech is. Free speech is not the ability to be able to go and anonymously bully someone to death or control someone you don't like without But as I've.

Discussed before, there is a lot of people online who aren't bullies, who aren't trolled and have chosen to remain anonymous because they know speaking their truth these days, usually conservative beliefs, they will copy it in their public life. Is it for everyone else's safety? And it does remove

Right, let's have a look at this next topic, labour's travel expenses. Once again, in the spotlight after revelations in the odds today the taxpayers will find four hundred and fifty million for two new Boeing seven three sevens to fly. The PM well, his dog Toto and a document around Joe.

Look this is car on, Joe, how are you going to defend this.

It's not a great look in the middle of the cost of living crisis.

And after a budget that everyone's agreed, doesn't actually relieve.

That it can't because it can't be it can't be inflationary. But again, this is something the PM and the government and the Governor General who are all these digitries who are sharing these two jets, I think we all agree that they do need jets to be able to get around twenty years old. Why luxury jets are twenty years old, are at the end of their life. And the government had a choice by either leasing two jets for twelve

Luxury jets lutury jet. Do you know basically they needed.

It's basically as essential as bread, these yeats exactly.

Without the question mark is the luxury nobody is?

How dare they get around?

Although if they want to practice what they preached, they should all be on bicycles or some sort of emissions free bus because they expect everyday people to pay dearly and we all are for the green dream that they're voisting onto everyone while they buy spend almost half a billion dollars of our money to buy two luxury jets that will spew our emissions, but don't for decades to go do me a failure?

Don't you wish they would also have to catch quantus of Virgin flights or Jetstar and see how many cancelations.

The bonds off that would make them politicians of the people all right.

Unions are pushing for Labour's controversial right to disconnect laws. Remember these are the laws that give employees the right to disconnect, not to answer their boss's phone once they've got home at night. Well, the odds reporting that the ACTU wants fair work to rule out bosses being disorganized as a reasonable excuse to contact workers after hours to perform unpaid work is this fair enough.

Well, I think the example that Michelle O'Neill, act President, gave was I thought a pretty reasonable one, which is a boss, can't you realize suddenly that there's something that were meant to do during the week and they've totally forgotten and call an employee at four fifty on a Friday and say, right, you've got to spend your weekend doing this. Having said that, the number of times I've had editors asked, they say, oh my god, we've got to do stuff this up? Can you fix this?

But I said, whether the work to disconnect?

And of course I say yes, But I guess I'm not and we are not. I mean, the sort of workers that unions represent are not necessarily the higher end kind of white collar workers where you are expected to do whatever it takes and you usually remunerated and rewarded accordingly. These are workers who might be safe. For example, you know teachers who don't want to have to respond to every single email they get from a cranky parent until nine o'clock at night, which frankly I can assure you

Very I feel like the younger generation don't even need these laws because try getting hold of anyone under thet after hours and they're not picking.

Up their body.

Oh exactly, They're well aware of their rights and they are laying down the law, which is why a lot of employers do not want to hire them, because very different work ethic in the younger generations. But I just think this is getting absolutely ridiculous.

Because of course it's so subjective.

I mean, what you might class as, oh, this is.

Because you have been disorganized, Sharry, and as my boss, this is your fault. And whereas you know the backstory, you know that maybe a client's called up last minute asked for something, Therefore it's not your fault at all, and now we have to deliver on something to a deadline, etc.

And so on.

This is just going to mean so much, he said. She said type action for anyone who actually will to exercise these laws and take them for a ride.

It's going to get ridiculous.

Maybe we should have it so it goes both ways. O good aid bys. Yeah sorry, Look, I know at five o'clock on a Friday, but I've forgot to do all that stuff you ask me. Would you mind just you know, doing it yourself and getting it back to me on Monday morning.

Pats all right, Joe, you around this story. Thanks so much for hures. Now, don't go anywhere.

Labor has failed to improve Australia's unemployment problem despite overhauling the jobs program. The Daily telegraphs James Willis has crunched the numbers and joins me with his exclusive story. Next plus, pro Palestinian protesters attempt to confront anti Semitism supporters who were rallying in Melbourne. I've got more on that with the Christian organizer of nevergrain Is Now after the break, welcome back, well exclusive news story now from the Daily Telegraph.

New data has revealed that there.

Are still more than one million people receiving either job Seek or Youth Allowance welfare payments. The same number is when Labor was sworn into government despite overhauling the jobs program, this is costing taxpayers sixteen.

Billion dollars a year.

I'm joined now by the Daily Telegraphs James Willis. James, great to see you, so tell us about this story you've just broken over on the Daily Telly.

Thanks for having me on your show, Shari, I think this figure that you've just quoted is important to clarify so people understand exactly how bad this problem is. We're not talking about people that are on a disability pension, veterans, people that are on an age pension.

This is one million ossies.

Who have been declared capable of working at least a little bit about five hundred thousand of them for.

At least thirty hours a week.

And yet in two years of government with Tony Burke as the Employment Minister, Labor has failed to move the dial on this figure. And we still have one million ausraeans on the Job Seeker and Youth Allowance program. Now a lot of these people, I think two three hundred thousand.

Have been on the program for.

At least two years, if not five years, if not ten years, for about seventy thousand, and we have to start asking when Labor continues to say, we've created hundreds of thousands of jobs, unemployments at record lows.

You've got this massive.

One million elephant in the room, which is people that should be working that aren't, and it starts to shine a pretty big light on the number of migrants that we've brought in over the last two years.

More than one million.

People who can't go immediately on unemployment benefits need to have a job. So that's taken jobs in that regard. But what is labor doing to fix this problem that Tony Burke said was on the right track in Dune twenty twenty two.

Well, Tony Burke, as you said, the Employment Minister, what did he have to say for himself today when you asked him about this problem.

Well, it's the same lines that we hear from labor over and over again.

They've created eight hundred.

And twenty thousand jobs, unemployments at almost record levels, and they've managed to get things moving and they've had new things in the budget to give incentives to employers to get people into work. But the reality is in June twenty twenty two, Tony Burke said it was a clean slate he was going to wipe all the penalty points from welfare recipients if they hadn't met their mutual obligations. It was going to get people job ready, and two years on we still have one million people out of

By, and yet we have not moved the dial.

And the number of unemployed Australians a lot of cheap problem. As you say, it's a sixteen billion dollar problem.

Yeah, massive sixteen billion a year. Now, let's have a look at news poll today.

It showed that despite the commitments to cost of living relief, twenty nine percent of voters thought they'd be worse off after this new labor budget. This is compared to twenty seven percent who thought they'd be better off. Meantime, thirty nine percent thought that the new budget would actually make inflation worse.

Now, James, this will be.

A disappointing result for Albanisi and Charmers. You know, they say this had nothing to do with politics, but of course you know, it is an economic document, but it's also a political one and they would certainly help it, hoping that the billions of dollars spent on costs of living relief would put them in good standing ahead of the next election.

Well it all goes back, Sharhi to the broken promise, one of the greatest broken promises in recent memories that we heard before the last election that Labor would reduce people's power bills by two hundred and seventy five dollars, and they kept saying along the way, I.

Don't worry, that doesn't start until twenty twenty five.

Well we're now at that point where that money should be coming off people's power bills. As we know, whether you're a small business, whether you're a family, energy bills are absolutely crippling people. So a three hundred dollars supplement to everyone from the richest Australian down is their way of saying, look, we got this wrong.

But here's a little bit of bill relief anyway.

As we know, for the majority of people, you'll barely even feel this off Your quarterly bills are going in the wrong direction.

This is the biggest story.

And the most common thing you hear from small businesses right across Australia.

Their energy bills are through the roof.

They can't pay their gas. The gas is a massive issue that hasn't even been looked at properly in this budget. Later's taking that off the agenda because they've had to do deals with Greens and the Independence to keep things going. And it's the cost of inflation, it's the cost of wages. Small businesses are going broke. We've had some of the best restaurants in Sydney that have gone broke over the last few weeks and can't remain open because they simply cannot afford the costs of doing business.

It's terrible. It's probably in fairness to labor.

There's a fair sting in the tale from the coronavirus, as we know. But the Prime Minister is the one in power and ultimately when voters go to the polls, he's going to be the one that they judge when they decide whether he can get another term or not.

Well, they might not have blamed him, but he promised that he'd be able to make life more affordable. It was one of his key election pledges ahead of the twenty twenty two election day. Telegraph thanks for joining us live from the Telegraph Newsroupe. Now, there were ugly scenes on the streets of Melbourne yesterday after pro Palestinian protesters tried to clash with those simply demanding an end to

Now police arrested six.

People in the ensuing chaos. The peaceful crowd attended the Never Again is Now. It was organized by my next guest, pastor Mark Leech, and he joins me here in studio. Mark, thank you very much for your time. Now, firstly, congratulations on organizing these rallies. As a Christian pastor fighting anti Semitism, it is so important to have non Jews leading the charge, so you know, as.

A Jew, I thank you for that. Now, now tell me what happened, because you know, we saw all.

Of this unfold on the news yesterday and it was really worrying.

Yeah, well, thank you for having me on your show. And look, yesterday was an amazing day in Melbourne. It was in some ways the best of days and in other ways the worst of days. The best of days because in spite of Melbourne's lovely weather fourteen degrees rain showers, the security thread around us. Seven thousand of us gathered on the steps of Parliament Booch two.

Yeah, huge to.

Come and say to our country that there is no place here for hate. We were led by Christians, we had worship music, we had Jewish music, we had a big indigenous presence on the stage. We had political leaders, religious leaders, Persian speakers, Indian speakers. It was a wonderful celebration of all that is best about our multicultural, cohesive society. It was just fantastic.

That was the best.

The worst was there were probably it looks like they're going to be more reported incidents of anti Semitism on that day than on any other single day in Australia's recorded history. There were mobs of left leading and jihadists supporting Islamic supporters, baying for vengeance all around us. The city was full of these people, and as our people tried to come peacefully Christians, like one lady seventy two year old Presbyterian of all people and her husband trying

So that was doing.

Is she okay, She's okay.

She's resilient. She stayed for the whole rally and found it an incredibly uplifting experience. But it just showed these people believe that any form of resistance is justified because their cause is so valid, I guess, but it does seem like their cause really is.

The psychology is difficult to understand though, when they were trying to disrupt a protest that was just calling for the end of anti Semitism.

It's inexplicable.

So now the police tried to have these two rallies in separate locations.

So how did this confrontation eventuate.

Well, we started negotiating the police probably two months ago because we wanted to come into the city center to support the Jewish community. Now the Jewish community can't come in on a Saturday, the Christians can't come in on a Sunday. Morning because they're in church, so Sunday afternoon was the time, and the police negotiated with the pro Palestinian side and they were going to stay on the

That's a massive waste in a sense of resources in itself, isn't it.

Well.

I'm glad I'm a New South Wales taxpayer, not a Victorian taxpayer, because they are footing the bill to maintain public order in the face of sustained hatred and vitriol and violence. Every week six hundred officers mounted police for say eight hours. Do the math on that. That's what the Victorian taxpayers footed the bill for.

So they were there. They were meant to be separate locations, and then what.

Happened as the afternoon progressed, They started their The pro Palestinian started at State Library and then against what they'd assured the police would be the case. They marched up to our rally and tried to break through police lines to attack what we were doing. It was an extraordinary display. I think what it did was just show that, you know, they just hate love and inclusion and peace, because that's what we were protesting. We were there to say we

Yeah, exactly, how can you possibly oppose that?

Now let's turn to Melbourne University and we know that finally the chancellors the leadership there have said that if the protesters don't leave the encampment, they are going to call police. I mean this has been many, many days. Now do you think they should remove these encampments? I mean, you know people say, people like Mark Scott say, oh, well there's free speech, and yes there's free speech, but you're not allowed to just camp it any university campus

Well, I don't think it should be. And the problem is not just the encampments. But what they're trying to do is intimidate and shut down anyone else's right to free association and free speech. So there are lots of reports of Jewish students who are scared to go on campus, who are intimidated, who are abused, and these encampments should have been they should have been closed down the first within the first hour that they started. I mean, the best time to pull out a weed is before it

YEP, there's been a lot of abuse and harassment.

Mark Leacher, have to thank you again for your leadership on this issue. You were there on October nine at the very first protest, you were chased by aggressive protesters, and you haven't backed down since.

Thank you very much.

It's a pleasure now.

Plenty more to come.

Politicians and staffers put on notice with the threat of jail time if they don't report complaints of assault, discrimination or bullying.

More on that shortly.

Andrew Caswell and Karen Milner will be here live next, plus the latest from Iran on the helicopter crash that killed President Abraham Racy.

Known as the Butcher of Terehran. Welcome back will.

Politicians and staffers have been put on notice report sexual harassment, assault, discrimination or bullying or face a potential three million dollar fine. The Age has reported that this much delayed and heavily disputed Parliamentary Standards Commission could even jail a politician or

Have a listen.

Our government and me in particular were the target of what was a very, I think a disappointing campaign. This wasn't an issue that should have been used for politics, and sadly I think it was, as the recent court case has found.

All Right Tenner, he was of course there referring to Brittney Higgins when he said the recent court case, let's bring in tonight's political panel. Former media advisor to Scott Morrison Andrew Caswell, and former chief of staff to Bill Shotten, Cameron Milner. Great to see you both, Andrew Carswell, Well, let's start with you. The Scott Morrison there's doing a

What did you think?

How did you handle this? Do you in his office at the time?

Well, I think Shari Scott was used as a lightning rod in this moment too, and his enemy seized upon this, whether it be a me too movement or women raising other issues in society. His detractors jumped on him in that very moment to paint him to be somewhat either against women or not understanding of their needs, and I think that certainly stuck with him throughout the rest of

In the recent Core case, Justice Michael Lee did find that while Britney Higgins was raped, there was no political cover up in the Morrison government relating to her rape, and he made this very clear. Camen Milder, do you think there should be an apology to Scott Morrison from some of the labor ministers who really targeted him, claiming that he covered up the rape. A judge has now found that this never happened.

Well, say two things. The first is Scott Morrison was a politician and he gave as good as he got, so he sledged people, he made names, he called things out, so boohoo, sorry Scott, you're in politics mate, and you were heading up the show. But I will say this, the three Labor mean girls did weaponize the rape. There was no political conspiracy. Justice Lee has gone through extensively

Well, we now know just how close the Prime Minister is to Penny Wang in some areas.

She's basically running the show.

So we can understand why at the time he so heavily resisted calling any investigation into the allegations.

Of bullying a story by the way, that I broke. Just got to put that in there.

Now, Andrew Carswell, we've seen that after the recent budget. We still think the polls are showing that people are still feeling like they're going to be financially worse off, despite the three hundred dollars in energy bill relief, despite the Stage three tax cuts taking effect on July one. Do you think this budget is going to work against labor I mean they're hoping it will be at least the platform ahead of the next election.

I think Australians are already starting to see through this budget. They're smart, they know what's going on. They know when a government is trying to buy them off or or win them over. Yes, they'll take the goodies that come out of a budget. They'll take the bride, but they won't say thanks, and they won't give you any credit for it because they can see what you're trying to do. And this is a budget that is trying to win them over twelve months out from an election. So the

Well, you know Cameron, Jim Chalmers, who I know you admire greatly. I thinks he's found a very clever way here to give cost of living relief to people and give that relief and use that spending in effect to bring down inflation. And you know his argument, and we've heard him prosecute this argument in many media interviews.

His argument is that.

By bringing down the CPI component that is energy bills that low is inflation. At the same time you're putting money in people's crockets. He says, he's not sending a check out, he's giving the money to the energy companies. You know a lot of journalists and economists are questioning this logic.

What do you make of it?

Well, I admire Jim Chalmer's loyalty to the Prime Minister who is desperately struggling to walk around with a fist full of fifties and try to buy himself some love from the Australian electorate. This budget was an election budget. This was a budget to try to fix Elbow's appalling numbers. And it's not just newspoll Resolve Freshwater our own GXO Pole all is polling should be alarm bells for Albanite

Yeah.

Look, you both seasoned political operatives. You know, there's a lot of speculation about election timing. I have it on extremely good authority that there are no plans for an election this year that Albanezy is planning and going you know, the full term to next year. Andrew Carswell, you know, would it make sense at all for him to try hold one later this year?

I think, Sharry, you always want that option, and I think what Jim has put forward in his numbers just just open the door to a possible December election, in early December election. It's not their intent and wouldn't be their first choice to do that. They will want to go to a full term. They want to deliver a mini budget in March and then go to an election

What do you think, Cameron, I mean, the PM is probably going to want to stay in the job until he can fly in those new four hundred and fifty million dollar jets that he's ordered.

That's right, Toto two point zero is on the tarmac for Albow. Now, look for a guy who said that at a cost of living was a central issue didn't do anything about it. The guy who promised two hundred and seventy five dollars powercut.

And didn't deliver it.

Why would Australian Electric believe him that he's going to go full term? This budget was all about buying a vote and that's what it looks like, and that's what it is, and that only has a certain lifetime. So I think this budget has a half life about six months and is desperately designed to give them an option before Christmas to go before potentially things get much worse for Australians.

Andrew any chance the Coalition could win. I mean they need to recut, they need to win nineteen seats the coalition. They need to win nineteen seats to be a majority government.

Is that too big an ask?

History certainly against them that There's only been one first term government that has failed to win a second term, and that was way back in nineteen thirty one, so it is against them. They are a long way behind. What we're more likely to see is a veryholy, ungodly unruly minority government of all sorts of colors, Green, Teal and others. That is the most likely outcome. A labor majority would be probably second running in that order, and

I thought Simon Benson's analysis.

He's the political editor for The Australian. He wrote a piece last week where he said that the advisor is around. Peter Dutton had been trying to soften his image, but it actually turns out that his tough image suits the times, suits the times when people are worried about national security with the detainee scandal, they're worried about the social cohesion in our streets and worried about cost of living.

What do you reckon, Cameron?

Well, I think Peter Dutton's secret weapon is Anthony Albanese. If this is a referendum on Albanese, and this very well be the case come the next federal election, Labour's got real problems. This is a leader who has gone backwards since the last election, whose primary is falling, whose best opportunity, as Andrew quite reason, he says, is this cavalcade of weird weird Teals and Greens propping up and Alberti's the prime ministership disaster. So Labour's got real problems

As they say governments lose elections, often oppositions don't win them. Andrew Carswell, Cameron milnerk great to see you, as always in a Monday still to come. The death of Iran's president and what it means for the conflict in the Middle East to Koshergada.

Or join me next.

Well, let's turn to Iran, where it's been confirmed that President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister have been killed in a helicopter crash. Mister Raisi and Hussein Oh I'm not even going to attempt this last name. We're flying in heavy fog when the helicopter suffered a hard landing into a mountain. Peak State Television is reporting that there have been no signs of life at the crash site.

The president isn't.

The most powerful figure in Iran, that's the Ayatola, So do you think his death could mean any change in strategy?

I think that is the question, you know, given that the Ayatola is the supreme leader and really controls most of the political power in that country. It would appear that this isn't really going to be that consequential, certainly not in the immediate term. On paper, the president really is more of a ceremonial role and doesn't have that

Yeah, yeah, it's not considered truly democratic elections, far from it.

Now, is there the possibility that there.

Was anything suspicious in this crash or is it simply a case of bad weather?

And aging equipment.

Now, it's impossible to know that, and we can only speculate. What we do know is that it was bad weather. This is very tough to rain close to the border with Azerbaijan. Even the search and rescue and recovery mission has been very difficult and very challenging to execute. Suggests

Now.

The president is often referred to as the Butcher of Tehran.

Can you tell us how he got this title.

Yes, the history is that in nineteen eighty eight he was one of four or five judges that presided over mass mass capital punishment executions of political prisoners and political dissidents. I think the US Treasury Department, during sanctions that they imposed on Iran back in twenty nineteen even said that these were extra judicial where they went sort of outside the laws on the books in Iran and executed thousands

Yeah, all right, Koshagada, thank you so much for explaining that to us tonight. Now, thanks everyone for your company this evening. I'll see you tomorrow at eight. If you want to rewatch, or if you missed the breaking story at the start of the program about the scandal at Channel nine, head to the website.

Here's Paul Murray