Live on Sky News. This is Shari.
Work at the start of a new week's steep price in for Shari this week and next week, with all of Shari's regulars along, including on Pleased to say my old radio Ray Hadley. He'll be fired up as usual, Ray coming up shortly. Also coming up on Shari tonight, Ken the Liberal brand actually make its way back.
From the wilderness.
I mean, Federal Parliament resumed sitting tomorrow after a longer than usual poll election break. I think they've had more than ten weeks off. But polls out today and the major papers have the Coalition in as bad a position it has been in since the nineteen forties. Can you believe that? And it's not just the federal arm the state liberals in major states New South Wales and Victoria
are largely irrelevant. Same goes for South Australia and WA with only the territory and Queensland in power, and who knows what's going to happen in Tasmania. I'll talk about the hard road back for the Liberal Party also tonight. I'm just back from South Australia. Better part of a week in Adelaide and South Australians are filthy that an algie bloom that's hit the South Australian coast, killing scores of shark and fish and destroying oyster caleases and making
beaches and orange mess. What's a natural disaster in South Australia. Thinks they are being ignored. There's been a development on that today. I'll have details shortly. Plus, the Greens have labeled an authoritarian cult. Who called them that well one of the original conveners of the far left party, Drew Hartton, who set them up along with Bob Brown. He's been thrown out of the party and is now hitting back accusing the minor party recently led by defeated leader Adam Bam.
We don't miss him as being opposed to debate free speech on issues of gender and being focused on non environmental issues instead. We'll talk Greens a bit later, but first up as the Federal Parliament resumes relatedly tomorrow. As I said, with the first physical evidence of how badly the Liberal National Coalition fared on May tenth, a long ten weeks ago, Labor will file into the Lower House and fill ninety four seats and actually spill over, we're
told into the coalition side of the House potentially. Polling yesterday showed the picture is even worse now for the opposition than it was on election day, with the coalition's primary votes thinking to twenty nine percent. As Peter Kredlin said tonight, she could remember when it was at that level, and I said, you have to go back to the nineteen forties to find them in such a dire situation. Now you have to feel for the new leader, Susan Lee.
If she survives, she's staring at best best case scenario, two terms in opposition and who'd want to do that job? And as I pointed out, the states are mostly in as bad, if not worse situations, but are probably Queensland now.
Policy is what Susan Lee and her party must concentrate on because, believe me, labor might be hugely popular in City Sydney, in Melbourne and New South Wales and South Australia, and South Australians might be content with Peter malinowskis in New South Wales with Chris Mens, but get outside the metro areas and regional and rural Australia are on a collision course with the state and federal governments. They feel unloved,
they feel ignored and used. Now it varies from state to state, obviously, but the insistence from federal labor supported by the Greens, to carpet bomb their communities with green energy projects refusing to listen to their complaints is and I've been saying this for some time, this is going to explode into a massive issue.
Now.
If you don't believe me, take a drive west of Sydney or Melbourne. I drove through the small town of Rokewood, one hundred and thirty six kilometers northwest of Melbourne yesterday, just yesterday. Population of that little town, Ropewood couple one hundred, maybe two fifty three hundred people. Now, this little community, and I was staggered at what I saw is surrounded by giant wind turbines of the Golden Plane's wind Farm,
the biggest wind farm in Victoria. It hosts for now one hundred and twenty two wind turbines of almost one for every human that lives in that village. And normally these things are situated off in the distance, but to drive past one sitting on a boundary fence next to an almost single lane road is frightening. Yesterday in that area started around two or three degrees in the morning. The sun was out, but almost zero wind, and these things just sat there, barely turning.
I kid you not.
I felt like some alien invasion had taken place surrounding this little town. And there were hundreds more of these things off on the horizon doing absolutely nothing. Now, if you were to suggest putting one of these things in suburbia one, there would be a riot. But no, it's a bush that will be made to suffer. Golden pl by the way, is owned largely by two companies, TAG Energy and a mob called inca group. On their website, TAG admits the turbines are situated brought in broad acre
cropping land and livestock grazing land. They make a claim this wind factory will be big enough to power seven hundred and sixty five thousand homes and then this prevent four point five million tons of carbon dioxide being emitted annually into the atmosphere. I mean, you and I can, and you can make up these numbers. You can pluck any sort of figures you like to make a case
like they are trying to make. Tag Energy, by the way, is foreign owned by a combination of French and Italian investors founded in twenty nineteen by French entrepreneur Jacques vai Rat and the Agnelli family. The Agnelli family you might know their name. They own Ferrari, the Italian football team Juventus, and lots of other major staff. Now clearly these Europeans see a buck to be made building wind farms in Australia.
But as the head of the Australian Industry Group Innus Willocks said in a speech at the weekend, and here this in the context of that foreign owned wind farm in Rokewood in a set Australia doesn't make much of anything anymore.
He used figures to show.
In fact, in the year ending June twenty twenty fourth or so a year ago, saw one hundred and thirty six manufacturing businesses closed down, and in this pointed out, we don't even make peanut butter anymore.
I couldn't believe that, so I checked.
I've got a jar of bigger, crunchy peanut butter out of the pantry. It carries a label saying made in Australia. Then this with quote at least ten percent Australian produce. My point here we are with a dominant labor victory in May off the back of a promise to make things in Australia, and we are going to in the other direction at a wrapper rate, even surrounding small country towns with foreign owned and foreign made wind turbines dominating
the Australian fam farming landscape. Look, if Susanly in the Coalition want to make some noise starting tomorrow, they might start right there. Let's get into our first panel tonight. And by sheer coincidence, and I mean that given my experience yesterday, farmers in New South Wales have resoundingly rejected a wind farm project plans to build ninety wind turbines. This is between the towns have been along and Bounding. They are clashing with green energy executives. This was a
fiery hearing at the Bounding town hall yesterday. You've seen some of the vision already tonight. But here's some of that drama unfolding.
Avan Tyler's where the best is gone for the transmission lines you've driven flats?
Come on?
This is it really is? Bush?
I don't know.
Thanks the mental health, let's go into the mental health.
Everything's alive.
I'm and I know quite a few are there.
And I've got rain and out of like that is looking in those hills and all actually is turbites right now.
That farm had tried to raise the issue of mental health and someone tried to pull him away. I'm glad he kept going. This was reported in the Daily Telegraph today by James Willis, who joins me now in our panel, as well as Sky and News contributed Joe hild around.
Great to see you both, Jonames. Can you tell us more? What was the how angry was that in that room?
Well, Steve, I spent a couple of days around Yas. This is around three hours from Sydney, and it wasn't just Glenn Miller that you heard. It was a number of land owners who have been on these properties for decades, some of them dating back to World War Two. The purchases land that have been feeding the nation or clothing the nation.
When it comes to Marino wool.
They've had all sorts of issues with fires in regards to drought, they've got volatile prices. The export market has largely dried up, particularly in regards to wool, and all of a sudden, these green energy bureaucrats not bureaucrats rather, but executives have come up from Melbourne, have put a map in front of them that shows around their property and said we're going to be building ninety turbines the
size of Sydney's Crown Barangaroo, two hundred and sixty meters each. Now, the worst part about this, Steve, and I just think this is disgraceful behavior, is that a number of landholders have done secret deals to host these turbines so they'll be financially well off in the years ahead, and the neighbors on the neighboring properties just around the edges have no deal, found out about this via the neighbors, not via the private company, and are now fighting back because
they're worried about these turbines being on the boundary, the impact on land value, all the other potential impacts of the construction and the ongo maintenance and everything like that, and they're genuinely concerned about what this looks like, don't have a voice, have tried to front up, and so far they've got nowhere. So we're getting right behind them. And as you've said off the top, you mentioned the example in Victoria, this is happening right across the country
with these foreign owned net zero companies. They're coming in to make a quick buck and the farmers don't even get a cheap power bill out of it. Steve, if they're next door, you think they get clean energy or cheap energy for the next twenty years. It goes straight through to the grid they've forgotten about. I think the whole thing is disgraceful and this is one example of many across the country.
Yeah, and you just wonder, you know, where's Anthony Albaneze's election promise where he said he was going to make things in Australia. I mean, these wind turbines, Joe are largely produced in China. They're imported into the country. And as James and I have just pointed out, there these two operations one hundred and twenty two of these things at Rokewood ninety nine down there at Bounding. They're just taking me over decent agricultu land and splitting rural communities.
This is going to be end up very ugly.
Yeah.
I think the thing that you really pointed to that nailed was the fact that it is tearing farmers apart. That there are farmers who were saying, yes, I want this on my land, I can make money out of it, and there are farmers who are completely blindsided by that decision, and also the perception that these companies and operations that don't actually have any real interest in the community. There foreign owned and they just want to come in, make as much money as they can.
And get out.
I was just saying to James off Air about how a few years ago I was at a Daily Telegraph bush summit in Tamworth and this was a white hot issue and again we saw the same thing where it wasn't that there was universal opposition to the wind farms. It was the fact that people felt like the choice wasn't in their hands, that these were decisions that had already been made and they didn't get a say in them.
And that obviously makes people very anxious and angry if they think it's going to affect their livelihoods or the value of their property and be there there wasn't an actual genuine interest, or that these big wind farm operators weren't part of the community. And these regional communities are really really close knit, and there are other experiences where other operators, Australia owned operators were having the reverse result,
where they were consulting with the community. They were making sure that everyone knew where these things were going, that the path of the transmission lines or whatever it was could be negotiated, that it would have less impact, that the company would make sure they invested in community projects and things like community sports. So they were seeing as actually having a stake in the communities they were sticking
these things in. So I think these things will be done, but they have to be done a lot, a lot better, and they have to give people who were impacted either a saying what's going on and also compensation.
If they'll see.
The final point on that, if I can just make it very quickly, is that the price of knits zero and the consequence of net zero and the requirement of net zero and Frustralia to reduce its emissions surely cannot be to force farmers in an already struggling industry. I mean, who would be a farmer these days off their land for good. We've still got to feed people moving forward, and it's going to be forcing them off because of
these turbine projects or solar panels or transmission lines. Then we really really need to consider the social license here tiny towns have already done their heavy lifting and if it doesn't work, well, then we need to make a hard call.
Yeah, and you mentioned transmission lines in Victoria. I mean the Victorian government is going to force through this massive project that runs out of southern New South Wales into Victoria, linking all these things up because the current transmission lines can't cope with carrying what they're pumping out. And they've told farmers, well, this is where it's going, and you've
got no say. And if you lock your gate and refuse to let the people come on and build these transmission towers, which are not as big as the turbines, but they're still pretty big, then you'll be fined up to fourteen thousand dollars.
Joe.
I mean, we've got governments finding farmers for wanting to have their own land used the way they want to use it.
Yeah, And again it is just I mean, in a way,
it's almost about the bedside manner, isn't it. It's about governments just imposing these things from the top down and saying, well, we've got the power to do this, and we're going to do it whether you like it or not, or actually sitting down with farmers, with locals who know the landscape, and say, right, is there a way that we could put these, in this case, transmission lines in where it wouldn't be visible from the house or the neighboring property,
or where it could follow a tree line, or so it wouldn't be as intrusive. Is there a case for compensation to make up for the disruption or any use of loss of land, or even just the fact that these things are clearly not particularly nice to look at. So I think these things, you know, are going to
have to be done. But all everything I've heard is that when there is real consultation, and when communities are listened to and feel like they're given the opportunity either to benefit from it or at least be compensated for it, or at least have a say in it, then these problems can disappear pretty quickly. But when it is just a government saying, right, that's it, here's the line, we're
following it. If you don't like it, tough, because we've got the cops on our side, then that's when you see this sort of white hot anger that James's has revealed today.
On the environment and the Greens. I heard an interview today on radio with one of the founders of the Greens Party, Drew Hutton. Now, Drew Hutton and Bob Brown set up the Greens Party back in the eighties.
Now Drew's been expelled.
He had confirmed that in the interview I heard today, because he had a series of Facebook posts about the party's pro transstance. Now it wasn't what he wrote, it was the comments that came on the back of that article. Now he said, the party's co founder, he said, quote, the Greens are basically a cult, and the Colts take over the Greens. This is deeply authoritarian cult that is opposed to any debate or any free speech on issues of gender. These people would expel Bob Brown if he
said anything they disagreed with. I mean, James, the Greens are no longer the Greens that we all grew up with. I mean I remember going down the Franklin Dam interviewing Bob Brown standing there with his no damn sign. That's what the Greens were about. They're now pro Palestine. There are about a whole bunch of issues that don't have anything to do with the environment.
It was quite interesting.
Steve when we spoke about the first issue tonight in regards to these farmers fighting back. A lot of the farmers that I spoke to in the last few days around Yas would be greenies, would probably vote green, or traditionally vote close to Green, but the party has gone so far to the wacky left you couldn't even call them left now. I mean, they're sort of diagonal left.
I'd say maybe lower left. Joe would probably be able to clarify that a little bit better, but certainly we saw it the last federal election wash against the Greens and the swings towards labor and the focus that people like Adam Band had on issues in the Middle East, which I mean is just astonishing. And the fact that green governments in other parts of the world, particularly in Europe,
embrace things like nuclear power. Elected governments that are sort of in power, that are green, that are saying that we need nuclear as part of our energy mix moving forward. They've just lost their way.
They need new leadership.
They need to come back to the right or the upper right or whatever the opposite is of what I just said. But it's crazy stuff and we saw that, and they were punished at the ballot box and rightly so.
Well, Joe's an expert on the levels of left right. Clear that up for us.
But Joe, we now know why Adam Bent lost at Ceedar Melbourne, don't we. I mean Cedar Melbourne is full of Green voters, but they turned on him.
Yeah, that's right.
Basically, the Greens have become sort of hollowed down out and replaced with communists, basically by stalinists, the extreme hard left who needed a place to go after the Communist Party of Australia and various other organizations were clearly discovered they were not going to win any elections anytime soon, and that all these people basically infiltrated the Greens in a similar way. So they rushed to infiltrate the UK Labor Party under Jeremy Corbyn.
And this is the result.
I mean, imagine Bob Brown defending the vandalism or defacement of Australian wargraves or the Australian War Memorial.
I mean, it just would never ever happen.
And this party that used to be kind of perhaps slightly idealistic, but fairly you know, lovable, peaceful, harmless hippies who just wanted to save the environment has become overrun by hardcore Marxist ideologues, and so it does come with a whole suite of sort of a shopping trolley full of beliefs that you have to either take or leave on mass, in which you have to absolutely pledge, full throat at fundamental, uncompromising, one hundred percent allegiance to Otherwise
you are immediately denounced and you're effectively politically taken out the back and shot. And that's exactly what happened with Drew Hutton. The trans right stuff, that's just a mcguffin. It doesn't matter whether it's the issue of trans rights, or if it's Palestine or any host of any other issues you could name. They say, right, this is the
most ideologically pure position. This is our position. We can afford to take it, however unrealistic it is, because we never actually have to make decisions or balance a budget or be held accountable. And if you don't adopt it, you're out mate. You get taken out the back as a trader, as someone who has failed to toe the labor's party line. And again that's why you have in
Victorian Greens as well. There are all these schisms between you know, sort of people who are hardcore feminists who are now being told that they have to have taken biological male people in their bathrooms with the.
Mate taken out them, taken out the back and executed.
Joe James. Good to see you boys. Thank you very much.
Mate.
We'll catch up with you next week. Now.
I sped last week, as I said, in Adelaide, and I can tell you South Australians were filthy that an environmental, speaking of the environment, environmental disaster was unfolding on their doorstep. Now until today, this has been largely ignored by Canberra. It's an algae bloom that started south and South Australian capital that since spread north along even suburban Adelaide beaches, killing marine life, threatening tourism leading into the warmer months.
I mean, those beaches are beautiful, but who's going to drive over to South Australia to swim there if you've got this bloom attack underway?
Now.
I heard an interview on Adelaide's talkback station five Double A on Friday with the Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Murray What who basically said, oh well, I'll go and look into this outbreak. I mean what followed was a barrage of angry callers labeling worry what the
Minister for Mirrors are always looking into things now? He, I believe, was shocked by the reaction, and I tailed it over to Adelaide today to have a look for himself and talk to people in the fisheries industry about the impact. One oyster farmer by the way on your peninsula says he's not been able to harvest and cell oysters for over seventy days, so that's how long this
has been going on for. And a worker I talked to face to face on Friday pumping sand along Adelaide's beaches even told me that a baby dolphin at Glenelg had to be euthanized last week after.
It washed up barely alive.
Now late today, miraculously we learn the federal government's going to sign a check for fourteen million dollars for a rescue plan. But still no declaration of a natural disaster as you would have say, during a flood or a cyclone. Joining me now, South Australian Liberal Senator Leah blythe a senator too little, too late from Murray, what.
Dolphins, seals, all sorts of marine life.
Go ahead, you got me?
Sorry, yes, So I was going to say, this has been going on for months in South Australia and we have had marine life washing up along our beaches. I was briefed by the Department back in June and they were saying if this hit the metropolitan beaches, that would be absolute worst case scenario. That's now happened. This is far too little, too late. What has the government been doing for all of these months preparing South Australians looking
out for fisheries. I mean it's hundreds of millions of dollars. Those industries are worth to the national economy and they've heard nothing until today. So you know, this seems to be something that's happening at the eve of Federal Parliament going back. It's not enough and we want to see more.
And what flies in and starts peering at the sand. I mean he would not have a clue. I mean, I'm a South Australian, so I understand the purity of the seafood industry out of your state. Whether it's fish or whether it's crayfish, whether it's.
Oysters, prawns, you name it.
That is all at risk, let alone the impact this might have down the track on tourism.
Absolutely, and as you've mentioned, we've got oyster farmers who haven't been able to harvest their oysters and sell them on. And you know, I'm biased, I'm born and bred in Adelaide, but i think we have some of the best seafood in the world, and you know it is at risk of some of those international markets that we export into. But also we're very spoiled in South Australia. We get to eat some of the most amazing seafood and I'm
really concerned. We've got regional communities that absolutely rely on the seafood and aquaculture industries in South Australia and they haven't been able to do their jobs. So this is this is absolutely impacting the livelihoods of everyday Australians and South Australians along our coast, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of plan. And you know, I might add that these are communities that are also facing significant drought in South Australia, so this is just something else
to add to their plate. And as you've rightly mentioned, you know we will come into peak tourism season as the months get warmer. You know, do you want to be going to our beautiful, pristine seaside locations if we've got dead marine life washing up on it? You know that it's not something that our tourists are going to want to do.
Leah.
What puzzles me is Premier melnowskis, who I've got some regard for. I think, you know, he's one of the good guys in the in the Labor party. What has he been shouting at Canberra saying what are you going to do? I've not seen any reports of him making a rock solid case to his labor mates in Canberra to get this situation under control and fixed.
It seems like they were sort of burying their head in the sand, so to speak. And that's a little bit of a pun when we're looking at coastal waters. But I certainly didn't see any evidence of that. In South Australia. It was very much let's wait and watch
and see what happens. And what seems to have happened is the worst case scenario is now playing out for South Australia and it certainly appears to me as a South Australian that the government, both state and federal have been caught unawares and unprepared, and it is really really disappointing, as I said, for all of those businesses that rely on the ocean for their livelihood and tourists that want to come and enjoy the pristine waters, not to mention
just local South Australians who walk every day with their dogs and their children along the beaches. You know, we've had even instances of dogs that have been sick because of the algall blooms. So you know, this is something where I don't think the premiere of South Australia has done enough to put this absolute disaster on the map. And I think it's fair to say, you know, we've been saying for a long time that if this was on the coast of Sydney or Melbourne, we would have
seen action far sooner. And you know, today, while I welcome sum Relay, fourteen million dollars is a drop in the ocean. You know, we are talking about, you know, half a billion dollar industry and this is not going to help. That doesn't even take into account tourism providers,
you know, people that are going out recreational fishes. This is you know, far too little and I don't think we are going to see any kind of plan in terms of what does it mean when the water's warm up again with the warmer summer months coming, are we going to see the bloom get bigger?
You know, where.
Is the planning that's coming to make sure that South Australians.
Are prepared.
A complete disaster?
And you know, keep talking about it because obviously Camber needs to be embarrassed before they do anything. Senator, thank you very much for your time tonight. Now coming up after the break still to come, Victoria's facing what is called an economic day of reckoning?
Is it ever?
That's the assessment of experts from out of the state. I'll be joined by Shadow Victorian Treasurer James Newbury a little later to discuss that. But first up, politicians. They're all back in Canberra this week. The PM even walked to work with his son as the Liberal Party languishes in the polls. Radio legend Ray Hadley, a regular with Shari on a Tuesday on a Monday night, will join me live. That's up next, welcome back to see price in for Sharima.
All this week and next.
Now Prime minust Anthony Albanez. He walked to work today with his son Nice Pitchers, and he addressed the Labor Party caucus once he got there. Parliament doesn't sit until tomorrow and that will largely be ceremonial. It won't have a question time. I don't think it was exactly a visionary speech, but the Prime Minister did promise quote a year of delivery for Australians.
Have a look at what he had to say, permanently lowing people's power bills as well as helping the entire system because it takes pressure off.
The energy grid.
That is our down.
Payment on what will be our year of delivery. That is our focus. We've just been through an election. We had clear commitments and we want to deliver them this week and this fortnite. We start on the next trunch.
Well, that comment at the beginning there, it was about batteries and people being able to put the.
Energy that they actually bring in in.
Solar and wind into a battery. Well, the whole thing seemed like a grab bag of handing out money, which I guess is what got Anthony Albaniz he elected in the first place. Hex's debt payments to youngsters, maternity leaves, superannuation, minimum wage rises, all very labor promises. Joining me now Sharrige Monday Night regular and my old mate from Rato two GB days now a retired professional golfer and professional grandfather, Ray Hadley.
Great to catch up with you, my friend.
How are you who could believe it too retired or semi retired in your case shock jocks back together. We started our time to back in most two thousand at the Sydney Olympics when I only did sport and you were a trumpet three aw and gave me the gig.
And I really enjoyed it.
And here we are back there. Did all the work, well that was you did all the work.
I did all the celebrating.
Yeah, you're on that boat down on the harbor somewhere most of the time.
I think.
Anyway, we got bigger fister right now, Steve, look my eyes glaze over every time is to talk about energy.
Well, you and I at some time over the past few years have had some regard for Anthony alber Easy. I mean you used to have him regularly on radio. I used to talk to him occasionally on radio. I once went and had a very pleasant lunch with him. That was when he was both in opposition serving under Rudden. But it doesn't seem to have grown into the job at all. You're a great observer of these things. What's happened to his personality.
He's been promoted beyond his station in life, That's simply what's happened.
I used to knock around with him at football games. He's an Arden South City supporter.
Of course, when I called a lot of football back in the day, and I always had a lot of time for him. But as I just said, my eyes glaze over every time I listened to him talk about energy.
I listened to Joe and James a bit earlier.
The greens are non event now and we're relying upon Casnova Bowen and the Prime Minister to guide us through wind farms, solar panels, electric cars that only get your three hundred and fifty k's in a pinch and then recharge.
In the middle of nowhere.
We've got offshore wind farms being spoken about still, despite the fact that people that are supposed to build them from Europe said leave us out of it.
The tender process is flowed.
We don't want to do it anymore, either off Wollongong or Port Stevens and probably off the Victorian.
Coast as well.
And I mean he just said again in that clip you played for your viewers that you know he's promising reductions.
We've been listening to that for four years. Where's the two hundred and seventy five bucks we were promised all those years ago?
Never materialized and this is just another promise that he'll break down the track.
Yeah he got I.
Mean you think he would have learned, because I mean he went around promising low power bills and we never got him. As you say, it's interesting too the words that have disappeared out of the agenda. Now we don't hear much about the cost of living crisis anymore. I mean, I'll talk to you about the opposition in a moment, because part of that is their fault. But Albo doesn't seem to realize he's off running around with pandas and
wandering around the Great Wall of China. How does he think that looks to people sitting down in their lounge room tonight with their electricity bill, trying to work out if they can pay their mortgage next month.
He should be more concerned about what Donald Trump thinks about him having his fourth visit to the Chinese leader without even meeting Donald Trump, despite him being there for a fair time, and as you say, it was all about pandas it was all about feeling good and hail fellow, well met, and then misquoted a Taiwan as the Chinese do. They said, I know he's fully supporting us moving into Taiwan and taking over.
It's not what he said.
But because he's over there shaking hands and glad handing the Chinese leaders looking like one of them, well of course they're going to misquote him and misuse his language and say things he didn't say. And he's got to now clarify all that and say, well, on a second, now, I'm opposed to what they're trying to do to Taiwan. And he still has enunciated really in clear terms that we rely upon the United States of America, not just in trade, but they saved us in World War tours.
I've said here previously with.
Shari, and if we're in strife sometime down the track, we're going to need some help from them again. So he's got to really really work hard to make sure they're not offside, particularly the leader. He's got to make sure Donald Trump's happy with him, and whatever it takes, he's got to do it.
You've always been a winner in life.
How'd you like to be? Susan lee trying to run the coalition? She's staring at least six years probably in opposition. The Libs are down to the worst polling figures they've had since the nineteen forties, their primary votes down at twenty nine percent. Is that brand, in your view savable? I mean, could Jerry Harvey even savored.
No, not if he offered you five years interest free.
As far as Susan Leed's concerned, I've said before she won't lead the party.
To the next election. I wouldn't think and that's not denigrating her.
But you know they've been battling all these weeks and months since the election about gender equality and the first thing she did when she's in the chair and sack two of the most capable females that were serving under Peter Dutton. Look, it's uninspiring stuff. I'm not surprised by the news poll out the day. They've got a herculian task. Of course, it's not good use for labor. Either their
primary voters down as well, but two party preferred. They've increased their lead over what they did in May, so you know they're coasting along. But look they've been looking at themselves for the last three or four months. They've been talking about things both in New South Wales and federally that people.
Don't care about.
They don't care about gender equality, and they don't care about whether they.
Want the best person in the Liberal Party for the job.
That's what they want, and it happens to be Susan Lee, or it happens to be just hit a.
Price or anyone else. That's who they want doing it.
And they're preoccupied with all this stuff and it's just it's green stuff. And as Jay said, I mean the Greens are being wiped off the face of the earth because the environmentalists who started the party been taken over by these people who have social agendas, namely at the moment, Palestine and Gaza and supporting Hamas and all the other rubbish they go on with. And they're irrelevant now. But Susan Lee faces a peculian task to pull this all together.
I don't think she can do it. I don't know who can in the party.
Maybe Hasty down the track, I don't know, but I don't think she can lead them to the next election and have any hap of winning.
I'm glad you mention this because I mean you and I could go out with a bag one hundred dollar notes in the street. You would not find one person who could tell you who the opposition leader of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and you might get wa because it's Basil Zempless and he's known for doing what you do so well, calling sport. They wouldn't know, They
would have no clue about the rest of them. So they're not only in trouble at a federal level, they're just a basket case in the States.
Well, I'd leave Victoria to you because of your expertise down there, but I can talk with some authority in New South Wales. Mark Speakman, every day he leads the Liberal Opposition is a day further away from being elected. Chris Mins, who's not perfect but pretty good, plays him off a break and when really important things are up for the bait. Mark Speakman's are catautionous. Elian's further left
than some people on the Labor Party. But the problem is the same as Susan Lee, who you replace him with. There's some very capable women in the Liberal Party in New South Wales, but they're not quite ready I don't think to take over.
But it's the same deal with him.
They can't possibly win an election in New South Wales with.
Mark Speakman as leader. And one day they're.
Going to wake up with the fact and say, oh jeez, we've made a blue ear.
We better move in another direction.
And as you say, you know among New South Wales vaders, I think you find half of them, whether the.
Liberal supporters Labor supporters. If you put a photo up, they'd be flat out identifying here he is.
I just want to give you a minute to talk about the Newsander campaign to Save the Children campaign. I know you're an ambassador for this. What is this trying to achieve?
Well, quite simply working with children checks conducted on the state by state basis, Steve hasn't worked.
It hasn't worked. Pedophiles by their.
Very nature are devious individuals and what they're able to do is cherry picked from one jurisdiction to the other, as we've seen. Without going into the legalities of it in both Queensland and Victoria at the moment, and after the Raw Commission that Julia Gillard God bless Her initiated, we get to twenty eighteen and the commissioners said, among many recommendations, we need one national body for working with children.
We've had successive Liberal National Party governments and Labor governments ignore that plea from the Raw Commissioners. So surely, to goodness Michelle Rowland, the Attorney General and the attorneys general across the states, and the chief ministers from the two places we're talking about, Canberra, the Act and Northern Territory, they've already said, along with five premiers, we need to make it national. It's too hard to deal with on a state by state basis. A national register is needed.
As you and I well know. I'm a grandfather of seven, a father of four. We need to protect children. They're our greatest asset. And at the moment, given the charges against these men in Victoria and the conviction and the guilty plea from the Blake in Queensland Ashlee Griffith, I mean it's a race to the bottom. So it's a very simple one for the Attorney General look, I beg you, Michelle, you're.
A good person.
Line them up at the meeting next month and say, listen, guys, what we're doing is it's national.
No debate required, it's national.
We're going to formulate a policy to give the working with children check a national register so these grubs can't cherry pick where they work with children.
Yeah, well said, good luck with that campaign. I hope it's very successful. Very nice to catch up with you, my old friend, Ray Hadley. They're now coming up after the break of Bombshall report from the US Director of National Intelligence accusing the Obama administration of all things of a year's long campaign or a coup against Donald Trump. Skye News contributor Kosher Gada has the latest on that, plus surging crime woes and tea and biscuits. What on earth's going on in Victoria?
Welcome back.
Now.
I've learned not to be surprised by anything the Victorian State Labor government does. But this will make your hair curl. I mean, there's got to be night works on the dreaded suburban rail loop at a place called Heatherton in Melbourne, and the people who live in the surrounding areas had a knock on the door and someone handed over a package which was supposed to make them feel better about being awake all night while machinery bores its way through
the ground around their houses. They were given a paper bag full of tea and biscuits. I'm not kidding that construction of a stabling yard. It'll continue until ten o'clock at night, every night, seven days a week. Joining me in our shadow, Victorian Treasurer James Newbury. I mean you imagine the look on people's faces, James, when someone turns up with a package of tea and biscuits and saying, I don't worry, We're only going to work till ten o'clock at night.
Pretty condescending, isn't it.
Can you imagine someone jack hammering against your wall and just Cindra Avellan sends you a tea bag. I mean, seriously, it's got to be a joke. Sadly, in Victoria, it's not. So you're going to be up all night and just Cinterre Allen's solution is to send you a couple of tea bags. Well, you're going to be sitting up in bed because the government doesn't care about where you live.
It doesn't care about your amenity.
It doesn't care about Frankly, you're having sleep at night, But don't worry.
Just Cintra Allen's going to send you a tea bag.
I mean, let's be frank I mean, she's really giving Victorians the two fingers salute, isn't she?
She is?
And I'll get it on a moment to machetes. And what's happened at another shopping center in the last three or four days where a man tragically lost his hand.
In your role as.
Shadow treasure businesses in Victoria, you hear about it day after day after day. Places shutting in record numbers, unemployment, tough regulation. And there's some new data in the Herald some today showing a forty eight percent annual increase of the number of businesses that have collapsed or in have a financial controller in charge. Doesn't surprise me. I bet it doesn't surprise you.
No. And the speed of closure, by comparison to other states is what's really shocking. So the level of growth year on year is exponential in Victoria. But you hear lots of numbers, and you know forty four thy three hundred roughly over the last year but let me break that down so that people understand just under a dozen a.
Day over the year, every day over the year. So that's the number you need to remember.
In Victoria, about a dozen a day are closing in this state.
Are we surprised? No taxes?
We know the government's already increased over sixty two of them. We know that taxes are too high. We know that energy costs are too high. I mean, is there anything that government's not doing well?
Actually, there's one thing.
The government's not doing to businesses. It's not seending them tea bags. But apart from that, it's taxing them out of existence. It's bleeding them through energy costs. And now we're losing on average twelve a day, a dozen a day.
It's shocking.
I mean, frankly, we've got a small business closure crisis and the only thing the Victorian government is doing is it's in the business of shutting down businesses.
Yeah, it's a tragedy and the economy is just so weak it's on its knees. I mentioned machetes. I thought that it takes a lot to shock Melbourne people now because we've seen pictures of people running down Chapel Street with a machete in their hands. But a bloke in a shopping center at the weekend there was two attacks, one a teenager still fighting for his life, another tragically losing his hand. These attacks came where they just they wanted his phone and they lashed out at a machete.
I thought the Premier was going to ban machetes, I mean the sales ban, but she's going to wait until September to make it illegal as I understand it, to carry.
One, that's right. I mean, why wait?
These crimes, every single crime that occurs over the delay until the Premier does something properly and brings in the changes now are frankly at the government's feet, aren't they. I mean, just down the road from where I am now, only a couple of weeks ago, there was a shooting in a suburban street and I met with dozens of local residents who are saying, well, what if there's a ricochet bullet?
What about our kids?
I mean, you go to a super you go to a shopping center and you might have your hands chopped off. You're in a suburban street and you've got to watch out for stray bullets. The proof is in the pudding in Victoria. And as I said, every time the government talks about crime, and just Cindre Allen talks about crime, I say, she's not going to fix it. You know, Victorians don't believe she's going.
To fix it.
They're all hollow words. The premier is just the queen of vacant words.
She says things to try and buy herself time.
But you know, we're contesting with stray bullets and machetes chopping off people's hands in Victoria. If you're living into state, you think this is some kind of dream. I mean, you can't imagine this stuff and stuff happening in Victoria. But just I mean, it's shocking, isn't it.
It's an absolute nightmare. I mean, she is just a failure as a premier. There's no doubt about that. James, as usual, thank you very much for joining us. We'll catch up again soon. Now, coming up, Tulsi Gabbard's shocking Obama accusation and another US socialist secures mayoral nomination. Sky News contributor Kosher Garda talks about that right after the break. Welcome back, Let's talk American politics. Now, let's bring in Kosher Garda Sky News contributor Kosher. Great to see you again.
What has Tulsi Gabbard, who is the Director of National Intelligence, what she's accused the former Obama administration of doing a coup?
Yes, creative with you, Steve, So. This is pretty historic news. But I would say it's the beginnings of what could be historic rather than the release itself in terms of what kind of accountability is received because of it or
is effectuated because of it. This is all about, you know, what's been now in the monikerb been known as Russia gauge, or the Russia collusion hoax or Trump cocluding with Russia, that whole thing that has been largely discredited and it led to the Mulor investigation and all sorts of other things that ended up doing nothing. And Trump obviously has
been re elected in a landslide victory. However, the American people feel like that the accountability for that and a true proper investigation for that has never quite been had, even though other actors like Devin Nunaz and Ratcliffe and
others have talked about it. She now in her role for the last six months, has gone in there and done sort of a forensic audit of what kind of steps led to that that foundational report that led the Obama administration into believing that there is collusion with Russian that the quote unquote hacked the US election in twenty sixteen.
And she's basically released over one hundred documents that detail that there is no intelligence that was saying that was the case until December, right after President elect Trump won the election, and then suddenly they did a U turn and created this intelligence allegedly that led to the ground sool of everything else that happened from that. So this is a big deal if it leads to indictments and arrests of people, maybe not Obama but others in his
orbit Clapper, Brennan, et cetera. But that we'll sit with the DOJ. Pambondi, and it remains to be seen if that happens.
Democrats A said, I mean, how populous is former President Obama still in the States.
He is popular, and that is one of many reasons why people believe he is untouchable. Even if these allegations are true, and how much was he personally involved in it? Obviously none of that has been litigated. It would be a big deal to go after any president, including him. The issue is the rubicon has been crossed the way in which they went after Trump from raiding his home and indiced in him and rusting him for all sorts of things. But I don't think that's going to happen.
It's more other people that are not exactly sympathetic figures around him, like the head of the CIA under him, John Brennan, or the head of d and I, James Clapper, James Comey of the FBI. These people are not exactly sympathetic figures. And it will be very interesting if Tulsia Gabbard's released today is a first step towards seeing some
kind of accountability in terms of indictments. But a lot of people are not holding their breath because it's been eight years now since that and nothing has really happened.
Speaking of the Democrats, what's the Minnesota branch up to that I've endorsed a Democrat, socialist and farlift candidate Oma Feta.
What do we know about him?
Yeah? So this is from Minnesota, of course, which was the springboard for the infamous twenty twenty riots in the Black Lives Matter movement and all the rest of it. He is being indoorsed. He's another socialist who was born in DC, but he's of Somalian heritage and he just feels like he's cut from a cloth as Mamdani from
New York. And if you look around the world, the mayor of London, the mayor of Rotterdam, the mayor of Calgary are all sort of similar people with very left wing socialist proclivities, and they come from backgrounds that are probably not representative of the majority of these cities that
they're presiding over. He hasn't won, of course. The election is in November, and he's going up against the incumbent, who was somebody who famously cried crocodile tears during Black Lives Matter Jacob Fryes his name and did a lot
of pandering to this group. And I think the lesson here is pandering will only take you so far, because now he's potentially being challenged by somebody that is much more to the left of him, and everything that he did is not necessarily serving him very well for his reelection.
VID.
Yeah, it's not going to go well for them. Kausher, appreciate your time. I'll talk to you again next Monday, not now.
The prisons.
Speaking to prison Trump, he's a bit to go to Scotland. He's going to open a brand new golf course. He'll be out of the country, and he's He also told the Washington Commanders and the MLB's Cleveland Guardians, go back to your original names. Forget about that. Become the Washington Redskins again, and become the Cleveland Indians again. I wonder how that'll go down with those various teams. But Donald Trump, he does what he wants. I'll see himorrow night.