Live on Sky News. This is Shari.
Worky to the show, Steep Price filling in sitting in the chief of Shari all this week on a day, of course, when the forty eighth Parliament of Australia finally got back to business after a ten week siesta following
that thumping labor win on May tenth. Watching some of the messages of welcome back and paying tribute to re elected Speaker Milton Dick did make me think that they and I mean federal politicians, safe in their little camera bubble on hefty salaries and generous superannuation schemes, paid for travel and subsidized accommodation, they don't really get how tough it is today for so many people in wider Australia. Might've been too cynical, probably, but camera is not the
real world. On that, and coming up tonight on Sharhi, the great twenty twenty five election swindle that was Medicare and the promise by the Prime Minister that the only card you'll need it your GP is your Medicare card, not your credit card. Really more about that in just a moment. Plus Australia and twenty other countries have signed a joint statement calling for an immediate end to what our government has called the inhumane killing of Palestinians in Gaza.
We'll get the view of former Israeli Ambassador Dave Shama on that. And at the same time, Victoria's first Jewish Governor, Linda Dessau, on a podcast with my old colleague Neil Mitchell, has called out protesting hate speech and she wants action first. Though tonight and I mentioned this the election medi Scare campaign ten weeks ago that saw millions of Australians fall for a stunt so blatantly false that we should all
now feel pretty stupid. At the start of that campaign that saw Labor returned to government with a massive majority, the Prime Minister, almost on day one, and presumably acting out some rehearsed campaign theme, pulled out his own little green Medicare card and utter these words, all you should need to see a doctor for free in Australia is your Medicare card, not your credit card. Here he was
time and time again. Now, the first time I saw it, I thought, here we go again, another election, another Medicare scare campaign. Surely no one will fall for that a second time. Well, how wrong was I I mean, anyone who's been to the doctor in many places around Australia know that finding a bog billing practice that doesn't have a gap payment you make up yourself is about as hard as the Prime Minister getting a meeting with Donald Trump.
But there he was all over the country, Anthony Albaneze promising this falsehood that only he can get you free time with the GP. And he went further, suggesting another lie that Peter Dutton, the Opposition leader, was planning to quote cut bog billing off at the knees and that
a coalition government would quote dismantle media care. I mean it was a discipline display of political bastardry and Albanizy knew he was making stuff up, but clearly many naive Australians actually wanted to believe this stuff and did well. Fantasy always has a way of coming crashing back to earth. The Australian Newspaper, on page one today called out the
reality of that political spin. They reveal that nearly twenty five percent of doctors one in four clinics doctors clinics will not take up the Medicare bulk billy incentive and who says so, well, surprise, surprise, the Department of Health. Yes, the bureaucrats who run the department have sent that assessment
to the Minister of Health Mark Butler. Now, if I take you back to last February, three months before the election, Labor announced it would spend eight point five billion dollars of your money to deliver eighteen million, eighteen million more GP visits a year. I mean, see how those figures they just slide off the tongue. These people can say anything they like to get elected, but can they deliver once back in office. Well, the public servants are in
written on paper say it's not going to happen. The devil was always in the detail. The funding was to be spread over four years and aimed, remember that word, aimed to deliver bulk billing rates of ninety percent by twenty thirty. Well, that's after two more elections, So we can keep this fantasy idea running through until then. I
presume these pesky public servants. By the way, we're also telling some home truths, like how bulk billing services had wait for it halved in the past three years, down to twenty six percent of all clinics, so much for the little green card. I'd suggest very clearly you don't throw away that credit card just yet accident. Let's bring
in our first panel for tonight. I've delighted that former Speaker of the House prom and Bishop is with us, and former Liberal Senator Holly Hughes joins us as well. You two can take turns bashing up the government here. I'll start with you, Broman. How is it that we can go through a full election campaign making stuff up about Medicare, telling lies about medi Scare and what the coalition would do, and we all know that it's not correct.
How can you just actually stand up there and do that day after day?
Because the whole campaign by the Labor Party was based on lies, all of it. I mean, Chalmers told us that the budget was in great shape after the election. It's not sustainable, but this Medicare thing, there was an opportunity there for the opposition to do something about it. And you know at that first debate that Sky conducted when he headed up the card, petered it up and said well, did you also have to use your credit card? And the woman said yes, Well let me tell you
I just picked up this. I had to attend to doctor surgery recently to get a little frozen thing on my wrist and one hundred and thirty dollars Medicare benefit twenty one. I needed my credit card, not my Medicare card. So the whole contention that the Prime Minister went on with was just one simple, great big lie. Twenty five percent of people of doctors are not going to do
it because they simply can't afford to. So I just didn't understand why the Opposition didn't take up the opportunity to have a whole phalanx of demonstrators outside where he was making a statement about his little Medicare card and saying, look, it's not true, we need our credit card. There was an opportunity there for a whole campaign to be framed, but it didn't happen. I just don't know what happened to the campaign for the opposition, Holly.
I mean Bromin's right. This is the second campaign in a row where a medi scare has worked, So you would think after the Coalition got done over by the first time round, they would have been ready the second time around and would have immediately jumped on top of Anthony Albanesi and say stop telling lies to people about Medicare.
Yeah, but the problem is Steve and bromwhen he is one hundred percent correct, that we have a media who is just completely enable to ever tell the truth or actually highlight the lies that were being told.
Medicare BULT billing.
Rates continued to decline right throughout the Labor Government's first term of government, and this was absolutely on display for everybody to see that every time Albanezi held up that Medicare card, absolutely no one in the media pack traveling with him ever challenged him. There was no coverage challenging what the actual BULT billing rates are and the Medicare Scare campaign, unfortunately, I think, has done real damage when it comes to the Coalition and their ability to actually
have a conversation about Medicare. Medicare is a system that is almost fundamentally broken now when you look when it was set up under Whitlam versus now and the developments we've seen in healthcare, particularly preventive healthcare, and how the system is working.
It's not fit for purpose.
But unfortunately, no one is ever prepared to ever have a conversation about this. And as soon as the Coalition mentioned medicare, it turns into medi scare Mark two three four five. It is just obscene that Albinezy is consistently allowed to get away with these lies.
And then after the election the media.
Goes, oh, my goodness, what a shock that this actually is never going to occur.
I mean, any.
Blind Freddie that had been following politics the last three years could have told you it was never going to occur, but no one ever challenged him about that.
That's why we.
Needed a can You would have hoped that you would have hoped, Brombin, that the AMA, the doctors might have come out and said, well, hang in a minute, this still is not as good as you're trying to make out it is. We're not going to bulk build. Why didn't they do that?
Because the AMA, I'm afraid, aren't the AMA that used to be under Brenda Nelson for instance, seems to be a different animal these days. And I'm saying that when you're in a fight as the opposition, you as the opposition, have to craft your campaign to make the most of the to point out to people where the government is telling lies. Now, if you had a demonstration of a few hundred people that you managed to put together or
even one hundred people. There's something there that's going to be captured in the mainstream media even if they don't like the policy.
So but there were doctors Bromwin that did come out saying they were not going to be able to bill at this rate.
Doctors were saying that.
I remember there was one particular female doctor who came out and said, this is an absolute fallacy.
But why is the government verbaling how I'm going to run my practice.
Yet it got minimal coverage unless you live in the the world we do, where we follow it so closely. It's just not being picked up because it's not a sexy thirty second or twenty second TikTok video with albneasy and a Medicare card.
Well, this is true.
Maybe what we needed to do was dress someone up as a Medicare card and get them to stand outside Anthony Albanesi's media conference every time he spoke and said, you're telling lies about me.
Absolutely right, Steve I suggested having a bunch of demonstrators. Your idea is pretty good too. But the fact of the matter was it was just let go through to the keeper.
Let's talk about the green energy obsession of this government. I mean we're now I've got neighbors fighting neighbors all around Australia over these wind turbines. I mean there was a meeting down in southern New South Wales just at the weekend. James Willis talked about it with us on the program last night. Been along and bounding are being torn apart by it. I was in a place called
Rookwood at the weekend. I saw one hundred and twenty two wind turbines, you know, as tall as the crown towers in Sydney, around a small village of two hundred people, so you know, almost one turbine for each person. This has just got completely out of control, Holly. The rural communities are again being let down by the federal government, the state government and local councils all to put these things up. It's just such a dreadful thing. It's going to get out of a lot worse, I reckon.
But again it's just lies that are being told and there's very little coverage of what the reality is. We were coming home from Canandra on the wekend back to Sydney and the entire landscape when you looked out over what used to be absolutely amazing farming land in the central West. At the top of every single hill, I couldn't even cowt how many wind.
Turbines there were.
And it is rural and regional communities who are bearing the brunt of this transition. They're bearing the brunt of the transmission lines going through their properties, devaluing theirties and.
Costing the Australian taxpayer.
Billions, if not ultimately a trillion dollars for something that in effect is destroying our grid. We are tying our hands both hands behind our back when we're trying to compete on the international stage with our energy costs going through the roof. There's wind turbines on e turn about
thirty percent of the time. The cold generation has to continue regardless of whether the wind's blowing or the sun shining, because you can't ramp coal up and on at any different given moments, so your missions are exactly the same. The Australian people are being sold an absolute pup and
it's because the energy system is so complex. It again, isn't a TikTok video that it can explain the energy system to the Australian people and they're told by people in the cities that they're going to get free or cheap energy through this renewable that it's cheap on free energy from the sun and the wind, and it is an hour and out line. And I mean, don't even get me started on the Chinese inverters, on the solar system.
Where we're giving access to our energy grid to someone who is a foreign sovereign power is it is insanity on steroids. Yet the average puntry in the street would have absolutely no idea about the complexity. And my heart goes out to these communities that are being whipped apart with these god awful wind turbines.
They're an absolute blight on the landscape. And yet you know what they do.
They put in wind turbine viewing platforms. I saw a couple of signs to them coming back the back way through Manduram from Canandre who wants to stand on a platform and look at bloody wind turbines.
The problem bromin the situation here is, of course, you know, had the Governor general stand up there today and talk about the next three years under labor, and she talked about how labor is determined by twenty thirty to have eighty five percent of our energy come from renewables. I mean, it's not going to happen, but we're going to create this huge mess. We haven't even talked about transmission lines. They're just as buddy bad as what the turbines are.
Well, that's the problem, Steve. But if we look at the specific problem and yes, those turbines are all going to be coming from China. Now, what went on with mister Alberinezi in his two hour chat with President z The Chinese Communist Party rule in China has an economy which is in not good shape. What agreement was brought about about more and more of these coming from China? And will they be able to control our energy system? As for the transmission lines, that is a huge expense.
Huge We've got three big expenses so called rewiring Australia, the NDIS and defense. We can't afford all three. If we go back to have being a sensible, affordable policy of using our own resources instead of exporting them away for others and using our fossil fuels and having cheap electricity again, then we can afford to increase our defense expenditure, which we're going to have to do, and we can
afford the NDIS. But the way the government is going this country is going to reckon ruin over a long over a shorter period of time than people might have once thought. So I just think there has to be a reality check against this prohibition about utilizing our own gas, about keeping our coal fire power stations going here in New South Wales, if it wasn't a Queensland, our lights
would be going out. We're talking about subsidizing our aminium smelters which have been creating lots of jobs for people and exports, but now because of the cost of electricity, they're no longer feasible, so we are being denuded. We're going right back to being a farm and a mine
as the only source of revenue. And this government seems determined to destroy small family farms or even larger family firms, because they're going to destroy them with their super tax, and they're destroying them with this appalling turbines that they're putting in place, which let me tell you, each of those two boys needs a lot of oil to make it work, and only last years.
Absolute disgrace. I mean, just for you, go Bromin, you did the difficult job of speaker. What did you make of the speaker being re elected? Today's Milton Dicks have been doing a good job.
Yes, I think he has, and I must say he's extended a courtesy to me, which I've appreciated very much as a former speaker. I was invited to go down today, but I had other commitments that wasn't possible. But I think he is a fair speaker.
Holly, what do you think.
So declare an interest.
Milton's been one of my best mates for over twenty years and.
It was his birthday yesterday, so I was nice.
He's got a belated birthday present being really re elected at speaker. I think the fact he's throwing more of his own momb than anybody else out shows he does try and actually an impartiality. He's probably also one of the nicest guys you'll meet in politics. Absolutely doubt there's not anyone I know that's pretty much universally liked across
the board, and that would be Milton. So I think it's a great peak and I'm glad that he's re elected, and well done Pauline for nominating Pocock today against Soul Lions.
But unfortunately didn't have the fortitude.
I was just scared to say. With regard to Milton, he did send to throw out some of the same people I used to throw out.
Some things never change, Ollie Broman, thank you very much. I'll catch you. So now it's Anthony Albanie's official first day back in Canberra. As we said, now this was a chance for the minister to do something different and show you know, some courage, some leadership. But it looks like it's going to be another three years of undermining Israel. Now the Labor government has slapped its name on a declaration condemning Israel for its actions in Gaza, along with
I think it's twenty twenty five other countries. Now, as if that wasn't bad enough, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke then had to twist the knife. Take a look at this.
We've seen too many images of children being killed, of horrific slaughter, of churches being bombed. The images that we've seen have been pretty clear that so much of this is indefensible. And as that statement referred to aid being drip fed in, none of the changes the fact that the hostages need to be released. Of course, that needs to happen, but what we are watching on the other side of the world is indefensible.
They also always say truth is the first casualty of any war. Liberal Senator and former Ambassador Israel Dave Sharma has been kind enough to join us. David, what did you make in Australia putting its name to that declaration.
Look, I don't think we should have done it in blunt terms. I think if we've got concerns about how Israel is conducting itself, we should express those privately. But my view here is there is a ceasefire proposal on the table that the US has formulated along with Katara, along with Egypt, that Israel has agreed to that would allow for the release of at least some of the hostages, the release of several hundred Palestinian prisoners, the full resumption
of humanitarian assistance. And it's Hamas that steadfastly refuses to accept that ceasefire deal, as has been the case now over several months. So I would like to see an end to the fighting. I'm sure many people around the world would, but we need two parties to agree to that. One is Israel, the other one is Hamas and Hamas thus far is refusing to do so.
Well, the US reaction was pretty blunt, and I think they described it as disgraceful agreement. I mean, here we are again doing something completely different to what our key ally is doing. What do you think I saw some Israeli comments about this. I mean they just must be shaking their heads when they considered Australia and you were there as the ambassador, as one of their great friends in the world.
Well, look, we did used to have a very close and supportive relationship. Didn't mean we agreed on everything. Sometimes we had quite blunt and frank disagreements in private. But you know, when it came to existential questions, Israel's right to exist, Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism, is right in this instance, to recover its hostages. You know, we were fully supportive of them because those reflected Australian values,
Australian priorities, and Australian interests. And I think the only way you can interpret, you know, this statement, like many before it is it's not really about changing the reality on the ground. You know, Hamas is not listening, ISAs not listening. It's about messaging to a domestic audience here in Australia.
How do we pick apart what's reality and what's propaganda? I mean, I know that's a difficult question. But you know, we see media coverage from the Palestinian side and we see media coverage from the Israeli side. How does a normal person wanting to understand what exactly is going on supposed to work out what's the truth?
Look, it's very difficult, and you know, I have a lot of contacts and experience in the region, but I struggle with that sometimes as well. I mean you've got to remember, though, that all the news that's coming out of Gaza, you know, there's no independent international journalists in there.
They're either al Jazeer or affiliated with Hamas or in some way linked to the Muslim Brotherhood move and they have a particular narrative or world view that they are trying to portray and put across and it's hard to get an outsider, independent view of what's going on. I mean, by all means, the Israeli media has a different perspective which they offer, but they don't always have people in on the ground in Gaza. So I think there's no doubt that it's a difficult situation for the civilian.
Population in Gaza right now.
But you know, you hear different reports about the level of hardship, humanitarians suffering, how much food is going in, how many trucks are going in each day. But you know, I would test and prioritize and value Israeli government sources over those that are being provided figures and the facts that are being provided by hamas Information Ministry or Health ministry or Education ministry.
Fellow Senator Marine for RICKI stage to protest in Parliament today. She had a sign in the chamber which she's not supposed to have. What did you make of that.
Look?
I thought it was infantile. I thought it it was a stunt. It was undergraduate in nature, or maybe even high school in nature. You know it demeans. Being a senator or being an electric representative is an immense privilege. You have a platform, You're able to give speeches, You're able to come on media shows like this, you have the opportunity to articulate your voice. But for her and to try and upstage an important occasion in Australia's democratic system.
The opening addressed by the Governor General with that sort of puerile stunt. I think it's just it shows a great disrespect for Australian institutions and Australian democratic norms, and I don't think it's not like she has denied opportunities to speak out on this issue in many other forums.
We had a large propellestinning protest outside Parliament House. I guess that's to be expected. Some of the signage boarded on hate speech as far as I could work out, they were outside Parliament House. The Greens across went out there and addressed that protest. No one's saying you can't protest, but you know, calling and suggesting that the Prime Minister has blood on his hands is completely over the top, isn't it.
I think so.
I mean, I don't know if these protesters realize this, but I think you know, they vastly overestimated Australia's influence on developments in a conflict on the other side of the world. You know, it doesn't matter what Anthony Albneasy does or what the Australian government does. You know, we're not single handedly going to be able to convince her
Musk to release the hostages. All we can do is add our voice and our way to sensible opinions, but that these people who are protesting seem to think that the sole preoccupation of Australia should not be our own citizens, our own interests, our own priorities, should be to try and to address the conflict around the other side of the world with means that we just simply don't have. I mean, I find it hard to know what these protests actually expect they will be able to achieve by this.
Just finally, I mean, on a positive note, I was pleased to see today retired Victorian Governor Linda desou on a podcast with my old colleague Neil Mitchell, has called out the anti Israel protests that have taken place in Melbourne, people chanting death, death to the IDF. She came out very strongly today and she said, look, after nine to eleven, we were very careful about what happened with our Islamic community.
We don't seem to be paying the same amount of care to the Jewish community in the wake of what happened on October the seventh. I mean, that's a positive, isn't it that someone at a senior level like Linda Dessau would come out and say that.
I think, firstly that's an excellent and highly accurate point.
But yes, it's important that people who are held in high regard by the public, who are not seen as partisan or political in any sense, who've held high office, come out and state what needs to be said, which is that we have done a terrible job as Australians collectively institutions, governments but also citizens in protecting our Jewish community and making sure that they can enjoy the same rights and freedoms as other citizens do and instead of
allowing them to be victimized or scapegoated or held responsible for the actions of a foreign state.
Do chama good to catch up, Thank you very much. I should point out, of course, that Linda Dessau was the first Jewish governor in Victoria. Now coming up after the break, Anthony Ibnez, he's playing musical chairs with the Lower House seating arrangements. This is going to be great to see tomorrow who gets to sit where. GXO Strategies director Cameron Milner and former Labor advisor Darren Barnett will look at the winners and I can tell you there's
a few losers as well. But first up, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health will rip into Labour's bulk billing fail. That's up next, welcome back, toteve Price in. I want to go back to what was Labour's medi Scare campaign, not during one election campaign, but during the last two election campaigns. Now, despite the Prime Minister's best efforts, it's believed one quarter so twenty five percent of GP clinics
will not sign up to his bulk billing program. Now, as I told you at the beginning of the program, right through the last election campaign, the PM loved to pull out his Medicare card and wave it around. He had his name blacked out, and he promised that if you were to go to a doctor, that's the only card you needed. You didn't need a credit card. Well, The Australian Today reported that it's not going to happen
that way. And look, I can afford to pay for my medical bills, but I don't even know where I would find a bulk billing clinic in the areas where I live. Joining me now as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health, Sam Buraal Sam great to catch up. I mean, my first question to you would be given how well you know the regions. How easy is it to find a bulk billing GP in the bush?
Oh well, Steve, it's very difficult to find a GP full stop, let alone a bulk billing one. And this is just an example of the fact that Labour's very good at campaigning and not so good at governing, because it looks like this policy is all over the place. Like you, I saw the Prime Minister pulling out the Medicare card and waving it all around and pretty much
promising Australians that that's the only card you're going to need. Well, it turns out that they're going to need their credit card a lot more than people had been led to believe, and that credit cards already under heaps of pressure with the cost of living crisis, food, with the Albanzi government's attack on agriculture, and of course the energy crisis that we have.
Just how bad is it in regional Australia when it comes to getting the same sort of medical attention you can get and you take for granted in the city.
Well, it's very difficult. I mean, we have this continuing problem of acting professional people to come and live and work in the regions, and I always try and sell it. It's a beautiful place to live, it's a wonderful place
to raise a family and start a business. But you know, coalition governments seem to be good at incentivizing professionals to work in regional areas, and then when labor governments come in they take those incentives away, and we see a lot of doctors and other health professionals move to what labor might call regional areas, but really a suburb of
Newcastle or Wollongong's not really a regional area. And then we lose health professionals from places that really need them, like the town where I live in Sheperdon, but even more remote places up through New South Wales and Queensland and over in the West. So it is very difficult.
We have all of these.
Efforts to try and get professionals trained in regional areas and working in regional areas, and then we get a labor government to come in and undo it.
So I guess what really happens on the ground, And you'd know better than anyone is in a place chepend and if people can't get bog builled at a GP clinic they're likely to turn up at the local hospital with just some reasonably minor ailment, yes.
Steve, Well, either that or they don't go and get any preventative or sort of you know, immediately curative first medical treatment, and the problem becomes a lot worse and a lot worse just because they haven't been to see a doctor because they can't afford it. And then by the time they do turn up to the emergency department or finally getting to see a doctor, we've got a problem that's a lot worse. That's a lot worse than.
It already was.
So, you know, the failure of sort of health policy in the regions. Again, Labor's very good at campaigning and saying what they're going to do, but then when the policy doesn't work, it's people in particularly in the regional areas that suffer.
I'm particularly critical of state and federal governments. State governments, and you and I both live in Victoria. The Allen Labor government governs for Melbourne. It gives no regard at all for the regions. I mean, I was in regional Victoria just last weekend and some of the state of the roads I had to basically crawl along the road between Dunkeldon and Rokewood because of the potholes there. I mean, it was just horrendous.
Yeah, well dunk Holdon, dunk Keldon and those areas aren't the only place I mean up in the Golden Valley, which where the roads not just a convenience, it's the pathway for which most of the food produce that's made in the Golden Valley gets to the Port of Melbourne. So for the road infrastructure to be so bad means that businesses are constantly damaging equipment. You know, it costs a huge amount of repair trucks that have to hit potholes.
So yeah, Regional Victoria is struggling at the moment because they've had a government that's basically given up on them. And even if the Victorian wanted the Victorian government wanted to do something about this, they've run the economy so badly that they don't really have the money to be able to deal with it because of terrible decisions such as the Commonwealth Games debarkle and the blowouts in major projects. So we're feeling a bit vulnerable in Victoria with a
government that hasn't managed the public finances at all. Well, and were a bit worried where that goes. Hopefully there's a change of government there next year.
Sam.
Just finally you having the same issue in your electorate as many others are, with this argument between different factions on whether to install wind turbines or not. And let alone the fact you're going to get transmission lines plowed through where you live.
How bad is it? Yeah, it's very bad.
Look, it's bad about wind turbines. We've got people, you know, who have set up housing developments who now may have wind turbines less than a kilometer away from where they live and they've got no recourse against that. But particularly galling for me is solar farms or as they should be called, solar factories being put on really prime agricultural land.
And there's a place called colbn Abon in my electorate that's got the most beautiful cropping land you know, produces canola wheat, some of the best agricultural land you'll get, and there's been a planning permit issued to be able to cover that with six hundred and fifty hectares of solar panels. I mean, I'm not against solar where it works or where it doesn't damage our ability to produce agricultural crops. But the rollout with renewables at the moment is just out of control.
That certainly is sam. Good on you, mate, thank you for joining us tonight. Still to come now, Victorian former governor I mentioned this, Linda Dessau was called out for stricter measures against hate speech. This is in the anti Israel protests that we see every weekend. I'll talk to Victorian Liberal MP David Southwick about that. Plus, Parliament's back in session today and there'll be a question time tomorrow.
It's given us plenty to discuss with our political panelists Cameron Milner and Darren Barnett.
That's up next.
Welcome back Parliament back today. Let's jump into our political panel with GXO Strategies Director and former Chief of Staff to Bill Shorten, Cameron Milner and former Press Secretary to Julia Gillard Darren Barnett. Now for a political panel, the most obvious thing is to start with is the return to Parliament. Politicians have all filed down to Canberra for the usual pomp and ceremony question time tomorrow. I think
they'll all be excited about that. It's been a great distraction for the PM while he's played musical chairs in the Lower House. Now I really want to tap into your experience you two about this. There was an interesting piece in The Australian Today which looks at where individual MPs have been seated. I do note, by the way that Susan Lee does have the same issue. She puts people around behind her that she wants the nation to
get to know Cameron, Ali France and Sarah Witty. Now Ali France of course beat Peter Dutton in his seat, and Sarah Whitty, thank god for her, got rid of Adam Bant in Melbourne. They've been praaced right behind the PM and the Treasurer. What do you make of that?
Well, it's the theater of Parliament, isn't it. I mean, ultimately you want to put women behind male leaders. That typically is the rule of rual thumb, Darren, You and I would have seen that in our times in the back rooms as well, but especially also for people who've just had big wins. That's what you also want to have. So you know, Liberals is to do it with marginals MPs. Labour's doing it the same. But yes, to your point, isn't it fantastic where Labor and p rather than Adam bands in.
The chamber as oh. I just think that she deserves a gold medal. Let go Darren, when you were running things for Julia Gillard, actually sit down and strategize this sort of stuff, did you say and do people put in a bid? Does someone go, oh, mate, I'll buy your dinner at the best pub in Camber tomorrow night if you can get me two rows back in the center of the seat.
I think it's more it's to do with the marginal seat. So you'll always find the member for Bass for example, whichever party they're from, because it's always a marginal's seat. They'll always be nodding away in the background when the PM's on question time. It's about recognition back in your electorate. And the two people that you mentioned, Ali Franz knocked off Peter Dutton and Sarah Whitty knocked off Adam bat There the giants layers. So that's why they're there. It
is to remind their electorates. And you know, they're probably contests that going into the election, Labor wasn't really expecting to necessarily win, so that those couple of rows. It is often women. That's true, particularly when it's a male leader.
But it's all about marginal seat MPs, so that people in their electric if they flick on the TV or if they see a photo from question time, they see their MP amongst the action, and safer seats get located further away from what would be the TV shot on the six o'clock news.
Here's the question, though, Darren, do the likely contenders to take over one day down the track as leader? Do they get shoved up the back so they don't get a lot of publicity. And I speak of Andrew Charlton, a very good looking man, very successful, very bright. He's ended up up the back. What did we read into that?
I think, Look the twenty ministers or twenty thereabouts ministers, they sit along that front bench sitting near Andrew Charlton. There's also Jed Carney, Josh Wilson, Matt Thistlethwaite, Rebecca White. They're all assistant ministers. Patrick Gorman. That's where all of the assistant ministers are sitting. It's not just Andrew Chelton. Look, Andrew Chldon's got a ton of ability. His time will come, but he has to wait his turn.
Cameron, I'm going to get onto a piece you wrote in the Nightly in the SEC. I just want to ask you. I started the program talking about the great Mediscare campaign that was run in the last election and in the previous election as well. How do politicians get away with making stuff up like that day after day after day.
Well, actually I was involved as cheap as Bill Shawan the Sheiever staff when we ran med Scare one point zero back in twenty sixteen, So Labor's been doing it for about three or four elections. Actually, Look, it's about the tutemic value of Medicare and what it means for people, what it means for health care and cost of living, and so Labor is going to try to own that. I mean, Whitlam started. Labor owns it as a brand and continues to go out there and say the electors
that we're the only protectors of Medicare. If the Liberals had the smarts, they'd actually put that to rest, but they haven't. So every election Labor gets to try out the Medicare card and say they're the only ones defending Medicare.
Darren, I mean, the PM even came out and said, you know, don't elect Peter Dutton because he'll cut Medicare off at the knees. I think was the quote that he was used in the intention. I don't believe of doing that.
Did he well?
When the twenty fourteen budget came down, Dutton was the Health minister when Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey wanted to put a Medicare co payment. So that was the basis for that campaign that he wanted to be. Therefore, Peter Dutton wants to put an end to the universal health care, to bulk billing, all the rest of it. It's like all great scare campaigns. It's got a grain of truth and then it's pushed to its extreme. So was it
one hundred percent true? No, But was it believable enough that people looked at it and thought, jeez hee might do that. Yes, it was. That's why it was a successful campaign.
The problem camera though, as we learn in the Australian today that twenty five percent of bulk billing clinics, five percent of doctors are not going to take on this extra payment and bulk bill, I mean they're just not going to do it.
Yeah.
But at the end of the day, Medicare for a lot of families, for the seventy five percent you talk about there, do get bulk built and for a cost living measure where it is hard to find money, you want to make sure your kid as well, or you can get back to work that are bulk building. Doctor's essential and that's the hard of medicare if you.
Can find one. You wrote an interesting piece, as I mentioned this week in the Nightly, praising Treasurer Jim Chalmers leadership qualities in government defined by Anthony Albanesi's lack of leadership. I don't think too many people see Anthony Albanesi as wonderful leader. Darren might disagree, but what was your point? What were you trying to argue?
Well, Labour's got a challenge. I mean, Labour's got ninety four seats potentially an election an election after that to hold. Now it's about time they became a labor government. I mean, you know Albanize has sat there with two seats saying, oh, I can't you can't be this can't be courageous. Well, for goodness sake, be a labor leader. Albow. That's Jim Chalmers is showing Jim Chalmers out there as a labor treasurer prepared to have courage and to put some ideas
up there and fight for labor ideals. And I think that's what makes him a great labor leader, even if he's not yet PM.
Darren, when you read this, did you agree.
I did. I think Jim's problem is the same problem that Kevin Rudd had, that the caucus numbers out of Queensland are not sufficient to get you the leadership, so you have to use the media and have to use your profile to elevate yourself into that position. I think if Anthony Albanezer was hit by a bus tomorrow, Richard Marles would probably be the next Prime Minister. It wouldn't be Jim. Now, Jim is using his position and he's also he's a labor guy and he's a smart guy.
I've known him for twenty years, a friend of mine. But he needs to use his public profile to get himself to be next in line. That's just a simple reality of the way the numbers are set up within the Labor caucus.
Cameron, I mean, you wouldn't want to see Richard Marles's Prime minister, and said Jim Chalmers, would you?
Well?
No, And I think even the Victorian Caucus might have something to say about that. With Richard Miles. No, But to your point, Darren, I think it's right. I mean, New South Wales right still has the bulk of the numbers and they'll still determine who becomes the next prime minister. But to your point, I think Jim's out there actually putting his agenda out there, putting his credentialed out there every single day, and being a labor treasurer, which should make him a great labor prime minister.
Darren Wors's job in the country opposition leader probably going to be there for two terms. For Susan Lee, the Daily Telegraph went out today with her picture and one hundred out of one hundred people didn't know who she was.
Look, I'm not surprised by that, and I think probably I have said this before, but look the thing with Susan Lee, she's a completely unknown quantity that everyone who's been in that position, whether it be Turmble, was Opposition leader, Abbotts, Opposition leader, even Peter Dutton, everyone since John Howard in that leadership position, with the possible slight exception of Brendan Nelson, everybody already knew who they were before they took on
the position. But people know very very little about Susan Lee. She's kind of swept in from nowhere. She was Environment Minister in the most recent iteration of coalition government. She's not a household name, she's not a household face. So I'm not really surprised. I just hope the party give her a couple of years to have a good solid go at the leadership. But if she's not performing in two years time, she wouldn't be the first Opposition to not leader to not make it through a full term.
Yeah, I think you're probably right, Darren Cameron, Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Now, coming up after the break, the shocking reason one of Victoria's worth youth offenders is back on the streets again. Victorian Liberal MP David Southwick joins me next. Welcome back, Janika g Giorgio coming up after me for Paul Murray tonight. As I mentioned earlier, the former Victorian governor Linda Dessow. She was the first Jewish governor in Victoria. Of Victoria, She's called
for a tougher response to hate speech. Now, I think this is a really welcome development. These are these anti Israeli rallies. They've been held in Melbourne ever since the attack by Hamas on Israel on October the seventh. Now the former governor wants tougher consequences for people court displaying swastikas or chanting slogans like death to the IDF. And
I think she's absolutely one hundred percent correct. Joining me now, Victorian Shadow Minister of Policing Corrections, David Southwick, David, good to see you again. How good is it that Linda Dessau and she did this on a podcast with one of my old colleagues, Neil Mitchell. How good is it that she stood up and actually talked about this publicly?
Absolutely, Steve Well, Linda's calling it for what it is.
It hate, it's anti Semitism, and she's been in the highest of offers of Jewish background herself. She knows what these is like where a government has failed to act and the irony of this, Steve is today, after only a few weeks ago where we saw an attempted fire bombing of a synagogue in East Melbourne, we had the federal government stand out alongside that synagogue, Tony Burke standing up and calling out anti Semitism today in the federal Parliament,
they're fueling it. So this is what we're seeing, a government that is two faced at federal and at state level. They've turned the backs on the Jewish community. And it's little wonder why people like Linda Dessauer has to call this stuff out because the government's not.
Why can't they be consistent in their attitude. I mean it seems to me, and you and I have talked about this a lot before, there's an undercurrent of protecting their political lives in their seats where they've got large Islamic voters, Muslim voters. I mean, it's clear.
Yeah, look, I mean I've got to say, and I haven't had the opportunity to really do this on your program before, but most Australians have been fantastic in seeing this for what it is. You have and many of your viewers absolutely have. They hate this stuff. It's a pity that the government don't see the same thing. Most Australians don't want people in citing hate, inciting violence. They don't want the troubles of the Middle East coming to
the likes of Melbourne. We're not the Middle East. We're Melbourne. We want a peaceful state. We don't want this hate and violence. The government don't seem to get it. And until such time as they wake up to themselves, I think there'll be a ground swell of people that will stand up against this because it's divisive and it's certainly not doing the government any favors. And certainly I think most Australians are just sick and tired of this.
How disappointed were you when the federal government, through Penny Wang signed that call for a ceasefire along with other twenty odd twenty four other countries where that must have you must have been gobs back to see.
Them again, you know, like it's appalling when we're seeing so much trouble in Australia.
For Penny Wong to do that. We know what that does.
It just gives more permission for the haters, for the extreme left. And it is the problem of the extreme left that are fueling this, that are using this to weaponize against the Jewish community here in Australia and in Melbourne.
We're seeing it, you know.
Unfortunately, we've become the Victoria has become the anti Semitic capital of Australia. That is nothing to be proud of. This government should be ashamed of that. Whether it's Penny Wong or to Cinderellen or Anthony Albanesi, they're all together causing hate and division in this country and there's frankly no place for it.
Just briefly, I wanted to check with you one of Victoria's worst youth offendes on a refugee visa. He's I think sixteen years old. He's been given bail I think forty times. The judge has now given up and said, well, I don't think he's going to do what I tell him to do. He's refused to comply with every court order he's ever been given, so he's back out on the streets. How typical of that is what's happening in your state.
Welcome to the crime crisis capital as well.
Here we'll see every fifty seconds to Crime Committee in Victoria, we're seeing youth getting away with absolute blue murder.
This is a classic example of that.
Fifty times this young offender has been bailed over four hundred charges, and the judges literally waved the white flag up and said there's no use doing anything with this person anymore because he's just going to be reoffending, so let him go and do what he likes. I mean, there are no consequences in Victoria. It seems a really bad signal that people can do what they like and what I think we need to start to wake up and let's he's putting victims.
First, that young offender. Yeh, that is That's.
Exactly what you've got to do, David. You've got to start thinking about the victims. I mean, it's not about the person committing the crime. I mean, lock them up for goodness sake. David Southwick Allway was great to catch up with you. Thank you very much. That's it for me tonight. Danik is up next