Good Evening.
One of Channel nine's on air stars has revealed her former boss, Darren Wick, allegedly sexually harassed her in public, groping her and breathing heavily down her neck. In an emotional interview, the presenter spoke about how she was so distraught by the toxic culture under Wick that she raised it with a board member, but nothing was done. The star, who has agreed to tell her story but doesn't want to be named, said many female colleagues were revolted by
Wick's behavior. She also claims that complaints about his alleged conduct were dismissed by a senior female executive.
Who said that's just wiki.
The revelation from one of nine's recognizable faces exposes the network to accusations that at the very highest levels it covered up or ignored a toxic culture that saw other female employees experience harassment by its news chief. Nine Chief executive Mike Sneezeby addressed the crisis engulfing nine in an all staff email today, where he said that inappropriate behavior in the workplace wasn't tolerated and that complainants wouldn't be
victimized well. Darren Wick, the former director of News and Current Affairs. Left the network in March, claiming he was exhausted after four decades in the industry. Sky News has this week exposed allegations of his historical inappropriate conduct towards women. At nine and Today, a nine star took the courageous step of publicly revealing what she has been subjected to
at the network. She said she was speaking to me to help with her healing process, but also to encourage change so that the next generation of women don't have to endure the same treatment. And the star spoke about the sexual harassment she allegedly experienced by Wick when he was intoxicated. She said, on the dance floor at the Gold Coast Logis after party, he was gropy. He had his hands everywhere, breathing heavily in my ear. I had to peel him off me. Any other man I might
have kicked or pushed, but he was my boss. And she said Wick was often drunk and inappropriate. She said it was commonplace for him to drink heavily it functions, and he would often get in women's personal space.
We were revolted by him.
The presenter spoke about Nine's head of corporate affairs Victoria Buckan.
Now.
Buckan's role is Director of Communications and public Relations at nine, where she leads both corporate affairs and publicity, so it's not her role to manage or deal with HR issues, but multiple employees I've spoken to this week felt that her actions protected Wick, with whom she's good friends, and she was also often involved in managing talent well. The nine star told me today that Victoria Buckin's job involved
working with the talent, including young women. She would brush aside any suggestion of inappropriate behavior, saying that's just wiki. I think she could have stood up to the sexist attitudes, but she was in cahoots with Darren Wick.
She said.
Planting stories was commonplace during contract negotiations as a way of diminishing talent and bullying them into submission. Management would then gaslight you, saying they had no idea how confidential details that only a few were privy to were leaked.
Now.
It was at this point in our conversation today that the nine presenter became more upset when she spoke about how she tried to raise the toxic culture at the highest level, but nothing happened. The presenter even raised with a board member how the culture was affecting her mental
health and her reputation. And she told me I once spoke in confidence to a board member expressing my desperation that my own bosses were planting lies that were incredibly damaging to my reputation and affecting my mental health.
There was no.
Assistance provided by the network to source the leaks, stamp out the toxic behavior, or change the culture.
And after the board level, there's.
Nowhere to go. And I was fearful of losing my job. Through tears and clearly emotional, the presenter said she felt completely powerless.
Now this is extraordinary.
A high profile woman was brave enough to raise what she described as a toxic culture at the highest levels a director of the board.
No action was taken.
Now, the board of Channel nine is chaired by a former treasurer, Peter Costello, and I contacted Costello, Victoria Bucken, and Darren Wick today for comment.
They haven't responded.
This week, at Sky News, we've revealed that Wick was hansy with nine employees at a Christmas party that he engaged in inappropriate conduct at the twenty nineteen lo disafter party, that nine engaged an external legal firm to investigate a fresh complaint against him this year. The firm was unable to substantiate it, but the board felt it best to let Wick go given his past behavior, and yet he was seen back in the nine newsroom in late April.
Nine Chief ex Secutive Mike Sneezeby sent an email to staff today saying that many of you will have seen external media over the last few days that draws attention to our internal processes and policies regarding complaints about conduct.
In the workplace.
It is important for everyone at nine to know that we don't tolerate inappropriate behavior in the workplace and want to know if there is an appropriate behavior occurring so that it can be addressed promptly.
Now.
Wik's departure from nine after twenty nine years was prompted by the fresh complaint of inappropriate behavior by an employee in the newsroom. But when Wick left the company, he sound out a memo saying, after many long beach walks and even longer conversations, I know in my heart that this is the right time for me to step down and leave night. I don't want to use the word retiring because I don't know how to sit idle, but I'm going to take a very long break from what
has been four decades of working as a journalist. He said, I'm tired and need a rest. A NINEES director of Television Michael Healy praised Wick's enormous impact, saying that his recent work heading up the news division came at a time of great transformation. Now I'm going to have more on this story tomorrow night. We're going to keep investigating it, including what the nine Board knew about any of these allegations.
Also the use of non disclosure agreements. More brave women are coming forward every day.
I'm going to have more tomorrow night.
This is also the front page of the Daily Telegraph when it comes through. When it lands, I'll show it to you live on air. This story the front page of the Daily Telegraph tomorrow now. Also ahead on the program tonight, a report just handed down highlights the political nature of Labour's funding.
For its mobile black Spot program.
Plus, terrorists glorify a Sydney bakery with her musk themed birthday cakes for a child's birthday.
I'm going to have more on that in a moment.
And Peter Dutton says he's open to cutting ties with the ICC after its decision to seek arrest warrants for Israel's president Henry Ogas. Would join me live shortly, but first let's bring in our panel tonight. Joining me former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger and former Labor Senator Graham Richardson.
Welcome to you both.
Look, let's start with this disturbing story in Sydney today. Bakery is the center of a lot of media attention for posting photographs of what appears to be a her Musk themed birthday cake. My colleague Caroline Marcus broke this story exclusively.
Have a look.
This cake was prepared by a Western Sydney bakery for a.
Four year old.
The child, dressed as a militant, appears to have had a harms themed birthday party, complete with balloons, drinks and cupcakes.
Michael, this is a child's birthday party here in Australia.
Is this appropriate?
Well, now, of course it's not. It's disgusting and it's the type of grooming of young people you'd expect to
see in Gaza. We know from the school books and other publications that have come out of there that these young kids are indoctrinated as soon as they get to primary school and onwards into secondary school, so that this has now come to Australia, this type of insidious grooming is a shocking thing and it just shows you once again what sort of far left fanaticism has crawled out from under the rocks as a result of what's happened
in the Middle East. We see all these extremist views at demonstrations, at universities and now even at kids' birthday party. So this is a significant worry that this type of mentality exists in Australia. It is extremely worrying, Shari and rich O.
That's the concern that we're causing even more not us, but that there will be even more division, even a further erosion of social cohesion in the next generation. We don't want the next generation to be bred on a diet of anti Semitism.
No we don't. But if you give sucker and comfort to harm us and those who support it, then that's an inevitable result. And I really think we've already got to take some very strong action. I'd be looking at the status immigration status of some of these people. Any way that we can get rid of them. We should this is having these.
They're probably Australians. You can't kick out Australia.
No, you can't kick out Australians. I understand that. But if you can, if they're not quite Australians yet, kick them out. That's all I'm saying. If they are Australians, then like, all you can do is make sure that on shows like this we can out. Just make sure that we get messages across that are decent, that are proper, and just overrule them. That's all we can do.
Unfortunately, I reckon the parents who bought their four year old a birthday cake on not watching Sky News tonight. Maybe the best we could do is give them all a free Sky News subscription so they can get a bit of an education on anti Semitism.
That wouldn't be a bad idea.
Now there's been speculation around an early federal election. I keep saying there's not going to be one, and today the Prime Minister denied these rumors. In an interview with Joe Hildebrand in the Telegraph. He said, I think three years is too short. What we're focused on is an elections. What we're focused on is the need to provide that cost of living relief. Our immediate task is to get the job done and to get inflation down. Michael, he's in black and white there saying that he is serving
a full term. He's not going to go this year. Do you believe him?
Yet?
He can always change his mind. He wouldn't be the first to do that, Jarry. But no, I'm with you. I don't think there'll be in any election. There has to be an interest rate cut surely before he has an election. I mean, he can't go to the election without a cut in rates. If there's a cut that shows, he can then say, look, we've got inflation under control. Finally, things are getting better. Your best days are ahead of you. But it's got to be before the next budget.
Though.
He's not going to hand out another budget as sure as anything. There will not be a twenty twenty five budget before the election, will be after. Why because Charmers are sort of well, Charmers is trying to make his name on the basis, Hey, I'm a superstar, I've had two surpluses before. He has to say to people. On the other hand, I'm a duffer. I've now got one hundred and twenty million dollars worth of deficits in the next four budgets. So he doesn't want that message to resonate.
So he's got to run off the back of his two wins. So it's going to have to be before. It's going to be March April next year.
In my opinionship, I mean they're still the media economic fiscal art. Look, that's usually in Decembar. There could be a mini budget, but my IFO means that those numbers you know, can't be hidden. Richo Albanizi told Joe Hilda Brown today that he's not going to go to the election until he's fixed the cost of living. But he might never call an election.
Then, ye say, it might be a long time before we see an election. I'll be a long time dead in that case. But look, I think Elbows, I think you'll go a full term or close to it. I don't think that he sees any great advantage in going early. You always get some resentment if you if you try and do that, and everybody likes Elbow, So why would he want to try and alienate any part of the unity? Good fellow, He should just keep going to being Elbow. That's all he needs to do.
Everyone likes Albo except for probably ninety percent of our viewers. But yeah, everyone in your everyone in your world likes Aalbo.
You've you've got to get out more. You got to get it out more, Graham.
Yeah, you got to spend some time studio.
And you know what, I do think he'll stay a full term one because I've got it on good authority from very senior sources. But secondly, for no other reason then he wants to keep flying around in Toto one. He doesn't want to give up the perks of being PM anytime soon.
Now.
Labor Today has seized on the csio's latest report. It has painted a grim picture of how expensive nuclear would be. The report found that a large scale nuclear reactor would cost up to seventeen billion, it'd take almost twenty years to build, and it would produce electricity that would cost twice as much as renewables. Well, of course, Treasurer Jim Chalmers spoke about this today.
Here is CSIRO has completely torpedoed this uncosted nuclear fantasy of Peter Dutton's. You know, nuclear costs more and it takes longer, and Peter Dutton won't tell us where the reactors are going to get. It makes absolutely no sense for Australia to go down the nuclear road.
Michael.
Is this CSIRO requirt a problem for Peter Dutton?
Well, it's not helpful to him. But on the other hand, Shari, the CSIRO haven't got the credibility they had twenty or thirty years ago. They've been very politically active in the last fifteen or twenty years and it's always on the side of political activism. And we don't forget remember TENNISA years ago, that's fifteen years ago, they were predicting that every citizen in the cities was going to run out of water. They were saying the drought in Australia is permanent.
Murray Darling basin was collapsing. They've sort of been on a global warming bent in the last ten or so years. Is it a surprise they've come out against nuclear power.
No.
I think they're probably much better authorities that know a lot more about nuclear power of the nuclear industry than the CSIRO, who've done a report on it. So is it helpful?
No?
But look, do people take the CSIRO as holy writ that they might have when I was younger, they absolutely do not, because they've been very much part of the sort of screaming cultural left on these environmental issues over more than a decade now, and they just don't have the credibility they used to now, Richo.
I mean we've spoken about this previously and you've said you're open to nuclear you personally, you're open to nuclear being part of our energy mix. But the polling shows that it's still pretty unpopular. You know, around thirty five percent of people support it and an equal number don't support it. So the Coalition does have a big job ahead of them to convince Australians that this is the right path.
Yeah, they do, and if they tried to do that, they waste an enormous amount of time when they could be talking about some things that might actually help them get into government. And so I don't think Dutton's that stupid. I hope not from the Liberal Party's point of view, because if he is, then I think Albow is just coasting through the victory. Again.
Well he probably is anyway, according to you, because everyone loves the bloke.
Disappoint he's a great fellow.
Now, Farmer Labor Senator Nova Paris has resigned as co chair of the Australian Republican Movement in a stance against fellow CoA chair Craig Foster and his comments on Israel. The Herald broke this story, but Nova was on with Chris Keady earlier and here's what she had to say.
I was quite disappointed with his commentary. And you know that his reference to maslaua of innocent Palestinians. You know, we should be upholding true and we should be upholding objective dialogue rather than smear tactics in inaccurate language around genocide and apartheid.
Michael, this is actually devastating. Nova Paris has a huge contribution to make to Australian life. People might agree with her on everything, you know, whether it's a republic or the Voice referendum, but she shouldn't have to leave a job because of this.
No.
Well, now he's going, he's announced he's going, So I hope that's an opportunity for Nova to come back and take her position back. But look what an extraordinary interview she gave. I must say I followed her career, but not that closely. But what an outstanding performance by her
to resign on this point of principle. When this fellow foster, who's part of the hards that left Glitteraties into every sort of progressive cause, is trying to get FIFA to kick Israel out because he's worried about human rights and genocide and these things. Well, you know, as people have said to him, Craig, have you written to them saying North Korea should be kicked out of FIFA or Cuba or China or Russia. No, again, he's part of this group of people that sees Israel as the problem. Jews
are the problem everywhere. Say to Craig, have a good, long, hard think about what you've been doing, my friend, because what you've done is disgraceful and you are on the wrong side of history. You know, whatever has happened in Israel, mate, it pales into insignificant since what's happened in China, where millions were killed under male North Korea et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So he's picking on Israel for goodness sake, mate.
You know, think again, what a disgraceful performance by you, and a big tick to Nova Paris.
Look, I don't even think you can compare Israel to any of those other countries.
I mean, Israel is simply defending its.
Citizens, defending itself after the most bar barrack terror attack we've seen in years.
Correct, Richard Richo, what do you think?
I think Nova has been incredibly courageous in her defense of the Jewish people, her fight against our di Semitism. She's actually received an enormous amount of hate and backlash for it.
Is standing so strong.
Yeah, she's a courageous woman and she's to be congratulated for this. And I think Foster should hang his head in shame. I think it's a disgrace what he's done. And good on Nova, Peris. I think she's fabulous and I think Australia needs more people like that and less like Foster.
Yeah, indeed, all right, Michael Kroger, Graham Richardson, thank you both for joining me tonight. Now still to come, Peter Dutton is not ruling out cutting ties with the ICC after its decision to seek a rest warrance for Israel's Prime Minister. Henry Ogas, the esteemed economist and colomist, will join me next.
Welcome back.
Well, I'm going to bring you now tomorrow's front page of the Daily Telegraph. They've gone big on my story tonight, which I've written for The Telegraph as well on Darren Wick. They've got me too, scandal presenters Shock Logi's harassment claim against former Network News boss Nine's wicked ways. So that's the front page of the Daily Telegraph tomorrow, where Ben English is the editor, and he's just said that through to me. The full story is also up on our
Sky News website right now now. Peter Darten has today said that he's open to cutting ties with the International Criminal Court, and this follows its shock decision to request arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyaho alongside her mus. It's drawing an equivalence between Israel and terrorists.
Now, I had a lot.
To say about this on our last night, and tonight I'm joined by one of the world's best writers and thought leaders, economist Henry Ergas. Henry, I'm so delighted to have you join me tonight.
What is your.
Response to the ICC Chief prosecutor who claims that he had reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahoo and Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity?
Well, I was like many others. I was very surprised by his recommendation, and I wonder what the underlying elements or cause of the ease. I think it raises any
number of issues. Amongst other things, there's a question about whether the ICC has jurisdiction in respect of nat Yahoo and the Defense Minister, given that Israel has a fiercely independent and very effective judicial system, and there's an underlying principle that where allegations can be pursued through the national judicial system, that is what should occur, rather than those
allegations being taken up in the ICC. And I think that's fundamental objection to this process, that what it implies is that in any democracy, the ICC could take over functions that really are best handled by its own judicial system, and could do so in the cases of Nitta Yahoo and the Defense Minister on ground being unlikely to meet the standards it has itself set for finding criminal liability.
But Henry, aside from the jurisdictional issues and the issues of due process, you know, do you agree with the Wall Street Journal that said that this would be like condemning Churchill and Roosevelt in World War Two for going after the Nazis.
Well, it's certainly an important element of that. You just need to read the things Churchill said, including when he said, well we will basically bomb them to Smith areens. The point about it really is that in a sense, war is war, and countries pursue wars. Countries like Israel Australia for that matter of the US get involved in wars whether there are vital interests at stake. And if you are involved in a war, the objective of the war is to win, and you do what is reasonably necessary
to achieve that objective. That doesn't in and of itself justify war crimes. It obviously doesn't do that, but you have to be very careful to ensure that you're being scrupulous.
Yes, and there's no evidence, of course that Israel has committed any crimes at all. In fact, all the evidence points to it going far above and beyond what any other country around the world has done to protect civilian life.
I mean, Israel.
Distributes leaflets warning people to evacuate before it moves into an area. It has stayed on the phone to people before they evacuate to make sure they've evacuated a building before it strikes. You know, it goes above and beyond. An analysis that others, much more across the figures than I have have done, shows that actually the civilian death toll proportionally is quite low in this war, and lower
than others. But Henry, what do you think of the Australian Prime Minister's unwillingness to criticize the ICC while Joe Biden and the UK and you know others around the world have said the decision is outrageous and incomprehensible.
Well, to my mind, the Prime Minister should take a stronger view, not merely because this decision raises so many questions of substance, but also because of the risks opposed to Australia itself. If the ICC is allowed to essentially intrude in domestic jurisdictions when it doesn't under its own charter have that right, then that will raise substantial problems and risks, not really for the US but for Australia. And so we need to be vigilant to maintain our sovereignty,
including our sovereignty relative to the ICC. And that's why, on top of the all the other aspects of this decision, why President Biden has been so strong his response, the US isn't a number party to the ic C. But if the ICC pursues in this course, then there's no prospect whatsoever that Congress will ever accept the United States becoming subject to ICC jurisdiction, and that in turn will severely limit whatever the legitimate ambitions may be of an entity such as the ICC.
Yeah, all right, Henry, I guess thank you very much for joining me this evening. Now let's move on to a story that we broke on this program last year that then sparked an investigation into Labour's mobile phone black spots scheme. Now, the program promised to fix mobile phone black spots in regional communities, and last February we reported that Labour stood accused of pork barreling by picking the
locations that would get funding. Have a look, rather than allowing communities to apply based on their need for improved coverage based on their black spots.
The government seems to have hand picked.
The fifty four specific locations. Tonight we can reveal the vast majority of locations being funded are in labor held seats. As it turns out, forty of the fifty four locations are in labor.
Electorates and just eleven.
Locations are in coalition held seats. Now, our report sparked an investigation by the Order to General and today it was handed down and it found that seventy four percent of all target locations selected by Minister Michelle Roland were in labor electorates. The report finds that departmental officials conducted themselves appropriately, but it did highlight the political composition of locations picked.
By the minister.
And I'm Joe now to discuss this by Shadow Communications Minister David Coleman.
David, thanks for your time.
Look of the fifty four target locations for forty four were in marginal seats, so this was clearly a political program.
Oh one hundred percent, Shari, I mean this is hypocrisy written large. Like before the last election, now, Prime Minister Alberanzi was out saying funding shouldn't be allocated based on seats being marginal. I mean the Order the General has found today that more than eighty percent of the seats for which funding was allocated by Minister Rowlands were marginal seats, and even worse, seventy four percent of them were labor seats. So I mean the minister here has done absolutely the
wrong thing. She has allocated funding based on politics, absolutely the opposite of what the government said they would do, and they need to be called out on it.
There were no damning findings though, were they Even though they were political locations, it wasn't in breach of any laws, you know.
The reporters found that the departmental officials acted appropriately and they had to deal with the hand that they were dealt. And what the report shows very clearly is that the so called target locations were not chosen by the department but by the minister. So the minister basically handed over a list and said, here are the target locations. It just so happens that three quarters of them are in labor seeds and then the departmental officials did their jobs
in appropriate fashion. But the bottom line here is this is a massive pork barreling program that the Labor government has put in place, and the Order the General has said very clearly that it's important to look at the political composition of funding and that's exactly what's happened here.
Yeah, I mean, the reason we kept highlighting this issue is because it was a case of pork barreling and other regional communities who did have black spots, and they can be life threatening if it's a flood zone or a bush fire zone and people need to be able to contact emergency services and they can't get coverage. That's why this is a serious issue. And yet you know, there were pot finds that Labor was allocating funding based on politics rather than where was desperately needing that funding.
But David, I want to put to you though, that both sides of politics engage in pork barreling. So do you think that if you're in government, you know, can you commit to not giving funding to broke programs based on politics, based on where we'll be politically advantageous.
I think it's incredibly important, Shari that funding is allocated on a fair basis, on the basis of need, not on the basis of marginality of seeds. That's what the said they did. They have done the exact opposite, and in the report it specifically talks about the fact that communities were going to the department and basically saying, hey, why can't we apply? And the reason they couldn't apply
was because they weren't on the minister's handpicked list. So it's very important that funding is distributed in a fair way and that's not what's happened here.
All right, David Coleman, thank you very much for joining us tonight, and we'll approach Michelle Roland about this and thank you and we'll see if she can come in the program tomorrow evening. Now after the break, the rogue Labor senator who went against Prime Minister to repeat a hate chant now has joined anti Isral protesters at Melbourne University. Plus Labour's detainee Debarcle snowballs yet again. My fiery political panel will be on right here live next.
Welcome back.
Well.
Labour's detaining crisis continues. Revelations today in the Papers that another former detainee has been released back into the community on a twelvemonth suspended sentence. This is despite the forty two year old man breaching his curfew conditions and failing.
To maintain is uncle monitor.
The ex detainee also reportedly has a long and colorful criminal record, and he had his visa counseled on character grounds back in twenty seventeen. Well, let's bring let's bring in tonight's political panel. Liberal Senator Holly Hughes, who looks like she's got the yellow memo tonight, and Labor MP Daniel Malino.
We're matching, Holly. Good to see you both. I love it's a little bit twitty.
How are you, Daniel, Let's start with you. Look, this seems to be getting worse for the government. Every week there's another scandal with one of these detainees.
Back to a point that I feel we've covered a few times before, which is that this was the result of a High Court case which we opposed, and a lot of this has flowed from that, so it was something which the government opposed. I also want to stress that this is a system which was set up based upon a bill that we put forward, but which a number of amendments were made to which we accepted from the opposition. So it was basically a system that was set up with both major parties voting for it. We
basically accepted the amendments put forward by the opposition. So look, it's a system which is operating according to the parameters that both sides voted on. I think that's really important context here.
Well, well, let's get Holly's response to that. I mean, do you agree with that? Do you accept it.
Are you just as responsible for this crisis?
No, absolutely not, because when this all happened, Alberinezi was on one of his many jaunts overseas and Richard Miles was in fact the acting Prime Minister and he came to who mister Dutton early one morning and said, please help us. We need some legislation here. And mister Dutton and our team put together a series of proposals, gave them to the government, who then had the legislation drafted.
This was, remember, supposed to be the toughest set of reforms that had ever been put forward in this area by Clara O'Neill. This was drafted by the Labor Party. This was put up to the Parliament by the Labor Party. This is their legislation, So the legislation is in play. What is interesting about what's happened today is clearly the political will or the will coming from the Minister Andrew Giles,
the man who is in perpetual hiding. It would now seem but the Commonwealth Prosecutor once again has made no claim for this person to be on remand they've supported bail applications. I mean, how many times do these people need to breach either their curfew conditions or break the law before this common Wealth government will enforce the legislation that is there. These breaches were punishable by one year
in jail each. Yet this guy's been let out again with no objection from the Commonwealth prosecutor to we'll just say how you.
Go next time.
Well, next time it might not just be a curfew breach and that is squarely at the fate of this government.
Yeah, and that's the issue, Daniel Malino. You know that the people are concerned about that the minister is taking the advice in many cases of this community Safety Board that might not recommend an ankle bracelet or might not oppose bail. And you know, Anthony Alberinezi prides himself on not losing any ministers to scandals. But on the other hand, isn't he starting to look weak for not sacking Andrew Giles or Clara O'Neil.
But look, I think fundamentally we have a system of government, without wanting to state the obvious, where we have a parliament, an executive, and a legislature and a judiciary and some functions we leave separate from the executive. Now, the system that was set up again according to this bill, was that there be this tribunal and that the minister not sign off on the detail of every single decision.
Actually, the actually the board's role is to give him recommendations and it's up to him to take their advice or not.
But we also, I think have seen a number of instances where prosecutors have made decisions which I think some in the media have questioned. And again I just think we've got to be a bit careful about imagining that ministers or politicians are going to second guess prosecutors at every step of the way. I mean, I think we've got to figure out what system do we want and if the opposition is now saying that they want a
totally different system, than happy to hear it. But this was again something which both sides voted on.
All right, let's move on.
Now we've seen that the Senator Fatima Payman, she was the one who repeated that hate chant last week, even though Anthony Albanezi said, you know, chancer from the river to the Sea have no place in our streets.
Where she has now appeared at.
The University of Melbourne where Auntie Israel protesters are occupying one of the buildings.
Have a look. My conscience has been uneasy for far too long and I must call this out for what it is.
This is a genocide from the river to the sea.
Palestine will be free.
And those were her comments before. And we're going to show you now a picture of her at the University of Melbourne today. There it is the os run it Holly. Is it appropriate that she's turned up to protest it this encampment?
No, it's not at all.
She's a West Australian senator. I'd be very intrigued as to what parliamentary business she thought she was doing in Victoria, particularly at Melbourne University today attending a protest and what is the camping that's been occurring in this university which they've blocked the second encampment they tried to do today. It is absolutely inappropriate. But again this is a failure of alber and easy to show any leadership. Remember the Labor Party used to be pretty strong and abiding by
caucus rules. Well, Fatima Payment is now pushing those out the window. She's going against what the Labor Party's policy is. She's in complete breach of what their caucus has agreed to when it comes to Israel and Palestine, and yet nothing has been done and she still sits on a Foreign Affairs and Trade committee.
He has done nothing.
It is leak week leadership, and of course we know this is driven by internal politics. For four Southwest Sydney seats.
What do you think, Daniel should she have turned up to an encampment where we know students have anti Semitic comments and slogans.
Well, can I just preface my answer by saying that on the weekend I attended the Victorian State Labor Party conference. Attended through the front entrances I think anybody should have the.
Right to do.
There was a lot of pushing and shoving and jostling. There was a lot of over the top behavior, a lot of swarming and screaming in my face. I think when they realized I was a federal MP and look for me, let's.
Just see a space view.
Is that there were pro Palestinian protesters there. That's what you're referring to, Yes.
Yeah, yeah, And look it led to me reflecting on that balance between I think what's a very important part of our democracy, which is the robust competition of ideas, the right to protest. I think clearly what happened on the weekend across the line and what I think, and I think, look, you've talked about this Sharhi in other contexts and other MPs as well, but I simply wanted to reflect that.
Look, for me, there.
Is a creeping extremism to some of the language and the demeanor and indeed at times the physicality of the discussion and the way in which people are conducting themselves. So look, what I think in general is we need to have a broader discussion about the way in which we as a community discussed this issue where there are highly varied, very strongly held views, but we as a democracy, you need to be able to have a discussion about those in a way that is peaceful and that is respectful,
and that is as empathetic as possible. And so what I would say is, in general, look, there have been a number of instances where I think things, Oh, I.
Think we're just losing Daniel's audio there. Look, in my opinion, you know, free speech is essential, sure, but there's no place for hate speech and there's no.
Place for violence.
All Right, we'll leave it there with our political panel tonight Holly Hughes and Daniel Melino.
Now after the.
Break, more from Donald Trump's historic hush money trial as testimonies finally come to a close. The Australians Adam Crichton will join me live from Washington after the break. All right, now to the US, where Donald Trump's historic hush money trial is finally nearing its end and his defense team rested their case today. Many in the media were disappointed when the former president chose not to testify and this
brought testimonies to a close. But Donald Trump Junior did have this to say outside of court.
What's going on here is an absolute force and anyone in America should be embarrassed at the absolute miscarriage of justice that we're seeing here. The star witness in this case is a what nine times convicted liar and now an admitted thief. That is who they're hanging the entire case. The other one happens to be a porn star. Not exactly, not exactly the ultimate form of jurisprudence here.
And of course he's referring there to trump'sformer fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen. With the Australians Washington Correspondent Adam Crichton joins me.
Now, Adam, great to suit.
You.
Look, the jury's now going to start.
Deliberations next week. What can we expect. How long do you think it's going to take?
Yeah, look, that's right.
The jury gets a six week break. Now they come back on Tuesday for the closing arguments, which the judge thinks will take just one day. So therefore it's quite conceivable that by the end of next week we have the verdict from this jury. Look what's going to happen. I mean, it's interesting most of the legal scholars on TV, the experts, they don't think that the prosecution has reached the level of beyond reasonable doubt. And these include many
kind of Democrat aligned experts. But you just can't predict the jury. There's seven men, there's five women. Interesting, there's two lawyers on the jury, so that can sometimes throw a curveball. But basically it just comes down to what they think, whether they're going to believe Michael Cohen or
Donald Trump. That's really all it comes down to. And look, this jury, remember, is drawn from a voting area that I think voted for ninety percent for Joe Biden in twenty so it's quite possible that there are very few Trump supporters of the jury.
Well, either way, it's kind of impossible to find any members of the jury who would not have an opinion on Donald Trump. I mean, he's one individual that I haven't met anyone who doesn't either hate him or love him now.
I Meanwhile, the.
Trump campaign is reportedly threatening legal action against a fictionalized biopic, The Apprentice.
Tell me what this is about?
Yeah, So this film tracks the rise of Donald Trump in the nineteen seventies in the nineteen eighties in New York, and it generally paints him as an absolutely horrible human being. There are parts in there where he rapes his first wife, Ivana, and apparently the scene is quite shocking. There were gaps apparently at the carn Film Festival when it was played. Interestingly, there's no distributor yet for this film, so that probably suggests that it's really more an exercising TDS or Trump
derangement syndrome. I would say for the producers and the directors, I mean, it's probably not going to even hurt Donald Trump. I mean, to some extent, we've seen his rise. I mean, he generally benefits from these sort of attacks from the so called elites. So I don't think it's going to hurt him. I don't think he's going to win or lose any votes at the carn Film Festival.
Well apparently at the Cairn Film Festival. I mean the film was apparently well received and it was even given a standing ovation.
Have look, so.
That's what it takes to win awards, Adam, you know, produce a film about Trump raping someone, no, his first wife as it turns out. Now I want to ask you about Julian Assigns. This is quite an amazing development. Yet again, he's won the right to appeal his extradition to the US. This comes after the High Court judges ruled that he could be prejudiced there under the Constitution's First Amendment because is Australian.
Explain this for us.
Why would the fact that he's Australian mean that he could appeal his extradition to the US, where he'd surely end up in prison And he says he fears for his life if he were to end up in prison.
Well, basically, there's a principle in American jurisprudence that if you're not a US citizens you're not necessarily given the protections of the Bill of Rights, so free speech in this case, and obviously that's a huge part of the charges against Jewan Massage and his lawyers in the UK. They wanted the US government to provide guarantees to the British government that he would have First Amendment rights, free
speech rights. But my understanding is the reissue swerrences were not strong enough for the court in the UK, and so they're going to allow him to appeal the whole extradition, which of course could take many many more months and weeks. This has already been so drawn out. I mean, you have to feel sorry. At least I feel sorry for him on one level. I mean, it just takes so long for the judicial system to work.
You know, what are his prospects.
I mean, generally the British judges have been extremely bad for assumed. They generally side all the time with the US government. So I mean, I don't think his prospects are necessarily great. Just because there's an appeal, we have to wait and see.
All right, Look, just finally, before you go, Adam, you've written your column for The Australian tomorrow on the who pandemic Treaty. This is starting to gain traction, but in Australia we don't really know what it's about.
Are we going to sign up to it? Explain this?
Yeah, look, I mean it's extraordinary how little media attention this gets. I mean it's a pretty significant change. You know, there'll be no changes to the World Health Organization's regulation since two thousand and five. These are binding agreements between nations on how to deal with pandemics and basically there's a treaty that's going to be voted upon next week in Geneva, which will significantly increase the parent influence of.
The World Health Organization.
Now, you know, my view is it did a terrible job during the pandemic. We don't need to give it any more power. A little scrutiny of these changes.
Yeah, I mean exactly.
The WHL told everyone to continue travel. That opposed the travel bands said the virus wasn't infectious COVID, there was no human anyway. Adam Crichton, thank you for joining us. Now, if you missed my exclusive on Channel nine at the start of the program, head to the Sky News website. We'll have more on the show tomorrow night. But right now here's pon Murray. I'll see you tomorrow at eight