Sharri | 22 May

Live on Sky News. This is Shari.

Good Evening. I'm Caleb Bond.

Tonight the shortest divorce in history, Nationals and Liberals reenter negotiations, which has me asking why was this public blow up necessary at all? To israel embassy staff as a dead in the United States after they were shot allegedly by a man yelling free Palestine. Alex Ruftan joins me in a moment for his reaction, and we'll get the latest on the terrible floods in northern New South Wales, including what is likely to happen in the coming days.

Now.

I've been in some on again, off again relationships before, but live Charlie, you don't usually start talking about getting back together after two days, but that is what has happened today. The Liberals and the Nationals could be back on as a coalition. Susan Lee had been working on the phones this morning overnight talking to Nats who opposed breaking up the coal to see if there was a way she could broke her a truce. They were Barnaby Joyce,

I had a brief meeting with Susan Lee and she made an offer to reconvene her party room to discuss the four policy areas that the National Party demand as part of a coalition agreement, and I thank her for that, and as a consequence, I have decided to send those spokespeople home as a sign of good faith, and Susan is a sign of good faith, will not be announcing should I come. This is a positive step forward, one in which we've always said we'd be productive and constructive.

Fantastic they've found a potential way forward. But all I could think today was why didn't you do this earlier? I mean, why did you wait until this point, until after the coalition had split and all this blood had been spilt and people getting angry at each other and all the rest of it. Why did you wait until now to come up with a compromise deal. I mean,

Now, the Nationals sought specific commitments on certain policies and they've talked.

About that this morning.

And our perspective is not about the individual policies themselves. But the approach that we said we would take to our party room about policies, nothing adopted and nothing abandoned. So at this point in time I asked the Nationals to respect those party room processes.

And they did respect those processes.

They walked away and said, well, we'll talk later on, and now you've gone back to them. I mean, she said at that presser that she proposed that they come up with a shadow ministry together and then both parties go away and come up with their policy positions and then.

They'll come back and they'll work it all out.

And the National said, no, we want assurance on these four policies before we move forward. Lee refused, and then

And keep all the shadow positions for Liberals.

Now, maybe that was a view born out of anger, and I can kind of understand that, But clearly overnight she's seen some sense. Now it's of course possible that the Liberal Party doesn't back those four policies.

I mean that have rocks in.

Their heads if they did that, and it does seem quite unlikely. So why did we have to go through this whole plava in the first place. Now, let's not mince words here. What we saw today in Washington, d C. Was a terror attack. A lone man with a gun outside the Capitol Jewish Museum approaches a group of people and shoots dead a man and a woman Israeli embassy staff, and they were about to get engaged next week.

The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple.

Now I don't often get emotional. I've been to some pretty gruesome scenes as a reporter into view the families of murder victims while they're still trying to register what's happened. But thinking about two young people who've done nothing wrong, their lives together ahead of them.

He's just bought the ring being.

Killed in a country far away from the war that has triggered all of this. It did get to me, you know, I'm a young man. I can see myself in that position too.

This was terrorism, anti.

Semitic terrorism, And I know it hasn't been formally declared a terror attack, but I think we can all see what's going on here. Man goes to Jewish museum, shoots dead too, Jews shouts free, Free Palestine. The intention is very clear. It's meant to scare Jewish Americans and Jews anywhere else for that matter, because you'd be worried now about copycat attacks. And it's no coincidence that it happened now. The pro Palestinian demonstrations and protests have largely died down.

So the point of today's attack was very clear.

Even if this is falling by the wayside as an issue of public discussion, even if the war may be reaching something of a conclusion, if you are Jewish, you should still be worried, and you should still feel unsafe. And that is the obvious consequence. This is the obvious consequence of not clamping down on anti semitism much earlier. I mean here in Australia, ever since October nine, when gangs of men gathered on.

The steps of the opera house. Where's the Jews?

Gas the Jews? It doesn't really matter. But since that moment you've had people who might have been quiet anti Semites, if you want to call them that, who became loud anti Semites because they figured, well, my views are okay, now I have strength in numbers. And we've seen examples that before. And I'll repeat the words that I've said before in this situation. This shows just how complacent we

Welcome gents.

Now that the Nationals and the Liberals, as I said before, it looks like they're about to patch things up.

He was David Little Proud today.

I can trust Susan and that's why she took a leap of faith today and took a step forward and said that she's prepared to go back and to bring her party room back.

Now.

Little Proud was adamant that the NATS weren't going anywhere, of course, until the four policy demands were meant nuclear energy and new off budget regional fund, the divestiture powers, improved regional telecommunications.

And I can't see.

A position Basle in which the Liberal Party won't back all of this in.

But as I said before.

I mean my question is if Susan Lee woke up this morning and thought, okay, I feel comfortable that I could call a party room meeting and we can deal with this stuff. Why couldn't she have come to that conclusion earlier in the week and avoided all of this mess?

Well, Caleb, good evening.

Maybe it is the old adage you don't know what you've lost until it's gone, and perhaps that's applicable both ways. Look, I do feel comfortable enough to say that the Libs and the Nats are at their most effective when they are working together. Certainly that's what we're doing here in Western Australia with a very strong alliance with the Nationals

But I think this is very encouraging.

I wouldn't say it's one big, happy family quite yet, but it is encouraging for everyone. I think it's encouraging too for good governance and good government because the most effective opposition is what we need. That's what the country needs to hold the alban Easy government to account. And I think the most effective opposition brings the Nats and the Liberal Party into one party room. So this is encouraging, but it's not quite there yet.

Caleb, indeed and David Lee apparently reached out to the Nats, who were reportedly against the split. I said before Barnaby, Joyce, Michael McCormick, Darren Chester, Michael will join me shortly and I'll ask him about those conversations that he had. But how much do you think that played into it that Lee was willing to get on the phone. This morning they both said the door was open, But yesterday it sounded like from both sides, Lee wasn't all that keen

Then. Very different story today.

Look, I'm with you on this. I mean, why did this happen have to happen in the first place. I don't think really anyone understands that the National Party, in seeking to kind of blaze their own trail with those four policies, have had those for a while and they've retained all their seats, so they can't look to an electoral loss to say, well, we need to campaign harder on these to hold our seats.

They held all their seats.

I have some sympathy for Susan because the parliament is now, you know, roughly a third and two thirds two thirds for progressives and I hate that term, but left of center MPs with one third b conservatives. The problem that Susan has an existential one where she is leaking votes on the left, not the right.

So while it's good.

They've come back together and it will be a coalition, it looks like going on into the future, and this is the time you want to repair these sort of fractures.

And paper over the.

Wounds that remained and hopefully go forward in a stable and sensible way.

You would want to do that now.

But there still has to be for the Liberal Party a way of reaching into the cities, not the regions, and that is still the great unanswered question that Susan Lee has to has to ask and the party has to respond to.

Yeah, and I think it's worth noting that the seats they lost at this election, apart from maybe Bradfield, which we'll find out on the recount, were not teel style seats. They were mostly out of suburban seats, which I think might go some way to what they need to be looking at. But because part of this pause is that Susan Lee delayed announcing her shadow cabinet, which we were meant to get today, Basil.

And again it's one of those things.

I mean, she stood up on Tuesday and said I will be announcing the shadow cabinet on Thursday, which of course would have included no Nationals, so the entire thing goes to the Liberals. And if she had done that, it would have made the possibility of the coalition getting back together that much harder because of course then she'd have to take rolls away from Libs to give them to Nats. So it very much seems like in every way she was determined not to get the band back

Well, didn't have to.

But then again, I suppose the opposition leader does want to get on with it, wants to put her people in their positions and start to form the nucleus of that team that you're going to start to mold and shape towards the next election.

What I would say is I appreciate that.

This is not absolutely perfect, it's not ideal execution of whatever the new arrangement might be. But we are so close to the last federal election, the one that's just gone. If you're going to do these things, this is when it gets done. And has it been done ideally?

No? I think that's a fair comment.

Might have been better to do it in another way, or have these discussions before. Sure, However, in a couple of days, in a week, it'll get sorted. It'll be sorted, and in a month nobody will be talking about what we're talking about.

Right now, no one will talk about it. I get it fixed, That'll be it. We're a long way away from the next election.

Well, can I ask you, Basil? Of course, as opposition leader in WA if you were in a position like this, what would you have done the Nats come to you as the liberal leader and say we want to split up because I need an assurance on these four policies.

What would you have done?

Well, I'm going to talk hypotheticals here. I mean, how Susan enters into negotiations with David is entirely their business. I absolutely respect that, and I am not in the federal space. But what I will say is that my view is, and certainly the people of Western Australia that I've spoken to coming off the back of an election loss, is that we are better when we are together, the Libs and the Nats working together in government, it's been

So that, Caleb is how I would.

Enter into any hypothetical negotiations should they ever come my way. But I've got to say that NAT's and the Libs in WA we're working magnificently together in a very effective opposition alliance.

Good to hear, David.

I wonder if this clip here of Alban Easy talking about the resources that would have been given to the Nationals if there was a coalition breakup played any role in the renegotiations.

Take a look, but clearly it is not reasonable that there be more staff or a reward if you like, for the fact that you had this division has occurred.

I mean it, then that's in a very difficult position, David, no doubt about.

You need every staff member you can get when you're in opposition, and that would have put them under tremendous pressure. I still think they would have been sitting in policy purity, up on the back bench, unable to affect any change to any policy anyway, which would have been a miserable place with or without staff. Look, I think Basil is right.

Basily was quite right.

The two parties worked better together and saw off the sort of forces on the extreme right together and it was a very very successful coalition twelve for twelve years.

The time to do this is now.

The time to have a full scale policy review in both the National Party and the Liberal Party is now. They've just gone through an election loss. They need to come to grips with as you say, Caleb, what happened in our of metro seats, What is happening in the city seats?

How can we respond? What kind of people.

Are we going to appoint to shadow ministry positions. I think Susan has a great opportunity with some of the crop of really new, young, gifted talent that is waiting to be given a go. So it's better to let the blood letting occur now, get the thing fixed and then move on united after that.

Let's hope so well.

We haven't even talked about that letters that Bridget McKenzie sent to mcgally cash. There is so much going on here, David Basil, thank you so much for joining me. Now let's talk to someone who was apparently involved in the talks to get the Liberals and Nationals back together joined again by National ZMP, Michael Mccormickmichael we spoke to each other on Tuesday. I don't think we were expecting to speak to each other in these circumstances again on Thursday.

Well it is that great political philosopher Mariah Carey said, we've belonged together and along together, and it seems as though there's been, as one Liberal insider told me today, great momentum, good discussions, productive work done at the Liberal Party meeting tonight evening five o'clock. A lengthy meeting, i'm told, but a good meeting. And the Liberals know that they can't govern without us, We know that we can't govern

Well, thank you for the window into your musical taste, Michael. Now, Susan we reportedly reached out to several Gnats that she heard were against the split. You were one of them, Barnaby Joyce, Darren Chester, can you tell us about the conversation you had with Susan Lee.

Look, it was an earnest discussion. It was an honest discussions. Susan and I have been neighbors since twenty ten when I took over from k Hal. We are both coalitionists and we're both regional MPs. We've got everything in common and I remember Malcolm Turnbull once saying he was surprised at how close we were on policy and a lot of other things from different political parties. But we had a good discussion last night about where we could land this.

When you spoke to Miss Lee, what impression did you get of why she seemed to have changed her tune, Because of course we read yesterday that she was quite prepared to go the full three years into another election without being in coalition with the NATS.

I think all along, I think we would have resolved it before the next election. I think it was going to be important. You can't go into a campaign with a fifty seat deficit and just hope that you're going to form government and then maybe get some sort of as they do in Western Australia, alliance after the election. You can't do that, given the fact that we've been so successful for so long, eighty years in fact, and I think it was always going to happen before the election,

We've only got a minute, markl But given that you've sort of come back together so soon, I mean two days and the negotiations batt I know, do you think the decision that the National Party made and your leader David little Proud made was the right one?

Well as Burne reported, I voted against it, and so I didn't want to see it split in the first place. So I suppose the into that questions. I don't think it was the right decision, but I always go with the party policy given the fact that you know we are a democratic party, you go with the majority rules. And the majority of the party felt on Tuesday that we would split from the Liberals, and so I did my best to address that issue in any number of

Good luck, Michael, Thank you so much for your time. Still come, I'll bring you the latest on the New South Wales flooding disasters. Going News reported Jim Callanan is in the area, and meteorologist Alison Osborne will give us the forecast for the rest of the week. But first we turned to the horror that unfolded in Washington, d C. Where two Israeli embassy workers were shot dead outside a Jewish museum, allegedly by a man yelling at free Palestine.

Alex Ritchen will join me next well.

A chilling day for Jewish people around the world, with two Israeli embassy workers being shot dead outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, d C. They were a young couple who were leaving an event for young Jewish professionals at the museum, and the man, as I said earlier, had been planning on proposing. Chief of Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Pamela Smith confirmed a thirty year old Chicago man has been arrested.

Prior to the shooting, the suspect was observed piecing back and forth outside of the museum.

He approached a group.

Of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire, striking both of our decedents. After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was deteamed by event security. The suspect chanted free Free Palestine while in custody.

Anti Semitism is real, and here we see the consequences. Welcome to reality. And this is a nightmare come true for Jews right across the world and for everyone else. I think, who has a brain. I'm joined now by Executive Council of Australian Jury co CEO Alex Rifchin. Alex, as I said earlier, all of us, I think feared this day would come, and it has.

That's right. I mean, everything that's transplied in the last eight ten months has been deeply shocking and yet at the same time utterly predictable. And the person who did this was the product of a movement and he chanted the name of that movement as it carried out these atrocities.

Sort of stuff.

It's not reckless, it's not unprofessional. It's dangerous, and the outcome is what we've seen here in murder.

And by not addressing that earlier, and we can talk about Australia, but obviously the US as well and all over the world. By not addressing it earlier, you turned what you might call quiet anti Semites. People who wouldn't feel comfortable talking about it publicly because they'd be worried about the repercussions of doing so, have now felt embolved,

That's absolutely correct, and there's been a progression in that incitement, and it's come to the point now where to speak of Zionists as being unhuman, as being all terrorists, which we hear chantered on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney on a frequent basis, or that all Zionists are child killers and murderers and genocidal maniacs, or should be purged

They go further and further and further.

The only thing that extreme misunderstand is strict consequences. And until that's levy, until we see that, until we see a cost for being an Anthony Semke, this is going to get worse and worse.

Well, obviously, we've now seen a terror attack in the US, and you'd be stupid not to be worried about copycats. I mean, what do you think the likelihood of something like this happening in Australia.

Is Well, again, we've seen things in the past eighteen months that we thought we're immune from in Australia the fire bombings of people's homes and vehicles and childcare centers and incineration of synagogues, and we've been warning about what is to come. The writing was on the wall for

Alex obviously your former home was targeted previously, so you know that someone potentially had ill intent towards you. After seeing this today, are you concerned for your own safety?

Look, I'm not concerned for my own safety. I'm concerned for the welfare of the Jewish people of our country, Australia, and for the Jewish community here. That's where my concern has always been. And I was targeted because I speak for the community because I express what the vast majority of the community feels, and the consequence of that is sometimes dire and to be put in peral and that's.

Just the way it's going to be.

But my concern is for what happens to other members of the community and our chamule institutions. I don't want to credit a situation where Jewish Australians are fearful of getting together, attending communal events of the sort that we saw in Washington DC. Our museums, our schools, our institutions are the lifeblood of this community, the vibrance and heartbeat

Alex Rifchin, thank you for joining me. Now, thanks, let's turn out of the awful floods in New South Wales, which it is now confirmed have killed three people. Scaranne News reported. Jim Callanan filed this earlier from Forster.

Hello Carleb.

Yeah, it's been a really tough day here on the mid north coast of New South Wales for so many, particular many of those Attari, which effectively has been marooned. It's been an island for some time now after the manning broke its banks like yesterday and record measures and then continued to do so given the rain kept tumbling down for much of today and we understand will continue for well into.

The evening as well.

There's some one hundred and forty warnings from the SEES now, thirty four of those at the emergency level. They basically telling people, if it is safe, get out of where you are, so they are telling people to make sure they take heed because of those tragedies today as well.

That just underlines the serious.

Nature of how things are unfolding here by our now.

Amongst it all, we've spent a pretty busy day in.

Tarre, where we got to see up close in person and what a lot of the emergency crews have been up to.

They've got nine.

Aircraft here across a range of emergency services, the WESTBEC Rescue, a helicopter, RFIRS, Pole Air and the like, and they've been working virtually around the clock both out there trying to assess the situation, but also winching people to safety,

Thank you to Jim for that, and my apology to the good people of Foster. I am but a humble South Australian, so I haven't got myself across these things yet. It is Foster, not Foster, and let's see what's in store for those in the flat affected areas for the rest of the week. Skarn New's meteorologist Allison Osborne has the latest.

Heavy rainfall is still a risk tonight across parts of the mid North coast of New South Wales, but that risk is rapidly easing back in time for the weekend. If we take a look at the current warnings, there's still the risk of six hourly rainfall totals up to one h hundred milimeters across the Mid North and that is again on top of areas that have seen upwards of five hundreds, so ongoing flash flood thread there. The risk is shifting southwards on Friday though, as a low

Thank you very much, and of course, sir to those watching in the flood affected.

Is look after yourself. We hope you're safe.

Coming up after the break, Sophie Elsworth will join us live from the UK to fill us in on one of the great days in Australian sport. Plus, it's a good thing the Victorian government said there'd be no new taxes this budget because there's no deuice left to squeeze out of the orange. Adam Crachton on the high taxing, high

Adam, I mean, this is a.

Pretty extraordinary intervention for Low to come out and say he doesn't support this.

Yeah, certainly, that's right, Philip Row.

He doesn't often speak out, and he has and he's probably scratching his head like most economists are.

This.

You know, this bizarre tax on unrealized gains really came out of nowhere.

A few years ago.

Thankfully it's still not legislated, but it's extremely disappointing.

I mean, if the Labor government really.

Insists on increasing taxes, there are far more efficient and better ways to do it. Indeed, Ken Henry, in that same article that you just referenced, I mean he said, look, fifteen years ago, I had a recommendation for you, and you completely ignored it.

You could have changed the earnings tax arrangement.

There would have been a no tax on unrealized capital gains. But the Labor government has just ignored that, and for some strange reason, they insist on this extremely unworkable and complicated and very unfair tax. We could only hope that it falls apart in the Senate. But look, just a more broad point here in Australia. You know, we're having this debate about this tax and it's you know, it's a fair debate. It's a terrible tax. Let's hope it

You know, we need to have a debate like that here. I mean, we've.

Ignored the rest of the you know, the rest of the tax system and the election sadly, but it really is crying out for reform.

Well you talk about the rest of the tax system. I'll just ask you briefly, because the Productivity Commission this week has gone to consultation on the idea of reducing the corporate tax rate.

Is there any merit in that? Do you think?

Yeah, certainly there is.

I mean, but the main thing is to reduce tax We need to get our spending under control. I mean, that's the reason why this government wants this new tax. They need to raise seven hundred million in the first year. I think something like seven billion dollars a year after ten years from this new tax that we've just been talking about. And that's because of the out of control spending of the NDIS, which is completely out.

Of control, seven eight percent growth every year.

And it's not just that.

There are various government programs that are just growing far too fast, far faster than the population, far faster than inflation, and we need to get them under control before we can, you know, before we can have strong productivity growth in this country. We really are in quite a bad way, sadly.

Yeah, I know, and I mean the productivity growth is awful, as you will. No, it's on the slide, unlike the US at the moment. And I think one of the things that we could do to fix that is a bit more competitive federalism. But you know, you start talking about those sorts of things and people get all scared.

The Herald Son had a great art point.

The Herald Son had a great article today on the state of Victoria's debt crisis.

It included this incredible statistic.

The Allen Labor government is set to shake down fifty billion dollars from residents and businesses by twenty thirty, which is a one hundred and seventy three percent increase on what the state was taking before.

Daniel Andrews, I mean, for heaven's sake.

No, it's just, you know, it really is, you know, is scary.

And despite all of that extraordinary growth in taxation, the debt has just grown like topsy.

I mean, it's worth just highlighting.

In twenty nineteen, just a few short years ago, net debt of Victoria was twenty two billion dollars. It's now one hundred and fifty five billion dollars just a few years later, and it's going to be more than two hundred billion dollars in just.

A few years.

I mean, that's the most staggering growth in debt of any state in Australian history, and probably have any sub subnational government in the world. Ever, it's it's you know, it's it's just staggering. And actually, you know it's a personal question. I just you know, I just forked out fifty thousand dollars to buy place in Melbourne just for the you know, just you know, just.

To buy a home.

You've got to you know, you've got to pay tens of thousands of dollars to the state government.

I mean, it's you know, it's just absolutely obsane.

And the other thing as well, for me, is like do we not care about debt anymore? You know, Victoria is hurtling towards two hundred billion, seems to care, you know, the country's going towards a trillion.

No one seems to care. It's just just not an issue.

Well, well, it's worth putting it out.

You know.

It's an interesting point, and this is in my column tomorrow in The Australian, is that the Victorians maybe they're smarter than we think. Ultimately that state dead is the Commonwealth's responsibilities. I mean, there is no way the Commonwealth would ever let any state to actually default on it's dead. And so I think the people running a Victorian know

Yeah, well everyone else has been doing it for a very long time, very quickly. The federal counterpart, of course, the Labor Party, is well behind on their one point two million dollar housing target. Only ninety thousand homes built between July and Desceme the last year. If they want to get one point twenty twenty nine, that's two hundred and forty thousand annually.

I mean, it's never going to happen.

Yeah, well, look I don't like making forecasts, but that's certainly not going to happen. It's already twenty five percent behind, and the IPA has done some research that verifies that story you just talked about.

I mean, it's woefully behind.

This is just all political rhetoric and you know, it reminds me of New Zealand just across the Tasman when Jacinda Arderne said she'd build one hundred thousand houses and after three years she built about two hundred and forty eight. And this is a problem that you know, governments have all around the world. You know, they make these targets and these promises and they are never fulfilled.

It's just about winning elections, sadly.

And you know another interesting thing, you know, we have this, you know, always design to build on hundreds of thousands of homes, but we're not importing any tradesmen. You know, we don't have skilled tradesmen coming into the country.

And they weren't even they weren't even they weren't even at the top of the list until very recently. The workers that we want from over so great, It's very true. Always thank you mate. After the break one of the great days in the history of Australian soccer or football.

I will call it before.

I receive any hate mail. Sophie Ilsworth explains why next. Now, I'm not much of a soccer person. I'm far more partial as many of you would know to Ozzie rules go you crows, but even I can admit it has been a huge day for Ossie Sport. With our own ange posta Cooglu becoming the first Australian manager to win a European Cup in soccer.

He was the moment Dorry.

Dory Tottenham Hotspa.

Pasta Cottu post delivered.

Has he promised he would?

News Corp Europe correspondent Sophie Elsworth joins me. Now, Sophie, you're at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium right now.

How's the mood outside.

O Caleb.

You can just see the fans. They're walking up and down the streets here. Many are wearing their Tottenham you know, jumpers and hats and they're just over the moon with the result last night. It was absolutely electric here in London. I was at a pub in central London that was jam packed with Tottenham fans just hoping for.

This victory, Caleb.

They've waited over six thousand days for a piece of silverware. It's been a long time between drinks for the club to come home.

With some silverware.

And just on the back of the London Sun today I have this great headline saying deliver rou a fantastic headline with ange on the back there.

He's really gone, Caleb, from a villain to a hero. A lot of the media have.

A combative relationship with him, but he proved them all wrong overnight with taking out this victory against Manchester United in Spain. So this is a very happy moment for Tottenham down here in North London.

Well, it seems to have been chronically underestimated, and even as I said before, someone doesn't pay a great deal of attention to soccer as him being an Aussie, I paid some attention to him and he seems to have been underestimated his whole career. But you give him time and he can deliver. But they're still having discussions about whether or not he's likely to stay.

On as manager or not. On what more could you possibly do?

Well, absolutely, I mean this was such an important moment in his career and he's delivered the goods Caleb So but he's not out of the woods yet because they are seventeenth on the English Premier League ladder.

They've got their last.

Game here on Sunday against Brighton and there's still questions on whether he can maintain his role at the club because they've had such a disastrous English Premier League season. So while he's had this victory, he's not completely out of the woods.

But he was very combative with the media this week.

One journalist in one of the papers here basically wrote that he was a clown if he didn't come home with the goods.

He's proved them wrong, Caleb.

So this is a massive moment for angepostera Cooglu, who as we know, moved.

To Australia at age five.

Incredible career and at fifty nine to win this trophy is a magnificent result.

Yep.

And to borrow some lingo from another sport, he's got the runs on the board, so you can't argue with that. Now, let's talk some other UK news. This is very similar to what's happening with energy rebates here in Australia. But so Kir's starmer has reversed his decision to cut millions of pensioners off of the winter fuel payments. What exactly are these winter fuel payments and why didn't he want to give them to pensioners?

So, Caleb, they're basically, you know, credits have up to three hundred pounds to pensioners to basically help them cope with the rising cost of electricity over here. And the government's been chewing and growing about this. They said it

Just quickly, Sophie, what we're talking about benefits. Eleaked memo showed that the UK Dippity PM Angela Rayner wanted to crack down on immigration and the benefits that immigrants are receiving from the UK government. I mean it goes to show, after of course, what we saw from Suqui last week, the Labor Party is really spooked by reform at the moment.

Absolutely, Caleb, they are absolutely spooked. As I've said many times on sky Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has all the momentum and migration is a hot issue.

We do have new figures out today.

I have net migration which showed it has halved in the last year. So that is one positive for the Labor government, but still a very long way to go on this Caleb, and a hot issue that keeps making headlines here in the UK day in, day out.

Indeed, so feels worth thank you so much for your time. Now, how Australian is this? A bloke finishing up in the WA Parliament yesterday gave his valedictory speech and.

Then he did this. He did a shoey.

We've got the photo here for you, right, you pour a drink in the shoe and drink it out of the shoe. And he did that on the floor of parliament in Western Australia. And he looks like a Rossi bloke too. And I'll tell you someone who I've seen do a shoey a few times. He may even do one for you tonight if you're lucky. That's Paul Murray here.

He is