Why On Sky News This is Sharry.
Good Evening tonight.
Albanese's duplicity exposed as he preferences an Israel hating radical despite claiming he wouldn't do deals with the Greens. I have more to say on his hypocrisy in a moment. And a man wearing a Make America Great Again hat has allegedly been assaulted outside of polling booth in Albanese's own electorate. The man in his eighties is tonight in a hospital in a serious condition, and a seventeen year
old has been arrested. That full story coming up a Notit reveals Albanese's urgent care clinics aren't open until ten pm, seven days a week, as he promised, Yet he's running a scare campaign against the Coalition on Health and so Fielsworth joins us from the Vatican as the Pope's body lies in state. Will bring you that moving footage a bit later. Another Big Show tonight with James Patterson, Michael Kroger, Graham Richardson, Andrew Caswell and James willis so much ahead.
But first tonight, Anthony Albanezi has misled voters overclaims he wouldn't be doing deals with the Greens as the Prime Minister is caught out preferencing an Israel hating radical in
his own seat. The Greens candidate in Albanezie seat of Graindler Hannah Thomas, describes herself as an immigrant lawyer, writer and activist currently renting on stolen, unseeded Gadagal land in Newtown, and she's complained about experiencing visa uncertainty when she came to Australia in two thousand and nine as an international student. The Daily Telegraph reports she became a citizen a couple of years ago and she's lucky to now call Australia
home as we all are. Yet, since October seven, Hannah has joined the rallies against Israel with their despicable and offensive chants and signs. Her anti Israel views are on full display, and here she is casually accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
We've just been outdoor knocking in Merrickville and it is crystal clear that Palestine is absolutely on the minds of people here. They are totally disappointed for the Albanesi government's complicity in the.
Genocide, and they're planning to send him a message at the ballot box.
Like so many in our Inner West community, I'm absolutely horrified by Israel's genocide in Gaza, which has resumed with increased ferocity since Israel broke the ceasefire.
Now, there are very few.
People on this planet who individually have any power to do anything to restrain the Israeli war machine. But the member for Grainload, the Prime Minister, is one of these people.
He could sanction Israel, he could act on.
The ICJ ruling, he could expel the Israeli ambassador.
Israel war machine genocide calls, as you heard there, to sanction Israel and expel the Israeli ambassador. And by the way, here's my good friend, Emir Maimon. In actual fact, the only genocide that's taken place is when Her Musk deliberately massacred innocent Israeli citizens on October seven. Israel since then has simply tried to eliminate the terrorists and bring.
Home its hostages.
The war could have ended at any point had Her Musk surrendered and freed the hostages. Yet I haven't heard Hannah or any of the Greens running at any point speak about the barbaric slaughter of innocent Israelis on October seven, all call for Hamas to return the innocent hostages. So this is the Greens candidate, Alban Easy is asking voters to preference after they vote for him.
She's number two on is how to Vote Kart.
It's utterly outrageous, and yet the Prime Minister claims he has no idea who he's giving his preferences to, and he even attacked the Australian newspaper for daring to ask him about it.
I wouldn't have been able to tell you if you'd have asked me who the candidate was last time man in this seat. I want on primaries. I want on primary That's why the system works. I don't intend to promote the name or the candidate of the Greene Party candidate, and I'm surprised that the Australia determined to promote them.
Seriously, turning that legitimate public interest question into a criticism of the Australian is unbecoming, and his answer that he knows nothing about it is unbelievable.
It defies credibility.
Now, Alban Easy is heavy involved in the particulars of politics. He's got very little interest in actual policy that is to do with the future direction of our nation. But he's obsessed with party politics and he would categorically, one hundred percent absolutely know who he's giving his preferences to.
He can't legitimately feign ignorance. Remember this is the man who strongly criticized the Greens for spreading misinformation on Israel's war against Himus, and he claimed that the Greens messaging was dangerous and inflammatory.
Did they seek they seek in a divisive way to raise these issues in order to in order to then weaponize them, weaponize them and cause division in the Australian community.
Yep, he was right when he said that.
And he's also claimed he wouldn't be negotiating with the Greens or doing preference deals with the Radical Party.
He even made this commitment just last night.
The Labor Party will fall over themselves to do a deal with the Greens.
It's just it's just you preference.
The untruth put forward put forward by Peter.
It's not an untruth.
So he's trying to distance himself from the Greens, but at the same time he's directing his constituents to vote for them after putting him as number one. His words just last night are disingenuous. How can anyone believe him that he won't buddy up and co govern with the Greens in the case of a hung parliament, which is likely. The Executive Council of Australian Jury co chief Alex Rivchin told The Australian that he found Albanezi's second vote preference
of this Green candidate. He said it was profoundly disturbing. He said, when the prime minister approves any sort of deal with such a party and tells voters in his seat to put the candidate second, it tells the country that the Greens are legitimate and one can do deals with political extremists, and that is what they are. And rich And said Alberzi should be excoriating them for libeling the Jewish community, not uplifting and rewarding them. And Alex
as usual is absolutely correct. But Albanesi isn't the only Labor minister doing these.
Preference deals with the Greens.
The Australian reports that almost every other member of the Albanese ministry with publicly disclosed how to vote cards, from Jim Chalmers and Richard Miles down to assistant ministers and special envoys have also directed voters to give the Greens then number two preferences, and as you know by now, this includes the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who is the most senior Jewish member of the government, in fact of
the Parliament. It's a massive betrayal that he is directing Australians to give Greens their preferences over the coalition And when he was asked about it by the journalist Zoey Deaconing, he couldn't even defend his truly indefensible decision.
Why are you second.
Party? And yes, what are your thoughts on Josh and Australia.
A comptable to that decision to preference themselves to keep giving.
You the answer, that's the matter for the party. That's the matter for the party.
Isn't he embarrassed that he's supposedly a brilliant, highly educated, smart lawyer but he can't even face voters to explain why his preference seeing the anti Semitic Greens, and he wonders why he gets booed and heckled by the Jewish community. Now you compare Dreyfus to Josh Burns, another Labor MP, but one who had the integrity and courage to stand up to Albanesi and the Labor Party and insists that he wouldn't be preferencing the Greens and he may lose his seat by the.
Way to the Greens.
And when I wanted to speak to Josh Burns about this on air, the Labor Party made him cancel his appearance and Albanizi also blocked him from taking questions at a press conference. Yep, this is a duplicitous prime minister who knows just how dangerous the Greens are. He said so publicly, yet he's happy to do deals with the Rancid Party for political expedience seat. And you can bet that despite insisting he won't govern alongside Adam Bant, he'll do exactly that in order to stay in power, to
stay prime minister. This is exactly what Julia Gillar did
when there was a hung parliament in twenty ten. Now Johannesley captured this sentiment perfectly in his cartoon where he has Albn Easy shopping in spotlight beside Adam Bant, who says we're looking for the Drapery department please, As they say, Band is already measuring the curtains in the lodge, and Australians know that this is true because Band has made it plainly clear that his demands include recognition of a state of Palestine and scrapping negative gearing and capital gains
tax in the case.
Of a hung parliament. And Penny Wang would be only.
Too happy to make Bant's wishes come true when it comes to recognition. And I'm already hearing that she's considering a greater diplomatic presence, perhaps even a formal Australian consulate in the Palestinian territories. And this would be the radical green left government that you can expect if Albanizi.
Wins A week on Saturday.
Now, in shocking news tonight, a man in his eighties is in serious condition after an alleged assault outside a polling booth in Albanese's electorate. He is now in hospital receiving treatment. The man was reportedly wearing a Make America Great Again hat a Trump hat when he was allegedly hit after a supposed argument about defacing a core flute. A seventeen year old man has been arrested at the scene, and he's now said to be assisting police with the investigation.
He is the latest from Channel nine.
A man in his eighties wearing a Make America Great Again hat, walked over to an Anthony Albanezi poster and then he allegedly went to deface it. One of the volunteers approached him asked him not to do that. An altercation broke out. Now at this point, a seventeen year old boy was crossing the sea the street. He saw this and thought the man was being aggressive towards the woman. He allegedly struck the eighty year old, who fell to
the ground. He was then taken to hospital in a serious condition.
Now that's one version of events. We don't know what really happened, but it's unconscionable to think that we have violence outside our polling stations where an eighty year old is tonight in hospital. We are a free democracy in one of the luckiest and safest countries on earth. No one should go to a polling booth feeling any sense of intimidation or fear for their own personal safety, let alone an elderly man who were led to believe supports Donald Trump. Now we hope he recovers fully and can
tell police exactly what went down. All right, James Patterson is coming up in a moment, but for now, let's bring in my favorite Wednesday panel, former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger and labor legend Graham Richardson.
Welcome to you both.
Look, I want to start with Albinize's duplicity when it comes to preference deals with the Greens. Michael, what's your response to this and also the Prime Minister's evasion of questions that are in the public interest.
So Charie, this candidate of the Greens in his own seat, who is preference number two? He says it's the party's decision and he didn't know the candidate was. That's absolutely rubbish. I mean, every member knows who's running against them, for goodness sake. So let's put that aside. But here's the real problem that Green's can Hannah has accused the Prime Minister and the government of being complicit in genocide. She has said of Albanezi, you are complicit in mass murder.
So he's either dismissing her as a non serious person and that's a non serious comment. And the Greens are just rat bags, so we don't take any notice of their comments or he thinks it's okay if she accuses me of being complicit in mass murder. I mean, what she said of him is grossly defamatory, grossly defamatory, and
he'd win millions and a defamation case, subject limits. But it shows you how extreme the labor part he's got when he's prepared to preference her, When Mark Dravis, when all of the other things you've talked about, and what he'll realize in ten or fifteen or twenty years time is this he'll work out in twenty years time, when he's in his dotage like some of us are now, when he's sitting on his porch, he'll realize that the Greens were a much bigger threat to the Labor Party
in twenty twenty five in the years that followed than the Liberal Party ever was. These people are going to do a lot more damage to labor than we could ever do to labor. They're eating the Labor Party from inside, and the fact that labor has to so desperately cling onto these extremists tells you everything about modern labor.
Rich.
I want to get your response to what Michael Kroger has just said. Do you think the Greens are an existential threat to labor and the values that labor once stood for.
Now, I think they can engage in the odd bit of rat baggery, they can make films of themselves, but they are part of Austratia's body politic. They are a genuine part of it, you know. And you can't get ten percent of the vote election after election after election and just be disregarded. You have got a piece of reaction, shall we say, And it's a piece that they have maintained and retained election after election. In my view of the Greens has always been the success of good points
about it. When they talk about trees, when they get off trees, that's when they get off.
They haven't been on trees for a long time now, for many years now, and I.
Think voters still it is true, yes, and many.
Voters are still under the misapprehension that the Greens is an environmental party.
They don't care about the environment anymore. In fact, you know, they often.
Want to kill off the koalas we hear tonight and other news. But Rich, I just want to stick with you for a minute. I hear that Labor Circles joke that Albin Eazy is yep, he's the Prime Minister, but he's also the Assistant General Secretary of the New South Wales ALP, because he's so involved and obsessed with the minutia of New South Wales Labor candidates.
Is this true, Rich, I mean, it's not believable.
Like Michael said that he doesn't know Labours giving preferences to the Greens or who the candidate is in his seat.
Now, that isn't believable. I'm not going to defend that. There's no credibility in saying that. Of course he knows. I think albow ort to just look at the Greens, speak about them honestly, and maybe not completely honestly, but as honest as possible. Look, they can come up with some good policies, but unfortunately they've been taken over by a whole lot of people that couldn't give a rats about trees and who have much more radical views of
the world. And it's a sad thing for me to have watched that over the course of the last couple of decades. The Greens are not what they were and they never will be again.
Yeah, that is sad.
Indeed, Michael, let's talk about the campaign. We've got ten days to go. The national polls are looking very dire for the coalition, but internal liberal polling paints another picture. Dutton has said that publicly yesterday, what's your sense of where the campaign's at at the moment.
Well, it's no doubt the.
Labor have had the best of the first three weeks of the campaign, which was largely built on their historic brand equity in social policy to it in this case medicare. And I must say I was delighted to see the Shadow Minister for Health and rust and give a blistering attack make a blistering attack on Alban Easy today by saying he's just a political vulture preying on the sick and the infirmed and the elderly, which is exactly one
hundred percent right now. Wish someone had said that months ago, because their whole campaign is to scare older people and sick people and elderly people into thinking that somehow their Medicare cards going to be taken away from them. If Peter Dutton wins, Nane rustin for attacking him. And this is a campaign based on deception and by the way, you know, we see the deception with the use of the Medicare signed behind Albanesi in the Medicare card. These
are these are trademarks owned by the Commonwealth. I don't know why Albany. I don't know why the head of I don't know why the head of Medicare hasn't run the federal ALP campaign director and said, can you stop using the Medicare signed behind Albanesi these press conferences. Otherwise I will seek an injunction against the ALP and Albanesi for misusing our trademarks. So Albanize has got away with
blue murders. It's one of the many things he's done during this campaign which is just just dishonest, and you know he should be called out for it.
Well, on that point, Duttan last night accused Albanesi of constantly lying, saying great line that he couldn't lie straight in bed.
Have a look, we'll be honest.
Health, each b and education, every population is increasing.
For minister, you couldn't straight in bed. Honestly, this is unbelievable.
It can go to abuse.
Well, it's just the reality.
Here, Ritchel.
It was a good line cut through, got a lot of media attention. But it's true, isn't it.
It's not true. All say to that is Albow is a politician. Politicians stretch the truth and they do it every day.
Both sides do it.
They stretch it as far as they possibly can, and you're not going to stop that.
Alba lies this campaign, Rich, I have been egregious, as Michael just said, standing in front of that Medicare sign, claiming that Dartan was going to cut medica.
It's not going to cut medicare. You've got to admit that.
No. I think I already just said to you. I think we've gone a little bit over the top. But that happens in politics. This is not, you know, kissing in the ring. This is a pretty tough game, and it tough. Now. Look, I think I think Elbow probably would regret some of the words he's used in this, But by the same token, it still seems to be going okay.
To me.
I don't think there'll be any radical change in what happens. I'd still think that labor will hold government and in my view, will hold it alone. We won't need Teals or anybody else.
What do you think about that prediction, Mike, or do you think Albin easy perhaps through all of these scare campaigns and lies will hold government without I mean rich is saying majority government there if he doesn't need the Teals.
Or anyone else. What do you reckon about that prediction.
Well, I've always doubted that because for such a long time people thought the government was so poor and they reverted to labor and the recent poles. The reasons I explained, but I think people really think they want the next
three years to be like the last three. I think the majority of people won't want that because he been such a poor Prime Minison has been such a poor government, So I don't think that'll happen, but you know it, can he get there with the Greens, which would be his first port of calls since he's in a love wrestle with them, He could well do that, or with
a sprinkling of some of the Teals. That can happen if he gets to you know, if you get to seventy seats, if Labour get to seventy seats, then there are chants with the Greens and the Teals to cobble together seventy sixts. So that's on the last lot of polling that's possible. Although I'm hopeful that a lot of this increase in the labor vote is in labour seats where there were very heavy swings away from them in
safe seats at the last election, particularly in Victoria. Their primary route dropped four percent and huge numbers in safe labor seats. So if those numbers have come back to labor, in other words, if it's labor talking to their base, which a lot of their campaign is, the result much to be much closer than people think.
Well, as I'm going to ask James Patterson about in a moment, there certainly is this disconnect between the published national polls and the internal research that that the Liberals are getting all right, rich O, Michael Kroger, Great to see you both as always. Now, the Coalition announced its defense policy today, two days out from ANZAC Day. Dutton and Shadow Defense Minister Andrew Hasty pledged an extra twenty one billion dollars. This would take defense spending to two
point five percent of GDP by twenty thirty now. Darton said that we can't achieve peace through weakness.
In Australia, Labour parties were eighty billion dollars out of defense at a time. They tell us that we should be trying to bolster our defenses, and you don't achieve peace through weakness. And the trouble at the moment is that we've got a weak prime minister, which is why we've had bad economic policy.
And Andrew Hasty made the point that Australia can't just rely on America forever.
This is a big, big announcement and it sends a signal to the world as well that we are serious about defense. We can't take anything for granted anymore.
If there's a.
Lesson out of Ukraine, it's that you've got to be able to stand up on your own two feet, at least until your allies can come and support you. And I think with the election of President Trump, America is moving to a America first posture.
We still have a strong.
Relationship with the United States, but we can't take anything for granted.
And when you consider that China has engaged this is just so underestimated and underreported. China has engaged in live firing exercises off the Tasman Sea and has had warships circumnavigating our coastline in a threatening maneuver. Well, this would be a welcome increase in defense spending joining me now to talk about this is Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Patterson.
James, thanks so much for your time.
Now, twenty one billion dollars is a significant spend.
Can you explain to our viewers.
The specifics of your defense policy and how it's different from Labour's.
Chara.
We know that Labor talks a good game when it comes to defense and national security. They say they understand the strategic environment and how die it is. But you have to look at what Labour does, not just what they say, and they never match their rhetoric with action.
They've kept defense spending low, and in fact, because they're spending on future orcust capability without increasing our defense budget, they're cannibalizing existing defense capability and having to cancel a whole string of important defense procurement projects like infantry fighting vehicles, howitzers, and joint strike fighters. Cannibalizing current defense capability in favor of future capability which is important but won't arrive for
some time. We think that's a historic mistake. We think it's a dangerous and reckless thing to do, and we're going to significantly increase defense spending in the next five years up to two and a half percent of GDP and over the next decade up to three percent of GDP.
The Prime Minister today said that this is a media release in search of a policy. So how will the twenty one billion be spent, What new equipment will be purchased.
We've given some examples already, like restoring the fourth squadron of Joint Strike fighters that Labor canceled, those F thirty five fighter jets. But we're not going to make the same mistake that Labour did before the last election of basically entering into negotiations and procurement contracts without the benefit advice. And i'll tell you why it is major foreign policy.
In national security address before the last election, Anthony Albanezi said we're going to put Tomahawk missiles on the Colon class submarines. Well, the only problem with that was that it turned out when they got into government they realized that those Tomahawk missiles were no longer in production that could go on the Colon class submarines, and it was too expensive and complicated to retrofit the Colins class submarines
to host those Tomahawk missiles. So that was a major blunder on national security in defense that Anthony alban Mezi made because he didn't have the benefit of the advice and he tried to make a big promise before the election without the benefit of it. We're not going to make that same mistake.
But you could say, generally speaking that you want to invest in more aerial drones, or more missiles, or more submarines for example.
That's right, Sharry, and we have said all of that. We've said that we're going to be in in more guided weapons, including missiles. We said that we can be
investing in lethal drones. We said we're going to be investing in upgrading our defense bases and facilities because right now they're at grave risk of not being ready for ucas in just two years time, when we're supposed to be receiving the first rotational US submarine Virginia class submarines at fleet based West in Western Australia, if we don't get that based up and running, if it doesn't have the if it's not ready to receive them, then we
will have failed at the first orcus hurdle. And that's because this Governm's failing to put the money in that it needs to look.
At this announcement today, Andrew Hasty was grilled on the topic of women in combat.
Let's have a look at that now.
Our coalition policy is that all combat roles are open to women. The one thing that we'll well, one thing that we will insist on is high standards because in combat there's no points for second place, so we need to be able to win every fight that we go into. That's why we'll uphold high standards.
Thank you.
Are you seeing that women have lower standards?
Is that what you're saying?
Hardly saying we have one standard?
And it went on that questioning Now, James, I'm a feminist, but this isn't a case of gender bias. I mean, the reality is that most men wouldn't qualify for the sas because of physical strength, let alone women who are, for the most part but not all biologically simply not as strong.
Sharry, A lot of people who've been lecturing Andrew Hasty about this haven't seen what he's seen, haven't served in the way he has, and I think that should be a bit more humble, including the Deputy Prime Minister. But our policy is very clear. Any person, regardless of their gender, or their sexuality, or their race, or their religion or any other characteristic. Any person who meets the standard is welcome to serve. In fact, we want more people to serve.
We want more people to sign up because on this government's watch, we have a recruited Recruitment and Retention CRISISF is five thousand people below its authorized strength and that is a disaster in a dangerous security environment. So if you're a patriotic and fit and able Australian, we want you to sign up, and we want you to serve, regardless of your denda or any other characteristic.
Yeah.
Absolutely, And that recruitment is a major issue, and the lack of recruitment is in large part to how returning veterans have been treated. Now, I spoke last night in the show about how the national polls are telling a different story to the internal Liberal polling. Darton mention this on air yesterday as well.
I think if you have a look at the twenty nineteen Pole result, where you know all the public published polling was pointing one way, the reality is that there was a different outcome. Now I'm not going to go into the private polling, but you'll see where the government's spending money at the moment in their seats. They're defending
seats at the moment, they're not on the offensive. So I think there's a bit more of a sophisticated view in relation to the polling and what's happening at the moment. Australians are hurting. That's the reality.
So James, what's your sense at the moment you're the coalition campaign spokesman, you're in the coalition headquarters. Is pessimism setting in about.
The election result?
Or is dart and right that your internal Liberal Party research is still showing a better outcome than the national polls.
This election is still very much up for grabs, and over the next week and a half will be sticking to our message about how Australians will be better off under a Dutton coalition government. And let me give you a data point that illustrates why this election is still up for grabs. There's four seats in Victoria that are traditional safe flavor seats, Hawk and Gorton in the northwest
and Holt and Bruce in the southeast. In each of those seats, over the last few months, the Labour Party has spent at least seventy thousand dollars on Google and YouTube advertising in some of those seats up to one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Now, those are seats which have not been held by the Liberal Party for decades. Some of those have margins of more than ten percent.
If you're dropping one hundred grand in Gorton on online advertising, that shows you what you really think about where this election is going to be fought and won and lost. And I've never seen a government seeking a second term in office have such a defensive posture and be spending so much money and time and effort trying to hold traditional safe labor seats. That tells you what Labour thinks about where this campaign is really at.
So you said there at the start of that answer that the election is still anyone's to win. Are you legitimately saying that the coalition could win majority government here minority government?
What exactly do you think is a realistic prospect.
I'm not going to get into the dangerous game of specific predictions, Shari, but to suffice to say, this government
has not sold the deal with the Australian people. They have not convinced the Australian people that they deserve another three years, and for good reason, because their performance in their first three years has been so abysmal it's not going to get any better in their next three years should they be lucky enough to have that, particularly if they're aliant on the Greens and the Teals, as they
likely would be in a hung parliament scenario. So Australians do have a choice to make over the next ten days, and they should really seriously contemplate what their future would look like under Anthony Albanezi with Adam bant Is a co pilot, with the Teals as co pilots. Just think about what that'll meansfit economy, for our national security, for our place in the world.
Absolutely. I spoke about that at the start of the show.
Very worrying prospect, all right, James Patterson, thank you very much for your time, and.
Still to calm.
The Prime Minister's record of broken promises grows longer with an exclusive Sky News audit blowing holes in his pledged to extend the hours of medical clinics. Plus the research showing the cost of net zero is far greater than that of Trump's tariff. So I'll speak about that with Adam Crichton right after this quick break.
Welcome back. Well, there's been a lot.
Of focus by the Albanesi government this election on Donald Trump, but the Institute of Public Affairs is working on research that examines how the cost of net zero to industry and business is far greater than that of Trump's tariffs and discuss the Institute of Public Affairs chief economist Adam
Crighton joins me. Now, Adam, great to see you again. Look, tell us about this research that the IPA is working on that examines the cost of net zero and how it would compare to the tariffs and their impact in Australia.
Oh, yes, certainly. Show well, it's very primarive research.
I can't give you specific.
Figures yet, but you're quite right.
There is this obsession with Trump's tariffs, and it's only ten percent on Australia, and we don't export much to the US in the first place, so actually the cost
for Australia will be quite small. But at the same time, we also have this thing in Australia called a safeguard mechanism where the two hundred biggest so called polluters they have to drastically reduce their emissions by twenty thirty and some of them will shut down and some of them will have to pay tens of million dollars in tax, and effectively it's a carbon tax by stills, and the ultimate cost is going to be many hundreds of millions
of dollars. And it's quite likely likely in my view, that the ultimate cost of the safeguard mechanism will be greater than the Trump Tariff's a direct impact on Australia, and I don't think enough Australians realize that that we actually impose a tariff on ourselves. And yes, we are working on the specific numbers, but it's still very preliminary. But it's something that all think tanks in Australias should be working on rather than obsessing about Donald Trump.
I want to ask you about tax reform. It's something we've spoken about a lot in the past.
Now.
Peter Darton gave an interview with The Australians Editor at large Paul Kelly, where he indicated his aspiration to index tax brackets in line with inflation.
Have a look.
I want to see us move as quickly as we can as a country to changes around personal income tax, including indexation, because bracket creep, as we know is a killer in the economy and it stifles productivity and entrepreneurialism and hard work, etc. But we need to do it at a time where the budget can afford to do so.
Adam, this would be genuine reform, excellent reform that whoever's in government should absolutely be embarking on indexing the tax brackets in line with CPI.
Yeah.
Look, it's just so bad that the Coalition did not seriously go to the election with this. This would have been a huge philosophical difference. I mean, yes, the lack of indexation is basically a totally unlegislated.
Tax increase every year.
It's completely immoral and just as the opposition leaders said, you know, it kills entrepreneurialism, it kills productivity. And if those things are true, then why doesn't he do it right now? It doesn't make any sense to me that they haven't gone with it. I think this vague promise is just not good enough. I mean, most serious countries in the world already do this, the United States, France, Canada, Germany.
I mean, you know, we index our pensions, we index our family benefits every year, but poor old taxpayer doesn't get any indexation. And that effectively means a tax increase every year, and that is the only way the governments of both persuasions can just keep increasing their spending every year.
Yeah.
I mean, you talk about a tax increase by stealth when it comes to the safeguide mechanism, but this truly is a tax increase by stealth, and it's taking more high proportion of people's income tax brackets because bracket creep, particularly when inflation's rising, and you know, people say, are inflation's falling, but people don't realize that actually the cost of goods is still rising. Yes, the level at which it's rising isn't as much as it was, but it's
still rising above the target range. And I think this is something that people don't understand. The inflation battle isn't over, Adam.
Yes, No, that's certainly right, and something in economics we call money illusion. People don't think about inflation, they don't understand it.
And actually with.
Bracket creep, they often think that you need to move into a different bracket for it to be effective, but no, you just need to have a pay rise in your current bracket and then more of your wage is going to be taxed at a higher rate, so you're still paying a hig average tax rate even though you have not gone into a higher bracket. So it affects everyone all the time, and it's extremely insidious, as you just say.
Look, we've been speaking about the coalition's major defense announcement today. What's your view on this policy?
Well, look, I think I mean politically, five hundred and forty thousand people have already voted and they've just released it, so I think it's a bit late in the day to be releasing it, and I think there should have been a little bit more flesh on the bone in terms of what it means. But I think it's certainly in the right direction. We need to increase our defense
spending and there's plenty of IPA research on this. We need to go from two percent of GDP to three percent of GDP, and as I understand it, this is going to two and a half percent of GDP, which is good, but it's still going.
To take five years.
And I think we really need to take defense far more seriously given the geopolitical threats, not just from China as we well know, but also now increasingly from Russia.
No indeed, all right, Adam Crichton, thank you so much.
Now after the break, an audit by Sky News finds just how many of Albanese's promised late night urgent care clinics close before eight pm. Details of this broken promise next Welcome back Well. One of Anthony Albanese's major promises were late night medical urgent care clinics, which he said would be open from eight am until ten pm, seven days a week.
What we need to do is to make sure that people can get that care when they need it. It's one of the reasons why we announced our urgent care clinics to take pressure off emergency departments.
But an audit undertaken by our Sky News digital journalists found only forty four of the eighty seven were open from eight am to ten pm, and the audit found that mostly the clinics in rural and regional areas were not open these hours, and none of the clinics in the Northern Territory, thus South Australia or Tasmania met this eight am to ten pm requirement. Now Albinizi was pressed on this today by our Sky News colleague cam Reddit.
The last counter was about half of those that are open the lock of ours from ain am to ten pm when you anticipate that all will be open for those full hours.
And why is it that not all of them are at this stage.
Well, what is occurring is that those urgent care clinics are delivering help for some one point three million Australians have received it.
Neva answers the question, all right to discuss that's bringing Scott Morrison's from a media advisor now lobbyist Andrew Carswell and Daily Telegraph journalist James Willis.
Great to see you both. Andrew.
This is a major broken promise on healthcare, yet he doesn't seem to be under any pressure to answer questions from journalists about it, and Sky seems to be the only media outlet that's actually taken the time to drill down on this policy.
Well, we'll Shari first of all, congrats to the Sky Digital team for that story as a cracker.
Look, this is just.
Another labor good intention, bad delivery and we're seeing a pattern of behavior here, particularly in the care economy, particularly in age care, health medicare, even in education as well, where they have these lofty promises that are never realized.
They have this.
Lofty rhetoric that fall short of outcomes and we're starting to see that even in this election campaign as well.
I note the intervention of the Health Minister.
Today, Mark Butler, who basically said that Anthony Alberanez he had been lying to the Australian public all the way through this campaign by holding up his Medicare card and saying this is all you will need when you visit your GP under our next term. Well that's been proven to be from the Healthminess to himself that said that is not the case.
James, what do you think about this?
I mean, this is a major broken promise from the government and yet he's running, as Andrew just says, a scare campaign against dark and over Medicare and health cuts.
That's right, and I think that it's in the name. Isn't an urgent care clinics when someone is urgently in need.
Of care you want the hours to be.
Opened as promise, particularly in regional areas, and the fact that they aren't. As Andrews says, it's a really good example of a great idea. But then someone not looking at the data available and the number of jobs that are available and the workforce available and how it actually works and then figuring out down the track while they're not quite working is the way that they should.
Now.
The problem is that the Albanezy government can really only tell us one point three million people have gone.
To these clinics.
They don't actually have much other comprehensive data about how effectively these clinics are working. Compared to go to the
GP or anywhere else you decide to go. With the hospital, it costs about two and two hundred and forty dollars per visit compared to just forty dollars for many care for each one of these clinics, and yet the government has vowed to build dozens more in the next term, despite the fact that the ones that are opening right now don't even have the manpower to keep them opening.
So that's a big problem.
I'd also note on health the other thing that should be called out, and I know it's a siet issue, but one of the things that this government has completely stuffed up is the regulation of vaping products. And look, it might not be the sexiest issue, but this is a multi billion dollar tax cigarette tax excise that has been let through to the keeper. There's illegal vapes all
over town. We've let this black market run riot and that should be called out criminal syndicates, you know, fire bombs, and then they suddenly go, oh geez, no one's buying cigarettes anymore. White, let's put the tax up even more. There's a big hole in the budget as a result. So on that one, Mark Butler gets a failure as well.
Just back on what you both said there about Albanese's good intentions. I mean, you know, you might give him the benefit of the dart, but to me this seems like a classic case of those TV shows Utopia or Hollowman, when the politicians look for an announcable and then they have no intention of really following through, don't put the effort into it, and then you end up with a situation like this. We're only half the urgent care clinics are actually open late at night. All right, Well, let's
return to the campaign. Andrew Carswell, you're you know, you're obviously a former media advisor to Scott Morrison. You were there for the supposedly unlosable campaign that Bill shot and lost.
What's your sense of how this campaign's going. Well.
Anthony Abaneze is certainly in the box seat, and Labor improve their position I would say in the last couple of weeks in particular and particular in Victoria and New South Wales, that that's according to the current poland that you were seeing in the market. But I would urge caution on viewing those polls as gospel.
But for two reasons.
One, there is still a twenty to thirty percent soft vote that's still out there and it hasn't budged.
It hasn't budged since day one of this campaign.
They are Australians that are just wanting to be convinced of the need to change, not yet convinced, but they haven't made up their mind yet, and they'll make up their mind late.
So this thing's got a long way to run.
But secondly, the vast majority of established poles that you're seeing in media throughout this campaign are based on the preferences of from twenty and twenty two. Now we're going to see a vastly different preference distribution in this election.
And you'll see that work through.
You know, the coalition's primary vote according to Newspoles come down from forty to thirty five. The vast majority that is sprayed left to night. It hasn't gone to later it's just parked vote. You will see thousands and thousands more of that vote come back to the coalition that you did in twenty twenty two.
So this thing's got a long way run. This is not going to be.
An election that is a two party PERFERD election. It's not going to be decided on a uniform swing. It's a seat to seek contest based on that preference flow from the minor parties.
Yeah, exactly, hyper localized, and I think just worth remembering that news poll is conducted by the posters who do the Labor Party polling as well. You know, James, half a million people have already cast their vote.
It's extraordinary. At least that was day one of voting.
So do you think this says that those people have already made their mind up, but those who are undecided might cast the later.
Well, I was one of them firstly that voted yesterday. And I also wonder if we actually need two weeks of pre polling in the lead up to a modern day election. I think it's pretty crazy that we have such a long time to allow people to do it. But I would say for the Liberal Party, because there's been talk in the Lib camp about rolling out potentially another policy or two between now in May three. It's too late, honestly, that should have been done by now.
And I also think if you're looking at the overall strategy, I mean, Anthony Albnezi and Labor have given them so much ammunition. People are furious about cost of living. There's been changes to super, there's been other taxes added on. People are entitled to be angry about energy prices and everything else we've discussed, including health. But I don't think the Liberals, in my view, have got this campaign quite right. I'm curious to know why Andrew Hasty was left out
of the limelight for a couple of days. He finally addressed the media today over his views on women and was articulate and brilliant. He was a veteran, he knew this stuff firsthand.
It was his personal view.
You could have a personal view on something and the party can vote in an entirely different direction. That doesn't mean that you know anything's different. So I'm amazed they did that. And I also feel like Justiner Price is still a vote winner, and I would have had her front and center a lot more with Peter Dutton because I think she was very very effective at campaigning during the voice. I'm amazed in terms of personnel. I think they were two blunders with Hasty and also just Center.
Well.
My understanding is that the coalition working to get Andrew Hasty out and about campaigning, but he was reluctant to leave his seat of counting.
He feels it's under threat.
Whether you know whether or not it is close, we don't know yet, Andrew.
I want to get your sense.
The Liberals have now started rolling out the bulk of their advertising campaign.
What's your verdict on their ads? Are they sharp enough?
They are, and they've got the balance right between positive and negative. They can't go too negative. I think what has occurred on the other side is that the Labor Party have thrown all their eggs into the negative basket and it's too much.
It's overwhelming.
You know, you go through It works on a TV show at night, Yes, it does to an ax certain extent. It does early on in a campaign. By the end of the campaign you are dead tired of them because you're seeing two three sometimes in one ad break.
It is over the top.
So to get the balance right between the positives selling your vision but also the natives as well, so I think you'll see more. The Coalition have back ended their advertising spend to the last week of the campaign and I think that'll be quite pivotal.
Yeah, all right, Andrew Cars James Willis, thank you both so much.
Thank you.
All Right, we'll take a quick break and we'll be back for more in a moment. And Sophie Elsworth joins us now from the Vatican. Sophie, update us what's happening on the ground.
We'll Sharry.
There's streams of thousands of people out here at Baddikin City today. I've just been inside Saint Peter's Basilica and viewed the pape lying inside there inside his coffin. Took me about three hours, Sharry, to be able to view the late Pope.
It's incredibly hot.
Day here at Baddikin City. There's thousands of people, thousands of mourners, thousands of worshipers, many from the religious faith, coming here to Saint Peter's Square today to pay their respects to the late Pope.
But an incredible and.
Very surreal experience, Shari, to witness him lying there in state and they keep moving you on.
You've only got a few seconds.
I had maybe five seconds viewing him and then they move you on, so it.
Was a quick experience, but an incredible.
One, incredible experience for show.
Sophielswa, thank you so much. And that's it for me. Here's Pomurrae.