Live on Sky News.
This is Sharry.
Good Evening Tonight, A top newspaper editor accuses Anthony Alberzi of running a shameless, deceitful campaign to his face. That explosive accusation.
In a moment. Plus, Albanzi under fire again, this time.
For backing a candidate who shared Nazi imagery of Peter Dutton and called him a monster. His praise raising serious questions, and he still can't get his story straight. Albanezi drags up his own stage stumble yet again. It's an own goal, yet he can't get his story straight.
It's clearly keeping him up at night.
And when young Australians fight to defend our nation, I'll bring you research into this with Liberal MP and former soldier Keith Wallahan.
This on the eve of Anzac Day. Also tonight, the cost of Living laid bare.
Oz Harvest founder Ronny Kahn joins me live with a powerful message to both major parties. And it's another night of great guests with Matt Canavan, Basil Zemplis, Sophie Elsworth at Vatican City and Warren Hogan. But first tonight, Albinizi is lifting in the polls, but he's doing so through untruthful scare campaigns. If the same tactics were used against him, he'd call it misinformation. Donald Trump would call it fake news. Albanezi stands in front of the Medicare backdrop, day after day,
the implication that Peter Dutton would slash Medicare. It's not true, but that doesn't matter to this Prime minister. As Cameron Milner wrote this week, Albanezi is like the used car salesman father in Roll Doll's book Matilda, making big promises, then whine back the eudometer and stuffing sawdust in the gearbox, and when he's caught out, no apologies, only excuses. He
can't even admit he's misled Australians on power prices. He promised they'd fall two hundred and seventy five dollars ninety seven times before the last election.
Now obfuscation and deflection.
When will we see our power bills come down?
They are?
Well, what we know is that renewables are the cheapest form of power, not because of what we say, but because of what the Australian Energy market operator says. When do the bills come down and what the market is delivering?
Just stick me with your plan, mister Albinezy, when will the bills come.
Down under our plan? We know that renewables are the cheapest form of power. Gas is now thirteen dollars. It was thirty dollars, and when we came cheap, when we kind off, thirteen cheaper than thirty.
Yet, if the national polls are correct, Albinizi is set to win again, and history also tells us this is the most likely outcome. No first term government has been defeated since the Great Depression. Even after Kevin Rudd's chaotic first term when he was unceremoniously rolled as Prime Minister
by his own colleagues, the Coalition couldn't win. In twenty ten there was a hung Parliament, as you'll recall, and it was the election after when Tony Abbott won in a landslide, only of course, to then be toppled by Malcolm Turnbull.
Who wrongly thought he could do it better.
So for Dudden to win next Saturday, it would go against the grain of history. The fact he's even in contention reflects just how poor Albanese's record.
As PM really is.
Think of the Voice referendum failure, releasing hundreds of criminal date detainees, and some went on to reoffend, issuing nearly three thousand visas to Gazans from a terror controlled warzone, abandoning America at the United Nations, refusing to stand up to China after Australian defense personnel were injured or threatened. The Big Australia agenda, with one million new immigrants, crashing housing supply, the conflicts of interest in the Made in
Australia deals, the misinformation legislation that was thankfully scuttled. Electricity prices up thirty two percent despite promising the two to seventy five cut, twelve interest rate hikes just to top it all off, no signature reform, there, no legacy, just damage. Dutton has put forward major reform his nuclear policy, gas expansion and greater defense spending. He also wants to embark on major tax reform if he wins government.
I mentioned this last night.
Dudden wants to index personal income tax brackets so they're in line with inflation. He made the case for this in an interview with the Australians Editor at large Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan.
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.
This is brilliant policy, much needed reform, because the issue is that even if wages are growing slightly, bracket creep is pushing workers into higher tax brackets. At the same time, inflation means you're purchasing power is shrinking.
So look at it this way.
Without adjusting the tax thresholds to account for the historic inflation we've experienced, this government has presided over, in effect, a massive tax increase, and it's a tax increase by stealth. Chief economist at the IPA, Adam Crichton calls this immoral.
The lack of indexation is basically a totally unlegislated tax increase every year. It's completely immoral and just as the opposition letters said, you know, it kills entrepreneurialism, it kills productivity. 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.
Reform in this area is supported by the former head of the Productivity Commission, Michael Brennan, who says it's possible that the ability to raise revenue through bracket creep is on balance making it easier for the size of government to just grow and for income tax to bear the burden without requiring legislative scrutiny. And highly respected economist Chris Richardson says that the average full time worker in just six years time will move from the thirty percent to
the thirty seven percent tax bracket. He says this wouldn't happen with indexation. He says, Australia may be a first world nation, but we increasingly have a third rate tax system. It last got a spit and polish a quarter of a century ago, with the subsequent neglect leaving it ever
more reliant on a handful of increasingly damaging taxes. Now, I asked Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor about this idea of indexing tax thresholds recently, and he didn't rule it out in the future, but said that spending levels and debt were too high to implement right now. But I think most people don't realize that Australia has one of the highest personal income tax rates in the world. The government is just collecting more and more personal income tax to fund their big spending agenda.
So reform here is urgent.
And I think it's a pity that Dutton didn't announce this policy in his Budget reply speech and.
Then campaign hard on it.
The coalition campaign should have been bolder and embraced Dutton's own instincts on policy, like on this one. Unfortunately, other members of his team argued against it. So it's not that the Coalition doesn't have the ideas, it's that they thought they could win without putting the policy reform on
the table. As economics editor at The finn Review, John Ko wrote, if Dutton had campaigned on this from the start, he would have given himself a better shot at winning the election, and I agree, especially when you consider Alban Eze's record. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott used to think nineteen seventy five was the most consequential election in our history because GoF Whitlam's government was our worst ever and
because voters had to ratify his dismissal. But Abbott says that he believes that this election is now more consequential. He writes because the Albaneze government has a worse record of economic vandalism, not just massively expanding the size of government but also helping to create an unprecedented.
Fall in living standards.
What's more, Whitlam seemed like an aberration, whereas the alban Ezy government is making green left politics the new normal and is basically indifferent to the point of contemptuous of the Anglo Celtic culture and Judeo Christian ethic that has made.
Modern Australia so great.
Now.
In my view, it wouldn't have been the West idea to draft Abbot into the coalition campaign as a high level advisor because the case against the Albanezy government is strong, but the messaging needed to be sharper, tougher. And look at these succinct and brutal lines from Abbot in that article in The Australian. He said the fundamental distinction between the Government and the opposition's housing policies is that Labour wants to create more renters while the Coalition wants to
create more owners. And on immigration, Labour's okay with migrants living in Hotel Australia, but the Coalition wants everyone to join Team Australia. And he writes that the armed forces are for to tring our potential.
Enemies, not just disaster relief.
There's plenty of material for the Coalition to work with and Darton is on a daily basis highlighting the lines of the Labor campaign and even the media can see it. The country's most experienced a newspaper editor, Christopher Dare said today that Albanezy had run a shameless, outrageous and deceitful campaign. He made the comments right to his face at the West Australian Leadership Breakfast.
On that day. I pointed out that you are conducting a masterful campaign, a masterclass really built on the maybe Graham richardson whatever it takes approach to victory, dabbling in a little bit of deceit, cycling through the spin, unrelenting, uncompromising at times, a little bit outrageous, but a brilliant campaign. So far you are prepared. You never leave without your Medicare card. You are confident, so much so you let Chris Bowen speak publicly, and you are shameless.
If Albanezey wasn't too sure about those lines, well, his smile got tighter and tighter, and the next made him visibly squirm.
While you don't even know the name of the Greens candidate in your seat this time around. It wasn't always the way. If it were not for the Save our Elbow campaign we ran in twenty sixteen while I was editing the Daily Telegraph in your hometown, you would have most likely lost your seat in Parliament to a Green opponent. To this day, Bill Shorten and Tanya Plivsek have never forgiven me.
Bill Shorton and Tania pliver Sk have never forgiven him. That's what Christopherdoor said. Well, in my view, neither will the rest of Australia forgive him, because there is virtually no case for the re election of the Albanese government if the criteria is whether Australians are better off than before they came to office. In fact, the only people better off under the Albanezy government are the Palestinians given visas to settle here from Hamas controlled Gaza.
Okay, a lot coming up tonight.
But let's get into that now with Coalition Senator Matt Canavan and WA Liberal leader Basil Zamplis.
Welcome to you both.
Basil, do you think what we've seen, I mean, what we've seen from this campaign so far. You've got to say it's more egregious than the usual spin. This is getting to the point of enormous untruths about Coalition policy.
There have been moments in this campaign which have underwhelmed people. I accept that, but they have you're quiet, Rd Cherry. There have been moments when the script hasn't gone through any prof for fact checking unless it has just been delivered.
And I guess it says a little bit about people's awareness of Australian politics and their ability to actually prosecute what is right and what is not right, because there is no doubt there have been and we heard Chris Dare, who's now the editor in chief of the West Australian here in Perth, say there have been elements of deceit. There's a newspaper editor calling it out, and yet it
continues to happen. So what does it say? Does tell us a lot about Anthony Albanezi, does it tell us a lot about the state of politics at the moment in Australia, or does it tell us something of the levels of apathy of the voting public. There's a few questions there.
I know, Matt Canavan, you know, what do you think about what I said just there in those opening remarks that the coalition's lines and slogans should have been sharper and tougher, you know a bit of the twenty thirteen Tony Abbott campaign.
Look, I'll let you chart you make those judgments. You're the umpire in that respect. I'm on the field. I'm on the paddocker trying to win votes. So now it's not the time to assess that, but it is absolutely the case. I'll take this opportunity to point out the truth of what the Labor Party are running on in this campaign. They will, if they get back in power,
try to tax unrealized gains. So that means if every year, not only we have to fill out an income tax reform, you have to fill out a capital gains tax form as well every year because if your shares have gone up a little bit, you'll be presented with a tax bill without the sale of those shares. Necessarily. It can even affect farmers who have their farm in superannuation. How are you going to sell off part of your farm to fund a capital gains tax bill? It is absolutely
ludicrous and that's what this mob is putting forward. This mob is putting forward a plan that will cost six hundred billion dollars through wind and solar and transmission lines which will destroy our environment and are clearly pushing up power prices. And that's flowing through to the cost of everything. The other day, I did a shop. I shopped like it was twenty twenty two. I got old twenty two
two twenty two catalogs. Did a shop that would have cost one hundred and thirty two dollars then today cost two hundred and fifteen dollars, up sixty three percent in just three years. I don't know how families are suffering. That's why this government deserves to go, because they've lost control of ranji system, lost control of prices in our shops, and they have these radical plans to put more taxes on struggling Australians.
Yeah, and we've got someone and Ronni Kahan coming up in the show later to speak about just how tough families are doing it, and you know what she's going to tell us is truly alarming, you know, families who've never had any sort of distress before turning to charities. Now, one of the weirdest aspects of this campaign, though, was and at the time it didn't seem like a big deal. Okay,
the Prime Minister fell off the stage. But this has become an ongoing political problem for him because he then lied about it.
He said he didn't fall off the stage.
And this is one of those, I suppose moments that have really resonated and cut through with voters. He finally today at this same West Australian Leadership breakfast, he finally today seemed to admit that, Yep, he did fall off the stage.
Have a look, what's the worst moment of this campaign so far?
Probably falling off the stage.
Now you said that was not a fall, You said I didn't involuntary losses.
I sort of stepped up there.
See here this is called good occupational health and safety. There's white there that wasn't there. Good on w A heavily unionized.
All right.
So he brought that up himself and he described it as a fall. But then he had the audacity to tell the media later that they shouldn't even be asking him about it.
Have a look, it was a joke.
It was a joke. Chill out.
At the time. I stumbled, that's what happened. I laughed about it at the time. I laughed about it.
Since it's no big deal. Well, I fell for Newcastle a long time ago.
I mean, for a man who's meant to be good at politics, it's extraordinary that he brought this topic up a game today of his own volition.
He put it back on the agenda. Massive own goal. A Bazil.
A friend of mine saw the headlines today in passing when she was at work and I was on the phone tour, and she said to me, why does hal Ben Easy keep falling off the stage? You know, she thought it had happened again.
This is an own goal.
What's wrong with him that he brought it up again and he still can't get his story straight about whether he fell.
Or didn't fall.
It's a very strange thing to have happened, the whole lot of it. I mean, he clearly he stumbled or tumbled whatever it was. Now, we don't like highlighting those things. They happen, we get it. I'm not sure why he didn't own it at the time, and then I'm not sure why in the days that followed, when it continued to be an issue, he didn't go, look, you know, yes I did fall as we have seen and know, if you own it, if you own a mistake, own a poor choice of words, people get on with it.
And now here it is again bubbling away. So he has not handled this well. And the misstep is not a big deal, we get it. But the way he's misspoken about it so many times that doesn't make sense. It defires logic.
And that's why I think this moment is cut through. I mean, on the day that it happened, we barely covered it. We just covered it in passing on this program. But it ended up being one of those moments Matt that resonated with viewers, with Australians because how he kept lying about it, And you think, well, if you can't tell the truth about falling off the stage, then what else is he lying about?
Well, exactly right, Shari, it is a bit of trivia if you like, and I'm sure the Prime Minister he seems to want to dismiss it as trivial. The problem is, if I can paraphrase Paul Kelly, from little lies, big lies grow and if someone's going to lie about small things like this, it then does grow into a lie about cutting your power bills by children. So if I've do and how else can you trust this guy what
he's saying this time? So I think there is a lot of question about the Prime Minister's trust at this election. It's white people are ready to consider a change. And I've been on the pre polsy for three days now and there's a lot of people struggling this country, a lot of people who want change, and I think some of these polls might be a bit off.
Yeah, well, that's interesting that you say that. I've been talking about that on the show this week. So whether the national polls, you know, one thousand or so voters nationally are not reflecting what people are seeing on the ground. So, just to pick you up on that a bit further, Matt, So you think what you're seeing on the ground points to a stronger result for the coalition.
Look, I've never had a more positive vibe on booth. So obviously you don't win them all, but I've started in Rocky Yupoon, maybe Wappa Mackay, I'm here in air right now, is in Townsville today, And yeah, it's just there's for our side. There's a real mood for that change and shift. I mean, the problem for this gup and is the current conditions in this country are not good. Everything nothing seems to be working anymore in our country.
Our roads aren't working, at hospitals aren't working. Lots of people complaining about that. Obviously. I've mentioned the ridiculous prices. Every time you could go to the grocery store and you see that little counter on the checkout, run up the score. Everything seems to be broken this country. So you've only got a choice that this election to have more of the same, because that's what the Labor Party are offering. They're not saying they're going to do anything different.
They're going to keep going. I think everything's great, So that's more of the same. The other choices are change, and I think people are voting for that change of this election.
It's interesting because I think there is very different sentiments in different parts of the country and in many areas of Australia, people are worried about their safety. They've seen crime waves in Queensland, in Northern Territory, parts of Victoria as well. And then today we have this terrible story the alleged murder of a supermarket owner, Linford Feek in the Northern Territory.
I mean he's seventy one. Man was seventy one. And Leah Mendes in The.
Australian has revealed exclusively today that the Darwin teenager who allegedly stabbed him was on bail after being charged for multiple violent offenses, including aggravated assault and even rape.
So on bail for rape and.
Then allegedly murdered a beloved seventy one year old Basil. This speaks to the physical insecurity that many Australians are experiencing around the country.
Yeah, and an absolutely tragic set of circumstances. And we appreciate it is alleged at the moment what is said to have taken place, but Australians right around the country, wherever they live, expect that the judiciary will keep violent offenders locked up and not let them out on the streets. There is an expectation around Australia, wherever you live, and whatever political persuasion, by the way you might follow or might support, that we will be safe in our streets,
in our neighborhoods and in our homes. And if that's not happening, When that is not happening, there is a breakdown that no Australian feels comfortable about.
And again deeper sympathies to the.
Family of the deceased and a strong condemnation of that sort of thing being able to happen.
No exactly, just so so sad, such a devastating thing. I mean it was just standing there in his own shop. Now he lives no longer.
Madam.
Want to ask you about Labour's candidate in Peter Dutton's Seed of Dixon. This was an exclusive by Sam Maiden. Today she revealed that Ali France, the Labor candidate, has said that Israel is an openly racist Apartheit regime, and in twenty seventeen she posted on social media a picture where Peter Dutton appears as a Nazi. You can see that right there. Yet Alban Easy backed her nities press conference today, we do have the comments I'm not going
to play them now. But Albanez, he backed her in, praised her, not one mentioned, not one condemnation, what not one harsh word about what she'd posted. I mean, Matt, you think how hard Labor went over liberal candidates like Catherine Deeves.
He said controversial things online.
At the last election. He claims character matters. He's trying to re He's trying to frame this election as a referendum on Dunn's character like he did with Morrison. But now character is irrelevant when it's his own female candidate.
Well, Shari, the last few days you've seen controversy over the Prime minister preference put his second preference indeed to a Green's care that's saying the most horrific radical things online, and the defense there was all we have to preference some people. It's the best of a bad bunch. But this this, these posts come from an endorsed Labor candidate,
someone that they are backing that. As you said today, the prime ministers doubled down on This is the kind of radical views that occur in the modern Labor Party. They're not the Labor party that your father or grandfather supported. They're no longer that interested in workers' rights, in protecting the jobs of workers up here in Central and North Queensland.
They're more interested in these radical fringe university agendas like freeing Palestine, which have very little relevance to the real lives that people are struggling with right now in this country. This is just a small tip of the iceberg that we're seeing with these posts. But underneath the water these views are rampant. These radical left wing views a rampant
within the modern Labor Party. That's why they so often are disconnected to the struggles that average in real world Australian space.
Indeed, I just want to end on a lighter note. I mean, we know Daniel Andrews is now very unpopular in Victoria. He's been desperate to join a golf club since he quit politics, and the Herald Sun reports that he was accepted as a member of the Mornington Pinionsilla Club golf club last week, but now after an uproar from members, he's been dumped. Bazzword seems no one wants to play golf on the same course as Daniel Andrews.
I remain eternally confused about the goings on in Victoria, and I think many people outside of Victoria do as well. How he was able after those unbelievable periods of lockdowns to not only retain the premiership, to win government back, but to increase his margin confuses everyone, I think, other than those in Victoria. It seems now that even Victorians are confused about what happened in Victoria during that period.
No, indeed, and it's affecting how this is all playing out at different golf clubs. I mean, remember Steve Price said he'd quit his golf club a different one if Daniel Andrews joined when he wanted to join. So there you go, all right, Matt Canavan, Basil Zemplus, we'll see you next Thursday. Now, let's return to Peter Dutton's tax policy on indexation that I spoke about earlier in the show, and Judobank chief economist Warren Hogan joins me. Now, Warren,
thanks for your time. What's your view on this policy that Dutton's put forward? And do you think, as I spoke about, that Labor has presided over an enormous tax increase based effectively on bracket creep.
Yeah, good eventhing Sherry. Now, this is excellent policy, particularly given that we're in a more inflationary world than we've seen for at least thirty or forty years, because essentially, what this bracket creep is is your pay might go up from say forty thousand dollars to fifty thousand, if inflation goes up by twenty five percent the same amount.
You're no better off because your pay is going to have to go to spend the same the amount money on the same goods and services, but you go up into a higher tax bracket, so you're paying more tax. And that's what this bracket creep is. It's it's a hidden increase in taxes what economists call an increase in the real tax burden. And of course when inflation's high,
it happens at a much faster rate. So this is important policy because I think one of the big challenges for our nation right now is the controlling the size of government and controlling the size of government spent, the amount of government spending, and of course bracket creep just hands the government money quite easily. So this is an important guard rail against sort of continued growth in government spending, which is putting pressure on the rest of the community.
I mean, it's interesting that, as Adam Crichton told us last night that many are though even most are. The developed countries around the world do index their tax brackets to CPI, but Australia.
Doesn't do this.
In a way, it's almost cheating workers who are paying personal income tax. And also just how the bulk of government spends deck disproportionately is shouldered by effectively middle income Australians.
Yeah, and I think you've just summarized it perfectly there. Not only do we not index tax brackets, and what that simply means that if inflation or more particularly your wages go up by four percent, the bracket should go up by four percent, so that the tax burden stays the same. But not only do we not do that, when half the world's advanced economies do. We are more reliant on income taxes than most other countries, just about
all countries. And of course this is a tax on incentive to work, and that's also a problem in a world where now're in where there is labor shortages and we want to encourage people to work. So we really have the tax mix wrong. We have the tax system getting more and more skewed. And another issue I think which is going to be increasingly problematic in our community.
Is there's going to be this tax burden on your younger Australians or working age Australians having the fund the government spending for a growing proportion of people in retirement. So there's a lot of reasons why this needs to be looked at and this is an important first step, but it's a vast issue that we are going to have to address our tech system in the next five years or we're going to have real problems before.
Long Warren, you know, the Coalition put forward quite modest attempts to just get the public service back to work in Canberra right more than anyone, I support flexible working arrangements.
I'm a mother.
I work flexibly, but although I'm here every night, so do turn up. But Darton try to make modest efficiency savings and the Albanezy government turned this into a scare campaign. Do you think Australia is reaching the point where we're just becoming a welfare state where you know, Australians expect the government to fund every thing. The NDIS is blowing out, so many different areas are just getting larger and larger, and there is no appetite for getting the budget back in shape.
Yeah, and the picture you paint there, I think is something that concerns me, and that is that an increasingly larger share of Australians and economic activity that people do is being funded by the government. And that's problematic in two respects. One is that it's costing the rest of us, or it's costing tax payers in general more and more. And the other one is this funding is not in
contested markets. The idea of a market economy is there is this idea of competition where the most efficient uses for our scarce resources are found and we can see the benefits in the last thirty years. So you're exactly right. And of course there is also this issue that eventually, if you don't have a healthy private sector, that tax base is going to shrink and people, you know, there won't be the taxes to fund all these commitments the
government's doing. So what you're pointing out there is exactly part of this problem. We're on an unsustainable path and it's just how we address it. And of course a smart country, just like a smart business or a smart household, when they realize something's unsustainable, they make the changes necessary, But we are und too because our politicians are unwilling to go to elections with difficult policies, which is what reform is all about.
Very depressing outlook when we put it like that, Warren Hogan, always love your insights.
Thanks so much. Thanks er now still.
To come, charities are turning away families struggling with the cost of living crisis. Plus how many young Australians would actually fight to defend our nation. I'll discuss this new research with a war veteran after this quick break.
Welcome back well.
Tomorrow is Anzac Day, one of the most sacred days in the Australian calendar. It's a time for all of us to come together and remember those who gave their lives for our country and those who still today risk their own every single.
Day to keep us safe.
But this Anzac Day, we also need to think about our future. And it seems that only sixteen percent of Generation Z would sign up to defend our country. And that's according to new research from Newscorps Growth Intelligence Center.
It also found that less than one.
In four Australians age thirteen to twenty eight feel a strong connection to Anzac Day. Now this is extraordinary, particularly the fact that only sixteen people would sign up to defend our nation.
And perhaps this is a damning indictment on the.
Selfishness of the younger generation. Am I being too harshier that they aren't willing to fight for our country that is given them so much?
Maybe there's just not enough gratitude today. Maybe I'm mean too harsh.
Or joining me now to discuss as Liberal member for Menzies and former ad F veteran Keith Wallerhan Keith, thank you very much for your time. Does that finding depress you that only sixteen percent of Generation Z would sign up to defend our nation if we needed to do so, if we needed to send troops to war?
It does, and it doesn't. On the one hand, it doesn't because if you go back through surveys in previous generations, young people have always hesitated because they don't like the idea of war. And you go back to people often quote the nineteen thirty three Oxford Union debate. We're on a two to one vote. They voted that under no circumstances would they fight for king and country. Yet six
years later they did in their thousands. They didn't hesitate and behind me is a picture of those who I served within my second tour of Afghanistan in my commando company. Many of them in that photo were children when September eleven happened. They didn't turn their mind to war. When the time came to serve, they did. But on the other hand, what disturbs me is the trend. When this survey was last done, the numbers that were willing to
serve were higher, So the trend is down. And I think at the heart of that is a confusion, a confusion and institutions about ugly nationalism, which no one likes. Millions of people have died from that, but healthy patriotism, and we need to lean into healthy patriotism.
I mean, we owe everything to those who fought for our country and also fought for our allies in past wars. But do you think this is partly now about education, that the younger generations need to be educated about our history and what was at stake, or do you think this is also about the woke ideology where you know,
people don't literally have an appetite for war anymore. I mean, we kind of saw that in a sense when Hermas massacred thousands of innocent Israelis, including killing babies, and then Israel was expected to oh, no, not go and defend, not go, and defeat Harmas you know, there was this international attitude immediately against Israel.
I think we don't ask these questions enough, which is what are we fighting for and who are we fighting for? And those questions were alive in Israel from the seventh of October onwards. And it wasn't just what Israel stands for as a nation state, but it was the hostages who were kept in awful conditions and many of whom didn't make it. They were fighting for a what and a who. So we're in Australia. We have to ask ourselves who are we? Who are we? And we have
this beautiful environment. We are open and free, one of the oldest continuous democracies on earth. We have amazing institutions that secure our prosperity, and people recognize that they fight to get here as migrants. I did. I wasn't born here. But more than that, they fight for it. It's a country worth fighting for and we don't celebrate that enough. We don't ask those questions, what is it that makes this a wonderful country? Because it is Keith.
I think that's amazing that you weren't born in Australia, but that you chose to defend Australia, to go to war alongside Australians and risk your own life.
Well behind me is a commander company. There was two platoons in that. The other platoon commander are a very good friend of mine. He also wasn't born in Australia. And many of those in that picture were migrants. The war memorial is full of people who weren't born here from every nation on Earth. I think, because when you speak to migrants we go to a citizenship ceremony, there's an extra love for this country that is maybe taken for granted if you're born here, which is you get
to compare it to other places on Earth. There's nothing like this country on Earth. We don't talk about that enough, and migrants have experienced that and they're quite grateful for it, and they're always looking for a way to give back. I certainly was, and it was one of the ways that I thought that I could, But there's many other ways to give back in this country.
That's a beautiful message, an incredible contribution that you personally have made Keith Wallahan thank you for joining us tonight. Sure, yeah, I really love that interview. All right, still to come, we'll cross live to the Vatican as world leaders land in Rome ahead of the Pope's funeral, and Ronnie Kahn will join me live as it's revealed charities are turning away desperate families. This cost of living crisis is far from over. That's coming up after.
This quick break.
Well, we know this is the cost of living election, but the scale of suffering in Australia right now can't be taken for granted. There are so many families battling just to put food on the table, and now we're learning that charities are struggling to keep up with the demand. OZ Harvest today released their twenty twenty five Community Needs Survey and the results are terrible. There's been a fifty four percent rise in people being turned away from charities.
The charities just start unable to help those who need it.
This is devastating.
I mean you think of the courage that it would take parents to turn up to a charity asking for help and then to be told that they just can't do anything to help them.
It's so sad and.
Joining me now to discuss is OZ Harvest founder Ronnie Kahan.
Ronnie, thank you very much for being here.
Why our charities unable to help those who are asking for it?
So Firstly, the charities hate having to say to somebody we don't have enough to help you. The challenge is the demand is huge and the resources are not meeting that demand. The gap between the need and resources has just shrunk significantly.
I mean, this is the really brutal end of the cost of living crisis.
What is it that people most need help with?
Is it food and groceries? Is it assistance to you know, keep paying their mortgage or their rent to Sherry.
The challenge for a much larger demographic right now is that with housing affordability being so challenged, with fuel, with health, with energy, all of these costs are things that people can't control. The one thing they can control is how they spend their money at the supermarket, and unfortunately it's the first thing to make decisions around buying less. And
that's where this challenge comes from. That allows us right now in this country to know that three point four million households are struggling at some point in the year to make ends meet. It's a whole new demographic and it's working families and single parent families that have Now a third of the new people coming to charities are from that demographic.
So you're saying a third of the people coming to charges have never asked charities for help.
Before, didn't even know how or where to go to for food until they've now found themselves in this position.
And you're another start from your survey is that thirty one percent of people seeking food relief, that's a thirty one percent of doing it for the first time.
So what are you asking the political parties.
To do where obviously in the middle of an election campaign right now.
So one of the things we're asking for, of course, is sustainable funding to keep us going and to allow us to deliver more food. US Harves delivers food to more than fifteen hundred charities and we have twelve hundred on a waiting list, so those are people that we can't get to. So we're looking for more funding for
the sector and sustainable funding for the sector. We're also asking for a Minister for food because currently there's no one who holistically is looking after food relief food rescue currently we fall under health, agriculture, Environments, social services, so there's no one whose attention is directly on this category of need which is affecting well.
Maybe it should be broader than that, Maybe it should be a cost of living minister or a poverty minister.
So it's not just.
Looking at food, it's looking at emergency housing and helping with clothing. I mean, if this is the state that we're in right now in Australia, where we have so many families who are desperate.
Well you would think because there is a Minister for Social services, but somehow food falls under many different categories. If you don't eat well then your nutrition and health is affected. You know, it does affect so many so perhaps we need more specific ministers, but initially we think that a Minister for food would make a huge difference.
Right Ronnie Kahnt.
Amazing work that you do and incredible contribute to Australian society.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share all.
Right.
Coming up next, we cross live to Sophiellesworth in the Vatican as world leaders arrive ahead of Saturday's funeral. She'll have the latest details on the extraordinary scenes from a city in mourning.
That's next, and.
Let's cross now to the Vatican as the city prepares for the Pope's funeral. Mourners are flying in from around the world to be in Rome for such an historic and moving day. News Corp Europe correspondent Sophiealesworth is there, Sophie, great to speak to you again. Tell us how the Vatican and Rome is preparing for the funeral and.
Which world leaders are arriving.
We'll share a lot of the streets here around Rome and leading into Vatican City are now cordered off. There's lots of security checkpoints, massive police presence everywhere you go. A lot of people are being stopped and checked asked where they're going. A lot of heavy police presents all around the city. But there's many leaders still yet to arrive here at Vatican City, Sharry, We've got many leaders
from all around the world. Obviously, Donald Trump's coming in lot of Mizelinski, the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Maloney, Emmanuel mat Cron. Of course Prince William is coming on behalf of King Charles. So there's many world leaders, dozens in fact, that will be here and that will also ramp up the security procedures that are in place for this worldwide event, which will be watched from all around the globe. Millions of people will be tuning in.
I understound that the cardinals met last night and again this morning. So can you tell us who are some of the leading contenders to become the next Pope?
Shaw's Sharry, So there's quite a few names being bandied around the Vatican. Secretary Petro paralon is one of the names. He's deemed is really a safe set of hands and one that could be tipped to take over from Pope Francis. And also Filipino Cardinal Tagli, his name is being suggested many times. He's obviously from the Asian region where there's massive growth for the Catholic Church. So there're two of
the strong contenders. But look the city, Vatican City, the Catholic mourners are all obviously just going through the process of mourning the late Pope frances preparing for the funeral, and then of course conclave begins where they will thrash out who will be the next pontiff.
When you joined us last night, very briefly, you spoke about how the lines to view the Pope's body were just so extraordinarily long that you were only given a few seconds to view the body before you were moved on. We're hearing reports that fifty thousand people, I mean, it's just unbelievable. Fifty thousand people have already been to view the Pope's body.
Can you tell us a bit more, in.
More detail, what that experience was like for you, was it moving?
And also what have the lines been like today?
We'll show you the lines are still enormous.
This morning.
I was down here very early and there were hundreds of meters of people, you know, ten twenty wide queuing to see the late Pontiff inside Saint Peter's Basilica. The crowds are not dying down. Last night, the basilica was set to close at midnight, there was such huge crowds still pouring in that it remained open through until about five or six am. Was closed for an hour and then reopened again this morning. Look, Sharry, this surreal experience. I mean I queued for three hours. I didn't use
my media accreditation. I went in with the rest of the public. It was great talking to all the mourners here and all the worshipers supporters of Pope Francis who had come here to see him. But when you walk into the basilica, it is a bit of an eerie feeling. It's incredibly quiet when people get in there. I was surprised, though, Sharry. We only had about five seconds to glance at the late Pope and then we're told by security, do not stop, move on and no selfies.
I mean, really.
Bizarre that some people think it would be appropriate to take selfies with the Late Pont of Lyne there. He really just looks like he's sleeping.
Looks very peaceful.
But everyone had their arms up doing videos and photos. That's the new age, obviously, Sharry. Everyone wants to get that photo. But it was a remarkable experience and one that old cherish and certainly won't forget.
No.
I mean, it's history in the making that you're a witnessing live as a journalist covering this for us for news Corps, SOPHIEA. And it's why we've had you one every night this week since the Pope passed away, because you know, this is just such an extraordinary state of events. Can you tell us a bit more about what the atmospheres like in Vatican City at the moment, you know, it is grief the overwhelming emotion, or is there this sense of history and anticipation about who the next pope will be?
Well, all of the above, Shary.
I mean, there's a lot of people who were already here on holidays that happened to time their holidays with the death of Pope Francis, so their whole holidays have been completely overhauled, you know, many of them queuing to see the late pontiff. And then there's also obviously many people very sad and by his death. Others here you know, celebrating his life and saying what a great legacy he left behind twelve years as leader of the church. But
on the ground, Sharry, it's chaos. The hotels are booked out, streets are busy, cars can't get through. You really have to take time to get through the crowds.
It's hectic.
Thankfully today it's a little bit cooler. It was very hot here yesterday, but there's a real buzz here. Many people looking forward to the funeral proceedings, a historic event that that will be, and many people will be hoping that they can catch a glimpse of the proceedings when they do start here at Vatican City ten am on Saturday.
Ten am on Saturday yet which I know, we have got live coverage on Sky News from five pm on Saturday, so make sure you tune into Sky News five pm Saturday, live on the ground from Vattican City. Sophie Elsworth really appreciate your time. Thank you very much for your reporting as well, and thanks everyone for your company this week.
It's been a big week, a lot of people on school holidays of course, but next week it's the final week of the election, so make sure you tune in every night at eight pm.
Will have big interviews.
We will not let either side, particularly the Prime Minister.
Off the hook. But right now, here's Paul Murray