Live on Sky News. This is Shari. Good on you, James, thanks for that. Welcome to the shows. Steep Price with you in for Shari. Plenty to debate tonight, including the embarrassing failure of a plan to allow non Australian residents to join our military during a recruiting crisis.
I have more on that shortly.
Also coming up tonight, Good time to have Nationals Backbencher Matt Canavan on with the up first tonight with the odd decision I think odd to allow American beef into Australia regardless of where in the Americas it was actually raised, potentially raising our strict biochemistry regime, and despite there being no consumer demand for it anyway, So why are we letting it in? Except to perhaps keep Donald Trump happy.
Also tonight, Peter Jennings will look for answers on why it's so hard to find those recruits young Australians and get them into the ADF and why even our key we friends are reluctant to go into the Australian uniform. Plus, it's come to this, a local council in Melbourne is going to spend a six figure sum hiring private security in the middle of a crime crisis, Victoria police can't handle it, so the council is going to hire their own security. I'll took to the mayor of that council later.
First up, though, tonight, speaking of a youth crime crisis right around Australia, why is no one talking about a modern day version of compulsory military service to bolster our great diminished, greatly diminished ADF. Now, look, I'm not talking about conscription often that's where this argument goes. That's not what I'm suggesting, because without a regional war threatening our sovereignty, I don't believe the either side of politics would be
gain to try it. Australia hasn't forcefully conscripted their own citizens into uniform and sent them into war since the Vietnam War. Now, I was lucky enough to miss out by a couple of years of having my birthday date marble pulled out of a barrel. Yes, that's how they did it, as conscription ended when GoF Whitlam came to power in nineteen seventy two, so I was too young. Today, though, we have a double problem. The Australian Defense Force, as
we keep reading, is in a recruiting crisis. And today we learn that a federal government plan which was announced with great fanfare to allow non Australians who are from our five Eyes intelligence countries that means New Zealand, the US, the UK plus Canada. Well it's been a complete and utter dismal failure. Twelve months in a year in how many people do you think of put their hands up from any of those five countries, Well just three.
Those three were Kiwis.
They're the only people to put their hands up to serve the ADF, and none of them from the other Five Eyes nations. Now, at the same time, we have the worst youth crime crisis in Australian history. Teenagers, some of them as young as twelve and thirteen, are stealing cars every night, playing deadly chicken with police, invading private homes in the middle of the night and arming themselves
with knives and machetes. Leftist state governments who have appointed like minded magistrates have no answer to this crisis, just like the ADF have. It seems, no answers to a lack of willingness of young Australians to put up their hands to volunteer to serve in the Army, of the.
Navy, of the Air force.
Would any political party, and this is a genuine inquiry from me, have the courage to go to an election with a policy of compulsory military service of one two years for anyone eighteen and over or maybe even seventeen and over. Now, of course there would have to be exemptions to be worked out those people studying, say medicine, or at university at an engineering degree, or perhaps working already in emergency services like being a police officer or
a paramedic. But sixty countries, sixty countries around the world still have compulsory time. Doing military training doesn't mean you go to war. You're just training to be a soldier or a sailor or in the air force. Now, many of those nations, think Israeli or Ukraine obviously need numbers for national security. But what I am talking about, though, is using the assets we have in our military to straighten up young Australians in danger of losing their way.
We've got huge resources that could train these people into a trade.
For example.
This could be done by training advantages sold to youngsters unable to say get an apprenticeship. It could be done by court order it could be part of our education system. Even you get enough young men and women into a scheme like this, and guess what a percentage of them, Maybe only a few will stick with it, and that
could solve some of our recruiting issues. It will also get some of the repeat offenders, those who get bailed dozens of times, and we've seen examples in Victoria of people bailed forty or fifty times only to complete go out again and repeat their offending on the streets. Look, it's a bold call, and I'm not naive enough to
think it'll happen anytime soon. But why can we not have a national, sensible, rational debate about this, at least as an example of how this could work, have a look at Greece.
Why do I mention Greece. Well, Greece is not at war.
Greece is a sophisticated country with a magnificent tourism industry. All Greek men, and I had to look this up today, I had no idea all Greek men aged between nineteen and forty five must serve between nine and twelve months in the military. Greece, as I said, is a modern nation like Australia, but it's good enough for them, why
wouldn't it be good enough for us? Let's bring in our Thursday Night panel please to say West Australian Liberal leader I'd made of my Basil's semplus and National Senator Matt Canavan, gentlemen, welcome, great to see you both now. Basil, I know Perth doesn't have the crime problem that we have on the ear coast, but what do you think a bit of time in the military to straighten up some of the youngsters who are not doing too well.
Certainly not the stupidest idea.
My family, my sister still lives in Greece and has adult family, my nephew who's in his forties now, but he did the nine to twelve months that everyone was required to do over there, and everyone in Greece I've just returned actually a short time ago.
Everyone in Greece considers it very beneficial.
It's something that they look forward to, and it is something that they sign up to willingly and they know that it will be over inside a year.
So it's a part of a rite of passage.
I guess here there's full employment or close to full employment. Once upon a time, you joined the navy or join the army to go and see the world.
Lots of people are able to travel now because the costs of traveling have come down.
But I think for that youth area, those kids between sixteen and twenty four twenty five, who are struggling to find their way in life, it might.
Be hugely beneficial for them.
And it is not the stupidest idea and is worthy of sensible and strong consideration.
It wouldn't be forever, but it might.
Be something that will help make a huge difference to those young kids' lives.
I like it.
Well, let's see what a sensible politician thinks of it. Matt.
I'm probably whistling in the wind. But you know how else are we going to bolster the numbers in the ADF.
Well, look, I don't support conscription. I think we proudly have largely had a volunteer army in this country, including during two World Wars. It was a limited form of conscription world War Two, but only to protect the home front, and that served us well. I don't want to load up the military with the problems of society which are legiand keep in mind in terms of youth crime. Look, it's a very small number of juveniles that commit the crimes.
Usually the police know them by name. The solution is right in front of us. It's about locking up those kids, not trying to encapture the whole of our youth in a broader scheme. Look in terms of recruitment to the military, well, I think over there in the US we could take a leaf out of Pete Hegseth's book. I mean, they've got recruitment numbers surging because they've reinstilled, reinstalled pride in
the military. They've marked it as a sense of duty, Whereas when you see our recruitment ads lately in Australia, it's as if joining the army is sort of a lifestyle choice where you get to party and meet friends and network and think about career opportunities.
I think we'll be much.
Better selling it to young people are saying this is something you do for your nation, something you sacrifice. It's hard, it's tough, it's difficult, but that will attract the right people and more people to to boot. As we can see from the US.
Well, you talk about national pride there, but I mean many of the youngsters in schools are told to not be proud of Australia. I mean they're told that, you know, we're a nation that's been invaded and we shouldn't just fly our flag but have three and I mean the pride's gone, Matt, that's the problem.
Well, look, the death's definitely had an impact. But in terms of how many people do you want us to want to join the Australian military any one year, we only have an armed defense course of less than one hundred thousand people. So there are still plenty of young Australians with pride in their nation. They just need to be given the hope that joining the military will allow them to exercise and show that pride. And keep in mind too, I do think there's massive issues in their
education system. That's a separate issue of how to deal with that. But I also have great faith in young Australians. You can see and you're renewed flourishing occurring in traditional values, in pride in our nation, partly because guess what, a lot of young kids tend to do the opposite of what their teachers tell them. I was one like that, and I'm proud to be breeding others that have the appropriate degree of cynicism about authority as any good Australian should, I.
Think just the one other thing worth considering prices, you know, perhaps, and these young men that cohort, they might not be joining the regular army per se.
They might be doing a year of national service.
It wouldn't be the full blown military life for them, but what it could be is a gateway.
Some of them would be exposed to it for the very first time.
I would say, you know what, this is something I want to do now with the rest of my life, for at least the next ten or fifteen years. And so if you consider it a bit of a gap year after you would finish school, something that lots of people were able to do or were asked to do. If you think of it in those terms, it is not the craziest idea. And as you've said, it works in other countries and it works fight successfully, so it
is worthy of consideration. But it wouldn't main necessarily a full blown military career, and those young people are off to fight in parts of the world anywhere. I think that's the differentiation.
Yeah, I think that's a great way to frame it. Let's talk about beef this decision today, and it's great to have Matt with US confirmation today that Australia will now remove the ban on American beef that originates outside of the US, so it might be grazed and raised in somewhere like Canada and Mexico. We've also always had a biosecurity issue with that. The government's now just dropped this quickly. In the media this morning, they say it's not a sweetener for any tariff talks. Well, I don't
believe that for a second. I would ask Matt who comes. I often see him at the cattleman's an you're gathering in Queensland, or he's wolfing down stakes every night. Is there any appetite here, Matt for American beef.
Look, we're not going to be inundated with American beef, primarily because we have enough of it here and it's already much more expensive in the US. They've had a terrible draft in the US in recent years, so they've got a rapacious appetite for imported beef. They're not going to be exporting large amounts of it. But the concern that myself and other Nationals colleagues have about this decision is not an economic one. There's no economic threat here
to liveblihoods of Australian cattle grays is. There is, however, a safety risk to all Australians, including the farming east industry, because even if there's not going to be a large number or amounts of US beef coming in to Australia, it only takes one box, it only takes one stake to be contaminated with something like mad cow disease, and we could see tens of billions of dollars of damage to Australian farming industry and massive impacts on everyday Australian life.
I think the government's botched this announcement. I look, these decisions have always and should be based on the science, on the risks to the Australian people we have. It's very important to make the point that we have allowed of US beef and that we've had some misconceptions put out there by the US administration. US beef is allowed in Australia today. It just has to prove that it is US beef. There are still there are still mad
cow diseases in Mexico. So I want to know from the government how they're going to prevent those coming in next week, I will be reconvening the Senate Rural Affairs Committee.
Was the chair of that committee. I hope to be re elected chair next week.
I'll be pushing for us to hear from the actual departmental experts here that have made this decision, because all we've heard from is the politicians right now. I want to see the evidence of the data that should be given to the strange beef industry.
Let's talk to Basil about Andrew Twiggy Forest. Now, he's had a big day to day. He's had a few issues to contend with us that ford Eskew's abandoned I think now two of its most hype green hydrogen projects they're in the US. Fordeskew says it it's not given up on becoming a major force in renewable energy. But Donald Trump's no fan of the green energy movement, so he slashed the substitution. Apparently that's why Woodside and Fordeskeuw
walked away. Basil, you know twigging Forest, Well, when you read what he says about green energy and the fact that he makes most of his income of exporting iron ore, how do you put those two things together.
And can be difficult the reconcile that times can't.
He's clearly had an ambitious green agenda and has been very keen to push that. Yet at the same time, the bulk of the income and the bulk of his work has been in the resources industry and certainly centered around iron ore. I think, partly with Andrew Forrest, it's about really pushing the envelope, being out there and seeing.
What might be achieved. Aim for the stars.
You never know you might get to the moon, and it's a simple way I think of looking at his philosophy in this space. However, there's no doubt the language today, some of those announcements and just more generally, some of the projects that he was particularly bullish about over the last couple of years, even twelve months ago, he is not anywhere near as bullish about now. And that tells you a lot of what you need to know about the push to these types and forms of renewable energy.
The take up and the ability for it to do what we thought it might be going to do just hasn't been there.
There's still a lot of work to be done, Matt. The cost of renewables continue to stack up. How long is the Albanize government going to continue to plow down this road? And we've had offshore wind collapsing, we've had major projects canceled. It would seem to me that we're so far down the road. I describe Chris Bowen as a mad uncle last night. He just won't hear any criticism of where he's taking us. Where do you think we're at with this now? I mean net zero obviously
has been a big issue this week. I think a lot of Australians are starting to query whether we ought to be going as far.
As we are.
Yeah.
Look, I mean we're in the state right now of being hungover if you like hungover on the green kool aid. We've drunk as a nation for the last few years. And it seems like Chris Bowen and the Government's solution to being hungover is to keep drinking, just get wasted again, just keep going and you'll get ready to hangover because doubling down all this madness. So there's no indication they've
recognized they're wrong. Keep in mind, when we opened the parliament three years ago, the Governor General, as the Government General does, addresses the Parliament and in that speech three years ago, the Governor General said that a Labor government would reduce power bills for Australian families and businesses by hundreds of dollars. That obviously didn't happen. They went up by hundreds of dollars instead. And this time this week
when Parliament was opened, mysteriously that commitment had disappeared. There were no commitment to reduce power bills at all. And it looks like the have A Party has just then given up on giving cost of relief to Australian families. So I think the Australian people are right to ask, like Ashton k Kucher famously did a few years ago, dude, where's my cheaper energy?
I was promised the cheaper energy. Where is my cheaper energy? Dude?
Yeah, it's very interesting that you mentioned well.
I don't know what he looks like. It looks like a mad uncle to me, Basil.
I don't know if it's start a comedy or not, but it's not funny.
No, we shouldn't be laughing. Thank you both, appreciate it very much. I'll see you shortly.
God, he is a mad uncle.
I've got no idea what he's going on with now. He discussed the recruitment file, which I mentioned at the beginning of the program. We've had this discussion about whether we could set up some sort of a youth program where youngsters who are in trouble might go in for some sort of military training or national services, Basil put it. Australian Director of Strategic Analysis is Peter Jennings. Peter, welcome
to you. Why is it the IDF have such trouble trying to convince youngsters to sign up to a life in the military, do you think.
I think there's probably a sense that the government doesn't have the defense forces back right now. That's one of the things that's contributing to a lot of people leaving the ADF. Steve defenses. People have a way of sensing this, and I think if you're in an environment where military capabilities are being cut, ships aren't going to see aircraft aren't using their flying hours, people ask themselves the question why should I join? It doesn't seem that the government
actually supports us. You know, instead of spending six days in China Albanez, you could have spent one day less and come to the Talisman Saber exercise and spend some time talking to Australian soldiers. He didn't do that. I think the first Prime minister in a long time not to have been to that exercise. So people get a sense that it's not a government priority and that hardly encourages individuals to join up.
And that was a massive exercise, I mean, it was impressive in its scale. And you arrays a really good point. I mean, given the number of nations involved, given the numbers of of military involved, I think it was in the twenty thirty thousand thirty five, wouldn't the Prime minister show his face? Yeah, why wouldn't the Prime minister have shown his face and something like that?
Typically they have And in fact, you if you look back, Steve, you'll find that the current PM has spent very little time with Australian soldiers. Occasionally you'll see him with the top brass, but not the soldiers. And of course that's not how John Howard operated, it's not how Tony Abbott operated, or Kevin Runt or Julia Gillard. It's just not Anthony Alberonisi's priority.
Yeah, most Prime ministers in the past have done, you know, drop in visits to when we were involved in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. I mean it was commonplace for that to happen, and I think Australians watching that welcomed the fact that their prime minister was happy and willing to go and do it. And you mentioned Julia Gillard cheated it too. I'll get onto some comments by spinger
Scott Morrison in a moment, Peter. But it's reported we've actually quietly made another eight hundred million dollar down payment on nuclear submarines. That's one point six billion in two eight hundred million payments. That shows us that Australia believes that aucust is still healthy. But the Americans are still making some disturbing noises about it, aren't they. Do we get the money back if it doesn't go ahead?
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean the idea of this is that we're helping American industry to expand its ability to build submarines more quickly, and therefore we'll get the benefit of that. I think the American claim would be that in other respects, we're not spending what we need to on UCUS or indeed defense more widely, Steve, So you know we're not building the required new nuclear submarine based on the East Coast. We're not making progress
on establishing a nuclear storage facility for nuclear waste. Yes, we're training sailors, but not in anywhere near the numbers that we need. And they're the practical concerns which I think the Americans have about is Australia really serious about doing this? The problem being that it was always meant to be above the two percent of defense spending which the previous government was allocating, in which this government has kept. And I think the reality is you can't do ORCUS
on the cheap. So a payment to America to help them strengthen their industry is a lot of money. Absolutely, but if we want the submarines, we need to be prepared to engage with the Americans in that way and probably do even more, well, significantly do more than we're actually doing now.
I was impressed with Scott Morrison appearing at that congressional hearing in the US talking about the threat of China. And you know it comes after that six day visit you just mentioned of Anthony Albineasi Morrison dealt with the Chinese, obviously doing COVID. He demanded that we get some answers about where it came from, how it got out of wu Han. Chinese then slapped on all those trade bands.
But I thought he was very impressive today saying that, you know, Americans and Australians have got to be very wary of what the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing is up to and how aggressive they will continue to be in the region. I mean, he's making a hell of a lot more sense, I must say, than the current Defense Minister, Richard Mars or the current Prime Minister.
I completely agree. I mean there's a depth to Morrison's analysis which comes out of the fact that he was dealing with China at a particularly rough time during COVID.
But you know, the same intelligence information is also available to Anthony Albnizi, and the current PM is just living on this fantasy that, you know, because he goes to nice banquets and the Chinese sort of look after him and show him the Great Wall and pandas everything's fine, Albert Easy will know on the basis of what the national security system tells him that there are actually serious problems with China, problems in the Pacific, with Southeast Asia,
problems with the growth of their military capability, their continued cyberspye on Australia, which is enormous, and the Prime Minister is ignoring all of those things in order to maintain the fiction that everything's fantastic, and Scott Morrison's testimony proves the point that it's not. It's such a shame that Albanezi can't talk in the same level of detail as Morrison. Depp to Congress today.
Yes, and I thought it was cherlish of the Prime Minister in question time that I had enough. You saw at Peter where August came up and he said, well, don't forget it's my government that signed August. I went and met with Joe Biden and the British Prime Minister and I signed up to August. Well, work had all been done. I mean Morrison, as you say, was at the heart of getting the Orcus Agreement up and running,
shaping it and pushing it and making it happen. I mean, yes, he lost an election, so the timing wasn't right for him to go and sign it. But if you go, if we look forward and you look back in history, he'll be the one who's credited largely with doing most of the hard yards waiting.
Well.
Absolutely, and it needs to be bipartisan. I think my message to Alberzi would be the same as the store, the sign in the China shop. You know, you break it, you pay for it. So if Alberanesi wants it to succeed, you know, why isn't he investing even half the effort into building a relationship with Donald Trump that he is with China's Shujimpen. It's very strange and in many ways, I think, calculated to make the Americans doubt that we're
serious about UCUS. So what is the Prime minister's real purpose? Does he actually wantless to succeed? Does he want the Americans to take it away? It's very hard to know what Albaneze's intention is with August Now.
Yeah, he's making much more sense, Scott Morrison than what the Prime minister is. You read the tea leaves pretty well. What do you read of the detail coming out of the United States at a senior level as to whether they are still committed. We know they're having a review into wucas as you would as an incoming Republican administration who hasn't been in charge for four years.
While a lot of this happened. Do you think they're you feel they're still comfortable with it.
They're worried about us, Steve. The view in the Pentagon, in the US Navy, the Department of Energy is they're not sure Australia is investing the effort that we need to invest in order to be custodians of nuclear powered submarines. They would have expected faster progress across a range of areas. And I think in the White House they're just worried that Albanesi seems determined not to make contact. You know,
he refuses to go to Washington. If he gets one of these side meetings in future with Trump, well that'll be a twenty minute discussion. So how can you talk substance in that context? I think there's lots of mixed messages coming out of Canberra. The Americans look at that and say, well, frankly, why would we provide you with Virginia class submarines when we can reliably get more value from them if we use them ourselves. We're not even
sure if you'll be with us. So all of these are concerns which could be addressed if our government wanted to be serious about it, But it has to start with a relationship between the PM and the president. And for reasons that no one can really explain, Albanesi just refuses to do the obvious thing, which has get on a flight and go to Washington, DC to have that conversation.
Yeah, I suspect the Americans might be a bit worried we're too close to you. Peter jennings All is great to catch up with you, Thank you very much. Coming up after the break, where are the police when an inner city council this is happening in Melbourne in Marabanong, they've got to fork out more than one hundred thousand dollars annually to keep rate payers safe from violent crime on this streets. That's up next, Steeve Price with you.
Welcome back, sitting in for Shari Now. I've written a lot in the Herald Sun in columns over the last two years about the youth crime crisis across Victoria. In Melbourne. We're a national program and I know there are issues in many other areas of Australia as well, the center of Australia out of Springs Darwin, parts of northern Queensland,
but Melbourne seems to be a particular problem. Michael Kroger, a regular on this program, told me on Monday night that he thinks Victoria, Melbourne is now a lawless place. The youth crime is completely out of control.
One of the.
City's inner city councils are going to now spend a significant amount of money, I think more than one hundred thousand dollars on around the clock private security to tackle violent crime and anti social behavior in their area. You wouldn't think this would have to happen. In twenty twenty five, marabn On Council says it's cracking down on crime in footscrap with two private security guards on patrol for a
six month trial. Here to explain more is Victoria's first Indian born Mayor, Pradeep Twari.
Great to have you in the studio.
Thanks, thank you, Steve welcome.
Do you ever think when you got elected as mayor that it would come to this?
Not eddy amount of training could have prepared me for what I've seen in the last eight months in council.
So explain to me what the particular I mean.
We know the wider issue youth crime often people kids as young as twelve or thirteen. We've got car stealings, you've got home invasions. You've had a particular issue in shopping centers.
Yeah.
So our CBD, which we call fo Scoed CBD, we've had our issues a bit different. Ours is more drug and alcohol related, which will lead to mental health challenges. We've also had an influx of residents being released into foot Square by the High Court order, you know, people that were out of the detention you know, with the trucker bands and some with some serious criminal history as well. So we've had those challenges which we've actually recently just
learned of. We didn't know that, you know, we had that part of the society as well, but we certainly had lots of mental health challenges. We don't have as much youth crime and the other issues that you've mentioned, but the drugs and alcohol are certainly leading to the mental health challenges that we've come up with this proposal.
For talk to me about that. I mean the detention centers based in the Marrabonoal Council area.
No, I don't think it is no longer based there.
A lot of the people have been released from detentions in that area.
That's correct. They've been provided housing supports to stay in Marabano and in and around Footscray. So they certainly there's quite a number of them there that we've been told by Victoria Police.
Now, give me an example of what you're concerned about. Why did counsel sit down and vote to spend a significant amount of money on private security. Can't the police handle this?
It's been a long time in coming. Since I've been in councilate nine months, we've been advocating for the state government for actually increased mental health you know, support getting people the right support at the right time. Since then, we've had a couple of deaths. The crime statistics that we've been received, it's up by sixteen to almost twenty
one percent over the last twelve months. The traders are feeling, you know, the brunt of it, and they've been advocating to us, to our council for at least the last four of five months for the security guard patrols. They actually trial this program themselves over a month in March and they said it, you know, yielded effective results. They've presented us with the results and short of any other support, we are getting a mental health hub by our state government.
It's coming in the pipeline, which we're really excited for. But short of anything else, this was good way to increase just safety presents in the CBD that the traders and the residents wanted us to do.
Do you think two security guards are really going to make a fundamental difference.
I mean, we see.
In the area that I live in, you've got liquor stores, clothing shops, and supermarkets where people who are drug affected or homeless simply walk in, load up, and walk out. Security guards are not able to do anything.
They can't arrest anybody, they can't detain anybody.
Yeah, look, I guess it comes down to, you know, the financial I mean, if we had unlimited supply of money, we'd be trying to get mental health workers into trying
to adjust this problem. But we don't. It's a six month program, and two security guards with our local laws officers are better than none, you know, and you know where specifically are going out to tender where there's a tender process where we're calling for guards who are culturally appropriate, trained, have some level of unders standing of outreach work as well, so we can connect them to the other supports that we're bringing into the CBD.
Have you sat down with local police and talked about this.
Yeah, we have. And you know, police can't always be We can't expect them to patrol shopping centers for twenty four by seven. They've got their own, as you mentioned, youth crime, knife crime, all sorts of. It's an open statistics. The crime in Victoria is up over the last twelve months. We can't expect them to be everywhere at all times.
And I mean, personally, i'd rather, you know, instead of a triple zero number, a number where we could dial to get someone mental health assistance before we get to.
That le playing this issue of mental health. I mean, you seem to be saying that that's at the core of your problem. Yeah, I mean is it mental health or is it unsupervised young people? Is it drugs?
It's mainly drugs and alcohol. From what you know we've learned the especially like people like the Detaineers that have been released there, they've had trauma. Obviously, they've probably been through so much trauma in their life, so they self medicate. They know they're open issued up there, they openly drink with open bottles of alcohol and all, and that leads to no good behavior and to social behavior. That's been
the biggest concern. And then that antisocial behavior has now been you know, we've had our council staff being assaulted, We've had death as I've mentioned, we've had the traders being attacked to a point where they had to go to police and take out ivos against certain individuals. So it's become that severe otherwise, you know, if and this is a multic collaboration between all organizations, just the mental health hubit is taking some time. Further in the pipeline.
We've got that coming out foot Scare Hospital, have a dedicated psyche board next year. We're expecting those things to help. But right now, in the interim, this is the solution that the trader has wanted and this is what we're doing.
Are you getting support from the local.
State government, not for the security proposal, but we are getting so our local state member, Katie or she is the one who had advocated for the outreach work Salvation Army are coming in. She's occurred over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in funding in this is budget. It's just a matter of when that comes in. So we will build a mental health hub in for its gray eventually, but you know that could take as government processes do take time, that could take quite some time. But you're
going to come back. This is just an interim program until something else happens. So does it have a support of the majority of the council. Yes, it was had a support majority of the council. There was you know,
I mean this was voted on Tuesday night. There was an alternative motion put by another counselor who wanted to add things such as consultation with local groups, legal groups, trader groups, you know, or all sorts of other conditions, but the support for the security Guard proposal was unanimous by all counselors.
Good to hear, predict, Thank you very much for coming.
Thank you, Steve, I appreciate you.
Good luck with it all after the break, how the renewables push in regional Australia and I talked a lot about this this week. So is Peter on her program threatening the rehab of former Australian service and women. This is a disgrace. That story up next, Welcome back Steven for Sharhi Danika coming up for Paul Murray straight after
the top of the hour. Now look I'm a great advocate for looking after as well as we can our veterans when they come out of the military and often struggle to get themselves back in into a normal lifestyle.
And what you go about to.
Hear will annoy the hell out of you, like it annoys the hell out of me. Now we've heard about the fight against renewables in Regional Australia. We've seen a lot of stories this week about how local communities have lost control basically of their own community and a lot of these renewable projects are being jammed into the middle of them. I was in a little town last weekend. Two hundred people live there and there's one hundred and
twenty wind turbine surrounding the village. Now Regional Australia is about to I think arcup big time about this stuff. Some of the area's been targeted by green energy companies eager to astablished wind turbines. So they're in idyllic sittings settings, I mean places that you will have all been to and when you go back in these things there, you won't believe it. No thought on the impact of these communities.
I don't believe Last week the applicants for a project faced, as we've shown on this show, a fiery response from locals at a town hall meeting. Now, Marina maguire is the owner and operator of a charity remount. It's in bounding not for profit organization delivering horsemanship programs for current
and former servicemen and women and their families. She has deep concerns that this green project, more than ninety wind turbines, each as high as a city side scraper, will have a pretty big impact on anybody who comes to her property seeking rehab. Marina, welcome, Really nice to have you on the program. I've had a bit to do with organizations that use horses in this way with the return
servicemen and women. It's an extraordinarily valuable thing that the horse and the veteran, the relationship gets formed.
It really works, doesn't it.
It's amazing.
The transformations for our veterans that come to our.
Remount program are just unbelievable.
We've got the testimonials you'll see on our website. That's our beautiful view that you can see there. That view will be absolutely decimated if this project goes ahead. The horses not only is it the horses, because they are truly magical and are an important part of the program.
But it is the rural country setting that is one of the truly.
Impactful ways that help our veterans, in our first responders. It's that big open space, the place to come and breathe, where the cortisol hormones can reduce, and it just gives the hope, purpose and hand on heart. We can see from people coming through the program, transformational outcomes, totally transformational hand on heart, even to the point of saying we save lives.
It's enormous.
I can, I can.
I can really understand what you're saying, because, as I mentioned last weekend, I was in regional Victoria and I stayed in a beautiful town called Dunkeld, which is at the back of the Grampians, and had a wonderful couple of days there, and then on the drive back toward
the coast, I came across this town called Brokewood. Now there's one hundred and twenty, you know, twenty story high wind turbines on the edge of that little village, and I was absolutely shocked and horrified by what I was seeing. So I can understand exactly what's going to happen around your property. So explain to me, are there plans to put them nearby? And if so, how close?
Yes, absolutely nearby. Only last week did we see the first map of what it would look like, ninety or ninety three of these Baranguru sized towers the photo you saw before, that would be littered with It would look so industrial, it would look like the Sydney seascape.
It would just be so how close to you. We would where.
Between two and three kilometers away from the project. But where we're situated, we're on a hill with the most beautiful view. This is a place where the veterans call it their happy place, So.
We won't miss it.
It'll be right there, we'll hear it, we'll see it, and it'll just totally destroy and decimate the beautiful offering of this service that we are offering, this mental health program to our veterans. These people that serve our country, our first responders who keep us safe and are always you know, on call, doing what they do every day to look after us.
Is there.
I think it is at risk because it just won't be the same. We just can't offer that beautiful offering that we do. It's the country hospitality, it's the come and have a breath of fresh air, it's the cooking the community. It won't you know, it will just impact the community as well, because Remount is run by a community. My husband Ben and I who co founded. We both co founded and run the run the Remount program. But yes,
it will be an awful impact on our offering. It's a place where the veterans, they actually often come back. We've always got this constant flow of people coming through, which we do love. It's so rewarding because we know how helpful it can be. But it just won't be the same. It'll just be.
It just won't be the same, it won't have the same impact.
Having lived in New South Wales for a long time, I know how beautiful that part of the world is. The yas Maya she made it pretty clear that she's not happy have a look at this.
We've done our heavy lifting. We've had four turbine state significant projects approved and under construction, another two solar projects. Our metro mates are getting plenty of energy from us. But we've also got our communities to look after.
Here.
We've got agried tourism businesses, we reproduce the nation's food and fiber. Here we produce cool climate, export quality wine. It's all going to go to if this is allowed to continue in Yas Valley. And we've had a gut full as a community.
Blunt but a great representative, Jasmine is I mean, she's trying her hardest, but it seems that local communities, like the ASMA and like your organization, your voices are just blown away in the wind like these bloody turbines, and no one wants to listen.
We feel very let down. We feel like they don't care. At the community center last week when someone said what would it take for you to stop this project and they said.
Nothing, We're going to do it anyway.
In the news this week we see our new South Wales state premiere. We're made to feel guilty and we have to keep the lights on. But they're just not taking into account. The veterans and the farmers are two communities in this country that are at most risk of suicide. And these are two sets of the veterans and the farm are the people that we need for our food security, national security, and we feel like we are just not being heard and it is such a stress for the community.
It's a national disgrace. Marina.
I mean congratulations on the work you and your husband do. As I said, I've had some experience in that area and your work is invaluable. We'll keep talking about it, we'll keep advocating on your behalf. Thank you very much for joining us, and let's hope that somebody can see some sense all of this in all of this. Now, coming up after the break, don't go anywhere, David Pearl will join me to discuss how even labor MPs are now worried about their own supertax.
Is up next.
Welcome back to Nika, coming up shortly now. I always enjoy speaking to David Pearl. He is a former Treasury Assistant secretary. A couple of things tonight for you, David, and I know last time we spoke, we talked about this superannuation tax and what might happen with it. The roundtable that CHARMS is going to have in a few weeks time. But the government's coping criticism on this tax now from all people host plus one of the massive
superannuation funds. But Treasury, in your experience, is driving this because they see it as one of the easier ways to claw back some revenue to try and fix the bottom line is that what's happening.
Thanks for having me on in part it is, although if you look at the forecasts for the tax, it's only projected to raise forty billion over ten years, and that's assuming it's not index. So we'll capture quite a few people, but it's not going to raise a lot of money. Let's bear in mind that every year the Comworth spends three quarters of a trillion dollars. That's every year.
So the line Gym, charmers and some labor backbenches is running that this has to close the budget deficit or make superannuations sustainable is not true.
I see.
It is that this tax is intended to establish a beachhead which would allow charmers to apply the same principle that is to tax people on their returns before they have them in their pocket. More broadly, I think that's the idea behind this, because if you want to raise more money from superannuation, Ken Henry, a number of accountants many other people have proposed many ways to do that. You don't have to go after unrealized gains, and it's
not going to raise a lot of money. So I think it's a beachhead, and it's intended as a precedent so that when the Treasurer eventually goes after family trusts, for example, he can say, well, we've already done this with superannuation.
You're scaring me, David. You're scaring me, which is not good at the end of a program on a Thursday night. What other areas could unrealize tax on unrealized profits be applied? I mean you mentioned family trusts. Not a huge number of people have a found family trust. Could it be applied elsewhere?
I mean, it could be playing.
Home anywhere, sorry, Steve, It could be applied anywhere where capital gains tax applies today, So for share investors, for residential investors, anywhere a capital gains tax applies today. Let's go back to when the hawk Keating government introduced the first ever capital gains tax. They grandfathered every single existing investment in nineteen eighty three, so they never had to pay capital gains tax. They were so aware of the effect on investors. There's no grandfather in here. It's going
to be whacked on immediately. So let's go back to Paul Keating and Bill Kelty Steve. They've said that if we think about young workers today accumulating over forty years over three million dollars of savings, they're going to be hit by this as well. So it really does defy logic, this whole approach. I'm sure that Treasury wouldn't have recommend it, and if they did, it says something very negative about the department I worked in.
I can take you back to the eighties.
I mean I was in newspapers of the day and we were fighting Paul Keating on his assets test, where they're going to apply the assets test to a family home, and we ended up going and finding a sixty five year old woman who had a run down old house, but it was on three acres of land and suddenly she was going to be hit with an assets test. The fight was long and hard, but Keating eventually backed down.
I think he hated having to back down. But we could see ourselves back in that sort of battle, can't we We can.
Although I think the Prime Minister Anthony Alberniz has been very cagey Steve in the way that he's defended the tax, the Treasure is clearly going to gun for his position sooner or later, let's face it. I mean, I've been in the public service when Ketting was going after Hawk, when Costello was going after Howard. It's a normal dynamic.
And so I think that Anthony Abnezi should step back and consider whether he shouldn't pull the rug out from under his treasure on this tax, because I don't see any political benefit in.
It at all.
And we've even had Labor in peace openly backgrounding journalists, So this is a terrible idea. So I think Jim's on shaky ground, and I'm not sure that this tax is necessarily going to see the light of day. We'll see it hasn't been scheduled for introduction into Parliament yet.
Well wait and see. Let's hope that they see common sense. Aw, it's great to catch up with you, David. Thank you very much for that. As David Pearl there who was Assistant Secretary in Treasury. And that round table we've already had this week, Alan Joyce saying that be careful of these roundtable things because what they normally do is rubber stamp union driven agendas. That's Alan Joyce, so be careful. Coming up next to Nika to Georgia