Why on Sky News This is Sharry Good Evening.
Welcome to the show tonight.
The world's leading banks back a call for nuclear energy, but Albanizi thinks he knows better. War in Lebanon and Israel heats up as the government urges Australians to leave the region. Former Labor Minister Mike Kelly and Michael Sooker would join me live. Mark Scott refuses to resign and the pressure on him is mounting. Queensland Premier Stephen Miles is facing a landslide loss against the Liberal National.
Party in the upcoming election.
More on that with Brodwin Bishop and Caleb Bond shortly plus anger at law enforcement revealing in public there was a bounty on Trump's head. But first tonight, let's start with the war in Israel and Lebanon. Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi is urging Australians in Lebanon to leave immediately as fighting escalators and war looks inevitable. This is the war Israel never wanted. It's the war Hesbela has been provoking
for nearly twelve months. Just one day after the October seven attacks, when Israel was in shock in mourning and still fighting off the terrorists in the south. That's when Hesbela began its onslaught in the north. Since then, the around proxy group has fired more than eight thousand rockets and deployed hundreds of attack drones. Forty eight people who
have been killed and hundreds injured. The missiles have been indiscriminate, intended to target Israeli civilians, and Hesbela, don't forget, also killed twelve Israeli Drew's children while they were playing soccer. These attacks, all of them, were clear acts of war from Hesbela, unprovoked. If it weren't for Israel's high tech defense systems, thousands more innocent civilians would.
Have been killed.
As it is, eighty thousand families have been evacuated from their homes in northern Israel, and just recently Israel made it clear that a new objective of the war was for these families to return home, for schools to reopen, for people to go back to work.
We will take whatever action is necessary to restore security and to bring our people safe back to their homes.
Now, this is an understandable objective, and it's led to Israel finally retaliating first with a warning the pager and walkie talkie attacks. Then when Hesbela didn't stop, didn't get the message. Well, now Israel has carried out an assault on Hesbela targets with five hundred killed over an Now Israel has begged the United Nations and the international community for help in stopping Hesbelah. This hasn't worked. Benjamin Ettanyahu wants Hesbelah to retreat north of the so called blue
line of the Latani River. This would remove the threat of cross border incursions, and it was the YUN Secretary General's two thousand declaration. Yet Foreign Minister pennywe here in Australia apparently doesn't support Israel daring to defend itself against a terror group that's been attacking its citizens almost daily for the past year.
Mister hundreds did I've worked apparently in the rapidly read up forming rights by Israel, and you talk of the escamation. You're not feeding a lot of blood in your college. But how can you avoid hid in some way Israel bring in hostilities like that?
Well, I again repeat what I said earlier, which we are deeply concerned by this escalation.
And the loss.
Of civilian lives and we would urge all parties to de escalate.
And that's all we see from the alban Ezy government constant criticism of Israel.
Pennywong says that Israel has.
The right to defend itself, but then when it does against terrorism, she calls for Israel to de escalate or to have a cease fire, in other words, to lay down arms, to stop defending itself, to let its civilians get killed. The Prime Minister today also reiterated the same cause to stop Israel fighting.
Terrorists, Billy Pennywong and signaling that people need to leave Lebanon. If they're Australian citizens, they should get out. Are you very fearful of a growing an all out conflict in the Middle East?
Well, i am, and we have called for a de escalation. We've called for a ceasefire, We're called for hots Us to be released, and we have called along with the United States, for the support for Joe Biden's peace plan.
Now there's no reason for conflict between Israel and Lebanon, and I weren't for the radical terrorist group Hezblah, Lebanon and Israel would be allies and live side by side in peace. It's a point Greg Sheridan made today.
There is no quarrel between Lebanon and Israel. Hez Bola is a fundamentalist, extremist, fanatical She'i terrorist group, prescribed under Australian law as a terrorist and outlawed terrorist organization. Its core ideology involves a hatred of the West, a hatred of Jews, a hatred of Israel, a determination to wipe Israel off the map.
Now a lot of Australians have family in Lebanon and will be looking on in horror about what's happening in their country. The Lebanese population and Christians in particular, are in dismay at the war.
Hesbela is on the brink of invoking.
There's no love lost between Hesbela and Lebanese Christians. The fifteen year Lebanese Civil War only ended in nineteen ninety. The suffering still a vivid memory, and it's why there was so much goodwill and empathy by Lebanese Christians for the Israelis attacked by Hermas on October seventh. No one in Lebanon, or Israel or Australia wants to see innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, and Yetiyahoo last night spoke directly to Lebanese citizens saying that Israel's war wasn't with them.
The Idea for Us warned you to get out of Harm's work. I urge you take this warning seriously. Don't let his balain danger your lives and the lives of your loved ones. Don't let his Balain danger Lebanon.
There's no question the Islamic terror groups are wreaking havoc in the Middle East thanks to the funding of Iran. There's also increasing coordination between Hamas and Hesbela, all orchestrated by Iran. Hamas leader Ishmael Haniya and HESBELA head Hassan Nasrallah have even been pictured together.
You can see them on the screen.
They're united by their hatred for the West, for Jews, and their desire to destroy Israel. And in this photograph you can see the Harmas and Hesbela leadership meeting and there's photographs of Iran supreme leaders.
On the wall. Now.
HESBLA is one of the richest terror organizations globally. It's on your budget around one billion dollars US, and Iran gives the group hundreds of millions of dollars a year. For nearly a year now, Israel has been urging Hesbela to back down, saying it doesn't want.
To go to war.
Hesbela has chosen this path. It has chosen war. Perhaps if the international community had put more effort into pressuring Hesbela, her Mus and their supporters, if they truly squeezed a.
Ran, we may not be in this predicament. Now.
The nuclear debate is ramping up in Australia. Peter Dutton has outlined his vision in a major speech, but all the Easy is hell bent on attacking it.
Each nuclear plant will create hundreds or thousands of new jobs too. New industries will flourish, thousands of jobs will be created. It will set our country and our manufacturing sectors up for generations to come.
Because we know it doesn't add up.
That's why, along with their anti capitalism agenda, they're saying that the state should own all the nuclear power plants because no one in any market based system would go anywhere near it.
It's starting to look more and more unusual that Alban Easy is so against nuclear energy being part of Australia's mix when he's clearly now at odds with the international community.
Around thirty countries internationally are embracing nuclear already, and now the world's largest banks have pledged support for nuclear The Financial Times reporting today that fourteen of the world's biggest banks and financial institutions are pledging to increase their support for nuclear energy, a move that governments and industry hope will unlock finance for a new wave of nuclear power.
Plants and White House officials held a meeting in New York on Monday with the Bank of America, Barclays, BNP, Parabus, City Dog, and Stanley and Goldman Sachs to support a goal to triple the world's nuclear energy capacity by twenty fifty. They say this is part of the transition to low carbon energy, and in fact BNP told The Financial Times there's no scenario where the world can hit carbon neutrality
by twenty fifty without nuclear power. Yet still alban Easy thinks he knows better than the White House and the major banks. He's turning the idea of nuclear energy into an attack on Peter Dutton.
This is just a fantasy.
Instead of snow White and the Seven Dwarves, this is Peter Dutton, the seven Nuclear reactors.
But why does Albineazy think he knows more about energy security and sustainability than the world's smartest people. Once again, he's clearly out of step with the international community, and once again it's all because of petty politics. All right, lots to come on the show tonight. Former Labor Minister Mike Kelly would join me shortly. He's going to be very strong also, Michael Silker coming up on the show.
But first let's go to my usual Tuesday panel, former Speaker of the House Bronwin Bishop and Sky News host Caleb Bond.
Welcome to you both.
Look, Bron, I want to start by getting your reaction to this nuclear debate. That was quite a meeting, the world's financial institutions all pledging to support nuclear how benys, he is looking more and more out of step, isn't he.
What's worse than that? You were talking about the smartest people in the world and al benez he certainly is not one of them. He really is elbow the trot and he was never expected to be a leader of anything.
So what we're seeing is that the speech that Dutton gave today was a really very fine speech, and his response to questions showed that he's on top of his brief, he knows what he's about, and he outland a plan that said and pointed out, among other things that were the development of AI and other industries, that the demand for more power, reliable power is going to increase, not decrease,
and that intermittent power can't do it. And so Albanese's pathetic little interludes I think just show how pathetic he really is. I think Peter Dutton also made the point that immediately they agreed to the ORCA still and said fine, we can have nuclear subs, they'd really laid to rest the fear of nuclear in this country. But they're so desperate to have anything to say when they lost the voice,
they lost their mojo, they lost their direction. They really are just scrambling around, and so we really have to say we're listening to the people who've got sensible plans and we know it's good for the country.
Caleb that point that Bronman just made, that discrepancy between the government's embrace of nuclear powered submarines but then it's rejection of nuclear for energy more broadly, that is something the coalition is now starting to seize on as part of its arguments.
Do you think that'll be convincing.
I think it is well. I mean the argument from the government is entirely nonsensical. I mean, how can you possibly say that it is safe to have submarines swimming around in the ocean powered by nuclear energy, but it's not safe to have nuclear energy in places in Australia that are some of the most geologically stable parts of the world. It is a nonsensical argument and we saw that in the reaction from the government when Darton seid, we'll here are the nine odd locations on which we
want to put nuclear reactors. I mean, we had these silly memes being put forward by ministers of the government for him AND's sake, saying you know, we're going to have three eyed fish and your children are going to have two heads and all this sort of stuff, because they know they've lost the moral argument. There is broad support now in Australia for nuclear energy, so they fell for the three card trick and went for the old stuff from the eighties, you know, Chernobyl and then later
of course Fukushima. Supposedly it's all going to fall apart if we have nuclear energy. We know that's not going to happen. And to the point you made bron went about the reliance on extra power to fund things like AI. You look to the US. In the last couple of days, Microsoft, one of the post tech companies in the world, has paid for twenty years for a nuclear reactor to be recommissioned so they can have power exclusively for themselves to
fund AI technology. Now, if that does not tell you that the biggest companies in the world are full bore on nuclear but Elbow says, no, no, no, we couldn't possibly have it. I mean giving it bruh.
And I think politically it was actually a really smart move that Peter Dutton announced this policy so far out from the election, because it's giving him time to convince the public, it's giving everyone the time to get used to it. So I think that was a smart move given initially it might have seemed like a controversial policy.
Now let's have a look at the RBA decision today.
It has yet again kept interest rates on hold at four point three five percent.
This is now the.
Seventh meeting in a row. Inflation continues to simmer. However, here was Governor Michelle Bullock today we might bring you those comments in a moment, do you have We haven't got the comments there.
Yeah, inflation is still above our target and it's proving to be sticky progressing, getting underlying inflation down has slowed and it's likely to have remained slow in the September quarter.
So it's not looking like we're going to see any rate cuts this year.
Browin it might be well into next year, even might not.
Even be the first quarter before we see a rate cut, given inflation is staying high.
Exactly, And this argument that because they've been reduced internationally, therefore they should be reduced here. People forget to tell you that the reduced interest rate in the States is still higher than the cash rate he is here, and higher again in the UK. So the argument that says, or rather that the snake charmer, the illusionist says, the independent RBA is doing all this. It's not me, it's not us, and we've got to have this wake up
that we're both doing our job. It's this absolute attempt to blame the RBA for the incompetence of the government by increasing its spending, which has made the inflation rate
worse than it should be. So I find the whole idea that both Albow and Sharma and Charmers think that if they wish hard enough and they cross their fingers and toes and if they're really good little people say their present night, get a cuts wrote, they'll get a cup the interstrate because otherwise they've got a built up on the people they appointed to these positions that are making decisions and they're not doing as they're told.
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean the whole political strategy from the GM was he wanted a rate cut and then he wanted to announce the election as.
I still think an early election is more likely than not.
Well, you're going to be saying that until we're like it well into the seven that we know how the election from let's pivot to the US. A letter by Donald Trump's second would be assassin has been discovered now. Ryan Ruth wrote the letter in case his assassination attempt on the golf course failed, and it's an insight into his thoughts, but it's provoked a lot of controversy. He wrote, Dear world, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump,
but I'm so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumpshn I could muster. It's up to you to finish the job, and I will offer one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to whoever can complete the job. Caleb, there's now why it spread outrage that this note has been made public, because the argument is that it incites, it encourages another assassination attempt.
What do you think?
That may well be true, but it is also a pretty important piece of evidence that at some point had to come out in court anyway. So whether we found it out now or whether we found it out later, it was probably going to be it at some point. I think it goes to exactly how divided America is at the moment and the real threat that still exists
on the head of Donald Trump. Republican Rep. Matt Gates revealed the other day that he has spoken to people, or at least one person in Homeland Security and they have the understanding that there are at least five groups currently, including three that are led by foreign nations, that have a bounty on Donald Trump's head. They want Donald Trump dead. Now, whether or not this letter was released, those groups are still out there. There is still danger to Donald Trump.
Someone I'm convinced between now and November is going to try to get him again. The real question is why he has not been given extra protection, and I suspect it's because there are certain people who don't want him to have extra protection because they'd rather him dead than elected in November.
Well, he's still I think all those points you made, by the way, are excellent, Caleb, but I think he still does have less protection.
Does and he then the current president?
Yes, yeah, the evidence shows the threats on his life are greater.
I agree with you.
It looks like it's more than likely there'll be another attempt on his life.
Well, the worrying thing is who is it that's stopping the protection from being given? And it plases the vice president, I think in a very invidious position. If I were her, I would be demanding he'd be given top protection. You are to it looks like she doesn't care, and I think more should be made of that point. But in that letter, I agree with you. I think that letter was going to come out, and it needed to come out because they've got to keep that bloken jail, not
let him out on bail. That's the most important thing.
I couldn't possibly do well.
It's being argued that he states, and it's being argued that he's not a risk of the society, and he said Donald Trump.
But it proves the point that some were trying to make in the leftist media in the US last week that this was a potential assassination, that there was no potential about it. We now know exactly what he wanted to do. We cannot get around that. That letter proves.
What about that incredible woman who saw it there would be assassin? Thought he looked creepy, looked wrong, and she followed him and took photographs of the number plate and so on. She's a heroine.
We should hear more about her exactly.
But again it goes to your point, why weren't there security protracting the location more thoroughly.
Why did it have to come down to civilians.
INDI that's exactly the point. And I think more of this should be cheated home to Kamela because she is in the position to do something about it.
And even we know even before either of the assassination attempts, there were those in the Congress who were trying to remove his se career protection entire It's complete outrage. No matter what you think of any politician, we're in a democracy and both need to make it to the election. Speaking of elections, news poll shows that the Queensland Premier, Stephen Miles is facing a landslide defeat against the Liberal
National Party in next month's election. The opposition is ten points clear of Labor, so this is clearly paving the way for David Chris A Foley to lead an L ANDP majority government. Caleb, he claims he's got an underdog status, but look this defeat for Labor, it's been a long time coming.
Yeah.
Look, you know you'd have to think that he doesn't have underdog status. But also you don't want to fall into the trap of looking to cocky or confidence sure exactly going into an election like this, because you never know things can change. And this is the difficulty, right because if you go out there and say, well, it's a lay down mazare, the voters will actually turn against you because they will get the impression that you don't really care because you've taken advantage of us. You think
we're going to hand your government anyway. So he has to say that they have underdog status and if by the numbers. You look at how long Labor has spent in power in Queensland compared to the LNP, particularly given the fact that the last LNP government in the Queensland in Queensland Sorry, only lasted one term. Then he actually does have the right to claim that they have underdog status. It's just that this version of the government under Mars
has done so badly that he's coughed it up. Something tells me that if an a stage of Palichet were still the leader, they would fare better than they would under right now.
They might rue the day that they got rid.
Of from giggling pretenders out there, indeed.
But I think the.
Real thing is there's still a lot of seats they have to win, Yes, and he's entitled to say that's underdog step and when you've got that.
Many, so any leader would love those polls.
Yes, but kind of makes a very valid point. If you get over confident, you could end up like mister Shorten.
All right, there you go, bromin Bishop and Calebon. Great to see both in Caleb, of course, we'll see you back here at ten o'clock tonight. Now returning to today's top story, where Australians in Lebanon are tonight being told to leave immediately as fighting between Israel and Hesbela escalates. Israel is targeting Hesbela's weapons which have been hidden in Lebanese homes, and overnight almost five.
Hundred people were killed.
Liberal Shadow Minister for Housing and anddis Michael Souoka joins me now from Melbourne.
Michael, thank you very much for your time.
Now, I've asked you on tonight because you personally have Lebanese heritage, have family right now in Lebanon in the north. So can you share with us how you're feeling about the fact that really Israel is on the brink of war.
Well, it's obviously heartbreaking for the Lebanese people, and Lebanon has suffered more than its share of these sorts of problems for forty years now, and it's heartbreaking to see what's happening because we have a terrorist organization in Hezbala who is almost a state within a state, who is not operating in the best interests of Lebanon. They are
they're doing the bidding of the Mullas in Tehran. They are a proxy entity of Iran who have been bombarding Israel and attacking Israel, and now Israel's hit back, and sadly it's the innocent Lebanese people who suffer because of the actions of HESB. And you refer to some of the homes that had had munitions placed within them, I'm reliably informed that there were some of those owners of those homes who had absolutely no idea that that was happening.
So could you imagine how disgraceful that is to place innocent people in harm's way like that. But sadly that's
what Hezbala has done. For your viewers who don't follow Middle East, and let alone Lebanese politics particularly closely, Hezbaala is as I said, a government within a government almost they operate almost independently of the external government or the Lebanese army, and are fully funded by Iran, take their orders from Iran, and are not there doing anything, not fighting for Lebanese interests, not fighting for the interests of
any Palestinians either. They are there fighting for the interests of Iran, and now sadly, innocent Lebanese people are paying the price.
Yeah, and an outcome that nobody has wanted. A lot of the media reports today painted the picture of Israel being at war with Lebanon. But you know, it's not that simple. Lebanese citizens, in particular Christians, hate the way Hesbela is bringing war to the country and there has been a long history of conflict. I mentioned earlier in the show, the civil war that went for fifteen years.
So Michael, can you tell us a bit about that, about how Lebanese Christians, you know, have this long animosity towards Hesbela.
Well, Hesbella is almost they run a shadow government in a sense. They have caused gridlock in the Lebanese parliament.
They have not allowed for.
The succession of a new president, the president who under the constitution and by convention is a Maronite Catholic. They have in a sense cause gridlock in the parliament, and gridlock works for them in the sense that if the democratic institutions of Lebanon are not working, that their power
is greater. And Lebanon's obviously suffered a significant economic crisis, but the rivers of gold from Tehran continue to fund Hezbalah, who, as I said, have been making incursions and bombing into Israel. And so it's not a war between Israel and Lebanon. It's Israel seeking to wipe out a terrorist organization on
their border. And the truth is it's not just Lebanese Christians, it's also Sunnis and some sites who who put their country first, who are Lebanese first, and anybody who puts Lebanon first and the integrity of its borders and its institutions and its democracy, they tend to be vehemently opposed to Hesbalah, who, as I said, are a shadow government who run their own shadow army essentially, and as we're
seeing now, don't care about the interests of Lebanon. They care about the interests of Iran, and they take orders from Iran, and Iran has told them to bomb Israel. And now Israel is understandably hitting back because you can't have a terrorist organization sending in volleys of bombs on a daily basis without it being answered in some way.
No, of course, I'm going to speak with the former Labor Minister Mike Kelly in a moment about what the international community could have done to bring more pressure on Hasbala instead of criticizing Israel all the time.
But Michael, you are the shadow.
Minister for Housing, so I do want to ask you about this critical issue. We're seeing the Albanezi government blaming the Coalition and the Greens for the housing crisis, accusing you of blocking legislation. What is your main objection to the laws that Labour's been putting forward.
Well, what Labour's announced here, which they announced before the election and took them over two years to introduce into the parliament, so it can't be that urgent if it took them two years to do so. Is a minuscule scheme. It's a shared equity scheme. There's a couple of reasons why we don't support it. It's five and a half billion dollars of taxpayers money for a scheme that has already existed in most of our states or territories. Basically, shared equity is when you co own the home with
the government. In a sense you have Anthony Albanezi at the kitchen table. These schemes have not been a success in New South Wales, for example, under their scheme when this was first introduced, more than ninety percent of the places in the New South Wales scheme was still available.
So what the Albanzi government has done here is they've tried to create a bill that makes it look like they're trying to do something when they're really not trying to do anything, because shared equity schemes have already been rejected by Austrains and the last thing we need is for them to be spending another five and a half billion dollars on a miniskilled, tiny scheme that would hardly impact anybody that's quite frankly been rejected by Australians anyway.
The truth is under this government, we have fewer homes being built, fewer homes being approved, We've got record levels of migration which are pushing up rents. This is Labour's housing crisis. And the sad news for your viewers is
that Labour's housing crisis is just getting worse. It's not getting better, because they're still bringing in more than five hundred thousand migrants up in the last twelve months, when we're building fewer homes than we're being built when I was the Housing Minister in the former coalition government and when we had record levels of first home buyers. So everything's got worse on Anthony Albaneze's watch, and there's no answers and it.
Looks like the migration figures aren't going to come down as the government said they would as well. Michael Siker really appreciate your time tonight and I hope you're family stay safe.
Now still to come.
Former Labor Minister Mike Kelly joins Me Live to talk about why he thinks Penny Wong and the government of failing on the Middle East and the plan to offer cashbacks for workers who return to the office. Stay tuned, There's a lot more coming up. Welcome back. Over the past year, we've seen thousands of unprovoked terror attacks against Israel, yet there's been pressure from Western leaders towards Israel for daring to fight back and keep its citizens safe instead
of coming down hard on Hamas, Hesbela and Iran. The international community keeps criticizing Israel. Amnesty International and the United Nations aren't jumping up and down about the clear cut war crimes of Hamas and Hesbela like the slaughter of babies in cots, but they're issuing press releases accusing Israel of war crimes by daring to kill terrorists targeted attacks.
Former Labor Minister Mike Kelly has written an article where he says that Israel has been acting in self defense in this conflict with Hesbela restraining its response to defeating the actual rocket, drone and ballistic missile launchers, and he adds, and this is such a great line, he says, instead of trying to wage law fair against Israel, the international community should focus on getting Hesbela and Iran to end
their warmongering and comply with Resolution seventeen oh one. And I'm pleased to say I've got the former Labor minister with me now. Mike, thank you very much for your time on the program. Once again, Can we start with why the international community is, as you put it, trying to wage law fair against Israel rather than putting pressure on the terror groups and the parties that fund them.
Yeah.
Unfortunately this is working on a couple of levels. S. You have that malign rectangle of autocracies Russia, China, Iran and North Korea who all have the self interest of mounting a concerted information warfare campaign that serves their interests in discrediting the West and also uplifting their interests in the region and elsewhere. At the same time, of course, they're not doing any services to the populations of that region.
And I really hope for the best for Michael Sukhar's family, and it's a terrible tragedy for the region to see what Iran is doing in particular, and they are mounting effectively an imperialist, warmongering endeavor that's been in place now for a good few decades, but in particular this network that they've surrounded Israel with of the Hesbalah hamas Uti proxies and effectively turned Lebanon and Syria into almost provinces of Iran and Iraq's on the way to becoming a protectorate.
So all of those venues have been the source of multiple missile attacks against Israel. And we have to remember, of course, that began the day after October seventh, and the heinous assault by Hamas before Israel had even engaged in any countermeasures. And so this was the coordinated effort and it wasn't part of any attempts to defend themselves. It was a war of aggression against Israel that the international community has failed to focus on and address.
Now.
The international community, or more specifically the United Nations Security Council and Resolution seventeen oh one. Look, it did come up with a plan after the two thousand and six Lebanon war, and this involved having that blue line the Latany River. Hasbela would not go south of that, and you know it required as well disarmament of Hasbela.
This hasn't happened.
Instead, Hesbla has only plitarized in the south and it's now and for the past year it's been using it as a base to attack Israel. Can you talk us through why Israel does actually have a duty and obligation and a right under the UN Charter to defend its citizens.
Absolutely, So it's very clear. The UN Charter spells out in Article fifty one that every member state has the right to defend itself against an attack. So an attack against whatever source, it doesn't have to be another member state, it can be these non state actors. So it's exercising its right of self defense in defending itself Israel's actions
against Hezballah very clearly. But also it's a failure of the international system that compounds the problem in that in two thousand and six, when Israel was responding to the cross border attacks from Hesbala then and a war ensued, agreed to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon in exchange for eventeen zero one in that resolution spelling out that yes, HEZBLA had to withdraw and there would be beefing up of UNIFIL two to the tune of eleven five hundred
peacekeepers and troops in that organization, and there was instead of the demilitarization of the south of the border area south of Latani sorry and the demilitarization of Hezbola, it was in a massive escalation of their capability. So they've gone to one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand
rockets and missiles in their arsenal. They have developed an incredibly sophisticated and enormous underground infrastructure in Southernly but on that dwarfs the Hamas endeavors in Gaza tunnels that can take rocket launches for these fat one to ten missiles. They can travel along those tunnels and exit through designated points where they launched their missiles and scoot back into
the tunnels. Vast caverns that were helped in the construction by North Korea who provided all their tunneling technology to hes BLAR, and then HESBLA were able to set up so called civil construction company fronts to finish that job off companies like appropriately G Hard Construction and a Musta for Construction, who sometimes engages, of course with the UN
Development Program. But this is a massive capability right under the nose of these UN peacekeepers, And I asked where was their reports and amplification of alarms and information about this?
Where was the UN? Where was the UN Secretary General for the last eighteen years in failing to orchestrate the international effort to force the compliance of Hesbla and Lebanon, because the Lebanese Army was also meant to then fill that void in southern Lebanon and finally give them the jurisdiction as a sovereign nation that they ought to have.
So where was the UN and all that? Where was the international community in applying pressure on Iran and it's proxies to deliver that outcome to prevent the very situation that we see now, And where are their voices now putting pressure on Iran and Hezbala to diffuse this situation and in the suffering of the Lebanese.
Mike Kelly, you speak, you make so much sense. You are such a rational voice desperately missing from the current Albanesi government. I mean you must look on at your old party, at your old team in Dismay.
I just look on it, the whole scene at the moment where you know, we're not seeing rational debate, We're not seeing debate that reflects the actual provisions of the laws of armed conflict and international law. And failure encouraged to stand up to the propaganda and the voices of activism. That's not peacekeep peace activism, it's warmongering. These people don't want a ceasefire. They want the elimination of the state of Israel and the war escalated, and the elimination of
the ten million people living there. But on that point, the genocidal agenda.
But on that point, you know, the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister, they keep saying there needs to be an immediate cease fire. But at the same time they say her mask can't have a future role in the governing of Gaza. So how do they think her mass is going to be removed if Israel doesn't, through armed conflict remove her maas.
I mean, don't you think there's this well, what do you think about that?
Well, I guess the phrase cognitive dissonance comes into mind. There. Effectively, we know that for the last seventeen years her mass has repressed its own people, has waged constant war against Israel, and Israel has been so restrained in the face of that, far beyond what any other country in the world would have been with the capability to respond that they have. And so where was the pressure on Hamas to stand down?
It's relentless wars of firing minute rockets which are a walk rome and then conducting the most savage and hinous assault we have seen on their populations. So you know, frankly, the international community needs to get attack together if it wants long term peace for the region, apply the pressure where it needs to be. But just behaving as if Israel's the only party in this conflict which has agency, which just simply isn't true.
Indeed, look, you are desperately missing from the Albanezy government. So many sane voices like yours, like Kimberly Kitchen, like Michael Danby.
Are no longer in the government and then need it. Thank you very much for your time, really appreciate it.
Now after the break, the plan to offer cash backs to workers to get them back into the office, plus a look ahead at tomorrow's inflation data. Kelly Sloan and Nick Cator would join me after this quick break.
Welcome back.
Well, let's get straight into it now with tonight's panel senior fellow at the Menzies Recent Search Santa Nick Cata and New South Wales Shadow Health Minister Kelly Sloane. Welcome to you both. Now the work from home debate is back in the spotlight. There's a new plan from the Liberal team head of Melbourne's council elections, and the Liberal campaign is pledging to offer a five percent cash back on council rates for businesses whose workers are in the
office five days a week. Kelly, I think this is so interesting because the Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen came out and ridiculed the New Southwest Premier Chris Means for asking people to.
Get back into the office.
But clearly it's an issue when councils are looking at schemes like this, Well.
It is because they're looking at their economies in the city and our cities have become desolate. Business is it needs a big boost and I think that means back to work for a lot of people. I know that our business chambers are calling for more people to get back in the city. When our state government in New South Wales announced back to work orders a month ago, there was initial pushback.
People were rightly.
Concerned, and especially I think those that have got used to the flexibility parents who had childcare in place.
Were a bit alarmed.
But they will come back and it's important that we get the city thriving again, back to pre COVID levels.
Yeah, Ni Kita, what do you think about this idea? I mean, clearly the liberal team in Melbourne think it would be worth the discount financially or in an economic sense for Melbourne.
Yeah.
I understand the sentiment Shari, and Melbourne has suffered from particularly badly. The Melbourne CBD, particularly on a Monday and Friday, is virtually empty. But look, I just think we've got to stop spending money on these kind of things. We wasted billions and billions of dollars on these extensive lockdowns which were not necessary. A country like Sweden spent a faction of what we spent and came out with better results when it came to COVID deaths infections. It was
a total waste of money. And please, we just stop spending any more money fixing up this fuss and this mess. And I think it's up to businesses. Businesses should demand that their workers come back because they're going to work much more efficiently in the office. And I don't think it's a job for councils to bry workers back to work.
Quite frankly, although there is a bit of a split in the approach from businesses, and you know, some think to attract the best staff they need to have flexible working arrangements. We're seeing that this play out in the tech center, in the tech sector in particular. Now in New South Wales there is a nurse's strike at the moment and hospitals across the state are hanging on by a thread. Thousands of nurses walked off the job for
twenty four hours today. Sydney streets had nurses protesting for a fifteen percent wage rise.
But it's Kelly, It's meant that nearly five hundred.
Elective surgeries were counceled the closure of eighty one beds. This puts a lot of pressure on the health system and people who are sick already. The health system is stretched. What does the government need to do here?
Well, it is industrial chaos, another chapter in the industrial chaos that we're seeing in New South Wales. We've seen today the biggest rally by nurses since the nineteen seventies, nine thousand of them taking off, and you're quite right, it is putting our system under immense pressure, a system that has had back to back budget cuts by labor to health. It has record attendances to emergency departments.
Our nurses are under immense.
Pressure and that've been sold false hope by Labor. During the election campaign, Chris Mins was out in front of their hospitals, the nurses hospitals, talking up the dramas in the hospital, saying things needed to change. And when he's been absent from the bargaining table, they haven't had any advancements and today they've been rightly frustrated. I walked amongst some of the nurses today. They feel incredibly disappointed Labor.
Josey Bailey.
I just went into the rally, I walked out the front of We could hear it in the chamber in Parliament. It was that loud and so I walked out. I walked amongst them, and you know, the workers in New South Wales feel let down by their natural friends, which is labor, labor who we are now seeing, you know, industrial election, from the rail workers, from the transport workers, from the nurses, from the paramedics, from the CFMU, from the Electrical Trades Union, which is closing down building sites
right across our city. This is labour's mess. They need to fix it. They need to get to the table.
All right, Nick, I actually want to ask you about nuclear energy. We saw Peter Dutton tell the Telegraph that if Bob Hawk was still alive, he would be supporting nuclear energy as part of Australia's mix. But you know, we're starting to see this objection from Albow look quite illogical when the international community is coming to the table.
Yeah, and Bob.
Hawk would have backed this because he was a nation builder, unlike Albanizi, who's just about building his own stocks. And I think people like John Bradfield, you know, the guy who was responsible really for ensuring that the Harbor Bridge got built against a lot of objections at the time from people who said it's not needed, it's too expensive. Nobody, you know, ninety three years on would doubt that that was a very good investment. And John Monash, you know,
people like that great commanders and a great engineer. Incidentally, this is a nation building exercise. If we build it, If we started planning for a nuclear power station right now, that nuclear power station would still be running when my granddaughter's great grandchildren were born, in fact, when her great great gan children were born or yours. This is not about the next fifteen years. This is about the next
ninety or one hundred years. And if we were serious about building a nation and building a future for generations, that's what we're doing.
Yeah, too often show thinking with governments.
All right, Nick Cata, Kelly Sloane, thank you both very much for your time. Now, after the break, we'll look ahead to tomorrow's inflation data.
Cam Reddin will join me next.
Well, let's bring in Sky News political reporter Cam Reddin in Cambra.
Now, great to see you. Cam.
Look at the RBA today left rates on hold. Is hope beginning to fade that there'll be a rate cut even in the first quarter of next year?
Yeah, Courny.
Michelle Bull at the Governor's Show, she's saying pretty much forget about this year.
We'll come back and have a look in the new year.
And remember too, because of this new model of the Reserve Bank, they have fewer opportunities to move rates. And there was some thinking at the time when they cut the number of meetings from eleven down to eight that that might be an encouragement for the Reserve Bank if they were going to move at all, to bring any movements, whether that.
Would be up all down Ford.
So they've got more time to think, more time between meetings, meaning that if they were going to move, they should.
Move earlier rather than later.
But that hasn't really borne itself out, at least not yet in Michelle Bulook's time as the governor. But she's waiting to see some kind of inflation number that shows it's consistently back in the band. We don't have that yet, so as a result, it's pretty bad years for mortgage holders. You might wait what for maybe five months or more until that cut finally arrives.
Yeah, and speaking of inflation, obviously a big day tomorrow for the government. Are the monthly data on CPI out? What are you expecting?
Yeah, it's at three and a half at the moment. Remember this is the monthly figure, not the big quarterly one, so it's a bit more volatile. But the expectation is it's actually going to look quite good. It could even have a two in front of it, which means it would at least temporarily be back in the target band that the Reserve Bank wants it in. But why it
would be there, Shari is really important. Because petrol prices have come off a bit, that's good news, But the other main factor for that would be the government, both at the federal level and state levels, pumping in a lot of money towards energy bill rebates, which is a bit like putting your hand on a mattress. It pushes the price down temper rarely, but it's a little bit artificial. Once you take that help away, that's when it can
spring back up. If the underlying trend of higher prices hasn't been fixed, So it could be a much better number tomorrow than it has been. But Michelle Bullock even said today, don't get your hopes up that we're going to see that everything's great, we're going to cut rates. She wants to see the big dump of data at the end of October. That's what will really guide the Reserve banks thinking when it comes to its next move.
Yeah, still, if inflation is back in the target range tomorrow, No doubt that'll be something we'll see the government celebrating. Just thirty seconds, I want to get your take on news poll this week and what the figures show about whether voters are starting to blame the PM for the cost of living crisis.
Well, they're certainly not giving him any credit for trying to fix it.
Schari.
That's the thing.
You've seen the government give people income tax cuts, they're paying for their energy bills and the vote keeps on going down. And we saw the government try all week last week to try and get its housing bill through, blaming the Greens, blaming the Coalition, saying they're trying and they're stopping us. The vote still continues to drop. That is ringing the alarm bells. They need to turn something around.
Indeed, cam Raidon, thank you so much for joining us from Canberra. And that's it from me. See you tomorrow. And here's Poul Murray