Why on Sky News This is Sharry.
Good Evening will tonight Anthony Albinizi has lost his composure when grilled about breaking his promise on negative gearing. That was bad enough. Now the explosive story that labor insiders are calling for the Prime Minister to be rolled to stop the party losing. I'll bring you that full story in a moment and it will rattle the PM. Also tonight, it's the tragedy Petty Wong and the international community keep
forgetting about twelve Israeli children murdered by Hesbelah while playing soccer. Well, one mother whose beautiful little girl was killed will join me live on the show tonight. You don't want to miss this. And Tel Aviv hit by an unprecedented Hesbela ballistic missile. I'll take you live to Israel for the latest, but first tonight. An under pressure prime minister has apt while being grilled about plans to change negative gearing and
capital gains tax. After facing scrutiny all day, Albanezy this afternoon lost his call. In a heated interview, he admitted he had no idea whether his treasurer had requested modeling on changes to the controversial tax policies here. He was on ABC Radio with Richard Glover this afternoon.
The department, like all departments, look at various things at various times. Is this government policy or government request to examine potential policy announcement? No it's not.
But it's a fair question to ask you whether you or your treasurer has requested this this study.
Sure, and I've answered that you've asked.
You've answered it for yourself, but not for the treasurer.
Well, I'm not the treasurer.
You must have said to hey, Jim, did you ask them to do this?
No?
No, not at all.
Sorry, you don't know whether your treasurer has asked them.
To do this work or not.
Well, I don't know because I'm not the treasurer, and the Treasurer is on his way to China as we speak. But what we have done is to concentrate on our homes for Australia Plan.
So he doesn't know whether his own government is re examining negative gearing policy. That was a train wreck interview and that is what a Prime minister under pressure looks like. And he's certainly feeling the heat. Along with bad polls, there are now even calls within Labor for his removal as PM. Senior Labour figure from er Queensland State Secretary Cameron Milner wrote a public article saying that it was time for the Labor Party to take the nuclear option
and force Albanese's exit. Milna writes that Albaneze he criticized the extreme Greens, but his only viable plan to remain PM will see him govern with the extreme Greens. Labour simply can't let him do that to our party. So to reanergize the base, lift the Labour primary and put it in a position to win a second term in office, they need to take the nuclear option. Albenizi has tried his best, but his best isn't good enough.
Well.
With concern growing about Albanesi's ability to lead the country, it's likely we're going to see more of his temper, more of him losing his call over the next few months. Ahead of the election, the Prime Minister is frustrated that pesky journalists keep asking questions about tax policy, questions that are clearly in the public interest, questions that are legitimate. Given Labour's flip flopping on policies like negative gearing over the years, the reality is Labor is obsessed with class
war and as such has always despised negative gearing. Ahead of the twenty nineteen election, Labor promised to scrap it.
You've invested under the cool of tax laws.
They're the rules that will apply going forward. Our changes to negative gearing are prospective.
This is the most generous property tax concession in the world, in effect, very few.
Countries do it.
And Albanez he mounted the case himself as well, saying that scrapping negative gearing was a priority. His word priority, you'll hear it in a minute, and the right thing to do here. He was making those remarks on both The Today Show and on Sky News ahead of the twenty nineteen election.
Well, where about line, Lisa.
Our policies, including the quite controversial policy according to Christopher, of doing something about housing affordability, for example, in terms of changes that we would make to negative gearing and to capital gains in terms of those concessions, that's pretty brave for an opposition to do.
But it's the right thing to do gearing policy.
I see that there's another report that's come out claiming that it will put downward.
Pressure on house prices.
That's what label wants, though, isn't it for it to put downward pressure on house prices?
That's the purpose.
Well, I think what it will clearly do is mean that the increase in housing prices will be less than they would have been without this, and I believe it's a strong policy.
That election was considered unlosable for Bill Shorten, yet lose it he did thanks to voters roundly rejecting tax changes like on capital gains and negative gearing, because it turned out that it wasn't only the wealthy who had investment properties. Many Australians do and it would have been a hit to the hip pocket for one point two million voters. That's how many people negatively gear their properties.
Well.
In the wake of Bill Shorton's crushing loss, he sees the Labor leadership and dumped the party's radical tax plans, and suddenly he was arguing there'd be no change to negative gearing.
Gearing now gliding without help to buskiing. Negative gearing is a good thing, but it wasn't the years negative gearing. We had a policy that we took to the election where we were not successful.
Why was negative gearing and capital gains tax breaks a bad idea in twenty nineteen, and a good idea in twenty twenty.
Seen, well, we've found a better idea arrange of them.
But now it seems this may be another broken promise because we learned today that Treasury is examining options to change negative gearing. The Herald reporting that federal officials have started work on options to scale back negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, preparing the ground for a bold
new housing policy that could define the federal election. They report that a request for modeling on the potential change to negative of gearing has been made and that it could canvas changes to the concessions on capital gains tax well. When asked about this explosive report today, the Prime Minister didn't deny it.
I've seen those reports and what we do is we value the public service, so from time to time, I'm sure the public service are looking at policy ideas.
But then by this afternoon his message was confused, and he all but admitted he had no idea if his Treasurer or anyone else in his government was re examining negative gearing. In the past week, the Prime Minister was asked several times if he was looking at changes to this policy, and he was annoyed at the ABC for even asking.
Are you saying negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions are absolutely off the table for you.
Well, they're tax policies.
But are those tax policies? Are those tax policies completely off the table.
For you, Patricia, I don't answer the sort of those sort of questions.
In another ABC radio interview, Albaneze seemed to rule out changes.
Well, one analysis is certainly the Property Council argue that that would have a negative.
Impact on supply.
So that is one of the reasons why we're very cautious about that.
So at the same time Albaneze was all but ruling out negative gearing changes, Treasury was reportedly looking at options to do precisely that. It's incredible how Lucy is with his word ruling it out at the same time as his government considers major change. This is misleading to the public and it says a lot about Alberneze's character. He's already once lied about the changes to Stage three tax cuts.
As you know, he pledged over and over again that he wouldn't touch them until the day he changed them dramatically. Now clearly Albin Eazy is worried about the Greens taking votes off labor thanks to the perception that they care more about the housing crisis. But if he does go ahead with this broken promise, it would unleash a world of political pain on Albanzi. Peter Dutton's Liberal campaign team is already thinking about reprising this advert from the shot in era.
Bill Shorten's new housing tax would take a wrecking ball to the economy. Some experts believe it could even lead to a recession. With their higher capital gains taxes and ending negative gearing as we know it, labor would cut the value of your home and push up rents. A softer housing market means now it's the worst time for Labour's housing tax. Labour can't manage money. That's why they're coming after yours, labor. It's the bill Australia can't afford.
Yep. That would be a scare campaign, But the reality is that changes to negative gearing have two immediate consequences that would be detrimental to our economy and the housing market. It could lead to a collapse in house prices and it would decrease the value of people's own homes, and secondly, it wouldn't help renters because rents inevitably would go up. In terms of the hit to the hip pocket for families it'd be massive, and the budget revenue wouldn't be
immediate because the scheme would have to be grandfathered. This debate and uncertainty over tax policy comes at a time when the Australian economy is already stagnant. But there was good news today that inflation has come down dramatically. Headline inflation has fallen to two point seven percent last month, while underlying inflation fell from three point eight to three point four percent, and this was welcomed by the Treasurer.
The new inflation numbers for August showed that headline and underlying inflation both went down substantially. These are very welcome, very encouraging and very heartening numbers.
RBA Governor Michelle Bullock made the point this week that headline inflation has been driven down temporarily by the government's energy rebate, and this will rise again by around half a percentage point when the rebate ends. The RBA isn't expecting inflation to return to the target band until late next year, and Michelle Bullock doesn't expect it'll be at a sustainable level until mid twenty twenty six.
I think the point I would make is that if tomorrow we get an inflation number which has got a two in front of it, so it's back in the band, that doesn't mean that we've got inflation under control. It doesn't mean that inflation is sustainably back within the band. It just means it's back there at the moment.
And in the media there's been criticism today of the Treasurer for art officially or temporarily lowering inflation. But the point is this, Jim Chalmers was trying to find a way to provide cost of living relief without contributing to inflation. Any cash handout would certainly have been inflationary. Energy rebates were quite a genius way to offer relief, and the beauty of it was that, yes, it temporarily reduced inflation.
But as the IBA governor said, inflation is persistent, it is sticky, and this means there won't be a rate cut anytime soon, and possibly not before the federal election. And you can bet that if there's no rate cut, Albanezi will point the finger, will point the blame at
his treasurer. Political editor Simon Benson writes that ironically, to guarantee inflation and rates come down would require the government to do the exact opposite of what it's doing spending, and with an election campaign to think of, the government is hardly likely to do that, And that's the catch. The Treasurer has managed to mostly stop his radical and ambitious colleagues from going on a massive spendeth on in their own portfolios. That's notwithstanding that eighty two million dollars
Penny Wong has given to the terrorist controlled Gaza. But with the election coming up, it's not clear how long he'll be able to hold them off, with Labor and PAS clearly caring more about staying in office than bringing down the cost of living. All Right, it's a jam packed show tonight. We've got a lot of news coming up. But right now let's bring in my regular Wednesday panel, former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger and former Labor
Minister Graham Richardson. Welcome to you both. Mike, I want to get your reaction to the comments that I've just made there and also this idea that alban Easy Today has refused to rule out changes to negative gearing. What do you think about this?
Well, this is a disastrous idea. You know, as Richo knows, at least in my lifetime, Labor have only one election on tax at a federal level. That was in ninety three when they opposed a new tax. But I don't think Labor have ever won an election by proposing a new tax themselves, which is what they're doing here, an increase in tax, a change in tax. As Albanezy has hinted at today, this is electorally disastrous for Labor. As I said, They've never won an election proposing.
A new tax.
And the bigger issue I think is this, it's a question of trust. I mean, I can see the federal Liberal Party running a brilliant campaign on can you trust this bloke? I mean, he promised no changes to super, He promised no changes the tax stays, three tax cuts.
He promised he wouldn't.
Bring in changes to negative gearing. He promised that, and we've seen the clips tonight. He promised the Aboriginal community the oral statement in full. Never promised changes to the IR system, which is now done. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, this bloke can't keep a consistent line because he gets pushed and pulled. These two weak and so a campaign based on that, you can't trust a word
this bloke says, is going to defeat alban easy. Maybe not seventy two seats for Dutton, maybe a few more than that.
Yeah, it would be very political, politically risky to pursue changes to negative gearing, even if it might hold off the Greens to some extent, Richo.
Yeah, that looks they're all maybe true, but the reality is out there in the real world they like Alba. They're not going to dump Albo at this stage of the game. No way in the world.
People like this.
Fella, and that likability factor is going to keep him in government for a while.
Yet you always mentioned this likability factor. I just don't see it, Richo. But rich think you're gonna like this story we're going to talk about now now. As I spoke about just then, there are calls by some inside Labor for the PM to be removed. My regular guest on this show, Cameron Milner, writes in The Nightly that Labour should take the nuclear option and ask Albanesi to gracefully step aside. Or otherwise blast him out of office
with a caucus vote. And Richo he writes that this is in fact the same option that Graham Richardson delivered to me when I was Bill Shorton's chief of staff, when he was shilling for Albanezi to take over from Bill. In February twenty sixteen, just four months before the federal election, Camra Milna writes that's sitting down at Richo's local Harveside restaurant, Catalina.
Richo opined that Bill has two news polls left. When he falls shot, he can resign for elbow or will blast him out with the message delivered Richo that encouraged me to order Andre and Maine and proceeded to tell me what a talent Scott Morrison was. I have to say, rich O, it does sound like you. You've taken me to Catilena before. But on a serious note, Gray and Richardson, is this true? Did you threaten to roll Bill Shotton for Albo?
That certainly doesn't sound like me.
So I think, as I kept hearing in America once upon a time, I just don't recall that.
So you're genuinely denying this because this is you know, a story that would go down in the history books. Four months out from the election, did you say that Bill Shotton had two news polls left.
I don't recall.
Did you did.
Think that Albanezy should replace Shorten?
That's true, Yeah, that's true. I certainly had that view for quite a long time.
And you may have made that threat to Cameron Milner, Shorton's chief of staff at Catalina.
Well, it's possible.
You remember the lunch you took him.
No, I don't particularly remember the lunch.
I've had so many at Catalina, it's so hard to remember them each one individually.
Basically your touch up, Michael Kroger, would removing Albert easy Hirst or help Labor at this point?
Well, Milner's a very smart blake. Let's let's be He's not my politics. He's Labor, of course, but he's a very smart blake. And he was Albert. He was Shorten's advisor in the sixteen election, not the nineteen election, the sixteen election where they almost had a miraculous win. So he's a very bright blake. Would it help them? Probably not, for the reason that historically in Australia, to change leader if there's going to be an argument. There's always got
to be one standout. I mean we slapped snedd and for Fraser Howard Peacock. On labour side, you had you had Hawk Keating, et cetera. Rud Gillard on this occasion, You've got alban easy in about eight hours, So who would be the leader? You're never going to have a proper leadership ballot challenge to Albanize, et cetera. When no one's got any idea who would take over, they won't be able to agree amongst themselves, which means Albo will
Albau will stay there. That's that's the main problem with changing, because there's no one person to gravitate around and labor and not going to go through months of arguing about you know, which part of which faction should have their candidate up against it, and the others will get that, you know, get chief stuff and say, well we're not if it's not me, I'm still supporting Albo. So the whole thing will collapse. So it's not going to happen.
But you know, there are a couple of people who would do better.
The story is going to rattle alban Eazy, no question. Look, I want to turn to Israel and Lebanon now and specifically Penny Wong's reaction to the latest developments and quite outrageous comments, Patty Wong has wanned that Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza. According to a report in The Herald, as she said, and I'm quoting Penny Wong, now, the global community is clear, this destructive cycle must stop. All parties must show restraint and de escalate. Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza.
Now.
I spoke about Pennywong's approach at length last night and the night before. But the Australians cartoonist Johannes Leek summed it up in one image. Have a look at this
and you might have seen it already. And the cartoon says, there's a Taiwan representative there saying, will you put in a good word for us at the UN Penny and Pennywong replies, if you were a quasi state run in part by terrorists hell bent on the annihilation of your neighbor, and not a peaceful, vibrant democracy, then maybe I could help you. I mean, Richo. She does seem to be confusing the good guys with the bad guys, doesn't she Oh.
I think that's a bit harsh. I'm a fan of Pennies. You got to remember she came from the left. Sometimes it's hard for them the shit at all. All of those views, even if they're as crappy as I think most of them are, they'll hang on to them. But look, she's doing a pretty good job. There's no issue around around Pennywong. You don't walk down the street and people rush up you and say, gee, you've got to get rid of her. It doesn't happen. Penny Wong's as safe as houses as they say.
I couldn't disagree with you more. I think Pennywong is the worst foreign minister this country has ever had. She's just abandoned long standing bipartisan policy, particularly when it comes to our ally Israel. People do on the street talk about what about job she's doing. Michael Kroger, Yeah, I think she's.
The worst foreign minister ever. I mean, look, as foreign minister, as prime minister, you've got to have some moral clarity. You know, Australia is a democratic country. We stand with democratic countries. Democracies are hard fought gains and you have to defend democracy, and you've got one democracy in the Middle East being a sale by terrorists, countries, organizations, et cetera,
funded by Iran, et cetera. I mean, if you can't stand unequivocally with another democracy like Israel, well you know, really, you just you're not worthy of being a minister in a democratic government in a democratic country like Australia. I think Wong's performance has been not just disgraceful, I just think it's been discussing and as I've said, he before she was in Israel at the same time I was there in January, and she wouldn't visit Kafar as Are,
she wouldn't visit the Nova Music Festival. She went to Ramala and Jerusalem. Wong has no moral clarity on this at all. I think she's been disgraceful. And what another Gaza hang on Hesbla have been firing rockets into Israel four years and eight or nine thousand of them since
October seven. What do you think Australia would put up with someone nearby if there was someone firing rockets, you know, really nearly into Sydney or Melbourne or Adelaide or Perth and not I mean, there's a point at which Israel had to defend itself and they've drawn the line in the sand now and there's nothing else Israel can do that defend itself, and they're doing exactly what they need to do and should do.
That's true, It's.
Wrong again, as she is on every occasion.
Completely agree. Well said, Well done, Michael Kroger. But Richo, what about what Michael Kroger just said is wrong? I mean, Israel is dealing with almost daily rocket attacks from Hasbela. Twelve children were killed. I'm going to speak to the mother of one of them a bit later in the show. Why should it put up with this? Eighty thousand families have had to leave their homes.
I'm not saying it should.
Sometimes you've got to disagree with where your party is going. I've always been and always will be rock solid on standing with Israel. I'm not going to be altering that stance one iota.
So then you can't think Pennywong's doing a good job as Foreign minister, then.
Well, I think she's doing a great job as Foreign minister. With one exception you can think that that's legitimate is the middle legs.
She hasn't been to lunch with you at Catalina's, rich O, No, she hasn't.
Have you Michael or you are you the what about you are? You're the only one who hasn't been on set right now?
Well, Richard, Richo and I meant to be having lunch, but he told me he was going to take me to a Chinese restaurant, which I mean, nothing wrong with Catalina's, but the Chinese restaurant, and they are in near Sussex Street. You're old, You're old, stamping ground.
Shut didn't go through an entry shut down.
Yeah, but across the road that's got a sister a road.
Don't worry.
Okay, as long as you do have your lunch sorted, we can get on with the show, all right. Michael, Croagan, Gray and Richardson, thank you so much. Now let's turn to the big news of the week that the A Triple C has launched legal action against Coles and wool Wars. The supermarkets are now scrambling to try and gain back the trust of customers. Now, if the A Triple C's allegations are true, it is without question misleading and manipulative behavior,
especially during a cost of living crisis. But to make the scandal even worse, former chairman of the A Triple C, Alan Fell's points out that the prices that were temporarily increased before being discounted, but discounted to prices well above their original level were household staples like wheatbigs and noodles. And I'm pleased to say that the farmer. A Triple C chair Alan Fells joins me. Now, Allan, thank you
very much for your time this evening. Now, firstly, what is your You did a lot of work on price gouging of the supermarkets. What's your reaction to this new case by the A Triple C against Coals and Woolworths.
Well, they've obviously got a very strong case. They've got a lot of information from consumers and the Internet. And then under the law, Coles and Woolies, having made their claims about discounts, have to be able to substantiate them.
I don't think.
Cos and Woolies will be able to come up with any evidence that is helpful to them. On the contrary, the opposite to me, it's a rather clear breach of the law, likely to be upheld by the courts and likely to result in high funds.
Now, if it is, you know, in many cases it was obvious to consumers that this practice was happening. How is it possible that wiol Wars and Cole's directors senior managers wouldn't have known about this. Do you think that this is an issue that there should be scrutiny on what they knew.
Yes, it's a very good point.
As you said, if consumers knew about it, if you'd look up the internet and prove it, I would have thought any director, any senior manager worth their salt, would know at it. I mean, as a minimum, surely they would have asked, hey, we sell all these big, down, down, down price campaigns. Are they affecting our profits or not? And it seems that they didn't because they weren't really reducing their prices, So I am. And the behavior went on for well every year, probably much longer. It was
systematic because across numerous product product categories. So it's hard to see how senior executives and indeed members of the board didn't know and didn't know that. This is a standard illegality under the consumer law. It's mentioned even if you do high school consumer law. This is one of the behaviors that's cited off and false discounts.
Do you think there should be some accountability for them personally if it's found that they did know.
Yes, the competition and consumer law is quite clear that people who in a business that participate or simply help or know about aid and abent some behavior, they're liable. So I think consideration should be given to taking out liability and the form of fines and so on to individuals who were knowingly involved, no matter what their level in the business.
Do you think that is something the HP will see The current leadership there would be considering.
Well, they've done it in other cases. I also think that they're now in a position where a lot more information will have to be provided to them by Cole's and Woolli's, and that information may bring out individual culpability.
That's quite strong, comments former chair of the HP c Alan Fels, joining us now saying that if senior management at Cole's or Willwards knew about this, then they should be personally liable and accountable and even face fines as well. Do you think that if this is proven and it looks like it would because the case is so strong,
the figures are so clear cut. Do you think the fines would have to be so large to deter the companies and others like it from engaging in this sort of conduct in the future.
In short, yes, And I just go back on one point that very often when they're caught doing this, companies just cave in agreeance happen, get the thing into court settled quickly. I just see some signs of reluctance by Coles and Woolies to do that, and I suspect it's because not because they're worried about fines, but because of individual liability. The top people probably very unwilling to just
walk into court with that around their neck. But on your biggot point, I think it's obvious if the claims hold up, that there will be very large fines for the businesses because the business is tender. Regard it as a cost.
Of doing business.
We're going to do something.
Very profitable, there's a low cost, low probability of being caught, and the fines aren't that big, so our calculus is it's worth taking the risk. Now, recently the law was changed that a court in setting a fine can take into account this cost of doing business. Psychology and set a really high fine. That means that companies will pay so much that they have to take real notice of breaking the law.
Yeah, and they'd have to change practices, so potentially hundreds of millions of dollars presumably, Alan Fell's really appreciate your time and insights tonight. Thank you. Now still to come. We thought the pandemic made us miserable, but according to new analysis, we are now more miserable. I'll tell you I a little later, plus two months on from the horrific Gollen Heights attack, and the community is still really mourning the twelve Israeli Drew's children who were killed by Hesblah.
I'm going to speak right after the break with one of the mothers who lost her little girl. Stay tuned, welcome back. Well, no one knows more about the threat of Hesbela than the parents of the twelve children who were happily playing soccer when they were massacred. A Hesbela strike killed these beautiful twelve young children and injured twenty others. The mother I'm about to speak with had three children
outdoors playing on the day the Hesbela strike hit. Here was how that missile hit her community in marj Del Charms in northern Israel.
W Hey Hey and me.
And her daughter Alma was among the twelve young children killed. Nayala fakr Alden joins me. Now, Nayella, firstly, we are so terribly sorry for your lost such an unnecessary tragedy day, and thank you for having the courage to speak about this just a couple of months later. Can you take us back to July twenty seven and what happened that day.
Thank you sheriff for having me in the meeting, and thank you for your condolences. I appreciate a lot, and I wish none of us will will live like this experience. It's really hard to express.
And hard to.
Talk about it. On the Saturday on July twenty seventh, a tragedy had been that that might can hardly comprehend. It claimed the lives of twelve angels. There are ages between ten and sixteen years old. On the day, everything was normal. In the morning. I brought her breakfast, kissed her and woke her up. She told me, Mom, I feel like having a breakfast in the balcony, and that's exactly what we did. Later that day, I was attending in relatives, wedding.
And our house.
Their house actually had a view of my se chance. Suddenly, the warning seriens went on and a few seconds later the exeplusion occurred. I felt like the explosion happened in my heart.
You could feels so instinctively feel like it was something worse.
Sure, I'm talking to you right now, and I feel the beating of my heart. It's really something hard to leave it again, It's really hard.
I'm sorry, sorry, thank you for reliving it again to share the story.
I have to because I have a message for Alma to reach her voice to the whole world. Alma and the others. Of course, I immediately started running and crying, not knowing why I started running. And I know my children, Ryan and Eleanne were at the field. So Ryanne called me and said, Mom, we are okay, don't worry about us. He also spoke to her to his father and reassure him that they are okay. But my heart keep bounding and the tears keeped falling, and I don't know why.
I called Alma to check on her. Alma didn't answer. I thought that she as usual, dancing, sleeping, watching movie. So I went down to my house downstairs to the second floor. I opened the first room, There's no Alma. The second room, Alma on the roof, No Alma. There was no Alma. I hobely wanted to hear her voice. Tell me, Mom, I'm here, don't worry. I am afraid, but I am not here. I am There was no answer there. There was no Alma here.
So how did you learn that beautiful Alma was among those he'd been killed?
I called Aman, my husband, and I told him I am an Alma isn't answering, and Alma isn't at home. He told me he had arrived to the to the blackground. I went down to the blackground also and asked about her. They told me there there were no girls among the victims at the moment. I was calling her all the time, but she still wasn't answering. One time, I can remember that her phone rang and was busy, so I felt a little comfortable that maybe she's talking to someone else.
But no, no, no, my heart tell me something else that if she could call someone, she's going to call me first. At this time, I'm arrived to the field and was carrying her his Elma and his arms. I waited a bit and went to that clinic mini hospital in my town. They told me she was in one of the rooms. Actually, I told them I wanted to go and I was ready for any possibility, but just needed to be by her side, telling her I'm here, mom,
I'm holding her hand and comforting her. Unfortunately, everyone knew, everyone know, but no one had the carriage to tell me that she's gone. Its so one of my ilities, yes, yes, one of the of my relatives took my hand and tell me, you have to be strong. Then I was shocked, and I know that something bad happened.
I saw her, Sherry, I.
Saw my angel. She was living like an angel, with her beautiful face like she used to just sleep the same way. I started to cry a lot, to cry and to cry and cry. But I remember very well that I pray for her and telled her that I wish, I wish my prayers that God have mercy on her and send you and send you kind.
Souls just like the way you were to us.
Kissed her and tell her God gives us and God takes from us. We accept our destiny.
Nailah, really beautiful. Yes, I'm so so sorry you have been through this with sending all our love to you in northern Israel. I don't know how you continue on as a mother to two other children with what's happened to your daughter, Alma. There's no reason for this tragedy, no reason for the Hasbelas strike, and we just send you all of our love and all of our prayers and strength to keep going. Thank you very much for speaking out tonight. I can see how difficult it is.
Thank you, Thank you.
This is what they're dealing with in Israel. And by the way, Nayala is from the Juruis community, not Jewish. By the way, this is affecting all of Israel, and yet the international community says Israel should just put up with this and shouldn't fight back against Hezbela try and remove the threat. I mean, this is why it's important to bring these interviews to you now after the break, how Labor is reacting to today's inflation data and what
it means for the upcoming election. My political panel will join me next right, plenty more to get through tonight. Let's bring in our political panel, Labor MP Daniel Malino and Liberal MP Andrew Wallace. Welcome to you both. Look, let's turn to today's inflation data falling to two point seven percent. Daniel, there is criticism that this is just a temporary drop. What's your response to this.
Well, Hi Sharian, thanks for having me on.
So look, I think it is welcome that the headline inflation number came down, But the number that I actually looked at first was what happened to the trimmed mean inflation. And as we all know, the RBA is really focused on core or underlying inflation, and that dropped from three point eight to three point four. And indeed, if you look at the last couple of months, it came down from four point one in June to three point eight last month to three point four.
So the trajectory is good.
Now, of course you've got to be careful with monthly readings, but we're seeing core inl heading in the right direction and getting close to that two to three band, and that's really what the RBA is focused on. And the RBA is said all along that its interest rate rises are having an impact, but also that the government surpluses
are helping in this fight against inflation. The fight against inflation is the number one economic priority, and I think today's numbers reflect the fact that the Government and the RBA are working together and that we're on the right path.
Andrew Wallace, do you give the government credit for the fact that the underlying inflation has come down from three point eight to three point four percent.
Well, it's good that the headline inflation has come down to three point four percent, But Michelle Bullock has bilt the cap. She's consistently said that, look, it doesn't matter what sort of measures that Jim Chalmers is putting in as temporary measures to try and get a sugar hit. She's looking to see those inflation levels come down and stay down. And she herself has said that one swallow does not make a spring, and this reduction just in the last couple of months is not giving her any
comfort that it's going to stay down. So it's pretty clear from Michelle Bollyoke that she's not going to move on a reduction of interest rates anytime soon, because clearly she is concerned about that sugar hip that we may be experiencing right now.
Well, there's new research that says that Australians haven't been so miserable in over a decade. This is called the misery index and it measures inflation's interest rates, unemployment and other factors to then determine the national mood, and it says that we're living through the most protracted period of economic misery since twenty eleven. Daniel, you know you don't really need research to know that families are doing it tough at the moment.
Well, exactly, I was going to say, Shari, Look, I remember the misery index from back when I was both an undergraduate and when I was teaching economics, and we used to have a simple misery index which was unemployment plus inflation. But as you say, look, I don't think either I, nor Andrew nor other members of parliament or members of the community need that index to.
Know that people are doing it tough.
But just going back to a comment I made previously, that's why fighting inflation is so critical, because high inflation is going to be the most damaging economic phenomenon for people's quality of life. So it's imperative that we bring inflation back to the two to three percent band. But also when you think about the misery index, which is inflation and unemployment, what we're trying to do is to bring inflation down with the minimum increase in unemployment possible.
So I think we have seen a lot of progress on inflation, and while there is a lot of difficulty out in the community, I would simply say that it's a good thing that unemployment hasn't risen as much as many forecasts had predicted.
So people are doing it tough.
That's why we've put in place so many cost of living measures, which often the opposition criticized but won't tell us which ones they'd get rid of. But people are doing it tough.
But Andrew, I mean, the reality is it doesn't look like inflation is going to come down to the target band until at least the end of next year twenty six. Well, yes, exactly, So we're not looking at a rate cut anytime soon.
No, and Shari, as I make my way around electorate and in fact I was up in North Queensland yesterday and the same applies families. Everybody that I talk to is talking about one thing and one thing only, and that's cost of living. And look, I like Daniel, but I think on this point is he's got it wrong because it's because of the policies of this government that we are seeing interest R remaining higher for longer. If you compare astral to other advanced economies, the US, New Zealand, Canada.
You know we are we have higher inflation and many advanced economies and those those countries are seeing reduction interest rights, but we're not seeing them here and we're not seeing them failed economic policies of this way of government.
All right, and the political fight over this will continue. Daniel Malino Andrew Wallace really appreciate your time. Thank you. Now, after the break, we'll go live to tell Aviv for the latest on the war between Israel and Hasbela. Stay tuned, all right, let's bring in now live from Tel Aviv, Israeli news anchor Littel, SCHAMESH. Littel. Great to see you again. Look, can you tell us about the news today? Unprecedented a has ballistic missile in Tel Aviv. What happened?
Yes, so we.
Had an alarm at around six thirty in the morning. It's actually the first time that we are getting rockets from Lebanon towards aiming towards Tel Aviv. We got sirens in Tel Aviv in the past, rockets that are coming from Gaza. But it's actually the first time that chrisbala is firing Tel Aviv.
One of the heads of Risbellae is.
Saying today we were aiming Israeli Mosad. It was basically just one rocket, and they're claiming that it was a.
Response for the Beepers operation.
But you have to understand, Israel is striking the south of Lebanon and Lebanon for the past three days, striking Risbela facilities, weapons facilities and taking.
Down the heads of Risbella.
Just last week we saw the elimination of Ibra Ibra Mkil was the head of operations of Chris Bla.
He was wanted.
There was a bounty on his head by the US government, a bounty of seven million dollars.
He was responsible off the killing of.
Hundreds of Americans in the embassy, the American embassy in Beirut.
So the matter of fact, Israel.
Is doing an amazing job, not just helping the safety of Israel, but also taking heads of Chrisboela that were responsible for a variety of attacks, killing American citizens, killing French citizens.
And the operation goes on.
Yet we've seen the international community put pressure on Israel to de escalate. How can the international community, including by the way, our Foreign Minister here in Australia. How can they expect Israel to do nothing when there's been this almost daily constant barrage from Hesbela ever since October seven.
Exactly constant barrage. We're talking about hundreds of missiles who are being fired from the south of Lebanon by his Bala towards Israel on daily basis. This is actually the first time that we are seeing Israel striking back and striking hard, and the people of Israel are saying, eventually, after eleven months of getting rockets aiming towards US, Israel is doing something, and Israel is taking down heads of Chrisbala.
Israel is taking down weapons, weapons and missiles, and according to our recent recent headlines, Israel managed to take down at least fifty percent of the rockets that Isbelah has. We cannot allow ourselves to get people to leave in their houses. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people who are evacuated from their houses in the northern part of Israel, and they will not be able to return to their house safely if we won't take down all of US missiles facilities Letta.
I've only got about forty seconds left, and I just want to ask you, is there concern that Iran will now step in to help Hezbella.
There is a major concern, and that's why the US is sending more equipments because the US at the moment, as you've said, they don't want to see any escalations. Obviously, the upcoming elections in America on November fifth is also a major factor of them.
Don't want to see an escalation.
And if you're asking me, the only way to prevent a larger war is to strike his Belah and to get them to surrender.
That's the only.
Way we will achieve any sort of agreements on our border.
Yeah, all right, Letoshamesh really appreciate your time. Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow at eight o'clock. And here is Pomar