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This is Sharry Good evening Donald Trump's triumph at NATO as the Albanezy government left out in the cold. Shadow Defense Minister Angus Taylor will join me live to reveal how much he thinks we should be spending on our military Wall Street is scrambling after socialist influencer ma'm darney
won the Democratic primary in New York. I'll discuss the fallout with John Lee and Howard Melbourne's street sweeper won a landmark case after he was sacked for objecting to the Welcome to Country, Plus the mysterious case of the missing Supreme Leader. Where is Iran's Iotola Kamani hiding. I'll speak with human rights lawyer Arsenalstrowsky later on the show, but first tonight, Donald Trump has wrapped up a successful
whirlwind visit to NATO. And while the world is talking about the NATO gen or secretary calling him daddy, and we'll get to that in a moment. The substance of the meeting was deeply significant. It was a broad commitment from Europeans to lift defense spending to five percent of GDP, such as the precarious position of global security that NATO
has reached this commitment. Zelenski's presence at NATO in a suit no less underscored the grave threat that the access of evil poses to democracy, and the talks took place in the shadow of America joining Israel to destroy Iran's nuclear sites. The lesson is that peace cannot be taken for granted. Protecting our sovereignty and guarding against aggressive enemies takes work. It takes a rigorous defense of our values
and ensuring we invest in our military. NATO agreeing to increase defense spending to five percent under Article five the Collective Defense Treaty was a watershed moment.
I've been asking them to go up to five percent for a number of years and they're going up to five percent. That's a big from two percent, and a lot of people didn't even prepare the two percent, So I think it's going to be a very big news. NATO is going to become very strong with US.
NATAL leaders agreed on the the Hague Defense Investment Plan and this will fuel a quantum leap in our collective defense.
Now, while Australia isn't part of NATO, we are on the front line of an aggressive China and the expectation is that Albin Ezy should be pulling his weight as well. It's only Australia and Spain failing to get on board with a serious commitment to defense. And listen to how Trump threatened Spain if it doesn't come to the table.
Of course, you know on a Spain.
Are you satisfied with today?
Oh?
I think Spain's terrible what they've done.
No, I do.
They're the only country that won't pay the full up. They want to stay at two percent. I think it's terrible. And you know, they're doing very well. The economy is very well, and that economy could be blown right out of the water with something bad happening. You know, Spain is the only country that are you from Spain? Good congratulations. You're the only country that is not paying. I don't know what the problem is, it's I think it's too bad.
So we'll make it up.
You know what we're going to do. We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We're going to make them pay twice as much. And I'm actually serious about that.
And like Spain, Australia also only spans two percent of our GDP on defense, so This would likely be how Trump speaks to alban Easy if he ever bothers to meet with him. Now, at the very same time that the NATO summit was taking place in the Netherlands, Treasurer Jim Chalmers once again ruled out increase to defense spending.
We are actually already very substantially increasing our investment in defense. We've found room in tight budgets for an extra eleven billion dollars over the forward estimates and around fifty seven and a half billion dollars over the course of the next decade.
And Defense Minister Richard Miles, who actually was at NATO and yet he would only promise to assess and review Australia's needs going forward.
We've gone through our own process of assessing our strategic landscape, assessing the threats that exist there and the kind of defense force we need to build in order to meet those threats, to meet the strategic moment, and will continue to assess what our needs are going forward.
A whole lot of waffle and no firm commitments there now. The Albanezy government insists it needs to be aligned with international partners when it comes to climb change and foreign policy. It's a point Albanezi has made over and over to justify the rush to renewables.
Both Australia and Canada also share views about climate change. Focus on going forward, including meeting our net zero targets, how we can collaborate on the net zero transition. Our national interest lies with continuing to take action on climate change, including through international accords.
So apparently being aligned with the international community is vital when it comes to climate action, but apparently not for defense spending. And this at a time when several international leaders now admit they're unlikely to meet their net zero targets. It's embarrassing how Australia is so completely out of step on defense. We're investing just two percent of GDP while
Europe is now at five percent. And by the way, the five percent is comprised of three and a half percent on defense and an extra one and a half percent on defense related infrastructure. And this is all within ten years. The Trump administration has only asked for our commitment to lift to three and a half percent, not five.
This should be an easily achievable commitment for Australia, especially over a ten year period, Yet the Prime Minister refuses to do this all while wasting billions of dollars paying off student hex debt, on the exploding NDIS, and sending millions to Gaza. Alban Ezy's refusal to increase our defense budget is stubborn, and we're already seeing the consequences of
being at odds with the international community. The President counseled his meeting with Albenzi with an no phone call to compensate like he had with other world leaders, and the United States didn't inform Australia before the strikes against Iran despite our role in the Five Eyes community. Albanesi's left wing ideology and refusal to increase defense spending means that
we now could even risk losing orcus now. Albinizi already had a reputation internationally for his center left woke government, but now his reputation is sliding into irrelevance. He was too scared to attend NATO and risk being left out in the cold by Trump on a second occasion, and that's what would have happened. But this is all self inflicted and it's a direct result of the hostile foreign policy he and Petti Wong have pursued to Australia's own detriment.
Now.
I've been making this point for a long time now that even the Biden administration was disappointed in Albanesi and Wong's foreign policy. But now the sequences of this government's actions are so obvious that they can't be ignored. Former Labor State Secretary Cameron Milner, our regular guest. He wrote in The Nightly this week that Australia, under Wong and Albanezi continually wants to pick our enemies over our allies.
He says Albanese and his government are now a serious threat to Orcus and our role as a trusted partner of world superpowers. And The Australian's Foreign editor Greg Sheridan put it well when he wrote that it's difficult to think of a time when Australia has been so inconsequential, so powerless, so much without influence, so incapable of affecting its own destiny or anyone else's, as we have become under the Albanesi government. And Sheridan writes that it's just
as well Alberzi didn't go to NATO. He says, imagine trying to get an appointment with Trump so you can whine about tariffs while all this is happening, And what about the embarrassment that NATO now wants member states to spend three and a half percent of GDP on defense while we can't spend a pitiful two percent, He says, nobody's saying could argue that the Albanese government is responding
effectively to the strategic challenges we face. So, while the frosty relationship between Australia and the United States continues, it's a new dawn for the Europeans and the president. The NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutter has been fawning over Trump, with the President publishing the private text message he sent him before the summit, and in it Mark said, you are flying into another big success in the Hague this evening. It was not easy, but we've got them all signed
onto five percent. Donald, you have driven us to a really important moment for American and Europe and the world. You will achieve something no American president in debat could get done. Europe is going to pay in a big way as they should, and it will be your win. And that's very true. No other president, as much as they tried, could get this sort of five percent commitment
to defense at NATO. Now, unsurprisingly, Trump loved that message private message, and he shared it on truth social This seems to be becoming a trend, Trump sharing private correspondence publicly. We presume he didn't ask for permission. Then, as we saw last night, Mark was equally taken with Trump at the NATO press conference. He's a Dutch politician. He's been in the role that NATO since last October. He seems quite eccentric and fun and everybody has been captivated by
the moment. He described Trump as daddy.
They've got a big fight, like two kids at a school yard. You know, they fight like hell, you can't stop them.
Let him fight for about two three minutes.
Then it's easy to staff up.
And then Debby has sometimes do strong language.
It was a joke, of course, but it's unusual language for senior diplomat and the situation became even more surreal when the President was asked about the comment at the official NATO press conference. Mark Britter, the NATO chief, who is your friend? He called you daddy earlier? Do you regard your NATO allies as kind of children?
No, he likes me.
I think he likes me.
If he doesn't, I'll let you know.
I'll come back and I'll hit him hard. Okay, he did, he did it.
Very affectionate.
Daddy, here, my daddy.
That was a lighthearted moment during a pretty long forty five minute press conference where Trump took questions from dozens of international journalists, and he had an emotional moment with BBC Ukraine correspondent Marislava Petza.
BBC News Ukrainian.
Where are you from.
I'm from Ukraine.
So my question to you is whether or not the US is ready to sell anti air missile systems Patriot to Ukraine. We know that Russia has been pound in Ukraine really heavily. Right now, you're living yourself now and you my husband is there and I.
Can see you very you know, it's amazing.
And me with the kids. I'm in also actually because he wanted me to be.
Your husband, the soldier.
Now he's there now.
Yeah, Well that's rough stuff, right, that's tough, and you're living here and you're a reporter.
I am good.
So let me just tell you. They do want to have the anti missile missiles, okay, as they call them, the Patriots, and we're going to see if we can make some available.
Isn't that amazing that Trump actually took the time to ask about her husband and her family, where she lives, in her job. He showed empathy and curiosity, and it was genuine, seemed genuine. It's rare for a politician to do that, to be genuinely interested in other people, not just themselves. It was a beautiful and heartwarming interaction. And
so it was that NATO survived Trump. The war in Iran is over for the meantime, and Albinizi wakes up to a new reality where Trump isn't a villain of the international community and it's Albanezi who's the one shunned and out of favor. All right, big show coming up, But now let's bring in shadow Defense Minister Angus Taylor, Angus,
thank you very much for your time. Now, if you were the defense minister, would you agree to lift our defense spend to three and a half percent of GDP within ten years?
Well, Shari, thanks for having me, and we absolutely need to increase our defense expenditure, and of course during the election campaign we're now going to at least three percent and we've recommitted to that, and we need to do that because we're living in a dangerous and uncertain time where authoritarian regimes are flexing their muscles, whether it's in Russia, whether it's Iran directly attacking Israel or through proxies of course, or whether it's the military build up from the Chinese
Communist Party, and all of these things mean, in the words of the Prime Minister Shari, that we are facing the most uncertain time since Second World War and we need to take appropriate action. Two percent of GDP is simply not enough. The government's Zone Defense Strategic Review is not properly funded. We need to make sure our submarines are properly funded. We need to manufacture missiles here in Australia.
We need to have investment in drone and anti drone technology in the northern facilities that are so crucial at this time in our p part of the world. All of this needs investment. It's not getting the investment it deserves, and that's why we need to increase defense spending.
So you just said they're three percent, Pete hagseth Out the Shangrilai Dialogue put forward a figure of three and a half percent. Is that something that you agree that we do need to commit to and just remembering this is a ten year window.
Well, of course three is a lot closer to three and a half than two is. And the real problem we've got to the moment is we're just way short of the mark Shari. There's no question about that for what we need to do. And as I say, the government's own plan is not properly funded. So I mean it's there and very clear that there needs to be significant additional funding, and it's because we are facing this uncertain time and the places that need the investment are
pretty clear. What's also clear is we need to make sure that every dollar is invested well, Shari, and I don't think all of the money invested into historically has been invested as well as it needs to be, and that's got to be a part of the focus as well.
I mean, we've seen war played out in real time Russia, Ukraine as well in Iran, and we don't have the sort of anywhere near the sort of military equipment that is being used routinely, drones being the most mean and relatively inexpensive, we just don't have that capability automated drones.
Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean the drones is a good example, and counter drone technology, of course, we're seeing extraordinary advances on that in the Ukraine War. We also saw it from Israel with extraordinary use of technology by Israel in Iran very effective, and we've got to learn from this. We've got to move much faster, we've got to be way more agile, we've got to focus on delivery, not just retric and we've got to make sure that we are ultimately in control of our own
sovereignty shari A line. This are incredibly important. They are unbelievably important. But you get good alliances because you're focused on your own sovereignty and that means we've got to manufacture our own missiles, for instance. So this is incredibly important at a time like now, and it needs to be a sharp focused for the government, and it.
Isn't Sadly, do you think Albanzi is trashing our alliance with the United States, Well.
I think it's in real trouble. I mean, it's clear this review of Orcas is proceeding at a time when we haven't even managed to get a meeting between the Prime Minister and the President. He seems more willing to get a meeting with the president of China than the
president of the United States. And yet this is our key strategic ally, the United States, of course, So look that prime minister needs to get his gear together, that it needs to get focused on the right things here and most importantly needs to get a meeting with the president and needs to get defense spending up.
Indeed, and in fact, you know, Albanesi could have a fourth meeting with Chinese President Hijinping before he even has his first one with Trump, who won the election in November nearly eight months ago. It's extraordinary. Now Albanize failed to come out and support America's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities on Sunday. Should he have done this straightway in support of.
Our ally, Yes, absolutely, I mean this was the right thing for the United States to do. Israel was entirely entitled to take action against Iran because there's an ongoing existential threat for Israel created by Iran, and not just through direct attacks but through proxies of course over a long period of time. And so it was well within the rights of Israel to do what it did, and absolutely appropriate for the United States to support it, and I think the United States has played a very deft
hand in the approach it's taken on this. So yes, Albanize, he should have supported he didn't mean. What worries me here, Shari is that there seems to be an anti US alliance sentiment coming from Albanesi and others in the government, and I think that is very dangerous At a time
like this, these autocratic regimes are flexing their muscles. Democracies and open societies like ours need to band together, and we need to work together, and that's the only way we're going to make sure that we're safe in a difficult time.
Absolutely so refreshing to hear some common sense there now. Just on another topic, there's been debate about quotas today. Susan Lee has said she's open to them. You have said you don't support them. But the key point is having more women in politics, and there are now fewer women in Shadow Cabinet under Susan Lee than there were
under Peter Dutton. Were you, Angus Taylor shocked to see your colleagues Jane Hume, Sarah Henderson just sent it ow bagmper Price and Claire Chandler dumped from Shadow cabinet.
Well, of course, that's an extraordinary group of very capable women who I worked very closely with in the last term of government, in many cases before that last term of parliament sorry, and in many cases before that when we were in government as well. And yeah, it was
disappointing not to see them in the cabinet. I am confident they will all play an important role in public life in the coming months and years, and we need more women like them, Shari and I certainly hope and encourage all of them and others to get on with it, because we need women exactly like them.
You'd have them back if you became leader in the future.
I'm not going to speculate on that. My focus is on defense and becoming the Defense minister, that's the goal. But what I would say is there an extraordinary group of very capable women and we need more like them.
Indeed, all right, Angus Taylor, I really appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so much. Don't you wish the actual Defense minister spoke like that? What we hear from miles and is not even the worst of them. Pennywong and Alban Easy,
It's extraordinary. This is our government. Now. Victorian Liberals have launched an eleventh hour legal bid this afternoon to block the one point five to five million dollar loan they lent to former leader John Persuto to pay off his debts to Moridemi, but clearly the movers divided the party.
Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett defended pursuito and the loan, writing in The Australian Today that settling the case quickly was in the party's best interests to resolve and put this matter behind them in order to deliver on their primary function, which is to be an effective opposition. Well, I'd say their primary function is to try and win government. If they can do that, if they can get their act together. Let's bring in tonight's panel WA Liberal leader
Basil Zemplus and Stein New's host Taylor Bond. Welcome to you both. Now, Basil, the legal bill obviously needs to be paid. The question is whether the Liberals should be footing the bill for John Pursuto when it's very unlikely they would have done this if it had been my redeeming's debt.
What do you think possibly, yes, and then I accept that point of view. What we do know is is that more redeeming is owed an amount of money. She should be paid that amount of money in full, as it has been ruled by the courts. What's also then important is that a by election is avoided. That's very
important for the Liberal Party in Victoria. And then, as we've just heard, and as we've heard you phrase it in a slightly different way, the Victorian opposition should get on with its job of holding the Labor government to account and trying to win the next election. They are the three priorities and those three things should happen, and happen as quickly as possible.
I mean, Caleb, every time we think this matter is over, there's another step. Now there's this challenge to the Liberal Party lending of loaning John Persuto the money. What do you think should happen here?
Well, artfully dodged the Abasil, well done, and moving from their journalism to politics, you've fitted in really well set more complicated than the Liberal partner.
I guess cayleb.
Basil can take it, because I'll be feeling for you next week.
I'll give it to it. And I should say that normally Matt canavans here, but he's got a busted tire, he said, a photograph of the tire to prove it. So it's not an execution. We're likely to have Caleb on the desk tonight. That's already.
It's friendly fire, which we enjoy him.
But it's a little more.
Complicated than Jeff Kennett made it sound in his column today in The Australian, because he's essentially saying it should be the same as if you're a minister of the Crown and you come into some legal trouble that would
be covered by the public, of course, the taxpayer. And he's saying that Pursuto was doing his job in the course of his duties as an office bearer in the Liberal Party, and so the Liberal Party should indemnify him, except for the fact that my redeeming offered to settle this matter, and it was Pursuito himself who elected not to settle and to carry this on eventually to court,
So that wasn't a decision of the Liberal Party. If he was being indemnified by the Liberal Party, the party should have been given the option to pay to settle all the way, all the way back then before all of this happened. The reason the Liberal Party is now on the hook for this money. Is because of a decision that John Pursuito made, after decisions he made as an office bearer for the Liberal Party, he put himself
in this position. And I don't see why the members of the Liberal Party should have to stump up money for this loan that no one really quite knows how it's going to work. It's a thirty year loan on commercial interest of about six percent to go and raise money to try and pay it off.
And not just members but donors, people who've worked hard then given their money to try and beat the Alan government and the Andrews government before it. So a lot of questions over this now fineance. Minister Icadi Gallagher admitted on ABC radio this morning that the Albanezy government actually checked the legality of Trump's strikes and Iran's nuclear facilities. Have a listen. Has advice been sought as to whether these military actions are legal under international law?
Look, obviously advice has been sought by you know, I mean in government.
As we're working through some of these issues, we get a whole lot of advice across the government.
Basil it gets worse and worse. Their support was late, it was lackluster, given through gritted tweet teeth twenty four hours after the factor, now we hear they had to check whether it was legal first. This says everything we need to know about this left wing government, doesn't it.
Certainly late and certainly lackluster. Really, it was almost embarrassing. It was as though they were very new parliamentarians having to check with the Media office, what are the talking points before we can go out and endorse this action that had been endorsed of one of our strongest and most steadfast allies, and check that it is okay to say we support what they have done, even though universally the other allies of the United States had done just that.
And it tells you something about the instincts, the political and otherwise instincts of this labor government federally. It was appalling, It was late, it was slow, It was embarrassing.
No, absolutely completely agree, Caleb, I mean surely, I mean this is just absurd. When you can't accept that destroying a nuclear site is the right thing to do straight away, You've got to go get your bureaucrats to look up if it's legal, as I said on your program last week, and I've repeated again on the channel throughout this week.
I feel like the government has holed themselves up in this position where we know where they've stood on the war in Gaza, and so now they've convinced themselves that there is nothing that can possibly done by Israel or anything that's Israel adjacent that could be a good idea, i e. Wiping out nuclear armory in Iran. So they've sort of decided they have to be so ideologically pure on this matter that obviously good things that the rest of the West that isn't bad.
I ran good, Well.
Yes, I know. It is so preposterous, isn't it The fact that they couldn't just come out and say it straight away on Sunday and then to say, oh, well we put out a statement, sir. I mean a government spokesman putting out a statement is not the same as the Prime minister saying, yes, what happened today was good for the world. It seems pretty simple.
No, it does. Indeed. Now I just want to end on this debate about quotas. Now, Basil, you're obviously the liberal leader in way. Susan Lee has said she'd leave it up to the state divisions to decide whether or not they should have quotas to get more women into politics. I mean, you'd probably just like more of any Liberals to join to get into parliament, doesn't matter their gender. But nonetheless, what do you think about quotas?
Well, only seventeen of us here in the West Australian Parliament after the most recent state election back in March. But of those seventeen only for women. And the facts are the facts, that is not enough women and the Parliament of Western Australia, the Liberal Party that I lead, does not have enough women. We have not appealed to women enough in the community. And also you could say
the same thing about our appeal to younger voters. Now I understand, as has been said by Simon Birmingham and others, that quotas are unliberal like. However, sometimes you're going to need a circuit breaker to get those numbers advanced. So whether it is quotas or some other drastic measures to move things along to get us to a point of close to or better towards equilibrium, everything should be on
the table. And that's my position, everything whatever it is that gets us there, because we need to represent the community that we seek to serve with the same numbers that are in that community, in the makeup of that community.
Really interesting because you know, if we have this debate about quotas, probably the official Liberal party position would be that there aren't quotas, and yet in reality there have been we know it, many of the Liberal preselections before the last federal election, Caleb, they weren't pre selecting men. A lot of the seat said no, we need a woman, we need a woman to run against a teal. So in effect, there is a quota system.
Yeah, and I suppose there always has been in some way or another on various different factors. But the point should not be we need a woman. It should be primarily we need the best person for the job. But if you want to get more women into politics, as Basil points out, the party's probably not done enough to appeal to women. So saying oh, we'll have a quota, it doesn't fix that problem. It simply shoehorns people into positions so you can make it look like you fix
the problem. You haven't fixed the problem. If the root issue is you haven't appealed to women enough, we'll fix that issue. Start getting on the phone to competent, capable, higher ranking women in this country that we would like to see in politics, and saying I want you to come and run for pre selection because you can't tell me that the pre selectors of the Liberal Party, the members of the Liberal Party are opposed to having women as candidates. They're not.
They just have to be the best.
People for the job. If you can get good women to run, you'll get good women in parliament.
And there was actually probably I don't have the exact figures to hand, but there were a lot of women who were running for the Liberal Party. They just voters didn't vote them in, I mean, and it was an agenda thing. Voters didn't vote many Liberals in it all. So there lies the problem. Calebon, Basil Zamplers and Basil, you better watch out next Thursday, because Caleb's filling in for me next week.
I will, I will say out.
I was going to say, I can't get Mat Canavan back here quickly enough tonight, will.
I will say, having been the bad copy, it will be the good cop and say I love your tie.
To I love your tithes. Well, I never noticed men's ties, and I've been looking at yours. It is excellent. It even looks like there's some Greek letters in that alphabet. Is that is that true?
Spot on?
Well done, cherry.
It is the Greek alphabet who, of course said the Greek said the home of democracy. So how appropriate, right, I've.
Just come out of parliament.
There you go, all right, basil zembliskated bone. Great to see you. All right, Still to come the landmark court case where a council worker one after being sacked for refusing to say the welcome to country. I'll get into that and more with the Daily Telegraphs James Willis. Plus what the latest intelligence says about whether Iran's nuclear sites were in fact destroyed. That's next welcome back. Well, there's intense debate about the level of damage done to Iran's
nuclear program. The CIA today says it does have credible intelligence that the nuclear program was severely damaged by the bombs, and CIA director John Ratcliffe said their report includes new intel from a historically reliable and accurate source method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years. To discuss joining me now as senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, John Lee, John, great to see you again.
Good evening.
Now you what's your assessment of this intelligence? We've obviously seen conflicting reports. The Defense Intelligence Agency had a leaked report with an anti Trump journalist who said that the sites were just damaged. Where do you think the truth lies?
Well, the fact is we don't know. A lot of it will come from satellite photos, some of it will come from signals, intelligence chatter in terms of what Iranians are saying, and some of it will come from sources on the ground that are informants. But until the inspectors go in and actually have a look, we won't really know for sure. So I think intelligence speak, you can say it's credible, but you wouldn't say it's high confidence.
And the second thing I'd say is that we still have to find out what happened to the plutonium, this highly enriched sixty percent plutonium, because even if you destroyed those facilities, the second part of it is what has happened to that four hundred kilograms of plutonium?
And when some officials have been asked about this, and I know Rubio and others have made the point, I think the ambassador as well. My Kakibir has made the point that the conversion facilities were destroyed, So even if that survived, and we don't know if it has, but the conversion facilities have been destroyed, so there's nothing that could be done with it. Is that accurate?
Well, I mean technically it's accurate, but we need to confirm the conversion facilities were destroyed. But the second element is are there external players who may assist the Iranians in making use of this plutonium? So the point story remains that we can't really feel fully secure that Iran won't you foreseeable future, have access to a nuclear device, even a crude one, until we know where that plutonium is.
It's interesting that defense intelligence report from CNN and the Washington Post that went global yesterday was actually a low level assessment from one particular in an agency that was inconclusive, and it looks like it was misquoted in the report. The journalist who published it is young, but has been behind a lot of other anti Trump stories throughout her career as well, So this looks like anti Trump stories that were later proven to be wrong, I should say,
like Russia Gate. So this looks like it was a part as an attack.
Unfortunately, in the American media environment now you have to look at the media outlet to make a judgment, to make a judgment about how reliable or what the motivation might be. Unfortunately, I've spent all the time in the United States. Unfortunately outlets like CNN President Trump is actually correct. Outlets like seen in New York Times, perhaps even a Washington Post, once very credible August outlets, are now very politicized.
So when I see a supposed leak that early coming just to these outlets, I was immediately quite suspicious.
Yeah, and then you look at the journalist to her history, and it makes human more suspicious. I mean, we need to know the truth. The world needs to know the truth whether those sites were completely obliterated or how much damage was done. So hopefully we will get that in the passage of time.
Yeah.
And look, the reason why all these matters is because the Uranians have been smashed, but their capacity has been smashed. The intent hasn't changed. They still want a nuclear weapon, they still want to threaten Israel, they still want to threaten the Arab neighbors, and they still want a hegemony over the Middle East, so until we can be absolutely
clear they cannot get a nuclear weapon. I personally don't think President Trump should relax sanctions against Uranians or he should use that as something to force the Uranians to allow inspectors to clarify what has actually happened.
Yeah, that access to the IAEA. Do you agree that this has been a very triumphant period for the president? I mean the successful strikes on Iran, this agreement at NATO today historic, the five percent on both of those matters. No other president was able to achieve this despite their stated desire.
Look, that's correct. I know a lot of people say that the NATO General Secretary scene rather fawning or President Trump, but he was actually correct. President Trump has achieved what other presidents said they wanted to do, that is to raise NATO defense spending in Europe, but failed to do so. On the Iran issue, Trump took risk, There is no doubt about that.
Look.
I would actually like to give far more credit to the Israelis than Trump likes to do. They cleared the way for Trump to do that. But nevertheless, there are many presidents who I don't think would have done what Trump did in terms of taking out the facilities or using those bombs. When you take risk, it's high risk, it's high reward.
Just very quickly, we're out of time, but you do spend a lot of time in Washington. You're at the Hudson Institute, which is US based. Is the alban Ezy government increasingly irrelevant?
It hasn't been raised. And the anytime, YEO, when the easy government is raised is in a defense spending issue, which you've spoken about previously in your programs. The point is Australia is not raised as a can do nation right now. Australia is raised as a laggard. And the question I generally get to the extent that Albanezi government and Australias raises, what is actually going on in your country?
Yeah? Indeed, what is going on in our country? Can someone answer that? John Lee, thank you very much for your time. Thank you now still to come around, Supreme Leader. Just as we've been on air, he's broken his silence after a week in hiding. Will tell you what he said. Plus Donald Trump's new nickname and the Welcome to Country debate. James Willis would join me on the desk to discuss
all of that and more after this quick break. All right, plenty more news today, so let's get straight into it with the Daily Telegraphs James Willis, James, great to see you again.
Hello.
Now, this is a big story. This Melbourne street sweeper has won his unfair dismissal case after a notoriously left wing council fired him when he objected to saying the welcome to country before a weekly toolbox meeting. Now, James, this is going to raise interesting dilemmas for politically correct organizations. You know, can they order someone to say the welcome to country according to this ruling?
No?
Absolutely, And the first thing on the unfair dismissal decision, Sorry shery, early knock one.
As they said in Regularlygue.
There's a story that's come out in the last half an hour that the council claimed that this worker had done his online training modules, including the racism one, but it turns out his boss had done them for them. He was playing golf at the time, and the council tried to argue in this case that he had done the racism module and the other workplace modules, they were completed by his boss, who was sick of getting the
illerse case. No, the same case. This is the same case, so exactly yes, and he was basically the council tried to argue that he knew about the racism training and everything else, complete fabrication. It is one of the worst
unfair dismissial cases we've seen. But it's another example of what we've seen with Welcome to Country, which is when it's done well, when it's done at the appropriate occasion, it can be a fantastic part of an event, and I think sporting events would be one key example of that. But when you've got workplaces that have ten workers in the room, I hear stories all the time about zoom meetings where someone does an acknowledgment of country before they start.
People are so frozen about what to do now that they just feel like they should do it anyway. And ultimately, we're not improving the lives of Indigenous people. We're not closing the gap. People think it's a box ticking exercise, and there are people starting to get fed up with it, which is what this worker did. He stood up for himself. He got sacked about what he knew about workplace training, and there's now grounds for him to be returned to
his job, and that's what he wants. Remarkably, he wants to go back to.
The council exactly. But I think it should be a reflection on councils more generally. They're getting into all this ideology, even foreign policy councils. Just take away the rubbish, clean the streets, do your job and stop with all the ideology. It's just not their job.
Why do they have to be passing votes on the Middle East and standing out for Gaza and all that sort of stuff them in for God's sakes, while raising rates at the same time.
It's just insulting not paying them for that. Now, James, you've written a concerning piece about the ad of control black market and you've done an interview with a global tobacco executive who said that Australia is alongside the South Africa and Malaysia as having the highest illicit market in the world.
Yeah.
Yeah, Is this a direct result of the Albanese government's tax policy?
Well, it is firstly, but it's the result of the tax policy that goes back probably fifteen years in this country, where the exercise is been allowed to just spiral, reaching a high of sixteen billion dollars for tax pays in twenty nineteen twenty twenty now literally less than half of that.
Look, it was a.
Tricky interview to do because people go, why would you interview someone from big tobacco. We know that product unequivocally does kill people. But when you have a black market that is estimated to be more than half of the Australian cigarettes and vapes that are sold across this country, well, it's better in my view to be talking to the devil that you know, rather than the illicit market, which
is the criminal gangs. And so basically we're in a situation now where yes, the exercise is too high, it's tanked, it's not earning the money it should for tax pays. But also it's the local enforcement and by the day, there is a growing argument here Sharry for the police to be getting involved in this. I'm not saying load the police up, but it's that day to day compliance. In the same way we saw with tattoo parlors, we
see with firearms. There's certain things that police can check licenses and there's an argument to say that should happen here as well.
Well.
And we know that the new Southernwised Premier Chris Mins has been very vocal on this, calling for the federal government to make changes as well, which they're refusing to do. Now, just finally, I want to come back to the topic of the week. It's been. You know, Donald Trump has dominated the news agenda every day this week. There was first the strikes in Iran, then he was swearing at
Israel and Iran. Now at NATO. It's not so much the five percent of GDP, although I've covered that heavily tonight, but the fact that the NATO Secretary General described him as daddy. That's had the whole world talking. I mean, Donald Trump is in the prime of his presidency at the moment, it's before the midterms. He seems to be taking it all in his stride. He's doing quite well.
Yeah, I think some people need to pull their heads in with their criticism of Donald Trump. It's blind hatred and it's driven by things that he said previously, things that he's done, and if they're going to continue like that for the next three years, going to look very very silly. Look, that comment in isolation is a bit unfortunate, but you would have seen the whole clip the daddy King, but you know correct, and Donald Trump had said two kids that were fighting, and then he said it as
a result. But all the left wing meetia is focusing on the daddy Trump as kind of him being the sort of.
Boss, which is ridiculous. Look, what he has.
Achieved in a short space of time is incredible, and I think these live updates are so unique, the way that he's sort of discussing what's happening with military and with his action on these things. But look, I think it's very, very silly to mock him and to say that he's not up to this job. What he can achieve in this space would be completely beyond what Joe Biden was capable of doing.
A lot of these leaders.
They need someone tough to stand up to them, to stand up and say I'm the boss, and he's done that in spade so far.
Well, that's true. I mean, the diplomacy style is highly unorthodox, and it's sometimes uncomfortable to watch when you know, when he criticized Israel just after joining them in this formidable partnership, and then the next day he goes back and says he's proud of them. The swearing the live commentary on truth, social calling reporters scum that kind of language, even if they are, you know, objectionable or publishing things out of context. You know, it is so difficult for the president of
the free world. But as you say, what he's actually achieved here, the five percent commitment from NATO countries. You know Obama would have loved to achieve that, Joe Biden would have loved to achieve that. None of them could get that serious defense commitment. And when you look at the world at the moment and the precarious situation wherein how emboldened the so called access of evil is. You know, we need that sort of commitment to defense. We're not getting it from our government.
And I'm loving by the way the press conferences midair on Air Force One. I think they are hilarious when he's sort of talking through the shutter and taking a few questions and then going away. But look, he is the complete opposite of every president, every politician we've most probably ever seen.
It's refreshing.
And the problem is this hatred of him blurs people's opinions. But what he will be able to do in this space in terms of national security and world safety will be significant, I think in the next three years and.
Already has all right, James Will, it's great to see you, good to see you. All right, coming up around, Supreme Leader breaks his silence. That's after the break. Welcome back, and let's bring in now international human rights lawyer Arson Ostrovsky Arson. The Supreme Leader Ali Kamani has not been heard from for nearly two weeks, and then just in the past hour he's uploaded a series of social media posts. What's he saying?
Well, thank you chef for having me on. Look, it's been two weeks since we heard from Iatola has been missing an action much like the Iran's nuclear weapon sites. And he took him two weeks. Say something now, and he proceeded with a tire rate about how how the Iranian regime delta crushing defeat to the zionistentity and that it was a glorious victory. That, of course, is utterly delusional.
It perhaps symbolic of someone who may himself have had a concussion during the during the blows in the last two weeks. The reality is that Iran under his leadership suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Israel. And with the support crucial support of the United States, the nuclear sites were obliterated. As the White House themselves said just the other day, Israel had total control of the
Iranian airspace. The Runian military chiefs of staff leadership were taken out at will, one by one, and even the Iranian terror proxy's masses bullers, I mean, you had the hooties. They all failed to come to the Ruanian regime's rescue, which was really quite and embarrassing for the Iola. At the end of the day, this was no crushing defeat at all for Israel. On the contrary, this was a devastating victory for Israel, for the free world, for the Nates.
That really just exposed that Iran as the paper tiger that it really is.
Indeed, and of course he's always going to present this to the Iranians, and many of them don't have independent media. And now President Trump stepped in to defend his lady Prime Minister Benjamin Nettanna, who in a glowing social media post this morning, and he described Nadiya, who is a warrior like perhaps no other warrior in the history of Israel arsen why did he need to do this?
Look, that's a good question. The President and Promise and Sienna, who enjoy a very close relationship and they have for many years, that's no secret. And the President has been very happy with Israel's conduct and the Prime Minister's conduct throughout this campaign, and we saw that obviously with America's
entry with the B two bombers as well. And I think despite some colorful language perhaps one way to express it by the President a few days ago, he's really been consistent his support for his role for the Prime minister. And again just yesterday at the NATO meeting in Europe. Why he said what he said here, that's a good question.
The President is not short of a legal drumons perhaps is looking at do a favor for as a friend, but I don't know if it'll make any your knows already support the Prime minis right.
Got to go Aarsen. Great to see you as always, Thank you so much. Now I'm off next week on holidays. Let's hope World War three does an unfold and I shouldn't joke about that, but I'll see you the week after. Just off next week, back the week after. Here's Paul Murray