Why on Sky News.
This is Sharry Well said Andrew and good evening, Welcome to the show tonight. Iran's catastrophic threat as Israel prepares a ground invasion. Full details tonight of where this war is heading. Meanwhile, Pennywong gives another lecture to Israel. More on that in a moment Also tonight, Anthony Albanez he tries to clean up his negative gearing mess, but he's only made things worse, refusing to rule out changes and hitting out at journalists again. Plus, debate around Labour's Misinformation
Bill is heating up as censorship concerns grow. Claire Lehman will join me shortly, and the Left can't help but dehumanize Donald Trump as it's revealed Iran is plotting to kill the former president. Those details later when we cross live to Adam Crichton in Washington, But first tonight, Iran threatens Israel, warning of catastrophic consequences if the IDF continues to target Hesbelah, but Israel is making it clear that
it is preparing for a ground invasion. This comes as the US and France develop a plan for an immediate twenty one day truce between Israel and Hesbelah. And here was Joe Biden during an appearance on ABC's The View, and.
All our war is possible.
But I think there's also the opportunity we're still in play to have a settlement that could fundamentally change the whole region.
And Penny Wong once again seems to shrug her shoulders at the constant threat of terrorism by urging Israel to have a cease fire to stop.
We condemn Hisbelah's continue to text on Israel what I'll do so again, Lebanese civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Isbellah. The global community has made clear that this destructive cycle must stop. What has happened in recent days only makes an immediate cease fire in Gaza even more urgent. You would have heard me say this before, and I say it again. Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza.
You could be forgiven for wondering if Penniwog was the Foreign Minister for the Middle East, given how much time she spends speaking about and lecturing Israel, and just hours ago she revealed that she'd met with the Prime Minister for Palestine. And I say that with inverted comments at the same time as Israel is under siege from terrorist groups on the north and the south. Well, Penniwog is worried about Palestinian self determination.
This is what she tweeted.
She said, I spoke with the Palestine PMO about our commitment to advancing the Palestinian people's legitimate aspiration to self determination. Australia is pressing for a ceasefire, urgent humanitarian access, release
of hostages and prevention of regional escalation. And as you can see in that photograph, the Australian and Palestinian flag side by side on the table that meeting, just a week after the Palestinians put forward their one sided hostile resolution that never mentioned Hamas, didn't mention the hostages, and didn't mention October seven, and instead called for boycotts of Israel and that it pay reparations. Well, I'd like to see Pennywong spend more time demanding the return of the hostages,
especially baby Kafir and his brother Ariel. Did she raise them with the Palestinian Prime Minister? Did she raise them at the United Nations? This is a very different approach from the Coalition, which has showed immense understanding of what Israel has been dealing with.
The fact that people wouldn't be standing with Israel and would be equivocating or somehow giving comfort in their language to the Iranians is beyond anyone's comprehension.
Israel has been under attack from Hesbelah for many months, hundreds of rockets being launched, thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes, and Israel, as every nation, has a right to self defense.
Penniwong needs to realize that the threat posed by radical Islamic terror groups is to the West, including Australia, not just to Israel. Iran's fight is against the West and the United States, and Israel is the first step, and Iran is now threatening involvement of Israel continues to pursue Hesbelah. Iran is a powerful, well funded animal. It's working increasingly closely with China, Russia and North Korea to destabilize the region and provoke war. The Iranian weapon capability has grown
in recent years, particularly during the Biden administration. Iran has supplied lethal precision guided missiles to Hesbela and the Ayatolas have fast tracked their weapons program to the point that They've also been arming Russia against Ukraine, and just this week, Reuter's reports that Iran is helping arm the Houthy rebels with advanced missiles called P eight hundred ONYX from Russia and this they're doing this to help the terror group
target commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Hermas's weaponry is quite frankly primitive compared to the Iranian supply to Hesbela, and we hope that Israel has managed to destroy some of those weapons over the past week.
Now.
There's no question that if Iran does step in to help Hezbalah and attack Israel, the United States will be right behind Israel. And even Kamala Harris made this clear in her debate against Trump that she would never withhold weapons in a war with Iran. Yet we're seeing the Democrats push hard for a ceasefire, which would be convenient for them ahead of the US election. They want to be able to say they've broke it a peace deal.
But the Wall Street Journal editorial today makes the critical point that the United States has responded to the terrorism in the Red Sea with the equivalent of strongly worded letters, small missile strikes that do no lasting damage to the Hooties' capabilities. The Wall Street Journal editorial says the administration feared a
more falseful response would lead to a regional war. The irony is that US passivity has now led to a growing regional conflict, and the Wall Street Journal editorials view is that Joe Biden's foreign policy legacy is the disorder.
We're seeing right now.
In my view, Israel seems to be the only country with serious strength left globally. It's why it's genius and bolshy. Pager attack was breathtaking and awe inspiring. The days of American forces enjoying political support to hunt down terrorists seem a distant memory.
Now.
The political focus of the left is to let the terrorists live to have a ceasefire, rather than to track down and kill each one that murdered civilians and took children and babies hostage, hostages who still haven't been able to return to their beds, their homes, or their loved ones.
It's disgraceful that the pressure once again is on Israel to stand down being bombarded with eight thousand missiles, despite seventy thousand Israelis having to flee their homes in the North and despite twelve innocent children being murdered in a Hesbela strike, the grief and the agony is tangible, and we saw that last night in my interview with the heartbreaking mother of little Elma who was killed in that
Hesbela strike at the Majdal Shams. As former Labor Minister Mike Kelly said on my program this week, every country has the obligation to protect its own citizens from acts of war beyond their borders. Acts of war beyond their borders, he said, this was an obligation, and Israel is fulfilling its duty to keep its citizens safe under international law.
Can you imagine Australia doing nothing if two hundred and fifty ossies were taken hostage, if more than one thy two hundred were killed and twelve children were murdered while they were playing soccer. The Israeli Ambassador to Australia, Emir Maimon, wrote today that there is still a diplomatic pathway to regional stability, but that the international community needs to step up.
He says the international community should delegate Iran's Revolutionary Guard CORE a terror group and increase sanctions on Iran, targeting the Ayatola's regime and their financial, military and terror networks. He says this would cripple their ability to finance HESBLA, But he also argues that the UN Security Council should enforce its own resolution which mandates that Hesbela has to stay north of the Latani River, and this would prevent
its attacks on Israel. At the moment, it is virtually militarized the area north of the border with Israel, and the u WN has done nothing. Emir Maymond points out that Israel stands at the forefront of this battle, defending not just its citizens, but the security and values of the free world, and this is a point that Pettiwong seems to forget as she continues to demand that Israel lay down its arms. Now another big show tonight, Economist Judith Sloan will join me live in the studio to
talk about the Prime Minister's negative gearing debacle. Michael Downby will also be on the show. He's going to speak about the international community and their weakness in the face of Iran and Hezblah. All of that coming up will also go live to Washington. But first let's get to today's top stories with commentator Jason Morrison and Sky News contributor Gary Hargrave.
Welcome to you both. Great to see you.
Jason, get your reaction first to Penny Wog and Joe Biden's weakness here, you.
Know, well two different degrees of weakness. I mean, Penny Wong is all words. Joe Biden needs to be more than words. But Penny Wog has a failure to connect the problems that Israel is having to the problems that we could face with.
Radical Islam in our country.
And this is, I think, consistently a problem. We sort of pretend it's over there somewhere, you know, we're bringing it here, and there is already a problem with radical Islam in Australia. And as long as we continue to kind of think it's everyone else's fault, there'll never be an addressing of the actual issue. That's what she would prefer to pray on, because it's an easier hit to target Israel because the world is right now. Anyone who wants to have a go is having a go at Israel.
Israel will do what it needs to do to defend its people. It's doing what it needs to do to defead its people, and it should be encouraged to do so by nations like ours. Instead, we have this confused buck each way position, which really is just a confused reality of what Australia faces. Australia has similar problems, we just don't see them like this now. And I don't know why she can't see that there is a real consistency with the two issues.
You think back to the wake of September eleven, Gary, and no one ever suggested that the United States shouldn't go try hunt down Osama bin Laden. But yet there seems to be this confusion now between which side is right and which side is wrong.
Chari first, just congratulations on that fantastic editorial. I wish I had my name at the end of that marvelous contribution you just made. No, seriously, you've nailed it. You see, Iran is all cashed up for a reason. Joe Biden gave him the money, gave him access to all the oil deposits, and they have been able to fund this
sort of dreadful stuff. And equally, the entire Arab world was on track to actually recognize the right of Israel to exist and Saudi Arabia we're ready to sign on as well, and when the Saudis do it, a whole lot of other people do too, and that they wanted. They got concerned about Palestina. I don't for the life we understand how a two state solution works, frankly, but anyway, Nevertheless, hamask good have.
A terror regime in control.
It could work, but not exactly a mask exact lasa, and you got the triple h of a hatred.
The hood is the Hesbalah and Hamas. They did not want that to happen. They did not want any Arab world legitimacy for Israel to happen. They didn't want an outbreak of peace, so they decided to go in murder people, steal babies and all of those awful things that we should never forget. On the seventh of October last year, almost a year ago. They did this deliberately to create
the mess that's currently happening. So everybody who has died, civilian or military is on the back of those three organizations, and it's awful. No one wants more, No one wants this. But you know, unless Israel now follows on from that marvelous or inspiring beeper and walkie talkie attack the other week, while Hezbela is completely weak. They're completely disoriented, and what have we got the left internationally, Penny Wong is part of the international left. Don't kid yourself. She is an
international leftist. And her whole attitude is, yeah, look, let's just weaken Israel. You know, let's just make it easy for the left in America who started this by giving legitimacy back to Iran when Trump had them on their financial knees. And I just think that don't think the world should forget that the left internationally are trying to ruin the West. These terrorist organizations are the spear throwers and Israel. You are right, Israel is the country with
the coherency standing consistently in favor of Western civilization. This is a really serious thing, to Jason's point, serious for US and countries life.
Indeed very well, said Gary, that was brilliant, And it's just the right point that they can.
Separate things in their heads. How Penny one can separate these issues and almost forget like I write it off as history, that it happens so long ago, the October seventh thing.
That's a separate chapter.
I mean to many people to many people. They're reliving that day over and over again. The hostages still aren't home. You know, baby Kafa was only nine months when he was taken. He had his first birthday there. We don't know if he's alive or not. We just pray he is, but you know.
Little kids still held hostage.
How that isn't what world leaders are demanding at the United Nations rather than putting pressure on Israel is beyond me. Now let's turn to and we're going to come back to this topic with Michael Downby.
A bit later.
But let's talk now about the Prime Minister, because Anthony Albinizi is clearly under pressure. He's getting snappy during interviews. He struggles to answer basic see questions. Just have a look at his performance with Pete Stefanovic this morning.
Well, we have no plans to touch it or change negative gearing. What we did with our income tax changes was to deliver a tax cup for every Australia.
Live doing you live, you would doing that, guess what, Pete?
Well, well if I did so, pleady Dutton because they voted for it.
We'll play a bit more of that on the show later. But Jason, look this clearly isn't a good look. And you know, the Albinezi government must be keeping negative gearing changes on the table because the PM couldn't say in any interviews today and he did a sweep of them, he couldn't categorically say that they're not going to touch.
It, because categorically they don't want to not touch it. They want to have a go at it. They want people to think they're interested in having you at it because you know, I work with a bunch of younger people and when they heard that, they went, oh, that's good, because that's the that's the kind of view that you have when you think that everyone else is getting something that you're not. And that's what he wants to give off. He wants that vibe out there that he gets them,
he understands it. So it's once again, it's buck each way albow, just like Penny Wong, were going to confuse the messages out there. But why did he sharp talking to Peter Stefanovick. I think this is interesting. I mean, this underniably is the opinion end of the day at Sky News, that's the news end of the day, So he would have been expecting a bit of ping pong, because that's what he gets when he goes on the morning news programs and it's pretty much a comfortable run.
And every now and then you get picked up by someone on Sunrise, or you might get a curly one from someone of the ABC, but you're not expecting that. And I think, you know, what is it Grahame Richardson's line when when people work you out, they work you out. And a lot of people have worked him out. And the Peter Stefanovick interview yesterday showed me this morning, showed me that he's worked him out. And the reaction since from so many viewers is they've worked him out too.
I wonder, I wonder if he'll go on Peter interview.
But Gary, how do you think this is going to translate to voters? And they're just going to get the message that this might be another broken promise, won't they?
Yeah?
And it's also and Shari, it's also the thin eaves of the weds. There's four trillion dollars worth of money sitting with baby boomers that is going to translate to the next generation. It's a generational wealth is going to transfer. Treasury wants a slice of it, so negative gearing capital gains tax, that's just the thin edge of a wedge towards inheritance tax, towards death duties and all these things.
Albo has a set piece move in mind about housing. Yeah, to Jason's point, he just wants to sound like a good bloke. But in the end, all of these attempts by government to take money out of your pocket or your parents' pocket or whatever else so that the government gets a share of it is going to rob us of an opportunity to make personal wealth ourselves. He's trying to kill off the idea that people can make a difference in their own lives, that government is the only
way to go. That's basically what this is. This bloke I reckon more than the warmth of the handshake from Joe Biden transferred to elbow during his trip to America, and he's picked up a few Carmela Harris traits. What they're calling now in America they're calling drunken Hallmark, you know, like sort of all over the place, platitudinal rubbish. And this is not a good prime minister. And this is a very bad look from a bad prime minister. He doesn't understand detail. That's the other problem.
Yeah, clapping at the screen soon, No.
You're on fire tonight, Gary, But it's true he's not across the detail.
Now.
Peter Dutton has weighed into concerns today around Mark Scott's leadership or lack of it at the University of Sydney, and Darton says that Mark Scott should stand aside after that set an inquiry where he admitted that he'd failed Jewish staff and students.
Well, he was Dutton with Ray Hadley earlier.
I think both then Scott and David thirty should resign. If the head any shred of tegrity.
They would have resigned by now.
Both men were aware of a situation, even though they might deny it, and I don't think their positions are tenable.
I mean Jason again, this is strength from Peter Dutton, but he is saying the obvious. Mark Scott, as vice chancellor at the University of Sydney has comprehensively failed in that role to protect students from racism aggression.
Mark Scott has a reasonable man, by the way, at a person level, is a reasonable man. However, he has spent a career in probably the last fifteen to twenty years dodging everything, dodging whatever comes his way. He's very good at it. And anything that's controversial, be in his education role, be it. For that matter, when he worked at the ABC and had a leadership role there, he had an ability to dodge the hard ones that were coming his way. And this will be another. Now you
asked the question, should he go? It is remarkable that he hasn't, and more so that the ABA, that the GOSP nearly blame them for this one, that the universe, his board hasn't kind of said, mate, you've let down the staff. I mean, bug at the students for a second. You've let down the staff and you've got a legal obligation to the staff. He knows that, he knows he's roasting right now. But you watch him because he's very very good at that. He is a great dodger of bullets.
He's one of the great Sydney characters who's never actually had one firmly hit him. And you know this one.
Should metaphorically metaphorically of course, Yeah, yeah, all of that, Gary, what do you reckon?
Well, you know, part of a generation of leaders who don't know how to lead. They want to look for someone else to blame, and that's not the hallmark of a good leader. You actually do have to take responsibility. The buck ends somewhere near you, and that really is what he's failed to do here. He should go if he had any decency in honor. And I don't know about his character or anything, but seriously, from sinecure to sinecure to sinecure, this bloke needs to understand the real
word world doesn't operate like that. You make a muck up like this, You've got to take responsibility. Bye bye, Mark.
Yeah, agreed, Ran.
But it's a long time since he's worked in the real world A long time. Yeah, another to another to another. You know, you start to get a warp view of perspective after a while.
Yeah, all right, Jason Morris and Gary Hargrave, thank you both very much for your time. Now, Claire Lehman is coming up on the show to speak about misinformation in just a moment. But now let's return to the top story this week around warning of catastrophic consequences, Israel preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon, and joining mid Our live from Melbourne is former labor minista from a chair of a committee, I should say, Michael Dwanby Michael, thank
you very much for your time. Look, let's start with the international community approach here to call for a cease fire rather than supporting the elimination of the terror threat.
What do you think of this approach?
It's about time they enforced you and Resolution Resolutions seventeen oh one, which promised during the last conflict in two thousand and six that the murderous militia Hasvela would be withdrawn thirty kilometers from the Israeli border to the Litani River. That'd be a better beginning than calling for Israel to stand down after it's been forced into a military conflict with this Iranian proxy has blah, So very nice for Penny Wong and Joe Biden to wrap it on about
immediate ceasefires for twenty one days. Where were they during the last eleven and a half months as the Iranian proxy lobbed missiles into northern Israel, depopulating it and forcing the border twenty or thirty kilometers south. Why doesn't Joe Biden, instead of talking this rubbish, enforce the congressionally mandated oil sanctions against Iran, which is paying for all of this,
selling cheap Iranian oil to China. Over the last three years of the Biden administration has financed and funded Hezbollah puties and Amas. You don't have to go to war, you don't have to call for cease fires. You don't have to enforce one rule on the Israelis. You have to enforce your own congressional legislation. Joe Biden and I cannot understand how America lets the sewers canal to be blocked Israeli cities to receive missiles from these Uranian proxies,
and then calls for cease fires. Israelis have to stand down and let Hezbollai. It's rubbish.
Yeah.
Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal put it so well today, the US weakness is in part what's led to our enemies becoming so emboldened. But Michael, you've spent a lot of time in Ukraine as well, since the war there began with.
Russia, We're seeing this is quite linked here.
We're seeing the emerging access of evil Iran, China, Russia, North Korea. We are not so much in this sense, but supplying weapons, supporting each other in these wars, and I think it's something that not everyone has grasped that there is this support of weaponry between Iran and Russia.
I wish candidate Trump saw things as clearly as you do Shari. Of course, there's this actus. The Iranians are providing these Shahi drones which are murdering innocent Ukrainian people all over that vast country of Ukraine, and the Iranians, Russia and China, together with North Korea are all working hand in glove. But we had a catastrophic mistake from Zelenski today during the election to go to Pennsylvania and
visit an ammunition factory, which are really upset Trump. And Trump has virtually said that he will defund Ukraine if he's elected. So not good days for those of us who believe in the United democracies, a united free world. The United States working with NATO, and for Penny Wong and Biden to go rabbiting on against the only country that's fighting its excess of evil, Israel, is just completely
counterproductive to our collective interest. It's not just an issue of Israel, and I think, as Gary Hargrave said, it's an issue that affects all of US, as Bob Hook said, if Israel fools, the whole of Western civilization falls.
Yeah.
Indeed, the toll bell, the bell toll for mankind. I think he said, Michael downb thank you very much for your time, and completely agree with your point. By the way, about Donald Trump, those comments today and Ukraine were horrifying, quite frankly, I mean, why isn't he standing there calling out Putin?
Why is he putting all the pressure on Zelenski?
Who it's a victory for Tucker Carlson. Unfortunately, as isolationist group seems to have influenced his brain.
It's terrifying. You don't know who's in his ear.
But we need the Republicans, who are very strong in national security to talk some sense into him. Because the fact that Donald Trump stood up there today and put the pressure on Zelensky, whose country is under siege, who's been heroic in leading his people in holding off Russia, and he's done.
Such a good job.
A lot of people thought Russia would be able to just sweep in and take over, and they haven't. Putin hasn't been able to do that, be.
Laying down their lives, and all we're doing is providing them with the ammunition. Well, Adam, government isn't even giving them weapons that we've got ear for spare.
Well out of time.
But I, like you, I despair at the leadership around the world, including in Australia. Right now, all right, let's turn to Labour's Misinformation Bill, because there are serious concerns that the Albanezi government's legislation will threaten free speech. Now, Australia's former Chief Medical Officer, doctor Nick Coatsworth, is the latest hype profile figure to slam the government's and he says it should be rejected in its entirety.
He warns that it.
Would censor serious health discussion, like what happened during the pandemic when legitimate debate around COVID was branded misinformation. Let's bring in now Quillette founding editor Claire Lehman.
Claire, great to see you. Now.
You've written multiple brilliant articles on this topic. You're saying that this legislation would seek to control public discourse.
What do you think of the main issues?
The main issues? Shariah that the term misinformation is often used to silence unpopular opinions, and anyone who's who's writing a bill trying to outlaw misinformation or require social media companies to outlaw misinformation, is massively underestimating how difficult it is to arrive at the truth. You know, we know that truth exists, it is out there, and we would all like there to be fewer lies in the world.
But it's incredibly difficult to arrive at the truth. And we all have differing opinions, and that's why we have the courts. That's why we have enterprises such as science, which are quite adversarial, by the way, so we can
arrive at the truth. Now, imagining that some paper pushes, some bureaucrats sitting in an office can somehow miraculously be the world experts on every single subject you know, known to man, and they can determine what is the truth and what is the misinformation on absolutely everything is bonkers.
But this is essentially what the bill is proposing. It's proposing that social media companies basically enforce a code of conduct and you know, sensor misinformation if it caused, if it threatens to cause serio is harm to public health, the Australian economy, electoral processes, referendums and so on. I mean, just take the voice referendum for exam. Good example, the proponents of the Voice who lost the referendum will tell
you that they lost because of misinformation. I mean they might say that was one cause of many, but they still will argue that misinformation was an important factor. Now you know, that's an opinion, and many people had differing opinions.
So Claire, by the way, we saw the Prime Minister stand up in Parliament and say that the No campaigners were spreading misinformation. So if this is what the Prime Minister is saying, misinformation, and he's then introducing a misinformation bill, well there is legitimate reason to be concerned that misinformation could be used for political purposes.
Do you think this is a risk.
Absolutely, it's a huge risk. I mean Chris Bowen, the Energy Minister, already describes the coalition's policies and many of the statements put forward by experts, and you know experts like nuclear engineers as disinformation, not even misinformation, but actually disinformation. I mean, the whole thing is ironic because I was looking on Twitter now x at a tweet where Chris
Bowen was describing Peter Dutton's nuclear policy as disinformation. But Chris Bowen's post itself was flagged with a notice but Twitter saying that it was misleading and deceptive itself. So you know, we've got the people who are often using the term misinformation are purveyors of misinformation themselves. And I'm really quite surprised this bill has got gained traction at all.
I mean, it takes just, you know, twenty minutes of critical thinking, maybe two minutes of critical thinking to pull it apart and realize how impossible it will be to actually enforce it. And then if we do try and enforce it, we'll be living in a totalitarian state.
Indeed.
And the objection is, the objections to this legislation come from both sides, right and left, and it's perplexing that the government is persisting with it given there is no one who is actually supporting it. But it's another sign it's just a piece of woke legislation basically.
Clearly.
Even your commentary as well as you're writing, is simply brilliant.
I appreciate you joining us tonight. Thanks for having me. Sherry now still to come on the show.
The ABC back in the Headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Chair Kim Williams gave a.
Speech last night about fake news, but didn't manage to mention the Doctor Audio saga plus Judah Sloan's take on Alban Eazy's negative gearing debacle.
She'll join me live in studio after this quick break, Welcome back.
The Prime Minister tried to clear up his negative gearing mess in a series of interviews today, but he only made the situation worse.
Albanize he has been.
Accused of using the same language that he used before changing the Stage three tax cuts. He hasn't ruled it out, He hasn't guaranteed he wouldn't make changes.
He's just said he has no plans.
Have a look, well, we have no plans to touch it or change negative gearing. We have no plans.
So you're considering taking negative gearing reform and capital games tax reform to the next election.
No, we're not well.
That was an eerily similar turn of phrase to how Albaneze spoke before he changed the Stage three tax cuts.
I can confirm that we haven't changed our position, but we have no change to our plans.
Tax cuts will happen in July.
We haven't changed our position. I've said and changed our position.
We haven't changed our.
Position on the Stage three text cuts well.
Peter Duartton took the opportunity to launch a political attack over this.
Today the Treasurer dumps this story out there and then he jumps on a plane to go to China, so he's nowhere to answer questions. And the Prime Minister keeps changing his story about whether the government is adopting the Green's policy to abolish negative gearing or to cap it, what are they doing in relation to capital gains discount and what does that mean for uncertainty in the economy, And the Prime Minister can't answer a question with honesty.
But these are legitimate questions about whether the government does have plans to change negative gearing. Around one point two million Australians negatively gear their properties and others hope to do so one day. Scrapping this would essentially be attax on aspiration. Now for more, I'm joined by economist and columnist Judith Sloan.
Judith, great to have you live here in Sydney. Thank you for your time. Now let's start with negative gearing and then we'll get to inflation. So this is now being floated.
It's unclear whether the government wanted this debate or not, but the Prime Minister has chosen not to categorically rule it out.
What do you make of how he's handling this?
Well, who knows, frankly, I mean, I guess one interpretation is that the sort of economic reform agenda is looking extremely thin and maybe he feels he has to put something there. But you know, actually, if you go through the numbers, I mean, mind you my favorite was my word is my bond before?
But you know, why would he do this.
Because you would almost or inevitably have to grandfather exactly so once your grandfather. The kind of revenue gain you get from this is actually tight. Even at the moment, the tax benefit to those who negatively gear properties is about two point seven billion, so under three billion. Now you know the government spending over seven hundred billions. So in other words, it's what economists would call working on the wrong side of the decimal point.
Well, if he was going to do it, I agree, there would be hardly any budget revenue because it would have to be grandfathered. No point, He'd only be doing it for political reason to try win back some of the support that he feels he's losing to the Greens. Probably is losing to the Greens because there is the sense that the Greens are owning the housing crisis political
argument at the minute. But you know, there is a suggestion that he could do something similar to what he did on stuperannuation, where you know, he picked such a high figure three million dollars that the average person might not object to that. So maybe he'd say, you know, we'll scrap negative gearing on someone who has over five properties.
Well, again, you can do that, but that's seriously working on the wrong side of the decimal point because we know what the distribution of negative gearers looks like, and it's really only a relatively small number who have multiple properties. But here's the thing, for anyone who understands even a little bit about finance, if they did that, they probably those multiple property owners would probably incorporate themselves, at which point you can deduct off the expenses if you're part
of a company. So it may not even work.
So I mean, to me, that is what.
You'd call just a sort of a totemic gesture where we don't like rich multiple property owners and we're going to do something about it.
And they've always hated negative gearing, been part of their class warfare.
Well, you know they hate negative gearing like they you know, a pro Palestine. If you then actually ask them to give me a few paragraphs about why they hate negative gearing, they probably would find a difficult Oh, we have.
Nothing against property owners, nothing against Jews, it's all they Here's.
The most important point.
I mean, how negative gearing works is that it subsidizes renters.
Right, it's right.
If you don't have negative gearing, rents will go up. Now, why would the Greens and why would labor support its abolition? It just seems extremely well, it's just bizarre.
Yeah, exactly. I just want to finish on inflation.
We saw the IBA governor Michelle Bullock this week say that, yep, we might see an CPI figure the following day with the two in front of it. We did, of course, two point seven percent. But she made the point that the inflation battle is an over rate cut. Well, she said, you know, inflation won't get to the target range until the end of twenty twenty five, won't be sustainable until twenty twenty six, so we're not really looking at a rate cut anytime soon. But do you think her message
was particularly tough as a warning to the market. So you know, she wasn't going to raise rates, but the second next best thing was to was to have a tough warning about it.
I don't think they are going to raise race. I mean I've become a real fan of Michelle's. I mean it's better than watching a soap opera watching her pres cos she's very good. She's getting better. And I mean one of the new adjectives that was coming into her
discussion was sustainable. Now it seems to me what that's saying is that they might get one quarter within the range two to three percent, But it sounds to me that they'd have to get two quarters at least within that range, and that if you kind of know when the figures are coming out, that's more than six months away. So the likelihood, I think of a cash rate cut before the election is now pretty low.
Yeah, and the Prime Minister will be pretty disappointed with that, because that's the political platform he was hoping for her to then call the election.
He wanted a rate cut done enough on cost of living.
Judith Sloane really appreciate your time, Thank you, sir, Charry.
Now still to come.
The migration headaches just keep coming for labor with international student visa appeals skyrocketing. I'll talk about that with the panel next. Plus could Donald Trump face a third assassination attempt? We'll cross live to the US a bit later.
Welcome back.
Well, plenty more to speak about, so let's bring in now Darren Barnett to Julia Gillard's former press secretary and LNP Senator James McGrath. Great to see you both. Let's start with Kim Williams, the ABC chair. Look, he's given a big speech where he called out fake news and misinformation, yet still hasn't taken action to remove the abcne's own fake news, the Heston Russell doctor audio scandal.
Here's what Kim Williams said last night.
The world is in the middle of a crisis of mistrust of information. Our devices are a wash with this fake news. People are on edge about what is real and it is producing a radical mistrust of mainstream news sources too.
James, how can he stand there and speak about fake news when the ABC is dealing with its own fake news.
Saga that it hasn't properly apologized for.
It's a classic case of do as I say, not as I do. The latest chairman of the ABC, will soon realize that he is powerless to do anything about that organization. It is a giant blob that just wants to dominate anything in everything. But I am going to give him one call out and this will surprise your viewers who know I'm a big critic of the ABC. He did say he wants to see an end of activist journalism. Well that's nice to dream, but let's see
if he delivers on that. He hasn't delivered on Hesson Russell. He's probably not going to deliver that, and also so he needs to buckle up and deliver.
What do you think, Darren, I think keep your mouth shut to be brially honest that if you're running a media organization, there are always going to be people who agree with what you do. Others who don't agree with what you do. They have some form that you've just spoken about. Just don't go there. It's not necessary. So just talk about something.
I mean, don't go though as a virtue signaler while you're dealing.
With your own mess.
It just makes you a target and creates a day of news about the ABC, which is unhelpful. So don't go there.
Yeah, yeah, and look, the Heston Russell saga is continuing because it still hasn't been dealt with. Let's turn to the reports today that our court systems are about to be swamped by international students who are appealing against the cancelation of their visas. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal is reportedly already being bogged down with review applications. Nearly five thousand
lodged in July and August this year. James, there's almost seven hundred thousand foreign students in the country at the moment, So you know, can our courts can our country afford to deal with it? Looks like our migration levels are going to be higher than the government forecast.
Tony Burke is starting to make Andrew Giles look like a competent minister. This is something that should scare all Australians. As Peter Darton said today, it is the modern version of the boat arrivals. What's going to happen is these international students who are lodging over two thousand appeals a month are going to be used by lawyers to play the system. This is going to go on for months
and years. We've got seven hundred thousand of them in Australia thanks to places like the University of Sydney who've used them as cash cows. So this is another immigration mess of the labor parties making.
Look, that was a fascinating new political attack line. Darren from Peter Darton today he was in wa and he said, this is the new version of boat arrivals.
What do you think about that.
Let's wait and say, we have to see what happens in the AAT and through other types of appeal, But certainly the numbers are staggering. The numbers of international students are very high. The cuts are also very high, so we're going to have to wait and see how the system plays out. I'm not sure that people have the same general attitude towards international students as they do towards
boat arrivals. But still any blowout in migration in the current climate in the lead up to the election, because it then feeds into cost of living, it feeds into interest rates, it feeds into supermarket prices. So it's an issue that labour needs to contain and they need to be seen to be keeping a lid on it.
And there's no question that the big Australia migration issue is going to be one of the main political issues that will be fought over ahead of the next election. Now, I want to get your thoughts on this negative gearing debate that's been front page news this week. James, the PM, clearly was happy to keep this lightly on the table. He didn't categorically rule it out. Do you think it'll buy him votes with the younger demographic that would make up for the one point two million Australian too.
Negatively gear their properties.
Won't make him any votes at all. And in fact I would love him to try and play along with negative gearing because we'll make the next election a referendum on that, because so many people in Australia want to be able to buy their own home, but they also want to buy an investment property and they use negative
gearing to do that. What this week has actually shown is the Prime Minister, who quote unquote said I'm not the Treasurer, you'll have to ask him, is actually just not across the detail when it comes to anything to do with economic policy, which is the main reason we have a federal government. It's to protect our borders and have secure economic policy. It's Alboins. Call an election and call it on negative gearing and we'll meet you.
You'll run a scare campaign.
We'll run a truth campaign. That's what we'll do.
Yeah, no doubt there'll be big political attacks. But Darren, I want to get your take. You're a former Labor government media advisor. Would the Labor Party have wanted this debate? You know, there's a lot of speculation about whether this was a drop, so to speak to the Herald, or a leak.
Look, I can't see why you would technically, why you would drop that story when Gym's on a plane to China where he wants to talk about a bunch of other things, including removing tariffs on seafood and other very important matters for trade. You would not drop that story when your main economic person is out of the country. Therefore, how did it come out? Is it something that is it a good journo get or is it a leak?
We don't know the answer to that, but certainly the conversations I had today, it was not planned to be on the front pages today, particularly with the very favorable numbers on inflation that came out yesterday. It should have been a clean good news day and a good news story. Instead, Labor created its own ski campaign on what was otherwise a good media day.
Yeah, all right, that makes sense to me. Darren Barnett, James McGrath. Great to see both of you. Now, coming up after the break, we'll go live to Washington. The latest celebrity to weigh into the debate will be Goldberg.
This time we'll give you all of that news. Next.
All right, let's go live to the United States. Now, I'm joined by the Australians Washington correspondent Adam Crichton. Adam, great to see you. Look, after two failed assassination attempts, there is a risk that Trump could be targeted again. There are concerns about his security and now we're learning via media reports that there are briefings that potentially there are threats from Iran.
What can you tell us, Yeah.
Certainly, Look, they've there've recently been some statements from US intelligence officials and also from the Trump campaign that there's been another at least planned attempt on Donald Trump's life. There was a plot that's been foiled, and as you said, it was by Iran. It's not clear whether this is the same plot that was reported back in July, after
the actual assassination attempt, of course at Butler, Pennsylvania. So it's not sure whether this is a fourth attempt, if you like, but certainly there's there's a really a huge risk around Trump's life. I mean, you really have to give the man credit, I think for his kind of bravery and the way he's handled it all since you know, since July, I mean there's basically been two actual attempts, and then there's all these other planned foiled ones, including
from Iran. So yeah, look, I mean you'd have to say that, you know, the prospect that there's another serious attempt on his life before the fifth of November is very real.
There's also accusations that would be Goldberg on the view, could be accused of inciting violence.
Can you tell us what's happened?
Uh, well, it's actually the first I've heard about woopi Goldberg Zerry.
I'm sorry, you can play it to you.
Let's play it.
Let's play you what happened here? It is? Have a look.
Then he just wouldn't go, Who's like a bug?
He just kept being there, Who's like a like a bug?
Right there?
So you felt, Yeah, So she's mocking the assassination attempt on Trump at him.
Well, look, this is hardly a surprise from you know, from that show and from that group of women. I mean, they're extremely anti Republican, extremely anti Trump. But actually, I don't think it really hurts Trump, to be honest. I mean, I think when they come out and say things like that, and they you know, they praise Democrats, I think it's a reminder to ordinary American voters that it's the wealthy people, the celebrities that tend to support Democrats, and I don't
think that's really a help at all for Democrats. So look, I don't think it hurts Trump. I mean, you know, of course, it goes to their character, but I don't think it, you know, it hurts.
Trump at all.
Yeah, and of course we saw a lot of Hollywood stars earlier this week come out in support of Kamala as well. Adam Crichton, thank you for your time. I'll see you Monday at eight pm. And here's Paul Murray