Good evening.
Well, first tonight I can reveal the outgoing Climate Change Authority chair Grant King had spoken about a secret society working to overturn the government's ban on nuclear energy with views like this. Is it any surprise he was sensationally axed by Chris Bowen.
This is a fascinating story.
It's been big news this week that Chris Bowen replaced the chair of the Climate Change Authority with Matt Keene. It turns out Bowen's views on energy weren't aligned with the outgoing chair, Grant King. I'm going to show you video footage right now where King speaks about a secret society working.
On nuclear policy.
But not only has Chris Bowen replaced him four years into his five year term, but the Climate Change Minister also launched an inquiry examining his integrity and potential conflicts of interest. It turns out, behind the scenes, Grant King had been advocating for nuclear energy for years. Have a look at this footage the first time it's aired, where King says he was becoming increasingly frustrated by parts of
the energy debate. He says very clearly that there's no good or bad energy and that nuclear should be part of the mix.
There's still a great desire to define good fuels and bad fuels, and that's not going to help us get there. We need absolutely everything working for us, and that also includes nuclear. So if we want to get into a debate, it's important that we throw nuclear into the mix and
say astraight. He's going to have to come to grips with that issue, and it's going to have to decide whether or not it lifts that regulatory prohibition and allows the innovation and the investment that's now happening, particularly in small modular reactor technology to be applicable here in Australia.
So that's the outgoing chair of the Climate Change Authority, who Chris Bowen has just replaced with Matt Kean Grant King saying right there, as you saw in twenty twenty one, just a year before the Albaneze government was elected, that nuclear should be part of Australia's energy mix and that nuclear energy is important. The chair works closely with Chris Bowen, who has a very different view on nuclear, and so does the senior team in the Albanese government.
It's not just certain nuclear is expensive to bill, it's also that to make it work, it needs to force out the cheapest form of energy, renewables.
We can continue with the transition to renewable energy, or we can get distracted again by the nuclear fantasy proposed by those opposite.
What they have is a plan to erect the future, a plan to drive investment out that is needed to provide energy security and the lower prices.
But that's not Grant King's view, and in fact he said he was increasingly frustrated by parts of the energy debate.
So increasingly, and I must say the last month or two I've become increasingly frustrated with the terms blue and green, because blue and green imply there is a better way of making carbon free hydrogen. For example, we've used the term green hydrogen than there is blue hydrogen. Makes no difference. At the end of the day, it's still a carbon hydrogen, it's clean hydrogen.
But he went further in the speech, with Grant King saying that the ban on nuclear in Australia should be lifted and that a secret society was working on campaigning the government over this.
That prohibition has to be lifted and there is a secret society of people out there trying to figure out what conversation they had with government to lift that prohibition.
And in comments that also would have been at odds with Chris Bowen, Grant King advocated carbon storage.
Everything that reduces emissions is good. There's no good or bad reductions of emissions, and there tends to be. And the classic example here is gees sequestration. I mean, every time that term is mentioned among some parts of the community, it's and oh my god, event, how could we possibly talk about that? It's neither good nor bad. If we're storing carbon and storing carbon safely, that's as good as
reducing emissions in some other location. And you can't get to net zero any other way than recognizing that that duality exists.
Well, with views like this, is it any surprise that Chris Bowen replaced Grant King with Matt Kean a year early. Kean was conveniently on the same page as his new master.
In order to bring nuclear into the system, it would take far too long and would be far too expensive for New South Wales. Now, I didn't want to bankrupt the state and I didn't want to put those huge costs onto families.
Well, Chris Bowen is so radical that being energy agnostic, as Grant King clearly is, is a crime. To Grant King, it doesn't seem to matter which energy methods are used as long as the emission's reduction targets are reached. But labor has this illogical ideological opposition to nuclear. And then there was also the complaint against Grant King by the far left think tank the Australia Institute in May last year.
Instead of just dismissing the complaint as nonsensical, the Albertezer government actually launched an inquiry into its own Climate Change Authority chair. Now political veteran Dennis Shanahan had this brilliant report in The Australian this week where he writes about how Grant King was shockingly subject to an integrity probe.
He writes that in May last year, the Australia Institute asked mister Bowen to investigate potential conflicts of interest at the CCA, the Climate Change Authority, and particularly mister King. To Mister Bowen also said members of the Climate Change Authority Board should not also be employed by companies or
organizations that could be affected by the CCA's recommendations. After a departmental review mister Bowen told the Australia Institute aspects of the regulations about potential conflicts of interest were not in keeping with requirements and changes had been made. So this is all what has unfolded behind closed doors, Chris Bowen ordering a humiliating inquiry into his own Climate Change Authority chair based on complaints from a radical left wing
think tank. Now we know the Climate Change Authority itself is aiming for an emissions reduction target between sixty five and seventy five percent by twenty thirty five. I've shown you those documents and that's ambitious given the twenty thirty target of forty two percent is unlikely to be met to experts. But it seems Chair Grant King wasn't green enough. Chris Bowen doesn't want energy agnostic. He doesn't want to even consider the advice of his top experts. He's driven
purely by ideology. Now I'm going to come back to that story in a moment with my panel. The revelation that the Climate Change Authority Chair had advocated for a secret society to look at overturning the government's ban on nuclear energy. We'll come back to that in a minute. But Also tonight, the ob and easy labor government treats convicted felon Julian Assange.
Like a hero.
Well, it's a far cry from Julia Gillard's tough stance when he first dumped those classified documents fourteen years ago.
I absolutely condemn the placement of this information on the WikiLeaks website. It's a grossly irresponsible thing to do.
Also on the show Tonight, Disunity consumes Labor Albanesi's prophetic response to Fatima payment crossing the floor and Donald Trump's wild demand to Joe Biden ahead of tomorrow's presidential debate. But now let's bring in Tonight's panel Perth Lord Mayor Basil'samplus and The Australian's National Affairs editor Joe Kelly.
Welcome to you both, Basil.
This is quite a big revelation that Grant King, the chair of the Climate Change Authority, who Chris Bowen has just asked a year before his term was up, with Matt Keane, and it turns out that their views weren't quite aligned.
That Grant King had.
Advocated for nuclear he called it, in his words, important and even said the government's ban on it should be overturned.
What do you think.
Fancy getting somebody who is not politically aligned in an important position like this, and then that person not necessarily agreeing with the ideology or thoughts of the government of the day, and then their contracts suddenly ending a year earlier.
I love that term he used, energy agnostic. I would have thought that's exactly what you want in somebody in that sort of position, somebody who doesn't have a predisposed view towards one form or another, one form of energy and any of the climate debate and can assess it as it was. That's what we had in Chairman King. But now he's gone, and I think that departure is revealing less about him and more about the government who have been there as he's gone a year early.
Joe, your colleague Dennis Shanahan wrote about this, and it seems that Grant King did have quite a sensible position that nuclear energy should be part of the mix that is energy agnostic, as Bazil just spoke about. But do you think, Joe, that Bowen's energy response is looking increasingly irrational, but particularly he's just outright opposition to nuclear when he can't put.
A reason on the table apart from the cost of it.
Sherry, I think it's pretty hard to tell at this stage how the nuclear debate will unfold. This will be a very long debate. I think Peter Dutton has engaged though in crash through or crash politics. This is very big, bold, audacious, brash. I think there are political risks for the Coalition in putting out this plan. I think the most significant risk is that they've put out a plan they'll never be able to legislate or get through a hostile Senate if
they do win government. There's no bipartisan support. There is that prohibition which Grant King mentioned. Perhaps Peter Dutton thinks that because his plan is so big and bold that if he does win majority government, he can shame Labor into accepting his electoral mandate. But I don't think there's any guarantee of that. Remember that Labour went to the election in two thousand promising to roll back the GST, so I think it is high stakes. But the other
point is this doesn't happen for a long time. I don't think nuclear is going to turn many votes at the next election. People are going to be more concerned about what's happening now to bring down power prices, and I think that's where the Coalition needs to fill in the gaps.
But isn't that what Peter Dutton's doing here. He's trying to link energy to the cost of living. He's trying to say that Labour's plan on renewable energy is what's pushing up power prices, Basil. Don't you get the sense that that is part of Dutton's strategy when he wants to keep speaking about nuclear because he is linking those two issues energy and cost of living, no.
Doubt about that whatsoever. But also even more simplistic than that, he is providing an absolute contrast between his leadership style and the leadership style of the Prime Minister. One of conviction, one of you know what you get if you vote for me. You're not certain what you're going to get if you continue to support the Prime Minister. And so I think what he's trying to do in addition to
that point Sherry is create an impression with people. If the big issues come up, if inflation continues to rise, if interest rates continue to go up, which one of the two of us seems likely to take decisive action on whatever the topic of the day is. And that's I think what he's really able to, or has been able to so far, provide that distinction between his leadership style and the Prime Minister's leadership style.
And it does look like cost of living is going to continue to be a major issue for the rest of this year. I mean the inflation data that we've seen just this week, Joe, inflation has risen to four percent, where now you've got economists talking about one or potentially even two rate rises this year.
I mean, it wasn't so long ago.
It was the start of this year Labor was anticipating there'd be an interest rate.
Cut at the end of this year.
So do you think the political debate Joe Kelly is going to start to center on whether it's the labor budget that's doing this because this is where Peter Dutton tried to take it in question time today.
Oh, core inflation, the Reserve Banks preferred measure is at four point four percent, the highest level this year. Minister, Why do Australians have to live in fear of yet another rate rise under this hopeless government?
The government has to do its bit and we've got a government here who has been reckless in three failed budgets. It hasn't done what needed to be done. We've got sixteen percent growth in spending in the next two years in this budget, driving the budget off a cliff. It's a big spending but.
Sorry about that, Joe Kelly. So clearly that is the coalition's argument. They're saying that it's the budget that is to blame for the rise in inflation. Do you think that has credibility?
Well, it's not just me who thinks that argument has credibility, Sharry. Last week the Reserve Bank, the Reserve Bank Board released its statement. It contained a new and I think very revealing line saying that it was concerned about the final budget outcomes. So this is the federal and state government budget decisions contributing to expansionary settings which will make the reserve banks jobs harder over time. So I think that there is you know, a number of people who are
very concerned about this. Just recently it was Warren Hogan sort of out on his own saying that he was predicting a rate hike in coming months. But he's now been joined by others financial markets sort of about you know, fifty to fifty that there will be a rate hike. Now, if that happens, I think that is a political catastrophe for labor. It will be used mercilessly by Peter Dutton and Angus Taylor to attack their budget as being inappropriate
for the time. And I think there'll be a lot to those arguments, and this is where the election will be. I think cherry this cost of living issue absolutely.
Now let's have a look at Juliana signs.
It's been twenty four hours that since he's arrived in Australia.
We covered it here last night.
Already eyes are now on the US and there's now calls from some of his supporters, some massage activists, pressure that they're putting now on the US to pardon a sanch And this is a call that his own lawyer, Australian barrister Jennifer Robinson reiterated today.
Of course, the word pardon has been discussed over the last number of years. It is something that I think press freedom groups are talking about already because of the precedent that was set that it would be the right thing to do to give him a pardon, given the free speech implications of what just happened and the chilling effect of that prosecution.
What we're interested in is not.
Just a pardon for Julian, but in changing the law to make sure that no other journalists can be prosecuted in this way under the Espionage Act.
Basil. What do you think about this?
I mean, as far as I'm concerned, he's a convicted criminal who put lives at risk. He's not a journalist. He didn't go through this carefully. It was a document dump.
What do you reckon?
And he played guilty. Let's not forget that. I mean, he is free and back in Australia today, and most people would say fourteen years is long enough. We're pleased that this saga is over and pleased that an Australian is back on Australian soil after that ordeal. But much of that ordeal he put himself through by not facing the court or extradition, as were the requests upon him when a hit in the Ecuadorian embassy, and then obviously
did jail time in the UK. He pled guilty to one case of obtaining and disclosing national defense documents and secrets. He pled guilty. So why do you get a pardon if you are guilty?
No?
Well, exactly very good point, Joe. What do you think of the Albanezi government's response to this. We've seen both the Prime Minister and Penny Wong refusing to comment on his actual crime. They just want to move past it and instead take credit for the fact he's back in Australia.
Look Sherry, I was really struck the contrast in sort of the political optics now the comments from Anthony Alberanisi and the comments from Julia Gillard which you played before. I think one of the key issues is what Julian Assange does next. I was reading that he said that he thought that there was a contradiction between the Espionage Act and the First Amendment upholding free speech, freedom of the media and so on, which I don't think is
particularly good sign. I think the question is, you know, is he going to return to form? And I think one of the risks is, given a sense of triumphalism from supporters and the rhetoric from the government, he may feel encouraged to do that.
Now.
I think the government really has to get the balance right here, and certainly they would respond very forcefully against the dumping of hundreds of thousands of top secret documents of an Australian flavor. So I think the government has to get the balance right in relation to this, and I don't think it hats Yeah, it.
Seems like Albani.
He's loved, No, he's loved and loathed in almost in almost equal measure. Lots of people despise what he did, lots of people supported him.
What he should do is.
Go on the speaking circuit, put away wiki leaks forever and go and earn some very substantial money and enjoy his life. After fourteen years of really self imposed exile and incarceration, he should leave that life behind him, move forward with his life and let's be done with it.
Yeah, if only that was the case. In fact, I think we're going to see more of him than appen. I had Jeffrey robertson on the show last night and he says that Julia Sange is looking at an autobiography, So there's going to be a lot of Assange to come, unfortunately. Basil Zemplis, Joe Kelly, thank you both for your time. Now coming up, I'm going to show you those comments what Julia Gillard had to say in full when Assange first released his classified documents, plus Dave Sharma will let
loose on Alberanzi's week leadership on this matter. Plus the stage is set for the first US presidential debate.
We'll look at all of that coming up on the show Welcome Back.
Well, what would Julia Gillard and Hillary Clinton think of the way Alberanizi has reacted to Julian Assange this week. As you know, Julian Assange last night returned to Australia a free man after pleading guilty to espionage. He's now a convicted criminal, yet he traveled by private plane with our top us and UK diplomats Steven Smith and Kevin
Rudd personally escorting him. Anthony Alberizi boasted that he was the first person Assange spoke to back on Home Soil, and the Prime Minister even posted a photograph of their call on social media and repeatedly took full it for his release. Labor, the Greens and the Teals have also been singing his praises. A hero, they say, a truth teller.
Have a look.
At the end of the day, Julian Ostange is a Walkley Award winning Australian journalist who did his job.
Julian Assange was a political prisoner and his freedom took a political solution.
Journalism is not a crime.
Telling the truth should never be a crime.
Well, this is.
A far cry from how Julia Gillard reacted as Prime Minister when Assange first started releasing classified documents.
I absolutely condemn the placement of this information on the wikileiks website. It's a grossly irresponsible thing to do and an illegal thing to do.
The AFP is investigating whether any Australian laws have been broken.
I can respect whistleblowing if your motivation is to right wrong motivation. His motivation, as stated, is a sort of anarchic here. It all is just have it, and I don't have a great deal of respect for that.
She was unequivocal because he is an anti Western anarchist. It is convenient for Albin EASi to forget now that Assange is a convicted felon and that he was also accused of rape, and he never faced up to those allegations. Assange was also accused of endangering the lives of servicemen and women by failing to redact any information from his document dump.
He compromised the.
National security of the Five Eyes Security Alliance.
Yet Albin Ezi doesn't mention this.
So what signal does this send to others who may want to leak classified national security information that could benefit our enemies and put the lives of our undercover operatives on the line. But it's also curious that the labor left celebrate Assinge despite the fact he was accused of colluding with Russia by releasing Hillary Clinton's emails in yet another major document dump, and Hillary herself called Assange a tool of Russian intelligence.
I think Cassange has become a kind of neolistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator.
I mean, he's a.
Tool of Russian intelligence.
And if he's such a martyr of free speech, why doesn't WikiLeaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia.
There's so much information about Assange, so much, too much that I have time for now. Yet, as Chris Kenny said the other day, Assange has now become a hero of the woke left and the loopy right. Or to discuss this, let's bring in now liberal senator and former ambassador to Israel and Dave Sharma Day of Welcome to the program. Look, what do you make of Labour's response to the Prime Minister's response to Julia Sange's return.
Frankly, Shari, I've been appalled by it. This is not someone for whom we should be rolling out the red carpet and scattering rose pedals and sending our most senior diplomats in the United States and the United Kingdom as personal escorts to a company him back to Australia. Yes, we owe a duty to him as an Australian. Yes
he's been through a criminal justice proceeding. But the idea that he should be lauded as some sort of returning hero by the governor of the day is odious and sickening, and it sends a terrible message about how we treat the gravity of the crime of which he was convicted and some of the charges that were leveled against him, including those of sexual assault in Sweden that you referred to in your opening remarks.
Look, Assange wasn't wrongfully detained like cheng Lei or Kylie Morgil, but this is a very different category. He chose for years to avoid countries that do have fair judicial systems or extradition treaties.
Well, absolutely, and yeah, I mean you'll remember that the reason he took refuge or sanctuary in the Ecuador in embassy in London was to avoid being extradited to Sweden
to face sexual assault charges. So the seven years he spent in the Ecuador in embassy in London was about avoiding facing sexual assault charges in Sweden, and then the subsequent years he spent has been about avoid facing the consequences of his actions irresponsibly dumping classified information on the open web in a way that compromise not only the national security of Western nations, but a number of well meaning individuals who were acting as supporters of Western countries
in countries where they would face danger from their details being reveled. And this is highly response irresponsible acts to have done. As Julia Gillard pointed out at the time, the idea that this sort of action should be celebrated or lauded is I mean, it shows a government that's completely lost its own sense of moral compass and lost sight of what is the national interest here of which they are meant to be the foremost guardians.
I mean.
Juliana Sange's lawyers keep saying that no one was harmed as a result of his document dump, that the US government hasn't been able to produce or name anyone who was put in harm's way.
What's your response to.
This, Well, firstly, I'd say that this matter never went to trial, and I think those are the sorts of details that would only be revealed at trial. But beyond that, I mean, even if you accept that assertion, what they have done is expose methods, systems, operating procedures which compromise the effectiveness and the capability of Western national security services and intelligence services. So it has undoubtedly undermined our national security.
I would be surprised if individual human sources were not compromised by the dumping of that information on the web as well. I don't think you can there's any way you can spin this as being some sort of harmless, victim free act of you know, noble journalism. I think it's the complete antithesis of that.
What about this argument that a signed was used by Russia, as Hillary Clinton says, as a proper gander tour. We know he was given a television show on Russian state TV for a time. He interviewed a Hesbala terrorist. He called him a freedom fighter, So he does seem to be this anti Western figure we values that aren't shared by most Australians.
I think that's exactly right. I mean, as Hillary Clinton pointed out, I mean, he hasn't been revealing, you know, the private wealth of you know, the senior members of the politbureau standing committee in China, for instance. He hasn't been revealing, you know, whereas Pruden stashed his millions, and the nepotism that is unfolding in Russia today. None of those things that are the targets of his leaks. It's
all focused towards the West. He was used by Russia today, he hosted a show on Russia Today, and the leaks that he was allegedly involved in from Hillary Clinton the Democratic National Committee's Private Service in twenty sixteen undoubtedly did damage to her presidential campaign. I mean, this is someone who shouldn't normally be someone who's held up by the progressive left. But we're in this perverse sort of moral universe where he's become a cause celebrity of the progressive
circles in Australia and elsewhere in the world. And I just think it's so upside down. I can't really make sense of it.
It's kind of quite similar to how Albanezi has reacted since the harmas Terra attacks on Israel. And you saw Julia Gillard's comments in Josh Breidenberg's documentary, and also how strong she was as a supporter of Israel when she was Prime Minister, and she's increasingly looking more centrist, you know, showing leadership. She shows Albanisi up quite frankly for being weak and of the radical left.
I think that's right, and I think if you need to figure out what this government's going to do on something, you need to look at what the Greens are calling for, and you find that the government is just a few steps behind them. So, you know, restore funding to UNRA, the Greens call for that. A few weeks later the
government does it call for Julian Losandra's release. Well, the labor government's there, a few steps behind them, you know, criticize Israel, labor government's there, recognize the state of Palestine. Labor government is there or getting there. I think this is entirely their prison. I mean, I think they're focused
only on electoral politics and domestic politics. And Albanisi, being a creature as he is from the inner West of Sydney, has always been focused on the Greens as his main political threat, and he's brought that view to the national stage and the national interest, which is what he is paid to look after. What his job is, seems to be a second order issue to him compared to how does he politically position himself in the Labor Party to
save off the threat from the left. I mean, it's no way to run the nation.
No, and he does seem to have those inner West left leaning sensibilities at heart. Dave Sharma, thank you very much for joining me tonight. Such a good interview. Now it's all hands on deck for Joe Biden's team before the presidential debate, which is tomorrow at eleven am our time. The White House has confirmed that sixteen eights have been in a lock up with Joe Biden to prepare at
Camp David. So, the main aim for this debate for Joe Biden, who's eighty one, will be to get through an hour and a half without mixing up world leaders forgetting his train of thought freezing.
Up or falling over well.
So look ahead to the debate from a US Studies Center, fellow Stephen loosely joins me. Now, Stephen, thank you very much for your time. So do you think this would be a success for Joe Biden if he just gets through the hour and a half of the debate without any mishaps.
Well. One of the fascinating developments in the weeks leading up to this Atlanta debate debates have been the fact that the Trump team spent a lot of time trashing the president's debating capabilities. At one stage, Donald Trump said he was the worst debate he'd ever faced. That actually had as a consequence the setting of the bar so low for President Biden in the debate that the Republicans have moved away from that and have started to talk
about the president's capacities at the lecton. I think this is an important waystation in the presidential election campaign, Charry, and I think what the Democrats are looking at the reasons they ask for this debate to be held so early is to approach on the basis of Joe Biden performing as well as he did in the State of the Union, which was not anticipated, but it was very fiery, very lively, and he had the added benefit of being
abused in the bluechers by Marjorie Tayler Green. So I think what the Democrats are looking for is not just to have the president on his feet in ninety minutes, but to have the president win this debate out.
Do you think Biden will definitely be the Democratic candidate who'll face off against Trump or do you think there's any possibility that the Democratic Party might still have reservations about whether they stick with Biden.
US politics has taught me over the generations that you can never rule out any eventuality, and we've had extraordinary circumstances like Lyndon Johnson announcing in marnineteen sixty eight as the President of the US that he would not be seeking his party's nomination again. He was not running for president again. That came as a complete bolt from the blue. At the moment, Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee, and it's likely to be endorsed by the convention in Chicago.
If we had unforeseen circumstances that could change. On the Republican side, I have no doubt that Donald Trump will go forward as the presumptive nominee, and there's much interest in who the vice presidential nominee will be for the Republicans, and this is quite fascinating in anticipation that he might not win the debate. Donald Trump has announced he's already picked his vice presidential running mate, and he'll announce it
in the not to distant future. And that's designed to shift the emphasis away from the debate in the event that it's a disapporning performance for Trump.
It's quite clever.
Shows that Donald Trump it's not necessarily as confident as he might appear.
We saw this week that his spokesperson, he spokeswoman was kicked off CNN when she started to criticize Jake Tapper, who will actually be moderating the debate.
Have a look at that moment.
First of all, it's so it takes someone five minutes to google Jake Tapper Donald Trump to see that Jake Tapper has steade filter.
Ma'am, I'm going to stop.
If you'm stating to attack my colleagues, I would like to talk about you body and Donald Trump who you work for.
If you are here week.
On his behalf and I will have this conversation.
I am stating facts that your colleagues have stated in the past.
Now I'm sorry, We're going to come back to Caroline. Thank you very much from your time.
You are welcome to come back at any point. She is welcome to come back and speak about Donald Trump.
Not much a freedom of speech over there at NAN. But Stephen, do you expect that it will be a fair debate with the moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
By and large, Yes, And I think the new rules with the microphones going silent when one candidate has the flaw and the other candidate is to listen, will work. So we won't have the situation as we had with Mike Wallace on a previous debate where Donald Trump endeavors to talk right over the top of Joe Biden, which incidentally did Trump enormous damage in the American heartlund and the Republican Party knows that he may not be able
to restrain himself. As one comment made the other day, I noticed, Joe Biden will seek to control the debate. Donald Trump will seek to control himself. That's not a bit way to approach matters. But look what happened on CNN. It's just indicative of the polarization in American politics.
Absolutely divide.
Yeah, effort for bridge and very little effort to have a civilized discourse.
No, indeed, Stephen Lucy Thank you very much for your insights this evening. Now coming up the chilling footage of the moment a nineteen year old armed with knives walked into a labor politician's office. This story we broke exclusively on the show tonight last night, and now we'll give you more details that coming up after the break.
Welcome back.
Well.
More details have now emerged about the story I broke exclusively here last night, the teenager who allegedly entered a new South Wales labor and PA's office armed with knives and a warning.
Some of this is quite distressing.
There's now disturbing go pro footage the nineteen year old allegedly live streamed during the ordeal, and police say it shows him wearing a helmet, ballistic vest, a knife and a face mask. He's been identified by police as James Patton and has since been charged with terror offenses and intending to kill Newcastle Labor and p Tim Krackenthorpe. As I said on air last night, I received the two hundred page manifesto yesterday. It was allegedly sent to me
by Patten. It had the subject heading for you. It was truly terrifying, to say the least, I was very alarmed and we.
Notified police immediately.
In it, police will allege that he spoke about his desire for a mass killing. It had anti submitted content in the manifesto. He discussed beheadings and he claimed he was inspired by the terrorist Brenton Tarrant who murdered fifty one people. Now, it went for two hundred pages. There was a lot of alarming content in it, as you can imagine, it was really quite something to receive. In it, he also spoke about his plot to allegedly kill a
labor politician. Now, I was enormously relieved to hear in the afternoon that this teenager had been arrested, and we should all be so grateful that police acted to move quickly in this Let's bring it now Tonight's panel, Sky News commentator Jason Morrison and former Labor and Graham Richardson.
Welcome to you both. Jason.
This sort of manifesto and the fact that the teenager was arrested outside of Labor and Peace office, he had knives, he was reading aloud his manifesto. Look, it just adds to this volatile climate that we're all in at the moment and.
It's a reminder of that old saying that the police have with respect to matters terrorism, that you know, the terrorists only got to get it right at once. The police have got to get it right every time. And the information that has come out and is available in some ports is that the police got very good information from the family who were very concerned and very worried,
and they acted very swiftly. And good on you and your staff for getting that information to them as well, because that all helps and allows them to react very promptly. They used a little bit of a policing technology methodology to be able to pinpoint his location and they jumped
on him fast and they got him. Can I say this is not a criticism of you, Sky News or any other news media, but the release of that video stuff that you've just been able to show it was all in all the news servicess all over the inter I don't get the benefit in the release of that. I just don't. I know why it's there, and it's an exhibit and it will be part of them, but I just don't see the upside of that being shown because it does show, frankly, how fragile things are. This
guy has been described as having level two autism. He has no criminal history, and the allegations that he face are grave. I just worry about that being out and about there. I mean, we can handle the truth, but sometimes there are some people that are absolutely nuts and they don't need to see how damn easy sometimes.
It can be well.
I think there can be a debate about what we should and shouldn't publish. In terms from my perspective, I didn't publish any of the manifesto. I didn't broadcast it last night. It's lengthy, there's a lot of terrifying detail in it. I didn't broadcast that. Some of that was in the papers today and so and the journalists got it from other sources, not from me. But we've been very careful with what we've published. But in the manifesto he speaks about discussing a lot of these plans on
chat rooms. So look, Rich, are you hoping that police are aware? Counter terrorism police and our AZIO and other intelligence agencies are aware of the chat rooms are able to access them? Because what he speaks about was being discussed in the chat rooms is also very alarming.
Oh, it's terrifying, and I'm glad that the police are aware of these chat rooms. I think that they're in front of the aim on this and that's just as well for all of us, because that provides a safety net that we really need. I think that's the one thing this guy proves is how easy it is to be a terrorist. And that's what's scary about it to me.
Now, let's have a look at this issue at the University of Sydney and the Vice Chancellor Mark Scott's handling of anti Semitism on campus. As you know, Mark Scott has capitulated to the groups that were running the encampment. He's done a deal with them where they can review some of the research collaborations that the University of Sydney has.
This would amount to an Israel boycott. Now, the Jewish groups today have come out and said that they have lost confidence in the capacity of the University of Sydney to provide for the physical, cultural and psychosocial safety of Jewish students and staff members. Jason, Look, this is really concerning leadership from Mark Scott.
Extraordinarily, it's extraordinary. I don't get the Mark Scott phenomena. I have not got how someone continues to fall short and so many roles and obligations and just keeps rising. He has an extraordinary job at this university and he has put Australia. I think he's put Australia's national security at risk by allowing people who clearly have a deep hatred of a certain corner of the community to have some kind of oversight on what the university is doing in delicate research projects.
This is bad.
And look, you got to hear me through the whole thing here. The old phrase about don't negotiate with terrorists. Now I'm not saying the people on the lawn were terrorists. We're not saying that. But I actually we're saying some of them might think that terrorists are doing a good thing over in the Middle East. But what I do worry about deeply in all of this is that what's the message here. They were breaking the rules, they were
breaking the law. There are signs up flashing everywhere saying don't end are in closed landsy You get arrested at Sydney University and Scott does a deal with them to go away.
And in the.
Meantime, Jewish students walking around Sydney University campus are scared shitless because they're having absolute romper stomp a look protests going on with radical Islamists chanting ala Akhbar and things like that, which are frightening for them to see.
I think there's something real wrong with it.
You mentioned that they were chanting alo akba well at their press conference to announce this deal that they've done with Mark Scott. Have a look at the footage we'll show you now.
A.
Rich are they chanted that too?
Mark Scott's negotiating with.
That's who is negotiating.
With exactly rich are they chanted that? More than twenty times in the one press conference. There was no Australian at them, or any Australian slogans at all. It was all ala wakba. You know, some of the members of this fringe group have been linked to his book to Rea, it's not a terror organization here, but it is in the United Kingdom and there are calls for it to be recognized as an extremist organization here as well.
Rich O, where's Mark Scott? Where's your mate? Elbow? And all of this?
Well, I think you know, there's a whole lot of a whole set of levels here where we've failed, and whether whether it's at administery, at the university or our political overlords. Just nothing is being done when you can see a danger. And that's that's terrifying to me. What we have to do when we see an ugly obvious danger like this is act and act quickly. You can't sit around and watch and say, well, well, well, let's
hope we can get them when they try something. That's not much good saying oh, well they killed a couple of people, we got them. I'd much rather those couple of people never got killed.
Rich.
I also just want to ask you, during your time in Canberra, if someone had crossed the floor, there would have been consequences. What do you think of Albanesi's soft response to labor Senator Fatima Payman this week when she crossed the floor to support the Green's motion to recognize the Palestinian state.
Yeah, I thought it was very weak. When the crunch comes, I think that caucus rules observed Labor will over time very well. And I don't understand why on some issues you can say, well look will Caucasus and everything else, but you can have your way on this one. That's nonsense.
You're either caucus or you don't. And I think Elbow's made a mistake on this, and I hope he gets a chance to think about it again and make sure he doesn't allow it again, because once you start allowing this then and discipline starts to fall, then I think you're not going to be much of a party in the in our parliament.
Although it seems like he said the precedent, now he's not going to be able to expel someone else for crossing the floor because he didn't expel Fadam a payment. Graeme richardson Jason Morrison. I'm sorry we're out of time, but good to see you both now. After the break, mortgage holders face an August potential rate rise after the inflation acceleration.
This week we'll.
Talk about just whether the Prime Minister does care about the cost of living in the economy or is it only celebration of Julian Assange.
Welcome back.
Well, while the Prime Minister is distracted with Julian Assange, economists are now predicting one or even two into straight rises this year after inflation went up. Let's bring in now Macro Business chief economist Leith found Nonslin to discuss. Leith, thank you very much, for your time. What do you think of the inflation rise this week.
Yeah, look, it's obviously a very poor result and it shows that inflation remains sticky. Sharing it doesn't necessarily mean that interest rate's going to rise, although obviously the chances
have increased massively. The RBA has got five weeks before the next monetary policy meeting, and between now and then it's going to receive two retail sales prints, the Dune labor market data, as well as the Q two quarterly inflation reports, so it'll have to weigh up that data before it makes a decision on rates in early August.
But that said, the figures do show that the albany Is government is making the RBA's job so much harder through its mass immigration policy that's pushing rents through the moon, and also its failures on energy policy. Because energy inflation remains very sticky, it's another one of the key contributors to inflation.
Well aside from immigrant policy which we speak about often, and inflation.
In rents as well.
The Opposition was arguing in Parliament today that Labour's budget is also putting pressure on inflation. What do you think is this a proposition that you agree.
With yes and no. Obviously the subsidies for energy and rents and those sorts of things will reduce prices directly in those areas, but that obviously then puts more money in consumers pockets so they can then spend, which then has other impacts. The bigger problem with it is the budget does nothing to address the underlying causes of this inflation. So for example, you know that the rents, the energy crisis. We have extreme energy shocks in the East Coast here,
which is pushing up an energy inflation. So look, look, you know there's a little bit of ins and out. Obviously, I don't think the coalition would want the federal government to abandon the Stage three tax cuts. They're obviously going
to be inflationary as well. So look, I think the federal government needs to do a lot to help the RBA out on the policy front, so that is to cut immigration and also fix the energy market because we are paying extraordinary energy prices in Australia despite the fact that we are an energy superpower. We should have the cheapest energy costs in the world. I think those are the bigger issues.
In terms of productivity. I mean, we've only got about ten seconds. But what should the government be doing very quickly?
Pair back the The NIS is an absolute productivity drain.
Yeah, and that is going to be the biggest cos burden on the budget moving forward, no question. All right, Leith van Onldsen, thank you very much for your insights tonight.
Now I'm going to be off for a few weeks.
Danika de Georgia will be filling in, so don't miss the show. Keep watching at eight o'clock, but just a bit of an annual leave. So thank you very much for your company tonight. And right now he's poor Murray