Good evening, and that was Peter Dutton delivering his Budget reply speech, his vision for the nation if he becomes Prime Minister. Some major announcements there and it sets the stage for one high stakes political battle. The Prime Minister is now set to visit the Governor General at Yarralumla tomorrow morning and we'll have full coverage of this speech
and the political contest on the show tonight. Now, this is a battle between alban Easy promising tax cuts worth five dollars a week from next July and Peter Dutton pledging fourteen dollars a week off your petrol prices. This is the battlefield.
Now.
There were four big policies unveiled by Peter Dutton in his Budget reply speech just now. Firstly he said he'd introduce legislation to lower energy prices, then laws that would lower immigration and build more homes for Australians. He'd have the Keeping Australians Safe Bill, that's national security and guaranteed funding for health, education and essential services. Now we're going to go through some of these big announcements that I'm going to have full coverage on the show tonight. Ross
Greenwood and Tom Connell's standing by Bronwyn Bishop too. Now, on energy, Peter Dutton announced a national gas plan. This was a big announcement tonight. He said Australians are paying some of the highest power prices in the world. Now we already know about his nuclear policy, but here Dutton just spoke about gas.
And he said it's key to keeping the lights on.
Australia has an abundant supply of natural gas and he wants to ramp up domestic gas production. He spoke about fast tracking projects that are ready to go, harving approval times and defunding the activist led Environmental Defender's Office. He's also going to invest in critical gas infrastructure to increase the gas pipeline and storage capacity.
Have a look.
His plan will prioritize to mister gas supply, address shortfalls and reduce energy prices for Australians. This is all about ensuring Australian gas is for Australians. We will immediately introduce an East Coast gas reservation. This will require a proportion between fifty to one hundred pedadules with spot cargo exports to be delivered to the domestic market. This will secure an additional ten to twenty percent of these coast demand gas which would otherwise be exported for use in other
markets by consumers in those countries. But our gas needs to be first and foremost for our people.
And dark and claim that would be a saving of around two hundred and sixty three billion dollars now. Immigration, this was a big area for the opposition leader. He's tonight linked housing with immigration. He outlined the problem it's one you all know about that Albin Eazy has run a big Australia program with a million new migrants in his first two years in office, but then Labour failed to build a single new house under its ten billion
dollar housing fund. Well tonight, Dutnan has said that he'd cut the permanent migration program.
By twenty five percent.
Now.
He didn't put a figure in his speech, but he has previously said that he'd bring down net overseas migration to one hundred and sixty thousand a year. This compares to Labour's figure which is currently at three hundred and thirty five thousand a year.
Now.
On housing, Duttan said that first home buyers will be able to access up to fifty thousand dollars from their superannuation for home deposit. This is already a highly popular policy with young voters. Now he also spoke other areas help about incentivizing junior doctors to workers GPS. To address the shortage, he announced an extra four hundred million dollars for youth mental health services. Now on Tuesday night, we didn't hear Treasurer Jim Chalmers focus on defense or national
security issues like anti semitism and his budget speech. Now this shows the different priorities from Labour to the Coalition because Dutton just now spoke very strongly about funding and strengthening national security. Now here when he speaks about crime, national security and anti Samitism. This was one of the strongest parts of his speech.
During my travels across the country, Australians tell me they've never been more worried about crime and division in our community. It started with the Prime Minister's Voice referendum, which sought to divide our country by ancestry and race. He then left a vacuum of leadership following the crime wave in Elie Springs and the anti semitism on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. All too often the Prime Minister
is too late and too equivocal. This government has released three hundred hardcore ominals from immigration to tens into the community, with more than a third having reoffended against Australian citizens. It granted tourist visas to three thousand people from a terrorist controlled warzone, conducted without security checks that should have been put in place. It's failed to deter people smugglers
trying to reach our shores by illegal boats. It's turned a blind eye when our military personnel have been endangered, and it didn't stand up for our country when Chinese communist warships entered our waters without notice.
Now, Dartan is right to focus on crime and this sense of insecurity because too many Australians are worried about life at the moment, whether it's youth crime in Queensland, home invasions in Melbourne, anti Semitism in Melbourne and Sydney, or the crime wave in our springs. This is a major issue for many voters now. Darton also spoke about what he called moral political leadership that he said he'd provide and he says this is necessary to restore law and order.
We also heard him speak.
About strength strengthening bail laws to stop domestic violence offenders having national knife crime laws stopping the votes and got a very popular reaction from his colleagues deporting criminals who aren't Australian citizens. And he also spoke about one of the outcomes from our Sky News Antisemitism summit.
We will establish a dedicated antisemitism task force to turn the tide of this scourge of hatred.
Of course, that's incredibly welcome news that. On defense, he said he will invest significant funding. He said it would be an election announcement to come over the coming weeks and he didn't make that there this evening now. Dutton also painted the picture of the future he'd deliver for Australia and he explained how difficult life has been for voters,
particularly with the cost of living crisis. He said that rents are up eighteen percent under the Albenzy government, housing up fourteen percent, groceries up thirty percent, electricity up thirty two percent, insurance up thirty five percent, and he promised that he'd be able to bring this all down as he tackles inflation. He also committed to making some savings
in the budget. He said he would scrap the twenty billion dollar, rewiring the Nation Fund, the ten billion dollar Housing Australia Future Fund that hasn't built a single home. He said he'd get rid of the sixteen billion dollars of production tax credits for green hydrogen and critical minerals. He'd also makes seven billion dollars in savings from actsing forty one thousand he says camera based public servants that have been hired under the Labor government.
Now.
Dutton argued that this election is critical for the future of Australia.
But this election does matter more than others in recent history. It is a sliding doors moment for our nation. A return to Albaneza government in any form won't just be another three bleak years. More economic mistakes will take a lot longer to recover from. Setbacks will be set in stone, and our prosperity will be damaged for decades to come. But you have the power to change the path our
country is on. You have the ability to reverse decline and you have the opportunity to get our country back on track.
Now, as I said, the Prime Minister is set to visit the Governor.
General in the morning and call the election.
Now we know that one of the biggest battles in this campaign will be Dutton's fuel excise versus Albanese's coffee shot tax cut.
Now, the fuel excise.
Has been subject I can tell you now it has been subject to focus group research.
The Liberals have.
Tested this magnificantly extensively before announcing it, and it's very popular in the outer suburban areas, the seats that the Coalition needs to win. It's not as popular in the inner city metropolitan areas. Now, this is in my view high risk for the Coalition to oppose tax cuts in an election campaign, no question. This is a high risk strategy that are shocked many on both sides of politics today.
But Peter Dutton is confident he'll be able to convince voters that his petrol price relief is worth more than the five dollars tax cut that comes into effect in fifteen months time. Now, Dutton's policy means paying around fourteen dollars less in petrol a week based on a fifty five liter tank. Now, he sharpened his key attack over this in Question Time today.
The Prime Minister has caused a lot of pain to Australian families over the last three years. I'm going to join with me in cutting the price of petrol and diesel to save trainees, pensioners and families up to twenty eight dollars a week instead of me seventy cent a day tax cut which doesn't even come in for fifteen months now.
Alban Easy would usually allow a week for his budget to be sold across the country, but the headlines have been mostly negative, focusing on the decade of deficits, a trillion dollars in debt and a tax cut the size of a cup of coffee. So this time tomorrow we will be in an election campaign and at this point either side can win. Darton is strength strengthening his position in suburban areas, while Labour's vote has cemented in the
metropolitan areas. This election is genuinely up for grabs right now, despite what the polls say.
The battle will.
Be intense, the spin will be excruciating, and will be here every night.
To call it out.
Okay, let's get into the coverage and reaction for Bud Dutton's budget reply speech tonight and let's bring in now sky News political reporter Tom Connell and Sky News Business editor Ross Greenwood. I've still got Robin Bishop Basil Zamplers and Pauline Hansen or coming up ross.
Great to see you. What were your main takeouts from Dutton's speech.
There's no doubt the energy piece was the biggest one there because that's the one that can have the most significant impact on the prices that Australians pay. Energy prices have gone through the roof. When you've got government having to step in to basically underwrite the price that energy costs people, you know that there's something wrong with the system. And yet despite the fact that Australians know we have plenty of energy, and yet these whole transformation to renewables
simply has come at a significant cost to Australians. And that cost is not just in the price that households are paying, but it's actually long term in the price that Australia pays in terms of business being driven over. And so by effectively saying that we are going to direct more gas from Queensland into the local market rather than being exported, there is a conversation that Peter Dutton, as a Prime Minister, would have to have with some
of those customers of that gas. But the reality is that many of those customers have been dropping their demand for Australian gas in recent times. So this means there's potentially some sort of gas coming to the system that would power between two and a quarter and four and a half million households. That's how much gas he's calling to go into the local system to drive down the wholesale price of gas from around fourteen dollars pergocajuel down to ten.
And he'd need to work with the States on this as well, presumably Tom Connell. These two speeches we've heard this week from Jim Chalmers and our Peter Dutton, very different speeches. What stood out for you from Dutton's speech tonight.
I won't go over too much old ground. I do think number one with a bullet was gas. There's a
lot to answer a whennex exactly. It starts as he's spoken to gas companies for example, and is there maybe a quid pro quo that if they're a bit worse off in the short term, him talking about really speeding up development if he can get agreement with the States, as you alluded to, might be the payoff places like Narra Brye for example, that could be ready pretty soon if things are actually getting to train I'll pick out a couple of things that might be a bit different Shari.
One was public servants. Now, no surprise, forty one thousand public servants, he says, we'll go. He did say camera based. Now, the overall number that are employed here in Camera is eighty thousand, so if half of the camera based public servants go, that'd be pretty dramatic, you know, as a now Camberra and it had actually one in six of our overall workers in the city. Now, I'm not saying the coalition cares about seats here, but I wonder if they're not actually all.
Camera based there around the country.
And the other one I found really interesting was alluding to John Howard.
Now this doesn't surprise me.
I don't know.
John Howard is very respected amongst plenty in the electorate. But I do find it interesting that, of course, the last time John Howard won an election was two thousand and four. So if you think of the age of voters, then you're talking about people at are forty plus. Now that's about half the voters in Australia have never voted in an election where John Howard actually won an election. So I think it's not a surprise that we used in the campaign. He's respected, but is he going to
perhaps not so much alienate himself with voters. But is he so much a guiding star still in twenty twenty five, when many voters would have seen at the very end of his career. So just a couple of interesting elements of the speech. We do have more detail to come on this. On migration, for example, what's the permanent migration figure going to be? For example? And also defense spending that's going to be a big one. An interesting part
of that as well. Defense share it's not people might not think it's a retail issue.
This is becoming really big.
I understand in various focus groups they're saying defense is important to them, they want money spent on it. They're now concerned about their own security, a sort of almost bread and butter issue.
And the other thing that we still are yet to see detail on is you know, the projections that they're total spending, the total deficits and debt that they're forecasting as well. Ross, I want to ask you about what is shaping up to be the biggest debate at the moment, the tax cuts from alban Easy and what Peter Dutton has announced just this evening the petrol price relief, which if it's an average car, will be around fourteen dollars
a week. Now, what's your view on how I genuinely was shocked to find out that they would be opposing the tax cuts and not delivering a more generous package of their own. What do you think about how hard it will be for them to sell this message.
It's interesting people do not like the amount of tax that governments take out of petrol, There's no doubt about that, and so as a result, that's sending a message that that affects everybody, even people who don't pay tax. Remember the pensioners drive cars and don't pay tax, and so from that point of view, it more broadly across the community. That's the reason why it's smart policy. The issue there is really it's temporary. So all of this is temporary.
What you didn't hear from either the budget and you didn't hear it from Peter Dutton is the strategy to get Australia going again. Now, the energy policy goes partly there, but there is nothing there. And this is where again, where is the vision? Where is the drive for Australia what you got ab out of Peter Dutton. There was perhaps some more traditional Australia values going to the education system, going to defense of the country, which are all very
basic and important things. But where's the drive to get Australia going again? And that's what I think was really missing from both sides of politics in the budget and budget in reply, it.
Was good to hear Dutton though, speak about values tonight and more of a vision for the country, which I think was probably has been missing from the Alberneazy government in general. All Right, Tom Connell, Ross Greenwood, thank you very much for your thoughts on that speech tonight. Let's bringing now One Nation Leader Pauline Hannah. Now, Pauline, you've been calling for decades now to lower the immigration rate. This is something Peter Dutton has outlined this evening.
He hasn't quite.
Put a figure, though we have heard before that he's indicated he'd like to see between one hundred and forty and one hundred and sixty thousand migrants come to Australia. Do you think this will be a very popular area for voters for.
Him most definitely, I think will if he looks at one hundred and forty one hundred and sixty thousand. Dot'll be fine. We're targeting one hundred and thirty thousand until we actually rain in. The oversupply of migrants we've had come in Australia's put it such a strain on our infrastructure and our housing. It's very important to lower it for a few years till we can manage it a lot better. So if he reduces that, all he said was reducing it by twenty five percent from what figure.
So immigration is one of the biggest issues satisfacting the strands because of the housing, and we don't have housing for Austrands here. I was pleased to see that he picked up my policy about reducing the excise tax on fuel because that was my policy I released in February, so he's picked it up, which I'm pleased about. The house in the issue, Yes, he's right. The Labor government
have built one house, the ten billion dollar fund. But if Peter Dutton's wanting to get rid of the twenty billion into rewiring Australia and other aspects of the hydrogen why not get rid of the Climate Department.
We don't need it.
Why didn't he say to get out of the Paris Agreement. This is destroying our country, our prosperity, and I think that we need to really look at that. And this is the difference with one nation. We will hold them to account if the Labor gets in back in government with the Greens, which I hope they don't because they have destroyed our economy in the future of this nation, but we will hold them to account, whereas we will
also hold the Liberal Party to account. Now I think that Peter Dutton delivered a very good speech his future for Australia, but they have to be held to account that they will deliver it, and one nation will do that.
Pauline, I just want to pick up there and when you said that it was actually your policy to have a petrol price of petrol fuel excise, petrol price relief, I didn't realize that was your policy. How do you think voters will receive that compared with the tax cut, Because we know that Labour's going to go out there and say that the Coalition has voted against a tax cut, they voted against cost of living relief.
That'll be the line that the Prime Minister says every single day of the election campaign.
So you know do you think voters are going to understand that the that the fuel excise would be worth more in their pocket depending on where they live and if they have a tient than the tax cut.
Yep.
Labor is going to be very good at their campaigning and their advertising to get across the strans that and they did this with the Medicare scare campaign last time around. So what they're already putting out the advertising is the Libs want to cut your education, cut your health, but they don't want to cut your tax relief. So this
is the scare campaign that's already going out there. So I think that don't They passed the budget measures last night, but they cut but they didn't agree to the tax cuts. The stupid part about it. They should have actually be seeing that they've given the Labor government ammunition to use against them in their advertising coming up to the selection.
That's all in the minds of people.
We want tax relief, we want to have relief from the cost of living, and it's going to be hard for them to get the message across. Labor do far better in marketing, So that's why I.
Supported the tax cuts.
Yes, we do need tax cuts, but one nation is put out there to income split which will save a household you know, far better money if they looked at that and cut back to your government spending.
Yeah all right, Pauline Hanson really appreciate you joining us on There's a big news night tonight.
Thank you for your time.
Think she's right, Laby is better at retail politics, at least at the moment than the current front bench.
But we'll see.
Peter Dutton has the fight in him. He knows the election is up for grabs. Now we are going to get more budget coverage and more analysis on Peter Dutton's reply speech throughout the show, but before we get to that, I want to bring you some major news tonight. Ben Robert Smith has made an urgent request for a retrial of his war crimes defamation case. He claims he was the subject of a miscourage of justice on the basis that the Nine network unlawfully obtained his confidential and privileged
legal strategy. Now, the war veteran has also tonight spoken for the first time about the shock audio recordings that we broadcast for the first time here on Monday, where journalist Nick mackenzie claims to have reached his ethics by obtaining part of Robert Smith's legal strategy. Now, late this afternoon, Robert Smith filed an application to the Full Federal Court to amend the grounds of his appeal and seek for his entire defamation finding to be thrown out.
He is asking for there to be a new trial. Now.
His legal team claims there's been a miscarriage of justice based on the audio recordings where we can hear that Mackenzie claims that Robert Smith's ex wife, Emma and her friend Dannielle Scott briefed him on Robert Smith's legal strategy, and he also describes Nick Mackenzie describes.
This as being helpful to their case.
Now, the legal application that's been submitted to the Full Federal Court just late this afternoon, here's what it says. In the circumstances the nature of the information improperly obtained and its concealment until after the conclusion of the trial and appeal, it is in the interests of justice, both as between the parties and more broadly in relation to
the administration of justice, that the matter be retried. Now in the statement, well in his own statement, so Ben Robert Smith has spoken for the first time about this audio recording, and he said that his lawyers were seeking leave to rely upon additional evidence, including an audio recording in which a journalist admits to being briefed with my confidential legal strategy, as well as separate evidence that my emails were improperly accessed over one hundred times in twenty
twenty and twenty twenty one. Those are Ben Robert Smith's words. He also said, have listened to their strong words. He said, I have continued to fight for justice throughout this process, and today that fight continues.
He says.
As a soldier, I spent the majority of my adult life serving this country and putting my life on the line defending our rights as Australians. He says, all I ever asked, all I ever asked for was a fair process where the truth and justa can prevail. Now this is going to be explosive. It is now up to the full Federal Court to decide whether or not they will grant this request. That will we will potentially hear that in the next week or two weeks or three weeks.
That's going to be the process.
Now the Federal Court will determine whether it will allow the amendments to the appeal and for Robert Smith to rely on the fresh evidence of the audio recording.
Now, this is a story I'm going.
To keep following and pursuing, and I'm going to speak to another war veteran, Heston Russell, about this later in the show tonight, and he is scathing of how the media prosecutes the case against veterans rather than leaving it to the authorities.
That's all coming up on the show tonight.
All right, this is an exciting evening the night before the election is called. And after the break, I'm going to get more analysis from Brunwin Bishop and Basil zemplus plus uts launch is an in investigation after an academic says he wants to make Jews uncomfortable on campus. That's
all coming up. Welcome back, And by the way, if you want to get some more information on Ben Roberts Smith's request for a retrial and why he's claiming there's been a miscarriage of justice, my full story is on the Sky News websites ahead to skynews dot com dot au nine's response is in that story as well.
But let's get some more now.
Reaction to Dutton's budget reply speech with former Speaker of the House Browan Bishop and new Liberal leader in Wa Basil Zemplus.
First time I've.
Introduced you with that title, Basil, and congratulations.
Of course I'm being the Wa Liberal leader now Bronwin.
Thank you.
The election is going to be called tomorrow morning. Peter Dutton goes into this behind now he is considered the underdog in the fight. He's had a bit of a soft few weeks. Where do you think he's at right now?
He's back on the game. This policy has such rich with regard to the cup of coffee tax cut of the government. Unless you're earning eighteen two hundred dollars, you get nothing because you're not paying any tax. And this applies. This benefit applies to whole households. That applies to stay at home mum or dad who's binding the kids. It applies to someone who's a carer who hasn't got another income.
It applies to a whole range of people. That underpins the cost of transmitting fruit from the orchard to the supermarket shelf because it all has to be carried. Every aspect, the cost of fuel, the cost of energy is a fundamental impitting.
This is a better policy than it.
Far better. Yeah, fifteen months to wait for a cup of coffee. I don't think so. And I think the reality is that the idea was for mister Chalmers, the snake charmer, to go around skiting. This was my idea, and I'm the better person for the prime ministership than this silly or alban easy guy. Look at me, I
did it all and I'll save your seats. Well, it's backbart on him rather badly, and he didn't expect that Dutin would come back a and say it's not worth wasting seventeen billion dollars on when that money can be spent to give real relief the whole households of people, the people living in the western suburbs who have to travel so far and all their tolls to pay, people in the country who have to go fifty k's to
work and back, and that that's a close journey. All those people will benefit from the cut in the excise, which every one of us are conscious about. Time I go past the petrol station, I'm making the comparison where am I going to buy my petrol and the other thing? And Basil, it's lovely to see you we're finally to get what you've got, a gas reservation policy for the East Coast. We've been so slow to catch up the boy do we need it.
A lot of work of course to get that over the line. Basil.
The Liberal Party has traditionally been the party of lower taxes. We're going to see the coalition oppose these tax cuts as slim as they are for the first time.
They are worth seventeen billion dollars.
Do you think this position that they're taking is going to be a gift to labor in this campaign.
I'm not sure that it is.
No.
I think this is about getting the balance right and I think that fuel excise is going to be super important. Mums and dads struggling with cost of living. Are fourteen dollars a week saving off the back of that six billion dollar commitment over twelve months is really significant. That's fourteen dollars every week on people's fuel bills. People will add that up, Mums and dads will be adding that up around Australia now and saying that is a significant saving.
And when you add on top of that the commitment to help mental health, the commitment to energy and making gas more freely available, which will ultimately bring energy prices down. And the other one I really like the fifty million dollars for food charities. This goes to the people that need help every day Australians and I think that will rejoice in this budget from Peter Dutton.
I actually think it was smart for Dutton to compare himself to John Howard. It shows the model of leader he wants to be so. And the other point on the on the fuel x ice, which by the way should just be called a petrol tax cut or a petrol price relief because otherwise a lot of people won't
understand it. But I think the other point is is that if you're a two car household, of course that's worth twenty eight dollars a week, depending on how much you're driving and where you're going from and too, and of course it's more than that if your car is bigger than the standard fifty five.
Leader.
Now you know, we are focusing on the budget apply speech tonight, but I couldn't not cover this story because it was just so outrageous. The University of Technology Sydney is now investigating shocking allegations of comments that were made at a rally on campus.
Now, an anti Zionist Jewish.
Academic Peter Slezak, who does not work at UTS, can be heard in video saying that Jews should feel uncomfortable and it's our duty to make them uncomfortable.
Have a listen.
I believe a.
Brother what she says.
Jews should feel uncomfortable, and it's our to make them uncomfortable, and that includes.
The follower of course.
Now browin, you know, I think this is really distressing to hear an adult, and I know Peter Slezak, I've had run ins with him my entire career as a journalist, but I think it's really distressing for him to say that Jews who support Israel, which I assume is what he's saying, should feel uncomfortable on campuses.
Well, likewise, why are we still having those demonstrations on campuses. They should have been stopped. And it's all the flow on from alban Easy attitude to that original demonstration anti Jewish demonstration at the Opera House right after the dreadful events of October seven. It just can't be fixed up by saying we can't listen to this one or we can't listen to that one. It is fundamental. They have to stop on the campuses and that means Vice chancellors
have to take action. And are we watching very very keenly to see what this investigation brings about and what are the consequences of that investigation.
Yeah, I think this is a really worrying issue.
And the last dad, thank goodness, there's Peter Dutton saying there will be a hospels Well, we will actually do something about it as the Prime minister.
Exactly.
I was so pleased that he mentioned it, yes in his speech tonight. And again it shows the difference between the Albanese's government's approach to what the Director General of ASIO has said is the greatest current threat to life issue facing our nation, and yet we didn't hear anything about it from the Albanizi.
Government this week.
Now, I just have to give Peter Slazac a right reply. He says that criticizing Israel is not hate speech and not anti Semitism, and it's not criticizing Jews for their identity. It's not for their Jewishness, it's the fact that they're.
Supporting crimes in their names.
Obviously disagree with those statements personally as a strong Zionist myself, I am not supporting crimes because Israel is not committing
any crimes. All right, from a bishop and Basil Zemplers, thank you very much for your time tonight, and so we didn't get to you on Basil, but we've got a lot still to come on the show tonight after the Ray Keston Russell to our bombshell revelations on nine Star journalist Nick McKenzie that Ben Robert Smith is now calling for a retrial, claiming there's been a miscarriage of justice, and Fox News war reporter Benjamin Hall, who was gravely injured by a Russian missile, will join me with his
inspiring story.
That's all coming up. Welcome back.
Well.
On Monday night's show, we reported bombshell revelations that nine Star reporter Nick McKenzie was caught on tape claiming he'd engaged in unethical behavior during the famous war crimes case against Ben Robert Smith. Well I spoke with former Special Forces major Heston Russell a little earlier. Western Russell, thank you very much for your time. Look, just this afternoon, Ben Roberts Smith has filed an application in the full Federal Court for his entire defamation case to be heard again,
for there to be a retrial. He's claiming there's been a miscarried of justice. From your position as a veteran, do you think he was treated unfairly.
Well GEESHAA yeah, this is pretty extraordinary stuff. I mean, for starters, were dealing in a civil defamation trial, so we've not even dealing with the criminal elements of this. So if there's been new evidence brought to light by this, pretty interesting and explosive tape in my opinion, including those mentioned.
You know, Nick mackenzie.
Himself stood at the end of the court at the end of the trial, outside the court saying this is about truth and this is about justice.
Well, if there's been any truth or.
Justice that's been missed or circumvented, absolutely this should be reopened and both shides should want that to be reopened in the pursuit of truth and justice.
In the recording, Nick mackenzie claims to have breached his own ethics. He said it's put him, in other words, but a difficult position, and says again in other words that his lawyers would be most displeased with him. But then in the statement from nine publicly they say there's been no breach of ethics at all.
How do you think they maintain this position?
Or who's telling the truth?
Where does the line of ethical journalism inn and where does the law begin? Perhaps this is what also needs to be analyzed by this case being reopened. Is Nick mackenzie simply perhaps lying or misleading these people in order to gain their favor to provide testimony? Is that actually ethical conduct and investigative journalism? And at what point does Channel nine able to put out a statement so quickly
without having looked into this themselves? I mean, how quick did they release that statement after you broke the story?
Well, I put the questions to them on the Monday morning and came back to us in the afternoon with the statement.
Gotcha understood?
They might have been aware of it.
So who's telling the truth?
Says Nick saying that he did breach his ethics? Or is Channel nine or is it somewhere in between? Or is the law superseding this line of ethical journalism? And does that line need to be reevaluated.
The broader question here is media scrutiny of veterans' actions when in combat zones. Now, this has been a very controvercial area.
The journalists would say that they it's in the public interest.
They have a duty to make sure Australian soldiers operate.
Above and beyond reproach.
But you're saying that this shouldn't be up to the media to prosecute.
What is it that you're calling for here?
Yeah, this is my biggest issue. These sanctimonious lawyers are these sanctimonious journalists who are happy to stand there and say this is about truth, this is about justice, having never stepped onto a battlefield themselves. We've just finished a raw commission to defense and veterans suicide because they're losing more veterans to suicide than we did in combat, and we still yet to fully appreciate the unique circumstances of combat.
And having been there on deployment on one of those same deployment as Ben's, with the Special Operations Task Group conducting the operations we did, there's so much information that is not captured by a civil defamation court. Ben had to bring these proceedings himself to clear his name. He's never been charged or convicted as a war criminal, yet the media is allowed to call him that because they've met the evidence thresholds that are so much lower for civil defamation.
When I spoke with you last year, just after finishing my own defamation.
Court case against the ABC, I started a campaign for this Veterans Protection Act. Since then, over eighty thousand Australians have signed this Veterans Protection Act. And when I went down to Parliament earlier this year, this.
Petition that says that if there are allegations that should be dealt with through the courts not the media, is that in essence what it's say.
It basically says that any accusations or allegations coming from any combat operations of wartime should be required to be tried and tested at the evidence of truth beyond reasonable doubt in a criminal court by juries of our juries of our peers, and that individuals' names should not be able to be published as a part of that.
When we deployed.
Afghanistan, when Ben ROMs Smith and my self deployed on Special Forces operations were granted protected identalist status that isn't continued after service. There's this giant gap at the moment where politicians are behoven to these investgative journalists and more than happy to paint people as war criminals, only being able to say that at the standards of evidence required in civil prosecution, not till the standards required to actually
provide convictions. And again I'll go back to Nick mackenzie standing outside the court saying, this is about.
Truth, this is about justice.
Ben Robert Smith has never been charged alone convicted as a war criminal. If this guy is serious about truth and justice, he would work with police in order to meet the thresholds of evidence for a conviction. But instead we're at point where they can publish stories and print books and get away with calling this guy something that he has never had to even be charged over.
Just very quickly because we're almost out of time.
But going through a process like this in the media, and you went to court against the ABC, you won, and there were quite atrocious findings against the ABC, which we've covered at length on this program in other media outlets as well.
But you know, you were extremely emotional.
It was hard for you to fight that bad or it took years for you to clear your name.
I mean, I don't want to turn this on to me.
But this is the whole part where we go away onto this operations. We're trained prepared, ready to go in and do so willingly. The fight that I had to personally go through back here, and I've also known the fight that Bennett's family have to go through back here is harder than any combat I ever faced, particularly at the time.
Where where is the Department of Defense?
You know, where are those institutions and organizations that are set up to ment to support our veterans after service. Where are the people that we served and fought under on those operations at a time when people are too afraid to take on elements of the media unless you can afford to do so yourself. And I know, and you would know that so many everyday Australians out there
and those watching this program think exactly this. And it's time for whoever gets into this next government to take notice because people are getting fed up.
All right, Heston Russell, thank you very much for your time.
Thank you, Sherry.
Okay, quick break now, and then we'll be back with an inspiring Fox News reporter that's in a moment.
Welcome back.
Well, let's bring in now one of the journalists I admit I am most in this entire world. Fox News World correspondent Benjamin Hall Ben so great to see you again on the show, and congratulations.
On your new book.
You're second talking about your survival of the Russian missile attack.
While you're in Ukraine. Tell us how this book is different from your first.
Yeah, sure, I'd great to see you again.
Look, the first book really laid at what happened in Ukraine three years ago. It talked about the evacuation, talked about the attack itself. You know, it's focused on to the deaths of my four colleagues and how I managed to get through the initial recovery. But you know what was fascinating is the hardest part actually began when I got home. I thought that the seven months in hospital would be the most difficult moment, that that would be when I had to learn to walk again recover.
But it's when you take.
Injuries like this back home, you bring them back to your family, that you realize how much life has changed.
And what I write in this book is.
How even when times seem almost impossible, that me, my family, colleagues around me, we found a way to get through it.
I write really about resilience.
I write about other people who have gone through difficult moments, and I think that the key is that you can get stronger through struggle and you must never let any adversity hold you back.
Yeah.
So your book's called Resolute, and as you say, it's about resilience, And honestly, your resilience is utterly remarkable. Your positive attitude is just incredible when you're dealing with Can you tell our viewers you know you lost half a leg?
Will you tell us of.
I mean, yes, you know I lost my right leg and left foot. I see one eye, I use one hand, and it's very badly burnt. But you know, there's something remarkable about resilience. And I've covered conflict for fifteen years and I've seen people sadly injured the way I was injured, And I always ask myself, what would it be like if it happened to me? How would I react? And then you know, very sadly, it did happen to me.
But when your back is up against a war, when you've got no other choice, there is such resilience inside all of us that many people don't even know about. And again that's the purpose of this book is telling people that if you trust that resilience is inside you, you can get through anything. And look for me, times are really difficult. But look, I think the same is true whether you're going through financial problems or family problems,
or you have anxiety. You break down problems, you know that on the other side of them there will be something that is good. And that is how you can defeat the odds.
Ben, I've often thought about you when we're here. Donald Trump and JD. Vance describe Vladimir Putin in quite glowing terms. How does this make you feel? Giving you a lucky to leave with your life?
Yeah, and you know, I'm looking and watching very closely, and I speak to many people in Ukraine all the time, and look, there is a shared belief that they all want peace.
They want to find some way to peace.
They just hope that the negotiations moving forward will be fair and won't be sort of you know, give a rusher a better side. So look, I just have to hope that we're at the beginning of these negotiations as we move forward, that both sides will have to make some concessions, but that we reach a place that settles this war.
But certainly.
President Trump is someone who has a different kind of diplomacy to any other kind of president that we've seen and you've just got to hope that by the end it is something that gives Ukraine sovereignty over much of its land.
We've got about thirty forty seconds left. But since we spoke last, you've welcomed a new baby, another girl to the world.
Now I have, I've got four girls. Now. She's called Sage.
And look, at the end of my book, I write a letter to her and I talk about how we live in a broken, crack divisive world, but that if you believe in a strong moral backbone, that's something all of us can share. And look, family gets you through everything. And I get very lucky to have family in Australia. And I know my in laws at the moment, Kim and Scarlet are watching, and so I want to say thank you to them for everything they did, because you
don't get through difficult moments unless you come together. If you know someone who's having a difficult time, pick up the phone for them, reach out to them.
It helps so much. And I was at the receiving end of that. And I suppose what you can try and do is pasts that on too others.
Indeed, family is everything, and you have a beautiful family and incredible wife Ben. Great to have you on the show. I'll see you all at home Monday at eight. And right now, here's Paul Murray.