News.
This is Shari.
Good evening and welcome to the program. I'm Caleb Bond filling in for Shari tonight. What's coming up on the show The truth between Israel and Hesbella in full effect with hopes of calm in the Middle East tonight. But what happens next? Also tonight, Lydia Thorpe suspended following a wild outburst in the Senate was just one of the dramatic scenes that unfolded today. Liberal Senator Holly Hughes will
join me to break that down. Plus how out of touch can the ABC chairman get Kim Williams unloaded on the world's most popular podcaster, as the National Broadcaster's Radio Ratings Tank. My take on that in a moment. But first, the Albaneze government has become quite adept at cooking the books to make the numbers look better. That's of course what they did with the three hundred dollars subsidy for power bills. It doesn't actually reduce the price of power
at all. It's a payment to power companies so they can knock some money off the bill that they send you, which conveniently means that when inflation is calculated, power bills have gone down and so inflation will go down, but the actual cost of the commodity hasn't changed. You might call it creative accounting. Well, Deloitte Access Economics has exposed another dodgy way that Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi and Treasurer Jim Charmers of course, problem with Bishop who's on this
program on a Tuesday, calls him the stake charmer. They're
diddling the numbers. It's called off budget spending, which is where the government spends more money by declaring it as an investment ie. That money goes through a government business or lending scheme, which means it isn't included in the underlying budget number, which is the one that we talk about on Budget Night, surplus and deficit, etc. The Financial Review reported today that based on Deloitte numbers, off budget spending will go through the roof to eighty seven point
one billion dollars over the next four years. Now take a look at this graph the AFR RAN. This shows the off budget spending for the past couple of decades and what Deloitte projects will be spent in the future. That's the red bit there. As you can see it wasn't a thing before the NBN came along, and for the most part was below ten billion dollars a year after that, but it will explode to record levels under Albanzi and Charmers, and this shows exactly what that means.
The federal budget is actually about twenty billion dollars worse off a year than what Charmers will tell you on budget Night, very tricky. A large portion of this is student loans, as you can see here, and things like the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Snowy Hydro and the Housing Future Fund. Now the student loan number, of course has increased because the Albanesi government is for giving sixteen billion
dollars worth of student debt. So in effect, the government uses this money, which isn't really counted in the budget, to achieve populist promises to buy off voters like writing off student debt, and to achieve policy ends like funding
renewable energy. And because this money is spent directly on things or putting money in people's hands, it is directly inflationary and this is exactly what Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullock has warned about high government spending fuels inflation economist Chris Richardson told the AFR that discrepancy between the underlying and headline figures had encouraged politicians to hide their trash there.
He said, it's reached a point where the headline balance is now becoming the figure that deserves more attention than the underlying figure, and that is deliberately why they use the other figure. The Center for Independent Studies also blew the whistle on this last week in an excellent paper
by former Treasury official Gene Tunney. In his report, he says that overall, off budget activities expand the reach of government, are bad for transparency and new risks to government balance sheets, and ultimately can result in lower productivity and living standards. Off budget spending contributes to higher debt and interest payments, potentially leading to higher taxes, which can reduce productivity in
living standards. It also may exacerbate inflation. He writes that much of the off budget spending in recent years has been concerning, and that it will become more common as quote a way for politicians to appear to be responding to society's challenges while minimizing the direct budget impact, even though they bring significant risks onto the balance sheet. The report's conclusion says that taxpayers suffer through underperforming sorry investments
of taxpayer funds. It is bad for accountability and transparency and makes the RBA's monetary policy task of controlling inflation more difficult. In other words, this off budget spending, this almost secret or hidden spending, if you like, under the guise of investment, makes it's harder for you to get an interest rate cut, all while the treasurer brags about how good is budget numbers are.
The Albanesi Labor government has delivered a second consecutive budget surplus.
We found savings in the budget.
We delivered a second surplus.
The big improvement is from less spending.
We have turned two big.
Liberal deficits into two big labored surpluses, bigger surplus, delivering back to back budget surpluses for the first time in nearly two decades.
It's easy to appear a good economic manager when you're pulling fiscal slights of hand, and that's effectively what the Albanzi government has mastered. I mean, they push spending off budget to hide from you what the books actually look like. They quote unquote reduce your power bill and the inflation numbers in the process by giving your money that you pay in taxes to your power company to essentially write us off the bill. No changing cost, but it is
a change in the numbers on the piece of paper. Now, if you're wondering why the ABC's viewership and listenership is going through the floor, well, actually you probably do know, because you're watching me instead of them for a reason. But just humor me for a moment. If you want to know why, then just listen to its chairman Kim Williams.
Today he was asked at the National Press Club about the Joe Rogan effect, referring to the massive popularity the biggest podcaster in the world and how the ABC should adapt to a modern market.
I'm not sure that I'm the right person to respond to that question. I am not a consumer or enthusiast about mister Rogan and his work. Shock, I am not one of the three billion, and I'm unlikely to be three billion and one anytime soon. I think people like mister Rogan pray on people's vulnerabilities. They pray on fear, they pray on anxiety, they pray on all of the
elements that contribute to uncertainty. In society, and they entrepreneur fantasy outcomes and conspiracy outcomes as being a normal part of social narrative.
So hang on a minute. The chairman of the National Broadcast, which has a large podcast, refuses to listen to one of the most popular sorry podcast hosts in the world. I mean, has he no curiosity? It's his job to listen to other people's products to know whether or not his is any good. And not that I want to be agist, but mister Williams is seventy two. Perhaps he just hasn't quite moved with the times to chair a
media company in the modern world. And how can he posit that Rogan is a conspiracy theorist when he doesn't even listen to him. I mean, he's clearly just read what someone else has said and taken it as gospel.
But it got worse.
I personally find it deeply repulsive, and to think that someone has such remarkable power in the United States is something that I look at him disbelief. I'm also absolutely in dismay that this can be a source of public entertainment when it's really treating the public as plunder for purposes that are really quite malevolent.
I mean, seriously, he just doesn't get it. Rogan has about eleven million listeners per episode. Meanwhile, the ABC's radio audience has been in free fall across most of the country all year. The ABC just doesn't get it, and it would seem they don't want to get it. Just keep going down the same road and we'll see how things turn out. Let's bring in now Liberal Senator Holly Hughes. Holly, welcome, got It was an interesting time in the Senate today,
wasn't it. Independent Senator Olidia Thorpe we found out this evening has been suspended from the Senate after she tore up motion papers and she stormed out of the chamber flipping the bird. This was after and you can see the photograph there, and there was this extraordinary meltdown from fat Payment over paul In Hanson's attempt to initiate an inquiry into her eligibility to be in Parliament due to her Afghan citizenship. Here's a bit of how it unfolded.
Because the documentation is not good enough, It would not be good enough for anyone else here in this place.
So why the protection racket is going on?
I don't know if that is not racist.
What is it?
Senator Hansen has worn the burker in this place.
Maybe it's time that she pack her burker and go to Afghanistan and.
Talk to the talib about this. I kept on giving you.
The benefit of the doubt, Senator Hansen.
Despite your repetitive attempts to be racist to anyone who.
Does not look like you.
You're not just vindictive, mean nasty.
You bring disgrace to the human race.
I think the look on the face of Ralph for Babet sitting behind Fatima payment there just about says at all. But I mean, this would have to be one of the most extraordinarily childish displays on the part of both Payment and Lydia Thorpe that I have ever seen in Australian Parliament.
So I actually feel like I need to take some ownership here. I was on chamber duty yesterday in the Ministerial seat when Pauline wanted to table the document with regards to Fatima payment. It had gone to all the whips the night before. Everyone had agreed that she would be allowed to table these documents, which did not mean Pauline would speak to them, and Marine Feruki actually did not give her leave and for those not obsessed with
Senate process, any senator can deny leave to speak. So Pauline, as she was walking out of the chamber, I said to well, well, why didn't you suspend standing orders? And she sort of looked at me and went, I means I can speak to it, can't I? And I went, oh, yes you can. So I kind of feel like I need to take some o ownership here to my part.
But it happened this morning, and having been someone who was struck out of the Senate by the High Court, mine was because apparently the election never ended in twenty sixteen, and therefore me taking a role meant that had officer profit under the Crown, and I was neligible to stand. There's a lot of us that have been through Section forty fours sitting in that place, and Senator Payment does have some serious questions to answer. She did not take
reasonable steps. She is not written to anyone, She has not endeavored in any official form to renounce her citizenship. But it is actually the Greens behavior, by purely and simply vindictiveness denying Senator Hanson from tabling documents has led to this whole frakka. But what happened with Senator Thought today was I have to say, one of the more disturbing things I've seen. She ripped up papers in Senator
Hanson's face and then threw them in her face. Now, I actually bumped into one of the press gallery photographers this afternoon and I said, oh, I guess we're seeing you later today because we knew the suspension motion was coming. But his comment may was thank goodness someone is doing something because the next thing she does, or the next thing that someone does, could potentially be physical. This is not acceptable in any workplace at all, and it is
completely unacceptable behavior. But we're talking about this tonight and the suspension is quite a momentous occasion, and the Greens opposed it, and I mean, it just shows their blatant hypocrisy. And I'm reasonably confident because, like you, Caleb, I love our sky viewers and I'm pretty sure none of them vote Green. But to check the grains, well, they're paying for a subscription unlike the ABC, to watch sensible opinion.
But the Greens oppose.
This, and they oppose this because Samainfall is due to have a private Senator's Members bill in tomorrow on the alleged genocide, but has from what I've heard and understand, around one hundred or more supporters coming for the senator members' bills. So, for those of us that know Lidiar, I think we can safely assume there will be some form of attempted entrance into the Senate because of this suspension. Under two oh three of the standing orders, the black Rod is
entitled to block her entrance. Now, the black Rod is a very big pseudo almost. I mean it's the staff. It's not a sword, but it's a big piece of gear. The Black Rod is entitled to hold her to that and not allow her entrance. So you know, who knows. Maybe she sets a fire up into the entrance to the chamber.
I mean, it's.
Just just don't know what this. No, no, you do not know what this woman.
It will be extraordinary seeing you tomorrow night. The conversation will be about what happens tomorrow. Yes, I cannot imagine Lydia is going to let this.
Snib and look, we know what Lydia Thorpe is like, the fact that she's even still there is just incredible. Holly Hughes, thank you so much for your time. Now, I know it might sound a bit like saying this guy is blue, but and you read Ridge Pole has found that Australians say the Alban Eazy government has the wrong priorities and that they are no better off since
the PM was elected. And for the first time, this poll says that the majority of people think Peter Dutton is ready to lead the country, which is well up from being twenty points behind a year ago. To discuss this and more, I'm joined now by former Victorian Liberal
Party president Michael Kroger and Sky News contributor Gary Hardgrave. Michael, I think we all sort of had this in the back of our head, certainly those of us here, all three of us certainly would have thought this, But we have it in black and white now that the majority of Australians know and feel that they have gone backwards under this government.
Well, there are eerie similarities between the political dynamic of play in Australia and that in America. There are some obvious differences, of course, which we all know, but there
are some serious parallels. And what Albanezi doesn't understand what these cosmopolitan inner city elites, these rootless cosmopolitans, as they call them, the wealthy, upper class left wing elite here in America don't understand is that the working middle class, the working class are actually very proud people, and they're very proud of their achievements. They're interested in personal security, which is their job, providing for their family, roof over
the head, for the kids, contributing to their community. And these people are proud and they don't want to be lectured to by Albanesi that they're dumb people without an education. You haven't got a university degree, Oh my goodness. You know, you don't go to the arts festivals, you don't watch the ABC, et cetera, et cetera. And for as long as Albo has lost the plot completely, which he has, and as part of the inner City, you know, Cambridg
Literati Labour's fortunes will continue to decline. And as I said, for weeks now, I think Dutton's favorite to win the election, and I think people are very comfortable with Peter Dutton coming in as prime minister.
Yeah. Well, this is the thing.
I mean a lot of people have criticized Upton for a long time for not being personable enough, and oh you know, people think he's bold and mortnal this sort of nonsense. And I have said for some time Gary that you just give him time and he will come into his own and people will compare him to Albanesi, and I'll go, Actually, this bloke looks like, sounds like, acts like a leader, and I think people have realized that now.
I've known Peter Dutton for thirty five years of it. As far as I'm concerned, he's a very personable bloke, a really terrific sense of humor. You know, he's just he's really very down to earth, although amazingly tall and look. I think the guy the times will suit him. And the point is that Peter is a bloke who's achieved things, but he doesn't act as though he is morally and intellectually superior to everybody else. And that is really the
type of people Michael's just talking about. They believe they are morally and intellectually superior to everybody else, and they lauded over us. They think that the smartest people in every room. Peter is a bloke who enters the room and wants to meet people, wants to listen to them, actually wants to relate to them, who actually sticks up for the trades, in the everyday doers, and that's the
sort of person I want as a Prime minister. I reckon a lot more Australians are warming to that idea on an hourly basis for acting.
Now, this is interesting. The Sydney Morning Herald was reporting today that environment, our Environment Minister, sorry Tanya Plibasic, about to secure a deal with the Greens last night to establish a federal environmental protection agency. This was, of course a promise that Labor made before the election, but the PM intervened at the last minute and canceled the deal because he was apparently worried it had given too much rope to the Greens and it had turned into an
election issue next year. And they'd apparently been so confident of a deal that journo's had been briefed to expect an announcement last night, but at the last minute Michael Albow comes through and says it's not happening.
Yeah, amazing.
But again, this is all about politics. This is all about seats in Western Sia. It's got nothing to do with the principle. He's been in favor of this principle four years now. He ran for election on this policy. But as soon as his pulses tell him there are seats at risk in Western Australia because of this, he'll lose three or four seats in WA. He's rung up and junk the policy. But this is typical of Albow.
There's no great principles involved any more. Everything's about politics, as we see from the disgusting display he's put on in relation to the Jewish community in Western said to win seats in Western Sydney. It's one of the other reasons why people have lost people have lost confidence in this blake.
Yeah, most definitely. Now when I read this story after say, I nearly fell off my chair. The former Victorian CFM you boss John Setka, he's launched a worker's compo, claim saying that he's suffering from PTSD from running the Construction Union Gary. He says that there's a number of things that led to this. He received death threats apparently in the job. But I mean, for heaven's sake, you're running the CFMU, which we all know is full of thugs,
So what did you expect? He said when they had that big protest out the front of the CFMU office, when he wouldn't back in construction workers against vaccine mandates that that contributed to his PTSD. I mean, could the CFMU story get any better?
Gary Well, I'm so sorry that he's having a metal health crisis, but think of the one that the CFMU is inflicted upon every day Australians. The cost of building's gone thirty forty percent. They've wrought at every building site they've been on. As far as I'm concerned, under the guys of safety, it's back to the sort of staff that the late warre Perry is to report on in his Wrought report. I mean the nineteen eighty seven Wrought report.
I'll never forget the Darling Harbor project was in full swing and the people on the work sites were smelling Chinese food coming out of Chinatown in Sydney, and they got and they were awarded a dim sim allowance, Caleb because of the smell that got them back to work. This is the sort of stuff that's ruined Australia's ability to make anything anywhere. And Setka, I'm so sorry he's
having mental health issues because that's a serious claim. I wish him well in his bid, but it seems like money fixes everything in the CFMEU so good on him.
Yes, yes, sir, you are correct. If it is indeed true, then then we wish him the best. But you've given me an idea.
Gary.
There's a KFC down the road from our studios here and I sometimes smell it, so I'm going to get a KFC.
Alow.
Let's Michael Kroger, Gary Yard, great, thank you so much for you. It's time still to come. The truth between Israel and Hesbla has begun with hopes for lasting calm in the Middle East. But what happens next that story after.
The break well.
Israel had a major win today with a cease fire deal negotiated with Hezbolla in Lebanon, who they've been at war with for nearly two months now. It means that over sixty days, Lebanese forces will move into the south and Israeli forces will pull out of the south and go back to Israel, and Hezbla will have to move north of the Latani River, which is what they were meant to have done back in two thousand and six.
In a joint statement, the US and France said the agreement would cease fighting in Lebanon and secure Israel from the threat of Hezbala and other terrorist organizations. Foreign Minister Penny Wong welcome the news today.
The people of Lebanon will welcome this cease far, the people of Israel will welcome this seas far. What I would say is that we hope that this is a catalyst for a broader cease far in the region and we look forward to the day when there is a ceasefire two in Gaza.
Joining me to discuss is the Executive Council of Australian Jury co CEO Peter Wertheim. Peter, what difference will this make to the broader war?
Well, first of all, it will isolate Hummas. There's no doubt that.
What's left of Hamas will be just left to deal with the situation that they've created in Gaza by themselves. The original hope that they had of drawing Hezbalara and ultimately he Ran into the war has failed as a strategy, and I think this whole ceasefire agreement just underlines the entire futility of the war that Hamas started on October the seventh in the South and the war that Hesbella started against Israel on October the eighth in the north.
They didn't have to do that.
You know, there were ceasepires in effect on both fronts, and they chose. The leaders of Hamas and the leaders of Hesbela chose to break that ceasefire and launch wars against Israel from those fronts. It was not a decision that was forced on them. And now those leaders are dead, as are their deputies, and there's been untold deaths, enormous numbers of people displaced in the South and.
The North, and all for what This is a result that.
Could have been achieved in two thousand and six, as you pointed out in your introduction.
Exactly, we've only got a minute to go, Peter, But you know what they've essentially achieved. He is what a lot of people said wouldn't happen or couldn't happen, which is the best outcome. Hezbollah has been pushed back, which is good not only for Israel, but it's good for the people of Lebanon.
Yes, it is because Hesbela has lost a lot of support in recent years in Lebanon because of the complete ruin nation of the country economically.
So it is good news for the Lebanese as well.
As for the Israelis, but make no mistake, HESBLA is down but not out. They will use whatever time is available to them once they withdraw, to regroup, to rearm. And you know, the Foreign Minister has talked about a widening truce. I understand why she's doing that, but why can't there be, for heaven's sake, a call from Australia's Foreign minister for peace. It's it's you know, we've had truces of plenty in the past and they don't last.
I know, it's we need to move on. Peter, thank you so much for your time. That's it from me, Shary'll be back tomorrow at o'clock up now, the great Man Paul Murray