Why on Sky News This is Sharry.
Good Evening.
Chris Bowen is fast becoming a political liability. He rush to renewables has left our energy grid just unable to handle a few warm days. He's been blamed for costing Bill Shot in the twenty nineteen election. Will now he's becoming Peter Dutton's best asset.
More on that in a moment. Also coming up.
On the show, the cost of Living Crisis Far from Over, Economist Warren Hogan will join us with some home truths and Labor mp fom A Labor and p Michael Danby has added to claims that Penny Wong's got a bit of a habit of calling people into office for a dressing down after they criticized China.
Well, Michael will be on.
The show and he's going to tell us exactly what happened behind.
The closed doors. That exclusive coming.
Up plas across Live to Israel for an exclusive with the Deputy Foreign Minister. She is fired up over the Albanezy government's refusal to issue a visa to her former colleague, despite the fact they fast tracked nearly three thousand visas for a terrorist controlled war zone. How will Israel hit back at our government. We'll find out a little later, but first, as the energy network clings on by a thread, Chris Bowen has sparked outrage by claiming cole is the biggest threat to reliability.
Bowen is an unfortunate energy minister. He was a disaster in the Treasury portfolio.
He proposed so many controversial taxes that he all about lost Bill Shorten the unlosable election. Now he's a disaster as Energy minister and we're all suffering. Chris Bowen has blamed the fact that there was not enough coulified power stations operating yesterday for the perilous supply.
The biggest threat to reliability in our energy system is coal fire power stations.
Well, I'd say the biggest threat to reliability in our energy system isn't colfied power stations. It's this bloke, Chris Bowen. Let's just reiterate that crucial point again. There was a real risk of blackouts in New South Wales yesterday and Chris Bowen has blamed the fact that.
There was not enough coal in the system for this. Not enough coal.
When Bowen has spent every waking moment trying to get coal out of Australia's energy system, and now he blames the fact there wasn't enough of it and so we had this energy crisis.
Well, this is what all.
The experts have been warning about, rushing the transition to renewables, shutting down colfiede power stations when there's not enough storage capacity or alternative baseload power like.
Gas, and thus being left.
Without enough power to run businesses, hospitals and households.
The utter audacity of the guy.
Here he was this morning with Laura Jays blaming the shortage of coal for the fact we risked blackouts yesterday.
And we are building the transmission and the storage and backed by gas speaking when necessary to ensure a reliable system.
But here's the thing.
The least reliable part of our energy grid at the moment is cal firepower. That's just a statement of fact.
Well, the breakdowns are happening because there's been zero investment to extend their life cycle, zero investment in ensuring their ongoing capability. Yes, there were colfied power failures yesterday that were partly behind the crisis, which shows just how crucial coulfide power is to our energy grid. How the very operation of our country, whether we like it or not, relies at the moment on culfide power, and the ideologues like him have refused to invest in the infrastructure to
keep coal up and running for longer. They've rushed and encouraged the closure of coal.
Fired power stations.
Now, of course, we'd all love to be in an ideal world where we have solely renewable energy that has no carbon impact, but we're far from that scenario and we have to be realistic about it. So Chris Bowen rushes the closure of coulfide power stations and then wonders why we don't have enough power to keep the lights on now. One of the first things that New Southell's Premier Chris Mens did when he won office was to extend the life cycle of the Eraring Power.
Station, and here he was explaining.
A decision that the coalition had opposed in October.
We've been very clear, however, that there's a very narrow path for us to walk to transition from coal fired power energy gener in the state to renewable energy. That's one of the reasons why we made a decision to keep the ira In Power station open for longer. So that we could have a little bit of buffer to get the Central West Irana renewable energy program up and running, as well as all of our other projects in the state. We don't want to see the house. We don't want
to see lights go off. We don't want to see prices increase off. They're already high peaks now.
Extending the life cycle of the Era and Coulified power station was a move that former Liberal Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean was against, and now Matt Kean is Chris Bowen's partner in crime at the Climate Change Authority. But the worst part is this, We've had this near breakdown this week and we're not even in a severe heat wave.
It's normal in summer to have hot days.
It's hardly a newsflash to say Australia is hot in summer. It's part of the appeal of our country and we're just three days away from summer. This sort of warm weather is precisely what governments and so called energy experts should expect. It's the very nature of our Aussie climate. It shouldn't come as a surprise and then lead to a moment of crisis where everyone is told to turn.
Off their dishwashers and their lights. Well.
One of the issues with this government is that Chris Bowin is both the Environment and the Energy Minister, two portfolios that are a.
Contradiction in terms.
As Energy Minister, his focus should be keeping the lights on, but instead his task is corrupted by putting environmental priorities above the operation of our country. This means a rush transition to renewables before the infrastructure.
Is in place.
As AEMO has wanned, the risk of blackouts is now high over summer. One expert economists Poor Broad who is the former boss of the Snowy Hydro project. He told the Daily Telegraph, and I'm quoting now, we've had some really mild summers over the past three or four years. It's hidden the precarious position that our energy sector has got itself into. It's a reflection on some of the really ill considered policies and the rush to close our
baseload power plants. He is absolutely spot on. And that article is titled mass blackouts feared as Australia's third World power grid buckles under weight of a raging summer. Now, this all has serious political consequences because not only are we facing blackouts, but we're paying more for the privilege of having power adages. It's pretty extraordinary for governments to tell families to turn off their air conditioner and not run their appliances in a first world country, and at
the same time as power bills are at record high. Now, putting aside the energy rebates, Peter Dutton is arguing that after two and a half years of the Albanese government, power prices are up thirty one percent. No voter could possibly forget that. When Anthony Albanese was desperate to become prime minister, he promised over and over again that electricity bills would be two hundred and seventy five dollars.
Cheaper, reducing power prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars.
By twenty twenty five, two hundred and seventy five dollars a year, two.
Hundred and seventy five dollars a year.
The promise was made ninety seven times before the last election, ninety seven times. Now ahead of the next ventrial election, Peter Dutton will campaign that this is a major broken promise and that political tactic featured in question time today.
My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy next week mark's three years since the now minister first promise Australians their electricity bills will be reduced by two hundred and seventy five dollars if they voted Labor earlier. Today, in a wreck interview with Sky's Laura Jays, the Minister refused to admit Labour has broken this promise, saying he
was quote not walking away from that policy. When will the Minister finally be straight with the Australian and people and admit Labour's two hundred and seventy five dollars bill cup promise has been broken now?
Chris Bowen already lost to Bill Shorten the twenty nineteen election. It was billed as the unlosable election with his radical raft of high taxing policies, and now Chris Bowen could very well help Albanezy lose the next election, as more Australians question the lunacy of rushing a transition before the energy system is ready, leaving us vulnerable to blackouts while
paying massive energy bills. The Australian Simon Benson reports that community support for the energy transition has fallen by double digits in the past couple of months, Benson writes for alban Easy Bowen will become more of a political liability the longer he's given rain to pedal language that is completely inaccessible to consumers whose priority has become price and reliability. Now all of this is only going to shift support
for Peter Dutton's nuclear energy plan. His nuclear proposal initially seemed highly controversial and politically risky, but now it's looking like it could turn out to be a vote winner, a solution to the energy madness we find ourselves in.
Now, as we've been.
Talking about and laughing about for twenty four hours now. ABC chair Kim Williams has attacked podcaster Joe Rogan after making some uninformed comments at the National Press Club.
Have a look.
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. I personally find it deeply repulsive.
Repulsive. Well, he couldn't just stop there.
Kim Williams also had to show how he was so much more superior to anyone who listened to Joe Rogan's podcast, he said he was above it all.
I am not a consumer or enthusiast about mister Rogan and his work shocking. I am not one of the three billion, and I'm unlikely to be three billion and one anytime soon.
Well, there are two things wrong with Kim Williams's comments. Firstly, he's just playing wrong. Joe Rogan does in depth, deep dive interviews with some of the most interesting and powerful people in the world. He delves deeply into a subject with literally the world expert in the field. He'll spend three hours getting to know the ins and outs of an individual and what they think about every topic under the sun you can hear directly from the primary source.
He interrogates them in a way that mostly in the mainstream media we just don't have the time to do in a ten minute interview. Joe Rogan spent three hours, as you know, interviewing Donald Trump during.
The election campaign, with questions like this.
What was it like when you actually got in Because nobody really can prepare you for that. When you're running for president, you don't really know what it's going to be like when you actually get into office. You're in there. You have ten thousand appointments you have to make, so
you're getting advice from people. At one point, did you have a moment in time where you realize, like, these are bad choices, like some of these people I shouldn't have had in there are legitimate concerns about environmental impact, correct, Like look about the VP oil spill. There's a lot of things that do happen that are environmentally devastating, and you want to mitigate that as much as possible.
You do.
Look, I mean, just.
In recent times alone, Joe Rogan has had Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the successful startup investor, Mark Andresen, a US Special Forces veteran actor, Josh Brolin, a world leading DJ, then long form interviews. So when Kim Williams claims that Joe Rogan prays on people's fear, he simply doesn't know what he's talking about.
He hasn't listened.
The comments he made are pre judging something he knows nothing about. They are only what he assumes Joe Rogan's podcast is like, and it's nothing of the sort. But my second issue with what Kim Williams said is just how patronizing it is. How he thinks he's better than billions of people around the world. He's made no secret of the fact he loves classical music and opera, and clearly he thinks his tastes are more refined than most people's.
This arrogance is ill befitting the chair of Australia's taxpayer funded broadcaster. It's precisely why people are so fed up with media institutions and politicians. They think they're better than everyone else. Opera is not better than Joe Rogan. It's just not. The ABC should benefit all consumers, not just the opera loving elite.
All right, never had a clat before.
Let's bring in now Sky News host James McPherson and commentator Jason Morrison. Welcome to you.
What do you think, Jason? I mean, this is just pure smugness, isn't it.
It is it is, but it's right to the brain. I mean he talks about, you know, Rogan praying on the insecurities of people. Are the ABC? I don't see Rogan framing up soldiers and adding things in to make them look like war criminals. The ABC has got some problems and the public is voting with its remote. I mean last night television ratings eight hundred thousand people around Australia eight hundred thousand only that many tuned into the ABC's TV news. It puts it below seven, below nine.
It puts it sort of where Channel ten is. It's failing, and it's failing because it's not doing what people want. So he sits there and they all were, you know, ha haharing about Joe Rogan.
They thought it was fantastic.
The problem with it is Joe Rogan's've got a staff of what five I mean more people work on Media Watch that work on Rogan's program. And you know, this is the thing the ABC does not get. It's doing something people don't want anymore. That's why they're not watching you. And it doesn't help when you know a so called chairman, that's his approach to it is to belittle what the audiences are turning to at the moment. I don't get how they can't learn this.
Is part of the election outcome in the US, James. It's because there's this elite attitude that people are rejecting Joe Rogan. We don't agree with every of his and he's not a right wing firebrand. By the way, he's a contrarian, has different positions on things. I don't agree with him on Israel, for example, but he interviews people for hours at a time.
How can anyone object to that?
Well, I mean it's amazing, isn't. I think this is why Kim Williams doesn't like Joe Rogan, because Kim Williams has access to more than a billion dollars a year, and you can't get near the audience or the influence of Joe Rogan. Who's what his qualification is. He used to be involved in World Federation Wrestling. No wonder Kim Williams is jealous. You mentioned the Trump interview. I mean, prior to that interview, Trump was hitler. Trump was a fascist.
But Joe Rogan allowed Donald Trump to sit and talk for three hours. We should note Kamala Harris didn't want to talk for three hours because because three hours is too long. She was but she made excuses to get out of it, because three hours is too long to stick to your talking points, which she would have done. But over three hours, people listened and found that Donald Trump wasn't a madman. He wasn't crazy. Now, you might not have agreed with him, but he wasn't the hitler
or the fascist he was being painted to be. And the Joe Rogan interview really changed things up for the US election. I got to say, when Kim Williams started talking about media that was malevolent and you know, played on people's fears and anxieties, I thought he was talking about the ABC with their climate.
Change cover exactly. Yeah.
I want to ask you about Chris Bowen because this has been a very big story this week. Jason, we faced blackouts. He's blaming Cole the fact that there wasn't enough of it yesterday, and yet he's been rushing to get Cole out of the system.
Yes, pretty amazing. Look as the sun moved from its peak and started to drift towards the horizon as it does at that end of the day. He can only be thankful that at about four four o'clock yesterday, supplied demand demand significantly dropped in New South Wales, probably because they put a few phone calls into a few big users of energy and said can you just shut down?
We are eft And that is the truth. If they had kept demand up, we would have run out because the sun stopped shining and the coal was all that did. But you know, New South Wales and I guess I talk about news my place, but New South Wales should be thankful that Queensland still has common sense and Victoria still has enough of it despite all that's gone on
in there politically. Over the history of the last ten years, New South Wales has closed all of its coal generation down bar a few Queensland's kept it going and thank god Victoria has burnt brown coal, the dirtiest of the lot, or we wouldn't have had power yesterday.
And that's the truth.
And you know, it's the kind of Matt Keane generation, the teenage advisors that have got into the heads of people like that, and now we're seeing Bowen do disastrous things as well that are leaving us with this crisis. Everyone has known we're going to have extra demand for electricity because we know what life is like. We also know we have a huge population growth going on at the moment exactly that put them all together. The lines are crossing and they're failing.
You know, there's big immigration policy putting pressure not just on the housing crisis that the housing supply, but also of course in electricity grid.
But what James, this idea.
Right, We're in first world country, it developed country, Australia, and we have to time when we run the dishwasher if we have a dishwasher, or time when we put the air condish one if we have one, or don't put it on as cold as you might want to.
If you'd told me fifteen years ago that in twenty twenty four we'll be rationing electricity, I would have thought, what.
Disaster befell us.
I would have imagined no disaster, just Chris Bowen, which I suppose, as you poured out in your brilliant editorial, is kind of a disaster. Chris Mins made a brilliant point when he told Sydney siders from three pm, can you please turn off all your cliances, because he said, at three pm, solar really doesn't produce much energy. It's also the same time everyone is arriving home. Well, he just rang the bell, didn't he. That's what we've been saying.
Solar is wonderful, but it doesn't supply power when most people are using it. So it's absolutely unbelievable that as a first world country, we're being told don't use your dishwasher, don't wash your clothes, try not to.
Put the air con on.
And Chris Bowen said, it's a severe heat wave. I mean it was twenty eight degrees in Port mcquarie, it was thirty two in the city center. It was thirty nine in Penrith. But you deserve that if you live in Penrith. I mean, that's hardly a heat If it was, it's summer.
It wasn't a severe him Bowen.
Is from Fairfield. He's from Fairfield in Sydney. You know, Fairfield in Sydney is right at the peak of the West. He knows yesterday wasn't a hot day. He knows it didn't even come close.
To it exactly.
And you know I heard Barnaby Joyce say earlier that, you know, when he was in Queensland round Saint George in Queensland, you used to have fought nights over forty You know, this is not a.
Shock to Australia. What's going on.
And some of the dimwits in the Australian media who kind of use phrases like extreme heat and heat wave and all that bullshit, it just does not match reality. And we're unfortunately letting these clowns get away with it. They should actually be put on trial for what they have done to our country, not rewarded with positive spin.
It's such a mess and this is just another one of them. I'm going to say it again.
Albotrocities came up with that last week, albuutrocities. This energy crisis is just another one on the list of albautrosities, and it's going to turn people off him ahead of the next election.
I really don't want.
To talk about Lydia Thorpe because I just can't stand watching her.
It just makes me so annoyed.
But I feel like we can't ignore it because it was such a big story in Canberra. Today she pulled another one of her tiresome stunts.
She stormed up to the.
Press gallery in the Senate after being banned from the Senate, so she wanted to still make herself heard and she was very palf.
I call the clerk.
I called the clerk.
I mean, she just couldn't help herself, James.
She just is desperate for attention and it's so frustrating to think she's still going to be a Senator until twenty twenty eight.
Yeah.
I watched an interview with her on the ABC this morning. And what got my attention was that over the course of four and a half minutes of an interview, she used the word racism or racist seventeen times. That's once every fifteen seconds. And remember this all began in reference to Pauline Hanson questioning Senator Payman's eligibility to sit in the Senate, which is the same question that was raised
of Barnaby Joyce. It wasn't racist then, but now it's suddenly racist, and Lydia Thorpe just continually uses race as an excuse to, you know, exercise the most appalling behavior that would never be tolerated by anyone else. I should point out that not once did the ABC viewers pull her up over this allegation of racism. They allowed her
to get away with it. And that's a big reason why Lydia Thorpe has been allowed to continue like this, because the mainstream media don't pick her up and call her out for her behavior.
Yeah, that's so surprising because there hasn't been any racism against her. People's objections have got nothing to do with her race and or to do with her conduct.
Look, she's not quite right, you know, I mean, look at it, you know, and I know you're worried about me saying something diffamatory here, so I will minimize my discussion here, but I think that is the best way of dealing with it. She's not right and she shouldn't be in the House. And what should shock the hell out of Australia is she's there until June twenty eight. She's not even halfway through the term. Yet she's there for as long as Matt Canavan is there. You know,
there's reality, Australia. That's what you got, That's what your parliaments delivered you.
The Senate is not pretty at all, all right.
Jason Morrison, James mcphirst and James will see you back here at ten o'clock tonight, late debate.
Don't miss it. Thank you.
Well, let's turn to the inflation data this week. It has been a shock for mortgage holders as well as the alban eazy government. Underlying inflation this is the RBA's preferred measure has risen to three point five percent for the month of October. Now, let's bring in to discuss this. Judo Bank Chief Economist Warren Hogan. Warren, great to see you again. Look your reading of these CPI figures, it seems like the cost of living crisis is far from over.
What do you think, Yeah, Hi, Sherry, thanks for having me on the show. Exactly right. The headline numbers are obviously heavily distorted by these government subsidies, particularly the energy subsidian. While that is obviously assistance with cost of living, it's a very different thing to inflation, and that's a process
in the economy that puts pressure on all prices. And of course these figures highlight that while headline inflation was only up two point one, core inflation, underlining inflation is probably more like three point five. We're even a bit higher because that number is also slightly affected by these subsidies, So it's not a disaster. It highlights that inflation is gradually coming down in this country, pretty much in line
with what the RBA is forecasting. But that doesn't give us any wiggle room for rate cuts anytime soon.
And that's before we've seen, you know, the pre election spending that the Albanezi government is likely to do if they do hand out pre election sweetness, and we know Albaneze is going to be inclined to do this to try and win over voters. Who are deserting him, and the polls show that they are. How much pressure would this put on inflation.
Well, I think it's a real problem for the economy because we're going to see evidence next week of GDP growth picking up, and we're seeing this in a range of indicators that the economy sort of isn't sort of dead and buried as some people would like to think, it's actually on an improve We're generating jobs and we're seeing the first green shoots of recovery and consumer spending,
and that will probably take us into next year. And if we get a lot of government spending on top of that, and this all happens before inflation is under control, well the worst cases, of course, inflation picks up again and we have to see rate rises and that would really risk a recession. So this is a critical period for the economy and the last thing that's going to need is more government stimulus in the form of short term handouts.
We've also seen suggestions this week that our living standards are worse than during the past four recessions. How do you think families are feeling this in terms of household disposable income.
Yeah, Well, it's quite clear in the data that the standard of living impact of this post COVID adjustment is much more severe here than in most countries. And of course this is essentially people being able to get less with their income and they're feeling it. Everyone's feeling it
around discretionary and the little luxuries of life. But then now it's to a point where it's really hurting some some households of the essentials and we're seeing this, I think showing up in a range of social measures around people needing the food bank, needing support and of course banks having to provide special considerations. So it's because this
is dragging on. It's because it's been going on for so long, and it's because we're unwilling to address the problem head on, not raise rates enough, or government's not spend and that's elongating this and dragging it all out.
I mean you just said then you know that it's more severe than in most other countries. We have seen some comparisons to other OECD nations where Australia isn't faring as well in the inflation fight and as well in the household disposable income.
I mean, just how much worse off are we?
Yeah?
I mean, look, there's a range of context on this, and it needs to be in the context that we're we got to over the last thirty years was one of the wealthiest nations on earth, and then the spendethon that was the sort of immediate aftermath of the pandemic also needs to be considered. But the reality is is that the backward step we've taken is somewhere around eight to ten percent, whereas most countries it's more like five. Now we've also done better in employment than most countries,
so more people have got jobs. But as part of that process, we haven't raised interest rates and therefore allowed this inflation to hit everyone. So we sort of everyone's paying the price to ensure that employment continues to grow,
is one way to look at it. But of course everyone is paying that price, and of course it also means other things like higher interest rates for longer and of course the other one which people don't talk about enough is bracket creep and a higher income tax burden, which I think really hurting people out there, and I don't think it's right that it's a hidden form of a tax increase that people don't fully understand.
No, one hundred percent and you know, I never understand why our tax system isn't linked the tax rates aren't linked to CPI like they are in many other.
Parts of the world. I mean this should be adjusted, shouldn't it.
Yeah, well, about half the world's advanced economies have this indexation. And I think that the mythology in this country is, well, the Labor Party likes to spend it and the Liberal Party likes to give you a tax cut every sort of five to ten years and make you feel like they're doing something for you. But there is an economic reality to this that we're seeing in this inflation episode, which of course in the last thirty years of low
inflation wasn't as critical because it wasn't as obvious. But we are in a more inflationary world and I think this has to be addressed because the size of government in this country is getting to new record levels and I am very concerned about that.
It would be a good election announcement for Peter Dutton and a good election promise for him to say that he will ad to rest this issue because you're right, bracket creep eats up the wage growth that we have seen under labor all right, Warren Hogan, thank you very much for your time.
Now still to.
Calm the Albaneze government's mad scrambling Canberra doing a deal with the devil to pass legislation, plus will cross live to Israel with the Deputy Foreign Minister. Now she is fired up at the Albanese government after its snub of a former Israeli politician that exclusive right after.
The break.
Breaking news This afternoon, a second man has been arrested in connection with the anti Semitic vandalism across Sydney.
This is in Wallara.
A nineteen year old man, Thomas Thomas Stosanovsky, was arrested at his home today in Arncliffe in Sydney. He was charged with twenty one offenses, fourteen of them relating to destruction or damage to property. He was also charged with behaving in an offensive manner and disguising his face with
an intent to commit an indictable offense. Now, at the same time as this anti semitism is unfolding in Sydney, the Albanezy government has been weak and limp, and worse, they've offended Israel by refusing to issue a visa to a former Israeli minister. I let Shaquette, even though she has family here and came here without issue in March last year, and nothing has changed since then except October seven.
Israel is pretty furious about this.
On Tuesday night, i Let, in an exclusive interview, told me she expected that big consequences.
I think your Minister of Interior should be shame of himself. That is just trying, you know, to impress a radical Muslim minority and instead, you know, is hurting the feeling of the Jewish community in Israel and the relationship with Israel.
You know, I spoke with.
The Minister of Falling Affairs Inism and with the ambassador, and definitely there will be consequences to this brutal act.
So her visa refusal is despite the Albanesi government fast tracking visas for nearly three thousand gardens from a terrorist.
Controlled war zone.
Well, now for an exclusive interview, let's bring in Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Charen Haskell Sharan, congratulations in your promotion.
What is your.
Response to this hostile, hostile move by the Albanese government.
Well, this actions is completely unacceptable, especially between countries who supposed.
To be allies.
I mean, there is no justification for this offensive action and for me personally, you know, I'm worried about that kind of decision and I think it should travel any Australian citizen. Look, I views political views are not very different than a yel It's one. I was a resident of Australia and if iel It comes to Australia to have a discussion, this should be a concern for every citizen and his freedom of speech or freedom of information
to hear a different opinion. And the government is restricting people from coming and voicing a different opinion.
That's what it is.
It's silencing it. And you know it is very concerning for us and should concern the Australian citizens too.
When iolett As you just heard there, said that there'll be consequences, will there be a political response from Israel?
Look, there isn't a political response that we have initiated or discussed. It's not it's not on our table at the point. We are concerned. We are very disappointed. I know that some people may have implied that there is certain measures it will be taken. There isn't one. Because actually we see Australia as one of our allies and we hope that this current government is not taking steps to try and break this alliance and this true friendship that goes years and years back.
There's now a ceasefire in place with Hesbala just announced over the next sixty days, Israel is going to withdraw from southern Lebanon and terrorists are going to have to leave the area south of the Tiny River. I mean, this, of course, is just a return to the two thousand and six UN Security Agreements seventeen oh one that was breached by Hesballar in October eight last year. Do you have any confidence they won't breach it again.
Well, I'm very skeptic, Sharry, and as most Israelis were going into this ceasefire with many concerns. I mean, the agreement is trying to break the Iranian occupation in Lebanon and bring back the Lebanese military into their posts instead of a terrorist organization funded and managed by Iran. The reality is that the international community throughout years they were in charge of ensuring that riz Balan cannot take it cannot arm itself, and cannot build posts or post a
security threat on our citizens, on our people. And the fact is the amount of ammunition and tunnels that we have found in the border area, some of them next to the Unified. The United Nations forces who were meant to keep our security were built next to them, shows us that they actually plan at ten times worst Seventh
of October massacre towards our communities. And the failure of the international community in enforcing the agreement puts US at many concerns about this currency expire and that's why we've repeatedly said that it's not about the sections or what's written in this agreement. It's mainly about enforcement and whether the Lebanese Army will be able to enforce its rule against ris baland against Iran. And if there will be
any violation, we will not hold back anymore. There will be, and there needs to be a direct respond to every attack or any breach of this ceasefire, any breach of the agreement.
Yeah, not just eleven his army, but the United Nations should be enforcing this as well. And the UN didn't when it was breached on October eight, and never said a word the whole year until Israel started responding, and then suddenly everyone.
Was up in arms.
Ceasfire, seas fire, But where was the ceasefire when Hasbela was firing rockets into Israel.
Anyway, Absolutely, and more so, it is the international community who for a year, a whole year, promised us in Israel that they will reach a diplomatic agreement so that we don't need to go into a war week elevenon.
We did not.
Want that war. We tried everything to try and prevent the store. But the international community failed us again when they promised us a diplomatic solution, and for a whole year, our communities were burnt, destroyed, Our children were murdered like the twelve Drew children up in the northern border. Yeah, and many more people.
All right, sure, and Haskell really appreciate your time again. Congratulations and your promotion to Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel. Now still to come. Pennywang under fire over our attitude to China. Michael Danby was hold into her office after criticizing Beijing and he was given a dressing down. He joins me to speak about this a little later. Plus, the social media band for Kids looks to pass the Senate tonight. I'll speak about it with Gemmatognini and Sam Crosby next.
Welcome back. Well, it was.
Chaos in Canberra today, the Albanese government scrambling to ram thirty six major bills through the Senate on what's meant to be the final parliamentary sitting day of the year. Now, there were two guillotine bills, with the Greens supporting the second motion in exchange for a string of concessions, and Labor can now say they've passed twenty seven bills. But there are questions over whether it's right to limit debate on so.
Many pieces of legislation.
And to answer that, I'm joined now by GT Communications founder Gemmatognini and Sky News contributor Sam Crosby.
Welcome to you both.
Jemma, what do you think about what we saw in Cambridge today.
It's shameful and the Australian people got short changed. Of course, it's not right to guillotine those bills. Of course, it's not right to stymy debate on legislation. It is absolutely the one to eighty degrees from what the Senate is there to do, from what the houses are there to do.
They are there to.
Formulate legislation that is fit for purpose. And the Senate, in theory, is supposed to be full of fine minds and pure souls who review legislation to ensure that it is there to benefit you and I who let's remember, pay the bills, pay the wages of these people. Unfortunately, I find myself agreeing with mister Keating, it's become unrepresentative. Swill Well.
One of the bills that's in the Senate tonight is the social media ban on under sixteens Sam. This is overwhelmingly popular with parents, but then it's suddenly became controversial when there was this suggestion that everyone would have to put everyone not just kids, would have to put a digital ID to use the internet. What do you think about this? Have the politicians put enough work into looking at how this piece of legislation will actually work before they've rushed it through.
I guess all we can say is I hope, so, I hope so. Look, this is world first legislation. You're absolutely right. The parents of Australia are very much on board with this. I say, as a parent of a twelve year old that we are going to have to kick off TikTok and social media. I'm not necessarily looking forward to those conversations that we're having, but I think we can all agree that it's a good thing to
do in the long run. I think with any legislation, any legislation, but especially legislation of this nature that's never been done before, I think we need to be aware that we may need to come back and revise and change it in time if it's not working exactly the way that it had been intended. I understand the digital idea is now off the table and that's that's not happening.
Which is good.
But you know, if there are other issues that arise as we go, I think we have to be open and honest about it and say, Okay, we'll come back and look at it, but let's try something. I guess that's the that's the message coming out of this.
I haven't heard that the digital idea is off the table about either, And I spoke to Matt Canavan on my way in tonight and he thought it was still on the table.
Then I haven't.
Certainly. I checked all the news wise before I came on air with you, because that's what we do. I haven't seen anything to confirm that.
If that's the case, that's where are you getting that from? Sam?
Look, I might I picked it up earlier this morning reading something or another.
I can't remember.
Well.
I literally spoke to Matt Catam.
I'm certainly not an expert in this field.
He said that he had initially understood that it was going to be a popular policy, but his understanding is that there still was this digital ID issue.
What do you think.
I think it's tremendously fraught a space to go into. And I think two things. I think that the federal government is lurching towards the break is frightened of its terrible performance in the polls, the weakness of the leader, the weakness in leadership perceived witness in leadership of mister
Albaneze and mister Bowen. And look this legislation. I don't disagree with Sam that something needs to be addressed in terms of social media usage, but you don't come in and turn it into digital IDAs by stealth and all of these other things. And there are so many legitimate reasons that children under sixteen need to be on social media, kids who are in remote areas in the bush, messaging
apps with their parents, things like that. Don't get me wrong, I agree in principle, but I do not believe this legislation is the answer. It's the same if you want to give an analogy the voice. Right, there is a systemic problem of disadvantage in this country that needs to be addressed. I didn't personally believe that that was the way to address it. There is a problem with how young people are affected by social media. The harm is not disputed, but this legislation is not the answer.
All right, That debate will continue, although it does look like it's going to pass the Senate tonight. Now, in Victoria, a convicted murderer has been granted release from a maximum security prison to undergo IVF treatment. So this murderer is serving a sixteen year sentence after stabbing a mother to death and a drug fueled rage. Now, Sam, you know, we've all been talking about how can tax pay money possibly fund this?
But I haven't really heard anyone.
Talking about, well, what about the baby wants the baby's bond?
Why?
You know, why would you be supporting bringing a baby into the world when the mother is in maximum security prison for life for murder?
What's going to happen to that baby?
You're absolutely right, That's where my mind went to when I read this story. I thought, well, is the baby going to stay with the dad is the dad in the picture?
Is it a donor? Look, I'm not sure it should you.
With due respect to the Victorian Supreme Court who ruled on this, I think this is one of those judicial flights of fancy that sometimes lawyers get caught in a legal argument and don't really know where they end up at the end of the hearing and the end of the judgment. I think the government should step in and say, no, this is not at all in keeping with community expectation.
We're going to knock this off. We're going to rule this out.
I don't think this is a particularly hard decision for a reasonable government to come out.
Yeah, I mean it seems like a complete waste of taxpayer funds and how can you allow this?
I read about this today and I read it in passing and couldn't I didn't actually think.
I thought i'd misread it.
If that makes sense, like, surely this can't be true. And I echo Sam's comments in the sense that you know, with respect to the court, you know, somebody has been convicted and sentenced for murder. They've taken a life, They've taken someone's life in a violent crime, convicted of that, and the Victorian system has turned around and gone sure, sure, I mean this is I don't know the figures about access.
You're to be a mother, sure, all committed being a mom, Like we put people in jail.
To reflect the seriousness of that crime, not to then go, oh, all right, you can go and have the privilege of motherhood. I don't It doesn't make sense to me, and I think Victoria is a very I'm just going to.
Watch my tongue.
But also, Jimmy, from whatever budget they're going to be drawing these these funds, be it the health budget, the criminal justice budget, you've got to think to yourself, there's got to be a better way to spend those.
Life all right, we've got to go out of time. Sam Crosby, Gema Tokniini.
Great to see you, Thanks Charry.
Now after the break, Michael Dwanby will be on his first interview after going public with the claim that Pennywong gave him a dressing down when he criticized China. That's after this quick break. All right, welcome back, and let's bring in now former Labor MP Michael Downby. Michael, thank you very much for joining me once again. Now you've revealed today in The Australian that you were called enter
Penny Wong's office when you dared to criticize China. Tell us what happened in that meeting behind the scenes, and what you'd said to deserve this well.
I spoke in the House on China's record of criminal prosecutions, where ninety nine percent of people are convicted. The Labor Party, including Senator Wong, had taken a position that we were going to sink Julie Bishop's extradition treaty with a vote with the Cross benches in the Senate, and we did that.
But Senator Wong was very unhappy with the.
Content of my speech and the fact that I criticized the Chinese criminal justice system and I was arraigned over there.
It was almost like something out of Monty Pythe and Sharry. You would have laughed if you would have said.
I wasn't asked to sit down, and the Minister and her advisors sat there and criticized what I'd said as.
Upsetting the Embassy of Beijing.
Now Shinga Yagami, the Japanese ambassador, did the same thing. There's a pattern here. It's much more important than me and how I was. They attempted to humiliate me. That's I'm sure the Japanese ambassador is a bigger guy than that too, but it's China. Handsome boy is the good expression. The Chinese ambassador says all Western countries should imitate Australia and sucking up to China.
That's what it's really about. Now.
Senator Wong really had a bit of a winge in the paper today that I was always after to some extent, that's true. I don't forgive her for stressing my dear late friend Kimberly Kitchen saying at a public meeting that Kimberly wasn't entitled to speak on the environment because she didn't have children. Senator Warm would have been driven out of public life and a public political party in other circumstances. That's unforgivable, and it contributed so much to Kimberly stress.
And I don't forgive Senator Warm until you know the end of her political career for that. But the real issue is not me, not the humiliation, not what they did to the Japanese ambassador. It's the wrong policy for Australia on China, and I think the rest of the world is waking up to it, in Germany and in the United States.
So I think Australia is getting more and more out of step.
Yeah, indeed, and of course you know the behavior that you described in relation to Kimberly Kitchen. I first reported that in The Australian had earned her the nickname one of the mean Girls, alleged mean Girls. Of course, we have to say, Michael Danby, thank you very much for your time, really appreciate it, and thanks everyone for your company this week. I'll see you Monday at eight o'clock.
And here's Paul