Showing good evening well first tonight, Peter Dutton says he suspects police officers have been instructed not to arrest pro Palestinian protesters for hate speech. I've done an exclusive interview with the opposition leader where he says that journalists at the ABC have been acting as activists. He also said that university chancellors should be named and shamed for failing
to stamp out anti Semitism. But some of his strongest comments were for the Prime Minister himself and also on the question of why law enforcement has been so has been so reluctant to actually enforce the law when it comes to hate speech. Peter Dutton, who's a former coop himself, says it would be frustrating for police not to be able to take strong action when they see violence, unrest and lawlessness on our streets and in our university campuses.
There's no doubt in my mind that for the average police officer that this would be completely and utterly offensive as well to be told to stand back with your hands in your pocket.
So do you think they are being told that.
These No doubt in my mind, because their instinct would be that if they saw somebody breaking the law.
Setting Fie into a flag for example, Yes.
That they would enforce the law.
Now. I did this extensive forty five minute interview with Peter Dutton last night at an event to raise money for JCA, which funds security for Jewish schools. Now, Peter Dutton's view is that under the current law people could have been arrested for hate speech both at the Opera House protest and at protests on university campuses. Now, even the Prime Minister has said that chance of inter Fada and from the River to the Sea have no place in our cuntry. But the Opera House protests had worse
racist chance of where's the Jews? F the Jews? And despite police denials, what many people heard gas the Jews.
There is existing scope within the current.
Law for some of these people to have been arrested either on the steps of the Opera House on the university campuses, and they haven't been.
Could I clarify arrested for hate speech?
Yes, yes, and everything is in context.
But if you look at the chance and the intimidation that's taken place, I don't accept that is not against Australian law. And the fact that the police have been told either by the police ministers or they're taking a lead from what they see through the Prime Minister's commentary or lack of it, that they're just there to maintain the peace. This is just another Middle Eastern frakkar and that we don't want to take sides and let's just
allow people to protest. That is a complete and utter outrage and I think most Australians are outraged by the inaction as well.
Very strong comments. Now there will be a federal election held inside the next eleven months. Dutton said if he were Prime Minister, he would tell the head of the afp ASIO and other law enforcement agencies to be strong and actually enforce the law. That there shouldn't be some carve out of the law just because the topic relates to Israel and the Middle East. Dutton said that if there are concerns about the law, that shouldn't stop authorities
from enforcing it. Instead, test it, he says, and if it needs to be changed, will then change it.
In times of tragedy uncertainty, the leader of our country has to stand up and I think had I've been Prime Minister at the time, not I think I would have made it very clear to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, to the Director General of ASIO, to the police commissioners otherwise that I had zero tolerance for this behavior and conduct and that the police should.
Enforce the law without hesitation, not go beyond the law. And if the argument is that.
Some elements of the current legislation are unconstitutional, that should have been tested before the courts.
Now.
Australia's former ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, who's now a Liberal senator, well, he also spoke at this event for THEJCA last night and he backed up Peter Dutton on the need to actually use the hate laws against people who break them and breach the peace.
The first step in doing that is at least to test that if the law's found to be wanting here, well, then we can fix the laws now.
Peter Darton also criticized journalists out the Public Broadcaster for being activists. The ABC has not covered the anti semitism our country is facing in any in depth way. Whils Sky News has produced an entire documentary with Josh Fredenberg, along with nightly coverage on each of our primetime programs. It's simply incomprehensible that the ABC hasn't properly covered this antisemitism crisis. Well, here's what Peter Dutton said about the ABC and Fairfacts last night.
I think the ABC and you could rattle off half a dozen others are full now of these protesters and advocates and they allow their own emotion and political ideology to overtake their objectivity as a journalist.
And I think, as you pointed out for.
The News, Stable and Sky have been without compromise, and you contrast that to what we've seen in nine.
Papers or Fairfax.
There is always a divide, but the abrogation here I think highlights the real problem that we've got within parts of the media that don't have that objectivity, and it's going to be a feature ongoing.
On university campuses, we've seen young Australian Jews have to face hatred and aggression and anger from protesters on a daily basis. They've been videos posted to social media of activists saying they're going to chase Zionists of campus, and a professor was exposed by The Australian just last week for wrongly saying that the sexual violence of October seven was a hoax. Well, I asked mister Darton about all of this last night, and he said, university chancellors should
be named and shamed. Have a look.
The level lough of capitulation and frankly facilitation of the anti Semitism, or almost the encouragement of it through the inaction, the lack of leadership from not just the chancellors and the vice chancellors, but frankly the senior leadership within the universities as well. Who should all be publicly named and shamed.
We do this to.
Because there's a scrutiny from time to time on CEOs or chairs or board members of particular companies. We should be asking these people how on earth they justified what has happened and what, in some cases is still happening.
How is it conceivable that you would ask some of these people to sit around the table with you to make future decisions, as you say, in relation to the direction of the university, when these people have been shouting from the river to the sea or a father of the harassment and the language toward young women on campus.
These same people who would be.
Lecturing on pronouns and gender policy, somehow their mind turns blank because that young girl is Jewish and I find it reprehensible.
On the question of immigration, Peter Dutton said he thought it was incomprehensible that the Albanezy government was bringing Palestinians from the front line of the war zone into Australia without adequate security screening, and he spoke about when he helped the Zdi women enter the country during the wave of ISIS terror and how it took weeks to conduct biometric screening using data held US intelligence.
I think the migration program should be in our best interest and if we're bringing people in, for example, I've been critical of the Prime Minister's decision to bring in literally thousands of people from Gaza during the.
Course of a war, it's beyond my comprehension.
It does take time the weeks that you were talking about before you can get confirmation back. And if we're bringing people in from a war zone at the moment with uncertainty around identification or background or motivation and those checks haven't been done, then I think it's a complete abrogation and I think it puts out country and certainly the Jewish community at even higher risk.
Well, there's a lot of commentary about whether Dutton has a shot at winning the next election. Alban Easy is facing a detainee crisis and he's refused to accept his immigration minister isn't keeping our country safe. He's also presiding over a cost of living crisis with families when both parents work, struggling to afford housing and some are even living in cars. At the same time, Albanesi has been criticized for high levels of immigration that have put even
more pressure on the rental crisis in Australia. Despite failing in almost every policy area, Albanizi is expected to win more seats than the coalition at the next election. Many polls predict a minority government or a hung parliament. Well I asked Peter Dutton his own assessment of whether he could win the next election.
Even though the first term government hasn't lost since nineteen thirty one, that the best outcome from a Labor Party perspective is that they could form a minority government which would include the Greens and the Tials and potentially, as you say, Muslim independent candidates from Western Sydney or perhaps elsewhere in Melbourne, for example. The reality of that is that yes, they would be compromised even further in terms of their stance.
And I think as.
We saw during the period of the Gillard government, where there was formal compact with the Greens, there was a drag to the left and I think that is at odds with where most Australians are at.
And he spoke about how most Australians just want to improve the lives for themselves and their children. Pretty basic. Well, Duta needs to win nineteen seats to form majority government. He acknowledged the challenge ahead, but said he believes he can get there. So nineteen seats, do you think you can get there?
And how The short answer is yes, I do.
And as I say, twelve months ago, people weren't contemplating anything other than a second term and perhaps a third term for the Albanesi government. We need to make sure that we have the policies, we have the candidates, and
that we can communicate that effectively. And I believe very strongly when you go seat by seat, when you look at our prospects around the country, as we did in twenty sixteen, or as John Howard did in nineteen ninety six, there are opportunities for us in Western Australia opportunities for us in South Australia, certainly in New South Wales, in Western Sydney and the Central Coast, and he went.
On to outline the areas where he thinks he can pick up many seats. Dutton spoke about his concerns that the Albaneze government would form an alliance with the Greens, where you heard some of those remarks already, but he really does worry about where this would lead the country because in some of his strongest remarks on the Greens yet, Peter Dutton said that Adam Bant leads a party of hate, and Dutton went so far as to call the Greens an anti Semitic party.
There is a real danger if that were scenario that somebody like Adam band who is running an anti Semitic party, they're a party of hatred, and that they would be in government. I think is a shocking consideration, but that is one of the prospects after the next election.
In the meantime, under Labor, Australia's relationship with Israel has fractured in a major way. There's immense dissatisfaction with Australia's foreign policy. Since October seven from Israel's perspective, and this is at the very highest levels of the Israeli government.
Well.
Peter Dartton pointed to the importance of Australia's relationship with Israel. He said as Defense and Home Affairs Minister, he received intelligence from Israel over a long period of time, intelligence that resulted in the thwarting of terror attacks and lives being saved. He said that rebuilding that trust would be a priority if he were Prime Minister.
The relationship has been long standing and it's in our mutual interest for us to rebuild that relationship which has been damaged. There's no question of that, and I think
we need to apply ourselves to that. And when I think of my colleagues here today in Julian Or Sarah Holly, Dave Sharma, others, James Patterson, many others, I know that in government we could in very quick fashion really reassert ourselves into the relationship and make sure that it grew with the strength that it needs to in a very quick time.
So Peter Dutton there were saying all of the shadow Coalition ministers who were at the event, the JCA event to raise money for the Jewish community, including to provide security for Jewish schools. Now. He mentioned there Sarah Henderson, Holly Hughes and others Julie and Lisa Dave Sharma who were all there to support the JCA at a state level.
Kelly Sloane was also there. Can you imagine? Can you even think of four or five or six members of the Albanese labor government who would turn up to a Jewish fundraiser nothing about Israel, a Jewish fundraiser to help raise money for Jewish security. I couldn't name five myself. I would love to be proved wrong.
Now.
Last night, some of Peter Dutton's most cutting remarks were reserved for the Prime Minister himself. After viewing comments that Anthony Alberzi has made in the Parliament over the years on Israel, Peter Dutton accused him of taking an anti Israel stance throughout his career for political purposes, and Peter Dutton was brutal.
Our assumption has been show as you pointed out before, that this is all about Penny Wong's influence and that Anthony Alberanze has taken direction is subservient to in the conversations, Penny Wong's views. But it's obvious that Anthony Albernezi either had a heavy influence at university or and more likely in my judgment, he's very early on in his parliamentary career.
Decided that to hold his seat of Graindler, he needs to have this particular view.
And in my mind, I say to school kids, as we go around to speak to the school children in our.
Electorates, they are good and bad on both sides of politics.
But people who sell out their values, their beliefs, or indeed their country for cheap political gain, I think of the worst people in our business.
Now. Also tonight, Albanezi exposed why he couldn't call out the Upper House protest because as an MP, he yelled into a megaphone at a protest where flags were burned during the second into FATA. I'll show you this vision of the PM tonight. Also, Labor accused of lying over its use of drones to keep detainees in check. The protection racket over Andrew Giles reaches its peak, and you
won't believe how much Bill Shotten's news speechwriter is being paid. First, now, let's take this to tonight's panel Sky News host Liz Storer and Sky News contributor Joe Hildebrand. Welcome to you. Hello now, Liz, you were there at this event last night where I interviewed Peter Dutton. What did you think were some of his strongest remarks, because in my view that interview was extraordinary. He didn't hold back, is not
afraid to criticize the ABC, the university chancellors. You know that it's the opposite of the weakness that we've seen from the Prime minister.
He was very emphatic and by the way, congratulations on a real brilliant event.
It was a packed our.
The only struggle was you guys getting a word in edgeways over.
The constant applause.
But this was so there wasn't a single week statement out of Dutton. He is emphatic and this is the kind of leadership the people are craving because we are simply not seeing it from the Albanese government. There's not a single minister that you can roll out that people say. They are comprehensive, they are strong, they are full of conviction.
We're just not seeing that.
So Dunton stepping into the breach and the interview that he gave last night, on every single topic, particularly when he was talking about the fact that, as a former police officer himself, he believes the current police are being gagged as it were, they're having their hands tied behind their backs because we everyday people watching these protests, particularly what happened on October the ninth on the steps of the Opera House, just wringing our hands, going how can
this possibly happen? We do have laws, we do have law enforcement. This mob is about to blow and in fact the New South Wales Police are very lucky that it didn't because we were seeing animalistic behavior on display.
Flags were being burnt, the chance are not to be repeated, and yet no order to send in the stored and troopers and cut this thing off at its inception, and him explaining that as a former police officer saying there is no doubt in my mind, he said that these orders to stand down and just don't do anything when we're seeing scenes like that, that is terrifying for everyone to know.
Joe, what do you think I mean? This is you know, Dutton's really emerging from Michelle and he's coming swinging.
Yeah, no, that's very much you know, that's very much his thing. Obviously, he's renowned as a sort of tough guy politician and him very much personally. I think a lot of the certainly that the protests at the Opera House were an embarrassment to the police force and rather the leadership. You know, the police Minister obviously and the police force were blindsided by it and escalated much faster
than they were able to respond to it. They should have been much tougher, and I think that's very very clear, and I think there you had very very clear examples of hate speech which could and should have been acted on, and in many ways that failure did give I think, some license to the future protests that we saw. But the Premier Christmians, to his credit, has admitted that was a mistake. He has been very much absolutely that's right, and so's.
Dozens comments so on on the ABC because that's not going to win in friends on the left side.
No, but he doesn't happen here and they beat him up anyway, so he's got nothing to lose there, and again he's got nothing to lose by being very very tough on this issue, and you know, good on him for being so. The abs I couldn't help but notice in the very long, fourteen hundred word essay that Laura Tingle wrote in to justify her statement that Australia was
a racist country. That one of the examples she cited as proof of this, almost in an oblique way, was The Australian's coverage of the anti Semitism in the community. And I thought, well, if you're so outrageous about that, why hasn't the ABC done a documentary on it, or rather why didn't you raise anti semitism as an example of egregious Australian racism at the Sydney Writers Festival. I think we know why, because she would have been held down. And again I think that just goes to sort of
point to the double said. To be honest, I thought that was quite a sort of galling comment given that given the purposes you're speaking to, and in terms of the university campuses, I think that is a bit of a different scene. I can absolutely promise you that certainly the Sydney University Vice Chancellor Mark Scott and his team they do not want the protests, that they do not
like it one little bit. Their concern is under what particular auspice do they move mine generally speaking, State police do not patrol university campuses, so how do you get rid of them?
Sure, many lawyers could help them find a way, but let's move on now. Billionaire James Packer has weighed into the crisis in golfing the Nine network, telling the Australian newspapers James Madden that the chair Peter Costello and I quote hasn't been good for shareholders. I think being chairman of nine is all he has left and he will try and keep the job for as long as he can.
Liz Packer's intervention is fascinating in this debate because there haven't been too many people who are actually prepared to publicly criticize Costello, even though they are very critical in private. Yeah.
Well there's no love loss between those two at this point, as most people would know. But his reference to shareholders obviously is quite practical. I mean it has dropped nine cents since Costello took the chair back into twenty sixteen.
Friday saw them with the.
Lowest price for their shares that then had seen in four years, So that was more of a practical point out. But you're quite right in saying he didn't even need to say anything, really but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a well deserved dig.
And now let's turn to form a Treasurer Josh Fridenberg. There's been a lot of speculation about whether he would run again for his old seat of Kuyong at the next election after redistribution on Friday took in the majority of the old seat of Higgins. But today Josh Fridenberg cold water on this. He posted on x or Twitter that I am not rushing back to politics. My position on contesting the next election remains unchanged. I will continue
to support the Liberal Party and our local candidate Amelia Hammer. Now, Joe, Look, Josh has made the decision here that he wants to continue to spend time with his family. Is enjoying spending a lot of time with his kids being a footy coach.
But what really bothered me is that, you know, the second there might have been a suggestion that he was going to come back, there was this outBut of anger from women's groups that how dare the former treasure the tublish politician in the country want to come back to politics in a winnable sit oh, because it might mean that a woman doesn't have her job.
Come on, well, I think I suppose this is where you get sort of identity politics reaches peak stupidity. And yes, I thought Josh Fredenberg. Obviously I'm more inclined towards the labor side, but I'm friends with Josh. I think he's an outstanding parliamentary and I think we've been asset to any parliament and any party. My understanding is exactly the
same as yours. That he feels that it would be unfair to his family having just you know, having them just got him back from politics to then so quickly re enter the fray, and that he has no intention of going at this election. I may be proven wrong, but that's certainly what I've what I've heard, and I think in terms of the optics, you know, he's probably right.
I think the fact that you know the fact that you've got you going up against a Teal candidate, which is, you know, the Teals is an entire movement built entirely on virtue signaling, built entirely on literally a sort of you know, a template, a cookie cutter template of a you know, a white middle class of a middle class woman, you know, and that we know that they've gone around selecting candidates on that basis.
I think you only have to.
Look at them, and so it's an incredibly superficial movement. It is all about the optics. And I think the Liberal Party hard heads are probably right when they say the objects of removing a young woman, I.
Think old man this is.
There have been some of them.
There have been like Charlotte Mot like, who's not a scene have been that he's saying, you know, might move aside any woman, even if it's for the former treasure and that's just.
Absolutely it's objectively silly. But it would look it would look bad. Is the problem. Would not be bad, but but it would be used against It would be used.
Against them, would look bad if the party didn't want one of the most senior politicians they've ever had, As Phil Corey wrote in the Finn Review, if Peter Dutton stepped down for whatever reason, there would be no obvious successor there is no second alternative leader, according to Phil Coury in the fin Review. At the moment anyway, unfortunately Josh is not coming back. The country needs more strong, talented politicians. The country needs Josh riding Buck. You're here
all right, Listoro Joe Hildebrand. Thank you both very much, if you're fine. Now, coming up, we're going to get to why Bill Shorten's speechwriter is being paid six hundred thousand dollars plus. This is the reason Albanizi has been unable to call out the protesters. He was at a protest reportedly where flags were burned during the Second into Fata.
That explosive story after the break, welcome back. Well. Last year we revealed a clip I'm about to show you of Anthony Albanesi in his younger years, passionately condemning what he could Israel's occupation of Palestine. Now, as you can see, he yells into a microphone at a pro Palestinian protest.
Have a look, Israel has trulent children hing weshts as.
Now. According to far left new site Criikee, the clip that we broadcast was of Albanisi at a pro Palestinian protest during the Second into Fada in October two thousand and Anthony Alberizi was not a student but already a politician.
Now.
Criikee, coming at this issue from a completely different perspective to us. On Sky News ran a report on Saturday that Albanesi attended that protest outside the US consulate and that both American and Israeli flags were burned. They reported, and I quote at Martin Place, where the US Consulate was located at the time, a group of some twenty men broke from a twenty five hundred strong crowd of
protesters and tried to storm the building. News agency AFP reported sections of the crowd chanted slogans calling for a pan Arab g had or holy war to push the Israelis out of disputed lands. Despite appeals from their leaders for KHM, a group of about fifty protesters set fire to Israeli and US flags. The story added chance of free, free Palestine and God Is Great drowned out several speakers, including an Australian member of Parliament, and they say that
was Albanisi. This is quite explosive because it explains why Albinizi has been so reluctant to unequivocally condemn the aggressive
protests we've seen. It explains why he didn't I'm out swinging in defense of the Jewish community after the Opera House protests on October nine, when, as you know, the mob chanted where's the Jews and worse and burned flags, while police told Jews to stay at home and Jews were meant to be attending a vigil for the terror attacks at the opera house that very night with the
sales lit blue and white. And now we learn that Albanizi, as an MP, not a student, was at a protest during the Second into Fada where God Is Great was chanted and flags were burned. I've played this clip many times, but now Kriche has tracked down the protest where Albanizi said it have a look again.
Truman chi hing wess.
Archy reports that he attended more protests in the next few weeks. This is massive the Second Interfada where there were suicide bombings in Israel and serious threats to Jewish institutions in Australia, and Albanisi was among the anti Israel protesters. He was an MP at the time and made similar remarks in parliament.
Palestinians must be given their homeland. The occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem by the Israelis has created generations of oppressed people. While many Israelis continued to demonize all Palestinians as terrorists, Palestinians experience is rallies as occupiers and employers of chief chief labor, interrogators and jailers. Meanwhile, the government of Israel continues to allow fundamentalists to build illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
Let's bring in now Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Patterson. James, I think this revelation is extremely significant. What do you think?
I completely agree with you, Shari. Most Australians probably assumed that the Prime minister's response, inadequate response since the seventh October of rising anti sementis amount of country was just due to the fact that he's a weak prime minister.
But actually, I think what.
You've demonstrated is that deep down he has hatred for Israel, a deep seated hatred which goes back decades, and what we're seeing here is that secret hatred bubbling to the
surface and manifesting in his policies today. I think he's the most anti Israel prime minister we have ever had in this country, at leastens to the establishment of the State of Israel in nineteen forty eight, and no wonder he has failed to rally to the Jewish community in its hour and need no wonder he's abandoned Israel at international forums and in public debate, and no wonder so many Jewish Australians feel so abandoned at this critical time.
Do you think this explains why he couldn't strongly and unequivocally condemn the Opera House and other similar aggressive and violent protests because he was at a similar protest whereas were burned.
Anthony Abernese's whole history as a politician is to appeal to extremists like the people you've seen at those rallies. He has been to those rallies, He's addressed those rallies. His policies and rhetoric seeks to appease the people who go to those rallies, and I think he deep down has a lot of sympathy with their perspective. Let's remember that in recent times, In fact, in just the last Parliament when he was in opposition, he went all the way to the United Kingdom to spend time with Jeremy
Corbyn and posted selfies with him on social media. In the middle of the UK Labor Party's unprecedented anti semitism crisis, Kirs Darma is trying to clean up the anti semitism of the Genery Corbyn era and expel those people from the modern Labour Party in the UK, including Jeremy Corbyn. But Anthony Obernese thought it was a good idea to post smiling selfies with him. I mean, I think this really does show that extreme antite Israel hadred that lies underneath the surface of those policies.
Okay, We're going to continue to cover this and investigate Albanese's past stories. I first reported the lead up to the last election. Now Andrew Giles has claimed that drones were being used to track down released immigration detainees. He has now come out today conceding that actually this isn't true. James Patterson, the fact that the Prime Minister continues to protect his Immigration minister despite so many failures that would have cost anyone else their job really questions what is
going on here? Why the Prime Minister is refusing to take leadership and move him out of this portfolio.
Charrey, things have got so bad here in Canberra that we have a Minister for Immigration who is publicly hallucinating about an imaginary, secret grown surveillance program which his department has never been running, as a justification and a defense for his failure to ensure that the law is enforced and that all the release detainees are wearing ankle bloses.
What prompted him to make this admission to Kieran Gilbert was the fact that at least two of the former murderers and twenty six of the former sex offenders are free in the community without ankle bracelets, despite him promising otherwise. And all he could come up is, oh, we're secretly monitoring them with drones, which turns out not to be the case at all. Now, this is a pretty shocking
attempt to mislead the Australian people. He said this on Thursday, his office repeated it to journalists on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and the Minister for Agriculture Murray what was on Insiders on Sunday, still maintaining that drones had been used in some capacity, and fifteen minutes before question time today they had to reluctantly admit that Andrew Giles had just imagined this all in a feverish dream.
Look, it's quite the scandal. I'm going to come back to this drone issue later in the show when I bring in my political panel James Patterson thank you very much for joining me now. Treasury Secretary Stephen Kennedy has painted a grim economic warning during Senate estimates this morning. Have a look.
The contribution of household consumption to economic growth was the weakest it has been in the past decade outside of the pandemic. The run of recent week retail trade data suggests consumption is expected to remain subdued into the first half of this calendar year as households continue to prioritize essential spending. More broadly, we expect activity to be very weak in the March quarter.
GDP all right, let's bring it now Macro Business Chief Economist Leith van Nonstein. Leith, thank you again for your time. Look, this was a very grim outlet outlook from the Treasury Secretary.
Yeah, it was.
And what to show Cherry is that the Reserve Bank of Australia is basically caught in a bind as it tries to balanced stubborn inflation with the deteriorating economy.
So we obviously know that last.
Week's April CPI indicator was too high, which would have irritated the Reserve Bank. At the same time, I got the consumer economy collapsing. So last week we saw the softest and your retail sales growth in more than three decades outside of the pandemic, despite the strongest population growth in around seventy years. And this week we're likely to see the QE National accounts you record the lowest annual GDP growth outside of the pandemic since the early nineties recession,
despite seventy year high population growth. So the reality is that the per capita economy is collapsing Sherry, driven by the household sector. Households has been smashed by falling consumption that's been in rising unemployment, etc. And what this tells you is that interest rates are going to remain on hold for the foreseeable future.
Yeah, it seems like a great cut that many were expecting later this year is diminishing.
Now.
Two point six million Australians are set for a pay rise in July this after the Fair Work Commission lifted the minimum award wages by three point seventy five percent. Now this is currently leith higher than inflation. Are you concerned? You know that these wage rises they are needed, but are you concerned they will push inflation up further?
Yeah?
Look, the short answer that is no, not at that level.
I think the Fairwere Commission decision was actually sensible and pretty measured. Look, the three point seventy five percent rise in the minimum ward wages was obviously well below last years which is five point seventy five percent, and I think,
if anything, it should be neutral to potentially disinflationy. And it's worth pointing out the Westpact today lower at its forecast for wage growth to just three percent by the end of this year based on the Fairwork Commission's decision, and what's going to bear in mind that obviously the
labor market's weaking. We've got the unemployment, underemployment rates arising, labor supply three, immigrations growing much faster than jobson be created, and as a result, wage growth is going to fall through the year anyway.
All right, Leith Vanonsen, thank you very much for your time tonight. Now coming up, another major bungle from the immigration minister. Plus why is Bill short and paying his speech writerer six hundred thousand dollars? My political panel will join me next. Welcome back well. Immigration Minister Andrew ja Was last week said that detainees were being tracked by.
Drones and that's enabled things like using drones to keep track of those people.
Then his colleague, Labor Senator Murray Watt backed.
This in My understanding is that drones are being used as part of this operation, but more in the sense of monitoring the accommodation that people are living in in for example, ensuring that it's not too close to schools or other areas that they're not supposed to be living close to. So drones do form part of the operation.
But then today in Parliament the Immigration Minister conceded that actually drones aren't being used to monitor detainees. I relied on information provided by my department at the time, which has since order, which has since been clur always the department's fault when it comes to Andrew Giles. Well, let's bring in now tonight's political panel, former Press Secretary to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and current director at Headline Advisory
Andrew Carswell and Labor MP Daniel Melino. Welcome to you both. Daniel, What was the story here? How can the minister keep blaming the department for these mistakes?
Well, hi Shari, and hi Andrew. Look, I think this is a case of the minister receiving advice and then giving answers in Parliament and in media interviews based on
that advice, and then it being clarified later. I really don't see that there's a lot to this one, and as soon as he found out he clarified both in the media and in the Parliament, and for me in the Chamber, both being someone who participated in an MPI late last week and also somebody who's seen the debate play out more broadly, what really is evolving here is that its Minister Darton in the previous government who released almost ten times as many criminals and people who had
conviction as the current minister, and they didn't have any kind of monitoring. So that to me is framing the debate in a way which the Opposition is actually finding quite uncomfortable. In the Chamber, well, I think this.
Is about community safety. And Andrew Giles has said you don't need to worry the detainees are being monitored, including with drones, and then we learn that's actually not the case. But Andrew Carswall, do you want to respond to this point from Daniel Molino that under the coalition government which you were part of as a media advisor, you released more detainees.
Well, it's fanciful and it's completely different circumstances. I mean this, like, you know, we thought he was at rock bottom last week. He just got out the jackhammer and found a few more levels underneath his feet. I mean, this is a rolling circus now, and it's a rolling circus that is completely bewildering the Australian public. Six months ago they started hearing these stories, they started hearing that the horrific stories of crimes that were taking place as a result of
these actions. They six months of stories of bungling up to bungling episodes from an immigration minister that is clearly out of his depths, and then they look on their TV, even as late as this week and think, well, why is.
He still there?
Well, he's there because he's Albanese's mate, and Anthony Aberze he has chosen to protect his mate and not protect the Australian public.
And that's not hyperbly at all. You've got to look at the numbers here.
It's one hundred and fifty three detainees that were let go by this government.
Because of its policies.
Half of those had ankle monitoring on their bodies and half didn't out of those that didn't that there's two murderers, twenty six sex offenders on the streets, no drones looking over them, no ankle bracelets on the street.
This man has to go.
Yeah, it does seem at this point like it's a complete protection racket for Andrew Giles. Well, let's move on now to Bill Shotten's new speech writer, who, and this was revealed in Senate estimates today, secured a government contract worth about three hundred thousand dollars a year and it runs for two years. Well, here is Bill Shorton on a current affair just a little earlier, trying to defend this expense.
I think that service, the hiring of a speechwriter was done by Service Australia. I had no idea what the payment was. So if you're trying to link me to that, good luck. The point about it is the person involved, who is the speechwriter, does a very good job. I'm not responsible for negotiating a contract, Daniel.
The Coalition has heavily criticized Bill Shorton over this. They say it's an extravagance, especially during a cost of living crisis. The Coalition says it amounts to about twenty two thousand dollars a speech. What's your response.
We'll look.
Firstly, I think that there had been somebody in a very senior role writing speeches and other roles. It's not just the speeches. That this role under takes for a long time, and that person then left that role and so it needed to be filled. That process of filling that role was undertaken at complete arms length from the minister in the minister's office. They had nothing to do
with selecting the person or setting the salary. The other thing I'd say is my understanding is what's been clarified today is that that figure of six hundred and twenty thousand dollars is like an outer envelope and doesn't reflect the person's salary. My understanding of the person's salary, which came out later in estimates, is that it's in the
mid two hundreds, which is a very good salary. But what we're talking about is an sees Banned one or sees Ban two person undertaking just about the most senior comms or external relations role in a huge department. This is a very senior role in a major commonwealth department or a corporate or a large not for profit It's not surprising that they've got somebody with a lot of experience and expertise, So somebody in that sees banned one or two position, it's not surprising to me.
That that the kind of way they pitched that role.
Look, I just want to return to Peter Dutton Andrew Carswell, you attended this event last night where I interviewed Peter Dutton at length forty five minutes. One of the things he spoke about was the pathway he saw to winning the next election. He outlined the areas he could pick up seats. He was also very strong on many topics law enforcement, University Chancellor's activists at the ABC. Do you think Dutton does have a pathway to become PM or do you think the battle is just too big.
There's certainly a pathway, and there's always a pathway, and particularly when you have a government that is on the nose as the Abaneze government is.
But it is a difficult equation.
They effectively have to pick up nineteen seats, including the two, sorry not including the two that the Crossban now have taken away from them by those two going over to the other side. So it is a difficult equation a first time. Hasn't lost government in this way since nineteen thirty one, So the weight of history is against Dutton. But he's doing an admirable job of holding this government to account. And I think he's surprising a lot of people.
He's surprising the people with his patients. He's surprising a lot of people with the policies that he's putting forward. And I think he'll give it a good shake.
Yeah, all right, Andrew Carswell, Daniel Malina, thank you so much. Now after the break, Donald Trump vows to fight on after becoming the first convicted bomber president in history. Welcome back Will. In his first interview since he's guilty verdict, Donald Trump told Fox that he did nothing wrong.
And then you had a jury that was from a certain persuasion would have been hired to do no matter what. But I did absolutely nothing wrong.
All Right.
Sky News contributor Kosher Gada joins me. Now, Kosher, what did you think of Trump's interview today with Fox News?
I think it was expected, Shari. Where He's going to stick with what the premise has been from his side and his team on this, which is that the entire case from the beginning to end is really politically driven as opposed to justice driven, and he was just hitting
those points in that interview. And it's really all about now that, now that the conviction came out, which everybody expected would be the case, it's now all about the political aspect and fallout of that, and how much can the messaging be used to his advantage or the disadvantage of it be squashed with certain sectors of the electorate. And I would expect to see a lot more media and rallies and things of that nature tying into this from here to November.
Look, Trump says he's not scared of going to jail. Sentencing will be on July eleventh, But is this a reality? Is this a realistic prospect that he could actually be in prison?
You know, it's a pretty scary thought. I think most conventional wisdom says that that is a bridge too far, even for this judge, even for the jurisdiction in which he was tried, including those who believe the whole thing was unfair from start to finish, don't think that it would end up with that.
But who knows.
Anything is possible. We've just seen so many things have happened in an unprecedented way with Trump really since before he came into office, all the way up until now that I think we can't rule anything out. There are other versions of it where they could There could be a sentence and then they suspend it, so it sort
of makes a statement. The judge could do what's called a suspended sentence where he's making a statement symbolically leading up to the election, but he wouldn't actually follow through with it. There could be other things where he does sentence him to a short time in prison, but then it would immediately go up to appeal and one of the higher courts would stay that order expecting that the
appeal process would take place. So there's all sorts of versions of that that could take place, and I think, really it's anybody's guess how this is going to go.
Look, it's been widely reported that tens of millions of dollars was pumped into Trump's campaign within hours, within forty eight hours of the conviction. So this does seem to have only energized support for him, it really has.
I think it was fifty four million in twenty four hours, which the Trump campaign has always been behind on funding. And that was not insignificant, and it really is an indication of that support. And there's also polling that says something like seventy percent of Republicans already expected this to happen. They did not think it was a fair trial that's baked into the cake, and they want to stick with him. Same thing on the other side of Democrats were actually
energized as well. And then the thing that we don't know is how the independents are going to fall out on this issue, and that's really what's going to be found out in the weeks to come.
All Right, thank you so much, Kosha Gad and thank you everyone for your company this evening. I see you tomorrow at eight. And here's Paul Mari