Lateens General, welcome the Late Bay.
Well, good evening and thanks for joining us on the Late Debate James Macpherson with Liz Storer and Caleb Bond coming up. You would have heard celebrities always banging on about how the use of fossil fuels causes natural disasters, you know, like fires. Well, what are we to make of Hollywood celebrities fleeing the fires in la in their
private jets. We'll talk about that a little later. Plus, when we look at the papers, rail strike set to cause chaos in Sydney tomorrow as they did today, And one hundred and eighty million dollars allocated to fight domestic violence in the Northern Territory is unspent, In fact, worse than unspent. It hasn't even been allocated yet. We'll get to all of that when we look at what's making
news tomorrow. But first, have you ever looked at a misbehaving child, someone else's misbehaving child, and thought that kid needs a really good smack. Well a Queensland doctor not only thought it, he did it and was fined five thousand dollars. Doctor Arthur de Villiers smacked the misbehaving toddler after the two year old ignored repeated requests to stop
flicking the lights on and off during a medical appointment. Now, the doctor had requested the boy's mother control the child, but the mother was deaf and by the time the interpreter who was present had communicated the message, well, the doctor had lost his patience. He got up from behind his desk, walked over, picked up the child and gave it a good smack on the bum. Now the child was out of control. That was agreed, and the doctor gave a smack with an open hand on trousers which
had a nappy underneath. There was no suggestion the child was hurt other than, of course, the child's pride. But the Queensland Civil and Administrative Administrative Tribunal ruled that the doctor's actions were and I quote completely inappropriate and he should never have acted as he did. There's no doubt. The tribunal said that the little boy's behavior was very challenging and it was completely inappropriate for the respondent to
intervene as he did. I got to say, Caleb, Liz, I sympathize with this doctor because I think we've all been to shopping centers. Maybe supermarkets where we've seen out of controlled toddlers throwing tantrums as parents stand there idly. As a parent of two boys, I understand that I never had to teach them to be bad, lying, throwing tantrums. They had that figured out all by themselves. It was my job to teach them to be good. Somehow they didn't know how to do that with a little bit
of intervention. It reminds me of a story of a
maid of mine. He used to run an organization dealing with delinquent teenagers, and he once told me how he was at a supermarket and this kid was just throwing an absolute mental tantrum, having a meltdown, as mum just stood there sort of, you know, trying to coddle him, unsuccessful gentle, and he watched for about a minute and a half, and then finally he walked over and handed this woman one of his business cards he deals with the link and she looked at him, like, what's this for?
And he said, trust me, you'll be calling me in about fifteen years from now. I reckon, instead of finding this got the five thousand dollars, the state government should have given him five thousand dollars for doing his bit to try and head off the crime crisis we're currently seeing across our nation.
Or perhaps they should have sentenced the mother to a smack. I mean, I think that's the real problem here, right, And you can understand why the doctor who is simply trying to do his job and the kids fiddling with light switches which were near some other important switches in his practice that he did not want touched. He's trying
to communicate this to the mother. It was difficult because she's dere I get all of that, but surely as a parent, I mean, you know, I am not a parent, though my girlfriend has two kids, so I've had a bit of experience with young children of late, but I try not to be the parent in that situation for obvious reasons. But I would be horrified as a parent if my child was running a mark in the doctor's surgery while his brother was trying to be attended to
by the doctor. I'd be so embarrassed that this is the show my kid was putting on in front of the doctor and others, and I'd have something done about it quick, smart the doctor.
Shame the fact that.
It got to the point where the doctor himself felt like he had to intervene. I would suggest, mean it's gone, you know, quite a long way down the line, because most people know that in most circumstances, you don't interfere with someone else's child. He's only done that because he was really frustrated and he felt like nothing was being done about it. I totally sympathized with him that five thousand dollars should go into a fund to deal with these delinquent kids.
But genuinely bring back shame.
I remember the days when do you have your child behaved like that in public? Was the most humiliating experience a person could have, because they knew in society at large understood they were being judged as a result. This is the product of your parenting or lack thereof. I certainly remember when I was a kid, if I had done anything to bring dishonor upon the family, the trip home was the most that you're just sweating bullets because.
You know what you're going home to. They have not forgotten.
You will be disciplined for what you have done, and everybody you got to reap the benefits though then of well behaved children in public. My parents had seven, so they didn't let us get away with anything. Couldn't afford to have a bad apple in that bunch. It would have become contagious. And let's face it, this guy, for a few seconds.
There lived the dream. Like you say, who among us hasn't been in public going.
Oh my good Anyone who's babysat my niece's for more than five seconds.
Knows the urge to just go oh my goodness.
And yet parents these days expect you to just put up with it. You might be at a fence, restaurant, you may be in any number of settings, and they just expect you to suck it up like they do. And you're like, no, actually, this is not what I gave here for all, believe it or not.
And of course people will raise the issue of abuse, but all normal functioning people understand the difference between discipline and abuse. And by the way, you just reminded me when my kids were naughty and we'd drive home and I had not yet disciplined them, and they would then they would start asking, Dad, are you going to discipline that? Because they knew when there was a pause between the offense and the discipline, they knew it was going to raise for repacked.
Oh was I smacked?
My elder brother used to tell everyone, because I'm number three in the bunch of seven, used to tell everyone, you put mine and Anna's buildings together and you get half of Elizabeth's.
My mom was debately smacked.
My mom had the biggest biceps from all the time she was smacking my mom.
It. Yeah, I think I sacrificed a few wooden spoons over made.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, mine, we had pains. I flip Kaynes and look at the backside.
We all turned out alright. We're running around in doctors surgeries fiddling with you.
All the parents out there with strong worled children, take it from a strong willed child.
Hang in there. We turn out okay in the end.
Though my mum might now be sending a text message in to say, actually you did fiddle with the switches in the doctor's surgery. I don't remember, and if I did, I'm pleading ignorance on this one. Now you'll remember last year Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi announced that he was going to appoint a special Envoy on anti Semitism.
Envoy.
Sorry, I should say I've been in trouble for this one before when I've said envoy, the correspondence I get from viewers to remind me that it is envoy, so I.
Will relearn it. I am sorry. He said he would appoint.
A special Envoy on anti Semitism, but of course at the same time we need a special Envoy on Islamophobia as well, because you know that's just as bad as antisemitism. But whatever, Jillian Siegel was the woman he appointed. Now I said at the time, this is going to do nothing. The Prime Minister since October seventh, twenty twenty three, has shown little regard for antisemitism in this country. All this
really is window dressing. I mean as if he needs to appoint someone on a public salary to tell him that antisemitism is a problem in Australia right now we can all see that. But he's done very little about
it during his Prime ministership. So Julian Siegel has now come out and come up with a few suggestions, among them that if you attack a synagogue you should face mandatory minimum sentencing, that meaning you will have to go to jail, and that there ought to be a National Cabinet meeting to discuss antisemitism.
Here she was talking to Chris Kenny earlier tonight.
Infecting our community with hate and attacking places of worship in particular, but other places in order to intimidate the Jewish community. They should actually result in jail time. We need to make sure as a community that we convey to those bringing prosecutions and those assessing the penalty is how serious this is for the future of our country.
Well, what would you know?
The Prime Minister who appointed someone to tell him what to do about anti Semitism now says, no, I'm not going to do what the person who I appointed to tell me what to do about anti Semitism has told me to do.
He was at a press conference today.
Well, she spoke with Jillian Siegel, Yes, say a couple of times. So we convene into a meeting yesterday with myself, the Premier of Victoria, the acting Premier of New South Wales, and the AFP Commissioner to coordinate activity. We have Operation Abelite that is in place. What I want is to ensure that any act of anti Semitism.
That it stops, that it stops.
I want people who are responsible for these acts to be prosecuted fully because they are a crime and people should be held to account with the full force of the law.
Now, I think the Prime Minister does actually have a point here, that being that an attack on a synagogue having mandatory minimum sentencing would be an extraordinary move, one that has to be made by the states, not at a federal level, because of course that's where the criminal codes lie. But normally mandatory minimum sentencing is applied to the worst of the worst crimes, things like murder, rape, child abuse, etc. And also, what did national Cabinet ever achieve.
I'm not sure that having another meeting would ever actually do anything. But it proves the point, does it not? That when he appointed a Special Envoy on anti Semitism, it wasn't so that he could actually get any advice that he would ever take any notice of, or that he particularly cared about. He was simply trying to say to the Jewish community, oh look, look, I'm doing something.
Now, I'm doing something now.
It was always window dressing. He's proved it today. He doesn't want the advisor.
To say, though, that he won't take future advice or he hasn't taken past advice. And like you say, he does have a point here.
There's the matter of jurisdiction.
National counsel would involve obviously all of the premiers.
Whereas we know that the hotspots here in.
Australia are New South Wales, namely Sydney and Victoria, namely Melbourne.
And he was talking to Min's and Allen.
Just yesterday, so he really is honing in on those troubled spots. As for mandatory sentencing, I mean this, even for that heinous crimes that you named. There mandatory sentencing. The reason why there isn't many of them is because it's so fraught for the uninitiated. That simply means that the sentence is already decided. So if and when you are convicted of a particular crime, the judge doesn't have much to deliberate over, you get the mandatory sentence regardless of the circumstances.
But let's for a second imagine.
That we have found the person who's burnt down the synagogue in Melbourne and it turns.
Out that they were bribed, they were told that their family would be killed, etc. And so on.
So when we're talking about mandatory sentencing, we're talking about an instance in which any of those situations, any other extenuating circumstances are thrown out the window, and someone is simply given a cut, copy paste every single time, the same sentence. And I do think that it would be a curious thing to have a special sentence for the burning down of a synagogue as opposed to somebody's church, somebody's mosque, or any other person's place of worship.
I think that what the envoy is trying to say is that there's a distinction between a church being set on fire right now or a mosque as compared to a synagogue. A church fire right now would be an isolated incident. But we've had.
That's called knee jerk legislation, and it's always about it.
Well, I would say fifteen months of anti Semitic attacks without any action maybe requires a bit of knee jerking, and that must be the.
Is the special operation Adelite that he's talked about.
And we've had a fire in a mosque. What a month ago they initially said we've got three suspects where afraid they might flee the country. We've heard nothing since nothing has happened. And this is the frustration that must be being felt by the Jewish community. You said mandatory sentencing would be an extraordinary move, agreed, but are we not living in extraordinary times? And as for jurisdiction, well, she said, that's why we need to have a national cabinet.
They had a national cabinet meeting about social media, for goodness sake, but won't have one about anti Semitism. This is an insult to the Jewish community if you're going to ignore their advice, and her advice is could we have a discussion from the premiers?
So would you if he doesn't take all of the envoyage guys.
I'm saying, I'm saying that this advice that she has given is pretty innocuous. Get the premiers together have a national coordinated response to antisemitism so we're all on the same page. That would be the least I reckon that we could do to address a subject that's been allowed to go on and on and on for fifteen months. And while you're at it, talk about mandatory sentencing. And it would be nice if someone got arrested in the first place.
But I think I think we're.
Rather misakes, which is why National council never works.
We saw this during COVID.
Even if they have.
Their meetings and then they walk away and they say, I've got.
My own feet.
Say to the Jewish community that social media was important enough to call everybody together, but apparently antisemitism isn't important enough.
Why are you sucked the elbow?
Isn't changing his tune after all this time?
Issunity one weeds here of you know, why is he not doing something now about what the antisemity some invoices he should do. He's failed to do anything for fifteen months. I mean, it's not going to change now because someone else has told him what to do. We know the stripes of the Prime Minister as if we would expect him to change now. I'm not saying that's right, but but we can jump up and down now and say, oh, well, he hasn't taken the advice.
He didn't want the advice.
But what I would say is he would have been better off not appointing any anti antisemit because it was token. When he appointed that, it was injury.
It was pure token.
The applause, much like now sending the Attorney General to Israel and we're all like, oh yeah, golf, clap buddy, amazing. Everyone's convinced you've done a complete one eighty not now to a very important issue that before today I did not even know was a thing. Let's say you are hospitalized here in Australia. You have nothing to do. Like most people who are bed ridden in hosts hospital, you get to stare at the.
Ceiling all day, every day.
I didn't know you have to pay ten dollars to watch free to air tea V. This story today absolutely rendered my heart hearing people tell these stories of Oh, I went to visit my brother. He's laid up with filling the blank of what he's suffering from. And I asked him, why are you just lying here in silence, staring at the wall, And he said, well, it's ten bucks a day to watch free to air TV and I simply can't afford it, which, of course then the
brother went sorted it out paid for it himself. But this is the case across the nation and it's come to our attention thanks to a group in Perth taking this on.
They're called the Health Consumer's Council.
The article says in eight of the city's metropolitan hospitals. We're talking about Perth in this instance, although it's the same across the nation, access to bedside TV showing free to air channels and a movie channel, but not streaming services is provided by a third party, Hills Health Solutions. The company takes responsibility for the purchase, installation, and maintenance of the TVs and charges patients ten dollars a day or fifty four a week nine dollars per day if
you're a cacession card holder. I just find this utterly miserable. And the premiere WA Roger Cook has come out and says, yeah, so I backed this one hundred percent. That people should just be sitting in hospital bored, lonely, probably their mind's full of the tragedy that they are living through, or if they've been through an accident.
I mean, do you.
Ever need trash TV, which is what freeware TV is.
Let's be honest, do.
You ever need trash TV more than when you just need to be completely distracted. It gives you a bit of company, It takes your mind off things. And here we have people in hospital beds unable to afford ten bucks a day.
Genuinely, this made my blood run coal.
I would pay ten dollars a day to not have free to air, making my miserable care in a hospital bed in a hospital, the credit book will be far better off than getting free TV. And at the end of the day, someone's got to pay for it. So if the user is not paying for it, the rest of us pay for it.
I just want to pay for with hospital care.
You know, it seems a bit miserable, doesn't it to force someone to pay ten dollars a day to watch the garbage that they put on free to air TV.
But you know, if you were.
In hospital over summer, I'd want to watch the cricket, right, So that's that's especially when you want to tell you. But see, it's fine for any of us three, Right, we'd take in an iPad or our iPhone or whatever.
Everyone's and you can stream all this stuff.
Right.
But the people that this affects the most, as is often the case when we talk about these things, whether it's going cash lists, et cetera, is elderly people, right who maybe don't have a device, I don't know how to work a device, they don't have a smartphone whatever, and mere people who are more likely to spend long periods of time in hospital and for the pleasure of being a pensioner.
They knock off am easily. One dollar a day the price.
Even if I have to pay, because I earn a reasonable some of that whatever, I can copy it. But it's pensioners that I worry about, who might be in hospital for long periods of time and they've got to pony up ten bucks a day to watch the Telly.
I mean, just let them have some simple pleasures.
They want to watch Jerry Springer, they want to watch doctor film for heaven's sake. You might call it trash TV. I call it Hella vision. But just let them have some joy.
In their lives. Imagine the whole working life. Taxes to fund the ABC watch ABC Horrible. Staying on the theme of hospitals, I'll tell you if it's bad in Australia, try a hospital in the UK. Radiographers in UK hospitals have been told to ask men if they might be
pregnant before performing X rays. Now this comes about because a transgendered man that's a woman who was identifying as a man, underwent an X ray unaware that she was pregnant at the time, and of course staff never thought to ask because this person was presenting as a man and they didn't want to offend by misgendering the person. So now, in order to avoid that happening again, there are signs. I'll show you the sign when you go for an X ray at NHS hospitals in the UK
saying this and I quote, please be aware. All patients aged twelve to fifty five being X rayed will be asked whether there is any chance of them being pregnant, regardless of gender. Now this is not inclusive. This is absolutely insane. More than insane, it's abuse. Imagine asking a twelve year old boy if he might be pregnant before he's given an X ray. If you did that with
the parents absent, that is abuse. If you did that with the parent present, you should probably get a punch in the face and it would be well deserved.
You find five grand for that, It would be five grand well.
Spent for a smack on the bottom of that person's reality. Think about this. You've got vulnerable people, right, they've been denied free to air TV.
You can't afford that seven pounds in the UK freaking out about ten days back.
Try seven pounds.
You're already feeling miserable and vulnerable, and then to add insult to injury before you get an X ray to find out just how bad your situation is. They ask you, as a bloke, do you reckon you might be pregnant? Seriously, if a doctor asked me if I was pregnant before getting an X ray, I would ask if I could have a doctor who was competent to treat me, please.
I'd say, Look, I might have put on a few kegs over summer, wiggle of the wine and obecu't.
Mean I'm pregnant. Maybe it's a food baby. I don't know. I also want to know. I mean. They say they're only asking patients.
Between the ages of twelve and fifty five, presumably because they assume that every woman biological or otherwise, by the age of fifty five has gone through menopause. But what if you haven't gone through menopause by the age of fifty five. They are making assumptions on this side, just as they were previously making assumptions about whether or not you were a female.
And I reckon, that's a discretion.
Men don't have menopause, so they could still be pregnant. Though the whole thing goes wrong.
The one point, do we just use our brains? Right?
Like if a transgender man who is actually a woman comes in to see you.
Like, unless they've had extraordinary.
Surgery, it's probably reasonably obvious that this person is a biological woman.
As you are to be obvious, because these days it can be quite confusing. I mean, we've all been there once or twice these days. But we're talking about medical professional to have their medical records. If I'm about to X ray you, surely I know enough about you from your medical forms to know whether or not there is any possibility that you could be pregnant. Maybe they are legitimately doing it just to avoid all liability and to ensure because it's sadly hospitals can't be too careful.
That's okay, So why not have a sign that simply says, please notify us if there's a chance you could be pregnant.
That would again, that could leave them open to liability. I can easily say, oh, I didn't see that sign, and now you've X rayed me, and yes, I was pregnant.
Fair.
So they're just like, you know what we are asking every Tom Dick and Harry.
Literally literally can you imagine some bulky bricklayer or something going in for some sort of X ray and as they're about you, they're like, you're pregnant.
That question would put radiographers in danger. So forget the patient. What about your life alility to protect your staff from angry men.
Just imagine some pommy bloke being like, are you ka mate?
Yeah, Matte, drop the kids off at the pool this morning.
While we're over in the UK, let's talk about Wales. Now, you would have heard recently about the grooming gangs in the UK.
Now this dates back more than a decade ago.
This odded coming to light in about twenty thirteen, and it had been going on for at least a decade before that, particularly in Rottenham in England, but certainly other parts of the UK as well, where Pakistani in particular grooming gangs were systematically taking and abusing young British girls. So let's fast forward teen years on from that and we are starting to talk about this, or a bit more than ten years on, we're actually starting to talk about this again.
It's getting the publicity it deserves.
There are suggestions now that there should be an inquiry into this, though of course the Sarma government has k not that on the head and guests who was the DPP at the time and all this was going on.
It was Sirkar Starmer.
But in twenty twenty three a school in Wales twelve year old girls we're talking about here, put together a video encouraging refugees to come to Wales and saying you will be well treated here, etc. That was then shared by the Welsh Refugee Council. Now this has come back to light in recent days after there has been more publicity about what happened ten odd years ago and all
the years before that. But you have to ask the question, what on earth was this school thinking and what was the wealth the Welsh Sorry Refugee Council thinking when a year ago, just a decade after Pakistani men had been found to be systematically abusing girls of about this age, What were they thinking putting out a video saying come to Wales, We're going to treat you well.
Take a look.
Hello and welcome to ours. We understand being a refugee isn't easy. They go through so much cleaning.
Your country is difficult for Wales as to help you feel welcome.
As a nation of country who welcome anyone and everyone.
We recognize your skills and talent.
Not only that, but Whales office free education unhealthy.
We understand that you're feel a lot and that is why the Wild Refugee Council is here to help you. I mean it's almost like they're enticing these men to come to Wales. Look what you can have here. Chris Philp, the UK Shadow Home Secretary, said it was deeply irresponsible for the Welsh Refugee Council to share a video featuring only young girls in the first place, especially in light of the long standing grooming gang's scandal. I mean, you
look at that now. I can't believe they didn't look at it then and what the elder but you look at that now and go, honestly, who ever thought that was a good idea?
We should point out we blurred the girls, correct, The Welsh Refugee Council did not. This is wrong on two levels. Firstly, while we involving twelve year old girls in the immigration debate, what does a twelve year old kid have to say of value about all the nuances of immigration policy. And second, of course for the Welsh Refugee Council to share that video and they said, oh we weren't promoting you know, for refugees to come. We just thought it was nice
that they had said something about the Refugee Council. Well, that's absolute rubbish. They knew exactly what they were doing. It's wrong. The school took it down after they realized the Refugee Council should never have done that. And now Kirs Starmer is saying that this video, it's been shared by Elon Musk, he's promoted it, and Kios Starmer says it's more right wing.
You know.
What's the word I'm looking for, ohsterio, the right hysteria. It's highlight highlighting one of the greatest failures in the history of England, at which he was at the forefront of it. No wonder he doesn't like this video now resurfacing.
There are genuinely no words. We would not be allowed to share the words that judges have uttered regarding these particular cases describing what was done to the girls in England, especially in certain parts like Rotterdam. Like you mentioned, it is unspeakable. It is beyond animalistic, it is demonic.
It is disgusting.
And the fact that anyone thought this was a good idea. I often say that negligence, this bad doesn't exist. This is when I start looking at was this deliberate? Because for crying out loud, you're telling me no one at the Welsh Refugee Council thought, oh actually this isn't This isn't going to fly.
This is very distasteful.
Even if you didn't have the background of what's been happening over the last decade or so, even if that wasn't there, this is extremely unwise, Like you say, to involve children in essentially talking about something that they have absolutely no idea what they're saying, using them as political pawns. You do wonder where their parents were. My goodness, I'd want these people's guts for garters back home to Australia now, where citizenship test failure rates have been revealed.
For last year in twenty twenty.
Four, as migration and social cohesion shape up to be key battle grounds at the next election, the Herald Son can reveal that while more than one hundred and eighty three thousand citizenship tests were taken last year, only one hundred and twenty two thousand people pass.
The Opposition, which.
Has previously acclused accused Labor of neglecting to teach new citizens what it means to be Australian, says the new data is of deep concern.
What's of deep.
Concern to me is that you are already living here. Okay, you're not visiting. You are living here. You have emigrated here. Now you're applying for citizenship, which means that you've been here for quite some years already. And you can't pass a twenty question multi choice.
So you've got the answer in front of you.
You just have to pick out of three choices which is the right answer. You can't pass that test.
You're allowed to get a quarter of.
Them wrong and still pass any more of that than you've failed. Then if you fail, you get to come back three more times and just.
Try it on again.
I find it disturbing that the failure rates of this high, simply because we're talking about people who already live here and haven't even cared enough about their new home country and the culture and the people therein to learn basic stuff like what's the capital of Australia.
Well, there's two important points here.
One of them is that the failure rate went through the roof after twenty twenty, when the Morrison government put in questions about Australian values, Right, that's the hurdle that they're falling down at. So these people are being asked what are Australian values and they can't tell you this.
It's like a freedom of speech, the mocracy, these kinds of.
That is extremely traveling.
And the largest failures were people on humanitarian visas, those who should be the most grateful that Australia has given them the opportunity not only to live somewhere safer and have another go at their life, but now a shot at actually being an Australian, and these are the people who fail most often. It makes a mockery of what we have offered them.
But the mockery really is the people have put together this test. I mean one of the questions that we're currently asking people who want to be citizens of this country. We're asking them who is authorized to perform a welcome country. That now, apparently is the very important thing to know if you're going to be a citizen. What a lot of a rubbish. That's the last thing we need them
to worry about. But a government spokesperson who was talking about the high failure rate said that it's very important that those doing the tests are given a fair go and that the test one of the Australian values and that the test does not quote create barriers to citizenship. I would have thought the purpose of the test was to create barriers, barrier out understand our values. The Refugee Council of Australia was just recently lobbying for the test
to be offered in languages other than English. Is a little bit sort of counter productive, but there you go. That's the state of our country under the current government. I want to talk about an interesting decision by Cole's Supermarkets in light of a horrific attack on one of their staff members in Ipswich, Queensland on Monday. A sixty three year old staff member was stocking the shelves when a third teen year old boy grabbed a knife that was on the shelf for sale and stabbed her in
the back allegedly. Allegedly. She is now in hospital, allegedly recovering alleged, but the kids being charged.
The kids being charged, we have he's alleged that he's committed.
This was pretty clear what happened. Knife didn't end up there by accident. As a strong as a response to this, alleged incident, Coles have now made the decision they will not stock kitchen knives at all. I would argue that while this is a horrific attack, it's also incredibly incredibly rare. It seems to me, and I don't want to sound heartless, but it does seem like a bit of an overreaction to now say we will not sell kitchen knives at all. It means your average Ozsie has got to find a
specialist knife shop to buy basic kitchen utensils. And it begs the question what sort of security now do knife shops overreaction.
Or if they behind the counter with smokes or something something like that where you can be seen to do something to respond to the incident.
I mean, this is a massive overreaction.
Especially because if you shop.
At Cole's, browsers are down.
If you're want of those people they have recently, like literally they are locking up their smeag knives that you were in line to get as loyal customers that were literally handing out free knives, and now they're chucking them out by the bus load. This is utter nonsense, and they could have managed this so much more easily by being like, hey, if you want to buy knives, they're in this cabinet, you have to go up to the
customer service desk. I mean, not many people are buying knives on a daily average, so it's not like.
They're going to be like, oh, the desk can't handle it. That would have been perfectly fine.
The other thing that annoys me with stuff like this is we all know it's just much easy to say, well, we just won't stop knives, and they have a conversation about what the hell is wrong? Yes, with our culture where we've got thirteen year old kids stabbing strangers in the back in the middle of a Coles supermarket, that is a conversation we should be having, but no one wants to have it, much less should you smack your children.
Let's put all of that together. There's something we don't want to talk about, so instead let's just hide the knife.
Well is brought up earlier the idea of knee jerk policy, right, and this is the ultimate example of kneejerk policy.
Now I've written about this for news.
Dot com dot Au you can read it tomorrow, an excellent column. But I'll tell you all the stuff that I'm going to write in it anyway, but I suggest you do go and read it nevertheless.
But the thing that annoys me about this is.
You know, I get that Cole's wants to be seen to be doing something. Just as last year when we had a spate of knife incidents in New South Wales, the Men's government wanted to be seen to be doing something, so they brought in these laws that meant that you could be searched for a knife at a place where there had been another knife incident without a warranty.
US.
It doesn't do anything to stop knife I mean, if a thirteen year old kid wants to stab someone, they can get a kitchen knife from any house in the country or any workplace in the country. We're not talking about something that is hard to get your hands on. A kitchen knife is not designed to be a weapon. It's designed to do a job in the same way that a car is not designed to be a weapon, but it is also incredibly dangerous and kills thousands of people.
Get cars at a supermarket, well no, but you can get a car at a car dealership. But you wouldn't say, oh, I'm not going to sell that because we've had an incident with a car right.
And the problem here is so often we say.
Look, okay, we'll give up a little bit of liberty in order to make people safer, until one day we will wake up having given away every bit of liberty we have to achieve ultimate safety, and we still won't be safe. Then that's what annoys me about this. It doesn't actually fix anything. It doesn't stop knife crime. And by the way, knife crime in New South Wales anyway is lower than it was ten years ago, lower than it was twenty years ago. We don't have a big
problem with knife crime. We have a problem with youth crime. And you don't treat that by banning the sale of kitchen.
You know, after that our apply be in America. I'm rushing out to buy the paper to Maria, real that that was very very good. Speaking of papers. Will be back in just a moment with what's making news in tomorrow's papers? Stick around, welcome back. Let's take a look at what's making news in tomorrow's papers. Caleb, you've got the Australian some great stories on tomorrow's front paper.
They certainly are hardly a chain saw is the headline lives guardrails no guarantee of fiscal prudence, and this one's a ripper. The coalition self imposed expenditure limits would allow for higher spending than what is being for us by labor, prompting economists to accuse Angus Taylor of failing to outline a credible pathway towards a lower spending and lower taxing future if there is a change in government.
So The Australian has.
Done some analysis of the numbers that the Coalition have put together and found that they would permit sixteen point eight billion dollars more spending than what was forecast by the Albanese government in December.
I think you couldn't script this stuff.
And Albo's literally out there saying they're going to take a sledgehammer, They're going to take a chain sawter services. You guys are going to be living in caves. Now that's my paraphrase, but basically threatening people saying, you know, the quality of service with a.
Health, education, you name it.
These guys are going to absolutely slash It's simply not true.
More well, I mean, it doesn't mean that they're going to spend that extra sixteen billion dollars more than the government at spend if re elected. But it does mean they can make some mockrob they have promised. I mean, I know, I know, I know, you give some flexibility.
We all love a bit of flat you know.
I just love to see and then you know, I hate to praise the guy given his latter day pursuits, but you know the days of Bob Hawk and Paul Keating as a treasurer, who in their day Keating as a treasurer and later as a Prime minister, who were unafraid to pursue economic reform, who were unafraid to shake things up and say no, this is what I mean. The reformer was instituted by labor governments that you wouldn't get from any labor government.
Today. I just everyone seems.
Afraid to actually say, yes, we're going to have major tax reform, We're going to have major spending reform. We're going to change the way the government works in this country.
No one has the balls to do.
It any You're saying free everything is not a reform.
Oh well, funny about that.
I thought it was an economic refer in the way our.
Government good way to get votes, isn't it.
Now.
The story on the front of the elves tomorrow. This one is truly extraordinary.
Judge Lash's egregious breach.
A district court judge has lashed a decision by Western Australian minister Don Punch to return awarded the state into the home of a child sex predator as utterly extraordinary and suggested the state rethink fighting a sex abuse compensation against it. Mister Punch was in a senior role with the Department of Communities in nineteen ninety eight when he helped return an eighty year old to his mother and her de facto partner. Now, this is far from the
only example of these things across the country. I mean, this is just one case in Western Australia. But if you want to delve into the foster system, there are so many stories I've heard I could tell you about that will make your skin crawl. But it's amazing to think that the government would now try to defend itself against that.
Just put your hands out and say, yep, that was bad. Well.
The admission came during a court case. The boy who now I guess older, who has allegedly been abused, is claiming not just the de facto but other members of the family also abused him and is blaming the government for it. So the government have admitted that, on the balance of probabilities, they knew the de facto was abusing
this boy, and yet they return him to the de facto. Anyway, what the government are disagreeing with is that other members of the family were abusing and that they knew about that. The point that's being made by the judge is, well, if you're going to admit you knew about the de facto, indeed, are you seriously going to continue with this court case? Why don't you just stop now while you're ahead, pay whatever compensation is due, and let this kid not have
to give evidence. He's been violated enough, not just by terrible, evil people, but by the government themselves in pursuing this court case.
One hundred percent, they don't have a leg to stand on. By the sounds and whenever a hear of a case like this, this is something that tax payers would be more than happy for the government to fit the bill for.
Just own up.
It is your fault.
Oh I just well, these kind of cases just they boggle the mind that that could ever happen.
And yet here we are.
Just going on a lighter angle. Another story on the front of the Ears tomorrow. This one is hilarious. I have to say in the top right hand call of the paper that you'll see it's his wife band India's response to Ossie tour drubbing.
And of course you would know that.
The Indians came out here to play against Australia in the Test.
Series the Border Gabasca.
Trophy and we demolished them and rightly so, getting the trophy back for the first time in a decade. But India has now said the BCCI, which runs Indian Cricket and also runs World Cricket, but we don't.
Talk about that. But they have said that the wives.
And partners of the players now because you know they think they played badly in Australia, that they must have been a distraction.
That was the problem. That's what caused.
It wasn't that catching.
It wasn't the fact that the women, wasn't the fact that Virat Cooley should have retired a year ago and that the captain should have retired a year ago, hence why he didn't play in the last match. But they've now said that wives and partners will only be able to join for two weeks on six week tours and one week on shorter tours. That's what's going to turn the Indian cricket team around, is to deprive them of access to their wives and parties.
Call this one up, all right, let's go to the front page of the Daily Telegraph. Obviously, people in Sydney suffering today badly with trained strikes that's set to continue tomorrow. The headline says commuter fury over one thousand canceled trains as strikes stop Sydney dead in its tracks. It's getting ridiculous. The article reads commuters will abandon the CBD and their
workplaces today. That's speaking, of course, of Thursday, after rail strikes caused a thousand train cancelations and a complete meltdown of the system. Crammed carriages sat still for hours, infuriating commuters as the union boss at the center of a bit of wage fight with the state government sensationally claimed he had the support of the public. I'm not about that. I got to say that is a sensational lane, quite presumptuous. They've just knocked back a fifteen percent. I'm not sure
about the support of the public. One train today, Liz was running at this you know how late it was. It was eight hours late. When your train is eight.
Hours nobody's waiting, nobody waiting.
And Uber chargers just you know how Uber surge is at periods. Yes, De Mardin, of course you were trying to get an Uber in the Sydney CBD today. You were paying an absolute fortune.
The union needs to be absolutely reamed over this like it is a disgrace and to think that they would have the support of the public after that.
And you mentioned Uber.
I saw in all the like Facebook community groups today people are like, are you trying to go home?
Can we share an Uber? Because it was so expensive?
Friends will be made over this to the front page of the Northern Territory News now dv cash stuck in limbo promised one hundred and eighty million dollars you have.
To be allocated.
The CLP has been accused of backtracking from a critical domestic violence funding promise and playing politics with WI women's and children's lives. We don't have access to the full article yet, but we know the Northern Territory has the worst domestic violet rates in the nation, with intimate partner homicides seven times the national average. Why on earth would you hold up something like this. The government has some serious answers to give.
This is typical of our politicians now, and they do it on all sides. They make an announcement and then think they've done their job. They tell you how much money's been allocated. Then they walk away and forget all about it.
And they don't forget.
It's not a fix, It doesn't change anything. You've actually got to follow through. There's a distinct lack of that.
But how hard can it be? I mean, you've got one hundred and eighty million.
That's a sizeable sum of money to deal with what is a sizeable problem. And it won't even touch the sides, to be perfectly honest, But you've got that money sitting there. How can you not do something with it? I mean, you know, we talk about what's going on in our springs all the time. Sometimes I think if we weren't talking about it, no one would talk about it. This is what people are living through every day.
One hundred and eighty million dollars is sitting there. Just get the hell on with it.
Ye.
Indeed, we're going to go to a break when we come back a celebrities are always telling us that fossil fuels cause natural disasters. So why are celebrities fleeing the La fires in private jets. It's coming up in just a moment. Welcome back, well, celebrity hypocrisy, You say, surely there can't be such a thing, Caleb, Oh.
Never heard of it, But I'm about to tell you about it. Though.
Leonardo DiCaprio, who would you believe it, in twenty fourteen, was able to get this right.
He was a messenger of peace.
To the UN on climate change. For heaven's sake, you would have seen these wildfires going on in La at the moment. They've basically raised the Pacific Palisades, and lots of celebrities, including Megan Markle, have been out there on the ground hugging people or more importantly, donating money to
help people who've been affected by these fires. Not Leonardo Decao, the man who has lectured us on climate change, and of course we are told that these fires are at least in part caused by climate change.
What did he do about it?
He got on a private jet, packed on his wife and her family and flew to Mexico.
Because that is exactly what you do when you.
See fires caused by climate change, you make the situation just a little bit worse.
I mean, you know they can talk the talk. Where are we going to see these people walk the walk?
The elites once again telling us how to live our lives while people suffer in la He says, bugger, you got mine.
It's just typical.
I agree. Now, let's talk about pizza for a moment. Everyone watching at home. If you're a smart person and I know who you are, you like barbecue meat lovers. It's the only way to have pizza, and all the important people that.
What about a pepperoni?
True pepperoni is fine Hawaiian? Hawaiian that divides people. There's a pizza store in the UK. They sell their pizzas from between ten and seventeen pairs. But if you want to buy a Hawaiian, they're going to charge you one hundred pounds for the privilege. They call it a tropical menace, and so they're charging one hundred pounds as a way of trying to deter people from ordering this. On the menu they've written get this Hawaiian. Yeah, for one hundred
pounds you can have it. Order the Champagne to go on your monster one hundred pounds. Now they say they haven't had any orders yet. Funny about it, but I reckon, if you're stupid enough to like, stupid enough to pay pizza, not just for the prize, but once you've seen.
That visual that's you most discussed.
Wouldn't he take it?
When the moon eats a eye like a big pizza pie, that's more money you've got to pay for it.
I got to say I don't mind it, to be honest.
Well, you know I'll eat it if it's in front of me. I know the purists will say you can't do that. But the thing I judge Italian restaurants on is if I go into a restaurant and they've got cream in the carbonara, I won't touch it. Cream does not belong in carbon and more important than pineapple on pizza.
I reckon, There you go, well, we're hungry, we're gonna go get something to eat, but you stay in front of your TV. Read A penny is up in just a moment