Lately.
General, welcome late to play.
Well, thanks for your company.
I'm James Macpherson with Caroline Marcus and Caleb Bond. Coming up tonight. Sydney travelers left in shock as their train driver stops the train and explains over the public address system why she just can't take them any further. Will play you that extraordinary announcement a little later. Plus we'll look at what's making news tomorrow, including how today's rate cut has been reported.
And we know there's an election due. I'll tell you how we.
Know, not just because there was a rate cut, but Anthony Albanezi is doing softball interviews about his upcoming wedding. We'll get to that a little later as well. But first, I'm no fan of former Queensland Premier Steven Miles. I'm happy to admit that he was a terrible leader, not least because he was so immature, constantly posting nonsense to social media, constantly playing his opponents rather than concentrating on
I mean, he wasn't called Giggles for nothing. He was the child premier, so we expected when the LNP took government we'd get some adults in charge. And god knows Queenslanders deserve it, but I'm not so sure that's what we're getting. Stephen Miles, now, the Opposition leader, traveled to Townsville a few days ago to visit victims of the floods now. While he was there, when coming back, he stopped in at Quantus Club and had a glass of wine.
Well, someone took a photo.
And then on the plane back to Brisbane he also had a glass of wine and someone took a photo. Those photos ended up in the hands of Queensland LLNP Deputy Premier Jared Blay and today he tabled them in Parliament.
Now he tabled them.
In Parliament as proof that Stephen Miles was actually in the Quantus lounge having a glass of wine when he claimed to be tweeting photos of himself helping flood victims. Jared Blay told Parliament and I quote, it was enough that he was drinking in the lounge.
He was on the plane.
He's a photo on the plane having another red wine while he was tweeting.
Shock horror.
I got to tell you, I read this story in the paper this morning and I thought, God help Queenslanders if this is the answer to the labor nonsense that went on, the LNP are doing the same thing. See, you're allowed to have a glass of wine in the Quantus lounge. You're even allowed to have a glass of wine on the Quantas aircraft.
And here's another thing that maybe the LNP might like to know.
It's entirely reasonable to tweet a photo of yourself after the event. If Stephen Miles had tweeted photos of himself helping flood victims. While helping flood victims, he would have copped all sorts of criticism. So he took a couple of hours and did it over a glass of wine.
Big deal.
This is the very nonsense that Queenslanders got so fed up with they kicked Stephen Miles out of office. And now the LNP are going on about and before people say, yeah, but you guys, Lord Donald Trump for his social media you know shenanigans and for playing the.
Donald Trump's funny. Donald Trump's got a sense of humor, He's got wit, He's clever.
This is primary school behavior from the LNP.
Deputy Premier.
Queensland has deserve a lot better, especially with all the problems that state has got.
Caroline, tell me I'm wrong.
You're wrong, James, you're wrong.
Look, I agree with you that I don't take any issue with the fact that he tweeted after the fact. I think that's what most people were do in that situation. And indeed you are also right that had he been live tweeting selfies with the flood victims, it would be far worse. However, he is still someone who is traveling on the taxpayer's dime. He had not one glass of wine, he had two, and you're right there's nothing doing illegal with that.
But the optics don't look good.
I don't know if it was handled that well by the government in tabling it, in not having perhaps a little bit of humor about it, but I do think it speaks more to Steven Miles's poor judgment. Now, this isn't the first time that he's done something like this. Maybe he was trying to avoid the backlash he got for taking a private jet eleven minutes to travel from one Queensland city to another while he was Premier, and to just deliver a birthday cake.
To one of his MPs and make a little announcement on the side as well.
That probably didn't warrant a private jet for eleven minutes. Maybe that's why he was taking a flight with the rest of us plebs on a quantus plane. But you're still there as a representative of the people. And I don't think having a wine in the club lounge, having a wine on board is a good look, especially when you're there to visit flood victims.
I don't think most people could could care less to be perfectly honest. In the words of the great two time premiership coach of the Adelaide Crows, the brilliant Malcolm.
Light, I couldn't give a rats toss.
Fag and I don't think anyone else does either. I mean, look, he actually went and visited people in flood ravage Townsville.
He bothered to do that. If the bloke has a glass of wine in the lounge and a glass.
Room three or four, it's the least worst thing he's ever done.
You've got a massive rap sheet of all the things Stephen Miles did while he was a terrible premier and oh he had two glasses of wine on a plane when he was opposition leader. Are you tell me that anyone in Townsville is wanging that and going I can't believe the bloke he.
Was going on a private holiday. It would be one thing if it was on in his downtime, but here being that trip would have been paid for with tax payers dollars. He's in the Quantus lounge getting the free alcohol because of his position as a politician.
I don't I.
Think it looks to me like he's taking the piss. Quite literally, he's taking.
The He's not in the chairman's lounge.
He's just in the quantus because of abou four hundred dollars a year to get into that.
As the LNP pointed out, so as the Labor politicians pointed out in the Queensland Parliament. If you're going to start playing these games, then every LNP politician who dares to have a glass of wine in the Quantus lounge is going to have people photographing them, and then those photographs are going to be tabled in port.
I'm sorry, welcome, Welcome to modern times. Everyone has a camera phone, Everyone who as a politician or has a profile is fair.
Game, and he is in a public place.
I noticed that this report there was warnings that their private actions are no longer off limits. I'm sorry, you're on a plane. That is a public space. You're in the quantus that is a public state.
Just to understand, is your issue with politicians having a glass of wine on a plane or.
Is your issues No, it's about him going to visit flood victims so that he could put it on his Twitter account and make it look like he deeply cares about these people, and meanwhile he's smiling and laughing and drinking wine. I just don't think it's a good loss.
So should he visited the middle He should have.
Visited it, but I think he would have treated it with the seriousness and gravity that it demanded. Those people weren't probably chugging wine after his visit to them, They were cleaning up the mess and.
Cleaning up drink.
But this is the thing that we used to be a serious country, right.
Bob Hawk at one point had the world record for scolling a beer for him and say he got cheered at the cricket a former prime minister.
The cricket, not visiting flood victims.
But he's having a glass of wine afterwards. Seriously, the drug do the same thing. Daniel Andrews, he was caught having a drry at the back of a party and that got put in the papal.
Look at Noigan.
Went out to a historic moment on the Late Debate.
We began the show with a strident defense of Stephen.
I know, look, it'll only happen once, or maybe twice if they tried it on again. But look, James and I on a unity ticket here just let you know understand the politicians are also human beings. I mentioned durries though, and a very sad development in the tobacco wars, because I've been talking about this for some time now, the fact that the tobacco excise has gone up so much that the illegal tobacco market has gone through the roof and it's now claimed the life of an innocent person.
Police in Victoria believe the fire bombing of a house that Kate Tangy was inside of last month was not something that you know, she was an innocent victim. She was not connected in any way to violent crime. This is footage that's been released today. But they believe this was all to do with the illegal tobacco trade, that criminals were targeting someone because they were selling the wrong product or whatever the reason might be. She is an
innocent victim because of a crime. A crime syndicate basically that the federal government created. Let's be clear, hope if that no, Let's be clear here, if the tobacco excise were not as high as it was, you wouldn't have these kinds of problems. Take a look at these numbers here. This is the tobacco excise.
Over the last six or seven years, right. This is from the ATO.
The tobacco market includes both legal and elicit tobacco for sale. We estimate, that's the ATO that the size of the tobacco market at nine three hundred and ninety two tons in twenty twenty two to twenty three, thirty seven percent lower than what it was.
Six years ago.
But over that period, the increase in excise rates drove up the amount of duty paid, and the duty paid reached twelve point seven billion in twenty twenty two twenty three. During the same period of time that you've had a thirty seven percent decrease in the tobacco market, you've had a nineteen point four percent increase in the tax taken. And if you look at the numbers there on the second line, it shows you the increase in the illegal
tobacco market. And from that point you'll see in twenty twenty twenty to twenty one where it's the highest point for excise. Then you've got about four thousand. There is the illegal market that goes up significantly in the next
couple of years while the excise starts going down. What has happened is that the illegal market has grown so much that you've had more than one hundred shots in Victoria fire bomb because people are willing to pay twenty bucks for an illegal packet of daries instead of the fifty bucks for the real one. And now someone has lost their life because of this gang war going on. The gang war would not exist if it weren't for the federal government increase in the excise so much two
hundred and eighty two percent since twenty thirty. And in fact, Jim Chalmers was warned by Treasury before the last time he put the excise up that doing so would lead to an explosion in the illegal market.
Here's what happens.
If you're going to do what the government has done, then at least enforce the law. Because the other problem is that Victoria announced that they would have registration for those who were selling tobacco legally and they would have inspectors going around to make sure that illegal tobacco was not available, and the inspectors will start middle of next year. So the Victorian government claiming to be very concerned about these tobacco wars, so concerned they're going to do something
about the middle of next year. I think that is a big factor as well. And the family of this lady who lost her life in horrible circumstances, she had nothing to do with these tobacco laws. They should be outraged at the government for saying that they want to
do something but taking eighteen months to do anything. And by the way, Carolyn, imagine if all those police officers standing watching pro Palestinian marches every Saturday, we're actually out on the job, catching real criminals and dealing with crime. Victoria would be a much better place as well.
I'm sure those police officers would prefer to be doing that themselves.
That's coming. Those are orders coming from the top.
But Caleb, I can't believe you would try to pin this on the government.
That's low.
I guess the next thing they argue is that we should decriminalize hard drugs as well, because newsflash, these crime syndicates, these organized criminal gangs are also killing innocent people in their gang.
Wolfare of course, so the hard drugs. So should we decriminalize hard drugs?
That would reduce the black market, the only market for them in this country, and therefore people wouldn't die because of how They're very sorry for this person's death. But let us not minimize the role of violent criminal thugs in this and not try and blame the government.
No, but my point is the cigarettes are a completely different product to cocaine, heroine, ecstasy, any other drug.
They are illegal drugs. Cigarettes.
Tobacco is a legal product in this country. It is regulated and it is taxed. The reason you have this level of gang crime involved in illicit tobacco now, which is huge. I mean, we don't talk about the illicit drug trade in the same way we used to. We now talk about the illicit tobacco trade because this has
become such a cash cow for crime gangs. And the reason it's become such a cash cow for crime gangs and bikies, which, as you say, leads to rape and murder and sexual slavery and all these other things is because the government has recklessly increased the exercise to the point that people will not pay for a legal packet of dorries anymore. They'll go down to the convenience store and pay twenty dollars for a packet of darries. That
biking is brought into the country. That wouldn't happen if the tax wasn't so much.
We can I just make a counter argument to that that, yes, we have seen someone dying, we have seen horrific acts of violence because of this gang warfare. But we've also seen the rates of smoking come down considerably since.
Nineteen ninety one.
Sure, you know, half the number of daily smokers that were back then, and that is largely due to the fact, not only because of public health campaigns and education about the dangers of smoking, but because of these excises.
So I'm going to argue in favor of them.
Yeah, but I mean, the excise has gone out by two hundred and eighty two percent since twenty thirteen. The smoking rate hasn't gone down by two hundred and eighty two percent since twenty thirteen. The decrease, it has gone down, but it's been minimal. And of course, in the middle of that you've also had the increase of vaping.
So well, there's no excise on vapor correctly, and.
Again it's a massive illegal mark.
This excise then helps the health budget because of course smoking causes so many.
Health That is correct, exactly, argument stand that is.
Correct, except for the fact that the excise that is taken on tobacco is far more than is spent on tobacco related illness every year. I'd have no problem if the excise taken was in line with the number of smokers there are and the cost they have on the health system. But as I said before, as the number of smokers has gone down, the text they're taking has gone up, and that's how you get into this big illegal market. If it was flat line, no problem, but that's why it's exploded.
Look, let's move on to something that I think we can all probably agree on. The Captain Cook statue that was recently attacked before the Australia Day celebrations this year. It had red paint thrown over it, It had parts of the statue were cut off. It was the second time that this statue had been targeted. It's in Randwork in Eastern Sydney. Last year it was attacked as well. It was doused in red paint around the time of
Australia Day as well. Now there are moves by the Randwick Council Liberals to boost security and put in place CCTV to basically guard over the statue full time in order to ensure that there are no future attacks. Now, I just think it is incredibly sad that this is even needed. The person who's been calling for this, Randwick Counselor Andrew Hay. He said, it's an attack on our
history and culture. But more than that, it's an attack on and a smear of a good man who was a scientist and an explorer.
And he goes on to just point out.
That you know Captain cook with sixteen years came sixteen years before the colony was even formed. She wasn't a colonialist, he was an explorer. These people don't even get their history right. But isn't it just pathetic that we have to actually set up cameras to protect statues?
Now?
It is pathetic.
But the reason it's so pathetic is because we've got such pathetic people in local government.
The mayor of Randwick Green philipp At Veach.
She said in response to the last episode of mandalism regarding that statue, that's her strong personal view the statue should be removed because it's quote a symbol and reminder of colonial oppression, and we wonder why it gets vandalized every year when the mayor gives tacit approval of she's against vandalism, but it would be good for the statue
to be gone. What's amazing is this statue has been vandalized two years in a row now and only now are they thinking maybe we should get CCTV cameras they have CCTV everything else in the city. Why not for statues that are historic, that are supposed to remind us of our history and be a gathering point for Australian culture.
But of course this probably.
Won't get through because it's only the liberal counselors who are calling for it. As I said, the attitude of the Green mayor is that the statue would be better gone, and if she can't get counselors to agree to it, well I'm not sure they'll bother putting up CCTV. It would be convenient other people did the work for her.
Has anyone checked whether the mayor has an alibi?
The sounds like an activist and you're supposed to be a public servant, which means safeguarding our history and those cultural monuments. Not almost barracking for all.
The naivety, James, you know, isn't that hard.
To turn it naivety?
It's ideally idealistic.
How hard is it to turn a camera around and face it at a statue, for heaven's sake, because they've got they've got camera footage in the general vicinity, just not pointing at the statue. I mean, you not turn at forty five degrees to look at the statue. And he's right, Andrew Hay about Cook. I mean, Cook is a great man, in a figure in history who did more to advance science and exploration at than anyone else. And he was dead nine years before the first fleet
rocked up. He was murdered in Hawaii, for heaven's sake, So, as you said, Caroline, they don't.
Understand their history. But of course, we talked.
Recently about the idea of having a specific offense for vandalizing or attacking a place of worship, because it is an attack on one's identity, it's an attack potentially on one's nationality, et cetera. When someone goes after a statue of Captain Cook. They're not just attacking Captain Cook, who didn't colonize the country. They're attacking the entire country. They're attacking the premise of Australia. So they should be treated, I think with just as much heft because they're saying
I hate this country. I don't think this country is legitimate. So if you can go around with impunity as they seem to, cutting down these statues, throwing red paint on them, etc. We should have tough flaws to come down on them and say no, actually, this is going against your country. You shouldn't I don't know, deport them, as far as I know.
It's difficult to do.
But it should be a serious crime to vandalize what is a symbol of the country. If you trampled on a flag in the street, you'd be in big trouble.
But you vandalize the statue on.
No problem that.
The problem is, as I said, it will continue because you've got people like Fatima Payman. You've got Lydia Thorpe, You've got Marine Ferruki, you've got the Mayor of Randwick. You've got all these politicians who quite clearly are antagonistic towards our national history and little wonder activists are encouraged to do things like that. Let's move on to a different topic and talk about aged care because I read
something today that I was quite shocked to discover. Sixty percent of people in aged care facilities never get a visit from friends or family, which, as I'm rapidly approaching that age kaylor think.
You said it, will Taylor Bond come and.
Visit me, but I'm in an age care facility. Well, there's an age care place in Peran in Melbourne which have come up with a novel way of trying to alleviate loneliness and isolation amongst aged care people. They have come up with a companion robot. Now, this robot apparently recognizes people, understands emotions we're told, and is able to make friends and those in the aged care facility you can see there are said to be treating the robot
as a grandchild. Now, if this trial is successful, the intention is to put similar robots in twenty two aged care facilities around Melbourne. I watched a report on one of the commercial news stations and as they came back to the news readers, they were laughing.
And saying Oh, this is amazing, This is fantastic.
I got to admit, Caroline, I felt kind of sad about it. First, thing that we would accept as okay, that's you know, sixty percent of elderly people never get a visit from family and friends, but it doesn't matter because they've got a robot that they have befriended. And the thought that we would assuage our guilt for failing to take care of our parents and our grandparents because it's okay, they've got a humanoid is a really sad thing, and I think an indictment on society.
Second, I would hate to see.
This normalized because when machines start becoming friends, what are we saying about ourselves that we are mere machines? And I hate to break it to you, but we're not mere machines. I think it was Francis Bacon who said we are akin to the beasts in our body, but if we're not akin to God in our spirit, we are wretched and miserable creatures. Sure we're flesh and blood, we're a machine, but there's a ghost in the machine and that makes us very different to everything else on
the planet. And third, there's a danger that people might come to prefer artificial relationships to real ones. Microsoft have come up with AI for the purpose of romantic relationships, and in China it's proving to be very popular, as young people say, you know what, actual relationships are just too hard, But a pre programmed bot that is programmed to love me and never break up with me, I would prefer that.
I think this is just wrong on all kinds of levels.
Look, I couldn't agree with you more.
I was really sad to see that report, and I agree. I thought Channel nine just treated it completely lightly. It was sort of like an end of the bulletin fluff piece about it, whereas I think really the underlying message to it is how much we have let down older generations. How is it that most people in nursing homes and old aged care homes sixty percent are not getting visits from anyone that they know, family or friends, and that they have to have a robot to provide companionship.
And this is not going to be a one off.
They're apparently going to roll it out to twenty two facilities across Melbourne and no doubt it will go across the country. And sure it looks cute, but there is no replacement for human connection. I worry, James, I worry we are already at that point. Everyone is glued to their phone, they're on social media. It replaces real connection for a lot of young people TikTok social media, and they're losing real life into personal skills, and they prefer to be on their phones even when they are in
the company of other people. So I think we've already crossed that line, and it's only going.
To get worse.
But I think it really speaks to our failure as a culture in a way that perhaps some other cultures, for example, Asian cultures look after that elderly, and we just don't do that, and we don't have that sense of loyalty.
I think this is the worst thing about it, because you can say, Okay, there's a problem here. They don't have people coming to visit them, so they need some kind of interaction. Okay, we'll give them an AI.
Robot to do it.
But we've already tried this experiment with younger people, and in fact, it's not as bad what we've done with younger people. We've given them all mobile phones and computers and whatever and said you can talk to other human beings through that device, which is of course what everyone now does. But look at the rates of depression and anxiety and whatever that you can now in young people. Their readiness to leave the house and go out and actually catch up with people is not what it used
to be, particularly after the pandemic. There was a really interesting study that was done looking at young people, as in teens and early twenties and their drinking habits before and after COVID, and what they found was those who were heavy quote unquote drinkers before COVID reduce their drinking during COVID, and that reduction in drinking continued after COVID, mostly because they'd stop going out and catching up with their friends post COVID.
So this is what has happened.
Young people are not going out anymore. They're glued to the device, and we know what that's done to their brains.
And now we're saying, Okay.
They did that almost by choice, and we're going to foister this upon older people in an even worse version where there is no human interaction whatsoever. Sure, maybe it's slightly better than having nothing going on at all, but
it's not a human connection. I mean a lot of older people in particular will turn on the radio and listen to talkback radio because it is a certain level of human connection because you can hear other people's voices and you can pick up the phone and call a talkback line and talk to another person.
We just we're saying, Okay, they don't have a person.
Coming to visit them, so we're going to make sure they don't have any people coming to visit them. A robot can do it instead. That's even less incentive to go and visit people in a nursing home.
When the woman who founded the company that created this robot boasted to the media, people see the robot as a grandchild, not as a robot, and that.
Was a boast. I just thought that was an indictment.
I don't blame the company though, or the people or even you know, the people putting this robot. And I think the problem is at a cultural level and a community level though we're not looking after our older people. But look, let's move on to another very serious topic,
and that's what's happening in the Middle East. Because Benjamin Natanya, who the Israeli Prime Minister, has again doubled down on his commitment to US President Donald Trump's plan to turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East.
Secretary Rubio and I discuss President Trump's bold vision for Gaza, for Gaza's future, how we can work together to ensure that that future becomes a reality. I have no doubt that working together America and Israel will overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities.
Now We've already spoken previously about the criticisms of Trump's plan. You know, critics say he's ethnic cleansing by relocating Ghazan's out of the region. Obviously, that's been rejected by Donald Trump and Bibbi Benjamin Nettania who and they say, well that they don't have much other options here because look what happened when Israel did hand over Gaza to the Palestinians and they removed every single is rarely out of the region and let them elect their own leaders and
they elected Hamas. And it's just been terror attack up to terror attack, up to terror attack, seventy percent.
Of buildings are now destroyed.
There what left is there for people to really go back to? So I would say there's there's not many alternatives. If Israel wants to secure itself against the threats of Hamas and like minded terror organization.
Effectively with this plan.
That now Benjaminett Yah, who is also publicly embracing because people wondered when Trump first announced it, did Benjaminette, Yeah, who know this was coming?
Did almost look a pock?
I don't know?
Yeah, you never know.
Yeah, he now seems fully on board, and why wouldn't he be, because Trump effectively through this plan makes three great points. Firstly, they can't continue on the current path because it's just an.
Endless cycle of violence. Second, here's a plan.
If you've got a better one, give it up. But so far, no crickets from the Arab nations. Trump has said that the Egyptians and the Jordanians should take these two million Palestinians, but Marco Rubio said in that press conference that America is very happy to hear from the Egyptians all the Jordanians if they have a different solution. So they're really putting the ball in the court of
surrounding nations. You don't like America's plan, that's fine. Criticize it all you want, but don't criticize it unless you've got an alternative, and just doing more of the same is not an alternative, but the really smart thing Donald Trump has done. And why I think benjaminette Yaw who likes this plan, is because they're no longer talking about
a two state solution. They're talking about anything other than a two state solution, and a two state solution, in my view, won't work because those who Israel are supposed to be partnering with the peace are publicly committed to Israel's destruction. That's not a two state solution. It's two states only for as long as it takes for one to completely obliterate the other, as they've said multiple times they will do.
I still don't think it's ever going to happen, though, I just don't understand the mechanics of making it happen. Because on paper it sounds great and there's no reason that you wouldn't say, well, yeah, particularly if you're Israel, why wouldn't we do this? But I don't know how
it's actually going to happen. How do you get all of those people out there, how does the US take controller ownership of the land in order to rebuild it, and how do we hope that the Palestinian people are never going to try and come back and take it back.
I just don't understand how it's going to work.
Well, the Egyptians have just announced a counterplan. They're still developing it, but egypt are planning to rebuild Gaza. They say that Gaza must be governed by Palestinians, but not Hamas and not the Palestinian authority, which begs the question who's left. And also it will only happen if it's guaranteed that it becomes a state.
And finally, I thought this was the clincher in this deal.
That is the reason why Israel would be crazy to ever agree to it. Israel have to promise that they will not attack this new Gaza for a minimum of ten years. Could you imagine Israel making a promise like that based on what they have seen over the last sillies, if you.
Haven't attacked them unprompted, It's been.
Correct, promote each time, correct by.
The Palestinians, by other Arab states. Every time Israel's gone to war, every single time it's been in defense of an attack from outside. You know, look, the situation is terrible right now. Israel is waiting for the bodies of four of the.
Hostages to be released.
Apparently, her master will announce on Thursday the names of the four hostages whose bodies it will return this week, and then another three. Another three hostages who are alive are meant to be returned on the weekend.
And all this in exchange for.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, female prisoners, as well as every single prisoner under the age of nineteen who was arrested during the October seven massacre. I mean, Israel has paid a huge price to try and keep its people safe, to try and get its hostages back, and to ask it to continue to live next to a genocidal neighbor who wants its utter destruction, as you point out, as completely unreasonable.
It's now five.
Hundred and one days since the October seven attacks, with many of those hostages still in captivity, and since this latest ceasefire, Israel have received back nineteen hostages in exchange for releasing about one thousand Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were in prison because they had committed terror ax Marco Rubio was at that press conference.
Here's some of what he had to say. We don't have that grab.
Marco Rubio, though, of course, was very supportive of Benjamin eett Yau and boasting that Israel have never had a better friend than the administration. Just before we move on, just quickly, because I know you wanted to talk about this, Caroline, seven point thirty did a program talking about what's happening with anti Semitism and the way it's really affecting people in this country.
I just have to listen to a little bit of that. We'll talk about it.
The kid said he wished Natis had killed my parents and grandparents, they would be born. And then the swastika drawings in my notebook, it was a photo of me in year four and it said gasenhailer, referring to the Holocaust.
Carolyn, just watching that program was heartbreaking, seeing the way it's affecting even young children in this country who should never have to go through that sort of harassment.
Look, it is heartbreaking, and I'm glad that it was covered by the broad public broadcaster. Finally, I don't think they've really touched this on this issue until now, and we have seen a horrendous increase in the rates of anti Semitism in this country. As we have all talked about at nauseum on here. Why did it take so long for the ABC to wake up to this? I'm glad they have, but it shouldn't have taken this long.
And sadly, stories like this year student Nicola Bloomberg are all too common, and I've exposed many of them here on Sky News. In fact, I exposed her story without identifying her last year when I spoke in August about these incidents at two public schools on Sydney's North Shore, where swastikas were carved into trees, placed into the classrooms
in bathrooms. There's the picture of the young girl with gas in haler that was being circulated online, people saying they're going to students saying they're going to dress up as Hitler for Halloween, and the schools did very little to address this. This has been a problem for a long time in our education system. A lot of the focus has been on university campuses where it has been herrende, but it's also happening in schools public and private, to
our great shame. So I'm glad the Public broadcast has woken up to it.
But what took you so long ago?
This is proper Johnny cum lately stuff. But what did you say?
Five hundred and one day day October seventh, So this was broadcast last so five hundred days. It took seven point thirty to wake up to this. I mean, come on, We've been talking about it here for the entirety of that time. It's been discussed in much of the other mainstream media for the entirety of that time, and it takes all that time for the abced.
A wake up to please give me it break.
And just before we move on, we've got to mention Sky News is hosting a summit on anti Semitism this Thursday.
Caroline.
You're moderating one of the panels on how it is speaking Josh Friedenberg. Sherry Markson of course is a big part of that. It'll be a very important event. Well, people can watch that on Sky News.
They can watch it on Sky We'll have a live coverage on our election channel as well as coverage throughout the evening on Sky News as well.
And we're hoping that we get some.
Actual tangible outcomes to address this issue. It's not going to be just another talk fast. We're really going to be pushing politicians and experts on how we can actually solve this crisis.
Very quickly, Caleb, Tom Hanks, what is he up to?
Well, is up to what the rest of the American left is up to all.
The time, apparently, which is not coming to terms with the fact that they lost the election because the American people have had enough of them. So you know, you'd think after all that time, you know, denigrating Trump voters and carrying on about the basket deplorables and all this sort of stuff, then we're going, okay today that doesn't work as a strategy anymore. The message apparently didn't get through to Tom Hanks, who did this quote unquote skit on Saturday Night Live.
Take a look.
Oh well, thank you. I'm speaking the church.
Can I say something, If more folks weren't too choke, we wouldn't be in this mess we're in now.
You know what?
I agree with what you doing. I'd like to shake your hand, sir. Here we go.
No, no, it just a handshet.
You're welcome to black All right, Well, thank you, my man.
But brother, maybe I'll start a show for you to come on and we'll call.
It what Jeopardy.
We don't need it, we don't need it.
It wasn't even funny, I mean for ever, and saying if this is the best they can pull out to try and denegrate Trump voters, who happened to be the majority of electors in America, then they got a lot of work to do.
The progressive left in the US, I've learned nothing. We're going to go to a break. When we come back, we'll look at what's making news in tomorrow's papers that's coming up with just a month.
Welcome back.
Well, of course, the big news today was the RBA cutting interest rates and Caroline I really like the headline in Tomorrow's Australian.
The one cut wonder this is why they pay the big bucks the backbenchers now they have Obviously, like a lot of newspapers, it provided a full analysis of today's rate cut decision, and the Australian is saying that Anthony Albanese now has a trigger for canceling next month's budget
and calling an April election. After the Reserve Bank delivered its first very small interest rate cut in nearly five years, but households borrowers are still being warned against expecting further relief in the short term, at least before the election actually happens amid continuing uncertainty over the global economy, and I noticed that Simon Benson's also written a column that Albanize shouldn't bank on getting any other sort of pre
election boost, Which would, I guess, suggest that the time is now if he's going to call an election and hope for a little bit of goodwill among Australians. Whether or not we can argue this is enough, the time will be now, and indeed many people are saying he will call it by next weekend.
I mean, I don't think this will give you much of a boost at all, but it's not going to get any better, So why would you wait around?
Look, because there's two arguments, and this is when we're talking about an early election.
I thought, as soon as there was an interest rate rise, and I assumed there'd be one before now, you just go straight to an early election.
So yeah, rise, heck god, I don't want an interest rate rise, thank you. My mortgage needed to go down.
But if there was a cut, you go to an early election like that, and of course it's come far too late for that to happen.
But the argument.
Against that was, well, why would I not try to govern for as long as possible because I'm potentially giving up time that I have to actually do things that I want to do to the country. But that argument's gone out the window now. It ain't going to get any better. Just go for it like the quicker. We can get this pain over and done with the better.
And of course having to bring down a budget in March, which we'll have deficits as far as the eye can see, is not going to be any assistance to Albanezi either. If you've got half a million dollar mortgage, this interest rate drop gets you about twenty bucks a week extra. Sof the urbanize is expecting people are going to say all is forgiven because of this interest rate drop, I think he's going to be very disising.
Yeah, look, I tend to agree with you.
The other really interesting story in the paper tomorrow is an exclusive in The Australian. That is is an exclusive by Alexi Dimitriati. He's got a piece about his Bookteria activist who's tied to a prominent Muslim group that gets a lot of taxpayer funding. Now he's revealed that this leading Muslim organization, United Muslims of Australia actually enlisted this prominent extremist activist. His Bookteria is not banned here, but it's banned in several countries around the world, including Arab
countries including Indonesia for being too extremist. And this guy was hosting five years worth of youth focused workshops and prayer services while this organization received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal government funding.
So I think that this has got to raise a lot of.
Questions again about where taxpayer money is going to and funding the sort of extremism.
And the irony is this taxpayer money was given to this organization. Can you believe it to help build social cohesion? And now we find out some of the people helping with that social cohesion are associated with groups that are listed as a terrorist organization in the UK and banned
even around the Arab world. Every time the government talks about the importance of social cohesion, just remember these are some of the people the government are giving our money to to create this so called social cohesion.
Of course, and you talk Caroline about our taxpayer dollars funding this extremism.
But the question we have.
To ask is how close is the relationship between the extremism and these mainstream organizations. And now we see very because this bloke has been described on an Islamic podcast, apparently popular Islamic podcast, as one of the communities leading youth education in the Islamic community, and he was lauded for his quote unquote great work through a range of organizations,
including the United Muslims of Australia. So large supposedly mainstream organizations seem to have very cozy relationships we quote unquote extremist organizations. I wonder where the line is.
This is a game as old as you can imagine.
It's called good Cop, Bad Cop.
And that's what they play constantly, and we fund it and then we pay for it with problems in our streets and in our schools and in our health system.
And speaking of the health care system, I mean this all follows the fact that there were mainstream, mainstream Islamic groups that signed co signed a letter alongside members of his Bookterier and other extremists and hate preachers supporting those two nurses who came out saying that they would kill and had killed Israeli patients.
Well, we're talking about whether or not there'll be an election called the next few days, and maybe there will be, because the front page of Tomorrow's Daily Telegraph has got a lovely photo of Anthony Albanese and his partner Jody Hayden. They are, of course getting ready for quote electing an intimate wedding, planning our nuptials outdoors in spring with Toto that's the promnisterial dog and our family. Now Women's Weekly have had an exclusive sit down interview with Elbow and
Jody Hayden. Most of the interview I read a bit of it before we came on air.
Is well, yeah it was.
It was a rather long read and it did hurt, but it was getting to know Jody Hayden, sort of profiling her and introducing her a bit more to the country. And I think once we start seeing this sort of stuff on the front pages, you just know any moment now there have been an election, we've got a rate cut, and we've got an upcoming wedding, perfect conditions for an election.
And look at the color work as well as we can get that front page back with the color work they've done on Elbow's trout, I mean, you can't tell me he's actually rocking around in strides that they're really that blue.
That's some great work there from the Women's Weekly.
And far be it from me to defend Julia Gillard. But remember Julia Guillard. There are all these questions about, oh, you know, she's an unmarried woman and she's just got a domestic partner, etc. Have we heard the same business about Anthony Albania or the fact that he split up with his wife and then he got a new girlfriend and this has all happened while he's been in the launch A little bit curious, Hey, let's go to the Townsville bulletin for a test tomorrow. It was fun. Fourteen
year old faces magistrate. A fourteen year old Townsville girl with a ten page criminal history, simply shook her head when asked if she heard about Queensland Sorry's new adult crime adult time laws. It goes on to say that when she was questioned by police over vandalizing a local business,
she reportedly said, I did it because I was fun. Now, she pleaded guilty to twenty three charges in the Children Court, nineteen of them breaching bail, one count each of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, wilful damage receiving tainted property and public nuisance. I mean, this is what we are dealing with here, kids who are asked why did you do it? I thought it was just a bit of fun. That is where the crime crisis is at in Gouinsale.
And can you hold it against the fourteen year old kids saying but it's just fun to act up when you've been able to breach bail nineteen?
How is that even impossible?
Run by authorities who have continually turned the blind eye.
Well, finally, the Advertiser's got a front page story about how former Federal Liberal leader Alexander Downer has declared that South Australia, Caleb Bond's home state should build multiple nuclear power plants to help the state become a.
Battery for us here over on the Eastern States.
He said it's the perfect location to store nuclear waste, both from local plants.
Right. I don't know what he's trying to say there about.
How we tried to get a nuclear waiste dump in Kimber in South Australia and have got knocked over because the local Aboriginal population.
Said they didn't like it. It was ridiculous. But he's right, we've.
Got elon Musk's battery in South Australia.
That's a load of crap. Let's have a real.
One South Australia waste what sort of.
Mud hope for?
That's better than that, say the Sydney train driver who just couldn't go on anymore.
We'll play that announcement for you in a second.
Well, last night, after the late debate calib you and I both caught trains home. Didn't experience anything like commuters on their way to Penrith experience.
No mercifully, we took the Metro, which you see is a driverless train, even though the union they negotiated that it needed to have drivers on it. I don't know what exactly they do, but the trains that actually need to be driven by drivers in Sydney have had lots of troubles with strikes recently, including this woman train driver who says I can drive because I need to eat and I've been on this train for nearly six and
a half hours. I'm entitled to some food. Yeah, I'm waiting for someone to come and take the train off me so they can take you to the.
Riff Meat because I need some food.
I'm sorry if that's an issue.
But if I pass out on.
The train or the train's moving currently, that doesn't look good on paper either. And then I open the doors war.
So once again, this train I'll be moving once I get a new.
Gun to take good of me.
I mean, please, So she not heard of taking a lunch box to work.
She's hungry. Give her a break. It's hard being a hungry woman.
It's a little hunger strike before we go. There's a cyclone forming off the coast of Queensland, and there's a bit of debate as to how to name it. The Bureau of Meteorology have a predetermined list of names in alphabetical order.
They switch from male to female.
But get this, the next cyclone is due to be called cyclone Anthony. But of course, with an election coming up, they don't want to name the cyclone after Elbow because not even a cyclone wants to be associated with him, So instead it'll be cyclone Alfred. But I reckon cyclone Anthony works. I mean, it arrives suddenly, it stays for a short period, causes up the devastation, and then just gets up and leaves with millions of dollars of damage done.
Or it could be one of those cyclones where they don't know is it going to go each or is it going to go west.
It's an each way.
Cyclone, very good bit like a panda, each shoots and leaves.
But I mean, why should we give him extra credit? Say oh, well, we can't name it because you're the prime minister. Do you reckon?
They say, we couldn't have bloody cyclone, Scott, could we?
I think that is actually their policy.
Your rain on your parade, They don't cyclone.
That's it from us to stick around coming up because they read a penny show good night