Late wait, general, welcome, late by, good evening. Great to have your company on the Late Debate. I'm James Macpherson with Liz Storer and filling in for Caleb Bond freyer Leitch. Coming up tonight, Virgin Airlines are introducing flights where you can take your dog. But what about taking your dog to the cinema. Apparently it's about to become a thing.
We'll talk about that later. Plus when we get to the papers, The Daily Telegraph in Sydney unveils just why houses are so expensive wait until you hear what tradees are being paid. And a story on the front page of Tomorrow's Australian reveals how a Sydney university is requiring students to do a privilege walk so they can understand
their status and power. We'll get to all of that when we'll get tomorrow's news, but we're going to start the program tonight in Hungary, where their politicians have just voted to ban Budapest's annual gay pride parade. MP's voted one hundred and thirty six to twenty seven in favor of banning the Mardi Gras on the grounds that could be harmful to children. The Prime Minister, Victor Auburn tweeted child Protection tick Pride March X. Today we voted to
ban gatherings that violate child protection laws in Hungary. A child's right to healthy physical, mental, intellectual and moral development comes first. We won't let woke ideology in danger our kids. Now. MPs who wanted the gay Pride parade to go ahead but lost the vote, well, they responded exactly as you would expect them to respond, with rainbow smoke bombs released
in the Parliament. Activists have vowed to defy the ban and hold their Pride march regardless, but the new law allows police to use facial recognition technology to identify participants and issue them with eight hundred and sixty dollars fines. So what do we think? Is this a good idea or is this limitation on people's democratic freedoms? Frayer, Liz, how about it? What do you think?
Well?
I would start off by saying some of the scenes you see from Pride marches in Australia and around the world are truly shocking public nudity, obscene acts on display for all to see, and so there has to be some line here. But that is why we have public decency laws. So if it's about shielding children from horrible sites that will scar them for life, why don't we start by actually enforcing the existing public decency laws that
we already have. Because my main concern with a bill like this is that it's a violation of people's right to assembly. That's central to any democracy. We should be able to gather freely, and in this instance it's being used to stop mighty gras, which you know, people might have different thoughts on that, but that could easily be used against conservative if the wrong government gets into powers. So it's important that we defend these fundamental rights.
I would say it's got absolutely nothing to do with freedom of assembly, because if they were simply assembling with their clothes on and acting in an upstanding, decent way, they would be allowed to assemble. I would even argue this isn't about public nudity. Go to any beach in any part of the world, and you'll see plenty of
that there, but it's an entirely different context. While people wear very little clothes to the beach, it's not overtly sexual and people aren't engaging and what would otherwise be very much understood to be adult behavior. Now, we need to be very clear about what the bill has outlawed
in terms of calling it child protection. It prohibits the depiction or promotion of homosex homosexuality to anyone under eighteen in any content available to so that means children's programs, cartoons, educational facilities, schools are forbidden to talk about LGBTIQ matters to children. Wouldn't you love to see that here? How often we talk about another school being busted indoctrinating kids into something that their parents have not only not signed
off on, but are completely unaware of. It also bans the mention of LGBTIQ issues in schools. I've already said that, and forbids public depiction of gender deviating from sex at birth. Once again, how many times that we've talked about the epidemic of gender confusion amongst children. Hungary is taking steps
to ensure that that simply isn't a thing. We talk about our hyper sexualized society and the fact that when it comes to our kids, you can do no wrong in saying, you know what, adults, this has always required your self control and adults putting children's needs and their innocence ahead of an adult's desire to engage in sexual anything in public, including nudity. We have always as a
society understood that that was necessary. I don't care who you're sleeping with, I don't care what kind of sexual acts you enjoy and engage in, but as a society we go, look, kids should not be exposed to that. And we still live in a country where to even engage in sexual activity if you're under the age of sixteen is forbidden. You are breaking the law. So why is it that children are routinely exposed through our health system, through our education system, through all manner of other systems,
including dizzysknee programs, you name it again. How many times are we calling these things out? Because even if you're the best parent in the world, you are up against a system that is working against you. Just before we came to air, I was made aware of a headline regarding the Allen government in Victoria pushing their librarians as part of a LGBTIQ plus package to ask children what their pronouns are. Yeah, while the state's going to hell,
this is what the Allen government is focusing on. Parents cannot be vigilant enough. The war on our children has been blown open countless times. Remember that disgusting bdsm Teddy bear of a naked man in bondage gear that was put up at as a mural in Wynyard Station here in Sydney. Some absolute legend poured paint over it, to which I.
Say, buddy, I absolutely love.
You whoever you are. You're doing the Lord's work. But it's not just that. It's the vile books that we catch out in our libraries and schools. It's the teachers that get caught out in our libraries and schools. It's drag Queens storytime being hosted in Victorian and New South Wales Parliament. And even if you go to the Victorian's educational website, they will say, yes, if you don't approve of your child transitioning, we'll do it behind your back at school.
So are we conflating a couple of issues because you've done what at all?
Child protection is child protection and so that is the issue.
So that's ya address, that's the principle that they are trying to defend. But specifically they're saying the Budapest Gay Mardi Gras cannot go ahead and anybody who participates in it will be prosecuted and fined. So the thing that gets people talking about the Sydney Gay Martigra for instance, and you alluded to this, is there seems to be this double standard when it comes to public nudity, public
obscenity and public vilification. So you can't go nude in the street without being prosecuted unless you do it during the Mardi Gras, in which case you're celebrated and broadcast on I don't know the ABC or the SBS. You can't engage in lude sex acts in public you be
prosecuted unless you do it under a rainbow flag. And you can't vilify someone based on gender, sexuality or religion unless you're a gay guy addressing as a Catholic nun at the gay Mardi Gras, and then instead of prosecuting you for vilification, the police will post for a photograph with you, as they did in twenty twenty two, and they posted the photo to the official police website before complaints from the Catholic Church had them reluctantly and belatedly
pull it down. So nudity, obscenity and vilification and nogo zones except during Mardi Gras and have your march protest for your rights. Do all you want, but shouldn't the people during that march be expected to adhere to the law as everybody else is expected to every other day in every other context.
Of course, that's exactly what should happen.
We should just enforce the obscenity laws that already exist. Now, the problem with your argument, Liz is I think we all agree on the fundamental premise, which is that we should protect children from this woke politics that is being shoved down their throat in every single aspect of society. Of course, everyone here agrees with that, and most people watching would agree with that.
The question is.
Where do you draw the line in the balance between protecting children and also protecting the freedom of others. Now, you are essentially saying that the mine Okay, So then let me ask you this. Children above ours in.
Society, they should agree that a child's innocence, which, by the way, once taken, is gone for us children to apunges.
Let me ask you this question.
Please, do you support banning social media for children under sixteen?
Ah? I'm so glad you raised this, because that isn't it interesting?
No?
Isn't it interesting that our government does not care about protecting children. I just gave you multiple examples of how they are facilitating shoving this down your child's throat, and yet it was only two weeks after they passed their Digital ID bill that suddenly they cared about your child's innocence and the fact that they might be bullied online. I don't buy that for an incidance. And you know what, it doesn't apply to porn websites. It doesn't apply to
the things that we have known for years. There are mountains of evidence.
So you've pointed out the hypocrisy of the government, But isn't there hypocrisy in your position.
I've never supported that then, not once.
Then I can tell you, with someone that grew up on social media, this stuff you see on social media, this law and Hungry, by the way, is all about banning the expression of homosexuality to children in any form. That we're targeted at child literally on social media. So the best way to protect them from those scenes would naturally then to also be to ban them from social media.
So I don't understand how you can support a ban on Marti gra but then not support a ban on children accessing social media when they see they are entirely differently.
What's the point? Why is the adults public kids and parents take and what's.
The role of parentss place? Sorry?
Why are children bringing Why are parents bringing their children to Marty Grat in the first place if they.
Want to expose their kids to that kind of ideology, As you've just helpfully pointed out, there is any number of sites they can take their kids to movies that
they can show their children. They're probably part of the lgbt IQ tumnity themselves, but why should other children mac You just mentioned these things are broadcast on free to air TV, so even if you're just watching the serience, your kids are going to see these scenes depicting So I've been selling marketing homosexuality and gender confusion to your children at a time when the government is already ramming it down their throads.
So I don't disagree with anything you've said. I just think that protecting children from harm, and we're all going to disagree on what constitutes harm, is a weak argument. A much stronger argument is no public nudity, no public obscenity, and no vilifying groups. Don't do those things and you can have your parade and you can probably take your kids to it, and it'll be Okay. We've got to move on, because we've got other things to talk about, not least of which is Elon Musk. Elon Musk was
loved by the left. I mean, he is the most prominent promoter of evs, which are going to save the planet from global boiling and global warming and every other ailment. But then, of course he gave his support to Donald Trump and became enemy number one from the left. What's happening, though, is not just that Elon Musk personally is being targeted by the left, but his business is being targeted. Vehicles are being vandalized, dealerships firebomb and charging stations for Tesla's destroyed.
The effect is that stocks in Tesla's have dropped by forty eight percent. Sales have plummeted. Here in Australia in February there was just over fifteen hundred Teslas sold, compared to almost six thousand at the same time last year, and that's been repeated right around the world. Donald Trump was asked, does this constitute an active domestic terrorism? You consider this an act of gymnastic terror.
I think so why I think that if and when they catch the people, and I hope they do. The good thing is they have a lot of cameras in those places.
And they've got some already having to do with that.
I think that you will find out that they're paid by people that are very highly political.
On the left. This has been going on here in Australia. On the tenth the only Tesla dealership in Tasmania was vandalized. People wrote on it, do you really want to drive a SWATSTICKR car? You can see the pun. They're very clever leftists and hail Tesla, with the SS from the
Nazis emphasized in the word Tesla. The irony about this, of course, is that the Democrats have smeared Elon Musk as a Nazi, pointing to an unfortunate gesture he made that wasn't a Nazi saloop, but they all made out like it was, and so they've driven this hatred that's now gone right around the world. There's some ironies in this, of course, Freyra and Liz. Firstly that most Tesla drivers are probably of the left because they believe in global warming.
They want to do the right thing by the environment there, so the left are attacking the left. Second, setting evs on fire is probably bad for the environment, not the best thing to do. And they're accusing Elon Musk of fascism, but in doing that, they're using themselves of storm trooper tactics. There was a US website set up quote for people on the hunt for Tesla's with actually doxed Tesla owners and put online the names and addresses of people who
own a Tesla. And when you went on that site, the cursor on the website was a Molotov cocktail, which is kind of suggestive, incredible. So they call Trump a fascist, they call Elon Musk a fascist, but they themselves are resorting to these kind of tactics as they go after ordinary people for the crime of having purchased an EV. The question is is this just vandalism, is this just anger or is this something more sinister? Is it domestic terrorism?
I would argue the definition of terrorism that is using violence and intimidation for a political cause, would fit this, and people who are engaging in this kind of behavior, whether in the US or here in Australia, should be prosecuted accordingly.
And it's actually incredibly effective because now you've got all these Tesla owners. I mean, we can't overstate this scale of this charging stations. Tesla dealerships have literally been firebombed and shot at in Portland, Oregon alone. Now we all know Portland is the home of the standing Antifa army. They've had three attacks on Tesla dealerships just this year alone. And they're not small attacks. These are guys with bellaclavers absolutely going for it, using molotov cocktails. So it's not
just an icon or on a little website. They mean business. So Tesla owners are now saying, well, I can't even get rid of my Tesla because no one wants to buy it from me. Everyone's worried about their insurance premiums because can you imagine how many insurance companies are going to keep dolling out, Oh okay, something bad's happened to your Tesla. No, they're going to take action and you're
just going to be completely screwed. And then, of course there is the Tesla market, which hasn't been doing well for ages anyway. But who's going to buy one even if indeed their heart's in the right place and they want to do the right thing by the environment, and it's going to work for their lifestyle if these guys are on the loose. Check out some of these stickers that people have resorted to using. One of them literally says I bought this Tesla before Elon supported Trump, being like,
please hands off, I need to be saved here. This doesn't mean that I support this administration or the men who gave him two one hundred million dollars to win the presidency. So it's a frighteningly very I guess I would say effective way of doing what they're doing, because this is unquestionably going to stemy tesla owners, the current ones and the would be ones.
And this is exactly how the radical intolerant left operates. It's all about the mob mentality. Once they identify the target, it's like, let's get all of our psycho friends on board to absolutely destroy anyone who speaks out against us.
And it is actually horrible.
But I will say this, I never really considered getting an electric vehicle, but after seeing all the tesla's being taught, I reckon, I'm.
Going to try it.
By hard Colet, Yeah, this was the.
Thing that finally got me over the line on ebs.
I mean, what's lot Musk's crime is wanting to save the American taxpayer from fraud and waste, and for that he's being persecuted and bullied all around the world.
And also they tried to compare him to Hitler, but that is well, extremely offensive.
My grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.
But secondly, he has been to Israel, he has worn the necklace saying bring them home, to advocate for the hostages. He's used his platform to support the Jewish people. So for them to now associate him with Hitler imagery trivializes the Holocaust, trivializes the Nazis, and is in itself a form of anti Semitism. So this is where the tolerant left gets you.
There you go. But it's not all bad. Is because Elon Musk, of course, has come to the rescue of US astronauts.
Of those stranded astronauts that Boeing one another failure on Boeing's scorecard. I mean, these guys cannot get anything right. These guys have been stranded out in space for nine months now. You may remember one of the first things Trump did after he won the election was to be like Elon bring these guys home. Well today it happened, and here it is history and the making. With this touchdown.
And splashdown crewdine back on Earth, copy Slashdown, shoots cut nipt Alex Butch funny on behalf of SpaceX Welcome home.
Here's doctor Charles Kamada telling the worldwide. This guy has not This guy being Elon has not only saved these astronauts, He's saved space exploration into the future. Check it out.
The Elon must save the US space program. If it wasn't for Elon Musk, we would not be able to fly US astronauts from US soil to the International Space Station. Make no, that is no doubt about it. We stopped flying astronauts on Space Shuttle in twenty eleven.
There you have it, Elon mask just casually saving the day again. I got to say, the most curious thing about SpaceX, though, was just last year. We're celebrating the fact that they went eight hundred and seventy miles into space, and it was just like, Wow, this is incredible. Everyone's
froffling over it. It was line news across the world, and I'm like, yet you still want us to believe that in the sixties we were tearing around on the Moon, which is all of two hundred and forty thousand miles away. So imagine it's back in the sixties and you and your family are gathered around the TV tuned into CBS, and this is what you see Radio Command Lincoln.
Actually it's a link along that tether line you see there, twenty five feet.
Of umbilical cord.
And yet I'm the idiot for not believing in the moon landing. And then just six.
Was not real.
Six that was line on seed Less and then six years simulation simulation two CBS. Just six years later, we're tearing around the Moon in a rover.
The ground air under.
That was in nineteen seventy two. We haven't been back since. Even though that was like over fifty.
First year was not real. It was from a program called This Week in Space, hosted by Walter Concrete, and he himself said this is a simulation.
Indeed, and Buzz upheld that and was like it was done in a studio. So you're telling me even though you know, say the moon, they were in the studio vision. He said that you happily watch Buzz saying this repeatedly several interviews, Shane, we never went, but you're telling me that, even though you know that was a simulation, you just believe that they went. They simulation.
Entire video was to show what would happen when they're on the Moon, and that's why they're walking through the umbilical cord that connects them to the spacecraft. The point was that it was a demonstration of what would happen. It was never supposed to be the actual moonlanding.
Yeah, and the actual moon landing was no better. It was legally.
To prove the moonlanding was fake. You can't you can't prove a fake with a fake.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying people gathered around their TVs and they were like, this is how it's gonna go, everybody, this is what you're gonna see. That is not what they actually saw in the end, and then we're asked to believe. Just six years later, we're tearing around in this buggy thing with a like little satellite dish on the front.
There.
We've never been back since, and last year we were rejoicing to high heaven that Elon Musk SpaceX had made it eight hundred and seventy miles into space, but we made it two hundred and forty thousand miles all the way to the moon the sixties mid hilarious.
This is not sure about the moon landing. What we are sure about, though, is Elon Musk has saved the US reputation as well as those astronauts, as well as the space program. In fact, Elon Musk said that he offered Joe Biden back in November to bring these astronauts home, and according to Elon Musk, Biden refused that offer because he was scared, we don't want a disaster in space right before the November election. And that version of events is backed up by Butch Wilmore, one of the astronauts
who's just been rescued. So say what you like about Elon Musk and Tesla's if it wasn't for Elon Musk, those astronauts who are now the sixth longest astronauts ever in space, not because they wanted to be They're only meant to be there for eight days, but they now hold something of a world record. Let's talk about foreign students, Freyer, because the government have been saying we've got to do something about immigration. We're going to curb things, We're going
to deal with foreign students. But foreign student numbers are at historic record levels.
Yes, new data from the ABS shows a staggering two hundred thousand, over two hundred thousand foreign students entered Australia in February alone, and some estimates are now saying that there are seven hundred thousand foreign students in Australia, another one hundred thousand on bridging visas and a further twenty five thousand who are currently appealing their visa before the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal. So in total, that brings us to eight hundred and twenty five thousand foreign students in Australia in the middle of a housing crisis. Now, this is perfectly consistent with Labour's record on migration because as we know, in their first two years in government, they brought in
one billion extra migrants. In that time, we only built three hundred and fifty thousand houses, by the way, but that is a side note, and that's seventy percent higher than any other period on record.
Ever.
Now, I, as a recent graduate of Sydney University, have a lot of thoughts on foreign students I'm sure my alma mater will not be thanking me for this right now. But I think the challenge with foreign students is that our universities have become so overly reliant on them, to the point that we have the highest percentage of foreign students in our university systems than any other OECD country. At Sydney University it's about fifty percent of students. In
some postgraduate courses, it is way higher. Now you have to think, apart from the obvious impacts on the housing crisis, what does this do to education standards when around one in twelve foreign students and admit themselves that they do not speak good English. So it leaves you with a few questions, how are these people even passing courses? And then what does it do to the student experience on campus?
Because I'll tell you what happened at my university. Essentially, the classes would separate into domestic students and international students, and in some classes as a domestic student UIV minority. So rather than enhancing this diverse multicultural experience as the universities want to make you think, what it does is
actually ruin the student experience. It ruins campus life their clubs are much less active and people basically segregate into racial groups, which is the opposite of what we should want for our universities.
So we need to rain this in asap.
And I personally think despite Labour's eighteen months of talk on course caps, they're actually making no significant cuts to student numbers. Their cap is just bringing the numbers back to twenty twenty three.
Levels, which is a joke.
We need to be setting hard caps twenty five percent international students max per course.
And the problem is not just the number of students coming in to study, but the fact that so many of them stay on in there after their study has finished. I think you said one hundred thousand former students on bridging visas trying to gain permanent residency or other visas, and then there's twenty five thousand additional former students who have been told to go but are now using the court's appeal after appeal after appeal in order to stay
in the country. So the government's got problems at both end, too many coming in and not enough leaving. But as well, it feeds into the charge that's been made about universities they've departed from their mission and they've become all about bums on seats and dollars. I had to laugh when a couple of weeks ago the Chief Executive of Universities Australia made the serious argument that money being directed towards
roads should be redirected towards universities for research. And he actually said, quote unquote, voters would rather a booming economy.
Didn't quite explain how more university students are going to create a booming economy, but he said voters would rather a booming economy rather than a shorter commute, which really demonstrates the ten year of our universities who continue to bring in more and more foreign students to line their own pockets, seemingly oblivious or uncaring and unconcerned about the impact that's having on everyday australian's i e. The housing crisis.
Sure the guy does have a point about the economy though it was worth fifty one billion dollars as of January this year. That is how much international students here in Australia. That is what it is worth to the Australian economy. And as according to the Education the Federal Education departments own website as of the ninth of January this year, which answers all these questions, Right, why are they doing it? How could they allow it to happen?
It comes down to the dollar. I don't have a problem with these students staying on because at the rate of our immigration anyway, it just means perhaps our government will allow less immigrants in or.
Not air Uh So that's not what's happening.
No, No, it is because if they weren't having this many students, they just import more immigrants anyway. They say it's all about the bottom line, and they mean it. They have numbers, so.
They have to make up these students because they want to support universities which are fundamentally broken institutions and are now producing a whole class of leftist activists.
Kay, no argument they're dead.
But the problem and the problem with the figure you cited around the value of international students is it's actually false because the data does not account for the income that those international students are earning when they're in the country, and given three quarters of them are actually working in Australia, their value as an export is actually significantly lower than the fifty billion figure cited by the university lobby.
That's that's just the government department.
But that's dim it's account for the income.
I'm not defending them, I'm just quoting the numbers. My biggest beef with these universities is that, obviously the biggest supporter of their is the Australian government, which means you're and my tax dollar. And guess what when your kids, when your grandkids apply to go to UNI, they're on the back burner, baby, because international students pay up to three times as much and they pay up front. So
your kids, your grandkids trying to get in. They may have amazing hex or Ata scores trying to get into the same courses. They haven't got Buckley's chance against the waves of international students that are cashed up big time. It's not fair, but that's the system we've been living in for many, many years. Now back to the White House where for Saint Patrick's Day they invited a very controversial figure in Ireland. His name is Connor McGregor. You
may remember him as an MMA fighter. He's thrown that in now and is instead fighting for Ireland. I'm sure nobody expected to see him anytime soon. Behind the podium at the White House speaking to a press conference about just how bad the immigration levels have reached in Ireland.
Our government has long since abandoned the voices of the people of Ireland and it's high time that America has made aware of what's going on in Ireland. What's going on in Ireland.
Is a travesty.
Our government is the government of zero action with zero accountability. You know, our money is being spent on overseas issues that is nothing to do with the Irish people. The illegal immigration racket is running ravag on on the country. Irish Americans, as I said, need to hear this because if not, there will be no place to come.
Home and visit.
The PM. The Irish BM took a great objection to this, obviously being showed up on such an international stage. He took to Twitter to say Saint Patrick's Day around the world is a day rooted in community, humanity, friendship and fellowship. Connor McGregor's remarks are wrong and do not reflect the spirit of Saint Patrick's Day or the views of the
people of Ireland. It's worth looking up that quote just to watch him getting absolutely bodied in the comments by Irish people saying mate, we are this close to becoming a minority in our own country for the first time in the history of Ireland. Where backing this ex MMA fighter at the White House who's making very public what you are doing to our country. And it was quite
astounding to see the White House platform. This guy is some very distasteful shall we say, court case behind him back in Ireland, and yet they were happy to share to their own Twitter account this happy little jig from a very happy little Irishman.
Happy Parties Day America.
Now, Connor McGregor has said he wouldn't mind running for PM, and the Irish elections are coming up later this year.
The big question is in order to run for such station in the country of Ireland, you have to have either twenty members of Parliament to give you the thumbs up and basically endorse your standing, or four local councils, which begs the question where would such a man find them in his country, although I wouldn't be surprised if he could, given the absolute fury of the Irish in Ireland at the moment as they watch their country be
absolutely flooded with migrants from all over the world. But given these allegations, indeed he's civilly liable for a right case back in Ireland. Some say this was just a typical smear trying to get a good man trying to do good things, standing up to the globalist trying to smear him. I guess that's for every single person to decide, isn't it. But here he is answering a reporter who tried to bring this up.
One of the teacher says, you don't speak for the people of Ireland.
You're responded, I am an employer of over two hundred people, almost three hundred people in the country of Ireland. He's an employer of none. Every available metric available to us has shown that the government of Ireland currently has failed the people of Ireland. In ten years, Dublin City Center has gone from one of the most safest cities in Europe to one of the most dangerous. So shame and him for saying that I'm.
Here, say to people who feel propriate for you to be here, given God bless Iland.
God bless him.
The UK has Hourrage, America has Trump, the Dutch have Gert Wilda's, Italy has maloney. These characters are adding up and while he seems like a very unlikely hero. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually gets enough support behind him to at least cause a ruckers at the coming Irish election.
He's a very good fighter. I'm not sure whether he's going to make much of a politician, although he.
Loves his country and that is the main ingredient to any successful politicians. That's how the global sorry, what do they call them, the populists, that's how the populace are taking over.
Well. To be a good fight, you've got to have a good sense of timing, and he certainly has that because when he got his chance, he was there because Trump loves UFC had him there for Saint Patrick's day. I don't think Trump was trying to set up Ireland because Trump had had the Prime Minister of Ireland in the overlof just a few days earlier, and they seem to get on quite well. But Connor McGregor, when he got his opportunity behind the White House podium, he took it.
So you got to give him that. We're going to go to a break. When we come back, we'll look at what's making news tomorrow, including the incredible salaries that trades are getting. They wonder that building a house is so expensive. That's coming up in just a moment. Welcome back. Let's take a look at what's making news tomorrow, and kids studying degrees at university might want to reconsider when
they read Tomorrow's Daily Telegraph. Check out this for a headline, supply crisis creates two hundred and fifty thousand dollars tradees brickies on big bickies. Very clever sub editor at the Daily Telegraph. Here's what the story says. Gold plated trade salaries of more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year and one of the biggest factors fueling the housing crisis, with developers unable to afford the cost of building. It goes on to quote research that shows land prices
in Sydney more than double any other state. Sydney housing is now the second and most expensive in the world. But here's the real point of the article. He quotes an auctioneer who has spoken to bricklayers charging one thousand dollars a day for their services. He tells the Telegraph, it's not a housing problem we've got, it's a construction problem. Well, I suppose when you've got a very tight labor market.
Trying to find people willing to cut bricks on hot days is going to be difficult, So you've got to pay what you have to pay. When I was living in towns Or, one of my best mates was a brickie and he was earning an absolute fortune. And this is before the housing crisis. He was on very good money. I used to be amazed when he told me what he did, and then he told me the sort of money he was getting for it. As I said, that was before there was a housing crisis. Now they're in
short supply. But of course that all contributes to the high cost of trying to build a.
Home exactly, and it's only going to get worse because labor has this target that they want to see fifty five percent of people attaining tersiory qualifications. Fifty five percent of people don't need a university degree. We need people who actually make stuff, who are productive.
You contribute to the economy.
And when we have a shortage of labor like we've got now, well, building costs just go through the roof. And you combine that with the red tape the builders face, plus all the union action that's been going on and it's no wonder housing in Australia is so expensive.
Your second degree in gender studies is not going to help solve the housing.
Crist Well, you know scrips ray oh gosh, to the front page of The Australia Now with a splash reads House of Cards. Labor wrecking ball is demolishing building sector. Building companies are collapsing at record levels amid a dramatic increase in strikes following Labour's abolition of the Building Watchdog,
with projects facing lengthy delays and costs blowouts. After four forty seven thousand, one hundred days were lost to industrial disputes on construction sites last year, the search in it The surge rather in industrial action targeting the construction sector has coincided with three four hundred and forty five building firms plunging into insolvency over the past twelve months as builders are strangled by labor shortages, high costs, red tape
and approval delays. Now you mean to tell me the government can't step in and do what is required to make sure these projects go ahead, especially when we are in the middle of a housing crisis and we need these guys more than ever, and yet nothing's done. We've just seen this many thousand, almost three and a half thousand more building firms gone into insolvency right under our noses. How are we supposed to build stuff in this country when A we're so short on tradees, and B the
firms in charge are like, we're hitting the wall. We can't do anything else.
It's like a perfect store, isn't it. You've got green tape, red tape, you've got labor shortages, you've got the cost of materials, and then you add to that industrial action that's increased exponentially in the last couple of years under this labor government. If you're trying to build a house or you're a developer, just can't take a trick. Twenty six and a half percent of all insolvencies over the last couple of years have been within the building industry.
So that just piles pressure upon pressure exactly.
It's really concerning. And on top of that, building activity is now at a decade low. At a time when we should be building more houses than ever, we're actually building less.
And here's an idea for the government.
Maybe instead of bringing in two hundred thousand international students. We bring in two hundred thousand trainees. That might solve some of our nation's problems. But over in camera things are very interesting. We've seen the Trump cuts around the world and now it's A and you on the chopping block. The Australian National University has lost funding as the Trump administration puts pressure on universities to justify how American grants
are spent. Among the questions that were sent to the a and U is whether any departments or staff defend against gender ideology.
Now, if you've had a look.
At anything Australian universities are putting out in terms of humanities research and even in other disciplines as well, you will know they are basically unable to answer that question because so much of the research now centers around promoting gender ideology. So that's going to be a sticky one for Australian universities to get out of.
It's something that I don't think enough people have talked about with Donald Trump. You know, people talking about his economic policies is tariffs, but even his economic policies really
are built around culture wars. Donald Trump is really determined over the next four years not just to make the economy boom, but he's using economics to fight the culture wars and fundamentally change the social agenda of not just the United States but Western come trees as evidence here, they won't fund you if you are off in terms of his idea of how the culture should be, which.
Is only right, like why would you fund something you don't believe in. He's cracking down in America, across the schools, across the universities because he knows it's not conducive to a flourishing society and indeed the very hierarchy of competence upon which any flourishing society is built. So he's like, well, I'm not funding you guys doing it over in Australia. But speaking of Australia, back to The Australian, the best newspaper in the country. Ideology one h one. It's exactly
what we were just talking about. Students forced into privileged walk mcquarie University law students who face the threat of failing a component of a key exam if they perform an underwhelming acknowledgment of country have been made to adopt different personas and perform a quote privilege walk end quote in or to do better understand Power and status Agent Law Cause Convener Holly Duel Mackay on Wednesday double down on revelations publish in The Australian that students were marked
on their delivery of an acknowledgment of country, saying they would quote not meet the metric or rubric end quote if they did not perform an appropriate proclamation. So not only do we have them doing this, if you're welcome to country hasn't got enough passion in it, automatic fail. Now they're forced to do privilege walk.
So I didn't know what a privileged walk was, but apparently they line all the students up and they designate you're a child born homeless, you're a CEO, and then they make statements like you didn't get three meals a day, or you do get three meals a day, So you would move forward as a CEO, but you would stay where you are, and they keep reading out these things until Liz, as a CEO, you would end up right
in front of U Freyer. As a person, there really is a walk of shame you made to feel bad if you end up out the front and you're told that you only got there because you were stepping over
other people in the process. Now what this has to do with your degree in law, economics, or whatever other subject they're doing, god only knows, but that the funny thing about this is that students are quoted from mccauy University saying they're worried they're not going to get a job, because when employers find out this is the sort of staff being taught to students, they're going to say, do we really want to hire someone and bring them into
our staff who's been indoctrinated, marinated in all of this kind of stuff. They're going to be a pain to work with. We'll take someone from a different university. So this could well backfire badly on mccauy University. We're going to go to a break, but stick around when we come back. Virgin Airlines, you would have heard they're initiating flights where you can take your dog. But what about a cinema where you can take your dog along to
the movies? That's coming up in a moment. A couple of weeks ago, I went to see the new Bridget Jones movie. I actually fell asleep. A couple of times you.
Went to see it that movie. I don't know why you would admit that.
The only way it could have been worse, Liz, is if there were dogs in the cinema. It's the only way it could have been worse.
Well, at leasi weren't in Paris. Check this out. A really arty Parisian theater as decided if you want to take your dog o out for some dog o popcorn to watch a dog o film, you are more than welcome check this out. It has literally been selling out, that's how popular it's been. While onlookers who clearly aren't dog lovers have worried about the prevalence of fleas in those cinemas, where when next I go to the movies, am I just going to be sitting in some flea
ridden seat? And other critics wondered about the atmosphere on rainy days due to the likely heard of.
That feeling that you get.
When it's just sad and lonely and you want to go to the cinemas by yourself, but you decide to take your dog. I'm assuming that's a very French concern because we just don't have many here. But it's your best friend. I back it.
I love dogs. So much, I would actually go. I don't have a dog, but I would go just to pat other people's dogs and.
A dog I love so much.
Oh that is mean.
But something that's very happy actually is there's the best redemption redemption arc out there.
At the moment.
What was once the world's ugliest animal has just won.
New Zealand's Fish of the Year. Mean, the beloved fish.
It's bodies that made up of this bloody tissue so that it can survive just above the law. Look at that glorious beast. What do you guys reckon ugliest Animal or Fish of the year.
Yeah, it had to be a pity vote.
It looks like a medical experiment that went wrong.
It probably was.
Someone described it as a frowning pile of goop. But Freyer, you'd probably take it to the movies.
Well, I don't know if I would like to cuddle a boneless, scaleless blob that's meant to live hundreds of meters underwater.
But if it's fluffy and cute, I'll cuddle it.
I think that's why it's so ugly, right, because it lives in a highly pressurized part of the ocean, right down deep, so it's virtually no skeleton, no scales, no muscles, and nothing much to speak of. I don't know why the New Zealand has voted that their favorite fish.
I'm telling you it was a pity vote. They were like, its so ugly, so useless. We can't eat it, we can't anything it. Let's just make it fish.
Of the year.
There you go.
Well, on that note, that's it from us. It's good night, but don't go anywhere. Coming up in just a moment is the reader Penehy show good