Lateens General, Welcome to the Late Bay.
Well good evening.
I'm James Macpherson with Liz Staurer and Caleb Bond. If you thought that portrait of King Charles was bad, and it was, wait until you see what an artist has done to Princess Kate will show you that shocker a little later. Plus, when we look at all of tomorrow's papers, Melbourne's multimillion dollar sobering up centers are sitting empty, and Anthony Albanesi refuses to rule out enforcing an arrest warrant if indeed one is issued against the Israeli Prime Minister.
All of that a little later, but first let's talk tennis. Australian tennis star Nick Curios will not be playing at Wimbledon this year. He's injured, so instead he'll be providing commentary with the BBC, and that decision has sparked outrage amongst conservative politicians and women's activists. They say having Curios as a commentator on the BBC is tantamount to endorsing violence against women. Now, the problem is that Curios pleaded
guilty last year to shoving his ex girlfriend. Now a magistrate dismissed the charge saying the incident was low level and there was no suggestion that there was any danger of it happening again, but that was of no consequence to Curios's critics. Conservative MP Caroline Noakes, who's the chair of the Women's and Equity Committee in the UK Parliament, she slammed the decision, saying and I quote the BBC
should hang its head in shame at disappointment. It's a disgrace and shows the utter contempt our national broadcaster has towards women. Another activist, noting that Curios has previously retweeted social media posts from Andrew Tait, whom some regard as a misogynist, said and I quote there are many potential wimbled and pundits out there.
Why choose to employ an abuser?
Another activist said it's amazing how quickly we're willing to dismiss violence against women, as long as the men and perpetuating it is good at hitting a ball or a musical note. Now, for the BBC's part, they said they didn't approach Curios until well after the court proceedings were concluded, and besides, as a current player and former Grand Slam finalist, he'll provide great analysis and insight.
So let's start with you, Liz.
Should Curios be commentating with the BBC or should he be banned from the platform because of that court case last year.
I don't think you should be banned whatsoever, but it does definitely open up the much bigger question of how long should something like this affect a guy's career if it all So, the incident in question happened over three years ago now, and I think even using the term abuse maybe a little bit misplaced here, because it was an altercation.
She would or wouldn't get out of the car.
He would be in her apartment. They had a disagreement, and he was trying to leave, like he was actually trying to extricate himself from the app acumen in an uber and she went him in the way of the car door so he couldn't shut it. So he shoved her shoulders, by which he meant move get out of the way. Yeah, and she fell over. I mean that was the basis of this supposed abuse claim, I don't think exactly.
So we're now hearing abuse and assaults thrown around, and how could.
You give such a platform to such a man?
Now, there are certain circumstances in which that's a very necessary conversation to have, but this is not one of them, and the BBC coppy flack for it. Like the MP that you just quoted, this is just way out of context. And what it actually does is take away from the cases in.
Which that is a re very relevant question.
To be asking, and we ask it every time we have, you know, AFL player or an NRL player grace our front pages having behaved very poorly, whether it's behavior toward women or whether it's a big night out on the town.
Involving drugs and sex and rock and roll.
But this is not one of those cases, and that's what they're trying to make it the equivalent of. And yeah, the reason why it really gets my goat is it takes away from those cases in which it's absolutely a necessary conversation to have it, but a little bit.
He trivializes it, right.
But I think this whole shabang proves exactly why Nick Kurrios is the perfect guy to be commentating for the BBC, because he is a walking controversy machine, right And it doesn't matter whether you like tennis or not. Everyone knows who Nick kurios Is and everyone at some point has watched him play, and everyone has thoughts on Nick Kurrios.
Some people love him, some.
People hate him. And I used to hate him, and I've sort of he's grown on me in recent years because the one thing I've always hated about curios is that he is so talented, right, he just has so much abundant natural talent. But because he's got so much talent, he's never felt the need to put in the work to take it that little bit further that would make him one of, if not the best, in the world.
I mean, he's a Wimbledon finalist for heaven's.
Sake, right, he is a seriously good tennis player, and if he just took it that bit more seriously, I reckon he could have won Grand Slams and done so much better than he did. And that frustrates me. But everyone has a thought about Nick curios And you know, just like on the tennis court, when he's in the commentary box, he's not going to pull his punches. He's going to say the things that other people wouldn't dare
to say. He's going to make criticisms that other people wouldn't make, and that's what you want in a sports commentation.
You'd watch the tennis to see him play. You'd also watch the tennis to hear him commentake exactly just on him as an athlete. My son played basketball with him, just a game of street ball that curios happened to be there, and my son, who's not shabby on the basketball court, reckoned. He is just an unbelievable athlete, said he was a total freak. But this is the problem when sports organizations start taking a stance on different issues.
The AFL have just had a problem with this because they've just taken a big stance against violence against women. It was around the same weekend that Wayne Carey was going to be inducted into the new South Wales Football
Hall of Fame. Now Wayne Carey's got his own pass to deal with and so all of a sudden that was a big no no. So sports organizations do get into this problem where do we honor someone purely for their sporting ability and ignore character issues or are character issues relevant when we're honoring them or giving them a platform to commentate or receive awards for their sport.
Yeah, and it becomes that whole are they a role model thing. But you know, seriously, he shoved his girlfriend when he was trying to get away from an argument. I don't think that's the problem here. But I'm getting the popcorn out because Nick Kirios in the commentary box.
If this is any.
Start to what his career is going to be like, there will be fantastic. Let's go to South Australia now and let's talk about payroll tax, which it has to be one of the worst taxes in the world. It is a tax on employment and you'd think any government anywhere would want any.
Business to employ more people.
But if you employ too many people and you pay them too much in this country, you get penalized for doing so. Last year, multiple states or every state in the country now started charging doctors payroll tax. Previously, it was thought that doctors were largely exempt. And the problem here was that in medical centers where doctors rent rooms, the medical center pays for the receptionists and they pay for.
The nurses, etc.
But the doctors are essentially contractors. They're not employed by the medical center. They rent the room to work in there. So the medical centers figured we don't have to pay payroll tax on those doctors.
They're not our employer.
Then there was a case in the New South Wales Supreme Court that said no, you do have to pay that tax, and all of a sudden, medical centers all over the country were up for hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax that they never thought they'd have to pay. And that means medical centers closing down. And we all know how.
Difficult it is to get a doctor's.
Appointment now, a littlone, a bulk build doctor's appointment without even more places closing.
So South Australia.
Has come up with an ingenious idea which is that we will exempt doctors who bulg bill from having to pay the payroll tax.
Take a look.
This is the Health Minister of South Australia, Chris Picton, announcing this policy today.
I think this is an excellent arrangement which helps to make sure that our gps are sustainable and helps to incentivize practices to Bob Bill.
And sure we all want to incentivize practices to bug Bill, et cetera, et cetera, but let's talk about what this really is. State Government's reduced a new tax. Then they came up with a way for people to not pay that tax, and they called it a tax cut, and that is exactly what the Health minister said today. He
said that this was tax relief. I'm not sure you really can call a tax relief when you brought the tax in last year, then you come up with a loophole and you go, how good are we We've come up with a way.
Not to pay the tax anymore. You didn't have to levy it in the first place. Like sure, there was this Supreme.
Court case in New South Wales that said that medical centers are liable to pay payroll tax. But every treasurer in the country the next day, with the stroke of a pen, could have just said, our revenue officers are not going to collect the payroll tax from doctors' offices. They could have done that, but they chose not to. And now they've patting themselves on the back for finding.
A way to find people, well, look, you know, do not pay the Is it a tax cut or is it an embarrassing admission of ranking competence, Because of course that policy has meant a lot of people can't afford to go to the doctors. So imagine making sick people pay more to go to the doctors, not just in the middle of a cost of living crisis, but in the middle of a hospital's crisis in South Australia, in the middle of an ambulance ramping crisis. It was a
terrible policy to begin with. But what they've done is.
Payold tax across the board is a terrible.
Point, particularly in this instance.
What they've done is they've set you on fire and then when you started screaming, they've sprayed you with water, and now.
They want gratitude for it.
Well, that's government in a nutshell, Mac.
But you would have thought that essential services at least should be no payroll tax across the board. We're talking about people seeking medical help, GPS, trying to do their job.
And here we have this.
Oh no, you guys, your heads are in the same noose as everybody else's. Payroll tax is one of those taxes. The more you try to learn about it, the less it makes sense. And it is genuinely just the government pocketing more money. It's incurred by everyone. Everyone thinks, oh no, it's really the employer that incurs the cost, but they already add all that up and therefore probably it's side your wages accordingly and put up the prices of their
product accordingly. So it is another tax that is actually incurred by everyone.
It just makes me absolutely mad.
It makes no sense whatsoever except for as a massive revenue raiser, which is of course its main purpose in life. But let's talk about vegan dog food because a manufacturer is being sued by coming up with a dodgy batch of biscuits that killed seven or that's seven dogs, seven dogs. Sorry dogs, I'm more sorry about your owners thinking you're vegan, what a big mistake, and making sixty dogs seriously unwell.
The people who sold these dog biscuits have paid out two hundred and thirty two thousand dollars in damages to thirty three dog owners. So now they're suing the manufacturer.
Saying, cough it up, bucco. These dogs' lives are on your heads.
It's going to be really interesting to see how this plays out and how much money they'll get for it.
But the point is, what are you doing feeding vegan dog food dog abuse to your dog in the first place. Look, I don't want to say your dog deserved to die, but if you are feeding vegan dog food to your dog.
Do you not think that.
Maybe a carnivorous animal at some point might suffer some damage from doing that, Like dogs are not naturally meant.
To eat vegan food.
Well, I love me's.
The RSPCA on this, by the way, Like we've known since time immemorial.
Dogs eat meat, It's what they do.
And then these brain dog owners get it into the head of.
Oh no, no, mine, mine's special. He's vegan like me. Clips.
So just before you show the clip, I think you just hit the nail on the head.
They want to make the.
Dog vegan like themselves, and that explains why they've done it. They have suffered a mental decline brought on by withdrawing from meet themselves.
And now the dogs everyone.
Exactly sorry to interrupt you carry on.
Check out this clip on a morning show in the UK with this woman had bought on her oh so vegan dog and was extremely proud of that fact until the hosts presented said vegan dog with the choice of a.
Bowl full of meat a bowl full of edgies.
And they've got two balls here right, One is full of vegetables and one is full of meat.
Store storm. We hit to put the temptation in front of you.
She's obviously going to go obviously, Oh are you little?
Yes, I didn't swear.
And there is natural.
Selection, and there is natural selection.
Yes.
Indeed, God knows how long that poor dog hadn't even had.
A whiff of meat. It managed nostrils. It was probably like, oh my gosh, all my Christmases have come at once.
If you want a vegan pet, you don't get a rock wheeler, you get a rabbit.
Seriously, these people should be done for animal abuse. I'm sorry you asked where the RSPCAS. The RSPCA is too busy trying to ban jumps racing and not finding illegal knackeries out at woggle Wogger I think is what they've been up to. But if you are going to keep your dog as a vegan should the dog should be taken away and given to someone who will.
Actually look after it.
And you should be prosecuted for animal abuse because it's just unnatural to force a helpless animal, and you know, we know what dogs are like. People have tried it with cats as well, But the good thing about cats is that they're smart enough to run away and go and find their own food sources.
When bring your.
Back, we bring back the dead rad on the bird.
But we know with dogs that they are reliant on you, right, and you are abrogating your responsibility to that animal by not feeding it the stuff that it is naturally bred to eat and that it needs for nutrition. There is just no excuse whatsoever. It's like people who try to make their babies vegan and it's like, yeah, it has and kids have been killed because of it, right, and I wouldn't be surprised. Sorry, if there are dogs out there that end up, you know, malnutrition because of female
who feed them vegan food. It is absolutely disgusting. If you there's probably they have too many vegan viewers, to be honest. If you're watching this on YouTube or elsewhere and you are a vegan dog owner, just know that you are scum of the earth, and please take your dog to the pound so someone who will actually look after your dog can take it and give it.
A nice life.
Please. Vegans are likely to get their vegan dogs.
Recording themselves doing CrossFit and boasting about it on social media the next thing that they would do. I'm not sure if Cate Blanchette is vegan, she probably is but she seems to be pretty pro Palestinian. Check her out at the Carnes Film Festival overnight parading on the red carpet. Was it a fashion faux pa or was it a
pro Palestinian protest. She's wearing what seems to be a fairly simple and elegant black dress, but when she lifts up the back of it, underneath the dress it's green, and with the white back and of course the red carpet, it looks very much like she's making a deliberate protest on behalf of the Palestinians. This was a raging debate on social media. People weren't quite sure. What's your take, Caleb, optical illusion or do you think Cate Blanchette is making
a protest? She's not immune to protesting different social causes.
No, and the argument has been made at the back of the Dreas is actually a pale pink, so that somehow means that it is in no way related to the Palestinian flag. I tend to think that if if you have gone to the effort of showing the green bit with the white bit, knowing it's on the background of the red carpet, that it probably was a subtle message, right, And she has signed petitions calling for ceasefires, etc. So I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that what she was doing.
If that's what she was.
Doing here we are talking about it, right, she has achieved her goal, which is to create discussion, and I suppose in that case she has garnered herself a win.
But it's a very clever way of.
Doing it without actually coming out and saying pause, you willn't not.
Just cowardice as well, Like if you were going to use your platform Can's Film Festival. These photos are circulated around the globe. They're on the front of magazine's papers.
You name it.
If you're going to send such a big signal, why wouldn't you just own it, tweet it, say something when they interview you on the red carpet.
She knew the color of the background leave. It's the same.
Every year, so choosing the colors in her dress it does seem pretty obvious.
But then my argument is, yet we just.
Go the whole old Kate, just say so, say where you stand? Was your way of taking a view without taking so much of a view that you might.
Get any pushback?
Or upset anybody, you know, people who don't support hamas terrorists or believe in a two state solution, because those of us with a single firing neuron, no, it's not any kind of solution. But we know our Kate tends to be a lefty. She was very vocal last year about voting for the Voice in the referendum, and this is something that she's actually quite upfront about herself. Here she is explaining that, yeah, I'm probably a lefty.
I mean, I'm white privileged, I'm middle class, and I think, you know, one can be accused of having a bit of a white savior complex. But to be perfect honest, my interaction with with refugees in the film in the field and also in resettled environments has totally changed my perspective on the world.
I don't know about Cate Blanchette claiming to be middle middle at all.
You're middle class. The rest of us.
Are in pops, We're I think she surpassed that a little bit with the group she hangs with. Maybe maybe so. But the funniest.
Thing about it all, I think is it.
Is just such a typical example of the way that celebrities like to carry on about social issues, right, Because you're right. List, if she wanted to do something, not only could she come out and say something, I mean, she could get on a plane and go over to Gaza.
And help distribute the.
To the refugees and whatever she wants to do over there, right, But she doesn't do that. She rocks up to Can's film festival with a very expensive dress on to make her point, then switches out of that dress to put on a blaze or whatever she was wearing there to go and give a speech about how virtuous she is and her thoughts on the world, et cetera, all the while making lots of money and enjoying expensive champagne and having a wonderful time while people over in Gaza and
Israel are suffering. It's just the ultimate example of how these people operate. I will lecture to you about how you should think, and I'll even admit that I'm middle class.
And just on middle class.
I believe if you're google Kate Blanchett you'll find she's worth about ninety five million dollars.
Well, there you go, I mean that's how middle class.
Well, well, look, let's be perfectly honest.
If you want to buy a house in Sydney these days, ninety five million dollars may well classify you as middle class. But you know, come on, we just don't need the lecture, do we seriously? Anyway, let's move on to our favorite topic here energy.
I know you're.
Groaning in your chair, going, oh no, not again, renewable energy. But we must talk about it because we've had a small win today, which is of course that are rearing one of the biggest power stations in the country, certainly the biggest in New South Wales today has been given another two years before it goes off to the doggers.
It is, of course a coal fired energy plant. It supplies nearly a quarter of the power in New South Wales, so it's pretty important to the energy grid, and we know renewables are not coming online as fast as we
need them. The Energy Market Operator put out a report or an update to its ten year report the other day that said many parts of the country are going to struggle with the level of power they have in summer, particularly because South Australia has shut down gas generation, so we need to keep low and behold fossil fuels online. So the New South Wales state government has agreed to underwrite the losses of the Eraring power station for the next two years to basically make sure your lights don't
turn off. And it's interesting because earlier in the week, Chris Min's, the Premier of New South Wales, came out and basically said, look, I just want to tell all the ecoactivists the best way to kill.
Renewable energy is to go too.
Fast, because a they won't have enough people won't have enough power to turn their lights on, and b they're going to see the shock in their power bill.
If you want to turn people.
Off renewable energy, the best thing you can do is have lots of it. Two days later, there's subsidies for a coal fired power station. A Victoria is having to do exactly the same thing with the loy Yang They have to keep it on longer, and your lawn as well because they simply don't have the renewable energy online. Surely it proves that our net zero goals are a total joke.
We're not going to meet them. We all know that everyone in.
The energy sector now, every single one of them.
We're keeping the col fired power plants going longer than we expected why don't we just say, yep, ain't going to happen. Let's just continue situation normal.
Please.
No, Instead they say, oh, it ain't going to happen.
So we've all got to.
Try harder and do better and faster and more and bigger subsidies, and you guys, your energy bills just keep going up.
We've got to do it. We've got to do it. We've got to make the targets.
Even though every expert at this point has simply said, look, we can get there eventually, but right now, no, and the targets that you've sent, you're going to end up in the dark. I think we should start taking bets because right now a wearing is open for an extra two years, how many of us actually think it's going
to be two years? Watch a blowout to four, maybe six, could be ten, and by then we'll all just be like and at that point, what we've paid out to keep it up, as they say, they're not paying out any extra unless it incurs a loss, and then the state government will give two hundred and twenty five million
per year per year. But if that adds up, we might as well have just built a brand new coal fired power station, or put it toward New clear because that's going to be a tidy sum that is just going to keep climbing.
The interesting thing about this is they've extended it for two years, right until August twenty twenty seven, which is just a couple of months after the next New South Wales state election, So that's rather convenient. It guarantee the Labor government won't have blackouts to deal with. But they've also got an option for it to be extended in another two years beyond that, so Lizia definitely on the money. It won't be two years, It'll more likely before and
perhaps longer again. But I mean, Monty Python could not have scripted a comedy as good as our energy policy. First we've subsidized renewables, which.
We were told we're going to be cheap.
Then we subsidized householders to afford the renewables, which they were told we're going to be cheap. And now we're subsidizing col fired power stations, which our whole energy policy is centered around closing.
Yeah, we're subsidizing them to stay open.
And I've written my polities and in the advertiser about this tomorrow and how absurd it is that South Australia shutting down its gas generation at a time when just a few weeks ago the Federal Resources Minister Madeline King was writing in the AFR that gas is an important part of our energy future.
Sow the Australia says no.
Then you've got the Labor Premier, as I said before, of New South Wales, saying the best way to get rid of renewable energy is to have too much of it. Then a couple of days later he subsidizes a coal fired power station. And then you have all these people who of course put solar panels on their roofs, thinking that they were helping the environment and feeding their energy into the grid.
Now they're being.
Told that they're actually going to have to pay to feed their energy into the grid.
Have we woken up yet?
The whole renewable thing has been a total dud. We subsidized the renewables, then we subsidized the coal, and then all the people who thought they were helping the environment by generating soul power.
It is doing.
And yet here is Energy Minister Chris Bowen staring down the lens, assuring us all not like, oh, we've made this arrangement.
So you guys aren't in the dark. Don't worry, We're looking after you in that respect. No.
No, The assurance that he wants to make sure that everyone can sleep in their beds tonight just fine. Is a rearing will not be open a day longer than necessary.
We're still shutting it as soon as possible.
The Iraan power station should be open, not a day longer than it should be, and closed.
On a day earlier than it should.
I think the South Wales government has done a good job in negotiating that. Ensuring that you have that energy in the system as we make that transition, is I think appropriate.
You.
Oh, I'm so glad to agree that not leaving millions of Australians in the dark for the sake of your green dream actually isn't appropriate.
And this is a good call all.
By the way, I'm like, well, that's generous off here, mate.
And by the way, the federal government today put aside five hundred and fifty million dollars for batteries as well, because you know, we need a national battery strategy. Apparently because we produce something like half of the world's lithium, right, we don't make any batteries in this country we send, we sell the lithium to China so we can buy the batteries back from them to put on the walls
of our houses and in electric cars, et cetera. Because, of course, if you want to have a solar panel on your roof, the only way to make it viable now is to have a battery on the side of your house. Otherwise you're paying to feed that renewable energy back into the grid. But of course these batteries cost nine grand a piece, and that's nine grand for a Chinese made battery.
Wait until you see what it'll.
Cost to buy an Australian made battery, which of course we have to.
They'll have to make it with Australian.
Energy, the price of which keeps going through the roof because of the renewables that they want to store in these batteries.
I just love that grab from Chris Bowen where he says that the station won't be open a day longer than it ought to be closed a day earlier than it should be, which basically means I've got no idea what's happy as long as it needs to be, making it up as we go, and when you begin to despair about the state of Australian politics, that the best thing to do is to start reading the American newspapers because it's a lot worse there.
Believe it or not.
Check out these Democrats from the state of Illinois. They've just tabled a bill seeking to change the word offender in their legislation to quote justice impacted individual. The bill they're referring to is the Crime Reduction Act, and by referring to criminals not as offenders but by justice impacted individuals, it seems like they're normalizing crime rather than reducing it.
Have a listen, well, we don't mess with anything in terms of the term victim. We just change offender to just as impacted individual, adding the Department of Corrections, adding Human Services, adding sangmen and Cook County Adult Probation and two members. You've experience the ari system as offenders or justice impacted individual It.
Might seem like a small thing. I mean, obviously changing a term can have a positive or negative impact when we do that, but I would say that over and over again, we keep changing the names for how we are referring to those who are have entered into criminal activity, and each time we make that change, each agency has to make that change on every one of their documents.
So right now in the Department of Corrections, there's multiple changes that have been made, and it's costing thousands and thousands of dollars just to do a name change.
That's Republican Terry Bryant making a great point that in the middle of the cost of living crisis, they're spending thousands of dollars changing a word, and they're doing it for ideological reasons.
Caleb.
They're trying to get away from stigmatizing criminals and having them as people who are bad, as these are people who are on their way to rehabilitation. We're moving towards nirvana and these people they're not bad people.
It's just a system has been just impacted.
Even me, you haven't been impacted by justice.
Well, we're impacted by justice. They were sent to jail. That was the impact.
So if someone will you don't want to stigmatize criminals because we need.
More of them, right, and that's just common sense.
Yeah, we wouldn't want to make it seem yealing.
No no, no, no, don't want to upset their self esteem.
It's the time they've been in preschool.
Their self esteem has been the one thing we must coddle.
Look, it's a legitimate career move. You know, what's the problem, guys, I'm just a you know, I'm just a justice impacted What do you mean you don't want to date me.
I'm just a just packed the justice impact. You won't employ me.
I'm a justice impacted into big old Thank you very much.
So we'd love to employ We're going through your resume.
There seems to be a ten year gap where what happened there.
I was impacted by justice for teen years, you know.
But so if someone who is a criminal is a justice impacted individual, does that mean that what we would now call a victim, which is a six letter word one word, is now.
An individual who has had an interaction with a justice impacted individual.
We're seriously, have we gone mad? Have they checked what's in the water in Illinois? Because I think there might be too much lead in that water.
I think there's madness throughout the water in the United States of America, as we know, their border crisis has been left to fend for itself. Over nine million illegal aliens have poured over the border. The southern border between Mexico and the United States of America. Now, a few of the Republicans haven't shut up about this for as
long as it's been happening. We've even showed you footage of the border guards cutting barbed wire to allow these illegal aliens through when they did that on the order of the Biden administration.
The Biden administration knows that.
This is happening, but is in fact facilitating it. Well, one very frustrated journal where years into this dilemma, now had the goal to ask the White House Press.
Secretary what the heck is going on?
Why isn't the President doing anything about it?
Here's their response.
The President has the authority to do something about this.
Why should he have to do it?
The latterly, why shouldn't we do it in a legislative way. You're right, he took many executive actions before.
So the president has the power to stop this tomorrow, just issue an.
Edict make it happen. And there's his press.
Secretary going, why should he have to do this by himself? She suggested, why can't we do this via legislation, you know, put it to the House, have it go through Congress, as if that would or wouldn't get up. This is a clown show actually defending the president for what has been the greatest breach of United States any kind of security, national security. People's hometowns as well as cities are now overrun with.
These illegal immigrants.
It's costing the American taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars every single day to accommodate them, feed them, try to get them jobs. Some of them have no desire to be employed. And this is the Biden administration's response.
What shocked me is that Biden apparently is considering using his executive powers if the number of illegals crossing the board exceeds four thousand per day.
No.
I think if there was one person per day crossing illegally, you've got a problem. But apparently it's not a problem until you've got four thousand and one per day.
But let's be real here, right, So Trump used executive orders to close the border and put restrictions on people who had already crossed the border. Biden became president. Within a month of becoming president, he used executive orders to undo all of those orders and memorandums that Donald Trump has issued. So he's already used executive orders when it comes to the border. He could always issue another executive order when it comes to the border. But no, no, no,
it should be done legislatively. Why just so we can let a few more people cross the border while you're waiting for that legislation to go through.
And that's the point. He doesn't want to stem the flow of people.
This is invasion by design and deliberate.
The only reason that Biden would ever take action to close the border is if someone put a piece of paper in front of him that said you are guarante heed to win the next presidential election if you close the border. That is the only thing that would change his mind. Because the long term goal is you bring all of these people in.
You hope one day they become a citizen.
You give them jobs, and you put them up in hotels, and they are how wonderful is America? While everyone else starves? And then you hope one day they've become a citizen and therefore a voter.
And who are you going to repay?
Well, you know, the.
Democrats were very nice to me once upon a time, and let me come to their wonderful country.
Who am I going to vote for? Next?
Way?
He keeps letting them out.
That all's got to know.
With every passing day, the average Americans have been watching this happen for years now, this invasion by design.
That is what it is.
And that's all Trump has to talk about all the way to the White House, because Americans are sick to death of this and watching their own country transform before their eyes, not for the better. That's only has to talk about. It's a winning strategy. Nobody is voting for Biden on borders.
No, what if there's a bunch of conservative Christians who live in the right to life and so on crossing the border.
You reckon, Biden, shut the borders. I reckon. We're going to go to a break.
When we come back, we'll look at what's making news tomorrow, including multimillion dollars sobering up centers in Melbourne completely empty. What's going on that's coming up in a moment, they're all drack.
Welcome back.
Let's take a look at what's making news tomorrow. Okay, if you've got the Herald Son from Melbourne.
Indeed, what a great headline.
Totally wasted and next to a scooter of beer there a multi million dollars sobering up centers are sitting largely empty, with just four hundred and seventeen people checking in over their first five months of operation. And what does that come to? An average of three people a day going to these centers in Collingwood and St Kilden. Now, this was part of the deal when they decided that they
weren't going to have laws against public drunkenness anymore. So they decided, well, instead of locking people up putting in the cells for the night, we're going to have these sobering up centers.
Let's never forget they introduced those laws on Melbourne.
On Melbourne cop and what bitter day to introduce it. Let's be perfectly honest.
So fifty three point four million dollars into these sobering up centers and they've had less than five hundred.
People go through their doors.
What are people just wandering around the streets of Melbourne drunk out of their brains? Or might it be that in the first place, the number of people who were getting locked up for public drunkenness was pretty damn low, and there was no cause for these sobering up centers to begin with.
No, it's a perfect example of that knee jerk policy that we always talk about something atrocious is seen to happen, I e. Melbourne Cup, Oh the degeneracy, so much drunkenness. Let's do this now we look awesome. But there's absolutely no.
Way to justify this.
Over fifty three million the Allen government is now pouring into them despite.
Those dismal numbers.
So no one is using this, and they're still committed to pouring that money into them over the next two years.
Just shut up shop. Nobody's using them. Why wasays taxpayer money.
I find it hard to understand how they thought anyone would use them in the first place. If you're drunk and you're offered, we can drive you home, or we can take you to a sobering up center with a whole bunch of other else said, of course.
You're going to go home. What were they think of?
Some of these sobering up centers, by the way, were for Indigenous people only, and they've not been particularly frequented either.
So the whole policy is just.
I'm going to assume that whoever dreamed up the idea of these sobering up centers probably should have been in the sobering up center themselves at the time, because they're certainly spending like drunken sailors.
Well they're still not sobering up. It's just our money anyway, so who.
Cares, right, it's just taxpayer dollar, So go for your life. Alan government to the front page of the Australia now more chaotic than coherent. PM under fire on ICC, Anthony Albanezi has refused to say whether Australia would enforce the International Criminal Court arrest warrants against TOMP Israeli officials, while declaring in a chaotic press conference that his government had adopted a coherent and principled position on the war in Gaza.
What position is he referring.
To, I don't know, well, the one in his head. Obviously, nobody even.
Knows what this government's actual position is. We certainly know it's not staunchly pro Israel.
But every other day he's.
Got some minister or backbencher breaking rank saying.
From the river to the sea.
After he said, guys, don't say that, Okay, that part we're ruling out.
No, no, still going for it. He's got frontbenchers who.
Are out and out supportive of Gaza and therefore, or I would argue Hamas, there is absolutely nothing coherent about this government's approach and that has been the case since October seven.
Well, it's about as coherent as a Joe Barden speech really, because we had the PM the other day saying, oh, well it's not my place to comment on international court cases. I don't even talk about local court cases. Then that night Pennywong, the Foreign Minister, came out and said we support the ICC doing whatever the ICC wants to do. Now the Prime Minister says, well, I don't really know whether we'd enforced and arrest were like coherent.
It's not coherent.
Well, if you want incoherent, listen to this. In the article, it says asked whether Australia supported the ICC, mister Albanezi replied, the ICC exists.
Pow.
Wow, and do you support their right to exist? Prime Minister, I'm like another democratic nation in the Middle East.
I mean, honestly, just keep saying the government has for days defended the ICC's independence. Yet we're not talking about their independence. We're asking you do you stand with them saying they're going to arrest net and Yahoo and war crimes have been committed.
That is the question. This is just pure gas.
Lighting and then having the temerity, after saying the ICC exists, to say.
No, no, no.
Our approach is completely coherent. It is very straightforward. It's in black and white options a lot about the ICC.
They're about Australian policy and Australian public have the right to know what does our government think on these matters? And as for his refusal to say whether or not he would enforce an arrest warrant on Benjamin Nett and Yahoo, he's the leader of our major ally in the Middle East, didn't he last?
No way to treat your friend.
Look, I'm just so glad that the Prime Minister has given me exactly the answer I need. Next time someone says so like, did do you really get along with Lizen James off Air? And I'll just say, listen, James exist.
Look well, since I exist, let's go to the front page of the Career do you really well?
Who knows?
Social media pushing kids to skip school? Teen body shame Crisis of Course News Limited papers have been leading a campaign against social media's effects on kids. The article reads, nearly half of all Australian high school students have skipped school due to poor body image, and the majority of them report that social media fuelled their insecurity shock new Butterfly Foundation research has revealed. Now the Butterfly Foundation Foundation
surveyed three thousand kids aged twelve to eighteen. Fifty seven percent said they were dissatisfied with the way they looked, which I would have thought was rather low for teenagers. I would have thought it's probably higher than that.
It's all the blokes being like, ah, I'm God's gift. I'm fine, mate, it's all the girls pulling down that number.
But sixty two percent said social media did make them feel worse, though hardly any said it affected their use of social media, so they were willing to admit, social media makes us feel worse about ourselves, but we still use social media despite the fact it's depressing us. But fifty percent of kids staying away from school because they feel embarrassed by their physique fueled by social media is hardly a good thing for.
I suspect the phenomenon exists and has always existed. Social media just exacerbates it, you know. Twenty years ago, the discussion was about whether Victoria's Secret Models and Supermodels, et cetera were creating body image problems for teenagers.
About to say what school were you going to?
Because they well, I didn't have Victoria's secret models.
I don't know. Some of them might have grown up to be, but I haven't heard from them since then. But the problem was that they all wanted to be rake thin. Right. This was supposedly the body image ideal. Now, of course, it's.
What you see on social media, and a lot of what you see on social media is completely docted because of filters that people use when they take these photos. And interestingly, there was a story on the front of the papers yesterday which we didn't get to last night, but it was around the fact that Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, which owns Facebook, personally vetoed a plan to ban certain filters on Facebook that allow you to basically look like you've had plastic surgery.
Right, Because of course, it's.
A weird hamster in the wheel situation where you know it hurts, but you keep going back because you get the dopamine hit every time you go on social media. But if it wasn't social media, it'd be something else.
And that's a problem with social media. You're getting everybody else's highlights reel you never get. You're not getting most reality themselves on a bad day, and so you're not comparing apples with apples.
Said it once, I'll say it a thousand times more. I'm sure as we keep watching this play out that we've known this for a very long time. We've known this for years and years and years. The data has been completely comprehensive, unlike our government's position on the conflict in the Middle East. But it's now that they want to do something about it. It's now that they're going so hard on it. And the reason for this is in order to implement this. That's where the digital idea
which they just passed last week. Funny that how it's also beautifully timed, is going to come into play. Because the only way to enforce the ban on social media that they're talking about for underaged kids they're now talking about anyone under the age of sixteen not being allowed on there, is to use something like a digital ID.
The Morrison government already talked about it in twenty twenty one, using a passport of sorts in order to use the internet, so we know who you are, we know that you're over sixteen, and we allow you access to your socials and everything else on the internet. So to me, it just seems like a very clear cut case because again we've known this for as long as social media has been around, that this is massively detrimental for our young people.
They haven't cared and they haven't done anything about it for years.
And years and years.
Now they want to roll this out as the reason to implement something as drastic as a ban. And what does implementing such a band like that require, oh, a solution that we've been waiting to roll out for absolutely ages.
Asked about whether social media was a problem, Anthony Albanezi said, social media exists very quickly. Before we get to the break the cans post tomorrow, crocodile accident is the headline. The state's environmental body is investigating reports to Saltwater crocodiles were accidentally quote unquote released into the Barren River.
Accidentally released.
How does a crocodile just sort of woops happen to be at accidentally released into the river? I mean someone just unfilled it off the back of the trailer or what.
The crocodile slipped I believe into a popular swimming area as well, we're going to go to a break when we come back.
That portrait of King Charles.
You thought that was bad, wait until you see what they've done to Princess Kate. It's coming up in a moment. Welcome back, okayleb I was not much good at art at school?
How are you?
I was absolutely I was going to use words that starts with east and eat in house.
But that's why I became a journalist. No good at Matt's, no good at art.
I can deal with words, But I mean, you saw the King's new portrait the other day, right, all done up in redd. It's a bizarre looking by would the King I'd be commissioning a new one, but they've done one better now. Tatler Magazine has commissioned a portrait of Princess Catherine, the Princess of Wales.
Have a look at that thing. It does not book any Princess Catherine.
It was done by British zam ambient artist Hannah Usor.
Apparently it's based on.
Her dressing up for the first date dinner after King Charles the third was coronated.
What is that?
Okay, wild theory that just came to mind as I'm looking at it there did.
This Is.
This artist pro the Sussexes instead of because what.
Looks more like Meghan than it does? Like, hey, it's a plant. I'm telling you that. That just occurred to me, and I think we're onto something here.
What we need to mention is the artist was in the Melbourne Sobering Up Center.
And when I asked if she'd ever actually seen Princess Katherine said, Princess Catherine exists.
Well just on that she had never actually seen Princess Catherine. She did it from photographs and videos, and she claims that she was trying to capture the strength and dignity of the princess. She I think she achieved a sloppy schoolgirls art project.
Well, mate, I'm good at stick figures. They're my strong point. And I still reckon I should I could have captured Kate's likeness better than that.
So it should have just had a competition in all the schools and you see who can come up. Oh yeah, right, well.
That's all from us, but don't go anywhere to stick around. Coming up in just a moment is the Rita Pennehesho