Late wait general, welcome the late bads.
Well, good evening and thanks for joining us.
I'm James Macpherson with Liz Storer and Caleb Bond coming up tonight. I'm pretty sure Anthony Albanese's media advisors are working to get Peter Dutton elected.
We'll show you why a little later.
Plus, when we look at the papers, Labour's plan to resettle criminal non citizens in n RU HiT's a snag. And Australian universities want funds dedicated to improving roads redirected to them for research because we all know universities need more money. All of that when we look at the news a little later, but first, A Captain Cook's statue in Melbourne's Fitzroy Gardens has been attacked, just weeks after it was reinstalled after being repaired from the last act
of vandalism back in February last year. Vandal's not the statue off its pedestal, and in the early hours of this morning they used an angle grinder in an attempt to soar off the statues head. Three unidentified vandals fled before they were able to decapitate the statue after being interrupted by a security patrol. Now here's the first lesson
that our councils need to understand. It's pretty obvious that statues like Captain Cook call Queen Victoria, those statues that remind us of our British past, are targets for vandals, and so it only stands to reason that every council around the country does what the City of Melbourne had done with this statue, install lighting, CCTV cameras and security patrols.
Here in Sydney, the city of Randwick is debating whether or not they should have CCTV cameras monitoring a Captain Cook statue here that's been.
Vandalized, not once but twice.
It begs belief that they're debating whether or not CCTV cameras should be installed.
They'll tell you why they're debating it, though.
The Greens Mayor philipp at Veach has said on the public record she doesn't think the statue should be there at all because it's a sad reminder of our colonial past, and so they're going to debate whether or not there should be security. Melbourne's Lord Mayor Nicholas Reese and credit for putting in security to protect the statue. Otherwise the head of the statue would have been locked off this morning. But have a listen to what he said, because I don't think he still quite gets it.
In a statement, he said.
And I quote, our security team observed Cook's cottage and the Captain Cook's statue being damaged early on Tuesday morning and implemented measures that prompt defenders to leave the scene. Well, so far, so good, But have listen to this next part. He says, while there are a range of views on statues and memorials, each time a monument is damaged, it's ultimately the ratepayer footing the bill, and that is unacceptable.
What I don't like about that statement is it's unnecessary.
To qualify it with while there are a range of views on statues and memorials, there are a range of views on all sorts of things, including crimes. But saying that almost gives cover for those who commit these crimes. It's like they're subterly saying, look, we understand why you did it. And when criminals hear that sort of language and retrick from our elected officials, well, no wonder they continue to behave in this way. Help listen to police Detective Inspector Martin McClain.
He gets it.
The community has a pretty deal view on people who behave in this manner in public.
I don't see them as protests.
I'll see them as criminals and that's how we'll deal with them.
Absolutely, they're criminals.
And for the Lord Mayer of Melbourne to say, you know, the problem here is ultimately rate payers have to pay money to fix the statue. That's probably the last concern. To be honest, it's not that much money. It's more an attack on our history, our culture, and our country
than an attack on rate payer money. The problem I see with this, Liz and Caleb, it's that if our elected officials don't talk tough on this, then we're going to get to a point where this happens so often that Lord mayors across the country will say, you know what, it's just not worth it. It's too expensive for rate payers. We're better off just not having these statues at all. Problems solved, and there goes the culture.
Well.
The fact that Detective Inspector maclain even has to point out that these people are criminals and not protesters, I think probably gives you an indication of just how far we've come or how far we've fallen, probably more pertinently.
And the question is why do people do this? And there's two reasons.
The first, of course, is the cultural reason that they do it. And when they're going after a statue of Captain Corp who and I know I say this every time, but I'm going to say.
It again, was not on the first fleet.
He had nothing to do with the colonization of Australia. He was murdered nine years before the first fleet rocked up. Sorry, I've just got to point it out just how historically illiterate these people are. But they're doing it to say we hate this country, we hate the basis of this country. And I'll come back to that in a moment. But the second reason they do it is because they keep damn well getting away with them. How many times have we heard stories of statues of Queen Victoria and Captain
Cook and whoever else, Matthew Flinders. The list goes on, in the last five or so years being vandalized. Now I tried to find tonight an example of any of those people being convicted. You've had in the last couple of months a bunch of people charged with vandalizing statues in Sydney. I couldn't find anyone who's been charged with vandalizing a statue in Melbourne.
A few people have been charged.
In Sydney, but the only person I could find in the last five years who has been convicted of vandalizing a.
Statue with a Green staffer.
Who in Sydney vandalized the Captain Cook statue in Hyde Park in twenty twenty. He spray painted it with this sort of anti colonial messaging. All he got was a fine of one seven hundred and sixty dollars. So that's hardly a disincentive to go and do it, isn't it.
I mean, if you've been.
Wanting to do it recently, you've looked and gone, well, no one's been done for it since twenty twenty, so why wouldn't I go and do it?
And we need to get seriously.
Tough on it if they are doing it, as I say, because it is an attack on our country. We've been talking recently about hate laws for people who do acts against sacred places when it comes to religion. If you attack a synagogue, if you attack a mosque, if you attack a church, et cetera. We've been saying, well that ought to be a separate offense, that is a hateful offense against people because of their religion. Well, why don't we say that if you're attacking a Captain Cook statue.
Clearly it is a hateful offense against the people of Australia, and so it ought to have a hefty penalty. In Victoria, the highest penalty you can get for vandalism is ten years in prison. But when was the last time you heard of someone getting ten years in prison for vandalism, let alone someone going to prison for vandalizing a statue. Because I couldn't find any of them. We have to get tough on this or it will not stop.
Indeed, I mean I was shocked to read today that eighteen statues, two of them were beheaded, which was Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd in Victoria in January alone.
So you know these guys are on sprees.
But yes, I think it points to the fact that this isn't necessarily like a oh.
I'm trying to show those colonialists.
Like you've pointed out, these guys don't even know their history. They don't know that Cook had absolutely nothing to do with the colonization of Australia wasn't a part of it, wasn't a participant. And yet these are, i would say, just angry ues happy to take on this mantle of if the establishment, and this is their way of expressing themselves. And you've already answered my next question, which is when these guys get caught on the old occasion we get lucky,
what do they get in punishment? It's exactly the same with the climate protesters that we bang on about endlessly holding up entire railroads and industries to ransom, and yet when they're brought before a court, what do they get?
A slap on the wrist?
Not even our government has not taken a single opportunity.
When I say our government.
I mean none of them, state or federal, has taken a single opportunity to actually hold up a scalp and say this, what we just did to this guy who's been found guilty of this crime. Is what will happen to you? So, like you say, we have absolutely no deterrent. And it's a little wonder that Victoria's got the highest debt in the country. Forget about the pandemic last year. Late last year they foked out thirty million dollars to cover off on the protests at the weapons Expo.
Which we all saw turn very violent.
Several police had to be patched up, one hundred and fifty protesters were apparently injured. I mean, that just turned into armageddon. Then there's the four million to policing the fifty two pro Palestinian parades whatever you want to call them, rallies protests last year alone. I mean, this racks up such an incredible bill on rate payers and on taxpayers.
And this is where I am.
Not a fan of forbidding these idiotic youths to post their exploits on social media, because if only they do that, the police would have them by now. It actually helps our police force when these stupid youths see fit to boast about it, and the next thing you know, we have the coppers at their door saying, well, we know who done it, now, don't we.
In many of these cases, people have been charged in Sydney in the last few months. They've also been charged with wearing masks and whatever when they go off and do it, So they're not quite that stupid. They don't have any historical literacy, but you know they've got the smarts to put something over their face. But perhaps one of the prime suspects, given Parliament isn't sitting this week, should be Victorian Senator Lydia Thorpe. Now I'm not saying
she actually did it. Sorry Lydia, Sorry Lydia, it was just a joke. But hey, we haven't done a loopy Lydias story for a while, so do I have a doozy for you. You might remember a few weeks ago we were talking about a quote unquote anti racism symposium at the Queensland University of Technology that was held only twenty third of January, and the story previously was about a speaker who had talked about the concept of Dutton's jew which was you know, or Jews who don't stand
up for the left, et cetera, et cetera. There was a big outcry about that. We carried on about that at the time. But a little bit more has come out about this supposed anti racism symposium and would you believe it?
It's racism from Lydia.
Thought, I'll let her take it away where she says we should literally take back the land.
This is an assertion of sovereignty, so we need to start our own flags into our own land.
And the colony.
It's the only way we're going to do it. We need to mobilize, we need to heal, we need to decolonize, and we want self determination. We need to decide our own destiny. We need to be economically independent, and we need to take on colony.
But we can't do.
It how we are. We're just too separated and divided.
We're too separated and divided. But we need a separate system under which to rule ourselves. I don't know, it kind of sounds like segregation to me, but anyway, that's what she's saying.
Put the flag in the ground.
We're going to take the land back, because that, of course, is how you achieve something called reconciliation. Now, I always thought reconciliation, by the fact that it's got reconcile at the start of it meant that you do actually reconcile your differences and then you move forward together. But of course that's not what people like Lydia Thorpe wanted. Meanwhile, while she's doing all of this, she's collecting her senatorial salary more than two hundred thousand dollars a year, but she hates.
The job, workplace that I have to go to every Parliament sitting. I hate going there. I hate dealing with the people that I'm going to deal with, but I have to do it. I have to do it for my people and for all of our ancestors that are watching down on.
I have to do it. I have to take the two hundred grand every year, even.
Though I hate dealing with the people who elected me.
I mean, you know, she's the model local member, isn't she. But I actually in some.
Ways quite like Lydia Thorpe because she just lets the cat out the bag all the time. She doesn't, you know, dance around anything and not tell us what she actually thinks. She just comes out and says, yes, this is actually the plan. The idea here is that we should be entirely separate. There's no Australia. We should be entirely separate. Look, if that's what you want, Lydia, sure I would be quite happy to carve off a bit of land somewhere and say bugger off.
I never want to hear from you again. You can look after it.
You can organize the power, you can organize the water, you can organize the medicine. You can organize the Internet and the iPhones and all the other things that you're accustomed to.
Here you go and do it yourself. I'm done with you.
I don't understand why you run an anti racism symposium and invite Lydia Thorpe who is from the Black Sovereignty movement, which sounds a little bit racist. And then she gets up at this anti racism symposium and she sounds off against quote white Karens. She talks about not just putting the indigenous flag in the ground, but then charging white people to actually use that space where they've planted the indigenous flag.
She talks about the bloody country you looked around recently, well already half the country is.
She talks about our land, our country. And here's what I don't understand you've talked about.
You know, if you vandalize a Captain Cook statue, is at a hate crime against Australia. If she's talking about her stated goal as a parliamentarian is the overthrowing of the Australian government.
Do we not have treason laws anymore?
Or have somebody on the public purse in our parliament saying my objective is to overthrow the elected government of the country. Lydia Thorpe is written off as a joke, and I know we do that as well. But I actually think she's dangerous because while most people don't take her seriously, there are a small group of people that do. But there's another problem. She serves a purpose. She's so far out there, she's so extreme, she is so ridiculous
that she makes the real extremists sound moderate. The Islamists do this as well, and this is what happens with Islam. Yet these extremists, with their crazy ideas, who make it so this is what Isa suddenly made Al Kaider seem They're not bad guys, right, and now we deal with I mean, El Cleider are sitting at climate summits.
Talking about, you know, reducing emissions. How did that happen?
Isis the extremists made the moderates look That made the other extremists look moderate. Lydia Thorpe serves the same purpose in terms of racial affairs in this country. She's so far out there she makes others calling for reparations, calling for truth telling, calling for treaty makes them look reasonable.
And so I think she's more than a joke. She's dangerous and I cannot, for the life of me understand why our senators have not been able to find a reason to have her expelled from the senateor.
Well, it is very hard to boot a senator. There's a lot of rules that regulation out. No, no, no, but they've intentionally made it very hard. Because someone is elected by the people by popular vote, then only the
people can demote that person. You can be kicked out of a party, but to actually get them out of Parliament once that many people have gone to the ballot box and said yes, I think it's a great idea that this senator remains one of our sixty seven people in the Senate in that hallowed place.
I think she should be given that authority.
Absolutely, and so she has legitimate standing to be there, and none of us can be like, well she should be gone. No, no, the people voted for her, and there she'll remain. I love what you said to you. It's been a while since we've had a Lydia thought story. I swear that's why she does this. If a week or two goes by Lydia Thorpe can't stand it. She's like, nobody's mentioned me. She's probably got media alerts and being like,
you know what, it's been way too quiet. It's time that I put another fox.
In the henhouse.
The additional comments that she said stating her reason for staying there.
You heard her.
She's such a martyr for the cause, but she's got to do it for her people. She said, I'm going to see out my term and I'm going to run again in order to then hand it over to the younger.
People in my movement.
She reckons, and I quote that the black sovereign candidates could win the bottom seat, bottom Senate seat everywhere and can have the balance of power.
Yeah, lady, because you have so endeared people to your cause through.
Your ridiculous antics, I'm sure that they would get up.
All over Australia.
Not I don't think so, but speaking of people who we'd run not be in our Senate, and yet there they are. Our next story is on senator payment. She attended a event by the Benevolent Iranian Women Association, and some footage has come to light regarding that. Have a look at what she said. This footage came to light just yesterday.
Here she was at this.
Symposium that's supposed to be talking about the women's rights violations in Iran.
That's why this association was.
Started in nineteen ninety and yet she didn't seem to be.
Quite on board with their agenda.
Incredible place that Iran is allowing for women to participate in the workforce, to ensure that they have a voice and their voices are heard, they're involved in the democratic process. Realities that we're not privy to living here and listening to the propaganda.
That we receive from very single.
Sided organizations with a specific agenda.
She said, there's two sides to every coin. It's Western propaganda. It's a stereotype that women are abused in Iran. To Senator Payment, I would say that is a country that still practices, not countrywide, but certainly does practice female genital mutilation. And between twenty and seventeen and twenty and twenty two, one hundred and eighty four thousand child bride weddings were registered in Iran. And when I say child bride, I
mean under the age of fifteen. You think that is not a massive human rights abuse taking part.
Right under your nose, And you want to.
Stand up at this symposium and say, wow, you know there's two sides to every story. Let's not stereotype here. A lot of this is just Western propaganda. No, those figures I gave you right out of Tehran's own account of how many of those marriages took place.
Okay, so here.
We're interested in the facts, not you trying to endear Westerners to Oh, maybe it's not so bad for Iranian women after all, Now, kudos to Paymen. It was probably after the criticism started pouring in that she backed up her comments with this one. She said, I haven't been to Iran. Oh thanks for clarifying. I don't know what the situation is like. And frankly, speaking as an Australian senator, I.
Have a lot more pressing matters to be.
Across and to represent my constituents here. Whether I agree with people or not, I'm very open to having a discussion and hearing their side. I would think that now I've heard both sides. I think that's helpful to any leader. Okay, well, maybe Senator Payman, you should just not speak to issues that you know absolutely nothing about. And of course it was very embarrassing for one New South Wales Minister for Women who also participated in this shindig, Jerdy.
Harrison did a recorded.
Address in which she talked about you know, the importance of being understanding, etc. And so on, But given what other panelists had to say at this gathering, she is now very much regretting her participation. She now says, I have heard the concerns raised and sincerely apologize for my participation in this event, for the message it's sent, which is incongruent with the view of myself and of the New South Wales government and the distress I know it
has caused for many. Those of us who are privileged to hold public office have a responsibility to promote a quality and to create a better New South Wales which does not minimize or undermine the experience of others. I do not share the views express by the panelists at this event. Minister, next time, just check the lineup. When there's an immam whose workshop is entitled and I quote Islam leads the world in women's right, maybe maybe you don't want to be a participating.
Clue how is how does she remain the women's minister in your South Wales?
After that?
She clearly misunderstood the entire thing. But that's a pretty big stuff up. As for Senator Payman. I mean she talks about the fact that, you know, Iran is really good because they let women work.
I mean, how amazing is that?
Round?
All upor well done? Iatol Is, You're doing brilliantly.
Maybe it's because she's come from Afghanistan, where women aren't allowed to speak in public, so by comparison, Iran is.
This is a free ride, like the island where Wonder Woman grew up.
In addition, she said that women are allowed to be involved in the democratic processes, just wondering what the democratic process. So clearly she's shilling for votes by CosIng up to the Ayatola, and obviously there.
Are a few votes in doing that.
The other interesting thing about payment is you heard her say there that you don't hear about the good things in Iran because of the Western media's propaganda. But do you know who she was speaking to when she recorded that comment. She was speaking to Press TV, which is a television network connected to the Iranian regime, banned in the UK because they were airing forced and coerced confessions
of prisoners in Iran. So you get the irony, right, She's talking about propaganda in Western media to an Iranian state TV network that's been banned not in Australia curiously, but in the UK for promoting propaganda.
It's just it is so bad, isn't it.
We're talking about a country in Iran, And yes, they can participate in democracy insofar as they are allowed to vote and they are allowed to run, but they can't run for president. So your involvement can go to some degree, but you can't have the top job. You've still got to ask male family members for permission to get married. It's compulsory to wear a veil in public. Last year they were talking about introducing laws that would put people
to death for protesting against that. It was a big backlash, part of the democratic process. It's all democratic and they ended up holding that up. But that's what they want to do over there. And I know it's the World Economic Forum, but anyway, they ranked them as one hundred and forty three out of one hundred and forty six
countries in the world for women's rights. Georgetown University in the United States ranks them one hundred and forty out of one hundred and seventy seven countries for human rights. Like it seems pretty clear there's an international consensus that Iran is not a great place for human rights. Of course op under sharia law, the law of Islam, which apparently it's the world leader when it comes to oh, right, But I think we can all see that that's not the case.
But it raises the question.
I mean, it would seem if you have an Australian senator speaking in that manner at such an event and men talking to state television from Iran, that that is an Australian actor working as as foreign interference for another nation. Right, And this is a woman who may well be a dual citizen, and it is illegal to be a senator or a member of parliament if you're a jel citizen.
She's from Afghanistan. She says that when she ran for the Senate for labor, and can you imagine they must be ruing the day they put her on the ballot. But when she ran for the Senate for Labor, she said that she wrote to Afghanistan and asked.
For them to remove her as a citizen, and she never heard back.
So she's just sort of hoping that that's what they did. Don't know that that's what they did. So we have a foreigner who is potentially still a citizen of a foreign country, potentially sitting illegally in our Senate and then running interference for foreign Islamic nations, and there's no problem with them.
Revoked or not. Though this person's allegiance is not to our country.
I mean that's not the same can be said for for Rookie.
I think that's pretty obvious. Then we've got two.
Years to all money to Pakistan because all this indeed.
And when you've got the Australian Iranian Community Alliance coming out and condemning payment statement and saying, excuse me, the women's rights of violations in Iran are well documented, baby, these go back over decades. What the heck are you talking about? No wonder she did that one eighty about face saying, well, I guess I've never really been anyway. I'm an Australian city isn't not a citizen, but I'm an Australian senator, and.
So I have pressing matters here. So never mind.
There's a bit of a theme here, right.
So you've got Payman who is clearly extolling the virtues of Iran. You've got Lydia Thorpe who's running for Black sovereignty. You've got Penny Wong, who's been praised by Hamas for Australia's voting patterns in the UN.
You've got Anti Alberanezi.
Who's being recommended by the Chinese Communist Party as a great example for other nations on how to balance the US Chinese relationship. Wouldn't it be great if there was a politician in the Australian Parliament representing I don't know Australian, they are Australian, incredible, but.
Do you think we've dug this hole for ourselves when only a third of us have been born here? Like then, you've got politicians who are always going to be shilling for votes of not people who necessarily called dividely.
A home as we would on this panel.
They're going to be shilling for the votes of people whose allegiances do lie elsewhere, as I would if I moved to another country, Australia would always be my number one priority, my true home and the country that held my allegiance.
Yeah, that's true. Let's go to the United States.
Imagine you're taking over a company that hadn't been doing real well. They've got a lot of workers.
Perhaps too many. What do you reckon?
Your first move would be, I reckon, I would probably invite all those on staff to report what they'd done in the last week, and you'd start to work out who is actually working and who's not.
Well.
Donald Trump is now responsible for the United States bureaucracy, and so he's done just that. He's got Elon Musk to send an email to federal employees simply asking can you report back five things you accomplished in the last week. It's a pretty simple, maybe a bit crude, but an effective way of working out who's actually doing something now. The plan was that those who didn't reply to the email were clearly giving effect to the fact that they're
not doing anything. In fact, Donald Trump did a media interview today where he said, one of the things I was trying to find out was whether federal employees on the payroll actually existed or not, because they fear they're paying a whole lot of people who.
Don't actually exist.
So if you didn't respond to the email, it was pretty clear maybe you don't exist, or maybe you're just not doing anything. Another way to prove you're not really doing anything is just to go on CNN.
Just tell us about this email and what it was like receiving it, and what you all have talked about after getting it.
Sure, I got.
This email Saturday afternoon, about three pm, and I felt absolutely infuriated getting this email with a demand within forty eight hours to provide a response and what I did within the last week or feace termination. This is clearly an attempt from Elon Musk to harass and bully and antimodyeral workforce, which is part of his broader plan to gut the federal workforce and privatize public sector services to ensure that corporations like his own can get more profit.
And that in the time that young lady spent crying on CNN, she could have replied to Elon Musk's email and kept her job. Elon Musk tweeted the email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send. Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such incompetence and contempt for how your taxes are being spent? And then he added, for good measure, makes old Twitter look good.
Didn't think that was possible. It's just incredible the outcry. If you did this in the private sector. In fact, not if you did this in the private sector, every company worth their salt make sure they are holding employees and staff members accountable and they're getting some sort of productivity report. But somehow people are on the taxpayer dime feel that they don't have to answer to anybody and get offended when somebody insists they should.
Well, it's pretty standard in the private sector that you have KPIs that are baked into your contract, that you have to achieve certain goals and do certain things in order to maintain your employment. Why would it not be the same in the public sector. And it's not like he asked for war and peace about what's been going on. Just tell me five things you did in the last week, and they may well be I completed a report that I had been assigned to do. I fixed this problem,
I fixed that problem. How hard could it be to come up with five things that you have in a week?
And I just find it so.
Strange that they're so outraged by it. As someone who's worked in journalism my whole career, I have from day dot always worked to daily or weekly deadlines. I have things I have to get done every day or every week. So I can tell you five things I did yesterday, five things I did last week. I can tell you everything I've written, all the stories that I've talked about on here, because I have to do those things every day.
What are they doing in the public service, For heaven's sake, they can't come up with five things they ought to be gone?
Well, this explains why seventy seven thousand federal employees have already taken the payout deal.
They were like, we.
Were literally, instead of gutting the place before we got the place, we will give you a handsome payout if you'll just leave. And seventy seven thousand federal employees said, you know what, I already know.
I'm useless.
I will be gutted, and therefore I'm going to gut myself and take the handsome paycheck on the way out the door.
Those were the smart ones.
The not smart ones are the ones winging on CNN about like, think of it, You've always probably had a pretty low opinion of federal employees. The same goes here in Australia, right, but watching them have a meltdown over the simplest request, which was basically justify your existence, like what have you done over the last week on the taxpayer dime? While the taxpayer has been paying you? What
have you done? And of course Elon wouldn't have been able to go through the thousands of replies and fact checked whatever they said. You're could have been like changed the world. This is what I did. The idea, like he said in that tweet, was just to check that A they were checking their emails, therefore they exist, and B they could string a few words together justifying their existence. It was as simple as that, and they have abjectally failed.
So now he will go more scorched earth than he probably would have otherwise gone.
Well, he said, he will send a second email and if people fail to respond to the second email, then they will face automatic termination.
Wow, what a strange concept I have to tell you. Now. You might have heard last week about.
Some Chinese warships that were making their way down the east coast of Australia.
Why would you be doing that, you might think to yourself. I don't know.
I mean, I assume it's got something to do with intimidating Australia, and it wasn't good enough that they floated with the ships down the East coast. They then decided to fire a few guns and artillery around because you're going to really drive home the point that you're sending a message to those dastardly people down at Australia that
we don't like you very much. We particularly don't like it when you come up to the South China Sea and fly over international waters and we fire fleas at your planes.
No, no, no, We've got to send a message this is our.
Space, which is obviously why those three ships ended up firing around the place, except that we didn't know that they were going to fire, and in fact we found out last night in a Senate committee. The only reason we do know they were doing this was because a Virgin pilot was flying overhead. Here's Peter Curran from Air Services Australia.
The frequency that the Virgin pilot monitored the Chinese versailon is a frequency that's an International Guard frequency. Air Traffic control does not monitor that frequency, but pilots do, so we can't hear what was said. So the pilot of the Virgin aircraft heard what was said from the Chinese vessel relay that back to air traffic control. Air traffic Control then passed that through our system and started giving Hasard allerding to all aircraft on the frequency.
So that's how we found out that one of our biggest trading partners was firing bullets off our border.
Hmm.
They sound like great friends, don't they. Forty nine flights had to be diverted because they were doing these artillery exercises. I mean, for Hiven's sake. Elbow runs off and Miles runs off to China.
And says, we're not very happy with this.
China then comes back and says, well, we're not very happy that you're not very happy.
With us doing it. We were doing it in international waters.
That's okay, Okay, sure they were doing it in international waters. There's no law against floating your boat down that way. But a couple of weeks ago, when we flew a plane in international barters, we had a flare fired at us. If we tried this out near China, our boats would be blown up, and the best we can do is to go. I'm sorry, mister gi I don't think that's a very good thing to do.
I mean, we are so.
Weak that the other thing with international waters is we have to fly over those international waters to visit our cousins in New Zealand. And of those fourty nine flights that were diverted, some of them were mid air when they had to be diverted with passengers on board. A couple of things. Firstly, this is a lot worse than we were led to believe. We were originally told that the Chinese were simply a little late in advising. Normally it's twelve to twenty four hours, but they didn't give
the normal standard notice. Now we find out through Senate estimates, they didn't give.
Notice at all.
Virgin Pilot found out he notified air services and they notified defense operations.
Second, we were told when.
These vessels were first observed going down the east coast of Australia that they were being watched. Richard Miles told us, We've got all assets watching surveilling, They're closely being monitored, and yet they're firing live rounds and somehow it took a.
Virgin pilot to figure it out.
I also hear Virgin pilts are looking out for illegal asylum boats as well.
I'm sure.
We thank God for Virgin Aircraft keeping Australia's saviors and guarding our.
Nat WHO border force. We have commercial.
Handliners those pilots, thanks.
Guys jet Star Flight.
Otherwise we would have found out about the live firing about a week later.
That guy can slap this on his resume and be like, also.
We've got to go to a break.
When we come back, we'll look at what's making news tomorrow, including Labour's plan to send criminals non citizens to NARU is all up in smoke after another legal problem.
That and a bit more coming up in just a moment. Okay, welcome back.
Let's take a look at what's making news in tomorrow's papers.
Liz, you've got the Australia I do.
Indeed, the splash reads well, not the main splash, but the most interesting one.
We thought.
Latooth case costs ABC one point one million dollars and counting.
You will remember this case.
The ABC has splashed one point one million dollars in counting of taxpayer money on external legal fees in its controversial defense of the unlawful termination case bought by Philin radio presenter Antoinette latoof that figure could well nudge two million by the time the matter concludes, given that it excludes the costs of the ABC's own sizeable in house legal team.
You will remember.
Latoof was sacked in December twenty twenty three. She was given a five day hosting gig on ABC Sydney Morning Radio, sacked three days into said gig because of the stuff that she was sharing on her social media, which was very much pro Palestinian but in a distasteful way.
Markedly so. The ABC did do.
The right thing saying hey, you've actually breached the conditions of your contract.
Goodbye.
But it does make me think she must have a pretty strong case in order for it to be costing them this much money and several times refusing to settle out of court, as the ABC goes on to say, in estimates, we've tried to settle this several times and that's why the cost is blowing out to be this eye watering potentially two mil by the time they're done.
When you consider it was a five day contract, it was just five days of fill in work. Now one of the ABC needs what is it, one point one billion dollars of taxpayer money every year and they're still crying poor when you've got this sort of ineptitude where they can't even sack somebody without a court case that involves this kind of money for defense.
I mean, God help us.
You know. I have to say, though, I hate it because it's public money that is being spent on this. But part of me thinks, what were you thinking in the first place when you hired her? I meant as though she just started posting this stuff on social media in the last five minutes. I think the ABC cored term degrees given there just desserts here.
Absolutely, this could turn out to be Latouf's biggest payday of her life. To the second article, two more former detainees challenge NHRU deportation. Labour's plan to resettle the three n z YQ detainees in Naru has been derailed after a murderer and a violent offender joined an Iraqi kidnaper. Oh what a gang in launching court challengers to fight
their deportation and a major blow to a deal. Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Tony Burt struck with the Pacific nation to take three violent criminals under a pained arrangement. Two of the men have taken action in the Federal Court,
stalling their removal, which was scheduled for Monday. This reminds me of those ridiculous cases that we talk about in the UK where some guy says, look, I know I'm a criminal, but my kid doesn't like chicken nuggets in the country that you want to send us back to.
I mean, if you.
Are a murderer, if you are a violent offender, if you are a kidnapper, why do you even have the right and certainly not Australian citizens, why do you even have the right to appeal and tie up our court system with your nonsense?
Are we really surprised though, that Labour's latest effort to fix this fiasco.
Is back in court all over again.
Honestly, it would be easier to get your two hundred and seventy five dollars electricity power reduction than to get deported from this country.
No, they should have two options.
You can go back to the country you came from, or you can go to Nauru and if you don't like, jump in the water and swim away yourself.
Thirdly, on the front of the oars, those greedy unis want more money. Cash strapped universities will urge governments to siphon spending from roads to research, claiming they need billions of dollars in bonus taxpayer funding for.
Teaching and research.
Like you're not enough of a drain on the taxpayer person already, Like the majority of what you do isn't just brainwashing the next generation into goodness knows how many leftist agendas.
One of my biggest.
Beef with these guys is they use up so much taxpayer money and then stuff the Aussie students. They want all the international students because they pay up front and they pay a lot more money to study here, So we the taxpayer fit the bill for these unis and then they throw our people under the bus.
Their argument is if we can provide a million students with the tertiary education by twenty fifty, how much better the country will be. And wouldn't people prefer that to quote unquote a shorter commute. I'd prefer the shorter commute, especially after a young person told me its orientation week this week back at University Macquarie University today, a lecturer gets up, this is the opening statement in a biology class. If you refer to me by female pronouns, I will
not answer to you. You refer to me only by my name, no pronouns. Otherwise I will act as if I did not hear you. Oh, universities, reckon, we would prefer that to potholes.
You're kidding me.
Oh, for goodness sake, that is the person who should be filling in the potholes. They should not be working in a university because so they say how great the country will be. They say that every household will be twenty grand better off if we don't fill in the potholes, and our economy will grow by two hundred and forty billion dollars.
Incredible, at what cost? You won't won't have any roads to drive on. But it's okay.
Because we will have grown the economy significantly by getting people to do degrees that they then can't get jobs for.
You know what does.
Grow though, if you have a larger population, the demand for tradees because someone's going to build the houses. Then someone's got to service the toilets in those houses and the power lines that go to those houses.
Just saying I think that's where we should be spending our money. Let's look at the front of the.
Mercury tomorrow down in Tazzi, where it says one hundred and eighty eight million dollars worth of homework. Speaking of government spending, the state government wants parents, teachers, and especially students to help and decide how to be spend It's one hundred and eighty eight million dollar school building blitz. The money a twenty twenty four election promise has been allocated to fifteen schools around the state. So let me get this straight. They've got the money, they've got the schools.
They've given the money to the schools without any prior planning about how the money is supposed to be spent or for what it is meant to be spent. I can understand if that they said, Okay, here's a list of schools that need X, y Z. We're going to fund the new classrooms. But this is literally just have some money. Now, what do you want to do with it? Tell me we're you going to do with it? What a deal?
Absolutely ridiculous. I mean to me, this is unheard of. Everyone says these are our needs, this is how much it costs, and then government.
Goes or a grant.
You know, you're applying for a grant, and so you have to fill it in and be like I am justifying why you should give me this money government, Thank you very much. No, these guys have just been given a check for one hundred and eighty eight million dollars and of course they're going to spend every penny whether they.
Need it or not.
And the fact that they're majoring mac on asking the students that's the fun, well grace they would like to see in the school You.
Would see a big touchdown.
That's the only thing is what a big of touch off imagining. I'm saying, we've got millions of dollars, let's ask the primary school.
Kids what they would like. Although I must say it's better than what Kevin Rudd.
Did all those years ago, where he gave millions and millions of dollars, but you had to have a school hall, whether you already had one or not. So all these schools put in new libraries, new halls that they didn't need. But since the money was free, you might as well use it. We're going to go to a break when we come back. I'm pretty convinced that Anthony Albanesi's media advisors are trying to get Peter Dutton elected.
We'll show you why in this the moment.
I am absolutely convinced that Anthony Elbenese's media advisors want Peter Dutton to be elected.
Here's the proof.
Every year there's an annual charity cricket game played at Kirabilly House. The Prime Minister hosts it, but you don't have to let him participate. Have a look at Anthony Albanesi. Can't govern, can't bat.
Look at the determination.
Space swings like a Rusty Gate and that's an insult to Rusty Gate.
He's not even holding the bat properly.
Some think he's ever held a cricket bat in his life.
If you think that's bad, it gets worse.
Look who is invited for elbow to hang out with at the charity cricket game. None other than break dancing sensation ray Gun, the only person in the country less popular than Anthony Elbanzi. I would say Anthony Albanesi governs like Raygun dancers.
Indeed, and much like Camala Wood. We've got to leave you with this latest word salad. The woman herself was on the ground to check out the La fires.
She was asked her thoughts on said fires and dwell.
Her response is even worse than you're expecting this.
Through your mind when you see this, you're here, You're now seeing it up close.
It's not only seeing it, Alex. You can smell it. You can feel it right, So it's seeing it with our eyes and many people have seen it if you all are covering it. But to literally be on the ground here, you can smell the smoke that was here. You can feel the toxicity, frankly, of the environment. You can feel the energy of all of the folks who are still here on the ground.
She's just trying so hard to sound profound the smell of it, the feel of it that you don't even everyone can see it with their eyes, but I'm here smelling it and feeling I.
Can smell it.
Who would have thought that where there's been a fire you could smell smoke.
I mean, anyone who was.
Living on the East Coast of Australia through like twenty nineteen twenty, no's that fires were at a long way away. Sydney was covered in a smoke pace for mounts and months and months. I'm connected to it because I can
smell the fire. I mean, I know that she's newly unemployed, and maybe she's feeling a little bit depressed and down in the dumps about the situation she is now in in light but you'd think maybe she would fill in that time by I don't know, getting some lessons in how to actually speak properly, or after all these years in politics, being able to address an audience about what's going on.
No, she can smell smoke.
You can feel the toxicity.
That's why she wasn't elected because the Democratic Convention voters could feel the toxicity.
That's it from us.
Enjoy your evening stick around. Coming up is the readA Pennety Show.
Good Night