Welcome to the wait to play Hello and welcome to the Late Debate.
Thank you for your company this evening.
I'm Gabriella Power and joining us tonight is Joe Hildebrann and Frei Leach coming up on the show. Nigel Farag's Reform UK Party is certainly building momentum. The party has now taken over the Tory's membership numbers. Also, Russia's president Vladimir Putin has flagged that he's ready to meet with President elect Donald Trump and back home. It's been along eighteen months, but more Redeeming has finally been readmitted to the Victorian Liberal Party.
But first, what did Christmas Eve.
At Mara Lago look like? One big party? According to Page six. According to reports, Donald Trump was behind the DJ dex and he closed his set with YMCA with some of the crowd doing the Trump Dance, and the President elect reportedly played number of tunes including the theme of Founder of the Opera as well.
As Elvis Presley songs.
And tickets for the Christmas ever went event rather, I went for three hundred and.
Fifty dollars each.
But here's a little video of Donald Trump busting out some moves so he's not behind the DJ decks there, but those moves are iconic.
It's funny, amazing, They're still Waxen and milkin.
He gets worth three hundred, three hundred and fifty dollars.
I think people would pay a lot more to see Donald Trump.
I'm pretty sure he doesn't need the money. I wonder why wouldn't have just been a sort of invitation only only event for his you know, his first buddy, you know, is Elon Musk's and everything. I imagine he's probably giving giving the money to a charity of his choice. And I'm just going through my mind try to imagine what sort of charity Donald Trump would choose, Like, you know, I like astronauts for Trump or you know, love. It would be something amazing. But it's just I think it is
just so. And we're seeing this sort of stuff just light up everywhere, you know, football games where everyone's doing a little Trump dads, or there's all these crazy memes
doing the rounds. At the moment, the whole mood of America seems to have changed, and I think there was this kind of really constricted sort of fear that you know, that no one was allowed to say anything, or no one was allowed to actually just rewatch the Dave Chappelle The Closer special last night on Netflix, and just the amount of anxiety that people felt about what they were and weren't allowed to say or do in public, the earnestness, you know, the sort of doctrinaire sort of nagging by
sort of liberal left East and West Coast Karens to the general population. And now it's almost like everyone has kind of realized, oh, we don't actually have to listen to them anymore. We can just sort of have fun do stupid stuff. And the fact that Donald Trump's signature,
i mean, all the woke people attack him, obviously. Donald Trump's signature tune is from a gay pop group of the nineteen seventies who sing about staying at the YMCA because it's all men, and whose makeup includes, you know, an African American, an Indian who may or may not be strictly Native American. I'm not sure if they've done a DNA test. And let's not forget the construction worker and the traffic cop. But again, it's just so it's so kind of bizarre and it makes no sense, and
that's kind of the fun of it. There's no longer this humorous orthodoxy about what people have to believe and how they yes and how they have to behave. And I think that is what the left constantly missed about
Trump's attraction. And you know, I've got made of mind in the Labor Party constantly bombarding me with just joyous tweets about how awesome it is to be under Trump, because people, even on the left have just so sick to the back teeth of it, and they thought this was a life sentence and Trump is action, know, and it's not doesn't have to be screw you.
And Kamala Harris was trying to bang on about joy, but then look what the joy Johnald Trump is bringing. He's kind of becoming this cultural icon. He's becoming this cool politician with young people even though he's a seventy eight year old and people can't get enough of his dance move. That's the complete irony of it.
Kamala Harris ran her whole or attempted to run her whole campaign on this concept of bring joy back. But really it's as Joe said, it's the left that is killing joy and Trump is bringing joy back and is kind of cool, counter cultural Elon musk vivek Ramaswami, Doge, Department of Government Efficiency. Like it's all adding to this this sense that America is back, fun is back. We
can actually be optimistic. And I think it's that that optimism that actually underlines the joy that we're seeing and the way the cultural vibe has just complepletely swung is genuinely incredible. And to see you know, even you said, young people jen Z YouTubers that I watch coming out supporting Trump, doing content with Trump, speaking at Trump rallies.
That is just unheard of.
Seeing a twenty five year old male like Bryce Hall, for example, very famous TikTok and YouTuber and he spoke at a Trump rally like it is just I don't think we've ever seen that kind of complete pendulum swing in pop culture ever.
And he's brought sarcasm back, He's brought humor back.
You know, the.
Electric campaign when he was trolling Joe Biden, he brought out the garbage Truck's so funny.
It's so funny, that's the thing. Funny.
It's just such a it's rough. Politians don't speak that way.
It's kind of like, you know, the chaser for Republicans and again and this is the thing, and again, this is another really creepy thing about the kind of new doctrinaire upper middle class left who have become the new establishment. And you know, again you got everyone from you know, Johnny Rotten to Joe all these x kind of people who thought they were the rebels and they were the Alaricans and they were the the you know, they were the wild ones saying no, the left is now the
horrible doctrinaire one. And Karma has banging on about joy is actually the perfect example because she's not actually saying anything funny. She's not actually giving you something to be joyous about it. She's just saying you have to be joyful. I mean, that's kind of Paul Pot thing, isn't that you have? That's right. You have to love your leader, you have to be filled with love for the new Republic.
You have to love the big brother, you know, like that is what you do when you don't actually, you know, it's feeling without content. Comedians don't you know, talk about joys, talking about laughter. Donald Trump doesn't get last by going
out and say all right, everybody laugh. Now you get it by being funny, and it's being funny and again, you know, Ricky Gervais, Phil mah Dave Chappelle, you know people right across the spectrum who have been have been railing against this council culture, railing against the censoriousness of the new Left, and the new Left sort of just hasn't been listening and just said no, no, we're just going to carry on telling you what to think and
telling you why all these things are offensive. And eventually everyone just got together and went, if you yeah, it's going.
To be an interesting thing years.
I think people will still be doing the Trump doubts in four years' time.
We can't seems good enough of it.
But let's look at what Joe Biden's doing. He only has three weeks left in the top job, and with the little time that he has left, he's of course pardoned his son Hunter Biden after saying that he wouldn't.
He's commuted some of the worst and most.
Violent criminals, and now he's taken himself off for a week long holiday.
You think that he.
Had waited a couple of weeks until he's no longer the president, but he doesn't want to miss an opportunity to have some son have a little rest. We know his bedtime is pretty early. Joe Biden has reportedly spent five hundred and seventy days, which is nearly forty percent of his entire presidency away from the White House. So
this trip, I suppose it comes as no surprise. World leaders are already responding to the strength of Donald Trump and essentially treating him like he's already president, which we'll get into in.
A moment, and Biden's.
Just making sure that he and his family are getting well looked after and having a good rest.
Prayer.
Are you surprised to see him taking off on this holiday, Not at all.
He is.
You know, there's this great movie, The Corpse Bride.
He's the corpse President, and he has been for the last four years, and it's no surprise that that's continuing. But I do think that he and as I think, as Moura tell, all books about the Biden administration come out in the coming years will know the full scale of.
The cover up.
But I think the way that his advisors and the left wing media colluded to cover up the fact that America was being run by a senile, incapacitated half Dead Man is truly going to go down as one of the worst political scandals in American history. And it is reckless, Like we laugh about it, but it's rest you look
at his record on foreign policy. Part of the expose that came out a couple of days ago, which we talked about on this show, it was I think it was the chair of the National Arms Committee, and he was saying during the Afghanistan withdrawal, he was trying to get hold of Joe Biden to express his concerns about the fragility of Afghanistan and the ability of the government to hold on to power there, but he literally could
not get hold of the president. The only the only time the president called him in his entire four year term was to apologize for not being there.
But that was it.
And so that just sums it up. And you look at the results of that, American troops dying, foreign policy chaos, Russia advancing Iran, embolden China going after Taiwan, like all this stuff is a result of a president literally asleep at the wheel.
You make it sound like it's all bad. The Taliban is acting really fast on climate channe. They've actually developed the Taliban have cards for more action on Clive.
They love powers.
Oh no, it's too risky, it's risky to your health.
Biden holiday right now, he doesn't even have a month to go. Is it really the best time?
Taking more than a holiday is taking the piss? But but it's I think it's just one of those things where Biden would say, hey, guys, I was thinking of, you know, maybe just taking a couple of days, and everyone goes, no, no, no, take the week, Go go for a long free charge those batteries. Take Jill with you, you know, stay as long as you want. We've got
things here. You'll be right. And again, I mean, he's the as Prayer said, the White House has been so ruddless, and it's clearly been, strangely enough, the only authority that Biden really seemed to put his presidential stamp on more than anything else. Like a lot of stuff seemed to be just every all the Democrats are one of the Green New Deal stuff, you know, the inflation busting package whatever. He's just like, yeah, kid's chuck it in the back of the car. It was a bit like with the
Voice campaigns, like what else do you want? Yep, Yeah, what do you want? Yep, yeah, yeah, what do you want? Everyone will vote for it anyway, what could go wrong? Chuck it all in the back of the boot and let's get going. And the only thing that he sort of put his foot down on and put his stamp of authority on was that he would run for president again in twenty twenty four. So it's kind of like
the exact opposite of what should have happened. And it really and honestly does I probably sound like a broken record, but as someone who wants to see the Democrat Party get moved back to the sort of center represent mainstream working class people and wants to see the Labor Party do the exact same thing. Get back to the center, ditch all this rubbish, ditch all this ideological crap, ditch all these sort of preoccupations and rabbit holes, and get
back to representing mainstream working Australians. And you just look at the top apparatus of the Democratic Party, which is meant to be the gold standard, you know, the New Rome, the United States of America, the oldest democracy of the modern era and the greatest democracy of the modern era, and they're just morons.
There's just nothing under the hood, and you're like, you flip the bonnet and it's just a bowl of spaghetti, and it's like I could stick my you know, I could stick my five year old daughter in there with a barbie doll and a paint gun and she would make more sense and.
She would stay up. Honestly, that's right. It's not pably, honestly, just absolutely gobsmacked that this is going on at this level. Yeah, like with you know, literally the planet, the safety of the planet had say, oh, sorry, guys, we letting the Taliban back into Afghanistan. It's my bad. Sorry, must have been in the shower when you call it literally, that happened. That actually happened.
And as far as said, we've just seen the consequences of what has happened.
On climate change in Afghanistan. That's what's happened.
And it would of course be hard for world leaders to take Joe Biden seriously. But Russian President of Bladimir Prute is reportedly ready for potential talks with President elect Donald Trump on ending the nearly three year long war in Ukraine.
Now.
During an end of year news conference, he claimed that he hasn't spoken to Trump in years, and that there are no current plans for a meeting, but if they do talk, he's ready to make compromises to end the war. According to The New York Post, Pruden said, of course, I'm ready to talk any time. I'll be ready to meet with him if he wishes. Now, Donald Trump has of course promised to lead these peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. He's claimed that he's going to end the
conflict on day one back in office. That's obviously going to be quite hard, but it is going to be a top priority for Donald.
Trump definitely, and I think it should be.
Ukraine is an issue that is also dividing the Republican Party, and I think there are a lot of internal tensions around what the approach to foreign policy should be. There are definitely key people like Telsea Gadad who are opposed to ongoing involved in funding of Ukraine, and so I think for Trump, both from an internal Republican Party perspective and just for foreign policy more broadly, Ukraine will be a top priority. I mean, the guiding ideology that the
Democrats have operated by under Obama and then Biden was appeasement. Essentially, let's strike a deal with Iran, appease them, Let's appease Russia. Let's just appease everyone and just play nice, and hopefully the liberal international order will do its thing and will all be okay. But what that has done is it has emboldened belligerence around the world. And I think truly the only language dictators understand is strength. It's how they operate,
it's what they understand. And Trump, love or hate him, he has the strength, and his reckless tweets, it all feeds into that sense of strength, and so I think really the only thing Putin will respect is strong America, and that is what Trump is promising to bring back. If he does that, then I think the prospect of resolving that conflict is a bit higher. However, I wouldn't take anything Putin says seriously because he also loves to lie.
So we'll see what happened.
Yeah, but it's an interesting point that, you know, world leaders do respond to his strength. We saw in Trump's first term he met with Kim Johng un like he actually yeah and actually talks.
Yeah. I'm not sure if it's so much strength as just unpredictability, and people are just not sure what he's going to do next What lengths he's actually prepared to go to He talks up such a crazy game like he talks up He says, you know, day one, if all the hostages aren't back in Gaza to Israel by January twenty, I'm going to start the biggest war in all of history in the Middle East. And you're, you know, like,
what on earth that means? Who knows, but you can bet your bottom dollar it's making her mass nervous already. I think it's still a cease fire that Hesbella, I believe is still observing, and that happened just after Trump got in because again they know that there is not going to be as others leaders have said, any restraint with Donald Trump and again Putin. The biggest casualty of the Ukrainian War has been Putin's ego and Russian pride
and prestige. They've been utterly humiliated. Putin has been made and it used to be thought about Putin that, however evil or cruel or unscrupulous he was, he was at least very smart, very calculating XKGB, you know, the whole lot, and that this was a really shrewd operator and the way that they invaded Ukraine, with such an appalling blunder and such an appalling miscalculation. It's actually done the worst thing for Putin, which is to embarrass him, to make
him look stupid, and to make him look impotent. And so he is desperately looking for a way to get out of this war while saving face. And so you've got this amazing thing with both Trump and Putin each pretending that it's the other who wants to with them. So it's like my grandma used to do this when she wanted a game of tennis. She'd never allow herself
to ask anyone for a game of tennis. She would just sit there and it would be definitely quiet, nobody would be saying it, and she just all right, if you want a game of tennis, I guess I'll have one with you. And no one would have said anything, and then suddenly all the rest of oh that's great, I was waiting for a game of tennis. Oh thank you so much, blah blah blah. And that's what those were.
There's so they're trying to save face by not looking like it's them that actually wants it, and of course Putin will come to the table because he desperately needs a way to get out, and Trump offers a kind of reset and excuse because well I couldn't because Joe Biden was so weak and hopeless or whatever. But Donald Trump has shown that he's prepared to respect my authority and by talking to me, and therefore we're able to
reach an accommodation. It's great for Russia blah blah blah, and they'll pick off a few Eastern provinces and blah blah. But that is what is going on there, and I had no doubt that will work. It's classic mad and diplomacy.
Well, yeah, I think most of the world what's seen an end to this war.
More than twelve thousand people have died.
And as you say, it was splitting the Republican Party with the amount of spending and the amount of money that was getting sent over to Ukraine. So for sure, and I think to pick up on Joe's point there, I think we'll see a similar dynamic in the Middle East as well.
I think Iran is.
Absolutely terrified of Trump, and the Abraham Accords, which Trump brought in in his last term of government, completely changed the game. There was this idea that the Israel Palestine problem and peace in the Middle East couldn't be achieved until there was Palestinian statehood. But the Abraham Accords shattered
all of that. By going directly to Arab countries that had an interest in economic liberalization and an interest in containing Iran, they were basically able to circumvent the issue of the Palestinians and make huge progress towards peace in the Middle East. I think that is going to pick up under Trump. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords very soon. And I think the credibility that the US lost under Biden is spectacular.
The fact that there is still I believe it's seven Americans being held hostage in Gaza for over four hundred days and Biden has not lifted a finger to get them back. He should have sent American troops in there the next day to get his Americans back. He should have been working with the Israelis and supporting them in
any way he could. Instead, he's completely turned his back on them, probably because it's his woke Democrat advisors actually calling the shots and not him, And I think that is the greatest travesty because by allowing seven Americans to rot in tunnels in Gaza for over a year, the US has essentially said to all these terrorist organizations, take our people. We are so weak, we can't do anything about it. And that is not what you want from the leader of the free.
I don't think a single other president since Ginny would have allowed that to Dan Reagan would never have done it. Clinton would never have done it, Neither of the Bushes, Obama would never have done it. Trump. Obviously it is staggering. And again it's just that somnambulance, and you are absolutely great. Let's not forget the reason why Hamas, because this is also a Sunny conflict as well as and Palestinian Israeli conflict.
The reason Hamas launched their terror attack on October seven is exactly because Saudi Arabia was about to sign a new deal with Israel that would open up relations that already. You know, the Abraham Accords allowed flights Israeli flights to and from Tel Aviv to fly over Saudi airspace that was never allowed before. I know that because we weren't allowed to drink over Saudi airspace. Did my head in the middle of the night anyway. But yes, and that
is absolutely true. And so again you know, it is just that that thing of Trump just been all over the world stage, not even sworn in yet, and people are going, yeah, I got to play.
I think that's whee. I think it. I'll send us such a strong message to Hermas.
And when he sends something like that, you have to think he's really got a plan.
He can't just be sitting there.
No, and again, and I think it was he's got a plan. There also reports that Iran has held off held off airstrikes that it was planning after Trump got elected as well, of course, as the sixty days ceasefire that its proxies hezbla sign as well, and of course her musk a musk and almost it doesn't matter what it does apart from handbate the hostages, because it's been completely rebelized. Its leadership has been completely decapitated. But now.
Urgently so January twenty getting Trump in the White House, and we'll see how quickly he can sort.
These world issues out.
But the world's richest man, Elon Musk, well he's making a lot of sense. He posted on his social media platform x a suggestion that elected officials should take a cognitive test. He wrote, maybe we should have some basic cognitive tests for elected officials.
This is getting crazy, And.
He was responding to a report that Republican k had been absent from Congress for six months as she was in a senior living center in Fort Worth, Texas and had been having some issues with dementia, according to her son, which is.
Heartbreaking to hear.
But in my opinion, it seems obvious that we do need some cognitive tests. That is what needs to be implemented when we've had someone like Joe Biden supposedly running the country with clear signs of cognitive decline. But Elon Musk isn't the only one who's.
Been calling for this.
Former US Ambassador to the U n Nikki Haley also called for mental competency tests for politicians who were seventy five years and older, and she called for this during her presidential campaign while she was trying to campaign there. But you know, when you've got someone like Joe Biden and it's been such an embarrassment for four years, and you've got someone that's been in a senior living center for six months, probably actually needs to get implemented.
I completely support the idea of competency tests for anyone over fifty, to be honest, But not only do I support competency tests, I support universal IQ tests for politicians as well, and I think that would be the more interesting idea. I remember during the New South Wales state election there was prew Kat, who is now the Education Minister, and the incumbent Liberal.
We're on two GB and there.
Are asked to do a year nine naplan questions and I think Prouka got it wrong and I was like, oh no, oh no, that is so bad.
So you know, maybe we do need to bring some sort.
Of objective intelligence measure into our political system. I'm not sure how that would work, but it's a nice idea.
I completely and utterly disagree. I actually think. So you don't scream, I really do hopefully we think this is and not just because I love Preuka high prove if you watch it, no, because firstly, most of us would struggle to do. I mean, my son comes home. He's in grade five. At the moment I come home, I look at his home, they're teaching mass and different. Now at first, it's changed so much since we're at school,
no one would be able to do that. But secondly, the point of an elected official is to represent the community.
And quite frankly, the straight pace.
Quite frankly, most people aren't that smart. No, no, but sometimes this is sake no, no, imagine no. But again, when you're falling into you're falling into the trap that in fact a lot of liberal smaller liberal left elites fall into, which is I'm smarter than you. I've actually got a grade, I've got a pH d in history, I'm an epidemiologist.
So you have to stay inside something like Joe Biden.
Yeah, that's right, But Joe Biden should never have been there. But the cognitive test is not the problem. That's right. But the cognitive test is, but the problem, the fact that Joe Biden is there. A cognitive test is like a get out of jail free car. The Democrats say, oh, we put up Joe Biden, but far the cognitive tests, Oh well, next, No, the whole thing has to be burnt to the ground so that these morons who put in there and then let him try to run again
in twenty twenty four all get sacked. You don't get you know, if you need a cognitive test to tell you that Joe Biden probably isn't functioning at one hundred percent, then quite frankly, you need to go to and again it's like the bonk ban on all the ministers in Parliament. It's like if you are telling someone that we are going to give you a multi billion dollar portfolio to run with all these complexities, but we don't trust you to decide. You know, where you put your where you
put your junk. That is a problem for the caliber of the people we're electing you. If you just say, oh, I know, there has to be a cognitive test, I guarantee you you would get to a point where it would be the sort of Plato's idea of oh no, but it would be Plato's idea of philosophy. Kings say I have a higher IQ than you, therefore you should do what you what we say, you stupid little prole, and you might not think it as for your own good.
And we saw this throughout COVID, where listen to the experts.
Listen to the experts, and it turns out at the end I was selected experts. But it turned out at the end, guess what the experts were wrong, or they were right just in their particular field, but they weren't experts at all the damage that it was causing in every other field apart from theirs. And so I say, no, no experts, no cognitive tests. Just send up some dumb.
Street wise we're getting at the moment. Send up here, Send up Rayma. You know, I send up alf from home and away. Hey, knock a few heads together.
Get a fit and proper person to run for parliament. You can't run for parliament if you're a bankrupt you can't run for parliament, if you're a dual national. There are a whole range of criteria that you have to fulfill, some of which are in the Constitution. And so I don't think it's a stretch. I see the risks, but I think it's a little exaggerated, and I think we maybe what you could do is this could internal party process.
And I mean, I think the pre selection process generally weeds out people who are extremely senile and at this level of cognitive decline. But I think in principle it's a very good idea.
Well going by I'd fail it.
Going to the UK.
Now, reform UK is not just building momentum, but it's reached a significant milestone.
The party now has more members than the Tories.
According to a digital counter on the party's website, Reform UK has reached more than one hundred and thirty one thousand members.
Here is Nigifarrage.
This is an historic moment. When the newest party in British politics overtakes the oldest existing political party in the world. Something is happening, so of course I'm delighted.
Yeah, Reform has certainly been climbing in popularity since the general election. The opinion polls have suggested that Niger Ferrage has become one of the most popular politicians in the country. He frequently scores highly on the proportion of people who have a favorable opinion of him. Of course there are some that don't like him, but Niger Farage really appears
to have the momentum behind this. Of course we've seen he's got the support of people like Elon Mask, Nick Candy and it also I think that's a Trump effect happening now, which could also be sweeping the UK.
But it also comes prayer.
After more than two million people signed a petition calling for another election just because Kirs Starmer has been so hopeless.
Yeah.
Look, I mean the thing is right, Labor in the UK is not popular. They actually got a lower vote in the last election than they did the previous time under Jomy Corbyn. They are not a popular government and their first couple months in government has been a disaster on a whole range of fronts.
So, I mean the opposition is having a good run here.
I think the really interesting dilemma that the Tories will face is how they navigate this tension reform. Kemmy Badanock, the leader of the Tories, was calling out Nigel Faraus for apparently faking the number of members and then they decided to put up a live tracker and there were all these debates between computer scientists about whether you can
actually tell whether it's real or not. And so I think the growing division and kind of just resentment between the two parties is going to make it very challenging for the Tories to recover because with the first part of the post system reform will essentially just block them from ever getting into government again. So I don't know how they're going to navigate that, and I think Kemmy Badanock has a lot of work to do in uniting the Tory Party, in coming up with a new actually
conservative values based identity for the party. And this really is and it should be a lesson to the Liberal Party and every center right party around the Western world. If you abandon your values and you compromise too much and you are just incompetent, you will suffer.
Yeah. I think that's right.
And I also think that, you know, the Tories are really going to struggle here and Nudge Ferra, she's saying, he's you know, the Reform UK that's an option.
Oh yeah, absolutely again, and you know what a stupid response to sort of quibble about the numbers and say I don't know how they go oh this, well, just how I mean, firstly, it gets everybody talking about it, so everyone is now talking about whether Reform UK is
more popular than the Tories. And of course it's kind of like saying, you know, it's kind of like saying, you know, it's kind of like someone runs over your dog, right and you say, you know, I you know, someone says, hey, you ran you ran over my dog at six o'clock and you say, oh, no, it wasn't at six o'clock. You know, you're kind of missing the main point. You know, it was at five poin fifty nine. It doesn't matter.
The dog is dead, right, So the Conservative Party quibbling about how they tallied the numbers, what doesn't really matter. Make the point is your party is on the verge of extinction. So I wouldn't bother asking computer experts on
Twitter whether these numbers are real. So the lesson in Trump, in absolutely everything we've seen throughout the twenty first century so far, and what a right it's been, is that electorates are much more volatile than they have ever been, probably since the mid War period when it basically came down to fascists versus communists, and spoiler alert, that was not a very stable time. It did not end well.
Electorates are basically going to reward whoever is perceived to have or who actually has the common touch, who can communicate with normal, everyday people. And again they're not going to reward not harping on, but they're not going to reward people say I'm smarter than you, or I'm an expert or whatever. But they're going to reward people who they instinctively and emotionally identified with, like Donald Trump, like
Nigel's farage. And even though we've had kind of centrist revolutions in France and Canada with those francophilic bloody quebecqua. Oh god, I hate the French that you and Macai you rot up the French. But again we've seen how quickly the electric has turned against them when they were perceived as not being a fresh new start that would fix everything, but as being perceived as sort of elite and out of touch. So I think any perceptions of elitism, any sort of crap that people go on with that
isn't what people are talking about their kitchen tables. Anything that shows that you are out of touch or a bit wanky or a bit fancy, you are done.
Old news, not in twenty twenty four or twenty twenty five. But back home now, as we know, Australia is facing a crisis when it comes to the rise in anti Semitism. It's not the Australia that I know, not the Australia that I'm proud of. And another shocking incident of anti Semitism has come to light today from an American Jewish tourist called Sophie, and she's spoken to the Daily Telegraph about her experience being verbally attacked essentially.
Because of her Jewish faith.
She was holidaying with her husband in Perth earlier this month when an ex reality star reportedly spotted her Star of David sticker on her phone and then told her to get out of Perth and also suggested some really horrible things just so disgusting, actually don't want to repeat them.
The woman said that she'd.
Been warned about the anti anti Semitism rather that's occurring right here in Australia, but she didn't expect something to actually happened to her, something so shocking. She says she'll never be coming back here. She also has a clear message for Anthony Albanezi, and that is to do more on this issue because Jewish tourists no longer feel like
Australia is a safe place for them. And how devastating is that There have been more than two thousand incidents of anti Semitism in Australia in the last twelve months, and a report by the Executive Council for the Australian Jury found there's been almost a five hundred percent spike in physical assaults since the devastating October seven attacks by her.
Muss against Israel and Frey. You know, this is such a series.
We've seen so many incidences of it over the past more than twelve months now, but now we've got tourists sending messages to Anpney ALBANIZI doesn't get much more serious than that, for sure, and.
This is seriously damaging Australia's reputation internationally. I'm seeing on social media all the time Jewish influences from overseas Israeli saying do not travel to Australia because the anti Semitism is that bad. It's like, hello, are we not a first world Western liberal democracy? Since when did we become so racist that Jews feel unsafe coming here? It is genuinely horrendous, and I don't think the average Australian, the average non Jewish Australian, really understands how bad the anti
semitism has got here. Jewish kids are too afraid to wear Jewish school uniforms in public, so they change. Jewish schools have armed security guards outside twenty four to seven. Jewish people living in the Eastern suburbs have woken up twice now to cars being set on fire to graffiti on buildings, some of who live in those very buildings, Like this is not just a small oh, this is not just rage bait from Sky News talking about how bad is it hating the Jews.
This is so real and Australian.
The Australian Jewish community feels like the country has turned their back on them. And what's more so, I'm glad she called out Albot because I think it starts at the top and we have just seen weakness from him on the issue of anti Semitism. But I think at the grassroots level as well, what have you done to stand up to anti Semitism? What have our what our listeners done, Like what can we as.
Individuals be doing?
Going up all reach out to your Jewish friends, Like seriously, the level of isolation and fear right now in the Jewish community, I think it's hard for people to comprehend.
We have to go to a break, but stay with us.
Coming up on the Late Debate, we will go to Victoria where pill testing is underway.
Welcome back to the Late Debate.
The Victorian Liberal Party is a bit stronger today with MOI redeeming allowed to return. Now the vote to readmit her to the party was overwhelming, reportedly at twenty three to four, So finally they can put this chapter behind them, and as we know more Redeeming should have never been kicked out in the first place. She's shown courage and leadership throughout this whole saga, and the party is also a bit stronger today because John Pursudo has lost his job as.
The leader of the party.
The fill motion was eighteen to ten, which makes you wonder, what on earth the ten we're thinking who are still supporting persuito This morning Brad Batton will become leader and a shadow Minister for Tourism.
Sam Groth will be his deputy. But the question.
Remains, Joe, how is John with Pseudo going to come up with the millions of dollars that he still needs to pay in legal costs.
It's very sad, and it's just it's very sad that he got himself into this position. Everyone said, I don't know him, but everyone says he's a decent blow but just such terrible, terrible judgement. And again this is just such a cautionary tale about just think, think about what you are doing, think about you know the consequences of each action you take. And again, I mean all all John Pursuito had to do right at the very beginning
is not agree with Moira Deeming. He didn't have to say women's right, He didn't have to support that's right. He didn't have to support her position on transitions, or didn't have to support her position on standing up for women's only spaces or women's rights or whatever. All he
had to do was tolerated. All he had to do was say, there is you know, it is okay for you to say this, and you are not a neo nazis right, Like that's and anyone who suggests that just because this protest was crashed by a bunch of neo Nazi thugs, well you know, that's like saying anytime you walk down the street, you're only as good as the evilst person on the same footpath. So that was all
he had to do. So again, this is ultimately came down to a position of freedom of expression, not trans rights versus women's rights, whether or not people have should have the right to freely express their views on these issues in the Liberal party, and the clue should be
in the name. And he couldn't even reach that threshold, and then every decision he made that flowed from that, he was given countless off ramps from this kind of this, this sort of road to Dante's inferno, and he just never took them, never got off right up and to the point where he then uses his casting vote to keep more of Deeming out of the party fifteen to.
Four, and how much he regrets that that was one week and.
That could have been the grand gesture that brought it back. I will use my own personal vote to settle this once and for all and bring her back. Probably still would and done thing and now and that he do you ever do that? And then he says, oh no, I changed my mind. I want to have another meeting so I can vote to let her in.
Monty Python rt to hear from more redeeming today Freyer. And she was talking some sense, still standing up for women's rights, keep men out of women's spaces, and then also talking about being elected because of merit, and she was getting asked these questions, you know, how do you feel about having two men as as the head of the Liberal Party and the deputy And she said, you know, it's a democratic system.
I love all the left wing media today going oh my gosh, the Victorian Liberals are so over because they have a male leader and a male deputy and they're never coming back ever again. It's like, guys, that is so twenty twenty two. Leave it with the Teals, like that is so over. I think Australians have woken up to the fact that there are actually real issues going on in our country other than the fact that Victoria
has two males leading the party. And again, I mean this goes back to the underlying principle, which is that you should always be selected on merit. And when you play identity politics, and when you elevate women because of their gender, which fifty percent of the population shares, which they did nothing to do to deserve nothing, you are actually diminishing them. And I saw this in some of
the coverage around Jess Wilson. So she also put her hat in the ring to run for leader, and there were you know, anonymous Liberal sources going to the newspapers going it'd be great to have a female who represents urban women.
I'm like, you've done it again. That's the problem.
As long as the Liberal Party continues to think in those identity politics terms, and elevates women because they're women. They are actually diminishing all women, so it should be merit based. The Victorian Liberal Party is so back. I am so ready, and I think they are gonna.
And I wonder how many women in the Victorian Liberal Party room stood up for Moirademas because she was a woman who was fighting for women's rights. Just remind me how many of them remember? So maybe this whole all women think the same thing. Maybe it's ridiculous they think for themselves.
Well, let's stay in Victoria now because pill testing, well, its trial is about to get underweigh. The state's first mobile pill testing will be providing advice for festival goers at this weekends beyond the Valley Music Festival.
Now.
The mobile pill testing service will operate across four days at the festival and were able to test at least two hundred drug samples a day. The Acting Minister for Mental Health Mary and Thompson said, we said we would deliver pill testing in Victoria and that's exactly what we've done. Pill testing is just one of many health initiatives we're introducing to reduce drug harm in our state, helping Victorians
make safer and better informed decisions. Freyer, I've said this before on this pro but I don't support this at all. I just think it is such a slippery slope. I think it's sending the wrong message. I feel like it's the government saying, go take drugs, we'll test them for you. Go knock yourself out.
Yeah yeah, we will help make your criminal activity a little bit safer. So go do your criminal activity and we'll facilitate that.
I mean no.
And the other thing with pill testing is it is such an overblown issue. Manash University did a study on this. They looked at all the deaths because of narcotics and substances at music festivals over the last twenty years.
There were sixty four.
Deaths, only thirty of which were due to toxic substances in drugs.
Thirty deaths in twenty years. That's still a tragedy.
But here's an idea, just don't take the drugs and then we can prevent that. I don't think the answer is liberalizing and creating the message that we are liberalizing access to drugs and giving it a green light, making it this acceptable thing that the government facilitates all to potentially but definitely not definitely save thirty people over twenty years that shouldn't have been doing drugs anyway. And to put that into perspective, three thousand women a year dive
breast cancer. Let's put that money into cancer research, into things that really matter for Australians who are doing the right thing, who are just trying to get by. And let's stop facilitating dumb young people to do drugs at music festivals.
Well, let's get these resources where it's nata. Let's you know, test the water in the liberal party room because I'm pretty sure that at least half of those guys are on acid. Prioritize people. Okay, my two cents right, Okay.
Well let's go to the US.
Now, we're a doctor who's based in Seattle who previously bragged about bragged about completing wanting rather to complete all his transurgeries or as many as he could before Donald Trump tries to stop me.
He said this on TikTok.
Now he's been slammed in an ad campaign from the Do No Harm group that has accused this doctor of profiting of the life altering surgeries, including some conducted on children. The group says that he brags about performing the best top surgeries for.
Miners and is pushing to do as many as of.
These irreversible surgeries as he possibly can, all while reaching millions of viewers on social media with his own damaging propaganda. Now the ad says, this isn't care, this is a moral Take a listen.
Doctor Jabad Sajohn has charged for nearly two million dollars and claims for surgeries on one hundred and twenty kids, some as young as seven years old. He brags about performing the best top surgery for miners and is pushing to do as many of these irreversible surgeries as he possibly can, all while reaching millions of viewers on social media with his own damaging propaganda. This is not care, it's immral.
It's a strong ad. You know, do no harm.
Estimates that between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three there were at least thirteen thousand miners that underwent sex change treatments, five thousand who actually went underwent operations. During the same period, nearly nine thousand were given hormones and puberty blockers. As we know, any kind of puberty blockers or surgery for
children is insane. The UK has finally banned them for under eighteens, and it just makes no sense that children who you know aren't developed enough or to drive cars to drink alcohol can make these decisions about their bodies for sure.
I mean, like you don't let kids get tattoos, why do you let them chop off their breasts? I mean, it's just completely abhorrent, and it is predatory the idea that he's advertising these surgeries on social media to impressionable and confused children who just need genuine help and guidance if they're struggling. If you want to chop off a part of your body, like, let's get you some serious help, because that.
Is a very to be living with. That sort of internal feeling.
About your own your own being is a very horrible and dark place to be. Let's get you the help you need instead of enabling this kind of twisted view of yourself and of reality. Instead, this guy goes out there and goes, great, I'm going to make a quick buck. But that's just like the big medical industry.
But it hurts the cause as well, because I have absolutely no doubt and I know people in this situation who do absolutely one hundred percent know that they have been born in the wrong body. They are a man when they should be a woman, or a girl when
they should be a boy. And the problem is that when you start advertising these sorts of thing and putting those ideas and sort of scatter casting them throughout the community and make people think, oh, maybe a thing, and then it turns out it is just a phase they're going through or whatever. And then suddenly they have gone down this path and some things are irreversible. That makes
everybody think, well, it must all just be bollocks. Then, so the real people that these people are supposedly representing are the ones that get hurt the most.
Where you have to go to a break, but stay with us. Coming up after the break, DVDs might be making a comeback, Welcome back to the late Today. The Victorian Liberal Party is a bit stronger today with Moi Redeeming allowed to return.
Now.
The vote to readmit her to the party was overwhelming, reportedly at twenty three to four, so finally they can put this chapter behind them. And as we know more, Redeeming should have never been kicked out in the first place. She's shown courage and leadership throughout this whole saga and the party is also a bit stronger today because John Pursudo has lost his job as.
The leader of the party.
The film motion was eighteen to ten, which makes you wonder, what on earth that's ten? We're thinking who was still supporting Perseudo This morning Brad Batton will become leader and a shadow Minister for Tourism.
Sam Groth will be his deputy.
But the question remains, Joe, how is John Pursudo going to come up with the millions of dollars that he still needs to pay in legal costs.
It's very sad, and it's just it's very sad that he he got himself into this position. Everyone said, I don't know him, but everyone says he's a decent blow but just such terrible, terrible judgement. And again this is just such a cautionary tale about just think, think about what you are doing, think about you know, the consequences of each action you take. And again, I mean, all all John Pursuito had to do, right at the very beginning,
is not agree with Moira Deeming. He didn't have to say women's right, he didn't have to support that's right. He didn't have to support her position on transitions or didn't have to support her position on standing up for women's only spaces or women's rights or whatever. All he
had to do was tolerated. All he had to do was say, there is you know, it is okay for you to say this, and you are not a neo nazis right, like that's and anyone who suggests that just because this protest was crashed by a bunch of you know, neo Nazi thugs, well you know, that's like saying anytime you walk down the street, you're only as good as the evilest person on the same footpath. So that was
all he had to do. So again, this is ultimately came down to a position of freedom of expression, not trans rights versus women's rights, whether or not people should have the right to freely express their views on these issues in the liberal party, and the clue should be in the name. And he couldn't even reach that threshold. And then every decision he made that flowed from that. He was given countless off ramps from this kind of this this sort of road to Dante's inferno, and.
He just never took them, never got off right up unto the point where he then uses his casting vote to keep more of deeming out of the party fifteen to.
Four, and how much he regrets that that was one week and that.
Could have been the grand gesture that brought it back. I will use my own personal vote to settle this once and for all and bring her back. Probably stil wouldn't done anything and now and then he didn't ever do that, And then he says, oh no, I changed my mind. I want to have another meeting vote to let her in.
Monty pat right to hear from more redeeming today Freyer And she was talking some sense, still standing up for women's rights, keep men out of women's spaces, and then also talking about being elected because of merit, and she was getting asked these questions, you know, how do you feel about having two men as the head of the Liberal Party and the deputy And she said, you know, it's a democratic system.
I love all the left wing media today going oh my gosh, the Victorian Liberals are so over because they have a male leader and a male deputy and they're never coming back ever again. It's like, guys, that is so twenty twenty two. Leave it with the Teals like that is so over. I think Australians have woken up to the fact that there are actually real issues going on in our country other than the fact that Victoria
has two males leading the party. And again, I mean this goes back to the underlying principle, which is that you should always be selected on merit. And when you play identity politics, and when you elevate women because of their gender, which fifty percent of the population shares, which they did nothing to do to deserve nothing, you are actually diminishing them. And I saw this in some of
the coverage around Jess Wilson. So she also put her hat in the ring to run for leader, and there were you know, anonymous Liberal sources going to the newspapers going it'd be great to have a female who represents urban women.
I'm like, you've done it again. That's the problem.
As long as the Liberal Party continues to think in those identity politics terms and elevates women because they're women, they are.
Actually diminishing all women. So it should be merit based.
The Victorian Liberal Party is so back, I am so ready, and I think they are gonna head.
On to treat and wonder how women in the Victorian Liberal Party room stood up for Moradem because she was a woman who was fighting for women's rights. Mind me, how many of them remember? So maybe this whole all women think the same thing. Maybe it's ridiculous they think for themselves.
Well, let's stay in Victoria now because pill testing, well, its trial is about to get underweigh. The state's first mobile pill testing will be providing advice for festival goers at this weekends beyond the Valley Music Festival. Now, the mobile pill testing service will operate across four days at the festival and we able to test at least two.
Hundred drug samples a day.
The Acting Minister for Mental Health, Mary and Thompson said, we said we would deliver pill testing in Victoria and that's exactly what we've done. Pill testing is just one of many health initiatives we're introducing to reduce drug harm in our state, helping Victorians make safer and better informed decisions. Freyer, I've said this before or on this program, but I don't support this at all. I just think it is such a slippery slope. I think it's sending the wrong message.
I feel like it's the government saying go take drugs, will test them for you. Go knock yourself out.
Yeah, yeah, we will help make your criminal activity a little bit safer. So go do your criminal activity and will facilitate that.
I mean no.
And the other thing with pill testing is it is such an overblown issue. Monash University did a study on this. They looked at all the deaths because of narcotics and substances at music festivals over the last twenty years.
There were sixty four.
Deaths, only thirty of which were due to toxic substances in drugs.
Thirty deaths in twenty years. That's still a tragedy.
But here's an idea, just don't take the drugs and then we can prevent that. I don't think the answer is liberalizing and creating the message that we are liberalizing access to drugs and giving it a green light, making it this acceptable thing that the government facilitates all to potentially but definitely not definitely, save thirty people over twenty years that shouldn't have been doing drugs anyway. And to put that into perspective, three thousand women a year dive
breast cancer. Let's put that money into cancer research, into things that really matter for Australians who are doing the right thing who are just trying to get by, and let's stop facilitating dumb young people to do drugs at music festivals.
Well, let's get these resources where it's to nata. Let's you know, test the water in the liberal party room, because I'm pretty sure that at least half of those guys are on acid. Prioritize people. Okay, my two cents, right, Okay.
Well let's go to the US.
Now, we're a doctor who's based in Seattle who previously bragged about, uh bragged about completing wanting rather to complete all his trans surgeries or as many as he could before Donald Trump tries to stop me.
He said this on TikTok.
Now he's been slammed in an ad campaign from the Do No Harm group that has accused this doctor of profiting of the life altering surgeries, including some conducted on children. The group says that he brags about performing the best top surgeries for.
Miners and is pushing to do as many as of.
These irreversible surgeries as he possibly can, all while reaching millions of viewers on social media with his own damaging propaganda. Now, the ad says, this isn't care, this is a moral take a listen.
Doctor Jabad Sajohn has charged for nearly two million dollars and claims for surgeries on one hundred and twenty kids, some as young as seven years old. He brags about performing the best top surgery for miners and is pushing to do as many of these irreversible surgeries as he possibly can, all while reaching millions of viewers on social media with his own damaging propaganda. This is not care, it's immral.
It's a strong ad. You know, do no harm. Estimates that between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty.
Three, there were at least thirteen thousand miners that underwent sex change treatments, five thousand who actually went underwent operations. During the same period, nearly nine thousand were given hormones and puberty blockers, and as we know, any kind of puberty blockers or surgery for children is insane.
The UK has finally banned them for under eighteens.
And it just makes no sense that children, who you know aren't developed enough or to drive cars to drink alcohol, can make these decisions about their bodies.
For sure.
I mean, like you don't let kids get tattoos, why do you let them chop off their breasts. I mean, it's just completely abhorrent and it is predatory the idea that he's advertising these surgeries on social media to impressionable and confused children who just need genuine help and guidance if they're struggling, if you want to chop off a part of your body, like, let's get you some serious help, because that is a very like to be living with that sort of internal feeling about your own your own.
Being is a very horrible and dark place to be.
Let's get you the help you need instead of enabling this kind of twisted view of yourself and of reality. Instead, this guy goes out there and goes, great, I'm going to make a quick buck. But that's just like the big medical industry.
But it hurts the cause as well, because I have absolutely no doubt and I know people in this situation who do absolutely one hundred percent know that they have been born in the wrong body. They are a man when they should be a woman, or a girl when
they should be a boy. And the problem is that when you start advertising these sorts of thing and putting those ideas and sort of scatter casting them throughout the community and make people think, oh, maybe a thing, and then it turns out it is just a phase they're going through or whatever. And then suddenly they have gone down this path and some things are irreversible. That makes
everybody think, well, it must all just be bollocks. Then, so the real people that these people are supposedly representing are the ones that get hurt the most.
Where you have to go to a break, but stay with us.
Coming up after the breakdbds might be making a comeback. Welcome back to the late debate. We'll forget Netflix DVDs maybe making a comeback. The owner of the UK's only surviving DVD rental store claims that business is booming more than forty years after he opened. His name's Colin Richards, who opened this store in nineteen eighty four, and it originally started as a company that leased videotapes to other
shops and then he decided to start renting out films. Now, while the rise of streaming services like Netflix largely killed off the movie rental business, Colin says that he's had a steady flow of loyal customers who've kept him in profit, and his store is still renting out DVDs to families for two dollars fifty a week. He also sells stationery repairs for scratch tvds discs and also offers some printing services.
But Joano's been dying to tell people they're.
Dying so much. I love this guy and only res his businesses guy because he's the only person crazy enough to do it. So he's getting everyone coming. But shout out to my godson Clancy Lennox, who was watching and just texted me. His dad is my best mate. And I used to go and stay with them, and they had in the weird kind of that weird liminal period between video Easy and everything on your iPhone, there was this shop that said, right, we're going to get in
on the new Internet revolution. And it was called Apple Box. And what you did was you went to your computer in your house, you search for the DVD you wanted online, and then you got out of your house and walked up to the shop to get it. So it had the worst of both worlds. So you had to search for everything online, but then you still had to get up and go and physically get the DVD. And it made no sense whatsoever. And I admire their entrepreneurial spirit it's amazing that.
It's still going. Really after forty years, he says that people are actually still doing this.
It's quite it's quite cute, it's very heartwarming. But like from a very objective perspective, the economics of this just don't stack up.
Two dollars fifty a week for one DVD.
I can get a Netflix subscription for fifteen bucks a month, and I can get thousands and thousands of options at.
The click of a button.
So good on him for sticking it out, but I'm not sure if I'll be switching.
Back to DVDs.
It's Vita Max.
That is all we have time for. Thank you so much for watching the late debate.
Up next, the Royal Report,