Lately.
Welcome to the Late Plain.
Well, good evening and thanks for your company.
I'm James Macpherson with Liz Staorra and Caleb Bond coming up tonight.
One of the things I really like.
About Donald Trump is his ability to say what everyone else is thinking but too afraid to say. We've got a hilarious example of that from a press conference earlier today will show you that. Plus when we look at the papers, an interesting story from The Herald's Sun tomorrow about how bureaucrats tried to hide the true cost of Victorian infrastructure from voters. And Adam Bantt is making news tomorrow accusing opponents of.
Renewable energy of risking lives. Of course, he's saying.
That we'll get to all of that shortly, but first let's talk about my greatest nightmare, and that is I Kia. I clear claim to be all about sustainability and confusing us with their instructions putting flat packs together, but now they're claiming their sustainability plans well simply unsustainable. The Swedish furniture giant had committed to what they called zero net zero emission deliveries.
That means effectively that they would go full electric with their.
Delivery vans and trucks, but having achieved sixty five percent of their fleet as electric, they've decided to hit pause on saving the planet. No more electric vehicles because there simply aren't enough charging stations in Australia and there's not enough government incentives by which I think they mean taxpayer dollars to help them, as a private company, convert their diesel vehicles to electric.
So we found something.
Even more difficult than putting together an IKEA flat pack, and that's saving the planet. Like most big corporations, ike if you go on their website, they have a whole section dedicated to their commitment to climate action, to keeping the temperature from rising more than one point five degrees because, as everybody knows, there's a climate crisis, a climate emergency.
We've got global boiling.
And they are very committed to it as long as the taxpayer dollars keep flowing. But until there's some more government incentives, well we're just going to have to put up with a little more global boiling because IKEA say they.
Can't do any more. You know.
The irony, of course, Caleb, is that Ikea in Australia made fifty three million dollars profit last year.
Globally they made over a billion dollars.
So you would think, if we're really in a climate crisis, if global boiling is a thing, they might dip into their own pocket a little more to save the planet. But apparently saving the planet is only worth doing if someone else is paying for it.
Oh, indeed, it's always the case. Heck, why would I pay for anything? That's just not the way the world works. Surely we know that by now. But let's be serious here. If you truly believe in sustainability, don't buy your furniture at Ikea.
Like if you think the difference is that it's being.
Delivered on a van that is powered by coal indirectly in the form of electricity instead of by diesel, that you're somehow saving the planet. You're living on another planet. You've already migrated to, that one that we're all apparently going to have to go to once this one starts burning.
If you truly believe in sustainability like I do. I mean, I call myself a proper conservative in the sense if I want to conserve the planet, I buy secondhand, go to auction, wonderful antique pieces that can be bought for very good money similar to what you'll be paying in Ikea, that will last forever, and have already lasted forever.
You've seen my place before? Is have you been around to my place?
I had an invite to you. You need to have an old place.
Not that new, and you must come around and check out the great view I have of Sydney Harbor. But you've seen the furniture I have, and most of it either comes from Facebook, mark place or auction, and it's stuff that's decades old, some of it one hundred years old, and it will continue to last.
It's already been made.
If you're going down to Ikea and buying this furniture, that's required a tree to be lopped somewhere on the other side of the world, and then they've had to go to a factory and put all this stuff together on the other side of the world, spewing all these emissions.
Out while they're doing it.
Then they put it on a plane or a boat from the other side of the world and sent it to Australia and you reckon it's.
The then that they bring it to.
Your house in that's going to make the difference. I've put the Sydney Harbor Bridge to sell. You start buying secondhand if you really care about sustainability.
This is nothing but window dressing from a company like that.
Beautiful stuff, not the mass producer. Yes, exactly, you get at Ikea. It is beautiful stuff. He got me onto the auctioneers here in Sydney and it has ruined my life in the best way. Before I was just a Facebook marketplace fiend loved it. Everything's secondhand. All these people who are like selling off their grandma's this or their great It is incredible because a lot of the time the younger generation do not appreciate what their ancestors has left them and are selling it for a song on
Facebook marketplace. It's absolutely well if you're me, it's the best thing ever. But you didn't even mention all the cardboard they wrap everything product in. Can you imagine how many trees die per year just to facilitate ike is boxing every piece of the couch you buy, every clothes Era, every single thing they buy comes wrapped in cardboard. But I got to say this seems straight out of the government playbook. You make an announcement, you get the photo. Ops,
it's a massive announcement, and you get the applause. Now this part is key, and then years later, just amongst yourselves, you kind I'm like, yeah, so that's that's going.
To work, is it?
Yeah? But hey, we got the applause. That's the main thing. People remember that bit, and nobody really needs to know about this. I mean, they'd be shocked to know that we're discussing it tonight. Someone picked up on it and put it out there, probably also as a condemnation of the fact that if we in Australia as a nation do not have enough charges to service their fleet, how the hell are they supposed to service an entire nation? Simple math.
Well, the other problem, of course is when they're doing deliveries in the inner city, then an electric vehicle it's easy, but a lot of their deliveries are outside of metropolitan areas.
And then there's no charges.
Just quickly before we move on Calebs, thinking about second hand furniture, I've actually got a secondhand piece of Ikea that I can tell you because I was putting it together last week and I had one job just to drill in one screw and I drew it in crooked and that kind of thing. So if you want to buy a seconds I could find one.
Don't you.
No, I don't need a secondhand disc was I have a lovely Australian made partner's desk. You see Australian wood made right here in Sydney. But you have to wonder, because of course I hear all this flatback stuff you've got to put together. Is that how Donald Trump is
going to reconstruct Gaza? Now look, I'm not going to go into massive detail here because you must have been living under a rock if you've not heard the news today that Donald Trump announced while he had Benjamin Nitt Yahoo, the Israeli Prime Minister with him at the White House, that he was somehow going to take control of Gaza. He was going to own Gaza and rebuild it. We can get into the details of that later, but Tierry was a deppressor.
Today, the US will take over the Gaza strip and we will do a job whether too. We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site. Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.
Ike is already applying for the contract.
He went on to say that other Middle Eastern nations are actually on board with this proposal.
You have to learn from history. You can't keep doing the same mistake over and over again. Gaza is a hellhole right now. It was before the bombing started, frankly, and we're going to give people a chance to live in a beautiful community that's safe and secure. And I think you're going to see tremendous at tremendous outflowing of support. I can tell you I spoke to other leaders of countries in the Middle East and they love the idea.
They say, what really brings stability, and what we need is stability.
The riviera of the Middle East is what Trump says he can deliver to Gaza. It seems a bit far fetched, but so is a lot of the stuff Trumps is. Sometimes he manages to deliver and sometimes he doesn't. What I don't think is in question here is the fact that Hamas cannot continue to rule in Gaza if there is to be any sort of peace in the Middle East in that particular region of course, between Gaza and Israel. The question is how exactly you manage to move Hamas on.
What Trump seems to be suggesting here is that in some way the US takes control of the land, they disperse people, and they rebuild it. Benjamin Ettnya who spoke about the fact that we cannot continue to have Hamas there today, We.
Can't leave Hamas there because Hamas will continue the battle to destroy as well. They'll do it. You know, when the stemporary cease fire, one of their leaders comes out. You know what he says, We're going to do October
seventh again, except we'll do it bigger. So obviously you can't talk about peace, neither with Kamas or in the add least if this not toxic, a murderous organization is left standing anymore that you could make peace in Europe after World War Two if the Nazi regime was left standing, in the Nazi army was left standing. You want a different future, You've got to knock out the people who want to destroy you and destroy peace.
That's what we're going to do now.
Look, my analysis is much the same as Paul Murray's was just an hour ago. It's not going to happen. Michael Shubridge explained exactly why with Chris Kenny earlier today.
So I don't think it's going to happen because two million Palestinians aren't going to happily leave Gaza, and the Arab states in Egypt are not going to welcome them in. While Donald Trump turns the Gaza territory into some economic nirvana, well, he's talking about America taking an ownership stake and ownership
position is the quote from him. And he's talking about the Palestinians not wanting to be there anymore because it's been destroyed, and being happy to be somewhere else, and even hoped that the King of Jordan and the general in Egypt would open their hearts and their lands to Palestinians. That is not going to happen. None of the Arab states nor Egypt welcomed Palestinians during this war.
They kept their borders closed.
And I think on that count he is right.
I mean, it is such a difficult idea that you're going to get other Middle Eastern nations to take on the Palestinian people so that the US can somehow come in.
And take the place.
Surely what Trump is playing at here is some kind of bargaining chip. This is not a literal the US is going to somehow take Gaza and rebuild it, because it would take literally decades in order to achieve that, and by some means, you would actually have to achieve taking the land. And you're not just going to disperse Palestinian people overnight and tell them that this land now belongs to the US. You'd have to see troops in there.
You'd have to fight a war on the ground. And something tells me Trump would avoid that if he could.
What do you think, Liz, Oh, you don't want to share your thoughts. I thought this was absolutely I mean, the only thing worse than watching I should say, the only thing more entertaining than watching this ridiculous announcement today was watching conservative commentators try to defend it. My ears are still bleeding it when something like okay, okay, so we're going to expel one point eight million gardens. We're just going to force Jordan and Egypt to take them
because stuff their sovereignty as well. I mean, while we're just grabbing a piece of land in the Middle East, why not they can take them, and then we're just going to do whatever they we want with the land. It literally sounds like the textbook definition of Ethlicnic cleansing and territory. And they're just like, well, ignore that bit.
My question is why can't you just topple this evil government a mass like you have toppled countless other governments, most recently Sirious for the fifth time, like you always do. Project timber Sycamore, funded by the US to the tune of a billion dollars. It got rid of the Assad regime because it had one objective, and that was to fund an arm terrorists in Syria to get rid of the government works like a charm. Again, why can't you
do the same with a mass. Why does this come down to we literally have to empty the entire territory. And when he was asked like, oh, well, how are you going to get rid of the people and the people who have left, can they come back? Trump belligerently answered why would they want to come back? It's terrible there now, he says, while he sits next to the guy who's blown up sixty percent of the infrastructure, grinning
like a cheshire cat. Yeah, it's pretty bad. But these people will not want to just be like, oh, yeah, okay, build us some homes in Jordan or Egypt, and we'll just clear out and let you guys have your way. By the way, the reason why Jordan and Egypt haven't taken these Palestinians in it's not for the reasons that most people seem to insinuate, which is, oh, they're just such terrible people, nobody wants them. No, these countries don't
want to do Israel's bidding. They're like, look, if you want that area cleared out, we are not going to help you take over the Gaza strip. You want it, you can do it, but we're not doing your bidding. Many of these countries already have massive swathes of refugees from this conflict already, and they're absolutely not taking anymore anymore than we would.
There's a couple of things with this.
Firstly, I would not put anything past Donald Trump when people come out and say there's no way this will ever happen. Well, people have been saying that about Donald Trump's ideas for a long time now, and he keeps proving everybody wrong.
By what means, By what means, I'm.
Just saying it's out an idea, and everyone says that would never happen.
Trump keeps proving everybody wrong.
Insane, nothing's impossible. But that's what means.
Here's the second thing.
Gaza for the longest time has been a terrorist camp. That's what it is, right on Israel's border.
So you would say the same of the entire att least.
Then no, Gaza is a terrorist camp. They have used all the money they have pretty much to build terrorist infrastructure.
And then that's what we say about Lebanon. Then we invade Lebanon. That's what we say about Caia, then we invade Siria. Stay on point I'm talking about I'm staying on point.
Gaza has been you as a staging point to launch attacks over and over again on Israel. So Netnya who says we have got to get rid of Hamas, we can't allow that, fair point.
Ye, So do a normal Thingia.
So then you asked who replaces hamas well? The moment the Biden administration said, the Palestinian authority, who have never condemned the October seven attacks, they also are committed to the eradication of Israel. So you can't have Hamas, you can't have the Palestinian authority. And the problem in the Middle East is you get rid of Assad and you end up with people who used to be part of Isis.
So wherever you replace you.
Can thank the CIA for that.
The point is Israel have got a problem.
They're just going to replace Hamas with another group who are committed to their destruction. So there's got to be a complete reset and trump ish it on something very important, and that is that in the Palestinian people, you've got the most highly radicalized group of people on the planet.
We've covered on this show.
From early primary school, they are taught that the greatest honor in life to kill Jews and become a martyr for Allah.
They are taught that in school, and it.
Is representation to say that they are the only people on that side of the border who feel that way about the people on the other side.
And yet the ceasefire was broken by the Palestinians, not the Israelis. It was the Palestinians who invaded Israel, slaughter twelve hundred people, took two hundred and fifty ostage and to this day, let me finish my point.
So here's the here's the thing.
You can't rebuild Gaza on a radicalized population.
And is not ours to rebuild.
And expect a different result.
That is, of course, so that you are going to disperse the Palestinians whereby you hope to dilute this wicked ideology, so then you can rebuild Gaza with.
A different government.
It is unbelievable, and.
I understand the idea, of course, I understand the idea. But the problem is, and this is why it will never happen. And I'm sure it.
Won't leverage to convince Middle Eastern nations to.
Those but those people unless unless you literally wipe them out one by one. This is a centuries on generations long ancestral fight over this wreck. So you can disperse those people to other countries. And you cannot tell me that even after Trump or whoever it might be, because it won't be Trump.
Rebuilding this thing if this ever happens, right, this is decades.
Event.
You cannot tell me that they will not at some point try to come and take their land back, because that is what the fight has always been about. Who has the right to sit on that land. You can move them elsewhere, but they're already radicalized. They are going to come back for that sand.
You've got what people that the best bet is to disperse them, not to build a new community for them.
Where they're all in the same place.
It makes sense, But you don't build anything for them. You don't build anything for them. You dismantle hamas and leave the land as it is. Let someone else rebuild it.
Well exactly, and what you're what, who's going to do it? I'm talking about.
Staging point is the fact.
By making this announcement, Trump has eviscerated his base in the US, I mean absolutely. That is why I notice throughout all the months of campaigning there was no mention of anything like this. They wanted an America first government that has always been what Trump ran on. And people hearing this announcement, the US taxpayers knowing, well, this sounds more like an Israel first. Now you can think that's a good thing, and God bless you. I can totally
understand where you're coming from. But the US taxpayer, who has funded these cues in other countries for decades, have had enough. And a project this extensive that would indeed take decades to build the money it would take just to empty out Gaza and rehouse two million Gazans elsewhere. We are talking about bill upon billions of dollars before you've even got started rebuilding a jolly scrap of anything. They are not behind this. I'm telling you. I was
all over the socials today, even social media. American get on X, yes it is and you argue your very opposite during the Trump campaign. So this has knifed his base in such a serious way. And it's not even twenty four hours old. In America, first president, that's what they thought they were getting in Donald Trump. And there are a lot of people who are feeling incredibly betrayed right now. And lastly, let's remember that yesterday this was a conspiracy theory, that this was the end goal. This
was a complete conspiracy theory. So now you've got all the people that you probably considered nut jobs tomorrow feeling yesterday rather feeling very smug today because they're like, well, we argue that this was the end goal all along. And here you've got Trump getting up saying we're doing it.
Trump simply saying that Gaza has always been a refugee camp.
It's time for the refugees to find a home.
Age of Gaza. That's actually not true.
It's pretty true to talk about the FBI list not.
Okay, yeah, let's talk about the FBI. So staying in the States now, Oh my goodness. When the Trump administration said they were going to gut the FBI, gut the CIA, they are going after the deep state. This is a promise that President Trump is well and truly keeping. Their last ANTIQ has been to ask the FBI for the names of the five thousand FBI agents. That's thirty nine percent of the entire workforce of the FBI. How many agents they have that were deployed to investigate the January
six protesters. Can you be imagine being an American taxpayer and the FBI has just revealed that they were using that much of their entire force just to go after this loot. Check out this footage of January sixth, again unbelievable.
We are televising listen.
In order to get to the Capitol.
I mean, the capital is a free place to go.
You are allowed to go to the Capitol, but you've got to go through metal detectors, You've got to go through security, and when you breach that, you haven't gone through security, and youve got to imagine that that is making a lot of the Capitol police and other folks inside the Capitol right now very very uncomfortable and very nervous.
Look at the violence. We've got to investigate every single one of those. You would remember me telling you about a grandma who was just walking around peaceably like that, paraying. She was sent to jail just for being there, for crying out loud. These people went nuts. And guess what the CIA is offering their employees just across the board. If you choose to leave now, you'll get eight months payout. If you just want to jump out of this sinking ship before you're pushed.
Fox News alert the Wall Street Journals reporting the CIA has reportedly just offered a buyout to its entire workforce, everyone the agencies, telling employees late today they can quit their jobs and receive about eight months of pay and benefits. It's a part of Trump's push to downsize the federal government.
Gutting the deep state. And of course the Dems are reacting as you would suspect they would, gathering on the steps of Treasury to give us this remarkable display of garm and renting jugular veins, bulging saliva flying out at the crowd. We will not take this. We will back.
And as I calls out, because I've know we've been out here for a long time and goddamn it, shut down the city.
We are have water.
He will see you in the courts, in Congress, in the streets.
Elon Musk is a Nazie, not ball baby. We're not gonna make America great again by making America hate again. We're gonna stand and fight all across America. People are knocked down, but they are gudding off and they are going to fight the dictator of Donald Trump and his henchman, Elon Musk.
We are gonna be in your face. We are gonna be on your asses, and we are gonna make sure. We're gonna make sure you understand what democracy looks like.
This ain't it.
We will win. We will win. We will win, We will win. We have got to.
Tell Elon must nobody elected your ass.
They are absolutely losing it. They hate this doge business, this pulling out all the government inefficiencies, sacking a pile of people, doing away with DEI. They are absolutely losing it. Despite the fact the President Trump has said very clearly Elon can and won't do anything without the Trump administration's blessing. He's not empowered to do so. But here they are saying, you're not elect nobody elected.
I love the way Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do, and they're declaring at the end of democracy.
But Trump is very smart.
He's going to the FBI, the CIA, and he's offering people who, let's call them misaligned with his worldview or ramp and they should probably take it otherwise they are going to hate the next four years. Trump is cleaning things out as he said he would. And who would you prefer, Trump with Elon Musk by his side and all of his guys who are clearly very smart, or those geriatrics waving a walking stick folding the handover.
We will win. I don't know that they will.
That was MiG Well, they've already lost. We will win. I'm sorry.
November last year, you've got prehansively lost and you're being cleaned out now. And let's not forget all of these people who are on the taxpayer dime are standing there protesting while they're on the taxpayer dime about why more taxpayer dimes need to be spent to continue doing what they're doing at the moment. Like whether they know it or not, that protest was exactly why they need to
clean it out. If you've got time to be standing out there carrying on like that when you're meant to be part of the public service, I think you've already shown us it's time for you to go. While we're talking about politicians who don't really seem to know what they're doing, let's go down to our great friends in Victoria. Now we're brought to you on Monday night the front of Tuesday's Herald Son which was to center Allen, the Victorian premier, saying we need a review of the bail laws.
She said, we introduced stricter laws last year, but quote unquote, we need to go even further now. She's taken one look at the polling in Victoria at the moment and realize that her government is in trouble and they're in the grips of a crime crisis.
So what can we do.
Right, Let's review the bail laws to keep these creams who keep being let out.
Let's put them in jails. They can commit less crime.
It seems to make a fair bit of sense, except for the fact that that doesn't seem to have filtered down to the Police minister.
Take a look, so.
We need she asked, I wouldn't even say that there's particularly a review.
We're always working on what more we can do to keep the when he's safe.
So let me get this straight.
The premiere was on the front page of the paper yesterday saying I have called for a review into bail laws, and a day later the police Minister stands up and says, I.
Wouldn't even call it a review.
There must be some sort of miscommunication in the works here.
In fact, mister Carbine said, don't worry. I've already got it fixed.
He said, I've got plenty of stuff in the bottom drawer that I can pull out that will hold offenders to account. Now it raises the question, if he's already got it in the bottom drawer, why is he not already doing it. But he's effectively saying I already know what to do. We don't need no review over here in Victoria, to which Jacenter Allen, at a press conference literally minutes after the policemanister stood up, said, well that's terrific.
That he already knows what to do, which she went on to say this.
What it demonstrates to me is that the police Minister is absolutely shares and understands because he's been also listening to his community, to communities around the state and understands that we need to take action, which is what we're doing.
Oh fantastic. So who is right here? Like, Okay, the Premier says we're going to have a review. The police Minister says, well, actually it's not a review, but I already know what needs to be done. It's in my bottom drawer, but I haven't done it.
And then the Premier says, that's terrific. Is this how Victoria runs?
So there seemed to me to be three options. Number one, she never called a review. There's a by election on Saturday in the suburb of Werribee, and with youth crime the way it is, she just went for a headline on Tuesday. She was making it up as she went. That's the first possibility. The second possibility is that she didn't call for a review, she just forgot to tell her police minister, and the way things work in Victoria,
who would put that past them. The third possibility is she called for a You she did tell the police minister. But the police minister, who has leadership aspirations, doesn't like the appearance that he isn't up to the task and he's not taking action, so he's come out to defend his position. The bottom line is there's a Saturday by election in Werribee. There's a twenty two percent the primary vote for the Labour Party, which Troy is twenty two percent.
There's me be a massive swing.
I think to center Allen is desperate to make herself look like she's doing something, and that's what she's doing.
She's trying to make something right.
Action absolutely total own goal on the bacually.
But something we've got to mention is they amended the Bail Act last year. It hasn't been a year and already your changes are a dismal failure. I wonder why. Oh, because those amendments were designed to end I quote, to reduce the impact on women, children and anyone claiming aboriginal dissent. So okay, you've made them less punchy. Yes. Indeed, one of the amendments was to remove the offenses of breaching bail conditions and committing an indictable offense while on bail. Okay.
So I can breach bail, that's okay. And I can commit an indictable offense while on bail, and you've removed those offenses, okay. Anything else. They've mandated that bail decision makers consider aboriginal aboriginality above all else, very very important. And they've limited the use of remand. Well, if you've limited the use of remand and your amendments to the Bail Act last year, lady, guess what a lot less people are going to be on remand and out on
bail instead. I mean, do me a favor. It's embarrassing.
They're the only thing they're good at in Victoria is proving over and over their complete ineptitude, which reminds us of local councils. They continually do the same thing. Tell you two quick stories of local councils that have made fools of themselves, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane.
Here in Sydney, the Kringa Council has decided they need to discuss whether or not rates should be raised, and so to talk about whether or not rates should be raised, they decided to take all the councilors away for a couple of nights to the beautiful Hydromajestic hotel in the Blue Mountains because somehow all that fresh mountain air as they overlook the beautiful views will help them work out whether or not they should raise rates. We've got some
photographs here you can see this hotel. They couldn't have done this in the council chambers. They couldn't have gone to the local community hall. No, no, the councilors had to be here at ratepayer expense. And remember what are they talking about, whether or not we should raise rates. Well, I would say after that little retreat, rates will probably be raised.
But in it's even worse.
The mayor there, John Raven, has put out a video to ratepayers saying, look, we've got a couple of options. One is we could increase rates so you can retain your services.
Or we can increase.
Rates just a touch, but we'll have to cut back on services.
So I want to get your thoughts now.
Bear in mind he produces this video and puts it out there just before he takes off to Europe on a fact finding mission.
Have you seen this article and this one?
Two councils in New South Lales have just voted to increase rates by forty and eighty seven percent. A lot of people are out raised, but these councils are facing the same cost breshes. That logan is the infrastructure assets the council manages on your behalf are incredibly expensive and the things that matter to you like parks and roads and rubbish.
And they're all becoming unaffordable. So what should we do.
We can put up rates or we can cut services. The community has made it really clear that you want rate increases.
To be as small as possible.
Are you willing to pay more for better roads, parks and facilities or should we cut services to make rate increases more?
Now, there was an option he left out, and that is that he could have not jetted off to Paris and Manchester on his fact finding mission, but that wasn't an option. I love the council PR team who put out a statement saying a video like this hasn't been done before, and the community responded with creative and constructive
suggestions about how to ease budget pressures. Yeah, there are about four hundred comments on the video, almost all of them saying if you want to save money the councilors have paid two million dollars just sack them all creative and constructive suggestions.
It's funny because it's like they've almost worked out how this works.
That they've worked out that there are.
Cost pressures in the world right because councils like the rest of us, are finding it more expensive to do this stuff that they've always done. That they've realized that there is a cost of living crisis.
But they've missed the bit where they.
Get all of their money from us, and we are also facing the same cost pressures that they are, and they think that somehow we just have endless pots of money to give to them to do what they're doing. No, we are in the same boat as you, buddy, except that you can come to us and force us to give you money if we own property in your council.
Of course, you know we have no choice in the matter. Yeah. Sure, I'm happy to have a cut in.
The services if you go through with a fine tooth, go and cut out some of the nonsense that you probably don't need to be doing. Oh, I'm quite happy with that. But they get it. They just think that we can pay for everything we can't.
Yeah, instead of sitting down and going, okay, let's go over the budget, let's cut the fat, because you can bet your bottom dollar as a hell of a lot of fat. I used to be a local government counselor we go over the budget every year. You're supposed to be spending rate payers money wisely. Instead this guy just addresses the LGA and says, do you want high rates or do you want to live in a dump? Which
one isn't gonna be, and these caring by people. Everyone knows that if you are counselors, the least you could do on your little retreat to decide what to do. If you must have it, it should have been made in the council chambers. Do me a favor is spend the money in the LGA. You're elected by those people. If you're going to spend that much money at lee, stn't add insult to injury by giving it up to
fat cats miles away. When you consider that Elon Musk, head of DOGE, is literally sleeping in government federal government buildings with his entire team, saving up to a billion dollars a day for the American taxpayer. Because that's a lot of accommodation. They don't have to fork out for that's what this guy's doing in order to be creative. I mean, for him, it's normal. He slept on the floor at Tesla. He does the same thing at Twitter.
But this is the kind of lengths that people can go to when they get creative and take the fact that hey, we run on other people's hard earned money. There is any number of things you can do to spend it more wisely and cut back massive.
And it's worth pointing out very quickly that New South Wales just lost a Transport minister because she used a publicly funded van to go to a winery good that would have cost no more than one thousand dollars. And a council can spend twenty grand for a piss up and that's fine for sure, doesn't cut it.
The thing I love about that Sydney piss up is that the report said the counselors did discuss the fact that the optics didn't look good and then they went ahead with a piss up. So that's what they think of you, ratepayer.
We go to a break.
When we come back, we look at what's making news tomorrow, including a plot by Victorian bureaucrats to hide the true cost of infrastructure from the voting public.
All of that in just a moment. Welcome back.
Let's take a look at what's making news tomorrow. We'll start with Caleb, because you've got the South Australian paper.
Of course, the South Australian master race. Here it is again except for the fact that the is front of the earth TiSER tomorrows now have much good news. To
be perfectly honest. Hydrogen bomb is the story. Tens of millions in unpaid royalties and bills, green power plant at risk of blowing up the Wyalss Steel Works owes tens of millions of dollars in royalties to the state government and contractors, with the crisis threatening to turn Premier Peter Mallanaskus's five hundred and ninety three million dollar hydrogen plant into a pipe dream. Sanjiv Gupta's GfG alliance is six months in arrears on royalty payments and tens of millions
erowde in bills, but workers continue to be paid. Now. The idea of the hydrogen power plant is that it would power the steel works, but of course if you end up having no steel works. Then there's not much demand for hydrogen power anymore, which would make it I don't know how many hydrogen our projects there have been in the last couple of years that have been touted and then have fallen over in Australia. This would just become one in a long line of them. Twiggy got
rid of vis et cetera. It seems to be a dead duck and.
If it still works, aren't paying their royalties? Then the revenue he was counting on to do the green hydrogen doesn't exist. So there's probably more chance of Peter Amanowska's solving hospital ramping than what did you what did.
You just call him Peter mallan Olsk.
No, No, that's not what you see do I say?
Remanossmanow always getting confused with the former Essendon footballer, and the similarities are uncanny.
I don't even hear what they're both good looking men, tall.
And remnists, indigenous, wasn't he Now?
I know what Kale things to the front page.
Of that you are you as guinea woman in South Australia.
She will tell you that Peter malanowskis is a good looking fella.
It's just a thing. It's just a thing.
I'm telling you.
Must be a South Australian thing. To the front page of the Herald Son now exclusive SRL bosses those plotting to hide huge projects cost in document government tried to keep secret. Well it didn't work, did it. Let us read on. A top secret document reveals that suburban rail Loop bosses plotted to hide from the public details of how much the Monster project would cost due to concerns
about how it would be funded. The bombshell twenty twenty document, obtained recently after the government fought for three years to bury it, lays out significant and unsolved funding risks for the SRL, which was designed to run from Cheltenham in melbourne Southeast Bayside to Werribee in the city's south west. Yeah, okay, well we found out. Now what will happen next?
So the story is that the Victorian Labor government is lacking in transparency.
Yeah, funny about that.
That made the front page.
I'm shocked.
Maybe I'm absolutely shocked.
Maybe maybe the Premier should go and talk to the Police Minister about this stuff and you see whether maybe the got crossed somewhere.
Well, maybe ask.
Him for a review that is then be revealed that he didn't know we've been asked for a review, but it's not a few things banging around in his draw.
That this is a project that no one asked for that's now valued two hundred and fifty billion dollars or something. It is literally insane and they keep pushing on with it because it was such a jewel in the crown, supposedly of Daniel Andrew's big build that.
They can't let go of it.
I mean, this is a government, let's not forget that paid a billion dollars to stop a road being built after it took government, and it's still wasting money on things that no Imbringham they didn't want that well, they certainly don't want this.
You've paid what five hundred and six hundred million dollars not to stage the Commonwealth Game.
So the hits or hat keep on coming.
If you live in Victoria, the Gold Coast is a much nicer place to live, but they've got their problems as well. Terrors on two wheels, reads the headline of the Gold Coast bulletin. Top Cops wore on e bike brats the Gold Coasts top cop Craig Hanlon says police are facing a battle to control reckless e bike riders, who I love this quote flee like cockroaches when approached
and can't be pursued because someone could be seriously hurt. Well, I well understand police fears because if you've ever been walking along a footpath and had an e bike come flying up behind you, not only do you not hear these things, but gee they're quick, doing thirty forty kilometers an hour. There were eight people killed in Queensland on e bikes last year and more than seven hundred people hospitalized because of e bike accidents. And that's before we
get to the pedestrians who've been terrorized by this. So police wanting a clamp down. There's a big meeting on the Gold Coast Safe Bikes. Eight eight Queenslanders killed on e bikes last year.
Wow, Okay, that's mind blowing. I didn't think they were lethal. I didn't think they were actually deadly, but I'm assuming that that would be colliding with caryll.
And the problem is you've got a bicycle, but it's now powered via battery, it's motor rise. So they're still trying to work out how to classify them, aren't they. And then you've got kids riding e bikes and it all depends on the power of the motor, how fast it will go without you having to peddle. And I think jurisdictions right around the country are still trying to work out what to do with this. And that's before we get to e scooters. Yes, are a problem all of their own.
I think they're mean to be limited to about thirty k an hour or something out of twenty five. Of course you can fiddle with that and fix that up quite easily, But I mean, what I'm reading here is that the coppers have now been outsmarted by a bunch of lunatics on bikes. So surely the answer to that is to put the coppers on the e bikes. I mean, if the problem is you can't chase them with a car because it's too much of a danger, put the coppers on the e bikes and chase them that way.
Well, that the Gold Coast bulletin was talking about one of the schools on the coast, I reckon there's three hundred kids in one school that.
Have all got e bikes.
And the cockroach reference was to a police cars arrived at a Macker's and there are apparently one hundred teenagers with e bikes and as soon as the police arrived, they went in every direction, hence the fleeing cockroach.
I'm having visions now.
We used to talk about biki gangs, you know, we meant people getting around on Harley day By and stuff. Now it's going to be e byte gangs, like you know, dangly kids getting around on ebucks. That's going to be the new vanguard of organized grab in Australia.
Let's go to the front of the Australians viral where it says.
Renewable energy opponents putting lives at risk, says banned.
Oh my god, what could this possibly be?
Adam Band has lashed the Food Distributors of Australia for questioning Labour's renewable energy strategy and claimed they are quote putting Australian lives at threat by backing more coal and gas as til MP Zoe Daniel Lag who's concerned businesses should put solar panels on their roofs solution to dealing
with skyrocketing energy costs. I mean there's two brainycs for you, right, Adam Bandt says that food distributors and I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, sending an email or whatever, Lars, don't you.
Food distributors are people who supply.
What is literally like fuel for humans, so stuff that keeps them alive. Food distributors are putting lives at risk by saying the cost of producing the stuff that keeps us alive is too high. Make that make sense, and then Zoey Daniels has no problem.
Just put some solar panels.
On the root.
That'll fix it all up. I mean, we are living in a clown show, an absolute clown.
Show, Adam Bandt talking about you know there's people all over the country living in fear for their lives because of bushfires or floods. I'll tell you I know a lot of people in towns where they've got mass flooding at the moment, Caldwell and Ingham, and they're concerned about it, not fearing for their lives and never have been. They know how Australia operates and they take it in their strong This.
Is such a joke and this idea from Zoe Daniels, which the last time we talked about solar banels, I think it was the last time. We're talking about how some energy providers are now charging people who have the solar bannals because it's generating power at a time they don't need it. So the grid's like, actually, we're going to charge you because you can't turn off your solar panel for sending us the power and we don't want it. So, if anything, he could end up costing these guys more.
Nobody listened to Zoey Daniels. That's the moral of the story.
It's a total clown show here in Australia, but we'll go to America after the break, where it's just as clownish. Although I do love the clip we're going to show you after the break of Donald Trump saying what everyone is thinking but too afraid to say. He's bold enough to say, it's pretty funny that's coming out from this money. One of the things I love about Donald Trump is he just comes out and says it. Everyone else is
thinking it, but Donald Trump actually says it. Take a look at this media conference today with Benjamin and Yahoo. Donald Trump was asked a question from an Afghani journalist and here's what happened.
Go ahead.
In Kymia, I've can suffer poman as I expectations from you. Do you have any plan to change Afghanistan situation? Are you able to recognize Taliban? Because I'm an upgun journalist, up and suffer woman. An you comment about Afghanist and what's your future plant for aub gun people, especially against I have.
A little hard time understanding you. Where are you from? Actually it's a beautiful voice and a beautiful accent. The only problem is I can't understand the word you're saying.
But I just say this, good luck, living peace.
Living peace.
I love Benjamin ing Ya, who's standing beside it with this big smile, just thinking I can't.
Believe this guy. He's like no other leader in the world.
I just don't understand your next question. Please we go go in peace back to the damn this you'd be very familiar with AOC. She is the Democrat senator best known for the woman who would fail finger painting. She too, has taken to her socials to let everyone know how much she disapproves of Elon Musk, but not for the usual reasons. She reckons he's just dumb.
This dude is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires. I have ever met or seen are witnessed, which you know, you could probably even glean that from watching these people on TV. Anyways, all of that is to say is that they don't do their homework. Clearly, like they're putting nineteen year olds in at the treasury. This dude is not smart.
Okay, love him or hate him, but Elon Musk is not only the richest man in the world, but he is so because he's recognized as a genius even by the people who hate him. He has changed the world in profound ways and will continue to do so thanks to his incredible intellect coupled with the work effect he literally catches rockets.
To say he's the dumbest billionaire is like saying that someone is the dumbest a grade student.
I mean they're in a class, all there.
And also she says he's put nineteen year olds in charge of treasury.
This guy's so dumb.
I thought it was the Dems that wanted to like get sixteen year old exactly exactly.
That's all we've got time for tonight, but stick around. Coming up is the Reader Penny Show.
Good Night