On scor US Australia.
This is the Wedder Panalty Show.
Good evening, Welcome to the reader Panahe show. I'm Caroline de Russo coming up tonight. Why Australians are falling out of love with evs. Gary Hargrave joins me shortly and has the rebel leader in Syria had a road to Damascus moment? Or is he just another g hardy? Max Abrams joins me from the US to discuss Keir Starmer's
UK labor government continues to make itself stunningly unpopular. I speak to Darren Grimes in London with the latest shock poll, and of course Left is losing it tonight, including this member of the trans community who doesn't understand why they aren't taken seriously.
I'm trans and I'm scared for the trans community. This is why people don't take us seriously. The reason our country is self and the reason the rest of the world laughs at us is because of people like me.
But first joining me now is Sky News contributor.
Gary Hargrave, Gary Kat the CSIRO. They've released the updated gen cost report yesterday, but I still think there's a misunderstanding in the community about what this report is talking about, and I think people need to remember that the costs referred to in the report is the break even cost for investors, you know, to recover their capital operating cost,
reasonable rate of return. That what we see in the wholesale cost, it's got nothing to do with the retail price for customers, doesn't include distribution, metering, retail margin, all those sorts of things, and the impact across different regions, different states. The cost stack, well, the wholesale cost is a much of a muchness. We've got this great graph here from AEMO which shows that the wholesale costs plus
plus in each state. You know, there are plenty other things which go into the mix before you get to retail prices on top of that wholesale cost. Gary, I just don't know whether this report helps Australians to inform their view on energy alternatives.
Yeah, and Caron, I'm a former ministry in the Science portfolio, and so I find anything that the CSI seems to do these days politically tinged, and it's about really just keeping happy their political masters, which.
Is not what we want from them.
Get back to the diet to help Australians lose weight, I say, that's the best thing they've ever done. But this thing is just mischievous, It is misleading, it's lacking the real detail. And you talk about the distribution costs, we cannot gloss over that. Estimates are between one point five and two trillion dollars worth of duplication of the current electricity grid around the country, more poles and wires in more places, more of those big steel staunchings draping
across our countryside. And that's how renewables are going to impact upon the vistas of Australia at the very least, let alone the cost factors. So you're right, there are so many other aspects to this, but look it's pretty simple.
Yes, when when it blows.
Can generate electricity, sun when it shines can generate electricity, but that's only about thirty percent of the time that we need electricity.
We need twenty four to seven.
And Caroline, we can't have a future made in Australia when currently our present is made in China.
That's where all these things are coming from.
And I think the Prime Minister and Bohen have completely lost the plot.
There's zealotry is not helping Australia's future at all.
No, And I do really worry when the conversation when you're talking about energy alternatives is just limited to talking about the comparison on the wholesale costs. I just don't think that that really helps Australian consumers understand the issue.
Well.
But moving on Gary, but still on the green economy, let's stay with that very piece by Judith Sloan about why consumers aren't taking the EV bait anymore.
Look, I'm not surprised.
I've gone through EV ownership with jem Atoniini. I didn't own one myself, but it was traumatic for me just watching her own one of these things.
But what's the catalyst here?
Well, I mean, let's face it, to charge your car, it's exactly the same as it is to keep your house going. And so we've got a house full of fridges and washing machines and things like that. That's the sort of juice you've got to put into your vehicle every day. So look at the current power bill and
then double it. That's a pretty good indicator about the cost. Look, I'm pretty agnostic about what's under the front of the car, and I know some of these evs they go like the as we say in Queensland, like the clappers.
They get away from the from the traffic lights.
Pretty darn fast, and so they've got performance, but how long for?
You know?
It's they look great in the Strait, but the country maybe not so. And of course the infrastructure to back them up is again big thing, and I think a lot of Australians again.
Realizing that it doesn't stack up.
So whether it's the paperwork, whether it's the urging by the Greens and people are sick here and the woe Green the agenda they really are Caroline, or whether it's just simply the reality of costs. I think people are going to try and keep their old car going longer because I don't think I can afford these these they're also about twice the retail price in a lot of cases. I know there's some cheap ones coming, so it's not a very compelling argument for most of us.
No, And I think a lot of people were sucked in by the tax break, but I'm not sure that the tax break makes up for the inconvenience of actually owning one of these things.
Now into something I never thought would happen. In Australia or to Australia, but the.
Simon Wisenhal Center, a global Jewish human rights organization, is issued a travel warning to Jews coming to Australia.
Gary, is this actually happening to us?
Look like you?
I am not Jewish, but I've got to say I'm very much so on the Bob Hawk nineteen seventy one view that you know, if the bell tolls for Israel, it's tolling for all of humankind. I greatly believe that what is happening in Israel now is so wrong, but what is happening in Australia is even worse. We've got a Prime Minister who's completely lost his way, lost interest frankly in the job. He's got the girl, the flash house, he's got the lifetime pension, he's got lifetime admittance to
the Chairman's lounge, your name it, he's got it. And so I actually think that over Christmas he's going to have to have a real strong talk to himself about whether he can actually keep going, because the failure on this is exposed that he would actually go and play tennis in the Golden Triangle of Perth, beautiful part of
the world, Coddsloo, I get it, I understand it. But Fedinkham, the whole community in Melbourne that has supported Labor was mourning the loss of a place of worship and he couldn't actually, on instinct, work out that it was a terrorist.
When Prime miises say this.
There's a consequence, But on instinct there is something really wrong here and he should have known it from the first moment he heard about it, but he didn't. And so I just think the guy has talked his way out of the job, and sooner he goes the better.
That's certainly what I'm hearing around Brisbane. We want him gone, real simple.
Yeah, And I don't think you guys are the only ones. I think you make a really good point though, Gary, like, where are your priorities if your instinct isn't there to prioritize, you know, standing with the Jewish community in solidarity after something like this, and instead it's Labor donus playing tennis and obviously that brand new train set over in Western Australia. It really I think does raise some questions about your judgment and maybe about your motivation for the job.
Gary Hargrave, thank you so much for joining us, Thanks Carola.
Joining me now is GB News host Darren Grimes Darren UK. Labor has had an impressive dive in popularity since being elected. Their ability to govern, frankly is even worse than I expected. It's all being laid in a recent poll. What's the lightest on Labour's performance.
Yeah, I mean it's pretty abysmal actually for the Labor Party. You know, they're looking like they're going to be guaranteed to be a one term government and we're saying that five months after they won a landslide majority. I don't think actually this what we're looking at here with this poll, because what it actually showed was that Nigel Farage's Reform Party was polling ahead of the Labor the governing Labor Party.
I don't think this is a blip. I think actually this is the sound of Westminster's very foundations starting to actually crack apart. You know, you've got a mega momentum building in Britain for a party that believes in the nation state, that wants to control its borders, a novel idea, I know, But you Australians managed to do it. Why
can't we? We're also an island nation. It's not beyond the widowed man, and actually not to tax everybody out of existence while spending five billion pounds on asylum for illegal migrants and others within this country. It's putting the British people's priorities first, and the Labor Party have been seen to be doing the total opposite of that. So I'm not remotely surprised by this poll.
You know, the.
Idea of Labor as the voice of the work and class, well, they've been relegated to third place. So Reform it's no longer a fringe party. I think it's starting to look like a genuine contender for power here in Britain.
And how do the other parties, the Tories and Reform, how did they make hay out of all.
These, you know, being so far out from the next election.
I think they continue doing what they're doing. To be perfectly frank with you, I think the Labor Party are doing enough for themselves to make an absolute hash of it. I don't think the winter fuel cut, I don't think that the tax rises, I don't think that the prioritization
of illegals over the indigenous population. I don't think they're the kind of things that in four and a half years the Labor Party can have the nation fall into some form of amnesia and forget all about I think their brand now already is incredibly toxic with the British public.
No longer is this a protest vote. I think this is a vote and act of saying both of the main political parties the UNI Party, if you will, are two cheeks of the same horrible old behind, and people are wanting to see the behind of that horrible old behind.
I love that now.
And I'm just curious with your system of elections being first past the post, and here in Australia obviously we have preferential voting. Is there enough room to have two center right parties? How do they help each other out not getting each other's way.
Look, I'm not sure that is possible. I think you're right that in this the realities of the first past of the post system, or that the if there are two significant forces on the right of British politics, that they will ultimately be competing for each other's votes. But the really interesting thing is that I think in the so called red wall, so that's like our rust belt, I actually think that reform are the only viable contenders
right there, right now. I'm here in the northeast of England, for example, that's the kind of area where Reform are starting to fight through. They're saying, look, we're going to focus on local elections, We're going to recruit dissolutioned MP's and relentlessly target the red Wall heartlands which were supposed to be the Labor Party's bread and butter. But now they're more interested in the likes of the island Tonian middle classes and Islamists. And that ain't the priorities of
people up here. I'll tell you that for free.
No.
And that seems to be not just in the UK, but in the US and even in Australia.
You are really seeing that in those.
Outer suburban type areas as compared to the inner cities. But let's just continue on on that thought process for a second. Is there room then for a potential coalition between the Tories and Reform, assuming you know, they kind of stick to different sorts of knitting and they they're able to beat the Labor Party.
I don't think that will happen. I think ultimately I don't see what would be in reforms interests for that to happen because the Tory brand has been one and you know, you've documented it so many times on this or ghost channel where you're talking about the fact that British people in twenty ten, twenty fifteen, twenty seventeen, twenty nineteen, all of those times they've voted for the Conservatives on
a commitment to reduce net migration to this country. We just had a million people come to this country last year. A million people. That's a city the size of Birmingham, and that is unsustainable and it's a complete betrayal of the trust and the faith that was put in that party each on each of those occasions in different strands of Conservatism. And I think that betrayal isn't going to go away from the mind of the British public over
the next four and a half years. So I think Reform would be mad, frankly, to sign up to any kind of formal agreement at this stage. We'll see what happens. Four and a half years is a very long time in a lot of times, but that betrayal that's still very sore for a lot of people.
And fair enough, absolutely fair enough, and look, you know, let's go back to libor that.
You know, there's been plenty of.
Coverage in the Chris regarding labor's cuts to the pensioners' energy payments. So much for the compassionate side of politics. But we'll park that to one side.
Apparently it's getting worse.
New Reach research is showing that pensioners are now skipping meals because of financial concerns.
How are these people meant to get through the winter.
Yeah, it's a very good question.
Also, whilst in pursuit of net zero or madness, you know, we're not fortunate like the Australians, where you know, you still have in some respects at least a viable energy policy. I think in this country we have gone so far over the other edge that you know, we're shivering in our homes expecting wind turbines to turn on. Just the other day we had a storm called Storm Darrah, and by the way, the wind was blowing so hard that the wind turbines that were all reliant upon now weren't
even spinning. I mean, make of that what you will. The problem here is that we're saying to people you can't have gas, you can't have coal. We didn't go into nuclear, so we haven't got that, so effectively, you're stuck with high sky high energy bills, the highest in Europe, the highest in the developed world, frankly, and pensioners are now being told that their winter fuel payment will be
taken from them as well. So basically the Labor Party policy is saying to pensioners, you will sit quietly, you will shiver in the cold, and you will be grateful for it, despite your contribution to this country throughout your working life. I think it's an act of as you say, where is the compassion. It's an act of great cruelty. And the idea that's slashing it now at this point for over nine million pensioners being a good idea when our energy policy is nuttier than a fruitcake. I just
can't make heads or tails of it. I really can't.
Well.
Libra are trying to save one point four billion pounds apparently, but I refuse to believe that there isn't room to cut costs elsewhere. But honestly, why would you choose something like.
This because simple fact, pensioners primarily do not vote for the Labor Party. They do not vote for the left, you know, but pensioners on pension credit which is a form of benefit in this country. Who do qualify for the winter fuel allowance, they're not aware that they are able to actually get this payment. And they're making eleven thousand pounds. That's not a lot of money. I very much doubt secure starmer could survive on eleven thousand pounds.
The Party claims to be the party of the work and class, but now it's force and pensioners, as you rightly identify, to choose between heating and eating. But where a nation spending billions on international aid on asylum within this country, even if you've come here illegally, you get bared, you get bored, you get better, and if it's you get energy bills, your life is taken care of. Yet we can't seem to find the money to ensure our elderly have dignity and that Britain can keep itself warm
at winter. Effectively, the Labor Party need to rethink their priorities because they are very fast becoming known and synonymous with that word betrayal, just as the Conservatives were. And ah, and that is pretty damning, as they found out to their cost the Conservative Party. So I'm just I'm insensed
by what's happening in my country. I don't recognize what's happening in my country, but I'm also filled with hope and optimism that we might actually get some change away from the uniparty, because they've both made such a frightful mess of everything in this country.
Absolutely, but the Brits, you know, you always do have a sense of humor, and the lackluster performance of this government has spact Christmas parodies of Kio Stama.
Here it is.
It'll be freezing?
Is Christmas without fuel at home?
It'll be freezing?
Is Christmass weller stars warm?
It'll be cold, so cold with that few at home? It is Christmas. She told me she doesn't get outuntil midday.
Because she didn't want to tell her hit.
You A video like this was bound to happen, wasn't it, Darren?
Yeah? Absolutely, I mean you're right, you've got to laugh while you'll cry. I mean, hopefully Pension is watching this will be laughing themselves so hard that it keeps them slightly more moderately warmer than Sakir Starmer, no doubt, with his central heating blaring in Number ten Downing Street. I mean, this has taken the country by storm right. This is channeling the anger, the frustration of millions who feel that betrayal Chris Middleton and the performers. There's Sir Starmer and
the Granny Harmers. I mean, if your moniker is Granny Harmer, I would suggest that your pr machine probably isn't working quite as effectively as you hoped. You know, this is a rallying cry. I hope it climbs in the charts and actually could become the Christmas number one, because we're not going to sit here while our pensioners struggle in this winter snap. You know, the biting lyrics here and the humorists take it's serious, but it perfectly captures the mood.
It's not entertainment. It's a form of activism and that should be really quite scary, orso, Keir Starmer, because every download is a slap in the face to a party that just won four hundred odds seats in a parliament with only six hundred and fifty of them. You know, that is a damning indictment of what the decisions and priorities they've made whilst getting into government a million old people, as you said earlier, skipping meals millions more turning off
the heating because they can't afford it. I mean, come on, we're meant to be the sixth biggest time.
Absolutely extraordinary. It is absolutely extraordinary. And it's not just a government. But we've seen a few recent examples of the police in the UK policing opinions that they don't appear to like.
Here is the latest example, arresting.
You abscission of improper use of the electronics communications network.
I'm going to be arresting some comments that are offensive of scene and people have made complaints about that and.
It's translated this comment.
Will do that when we interview. I know I've been very gobsmacked.
I feel like throughout this entire interview, but this actually can't be real, can it?
Oh?
No, it very much can be.
You know.
I am the proud recipient of something called a non crime hate incident. Now the police in this country moderate non crimes. And this was because I conducted an interview during the Black Lives Matter madness that enveloped the country over a dead American criminal. I have no idea why it came over to this country. I aired an interview with a renowned historian in this country and As a consequence, I was slapped with an investigation that amounted to nothing.
The Home Secretary even got involved, but I still have a non crime hate incident against my name. Now that if you do a deep background check as a British citizen, that comes up on your police record. So it makes you sound like some kind of real wrongman, when actually you're just a journalist who's exploring ideas that go against the consensus of the moment, the zeitgeist of moment. So
what's happening there? This guy posted on his social media account and someone's made a complaint and the police have decided to look into it.
But I'll tell you what.
The police are loathed to actually look into burglaries, to look into fifth to your phone being swept off the streets of London. They will do absolutely everything but police actual crime. We are fast becoming an incredibly authoritarian state in which the police are there to pervert what we say online over what's actually done to us on our streets. And that's how they quickly lose their consent of the public and the faith in them by the public, who, let's not forget, are their employers.
Ultimately, yeah, absolutely, and just for me, I have a legal background. The very thought of non crime being on your criminal record, I just find an extraordinary But anyway, thank you, Darren Grimes, thank you so much for your time.
An absolute pleasure still to come.
Left is losing it.
Plus we're joined by an international security expert to break down the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Max Abrams is next. Now it's time for lefties losing it. And we know the left is struggling to deal with the prospect of a second Trump presidency that there has been very well documented, but they can't or won't spare Milania. Take a look at this performative rubbish, please.
Please please.
Honest Now, I'm not quite sure what that was supposed to achieve, other than maybe some gratuitous backslapping from other jaundice progressives who also still cannot grasp that democracy means that sometimes your team doesn't win. And then there's this trans person who, like I said at the top of the show, can't understand why they aren't taken seriously.
I'm trans and I'm scared for the trans community. This is why people don't take us seriously. Me me personally, me getting on TikTok and making my funny little skit videos about funny little interactions I've had in life. I'm the reason they don't take it seriously me personally, you know.
I also get comments like this and people saying that the reason the American economy is bad it's because people like me, and the reason our country is so and the reason the rest of the world laughs at us is because of people like me.
I could give this particular individual a laundry list of the reason why they aren't taken seriously. We could start with the hair and the makeup and the bull ring, the size of Texas and if that isn't enough performance, there's Dylan mulvaney celebrating one thousand days as a girl.
Did you hear it's day one thousands? At day one thousands of.
God, these are days, these are days, these are days of girlhood.
I've spent forty years as a girl and I'm looking forward to the global celebration in my honor. The Sydney New Year's Fireworks is a good start. And while pensioners in the UK having their energy payment slash, the BBC is burning taxpayers money on a new comedy. It's called Ginger's house, and it's set in a drag queen's home. In each episode, another drag queen visits and ends up being asked to do a chore.
Episode one's chall is burying a hamster.
Do you want to sugar?
Oh?
Yes, just want to please girl? There you go? Thank you?
So?
Uh, what we're gonna do with this little hand?
So we're gonna.
Clean out the case? Give him a bath? What do you want to do?
No, sweetheart, We're going to barrier.
I wish I was joking. And here, of course, is the latest hysteria from the view.
Because we're legal, we are successful.
We are.
But if you're an illegal in this country, you're not going to be not in apparent, or you are were a woman working.
For the Department of Defense, you have a right to be in a panic.
You tell people.
To stay fraud and like this, I'm telling people to prepare.
Whoopee, I'm telling people are not prepared.
They are prepared.
So that means I'm saying that means that they can be relaxing and enjoying. No, it doesn't mean winter, it does, you know what. I'm sorry? I mean winter is here.
These people have already survived one Trump presidency, and at least this time, Trump is a known quantity, But it seems that historyonics is in no danger of abating. Stay tuned, ladies and gents, expect there to be more of this. And here is probably the most cynical take I have ever seen on a father spending time with his son.
I did not think I could like this guy any less. You cannot tell me this was not to protect himself, and in what a disgusting fashion than to put your four year old child in harm's way to protect yourself. Why didn't you walk with him holding his hand? Why was he on his shoulders right behind his head? Why wasn't he just holding his hand? He's four, he can walk? Because this, oh my god.
Mostly this just begs the question why should Musk even think his safety is under threat?
Who are these people joining me now?
Is international security expert Professor Max Abrams.
Max, thanks for joining us now. Before we get into.
The situation in Syria, i'd like to get your opinion on Trump's Secretary of Defense, Peak peak Headseth the left of being a meltdown over this.
Take a look.
I have grave concerns about peace hag Seth as Secretary of Defense. He's wholly unqualified for it. This is overseeing the entire US military, the personnel population under it, the families, the dependence that is not someone who should be there, and then add.
To it the moral failings.
These are rules where you put people in them who the force can look up to, who they can admire, people who have family values. This should be disqualifying, and I actually think the Senate has very real concerns about hag Seth.
But Trump he stands by his peak.
Do you still have confidence in Pete hegxas, Yes.
I do, I really do. He's a very smart guy. I've known him through Fox, but I've known him for a long time and he's basically a military guy. I mean, every time I talked to him, all he wants to talk about is the military. He's a military guy. I used to kid him about it.
I didn't think would be.
In this position where he may be hopefully will be Secretary of Defense. But every time I was with him, he was fighting for soldiers where he said some soldier was unjustly put in prison because they were really doing what they were taught to do in some cases. So yeah, I think he's going to do fine.
Now, Max peyt Hag sith, he's a US military veteran, he served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Do you think he's a right man for the job.
I think that Trump picked him for a reason. It's not at all surprising that his critics on the left to criticize everything, criticize this choice as well. When you look at what the criticisms are, they're, you know, not they're extremely trivial. Frankly, you know that he had a drink at Tenant on Saint Patrick's Day or whatever it is. There are unconfirmed allegations of impropriety with women as evidence.
They put forward an email from his mother, who now says that the email doesn't accurately reflect her views and that she's sorry that she wrote it and it's being misconstrued. These are not subsitive critiques of his ability to lead the Pentagon. The reason why he's chosen is because he's seen as a good spokesperson for Donald Trump's military views.
Pete is seen as representing the veterans as being America first, as not getting the United States bogged down in unnecessary wars, as well as rooting out some of the left wing extremism that has infected the Pentagon, the so called dei, the woke is, and to really prioritize mirror and frankly lethality. So I think that Trump is going to stick with Pete and I expect the appointment through.
And look, let's be honest, if sparkly perfect family values was a requirement, you'd probably be emptying out half of Washington.
It wouldn't just be Pete. Hegseth.
Now, just on Trump, and a new pole has recently revealed that Canadians seem to approve of Trump over their Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
Can you explain this polling data to us?
I mean, let's be honest, Canada is a mass. Whenever there's a story about Canada, it's almost never good. It seems like every night, or several times a week. I'm looking at I mean, it looks like the Gaza strip. There. There's there's violence, there's extremism. It's an example of what happens when the leader of a country is a left wing extremist. And you compare that to Donald Trump's record
and it's much better. Just this week, there was a major international event where they were essentially reopening, rededicating the note true Dame because it had been referring after the big fire. And Donald Trump showed up there And this might be subjective, but really the way that he was interacting with the heads of state, it made me feel
almost like America was back. And you contrast with some of the left wing leaders Trudeau and even Joe Biden, and the really just isn't that that same international reception?
Yeah, the gravity that goes along with it.
Now moving on to Sirius I mentioned at the top, look the world. We've just seen this huge change in the landscaping Syria and in a matter of days, what's the latest there at the moment.
It's been absolutely unbelievable to watch the last couple of
weeks in Syria. Remember, there was an enormous war that happened between Assad and all of these Islamist rebels, and it went on for years, and the hundreds of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands, even more of millions of displaced people, and just in a matter of a couple of weeks, the so called rebels, when we wanted, Sid's opposition just steam rolled through the country with almost no opposition deposing Assad, and so what we're now seeing
is that these you know, so called rebels are in a leadership. They are now the government in a reminiscent of what happened in Afghanistan where the Towerbion was in the opposition. Obviously they were tinged very badly with terrorism, and then they became the government. And now we're seeing now in Damascus.
Now, look, there has been plenty of discussion about these rebels and obviously they've taken over huge ways of Syria. What does this mean for the transfer of power? I mean, obviously people are delighted at the fall of the Assad regime, no doubt, but what are they actually getting in its place?
It's an extremely difficult picture in terms of the inclination to root for one side or the other. And the reason is is because so many of the actors in Syria were frankly terrible. So Asad, you know, gast As people. Just this past day they opened the prison. Essentially they were dungeons, torture chambers for thousands of Syrians. Asad of course was in cahoots with Hezbollah and other Iranian terrorist proxies.
On the other hand, he's been deposed now and the people who have been empowered are literally former Islamic State and al Qaeda guys. So the leader of the main rebel group, which we call HTS, he was a subordin of Baghdaddy, the leader of Islamic State. He went into Syria and branched out and was the founder of the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. These are Salafi Jihadis, their Islamis, their political views are very extreme. They have a tremendous
amount of blood on their hands. And now the leadership is saying all the right things. They're saying that today is a different day, that they understand the urgency of moderation, that they want to preside over the entire country, and they're not going to pursue the minorities, and they are eschewing terrorism and they want to be removed from being designated as a terrorist group. So the leadership is savvy. Whether or not it's actually predictive of their behavior remains
to be seen. Personally, I think that we're in a period of elevated international terrorism risk. One of the things that SAD used to do in Syria, in addition to completely mistreating its population and sometimes killing them, is that the Syrian Arab Army would actually confront Islamic State. And so now there are real questions about will there be Islamic State resurgence without the Syrian Arab Army, will there be a power vacuum, and how will the new government
respond to Islamic State. And it's really for that reason that over the past couple of days the United States has really helped up its bombing of Islamic State targets. I am happy to see a sad go. I am happy to see a weakening of the so called access of resistance, a weakening of Iran and its terrorist proxies. But I do worry that these radical Sunni militants will continue with their extreme ways and that we may actually see an elevated terrorism risk internationally.
And not only that, but also danger I suppose for those minority communities within Syria, the Druids, the Christians and the Kurds.
And I just want to go back to this rebel leader al Jilani, you know, former al Qaeda commander.
The left wing media seemed to be reporting, like you said, if he's moderated and enlightened and excused, the pun has had his road to Damascus moment, no doubt, you'll all and we all remember the commentary around the Taliban after the fall of Afghanistan.
You know, this latest on this latest occasion.
You know they were all going to be new aged and inclusive, and look what we've seen play out in Afghanistan. Is there the possibility that we see this also happen in Syria and have the left wing media maybe just been a little too optimistic too early.
Yeah, So I think that that's a good way to put it. I do think that they're too optimistic too early. EACHTS has an absolutely terrible truck recker. The leader was Islamic ste as well as al Qaeda at a very high level. He was the subordinate. Too bad daddy. So we'll see how much this group has genuinely modeled. It should also be said that the task before HTS is enormous. Syria is a very fractured country with many different kinds
of demographic groups. You have the Sunni majority, but you also have Alloyites, you have Kurds and people in between. In Syria is not a country with a tradition historically of democracy, certainly not liberal democracy, and so I really don't expect things to go that smoothly for this new government. I will be surprised if the government is able to, you know, even provide basic services into the future. I will be surprised if these groups, you know, are not victimized.
You also have to include the fact that Turkey has its eyes on ramping up attacks even more against the Kurds. Does the government in Damascus, how will it respond Erduwan views the government as an ally, so I worry in particular about the Kurds. They were really our main ground forces during the heyday of Islamic State and helped us to defeat the Califate there. I also have concerns that with this new government it will spur attacks even outside
the region. When Eahts assumed power just over the past couple of days, it was immediately congratulated by the Taliban, by Hamas, by a branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and by multiple Al Qaeda affiliates. I find it very hard to believe that we're going to have a good impression of government that is being celebrated by so many of the worst terrorists in the world.
I totally agree, and look, we're just going to have to wait and see. It'll also be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks with the changing presidency in the US.
I mean, who knows what is going to happen.
We'll all have to wait and see. Thank you so much, Max Abrams, so.
Much still to come.
Claire Row joins me to explain why old school teaching methods are back in fashion and improving outcomes for kids.
Welcome back.
Joining me now is child, an adolescent psychologist and SKYE News contributor Claire Row. Claire, we saw the Federal Parliament past legislation last week banning social media for children under sixteen years old. What have parents been saying to you following that new being passed?
Yeah, thanks Caroline. It's interesting because I'm already actually seeing the impact of this law already. So most parents I talked to are pretty happy about this. They're feeling empowered, they're feeling like they can say no. I mean, I've always said that that was the answer anyway, right, this problem could have been solved tomorrow if parents banded together. We didn't actually need the government. But anyway, that wasn't happening.
I'm already seeing obviously, if you've got a kid who's eleven, twelve years old. They're heading off to high school next year. Parents are now saying, no, you can't have social media because you know it's going to be banned in twelve months time anyway, And so they're going to have the fight of their lives if they give it to them for twelve months and then try to remove it. So most parents I'm talked talking with are pretty happy about this. I know that, you know, I was not always on
board as a supporter of this. I don't condone government telling us how to parent, but at the end of the day, I'm seeing kids every day. This is literally killing our kids and the mental health effects I think outweigh any ridiculous argument, particularly disappointingly by mental health groups saying that social media is a place where kids can come together and protect some aspects of their mental health. I just don't buy into that argument at all.
And do you think that in a broader sense, if kids aren't going to be on social media, they can be outdoing other things like I know that we have a lot of online interaction, but one of the you know, good old old fashioned kids playing with each other in person.
Yeah, so obviously.
One of the arguments, you know, that's talked about a lot against social media is what they're seeing online. But actually, I've spoken for nearly a decade now, I think the biggest impact of social media is what they're not doing. So if I look at a kids in usage, you know, it's six seven hours a day, and so we have to ask what was the previous generation doing with that six or seven hours, And you're right, they were socializing, they were talking to each other, they were sleeping, you
know kids don't sleep these days. They were having dinners with their family, they were out exercising. So for me, it's not just about the predatory behavior and the junk on social media. It's about the complete addiction of looking into a little black box and not doing all these other things which are really important for development. So you're right, we might actually just get back to some socialization without arguing that they have to connect somehow online and.
Schools have already proven that right.
So the school band has been the best thing that the new South Wales government brought in and kids have moved from staring into their screens on the playground to talking to each other, so that that's just proven a massively positive move.
Yeah, I think so, I tend to agree with that.
And still on schools and appears old is new again, and the twenty twenty four NAP Plan results have been pre significantly with the recent return of the old school the direct instruction teaching, which no doubt you and I both had.
But can you explain to us why children learn better this way?
Yeah?
Well, I think a lot of parents and certainly grandparents who are hearing this news actually might think I had no idea that classrooms were not done in this way. You know this we're talking about old school stuff, but
it's actually just really common sense. So these days, the last at least generation have had a massive educational experiment on them and a move away from the teacher teaching, and we've gone to this student led teaching approach where it's collaborative and they have to discover the answers themselves in groups. And you know, we need to go back to explicit teaching rote learning. We know developmentally and cognitively, that's actually how the brain learns. It learns by breaking
things down into chunks. It learns from modeling from an authority figure, it learns from.
Structure, and so We've got.
A couple of schools now that have returned to this, and surprise, surprise, the naplan results outstanding and better than they've ever been. So this experimentation, and that's all I can call it, because what was working in kind of the early nineties changed.
By the mid nineties.
And this is a case is of you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So we need to get back to that teacher led explicit instruction, learning in times tables, regular testing like your spelling test on a Friday. That's the type of teaching we need to get back to because the evidence is really clear that that's what produces the academic results.
And I can never understand why they stuff around with things which work. There's plenty of things in and around education that don't work. Why don't they focus the bureacrats focus on those problems rather than stuffing around with the things that do work and making it all worse. But there was also this week a really interesting report by the ABC which suggests that intervention as early as preschool can help reduce youth crime. Now what kind of intervention
are they are they speaking of? And why is it so helpful?
Yeah?
Well, this was interesting, and this study looks at getting in there and closing the gap for some particularly disadvantaged children.
And we know that if we can get in and.
Have a multi pronged attack on things like their communication and verbal skills. This study also works with parents at home on behavioral management and supporting families. So we're trying to close the gap on low social economic kids.
And disadvantage kids.
Then absolutely the trajectory for those kids is going to be really much better and steer them away ten years later from juvenile crime. So this is a really confirming study to what psychologists have said for a long time that early intervention makes the world of difference.
I would just.
Say though, as well, I think we need to have a real good balance between these wonderful programs at a preschool age, but they also investment into families to help them keep kids at home if that's what they want to do, and not be forced into full time preschool or daycare due to economic pressures. So it's that balance that we need between the two fostering healthy attachment at home and also these more structured government led programs.
And I think you just you end up with much more rounded children the earlier that you can start working on these sorts of things, particularly if there's any sort of issues, much much better than trying to deal with late stage problems. Thank you so much, Clairot, and that's it for me, up next to his newsnight, good night,