On skying loads Ostrodia. This is the Wader Panalty Show.
Good evening and welcome to the Rita Panicky Show. Coming up tonight, the Prime Minister flounders when asked a simple question about the power prices. Patrick Carline will be here to cover the day's top headlines, including Adam Vans ABC tantrum, tens of millions plunged into darkness across a number of countries in Europe.
I'll speak to an expert about whether.
Renewables are to blame. Kosher Gator has the latest from the US as President Donald Trump notches up one hundred days in office, and Stephanie Bastian should be here to talk about a male athlete playing netball in a women's competition and we never neglect that he's losing it. Tonight starring this confused lass who seems to think that there's no difference between a fetus and.
Assist abortion is anything. If I had a cessed on my uterus that would be considered an abortion.
Yes, but first.
Simon Holmes Accord, the man behind the Till movement, has issued an eleventh hour plea to support us to funnel even more money into Climbate two hundreds million dollar fighting fund. He's been warning that the Till's enemies had been underestimated and that four MPs, in particular Monique Ryan, Zoey Daniels, Sophie Scamps and Kate Cheney, are at risk of losing
their seats. This comes after volunteers for TILL MP Monique Ryan were films saying they were instructed to vote for her by the Hubei Association, an organization which has in the past been accused of working with the United Front Department, a Chinese Communist Party agency tasks with carrying out Beijing's foreign influence operations. Monique Ryan has distanced her self from the volunteers, claiming that she doesn't know them.
Joining me now for more on this, There's News.
Corpse senior writer Patrick Carl and Patrick are the Tills in trouble. Some like Zoe Daniel have flown under the radar, while Monique Ryan, she seems to be a bit of a headline magnet.
Well, she's had a muddled campaign, if you want to put it like that. There's been so many awkward moments for Monique Ryan. She's been very visible, very busy, but starting with her husband, I think been caught ripping out the campaign sign.
It hasn't gone the.
Way that they would have hoped, and look, the world has changed since twenty twenty two. I think the Till vote back then was in a reflex almost to the disdain that so many people felt for Scott Morrison and for Scott Morrison's government. Climate change was a very big issue then. It's still a big issue, but it's not in the top five as we speak, so that hit headwinds in a way that they certainly didn't face in twenty twenty two.
I think there'd been a lot more trouble if the Coalition mounted a stronger campaign on energy policy, because cost of living is such a huge issue, and we've seen the tlmps show that they're not conservative alternatives. They're far closer to the Greens than they are to the Coalition,
and that was the cell. Initially, this was supposed to be an alternative for disenchanted liberal voters, Coalition voters, but when you look at how they're voted, their voting record, I mean you might as be voting for the Greens.
Well, we've had three years of reality since I've been elected, and we've seen that those ideals that they talked about transparency, they talked about accountability, ability in politics, and those really did appeal, as I was saying before, because Scott Morrison didn't seem to represent those things.
The world has changed a lot.
You've had issues of transparency with some of the campaigns and it will be really interested to see how they go. It's one of the the big questions I think for Saturday Night.
How do they go?
Now, I'm going to play you an extraordinary little exchange.
Listen here to two.
JB's Mark Levy put pressure on the Prime Minister over power prices and his personal property. One minute he says he doesn't have a private property.
In the next minute.
He does, you do have a personal property in Sydney? Has your electricity bill gone up or down?
Obviously? I am live a life of privilege serving in the lodge.
Simple question there, while we have a private property, the Prime minis has gone up all down your electricity bill?
Well, I don't have a private property.
What I do is have So you don't have a residence anywhere apart from the lodge, Yes I do, but I don't.
I don't engage in any any pretense.
I don't live a life of.
But but what does that mean? My question to you is, Doessky bill.
At your private resident's gone up all down? It's a very simple question.
Well, I live in the lodge.
That's where I live.
So you're not there to tell us what your private property your electricity, but whether it's gone up or down, that's.
Where I live.
Patrick PM didn't handle that too well. One minute he doesn't have a private property, next minute he does. One minute he's living a life of privilege, next minute he's not.
What do you make of that?
Look it was a poor moment.
Look you would think that his strategists would be saying, well, you're going to be asked these questions, and that he would have been better prepared.
Look, I think he just got caught out.
He was dreadful in the moment, which does happen to be fair from time to time. You would have thought he would have been in a position to actually try and distract that question.
Away in a way that he couldn't.
Obviously, and you cringe when you listen to that, don't you.
You would think someone with his experience would handle those sort of questions much better.
Now, SMP Global has worn.
That Australia's Triple A credit rating is at risk thanks to the huge election spendeth on from the major parties and the massive growth of off budget funds. But the Prime Minister is not heeding this warning that he is instead lashed out and attack the agency. Here's what he had to say on the seven thirty report.
The Triple A credit rating is there and what we've done. They must have been beside themselves whoever wrote that particular report when the coalition left us with a seventy eight PM dollar deficit.
I'm confused, hear Patrick.
The PM is questioning the economic credentials of the experts at standard and pause. I mean, really, is that a plausible argument against what they have said? And to be fair, they had criticism of both sides that is that the coalition spending promises are also too high.
Look, it's been a spenders on this whole election campaign, hasn't it from both sides. I just keep sort of matching one another when the other side releases a policy and you've got a situation now where Look, you've got to listen to the economists before you take politicians seriously. When it comes to numbers, they're basically saying our credit rating could come down because there is so much spending
and there's going to be so much debt. And this is on both sides, and I mean mister Albinezy sort of responses, well, it'll be worse under the coalition. But you look at that off budget fund which you mentioned. I mean that that was supposed to be I think thirty four billion dollars over five years. It's now over one hundred billion dollars for the next five years.
It's become a.
Slush fund for vanity projects and it's technically off the books.
That's a worrying thing, definitely.
But is this Australian electorate largely disengaged from those macro shoes.
They care about tax.
Cuts or things that they will see in their bottom line in their household budget, but things like the national debt infationary pressures they seem to be I don't know if it's the lack of economic literacy in the country or whether there's just too complicated an issue for a politician to properly articulate. That doesn't seem to be much of a concern.
Look, that's certainly true.
I mean, both sides have sort of launched this have this sort of phony campaign, you for like, where we're talking about distractions, we should be talking about immigration, We should be talking about defense. Most certainly no one's talking about defense. We should be talking about how we're going to provide secure energy and how we're going to keep prices down, but for the long term, not next week, not next month. And this whole campaign has been just
back and forth. We haven't been they've panned to what they think this strain electric concerns are, and those concerns are relatively minor, and in the moment there's much bigger issues here. There hasn't been a lot of vision, has there effort.
It's all been all about immediate gratification.
There's not much in long term planning.
You'd say the nuclear policies that that comes into effect into twenty thirties, but the Coalition barely mentions that. And it's a real point of differentiation with Labor and I wonder why they don't stress that point more, why they don't come up with policies that are going to impact energy prices in the next few years.
Look, they've played too safe, the coalition right from the start. They've tried to make themselves a small target. You end up with these infuriating debates about how much about costings and whether it's six hundred billion dollars or whether it's one hundred and twenty billion dollars.
And at that point everyone turns off, don't they.
I mean, people are sick of politicians sort of out the other side and it's become this tip for tat sort of scenario that really has left the electric very disengaged, I think, and I think the coalition in the post mortems, depending on the result, you'd look back and you say, why weren't you bolder, Why weren't you actually describing visions for the country that actually will make a big difference for a long time.
Now before you go.
The welcome to Country debate has continued and got reignited during ANZAC Day, and this is what happened when the topic was brought up on the ABC's flagship Q and A program last night. Greenslead Adam bad had a lot to say.
It's just gutter politics from an opposition leader whose campaign is in free form and he's starting to punch down. Peter Dutton was the master of misinformation during the referendum which is what was referred to there, spreading all sorts of lies about what was going He's paying as he's in free for he's punching down change from the Trump pavled and we're.
Going to call it out.
All the usual lines you would expect from the Greens, just such foolish arguments, straw man arguments, but they can be impactful when it comes to the ABC audience.
But all the polling I've seen since ANZAC.
Day shows that the great majority of Australians are sick and tired of these ceremonies. They want to see them dramatically reduced or cut all together. In fact, there was a poll I think in news dot com, an online poll showing around seventy percent wanted to see no more of these and around twenty percent wanted to see less.
Well, it becomes so divisive, haven't they, And I mean they've sort of been seen to hijack public events. When you look at ANZAC Day, it's about diggers, it's about veterans, and when you have the welcome the country, that might go too long or it really does sort of get in the way of why people aren't gathered. It's become divisive. I mean it was a feel good sentiment and it has a place. I think most Astrains, I might disagree
with you. I think most Astrains think it has a place, but that place is not when you land on a Quantus or Virgin flight in denment it has got silver.
Well, I disagree with you.
I don't think most Australians do think it has a place, because the underlying message of a welcome to country is this isn't your land. You're not as entitled as someone else, based purely on ethnicity, to consider.
This your land.
Because we don't have non indigenous people doing welcome to countries. It's only one group, and I think that sends a strong message. I think a lot of migrants resent that message as well. Patrick, Carla and thank you so much for your time tonight. A state of emergency has been declared after more than sixty million people across Spain, Portugal and parts of France were left without power last night in one of the largest blackouts in Europe outside of wartime.
And this comes as Spain celebrated its first ever weekday of being run at one hundred percent renewables. Less than a week later and Spain is in the midst of a energy crisis. Electric trains of ground to hold flights have been canceled, Traffic lights stop working. We've had people left in lifts, stuck in lifts, and panic buying stripping supermarket shells. As journalist Michael Schllenberger reports, the grid across the entire continent almost redlined at about midday yesterday, with
authorities speculating that the outage originated in Spain. Schllenburger explains that Spain's energy mix, which is largely made up of wind and solar, is the most likely cause of the outage because such a system has very little physical inertia generated by coal and nuclear power, meaning it is much
less stable and more susceptible to blackouts. Now, while power in France, where the grid is approximately seventy percent nuclear, was quickly restored, it's taking authorities in neighboring Spain and Portugal a lot longer to restore power. Joining me now from France is energy market analysts Sol Cavanik. So tell me about this mass blackout and the impact it's having.
Well, as you highlight there's it's still early assessments exactly the primary cause here, although the fragility of the system, particularly at this time and the level of ancillary services, including inertia, do the higher renewables penetration at the time may be one of the primary causes. As I sit here, you know, in one of the countries which has a very strong nuclear industry, which is the fact growing here in France, where things tends to be a little bit better.
But I think what we need to take as a lesson here is what we've seen playing out now in Spain could be a sign of what we see it will happen in Australia as we continue down this path of ideology driven policy for energy rather than engineering driven policy, and that for example, has us seeing our Energy Minister Chris Bowen still targeting at eighty three percent renewal mix by twenty thirty and it's harder to determine here what's kind of worse the fastical notion that we can actually
achieve the eighty three percent with even the renewable industry itself acknowledging that's quite impossible. All the question of whether we should be desiring this level of renewals gen mix given the instability it's going to cause Rita. But I might just highlight our situation in Australia is fundamentally much more dire than the issue about should we be prioritizing
renewables over, for example, fossil fuel based. The problem is we actually need more of both, but instead we've seen declining investment across the board in every single type of generation mix in Australia. Pole is worth aught worse off on the last three years, gas is worse off, and renewables are worse off. Renewable penetration growth drop to record lows last year and that's because the green activism, the green over regulation, and the red tape facing our energy
sector hits every single part of our sector. It is hurting investment in everything, including renewables. So instead of having an all of above approach, we have a none of above approach to our energy mix and it's causing energy prices to go up.
Now, given the direction we are going in this country and the energy mix we have the focus on net zero emissions and renewables at what does that ultimately mean for our manufacturing sector.
As we have increased energy costs and particularly increased energy reliability with now three near misses in as many years, the sector that fears, that feels at first is always going to be a manufacturing sector. And that's because when you have energy shortages events from a political perspective, you're never going to see a government want people's lights to turn off. So what happens is you get load shedding
in the manufacturing rse. You've got to remember Australia, we have high safety standards, we have high labor rates, and these are things we are good and we should be proud of. But the reason we can have a manufacturing sector where we pay people well and have high standards is because we have a strong advantage in our energy resource and that energy advantage allows us to still compete
internationally even with higher labor costs and standards. And the problem we face now is we are losing our economic competitive advantage of having a strong energy base and a low cost energy salt in this country. And that's eroding our competitive advantage that we've had for forty years, which
allows us to have a higher standard of living. And as we're starting to say, government policy more and more prioritize green activism over the livelihoods and jobs of particularly blue collar workers in Australia, they're the ones who are going to get here first. We're ready starting to see jobs being lost. Oceano Glass shut down last year after one hundred and seventy years of op operations. This is the high tech manufacturing we want more of in this country,
but instead we're seeing it lost. And higher energy prices and high energy reliability is one of the leading causes of the loss of our manufacturing sector.
Now you're in France at the moment, it's a heavy user of nuclear energy. We're told in Australia that nuclear
is not commercial, it's not vible. What do Anthony alban Easy and Adam Banded, Chris Bowen, what do they know that the leaders in countries like France, Sweden, US Finland don't know because they and many other First world countries are increasing their use of nuclear power whilst we sit on all this uranium we exported, but we don't use it for cheap nuclear power here or even expensive nuclear power here.
Well.
Look, I think it's quite clear that most of the mob in Parliament, in particular our Energy minister and Arguly our Prime Minister at this stage, know very little bit about our energy sector. I think a very good example to look at is what happened in Germany here where you actually had effectively the equivalent of the Green's minority government. They're an actual minister as part of the Greens Party.
In the face of the shut off of Russian gas after the Ukraine War, they had a kind of internal schism and decided the Green Party still couldn't bring themselves to actually support nuclear, so they supported more qualified generation. Germany has been shutting down its nuclear facilities, and of course all that's happening is France is building new ones just across the border from Germany and will sell the
power into Germany. So Germany's luckiness, since it still gets to rely on nuclear power, just pays France the privilege. In the case of Australia, we don't have the advantage of being able to tap into our neighbor's nuclear power. But if you want to have a strong again blue collar workforce, manufacturing base and all the economic and national security benefits that provides, having strong, stable power supply with very low marginal cost is a critical component of that.
We've had it from coal for decades. We're now losing that from coal, in part driven by policy which is making it no longer viable. It cannot be replaced with the newbles anytime in the next decades at least, and nuclear could provide wide avenue for that. And it still surprises me that we rule it out from the get go and don't let it to compete in the market like we do with other energy sources.
You go, if you had one bit of advice to impart to Energy Minister Chris Bowen, what would it be.
Well, at this point, the best thing that Minister Chris Bowen could do for the energy market is to resign his position, I think, thankfully. If they're going to lose his seat in this election, or even if he stays in this seat, I think Lady is probably going to acces him from this portfolio. We have not seen such an incompetence and higher level of an attitude from an energy minister in decades, and that's a really low bar
across both parties. Right, We've seen a level of arrogance, not refusing to engage with his own industry, allowing funding by the government of green activists against approvals of this own government, still adhering to ridiculous things like renewable energy targets and corvenuation targets which everybody knows are impossible to actually achieve, and not having the hub us to not actually even recognize the problems he's created in order to
fix them. And you know, I speak to major investors in this sector who've been unable to actually get a meeting with the minister in their sector this entire length of this government. And that tells you everything about what this meant, what Minister Chris Boone actually stands for, and he's willing to actually talk to the key people in this market to try and fix the problems he's created.
Soul Kavanick, thank you so much for your time tonight. Thank you still to come.
Lefties Losing ad plus for review Donald Trump's first one hundred days in office on.
His second term, Kosher Gator joins me.
Next, you're watching the Reader Pannies Show, and it's time for lefties losing and and the Democrats, particularly the perpetually outraged Karen's, are again obsessing about the I word impeachment. Is these democracy denying hysterics want to see the duly elected president impeached. Let's hear from this screeching banshee at a town hall imploring Democrat Senator John Osoff to remove the president.
Why are there no calls for impeachment? This is unacceptable. I will not live in an authoritative country and novel any of these people.
You can do more.
I'd like you, and I will vote for you if you are brief and you do what we need.
We need him impeached, we need him removed.
We need him removed.
Sounds a little insurrectiony to me, lady. They want him remove they don't care what for.
And listen here.
To Senator Osof's response, it keeps the game away here. The Democrats don't care why either. They will try to impeach Donald Trump as soon as they have the numbers.
I agree with you, but as I said at the beginning, I also have no choice but to be candid with you about the situation that we face and the tools that are at our disposal. As strongly as I agree with you, ma'am, and I regret if this is an unwelcome response, but my job is to be honest with you. The only way to achieve what you want to achieve is to have a majority in Nited States House of Representatives.
Well, the shrill Karen should start celebrating because some Democrats are listening to her. Here is a Democrat you've never heard of before, but he wants to be famous. Meet Congressman Shri Thandada from the Great state of Michigan.
Donald Trump has already done real damage to our democracy, but define a unanimous nine h Supreme Court ruling that has to be the final straw.
Is time we impeach Donald J. Trump.
The court said the wrongfully deported Kilmer Garcia must be allowed to return and receive due process.
Trump he ignored it.
Yes, he wants to impeach Donald Trump for not bringing back a gang banger, gang banger who was in the country illegally.
What a winning issue for the Democrats.
Yes, I'm sure Donald Trump is terrified at this latest sham impeachment plan and just as terrified of this dude.
Come about the third issues.
People are frustrated, were angry, people are fearful about what's happening with the cuts in Washington, DC, the cadiffs.
I'm sure this latest impeachment movie is going to work a treat. They must really be eager for President jd Vance. Guys, just wait three and a half years.
And you will get it.
Now.
Here is something so absurd that you assume it must be a work of satire. It must be.
Take a look at this actress playing Anne Frank, and this one and this one and this one. What do all of these actors have in common? They're all wait. Over the years, our world has been getting more and more diverse, but our Holocaust narratives have not been able to keep up.
Until now.
I've created a new musical called slam Frank that combines hip hop, spoken word, poetry, and mutual diversity so that we can have a version of this story that is prescient and relevant to future generations.
What can I say?
Sadly, this music will actually exists.
It's called slam Frank, a satirical reimagining of Anne Frank's story, and it will be in theaters folks. Fittingly, it will be at the Asylum in New York in June. Talking about asylums, let's check in with this young lass who seems to think that there's no difference between a fetus and assist.
She's my favorite idiot of the week.
Abortion is anything. If I had a cyst on my uterus that would be considered an abortion.
Yes, No, it's not.
Yes, it is okay. Anything that is evolving.
The uterus, well, no, in order for it to be an abortion, it must be a human life.
No, anything that's.
A bobby to the uterus, and you have the get rid of it. It is considered abortion.
Now President Donald Trump has celebrated the twenty twenty five Super Bowl champions of the White House with the Philadelphia Eagles in attendance. The team and the President were in great spirits. This is quite a departure from twenty eighteen, when President Trump canceled the celebration for the Eagles after he was advised that most players were not planning to show up.
Well, what a difference seven years makes.
Let me just say, fly Eagles fly.
Right.
The players presented the President with.
His own jersey, and they even got a tour of the Oval offers, with the players lining up to shake the President's hand. And Trump was certainly in a good spirit. It was reminiscing about the Super Bowl and even had a little dig at Taylor Swift.
It was an incredible game, a little surprising, but right from the beginning. In the first quarter of the Big Game, which I was there, I watched in person, I was there along with Taylor Swift.
How did that work out?
How did that one work out?
I remind you how that worked out. One of them got massive cheers and the other one got booed.
Oh it was fun.
What good times?
Now, there were three players missing from the White House celebrations. They blamed scheduling issues, like they.
Have something better to do.
One of those players, Yalen Jalen Hurts, had this pitifil response last week when asked whether he was going to be there.
Are you putting on visiting the White House next week?
So?
Thank you so much.
Yes, beautifully articulated.
They're so eloquent, so brave.
Meanwhile, your teammates are their hobnobbing with the.
President and they're taking iconic.
Selfies with his portrait that looks like Elias Rix there and he declared his love.
For Ivanka after the.
White House visit, he posted this, He said, after seeing her in person, Ivanka is exactly my type.
Good luck there.
Now let's bring in Sky News contributer Koja Gata Kosher. We've got some serious things to discuss about the first one hundred days of Donald Trump's second term. But we can't underestimate the importance of the cultural phenomenon. We just saw there the Super Bowl celebrations with the Eagles.
It didn't happen in.
Trump's first term, that visit was canceled. Very different dynamic now for the president.
Very different.
It's almost like the arc, the story arc of his cultural comeback alongside his political comeback is almost complete. Because we've talked about everybody from the Silicon Valley Titans to high finance people like Bill Ackman to doctor Phil to the rap.
Industry to fifty cent to Bill Maher and now.
The super Bowl victors, the very Eagles who weren't very enthusiastic about coming last time, as you said, pop nobbing and rubbing.
Shoulders with him.
It's just it really just shows that that acceptance and rehabilitation into pop culture, if you.
Will, of brand Trump and Trump the person has happened.
And people who are still holding out, the few holdouts that those two players that you mentioned and Hollywood and others look rather silly.
I would say this moment in time.
Now today is one hundred days of Trump's presidency, and it has been a spectat.
Kill a ride.
No matter how you look at it, whether you're anti all things trample America. First, his presidency has been remarkable. He's set a furious pace and among his greatest achievements is addressing and solving the border crisis.
The illegal immigration crisis. Kosher is over.
It really is.
It was something like at his peak, underbid on eleven thousand illegal crossings per day and it's now down to somewhere between two hundred and three hundred. That's virtually zero, and in just one hundred days. It really is remarkable.
It shows that the missing ingredient.
Was enforcement and the political will to do enforcement, not new books, laws on the books, not comprehensive immigration reform, which is the thing that that was pointing to.
Just enforcement. That said, I think the wall.
While he's shown that it's not necessary to have the wall, that is something that his base really want because it has permanence, because all these things that he's doing now around enforcement can be undone if somebody from the other side gets back in. That is more for doing what Biden did and reopening floodgates again.
Absolutely, and the media is making the wall a big issue despite the fact that their legal immigration crisis is over. There's a lot of talk about the wall and Who's going to pay for it? This is something the borders are Tom Homan addressed overnight.
Trump said in Mexico and pay for the wall, they have been a roundabout way have been that putting ten thousand military in the northern and southern border, taking the action they did remain in Mexico.
They did not do that.
They're doing it, putting military on the southern boarder, have moved all immigration to a record law. We're saving millions of dollars every day on detention, transportation, removal proceedings. We've more than made up for the.
Costs that wall kosher even without the wall.
The border crisis is over, and it's because clear that the part and administration could have stopped or at least reduced this issue. The flood of illegals coming in more than two million a year under Biden, it seems like it was a choice not to address the crisis.
It's pretty undeniable because everybody can see the numbers. And that is really the conclusion that the American people are drawing, which is that they did not want to stop the crisis for whatever the reason is that you know, pouring genographics in and whatever that does to the vote bank and every other issue dependent how nefarious you want to
think their motives were. It was a choice because he's proving how quickly and this has happened, and it's the lowest it's been under any administration going all the way back to Bush and before, so that really really is remarkable. The wall, as I was mentioning, still has value, and that's why his base does hope that he'll go through with it. But the media nitpicking about who's paying for it and all that. They're going back to what they do on other issues that they have lost on so
dramatically in the political arena. They just go to my nusha and getting into these granular arguments about little issues because they've lost on the big issue and everybody can see it now.
Having death, having dealt with illegal immigration, the administration is focused on deporting the millions or in the country illegally, and they're now posters of violent illegal immigrants who have been arrested right outside the press. Tense Kosher, this is
on the White House lawn. It's sending quite a message to the media, Kosher, because they are preoccupied with the so called Maryland Dad, the gangbanger, and they are ignoring the fact that violent criminals, killers, rapists are being arrested and deported.
This is classic Trump, because the man understands media unlike anybody else. And now those posters, as you say, are going to be in the backdrop of every hit that they do unless they try to reposition their cameras.
So that's really funny.
And the reason why is because he again has won on the issue politically, He's one with the public, and he's forcing them into a corner where they end up having to keep defending people like who you see on those posters. It look like, you know, blug shotting criminals of tattoos on their faces, Maryland Dad, the sweet.
Student Khalil, all these people.
They're backing into defending the most indefensible people out of the bunch of illegals. And this is just a strike reminder every time they go to air. So it's going to be really funny if those posters stay up.
And despite all the relentlessly negative media about the deportation program, the polling shows that the majority of Americans are still in favor of deporting all illegal immigrants, not just those with criminal convictions, And I think that is a significant point to note now the major battle right now for the president is the trade wall, particularly with China.
This is a long.
Term strategy, kosher, but it involves a fair bit of short term pain. You're in the US right now. Tell me how the administration's handling.
This difficult issue.
How do you sell a policy that's all about the long term interests of the country when you're going to suffer a little bit of short term discomfort.
You know, it's not easy, and he is paying a little bit of a price for it, including in his own base somewhat, but by and large they still are trusting him and sticking with him, just because the alternative, which is the status quo, has not worked for the last half century. So that's something that he can use to his advantage that even if there's a bit of fear of the unknown over here, and the short term pain is something that's a tough pill to swallow, it's better than the alternative.
He remains more popular than the opposition. He's sort of he's.
Coming to the end of his honeymoon period, but he's still in it.
So this is the.
Time to strike while the iron's hot, while he's at his peak in terms of acceptance. He's got the majority in the legislative branch, and he's got a lot.
Of support for it.
So that's why he's sticking to his broad principles while being flexible on the specifics, and you're seeing some course correction or carbouds.
For certain sectors or countries or ab testing.
He does get criticism for that where people say, well, look, there's no coherent strategy, but many would say that that's actually part of his strategy. Stick to the fundamentals and then be willing to course correct on the specifics as you work through your strategy.
Now you're in DC right now, Democrats stronghold. But let's talk about another Democrat stronghold, California and the bluest of blue city San Francisco. So much of the crazy far left ideology we see in public policy starts in California, and this latest scheme is one that is certainly raising eyebrows. They are bringing the concept of equity to speed cameras. So if you're a high income owner and you speed, you'll pay a lot more than someone on a lower income.
If you're in a lower income you get a fifty percent discount kosher, and if you speed in your car, but are homeless, Well, you qualify for an eighty percent discount. Gavin Nuism is backing this plan. The California governor is a fan Kosher. What do you think about this equity in traffic fights?
It is so California because they just love progressive payment curves on everything from taxes to utility bills and now even speeding tickets. Everything's about income equality and you have to have this progressive curve. But why it's even more ridiculous here because it actually that position just doesn't make sense economically.
It's actually immoral, many would say.
But here it's even worse because speeding is about keeping road safe, and there's an externality component to it because if you have unsafe drivers that speed and do other things that are in violation of traffic laws, they're putting other people at risk on the roads on top of themselves. And so that's why the whole idea of speaking tickets is it's a mechanism to not have that or to
minimize that. And then if you start segregating it, then we're basically saying the lower income people are creating greater risk on the roads for hurting somebody else and the whole thing makes no sense.
And I can see this spreading throughout California, and some of our lawmakers here in Australia, I think, will be looking on with interest, and I nominate Victoria as the first state where this sort of proposal would be considered.
Kosher gay that thank you so much of your time tonight still to come.
The male athlete playing netball in eight women's competition, Stephanie Bastian has the Beta welcome back joining me now is the head of advocacy at Women's Forum Australia.
Ste Stephanie.
Let's start with this extraordinary story of a non binary netball player called David Capron, who goes by he him and they then pronouns. The Herald Sun reports he has been playing in women's netball leagues for the past two seasons.
A women's netball coach whose team has played against Capron has said that allowing him to compete against biological women was ridiculous and a joke, and I quote so many clubs were fuming because he was taking the piss and the complaints have been made and a player who said Capron trialed at her club said many women felt threatened and upset that their spot would be taken by someone who had played at a very high level in a
men's league. But Capron, a National Men's Championship player, has told their old son he wanted to be a beacon of hope for young queer kure so have little to no representation in community.
Sport, steph.
What has been their reaction from netball authorities? Surely their first priority is to protect female players and ensure fairness.
Look, first of all, can I just say how encouraging and wonderful it is that these female players and the coach are speaking out and pushing back. Netball Australia's response has been mediocre at best. They came out supporting the inclusion of trans players and said that if there are
concerns they'll look to address them. But I think Mark Butler needs to be held accountable too, because two months ago today he said that the women's sex based rights for sport were protected under the Sex Discrimination Act, that there were provisions in the SDA and that this wasn't an issue. Now we have a man who's playing in a female sport who's also playing as an inn and a male category as well. It's an absolute job now. The SDA needs reforming because there is a lack of clarity.
The rules are murky, It absolutely is murky, and Butler has been completely.
Dismissive of this as an issue in Australia. He seems to think it's just something that happens overseas and the US and the UK and they're no local examples when week after week, Sephany we seem to highlight local examples and the women who speak out are often attacked or just ignored.
Absolutely, they face serious legal repercussions if they speak out, they can be sued and dragged caught. But I think the clubs are often in a similar position as well, where they're afraid that if they do push back, or they're afraid of litigation because under the STA they're not protected.
There needs to be greater clarity and if you read the SDA revisions in conjunction with the austral Human Rights Commissioned Sporting Guidelines, it's just it's a legal mindfield that needs to be cleared up by Parliament now.
As we're reported last night, the women will speak rally in Melbourne on the weekend, organized by Women's Voices Australia descended into chaos after was disrupted by pro trans protesters. There was a counter protest which quickly became violent.
Street fights break out in the city. Fists fly as transgender rights protesters and opponents scuffle in skirmishes, Capsicum spray used to disperse crowds, police storming in to arrest two people. Across four hours of mayhem, this protester unmasked on Swanston Street. Others obstructing roads and blocking trams as they marched through the city. Our of cat and mouse with police through the CBD steph.
There was four hours of mayhem in the Melbourne CBD, only a couple of arrests and women again were intimidated for just holding a peaceful protest.
It's extraordinary. I mean, look at the heavy police presence to protect these women speaking out. We are constantly told that these transwrts activists are marginalized, they're victims, but for such a well supported, well funded lobby group, they're extremely violent. They're absolute bullies. There were shop owners closing their stores to protect their customers and their merchandise from the rabble running through the street.
And once again there's been.
A lack of political leadership in calling out and condemning their behavior. This behavior will not stop until it is condemned in the media and by a political leaders across the board.
And we've seen this behavior over and over again. Obviously, the more demail incident is the one that we have spoken about repeatedly, the fact that she was attacked, despite the fact that she was a victim of this phenomenon where women try to hold a rally to talk about their rights and these counter protests to show up. They're violent, they're feral, more deeming was physically assaulted, she was verbally assaulted,
and then her own party leader attacked her. Have we come some distance from that that was a couple of years ago, Stephanie. Is there a little bit more sanity when we see these sort of scenes and some of the media reporting seems to be a little bit more balanced now compared to a couple of years ago.
Absolutely, the conversation has definitely changed, and that is a silver lining in this whole scenario. I couldn't find any fault with the reporting. It was very the way that it was discribed women's rights rallies, trans rights activists. It was all very accurate and I think that, you know, the new leader, Brad Batton, has been very supportive of Moira, which is very encouraging. So yes, I think the conversation is shifting, and I think the police also should be
commended for their wonderful role in protecting women. The dial is moving that these society's attitudes are changing and shifting, which I think is really positive, and it's helped by decisions in the UK and Trump's executive orders, and hopefully we see more of this to come.
Now.
Talking about the UK, actor Pedro Pascal has attacked author JK. Rowling on x following the UK Supreme Court's historic ruling confirming that a woman is indeed an adult female. Pascal was responding to a comment from an activist urging people to boycott JK. Rolling's works. This is what he said about the best selling author and women's rights champion. And excuse me for the language here he said, awful, disgusting
shit is exactly right. Heinous loser behavior, Steph. This is just such a hideous attack against a woman who should be a hero to the left. She is off the left politically other than on this issue. She is very so called progressive and yet this is how she is smeared for merely standing up for women's rights and being on the right side of history.
Absolutely, he comes across as another entitled male celebrity telling woman what they can and can't think. I mean, we hear words like misogyny and the patriarchy thrown around, and I don't buy into those terms too often, but I see it a lot in this movement, and it's just not acceptable. It should be called out and condemned by the media industry.
Absolutely, Stephanie Bastien, thank you so much for your time tonight, and that's all the time we have tonight.
I'll see you at eleven tomorrow night. Up next, it's Newsnight.