Credlin

00:02 Peter Credlin, live from News 24. 00:08 Good evening. Welcome to the program. Here's what's coming up tonight on Credlin. Question time back today. Labor's migration reset in the housing crisis, topping the agenda. All the analysis with Tuesday Night Regular. Our political editor, Andrew Clennell, coming up. The illegal migrant crisis in Britain deepens. Mega dinghy is now being used to facilitate hundreds of people at once to cross the English Channel. Sophie Ellsworth will join me. Plus, the fallout continues over Anthony Albanese's smutty comments about the Japanese Prime Minister. 00:42 The ambassador doubling down amid calls for a personal apology. Our Prime Minister still refusing. And rates on hold today, but no end to the uncertainty for Australians who just want a break from cost of living pressures. 00:57 We've already raised three times and we will go again if we need to. 01:06 But first, Census night is tonight and everyone's been encouraged by the government to fill out your form so that the data you provide can be used to deliver the services that you want now and into the future in the right locations around our country. 01:22 At least that's the official line. But if you don't think the activists use the census as a weapon, then you are kidding yourself. And if you think that the independence of the Australian Bureau of Statistics means that the government has no hand in how tonight's census document is shaped, then think again there too. The Albanese government has its fingerprints all over this census. While the ABS will tell you that they draft the questions, and they do, the government is absolutely involved in the topics. 01:58 This year, as an example, it was the Albanese government that asked for a question to be included about gender and sexual orientation. 02:07 Yes, Labor put that in. Here is Jenny Telford, the ABS General Manager in charge of the Census, confirming exactly this today in an interview with my colleague Kieran Gilbert. 02:21 Do politicians shape this? Has there been any political input to some of these questions like around sexuality and so on? 02:31 So the way the content and the questions work in the Australian census, it is the Australian government who decide the topics that we include in the census. So they make that decision and then they request the ABS to design a set of questions, a set of response options that statistically will give us the best data. 02:51 And while he tried hard, Jenny Telford there refused to disclose which minister or ministers, or perhaps prime ministers, told them to include those questions on gender. 03:04 When you said the government suggested this change or this addition on sexuality, which minister does that? Who in the government makes that recommendation or that direction to the ABS? 03:16 Well, the ABS actually makes a recommendation based on everything we hear through that consultation process. We make a recommendation to government on the topics we think are important to include in the census. And then the government ultimately makes that decision. 03:28 But the direction itself, it just comes from government, not from, is it the minister's office? I'm just trying to work out where the direction comes from. 03:35 It is an Australian government decision to include particular topics and to retain particular topics on the census form. 03:43 He tried, didn't he? Let's look again at the very issue of religion. Now, as I've shown you over recent weeks, this is an important topic and one where the activists have really been busy in recent years. To this point, here's the former founder of the sex party, Fiona Patton, campaigning hard for the no religion vote tonight. 04:05 You know, when I was younger, I went to Sunday school. I was christened. I was confirmed. 04:13 I even growing up dreamt I was gonna become a nun, but I'm not religious now. 04:20 And so when you're asked on the census this week, what is your religion? If you're not religious now, mark no religion. 04:31 Now, as I said before, the order of the questions on the paper tonight matter as well. And the fact that the no religion box is the first box you can select when you get to the question, well, that advantages those running that argument. You saw it there from Fiona Patton, that increasingly Australia is a secular nation because the first spot on any ballot benefits the donkey vote. 04:56 That's why in an election campaign, when names are drawn out of the hat for a spot on the ballot paper, every candidate wants to be the first name at the top. And so when you have a question about religion and that top spot goes to the no religion camp, will they benefit? 05:15 Absolutely. As I discussed last night with polling expert Dr Dorian von Freeholdt. 05:23 The current census framing is somewhat peculiar in that it's a checkbox question where the first option is no religion. 05:33 Now, being a guy with a PhD in consumer psychology, having lectured many a course on research methodologies, that's a rookie error. You fall straight into what's called the primacy effect, which means that the first option visible to respondents gets a disproportionate amount of eyeballs and is more likely to be selected. 05:56 Now, when pushed, the ABS say that no religion's up the top because it was the box that achieved the greatest vote at the last census. 06:06 But how disingenuous is that? At the last census in 2021, if you want to measure just one religion against no religion, in fact, it was Christianity that received the greatest vote. 06:21 Christianity, reported the ABS, was the most common religion in Australia, with 43.9% of people identifying as Christian. Now contrast that with no religion, that recorded 38.9%. So if the order is determined by the largest number of responses, then why isn't Christianity at the top of tonight's census form? 06:48 Well, because of the way the question is framed. That's why. Because rather than give Australians a Christian box to tick, the ABS breaks down the Christian faith church by church. And so that means the Christian vote... 07:05 on the form tonight gets split. And because it is split rather than contained in a single box, the no religious crowd will stay at the top. See why the framing of a question matters as much as it does? It's just like political polling. The question you ask can be as important as the answer you get. 07:29 Now also understand this too, of all the religions listed on the census form, it is only, only the Christian faith that is broken down by denomination, so broken down church by church. No other religion gets this treatment. The ABS, as an example, does not split Islam into its distinct branches of Sunni Islam or Shia Islam. Nor does the census split Hindu into its various denominations. Heck, for that matter, the ABS doesn't even split out the no religion box either, does it? 08:04 If it was consistent, the ABS would have a box for the atheists, perhaps one for the agnostics as well. See what I mean? 08:13 What also concerns me with this question on religion is the message we send as a country by leaving Judaism off the list of specified religions and requiring Jewish Australians to record themselves under other. 08:29 At a time in our nation's history where anti-Semitism has never been worse, I would have thought that including Judaism on the form would be a powerful message that Jews matter. And yes, you can give me all the reasons why statistically other religions are prioritised in terms of population, but given the ABS confirming today that the Albanese government was involved in the development of the census, then for the government not to take this opportunity to send a clear signal to Australian Jews is disappointing. 09:04 Now, why this matters as much as it does beyond the recording of faith or otherwise of Australians is that census data is used across government, local, state and federal. And what you measure matters. 09:19 This data on religion will be used to plan for religious schools, hospices, perhaps hospitals of religious faith. It's used to accommodate ceremonies, cemeteries and other burial spaces. 09:33 Trust me too, it'll be used by some to argue for the removal of the morning prayer from our parliaments as it has been in the past. 09:42 Even things like laws in relation to legalised prostitution and planning rules around brothels, all things that have been liberalised in recent years, use census information on religion and faith as part of the political debate. 10:00 Now, I'm not passing judgment on any of these things. My point is that when activists campaign for census language changes and questions to be included or removed, they don't do it out of the goodness of their statistical hearts. 10:16 They do it because they have an agenda to change our country. And a big part in changing our country is the denial of our Judeo-Christian foundations. 10:31 There you go. Be careful what box you tick tonight. Let's get the headlines out of Canberra now with our reporter, Ruben Spargo. 10:39 Good evening. The opposition leader is facing a divided party room over gambling reforms. Five opposition backbenchers used a coalition meeting today to push for tougher reforms. Four others warned against going too far. 10:53 We want to make sure that we get the balance right. We think that we're nearly there. The conversations will keep going. 10:57 Angus Taylor is negotiating directly with the Prime Minister as the Coalition tries to settle on a position. A podcast in which Anthony Albanese spoke about receiving a gift of melons from the Japanese Prime Minister is dogging the government. A note from the Japanese government addressing the gaff was leaked to The Australian. 11:16 Will the Prime Minister apologise to the Prime Minister of Japan for his disrespectful behaviour? 11:23 I have a very good relationship with the Prime Minister of Japan. 11:27 The opposition leader also sought to pressure the Prime Minister over housing. 11:31 Will the Prime Minister finally admit Labor's broken promises on capital gains tax and negative gearing have made millions of Australian homeowners worse off? 11:42 I want people to have the opportunity to be the first in their family to own their own homes. That is something which is part of the great Australian dream. 11:53 Ministers are refusing to concede the government's changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax have led to the subsequent fall in house prices. 12:03 All right, as I said, Parliament, of course, returning today. First question time after a very long winter break. And who better than the next guest, Andrew Clonnell, our political editor at News24, to pull it all apart. Andrew, opposition today, they went to the Prime Minister about his comments on that podcast. We'll get to those in a moment. But the feature today from the Coalition in question time really was housing. 12:28 Labor's toxic taxes have tanked the housing market. Labor's broken promises on capital gains tax and negative gearing have made millions of Australian homeowners worse off. Can the Prime Minister confirm the average new mortgage holder is paying $29,000 a year more in interest alone? 12:51 Rents have reportedly increased by 10% since the budget just three months ago. 12:57 Well, the Democrat James Carvell famously said it's the economy's stupid and it was a lot of the economy today. What did you make of it, Andrew? 13:05 Well, I think there's fertile ground here for the opposition and I think the government's under pressure and you can see it in the way the ministers skate around the fact house prices have dropped partly because of their policies. And they won't say that. And that's been pretty ridiculous in interviews we've done the last couple of days. 13:21 So, yeah, it's biting out there whether it will last... 13:26 We'll see, but right now it's not a great position for the government. They're being seen to fumble a few things, that's for sure. 13:34 Yeah, and also I guess politicians have got big super accounts and perhaps wealth in other places and shares elsewhere. 13:42 Ordinary Australians basically have everything they've got locked up in their home. That's their biggest asset. It certainly is for me. I suspect it is for you too. So I think out there in the suburbs, this stuff bites dramatically. 13:54 Oh, everyone says, you know, just a terrible time to sell. 14:00 That's what you hear from people who various circumstances have to sell. They're really stuck in a bad scenario by these policies. That's the bottom line. So, yeah, it doesn't affect enough people to swing meaningful votes unless it persists. 14:15 But it is annoying people and they don't like to see their paper wealth go down and they wonder where it all goes from here. So, and they're not convinced the government's helping enough on cost of living anyway because inflation's still shooting up. So it's kind of, has a bit of midterm slump about it. Of course, we know last term they had a midterm slump and they came back and won. So if I was opponents of the Prime Minister, I wouldn't be getting too excited. Well, particularly Liberal Party down on 18% with the Nats, but One Nation's probably the only people who should be a bit excited, but they should temper that excitement at the moment. 14:51 I guess last time, though, on the centre-right column, there was no one else but the coalition. Now there's obviously another aspirin and preferences make it difficult for a majority government to be formed out of the centre-right. But you can see that people are voting with their feet away from the government. That's the problem. 15:09 Savvy people inside Labor get this. They're already putting One Nation into a lot of rhetoric in speeches and elsewhere and certainly in a campaign sense. But I think a lot of them who think that they are not at risk from One Nation have got their head in the sand. 15:24 No, Peter, the feeling around here, I mean, I saw a senior minister today and they were asking me about what's going to happen with the Liberal leadership and I said, you need to be worried about One Nation at the moment and that person said, yes, we do. Oh, I think they're very, really awake to it. They're awake to it. I mean, they hear it in their electorates. 15:42 So they're well aware of the threat and, you know, the British Labor Party's turned it around by changing horse, right? Yeah. 15:50 with someone from outside the parliament. And this is where I go back to my Malinowskis theory. I mean, Albanese will go at a time of his choosing. I've no doubt about that. But I just wonder if the Labor Party is to succeed at the next election or not end up in minority government at least. They need something like that, a big change like that. 16:11 as opposed to anyone they've got on that front bench. And I'm sure they'll be, you know, throwing things at the TV and their officers listening to me say that. But I just think we're in an era of politics where it requires that sort of thing. 16:25 And so your One Nation and reform movements have created that situation. And things are just moving incredibly fast in terms of public sentiment. There's so many things we can do with technology that people aren't... You know, they're not happy with the old way of doing things. They're prepared to try new things. 16:45 And that's how the electorate's changed, I think. 16:49 And, look, I agree with you on Malinowskis. He's the best that Labor's got anywhere in the country. He's better than anybody who's in the parliament right now. I've got something on him in relation to this AI Royal Commission. I'll get to that a bit later on. But, you know, I think the Libs would be concerned about him. He's the old Labor right. And this is why I think Labor is crazy to persist with this constant experiment that they're getting in Victoria and in Canberra by letting the left control the agenda because the left is fighting the Greens for space as opposed to coming in and taking voters off the coalition and obviously increasingly One Nation. 17:25 Is this why we're getting this movement into the immigration space? And what's happening with that? Because, yes, Burke's from the right, but normally from the right. I mean, he's been signed up to Elmaneasy for some time. That speech was happening last week. Then he got rolled. Then it got cancelled. We've got this legislation now from One Nation on foreign fighters. I mean, the real rise for One Nation and the real fall for the government happened after Bondi. and yet Labor is still very scared to get into this turf. 17:57 Oh, they'll get into it next week. They'll do this announcement next week. 18:01 Yeah. What are you hearing? It's only going to be two weeks later. 18:04 Well, I mean, I'm hearing they're going to curb, I guess, some of this business with family reunion off the back of visas. 18:14 They'll probably cut the student visa intake, the skilled intake, except for construction, health and defence jobs. 18:23 They're not cutting the number of permanent, which is 185, or net migration, which is 220 from the budget, but they're about 300 net migration. So Tony Burke's got to outline a bunch of ways he's going to get to 220, and this will be about trying to instil some confidence in that. And, of course, they say it's got nothing to do with One Nation. I mean, pull the other one, you know. 18:42 But yes... 18:44 But they've never met a target that they have set. They've had a forecast in every budget and the NOM has been well over the forecasts. So I hear that they'll go and announce stuff that people want to hear, but, you know, Pinocchio, please. 19:00 Isn't that what they do all the time? 19:03 Excuse my cynicism, Tina. 19:05 And, look, both sides, to be fair, the Coalition's talked tough as well. Hanson's number out there on migration is 130,000. That's her average. Well, that's where the Howard government was. That was where I think Abbott was promising 160. It's crept up after that and it's gone on and on and on to the point that, you know, Morrison's era... but for COVID, take COVID out. Dutton's era as well. All of that was pretty shocking. So this has been a long time coming in the Australian population. And this idea that somehow, you know, that they can bury their head in the sand, both sides, both the coalition and Labor here, I think there's a reckoning on migration. 19:45 I think it is one of the biggest issues, without a doubt, this term and will be at the ballot box. 19:53 Yeah, I mean, we've got an ageing population and there's not many solutions in there in terms of, like, at least Peter Costello could point to the baby bonus, right? But there's not many solutions on that front to the government. It's like they throw their hands up in the air and say, we have to have immigration. 20:12 Not so easy to sell, particularly when the housing doesn't move with it. 20:16 Yeah, well, it's popped up Scott Morrison's budget. It's plenty of time, which I think is the point we're making. 20:21 Yeah, I'm equally critical, mate. I'm equally critical, and I was tough last night on my side for not putting a number. A lot of aspiration out there four or five months ago, but no number yet. Let's go to these comments. Again, the Prime Minister in trouble about the melon and the Japanese Prime Minister. 20:36 Have a listen. 20:38 Will the Prime Minister personally apologise to the Prime Minister of Japan? 20:43 I reject the assertion in the question. Seriously? 20:47 Australia and Japan have never been closer or more strategically alone. 20:52 Will the Prime Minister apologise to the Prime Minister of Japan for his disrespectful behaviour? 21:00 I have a very good relationship with the Prime Minister of Japan. 21:06 And then this response. Have a listen. 21:09 some media interpretations of that episode of that podcast have been misinterpreted. 21:16 There has been a sensationalised reporting of something that, as the Prime Minister has been very clear about, has been mischaracterised. 21:24 The comments and the remarks from the Prime Minister have been misinterpreted. The Prime Minister is very clear that he did not mean for those comments to be interpreted in the way they have by some media outlets and by our political opponents. 21:39 Okay, Gallagher's also the Minister for Women, not just the Finance Minister. And please, Andrew, he insults us. I mean, melons and he does this one. Come on, right? 21:49 Why can't he just fess up when he mucks up, when he stuffs up, when he falls off the stage, when he lies? Why can't he ever admit when he's got it wrong? 22:00 So I can't believe I have to say this on air, but his position is he didn't mean breasts, right? 22:06 That he was just juggling actual fruit melons. 22:09 What do you make of that position, Peter Cridlin? 22:13 Well, they weren't like this, mate. He did them up here. You know, when you do the melons like that rather than the melons like that, come on, mate. Like, we've all been to a footy club before. You and I grew up in the real world. We know what that is. Every woman knows what that is. And I think we're sick of the lies from this bloke. This is where the trust and the character deficit is so obvious. Yeah. 22:35 Well, it seems to me like he's trying not to give the grab where he says that, right, so he just keeps saying the, and then all not, it's mischaracterised, it's misinterpreted. They don't want to be, you know. 22:47 Like, if he really wanted to go at the attack on it, he should probably just come out and say, I find any suggestion that that had a sexual overturn insulting and just go for it. Like, that's probably where he needs to be at, otherwise he's never going to be able to sweep it aside. It looks highly offensive. 23:02 They say, you know, he's spoken to the Prime Minister since, there's no problem. Their position is the Japanese have no problem. Their position is the ambassador who spoke out about it. 23:11 The former ambassador in the Australian is disgruntled and their position is that he didn't mean it the way, he didn't mean it to involve press, if I have to say that again. So that is their position. That's all I can tell you and the viewer. And you have to make your own judgement on that. 23:27 And I think people are. I'll leave it there. Sorry, Andrew, we've had to say the breast word on air and boys don't like that. But us women are pretty comfortable with it. I'll leave it there. Thank you. Let's go to the rate decision today. No surprises there. The RBA voting to keep the cash rate on hold, 4.35%. 23:44 Good news if you've got a mortgage, but of course there's still underlying pressures in the economy and they're not easing, are they? Joining me now are the independent economist with EQ Economics, Warren Hogan. Well, she was pretty quick, the government today, to say that rate cut wasn't even discussed at the board meeting, but that, she says, the board will not be afraid to raise rates. Warren, what do you think? 24:05 Well, I'm surprised they didn't raise rates because the governor went to great lengths throughout the press conference to emphasise the fact that they're probably going to have to. In fact, she stated, which I sort of couldn't believe, that she personally thinks rates are going to have to go higher, which is an incredible statement from a Reserve Bank governor. So I think the fact that no one was expecting it or sorry, the markets weren't pricing a rate hike today. 24:31 probably made it difficult for them, and they're certainly leading the market towards a rate hike in the next little while. And they've given us a set of forecasts which show essentially the Australian consumer buckling from here on in. And, of course, if those forecasts aren't met, i.e. consumers continue to spend or various other elements like wages come in higher, inflation is a bit higher, then they will move. So they've set it all up for a rate hike. I think we should be all pencilling in at least one or two, and let's hope that's it. 25:03 We saw yesterday that data from, I think it was Westpac, one of the big four anyway, that said their mortgage books down by 20% in terms of applications. If you listen to the government today in question time, nothing that they are doing is impacting house values. They're not responsible for the fall in auction clearances. It's nothing to do with the budget. Who's telling the truth here, the statistics or the Treasurer? 25:26 Hmm. 25:27 Well, the realities of our housing market are that we had the reversal of the rate cuts from last year, earlier this year, and, of course, the start of the conflict in Iran and the shutting of the Persian Gulf had a big impact on what is a very sentiment-driven market. 25:44 And then, of course, the market was starting to weaken already, and then the government, with no forewarning, no flagging of this radical shift in policy, really, it's intergenerational-type shift, brings it down in the budget. So to be able to identify exactly which of those three factors is the most important is hard, but there's no doubt that the market was slowing and the government has given it a really big kick So, you know, even if there's merit in these changes, which some economists think there are, other people don't, the fact is I think their timing was terrible. 26:19 And I think the standout feature of this market is just the collapse in turnover or transactions. Prices are falling. That's not unusual. They could get worse. But the transactions in the market have collapsed in a way we haven't seen before. And that's why the industry itself is hurting so much. 26:35 Talk to me about work from home because in Victoria, it's not just the government controlling whether their public servants work from home or not, and they work from home, but the government's also got laws on the table in relation to private sector businesses. Now, already under the Fair Work Act, people have to be flexible for... certain circumstances or, you know, reasons of kids being sick or whatever. But this will be mandated work-from-home days for the entitlement of every private sector worker. There's a lot of pushback from business. 27:08 Victoria's, you know, belly-up bankrupt anyway. It's so far behind the other states in terms of getting people back into the office post-COVID. Brisbane, Sydney, everywhere else is gangbusters. Victoria is a laggard. The new Premier today has pushed it on the long finger, says he's not going to bring the laws in straightaway. Reports today that if they do pursue this, 100,000 square metres of office space in Melbourne will be empty next financial year. 27:40 productivity, getting Victoria back on its feet. Give me your estimate or your analysis of work from home. 27:49 Well, in this case, it's just another highly misguided government intervention in our economy and in our lives. And it's going to backfire severely and rapidly because Victoria, as you alluded to, is already on the precipice and it needs the government to be undertaking measures that help government. investment, help productivity, help get some confidence in the economy. This is not going to do that, and the business reaction has been visceral in the past week. 28:19 So, you know, Victoria is already a standout. Its unemployment rate has increased by twice as much as the rest of the countries in the last two years and is now over 5%. Its inflation is actually lower than the rest of the country, which sounds good, but it's actually a sign of a weak economy. 28:37 You know, if they cut this immigration much and Victoria is very reliant on immigration and population growth to keep their economy ticking over, who knows if that tips them over or a measure like this, if it's enforced in the new year. The fact is Victoria cannot withstand too many more blows and, of course, the issue is does that start to affect the rest of us? It's a really bad policy. 29:01 Well, we know it was under Tim Pallas, a former Treasurer, that he went to his mates in Canberra and tried to get a bailout. Thank goodness Jim Chalmers didn't do it. 29:11 But I guess the corollary here on this stuff too, productivity, work from home, all the other changes hitting Victoria. I mean, you'll just upshore the jobs. You'll take the capital and the business out of Victoria. You'll send the jobs off to the Philippines to a call centre or... AI will replace them. It's not that you'll get to work from home. It's that you won't get to work at all. 29:35 Yeah, I agree. And look, at the first glance, of course, this sort of thing just hastens the incentive for businesses to move to other states or given what's happening more broadly with these tax changes and talk of particularly young people looking to set themselves up overseas. 29:50 to take the business overseas altogether, which, you know, is a disaster for the whole country, getting young, innovative, forward-looking people out of the country is not a good thing. But to your point, I mean, we have got a productivity crisis, which is one of the key elements underpinning a declining living standard in this country. It's not just that slow-boiling frog effect of declining living standards now. We've got political issues with the rise of One Nation. And, of course, in my sense, in my judgement, we are... just ripe for some economic crisis to suddenly come out of the blue. 30:21 In fact, I think it's the fear that something's going to go wrong that's keeping the RBI on hold for the time being. But these policies are setting us up for a major issue. And, of course, it's the reverse of everything we've done in the last 40 years to build wealthiest and best economies the world's ever seen. 30:41 I will leave it there on that very cheery note. Warren Hogan, thank you. 30:45 After the break, a closer look at the smoke and mirrors strategy of labour and defence spending. 30:51 What are they calling it? Procurement. Dodginess or something like that. Performative procurement. There you go. And Tony Abbott, geez, he got criticised for looking at his watch one time in the parliament. What does he make of the melons in Albanese and the Japanese Prime Minister? That's next. 31:11 I was born in 2013 and made a vestuário for cyclists. For me, the best part of Shopify is the possibility of a business even not having technical knowledge. We managed to do everything, from back-end to front-end, and to make online vendas, without complications. If a Shopify was a cyclist equipment, I would say that it would be the bicycle. It's what allows us to get where we want. It's on Shopify that we manage our business. Come on your evaluation on Shopify.com. 31:42 Welcome back. We know the boats are bad in the UK, but it's escalated enormously in the last couple of days. Hundreds and hundreds are in single inflatables at the moment. They're crossing the channel. Those numbers are up very much yesterday. We'll get to that in a moment with Sophie Ellsworth. Now to claims the Albanese government has engaged in performative procurement to shore up its dodgy defence credentials after revelations it purchased air-to-air missiles that are yet to enter service and aren't even due to be delivered for years. 32:16 Here to discuss this and more, former Prime Minister, of course, Tony Abbott, and now, of course, the Liberal Party National President, Tony. Let's talk about defence because we... 32:27 We look around the world, we look obviously at the Straits of Hormuz in Iran, but you can imagine what that would be if China wanted to operate like Iran in our region. If we think that's a constraint on fuel, goodness me to our north, we've got all that talk obviously about Taiwan. What do you make of this announcement by the government with these air-to-air missiles on the absolute long finger? Yeah. 32:53 This is a government which is determined never to commit our armed forces to combat. 32:59 And everything they are doing is about saying, well, we're not ready now, but we might be ready in 10 years' time. And frankly, it's just not good enough. 33:08 Capable armed forces need to be ready to engage in military operations at any time. 33:15 This government wants to ensure that if the Americans ever ask us to help, they don't have to say we won't help, but they can say we'd like to help, but we can't because we haven't got the ability to do so. And I go back to the time in December 2023 when the Americans asked us to send a frigate to the Red Sea and we refused. This is the first time since 1951 when Australia has declined a direct American request for military assistance. And as I said, it's a sign that this is a quasi-pacifist government that doesn't want to admit to pacifism, just wants to make the armed forces incapable of any serious military mission now. 33:57 Yeah, there's a real push on the use of our military for basically natural disaster work, constant humanitarian work, but you can't project a security posture unless you've got a threat, right? Unless you've got the weapon behind your back that people know you will use it. 34:15 The government is terrified that in the event of serious conflict in our region, we might be asked for help and they want to be able to say we'd like to, but we can't. 34:24 Is that because the Prime Minister's coward by Beijing? 34:30 There's no doubt that everything this government does is designed to appease Beijing. 34:38 Why didn't we make more of a fuss of the Japanese Prime Minister when she was here? 34:43 Why didn't she get the chance to address both Houses of Parliament? 34:48 Plainly, it's because this is a government which is terrified of upsetting Beijing. It wants to pretend that the relationship has been, in a sense, stabilised. Well, it's only been stabilised because we are basically in full kowtow mode. 35:04 Let's play a comment from Shingo Yamagami. I know you know him well, of course, former ambassador for Japan to Australia. Have a listen. 35:12 This is not a political issue at all, and this shouldn't be treated as a partisan issue. Simply, this is a matter of decorum, diplomatic propriety, and also mutual respect. 35:30 Well, you made those comments about the Prime Minister and the Japanese Prime Minister, and you'll have seen the brouhaha of these melons. I made the point a bit earlier on. I mean, you were skewed in the Parliament by Julia Gillard for daring to look at your watch. How does he get away with this? How do all these Labor ministers say it's not sexist? You've seen it. Look... You're a dad of girls. 35:48 Come on. Labor has dreadful double standards. The Prime Minister's comments were unbelievably crass. 35:56 Now, he apologised for the observations about Kylie Minogue. 36:00 He should be man enough to likewise apologise for the observations about the Japanese Prime Minister. 36:07 Look, all of us make mistakes. All of us occasionally have lapses of judgement and character. But if you don't apologise, it doesn't just look like a lapse. It looks like a very serious character flaw and very serious lack of judgement. And frankly, that's pretty bad in our national leader. 36:29 I just quickly want to make the point about the ABS and the census and, you know, people trying to pretend that the ABS is independent. Well, it is. But this idea that government doesn't have a hand in the questions that get on the form and the topics, well, of course it does. That admission today from the ABS is clear. But on religion, you know, they split Christianity out by church. almost to sort of diminish its breadth and deep resonance with Australians, no other, Hindu, Islam, no other religion split out by its various denominations. 37:02 And that enables no religion, which is the largest group, to go to the top. But if you put all the Christian churches together, Tony, they should be at the top. 37:11 Mm-hmm. 37:12 Look, plainly there is a green left establishment that doesn't like Australia and wants to change the way we are, doesn't like our Anglo-Celtic core culture, doesn't like our Judeo-Christian fundamental ethos, and they are always fishing for evidence to say that we're not really a basically Christian society, that we're not really a fundamentally Anglo-Celtic culture. And this is all of a piece with this. 37:41 The questions you ask determine the answers you get. And to be honest, they're weighting the questions to get the answers they want. 37:50 Thank you for joining me. 37:51 Thanks. 37:52 Tony Abbott, remember we said that book he wrote about Australia. Who knew that a book, a positive book about our country would be so popular? Well, let me tell you, it sold almost 100,000 copies. No other PMs had a book like it. All right, after the break, we'll get to the UK channel because that stuff over there is huge at the moment, these mega diggies. 38:13 Sophie Ellsworth coming out. 38:21 All right, that push for taxpayers to spend billions of dollars, your money, to hand it to Silicon Valley billionaires to build data centres in Australia. That's not on, is it? We'll get to that in a moment. But now to the arrival of more than 230 people in what's been called a single mega dinghy, this is an inflatable, used to cross the English Channel. Arriving into the UK early on Monday morning and significantly escalating illegal migrant issues. All the while, the new Prime Minister, who's been there for about a fortnight, is on leave. 38:55 Here to discuss this and more, News 24 contributor News Corp Australia's European correspondent Sophie Ellsworth. Well, we'll get to the bloke on leave after just getting into the job in a moment, Sophie. But this is just days after Nigel Farage said he's going to copy the Abbott government template to stop the boats. I mean, even in our day, I didn't see any sort of inflatable device like that. A hundred people or more. This would be huge news over your way. 39:26 Well, it is indeed, Peter. I mean, you only have to look at the front pages of today's papers in the UK. I've got here on the front of the sun, not so small boats crisis. And then on the front of the Daily Mail, a similar front page, day small boats crisis becomes a big boats crisis. They're saying that there was 230 illegal migrants come in on this giant inflatable boat, which is more than the typical amount of passengers on an easy jet flight. But Andy Burnham, the new Prime Minister, has said that the numbers that have come in illegally this year, which are about 15,000, are about 40% down on last year. 40:06 But this is making the whole issue look farcical, Peter, in the UK, and it's something that's making Britons incredibly annoyed. 40:15 Yeah, that's certainly showing up in polling. Sophie, Britain, like Australia, didn't mind migrants coming in, welcomed migrants as long as they joined the team. But that's really turning around now. The hostility to migration is significant. 40:32 It is indeed, Peter, because as you know, there's so many issues here in the UK, pressures on cost of living, pressures that households are feeling every day, and they're looking for some form of relief. And a lot of Britons are angry because they feel that people are coming into this country and they're getting a free ride. They're coming in illegally and then they're being allowed to be put up in hotels and given various amenities, access to healthcare, et cetera. and basically put in the system with years until their cases have heard of whether or not they should be here. 41:06 But this issue just will not go away. And Andy Burnham's only been in office three weeks. He hasn't been very prominent on this issue, Peter, but it is one that he is eventually going to have to come out and address properly. 41:21 Well, he's only been there for three weeks, but he's already been on leave, Sophie. 41:25 He has indeed, Peter. He had the first two weeks in office and then he took one week off. Now, in fairness, in August, it is recess here for the parliament, but a lot of locals in Britain are really annoyed about this, saying he's just got the keys to 10 Downing Street. Why on earth is he on holiday when we have issues all around the country? He's now on a national tour going around the country, listening to Britons about their concerns. But Peter, he's only been in the job a few weeks and already the bad headlines are coming. 42:00 Goodness me, he needs to sit on his backside behind the desk, get the briefings and start to work. I think everyone knows what the problems are. He doesn't need to listen to people. He needs to look at the channel. That's number one problem. And a whole lot more. I'll leave you there, Sophie. You look like you're out there enjoying the beautiful British summer. It won't last long. Enjoy it while you've got it. We'll catch up again soon after the break. The South Australian Premier, Peter Malinowskis, a warning today over AI. I tell you, I am with him on this. I know it's a shock, but I am. I'll get to that in a moment. My panel up next. 42:36 All right, let's jump back into it. All the issues of the day with News24 contributor Lucy Zellick and One Nation's national executive member Lee Hansen. Ladies, and I'll use that word because I'll require you to follow me here. We'll get to a whole lot of issues in a moment. But back to Mellon's and the Prime Minister and the Japanese dignified Prime Minister. Ours is not so dignified. If you were watching a bloke go, oh, melons like this, would you think he was talking about fruit or would he be talking about breasts, Lucy? 43:08 Peter, it's clear and obvious to everyone, right? We knew what the innuendo was intending there. He played well into the podcaster's hands when she referenced Pamela Anderson. So it doesn't take a scientist or Einstein or even someone that's on the business or in the business of consistently being offended to understand what he meant by those interpretations. I note that Mr Clennell was very uncomfortable with the term breasts, but breasts, hey, that's what we all know that he was referring to in that moment. 43:39 I think it's very clear and obvious. So the fact that it took the ABC over 25 days to apologise and that's now at last count, I think about 30-something days since that podcast went to air and Anthony Albanese still hasn't acknowledged it, in spite of all the calls for him to do so, I think is pretty damaging in many ways. I agree with the former ambassador's comments and the fact that many of his Labor frontbenches, his colleagues arguing that, you know, there was nothing wrong with it and it's all just being sensationalised and, you know, taken out of proportion, I think is just leaning more and erring more on the side of it being about politics rather than just being about the truth. 44:21 You made a mistake, front up and apologise. It's not that. 44:26 And you're right to reference Gina Reinhart there again, because Sunai Takahachi is a woman on the right, political right. Pauline Hanson's on the right. Gina Reinhart's on the right. You all are. I am as well. We get no such protection. It's not sexism if it happens to us, Lee. 44:44 No, it's double standards, right? And it's absolutely appalling and so disappointing that the head of our state, our Prime Minister, can make inappropriate sexual innuendos. No one can mistake this. Every Australian, it doesn't matter who you are, understands what this gesture is. And the fact that you can't own it, that you can't admit that you made a mistake and you continue to lie about it, speaks volumes about one's character. And I feel very, very sorry for our Japanese Prime Minister that she's experienced this. 45:18 And whilst they've come out and said, look, we don't believe there was any ill intent, Interpret that a little bit further. They didn't say that it wasn't inappropriate. It wasn't said that it wasn't hurtful. And that's how I interpret it as well. It's not okay and the Prime Minister needs to apologise for his actions because it impacts all women, those types of comments as well. 45:43 And of course, it was a podcast. In that instance, he was talking about shagging Kylie Minogue, and somehow he wasn't talking about breasts in that same half an hour of smut. I kid you not, but that's where we are. Let's go to those other issues that I want to get to now. The announcement by the South Australian Premier Peter Malinowskis today, it's a royal commission he's announced into artificial intelligence. Now, I don't know that I think it necessarily needs a Royal Commission, but we need a really big detailed look at AI. 46:15 We need to set some guardrails about it before it gets into Australia. And we've had the warnings from AI creators to say we're getting a beast now that's going rogue. And if it goes rogue, what are the consequences? Listen to the Premier. 46:30 I'm worried that we're a bit underweight in the policy effort and the policy response that is going to be required to make sure we get the balance right between pursuing this opportunity where there are very significant productivity gains to be made, but also protecting the community from some of the risks associated with AI. 46:49 Now, I said before, Lucy, I'm 100% with him here. We go down the path of social media and after the horse is bolted, we see all this harm and the suicides of young people. We try and rein it in. People like me and you and I know others have been saying, let's have some rules and protocols around AI before we let it loose. 47:09 That's exactly what he wants to do. But all Canberra's talking about is the opportunity of data centres and the money they might make and renewable energy, we'll get to that in a moment, rather than what Malinowskis is talking about. Absolute common sense, don't you think? 47:24 I couldn't agree more. And I think had many of us had the opportunity back when social media was just on the rise, Peter, if many of us back then had known what it would have become, we would have all been arguing for safer and more robust conversations, particularly around the use of social media for children, for those guardrails to be explored and for those conversations to have taken place. I don't think anything is lost by investing some serious concerns time, thought and energy into this. And Milenauskas has just come back from the United States where he established a memorandum of understanding with open AI to explore the productivity and the parameters around how they can improve such matters within the state public service. 48:08 What's to say that we don't require that at a national level? When you listen to creators like Elon Musk, entrepreneurs in this space, They often talk about the fact that the horse has already bolted and now trying to keep it at a measured pace where the advancements are taking place almost weekly is impossible to restrain. So bring it on, I say. When he makes comments like it'll cost more than $3 million, I'm comfortable with that considering that they offer tens of millions of dollars to their local AFL teams every year, by the way. 48:41 And I might also add, you know, you've got Chris Bowen out there wanting to use taxpayer funds through the Clean Energy Corporation to basically fund data centres, provided they use renewable power, which taxpayers fund anyway. And the profit in all of that heads off to Silicon Valley. I mean, Lee, why are taxpayers, when our hospitals need work, when our roads need work, when we should be spending the money on our own, are we going to make Silicon Valley richer? Yeah. 49:09 Mm-hmm. And look, let's just name this up. This is Labor's plan to double down on net zero, pure and simple. They're using AI data centres now to drive net zero in. We know that they have a target of 82% renewables by the year 2030. They're not meeting that target currently, so how can we get there? We will ensure that data centres must bring their own renewable, which is intermittent power, to fuel these data centres. But wait, we'll get the taxpayer to fund it. 49:40 So it serves their purpose and nothing else. It is wrong. And if they were genuine about this, let's put it out to consultation for the actual taxpayer. Let's get some feedback. Because you go around this country and the majority of citizens have deep concerns about these AI data centres on multiple levels. So the fact now that the transparency needs to be exposed, that this is just driving in Labor's net zero scam and using another backdoor at the taxpayer's expense, and it's wrong. 50:11 It's simply wrong. 50:14 Spot on ladies. I love that term. Gets under the skin of so many. I'll see you both next week. There you go, Lucy and Lee. Aren't they fantastic? That's it for me. I've got a chicken roast at home to go home to. So I will enjoy and I'll watch Andrew, as will you. He's up next.