CredlinThe Coalition's plan to bolster our national security, and the Treasurer's shocking comment following the foiled Sydney terror plot. Plus, Tony Abbott on the need for a national inquiry into gender-affirming care.
Peter Kranland live on Sky News Australia.
Good evening, great to have your company. Here's what's coming up tonight. Labor asleep at the wheel, meaning the coalitions now announcing as we speak, a massive overhaul of our national security. It's fast becoming a big election issue. We'll get to all the detail and analysis on what they will change if elected in a moment. Inflation might have been down yesterday, that's a good thing, but today evidence that wholesale power prices have dramatically increased, and yet Chris Bowen keeps trying to tell us renewables are cheap. Plus. You won't believe what the Federal Treasurer had to say on morning television today following news, of course, of that foiled terror plot in Sydney. Now what is said about our Jewish community is horrific. It's unbelievable. I'll show you that in a moment. And on that explosive caravan issue, it could easily have been a mass casualty event. More details are emerging, being still vague, a whole lot of secrecy. We're not being told much, are we. Tony Abbott will join me shortly for his take. Peter Dutton said.
This, people are now living in fear and it's been entirely predictable that when the Prime Minister hasn't stood up and been strong and renounced all of this activity over the course of the last fifteen months or so, well, of course it's going to escalate.
We'll stay with that issue because after finding a caravan with enough explosives to kill hundreds of Jews in a mass casualty terror attack, you think that the Prime Minister would be the first leader Australians would hear from. But no, yet again it was the new South Wales premier taking the lead.
It is utterly appalling and shameful that an individual would spray racist, hate filled messages on a school. That tells you everything you need to know about how appalling these bastards are.
That was in picking up, of course, on more anti Semitic attacks this morning. But meanwhile, over on morning breakfast television we had the Treasurer the next Labour PM in waiting. If you believe what he's telling his colleagues say this.
This is obviously a terrifying development. What it shows is that the fears that a lot of Australians in the Jewish community have are not always unfounded, not.
Always unfounded, meaning what that sometimes they are The Jews sometimes make up claims that they've had their synagogue's bond, that their cars are bird that the homes are hit with graffiti, because the evidence, the facts are the very opposite, and comments like that are disgraceful. They're unbecoming of anyone in any position of authority. Now, later this afternoon, after being pushed hard by Sky News, the Treasurer tried to walk back those comments for you be the But in terms of the federal government's official response to these revelations of a likely terror plot, it wasn't until well into the morning that we actually heard from the Prime Minister.
This is a time for unity and for the country to come together against these atrocities and this appalling acts. Not a time to look for political partisanship or to make political points. I don't intend to do.
So political partisanship. Contrast those weak words about what he says about supporting Jewish Australians with the reality of what he's actually done at the UN after almost seven decades of bipartisanship. He's forced us to vote against Israel. He's forced Australia to take a position that in effect rewards the terrorists over the only democracy in the Middle East. He's handed out three thousand visas to people from Gaza with all but no security checks, and once around seventy percent have been allowed to apply to stay permanently. Now if that happens the law, then bring their relatives to Australia and those numbers will treble. Despite the bile coming out of mosques in Sydney and Melbourne or no hate preachers have been deported, no anti Semitic protesters have had their visas canceled, no university encampments have been broken up, and at least by the federal police have hardly seen any arrests. This is the weakest prime minister in living memory, and the Albanizing government is worse than Whitlam because at least Whitlam looked and sounded like a leader and was in charge of events rather than just responding to them. Today, there are signs that the Prime minister's own team is losing faith with him. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones or He's just announced his retirement, a signal that he expects the government to lose. We know that the West Australian Labor Premier doesn't want the Prime Minister anywhere near him ahead of his election on March nine, and today there are reports that some Labor MPs don't want the PM coming to their electorates. The PM is diluted if he thinks the difference between winning and losing is more elbow. That's the line he's spuny his colleagues. As support for the Voice plummeted. He told the caucus just keep faith. I'll turn it all around, until he didn't because the more the Prime Minister said in favor of the Voice, the less Australians liked it. And that's what's happening here now. The more people see the Prime Minister, the more they're walking away from Labor in the polls. Now, if the polls are accurate, they expose the truth. There's been no recovery of that downward trend for well over sixteen months. To me, it looks terminal, or it will be terminal the more time they give Peter Dutton to get his message out and campaign. At least the Prime Minister's office managed to restrain him from indulgent appearances at the cricket and the tennis over summer. But there's a serious breakdown in his office if they allow happy snaps like this to be taken and posted on social media of a high rollers fundraiser with discredited form of Premier Daniel Andrews an assortment of dubious others. Yesterday's lower inflation figures had Labor luminaries from the Prime Minister down boasting about Labour's economic management and not so subtly trying to heavy the Reserve Bank governor into a rate cut.
Now, the soft landing that we have been planning for and preparing for is now looking more and more likely.
Labour seemed to think that a quarter of a percent cut and mortgage rates, if that happens after thirteen rate hikes, will be their political salvation, even though that would still leave a standard home loan percentage four percentage points higher than when Labour took office and the average home buyer still twenty thousand dollars a year worse off. It'd be the contemporary equivalent of John Howard's fifteen minutes of Economic Sunshine after the Kenny Recession. Seven successive courters and negative growth per person means that the Albanezy household recession is way way worse than keatings in terms of real disposable income once mortgage costs are taken into account. The Coalition reckons there's been a ten percent hit on your living standards, made worse by Labour's renewables only energy policy and its addiction to ever more government spending and handouts. Today it seems that Labour's jobs destroying so called nature positive environmental legislation, well that's back on the table to appease the Greens, even though the Prime Minister earlier promised to kill it off to appease the Wa Premiere. This is just a foretaste of the economic vandalism that would be our country's fate should the Prime Minister need to do a deal with the Greens to survive.
And we now find out that there's a secret deal that's been signed between the Greens and Labor Party about introducing a bill which will stop mining in its tracks in Wa, which would destroy the Wa economy, not to mention the national economy. So if the Prime Minister is trying to stitch up a secret deal before the election, he should release that detail so that people know about it. Before they vote. At the election.
You blow up WA, you blow up mining, you blow up the budget, and a deal with the Greens would be the worst possible election outcome. The next worst and probably now highly unlikely, would be a majority Labor government. But the best outcome, and the one that looks more and more likely to me, would be a clear coalition to wind to send mister Copa Kabana packing into that retirement that clearly he's already planning. See your ladder, elbow. I don't think it can come fast enough. All right, we'll go to Cameron. Out the headlines Skyny's political reporter at Trudy Macintosh.
The Prime Minister has called for unity in the wake of the latter's foiled anti Semitic attack.
There's zero tolerance in Australia for hatred and for any Semitism, and I want any perpetrators to be hunted down and locked up.
It is a national disgrace and the Prime Minister is presided over this deteriorating situation.
This is a time for unity and for the country to come together.
The terror threat level remains it probable. In a statement, AZIO boss Mike Burgess pointed to a disturbing escalation targeting Jewish interests, adding that Azio does not believe there's an ongoing threat to public safety.
Should we exp prize that this is escalated now it to an attempt to terrorist totake. No, we shouldn't and the Prime Minister needs to show national leadership here.
Meanwhile, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has apologized for these clumsy comments this morning.
This is obviously a terrifying development and what it shows is that the fears that a lot of Australians in the Jewish community have are not always unfounded.
In a statement, the Treasurer saying it was his intention to share and acknowledge the very real and understandable fears and concerns in the Jewish community in the light of recent events. He adds, I could have and should have expressed that more clearly and I'm sorry I didn't.
Are you kidding me?
Are not always unfounded after what we've seen happen in Sydney in particular over the last two months. No, no, their fears are not always unfounded. Shame on you, Jim Chalmers. Shame on you.
Anthony Albernizi and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones joins the list of Labor MPs retiring ahead of the next election.
The average length of part earliament time for a Member of Parliaments.
Five and a bit years. I've done fifteen and I've just reached the stage in my life where I think it was time for me to do something else. I don't know what that is yet.
Trudy Macintosh Sky News, Canberra.
Well, it's a busy election year, greatab Trudy back on deck now. If you thought Tanya plavsex ill conceived Nature Positive plan was dead and buried after the PM put the kibosh on it last year, we'll think again. The Environment Minister has revealed she's working with all parties to secure the passage of the bills through the Senate, and Peter Dutton knows exactly who's she referring to.
And we now find out that there's a secret deal that's been signed between the Greens and Labor Party about introducing a bill which will stop mining in its tracks in wa.
Let's bring my panel in for comment. Deputy Executive Director at the Institute of Public Affairs Dan Wilde and One Nation Chief of Staff James Ashby Gens welcome, Well, James. If the polls are accurate, we know major already Labor government is out of reach. So are we seeing here the first steps exposed by Tanya Plebisk of a secret deal between Labor and the Greens for some sort of power sharing arrangement.
Well it shows that, but it also shows disunity within the Labor Party and it's unclear right now who is governing this country. Is it Tanya Plebcheck or is it Anthony Albanezi. It's not just going to take the Greens to get this bill across the line. We have to look further afield, particularly in the Senate. Is it going to be Jackie Lamby, Is it going to be Lydia Thorpe, Is it going to be David Pocock. Just two of those will help get that legislation across the line. But it also indicates to me that unless this legislation is passed in Labour's eyes, if they do form a minority government in the lower House, there's no guarantee they'll get it up in the next term of parliament. The only thing that Australians can hope is is that this legislation doesn't get up. Not only does it impact upon those people within the mining sector, but it impacts upon those within commercial fishing because the intent here is to lock up thirty percent of the land, thirty percent of the oceans, and then overlay the cultural Heritage acts that Western Australia had to put up with for some months when it was past there was it was later kicked out of Western Australia because they could see the destruction it was doing everything from mining to agriculture. And here we have a labor government hell bent on implementing those things nationally. It is chaotic, it's destructive, and labor will really destroy our economy if this bill goes through.
Let's go to the big promises that the government made at the last election to cut power bills. Figures released today by the Australian Energy Market Operator AMO so the costure of generating electricity in the final months of twenty twenty four jumps some eighty three percent year on year. The Australian Energy Regulators put the figure as high as one hundred and thirty four percent in some regions, driven by high demand and a shortage of coal fired power DAN. You know, they like to demonize coal when it's missing from the system, our power bills skyrocket. Now I've been working with you the IPA, We've been on the road, We've talked to farmers, we've talked to regional communities. When an't we going to wake up and change course here before it's too late?
Well, I don't know, Peter, I mean, how many times do we have to say this? If you take coal out of the system, and if you take baseload power out of the system, prices are going to go up. And when we saw that with hazer Wood, when that was decommissioned, prices went not by approximately seventy percent. We're seeing it now again. When you know coal comes out of the system, prices go up. You need baseload power that can operate twenty four seven, three sixty five rain, hail or shine. You simply cannot power a modern economy and society like Australias on weather dependent intermitted energy supply. As you mentioned, you've been out there on the front lines in farming communities, not just talking about the price impact, but the impact on their lives and the impact on our farm land. You know what's going to happen when we take all this farmland offline and put wind turbines and solar panels on there. It's going to jack up prices for agricultural goods. Our exports will go down, not to mention the impact on the way of life in regional communities and the division that that is causing. So this is what Australia will look like if we keep going down the net zero path, high prices, blackouts and farmland being destroyed. You know, we need to do a U turn and we need to do it very quick. But that ain't going to happen under this government.
Not yet. We've been talking obviously when I've been out in the bush about the fire risk in regional Australia. But have a look at Melbourne this morning. This is a plume of smoke coming from a factory in Cheltenham. Now this is a factory that produces solar panels and batteries a quarter light, forty five trucks in attendance, over one hundred firefighters on just this one actory fire alone. James an expert recently told us here on Sky is these batteries are causing more than ten thousand fires in Australia per year. This is what the government doesn't want us to talk about no.
And we're starting to see more and more of these occur in suburban areas where people have put these batteries in small, confined areas. And it can be anything from an electric scooter through to an electric vehicle or one of those power banks on the side of the house which is posed to reduce your power cost. But the issue here is the smaller we build these blocks of land. We're seeing here in Queensland, blocks under three hundred square meters now, where homes are just crammed into very tiny spaces, it's very hard to extinguish a battery fire. And I think what you'll find is over time, as more of these catch a light, we're going to see larger extended fire which take out whole communities as a result of it. And the number one increase will be to your insurance premiums as a result of it.
God to help me here, Dan explain this one New South Wales Treasury says, now if there's a public sector project, we're talking about a rod, we're talking about a bridge, there's now a gender impact assessment that must happen first. If it's over ten million dollars, that must happen first before it goes to cabinet before a decision about whether or not they're going to build it. Now this is insanity.
Yeah, it's just unbelievable, and you wonder when and where this is all going to end. If this came out of Victoria, you'd probably just roll your eyes and shrug your shoulders and say here we go again. But you know, I think from New South Wales it's surprising. I think the Men's government has been reasonably sensible in a number of matters, including keeping the cold fire power station operating there. So you know, I wonder whether this is a case of the bureaucracy putting the cart before the horse. I don't know they are wont to do that, but you know, I think Australogys is just thoroughly over this, having the sort of diversity, equity and inclusion mandates inserted into every single facet of our lives. So we should be hiring based on merit and projects need to go ahead. I mean, this is at the worst possible time. We've got this record surge to our population from this unplanned mass migration program that doesn't have the consent of the community, and now here is yet another piece of red tape another roadblock to building the infrastructure that Australia is desperately need.
I don't understand.
No one has been able to explain how building a road, or building a bridge or building a tunnel could possibly impact men or women differently. Everybody wants to get to work, Everyone wants to pick up their kids from school, everyone wants to get to the doctors on time. What on earth are they talking about and why hasn't the treasurer, the New South Wales Treasurer pulled their heads in and said we're not doing this in New South Wales.
And follow the money train right. This is a delay to all these projects and who's going to be paid a couple of million dollars to do these genderous esmonds, I mean, it's just outrageous. Last night, James, we talked about the Queensland decision to put on pause puberty blockers for those under nineteen. I think it might be eighteen years of age. This is after a Can's clinic went rogue. The whistleblowers reported today to say she raised a lot of concerns with the previous government. Nothing was done. The new Minister, Tim Michols has identified a whole lot of problems, inconsistencies and documentation, a lot of legal concerns around the lack of parental consent. We know now too released last night a high profile letter politicians, former prime ministers, medical experts to the federal government demanding a federal inquiry into all of this we saw in the UK with a cast review exactly why it's needed. It's all been halted over there. Surely we shouldn't be afraid to hear from the experts. No, exactly.
At Travistock is an example of one of those senators over in the UK which has learned the hard way and we are learning from Well, we haven't learned from their mistakes.
That's the biggest issue.
We have tried as one nation on two occasions in our federal Parliament to get this inquiry up that Tony Abbott is now talking about. The one that he signed is exactly the same as what we have tried to get up an inquiry in our Senate on two occasions. Now both the Labor and a good proportion of Liberal Party members in the Senate have voted against this inquiry. So good luck to Tourney if he can twist the arms of his former colleagues to support this. Well done, but I just do not see the Liberal Party coming on board. It's the likes of the Jane Humes and the Dean Smith's, both senators, both in one in wa one in Victoria, both very prominent individuals in our Senate that for some reason are holding the Liberal Party back from supporting one nation on this inquiry.
It's about time they.
Shift their mood because as we've seen in America, this has been well received, and not just in the States, but also in other Western developed nations that have made some catastrophic decisions to allow kids under the age of eighteen to mutilate their bodies and allow adults to permit them to do it. It's tragic when you talk to the parents that have stood by their kids and sort of thought that this was the only path forward. They are very regretful, not only the kids but the parents as well.
There needs to be an inquiry well, and no Liberals should be scared of finding out the facts. No Liberal should be scared of listening to experts. Let's leave it there, just do a quick one. Dan Stephen Jones, he's leaving. We've got Bill shorton now. Linda Bernie, Brendan O'Connor. I get on the opposition side, people will move, you know, they get into opposition from government and they're not sure whether they can do another stint. But these guys have waited ten years to get back into power. They're in power and these folks are all wanting to leave after basically a turn. What does that tell you about the government's chances at the next election.
Well, it shows that the jumping ship, I think is a pretty negative assessment, you'd have to say, and actions always speak louder than words. And you know, if you're staring down the barrel of potentially being turfed out after one term or at best a minority government, when you're going to have one arm tied behind your back like they did from twenty ten to twenty thirteen, I don't think it's surprising, and I actually suspect that we'll see a number more come out over the next few weeks.
Peter, Yeah, I think you're right. Other than Linda Bernie, and I think I'm right here. Other than Linda Bernie, almost every single one of them lived the last hung parliament. I suspect they want nothing to do with that again. Gens. Thank you. All right, let's return to the issue of the escalating terror threat, not just in New South will As of course, but right across the country. Something has to be done. Chris Mins. Yes, he's been strong the Prime Minister, though woefully apathetic even today offering just platitudes and taking potshots at the coalition.
This is a time for unity and for the country to come together against these atrocities and this appalling acts. Not a time to look for political partisanship or to make political points. I don't intend to do so.
Joined me, someone who dealt with a whole lot of terror events in his time as Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. Tony, thank you for your time. I have to say I thought that was very wrong with the Prime Minister to decry the lack of bipartisanship on this issue, when in fact he is the one that has driven the division, particularly at the United Nations, after seventy years of bipartisanship on the issue of Israel.
Yeah, I think that's a very good point.
Petter.
Government for the first time is consistently voting against Israel at the United Nations, and I just wish more.
Labor people would remember.
Bob Hawk's immortal statement, if the bell tolls for Israel, it doesn't just toll for Israel, it tolls for all mankind. As the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. If Israel is damaged and diminished, democracy everywhere is damaged and diminished. And frankly, this is a government that from the beginning has constantly tried to diminish and minimize the wave of due hatred that has been sweeping our country since October seven. The PM and his ministers have tended to see a campaign of vicious race hate against one section of the community as mere political protest, and they've seen fire bombings of which we've had several now almost like vandalism, as opposed to the domestic terrorism, which is what it clearly is.
Just on that point, let me pick up the comments made by the Treasurer of this morning on breakfast television, because he said, you know, speaking of the caravan and the explosive this shows that the concerns of Jews aren't always unfounded. Now he says it's a gaff. He says, the words are clumsy. It feels like a fraudy and slip to me, basically intimating that the Jews are making it up, or that they've got the propensity to make this up. Now a synagogue is either burnt down or it's not. You know, there's graffiti on the fence or there's not. Cars are bombed or they're not. We've seen this as a matter of fact. How does it get away with that?
Look, if this were just a one off, I guess you could dismiss it as an inappropriate choice of words. But from the beginning the government has been minimizing the seriousness of this. It doesn't really want to respond forcefully to what is just an outrageous, an appalling outbreak of due hatred in a country which has always been a haven and a sanctuary for people of the Jewish faith and culture, particularly since the Holocaust. And you can understand why a lot of Jewish people now wonder whether they really are safe in countries like Australia, and why more than ever, they are looking to Israel as their sole garrant tor that this can never happen again.
Let's talk about the National Security Committee of Cabinet, because it was a huge instrument for you to bring the officials together with the ministers and stop the boats, deal with Islamic State and all the other terror challenges, the lind siege that we had in Australia. What concerns me when I look at the Prime Minister and I look at whether or not he's using the apparatus that's there. He didn't have the AFP on there. He kicked them off. He didn't have ASIO our intelligence spy agency just domestic one. Didn't have them there. Kick them off. They are back now. But belatedly he's not calling the meetings that you used to call. Within sort of an hour of big national events, you'd pull this group together. He's got Chris Bowen in there, the Environment Minister, for whatever reason, I don't know. It seems like he's brought kicking and screaming reluctantly to put these issues in his diary and do what needs to be done. Am I being fair there?
Well, Peter, I think there has been a consistent course of conduct on the part of this government to minimize the threats that this country faces. The Prime Minister has refused to call out the Beijing government for its acts of aggression against Australia, including the wounding of Australian sailors in a sonar attack on an Australian warship, attempts to intimidate Australian military aircraft flying in international airspace over the South China Sea. There's been a reluctance to give Ukraine the surplus weaponry that we've got that they could have put to very good use in their fight against Russian aggression, as well as the reluctance to call out what has become a campaign of domestic terrorism against Australian Jews. So I think there's an inability on the part of the current government to see these things clearly for what they are, an assault on our national sovereignty, our integrity, and really on the values that Australian should hold.
Dear, just on another topic, I was discussing with my Padel a moment ago. You were one of one hundred public figures and medical experts have signed a national letter to the Prime Minister, to the Opposition leader asking for a national inquiry inter gender affirming care for children. Now, it's interesting. When I was talking to James Ashby, he said there'll be Liberal moderates who won't agree with an inquiry. And I say to you, as someone who's formerly led the Liberal Party, Why would anyone be scared of finding out the facts and the truth from the experts. If we need to change course, let's get the information in. But we shouldn't be scared of a review, should.
We, Particularly given that the Cash Review in the United Kingdom which found that there was no evidentiary base for the kind of gender affirming care, the puberty blockers, the surgery effectively the chemical sterilization, and the surgical mutilation of young people. The Cast Review found there was no evidentiary basis for this, and the current UK Labor government has supported the findings of the Cast Review and has maintained the substantial bans on this kind of treatment. So I really think it's simple common sense that we should be incredibly reluctant to allow miners who can't buy cigarettes, who can't buy alcohol, who can't vote, who can't drive a car legally, we should be incredibly reluctant to let these miners opt to do themselves what is potentially irreparable damage that they may well later regret. I just think this is wrong in principle and crazy in practice, what we've allowed in this country over the last few years.
Well, I hope you get some movement with your letter turning out, but thank you for your time. All right after the break, the Collition to involved plans for a massive security overhaul given what we've seen in recent months. It's needed, isn't it. Foreign criminals released out of detention, anti Semitism and more. Plus concerns today are increasing about the apparent AI arms race with China. More on that soon coming up, more of my special reports into Labour's reckulus reckless renewables only energy plan. Farmers are telling us more and more claims of bullying and corruption, and I've got some information for you tonight on the cost of decommissioning those massive wind turbines. It's extraordinary the verse. Right now, the Shadow Home Faires Minister, Senator James Patterson is delivering a keynote speech outlining the Coalition's plans for a massive security overhaul should they win the next election. Among the key policies are plans to deport high risk offenders, return all security agencies and frontline staff to the Department of Home Affairs, restore TPVs temporary protection visas labors scrap them of course, and improve the resourcing of Operation Sovereign Borders, which is basically all but shut up shop under labor. Johnnyan now for his analysis and all of this, Director of Strategic Analysis Australia, Michael Suebridge. Well, there'll be a few more sweetness and information in a senator's speech tonight. But Michael, broadly from what we've heard today from Senator Patterson from the coalition, what do you think of these plan changes?
Well, Peter, I think it's very refreshing to hear someone who might be in government soon saying that they will take urgent and serious action on terrorism and border security, because what we're seeing from mister Albinisi and members of his cabinet like Deputy Prime Minister Miles, is in action and they're spending all their time telling us what they won't let us know and why it's right they don't tell us anything and falsely reassuring the public. So the contrast is mister Patterson is saying this is a time for urgency and action, and we're hearing from the government that it's business as usual and drift.
Yeah, Michael, I know, I know this caravan came to light about ten days ago, but the public has only known about in the last twenty four hours. So we've got a heightened anxiety about it. Right now. I cast my mind back to sort of the Tony Abbottor and the John Howard era. If that had come to light, there would have been a press conference in Canberra. They would have reassured us that the National Cabinet had met, they would have gone through the steps that are taken to make more secure, that'd give us an update on the terror rating, all the stuff you'd expect from your national government. Today we get the Prime Minister standing in front of some books at a kid's library, looking like it was just a bit of an issue along with a busy day of stuff that is trying to do to win votes or secure margin or seats. It didn't have the gravity that I want to see from a Prime minister when you have what amounts to be the precursors to a mass casualty terror attack in Australia.
Yes, and the caravan full of explosives wasn't found due to forensic investigation by police or counter terrorism agencies. Was found by a concerned local farmer. So it was tripped over by the government. And then they tried to tell us that even though they don't really know who was planning it or what they were doing, and who's involved that there is no continuing threat. That's false reassurance. They cannot know there is no continuing threat, and telling the public that it was best that we not hear about this only creates more anxiety and uncertainty.
I could not agree more, particularly what they want Australians to call Terra hotlines and to keep their eyes open. And they're basically trying to treat us like mushrooms. Hey, we talked about deep Seek. This is this Chinese AI app for people at home, a lot like chat. GPT Labour's Special Envoy for cybersecurity is basically said, look, if it's a problem, we'll do what we're going to do with TikTok. We'll just tell a public service to take it off their work phones, not their home phones, not anywhere else they might use it. They don't have a strategy for it. They're just going to say the public servants please don't use it now. Given what the United States has done to something like TikTok, and it's a hell of a lot more than just telling the public servants get it off your phone. Surely we've got to take threat seriously.
Exactly this.
If there is a security issue with this Chinese AI model, then it's as big for companies and citizens in Australia as it is for a bunch of bureaucrats. So for the cybersecurity endvoid to say it's okay, we'll reduce the risk to public servants but leave businesses and citizens hung out to dry is completely wrong headed.
Yeah, I'm disappointed all of that. It's going to be an issue. It's a massive issue. Michael Shubrich, thank you. Now have to break more in my investigation into reckless renewables. Farmer's vowing to keep fighting blast Donald Trump wasting no time targeting illegal immigration. Now his latest order, it's extraordinary, is talking about Guantanamo Bay welcome back. Still to come the fiery confirmation hearing for rfk JR. Both immogcrats and Republicans raising concerns. So will he be confirmed. We'll get to that at a moment. The first last night I brought you the second part of my special report into Labour's reckless renewables only agenda. And it's been the maled region of Victoria where I've spent most of my time in recent weeks. On the ground with farmers and communities that are hurting. Joining me now out with the federal MP for that region, nationals MP, the member for Mali and Webster, and thank you. Look. I also want to say to my viewers from the outset. You know, as I've been driving up the Malle plenty of time in the car, you and I have spoken often. I know you've been on the ground. I know you've had many town hall meetings, and almost all the farmers I spoke to are appreciative that you've been out there fighting for them. So you know, as I put this to air, I was shocked at the intimidation and the police being called, and the bullying and corruption allegations involved. How much of that had you heard?
Unfortunately I've been hearing it for some time, and Peter, can I just say thank you. I join with all the farmers, Glendon and Tessen, Alex and Ben who all spoke with you, to thank you that for coming to Malie. We so often do not get air coverage unless it's from Sky, and they really appreciate you telling their story. It is our experience. I hear allegations, threat of threats and bullying. Cowboy proponents who are trying to set up wind farms all over Malie, regardless of how it impacts neighbors and the others who live in that community. And so communities, as you would have heard, have become really a little discordant, to say the least.
There is a lot of upset.
And the meeting that I spoke at the other night when around Mali Environmental and Agricultural I've got to get right protect Alliance is a new meeting for me. About two hundred people were they're all voicing their views. The absolute majority do not want these wind farms and they certainly, in fact, they don't want to call them wind farms. They want to call them wind factories. I think industrial estates is a better terminology myself. And they certainly do not want the V and I West. And you know, in fact, as you would have heard as well, over ninety percent of farmers who have now been chosen to host the V and I West refusing to allow TWCV onto their properties.
And I just say, you know, good on them.
This is democracy at work, and the state government is absolutely ignoring them, and they will compulsory acquire their land. What happens to our food security in the future.
And so people hope I remind them again this is a V and I West is a transmission line from city to Melbourne. It won't benefit these re It's all about power, green power, so called green power for city in Melbourne and of course all the way along. It creates a spine through regional communities for the economics of wind farms, foreign owned wind farms to work, because you can have a wind farm, but you've got to get the power it generates to the market via these transmission lines. And what's interesting, originally it was meant to go through just into Allen, the Victorian premiers electorate, but it's all been shifted into your electorate. And the inference that people have given me is that you're a safe National Party seat. You know, you're expendable. The National Party is expendable. Those people, those farmers in your region are expendable. But this is also driven by Anthony Albanesi and Chris Bowen's obsession about getting to these targets for twenty thirty. Can we please have a rethink about a renewables only electricity grit.
Well, we have to and I know, as you know as well, that the Coalition is definitely looking at a mixed grid and nuclear is part of that footprint more gas and therefore I would argue less reason to I was going to use a bad word there, but obliterate our farm land for these transmission lines and there's wind turbines. I drove past Marawara in the little desert smoke haze yesterday morning, and I tell you it just is eerie.
It's not just the smoke.
It is the fact that all this industrial equipment is sitting on land that has for seven generations been farming for Australia and for the world.
These farmers want to keep.
Doing that, and they are feeling less and less confident, and it's just got to stop. They're not being heard.
And I heard that the cost of decommissioning these towers one turbine alone something like six hundred thousand dollars. Now this will be left to farmers, not the foreign companies, to farmers or to taxpayers. I'd love to get you to attend a town meeting with me up there. I'd love to get Ted O'Brien, the Coalition Energy Shadow Minister, there as well, because I think we need to draw attention to the hit to taxpayers and farmers here on just the wind turbines alone.
Can I just tell you I would be absolutely thrilled to have that go ahead. And I have been told by Queensland people I won't name them, that the current crop of wind turbines that are being decommissioned are seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars per turbine. So it's worse than you think. And you're right if we've got shelf companies and international investment that has gone walking on these projects, it is absolutely Andrew Dye has said, this is the retired now Australian Energy Commissioner, that it will be left to the land owners to pay.
All right, we'll over there, or we'll talk offline and set up a meeting and we'll get Ted O'Brien out there on the ground as well. Thanks An. I would like for the break President Trump's plan to send thousands, thousands of illegal migrants to Guadtanamo Bay, plus the US backs Israel's decision to ban the UNAID Agency UNRA over its links to October seven. Welcome back, let's say to the United States. Now, Donald Trump has announced plans to send thousands of illegal migrants to Guantanamo Bay.
Today, I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the thirty thousand person migrant facility at Guantanamo Babel. Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back.
Let's bring up Panel Sky and is contributed Koshagada, Past Chair of Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defensive Committee, Michael Danby, Well, Gittmo, Michael. He's not making around, is he. Thirty thousand beds will be ready. We learned this week about the plane load that he sent to Columbia and there was a toing and fraying with the Colombians. Eventually at Lands he threatened tariffs if they didn't let it land.
He's serious, he is, and I think most Americans will support him, like most Australians supported people being housed to a much less bad people than the ones he's talking about in Manison Niru. Now, I can't understand the democratic strategy. I'm with James Carvill stopped defending all of these murderers and rapists and send them to Columbia. Or send them to get I think in the end he won't send thirty thousand there because it's very expensive the house. I'm so far away from the United.
States, but we've seen some of the tracking data already. So if this was a presentations at a border pre Trump, it's now like that. I mean, the graph is just literally dropped off. It's extraordinary.
And reporters who have been embedded at the border for years and years under multiple presidencies are saying and reporting that they've never seen it that low. It ebbs and flows, it was definitely low in Trump's first term, but this is almost close to zero. There's all this video surfacing of people that have tried to come in, and now borders militarized. There's so many agents there they're running right back and warning.
Others don't come in. So that has definitely stemmed the tide.
The issue now is the criminal ones and then the ones who aren't violent criminals, but they are criminals because they broke the law to enter, and people who've been there for years and years.
That's going to be tougher to do.
But he's he's talking about going for that number, and it's anywhere from twenty to forty million people that he's saying he's going to try to get out.
So we'll see speak softly and carry a big stick. Could ease it's way before, Hey, talk to me about work from home. The stad's say that there's six percent of public servants only who were turning up to the office.
I saw some American congressman holding up a phone. He'd been on it for an hour and a half and no one would answer it particular department. It's I mean, if there's only six percent in their vast corridors. I've seen those public service buildings in Washington, they've got to turn up to work or lose their jobs.
Well, he's saying that he's going to pay them, ount get rid of them, make the public service smaller, drain the swamp. It's all a good thing. Hey, yeah, very quickly. There's been an invitation to Prime Minister net Yahoo to come to Washington, and I'm looking at the date. It's imminence next week.
That's one issue where Trump, well, he's broken from byt On on every issue, but in this one here is a staunch ally.
He's shored that up.
In terms of meeta any aid removing bands on different missiles and weapons and so on and so forth. So this just sort of adds to the optical side of it that he's standing shoulder to shoulder with him and he's leaning into that strategy.
I'm just told of my year from Sydney that we've got to pix. I think the release of more hostages is imminent. When that happens, we'll take those pictures live. That is a good day, although my skin crawls when I look at some of the people the hostages have to walk past, and some who will be let out of the prisons.
Michael shocking. But netanyao is meeting with Trump will be watched in Tehran very closely, because, unlike the ABC, both the Ayatollas and Trump understand that this has been a seven front war orchestrated by Tehran. It's not just Gaza, those terrible scenes that we're talking about in Gaza releasing those hostages and making use of them. The Iranians remember two facts that Trump knows very well. One that all of Iranzi Defense were destroyed in October, and there's a squadron of heavy bombers sitting in Qatar in the American air base there with the big bombs that can destroy the nuclear facilities in Iran. So all that Donald has to do is agree with that. When that happens. I'm not saying it will that they will agree to it, but they have that option.
He's also called out Kosher. He's also called out this sense that the I've lost my train thought completely going out, let's go to RFK Junior. What's that meaning?
So that was a very interesting hearing. I think it's a little bit on a knife's edge because he can afford to lose three senators, not four, and there is one more Republican, Cassidy, who seem to not like his answer on certain substantive questions, so that's going to be interesting to see. On the other hand, there are some Democrats who he's been lifetime friends with who might come over, so we'll see.
You've got a lot of vision funnel.
Is it like a done deal? Vote against it?
It seems to be that way for all the four controversial ones. That's what everybody's expecting. So he can't lose anymore.
In Caroline Kennedy, what was that about?
So I'm not a fan in general on a human level, of airing family laundry out in public. It was unbecoming. And the thing is, the American people know what time it is right now. They don't care about checker pasts in their personal lives with any of these candidates, him or hexed Trump himself. They want serious people who have vision to reform these agencies, and he takes.
That box to a lot of them. I remember what my question was that you were talking there about around in the area. Trump is alive to the fact that most Arab countries in their region are not wanting to take any of these refugees, so called refugees out of Gaza. They do not want the gardens in their borders. We saw that very early on with the Egyptians and others. And he's calling on them to do more heavy lifting in the region. That will expose exactly the play that's going on that no one in the region settle. Countries with their Islamic populations in Czech do not want these radicals, do they, Michael.
Well, they don't.
They fear them. And they could here though.
Given what's happened in Lebanon in the nineteen nineties, given what happened in Jordan in the nineteen seventies. So it's very revealing. But again you'll never hear it in the narrative from our billion dollar paid ABC. You've just got John Lyons over there sympathetically interviewing people who are prisoners. Doesn't ask them what their sentences were or what they were for, you know, murder of seven people. Oh are you released prisoners?
And the Prime minister, you know your side of politics, still will not rule out these prisoners, these prisoners ending up in Austry.
He should rule it out because it makes the Australia.
He tells me everything. Michael, gotta lave it there. Prince Harry too is headed back to court, his visas being challenged. This will be interesting. I don't suspect the Royal founily put him back. That's it, see you next week. He's Andrew
