The Late DebateMark Zuckerberg announces Meta will get rid of it's so-called 'fact checkers', Donald Trump wants US control over Greenland, and a religious podcast 'Rosary in a Year' dethrones 'The Joe Rogan Experience' for the number one spot on Apple in the US.
Lately.
Welcome to the Late Debate.
Good evening and welcome to the Late Debate. I'm Caroline Marcus, joined tonight by Sky News contributor Kel Richards and broadcaster Lucy Zelich. We begin tonight with major news from Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.
It's getting rid of its so called fact checkers.
Woo Yes.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has finally admitted what was obvious to everyone else on social media.
Fact checkers are biased.
And we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes in too much censorship. The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech. So we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms. The fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US.
Whoa Zuckerberg dropping some major truth bombs instead, Meadow will now introduce community notes now. These are like Elon Musk's community notes on X, where users can provide contacts for posts that they.
Find false or misleading. Now Lucy.
I think this is a great move from Facebook, but honestly, I don't think it should have ever taken Trump's reelection in order for them to make this no one.
This is a very classic kiss the Ring moment, isn't it.
They're all recognized that Trump president elect Trump is coming back into power, and that it's time to recognize that this is no longer the in thing to do.
We're not being.
Swayed by a very left and biased government who love to attack the right with their community notes and ideas of misinformation.
But we've been.
Seeing it go on for so long now, and I'm so glad that the pendulum has started to swing back the other way, and we're seeing it swing back towards common sense, to more conservative views, and to being open to all of that. I mean, you only have to look back to what happened in the election and all of those you know, those slabs of misinformation, you know, fact checking issues pertaining to Trump occurring them censoring political speech and content on Facebook in particular, to recognize that they couldn't trust these social media platforms. And the bigger question that always kind of aroused my suspicion around this as well, was who are we leaving it to to determine what misleading information is? Is it some lefty activists that's working at these organizations that's guiding us on what is right and what is wrong? It was just a circus. So it's nice to see that a bit of common sense is coming back into the frame.
Kel I thought that satirical site Babylon Be put it perfectly. Today they said the guy who said Facebook wasn't suppressing free speech announces Facebook will stop suppressing free speech. Now, I mean here isn't exactly a martyr. He was very much involved. I think matter invested millions of dollars in order to prop up these fact checking units and to support organizations that controlled speech in America.
Well, to pick up on Lucy's point, we know who was doing it because in Australia, for Meta and for the ABC and for lots of other organizations, it was being done by a fact checking unit at r m T in Melbourne. So I went to their website and I've made a really interesting discovery. This will sound like I'm making this up, but this is true. The official name of their checking system is crap. This is live can this is really it is spelled c R a AP pronounced crap and those five headings were currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose. I I just think that's wonderful. That's too good to be true. But what those five different headings are, they're five different doors through which they can kick out any message they don't want, and they did because they kicked out messages that were not leftist messages. Who picked up on the medi Scare campaign, who said this is rubbish the Coalition has never said this. Whoever picked up on the Three Eyed Fish and said this is rubbish? This is not what nuclear does these days. They are not fact checking anyone on the lift. They're only fact checking people who are slightly to the right of Setter and who show a bit of common sense. And this is who's doing it. The r MIT unit. They now have lost their contract. They had a contract with Meta, So the good news is I said, they've lost it, but they've still got their crap.
Well Sky News really not too darn horn, but I will anything. They were really instrumental in exposing the bias that existed in these fact checking units, and most particularly this Australian wanted r MIT fact lab now they displayed obvious bias during the Voice rapperendum. Peter Kredlin in particular, some of the information and she was coming out with which turned out to be one hundred percent accurate, things like that the Illoru statement from the heart was not one page and that was really key to helping voters come inform voters in order to make up their minds at the referendum. They were getting slapped with community notes, these items of news, this journalism and look Kretlin's come out today.
Just a short time ago.
She's given a statement to sky News dot com dot Au and she said that today's about face from Facebook is a major win for free speech and political expression, at least in the USA. But if Mark Zuckerberg was fed income, he would commit to rolling this out globally.
Lucy Yeah, I dare say.
I got to agree with her that this needs to happen everywhere.
I absolutely agree with her. And if you cast your minds back.
There was a report in The Australian in April last year in which about forty Facebook users who had a pro nuclear lobby had the content removed because of what they the meta team had deemed as misleading I mean, if anything's misleading, it's renewable energy and this fantasy idea that that's going to be the thing that powers our entire country.
Where's the fact checking on all of that.
It just seems to be things that are operating within the right, within the conservative movement, that they just have this obsession with trying to fact check and label as misinformation and misleading. So, you know, it's it's a really it's an interesting time when you look at what's going on in the US, for example, because that seems to be a big predicator and a test case for what's to come.
In Australia.
We're a little bit behind. We're an isolated island, but I don't.
Have the same free speech protections they do in their in.
Their constitution play we don't have that here.
We still have we have no information laws that there's some of the toughest affirmation laws in the world here cow. I mean, there's still going to be restrictions on what people can say so and hate speech, and there are I'm not a free speech absolutist that.
Should be there's always limitations, and there are sensible limitations. But within those sensible limitations, we have to be able to say we think the problem is if you analyze what's going on, there are in fact four categories of propositions or truth, claims, true, false, disputed, and opinion. And all this fact checking was based on the idea no, there's not for this only too. If it doesn't fit into our category of truth, it's false. They wouldn't acknowledge there are disputed things you can argue about. They wouldn't acknowledge people can express opinions. So all of that got canceled. All of that God wiped out. That's what they've been doing in Australia. That's a bit they've been doing around the world. That's the bad news. They've got to be honest and say, yes, there's room for dispute things we can. This program is called the Late Debate because it's possible to have debates about things.
And the other guys one of the few places that you can have I think absolutely will debate and disagree and whether we agree we all agree on this right now, whether.
We agree or disagree, I think it's really important to acknowledge that you have to have that debate, that you have to be able to stress test and really push your point of view, whether people disagree with it or not, to the limits right to determine what is the right position on this. And if we're all thinking alike, we're not really thinking very much in all at all. And I think that that's the kind of point that we arrived to. But I feel as though this move also it kind of was inevitable, because the more that the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and co. Dug their feet and their heels in, the more credibility they lost. I mean, we saw the way that legacy media, particularly over the United States, the way they behaved even through the pandemic, right with CNN infamously trying to make Joe Rogan look gray and even more sick than he was.
I feel as though he couldn't avoid this.
It had to happen otherwise, you know, his product was only going to take an even bigger beating.
So it had to happen.
And I just hope that we see an even greater still here in Australia.
It's still happening. There was a C and N commentator that I saw today on television claiming that what Trump was planning was a military invasion of Greenland. Now I mean, that's just absurd.
Well, actually, we'll come to that in a bit, but I gotta take hell but that Trump did say that. He did say he wouldn't rule out and I will play the grab for viewers in a little while.
Understand sense of humor that is deliberately look at Trump jokes and they pretend he's seriously.
They're shaken a bit, you're is it?
No, probably not, but he did say it quite literally. Anyway, we'll come to that in a bit. First, I want to bring the debate a bit closer to home, and the de facto Palestinian ambassador to Australia has praised the government for daring to repeatedly anger Israel and break with the US on its stance on.
The Middle East.
Is that Abduhati also predicted a Labor government would recognize a Palestinian state if it won the next election. Lucy, I'm not sure that's the kind of endorsement you want as a government. Sure it might go down well in some Muslim majority seats, which the government is clearly concerned about, but I I don't accept that most Australians want to see terrorism rewarded with the creation of a Palestinian state at this moment in time, just after the worst attack on Israel in history.
And the point that you also made that I'm really kind of stuck on in all of this is the identity politics, which I'm so against, right, this idea of jostling for votes, this fear of being perceived to be an Islamophobe or a racist if I am calling out the facts and illustrating how it really is and what reality looks like. That's the problem that I have with the Labor government is that they're so hell bent on appealing to the ideologues and those voters who they know have that, you know, the Muslim majority seats, rather than doing the thing that is right and noble. That's the part that really doesn't sit well with me because I think that in the interests of looking at who.
Our allies are, which of course is Israel.
You know, why aren't we all asking that question beyond this bubble? Why haven't they returned the hostages? You know, you and I spoke earlier about these beautiful babies that they suspect.
You know, lost their lives in all of this.
First children.
It's just heartbreaking and so devastating where both mothers.
We kell you're a parent.
I mean, this is what people aren't hung up on enough, is why haven't these hostages been returned. We've seen so many innocent lives lost, and that's the conversation that we need to be having, and I want our Australian government to be strong. We're seeing this rise in anti Semitism, the disgraceful graffridi that's going on at the moment on you know, innocent things like e bikes for example.
I mean, that's another story.
We'll get rid of those, but really, I mean it's just and on restaurants and people's homes and cars. That's another story too, and that you know, we can all agree on. Anthony Albanisi and his government haven't been strong enough in stamping this out and the rise has just been appalling.
Well, we might be able to agree on it here, but certainly that does seem to be a strong sentiment at least among the pro Palestinian voices that we see on the streets in Sydney and Melbourne every weekend. Well, at least they might be a smaller minority, but they're certainly very noisy.
Yes, Hel and I think obviously.
They would they would agree with the and boys palasan in and voice statements here. But do you think the majority of Australians.
Oh no no. But for me, the worry is if he likes the Australian government, what does that tell us about the Australian government. Who your friends are, the people you've agreed with, the people you've chosen to cozy up to say something about you. Absolutely, So if suddenly, if Penny Wong has been saying things that make this man really happy, what has she been up? It reminded me of the old story of the drunk and the pig. The drunk laid down and the gutter the pig came laid beside him, and the lady walking past said, you can tell the man who chooses by the man who boozes, by the company he chooses. And the pig got up and slowly walked away. The friends you're with say something a joke, it's not exactly So.
It wasn't that long ago.
That Hamas itself had come out and praised the Australian government.
Well look look what he was doing.
It looks like is he talks about October seventh and he talks about what's happened since October seventh, and he clearly takes a Hamas line. This is a man taking a terrorist line saying the Ausralian government is on the right line and doing the right thing. That should alarm us.
Well.
Look, just to add a note of clarification my own community note here, according to reports, this Palestinian and boys As abdul Hardy, he isn't a member of Hamas, nor is he a member of Fatar, the other major political party in Palestine.
Just to make that clear.
Look.
Speaking of terrorism, there are also concerns over the sale and calls to ban the sale of a T shirt in Australia which features the slogan's bash Zionists and support Armed Resistance Now. An anti Israel activist and graphic designer, Carla Scotto, has been selling these t shirts online and at the Alcedak Heldeberg Mosque in Melbourne, although the im I'm at the moss claims that he didn't approve of the t shirts and he wasn't even aware they were being sold. I wonder how that came to happen in his own.
Mosque without him knowing.
But regardless, Lucy, Armed Resistance I mean that is clear as day. I think that is a call for violence and it's a call for terrorism. And Zionists, well, they represent eighty to ninety percent of Jewish Australians and Jews around the world, so this surely meets the.
Threshold for incitement to violence.
I would think, of course it does, isn't.
It clear as day?
Bash Zionists, I mean, at what point did it become acceptable in society for people to wear these kinds of shirts and to align themselves with a recognized terrorist group and to not be reprimanded for that, for that to be something that's you know, that they won't suppress in terms of free speech, that everyone's allowed to to the streets over and to attack and harass peaceful and innocent Jews in this country. I think that's that's a really sad indictment on where we are at the moment, and the fact that these things have become the status quo in Australia says a lot about the direction that this country is going.
In kel Yep, there were a few years ago I remember people on the hard left and people and Antiva were saying things like punch a Nazi and that's okay, although everyone was an Nazi in their view, anyone slightly right to them. But now we think calls to palm Zionists.
Look, incibment of violence such as bah Zionist is already a crime. They don't need to be reprimanded. They've committed a crime. You and I have been saying this and we have to keep saying it again. When will there be arrests? When will people be charged? When will people appear in court because they've broken the law. This breaks the law. Basha Zionist is incitement of violence. It breaks the law, and they've got to be a rest.
Well.
The federal government and now Anthony Alberanzi made this big song and dance lucy about setting up this new anti Semitism task force.
I mean, shouldn't it be for cases like this?
And yet I have absolutely no confidence, I mean bold prediction here. Nothing will happen to this graphic designer or the people who've been promoting her work, because in the past we've seen people proudly and brazenly wearing jerseys saying October seven to major tourist sites in New South Wales. We've seen people holding her Mass themed birthday parties for a four year old here in Sydney.
Nothing has happened in those cases.
Zero and many our zero consequences.
I mean, just to add another layer to this, though, do we have to set up this task force when we already have these laws that, as Kel rightly pointed out, are punishable by law when you commit these types of acts. I mean, it just feels like it's a box ticking exercise, like Anthony Albanese's attempt to say, Hey, look, I'm setting up this anti Semitism task I'm doing something.
Anthony.
You actually already have existing legislation at your disposal that you can use to punish these people.
Send the message, make it clear.
That we won't tolerate this in our country. They're so proud to talk about how Australia is this peaceful and coexisting melting pot of multiculturalism. Start to protect the people that you were elected to represent.
That's what you need to accept as reality.
Look, while we're on the topic of Islamist extremism, it's been ten years now since the brutal terror attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in which two are Kaeda gunmen murdered twelve people, including many of the publication's celebrated cartoonists. French President Emmanuel mccron and the mayor of Paris led a solemn ceremony outside the magazine's former offices as a spate of recent terror attacks around the world revived awful memories at that time. Now, back in twenty fifteen, kel so many people were quick to jump on the Suit Charlie bandwagon. Look, I remember I was on holidays in the Maldives, of all places at the time, actually a Muslim territory, and we got a free piece of cake delivered to our villa and it had the Eiffel Tower out of chocolate, like in solidarity with everyone was on this bandwagon. But how many people have held firm on that and confidently called out islamis terrorism since then?
That's right. It becomes fashionable for a while to say I'm against Islami terrorism, and then people forget about.
It the tenth when they get scared of being labeled as I'm aphobic.
Perhaps well maybe they're afraid of that or maybe that, I don't know, they just move on. But what's happened is in Paris there's been a tenth anniversary and the bear of Paris and the manual Macron market. But the al Qaeda sympathizers also mark the tenth anniversary, and you know how they went around Paris painting up anti Semitic graffiti. They put stars of David on the homes and businesses of Jewish people. The evil is still there. Ten years later. It hasn't gone away. They haven't been defeated. They're still active. They are still there, and we have to remember.
That, Lucie, the Europe has become a really horrifying and terrifying place for Jews, but not just Jews, everybody general, everybody Western people who believe in Western values, and a lot of it has to do with immigration.
Of course it does.
And I think that we have to start being very bold and courageous and strong enough to admit that fact publicly without fear of any repercussion or being labeled a.
Racist or in islamophobe.
I mean to call out the facts accurately as they are. Shouldn't be controversial, It shouldn't be something that gets attributed to this idea or this slide of being a racist. You look at forty five thousand plus terror attacks that we've seen occur in Europe have been a attributed to is you know, these extremists and these Islamic fundamentalists.
So let's say that.
Let's say it openly and honestly and without fear of retribution. And the more that we start saying that, I think the more that people will start to feel comfortable to be able to enter into that discourse honestly and without fear of any type of consequences.
It's just a fact, say it. It's okay to say it.
Well, we will.
Keep doing so here on Sky News where it certainly not afraid more, Carol, We absolutely it needs to be.
Beyond just Sky News.
But I'm starting to see and with the changes that are happening in matter, I am seeing a shift. I'm seeing a shift, and how not just social media companies. And maybe that's a large part to do with Elon Musks taking ConTroll of X No Doubt and his role in the presidential election, but cal I am seeing a cultural shift. Sure is a real different feel ahead of this election that people are sick of this. They want people to call it as it is, They want to be able to call it as it is themselves without fear of being canceled and without fear of being of retribution.
And I think that fear has.
Less of a hold now, absolutely, And I mean part of that shift that you're reading is elng what Mark Zuckerberg picked up on he read the room and he discovered America now backs Trump. It is now possible to say these things. So the result is on the battle on anti Semitism. We had the leaders of the Hindu community come out fairly recently saying they are supporting the Australian Jewish community. There's a big Christian group that Freyer has set up which is called and Never Again is now. So we're hearing voices, we're hearing people saying things, We're seeing demonstrations. It is happening. The mood is shifting. And what I think people are saying is the communities that came here and brought their hatred from overseas that doesn't belong in Australia. But our government fourteen months ago did nothing, and they have got to get it to stand up and say this is unacceptable. I mean, how soft and how weak can you get. You've got to say something more than that, You've got to say it's evil. You've got to say we will prosecute. You've got to make a risks, and then everyone in the community will be in bolden to say, yes, they're right, this is wrong.
Yeah.
Well, someone who is certainly not a week leader is Donald Trump. And even before he's taken off as he's still ramping up calls for the US to take ownership of Greenland, posting a statement to his platform Truth Social saying I'm hearing that the people of Greenland are maga. Greenland is an incredible place and that people will benefit tremendously if and when it becomes part of our nation. We will protect it and cherish it from a very vicious outside world.
Make Greenland great again.
If you could tell Trump anything, what would it be bios by Greenland?
Why do you want to chump to make Greenland?
We don't want to be colonized by Donish gold anymore.
We get ripped every year about our minerals from Primland.
We are the Ritish nation in the world, and we don't get to use it.
Then much use in us too much?
Do you like America? I love America now.
The President Elect's son, Donald Trump Junior, has even visited Greenland, in what appeared to be a spot of window shopping.
Perhaps the Dad Now.
Meanwhile, the King of Denmark, which for the time being still maintains control of Greenland, trolls Trump by revealing a new royal coat of arms more prominently showing off Greenland. Now cal this might be a slightly conflicted one for the Aussies. After all, our very own Queen Mary, and she still is our Queen Mary. She is essentially the monarch, I guess of Greenland. But you know, how do you think that this will go down among Americans and the rest of the world.
Well, America's done it before, Louisiana purchase, they bought a whole lot of land off France. They've done it before. There's a history of million. When you look at Greenland, it's strategically important. There are two American bases there already. But they've got a population of fifty six thousand people. That's about the size of Tamworth or Orange. I mean that he could if they could be persuaded to have a referendum in Greenland, Trump could say I'll give ten thousand dollars to every one of you, fifty six thousand people who vote. Years that's about half a million dollars. He could pay that in small change.
Oh, that's not at all.
That's fine, completely fine.
Of course, it's perfectly fine. It's them deciding what to do with their future. And if they decided to throw in their lot with America, good luck to them. Who knows what's going to happen with this, you know, I've got to say, my crystal ball is in at the workshop being fixed, So I don't know where this is going to go at the moment. But it's great fun. It is a lot of way Trump is fun.
I know, he is so much fun and he provides endless content, Loucy.
But between Greenland and well.
We'll talk about in a minute, the Gulf of Mexico as well. He honestly, it seems like he does and Canada he.
Wants to make that the fifty first date as well.
He seems to have this expansionist agenda that he's proudly.
We'll divide and conquer or just get in there and take it all, right.
I mean, Kel.
Mentioned that they're about the military significance. Of course, he told reporters we need Greenland for national security purposes, right, So it's about extending his reach. The thing I found funny about the coat of arms is I think that it's only ever been changed at least four times. It's about the eighteen hundred, So there's a bit of significance in that because Denmark are really wanting to establish their authority and their power in this situation. I just think to it, Look, I love Trump. I'm the first to admit that I'm a big Trump fan. But I just kind of look at the list of priorities that he has already within America and his own soil and the issues that he has to remedy now coming into this, and I just kind of think.
Is this really necessary?
Donald No, I think he's.
Restoring a sense of pride what it means to be American. Because he's also announced that he plans to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to well, something more patriotic.
We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America. What a beautiful name, and it's appropriate. It's appropriate.
Now the Gulf of Mexico is stop laughing, Lucy, and this is dead serious.
It isn't so serious.
It's the sea that border states such as Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, as well as of course Mexico and today cal Trump wouldn't rule out using the army to seize control of Greenland or the Panama Canal.
Do you think he's joking kill.
Yes, I do. I think. I think Trump has a wonderful sense of humor, and people have got to work out when he's telling you what he's going to do and what is actually For Trump, it's all about the art of the deal. Everything is about doing a deal. So if I can make an ambu claim that helps me do the deal, I'll make it. If I can make a joke that will help me do the deal, I'll make it.
True.
He doesn't want to use armed forces where he doesn't have to.
In fact, he wants to bring them home.
But I do I think he wouldn't be afraid to use tariffs exactly.
Well.
Bear in mind, in his first term America entered no new wars. He's very proud of that. And people think Trump is a hawk, He's not. Trump is a dove. Trump avoids conflicts, so he's not about to invade anywhere. Is the Gulf America actually makes sense because the entire continent is America, North America, South America, Central America, named after an Italian explorer, America Vasucci, I think his name was, And he worked out that Christopher Columbus hadn't got to the West Indies, he got to a whole continent, and the continent is named after him, So you can change the name of the gold. All he could do is get Congress to pass a law, and all the atlas in every American school will because it's job.
Oh come on, this is absurd, Like is anyone else registering this is absurd. It's just nonsensical to get involved in stuff like this at a time when there are so many other pressing priorities. In fact, the most pressing one of all, which I think a lot of people are going to hold him to, is whether or not you'll be able to end this war in the Middle East. He keeps saying, return back the hostages.
All read it again today the hospital the hostage design returned by his first day and off as they will be hell to pay.
He repeated that that's true, but this one is connected to closing the border. See he's put another bargaining chip on the.
Table and jugar Man walk at the same time. And Trump, certainly he.
Can he can say to Mexico, well, you can keep the name of the golf as long as you close the border and don't let any illegal immigrants. He keeps putting, he was so good at doing the deal.
No, make the Gulf of Mexico America again.
I say. Now.
Meanwhile, first lady in waiting, Milania Trump, Well, she's signed a deal with Amazon worth a whopping sixty four million Australian dollars to license a documentary about her life, with cameos from husband Donalds and their son Baron. And what's more, the docco is set to be made by Australian media mogul James Packer and his production company rat Pack Entertainment. It promises to give you, as an unpresidented behind the scenes look at the notoriously.
Private former model.
Now Lucy, this is something I would definitely watch. And I think the way that Milania Trump has been treated, particularly during the first Trump presidency, was appalling. She seems to me like a devoted mum and I would like to see more of her, especially if that means more cute home videos of baby Baron, which we've seen some releases of.
Right, I love it, and I think it would be great and to have that insight into her, because, as you said there, she has been notoriously private, and I think that that's largely in part to the fact she didn't sign up for this, Right, she ended up with this billionaire, this swanky guy that you know, provided her a connection to the world effectively in contacts and you know, endless security in terms of financial success and all of those things. So to come into this and to be thrust into the spotlight the way that she was as the first Lady of America, which is the most second to the president, one of the most I guess publicized kind of roles in the world. They were ridiculing her about what she was wearing at every turn. Remember the Christmas decorations in that audio that got leaked. Who gives an f about Christmas stuff and decoration?
I loved it.
I listened to that audio just recently. But they really were very nasty to her, and they also started asking questions openly, like the economists writing articles about and speculating whether or not Barren had autism.
Do you remember like really.
Nasty, I really even some really behind between the line's suggestions. Often she may have been an escort, I mean really ugly stuff Callen. On top of all of that, I mean all the elitist outlets like Vogue and the US fawning over people like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harrie Michelle Obama on the cover so many times, and yet here was an actual former top model. They refused, an actual clothes scource. You can make anything look amazing. They refuse to put her in the cover or feature her. Other publications wouldn't touch her. I'm glad that you know that's in the past, it seems.
And no one's going to saything rude about Baron these days. He's about seven feet tall, take all of them. But this is how it's going to end up. Everyone will watch this. This is going to have a massive audience around the world. Everyone will watch Malania Trump well quietly in a distant corner, Meghan Market will be stamping her foot and saying, look.
At me, look at me, look at me, Yeah, look at my cake.
During a cost of living crisis. She's now a trad wife as they're known, like she wants to make out like Meghan, that is that she's this traditional wife that just swan's around the kitchen. It wasn't even her kitchen apparently, And meanwhile everyone's struggling to put food on the table and she's saying, now, use these edible flowers and you're cooking. I mean, I dare say that the Milania Trump Dotco. Will be a much bigger commercial success.
That Malani is actually a real person. She comes across as a real person. Years ago, Clive James, in one of his brilliant television reviews, said that Eliza Minilli could not walk down a flight of stairs sincerely. A flight of stairs was provided to demonstrate this. Megan Mirkale can't walk into a kitchen sincerely, and a kitchen was provided to demonstrate this. She is the most unreal person in the world. Mlanie has got the ring of truth about her.
Well, Amazon, I think was very smart to pick this up. But also I've got to say the recent clips that I was referring to before we saw Baron remembered that viral one Lucy where Baron says in this really heavily accented.
English is that I want to use my suitcase. And I know I did a terrible impression.
But what was so sweet about that is obvious how much time he spent with his mother, Milani in order.
For him to actually speak with that kind of accent.
Absolutely, she was her hands on mum, and with that amount of money, she could afford Nanni's and she didn't have to be with her kids. But it's clear that she wanted to be with her son and raise him herself.
And I think that's one of the most beautiful and real aspects about her because for a lot of mums out there, some don't get the choice.
But for the ones that do, you know, they.
Love and relish being with their children as I have and being their mother. It's the most important time of their lives and those formative.
Years as well.
But you know, the speculation that she endured all around that, you know that autism and stuff with respect to Baron was just horrendous, and having to deal with that and in the public domain internationally was just a disgrace. But to be fair, I mean, there have also been accusations of Michelle Obama being a man.
Right, I don't know which one is the worst ever coming from mainstream media.
That it's always the community.
Yeah, you know, it's a conspiracy theorist.
No, I think I think there's been Again, this just signals a real cultural shift. But look, let's stay in the US, where the Biden administration has been working to effectively ban cigarettes in what's been called a gift to organized crime cartels. The move will in essence, banned cigarettes that are currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels, which one expert told Fox News could boost the.
Black markets cale.
I just think, look, I'm not a smoker, and I think that there should be a lot less smoking. Whether it means that people turn to vapes, which is what's happening in Australia, or to the underground market is another question. But I don't have a huge problem with things. They're being further government intervention when it comes to a filthy habit.
Like said, look, there's actually no easy answer. Nicotine's not only highly addictive, it also just texts the body. It texts the internal lining of arteries, causes bits of the arteries to break off, so it causes strokes, heart problems. It can block blood flow and you'll lose limbs. So it's very serious. So the suggestion is, well, you know, if we cut cut off there's drug that's doing this thing, more gangs will be involved. But on that reasoning, you'd make heroin legal because that would get rid of the gangs, and you'd make crack legal because that would get rid of the gangs. So that there's no easy answer to this. The gangs are running heroin, but I assume there's much less heroin being used than if you could buy it off the shelf. So maybe if a drug is as dangerous as nicotine is I think it is, then you shouldn't be able to buy it off the shelf, and it should be something which is part of the criminal community and you know it's bad and you know it's dangerous. There's not an easy answer. I don't know what the solution is, Lucy.
I mean, we have seen a huge problem in Australia even here with black market cigarettes.
What do you think of this movie?
That's exactly what's happening.
I can't help but think of prohibition in the nineteen twenties when they tried to blacklist alcohol and sale and production and the transport of it and well, you know that lasted about thirteen years, but all it did.
But there is more a safe amount of a moderate amount of alcohol is safe if you use it responsibly.
I don't think it's safe to you. What there is.
In the human body. What happens in the human body, is there's a safe level of consumption of alcohol, exactly. There is no consumption of nicotine.
Died of alcohol, and people died too much, sugar, too much anything, a lot of things that are legal.
I think the way I see it is all it's done.
And look at the gang warfare that's playing out now right in Melbourne. We're seeing all of these bombings of nicotine shops, et cetera, of cigarette shops and vapes have become you know, very true younger generation, because.
That was never cigarettes are legal.
And as it stands, all Joe Biden is doing is making it more attractive for the underground thieves and gangs to get involved and to have this stronghold over the mind.
I'm furious of age because I find it so interesting. We do have to go to a break now and coming up a victory for common sense. A teacher who stood firm against using preferred pronouns secures a hefty settlement.
Welcome back, well, a.
US teacher who refused to use students preferred pronouns will get a seven hundred and twenty three thousand Australian dollars settlement from her school district. Vivian Garatee sued the Jackson Local School District after her Ohio school tried to force the Christian art teacher to use preferred pronouns and names or face disciplinary action.
The US district.
Court rule the school's actions amounted to compelled speech.
Lucy.
Look, it's been more than eight years now since Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson first sparked controversy by refusing to use preferred pronouns, and he called it compelled speech. There was huge uproar at the time, but I think things are starting to change. I think the world started to turn a corner on this, despite the fact that the school was still trying to force this teacher. I do censor shift here happening.
I wish it was happening here in Australia. But you know, we've only got Julia Gillard, who was his self proclaimed feminist, and unfortunately, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus to blame for the current situation that we're in because in twenty thirteen they made the decision to amend the Sex Discrimination Act to include gender identity, which is why we're seeing things like a team like the Flying Bats in Sydney explode win leagues wing you know, Golden Boot trophies, etc. We've got biological men competing in women's sports. We've got them using women's bathrooms, accessing women's only spaces.
It's a disgrace.
And so until we actually have legislative change in this particular area, I don't know that we're going to see a shift. I mean, from my perspective, I actually really want to know what Opposition leader Peter Dutton thinks about this. I actually put in a request to his team this week to come and join me on two GB afternoons because I really want to know how he feels. Does the Liberal Party in fact have a position on this and if he is elected into power, is he going to introduce legislative change and put an end to all this madness.
Because that's precisely what this is.
It's well, Liberal Senator, Liberal Senator Claire Chandler from Tasmania did, and she's a federal Liberal senator. She's been so strong on this issue. Lucy, she tried, she had a Saved.
Women's Sport Bill kel in order to try.
And get changes to the Sex Discrimination Act that Lucy mentions, which took out the biological definitions of male and female and replaced it with gender identity. And that's where a lot of the legislative problems we have in this country come from.
It's also the fact that gender identity.
Is a protected a attribute in our abilification laws, which means it could potentially be an offense in Australia to use someone's the wrong pronounce that someone doesn't like.
Can I say once again, Donald Trump is the point man on this. Trump has promised to ban biological men competing in with biological women in sport. Now, when Trump does it, he then sets a benchmark for the rest of the world, and conservative leaders like Dunton are going to see what he does and I think be emboldened.
No, but I want, I actually want him to come on the record and say it.
I want to know.
One of the most successful ad campaigns that Donald Trump ran in the lead up to the presidential election was actually that proclaimed idea that he would put an end to biological men competing in women's sports. So what did Peter Dutton's office say when they just said he's not available this week?
Right?
And I still want to regardless of the timing, I still want to be able to put that question to his office because I want to know that they have a position on this issue. And it's all well and good for us to applaud Trump and say, look, Trump did this and hopefully will follow suit. But as you've rightly pointed out, we have existing legislation that is protecting these members. It also was the slippery slope to allowing for several states, most recently in New South Wales, to jump on board with sex self id legislation.
Now, regardless of how.
Many people came out and spoke at this particular inquiry to argue against this and say how dangerous it is to introduce something like that, it.
Was all completely ignored.
Chris Min's was instructing all of his labor colleagues to vote in support of it, and of course it got up. Queensland's had it for a number of years, wiping the portal to.
Dangerous predators, pedophiles, rapists.
You name it to be able to go down to birthstets and marriages, say that they are in fact women and change their birth certificates and they'll be recognized as that. Right, they'll go and commit crimes. It will fall under women's crime statistics. All of these issues will be pointed towards women and it is a face and one of the greatest scandals of our time.
Well look, Peter Dunnan has taken a strong view on everything from the voice to standing in front of the Australian flag and no other conferences.
So if you're.
Watching mister Dutton, get back to Lucy, get back to us on Sky News.
Are you going come on my show?
Come on, come on Sky News first, Bob please afternoon. Speaking of man dates of sorts, face mask mandates are expected to make a comeback in a number of US states amid fears of what's being called a quad demic. Hospitals in at least eight states in the US are requiring or strongly urging indoor mask wearing a mere a surge in four types of viral infections, including COVID, the flu RSB, and neurovirus kel Look, I'm not in a huge hurry to go back to our mask wearing days. Some people would be let me tell you, there are still some people out there. I think Monique Ryan would probably be hoping that we.
Go back to those.
But look, I'm not completely against the idea in hospitals where obviously there's a lot of infections, and as long as it's not the ones that have been proven to be completely useless, because what was the point of that, It was just a virtue signaling exercise.
In the end.
The problem is in COVID we learned we cannot trust medical bureaucrats. They got almost everything wrong almost all the time. Tell us things we say to the medical bureaucrats, Sorry you were wrong last time, you're probably wrong this time. In fact, I tell you how to respond to this. When he wrote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams said, on the front of the book, in big friendly letters, are the words don't panic. Don't panic. It's going to be okay. And the medical bureaucrats can panic all they like. We don't need to panic.
Lucy.
I'm guessing you're not the kind of person who was wearing a mask in your.
Car by yourself outdoors, didn't get vaccinated. None of that was for me, And I'm very comfortable with saying that I was seven months pregnant when they tried to force that onto me, and I asked my GP at the time, what assurances can you give me that this will cause no harm to me or my unborn child? That she looked me dead in the eye and she said, I'm sorry, I can't, So I said, not for me, And boy am I glad that I didn't, given now all the information that we know in hindsight.
But with respect to this, I mean, I feel like this is all how it starts.
And I guess there's lots of debate around masks and their efficacy. I know that there was a report in early twenty twenty three conducted by the Cochran Library who said that their report and research into masks and how efficient.
They were, it came back as inconclusive.
So with respect to that, and the fact that Anthony Fauci admitted under oath, you know, the whole social distancing thing was effectively that wasn't based on any evidence either. It's so difficult now, as Kel rightly pointed out, to trust the experts and to trust the science when it comes to all of this.
So no, thank you.
I will not be engaging in any fear mongering and you won't be able to scare me on that with any vaccines.
I do have to just make the point that the government advice still remains that vaccines COVID vaccines are the best way to protect you in the case of COVID. Well, let's move on nothing and new modeling that's revealed the cost of the renewable energy assets needed to get close to net zero will be thirty percent more expensive than the current system. Research from Queensland's Griffith University prices the transition to renewables at three hundred billion dollars. Now, kel we all remember, at least on Sky News that alban Easy promised to lower our power bills by two hundred and seventy five dollars.
Now it looks like they're going to go up by thirty percent.
Yes, And recently this press pack that's following him around who he hates, actually have said to him, will you try to bring down the power prices by two hundred and seventy five dollars this time? So he's getting very annoyed with him. But what I want is I want someone to have the courage to say net zero is a dream. It's destroying our economy. We don't need it. It's like the net covid, the zero covid idea that floated. I mean that was an impossible goal to reach. Net zero. Anything that's got zero in the name, it's an impossible goal to reach. They've got to say no, that's rubbish, let's not try.
Well.
This new research also shows blackouts in Victoria are highly likely as well. Look after the break, are you guilty of flaking on social plans? A new report claims more people are canceling at the last minute.
We'll chat about that next.
Welcome back.
Well.
The Guardian has reported a global rise in the art of flaking, that's canceling social plans at late notice or at the very last minute. The cost of living burnout, growing levels of social fragmentation due to social media and smartphones, as well as the increasing normalization of inconsiderate behavior in favor of self interest are all cited as factors. Now, being able to send a quick text Lucy to cancel means people can do this without any sort of confrontation. Now, I hate flaking. I just think it's basic disrespect. But I do have to say that I now have come to expect it. You know, even at my own child's.
Birthday party, I expect at least.
Ten percent of people to cancel on the day or during the event itself, which I find disappointing.
Well, again, depending on the circumstances. So if you are sick, please keep your sick children off, for I don't want it. Your gastro whatever you got, stay at home.
Please.
Look, ah, it can be being guilty of flaking sometimes only because and I mean, look, I'm not socially nipped.
I love it. I love to get together with friends and all the things.
But I think that my circumstances have changed now I've got two small.
Children, three and five. I'm a very busy human being.
So I get to the point now where I'm exhausted by the time those plans roll around, so I'm not.
Doing them little.
I will force myself to go even when exhausted, cal because I can't bring myself to flake.
But where did even flake come from?
Well, it's interesting. It's a brand new use, very new use of a very old word. The earlier citation I could find for flaking in this sense is from twenty twenty, so that's very recent. The word itself goes back to the fourteenth century and it means an exfoliation of a small piece from something, and that's what they're doing. You see, they are making themselves a small piece that comes off from the main body. So that's why gen Z' have chosen to call it flaking. So if they want to curl up on the lounge and just play computer games all afternoon rather than go out, they're flaking because they're the exfoliated piece, the little thing that's peeled itself off from the main body of people.
I just think of the chop well, I would play that too.
I don't want to.
I'm not in any sort of commercial agreement with Cadbury, but you know, if they want to send me a box of Cadbury flakes, I wouldn't say no either. Look quickly before we go, I just want to show you that story about an Australian couple, Paul and Naomi, right from the Northern Territory.
Now.
They were among the lucky dozens of people who were snowed in at Britain's highest pub, the tan Hill in in North Yorkshire. They were trapped in the pub for three days when heavy snow, icy roads and strong winds trapped almost thirty patrons inside. They were eventually rescued by local farmers and they spoke about how they passed their time on Australian television.
That turned into a huge snowball fight.
As you can see, we did snowball fight, we built snowmen, we did angels, We had a disco party last night.
Stay last night. Yeah, a lot of drinking, a lot of eating, a lot of chatting, playing.
Cards and I don't think that would have been a nightmare for many Australians being trapped in the pub for three days. Well that's all the time we have tonight. Thank you much, Lucy and Kellen. Thank you at home for watching up next Liberals and Power
