00:00:02
Speaker 1: Peter Kreanland live on Sky News Australia.
00:00:08
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the program. I'm Caleb Bondi for Peter Creenlin. Tonight is what's coming up on the program? The Coalition calls for the CFMAU to be deregistered following shocking new allegations of domestic violence, crime and corruption. Signs Labour's smear campaign against Peter Dutton may be having an effect, as the opposition leader's approval rating switched behind the PM in the latest freshwater poll. A local community bands together against one of Labour's reckless renewable projects and which fears there please for greater transparency of falling on their fears. And Malcolm Turnbull wades into the spotlight once again by launching an extraordinary attack against the Orcast submarine deal.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: Orcas is a terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia. We have no guarantee that we will ever get any submarines.
00:00:58
Speaker 2: Well, the again embroiled in allegations of corruption. Now you could argue that makes it a day ending in why and is somewhat unremarkable, which, to be honest, isn't entirely wrong it's not like this is the first we've heard of corruption or criminality in the construction union. But just you watch how everyone acts like they didn't know anything, and this is some great shock. I'll come back to that in a moment now. The latest allegations detailed in the Nine Papers Non sixty minutes last night that bikeys and other gangs have so successfully infiltrated the CFMEU that favored gang members were placed on government project work sites and quote unquote union delegates they were called earning taxpayer funded wages of up to eleven thousand dollars a week without showing up for work. They reported that companies have been paying large sums of money, as much as six hundred thousand dollars to gangland and biking linked figures to ingratiate themselves with the CFMEU and secure work. Some of that is contractors paying to fixed problems with the union or make sure they get more work in future, but it's allegedly also bikis who've controlled government construction sites, particularly as part of the Big building Victoria, extorting subcontractors under the threat that bad things will happen or they won't get any more work. If they don't pay up the cost of entry to some work sites, it would seem is not just a sweetheart deal with the union but also paying off bikis. One example is that of Gangland figure Farook Orman, who was jailed in two thousand and nine for an underworld murder and later acquitted as part of the Lawyer x saga, allegedly took two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from two civil contractors to help negotiate an enterprise bargaining agreement with the CFMU giving them access to work on the big build. Ormond, it should be noted, has denied the allegations. They also claim that multiple women have been attacked and abused on CFMU work sites, including a CFMU backed man who allegedly locked a woman in a small room at the Foots Gray Hospital redevelopment while he smoked ice and blew it in her face. According to the Nine Papers, Nick Buris was put on the job at the behest of the CFMU after he was released from jail for stalking and threatening to kill a woman. He's allegedly still on Victorian building sites and according to Jeffrey Watson sc who was appointed by CFMU administrator Mark Irving to investigate corruption into the corrupt construction sector. They might be one and the same. Really, the Victorian government effectively ran a protection racket for the CFMU and its crime gang link mates by not properly scrutinating senior bureaucrats and ministerial officers.
00:03:47
Speaker 4: There Wilsome report, it seemed to me to be more of a cover up. Again, there was this generalization of bad culture here back culture. There. There was no solution given that there was a governmental inquiry. It needed actually to go inside the doors of the senior bureaucrats and actually into the ministerial offices in Spring Street. Didn't do any of that. There was I'm afraid a terrible disappointment.
00:04:13
Speaker 2: He also said that quote senior people in the bureaucracy know about it, because I've received information suggesting they were directly told about it. Now it seems to me, he says, they wouldn't have been doing their job properly if they were not communicating that with irrelevant ministers. Just Siner Allen was herself the minister responsible for the Big Build before she replaced Daniel Andrews's Premier and held transport infrastructure portfolios since twenty fourteen. She's previously denied any knowledge of misbehavior in the CFMEU. But here's the rub. No one seems to have known of any misbehavior in the CFMEU, despite the fact it's been plagued by trouble since its exception in the nineties. After, of course, its predecessor, the Builder's Laborers Federation, was to registered in nineteen eighty six by Bob Hawk for corruption. He was Allan's indignation today.
00:05:06
Speaker 5: Againt Heidi, if there are allegations, if there are allegations of at Heidi, if there are any allegations, any allegations that are made around criminal behavior, they must be referred to Victoria Police. And I note I was briefed this morning by the Acting Chief Commissioner of the investigations that have been underway since the middle of last year when I referred allegations to Victoria Police.
00:05:32
Speaker 2: She also announced a new police task force to investigate corruption on government construction sites. Now you'll remember this all kicked off last year when John Seker resigned as Secretary of the Victorian Division of the CFMAU, and then allegations of corruption involving Barkis and crime games were revealed. The federal government subsequently put the Construction Division of the union into administration and suspended it from the party's national executive. I wrote in my Advertiser column at the time, what's all the fuss about? I thought that the CFMU was an organized crime gang, or at least that we all sort of knew that it was. This was then Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke at the time, and.
00:06:13
Speaker 6: The number one job of any union is to look after its members. That's a job of the union and it's a job.
00:06:19
Speaker 4: Of the officials.
00:06:20
Speaker 6: The reported behavior from the Construction Division of the CFMEU is the exact opposite of that obligation. It's ahurrent, it's intolerable. I said over the weekend that we would take action to address these issues, and we are.
00:06:38
Speaker 2: And where was Burke for the past two years of government while all this was going on. He was dismantling the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which the Turnbull government reinstated in twenty sixteen. The cop on the beat designed to keep militant unions like the CFMEU in check before the Albanese government killed it off. The ABCC had more than two hundred successful prosecutions and a ninety percent success rate. Now, when the Federal government scrapped the ABCC, Tony Burke bragged that the government was quote ending the unfair treatment of building and construction workers to ensure construction workers have these same rights as other workers. He complained that the ABCC had ridiculous powers and that it was politicized and a discredited organization established by the previous government to target workers purely for ideological reasons. It was, he said, set up by the Liberals and Nationals to discredit and dismantle unions and undermine the pay conditions and job security of ordinary Australian workers. And then two years later July last year, he was shocked to hear of corruption in the CFMEU and forced to do something about it. Well, maybe if he hadn't killed the cop on the beat, he wouldn't have been talking about this. His replacement as Workplace Relations Minister, Murray Watt, continued the pathetic indignation today on x where he tried to claim this was actually a win for the government. He posted tonight's sixty minutes allegations of corruption and violence towards women are appalling. I will refer them to police for further investigation. Uncovering this unacceptable conduct is testament to the hard work of the CFMEU administrator and his team appointed by the Albanesi government. Well bugger me. We got rid of the cop on the beat which allowed corruption to go basically unchecked. But we deserve a pat on the back for later doing something about it after a newspaper uncovered corruption which they allege has still been going on since they reported it, and you supposedly did something about it. Well done, mister Watt, what a hero. And props of course have to get to Nick mackenzie and his work for uncovering all of this stuff. It's no thanks to the government. It's him who's done most of the leg work on making all of this happen. But where has Murray what been today? He's been hiding from the cameras. He is the workplace Relations Minister. There are allegations of ongoing corruption in the CFMAU and he was nowhere to be seen. The only ministers to speak publicly about it were Treasurer Jim Charmers very briefly at a press conference this morning. Basically just to say that it was bad. Yeah, okay with you that, and then Housing Minister clar O'Neil just after four this afternoon.
00:09:26
Speaker 7: Now, I've seen some of the footage from last night's reporting and it's absolutely gut wrenching. The footage of a full grown male beating up a woman like it absolutely turned my stomach. You know, the union movements were supposed to be about standing up for people who can't protect themselves and I can't think of any more anti union thing that I've ever seen in that So it's just disgusting and I'm glad that these are being taken so seriously.
00:09:50
Speaker 2: But where's the workplace relations Minister? She didn't have an answer for that, and she made the most outlandish claim about the government's record on union corruption.
00:10:01
Speaker 7: I'm sure that Murray Watt will have more to say about this, and I know that he's in the process of referring the allegations from sixty Minutes to the Australian Federal Police. What I just say is that for all the complaining from Peter Dutton, the Coalition sat back and didn't do anything terribly much about the CFMU for a decade when we came to office, we did the toughest thing possible, and that is take the union away from wrongdoers and give it to an independent administrator.
00:10:27
Speaker 2: Can you believe it? The previous government reintroduced the ABCC to do something about the CFMU, And when you came to office, you got rid of the one thing keeping an eye on corruption in the union movement. Then when lo and behold a journalist found corruption in the CFMEU, you were forced to do something. How can you say you have the strongest record on fighting corruption in the union movement. That is pathetic And it tells you what the Labor Party, which of course took money from the CFMU for a very long time, thinks of all this. They dismantled the ABCC as a gift to their union thug mates. They got what they wanted, and taxpayer dollars are allegedly ending up in the hands of criminals. And the best we get is Clara O'Neill saying they've somehow been strong in fighting union corruption. Don't give us the Sergeant Schultz. I don't nah think corruption in construction is a tale as old as time. Don't pretend that you're shocked. This was oppositionallyad to Peter Dutton today.
00:11:32
Speaker 8: The CFMU has donated eleven and a half million dollars to mister Albanese's party and to Miss Allen's party. They are completely and utterly compromised and the corruption here goes to the heart of the Albanzi government.
00:11:45
Speaker 2: Now he said that they need to be deregistered. Don't hold your breath. The Albanzi government knew what it was doing when it dismantled the ABCC, just as the Allen government knew what it was doing when it commissioned an investigation that didn't look in to what government departments and ministers knew and the worst parties you are paying for it. Let's head to Camber now for tonight's political headlines with Scaran News political reporter Reuben Spargo.
00:12:16
Speaker 9: Labor is ruling out delivering a budget surplus next week due to rising costs and the impact of Cyclone.
00:12:22
Speaker 10: Out for it.
00:12:23
Speaker 9: The weather event has punched a one point two billion dollar hole in Australia's economy this year.
00:12:28
Speaker 11: We've been able to turn a big liberal deficit into a smaller deficit.
00:12:32
Speaker 9: Crop damage could increase grocery prices, while construction costs may rise as Australia's East Coast rebuilds.
00:12:39
Speaker 12: We've got Jim Chalmers out there looking for another excuse for why he is failing as Treasurer.
00:12:45
Speaker 9: Ahead of the budget, the Coalition is building the case for greater income tax relief to reduce bracket creep. The Opposition leader is calling for urgent racketeering laws to be moved in Parliament. It's in response to new allegations of misconduct on major construction sites. A dedicated Victorian police task force has been set up to investigate. The state's premier is reluctant to call an inquiry.
00:13:08
Speaker 8: Not surprisingly, somebody who was sanctioned and condoned the corrupt activity of the CFMU, inter Cidarell, provided a wet letters response today it was pathetic.
00:13:17
Speaker 9: Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is stepping up his criticism of the Orcast deal.
00:13:22
Speaker 3: A terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia ocase.
00:13:27
Speaker 10: So I respect his opinion.
00:13:28
Speaker 11: I speak to him from time to time about Orcus and about a whole range of things. So that's not a new position that he's taken.
00:13:35
Speaker 9: Bipartisan support for this three hundred and sixty eight billion dollar deal is unwavering for now.
00:13:42
Speaker 2: We'll talk a bit more about that later in the meantime, though, the latest monthly Financial Review Freshwater Strategy poll has the coalition's primary vote slipping two points on last month. Peter Dutton's approval rating has also fallen below Anthony Albanezi's for the first time since May last year. Now, based on this data, Freshwater projects a hung Parliament, with Labour holding seventy one seats, the Coalition sixty six and thirteen split amongst the Greens and Independence. For more on this in the day's other political stories, I'm joined by Sky and News contributor Chris Yulman. Chris, great to see you. The poles sort of universally have been going against Dutton for the last couple of weeks. Is this a sign that Labor is clawing back territory?
00:14:28
Speaker 12: Look, it may well be color, But I've thought for some time, based on which pole you were reading, that within the margin of era, that nothing much had essentially changed since the last election. So maybe we're seeing some signs of that. So if you were Peter Dutton and his troops, you would be concerned. I'd be even more concerned about the result that we saw out of Western Australia, where everyone was predicting that although the Liberal Party would lose, it would do much better. In fact, it barely lifted its head above that extinction level event that we'd seen four years previously. And this goes to one of the really big problems that the coalition hasn't particularly the Liberal Party.
00:14:58
Speaker 10: It is completely dysfunctional in.
00:15:00
Speaker 12: West Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales is under administration.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: Now.
00:15:05
Speaker 12: If you don't have the troops to put boots on the ground during an election campaign, you are not going to win that campaign. And the numbers game is against Dutton. He's got to come from fifty seven seats to seventy six. The Labour Party sits on seventy eight. So you look at that equation, it is a very big gap to bridge. So I have always thought that the most likely outcome of the next election is a minority Labor government, which will be an interesting exercise for everyone.
00:15:29
Speaker 2: Indeed, and there's more or less what I've been saying as well, it's not impossible for the Coalition to claw back the twenty one seats that it needs in order to form a majority, but it is extremely difficult. It doesn't matter which way you cut it. I think we're going to end up in a minority government of some description. While we're talking about minority, of course, if it was a labor government, they may potentially be looking to the Greens. But there was another poll out today showing the Greens supposedly in real trouble in Queensland. This is from Advance Australia, which is of course a consider activists mob, so perhaps we take it with a grain of salt, but they're suggesting from this pole that they could lose two of their three Queensland seats the Greens to the Coalition, and the third is on a knife edge. Now, if that were to happen and they didn't pick up any other seats, that would leave Adam Band as the sole Greens in p in the Lower House. What's the likelihood of that?
00:16:21
Speaker 12: Yeah, look man, and again I don't have any problem believing that the Greens, particularly given that they essentially are a party of negativity in the Australian electorate, probably are reaping some of the things that they're selling, and they've moved a long way from being an environmental party to being activists and basically professional protesters in Parliament. So I can believe that the Greens numbers may well be falling.
00:16:42
Speaker 10: But even on that advanced pole, you'll see that the Green's numbers have fallen.
00:16:46
Speaker 12: Labors have either gone up slightly or stayed pretty much the same. And my experience from many election nights is that unless there's a four in front of the Liberal candidate so over forty percent, they usually don't pick up that many preferences. And there's a preference lock between the Greens and.
00:17:00
Speaker 10: The Labor Party.
00:17:01
Speaker 12: So the other way to read that poll is there's a possibility that the Labor Party could pick up both those seats, and on that election night we won't know the result. We'll have to wait for weeks to find out. So it could be good use for the Liberal Party, it might be bad use.
00:17:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there is other polling showing that Labor will pick up those seats. We'll see what happens when it all comes out in the wash. Now to eight days, of course, now until treasure Jim Chalmers hands down a budget, he's preempting what is likely to be a big black hole in government spending.
00:17:29
Speaker 11: Take a look, Treasury expects there will be about a one point two billion dollar hit to economic output just as a consequence of xtc Alfred. That's about a quarter of a percentage point in GDP.
00:17:44
Speaker 2: And you've also had a report by Deloitte Access Economics warning of deficits blowing out by thirteen billion dollars over the next four years thanks to growing government spending and declining revenues. That the forecast in this report is also that net debt will grow by more than two hundred billion over the NY four years to more than seven hundred and forty seven billion dollars, or nearly twenty four percent of GDP. But the Treasurer today seemed to be trying to blame it Chris on cyclone Albert.
00:18:13
Speaker 12: And the treasure of course, and I've got no doubt there it will be some hit to the budget from cyclone AB Albert. Let's just say it is one point two billion dollars. Let's have a look at what's happened to the figures over the time that Jim Chalmers has been Treasurer. He has enjoyed the biggest budget win for that is revenue writeops in Australia's history two years to date, one hundred and eighty seven billion dollars in the bank that he was not expecting. If you look at the forward projections, two hundred and seventy six billion dollars over three years that he was not expecting that went into his coffers.
00:18:45
Speaker 10: And what did we get over that time?
00:18:46
Speaker 12: Or we saw the size of government rise from twenty four percent of GDP to twenty seven percent of GDP, which is a permanent increase in the size of government in Australia, the biggest in the last fifty years. So with the things that Jim Charmers couldn't control, or they've got an enormous amount of money. With the things that he could control, he spent an even more enormous amount of money and has locked in permanent.
00:19:06
Speaker 10: Budget deficits forever. That's the true story.
00:19:10
Speaker 12: So lucky Jim has been lucky for him, but unfortunately it's not going to be terribly lucky for governments into the future.
00:19:15
Speaker 10: And again, unfortunately, I don't.
00:19:18
Speaker 12: See either side of politics tics being able to rain these deficits in.
00:19:22
Speaker 2: It's a disgrace. And speaking of unlucky, bad day or lucky use. But unlucky for the government today. I mean the CFMU stuff which I talked about before. Murray Watt is saying that this will be referred to police. They're all feigning indignation. Oh, I can't believe this is going on in the CFMU, as if they don't know that dodgy things happen in the CFM. You go all the way back to the BLIFT, it's never been any different. They dismantled the ABCC, and then you've got Claire O'Neill trying to claim that this government has a stronger record on stopping union corruption than anyone else. Please ah.
00:19:58
Speaker 12: And if you look at the Victorian Labor government and the way that that state has run, and the fact that for many, many years it ran a protection racket for the CFMU, and everyone knew about the way that it behaved, even a casual observer and knew about the way that it behaved, and shock and surprise, we now find that it's the new Moonlight state.
00:20:18
Speaker 10: Let's give it a name.
00:20:19
Speaker 12: Let's call it the Sopranos State, because in fact, what we're seeing in Victoria is organized crime using a protection racket to stand over.
00:20:27
Speaker 10: People on building sites.
00:20:28
Speaker 12: They literally cause a problem and then they'll tell you that they will fix it.
00:20:32
Speaker 10: Now, I agree with you.
00:20:33
Speaker 12: We need to give great cutos here to Nick McKenzie, who was, without the shadow of a doubt, is this nation's leading investigative journalist. It was him that drug up what was going on in Victoria. The Victorian government again, shock and surprise, we really didn't know this was going on. They conducted their own investigation, which the person who's working now for the administrator says was a cover up. Now that is a damning indictment of Victorian labor government and all of Labour knew about this for a very long time, and so did the ACTU and those people that were silent or they're responsible for criminal behavior in Victoria and violence against women, all those things which they claim there against.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: Spot on, Chris Yulman, thank you for your time. Now, this is a story Peter has been following on this program for some time. The imposition of massive renewable energy projects on communities in rural Victoria will concerned locals are gathering in western Victoria tonight to demand greater transparency over the controversial Western Renewables Link. The proposed on hundred and ninety kilometer overhead transmission line will move renewable power from Bulgana in western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne's northwest, and it's feared the planned transmission towers will destroy farms and homes and locals say it's been a struggle to have their concerns heard by the government. Joining me now to discuss this is Victorian farmer Emma Muir. Thanks for joining me, Emma, and what's the plan with the meeting tonight? What are you hoping to it?
00:22:02
Speaker 13: Thanks for having me, Caleb, and I'm here with Bev MacArthur from Western region of Victoria. Tonight we're hoping to hear from the local politicians both at a state and federal level as well as the CFA and have a really good information night for community who've been just so badly treated over the last four and a half nearly five years.
00:22:23
Speaker 2: How do you expect this project would impact your community?
00:22:27
Speaker 13: Well, there's a couple of really big things that will be struggling with is the environment. It will be just desecrated in the areas that they're proposing to put the power lines. We've got huge impact on agriculture, we've got the spud farmers in our region and just you know, everyday farming will have to change or stop as well as spy safety. We've just got an enormous amount of sixty two kilometers of bush fronts onto these transmission lines, and so far today we've had no explanation on how we'll be safe from any impact of these power lines. We're not saying that the power lines will start the fires, but they're going to inhibit the CFA's ability to fight the fires in our region.
00:23:06
Speaker 2: Well, this is the absurdity of these projects so often, isn't it? Because I mean I was talking last night on here about a story out of Brazil where the COP thirty conference is going this year and they're trying to work on how they get all these delegates to come into the meeting. Well, they're going to rip out large sways of the Amazonian rainforest so they can put down a four lane highway. So you destroy the environment in order to have a climate change conference where you talk about how you save the environment, and it seems to be much the same in this circumstance. You say, well, we must save the environment with the renewable power, because burning coal is bad for the environment, so we'll just tear through all this land and buger everyone who lives on it and is using it for profit and delivering food to the country who needs that, because we're saving the environment by destroying the environment.
00:23:54
Speaker 13: That's exactly your spot on. It's exactly what we're facing. Hair. We personally have panted ten thousand and trees. We have a biolink corridor through our property, and we just feel like, why why do we do it when you're going to come and put concrete on it, rip it up, put tracks in it, and just change all of the flora and fauna that we've worked so hard to rehabilitate in our communities and just wreck it. It just astounds me. I just can't understand how anybody could come to our properties and think this was a good idea.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: Of course, we're talking about prime farming land here right now. I would have thought that food farmed in Australia and transported within Australia will generally have a lower carbon footprint than food that you import from overseas because it has to do less movement, it goes on less planes, there's ships, et cetera, et cetera. So you take away the land that people are farming on to save the environment. Again, it doesn't make sense exactly.
00:24:54
Speaker 13: I'm not really sure. Food production doesn't seem to be an issue here SEMs to even ask about food security. And one of our early arguments, because we've been fighting this infinitely five years, was that during COVID, didn't we learn that we should need to produce everything ourselves. Well, why would we even jeopardize our beautiful farmland, our agricultural land here in Victoria to put transmission lines on that really are superseded and there are better alternatives, and the government knows that they knows there's better ways of doing this and cheaper ways to do this. I think that we're just the meat in the sandwich and going to suffer regardless, being bulldozed completely by all levels of the labor government.
00:25:33
Speaker 2: Indeed and of course the state government and another stakeholders. You have given you the cold shoulder, hopefully Emma from tonight and you will continued work. You can get some answers. Thank you so much for joining me after the break. Victorian Opposition leader Brad Batton on those explosive allegations of corruption and violence within the CFMUU class. Malcolm Turnbill launches an extraordinary attack on the Orchest submarine deal. Don't go Away, growing speculation about whether the Trump administration will actually follow through with the Orcus submarine deal. Will Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull doesn't seem to know how to shut up. He's furnished us with his thoughts that no one asked for, which is that Trump will like the deal, but perhaps not for the reason. You might think.
00:26:18
Speaker 3: Orcas is a terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia. And the reason it is unfair is that we are paying three billion US dollars to the Americans to support their submarine industrial base, but we have no guarantee that we will ever get any submarines. People say, does do Will Donald Trump like it?
00:26:39
Speaker 10: Well, of course he'd like it. It's such a bad deal for us.
00:26:43
Speaker 3: Will his only thinking, He'd be back of his mind. He'll be thinking, who are these dumb guys that agreed to this deal.
00:26:49
Speaker 2: One wonders how much of that commentary is to do with the fact that Scott Morrison scrapped his deal with France in favor of Orcus. But meanwhile, the plan to extend the life of our Colins class submarines might need to be scaled back because government and shipbuilder ASC apparently won't be ready in time to deliver the full upgrade for the first boat. Joining me now to discuss this is the Director of Strategic Analysis Australia, Michael Shubridge. Michael, how worrying are these revelations about the Colins class submarines. I mean, you know you've got one job.
00:27:21
Speaker 14: Well, they're very worrying. But it's not just ASC the company, it's Defense and the Navy. They have put too much risk into the Colins class. They're trying to turn an old submarine into a new submarine and now they've worked out that it's all too hard. So that's the big problem. It's like having a ninety six Ford Falcon that you're going to replace the sound system and all the electronics, but it turns out you haven't got time to do anything about the engine, the gearbox or the mechanicals.
00:27:51
Speaker 2: It sounds like something one of our contributors, Joe Hildebrand, actually did with his with his Ford Falcon. It should be should be noted it is utterly ridiculous to think that we say we're going to do this. We are in such a poor position when it comes to the on water infrastructure of our navy, be it ships or submarines. We have a supposed plan to make sure we can get through until such time as we have brand new nuclear submarines, and that doesn't even work. I mean we are sitting ducks.
00:28:23
Speaker 4: Really.
00:28:25
Speaker 14: Yes, So if we think that the surveillance of those three Chinese warships was badly managed this time, as our ANZAC frigates get old and taken out of service early and Collins goes down the same path, the Navy is getting weaker and weaker at a time we needed to get stronger.
00:28:43
Speaker 2: What did you make of Malcolm Turnbull's analysis that I played before that Orcus is actually a bad deal for us, and that is why don't think Trump would be into it.
00:28:54
Speaker 14: Well, I actually think there's a potential for Donald Trump to look at Aucus a completely different way. One thing Donald Trump is certain about is that his predecessor Joe Biden made bad deals. Any deal Biden made is a bad one that Trump can do better on. Well, guess who signed the UCUST deal Joe Biden. So the risk is Trump wants a better deal than he's already got. But a lot of this is irrelevant. That August submarine plan is a decades long thing. It doesn't deliver even if it goes well, any military power to Australia for at least a decade. We need to do a whole lot more, a whole lot faster, with unmanned drones that are armed and unarmed, under the water and in the air, and of course missile encounter missile system. So a lot of this aucust stuff is just just talk.
00:29:48
Speaker 2: You are right, Michael. Now, according to US officials, a Ukraine Russia cease far deal could be just weeks away, with Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin set to hold discussions in a matter of days. Of course, we know Ukraine is already on board with a ceasefire. Putin to this point is that there is no way it will happen. The terms he's putting forward for such a thing to happen. It is so ridiculous that presumably the US could never.
00:30:12
Speaker 10: See to them.
00:30:13
Speaker 2: How likely are we to actually see a deal for a ceasefire.
00:30:19
Speaker 14: I think it's a long way away. Because you're right, Putin is now thinking he can get even more than in his wildest dreams he thought was possible. He seems to be channeling that old quote I think it was Napoleon. Never interrupt your adversary when they're making a mistake. So he's happy to see wedges driven between the US and Ukraine and the US and Europe. Ukraine weakened, and he's happy to watch more of that happen. So I think any deal, particularly a durable peace, is a long way away.
00:30:54
Speaker 2: Just quickly. This business about the Prime Minister floating the idea of sending a small number of peacekeepers to Ukraine if there is a cease fire. He's kind of putting the car to ahead of the horse, isn't he.
00:31:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:31:07
Speaker 14: Look, I think we've got to be prepared with mister Albinizi for another episode of The Mouse That Roared. So he's talking a big game. But anyone that's worried about thousands of Australian troops heading off to Ukraine can relax. This will be just like the contribution Australia's made to keeping the Red Sea shipping lanes open. We're asked for a warship. We sent five officers to coordinate things in her headquarters.
00:31:33
Speaker 2: You are probably right, Michael, thank you so much for your time. Let's return to those explosive new allegations, of course against the sea of him. You joining me now is Victorian opposition leader Brad Baton. Brad, great to see you, though, of course, under awful circumstances with what we're talking about here, their premier, Just Cinterer Allen sees today. Of course she reaffirms that she didn't know about any of this before it happened, and the government is not running any kind of protection racket to protect the CMEU and its thug mates in organized crime and biking games, etc. That does not wash. I mean, when you've got the bloke who's been sent off by the administrator coming back and saying the Allen government's investigation to this did not look at what the government and its departments knew, it's pretty clear what was going on.
00:32:29
Speaker 10: It's one hundred percent right.
00:32:30
Speaker 15: And you even had in the story had a detective superintendent who came out and said that nearly ten years ago he wrote to the government and explained that there's issues with challenges on the work sites here in state government projects. And what we've seen today is just since Alan is trying to backtrack, rewrite history to try and write herself out of it when the reality is not only as the premier now, but she was the minister in charge of the big build project. It's about time that just into Alan starts taking responsibility for the consequences of what is happening on those projects now, for the bikis that are there, for the organized crime that is happening, and the money that's been filtered taxpayers money has been filtered directly through state government projects.
00:33:11
Speaker 10: Into the hands of organized crime.
00:33:13
Speaker 15: This is from a government who won't lift a finger to help families that are struggling. Yet we're seeing organized crime figures driving around in Bentley's in souped up forward rangers that all the cars that we want, smoking cigars, having a great old time at the expense of the poor person who has to pay the taxpayers and increased taxes we get in this state.
00:33:32
Speaker 2: Well, let's look at the record of Jacinta Allen over the last few years. Of course, she was the minister for the delivery of the Commonwealth Games that was scrapped, that cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the Victorian taxpayer to not have the Commonwealth Games. She still hasn't answered what she knew about that before that decision was made and when the decision was actually made at an internal government level. She was responsible for the big build and she says she wasn't aware of alleged corruption by the CFMU an organized crime that was going on while she was responsible for the Big build. I mean surely, on that alone, even if she is admitting that she didn't know what was going on, that is an abrogation of her responsibility as the minister. She needs to own up to that and leave.
00:34:20
Speaker 10: And what you're saying there. If she's saying she didn't know.
00:34:23
Speaker 15: About it and she was not aware, then why is it the investigators coming out and saying that the blockage point at the moment is they can't speak to the ministers or see the information that they knew. If they've got nothing to hide, then come out and show what you knew at what times? Because the footage we've seen where women are being assaulted on work sites and for complaining they get black bann Yet the thugs who do it remain on these work sites that we're seeing. As I said, this money been filtered. It's taxpayers money straight through. How can they take not take any responsibility as a government that's been in power for ten years and the minister was in charge is now the premier.
00:35:01
Speaker 8: Now.
00:35:01
Speaker 15: I know she's come out recently and apologized, and since she got it wrong in relation to Bail, I wonder when she's going to come out and apologize to the victims who have been in these videos from these work sites. And we're just going to apologize to everyone in Victoria that she's let Biki's run state run projects, that she's allowing taxpayers who are struggling to put food on the table and pay their energy bill, to have increased taxes on the rent tax, health tax, all these things are going straight into the hands of organized crime.
00:35:30
Speaker 10: It needs to be cleaned up.
00:35:31
Speaker 15: This is a mess and the only way to make changes in that we need a royal commission. And we're staying to the government get on with it and do a proper royal commission so we can find out who really is to blame, including it if it is you, the Premier, and.
00:35:43
Speaker 2: I agree that there should be a real commission, but after that there needs to be action. As I said before, we have been talking about trouble with the construction industry and its union since the BLF, which was registered by Bob Hawk in nineteen eighty six, and here we are still having these discussions to day. Brad Baton, thank you for joining me after the break. Despite their tagline of a tax cut for every taxpayer, your research suggests you'll still pay more tax under Labor. Adam Crichton will have more on that, plus how much extra you've paid for groceries under the Albanzi government. The panel will weigh and soon that go away. Now, the federal government's budget next week will probably be a cost of living budget to end all cost of living budgets. This is Anthony Albanesi and Jin Charmer's last throw at the dice before the election. They are going to try to literally buy your vote. So the Coalition is getting ahead of that, going around Marginal's seat this week waving research that choose the average Aussie worker paid three thousand, five hundred dollars more tax last financial year than before Labor was elected. Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor will also claim workers will pay nearly nine thousand dollars more in tax by twenty twenty nine, and this has become a big problem. The federal government is a dick to tax, particularly income tax. The mid year Economic and Financial Outlook in December said that income tax receipts would increase twenty one and a half billion dollars more than expected over the forward estimates. Income tax alone is expected to rake in four hundred and ninety six point zero seven billion dollars this financial year. Just a decade ago, that number was two hundred and fifty eight point eight billion, around half of what it is today. All tax revenue across all levels of government increased from four hundred and thirty two point seven billion in twenty thirteen fourteen to seven hundred and fifty five point eight billion in twenty twenty two twenty three. That far outstrips the rate of inflation. And yes, there has been significant inflation over the past decade, about thirty and a half percent, but not enough to explain a doubling of income tax revenue. The working population between November twenty fourteen and November twenty twenty four increased by two twenty five percent, and yet income tax receipts jumped by ninety two point twenty four percent. For more on this I'm joined by chief economist at the Institute of Public Affairs, Adam Crichton. Thank you for joining me, Adam. You know, I know we all thought that it won't be easy under alb and easy campaign was a bit annoying, but it's proven right every second day. Yes, look, certainly that's right.
00:38:24
Speaker 16: The addiction to tax certainly by this current government has really quite extraordinary and depressing.
00:38:30
Speaker 2: Really.
00:38:30
Speaker 16: I mean, of course that effects spending, and we've seen growth in spending from twenty four percent of GDP to twenty seven percent of GDP at the federal level just in the last three years. And that's basically the most rapid growth in federal government spending I think since the Whitlam years. So this is a very worrying trend and we have to do something about it. But frankly, neither side of politics really seems serious about reigning and government spending and of course raining and the taxation as well. The coalition obviously is talking about the problem of indexation and.
00:38:59
Speaker 2: Bracket CREP, and that is good, but remember they.
00:39:02
Speaker 16: Were in office for nine or ten years just recently and they did very little about it.
00:39:06
Speaker 2: Sadly, indeed, and of course, you know, they tried to do something with their tax cuts, got through to stage three, which of course was then fiddled with by the federal government. Day said oh, well, that will deliver everyone a tax cut. In effect, it hasn't. I mean, yes, it might have been a tax cut from what you would have paid, but it's not a tax cut in real terms compared to what you were paying before. We have not had a genuine discussion about tax reform in this country for decades. It's about time we did.
00:39:36
Speaker 10: Yeah, look, that is right.
00:39:37
Speaker 16: One of the frustrating things about the Australian press and media in general is they keep talking about tax cuts when actually there hasn't been a real tax cut. What we've seen is a fiddling with the tax thresholds in recent years, and that is somewhat reduced what bracket creep would have been, but it's really just a partial reimbursement of an unlegislated tax cut, which was certainly never explained to most workers. And the other frustration I find with bracket creek two is that people think you need to move into a different tax bracket for it to happen. But that's not right basically at any level. Of income trees increase with the tax system, we have a larger share of income will be taxed at on high rate. So that is the source of bracket creep and that is economically very damaging over time.
00:40:20
Speaker 2: Indeed, and I think the argument needs to be run, and it never really is that bracket creep disproportionately hurts young people because of course everyone says, oh, it's the boomers who are earning too much money and they're on good salaries, et cetera. But it is young people who will progress in their careers and in perhaps ten or fifteen years time, be going up through the tax brackets that will be hurt by this the most. That's the argument that needs to start to running, but no one seems to want to do it. Adam Michael talking about this all night, but I don't have the time. Thank you for joining me after the break. Malcolm Turnbull has appeared very keen to seize the headlines recently, first on tariffs and now orcus. But what is he trying to achieve? But shocking new data shows just how much grocery prices have surged under labor. That's up with this, Let's bring in tonight's Panel Liberally, MP James Stevens neili in p Senator James McGrath. Let's start with Malcolm Turnbull. I played earlier this clip of him slamming the Orcist deal. He sided with Labor when it comes to a Ukraine peacekeeping force. Of course, last week he had that war of words with Donald Trump. James Stevens. What on earth is Malcolm Turnbull playing at? Why has he decided now is the time to pop up?
00:41:35
Speaker 17: I don't know, Caleb. I'm a bit concerned about his contributions, particularly being from Adelaide, because of course we're very excited about building nuclear submarines here for the future of the Royal Australian Navy and it's a fantastic capability increase for our navy, so sledging obtaining that technology just makes no sense whatsoever. I suppose he's got some sensitivities around under the legacy of his own government, but I'm a very proud Liberal that sees that as a great legacy of the Morrison era and something that will transform our capability into the future.
00:42:12
Speaker 2: Indeed, James McGrath, I know that he once talked about miserable ghosts hanging around but he has become the miserable ghost. I don't think anything that he has to say is particularly useful to the current government or to your position for that matter. Why can't he do what Julia Gillard did, which is just go off and enjoy life and do some good things for the world.
00:42:37
Speaker 1: I agree one hundred percent. The best thing that Malcolm Turnbook could say would be to say absolutely nothing. You look at what Ted Heath did when Margaret Satcher rolled him for leadership to Tory Party in nineteen seventy five. Ted Heath had a sulk that lasted for decades. Well, Malconturnable seems to want to emulate Ted Heath. I think Malcolm should just go He's got lots of money going and enjoy life and stop trying to damage the chances of the Liberal National Party winning the coming election, because I think he's trying to stop us from winning, and for Australia's sake, we need to win.
00:43:16
Speaker 2: It's amazing what Ego can do, isn't I mean, it's the whole reason he hung around to become Prime Minister. He thought he had a god given right for it. The bloke could be in a different country every day for the rest of his life, traveling around enjoying himself. But he had to have that Prime ministership and he's still salty about the fact that it was eventually taken away from him. Moving on, though, exclusive analysis by the News Court Papers has found that Australian families have been left three thousand dollars a year poorer during the first term of the Albanese government because grocery bills have risen by thirty percent. They found that a basket of twenty nine items from Coals is thirty six percent more expensive than it was in June twenty twenty two. At Woolli's the cost has jumped by thirty percent. At Aldi it's twenty six percent. James Stevens, this is the stuff that will cut through. I mean you add this to, of course, what we heard about power bills last week. Surely when people hit the ballot box, they've got to be thinking about their hip pocket.
00:44:16
Speaker 17: Absolutely, Caleb. But I'm hearing some really sad stories in my own electorate, of course, people saying they're not buying fresh vegetables anymore, they're going to the frozen section because they can't afford. That's not a luxury purchasing fresh vegetables. But people are getting hit so hard thanks to interest rates, rents, electricity bills are out of control, and those same costs are on the businesses that are producing our food and under labor. These skyrocketing costs are having so many consequences for the household budget. I think people are going to send a very clear message to labor at the ballot box in a few weeks time, just what they think about their performance on these fundamental issues.
00:44:56
Speaker 2: This was a crazy story in the odds. Today, law students at McCrory University risk failing a key exam if they refuse to give a good enough acknowledgment of country. Students have been told that an acknowledgment of country is one of the five marking areas for the presentation, which is worth thirty percent of their final grade. James McGrath and this is insane. The founding chief executive of the Ramsey Center for Western Civilization, Simon Haynes, said that they need to review at the UNI needs to review it. He said, the critical error here is the confusion of categories the academic and the political activist. I mean, how in any way is the manner in which, or if you even give an acknowledgment of country related to law studies.
00:45:43
Speaker 1: It is completely an arty, not related to law studies. We want our law students to learn about contract law, commercial law, our constitutional law, to go out and have fun and drink too much on a Friday night. We don't want our law students to be indoctrinated into the fail aliures of the voice referreendum which tried to divide Ashins on the basis of race. I can tell you that Queenslanders tell me they are sick of being welcome to their own country. I'm down here in Taste May at the moment doing work with Susie Bowers. Tast millions are sick of being welcome to their own country. They just want to get on and deal with the cost of living crisis and make sure that they've got enough food on the table, rather than this PC nonsense being rammed down our throats.
00:46:25
Speaker 2: James Stevens, I'm sure you're probably aware the Greens are going around d knocking in your election of Stir saying that they could win that seat at the federal election, which seems like a pretty extraordinary thing to say, but they're pushing now for a national four day work week by running a test case in the Fair Work Commission and starting the National Institute for the Four Day work Week. Under this policy, workers would have their hours scaled back to eighty percent, but they'd still receive one hundred percent of their pay. It seems like a great idea, doesn't it, James Winn. We've got a productivity crisis in this country to have people going to work less.
00:47:03
Speaker 17: Yeah, look, Caleb, it's that you know, magic putting economics, isn't it. I mean, effectively, that policy is just saying let's reduce the productivity of our entire nation by twenty percent. That means making all of us poorer by twenty percent, and this is the last thing that the Australian economy needs right now. That kind of lunacy from the Greens. But unfortunately it's no surprise that they've got a lot of other crazy ideas. This is the latest one. We're going to hear more and more about it through the campaign and I encourage my voters in Stirret and voters across the country to simply look at the policies of the Greens, because you only have to go to their own website to find out why not to vote for them.
00:47:44
Speaker 2: James McGrath quickly before we go. Labour's promised to splash seven million dollars in upgrading the Medical Costs fund a website if it wins the election. This site was set up by the Coalition government in twenty nineteen to help Australians shop around for affordable healthcare, but Labour claim that only seventy opts out of eleven thousand specialists have actually voluntarily displayed their fees. Again, you know, I always wonder when these promises made we'll do something after the election. If it's been this much of a problem, why didn't they do something in the last three years?
00:48:17
Speaker 1: Exactly, Alban Easy this week Prime Minister. We have has been prime minister. Haven't helped us for three years. But do you know it's never been more expensive to see a GP in Australia at the moment because of the Labor Party. Do you know it's actually more it's harder to see a GP in addition to being more expensive because of the Labor Party. And now they did want to throw some money around the place. It's too little, too late, and we need to get rid of this more.
00:48:40
Speaker 2: Indeed, and of course they should start talking about what they're going to do with bulk billing. I mean they keep saying, oh, we're going to save Medicare, We're going to save medicare, bringing back the medi scare thing. But bulk billing has gone through the floor under this government. It contributes to the cost of living, the payments haven't kept up with the cost of doing business anymore. The whole thing's broken. James Stephen, James Magra, thank you so much for joining me, and thank you for your company tonight. Of course I'll be back on the Late Debate as normal tomorrow. Up next is the Bolt Report. Good Night,
Speaker 1: Peter Kreanland live on Sky News Australia.
00:00:08
Speaker 2: Good evening and welcome to the program. I'm Caleb Bondi for Peter Creenlin. Tonight is what's coming up on the program? The Coalition calls for the CFMAU to be deregistered following shocking new allegations of domestic violence, crime and corruption. Signs Labour's smear campaign against Peter Dutton may be having an effect, as the opposition leader's approval rating switched behind the PM in the latest freshwater poll. A local community bands together against one of Labour's reckless renewable projects and which fears there please for greater transparency of falling on their fears. And Malcolm Turnbull wades into the spotlight once again by launching an extraordinary attack against the Orcast submarine deal.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: Orcas is a terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia. We have no guarantee that we will ever get any submarines.
00:00:58
Speaker 2: Well, the again embroiled in allegations of corruption. Now you could argue that makes it a day ending in why and is somewhat unremarkable, which, to be honest, isn't entirely wrong it's not like this is the first we've heard of corruption or criminality in the construction union. But just you watch how everyone acts like they didn't know anything, and this is some great shock. I'll come back to that in a moment now. The latest allegations detailed in the Nine Papers Non sixty minutes last night that bikeys and other gangs have so successfully infiltrated the CFMEU that favored gang members were placed on government project work sites and quote unquote union delegates they were called earning taxpayer funded wages of up to eleven thousand dollars a week without showing up for work. They reported that companies have been paying large sums of money, as much as six hundred thousand dollars to gangland and biking linked figures to ingratiate themselves with the CFMEU and secure work. Some of that is contractors paying to fixed problems with the union or make sure they get more work in future, but it's allegedly also bikis who've controlled government construction sites, particularly as part of the Big building Victoria, extorting subcontractors under the threat that bad things will happen or they won't get any more work. If they don't pay up the cost of entry to some work sites, it would seem is not just a sweetheart deal with the union but also paying off bikis. One example is that of Gangland figure Farook Orman, who was jailed in two thousand and nine for an underworld murder and later acquitted as part of the Lawyer x saga, allegedly took two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from two civil contractors to help negotiate an enterprise bargaining agreement with the CFMU giving them access to work on the big build. Ormond, it should be noted, has denied the allegations. They also claim that multiple women have been attacked and abused on CFMU work sites, including a CFMU backed man who allegedly locked a woman in a small room at the Foots Gray Hospital redevelopment while he smoked ice and blew it in her face. According to the Nine Papers, Nick Buris was put on the job at the behest of the CFMU after he was released from jail for stalking and threatening to kill a woman. He's allegedly still on Victorian building sites and according to Jeffrey Watson sc who was appointed by CFMU administrator Mark Irving to investigate corruption into the corrupt construction sector. They might be one and the same. Really, the Victorian government effectively ran a protection racket for the CFMU and its crime gang link mates by not properly scrutinating senior bureaucrats and ministerial officers.
00:03:47
Speaker 4: There Wilsome report, it seemed to me to be more of a cover up. Again, there was this generalization of bad culture here back culture. There. There was no solution given that there was a governmental inquiry. It needed actually to go inside the doors of the senior bureaucrats and actually into the ministerial offices in Spring Street. Didn't do any of that. There was I'm afraid a terrible disappointment.
00:04:13
Speaker 2: He also said that quote senior people in the bureaucracy know about it, because I've received information suggesting they were directly told about it. Now it seems to me, he says, they wouldn't have been doing their job properly if they were not communicating that with irrelevant ministers. Just Siner Allen was herself the minister responsible for the Big Build before she replaced Daniel Andrews's Premier and held transport infrastructure portfolios since twenty fourteen. She's previously denied any knowledge of misbehavior in the CFMEU. But here's the rub. No one seems to have known of any misbehavior in the CFMEU, despite the fact it's been plagued by trouble since its exception in the nineties. After, of course, its predecessor, the Builder's Laborers Federation, was to registered in nineteen eighty six by Bob Hawk for corruption. He was Allan's indignation today.
00:05:06
Speaker 5: Againt Heidi, if there are allegations, if there are allegations of at Heidi, if there are any allegations, any allegations that are made around criminal behavior, they must be referred to Victoria Police. And I note I was briefed this morning by the Acting Chief Commissioner of the investigations that have been underway since the middle of last year when I referred allegations to Victoria Police.
00:05:32
Speaker 2: She also announced a new police task force to investigate corruption on government construction sites. Now you'll remember this all kicked off last year when John Seker resigned as Secretary of the Victorian Division of the CFMAU, and then allegations of corruption involving Barkis and crime games were revealed. The federal government subsequently put the Construction Division of the union into administration and suspended it from the party's national executive. I wrote in my Advertiser column at the time, what's all the fuss about? I thought that the CFMU was an organized crime gang, or at least that we all sort of knew that it was. This was then Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke at the time, and.
00:06:13
Speaker 6: The number one job of any union is to look after its members. That's a job of the union and it's a job.
00:06:19
Speaker 4: Of the officials.
00:06:20
Speaker 6: The reported behavior from the Construction Division of the CFMEU is the exact opposite of that obligation. It's ahurrent, it's intolerable. I said over the weekend that we would take action to address these issues, and we are.
00:06:38
Speaker 2: And where was Burke for the past two years of government while all this was going on. He was dismantling the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which the Turnbull government reinstated in twenty sixteen. The cop on the beat designed to keep militant unions like the CFMEU in check before the Albanese government killed it off. The ABCC had more than two hundred successful prosecutions and a ninety percent success rate. Now, when the Federal government scrapped the ABCC, Tony Burke bragged that the government was quote ending the unfair treatment of building and construction workers to ensure construction workers have these same rights as other workers. He complained that the ABCC had ridiculous powers and that it was politicized and a discredited organization established by the previous government to target workers purely for ideological reasons. It was, he said, set up by the Liberals and Nationals to discredit and dismantle unions and undermine the pay conditions and job security of ordinary Australian workers. And then two years later July last year, he was shocked to hear of corruption in the CFMEU and forced to do something about it. Well, maybe if he hadn't killed the cop on the beat, he wouldn't have been talking about this. His replacement as Workplace Relations Minister, Murray Watt, continued the pathetic indignation today on x where he tried to claim this was actually a win for the government. He posted tonight's sixty minutes allegations of corruption and violence towards women are appalling. I will refer them to police for further investigation. Uncovering this unacceptable conduct is testament to the hard work of the CFMEU administrator and his team appointed by the Albanesi government. Well bugger me. We got rid of the cop on the beat which allowed corruption to go basically unchecked. But we deserve a pat on the back for later doing something about it after a newspaper uncovered corruption which they allege has still been going on since they reported it, and you supposedly did something about it. Well done, mister Watt, what a hero. And props of course have to get to Nick mackenzie and his work for uncovering all of this stuff. It's no thanks to the government. It's him who's done most of the leg work on making all of this happen. But where has Murray what been today? He's been hiding from the cameras. He is the workplace Relations Minister. There are allegations of ongoing corruption in the CFMAU and he was nowhere to be seen. The only ministers to speak publicly about it were Treasurer Jim Charmers very briefly at a press conference this morning. Basically just to say that it was bad. Yeah, okay with you that, and then Housing Minister clar O'Neil just after four this afternoon.
00:09:26
Speaker 7: Now, I've seen some of the footage from last night's reporting and it's absolutely gut wrenching. The footage of a full grown male beating up a woman like it absolutely turned my stomach. You know, the union movements were supposed to be about standing up for people who can't protect themselves and I can't think of any more anti union thing that I've ever seen in that So it's just disgusting and I'm glad that these are being taken so seriously.
00:09:50
Speaker 2: But where's the workplace relations Minister? She didn't have an answer for that, and she made the most outlandish claim about the government's record on union corruption.
00:10:01
Speaker 7: I'm sure that Murray Watt will have more to say about this, and I know that he's in the process of referring the allegations from sixty Minutes to the Australian Federal Police. What I just say is that for all the complaining from Peter Dutton, the Coalition sat back and didn't do anything terribly much about the CFMU for a decade when we came to office, we did the toughest thing possible, and that is take the union away from wrongdoers and give it to an independent administrator.
00:10:27
Speaker 2: Can you believe it? The previous government reintroduced the ABCC to do something about the CFMU, And when you came to office, you got rid of the one thing keeping an eye on corruption in the union movement. Then when lo and behold a journalist found corruption in the CFMEU, you were forced to do something. How can you say you have the strongest record on fighting corruption in the union movement. That is pathetic And it tells you what the Labor Party, which of course took money from the CFMU for a very long time, thinks of all this. They dismantled the ABCC as a gift to their union thug mates. They got what they wanted, and taxpayer dollars are allegedly ending up in the hands of criminals. And the best we get is Clara O'Neill saying they've somehow been strong in fighting union corruption. Don't give us the Sergeant Schultz. I don't nah think corruption in construction is a tale as old as time. Don't pretend that you're shocked. This was oppositionallyad to Peter Dutton today.
00:11:32
Speaker 8: The CFMU has donated eleven and a half million dollars to mister Albanese's party and to Miss Allen's party. They are completely and utterly compromised and the corruption here goes to the heart of the Albanzi government.
00:11:45
Speaker 2: Now he said that they need to be deregistered. Don't hold your breath. The Albanzi government knew what it was doing when it dismantled the ABCC, just as the Allen government knew what it was doing when it commissioned an investigation that didn't look in to what government departments and ministers knew and the worst parties you are paying for it. Let's head to Camber now for tonight's political headlines with Scaran News political reporter Reuben Spargo.
00:12:16
Speaker 9: Labor is ruling out delivering a budget surplus next week due to rising costs and the impact of Cyclone.
00:12:22
Speaker 10: Out for it.
00:12:23
Speaker 9: The weather event has punched a one point two billion dollar hole in Australia's economy this year.
00:12:28
Speaker 11: We've been able to turn a big liberal deficit into a smaller deficit.
00:12:32
Speaker 9: Crop damage could increase grocery prices, while construction costs may rise as Australia's East Coast rebuilds.
00:12:39
Speaker 12: We've got Jim Chalmers out there looking for another excuse for why he is failing as Treasurer.
00:12:45
Speaker 9: Ahead of the budget, the Coalition is building the case for greater income tax relief to reduce bracket creep. The Opposition leader is calling for urgent racketeering laws to be moved in Parliament. It's in response to new allegations of misconduct on major construction sites. A dedicated Victorian police task force has been set up to investigate. The state's premier is reluctant to call an inquiry.
00:13:08
Speaker 8: Not surprisingly, somebody who was sanctioned and condoned the corrupt activity of the CFMU, inter Cidarell, provided a wet letters response today it was pathetic.
00:13:17
Speaker 9: Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is stepping up his criticism of the Orcast deal.
00:13:22
Speaker 3: A terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia ocase.
00:13:27
Speaker 10: So I respect his opinion.
00:13:28
Speaker 11: I speak to him from time to time about Orcus and about a whole range of things. So that's not a new position that he's taken.
00:13:35
Speaker 9: Bipartisan support for this three hundred and sixty eight billion dollar deal is unwavering for now.
00:13:42
Speaker 2: We'll talk a bit more about that later in the meantime, though, the latest monthly Financial Review Freshwater Strategy poll has the coalition's primary vote slipping two points on last month. Peter Dutton's approval rating has also fallen below Anthony Albanezi's for the first time since May last year. Now, based on this data, Freshwater projects a hung Parliament, with Labour holding seventy one seats, the Coalition sixty six and thirteen split amongst the Greens and Independence. For more on this in the day's other political stories, I'm joined by Sky and News contributor Chris Yulman. Chris, great to see you. The poles sort of universally have been going against Dutton for the last couple of weeks. Is this a sign that Labor is clawing back territory?
00:14:28
Speaker 12: Look, it may well be color, But I've thought for some time, based on which pole you were reading, that within the margin of era, that nothing much had essentially changed since the last election. So maybe we're seeing some signs of that. So if you were Peter Dutton and his troops, you would be concerned. I'd be even more concerned about the result that we saw out of Western Australia, where everyone was predicting that although the Liberal Party would lose, it would do much better. In fact, it barely lifted its head above that extinction level event that we'd seen four years previously. And this goes to one of the really big problems that the coalition hasn't particularly the Liberal Party.
00:14:58
Speaker 10: It is completely dysfunctional in.
00:15:00
Speaker 12: West Australia, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales is under administration.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: Now.
00:15:05
Speaker 12: If you don't have the troops to put boots on the ground during an election campaign, you are not going to win that campaign. And the numbers game is against Dutton. He's got to come from fifty seven seats to seventy six. The Labour Party sits on seventy eight. So you look at that equation, it is a very big gap to bridge. So I have always thought that the most likely outcome of the next election is a minority Labor government, which will be an interesting exercise for everyone.
00:15:29
Speaker 2: Indeed, and there's more or less what I've been saying as well, it's not impossible for the Coalition to claw back the twenty one seats that it needs in order to form a majority, but it is extremely difficult. It doesn't matter which way you cut it. I think we're going to end up in a minority government of some description. While we're talking about minority, of course, if it was a labor government, they may potentially be looking to the Greens. But there was another poll out today showing the Greens supposedly in real trouble in Queensland. This is from Advance Australia, which is of course a consider activists mob, so perhaps we take it with a grain of salt, but they're suggesting from this pole that they could lose two of their three Queensland seats the Greens to the Coalition, and the third is on a knife edge. Now, if that were to happen and they didn't pick up any other seats, that would leave Adam Band as the sole Greens in p in the Lower House. What's the likelihood of that?
00:16:21
Speaker 12: Yeah, look man, and again I don't have any problem believing that the Greens, particularly given that they essentially are a party of negativity in the Australian electorate, probably are reaping some of the things that they're selling, and they've moved a long way from being an environmental party to being activists and basically professional protesters in Parliament. So I can believe that the Greens numbers may well be falling.
00:16:42
Speaker 10: But even on that advanced pole, you'll see that the Green's numbers have fallen.
00:16:46
Speaker 12: Labors have either gone up slightly or stayed pretty much the same. And my experience from many election nights is that unless there's a four in front of the Liberal candidate so over forty percent, they usually don't pick up that many preferences. And there's a preference lock between the Greens and.
00:17:00
Speaker 10: The Labor Party.
00:17:01
Speaker 12: So the other way to read that poll is there's a possibility that the Labor Party could pick up both those seats, and on that election night we won't know the result. We'll have to wait for weeks to find out. So it could be good use for the Liberal Party, it might be bad use.
00:17:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there is other polling showing that Labor will pick up those seats. We'll see what happens when it all comes out in the wash. Now to eight days, of course, now until treasure Jim Chalmers hands down a budget, he's preempting what is likely to be a big black hole in government spending.
00:17:29
Speaker 11: Take a look, Treasury expects there will be about a one point two billion dollar hit to economic output just as a consequence of xtc Alfred. That's about a quarter of a percentage point in GDP.
00:17:44
Speaker 2: And you've also had a report by Deloitte Access Economics warning of deficits blowing out by thirteen billion dollars over the next four years thanks to growing government spending and declining revenues. That the forecast in this report is also that net debt will grow by more than two hundred billion over the NY four years to more than seven hundred and forty seven billion dollars, or nearly twenty four percent of GDP. But the Treasurer today seemed to be trying to blame it Chris on cyclone Albert.
00:18:13
Speaker 12: And the treasure of course, and I've got no doubt there it will be some hit to the budget from cyclone AB Albert. Let's just say it is one point two billion dollars. Let's have a look at what's happened to the figures over the time that Jim Chalmers has been Treasurer. He has enjoyed the biggest budget win for that is revenue writeops in Australia's history two years to date, one hundred and eighty seven billion dollars in the bank that he was not expecting. If you look at the forward projections, two hundred and seventy six billion dollars over three years that he was not expecting that went into his coffers.
00:18:45
Speaker 10: And what did we get over that time?
00:18:46
Speaker 12: Or we saw the size of government rise from twenty four percent of GDP to twenty seven percent of GDP, which is a permanent increase in the size of government in Australia, the biggest in the last fifty years. So with the things that Jim Charmers couldn't control, or they've got an enormous amount of money. With the things that he could control, he spent an even more enormous amount of money and has locked in permanent.
00:19:06
Speaker 10: Budget deficits forever. That's the true story.
00:19:10
Speaker 12: So lucky Jim has been lucky for him, but unfortunately it's not going to be terribly lucky for governments into the future.
00:19:15
Speaker 10: And again, unfortunately, I don't.
00:19:18
Speaker 12: See either side of politics tics being able to rain these deficits in.
00:19:22
Speaker 2: It's a disgrace. And speaking of unlucky, bad day or lucky use. But unlucky for the government today. I mean the CFMU stuff which I talked about before. Murray Watt is saying that this will be referred to police. They're all feigning indignation. Oh, I can't believe this is going on in the CFMU, as if they don't know that dodgy things happen in the CFM. You go all the way back to the BLIFT, it's never been any different. They dismantled the ABCC, and then you've got Claire O'Neill trying to claim that this government has a stronger record on stopping union corruption than anyone else. Please ah.
00:19:58
Speaker 12: And if you look at the Victorian Labor government and the way that that state has run, and the fact that for many, many years it ran a protection racket for the CFMU, and everyone knew about the way that it behaved, even a casual observer and knew about the way that it behaved, and shock and surprise, we now find that it's the new Moonlight state.
00:20:18
Speaker 10: Let's give it a name.
00:20:19
Speaker 12: Let's call it the Sopranos State, because in fact, what we're seeing in Victoria is organized crime using a protection racket to stand over.
00:20:27
Speaker 10: People on building sites.
00:20:28
Speaker 12: They literally cause a problem and then they'll tell you that they will fix it.
00:20:32
Speaker 10: Now, I agree with you.
00:20:33
Speaker 12: We need to give great cutos here to Nick McKenzie, who was, without the shadow of a doubt, is this nation's leading investigative journalist. It was him that drug up what was going on in Victoria. The Victorian government again, shock and surprise, we really didn't know this was going on. They conducted their own investigation, which the person who's working now for the administrator says was a cover up. Now that is a damning indictment of Victorian labor government and all of Labour knew about this for a very long time, and so did the ACTU and those people that were silent or they're responsible for criminal behavior in Victoria and violence against women, all those things which they claim there against.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: Spot on, Chris Yulman, thank you for your time. Now, this is a story Peter has been following on this program for some time. The imposition of massive renewable energy projects on communities in rural Victoria will concerned locals are gathering in western Victoria tonight to demand greater transparency over the controversial Western Renewables Link. The proposed on hundred and ninety kilometer overhead transmission line will move renewable power from Bulgana in western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne's northwest, and it's feared the planned transmission towers will destroy farms and homes and locals say it's been a struggle to have their concerns heard by the government. Joining me now to discuss this is Victorian farmer Emma Muir. Thanks for joining me, Emma, and what's the plan with the meeting tonight? What are you hoping to it?
00:22:02
Speaker 13: Thanks for having me, Caleb, and I'm here with Bev MacArthur from Western region of Victoria. Tonight we're hoping to hear from the local politicians both at a state and federal level as well as the CFA and have a really good information night for community who've been just so badly treated over the last four and a half nearly five years.
00:22:23
Speaker 2: How do you expect this project would impact your community?
00:22:27
Speaker 13: Well, there's a couple of really big things that will be struggling with is the environment. It will be just desecrated in the areas that they're proposing to put the power lines. We've got huge impact on agriculture, we've got the spud farmers in our region and just you know, everyday farming will have to change or stop as well as spy safety. We've just got an enormous amount of sixty two kilometers of bush fronts onto these transmission lines, and so far today we've had no explanation on how we'll be safe from any impact of these power lines. We're not saying that the power lines will start the fires, but they're going to inhibit the CFA's ability to fight the fires in our region.
00:23:06
Speaker 2: Well, this is the absurdity of these projects so often, isn't it? Because I mean I was talking last night on here about a story out of Brazil where the COP thirty conference is going this year and they're trying to work on how they get all these delegates to come into the meeting. Well, they're going to rip out large sways of the Amazonian rainforest so they can put down a four lane highway. So you destroy the environment in order to have a climate change conference where you talk about how you save the environment, and it seems to be much the same in this circumstance. You say, well, we must save the environment with the renewable power, because burning coal is bad for the environment, so we'll just tear through all this land and buger everyone who lives on it and is using it for profit and delivering food to the country who needs that, because we're saving the environment by destroying the environment.
00:23:54
Speaker 13: That's exactly your spot on. It's exactly what we're facing. Hair. We personally have panted ten thousand and trees. We have a biolink corridor through our property, and we just feel like, why why do we do it when you're going to come and put concrete on it, rip it up, put tracks in it, and just change all of the flora and fauna that we've worked so hard to rehabilitate in our communities and just wreck it. It just astounds me. I just can't understand how anybody could come to our properties and think this was a good idea.
00:24:23
Speaker 2: Of course, we're talking about prime farming land here right now. I would have thought that food farmed in Australia and transported within Australia will generally have a lower carbon footprint than food that you import from overseas because it has to do less movement, it goes on less planes, there's ships, et cetera, et cetera. So you take away the land that people are farming on to save the environment. Again, it doesn't make sense exactly.
00:24:54
Speaker 13: I'm not really sure. Food production doesn't seem to be an issue here SEMs to even ask about food security. And one of our early arguments, because we've been fighting this infinitely five years, was that during COVID, didn't we learn that we should need to produce everything ourselves. Well, why would we even jeopardize our beautiful farmland, our agricultural land here in Victoria to put transmission lines on that really are superseded and there are better alternatives, and the government knows that they knows there's better ways of doing this and cheaper ways to do this. I think that we're just the meat in the sandwich and going to suffer regardless, being bulldozed completely by all levels of the labor government.
00:25:33
Speaker 2: Indeed and of course the state government and another stakeholders. You have given you the cold shoulder, hopefully Emma from tonight and you will continued work. You can get some answers. Thank you so much for joining me after the break. Victorian Opposition leader Brad Batton on those explosive allegations of corruption and violence within the CFMUU class. Malcolm Turnbill launches an extraordinary attack on the Orchest submarine deal. Don't go Away, growing speculation about whether the Trump administration will actually follow through with the Orcus submarine deal. Will Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull doesn't seem to know how to shut up. He's furnished us with his thoughts that no one asked for, which is that Trump will like the deal, but perhaps not for the reason. You might think.
00:26:18
Speaker 3: Orcas is a terrible deal. It is so unfair to Australia. And the reason it is unfair is that we are paying three billion US dollars to the Americans to support their submarine industrial base, but we have no guarantee that we will ever get any submarines. People say, does do Will Donald Trump like it?
00:26:39
Speaker 10: Well, of course he'd like it. It's such a bad deal for us.
00:26:43
Speaker 3: Will his only thinking, He'd be back of his mind. He'll be thinking, who are these dumb guys that agreed to this deal.
00:26:49
Speaker 2: One wonders how much of that commentary is to do with the fact that Scott Morrison scrapped his deal with France in favor of Orcus. But meanwhile, the plan to extend the life of our Colins class submarines might need to be scaled back because government and shipbuilder ASC apparently won't be ready in time to deliver the full upgrade for the first boat. Joining me now to discuss this is the Director of Strategic Analysis Australia, Michael Shubridge. Michael, how worrying are these revelations about the Colins class submarines. I mean, you know you've got one job.
00:27:21
Speaker 14: Well, they're very worrying. But it's not just ASC the company, it's Defense and the Navy. They have put too much risk into the Colins class. They're trying to turn an old submarine into a new submarine and now they've worked out that it's all too hard. So that's the big problem. It's like having a ninety six Ford Falcon that you're going to replace the sound system and all the electronics, but it turns out you haven't got time to do anything about the engine, the gearbox or the mechanicals.
00:27:51
Speaker 2: It sounds like something one of our contributors, Joe Hildebrand, actually did with his with his Ford Falcon. It should be should be noted it is utterly ridiculous to think that we say we're going to do this. We are in such a poor position when it comes to the on water infrastructure of our navy, be it ships or submarines. We have a supposed plan to make sure we can get through until such time as we have brand new nuclear submarines, and that doesn't even work. I mean we are sitting ducks.
00:28:23
Speaker 4: Really.
00:28:25
Speaker 14: Yes, So if we think that the surveillance of those three Chinese warships was badly managed this time, as our ANZAC frigates get old and taken out of service early and Collins goes down the same path, the Navy is getting weaker and weaker at a time we needed to get stronger.
00:28:43
Speaker 2: What did you make of Malcolm Turnbull's analysis that I played before that Orcus is actually a bad deal for us, and that is why don't think Trump would be into it.
00:28:54
Speaker 14: Well, I actually think there's a potential for Donald Trump to look at Aucus a completely different way. One thing Donald Trump is certain about is that his predecessor Joe Biden made bad deals. Any deal Biden made is a bad one that Trump can do better on. Well, guess who signed the UCUST deal Joe Biden. So the risk is Trump wants a better deal than he's already got. But a lot of this is irrelevant. That August submarine plan is a decades long thing. It doesn't deliver even if it goes well, any military power to Australia for at least a decade. We need to do a whole lot more, a whole lot faster, with unmanned drones that are armed and unarmed, under the water and in the air, and of course missile encounter missile system. So a lot of this aucust stuff is just just talk.
00:29:48
Speaker 2: You are right, Michael. Now, according to US officials, a Ukraine Russia cease far deal could be just weeks away, with Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin set to hold discussions in a matter of days. Of course, we know Ukraine is already on board with a ceasefire. Putin to this point is that there is no way it will happen. The terms he's putting forward for such a thing to happen. It is so ridiculous that presumably the US could never.
00:30:12
Speaker 10: See to them.
00:30:13
Speaker 2: How likely are we to actually see a deal for a ceasefire.
00:30:19
Speaker 14: I think it's a long way away. Because you're right, Putin is now thinking he can get even more than in his wildest dreams he thought was possible. He seems to be channeling that old quote I think it was Napoleon. Never interrupt your adversary when they're making a mistake. So he's happy to see wedges driven between the US and Ukraine and the US and Europe. Ukraine weakened, and he's happy to watch more of that happen. So I think any deal, particularly a durable peace, is a long way away.
00:30:54
Speaker 2: Just quickly. This business about the Prime Minister floating the idea of sending a small number of peacekeepers to Ukraine if there is a cease fire. He's kind of putting the car to ahead of the horse, isn't he.
00:31:07
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:31:07
Speaker 14: Look, I think we've got to be prepared with mister Albinizi for another episode of The Mouse That Roared. So he's talking a big game. But anyone that's worried about thousands of Australian troops heading off to Ukraine can relax. This will be just like the contribution Australia's made to keeping the Red Sea shipping lanes open. We're asked for a warship. We sent five officers to coordinate things in her headquarters.
00:31:33
Speaker 2: You are probably right, Michael, thank you so much for your time. Let's return to those explosive new allegations, of course against the sea of him. You joining me now is Victorian opposition leader Brad Baton. Brad, great to see you, though, of course, under awful circumstances with what we're talking about here, their premier, Just Cinterer Allen sees today. Of course she reaffirms that she didn't know about any of this before it happened, and the government is not running any kind of protection racket to protect the CMEU and its thug mates in organized crime and biking games, etc. That does not wash. I mean, when you've got the bloke who's been sent off by the administrator coming back and saying the Allen government's investigation to this did not look at what the government and its departments knew, it's pretty clear what was going on.
00:32:29
Speaker 10: It's one hundred percent right.
00:32:30
Speaker 15: And you even had in the story had a detective superintendent who came out and said that nearly ten years ago he wrote to the government and explained that there's issues with challenges on the work sites here in state government projects. And what we've seen today is just since Alan is trying to backtrack, rewrite history to try and write herself out of it when the reality is not only as the premier now, but she was the minister in charge of the big build project. It's about time that just into Alan starts taking responsibility for the consequences of what is happening on those projects now, for the bikis that are there, for the organized crime that is happening, and the money that's been filtered taxpayers money has been filtered directly through state government projects.
00:33:11
Speaker 10: Into the hands of organized crime.
00:33:13
Speaker 15: This is from a government who won't lift a finger to help families that are struggling. Yet we're seeing organized crime figures driving around in Bentley's in souped up forward rangers that all the cars that we want, smoking cigars, having a great old time at the expense of the poor person who has to pay the taxpayers and increased taxes we get in this state.
00:33:32
Speaker 2: Well, let's look at the record of Jacinta Allen over the last few years. Of course, she was the minister for the delivery of the Commonwealth Games that was scrapped, that cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the Victorian taxpayer to not have the Commonwealth Games. She still hasn't answered what she knew about that before that decision was made and when the decision was actually made at an internal government level. She was responsible for the big build and she says she wasn't aware of alleged corruption by the CFMU an organized crime that was going on while she was responsible for the Big build. I mean surely, on that alone, even if she is admitting that she didn't know what was going on, that is an abrogation of her responsibility as the minister. She needs to own up to that and leave.
00:34:20
Speaker 10: And what you're saying there. If she's saying she didn't know.
00:34:23
Speaker 15: About it and she was not aware, then why is it the investigators coming out and saying that the blockage point at the moment is they can't speak to the ministers or see the information that they knew. If they've got nothing to hide, then come out and show what you knew at what times? Because the footage we've seen where women are being assaulted on work sites and for complaining they get black bann Yet the thugs who do it remain on these work sites that we're seeing. As I said, this money been filtered. It's taxpayers money straight through. How can they take not take any responsibility as a government that's been in power for ten years and the minister was in charge is now the premier.
00:35:01
Speaker 8: Now.
00:35:01
Speaker 15: I know she's come out recently and apologized, and since she got it wrong in relation to Bail, I wonder when she's going to come out and apologize to the victims who have been in these videos from these work sites. And we're just going to apologize to everyone in Victoria that she's let Biki's run state run projects, that she's allowing taxpayers who are struggling to put food on the table and pay their energy bill, to have increased taxes on the rent tax, health tax, all these things are going straight into the hands of organized crime.
00:35:30
Speaker 10: It needs to be cleaned up.
00:35:31
Speaker 15: This is a mess and the only way to make changes in that we need a royal commission. And we're staying to the government get on with it and do a proper royal commission so we can find out who really is to blame, including it if it is you, the Premier, and.
00:35:43
Speaker 2: I agree that there should be a real commission, but after that there needs to be action. As I said before, we have been talking about trouble with the construction industry and its union since the BLF, which was registered by Bob Hawk in nineteen eighty six, and here we are still having these discussions to day. Brad Baton, thank you for joining me after the break. Despite their tagline of a tax cut for every taxpayer, your research suggests you'll still pay more tax under Labor. Adam Crichton will have more on that, plus how much extra you've paid for groceries under the Albanzi government. The panel will weigh and soon that go away. Now, the federal government's budget next week will probably be a cost of living budget to end all cost of living budgets. This is Anthony Albanesi and Jin Charmer's last throw at the dice before the election. They are going to try to literally buy your vote. So the Coalition is getting ahead of that, going around Marginal's seat this week waving research that choose the average Aussie worker paid three thousand, five hundred dollars more tax last financial year than before Labor was elected. Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor will also claim workers will pay nearly nine thousand dollars more in tax by twenty twenty nine, and this has become a big problem. The federal government is a dick to tax, particularly income tax. The mid year Economic and Financial Outlook in December said that income tax receipts would increase twenty one and a half billion dollars more than expected over the forward estimates. Income tax alone is expected to rake in four hundred and ninety six point zero seven billion dollars this financial year. Just a decade ago, that number was two hundred and fifty eight point eight billion, around half of what it is today. All tax revenue across all levels of government increased from four hundred and thirty two point seven billion in twenty thirteen fourteen to seven hundred and fifty five point eight billion in twenty twenty two twenty three. That far outstrips the rate of inflation. And yes, there has been significant inflation over the past decade, about thirty and a half percent, but not enough to explain a doubling of income tax revenue. The working population between November twenty fourteen and November twenty twenty four increased by two twenty five percent, and yet income tax receipts jumped by ninety two point twenty four percent. For more on this I'm joined by chief economist at the Institute of Public Affairs, Adam Crichton. Thank you for joining me, Adam. You know, I know we all thought that it won't be easy under alb and easy campaign was a bit annoying, but it's proven right every second day. Yes, look, certainly that's right.
00:38:24
Speaker 16: The addiction to tax certainly by this current government has really quite extraordinary and depressing.
00:38:30
Speaker 2: Really.
00:38:30
Speaker 16: I mean, of course that effects spending, and we've seen growth in spending from twenty four percent of GDP to twenty seven percent of GDP at the federal level just in the last three years. And that's basically the most rapid growth in federal government spending I think since the Whitlam years. So this is a very worrying trend and we have to do something about it. But frankly, neither side of politics really seems serious about reigning and government spending and of course raining and the taxation as well. The coalition obviously is talking about the problem of indexation and.
00:38:59
Speaker 2: Bracket CREP, and that is good, but remember they.
00:39:02
Speaker 16: Were in office for nine or ten years just recently and they did very little about it.
00:39:06
Speaker 2: Sadly, indeed, and of course, you know, they tried to do something with their tax cuts, got through to stage three, which of course was then fiddled with by the federal government. Day said oh, well, that will deliver everyone a tax cut. In effect, it hasn't. I mean, yes, it might have been a tax cut from what you would have paid, but it's not a tax cut in real terms compared to what you were paying before. We have not had a genuine discussion about tax reform in this country for decades. It's about time we did.
00:39:36
Speaker 10: Yeah, look, that is right.
00:39:37
Speaker 16: One of the frustrating things about the Australian press and media in general is they keep talking about tax cuts when actually there hasn't been a real tax cut. What we've seen is a fiddling with the tax thresholds in recent years, and that is somewhat reduced what bracket creep would have been, but it's really just a partial reimbursement of an unlegislated tax cut, which was certainly never explained to most workers. And the other frustration I find with bracket creek two is that people think you need to move into a different tax bracket for it to happen. But that's not right basically at any level. Of income trees increase with the tax system, we have a larger share of income will be taxed at on high rate. So that is the source of bracket creep and that is economically very damaging over time.
00:40:20
Speaker 2: Indeed, and I think the argument needs to be run, and it never really is that bracket creep disproportionately hurts young people because of course everyone says, oh, it's the boomers who are earning too much money and they're on good salaries, et cetera. But it is young people who will progress in their careers and in perhaps ten or fifteen years time, be going up through the tax brackets that will be hurt by this the most. That's the argument that needs to start to running, but no one seems to want to do it. Adam Michael talking about this all night, but I don't have the time. Thank you for joining me after the break. Malcolm Turnbull has appeared very keen to seize the headlines recently, first on tariffs and now orcus. But what is he trying to achieve? But shocking new data shows just how much grocery prices have surged under labor. That's up with this, Let's bring in tonight's Panel Liberally, MP James Stevens neili in p Senator James McGrath. Let's start with Malcolm Turnbull. I played earlier this clip of him slamming the Orcist deal. He sided with Labor when it comes to a Ukraine peacekeeping force. Of course, last week he had that war of words with Donald Trump. James Stevens. What on earth is Malcolm Turnbull playing at? Why has he decided now is the time to pop up?
00:41:35
Speaker 17: I don't know, Caleb. I'm a bit concerned about his contributions, particularly being from Adelaide, because of course we're very excited about building nuclear submarines here for the future of the Royal Australian Navy and it's a fantastic capability increase for our navy, so sledging obtaining that technology just makes no sense whatsoever. I suppose he's got some sensitivities around under the legacy of his own government, but I'm a very proud Liberal that sees that as a great legacy of the Morrison era and something that will transform our capability into the future.
00:42:12
Speaker 2: Indeed, James McGrath, I know that he once talked about miserable ghosts hanging around but he has become the miserable ghost. I don't think anything that he has to say is particularly useful to the current government or to your position for that matter. Why can't he do what Julia Gillard did, which is just go off and enjoy life and do some good things for the world.
00:42:37
Speaker 1: I agree one hundred percent. The best thing that Malcolm Turnbook could say would be to say absolutely nothing. You look at what Ted Heath did when Margaret Satcher rolled him for leadership to Tory Party in nineteen seventy five. Ted Heath had a sulk that lasted for decades. Well, Malconturnable seems to want to emulate Ted Heath. I think Malcolm should just go He's got lots of money going and enjoy life and stop trying to damage the chances of the Liberal National Party winning the coming election, because I think he's trying to stop us from winning, and for Australia's sake, we need to win.
00:43:16
Speaker 2: It's amazing what Ego can do, isn't I mean, it's the whole reason he hung around to become Prime Minister. He thought he had a god given right for it. The bloke could be in a different country every day for the rest of his life, traveling around enjoying himself. But he had to have that Prime ministership and he's still salty about the fact that it was eventually taken away from him. Moving on, though, exclusive analysis by the News Court Papers has found that Australian families have been left three thousand dollars a year poorer during the first term of the Albanese government because grocery bills have risen by thirty percent. They found that a basket of twenty nine items from Coals is thirty six percent more expensive than it was in June twenty twenty two. At Woolli's the cost has jumped by thirty percent. At Aldi it's twenty six percent. James Stevens, this is the stuff that will cut through. I mean you add this to, of course, what we heard about power bills last week. Surely when people hit the ballot box, they've got to be thinking about their hip pocket.
00:44:16
Speaker 17: Absolutely, Caleb. But I'm hearing some really sad stories in my own electorate, of course, people saying they're not buying fresh vegetables anymore, they're going to the frozen section because they can't afford. That's not a luxury purchasing fresh vegetables. But people are getting hit so hard thanks to interest rates, rents, electricity bills are out of control, and those same costs are on the businesses that are producing our food and under labor. These skyrocketing costs are having so many consequences for the household budget. I think people are going to send a very clear message to labor at the ballot box in a few weeks time, just what they think about their performance on these fundamental issues.
00:44:56
Speaker 2: This was a crazy story in the odds. Today, law students at McCrory University risk failing a key exam if they refuse to give a good enough acknowledgment of country. Students have been told that an acknowledgment of country is one of the five marking areas for the presentation, which is worth thirty percent of their final grade. James McGrath and this is insane. The founding chief executive of the Ramsey Center for Western Civilization, Simon Haynes, said that they need to review at the UNI needs to review it. He said, the critical error here is the confusion of categories the academic and the political activist. I mean, how in any way is the manner in which, or if you even give an acknowledgment of country related to law studies.
00:45:43
Speaker 1: It is completely an arty, not related to law studies. We want our law students to learn about contract law, commercial law, our constitutional law, to go out and have fun and drink too much on a Friday night. We don't want our law students to be indoctrinated into the fail aliures of the voice referreendum which tried to divide Ashins on the basis of race. I can tell you that Queenslanders tell me they are sick of being welcome to their own country. I'm down here in Taste May at the moment doing work with Susie Bowers. Tast millions are sick of being welcome to their own country. They just want to get on and deal with the cost of living crisis and make sure that they've got enough food on the table, rather than this PC nonsense being rammed down our throats.
00:46:25
Speaker 2: James Stevens, I'm sure you're probably aware the Greens are going around d knocking in your election of Stir saying that they could win that seat at the federal election, which seems like a pretty extraordinary thing to say, but they're pushing now for a national four day work week by running a test case in the Fair Work Commission and starting the National Institute for the Four Day work Week. Under this policy, workers would have their hours scaled back to eighty percent, but they'd still receive one hundred percent of their pay. It seems like a great idea, doesn't it, James Winn. We've got a productivity crisis in this country to have people going to work less.
00:47:03
Speaker 17: Yeah, look, Caleb, it's that you know, magic putting economics, isn't it. I mean, effectively, that policy is just saying let's reduce the productivity of our entire nation by twenty percent. That means making all of us poorer by twenty percent, and this is the last thing that the Australian economy needs right now. That kind of lunacy from the Greens. But unfortunately it's no surprise that they've got a lot of other crazy ideas. This is the latest one. We're going to hear more and more about it through the campaign and I encourage my voters in Stirret and voters across the country to simply look at the policies of the Greens, because you only have to go to their own website to find out why not to vote for them.
00:47:44
Speaker 2: James McGrath quickly before we go. Labour's promised to splash seven million dollars in upgrading the Medical Costs fund a website if it wins the election. This site was set up by the Coalition government in twenty nineteen to help Australians shop around for affordable healthcare, but Labour claim that only seventy opts out of eleven thousand specialists have actually voluntarily displayed their fees. Again, you know, I always wonder when these promises made we'll do something after the election. If it's been this much of a problem, why didn't they do something in the last three years?
00:48:17
Speaker 1: Exactly, Alban Easy this week Prime Minister. We have has been prime minister. Haven't helped us for three years. But do you know it's never been more expensive to see a GP in Australia at the moment because of the Labor Party. Do you know it's actually more it's harder to see a GP in addition to being more expensive because of the Labor Party. And now they did want to throw some money around the place. It's too little, too late, and we need to get rid of this more.
00:48:40
Speaker 2: Indeed, and of course they should start talking about what they're going to do with bulk billing. I mean they keep saying, oh, we're going to save Medicare, We're going to save medicare, bringing back the medi scare thing. But bulk billing has gone through the floor under this government. It contributes to the cost of living, the payments haven't kept up with the cost of doing business anymore. The whole thing's broken. James Stephen, James Magra, thank you so much for joining me, and thank you for your company tonight. Of course I'll be back on the Late Debate as normal tomorrow. Up next is the Bolt Report. Good Night,
