Peter Kredland live on Skynins Australia.

Good Edning remember the show's steep price filling in for Peter tonight.

Here's what's coming up on Credlin.

You just heard Chris talking about it.

One Nation Chief of Staff James Ashbury will be in on his boss, Pauline Hanson's repeat Senate stunt today, entering the Senate wearing a full face burker and causing mayhem in the chamber.

We'll find out what that was all about from someone on the inside.

Also in Parliament, speculation continues around the future of Liberal leader Susan Lee, with a news follow The Australia Today showing Labor comfortably in front two party preferred.

I'll run those numbers by Credlin's regular Chris Yulman, and also i'll get Chris's view on another Chris, as in Chris Bowen, who was now apparently some global cop UN ambassador running around the world, which, given how he's stuffing up the renewables job, he's actually paid for by you and me to do back, it might be a good thing to keep bowing out of the country.

Plus, how can a Bureau of Meteorology website update and redesign.

It's budgeted to cost four point one million dollars.

It ends up being unusable largely and costs not four but ninety six million dollars.

The federal Minister Murray what wants answers will see what our panel makes of that absolute debarkle and welcome to country ceremonies Now before major events, they're all widely unpopular.

Now they're overdone, even when they are simple and respectful.

But you will not believe one such welcome to country the AFL stage during a prelim of their women's competition in Brisbane.

I'll get Warren Mundine's view on all of that, but first up this week, through a year out from the twenty six Victorian state election to Cendra Allen the Premier, she decided to stage a series of media interviews across the weekend in her hometown, long way away from Melbourne and the political base of ben while admitting to The Australian's Anthony Galloway, who by the way, will catch up with shortly, that one of her closest advisors is still the largely loathed ex Premier Daniel Andrews.

Well, maybe that explains why Victoria has the worst debt of any state in Australia by a million miles, while Melbourne is a crime ridden, graffiti smeared shell of its former self.

Why those Victorians who can are getting out?

Why it has the worst performing real estate market in the nation, with property owners smashed by land billed fan tax bills.

And last week, why a ninety one year old woman with a fractured pelvis and horribly bruised face was told get yourself to hospital now.

Maybe Daniel Andrews has an answer to all of that mess.

And that's why Jacinta Allen thinks it's a good idea to tell the world.

She considers him such a great sounding board, saying in the Galloway Interview this morning, quote, I feel really fortunate to have Steve Brax, John Brumby and Daniel Andrews, three former premiers who I can tap into for support, advice, information, share our laugh and share a joke.

Unquote, Well, Premiere, I'm not sure there's a lot to laugh about in Victoria, and not a lot to joke about either, given the binfire you're running in the once great state of Victoria.

The state's debt is unbelievable.

It's predicted to hit one hundred and ninety four billion dollars by the end of the decade.

With one estimate put in the daily interest payment every day, the daily interest payment to serve it.

That that at forty million dollars a day, or if you like it, just under two million dollars an hour, every hour of every day.

The figures are just so huge, so outrageous, so high that most people can't even get their heads around it.

And it seems the voting public of Victoria, well, I don't care because they keep electing labor election after election.

Three times Daniel Andrews was voted in, even after imposing the longest COVID lockdowns anywhere in the world.

Victorians seem to have Stockholm syndrome.

Either that or they are just gluttons for punishment.

Or is it that the great immigration Ponzi scheme that has seen Victoria's with that reed, Melbourne's population grow by two million people since two thousand.

That's two Adelaides.

Now many of that two million have been jammed into the sprawling western suburbs of Melbourne that will before the next election get an over budget and overtime Westgate Tunnel, providing a second crossing of the era just in time for voting day surprise supplies.

Plus this year the Metro Tunnel Project, another tunnel bypassing Melbourne's jammed up city Loop that will open shiny, new, expensive infrastructure projects aimed at voters, while at the same time providing jobs for the like of Allen's union supporters from the CFMAU now I wrote at the weekend that despite the crime, the machetes, the carjackings, the debt, the crumbling health system and free ride for renewable companies to ride roughshod over farmers, that are odds are on that Jacinta Allen would win a fourth term for Labour, taking its rule to an uninterrupted Can you believe it sixteen years now?

That might sound impossible, but when you consider the Liberals in opposition have had three leaders in less than one year, with Labour just two in sixteen years.

If she wins and serves full term, as she said she will at the weekend, she would any fool concede the problem here.

It might just come down to the fact Victoria is destined to be forever a labor state.

The latest opposition leader Jess Wilson smart.

Obviously, she's a woman and young.

But how does she convince labor voting, blue collar voters, many who owe their jobs to state labor, to actually change their vote.

She can't do it.

It's impossible, And as usual, it's smart to follow the money.

I looked up sportspit today.

They've got labored a dollar fifty five to win next November, the Coalition on two dollars fifty.

Bill Hayden, former governor General and federal labor leader, said of the nineteen eighty three Bob Hawk versus Malcolm Fraser election, a drover's dog could of one.

Well, that should be the case in Victoria, but sadly it is not.

Just to show how much the current premier has learned at the foot of her predecessor, Daniel Andrews, she used one of his common traits at a media conference just this morning for context.

In a podcast recorded by former Financial Review columnist Joe Aston, the former Crown casino owner James Packer, the billionaire this is his words, not mine, referred to Daniel Andrews this way.

I quote couldn't I couldn't think this is not me.

This is obviously James Packer.

I could not think more lowly of Daniel Andrews.

I think he is human filth.

Have a look at the quote.

Daniel Andrews is about my least favorite person in the world.

I think Daniel Andrews not only ruined Victoria, he almost ruined my life.

I couldn't speak more lowly of Daniel Andrews.

I think he's human filth.

Jesus sounds like a Joe Aston.

Colm.

There you go.

I hope you Susby.

Well you said her.

Allen was out promoting the soon to open Metro Tunnel today.

The Premier responded, but refused to utter the name of James Packer.

However, here it is I disagree quite strongly with that individual's comments and his characterization of the former premier, and I'm going to leave my comments at that.

Well, that was the tactic used and over and over again when Daniel Anders was criticized by anyone.

Obviously, just sin to Allen has learnt from the master.

All right, it's going to be busy final sitting week in camera, it seems so.

Joining me now for an update Political reporter Cam Red and Cam welcome late today.

Obviously we had that vision of Pauline Hanson.

Senator Hanson, head of One Nation, Her palling figures are going great.

She caused a real stir in the Senate.

She's repeated her earliest stunt by wearing a full face burker, as One Nation explained.

Yet what the point of all this was.

It's in protest, Steve good evening over the fact that Pauline Hanson has tried to move a bill today to ban the wearing of the burker and other similar face coverings in public.

So she wanted to put that bill in the Senate, but was denied the ability to do so.

I won't go through the whole Senate logistics because I'll put everyone to sleep.

But basically, if someone wants to put a bill forward and there are enough objectors, they don't get to even table that bill.

So that's what happened to Pauline Hanson.

In protest of that this was pre planned, she has put the burker on following that and walked back into the Senate, prompting this mass feurlor I can tell you now the Senate has voted or has agreed to ban Pauline Hanson from going back into the Senate for the rest of today, So there was a bit of confusion about the lenk of that suspension, whether it was just for today or for the rest of this sitting week.

It is just for today, So presuming she doesn't go back in there tomorrow wearing the burker, she will be allowed to return to work essentially tomorrow morning.

It's worth showing some of the reaction here because, as you can expect, much like it did in twenty seventeen, Pauline Hanson walking in wearing that Islamic head dress prompted quite the reaction from her Senate colleagues.

Take a look, there.

Is the middle finger to people of faith, and.

We represent in our states people of every faith, of every faith.

But racism should.

Not be the choice of the Senate.

This is a racist senator.

If this is about the dress code, she is disrespecting of faith.

Well, Cam, we'll see what will happen tomorrow.

Obviously it's going to be pretty lively in the center.

Let's talk about the news popcam.

The drop overnight again, the coalition sits on a record low primary vote.

This is not looking good for Susan Lee.

There's a whole lot of speculation around her leadership still just on that.

Does she survive the week?

I think so, Steve.

Look, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of momentum.

There is no good as those poles are worse than they have been.

So if there's any glimmer of light in these numbers for Susan Lee, it's that.

And as you can see on your screen there, part of today's news poll was putting the names up there for people to say, who would you like to lead.

The Liberal Party?

And even though the polling numbers for all of them are pretty low, Susan Lee was still the lead candidate there.

Perhaps many of them still getting to know or I guess, getting their public names and faces out there.

Steve, does she survive the week?

Look, my gut tells me yes.

Andrew Hasty, it's been well documented, is recovering from shoulder surgery, so maybe not in the best position to put his name forward.

There is a party room meeting tomorrow where anything could happen, as it has in the past.

But I think the general feeling around this building is that the momentum is not quite there.

As bad as things have been, it's stabilized over a week or two, not getting worse, and there is a desire to give Susan Lee a chance to sell this energy policy now the Coalition has dumped net zero and has something to sell.

Cam.

I survived shoulder surgery this year.

If I can survive it, I'm sure a former SAS commando in that Andrew Hasty won't have too much of a problem getting through it.

Mate.

We know the Environment Minister Murray what He's desperate to pass that Labour's revamp nature laws before the end of the year.

It's reported he's looking at watering down some of the penalties for businesses that breach the new rules in a bid to get the Coalition support.

What's the rush, Well, he's adamant that business wants this done, that he wants to give people certainty for making decisions over some aer and that that would allow for projects, some of which have been stalled for many months or even many years, to get going with greater certainty.

So that's Murray Watt's argument.

For the rush.

He also believes that a deal can be done this week with either the Greens or the Coalition, and he's adamant about that.

The way that somebody who's familiar with these negotiations.

Put it to me today, Steve, is that the difference here between the two offers, or the two potential partners is the Coalition is looking to take things out of the bill.

They want to change definition, they want to adjust things around emissions reporting, the powers of this new Environmental Protection Agency, whereas the Greens wanted pass some amendments to give additional protections to logging.

Essentially, they want to add to the bill rather than send it off for a rewrite, which may provide an easier pathway of agreement, if you like, with the Greens than the Coalition.

It was also put to me today Steve by one individual that perhaps the Coalition could have struck a deal a little earlier, but it had been focused somewhat on internal deliberations rather than getting this across the line.

So we'll see what happens over the next three days.

Murray Watt is determined to get a deal on this, but it's fair to say there is still no agreement with either side.

As much as he wants to get there before Christmas, it's.

For you go briefly, Cam.

You've been doing some excellent work on Labour's plans to overhaul this Defense on system.

It looks like a mess.

Are they going to backtrack?

Yeah, it's gone Steve so that the government has decided to pull this bill from the SETE today.

Essentially that goes back to square one.

And just to remind you of what this was, it was about putting a time limit, essentially on the review of retrospective medals for veterans who might have conducted acts of bravery several decades ago.

Think World War II, Korea, Vietnam, all the way back to nineteen thirty nine.

If a new piece of information comes forward, if bravery is discovered, if friends or family lobby for proper recognition, it could have been considered.

The government wanted to restrict that to just twenty years.

So they've decided to pull that bill now.

It had no friends in the Senate, no friends in the veterans community.

I'd be very surprised if they had another look at this at all.

Good work on that, cam You've done a great job on it.

Thank you very much.

Mate.

Let's stick with Cambridge.

Joining me now Peter's regular Skype political contributor Chris Hulman, Chris, welcome.

Just quickly, before we get into those newspoll numbers.

Pauline Hanson, You've set through plenty of Senates Senate sittings using that full faced burker to pull a stunt today.

What do you make of that?

Well, she's a headline hunter and she'll get the headlines that choose after and tomorrow's press and of course on the news tonight, she knew that she was going to do that.

It draws a circle around one of her concerns that she was wanting to have a bill that was banning the burker.

Look, I would counsel against doing something like this.

I think there is an important conversation to be had about social cohesion in Australia.

I think that that's been really supercharged in this year.

We've seen all those gaza demonstrations and the kind of behavior that we've seen on the streets, and the threats to our Jewish community, so all the other things a very serious conversation.

I would hate to think though, that somebody who chooses to wear a burker in Australia might be targeted because of something like this, and I fear that that's the kind of thing that does happen.

Yeah, let's hope that's not the result Newspole I was speaking there to cam about it.

Andrew Hasty top of the list for preferred coalition leader, only six percent behind Susan Lee.

I do note the figure that stood out for me in that part of the news poll was forty six percent of people didn't know who they wanted to lead the Liberal Party.

Yeah, didn't know and probably didn't care.

Steven.

Therein lies the problem for the Coalition at the moment, and particularly should I say the Liberal.

Party at the moment.

Look, you've got to worry when someone who is close to the leader says to you that they think that they'll make it to the end of this week.

And remember that that's always the issue with leadership challenges.

They're really only in trouble when everyone gathers in camera, because that's when they can have a vote.

Now, I do think, given what I'm told, that she will make it to the end of the week.

But I've been through many of these things before, so I would never say never.

But obviously her leadership is under a cloud and she can thank Fanky.

The last two leaders at the Liberal Party, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton, who lost thirty four seats over the course of two elections for dumping her in the worst possible position.

Chris, I couldn't count on two hands a number of times I've been sitting either hosting a program like this or hosting a radio program, whether it was in Melbourne or Sydney, and suddenly some bomb thrower appears out of nowhere, and you've got a leadership spill line, and suddenly the leader's got to declare the vacant position and loses the vote.

I mean, you and I, how many of the times have we seen this?

You can go through rud Guillard, Rudd, you can go through Turble Abbit.

I mean they're everywhere.

Yeah.

Look, I remember vividly the night of the twenty third of June twenty ten when I was involved with Mark Sinkin and breaking the news that there was a move against Kevin Rudd.

Well, it was novel in those days.

There was an extraordinary amount of movement and excitement around that.

But then it unfortunately became routine, and we've done incredible damage to our democracy because of that.

Now opposition leaders losing their jobs now, that used to be more common.

All I can say to Susan Lee is that I think.

Brendan Nelson was actually in a worse position than she was when he lost his job.

But eventually that did happen, and it's clear.

It is clear that.

There are other people who are trailing their coats now.

They might not be ready to go now, but are they're just waiting their opportunity to go later next year?

Perhaps?

Was that that famous right when you showed me the pictures of Bill Shorten with two phones, one on each year.

I had down at that Vietnamese restaurant.

I'll never forget dal Melon coming out of partments saying well, I have nonsense.

This is the ABC's broadcasting.

It's complete rubbish.

And within hours he was finding out that it was absolutely true.

That was a night that is etched in my memory.

I must say, talking about history, I watched back your November eleven excellent documentary on November eleven.

How were the current leaders, people like Alban Eazy, Susan Lee, David littel Pratt, how would they have fared back in that political time?

Do you reckon?

Well, Albanizy would be in a pretty good position because of the numbers that he commands in the House of Representatives.

But I can tell you this, Malcolm Fraser would not be sitting on his hands.

One of the things that we knew about Malcolm Fraser is that he was a stone cold political killer.

As Paul Kelly told us to look at his record.

He killed off John Gorton when he was Prime Minister.

He then killed off Billy Snedden, and that he killed off Goff Whitlam.

So if Malcolm Fraser was sitting behind you, you'd be looking over your shoulder a lot.

I want to get your opinion on this.

This is question time today.

A treasure of Charmers was asked a question by the opposition about our high power bills.

This is a massive issue as we know.

Here was the response of Jim Charmers to the question.

When it comes to renewables and when it comes to the orderly transition to netzero.

This is what a dozen energy retail CEOs have had to say.

Rob Wills from Squadron Energy, we know that Australia's coal fleet is nearing the end of its economic and technological life.

Spread with coal plan outages driving higher price period col is killing affordability and reliability.

Given all the work you've done on this, is it right to pin all of this on coal, like he seems to want to do.

It's the only anchor that we've got in the marketplace now.

And what he said just underlined that when coal plants go out, the price of electricity rises.

Now, it's a very.

Complicated system, but I'll try to do it as easily as I can.

Talking about an energy market price and an electricity marketplace where power is bought and sold.

You cannot make an energy marketplace with wind and solar because they're off more often than they are on.

What you've got to do then is try and buttress them.

You spread them out across the entire landscape, try and catch as much wind as you possibly can, as much sun as you possibly can.

But every night the sun will go down.

Then you need to work out what fills that gap when they disappear from the marketplace, and that is what will set the price of electricity more often than not.

At the moment, brown coal and black coal are setting that price at a reasonably low level.

After that, gas, hydro and batteries, by the way, set the price ridiculously high.

When people say that something that wind and sol are going to be backed up by batteries that's an arbitrage market mate.

That means that you will buy low and sell high.

And at the moment, the highest cost of electricity in Australia is when batteries set the price of electricity.

So why do they keep getting away with saying renewables is the cheapest form of energy over and over and over again, and they slam the opposition when the opposition tries to question them on that.

Because it's complex, as Stephen, people don't understand how the electricity system works and what the interface is between something.

So when wind and solar generate, they do generate for free.

The problem is they don't generate often enough.

And the magic of the system that's around us is that for these lights to stay on, supply and demand have to be in balance every second of every day.

That's the way that the system works.

Now, coal can do that, hydro can do that, gas can do that.

Wind and solar don't do that.

And so what you do is you build this incredibly complex system which needs to be backed up by something that can function when you need it.

Look to me, wind and solar is like the chef that decide what day he wants to turn up, and you never know when that's going to be.

The price you will pay for dinner will be the price that the chef who's in the kitchen charges you.

That's how it works.

I wonder if the UN knows what it's in for recruiting Chris Bowen to be What is the president of COP thirty one roaming around the world in charge of negotiations.

What did you think when you heard it got that job?

Well, I imagine if he does to these negotiations, what is doing to Australia's energy system, That might be the best possible outcome.

At least we didn't get Cop thirty one coming here.

I actually wanted it to come.

I wanted the Australian people to see the world's biggest pack of grifters arrived in their tens of thousands, with the largest carbon footprint you could possibly imagine, to sell their wares.

So now Chris Bowen will have two jobs.

You'll have the job in Australia and you'll have the job at the UN.

Unfortunately, not everything that Australian needs will be what the world wants.

And can I say there's a big target that's been drawn around our coal exports and around our liquefied natural gas exports number two and number three.

Experts sports in Australia worth about one hundred and twenty billion.

Dollars a year to Australia.

That's what builds the National Disability Insurance scheme.

That's what pays for Medicare, that's what helps pay for people's schools.

We unplug that from Australia's economy and there is nothing to take its place.

Everyone's talking about, Oh, we might do green hydrogen, we might do green steel.

These are imaginary industries.

They don't exist.

What we will do is unplug the thing that works and try and find something to take its place, and we will begar the nation in the meantime.

So that's the argument that Chris Bowen is making.

He is making an argument to impoverish Australia to the world.

It'll be interesting to see what he says at home and to look at the distance between him and the Prime Minister.

It was great to catch up with you, Chris.

I love that word grifteris.

Thank you very much.

Now after the break talking of farmers and renewables and back on the renewable roll out.

They are threatened now with hepty fins.

We'll find out how that's unfolding in regional Victoria plus the politically charged and to visit worldlcome to country at one afl W final over the week and I'll play it for you shortly.

You won't believe it.

Welcome back to Steve Price and for Peter should be back with you tomorrow night.

Now, the Alan government is facing rising community anger over the new laws which allow power companies to basically force access onto properties in preparation for construction of this thing called the V and I West Project.

Peter's talked about it a lot.

I've talked about it on the Friday Show a lot.

That's the major transmission line.

It's a massive project which is being built to link up renewables developments in Victoria and New South Wales so to connect the two states, and they need to be brand new lines.

Last week Peter was joined by sheep farmer Ben Duckson, who had this to say after farmers went out and blocked vicgrid workers from forcibly entering their properties.

We've been in this fight for three years.

They're trying to bulldoze their way through our farms out here.

The locals are fed up.

With it.

We've always pushed back on it and we're continually to push back.

We'll stand with fellow farmers, with the community, with every energy consumer in Australia, every taxpayer in Australia.

I watched that interview.

What a ripper bloke.

Ben is joining me now, the Member for the Malee Nationals MPN Webster, Nice to see you again.

What are you hearing from locals on the ground like Ben?

I mean, he made it pretty clear there that they're not going to unlock the gate.

They're going to stand in the way.

That means they could face massive fines and and even jail time under the Allen government's legislation.

Isn't that not right?

Oh?

Look, it's absolutely outrageous.

I spoke with Ben today.

I spoke with several other farmers today.

They are actually buoyed.

I know that might sound strange, but they are buoyed by one another's support.

Farmers are standing alongside farmers.

They are strengthening.

They've got people ringing up from Melbourne saying we want to come and stand with you.

And I said to one of them, I said, you know what, it actually makes me proud to be Australian.

It makes me proud that you as farm as, food producers and fiber producers are standing together and wanting to protect what is so precious to Australia, our food production into the future.

The Victorian Labor government has been atrocious.

There is not a word that could describe that government and the way they have bullied and intimidated and harassed these farmers.

And today I heard from many of them telling me that when Vicgrid turn up at their gates, they are standing there wanting access.

The group say access denied.

There is nothing that Vicgrid can do about that until there is a court order that permits them to go on to the land.

They don't have that court order, so they have to go away, but stand there with their body cams on and you know, just pressing and intimidating farmers.

I find it appalling.

This is two weeks out from harvest, two weeks What kind of biosecurity mess are they going to be leaving behind if they go on to these properties at this time.

What's your gut feeling about what a court will do when these power companies turn up asking for a court order to give them access to a property that a farmer won't doesn't want them.

Well, I mean, ultimately it will.

It will end up with inevitably police arrests.

At the moment, the police really don't have anything to work with from what I'm being told, and so I just think we are ending We're entering into a very murky place in Australia's history and in Victorian history.

You know, you spoke earlier about Dan Andrews, and I just think that this is much the same, this bullying overlord kind of tactic by the Victorian government.

They can't get what they want through democratic means, so they really form this bullying overlord behavior.

I can't describe it another way.

It's really socialist in the way that they are treating producing communities.

And you and I both well know that local police in those areas are mates of the farmers.

They drink in the same pub, so they play in the same footy teams, Their families live together and make up the community.

Do you really think does just Cintra Allen really think that she's going to set the local police officer against the local farmer who he plays on the half back flank four in the local footy team.

Oh look, it just goes to prove Steve how out of touch the government is.

And you know when you consider that this week we have learned that asbestos is in the brake pads of five percent of the wind turbines that have now been rolled out across Australia.

And when we were in government we put a ban on asbestos being brought into the country.

Does this mean that Goldwynd who brought those Chinese brake pads into Australia, are they going to be held to account?

No, the government is too busy wanting to hold farmers to account.

There just needs to be a rethink of what is actually wrong with this whole process and this whole rushed railroading of regional communities across Australia by both the Albanese government and in this instance the Victorian government.

And great to catch up on.

I know Peter will keep on that issue because it's very close to her heart as well.

And we're stilled there Now some spectators, speaking of football, those watching a game on television on the weekend AFLW, which doesn't have huge ratings but some people do watch it, they were shocked to witness this welcome to country.

I can't play at all for you because you be throwing things at the television.

This happened before an AFLW preliminary final between Brisbane and Carlton on Saturday night.

Have a look at this.

Before proceeding with today's for maladies, I wish to briefly draw attention to a national crisis affecting average entirescheid to children and young people in US detention.

How children remain disproportionately represented in these systems and are often too treated not as children young people deserving care, protection and opportunity, but as a number within the structures that served political and economic interest rather than community well being.

If you wish to discuss as catch up with me afterwards.

Here's my business card.

She actually offered up her business card.

I mean, seriously, it's a football game.

Joining me now indigenously to Wara Mundane is probably is throwing things at the television.

I mean, that's about as bad as we've seen, isn't it.

That's a really bad one.

Is a shocker.

Look, you know, whether you're like welcome the countries or not.

You know when you're doing it, it should you know, they should go to the dictionary and learn what welcome welcome is it is about you know, welcoming people, you know, thanking them, saying you know, like when I was a deputy Aera Dubbo and acting man when the when we did a citizen ceremonies, when we finished the official part, I used to say, look, thank you for choosing Australia, thank you for wanting to become citizens and playing a role in making this country a better country.

And I say, welcome you to this country.

That's what I welcome a country is.

It is not about you know, running your own political program and trying to get get out there and promote your business with a business card.

You know it was it was pushing your own policy politics.

It was a total disgrace.

And I think the are saying Football League should you know, really question this.

Well, the AFL have a policy of doing these things before just about every game, I mean certainly any finals of either the men or the women.

These have trotted out there.

There's a guy who does it in Melbourne at the MCG is pretty innocent that it's pretty quick and he doesn't give political speeches.

But imagine those young women standing there wanting to play the game of their lives, having a lecture about indigenous incarceration.

I mean, they just want to kick the football warrant.

The AFL should just say, look, we're going to put a pause on all of these things.

We'll have a rethink about it.

Because I presume that woman's being paid.

Yeah, well look, I wouldn't be surprised that he was being paid.

You know.

That was a you know, what she did was you know, and I totally disagree with her comments about Indigenous incarceration kids.

You know, I just cannot believe.

That she had the gall to get up there and push her own political lines, to get up there and actually, you know, push our own business.

Here's my business card, and let's start, you know, you know, I want a bit of money for business and all that type of stuff.

It was a disgrace.

I agree with you in that the AFL should actually look at pausing this until they get it right.

If they're going to continue with it.

My own preference was they should just forget the whole thing altogether.

Yeah.

Look, if they're going to keep it up, why don't you get people welcoming people to country by talking about the great the things that indigenous footballers have given to the AFL the wonderful talent that has played the game for years and years and years and celebrate something positive warrant.

I mean, seriously, that's right.

So negative, it is so negative.

It should be a moment of pride.

It should be a moment of celebration.

It should be a moment of you know, we know, of respect.

It should be a.

Moment of bringing us together.

You know, we've got enough social cohesion problems around the country at the moment of actually bringing this to the football and doing this, doing this ridiculous, you know, welcome the country process that these people are doing, which has been hijacked.

You know, it could be a very good idea of actually bringing us together, celebrating indigenous people, in celebrating indigenous culture, and bringing all Australians together so that we're and talking about what a great country we are developing and moving forward on.

But instead of pushing all our own little political issues, and that is just just the wrong thing to do.

One hundred percent good to see Warren, thank you for that.

Now, coming up after the break, I want to go back to center Allen's weekend mediably.

It just happened in her hometown of Bendigo and It also revealed Dan Andrews still sadly has his grip over Victoria because he is advising the Premier Aback to sale price in for Peter Kreedlin.

Our panel coming up shortly, or go back to that issue of Senator Pauline Hanson turning up in the Senate wearing a full faced burker this afternoon.

I mentioned at the top of the program that we're now exactly probably I think next weekend, one year out from a Victorian state election.

It's clear that just Cinta Allen is now trying to get on the front foot, particularly over law and order issue.

She did a media blitz across the weekend in her hometown of Bendigo.

Now part of that she spoke to The Australian's Victorian political let ator Anthony Galloway and revealed that she considers Daniel Andrews one of her closest advisors, going as far to say that her government shares the same values and priorities as her predecessor.

Joining me now in the studio is Anthony Galloway from The Australian.

How did you find it?

She's into Allan's a tough interview.

She never strays from the talking point, so if she's saying something, it's fairly deliberate.

I find her, outside of the formalities of an on the record interview quite a personable, entertaining person.

But the interviews with her can be tough because she doesn't stray from the talking points at all.

She's very disciplined.

I think that's why she is an effective politician, but she can sometimes from a journalist's point of view, be a very frustrating.

Interview for our audience, non Victorian audience.

So then you've got to remind ourselves.

She's been in that parliament since she was twenty five years old.

She currently is the longest serving female minister in the history of Victoria.

And she's tough.

She's tough, and I wrote this in the Odds today.

I think it's important for viewers outside of Victoria to realize this.

She's living Bendigo her whole life.

She took that seat off the Liberals in the Steve Bracks election in ninety nine and she's held it ever since.

I think it's more than anything the things that probably grounds her in terms of our being hyper focused on those bread and butter political issues like infrastructure, service, delivery, education, she's not too She can sometimes surprise people she's not interested in, you know, those kind of really kind of out there progressive issues that a lot of her colleagues in cabinet are interested in, like to the extent that she's interested in Israel, Gaza.

It's just like social cohesion in Melbourne that she's probably never thought about the conflict any more than that.

And I think that that is her strength from just being a height al thing.

Em you went up there on the train to Bendigo.

I mean, I wonder how much influences the way she runs the state.

The fact that she doesn't live in Melbourne.

I mean I could be unkind and say, well, one way to escape carjackings, MASHETI attacks home invasions, bad traffic, graffiti everywhere, homeless people sleeping in the streets is to get in your show for driven limousine and go back to Bendigo.

Yeah.

I think she spends enough time in Melbourne.

I think she's got enough internal polling Steve to tell her that the crime wave is real and ED is threatening her leadership.

She and her colleagues didn't want to announce the measure.

A week or so ago to chuck youth offenders into adult courts and expose them to life sentences.

We can have the.

Debate about whether a judge happened, probably never going to happen, but this is a government that didn't want to announce such things.

I mean, only eighteen months ago they were talking about raising the age of criminal responsibility.

Dan Andrews relaxed the bail laws a number of years ago, so she's having to go back.

Ironically, those bail laws were softened because an Indigenous woman on a train from Ballarata from Ballarat to Melbourne that was thrown into police salance had tragically died, and so they softened the bail laws, particularly to keep indigenous youngsters out of jail.

So that would have been a tough cabinet meeting for her to actually agree to do that backflip.

But she's obviously got the support of everybody in her cabinet.

Yeah, it probably helps that she's from the left faction and she got those members of cabinet that are from the Socialists left over the line, but they weren't comfortable about doing it.

And just on that, I mean, she is having to deal with a lot of things that Dan messed up, whether it's levels of state dead, whether it's overly friendly suburban rail loup, overly friendly deals with public sector unions, a bloating of the public service, the relaxing of bail laws.

She's now having to address a lot of the things that Andrews didst of all the.

Chickens, she still says to you he's one of her best advisers.

That's interesting that she leans into that so much, because, I mean some of her colleagues, some within labor, tell me she should have done just one thing to differentiate herself from Andrews a bit.

The key one was suburban rail Loop, not a particularly popular project, not backed by a lot of public infrastructure experts.

Infrastructure Australia has expressed serious doubts about Bank for bark on that project, unlike the Melbourne Metro project which is going to open next week.

So that could have been the one thing where she could have differentiated herself.

The other one was when Andrews appeared at that infamous military tarade in Beijing alongside the world's dictators.

You know, Deputy Premier Ben Carroll was quite critical with Andrews, and Allen would just refuse to criticize him.

So there's some smaller stuff there where she just had every opportunity has lent in to her ongoing friendship with Andrews and hasn't chosen that moment.

She was also at pains to point out she also regularly speaks with Steve Brax and Sobbies but their friends, their friends and allies and have been for a long time.

It was a great, great interview.

Good on, Thank you, thanks for coming in.

Anthony Galloway there, thanks your time.

Now coming up after the break, it's on again the astounding cost of the Puerau of Meteorology's website revamp, which has regional Australians in absolute uproar.

That's Pauline Hanson, her chiefest James Ashbury will join me.

What was behind the burker stunt in the Senate today?

Actually price with you.

Andrew Bock coming up at the top of the hour.

Let's bring in our Panel One Nation chief of Staff James Ashbury.

Good timing for US and Page Research Center CEO Jared Holland.

James, we've seen your boss entering the Senate today wearing a full faced burker.

Presumably she kept it in the cupboard in Canberra because she did the same thing in twenty seventeen.

What is the purpose of doing that?

Well today, Steve, there was an opportunity.

Senator Hanson was trying to put up a new bill which would have banned the burker and other face coverings, and the Senate denied the opportunity for that bill to even be entered into debate.

This never happens typically, It's only ever happened to us once before and again.

This Parliament loves to punch down on Pauline Hanson in One Nation, so I was surprised that they denied that formality of at least introducing that bill.

Paulin walked straight upstairs, went straight to a cupboard and that burka has remained in there since it was last yearsed in twenty seventeen, and she pulled it straight out.

It was not planned.

I think the fury just got the better of us.

We do not like the oppression of women.

One Nation have stood firm on the fact that this is an oppressive piece of garb.

Has nothing to do with religion.

There is nothing in the Koran that says that is a woman of Islamic.

Faith must wear a burka.

This is something that oppressive men make women wear in this country and it shouldn't exist.

And the fact that twenty four other countries across the globe, majority of them, I might just add that a Muslim have banned this because it helps assimilation in the countries and it helps with women's rights.

Why wouldn't Australia support the banning of a burka?

It just baffles me.

And if this point had to be made on the floor of Parliament today, because the Australian public will not only talk about this tonight, but it will be a debate that rages across lounge rooms and water coolers at the workplace tomorrow because Australia has had a gutfull of radical Islam inserting itself into Australia.

Well, let's be clear.

So the kneecabs fine, where the face is not covered, you're sure you don't have an issue with that.

And the bill, the bill that you tried to introduce, or Senator hands to try to introduce that refers solely to all face covering face berker, is that right?

Okay?

And so no problem with the cab at all and the beauty about that?

No, And that's why there's never been any anything raised on the floor of Parliament about Senator Fadam of payment.

She wears exactly that, and there's never been an issue.

We want women's rights protected and we do not want to see radical Islam injected into this country any more than it has.

We want assimilation and we want people who do come from those backgrounds to meld into the Australian society and give themselves an opportunity not just to assimilate within their community, but give themselves opportunity for work and other things as well.

Jared Holland, thanks for sitting there.

I just needed to get that out from James obviously given his role in that office.

So someday the nine papers now, I can't believe this, Jared, you have to set me right here.

They revealed that the Bureau of Meteorologies website redesign ended up costing ninety six million dollars when it was supposed to cost The initial quote apparently was four point one million.

That was what it was.

It's got to ninety six million.

How can that possibly he be?

I shouldn't laugh because it is outrageous.

Steve, I wish I had a clear answer for you.

It sort of defies belief that costs could blow out this much.

But I suppose it just goes to how competent this government is in the delivery of services.

It's if you look at every single sector at the moment, whether it's snowy hydro on energy, whether it's the bomb website, whether it's the delivery of services and health, costs continue to ratchet up and rise.

And maybe it's because they're bringing in more consultants, maybe it's because these teams are growing, Maybe it's because they're unable to move civil servants on when maybe they're not providing too much value.

But for the product that they produced at the back end, how broken and infery that website was to what we had before, it's completely shocking.

I'd be very keen to sending them through to my website designer who could do it much cheaper, produce a much better product, and be something that farmers and regional people can actually use when they're trying to work out how to manage their workflows based on what the kind of weather's going to be like.

Yeah, Ray's a really interesting point in Murray what needs to get to the bottom of this, But I'd like to know who the outfit was that did the design work, and how the hell could you convince a public servant that no, it's not for like I told you, it's ninety six.

I mean, James, how does the bureaucracy work when something like that happens.

It's crazy.

Oh you'll pick the company, Stave.

They're the ones with the brand new Bentleys and Royce out the front.

It's a outrageous amount of money that anyone has thought to spend on a rebrand.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it's a rebrand, nothing more.

And it's particularly disgraceful when the Australian public learn about this down the track.

Initially it was said that it was only just less than five million dollars, which we all thought was ridiculous.

Here we are, most businesses spend around six thousand to twenty five thousand dollars on a business on a business website.

There was not much more to do to this.

It was already operational and the reality is a lot of this I think you'll find was probably performed by AI behind the scenes.

They're saying an AI website could be built within seconds nowadays, Why you would spend over ninety million dollars is an outrageous spend.

But it's not just the Weather Bureau doing this.

You'll find most departments across our federal, state and local governments are all doing the same things.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

As an avid golfer, I can't even get the weather right.

When I want to go and play golf, they tell me it's going to rain.

I canceled them at sunny all day just for you go.

Jared.

Kelly Sloan's been on with Chris Kenny today and she was on with Andrew Cannell yesterday.

Should the New South Wales Liberal Party ditch net zero?

Look?

I was really disappointed about Kelly's comments to the federal Party has made a courageous and thoughtful and well evidenced decision to completely scrap these targets.

Now, there's a lot of work to be done yet to explain to the taxpayer, to explain the voters why they did that and how netzero is impacting their living standards.

But if Kelly wants to go against that, she needs to explain her plan for the one hundred and fifty million tons of coal that comes out of the Hunter every year.

She needs to explained.

I can't plan for the fifty thousand jobs at risk, how she's going to decarbonize agriculture decarbon.

I can't see how to decarbonize.

I can't see how it's a vote winner in any way in any of those states.

Jared James, thank you very much.

Andrew Bolts up next