30 July 2024
Topics: polling on trust in courts, Air New Zealand and emmissions reduction targets, renewables impact on regional communities, councils meddling in foreign affairs
EO&E
Peta Credlin:
Alright, let’s bring in my panel. A lot of other issues I wanna get you across. Shadow Environment Minister Jonathon Duniam joins me now, and One Nation chief of staff James Ashby. Well Senator, James – candidate James – great to have your time. Let’s start with that polling out today. Shock survey saying Australians have a real lack of confidence in our court system. This is the Resolve Political Monitor found only 30% of us trust the courts, meaning two thirds of us don’t. By contrast, almost 70% of us say we trust the police. I tell you what, James, I think this is a lot to do with violence and youth crime. Your place up there in Queensland and Victoria; the two hotspots. And a lot of it’s gotta do with lax bail laws I suspect.
James Ashby:
Yeah, and well done to the police. They’ve been doing a terrific job. They will not advocate for a slap on the wrist. They’re sick and tired of arresting and rearresting and rearresting again a lot of these youth offenders here. I think it’s time we modernise our court system. It’s been a long time since we have. Like in America, they allow cameras into the courtroom. Here we’ve got more chance of media and the public being restricted access from a courtroom hearing. And I think this has gotta change because there needs to be accountability. We wouldn’t even know the judges who are making these decisions. They live in these silos. They don’t understand what the public’s expectation is, and I think if we were to modernise it, I think a lot of people out there publicly would probably get a better grasp of how these judges are coming to these decisions. And if they don’t agree with them, they’d probably let those judges know if they saw them on the streets. So politicians are accountable; they’re on camera when they make their decisions. I think it’s time the courts are opened as well.
Peta Credlin:
Let’s go to the big decision today by Air New Zealand. They’re gonna scrap their 2030 emissions reduction target because they say it’s unachievable. That’s the first big airline to move this way. The statement from the CEO Greg Foran said the airline would be pulling out of the science based targets immediately. This, Jonno, says to me the emperor’s got no clothes. We’re seeing this across the board in relation to these Mickey Mouse targets, what else do you think we might see? Who else do you think we might see follow suit?
Senator Duniam:
Well shock horror, a commercial entity being forced to make decisions around what it does in accordance with what is good business practise. I mean, I think good on Air New Zealand for coming clean on this. They tried to run the race that was being foisted upon them by governments and international organisations, but they realised it doesn’t make good business sense. So the customers of Air New Zealand are the ones who are gonna benefit here. And this airline, their shareholders are gonna do well out of this decision. And I reckon you’ll find a whole range of businesses, be they airlines or any other type of commercial entity, follow suit. And you know, good on entities, governments, businesses, whoever it might be seeking to do the best they can for the environment. But when it is a simple virtue signal with no science behind it, then I’m pleased companies are coming to their senses and are not being held to ransom by activist shareholders. So good on Air New Zealand.
Peta Credlin:
You know, I’ve yet to meet anyone who pays that extra loading on their ticket, you know, Qantas, to offset their emissions. I don’t think anyone does that. The Victorian Farmers Federation, meanwhile, they’re slamming the state government, James. They’re saying that the government’s turning a blind eye to how the rollout of renewables is impacting people in a regional community. The president in Victoria of the VFF, Emma Germano, says they are being forced to carry the burden of the target and they know that urban Australia signs up to this stuff, but regional Australia wears the cost. I think she’s spot on.
James Ashby:
Yeah, sadly we’ve seen more farmers and broad acre croppers having their farms littered or at least approached by wind and solar installations. And you know, there’s a deliberate approach by some of these organisations to actually go after some of the older farmers. I’ve seen it here and I’ve spoken to some of those people who work for these organisations. There is a deliberate approach to older farmers who don’t have kids who can take on the farm, and they’re signing up to a lot of these ventures. It’s tough to get insurance here in Australia. You’ve gotta go offshore to get insurance for solar and wind installations, and yeah, but one of the biggest problems I’ve got with some of these farming action groups, they have also supported the net zero policies that both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party have implemented. So they’re also partly to blame for this. I just wish we would get out of this net zero target approach. It’s time to abandon it like the airlines. And Peta, I’m the only pilot on this panel so far. I can tell you, as a pilot, I don’t give a stuff about net zero. I care about safety and that should be the number one feature with those airlines, not net zero. Seriously, go jump. That’s why Air New Zealand have got out of it. So yeah, these are some of the problems we’re facing. It’s unachievable, these net zero targets, whether it’s agriculture, mining, aviation, you name it. They’re never gonna meet the targets.
Peta Credlin:
Well, I think you are the only pilot. I certainly like to land, but I don’t know how to fly. Let’s go to this order that’s turned up. Windham City Council, so this is the local council in Victoria, they passed a pro Palestine motion last year, but in audits found that out of the two and a half thousand signatures on the petition that pushed for this motion, only 53 of them were valid. Now this is extraordinary to me, Senator Duniam, and I think it’s a cancer right across our local councils. What can we do federally, or a state government level, to either get rid of these local councils or at least force them to focus on what is their only constitutional responsibilities and nothing more?
Senator Duniam:
Well just on those petitions, they are an insidious thing. They used to be a vehicle for giving voice to the unrepresented, the masses out there that had a concern that they thought wasn’t being listened to. But they’ve been hijacked by the left and by local government, which is now dominated by the left, and they become a vehicle for stacking up these campaigns that frankly have no place, particularly like these issues around the Middle East in local government. So honestly, I think ratepayers need to pay closer attention to what their local government is doing. I think that when we’re handing out taxpayers dollars to local government entities, we should actually be making sure they’re using it in a way that benefits the rate payer, the local residents, about roads, rates and rubbish, making sure that councils are sticking to their knitting. The fact that we’ve got – and my local council here, I’m just over the road from the Hobart City Council, and they’ve got a range of flags that fly every day of the week that have nothing to do with a better life here in Hobart. So I think if we should do anything it’d be attach some strings to the funding we give to local government to make sure they stick to their knitting and what they should be doing on behalf of their ratepayers, not international politics, which is in no way in their domain.
Peta Credlin:
Alright, you’re on the shadow cabinet. Please take that back to the boss. Get it put down in writing as policy and I look forward to it becoming law after the election. Alright, thank you, gentlemen. Catch up with you next week.