The Bolt Report

00:11 This is The Bolt Report. 00:14 Well, good evening and welcome to The Bolt Report. I'm James McPherson. Here's what's coming up tonight. The ABC finally apologises to Gina Reinhardt, but is it enough? Another Labor minister has been spending up big with your money. I'll tell you who in a moment. And over in the UK, migrants are being given pamphlets explaining how to safely cross the English Channel. Patrick Christie's will join me from London a little later. But first... I've got a question for you. How long do you think it would take, oh, I don't know, the average person to realise that broadcasting a segment about sodomising Gina Reinhardt with a stick is probably beyond the pale? 00:54 I mean, would the average person need time to think about it? Would you need a moment to weigh it up, five minutes to consult with a friend? Or would the average person simply watch it and think, you know what, that's grotesque. Don't put that on television. 01:11 Because when the revolution comes, will you hide under your bed? 01:15 Or will you know exactly how to shove a stick right up Gina Reinhart's butthole, stirring it round, mixing her guts up nice and smooth? 01:27 But I suppose the people running the ABC, the people who put that segment to air, aren't your average people. Sadly, they seem to be well below average because it took them 18 days, almost three weeks to finally belatedly issue an apology to Gina Reinhard. 01:46 18 days is a long time consulting your conscience. 01:50 Perhaps I'm being unfair. Maybe it only took a moment to consult their conscience. The 18 days were spent finding it. 01:58 ABC managing director Hugh Marks this afternoon issued an apology that bizarrely began by noting the ABC had nothing to apologise for. Have a look at this. 02:09 While the Ombudsman has found that the film did not breach the ABC's editorial policies... 02:15 The ABC acknowledges the episode has fallen short of community expectations. 02:21 So the ABC hasn't said we were wrong. A segment on Race Around the World that fantasised about the sexual abuse of Australia's richest woman was disgusting and should never have been broadcast. No, no, they haven't said any of that. Instead, the ABC has said... 02:39 You know, technically speaking, it wasn't that bad, but of course, community standards being what they are, fell short of community expectations. 02:50 When you think about it, it's actually quite the admission, isn't it? The ABC finally acknowledging that the Australian community has higher standards than they do. 03:02 So, after making it clear the ABC had nothing to apologise for, but that they need to apologise because, well, apparently the Australian public has no sense of humour when it comes to sexual abuse of women, Hugh Marks writes this... 03:16 The ABC apologises to Mrs. Reinhardt and to anyone else affected or upset by the publication of the film. Note the careful wording, not we made a mistake, not we were wrong and we're sorry, just sorry if Mrs. Reinhardt or anyone else for that matter was upset. 03:36 It raises the question, doesn't it? If it takes 18 days for the ABC to issue an apology, How many days would it take for the ABC to issue a heartfelt apology? Because in my view, we're still waiting. 03:51 Having gotten the apology out of the way, ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks continued, as part of our review of this matter, we've considered whether the guidance in the ABC editorial policies adequately reflects community expectations. There's that reference again to community expectations. It's starting to sound like community expectations are a bit of a bummer for the ABC. But Hugh Marks is correct. I think it's fair to say there is an expectation within the community that our national broadcaster won't put graphic descriptions of sexual violence to air as entertainment. 04:30 Call the Australian community a little stuffy. 04:33 Hugh Marks' statement continued, the ABC will amend its guidance as it applies to violence. 04:41 Well, I can't wait to read the amendment. 04:44 Note to ABC staff, don't joke about sodomising women. 04:50 And if you think I'm joking, have a listen to Hugh Marks on the ABC this afternoon. 04:56 Looking at the standards, they felt that the work didn't contravene the standards. And looking at the standards, I can understand why they made that decision. So that's why we've had to really assess, you know, what we do out of this and we're changing those guidelines. 05:13 So ABC producers looked at ABC standards and found nothing in those standards that would prevent them from putting to air a description of Gina Reinhardt being sodomised. 05:25 The good news is it won't ever happen again because they're going to write into the fine print of ABC standards that, you know, rapey stuff is a no-go zone, just so the ABC staff will know. 05:38 The change, I think, will reflect the fact that no individual should be the subject of comedy that is violent in its description in our programming. 05:49 Well, what does it say about ABC staff that you have to have that written in your guidelines? Are they that devoid of discernment, that lacking in judgement, that bereft of conscience, that anything goes unless there's a caution in the guidelines? Yeah. 06:06 I think the ABC has to hold itself to a higher standard, and I think it's really important we make that change. 06:12 When you define a higher standard as not putting to air calls for the rape of prominent women, you have to wonder... 06:21 In his written statement put out this afternoon, Hugh Marks wrote, the film has been edited on the ABC platforms to remove the relevant material. Once again, note the insipid language. They're not removing the abhorrent material. They're not removing the deeply offensive material. They're removing the relevant material. Now, this apology of sorts came on the same day that the ABC's independent ombudsman, Fiona Cameron, found that, and I quote, While some viewers may have found the depiction of the assault of Mrs Reinhard confronting, it did not alter the overall conclusion that a reasonable audience member would be unlikely to understand the comments as a genuine endorsement, encouragement or threat of violence. 07:08 Yet you have to laugh when those at the ABC, including their independent in-house ombudsman, opine on what a reasonable person might think. How would they know? 07:20 I can't believe the ombudsman wrote that, quote, some viewers may have found this segment confronting. Oh, the petals. 07:28 No, ABC ombudsman. It's not that some viewers may have found it confronting. It's that most viewers would have found the segment disgusting. 07:37 Not the ombudsman, it seems. She found that, quote, the punchline of the film is a hyperbolic joke. 07:46 Great. So now we have to explain humour to those at the ABC as well as decency. 07:52 The Ombudsman added this. 07:54 The remarks did not draw upon gender-based stereotypes, nor were they framed in terms of hostility towards women as a group. Well, that's a big tick for the ABC. I mean, the segment didn't call for women as a group to have their buttholes penetrated by sticks. Only Gina Reinhardt. 08:14 Honestly, somehow that makes it better? 08:18 Let's be honest. The ABC's apology was about as meaningful as a get-well card from an undertaker. It had far more to do with minimising any potential lawsuit than with genuine contrition. That's your ABC, which is really their ABC. 08:36 You just pay to be insulted and treated like an idiot. 08:43 Well, another day, another Labor politician spending big with your money. And for what? Energy Minister Chris Bowen's travel expense report for this financial year has been revealed, and it shows taxpayers were slugged more than $375,000 for the jet-setting minister and his entourage. As The Daily Telegraph has reported, that's an average of $7,500 a day on international travel across a total of 46 days abroad. And boy, is our energy minister living large, again, with your money. 09:18 Bowen recorded a six-day tour of Denmark, Finland and Singapore in May that cost an eye-watering $45,000. 09:27 Must have been nice. And then he spent another $42,000 on a six-day trip to Germany and Singapore. That was in June. Taxpayers were billed almost $7,000. So the minister could spend one night in New Zealand last year, $7,000. 09:43 for one night. He spent 11 days in Brazil and Chile, costing us $79,000, and another $118,000 was spent on a nine-day trip through the United States. I tell you what, fighting climate change is taxing work. And let me tell you, the list goes on and on. The only thing travelling faster than Chris Bowen is inflation. So what value are Australian voters getting from their expensive, gas-guzzling energy minister? Well, yesterday he delivered a speech to the National Press Club, beginning, of course, with the important things. 10:20 Thank you for joining me on the lands of the Nambury and Ngunnawal people whose elders I acknowledge and celebrate. 10:26 Having gotten that out of the way, he used a speech to insist that he is personally committed to Australia reaching that target of 82% renewable energy by 2030, although he didn't seem all that confident. 10:39 Will you get to 82%? 10:41 I think we can. I think we can. Can rather than will? Well, I think we can. And whether we will or not depends on whether we keep our foot on the accelerator. 10:49 I did smile when he said the key to reducing our emissions was to keep our foot on the accelerator. But as you heard, he didn't seem too confident the government will reach its renewable goal. So, I don't know, maybe he needs to spend a bit more time at a resort overseas on the taxpayer dime, figuring it all out. There was some good news, though. He finally acknowledged just how tiny Australia's contribution to global emissions really is. 11:15 As our opponents like to parrot, we are about 1% of global emissions. 11:21 And yet, for some reason, he wants us to lead the way for every other country on Earth. 11:27 But this year, Australia is stepping up to play a broader role as president of negotiations for COP31, enabling us to guide and steer the conversation around 90% of the world's emissions. 11:41 Yeah, sorry, I'm finding it hard to picture Chris Bowen guiding and steering the conversation with Xi Jinping about China lowering its emissions, about 33% of the global total. Clearly, renewables are not Chris Bowen's only fantasy. 11:58 Speaking of fantasy... Building renewables more into your household in your country improves your energy security. 12:06 The sun can't be blockaded. The wind can't be sanctioned. 12:11 That's true, the Iranian regime can't blockade the sun... 12:15 It does disappear every night, however, and clouds have a way of not cooperating. And no foreign power can sanction the wind, but when the wind stops blowing, well, not even Chris Bowen, with all of his hot air, is able to change that. You don't build a sovereign energy system by making your energy system weather-dependent. 12:36 Energy sovereignty comes from dependable, dispatchable power, not hoping the forecast cooperates. 12:43 You know what else I noticed about Bowen's address yesterday? He didn't use the phrase net zero not even once, which is amazing because he certainly wasn't shy about the term when he addressed the press club back in 2024. 12:58 Committed to net zero by 2050. The net zero economy agency. Net zero. Net zero. To meet net zero by 2050. 13:05 That was 2024. Yesterday, net zero was nowhere to be seen or heard. Joining me now is Shadow Energy Minister Dan T. And Dan, thanks for coming on the program. Let me start with this. Why do you think Chris Bowen avoided using the phrase net zero yesterday? 13:22 Because he can't achieve it, and that's why he didn't mention it. And you'll know that he very briefly touched on offshore wind, and although he wouldn't admit it up front, but basically offshore wind is now not viable, and his green hydrogen superpower dream, he touched on that as well, and that's disappearing. So there's no pathway for it. So what has replaced net zero and this is a great sleight of hand, is their push for 82% renewables. 13:57 Now, that's not reaching net zero. That's about trying to change our electricity system. So everything that he's touching is turning to disaster. Yesterday's Press Club address, we got some honesty about that, not a lot. There was a lot of spruiking, but there were some kernels of honesty. And what we're seeing is he's walking away from net zero by 2050. As you've said, it wasn't mentioned once. You'd go back two or three years and that was all he was parodying. 14:31 And the other thing was the interesting title of his address, which was about energy security. Now, as you mentioned in your editorial... What is secure about the wind and the sun? Because everything, everything we get for our wind farms and our solar farms comes from offshore. It's minuscule what is made here in Australia. And we are becoming wholly reliant on importing those materials when we've got oil, gas and coal and uranium in abundance underneath the ground that he doesn't want to touch. 15:08 So if he's effectively given up on net zero, and I agree with you, I mean, the fact he did not mention it even once is telling. So if we've given up on that and said, well, all right, we're probably not going to get there, did he announce anything that will actually help struggling Australian families to afford their electricity? 15:26 No, he didn't. As a matter of fact, what he did was announce a scheme and it's a subsidised scheme. And can I say at the outset, I'd much rather have solar panels on warehouse roofs, on farm shed roofs, rather than taking up prime agricultural land. But once again, the scheme, the expanded scheme he announced there was Our worry and our concern is what will it do to network and what will it do to network costs? So it could actually make it worse when it comes to energy affordability in this nation. 16:00 Chris Bowen making things worse? You're kidding me, aren't you? We've had recent surveys claiming one in four people are going without cooling or heating because of affordability issues. We've also had an energy expert tell us we should consider occasional power outages as a way of curbing costs. So what's Chris Bowen actually doing to fix any of this? Was there anything he said that gave you hope maybe the government might be able to rectify the mess they've created? 16:30 Well, sadly, there wasn't, James. I wish there was and I wish I could report to your viewers that there was. I mean, all we heard was the typical ideological rubbish. I mean, coal, he said, is no longer a firming or a baseload power. Now, coal, I don't know what planet he's on sometimes because the Queensland State Government have just said they want coal to last through to the mid-2040s at least. New South Wales are in negotiations with their coal-fired generators and even Lily D'Ambrosio, an ideological fellow traveller who... 17:08 Fortunately for Victoria, it's just been removed from her role. But even she had secret deals with the coal-fired generators here in Victoria to keep them going. So I don't think there was anything there, sadly, apart from him admitting that his green hydrogen superpower drain and offshore wind, it looks like that they're now off the table. There was nothing else to write home about. 17:36 What did you make of Chris Bowen's $345,000 travel bill? Is any of that necessary? And, I mean, if you win government, you will be the energy minister. Do you think you'll need to fly that much? 17:49 No, I don't think I will and I especially won't need to fly that much if all I say I'm focused in is reducing emissions because it's hard to see how all that flying in any way has reduced emissions. I mean, what we wouldn't mind is if he was doing these travelling things and it led to more affordable energy in this nation, I think we would all say, you know, hallelujah. I mean, he was in the US 9, 10 or 11 days. Was he over there signing a deal to sell them our uranium? 18:22 Was he over there signing a deal to look at their... nuclear capabilities and see when it comes to small modular reactors, would that technology now be applicable to us here in Australia? Did he meet with Chris Wright, the US Energy Secretary? 18:39 I don't think he did any of those things. When he goes to Japan and South Korea, is he talking about Our coal, our gas exports, you know, when it's with India, they want our uranium. What can we do? We're making sure we're giving them more of our uranium. That's the sort of thing which makes us a rich economy. And that's the sort of thing which could put downward pressure on energy prices here in Australia because we could be pursuing energy abundance. Yet all he's doing is going around and lecturing the rest of the world about how they should be reducing their emissions while he's making Australians poorer. 19:19 Yeah, really great point. Hey, before I let you go, I wanted to get a quick comment from you on Tony Burke's no-show at the National Press Club. The Immigration Minister cancelled a planned speech because apparently the Labor Cabinet has not yet been able to agree on the finer points of its immigration policy. One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, was asked about this this morning. Have a listen. 19:40 Why bring in some people that don't fit the needs that we want in Australia? We don't need any more Uber drivers, nail technicians, dog walkers. These people, gone. Stop all that. So I don't care what people think, whether, you know, it's going to affect their businesses, they're not going to sell that many products or the universities because they won't have the number of foreign students coming in here. I don't care. 20:05 Are you living rent-free in Tony Burke's head right now? 20:10 I think I am. They're scared to do anything because of the support that One Nation is getting. 20:16 What do you say about that, Dantian? 20:18 Well, what I'd say is Chris Bowen has provided us with a lot of entertainment, you know, $4 million on a five-star resort in Fiji for all these bureaucrats and world leaders, and then we work out that none of the presidents or prime ministers are going to turn up. I thought that was quite astonishing. But for Tony Burke now, the embarrassment of having a locked-in press club address and to have to pull it That is highly, highly embarrassing. 20:51 And what a joke. I mean, how you can lock something like that in, which is done weeks, if not months beforehand, and then have to pull out. I mean, I've been in politics now for 16 years. I've never seen anything like this. And for Tony Burke, this is a major, major embarrassment. And it does show, and we've been saying this all along, and when... I was shadowing immigration minister in our first term in opposition, highlighting that they could not get net overseas migration down. 21:28 It just goes to show they're still hapless and clueless when it comes to it, because he now has been so embarrassed that he can't even stick to an appointment at the National Press Club. It is beyond a joke. 21:43 What do you think about Pauline Hanson taking credit for his no-show? 21:47 Well, I think there's been a lot of people who have been pointing out to the government over a period of time since they came into office that they aren't reaching their net overseas migration target and they haven't been doing so and they've been overshooting by a large, large amount. And if you go back... I think you can look four years ago that we started to highlight this and the government still haven't been able to fix it. Now we've tied it to housing and I think we've got a very, very good policy to bring it down and bring it down to sustainable levels. 22:24 And I can understand why others are also saying that what the government is doing here, they are completely and utterly failing on. 22:32 Dan Tehan, I appreciate you joining me tonight. Thanks so much. 22:35 Pleasure, James. 22:38 We'll stick around. Coming up after the break, Labor establishes the first parliamentary committee into Australia's preparedness for war since World War II. And the Ukrainian vegetable seller, lucky to be alive after being chased by a Russian drone. He speaks out. That's next. 22:58 Welcome back to the program. There's a peculiar psychological condition spreading through the country. The more aggressively Chinese Communist Party behaves, the less worried many Australians seem to become. It's almost as though repeated acts of intimidation have been reclassified as a kind of cultural exchange. A news poll last month found concern about the threat from Beijing is actually falling. Never mind that the Chinese military conducted live fire exercises off Australia's east coast. 23:30 Never mind that Chinese spy ships have been methodically mapping our coastline. And never mind the test of nuclear capable missiles in our region. Apparently, none of that is enough to convince a sizeable chunk of Australians that the Chinese Communist Party isn't just a charming tourism campaign featuring pandas, dumplings and suspiciously inexpensive electric cars. 23:53 According to the poll, 31% of Australians don't believe China poses any threat whatsoever. Another 9% aren't sure and the rest, well, they don't vote Greens, which is kind of worrying. Nothing says strategic awareness quite like watching your neighbour sharpening an axe and concluding he's probably just really into woodwork. So it's something of a relief then that a bipartisan parliamentary committee has finally been established to examine Australia's preparedness for war. The committee will investigate how businesses and the broader community could support national defence and keep essential goods and services operating should conflict ever arrive on our doorstep, a sensible exercise, because hoping Beijing doesn't mean what it says isn't really a credible defence policy. 24:42 The establishment of this committee to investigate our war readiness comes as Taiwan kicks off its annual military drill as it prepares for a war with China. Joining me now is News 24 Defence Analyst Peter Jennings. Peter, how important is the work of this committee and what hope do you have the committee will produce anything meaningful? 25:05 Well, good evening, James. I hope that it will produce meaningful work. 25:10 It has the potential to do so because the committee has no Greens on it, no Green Party members, and it's been deliberately designed that way. So let's hope no grandstanding because they are dealing with one of the most serious imaginable issues. 25:26 And just to reflect on your opening remarks, you know, the government, when it was first elected in 22, asked Sir Angus Houston and Stephen Smith to advise them on issues to do with the readiness of the Australian population for conflict. They got that advice and then Richard Miles lost his nerve and nothing was ever made public. It's taken them four years to get to the point that they're even prepared to let a parliamentary committee have this discussion. So I wish it well. I will certainly make a submission to it. 25:57 And I hope we can, for the first time, get a serious discussion going about what Australia needs to do. 26:03 Well, Russia's war on Ukraine has escalated beyond the two countries' borders. Moscow is thought to be responsible for a drone loaded with explosives found at Germany's Lipzig Airport, a key military transport hub used by the German army and NATO allies. The drone was spotted trailing a Ukrainian cargo plane on one of the runways. 26:25 Flights were grounded for hours while a bomb disposal unit worked to disarm the detonator. Peter, if NATO responds to this, they risk escalating the conflict. But if they don't respond, they communicate weakness. And we know what authoritarian regimes do when they sniff weakness. 26:43 Well, the first thing they need to do is look at the security of their airports, because what I've seen of this incident was that it was a small quadcopter. That means to say something that was most probably being manipulated by hand, by a first-person view individual, perhaps no more than a few kilometres away. 27:03 Clearly, there was a lapse in security at that airport. 27:07 And I think the message for all European countries is you have to be aware. You know, Russia is... 27:14 in some respects, intent on expanding this war with Ukraine into other countries. And things like infrastructure security, airport security, they're all going to have to look urgently at how they can do those things more effectively. 27:28 Well, the drone attack in Germany comes less than a day after this disturbing footage emerged of a Ukrainian vegetable stand owner being hunted down by a Russian drone before it exploded beside him. Clearly a war crime. Today, the 52-year-old victim who suffered a concussion, blast and trauma and shrapnel wounds to his back and legs, he spoke about the terrifying ordeal from his hospital bed. Have a listen. 27:55 My wife started running and it began turning at us. I was trying to show it, look, it's just vegetables, there's nothing here. But then it started coming straight at me. So I started running. But where are you supposed to run to? A bomb shelter? It's terrifying, of course. It's just, it's terrifying. 28:10 Peter, we've gone from drones attacking tanks to drones chasing civilians around vegetable stalls. 28:17 The modern warfare really has been completely changed by the advent of drones, hasn't it? 28:23 Well, drones plus the savagery of the way the Russians have been fighting this battle for many, many years now. I mean, this is particularly appalling. And I think all countries that believe in supporting the laws of warfare should be complaining to the Russians that this is completely unacceptable. 28:41 The other thing it tells me, James, is that the Russian military themselves are despairing. 28:46 They have been fought to a standstill over the last 12 months or so. 28:50 I don't think one can say at this stage that the Ukrainians have won the war, but you can say quite definitively that the Russians are not going to be able to achieve any more than they have done already. And so Ukraine is in a stronger position now than it was six or seven months ago. And I think the Russian military is despairing. When you're down to chasing clearly non-combatant grocers, you've kind of given up on purposeful military tactics. 29:17 And I think that's where the Russians are at this point. 29:20 The Ukrainian vegetable seller said he was waving garlic up at the drone, which clearly would repel Dracula, but not a Russian drone. Is this an example of Russia using drones to psychologically terrorise Ukrainian civilians? Is that their objective in doing something like this? 29:38 Well, I think it reflects a sort of hopelessness on the part of the Russian military that they're not achieving their objectives and so they've just got angry and now they're going after civilians. They've been employing these sorts of terror tactics by bombarding clearly non-military targets, just civilian cities and villages, for years. 30:00 And it has become quite true that on the battlefield for the militaries, the mere sound of a drone is enough to get people diving for the trenches. So there has become a psychological warfare element of that in terms of the actual combat. 30:17 And, you know, it, I think, reflects ultimately the fact that the Russians feel they're not losing, so they're kind of behaving in a retributive way to attack civilians rather than go after proper military targets. 30:32 Absolutely incredible. Peter Jennings, thanks for joining me tonight. All right, stick around. Coming up after the break, former ABC host Anthony Latouf reacts to the ABC's vile Gina Reinhardt skit and Victorian farmers face huge fines for refusing transmission line workers access to their land. We'll get into all of that with my panel after this break. 30:57 Well, as I said at the top of the show, the ABC has apologised. 31:01 kind of, for that vile video describing sexual violence against Gina Reinhardt. Meanwhile, former ABC host Antoinette Latouf is upset that no-one has rallied in solidarity behind Kate McGuinness, the woman who made the film. Take a look. 31:18 I haven't seen, and I did have a cursory look around, is, like, solidarity from other comedians or filmmakers. Yeah. For Kate, who'd be feeling... 31:29 Can you imagine all of these players criticising you? 31:32 I know, certainly the health minister has watched your film or evidently probably hasn't but knows who you are. 31:39 Yeah, or maybe Kate was a massive Dawn Fraser fan and this is heartbreaking for her. Who knows? All I know is that I haven't seen Solidarity. Have you? 31:47 It's amazing to see such delusion delivered with such confidence. Perhaps there's been no solidarity from other comedians because, well, Kate McGuinness' film wasn't funny. That's just my guess. But no, no, Latouf's co-host, Jan Fran, thinks she knows the reason comedians haven't rushed to the defence of a woman making jokes about raping another woman with a stick. 32:10 how tight comedy spots are on the ABC. You don't want to be the comedian that's like really lippy in case a role comes up and you might want to take it. True controversial. 32:21 The evidence would suggest comedy spots aren't that tight on the ABC. It's just the comedy that's missing. Joining me now is News 24 host Caleb Bond and PR Council's Christy McSweeney, who's worked with Coalition Prime Ministers and Premiers. Welcome to you both. Caleb, are you surprised that other comedians haven't rushed to stand beside Kate McGuinness in a show of solidarity? 32:44 No. Why would you? I mean, for goodness sake. You know, there's solidarity with your mates and your colleagues and then there's just rank stupidity. I mean, at some point you've got to be able to admit that even people that you work with or perhaps even people that you admire can do the wrong thing. And this... 33:05 skit, quote unquote, which it was not, it was just vile garbage, was not funny in any way, as you noted. The ABC took too long to apologise for it. Why would anyone else want to hitch themselves to this wagon? I mean, you'd have to be supremely stupid to say, yes, actually, I'm one of the only people in the country who thinks that this was a great thing to put to air, particularly when the woman herself gave a sort of half-hearted apology for it last week. 33:36 You'd have to be stark raving mad. 33:39 Well, you would be, Caleb, and we're talking about the ABC. Christy, you're a PR genius. What did you make of the ABC's apology? How did you find the presentation of it and the wording? 33:53 Well, they left it a while, didn't they, James? They did. And I think that Mrs Reinhart was well within her rights to ask for an apology, well within her rights to ask it to be taken off digital platforms. And as for this young girl... 34:13 being labelled a comedian of some note, she isn't. She's a visual artist. And in her defence, she's actually a great visual artist. She did a wonderful exhibition in Sydney recently, Long Walks Down Parramatta Road, which was fantastic photography of old milk bars and things, the goings-on around Parramatta Road. That's art. What she has punted up here on the ABC is nothing but a vile political rant that you could have actually put on at home in your lounge room with a bit of help from the props department at the new theatre in Newtown. 34:53 You didn't have to win a competition to beat out hundreds, possibly thousands, of other young talent to get the taxpayer to send you all the way to Scotland to punt up with this. Spare a thought for all those other young artists who didn't get their shot on the ABC. 35:12 Yeah. For this. Fair call. Well, while all this is going on, the ABC's Head of Investigations and Current Affairs, Jo Pacini, she's leaving the public broadcast. This follows allegations relating to content produced by Sacked Four Corners reporter Mahmoud Fazal, a former underworld figure. Earlier this week, it was revealed Fazal allegedly hired a friend... to pretend to be a drug dealer for reports on the ABC program's Four Corners and background briefing. 35:43 This friend. 35:44 I realised that working in the corporate world and cocaine really worked well together. I just said dollars, dollars, dollars. 35:51 That friend has now admitted she isn't a drug dealer, claiming she was just paid to pretend. 35:57 Played a role that they needed. You know, when like people need roles played in certain docos and that, and there's people who look the part that can fill it. Yeah, that's what was happening. I earned a nice paycheck off that, a very nice one. So yeah, those things aren't always accurate and as real as you think they are. 36:15 Caleb, is the ABC redeemable at all? 36:18 That's a big question, James. I will note that this woman then told... Having put that thing on social media saying that she got a fat paycheck for that appearance on Four Corners, she then told Media Watch when they followed her up that, in fact, she hadn't been paid for it. So it gets even murkier. Who knows what to believe in all of this? But this is, of course, the problem. I mean, how did the ABC... And Superior is at Four Corners and, of course, the head of investigations has now gone, presumably because of all of this. How did no-one think that when they employed Mahmood Farzal, a former sergeant-at-arms for the Mongols' bikey gang, that there might be a problem? 36:58 Like, if there was anyone who might have an issue with integrity... I would have thought it would be a person who had been a sergeant-at-arms in a biking gang. And I know it rubbed a lot of people within the ABC the wrong way when Four Corners, prior to all of this happening, where they pulled the three episodes down over these concerns over veracity. Four Corners had previously put out a statement saying that, you know, the whole team stands behind Fazal's reporting. And there were people in that team who did not stand behind his reporting. 37:30 I mean, for an organisation as large as the ABC to not see potential problems here, I think goes to your point. Are they redeemable? In large part, I would say not. 37:41 I wonder if Hugh Marks will update ABC guidelines, do not employ former bikey officials. Christy, you're old enough to remember when the ABC was a treasured institution. 37:53 Where did it all go so wrong? 37:56 James, don't mention, don't tell people that. 37:59 Well, I couldn't say it about Caleb, so you were the only option. 38:02 I want people to think I didn't grow up watching TV and I'm a TikTok person. But sadly, no, I did grow up in regional Australia in the 1980s and we had two channels. One largely played football and the other one was the ABC. And really, it is still a trusted institution, particularly in regional Australia. But some of these goings-ons in their city newsrooms that are coming to light, that we are seeing in some of the decision-making, that is not on. 38:34 And I think a lot of people who still trust the ABC out there in regional Australia, because I will defend it out there, it does do a good job, emergency services and local news and so forth, would be horrified if they tuned in to ABC Sydney or ABC Melbourne sometimes. 38:50 But I'm with you, Caleb. There are a lot of people in the ABC who didn't agree with this, who questioned this, who still say, look, we are a trusted public institution and what is going on here? Thank you. from their own people. So you've got to ask some questions about that too. 39:06 All right, very quickly, a new poll shows 52% of Australians can't name our Governor-General. So let me start with you, Caleb. Can you name Sam Mostyn? Sam Mostyn. 39:20 How hard was that? You know, I've got to say, I'm not terribly surprised by this. I would have thought a 48% recognition for the Governor-General is probably actually pretty good. You know, maybe Anthony Albanese would get slightly more recognition than that, but I think she's probably actually doing alright, to be honest. 39:38 Christy, does it matter that the majority of Australians don't know who our Governor-General is? Is that a problem? 39:46 Oh, look, I think Australians don't really pay attention to who the Governor-General is. I think that says a lot about, you know, why we need a civics education in Australia. People have such little understanding of their own political system and their own constitution here in this country, say, compared to the United States. We need to do something about that. I'm with you, Caleb. I think that's a really high figure. And, of course, if they poll people here in Melbourne, they do know who Sam Mostert is because she was a commissioner of the AFL. 40:18 I think she's got high name ID in Melbourne for that rather than being the Governor-General. But, you know, different strokes for different cities, I guess. 40:27 She's probably better known than Ben Carroll. 40:30 She probably is. Before I let you go, Christy, you raise an excellent point. I want to put this to Caleb. Would you rather be the Governor-General or a senior AFL official, Caleb? 40:40 Today, I'd probably rather be the Governor-General and I'll have more to say about that later. 40:45 Very good, of course. Caleb will be hosting Paul Murray live at 9pm. Make sure you don't miss that. Thanks to you both. A delight to chat. I appreciate you joining me. All right, we're going to go to a break. When we come back, Cambridge University's youngest ever black professor is forced to resign after being caught making false claims about his academic record. And leaflets teaching illegal migrants how to cross the English Channel have been discovered. Patrick Christie's is up next. 41:14 Welcome back to the program. Now, do you remember this guy, the shining star of Britain's Cambridge University, its youngest ever black professor, who the left claimed was a victim of racism when he was accused of plagiarism and embellishing his academic record? Well, Professor Jason Arday is now... former Professor Jason Arday, resigning with immediate effect just hours after Cambridge announced it was investigating him following reports he falsely claimed to have published a book. 41:45 Joining me now is GB News host Patrick Christie. Patrick, this was someone the left hailed as a darling of DEI, but it seems it was all too good to be true. 41:56 This story has got Netflix series written all over it. So this is, I think, Britain's biggest Walter Mitty. He claimed to have appeared on a television show that aired 20 years before he was born. He said he wrote a book that turns out was never published. He claimed he couldn't talk until he was 11 and couldn't read until he was 18. He claimed he ran 600 miles in six days, which would have made him an elite world-class athlete. He claimed he raised millions of pounds for charity. It turned out there was actually several hundred people, I believe, who contributed towards that. 42:29 He claimed he was a visiting professor at Glasgow University. No record of him ever being there. Visiting professor at Ohio University in the States. No record of him being there. That paper that you just mentioned there turned out was quite heavily plagiarized. I'm quite surprised that actually he didn't claim to be the first man on the moon, was there when Martin Luther King was shot or won the World Cup for England in 1966. 42:51 But he was held up, you rightly said, as this poster boy for diversity, mostly, it must be said, by white liberals who were absolutely desperate to appeal to their liberal mates. Oh, look at this person, this savant that we've found here. 43:05 But he just seems like an absolute fraud. He resigned last night. People put his resignation letter through an AI checker, and it came back as 100% AI generated, which you just have to admire at this point, I think. 43:18 Sorry, I had seen on social media that there were people suggesting his resignation might have been written by AI, but is that confirmed now, you're saying? 43:27 No, it's more of a joke, I think, than anything else. But the point is that you can really believe it, can't you? 43:35 Well, just as shocking were Revelations police tried to silence the journalists to expose this guy. They apparently told Jack Gove, he's a reporter for Times Higher Education, to stop asking Jason Arde questions because the questions were causing Arde distress. 43:53 Talk to me about that. I mean, that's just unbelievable. 43:57 Yeah, it's like if I robbed a bank and then the police turned up and I said, oh, you know, you're causing me a bit of stress here, lads. I just, would you mind just not looking into it, you know? 44:08 It's absolutely bonkers. Yeah, so it is that. The police basically started investigating a journalist. Also, our day had instructed a very, very high-flying law firm here. It was a kind of accusing people of racism and of causing him mental stress, et cetera. Because one of his excuses for this quote-unquote plagiarism that we've seen is that he claims that he is on the autistic spectrum and he learns through mimicry. Okay, we... 44:38 I mean, again, it's like, you know, all of these kind of different protected characteristics which you're trying to use as a shield to stop actual genuine scrutiny here. But you're right. The second Cambridge said, his actual university said, we're investigating you now. He just threw the towel in. He's not admitting that he's actually done anything wrong. He's basically just saying, I can't really take this anymore. You need to leave me and my family alone. So he's still kind of defending himself. But he's got a memoir. that's due to be published later this month. 45:10 So that is gonna be a fascinating read, isn't it? 45:14 Just while we're on the subject of this guy, have a look at this clip from a university lecture he gave where he describes the moment watching Australian television stopped being fun. 45:25 I love home and away and neighbors. 45:27 Like a lot, right? 45:30 A lot. 45:31 And the worst thing that happened to me with Home and Away and Neighbours was becoming a sociologist. Because when I started watching Home and Away and Neighbours, before I'd just watch it and it was escapism, for one hour I was in Australia. 45:44 on Seven Network. Then you become a sociologist and you start looking at things through a different lens. So part of it is like you think, okay, well, Australia has an indigenous population, First Islanders. How come none of them are present in this utopia that's Summer Bay? Like then you have kind of Ramsey Street and you think, oh my God, there's no people. You start looking at it really, really differently. 46:04 Now, Patrick, I don't know about you, but what I heard him say is that obsession with race ruins your ability to enjoy things. 46:12 Yeah, well, quite. I mean, I don't really understand how anyone could be watching Home and Away. I mean, I was very young when I was watching Neighbours, but even at that age, you know, I don't think I was looking at Holly Valance and looking for racial grievance. I was much more focused on other things at the time, I believe. Yeah, I mean, it's ridiculous, really, that you've got this guy here. I've been through hours and hours and hours of his social media clips and YouTube clips, and I'm yet to hear anything particularly profound. There is no logical reason why this guy was elevated to the status that he was. 46:43 But he is symptomatic of this kind of style of individual, which is all about grievance. seeing division through everything, seeing everything through the lens of race and all of that stuff. And yeah, well, it looks like he's been found out now, doesn't it really? And so have the people who elevated him to those positions. Their intellect is going to be seriously questioned now. It should be a wake up call to everyone, I think. 47:05 We've only got about a minute left, so unfortunately we're not going to get to those pamphlets advising migrants how to cross the English Channel. We're having too much fun with Jason Day. So just quickly before we go, Oxford... Sorry, Cambridge University. I mean, they must be shockingly embarrassed by all of this. 47:24 Well, you'd have thought so. Actually, what happened initially was that a load of their professors went into bat for him, signed a petition, said that this was all racism. What's happening here is racism. And now he's thrown the towel in. So I imagine he's got some explaining to do there. 47:37 But this is, you know, supposedly one of the most respected institutions in the world for academia. And that reputation has taken an absolute pummeling here. And just think about this. There will be people out there who have worked their whole lives, who've got straight A's at school, who've dedicated their lives to academia who will have been overlooked for jobs at Cambridge as would have been their dream because of some of these DEI issues that we've seen here. And I imagine, I wonder how they're feeling and I wonder how the students are feeling that have got themselves into a lifetime of student debt in order to go and be taught by people like this guy when it turns out now that the bloke teaching them basically was not who he says he was. 48:15 If I was there, I'd be wanting my money back. 48:18 Absolutely. I tell you what, you've got to laugh or you'll cry. Patrick Christie's, always great to catch up. Thanks so much. That's all I've got time for. I'll see you on Sunday for the McPherson Angle. But right now, stick around. Here's Shari Markson.