The Chaser Report - Net Zero Action | Tony Burke

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

The 2022 Federal Election has begun! Bring on The Chaser Report: Election Edition!Craig uses his keen political eye to breakdown the issues surrounding the carbon tax, and explain it in a way that everyone can relate to. Meanwhile Dom and Charles interview MP Tony Burke to find out who gave Covid to Albanese. Plus Charles has the latest Election Wrap, and Dom takes a deep dive into the most controversial 'captain's pick' so far. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In an election that will determine the fate of the entire universe, there's only one podcast holding politicians accountable, Scott Morrison, Anthony Albanesey, who will boom? Find out on The Chaser Report, Election Edition. Hello and welcome to the election edition of The Chaser Report for Wednesday, the 27th of April. We've got Dom Knight, Charles Firth and Craig Ricard. I'll stop the end today. And Charles, we're number one. That's right.

The trending hashtag around Twitter this morning is come to number one. CUM. CUMM. So this is the Cole Makes You Come song that you made. Yeah. Which is now number one, isn't it? It's number one on the iTunes charts, yeah. So I'm glad just to not mislead people, it's not this podcast.

So don't fear, don't worry, don't fear. We're not Hamish and Andy. Although we are doing better than their election podcast. So, yeah, no, it's a remarkable achievement. It shows you either how amazing our musical abilities are or just how incredibly shithouse the Australian music industry is. Yeah, or how come sells. But we have reached out to the Wiggles.

I saw that on Twitter. To do a cover of our Cole Makes You Come song. So that we can get in the Triple J hottest 100. We think that's probably the best way. Good approach, yes. To win the Triple Day Hottest 100. That's a gratitude. And I've reached out to some Liberal Party staffers to do a song called Cole Makes Me Come on Desks.

Which I think will go very, very well. Yeah, it's a whole. Well, that's what the Liberal Party have been assuming that the song is about. Yeah, that's right. I'll put a desk in the video clip very prominently. I hear that it's actually, the reason it got to number one was just on repeat in the Parliamentary House prayer room. Yes. On today's show, we have Tony Burke, opposition industrial relations spokesman.

I'm going to ask him if he gave Albo COVID. I'm a bit suspicious about that. I'm going to talk to you about Net Zero and about the climate, which has finally been mentioned in this campaign, of course, with lots of lies. And we're going to check out the PM's captain's pick in Waringa, which, let's just say hasn't been going incredibly smoothly with Catherine Deves. But first, let's catch up with Charles' Daily. campaign update.

We begin today with the solemn news that the coalition is at war with itself. While Morrison was in Queensland yesterday launching hydrogen hubs as the key to his commitment to net zero, one of the national candidates there was out and about declaring the target dead. Colin Boyce pointed out the wording of the agreement Morrison brokered with the Nats last year had left enough wiggle room to make the commitment completely meaningless. Isn't it nice when someone says out loud the thing that everyone's thinking? To make matters worse, National Senator Matt Canavan then said

the government's plan for hydrogen hubs should be scrapped in favour of building more coal plants. If net zero is alive and kicking, show me where countries are doing that. But it's not just the nationals who are breaking ranks over climate. The Liberal candidate for the seat of Melbourne says teaching children there's a climate emergency is nothing short of child abuse. But to teach children that there is an emergency is nothing short of almost abuse.

Speaking at a candidate's forum, her reasoning was that whenever we teach kids about what's happening to the climate, they get stressed. Have eight-year-old children who are stressed. Better to keep kids in the dark, so they don't take the government to court to argue that the Environment Minister

has a duty of care to young people, hey? Meanwhile, nine newspapers, chaired by ex-liberal treasurer Peter Costello have the amazing scoop today that the Labour campaign is prioritising Anthony Albanese in its media appearances over failed former leader Bill Shorten. What a scoop!

Insiders that the newspapers say tomorrow they've got an even bigger scoop that milk is white. And finally, there are growing concerns that the so-called teal independent candidates are causing headaches for the Liberal Party. Apparently liberal voters who care about climate change are beginning to suspect that their local liberal candidates can't deliver on the climate promises they've made. I wonder where they could possibly have got that idea from.

That's the election wrap for Wednesday the 27th of April. We'll be back in a sec. What's better than a well-marbled rib-eye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled rib-eye sizzling on the barbecue. the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well marbled ribby you ordered without even leaving the kitty pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders.

Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over deliver. Election edition. So, look, there's been a lot of articles in the lead-up to this week, saying that climate change had not been mentioned at all in the campaign. I think Labor wanted it that way, didn't they? Exactly, yeah, yeah, which I was frustrated about. Obviously, it's something I care about, but it's back.

This election is now about a carbon tax again. Yay! Yeah, this is the carbon tax, isn't it, that Peter Credlin actually admitted was never a carbon tax in the first place? Well, this is a new one. So let me explain to you this new carbon tax, okay? Okay. So the Liberal Party is saying the Labor Party has a carbon tax. Right.

And I'll explain to you how this happens, right? So there's this thing called the Safeguards Mechanism. Sounds boring, right? He is boring. Put in place by the Liberal Party by Tony Abbott. Right. Labor Party. That well-known radical.

Yes, that well-known radical. Climate Change campaigner. I think you saw him a recent extinction rebellion. He does hold a hose, like. Exactly. The Labor Party was so scared of this area that they've just caught. copied the Liberal Party's policy. But this is the thing they're going to do is they're going to actually slightly enforce it.

Oh, right? Now, so this is how it works. Let me explain it using the metaphor of, you know, a flatmate, right? Right. So you've got a flatmate who, for some unknown reason, often shits in your apartment, right? And you come up with an agreement with him, and you say, look, I know you've been shitting in our apartment a lot. What about if we agree, and we both sit down and agree that you'll only do it twice a week? You'll only shit in this apartment twice a week.

You know, I understand we can't radically change your approach to shitting overnight. It's going to happen. But if you go above that two shits, you know, you might need to pay for some cleaning out, right? Yeah, right. That's the safeguards mechanism. Basically, companies agree we won't pollute more than this amount. Yes. The way it's currently operating is this.

So, let's go back to our apartment. Just say that our shitter shits in the place five times a week, right? Yes. The way it currently operates is he goes... I'll just interrupt you there. Where did he shit the other two days? Look, occasionally he uses the bathroom some... Oh, he goes to the bathroom.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. We just eats white bread. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So he shits five times this week, right? Yeah, okay. And obviously you say, look, we made an agreement that you would only shit two times. And he goes, yeah, but I shat five times.

So what you do is you change the agreement. So it says you're allowed to shit five times so that you don't have to charge him any things. thing. That's the way it currently works. Right. So if you pollute and then you go, we said we're going to pollute this much. Yes. But then we pollute a bit more. They go, I'd just change the paperwork so that you can pollute more.

So all that's going to happen is it's just going to be that you cannot necessarily always just do more shits in the apartment. Sometimes you'll have to pay for them. Right. Yes. You can see that that's a carbon. So is there, there's no intervening step. Between that. So literally, by saying that occasionally we will actually make, say, for instance, a coal

company pay for their pollution that they've already promised not to create. Yes. That is what the Liberal Party is saying is a carbon tax, right? Now, let me distinguish between a carbon tax and a normal tax, okay? If we take $180 million of actual taxpayer money, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we give it to, for instance, put in infrastructure for gas companies in Northern Territory. We actually pay actual taxpayers' money.

180 million to them, right? Yeah. Okay. That's not in any way a tax, right? That's not a tax. That's just normality. That's an investment. That's an investment. That's normality.

Yeah. Giving a large amount of taxpayers money to gas companies and coal companies and that, that's just normality, okay? You've just got to establish that, right? It's just like shitting in an apartment. It's just like shitting apartments. Yeah, yeah. That's right.

But if you do this, right? So if you say coal company, we're going to actually charge you for your pollution. Mm-hmm. And so they kind of go, well, we're going to pass that on in some way to somewhere, somewhere, to some person will have to pay something. That's a carbon tax, okay? Right. So if you have to pay millions and millions of dollars directly to a gas company, that doesn't

matter. Yeah, that doesn't matter. But if you charge them one cent to fuck up the world, that is an outrage that should be stopped. So hang on, so you're saying that Labor's policy is to have consequences when people fuck up, I can see why the government's against it. Exactly. This is, I mean, it is radical in many ways.

It's actually the most radical Labor Party policy they've had, actually. I can see while they're attacking this. Yes. So, for instance, but the thing is great about it. So, I mean, does this mean that it's all over Red Rover? Queensland's not going to vote Labor, and we're going to have coalition. I mean, to be fair. I'm ready to call the election.

When Craig said carbon tax, I, during that whole rent, I filled out a postal for the coalition and set it off. Yeah, that's right. Just does two words. They've set it up. They've set it up brilliantly because basically what they've set it up is that any change to their current approach is a carbon tax. So, for instance, the current policy of the government is that when you meet with a coal or gas executive, if you have to give them a head job, right?

But if you change that in any way, if you just say, no, we're not going to give you a head job anymore, and then they're required to go out and pay for their own head job, that puts up cost base of coal. Yes. That is a carbon tax being passed on thousands of people are going to lose jobs. I'm not sure if it's easier or harder to understand when it's shits in head jobs. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard.

When the barbecues lit, but there's nothing to grill, when the in-laws decide that actually they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. DeCart, groceries that over-deliver. Election News You Can't Trust, the Chaser Report.

Joining us now is the Labor member for Watson in southwestern Sydney and the shadow spokesman for industrial relations. Tony Burke, hi, Tony. Good day, John. So, Tony, before we ask you about, you know, actual policies or whatever, do you know how Albo's going? How is he going? Oh, his symptoms are nowhere near as bad as what I had.

So he's still been doing radio interviews, whereas I actually lost my voice for about eight days. When did you have it? I missed budget reply. So I was at the budget speech, and the next day I was out, and I was out for, yeah, about three weeks. I just assumed you were taking a small target strategy to your budget reply. And dodging the thing altogether. You got it the same day I did, Tony. And I was looking at the calendar and just trying to work out,

look, you know, no recriminations, if so, but did you give Albo COVID? No, no, not possible. No, there was too big a gap. Do you think that Scott Morrison gave Albo? At the debate? At the debate. It was brave of him to get into a room of...

You meant he was carrying a vial or something. I mean, to be honest, getting into a room of Skyton. News Watchers, you're probably going to get COVID, aren't you? The miracle was that he hadn't had it already. It was extraordinary that Anthony had gone so long. And if you're going to get it during the campaign, you know, it probably couldn't have been at a better time and did well in the debate. He'd had a good week in the second week.

And so if you had to pick which of the three weeks where it was going to hit, probably as good as it could have got. It's a little bit like saying if you've got to lose an arm, make it to what you don't write with but he has been doing the Joe Biden in the basement doing the crosses it's probably easy you'll have more energy for the rest of the campaign

I know he'll I reckon when he comes out of the blocks he'll be quite a pace The reason we wanted to chat to you today though Tony is you went on radio last week and we're talking about how basically the Liberal Party

has promised to cut wages in the next term of Parliament. Now, I was not aware of this at all. What are you talking about? What is all this about? Okay. So the government made an announcement. It was sort of over that Easter period

that they were going to bring back a piece of legislation known as the Omnibus Bill. Now, the main part of the debate about that legislation was what it allowed was for enterprise agreements to happen where the base rate of pay, so your official hourly rate can't shift, but every penalty rate, overtime rate, shift allowance can be negotiated down to zero. Yeah, right. Which is the whole thing that they did a few years ago.

Remember when they cut all the penalty rates? And basically everyone I know ended up with a wage cut. But it was sort of done so sneakily, because it wasn't about the base rate of pay. Like, somehow they, they managed to get away with it. Yeah, so, well, yeah, they got away with it because we didn't win the next election. That was how that happened. The, and like we had votes in the parliament that we kept losing by just one vote to try to stop those pay cuts.

But this time they've announced it as an election announcement that they're bringing back that bill. Now, what they then tried to do just before the debate is to say, oh, yeah, we're introducing the bill. But yeah, not the bit that affects wages. And there's wage cuts all through the bill. So, you know, so Mr. Scott Morrison says, oh, look, we're not going to change much. And then his minister says, oh, we're not going to change any of those bits. But if they're introducing the legislation, that's what the ledge does. That's what it does.

But there are other bits that cut wages in different ways. So there's a really creative section. that hasn't had as much publicity as it should, that allows you to trade wages for non-monetary benefits. Bartering. You can barter with your employer. So at the end of your shift, you get given a hamburger. Yes. You get your meal deal, and that can knock off an hours pay.

If you get a staff discount card, then they can presume that you do all your shopping through their store. And therefore, that can be another reason for a pay cut. Well, here at the chaser, we pay our interns in shiny beads. So, you know, that's something. Yeah, yeah, I'm not going to ask for a chemical test of them. But Tony, you say that, and you seem to be suggesting that the voters of Australia should worry about this becoming law if the coalition's elected. But isn't the fact that Scott Morrison's announced that he's going to do it? Doesn't that guarantee that it's very unlikely to actually happen in the next term of the Parliament?

Well, here's the thing. He's announced that he will, and then he said, oh, maybe he won't. And then his minister said no, and then he refused to repeat. So he can go in any direction now, and he still gets to fail to deliver. That's right. Exactly. But so in the interest of balance, though, I should try and, you know, put some tough questions to you, Tony, which is what is wrong with cutting people's wages?

I think the best test goes back to what you said before when the penalty rates were cut. Because when the penalty rates were cut, we were told, oh, but it was going to create jobs. And that was the reason. And then the small business council ended up admitting once all the cuts were through, when they were asked, did it create any jobs? They acknowledged it hadn't. Had it created a single job. All that had done was reduced the costs on employers. and of course the other thing it had done

and reduced people's income and that's bad enough at the best of times but a time when inflation's running so hard you'll hear Mr Morrison or Scott Morrison or whatever we want to call him talk a lot about the economy you'll never hear him talk about the household economy you say this but I'm an arts worker I don't have any wages to lose

I'm not worried about this at all because you're also shadow arts minister aren't you you're the spoke You go to a lot of gigs I see on Instagram. How do you find them? Oh, they're coming back now, and the crowds are showing up. Now, one of the problems during the pandemic, and I raised this when they were doing their support,

was they didn't provide support to make sure we didn't lose venues. And when you lose venues of a particular size, people don't just lose a local place they might have gone to to what shows. It also means if you're an artist trying to do a tour around the country, there's particular size venues that you need to match to be able to get the tour to work. So we've lost some of our fundamental infrastructure. So what's out there now and starting again,

you'll see big crowds. But from the perspective of an arts worker, there's still fewer gigs than there were because we lost some venues on the way through it. Well, our venue, Giant Dwarf, had to close. And I've got to say, that's really helped the overtime bill. It's true. Before you go, I'd just like to get your tip on the election.

At the moment, I think Labor's a little bit ahead on the sports bet and things like that. But where would you put it the smart money? Labor or liberal? Okay, well, first of all, the betting markets are the wrong place to look at all because last time they paid out on a Labor win before the election and not exactly how it transpired. So I wouldn't go near the betting market. What's happening on the ground at the moment is there is a mood for change.

you see that reflected in the different data that's out there but when you're talking to people the sense that is out there really strongly that I'm getting from people is that last time when they voted for Scott Morrison they didn't know who he was now they've seen a sense where at the big moment he's gone missing whether it's been bushfires floods ordering vaccines ordering rapid antigen tests

when they've really needed their he's gone missing and when he's reappeared he's found someone else to blame and said it wasn't his job anyway now so what you're saying is you want to vote for a change candidate so Clive Palmer's in is that what you're saying

one more question about jobs Tony before you go if Labor wins the election can you commit to DJ Arbo hanging up the headphones oh wow I don't think we can I don't think we can. I think it would be a very popular policy.

Unlike the bloke is currently in charge, Anthony only knows how to be Anthony. Well, will we see a stadium tour? And masquerading in different jobs. I don't think it's likely to happen. They might be rare, but I reckon the headphones will still be about. All right. Thanks very much, Tony Burke.

Thanks, see you. Say it. What's better than a well-marbled ribby sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribby sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribby you ordered without even leaving the kitty pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply.

Instacart. groceries that over-deliver. Rigging elections since before it was cool, the chaser report. Craig and Charles, when I hear the words captain's pick, I start to get a bit upset because it reminds me of school sport when I was always picked last. What do those words mean to you in politics, the idea of a captain's pick? Can I say I also get upset with that because I remember Charles saying, Dom has to be on the chaser.

Yeah, Captain's picks never go well, did they? But what I'm reminded of is when Tony Abbott gave Prince Philip a knighthood, he said, oh, well, that was a captain's pick. That's right. So it's actually an act of political self-immolation. And Scott Morrison seems sitting much the same thing with his captain picks at this election. We talked about this on the podcast before, but in New South Wales, they've needed to use captain picks because they had a huge problem with the Liberal. pre-selections in New South Wales. Strangely enough, they just couldn't organise them in time.

Do you recall why that was, Charles? Well, wasn't it because Alex Hawke never turned up to the meeting? Because Alex Hawke was basically Scott Morrison's representative, and they didn't agree with any of the picks that the local liberal parties had made. So there was a crisis because the PM's guy didn't turn up to the meeting, requiring the PM to just impose whoever he wanted, right? It was a real flaw in the way they set that up, isn't it? And they need to get this right.

This is really important for Scott Morrison because one big problem they have is with the seat of Ringer. That was Tony Abbott's old seat. And they were looking for a great candidate to try and win it back from Zali Stegel. You know, they asked Mike Baird, who lives there. They asked Gladys Berrigli, and both them went, fuck no, we make much money in the corporate world.

So they needed to find somebody to do it. And the thing is, well, Zali's, you know, she's won on climate change. She's an inner-city progressive type. They needed someone to fit that mould. What they found was Catherine Deves, who basically, as far as I can tell, was an internet troll in search of a new bridge, basically. Her big issue, the one thing she cares about it has been campaigning about for several years is trans women competing against ciswomen. And she's been trying to promote those arguments through the most sensible way of getting social change, which is complaining on social media and trolling.

That's right, because she said that trans activists were Nazis. Yes, that's right. Oh. And so on one day in September last year. You always know that an internet discussion's going well when somebody mentions Nazis. Yeah, yeah. It's good to know that she did Year 7 debating to link everything to Nazism. So on one day in September last year, the Herald looked into this.

She sent about a dozen tweets criticizing trans female athletes. And one of them was gender identity is a toxic religion without a god that comes for our children and affects our society. But she sent that tweet. And then the same day. sent in her Liberal Party application. So she wasn't even a member of the party. That was her Liberal Party application, Tom. That you understand.

That tweet is the way you apply for a Pledge of Allegiance. So she set herself up as the J.K. rolling of Coleroy. And the stupidest thing she said, I think, possibly the most defensive, is that there's a link between trans women and serial killers. And to me, all that says is that she's watched the silence of the lambs. Yeah, but again, that's the chosen. That's the normality.

Again, so it's the change of one transnational. trans person doing it, that's suddenly the change. Right, okay, yeah. Conservatism is leaving it so that only mass murders are done by white men. It's the exception that proves the wrong. Exactly. Yes. So also on her social media feed,

among many other random posts, she posts about how sad it was that the wonderful Julia Gillard was handed out of office. It just makes you think, did the PM do any background checks at all on Catherine Deves? Didn't she also make derogatory comments about the Prime Minister as well? Well, no, that was his own cabinet. As a new candidate in Waringa, she doesn't know anyone there.

She's really got to hit the pavement and press the flesh. But instead, in this campaign, she is in hiding. And she's been on SBS News this week and made this claim about why she's in hiding. I have received death threats. I have had to have the police and the AFP involved. My safety has been threatened. So this goes beyond politics, right? This is shocking.

No one should be making death threats in an election, people. No, we should never have death threats, which is why it's so good that New South Wales police came out and said to the Guardian, they're not aware of any death threats against Catherine Thieves. So wasn't that a relief? It seems a bit like when Pauline Hanson was like, if you're watching this, I'm dead now. Like, no one was actually killing her. And the PMs come out and said, look, this woman can't be cancelled. We're not letting her talk to the media at all.

They shouldn't even tell them about the SBS interview. She just went and did it. But what about all the billboard? I went to up the northern beaches the other day. there's a whole lot of billboards floating around doing the Catherine Deves line on trans women. Oh, but is that the... Advanced Australia. Yeah, I think it's Advanced Australia.

So there's a whole lot of billboards where they go, I want to be able to compete, like, compete against women, some trans groups. And then they've got a picture of Zali Stegel in black and white, so you can tell that Zaliegel must be bad, saying, that's transphobic. Yes. I mean, it's interesting, it is an interesting approach because there's a lot of, I was in a room the other day with people who all thought this was a brilliant act of four-dimensional chess by Scott Morrison.

Yeah, it's a strategy to. I mean, firstly, I think the approach is going, we're not going to win Warringa back. So we're not going to win Rwringa, so we can just throw somebody in there that can kind of, we'll lose that election, but can talk to certain prejudices in the rest of the community. You get the North Queensland vote. You get the vote from people. I mean, it's a huge, you actually, look, if you break down Australia and look at it, you know, there's like 49% males,

and then there are 51% of the rest of the people are women going for Olympic positions. Yes, yes. It's a very big part of the electorate, so they really care about this issue. It's funny you mentioned this kind of conspiracy theory that is actually about other seats other than Warringa, because SBS News is Janice Peson put this to Catherine Deaves. There's a suggestion that you're running to simply help the Liberal Party gain seats in conservative, regional and rural areas, that you don't really have a chance of winning Waringa.

You've had some of your own party members criticise your points of view. Do you have any concerns that you're being played at the highest level? If there are other mechanisms at play, I'm not aware of them. Yeah, checks out. aware of what's going on. But the strange thing is there's a poll out today that says because of Deves's remarks, the coalition's going to lose Wentworth and Parramatta,

as well as having zero chance in Warringa. But there's another, there's an even broader poll that's out from Redbridge, it's in News.com.com.com today. And it's found that when political candidates attack trans women, guys and lesbians, they lose twice as many voters as they gain. Yes. And that only 2% of voters care about the issue of trans women in support. This is the thing, isn't it?

Because I think the Liberal Party thought that they're on to a winner with banning gay marriage. And then they've massively lost the plebiscide that they themselves set up. Yeah, right. And I kind of think this might be the same sort of genius 4D stress test that's going on. I think it's like, you know, we all make the mistake of ending up in some kind of, you know, Facebook tunnel of people. But unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of people who are like, they think all of the posts on Facebook about this issue,

represent the majority of the population where they don't at all. Actually, I was talking to a Labor Party poster the other day about transphobia because there's a sort of suggestion that in certain communities you can sort of run non-English speaking campaigns that run sexual panic through various sort of conservative church-based communities and stuff. And he reckoned that across a whole seat, you can probably move about 50 votes based on transphobia.

50 votes. He said, no, no, the reason why candidates lose when transphobia comes up is because they're shit candidates. Nothing to do with the transphobia. Well, if we see the Liberals winning by 50 votes, we'll know it was a brilliant piece of four-dimensional chess. Agis from Road Microphones with part of the ACAS.

Create a network. Catch you tomorrow. Thank you.