Shock Retirement of Bill Shorten:-
let’s jump straight into it with commentator Jason Morrison and the Australian’s National Affairs editor Joe Kelly gentlemen thanks for joining me I want to return to today’s main story the shock retirement of Bill shorton here were his passing words on his legacy achievements what we did 3 weeks ago in the parliament has meant that we will be able to set this on a direction where the scheme will be true to its original purpose where the shonks and frauds are evicted and we’ll start focusing on
outcomes for people and I’m absolutely positive about the Bright Horizon for the ndis I’ve had the very very very privileged position to lead labor.
Jason Morrison’s Perspective: Did Jason See This Coming?:-
I’ve had the chance to help the victims of Robo debt so there you go Bill shorton riding off into the sunset Jason did you see this coming no I mean I’m not going to be smart and say yeah but I set you up beautifully there you could have been a great I sense that he stopped giving 2third of a you know what a while back um when he was confronted with the ND and the absolute sandwich that that is I got the feeling the guy was kind of almost you know he knew he was fixed uh and and I sense he thinks they’re fixed too and and that’s part of it and you know if you’re at Bill shorten’s age and stage in politics with probably no chance of being prime minister which you know if it hadn’t been for Bowen he probably would have ended up prime minister.
Once Upon a Time uh I would think there’s probably just something that goes on your head you saw there’s got to be better things out there so now he’s going off into Academia and aren’t we lucky as a country uh you know what can he run a course in a public malale administration or something it it is extraordinary how these people graduate onto bigger and better things all the time and the the good old taxpayer has to to sit there and pay for it but um you know it’s an impossible task.
The ndis Impossible and I think he has tried very very hard and it’s kind of tragic in a way cuz I mean I know you weren’t with any friends on used by telling you that bill short actually is quite a decent man and I’ve always found him to be you know all the good qualities you want in a politician except when it comes to Judgment of character and he has allowed and he allowed himself to get knocked out of the game by promoting a deal like Bowen to where Bowen got to at one stage and he genuinely cares about the NB he genuinely believes in it Joe let me go to you what would you say Bill shorten’s Legacy will be oh look that’s a that’s a really good question I think bill shorton will be remembered for this overwhelming and expansive sense of political ambition and while the announcement today I think was surprising from some uh perspectives.
Joe Kelly’s Take on Bill Shorten’s Legacy:-
It wasn’t really because I think it’s an admission that he knows he’s never going to be prime minister so bill shorton came into parliament in 2007 he was immediately made a parliamentary secretary he then very quickly gets involved in the leadership machination uh plotting to um overturn Uh Kevin Rudd uh and when Labour lost the 2013 election uh he was in that runoff against Anthony albanesi and I actually think if he sat back at that time and let Anthony albanesi go on to lead the labor party um I think there’s a good chance that bill shorton might actually have ended up being a prime minister today so look I think he his his career um was driven by this uh sense uh of aspiration to achievement and I think uh I think that’s sort of the defining characteristic of Bill shorton he didn’t he didn’t want to leave anything um wanting uh in his political career well speaking of leaving things wanting .
Reforms in Local Government Accountability:-
Let’s talk about local government for a second the city Morning Herald is reporting that misbehaving counselors would face fin suspensions or disqualification from public office under a proposed Suite of reforms aimed at streamlining accountability and instilling transparency in local government so basically what they’re going to do Jason is they’re going to come up with a simplified code of conduct now that sounds great but I was amazed gu a one pager well well well there’ll be two pages I was fascinated to read today the existing code of conduct for councilors in New South.
Local Government Criticism: Jason’s Proposed Conduct Violations:-
Wales it runs to 100 Pages which is not bad because I’d say overwhelmingly most of them can’t read we we have a remarkable ruling class in this country except in local government when you you realize you think You’ got big graders in camber or in your state Parliament go have a look at your local Council this is pretty amazing um this will be weaponized for sure it’ll be weaponized .
If you want to look at the bitchiness of politics and its ugliness you look at local government they are disgraceful towards each other and throw dung at each other all the time and most of the time of course you know where the where the financiers of these little games are going with these people that spend time in there talking about the Gaza Strip and whatever as opposed to the nature strip.
I think it’s kind of amusing uh and you know what else is amusing and I’m sorry to get personal on this but uh most people should actually Google Ron honig who is the local government minister in New South Wales and look at his local government career a man who was not contested as a mayor and sometimes didn’t even need to have elections because somehow they figured out a way of scaring all the other candidates away in the in the local government seat of botney uh it was pretty EXT ordinary to see that man is now the local government minister in New South Wales because he knows the game better than anybody else and when I say the game.
I mean the game uh it is extraordinary yeah well you see local governments doing crazy things and you never really see uh local government ministers getting involved Joe I’ve got an idea I want to run past you okay so I’ve been thinking about this all day I want your thoughts they’re saying they’re going to have three tests for alleged misbehavior uh conduct Unbecoming conduct that brings the council into disre repute and conduct that is outside the Norms .
AI Regulation in Australia: Voluntary Safeguards Introduced:-
That’s expected but I want to add three more code of conduct violations give me your thoughts trying to rewrite Australian history taking positions on Foreign Affairs and Flying Flags other than the Australian flag they should be code of conduct breaches as well what do you say oh look I I totally agree I think local government’s um very important.
I think one of the the shames in is that uh it often gets left out of the debate but local government is responsible for steering local communities uh you know roads rates and and rubbish it’s important that we have good people uh on local councils making uh these decisions and a lot of the time I think uh it sometimes falls through through the cracks but um one of the I think disturbing things is that uh there’s this tendency to focus on things other than the bread and butter uh issues so things like the date of Australia Day things like um what’s going on in in the Middle East in relation to Israel in relation to Gaza.
I don’t think that should be the core business of local government uh and I think it’s it’s a shame that too often we hear local governments staying into these diversions when their job is critically important for the basic uh efficient functioning of our of our societies and for individual people well while we’re talking about local government a perfect segue into artificial intelligence Joe you reported today that labor is immediately introducing voluntary AI safeguards as it looks at uh some different measures to mitigate the risks that come when using AI just quickly what are the big risks for consumers now that so many businesses are using Ai and how would a voluntary code AS suggested by the government mitigate those risks well look .
I think the main thing firstly is that this is a a voluntary code um so they’ve done another report uh that will go out for consultation for at least another four weeks uh and then the government will have to consider uh the regulatory response uh so this is a very complicated issue um AI will affect all levels of our society and our economy and it’s going to require a pretty comprehensive regulatory response so they’re looking at whether there’ll be a Standalone AI act or whether you have some sort of other um approach to individual legislation where you’re adapting individual um regulations to um adjust for this new Revolution but none of that’s happening at the moment there is a a voluntary um code of conduct that’s being uh introduced.
I think the the issue is that Ed husk needs to get his skates on uh and we should have a plan and I think it would be ideal if that plan was presented this side of the election yeah I whenever they talk about you know governments wanting to protect us from AI all I can think of is the Biden Administration appointing Camala Harris to uh protect Humanity from AI God help I’ll go a step further e Karen e Karen yeah good call yeah that that’ll be that’ll be the you know the boss of the AI world and uh God help Australia there’ll be we Le is being pulled everywhere about it it’s amazing how they want to get involved in everything but about 5 years too late yeah yeah yeah all right.
BBC Layoffs Amid Controversial Spending on Diversity:-
let’s let’s go to the UK where the BBC are saying that 500 staff will lose their jobs over the next two years to help them with their bottom line but it’s not all bad news for the BBC they they can’t afford to pay 500 staff who they’re letting go but than can afford to spend 800 million pound a year on diversity programs you know the stuff that really matters 80 million a year sorry did we say BBC or ABC this just sounds remarkable it’s just like you got the currencies it’s the same all over the world with national broadcasters Joe correct me if I’m wrong but uh is the BBC eventually firing staff and just replacing them with newer woker Dei hires instead well look we had a similar thing that happened at the Abc when they got rid of Andrew proin and replaced him with you know digital producers.
I think one of the issues for mainstream media organ ganizations today is that we do have to do more with less there are more people tuning out of mainstream media looking at other sources of of media but public broadcasters compared at least to the private sector in a a relatively luxurious um position uh and you’d think that if there are going to be Cuts if they if they’re going to lay people off and journalists are going to be out of work .
Diversity at the BBC and Its Impact on Journalism:-
You’d at least think that they’re managing their budgets effectively and not wasting it on diversity programs so that’s those are my thoughts on on that well their diversity programs Jason are very important to them because they want 25% of all their staff to either be ethnic disabled or from a uh lower socioeconomic uh part of town is that a good plan for building a news organization well look I can only relate the Australian experience the removal of the uh was it uh paleale and males out of the ABC they did plenty of that and they moved a lot of people on and all that’s happened is the organiz ation has G to the and the whole problem .
I think with the ABC at the moment is it’s got too many people I mean it might have a lot of diversity but it doesn’t have a lot of integrity and the diversity they always talk about it’s always about skin color or it’s always about ethnicity or accents or whatever it’s never about diversity of views and you know I think the British public probably would love to see its National broadcast which by the way is vastly better than our national broadcast with this country and more popular and viewed .
Conclusion:-
I think they’d like to see it diverse in its attitude as opposed to just looking at things because things are a little deeper than skin deep and and you know it’s it’s quite amusing to watch what we know doesn’t work in Australia now go on in other parts of the world and you know God help the BBC because it actually kind of Matters To The World of BBC and it’s tragic in a way that uh they’re going to screw that one up too yeah it does Jason and Joe thanks for joining me tonight appreciate your time.