‘Get Labor out’: Victorian government under fire as state’s crime rate ‘out of control’

[00:00:00]Joining us now in the studio is Calista Clements, commentator and Sky News contributor. Calista, it is great to have you on the program. Thank you for coming on.

[00:00:08]>> Oh, it's my pleasure. It's so nice to be up in Sydney's blue skies out of Melbourne.

[00:00:12]>> So, we've escaped Melbourne. I was going to say, are you okay? Obviously, the crime is out of control there.

[00:00:19]>> Every time that the plane lifts up out of Melbourne, it's like an exhale. And then you come into Sydney, it's brighter days. It's I wish I could tell everyone in Victoria they can have brighter days as long as we get this bloody Labor government out in November, but yeah, the crime is is out of control as the whole whole of Australia now knows.

[00:00:36]>> Mhm. No, [clears throat] we do, and it's a massive concern. I know we can can laugh about it, but I know the feeling.

[00:00:41]I know the feeling of escaping Melbourne. Of course, I used to live there in 2020 when Dan Andrews was premier locking us down, the longest lockdown in the world. So, I know the feeling of coming to Sydney and saying actually life doesn't actually have to be as miserable as this. But the crime in in Victoria is absolutely out of control. And there's a lot of pressure on the premier Jacinta Allan at the moment. It's reveal been revealed over the weekend that she's planning this new crime body to tackle Victoria's underworld, but this is kind of being seen for what it is, just avoiding a royal commission into Victoria's big build and um you know, avoiding kind of responsibility amongst allegations of of corruption.

[00:01:22]>> Yeah, you wouldn't know it's an election year, would you? Because this crime crisis in Victoria has been going on for years now. This is something that is is not new. In fact, it it was happening before COVID. It's happening after. They loosened bail laws in 2023. We had our tobacco wars, and now we've had this um firebombing and this extortion epidemic that is just been rampant. You can't go out on a beautiful Friday or or Saturday night in Melbourne without thinking, oh, are you going to wake up and what what um venue has been firebombed um tonight or today. So, yeah, it's no coincidence that now she's happy to uh do a special set up this special agency secret investigation into these fire bombings and extortion months out from an election. It's just another eye roll frustration kind of clenching your jaw moment as a Victorian.

[00:02:10]>> Yeah, like she announced that but she's refusing to hold a royal commission when you've got corruption experts calling for it. You've got people in the business sector calling for it. The other thing that's happening in in in Melbourne is of course the businesses. I feel for them so much after being totally slammed during COVID.

[00:02:26]Um and the state's in so much debt.

[00:02:28]>> Yeah, it's insane and again with the with the royal commission it's if they do pursue that it's only going to open up a can of worms to which they're going to have to take responsibility and we're going to have to be confronted with some very hard truths more so they need to be confronted with some very hard truths of the intentional incompetence that they have been running our state on for the last decade now and it is quite startling and almost scary to think what could possibly come out of the Bond uh Bond Bondi royal commission sorry the big build the big build CFMMEU corruption commission considering we've had yeah 15 billion dollars these reports and that's conservative estimates that have been wasted with yeah the the CFMMEU it's it's quite it's scary to think it's really really scary to think.

[00:03:14]>> So this election is coming up in November. Have you noticed you know you speak to Australians all the time. Have you noticed a kind of shift? Do you think people are are really starting to call to see this for what it is?

[00:03:24]>> Definitely definitely. I I don't think I've spoken to one person yet that haven't said there's no way that I'm not voting for liberal or one nation and people who have been formerly and devout labor supporters as well and again I explain to Australians and Victorians that this labor government is is not your everyday center left you know advocating for the workers kind of party. This is the socialist left faction of the Labor Party that has put our state in disrepair. You don't need to be right or left or be, you know, loyal to one side or the other to just want genuine change.

[00:04:03]>> Mhm. And that's why I love watching all your videos. It's all about common sense. I think it's really hard to argue with you because he's speaking a lot of common sense. But there are plenty of problems in Australia. Victoria is certainly a pretty big pain point, I would say. Pauline Hanson, who we'll get into in a moment.

[00:04:19]But we have to play this clip of Barnaby Joyce. He was on ABC 7:30 report last night and I think that's been one of the best answers from a politician that we've ever heard.

[00:04:28]>> that your decision to defect to One Nation is dragging you further into a place of intolerance and racial discrimination. You're defending your leader, but are you really comfortable with where she is taking you?

[00:04:44]>> But I think Sit down.

[00:04:47]Sorry. IT'S A DOG.

[00:04:50]THE UH I I think that is incredible >> [laughter] >> Isn't it brilliant?

[00:04:56]>> It's so good. I was watching this this morning on the plane and I just laughed out loud. I was like, that is hilarious.

[00:05:02]Like, next time, Barnaby, do it to Albo.

[00:05:04]Like, let's do it again in Parliament.

[00:05:07]Yeah.

[00:05:07]>> [laughter] >> The best part about it, I watched it a few times now and every time I just you can't stop laughing. Um but it also kind of highlights the ABC's reporter Sarah Ferguson to her questioning because of course she's also questioning Barnaby Joyce and it's again, can you really stand with Pauline Hanson? The media is still running with this kind of a campaign just attacking against her.

[00:05:31]Like, how can you you support her? Um so, I think his answer of just telling his dog to be quiet [laughter] was actually a better answer than what anyone else could give. But it's interesting because Pauline has been under attack from the media for decades now and I think she's been very consistent with her messaging and and only really now she's really taking off and people are really supporting her. And I think one of the reasons that they can support her is because she's just been consistent and she's been authentic for a long time and they're starting to say I you know, agree with with where she's potentially coming from that she loves Australia and she wants Australia to be a really safe place. Uh but they're attacking her over absolutely everything, even the fact that she had a holiday in Italy. What did you make of that?

[00:06:16]>> I spoke about this the other day. I said if it's off the taxpayer dime, it's not it's not your business. It's not my business. We've We've got so many politicians that for example, going back to the $15 billion of corruption. $15 billion, you can't even fathom that amount of money. And when when Albanese was asked, do do you support Jacinta Allan? And he's come out and directly said, "Uh yeah, she's the most competent and best person to continue leading Victoria." Despite the fact that there is an investigation into 15 billion dollars. Well, hopefully an investigation into this 15 billion dollars. But yet Pauline's under attack for taking a privately funded trip to to Sicily. I like touch some grass, people. Come on.

[00:06:59]>> It's just because it's Pauline Hanson.

[00:07:02]And I think she handled it so well when she was asked about her trip and the events that she went to. She said, "I wanted to go." And uh it it's it's interesting to watch this unfold. She's also been accused of wanting to bring the white Australia policy in if she was to become Prime Minister. Here she is just saying this is absolutely fake news.

[00:07:23]>> Well, I'm in London about to attend a dinner. But I had to bring to your attention the comments by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian. You know those two lefties organizations?

[00:07:33]They want to try and destroy myself and One Nation and discredit me. They're false allegations that I want to introduce the white Australia policy.

[00:07:43]Not the case. Never ever have I advocated that and I don't believe in it as well. Yes, I've been strong on immigration, bring the right people in the country in a measured way and people who want to assimilate and be Australians. Do I want people from certain countries that want to wear the burka? No. What about those marrying their cousins? No. Sharia law?

[00:08:05]No.

[00:08:06]Child marriages? No.

[00:08:08]So, I won't advocate that. How do you feel about it?

[00:08:14]>> She says some common sense, I tell you what. But it's again, the the narrative that the media wants to to run with attacking her, calling her racist is the exact attacks that that Donald Trump got. It's straight out of the same playbook and Donald Trump got elected.

[00:08:29]>> Yep, exactly right. I it's just look, wherever these these left-wing progressives are going to take aim, they'll they'll shoot. Wherever there's an opportunity, they'll pursue it. But again, going back to this whole white Australia thing, I've watched the whole the whole clip back and you know, to recounting points in history, I think that's really important. But yeah, I think it's it's fairly exhausting when yeah, you're constantly when someone like Pauline is constantly being attacked and she's constantly having to come out and say, "Oh my gosh, like cut it out. That's not what I said." It would be tiring. But look, this is how these lefties and these crazies have been yeah, winning this culture war per se because of the labeling, because of how brutal being called being called a racist or saying that you're advocating for something like a white Australia, those things have very detrimental and harmful impacts to a person's day-to-day life. So, yeah, they have taken control of the cultural and societal narrative in that sense and falsely defend people and put them in that box and it's not true. But now Pauline Hanson and this this movement on the the is standing up against these labels to to put these people back in their place because it's not on. It's actually just really low blow petty politics. [snorts]