beautiful song. Thanks for your company this morning. There is growing confusion
and concern over Donald Trump's health this morning with White House officials
giving mixed messages about his real condition.
Overnight the president's doctor suggested he could leave
hospital despite now being treated with a steroid usually given to patients with
severe symptoms. Meantime his fan base keeps growing outside that
hospital. To discuss, I'm joined by Northern Territory Senator
Malarndirri McCarthy and the Daily Telegraph's political editor Anna Caldwell.
So much to talk about. Malarndirri, a US president in hospital
battling a potentially deadly virus in the middle of a crucial election
campaign. Wow. Yeah look certainly it's very
concerning, absolutely, Karl as anyone who's
experiencing COVID will will be able to tell us and
certainly we've seen so many deaths right across the world in relation to
COVID so naturally he's receiving no doubt one
of the highest kind of care that he can. But it is
concerning given that he is the president of the
United States.
Gee people have come out of the woodwork
haven't they over the weekend they've been pretty savage on him
Big time and you know we heard just weeks ago the families who
who lost over, you know, there's over 200,000 people that they lost in the US
and some of those families were very angry at the way the President had
not assisted them so you're going to see all
kinds of views being made but ultimately at the end of the day you do
want people to get better and we certainly
hope the president does get better
Good on you senator. Anna looks like
his heartland if we're judging by those pictures outside of the hospital where
he is as had a heart start. I mean they've
been very motivated in the last couple of days. It might be what he needed
Well that's right, I mean they've been very supportive the scenes are just
stunning outside of the hospital but really i think it's impossible
to predict at this stage the impact that this will have on the presidential
campaign you know i think the next 48 hours for donald trump are really
critical and as you say Karl, the messages
that have been coming out of the White House medical team have been very
confusing. You know the steroid that he's been put on that we've learned about
you know just this morning obviously is usually reserved
for serious, you know, moderate to serious
cases which doesn't quite match up with the idea that he's getting
better. You know we don't know if he's been given that steroid because he's the
President of the United States or if he's been given it because his
case is worse than what we believe.
Check that out folks it's just
that's the crowds it's almost like a festival atmosphere
growing outside that hospital in Maryland.
There's literally thousands and thousands of Trump supporters.
They have been certainly motivated by this and and it
may well be something that he needed to to charge up
his campaign but incredible scenes there. OK, let's move on. Billions of
dollars in personal income tax cuts could be backdated. Treasurer
Josh Freidenberg expected to make it the announcement as part of tomorrow's
Federal Budget. Malarndirri, instant tax relief good news will you
back them?
Oh look Labor's always said that we've been
concerned about tax relief for the high end of town
Karl and we're looking at details now and we need to see the details
which is obviously what's going to happen this week but can I just say that
in terms of the budget overall we do need to make sure that Australians right
across this country have a sense of their future and job
prosperity and at the moment there are concerns because of the cutbacks
that we're going to see with JobSeeker and JobKeeper
Well Labor won't back tax cuts to the high end of town will they?
Well we've said that in the past that we wouldn't do that and obviously what we
have to see now is what the details are and those details haven't come out
yet so we can let you know when we see that
Okay, Anna how do you think that'll go down in the public?
Look I think that
at the moment the public's most interested
in spending money money being spent to stimulate the economy.
I know Labor has taken issue with those top end of town tax cuts but in fact
they did back them last year because they couldn't be separated in the
legislation so whether they find themselves in that
position again remains to be seen but the reality is yes the debt is going
to be eye-watering
it's not that bad um it's only blowing
out a little bit
The debt
we're just getting just getting to a casual 1.3 trillion billion
trillion dollars in debt
Yeah i mean it's 1.1 trillion
the ceiling's gone up i mean i mean you have to pay it back at some point.
You do but debt is cheap at the moment I mean I mean that's the truth. I would
rather see them borrowing money than than making cuts and slowing the economy
in other places.
Yeah, Malarndirri how do you think about what
do you feel about that ceiling uh being increased oh
Look there's a couple of things I just want to say Karl because I think that
we've got to ask what what is it where is it going to be taken from?
I mean things have to still be moved from somewhere to live somewhere else
and and one of the areas that I certainly look at is
say in the Northern Territory, they've been talking about having the Cashless
Debit Card roll out across the Northern Territory.
We've got people who are on the Community Development Program,
you know 30 000 Australians. Where is the support for them to keep going and I
think we really do need to understand what is the government doing here. Is
this just marketing spin? What's the details and can we really drill down
into it?
Okay well what the treasurer is
saying is that the only way out of this is jobs jobs jobs
um do you think that you're---
Well that's all well and good but we've been saying
that say for example with the Community
Development Program across Australia, we've been wanting jobs jobs jobs and
people having paid sick leave, the the annual leave,
superannuation all of these things, we have to make sure that there are
conditions with it and these are the really important details that
Labor will be having a good look at.
Okay Anna, this
this this budget has been very well leaked. I mean is there anything left?
There's got to be something left. They always keep something up their sleeve
But, I agree, we do certainly know a lot about it so far.
Ok, and in terms of that job job job policy do you think the public buy that?
I think it's the most important thing. I think
I do think the public will buy that because we have been hit with these
horrific job losses and jobs and investment really are our
only pathway out of this.
Well the prime minister is definitely, judging
by the weekend, keeping his options open with life after politics. Take a look at
this. Scomo the handyman. The Prime Minister channelling is inner
Scotty Cam at the weekend building a new chicken coop
for his wife jenny and the girls. The girls have wanted one for some time.
Malarndirri, there is a huge controversy though
brewing over this. They're going to call it
Lodge Ladies and name the little chickens after former
Prime Minister's wives. Now
I think it's funny but a lot of people don't
Well i reckon you should have had
some of the the former Prime Minister's
wives maybe make a comment, those that can anyway,
and their families. I think that'd be interesting. In fact we'll probably
see more of that on social media anyway, Karl, that seems
to be where all the conversations are going these days.
So, yes indeed Anna, Julie's partner Tim Matheison,
he's gonna be lumped in with the ladies, the First Ladies
is that is that sexist?
I don't know does he get to be a rooster? I'm not sure
I mean I agree, the real yarn here would
a thousand percent be the fly on the wall conversation between Lucy and
Malcolm Turnbull when this chook policy was announced. Surely Lucy would
have preferred a new a new portrait or something as tribute rather than
a chicken
A chicken yeah and then one and then one gets sent to chagrill
charlie's every week it's like
it's like it's like survivor in the chicken coop
I love it. Have a great week ladies and uh and best of luck with the budget this
week too it'll be fun