The Questions That Still Won't Go Away: Has the Truth About COVID Finally Emerged?

Good evening, everyone.Well, this is the video exploding across the Internet.Former U .S.Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci before a Senate hearing accused of getting rich while millions died.Take a look at this.

Well, nothing says honesty like taking the fifth, huh, Doc?Let's try something.What day of the week is it today?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.What color tie are you wearing?On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

What color is the carpet in front of you?

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Let's just get one thing straight.You don't have any rights under the Fifth Amendment because you've been pardoned, as you very well know.I mean, your net worth now is north of $12 million.You got over $1 ,000 ,000 in cash awards during COVID.$1 ,000 ,000 you knocked down in cash money using federal resources.Now you're worth more than $12 ,000 ,000.

A million people dead, you're getting rich.A million people dead, you're using federal employees to get cash awards for you.A million people dead, and you're here taking the fifth because you don't want to admit that what really happened in all that time was a multi -month, multi -year course of self Dealing isn't that true?

Dr. Fauci on the advice of counsel I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution Yeah, well silence is admission.

Does it make you sick?Do you wonder what's going on to discuss senator Jared Rennick and political commentator Freya Leach join me right now Evening guys up.Well, what a day yesterday Jared your first up.What does it say when the world's top?COVID doctor pleads the fifth 111 times?What does that tell the public?

Well, to tell the public, the origins of COVID has always been a cover up and only a few people have ever really wanted to discuss the origins of COVID.For those that have followed it, there was a letter sent out, it was released in the Lancet.One of the co -authors was a bloke by the name of Professor Edward Holmes from the University of Sydney here.He was one of the first people that Anthony Fauci contacted after the outbreak of the COVID virus.And he co -authored this paper that said that the COVID virus was of natural origin.It wasn't a lab leak.

And, you know, many people at the time disputed that.And there's lots of evidence I've posted myself about Anthony Fauci at Georgetown University in January 2017, the day before Trump was inaugurated.apologies, that first time through that he predicted that there would be a surprise infectious disease outbreak throughout Trump's first term.Now, to me, I think that's just extraordinary that someone would be predicting a surprise disease outbreak.at all, because how can it be a surprise if you're predicting it?And that it would be in relation to someone's political term.

But then there's also further evidence where they're discussing it with a bloke at a Millican Institute in September 2019, a bloke by the name of Rick Bright, who was head of the Biological Advanced Research Defence Projects called BARDA.And he was talking about a surprise entity of excitement So there are lots of examples of where it looked like it was premeditated or planned.Peter Daszak, he was funded by the US to set up this research in the Wuhan lab.in China.Now, to be fair to the Chinese, they may not even have known what was going on in that research laboratory because who understands biological research, as I've said to you before in a past car.I mean, here in Australia, we've got 17 universities that engage in gain -of -function research.

And when my former colleague, Matt Canavan, asked for more details on that in estimates, they weren't forthcoming with it.And similar to myself, I've asked ASIO to look into why Edward Holmes wrote that paper.And this is a guy that gets $4 million in funding from the Australian taxpayer.ASIO completely washed their hands of it.So I am personally, you know, as much as you can be convinced that the origins of COVID was a product of intelligence agency biological research.I mean, you can have an argument, you can't prove that it was deliberately released.

However, I'm strongly convinced it was definitely covered up, but I wouldn't rule out that it was deliberately released so that the US election in 2020 had to be a mail -in ballot situation in order to get Joe Biden into the presidency, in order to start the war in Ukraine.And the reason for this is that the US is almost $40 trillion in debt.It cannot repay its bills.and there's going to be a reset, right?So just like after World War I, there was a reset where the Germans had to repay their debts to the U .S.

And in World War II, and not many people are aware of this, Great Britain, even though they're on the winning side, they had to repay the U .S.their debts.And that was a transfer of the wealth from the old world to the new world.The U .S.

, the new market is the Chinese market.There's 1 .4 billion people there.The powers that be are trying to stop Russia from merging with the European countries.Putin himself in 98 asked Clinton if he could join NATO.So there is a lot of deep, dark shit going on inside intelligence agencies that need to be exposed.And what we saw yesterday with Fauci is just the tip of the iceberg.

And let me tell you this, if he's not charged for contempt of the Senate, then that'll be all the evidence you need that, you know, the establishment was behind the release of this vaccine from the get go.

It is interesting.There's so much to climb into there.Freya, I wanted to get your first thoughts though.You would have been watching yesterday as well.Literally tens of millions of people around the world were watching, I think in astonishment from both sides.I mean, 150 scientists said it was a witch hunt, but how did you view it?

Well, I don't think anyone who is innocent would plead the fifth 111 times.Clearly, he's hiding something.Fauci has also said repeatedly that he would be happy to testify before any congressional hearing.He wants the scrutiny.He wants the accountability.OK, well, yesterday was his chance to show with his actions that he really does want accountability, even when it doesn't come from his Democrat mates, but it actually comes from the Republicans.

But when given that opportunity, to provide answers to the American people, he completely absconded and refused to give any answers whatsoever.I think, frankly, he is embarrassed.His diary got released and his diary directly contradicts a lot of the narrative that he built up over years, like the constant push saying this had natural origins.Well, his diary shows that in January of 2020, he was already contemplating the prospect that this did actually come from a book.One of the most powerful moments in the hearing was when one of the senators asked the journalists and the audience behind him to stand up if they'd ever been denounced for questioning the origins of COVID, if they had been called racist for calling it the China virus.And he said, he asked Fauci, turn around and look at the faces of the people whose lives were ruined, whose reputations were smeared simply for wanting to uncover the truth.

But he wouldn't do that.Millions of lives were ruined because of COVID.Reputations were destroyed.Careers were ended.Yet the cover -up continues still to this day.So I agree.

I think we need way more transparency and way more accountability.And no one who previously would be happy to sit down with InStyle magazine for photo shoots, endless CNN interviews, endless social media posts.Yet now, when given the actual opportunity to set the facts straight, he just is refusing to do so.

You know, Gerard and I are pretty old, or certainly older than you.I mean, you were in the thick of this, weren't you?You know, back in the day.And I wonder how young people felt about it, especially when you were watching yesterday and how much money he did make.you know, through securing these personal cash prizes.How did that make you feel as a young person who, during a really important phase of your life, you were locked down?

It made me feel furious.I was in year 12 during 2020.So I almost missed out on my formal.I missed out on a lot of the rites of passage that you go through here in Australia.I was then in my first year of university in 2021, when we locked down again.And so many of those friendships that we could have otherwise formed, the clubs I could have been part of, we just simply didn't get the opportunity to do all of that stuff.

And then you add on the economic impact of COVID, high inflation, it just made everything so much worse for young people.So I think I was sitting there, frankly, with my jaw on the floor.And the fact that he used federal government employees to apply for personal awards to congratulate himself for being the medical czar of the world is just embarrassing.I'm angry, but I'm actually more embarrassed for him.And the fact that this is all coming out now, I don't know how he will ever recover from this.But the weirdest thing is that there are still people on the left that are trying to eulogize him, trying to paint him out to be this martyr.

He is anything but that.Sure, everyone had a tough time during COVID.I don't envy anyone, especially anyone in the medical establishment.and trying to make sense of what was going on at the time.But he knew he had plenty of opportunities to set the facts straight, plenty of opportunities to just be transparent.But he refused to do so.

And it's all coming out now.

Well, I mean, that goes on.And I think Gerard's right.That battle will be long and it will be hard to be interesting to see what happens next.Right.Let's get into the weeds of it.Gerard, why do you think Donald Trump came out saying he respects the pardon of Fauci?

Oh, look, I don't know.Maybe because Trump was implicated himself in the first year there where, you know, he probably allowed, gave Fauci way too much slack.But yeah, look, as I've said to you in the past, Carl, I mean, in that first year, you know, we aren't biochemists.People didn't understand what was going on.And it's only with the benefit of hindsight that a lot of people have been able to see what was happening.I mean, Trump's all over the place at the moment.

So to try and raise.mind, I'd be kidding.But I suspect he's been told, you know, by whoever just to downplay it rather than, you know, push further.Because as I pointed out, Fauci didn't act alone here.This was an entire establishment operation.So, you know, as we saw by the uniform you know, media singing from the same song sheet.

I mean, you've been involved with that.So, yeah, can't really explain, you know, the basis behind Trump.But Freya makes a really good point.I mean, I got my reputation based around the vaccine.But what people didn't see was for 18 months before the vaccine injuries became apparent, because I was getting calls from people that were locked down, locked up, locked out.businesses yet again.

I was just speaking to a guy yesterday who ran an engineering business throughout COVID.He nearly went bankrupt because of COVID, and he lost international customers because of it.You know, it had an enormous impact on the economy, and I'm convinced it's still playing a role now on the economy, you know, because a lot of people took out home loans at 2 .7 per cent at the time that it rolled off and they're now paying five point, you know, almost six percent.So they're struggling there.I mean, that's a large part of why Australia is struggling in terms of our cost of living and inflation, because we stayed locked down and locked up for much longer than other countries did.And, you know, yet again, that happened to be work against those people that want to push against the narrative that COVID was dangerous.

Because in the eight months between April 21 and December 21, when we were locked down and had next to no COVID in the community, deaths jumped in Australia by 10 ,000 people from the prior year.So in the month after the vaccine was rolled out, deaths in Australia jumped by 7 % over the prior year, month by month.The correlation between that and the rollout of the vaccine, you know, it was basically, that was three standard deviations from the mean of the last five years' average deaths.So in statistical terms, it's what they call a Sigma 6 event.The chances of that happening randomly is less than one in 1 ,000.So in other words, it's highly likely that the COVID vaccine was responsible for the jump in deaths.

And that's obviously not just statistical.I mean, I heard that personally through hundreds and thousands, if not thousands, of antidotes.So, look, can't read Donald Trump's mind, but I do think there's a lot more that meets the eye with this rollout of the vaccine and the rollout of COVID.

And I think people just want to know the truth and they'll keep seeking it, right?If you don't get a handle on the truth now, what happens next time?What happens in the event of another pandemic of any kind?Let me tell you, I think they're going to have a lot more difficulties with that.But I wanted to also bring in Robert F. Kennedy.I don't know whether you read The Real Anthony Fauci, Jared.

Yeah, perhaps.

So a couple of things in that that I wanted to discuss with you.On COVID -19, RFK portrayed Fauci as the architect of this historic coup d 'etat against Western democracy. He alleged Fauci colluded with Bill Gates and pharmaceutical companies to exaggerate the pandemic severity, suppress cheap generic drugs like ivermectin, and clear the path for probable vaccines. It's obviously highly polarizing, this book as well. Supporters saw it as a detailed expose, as you would know. But critics, including scientists and fact -checkers, described large portions of it as conspiracy theories, HIV denialism, misrepresentations of data, and promotion of ineffective treatments. Where's the truth in...kind of approach from RFK?

Well, look, they're going to say that that's that's this is yet again, I mean, the the the term conspiracy theory was actually theorist was actually coined by the CIA themselves to dismiss anyone that ever questioned their motives.But look, just back to that ivermectin dispute, I didn't become aware of this and I should acknowledge Tiki, but he pointed out that the Australian advice was not to give people with covid antibiotics Now it's well known if you get a viral infection, you'll get a secondary bacterial infection.And that's what actually causes the death of older people is that they get sick, they can't get out of bed, and then they get a secondary bacterial infection.Now, you know, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on ivermectin, but I do know that we've all been told in the past that, you know, if you get a heavy chest cold, that you can prescribe antibiotics.antibiotics by the COVID Evidence Task Force.And I asked this question in estimates and they all just, you know, did nothing to see here as usual.

But the question around the protocol around treating COVID is in serious question, because while most people don't understand ivermectin, everyone at some point in their life would have taken an antibiotic.Look, yet again, with JFK, I can't, or Robert Kennedy Jr., sorry, I can't, they're going to label him all sorts of names.He made a good comment once and said, when I got mercury out of the Hudson River, I was labelled a hero.But yet when I tried to get it taken out of vaccines, I think it's called thymicerol or something like that, they all criticised me.So needless to say, the pharmaceutical industry, you know, it's like the military industrial complex.It's a multi -billion dollar industry that makes a lot of money out of pushing new drugs onto people.

Big corporates will do this.They'll always attack anyone that is a threat to their profits.

Freya, you must be looking back.You would have done some digging.You would have researched it.When you hear stuff like that from RFK and you see the opposition to it as well, Where do you land?And what are the questions, the biggest questions that you want answers to?

I mean, for me, I tend to assume incompetence ahead of malevolence.And I think a lot of what we saw during COVID was sheer incompetence.I've spoken to people who were working for the prime minister at the time, and even just getting simple data, like how many people died of COVID last night, they were getting more reliable numbers from a guy on TikTok than they could get from the state health bureaucrats.So it was just wide scale meltdown.I think our state premiers have a lot to answer for and the incompetence of their bureaucracies compounded all of this.But I think, frankly, we won't know the answers until everyone who was involved in the decision -making at that time is brought before either Senate committees or some sort of judicial inquiry in the U .

S.and in Australia and is forced to actually testify as to what happened.And I'm sure there are terabytes of documents that need to be gone through, but that is the only way we will actually get any kind of answer.Until that point, I don't want to speculate.I don't want to ascribe motives to people because from talking to people who were involved at the time, I think a lot of it was just they had no idea what was going on.The chief medical officers had no

idea what was going on.We all assume we can have so much faith in experts, but COVID shattered that.And the irony is that Fauci is held up by the left as this bastion of science and objectivity against the emotional conspiracy theorist right, but he did more to undermine science than perhaps anyone else in the last 50 years.And now his refusal to come forward and be honest is only compounding that.So the long -term effects of this, it extends just beyond the lives lost, just beyond the economic consequences.I think there is a fundamental mistrust now of science.

Vaccine rates across all kinds of vaccines are going down.People do not trust the experts anymore.Good luck during the next pandemic trying to get anyone to listen to these mandates.They simply won't.long -term effects of this are going to extend far beyond just the COVID pandemic.And it makes me worried because I'm pro -science.

I want objective truth, but I also want scientists to update their hypotheses as new evidence comes out.That didn't happen during COVID.There was a narrative that was picked and then everything else was retrofitted to fit that narrative.That is actually not science.But when you have your scientists promoting that way of thinking, what message does that send to the public?It says you can't trust any science.

So this has been extremely damaging.Ultimately, I think there are so many questions we need answered.But like Jared, I am a bit sceptical and, to be honest, a bit pessimistic about the prospect of any of those really being answered.

I think it's beholden upon governments around the world, you know, to investigate this as thoroughly, openly and as accountably as well.because for that very reason, Freya, if something else happens.Interestingly, with RFK and Fauci stuff, I mean, Fauci never took any kind of legal action.I know that can be because of the Streisand effect and all that, but he was in such a position of power and authority that that erosion of public trust is now very, very real.And we'll be living, you know, I don't know how they claw that back, Jared.

Well, actually, I just want to come back to Freyja's comments.Now, it's important that we distinguish between who should have known what.So I agree the politicians and people like yourself, Carl, you're not biochemist, you're not supposed to know how these things work or, you know, you're not expected to know.Right.But we should have asked more questions.

We should 100 percent ask more questions.

If you go to the product assessment report.So every drug gets a product assessment report from the TGA.If you go to page 22, there's a box.Yeah, it's a box.box of information and it's called missing information and it goes through like they didn't test the vaccine on all types of numerous vulnerable people, you know, people with autoimmune diseases and things like that.And then if you go to their product assessment report, There were numerous examples of whereby they just didn't test, you know, there was lumps of missing data.

And then they actually talk about codon optimisation.So what that meant was, was that this particular vaccine was designed to produce more of the antigen, not less.Now, I've owned shares in mRNA stocks in the past.This was one of the reasons why I was onto it.It was a company called Virolytics.It was an Australian company and it was doing research with mRNA vaccines or what they were called gene therapy products at the time.

And that's what really mRNA vaccines is, gene therapy.And the idea of it, and where they were testing it on stage three, stage four cancer patients, and the ideawas to get the vaccine to target the cancer cells.And the key to the success of this product was it had to target the cancer cells and not the non -cancer cells.The reason being is that it was designed to go inside a cell and once a foreign object goes inside the cell, your immune response changes from an immune response to an autoimmune response.So the people that made this drug knew very well that it was going to generate an autoimmune response.

Now, it's one thing to give someone who's dying of cancer a drug with the hope of killing the cancer cells, but it's another thing to be giving young, healthy people who haven't even got the flu a drug that can potentially enter your own cells and generate an immune response.And this is why we're seeing, you know, tens of thousands, we had 150 ,000 reported vaccine injuries of varying types, from paralysis through to myocarditis, clots, etc. the TGA should have known and they should have known because I asked them these questions using their own documents, the product assessment report and the non -clinical report, thanks to the lady, I won't say her full name, but Nancy, who got these through Freedom of Information and she had to spend a small fortune to get them an enormous amount of time.The TGA knew exactly what they, if they didn't know initially, They should have known once we started putting questions to them that what they had released was not safe and effective.Yet John Skerritt continued to lie.That guy needs to go behind bars, as does Brendan Murphy.You know, Nick, to his credit, pulled out of there real fast.

I think he worked out pretty quickly what was going on.But these guys need to be held to account here.And I agree with you, Fray, guys like Scott Morrison, I had a three‑hour meeting with Scott one night, myself and Alex Antic, and I could see Scottwas genuinely torn about the mandates.Greg Hunt wasn't.I'd put Greg behind bars as well because I told him and he never took it seriously enough about the injuries that I was being told of.

And these weren't one or two random injuries.This was the phone ringing nonstop.You know, this was a little backbench senator going from 5 ,000 followers to 100 ,000 followers in the space of a month.which yet again brought, you know, um, a referral sort of bias whereby everyone started coming to me, but we were just getting injuries, endless injuries all the time.Um, so there was signals there that they should have acted on and they didn't.

I guess, I mean, when you, when you're saying people should be behind bars, I mean, there are going to be plenty of supporters for that.There are going to be others who say, um, that's an overreach during a pandemic, Jared.Um, and you know, a lot of folks out there, uh, were just trying to do their best.Is that a defence of any kind?

Look, yeah, for people, you know, so you've been criticised, Carl, for not taking, look, and I've defended you saying you're not an expert in this field, right?There is a fiduciary duty, if you become a company director, you have a fiduciary duty, fiduciary duty to your shareholders, right?When you become the minister or the head of a department, you have a duty not to walk past things when you're made aware of them.And this is what people often, you know, talk about corruption, and that word's thrown around a lot.And there's big C corruption where people take brown paper bags.I don't think that's all that prevalent, but there's a lot of small C corruption in this world across the managerial class, not just in governments, in corporations, in unions, which we should talk about, and super funds, whereby you have an obligation to react to signals when you become aware of them.

So initially.you know, I waited.So unlike Craig Kelly, who, you know, and I'm not criticising Craig, Craig went and attacked the vaccines before people started taking them.So, you know, it was going to be much harder to win the argument with not much evidence.But when I took a stand, we had, you know, thousands of people at this stage who had been injured.And yet we did not do anything to help those injured people.

We left them, you know, I mean, I know people have lost their house.It's not just they've been physically injured and their health has suffered.They have not been able to work and they've now lost their houses.They're financially ruined as well.These things, people should have reacted and you've got to react.You're not, if you're, don't claim that, oh, it's an overreaction when you're paid a million dollars a year.

If you want to get paid a million dollars a year to be an expert, then you need to be held accountable when you walk past those people that were injured.And that's why I'm saying these guys should have reacted quicker and didn't.

And I think on that point, at the very least, find out what happened definitively.find out what went wrong, find out what was the truth.The Australian people, the American people, the world community needs to know exactly what happened here.Freya, do you think that Fauci and Australian authorities who are, you know, in some way implicated, do you think they're ever going to see justice?

No, not at all.Not as long as we have a Labor government who's still trying to protect Labor premiers at the time, particularly in Victoria, or really any government for that matter.I think, unfortunately, politicians tend to categorize things into two buckets.Will this help me or will this hurt me?And I think there were so many people who demonstrated such profound incompetence during that terrible election.that any kind of rehashing of COVID is just seen as too politically toxic for anyone to care about.

And the reality is the votes just aren't in it, which I think is so sad because whether something is politically expedient or not, We are owed answers and our politicians, our bureaucrats especially, should be held accountable.Unfortunately, I doubt they will be.And just on that vaccine injury point, it's very funny because one of the things that came out was Fauci took the mRNA Moderna vaccine on live TV to show how safe it was to the American public.And then now it's been revealed that a couple of months later, he ended up with a blood clot in his lungs.which is one of the most common vaccine injuries that comes from the mRNA vaccine.So up to the highest levels, there was a cover -up and a denial and a gaslighting of people who reported vaccine injuries.

I remember at the time, if you even spoke about, I had two colleagues, a young man who ended up with heart issues because of the COVID vaccine, and another person I worked with who ended up with blood clots.If they even spoke about their vaccine injuries, they were written off as weirdos, conspiracy theorists, crazy people.But it happened to them.If someone broke their arm, we wouldn't say, oh, you're a crazy person.It would just be a fact.But there was a total denial and a refusal to even acknowledge that there were risks to the vaccine.

And I'm not an anti -vaxxer by any means, but If someone comes up with blood clots and heart issues that they never had before a couple of weeks or a couple of months after having the vaccine, you've got to at least be able to acknowledge that.But instead, we were met with a mass public gaslighting.And so I do think there needs to be accountability.But I think the chances of that are pretty low.

OK, and just we'll finish off on that one with you, Gerard, too.Fauci, any chance of him being implicated in any way, shape or form?

It's unlikely, Carl, but I just want to touch on one more thing that I think is worth noting.I was given an autopsy report by a coroner in New South Wales who said that a 52 -year -old male who got the Pfizer vaccine and then died within seven days and was immediately ill after getting the vaccine, his death was caused by the Pfizer vaccine.That was given to the TGA and the TGA never reported that as a Pfizer death from the vaccine.That is like, to me, cold hard evidence of the TGA gaslighting deaths from the Pfizer vaccine.And that's what I mean.I know it might sound that I'm being dramatic when, you know, I'm saying people should go behind bars, but when you were given an autopsy report from a coroner who examined the body and said, no, this was definitely caused by the Pfizer vaccine, and then you refuse to tell the public that, That, to me, is pure negligence.

And if you cannot lock people up for something that is where there's such strong evidence, then we've got no hope in this.And forget, I mean, don't forget Fauci, but let's focus on what we can control here in Australia.And I move that through the Senate.that I actually got, you know, and of course the major parties voted against me.This was one of the last things I did before I left the Senate.We finally got a hold of this autopsy report.

But it's a classic example that even here in Australia, people aren't being held to account when there's very strong evidence that they're at the very least negligent.

Well, it was a shocking part of the world history and it was certainly so difficult.It changed Australia forever, didn't it?And if you don't want to clean it up and find out what went wrong with it, then you're obviously hiding something that needs to be done.Let's talk about accountability in a different way now.Jacinda Allen during the week and, you know, the Royal Commission, Dan Andrews and potentially Jacinda Allen appearing there.Do you think you're going to see any real accountability out of the Royal Commission, Gerrit?

Oh, look, it's unlikely, Carl.You may get something.And I should add, it's not just down in Victoria.It's up here in Queensland as well.There's a inquiry going on up here with Stuart Wood chairing it.And, you know, there's up here, for example, we had there's footage, the Courier Mail played it, of unions, union members going into one of the buildings looking for the head of the Department of Transport.

You know, there's another one where one of the union officials are calling out and effectively acting in the way of a terrorist would act.Now, we know that Labor is always going to protect unions because the Labor Party was started by the union movement.I've got a real issue here with Pauline Hanson because in 2019 she voted against the Ensuring Integrity Bill.Now, this was probably the last bill that the Liberal Party ever put through where they actually stood on their convictions.It was in November 2019.It was the last week of sitting in 2019, not long after Scott Morrison went to Hawaii.

He got hammered for not being there for the bushfires.But this was a good bill that the Liberal Party had put through and it was going to deregister militant unions and deregister union officials that acted in a corrupt manner.Now, Pauline Hanson had told Anne Ruston all that week that she was going to vote for this bill, and at the last minute, she crossed the floor and actually voted with the Labor Party on it.this bill from being passed.Now, had this bill been passed, a lot of the corruption we've seen in the union movement in the last, what, almost seven years now, we could have put people up on charges.We could have deregistered militant unions.

We could have got rid of corrupt union officials.And I don't want to just be clear here.We're not union bashing.You know, union members are good people just like customers of banks are good people.But there's corruption at all levels of big organisations.We've got rampant corruption at the moment at the top end of the unions at the moment.

And this was a bill that should have been called out.Now, if you can't rely on people who claim to be from the right side of politics to stand up to unions, and I've criticised the Liberal Party for not, you know, respecting the dignity and worth of every individual throughout the lockdowns.Pauline Hanson needs to explain.So next time you get someone on from One Nation, you make sure you ask them why Pauline voted against cracking down on union corruption when she had a chance to do something about it.

Will do.I think Pauline's on at the end of the week, so I will definitely follow that up.Frab, you know, when you look at the public purse and how much has been spent, the accusations of, what, $15 billion in taxpayer money, I mean, I sincerely hope that they uncover how widespread corruption is, but I have my doubts.

Yeah, exactly right.$15 billion is the estimated additional cost that was added because of union corruption to the $100 billion Big Build project.But keep in mind, 30 % of the funding for the Big Build was funded by Commonwealth taxpayers.So this isn't just a Victorian issue.That means you and I, we're not from Victoria, but we're still on the line for around $4 .5 billion worth of corruption costs, thanks to thisnegligence.

I think the challenge with any kind of royal commission or inquiry into this is that it will take years.So there won't be any kind of clarity for another three, four plus years.And with the amount of evidence and allegations that are already out there in the public domain for those to be investigated, there won't be accountability for a very long time, which I think is a big Shame.And clearly, we know why Labor's doing this now.They're looking at the polling numbers.They're realizing they're absolutely screwed.

This is a last ditch attempt to salvage any shred of credibility they might have ahead of the Victorian election.I think voters are smarter than this.I think Victorians have had enough.And never forget, as Jared said, the trade union, the Labor Party is the political wing of the trade union movement.There is a quid pro quo relationship there that is very clear.that's everyone could see what kind of a disaster that would bring about.

But no, if you pay Labor with union donations, you get policy outcomes you want, and that has then allowed the flourishing of corruption in the construction sector.So this is bigger than Victoria.This is costing us, across the country, billions of dollars.And this also implicates federal labor.For that reason, I think they will be very resistant to participating in any form of royal commission.

Look, maybe a Royal Commission can somehow miraculously get some results out before the next election, maybe take two years, but maybe it'll be politically expedient for that result to be after the next election.You know, I don't know, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but maybe that's what will happen.And also, I mean, in Victoria, them pegging the donations to what, seven and a half thousand, except if you're a union.I mean, it's all pretty wild down there, Gerard.

Yeah, and look, you know, it's not just the building industry.The superannuation industry was designed about unions and industry funds grifting fees out of superannuation money.The childcare industry, the fastest growing union in Australia's United Voice, part of the deal when Anthony Albanese uses taxpayers' money to pay childcare centres is that the employees have to be unionised, the childcare workers, $14 a week, 50 weeks a year, 700 bucks a year by almost 200 ,000 childcare workers.That's $140 million going into the unions from the childcare industry.Labor don't care about your children.They just want to click the ticket.

Same for your savings.Same for the university sector, a very strong unionised body.When Dawkins set up the HECS plan back in the late 80s, that was all designed to actually get more money and get the academics in power.The academics are a very left wing.And, you know, myself and Alex Antic used to say this all the time, the Liberal Party was so good at weaponising their own enemy.And that's what we've seen.

And this is what was so tragic about the Ensuring Integrity Bill, because it was one of the few times we actually, you know, when I was in the Liberal Party, stood up for what we should have said we believed in, and then we were betrayed by Pauline Hanson.But back to the building industry, it's not just the $15 billion extra in costs, it's the delay in getting things built.Right.I mean, look at Snowy Hydro.What Snowy Hydro 2 was meant to cost $2 billion, it's now costing $40 billion.Years late.

And I mean, put aside the fact thatit's sort of designed to back up renewables.This is the tragedy we've got in this country, Carl, is that we just can't build infrastructure anymore.And we've become so incompetent, not just due to bureaucratic red tape, but union bullying.And this is why people first, we've got this policy, we actually want to extend the military apprenticeship scheme and then create a civil engineering corps within the military that will actually do these type of things.Because in, you know, and not that I ever want to see this happen, but We can't pick up the phone in the middle of a war and ask an Italian subcontractor like the one that's building Snowy Hydro at the moment to actually come and fix a road or something, right?

We've got to be able to stand on our own two feet as a country, build our own infrastructure in an efficient and cost -effective manner.And we just can't do that.And it's holding the country back.Because we can't build power stations so energy costs go up.We can't build efficient roads, ports, airports.So we can't build more infrastructure to deal with the increasing population.

And yes, I know immigration is an issue.But At the same time, we have had millions of people come in.We've got to build the infrastructure to meet their needs and we're not doing it.So the whole union corruption issue has so many devastating impacts across the entire economy.

You know, it's coincidentally, I've been interviewing a number of people, including John Wagner, who built a private airport, the biggest in Australia, in Toowoomba in 18 months, right?That we have legendary construction people in this country who get shit built on time, and in budget every single time.But as soon as you go to any kind of federal government or state government build, it's over budget and it's over time.So why don't we start looking inward a little bit in the private sector to the people who can build shit and get it done really, really efficiently.Just before we go, I do want to finish on a much lighter note.note.

I wonder if you guys are available later on this evening.I'm just doing a little fundraiser for the Karl Stefanovic Show podcast at Point Piper.Anyone?Gerard, are you available?

I can be.Why?What have you got planned?

Well, Albo's going to come along with, you know...

I can't resist.End of week, Point Piper, you know.

Oh, with the dinner that he held.

Oh, come on.

Yeah, yeah.Drop the mic.Yeah, yeah, yeah.Sorry, mate.Yeah, I'm with you.

What's going on?

Yeah, yeah.OK.So, yeah, look, yet again, the question here, of course, is donations.But, you know, look, Carl, to be fair, You know, Gina Reinhardt, I mean, you've come out and defended Gina Reinhardt this week, giving money to Pauline and One Nation.

I don't care as long as you're up front with it.

OK, but hang on a minute.So, yeah, up front.And that's what I agreed with you a month ago when I was down there with Sean Bell, right?I said, that's fine if Gina wants to give money.But where I will draw the line, and I'll retract that statement now on the basis that Gina has subsequently come out and said we should give free land and tax breaks to Elon Musk, Israel and Taiwan to get them to develop stuff here.We spend 20 billion a year year on higher education, why can't we develop our own industries here?

Gina's worth $30 billion.Why can't she come in and start building steel plants, right?She's got the kind of coin that she could put money into manufacturing here, right?But we should have an Australian first policy.So I don't think political parties should be taking money from donors that are looking after their own interests.And don't forget that Gina had just put in something like half a billion dollars into SpaceX the week before in that listing and then comes out and says, oh, we should give free land and take breaks to Elon Musk.

Right?So if donors are going to come out and be soin terms of looking after their own interests, I do have a problem with that.And the same for Albanese.I have no idea.I mean, the tax office apparently, and I need to be careful here because it's, you know, they're accusations, but there seems to be an issue as to how the Chinese guy or his father got the money into Australia.

I mean, that issue's been running around for years.I can remember when I lived in Sydney, a Chinese guy bought a house in Hunter Hill, an established house in Hunter's Hill, for something like $10 million.And it was kind of like, well, aren't foreigners only allowed to buy new housing?You know, there is a real issue around foreign investment in this country.And, you know, I'll call it when I see it.I'm not going to go left or right here.

It's got to stop.And we need to actually start putting Australians first.And whether it's the Labor Party, you know, taking donations from shonky Chinese donors or Jenna Reinhart wanting to come out and ask, you know, give tax breaks to foreign countries.No way.I got into politics to stop the freebies being given to foreigners.We need to put people, phrase generation first.

Politicians should be focused on one thing and one thing only, and that's to make sure our younger people are given the same opportunities our forefathers gave to us.

And contrary to what has been written in the press, I have not taken any money or any donations from Gina Rinehart or dodgy Chinese developers.I'm not saying I wouldn't.

And if you did, you would have no recollection of it, because you get a lot of money from a lot of people.

I've had a change in position.I've changed my position.Hey, guys, have a great week.Love your work.Terrific chat.And so many important issues there that I think the country needs to be facing.

We'll keep hammering away.Now, lovely to see you.Have a great weekend.

Yeah, thanks, Carl.Thanks for having us.