27 October 2025
Karl Stefanovic
Welcome back to the show. Well, summit season. Yes, there is a season underway in Malaysia this morning. And what better way to kick things off than a little bit of Rocky.
Karl Stefanovic
I love it. Deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien and chief political correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald Paul Sakkal join us now to discuss that Ted. I mean, Trump he has got it all his gearing up for a big fight with China, as the theme would suggest. Good thing is best pal Albo is there to help along?
Ted O’Brien
Yes. Karl, it’s great. You’ve got the Rocky music. We all love our Rocky music. Interestingly, in most of the Rocky fight scenes at the end, Rocky embraces his opponent. And I think the President is a President of Peace, and he wants to ensure we have an open and secure Indo Pacific, and he is hoping he can deliver in his engagement with President Xi.
Karl Stefanovic
You sound skeptical?
Ted O’Brien
Well, I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to at all. I mean these very serious issues, right? It’s hard to have a serious conversation when you’ve got Rocky music as the the backdrop though-
Karl Stefanovic
What do you mean, geez you’re getting precious, Teddy.
Paul Sakkal
Are you sure Trump’s not more of an Ivan Drago, I will crush you.
Paul Sakkal
Come on. Come on. All right, Paul, it’s the PMs third consecutive week away from home, and he’s copying a bit of heat for that. Do you think that’s fair?
Paul Sakkal
Not really. It’s summit season. Everybody knows that summit season. If he didn’t go to these things, he’d be heavily criticized as well. It’s not ideal that he’s away for a parliamentary sitting week, but every Prime Minister has not missed an ASEAN meeting in Australia. Was crucial in setting it up. This will be much lower stakes affair for him than last week at the Oval Office or the Cabinet Room in the White House. It eventually was, I think most eyeballs will be on the Prime Minister, and if he does have a chance encounter with Trump this time, to see how they shake hands or interact, what do you guys reckon they’ll go with? Like a kind of gangster clap or what do you reckon they’ll roll with?
Karl Stefanovic
I’m going to go to Teddy here, who doesn’t seem to want to answer the very important breakfast TV questions. Teddy.
Ted O’Brien
Look. Hug, high five. The good thing is, it won’t be any of that anymore, given covid is well behind. So that’s good.
Karl Stefanovic
Look it does give you guys at the Coalition some time to sort out your energy policy, policy, the net zero, nuclear aspects of all that. I mean, you should be right in a week to give us a policy, shouldn’t you?
Ted O’Brien
Well, I tell you what, the Albanese government’s had four years. Karl, they can’t work it out yet. And so I find it pretty interesting. Everyone’s very glued into what the Coalition’s view is. I sort of don’t blame people, though, at the end of the day, the energy market’s a complete mess, and that’s a direct consequence of the Albanese government, by the way. I mean, Australians are paying the highest prices in the world. So you can’t blame the everyday Australian, really, just shaking their head saying, what on earth is going on in Canberra. They need to get their act together. And on our part, the Coalition, yeah, of course, we’ll continue debating, as we as we are, about the right path forward. But we’re hearing nothing from the Albanese government, not a thing. And they’re in charge, not a thing. For some reason, they think it’s all going swimmingly well, Karl.
Karl Stefanovic
Well, it seems to be going swimmingly well for them. Paul, it is a bit of a mess for them, isn’t it?
Paul Sakkal
Yeah, the government’s got an energy policy that’s got a lot of holes, and they know that internally, and that’s why they were a bit squeamish about releasing their targets a few weeks ago when Ted was running the show, when his colleague was out of town. They’re not keen to talk about their targets in the same way as the coalition’s not super keen to talk about their own policy, because all the trajectories have difficulties. But Ted, I wonder what your view is on whether you should keep net zero in some way, shape or form. Do you reckon it’s tenable to do so?
Ted O’Brien
Look Paul, thanks for now asking the questions appreciate it.
Karl Stefanovic
I don’t mind when they’re good ones. I mean, it’s Monday morning-
Ted O’Brien
You just go take a kip or something. Would you?
Karl Stefanovic
Okay.
Ted O’Brien
Paul, look, I think we’re going to continue talking about net zero and all those sort of things. But the single most important thing is energy prices. The second most important thing is keeping the grid working reliability. We have serious issues with energy security in this country. These are the things so people can, you know, get fixated on on particular sort of target points. But Australians are living right now in in energy poverty, and it’s only getting worse. That’s the key thing we’re actually talking about in Coalition.
Ted O’Brien
Look, Karl, I can’t unfortunately, because it’s not like we’re working towards a particular deadline. We’re working towards getting policy right.
Karl Stefanovic
Give us a time frame, at least on just the decision on net zero.
Karl Stefanovic
All right, moving along. Ted, the Palestinian Authority wants Aussie troops in Gaza. Do you support that?
Ted O’Brien
No, I’d be very cautious about this. We have Hamas still on the ground in Gaza. And we’re talking about public executions. And so if the Australian Government wants to put our own troops on the ground in Gaza, they better come forward with a very compelling reason to the Australian people why that’s in our national interest.
Karl Stefanovic
Yeah, Paul, it’s tricky.
Paul Sakkal
Super tricky, littered with risk. Unclear what that stabilization force would even look like, unclear if the US wants to be Sinvolved in what way, shape or form, and unclear if Arab states want to be involved. So I suspect that’s a long way off, if ever.
Karl Stefanovic
Agree. Okay, Eddie Maguire is calling for an LA style crime crackdown in Melbourne. Ted, the last thing Melbourne needs this week around the spring carnival, is more crime and more attention on it. Is Eddie right?
Ted O’Brien
Yeah, look, I think he is. And when you have somebody like that calling it out, it’s only getting worse. It is a problem right across the country, Law and Order, community safety. I was in Melbourne myself only a few weeks ago, and I think it was on a Saturday morning. The place I was staying said, you need to get out by 830 or you’re staying here until the afternoon, because we’re locking the doors, because the protests and it happens every weekend, so it’s a bad message for visitors to the state too, all right.
Paul Sakkal
And Paul, I mean, a mixed bag of responses from people who live down there, depending on where you live, the severity of it, but there is definitely a feeling there that crime is out of control and something needs to be done. It’s certainly not are you going to wear your flak jacket to Derby Day?
Paul Sakkal
Is Derby Day the Black and White Day?
Karl Stefanovic
Yes.
Paul Sakkal
I was in Melbourne on the weekend. I spoke to some friends who live in the kind of gentrified in the suburbs. They say they don’t feel the issue. I talk to family members and cousins who are business owners, and they say they want to move to Sydney.
Karl Stefanovic
Yeah.
Paul Sakkal
It’s mixed across the community. I looked at an article yesterday which showed that on average, per capita crime is about the same as 2017 but certain indicators like car robberies and house invasions are way up. Homicides are actually doing really well, and drug offenses are doing really well. But when Eddie McGuire and others in the state are speaking the way they are, perceptions are up. It’s a political problem, and the Liberal Party is always looking for a savior in Victoria. I wonder if Eddie Maguire there man.
Karl Stefanovic
Yeah, I’m not sure Eddie be interested in in that particular brand of politics-
Paul Sakkal
Yeah, he could be on the Labor side. His brother was a Labor MP.
Karl Stefanovic
You’d never know with Eddie. He’s straight down the middle. Good on you guys. Thank you so much.
ENDS