Topics: Labor-Greens dirty deal, Coalition’s plan to axe Labor’s taxes, AI and intellectual property
Chris Kenny: Thanks for joining us, Sarah. I want to get your views on the latest developments on the Budget and this deal that Labor and Anthony Albanese have done with the Greens. It’s pretty much what you would have expected, isn’t it? To get it through the Senate, they were going to have to do a deal with the Greens?
Senator Henderson: Chris, good afternoon. This is a dirty, rotten deal between the Labor-Greens government, which betrays Australians, which imposes higher taxes on housing, on small businesses, on investment, and on self-managed super. This is a disgrace. This Prime Minister lies through his back teeth every single day. Australians cannot trust him. That’s why they are so angry. That’s why we are so angry and that’s why we are fighting this every step of the way, Chris. We’ve made it very clear our plan is to repeal these toxic taxes. That’s why we are working day and night to get ourselves elected to give Australians a fair go, so they can invest in their future, in their families, in their small businesses, and let’s not forget, Chris, this is a shocking attack on younger Australians. Those Australians saving for their future, it hits them harder than anyone else. So shame on Anthony Albanese, a shocking Prime Minister, the worst in living memory, the biggest liar we’ve ever seen. Boy, oh boy, Chris, we are angry and we are going to fight this like no tomorrow.
Chris Kenny: I can see that and it is shocking, of course. It’s broken promises and of course, additional taxes are only going to hurt the economy and young people rather than help them. But, of course, the Greens are even further to the left than Labor, so you can kind of expect their deals around the taxation arrangements, the changes they bargained over with Labor to change some of the Superfund changes and create even more taxes on housing. But what astounds me is the completely unrelated matter of the NDIS, the runaway scheme that Labor has to try and get under control. How could Labor possibly rollover and delay those changes just to appease the Greens and get their Budget bills through?
Senator Henderson: Well, Chris, this government will do anything to cement its lies and broken promises, it will do any deal. We have seen lie after lie. This Prime Minister cannot be trusted. Every time he opens his mouth Australians need to say, mate, we do not trust you. We no longer want you as our Prime Minister. You are not fit to lead our country. I have to say, of all the time that I’ve been in parliament, Chris, I am perhaps more angry today than almost any other day because this is a an egregious breach of trust and this hurts so many Australians, Australians who banked on laws knowing there would be no changes to capital gains tax or negative gearing or self-managed super, so that they could plan for their future. We now see the housing market, in many respects, is starting to crash. Auction sales are going through the floor. The economy is in tatters. So we are determined to get the economy back on track with, of course, our Tax Back Guarantee, up to $1,000 back for every Australian over four years, automatically back in people’s pockets, we are determined to stop mass migration, and we are determined to drive common sense Australian values back to our nation. Because I tell you, this nation is going off the cliff under this government.
Chris Kenny: Now, Anthony Albanese’s great Labor mate, Keir Starmer, has resigned the prime ministership in London. We’ll be crossing to London later but some, including Pauline Hanson, are suggesting that Anthony Albanese should follow him. Have a look.
Excerpt:
Pauline Hanson: I’d love it and so would the Australian people. As it’s proven, I started up Fire the Liar with $4.8 million in funding from the Australian people. It’s clear that the people don’t want Anthony Albanese as the Prime Minister of this country any longer. Big issue in Britain that I can see is about the mass migration, people coming into the country, people just don’t feel they’re British anymore, they can’t fly the flag, and I see the same thing happening here in Australia. So he wants to take a few lessons from that. Our economy is in the toilet, actually.
Chris Kenny: Sarah Henderson, is Pauline Hanson right?
Senator Henderson: Well, I think all Australians are saying – why is this Prime Minister continuing to lead our country? How can we trust him? And like Keir Starmer, I think he is going in the same direction and he needs to go in the same direction. He has fundamentally broken trust and particularly when it comes to energy, the mismanagement of our energy system, this mismanagement of migration, and that’s having enormous impacts. Australians are looking to the UK and seeing what an absolute mess the UK is, particularly with migration, and let me tell you, Anthony Albanese is going in the same direction. He is destroying our country, Chris. He is literally destroying our country. We need to get our country back on track and under Angus Taylor and the Coalition, we have the credible plan, we have the ambition, we have the conviction, and we have the fight in us every single day.
Chris Kenny: Just one other issue that keeps coming up in parliament, in your portfolio area, Sarah Henderson, in communications is artificial intelligence, the AI revolution that’s changing everything. The government is assuring people that it’s going to look after their intellectual property, look after copyright interests of everyone. Do you have any concerns in that area?
Senator Henderson: Chris, I do have concerns. We put the government under a lot of pressure through a Senate inquiry last year when they were trying to do a very sneaky deal to sell off the intellectual property rights of creators. And when we talk about creators, we’re talking about everyone from publishers to writers to artists to musicians, and we held the government to account, they crawled back from that position. They’re now saying they’re doing nothing but I just simply don’t believe them because we’ve got the big AI platforms, the foreign AI platforms running around trying to do deals and do everything to sell off the intellectual property rights of Australian creatives. We will not tolerate it under any circumstances and as I say, we will fight this every step of the way.
Chris Kenny: Is the technology moving faster than the legislators can keep up?
Senator Henderson: Well, Chris, I have a very strong view that we have a very significant copyright protection system in this country, and for any creator who does create their own intellectual property works, that can and must be protected under Australian law. The only way that cannot be protected is if the government decides to amend the Copyright Act in some sleazy way and do some sleazy deal with the likes of some of these AI platforms that have been stalking the corridors here in Parliament House and in other parts of the world. So I can tell you, if that’s the way they are thinking, they’re trying to do some sleazy deal, and there is some suggestion that that might be happening. Boy, oh boy, have they got a fight coming because we will not stand for it. We are here to protect the rights of Australians, and that includes the rights of musicians and artists and writers and journalists, protection of their own intellectual property work. I’m a former IP lawyer, I know this area very well and I can tell you we are up for the fight.
Chris Kenny: Good stuff, Sarah. I didn’t know that about you. I knew you were a former journalist but intellectual property lawyer? Another string to the bow. Thanks for joining us, Sarah Henderson.