Labor urged to 'get rid of' Giles or O'Neil when both 'ran for cover' after a press conference

Steady inflation numbers during the week could be pointing to interest rate cuts earlier than we may be expected. Joining me is former Minister in the Howard Government and Bondi partner, Senior Advisor Peter McGoran. We'll talk inflation and interest rates shortly. Welcome. Happy Easter. Thank you, Tim. Same to you. Well, let's start with this migration amendment. Was it risky for the Coalition to not pass the Government's changes yet? No, it was entirely reasonable because the Government brought in their draft legislation on Tuesday morning and expected it to be passed Wednesday afternoon. Tim, it's getting very complicated for people. Very simply, 149 criminal detainees were released into the community. That's still ongoing. Ankle bracelets, supervision orders, curfews, not being adhered to. That's one category. The second category is there's still 150 people in detention who have been refused their applications for political asylum and they're not going home and they refuse to cooperate. They won't take passport photos. They won't meet consul generals from the country of origin. They're refusing to do anything which will allow them to be deported, even though they're not political refugees. Now, there's a test case in the High Court that'll be handed down on an Iranian man on the 17th of April and if the High Court finds that you can't keep him in indefinite detention, even though he's causing it himself, then the 150 are going to be released. So the Government's right to address the issue, but as always, they're very late to the party and they're trying to rush it through. Should the Prime Minister remove the Home Affairs Minister and Immigration Minister in a bid to have some damage controlled again? He's got to remove one of them because why have we got two Immigration Ministers or one under the title of Head of Home Affairs at the one press conference, which only lasted 11 minutes and then they ran for cover with the cameras following them. Look, Andrew Giles is not up to the immigration job. He's a former immigration lawyer, advocate for refugees. He's conflicted, I suspect. Claire O'Neill is the Senior Minister, should be handling it all. Either merge Andrew Giles' role and responsibilities into the bigger department and let her manage and prosecute these issues or get rid of one of them. Now, the Government clearly tried to rush the Immigration Amendment through before Easter. Did it end up backfiring? Completely and utterly. It humiliated the Government because the whole of the Senate, the Greens, the crossbenchers, Jackie Lambie, One Nation and the Opposition rejected their rushed approach, required a Senate inquiry, which we'll report on the 7th of May before the Parliament resumes on the 14th of May. Now, we've got some vision of Alice Springs, of course. It's had its challenges and continues to have challenges with youth crime. They've brought in curfews. Now, should this be introduced in other parts like Townsville and other problem areas? Yeah, there are some towns that are so out of control, such as Townsville, Moree, where there should be a curfew for young people under 18. No question. I think the curfew is the way to approach it. We've got to try and stabilise the law and order issues, the threat to the community. But on the other hand, Tim, locking up in detention, in incarceration, 12, 13, 14 year olds is a very big task. Can you imagine the support services? It's such a hard issue. Such a hard issue. It's going to take a long, long while to address. But let's at least protect the community from their worst excesses and then try and focus in on them. But you can't just put a 13 year old in a jail cell. What about the schooling? What about the mental health? But those kids are often trying to escape terrible, dysfunctional families. It's the cycle, isn't it? It's the cycle. Yeah, now Parliament has now risen and will return to the Budget. All eyes will be on inflation. They were steady numbers this week, pointing for a lot of economists to say that these interest rates will come and drop quicker. There's an expectation, Tim, after an inflation rate of 3.4%, it's a great figure, in the 12 months to February, that an interest rate cut from 4.35% will appear in about September, October. I'm not so certain. There's two speed bumps in the road. The first is wages growth. Now the Government's funding aged care workers, childcare workers, they're supporting an increase to the minimum wage, which is fair enough, to a point. But the economy was almost boosted by Taylor Swift there for a while, wasn't it? It was, because we're going to see, I think we're going to see a drop in spending. True, we are, Tim. We're seeing a drop in spending, except for petrol, electricity and rent, which is beyond people's control. But the other speed bump is going to be the effect of the tax cuts. Now they'll start from the 1st of July and there are some economists who are saying that that represents a reduction equivalent of interest rates. So there's a hope that it will be September, I think it's more likely to be December or early next month. People are hanging out, aren't they? They are. And I can understand why. Peter, good to see you. Thanks, Tim. Happy Easter. Cheers.