0/5

Jeff Kennett turns on Sam Armytage: “When did you last employ a person?”

Video: A debate on Qantas got a little out of hand on Sunrise today, with Sam Armytage criticised by Jeff Kennett.

2014-02-28_1442A discussion on the Qantas sackings saw former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett turn on Sunrise co-host Sam Armytage this morning, when he criticised a line of questioning.

“This isn’t a popularity poll. It’s not good enough for two journalists or broadcasters, who I suspect have never employed a person in their life, to actually be sitting there questioning an individual who, in my opinion is dealing …” he said.

“It’s not the questions, it’s the answers,” said Andrew O’Keefe.

But Armytage responded, “It is a private company and it seems that he [Joyce] hasn’t been doing a great job Jeff, because it’s not doing very well.”

“Sam, with due respect. When did you last employ a person? Never.”

“But this is not about me,” she suggested.

“It is about you. When did you last pay payroll tax?” Kennett continued. “This is half the trouble. People making judgments when you’ve never been in a position to employ people.”

21 Responses

  1. It’s not the job of breakfast or news show journalists or hosts to employ people, or to have real world experience with that, but to objectively report the facts and speak to expert commentators in their fields for their views.

  2. Can’t bring myself to watch Sunrise, but just watched this video. Latham just stirring the pot, Kennett coming at things from a business perspective. Both hosts economically illiterate – the female well and truly out of her depth. Good host control of this segment might have produced a discussion that actually achieved something. For Sunrise to pretend to be serious is a mistake – it’s just not their schtick – they should leave the serious stuff to ABC24. or more embarassment will follow for them. Especially without Koch it would seem.

  3. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I thought in an interview, the host asks the questions and the guest answers them. Has this changed, Jeff Kennett? Animal?

  4. @Rutzie and having someone like Kennett as a regular panellist says a lot. Hes there to say things that attract attention. That’s his role.

  5. @Animal – “Journalists love answering the questions, but hate having the questions thrown back at them.”
    Actually, journalists love to ask questions”.
    Like all politicians, when they can’t answer the question they resort to personal attack. The first one to go should be the one who was brought in on the mantra he was spruiking, that he could fix Qantas’ problems. He only made them worse, so….’bye.

  6. The luckiest person to escape this exchange was Mr David Koch, as I would have loved to have seen which way he would have flopped when this blew up, because if he defended Ms Armytage, who by the way does not and never has impressed me what so ever, and I only watch sunrise to keep abreast of Mr David Koch’s decline at sunrise, and if he did not defend her and sided with one of his mates of a similar ilk, the turmoil at QANTAS may have claimed 5001 jobs .

    In regards to exchange between these two so called personalities, neither appeared to have any workers concerns at heart,and just raised different vested self interest out of touch aspects.

    A working class reply to such a slur from Mr Kennett, ‘ No I haven’t’ then asked him, Have you ever flown economy class or strayed far from the glutenous tax payer funded ‘trough’ and NGO public funded expense accounts?

  7. I am no fan of Alan Joyce but who would want his job running a company that has to reduce prices every year but costs like fuel and labour increase every year.

    Jeff Kennet clearly had a bad day. But I will support Jeff as he is a goer. Every other politician from both sides does bugger all. Jeff did things when he was in power and moved Victoria out of the absolute basket case that it was.

  8. Good on you Jeff Kennett, for speaking your mind and asking the truth. It’s typical of the so-called journalists, get backed into a corner, they don’t like it one bit.

    Journalists love answering the questions, but hate having the questions thrown back at them. Can’t handle the Sam get off the bloody TV, and find another job.

    What goes around, comes around.

    Karma people.

  9. Jeff Kennett was his true self this morning, rude, arrogant, and out of touch. He is lauded for his work with Beyond Blue, but let’s remember he is also paid a very generous salary for that work. His homophobic comments in the past render him unsuitable for his role with Beyond Blue.

  10. Jeff Kennett always has stupid opinions!! He once said that Cool Mints recover you when your drunk. He was a horrible premier and has horrible opinions!! I cant stand him. Get rid of him!!!

  11. Jeff Kennett just came across as desperate this morning. He couldn’t frame a decent argument so he resorted to attacking the hosts for no reason.

    Oh well, i’m sure his Charmans Lounge membership is safe.

  12. I loved Sam and Andrew’s comment later on regarding the ridiculous statements by KennettThey said that Kennett made Lathma seem perfectly reasonable .
    Kennett isjust a bully boy throgh and through.Turning on the interviewer when you can’t answer a question is an old technique that proves you don’t have an answer.

Leave a Reply