As you and I settle down for a Christmas here in Australia - spare a thought for our diggers clearing out the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Taliban are fearless and elusive fighters who are prepared to sacrifice their own lives in suicidal attacks. They're well trained and heavily armed.

900 of our SAS and commandos have fought them. 50 of our men have been wounded and 5 have been killed. One soldier has been shot twice. We have arrested 180 Taliban fighters. Australians have captured 7 Taliban leaders and we've killed 4 of their bosses.

Our Special Operations Task Group regularly operates deep within Taliban safe havens to disrupt Taliban operations. We have completed some magnificent feats of arms - one episode includes infiltrating right into the heart of a deeply fortified area to capture the Taliban leader Ahmad Shah while he was asleep in bed.

The Taliban are expert at using ambushes and improvised explosive devices to kill our men. Every day that passes without injury to our men speaks more than words could about just how professional our troops are.

In September this year the Taliban mounted an ambush which wounded 9 of our soldiers - the highest number of Australian casualties in one operation since Vietnam. That ambush was a Taliban response to a fight the day before in which Australians killed 13 Taliban.

We can't name our troops or give any operational information that could identify ongoing operations. But during the September ambush one of our soldiers was shot in the leg and continued to give medical aid to a comrade. At the same time another Australian hero ran through uncovered ground - being raked by machine gun fire - to rescue a wounded Afghan interpreter.

The head of Special Forces in Afghanistan, Major General Tim McOwan said, "Without prompting and without regard to his own safety the solider ran across about 80 metres of fire-swept and exposed ground, drawing intense and accurate machine-gun fire from entrenched enemy positions. Still under fire, the solider lifted the wounded man onto his shoulders and carried him back to the vehicles before applying first aid and then returning to the firefight. This soldier deliberately exposed himself to enemy fire on several occasions in order to draw fire away from those soliders already wounded in the initial heavy fire."

These men are magnificent. They are destroying terrorist capability. I'm sure I speak for all of you in wishing them a great Christmas, a happy New Year and a safe return home.

To all of you - have a great break and I'll speak with you again on Monday, 12 January 2009.

Police in Mumbai say that 30 recruits were trained in Pakistan for the Mumbai Muslim terrorist attacks. 10 men carried out the attacks. No-one knows where the other 20 are.

Indian police have released the identities and the home addresses in Pakistan of the dead gunmen. Police say they all belonged to the Islamist extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. And 20 remain on the loose. Motivated by hate.

Deven Bharti, Mumbai's deputy police commissioner said "Another 20 were ready to die; this is the very disturbing part of it."

They came to Mumbai by boat. Like the influx of boat-people now hitting our western coast.

Well we have a home-grown hate-merchant who is trying to set up a hate school in Sydney. He was born in Sydney. His name is Sheik Feiz Mohammad. Read article

His Global Islamic Youth Centre is said to have already raised $700,000 towards buying the land. And we know that what happens in Sydney tends to spread here.

Here are a few of his teachings.

"A victim of rape every minute somewhere in the world. Why? No one to blame but herself. She displayed her beauty to the entire world..."

"Strapless, backless, sleeveless, nothing but satanic skirts, slit skirts, translucent blouses, miniskirts, tight jeans: all this to tease man and appeal to his carnal nature."

"Would you put this sheep that you adore in the middle of hungry wolves? No... It would be devoured. It's the same situation here. You're putting this precious girl in front of lustful, satanic eyes of hungry wolves. What is the consequence? Catastrophic devastation, sexual harassment, perversion, promiscuity."

He has produced a series of DVDs in which he rants about the west. Stuff like this on his Wikipedia site:-

"We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam... Teach them this: there is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid. Put in their soft, tender hearts the zeal of jihad and a love of martyrdom."

Elsewhere, he said, "Jews are pigs that will be killed at the end of the world".

This bloke was born in Australia. He is currently thought to be in Lebanon. I hope he stays there.

Channel 7 put together a very important piece a couple of nights ago. It was brilliant television put together by Sally Obermeder. Watch TV segment here

She told the story that we’re at risk of becoming a nation of bludgers.

Hand out, hand out, and hand out.

Pay me for my baby.

Pay me for my first home.

Pay me for my Christmas presents.

Have a think about this. What message is our government sending to our kids?

Jess and Tash had their babies at 16. - Listen to Jess and Tash here

They knew that the $5,000 baby bonus would wing its way into their accounts.

Now they are conditioned to welfare.

To living off your taxes.

That’s how they live their life.

Hand outs from the government - that is from you and me.

They haven’t contributed to the economy and they clearly don’t intend to.

They are bludgers on it.

A large slab of the generation we are breeding feels this way.

We are headed for a big crash in this country. We owe more than we can possibly service.

And nowhere is there a politician, a leader on either side of the two major parties telling us what we need to hear.

That we have to roll our sleeves up and work. Work hard and pay off debt.

We have a hand-out mentality. Government will fix it. - Listen to Jess & Tash explain

That is how we got in this mess – by living beyond our means.

And the sense of entitlement in these young women defies belief. - Listen to a Mum made to work.

16 years of age. $5,000 for the baby. Now $1,000 for Christmas presents for the baby. And an extra $1,400 for mum on the pension. This is incredible money. An extra $2,400 for Christmas presents.

Where the hell does this end up? Who’s going to find the money to pay all this back?

Are we breeding a generation of bludgers? Happy to bludge while some-one else - or the "gument" – pays.

If you work and pay taxes – let me know how you feel about this.

Isn't Phoenix a beautiful young boy? - click for image

I can't begin to imagine the pain our community has put Phoenix and his family through.

For 18 months, Phoenix has struggled with a dislocated hip. In the 18 months leading up to last Thursday, Phoenix's mum and dad - Peta and Adam - have fronted up at the Royal Children’s Hospital 8 times for the operation to have his hip fixed. And 8 times the operation was cancelled. Phoenix will need an intensive care bed after his operation. And our health system has not been able to provide one for him.

Last Wednesday Phoenix's granddad Hagar phoned me on the air and told his story. We sent the audio tape and a note to the Health Minster Stephen Robertson straight away. There must have been a flurry of activity in response to that publicity because by early the next morning an operation had suddenly become available. Peta and Adam got a call at 6.30am telling them to get down to the Royal Children’s Hospital urgently. They live at Nambour, so it's a fair drive.

Peta and Adam got little Phoenix up early. They explained to him that he couldn't have anything to eat. Down they came to Brisbane - only to be told that for the 9th time no ICU bed was available and the operation was cancelled.

Meanwhile we'd been trying to get the Minister Stephen Robertson involved. We sent him all the details and urged him to intervene. He wouldn’t speak on the radio but he forwarded this response to the situation - Download here

Hagar and I speak regularly. The Minister's never tried to contact Hagar or his family. The only response from the Minister has been the statement he sent me.

I think it speaks volumes that the document Stephen Robertson sent is entitled "4bc response.doc". The email was entitled 4BC. That tells me so much about how Stephen Robertson and his staff approach this issue. It's not about a little 3 year old boy and his family. It’s about managing the media coverage. Just like the Risk Matrix I've spoken about that says adverse publicity is worse than loss of life.

4BC listeners aren't like that. They care. We've been overwhelmed with offers of support - one listener who wants to be anonymous has donated a car with 12 months comprehensive insurance to Peta and Adam so they can get Phoenix around safely.

Stephen Robertson could easily pick up the phone and talk to this family. I do that every day. But he just doesn’t care.

Anna Bligh – would you please give us a health minister who cares about people and not PR.

If you’d like to offer this family some support please drop me a note – it’s smithy@4bc.com.au – I’ll be happy to pass on your details to Hagar and his family.

In August this year Kevin Rudd opened the door to people smugglers. He changed the law so that people who arrive in Australia by boat will be treated the same way as people who haven’t jumped the queue.

Under the Howard government’s laws people who arrived by boat without documents were put into detention until their identities were proven, their health was checked and their claims of persecution were tested.

Under Rudd, they will not be held in the same way. Whether they are genuine refugees or not the new laws say they will be released into the community. People who arrive by boat will be given the same treatment as if they had arrived as bona fide refugees with documentation. And the people smugglers are back in business.

People smuggling had dropped off to a trickle between 2002 and 2007.

Since the law changed in August this year 6 boats have arrived in Australia and 15 have been intercepted by Indonesian authorities.

47 suspected asylum-seekers and 3 crew were intercepted off Broome yesterday. In the past 10 days 35 Afghans were stopped at Ashmore Reef, 12 Sri Lankans made it to Shark Bay on the mainland and the 47 Afghanis were yesterday stopped near Broome.

The people-smugglers are back.

People-smugglers are hardened criminals who, like drug smugglers, do not care about the misery they inflict. It was people-smugglers who were responsible for the loss of 350 lives in 2001 when a leaky boat with 350 people on board sank.

For the 10 months prior to August this year not one single boat was detected.

I’ve spoken with a range of people who know these waters and who are well connected with Indonesian authorities. Nigel Scullion is a master mariner who comes from the fishing industry – he’s now a Senator for the Northern Territory. Have a listen to his views from last week - Listen to the interview here

We’ve got to stop kidding ourselves about this. We can’t treat these people with kid gloves. It might play well in the cafes of inner-Sydney but on the west coast of our country hard-men with hard-hearts are crashing our borders with their cargoes of people. We have to harden up.