Australian news media discussed Brand after the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis , which began on 15 December , due to an episode of '' The Trews '' titled , " Do n't Let Sydney Siege Claim Your Freedom " . Using footage of Australian prime minister Tony Abbott , Brand explained in the 16 December episode : That is the important thing here . Now , at this time , when we 're finding out that the CIA used unconscionable torture methods to get information to go into a war that subsequently proved to be illegal and unfounded , gave the state more power as the result of events that may or may not be intrinsically linked to political objectives seems like a dangerous thing to do ... Terrorism is continually used as a tool to control the domestic population . Yahoo! 7 News website described the 212th episode of '' The Trews '' as a " crazed siege rant " , the online '' Brisbane Times '' newspaper published just over two minutes of the episode , and the Nine News website wrote that Brand has " taken aim " at Abbott and targeted Rupert Murdoch . The video was viewed more than 235,000 times in a two-day period
2014 Sydney hostage crisis
2014 Sydney hostage crisis
The Trews (web series)