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Episode 406 - Separating Cultural Groups and State
31st October 2023 • The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove • The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove
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In this episode we look at objections to religious privilege and how that compares to other cultural groups and whether ancestral rights are a valid distinction. Plus other bits and pieces.

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Transcripts

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Suburban Eastern Australia, an environment that has, over time,

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evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homo sapiens.

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But today, we observe a small tribe akin to a group of meerkats that

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gather together atop a small mound to watch, question, and discuss the

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current events of their city, their country, and their world at large.

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Let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known as the

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Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.

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Hello and welcome back dear listener, yes, episode 406 of the Iron Fist

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and the Velvet Glove podcast, I'm Trevor, with me as always, Scott

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the Velvet Glove, how are you Scott?

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Good thanks Trevor, g'day Trevor, g'day Joe, g'day listeners,

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I hope everyone's doing well.

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Hopefully they are.

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And Joe, it's...

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Morning time for you, and we've brought it forward an hour so you can

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run some errands later this morning.

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Welcome aboard again, Joe.

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Morning, all.

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Enjoying your travels over there, Joe?

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It's all good fun?

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I've been looking after Mum, so it's been hard work, but it's nice

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to see her after five years, and a glorious sunshine day after the

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miserable few days we've been having.

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There you go.

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Ah, just go for a walk in the English countryside, is that what you do?

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Yeah.

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Not really, she's got Parkinson's, so walking's quite difficult for her.

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Ah, okay.

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Alright, well, what are we going to talk about?

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Got a few religious issues have cropped up, so we'll talk about those.

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And a new speaker in the Congress in the US, and an essential report just

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came out looking at people's attitudes to renewable energy and climate change.

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Maybe a brief word on Gaza.

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So yeah, I haven't done as much preparation as I normally do.

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So this one's going to be a little bit scatty, I think.

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A little bit more free flowing.

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We'll see where we end up on this.

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So yeah, all over the shop, probably.

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Guys, I didn't give you this one because it just came in late, but, got

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this email which was, The Australian Financial Review has an article

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suggesting retirees should be allowed to exempt any proceeds from downsizing

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from the age pension means test.

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People don't want to downsize if they get their pension reduced.

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And the writer of this email says, All I see is baby boomer homeowners who

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want to have their cake and eat it too.

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Why not include home value in the means test?

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All these exemptions warp the system into inflating asset prices.

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Makes me mad!

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Exclamation mark.

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I agree wholeheartedly with him.

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I think to myself that they should never have exempted the

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private home from the assets test.

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It's got to be in there because, you know, you're going to find a,

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you know, I can just see it now.

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You've got this position, you know, you've probably got this woman that Bought the

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house in the 30s in Vaucluse and now it's worth over two or three million bucks.

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In Vaucluse, try five, six, ten.

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Okay, fair enough.

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Rightio.

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I don't know, but anyway, it's a hell of a lot more and she's going to be sitting

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on an aged pension when she's sitting on a, when she's sitting on a property

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that's worth five or six million dollars.

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So I don't have any complaint with that at all.

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I agree wholeheartedly with that bloke.

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Right.

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Joe, you've got a message inter, oh, it's your internet that appears flaky.

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The rest of us seem okay.

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Hopefully, yes.

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Okay.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, there already is an exemption where if you sell your home and downsize, you

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can already roll some of that into super.

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I'm not exactly sure of the amount, but I know it's a few hundred

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thousand dollars worth for each.

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Husband and wife.

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So, and then once it's in super, that of course is exempt from a means test.

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And it's exempt from income tax and all that sort of stuff.

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I'm not sure if it's exempt from the means test.

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I would have thought that was just an asset in the means test.

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I couldn't tell you.

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Maybe if it's, if you've converted it into a income stream, it will be.

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It would be exempt from the assets.

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Yeah, that would, yeah, because that, that then the income stream forms part

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of the income test for the asset and a lot of superannuation income stream is

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exempt from the income test as well.

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Mm-Hmm.

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Yeah.

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The short answer is as a boomer, you can pour a lot of money into

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super and still get Absolutely.

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We have a substantial amount of attention.

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I'm the first to admit that I am taking advantage of the

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income tax laws right now.

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You know, I am, I am minimizing my income tax.

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I have bought a rental property and I have also.

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Put in, uh, what is it, 250 bucks a week this year into superannuation,

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you know, it's If the income tax laws are going to be structured this

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way, I will take advantage of them.

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Thank you Kerry Packer.

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Yes Yeah, exactly, you know, yeah, it's fair enough to like no criticism at all.

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That's the law that applies.

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You're entitled.

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Exactly I was I was playing by the rules, you know, and

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do I think it's morally right?

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No, I don't.

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I don't think it's morally right But, these are the rules that the government

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has given us to play by, so we've just got to play by the rules, and if you play by

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the rules, and if you can make the rules work for you, you just, good luck to you.

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What will actually really piss me off is if we go and...

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If they change it down the track and they turn around and say, oh yeah, we'll, you

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know, we can only have it, you can only have it, you can only have the income

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from superannuation tax free for those people that are already 70 years and

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older and everyone else that's getting into that stage, you're going to have to

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start paying a little bit of income tax.

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Yeah.

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There's, there's all these no government's prepared to do anything

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without grandfathering existing provisions a lot of the time.

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Mm-Hmm.

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So, which is what it's set up for the boomers.

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The boomers are okay.

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'cause they're gonna be grandfathered.

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Yes.

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The rest of us aren't, well, hopefully we are getting old enough,

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but with every year that passes, we

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Yeah.

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But if you're young, no.

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What are they, what do they call?

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You know, I have said before to the younger people, I have apologised

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to them, I've apologised to members of my family, you know, it's,

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I was born at the right time.

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Yet another reason to vote Green, Scott, because they seem to be the party that's

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going to tackle these sorts of things.

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Yeah, I suppose.

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Hmm, yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah, okay, I got some, I got some things came along.

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There was an article about Jehovah's Witness family and being forced.

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To allow blood transfusions for their child in an operation.

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And also saw an article about a Catholic hospital that wouldn't allow voluntary

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assisted dying, which surprised somebody who wanted to access it.

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And also an article about Christian prayers.

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So, this is a Melbourne council has ditched Christian prayer.

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Let's start with that one.

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Baroondara.

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They stopped using prayer at meetings.

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They've dumped the traditional Christian prayer after lawyers complained it

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was a breach of human rights law.

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And the city voted on it and motion passed 9 votes to 1 to remove the prayer.

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And in case you were wondering what the prayer was, here is the wording.

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Ahem.

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Almighty God, we humbly seek your blessings upon this council.

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Direct and prosper its deliberations to the advancement of your glory

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and the true welfare of the people of the city of Borroondara.

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Amen.

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So Scott, is that a good thing?

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Get rid of the Christian prayer?

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Yeah, it is.

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Yeah.

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Why should we get rid of the Christian prayer?

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Just, what's the basic reason there?

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Okay, because you, okay, it's a Why are we against that?

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Well I know why I'm against it.

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I'm against it because it's non inclusive.

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You know, it, it restricts the, it restricts the rights and

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all that sort of stuff to one particular subset of the community.

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So you've got this thing that is saying that, you know, well, the Christians are

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the majority over here, so we've just got to say a prayer for them every time.

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Mm hmm.

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Yeah.

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I've got absolutely no problems with secular invocations and that type of

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thing that are completely non religious.

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That, that's the way we should go, you know, because there was that council

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where that nutter and everything was in Melbourne, or no, Adelaide, wasn't it?

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There was that nutter that was saying that the Prius lately.

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Yeah, I know.

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Anyway, there was a nutter that was, I think it was in Adelaide Council, that Was

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screaming at the Christian prayer and that sort of thing, and they just said, no,

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you can't do that, you've just got to...

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And what they were going to replace that with was a moment of silence.

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I think it was a minute's silence, something like that, the beginning of

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the whole thing, where the councillors were encouraged to think about the work

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they were doing and that type of thing.

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Which I've got absolutely no problem with.

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Yeah, it wasn't a minute of quiet contemplation.

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Yeah.

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Which allowed the religious to pray to their gods and the non religious

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to think about what they were doing.

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Exactly, yeah.

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Let me play devil's advocate.

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I know what you're going to say.

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That's because you've read my notes.

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Yeah, I know.

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You know, I wasn't sure if you wanted me to jump in or not.

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Yeah, so the basic initial reason is it's not inclusive.

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Mm hmm.

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Is that, is that what we're at?

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Yeah, it is.

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Not inclusive of...

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But, you know, arguably it was a sharing of culture.

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It was a generous invitation to share their culture.

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Wasn't hurting anybody.

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And, you know, what's the harm in that?

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I think you're going with his smoking cigarette.

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And as I had 50 years of the culture shared with me at school.

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And they're just sharing their culture and it doesn't hurt us.

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And after all, religious leaders know what's good for their

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flock and their flock wants it.

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So if Yeah.

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That's their flock.

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Yeah.

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If their, if, if Christians want this and if their leaders know what they

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want and it doesn't harm us, then it's.

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That should be good enough that we just do it, if it's no skin off our nose.

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But I think that I think that the percentage of that sort

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of thing the believers in the community are shrinking, isn't it?

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Well, you know, 30...

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Doesn't matter whether it is or isn't.

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Just a substantial number.

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It might be a substantial number, but it's now in the minority.

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So I think they're just going to have to accept their, their new position and

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that type of thing, otherwise you'll end up with the Republic of Gilead.

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Yes, as is happening in America.

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Yeah, I know.

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As we head down the track.

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So, I don't know, I just, you know, during the voice debate, and

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people say, ah, you're going to be banging on about that all the time.

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I keep getting emails from people.

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So it's hard not to, when you keep getting emails from people.

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Saying you've said things that you haven't even said, and other stuff, and

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so you just sort of feel a knee jerk reaction to respond, but, you know,

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some of the key arguments given were that Indigenous people want this, it

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doesn't hurt us, and their leaders know what they want, and you know, it's a

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generous offering of sharing of culture.

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Literally, that's the type of emails I'm getting.

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And you could say exactly all that about the Christian prayer.

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No, I suppose you can say that.

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And we're saying no to them.

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No, we don't want your culture shared with us at this point.

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Thank you very much.

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I do think that a smoking ceremony and that type of thing is basically a...

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It's an outward showing and that sort of stuff.

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I don't think you actually have to take it seriously.

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It's just that they just...

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Blow smoke over people and that type of thing and they let you go in.

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Is anybody out there who voted yes, who is against smoking ceremonies?

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I guess that's what I'd like to know.

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Is it possible?

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Are you in favour of smoking ceremonies?

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No, not really.

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Not really.

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Or even welcome to country.

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Let's just keep it easy with smoking ceremonies.

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It's got that sort not really.

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I don't really like them and that type of thing.

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If they're going to do them, they might as well do it.

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But I don't, I don't really like them.

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Because it's, it's, it's...

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You mean it's like a prayer?

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It seems to me very similar to a prayer.

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Yeah, I know that.

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I know that.

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It is very similar to a prayer, but it's just, is what it is,

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you know, there were the...

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Is it the, because it's a, cultural groups wanting to, uh, have their

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cultural, um, well, what it?

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Stamp of approval?

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No, no, no, practice, um, displayed and observed by everybody.

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And...

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So the question is, I just find it difficult, um, for people who would

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be against a Christian prayer, but not against a smoking ceremony.

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I'd like to know the logic of that.

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Okay, well the only logic I can come up with, the only difference

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I can come up with there is they were the, you know, they were the

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original, original inhabitants of the continent that we now inhabit.

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I think you're right.

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I think that's, they're both cultural groups.

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They're both

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trying to promote...

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So it's they're both cultural groups.

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They're both looking to, um, sort of display a cultural tradition.

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In both cases, the smoking ceremony and the Christian prayer have

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this, you know, woo factor to them.

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Yep.

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And...

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The difference, the only difference I can see is this sense that Indigenous

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people have an inherited ancestral land right or right to country

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that makes them different to...

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Connection.

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That makes them different to Christians.

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That's the only difference I can see.

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And so then I'd say, okay.

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You must then be respecting ancestral rites and their

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passing down through generations.

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Yes, but now you're Republic.

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Correct.

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So then I would ask, is it possible to be against the Christian prayer,

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and in favour of a smoking ceremony, but also in favour of a Republic?

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Because...

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Prince, you know, King Charles would say, I have an ancestral right.

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Yeah, I know he would and that type of thing, but we, we,

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we are moving beyond that.

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And that type of thing, we're saying that, you know, you might

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have that right in Britain.

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You don't have that right here in Australia.

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Well, even in Britain, do you think that the royal family should

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continue with the ancestral right as kings and queens in Britain?

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No, not really.

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Do you think it'd be okay for the British people to say, let's have

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a referendum and just get rid of...

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The ancestral power that's handed down in this family.

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I agree.

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I, I think that with, I think that would be something that if I was in Britain,

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that's something I'd be arguing for.

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Right, because you would say that that ancestral power is

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was wrong, is not necessarily a good thing to be handed down.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Yeah.

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It gets tricky.

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It's in convoluted things you have to go through.

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I can just say, yeah, we're all here on the same boat.

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We all should be treated equally and.

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No special favours for any cultural groups, it's, it's really simple.

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I do tend to agree with you, but it's just,

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my argument for voting yes was it was the, it was the first time I could ever

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remember them getting together as a group and asking for something from us.

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So we can all say, sorry, sorry, I didn't want to interrupt, sorry, sorry.

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The other thing too was that it was the first time that I've ever

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actually asked anything of us.

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And the other thing was, I just thought to myself I was trying

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to protect it from the Tories.

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Because, you know, the Tories did tear apart ATSIC when all they

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needed to do was reform it, you know?

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What about the whole Native Title Act and all that?

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Did the Tories ever try and reduce that?

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HOward had a go at it.

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He he had that ten point plan that was around the WIC decision, didn't he?

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Can't remember.

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Just, yeah, just can't remember.

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He had a go at it and that sort of stuff, which the Labor Party did

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go into conniptions about, but they never actually repealed any of it.

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What about the Javers Witness one, where the,

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Whether family didn't want their kid to have, say, a blood

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transfusion often happens.

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I think a child is something you've got to actually take out, because a child

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is not of 18, is not 18 years of age, so he or she cannot make their own mind

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up to have, to actually go in and not have potentially life saving treatments.

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A lot of Indigenous communities are asking, in the Uluru

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Statement, for self determination.

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For example, that's a big thing, and I mean, that's self determination

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for all Indigenous people.

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Adults, children, it's, it's talking about the ability for Indigenous people

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to self determine their group is one of the things that's, you know, on

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the agenda over the next few years.

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Well, I don't think it's going to get up.

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Yeah.

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I just, it just can't.

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Hmm.

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Because, you know, you can't, you can't have, you can't have the country divided

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into little groups and that sort of stuff, saying, well, you can govern

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yourselves, you can govern yourselves.

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You'd end up, you'd end up with, you know, they wouldn't actually

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be paying tax to the whole thing.

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It would just, the whole thing would fall over.

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So you'll be against that one?

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Yeah, absolutely I would be.

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Right.

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Because it's just impractical.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Right.

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If you read One Law for All, Mariam Namazi talks about the Muslim commercial law

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that's being allowed effectively in the UK and saying that for things like divorce,

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um, it's being forced through a religious court and the UK government is signing off

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on it and that leads to unequal outcomes.

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Effectively, the women are held to ransom by the religious court.

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Yeah, I know that.

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That is ridiculous.

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And that's a risk where you have separate groups having their own laws.

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Mm hmm.

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For sure.

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It's like, you know, the there was that case years and years ago, I don't

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even know if it's true, but I always remember it was reported on that they,

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a guy had been accused of raping a young girl and that type of thing,

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so the elders said, no, we're just going to throw a spear through you.

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So they put a spear through his leg and that type of thing, and

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they said, well, it's all quits.

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And that bloke, if that was true, he should have faced the full, he should have

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been, he should have been facing the DPP, the DPP should have brought charges, they

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should have tried him in a court of law.

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And then after that, he should have gone into a custodial sentence.

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Mm.

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In the chat room, Tom the Warehouse Guy says, If you're covering religion

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tonight, I would definitely raise Spain's report on the Catholic Church sex abuse.

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Anyone familiar with that one?

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No.

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Sorry, Tom, I'd raise it, but I'm not familiar with it.

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We'll put that on the homework sheet.

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I'm the Royal Commission report.

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It's one of those things that, you know, it seems every other day there's some

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sort of report over the excesses of the Catholic Church that's coming out.

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You've just got to think to yourself, well, you know, part of

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the background noise now, isn't it?

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In Canada, there was a folk singer and social justice advocate, Buffy St.

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Marie.

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Who has denied allegations she misled the public about her

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Indigenous ancestry, after a Canadian documentary questioned the shifting

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narrative surrounding her Cree roots.

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So, quite a famous Indigenous social activist person, whose

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indigeneity has come into question by the equivalent of what's our ABC.

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Yes, the CBC, the Canadian Royal Catholic Commission.

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And, loCal tribe has come to her defense, and that's just an ugly

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conversation that we could do without.

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It's a kind of like the who's the guy who wrote Dark Emu What was his name?

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Oh yeah.

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Anyway.

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Pasco.

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Pasco.

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Where there were arguments over.

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Whether he was actually Indigenous or not and well with the failure of the

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voice vote that's one argument we've skipped by for the moment which was

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bound to happen would have been members of that group having their indigeneity

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questioned at some point so if you're looking for a silver lining on a

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dark cloud maybe that's one of them.

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And finally, still on this issue before we move on to others you

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guys heard of the Horizontal Falls?

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No, I only read it when I read it when you emailed this.

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Yes, in the Kimberley region.

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So they have up there large tidal shifts, so as the waters move from

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open water to inland water through narrow gorges, you get what they

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call like a horizontal waterfall as the water's rushing through a gorge.

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dIfferent tourism operators have spent a lot of money setting up tourism stuff

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to take people on boats through that sort of gap and enjoy the rapids at the

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correct tide time and local Indigenous group are saying it's a bit disrespectful

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and wanting to shut that down.

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Any thoughts on that one, Scott?

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Yeah, that is a little bit ridiculous that you got something like that

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because it's a piece of land.

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Which has got a unique water running through it.

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So It's nothing special or anything like that.

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It's just it is unique.

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It does not mean it's sacred It does not mean it's got religious.

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It doesn't mean it's got religious or spiritual significance It's just a unique

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waterway that I believe should be open to every Australian or international visitor.

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Okay Be consistent on that one What else have I got here?

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So let's move on from that.

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I just wanted to explore some of those topics and get you thinking,

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dear listener, about some of those.

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But you know what?

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I'm done with the voice for the moment.

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I really want to get away from it, so...

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I think so.

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Now what have we got here is, you've been keeping tabs of the new

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Speaker in the US Congress, Scott?

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He's a Christian right wing nutter.

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And election denier.

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Yeah, exactly, you know, it's one of those things like the Republicans

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really were backed into a corner over this because it had been going

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on for three weeks, they couldn't even sort it out amongst themselves.

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So they had to nominate someone, and they nominated this guy.

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What was really concerning was there was a guy from, well, one of the states, I can't

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remember which one it was this morning, was on a podcast I was listening to.

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They said that they asked him why wouldn't he vote for Mike Johnson

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when they f when they, when he first came up, and he said, because he's

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elect, he's an election denier, so I'm not gonna vote for an election.

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Deni.

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He's turned around and voted for an election denier right now because

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there was literally no one else.

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You know, it's one of those things, it's it was on

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lost it now, can't think what it's called.

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Anyways, listened to it this morning and he reckons that you could be seeing

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the disintegration of the GOP, the Grand Old Party, into two factions.

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And those factions will probably be the MAGA, right wing occultists,

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and then you got the sort of Reagan style Republicans that are left over.

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So that's what they reckon is going to happen is it will splinter and you're

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gonna have the MAGA Republicans They'll be trying to steal votes off the normal

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sane Republicans And the normal sane Republicans are gonna be trying to do

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battle against the MAGA Republicans.

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Neither side's going to win So they're gonna have to divide the country up and

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say well you guys run down here We'll run up here and then we'll come together

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and we'll put together some coalition to take government in the future but what

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they're actually saying was that leaves it open for the Democrats to Be in a strong

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position for the next 10 or 15 years.

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But I wouldn't be so sanguine about that because Trump's ahead on the polls.

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Yeah, no, and Joe Biden is looking terribly old.

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He's looking terribly old.

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You know, he's already 81 or something like that.

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You know, he's just far too old.

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You know, the voting public in America still hates Democrats.

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still willing to vote for him.

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Like, they're in a, you know, they're on a steady diet of Fox News

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over there and other crazy stuff.

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And yeah, as much as we might think it's impossible that they would do it

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again, it seems the most likely scenario at this stage, particularly if...

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It does, it is very frightening.

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Mm, so...

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And again, it doesn't need to be a majority of voters.

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It just needs to be enough states that the electoral colleges swing.

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Yep.

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Ooh!

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And you just need some player like RFK Jr.

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to come in and maybe split the Democrat vote or...

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Who's that other professor type guy who might split the vote and you're in

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all sorts of trouble for the Democrats.

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They reckon that RFK will probably end up splitting the Trump vote

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because he's a vaccine hater.

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So, you know, they reckon that he's got that in common with Donald Trump, and

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that type of thing, which I gather he is running, then he could end

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up splitting the, he could end up splitting the Republican vote.

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From an Australian point of view, would it be such a bad

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thing if Trump was re elected?

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Well, I mean, you think, okay, well, you know, it depends on your position

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on AUKUS which I imagine that you would actually be quite happy with that if

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they did actually walk away from it.

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Because he'd be quite likely to say, there's no way I'm giving

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these Australians submarines.

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We haven't got enough for ourselves.

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Get stuffed.

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America first.

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Australia last and...

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Exactly.

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And he would actually, you know, he'd actually say to Vladimir Putin

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and that sort of stuff, Yeah, it's alright, you can have Ukraine, I'm

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not going to send him any more arms.

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And Ukraine will be rolled over in a couple of weeks.

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And, um, NATO.

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He will walk away from that too, because the guys are...

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Might walk away from Israel as well.

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Like he's got no loyalty to anything.

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I don't think he, he stick with Israel.

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Israel, is he?

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Yeah.

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Because the Trump base is very much those Right-wing Christian nutters.

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Ah, yes.

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And the Christian nutters rely on the whole, um, religious connotations

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of the, of the re the rise of Jews in Jerusalem type thing.

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Mm-Hmm.

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exactly.

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In order to sre up once Jews.

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Yeah.

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In order to shore up that Christian base, he will need to maintain his pro.

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Israel.

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Israel.

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So I don't think that Israel is going to be walked away from.

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I was going to say also, the Israelis are a very, very, sorry, the Jews in

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America are a very powerful lobby faction.

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sO, so there's a lot of Aid that goes to Israel just because of the diaspora,

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the number of Jews who fled war torn Europe and are now in powerful positions,

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and that's not a Jewish conspiracy, that's just saying that there's a lot

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of loyalty in Congress towards Israel.

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I think it would be very hard for Trump to walk away from that.

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And that's not necessarily a right wingers, that's across the board.

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Yeah, I mean, I don't know, on the whole it could be positive for the rest of

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the world because let's face it, one of the big problems in the world is, you

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know, American foreign policy, aggressive foreign policy, and Trump is one of

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the ones who's not interested in it.

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I know he's not interested.

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He's not interested in it, which he'd be, you know, he'd be leaving

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the Philippines out on their own.

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Yep.

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So the Philippines are the only ones that have actually taken to China to

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task over the South, south China Sea.

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Mm-Hmm.

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. And they had that win in the maritime courts and that sort of thing, and

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China has ignored that, but the year they've still got that there and

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they do actually wave it in front of China and that type of thing.

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Mm-Hmm.

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and the Philippines are actually able to back that up because they, you

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know, it's gotta point to the American bases that are on their, on their soil.

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If Trump was to pull out of the Philippines, then the Philippines would

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actually have to rely on their own and they'd be collapsing down in their

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seat and they'd be saying to China, yeah, you can do whatever you want.

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Hang on a second.

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Which means that, yeah.

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But Trump knows a lot about China.

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Can I give you an example?

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Yeah.

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Let's see China.

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You take China.

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China.

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China.

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I love them.

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China.

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China.

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I have to have my China.

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China.

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China because China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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I know China very well.

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China.

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Northwest Wisconsin where I'm from.

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It's China to me.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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You wanna buy from China?

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That's great.

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Buy from China.

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Buy toys from China.

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China in particular.

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China.

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China.

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I have people that I know in China.

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China.

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China.

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China.

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China?

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China!

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Let me ask you about China.

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China.

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I go to China.

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So don't tell me about China.

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I know China.

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He knows China.

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You can sort it all out.

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Yeah, okay.

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He knows, he knows China and that sort of thing, but he, you know, it's, it's one

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of those things, like at least Biden is saying all the right things over Taiwan,

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whereas Trump being America first and that sort of thing, I think he would

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actually take that very seriously and he'd say to Taiwan, well, you're on your own.

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Yes, he would.

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I think.

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Which is not necessarily a good thing, you know, and now I know you and I

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differ on that, but the Republic of China is now an independent country

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and should be treated as such.

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Well, I think AUKUS is the biggest blunder that Australia's Labour

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Party has ever done in living memory.

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I agree wholeheartedly with you.

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If Trump causes that to fall over, that's a good thing for us.

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It would be.

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If the world can survive for then the following four years, that would be great.

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So Yeah, see how it's one of those things I think I think if we did have to walk

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away from Orcus and that type of thing We had if we had to buy our own submarines

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Then I think the Japanese would be in a very powerful position where they'd say

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to Australia Well, we've still got these submarines over here if you're interested.

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Mm hmm.

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So then we ended up buying them from Japan now I think they'd They planned

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on manufacturing the first two in Japan and the rest of them were going to be

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manufacturing in Adelaide, wouldn't they?

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Ah, look, it's just so fanciful that any of it's going to be

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constructed in Australia that I couldn't pay attention to it.

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Oh, that's in Aucas.

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That's in Aucas.

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I agree wholeheartedly with you there.

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That's they will, you know, there's no way in hell they'll end up manufacturing

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any of them here in Australia.

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Yep.

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But, I think Japan said that they were going to manufacture the first two

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over there in Japan, and they were going to move the manufacturing here

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to, here to Adelaide, weren't they?

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I don't, I can't remember the detail.

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I did see an article that talked about how many bombs you can put on a submarine.

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Hmm.

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It wasn't many.

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So the cost per bomb that you get to launch is frightfully large and...

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That's just one of the other factors about the submarines.

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I'll come, I'll find that story and, and share it next week.

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Look, we don't have, we don't have the landmass to have ICBMs though.

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No, we don't, we don't have the landmass to have ICBMs, but you

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know, you can, if you've got a, if you've got, what do you mean by that?

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What are you saying?

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We don't have the landmass for ICBMs.

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What do you mean by that?

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Sorry, I was being sarcastic.

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Yeah, I thought so.

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You know, even if you didn't, even if you didn't want ICBMs, which I don't

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think we need over here, but if you just wanted, if you just wanted enough

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missiles to make Australia a porcupine not porcupine, it's the Echidna.

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Echidna, you want to make Australia an echidna, then you've just got to have

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enough missiles and that sort of stuff that could end up Striking ships that

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are coming down through whatever that place is through Indonesia So, you know

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Then you don't even have to have very long range missiles that you can set up

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there in the northwest of the country You could have them you can have them

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set up on U boats and that type of thing that they could go out there and

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they Could sink that they could sink the bastards when they were coming.

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It's one of those things, you know, it's

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Actually had to agree with Paul Keating when he was giving a very,

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when he gave his very detailed critique of the Orcas arrangement.

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You know, China's got absolutely no reason to come to invade

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Australia because there's no point.

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And they'd have to go through so many countries before they got here that

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would be taking potshots at their armada when they were coming down here.

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They'd have to, they'd have to invade A hell of a swathe of Southeast Asia,

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by the time they actually got here, their forces would be stretched and

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that type of thing, that they would be easily defeated in an invasion.

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So...

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Nothing to worry about.

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I agree, it's nothing to worry about.

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You know, it's one of those things.

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Things we need to worry about are things like climate change and renewable energy.

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And let me just try and find, and share this screen now for the

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essential poll and thoughts on that.

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So, ah, let me just get this.

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No, it's not that's not that one.

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It is a share screen tab share.

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And there we go.

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Shuffle that around.

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Does that look better, Joe?

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Am I got that right?

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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Looking at the screen, question was, as far as you know, do you think

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Australia's doing enough, not enough, or too much to address climate change?

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And, um, back in August 2016, uh, so seven years ago, 52 percent

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of people said, not doing enough.

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And that's fallen now to only 38 percent think we're not doing enough.

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To address climate change.

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People who think we're doing too much was only 22%, but that's risen also to 38%.

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So it's kind of equal.

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The number of people who think we're not doing enough and the number who

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think we're doing, oh hang on, so I've read that yeah, and the number who

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say we're doing enough is about equal.

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Isn't that interesting?

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Australia divided Equally, so about 38 percent say not doing enough,

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uh, 38 percent say doing enough, and there's a significant number,

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17%, who say we're doing too much.

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That doesn't augur well, Scott, because my gut feeling is that

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we're nowhere near doing enough.

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No, we're not doing enough.

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To address climate change.

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Yeah, I agree.

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Scott, let's look at gender responses to that.

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They're pretty even ish to tell you the truth.

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Not huge amounts of difference that way.

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Age wise not doing enough, young people more likely to say that.

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But again, not a huge number of differences on that one for age

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either, so interesting on that one.

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There's one here let me find this one.

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Support for nuclear energy, so, dear listener, at different times

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I've tried to explain much to...

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Disagreement with John from Dire Straits about nuclear energy,

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but if you look at any scientific report about the cost of nuclear

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energy, it's exorbitantly expensive compared to all the other options.

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Absolutely.

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And you've then got the danger of nuclear accidents, and then

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you've got the problem of waste.

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And you've also got the incredible lead time needed to construct

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these things 10 or 15 years before your first one gets operating.

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So there's a whole range of risks with nuclear energy, but despite

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all that, um, to the question, to what extent do you support or oppose

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Australia developing nuclear power plants for generation of electricity?

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Oh four years ago, June 19?

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In support of nuclear energy, it was 39%, and now that's 50%.

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And opposing nuclear energy was 44%, and that's dropped to 33%.

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So for some strange reason...

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Sorry, go ahead.

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I was going to say Dutton and the LNP have been pushing it hard.

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True.

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To distract attention away from renewables.

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Yes.

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So they reckon they're going to meet their climate, their carbon

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emissions targets by building nuclear.

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They know it's not feasible.

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But it kicks the can down the road.

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So we stop talking about getting rid of fossil fuel for another 10 years

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whilst we distract people with nuclear.

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Sounds like an excellent theory, an explanation of what's happening, Joe.

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Let's look at voting intention to see if it backs up what you've said and

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in support of, uh, nuclear energy.

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It's that second line, the coalition, and you've got 67.

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Percent are in favor well ahead of any of the other categories.

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Labor, for example, would be 43.

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So 67 for the coalition, 43 for labor in terms of support for nuclear energy.

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So you're right that support is coming from coalition side.

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juSt looking at the looking at the cost.

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Please rank the following sources of energy in terms of total cost

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including infrastructure and household price where one is the most expensive

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and three is the least expensive and

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Let me just see what have we got here

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38 I'd like to see I'd like to see that compared to the actual cost.

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You know, we've got what everyone thinks it costs, but I'd like to see real costs.

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We've done real costs.

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We've done the levelised cost of electricity.

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And that looks at the cost of the infrastructure that you need, of

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installing the, you know, if it's nuclear power plants, the nuclear power plants,

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if it's, you know, renewables, then...

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The solar panels, whatever, the transmission lines that you need, and

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then the decommissioning of all that and amortising all of those costs over time.

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And that's the one where nuclear comes out incredibly expensive.

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So, yeah, I've lost track.

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I thought on that one, I saw a graph that showed young people were fully aware

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that nuclear costs more than the others.

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So, Yes.

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In fact, here's the chart here.

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So, young people were the ones who rated nuclear energy as the most expensive.

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They knew that was the case, but older generation were not aware of that.

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But we've definitely done that on this podcast.

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bAck in the days of 12th Man, actually.

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Yeah, I remember that.

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Yeah.

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So I remember having that conversation with the 12th man.

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I said to him five or 10 years ago, I would've agreed with you, not now.

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Mm-Hmm.

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. Mm-Hmm.

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. There we go.

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And the likelihood to reach net zero target by 2050 and

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only only 31% think it's.

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It's quite likely, or very likely, um, that Australia will meet

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its net zero emissions by 2050.

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Which is really weird, given in the first question they said, are

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you doing, are we doing enough?

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And a significant number of people said we were, so, yeah.

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You've also got those other people saying, you've also got those other people

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saying we're doing too much, so, they probably just don't give a toss about it.

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Yeah.

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Well, and that's what I think.

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Hello, gang.

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It doesn't matter whether or not we meet our net zero.

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Ah, yes, you're right.

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Okay, so, alright, 30, so 7 percent think it's very likely, and 24

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percent think it's quite likely.

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So that's a total of 31 percent think it's likely, or very likely, that

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Australia will meet net zero by 2050.

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So that's 31%.

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And the initial question, addressing climate change

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Are we doing enough and, um,

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and doing enough was 38%, not doing enough was 38%, and doing too much was 17%.

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I don't know what to make of all these figures.

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I don't think people, I don't know what to make of them.

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Well, I'd fit into the unsure category as to whether or not we are doing enough

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to ever reach the net zero by 2050.

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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Let me just find, back to the notes, okay that was that one.

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Any thoughts on the Gaza crisis and in particular the size of the

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pro Palestinian demonstrations in various parts of the world?

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I don't think there's any doubt that there's a hell of a lot of

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pro Palestinian argument out there.

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I agree wholeheartedly with them.

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Actually it's, it's one of those things, you don't want to be pro

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Hamas, because Hamas is a terrorist organization, but I can understand

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why they're pissed off, you know, they have been treated very badly over the

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last, ever since Israel was formed.

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You know, it's, it's one of those things, they have been treated so terribly

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badly, it's no wonder they hate them so much, but I do not believe that

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it's right for them to say that the Jews shouldn't be in the whole area.

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The Jews are there, the Jews have been there since the dawn of time, so they've

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got to actually deal with it, don't they?

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So there was a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire.

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Which I agreed wholeheartedly with, there should have been a ceasefire.

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And Australia.

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Abstained.

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Mm.

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What do you think of that?

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Ah.

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Do you know why they abstained?

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Because they didn't actually, they didn't actually lambast, lambast Hamas,

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Hamas, as a terrorist organisation.

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Yes.

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Which I thought was very churlish.

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You know, it's, uh, it's one of those things, I just think to myself,

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did I actually really support that?

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No, not really, because I just think to myself, that was very churlish

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of them not to actually abstain.

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Back it.

Speaker:

Because all they were doing was asking for a ceasefire so that they could

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get some aid in for the civilians.

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Now, I've got no doubt that Hamas would try and use that Break in time

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to actually get some more weapons and that sort of stuff involved But now

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that Israel is coming down on them like a ton of bricks It doesn't matter how

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many AK 47s they're gonna get into, Israel's gonna take them all out.

Speaker:

Hmm, you know?

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So yeah, Australia abstained, basically saying this resolution doesn't bag Hamas

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enough as a terrorist organization.

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So without that context in there, we're not willing to pass this resolution.

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Which I could understand, I could understand them saying that, but

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you know, they could have actually said it, but we are, you know,

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they could have actually said it.

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And then said after that, look, we are still going to back it because we think

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it's important that there is a ceasefire.

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Yeah, and I mean, how much context do you need?

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Because then other people could have said, well, you know, and why are

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they a terrorist organisation because of the other killings that have gone

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on beforehand, when, and, and, you know, you could keep going back and

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back and back and keep adding more and more context it wouldn't have been

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that hard to pass a resolution, but...

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You know, you look at the map of the world and who are the countries that

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either abstained or voted against it and you know, it's that sort

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of western powers, if you like.

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Not all of them.

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United States, Canada, most of Europe.

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Invariably, sort of South America, Africa, Asia, developing countries were

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the ones who were passing the resolution.

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Sigh.

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That sort of divide in the United Nations.

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Yeah, um, it's...

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It's one of those things, I just don't think it's going to be sorted out.

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Do you follow any Instagram accounts or any social media where you're seeing the

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graphic images of what's going on in Gaza?

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No, I don't.

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How about you, Joe?

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No, the closest I've come is the Bellingcat report which was...

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Basically pointing out that a lot of those images are recycled from other conflicts.

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So to be very careful what you see on them.

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Yes.

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But, we can be pretty sure that there's lots of dead bodies

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being pulled out from rubble.

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Oh, absolutely.

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And rushed to hospitals.

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Oh, for sure.

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They're just such terrible scenes that I think,

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Israel's reputation is just going down the toilet further and further with every day.

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Absolutely it is, it's one of those things, it's bloody criminal

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what they're actually doing.

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You know, I know that they've got to target them and that sort of stuff,

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but you can't actually say that we're going after military targets because

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there aren't any military targets in an area that's basically a city.

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You know, it's, and they can say it, they can say how they like that the command

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and control centers are based in the hospitals, but you've still got to blow

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up a fucking hospital and destroy it.

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Yes.

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You know, so it's...

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Yeah, and that's exactly why Hamas do it, isn't it?

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Yeah, exactly.

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They're doing it, they're doing it to try and, they're doing it to try

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and turn around and say, well look, Israel's bombing our hospitals.

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Well, they wouldn't bomb the hospitals if you didn't actually put your

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command and control centres in.

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And so the question is, at the end, who's at fault?

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I think there's fault on both sides.

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Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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So it's not just Israel bombing the hospitals.

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It's also Hamas cynically using the hospitals as protection.

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Yeah, I agree.

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I remember years ago...

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It's one of those things I said right from word go that, you know, do we honestly

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believe that the PLO were as well armed as the IDF, that they would exercise

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the same restraint as the IDF has?

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No.

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I honestly don't think they would.

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Or would they, would they push the Jews into the Mediterranean?

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I think they'd push the Jews into the Mediterranean.

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Well, if either side could, they'd push the other into the Mediterranean.

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Yeah, I know.

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If either side could.

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Yeah.

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I remember listening to Sam Harris talking years ago and saying, you know,

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with the Palestinians they would put a child in front of them as a defensive

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shield, knowing that the, that the Jews would never fire on them, yet if the

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Jews were to do the same thing, of course the Palestinians would fire on them.

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And I just, you know, I wonder if he goes back to that moment on that

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podcast, because, you know, the.

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Hamas have put children and civilians in hospitals in front of them,

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and the Jews are defied anyway.

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Like, it's literally the same thing, it's just more distant.

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It's kind of like the trolley problem, isn't it?

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You know how with the trolley problem where the more detached and remote you are

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from the action, the easier it is to do?

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So, you know, if it was flicking a switch, but you can't push the fat man.

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That's right.

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And we're kind of in that situation with the Israel, with this conflict to

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some extent, because to a large extent, the injuries inflicted by Hamas were

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pushing the fat man onto the tracks.

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Like their hands were covered in blood doing the deed, whereas.

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The Israelis have been flicking the switch to change the track to kill

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people, which is just slightly more remote and seemingly more acceptable

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For some.

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I suppose what I see makes it more acceptable is the idea for in uniforms

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Whereas the Palestinians aren't in uniform Well, and I think The question is intent

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as well You know, I agree, I agree with you, Joe, like I mean, I agree with what

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you said the other week where you said, you know, the, the, the difference is the

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Jews weren't sitting in Warsaw ultimately wanting to exterminate the Nazis, whereas

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the Palestinians are sitting in Gaza wanting to exterminate the Israelis.

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Oh, but, but I mean, I, I think the Hamas...

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Wanted to inflict civilian casualties, I think the IDF are aiming to

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inflict civilian casualties.

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They're aiming at Hamas, and if a few innocents get caught in

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the crossfire, well, tough luck.

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So, yes, there are killings on both sides, but I think the Israelis are trying

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to minimize the civilian casualties.

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And I'm not saying that they're blameless because of that, but I think they're...

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Less guilty, if they're trying to avoid it.

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And how are they trying to minimise it?

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I think that they weren't deliberately targeting a hospital

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because it was a hospital.

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They were targeting a hospital because it was a command and control centre.

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Yeah, but they knew it was full of, full of the normal

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people you find in a hospital.

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So...

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Yeah, and I still think that's, that's evil, but it's not as evil as...

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That's a problem, but we'll just do it anyway.

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Yeah, but, but again, it's collateral damage.

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It's, it's not the primary intention.

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Yeah, I still, I still think, I still think it's shocking, but I think

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it's less shocking than going out and going, Oh, well, there's a hospital.

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Let's bomb it.

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You know, some of the characters in this Israeli government, maybe they are

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almost at the point where they're bombing hospitals because they just want to bomb

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hospitals and kill civilians, possibly.

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I don't know how much regret's going on as they're pressing the buttons.

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Maybe not so much, maybe they're just pressing the button and like, happy to

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kill whatever Palestinians they can get.

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How do we know that they're remorseful or regretful about it?

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It's not looking that way, it's a, what a mess.

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It is a hell of a mess.

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And you know, it's, it's like I said right from word go.

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A, a terrible mistake was made in 1947 mm-Hmm.

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It's so hard to tell the truth in these things.

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Remember the incident with the hospital that was bombed?

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Yeah.

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And, and so there's all this toing and froing about the Palestinians

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still claim that was an Israeli bomb.

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Was the Israeli sir.

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Was a Was aye Yes.

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Yes.

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It's looking more and more likely that it was probably a

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Palestinian misfire of some sort.

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Yeah.

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I think.

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That's what the, that's what the Western intelligence organisations are saying.

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Yes.

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Based on the kind of damage that there was, and the fact that the Palestinians

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haven't produced any bomb fragments, you know, they could have picked

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them up from anywhere I guess if they wanted to, but yeah, like, that went

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on for days where initially I was thinking oh it must have been the...

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the Israelis, because you hear these reports about the sound of the missile,

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the nature of the damage, blah, blah.

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And then these other reports come in saying, well actually the nature of the

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damage is this and blah, blah, blah, and it starts to swing the other way.

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And the simple thing of who even fired the missile, whose missile was it, is

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one of those things that will, really, really hard to know where the truth is.

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It could have been either side of it.

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Well, and there was that one recently.

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Is it Poland?

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Whichever country borders Ukraine.

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Poland, there was a missile that was fired out of it.

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There was a missile that landed there, and there was a lot of to

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ing and fro ing until finally they worked out it was a Ukrainian air

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defence missile that went off course.

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Yes, yeah, yep, but...

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You just can't trust anybody, even when a U.

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S.

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President comes out and says something.

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Especially when a U.

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S.

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President comes out and says something.

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You just can't trust any of these guys.

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Yeah, well, you know there's weapons of mass destruction in the raw.

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Yes, that's right.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Still looking for those.

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Mm.

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Mm.

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Yeah.

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Well...

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Gentlemen that was a bit of a scrappy episode, dear listener, but it's just

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because of what's been happening this week with my life and other stuff.

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Have we talked about Mike Johnson?

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Yeah, we did, Speaker.

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You did?

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Okay, I'm sorry.

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There was one other one, which was the Catholic Church

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fighting about Whether they're going to have to pay compensation

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for their employees misbehavior.

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And I saw a report saying that the Catholic insurer is predicting that

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they are going to go bust if this goes through and asking for the Catholic

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Church to provide funds to support them.

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Right.

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aNd I think we ought to look very closely at any public goods, any public

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benefits that have been given to the Catholic Church with a view to taking

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them back and using them to compensate victims that aren't compensated properly.

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Well, presumably if there are judgments.

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And money's owed from the Catholic Church to victims, and the insurer falls over.

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That's just, the judgement's still there against the Catholic Church

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and they're still liable for it.

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It's their church, it's their problem if their insurer falls over.

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So ultimately, yeah, I don't know.

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Ultimately they'll still have to pay that there are multiple bodies and they're

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going to say that this body has no money.

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I mean, yes, when they're shifting money out to the gray funds.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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So that the church had no money, so it couldn't be sued.

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Yeah, that's in the US, isn't it?

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No, I thought that was in Sydney.

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Oh, was it?

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Okay.

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I mean, I could be wrong, but.

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Yeah, haven't seen the nuts and bolts of that one.

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Alright, well, I think that's enough.

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Guys, might try and do something different next week.

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Try and do something a bit more uplifting.

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See what we can come up with.

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I don't think there's anything uplifting.

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The share market's in the toilet, you know, so...

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Mmm.

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Yeah.

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Send us some ideas.

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It's the lovely sunny day, there you go.

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Yeah, send us some ideas, dear listener, if you're ready for something

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uplifting and a bit different.

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I might just grab a book off the shelf and do some sort of a book thing, but

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Yes, we're done, done with the voice.

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The voice is off the, off the table for the next, Few weeks at least

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without a severe warning beforehand.

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So that's off the table.

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We're done with Gaza.

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Yeah, let's try and find something a bit more positive.

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A positive show next week.

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You know, like they talked about newspapers that only had good news.

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Let's try and do a good news episode next week.

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Or just a happy episode.

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A positive episode.

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That's what I'm going to try and do.

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Not a worry.

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We'll give it a shot.

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Wish me luck.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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We'll try that.

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Okay, dear listener Thanks for tuning in.

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Talk to you next time.

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Bye for now, and it's a good night for me And it's good night from him.

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Good night

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