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Episode 416 - Chinese Spy Pidgeon
5th February 2024 • The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove • The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove
00:00:00 01:07:11

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Topics:

(00:43) Intro

(05:09) Dutton Wedged

(08:22) Poor Conservative Electorates

(11:33) Median Wage

(21:34) Essential Poll

(28:55) Hecs Vs Mining Tax

(34:11) Boys School Turns CoEd

(39:23) Iran Iraq

(43:56) Chinese Spy Pidgeon

(48:11) Imran Khan

(56:31) Saul Eslake

(01:04:19) UK Version of Robo Debt

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Transcripts started in episode 324. You can use this link to search our transcripts. Type "iron fist velvet glove" into the search directory, click on our podcast and then do a word search. It even has a player which will play the relevant section. It is incredibly quick.

Transcripts

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

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evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homosapiens.

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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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It just occurred to me that I don't know the collective

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noun for a group of meerkats.

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Is it a pack, a tribe, a herd?

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Joe, help me out here, because I was just about to declare that, you know,

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we've got the full complement here.

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Scott the Velvet Glove, who was ill last week.

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Apparently it's a mob.

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A mob, okay.

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We have a full mob of meerkats for you on this podcast, dear listener.

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Streaming live to you from Brisbane, 8pm on Mondays.

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And, yeah, a podcast where we talk about news and politics, sex and religion.

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Like a small mob of meerkats, we're on our little hill, looking out on the

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world, trying to figure out what's going on, and trying to explain it to each

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other and to you, the dear listener.

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I'm Trevor, aka The Iron Fist.

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Returning from an illness is Scott the Velvet Glove.

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Tell everybody how you are, Scott.

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I'm very well thanks, Trevor.

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I'm, uh, back over it and all that sort of stuff.

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I was, it nearly knocked me on my arse for two days.

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I didn't feel all that good on Sunday night, but I went to bed early and woke

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up feeling really shitty on Tuesday.

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So, aside from that, I was over it on Wednesday, so I, um, on Monday

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actually, so on Tuesday I tested myself again, was still showing

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a faint line of being positive.

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So I tested myself again on Friday.

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And it was almost gone, so I tested myself on Saturday

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morning, it was completely clear.

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Very good.

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Of course, COVID is what Scott had, everybody, so, and uh, with

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five vaccinations under his belt, he was able to deal with it.

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That's probably why I was able to get over it so quickly.

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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And Joe, you've had your own medical episodes, but we won't go into the

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details of those because they're quite messy, really, and we don't, we don't

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want to ruin anybody's dinner with that, so we'll just leave that as it is.

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Yeah, so if you're in the chat room, say hello.

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Nobody there yet, but people normally turn up.

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What's on the agenda?

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Well, you know, it's a podcast about news and politics, sex and religion

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in Australia and around the world.

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We're going to start with Australia with the tax changes, stage three.

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And the fact that Dutton is now getting wedged by this.

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There's an essential poll came out guys, I didn't give this to you in

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the notes, but we'll run through Australians and their views on,

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uh, Stage 3, Gaza and the Republic.

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Um, we'll talk about, uh, a bit of statistics, because we were

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mentioning average wage the other day.

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And I came across another article talking about how do we talk about average wage,

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median wage in Australia, and, uh, a school tragedy that has parents crying,

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a spy pigeon, a Chinese spy pigeon.

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Scott, do you, one of my favourite animal stories that we did

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was, uh, Dexter the Peacock.

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Do you remember Dexter the Peacock?

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That was the, um Uh, the Travelling Companion Bird, wasn't it?

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The support animal.

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Support animal, yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it was quite an impressive peacock.

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Yeah.

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Full sized peacock.

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And the person arrived at the airport and, um, expected to be able to

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board the plane with their support animal, which was text to the peacock.

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That's going back a long way.

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That was in the first handful of episodes, I reckon that one's got.

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It's probably pretty early.

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Yeah, going back about eight years or so.

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Dexter the Peacock.

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Wonder whatever happened to Dexter.

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And, um, might get on to Imran Khan.

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I think we'll get on to Imran Khan and Pakistan and what's happened there.

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No surprise, but it's going to involve some foreign policy meddling

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by the United States of America.

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And, um, Saul Eslake described the worst policy decision by

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an Australian government ever.

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Uh, Scott Morrison's hands are all over it, so we'll mic in onto that.

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So that's on the agenda.

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There's chapters for this podcast.

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If your app is smart enough, you should be able to see some chapters.

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You can scoot around the topics, skip some, listen to some twice.

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It's up to you.

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But, uh, okay, let's get going.

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Saw an article that said, um, Opposition leader Peter Dutton's seat of Dixon,

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which is your electorate, Joe.

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Yep, never voted for it.

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No.

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Can't blame you.

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In the analysis found 85 percent of taxpayers would be better off under

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Labor's plan, um, than the original format for the Stage 3 tax cuts.

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He hasn't declared what the I don't know what the Liberal Party is going

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to do when the revamped tax cuts come before Parliament, but, um,

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he's got no choice, has he, Scott?

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No, he's got absolutely no choice to back them.

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I mean, it was, it was bloody criminal stupidity that the

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Labor government actually backed the original Stage 3 tax cuts.

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Now, I said right from word go that all he had to do was actually during

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the election campaign, he said, look, we're committed to Stage 3, but

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we're not committed to the way that Stage 3 has been originally written.

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So, assuming we win, we will have a look at them and we will rejig

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them and that would have been fine.

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And they were worried about being wedged.

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Yeah, I know.

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And look, lo and behold, they're now wedged in Dutton.

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Yeah.

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Because it just makes sense.

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The original policy was so bad.

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I know.

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If you can't take a bad policy And explain it, offer an alternative and

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wedge your opponent on that, then you just shouldn't be in the game.

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So, uh.

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But you do realise that Dixon will still vote Dutton back in?

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Of course.

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God alone knows why.

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Yes, of course.

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Yeah, because I gather that Dixon isn't one of the wealthiest

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suburbs of Brisbane, is it?

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No, well, it's the outer suburb.

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Yeah, no, so it wouldn't be, you wouldn't have many millionaires

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out there, so, God knows.

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I mean, it's not like, even, um, the, the guy that's, um, Max,

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whatever his name is, the, um, Green.

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You know, he represents Bulimba and Hawthorne and all that sort

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of things, which are really the premier suburbs in Brisbane.

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And, you know, I, I just think to myself that Dutton is really You know, I cannot

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believe that he was actually going to try and make out that this was a terrible,

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ghastly thing that the Prime Minister did by breaking an election promise.

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You know, it's one of those things, like I remember at the time you

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were saying that either the shovel or something else was saying, oh,

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but we didn't think he was serious.

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Sue Albanese, you know, which is just, it's one of those things.

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It was so blatantly obvious that it was wrong that anyone that actually tried

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to defend it need their heads read.

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Yeah, because the vote is here.

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We'll be looking at Facebook adverts from Dutton, which will

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no doubt spin it in his light.

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Well, I've joined the Liberal tribe and as part of their loyalty to

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the tribe, they will vote for them.

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Even if the policies are against their best interest.

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Their personal interest, yeah.

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Because Labor raises taxes.

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Yes.

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And they're gonna be worse off under a Labor government.

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Yes.

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And because Liberals are much better economic managers, just all those things.

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But there's really an interesting class thing happening here because

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traditionally, you know, the Liberals and the Nationals were

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the conservatives who were seen as, as the party for the well to do.

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And if you look though, at their actual electorates that they're

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representing, because they've been pushed out into these.

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Regional suburbs, regional areas have actually been pushed out

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where their remaining base is the lower socio economic group.

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So, I saw this tweet from Koz Samaras, um, saying that, uh, did you know that

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the National Party with the LNP and to a lesser extent the Liberal Party

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hold well over half of the top 20 poorest federal seats in the country.

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Um, they now hold none.

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Of the top income electorates.

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So they really need to work out, um, which class they want to represent.

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And it's because all those electorates fell to the Teals.

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Yes.

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You know, it's just.

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Yeah, or to the Greens.

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Or to the Greens.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, so they still think of themselves as a party for the upper class Mmm,

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sort of financially, but they've pitched themselves Through sort of culture war

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issues, I guess To a policy platform.

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The lower middle class.

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That that is It's really only finding favour in the regions where people are

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poorer, so this party of the upper class is now representing, effectively, the

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lower class at the electorate level.

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They're the party of theocracy, and a lot of the poorer, certainly the

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western Sydney suburbs are the more religious, it's the hills, uh, I think

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it's much more the party of family values rather than the party of Um, The Rich.

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I mean, yeah, economically it definitely is the party of the rich, but socially

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it's the party of family values.

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Yeah, so they've just reached this point where their policy talk on

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things like tax and, and the, well, what did, uh, Nationals leader, uh,

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what's his name, uh, David Littleproud?

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Littleproud, yeah.

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By the way, my wife taught him when he was in primary school in Chinchilla.

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Really?

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Yeah, they're fun fact for you.

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She obviously didn't hit him hard enough.

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Now, now Joe.

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Yeah, I think his father was some sort of state member.

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at the time.

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I think it was, I think he did, he did have that sort of lineage

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that his father or something like that was some kind of other.

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He was obviously a National Party man and he was probably in the State

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Parliament because back then anyone could get in if you, if you just held

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your flag up and said I'm a National Party man you'll get a job there.

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Yeah, so, um, so that was Chinchilla.

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Chinchilla, by the way, was, um, considered just east of

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Too Far West because it was a three and a half hour drive.

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So, if you really had something on in the weekend, you could

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make it back to Brisbane.

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So, anyway, I've digressed.

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But, um, what did he say?

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He said that, um, um, the tax cuts in their original format were

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about giving everyone a fair go.

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And that, um, 190, 000 a year is not a lot, is what Lizzie Price is saying.

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I suppose it's not when your starting salary is 210, 000 a year, you know?

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Yeah, I think maybe I'll skip forward to, um, what is a lot, or what is the average?

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We're going to say 190, 000 is a lot.

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So, um, guys it was a bit further down in the notes, but

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let's just skip through to it.

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Um, because the Prime Minister noted that under the revision to the tax

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scales, an average wage earner on 73, 000 per year would be 1, 500 better off.

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So, Albanese was saying that the average wage earner is on, uh,

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comes out at 73, 000 per year.

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If he's correct, then when Little Proud says 190 is not a lot,

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I think Little Proud's wrong.

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But, um, yeah.

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So Two and a half times as large, isn't it?

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Yeah.

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Um, so when they were selling the package, because remember,

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this is a goddamn policy.

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It's nearly six years old, like stage one, stage two, stage three.

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The craziness of this is policy written six years ago that has

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finally sort of come to the point where it was due to be implemented.

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Um, so back in 2018 when the Morrison government was Morrison, it was one

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of the conservative governments, was selling the idea and um, at that time,

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um, of the budget, they were saying the annual wage was 84, 000 per year and the

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treasury forecasting a rise to 103, 000.

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So um, if, if the budget was talking about the average as being 84,

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000 back then, how can Albanese be saying it's 73, 000 now and what

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exactly is the average income?

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And, as this writer in an article says, and you get the article in the

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show notes, dear listener, it's Harry, uh, Chamai, writing in, I'm pretty

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sure it was the John Menendee blog.

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Um, he says, if you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything.

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We found that during the COVID, um, yeah, time.

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Boy, did we torture some data, or did some people torture some data?

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Oh yeah.

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We won't go there.

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Um, so what he says, on closer inspection, the PM's reference to 73, 000 is a

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reference to the average current taxable income across all full time workers.

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Um, and, um, back in 82, oh, sorry, and back in 2018, um, it was the

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annualised average weekly earnings of a full time adult at the time,

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rather than all full time workers.

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And, um, what we've got, of course, is, dear listener, the incomes at

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the top end are extremely high, which skew the average to a higher point.

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Then if you had lined every Australian up and walked along the line and

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stopped at the halfway point, thereby getting the median wage.

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So that to me Would seem like the best measure of the average Australian.

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Scott, would you agree that if you just lined everybody up, poorest

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to, well, lowest income to highest income and stopped halfway, that's

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a better assessment average?

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Well, I would have thought so, but um, I'm a fairly simplistic bloke.

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I just like to add it up and divide by the numbers, that's all.

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Really?

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Joe, what's your preference for talking about an average Aussie income?

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Well, see.

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There are three averages, isn't there?

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There's the mean, median and mode.

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And the mode is, is actually the most numerous of all incomes.

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So you, you take, you break people into bands or whatever, and then you

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take the most popular of those bands.

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And that probably is the better outcome.

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But the median is considerably better than the mean.

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That's a myth.

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The mean is, the mean is simple, but it gets skewed by outliers.

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Yes.

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I know, which it does.

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Yeah.

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Alright.

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So that's, you know, I understand what you're saying.

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You're criticising my choice of mean, so.

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Yeah, I'm surprised by your preference for it.

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Yeah.

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It's one of those things, you know, I'll take anything.

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You know, I'm not going to sit there and actually calculate it myself, so

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I'll just take the mean, the medium.

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Hmm.

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Let me scoot forward to get to, um, um, uh, he says in this article,

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the suggestion that 200, 000 might be a middling income, uh, must

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surely push the bounds of credulity.

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And um, uh, he says the median is not 200, 000.

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Um, basically, ah, what does he say here?

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Um,

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uh, data indicates that the average full time adult worker Yeah,

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earning 85,000 in 2018, um, is earning around 99,000 in May 23.

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So average full-time adult worker.

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The median full-time earnings, um, uh, back in 2018 was

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76,000, and now it's 88,000.

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So if you're looking at full-time job.

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Um, then the median full time job, uh, salary in Australia

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is currently around 88, 000.

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I think that's a sort of a fair, seems about right to me.

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Hmm.

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There we go.

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A long way short of 190, 000.

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Yeah, exactly.

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So, let's go back to, um, Essential Report.

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And let me just find this, um, So they've been polling people about their

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reactions to the, um, to the Stage 3 tax cuts and what's been going on.

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And basically, overall, um, only, now it depends on the poll that you look at.

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The essential poll says Only 22 percent of people want the Stage

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3 tax cuts to remain unchanged.

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So that's a huge proportion of the population agreeing with Labor at

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least that it needs to be changed.

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And that's the wedge that Dutton is facing.

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That if he was to insist on no changes, only 22 percent of

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people would agree with him.

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Um, uh.

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Actually, maybe I can share this screen.

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Let me try and do that.

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I suppose that, um, you know, how big a threat are the

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Greens and that sort of stuff?

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Could they actually cross the floor and vote to actually No, they wouldn't

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actually keep them, would they?

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If they did, they'd look very bloody stupid, wouldn't they?

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Oh, the Greens will try and push for, um Yeah, I know they're going to push

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to have more of it heading down the lower end, but I just think to myself

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that they've got a choice in the end.

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They either take what Labor has offered them, or they actually, um, vote to

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maintain the current package, which would make them look very bloody stupid.

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Yeah.

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So, um, top chart there is basically overall.

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Because they ask people a year, um, sort of In November 23, what they thought,

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then they asked them again in January 24, nothing changed much, but essentially 22

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percent of people say leave it as it is.

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The rest, to some degree, want things changed.

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And, uh, males, 27 percent want to leave the tax cuts as they

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were designed by Scott Morrison.

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Females, 17 percent want to leave them, so Uh, women more likely

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to want the tax cuts changed.

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And age wise, this one's interesting, 18 to 34, um, 17

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percent want them to continue.

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Um, middle aged Australians, um, also want them to continue, 26%.

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It actually decreased a bit for the boomers.

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So the boomers aren't as bad as they normally are when it

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comes to that age demographic.

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They're not earning income.

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Yes, that's it at that point.

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You're right, Joe.

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They're asset rich and income poor.

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Of course.

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Ask them what they think of franking credits and you'll get a different story.

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Oh, absolutely.

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We'll get on to franking credits.

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And Coalition, according to Essential Poll, 33 percent of coalition

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voters wanted to leave the tax cuts as they were originally designed.

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Uh, everybody else is around the 16%.

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So, that was, um, that was on the, uh, sort of Australian view on the tax cuts.

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Um, just while we're here on the Essential Poll, uh, next one coming up is Attitudes

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to the Israel Palestine conflict, and the third one on the chart is the one that

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gets me here, guys, is to what extent do you agree with the following statement?

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And the statement is, the Israeli response is proportionate, and 12

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percent of Australians agree with that, and 20 percent somewhat agree, and 45

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percent neither agree nor disagree.

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So, to some extent, 32 percent of Australians think that the

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Israeli response is proportionate, and 45 percent just don't know.

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That leaves only 22 percent of Australians who think that the

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Israeli response is disproportionate.

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Does that seem, um, strange to you?

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Well, I think 45 percent of people just don't care.

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Yes, you did right.

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45 percent just don't care.

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Yeah.

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Gender wise on that one, let's see what the, um, break up is.

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Uh, and the Israeli response is proportionate.

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39 percent of males agree, only 25 percent of females agree.

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And voting intention.

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Ah, the Israeli response is proportionate, uh, 45%, 44 percent of coalition voters

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agree, 15 percent of Greens voters.

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It's just interesting that something that's, you know, a conflict in the

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Middle East between two countries splits opinion here so much along

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party lines, party political lines.

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It's like Our political parties don't have strongly stated foreign

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policy views going into an election.

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Nobody really looks at foreign policy and it's just amazing that it breaks down on

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party lines so much what people think.

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Yeah, but Dutton did make a big song and dance about it and all that sort of stuff.

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Yeah.

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You know, he accused the Labor Party of being anti Zionist or

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something like that, didn't he?

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Yeah.

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He used to be very anti Semitism.

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But Palestine has long been a, a thing of the left.

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And therefore it doesn't surprise me that, um, the greeds voters, 'cause I

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really don't consider labor left anymore.

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Mm-Hmm.

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Possibly centrist.

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Mm-Hmm.

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Um, and, uh, you know, LMP voters are again, theocrats

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who want the end of the world.

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And the sooner that the Arabs and the Israelis keep killing themselves,

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the sooner Jesus comes back.

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Yes.

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In Australia?

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Have we reached that point in Australia, Joe?

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I don't know.

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I don't believe it's that large a proportion, but No.

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But there is certainly part of it.

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Part of it is that thinking.

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You know, there is some within the Liberal Party that would actually hold

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that view because their mates over in the Yanks in America believe that.

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They also polled people about Australia Day and asked people, um, will you

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be doing something to celebrate Australia Day or will you just be

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treating it as a public holiday?

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And, um, basically, people have tended towards treating it as a public holiday

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and not necessarily doing something, um To celebrate the Australian ness of it.

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But if you look at the age breakdown, the older you are, the more likely

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to you are to celebrate Australia Day as Australia Day, rather than

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just enjoying the public holiday.

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And just finally, they also asked people about support for

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Australia becoming a republic.

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And Scott, strongly support.

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Young people recorded the lowest.

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So, um, only 12 percent of the young people, 18 to 34,

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strongly supported a republic.

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Whereas the, um, the older age groups, that was either 22 or 23 percent.

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So you're a, you're still a card carrying member of the, um,

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Yeah, of the Republican movement.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Uh, that doesn't surprise me.

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Um, I think that, um, probably the Republican movement's biggest

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problem is that we're facing a generation of they don't care.

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So as a result, uh, you, it really doesn't surprise me that people

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don't care and that type of thing.

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So that's where you've got those sorts of numbers coming up.

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It's one of those things that, um, I did see something with it.

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They reckon that the crown has had probably a bigger impact on the Republican

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movement than anything else has.

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Yeah.

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That series on Netflix.

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Yeah, it did.

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It did actually paint.

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The old girl is a complex figure, you know.

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Complex, yes.

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Yeah, exactly.

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A complete bitch at times, and you know, at other times.

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A complete bitch at times, but at other times quite a human being.

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One of those things, apparently she has watched it and that sort of stuff.

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And she actually admitted that, um, she does feel somewhat bad for

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the way she treated her sister.

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This is Queen Elizabeth.

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Yes.

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Was it, was it produced before she died?

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Yes, it was produced before she died.

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Oh, right.

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Okay.

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There you go.

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I only just saw her.

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Been out for a while.

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I only just saw her.

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Been out for a long time.

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Six months ago.

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Something there, that's how far behind the times I am.

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Right.

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Yeah, it's, it's apparently that, um, she admitted to someone that she feels

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Badly for the way she treated her sister.

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Right.

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Over her marriage to Peter Townsend.

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Mm hmm.

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There we go.

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So, you're right.

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The younger group have a bit more ambivalent about it all

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and don't have any strong views.

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So, yeah.

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Anyway, that was Essential Pole.

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Get rid of that from the screen.

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Um, yeah.

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And Alison's in the chat room and says she saw a report that said two

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thirds of people earning over 200, 000 or above support the changes.

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I saw a similar thing.

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I think that was from the Australia Institute.

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That was it, yes.

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Yeah.

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And, oh, look, just briefly, one more chart to show you because I've

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got it here, which was just a chart showing how much is carved off from

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helping the top end and And then comes in to assisting the bottom end.

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So that was a good chart, if it shows up correctly on there.

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But, uh, does it?

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Hang on.

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Yeah.

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It's showing up.

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Yeah, good.

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So that was that one.

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I think that, honestly, they've got to be very comfortable with

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it because they're getting four and a half grand out of it all.

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Which, on a weekly basis, turns out to be 86 bucks a week, which is fine.

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You know, you compare that to the 9, 000 they're originally going to

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get, then that is just too high.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, um, so there's a guy, Richard Dennis, from the Australia Institute.

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He, um, used to have a podcast that I listened to whenever it came out.

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It was the, um, can't think what it was called, but he was a, he's an economist.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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And he does actually, he turns up sometimes on 7 a.

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m.

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too.

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Yeah.

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Talker.

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Absolutely.

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He's got some things to say about mining tax and hex.

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Here we go.

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Yeah.

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I listened to it.

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Listen to this.

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Consider the fact that in Norway, they tax the fossil fuel

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industry and they give university education to their kids for free.

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In Australia, we subsidise the fossil fuel industry and we charge

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our kids a fortune to go to uni.

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Choices matter.

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And the Australian government collects more money from HECS than it does

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from the petroleum resource rent tax.

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Thank you, children.

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You're the backbone of our economy, not the gas industry.

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That's an interesting statistic.

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It's really fucking wrong, isn't it?

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If you could just reach people and tell them that, you wouldn't have to argue

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too long to say this is clearly wrong.

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Exactly.

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Look what these other guys are doing, maybe we should be doing the same.

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How about we do it?

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If you don't like it, don't vote for us, but if you do like it, vote for us.

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It's one of those things, I just think that, I just think to myself that,

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um If we actually did follow Norway's example, do they honestly believe that

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the coal miners and the gas frackers and everything else that are over

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here in this country, do we honestly believe that they would actually

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pull up stumps and move elsewhere?

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No.

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They wouldn't.

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They come here and they invest here because our ground is full of shit that

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they can dig out and sell overseas.

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Yeah.

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Just criminal.

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Future generations are going to be so angry with our generation.

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And even if they did have sticks, the stuff's still in the ground.

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Yes.

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Wait for someone else to come along who's willing to play the game and

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say, Okay, here's a deal for you.

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You're still making lots of money.

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Just obscene amounts of money.

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It's criminal.

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Future generations are going to look back on Australia in the last 50 years.

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And just go, what a chompy bunch you are.

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And they're going to be very rightfully very angry about it, you know?

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Well, I mean, the whole, um, wasn't it Sussan Ley?

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Who was held originally to be responsible for future generations, the state of

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the climate for future generations?

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I know it was overturned on appeal, um, but is that not precedent for

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suing governments for inaction?

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Just over the amount of money that's being wasted.

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On behalf of a future generation.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I don't know what the current legal position is on that.

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I do remember there were those cases.

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Yeah.

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So they won in the lower court and I think it was overturned

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in one of the higher courts.

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Mm.

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But it might have been on a technicality.

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Possibly.

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Mm.

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Yeah.

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There really should be a Minister for Future Generations who

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gets to say, Hang on a minute.

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This is just, um, lining the pocket of the current generation at the

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expense of the future generation.

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Well, I think that's really bloody crooked that, you know, the HECS

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is higher than the mining resource rent tax, for Christ's sake.

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Mmm.

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Yeah, there we go.

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But even when things are obvious like that, can a government actually sell it?

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And, of course, we had Shorten could not make it into, um, being the Prime

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Minister on the basis, probably, of the franking credits and how, um,

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that panned out and, uh, there we go.

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There's a chart showing that the richest 10 percent received 70 percent

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of the franking credits in 2020, 2021.

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But they need them.

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It's one of those things that I find incredibly frustrating.

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Oh, man.

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I was very much in support of it and I just said to him, I

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said to him once, I said, why?

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You know, it was designed not to be a, it was designed not to pay you back the tax.

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It was simply designed to stop you being double taxed.

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And it was just something that Peter Costello invented because he was

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embarrassed by the amount of money that was flowing to the government.

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So they had no choice but to actually give it back to people.

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Governments in good times are really dangerous.

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Oh God.

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Yeah.

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They're Costello Government was dangerous.

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They could do all sorts of things.

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Mm.

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And lock us into systems and become really hard to turn around.

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So.

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Mm-Hmm.

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. Yeah.

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Um, oh, here's another clip for you.

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Um, like, you know, I unfortunately in high school went to an.

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All Boys School, and it's one of the, I don't know if you can say regrets of

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life, but, because I didn't have any say in it, but boy I wished I'd gone to a

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co ed state school, and um, it took me years to overcome what had been done to

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me there, and um, and so I was really determined that my kids would go to a co

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ed school and have a normal childhood, which they did, thankfully, but um, Let

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me just get a clip here, because one of the schools in Melbourne, I think it

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is, has I believe it's Sydney, isn't it?

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Sydney, was it?

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No, I think it's Sydney.

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Um, previously a boys school has, a principal has decided to make it a co

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ed school, and here is the reaction.

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I'm an old boy at the school, and my son is also an old boy, and the intention

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was always that I'd have a grandson.

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But I won't bring him to a co ed school.

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It's all part of this sort of woke, toxic masculinity type palaver.

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I'm sorry, but I'm not a, uh, a co ed person.

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It's a boys school, it's always been a boys school, and, uh, uh, there's

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no, um, justification, no explanation, no evidence to support this move.

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I know my grandson was rejected from going to, uh, to year three in a

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couple of years time because they had, uh, Thoughts of young ladies.

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We are protesting against the school's decision to, uh, Uh, not

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notify the parents and gag the parents and the students from having

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a free voice to be heard about the school and the headmaster's

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decision to make the school co ed.

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It wasn't as strong as I would have liked to have seen today.

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Well, I just think it's, uh, ridiculous that after 160 years of thinking

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it's a good idea to have a boys, you know, a boys only school for the

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development of boys through, you know, a very developmental part of their

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lives without being influenced by.

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Considerations of what, you know, they should look like or how they

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should act in front of girls.

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Why is that wrong after 160 years?

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We have another meeting tonight that we're going to try and

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look at more at the legal side.

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Yeah, 160 years.

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I mean, it's, it's not like we've ever seen evidence of, of private

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school boys behaving badly.

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Traditionally, it's just peer pressure from dead people.

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Yes.

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It's one of those things.

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I mean, you know, it's one of those things when I was at my old boys school

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and that sort of stuff, I remember thinking at the time that I would be

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better off in a co ed school because guys behave differently in front of

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girls than what they do on their own, because they behave like utter wankers

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when they're on their own, you know?

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The bullying and everything else would evaporate overnight

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if you put girls in there.

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Oh, I'm not so sure about that, but Well, it would help.

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Educationally, I think boys do better off in co ed and girls do worse off.

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Absolutely, they do.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Which is one of the things that I thought to myself that, um, because they say that

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girls do better in single sex schools, but boys do better in co ed schools.

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So My kids went to, you know, just a state high school, co ed, obviously,

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and they reckon at university You could pick the kids who had gone to a single

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sex school, like, their disbehaviour was really obvious, I reckon, so, um, yeah.

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Alison, are you still there in the chat room?

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Did you go to an all girls school, Alison?

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Um, did you find at university a difference between, uh, kids Boys who

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went to an all boys school, for example, where they I wouldn't be surprised

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that, um, anybody that'd go to a co ed school and that sort of stuff would

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probably say that boys were just a little less mature and that sort of

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stuff by the time we got to university.

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But the girls as well!

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I know that, um, my daughter's daughter said that, uh, girls.

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Mackaya State High School is where Alison went to high school.

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Yeah.

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But Alison, when you went to uni, did you notice any difference between those, you

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know, who had your fellow students who had been to single sex schools or not?

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Just curious as to whether you noticed anything.

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So, yeah, there we go.

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So that's private school.

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First world problem there.

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I can't believe that guy was crying.

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Yes, you know, it's it's one of those things like I was gonna have a

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grandchild, but I can't have one now.

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Yes I thought it was weird that all private school boys

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all wore the same clothes.

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There you go So I had a certain type of dress style.

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That's what Alison is saying.

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I think at university Hmm.

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Okay That was that Let's look around the world now Get away

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from Australia, uh, Iran, Iraq.

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So now we've got, um, there was an attack on a U.

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S.

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Army base, um, in Jordan.

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Killed three U.

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S., three U.

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S.

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soldiers.

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Um, the U.

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S.

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is blaming, um, Iranian backed militants.

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Uh, some sort of drone, I think, came into the camp.

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Um, and they've then launched attacks on what they say are

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Iranian facilities that are in other neighbouring countries and places.

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So they're saying it's Iran's fault and they've bombed a few

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Iranian place, Iranian backed places in non Iranian territory.

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Because, hey, they're the US and if you're not bombing some brown people in

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the sandy desert somewhere, then just, you know, you're not doing your job.

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And uh, of course, Iraqi resistance is claiming responsibility.

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Um, uh, and the base is actually mostly in Syria and is used by the U.

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S.

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to steal Syrian oil and the Iraqi government wants the U.

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S.

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to leave as well.

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So there's still enormous numbers of U.

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S.

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personnel and U.

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S.

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bases in these countries.

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Despite the new government's wanting them to just piss off and go home,

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but they insist on staying there.

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So Guys, you reckon they might, you know, we did predictions at the beginning of

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the year and I don't know that anybody predicted a sort of a hot war in the

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Middle East Like getting quite sizable, but I don't think it's going that way.

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Hmm.

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They're really keen to blame Iran for stuff They talk about the Iranian

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backed Houthis And they're clearly trying to pin Iran for this, and Iran's

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one of the bigger militaries able to Yeah, they've wanted to pick a fight

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with Iran for a long time, but Yes.

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I think they've always been scared off because it is one

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of the bigger militaries.

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Yes.

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That's why they've backed Saddam for so long.

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It's one of those things, if it does actually come to fisticuffs and all

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that sort of stuff, I've no doubt that the US will eventually succeed.

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But, they're going to have to withdraw their support from Ukraine and

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everything else, put everything into the Middle East, and they will succeed.

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It's going to take them a very long time.

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But they will do it.

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Succeed as well as they did in Afghanistan?

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No, it's one of those things, they're just gonna, they're just gonna leave behind

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a wrecked country and all that sort of stuff that wasn't perfect but was stable.

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And they're gonna fuck it up completely and then they'll withdraw.

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Yeah, they'll succeed.

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They'll succeed in transferring funds from the hands of taxpayers into

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the pockets of big corporations.

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Yes.

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The military industrial complex and the makers of weapons and Yes.

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Mills Steel complex, but but also the, the private security industry that

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follows along, behind and builds all the infrastructure rebuilds the country.

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Mm, yeah.

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That was Dick Chinese company, wasn't it?

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Holywell or something like that?

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Or Holywell was one of the companies.

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Yeah.

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Well, it was also sort like that Black something.

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Black rock.

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Black Rock.

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Yeah.

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No.

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I can't remember what it was.

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I thought it was Black Rock, anyway.

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Yeah, so, anyway, they're spoiling for a fight over there, and You know, if

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they want to fight and that sort of stuff, they're going to get a fight.

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But then their only, their only, their only support in the region is going to be

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Israel, which will make it all that sort of a hell of a lot of a mess for them.

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And, you know, it's, you know The 67 war, the Israelis won.

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I'm not convinced that it would actually win another concerted effort

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of Arab countries if they, if all, if all three of the Arab countries

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actually took on Israel again this time.

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But they do have nukes.

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I know they've got nukes now, and I honestly believe that Israel would

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actually be prepared to use them.

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Yep.

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Yeah, I think they would.

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Blackwater, according to Don.

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Thanks, Don.

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Um, yeah.

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Anyway, they're spoiling for a fight over there.

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See what happens.

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Um, that's, um, the Iranians, and I like this one about the spy pigeon.

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So Yeah, I was reading them, I thought to myself, Jesus Christ,

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how the hell did that happen?

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Anyway.

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A pigeon has been released in India after being held in detention for eight months

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on suspicion of being a Chinese spy.

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The pigeon's ordeal began in May last year when it was captured near a port in Mumbai

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with two rings tied to its legs carrying words that appeared to be Chinese.

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Yeah, they could've got used.

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They could've got them They used in the past.

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Yeah.

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But they could've got them translated, couldn't they could have actually got

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the, they could have actually got the words and that sort of stuff translated

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into Hindi and that sort of stuff.

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And then there was, oh yeah.

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It's not a spy pigeon, you know?

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Yeah.

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So , uh.

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But, um, Don in the chat room says you do know that the birds aren't real,

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they're all surveillance drones, yeah?

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Because you've heard about that person starting that movement, Birds Aren't Real?

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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So you've actually got dickheads out in the US actually dragging around

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signs saying birds aren't real.

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Yes.

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So the guy who started it did it as a joke.

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Yeah, I know.

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It seemed like there were enough people who were prepared to sign up

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to the belief that it became a thing.

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But, uh, yeah, anyway.

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The animal turned out to be a racing bird from Taiwan, which had

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escaped and travelled to India.

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So it was in Chinese.

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Yes.

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Joe, when you said they've done it before, Like, they've used

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carrier pigeons to pass messages.

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Yes.

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So, so there's an April Fool's, so on the internet, there's a bunch of standards

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that are called RFCs, and quite often there's an April 1st RFC, and one of

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them is IP over Avian Carrier, which was literally sticking a thumb drive

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onto a carrier pigeon to send messages.

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And it has been done in real life.

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Somebody decided to print out a message, a computer message, onto

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paper, stick it on the leg of a carrier pigeon, er, a racing pigeon, send

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it across town and then decode it.

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Right.

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See, some people have just too much time on their hands.

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Obviously.

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Anyway, with typical Indian efficiency, it took them eight months to figure out that

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it was just a harmless, um, racing pigeon.

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There we go.

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Yeah.

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Apparently, it's not the first time a bird has come under police suspicion in India.

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In 2020, police in Indian controlled Kashmir released a pigeon belonging to a

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Pakistani fisherman after a probe found that the bird which had flown across the

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heavily militarised border between the nuclear armed nations, was not a spy.

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And, um, yeah, so it's not the first time, and I thought, blowing it, blowing it.

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What are they going to do with a bird?

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What are they going to do, put a gun to its head and say you've

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got to confess or we'll shoot you?

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Well, you know, it's just one of those things, you just Well, I don't know.

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They could just shoot it, and it would be dead.

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It's a very, it's a very effective method of transferring messages.

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We used to do it.

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Yeah, it is.

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Back up until the end of the First World War.

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Exactly, but you know, you could find out what that message actually said.

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They just actually have to take the paper off it, get it translated

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into Hindi, and they say, oh fuck, it's got nothing to do with it.

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But it's in code.

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Yeah, and you know Indians got lots of important stuff that China would

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just want to find out about, so.

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I don't know about China, there's only Pakistan.

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I know that China would like to know what India's up to, but it's just,

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you know, they have come to blows over their Indian Chinese border, but you

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know, it's just one of those things.

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I just I don't believe that they kept a bird in custody for eight months.

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Yeah.

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Anyway, um, it was in ABC News, reported by the Associated Press, so one

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assumes that the incident is correct.

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So, had you guys been following Imran Khan at all?

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And Yeah, I Had you had any understanding of what's going on there?

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It's one of those things I didn't re I know that he had actually

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spoken out against the U.

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S.

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and all that sort of stuff before I actually read the

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whole thing that you sent us.

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And it's one of those things, uh, was he too cooperative with Vladimir Putin

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and Chinese President Xi Jinping?

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I don't know.

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It's just one of those things.

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He's probably too close to the Russians.

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But anyway, he's also, he's the Prime Minister of an independent country.

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He's entitled to have any sort of relationship he wishes

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to have around the globe.

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Uh, I honestly do not believe that what he was actually crucified for was that bad.

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All he said was, you've got to actually solve this, you've

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got to solve this, um, fight diplomatically, not on the battlefield.

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Which is a perfectly valid thing for a country to say.

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Aggressively neutral, I think it was described as.

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They might call it aggressively neutral, maybe, eh?

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Why are you being so aggressively neutral on this issue?

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I just think to myself that Imran Khan, you know, he was probably the

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best that Pakistan had to offer and all that type of thing, so I'd Joe,

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were you going to say something?

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Sorry.

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Yeah, I thought that, um, he was scarily religious in some things.

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Yeah, but he wasn't as religious as some of the others.

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His wife is very, um, wears the full burqa, I think, or a fairly full covering.

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A niqab, doesn't she?

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Maybe not the burqa, but the next level.

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Yeah, a niqab, doesn't she?

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Yeah, I think she might be quite, uh, religious, but Yeah, I thought there

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was something about blasphemy that, um He'd made comments on, or he'd brought

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in some blasphemy law that was, maybe he wasn't such a As much of my, as I'm pro

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secular, whatever he did in that line isn't enough to justify the US coming

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in and organising regime change and having him thrown in jail for 10 years.

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So, um, which is what's happened.

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So, there's an article from Jeffrey Sachs.

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You guys probably don't like Jeffrey Sachs because Uh, he was kind of taking

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my, well I was taking his line on Ukraine and stuff, so, um, um, anyway.

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So, in this article by Jeffrey Sachs, he says there's strong

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reasons to suspect the U.

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S.

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is behind, uh, the overthrow of Imran Khan, and, um, he says of

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course, regime change by the U.

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S.

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is routine, and there's a link to a report that counts 64

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covert regime change operations.

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The U.

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By the U.

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S.

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between 1947 and 1989, that's a lot, and he says that Imran Khan's sin was to be

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too cooperative with Putin and Xi Jinping, and while seeking to just have normal

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relations with the United States, and Khan from the start said the conflict should

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be settled at the negotiating table rather than on the battlefield, like, guys, stop

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killing each other, and start negotiating.

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Um, he probably sealed his fate though when he held a large rally and he berated

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the West and particularly EU ambassadors for pressuring him to condemn Russia.

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And he also, uh, complained about NATO's war against terror in

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Afghanistan as having, um, It's been very devastating for Pakistan.

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And he told the cheering crowd about, uh, the US ambassadors wrote a letter

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to us, meaning Khan and Pakistan, asking us to condemn and vote against Russia.

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What do you think of us?

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Are we your slaves?

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That whatever you say, we will do?

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He said, we are friends with Russia.

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We are also friends with America.

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We are friends with China and with Europe.

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We're not in any camp.

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Pakistan will remain neutral and work with Um, those trying to end the war.

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So, one day after that rally, there is an Assistant Secretary

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of State for the Bureau of South Central Asian Affairs, a Donald Lu.

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So he's the American, um, he meets with Pakistan's ambassador,

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um, an Asad Majid Khan.

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And basically, um, a cable is then sent from Khan back to So, from the Pakistani

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ambassador back to Pakistan and um, the cable quotes the American guy as saying

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to the Pakistani ambassador, um, the people here in Europe are quite concerned

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about why Pakistan has taken such an aggressively neutral position and then

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said, quote, uh, I think if the, if the no confidence vote against the Prime

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Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven.

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Um, so basically telling the ambassador that the US will forgive Pakistan

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if there's a no confidence motion against Imran Khan and otherwise

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it's going to be tough going ahead.

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So five weeks later after that threat, the Pakistan's military, um, controls or

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has a hold over the Pakistani parliament.

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and ousted Imran Khan in a no confidence vote.

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And then they, according to Jeffrey Sachs, um, brazenly manufactured

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charges of corruption against Imran Khan, put him under arrest.

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And when Khan made known the existence of that diplomatic cable and the threat

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made by America, the new government charged Imran Khan with espionage.

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And that's what he's been convicted of for 10 years.

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So the Americans threatened Pakistan, basically saying, life's

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not going to be good for you.

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Unless you do a no confidence motion against Imran Khan.

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And when Imran Khan revealed that message, he was in charge with espionage

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against Pakistan and given 10 years.

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Ah.

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When asked about Khan's conviction, the State Department had the

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following to say, quote, it's a matter for the Pakistani courts.

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And there we have it.

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A man in another country thrown into jail for 10 years.

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For being aggressively neutral.

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It's quite a story, isn't it?

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Hmm.

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Joe, any thoughts on that one?

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Any hesitation?

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Any sort of sounds about right?

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Or you're like, yeah, it's a bit of a beat up?

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Or you just don't know?

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It's Pakistan.

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I can't say I'm surprised.

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Um, there's a lot of corruption in there, as far as I know.

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Yeah.

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There is, but as, as to whether or not Kahan was actually knee deep in

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it, like they allege is another story.

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Mm-Hmm.

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, you know, it's, and fine.

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Sorry, go on.

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It's one of those things I, I don't think we're ever gonna

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know exactly what the truth is.

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Yeah.

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But if he, if he wasn't, and his opponents were, it's a good thing

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to smear him with, isn't it?

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Absolutely.

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Yeah.

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Apparently that, that um, that message is in the public domain

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now, it's been leaked and it seems it's legitimate, so, there we go.

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A successful regime change.

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Chalk up another one for the United States.

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And finally, in the show notes that the patrons get, will be

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an article from Saul Eslake.

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Um, he says, so, you guys um, ever heard Saul Eslake speak?

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Never heard him speak.

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I've read a lot of what he's written.

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Never heard him speak.

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Very, very smart guy.

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Oh, he's a very intelligent bloke, for sure.

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Yeah.

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I was at some talk about financial planning stuff and, uh, he just spoke for

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an hour and just had everybody captivated.

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Like, intimate knowledge of all sorts of statistics.

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Really quite a bright guy.

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Anyway, he says, I regard the changes made to the carve up of

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GST revenues among the states and territories by the Morrison government.

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in 2019, um, as possibly the worst Australian public policy decision

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of the 21st century thus far.

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Big statement.

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Yeah.

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Could it be worse than AUKUS, I ask you?

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I don't know that it is, but it's probably a close run thing.

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And essentially, the story is this, that when the GST was created, and it's the

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federal government collecting money, which is then distributed to the states,

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and There was a principle of Horizontal Fiscal Equalisation, which was if some

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states are financially better off than other states, then they'll get less of

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the GST pie, a very sort of socialist approach to carving up the GST money.

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And for most of our history, uh, Victoria and New South Wales Um, would have been

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the most prosperous states, which would sort of lead to them getting less and

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the other states getting more per capita.

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But of course, we've had a massive mining boom in Western Australia, huge boom.

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And um, similar, as he says here, from 2004 onwards, Western Australia

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Got, um, as Paul Keating would say, kissed on the arse by a rainbow.

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Where the iron ore price rose to over 100 per tonne.

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So, for example, Western Australia's iron ore production, um, in 1999 was 3.

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7 billion, and Um, in the last six years, it's averaged 111 billion.

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So in, in 14 years, uh, it went from 3.7 to 111 billion per annum.

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So, um, massive, um, production and similar stories in

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relation to gold and um.

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LNG, um, as well, like Big Boom, obviously, in Western Australia,

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and, of course, Western Australia will get royalties from all of that.

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Which means that Western Australia is doing very, very well and is

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outpacing the other states because of that, more than any state has

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ever outpaced the other states.

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And, um, what Morrison did was changed, well, called for a Productivity Commission

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report, but basically stitched things up so that the report was not done properly.

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Um, Saul Estlake says people who worked on it were not happy with the way it was

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done and some people resigned afterwards.

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And the result was that they, um, changed the GST carve up.

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So that, um, Western Australia would never get less than 70 percent per

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capita of what it would have got had there been none of this equalisation.

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So essentially, the previous system of, of less money to the wealthy

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states was, changed by that system.

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And why would the other states agree to it?

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Well, Morrison put in a deal that no other state will be worse off

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for the next like, uh, let me see.

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For like 15 years or something like that.

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So it was a thing that a government could, one of the other states

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could just um, kick down the road.

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Not, not going to be their problem, not going to be around in 20 years time.

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So, so basically Morrison did a deal that was extremely favourable

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to Western Australia, where it gets to keep a much bigger share of the

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GST carve up than it would have.

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And why did it allow that to happen?

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Because They were about to throw their toys out the pram.

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Because they had a number of Western Australian representatives.

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Correct.

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So, a relatively large contingent of, um, So, since the 2013 election,

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the Liberal National Party Coalition held all but three of Western

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Australia's seats in the House of Reps.

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And after the narrow victory in 2016, they knew that if they were to have

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any chance of retaining government in 2019, they needed to keep as many

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Western Australian seats as possible.

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So that's why the LNP, Liberal National Party Coalition, agreed, well, did this.

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Why did the Labor Party agree to it and vote for it?

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Because they wanted to pick up Labor.

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They thought that they would then, if they didn't do that, they were

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no chance of picking up seats for Labor in Western Australia.

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So, Labor agreed to it, and um, so conversely the Labor opposition knew

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that if it were to have any prospect of winning government at the 2019 election,

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they had to win at least some of those seats from the Liberals, um, yeah.

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And the title of the bill is, wait for it, uh, Treasury Laws Amendment.

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Making sure every state and territory gets their fair share of GST, Bill

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2018, harshed both houses of federal parliament with overwhelming majorities,

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even though it was a crummy deal for everybody outside of Western Australia.

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Problem with this podcast, it gets quite depressing.

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So many bad stories.

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So many bad stories.

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Let's just add that to it.

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Were you guys aware of that one at all?

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Yeah, I was aware of it.

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Right.

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Yeah, I never knew the details like that.

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No.

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I knew that, um, I knew that Western Australia had some kind of sweetheart

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deal on it, but I couldn't, I couldn't tell you what the numbers were.

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Yeah, so there we go.

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Good job I saw S Lake explaining that in quite some detail,

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which I've just paraphrased.

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So, there we go.

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Well Guys, we've finished on a sour note, I reckon.

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Imran Khan and the Western Australian GST carve up.

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Have you guys heard of the UK Post Office scandal?

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Yeah, that is bloody crook what's going on over there.

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Tell me about it, Joe.

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It's their equivalent to Robodat.

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Um, so, the UK Post Office, which basically is the government

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department in small villages.

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Uh, it was all outsourced, and they rolled out a new computer system,

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which was overpriced and late, what a surprise, and suddenly said

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that all of these postmasters had been, um, siphoning off money.

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Right.

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And, uh Accusing them of fraud.

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Accusing them of fraud.

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So, a whole bunch of them got sacked, and the government demanded money from them.

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A number of them were actually charged with criminal offences, and it turns out

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that the computer program was at fault.

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And that the government, this, this happened well over ten years

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ago, uh, and that the government is only just admitting to it.

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Hmm.

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So, you know, there are literally thousands of people whose lives

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have been turned upside down by a computer system that the government

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maintained was perfectly accurate.

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Like I said, Shadows of Robo Death, all over again.

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Yeah, very much a Robo Death thing.

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Anybody got a happy story?

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No, I don't have a happy story.

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It's, one of those things, I find it really bloody crooked that a, something

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like that could go that you've got to the point where people were imprisoned.

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Yes.

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And they had to prove that they were innocent, more so than the other

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side proving that they were guilty.

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Had the proof, had the, had the onus of proof not actually being

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reversed, had the proof been on the prosecution, then someone would

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have found out that the computer system was fucked a long time ago.

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You know?

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I imagine they probably had suicides and just a bunch of marriage breakups.

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They did have suicides and marriage breakups and God knows what else.

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Ugh.

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I know.

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Come on guys, something positive.

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I'll work on it for next week.

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Sorry dear listener, but there you go.

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That's the state of the world at the moment.

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Um, I guess we'll be back next week with more news and

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politics and sex and religion.

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We'll talk to you then.

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Bye for now.

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And it's a good night from me.

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And it's a good night from him.

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Good night.

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