Hello, dear listener.
Speaker:This is the iron fist in the velvet glove podcast, episode 310.
Speaker:It's the 31st of August, 2021.
Speaker:I'm Trevor AKA, the iron fist back from a holiday in north Queensland.
Speaker:I'll tell you a little bit about that in a moment, but with me as always
Speaker:Shay the subversive, how are you?
Speaker:Good evening.
Speaker:I'm very well.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:And Paul, the tech not pause cause I and Joe, the tech guy.
Speaker:How are you, Joe?
Speaker:I am already, I am.
Speaker:Yeah, I am.
Speaker:I miss the contrariness and the arguments.
Speaker:So all you're welcome to, to phone in and or in on and make a cameo appearance.
Speaker:Or like if you're in the chat, say hello and and join us and make some
Speaker:comments and we'll try and get to you.
Speaker:And we'll just run through, what's been happening over the last couple of weeks
Speaker:news and politics, sex and religion.
Speaker:Just briefly on a personal note, I'm back from my holiday.
Speaker:I was up in Cairns and I went to Fitzroy island and it is a
Speaker:completely different world up there.
Speaker:Dear listener.
Speaker:So if you were able to escape lockdown and just head to north Queensland and
Speaker:go like, it's great, there's no masks.
Speaker:And you're turning the clock back three years to pre COVID times.
Speaker:It was good.
Speaker:And Fitzroy island, you can just go there, stay in this resort type
Speaker:area and walk out onto the beach.
Speaker:And snorkel is coral is turtles.
Speaker:There's all that stuff.
Speaker:It's really, really good.
Speaker:So highly recommend that if you can get away.
Speaker:It can't get to Paris on New York next year, go to Fitzroy island.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So other things just sort of Noosa template site and stuff, we'll just
Speaker:we've got a lot of messages from people saying, Hey, did you guys see
Speaker:how you went viral on this thing?
Speaker:And there's a really strange thing happened on ABC, where on a news
Speaker:report, they did a story about some sort of stabbing of dogs.
Speaker:And, and it showed footage of us by mistake, as we exited the court.
Speaker:And then as the, as the sort of report audio, the audio
Speaker:and the video were mixed up.
Speaker:So the audio was about this dog stabbing and the, and the video was of us exiting
Speaker:the court on our court date, and then the audio sort of finished for the story.
Speaker:And then it came to to showing a shot of Rob.
Speaker:When he was doing his black mass saying hail Satan, and then
Speaker:straight from that, it goes back to the studio, to the newsreader.
Speaker:And she's just got this dead pan face speech, just completely
Speaker:nonplussed by what's happened.
Speaker:And then she starts reading her next story without any commentary.
Speaker:And I don't know, I didn't think it was that funny, but people found it
Speaker:hilarious and it went completely viral.
Speaker:There's a guy called Mickey indigo he's he's on tick-tock and normally his Tik TOK
Speaker:stuff gets maybe 6,008,000 sort of views.
Speaker:And his, his little video of us in this instance got 2.7 million views.
Speaker:And certainly the ABC version, just hundreds of thousands, it
Speaker:was an amazing viral moment.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:So to all those people who said, do you see this?
Speaker:Yes, we saw it.
Speaker:So, Joe, have you got a theory as to why it went viral, hail Satan and anything
Speaker:involving Satan is popular and I thing.
Speaker:So on the atheist side, and I think that's two fingers up to mainstream.
Speaker:Religion is popular and for the religious, it's a proof that at the
Speaker:end times are here, that Jesus is coming and the evil has taken over.
Speaker:It, it feeds into their motivation complex.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It, apparently the algorithm worked and all these people in this sort of queue and
Speaker:on type thing, he worried about Satanists.
Speaker:This was proved to them that somehow satanic forces were at work.
Speaker:And that's the reason it went viral was because.
Speaker:It, it tapped into the algorithms for these crazy Cuellar non people.
Speaker:So that's one of the theories that anyway, it's to why it went so big.
Speaker:So, so yeah, that was so that was interesting.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:In the chat room, what lead Don?
Speaker:John, Chris.
Speaker:Good on you.
Speaker:And I think I mentioned Ross, I think saw Ross in there.
Speaker:So yes.
Speaker:Or I'd keep making comments.
Speaker:We'll try and get to them if we can.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Now still on sort of news, a template of site and stuff.
Speaker:This, I saw a post from the Queensland parents for secular state schools, where
Speaker:they had stumbled across a, a school, which was the Bundaberg east state school.
Speaker:So on their website, they said that they offer religious instruction and
Speaker:they listed the number of faiths that are offering religious instruction
Speaker:at this government school in bundle.
Speaker:25 of them, 25 different faiths.
Speaker:Or did you see this one?
Speaker:Charlie or Joe, or only when I sent it to you?
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Was it 25 providers or was it 25 religions have signed up to a group provider though?
Speaker:It was probably done as a group thing.
Speaker:I'm not sure about that, but Ann street, gospel, chapel apostolic church of
Speaker:Queensland Bundaberg Baptist church under the Bible chapel Bundaberg
Speaker:Catholic communities, Bundaberg church of Christ, Bundaberg west
Speaker:Baptist Christ, church Anglican, city coast, church, coral coast, Christian
Speaker:Church, Crofton street, gospel hall.
Speaker:Good shepherd Anglican.
Speaker:It just goes on and on.
Speaker:I wonder, did, did any of them have to go to the Supreme court to prove
Speaker:the common faith for their followers?
Speaker:Because Christian Christianity has given a shoe in isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Mind you Crofton street, gospel hall.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:The only one that didn't have Christian in the name I could community church.
Speaker:If we had just called ourselves a Noosa church of Christ, we
Speaker:would have been straight in.
Speaker:So it's it's anyway, they make the, the point Queensland pants
Speaker:for secular state schools.
Speaker:Like some of these groups are outrageous, for example, the
Speaker:Crofton street gospel hall.
Speaker:If you look at their website they say things like they've got a question,
Speaker:answer area in their website.
Speaker:Do women speak or contribute to your services?
Speaker:Answer?
Speaker:No limit do not take audible part in our services.
Speaker:We believe the Bible is very clear on this point, quite
Speaker:Corinthians chapter 14, verse 34.
Speaker:Another question.
Speaker:Do the women in your church have their heads covered?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Once again, we believe that this is what the Bible teachers and
Speaker:they quote the scripture for that.
Speaker:So they're really hardcore.
Speaker:Do they wear mixed fabrics?
Speaker:Is the question.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's the sort who can waltz into our government school system
Speaker:putting women in their place.
Speaker:And they're worried about sadness and stoning.
Speaker:They're unruly children.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, so good on you Queensland pants for secular state school for for
Speaker:finding that group and As I said here, how messed up the RI system is
Speaker:in this state and how selective the concern of the education department
Speaker:is about who gets into our schools.
Speaker:It's more worried about the letter of the law and the optics can't let in those evil
Speaker:Satanists, but the door is wide open to groups with sexist and backward thinking.
Speaker:If they just call themselves Christians, very true members of the national party.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Thanks.
Speaker:To keep up with what happens with voluntary assisted dying
Speaker:in Queensland, the health and environment committee report came out.
Speaker:And basically there were no surprises.
Speaker:The three ALP members supported the proposed bill for voluntary
Speaker:assisted dying in its entirety.
Speaker:There was a dissenting report from the one nation MP.
Speaker:Steve Andrews.
Speaker:He played the I'm a Christian card saying it was reckless.
Speaker:And he also played the south sea Islander card saying there's a lack of consultation
Speaker:with indigenous Queenslanders.
Speaker:And there was a Dr.
Speaker:Monique Robinson had a dissenting report that just parroted
Speaker:the position of cherish life.
Speaker:But the deputy LMP, Rob mole awake he made a statement of reservation and took
Speaker:a swipe at labor and quoted Wendy Francis.
Speaker:But there weren't any real objections from him.
Speaker:So maybe the LNP might be getting nervous about the overwhelming public
Speaker:support for voluntary assisted dying.
Speaker:So, so that'll be interesting to see how that pans out.
Speaker:So so I did see the Catholic response.
Speaker:What did it say?
Speaker:They said that they didn't care what the law was.
Speaker:They weren't going to allow it on their property.
Speaker:It's okay.
Speaker:So that was with the hospitals?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So the master hospital and all of the respite care and all of the end
Speaker:of life facilities, the Catholic church, which apparently is 30%, 40%
Speaker:of the state's beds for aged care.
Speaker:Catholic facilities provide one in five.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:One in five, only 20%.
Speaker:They went freedom.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I'm the hospital.
Speaker:As I see fit, I want the freedom to interfere in your life.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And to ignore the laws of the land that everyone else has to
Speaker:abide by, because they're special.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Because yeah.
Speaker:So the Catholic hospitals, I say they will defy Queensland's euthanasia law.
Speaker:So the martyr they're not euthanasia laws.
Speaker:There's no euthanasia involved.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But that's how they describe it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So they say they won't be exceeding to the laws.
Speaker:We will not tolerate non-credentialed doctors coming on site, normally assist
Speaker:in the provision of voluntary assisted dying in any of our facilities, said
Speaker:Francis Sullivan chair of the Marta group.
Speaker:So it sounds to me like grounds for compulsory purchasing back.
Speaker:I think we could probably take the children's hospital back
Speaker:for the amount that the Catholic church were going to buy.
Speaker:It wasn't a dollar, it couldn't point, but it takes so much of our money to
Speaker:run these things and then they don't want to be part of it basically.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's just, it's this whole.
Speaker:It's just like the people with the lockdowns, it's buggy, the rest of you.
Speaker:I just want to do what I want and I just don't care.
Speaker:And I deserve government funding to do that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Victoria, navigate this when they legislated it they didn't
Speaker:have this section in, so down there they were exempt.
Speaker:So Queensland is the first to really put the hard word on and try and force
Speaker:the Catholic institutions to comply.
Speaker:So let me just see what it says here.
Speaker:Deputy premier, Stephen Miles said cases where VAD doctors
Speaker:would offer services at faith run facilities would be very, very rare.
Speaker:It's only those circumstances where it would be unfair would cause
Speaker:unnecessary suffering to transfer the patient to a provider where
Speaker:those services can be provided.
Speaker:So I think from memory, it was if people are in a Catholic hospital
Speaker:and I want to access voluntary, assisted dying, the hospital has
Speaker:to assist them in transferring to a hospital that will allow it.
Speaker:I think that's the way the law is written.
Speaker:But if for some circumstance it can't be done.
Speaker:Then under the law, the Catholic system has to offer the service or
Speaker:allow other doctors in to offer the service to allow other doctors in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So really Steven Miles is saying it's going to be pretty rig
Speaker:case where somebody is in such a state that they can't transfer.
Speaker:So this all comes back to a case in Canada, where there was this person who.
Speaker:Was in enormous pain and had to be taken out of pain relief in order to be
Speaker:competent enough to sign these documents and then had this horrendously painful
Speaker:ambulance journey to another hospital that was like, excrutiatingly painful.
Speaker:So it does happen where people can't be moved.
Speaker:So so yeah, Catholics just saying, well, we'll take all of your
Speaker:money, all of your society's stuff.
Speaker:But when there's laws passed, we don't like, we'll just bug you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, it was like the mandatory reporting that they raised to do.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So just in the chat room John salmon sets the word euthanasia is
Speaker:derived from the Greek word youth.
Speaker:They're not toss, meaning easy death.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:But the point was euthanasia is where the doctor ministers, the medicine
Speaker:it's voluntary, assisted dying is the doctor prescribes the medicine, but
Speaker:it's the patient who, by their own hand.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:Although I think the legislation allows for assistance if they're not
Speaker:capable of it, possibly Marie yeah.
Speaker:From memory.
Speaker:So okay.
Speaker:Just looking at the chat okay.
Speaker:Now still on some Christian bashing, they've given a bit
Speaker:in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker:So Matt Niles he's come out and said that.
Speaker:So the Australian Christian lobby believes it says that believers
Speaker:should push for COVID freedom.
Speaker:So he's big on anti locked down and pro freedom.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Basically says that Christians shouldn't be afraid of dying.
Speaker:Because ultimately if you're a good Christian where you're going to go,
Speaker:which is interesting because I've heard hospital orderlies and nurses
Speaker:who talk about end-of-life care.
Speaker:And they said, it's the Christians who are deathly afraid.
Speaker:Whereas those with after religion, RSDs, those who are true, believers
Speaker:are almost certain that they're going to hell because, because
Speaker:it's a vengeful and petty God.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So Richard Dennis in a tweet said something like, well, I'm confused.
Speaker:The so-called pro-life Christians who were antique voluntary, assisted
Speaker:dying, because you don't want to die early, earlier than necessary.
Speaker:I prefer people to be able to die because they want to go shopping.
Speaker:I think maybe.
Speaker:Prove their faith by doing some snake handling like, like the the ones in
Speaker:the Southern us having rattlesnakes to prove that God will protect them in.
Speaker:We, one of them gets bitten and dies, that sort of thing.
Speaker:So okay.
Speaker:What else in the chat room?
Speaker:So at that, okay.
Speaker:It's still on the Australian Christian lobby.
Speaker:And let me share this screen, if it comes up which they put out a full
Speaker:page ad, which was, are you safe at work to talk about your faith?
Speaker:Australians of faith have the right to protection.
Speaker:And then they repeat this quote of Scott Morrison.
Speaker:When he said religious freedom is a core pillar of our society
Speaker:and it's not unreasonable.
Speaker:And I think there are many millions of Australians who would like to see.
Speaker:Protected and I intend to follow through on that commitment.
Speaker:So this is the Australian Christian lobby putting the hard word on
Speaker:Scott Morrison about passing the religious discrimination bill.
Speaker:And, but the whole point is the whole point is their question.
Speaker:Is, are you safe at work to talk about your faith?
Speaker:Well, everybody is except if you're a non-Christian working
Speaker:in a Christian workplace.
Speaker:Oh no, no.
Speaker:It's actually the very people.
Speaker:So I have an equal opportunity employer.
Speaker:I'm sure if I was to rig it, ridiculed the younger creationists
Speaker:in my office, I would find myself on the wrong end of an HR complaint.
Speaker:So I'm not free to talk about like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Or let's face it in Australia.
Speaker:If somebody is going to be persecuted because of their faith in the workplace.
Speaker:The most likely scenario is that you're a, non-Christian working in a
Speaker:Christian school and they found out and they put somebody else in there.
Speaker:Like that's the person most likely to be persecuted or as the lesbian, the
Speaker:other week that they had a difference of opinion as to whether or not you could
Speaker:be a good Christian and have sex outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So just you know, the, just so Shane was these people, facts don't matter.
Speaker:I've nearly finished my, I have finished my rant on Christians actually.
Speaker:Now I've got one more to go.
Speaker:When you just, before you move on.
Speaker:I just I, I love a good rally.
Speaker:Makes me feel peaceful.
Speaker:And on the 4th of September, there will be a gathering with among rainbow light.
Speaker:To stop religious discrimination.
Speaker:So anyway, because any Brisbane listeners I'll be there, I should be there.
Speaker:One pitch has been square.
Speaker:The worst suggestions that possibly something else could be done, like a
Speaker:rally with cars, where everyone stays in their cars and just proceeds in that way.
Speaker:So that there isn't like a car rally.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Rather than a mass gathering of people,
Speaker:it might've been canceled since then.
Speaker:I think I only received that last week or raise fairly recently.
Speaker:I'll follow it up anyway.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Doors.
Speaker:We could do that.
Speaker:There's no problem.
Speaker:If doors be fine.
Speaker:Well, I'm moving in the wrong circle shape.
Speaker:Clearly, I subscribed to everything about religion that's going on in Australia.
Speaker:And I'm a member of the labor party.
Speaker:I had no idea that this is going on.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and I'm a good mates with Robin Bristow.
Speaker:One of Australia's most notorious gaming, like famous infamous.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Infamous.
Speaker:So okay.
Speaker:Well I missed that one, so, okay.
Speaker:So 4th of September.
Speaker:And where is it?
Speaker:It's just a March Brisbane square.
Speaker:Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:4th of September stop religious discrimination.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'll try and get to that.
Speaker:Fortunately, one of the I'd rather you didn't.
Speaker:For the church of the flying spaghetti monster is not about
Speaker:or is about not proselytizing.
Speaker:So I'll be, I'll be unable to proselytize to the Christians at work.
Speaker:Once this religious freedom bill comes through is like I said, they non
Speaker:proselytizers the church of the flying spaghetti monster part of like the
Speaker:do's and don'ts combined convert people to proselytize is to try and convert.
Speaker:So a school chaplains, for example, who must be religious to have the
Speaker:job are not allowed to proselytize, meaning they're not allowed to
Speaker:try and sell their religion.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And finally, yes, finally, I'm a bit of religious bashing.
Speaker:Ryan Houston has been charged, so head of the Hillsong church and new south
Speaker:Wales police I've charged him now.
Speaker:Be careful everybody with defamation laws here maybe remain silent if
Speaker:you don't know for sure, but I'm just reading from what I've got.
Speaker:Crikey here.
Speaker:So he's been charged in relation to how he handled the case of Brett sang stock.
Speaker:As a little boy was sexually abused by Frank Houston, the pioneering figure of
Speaker:what would become Hillsong in Australia.
Speaker:So Brian Houston's dad, Frank Houston is dead seeing savvy
Speaker:like about Frank Houston.
Speaker:You'll be okay.
Speaker:And he was a pedophile and it was all about the delay in Brian
Speaker:Houston, notifying the authorities of what his father was up to.
Speaker:So which he had lied to in the Royal commission.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So he admitted to a delay to knowing it.
Speaker:So the criminal charge relates to events from two decades ago when
Speaker:Houston failed to notify police.
Speaker:When he allegedly became aware that he's fine, At sexually abused a young boy.
Speaker:So this all comes under section 3, 1 6 of the new south Wales crime act.
Speaker:And the elements of it are the accused person knows, believes, or reasonably
Speaker:ought to know that a child abuse offense has been committed and they know
Speaker:believable, reasonably ought to know they have information that might be of material
Speaker:assistance in securing the apprehension of the offender or prosecution.
Speaker:And they fail without reasonable excuse to bring that information to the attention
Speaker:of the police as soon as practicable.
Speaker:So the question will be what would be reasonable excuse to not bring
Speaker:the information forward to the police about your father abusing a boy.
Speaker:And there's a list of available reasonable excuses.
Speaker:It includes things where it khesed reasonably believed
Speaker:that the police already know.
Speaker:Or where the alleged victim is an adult at that time that the accused finds
Speaker:out about the offense and the accused reasonably believes that the alleged
Speaker:victim doesn't want the police to be told.
Speaker:So and the accused can also try for a reason, Annabelle,
Speaker:excuse, not in the list.
Speaker:So there are other things.
Speaker:So anyway, it's going to come down to what was his reasons for not
Speaker:giving notice to the police and it have symmetry going on here.
Speaker:We've got Brian Houston, big Powell of Scott Morrison on, on a charge
Speaker:related to Charlie pal of the former police commissioner of new south Wales.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And not so long ago we had Cardinal pill, big power of the then of prime minister
Speaker:of what was he then prime minister No.
Speaker:I think Tony Tony Abbott was he prime minister at the time.
Speaker:And the charges in any event, high profile sort of Peter file related cases.
Speaker:Not that Brian Houston's charged with failure, but concealment.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So of course, Brian Houston's main claim to fame is that Scott Morrison invited
Speaker:him to the white house as part of a group that we're going to the white house.
Speaker:Do you remember that show?
Speaker:Yes, I do.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And, and you know, it's a real badge of honor for Brian Houston that he, he
Speaker:was, his character is such that even the Trump white house said we better not have
Speaker:this guy here, knocked him back our bad.
Speaker:If you've got a boom right.
Speaker:Well, it just wouldn't be 2021.
Speaker:If we didn't talk about cars, Step yourselves in it.
Speaker:Listen, I know you might be a little bit tired of it, but some
Speaker:interesting stuff has come out.
Speaker:The essential report came out today.
Speaker:So so I've got some stuff here, which is how would you rate your state government's
Speaker:response to the COVID 19 outbreak and probably no surprise that when it comes
Speaker:to writing your state as a good response in new south Wales, 40% Victoria,
Speaker:44%, meanwhile, Queensland 67, south Australia, 76 in Western Australia, 78.
Speaker:So there's going to be a common theme in these opinion, polls where new south
Speaker:Wales and Victoria pretty bad in terms of what people are thinking of them.
Speaker:So so yeah.
Speaker:How would you rate your state government's response?
Speaker:New south Wales in Victoria, people in Victoria, really angry.
Speaker:The ones I talked to anecdotally.
Speaker:What else have I got here?
Speaker:The next one is but lockdowns don't work.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And basically, you know, it wasn't that long ago, 7th of
Speaker:June, that new south Wales, was it 69% and now it's down to 40%.
Speaker:So it was second top at one stage down to the bottom in terms of approval
Speaker:by the public of their response is an interesting one is thinking about
Speaker:the lightest COVID lockdown area.
Speaker:Do you think the restrictions are too strong about right too weak?
Speaker:And this was only in places where it actually had been a lockdown.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And essentially for thinking it was too strong.
Speaker:The new south Wales, 28% Victoria, 35% Queensland, 20 south Australia,
Speaker:12 Western, Australia, 30.
Speaker:So and in the about right states it was new south Wales and
Speaker:Victoria performing the worst.
Speaker:And let me just see if we've got, I think people are getting to the point
Speaker:where they start to lose patience with the lockdowns in Victoria, especially.
Speaker:And this is the one that I really wanted to get to, and that is what do
Speaker:you think about this deal this night?
Speaker:What do you think is an acceptable number of deaths to
Speaker:deal with per year from COVID?
Speaker:So there's a lot of talk happening at the moment.
Speaker:When do we open up our economy?
Speaker:When do we stop with the lockdowns at what percentage vaccination, right.
Speaker:Do we decide that's it we're really going to avoid lockdowns unless there's
Speaker:something quite extraordinary happening.
Speaker:And we know there are going to be some infections and we know
Speaker:there's going to be some deaths and we just have to live with some.
Speaker:And so the question is what, what's the number of deaths per year?
Speaker:That for the, for the whole of Australia, that you would consider
Speaker:acceptable number for us to sort of stop this lockdown situation shy.
Speaker:Did you have an, a number in your mind that you would have thought was,
Speaker:was reasonable for Australia in terms of number of deaths that you would
Speaker:have thought, ah, a thousand a year.
Speaker:Fair enough.
Speaker:That's if, if or 2000 or a hundred, like, did you have a number in mind?
Speaker:I, I probably haven't really considered the consequences of people dying, but both
Speaker:my mom and my younger sister are nurses.
Speaker:So I just sort of consider it from how many beds we have and yeah, where
Speaker:like, yeah, I don't have a number of pop, but that's all I think about it.
Speaker:I think about the risk to my youngest sister is already puts herself at risk
Speaker:in a general medical ward all the time is frequently, you know pushed already.
Speaker:That's what I think about is the number of beds in hospitals the whole time.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Judge, do you have a number in your head if they said, well, when vaccinations
Speaker:reach 80% of the adult population and we calculate that, that will mean.
Speaker:A thousand deaths a year and we decide we're going to open up to just
Speaker:does a thousand sound like an okay.
Speaker:Number to you.
Speaker:Is there a number that, you know, go ahead that you think so, so flu
Speaker:is I believe around 1500 a year.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So if it was around 1500, it would be equivalent to flu.
Speaker:The question is, if we're adding that on top of flu, we've now
Speaker:doubled the death rate a year.
Speaker:And also, I don't know that flu has the ongoing complications, so it
Speaker:isn't measuring it against the flu, a valid proposition anyway, like,
Speaker:well, it's considerably tagine, but they're talking about it becoming
Speaker:endemic and having COVID seasons.
Speaker:Like we have flu seasons.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So if it was an equivalent.
Speaker:A problem that flu is we've lived with flu for a long time.
Speaker:Now, obviously with all the lockdowns we've had, we've had no
Speaker:flu, we've had absolutely yeah.
Speaker:Record low numbers of flu cases.
Speaker:So, and that they think that the bounce back is that we're going to have a
Speaker:bad flu season when we do open up.
Speaker:But if we had a similar number of people in total, I think dying or flu and COVID
Speaker:I think that's a relatively valid call.
Speaker:The question is, you know, in terms of not mortality, but morbidity, if we
Speaker:have people with long-term disabilities because of COVID there may be, the
Speaker:answer is the same as with with measles where we are aiming for zero.
Speaker:And just because the current vaccine.
Speaker:Isn't great.
Speaker:Doesn't mean that the next generation won't be, if, for example, they were
Speaker:saying, look at 80% we could stop lockdowns pretty much, except in
Speaker:quite extraordinary circumstances.
Speaker:And we know for example, 2000 people are going to die, but if we waited another
Speaker:year and got up to 90%, then we would know that basically zero would die.
Speaker:For example, just as a hypothetical.
Speaker:So I'm just trying to paint it in a hypothetical situation.
Speaker:I sort of think we've reached the point where we are prepared to spend
Speaker:or to cop a couple of thousand lives.
Speaker:I reckon in order to, to get the whole of Australia back to.
Speaker:If it, if, if, if it got Australia back to normal, I would, I
Speaker:would've thought the figure would be around a couple of thousand.
Speaker:I don't think we're ever going to get back to normal.
Speaker:There's talk about masks being a long-term thing.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But, but in sense of lockdowns stopping and businesses, being able to open
Speaker:pretty much all the time now they might be, well, I think international
Speaker:travel is probably the peak one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So anyway, the essential report did a survey and they said, how many deaths
Speaker:nationally from COVID-19 do you think is acceptable to live with in Australia
Speaker:as locked down, restrictions are removed and the head less than a hundred
Speaker:between a hundred and a thousand between 1,003 thousand, between 3000 and 5,000
Speaker:and more than 5,000 deaths per year.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Biggest one by long way was less than a hundred per year,
Speaker:which was 61% of respondents.
Speaker:The next was between a hundred and a thousand deaths per year.
Speaker:That was going to be acceptable to 25% of the respondents.
Speaker:And then between 1,003 thousand deaths per year is probably where I am.
Speaker:And I'm in a mere 10% of the population on that one.
Speaker:So I was quite shocked that the current thinking was that lockdowns
Speaker:can't end if there's a risk of more than a hundred deaths per year,
Speaker:that seems a very low number to me.
Speaker:I don't know that it's surprised by that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't think it is either.
Speaker:I mean, what's yeah.
Speaker:I, that to me was an unrealistic figure to think that.
Speaker:If as the acceptable figure, it was why too low, I think, in the
Speaker:chat room, what do you think?
Speaker:What was your in your chat room?
Speaker:Could you let me know what you think in your head you would have thought as the
Speaker:acceptable annual death rate from COVID to live with in Australia is locked down.
Speaker:Restrictions are removed.
Speaker:So yeah, that shocked me.
Speaker:And just on that figure, so 61% went for a hundred deaths or less per year.
Speaker:In terms of female, 70% of females thought that 52% of males, so females
Speaker:more likely to be quite conservative.
Speaker:So so what lead the wizard says it may not be a realistic figure,
Speaker:but I think it demonstrates how many people are inherently decent.
Speaker:I'm feeling like I'm not decent with that one.
Speaker:What leaks
Speaker:all the way up, like it's.
Speaker:Because there is a weighing up this of, you know, the lockdowns do have an
Speaker:emotional cost and they, I mean, yes.
Speaker:It's yeah.
Speaker:The other question is when we tap these figures of, you know,
Speaker:70 or 80%, is that of the total population or is that yes, adults?
Speaker:Like the dynamic.
Speaker:How about exile?
Speaker:I guess people don't really think of kids dying from it.
Speaker:It doesn't matter if kids are unvaccinated, then it
Speaker:will spread through the kids.
Speaker:And if you're an 80% of adults, 60% of the total population.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:So I think this would have been talking about people 16 years, plus
Speaker:I think so time to move on to some modeling and let me just quickly
Speaker:see where we are on that one.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I'll get rid of that stuff on the screen.
Speaker:So we all look a bit bigger, right.
Speaker:So what do we have here?
Speaker:It's going to be the pandemic of the unvaccinated essentially
Speaker:is what is becoming obvious.
Speaker:So bricks, now this article might be a week old or something, but at
Speaker:that point, current numbers from new south Wales shall have the 66
Speaker:people in ICU, 59 are not vaccinated.
Speaker:Seven have had one dose.
Speaker:No one currently in ICU or requiring ventilation has been fully vaccinated.
Speaker:So that was in Sydney probably about a week ago.
Speaker:By the age of that article.
Speaker:I'm not exactly sure.
Speaker:I, I honestly, 98% in the states critical care patients or deaths are on vaccines.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So it's going to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated in Iceland.
Speaker:They've got 93% of the population, 16 years or older vaccinated, they're
Speaker:getting 2,783 cases over the past 30 days.
Speaker:They've had no deaths in the past 30 days from COVID because that high
Speaker:vaccination rate, so what we need to do is a quick recap on our national plan.
Speaker:So this was about phase I B, C, and D I say, phases on stun.
Speaker:Does do people stay?
Speaker:Yeah, the plan was it, the plan is to get Morrison reelected.
Speaker:That's the plan.
Speaker:That seems to be the plan.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So there was phase a phase B phase C and phase D.
Speaker:So phase I was pretty much where we are at the moment.
Speaker:Phase B was supposedly 70% vaccination.
Speaker:Where lockdowns would be less likely.
Speaker:And some of the special rules would be easing restrictions
Speaker:on vaccinated residents.
Speaker:So maybe vaccinated people would have a bit more freedom to oh,
Speaker:Constance or something like that.
Speaker:Oh, no, you do that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that was guys be 70% vaccination lockdowns, less
Speaker:likely maybe some special deals.
Speaker:If you're vaccinated in phase C, that was 80% vaccination.
Speaker:Now this is sort of 16 years and older.
Speaker:And what that was looking at was highly targeted lockdowns only, and looking
Speaker:at potentially exempting vaccinated residents from all domestic restrictions.
Speaker:So so pretty much that was phase C.
Speaker:Phase D was basically going to be highly quarantined for
Speaker:high risk inbound travelers.
Speaker:So this sort of 70% lockdowns, less likely 80% highly targeted lockdowns only.
Speaker:And so there was a report called the Dougherty report, which has come out and
Speaker:it was asked to define a target level of vaccine coverage for transmission,
Speaker:but for transmission, for to phase B of the national plane, where lockdowns
Speaker:would be less likely but possible.
Speaker:So so the Dougherty report is what's been talked about a fair bit lately, and
Speaker:I'm just going to put up on the screen now, a bit of luck, but the dirty report
Speaker:summary is for those in the chat room.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:If the vaccination rate for 16 years and older was 70% that would
Speaker:mean of the total population.
Speaker:It's 56%.
Speaker:And they thought that if there was effective what they called testing
Speaker:tracing isolation and quarantine that would still have to go on
Speaker:the deaths might be 1,520 at 70%.
Speaker:And at 80%, the deaths might be 980 per year.
Speaker:So that's what the Dougherty report kind of came up with.
Speaker:In a nutshell, the problem was the dirty reports seem to
Speaker:be premised on us, starting.
Speaker:Not many cases, which meant that the testing and tracing and the isolation
Speaker:and the quarantine would be quite effective because there wouldn't be
Speaker:that many people sick so that the testing and tracing authorities could
Speaker:actually do the job effectively.
Speaker:And now that new south Wales is getting continually out of control,
Speaker:that scenario doesn't really apply.
Speaker:So they've basically gone back to the Doherty Institute and said, redo the
Speaker:figures instead of a starting point of 30 people infected, you can have
Speaker:to start with thousands and trying to tell us what the figure is then.
Speaker:So so that's the Dougherty report and it's the problem with models
Speaker:like we've talked about in the past.
Speaker:Anyone who has faith in a models never been involved in the making of a model?
Speaker:Well, I was going to say I was listening to an epidemiologist talking
Speaker:and he said, all models are wrong.
Speaker:Some models are useful.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so I've been looking at this Dowdy model and the Grattan
Speaker:Institute did a model as well.
Speaker:And and I think the so the Delta variant it's, it's sort of our number.
Speaker:This is the number of people that are infected person will infect.
Speaker:So it's somewhere around the 5, 6, 7 sort of mark in terms of the number of people
Speaker:that, that that the, the, our number is.
Speaker:And you can reduce that our number with effective tracing
Speaker:and isolation and quarantine.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So so they pulled out some numbers, I'll put this on the screen as well,
Speaker:build up, and they put a number of scenarios where there was 50%, 70%,
Speaker:75% and 80% vaccination coverage.
Speaker:And then they assumed an R number of four, five or six in terms of how, how
Speaker:easily it spread and running the numbers.
Speaker:You get a huge variation depending on this.
Speaker:So for example, I'll just take one, which is the 75% vaccination coverage.
Speaker:And the peak daily cases would be 73,000.
Speaker:The peak ICU use would be 8,000.
Speaker:And the Tova deaths a year would be seven and a half thousand.
Speaker:But if the number instead of being six was five, then instead of seven
Speaker:and a half thousand deaths, it's 320.
Speaker:So these, this sort of exponential growth of the Delta variation, when
Speaker:you, when you're talking exponential growth, the slightest change in this,
Speaker:our number makes a huge difference.
Speaker:Again at the 80% vaccination coverage, actually.
Speaker:Sorry, I haven't got that on the screen.
Speaker:I'll have that up.
Speaker:Ju just as a aside, I've just looked measles has an
Speaker:arm zero of 16 to 18, right?
Speaker:Highly infectious.
Speaker:It is incredibly infectious.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So back to this Grattan Institute modeling this scenario at 80% vaccination
Speaker:coverage, if the effective, our number is six, there's going to be 2,250 deaths.
Speaker:But if the number is five, that's going to be 10.
Speaker:So models, models, like honestly, you cannot look at these models if
Speaker:you see them with any confidence at all, because you have no idea
Speaker:how effective any of these sort of restrictions will be on this, our number.
Speaker:Have you seen the there's a scientific body in the UK?
Speaker:I think called Sabre who advised the government and their job is to
Speaker:do effectively worst case scenarios for the government to be able to.
Speaker:And they have said that if COVID mutates like MERS was that
Speaker:had a 33% or 30% death rate.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So that doesn't happen.
Speaker:Yes, effectively.
Speaker:They're saying one of the possibilities is that COVID could
Speaker:mutate and become more deadly.
Speaker:And, and in that case, if you're having, you know, a thousand
Speaker:cases a day, a thousand infections a day, 300 of those will die.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Let's hope we don't get anywhere near that.
Speaker:But this, I just found this one from the Grattan Institute, really interesting.
Speaker:Just the same group they're running the models.
Speaker:And just the one change.
Speaker:If instead of infecting six people on average, you infect
Speaker:five on average, then the day.
Speaker:Go from seven and a half thousand down to 320, I just found it quite
Speaker:extraordinary how that worked.
Speaker:And so if you see models and when the Dodi report comes out with theirs, it's really
Speaker:a going to be a it's a guessing game.
Speaker:And I think we're just going to reach the point where they'll try things for a bit.
Speaker:They'll try it unrestricted when we get to 80%.
Speaker:And if it gets out of control and death seemed to start gathering up
Speaker:quicker than they modeled that I would.
Speaker:And we'll be back to restrictions.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A real life experiment is really what will be done.
Speaker:You can, you can have a model to give you some idea of what might happen, but gee,
Speaker:you wouldn't put a lot of faith in it.
Speaker:Would you?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You can say, like from the public figures, the chief health officers, we haven't
Speaker:come across so we can do our best to predict and hypothesize, but yeah, w we
Speaker:can see, so there are very simple steps to reduce the Azara and wearing a mask.
Speaker:Honestly, if the two of you are w so if the infected person on the
Speaker:non-infected person wears a mask, suddenly the R zero drops by.
Speaker:Even if it's only two, if your job's from six to four, it makes a huge difference.
Speaker:And people go, oh, you know, a mask doesn't stop the virus.
Speaker:If it stops 90% of the load coming out of your body.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's enough.
Speaker:And, and the same with, you know people are talking about w the,
Speaker:the air that we accept to breathe.
Speaker:We wouldn't accept drinking water at that clutter.
Speaker:And so I think there is going to become a lot more focus on
Speaker:fresh air in public spaces.
Speaker:This idea of recycling air through the air conditioning
Speaker:system over and over and over.
Speaker:There is probably going to be a complete rethink of public spaces, public
Speaker:buildings, and somewhere in Europe, I think Belgium has now enforced air
Speaker:quality monitoring, basically monitoring carbon dioxide levels as a proxy of
Speaker:how much fresh air there is because obviously we breathe out carbon dioxide.
Speaker:And so the more people you get into a space, the more carbon dioxide you
Speaker:breathe out and they have set thresholds that effectively, once you reach one
Speaker:threshold, you, I think you need to get fresh air in above a certain threshold.
Speaker:The building shut down, and this is all about reducing transmissibility.
Speaker:Can you tell me Joe, as anybody else built quarantine facilities, any
Speaker:other countries with that in mind?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so that podcast was talking about how hotel quarantine was the worst thing
Speaker:we could have done shutting everyone in these rooms with shared air conditioning.
Speaker:And how, if we just use motels instead, or like the Northern territory camp?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There everyone was in separate donors.
Speaker:It basically, it almost certainly wouldn't have broken out a quarantine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what was I going to say on that?
Speaker:So anyway, when you see a model come out, when the Dodi report comes out
Speaker:take it all with a grain of salt.
Speaker:And yeah, definitely the mask wearing is going to be with us for a long time.
Speaker:For that very reason.
Speaker:It's a big effect on that, our number.
Speaker:And when we get to the vaccination levels of 75, 80, 80 5% shifting
Speaker:that our number down just one or two notches is just going to have been
Speaker:the difference between thousands of people dying and potentially a handful.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:If you get nothing else from this episode, deal not go for that one.
Speaker:Now, does anyone else talking of masks, get frustrated with people
Speaker:who wear them around their chin.
Speaker:He goes to the shopping center and it's it's under their nose.
Speaker:Cause apparently they don't breathe out of their nose.
Speaker:Yeah, it's saying why.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, I know what it's going to say.
Speaker:My friends from Victoria who come up to well, they went up to Cairns he months
Speaker:ago when they are able to, for the most recent lockdown and they just made the
Speaker:point that there's so much more outdoor dining in Queensland and to pay to
Speaker:Victoria and even just shops, like we often have the door is open to a shop.
Speaker:Like it's a big, wide entrance.
Speaker:That's never sort of closed, whereas, but there is an air Victoria.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But in Victoria, it's a much more confined areas.
Speaker:Not nearly as outdoorsy as we are with our lifestyle in Queensland
Speaker:that's to the well, we've been lucky.
Speaker:I, it would be interesting to see what effect because obviously with
Speaker:air conditioning, you don't want to lose your cold air inside the door.
Speaker:And so they blast air down vertically across the doorway to stop all their
Speaker:escaping and whether that would stop the fresh air mixing or whether that
Speaker:would be the same as a closed door.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But my little island retreat that I was just on, we ate out every night and every
Speaker:breakfast, but it was always outdoors on a patio area and everybody else was as well.
Speaker:It was, yeah.
Speaker:Saying couldn't do any Victoria.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I had not thanked the patrons in a long, long time.
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Speaker:So, and we'll get to you again in another few months.
Speaker:I thank you very much for your time, right?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Now next topic is.
Speaker:Where are we up to in terms of time I 26?
Speaker:Let's let's do a little bit on Afghanistan.
Speaker:So thoughts as you look at it shy, and you see the images of the air lift and
Speaker:all the rest of it, what impressions do you have of the whole thing?
Speaker:Do you think this is a fiasco and Joe Biden's insane and
Speaker:they should be staying there?
Speaker:Or do you have an opinion about it at all?
Speaker:Does it strike you one layer?
Speaker:Well, I did a semi-related piece of assessment at uni.
Speaker:So I'm studying a degree in justice and the assignment task was to come up
Speaker:with a policy solution for holding our soldiers to account for their war crimes.
Speaker:And when I got that assignment, I was like,
Speaker:but luckily they fell.
Speaker:I downstairs is ex-army.
Speaker:So I asked him if I could come over for a beer and pick his brain about
Speaker:what they already have in place, what types of things they have.
Speaker:And he was like, yeah, sure.
Speaker:As long as I don't end up being with but shout out to Tim, if you're listening,
Speaker:he basically said to me that He finds it highly suspicious that the Burton report
Speaker:came out and basically cleared all the top headquarter staff of any knowledge.
Speaker:And that it's much the same, whether it was Joe Biden, Donald
Speaker:Trump, the Taliban, they have been negotiating this exit for months.
Speaker:They have known it's happening for months that they didn't put any
Speaker:structures in to start evacuating people sooner, frankly is just garbage.
Speaker:They knew they've known for months and they, they opted out.
Speaker:So the, the applicants took it down.
Speaker:Trump's proudly announcing his agreement with the Taliban.
Speaker:The Republicans took off their website the day after the evacuation so that they
Speaker:could point the fingers at Biden, but it was Trump who negotiated the ceasefire.
Speaker:It was Trump who negotiated that withdrawal.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And just so structures in place and that's, regardless of whether
Speaker:it's Australian or American, we're both kind of, I dunno, shrug
Speaker:their shoulders and it's yeah.
Speaker:I, when I saw that footage, I like cried cause it's so heartbreaking.
Speaker:The Republicans would say, well it's a shoddy exit.
Speaker:It could have been done much better than this.
Speaker:And I guess Biden would say, well, the military, tell me it wasn't
Speaker:going to happen over the weekend.
Speaker:Like a deed.
Speaker:We thought we had a few months at the end of the day, I don't think there's
Speaker:ever a pretty exit from that situation.
Speaker:It's not like you're retreating over the border.
Speaker:You're just retreating to the capital city.
Speaker:And it was always going to be an airlift of sorts.
Speaker:So it's interesting that, you know, the Taliban basically have
Speaker:allowed a hundred thousand people.
Speaker:My airplane, like they actually facilitated it and they worked together
Speaker:with the USA in terms of allowing people into the airport to escape quite
Speaker:extraordinary, really think about it.
Speaker:So it didn't shoot down any of the planes.
Speaker:And I think about a hundred thousand people have been evacuated.
Speaker:So and then, you know, the only incident besides just general chaos was the suicide
Speaker:bomber and that was Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:So hadn't blown up devices, air strikes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sworn enemies of the television in the USA.
Speaker:So you're doing well when you're the enemy of the television in the USA,
Speaker:even the Taliban can't stomach you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I dunno.
Speaker:I just think it's quite an extraordinary thing.
Speaker:That they basically stood back and even assisted the exit
Speaker:of a hundred thousand people.
Speaker:I heard a quote from a woman who was saying an Afghan woman who was saying
Speaker:yeah, the U S were propping up all Lords who were just as bad as the Taliban.
Speaker:So effectively, there were three people subjugating Afghan women.
Speaker:It was the U S army.
Speaker:It was the Taliban and it was the local warlords.
Speaker:And now that the Americans are gone, there's only two of them subjugating.
Speaker:So there's slightly more hope.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's just one, one of the troublemakers out of the scene.
Speaker:So it all comes back to this thing that these people have to
Speaker:have to go through the process of changing the society themselves.
Speaker:You just can't impose these things from outside and expect to get.
Speaker:Acceptance.
Speaker:These people have to be allowed to do it their own way.
Speaker:And so I was listening to some stuff today, basically talk, I think it was
Speaker:a late night live, basically making the point that the Taliban say what
Speaker:you like about the Taliban, but they at least are very anti-corruption and they
Speaker:will enforce a legal system of sorts.
Speaker:Now it's going to be Sharia law, but at least people could
Speaker:actually get some things enforced.
Speaker:And they're very hard on corruption.
Speaker:So they actually have some things going for them that would appeal to people.
Speaker:You can understand, some people would go, this place has been chaotic.
Speaker:At least I can get some things done with the Taliban in place.
Speaker:The Muslim brotherhood in Egypt was very much the same that
Speaker:there was lots of corruption.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the Muslim brotherhood came in and said, we will stamp out corruption.
Speaker:We will provide food.
Speaker:So the sick the poor, you know but you have to accept a law.
Speaker:So for a lot of people, it was a trade off.
Speaker:They were willing to pay.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So I optimistic, oh, it's going to be a disaster for the year and there'll
Speaker:be a, I wouldn't want to be there.
Speaker:I wouldn't want any, it's going to be very hard, but it's, it's always been hard.
Speaker:Well, that's what happens when multinationals, well, when, when
Speaker:empires keep inviting you all the time you know, the USA is just
Speaker:the most recent in a long line.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Russia, before that.
Speaker:On goals before that, like they just keep coming through British before.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So if, you know, they really need a chance to do it from within and do
Speaker:it themselves in order to change, just imposing it from the outside and
Speaker:expecting these people to swallow it.
Speaker:Whatever's imposed on them, just isn't going to work.
Speaker:So I listened to a British army interpreter who worked, served out
Speaker:loud and he said, we, we assume that it's us versus the Taliban.
Speaker:And he said that it isn't, it's, inter-tribal eight seats, family
Speaker:level conflicts that have been going on for thousands of years.
Speaker:And the foreigners coming in are just seen as easy sources of cash and weapons
Speaker:to carry on these tribal conflicts.
Speaker:And until they sought out their tribal conflicts, it's
Speaker:going to make no difference.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And if, if the Taliban sought out the corruption issue, that's one
Speaker:of the biggest issue that they need to get a grip of in that country.
Speaker:So once you've sorted the corruption out to some extent, then you can
Speaker:start working on other things.
Speaker:But if you, if you're just a corrupt society, then you
Speaker:can't really work on anything.
Speaker:So so look getting the Americans out.
Speaker:Let, if, if people just let them alone long enough, then who knows what could
Speaker:happen, but it's never going to happen with outsiders imposing their view.
Speaker:So let me quote some stuff here.
Speaker:This is from the John McAdoo blog.
Speaker:The first general lesson for Australia as an ally of the us is to recognize
Speaker:that many Americans are congenitally, unable to comprehend their anniversaries
Speaker:or to accord them for life.
Speaker:They cannot accept that other nations won't simply be prepared to abandon
Speaker:their own history and culture and the norms and institutions that have given
Speaker:rise to they've given rise to, for an American style democratic capitalist
Speaker:model Americans as a group, don't seem to understand that when forced to
Speaker:jettison their traditional institutions, administration, and governance practices
Speaker:and models, there will be resistance and backlash and enormous opportunities
Speaker:for corruption and incompetence.
Speaker:It's exactly right.
Speaker:They just think, oh, if we show these people wonderful Western liberal democracy
Speaker:they'll just jump at it and it'll all be over and that's just not how it works.
Speaker:They just don't get it.
Speaker:So it's called serfdom, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:American democracy.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So I'm actually next week, I think I might do a book review on.
Speaker:The shock doctrine, I think because people look at the third world, if
Speaker:you like, or developing countries and, and, and they see them as corrupt, see
Speaker:them as just not adopting the wonderful Western liberal democratic system.
Speaker:If only they would do it, then they would be just like us and I.
Speaker:These people are just never allowed to there's these impositions put on them,
Speaker:whether militarily by the us inviting them or financially by the international
Speaker:monetary fund in the world bank just constraining what they do, where they're
Speaker:not allowed to develop technologies because the us and others have these sort
Speaker:of copyrights in place and patents that never allow them to develop technology.
Speaker:So they're just left to grow bananas and dig up rocks out of the soil and
Speaker:they can't do the valuated things that Western countries can do.
Speaker:So this sort of behind the eight ball anyway, I think there might be next week.
Speaker:So there's a lot of criticism of Joe Biden, but I think full credit to
Speaker:him, he decided no we're out of here.
Speaker:And there would have been a lot of generals saying, oh, another
Speaker:six months, another 12 months.
Speaker:And he said, no, we're, we're out of here.
Speaker:There was actually an agreement with the Taliban that they would be out by
Speaker:August, whatever it was, because I think it was an August date because they were
Speaker:saying you've, you've made this deal.
Speaker:And if you're not out by this date, there will be repercussions.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So, so the date was imposed on him by an agreement that he
Speaker:hadn't been party to, right?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:So that's that.
Speaker:And just in terms of our involvement in Vietnam, again, the essential report
Speaker:came out with with a poll of Australians.
Speaker:So how strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements about
Speaker:Australia's involvement in the 20 year conflict in Afghanistan is the
Speaker:one that got me was the deployment of Australian troops in Afghanistan
Speaker:has benefited Afghanistan and its inhabitants 42% of Australians.
Speaker:Agree with that.
Speaker:And only 22% disagree.
Speaker:What do you 2% say the deployment of Australian troops has benefited
Speaker:Afghanistan and it's, you know, I'm saving because for my assignment, I
Speaker:had to I had to look for, or sort of give some sort of substantiate that
Speaker:what appetite the electorate had for holding Afghan soldiers to account.
Speaker:And I couldn't find anything, but I could have, might've made a, been
Speaker:at been able to make that work.
Speaker:So, Dan, yeah.
Speaker:Well only came out today, showing central report only came out today.
Speaker:So yeah, 42% of Australians think the deployment of trained troops
Speaker:in Afghanistan has benefited Afghanistan and its inhabitants.
Speaker:Like, it's not like that was going great under like the back to square one, the
Speaker:starters worse than square one, arguably.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Yeah, tell veins back in charge and it wasn't the great 20 years.
Speaker:Anyway, there's a big disparity between the urban and the regional areas.
Speaker:Ah, I'm quite shocked that so many Australians think so positively
Speaker:about our involvement there.
Speaker:I am surprised by that.
Speaker:So let me see.
Speaker:So that's Afghanistan.
Speaker:I think anybody got anything else they want to add about
Speaker:Afghanistan before I move on?
Speaker:No, no, I don't think so.
Speaker:Unless you want to hear my policy solution, this is your policy as
Speaker:to justice in terms of dealing with war crimes by Australian troops.
Speaker:And what was your pilot?
Speaker:Well, what is your policy solution?
Speaker:So my policy solution was clutching at straws, but there's
Speaker:an international criminal court.
Speaker:So the case that the government repeals laws that they brought
Speaker:in, where they basically Australia is in principle aligned with an
Speaker:international criminal court.
Speaker:But we have laws to say that we'll basically deal with anything.
Speaker:John Howard brought in laws that says we're going to
Speaker:deal with anything in house.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So I made an argument that we could repeal that law, that we
Speaker:could have our soldiers go off to the international criminal court.
Speaker:Where, where on the grounds that they would get an impartial
Speaker:hearing because the Barisone report doesn't strike me as impartial.
Speaker:Rolling.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No electoral appetite for that at all.
Speaker:So you had the crazy idea that Australian troops could just comply
Speaker:with international law, at least be put, because I just don't think
Speaker:there'll be found guilty even the way the Barrett's port was collected.
Speaker:They asked soldiers without actually saying to the soldiers,
Speaker:like what might be at stake that these matters could be put forward.
Speaker:So I think most of the evidence is what do you call it?
Speaker:Inadmissible.
Speaker:So it would be basically a way to look good and get a fair trial, possibly get
Speaker:a really good outcome for everybody.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, and for those soldiers, for the soldiers who spoke up and
Speaker:said, this is actually isn't okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Things happened cause that they lost their livelihoods.
Speaker:They lost their careers.
Speaker:They've had battles with their mental health as a result of being a snitch.
Speaker:One of the SAS troops who spoke up, had explosives outside of our house.
Speaker:So, you know, there is a case to make, even though, even though
Speaker:Australians probably don't have an appetite for, for doing it still
Speaker:could be the right thing to do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That was my policy solution.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I sounds fair enough.
Speaker:I have just this one concern where I think of soldiers 18, 19, 20, throwing
Speaker:into these conflicts, which are not like the second world war where, you know,
Speaker:you're there, it's gorilla warfare.
Speaker:It's this you're in amongst where you, you don't know friend
Speaker:or foe, they all look the same.
Speaker:It'd be very stressful situation for soldiers in a Vietnam,
Speaker:Ghana, Stan type role where.
Speaker:You know, you, you take a hill and in Vietnam, for example, and then you're
Speaker:back there the next week taking the same hill and, and you're, you're going
Speaker:through a village and you don't know whether the Vietcong in here or not.
Speaker:You don't know whether these are the people you're trying to protect,
Speaker:or the people are going to try and kill you the same in Afghanistan.
Speaker:You just don't know.
Speaker:I just have a lot of sympathy for the stress that would be on a young
Speaker:man in that situation who might then do something really bad and high,
Speaker:a big price for, but they'll put in a terribly difficult situation.
Speaker:There is a huge difference between an enlisted soldier and an SAS trooper.
Speaker:The SAS troopers are trained to within an inch of their lives.
Speaker:None of them are 17, 18, 19.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They've all got years of service behind them.
Speaker:It's, it's not that this is a one off that this is a snap thing.
Speaker:This speaks to a culture of entitlement that comes from the top all the way down.
Speaker:Even if it's not condoned, it's certainly not stamped out, but still
Speaker:you've got guys put into that culture.
Speaker:It's a very, you know, loyal T to the brotherhood type culture.
Speaker:I agree one's doing it.
Speaker:And the change has to come from the top and I, yeah, I just have some sympathy
Speaker:for it wouldn't be easy at times to say, no, I'm not doing that now.
Speaker:It's all very easy back here to say that.
Speaker:So, so Mila, I was stopped by a helicopter pilot who pulled her.
Speaker:Pissed aloud and threatened to shoot American soldiers in
Speaker:the middle of the massacre.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:And that was extraordinary.
Speaker:That was extraordinary.
Speaker:Would you have done that?
Speaker:I don't know until you're in this situation, how can you honestly say
Speaker:find it so extraordinary makes it think that we probably wouldn't have, and
Speaker:if he had turned his back and walked away, is he as guilty of a war crime
Speaker:for having allowed, allowed attack?
Speaker:It's just, he was an officer.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:As, as an AMA and he would have been an officer, so yeah.
Speaker:In fact, he would have been more than complicit as the senior or
Speaker:one of the senior officers onsite.
Speaker:So to allow that, to carry on.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Anyway, I'm just, I agree.
Speaker:It's good idea that they should be subject to international law and
Speaker:adjudication by independent body.
Speaker:That's good.
Speaker:Part of the case was is that perhaps with that level of impartiality, they
Speaker:might be able to give us some more dirt on more people up the chain.
Speaker:Like yeah, because I, I, my ideal solution was to hold the big, the
Speaker:big boys, you know, like John Howard to account, but I had to be able to
Speaker:bind a policy solution that had been used somewhere else in the world.
Speaker:So as far as I could tell, we hadn't ever successfully tried a
Speaker:prime minister for Rowan that they didn't commit, but had directed to.
Speaker:So anyway, that Paul would say that's left work, gone crazy yet.
Speaker:But I remember the opposite with the SAS shooting, IRA members in general.
Speaker:And the outcry in the British press that these, these poor, our IRA members
Speaker:had been shot dead and hadn't been arrested and allowed to face God.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And the point was, they were planning to set off a bomb in the middle of a tourist.
Speaker:It was a military parade in front of tourists.
Speaker:So they were going to, they were going to kill hundreds of tourists and they
Speaker:were shot dead by the SAS, whether it was justified or not certainly this
Speaker:wasn't innocent villages that the soldiers didn't know right or wrong.
Speaker:These were criminals who were in the process of a crime
Speaker:of a terrorist atrocity.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So I don't know that the military is always given a free pass to comparing,
Speaker:you know, what has gone on here.
Speaker:With the accountability that has been held in other places, again with SAS,
Speaker:I think maybe it needs a, a whistle blowing service, somebody
Speaker:who you can anonymously contact.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well man, the, my next one I have, I did discuss that, that the army doesn't have
Speaker:a, you know, HR department for national security reasons and that type of thing.
Speaker:And certainly like at Quantis and in my experience in a, in a range of things
Speaker:where I've basically had to deviate from procedure or had to make a complaint,
Speaker:having that separate structure.
Speaker:Like I, a security, like I hate department, like my chain of command.
Speaker:I have a whole range of accessible places that I can go to report something.
Speaker:And then I've got a whole range of going somewhere else, if I'm
Speaker:not satisfied with the outcome.
Speaker:And it seems like the army doesn't have that.
Speaker:So if you're being bullied by your commanding officer, you go to his
Speaker:commanding officer and that's it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And that actually doesn't work all of the time.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it was one of your recommendations, our HR department for the no stuck
Speaker:with international criminal court.
Speaker:I just stuck to one thing I wanted to do HR, but I, again, I couldn't find
Speaker:any other military service that also offers the HR department in the world.
Speaker:You know obviously there was the TV show JAG.
Speaker:Is there a effectively military police service that is responsible
Speaker:for the behavior of soldiers?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But that's about prosecuting them after they've reached some military rules.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or it's just like a private police force for dealing with military personnel.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That definitely, that definitely would be someone somewhere.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Find it in time.
Speaker:All right, well I'm going to leave my social contract talk quite another time.
Speaker:I think that'll be Nick.
Speaker:Next week, I think, oh, well next week it'll just be me and somebody or
Speaker:book review or something like that.
Speaker:So we will come back as a panel in two weeks time in the chat room.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Lots of comments.
Speaker:They are you guys chat away amongst yourselves about all sorts of things.
Speaker:It's hard to keep track of what you're actually, because you're referring to
Speaker:what other people have said good on you.
Speaker:What Lee's been busy in there in very busy bottling.
Speaker:So may I make a request?
Speaker:I of the audience, I finally got the courage to listen back to my previous
Speaker:episodes and got used to my voice and I actually don't see that I'm improving.
Speaker:So what I thought about might be worthwhile is I would love it if
Speaker:an audience member might be able to give some of their time to
Speaker:just riff with me prior to a show.
Speaker:So if any of you are interested in that, could you please pass your
Speaker:contact details on to Trevor and say, yes, I'd be willing to talk to Shay to
Speaker:just like, not out some of the issues.
Speaker:And it would be good if you were someone that's really cutthroat and down the line.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Feelings.
Speaker:Just like to say, what's your point, what's your view?
Speaker:You haven't done this, so you haven't done that.
Speaker:And I'll be able to just like develop myself much more quickly in that way.
Speaker:So anyway, Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think that was, that's a different thing.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I heard it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I just thought I'd throw it out there.
Speaker:If, if anybody's I don't know, got some spare time that
Speaker:would be really useful to me.
Speaker:And I'd really appreciate that.
Speaker:So I just Pasco details onto travel and I'll take it from there.
Speaker:Go to the website, hit the contact link and send us a note and I'll pass
Speaker:you onto Shai and you can riff away and practice all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:So so that's all good.
Speaker:Yeah, I don't think I can go too much further.
Speaker:I'll spend too much time back in those messages, but good on you for everyone
Speaker:who was in there and chatting away amongst yourselves, much appreciated.
Speaker:Yeah, if you've seen any articles.
Speaker:Ah, thanks, John.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Yeah, actually I do have John's details.
Speaker:I can give that to you.
Speaker:So, all right.
Speaker:Well, a bit of wind up.
Speaker:Thank you for your attention and your listening.
Speaker:Thank you to the patrons as well.
Speaker:That's much appreciated and we'll talk to the panel in two weeks time,
Speaker:but I'll be back maybe an interview, maybe a book review, not sure next
Speaker:week about something, but until then.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:Goodbye.
Speaker:Thanks for tonight.
Speaker:Good night from him.