Well, hello there, dear listener.
Speaker:This is the iron fist and the velvet glove podcast.
Speaker:It is Tuesday 17th of August, 2021.
Speaker:And I think we're up to episode 300 night.
Speaker:Not quite sure.
Speaker:I just checked.
Speaker:It is 3 0 9.
Speaker:Thank you, Joe.
Speaker:The tech guy.
Speaker:So anyway, episode 309, the iron fist and the velvet glove podcast,
Speaker:where we talk about news and politics and sex and religion.
Speaker:I of course am Trevor AKA, the iron fist with me with a new microphone that you
Speaker:gathered today and the sound's great.
Speaker:The video's great.
Speaker:Shea.
Speaker:Welcome back again.
Speaker:Good evening.
Speaker:Hi everybody.
Speaker:And Joe, the tech guy is there as well evening all so, oh yes.
Speaker:In the chat room, say hello so that we know you're there and
Speaker:we'll try and get to you comments.
Speaker:We don't have a whole heap of.
Speaker:Topics that I normally have.
Speaker:So we'll probably be looking for some comments from the chat room.
Speaker:So by all means, make a comment, say, hello, it'd be great.
Speaker:And well, what are we going to be talking about tonight?
Speaker:I think we have to talk about new south Wales and lockdowns and Gladys
Speaker:Berejiklian and probably a bit about Afghanistan and Shay, you found something
Speaker:interesting about legalization of prostitution and thoughts about that
Speaker:and a whole bunch of different topics.
Speaker:So we'll kick them off and see what rabbit holes we end up going down.
Speaker:Thanks to dire straits.
Speaker:He says a lot on the chat room and well, shall he got any friends
Speaker:in new south Wales in Sydney?
Speaker:Do you have any friends in bemoaning their situation?
Speaker:I have a bunch of cousins in Newcastle and I have a couple in rave SPE.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Unhappy my cousins in new console, we're planning to get, this is the, the
Speaker:time they've rescheduled their wedding.
Speaker:So that's been just canned as well.
Speaker:Cause it was what happened in Brisbane.
Speaker:And do you think they're bitter bit, I mean, anecdote isn't, you know, a number
Speaker:of anecdotes isn't the plural of anecdote isn't data, but we'll do it anyway.
Speaker:Your friends, are they like so pissed with Berejiklian that they can't
Speaker:wait to vote her out next time?
Speaker:Or you think it's got no, right.
Speaker:No, I don't think it's connected.
Speaker:They seem to be just like pissed off at their circumstance, but like,
Speaker:get that it's a pandemic and they just they're pretty fair about it.
Speaker:They just say, you know, like we're in new territory all the time and we don't know.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Like you can tell that, you know, the premiers off kind of
Speaker:fumbling their way through it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And that's what I find with, with, you know, anecdotally with
Speaker:Australians, they are quite gracious.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Well, I'm not the health report today.
Speaker:They said for every week you take to go into lockdown, you get five times as many
Speaker:cases for every week you go into lockdown or that you don't go into lockdown.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You get fired.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yup.
Speaker:That wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker:And that was before Delta, but at one level I could be sympathetic
Speaker:for any political leader that some of this happens beyond your
Speaker:control and you can be just online.
Speaker:But in the case of Berejiklian, she really annoyed me with her comments
Speaker:in relation to dictate a day in.
Speaker:And she was so cocky about how different they were in new south Wales.
Speaker:So my son sent me a link to a YouTube video, which goes for about seven
Speaker:minutes and I've condensed it down to about two minutes, which is.
Speaker:Highlights the hypocrisy of Gladys.
Speaker:So I'm going to play that.
Speaker:It's going to go for two minutes and 11 seconds and have listened to this new
Speaker:south Wales is the gold standard and new south Wales is the gold standard.
Speaker:I'm very proud of your time.
Speaker:The prime minister regards new south Wales as the gold standard.
Speaker:And I fear for Victoria and I worry about what the government may do.
Speaker:And we made sure that we had the systems in place to be able to weather, whatever
Speaker:came our way so that we wouldn't ever go into lockdown again from 6:00 PM
Speaker:today, lockdown, lockdown, lockdown, lockdown, lockdown, lockdown, so that
Speaker:we wouldn't ever go into lockdown again, greater Sydney will be in lockdown and
Speaker:locked in, locked down for a further four weeks to the 28th of August.
Speaker:So I talked about good management being critical during a, during
Speaker:a crisis, but so is trust.
Speaker:And we trusted our public.
Speaker:We trusted our community when we gave them advice to do the right thing.
Speaker:The crowd grew so fast with hardly a mask inside onwards.
Speaker:They marched from Broadway to town hall.
Speaker:Once at town hall, they took every vantage spot from high above the
Speaker:numbers were staggering, south Wales.
Speaker:We didn't make up lists of who was an essential worker.
Speaker:Nobody can work outside of that local government area unless, unless
Speaker:they're a health or aged care worker or on the list of critical workers.
Speaker:Can I make it very clear that new south Wales, unlike other states has
Speaker:never determined what is essential and what is not essential, but from
Speaker:midnight tonight, we will also.
Speaker:Make sure that only critical retail remains open.
Speaker:We have a list of what is critical retails and in new south Wales, we didn't
Speaker:make up lists of who was an essential worker on the list of critical workers.
Speaker:We didn't make up lists.
Speaker:We have a list.
Speaker:We didn't make up lists.
Speaker:Now we have a list.
Speaker:We didn't make up lists.
Speaker:We've considered carefully what is on that critical lessons.
Speaker:And I hope we've demonstrated in new south Wales.
Speaker:There is an alternate turn it way to heavy handed lockdowns
Speaker:and heavy handed approaches.
Speaker:Will we have harsher restrictions in place than any other state has ever had?
Speaker:Even during the lockdown, our construction sites, we're still going
Speaker:until July 30 until midnight on July 30.
Speaker:There will be a pause on all construction, large or small.
Speaker:We know that when S when you're in a lockdown, it's easy to control the virus.
Speaker:It's much easier to look down because you don't have to worry about anything.
Speaker:We're very courageous when it comes to the virus.
Speaker:A lot of those comments have not aged very well.
Speaker:No, there's no admission.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We got it wrong.
Speaker:There's none of the Peter beady.
Speaker:Whoops, made a mistake just to keep charging on.
Speaker:And boy, you know, she's really had to backtrack on so much of what she said.
Speaker:So it had to happen to somebody and then happening to her was probably the best.
Speaker:I think might've taught her some humility, thinks time, something happens to
Speaker:another state and she just gets lucky.
Speaker:Then hold my breath on the humility, Joe, th there was also the clip of
Speaker:her OS being asked if she realized now she, she felt how the other states
Speaker:felt when she asked, when she refused earlier on to give them vaccines
Speaker:when Victoria was in a similar state.
Speaker:And she couldn't understand that her asking for vaccines now, Yes, indeed.
Speaker:Hello in the chat room to Brahman Dawn James, Jack whoever's
Speaker:making comments in there.
Speaker:Good on you.
Speaker:Keep making those comments.
Speaker:So obviously now new south Wales is really given in, on ever getting back to zero.
Speaker:It seems from the comments that she's making and just as an outside observer,
Speaker:looking at the state, it's hard to imagine them getting back to zero.
Speaker:So this is really the next step in the whole process, Shea, where it's
Speaker:about at what level of vaccination do we just open up again and,
Speaker:and say, okay, that's enough.
Speaker:And, and start getting back to normal trade relying on a certain vaccination
Speaker:level, got any thoughts that you're comfortable with as a number?
Speaker:Yeah, I think the national strategies 80%.
Speaker:So I'd be satisfied with that.
Speaker:Eligible adults.
Speaker:Is that, is that what it would be?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, so really it's 60% of the population, or even 50% of the
Speaker:population and give them a lot of kids have got this Delta virus.
Speaker:Now you really probably need to be 80% of kids as well.
Speaker:Like that sort of teenagers, at least.
Speaker:Yeah, I would say so.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's going to be tricky to get to that level.
Speaker:And there is going to be a point there, you know, it has to come at
Speaker:some point where we say enough's enough and we just can't keep locking down.
Speaker:And, and there will be a day where we just open up and say, you're going
Speaker:to have to rely on your vaccination.
Speaker:And there will be a spike in cases and a spike in deaths on that day of people
Speaker:who either didn't want the vaccination or as Joe points out, often people who
Speaker:couldn't get it because of different reasons that they're unable to.
Speaker:It's just, what's going to happen at some point.
Speaker:And it is possible to get back to zero, which would buy some more time.
Speaker:Victoria did it from 700 cases a day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But that was, but they got, they were serious about it.
Speaker:Weren't they joke exactly.
Speaker:That's the difference you have to go in seriously, you have to
Speaker:look down and there will be pain.
Speaker:And I don't think they have the political willpower to do that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So Julia, in the chat room says you have 80%, doesn't include kids and they
Speaker:need to be included in the figures now.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So so just, yeah, that's the next part of this whole discussion is, is where
Speaker:we head to with vaccination rights and, and of course they will be.
Speaker:Probably business people on the one hand wanting to make decisions that
Speaker:are less concerned with public health.
Speaker:And there will be people who are concerned with public health and
Speaker:not so concerned with business.
Speaker:And we will be bound to see the the fighting between the two
Speaker:forces and how it plays out.
Speaker:I think the evidence is fairly good that it's not neither all
Speaker:that just concentrating on business and not worrying about health is
Speaker:actually detrimental to business because people, people get scared.
Speaker:And if the virus is left on it to run its course, people still won't go out.
Speaker:You know, a minority will.
Speaker:But you, you won't have the same level of business that you would, that we
Speaker:were enjoying having got to zero cases, but the people like, ah, screw Turner
Speaker:in charge of flight center and other groups Em, I think of really, they're
Speaker:just going to be pushing forward and they don't see that argument.
Speaker:They just want to be able to operate their businesses at full steam and local cafes
Speaker:and restaurant groups going to say, we want to be open and we just don't care.
Speaker:We need were going broke.
Speaker:We need the money.
Speaker:And that is one of the problems that you have to have sympathy for these people.
Speaker:They're not getting the same money that they got at the beginning of the pandemic
Speaker:with the money that was handed out.
Speaker:I know in the art supply will that when the lockdowns first happened back last
Speaker:year, there was a lot of money, a wash, a lot of struggling artists actually
Speaker:had more money than they had previously.
Speaker:And there was a lot of art supplies being bought, but that's not the case.
Speaker:This time round it's sort of consumer sentiment is a lot slower.
Speaker:It's a lot weaker this time.
Speaker:Well, because job seeker and job keeper are gone.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And there are small handouts from the government, but nothing like we need.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Why aren't people complaining about this more and I don't get it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Anyway I've been listening to the chaser podcast.
Speaker:Anybody else out there listening to that?
Speaker:It's fantastic.
Speaker:Those guys are logged down, so they've got nothing else to do, but turn
Speaker:out really funny podcast every week.
Speaker:It's very, very good.
Speaker:You should listen to it.
Speaker:And anyway, Charles Firth he wrote an article he's from the chaser and
Speaker:he talked about how Morrison gets things wrong all the time in, in this.
Speaker:And he said Scott Morrison unveiled an all new four-stage plan out of COVID
Speaker:endorsed by the national cabinet.
Speaker:This is not to be confused with the three-stage plan that Morrison announced
Speaker:in may or the COVID vaccination allocations horizon plan that he
Speaker:unveiled in June or the COVID 19 vaccine and treatment strategy plan.
Speaker:Revealed a year ago when he proudly announced he'd secured enough vaccine
Speaker:for everyone with so many worldwide planes and say little achieve.
Speaker:We have now more than enough evidence to introduce a new iron law into the very
Speaker:scientific field of political science.
Speaker:Scott Morrison has been so wrong about every single aspect of the pandemic that
Speaker:his wrongness now has predictive powers.
Speaker:If Scott Morrison says something is going to happen, it is possible to say with
Speaker:absolute certainty using the and law.
Speaker:But whatever he said is definitely not going to happen.
Speaker:If Scott Morrison thinks something is a good idea, then it is
Speaker:definitely not a good idea.
Speaker:If Scott Morrison says we don't need purpose-built quarantine facilities.
Speaker:And even if you lack any other data point or expertise, you can be
Speaker:absolutely assured that we fucking need purpose-built quarantine
Speaker:facilities in the Italy entails first.
Speaker:It says, this is the Morrison certainty principle, and I loved it.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If he says it, it's probably wrong Morrison, certainty, principle, what a
Speaker:mess we're in having that guy in charge.
Speaker:So, ah, okay.
Speaker:Or then is aiming for 80% as our target.
Speaker:Does that even seem likely, then I saw her at Powell, the essential poll came
Speaker:out, talking about people's reluctance to get the vaccine, you know, are you
Speaker:likely to get soon or sometime or never?
Speaker:And they never figured dropped a lot.
Speaker:So that was good.
Speaker:It had been back to sort of, it went back to like single figures of people
Speaker:saying they would never get it.
Speaker:So I think 80% is possible.
Speaker:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Let's move on from COVID for a little while.
Speaker:And the national sec.
Speaker:Well, we had the census.
Speaker:Shay and Joe seemed to filled it in.
Speaker:It was if he didn't don't tell me, cause it's illegal, not to where
Speaker:all the libertarians, by the way, complaining about being forced to
Speaker:fill in the census form, you know, forced to wear a mask forced to stay
Speaker:at home and see any protests about having to divulge personal info.
Speaker:But anyway at the census.
Speaker:So of course for us, the big question was the religious question.
Speaker:And the way it's been phrased is particularly annoying for
Speaker:pro secular groups, because it says, what is your religion?
Speaker:And that's kind of like a leaning question where people will think rather
Speaker:than stopping to think, do I have a religion they'll sort of nominate one
Speaker:that they were brought up in, in secular groups have for years been saying that
Speaker:if the question was rephrased to say something like what is your religion.
Speaker:Instead of what is your religion to say something like a two-part question?
Speaker:Do you currently have a religion followed by what is your religion?
Speaker:And the thinking was that that would give a more accurate result.
Speaker:So I actually mentioned this to the national secular lobby.
Speaker:A couple of months ago, said you guys should conduct proper poll where
Speaker:you question people two different groups with this, with the, the way
Speaker:the census has currently structured.
Speaker:And with a question in a two-part and see what difference you get.
Speaker:And then you'll have proof to say to the IBS that there is a real problem here,
Speaker:because they'd been making representations to the Australian bureau of statistics
Speaker:who basically ignoring them and saying, we don't see a problem with the question.
Speaker:So this is an exercise in trying to provide proof.
Speaker:So, so they went to essential pole.
Speaker:So where we often in this podcast talk about the essential poll in terms of
Speaker:People's opinions about lockdowns and who they're going, gonna vote for and stuff.
Speaker:So essentially we're a really reputable organization and they
Speaker:did it over two different polls.
Speaker:So our roughly 1100 people were questioned in each of the two days.
Speaker:And on the first day one group or half of them were asked
Speaker:the census type of question.
Speaker:And the other half were asked the two-part question.
Speaker:And then a week later, or two weeks later, when they did the poll again, they did
Speaker:the same thing with another group where they asked them the census type question.
Speaker:Then I asked them the two-part question.
Speaker:And so then they amalgamated it altogether and they roughly had about
Speaker:1100 people answering the census style question and about 1100 people
Speaker:answering the two part question, which is a good number of people to have.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Let me just see if I can read this a bit better in terms of era effective samples.
Speaker:The, the margin of error is 3.1%.
Speaker:So a 95% confidence level.
Speaker:So a good number to use like proper, proper sample was done.
Speaker:So a big question and I'll put it on the screen for those watching the
Speaker:live stream is what was the result and looking at the no religion response.
Speaker:So when people will ask the current census question, what is your religion?
Speaker:Doing it with this poll 41% said no religion, but when asked, do
Speaker:you currently have a religion followed by what is your religion?
Speaker:Then 52% said that they have no religion.
Speaker:So there's an 11% difference.
Speaker:Make sense, Joe.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think it is, if you prime people, we know you get a difference
Speaker:between how they answer question.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So it's interesting.
Speaker:I saw some of the correspondence between the national secular lobby and
Speaker:the Australian bureau of statistics.
Speaker:And it's kind of funny where the bureau was kind of saying, we're
Speaker:not that interested in what people's religion is as to what they consider
Speaker:their religious heritage to be like.
Speaker:It's a very funny sort of response from the Australian bureau of statistics about
Speaker:what they thought they were looking for.
Speaker:So anyway, good job by the national secular lobby to get that done.
Speaker:And that'll give him plenty of ammunition over the years to lobby and
Speaker:suggest to the statisticians that I should stop asking leading questions.
Speaker:What else was in there?
Speaker:If you basically then look at a two-part question and look at the
Speaker:figures, the most popular religion would be a Catholic, which would be 16%
Speaker:and then the next would be Anglicans 8% and then it really drops away.
Speaker:Uniting church, 3% Islam, Buddhism Presbyterian Hinduism, 2% Greek
Speaker:Orthodox, 1% Baptist, 1%, other 5%.
Speaker:So say Chris, so Catholics at 16% only 16% of our population.
Speaker:But when you think of all of the Catholics education facilities,
Speaker:hospitals, it's amazing.
Speaker:Amazing number of institutions that are Catholic, given the
Speaker:representation in our community.
Speaker:An amazing amount of power given the low representation, but that's how,
Speaker:that's how it's turned out for us.
Speaker:Unfortunately, what else was in these statistics?
Speaker:And that it's critically important that we give them taxpayer money
Speaker:to fund all this infrastructure.
Speaker:Yes, indeed.
Speaker:How much housework do you do at Trevor?
Speaker:How much do housework do I do?
Speaker:Yeah, I'm from the census question.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well it asked me for last week and I have to sign my house yet for the
Speaker:week that it asked, I have to say my household duties were quite low.
Speaker:I was busy with other things.
Speaker:It's not difficult.
Speaker:So you're saying it's not, not representative, but it wasn't a
Speaker:normal week, but I had to look to say what it was for that week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Typically what would I say typically?
Speaker:I often wash, I would regularly.
Speaker:Do the washing up stack the dishwasher for example, and unstack
Speaker:the dishwasher during the day.
Speaker:And I make all the coffees in this house.
Speaker:Does that count as coffee making like you're reaching, but yeah,
Speaker:I used to ha how's this.
Speaker:I used to have to mow the lawn.
Speaker:So I was in charge of the lawn and my wife was in charge of the gardening.
Speaker:And what I did is I managed to convince her that we should rip up
Speaker:the lawn and replace it with a garden.
Speaker:I haven't fired up.
Speaker:It was, you do realize she listens to the podcast.
Speaker:I only have to go the foot part.
Speaker:I don't really care about it.
Speaker:Very good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:At the household duties now, Well, no, sir.
Speaker:I would usually put my mother's washing on and hang my mother's washing out.
Speaker:So there you go.
Speaker:That's something I do do a lot of carriers.
Speaker:I put me down to for carer activities as well.
Speaker:So with taking her shopping, taking her to the doctors, other
Speaker:things saying we'll be down for that fairly modern, I might think.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay, look, I've got enough of an inquisition from justice burns last week.
Speaker:I don't need one from you.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Well, it wasn't, it didn't seem like there was outrage about religion, but it, it
Speaker:seems to be some outrage around pronouns.
Speaker:And I was personally a bit mad because the way they'd framed the question
Speaker:about whether you were on job K-pop or had found other work, like it, wasn't
Speaker:an opportunity to really describe your situation in the past year.
Speaker:And I thought considering, you know, the level of insecure work and all
Speaker:of the, you know, things that have transpired in the past year, that that
Speaker:was, that was a shame, frankly, right?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The odd one, there was a question asking if you'd been
Speaker:a member of the defense force.
Speaker:Oh, and yeah.
Speaker:And really shouldn't they shouldn't, they have that information.
Speaker:Shouldn't there be?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Shouldn't there be a book somewhere with a name, rank serial number, date of birth.
Speaker:Couldn't possibly work that out through other means.
Speaker:If they'd been asking for overseas service, as in people who'd served in
Speaker:other armies, I could understand that.
Speaker:I can't remember how it was phrased and it was just assuming that ADF I did it right.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a strange question for, Hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When I migrated, they asked me what military service I'd done as part
Speaker:of my migration fees or application.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Look, maybe the census people had sort of been looking at it at
Speaker:Afghanistan and thought these guys are responsible for a cock-up there.
Speaker:They probably can't even keep track of their own members.
Speaker:We better do it for them.
Speaker:That could be, it could be what's happening there, I guess, is
Speaker:that it's around veteran funding.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:19.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But even then that's going to be misleading because my mother was
Speaker:not, but she gets veteran funding cause she's a widow of an month.
Speaker:So I might get a really good picture from that.
Speaker:Hm.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Shai, you sent through something about the Victorian government has endorsed,
Speaker:oh, let's decriminalized prostitution.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I had a bit of a Gladys moment because of the last podcast I'd been.
Speaker:I basically did a shout out to this campaign group called
Speaker:collective shout, who am I thought?
Speaker:We're quite good at campaigning for an exploitation to women.
Speaker:But I have to disagree with them on their position.
Speaker:So they are really angry at the Victorian government for decriminalizing sex
Speaker:work and have said that basically it's just opening the doors to
Speaker:more pimping and more problems.
Speaker:And of course, commodifying a woman's body is, you know, taking us back on.
Speaker:You're actually disagreeing with them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I did an assignment on the, this last semester around
Speaker:the subject was Davey ants.
Speaker:And I did determine how David's sex work was.
Speaker:And while I appreciate that commodifying, a woman's body is like
Speaker:a pretty backward and unpleasant.
Speaker:The way I see it is actually decriminalizing sex work is the
Speaker:simplest way to actually get sex workers, some rights and some agency.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I just want it to say what God thought I was.
Speaker:I, yeah, everything that I saw was that sex work is flourishing.
Speaker:It's moving online.
Speaker:I think if you took any other issue, issue like voluntary assisted dying
Speaker:that actually regulating it does provide us with Yeah, options.
Speaker:It's not the, it's not the ultimate solution.
Speaker:It's, it's not going to fix the problem, but it gives sex workers the opportunity
Speaker:to go to the police now and not have to worry about being prosecuted themselves.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So let me just explain for the deal listener that I think it was
Speaker:decriminalized previously in relation to the women as participants in
Speaker:offering the service, but that it wasn't decriminalized in relation to the
Speaker:pimps and which is a, really the term for the, for the organizers, I guess.
Speaker:And so I think the argument was that they were agreeing that, of course it should
Speaker:be decriminalized for women who are offering the service, but the, I didn't
Speaker:want to decriminalize for the pimps.
Speaker:And they were signing that.
Speaker:And they were referring to what had happened in New Zealand, I think.
Speaker:And, and they were saying that women were getting treated
Speaker:worse once the laws changed.
Speaker:And so they support the Nordic model or the Swedish model, which is where it's
Speaker:illegal to buy sex, but not to sell sex.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And this, the ACL also support this.
Speaker:It seems to be a very Christian shaming thing.
Speaker:And from the countries that have implemented the sex workers say
Speaker:that as soon as you make it illegal you, yeah, it doesn't matter
Speaker:whether it's legal for the girls.
Speaker:It's still a seedy shady activity.
Speaker:They get surveilled by the police to catch the boat, the guys who are buying it.
Speaker:And it actually, they get pushed to do risky or work because.
Speaker:One of these women said when the law changed in a decriminalized,
Speaker:the, the other participants, she said, I'd never heard someone say
Speaker:I paid fuel body and I can do what I want until decriminalization.
Speaker:And she, one of the other their submission to the review was we amplified the voices
Speaker:of sex trade survivors who had worked both prior to and after decriminalization
Speaker:was implemented in New Zealand.
Speaker:These women described worse conditions for prostituted women who had less power to
Speaker:negotiate, but none of the rights of an employee, they said decriminalizing, the
Speaker:purchase of sex emboldened, the misogynist men who paid to use them, and that it
Speaker:increased their sense of entitlement and led to greater violence against.
Speaker:Now, remember the what are the, what's their name?
Speaker:Collective shout is run by some very committed Catholics seems
Speaker:to be a Catholic lobby group.
Speaker:And we know how they misreported the data.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Is that right?
Speaker:It's run by a bunch of Catholics.
Speaker:Look up
Speaker:what it says at the bottom that they're nonpolitical their website and
Speaker:nonpolitical and non-religious okay.
Speaker:Well the CEO is definitely a committed Catholic who is all about what was it
Speaker:right to live for whatever they call themselves false birth, basically sneaky.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It seems to be a Catholic the fact that the ACL support
Speaker:decriminalization, sorry, the Nordic model, the same as these guys do.
Speaker:And the fact that they slate Fiona pattern as, as being a member of the porn lobby
Speaker:rather than as a former sex worker.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So Fiona pattern who actually introduced the bill knows of, and has many friends
Speaker:who still are what it's like to.
Speaker:To do sex work.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Not his thing.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:They have a guy collective shout not to be trusted.
Speaker:It's seen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Cause I just thought like, cause even some of the comments on the thing was
Speaker:just like, go and go and see what's happening in Germany and Germany's
Speaker:decriminalize sex work seems fine.
Speaker:I check the legislation provided by the Victorian government and it, yeah.
Speaker:It's seems very sensible.
Speaker:I don't think they're just letting, well, there you go.
Speaker:Your instincts were right.
Speaker:Che.
Speaker:It's saying it's amnesty support decriminalization and a couple
Speaker:of other major NGOs also support.
Speaker:Yeah, just guys to show.
Speaker:When you, when you hear of a lobby group, you need to know who's paying them.
Speaker:What is the agenda?
Speaker:Yeah, the problem with the anti pimp laws is people are saying you can't be
Speaker:in rented accommodation because your landlord might be charged as a pimp
Speaker:for living off the illegal process.
Speaker:And girls can't band together collectively.
Speaker:So I think in Queensland, they can hire a receptionist, but that's it right?
Speaker:And I think there can be no more than two of them working together.
Speaker:Otherwise they have to apply for a brothel license.
Speaker:So there's a whole load of restrictions that make it very difficult.
Speaker:So Shea, you've handed in this assignment and you've done that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, if you had your chance, you would have put a little footnote
Speaker:in about who this group is, but
Speaker:I didn't have this at hand.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Bronwyn mentioned traffic to people whilst it is.
Speaker:It definitely does happen.
Speaker:The vast majority of traffic people are actually traffic Dale
Speaker:to work on farms and in factories.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Because despite all the, oh my God, we need to save the traffic to people.
Speaker:It tends to be a moralistic religious argument.
Speaker:Because if you actually look at the people who deal with
Speaker:Trafficked and enslaved people.
Speaker:The vast majority of it is domestic work.
Speaker:Quite often families bringing people over from India or China are the two
Speaker:big places factories and farms, other places where people are mistreated.
Speaker:And I think it's something like 90% of people are in that.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:So there we go.
Speaker:That was a good one, Joe, to find the background and those
Speaker:guys let's have, we need to, we couldn't possibly pass by this week.
Speaker:They are referring to what's happened in Afghanistan and those scenes of the
Speaker:airplanes, leaving the airport with people, literally hanging on to the,
Speaker:to the bits and whatever they could on the outside of the plane and then
Speaker:falling off mid air and plummeting to the ground around people sharing the video.
Speaker:And it's like, I don't need to see the video.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
Speaker:So amazing scenes.
Speaker:And you know, the thing that strikes me with all of this is nobody's looked at
Speaker:any of the modern history as to why this country is in the mess it's in to start
Speaker:with and how it got to this situation.
Speaker:And you know, why is America well, well, it's, isn't it terrible.
Speaker:America is leaving and the Taliban again to come in.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:And it all went wrong at the Khyber pass, I think.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Whatever right.
Speaker:Or, oh, sorry, the brush.
Speaker:And when it owned India was taking over neighboring countries and came
Speaker:up and tried to invade Afghanistan.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And got bogged down back then.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And Western incursions into Afghanistan have been going on ever since then.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I mean, people look at these countries and.
Speaker:I'll say the Taliban and, and they'll go, what is it that these countries
Speaker:bunch of savages, like, why can't they just get their act together?
Speaker:Why are they, why are we bothering the Weiss tail?
Speaker:You know, military lives over there, we should just let
Speaker:these people get on with it.
Speaker:Well, the answer is we should just let them get on with it.
Speaker:The problem, the reason why they're part of the reason these guys are in
Speaker:a mess is because of the interference that has gone on by the U S 50, 60 years
Speaker:ago, that is coming home to roost to die, like the incessant interference,
Speaker:stopping these countries from actually having the governments that they
Speaker:wanted to back then is leading to, you know, the cause of the problems now.
Speaker:So, so just a little recap on some middle Eastern history.
Speaker:And so . Afghanistan is tied up with Iran in many ways.
Speaker:And to understand Afghanistan, a little bit of understanding of
Speaker:Iran is sort of required here.
Speaker:So back in 1953, Iran had Julia elected Masa Dick, and by all accounts, he was a
Speaker:decent man who looked at the oil revenue.
Speaker:The British petroleum was taking out of the country and they were basically paying
Speaker:a peppercorn rent and taking all of the profits from oil and it was leaving Iran.
Speaker:And he said, you can't do that.
Speaker:We've got to renegotiate this contract.
Speaker:It's just simply not fair.
Speaker:And even America said to the British, Hey, that's a, of course that's an unfair deal.
Speaker:You just can't let that continue.
Speaker:Anyway, the British of course, backed British petroleum and.
Speaker:Eventually the Americans came around to their point of view.
Speaker:Can't remember the exact details wide, but essentially they had a CIA
Speaker:operative called Kermit Roosevelt.
Speaker:Like it's a great name Kermit, as in Kermit the frog and Roosevelt, as in
Speaker:the president, isn't really related.
Speaker:And he single, almost single-handedly engineered the
Speaker:coup that overthrew Masa Dick.
Speaker:And they, you know, he hired thugs to walk the streets and he hired
Speaker:people to do a propaganda campaign.
Speaker:And the Giulia elected leftish wing government of Masa DEC was overthrown
Speaker:and in its place was the Shah of Iran.
Speaker:And what happened with the Shah was that he at times tried to, to sort of
Speaker:modernize the country to some extent.
Speaker:But he came up with the problem where he was clashing with the the Islamis.
Speaker:So the Ayatollah Khamenei was exiled by the Shah for 14 years.
Speaker:And the Ayatollah basically created this new force in politics, which was Islamic
Speaker:political activity up until then America only had one enemy and that was communism,
Speaker:but by interfering in Iran, in refusing to help the left, they, they enabled
Speaker:what became this Islamic political force.
Speaker:So that didn't exist without American interference in Iran, in the first place.
Speaker:And of course there was a revolution and and the Islamist one, and, and
Speaker:that was a watershed moment where political Islam became a force
Speaker:for the first time in the world.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:So that was back in 1979 that that, that I overthrow happen by the Ayatollah.
Speaker:And in Afghanistan, it was, you have a similar character in the 1970s.
Speaker:I'm a Hammad day dude who was kind of a little bit like the shy in
Speaker:that he was wanting to modernize.
Speaker:But whereas the shower was a, a I'm in cahoots with the USI.
Speaker:This Muhammad dyad was more or less in cahoots with the Soviet union.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he was worried about urban communists and also this growing
Speaker:Islamist movement in his country.
Speaker:So he basically started killing people and, and and routing
Speaker:through different elitist groups.
Speaker:And the Islam has fled.
Speaker:And I went to Pakistan where they were welcomed with open arms
Speaker:and it ended up then there was some communists to Rakhi and.
Speaker:Who took over.
Speaker:And they had a thing called the people's democratic party of Afghanistan,
Speaker:which was a left, you know, communist Soviet sympathizing group, who
Speaker:specifically were extremely secular.
Speaker:Like they banned people attending mosque.
Speaker:They told men they had to shave their beards.
Speaker:They had you know polo policies about empowering women in education.
Speaker:You know, when people are looking at Afghanistan to die
Speaker:and going, ah, it's terrible.
Speaker:What's going to happen with this Islamist force, the Taliban now, and
Speaker:what's going to happen to women will.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Back in the late seventies, there was a group who trying to secularize
Speaker:the country, but because they were allied with the Soviets, the Americans
Speaker:wanted nothing to do with them.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:What happened was that the Soviets became worried about the guy who was in charge.
Speaker:I thought he was starting to side up with the USI.
Speaker:The Soviets executed him, different guy took over and it was the Islamist who
Speaker:provided the opposition to that sort of Soviet how that had been put in place.
Speaker:And of course, when the Soviets then entered the country, decide shore up
Speaker:their man it was the Islamists in the form of the Mujahideen who provided the
Speaker:the opposition to these Soviet forces.
Speaker:And of course the USA helped the Islamist.
Speaker:Would your Hardin and that more jihad Dean kind of morphed into not exactly.
Speaker:Some of them went into the Taliban and the Taliban was created through
Speaker:other means, but certainly had a major Hardeen element to it.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Yeah, the USA is, is again, got a big finger in the pie in
Speaker:terms of, of the creation of the Taliban as a force in the area.
Speaker:So, you know, arguably, if these countries had just been allowed to
Speaker:have their left leaning governments and just left alone for a while, okay.
Speaker:They weren't the nicest of groups and they were killing elites
Speaker:and doing all sorts of things.
Speaker:But in the long term scheme of things you wouldn't have created
Speaker:this extra Islamic political force.
Speaker:That's ended up being such a big problem for America saying.
Speaker:So when people look at the Taliban, riding into town and saying, oh,
Speaker:well the Americans did their best, but they shouldn't be spending any
Speaker:more men in defending the place.
Speaker:You just have to remember it's all a consequence of what's happened
Speaker:over the last 40 or 50 years.
Speaker:Well, a lot of American weapons were left leftover indeed.
Speaker:And I don't.
Speaker:Do you remember the living daylights, James Bond?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:So he ended up in Afghanistan, helping the majority and against
Speaker:the Soviets and spies like us.
Speaker:I seem to remember what was also, which was Chevy chase.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:John Joel, Joel in the chat room says in Rambo, I forget Rambo.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think I've only ever seen the first one, which of course was set on your soil.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:I've interrupted.
Speaker:Sorry, Joe.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:But yeah, it was very much a anything against the filthy Soviets.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So so anyway a lot of the problems in these countries comes about because
Speaker:of the interference that meant I couldn't just go through the processes
Speaker:they wanted to, when they thought about having a left wing government.
Speaker:And if, if the U S had a loud or even helped him forgive heaven forbid at that
Speaker:point, then history could have been a lot different, but I was just thinking.
Speaker:Sadly insane.
Speaker:San of Husayn was also funded by the Americans.
Speaker:Noriega was funded by the Americans.
Speaker:Noriega was allegedly a CIA bye.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:In a shy in July, under by the Americans, they just allow these thugs
Speaker:they'll allow anybody to come in.
Speaker:Who's just not slightly left.
Speaker:And and then because they don't allow the left to operate them in the
Speaker:middle east, we've had this political Islamic group being the only group
Speaker:that can provide an opposition.
Speaker:And that's what people center around saying.
Speaker:So they've only got themselves to blind is the short answer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So that was a bit about Afghanistan.
Speaker:We didn't mention previously Shai, what did you think about the labor
Speaker:party capitulating on tax reform and.
Speaker:The liberals have passed all of these laws that provide tax relief
Speaker:for middle and upper income earners.
Speaker:People are 200,000 a year in libraries said, well, we're not
Speaker:going to change it if we get in.
Speaker:Did you have any thoughts about that?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I I guess part of me was like, oh, and I also think we don't have the
Speaker:might to, to sell an alternate view.
Speaker:It's not an election losing slash winning type situation.
Speaker:In fact, kind of letting this one throw to what's the, thank you.
Speaker:I guess what I'm saying is it's two seats.
Speaker:We have to, we have to win two seats, maybe three to get a
Speaker:majority in federal government.
Speaker:We balance, we have to balance Al fights around that.
Speaker:I write elbows, but I really hate these guys.
Speaker:And that seems to be like the game playing.
Speaker:And I'm at a point now where I just kind of have to like, trust the strategy and
Speaker:hope they know more about it than me.
Speaker:slogans.
Speaker:Hey, you know, you just, you know, jobs and growth.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So labor needs a three word slogan.
Speaker:They just keep repeating over and over whether it makes sense or not.
Speaker:And eventually they'll get the votes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So basically that they're going to stay with is what labor can be counted on.
Speaker:Has a reputation for being counted on is health and infrastructure.
Speaker:And that's what they're going to look at.
Speaker:And that's what they're going to sell.
Speaker:And people will buy that because they do have, they do have a reputation for that.
Speaker:They have the state labor premiers who've done.
Speaker:Don, just this provided infrastructure done health.
Speaker:So, so it's a vote loser to try and to, to go into the election sign beginning
Speaker:to get rid of those concessions.
Speaker:And we're going to put them back on the tax brackets are on before it'd be a
Speaker:vote loser and we can't afford to risk and I'll let them have something don't
Speaker:give them any ammunition, small target.
Speaker:So in Australia, make sure you don't make core promises.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Just non-verbal.
Speaker:Yeah, because if you say we are incapable of selling anything therefore even
Speaker:try is kind of me admission isn't it.
Speaker:But if I've got this article from crikey, which says that if you look at
Speaker:live as internal review of its loss at the last election, when shortened law.
Speaker:And the review was led by Craig Emison and former south Australian
Speaker:premier GI where the role, and for example, it didn't single out negative
Speaker:gearing aligned for losing it, found they were let me just see here.
Speaker:I'm wondering if this has to do with negative gearing and I
Speaker:might've got the wrong one here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, here's the argument at what they found in this report?
Speaker:Was it wasn't the fact that labor had proposed taxes on
Speaker:people that cost them votes.
Speaker:It was that labor using the money that had got from the tax cuts or from
Speaker:the, the introduction of these texts.
Speaker:But that generated a revenue for labor and labor said, we're going
Speaker:to use that money in spended on a, B, C, D E F G H I J K items.
Speaker:And people looked at the spending and said, you guys are just spending too much.
Speaker:You're not you're not fiscally responsible.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So it wasn't so much that they were taking money away from people in terms of
Speaker:taxes or in terms of things like negative gearing, you know, if they were to remove
Speaker:negative gearing, it, it was that the money that they got from these proposed
Speaker:programs, the spending that they were going to do was what actually cost them
Speaker:votes, ironically, according to this.
Speaker:So so yeah In the areas where people would be worse off, because that
Speaker:would be slugged by the labor taxes, their vote increased in those areas.
Speaker:So the people who were kind of subject to it knew it was a good idea.
Speaker:So anyway, I'm not a hundred percent convinced that labor shouldn't have
Speaker:given it a go and just try to explain it.
Speaker:I think labor is not seen as supporting the worker, the
Speaker:average worker in the street.
Speaker:And that's the problem is the liberals, you know, with all
Speaker:the bullshit about, oh yeah.
Speaker:W we're supporting you the, the tradies, the hard workers when in fact they
Speaker:screw them over every chance they can.
Speaker:And I think labor has lost the chances lost the trust.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So there's another article from Crocky, which this leads what
Speaker:you're saying leads onto this, Joe.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Like who is a typical labor constituent.
Speaker:So employees in the traditional blue collar occupations technicians and tri
Speaker:workers, libraries, machinery operators, and drivers, that sort of people, that's
Speaker:your typical blue collar occupation.
Speaker:So that worker now accounts for about 23% of all workers that can
Speaker:pay is two 28% for service workers.
Speaker:22% for professionals, 9% for managers, contractors in Iona operators, 16%.
Speaker:So the call for a return to blue collar base ignores the demographic realities.
Speaker:It focuses attention on a subset of blue collar workers, least likely to support
Speaker:progressive politics in Australia and elsewhere support for the left is stronger
Speaker:among women than men among young people than among the old among employees than
Speaker:among contractors and business owners.
Speaker:And among the urban, rather than the rural voters, and this is all
Speaker:from the Australian election stuff.
Speaker:So it's an interesting relationship between education and income because
Speaker:education is correlated with income.
Speaker:It's tricky.
Speaker:So holding education, constant high income voters are more likely to be
Speaker:conserved while income is constant.
Speaker:Let me just say that again, higher income voters are more likely to be
Speaker:conservative while holding income constant high education is associated
Speaker:with the strongest support for the lift.
Speaker:Mostly these effects work in opposite directions with income predominating,
Speaker:but where they work together, the effects of strong voters with low education.
Speaker:And high-income thinking small business owners for example, are strongly
Speaker:conservative by contrast workers in professional occupations with
Speaker:relatively low pay and status support.
Speaker:So what does it say about the aspirational blue collar workers
Speaker:represented as the labor base?
Speaker:It typically classed as mild breadwinners, typically of middle age and older in
Speaker:regional areas rather than the inner city they're either self-employed
Speaker:or they work in the private sector.
Speaker:The word aspirational is code for high incomes in a focus on less
Speaker:progressive taxes in every respect.
Speaker:These characteristics are those associated with the conservative parties.
Speaker:So what kind of worker would you represent would represent the act are
Speaker:archetypical member of the labor base?
Speaker:The analysis above suggests a young woman in a stereotypically female public
Speaker:sector, occupation requiring post-school education, but with an income well
Speaker:below the average for full-time work.
Speaker:So that typical voter would be a gen Zed enrolled nurse
Speaker:working in a major city hospital.
Speaker:That would be a typical labor.
Speaker:So I thought that was interesting, this sort of the way that it applies
Speaker:between income and education, high income, low education, likely to be
Speaker:conservative, lowish income, but high education, very likely to be labor.
Speaker:And what would you consider inherited wealth?
Speaker:Oh, it's to the I don't know, Joe.
Speaker:I have to think about it, but if you if you do, if you inherited a
Speaker:lot and you had a low income, you could still be that conservative.
Speaker:Oh no, no.
Speaker:I'm thinking of, sorry.
Speaker:Millionaires billionaires, whatever they are.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Son of the Turnbull's for example, is that what you thinking of?
Speaker:Like, oh, I was thinking more in terms of mining wealth, right?
Speaker:The, that you would consider well-educated, but also very rich and
Speaker:very, very right-leaning in terms of almost libertarian talking about bringing
Speaker:in skilled workers, cheap labor, almost because it states that business interests.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So I I'd say, I, I think the biggest left vote of the middle class.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Particularly, according to this, it would be an educated middle-class as opposed
Speaker:to the middle-class of a tradie or a small business person, small business.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Would not be to be more conservative.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So so yeah, I, I think that's, yeah, I think that's a useful analogy.
Speaker:The Y it's sort of saying that the well-educated professional people in the
Speaker:side of law nursing range of teaching, you know, they're on an okay-ish wage,
Speaker:but they're not particularly wealthy by any means, but they're well educated.
Speaker:That's you live out of there and your blue collar, regional guy may be running
Speaker:a small business, less educated might be on a same similar income level,
Speaker:but Less likely to be conservative.
Speaker:So I think the labor party has real issues.
Speaker:There's, there's obviously this changes occurred in our politics from the
Speaker:sixties and seventies as to easily identifying who they're pitching at.
Speaker:And that was the genius of John Howard in that he managed to grab those tradies
Speaker:and convinced them that, that he was that, you know, that they shouldn't be
Speaker:labor, that they were small business people and that they would really be
Speaker:better off voting for the liberals.
Speaker:That was the sort of the turning point in the genius of, of Howard.
Speaker:But to be fair, that sort of has happened around the world.
Speaker:That's not just an Australia, that's, that's a phenomenon around the world.
Speaker:The us in particular, but union membership has definitely dropped off.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And I think there were a lot of clerical workers who could well be.
Speaker:Served by a union and they, they just, I don't know unions over here
Speaker:seem to have a very bad reputation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well that leads under the next article as well.
Speaker:Do you remember the air traffic control?
Speaker:Where were you when the air traffic control strikes were happening, Joe?
Speaker:Probably in the UK.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I might ask you Shay, you probably weren't even 1981.
Speaker:What were you doing?
Speaker:Shape 81.
Speaker:I was still at primary school.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:So I can remember it.
Speaker:I was just sort of finishing university and I can actually remember as an
Speaker:article clock at law firm and one of the lawyers needed to go to
Speaker:Cannes and because of the strike.
Speaker:She had to get in some audibly if trip, carrier type airplane, and be
Speaker:strapped on, in a Hercules to get up to Cannes because they were running
Speaker:the flights because of the air traffic control strikes at the time.
Speaker:So, so it used to be a thing shy that around holiday times the air traffic
Speaker:controllers would go on strike and demand pay increases, and they would
Speaker:always do it around that time because it was when people really wanted to
Speaker:use them and go away on a holiday.
Speaker:And, and so they were particularly well known as a well-paid group,
Speaker:the air traffic controllers.
Speaker:So I've got a link to an article here that the murder of the middle class in
Speaker:the U S began 40 years ago this week, which was on the August, the fifth,
Speaker:1981 when president Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 air traffic controllers
Speaker:who were on strike at the time.
Speaker:Can you imagine.
Speaker:11,345 and sat.
Speaker:And they were, you know, like the Australian version,
Speaker:very militant and strong.
Speaker:And he borrowed them from ever working again.
Speaker:And by a few months later, the union in control of them had been had been broken.
Speaker:De-certified laid in ruins.
Speaker:And well, bill Clinton lifted Reagan's ban on strikers fewer
Speaker:than 10% were ever rehired by the federal aviation administration.
Speaker:So I know in Australia, a very similar thing happened and really most of them
Speaker:ended up having to work overseas because the Australian government employed a
Speaker:bunch of overseas air traffic controllers.
Speaker:And these guys had to end up going over to Dubai and places
Speaker:like that to, to get a job.
Speaker:So that was all 40 years ago.
Speaker:And this article is saying that was really a pivotal moment in labor relations
Speaker:around the world that a really strong, powerful union just got crunched.
Speaker:And so up until that time the previous 30 years productivity in America had grown by
Speaker:a hundred percent and workers pay during that time had grown by a hundred percent.
Speaker:But after that time productivity grew four times faster than what the pay has grown.
Speaker:So the link between productivity and worker pay was broken.
Speaker:So in terms of strikes, generally in the 30 years prior to that event, there were
Speaker:between 200 and 400 large scale strikes.
Speaker:And by the time you got to 2008 that's each year, and by the
Speaker:time we got to 2017, there was.
Speaker:So unions and people recognized that they, that the government, if, if a
Speaker:union like the air traffic controllers could be crunched like that, then
Speaker:what I did anybody else had, because they really had an advantage there.
Speaker:So so so yeah, a pivotal moment in labor relations.
Speaker:And I guess if you can't strike and you can't enforce things, then why be a
Speaker:member of the union then Joe, like you said, union membership has dropped off.
Speaker:They game of mates, book talks about the neutering of the unions and
Speaker:argues that, giving them super what's the membership super component.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:Come on industry, super industry, super giving them control of the industry super
Speaker:has made them part of the establishment.
Speaker:Now they're less willing to upset the apple cart, right?
Speaker:Because it affects their bottom line.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Suddenly had their powers whittled away, though.
Speaker:I got a cat actually strike in Australia, Kenya and you're
Speaker:protected action is somewhat limited.
Speaker:I don't know the exact details on striking, but I think you're right.
Speaker:That it's not as nearly as easy as it used to be.
Speaker:And of course they used to be like one strike by one group and
Speaker:then there'll be these sympathy strikes by other groups in support.
Speaker:And that sort of was banned to a large extent where you couldn't have
Speaker:a sort of a sympathy strike that, you know, sort of, it wasn't a real
Speaker:strike mentality at different times.
Speaker:Like You ever heard of a singer called Frank Sinatra Shea.
Speaker:It came to Australia and it was just in a bad mood.
Speaker:And in some, in some press conference, he referred to Australian female
Speaker:journalists as like hookers and broads or something like that.
Speaker:And and basically the union movement said, well, until you apologize,
Speaker:you're not getting on a plane to go to any of your concerts.
Speaker:And they, and the whole union movement basically forced him into a situation
Speaker:where he had to negotiate with Bob Hawke and do some sort of apology.
Speaker:But yeah, they basically the transport workers supported the
Speaker:journalist union and that sort of thing was quite common in those days.
Speaker:Sad.
Speaker:The power has gone out of the system for the worker.
Speaker:That's for sure.
Speaker:I remember Maggie and Kinnock.
Speaker:In parliament trading blows, especially about the minors, verbal
Speaker:blows, but yeah Maggie basically killed the mining industry in the UK.
Speaker:Some would say that it was actually a good thing.
Speaker:Moving, moving away from coal.
Speaker:She was actually a scientist and she believed in the science of global warming.
Speaker:Was that, and her reason for cracking down on them though.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:That was the reason why but I think it didn't help or was,
Speaker:was another blow against them.
Speaker:So I certainly remember the, the end of the seventies, the early eighties,
Speaker:very much being the conservatives cracking down on the power of the unions.
Speaker:So anyway, this article makes a good case that it was the Was the firing
Speaker:of the air traffic control was 5th of August, 1991, nearly 40 years ago.
Speaker:That basically was now in the coffin for the union movement as a powerful force.
Speaker:And I think there's solid argument for that, but even in the you
Speaker:know, in the industry of aviation, there is a history of that, Alan
Speaker:Joyce grounded the flight as well.
Speaker:Right now the only people that are holding, holding the Fort
Speaker:for Quantis workers are unions.
Speaker:There's still a fight to be had.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I asked will send me a purpose.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So so yeah, so that's that do you watch much of the Olympics?
Speaker:Oh, Shay's disappeared.
Speaker:She's I dunno.
Speaker:She's yeah.
Speaker:Her internal links to dropped out.
Speaker:I must've dropped down.
Speaker:So Charlie, did you watch much of the Olympics or the sports fan?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Fair enough.
Speaker:There was some interesting moments because I subscribed to the New York
Speaker:times the, there was some strange things going on in the New York times
Speaker:in terms of coverage of the Olympics.
Speaker:And one of the really strange things was the way they were obsessed with
Speaker:China and the U S in terms of the metal race and to zoom that in a bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, hang on.
Speaker:I've done enough.
Speaker:I can, essentially, in every metal count I've ever seen for Olympic
Speaker:games, you would always count countries by rank them by the
Speaker:number of gold medals that they had.
Speaker:But the New York times insisted on doing an overall metal count
Speaker:as what would count, put you in the top number one position.
Speaker:So they were putting the U S.
Speaker:As, as on top of the metal count with 73 metals, as opposed to China on 69.
Speaker:But at that stage, China had 32 gold medals in the USA, only 24.
Speaker:Like it was just a ridiculous way of, of, of showing the metal count.
Speaker:And and the other thing that they were doing over there was even when I was doing
Speaker:a little graph, showing the middles as circles and they would actually make the
Speaker:Chinese circles smaller so that it didn't look like their lead was as big as it was.
Speaker:All sorts of strange auntie like just something as simple as the Olympics, anti
Speaker:China stuff that they were doing, there was a young gymnast and you know, say with
Speaker:news Corp, it would say China's Hong Chan Kwan who had 14 years old was top of the
Speaker:competition on Thursday has not cracked a smile despite her impeccable performance.
Speaker:So this was sort of referring to.
Speaker:That's sort of the Chinese is just almost robots without emotion.
Speaker:And, but meanwhile, you didn't have to look too far and you could find a
Speaker:lovely photo of her smiling beautifully.
Speaker:Like it was just the why they wanted to portray the Chinese
Speaker:as, as unemotional robots.
Speaker:And then also they would say, you know, the same magazine the New York times
Speaker:would say the Chinese sports machine, single goal, the most goals at any cost
Speaker:basically criticizing the Chinese for just being a, a sports machine just
Speaker:trying to accumulate gold medals then.
Speaker:But at the same time, they would run an article on Britain.
Speaker:Britain's huge investment in summer Olympics sports pays off and that was a
Speaker:positive one because but like the Brits.
Speaker:So just shameless sort of misrepresentation of China.
Speaker:Remember whichever one of those.
Speaker:Seventies, eighties Olympics where the whole Russian team
Speaker:basically were caught doping.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If you remember the Soviets they had a huge machine to get their teams to
Speaker:the Olympics and win at all costs.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Because they were all in the army.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yes, indeed.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So, and, and, you know, obviously cheating, but it's just let's
Speaker:just kind of help themselves the American price in bagging, China,
Speaker:even when it came to the Olympics.
Speaker:So, so that was that article he where gold, giant new Mount corporation.
Speaker:So big gun, gold miner, exed, one of its most senior executives for
Speaker:refusing to abide by the company's COVID-19 vaccination policy.
Speaker:So he was an American guy and an anti-vaxxer and.
Speaker:He was a very senior executive.
Speaker:And I said, well, if you're not going to get the VAX nation, then your
Speaker:set, anybody disagree with that as a policy or SPC did that as well.
Speaker:Who's SPC the fruit cannery.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:For, well, for all of them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They, he gives him, yeah.
Speaker:If you come into the factory, you, I think it's not only production line workers.
Speaker:I think it was even visitors, contractors.
Speaker:You need to be vaccinated to come onsite.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So that'll be interesting.
Speaker:Telstra have said they're giving $200 to every employee who gets vaccinated.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So they've said we're not going to mandate it, but here's some strong encouragement.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And what if you've already been vaccinated, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:As long as you've got a vaccination certificate, they'll give that and they're
Speaker:keeping it open until the end of December.
Speaker:Because they said they recognize that there is a shortage
Speaker:of vaccines at the moment.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And obviously this is what's happening in Europe with people wanting to get into
Speaker:clubs and festivals and things, having some proof wonder what they can create.
Speaker:That's actually sort of fraud proof.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Short of a, a government website where you could look, somebody
Speaker:up, see a photograph of them.
Speaker:The second you have a document on the person's phone, it's four doable.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Have you had heard about the forged Cove in check-in app?
Speaker:Shies Chamie.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So for people who don't like the idea of letting the government know where
Speaker:they've been, they actually able to get this app that looks like the COVID
Speaker:check-in app, and they will use it as they enter a premise and scan the QR code.
Speaker:And on the screen, it will come up with the normal, congratulations, shy.
Speaker:You've checked in at XYZ ed bakery or supermarket or wherever you
Speaker:happen to be looks exactly like the real thing, but it's a fake app.
Speaker:So you'll could flash it to anybody there who wanted to check that you had been
Speaker:doing the right thing, but in fact, none of the data is going to the government.
Speaker:So that's, what's going on out there in terms of fake checking apps.
Speaker:Cause they like some of the code on stuff I've been looking at.
Speaker:They've already had a look at how they're going to get around
Speaker:the vaccination thing as well.
Speaker:And it seems pretty amateur to may, but obviously they've
Speaker:developed their skills since then.
Speaker:So that's a worry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So be interesting to see how it happens.
Speaker:Like in Queensland, we can't even get our driver's license electronically.
Speaker:I've got to still carry a physical card.
Speaker:I know in new south Wales is I can do it electronically.
Speaker:That's the problem is the government hasn't made a law that says it's
Speaker:illegal to ask for the information.
Speaker:And I believe the police have actually asked for COVID tracking information.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And this is the problem.
Speaker:If they wanted, if they were being serious about it, if they said this
Speaker:is purely for health reasons, there's no reason for them not to introduce
Speaker:a law that makes it illegal for those records to be used for anything else.
Speaker:And I understand the police always want assistance and your
Speaker:lives are going to be saved by.
Speaker:We always draw a balance between the two.
Speaker:And I think this is one case where we have to say this database is not for mining.
Speaker:It's purely to be used for public health and nothing else.
Speaker:And that at least would restore some trust.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:McGowan did it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Hey, brought in.
Speaker:Cause they liked it to the press.
Speaker:The police used the data for catching a crook and it got late to the presser, a
Speaker:gown really swiftly just put a new laws to say our lay our life, a health raisins.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think it's critically important that we do that.
Speaker:You know, you're not going to assign it to everybody, but I think a lot of
Speaker:people it's, it's it sends a sign that the government is willing to tolerate it.
Speaker:And do you remember me talking about sort of, ah, Casual.
Speaker:Well, part-time casual workers who are on regular shifts being treated as full-time
Speaker:workers and being entitled to the sort of Menulog tri-fold delivery was a, yeah,
Speaker:there was the dev deliver route one.
Speaker:And there's also beans, some mining workers as well.
Speaker:Who, so basically, if you had an employee who wasn't called a full-time employee,
Speaker:but basically was given the shot the same shift every week, quite often, Monday to
Speaker:Friday nine to five, and really treated otherwise like a full-time employee.
Speaker:Then there was a decision by the full court of the federal court that
Speaker:said, okay, that sort of employee needs to be treated as a full-time
Speaker:employee and is therefore entitled to the same SIG PI the same.
Speaker:Superannuation the same long service leave, et cetera.
Speaker:And, and this is why I tell people don't, you know, mamas, don't let your babies
Speaker:grow up to be lawyers because a full court of the federal court says treat them like
Speaker:a full-time worker, what the guys are getting into that position and not dummy.
Speaker:It's like, and they've really thought really hard when
Speaker:they've made the decision.
Speaker:Then it goes to the high court and the high court overturns.
Speaker:It says, now you got that wrong.
Speaker:You've got Lauren.
Speaker:It was so tough as a lawyer to try and working out with any confidence,
Speaker:whether you're gonna win or not.
Speaker:And it's just tough.
Speaker:Don't do it.
Speaker:Don't be, don't become a lawyer if you think about it.
Speaker:I, I think, you know, historically workers had no rights.
Speaker:And the rights were brought in to protect the workers and then suddenly we've gone.
Speaker:Well, they're not really a worker.
Speaker:They're this special class of worker, which gets no rights again.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And so what's the point of having rights for any workers.
Speaker:If now you have this class of workers who have no rights.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Can you just, if you can just get around it by saying, are you an independent
Speaker:contractor or something like that?
Speaker:So we don't have to abide by all these rules.
Speaker:It just seems to be a loophole that needs to be closed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So anyway, labor, industrial relations, spokesman, tiny Berg.
Speaker:So the judgment's effect was limited.
Speaker:As the government had teamed up with one nation to pass changes that
Speaker:extinguished the rights of casual workers.
Speaker:The good news shy is that alive, a government will actually do something.
Speaker:It seems it will overturn the government scheme, ending the roads and
Speaker:restoring rights to work as according to Tony Burke, there's something,
Speaker:but it weren't scared on that one.
Speaker:They were happy to go to an election with that.
Speaker:Not scared off secure works, secure work.
Speaker:That's all about and good for them.
Speaker:Cause can I make it just completely baseless assertion?
Speaker:It does seem to be a patent of winning days, industrial relation court
Speaker:cases, and then losing them on appeal.
Speaker:It happened at Quantas with the mismanagement of job caper.
Speaker:I went through for other examples, but ran out of time.
Speaker:And I just don't think like between the fair work commission and some of the court
Speaker:systems that they really have any taste.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:We have made wage theft illegal here in Queensland and I, in my line of work,
Speaker:I regularly get follow-up calls around young workers who are still waiting
Speaker:on orders for their employers to pay them back in excess of like 18 grand.
Speaker:And that's from two years ago.
Speaker:So we have a wage theft law, but we still haven't worked out how
Speaker:to enforce it at work commission.
Speaker:In the meantime is just like, when are you 10 grand?
Speaker:If you're 21, actually.
Speaker:And granted is a huge amount of money.
Speaker:You can buy a lot of avocado on toast.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So anyway, that's my little rant.
Speaker:This is one of my things I get most ragey a bit.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Good point in the chat room.
Speaker:I think stopping them, standing outside with a sandwich board going this person
Speaker:was found to have stolen 18,000 in wages.
Speaker:Well a lot of these businesses banned them.
Speaker:So there's a few news reports of people who are seriously pissed off and didn't
Speaker:get as good outcome or consequently are still Whiting, try to try to shame them.
Speaker:But when you're going in individually and not with your union there is no going into
Speaker:the shop, just standing outside the shop.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well I might suggest that next time, but yeah, I don't think you would.
Speaker:Well, the customer's going, oh, oh, I don't know that I want to support
Speaker:a business that does that to their workers, but if you've got it wrong,
Speaker:then you're in, you've got a problem.
Speaker:I think if, I think if a tribunal has found that they owe you the weight.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then a high court says actually they don't, meanwhile, you'd been
Speaker:out the shop sort of defining them, then you've got a problem.
Speaker:So that's one of the problems.
Speaker:Hey, in the chat room, just scrolling back as we're getting towards the
Speaker:end Bronwyn said, how about the waterfront dispute in the nineties?
Speaker:That was an example of business effectively attempting to replace
Speaker:its unionized workforce with a, non-union not unionized one.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:Patrick stevedoring.
Speaker:Back in the day, I'm just thinking fleet street and then move out to whopping.
Speaker:Was it London?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Essentially built up factory in secret, which is more or
Speaker:less almost fully automated.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the same with the warfees really, it was about changing to a system which
Speaker:used those giant cranes and less in even more automated crimes, I think.
Speaker:And a lot less people involved.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:So that was an example as well of unions losing their power.
Speaker:What else do we got here?
Speaker:Can't get through all the comments, but thank you for your
Speaker:comments in the chat room guys.
Speaker:I reckon that might sort of do us shy.
Speaker:You'll be in danger of the shark tank if Landon hard bottom finds out that we've
Speaker:finished nine minutes early, but I think it can be excused given my workload.
Speaker:Now next week, COVID lockdowns permitting.
Speaker:I'm going to be in Cairns in.
Speaker:So if I've managed to pre-record something, I will
Speaker:upload it if there's there.
Speaker:But there's a good chance.
Speaker:There won't be anything.
Speaker:I don't know, D listener.
Speaker:So I don't know if there'll be a show next week, but the definitely
Speaker:be something the week after.
Speaker:So yeah, not sure.
Speaker:If you want us to talk about something sent through some suggestions actually
Speaker:next week I'm supposed to be doing would, it would be normally an interview
Speaker:or a book view type thing anyway.
Speaker:So you guys will see in two weeks time, whatever happens next week and dear
Speaker:listener, if if there's not a show next week, it's just because I'm relaxing
Speaker:on a beach somewhere off cans and Mrs.
Speaker:Fister and I are enjoying life.
Speaker:Isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Lockdowns permitting.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, thank you in the chat room.
Speaker:Thank you for the people who sent support about ER, strange
Speaker:things that I'd been up to lately.
Speaker:We won't know a result on that for a few weeks, most likely.
Speaker:And the whole satanic thing.
Speaker:We'll see how much notice do you get when he's ready?
Speaker:Reveal the judgment.
Speaker:I have no idea.
Speaker:Like so many of these things about this whole thing, I have no idea.
Speaker:So I actually sent them an email today to the associates saying, I'm not
Speaker:going to be around during this period.
Speaker:If a decision comes out and you're expecting me there, I'm sorry.
Speaker:I won't be there.
Speaker:I'm apologizing in advance.
Speaker:So I don't know.
Speaker:It depends because if, for example, he decides in our favor on the
Speaker:declaration, then his judgment will be relatively short and easy.
Speaker:But if he decides against us, then he's got to deal with a whole bunch
Speaker:of judicial review questions, which will be quite complicated and lengthy.
Speaker:So so yeah, it just, who knows, who knows?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I've sort of like, I, it was not, how long is it going to take him, but just,
Speaker:are they going to warn you two days in advance that I don't even know.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I just I'll let you know, as soon as I know something.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Delist now we're out of here.
Speaker:Thanks in the chat room for watching and maybe next week, if
Speaker:not, definitely two weeks time.
Speaker:Talk to you then.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:Bye.
Speaker:That is a good night from him.