full
Episode 367 - The Energy Relief Bill Explained
In this episode we discuss:
(00:00) Ep 367
(00:40) Introduction
(05:30) Joe Was Right
(08:35) Robodebt
(12:36) Submarines 49%
(15:43) Timor Gap Continued
(19:48) War Power
(22:08) Perrottet on Confessions
(26:34) Population Cap
(29:06) China's Human Rights Record
(34:35) Patrons
(38:41) Trans Assault
(43:31) Oil and the Petro-Dollar
(45:54) Qld 3 Billion Dollar Bonus
(46:50) Oil and Gas Price Cap
(59:59) 2022 Review
(01:15:32) Farewell for 2022
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Transcript
Suburban Eastern Australia.
Speaker:An environment that has over time evolved some extraordinarily
Speaker:unique groups of Homo Sapians.
Speaker:But today, we observe a small tribe akin to a group of mere cats that
Speaker:gather together a top, a small mound to watch question and discuss the
Speaker:current events of their city, their country, and their world at large.
Speaker:Let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known as the
Speaker:Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.
Speaker:Yes, dear listener, you need to sit back and listen to the Iron
Speaker:Fist and the Velvet Glove podcast for the very last time in 2022.
Speaker:This is the last episode.
Speaker:I, I need a break.
Speaker:I've decided.
Speaker:Joe, you asked me a couple of weeks ago, when are we having a break?
Speaker:And I wasn't too sure.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:But I decided yesterday I've had enough.
Speaker:I've gotta stop.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:So I'm Trevor, aka a, the Iron Fist.
Speaker:Joe normally tunes in about 15 minutes early, but he literally
Speaker:tuned in with running little eight.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So welcome aboard Joe.
Speaker:Thanks for being here.
Speaker:Well, dear listener, if you're in the chat room, say hello.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:A podcast as usual about news and politics and sex and religion and , a
Speaker:few topics to get through, but being the last episode for the year
Speaker:might be a little self-indulgent.
Speaker:Talk about ourselves a little bit, maybe do a bit of a review.
Speaker:I didn't tell you about this Joe, but I sort of quickly went through
Speaker:roughly some of the things we've talked about over the past 12 months.
Speaker:Thought we'd rehash some of them or go over them.
Speaker:So we'll do that at some stage and see how we go.
Speaker:So, oh dear.
Speaker:Just out on our past bullshit.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, we didn't make too many predictions.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So that was good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We'll leave predictions until the first show in January.
Speaker:So there's fair warning for you, Joe, between now and then you have
Speaker:to make some 2023 predictions.
Speaker:I don't know, January, 2022 was, I don't think anybody predicted that Putin was
Speaker:gonna invade Ukraine, causing a massive oil and gas issue that the Nord stream
Speaker:pipe mines would be blowing up by parties unknown and just throw the world, sort of
Speaker:energy markets into chaos, if anyone did.
Speaker:That was a good pick.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, hopefully they placed bets in the right stock markets.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Anyway so yes, I'm gonna take a break at least three weeks I think.
Speaker:So I'm going to, as soon as the show's finished.
Speaker:Reach for my phone and delete Twitter, delete Facebook, delete my RSS feed
Speaker:reader, delete everything, and just not look at anything for a few weeks de detox.
Speaker:And I don't think much is gonna happen anyway, Joe.
Speaker:Yeah, I'd be careful with predictions like that.
Speaker:. Yeah.
Speaker:That's this country after, after Melbourne Cup Day.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:and until Australia Day, the country stops effectively in many ways.
Speaker:Anyway, we'll see what happens.
Speaker:Deleting those.
Speaker:If you're signed up to the newsletter, you won't be seeing anything fresh
Speaker:on the newsletter, but stay signed up because it'll kick off again next year.
Speaker:Next year plans.
Speaker:I'm actually almost certainly doing a second podcast, which will be one about
Speaker:art supplies, a very niche topic of people who work in art supply stores.
Speaker:about the ins and outs and chemistry and physics of art supplies.
Speaker:So not one for the general public, but I'm pretty, I'm sure it'll be Worthing
Speaker:Thanks Joe.
Speaker:And I also think I might do a second podcast where I just take bits and pieces
Speaker:outta this podcast and create a second one maybe with the sort of Australian specific
Speaker:content removed and make something that's a bit more appealing to international
Speaker:audiences and more bite sized pieces.
Speaker:So, something like that.
Speaker:I'm toying with the idea of there's all sorts of interesting stuff
Speaker:you can do with podcasts now.
Speaker:And I feel if I had a second podcast I could play around with that, some
Speaker:of that stuff thinking about that.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:Speaking of interesting stuff in podcasting, I am now doing chapters
Speaker:on this podcast, so you should on your app, be able to look at chapters.
Speaker:I might have mucked it up slightly last week, but anyway you'll see hopefully
Speaker:on your podcast app, a list of chapters.
Speaker:So if you wanna scoot through some topics say when we read out the patron's names
Speaker:and you are not one of them and you don't wanna hear the names, you could
Speaker:just skip that section, for example.
Speaker:So, and also also you're trying to torture people.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:. That's right.
Speaker:No, we're trying to make them feel guilty.
Speaker:That's what we're trying to do.
Speaker:Guilt trip them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And also with the chapters, you can put images there, so sometimes if I talk
Speaker:about a graph or something like that, have a look at your phone in your app
Speaker:and there's half a chance if I'm talking about a graph or an image that it might
Speaker:be appearing in the podcast app itself.
Speaker:So all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:Joe, nobody's in the chat room at this stage.
Speaker:They're all at Christmas parties.
Speaker:So what's happening?
Speaker:There's three people watching now.
Speaker:There's three people Who are the three people who are watching?
Speaker:Please just say hello and tonight you've got a good chance of
Speaker:having any comments read or just a hello greeting cooled out to you.
Speaker:So please say hello.
Speaker:It'd be good to know all the people who are in the chat room.
Speaker:Right Joe, you appreciate.
Speaker:So remember dear listener, when we talked about the National Anti-Corruption
Speaker:Commission, and one of the things we spoke about was that the commission
Speaker:would have the power to make findings of corrupt conduct and refer their findings
Speaker:to the director of Public prosecutions and the Australian Federal Police.
Speaker:And you, Joe said, Hmm, dunno about the Australian federal police.
Speaker:Dunno how good that'll be.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, I was like, I was kind of like, what do you mean the police force?
Speaker:They're on our side.
Speaker:It all sounds, why, why are you so cynical?
Speaker:Joe?
Speaker:Is what I wanted to say.
Speaker:Uhhuh.
Speaker:And now we've got this thing with the Brittany Higgins Bruce Luhrman trial where
Speaker:the chief prosecutor in the trial has complained that police officers engaged
Speaker:in a very clear campaign to pressure him not to prosecute the alleged rape, saying
Speaker:there was inappropriate interference and he felt investigators clearly aligned with
Speaker:the successful defense on this matter.
Speaker:And that's on a simple, well, I wanna say simple, but it's not normally
Speaker:a highly political matter, a sort of a right trial, although it does
Speaker:implicate the actions of the minister in cleaning the office and mm-hmm.
Speaker:other bits and pieces, but it's not as political as some things could get.
Speaker:Like what you mean?
Speaker:Like, arresting ABC journalists going through all that
Speaker:stuff, looking for a source.
Speaker:That the AFP have done in the past.
Speaker:Yes, yes.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Where, where they were alleged to be LMP lackeys at that point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it was merely, it's merely a long memory not being prescient.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well you you've got a good memory, Joe.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And well done because I didn't spot it, but you did.
Speaker:And so yeah, this, this Brittany Higgins, Bruce Leman matter really
Speaker:highlights, like this is quite extraordinary for the QC to make these
Speaker:allegations about the police conduct.
Speaker:Really, really, actually is a Casey now, Casey?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes, it would be.
Speaker:So, actually it depends on the, I'm just trying to think now.
Speaker:I know in the UK all the QCs became Caseys overnight.
Speaker:Yeah, they did.
Speaker:But I'm just trying to think here.
Speaker:At some point it swapped an se Yes.
Speaker:Which apparently is Australian.
Speaker:Yes, that's right.
Speaker:Where we took away the sort of Queens council so it wouldn't change anyway.
Speaker:Quite extraordinary.
Speaker:So we'll see what happens from that.
Speaker:And then the Australian Federal Police Association did a counter
Speaker:report where they mm-hmm.
Speaker:Reported the director of public prosecutions to a Canberra watchdog
Speaker:because apparently he hurt their fifis.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It's a bit of tit for tat in referring people to bodies,
Speaker:like I said, on the work for the anticorruption commissions coming up.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So well done, Joe.
Speaker:You spotted that one.
Speaker:Oh, in the chat room.
Speaker:Bronn.
Speaker:Good on you.
Speaker:Brahman.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:So we've also had Joe Robo debt hearings and It's been great because
Speaker:people are getting grilled and they're not allowed to just fob off.
Speaker:And say, I, I reject the premise of your question.
Speaker:You move on because and reject your reality and insert my own.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Or I'll just fob around and say any old bullshit and and then the
Speaker:press conference will be over.
Speaker:But that's not how this works because they stop and they just say, well, you're not
Speaker:answering the question and you'll attempt.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So Ben Elham and Twitter said The real value of the robo inquiry
Speaker:is to make unaccountable public servants everywhere Absolutely.
Speaker:Shit their pants at the prospect of having a Casey methodically go through every
Speaker:single work email they ever wrote and make them testify under oath for two days.
Speaker:I reckon that's a good point.
Speaker:I think you would hope if it's senior public servants.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. Yes.
Speaker:I mean the plebs I don't think really have any power.
Speaker:No, but you know what?
Speaker:They might be encouraged to write that email off the chain
Speaker:to say, to cover their asses.
Speaker:Just pointing out, I told you in this meeting the following situation for the
Speaker:record, and it's there in black and white.
Speaker:I, I, I know someone who went to work for the state government from private
Speaker:industry, been in private industry for 30 years, and apparently he became
Speaker:unpopular cuz I think at one meeting he went, well one, will you not just
Speaker:fucking shut up and make a decision because they were just buck passing.
Speaker:Nobody was willing to make a decision in case they got called on it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I had a friend, years and years ago who was a qualified accountant,
Speaker:moved into law and ended up in a law firm and there was a matter on.
Speaker:Some sort of taxation advice.
Speaker:And he was, cuz he'd only just started in a law, a relatively junior lawyer and
Speaker:the senior partner was telling him, no, that's not the advice we're gonna give.
Speaker:And he he said, that's fine.
Speaker:I'm just gonna put a big file note here saying, I said something quite
Speaker:different and you are saying this and it's gonna be very clear to anybody
Speaker:looking at the file whose advice this was.
Speaker:And that was enough to make the senior partner think, think
Speaker:twice and change the advice.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So cover your ass emails and file notes what you need to do.
Speaker:And yeah, hopefully it might encourage people to to do more
Speaker:of that and might scare some people with power into thinking.
Speaker:Crikey, I might end up in front of some inquiry at some stage.
Speaker:I better treat this seriously.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:It's, we can only hope cuz up here in Queensland we've also had Joe
Speaker:the There's a lab here responsible for DNA testing, so I hear you.
Speaker:The problem is they haven't really been doing DNA testing
Speaker:the way it should be being done.
Speaker:And so there's been an inquiry here and just again, proving hopeless
Speaker:administration and, and just terrible procedures and, and just dozens and
Speaker:dozens of cases where, where DNA evidence has not been properly assessed and
Speaker:potentially dozens of criminals getting away with it and this organization
Speaker:fobbing off police and saying, oh, we weren't able to find anything or we
Speaker:weren't able to, wasn't enough evidence on the clothing or whatever when mm-hmm.
Speaker:when police are going, that seems strange cuz it looked like a
Speaker:fair amount of evidence on there.
Speaker:So that's another case of public service performing badly.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:What's Broman say here?
Speaker:When I was a junior public servant, one of the first things I was told was to
Speaker:always put my advice on the fire and not take the fall from the minister.
Speaker:I think attitudes have changed slightly and it now takes some courage to do that
Speaker:as it potentially exposes the minister.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So there we go.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Well, can't finish the year off without another mention of
Speaker:submarines and the ongoing saga that is submarines in this country.
Speaker:I, I thought the chaser had done something about us renting submarines, wasn't it?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I didn't see it.
Speaker:We were gonna, the Americans money accrue it with American crew and Yes.
Speaker:I think I read that out one out last week.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How at the middleman, let's just get them to, to pay for it, crew it, and
Speaker:record it and, and, and store it.
Speaker:Air waters.
Speaker:But what you would think the following article is a Chase article.
Speaker:It's so outrageous, but it is true.
Speaker:So one of the most powerful Republicans in the United States Congress has ruled
Speaker:out the possibility that Australia could buy several US-made submarines.
Speaker:And this has always been a problem to dear listener, that they can't make
Speaker:'em fast enough for themselves, let alone squeeze out a few more for us.
Speaker:This has been known one forever.
Speaker:So he said this Republican senator Republican congressman, that's not
Speaker:gonna happen, said Rob Whitman.
Speaker:Now he's the most senior Republican on the House Armed Services
Speaker:Committees C Power Subcommittee sounds like the right committee
Speaker:for dealing with making submarine.
Speaker:He said the US could not afford to interrupt its own submarine
Speaker:production to make way for Australia.
Speaker:He said, quote, I don't see how we're going to build a submarine and
Speaker:sell to Australia during that time.
Speaker:So far so good.
Speaker:That all makes sense.
Speaker:He goes on, he could see an arrangement working.
Speaker:Sit down for this one, dear listener, where the US built a submarine that
Speaker:operated in Australia's area of responsibility and was meant by a dual
Speaker:crew of sailors from both nations.
Speaker:It won't belong to Australia, but it'll still be an asset that
Speaker:they have that element of control with, and I think we can do that.
Speaker:He said it may be that the US needs to have a 51% control and
Speaker:command in Australia has 49%.
Speaker:He says, he quote, listen, in an emergency, it will come back to the
Speaker:United States, but if it is an emergency, Australians are probably going to want
Speaker:the United States to be able to have that.
Speaker:But of course now, because America has always taken care of Australia's defense.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:You know, Scott Morrison would've jumped at it and said, that's a great deal.
Speaker:We, we, we get at a half price.
Speaker:Hopefully the Labor Party is not so stupid, but I'm not so sure.
Speaker:I'm not so sure.
Speaker:Cuz there's, they seem to be swallowing the American line
Speaker:on defense a lot of the time.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. So actually a number of these first topics, dear listeners, are sort
Speaker:of all continuation of stories that we've done in the past to some extent.
Speaker:That was submarines continued.
Speaker:This is Timor Gap continued.
Speaker:So as I mentioned, labor has decided to drop the prosecution of Bernard.
Speaker:Now, I think I always say Col Colory, but it's Kri I think.
Speaker:Anyway, Bernard Colleary, they've decided to drop that prosecution.
Speaker:But when it was running and Lia Cash was in charge there was this
Speaker:argument about the evidence and how much of it could be revealed.
Speaker:And even some of it was not even revealed to, to Killary himself.
Speaker:And it went to a Supreme the a c t Court of Appeal who said it should
Speaker:be revealed the evidence in court.
Speaker:And that was then appealed to the high court.
Speaker:But it was all put on sort of hold.
Speaker:And then Drefus has decided to terminate the prosecution, but he
Speaker:still wants this stuff kept secret and he's somehow got the ACT's chief
Speaker:justice to review the whole thing.
Speaker:So it's back in the a c t deciding how much of the evidence could
Speaker:be released even though the prosecution has a been abandoned.
Speaker:So Kary believes that the Albanese government is encased by the same circle
Speaker:of security advisors in and out of the public service who orchestrated the
Speaker:moves against Witness K and himself.
Speaker:And he thinks that Drefus is probably accepting the advice that he not allow
Speaker:publication of this material because of advice from the ACEs director General
Speaker:Paul Simmons, a retired army general and former head of defense intelligence.
Speaker:Ary says, when you've got an ex warrior, albeit with no actual experience in
Speaker:the trade, you've got a man of that sort of standing who's advising you
Speaker:that publishing it would be in the sort of prejudicial to national security.
Speaker:You accept that advice Cleary tells me, not tells him, but it's trite.
Speaker:According to Cleary, it was Carkey dressage.
Speaker:And Kari wants a royal commission and it should encompass not only
Speaker:that Asis bugging operation, but also issues of utter, utter treachery.
Speaker:He says that he hasn't been at liberty to reveal previously.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:So possibly giving information to the Indonesians about the, who
Speaker:knows, utter, utter treachery.
Speaker:He says.
Speaker:So on the face of it.
Speaker:A Royal Commission should appeal to the new labor government, but it doesn't
Speaker:seem to be falling on fertile ground.
Speaker:And one reason might be that when Labor was empowered during the Rudd
Speaker:Gillard years, they might have been doing naughty stuff as well that
Speaker:would come out in Oral Commission.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And also, wouldn't it be seen to be political?
Speaker:So they need to be careful how many True political Royal Commissions.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:I mean, the Robo one was the one we really wanted.
Speaker:. Yeah.
Speaker:Well, yes.
Speaker:I mean, I'd like to see this one anyway, according to this article, well, if you
Speaker:can't have a Royal Commission, maybe they could do it as I referring it to the
Speaker:New National Anti-Corruption Commission.
Speaker:They could be a bit more.
Speaker:But you know, national Defense, the anti-corruption commission
Speaker:couldn't possibly, well, couldn't do it publicly, could it?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:We'll see what happens.
Speaker:According to the end of this article, it says, this would put targets on
Speaker:the back of Downer, Alexander Downer, who later accepted a consultancy from
Speaker:Woodside Petroleum and the late Ashton Culvert, who was Secretary of Foreign
Speaker:Affairs, who supervised ASIS at the time of bugging and on retirement,
Speaker:became a director of Woodside.
Speaker:Now still on defense matters briefly from an article in Crikey.
Speaker:There is a the def, let me just see.
Speaker:There's a parliamentary inquiry examining the reform of the war powers.
Speaker:So at the moment, a Prime Minister can just consult with two or three of his
Speaker:best mates and send us off to war and.
Speaker:People have been calling for that to change, where there shouldn't at least
Speaker:be a vote in the parliament, both houses.
Speaker:The problem is you have to recall Parliament.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So yeah, that takes time.
Speaker:And the point was, if we needed to go to war quickly mm-hmm.
Speaker:Country was attacked.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But when have we needed to go work quickly?
Speaker:Like all the last wars we've been in have been overseas.
Speaker:We had plenty of time to bring everybody into the Parliament and make the decision.
Speaker:They hadn't been that urgent, that we couldn't have gathered everyone in
Speaker:the parliament and made the decision.
Speaker:I think the idea, idea is if we were to ever have our own Pearl Harbor.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, okay.
Speaker:You could make it if Australia is attacked on our own soil.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:The Prime Minister and, and Parliament is not sitting.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:The you know, okay, let the prime ministry's best mates make
Speaker:the decision if you need to.
Speaker:But if it's an overseas battle, or if it's one where we're actually
Speaker:parliament sitting and everybody's there, get everyone together, make the
Speaker:decision anyway, the Defense Department put in a submission, and guess what?
Speaker:They don't wanna change the current system.
Speaker:They like the current system.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. Yeah.
Speaker:Because I think they like, they like going to war Joe.
Speaker:If you are in the defense department and you want to I mean
Speaker:that's what the whole point is.
Speaker:If you're there, you want to go to war, you're quite disappointed.
Speaker:If you were in defense during a period where there's no wars, yeah.
Speaker:How are you gonna earn stripes and stars and, and other stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You want to go to war until you've been in a war and then you don't.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Or you're gonna be sitting in an office back in Canberra.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Anyway, so that's the war powers.
Speaker:Joe there's only, I mean, federally and in the states all those governments,
Speaker:there's only two now that are not labor.
Speaker:One of them is New South Wales.
Speaker:And current premier Dominic Perk took over from Gladys Bean and
Speaker:after she was badly, badly treated by the anti-corruption commission.
Speaker:Yes, indeed.
Speaker:And so this is the premier of New South Wales.
Speaker:I reckon if the labor opposition just plays this tape over
Speaker:and over, surely this should.
Speaker:Make him unelectable.
Speaker:Anyway, let's go with him speaking.
Speaker:A little while ago, territory to pass laws requiring priests and other religious
Speaker:ministers to breach the confessional seal to report cases of child abuse.
Speaker:Now I understand the motivation and the rationale for this legislation,
Speaker:as I'm sure everyone here does.
Speaker:As a Catholic, I find a sexual abuse and subsequent cover ups that have gone on
Speaker:in the church are crushing betrayal, not only of the victims, but of believers too.
Speaker:We all share in the responsibility to combat the plague of sexual
Speaker:abuse of children and minors and make sure it never happens again.
Speaker:And at the same time though, we need to be clear about what this kind of law does.
Speaker:It compels and a threat of imprisonment, ministers of religion to violate
Speaker:their conscience in a way that is so grave that will result in their
Speaker:summary expulsion from their church.
Speaker:That isn't just a matter of preference, it's a matter of deep theological
Speaker:conviction that the confessional seal is sacrosanct for every priest.
Speaker:In every penitent, no matter who, and no matter what sins are confessed,
Speaker:it is an essential doctrine for many Christian denominations.
Speaker:And no state legislator can change that fact.
Speaker:But if governments claim the authority to outlaw one religious
Speaker:doctrine, it's only a matter of time before they will outlaw others.
Speaker:So each of these examples reflect changes that are taking place right now
Speaker:and suggest the prognosis for religious freedom in Australia is not good.
Speaker:We've reached a point where, in a very practical, tangible ways, Christians
Speaker:are being forced to, to, to choose, to serve either God or is that someone
Speaker:you want in charge of your state, Joe?
Speaker:Well, doesn't the Bible say render unto God?
Speaker:What is God's render unto Caesar?
Speaker:What is Caesars?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But also, you know, I, I understand their reticence, but they're
Speaker:not even meeting us halfway.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:They don't say absolution.
Speaker:In cases of confession of child abuse would be withheld.
Speaker:Withheld unless you go and confess all to the police.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Which yeah.
Speaker:Is a simple thing to say that is a, a prerequisite of, of absolution.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And, and I, you can still keep your seal of confession and just say, well, you've
Speaker:come and confessed it to me, but, you know, if you want to be absolved of these
Speaker:sins, you have to go and fess up, not just to somebody who can't tell anyone.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:Faced the music for it because there was that priest who thinks he
Speaker:confessed whatever it was a thousand times and went on to abuse again.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Every time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Because he's, because his conscience was clear.
Speaker:Because he'd been forgiven.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, the danger with that, Joe, is I don't think it's acceptable for a police, a
Speaker:priest to say, well, I'm not going to.
Speaker:Absolve you of your sins.
Speaker:But I'm I'm also not gonna tell on you.
Speaker:I just doesn't cut it for me.
Speaker:So it's not a halfway mark to me.
Speaker:You know, it's, but, but they're saying we're just gonna keep Yeah.
Speaker:And we're gonna grant you absolution.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We, we will, we will dis communicate, what is it?
Speaker:Dis communi.
Speaker:Excommunicate.
Speaker:We will excommunicate a 12 year old for having an abortion.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But we will not excomm communicate her rapist for, for making her pregnant.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Catholics.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I was in the system 12 years.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Six people in the chat room and only Bronwyn has said, hello.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:It's the last show for 2022.
Speaker:Just say hello.
Speaker:You don't make any other comment than that, just so we can see who you are.
Speaker:I'm very curious to know who you are.
Speaker:There's only five now.
Speaker:One left.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You've scared him off.
Speaker:Yeah, I have, haven't I?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:That's Dominic perk.
Speaker:Good luck New South Wales, getting rid of him when the time comes.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:There was an article on the John Meninge blog.
Speaker:It was by Steven Williams, who's very active in the sustainability
Speaker:sort of world, and he was talking about a, a paper.
Speaker:Robin Bristow is there.
Speaker:I'll Good on you, Robin.
Speaker:A a discussion paper written by a Catholic historian Paul Collins and this guy,
Speaker:despite being Catholic, this Paul Collins.
Speaker:He's the author of 15 books, former editor of Religion and Ethics at
Speaker:the abc, but he actually has a very strong argument about the world's
Speaker:population level and what it can accept.
Speaker:And he says that the planet could support 3 billion people in modest
Speaker:comfort, not the current 8 billion.
Speaker:And anyway, in this article Collins's figure of 3 billion is similar to
Speaker:Cambridge UK Economist who quotes 3.2 billion and another expert in Canada,
Speaker:a William Reese who puts it at between one and 2 billion for the population.
Speaker:And Australian science writer Julian crib, opts for two to 2.5 billion.
Speaker:And another one, Phillip Lawn, Australian Ecological Economist,
Speaker:puts the figure at 4 billion.
Speaker:So I found the article interesting, just that there was a bunch of people looking
Speaker:at this and figuring out that somewhere between one and 4 billion is about the
Speaker:population that the planet can sustain.
Speaker:And we're currently at eight.
Speaker:So Joe, when we are looking at vLab Mill and his bookend, the problems of, okay,
Speaker:we can replace household electricity with renewables, but we've got real
Speaker:problems with Transport of locomotives, airplanes, trucks fertilizers,
Speaker:fertilizer, cement things like that.
Speaker:And really sort of came to a bit of a conclusion I did anyway, that
Speaker:it's just not gonna be possible with the current population.
Speaker:I think the only way we'll get to it is through a smaller population.
Speaker:So, yes.
Speaker:In the chat room, Robin says hello.
Speaker:He's on his way to a trip around the world.
Speaker:Go on your robin.
Speaker:Roman says in Victoria, legislation requiring priest notified child abuse
Speaker:was passed a couple of years ago.
Speaker:To my knowledge, no one has been convicted of failing to do so.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:So that was in Victoria with, well, of course it was with dictator
Speaker:Dan passing Such, such dictatorial Yeah, he, he's such an atheist.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:China's human rights abuses.
Speaker:I may have mentioned this previously, I dunno, but I came across it again.
Speaker:It's really hard to know what the truth is about the Yes.
Speaker:Do you know what the truth is, Joe?
Speaker:No, no.
Speaker:I know one of the prop arguers or the proponents about the amount of sort of
Speaker:human rights suffering of the Uyghurs, some Christian Guy who had a real agenda,
Speaker:who was responsible for a lot of it anyway, stumbled across this old article.
Speaker:So this is from 2019.
Speaker:July last week, 22, mostly western countries launched the world's first
Speaker:major collective challenge to China's crackdown on the Uighur Muslims in a
Speaker:joint statement to the United Nations.
Speaker:The 22 mostly Western countries criticized Beijing for what they called
Speaker:Disturbing reports of large scale arbitrary detentions and widespread
Speaker:surveillance and restrictions.
Speaker:But the next day, 37 other countries jumped to Beijing's defense with their
Speaker:own letter praising China's human rights record and dismissing the reported
Speaker:detention of 10 million Muslims.
Speaker:And nearly half the signatories were Muslim majority nations, you would think
Speaker:might be sympathetic to the plight of fellow Muslims in China, but on the
Speaker:other hand, who might also be sympathetic to their own economic benefits by
Speaker:keeping cozy with China and you know, are they the right sort of Muslims?
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:Well, what is a mus, what is a UGA Muslim?
Speaker:Are they Sunni or, or Shia or something else?
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So the Muslim majority nations that supported China included.
Speaker:Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia.
Speaker:So anyway, this what's so hard to tell where the truth is on these things.
Speaker:Actually I've got a little, I've got a little picture I can show you of this,
Speaker:which is can't in orange posed well, complained about China's human rights
Speaker:record with the uyghurs and vast, the green, vast majority of Sunni, apparently.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Although additional conflicts exist between Sufi and
Speaker:non Sufi religious orders.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So the vast majority of Sunni and and the countries that we're
Speaker:talking about here were Saudi Arabia.
Speaker:They're Sunni, okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's because it's Iran that's Shia and Saudi Arabia Sunni.
Speaker:So, , they were the right kind of Muslims.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um hmm.
Speaker:Anyway, again, it's one of those things where it's really hard
Speaker:to tell what is going on there.
Speaker:One of the things that always strikes me about this, Joe, is if they're really
Speaker:wanting to wipe out the Uyghur population, it must be a fairly recent thing because
Speaker:during China's one child policy mm-hmm.
Speaker:there was a group that was exempt from the one child policy.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Is it the Uyghurs?
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:Okay, so just it's odd that you were wanting to commit genocide of a group.
Speaker:You wouldn't, I, I was reading about the one part of China that didn't
Speaker:stick with Beijing's time zone, and I thought it was the Uyghur areas.
Speaker:Maybe they seem to have an amazing amount of autonomy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's the problem.
Speaker:It's so hard to know where the truth is on these things.
Speaker:So I'm sure Landon would have a little more information.
Speaker:Yeah, well you know, that's the other thing is just because you're living
Speaker:in a country Yeah, that's true.
Speaker:As anat, you may no disrespect to Landon.
Speaker:Hardbottom.
Speaker:, how could I disrespect him name with that name?
Speaker:But, you know, people living in Australia, Joe, I run into every
Speaker:day have no idea how this country is operating, let alone expats mm-hmm.
Speaker:In a foreign country trying to figure out what's happening in a country.
Speaker:Yeah, just, just cuz somebody's lived somewhere doesn't mean
Speaker:they are an expert by any means.
Speaker:I know my a friend, my one of my neighbors was in Chile and and
Speaker:he came back and he said, oh, you know, the people, people in Chile.
Speaker:They really hated that socialist, ie.
Speaker:Government.
Speaker:And I was like, mate, he's quite well todo guy.
Speaker:And I was like, mate, you were just obviously hanging around with an do well,
Speaker:a different, a different class of person.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So you got a distorted view of LAN's current, Chi's impression of, it was
Speaker:interesting when my brother came back from back backing around Australia.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, his view of Australia, very, very different.
Speaker:Well, but very different to mine because he'd been living in caravan parks.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So he, he'd been living with mostly Itin workers.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so he'd seen a completely different side of Australia to that, that most of.
Speaker:He probably didn't see any Australians in, if they were itinerant workers, they were
Speaker:all probably backpackers and the jeans.
Speaker:And he said there was some minors in the right.
Speaker:Is that Al Calgulley?
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Somewhere around there.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So yes.
Speaker:Alright, in the chat room, Antonio says hello.
Speaker:Good on you Antonio.
Speaker:There's six people in the chat room.
Speaker:Three have identified themselves.
Speaker:Bron, Robin, and Antonio.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Three.
Speaker:Just say hello.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:Given us the last show time to thank the patrons.
Speaker:So, dear listener, currently there's 54 active patrons and in summary, only three
Speaker:people canceled their patronage in 2022.
Speaker:On the other hand, only five new patrons signed up.
Speaker:So Ann Net gain a net increase of two.
Speaker:Give us enough time.
Speaker:I'm gonna piss years . Yeah.
Speaker:Wait till we get back to the indigenous issues and the voice to
Speaker:parliament . That's, that's when the patron is really gonna plummet cuz
Speaker:you're not gonna like what I say again.
Speaker:But anyway.
Speaker:So yeah, net increase of two if you've been thinking about becoming a patron, do
Speaker:so You could sign up now, even though I'm not gonna do an episode for three weeks.
Speaker:Cause you won't get charged.
Speaker:You only get charged when we do an episode.
Speaker:$1, $2, $5.
Speaker:You pick a figure there and sign up.
Speaker:Go to Iron Fist velva Glove dot com au and you'll see the Patreon
Speaker:donation link head in there.
Speaker:It's easy to do.
Speaker:It'd be great.
Speaker:So yeah, our most recent patron was Danny Boland, who signed up in November, 2022.
Speaker:And our longest supporting is Janelle Louise who started.
Speaker:On the 17th of December, 2016.
Speaker:Janelle.
Speaker:Next week it'll be six years.
Speaker:Got reservations
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I'll quickly read through the names.
Speaker:If you're g Now if you've got chapters on your app, you could
Speaker:just skip through this part.
Speaker:Well, you might like to just sit back and silently thank the people for being
Speaker:a patron and supporting this podcast.
Speaker:So awesome prayer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In 2022, signing up were Danny Bolan of Brad Puka, anti Sentiment
Speaker:Christian Hennessy and Mark Clave.
Speaker:And in 2021, signing up was si Tom, the warehouse guy Ricko,
Speaker:Greg p and Shannon Leg from 2020.
Speaker:We've got Don Tvy, Matt Dwyer, Sue Crip, James Leanne.
Speaker:Brand.
Speaker:Wayne David Hamby, Virgil Craig.
Speaker:Bo Shane Ingram, yam Blue Zuck, David Copeley and Graham Hannigan from 2019.
Speaker:Yet another Pinker fan, John in Dire Straits.
Speaker:Donny Daco, Camille Tom Do and Paul Wer.
Speaker:Alexander Allen, Matthew Craig s Glen Bell.
Speaker:Professor Dr.
Speaker:Dennis, Adam Priest, Murray Wer and Andy Dowling all the way back in 2018.
Speaker:Peter Gillespie.
Speaker:Gavin an S.
Speaker:Daniel Cur, Liam McMahon.
Speaker:Dominic de Massey.
Speaker:Mad man.
Speaker:Bronwin is in the chat room.
Speaker:Kane Jimmy's Budd, Tony Wall and Steve Shinners.
Speaker:And from 2017, Alison a Yao and Craig.
Speaker:And as I said, the only ones still left from 2016.
Speaker:Janelle Louise, thank you very much.
Speaker:And also some people who support through PayPal rather than Patreon would be Mr.
Speaker:T, Paul Evans, Anne Reid, Darren Gideons Davis from Cairns
Speaker:Noel Hamilton and Louise Car.
Speaker:So, and the big thanks to Smiley Linga, who does the
Speaker:voiceover of the in the intros.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:We don't do it every week, but it is good to acknowledge and also a special thanks
Speaker:to the people who do tune in live and make comments in the chat room because
Speaker:it does help to a bit of buzz in things.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. Otherwise, if we were just talking to each other without any audience at all, Joe
Speaker:just wouldn't have, wouldn't be the same.
Speaker:So it is nice to have the comments come through.
Speaker:So, right.
Speaker:Joe, you sent me a link to a sexual assault in a female
Speaker:restroom in the US and.
Speaker:This was last year and a teenager was arrested for sexual battery
Speaker:and abduction of a fellow student.
Speaker:Days later, press reports indicated the assailant had committed forcible
Speaker:sodomy on a fellow student at a different school earlier in the year.
Speaker:And this had occurred in the female restroom while the
Speaker:assailant was wearing a skirt.
Speaker:This is a clash of rights mm-hmm.
Speaker:As has been discussed in the past.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:because this person was transgender, they were allowed
Speaker:to go into the female restroom.
Speaker:, even though they had a penis.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, is that what we're getting at here?
Speaker:And therefore had a opportunity to commit a crime?
Speaker:Well, or so So there have been loud voices saying just because they said they
Speaker:were trans doesn't mean they're trans.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. However, this is the same group that says, as soon as somebody
Speaker:identifies as trans, they're trans.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And, and the question is, how do you stop the bad actors when you, when
Speaker:you act in good faith, when you say, we just need you to say that you
Speaker:are trans, and we will accept that.
Speaker:How do you stop the bad actors from taking advantage?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, here's the other question.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:I was about to say.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, there, there's a whole question around whether people would go into
Speaker:a female toilet anyway, you know, just because they're wearing a skirt.
Speaker:and there seems to be some major letdowns on the school that a teacher walked past
Speaker:noticed that there were two people in a toilet stall and just waved it off.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:because, you know, may maybe one of 'em had had a bad
Speaker:breakup and needed consoling.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:There, there were a number of questions there, but I think it was only a
Speaker:matter of time before things happened.
Speaker:You know, if, if you are giving people the benefit of the doubt, there is
Speaker:always gonna be somebody who takes advantage of that, unfortunately.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:no easy solution.
Speaker:No, because you've got two, two groups of people the women who say we
Speaker:have fought long and hard for spaces that we feel safe in, and then we
Speaker:have people who are transitioning and want to be accepted as female.
Speaker:Who aren't necessarily accepted by all of all the women.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And to be on one side or the other is immediately you're branded
Speaker:as a bigot in one shape or form.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I guess more and more toilets now are becoming rather than
Speaker:communal sort of spaces.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're more individual unisex cubicles.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:with their own private lock, sort of more and more common.
Speaker:The problem is you can't accommodate nearly as many people in that
Speaker:situation, so it's just not practical to do it like that everywhere.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah, it was just a interesting, where we've discussed before about different
Speaker:people's rights coming up against and how do you pick between them.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, and, and unfortunately I think, you know, thi this is not
Speaker:something that's going away and.
Speaker:There will be more and more clashes, I think.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Of, yeah.
Speaker:Bad actors who are taking advantages of loopholes that are put in.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I have a lot to say about it.
Speaker:It's, I, it's a really sad situation and I don't Absolutely.
Speaker:It's a conflict of rights and there's no easy answer.
Speaker:So this, this came from a a grand jury.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:who investigated, and the story, you know, the kid who the, the alleged assailant
Speaker:had been in the guardianship of his grand mother who had gone to police and
Speaker:had said he keeps pushing boundaries.
Speaker:He's gonna end up in trouble.
Speaker:Something needs to be done.
Speaker:Apparently his parents have been saying the same.
Speaker:And had been ignored for a long period of time.
Speaker:They'd reported it to the school saying he needs, you need to keep an eye on him.
Speaker:He's going to cause trouble.
Speaker:He's pushing boundaries, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So a ticking time bomb.
Speaker:We need to go off.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Moving on.
Speaker:One of my favorite topics of late has been oil and dollar currency.
Speaker:So just following on from that one the Chinese president Xi Jinping was in
Speaker:Saudi Arabia, and he got the warmest of receptions possible and where Joe Biden
Speaker:got a bit of a frosty Fist bump they were all over the Chinese president.
Speaker:So did, did, did they get a lodge pot of honey out for him?
Speaker:Honey because of the, no, I don't think they did that.
Speaker:He got a purple carpet rather than a red one.
Speaker:Cause purple signifies royalty, extra special and certainly
Speaker:put on a full show for him.
Speaker:And so what we've got here is g formally invited Arab nations to trade oil and
Speaker:gas in Yuan on the Shanghai Ink Exchange.
Speaker:And according to this writer, now, the way to diplomacy works is that she
Speaker:would not have made the invitation.
Speaker:Almost all the Arab states who had gathered, particularly Saudi Arabia,
Speaker:had already agreed as a matter of joint policy to take up the offer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Cuz otherwise you lose face if you offer it and they decline.
Speaker:Correct?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, It's more than just Ishi offering.
Speaker:We can be quite confident that the Arab states and Saudi Arabia will accept it.
Speaker:And so oil and gas will price in Shanghai in Yuan Yuan.
Speaker:Yuan.
Speaker:How do you pronounce it, Jane?
Speaker:No idea.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Hi Roman.
Speaker:And yep.
Speaker:Romans off.
Speaker:See you Bowman.
Speaker:And this will break the dollar monopoly that the US has imposed since 1974.
Speaker:And when the history of the decline of the US Empire is written, the election
Speaker:of Donald Trump is gonna be one moment.
Speaker:And this particular one right here with this Shanghai Exchange, paying in Chinese
Speaker:currency for oil will be the next one.
Speaker:It's, and if we oil a dependency on oil, that wouldn't be such a bad thing anyway.
Speaker:Dependency on oil.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:They're still gonna get the oil.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:I said if we didn't need oil anymore Yes.
Speaker:Because all those petro dollars flowing into the Middle East mm-hmm.
Speaker:Hasn't helped the region.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Unless you're in the royal family.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So Queensland government increased the royalties because
Speaker:of record high coal prices.
Speaker:And the budget's gonna have an extra 3 billion as a result.
Speaker:That's a lot of money for state budget.
Speaker:Three billions, nothing.
Speaker:Just sneeze that, isn't it a trillion here?
Speaker:A trillion there.
Speaker:And pretty soon we're talking about real money.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, 3 billion.
Speaker:I, I did look at it as a proportion of the overall budget and it
Speaker:was a significant component.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:Oh, that's good.
Speaker:Just goes to show the minors have been winging, but but anyway,
Speaker:that's worked to some extent.
Speaker:So maybe we can put that into retraining.
Speaker:Of the coal mines when they get laid off.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Teach 'em how to erect wind farm stuff and solar panels and or
Speaker:grow algee to turn into biodiesel.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All those things.
Speaker:Like dams for hydro pump.
Speaker:Hydro pump hydro.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So Joe, did you have time to look at the oil and gas price cap policy
Speaker:that labor has decided to introduce?
Speaker:You'll be shocked, but No.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:And you know what, dear listener, ordinarily I wouldn't have either.
Speaker:But for the fact that I do this podcast, I felt compelled mm-hmm.
Speaker:that I should look into it and explain it to you because that is the
Speaker:premise of this podcast, isn't it?
Speaker:Is that I look up this shit.
Speaker:So you don't have to, and try and give a, a quick summary of what's happened.
Speaker:and I'll attempt to do that again on this occasion.
Speaker:So, obviously what we've got, dear listener, is high oil and
Speaker:gas prices filtering through at a retail level in Australia now.
Speaker:So Parliament is gonna be recalled on Thursday so that they can pass
Speaker:a new bill for their energy plan that they agreed to on cabinet.
Speaker:So gas is gonna be capped at $12 a gigajoule.
Speaker:This is for selling gas within Australia and coal at $125 a ton, and with
Speaker:the idea that this is gonna lessen the impact of rising energy costs.
Speaker:So this article came from maybe The Guardian, I'm not sure, but at the
Speaker:time of writing the sort of short term spot market price for coal.
Speaker:Was $580 a ton and this cap is gonna be at $125 a ton.
Speaker:Remember, dear listener, we spoke about this Queensland government's royalty
Speaker:increase, like if you can sell coal at $125 a ton, happy days, like it's still
Speaker:a good price and you know it's the 580.
Speaker:So that's why the Queensland government said, Hey, we're having more of that.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, that's why Queensland's getting 3 billion.
Speaker:It could be getting more, but at least it's something.
Speaker:And, and the point is that Australia has the law that basically everything
Speaker:under the ground, all the mineral wealth belongs to the people.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Unlike in the us Ah, what happens in the us Us you own everything as far as I know.
Speaker:Under your property, all the way down.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:If you buy a block of land, it includes the mineral rights.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:Ah, okay.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Where the market price at the moment's, $580 a ton, like unbelievably
Speaker:high, it's gonna be capped at 125.
Speaker:And the gas price is 22 at the moment, it's gonna be capped at 12.
Speaker:So according to the guardian, can we expect lower gas and
Speaker:electricity prices as a result?
Speaker:And the answer is maybe, maybe not.
Speaker:So the majority of Australia's coal fired electricity generators
Speaker:get their coal from nearby mines.
Speaker:Much of this coal cannot be exported either because it's low quality
Speaker:or it's not near a train line.
Speaker:So the mound mouth, the mine mouth coal, is therefore unaffected by export prices.
Speaker:It's prices based on extraction and delivery costs, plus a bit of a margin.
Speaker:So in all cases, this is well below the $125 a ton cap, so they can't export it.
Speaker:So it's not even at the export rates.
Speaker:That's the majority of coal used in electricity generators at the moment.
Speaker:There's two exceptions.
Speaker:Two of Queensland's eight coal fire generators are supplied by mines
Speaker:that are able to divert their coal to export markets in New South Wales.
Speaker:Coal from most of the mines can be diverted to export markets, but
Speaker:much of this supply has already contracted for years ahead.
Speaker:So the price is already locked in for the short term, well, next few years anyway.
Speaker:So at the moment there's only.
Speaker:Power Station, the error ring station near Newcastle that's paying a
Speaker:price higher than the cap of $125.
Speaker:Here's the kicker, this is where it helps.
Speaker:If you've been listening to this podcast religiously all year in
Speaker:the national energy market covering Eastern Australia, remember the price
Speaker:of the most expensive generator sets the price all generators receive.
Speaker:So the coal price cap is therefore likely to make a difference to wholesale
Speaker:electricity prices when the error ring Power Station is setting the market price.
Speaker:And this happens about 30% of the time.
Speaker:So capping the coal price that ever ring will pay below what
Speaker:it's now currently paying will.
Speaker:It could have a big effect on electricity prices.
Speaker:, but it still depends on the error in coal supplier and how they respond.
Speaker:Because they might just say, well, we're not gonna supply the
Speaker:coal at the lower capped rate.
Speaker:So there doesn't seem to be, at the moment, an obligation where
Speaker:the government is saying, not only are I'll be capping the price, but
Speaker:we are forcing you to sell to us.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. So the coal companies could just go, okay, we'll just export it then.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:If that's the domestic rate, we'll sell it overseas.
Speaker:See how all that pans out.
Speaker:So if they continue to supply the coal at the lower capped price, then that
Speaker:might reduce the price of electricity.
Speaker:If it chooses not to, then we could have a supply crisis and the prices could go up.
Speaker:What about gas?
Speaker:So similar to the coal story, although it's a lot easier to export gas.
Speaker:So as a result, the domestic gas prices are more closely
Speaker:aligned with the export prices.
Speaker:So the question is whether gas suppliers will sell uncontracted gas at the
Speaker:cat price, or politely declined.
Speaker:So the government hopes that the the gas suppliers will ensure
Speaker:supply or it remains to be seen.
Speaker:So we've yet to see what the deal will be if the government is also gonna
Speaker:say to the gas suppliers, well, the new cap is $12 and you must supply us
Speaker:domestically with some, remember dear listener Western Australia, when they
Speaker:granted licenses, told them in the very first place, you've gotta keep X amount
Speaker:for Western Australian consumption.
Speaker:That's part of the deal.
Speaker:. Nobody else is smart enough to do that, so, right.
Speaker:So that's the complicated story about the pricing.
Speaker:And according to this article, are there any better solutions?
Speaker:Well, they could just increase the royalties, get money from
Speaker:the increased royalties, and use that to subsidize consumers.
Speaker:That would make sense.
Speaker:Would mm-hmm.
Speaker:Don't care where you're selling it, but if you're selling it at these
Speaker:rates, we're collecting this royalty and we'll use it to help our local
Speaker:Australians pay the extra cost.
Speaker:We, we could also be a little less propagate with our
Speaker:energy use, but we could.
Speaker:But now a really good article in Michael West Media where Let me get this straight
Speaker:and I, on this occasion, I need to put a little graph up again on the screen
Speaker:and if you've got chapters in your podcast app, you will, with a bit of
Speaker:luck, see the same chart appearing.
Speaker:So, so according to this article in the Michael West blog, the plan does
Speaker:nothing to secure tax revenue from coal and gas exporters who continue to make
Speaker:obscene profits from resources that ultimately belong to all Australians.
Speaker:So remember, in the uk, bros.
Speaker:Johnson's Tories hit the fuel companies with a super flop of profits tax of
Speaker:25%, and Rishi sunk is hoisting that to 35%, a bit like the Queensland
Speaker:government, nothing of the sword.
Speaker:So this article is saying that's what we should be doing is increasing
Speaker:the royalty and then using some of that money to help local consumers.
Speaker:And if you look at of course the fuel sectors, companies are all crying.
Speaker:You can't possibly do that.
Speaker:And now let me just read on a little bit further from here.
Speaker:The price caps only apply to the domestic market and the vast majority
Speaker:of Australia's coal gas is exported.
Speaker:Around 75% of gas extracted in Australia is liquified into L N G
Speaker:and exported to the global market.
Speaker:In the coal industry, it's even higher.
Speaker:90% of black coal goes to exports, which are currently fetching close to $600 a.
Speaker:So 90% of coal produced in Australia is selling for almost
Speaker:five times the proposed cap of $125.
Speaker:So when these fuel giants cry, poor about the price cap, remember 90%
Speaker:of their production is at obscenely high prices in the export market.
Speaker:And there was a report put out by the Institute for Energy Economics
Speaker:and Financial Analysis showing that if gas was $7 a kilo jewel, then
Speaker:the gas fields would be profitable.
Speaker:So the $12 cap is quite generous.
Speaker:And and the chart refers to what percentage.
Speaker:Australian government revenue we get from the oil and gas sector as a percentage
Speaker:of the total oil and gas sector revenue.
Speaker:And you can see back in the early 1990s, our government was getting 30%
Speaker:of the oil and gas sector revenue, and now it's somewhere down around 8%.
Speaker:So we are not getting nearly what we should be getting even historically.
Speaker:And, and don't even start to compare us with Norway because Norway has been,
Speaker:it's gas and oil export profits at 78%.
Speaker:So we, in the early nineties, were about 30%, we're now down to about 8%.
Speaker:Norway has been collecting 78% and.
Speaker:It looks suspiciously like it's gone down since around the Howard years.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And make sure you're sitting down for this, the Norway Ministry of Finance
Speaker:estimates that the Norwegian public will receive 204 billion Australian
Speaker:dollars or $38,000 per citizen in 2023 in in export profit tax.
Speaker:Like huge figures.
Speaker:And how and how much do Australians get bugger all.
Speaker:It doesn't put it, it doesn't give it in a per head and there it does doesn't.
Speaker:58?
Speaker:I thought it was.
Speaker:No, that's 58.
Speaker:I thought, didn't say something.
Speaker:Oh, we're gonna get a $58 bill relief from this.
Speaker:That was it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So the graph on the screen and hopefully on your app in the chapter.
Speaker:Shows how our share of the revenue has declined.
Speaker:Sort of back in the late eighties, it was as high as 58%.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Plummeted fairly quickly.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:As I said, Norway 78% tax on oil and gas exports.
Speaker:It's now the, the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is now worth 1.5 million
Speaker:Australian dollars for every Norwegian family of four, if only our politicians
Speaker:had had the guts to do something similar.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But yeah, I mean, think, think how many tax cuts you could give to the rich.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:with that amount of money in the bank, I know.
Speaker:So that was a good article by Guy Daniel Bleakley in the Michael West blog.
Speaker:Bloody Hobbies, one execs, those hardwar, hard working mining ex companies, execs.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:They're all foreign owned.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, it's not even as, you know, if only they were Australian.
Speaker:At least not foreign owned.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Joe Year in review.
Speaker:I was looking back through the last 52 episodes, but yeah.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:Half an hour.
Speaker:You not good?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:got anywhere to go?
Speaker:No, I, I have a glass of ru We'll take our time.
Speaker:Still got five listeners right back in January.
Speaker:Novavax.
Speaker:Jock was.
Speaker:He'll be back.
Speaker:He was, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, he was in the something open recently.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:He's, he's, they're definitely letting back into the country now,
Speaker:even though he is unvaccinated.
Speaker:So, I'm okay with that.
Speaker:I kind of feel like I don't really need to police people now because
Speaker:there's enough of the population.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Grace Tame was in the news Australian of the Year, not a fan of Scott Morrison.
Speaker:Gave him the evil side.
Speaker:That's smell.
Speaker:Would she?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So, you know, in hindsight she spotted Morrison a mile away.
Speaker:Well, she was actually just too close to him.
Speaker:She knew exactly his type.
Speaker:So good on you, grace Tone.
Speaker:A brave young woman standing up to a pig of a man.
Speaker:We had City Point Christian College, Joe.
Speaker:Had a sort of a contract that they wanted parents to sign with moral clauses
Speaker:in there, particularly trans biblical marriage was allowed or something.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:They got a lot of publicity and a lot of heat and a lot of people
Speaker:suddenly principal lost their job.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:And a lot of people suddenly became aware of what some of these
Speaker:crazy religious schools are doing.
Speaker:Which was a little bit of a problem for the government because that was
Speaker:all in the lead up to the religious discrimination bill, which fell over.
Speaker:I thought it was the Religious Freedom Bill.
Speaker:Yes, that's right.
Speaker:What was it that was, I think it was called the Religious Discrimination Bill.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which normally you would think means it's a bill that would
Speaker:allow religious discrimination.
Speaker:Discrimination precisely what it did.
Speaker:In fact, it was one that was to enable.
Speaker:It was mis you're right.
Speaker:It was, it was not named correctly.
Speaker:It was should have been the enabling religious discrimination
Speaker:Bill . And the only reason it failed was because they insisted on the
Speaker:right to be nasty to trans people.
Speaker:And that was enough.
Speaker:But only teachers, I think students were protected.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:But that was enough to tip over the extra votes.
Speaker:And had they, had they given in on that issue, the damn
Speaker:thing might have got through?
Speaker:It was, it was a near thing relying on the, on, on people's sympathy
Speaker:for the trans community that actually stopped that building.
Speaker:I think it was, again, gay marriage, not the trans, no, I'm pretty
Speaker:sure it was trans on that one.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:What else do we have?
Speaker:We had April son in Cuba.
Speaker:Ah, yes.
Speaker:That was enough for people to go.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:That was still better than the Gigi's wife.
Speaker:It's a close thing.
Speaker:, you know, you're right.
Speaker:Even April something.
Speaker:Oh, it's a, it's a close thing.
Speaker:I wouldn't like to, I wouldn't like to pick one of them Ukraine then, so we had
Speaker:the invasion by the Russians into Ukraine.
Speaker:We had a debate with Hugh Harris and I was arguing that in the scheme of things, all
Speaker:of the policy experts from Henry Kissinger to US ambassadors, from professors to
Speaker:everyone in defense, like just everyone on both, you know, American, Russian,
Speaker:German, you name it, who'd looked at this matter in the last 50 years, all basically
Speaker:said if the Ukraine becomes part.
Speaker:Nato, then Russia will rightly feel threatened by that as good any country and
Speaker:will do something about it most likely.
Speaker:And lots of people felt that you know, that, that Russia should have
Speaker:just bent over and, and taken it and had very little sympathy for the
Speaker:Russian perspective in that sense.
Speaker:And if you said to him, Hey, what if China did a deal with Mexico, a
Speaker:security pact, and decided to butch a whole bunch of missiles along the
Speaker:Mexican US border and aim them at Washington, how would the US feel?
Speaker:I, I watched the YouTube video where the guy was saying, well, if
Speaker:that was the case, they would've withdrawn by now because, Ukraine
Speaker:won't be part of NATO for a long time because it requires stability.
Speaker:You know.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, political stability is, is one of the mandates before you can join nato.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, his argument was it's all about Sava.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:and the naval base there is that, which is why, which is why they invaded the Crimea.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, and this was all about getting a landbridge to Crimea.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, which is why all of those eastern states, eastern republics were invaded
Speaker:because it was all about holding Russian territory all the way down into Crimea.
Speaker:But based on that, okay, Russia pulls out mm-hmm.
Speaker:, because NATO requires a stable Ukraine in order to allow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And guess what NATO says, special circumstances given what's just happened.
Speaker:You're part of NATO now.
Speaker:What's Russia gonna do?
Speaker:Oh, hang on a minute.
Speaker:Your own rules say it's supposed to be a stable country.
Speaker:You can't do that.
Speaker:Well, well, we just did it.
Speaker:Like that's as if, as if Russia could rely on that as a reason to withdraw.
Speaker:They couldn't.
Speaker:Well, what was more interesting was Finland talking about, yeah.
Speaker:Joining nato.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The whole Finland thing is, is intriguing because it was Swedish and then it was
Speaker:Russian, and then because the Soviets in Finland helped the 1917 revolution, then
Speaker:they were granted their own autonomy.
Speaker:And then the Russians invaded in the forties.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Supposedly.
Speaker:Because they were worried about how close Finland was to St.
Speaker:Petersburg.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And they only wanted a little bit of territory.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And, and, Finland ended up, ended up giving up a bit of territory
Speaker:as part of the 10% I think.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Of that sort of, not unlike the bit of strip of land that
Speaker:is the esque and crime region.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So not unlike the bit of west of as Paul again Crimea crime.
Speaker:So, so they gave up a bit of Crimea, that was fine.
Speaker:The, the war ended and then it was a bit of Dons and the other one.
Speaker:And, and then next month it'll be a bit of this and then, yeah.
Speaker:How, how many invasions do they have to give up?
Speaker:Just a little bit?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Before Russia is satisfied.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Well, I think Russia's gonna take a lot more now cause they're thinking,
Speaker:well, we'll just keep going.
Speaker:We're just gonna grind you in, you know, it's a siege type thing now.
Speaker:Just, it's gonna be a very cold winter and they're just gonna wear them out.
Speaker:I was watching this YouTube thing where basically these guys were saying that
Speaker:Putin expected that there would be some negotiation once he had kicked off things.
Speaker:And he was shocked that there was no negotiation.
Speaker:So, anyway, Ukraine, which then kicked off you know, Putin was basically
Speaker:saying, I'll still sell you oil and gas.
Speaker:Happy to still keep doing it.
Speaker:But you know, we had Nord Stream blowing up and we had the German
Speaker:sort of not wanting to buy stuff.
Speaker:So we've now got an energy crisis that's affecting the world.
Speaker:Joe, you've frozen.
Speaker:If you are still with me you'll probably have to disconnect and reconnect.
Speaker:So anyway, Ukraine, which nobody predicted at the beginning of the year
Speaker:would kick off, and it has, and it's led to really some very consequential
Speaker:things where, You've also got now this sort of collaboration between
Speaker:Russia, India, Iran, China Arab states, and it's really accelerated a,
Speaker:a multipolar world as opposed to the unipolar world of American hegemon.
Speaker:So it's had a really rapid effect on, on creating new alliances and, and
Speaker:changing power structures in the world.
Speaker:Really accelerated a lot of stuff.
Speaker:So, so it's been a really monumental event in that sense.
Speaker:Lismore got flooded and that's just gonna be a continuing problem
Speaker:around Australia with areas that are heavily populated, that are regularly
Speaker:flooded now, cause of climate change.
Speaker:So at some point government's gonna have to chip in and.
Speaker:And buy whole towns and move people elsewhere cuz insurance
Speaker:just won't cover 'em anymore.
Speaker:We had news Temple of Satan stuff.
Speaker:We had a great result down in the Gold Coast with the prayer room.
Speaker:We had a terrible result in Brisbane with the religious instruction classes.
Speaker:So, we're still sort of update on that is Department of Prop Prosecutions has no
Speaker:interest in, have not contacted us at all.
Speaker:So, we're quite relaxed now about that and we'll probably just get
Speaker:confirmation from them next year that they're not gonna do anything.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:And then think about what to do, if anything with satanic activism.
Speaker:Not sure what we'll do there.
Speaker:We had a Methodism debate on the podcast, so that was good.
Speaker:We had Hugh Harris and Cameron Riley talking about whether
Speaker:Jesus did exist or not.
Speaker:That was a good one.
Speaker:And what else did we have?
Speaker:Carl Fitzgerald talked about land banking in the uk.
Speaker:We've had Boris giving way to trust, giving way to Rishi Sak, and after the
Speaker:election we had new labor government, Morrison's Secret Ministries and
Speaker:Nord Stream Oh, and computer chips has been the other one that has
Speaker:sort of come about in recent times.
Speaker:So lemme just see where Joe is.
Speaker:He disappeared and see if he's trying to make his way back.
Speaker:Oh yes, he's somewhere in the ether there somewhere trying to
Speaker:get his connection going again.
Speaker:So what are the big themes coming out of 2022?
Speaker:I would say number one, not a good year for Christians in Australia.
Speaker:So, goodbye Scott Morrison.
Speaker:Goodbye that conservative government.
Speaker:Not that.
Speaker:Shortage of Christians in the Labor Party, but at least they're not as crazy.
Speaker:The religious discrimination Bill didn't get up, so, and they've took some hits.
Speaker:People became aware of things and it wasn't a great year for Christian
Speaker:Power in Australia, obviously wasn't a good year for the liberal party.
Speaker:They've been exposed as having been contaminated by this sort
Speaker:of Christian fascist ners.
Speaker:Other thing about 2022 demonstrating those elections, I think as well is
Speaker:boomers, their power is in decline.
Speaker:So, baby boomers have been such a large cohort that any government wanting to win
Speaker:elections has had to pander to policies that benefit baby boomers sometimes
Speaker:at the expense of other generations.
Speaker:So when boomers were buying houses, They would create policies that were
Speaker:low taxation for people acquiring houses as people were wanting to
Speaker:increase their superannuation.
Speaker:And that became important to boomers, a whole bunch of really generous
Speaker:tax concessions in superannuation.
Speaker:So, so it's been the case that Australian governments have had to, if they
Speaker:wanted to get elected, really provide policies that, that were beneficial to
Speaker:that boomer generation and the recent election demonstrating that the power
Speaker:of the boomer vote is in decline.
Speaker:So that's an interesting sort of part of 2022.
Speaker:Joe, you are back.
Speaker:I was just saying boomers are in decline.
Speaker:and it wasn't a good year for the Christians or for the liberal party 2022.
Speaker:And the other theme coming out of 2022 would be just in the world, I'd say
Speaker:that China is sort of cemented its ascendancy further evidence of us decline.
Speaker:The sort of bricks, nations, Brazil, Russia, India China, South Africa,
Speaker:now being joined by a bunch of others into a multipolar world that's in
Speaker:ascendancy Europe is in trouble because of energy and just gonna
Speaker:cause sort of a d industrialization.
Speaker:And well, if Europe is in trouble, then the UK is just simply fucked.
Speaker:Like, they've got all the troubles of Europe plus Brexit is coming home
Speaker:with all the consequences of that.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:, honestly, if you had friends and family in the UK who had the opportunity to
Speaker:immigrate to another country, Joe, you must have you have friends and
Speaker:family over there who could move?
Speaker:Who must be considering it?
Speaker:Or especially young people?
Speaker:No, nobody's mentioned it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:I mean, family can't move.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And the only person in the UK is mom.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, she's not very mobile.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Other people are elsewhere.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. Okay.
Speaker:So, and I think we are just, I think we're also seeing, following
Speaker:on from COVID where governments figured they could pass laws again.
Speaker:Questioning of the whole neoliberal free market.
Speaker:and people recognizing that there is a place for government intervention.
Speaker:And it's important to have hospitals that function in a community
Speaker:that works together on things.
Speaker:So, I think with Queensland passing laws to get extra resource rent, I think,
Speaker:you know, even the price cap that the labor government is imposing on coal
Speaker:and gas, while it is nowhere near enough of what should be done, at least, it's
Speaker:something to show a demonstration of, a willingness of a government to enter the
Speaker:market and say, we're gonna forcibly do something here rather than just sit back.
Speaker:So I think there's a mood for people recognizing that free markets left
Speaker:unregulated don't actually work.
Speaker:And, and the best markets are those that are, they're, they're talking
Speaker:about regulated, reimbursing the.
Speaker:Offenders with a price cap.
Speaker:Yes, I know.
Speaker:It's, it's such a, it's such a piddly, terrible, pathetic response.
Speaker:The only thing going for it is it just demonstrates a willingness to
Speaker:at least ask some mandatory law, but pretend that it's doing something.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm trying to find a silver lining on a pathetically dark cloud there.
Speaker:But anyway, that's my review of 2022.
Speaker:Another inter, a fascinating one, really locally in Australia and internationally.
Speaker:I think really turning points pretty obvious.
Speaker:I, if they continue, will be interesting to see.
Speaker:So that's a wrap for 2022.
Speaker:I'm deleting all these social apps from my phone and iPad, not
Speaker:looking at anything for three weeks.
Speaker:Read some books and paint some stuff.
Speaker:And Yeah, talk to you sometime in January.
Speaker:Thanks, Joe for all your help through the year.
Speaker:That's all right.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Look, after news article that you shared recently that had a bunch of various
Speaker:news things, but it also linked off to a bunch of books to read over the holiday.
Speaker:So I dunno if you are in the market did I link that article?
Speaker:Did I it was one of the ones you shared on, or sorry, you'd saved on the RSS feed.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm, I'm actually, yeah, if you go to the website, dear listener you'll
Speaker:see that there's a link to the books.
Speaker:There's a books link and it will take you to Good Reads where I've got a list of
Speaker:books I've read in the last seven years.
Speaker:I'm actually inclined, Joe, I want to go through some of those books and just, and
Speaker:just reread bits of them where, cuz I've.
Speaker:I've highlighted and scribbled on 'em all.
Speaker:So I actually don't really want to buy many new ones at the moment.
Speaker:I wanna sort of revisit the old ones and, and remember what they said
Speaker:is what I'm thinking of doing this was as a for instance, geonomics,
Speaker:can we afford small government?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:As a book.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Who's it written by?
Speaker:Miriam Lyons and I.
Speaker:Whoever I is.
Speaker:Dunno.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well, yeah, I don't think I wanna buy too many new ones.
Speaker:I just wanna go the old ones.
Speaker:I've got.
Speaker:Let's the theory.
Speaker:Alright, well let's get outta here.
Speaker:Thank you dear listener, for paying attention during the year.
Speaker:Don't delete us from your app.
Speaker:I will appear again at some stage in early January.
Speaker:Talk to you then.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:And it's a good night from him.
Speaker:Now, a matter of great importance has been brought to my attention.
Speaker:I speak of course, of the generous contributions made by the patrons of
Speaker:the Iron Fist Velvet Glove podcast.
Speaker:He's fine.
Speaker:Men and women have sacrificed so much for their countrymen never before.
Speaker:In the field of human conflict.
Speaker:I have so many, hold so much to so few.
Speaker:To those of you who are not yet patrons, I say this, give generously of yourself.
Speaker:Give until you can honestly say, I have nothing left to offer,
Speaker:but blood toil, tears and sweat.
Speaker:Let me see.
Speaker:What is the time?
Speaker:Ah, 10:00 AM now.
