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Episode 407 - Positive News is Hard to Find

In this episode we discuss:

  • Good News
  • Recreation Day
  • RBA Rate Rise
  • The IMF has ideas
  • Gaza
  • Trump
  • New Patron
  • Submarines
  • Professor Marcia Langton has called for 'uniform alcohol restrictions' across the NT
  • UN Resolutions
  • Greens threaten Brisbane landlords

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

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

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evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homosapiens.

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

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

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

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

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Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.

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Welcome

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back to your listener.

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Yes, another episode.

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Episode 407 of the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.

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Currently just two meerkats, myself and Joe, expecting a third meerkat

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in the shape of Scott to come in at some point, but he's been

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having trouble connecting, so...

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Joe has put his tech guy hat on rather than his UK correspondent hat and is

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busily trying to fix Scott's problem.

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In the meantime, Joe, just to prove you can double task, how are you?

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All going well?

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Yeah I'm up in Coventry at the moment, but staying with a friend and we're doing

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a lightning tour of many towns in the UK, seeing other friends that I met during

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the pandemic on various video calls.

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Yeah.

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So it's been great catching up with lots of people and that

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sounds like Scott joining us.

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It was great.

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I mean, you talk to somebody over a video call once a week

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for two and a half, three years.

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And, and it's lovely to finally see them and catch up.

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And you look at them and say, you're much shorter than I thought

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you'd be or anything like that.

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Actually, we met someone last night and my friend I'm staying with went, Oh, you're

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much shorter than I thought you would be.

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But, but usually it's sort of only this bit of the body we get

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to see, so you, you've no idea.

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Yeah, yeah.

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It looks like Scott's with us.

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Scott, are you with us?

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Yeah, I'm here.

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I'm here.

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I can hear you and everything like that.

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Can you hear me?

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Yes, we can.

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Bring the microphone a little bit closer, maybe, or not.

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In the middle of dinner, Scott, you're also multitasking.

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I am in the middle of dinner, yes.

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Okay, very good.

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I'll wolf this down quickly and I'll put it inside once we actually start filming.

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Alright, well, we are filming.

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We're up and away, Scott.

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Are we?

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Yes!

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Yeah, it's 7.

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34.

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We're four minutes into this podcast.

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So, you keep going there.

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Well, I won't bring you in until I really need you.

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In the chat room, John is there, and also James.

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G'day, James.

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How are things going in Sydney?

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Right.

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Let's look at the agenda.

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What are we gonna talk about?

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Well, I promised you last week something positive, didn't I?

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I was a bit over the sort of negativity of everything we've been doing.

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I thought, well, let's try and get some good news and , let's

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meet Scott, shall we?

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Let's just, I'm gonna mute him until he, he's gone.

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So, I thought, I'll try and look up some good news stories, and, you

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know, I just Googled good news, and there's a whole range of websites,

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like there's the Good News Network, the ABC has a good news category, so

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there's nine news, there's a Positive News Society, And even the BBC has like

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a good news topic category section.

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So a lot of these news sites, Joe.

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And Gideon's has the good news.

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Ha, ha, ha, got about that one.

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Yes.

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I'm surprised that wasn't on your list of hits.

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Yeah, I'm surprised as well.

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Maybe the algorithm has worked out.

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Right.

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Mind you, I do go to a lot of Christian sites, so.

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Yeah.

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Anyway, you know, so yeah, there are these good news sites out there when you

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just want some good news rather than, you know, what's the latest in Gaza

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or other disasters around the world.

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And so the BBC was an interesting one, and I've got a, I'm just looking at

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a screenshot of the first 16 articles on the BBC Good News Category website.

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And of the first 16 articles, four of them, dear listener, are cat stories.

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Cat missing since March, found 60 miles away.

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That's the top good news story.

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Number five, a cat that waits for train commuters.

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I assume it sits on a platform somewhere, waiting for train commuters.

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I was going to say when I was at school one of the lads who caught

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the bus with us, his cat used to wait at the end of the road every day for

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the bus to arrive, and looked forlorn the day that he wasn't on the bus, so

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I picked it up and carried it down.

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It used to get up on his shoulder and walk back with him.

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There you go.

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So, there you go.

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Would have made the BBC News, because at number 15, missing

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cat found 140 miles from home.

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As opposed to the other one, which was only 60 miles.

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And Bronze Medallion to Sainsbury Social Media Cat.

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This is the calibre of good news story that is out there, dear listener.

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What were some of the other stories?

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Lorry Driver Thanks Wife After His Breast Cancer.

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Beavers Saved From Drowning In Storm Drain.

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Oh, here's a good one.

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Naomi Campbell, the famous model.

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She's been honoured by Cambridge College.

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And there's a guy here who's nearly 80, Jimmy, Jimmy Cooper,

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and he's still working as a nurse.

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It's slim pickings, dear listener, on the good news front.

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I'm just going to have to revert back to sad news, because I can't

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delve into cat stories all day.

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Yeah, there we go.

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Watley sent a message during the week.

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He said the stock market is in the toilet, and he thought that was good news.

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Stock market going down.

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Maybe it is for our...

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For our economy.

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It is if you shorted those stocks.

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Mmm.

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Yes.

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Or just generally if you're not in stocks.

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Maybe it's good that some of these valuations become more realistic.

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Anyway.

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Here's a good news story.

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Happy Recreation Day for people in Northern Tasmania.

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We're back on Monday, yesterday, because Northern Tasmania get a

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day off called Recreation Day.

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It was legislated in 1991, probably because Northern Tasmanians were

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sulking that Hobart got Regatta Day in February, so they're not

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celebrating anything in particular, except having a Recreation Day.

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Well done, Northern Tasmania.

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Should be renamed Cocaine and Hookers Day, I think.

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I think lots of Melbourne businesses close.

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on a Monday before Melbourne Cup Day anyway, because people get a long weekend.

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I know the business that I work for does that.

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Yeah, lots of in France, quite a lot of public holidays for some reason I

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think fall on the Thursday from memory.

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And...

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Taking the Friday off is known as making the bridge.

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What happens on a Thursday?

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I think the public holiday falls on a Thursday, and so people will take

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the Friday off to make a long weekend.

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Right.

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And it's so, so common that there's actually a phrase in French called

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making the bridge, which is where you bridge your day off and the weekend.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it's a bit of an art form for people maximizing their holidays and

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taking days off and all the rest of it.

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So, yes.

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Yeah.

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Anyway, there's a good news story.

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Northern Tasmanians managed to have a public holiday for no reason

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at all, other than Hobart was getting one, so they got their own.

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Okay.

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Back to sad news, bad news or just news.

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Reserve Bank.

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Today, Joe decided to raise interest rates a quarter of a percent to 4.35%.

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Which that, of course, forms the basis of housing loan rates.

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If the ordinary people aren't hurting, then the economy's not doing well.

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Yes.

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Well, the reason for it, of course, is that the Reserve Bank's mandate...

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is to grab inflation by the balls and make sure it just doesn't happen.

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That's its own purpose, the Reserve Bank.

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But it doesn't do that by stopping actual inflation, it does that

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by making poor people unemployed.

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So they don't have any money to spend.

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With the bluntest of roundabout implements, the only implement it has...

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It decides, well, we'll just raise interest rates, which of course, Joe, are

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coming to the calculation of inflation.

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So when you raise interest rates, you automatically raise inflation because

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it is part of the basket of goods that go into measuring inflation.

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Well, yes.

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They keep raising interest rates and going, why is this inflation going up?

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Well, the basket of goods includes interest as a component.

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You consumers out there have got it too good, and that's why

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we're raising interest rates.

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Because you consumers out there insist on buying things, and according to the laws

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of supply and demand, your demand is so high that you are forcing prices higher.

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Therefore, we must raise interest rates on your mortgages.

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Which will cause you financial pain, so you'll stop buying stuff, and therefore,

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the prices of things will go down.

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Look, look, you poor people, stop buying food and clothes and

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start buying investments instead.

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Is, is Scott back?

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No, he's still, he's delayed.

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No, no.

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Okay, he's still missing.

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So, the problem with all that is, it's assuming that...

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Inflation is caused by consumers having too much money and spending too much on

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stuff and causing prices to increase.

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If only it were that simple.

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And well, before we even get onto that.

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The whole point of the Reserve Bank being independent of government and its

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sole mandate being inflation and that the government not being able to do

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anything about it is completely nuts.

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Like, the interest rates in our community are a really important thing.

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And to leave that up to an independent body...

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Who is told your sole mandate is to control inflation, and fucking don't

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worry about the rest of the economy.

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Your only metric that we're going to measure you by is inflation,

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but we're going to put you in charge of interest rates.

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He's just asking for trouble.

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So...

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You know, it's such a critical part of running an economy that the government

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should just take control of, of that policy and not just leave it up to

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a bunch of unelected guys, because the government's role in society is

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not only to look after inflation, but also look after unemployment levels,

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look after growth in the economy.

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Look after the economy and the community as a whole and therefore make decisions

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as to what's in the best interest of the overall Australian economy, not

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just one metric of, you know, inflation.

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So it's going to be a completely nuts situation that we're in, but even if

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the situation we are in made sense.

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And you said, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a good idea, let's put the

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Reserve Bank in charge of interest rates and let them look after

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inflation, and that's their sole job.

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And oh, guess what?

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People are spending too much money, so you raise interest

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rates, they don't spend as much.

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It's because it's people spending money that causes prices to go up.

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According to Ian Varenda at the ABC, if only it were that simple.

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Our annual growth is sliding.

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Take away the effects of our massive population growth.

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Guys, that's a lot of...

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Immigration been happening.

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You aware of that?

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All those filthy foreigners coming over here taking our jobs.

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Lots of them coming in.

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It's not the filthy foreigners.

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Apparently a lot of them are nurses.

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I think the highest category of intake is nurses.

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It wouldn't surprise me.

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Because there was a meme I saw where Pauline Hanson was criticising

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the high immigration rate because it was putting pressure on our

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hospitals and lowering our wages.

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And the person was saying, well, the highest category of immigrant is

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actually nurses, which is going to help our health system and increase wages.

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But anyway, I've digressed.

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Take away the effects of our massive population growth, and you

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could argue we're in a recession.

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Household spending is waning.

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Building approvals are dropping.

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Saving buffers are in decline.

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And wages growth has remained well below inflation.

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As for inflation, it's been dropping.

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It's now 5.

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4 percent, a steady rate since last December's 7.

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8 percent.

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And many of the things that have helped push prices higher in the

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most recent September quarter were beyond the control of consumers.

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Rents have been soaring because of huge immigration program, while exorbitant

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lifts in power bills were pushed through during the quarter that will not be

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repeated in the next few quarters.

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Just remember that.

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Like, consumers don't, through overspending, put

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up the price of power bills.

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That's not how it works.

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Petrol prices also soared.

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People just have to fill up a tank of petrol when they have

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to fill up a tank of petrol.

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Like, you just do what you have to do.

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And it's not because of excessive driving by Australians because

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they're feeling so well to do that...

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Hetral stations have decided, oh, I reckon here's an opportunity to put up prices.

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It's actually interesting to put them up and we have to suck it up.

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But look at the, look at the commuter car parks for the train stations.

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And see how busy they are.

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You can tell the cost of petrol by how many people are in a car park.

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Can you?

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You can.

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I'm not joking.

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What, if it goes up 20 cents, the car park's got more people in it?

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Yep.

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Is that right?

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Yeah.

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Well, I didn't know that.

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I'm not a commuter like that.

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So, there we go.

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So, these are things beyond the control of consumers.

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And raising interest rates is not going to...

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Have an effect in that Y.

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Scott, what do you think?

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You're back on board with us now, you've finished your dinner,

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your microphone's tuned on.

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I've had my rant about the Reserve Bank.

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You think they should have, should there be a Reserve Bank holding control of

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interest rates with their only criteria being inflation, or should they?

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No, it shouldn't be their only criteria.

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It shouldn't be their only criteria.

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The criteria was that they were to control inflation and also

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aim towards full employment.

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Now, their argument would be that we are at full employment right

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now, so inflation is the only boogeyman they've still got to slay.

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But, they're using a very blunt instrument called interest

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rates to control inflation.

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Now, again, I found myself...

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Approving of what the Green member said, Max, whatever his name is.

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He was arguing for a super profits tax because as he's, as he pointed

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out, Coles and Woolworths have both just reported super profits.

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At the same time, they were jacking their prices up.

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The banks have all reported super profits at the same time

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as interest rates have gone up.

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So his argument was that if you actually put a tax on, if you

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put a super profits tax on these companies, then you'd have extra

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money that you could then funnel in to

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reduce the impact of inflation on households.

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Yeah, I'm not sure how we'd actually do that because you'd have to have it, you'd

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have to have it very heavily what's the word I'm groping for not incentivised?

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Anyway, you'd only pay out, you'd only pay out those people that really

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genuinely needed it, rather than everyone.

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Can you just move the microphone a fraction closer please, Scott?

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No worries.

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You'd have to, you'd have to pay it out to only those people that

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genuinely needed it, not everyone.

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So anyway.

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Well, I think, I don't think they have a mandate of looking after full employment.

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It doesn't seem to me that all you ever hear from them is inflation, inflation,

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inflation, and the whole point of raising interest rates is to cause unemployment,

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to reduce demand for consumer items.

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I agree.

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To thereby lower prices.

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So, Which is one of those things I think they have lost sight of their

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second and more important more important thing was to aim for full employment.

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Anyway, that's a situation we're in and we get situations like Government

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Services Minister Bill Shorten was asked about the Reserve Bank's

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upcoming decision on interest rates.

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And he acknowledged the Reserve Bank is independent of government,

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but said, I hope it stays static.

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So we've got a government.

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Unable to do things.

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Just looking on as a reserve bank says, well, we're going to raise

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interest rates, yet the government of the day seemingly can do nothing.

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Crazy.

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Well, it's, one of those things,

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you've got the, capital expenditure budgets and that sort of stuff of

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governments, and they're actually threatening to delay or potentially kill

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off some of the projects and that sort of stuff that are up here, haven't they?

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Yeah.

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I don't know.

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I haven't read it.

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So some capital spending.

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Yeah, some capital expenditure has been under the review microscope and

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that type of thing with the, with the threat of them closing them down.

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Oh, winding it back.

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Well, you know, there's not enough money around.

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Once you've spent, once you've allocated nearly 400 billion to

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submarines, then, there's nothing left.

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We'll be talking about submarines soon.

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Don't worry about that.

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Got some more stuff about submarines.

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Yeah, more stuff about that.

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Just in the lead up to this talk about interest rates, we had the IMF,

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International Monetary Fund, who with the World Bank have caused all sorts of

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problems around the world, particularly in the Global South, my favourite

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part of the health of the Australia's economy.

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prior to this interest rate rise.

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And they said that they called for sweeping policy reforms,

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including lower income taxes.

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Gosh, imagine that.

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International Monetary Fund calling for lower income taxes.

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A higher GST rate, so punish the poor, punish the poor, yes, to help

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state governments replace stamp duty with annual property taxes.

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That was one of the calls from that economist who was talking about basically

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unearned rent was what it was called.

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So, I'm pausing there because out of the three ideas so far, lower income taxes,

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higher GST rate, we've now moved into something that might actually make sense.

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Yep.

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Replacing stamp duty with an annual property tax, if it was high enough.

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The problem is, this IMF was talking about raising the GST rate.

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To help state governments replace stamp duty with annual property taxes,

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meaning the new annual property tax would not be equal to the stamp duty,

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so they'd need a higher GST rate to make up the shortfall.

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Well, why not just make the new property tax sufficient to cover the

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lost stamp duty, would be what I'd say.

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Or even more, perhaps, and lower the GST rate.

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Anyway and they also called for an economy wide carbon price.

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That's what the IMF thinks we should do.

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See, again, that's probably one of the few things that progressive

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people would be calling for.

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And actually, that makes sense.

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Yeah, you put a price on energy, or sorry, put a price on carbon, and then use it

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to subsidize low income households to make their properties more efficient.

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Mm.

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So they're using less energy.

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In the chat room, Eric says, I like the IMF more when it was Tom Cruise

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and the Impossible Mission Force.

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Thanks, Eric.

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Yeah, Impossible Mission Force, right.

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Yeah, so that was the IMF and the Reserve Bank.

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Should we move on to more positive topics like Gaza?

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Well, we could do.

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I, unfortunately, my daughter put me onto this guy, Sean King, who posts videos

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on Instagram of, I think he started when Black Lives Matter started, and so

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he gets a lot of social media videos, and he, of course is just publishing

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lots of stuff coming out of the Gaza from people on the ground, and pulling.

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You know, bodies out of the rubble.

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It is just appalling what is going on there.

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It is unbelievable that it's happening, and it seems like the

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Israelis are determined to commit one of the worst atrocities in

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human history, like a very knowing atrocity that they're committing here.

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The victims of a terrible atrocity, the Jews, are just engaged in, ah,

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something that's just going to go down in history as one of the worst.

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It's...

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It's not looking good, and it's probably what Hamas were hoping for.

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Hmm.

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It's almost certainly, the aim of their attacks was to draw a disproportionate

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response that was going to innocent, sorry, injure innocent people in

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the middle, caught in the crossfire.

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I did read something that Amas was pissed that Saudi Arabia was starting to cozy

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up to Israel in certain ways and...

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Yeah, yeah, and that's...

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In order to generate...

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That's probably all the...

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Hmm.

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In order to generate sympathy from their Arab neighbours, and this was

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one of the tactics as part of that.

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Possible?

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Yeah.

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So, as Caitlin Johnston says, it is the most 2020s thing in the world

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that there, there's an active genocide currently underway, and it's people who

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oppose it who are being called Nazis.

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I agree there, the sort of Orwellian doublespeak that is going

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on in our world over all sorts of issues just flabbergasts me.

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But there's also been quite a lot of anti Jew rhetoric, so, so

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it's not just Jews out of Israel, it has been kill all the Jews.

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Yeah, there is, there is no right side in this.

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Nope.

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No, there's not.

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It's a mess.

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You know, they've got that those protesters and that sort of stuff.

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They're out the front of the Opera House and that sort of stuff.

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That's had a sign saying gas all Jews.

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Yes.

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You know, that sort of thing.

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Now that's.

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That does nothing for their cause.

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Now, their cause is quite just, but when they actually say stuff like

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that, no one's listening to them.

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There's a guy called Mario Cavallo who wrote Wow, people

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hate me for this simple straight question, just answer it yes or no.

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If the bad guys who murdered your wife and kids were hiding in one of the apartments

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of a 30 story apartment building, with 500 people in it, in your city, Would

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you tell the police to blow up the entire building to get the bad guys?

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A similar analogy, he's got a point.

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Yeah, he's got a very similar analogy, yeah.

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He's got a very good point.

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Luckily for the entire region Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson

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Have landed on a bit of a tour.

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Haven't these people suffered enough, I ask you?

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ScoMo said...

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Bojo and ScoMo are going on a world tour, are they?

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Yeah, they're in Israel.

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And just putting on flak jackets and helmets and wandering

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around handing out opinions.

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And guess what?

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They're kind of pro Israeli.

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Funny that.

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ScoMo in particular being Pentecostal, I'm sure.

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needs the rapture needs Israel to be in charge of Jerusalem

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for his rapture purposes.

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I mean, it was under Scamo that we decided that Jerusalem would be the

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Israeli capital or something like that.

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It was something that he, he planned on, he planned on moving the

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embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

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I don't think actually Weber went through with it, but he certainly did raise it.

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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And I think Trump did that at the same time.

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Yeah.

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Trump.

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Trump did it before.

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Yes.

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Before komo did all the evangelicals really, really want it?

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They want war in the Middle East.

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I know they do.

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Yeah, they do.

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Yes.

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And they want Israel winning.

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The Jews winning.

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So they control Jerusalem.

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Mm-Hmm.

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. Because that's somehow connected with the, then the return of Christ.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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The return of Christ.

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Yes.

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Which sounds nuts, but it's so much of what's driving American

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thought on this whole thing.

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Scamo said, Do you provide a pause and a ceasefire to allow Hamas to regroup?

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To get themselves in a position to resist even further?

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I mean...

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This is the play from Hamas, and we've got to be careful not to be suckered into it.

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Meaning, no ceasefire as far as GOMO is concerned.

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And, from his side of politics as well, James Patterson, Shadow Home Affairs

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Minister, argued against a ceasefire, saying Israel's removal of Hamas

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was a legitimate military objective.

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A ceasefire would just allow Hamas to regroup.

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Yeah, I'd heard England and Australia had sent a clown show

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across to entertain everybody.

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Yes.

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With Scomo and Bojo.

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Yes, Scomo and Bojo, yeah.

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Ah, what a mess.

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No resolution there.

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And, um hmm.

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Trump came across, I came across some polling.

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So this is, he was in trouble yesterday?

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Yes.

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He's been in one of these court cases.

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Yes.

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. This is the one where they are accusing him of overvaluing

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properties for getting loans.

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Yes.

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And then undervaluing them when it came to paying tax.

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That's it.

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I think it's the state of New York is saying that they want him

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banned from business in New York.

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Yeah, they want to revoke his license, I think.

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And the case is at the point where basically the judge has already

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found that he is guilty of doing that and it's now just a matter of

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assessing what the penalty will be.

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I thought it was, they, they've assessed, they've assessed that the

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company did it, but they've not found out who in the company was responsible.

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Ah, okay, that could be the case, yeah.

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So, the really weird part in this one is, Trump has got an

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in for the judge's associate.

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Yeah, he really went to town on Earth, didn't he?

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It was explain to me in a, in a podcast I was listening to this afternoon, it

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was the Scathing Atheist or someone like that, they were saying that

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Trump had been gagged and that sort of stuff from levelling any sort of

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threats or complaints or anything like that, but he realised that the,

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his lawyers weren't actually gagged, so he got his lawyers to level the

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complaints about the judge's associate.

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And then the judge actually turned around and said, no, you're all

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gagged now because this is ridiculous.

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Yeah.

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But also on the stand, apparently he was reigned in Thora.

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Oh, yeah.

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Yeah.

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I can't remember the exact language.

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It was beautiful legal language and that sort of stuff.

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But this judge really went to town on him.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Told him to shut his mouth.

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So the judge's associate, dear listener, is just the judge's assistant, who

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is often just a recent graduate.

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He's...

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I think in one day they might become a barrister.

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And it's just, sits next to the judge and hands them papers and stuff.

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Like, they're not a, they're not a participant in these things at all.

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But I think Trump found that this associate had been on social media, had...

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Appeared in some sort of anti Trump rallies, or something that indicated

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the Associate was not a Trump fan, and that's been enough for him to

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go to town, but, you know, they're above a bailiff, but their influence

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on proceedings is, is zero, and he's just fixated by this Associate.

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Yeah.

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Because he knows he's going to lose the case.

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And he wants any possible, this was the only thing he could find to throw mud

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to pretend that it wasn't a valid case.

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And the judge's gag order was pretty, a pretty good one, which basically

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said, okay, you can say I'm biased or things about me as a judge, I

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don't care, but you just can't attack the court staff, like my associate,

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or the bailiff, or the prosecutors.

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Or their families, because when you start attacking them, your

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crazy people go and find out where they live and start firebombing

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their cars, so it was a pretty...

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Well thought out gag order that really allowed him to complain about

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corruption in the court system if he wanted to, but just not to, to tackle,

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to, to, to make it a personal thing.

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Yes, yes.

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Against people whose jobs are just fairly menial jobs in the, in the whole system.

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So quite all that.

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Still going unbelievably well.

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So I've got some stuff here from ACBS news poll.

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YouGov survey, and the margin of error on this is 3.

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3 percent on anything I'm about to tell you here.

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So, people were asked will you be financially better off, financially

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worse off, or stay about the same if Biden wins or if Trump wins and

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defeats him in an upcoming election?

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And, 45%.

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They'll be better off if Trump wins 18 percent think they'll be better

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off if Biden wins financially.

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And financially worse off, 48 percent if Biden wins, if Trump wins, 32 percent and

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about the same to make up the difference.

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So essentially, there's a significant majority of people.

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In America, you think they will be financially better off if

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Donald Trump beats Biden in an upcoming presidential election.

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And in terms of the chances of the US being in a war, a substantial

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majority think it's more likely that the US will be in a war if Biden wins.

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I think they're right about that, actually.

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I mean, Trump previously wasn't disposed to using the military overseas.

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He wants to keep them in America so he can use them for himself as part of some

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insurrection type thing that might happen.

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And Israel they felt that Biden would is, would support Israel

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too much compared to Trump.

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And when it came to Russia and the Ukraine if Biden wins, they think Biden

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will support the Ukraine over Russia.

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If Trump wins, they think Trump will support Russia over the Ukraine.

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And in the final one, the one that counts, choice for president.

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48 percent Biden.

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51%.

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He is the favourite at the moment, still, despite everything.

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It's quite incredible, isn't it?

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I find that really bizarre.

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We've been saying it for months, that all of these surveys...

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Are showing him in front.

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Yeah, I know.

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It's just, Joe Biden is too old.

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He is far too old to be still running, you know, and Kamala

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Harris hasn't set the world on fire with her, with her performance.

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So, I

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don't know.

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It's amazing.

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It is one of those things that...

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Yeah, it is one of those things that I hope that what's her name the

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former Vice President's daughter.

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Former Vice President?

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Evang Oh.

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Yeah, what was his name?

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Mike Pence's daughter?

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No, the former Vice President under George W.

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Oh, Jane.

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Cheney Is it Cheney?

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Is that the one?

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Anyway, whatever he is, whatever his name is his daughter was, his

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daughter was booted out and that sort of stuff when she was, because she

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actually voted to impeach Donald Trump.

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And she went up against an absolute nutter from the right and that sort of

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stuff, Liz Cheney, thank you, Alison.

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I hope that she actually runs on her own ticket to split the,

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to split the Republican vote.

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You know, because that would actually, you know, I really do hope that she

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runs and she runs as hard as she can.

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She will lose, but I think that, I think that's one way that

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she can guarantee Donald Trump would never be president again.

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Because that would split the Republican vote, it would give Biden a clean run.

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So, anyway.

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Mmm, what a mess.

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Who's Marianne Williamson?

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Yeah, it talks about Marianne Williamson.

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Don't know who she is.

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Don't know.

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But there you go.

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A divided country.

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A lot of mixed up people.

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We're a divided country here.

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Just as an aside, one of the arguments in The Voice was Indigenous

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people know what's best for them.

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And I just think, Australia voted in Scott Morrison.

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Did we know what was best for us at that time?

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51 percent of Americans want to vote in Donald Trump.

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Do they know what's best for them at the time?

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People don't necessarily know what's best for them.

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Well, no, no, but we're always better off under a right wing politician than

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a left wing politician because they give us tax cuts and that's the only thing

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that impacts our the money in our pocket.

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Yes, yeah.

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Hey, we've got a new patron Lloydberg signed up.

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I think Lloydberg might have been an old patron who's returned.

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I'm not sure, but thank you, Lloydberg, for signing up as a patron.

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It's easy to do, dear listener, look at the show notes in your

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app and you'll see a link.

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And get onto Patreon and make a donation.

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That would be much appreciated.

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Now I threatened to do this and talk about submarines because it's been a while.

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And if you were to do a word search on the show notes on this

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podcast submarines would be one of the words that shows up the most.

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And I've got some more information about submarines.

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So this is from David Shoebridge.

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Writing in the Saturday paper, and and he says, Australia's Defence

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Force should be focused on defending Australia, not threatening our neighbours.

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This seems obvious, but is actually a contentious statement.

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Based on the conclusions of Australia's most recent Defence Strategic Review

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that adopts the goal of Australia being able to engage in impactful projection

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against countries to our far north.

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So our basic Defence Strategic Review.

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Is wrong, because rather than focusing on defence of Australia, it wants to

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project impactfully to our far north.

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Anyway, at the centre of all this, of course, is the 368 billion AUKUS submarine

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deal to give us nuclear submarines and project our military force 4,

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000km north into the South China Sea.

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So it's not about protecting Australia, it's about threatening China.

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That's what these submarines are about.

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Now, even on its own terms, if that was a good idea, then the deal, the AUKUS

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submarine deal, even if you accept that it's a good idea to project power 4,

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000 kilometres away, this particular deal is such a dog of a deal, it's...

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Incredible.

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So, he returned from a trip to Washington where he was talking with insiders

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and they agreed that he could use the information but without quoting them.

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So he was in Washington speaking to leading experts

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under the Chatham House Rules.

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You guys ever heard of the Chatham House Rules before?

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Yeah, you go and you talk to them and that sort of stuff, but you

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can't actually say the exact quote or something like that outside of that?

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You're free to use the information received, but neither the

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identity nor the affiliation of the speaker may be revealed.

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So you can say what you heard, you just can't say who told you.

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There we go.

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So, so this is Shoebridge David Shoebridge in America talking to people.

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And we're going to squander our wealth, we're going to antagonise

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our neighbours, we're going to invite further escalation from China.

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And we're going to get a highly speculative and marginal military

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asset and so we're supposedly acquiring eight nuclear submarines.

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The first three to five of these submarines are meant to be Virginia

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class submarines purchased from the U.

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S.

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The last 3 5 submarines that make up the 8th boat fleet will be AUKUS SSN

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nuclear submarines built in Adelaide from a yet to be finalised British design.

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So that's the deal as we know it at the moment.

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3 5 from the US, 3 5 UK designed.

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Adelaide built subs.

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So the ones that we're getting from the U.

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S.

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supposed to arrive in the 2030s with the next seven boats coming

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over the following 25 years.

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The problem is the U.

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S.

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doesn't have enough subs.

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They're running short.

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They don't have enough and they can't build them quick enough.

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So, five submarines from the U.

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S.

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represents about 10 percent of their total attack class submarine fleet.

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And while they've got plans to build two submarines a year, Their

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current capacity is stretched at 1.

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2, so, by the early 2030s, the U.

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S.

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is going to be 20 boats short of its targeted fleet size.

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And that's supposedly, at the time they're going to hand over

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to us, five of these submarines.

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There's no way they're going to do it.

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And in order to do it, they would have to increase their projection from 1.

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2 votes a year to 2.

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2 votes a year.

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But there is no plan or spending commitment to make this a reality.

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So, there's a hazy commitment from us to give 3 billion To the U.

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S.

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to help them with their shipbuilding.

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Anyway, it's not going to address the shortfall.

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So, they're just not going to have the subs to give us.

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And in the 2030s, whoever's in charge, and we say, Oh, we had this

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deal with Joe Biden back in early 2020s where we'd get these submarines

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and we'd like them now, please.

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Who knows who's in charge at that time, who's gonna say fuck off,

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we do we do then?

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It's gonna be Nottingham Junior.

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Then we go cap in hand, then we go cap in hand to the Japanese and say will you

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provide us with 12 submarines at 1 billion dollars each, and they'll say yes we will.

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We'll be going cap in hand to the Chinese, asking them for the subs

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at the rate we're gonna be going.

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Bear in mind.

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U.

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S.

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attack submarines currently requiring maintenance is almost double the

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historical average, running at about 37 percent of their fleet.

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These things are in the dock a lot of the time.

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So, that was that, that, that, that, that, assuming, against all odds, the politics

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come good and the boats are delivered, what will be the military impact?

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Sometime in the 2040s, we might have, at most, maybe, five

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Virginia class nuclear submarines.

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The standard Virginia class nuclear submarine 12 Tomahawk cruise

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missiles, with a few torpedoes.

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Taking into account crew rotation, maintenance and transit times.

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Even with a maximum fleet of eight submarines, the best case scenario for

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2054, we'll see two or three of those in the South China Sea at any time.

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So that's realistic.

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Even if we've got a whole contingent of eight submarines based on maintenance

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crews, et cetera, maximum we'll have is two to three in the South China Sea.

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So what are we bringing to a conflict?

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24 or maybe 36 Tomahawk missiles.

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With 450kg conventional warheads.

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Each such warhead is enough to destroy a moderate sized building,

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or potentially sink a ship.

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And once the missiles are fired, the submarines need to

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return to Australia to restock.

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before they can, weeks later, return to the conflict.

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Who, in their right mind, would spend 368 billion to deliver 36 bombs to a fight?

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Well, so the Tomahawks don't have to carry conventional.

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Munitions.

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Right.

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Oh, that's, we're going to put nuclear weapons on them.

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We could.

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Yeah.

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Because once we've got the capability, once we've got the capability, we could.

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Yes.

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And that's what we would want to do.

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Possibly.

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Engage

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in a nuclear war.

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Who knows what the underlying strategy is?

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He says here, to deliver 36 bombs to a fight, to put it in

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perspective, that's less than the payload of a single B 52 bomber.

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I mean, if we wanted to drop nuclear bombs, we could put

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them in a B 52 bomber, I guess.

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You know, Hiroshima Nagasaki style.

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Yeah, it's a lot harder to get one of those to China.

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Yeah.

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It's proving, at 368 billion, to get 36...

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So this is the interesting part, dear listener, that we haven't explored

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before, is just the limited amount of, sort of, missile power that

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you get for your submarine as well.

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So they're great for knocking out ships that are coming to attack

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you, but their value in terms of landing bombs on China's mainland.

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Landing special forces, on the other hand, is another thing

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that's done from submarines.

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Yeah, but that wouldn't be, that would be special forces rather than a...

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Oh, absolutely.

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You're not going to carry a, an army across the sea in that.

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Yeah.

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Do we want special forces landing on the shores of China to start running around?

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It depends.

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What?

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It depends.

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What?

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We wouldn't deliver special forces to mainland China, or is it?

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No, I'm just saying, if you are involved in a scrap and that sort of

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stuff, then you could actually have to do, you could actually have to deploy

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special forces, and perhaps the best way to deploy them is off a submarine.

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I'm not actually advocating, I'm just saying that it could

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be, it could be a solution.

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So, so.

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Delivering special forces to a fight.

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During the Falklands, they landed special forces in Argentina to provide

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advanced warning of air attack.

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And so if there was a Taiwan war, it's possible that they'd want intelligence

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assets on mainland China giving advance warning of incoming strikes.

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Do

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we need a nuclear powered submarine to deliver the special forces?

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If you need to operate...

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We could put many old slow moving...

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If you needed to get out of Australian waters and you needed to get up to

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China, then yes, you would actually need a nuclear powered submarine because

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they don't actually have to refuel.

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Are we seriously saying it's a valuable contribution of a

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nuclear powered submarine to deliver special forces to China?

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I'm not saying it's a valuable contribution, I'm just simply

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putting out that, you know, it could actually come back to be something

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that you could actually use them for.

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I'm not actually suggesting it's a good idea, I'm just saying that

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they could actually have a use.

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Anyway, that's the latest on subs.

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You're up to speed, dear listener, on subs.

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Underwater, possibly.

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Essentially, Lord Don has done something there, he says, you know,

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they could probably find an allied base closer to them, so they wouldn't

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necessarily have to restock in Australia.

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They could probably find an allied base closer to them, which is very true.

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They could probably just go down to the Philippines, pick up some more Tomahawk

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cruise missiles and return to the fight.

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Yeah.

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Or they could go back to Taiwan to pick up Tomahawk cruise missiles.

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I don't know.

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And, you know, while they're there it's not like the Chinese would

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fire on them in the Philippine dock while they're getting reloaded.

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Wouldn't happen.

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They could well do that.

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They could well do that.

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It all depends on whether or not the Philippines gets involved in the war.

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If the Philippines is a neutral country and that sort of stuff, then they...

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If we're restocking, then they're involved.

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Yeah, they could be.

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Anyway, it's such an enormous amount of money being wasted on such a stupid

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deal and this goddamn Labor government agreed to it within 24 hours of

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being told by ScoMo and were proud of themselves for their bipartisan support

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of a Scott Morrison board bubble.

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It could be worse.

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They could have supported the Stage 3 tax cuts.

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Yeah.

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They did it just longer than 24 hours.

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Yes.

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Yes.

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They did actually support the stage 3 tax cuts only because the coalition

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wouldn't actually split the bill.

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So they had to actually vote for the bill in its entirety, the whole lot.

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Stage 3 tax cuts.

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They could have said when we come into power, we will get

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rid of them, but they didn't.

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I agree, they should have done that, but they didn't, because they tried

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to make themselves a small target.

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Right, there was a review into alcohol in the Northern Territory and Professor

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Marcia Langton has called for uniform alcohol restrictions across the Northern

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Territory to help reduce rates of domestic, family and sexual violence.

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So she says we need to restrict alcohol access across the entire

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Northern Territory, an absolutely necessary public health measure

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to reduce domestic violence.

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You have to have alcohol restrictions in place at all times, no exceptions.

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Not just in Aboriginal communities, otherwise grog

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runners will exploit the system.

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And she suggested a permit system could be implemented which is

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already in place across some remote areas in the Northern Territory.

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Allowing responsible drinkers to consume alcohol.

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Gentlemen, what do you think about a sort of blanket alcohol ban in the

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Northern Territory, except if you've got a permit and you're allowed to

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drink because you're responsible?

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I'm actually not.

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I'm okay with it.

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No, no, I'm okay with it.

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I think, i, I, I don't see a problem with us bringing in

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drinking restrictions for people.

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I know people will not appreciate it, but if you said it's a two drink

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a day, which is the safe drinking limit if you're drinking more than

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that, I don't know whether these will be transferable, whether you

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can build them up for a weekend.

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I would say the vast majority of people aren't going to hit that.

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The people that are going to get hit by that are alcoholics.

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I think if you have the permit, you're probably just allowed to buy the drink for

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yourself and as much as you want, but...

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So if you're a problem drinker, your permit gets revoked?

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Looks like it.

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Apparently so.

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Okay.

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So the, what are they gonna do?

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Are they gonna, are they gonna find out from the cops

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who the problem drinkers are?

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Are they, I don't know if you get drunk, if you get done for drunk and

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disorderly, you you'll lose your permit.

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Perhaps.

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I don't know how it works.

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Are, are they gonna put the health resources in place to deal with

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people who have a problem and are.

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Using alcohol to hide, mask, whatever the problems that they've got, put

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the mental health services in place so these people don't turn to drink.

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No.

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Because all they're going to do is abuse other things.

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Yes.

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And that's the problem.

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If you take alcohol away, all they're going to do is turn to other

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things, to get drunk, or to get high.

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Because, because generally people who do this are escaping something.

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Something shitty has happened in their life.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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If you're interested in drug addiction, dear listener, read...

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Just chasing the screen.

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Yeah, there's there's some questions about how Truthful he

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was in some of his interviews.

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Mm hmm But I think the premise is good if you just keep in mind that everything

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not everything you read may be factual.

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Mm hmm so anyway, that was Marcia

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Langton and Find out more detail about that Let's see what happens.

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The other question is what happens, do you get grog smugglers just coming

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in from Queensland and WA instead?

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Yes.

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How they police that, I don't know.

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Yeah.

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I don't know.

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Yeah.

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United Nations resolutions.

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So, I think we spoke last week about the resolution that

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was proposed for a ceasefire?

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For a ceasefire, and Australia was one of the ones that abstained.

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Because the resolution didn't have enough words in it saying

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that Hamas were the bad guys.

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There wasn't enough context for it.

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There was another resolution demanding the end to sanctions against Cuba.

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And the vote was 187 to 2.

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Demanding an end to sanctions by the United States against Cuba.

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Dear listener, two guesses on which countries voted against the resolution.

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And one of them was the USA, because they're the guys

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implementing these sanctions.

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Given that you're bringing it up, the other one must be Australia.

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No.

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No, Israel.

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Israel.

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Ah.

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And, there was one...

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Abstainer.

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Abstention, and that was Ukraine.

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And that was Ukraine.

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So, so the people who are beholden to the US for weapons.

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Correct.

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187 to 2.

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Demanding the end to sanctions against Cuba, voting against USA

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and Israel, abstaining the Ukraine.

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That tells you everything.

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Yeah, yep.

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Well, I don't blame Israel and Ukraine.

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It's like dirty Cubans, they don't need their...

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No, no, no!

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they're so bad.

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Right.

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I don't blame them because they're in the middle of wars and they want ammunition.

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And if that's the price, then it's a small price.

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Yes, just a vote at the UN.

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Right, this will be an interesting one, Scott.

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The Greens say they will introduce an effective rent freeze across

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Brisbane by enacting massive land rates increases for any property

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investors who increase the rent.

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So, if you put up the rent, we'll put up your rates, says Jonathan Shree,

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and it would run for two years.

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And it will require landlords to keep rents below the January 2023 levels.

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And if you don't, so if you increase the rental then the rates will be 750

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percent of the standard rates bill.

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So 7.

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5 times your normal rates bill.

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If you put up the rent.

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So examples cited by the party include a hypothetical CBD unit

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with a 1, 500 a year rates bill.

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A 50 a week rent increase would bring 26, 000 a year in extra

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income but would result in an extra 9, 750 in additional land rates.

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So clearly a landlord just wouldn't do it.

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Scott, what do you think of a, as a potential Greens voter, in a

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Council election in Brisbane, are they saying, freeze rents, otherwise

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seven and a half times the rates?

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I don't vote for Brisbane Councils or anything like

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that because I live in Mackay.

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It's one of those things, I just think that the Greens are actually desperately

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to try and get their, they're trying to get their rent freeze across and that

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type of things that they've actually.

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They're actually targeting each of the elections and that type

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of thing that they're going for.

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Now, does Councillor Shri does what's his name Shri have any chance of winning?

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Probably not.

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So he can, he can go out and he can, he can say all this sort of crap

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now and that sort of thing and he won't actually have to deliver on it.

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

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lot is a, it's a lot of puff and blaster more than anything else.

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Do I actually agree with it?

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No, I don't.

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You know, it's one of those things, a rents increase and that type of thing, you

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can't actually blame a, you can't actually only blame a landlord for increasing rent.

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Rent is a, rent is a cost of renting a place.

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And that is determined by the market, more so than anyone else.

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Now I know they can say that, they know that they can say that, Oh,

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well they're the ones that are increasing the rent, which they

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are, I've got no doubt about that.

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But you can't actually then come down and clobber them by saying, Well, you know,

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you get 750, 750 percent of the rates.

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You know, and, and what's, have they actually say anywhere there that they

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were going to, you know, if it was an increase of rent on 2023 prices, was

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it, or 2022 prices, or 2020 prices?

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Freezing it at January 2023 levels.

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For how long?

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Two years, was it?

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Hmm.

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Yeah, I'm not convinced of it.

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What we've got is a federal level of government that has provided tax

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incentives for Property investors.

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And now we've got a different level of government trying to reverse those

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incentives with sort of penalties to disincentivise property investment.

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So...

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It's a Band Aid solution to other issues, is what I'm looking at.

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It is.

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So there's two different, three inputs, I would say, to your cost of a rental.

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One is the cost of the mortgage that's underlying it, one is

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the cost of the maintenance of the unit, and one is profit.

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And the problem is, at the moment, the profit is a larger component of the

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cost of the rental than the other two.

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So you need to be able to allow landlords to service their mortgage

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and to provide adequate maintenance, because otherwise what will happen is

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you'll end up with a load of slumlords.

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So, so how do you, it's less around the first two costs because controlling

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the overall cost is a blunt tool.

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It's really the profits that you need to be looking at and whether these people

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are paying off their mortgages more quickly than expected or whatever it is.

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What do you guys think previously of other moves by local councils

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to either increase rates if the property was vacant or increase

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rates if it was an Airbnb situation?

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I think that's fine.

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If the property is vacant most of the time, you know, because, you know,

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is it, is it going to be affecting people who've got weekenders or not?

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I think Because your place down the coast would be, would be considered to be

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vacant, wouldn't it, for most of the time?

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Used three days a week.

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So, okay, three days a week, then you probably get away with it.

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So it's one of those things.

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So that would be, that would fall under the, under my definition of a weekender.

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So if weekenders were, if weekenders were subject to an increase in

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rates, then I'd be opposed to that.

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Hmm.

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Do I really have a problem with Airbnbs and that sort of stuff?

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Not really.

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You know, it's, well, Some communities, for example, their teachers, their

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essential service people, were finding it really difficult to rent

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In the community because there was no long-term rentals available.

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It was all Airbnb, but, but also weekenders.

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If you, if you were a teacher in Kang, gata, how easy is it to get a a, a, a unit

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That is a reasonably reasonable traveling distance because of all of the Brisbane

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people who have a weekender down there.

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I, I know on the Sunshine Coast, it's been very difficult for teachers.

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Yeah.

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Say you're a young graduate teacher trying to find a rental.

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On the Sunshine Coast.

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I know It's virtually impossible.

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But how many of those are Airbnb and weekenders and how many of those are

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just retirees from Melbourne and Sydney who've come up for the better life?

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I don't know.

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I can understand the social desire of the Council to say we need to be massaging

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our property mix here so that we, so our essential people can live here.

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And if this is the only tool we've got, it's the only tool we've got, like, I

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sort of get it from that point of view.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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I, I think a society is poorer if if you don't have a mix

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of people living in an area.

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If your essential workers have to travel large distances that financially impacts

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them because they then have to pay travel costs and they lose time away from family.

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Just in the commute.

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So I, I think it, it, it makes sense to have a varied demographic inside an area.

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And if you have to do it by blunt instruments like rates increases,

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it's probably not the best answer, but how else do you do it?

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Anyway, when it comes to

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Councillor SRI and the Brisbane City Council and whacking up rates 7.

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5 times the normal rate.

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If you've increased the rent really, it's a, in that situation you're just trying

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to do a rent freeze, which is, meh, more a state government or a federal government

Speaker:

issue, but it'll be interesting to see how things pan out over the next election.

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There's a lot of grief in the, in the young community over rent and property

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prices, and there'll be a lot of sympathy for the Greens position, where they're

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at least talking about these things.

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L Landon's just made a comment.

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Amazing.

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Profits on rentals are not as amazing as many people think they are.

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They are great if you own the property for 20 or 30 years, but

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that's not every landlord's position.

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That would be true.

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When people have paid top dollar for a rental, they

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might have paid on the basis that they own the property.

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Either needed and the style of, of of income or, yeah, yep.

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It's one of those things, like, if they've, if they've, if they've...

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If they had to re, if they had to buy it and that sort of stuff, they

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borrowed it with borrowed money there, depending, 80 percent of that would

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be loaned, which they'd be getting charged interest on and everything else.

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So...

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It's really hard to wind back this situation of...

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When we've reached over inflated property levels.

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Oh yeah, I agree.

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We've had to wind it back now.

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And that is why I was very that's, you know, why I was taking Liam to task over

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that because if you actually, if you actually engineer a decline in rental,

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in value of property, then you end up engineering a failure in our economy.

Speaker:

Ah, but to the Greens credit, federally, they were looking at phasing.

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If you recall, the changes to tax laws was quite clever, really,

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and I'm in agreement with it.

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It was about phasing out that 50 percent capital gains and...

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And phasing out some of the tax deductions over time.

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So that, that was clever by the Greens, federally.

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Yeah, I know.

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It's one of those things.

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Are they going to replace that, are they going to replace that with the old way

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of calculating capital gains tax or not?

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I can't was, Scott.

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or were they just going to phase it down so you end up paying 100

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percent of the profit on tax?

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Yes, I think the 50 percent discount was phased out over time.

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five to ten years.

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Whatever it was.

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So, so does that replace...

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was that then replaced with the old system where you're

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calculating capital gains or not?

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I can't recall.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I'm talking about Airbnb, by the way we rented a place in Manchester last week.

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The cost was 148.

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Pounds, but they include, on top of that was a 60 pound cleaning

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fee and a 32 pound service fee

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So, so it went from 150 pounds to 240 pounds.

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Is that a nine?

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Is it?

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Yeah, so I, I, it's just, you know, I, I wonder about Airbnb and

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what profits people are making.

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Yeah, yep.

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Because you go, oh, this is the rental price and then suddenly the

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rental price isn't the cost you pay.

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Yes.

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Hmm.

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There we go.

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James in the chat room says, too many people using housing as an investment.

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That is what the stock market is for.

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Couldn't agree with you more, James.

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Just have to change the rules.

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Right.

Speaker:

Well, I reckon that's enough, gentlemen.

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Keep some of these topics for next week.

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Particularly gender pay gap, etc.

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That'll do us.

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So pay doesn't exist.

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Yeah.

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So, yeah.

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Anyway, we'll talk about that next week.

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Are you around, Joe?

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You gonna be near a internet connection and a computer next week?

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I believe.

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I am.

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I'm traveling back down to Devon on Sunday, so yeah.

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I should be around Tuesday morning my time.

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Right.

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What about you, Scott?

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Yeah, I'll be here.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

You have finished your dinner before?

Speaker:

Well, I finished my dinner and the reason why I had to go is because with my MS

Speaker:

One of the holes in my brain is, is in the part that controls your swallowing

Speaker:

and I was trying to eat too quickly and I've got some food stuck in my throat,

Speaker:

so I had to go away and There you go.

Speaker:

Vomit it up.

Speaker:

So it wasn't very pleasant.

Speaker:

I'm glad we muted you.

Speaker:

Yes, exactly.

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Yeah.

Speaker:

Yes Right, dear listener Thanks for joining, thanks for tuning in.

Speaker:

We'll be back next week.

Speaker:

Talk to you then.

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Bye for now.

Speaker:

And it's a good night from me.

Speaker:

And it's a good night from him.

Speaker:

Good night.

Speaker:

Dear listener, Not too long ago, you looked at your podcast app and saw that

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a new episode of the Iron Fist and Velvet Glove podcast was available to download.

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I like listening to those guys.

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If so, then you qualify as a potential donor to the podcast.

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