full
Episode 409 - Australians are Ripe for tax reform
In this episode we discuss:
(00:42) Intro
(02:31) Rudd Trolley
(04:49) Newspoll
(09:40) Essential Poll
(18:26) Smoking Laws
(21:31) New Zealand Property Laws
(23:33) Victorian Inquiry
(28:50) Submarines
(32:12) CPI does not include interest rates
(34:28) Causes of Inflation
(38:52) Small Nuclear Reactors
(43:58) Gina's Christmas Wish
(47:48) Cry for Argentina
(50:28) Identity Trap by Yascha Mounk
Chapters, images & show notes powered by vizzy.fm.
To financially support the Podcast you can make:
- a per-episode donation via Patreon or
- one-off donation via credit card; or
- one-off or regular donations via Paypal or
- if you are into Cryptocurrency you can send Satoshis.
We Livestream every Monday night at 8:00 pm Brisbane time. Follow us on Facebook or YouTube. Watch us live and join the discussion in the chat room.
You can sign up for our newsletter, which links to articles that Trevor has highlighted as potentially interesting and that may be discussed on the podcast. You will get 3 emails per week.
We have a website. www.ironfistvelvetglove.com.au
You can email us. The address is trevor@ironfistvelvetglove.com.au
You can send us a voicemail message at Speakpipe
We have a sister podcast called IFVG Evergreen. It is a collection of evergreen content from the weekly podcast.
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
Suburban Eastern Australia, an environment that has, over time,
Speaker:evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homosapiens.
Speaker:But today, we observe a small tribe akin to a group of meerkats that
Speaker:gather together atop a small mound to watch, question and discuss the
Speaker:current events of their city, their country and their world at large.
Speaker:Let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known as the
Speaker:Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.
Speaker:Yes, the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove and Joe the Tech Guy.
Speaker:We're back, the three of us, episode 409.
Speaker:If you're in the chat room like James is, say hello.
Speaker:Yes, another episode where we're going to talk about, news and
Speaker:politics and sex and religion.
Speaker:Don't know if there'll be that much sex or religion in this one.
Speaker:Lots of talk about tax, I reckon.
Speaker:Lots of you know, polls about tax.
Speaker:Tax in New Zealand, an inquiry in Victoria about, about
Speaker:property, which then entails tax.
Speaker:So, tax, tax, tax, maybe, is what this episode's gonna look at.
Speaker:I'm Trevor, aka The Iron Fist coming in loud and clear from regional Queensland.
Speaker:Scott, the Velvet Club.
Speaker:Scott, how are you?
Speaker:Not too bad.
Speaker:Thanks Trevor.
Speaker:Good day, Trevor.
Speaker:Good day, Joe.
Speaker:Good day listeners.
Speaker:I hope everyone's well and Joe has flicked over to a different system.
Speaker:He's four or five G or something because the other system wasn't working.
Speaker:Hopefully we won't have any mishaps along the way.
Speaker:Joe, with a snitzel under your belt.
Speaker:Having had a trip to Munich, I gather.
Speaker:You are fine.
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:Morning, you mm.
Speaker:You were telling us you had a schnitzel for breakfast and a schnitzel for lunch.
Speaker:Lunch, dinner, whatever it was.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Whilst in Munich, you have to.
Speaker:Yes, while in Rome.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, Yes, we're gonna talk about Some poles.
Speaker:Talk about things that happen in New Zealand.
Speaker:Little bit about submarines.
Speaker:Can't miss that out.
Speaker:Inflation.
Speaker:I've been making a mistake about inflation, gotta rectify that.
Speaker:And Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, and Gina Rinehart's Christmas
Speaker:Wish, amongst other things.
Speaker:So, let's kick it off.
Speaker:Now who was it last week?
Speaker:I was talking about the trolley.
Speaker:Wheeling the trolley into the cabinet room.
Speaker:That was you, Joe.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, I came across an article in John Menendee's blog from Jack Waterford
Speaker:talking about that whole situation and apparently it was invented by Kevin Rudd.
Speaker:Did you know that?
Speaker:Not till I read the article, no.
Speaker:Hmm, so Jack Waterford writing the John Menendee blog was talking about
Speaker:how our current Attorney General, when looking at the Robodead Inquiry...
Speaker:Decided there were 56 recommendations rather than 57.
Speaker:And the fact that the 57th was this thing about freedom of information and trying
Speaker:to give the public better access to it.
Speaker:And he says that this was, you know, really the recommendation
Speaker:57 was about dropping the Rudd Trolley as a claim of exemption.
Speaker:And he says that the Rudd trolley was invented by a young public
Speaker:servant working in the office.
Speaker:Office of Wayne Goss Heaven Rudd.
Speaker:In the post Fitzgerald days in the early 80s, in the fervor of reform,
Speaker:Goss had committed himself to a Queensland Freedom of Information Act.
Speaker:In operation, it proved deeply inconvenient.
Speaker:It was a bit too liberal, and embarrassing material was being given
Speaker:out, and then they decided to put any embarrassing papers on a trolley, and
Speaker:wheel them through the cabinet room, then claim they were cabinet documents.
Speaker:Naturally the rule was widely admired and copied by public servants
Speaker:everywhere, so the Rudd trolley, apparently that's where it originated.
Speaker:Mmm.
Speaker:That doesn't surprise me.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Mind you, you know, the Goss government was a good one.
Speaker:Goss state government.
Speaker:Absolutely, it was.
Speaker:I mean, coming in after all those years of J.
Speaker:P.
Speaker:Jockey Peterson was such a relief.
Speaker:Good guy, died early, cancer, Wayne Goss.
Speaker:Yeah, it was brain cancer, wasn't it?
Speaker:I think it might have been.
Speaker:Yeah, and Kevin Rudd was one of the guys in his office.
Speaker:He then went on to bigger and better things s polls, news poll so news
Speaker:poll came out with an article, well it was reported in the Australian,
Speaker:the Coalition leads Labor on the primary vote 38 to 31 percent.
Speaker:On a two party preferred basis, Labor and the Coalition are neck and neck.
Speaker:at 50 percent each.
Speaker:Surprise you there, Scott or Joe?
Speaker:Ah, not especially, but you know, there is a long time between
Speaker:now and the next election.
Speaker:Um, I think that the, uh, the loss on the referendum will be forgotten by then,
Speaker:so then you'll be able to move forward then, and when people actually have to
Speaker:sit down and make a decision between Dutton and Albanese, it's a no brainer
Speaker:you're gonna go with Albanese, because...
Speaker:You know, it's only a matter of time before Chalmers takes the job.
Speaker:JoBs and growth.
Speaker:No, Jim Chalmers.
Speaker:Jim Chalmers takes the job from Albanese.
Speaker:Yeah, he won't actually knife him or anything like that.
Speaker:I just think to myself, he's probably the, he's probably the logical successor.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Because he, he...
Speaker:Do you think people's vote at the next election will be determined?
Speaker:by their feeling that Charmers will come in to replace Albanese?
Speaker:Well, it's one of those things.
Speaker:I think that's something that would be playing on their mind because
Speaker:they'd think to themselves, like, God, I can't give Dutton a shot.
Speaker:So they're going to think to themselves, we've got to give, we've
Speaker:got to give Albanese another go.
Speaker:But that's okay, because if he fails, then Charmers will take the job.
Speaker:Well, I think it's...
Speaker:I do see that the Murdoch rags have been heavily after Albanese
Speaker:trying to wedge him, especially about this asylum seeker thing.
Speaker:About, you know, great headlines about how Dutton has held Albanese to account,
Speaker:and oh my god, you know, just wheel out the, it's all Peter Dutton's fault,
Speaker:excuse Mr Albanese, why don't you?
Speaker:But then the News Corp papers and the Fairfax did that to Dan Andrews.
Speaker:He completely ignored them.
Speaker:He never gave them any interviews.
Speaker:He just ran his own show on his own social media.
Speaker:And won handsomely every time, cause he just didn't pander to them, but
Speaker:he, you know, led and actually did stuff that people could point to.
Speaker:So...
Speaker:He also got on the beers.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Fell down a set of stairs.
Speaker:Is that what you mean?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:The song, Get On The Beers, I don't think did his image any harm.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But...
Speaker:You remember the mix up from COVID.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:No, I don't remember.
Speaker:Okay, that's a classic.
Speaker:He said that, he said, look, this is not an excuse for you
Speaker:to go out and get on the beers.
Speaker:So this guy did a mash up for it and said, you know, get on the beers,
Speaker:get on the beers, get on the beers.
Speaker:Mmm.
Speaker:Anyway, check it out on YouTube.
Speaker:I just think it's an indictment of, of this Albanese government
Speaker:that they've just done nothing.
Speaker:They're very soft.
Speaker:And it was such...
Speaker:They're very soft.
Speaker:You know, they haven't, they haven't done anything that you can point to and say,
Speaker:well, this is something Albo has done.
Speaker:Because he's nothing.
Speaker:He has, I never liked his, I never liked his position on very fast trains, but
Speaker:Jesus Christ, I would give something to have something that I could point
Speaker:to and say, okay, this is a policy.
Speaker:But he has done nothing.
Speaker:He has rolled over on everything that was objectionable that the
Speaker:coalition government wanted to throw, and he has agreed with it.
Speaker:If you think of how on the nose the Morrison government was, and how pathetic
Speaker:Dutton has been, and despite all of that, if you'd have said after the last election
Speaker:that come this time it would have been...
Speaker:tEa Party preferred an even horse race.
Speaker:Oh, I've thought.
Speaker:Er, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's been a really amazingly poor performance.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:It's been, it's been pathetic actually.
Speaker:Mm-Hmm.
Speaker:Anyway, it's just one of those things.
Speaker:It's I would've thought that by the time people actually have to make
Speaker:their mind up, they're gonna actually go with Albanese, head of Dutton.
Speaker:But, I think that, I think that Albanese can't feel comfortable because I
Speaker:suspect that the Greens are possibly going to pick up a couple of extra
Speaker:seats, which will then give them five.
Speaker:said.
Speaker:It would be a Labour minority government.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So it would mean a coalition with the Greens, and I don't
Speaker:see a problem with that.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't either.
Speaker:But if you're a Labour person, you should be furious at how pathetic.
Speaker:This mob have been to allow that to happen, so yeah, so that's
Speaker:interesting from News Poll.
Speaker:Now, Essential Poll has come out with some interesting stuff and I reckon it showed
Speaker:a surprising willingness on the part of the Australian population to explore
Speaker:some new taxes and new initiatives.
Speaker:So people were asked To what extent do you support or oppose the following measures?
Speaker:Capping prices for electricity and gas, uh, we've got 70 percent of people either
Speaker:strongly or somewhat supporting it.
Speaker:Actually 42 percent strongly supporting.
Speaker:Looks like about maybe 9 percent against.
Speaker:So that's capping electricity and gas.
Speaker:Placing limits on rental increases, we've got 62 percent in favour.
Speaker:Only 14 percent against the rest of the owners.
Speaker:Is that 14 percent of the property owners?
Speaker:Maybe, yes.
Speaker:A tax on retailers making excessive profits.
Speaker:56 percent in favour and only 15 percent against.
Speaker:A one off levy on the incomes of people earning more than
Speaker:a million dollars a year.
Speaker:We've got 53 percent in favour and we've got only 17 percent against.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Like, these, to me, sound like fairly radical proposals.
Speaker:Well, the first two are free money for the average person, so of course
Speaker:people are going to vote for it.
Speaker:And the last one is more money coming in and it's not coming out
Speaker:of my pocket for the average person.
Speaker:So, again, not a surprise.
Speaker:Well, but it does smack a type of socialism.
Speaker:They sound an awful lot like green policy.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I think...
Speaker:It's just a strong number.
Speaker:When you consider that, what did we say previously, just now, that two party, just
Speaker:on the coalition was leading Labor 38 to 32, so there's 38 percent of people out
Speaker:there are coalition voters, but only, you know, minimal numbers were against these
Speaker:Labor slash, well, green policies, really.
Speaker:So, yeah, I thought that was a strong response.
Speaker:This is the small business owner that thinks they're better off
Speaker:under a coalition government without realising that actually all
Speaker:the value goes to the big end of town, not the little end of town.
Speaker:Yeah, well, strong numbers of people in support of capping prices on
Speaker:electricity and gas, placing limits on rental increases, taxing retailers
Speaker:for making excessive profits, and a one off levelling on people earning
Speaker:more than a million dollars a year.
Speaker:Like, pretty strong stuff.
Speaker:Here's some more tax measures.
Speaker:Prevent wealthy families from using family trusts to split their assets.
Speaker:Favour, only 15 percent against.
Speaker:Here's a good one.
Speaker:Only allow people to claim negative gear in tax concessions
Speaker:on one investment property.
Speaker:We've got 47 percent in favour.
Speaker:Only 16 percent against, and Taxing deceased estates worth more than
Speaker:5 million, 40 percent in favour, 18, no, 20, 26 percent against.
Speaker:Let me just repeat those figures, so that was 40 percent in favour, and
Speaker:26 percent against, taxing deceased estates worth more than 5 million.
Speaker:So, Scott.
Speaker:The rest we don't know.
Speaker:Tax on deceased estates.
Speaker:Inheritance tax.
Speaker:Who'd have thought?
Speaker:No, no, a death tax.
Speaker:Come on, get it right.
Speaker:Yeah, well, whatever you want to call it, but on one, on estates
Speaker:worth more than 5 million does that surprise you that so many people...
Speaker:Because how many people are actually going to inherit five million dollars in one go?
Speaker:I think that's, I think that's the total, that's the total value of the estate.
Speaker:Five million dollars is the threshold, then after that you've got to divvy
Speaker:it up and all that type of thing.
Speaker:I'm not surprised at all by that because it's like, like Joe said,
Speaker:not a lot of people are actually going to fall into that category.
Speaker:So they think to themselves, well, it's not going to affect me, so I don't care.
Speaker:Still, I reckon in the past people would, you know, in America, for example, they're
Speaker:against taxing millionaires because every American considers that they're just a
Speaker:temporarily disadvantaged millionaire who's down on their luck and, you know,
Speaker:come next year they will be in that class so they don't want millionaires taxed.
Speaker:Maybe Australians have given up and have gone, well, at the current rate
Speaker:things are going, it's clearly not going to apply to me, so let's do it.
Speaker:I think Australians are more pragmatic.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Right, finally, the Stage 3 tax cuts.
Speaker:sO, people were asked, uh, the tax changes should go ahead as
Speaker:planned, 20 percent of people agree.
Speaker:The tax changes should go ahead for those earning less than 200, 000, but not
Speaker:for people earning more than 200, 000, 22 percent of people agreed with that.
Speaker:The tax changes should be revised, so they mostly benefit those on low
Speaker:and middle incomes, 41%, and the tax changes should not go ahead at all, 16%.
Speaker:So, the government's current policy of, of just doing what the coalition
Speaker:was going to do, and, and just going ahead with those tax cuts.
Speaker:Only 20 percent of Australians agree with it.
Speaker:Yet.
Speaker:That's what they're going to do anyway.
Speaker:So, risky territory for Laiva.
Speaker:It is, for sure.
Speaker:It's one of those things, it was a bloody stupid thing that he did.
Speaker:Well, no, because it meant that then Murdoch press couldn't lambast him for
Speaker:increasing taxation and run a scare story.
Speaker:But, he's, what's the point of being in power?
Speaker:What is the point of being in power?
Speaker:Had he actually said, he said, look, Had he actually said, look,
Speaker:if we win this, if we win this, we're going to have a look at them.
Speaker:Then he would have actually said, well, we said we're going to have a look at
Speaker:them, we've had a look at them, we've decided they're far too generous,
Speaker:so they're going to be pared back.
Speaker:And then he could actually say, look, we didn't destroy them completely,
Speaker:we kept these, but these, these...
Speaker:These gargantuan tax cuts for the very wealthy have got to go.
Speaker:I, I, I wonder how much Labor is now beholden to the big end of town.
Speaker:Well, it's that right wing of the Labor Party, with Richard Marles, that is...
Speaker:Running the show, and the left wing Albanese faction just has to do whatever
Speaker:they want to, as part of their deal.
Speaker:Sounds awfully familiar.
Speaker:Malcolm Turnbull, anybody?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:It does, doesn't it?
Speaker:It's so grim.
Speaker:Just, just think, after all these years and all the struggle, and you
Speaker:finally get into the position you wanted to be in, if you're Albanese.
Speaker:And then you just do nothing.
Speaker:I just, ugh, how can you live with yourself?
Speaker:Anyway, how do you sleep at night?
Speaker:It's one of those things, I think Richard Mahle's going to rear the day when they
Speaker:have to go into coalition with the Greens.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Ah, anyway.
Speaker:Because the Greens are not going to roll over like that.
Speaker:The Greens are going to insist, the Greens are going to insist that they're going
Speaker:to have a look at, they're going to have a look at AUKUS, they're going to have
Speaker:a look at Stage 3 tax cuts, and they're actually going to do something on that.
Speaker:You know, it might be what...
Speaker:to vote Green, doesn't it?
Speaker:It might be what Albanese needs, that he can just say to the right wing Richard
Speaker:Mahle's section, faction, and say...
Speaker:Sorry guys, but we're in a coalition with the Greens and we
Speaker:just have to do this stuff now.
Speaker:This is the best deal we could get.
Speaker:We're shying.
Speaker:Like, maybe it'll be good all round.
Speaker:It gives them an excuse.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I suppose it depends on how likely that that could end up splitting the
Speaker:Labor Party with the right wing faction running off to join the LNP, which...
Speaker:No, right wing faction.
Speaker:Right wing faction of Labor isn't going to run off to join the
Speaker:LNP, that's not going to happen.
Speaker:No, no, they'll join the Australian Conservatives.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Alright, I can remember talking about smoking laws, way back in
Speaker:the beginning of this podcast.
Speaker:And talking about the idea that, that you should really just have a cut off date and
Speaker:say okay from now on, anyone who's, um, 18 years or younger can't buy a cigarettes,
Speaker:and then next year it'll be people 19 years and younger, and then the following
Speaker:year it'll be 20 and under, as a way of trying to allow adults who are currently
Speaker:smoking to continue, if they must, but trying to just put a stop to this,
Speaker:this habit that's just killing people.
Speaker:And anyway, New Zealand had adopted that plan.
Speaker:And so legislation was introduced under the Jacinda Ardern led government
Speaker:that would ban cigarette sales next year to anyone born after 2008.
Speaker:And modelling has suggested that the laws would save up to 5, 000 lives every year.
Speaker:And it's even inspired the UK government to announce a similar
Speaker:ban for young people for smoking.
Speaker:Problem is...
Speaker:There's a new national party and this, none of this was mentioned in the run
Speaker:up to the election but apparently one of the things they're going to do is get rid
Speaker:of this proposed law before it actually gets started and one of the reasons
Speaker:is that, that the national party which won 38 percent of the vote is in a, is
Speaker:in a coalition with two other parties.
Speaker:And the other parties wanted this law removed.
Speaker:Well, the Libertarian Party did.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Did you know that they're going to share the role of the Deputy Prime Minister?
Speaker:So, one of the coalition partners, the leader, I think it's that
Speaker:Winston character, is going to be...
Speaker:Yeah, he's going to be deputy for 18 months.
Speaker:And then...
Speaker:The leader of the other party is going to be the deputy for the next 18 months.
Speaker:That's how they're going to share the role of deputy.
Speaker:That's unique.
Speaker:But anyway, that's what's going to happen and it's being sold to the electorate as
Speaker:a good idea because they need the tax.
Speaker:And also small businesses we're going to lose out.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, so we, we carry on killing people because small businesses
Speaker:will struggle if we don't sell.
Speaker:Yes, yes, that's right.
Speaker:Where did it say that?
Speaker:Yeah, news agents and other groups like that had complained.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We can't sell these, because we can't sell these cancer inducing killing sticks.
Speaker:We're not making as much money, so this is a bad law.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:That's happening in New Zealand.
Speaker:And, uh, the other thing from New Zealand, ... Negative gearing and
Speaker:capital gains stuff on properties.
Speaker:So, so they ditched negative gearing in 2021.
Speaker:aNd changes to capital gains, um, have been being made since 2015 in New Zealand.
Speaker:And if you want to know what effect that has on properties and mortgages,
Speaker:There's a chart on the screen.
Speaker:The top line, um, so this is, um, oops, sorry, don't show that one.
Speaker:Thank you, Joe.
Speaker:This is showing the proportion of, of property lending to different groups.
Speaker:So the biggest group, um, are the owner occupiers.
Speaker:These are people not buying their first home, but with a mortgage on their...
Speaker:on their second or third or whatever sort of principal place of residence.
Speaker:Back in 2015, investor loans were 30 percent of the loan market
Speaker:and first home buyers were 10%.
Speaker:And that was in 2015.
Speaker:Now, as these changes have taken effect, first home buyers as a percentage of
Speaker:the loan market are around the 25%.
Speaker:Up from 10, and the investor component has dropped from 30 down to about 18.
Speaker:So, changing the laws, the tax laws, to make it less attractive for investors,
Speaker:has ended up with a result, where there's less investors borrowing,
Speaker:presumably less investors owning property, I can only assume is the case.
Speaker:It has an effect.
Speaker:So there we go.
Speaker:That's that's New Zealand, and...
Speaker:Apparently, there was a Victorian inquiry into rental and housing affordability.
Speaker:Guess what it recommended?
Speaker:Scrap the First Home Buyers Grant.
Speaker:Why did it recommend that?
Speaker:I'll give you one guess, dear listener.
Speaker:Because it boosts the balance.
Speaker:It's inflationary.
Speaker:It's an inflationary effect on property prices.
Speaker:And instead use the money to build public social housing dwellings.
Speaker:60, 000 of them.
Speaker:And lobby the government, the Federal Government, to examine these tax
Speaker:concessions for investment properties.
Speaker:Those were the recommendations from the Inquiry.
Speaker:No surprises there.
Speaker:So, um, although with rent caps they were looking at rental price regulation.
Speaker:And the Inquiry said, Although rental freezers provide obvious benefits to
Speaker:renters, the Committee believes that they should only be considered as a
Speaker:short term solution in extreme times.
Speaker:Such as, during the COVID 19 pandemic, and according to the inquiry, there
Speaker:is inconsistent evidence on the long term efficacy of rental caps.
Speaker:So, question mark over the effectiveness of rental caps.
Speaker:The big long term experiment is New York with their fixed, there
Speaker:are a certain number of residences that are fixed rental costs.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:And it generally means that maintenance doesn't get done on them.
Speaker:And, uh, it's not necessarily been good for the property.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Landlords sort of give up on properties and wait for the tenant to die.
Speaker:Is that kind of what happens?
Speaker:Yeah, because I think they're allowed to change the rent once the tenant moves out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's one of those things, it's it all sounds very good, but when you actually
Speaker:look at it, it's not all that great.
Speaker:And you end up, you end up with people living in slum conditions and all that
Speaker:sort of stuff, still having to pay rent.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:So the inquiry is suggesting that...
Speaker:Only as a short term solution in extreme times for sort of, rental freezes.
Speaker:So, that all makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So what would be an extreme time?
Speaker:Would they consider that the current rental crisis and all that
Speaker:sort of stuff, would they consider that to be an extreme time or not?
Speaker:I think the Greens do.
Speaker:So, the Greens are reported as saying, the report found that a rent freeze
Speaker:is appropriate in times of extreme crisis like during COVID lockdowns.
Speaker:Well, renters are worse off now than since the pandemic became,
Speaker:began, so it's time to act.
Speaker:I guess given the high immigration numbers and the lack of housing on
Speaker:the market, they've got an argument.
Speaker:Yeah, it's one of those things that's I think we're having a long,
Speaker:sensible discussion about what a level of immigration is, what an
Speaker:acceptable level of immigration is.
Speaker:But you've actually got to do it without Pauline Hanson and all that
Speaker:type of thing, because she'll just be beating the drum on that type of thing.
Speaker:It's just, you know, we've got to get nurses and all that sort of
Speaker:thing from other overseas because we don't train enough of them here.
Speaker:And it's just a hell of a mess.
Speaker:But also we've got all the baby boomers retiring and
Speaker:they didn't have as many kids.
Speaker:So yeah, you need the young demographic in paying tax.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So you've got to bring them in from overseas.
Speaker:It's heavy.
Speaker:Yeah, so it's one of those things we've actually got to, that's why I said we've
Speaker:got to have a sensible conversation about it, so that you get rational debates,
Speaker:and then you've actually got to make a decision about it, because, you know, I
Speaker:think it's, what was it, 300 or 500, 000 migrants or something like that are aiming
Speaker:to bring in over the next 12 months?
Speaker:That's a hell of a lot.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Well, we seem to be short on places to put people.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, you know, for the landowners, you've got to force
Speaker:the property prices up somehow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, and again there, there have been a number of reports saying that
Speaker:there isn't a shortage of places.
Speaker:That they just...
Speaker:Unoccupied, vacant, yes.
Speaker:I've heard conflicting things on that.
Speaker:Land approved for construction, but that the owners are sitting
Speaker:on it till the value increases.
Speaker:They don't want to, they don't want to glut the market.
Speaker:Yes, land banking.
Speaker:So developers will not will not develop the lots because if they, you know, 500
Speaker:lots on the market, the price would drop.
Speaker:Whereas if they drip feed the market, um, The price was, will be maintained.
Speaker:So, yeah, you've just actually got to actually say to people, well, this,
Speaker:this lot's been, this block of land is now available for development.
Speaker:You've got 12 months to actually carve it up.
Speaker:Otherwise, we'll, we'll take, we'll take it back from you and that type of thing.
Speaker:Use it or lose it.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:I remember saying that on census night, there was 1 million properties vacant, but
Speaker:apparently that figure is not quite right.
Speaker:I'll come back to that another time.
Speaker:I do remember hearing that and then hearing that that was
Speaker:a misleading statistic, so.
Speaker:Right, just briefly on submarines, because this is the
Speaker:Iron Fist Velvet Glove podcast.
Speaker:This is the submarine podcast.
Speaker:This is the submarine podcast.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Scott Morrison negotiated the AUKUS submarine deal, claiming it was
Speaker:necessary to achieve a credible deterrent against China, and
Speaker:Anthony Albanese agreed with that.
Speaker:However, U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:Congressional Budget Office has a problem with that assertion, because the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:is having to sell Australia three to five of its existing nuclear submarines.
Speaker:And they're short of submarines, and in theory, there is no guarantee that
Speaker:Australia will release or provide those submarines in a war against China.
Speaker:So the Congressional Budget Office is saying, we're short on submarines, we're
Speaker:going to give three to five of them to the Australians who are not necessarily
Speaker:going to use them against the Chinese.
Speaker:Therefore, the deterrent effect of this policy, from the Chinese point of view,
Speaker:would be to worry less about a submarine threat than if the deal wasn't there.
Speaker:Which makes sense.
Speaker:If we want deterrence, really, nuclear weapons is the way to go.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We can do that.
Speaker:Why not?
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:That might be stupid enough.
Speaker:Well, because there'll be a coalition Labor Greens government.
Speaker:Next election, and the Greens won't allow it.
Speaker:That's why, Joe.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But, I like this, I like this theory.
Speaker:That if the whole point of the submarines is as a deterrent, and you've decided
Speaker:to carve off a section of the fleet to a country who suddenly may not employ them
Speaker:the way you want to against China, you've actually reduced your deterrent effect.
Speaker:Makes sense.
Speaker:Well, no, no.
Speaker:So, so deterrent for the Americans, but deterrent for the Australians.
Speaker:So there's no guarantee that America is going to step in if
Speaker:China tries to invade Australia.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Whereas if we have the submarines, in theory, we're controlling
Speaker:them to stop the Chinese Navy.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I don't think the Chinese are worried about us acting
Speaker:unilaterally with our submarines.
Speaker:So from the Chinese point of view, happy days.
Speaker:Those stupid Westerners, they've just split their fleet
Speaker:up when they're short on subs.
Speaker:Subs are less of a threat, is the overall impression that the Chinese would have.
Speaker:See, what you need, what you need is American businesses in the
Speaker:north of Australia, so that America will step in if there's any chance
Speaker:of them losing their businesses.
Speaker:Well, they will but the problem is they've given three to five of their submarines
Speaker:to us So that's that's the assessment that the Americans have made that
Speaker:they've reduced their deterrent effect.
Speaker:So I think it's a compelling argument It's undercut deterrence of China
Speaker:exactly the opposite of the claims of Scott Morrison and Albanese Right.
Speaker:I've been talking about interest rates and inflation and I've been saying
Speaker:that if when the Reserve Bank raises interest rates, then the interest is part
Speaker:of the basket of goods that's used to calculate CPI, and that's not correct.
Speaker:So, my son, Zach got me on that the other day, and we've actually said this way
Speaker:back in episode 363, so I'd forgotten we'd said that, but Before 1998, the
Speaker:CPI measured interest paid on mortgages.
Speaker:But this was changed at the behest of the Reserve Bank, which didn't want
Speaker:its measure of inflation to go up every time it raised interest rates.
Speaker:So, that was late 1998, CPI measured interest on mortgages, but it stopped.
Speaker:So, since then...
Speaker:Well, I'd cocked up because I thought it was right.
Speaker:Hmm, so since then the Bureau has measured owner occupiers housing costs by taking
Speaker:the price of building a new house or unit.
Speaker:This doesn't make much sense since not many people buy a
Speaker:newly built home each quarter.
Speaker:So they've been measuring housing costs by the price of new houses and new units.
Speaker:But the Bureau also calculates a separate cost of living index.
Speaker:Which uses the same prices as the CPI, but restores mortgage interest
Speaker:rates into that calculation.
Speaker:And uses slightly different weights to take account of different spending
Speaker:patterns of particular household types.
Speaker:So, probably the more accurate measure would be...
Speaker:The Cost of Living Index as opposed to the CPI, so, so there we go.
Speaker:Interest doesn't actually make its way into the CPI, it makes its
Speaker:way into the Cost of Living Index.
Speaker:I've been misleading you for the last month or so on that
Speaker:one, but we did actually say Either way, it is inflationary.
Speaker:Mm, yes.
Speaker:So, so that was that part.
Speaker:Causes of inflation.
Speaker:Anthony Albanese says inflation is part of a global phenomenon.
Speaker:The Reserve Bank says it's largely homegrown and, um, Miss Bullock, I
Speaker:think she's the current head of the RBA.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Michelle Bullock.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:She said early driver of inflation was supply chain problems during
Speaker:COVID 19 pandemic, worsened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Speaker:But on Wednesday, she said there's several signs that inflation was domestically
Speaker:driven and at risk of remaining elevated.
Speaker:sHe said it's not just petrol, electricity and rent.
Speaker:Quote, this is from the Reserve Bank, Hairdressers and dentists,
Speaker:dining out, sporting and other recreational activities.
Speaker:The prices of all these services are rising strongly, she said.
Speaker:Hang on, a dentist is recreation, is it?
Speaker:No, hairdressers and dentists, dining out, sporting and
Speaker:other recreational activities.
Speaker:Well, exactly.
Speaker:She says, this reflects domestic economic conditions and is an
Speaker:indication that aggregate demand is sufficiently greater than aggregate
Speaker:supply to sustain these price increases.
Speaker:So, you consumers out there, going to the dentist, increased demand without an
Speaker:increased supply of dentist is leading to a rise in the price of dental services.
Speaker:Honestly, these Reserve Bank people, they just did Economics 101 with
Speaker:supply and demand curves and, and that's the only way of thinking,
Speaker:basically.
Speaker:Yeah, but, I can understand what you're saying, but...
Speaker:What she was saying was right though, you know, you, you don't have an increase
Speaker:in dentists and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:You've got an increase in demand for dentists, so there's going
Speaker:to be an increase in the price.
Speaker:Could it be that people have just been putting off dental
Speaker:stuff because they had to?
Speaker:Yeah, I know that.
Speaker:I know that, but it's one of those things you've got, if you look at it
Speaker:purely in supply and demand, the demand for dental, dental procedures goes up.
Speaker:The supply of dentists doesn't move, so the only thing that can move is the price.
Speaker:Yeah, the RBA approaches this as a, as a rampant economy that's spending too much.
Speaker:And needs to be, be reigned.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What it needs to be reed in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which is exactly what they're, what they've done and, and it just doesn't
Speaker:make sense that people are willy-nilly getting dental services and need to
Speaker:be reed in by higher interest rates.
Speaker:This is not discretion to curb their dental express expenses.
Speaker:Same with hairdressers.
Speaker:Like, I dunno, I imagine a lot of the cost of the hairdressers is the.
Speaker:Various creams and dyes and what not, you probably don't
Speaker:have to worry about that, Joe.
Speaker:Is he rubbing your head?
Speaker:Could it be that it's the cost of the various ointments and bits
Speaker:and pieces that they're using?
Speaker:The rent and their place and all that sort of thing?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Rather than just...
Speaker:Everybody's suddenly increased their demand for hairdressing services.
Speaker:Well of course they had, they were all doing their barber
Speaker:stuff at home during lockdown.
Speaker:So everybody being released out of the community, everybody now needs a haircut.
Speaker:Now obviously, that's inflationary.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because they weren't before COVID.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, there are more people having more haircuts now since COVID.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It just strikes me as...
Speaker:People who are out of touch and relying on very simple supply and
Speaker:demand models that don't necessarily apply well to what's really happening.
Speaker:So, anyway there was a an article from the it was either the
Speaker:Chaser or the Batuda or somebody.
Speaker:The headline was, Selfish young person apologises for driving up inflation, but
Speaker:you just can't really ignore a root canal.
Speaker:That's where we're at.
Speaker:Ah, is John in the chat room?
Speaker:Because I'm about to talk about small modular nuclear reactors.
Speaker:Doesn't look like he's there.
Speaker:Chris Bowen, he's our Energy Minister.
Speaker:He says, we respect other countries plans, but in Australia's context, nuclear
Speaker:for Australia is a fantasy wrapped in delusion, accompanied by pipedream.
Speaker:And there's an article in the Guardian, so...
Speaker:The only company to have a small, modular nuclear power plant approved in the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:and this has been cited by the Australian opposition as evidence of
Speaker:a burgeoning global nuclear industry.
Speaker:It's had to cancel the project due to rising costs.
Speaker:New scale power announced plans announced a drop plans to build.
Speaker:It's it's small modular nuclear reactor, and essentially, the
Speaker:figures just don't add up.
Speaker:They couldn't get enough people to commit to buying the electricity.
Speaker:The cost of producing the plant, um, accelerated way beyond
Speaker:what was originally planned.
Speaker:And, uh, it just doesn't add up.
Speaker:So, industry experts say that...
Speaker:SMRs, Small Modular Reactors, are not commercially available, but nuclear energy
Speaker:is more expensive than alternatives, and in a best case scenario could
Speaker:not play a role in Australia for more than a decade, and probably not
Speaker:before 2040, and the Australian Energy Market Operator found renewable energy
Speaker:could be providing 95 percent of the country's electricity by that time.
Speaker:So...
Speaker:So, yeah, as Don says, fusion is the answer because fusion is always 20 years
Speaker:off, which serves the purpose of a nuclear reactor, which is to delay renewables
Speaker:and keep burning fuel, fossil fuel.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:One of the great things about renewables is everybody having it on their house.
Speaker:It decentralises power, both power literally and power of large corporations.
Speaker:But the grid isn't designed for that, unfortunately.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:The other day I was at home and that sort of stuff and I realised my air conditioner
Speaker:in the land room turned off and I thought to myself, what the hell was that?
Speaker:Because everything else was still working.
Speaker:And then I realised the power's being turned off.
Speaker:So that was the only sign that I had was the...
Speaker:Electricity had been cut off to my house because the air
Speaker:conditioner in the lounge room died.
Speaker:So, because my battery and everything like that, it just kicked in and just
Speaker:kept the electricity flowing to my house.
Speaker:But for some reason, they haven't got my they haven't got my air conditioner in
Speaker:the lounge room hooked up to the battery.
Speaker:Probably because it's too big.
Speaker:So, a battery can only supply so much power and an air
Speaker:conditioner uses a lot of power.
Speaker:Yeah, I know, but, so it draws, the air conditioner draws from your solar panel.
Speaker:Yeah, it does.
Speaker:Right, but not from the battery.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:But, you know, it's just one of those things, I just noticed that...
Speaker:When the like it's only happened twice up here, but when the electricity
Speaker:is cut off, I notice that the air conditioner in the lounge room dies,
Speaker:but everything else still works.
Speaker:So that's how I know that the power's been turned off.
Speaker:And when the electricity is, is still running to the house and all that
Speaker:sort of stuff, I'm still drawing, I'm still drawing electricity on
Speaker:everything out of that from my battery.
Speaker:Anyway, it just is what it is.
Speaker:It's one of those things I I see up here.
Speaker:There are a lot of houses that are getting solar on their roof.
Speaker:And I just think to myself, that's a very good thing because, um, that
Speaker:will play very much into the hands of the state government because all that
Speaker:surface electricity that's going to be produced will be used to pump the water.
Speaker:Back up to the main dam, then it'll flow down to the through the what the
Speaker:hell's in through the hydropump...
Speaker:Pumped hydros.
Speaker:Turbines.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Pumped hydros.
Speaker:It's going to run down through the hydro generators.
Speaker:That's if they actually build the pumped hydro.
Speaker:I know they've talked about it, but No, it's pretty much announced its a done.
Speaker:It was, I don't think there's any hesitation on that.
Speaker:Oh, it's, it's a done deal.
Speaker:But has it started?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:No, it hasn't started yet.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:But it ha They ha they have actually, I gather they've already set aside
Speaker:the land and that sort of stuff.
Speaker:I gather the government's already in purchase mode and that sort of thing to
Speaker:purchase the land from the landholders.
Speaker:And then after that, it'll be over.
Speaker:Anyway, that's small nuclear reactors.
Speaker:Gina Reinhart this one came from the Courier Mail.
Speaker:She's called on the Federal Government to give the nation a Christmas bonus
Speaker:in the form of a petrol excise tax cut.
Speaker:According to Miss Reinhart, every few dollars counts for people in tough times.
Speaker:With the stroke of a pen, the Government could deliver minor, short
Speaker:term relief to millions by cutting the petrol tax for households.
Speaker:Ooh, a wicked fundage.
Speaker:We could fund it by removing the the benefits that mining
Speaker:companies get for their fuel.
Speaker:So we could actually move the tax cuts away from the mining companies to the
Speaker:small individuals and that would have zero impact on net revenue from the budget.
Speaker:So mining companies get a special tax deal, do they?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Do they not pay the excise?
Speaker:They don't pay any excise on their off road vehicles.
Speaker:Or they pay a reduced excise, yeah.
Speaker:Right, okay, yeah.
Speaker:I don't think they pay anything on their off road vehicles.
Speaker:So the, the diesel that goes into those trucks and that sort of stuff,
Speaker:they don't pay any excise on that.
Speaker:It's good of Tina to be thinking of this, you know, of the little people.
Speaker:She says no one's asking...
Speaker:Oh shit, fattest bitch.
Speaker:She says nobody's asking for a handout, we just need the government
Speaker:to take less money from Australians.
Speaker:She says, I have long spoken out about Australians being overtaxed and
Speaker:overcharged by government, which has its roots in excessive government spending.
Speaker:Yeah, because rich people tend to pay more tax than poor people.
Speaker:Rich people use less services than poor people, so they want to
Speaker:pay less tax to fund poor people.
Speaker:She says, we teach children far more about cunning emissions and woke agendas than
Speaker:we do about mining that powers Australia's economy and enables those Australians
Speaker:employed in the industry to have some of the highest wages in the world.
Speaker:The resources industry contributes more corporate tax.
Speaker:And all other industries combined.
Speaker:It's mining taxes that pay for our government, teachers,
Speaker:police, nurses, non voluntary firefighters and emergency services.
Speaker:Gentlemen, do you know why the resources industry contributes more corporate
Speaker:tax than all other industries combined?
Speaker:Because it's the only core, it's the only, the only industry that's making money.
Speaker:No, because they believe that the stuff they mine out of the ground is taxed.
Speaker:They're not buying raw materials, they're being taxed.
Speaker:So every, any other sector, it's raw materials are a cost, not a tax.
Speaker:And that's why they claim it's the highest tax.
Speaker:The reason is they can't offshore their profits.
Speaker:Well that's, that's true.
Speaker:So they're digging rocks out of Australian soil and it's really hard for them
Speaker:to set up international agreements.
Speaker:Where they get charged IP services and other stuff that they can
Speaker:shift their profits offshore.
Speaker:So, that's why they're actually paying tax is they can't offshore their income.
Speaker:Well, BSP said a red hot go at it.
Speaker:They've done their, they've moved their accounts receivable
Speaker:funds over to Singapore.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But Gina, who says Australian miners are some of the highest paid.
Speaker:Workers, she wanted to change that.
Speaker:She wanted to excise the whole of North Australia from the human resources laws,
Speaker:whatever they're called, the industrial relations things, so that she could
Speaker:bring in cheap labor from overseas.
Speaker:Are you suggesting she's hypocritical?
Speaker:Yeah, of course she's a hypocrite.
Speaker:She's just a teeny amount.
Speaker:She's an evil bitch.
Speaker:We mentioned.
Speaker:Argentina and the crazy new president they've got there.
Speaker:He signalled that he may exonerate Argentina's imprisoned
Speaker:dictatorship officers.
Speaker:He said that the military were guilty only of excesses.
Speaker:Um, The 1976 Dictatorship, which Millais is keen to reappraise, imposed policies
Speaker:similar in many ways to his, including semi de dollarisation, um, there's 1,
Speaker:200 convicted Dictatorship officers.
Speaker:And anyway, I think we mentioned last week, I'm not sure if we did, or last time
Speaker:we spoke about it, was It's all going to go to shit in Argentina, and it'll end
Speaker:up with the military getting involved.
Speaker:And this is just further evidence to me that the military's going to get involved.
Speaker:So he wants officers on his side?
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:He's going to get them all out of jail and get the military on
Speaker:side for when things go to shit.
Speaker:He'll be able to employ them to keep his regime operating.
Speaker:That's, I think, where we're headed in Argentina.
Speaker:That's a real worry.
Speaker:You know, I could, I said at the time, I said last week when we
Speaker:were talking about it, I said that I could understand the Argentines
Speaker:that had a gut full of Peronism.
Speaker:But, you know, to go this far to the other side was just ridiculous.
Speaker:Mm hmm.
Speaker:I Was hoping I would see it today.
Speaker:The High Court supposedly today was going to come out with its reasons
Speaker:about the detention decision it made.
Speaker:I thought it was tomorrow.
Speaker:Yeah, I thought it was going to be today.
Speaker:So, we'll wait till next week and talk in depth about the actual
Speaker:decision and the reasons behind it.
Speaker:So...
Speaker:Oh, the latest gossip was that the government knew all about that
Speaker:they had a risky case and they were going to ship him off to America.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:I haven't seen that.
Speaker:That's what they were saying.
Speaker:Yeah, the opposition have said, oh, obviously the government knew
Speaker:because they were in talks with America to send the guy over there.
Speaker:Okay, so if the opposition said that, it definitely wasn't the case.
Speaker:Probably.
Speaker:But, but you know, this is News Corpse, who are digging up fresh bodies to...
Speaker:Yeah, it's complete nonsense then.
Speaker:I think, I think they were surprised.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I think, but, yeah.
Speaker:Anyway reading a book at the moment, might talk about next week, The Identity Trap.
Speaker:A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time by Yasha Munk.
Speaker:And it's talking about the way that we have shifted from universal
Speaker:ideas of treating everybody equally to, to treating people based on
Speaker:their identity and creating special laws that apply based on identity.
Speaker:And...
Speaker:It's a really good read, so far, and I just, as I read it, I am just
Speaker:applying these concepts to the whole voice debate, and how we approach
Speaker:that, and so, I'm finding that quite interesting, so, if you're interested
Speaker:in, in the idea of identity politics, and how, and how the world has moved
Speaker:from universal Rights of equality to rights that depend on your identity,
Speaker:then I recommend this, and I'll probably talk more about it next week, I reckon.
Speaker:So, that's the Identity Trap.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:And that's about it, dear listener.
Speaker:I reckon we've gone through it all.
Speaker:Anything you guys got to talk about at all?
Speaker:EUrope's lurch to the right was something that the better half
Speaker:was talking to me about tonight.
Speaker:He was concerned, I think was probably where it was basically headed, was
Speaker:with Goethe Wilde's ascension to the prime ministership of the Netherlands.
Speaker:hE likes to throw rocks at Angela Merkel wherever he can because he said
Speaker:that he said it was her, you know, that saying, oh yes we can and that
Speaker:sort of thing when they opened up the borders and let all those people
Speaker:in from Syria and everything else.
Speaker:And he was saying that he believes that Gerd Bilders is a example of what was
Speaker:going to happen from that type of thing.
Speaker:Now, I haven't read enough about the Netherlands or anything else as
Speaker:to whether or not they have a big Islamic population or anything else.
Speaker:But it really wouldn't surprise me that that could have been one of the things
Speaker:that kicked him in the head, because I think it was you, Trevor, that said that
Speaker:once the population of Muslims gets up to 5%, then they start to agitate for
Speaker:their own laws and that type of thing.
Speaker:So it really wouldn't surprise me that that could have
Speaker:actually happened over there.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Could have.
Speaker:So, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a Dutch refugee and she's written quite extensively about
Speaker:her experiences as a new immigrant and she was saying that she had come from
Speaker:a tribal regime, and to be suddenly dumped in a very, very different society.
Speaker:bEing given money by the government, and she couldn't understand how it all
Speaker:works, and she had a contempt for it.
Speaker:And she says that we as a society are doing immigrants a disservice by not
Speaker:embracing them, by not, by basically just dumping them into the community and
Speaker:saying, there you are, get on with it.
Speaker:Rather than, this is what the laws are, this is how our society works.
Speaker:She advocated actually for church groups to go out and embrace them.
Speaker:But there's no reason it couldn't be other community groups.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Well, integration's a dirty word.
Speaker:Sounds like assimilation.
Speaker:Yeah, it's one of those things.
Speaker:I honestly believe we've actually got to actually, we've got to have several
Speaker:serious conversations in this country.
Speaker:One of them has to be, assimilation is not a dirty word.
Speaker:You know, we've actually got to have a conversation with everyone
Speaker:to make them understand that assimilation is not a dirty word.
Speaker:See, that's what the Chinese said to the Uyghurs.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Essentially.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:There's a sense of re education camp.
Speaker:They see hard as terrorists and they said, Guys, this is how our country works.
Speaker:Off you go to re education camp.
Speaker:Re education camp with a big shed and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:Make them work for nothing.
Speaker:But, you know, it's just one of those things.
Speaker:It's all part of the training program, isn't it, Trevor?
Speaker:The Uyghurs actually...
Speaker:Weren't fresh immigrants.
Speaker:A and, but hang on, they had lived there for a very long time.
Speaker:You, you, and they've also, they've also had their, just upon your concept,
Speaker:part of their country taken over by the Ha Chinese, the Hahan Chinese had
Speaker:been moved out there and they tried to dilute them and they, yes, they were
Speaker:the only people that weren't required to abide by the one co abide by the one
Speaker:child law and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:But you know, it's, I think.
Speaker:One of those bloody brutal things that they've done.
Speaker:Assimilation is the destruction of the small party's ways and means.
Speaker:Yeah, of the history of their culture.
Speaker:The minorities.
Speaker:Assimilation, I think, is, um, a fusion of taking the best of both.
Speaker:You'll find that the Uyghurs have got a thriving Uyghur culture.
Speaker:Like, they're able to practice their culture, no problem.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I know, it's one of those things that, that, that, it's just, it just, you
Speaker:know, it just, only two minutes ago, you were saying about teaching people
Speaker:about, teaching people about what our country's about, and they were saying,
Speaker:well, that's what the Chinese did, and you just went off and said, well...
Speaker:Yeah, but, but except in that situation, like, it was exactly the
Speaker:concept that you were arguing for, but when I point out that that's what
Speaker:the Chinese did, you were, you were, you were, yeah, you've got me there.
Speaker:All right I have to go away and think about that.
Speaker:There we go.
Speaker:It's one of those things, I just think to myself that
Speaker:what was I saying?
Speaker:Sorry?
Speaker:What's that?
Speaker:You said the Uyghurs are closer to the Aboriginals in that, no, the
Speaker:Uyghurs were conducting jihadist terrorism, like elements of them
Speaker:were, so that was the problem.
Speaker:Yeah, yes.
Speaker:Yeah, I don't think they were all involved in that.
Speaker:No, of course not.
Speaker:And a lot of them ended up in concentration camp,
Speaker:or in a re education camp.
Speaker:No, not all of them did.
Speaker:But a lot of them did, though, end up in re education camps.
Speaker:And a lot of them were working for slave labour.
Speaker:Well, we don't know.
Speaker:It's very hard to know what went on.
Speaker:No, exactly.
Speaker:Because there's a Christian nutter, is the main person that
Speaker:the world's relying on for what actually happened with the Uyghurs.
Speaker:That's the problem.
Speaker:Who is that?
Speaker:Oh, he's like a Christian nutter of some sort.
Speaker:I can't remember his name, but he's the main source of the whole...
Speaker:Isn't that his tautology?
Speaker:Yes, it is.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A bunch of Arab countries have been over there now and said, it's all good.
Speaker:We're happy with how we are.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Islam brothers are being treated.
Speaker:And thanks for the bridges and the roads, and the Belton Road.
Speaker:Oh, exactly.
Speaker:Well, there we go, we're done and dusted for another episode.
Speaker:We'll be back next week.
Speaker:We're going to talk about identity for sure.
Speaker:Do I have to read this book or not?
Speaker:No, I'll just provide notes.
Speaker:Alright, we'll talk about stuff then.
Speaker:Talk to you then.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:And it's a good night from me.
Speaker:And it's a good night from him.
Speaker:Good night.
