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Title
Pub. Date
Duration
End of (fear) year wrap
12 Dec 2025
00:45:13
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What a great episode to end the year on. It's magic when the guests are good old friends with time under their belts, joy in their hearts and stupidity in their mouths.
Kirsten Drysdale's new YouTube show is crushing it, she reviews creators on the internet — The Internet Reviewed
Sami Shah you can find weekly on Patreon making podcasts and thoughtful posts — News Weakly
This week we cover a deeply important threat to democracy as we know it; The US State Department calling the Calibri font woke, we cash in on politician entitlements, and we try to decipher who 36 Months are and what they really want. Cam Wilson at Crikey.com.au has done some great work over the last year on the teenage social media ban — and this 36 Months story is developing fast. It's worth a sub to Cam and Crikey to follow it as it unfolds.
There's also and end of year quiz, and for some reason we talk about Jimmy Fallon and tech bros.
There's a lot going on — but it's a fun 45minutes hanging with funny friends.
Couldn't think of a better way to spend a road trip.
Happy Christmas to you all — we'll be back after Australia Day with some more A Rational Fear episodes, and perhaps the odd secret gig. To find out more sign up to our Patreon!
🤑 CHIP IN TO OUR PATREON https://www.patreon.com/ARationalFear
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🎧 Get an ad-free and sponsor free version of the show.
🎟 Get early access and discounts to live shows.
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We have two of Australia's great brains join us, the brilliant Grace Tame and the editor of The Chaser John Delmenico. This week we sling satirical barbs about Spotify, satanic worshipers with a even less desirable side hobby, the bad essay that tried to start a culture war, and do a quick drive by of the photos release from Epstein's Island.
And for new Patreon supporters who sign up this week — you can win yourself a bottle of Evil Ray sunscreen. https://evilray.com/
This week we have one of my favourite comedians and tv producers walk us through the CBS decision to axe the Stephen Colbert Late Show.
Was it financial or something more sinister?
W.Kamau Bell is one of the smartest TV creators and stand ups and he’s got the silverware to prove it. Kamau has even hosted his own tonight show. He’s one of the most prolific brains in media, comedy and justice.
📝 You can read his very thoughtful analysis of the Colbert moment on his Substack Who’s With Me.
If you enjoy A Rational Fear, chip in to the Patreon.
ALSO In two weeks we have a Federal Minister on the show and on Patreon, you will be able to pitch your questions directly to them - but I’ll only take them for Patreon.
Cheers,
Dan
🤑 CHIP IN TO OUR PATREON https://www.patreon.com/ARationalFear
Here's all the fun stuff you get when you sign up to Patreon.
🎧 Get an ad-free and sponsor free version of the show.
🎟 Get early access and discounts to live shows.
🎥 Get early access to final videos, and draft edits of upcoming videos.
👨🏼⚖️ Make show suggestions.
💬 Get a link to the A Rational Fear discord.
If you enjoyed this please drop us a review on Apple podcasts:
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the Bertha Foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 G'day Lewis. How are you?
Lewis Hobba 0:06 Good evening Daniel. I'm well I'm well how are you?
Dan Ilic 0:09 I'm really good. I feel I feel it's good having a week off, isn't it like it's good when NBN besets your podcast with Whoa, that you can actually record and you have to take a week off from doing it. God. Yeah. Every week.
Lewis Hobba 0:20 You think you were taken down by the powers that be? You think you're getting too powerful?
Dan Ilic 0:24 Yeah, I have been in getting into quite quite a Twitter stash every time Tim Wilson tweets. I don't know if you've seen this. Tim Wilson is all of a sudden turned into it like an environmentalist. I've seen it. Yeah. It's quite the transformation for some guy who has been at the EPA for years trying to rip down every bit of climate policy. He's the guy that's like, Hey, come on over and we can do it.
Lewis Hobba 0:49 It actually makes you really wonder what it's like when he catches up with his old but like, do they? Like when he goes back to the IPA for the secret meetings when he puts the hood on and he goes underground? And they when they're finished with the chanting? Like, Are they friendly to him? Or like they go we know what you're doing him and it's okay. Or they like you trader used to be one of us.
Dan Ilic 1:09 Oh, we know what you're doing just you know, getting one more time we need to keep the power keep the power to him, placate them keep those votes away from I mean, we will talk to Georgia steel a little bit about this later on. But I feel like there's this incredible moment. We're in right now where liberals are trying to pretend to be environmentalists because all the quote unquote conservative environmentalist votes are now heading towards these climate independence, which is pretty interesting. So
Lewis Hobba 1:34 it is there on edge. I'm on edge as well. Actually, I have to admit, I haven't been to this part of my bedroom in a few days. In the middle of the night, like Three nights ago. I thought I saw a cockroach over here. And so I came over like 3am with a shoe. And I whacked the cockroach and it felt like a dead cockroach would. And then it was too late in the night for me to deal with the body of a cockroach. I was like I can't kill but I can't clean up. I went
Dan Ilic 1:58 somewhere there's a mass grave of cockroaches from where you're sitting right now.
Lewis Hobba 2:02 Sydney is a mass grave of cockroaches. I am I haven't been back here for three days. And this is what's coming over to my computer. I thought I'm gonna have to deal with the dead body. That cockroach got here. And there is no dead body of a cockroach twist dude still alive somewhere in this room. And now I can start thinking about it.
Dan Ilic 2:20 Well, you are a Victorian by nature. So I assume you're not adjusting to Sydney cockroaches yet? I mean, 15 years, but you still haven't adjusted to the big Sydney cockroach.
Lewis Hobba 2:32 I don't know how people live here. Like I don't. I don't know how, like, they live here and were just renting from the cockroaches in this city. It's wild.
Dan Ilic 2:42 Well, I gotta tell you, that is an apt metaphor for all of Australia right now. We are all just renting from the cockroaches. Big shout out to everyone who turned up to our opera house show that was cancelled and show you that opera house show is going to be rescheduled for June. So hang on to your tickets. And we'll see you in June. And hello to anyone who may have been thinking go to bed thinking about going to a Judas Nielsen show at the Judith Nielsen institute that's now going to be rescheduled for May because of the whole Omicron stuff. So just a bit of housekeeping out of the way. I say we start tonight's show. What do you reckon, Louis?
Lewis Hobba 3:18 Let's do it. Let's do it.
Dan Ilic 3:19 I'm recording my irrational fear on Gadigal land in the Eora. Nation sovereignty was never said we need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 3:25 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra, and gum and section 40 of our rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 3:39 Tonight, Morrison scraps empathy training and instead spends $200,000 on basic grocery costs consultancy, and Bitcoin has halved in value sparking concerns of a crypto winter where crypto bros will be forced to live with their parents and only communicate to each other via podcasts, also known as a crypto Summit, and In a surprise move, Scott Morrison agrees with Matt McGowan's decision to keep wa borders sharp saying that anything to prevent Perth based comedians from infecting the eastern states with improv is a good thing. It's the fourth of February and this is a podcast with more side either Grace time, this is a rational fear.
Hi, welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former Supreme Court Judge Dan Ilic. And rational fear if you this is your first time listening. It's kind of like the rat tests of podcast it's it's painful as negative but ultimately, more than once a week it gets a little annoying. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. First time fear mongers Indeed, He is the Multiple Award nominated podcaster and comedian from the do go on podcast. He's got a tiny head, but it's filled with facts. It's Dave Warner. Hey,
Dave Warnake 4:55 hello. Great to be here. Good evening.
Dan Ilic 4:59 Yeah, I can't believe you guys. They're up to 103 127 episodes friend and 27. That is an incredible incredibly prolific well done,
Dave Warnake 5:06 thank you. Some would say too much, but I say never enough, we will never stop
Lewis Hobba 5:11 you. Your podcast is notable for being one of the only comedy podcasts that requires preparation. Yes, probably. Like you've actually really shot yourself in the foot.
Dave Warnake 5:22 It's a choice we regret every single week.
Dan Ilic 5:26 And she also is the co host of that podcast she's just returned from the frontlines of battling COVID-19 Her tests may be negative, but her laughter is contagious. Also from do go on is Jess Perkins.
Jess Perkins 5:39 Oh my god what a delight thank you so much for having me. Perfect timing to be on a podcast that's you know really focused on news and politics when you still have brain fog and when to say roll because that's where
Dan Ilic 5:54 she doesn't think she knows she's got brain frog. And he's the only Boomer left at Triple J.
Lewis Hobba 6:01 Richard king so have you heard that? Richard Kings I can't leave until it like I can stay there as long as he's there because I'm the second oldest man in the back of my head like a whole I write most of Elvis
Dan Ilic 6:21 Hey, I wanted to give everyone a bit of a joke keeper update now folks who are Patreon members have already seen this. They're already aware of what's going on. But I thought I'd update everyone who listens normally. So
Lewis Hobba 6:34 here's a bit of a just gonna be sorry, Dan, if I can interrupt is this for the podcast, this is gonna be a largely visual presentation.
Dan Ilic 6:40 For me allegedly. This is why you need to be a streamer like the seven people who are 21 people who are streaming right now. So you know this is
Lewis Hobba 6:48 you are listening on the podcast. Maybe just skip ahead two minutes.
Dan Ilic 6:52 Well, we do video content turn. And if you've been seeing our videos, John, John boy, our video assistant takes our stream and cuts it up and puts it out onto the internet every Friday and Saturday and Sunday. So I don't have to. It's amazing. We've got a guy who, who makes videos and puts them on the internet.
Lewis Hobba 7:07 Yeah, I'm just saying this is not what I say in front of me is that you've got a slideshow. And I just wonder if how long you like podcasts before you realise you can't do a fucking slideshow.
Dan Ilic 7:22 Here's the thing. If you want to see these pictures, go to the Patreon a rational fear.com forward slash Patreon and you can get a taste
Unknown Speaker 7:33 for it. There's a guy does it.
Dan Ilic 7:37 But if you want to see it, if you want to see it, you got to pay for it. This is what we're trying to do. I'm trying to funnel people Louis from the free thing to the thing that gets paid. So making money on the podcast, I understand and I know you work at the ABC taxpayer dollars fund your cushy dope smoking lifestyle going on watching your Kanye West in your Vera blues all around the country. And you're hot tracks and the bankers and the flippers and the flumes. But come on, mate. We're gonna try and make money on these things somehow.
Lewis Hobba 8:07 I don't care. I don't get paid for this podcast.
Dan Ilic 8:11 So anyway, I wanted to kind of give you a breath. So you may remember we did we had a billboard in Josh Frydenberg electric in in Hawthorne, and it was a billboard you weren't allowed to put any political messaging up. So we put up this billboard that says hey, it's time to buy a standing desk because you're about to lose your seat. And that got lovely billboard was kind of handled plenty of space for someone to vandalise it and they did they fertilise it with a good Frydenberg right along the bottom of it not next to Hey, empty blank space, but Frydenberg at the bottom, so,
Dave Warnake 8:43 you know they worried that he wasn't gonna get it.
Dan Ilic 8:46 Perhaps Yeah. So as a result, this got an ATC warning and it got taken down. So I tried to get another one up. So I tried to get a billboard up saying hey, go to Hawaii is a wonderful Hawaiian holiday hilarious Hawaii joke. And they said that was too political. And then I'll hit is Yeah, Hawaiian hideaway for when things get too hot at home bushfires. And they said, No, that's too political. You can't play that up. You know, I can't advertise her way that's too political. I said yep. Okay, all right. So but by the time we got around to negotiating the billboards, Bates had been gone. And so I decided to put one up in Bundaberg to attract the ire of our friend of the show who we like to make fun of on the show rather, Keith Pitt, Keith Pitt who is who's the MP for Hinkler up there. He is famous for not talking about battery power. He hates batteries. He can't even say the word battery. He goes on Sky News in this great Sky News interview from a few months back you may remember where he couldn't even say the word battery. It's fantastic. So I decided to do a billboard with a vibrator that says Hey Keith, batteries give you power in the dark. And unfortunately, the out of home company said that was too political and also to 62 Sexy so I decided to give this one a go. I said hey, outdoor company how about this one? It's a billboard. And it says Do you know batteries can give you power in the dark with a flashlight and
Dave Warnake 10:11 a flashlight. Come on.
Dan Ilic 10:13 Well hang on a second. They said well, that was too political and they wouldn't run it. And then I said, How about this is the one batteries Wow. And they said actually, you know, we'll compromise we'll put batteries Wow up in the main street of Bundaberg that's not political. But as Dave keen eyes have discovered that the flashlight was actually a flashlight
Dave Warnake 10:42 where I didn't realise I don't know
Dan Ilic 10:48 guys, we did get them over by putting a sex toy on the main street of Bundaberg critical thing about this is that this is actually above a battery shop some one of our listeners went and took a photo of it so batteries WoW is actually above the shop
Lewis Hobba 11:07 everyone's gonna think it's an ad for the battery shop
Dan Ilic 11:10 for the battery shop and like so if you are in bonded Bundaberg and you're going down Mira road, I think it's merubah Rhodia merubah Street, head on down there, check out our batteries. Wow, take a photo with a selfie and we'll we'll put it on our social so
Lewis Hobba 11:26 if you are a standing desk company and you know there's a billboard anywhere near your shop, let us know because Dan can put the Josh standing billboard above there. Do another joke that no one will understand.
Dan Ilic 11:40 We've got more billboards lighter and more visual jokes for the podcast later on. When we have Georgia steel. She's the independent candidate for Hughes will run our billboards that are ending up in her electorate will also ask her how will she deal? or rather how will Craig Kelly deal with running against a competent person. But first of all, let's have a message for this week's sponsor. In these uncertain times, it's important to be fiscally responsible our nation's on the edge of an economic cliff with very little interest in interest rates
Unknown Speaker 12:11 at a record low 0.1%.
Dan Ilic 12:15 And with the stock market sliding faster than a test cricketer into your DMS $50 billion wiped off the value of Australian shares today, there's only one place to put your money that will see guaranteed returns political donations. starting as low as $25,000 you can be guaranteed enormous returns such as $21 million of subsidies and grants for your fossil fuel projects. That's the return of 840% Imagine how many politicians you could buy off with that kind of fuck you can ask your financial advisor if political donations are right for you. Political Donations, it's as safe as houses owned by parliamentarians in Canberra. Jason says apply check the PTS for details Oh, actually there is no PDS just a handshake. So you know, whatever. No rules. This week's first fear when the group chat goes public, it seems that the only gigs that are not cancelled other ones that should be the National Press Club this week. Prime Minister Scott Morrison put on his first ever solo show in over a year the critics gave it zero stars after being pummelling from journalists on questions around accountability and transparency and the price of bread. It was a bombshell text message sent years ago that made the headlines. And now it was brought to light by the Union made of Christian Porter and channel 10s. Most senior litigant, Peter van Onselen he read out the text from a put allegedly from premier Gladys Berejiklian and a senior woman minister who said that Scott Morrison was a psycho and a horrible, horrible man. Now, if Peter van Onselen was going to be rude to the Prime Minister's face Why even go in the first place?
Unknown Speaker 13:59 Well, you know, I've maybe there's some bravery to it for you know, speaking to someone face to face. I don't know I I love this so much. Because more and more. I'm starting to Yeah, be a bit more mindful about what I'm texting to people. Because of screenshots. I'm just terrified of screenshots. I can't even say that I'd be you know, saying anything particularly bad but you just never know.
Lewis Hobba 14:25 If I ever let if I leaked the our text message thread between you and a Perko. It would just be you asking me every week are you my best friend?
Jess Perkins 14:37 I'll get you Monday. And when I do you better believe I'm screenshotting that
Dan Ilic 14:43 it really goes against the first rule of politics, which is never ever put anything into writing ever. Like why why would you even why would you
Lewis Hobba 14:50 do that? Why didn't they like put it on the like telegram you know, the one that disappears?
Dan Ilic 14:57 Oh, yeah, tell it that one way Snapchat a jello. Yeah. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 15:00 that's right, then you can put it with a little dick pic. It's gone? Well,
Dan Ilic 15:04 I mean, the benefit of a telegram of an actual physical tell around is that you have to say stop every few words. So it'll be like, Scott Morrison is horrible, horrible Stop, man stop horrible. So you would kind of have that mix that mix up, you wouldn't actually
Lewis Hobba 15:18 knock yourself out. Like, he's a complete psycho stop. Maybe I should.
Dan Ilic 15:27 Now, these texts were actually sent years ago, like, you know, up to two years ago, some people suggesting this is because PVOH, who is now like a litigant in a court case, due to a bully bullying case taken against him at Channel 10 is throwing a bit of a dead cat on himself to deflect attention from himself and put it back on the Prime Minister. Do you think this was a good strategy to deflect attention from himself?
Unknown Speaker 15:48 I think is well, he was saying on radio that it's like, there was a question of why now. And he was sort of like, oh, you know, these things take time to verify. And, you know, it's not that it's convenient. But it is it's it took took some time for to get to me and then for me to verify. So you know, nothing's us.
Dan Ilic 16:07 Yeah, no, it's it's really pretty weird timing that he's done this at this time. It does
Lewis Hobba 16:12 also feel though, like I do sometimes think that journalists have a sense of the prevailing winds. You know, and I do think that, you know, two years ago, if you just said stood in front of Scott Morrison and gone, everyone saying your complete psycho, that story might not have like, hit the way it does right now. It was just like the same way the opinion polls came out that showed his unprepared Prime Minister writing was way up. That he was if the election was tomorrow, he would lose. I feel like there is a bit of a sense of like the people who maybe a year ago, were I'm not saying giving him an easy run, but maybe not necessarily looking for the cracks. And now looking for those cracks and trying to stick a little crowbar in
Dave Warnake 16:56 as in like the people on his team from the coalition or from No, I
Lewis Hobba 16:59 just I mean, I'm not saying Peter van onsens on his team. But I may just I do think that you do get a sense I think sometimes with a variety of politicians over the years, that when a politician starts to wane in popularity when they start to feel a little less like Teflon. People do start to get kicked the bird in these sort of National Press Club chats.
Dan Ilic 17:22 Louis, can I just say that was a very non political answer. That was very good if you considered running for politics. That was that was very good not naming any names. Nothing very specific at all, could generalise hand wavy That was excellent.
Lewis Hobba 17:35 Thank you so much. I should have done my hand like that I should have done.
Dan Ilic 17:40 Obama thumbs.
Lewis Hobba 17:41 I'm not saying anyone's on anyone's team. Just saying it seems like there are fewer people on his team now than they used to be. If you got a theory about who might be the texting minister
Unknown Speaker 17:53 was Colonel Mustard in the library with a smartphone, a rational fear. Thank you for that.
Dan Ilic 18:00 This week second fear Elon Musk, a rich guy and space coward has been jumping into the DMS of teenagers making demands Jack Sweeney and 19 year old college student build a twitter bot that tracks and publishes the location of Elon Musk's private jet Nim mask isn't too happy about this. He jumped in the kids dams and asked and offered him $5,000 To shut it down. Jack demanded 50,000 and a Tesla and then Elon back down and then blocked him. Now Dave should a lot of paid out this kid. Well, I
Dave Warnake 18:31 mean, five grand from Elon Musk, the world's richest or second richest person is like that's like five cents from an average person is that's like a normal person offering to not spit on you. You're not going to take that. You want more? You're gonna go 50 grand. That honestly. That's still a drop in the ocean from ask if he wants it. If he doesn't want us to know that he's travelled 240,000 kilometres on his private plane. He should pay up.
Dan Ilic 18:57 Yeah, that that whole trip probably cost him $50,000 It is my Jack was really kind he's like, you know, I'm I'm a college student just kind of, you know, I just need 50,000 pair of my college debt and a Tesla. Come on, do you can give that to me. I think it's a great idea. It's it's such a lowball offer as well.
Lewis Hobba 19:14 I'm sort of on the other side of this. I kind of feel like people What he's basically done is gone. I'm stalking a person and I'm making sure everyone else can stalk him too. But and then before the trials even gone is that he's got the character defence out he's like, I'm just a uni student. I'm just looking for this. Like this is still extortion. Like you are epic thing you're doing. This is like I don't know if anyone has ever been stalked, but it's not a lot of fun. And you'll notice
Dan Ilic 19:42 are you saying this because you just put a down payment on a Gulfstream Is this done you
Lewis Hobba 19:49 don't follow up I've upgraded from scooter to Gulfstream. All of the normal cars but I genuinely do believe and I say this so rarely Am I Elon Musk's I don't.
Dave Warnake 20:02 I'm all for this. It's like a prison style electronic GPS monitor for billionaires, which I think personally they should all have for their crimes committed against society. Should all happen, we should know where they are at all time. And I will say that it is I think it's publicly available data that this kid's just smart enough to use bots, which sort of put it all together and make a neat Twitter account about it's not like he's hacking anything. It's all out. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 20:28 It's just putting it this is making the public publicly available data more public. Yeah, putting it into a
Jess Perkins 20:37 nice dinner for other people as well as any like, not just Elon Musk, like He's really He's covering his bases because if they all fork up, you know, between 550 grand, he's gonna be fine.
Dan Ilic 20:48 There Bill Gates, a Drake. Apparently, Drake has got a really awesome jet like it's a 767 which can hold
Lewis Hobba 20:55 you saying that we the tone of surprise, right? Like, you guys know that? Right? Because a private jet is a crazy person in the world. I would have had a private jet.
Dan Ilic 21:06 Nobody's like it's so expensive.
Dave Warnake 21:10 Seats over 200 people it's
Dan Ilic 21:13 Yeah, but like I can understand, I can understand like Elon Musk having a private jet. But Drake is like a performing artist, like you know that
Lewis Hobba 21:21 Drake has has like had more time in the numbers like as a number one artist than the Beatles, and they had to split it four ways. He's one guy.
Dan Ilic 21:30 I know what things are worth you know, we're the number one comedy podcast in Australia and I'm begging people join the Patreon
Lewis Hobba 21:38 where the Drake of Australian podcasting he has some shit going on that we did not want to be associated with.
Dan Ilic 21:48 Right Good. Excellent. Oh, great. Drake is cancelled but he's got a private jet swings and roundabouts. If you saw Elon Musk flying into Australia, what would you do?
Dave Warnake 21:58 Obviously, run to the airport with a guy, you know how
Unknown Speaker 22:07 I love you a lot.
Dave Warnake 22:08 Let's say give me five grand and I won't take a selfie with you and see what
Lewis Hobba 22:13 when you're in the grace a couple of years ago, and Elon Musk was there? No. And yeah, it was while he was building the battery at a in South Australia. So he was there with his at the time, girlfriend Amber Heard. And I was there with Australian of the deal. And Olcott has the name dropping on this. I was having a I was having a beer with Dylan. And we looked over and he's like, over my over my shoulder is Elon Musk. I look over I'm like, fuck, man. It's Elon musk and amber hurt. And I'm like, don't move. I'm gonna get a photo. And before I can even get my phone out deal and all God has done on one ad and gone straight to Elon Musk and he's having a chat with a coffee. Is that still an Orca? Yeah. And so I I'm like, Oh, do it. Oh, God, Concetta Elon Musk. I guess I'll just take quick snap of deal and chatting to Elon, and then I can send it to deal on LIDAR. And I left my phone out. And as soon as I left my phone up his security pointed like a laser at my phone, so that my phone flashed like my phone wouldn't take the photo because it would just say it was just a white flash. And then the bouncer he's like, security guy looked at me and gave me this like smile and a shake of the head. And I put the phone down and I like gave him a little imaginary tip of the cap. And I think well.
Dave Warnake 23:32 It sounds like you're, I was like some men in black style technology. Let's come up and just watch your memory of everything.
Lewis Hobba 23:39 Totally. I'd forgotten about it until right then.
Unknown Speaker 23:43 Today, Australians will come together in every corner of our nation across the globe to reflect, respect, and celebrate. I'd like to thank the National Australia Council's partners. Chevron.
Voice Over 23:57 Your fear isn't rational.
Dan Ilic 23:59 This week's third fear Peter Dutton, once your face, attender has appeared on a government website to build a giant facial recognition database, it's got a catchy name, everyone can remember the national Driver Licence facial rescue recognition solution or endler. For for short. First, I think it needs a catchy name I've got I've got one needs a name that I think people can trust. I think people would really love Robo face. I think you know, it'd be great the database could. She's meant to provide secure National Real Time and online services through facial recognition matches. So you know, like if settling send you a robo debt, you just show your face to a robo face and Robo face talks to Robo debt. And it says you're the wrong person. And then Robo debt apologises for the robo snafu and you don't go to Robo. Here's the thing though the laws that allow such a service haven't actually been passed yet. So technically, the thing if it gets built is illegal. fear mongers, the Human Rights Commissioner Ed centre is pretty worried about This does Robo face worry you Louis.
Lewis Hobba 25:03 Well, I mean how could it What could possibly go wrong Dan? I mean I love how often is the Human Rights Commissioner worried in this country you know? I know what it's like to wake up every day anxious and my life is not his life you know what I mean? Like you just
Dan Ilic 25:22 know the Lewis you must be You must be so scared of Tony Martin robbing a bank and you're getting
Lewis Hobba 25:30 i I'm content, I'm worried about it every day, every day it takes Tony Martin I'm just like, how's the finances? Do you have so much to live for? I just think that the amount of times we completely ignore human rights in this country at the moment like it's got to a point like human rights. It's something we're interested in, but we're not so much caring about it.
Dan Ilic 25:54 Dave and Jesse worried about this? Yeah,
Dave Warnake 25:56 I'm not surprised to hear that Peter Dutton is after literally anyone else's face in this country I'll take it I'll take anyone any of them
Lewis Hobba 26:07 next it's gonna be Robo here he's just like just looking for photos I'm just trying out a few new looks on
Dan Ilic 26:18 God well there's a bit as Mr. Potato Head he can you know interchange his facts I think that's kind of his the next transition of the spot right.
Jess Perkins 26:27 All right, then take it even further. And like you know, CCTV, facial recognition. I love the idea of me being tracked at all.
Lewis Hobba 26:38 And just because you like attention
Jess Perkins 26:41 it's because I fear being kidnapped. Why would I be a target of that? Not sure. I don't have wealthy parents. I've got no money of my own. Nobody would miss me.
Dan Ilic 26:54 It's interesting. A few states have already bought into this and they're already kind of adding the driver's licence photos to the database the Queensland has mania and I think Victoria have done that already. Does this mean like people are going to be turning up to like Vic Roads in finding disguises now like to make sure the government has a wacky picture of them they won't be disguised as if they're
Lewis Hobba 27:13 only using driver's licence photos they'll only be able to track you in the street if you're not smiling
Dan Ilic 27:20 Yeah, it's bad news for Grace time.
Yeah, oh, I mean, I look pretty different to the photo I took in like 2005 So I like the idea that there's
Unknown Speaker 27:35 no
Dan Ilic 27:42 idea there's a skinny Jon Lovitz getting arrested for my bad crime.
Unknown Speaker 27:49 The Prime Minister's Office is accused of plotting to keep documents from its controversial carpark scheme as secret.
Unknown Speaker 27:56 The Auditor General found the government pushed projects into seats the coalition needed to win at the last election, they seize
Unknown Speaker 28:03 a rational view.
Dan Ilic 28:06 Joining us now is a woman who is determined to take the seat of us from well known intellect Craig Kelly, but the question is, how will she proved that she has the chops to do so? Please welcome Georgia Steele. Welcome, Georgia. Thanks, Dan.
Georgia Steele 28:19 Thanks for having me.
Dan Ilic 28:20 It's really great to have you quite a privilege now first of all, Georgia, many people would know you from your 2018 appearance and ITV is love Ireland. How has your audience in reality TV prepared you Oh, sorry. I'm reading the wrong bio here. That's a different George's deal. Is yours. Okay, here it is. Oh, yes, he go. Sutherland local corporate litigator? What makes you think you have the diligence and competence to be the member of us over a failed furniture salesman and a conspiracy theorist?
Georgia Steele 28:47 Well, the introduction says it all doesn't it Dan. Local and a corporate litigator go any further than
Lewis Hobba 28:56 someone who doesn't live in us and isn't in Sydney from Sydney originally. How did Craig like how did how, you know what I mean? Like, this
Dan Ilic 29:06 is huge. To me. Sound is a pretty feels like a pretty middle class. Yeah. Wealthy southern people are educated. They're like, first of all, how? How did he even get in like, and how is he perceived now?
Georgia Steele 29:18 Well, Craig Kelly was a captain's pick, at least for the last two elections. He has actually been voted in by the people of us four times, and is currently serving his 12th year in Parliament. But for the last couple of times, and particularly the last election, Scott Morrison intubate and saved Craig Kelly as the liberal party's pre selected candidate. So that's the reason that he got elected again last time, unfortunately, with a swing towards so that was when I started thinking, all right, well, I did not expect that to happen. And something different has to happen next time.
Dan Ilic 29:56 So what was the catalyst for you? Was there a moment you went? I can't have No, this guy representing me on the federal stage, like what was the thing that was one if you can, yeah, very genuine, we ran out of time,
Georgia Steele 30:08 I couldn't possibly break it down to one. I was just appalled, obviously, that he was my representative, appalled and embarrassed. And so I started volunteering for some of the local political community groups. And then at the same time, became increasingly desperate about what was not happening happening on the climate action front, in our country, and so forth. You know what? I could give this a red hot Rahzel. Watching those politicians up there and thinking, I think that me and a few of my friends can probably have a crack at this. So decided to.
Dave Warnake 30:40 So did you. Do you want to be a politician? Or are you just happy to get rid of Craig once he's gone? Job done? Yeah,
Georgia Steele 30:47 that's a good question. Dave. No one's actually asked me that. I don't particularly want to be a politician. It just got to a point where it was so dire.
Dan Ilic 30:57 I'm so glad you said that. Because you know, this, that clip is going to be circulating all around the way. People will go. Oh, that she said it on some podcast and people come on the podcast, the rest of the story.
Georgia Steele 31:11 Yeah. When I've been in the House of Representatives for 25 years. See, she's a liar.
Lewis Hobba 31:17 I want to be a politician normally, that's where the Nationals end up. Do you ever consider becoming a national?
Unknown Speaker 31:22 Yeah, I'll just go straight. No for that. Louis.
Dan Ilic 31:27 I noticed you launched your your crowdfunding kind of campaign this week? It sounds very well polished. Have you had any, like major donors like from Chevron, or shell or chip in, you know, to kind of swing your vote?
Georgia Steele 31:41 No, no, can't say that. I have. We're running a community campaign community donations. And, you know, Craig, Kelly's an asset in that regard. So we're not doing too badly on the fundraising front?
Dan Ilic 31:54 How are you going in the street with folks and like face to face? Like, what are folks telling you about the feeling of the electorate? And do you come across any liberal fans who are like, you know, I'm not really into Craig. But I am a diehard liberal.
Georgia Steele 32:11 Yeah, loads, loads, I speak to, you know, obviously, he uses a safe liberal seat. It's been a safe liberal seat for a long time. They have won on first preferences for the last, you know, several elections. And so there are a lot of diehard rusted on liberal voters here. A lot of them tell me that they can't put up with Craig Kelly any longer, but actually, more of them tell me that they're just overall fed up with the way Government's going at the moment with the robots and the scandals and you know, the lack of integrity. That's the number one issue with the people that I talk to on the street. I think everyone except that, you know, Craig Kelly, is who he is. And we need to move on from that. But there's broader issues at play now. And people are just upset generally with the government and the Liberal Party in particular.
Lewis Hobba 32:58 I mean, if it is a sort of safe liberal seat, I imagine there must be some policies you have that are crossing over in that area. What do you think are like the main issues in your area, apart from getting rid of Craig Kelly, you're hoping to bring forward here?
Georgia Steele 33:14 Well, as I said, Before, I decided to run because I wanted to get action on climate change that that is my number one aim in doing what I'm doing. We live in a beautiful electrode actually used takes in the Royal National Park and a number of river systems and beaches. And so I think the people here actually want to maintain their beautiful surroundings and their lifestyle. But also, back to integrity. I can't believe what the federal government has been getting away with over the last few years. I don't think many of us can. I mean, even to the point where Craig Kelly got up to his worst shenanigans last year, and you know, really got a tiny little slap on the wrist and go over there and sit back down. You'll be right.
Dan Ilic 33:56 That's right. When you got seven guests in for a dressing down in this in the Prime Minister's only,
Unknown Speaker 34:02 exactly a dressing down and then it was only a few months later that he just decided to leave himself. So, you know, every day we use some scandal that's coming out of the federal government, and they're supposed to be representing all of us and they're supposed to be serving us. And I think that's the concept that we really lost in federal politics, that we're serving the public that there's no you know, personal gain to be had here.
Dan Ilic 34:27 We're seeing quite the shift or the pivot, if you like, in the attitude to climate particularly in seats that are under threat from climate independence. Like Tim Wilson, Tim Wilson, and Goldstein is all of a sudden this crazy environmentalist who is going around to all the renewable businesses in his electorate telling everybody what a great job solar panels are doing and and he's really big on batteries and he's eating kombucha that is that is like carbon neutral. And it's so fascinating because for years he's been putting of the IPA where he is systematically tried to destroy every bit of carbon abatement or, or emissions policy and burn it all to the ground. And you see something very similar happening in Wentworth with Dave Sharma, Dave Sharma handing out flyers that unfortunately had a epic typo. But he wouldn't understand what the typo meant, had a typo that said, Net Zero climate action. That was the title of the fly, which is amazing. So you have all these, like, all of a sudden, you've got these liberals who aren't well versed in climate trying to be climate heroes. That's not happening in your electorate for a pretty good reason, isn't it? Because there is no one in the liberal party who's standing up to you yet? What's happening in the Liberal Party? What Why are they taking their time to get someone to go against you?
Georgia Steele 35:51 I think the answer to that is because they're a complete shambles. They're trying to find a candidate that Scott Morrison can conveniently parachute into Hughes, like they've done over the last couple of elections with Craig Kelly. I'm currently running against a Liberal Party empty chair. And, you know, that's, that's fine by me. I like
Dan Ilic 36:25 the Liberal Party by that chair from Craig Kelly's old shop.
Georgia Steele 36:31 Yeah, so it's Craig Kelly in an empty chair in the Liberal Party. Right. That's, that's what I'm up against in queues. So it's good. It's gonna be an interesting time. But yeah, the Liberal Party is taking us for granted and ignored us for a very long time. It's no surprise that they haven't bothered pre selecting anyone yet.
Dan Ilic 36:46 I mean, I kind of you're the wrong person answers. But do you think UAP has any kind of traction at all in here? It's like, do you think the United Australia party? You know, the Clive Palmer party? The Craig Kelly, Polly, is there an audience for that message in use at all?
Unknown Speaker 37:03 No, I think I'm the perfect person to ask about that actually. started probably about 2.4% of the vote in queues in the 2019 election. And Craig Kelly,
Lewis Hobba 37:13 the chair get,
Unknown Speaker 37:16 you know, closer, closer to 50. And he was roundly disliked before he left the Liberal Party. And now he's terrorising people all over the country with his text messages and billboards and, and advertising in every traditional media he can find. So
Dave Warnake 37:35 can I ask how many contacts you have in your phone? And have you messaged them all yet?
Unknown Speaker 37:42 A lot? And yes. Oh, my free contacts, you know, phone numbers that I didn't have to buy.
Lewis Hobba 37:56 I mean, they are spending a lot of money, though. Is that something that worries you? We'll be talking about the amount of political advertising that, you know, Australia party had done. Just just on the podcast the other week, and it's, you know, what's the 60 million? 60 million? Yeah, yeah, compared to, you know, other major party Labour Party had spent whatever, 500,000 or something comparatively, it was nothing.
Dan Ilic 38:17 Oh, yeah. Then that was on YouTube, they spent $5 million on YouTube and the Labour Party have spent like $37,000 or something? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 38:23 Well, I mean, we all know that Clive Palmer spent $84 million to hand the 2019 election back to the Liberal Party, and in spending that amount of money did not win a single seat. So we can fully expect that to happen again. Where his strategy will ultimately land is unclear. But in answer to your question, no, I'm not worried about it. I mean, I can't possibly compete with that kind of money. But what I don't have in terms of money on the ground I have in people on the ground, and I'm in my electorate, I'm working with my community, and they're the ones who are going to vote. Come.
Lewis Hobba 39:02 Check. We've actually got a million dollar donation. Very good. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 39:11 fine. Let's get it in there. Full disclosure, and then I'll get into parliament, I'll make sure that no one can donate $60 million to anyone.
Dan Ilic 39:20 Well, that rolls me out. Well, I was 60 million lying around.
Lewis Hobba 39:26 Being independent, is has historically been quite tough, not impossible, but tough. Do you think that there's been more of a conversation around it certainly in the media, people zali Steggall have sort of changed the narrative around that as well as others. But if you found that people are like, potentially, I guess you don't necessarily have a yardstick to measure it against but more receptive to the idea of an independent now and potentially they might have been previously.
Unknown Speaker 39:50 Yeah, I do. I'm finding people to be very receptive to the idea of an independent. The seat of Hughes has never been held by an independent and so it's a big change. To ask the people around you to vote for an independent, I think they voted 92% of the vote at the last election for one of the two or three major parties. But I think that people like zali Steggall and Helen Haynes MP have really opened people's eyes to the power that independence can have in Parliament, and open people's eyes to the ways in which the two party system is failing us. And people are starting to really get to the point where they're going to be willing to try something different. Because if we keep doing what we've always done, we'll get the same result.
Dan Ilic 40:34 This is an interesting question from Kieran Castellina. On YouTube, what about preferences, how you be, how you kind of dish out preferences and your how to votes and things like that?
Unknown Speaker 40:43 That is the number one question that I get asked from everywhere from people that I meet on the street on social media, even to the point that today I put up an FAQ list on my website so that people can check it out. I will not be suggesting preferences on my how to vote card preferences do not belong to candidates, they belong to voters. And this is a misconception that I'm really really keen to clear up. Preferences are the voters superpower. And all they need to do is spend a very small amount of time once every three years, check out the candidates in their seat, check out their platforms, check out their qualifications and vote. I will of course be asking people to vote one Georgia steel, but then I will say Please rank the remaining candidates in order of your preference. That is what preferences are.
Dan Ilic 41:35 I will just chime in here. If you want to know more about preferences, go to the irrational fear email list irrational fear.substack.com. Drop us your email and check out the first column from Kara Schlegel. From this week. She's written a great explainer on preferences and how they work. And preferences are pretty important. So make sure you check out that article from Kara Schlegel Georgia thank you so much. I'll have you know that you know while we were not you know going to donate to your campaign. We have done some joke keeper billboards in your electorate, and your neighbouring electric car could Can we just run them by you and see what you think I'd love to I'd love to know how you you know how you rank these. First of all, is this one. Let's put this one up here. This is it. Hawaiian hideaway. So when things get too hot at home, bushfire sound now on how would you feel about that one?
Unknown Speaker 42:24 Yes, I like it. I like it and subtle. Shade. Just very delicately down. I like what you've done.
Dan Ilic 42:30 What about this one? This is good to visit the old growth stumps of Tasmania. It's got a little upturned wombat there and mom and daughter on a hike through the hog crest dumps in Tasmania.
Unknown Speaker 42:43 That's one of the ones that you really don't want to laugh at but can't help yourself. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 42:48 maybe I should point out it was done by a Tasmanian artist. So you know, we're, we're okay there. Here we go. What about this one here? This is another one like kind of a jobs one, you know, a jobs for the future. It's got a picture of a woman a little girl and a graduation outfit. It says in 2035 Cassie will be qualified to put former politicians in jail for historical climate crimes. Climate prosecutor is one of 1 million new jobs in one main Australian jobs in a fossil free future. What do you think of this one?
Unknown Speaker 43:15 Bring it on. That's the short 13 years away totally fake Happy Taking it to them. I'm in favour
Dan Ilic 43:24 and finally in anger Dean in Hughes we've got this one going up.
Unknown Speaker 43:30 And immediately
Dan Ilic 43:33 Welcome Welcome to anger in the place where Scott Morrison last did anything well look you're
Unknown Speaker 43:43 just opened this week a campaign office in anger doing across the road from McDonald's. You know, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna be making anger doing great again.
Dan Ilic 43:55 Oh, could you at least me and getting clean again? That would be great.
Unknown Speaker 43:59 I'll give it a give it a shot. Georgia steel.
Dan Ilic 44:02 Thank you so much for joining us on irrational fear.
Unknown Speaker 44:04 Thanks, Dan. Thanks for having me.
Dan Ilic 44:06 Let's see if the show big thank you to all of our guests. Georgia steel. Just Perkins Dave Warner key Jason. Dave, what would you like to plug?
Dave Warnake 44:13 I think we should plug our podcast yes do go on, which is a history based comedy programme where for the last six years, we've taken it in turns to research a topic, bring it back to the others and try and make jokes about it.
Unknown Speaker 44:26 Sometimes it's really well researched, sometimes pretty poorly. But I'm always I always have a good laugh.
Dan Ilic 44:33 It's very good. It's very enjoyable. Louis, would you like to plug anything?
Lewis Hobba 44:36 Well, I mean, since I've got Jess Perkins here not to start a turf war and not to create a staking eating its own tail kind of inception situation where we're at a dream within a dream. But Jess Perkins and I also do a podcast as well as Dan and I doing this podcast.
Dan Ilic 44:52 What it simply I just
Lewis Hobba 44:55 I didn't want you to feel I didn't want you to hear about it like
Dan Ilic 44:59 you He did that podcast.
Unknown Speaker 45:02 Who do you think the jest is?
Dan Ilic 45:04 She's just she really listened to podcast.
Unknown Speaker 45:11 You should. It's great.
Lewis Hobba 45:13 Where Michael Hague, myself and Jess Perkins here the best stories around the country on a topic. The topic this week was boats. It's coming out on Monday and I don't feel I feel like I can't tell you the stories in front of a person who's campaigning for Parliament because I don't want to. I don't want you to think you'd be like this Ga
Unknown Speaker 45:32 Ga CEO. What would you like to plug just vote one GA steel? come election day,
Dan Ilic 45:36 naturally. Hey, a big thank you to all of our Patreon members who signed up we've had a huge sign up over the last two weeks. I'm going to read them all out. So just hang in there. Jesse lapide Renee Ridgeway Chris Harris Pascoe, Sash de Souza, si 316801 For Emily are James Russell. Joe Wade, Brooke, Santa Matt best Zuzia Abdul Youssef. Alex Hi dakak Diane rial Dominic night from the chaser has signed up Michael Solomon Clyde, Joe still it still in LA pulis and Verona Miller X. Dana Van Dyck, Megan, Chela Collins Sky Bar, Yan yay, see Peter, and Trudeau Wow, that is so many people. Thank you for signing up to irrational fear. And you can do that too. If you want to see us continue on with this podcast. Please go to rational fear.com Or go to Patreon Ford slash irrational fear big thank you to everyone who has tuned in for the stream tonight. And that's about it. Also big thanks to roadmaps versus Foundation, and everyone who listens. So thanks, everyone. We'll see you next week. There's always something to be scared of by
Lewis Hobba 46:42 now, let's all do it in harmony. Bye.
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birther foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Hello Lewis. How are you?
Lewis Hobba 0:06 Daniel on well how the hell are you?
Dan Ilic 0:09 I'm really I'm really good. I'm feeling good feeling. I'm feeling tired but I'm good otherwise I'm tired because bit a personal News. Today I mailed the last ever joke keeper billboards sticker pack out a 480 sticker packs have been mailed out to people who paid 100 bucks to get them. But as a result, Louis I've actually got quite a few stickers left over I thought I under ordered so I did an extra order and then I ended up with about about 100 More stickers per sticker that I actually ordered. So if you want a pack of these $150 valued sticker packs hang around to the end of the podcast and I'll tell you how to get them at a massive discount. Wow Lewis Do you have good olive? I haven't even sent you these?
Lewis Hobba 0:58 No, I've got one of I got I've got these irrational fear QR code that's not in functioning anymore, obviously. But um, all QR codes. Now if you
Dan Ilic 1:10 if you if you scan that actually exports your entire browser data to Twitter. Everyone could say everything you've ever downloaded. It's great. Oh, great. The billboard stuff is continuing. I've spent the last bit of money on some billboards around Cooke which is Scott Morrison seat. So I've got a few bit of artwork going I'm going to show you some of the artwork now this is a classic. Let's have a look here is Hawaiian hideaway for when things get too hot at home bushfire sale now one that's going up, and then we've got this one, visit the Old Grove stumps of Tasmania just a beautiful bit of artwork in a classic 1960s US national parks kind of studied that. That's beautiful. Her name is Tanya she's from Tasmania, Tasmania artist, she actually did a cracking job on this like so good. Like it's beautiful. Someone gave a huge donation to joke keeper and they wanted one particularly around the jobs of the future. So I've designed this one to go up which is in 2035, Cassie will be qualified to put former politicians in jail for historical climate crimes. And it's got this picture of this cute little girl in a graduation outfit. And it says climate prosecutor is one of the 1 million new Australian jobs for the fossil fuel free future.
Lewis Hobba 2:27 Yeah, well she looks about six which is probably is Scott Morrison's kind of child slavery plans stay on track. You could just hop straight into the court right now.
Dan Ilic 2:38 And we're gonna be talking a little bit about that a little later on right now. I'm recording my end of irrational feet on Gadigal land in the urination sovereignty is never seated, we need a treaty. Let's stop the show.
Unknown Speaker 2:48 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra, fed gum and section 40 of our rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 3:01 Tonight Victoria Health Corps a code brown on Scott Morrison's press conferences, and the Prime Minister asked the states to let kids drive forklifts in order to give George Christiansen something to do and just wait and turns out to be an even bigger shift and Justice League. It's the 21st of January 2022. And there's a high pressure system of breakfast television asking should we change the date of Australia Day that could last all week? This is a rational. Welcome to rational fear. I'm your host former chairman of Credit Suisse, Dan Ilic. And this is a podcast that vaccinates your brain once a week to make you impervious to scary news stories for at least seven days. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. First, did you know that Australian TV comedy shows have a diversity problem? 90% of the head writers are straight white men and 90% of those are James Colley from 81% of comedy shows that are on TV. It's James Colley.
James Colley 4:08 Oh, hello, Dan. I'll always be from a rational fear. This is why I have made a push to be the official prodigal son of a Russian
Dan Ilic 4:16 mafia, as you've got it in the name tonight. Thank you, James. Appreciate that. And when she's not being an aria Award winning musical comedian, she's busy being an aria award winning data point on Facebook. It's the ARIA award winning Brian econyl.
Bridie Connell 4:32 Thank you for using my full title.
Dan Ilic 4:36 Now you're there's a little bit of a delay, but I assume that's because you're beaming to us from New Zealand the place where there is no COVID where you can go to the shops and you know see your friends and put on comedy shows
Bridie Connell 4:47 and fortunately no COVID but also no friends. Real real tough spot that I've been just kidding. I'm actually very popular. So I've done but
Lewis Hobba 4:58 how long have you been there? I feel like you Your accents gotten stronger since I saw you last.
Bridie Connell 5:02 As soon as I have like one conversation with my dad, it comes back fairly quickly today. And I have
Dan Ilic 5:08 to say, I've been listening to your podcast with James Colley and there was the listening back to her like, hang on a second, right econyl All of a sudden sounds like she's throwing music.
Bridie Connell 5:21 Not sure identity is finally been revealed.
James Colley 5:24 We're pushing for a lot of international funding.
Lewis Hobba 5:29 And code switching. It's very impressive, very much.
Dan Ilic 5:33 And it's a man so tall that HR is required to hire a forklift to have a face to face conversation with him. It's Louis harbor.
Lewis Hobba 5:40 Yes, then I can finally get those six year olds on the end of a fork and raise them up to my level.
Dan Ilic 5:46 Here's a message from this week's sponsor.
Unknown Speaker 5:50 Hey, Veronica milsim here to remind you that you've only got two days left to submit your favorite years for the hottest 100 Now with over 2000 years to choose from, we want to know which year you think will come out on top as the hottest year ever.
Unknown Speaker 6:06 I thought 1989 was pretty high. No, no,
Unknown Speaker 6:09 it's not when you will asked hot the temperature of Earth. Oh, god, it's got to be 2007. That's the year I was born and my mom was in labor for like four hours. And that was hot. Yeah. Okay. I can understand from a friction perspective. But once again, we're talking about the earth's temperature.
Unknown Speaker 6:26 And you know, the hottest year was actually 1890 and the Earth's been getting colder every year.
Unknown Speaker 6:32 I'm sorry. Is this Senator Malcolm Roberts.
Dan Ilic 6:35 No, it's an attempt round come. They finally
Unknown Speaker 6:41 get ready for the most predictable countdown. Most of the world is ignoring the hottest 100 years ever. Spoiler alert. It was last year. It's always the last year.
Dan Ilic 6:57 Always good to have friends of the show on Veronica Milson that are you excited, Louis? So how does 100 week for you? I mean, it's like Christmas for Triple J presenters.
Lewis Hobba 7:06 It is it's really easy. Obviously. It's always nice for Christmas not to be riddled with disease. Usually the most fun part of the hardest 100 people having parties and really the only parties people having our people who have triple Vax trying to deliberately get COVID that they have the extra immunity. So it is a bit of a somber affair. But you know, I'm sure they'll still be plenty of people who listen to those 100 who will be any absolutely shit faced with 1000 people and it will make me very nervous.
Dan Ilic 7:36 Yeah, get shit faced on Twitch. That's the That's the name of the game. This week's first year on Thursday, Scott Morrison which should be pointed out despite everything he's still Prime Minister of Australia floated the idea that 16 year old children should be able to operate forklifts as a way to solve some of the supply chain problems that Australia is facing due to adults being sick from COVID-19 But no sooner had Scott Morrison raised the idea by the afternoon it was lowered again by some adults in the national cabinet fear mongers Is this a good idea letting 16 year olds drive something that according to the union's causes one in six workplace deaths Bridey well
Bridie Connell 8:15 look it was not the news I was expecting today like I knew that the Liberal Party is big on like old fashioned conservative values I just didn't know that like child labor was one of them. I kind of feel excited for them because if this is a value like with the current climate the way it is there's not a lot of chimneys and therefore not a lot of chimney sweep. So I'm like this is cute. Maybe this will lead to our first like little Mary Poppins moment. We can have an adorable chorus line of like, kids on forklifts. I think the choreographic opportunities with this news a huge so I'm for it the premiere
Dan Ilic 8:52 that would be most up for surely be dominant paradigm and he's got seven forklift drivers ready to go.
Bridie Connell 8:58 A whole fleet
James Colley 9:01 is exactly how Tiny Tim got his crutch to so we've wet
Lewis Hobba 9:08 Yeah, this does feel like a bunch of schools are gonna be really excitedly doing modern adaptations of Oliver.
James Colley 9:18 I actually really like this plate. I know this is controversial, but I really like this for two reasons. One of which is I have an eight week old and babies are expensive. So get a job honestly $100 A big W two days. You know how hard it is to spend you know how many, like 100 shirts made by other children I would have to buy to make up $100 A big W on my own.
Dan Ilic 9:41 I was gonna say if you're buying $100 worth of merch you need a forklift to get that $100 worth of stuff to the car.
James Colley 9:48 We are disgusting, get a job Stop, stop living off my dime. And also more importantly, because I have an eight year old I've been stuck inside for about eight weeks and I need more tick tock content. So you Give every 16 year old a forklift. Let's get this thing
Lewis Hobba 10:03 humming. Like I have a three year old nephew and he loves trucks. Like he would be so keen for this. If I told him that he could drive a forklift, he would do it for free. He can't technically hold a fork yet, but I reckon he's about ready.
Bridie Connell 10:18 This is what I'm worried about, Louis, because three year olds love trucks, but it makes this whole policy makes me think that they came up with it. The government while playing with Tonka Trucks, like Fine, let's do this, which would explain why they like coal mining so much, but I'm like, Sure, no, no, let's not be playing with Tonka Trucks, let's be consulting with experts and really official documents, planes.
Lewis Hobba 10:43 The next plan is gonna be like, we're gonna build a bunch of comedic cowpox, and we've found this some really good infrastructure material, it's called Lego. And we're gonna really go
James Colley 10:54 It's remarkable to me that what we've learned over the last couple of years is that the global supply chain can be stopped by a boat that gets very stuck when it's absolutely should not be stuck, or just not enough teenagers to operate heavy machinery. How fragile is this thing?
Bridie Connell 11:10 You know, one of the most concerning parts of this news story to me apart from the child labor laws and the death and although you know, all the year, is that I just had a flashback to when I was 16 and I told the boy at school that I could drive a forklift because I thought it would impress him, which doesn't lie.
Lewis Hobba 11:32 How's he gonna prove it? He's like, Oh my God, that's crazy. I've got a forklift at home we get over here Brian.
James Colley 11:39 Yeah, she gave me a PJ a pallet jack
Dan Ilic 11:44 I did love the best pan on Twitter I saw with this was a university professor saying the whole idea was unpalatable. I was like yes, well done. I'll pay that. I enjoyed that. How do
James Colley 11:55 we make that person do physical labor?
Lewis Hobba 11:59 I do think it would stimulate the economy in a lot of ways like I think not only is it just good to get kids into highly, highly dangerous trades as soon as possible. But I think there are a lot of offshoots that we haven't considered yet like you got to think that dare iced coffee you will be bringing stuff out and hit size kid size pack a weenie blues, they're gonna start flying off the shelves like this is gonna stimulate the economy from the ground up crowd would have to change
Dan Ilic 12:26 their their their jingle there is nothing like crown from picking them up and putting them down after snack. You know to have a
James Colley 12:36 little man Yeah, I actually worked at like 15 and 16 I worked in the back docks of Toys R Us. And can I say it was already it was already horribly horribly mismanaged. It was our system at the time was you climb up on the racks and someone will throw the screw is up to you and you try and catch them. I will take the last thing we need
Lewis Hobba 13:02 some of those handled grabbers
Dan Ilic 13:06 I love the reaction on Twitter to some of this. A lot of a lot of folks are saying this is a bit of a distraction from everything that's going on in terms of Dr. V on Sharma said this he said some days you drop the dead cat other days you are the dead cat. That's a really beautiful summation of that.
James Colley 13:23 I don't know if like I'm worried that I don't know if you can still be calling this distraction because like it's like if Sideshow Bob gets up to the 14th rake and you're saying well that's just distracting from the first 30 rakes like at some point you're just tremendously shit at what it is you're supposed to be doing. Lucky GOP and the fact that time is linear makes every you have it seems like a distraction from the past.
Lewis Hobba 13:45 There is also an element to this because it's like oh, we've run out of rat tests whatever out of rats. Oh, we run a rat because we don't have enough forklift drivers. Okay, the forklift drivers will be 16 Oh no wait, that's gonna call it's to me this feels like bringing in the cane toads. Like I've come up with a solution and that solution ends up being far worse than the original problem.
James Colley 14:05 We are running out of 16 year old shop right the forklifts, but we are also canceling sex ed to create more teen pregnancy so we can get more 16 year olds as soon as possible.
Dan Ilic 14:15 We love and I love this from my country's on Twitter when he wrote down at this point we're going to learn that the government has hasn't ordered enough forklifts.
Lewis Hobba 14:27 And all you need
James Colley 14:31 how great it would be though to rock up to year 10. For more in a forklift, two boys on each fork. Be a king of the school?
Bridie Connell 14:40 Of course I can imagine it that's why I told that stupid lie in 2007.
Unknown Speaker 14:45 Arsenal fair, we have been working to reduce the regulatory requirements. There are changes that we need to make around the age of forklift drivers to get quite specific
Unknown Speaker 14:54 your fear is irrational
Dan Ilic 14:56 this week. Second fear Boris Johnson is on the ropes again ever since Boris Johnson took over the office of Prime Minister from Theresa May. We've read for about three years that his time as prime minister will be over. But because of this whole debacle around the Christmas party in Downing Street, it could possibly be over I mean, Labour leader key Astana had very strong words about Boris Johnson. He said he broke the law, and he lied. But if that happened in Australia, you'd be gifted a portfolio with more responsibility, James, his whole career over what do you think? Well,
James Colley 15:29 I don't think he's career's over because this is a man who has made a career out of failing upwards so they'll take him out of this and he'll end up King somehow. This is does seem like a worry because they had leaked. The story of this was a quote, Operation Save big dog, which is the best day I've ever heard for any political communication Operation Save big dog was the play to find a series of people that he could throw under the bus before him to slow the bus down just enough that he would survive.
Lewis Hobba 16:03 It sounds like a GoFundMe for a pet.
Bridie Connell 16:06 No, it sounds like that person in high school who really desperately wants a nickname so I was like, Yeah, everyone's calling me big dog now. Promise they are
James Colley 16:16 Operation Safe big dog was when SEAL Team Six and birded
Dan Ilic 16:22 operation Big Dog sounds like the sequel to Operation Dumbo drop.
Lewis Hobba 16:30 A timely reference
Dan Ilic 16:33 1995 it was a it was a well,
James Colley 16:35 I one of my favorite parts of the outrage for this because it's very funny. So this all started with they had a party as the farewell for the now deputy editor of the sun before the sun broke the story without revealing that it was the deputy editor which took a little while to come out because you think he could have mentioned that the old day. I know a weird amount about this party because frankly, it was my party. I loved in the traditional way that any British outrage goes and eventually comes back to Will they suffered the queen in this that angle is it was just days before Prince Philip's funeral, which is weird, like it was just days before Prince Philip's funeral and she was harried with grief and busy asking her her son Seriously, are you a pedophile? Seriously? Are you are you though?
Dan Ilic 17:24 Man? Isn't Christmas at the Royals this year? It would have been extremely awkward all year round.
James Colley 17:29 Oh, yeah. You know, like you've got Philips gone. Andrews in trouble. The queen is already dead. But they've got big sunglasses on her and no one is allowed to ask any questions.
Dan Ilic 17:39 Weekend at Lizzie's, that's what's going on there?
Lewis Hobba 17:43 Yeah, but she starts drinking at like 9am. And you've always sort of been like, why does she do that? But the more you find out about the family, you're like, oh, fuck yeah. Founding and unit nine if my if I was a pedophile in my family that I'd been hiding for decades.
Bridie Connell 17:57 100%
Dan Ilic 17:59 just so do you think Bo Joe is gonna go James is Bo Joe? Is this the last offer by Joe?
James Colley 18:05 I think it kind of has to be but then who's it? The Vinci who was like, part of the joy of this was denying the party and they'd Leakey give the press conference you had at the party addressing how we'd appropriate the party was going to be the footage of someone bringing drinks into the play, like short of photos of Boris Johnson in a party hat. Boy, we got one of those little I don't know what else they need.
Bridie Connell 18:31 It's interesting, too, because I reckon, I think if the party was just objectively awesome, in Australia would be like, yeah, man, three more years. That was a fucking sick buddy. But just the description of like, just platters of sandwiches. It sounds like a terrible time like people are just some of them are in the garden. Like if you're gonna lose your job over a party, at least make it a really epic one. That's the real tragedy here.
Dan Ilic 19:01 Yeah. You want to be doing coke off the treasurer's chest. That's what you want to be doing?
Lewis Hobba 19:06 Yeah, you want a Christmas party?
James Colley 19:10 I am shocked and disgusted that there was cocaine at a media party sickened by this and I wouldn't ever trust him. This
Dan Ilic 19:17 might be a bit inside school for folks who listen to the podcast but Mumbrella betrayed rag that talks about the media all the time put out a put out a blog post this week saying yes, I'm letting people know that there was cocaine at the Christmas party last year. And we want to get ahead of the story as
Lewis Hobba 19:34 it did last year, like four years ago.
Dan Ilic 19:36 I was in for easy. I thought it was like it was December. No, no,
Lewis Hobba 19:39 it was ages ago.
Dan Ilic 19:41 Oh my god. This
Lewis Hobba 19:45 honestly, like, it's so direct. It's like saying there were chips at the McDonald's birthday. It was such an insanely unnecessary post you like what were you afraid of that like other people medalists would go and go like bit Did you hear that? There was like drug versus party?
James Colley 20:04 Are they busy snorting up at the walkway?
Dan Ilic 20:06 Yeah, I've I got off the drugs the 2006 Lucky's maybe I should talk to somebody chattel tan.
James Colley 20:13 Yeah. The real problem with this is there's still a media organization that can afford cocaine.
Unknown Speaker 20:21 More than 800 police officers are in isolation tonight because of critical shortages of rapid antigen tests.
Bertha Announcement 20:29 stampli stations have actually been forced to close in some local areas have been left without a local response.
Unknown Speaker 20:35 Your fear is rational.
Dan Ilic 20:37 This week's third fear Craig Kelly is up in Google and Facebook's face this week for removing United Australia party ads from their platforms. Now some of the ads that you put up were quite sensational. They make outrageous claims that aren't based in truth, you know, stuff like Craig Kelly and Clive Palmer would be good politicians, you know, stuff like that. And please vote for them, you know, stuff that everybody knows isn't true. There's also a bunch of stuff that got taken down that were or COVID conspiracies. Now out of the 57 ads that have been running on YouTube, only four got taken down, after they had been running for a week. And they'd been seen by millions and billions of people. It seems to be kind of almost pointless to even like like why even complained that four ads got removed out of 57. And millions of people already seen your ads. But what's interesting is the media is kind of focusing on this moment are the ads being pulled. But right down the bottom of all these articles has like the number has has money kind of spent by UAP on these ads. And I just want to share these these numbers for with you. Apparently 90% of all political advertising on YouTube, is done by the United Australia party. The next is done by by labor. Now the United Australia party spends $4.9 million on YouTube ads. And guess how much labour has spent? Louis Do you know how much labour would have spent? 50 grand? It's close 90 grand like $90,000 Compared to 4.9 million. Wow, isn't that just crazy. And here's, here's the thing, here's the strange thing. Like, there has been several bits of legislation to stop lying in political advertising go in front of this government for the last 10 years. But everyone in the coalition has been against it. So it's actually not illegal to lie in political advertising.
Lewis Hobba 22:29 That sounds healthy. You're not even allowed to lie about like the shake weight, but you're fucking policy.
James Colley 22:36 If you save it, your spray and wipe kills 100% of germs, they're gonna kick down your fucking door. Like, you know what, drink it and it will cure COVID That's cool. That's right.
Dan Ilic 22:46 James, I forget your other head writer of grow and transfer. So you would know all of this kind of minutia, right? Well,
James Colley 22:53 these ads are fascinating for us because they they pre roll ads and pre roll ads. Traditionally, you have five seconds to win your audience's attention. And it famously takes Craig Kelly seven seconds for his mouth to register that his brain is we're dealing as we described, the weekly we are dealing with the MP most likely to run into it wall with a tunnel painted on top of it. The stupidest person in Parliament, and that is grading on a curve. Like it is remarkable that this man is able to upload anything onto YouTube. But these ads go for so long and say so little. They're amazing. And but I've got to say if you're on YouTube, and you want to find a Craig Kelly video, the gold standard is when he is in his private apart like private the home quarantining for two weeks to enter Canberra. So instead, he sets up the red Ensign on the fence behind him, which means he is a boat, and he sits there and he bounces a ball against the wall. Like he's in the Shawshank bucket.
Dan Ilic 23:59 I think I remember say that. Yeah. But they just so many other crazy things that he says in his YouTube ads, like there is like a Chinese Air Force Base in Western Australia. And there's a whole bunch of other kind of conspiracies like this, but they don't get taken down. But the COVID stuff gets taken down because it's it's kind of against Facebook and Google's policy to not spread misinformation about COVID.
James Colley 24:20 Well, there's a very interesting part of this, which is that like, they have a three strike policy, they have a three strike policy, which is you should be banned for 90 days after your third strike. But gray Kelly's had, say six of his videos brought down at once. But that counts is one strike, because they were all brought down together. So it's like if you were like, well, technically I was on a crime spree so that your account was one scratch against my record.
Bridie Connell 24:45 And that ties into something that I found funny about this reporting of the story. It's just a little semantic detail, but in a lot of the articles about this, it's like Google says it's doing all it can to take these ads down and I'm like, you though, like, I'm just weighed down by this whole point. $9 million, get all this money off me and then I can take them off the internet.
Dan Ilic 25:05 I think it's so interesting though, that you can actually put out political advertising and you can you can line it like anyone could publish an ad saying that Scott Morrison is a good bloke who never lies, and you would never go to jail for that. Like you could even say, Barnaby Joyce is a family man who has the interests of farmers at heart and he couldn't even touch you for defamation. But you could you could spread so many lies with illegal advertising.
Bridie Connell 25:26 Perhaps some of those products that we've mentioned before that want to spread some lies about how effective this sprays are at killing germs should just become a political party and keep their ads the same. And then they'll have no ramification.
Lewis Hobba 25:40 Absolutely, I brought he's really onto something I would love to say companies turning into political parties to sort of both maybe get elected but also just sell products. Like if you just I just say political activists like vote Windex, yeah, don't smash the glass ceiling clean it.
Dan Ilic 25:56 Yeah, I would. I would vote for crazy John's I mean, he looks like Craig Kelly, like crazy. John mobile phones could easily run for parliament and be great, blisteringly topical.
Bridie Connell 26:08 It's a worry to me, though, that like even some of the cartoon spokespeople for many products that I can think of I would prefer to be leading the country. That that's a sad time. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 26:20 yeah. I worry that the only people who would do it would be James mowing and Dick Smith.
Unknown Speaker 26:27 Open Society back up, restore our freedoms in this man.
Unknown Speaker 26:33 I'm George Christensen, host of conservative one pandemic amassed the podcast, lifting the veil on the Chinese Communist Party created COVID-19 This is a rational fear.
Lewis Hobba 26:46 A little while back, I was going I was deleting a bunch of shit from something. I found this old irrational fear joke from from before Scott Morrison was Prime Minister years and years before Scott Morrison was prime minister. It was a website that was I was actually we created Dan created, which was the Scott Morrison excuse generator. Oh,
James Colley 27:08 I remember writing that exact face. Yeah.
Lewis Hobba 27:13 I remember like thinking at the time, I was like, no one knows this Scott Morrison guy is I'm not sure this is gonna fly. But it would if we kept that up. It would be crashing right now.
Dan Ilic 27:22 Is it still up? Did you? Did you find it bring it back?
Lewis Hobba 27:25 I don't think it is. I seem to remember. I think the link was broken when I saw it.
James Colley 27:30 Oh, yeah, it was like 2014. All the jokes are incredibly racist.
Dan Ilic 27:36 Out of all the irrational fear kind of physical stance we've done I you know, like in the real world stuff I do. I do enjoy a good website or a good or a good billboard, as you know. But the thing that I love the most was the was the phone number was the WHO THE FUCK IS Prime Minister phone number which had the talking clock, which can tell you who was prime minister at that exact point in time because it had a great bit of code that you that would connect to the Wikipedia that would automatically change as soon as the Wikipedia entry for Australian Prime Minister was changed. So I remember on election night, just calling it hoping to hear change over and then of course, Scott Morrison won, so it's kind of pointless.
James Colley 28:16 I missed the days where we've managed to convince Clive Palmer that we had just found a garbage bag full of the exact number of votes that he was missing. Right?
Dan Ilic 28:28 Oh my god, you should
James Colley 28:29 definitely go son.
Lewis Hobba 28:32 He's back baby.
Dan Ilic 28:33 We unfortunately have to postpone our opera house show. So for our 10 year anniversary, but I tell you what, we should probably do like a definite full retrospective kind of show. In the next few months before the election just to kind of reminisce about all if not just to be lazy and not write any new jokes. Just replay the old ones
James Colley 28:53 to play the last 1000 years of liberal darkness.
Dan Ilic 28:56 I was gonna play an old all the rational fi video with James Colley. But I thought I just hold off. Oh, now I'm curious. So hang on a second. Oh.
Lewis Hobba 29:08 This is fans. Yeah, I'm really curious about this. Oh, boy. Oh, I mean, comedy is known for aging. Well, so Kali
Dan Ilic 29:17 came to me ages ago and said I can can I be an irrational fear? This is when I was like writing irrational fear out of my out of my kitchen. And I said, Yo,
Lewis Hobba 29:26 you just done a bullshit degree in astrophysics.
James Colley 29:31 Yeah. And I thought, let's focus on something challenging.
Dan Ilic 29:37 And so I kind of, I kind of wanted to go to Kings Cross and interview people in Kings Cross about, you know, this is when Kings Cross was like raging, and there were so many drunk people in Kings Cross and this is before the lockout laws happened. The whole premise of it was to ask the people of Kings trust to solve the problems and looking back at it. It's So it feels so ancient like it feels like 1000 years ago.
James Colley 30:05 So what you need to understand is these people have just come from a Mumbrella after party.
Dan Ilic 30:11 So this is the first one of the first ever videos we ever made for rational fear. I'm on the microphone interviewing drunk people in James You are filming as we go. Why don't we play hang on a sec, if anyone wants to stop this as we go just say hang on a sec. Here we go. rational
Unknown Speaker 30:27 thinking cross crosses for
Unknown Speaker 30:29 decades. How do you fix that? Well, you can't really see Australian culture you guy you get drunk and you become a dickhead. I'll tell you the problem.
Lewis Hobba 30:40 The way to fix it
Dan Ilic 30:45 Yeah, in retrospect, that was the solution. And housing prices went up
Unknown Speaker 30:50 everyone's just drugs. I'm not gonna lie. Everyone's on drugs. You just got to get paid. Suggestions. Just honestly kick every violent person out of King
Unknown Speaker 31:00 scops and dog because he's a wombat.
Unknown Speaker 31:04 With alcohol alcohol problem I don't believe in it because guess why I'm alcoholic myself.
Unknown Speaker 31:09 So let me ask you a question. How do we fix global warming? Turn off you hate is is a carbon tax got to do with that. That bad saving carbon or something?
Unknown Speaker 31:19 Less mobile phones, cars all that shit. Go back to old school just walking in that
Unknown Speaker 31:25 will get pyramids. And buses made no more buses nothing. Continue shuffling.
Unknown Speaker 31:29 Where's the problem of China and India are the problems. Level actually.
Unknown Speaker 31:37 I think we just go I mean by solving the whaling the whaling is a problem?
Unknown Speaker 31:43 I don't believe in it. But actually I'll do because fucking Julian
Unknown Speaker 31:47 I believe in global warming. You can't prove it right now. Are we warm me up? No. Cuz we're not. I'm pretty fucking cold. It's called
Unknown Speaker 31:58 global warming tonight. Global warming will be fucking I'll take my shirt off right now. Take it off. I'll take it off.
Unknown Speaker 32:03 Come on. It's global warming. Everyone's like it comes on stage. Hang
Bridie Connell 32:07 on a sec. Just cuz I just need just two seconds. Here these men. All of these men now I promise you have high profile corporate jobs in Sydney
Dan Ilic 32:23 with a short without a doubt. And they still believe the same thing.
Lewis Hobba 32:28 They're selling the properties in Potts points that have gone up 200% Because they shut down fun in the cross.
Dan Ilic 32:33 I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure we interviewed the cost of Sydney Lux listing so I'm pretty sure that
Lewis Hobba 32:40 those two bled out guys who were like, not just China and India like those were the people at COP 26 representing Australia to fuck me
Unknown Speaker 32:50 what make the ice caps melt? What was it frozen ice melts, it cools down the rest of the earth.
Unknown Speaker 32:59 What do you not let
Unknown Speaker 33:01 me just get a lot out of government. Maybe
Unknown Speaker 33:03 that might help. That's a big one. Yeah, get a lot out of grab a woman.
Unknown Speaker 33:07 I don't give a fuck about global warming right getting pizzas Yana pizza. What about gay marriage? Personally? It's Adam and Eve. Not Adam and Steve.
Unknown Speaker 33:19 I'm not against guys. But gay marriage is fucking a bit too fun. Guys, yeah, you guys.
James Colley 33:27 Very disappointed in Stuart Lee on the left.
Unknown Speaker 33:32 Guys have civil unions already. So it's exactly the same writers game like men and women marriages. Why do they have to have the same as us? Kind of like black people? Well, no, not kind of like black people. Because marriage is traditional. You can't go against tradition. That's what I'm saying. Like slavery. Not against slavery. No, slavery is pretty traditional. Its traditional. But it's wrong.
Unknown Speaker 33:57 Like gay marriage is cool, man. Because everyone says God is like, our main merchant ship. God didn't make marriage. It's a man made thing, man. of fact, but 50 years ago that no we're voting I'm pretty sure it's a lie. I made that up in the spot. But yeah, look at it. Look at him. we're innovating. Women are marrying men and married. There's nothing wrong with it. It's
Unknown Speaker 34:24 two males that want to get down to business buddy can ask this that. It's up to them. I'm against
Unknown Speaker 34:33 against my religion. What about if it wasn't your religion? If it wasn't my religion, if he had a different religion?
Unknown Speaker 34:41 What would have been sensitive about it?
Dan Ilic 34:49 Those are the days so dies on the rest of 2012.
Bridie Connell 34:53 The only thing that I like that that was a brief reprieve from that Frank A horrifying couple of minutes of the day was the guy who was like, for climate change. Let's get pizzas which I reckon as a policy slogan. I would vote for that party every time. Sadly, they weren't
James Colley 35:13 called Five pizzas.
Dan Ilic 35:17 That is it for a rational fee. Big thank you to James Koehler, he Bridey. Connell and Lewis, how about now James and Bridey? You guys have got a brand new podcast that you you want to plug on the show.
Bridie Connell 35:31 We know two best friends who decided to start a podcast we thought it's never been done.
James Colley 35:38 If you enjoy political satire, you're going to love us pouring through the horrible vanity albums of B list celebrities in vanity project.
Bridie Connell 35:48 Yes, it's a very fun time. And there are a surprising amount of vanity albums out there. So we are having a great old time going through them and it's been really fun so far.
Lewis Hobba 35:58 Who have you done a bar?
Dan Ilic 36:00 I? Well, I've been listening to the Paris Hilton episode that you guys did with Beck shore. And I have to say, every time you play a song, I simultaneously get annoyed when you cut it off. Didn't start talking and kissing doesn't like hang on a second though. It's actually pretty good. What's going on there? Paris Hilton. She's a She's a superstar waiting to have a
Bridie Connell 36:20 truly it's been my favorite album that we've covered so far.
James Colley 36:23 I can tell you our next album up is Steven Seagal songs from the crystal cave and you will not have that feeling. Wow,
Bridie Connell 36:32 you're like life will flash before your eyes if you listen to this.
Dan Ilic 36:37 And the name of the podcast is vanity project. Is it? vanity project? Yeah, you can listen to it wherever you get podcasts big thank you also to rode mics, the birth of foundation and our Patreon supporters as well as Jacob round on the Tepanyaki timeline. Now we had a whole stack of people sign up to Patreon from last week so big thank you to people signing up Sarah Brennan Chris Brooks Elaine van Bergen, Lucy M Peter Clayton pebbles Alinsky. Roz quirk, Sean McQueen, Abdul Youssef and Matt best you're the best so please, if you like this podcast, please subscribe to patreon.com forward slash irrational fear. And if you want some joke keeper stickers for the first people to sign up to the $14 a month level I will send you out a sticker pack with all of the joke keeper stickers I can muster so please do sign up and I'll shoot you out a joke keeper sticker pack I noticed. Peter Lola on the on the text has already said free jokey billboards count me in. Well, Peter, I've already sent him an envelope. It's on the way Peter, it's going out to you. It's going out already. It's
James Colley 37:40 going to break the back of your poster.
Bridie Connell 37:44 Not it's a tiny child and a full clip.
Dan Ilic 37:48 Anything else you want to plug before we go Louis?
Lewis Hobba 37:50 No nothing for me dan.
James Colley 37:52 I've got some vintage irrational fear sticker packs here. So
Dan Ilic 37:58 I got that poster that says Tony Abbott bad Rastro
Well, that is it. That is it for the show. b Thank you everyone. We'll see you next time until next week. There's always something to be scared of. And you know what, you know, maybe we'll just rather than do like a long retrospective. We should just play a little bit of something from old days once once an episode or something like that. That's fun. Oh,
James Colley 38:25 I'd love to be edited out of that.
We're back for 2021 with a short sharp A Rational Fear. We're joined by Peppa Smith (Yamma Mamma), Travis De Vries (Awesome Black), as well as Dan Ilic and Lewis Hobba.
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Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation. This episode of irrational fears
Dan Ilic 0:05 recorded on the land of the direwolf people sovereignty was never said When did a treaty let's stop the show. A rational
Unknown Speaker 0:11 fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra fan COMM And section 40 of our rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Alan Jones 0:24 Good morning, everyone. I'm Alan Jones debt, Ilitch has invited me to host the interview show for a rational fear as my own show. Keulen was too popular and crashed the internet after three minutes of streaming. Oh god, you know who else crashed after three minutes of my streaming July on Gilad? Now this show is dedicated to the most important people in the country, the sponsors of a rational theme, we will celebrate them all in this very special episode, the highs, the lows and be in between. This is genuinely cash for comments. Let's kick it off with a message from my very dear friend and close personal tuber Peter Dutton.
Peter Dutton 1:06 Oh, Peter Dutton here wishing you and your family Christmas and reminding you that just like Santa Claus, I'm keeping a list of who is naughty and nice. Previously, if you were an Australian citizen, and you made a joke about a minister, for instance, a minor dog looking like a potato, there was no way he could legally tap your phone or jingle your bell. But as of today, ASIO can be my own personal health on a shelf, and I can spy on anyone I want foreign, more Australian, more Australian it looks a bit foreign or worse, the leader of the greens. So if you're gonna buy certain jokes about certain ministers, remember, potatoes have eyes and they could see when you are sleeping, and they know when you're awake. Just consider yourself lucky that Santa Claus isn't coming by boat. Whoa, whoa, whoa, authorized unopposed by Peter Dutton, Canberra.
Alan Jones 2:06 Thank you, Peter. What a warm kind of Dare I say jolly man. Next up is another jolly fellow, the President of the United States of America's alternative reality. Donald Trump. Here he is writing a letter to fake incoming President Joe Biden way back in January 26.
Donald Trump 2:26 Dear Joe, as you are senile, I will write this letter slowly. As I leave the White House with my wife and her lookalikes. I reflect on my time here as a career highlight of their with when I play the successful hotel owner in home alone to last in New York, even though you had the highest amount of votes in US history. I had the second highest and second is better than first. Justice two is higher than one. That's just a fact looking. So with that in mind, congratulations on pulling off a hoax election and undermining the country. I das by red cap your way and have chosen to write this letter in my finest crayons. You have ruined democracy in ways I could only dream and I usually only dream of the hamburger. But as a chick with big Tata. It has been an honor being the president of a country that would allow me to be president. Sincerely, Donald J. Trump. PS follow me on parler PPS, actually don't follow me on.
Alan Jones 3:32 Good on your Donald from the President of the USA to the president of Australia. Rhythm Murdoch was awarded a lifetime achievement award back in January for how many lives he's managed to suck the blood out of to stay alive himself. Ah, well, Dad Rupert,
Rupert Murdoch 3:48 good evening paying subscriber Rupert Murdoch here saying thanks for my lifetime achievement Award. It fills me with enthusiasm for my final days of planetary destruction until I die. Well, let me tell you I'm far from done. I've ruined democracies in the UK, USA and Australia. But they're still pansy little democratic countries around the world that have yet to be torn apart by my lieutenants. Defense us little New Zealand, I'm looking at you. There's a real movement to silence conservatism, which is why my 1000s of publications, TV networks and radio stations are home to them. And let's not forget MySpace, the future of the Internet. Once Facebook and Google are taxed into submission, you'll need an account. You can even put me on your top five friends if you'd like to young people, I say do what I do. Try to destroy everything before you die leaving behind a hash of a planet that looks just like my heart. Oh, and by The Daily Telegraph all the Herald Sun confidential this week is particularly sexy believe
Alan Jones 5:01 Rupert Murdoch will be back in just a moment to explain why the federal government is forcing big tech players like Google and Facebook to pay media proprietors for their content. And why wouldn't be listening to me talk about how many immigrants shouldn't be allowed into the country, his premium stuff. But before that, here is a message from Bill Gates on why you should take a dump on
Bill Gates 5:20 Google. Hello, I'm Bill Gates, former Microsoft founder and CEO now full time Boomer with too many resources at hand. And when I'm not planning to vaccinate the world with the latest antivirus, I'm using Bing Bing almost works as great as Google. That's why over 6% of the world trust Bing to find what they're looking for. Say you want to find the best coffee shop near you. All you have to do is go to www.bing.com and type in Spanish Civil War, and the best coffee shops will appear on your screen. And say you want to read all the latest news on your phone. Just download the Bing app and hit the latest news tab. And you can binge all the latest news on the cost of Concordia Shipra departure of Google from Australia my old friends at Microsoft are ready to make being relevant to Australia as Australia is relevant to the world. I wonder this has nothing to do with the rumors of me trying to inject you with 5g nanobots just try to search for it I'm hoping it doesn't exist. bearing
Alan Jones 6:40 good on your bill is February rolls around so does all things budgets and to celebrate here is something very very special and strange.
Unknown Speaker 6:50 Frydenberg industries and audible presents economic measures as you've never heard them before mother mind my money my mother from his hermetically sealed home studio in the southern highlands. Robbie McGregor Australia's most well known sexiest voice. Okay, already says the woods stimulus package for three sexy hours.
Unknown Speaker 7:42 anomic era eroticism package ride the down Jones bull all the way until his bubble bursts stimulus package stupid.
Unknown Speaker 8:12 Frydenberg stimulus package is guaranteed to get everyone excited except for freelancers, migrants and casual workers. If you use the offer code hashtag fuck freelancers, get a 20 minute bonus of Robin McGregor saying the words quantitative easing,
Unknown Speaker 8:30 Frydenberg stimulus package is available to download from the audible store. Now. If you're registered for GST,
Robbie McGreggor 8:38 oh.
Alan Jones 8:43 I've got no idea what that was. It was like living through a Labour government. We're doing a recap of the 2021 sponsors of irrational fear. And thank God the coalition is here to govern the only effective way we know how press conferences
Rupert Degas 8:58 standby for an announcement about announcements from the Commonwealth of Australia. The federal government to secure the COVID-19 vaccine for all Australians is what we hope you picked up from the news this week. We haven't yet but we announced it. How good would that be? Just like the $2 billion national bushfire recovery fund that only existed in your brain the moment we announced it now that science and not to mention getting the arts industry back on their feet with a Coronavirus stimulus package that we haven't delivered. That was a really good announcement. We did it ages ago. Guys. Sebastian was there. And he looked sad. The federal government announcing things because doing things is the state's responsibility. Spoken by Rupert Degas, my son was being crushed because I have to read these ads to stay alive regardless of my own political opinion.
Alan Jones 9:43 The pandemic remember that? Gosh, more like plan Demmick I feel stronger than ever. And you know who else is my good friend Jerry Harvey. Oh,
Scott Morrison 9:53 it's the Harvey Norman swimming in money sale.
There's so much money we're drowning in it profits up 116% sales up by $462 million. As a bonus we're keeping job keeper That's right $22 million from the government to help struggling businesses during a pandemic The only thing we're struggling to do is find space to bottle this excess $22 million tax free interest free no cash back
Unknown Speaker 10:18 the savings are huge and Harvey Norman if you're me, Jerry
Scott Morrison 10:23 it's the Harvey Norman swimming in money sale. Oh cash that's gotta say. Say
Alan Jones 10:29 good on your Jerry. He's a go at that one. Remember the first time the plan Demick finished and the government was literally begging people to fly the broom. The only reason to fly the broom is to sweep your life under the carpet.
Robbie McGreggor 10:44 Federal government is giving away 800,000 Half Price plane tickets to anywhere in Australia. That is a marginal electorate. There's never been a better time to seek the seven swinging wonders of Australia. Walk through the colossal Women's Rugby Union change rooms of Red Cliff Queensland it or hike through the poisoned wasteland where they're hanging native grasslands of jam land one screw or fly to secluded Kangaroo Island just stay in your own rather check to experience how the Emperors of the Great Pyramid Scheme of Paladin once left swinging by swing seats has never been this cheap. All you have to do is just sell a little tiny part of yourself if you book through hello world use the offer code one word all lowercase. I know my tears Coleman and you'll get a surprise discount you'll have no idea about obviously free travel. There's nothing marginal about the seven swinging wonders service Australia do pack a jacket because anywhere you go, it's gonna be Bellwether
Alan Jones 12:06 now here's one of the best ideas I've ever heard of when it comes to accountability. No, it's not a federal ipecac it's a hotline to kick the pause pour.
Bronwyn Morgan 12:15 This episode of irrational fear is brought to you by Makayla cashes. Dobin adult ledger hotline. If you know someone who is earning hard earned money from taxpayers and is refusing to do their job, just call one 800 dole bludger Oh, are
Scott Morrison 12:29 you said to hold on to job in the bludger? Yes. Hello to Davina Blodger.
Unknown Speaker 12:34 Yes come on barrel. Darrow who I think we need some more information
Scott Morrison 12:39 there all the guard SEC last week after the job keeper thing ended off with him his job back at high five for three hours a fortnight in the bug or refused aerelon
Unknown Speaker 12:46 job seeker? Did I? Was he applying for the job? Well, I
Scott Morrison 12:50 reckon he would if I advertised that you haven't advertised the job then now then the tax department would not right. So what are you going to do about it? You're going to ring him and tell him that he should take it away
Unknown Speaker 13:00 that maybe I could I have your full name and contact number should click to hang up you actually need to press the red button not say click off. Thanks.
Bronwyn Morgan 13:11 One 800 dole bludger because there's nothing more Australian than dubbing in your mates.
Alan Jones 13:18 For a brief moment in March 2021, Australia was one of the few countries in the world that didn't have real news on Facebook. What a relief. Thankfully, Sky News was available still at the time to explain why here's Rupert.
Rupert Murdoch 13:31 So why isn't there any news on your Facebook newsfeed? Here's a quick explainer by me Rupert Murdoch left 10 on general of the News Corp and assorted expeditionary forces. Now, Mark Zuckerberg owns a website, Facebook, and Google owns a website called Google's and their websites own the data of all Australians who use it, which means they know what you want before you do. They're really good at selling advertising. I own newspapers that are really bad at selling advertising. And those newspapers own the Australian Government and the Australian government makes laws so one day on a whim I thought Geez Louise wave bad at selling edge. Not everyone wants 60 month interest free deals for electrical computers, furniture, bedding and flooring from Harvey Norman. Some people want magnetic lashes leggings that make you bump up and other bullshit. We have no idea. But then I said to myself, Rupert, you own a perfectly good government. It's just sitting there doing nothing. Maybe you can get them to force the blokes with the websites that are good at selling ads to give us money. Then I call the government to my house by private jet made them pay for And I said, Hello government, man, I forget their names. I've had a lot of staff turnover lately. If you still enjoy being the government, can you do this? And they said, We do still enjoy being the government boss. Yes. And yes, we can do that. Now the websites that are good at selling ads have to by law, give me money. And the best part about it Googles and Facebooks give the money straight to me tax free. And we wouldn't have it any other way. Why start paying tax now? Of some journalists would say, oh, but there's no way to guarantee that money will be invested in New Journalism. Well, none of those journalists work for me. I don't hire journalists out and you may have noticed Facebook news is back. For now. Zuckerberg told the government is only going to pay us if he feels like it. Well, I respect that. At the end of the day, Facebook, Google and I all agree that we're not going to pay any money to the Australian Government. Because why would you? There are a bunch of
Alan Jones 16:14 cowards you technology has become quite the constant in our lives. I remember when I got a TV remote control for the first time and that the click of a button you could flick between watching me on the Ernie sigley Show to watching me on the online shown to watching me on the bird show to watching me on the Graham Kennedy show to watching me on the Simon Gallagher show to watching me on the John Singleton show you're watching me on the Mike Walsh show to watching me on the Barry Crocker show to watching me on the TED Hamilton show to watching me on the Darryl summer show and to watching me on the Alan Jones Show. Now that was media diversity when it comes to new technology to keep track of consent. Dawood knows who is allowed in which holes better than a New South Wales Police Commissioner.
Scott Morrison 16:57 Hi, I'm Nick fuller. As New South Wales Police Commissioner, I love stripping down with others but gaining consent can be a confusing process. That's why we've developed a new app to help men with important careers feel safe at night. If individuals have developed relations to a point where undergarments could be heading in a southerly direction, it's important to document the consent of each party before the engagement of horizontal proceedings. Simply take out your service New South Wales app and scroll to the sexual consent form. You and your sexual participants simply tick the boxes for the style and duration of sexual intercourse. Also note if applicable, which private high school participants attended. So we assign the most appropriate legal response should we even need to then simply sign on the screen or use a finger on the fingerprint reader. If one of your participants is too drunk to sign definitely don't coerce them or just place their finger on the fingerprint reader. They'll never be able to prove otherwise, then and only then can sexual intercourse proceed at a location of your choice. There is currently a 15 person limit per sexual event per household. But this will relax as COVID rules change. Now, this is important. If any participant changes their mind it won't be automatically updated by the app. But were assured by the Boston Consulting Group that this will be addressed in a future upgrade. So when emotions are running high, remember now at no wet. This has been a message from the New South Wales Police. Thank you.
Alan Jones 18:31 Usually right now I'd love to have Anthony clear on the show. But unfortunately, Dan Ilic turned irrational fear don't have enough patreon supporters are caught is so cheap. Instead, here is Andrew bolts daughter, Gabby bolt blurting out a tune about how the Prime Minister of Australia can relate to women who he is related to
Gabbi Bolt 18:52 welcome to the fifth annual Parliament House karaoke competition. I know I know Garrett comes back and wins every year. But I might not be one to pick up a hose. But I certainly have picked up a microphone before
Unknown Speaker 19:06 Hey, kids
Unknown Speaker 19:07 learn from my empathy consultant turns out all that I have to say is I find those guys repulsive once I a thing about how I will
Gabbi Bolt 19:16 propose real change. But if I try to cry, maybe no one will notice anything strange.
Unknown Speaker 19:27 cuz I'll stand up for women when they need me. But only the ones
Gabbi Bolt 19:32 I like. Jenny and the girls only relate to my relatives. Good. I really even I haven't named names. I mean, I'm not to blame. I could have shot protesters right at the scene.
But I didn't want to know
why Jenny and the girls Yeah, Jenny
I'm personally nailing Miss Dutton. What do you think? Scott better than
Unknown Speaker 20:10 Danny and the girls?
Alan Jones 20:13 Oh, what a voice. Up next, some pandemic recovery packages that aren't about building out a gas pipeline. Oh, God.
Bronwyn Morgan 20:21 The rules of federal parliament are changing from April 1 2021. Some behavior will now be quietly condemned. Whether that's accidentally quote, assaulting a silly drunk girl, or just whacking on a desk. The consequences of your actions could now be enforced with serious thinly veiled threats. Like you could lose your portfolio, lower the chances of pre selection maybe or possibly even getting a telling off by a state Premier. That's why the Prime Minister's Prime Minister for female complaints is introducing knob keeper. knob keeper provides relief for your upstanding member. Non keeper supports knobs with fully paid leave, so you can spend more time with your family if you still have one before coming back and fulfilling your promise to the Australian people while collecting $200,000 A year or your fully paid leave can be used to brief a team of lawyers so you can sue a trusted journalist who never mentioned your name for defamation. But remember, if you're not sure whether that upskirting photo or dick pic is appropriate, check with Jenny first Julie has a way of clarifying no keeper, a helping hand for our big swinging decks authorized by irrational fear on behalf of the Australian Brotherman Canberra.
Alan Jones 21:41 Well, that explains a lot but not as much as who is eligible for those irrelevant vaccines which the government has done with absolute clarity.
Virginia Gay 21:50 We understand there's been some confusion about who is eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine and who votes labor.
Rupert Degas 21:57 That's why the federal government is clearing up the confusion with job seeker.
Virginia Gay 22:02 Job Seeker tells you when the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will be made available to groups most in need of protection first, and Liberal Party donors.
Rupert Degas 22:12 These vulnerable communities have been identified by medical experts and focus groups.
Virginia Gay 22:18 Group one includes people who are at increased risk of being silenced by Kancil culture,
Rupert Degas 22:24 like journalists who haven't asked any questions, cab drivers and divorced dads with an axe to grind on facebook
Virginia Gay 22:31 group to priority access will also be given to people working in critical services such as
Rupert Degas 22:37 residents of marginal electorates, sharks fans, coal industry professionals,
Virginia Gay 22:42 and men with law degrees who went to university with current or former Liberal Party Cabinet members.
Rupert Degas 22:48 If you're not listed in groups one or two, keep checking job seeker to see when other groups of people will be eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine like women's scientists, union members, and Tom Ballard, who will definitely be last on the list job seeker, helping those who are more on to Australia than others get a COVID-19 vaccine first whenever they fucking arrive, authorized by someone anonymously to give us plausible deniability. Should it all go to hell camera.
Alan Jones 23:16 Back in April Scott Morrison visited a Pentecostal church and tell them that God gave to him in a dream and told him to run for the top job as Prime Minister now, I've never called Nick grana God, and I don't think I'm about to start now.
God 23:32 Hi, I'm God, also known as Yahweh, the Lord Jehovah, and in some circles, Jenin you may remember me for being the father of Jesus, the guy who was murdered by the mob when the local authorities claimed his safety was the responsibility of the states. Now I just want to clear a few things up. Your Prime Minister Scott Morrison claimed that I came to him in a vision. And I said, quote, Scott, you've got to run for Prime Minister. Well, that's not how I remember it. I remember appearing to him and saying, Scott, you've got the runs. And if you don't make it home, you'll have to stop at anger Dean McDonald's. I'm glad we could clear that up on the record. And remember, folks love one another. Although I understand that's more of an inner city a dinner party cafe, green's thing to do. Oh, and by my book is big, and it's a best seller.
Alan Jones 24:38 May 2021. So corporate Australia ran out of patience with Coronavirus while hospitals had an oversupply of patients. Back in May the CEO of Virgin had a message for anyone wanting to travel overseas again.
Virginia Gay 24:54 A message from Virgin Australia. You may have heard our CEO say that Cost of opening up international borders is that some people will die. Sorry for the gas. It's our first time. We want to let all Australians know that there's always a small risk of dying on one of our flights, be it from the food, overcrowding, or watching too many Adam Sandler movies on long haul connections. at Virgin Australia, we're committed to helping our customers reach their dream destination, but an unlucky few will also reach their ultimate destination. At least Virgin Australia customers can take comfort in the fact that, unlike Qantas, your death will most likely be delayed. Virgin Australia, some people will die, but probably not on time.
Alan Jones 25:47 The NDIS is a crucial service for Australians with a disability but according to the government this year, there's only two problems with it. One, it costs money into the public servants who run it have bleeding hearts. Now to me that sounds like a preexisting condition garden.
NDIS Empathy Hotline 26:04 Thanks for calling NDIS. Unfortunately, all of our empathetic Public Service employees are attending other customers, or they're in a meeting with human resources because of something they tweeted or are at home suffering burnout, and Your call has been diverted to our artificially intelligent empathy hotline. If you require a computer generated voice to occasionally say listening sounds like oh, yeah, and Aha, and oh, no, you poor thing. Press one. If you would like to be misdiagnosed by an artificial doctor, press two, to experience having this call being passed to an endless loop of computer generated NDIS employees for several hours. Press three to speak to the human breast for that's a little computer joke. There are no more humans, they're all fired. If you would like to meditate to the pace for sound of a dot matrix printer, stay on the line.
Alan Jones 27:09 If we've learned anything this year about the management of the pandemic, it's not a race, because we're all gonna die sooner or later. We're not me, I'll live forever.
Rupert Degas 27:19 This episode of irrational fear is brought to you by the National Vaccine rollout. Remember, it's not a race. It's a marathon, which is the name of a race. But in this case, no one is racing. It's more of a fun run.
Unknown Speaker 27:33 But not funny.
Rupert Degas 27:35 And there's no running. Because the National Vaccine rollout is the gold standard. A monetary policy that was abandoned by Australia in 1932. Steel, it sounds nice, like a gold medal. But you'd get if you won a race, which the National Vaccine rollout definitely isn't authorized by the Department of mixed metaphors and grasping at straws camera.
Alan Jones 27:55 Well, let's clear that up. In July 2021, the federal government upped its vaccine messaging, that is to say they started vaccine messaging, only a year and a half into the pandemic. They put out an ad to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. But back in July, no one could get the vaccine. It was harder to get a vaccine that tickets to any other musical. God. That was a good show. I was in it. Oh dear.
Dan Ilic 28:19 She was a 39 year old non essential graphic designer who was merely eight months away from being eligible for a FISA vaccine. And yet, she refused to enroll herself into St. Joseph's College. Let's be COVID-19 together, turn 40 Sooner or be the son of Liberal Party donors. Spoken by someone who never be held to account for the audit hold a syringe to Bob and Gambro
Alan Jones 28:41 2021 was a census year, which is an old fashioned way for the government to know everything about you before we had social media and QR codes.
Rupert Degas 28:50 Tuesday the 10th of August is senseless Nice. Each household is required by law to fill out the online form. So the Australian Bureau of Statistics can collect data on the makeup of Australia and to see if the NBN is working in your area. It then gives that data to the federal government so they can build critical services like carpark sporting facilities and hospitals in coalition seats, regardless of what the data says. The senseless providing scientific data to the Australian government so they can willfully ignore it authorized by a bunch of glittering idiots in Canberra
Alan Jones 29:22 in August 2021 With cop 26 Only a few months away. Everyone was talking about climate change that doesn't exist. Lots of people think we've already solved it. Well, let me tell you something. David Attenborough didn't think so. God
Robbie McGreggor 29:35 OMA series finale of who Lammott Earth things are really heating up. Mr. Morrison,
David Attenborough 29:42 it's with regret to inform you that the snow is on fire. You need to do something. Now.
Scott Morrison 29:49 I've always said I've got a plan and the plans the plan. It's a plan a plan that's been planned. I've always said that
Robbie McGreggor 29:56 will David Attenborough and the Earthlings be able to stop the Your time.
David Attenborough 30:02 Now you listen hear Scott, we've only got a couple of years left until the point of no return. The numbers are just not
Scott Morrison 30:09 looking good. Oh, that's great, then we can blame the collapse of the earth on labor.
Robbie McGreggor 30:13 Oh, well, they suffocate themselves and every other living creature in a toxic soup of stinky greenhouse gases.
David Attenborough 30:23 Everything is dying, Mr. Morrison, and you're doing nothing.
Scott Morrison 30:29 I'm not going to do anything that will cost jobs. And the most at risk jobs are those on the boards of fossil fuel companies that all need after I lose the election in a month's time. I've always said that.
Robbie McGreggor 30:39 I find out in this book potentially lost emissaries of the show, but jumped the shark of the Renaissance.
Planet Earth is recommended for mature audiences. It contains strong sex scenes, as the whole globe gets royally
Bill Gates 31:11 fucked
Alan Jones 31:13 when it comes to climate change. Thank God for the big Australian and I'm not talking about Ben Robert Smith. So big strong heads do now I'm talking about bhp who are pretending to do something about their huge carbon footprint. God
Rupert Degas 31:27 in 2021 bhp is getting rid of fossil fuels and focusing on sustainability of our province. Our profits are fragile and we must do what we can to save them. And Experts warn that our reputation will soon face a tipping point from activist shareholders from which it could never recover. That's why we're selling our coal, oil and gas assets. Some other company can bravely ignore the problem of greenhouse emissions production that will continue unabated regardless, that bhp we believe the only way to clean up the planet is to wash your own hands first. We're doing it for our children and our children's children.
Scott Morrison 32:14 Your children ours will be inheriting the province. Yeah, BHP open cut and running.
Alan Jones 32:21 This government is cooked a lot of flack when it comes to action on climate change doesn't exist. But no one is talking about the Minister for emissions reduction plan to keep cows alive, which will make more co2 so that plants can survive.
Dan Ilic 32:34 At the Australian government, we know that coal powered electricity plants are running out of time. On one hand, they're old, expensive, and make climate change worse every minute they run. But on the other hand, the coal industry also provides critical baseload donations to the LMP. So that's why we're launching coal keeper. We're spending $7 billion a year to keep coal powered polluting clunkers running way past their use by date. That way the LNP can get more donations from the coal industry to stay way past our use. By Date, the government could invest in new wind, solar and storage that renewable energy is to claim to give us donations, coal keeper, a reliable source of donations at the cost of only $400 per household per year. And everyone's existence
Alan Jones 33:29 you know, something my good friend Jerry Harvey never ceases to amaze me when it comes to generosity. Harvey Norman acknowledged that they made a matzah on job keeper and they decided to give it back. Well, not all of it there'll be stupid Harvey Norman
Scott Morrison 33:41 is giving $6 million of job keep her cash back I caved into a huge huge, huge public pressure as all my credibility went out the door. During the pandemic our profits increased by half a billion dollars selling furniture electrical embeddings $13 billion worth not to mention $22 million in free job keep no strings attached. But we're giving back all 27% of it. Wow, that sheets million dollars $6 million that the government can spend on car parks or sporting sheds and swinging electrodes in the hope that the Australian public will lose interest in Harvey Norman. Speaking of interest, we've kept $16 million interest free. Australia has been telling me to go Harvey go Harvey go fuck myself. And that's what I've done just a little bit.
Alan Jones 34:38 As September rolled around more voices, we're adding to the pressure on the government to adopt a net zero target. Personally, I'd like to see Net Zero benefit Simon's is by 2030 on what an ogre Oh, God. G'day.
Dan Ilic 34:51 I'm Dan Ilic, the executive director of the Australian lapsed Catholic lobby. And I just want to say that as the group that represents the largest sector of Christian In Australia laughs Catholics, we think the only way to give hope to children for their future is to take meaningful action on climate change, as statistically the only thing that will harm children more than climate change is an exponential increase of chaplains in schools. So please, when it comes to emissions net zero by 2030 and when it comes to chaplains and schools, gross zero by 2021.
Alan Jones 35:28 Spoken and authorized by Dan Ilic for the Australian likes Catholic lobby, Canberra come in September. The Prime Minister copped a lot of flack for using Australia's Air Force One for personal trips, like flying to have high level multilateral talks with his family on Father's Day. Disgusting. Who'd have a family
Rupert Degas 35:43 there is only one airline that can fly you to vacation in Hawaii while your home is ablaze. There's only one airline that can fly you to discover your family's history on the other side of the world, while families at home are being made history. And there's only one airline to help you secretly see your loved ones in another city when everyone else is only allowed to travel three miles from home. Fly the entitled skies where tone deaf headphones are complimentary.
Scott Morrison 36:16 Oh, good to you. Very good. You're the best Prime Minister ever.
Rupert Degas 36:20 The only airline where you don't have to put your seat up if you don't want to entitled airlines direct flights now available from Canberra to a place where they filmed the White Lotus.
Alan Jones 36:32 Back in September with Sydney clocking up its 100th Day in lockdown, so called investigative humorist Dan Ilic stone it would be funny to take the mickey out of the premieres daily press conferences, I can assure you it wasn't smart or funny and needed more Anthony Kalia.
Dan Ilic 36:50 Okay, thank you. Thanks, everyone. Okay, great. First of all, can I say how pleasing it is to hear so many people in this apartment block, yell at apartment number two, for playing Arctic Monkeys do I want to know on loop at 3am last night, it is so pleasing to hear everybody join in with a collective Shut up. That's really important. And please, we want to see more of that behavior in this apartment block. So thank you for that. As of 8pm Last night, we have seen three new episodes of Ted lasso, and two new episodes of what we do in the shadows. Those episodes had already existed in the community, and we are just catching up to them now. So what we want to do is be able to see more of those episodes sooner, but we realize there is a limit to how many streaming services people can sign up for. But as a little treat, there will be more episodes of succession for those who persist longer than the two week trial that binge is offering currently. So that's something to look forward to. For everyone that's on binge. As is a health advice, we have been going to the toilet a lot more often. But please can I just want to remind people if you are doing a number two, please please close the door after you to avoid airborne contaminants affecting the living space. This is a real issue. So please, please keep that door shut. Okay. For lunch today. It will be a spinach and tuna salad, as is the health advice. I just want to stress here. I just want to stress that it can be tempting to order a Portuguese chicken chili chips and solo combo from the local shop and have it delivered. But it is it that's fine in normal times, but it's not conducive to the long term sustainability of someone that's been in lockdown for over 10 weeks. Okay, you just can't keep that up. So tuna and spinach it is today. Now, can I say? On the weekend? We did witness about 12,000 people down at Bondi Beach just a few blocks from here. But the numbers haven't that 9000 Those people were from the Daily Mail and Channel Nine taking photos of everyone else. So please, if you do have to go to Bondi Beach, please wear a mask. So you aren't identified by Sydney confidential. Okay. All right now we'll take your questions. I've got some here from Twitter, climate patriot. Why have I never seen you in the same room as Jon Lovitz, and David Mitchell Well, climate patriots, this is an offensive question. Okay. And I'm not going to answer it. Okay. Mary wiper. What time does Dan Murphy's open? Look across most LGs it's some it's 9am to 8pm. But there are some LG A's that do it differently. So Guilford Randwick, North Ryde, you're looking at 10am opening in Mosman. It's a different closing time. 7pm. And they do that because you can't trust rich white people. You give them an inch, they take a mile and they build a hedge around that mob and no one's allowed to walk there. Okay, Gary Moore, why do we put an extra x in anti vaxis look, Gary that was a decision taken at national cabinet. The federal health minister and wanted to put three x's in there Triple X as his he's wanting the Premier's. We just thought one was enough. So we met halfway. That's why those, there's two in anti vaxxers. Okay. Hopefully that answers your question. Guido Tsali. What is the philosophical significance of girdles theorems? Look, we I think we all know, girdle was a brilliant thinker, but a wasn't a mainstream thinker. He had a lot of gaps in his theorem. It's safe to say his his theories have more gaps than a block of Swiss cheese. So that's that. Wilco last What's for lunch? Like we said in the briefing, spinach and tuna Wilker. That is the current plan. Taking the best advice from health there. Okay. Kim Fitzgerald, why is there air? Look him? The air is here Chem. Okay. We're committed to air. And can I just stress there are some in the press who say we should get rid of it, you know, get rid of the air get rid of the virus, but that's not going to happen. Okay. Areas necessary for life. And the current advice from health is that we must make a mandatory. Okay. Thanks, Kim. Peter credal asks, Do you scrunch or fold? Look, it is a tough question. And the advice currently is to do whatever you can do in front of you. There is research still being done. Currently, we're doing both we so crunching and folding. But if all you have is the ability to scratch them scratch if you're waiting for someone to teach you how to fold. We don't suggest that at all. Strange now. You can learn to fold later. Okay? Now's the time to scratch. Okay, you can't be fussy about scrunching or folding. Alright, Miss Wolfie wolf asks, Are we there yet?
No. No. All right. Thanks very much, everyone. Thanks very much.
Alan Jones 41:58 Thank you. At the height of lockdown tensions in September Milburn's right wing fascist tended at high vis vest and pretended to be tradies and proceeded to ride in Melbourne, fake tradies are nothing new, but usually they're reserved for the Liberal Party, not the Nazi Party. Though it's hard to tell the difference these days, that's for sure. God.
Unknown Speaker 42:18 White brothers, white bread through one of our own here today has portrayed us due to sick. So I say unto you, here in the group chat. On the first day, we shall rise, and we shall walk and together we will fight for our tiebreak. And on the second day, toward our enemies, we shall throw ceremonial peace.
Unknown Speaker 42:45 I've just been struck in the back of her head by a camp, then we shall
Unknown Speaker 42:49 go to the water and walk over the bridge the West Gate Bridge to the holy promised land of Werribee. And on the third day, I will descend upon the shrine of remembrance, and they will remember who we are. We are the chosen trainees returned to us what was taken our smoko. Until then, may their rivers turn into bourbon in their backyard swept by mosquitoes, their boards. Digit with be nice, they won't be easy. We will be persecuted, crucified in the media, but they're passionate but we will rise from the ashes of our building sites. We will beat Corona with protein, vitamin C and vitamin D. Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, or I will feed them or the victim and they will remember us lest we forget in my own name. Amen.
Alan Jones 43:53 Thanks ladies freedom loving white power traders word alone, we heard them and so did corporate Australia who was quite happy to help. At soft yakka we believe eating our meat pies and Chucky milk on the inside. So we believe the Anzacs didn't die fighting fascism during the global pandemic so we could choose to die during another global pandemic. And soft yakka we don't believe lockdowns should stop trival EMS Rocktober when it's already ruined lead September and Faith No More August soft yakka the official supplier of nappies to Melbourne tradies. So if you ask anyone inside the camera bubble, they'll tell you that the Liberal Party has a woman problem. Well, let me tell you that they're doing just fine and their latest program to address it should be put in the chat bag and be thrown out to see
Unknown Speaker 44:50 in March of 2021. The women of Australia made it clear that they wanted things to change that up with the lack of government action when it comes to gendered violence. Many marched to Parliament has to demand the Morison government listen to what they had to say. Well, the good news is we did hear some of the many changes the Morison government made that will benefit all Australian women. When former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins went public about an alleged rape in a ministerial office in 2019. The Prime Minister listens to Brittany after his
Dan Ilic 45:21 wife clarified at him using his daughter's as a theoretical example,
Unknown Speaker 45:24 and immediately ordered an inquiry into which members of his office knew about the alleged incident so the right people can be held accountable.
Dan Ilic 45:32 This report was due in June 2021. It has now been suspended before it could be completed due to legal advice. When a historical rape allegation against Christian Porter was made public. He was immediately stood down after 27 days and he's a position of Attorney General only to avoid a conflict of interest while launching a defamation case against a woman journalist he later a border which means he definitely didn't lose or win. And Leader of the House, Christian Porter was later temporarily reappointed the leader of the House, and in 2018
Unknown Speaker 45:58 the Morison government commissioned the respected work report, which made 55 recommendations towards how to improve women's safety at work
Dan Ilic 46:07 of the 12 recommendations that needed parliamentary approval, the government passed half ignoring workplace laws to ban sexual harassment and for employees to have a duty of care to take meaningful action to prevent sexual harassment from happening. With Porter gone, not gone,
Unknown Speaker 46:20 the Prime Minister created a new women's Task Force to tackle these problems. Head on the Morison government looks forward to making the behavior of blokes like Barnaby Joyce, who resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister due to sexual harassment allegations. A thing of the past.
Dan Ilic 46:36 Barnaby Joyce is once again the deputy prime minister. He's also been appointed to the women's task force
Unknown Speaker 46:41 because the Morison government looks forward to the future. That's why we're holding the Women's Summit in September of 2021. With a prime minister will definitely be listening to what the many speakers will have to say.
Dan Ilic 46:53 Scott Morrison appointed himself as main speaker at the Women's Summit. Brittany Higgins was invited last minute by a third party.
Unknown Speaker 46:59 Ladies you asked for change. And you got it
Dan Ilic 47:03 not technically true. The liberal party put your blind trust in us supported by Diana royal am for rational fear Canberra,
Alan Jones 47:10 come October 15. Only two weeks out from cop 26 The biggest climate change conference the world has ever seen which still doesn't exist. Barnaby Joyce decided now was a good time to start to think about doing nothing about climate change, which still doesn't exist.
Dan Ilic 47:26 Do Sunday. It's the biggest decision in Australian climate politics history bigger than starting the emissions trading scheme bigger than axing the emissions trading scheme bigger than implementing their renewable energy targets bigger than canceling the renewable energy targets bigger than creating the Department of climate change bigger than dismantling the Department of climate change bigger than starting a mining super profits tax they get an ending of mining super profits tax begins hitting a sunset date for old coal plants bigger than trying to use Texas to keep those old coal plants alive bigger than the High Court ruling the Environment Minister has a duty of care to Australia's children bigger than the environment. Mr. Sage, you High Court Oh kill those children if I want to use three new coal mines much much much bigger, much much bigger than the size of the barrels the nets get their pork in this Sunday, the National Party will gather to vote on whether or not to agree on net zero by 2050. Like the rest of the world. Will the National Party dare to do the bare minimum for one or will they do whatever their mining donors want to help them stay in power for another 36 months and ruin the entire thing planet for every one for ever? This Sunday, a decision bigger than Barnaby some count the national party room showdown a donation will buy your whole seat but you'll only need the edge. There ain't no party like a National Party because the national parties don't adopt new policies.
Alan Jones 48:50 I think it's safe to say we are a premium program here and a rational fear, which is why we're very very choosy when it comes to fresh tomato sandwiches and financial sponsors.
Rupert Degas 49:00 You live in a fast changing world. Today's Attorney General is tomorrow's backbencher. Accountability is something that can only exist if you can see something to count. When you need a sense of mystery for your big pot of money. Put your blind faith in orders blind trust because whoever is paying off a public person's legal bills should remain private, at least until after the next election. Borders blind trust is sort of program should keep going in Australia essentially forever. terms or conditions don't apply. If you're a member of the Liberal government. Check the PDS for details. No really, please check because I couldn't find any details. When I look.
Alan Jones 49:40 Well. Would you believe it 48 hours before cop 26 The biggest climate change conference in the entire world which doesn't exist. The government rushed out a plan on a napkin to reach net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Except the plan didn't reach that at all. Just like my ratings on Sky News. It fell short by about 50%
Dan Ilic 50:01 It's time for another episode of Angus bull.
Scott Morrison 50:04 Angus Taylor, welcome to the program.
Angus Taylor 50:06 Thanks for having me species Great to be with you.
Dan Ilic 50:08 The netzero 2050 plan from the Minister for emissions plateauing. First,
Angus Taylor 50:14 the how. Now we are investing $20 billion in targeted r&d expenditure prioritizing key technologies like high clean hydrogen,
Dan Ilic 50:24 clean hydrogen is the spin name for blue hydrogen, which is made from fossil fuels, which creates greenhouse gases, which adds to global warming. Anything else that may keep the fossil fuel dream alive, Minister for emissions plateauing to carbon capture and storage, carbon capture storage and mystery technology that doesn't work at scale anywhere in the world, the only thing it's managed to capture is time to delay the phasing out of fossil fuels. So what is this plan? That's not going to work going to cost? I mean, other than all life on Earth,
Scott Morrison 50:56 the $20 billion, you mentioned there is just for the next for this decade. So what's the full cost to get to net zero?
Angus Taylor 51:04 Well, that run rate of the money we're spending over the next decade is what we would expect into the future,
Dan Ilic 51:10 expect to pay 20 billion each decade until we reach 2050. And if you include the 250 billion national slush fund, that may have been agreed to so that the prime minister could utter the syllables 2050 in Glasgow, that could be $310 billion. That's right $310 billion for a bunch of miracle technologies that don't work and don't cut emissions. Hope I'm not paying for it, just to
Scott Morrison 51:37 be clear what a taxpayer is going to have to pay under your plan to get to net zero.
Angus Taylor 51:43 Well, taxpayers are not paying anything. We're not raising taxes. I mean, that that's the important point.
Dan Ilic 51:49 The 310 billion isn't going to be paid by taxpayers, it's going to be paid by the government who is paid by the taxpayers. Fantastic, great move. Well done. Angus. If the Minister for emissions reduction was interested in reducing emissions, he'd phase out fossil fuels and turn Australia into a renewable energy superpower, but he's not. He's interested in one thing, ensuring baseload donations from his fossil fuel friends.
Alan Jones 52:18 One of the rational fears greatest guests in 2021 was mcnevin the self proclaimed World's Greatest high jumper. He's a national hero, just like me, Alan Jones.
Dan Ilic 52:27 So McNabb and thanks for joining us and Australian high jumper who claims to be the greatest high jumper in the world. Welcome.
Mick Neven 52:33 Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah, that is correct. I am.
Dan Ilic 52:37 I am. Do it's an amazing claim to be the world's greatest high jumper. What's the basis for the claim? Well,
Mick Neven 52:44 I have never missed the jump. No one's not that. That's right. I have never noticed the bar onto the mat. So what's your highest jump 50 centimeters 50 centimeters, that's not very high. Well, that is the target that I've set for myself. And I meet and beat that target. Every time I jump.
Dan Ilic 53:05 Now, the mentor jam record is 2.45 meters and the women's record is 2.09 meters. You're nowhere near that.
Mick Neven 53:12 I hear but I don't worry about what other high jumpers are doing. You've never once competed at the Olympic Games. Why would I see a limbic at the heart of all those so called high jumpers making bold claims about clearly 2.4 meters and what happens? They all not the bar onto the mat, and they look pretty stupid doing it. I made them beat my target every time I can do high jumper. Yeah, it's only 50 centimeters. That's right. I don't need to jump higher. I'm less than 2% of the world type jump. If I raised the bar to even 1.5 minutes sure I could jump it so that's a clear goal. To achieve that I need to coach I'd have to start training I did objective. Why bother? I can meet the beat that 50 centimeters and it doesn't tax me
Dan Ilic 53:54 or anyone else. Yeah, 50 centimeters. You know a primary school kid could jump that jump. So
Mick Neven 53:59 I am the world's greatest I'd never you're not the world's greatest. The World's Greatest high jumper. Never missed the jump. Don't forget that. Never missed the jump. Make. Thanks for joining us on irrational fear. See you on the mat buddy.
Alan Jones 54:16 Now one of the reasons I don't go on social media is to constant bullying and criticism from voices who have megaphones but no real authority. If I wanted to experience that, I've just listened to my own show. Thankfully, the government has a plan to silence the wrong kinds of speech.
Peter Dutton 54:32 Hi, I'm Peter Dutton. And I'm calling on the tech giants to keep Australians safe on the internet by implementing trolls seeker. Trolls seeker is about protecting the most vulnerable people to criticism in society, government ministers. So if you're an anonymous internet user who can't afford a defamation lawsuit, or worse, a journalist from the ABC with an incorrect opinion. You better watch out I already see when you're sleeping. I already know when you're awake. I don't know if you've been bad or good, but I don't know who you are. And that is a problem because we can't Trump a subpoena down your chimney. So, tech giants Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Solitaire. I'm talking to you unmask your anonymous trolls now, especially the ones that look like eggs. I'm jealous, otherwise will unfriend you like they do in China, North Korea and Myanmar. Now that's how you handle a bully troll seeker. Protecting Australians who work at Parliament House trolls second does not apply to anonymous accounts run by MPs like Andrew laming Mark Latham, or Amanda Stoker, because that's just awkward fun.
Alan Jones 55:36 Now, let me tell you something. When I got sacked from Sky News, I did it for a reason to serve Australia. I once coached the Wallabies I could cut the government easy peasy. For one. There's no point of it. Simon's in the Liberal Party. God, what an ogre. Good morning everyone and fellow Australians, many people are asking me when am I going to run for politics? Well, there's no better time to step up than after being stood down. So after being the king of broadcasting on TV, and who GB I'm joining the LNP. After all, they share my values, we both deny the existence of climate change. We both deny the existence of women. We both know how to do cash flow comment. Speaking of there's never been a better time for gas led recovery. Nine out of 10 epidemiologists agree the best way to cure a respiratory virus like COVID-19 is with a gas pipeline, pumping delicious, natural methane to everyone's home where they sleep. Turn on your gas pipe today. And when it comes to accountability, I'm not scared of a federal icoc After all, I've had to face achma a number of times. Remember when I started a race, right? I was held accountable and forced to say sorry, God, that was hard. It was only a race, right? So they've won me, Alan Jones on Alan Jones to join the Liberal Party which got us to sign me up just like Sky News were to get us to get my brave opinions on the air. So I did the next best thing I got one of my interns to start a company that I held a press conference to announce to the world that my interns company would be signing me up for a brand new all digital network cure LAN. The Morning everybody. Over the last few months I've been undergoing emergency medical treatment on my leg. It turns out I had been leaning too far to the left. God thank God they fix that up. Now while I've been away those vermin at scar news have canceled me. Yes, I'm a victim of canceled culture. So that's why I'm starting my own social network. Cancel your Foxtel subscriptions and sign up for que LAN the social network by me Alan Jones from sign up you can enjoy all the benefits of being a kulen member, Robert Menzies is still Prime Minister,
Robert Menzies 57:44 you call a man a racist. The Wallabies win every
Alan Jones 57:47 now and then. And for the first time in four years, the Wallabies have won mark Latham cooks up a delicious Southeast Asian inspired meal. These are the best scones. And each week a new album is released by Anthony Kelly as a I want a voice sounds like a bit like a computer but we're working that out. And the best thing is you'll be surrounded by like minded retirees over the age of 65. So you'll never have to worry about grandchildren correcting you with fake news about climate change from NASA. God global warming, what next? There's a plague or something. Give me a break. Anything you can do on Facebook you can do on Cuba LAN plus more. You can poke people. Yes, you can berate people, you can put people in a chat bag and throw them out to see you can even inside a race right at the click of a button. And the best thing is a camera can't touch you. So join que LAN the social network where free speech is for easy payments of 4999 a month and you can be friends with me Alan Jones for an extra 699 a month. That's real cash in the comments. So join cure Len today. I was gonna call up Jonestown but it was taken on Alan Jones. Well, that is it for another year. A big big thank you to Jake Brown, Dan Ilic Rupert Degas, Robin McGregor, mcnevin Virginia gay brother and Morgan, Anthony callea and all of the Patreon subscribers that Australian digital holdings including John the deep as kid to read McCoy Tenjin sing, Fred Stokes, Ned Bilham Ziqi and Alistair Bondo Mazagon. Thank you very much. honored to have you on our little podcast program. Good dad, Australia.
This is the 3rd Episode of the monthly spin-off podcast from A Rational Fear —Julia Zemiro Asks 'Who Cares?'
Each month for the next 4 months on the A Rational Fear podcast feed, Julia will be interviewing change makers, civic leaders, and people who organise their communities and claim their power to discover the secrets to making good things happen.
This month Julia chats with two Australian very different Australian media leaders who at the opposing ends of their career timelines
Kerry O'Brien— One Australia's most distinguished journalists. Kerry O'Brien may be off our TV screens, but he is far from retired. Kerry is busy, writing and thinking about journalism and democracy. In this chat with JZ, Kerry talks about how the atomisation of media puts our democracy at risk.
also we hear from:
Zara Seidler — The co-founder of one of the largest publishers of youth media in Australia. The Daily Aus is Australia's leading social-first news service. Offering young Australians a digestible and engaging way to access the news, all through social media. The Daily Aus reaches nearly 300,000 young people through its Instagram, Tiktok, email and podcast channels.
If you enjoyed this please drop us a review on Apple podcasts:
Julia Zemiro 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birther foundation. I'm recording my part of Julia's Amuro asks, Who cares on the lands of the gunman? Gara and Darwell people, sovereignty was never ceded. We need a treaty. Let's start the podcast.
Dan Ilic 0:18 A podcast about politics for people who hate politics. This is Julia Mira asks Who cares?
Julia Zemiro 0:27 Hello Julia here and thank you again for joining me on the irrational fi podcast feed to listen to who cares this month, Kerry O'Brien and Zara sideline to people who have been and are working in the media in Australia. Zara Seidler in her 20s with Sam Koz Lasky set up the daily oz news for millennials will be speaking to her after we speak with Kerry O'Brien, of course, carries a prominent Australian journalist and author whose long career includes 28 years as a national current affairs, television presenter and interviewer. From this day to night, four corners Lateline, the 730 report where he was editor and presenter for 15 years, he's written two books, one on former Australian Prime Minister for Keating, but more recently, a memoir on the social and political upheavals he's witnessed in half a century of journalism. And that's what I wanted to talk to him about today, because one of the biggest upheavals I think, is this independent grassroots movement. And I wanted to ask him what he thought about that and where he thought it might go.
Kerry O'Brien 1:41 Just in terms of the phenomenon, and it is one I think it's been in the pipeline for quite a while, it's been coming to a slowly, and I think it's probably been hastening, the more people have become disillusioned and lost respect, and grown angrier and more frustrated with the political process, I don't think the state of politics in this country has been at a lower ebb in my working life as a journalist than it is now. And there are all kinds of reasons for that. But in terms of how the media deals with it, I would say, the media in its coverage of politics really reflects the state of our society to in the sense that we are digitally disrupted, generally, in all of our individual lives, and the media is disrupted, as it hasn't been, for a very, very long time. And disrupted not necessarily in a good way. I mean, what ultimately emerges, in a sense is in the lap of the gods, it's not all that easy to predict. I hope I never lose faith in the belief that the public will always be hungry for information. And that the same reasons that saw journalism gradually proliferate through the developed world as the printing presses arrived, and, and as communications improved, and so on. So I just don't see how we will ever lose that hunger. But what I also hope is that the quality of end and accuracy and responsibility of coverage doesn't continue to dissipate as it has, because of the disruption, because of the extent to which the Internet has crowded, and got in the way of the capacity of the mainstream, credible media to function as it is supposed to.
Julia Zemiro 3:34 But I don't think we're ever going to be able to wind back to 24 hours news cycle.
Kerry O'Brien 3:39 Well, I just think that there will be an evolution of some kind, Julia, I mean, I don't think what we've seen in the last, say 15 years, slowly, and then gathering pace. And now Now it's kind of on us is the meeting in the middle of the various news operations, and media operations. So print and television have met in the middle, we have converged, we've been talking about convergence for a long time, we now have convergence, it's still evolving. And the final form of that convergence is still there to be kind of played with speculated upon. But print, and television and radio have all met in the middle, you can see the ways that print is adapting to that. And I think it still has quite a ways to go. Whereas in one way, it's been a bit easier for for television, and radio to adapt to its online presence, particularly the ABC, because we're just changing the written word somewhat. We're changing if we're writing for online as opposed to for television. We're writing just for the oral word and the written word. Whereas for newspaper journalists who've known only print writing for print, in their past, they've got to learn the process of writing for pictures and and writing in a different way. So they'll catch up, they are catching up. You can see it They'll they're developing the interviewing skills. I mean, I can remember when I was a print journalist, you'd go with your little tape recorder and you'd sit down, you'd have a chat. And you'd cover all the ground and you'd walk away with about an hour of stuff, about 10 minutes of which was worth using. For television, you're very conscious of the clock ticking and you are you are forced to apply a real discipline and a serious thought process to the questions you really want to explore. And you've got to have a sense in your head of how long you've got to do it in. So that's an adaptation to print. But you see, outside of those things, those things on their own, would not present a difficulty. The real difficulty lies in the fact that the traditional model of journalism has gone out the window. Newsrooms have been seriously disrupted. The commercial operation has been seriously disrupted. Newsrooms and our either the same size, but the journalists are asked to do a lot more. So the the size of the newsrooms and the resources of the newsrooms haven't grown to match the demands that are now on the journalist. And secondly, where there have been attempts to cut back on the cost of operating newsrooms, the first to go, it always pretty much starts with with the human resource, which is the costly resource. And the most costly resource in a newsroom tends to be the more experienced older journalist who spent a lifetime accumulating knowledge and history, they've got the scars, they know where the bodies are buried, but they're more expensive. So if you're an accountant sitting down, to work out where you're going to make your cuts, newsrooms have blade, age and experience. And so you've now got a situation where newsrooms around Australia are, on average, probably 10 years, at least younger than they might have been 10 or 15 years ago. So an awful lot of very smart young journalists. And they are smart, or growing up without mentors, that they are developing as journalists without mentors. And if they don't have a sense of the history that's passed, then that comes at a great cost to the quality of their journalism, because because when I watch politics being reported, now I do get frustrated. I'm not the old white guy throwing a slipper at the screen, because it's not like it was in my day. I don't want to ever make that mistake. But I do see not just opportunities going begging, I see important questions, important checks and balances in the journos process, which is supposed to be fundamental to good journalism, I see those things going begging, I see them not being done. And that really worries me,
Julia Zemiro 7:34 I've only been to parliament house a few times, couple of times to you know, beg for money for the ABC and SBS. Well, you're preaching to the converted anyway, in the group that you're speaking to, I'm always amazed at how much access journalists actually have in the house. And I sometimes think of the analogy of private schools and selective schools go with me, I went to the selective school. And while we weren't, didn't have the poshness or the money necessarily surrounding us, if you went to a pub, where there were private school kids, you'd be accepted, you'd be welcomed. You could share all the information, you knew what was happening behind the veil, you could see what was happening in those private schools, how they all behaved, and then you left with that information. And it was your little secret to keep because we're not one of them. But we're allowed in there. But we'll keep the secrets. And I sometimes feel like with journalists, they cannot really be in that house, they must know that stuff goes on that they don't report. And I'm not talking just now I'm talking 2030 years ago, and I wonder what the responsibilities there. And it can't just be about protecting a source or whatever. There's a kind of like an in joke or an inworld. That just annoys me when I hear it. And I think it's not a joke. It's not something to kind of go you're all pals and you know each other. And that's how he acts. And that's how she acts. That two I think has has come into journalism. And that's not the young ones necessarily,
Kerry O'Brien 9:02 ideas, but I don't think it's quite the club that you painted to be. And I don't think it ever has been quite that club. But the aspects of it are true. Absolutely. But I mean, I can remember the wonderful mango McCallum, the late mango, in the days of nation review and mango was doing it on the Australian of all papers before he went to nation review. Rupert, by all accounts wasn't all that thrilled with the way he wrote but nonetheless, he went to Canberra and reflected this is like back in the 60s and reflect when he reflected on it, he could have sounded somewhat like you because because he was saying, even though he had gone through university, he had been a journalist. He was very well read that getting any was writing politics from Sydney to some degree, but when he actually got there, he was shocked at how little he knew. And so he made it his business to take his readers behind the scenes and give them a sense of how life really how the political process function, how the processes of government function, including the public service, how the parliament functioned. He made his business impact to educate. And he saw that as a part of his responsibility. You also got a laugh, a lot of laughs, reading it, and were sometimes scandalized as you read it. And other journalists, from time to time have reflected some aspects of that. But it's less I suspect, because it's a club, but that journalists can sometimes make the mistake of assuming that, that the kind of nuts and bolts of something is too mundane, it's not interesting enough to make it interesting for the public, which to me means that they're not doing their jobs, and they don't really understand why they're there. Or they take for granted that everyone knows. The other aspect that you touch on really is is the kind of behind the scenes chitchat, you know, you lift the phone to a politician, and you have an off the record check. But that is that has always been a part of journalism everywhere. And without that part of the process, journalism would be only ever bringing you a fifth of the story. It allows you to be more nuanced in your reporting, without necessarily reporting what the person has told you specifically, one private conversation might lead to another which leads to a story, which is an important story to get out. I look, I'm sure that some journalists have had favorite sources over the years that they have, that they've nurtured, and they don't want to burn their sources. So maybe they treat them a little gently. And I know that a journalist here or there who's who has who I've thought has done that, and I don't like it when I see it. But it is a more complex operation than then than it might appear sometimes from the outside looking in. I don't think it's quite the club you talk about. I'm sure journalists would like to be more in the know than they are,
Julia Zemiro 11:48 when you watch the Westminster system that that we use that that sort of yelling across, do you ever do you ever get frustrated, there's just got to be a better way. You know, when you look at cultures around the world, you look in schools, you know, the whole idea of when you're trying to want to get to the bottom of something, you kind of you try and find ways to agree on it, rather than disagrees is constant arguing, I feel like part of the independence movement is that there might be five or six people on that crossbench being able to go well, you know what, clearly, you guys don't know how to have a conversation. So let's cut to it. And it's just not that hard. You know, I get as a trained actor, I get employed by companies to go in and help them figure out how to talk to each other, and how to communicate better. So you know, we're all happy to offer our services, our service, because we've all lost our jobs. So please, by all means, bring us in. But um, but yeah, I wonder about, I wonder about that system, will that changes? Well, one day? Well, we I mean, whether we become a republic or not that idea, it can't be the best way to spend time, because it's not it's not working. It's just not working.
Kerry O'Brien 12:52 Yeah, look, I'm speaking as a journalist, but also as an individual. I do love some good theater.
Julia Zemiro 12:58 Like to see some in there.
Kerry O'Brien 13:00 Well, they used to be yes, the I agree with you, I go again, starting to walk down the track of, you know, the good old days. But the truth is that the standard of political debate today is about 50%, or less than what it was even say 15 years ago. There's always been a gladiatorial element. Paul Keating has maintained that, that he thinks the mood changed after the dismissal in 75. It was that the extent of the friendships across the party lines, behind the speaker's chair and in the privacy of various offices and so on, there was quite a bit of that went on. There were friendships across the aisle, and there was certainly a capacity to speak across the aisle. I think a lot of that has gone. And that is very unfortunate. I also think that the polarization of our politics is symptomatic of a wider polarization in the whole of our society. And that really, really, really worries me. Because I think, I think we're losing the capacity and we certainly risk losing the capacity to be able to talk to each other across our differences. Whether it's over the back fence, in the shop, in the pub, or in the parliament. And, and in the media. I think the media itself is polarized, like I can't remember it being polarized at any other time in my life. I think people are choosing now to to absorb the media that fits their views of the world. People who once upon a time might have read across the media that you might identify as right and left and in the middle, or various, you know, various places in between. People are choosing you know, they're calling it the echo chamber people are now choosing to learn their news get their news from sources that reflect their worldview. And you know, the the social platform for social platforms like Facebook. They exacerbate that they actually Aleut Lee exacerbate them. You know, some some bloody robot or some logarithmic algorithmic process is determining what I'm interested in and sending me stuff. And that's getting seriously creepy. But that polarization really does worry me really worries me because you look at what's happening, and if particularly if you couple it with with what's happened on the internet and social media, and America is the kind of leading edge of this, and the sort of bombardment of fake news and and attempts to manipulate us is crowding out, and D legitimizing the traditional news gathering and news gathering process that we might have once been able to rely on with greater confidence than we can now. So I just you put all of that. So so that kind of process I think, is just going to drive us into more polarization. And I think, I think it is driving us further and further away from the democracy we have known and come to take for granted.
Julia Zemiro 15:58 Oh, I think it's definitely taken for granted. And you could argue that it starts in schools, and I know everyone says every, it's like, honestly, if you had to teach a kid, everything they need to know in the whole universe, it's all gonna go back to schools, and what more do they have to do in their,
Kerry O'Brien 16:11 in home in the home don't fit in
Julia Zemiro 16:13 the home, but gee, that's not happening, either. I mean, you know, you know, I'll sound like an old woman from the past now. But you know, my mom would by the National times the nation review the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, we had interesting magazines, you know, it was having a bit of everything there and having someone talk about, you know, and it's exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, a bit of everything. And Mum would her thing was that she really wanted to compare. And she was looking at writing styles. I mean, she was a language teacher at secondary, and then tertiary. But there's a girl who, who went to school, who loved French, who had a teacher that actually said to her parents, this one should go to university. And they were like, Nah, that's not going to happen. She somehow got there, and was interested in how the place is run. But really, a lot of a lot of kids would not have that. And certainly not papers, papers, were there on the floor, and you can read them every day. We're all on our own different devices. Little may be looking at stuff, but I'm always astounded how people who I think have switched on, and also on the Women's March, you know, did you go to that? What Women's March? So people are still even though that information is there, they're not engaging with it, because they don't think it concerns them. And my way to fight against that polarization is to really be that one, that when she gets her coffee, or is at a barbecue after the niceties of five minutes, and you know, you and I get approached by random civilians all the time. I'm in, I'm like, what do you what do you get? And I don't care. Now I go straight into the conversation go, literally, what are you thinking of voting for or what, and I try and take the heat out of it, I'm not trying to have a go, I'm trying to genuinely go. And half the time. When you just explain a couple of things, or maybe offer something else, they genuinely seem enlightened by something they didn't know. And that's because you're having that one on one one to one conversation with them. And it might just sit in there for a little minute and imagine, but it's that one to one conversation with people sometimes. And we don't even have conversations without heat, let alone what we see in Parliament. So it's modeled.
Kerry O'Brien 18:29 That's what I mean about about losing the skill and the capacity to be able to talk to each other civilly across the divide, becoming engaged on behalf of the ABC alumni in a process of trying to promote the ABC as a serious and important issue in this next election campaign, because the ABC as a as a public institution, which to me, is so fundamental, has played such a fundamental and important role in helping developments and sustain a cohesive fabric across our society. And this kind of seriously trusted institutions still in an age where there is no trust for anything. And and so I'm interested when I get some small insights into this sort of this independence movement that's taking place. And the idea of people having community discussions that aren't that they're roundtables. They're not even necessarily for big groups of people. I mean, the idea of community of our sights, small talk, relatively speaking, given that politicians and their apparatchiks turned their backs on the town hall meeting in the 70s. And I saw it happen. I can tell you the last election when any political leader in an election campaign bothered to go to big public town hall meetings was golf slash campaign in 77. Against Fraser, so that's how long it's been since but now you know the kind of the so called Town Hall. Meeting is coming back. Yes, yes. And that's not a bad development provided. It's not just part of some bullshit stitch up marketing process to create an illusion of something that's not real. And it seems to me that this independence movement is genuinely looking to the grass roots as a way of allowing its message and and the things that worry it that worry though those people are involved in it, about the kinds of things we're talking about, you know, they want to actually engage voters. And if there's one thing I hope, I'm going to be able to say again, and again, wherever I go between now and the election is make your vote count, not telling people how they should vote, but just saying, make your vote count, think about the issues that are important to you. And I hope that they see the ABC as one of them. Think about the issues that are genuinely important to you, not who's gonna not who's promising to give you an extra five bucks in your pocket or something. Those things are passing. Proper funding of various policy areas is important, of course, but isolate the key issues that are important to you, whether it's climate change, whether it is the ABC, whether it is growing corruption in the political process, whether it is lies, whatever, the idea that people, I believe, for this election, people should be challenged and feel challenged, and actually take, become interested in the challenge to really think, in some instances for the first time in their lives. What is really important to me, in this campaign, and how can I make my vote count,
Julia Zemiro 21:41 I've always seen the election as an exam, you know, you when you go into an exam, and you've studied you feel good, because you kind of know what you're going to be saying, you can feel good about the result, the amount of times I've stood in a line at a school waiting to vote, and people are still deciding in that line. Yeah, they're still deciding in the line. And so there's something in them that goes, I won't do the homework I need to do about it. And I'm and you can that you might see someone with a friend and go with who you voting for. And it's astounding to me. So just think you can't be thinking about this right now. And I think certainly this grassroots level of independence is is more about that I, I hosted the independent candidate for Hume Penny Acuras launch. And we were in a basketball court because it was raining, we had an outdoor and indoor idea. But we went indoors in the end and 300 We didn't have a tin roof. No, we were lucky. We're very lucky that I was really worried about the acoustics as well. 350 people turned up. As you know, as the emcee, I warmed up the crowd and chatter to people beforehand. And it was really, it was quite stunning carry to see people wanting more information. Eyes wide open, for clarity for something to be able to believe in something to be a bit hopeful about, especially after the last couple of years. Others who were nervous to be there a little bit nervous, not sure why they were nervous, sort of tryna
Kerry O'Brien 23:13 possibly feeling a little bit exposed,
Julia Zemiro 23:15 absolutely exposed.
Kerry O'Brien 23:16 One of the things that I think has happened, I mean, I've thought a lot about this, the impact of, of technological change the the impact of the digital age as it is now. And it's been a long road hasn't been that long a time coming really post war, post war, and it really only started to take off in the 70s. And the thing about the thing about the digital revolution is that it's a little bit like measuring a title, like measuring an earthquake, it there is a seismic shift going on, there is an exponential kind of pace, as you get further and further into that revolution. And we can I don't care how much thought we put into what's going to happen next. And then what happens after that. And then what happens after that. Try by all means, but don't get too bloody coordinate, because because you'll just end up being blindsided every time I think that the pace of change when you look at not just the pace of change, but the breadth and the range of change is unprecedented in human history, including I think, the the original industrial revolution and, and our capacity to try and stay pace with just left behind at every step of the way. When we first when we first saw the internet coming the very first rosebuds of the internet, and people started to speculate about where it would hit nobody anticipated. Facebook, nobody anticipated Google nobody anticipated any of these things. And, you know, let alone quantum physics and all the rest of it. So
Julia Zemiro 24:55 I know I contemplated doing putting some rules around it some regulations. is around, they don't need doing it now. And at the time, you're just thinking, like even even on a level, for example, my agent for years was just worried about what do I get them to pay my actors for doing a film or television? All of a sudden, she was having to go into meetings to dis to figure out, what will I now pay my actors? What am I asking for? If the stuff goes online? If it's on the internet, what's that worth? What's happening there, the stuff just keeps moving around. If you're not gonna put a rule around it or regulation around it. It's like we let we let it all go to shit first, and then go, Oh, why people are really getting hurt by this. How do we bring it all back?
Kerry O'Brien 25:37 I mean, look, there are so many things that feed into this. I've just been reading a terrific article, a guest essay in the New York Times, and it's headed for those who want to Google it. You are the object of a secret extraction operation. And it's by Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School. Shoshana Zubov and the author of a book called The Age of surveillance capitalism, and that's what it's about. And it says that Facebook is not just any corporation, it reached a trillion dollar status in a single decade by applying the logic of what I call surveillance capitalism, an economic system built on the secret extraction or manipulation of human data. And it says the world's liberal democracies now confront a tragedy of the quote unquote uncommons information spaces that people assumed to be public are strictly ruled by private commercial interests for maximum profit. The internet as a self regulating market, has been revealed as a failed experiment, surveillance regulating market has been revealed. As I said, failed experiment, surveillance, capitalism leaves a trail of social wreckage in its wake, and it goes on, you know, this stuff is profound, the impact of it and where it's going to go. Profound. And, and most of us are sitting in our lounge rooms with the bloody blinds drawn, or the curtains drawn, and we cringing. We don't we don't just, you know, we don't just worry about the future for our kids. We're worried about our own futures, you know, a 30 Something person who has been trained for one thing, having to contemplate how they retrain, and then retrain again, and then retrain again. And then they think, how on earth do I prepare my children for this? What's going to be the story for my grandchildren, these things. And, you know, it is no mistake that we are in an age, riddled with anxiety, riddled with anxiety. It's the it's the unseen or barely seen pandemic, alongside the highly visible pandemic that we've been through in the last two years, and in many ways, reaping a far greater, more tragic outcome. Because we are talking about, we are talking about the future of many of our of our kids, many of the youngest people in our society, their future is being ruined for them, as they grow towards even their teenage years. On there's so many potential threats. And I don't want to be alarmist I hate being alarmist. I, no point in being alarmist. But be and so people say, Well, how am I supposed to react to that? I don't know. That. You see, it's too big for government. And at the same time, the quality of government is in decline in Liberal Western democracies, we're seeing the growth of illiberal democracy through Europe, we're looking at, we're looking at the great miss that American societies become. And we have over the last 20 or 30 years increasingly seen America as what we want to be. Well, good luck with that. We're part we're already paying a price for
Julia Zemiro 28:36 it. Yeah, I've never understood that at all. There is also another possibility. And the other possibility is to be not hopeful, because I think that's a useless word often. But there's another possibility, which is to have a kind of a vision for things that we could achieve the things that we could change. So whether it is in the renewables are kind of argument climate argument, that a renewables could make a strong economy that, you know, Australia could lead in all these ways. You know, if we could find a way I don't know, to make universities free again, and offer the opportunity for everybody to go and be in a situation where they meet different people, and do classes where you have to apply some kind of constructive criticism called critical thinking, and everyone hates the word critical thinking now. But this idea that we could also start getting excited about that kind of place to live where we have to accept change, and things will have to move. And we start to become a country that is moving forward in an exciting way. Rather than always, even though we have to be worried about the things that aren't working, and that's where our leadership can come from in terms of be it state or federal, or, you know, performers or whoever it might be that sort of has those visions in knows a bit more than us, you know, don't be afraid of being with someone that knows more than you because that's how you learn. Right?
Kerry O'Brien 30:05 Yeah. Look, I think I think there is. I mean, there's the single biggest source of hope for me in the future, is the extraordinary range of great young people coming through, in through various public forums, wonderfully articulate, passionate, clear sighted, demanding a better way, demanding, demanding better actions, demanding action on climate change, because they're saying, You're robbing us of our future, how dare you. But at the moment, it's still fractured. You know, there's no sort of form to it that I can see. And which is why I find that that independence movement, so interesting, because it does seem to have developed as a grassroots thing. There's no hand from the top that has arranged all this. And if and the longer, I think that the mainstream parties choose to ignore the challenge that's being laid out to them, they're, the more they're going to be affected by it. Because ultimately, if this continues the way it is, if mainstream parties do not improve their act, do not reform from the middle and think seriously about getting back on the track that they once were on as responsive parties to their constituencies. Then you're going to see hung Parliament's and in multi party governments, as as much more commonplace than they have ever been in this country. And we already saw Julia Guillen, the low you had you had and more power to her for her capacity to actually bring those people together. She had independence from both sides of the political divide, broadly speaking, functioning very efficiently with her minority government, to keep pushing legislation through the parliament. at record levels, really, including some quite substantial significant legislation
Julia Zemiro 32:05 is not the job of a prime minister to be someone who can. And I'm not saying this disparagingly about anyone, but I'm just saying surely the job, or you would want someone in that position that goes, Okay, I see your point of view, I see your point of view, we're going to bring it together, why do you think that's what's going on? Now, I'm not going to, that's the skill, right? I've got skills in what I can do, I'm certainly gonna overshoot what I can do. But those kinds of skills, that's what you need, you need someone who can do that. And they're out there, they're out there. But somehow, we're not inviting them into the fold. And it's so interesting to me, that this grassroots level of people all over the country somehow seem to be choosing in the Maine women as they candidates
Kerry O'Brien 32:48 that that is a fascinating part of the equation, I have to say an impressive women, often,
Julia Zemiro 32:54 grassroots movements seem to be choosing women as their candidates even though there's been men in the mix. And yet apparently, there's no place for women federally on the hill when it's done in the in the other systems. So, again, it's showing that people it's not that people don't trust women, they absolutely do the choosing them.
Kerry O'Brien 33:15 This is you this is the same struggle that you've seen in the corporate world, as well. And funnily enough in trade unions, I think, I think trade unions were ahead of the game in that regard, because there have been some very strong female trade union leaders going back over a couple of decades. Yeah, that's just that's that's still catching up. And and even though there has been a significant increase in the numbers of women in the parliament, that very revealing series of Anabel, crabs, just shows how long it's taking any number of men to actually catch up with what the wider public has already appreciated. And that is that women have a huge and at least equal contribution to make, and in the whole process will only improve as a result of it. You
Julia Zemiro 34:01 always hear people saying, I wish we had a just Cinder and you guys, I say she has a job already with that there were plenty of descenders around, you just have to make them get in there. And it seems like the independent way is allowing women to step up, you know, women who've already had careers and are now in the third act of something that they want to do in their life. And and it just, I mean, so eloquent, you know, zali Steggall and Helen Haynes so eloquent and how they speak and get their ideas across that I feel saying when I listened to them, I got I understand what you're saying, You're being very clear, you're being very direct, you're not mucking around, hiding anything.
Kerry O'Brien 34:39 I mean, look, just so that we don't get too carried away with with what we're hoping as against the realities. I mean, the truth is, if you're an independent and you're settling on three or four or five key issues, that you're going to say these are my you know, stand against the tide, or no matter what, and I'm going to represent you on these issues more than any other but I also be very sensible and what else comes along, unlike the major parties, they don't have to have a whole platform. And that does make their job somewhat easier. But nonetheless, the role that they potentially can play is of really serious import, given the standards of politics generally today and the need for the mainstream parties to be forced to rethink, reassess, and reform in a way that is much more responsive to the broader public and going back to politics more as a vocation than as just another career. And that is a part of what's gone wrong.
Julia Zemiro 35:36 But don't think that but don't you think the way they express themselves too, if you think of Rob Oakshott and Tony Windsor as well, I mean, it's just a different way of expressing yourself as well. It's, it's, they always take the heat out of the discussion and the bias. And I just saying, Well, this is how it is. And I just don't see why we can't do that more for and I hope voters start to see, that's a way of doing things that's different, that seems to be yielding more. It's an approach if you know that old you can't be what you can't see. And I know it's an old cliche term, but it's true. If you can't see that someone can actually cut through with just, you know, calm discussion. It's sort of saying, Well, I know, I know, you might not have as much power and I might still be a laborer or a liberal voter. But why can't we have more of those in our group, and there are some I'm not saying they're not.
Kerry O'Brien 36:22 But don't forget the tourney, Windsor was in a mainstream party, he was National Party, he was in the state parliament as a National Party representative. So he had come out of the mainstream, he had come out of conventional politics. And I think, any smart individual who's got any understanding of politics, if you're going to be an independent, you got to be really clear about what it is that your potential constituency is going to find attractive, because if you can't work it out, goodbye, goodbye to your chances of ever being elected. Some of them are populist. In fact, I think, I'm just guessing here talking off the top of my head, but I think over the course of time, if you went back and counted them all, and looked at them, you'd probably find that most of them were populist, most of the successful ones like a, like a bob Katter. In this day and age, if you're going to be a successful, independent, other than like a, like a rogue, self interested, Clive Palmer, then you've got to be offering alternative around issues of trust and honesty, and responsiveness to the public. Those are the things that I imagine the key resonators, and so you've got to be prepared to practice what you preach or you'll be very quickly exposed. Because before you walk through the front door of parliament house for the first time, you've made a whole shitload of enemies.
Julia Zemiro 37:39 And that's a technical term, everybody Shitload, there'll be in the McCrory dictionary, Shitload final question to you is, I've always been sort of, I don't quite understand why. So I'm half French, half Australian. And when I go to France, people talk about politics quite naturally, easily, openly. It can be part of any conversation. And yes, sometimes it'll get a fiery and other times, it just will not. People will protest for things much for being shut down for things go on strike for things, and it all moves along. And in Australia, I honestly feel that Australians almost need permission to speak, they like that. Firstly, they'll shut it down. And I'm talking about, you know, yes, there's a group of you know, who might have been to uni, like us, and all the rest of it, who of course, have the tools to be able to, but I'm talking about, you know, any people you meet to sort of say, you are allowed to talk about this, and you are allowed to express yourself around it and find out more about it. And I guess that's the sort of feeling I got from that basketball court of people going, I can turn up, I can be here. And it doesn't have to be under the bright lights of a q&a in an audience, which is terrifying. It can be here. And I cannot say anything, but I can sort of, I'm allowed to listen to it and maybe dare to dream or dare to believe or dare to question why Australians like that.
Kerry O'Brien 39:05 Well, look, I think truly you need to unpack this. If you've got another hour, we're gonna have a crack at it not have to give it some really serious thought beforehand. Australians have always had a capacity to there's been no shortage of anger in politics 1970s, maybe even 16, the the conscription debates, no holds barred. They're in the middle of the First World War. Australia has thrown up some significant surprises in its politics. I do think that one thing that is so fundamentally precious to our system, which really works and is a shining example to the rest of the world, is the fact that our voting is compulsory, even if people aren't prepared to to pursue an interest in politics, that the Constitution is saying that, that the Founding Fathers I hope, I hope I'm reflecting the genuine view of the founding fathers that they understood how fundamentally important the right to vote It was that they were actually they took the view that it should be, you know, shut your ears antivaxxers that. And you know, please don't mandate my life, despite the fact that has constantly mandated in all kinds of ways many of them legitimate, that it was such a crucial key to, to a healthy democracy. As that they were that they've decreed that the voting that voting should be compulsory. Now, I'm not walking article on the constitution. So I'm assuming that that was there from the outset, it might have been presented some years later. One of the great things that's happened to differentiate Australian democracy from many others. And it's, and it's why partly, it partly explains America's problem and partly explains Britain's problem. People might grumble as they go to the polls, but for one brief moment, at least, they're forced to think about it. And some more so it does create conversations. If you're right, that people are kind of timid about expressing their own views. And you're probably more right now than you might have been in the past simply because of this sense of almost isolationism and and polarization. People are scared that because they might pick a fight, because there are so many angry people out there on this stuff, which is why I think it is a kind of a nice example of how things can be done, that people can decide to sit down in a civil environment and speak to each other and open their minds up to the views of others and feel confident enough to express their own views and start to develop their own views with others.
Julia Zemiro 41:39 Well, on that note, Kerry O'Brien What a beautiful way to finish but a beautiful way to finish what's what's the rest of the day hold for you carry you're gonna do something raining what you ox it's pouring
Kerry O'Brien 41:51 rain writing constantly but I came to a view very early in our time up here we came up to the north coast of New South Wales when I left 730 And my wife walked away from her job the Herald I learned very early on not to complain about the rain because you you appreciate it when it's the and and often it's the it's here in abundance and the bar and Bayview have a dry season is where you have four months without rain. But now it's wonderful, wonderful part of the world and the only what it reminds you of though is is that there are now so many manifestations of the impact of climate change already on us that again, nothing is predictable anymore. The only thing I think that is predictable as is being demonstrated season after season after season. Is that is that whatever weather patterns we've had in the past we're going to have in spades and we're going to have with greater intensity and at greater cost. Sorry
Julia Zemiro 43:02 Jesus Christ
Kerry O'Brien 43:04 was I say never asked a question you don't know the answer to
Dan Ilic 43:07 what out what up Jay Z asked who cares? Sure, boy, Jay Z make some noise. No, by Jay Z joins me right. This is Julius Amira asks, Who cares?
Julia Zemiro 43:19 Thank you, Kerry O'Brien isn't it great to hear Kerry laugh on to Zara Seidler What an impressive human being she is in her 20s She set up with Sam cars Lasky the daily oz news for millennials. And it's Australia's leading social first news organization. They're on a mission to arm Millennials with the tools they need to begin their own deep dive into the news. Their news recaps and explainers are read by over 100,000 Australians daily 85% of whom are under 34. They've also got a daily podcast you can check out. And it was just wonderful to hear her talk about how they got into this and why they thought it was necessary. And I started by asking her about how she got into it in the first place. And it went via possibly wanting to become a teacher going to Washington to work in politics, and finally getting a gig with Karen Phelps.
Zara Seidler 44:15 Straight out of school, I thought I wanted to do teaching, I was dissuaded by those around me, perhaps because of my temperament more than anything due to that. I think that people rightly identified that I'm very opinionated, I am quite impatient at times and perhaps needed to go out there and figure out a bit more about the world and then go back to teaching a little later. So I thought I was gonna do my undergrad and then go back and do a Masters of Education. And I mean, still could happen but doesn't look very likely. So I did an international level studies degree straight out of uni, and it's a fairly open degree where you can kind of Have make your own way and figure out what you want to do. Ended up at Georgetown for an exchange and got there the weekend that Donald Trump was inaugurated.
Julia Zemiro 45:10 Now that's in Washington for people. I mean, that's the heartbeat, isn't it? That's a hard day's politics.
Zara Seidler 45:15 It is. Yeah, you nailed that. It was quite an awakening, I think that I had thought I was political. And then I went over there and got a whole new sense of what being political really is. My understanding of being political was caring about things. And when I went there, it was a full embodiment, it was a head to toe, you know, you have thrown your life into this, it is affecting your day to day in a way that I mean, Trump really brought a new sense to, to engage during one's everyday life. But I will acknowledge that I had had a privileged upbringing where I chose issues that mattered to me and I cared deeply about those, but day to day wasn't really affected by decision making. And so I got to see that up close when I went to DC. And I also did a fellowship with Hillary Clinton's campaign director, who was obviously quite jaded post election. And so it was this just really, yeah, it was really quite life changing. I mean, I was extremely young. So
Julia Zemiro 46:29 how can we didn't turn you off, though?
Zara Seidler 46:32 I just honestly, and it sounds so contrived, the passion that people had the fact that this guy was still going into Georgetown, and teaching a bunch of teenagers about politics after he'd lost the biggest election in history, I just something, it just appealed to me even more. And it made me angry, I think more than anything, because the day after Trump's election, I had the Women's March. And that was just on the complete other side of the spectrum. So both deeply political experiences, but but my, you know, interaction with those was very different. So I came back, just really excitable and I wrote myself a note, I actually found it recently that said that I didn't want to become complacent when I got back, that I didn't want to just be one of those people that said, that had an amazing experience, but then never channeled it into anything. Hilariously, I ended up coming back and working for Sky News. But what a
Julia Zemiro 47:27 great experience to be in the kind of the Belly of the Beast there and sort of go, how stuffs done here and what sort of tactics is in this world,
Zara Seidler 47:37 I often find in in my role, now, I get a fair bit, not a fair bit, that's an exaggeration, I get some comments about my time at Sky News and people thinking that I am aligned with the Murdoch way of thinking. And to that I just respond that I was a young kid who needed a job, and that it was an amazing foot in the door. And when the media market is owned, you know, two thirds owned by the same person, you don't really have a whole lot of choice as a young person who's interested. So it was a really great experience. And my role there was to set up guests for their interviews, Karen was one of those guests. Kind of just tutor ear off a bit, and then sent an email out into the world hoping that it would land and somehow got put in touch with someone who puts me in touch with someone and ended up working for Karen, for a very short period, which was wonderful and, you know, reinvigorated my my love and passion for public policy and all the likes of that.
Julia Zemiro 48:46 So when great when you came back from America, do you come back to Australia and often feel this Australians are just so afraid to speak up? We're so afraid to have an opinion. We will not talk about politics, we won't our cup will go settle down. I need to get excited about it. And you're like, if not, when now? If not now When? And I'm getting excited by and affected by as you said, the the daily decisions that are made on our behalf, whether we like it or not. Did you come back to Australia and have your shoulders kind of drop and go? Come on everyone?
Zara Seidler 49:20 I did. I definitely did. I think that I was in a unique position because like you I grew up in a family where it was kind of always the conversation. Like there was never a time that I remember we were talking about politics. When I noticed it most acutely was with my friends. It was that I would kind of speak at them. And would it be getting a whole lot back in terms of excitement around certain things. I would say though, that if there was any time where people seem to care, it was that time it was because and I think it has something to do with the way that Americans Politics is based on this real value system that I don't think we've identified exists in Australia despite the fact that it does. And so there, it's this, like sweeping ideology that's, you know, connected to these big systems of how you see the world. And you either agree with Trump or you don't. And that's, you know, it's very two dimensional, I found that to be quite a stark difference to how we see Australia and that people consider things to be on a lesser scale for some reason. And I know, we're obviously a lot smaller, but no decision affects us any more or less than it would being in a different country with a different light on
Julia Zemiro 50:37 one an amazing experience to you know, wasn't necessarily going to be interested in politics. And you have this time in Washington, you come and work with Karen and to work within and pendant at such close quarters. And she achieved so much, and was one of one of those first lots of examples of how much an independent can actually achieve. And now look what's going on. I mean, I mean, Zoe, Daniel has just stepped up as gold. It is very exciting. And I mean, you know, there is some very experienced people out there, stepping up, as they say, because it's not easy to this assumption that doing something like that. I'm sure you experienced that with Karen, and her life, but it's, you know, you're also stepping into a world of extreme dizziness, and you'll never see, again, all of that. But when that finished, did you think I'm onto my next independent, I'm going to get into this, how can I get into into the with this world,
Zara Seidler 51:38 I went a different route. What attracted me so much to Karen was that I agreed with everything she was about there was there was no part of it, that I feel this with the party two party system is that you love some of it, and then you hate some of it. And you just have to take it, I never really liked that and never saw myself reflected in in that sort of style of politicking. So, with no other independent, that really appealed to me or had a job. I moved into government relations.
Julia Zemiro 52:14 But sometimes when I'm on rock quiz, and I get my contestants up, and I ask them what they do, they'll say something like government relations, and I'll go
Zara Seidler 52:21 and what is it? What is their lovely euphemism?
Julia Zemiro 52:25 It's like, you know, I mean, communication to you, but what do you communicate? So tell me, in your own words, what is government?
Zara Seidler 52:34 Government Relations is, I don't know if this is a flattering picture of it. To me, it was using the connections that you had in the political system, to affect change on behalf of a client. So ultimately, it is lobbying. And my role during that time, was to specifically have those relationships with the independent politicians, so members of the crossbench. And that was fascinating. Because the thing with that is that you get across every policy in you could ever think of because you're not married or tied to one client with one policy area, you learn about health, about science, about tech, and it's sort of just this amazing, deep dive into a whole lot of things. And I really, I really enjoyed it, I think, I think it taught me a lot, I learned so much about communication, and how to communicate a point effectively, and concisely and in a way, funnily enough, it's kind of the opposite way, but in a way that makes sense to a politician who needs to get across things really quickly.
Julia Zemiro 53:43 Yeah. And he is still catching up with friends and having great discussions about this great job you've gotten. They're still blinking and going yet, when you start talking Zara about
Zara Seidler 53:51 the night as a drink. Yeah, no.
Julia Zemiro 53:55 And why are they interested? I mean, you've you've probably had similar schooling, you're in a similar area, are they? That this is what always fascinates me? I'm not saying you're gonna be a hardcore not about politics. But you know, you're either in it or you're not. And I still can't quite, you know, if you stopped paying someone in the street and say, Who do you think controls your life? No, I do. And you go, Well, you know, there is this umbilical cord to what's happening in Canberra, and people choose to ignore that or at their peril, or go, Look, I'll just vote for the light whoever I voted for last time. What what is it for them? Are they just busy off with uni? Do they genuinely don't see that it affects them?
Zara Seidler 54:36 I think that both the media and the political class have not. I don't want to take agency away from the individual. But I think and this is the problem that I've been trying to solve, that there has not been enough communication in the style and the way that is accessible to this generation that makes them realize They care and why they need to care and what is at stake here. I think that there's a lot of assumed knowledge.
Julia Zemiro 55:07 This is what the daily odds does, it makes it clear, it kind of separates, you know, the complicated set, not even the complicated stuff. It just sort of isolates those moments. And those are stories and ideas that can actually make sense to someone.
Zara Seidler 55:24 To exactly it. And that assumed knowledge part. And that component was the driving force. It was, how do we provide context to the headlines that people are reading every day because people turn off when they feel dumb. And I know that, that it people in my life have said that to me before it's, well, I don't contribute to conversations because I don't know enough. And I don't want to come across as dumb or uninformed. And I completely understand that I would feel the same way. And so what we're trying to do is really provide that backstory that context to a headline, or a concept or a political mechanism, so that people feel empowered to then get into the discussion or vote a certain way, because they know that there is a level of information that sets the foundation of their knowledge.
Julia Zemiro 56:15 So you're working in government relations. Lobbying, and, and what how do you meet Sam? Or how do you go on to this other?
Zara Seidler 56:27 Uh, my timeframes are really murky. But
Julia Zemiro 56:30 I mean, they can be general for a day. Yeah,
Zara Seidler 56:34 I was sick that night. So Sam started the daily orders a number of years ago. And he, he taken the name on Instagram, he had the idea, didn't do anything about it, and then put it on either Instagram or LinkedIn, we kind of gray and saying, I want to do this with someone. Is anyone interested? And I had like, eight friends send it to me. And I say no, you know what? I know. It's as if my friends listened to me. And just kind of have to complain. No, they know, my friends are absolutely wonderful. But I yeah, I just remember being sent it. And we are part of the same community, but had never met each other. And we went for coffee. And we were like, oh my god, we're the same person in two different bodies. Like this is insane. We had exactly the same ideas we had, I mean, different upbringings, but the same values and belief system. And we have been best friends since that day. There's not been a day since then, that we haven't spoken. And I think that was four years ago, I love from there grew the daily hours. And for a number of years, it was just a side hustle. There was nothing else to it, it was it we'll do this everyday because we want our friends to have something to talk about on a date, or we want to not have friends, which very much happens and family members texts made the morning of an election saying Who am I voting for? So it was an attempt to address all of those issues with the one answer, which was, let's give you accessible, digestible Quick News bites and not actually disrupt the way that you consume information, we're going to just put it in your way so that when you're going about you're scrolling, you get a chunk of information, and you're smarter than when you started.
Julia Zemiro 58:29 And how do you know it's working? You know, you're starting it off. And like anything, it starts slowly, and I knew it sort of jumped and grew. But how do you know that this side hustle is making a difference of people getting in touch with you? And they're saying, I get this now? And I'm getting interested? Like, have you seen people go down new kind of, you know, wormholes of inflammation or
Zara Seidler 58:51 school question. I think for the first little while, it wasn't like, I don't think there was any indication that it was working, or that it was successful. But we just kept doing it every day, because we loved it. And we didn't really have an audience. As it grew, it became very clear to us through just anecdotal evidence that people were starting to rely on it as their sole news source. That's a massive responsibility for people that are doing this before and after their very long day jobs. That was terrifying. But also, we have always positioned ourselves we say we're the entree to the news diet. So take us, you know, it come with us and then off, you go into the world and you can consume whatever else, and at least you again, have that foundation. So we grew more. Yeah, our audience grew and then COVID happen and then here we added COVID affect you. Everyone suddenly had a reason to care about politicians, because in a way that I think, like we discussed earlier Politics had touched people personally in their day to day life before, especially the more privileged among us. This affected every single person. So no matter who you are, no matter where you lived, no matter what you did. And so suddenly, we had people who previously wouldn't have known the name of their premier or chief minister, texting saying, What time is it on? Like, I need, I need an update. I need everything. And so we went from whatever we were doing before to doing just, we will translate these press conferences for you. And that was just clearly what people wanted. Yeah, yes. And we just continued to grow and grow. And we started hearing more about what our audience wanted. And that was a really gratifying thing to have that audience important to have young people saying, I've heard this around. Can you just explain it for me? And so it continued to grow. There were a number of other events. And I've spoken about this before, but Black Lives Matter movement, the US presidential election, and COVID taken together or really just, yeah, put a rocket ship under our I don't even know what the word for that is.
Julia Zemiro 1:01:11 They put a run. Wherever it did it blue thing. He got it going? What a rocket.
Zara Seidler 1:01:18 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That. And yeah, yeah.
Julia Zemiro 1:01:22 It's, it's hard to find good things that came out of COVID. But one of them is that yeah, there's definitely. And the thing is to it doesn't even have to be the word politicization. It's actually just being involved in a civic engagement and engagement. Yeah, with what's going on around you. The work is so great. On daily ours, it's so accessible, it's so clear, it does, it's not dumbed down at all it is the clarity of it is what I love so much. And I know that people who, as I said before, it's not just 20, that 20 year old group that that listens and reads, what shocks you, as you're putting work together is anything that you see in the way it's all put together, or what's out there, that shocks you about media,
Zara Seidler 1:02:05 just how much assumed knowledge there is. And it's not even about the concept. It's about the historical happenings that kind of predate that event, I just
Julia Zemiro 1:02:21 so what happened you just so how can we change that? Like, you know, I still think that, like, I think, I think, say in terms of the arts, for instance, you know, we still have such a problem in this country, just legitimizing it full stop, people have gone to see shows, sure, but in terms of training in terms of what needs to be done in terms of the discipline involved in in terms of it being a full time job, if you're lucky. And not being a side hustle, and don't keep asking people to do stuff for free. I sometimes think Well, the best way to make good audiences is at school, you give them the jargon and the vocabulary to read a play on stage to understand what that there's a stage manager to understand what film is to understand that there's layers of meaning and understanding to go to dance and go, I'm not quite sure how to get into this, but I'm feeling something I'm not sure what it is. Like, for me, it's art. I don't know enough about it. And I there's no point me going to a gallery unless I'm with a friend who just gets it right. And it's so different. It's so good. Because you they go oh my god, you've got this whole knowledge and you can share it with me. I'll hopefully I can share some rock music with you later. But um, but it's it's a sense of going you make better audiences for something and not by necessarily marking them on it. Maybe we could just do it because it's interesting and fun, and makes you feel good to sing a song every day. That's cool with a whole group of people and go and we're not getting marked on that. We just generally did that because it was enjoyable. Great. Yeah. Maybe we could do that with media unless you unless you take Media Studies at school.
Zara Seidler 1:03:55 That is something I have thought about for so long, is actually texted some of my old school teachers to just say whether there would be an appetite, because having media literacy at a school age. I mean, our school leavers are at voting age, and it's too late, then it is too late when we are trying to mean it's not too late. It's never too late. But I think it is later than it should be when we're at the daily hours are intercepting these people. I think it should be as early as possible. And it's a completely a political non partisan. Yeah, I think in my head, I've always thought of a civics and a media course. And I've always thought of someone coming in. I mean, at school, we had all of these like study skills, things that they just brought in external people to run. And they were like, cool, hip, young kids, and you're like, Oh, I like you like maybe I'll listen to what you say. And in my head, I think that way of doing it would be really useful and working with the teachers alongside them. but actually having experts in the room to talk to the need for media literacy, so that when these people go and finish school, they have at least that foundation of knowledge to then go out and seek out their own information. You cannot expect a school age student to know what they can't know. And I really see it as something that needs to happen.
Julia Zemiro 1:05:22 But yeah, the media literacy thing would is ridiculous that we're not sort of harnessing it there. And then people are lost and absolutely feel stupid. And no one knows.
Zara Seidler 1:05:32 Exactly. And I think the big thing to point out is that, no wonder no wonder you feel that way. And that's not wrong. And you're, you haven't done anything wrong to feel that way. You've just been underserviced in this department, for lack of a better term. And I think, often times there can be this condescending tone that is implied when talking to people who might not be involved in our, you know, civil society, when it's how can we actually engage them? Let's not isolate them further. Let's try bring them in. And how do we do that?
Julia Zemiro 1:06:09 There was a time when I remember when Natasha stopped Despoiler joined Parliament, and we're a similar age. And I remember thinking, wow, I mean, and a lot of fuss was made about how young she was. And because she did it with the Democrats. Maybe that was the only way that could happen. It could only happen through a slightly off center party. But um, but she was about the only one really, I mean, or maybe I paid attention because she was a woman. But you know, it's not. And what's interesting to me is that now all these independents that are stepping up, they're mostly women. Yeah, I mean, bar a couple. And it's interesting to me that all of a sudden, you know, apparently, we're a country that doesn't like being run by a woman. And yet grass roots are going, we absolutely choose you to be the person to run,
Zara Seidler 1:07:00 you know that it's electorally advantageous to have someone that will appeal to the electorate, and it's just turning out to be women every day.
Julia Zemiro 1:07:09 Good grace. Now, when you when you got into the daily Oz, surely part of the enjoyment too, is that you have creative control.
Zara Seidler 1:07:18 I mean, I actually, we had a job interview today with someone who we are looking at hiring. And they asked about the bureaucracy of our organization, and what bureaucracy? What red tape there is done? Yeah, I mean, it is, we, I think this was something that was really important during COVID. We don't have to wait on anyone, we don't have to get approval for anything, we don't have to fight upwards for anything it is, we do what we want. And I think that lends itself to listening a lot more to what our audience wants to. And so we're really guided by what is happening in their lives, what they are interested in what they want, you know, as a talking point, before a date, and to have that freedom. I mean, it's just, I'm in my dream job. And I'm 24 I can't quite imagine a world that is better than this. It's amazing. There's a lot
Julia Zemiro 1:08:18 of fast made about how the young uns Sam, but I kind of think God, I mean, in your 20s, if you switched on, that's where you have a lot of energy,
Zara Seidler 1:08:25 you've got a lot of couldn't do this at any other point, I'm exhausted, you know what I mean? It's like, you've
Julia Zemiro 1:08:31 got this amazing energy, and it's like, I'm going to use it while I'm here. Well, I can. Yeah, it's a good, good idea. You also incorporate serious news story. I mean, you know, Sam puts it as the necessity of news. It's sort of having that in there. You do hard news, you're not going to be doing, you know, fun stuff for fun. But you're doing intent, you do tend to include a good news story. And what was the idea behind that?
Zara Seidler 1:08:57 That a lot of people said that they didn't read the news, because it made them feel really shitty. And I understand that it can be really shitty, just not a good enough reason to turn off. And I also think that you can turn off if it doesn't affect you, which again, goes to one's privilege. So I just wanted to eliminate that excuse altogether. Yeah. And like, Yep, the news can be shitty. Here's a great story to end the day with. And I'll tell you finding the good news is the longest thing. It is the longest task in a day by an absolute mile. It is so difficult to find a good news story every single day of the week. And that is horrible. I don't blame the people that say it's dark. It is dark, but we always find them.
Julia Zemiro 1:09:47 But the funny thing is, though, you is it isn't a good news story, what we want to try and turn our bad news stories into because you know, if you see that something's been dressed, addressed if you see that climate change is being addressed, or we're going to start Looking at renewables in a fundamental way you go, that is the good news story. You know, today having a liberal across the floor for for something is the good news part of saying, you see, you can work together, we can have those conversations. But again, there's a lot of assume knowledge into why that could be seen as a good news.
Zara Seidler 1:10:18 Exactly, exactly. There's a lot of assumed knowledge. And also, I mean, this goes against what I've said this whole time at, I've been speaking in a personal capacity and in a professional capacity. We we really value impartiality. And so we've taken a position on a couple of issues, things like climate change, not political, not a political game. It is our future. We care deeply about that. We will always put good news that is about action on climate change. Yeah, that can be seen as political for a couple of people. Yeah. As they make it known to us every single time it happens. But that's just the editorial position that we decided to take. But yeah, what's good news to set, one person might not be good news to another person. And that's when you have a quarter of a million people who are following your every move that can get quite sticky very quickly.
Julia Zemiro 1:11:11 And do you feel a pressure though, that one day, you'll find yourself trying to please your audience more than saying, Well, hang on, we started this because we're into the hard news, and we're into the necessity of news. So no, we've got to, we've got to stick to what we initially said.
Zara Seidler 1:11:29 I don't see it becoming an insurmountable problem. It's, it's like they're always going to be there. We respect the opinions and the views of our audience. And as I said, we will take, you know, guidance from them. But we this is our thing, they can go elsewhere, if they don't like honestly, yeah, like someone said something about the way that we were reporting COVID numbers, and I was like, mate, just look for them yourself, then like, it's just, you can seek out the information without coming here. It's a freemium news service that no one is making, you follow. But I mean, we have to do stuff that some popular all the time in the subject matter itself, like no one wants to write about taxation. And that doesn't mean we're not going to do it, because you need to know about it. And so it's funny, because an indication of success for us at a very superficial level is no likes and comments, which is bizarre. And so there's a very quick rate, and we can gauge very, very quickly what the audience cares and doesn't care about. But to us, that doesn't ever affect the editorial process, it really informs it.
Julia Zemiro 1:12:41 I think it's something like tax to you know, people are horrified that say, in a country like Denmark, you know, half of their salary goes into tax, but they have paid parental leave for men and for women, you know, they want for nothing, their university is free, because they believe that, you know, every kid no matter where they come from, shall be able to have the choice to go to uni, if they want to go to uni, I mean, free university, I had free university in, you know, the age I'm at, but um, I mean, that's a pipe dream. Now, you know, and it would be so that mean, that would be a monumental thing to be able to say you can go to uni for a certain amount of time, at least for free.
Zara Seidler 1:13:19 It's really, I haven't thought about this before, but I'm thinking about it now. And you say that what I feel is missing right now, at least among the cohort that I speak to and hang out with, is there is no sense of aspiration in our politics, no one is aspiring to reach, you know, the levels of Yeah, of what you just described of having free, you know, it's just like, how do we, how do we change what we're in now? I could better within the limitations of what we know, I don't get a sense that there's any like big thinking happening.
Julia Zemiro 1:14:04 But there's no big thinking happening from the people in charge of
Zara Seidler 1:14:07 who it is probably that trickle down effect. It's that there's no big thinking at the top. So how can there be big thinking at the bottom? Yeah, I'm
Julia Zemiro 1:14:16 behind. Yeah, yeah, we really are. Oh. Now, as we, as we finish off, what do you do you and Sam see yourself doing the daily AWS for another five years, 10 years, you hand it over, and then you do something else?
Zara Seidler 1:14:35 I mean, I don't want to be the person that I refer to earlier, which is a person that thinks that they are among peers, and speaking to peers when they're not. So when we are no longer the age of our audience, I think that that's a good indication that we're in the wrong place. For now, it's really great that we feel like we're growing with them that as they learn, we learn and it's just this beautiful to full relationship unless someone forces me and I'd like to stay. We're just starting to grow our newsroom. were recruiting lots of young journalists and to have you know, that just passion and excitement and people wanting to rock up to work every day. I'm not quite sure I'll find it anywhere else.
Julia Zemiro 1:15:19 I know you've kind of quit, you know, when you create your own job
Zara Seidler 1:15:22 peak too early. I know. I know every disappointment.
Julia Zemiro 1:15:26 But at least you've seen disappointment too. You've seen a lot of hard work going to a campaign like Karen's, and you see that there's incredible highs and incredible lows. And absolutely, until you've you kind of do need to experience that I guess to kind of go Oh, yeah, well, you know, and q&a. What was that? Like? How did you find that show?
Zara Seidler 1:15:45 I felt like it was studying for the HSC. Yes, I like tried to get across so much. And then they ask you one specific thing on something you're like, Oh, wow. Not quite where my mind was gonna go with that one. Um, I think I mean, it. It was my dream as a kid to be on q&a. I just like, in I am. I'm Jewish. No, I said that so strangely, but for my Bar Mitzvah. When I was 12, my friends did a speech for me. And in it, they like embodied different parts of my personality. And one of them was them pretending to be on q&a. And they've nose just kills me and ham raising it. Yeah. Lots to lots to learn lots to improve on but it was just I'm so lucky. That that's all really I was very fortunate. And I will. Really, yeah, remember that one?
Julia Zemiro 1:16:42 Zara. What a delight to talk to you. Onwards and upwards. Young lady.
Zara Seidler 1:16:47 Thanks so much lovely to chat Woman of the Year.
Dan Ilic 1:16:51 Julia Zemiro asks, Who cares? A big
Julia Zemiro 1:16:53 thank you to Kerry O'Brien and Zara Seidler for talking with me today. And a big thanks to irrational fear our Patreon supporters, the birther Foundation, and to our post producer Jacob Brown, who makes us sound great on equipment from the wonderful people at road. Join me next month, which will be 2022 to find out who else cares. I promise I'll find people. We do care and I do hope you'll get to have a break and arrest. Alright, see you soon. Bye
We're Talking Fears with the Talking Pictures crew.
Yianni Agisilaou Mike Bowers Fiona Katauskas Dan Ilic + Zoe Daniel
We talk about the diplomatic boycot of the winter olympics, world leaders hitting the pingers at 4am, Andrew Laming's staffers poor choices, and we talk with Zoe Daniel about running as an independant.
If you can't tell in this recording, I'm super stoked to have Alice Fraser and Andy Zaltzman on for the first ever Bugle X A Rational Fear crossover special.
We talk.
On-line Trolls. Xenobots. NFTs. UK Anti Vax Protests. and I attempt a Pun Run for Andy's sake.
We have a very loose, dude-heavy podcast this week, that is back to back bros being bros. There is ribbing, slander, sledging, marijuana, bitcoin, and as promised rhyming.
Joining Lewis Hobba (Triple J) and Dan Ilic (Third Person Writer) on the podcast this week are two of our old friends in comedy and broadcasting Matt Okine and Alex Dyson (All Day Breakfast) ripping into the news of the week. We also talk through all things Australian Podcast Awards we give Dom Knight (The Chaser), and Andy Lee (Hamish and Andy) a call. We also get a brief La Niña whether report direct from the Bureau of the Brolly CEO, Tim Bailey.
You can now get our classic billboard artwork through our RedBubble store as stickers! And if you're an Indiegogo #JokeKeeper supporter your stickers will be going out in the mail next week!
Dan Ilic 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation. Good evening, Lewis.
Lewis Hobba 0:05 Hello, Daniel. How are you?
Dan Ilic 0:07 I'm good. I'm just kind of warming up you know for the big week ahead of us. And not only are we trying to get a bugle a rational fear crossover show next next week, but we've got the the Podcast Awards coming up. Do we? Like some Thursday? Thursday? Yeah, this coming Thursday. Yeah. Next week next. Did you know about this? I bought your ticket. We normally the great thing is we normally record on Thursday night so well, you will you wouldn't be doing anything anyway. Cuz usually schedule Thursday nights for us. Yeah, but you didn't. You didn't know that? No.
Lewis Hobba 0:43 Look, it's it's a whole week ahead. And that's long term plan. But I cannot wait. I'm excited. I've been excited for months. The night free. I've got myself a new suit. I'm ready to go.
Dan Ilic 0:56 Good. Let's call one other person who's also getting ready for the big night. Now we've got some stiff competition. There's the Boggy Creek community podcast the Candyman. A couple of blokes called Hamish and Andy housewarming, as we know, we spoke to them last week. But then we've got our old friends called The Chaser already Pete Lawler in the in the in the text has said, how do we vote for the chaser podcast? Any words? Thank you, Peter. Thank you very much for that. I just thought we'd give them a call and see how they're going. See how they're preparing for the night. Let's give DOM Knight a call. He's the co host of The Chaser podcast along with
Lewis Hobba 1:32 you've been on a Danny poster. Do you get do you get a section of the award? You have shares in the award? Yeah,
Dan Ilic 1:37 I do. I'm gonna say hello. Hello, Tom. Nice.
Unknown Speaker 1:41 Hello, is this Dan Ilic it is Dan Ilic Chen
Dan Ilic 1:45 Lewis haba. Hi, Tom.
Unknown Speaker 1:47 Hello Lewis. taba. I'm in the middle of an Uber. Night in Sydney to watch I have the pleasure of speaking to the two of you. Well, we
Dan Ilic 1:54 just wanted to know see how you're going. How you're preparing for the Podcast Awards coming up. We got we got a stiff competition with you also nominated for Best Comedy podcast. What are you doing to prepare?
Dom Knight 2:05 were nominated.
Dan Ilic 2:08 Hang on, you don't even you didn't even know you're nominated. Am I the only one that cares about these Podcast Awards?
Unknown Speaker 2:13 Oh, no. flattering. It's flattering. But I don't want to get my hopes up because you guys will be winning the title holders?
Dan Ilic 2:22 Yeah. Which means we got a lot to lose. Namely this glass trophy.
Dom Knight 2:27 Ah, I mean, you say that but we didn't put billboards in you know Times Square.
Lewis Hobba 2:35 It's over we've already lost Yeah, where the pranksters now chase up all is Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 2:42 We're just happy to be there. Honestly. We we've our strategy this whole year has been bulk we do 10 podcasts a week. Yeah, you do one podcast a week not even every week. Sometimes you get Julia to Mrs. Amuro to do it for you. nominated? I'm just happy to be there. Oh, I will carry a bag I'll get your autograph.
Dan Ilic 3:06 Why did you go from Why did you go from doing one podcast a day to doing two podcasts a day? That's that seems crazy to me.
Unknown Speaker 3:14 Well with three seem too many you know the reason is, although we have talked about a late night version maybe if we can get hot
Dan Ilic 3:29 dogs, but it's still you can get Roland Dean on satirist
Unknown Speaker 3:34 actually you know what getting Ron Dean on and not telling him it was a joke. Now we did two a day because what we were doing is we have great guests like you know that Danny would start from rational fear semi friend of both of our shows, we just copied your playbook Gabby boss, and he's a co host he always knew we'd have them on and then we cut to cut down the interview we would have a 20 minute lovely chatting to cut it down to him in Philly. Nice, you know, radio show cell phone that we have in the morning. So we can just put them up as an afternoon session and it's
Dan Ilic 4:13 lovely. Oh, I say you've actually done it for less work. That's clever.
Unknown Speaker 4:18 More podcast, less work and also more fun we had done Tony Martin on actually if I'm completely honest with you, we've asked Tony Martin how to win the podcast award. And we were we were bad mouthing your podcast beat him. And so we're gonna we're gonna join forces and duties all shows up.
Dan Ilic 4:42 Very good. Well, we will be unbeatable next year. Thank you, Dom. Good luck.
Unknown Speaker 4:46 All the best incoming second.
Dan Ilic 4:51 Dark Night from the taste of podcast there. I'm recording my end of irrational fear on Gadigal land in the Euro nation's sovereignty was never ceded. We need a treaty. Let's stop this.
Unknown Speaker 5:00 rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra, fed gum and section 40 of our rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 5:13 Tonight Peter Dutton wins a defamation case against Shane bezzie. clearing up any confusion as to whether he's a rape apologist which he is not. And George christison compares COVID restrictions to Nazi Germany, while historians compare Christiansen to Hitler's one ball, and Powershop is found to be part of a shell company. It's the 26th of November 2021. And Peter Dutton is not a rape apologist. This is irrational fear.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former first woman president of Sweden Daniel itch. And this is the podcast that takes the scariest news stories and puts the word freedom in the headline to make them seem nice and acceptable. Let's meet our female guests for tonight. Straight from the red carpet to the luxurious world of independent podcasting. Here's the music maker filmmaker baby make a joke make some would call him a polymath. We just call him POLYMATH.
Matt Okine 6:14 Oh kind, like guys, how's it going?
Dan Ilic 6:18 Well, well, Matt, you make a lot of things. And you've been making mercans lately how sales has Merkin sales going? Yeah, so
Matt Okine 6:25 I found a ball of my old hair underneath my house. My dad found it. And now you gotta understand that this hair must have been there since when I used to cut my hair at home by myself which would have been when I was maybe 1617. So we're looking at Vintage you know 1999 or 2001 Vintage. It aged pretty well. And we just saw it pop the cork on it and take it to a wig maker. So yeah back on this because look at this I got the I got the map at Tassie just sitting out the front here. The best right of forehead on my bloody head these days.
Unknown Speaker 7:02 Terrifying. Wow.
Dan Ilic 7:03 Well, you're you're you're a real you know, middle aged man with a with your kid. You've got your
Matt Okine 7:09 shirts when I sneeze. For God's sake. Well, I used to be licked man.
Dan Ilic 7:15 Alright, use broadcaster. And he's the former independent candidate for wedding. But now he spends his time as a small business owner doing it tough. It's Alex Dyson.
Alex Dyson 7:25 How low I know one independent run. And now as a small business. I don't have to go with the liberals. I mean, the economy now. I've taken one peek at it. And it's tough to get on that tray. Elena, let's guard
Dan Ilic 7:41 when you decided to become a small business owner, did you ever think you'd be one of those ones that were doing it tough?
Alex Dyson 7:46 Of course, but I know no other way when it comes to business. I find the toughest way to try and do everything including getting insurance setting up the internet. There is no easy way to do it. But I'm just looking forward now that Melbourne is open to capacity that Comedy Club is up and running. I'm just hoping that the the money trickles down. You know, I'm just waiting
Lewis Hobba 8:07 for a joke. No. Alex Dyson opened a really fun, awesome, amazing comedy venue pretty much the same week as COVID came by COVID headlining every night.
Matt Okine 8:22 I've been taking the stage. Yeah.
Alex Dyson 8:24 Yeah. Yeah. It's been pretty bizarre with people originally not allowed to be in Melbourne. And then one time, Brisbane people came down and had to give you shoot off stage because there was a COVID outbreak in Brisbane. It's been Yeah, up and down. But we're out and out and about now and even Dan helix came through one time as well, Dan.
Dan Ilic 8:42 Oh, yeah. No, it's fine. It's fantastic.
Alex Dyson 8:45 You would just suspect.
Dan Ilic 8:48 Yeah, no living is I've been invited to perform at comedy Republic. Full disclosure, full disclosure, but COVID has locked us down several times. So we haven't been able to do it just yet. Oh, hang on a sec. Guys. friend of the show, Andy Lee is just texting me. Let's just give him a quick story about Andy you're on the podcast with a Lewis Alex dice at a meta kind. How are you today, Eddie?
Lewis Hobba 9:15 Hello, guys.
Dan Ilic 9:16 How are you all? Well, look, we were just calling we just called dumb Knight because he's also nominated as for Best Comedy at the Podcast Awards coming up. Do you did you did you?
Unknown Speaker 9:25 What do you How are you preparing for the Podcast Awards?
Unknown Speaker 9:28 When other comedy or other podcast the
Dan Ilic 9:30 podcast that was the next Thursday night? Just tell people
Unknown Speaker 9:38 where are they? Are they online? Or is there an event? It's an event like
Dan Ilic 9:43 it's at the Ritz. It's at the Ritz cinema in Randwick in Sydney. You got to buy a ticket everything there isn't
Unknown Speaker 9:50 run by it. They're like a governing podcast,
Dan Ilic 9:52 audio, podcast, Gods Ed Australian podcast award PayPal,
Alex Dyson 9:57 you know it's actually purchased by the petroleum company. And
Dan Ilic 10:05 Santos is running the podcast
Unknown Speaker 10:09 in all seriousness who are podcasting, some renegade being off the grid
Unknown Speaker 10:17 you know it's kind of like do your own research
Unknown Speaker 10:22 you're the one telling me
Matt Okine 10:24 it's not the first time these have been on and it's not the first time you've been nominated Andy so I'm just imagining a warehouse somewhere with all of your awards that you never picked up you didn't even know they exist
Dan Ilic 10:38 Do you have a trophy room in your house that you that you can barely get into?
Alex Dyson 10:43 No, no, we had to build a separate house when Andy when he jumped on the all day breakfast podcast with Matt and Alex, you gave us a little tour of your very organized cupboards so I'm sure that if there is a cupboard it would be pristine.
Unknown Speaker 11:02 That's true. I do like things fairly ordered.
Matt Okine 11:06 By trophies will be organized in weight, shape and ability to kill someone is currently the most dangerous award trophy.
Unknown Speaker 11:20 Yeah, well, I mean, believe it or not, Hamish and I have won two hours. Well, and then and that is the the most of it I mean, I feel like an imposter most of my life. But definitely, winning an area is where Hamish and I feel like the most impossible.
Matt Okine 11:38 I've got one guy's the 2020 moment of the year, I may as well be holding up a clump of dirt according to Andy Lee
Lewis Hobba 11:54 left more awards on the podium. He's never known about the rest of the rest of our lives.
Unknown Speaker 12:00 That's not true. I'm humbled and humbled to be amongst great other performers that I have too many to list at
Matt Okine 12:13 least one of them Andy.
Dan Ilic 12:22 Andy, lay thank you so much for joining us on irrational fear and good luck at the Podcast Awards next Thursday night.
Unknown Speaker 12:28 It means the world to me. Only do I only do what I do for awards. Yeah, I hope hopefully. Good luck to you guys.
Dan Ilic 12:39 Thanks, Andy. Bye.
Alex Dyson 12:41 Well, Hamish and Andy versus irrational fear in the comedy section alongside the chase mad and I mean, we took one look at that. And we said no thanks. And we're over to the best entertainment category. That's how you
Matt Okine 12:57 try to be comedy. That's the way I would like
Lewis Hobba 13:02 to watch you try and fail.
Dan Ilic 13:06 Earlier this year, when at home alone together was up for Best Comedy at the actor awards. Tim mentions drama show won the Best Comedy it was like
Matt Okine 13:15 in the same awards.
Alex Dyson 13:16 I guess they give guess they give awards to
Dan Ilic 13:20 dramas now for comedy.
Lewis Hobba 13:22 Chris Tyla originated that show and he was like, I can't believe all I had to do when a comedy actor was write a drama.
Dan Ilic 13:31 Show is totally derail today. But that's good. This week's first fear. Now if you're a subscriber to the times in the UK, you may have read this intriguing story. Taliban makes first deal selling cannabis to Australians. Now according to the story published in The Times a real website in the UK, the proper news website in the UK, an Australian company called C farm has invested 300 million pounds in a cannabis processing plant in Afghanistan to sell the good stuff back to Australians. This isn't the time this is like like a legit news site. But here's the thing. The story wasn't actually true. And see farm which is a medical advice company in Australia had to issue a statement on their website saying otherwise basically saying we have no connection with cannabis or the Taliban. We have no idea where the Taliban media release came from. Now fear mongers if you were a company that was dealing with the Taliban, isn't that just the kind of press release you would put out?
Lewis Hobba 14:32 The Australia Wheat Board get embroiled in the Taliban
Alex Dyson 14:36 AWB? I think that was Iraq.
Lewis Hobba 14:39 Yeah, yeah. Who were absolutely
Alex Dyson 14:41 fine and so there was nothing to say that.
Matt Okine 14:44 Why Why would they be why would they be doing stuff with the Taliban when like, don't we have enough weed here?
Dan Ilic 14:52 Well, that's that I totally agree. That's what's so if you that was what's so iffy about the original story, right? Like if they'd said the fire If the if the story had like nominated which Australian sales selling to or would have believed it like if they said oh yeah, the Taliban was selling cannabis to Chappelle Kobe's dad I would have gone yeah sounds about right
Lewis Hobba 15:09 yeah do you know for a fact that this we'd hear it Matt
Matt Okine 15:14 I've heard heard about it I've been shocked by seeing its use at some of the parties.
Lewis Hobba 15:25 Oh yeah. Christian the arias I imagined it was a lot of Fury from you
Matt Okine 15:30 know, I tell you what, I wasn't aware to the areas because I didn't have all the windows open so there was no there wasn't any anything like that going on but I would have liked a bit more fresh air in these COVID times
Lewis Hobba 15:40 if you are an old man. Well, I mean come on
Dan Ilic 15:46 Tim on YouTube says wait is the most cultivated crop in Australia apart from Wait Oh hey guys so we don't even need Taliban's wait surely you
Lewis Hobba 15:54 hit up the Taliban for heroin
Dan Ilic 15:58 Well, that's that's it yeah. No, you
Lewis Hobba 16:02 say that's their strength it's one of their strengths.
Alex Dyson 16:03 When it comes to international trade I think is there's more often than not there's a bit of a vey it's the opposite is true because I know isn't this parts where Australia sends camels to Saudi Arabia and it almost sand as well because our sand is better for mixing concrete or something like that. So potentially there's a little bit of a mix there and we're selling weed to the Taliban
Dan Ilic 16:25 Wow. Oh my god next. Zealanders
Matt Okine 16:29 are a good politician Alex. Commerce.
Lewis Hobba 16:35 No one makes better sand than Australia.
Dan Ilic 16:39 Oh, no, we've we've got the we've got the cleanest most pristine sand that we sell it sell around the world. Absolutely.
Lewis Hobba 16:46 Are you guys investing in way do you guys strike me as like, I remember you and I used to share a desk the three of us and I overheard Oh, we lost the desk to the left. There was always a lot of chat about some nice investments going on between the two of you. I feel like both of you could be heavily invested in this upcoming I mean not invested in personally but financial. I thought
Matt Okine 17:08 about it but no, I haven't I haven't looked into it. I feel like ships already sailed once it's already happened, you know, then it's then it's no good. I'm all I'm all in on the crypto now. Of course you
Dan Ilic 17:20 get to that and say the thing about waiting Australia hasn't been legalized yet. So there's still a market yet to be made, like still a proper legal market ready to be made. Like I remember seeing one big story coming out of the United States when Wade was kind of legalized everywhere that the biggest thing to invest in was empty warehouse space, because that was the biggest demand for the new way to economy. So soon as that takes over. I'm gonna be by myself a
Matt Okine 17:43 warehouse. You should be able to just Airbnb you're like open spaces for weed growers. I mean, it's like, Hey, I've got a I've got a closet in my house. If anyone wants to start their own farm,
Lewis Hobba 17:57 maybe it's a good time to invest in like 711 Like all Canadian stalls, there's a line around the corner. Just trying to get under those neon lights.
Matt Okine 18:11 It's like how did you how did you how did you afford this mansion? clear eyes?
Dan Ilic 18:19 Yeah, Doritos, and tubes that I bought. I bought futures I bought futures in Doritos. Well, the story actually got picked up from a a Afghan news network called pack walk Afghan news network. And this is what their website looks like. And they've got a slogan and this slogan is reflecting the truth. And clearly, a reflection of the truth is a lie. And that was clearly clearly that's that's what people should know from that slogan. But this this website is so old school, they've actually got a hit counter on their stories and down the bottom. We've got a hit count of 853 people checked out the original story. They also put out a retraction for the story. So they printed a retraction and it was a C farm Australia says no deal with the Taliban. That's why the
Alex Dyson 19:10 double digits, isn't it? Yes.
Dan Ilic 19:14 Alex, you ready for the hit number on this 124?
Lewis Hobba 19:23 Cypress Hill 24 hits from the bomb
Alex Dyson 19:30 Yes, Louis.
Dan Ilic 19:32 rational fear very confused. I'm one of the dumber one sup y'all. I'm really in a rational fear this week second fear El Salvador's President reveals plan for volcano powered Bitcoin city. President announced his government will build a seaside Bitcoin City at the base of a volcano Oh my god moto con you are big into crypto What the hell is going on here
Matt Okine 20:04 with the positive sis man that's real bad look, I just love the way that this President announced it. He was on stage what looked like like a rock concert. And he had his hat backwards, which is the international sign for cool especially from a president I mean, come on this guy just
Alex Dyson 20:25 the president he had on the side el presidente
Matt Okine 20:29 hat backwards. He's talking about cities that are like made from volcano energy. I mean, this is this is the future man.
Dan Ilic 20:39 I'm gonna play I'm gonna play some of the video I'll play the start of the the launch video. This is a gigantic rock concert. Is a volcano going off this fireworks? It looks like splendor as an animated GIF picture of the President has a UFO flying over then UFO is putting a beam down to earth and dropping the president back onto Earth. And now this is more fireworks el presidente
Alex Dyson 21:10 I tried to be a cool politician at
Dan Ilic 21:16 this this is the guy look at him he's easy young president like he's 40 years old like he's he is you know a co president. He's like the Elon Musk of presidents.
Matt Okine 21:27 Yeah look it's pretty it's pretty impressive. I mean, the mining of the Bitcoin is planned to be you know done by the volcano energy it's built on volcano energy. I don't know what volcano energy is I just keep saying it.
Dan Ilic 21:41 It's like It's like mother Miss like mother energy it comes in a different can but they're gonna build they gotta build the city next to these volcanoes like that's that like name one time name one time in history that that has gone wrong
Alex Dyson 21:57 well I'm pretty sure that it was the people in Pompeii first used Bitcoin
Lewis Hobba 22:02 and frozen still under the all the ash just mining their coins.
Dan Ilic 22:15 Yeah, it's gotta wait for
Matt Okine 22:18 the gas. Well, they say the volcano has never erupted, but it has phased and smoked quite regularly. So it is.
Lewis Hobba 22:28 I think el presidente has faced and smoked quite regularly
Matt Okine 22:35 alright you buddy, Bitcoin city and El Salvador and I'll call you from my
Dan Ilic 22:41 yacht. I mean, this guy does have this guy does have a sense of the Elon Musk's about him like he. He said, If you want to build Bitcoin spread all over the world we should build, we should build some Alexandria's. The President called himself a dictator on Twitter as a joke.
Lewis Hobba 22:57 So he's modeling himself after the ancient pharaohs. Is that the is that the bit?
Dan Ilic 23:02 Alexandria was a Macedonian so the Alexander the Great was a Macedonian so maybe he's Mali himself after the great Macedonians.
Alex Dyson 23:09 That's the the information you come to know I'd love for the best poverty podcast. quickfire fact checking people
Matt Okine 23:22 believes that Bitcoin will be worth $1 million in five years. So they're investing they're buying something like $5 billion worth of bitcoin which they believe will you know, go tenfold and then they'll pay back their bond shareholders everybody wants to move into the city pays invest into it and they get it all back so
Lewis Hobba 23:41 because El Salvador a fact right like they currencies Fox, they're like this guy's this guy is or has is basically he's like what else? Like what, what could be worse than where we are now? And I kind of shoot for the moon situation that they're in, you know, like, it is. It is exciting. I'll give him that.
Dan Ilic 24:02 And it does it does have an element of you know, Futurism it's got it's got like leadership wrapped up in it because you know, he got us he kind of just dragging people to this space where they may or may not want to be you know, it's hard for me to make fun of this because it's kind of ticks all of my boxes to
Matt Okine 24:21 exactly right. I mean, how many one night stands we all do at Triple J and ain't no bloody UFOs dropping us off on stage but we did it.
Alex Dyson 24:30 One Night Stand is a concert series put on by
Lewis Hobba 24:33 Jay Yeah, the ABC has about the same budget as El Salvador I think do sort of feel like we are playing well in there. And that's
Alex Dyson 24:42 the problem with the ABC I say we I'm not in the in the broad church anymore, but it is stuck in the past a little bits got the old older viewers. I want to see either Botros cap on backwards coming out of an alien spaceship with the Oscar winner Morning,
Lewis Hobba 25:01 Australia. Can I just say we actually last year there is a guy he's on Twitter his name's I don't won't name him. There is a person whose job it is at the AVC to, like, tell you when something is against the policies of the ABC. And last year, in the depths of the lockdown, you guys would know this trying to do a daily show in the depths of COVID pandemic, it was a hard time to come up with funny bits. The tough thing and I decided we were like let's make a let's make a Bitcoin. Let's do hopper and hang coin. And we sort of did a quick checks with the ABC we're like, hey, we want to launch our own currency. How would that be? And the guy wrote back, this is the most illegal request I've ever read.
Matt Okine 25:50 It's about Shanghai, Sam and he's got to go Strv Shanghai San Mr. Speaker, Shanghai, Sam Hammond still works at racist Bridgeton let us lose connections to China, but it wasn't racist to call Sam Dastyari Shanghai. I didn't use either of those phrases. Bring it on a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 26:10 This week's third fear it feels like we've been talking about the next federal election for some time, but the thing hasn't even been called yet. Some of my sources are saying could be first week of May. So I'm saying it could be as early as February. I have an insider saying it could be called on January 27 for a march election. But it feels like we're very much in election territory with heaps of independents announcing they're running against coalition MPs. Allegra spender this week said she's running against Dave Sharma. And when you look at her CV, it's like the school captain versus the guy everyone wants to give a wedgie to but can't because his dad pays for everyone's tickets to splendor. And Tim and Tim Wilson seat of Goldstein, it was announced or Goldstein rather, it was announced that former ABC journal and former correspondent Zoe Daniels will be running now with all of these credible, well funded serious independents rising to challenge the conservatives. Whereas labor in all of this what are they doing Alex Dyson, what tactics are labor wheeling out to battle back these concert, these independent rhyming? Rhyming, rhyming?
Alex Dyson 27:08 They're using rhyming? And I feel that's a strong policy. I mean, they've dropped the negative getting rid of negative gearing they've stopped a lot of the taxes on the the higher income earners, they've really rolled back a few of the environmental policies. And they going with rhyming from the Shire has popular data looking at the distrustful nature of Scott Morrison and they've thought look, the last time we were in power it became because of a rhyme Kevin oh seven and won the election from from Johnny Howard. And I go Why would we go with something that doesn't work? It's back to the rhyming.
Dan Ilic 27:50 Well, I mean, that's complicated because it's one more word than the three words slogan like hello from the Shire. Yeah. I think they're I think the maybe maybe people will be too dumb to kind of get the run.
Alex Dyson 28:01 No, no, I think why from the shy you can you can accept the fourth word if it if it does rhyme. Okay, you can also go the suck from cook. Scott Morrison is in the electorate of cook, so they're good. I was thinking you could say the Josh Frydenberg policies the fried and Burger King Hindenburg is a three slogan for you could come through Peter Dutton could be the sinister minister, or who must not be defamed, which is a reference reference to the recent defamation case. There's very good I think coming with these they're gonna come in for a very strong showing whenever that election may drop because it's worked throughout the years over the over the distance I did it's all proof method.
Dan Ilic 28:48 I've got three one for Sharma. The leech from the beach. Joyce, I'll go Joyce's moist. Iconic one doesn't go anywhere. Yeah, I
Lewis Hobba 28:59 think that'll that'll come back on you. No one wants to hear.
Dan Ilic 29:02 I've been trying really, really hard to come up with one for Greg Hunt, but I'm stuck. So, Matthew, nothing like
Lewis Hobba 29:11 orange, you know, you just
Alex Dyson 29:13 exactly. But I think I think Scott Morrison is they've sensed this, the liberals are panicking. They're not sure what to do. And so coming into next year, they're going to have to find someone who rhymes with the year that it's seen in order to get the victory. And so I think we can announce irrational fear. It's Gladys Liu 22 Lu 22. Going for the big seat in the lodge, I think is the only way that the Liberals gonna be able to counter this new tactic from labor.
Lewis Hobba 29:40 Is there any way like what if Owlboy put like an all mouse over the Oh, to change it into a more of an EU sound? Oh, l Boo.
Matt Okine 29:48 Boo. What are you gonna use if you run for parliament again? I mean, what's your slogan?
Dan Ilic 29:57 Yeah, yeah, pre selected for the Liberal Party. Who would you
Matt Okine 30:01 Dyson the nice one
Alex Dyson 30:04 the nice dice I try so hard to work with a few but we'll see how it goes in water
Matt Okine 30:13 you just using things that people said to you at high school
Alex Dyson 30:18 a lot of my friends always complimented me to how hard I tried Yeah, it was really awesome.
Lewis Hobba 30:25 Okay I'm Euro you know you're a professional rerun artist you're a rapper in in now
Matt Okine 30:32 represent 2021 and check it out on
Dan Ilic 30:34 the bottom on the Boilermakers are open for business for political consulting.
Lewis Hobba 30:39 I would imagine Boilermakers would be a key demographic for for blue collar stuff.
Matt Okine 30:45 Yeah, yeah. So what what do you think what would I do in terms of?
Dan Ilic 30:51 Like, how would you? How would you? How would you set the Liberal Party members with rhymes?
Matt Okine 30:55 I don't know. The only thing I could think of was Scott either thought he and I didn't even know if that sounds like a positive thing. is a good thing or a bad thing. I don't I don't even know anymore.
Dan Ilic 31:05 It's you're the only you're the only person on this podcast that's allowed to said so that's
Matt Okine 31:11 offensive saying that.
Lewis Hobba 31:15 It stands for that. That hole over there. Oh,
Matt Okine 31:19 that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. Is it? Oh, it is.
Dan Ilic 31:24 Yes. That however there Yeah, yeah. Um,
Matt Okine 31:26 I'd like to officially apologize.
Alex Dyson 31:31 Getting up at the Australian flags in the background. I want to say sorry, but I will not be stepping down as a result of referring
Dan Ilic 31:43 that icon you can say whatever you like Scott Morrison has proved it like this whole sank Shanghai Sam thing where he's kind of comments where people are calling you and saying, Oh, why what? Why is it racist to talk about glares, Gladys Berejiklian is not racist. Talk about saying, oh, Shanghai, Sam. And he's like, No, I don't. I don't know what you're talking about. And, and of course, Scott Morrison said Shanghai, Sam 1000 times.
Alex Dyson 32:04 I never said that. It's like, Mike, you said it. 13. We know the number of times you've
Lewis Hobba 32:11 both written down like he tweeted it. And then you said, you said yeah, there's no media. It's not on.
Matt Okine 32:20 I just I would love to be able to just lie. Like, it's pretty impressive.
Dan Ilic 32:26 Question. Yeah. I just love the idea of being able to say I reject the premise of the question. The question, the question, you're speeding, you're doing 150 and a 40. I reject the premise.
Lewis Hobba 32:41 Does it come down to do you think there's like, do you think you could learn you could go away for a weekend? And I would just be like, Matt, your surname is Archein. And you would just be like, no, no, it's not.
Matt Okine 32:53 And you'll be like, you can I can see the poster in the background. I'd be like, I reject what you see.
Alex Dyson 33:00 There are many posters in many places. Obviously. Do you do any practice to run?
Absolutely not. That is funny. My first interview, like I literally submitted the papers in order to run for parliament Australia Day $2,000 and 100 signatures, you entered into the IAC. And away you go. And so I did that. And I was like, I've got a few things to do. So I won't actually start writing until a week or two afterwards. But when the names went through, journals started calling me I was like, Is this you? Are you are you running for? I yeah, I haven't officially an LCSW. But yes, and so I started doing interviews, and I was way out of practice, though good
to work around Europe, but I was not ready to go. I went to Shanghai and I didn't bring that up. But I did go.
Matt Okine 33:47 I didn't I didn't realize that you make money from losing an election?
Alex Dyson 33:52 You can? Absolutely,
Matt Okine 33:53 yeah. So what how does it work again.
Alex Dyson 33:56 So if you get over 4% of the vote, you get your deposit back your original $2,000. So that's your breakeven point. And then for every vote it over 4% You the AAC gives you about $2.96 eligibility in electoral funds is
Dan Ilic 34:15 unlike good crowdfunding This is run
Alex Dyson 34:20 by getting the vote in one and against that dantian I was eligible to recoup up to $29,000 of my costs in the election, but I only printed like 20 T shirts and got like 500
Dan Ilic 34:35 but you needed you needed someone to give you an invoice for consulting Alex does.
Alex Dyson 34:39 Exactly I needed some political consultants to play the game.
Matt Okine 34:43 That means that next time you could Oh, cuz I mean, you what you did a dance and you jumped into a river. Right? And
Alex Dyson 34:50 I reject the premise of the question. He was a salt, a salt water body of water.
Matt Okine 34:55 Okay, well, I mean, you know, you could have probably claimed the dry cleaner At least for that, you know, and next time now you know that if that's how much money you could get for your campaign, you you, you got a budget of $29,000 I'm thinking and I
Alex Dyson 35:10 spent it on skywriter Yes.
Lewis Hobba 35:16 We said on the show talking about the evils of political corruption it's so nice to just talk about the fun of it.
Dan Ilic 35:25 Well, that is almost it for a rational fear
Tim Bailey 35:28 rational for you whether Tim Bailey yet Dan willing for one with a linear system coming from the eventually that'll turn into a lateral Karateka. Terry under the fridge. If you're in Perth, it's going to get hot and spicy with a love bomba porta, there's no need to rush out to supplies. As a bond. My layout is highly unlikely. But if you're in South Australia and Tasmania, you may want to fatten up because a Macarena is coming your way. Last time we saw one of those was in 1996. And it didn't go away for us. And in the long term forecast heading into the holidays, we can expect a high pressure bill is never dead, forming right across Australia. So being a despot and fill up on gasoline at your local server with a discount
Dan Ilic 36:17 on that. Thanks Tim Balian set kind of comedy wins your best comedy podcasts 20
Alex Dyson 36:29 Battle con stop writing the notes we need to take this back over to all day breakfast. Takeout best entertainment
Lewis Hobba 36:38 no boss
Dan Ilic 36:45 that is it for me. He goes Paris embrace. Let's wrap up the show big thank you to meadow Kai and Alex Dyson and Louis harbor and Tim Bailey and Alex lay and dub night. Folks, what would you like to plug Matt?
Matt Okine 37:00 Look, I'd love to plug our podcast Matt nice all day breakfast, as well as my book being black and chicken and chips. Oh yeah. Just before Christmas. Also my show the other guy on Stan or Hulu if you're in the states and Boilermakers 2021. Man, Spotify check it out
Alex Dyson 37:18 now. But um, yeah, jump on all day breakfast if you like podcasts every day, instead of once a week and like comedy club comedy Republic in the middle of Melbourne. Just get on it. Get it on Oh, beautiful place harbor harbor and hang 3pm weekdays triple.
Matt Okine 37:34 I also say that for any kids, any parents out there with toddlers, I'm doing we're doing our first diversity kids show me and my music partner klp. Making kids music. We're nominated for an IRA yesterday, we lost to bully.
Lewis Hobba 37:47 The most insane field a kid's album. Like it was an old guy. He was still putting your shoes on, like wiggles and bluee like the biggest children's artist in Australia in the world.
Matt Okine 38:06 Anyway, we're doing our first live shows next month. So come along.
Dan Ilic 38:09 Thank you, Louis. You're gonna plug anything?
Lewis Hobba 38:12 No, not for me. I agree with all the previous plugs. hoburne Lincoin. Keep your eyes peeled.
Dan Ilic 38:19 I like I can tell you we've got a rational fear live and we've got our 10 year anniversary show at the Opera House January 29. We've got some stellar people on the lineup and I think I can I can say this we got we got we got Amy remaking she's coming. And we got some we got somebody I don't get a lot of other people. I can't tell you. I can't tell you that yet. I can't say better yet. But I just Yeah, great. Tim and McCain. All right. Great. Great. So we got quite a few good people coming down the line. It's very exciting. So January Night at the Opera House. Big thank you to rode mics, the Bossa Foundation, our Patreon supporters, Jacob round on the Tepanyaki timeline. Until next time, there's always something to be fearful from. Lewis did you want to say something?
Lewis Hobba 39:01 Dan? Yeah, have you asked the opera house how much it would be to advertise on their sales?
Dan Ilic 39:07 I haven't, I can't buy that. You've got to like, you know, you gotta like you know,
Matt Okine 39:12 anyone can do it. You can
Alex Dyson 39:13 you gotta be able to rice rice horses around the place. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 39:19 I feel like I feel like I feel like the Time Square was better than the sales. I feel like that was what you need to
Alex Dyson 39:25 do. You need to buy a racehorse name it irrational fear and when the trifle
Matt Okine 39:33 ever asked in the copper, whatever,
Dan Ilic 39:36 on the Billboard front, on the Billboard front though we did have a billboard rejected from a Paris Metro Kathy Wilcox designed us a great billboard with Scott Morrison breaking up with Emmanuel Macron via text and an apology from the Australian people to the French, but I got rejected because it's too political. couldn't run it. Like ah, that was a bummer. But I've done some research and I've got some sweet billboard space penciled in Engadine
Lewis Hobba 40:03 Paris of New South Wales and I believe it's a soft g it's already
Dan Ilic 40:17 and there's a whole bunch of Billboard space I want to buy a billboard in Bundaberg, which is Keith Pitts electorate, and there's a is a big one, there's a digital one there that's solar powered. And we're gonna say a picture of a vibrator and say, batteries can work in the dark case. They're two, they're two things that are coming down the line. So and if you are someone who has donated to the Indiegogo and you waiting for the stickers, they're going to be going out next week. And also the who gives a crap stuff is going to be going up over the next couple of weeks as well. So big thank you to everyone who's donated there. That's it. Thanks, everyone. We'll see you next week on irrational fear.
Ira Glass 41:02 From WBEZ, Chicago and NPR. I'm Ira Glass from the makers of This American Life and serial comms a new 10 part podcast that explores the hurt feelings of a very powerful man. Introducing Peter Dutton wins rape apologist defamation case. It's a podcast series in three acts, act one. Here's the shocking story of how a government minister who's responsible for locking up children and island Gulags had his reputation torn to shreds. When an unemployed man on Twitter called him a rape apologist. We'll hear from experts. Whether or not Peter Dutton is a rape apologist isn't the question is whether his reputation is damaged by a tweet from an unemployed man on Twitter that called him a rape apologist. Which I want to be absolutely clear. He probably isn't. In our two we'll hear from people who have read the tweet for the very first time. Does he look like a rape apologist? Well, in my honest opinion, he looks like a potato. But can a potato be a rape apologist? A canola apologist baby and x three will read out every single headline about Peter Dutton winning his rape apologist defamation case. Download Peter Dutton wins rape apologist defamation case wherever you get your podcasts and while you're there, download our hit series on Barnaby Joyce. funnier real. I'm Ira Glass
On the podcast this week we are joined by fearmongers who go way back to Hungry Beast: Kirk Docker (You Can't Ask That), Kirsten Drysdale (Reputation Rehab), Lewis Hobba (Triple J) and Dan Ilic (Out Of Home Media Buyer).
We're also joined by Michael Mazengarb from RenewEconomy.com.au who gives us break down on the spurious modelling behind the Australian Government's Net Zero by 2050 target that they took to COP26.
On the agenda this week:
Australian Podcast Awards
Alan Jones' Social Network
Dave Sharma's Typos
Golden Shower Rock and Roll
Eddie Obeid's family business
Australia's Greatest High Jumper
Does Australia's Net Zero by 2050 modelling add up? (It doesn't)
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birther foundation. Good evening, Lewis.
Dan Ilic 0:05 Hello. How are you?
Lewis Hobba 0:06 Hello, Daniel. I'm really good. How are you?
Dan Ilic 0:08 I'm really good. I'm really good. It's been a couple of weeks since we've done a podcast. I've almost forgotten how to do a podcast. I did. Yeah, it's
Lewis Hobba 0:16 any consolation. No one listening to the podcast would have thought you knew what you were doing before?
Dan Ilic 0:21 Well, we've had a huge bump in the ratings were about 1000 up from last month, which is huge. So there are people listening. So thank you for listening everyone. And also, I Something happened between over the last two weeks we didn't even get to talk about and that is, we have been nominated for an Australian podcast Award for Best Comedy podcasts. 2021 which is great. We're that guy for two in a row. Yeah, we go over to on the road and we I'm confused because sizzle town was there like our arch nemesis because they always won and they're not on this list. I don't know. Whatever happened to Tony mountain sizzle down
Lewis Hobba 0:54 Tony, Tony Martin, just that he just isn't finding anymore. After 60 years of being one of the kindest, funniest, best gentle bit of Australian comedy, he's lost it and it's canceled coach's fault. You can't do comedy anymore.
Dan Ilic 1:07 Many people will say that you have replaced Tony Martin as the tall skinny guy with glasses. Yeah, they can only be one tall, skinny man with glasses in comedy is
Lewis Hobba 1:16 genuinely every time Tony Manon and I are in the room together. Someone will come up to us and say, Can we get a photo with the two of you? And Tony Martin is so bored of it and it brings me so much joy didn't
Dan Ilic 1:27 You didn't when you didn't you cast as a young Tony Martin for Tony mountain film.
Lewis Hobba 1:33 It's it's this is a bit of a long story. I'll try to cut it as quickly as possible. When I was like 23 and I was at film school. And I'd never done any performing. I just done like a little bit of stand up. I was really like supergreen happened to be at Eddie perfect engagement party. And lucky Hume the actor bailed me up at this party and started chatting. And he was like, mate, Tony Martin's a mate of mine. And you look exactly like him. You sound exactly like Tony Martin. Um, I came out and sort of my comedy heroes that is so kind of you lucky him. And he's like, you'll never believe it. Me and Tony are working on a life story of Tony Martin. Right now we're looking for a young Tony Martin, and it's got to be you. And I you could you believe how excited I was. It was genuinely the happiest night of my life. And he took my number. A week later, he sent me Tony Martin's book in the post and he's like, this is the book, learn it. We're gonna be hearing this is like, you got to learn this so that when you retire in the same room, you're ready to go right. Then I heard nothing more about. And then six months later, I happened to be a cookie bar in Melbourne, and bumped into Tony Martin. And I'm like, and I went up to him like, hey, sorry, my name is Louis. We haven't met but I'm a big fan. And we're talking for about five minutes. And then he goes Wait, you're Louis haba right. Yeah, I am. He goes like he told me about you. And I was like, oh yeah. He told me about the project. How's it going? He's like, Oh, like he's full of shit. That's not going anywhere. My young
Dan Ilic 3:03 Shatta Wale things that are going some places I will do want to say a big big hello to the Big Creek community podcast Candyman podcast The Chaser report our friends at the chase Oh, Oscar nominated, good personal friends Hamish and Andy were nominated. And the housewarming podcast, who of course is hosted by one of your old housemates Marty smiley,
Lewis Hobba 3:25 and one of the housemates a longtime housemate of one of our guests on the podcast today as well. But yeah, he does a podcast all that housemates. And as far as I can tell, he's spoken to every one of the people who used to live with except me. So I'm unsure of what his what his problem is what he's afraid of.
Dan Ilic 3:42 I'm just getting him on the phone right now. Let's have a quick chat with him about that. I want to confront this issue before we start our podcast.
Lewis Hobba 3:48 Me to actually want to get the answer to this.
Unknown Speaker 3:54 You won't answer did you do?
Lewis Hobba 3:55 Did you tell him he's calling? He'll be doing something? You know, I
Dan Ilic 3:58 told him I told him we're gonna call him just after right?
Lewis Hobba 4:00 That's even more perfect. Of course, he's not answering.
Dan Ilic 4:05 Oh, he's doing this. You know why? You know why? He's not answering. He's not answering. He
Lewis Hobba 4:09 knows. I'm gonna ask him. I'm not on the podcast a day. You called Mighty slowly. I
Marty Smiley 4:13 can't get to the phone right now. But if you'd leave your name and your number, or just shoot me a text, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Dan Ilic 4:21 Oh, here we go here and he's he's only on the other line. Marty Smiley? Yeah. Were you trying to? Were you trying to do your best to destroy the irrational fear podcasts? For not answering your phone?
Unknown Speaker 4:35 Time is limited.
Dan Ilic 4:39 Just humanity. Now we got Louis Harbor on the line. And also we got your former another former flatmate Kirk Docker. And Lewis has one serious question about your podcast even though he's nominated for Best Comedy podcast. He's got one burning question. He wants to ask you about it or not
Unknown Speaker 4:54 get on it.
Lewis Hobba 4:56 I mean, obviously congratulations on the nomination and best of luck. I was wondering why you know episode one of the podcast, Kirk Tucker, who's on our podcast who joins us now was on it. So many other of your other housemates on it. So many other Triple J comedians on it. Basically everyone you know, that I know has been on it except me. I'm just wondering why
Mick Neven 5:24 it's a difficult vetting process.
Lewis Hobba 5:28 In fact, not only that you texted me to ask for a bunch of people's numbers from triple Jason like Oh, my can you get you got Linda Mariana is number I'm like yeah. Number one for I'd love to hear on the podcast. Oh, would you someone who you've never lived with and don't know
Unknown Speaker 5:50 let's be honest. There's a reason for it. And you have a secret about exactly
Unknown Speaker 5:57 I knew it.
Dan Ilic 6:00 That wants to come out. Kirk maybe you can bring some insight into why hasn't Louis been invited on the house morning podcast and as guest number one yourself?
Kirk Docker 6:11 He scared because Louis will dish up dirt that Marty will not want known to be public. He knew that if I came on the podcast I would say sort of funny things nice things backing him up but he was worried about Lewis Lewis has got that acid tongue and what might be revealed what dodgy dirty you know stuff might be revealed from the mighty smiley you know vault All right, well, you know, I wanted out there
Dan Ilic 6:39 Marty if you do win Best Comedy podcast, will you then have Lewis haba on your podcast
Unknown Speaker 6:45 as a guest Look, let me do that on this site now. What do you think? Look? I think there's just a lot of diversity that we need to really look at there's a lot of boxes you don't really keep Louis really hard to say but if you're if something comes up you know let you know. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 7:07 tall white man in his late 30s Definitely not in the demographic Alright, let's get rid of the house. Well, good luck with the Podcast Awards Marty.
Unknown Speaker 7:19 Bye.
Lewis Hobba 7:20 Thank you good luck to you do not
Dan Ilic 7:25 think we got notice. Oh my god. Oh, well.
Kirk Docker 7:30 That's how to keep still nice Dan.
Dan Ilic 7:32 Here we go. I'm recording my end of irrational fear and gotta go Land of the Eora nation sovereignty was never seated. We need a treaty. Let's stop the shot
Unknown Speaker 7:39 of Russian will field contains naughty words like bricks. Canberra. Fan COMM And section 40 of our rational view recommended listening might emerge your audience.
Dan Ilic 7:52 Tonight Rupert Murdoch urges Donald Trump to move on from his 2020 defeat, Donald Trump responded by signing an executive order to cancel his Neo post subscription and spreading her back the Queen has had to cut back on driving and horse riding. Doctors have reminded her that she isn't a sprightly 94 year old anymore. And with 360 days until cop 27 We'll have the CEO of Santos here with all the tips on how you can buy off politicians before the silly season. It's the 19th of November and a big Happy International Men's Day to men. But not all men. This is irrational fear.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former conservator of the Britney Spears estate Dan illage. And this is the podcast that looks at the scariest news in the feed and gives it a wedgie joining us on the podcast and had to tell us how they're going to celebrate International Men's Day. This week's featured Mungus before she was a TV presenter and investigative journalist she represented Australia the highest levels of competitive field hockey, pull up in your shooting pads. It's Kirsten Drysdale.
Kirsten Drysdale 9:06 Hey, it's an off to the trees. I'll take it.
Dan Ilic 9:09 Okay, Kirsten, how I how are you going to be celebrating International Men's Day? Tomorrow
Kirsten Drysdale 9:15 I'm going to leave my kids at home with my husband and go out with the girls for drinks.
Dan Ilic 9:20 And our next fear monger spends his days talking with the most misunderstood people in society fresh from a week of interviewing porn stars. Get fluffed for the creator of you can ask that Kotoka
Kirk Docker 9:30 thank you and welcome and fluffers unfortunately aren't real. I thought they were they flat they fluff themselves. Yeah. It's one of the things I learned yesterday was that one of the big preparations that some female porn stars do is stretching their holes. That's a very, very important part to do before they get into the set. So it's there's no fluffers it's them themselves in the bathroom, doing as they call it, ladies.
Kirsten Drysdale 9:58 That sounds like something they shouldn't Teach Like women who are going to give birth how to do like, that would be useful.
Kirk Docker 10:04 Yeah, I'm also doing an episode on postnatal depression at the moment. So it's sort of you know, you can, you know, you can compare notes across different episodes sometimes.
Kirsten Drysdale 10:13 Sorry, where did the fluffer myth myth start in? Why do we think this fluffers
Kirk Docker 10:17 I think Boogie Nights something like that. It's not like Boogie Nights,
Dan Ilic 10:21 it's got to be got to be so many. It's got to be like decades before that, like that was a mean before Boogie Nights surely?
Kirk Docker 10:28 Well, I think what they do now is the men anyway, they inject their, you know, old fellow with something and that's what keeps them going the whole time. So it you know, an injection has replaced the fluff, in a sense that they can inject it with this special stuff, and it just stays hard for as long as necessary. Wow,
Lewis Hobba 10:44 this stuff is so vague and terrifying. Does that mean?
Kirk Docker 10:51 Well, they put it in and it stays hard till it till till all day. And the problem they have now is that they need to ejaculate on command. So when you can check it on command, that's what puts the shoot over over time. And that's what people get really, really annoyed about. So the real skill in a male porn star is being able to ejaculate like that when you do that you get you get hired.
Dan Ilic 11:13 That's amazing. Wow. So is it like Sally no gaps or something? Is that where they inject? Or is it
Kirk Docker 11:19 something it's something along those lines? It's something that keeps them you know, it's something that keeps them rock hard rock hard,
Kirsten Drysdale 11:27 and sorry, Coke why? Why do you know all this stuff at the moment? What's the project?
Kirk Docker 11:31 Well, one of the episodes of the new you can ask that is porn performance. When I say stars because we are delving into you know, only fans and the full breadth of how porn looks in 2021 but there are some stars in there and there are everything in between.
Dan Ilic 11:46 Coming up a little later on, we take a look at the outcomes of cop 26 And just how far off net zero emissions the government's own modeling said it will be with renewal economies Michael amazing garb. But first here is a message from this week's sponsor.
Alan Jones 12:01 warning everybody over the last few months I've been undergoing emergency medical treatment on my leg. It turns out I had been leaning too far to the left. God thank God they fix that up. Now while I've been away those vermin at Sky News have canceled me. Yes, I'm a victim of canceled culture. So that's why I'm studying my own social network. Cancel your Foxtel subscriptions and sign up for Q and Latin the social network by me Alan Jones from sign up you can enjoy all the benefits of being a q ln member, Robert Menzies is still Prime Minister, you call a man a racist, the Wallabies when every now and then and for the first time in four years, the Wallabies have one mark Latham cooks up a delicious Southeast Asian inspired meal. These are the best scones. And each week a new album is released by Anthony Kelly as a I want to voice sounds like a bit like a computer, but we're working that out. And the best thing is you'll be surrounded by like minded retirees over the age of 65. So you'll never have to worry about grandchildren correcting you with fake news about climate change from NASA. God, global warming, what next? There's a plague or something. Give me a break. Anything you could do on Facebook, you can do on cue LAN plus more. You can poke people. Yes, you can berate people, you can put people in a chat bag and throw them out to see you could even inside a race right at the click of a button. And the best thing is a camera can't touch you. So join que LAN the social network where free speech is for easy payments of 4999 a month and you can be friends with me Alan Jones for an extra 699 a month. That's real cash in the comments. So join kulen today.
Dan Ilic 13:44 I was gonna call up Jonestown but it was taken on Alan Jones. It's good to see Alan Jones breaking out into the digital space. It's very good. This week's first video I wanted to talk about my my local member. I don't know if you saw this this this happened earlier this year on speeding International Men's Day. On International Women's Day my local member went to edgecliff Station and handed out flowers to female commuters saying Happy International Women's Day. Let's make it a day when we strive to improve the respect dignity and equality for every woman everywhere. Did you do you guys remember this at all through this moment?
Lewis Hobba 14:24 I do remember that? Yeah. It was I mean such a such a touching gesture.
Kirsten Drysdale 14:30 I mean, like I was gonna say beautiful thought beautiful thought. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 14:34 No just so good. Just so wild that in a year when no parliament is completely rocked by rape allegations sexual assault allegations of misconduct by so many parliamentarians. That's what he came up with for International Women's Day to handout.
Kirk Docker 14:51 I box popped in that area and I swear all biddies love that stuff in there. I think he's on the money. You're handing out flowers. It's a perfect response in that part of city I think I'm over. I love it.
Lewis Hobba 15:02 He must have known the photo on Twitter was gonna be an absolute nightmare.
Kirsten Drysdale 15:08 You know, it's like thing of like, you know, flowers make amends for anything. So he's just trying to hand out flowers to all the women in the world to make amends.
Dan Ilic 15:17 Yeah, like it's it's like a complete Band Aid solution for everything that his government has done over the over the last couple years, on behalf of above have meant was women.
Lewis Hobba 15:29 Yeah, but yeah, also, there's that thing with flowers where there are some people who are suspicious of receiving them because they assume that it's like, they're like, why are you getting me these? What have you done? I mean, a lot.
Kirsten Drysdale 15:42 Yeah, that was pre emptive flowers. That was March that was pre emptive flowers, but all the shit that was to come for the rest of the year. Oh, right.
Dan Ilic 15:50 Yeah, it was like, it was like carbon credits. It was like, it's like bullshit credits. Yeah, yeah. The tone deafness continues. About a month before cop Dave Sharma went on this whole kind of transition to being like a climate warrior. He's trying to talk a lot like Greta tunberg, to kind of involve himself to the climate can concern in Wentworth. And so he's been really going full on with this. In fact, he sent out this email about a month ago, this is what he said on the email. It says, rapid and large emissions are needed from right now. What is missing from that sentence is the word reduction, rapid large scale emissions reduction are needed inundated right now. See, it's this weird thing where he's accidentally telling the truth. And the accidentally telling liberal policy when he should be being on the front foot and talking about emissions reduction. This is crazy. And also, just two days ago, he went pamphleteering around the Paddington handing out pamphlets and meeting new voters. And this is what he was doing here handing out these flyers. Now if you look carefully, can you can you guys notice anything suspicious about this this photo of Dave Sharma holding a baby and holding a flyer? Can you can you see anything? Anything weird about this picture?
Kirsten Drysdale 17:09 Is a baby looks like it's passing out?
Dan Ilic 17:11 The baby doesn't look like it's passing out.
Lewis Hobba 17:13 Is it a chokehold?
Kirk Docker 17:14 Who does baby kissing anymore? I didn't know baby kissing was still
Dan Ilic 17:20 all the babies around backside you can't go around just kissing babies.
Kirk Docker 17:24 Well, actually it's baby Stranglehold only really
Kirsten Drysdale 17:28 well look if the baby's not breathing out it's not spreading virus right so it's fine.
Lewis Hobba 17:33 Wow, that's the only person with children it's because it says netzero climate action full sentence like he promises to do climate action.
Dan Ilic 17:47 That's right it says Net Zero climate action on the on the flyer once again. He's the only truthful politician in in the Liberal Party.
Kirsten Drysdale 17:58 Did I saw your tweet that Dan and I kind of thought you photoshopped the close up. Are you saying that is actually his flyer?
Dan Ilic 18:07 This is it. I've got to hit I walked up the street and I found one look at this net zero climate action.
Kirsten Drysdale 18:16 I thought that was a joke from you.
Lewis Hobba 18:18 Yeah, so like, that's Boy Who Cried Wolf from dead he's been photoshopping shit for so many years that no one really
Kirsten Drysdale 18:28 jumped in. But that's his real pamphlet.
Dan Ilic 18:30 She's real pamphlet. It's not a joke. This is what he was handing out. This is Net Zero climate action which is extensively Liberal Party policy. I wanted to share with you what I'm going to do for tomorrow for International Men's Day. I'm going to dress up in Liberal cosplay in a chambray shirt and chinos and head on down edgecliff station. And because it is International Men's Day, the only tone deaf thing I could think of today would be handy handout hammers to a bunch of people in edgecliff station. That feels
Lewis Hobba 19:00 really dangerous. I don't think that many people are trained to just have exposed hammers. Maybe I'm paranoid but that that feels dangerous.
Dan Ilic 19:07 That's what's so exciting about this idea it's quite a malevolent idea who gets a hammer who gets a hit No one gets a hammer
Kirk Docker 19:15 Are you suggesting they should nail something that's what your hammer something is?
Dan Ilic 19:20 I didn't even know what you're wanting it and what did they show me by handing out flowers to women? Like it's just the same exactly the same thing I'm just gonna hand out hammers to men take your free hammer Happy International Men's Day.
Kirsten Drysdale 19:31 I look like really good hands. Man. Like really? Like well waited How much did that yeah,
Dan Ilic 19:38 they're about they're about 10 bucks 15 bucks each so you know this is what the this is what the Patreon money is funding
Lewis Hobba 19:46 and you paid for me this is an outrage
Dan Ilic 19:50 Alright, let's move on to this this week second fear this week second fear if you go see musical act bras against you may get you may get more than you bargained for when lead singer Sophie Your wrist, brought up a fan on stage and then lay him down and basically gave him a Golden Shower during a cover song of Rage Against the Machine. Now some fans were disgusted by this others said it was a real pisser Kirk, should we be disgusted by this or just, you know, have this behavior normalized?
Kirk Docker 20:19 Well, it's interesting you say people were disgusted because if you read the news.com article about it, everyone was disgusted. It was a stomach churning stance. It was shocked the crowd the man spewed the urinal, but if you actually watch the footage, the man had the time of his he was having a good time there it was being pieced on it was actually amazing moment and it's the reporting of it has been that it's been disgusting, but in actual fact, he was mopping up the urine. He was throwing on the crowd, he was dancing jiggling, she had to actually kick him off the stage. She's like, get off man. I'm done. I've done feasting on you get off. I think it's fantastic look, I have a couple of weeks ago I interviewed trough man the myth for this trough man and I don't know you guys know who trough
Lewis Hobba 21:05 I honestly can't believe he managed to get trough man. Like I genuinely thought trough man. Like the Penrith Panther, just the thing that people said at night times?
Kirk Docker 21:15 Well, that's Look, the trough man is a legendary guy in Sydney that people thought was a myth. Was he alive was he did the story was that over the last 40 years, he would lay in urinals at parties at the Mardi Gras after party etc. and at certain time, and it would appear in these little little tiny shorts and people he would lay in the trough and people would be okay. And he had the time of his life so much so that he's become this legend where he shorts and now framed and hung at Stonewall and you can see his urine soaked short so that now dried and hung there. And if I've learned anything from speaking to trough men or any other people who are into watersports or golden showers, as they call it, is that they have the time of their life. And all I'd say is that unless you've tried it, don't knock it. I think that golden showers may have something for it that we don't quite know. And if we had the courage to try it, we might be as into it as old made on stage the other day.
Dan Ilic 22:09 Do you think this is why you know terrorists in Guantanamo Bay when they were waterboarded decided to just hang out there and not give any secrets? Because they were actually being gold being done but with golden showers instead?
Lewis Hobba 22:23 Jesus Christ
Dan Ilic 22:24 too much too much. No.
Kirk Docker 22:27 Just enough.
Unknown Speaker 22:30 I think I think for this
Dan Ilic 22:30 for this for this musical artist. It's so strange because now people are like, I hadn't heard of brass attack before this.
Lewis Hobba 22:37 I don't know if there are brass against a fan.
Dan Ilic 22:39 Thank you.
Kirsten Drysdale 22:42 A longtime fan.
Lewis Hobba 22:44 I'm more of a fan of pissing on people. But now I've become a fan of brass. But I
Dan Ilic 22:48 haven't heard I haven't I haven't heard of brass against until this moment. And now I feel like that's their thing. That's what they do that like that's the thing that people are gonna be going to say they're gonna be down to brass against to have to say Sofia piss on people.
Lewis Hobba 23:02 When have you wanted to hear a description of the genre of music they make? Honestly, is the best thing that could possibly happen to you. Which is they do brass band covers. Heavy Metal, which genuinely sounds like the worst. Like, honestly, 1000 people compare Sunday before I would go. Nightmare.
Kirk Docker 23:25 And so like having crazy acts that rock artists do is every day something new you know what I mean? This is as old as time that the Rockstar will do something wacky to get attention. So it's it's yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting that it's back on the agenda. Rockstar is doing something wacky on stage. And
Kirsten Drysdale 23:41 I agree. I agree, Kirk. I thought it was awesome. I didn't think it was. I mean, it kind of is disgusting. But that's why it was so fucking awesome. And I don't think it should be normalized.
Lewis Hobba 23:54 Like Carol's. Awesome, let me bring this out.
Dan Ilic 23:59 And no,
Kirsten Drysdale 24:00 I don't think they're gonna do it on today's show. But um, no. And I also like, I reckon that that video, like that moment that is going to be like the defining cultural moment of the end of the COVID era. I say, because it's like we've spent two years like being paranoid about other people and their bodies and their disgusting fucking fluids that's coming out of them. And we're kind of through it all. And now it's just yeah, I'm gonna piss on your face like that. She's just embracing that we can be close again.
Lewis Hobba 24:30 Yeah, 2021 it's more okay to piss on someone's face than it is to sneeze without covering it with your elbow.
Unknown Speaker 24:40 Scott Morrison elaborately deceive the French the idea that a nuclear reactor with enough weapons grade uranium to make many many bonds can be treated like a power pack for money is incredible. I mean, it is just bullshit. A
Alan Jones 24:57 rational fear
Dan Ilic 24:58 this week's third fear well Eddie obeyed and his son Moses chillaxing. Behind bars, the tentacles of the family wealth seem to be uncovered every single day and there are two more brothers implicated with a dodgy property deal in Hawks Nest. fear mongers, if you were a criminal mastermind, would you just have offspring for the sole purpose of laundering money? Kirsten, not worth it? If you've got like two kids, are you going to be like getting them into the family business,
Lewis Hobba 25:27 so to speak crime family?
Kirsten Drysdale 25:29 I'm going to send them out to work as soon as they can. Yeah, but not not for me. I don't want anything more to do with them. Like know, they can just you know, start paying board and rent. But the thing this story was like, for me, it was like, you know, those like really infuriating property stories, where they it's you know how I bought my first home at 24. And like, seven parents seven paragraphs deep, you discover that these like little bleached teeth fuckers inherited a million dollars from their parents, and that's how they bought their house. So this story is like that. Except the children. They inherited $30 million from their dad who stole it from the New South Wales Government. And they're not like buying a three bedroom merrickville They're like buying up secretly by the way Aboriginal owned land on the sleepy coastal towns and they're putting up high rise developments there. Were nobody wants them. That's that's the story. Yes. Amazing.
Dan Ilic 26:27 Yeah. How I buy how I bought a high rise development with one simple trick. My dad stole the money. My dad stole some money from the government.
Lewis Hobba 26:37 But do you think my dad as someone who has kids now it's you would just be at some point you go it you raising you has been such a nightmare? But the least you can do for me? Is risk going to prison?
Kirsten Drysdale 26:51 Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like can continue my corrupt dealings and make this this money grow even more? Yes. Yeah. No, no, you get to hold that over them forever.
Dan Ilic 27:01 No, idiot Bates any gone to prison for 10 months. So you know, that land was bought that land was bought for 600,000 A couple of years ago, after he gets out of prison. The market would be huge. Like those lands already gone up, like Daisley triple.
Kirsten Drysdale 27:16 I'm just like, how do you have you like get busted? Like you stole the 30 million is that's there's no question about that. That is like 100% proven we know that he's stolen 30 million, but they don't have to give it back. You know, like, if you steal a car and they find you with the car, you the car goes back to the owner, like how did they just get to keep the 30 million
Lewis Hobba 27:35 Danna you're you're you're the only born and bred New South house person in the in on the podcast
Dan Ilic 27:42 also. loso also Lebanese person. So yeah, yeah. Sure.
Lewis Hobba 27:48 That that's gonna make my next question seem more loaded than I wanted to. Which is when was the last time you South Wales had a leader who wasn't correct?
Dan Ilic 27:57 Do you know what I actually think it was a friend of the show Bob Carr. I think that was the last time we had a leader that wasn't really, that really didn't kind of, you know, put his foot in it.
Kirsten Drysdale 28:07 He left with a clean slate in me. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 28:09 I mean, we haven't rather we haven't hasn't been discovered what he's done yet. Like, we need to call we need to call Kate McClymont and ask her to get her on the podcast again and say
Lewis Hobba 28:21 what is Bob done? Because like in Victoria, there are people right now with nooses and guns on the street. Because Dan Andrew has, like made pretty similar decisions to most of the premiers around the country. Yeah. Whereas in New South Wales, you can literally steal $30 million and no one cares. No, it's so staggering that it does no one gives a fuck of it like
Dan Ilic 28:41 no you can miss allies and you can mess up lockdown and you can resign for being alleged allegedly corrupt, and then people will leave flowers at your office like this.
Lewis Hobba 28:56 Yeah, it's incredible and you know, people you can just be like on leaving over a bottle of grain and everyone will go yep, that seems reasonable checks out. No more questions here. Do you like obviously it's not that
Dan Ilic 29:07 I think it's because people in Sydney so property obsessed. When they say stuff like this, they go well, whatever you have to do to get ahead, you know? Good on. Good on Darryl. He really tried it on
Kirk Docker 29:18 Do you think any in the family into watersports property there at
Unknown Speaker 29:31 the agreements that's come out of Glasgow have an eye to green light for more coal production. That's good news for the world because it might be the most important thing for the world to do. The next few decades is to bring more and more people out of poverty, and coal and cheap energy helps do that
Dan Ilic 29:46 a rational here in a moment, we're going to be talking with Michael Mason garb about Australia's place in the world stage and how we are absolutely the worst country in the world when it comes to climate negotiations. But I've actually got someone special on the line right Now we've actually got the world's greatest high jumper who happens to be an Australian. So mcnevin Thanks for joining us and Australian high jumper who claims to be the greatest high jumper in the world. Welcome.
Mick Neven 30:10 Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, that is correct. I am.
Dan Ilic 30:14 I am. Do it's an amazing claim to be the world's greatest high jumper what's the basis for the claim?
Mick Neven 30:21 Well, I have never missed the jump. No one's No, that's right. I have never noticed the bar onto the mat.
Dan Ilic 30:30 So what's your highest jump 50 centimeters 50 centimeters that's not very
Lewis Hobba 30:35 high.
Mick Neven 30:36 Well, that is the targets that I've set for myself and I meet and beat that targets every time I jump.
Dan Ilic 30:42 Now the mentor jump record is 2.45 meters and the women's record is 2.09 meters you're nowhere near that I hear but I don't worry about what other high jumper doing you've never once competed at the Olympic Games.
Mick Neven 30:55 Why would I see a leaf pick a hot Fs although so called high jumpers, making bold claims about query 2.4 meters and what happens? They all not the bar onto the mat, and they look pretty stupid doing it. I made them beat my target every time I can do high jumper Yeah,
Dan Ilic 31:12 it's only 50 centimeters. That's right.
Mick Neven 31:15 I don't need to jump higher. I'm less than 2% of the world. I've jumped if I raise the bar to even 1.5 minutes sure I could jump it so that's a clear goal. To achieve that I need to coach I'd have to start training I need objective. Why bother? I can beat that 50 centimeters and it doesn't take me
Unknown Speaker 31:31 or anyone
Dan Ilic 31:31 else. Yeah 50
Mick Neven 31:33 centimeters you know a primary school kid could jump that jump Oh, I am the world's greatest I've never you know the world's great are the world's greatest high jumper never missed the jump Don't forget that. Never missed the jump. Nick thanks for joining us on irrational fear. See you on the mat buddy. Cop 26
Dan Ilic 31:52 is over and while Australia's once again the bad guy at the international talks we didn't quite manage to derail the entire thing know that prestigious title went to India the last minute when they decided to change the phrasing of the words phase out to phase down for cold two which most of the other countries went What the fuck is phasing down? Joining us to discuss cop 26 in Australia is modeling to net zero is from renewable economy. Michael amazing garden. Welcome Michael. Hi everyone. And Michael is also a Patreon member as well which is really cool. So it's really cool to have you on Michael.
Lewis Hobba 32:26 I love the rational fear getting in some pay to play here.
Dan Ilic 32:30 For full disclosure, Michael pays us to do the podcast about three $3 a month.
Kirk Docker 32:38 Did you see the hammers Stan just for Dan just bought some really nice hammer. Well done.
Dan Ilic 32:45 As a Patreon member, how do you feel about me buying hammers to pull us down tomorrow?
Michael Mazengarb 32:50 I'll be lining up at
Kirsten Drysdale 32:55 me over the head. Dan.
Lewis Hobba 32:57 Give me back my money.
Dan Ilic 32:59 Michael, I just wanted to quickly before we get going quickly just to explain the netzero modeling that got released a couple of weeks after cop had all kind of been done and dusted. It was really remarkable. First of all, Scott Morrison came out before cop to say oh yes, you know, we're going to meet our net zero, we're going to get net zero by 20 2050 and then refused to release the modeling until last week. What did that modeling show? And how far away? Are we actually from meeting net zero?
Michael Mazengarb 33:24 That's a good question. Firstly, it was really funny because they went out and announced that Australia was committing to zero emissions by net 50. And they promised this modeling. And then we found out in Senate estimates they hadn't actually finished right. The reason why it was released so late is because they were still behind the scenes putting together the document. And then when it did come out, what we see is that rather than meeting net zero emissions, the plan that the government has put out has is on track to reduce emissions by 85%. And there's a nice 15% gap in the plan that the government just is saying that hopefully we'll have some technologies that might just appear and help us bridge that gap. But they haven't actually baked in a plan to net zero.
Dan Ilic 34:10 There's actually this 15% gap where How can I go about calling it a net zero by 2050? Target. So this
Michael Mazengarb 34:17 is like you can go look at the modeling. And you can say there's a nice chart that the government has put together and they say, Look, we're expecting to reduce Australia's emissions by about a further 60% that they're going to go and by, you know, up to sort of 20% worth of offsets from overseas, and then just this gap, and they are they're saying that hopefully will overachieve and hopefully you know, who knows some crazy fantastic technology will come along and bridge that gap but they don't know what it is and they don't have any idea about when or if that technology will come along.
Lewis Hobba 34:53 So the plan over the next 30 years is do a little bit of work, plant a few trees and pray
Michael Mazengarb 34:59 pretty much They're just counting on everyone else. Basically, it's counting on these innovations and technologies emerging from overseas, not even trying to sort of make them happen here in Australia by sort of investing in Australian research or Australian innovation, then really just counting on it happening overseas. It's the fingers crossed. Right? Like, it's sort of like closing your eyes and taking a swing, and then hopefully, we'll get to 2050 with zero net emissions, but they don't actually know that we're going to do it for sure, man, it's
Kirk Docker 35:32 Michael, can I ask you a question? What I what I Can I ask a dumb question. What is Boris and actually scared off by actually just going we'll just do it. You know, we'll just be zero emissions by like I can't I just from the outside, I can't quite work out what is the is it? Is it just the the bowing down to call? Is it that they worry about being real at what is actually they're scared of actually about to say yes, we'll just do it.
Michael Mazengarb 35:58 So the modeling actually answers that question. So they modeled a few different alternate scenarios. One scenario is we actually do get to zero net emissions. And we plan that and we bridge that lost 15%, basically, by investing in carbon sequestration, and doing that through planting trees. And that modeling shows, that scenario shows that the coal sector and the gas sector lose out in the order of about $4.9 billion. But landholders, so farmers benefit by almost an equivalent amount. And so they have this scenario that says we can actually get to zero net emissions call losers out, farmers win. But we're not going to pick that scenario, because that's a negative impact on the economy that they don't like. So we're going to go to this 85%. So it's purely this comparison between farmers versus fossil fuels, and the government picked fossil fuels.
Lewis Hobba 36:58 My favorite thing about it is that usually when someone releases something like modeling, or any kind of data, usually politicians will be smart enough to make it so complicated, that average people like me, can't really get to the bottom of it, you sort of get obfuscated by information. And in the end, you kind of like, it could be true. But they literally put out the like the for chunk graph, which genuinely, genuinely just had 15%. Wait, no. And it was that was what I was like, Oh, thank you for making your incompetence, easy for the incompetent, I really do appreciate that.
Michael Mazengarb 37:32 And the modeling itself is a real reflection of how the government got to its policy. So they went away and they paid McKinsey that consultancy $6 million to produce the first round of economic modeling. They then brought in a team of basically coalition aligned economists, including Brian Fisher, who their previous work was they authored modeling, which was used to attack the labour government's climate policies in the lead up to the federal election last time round, which came up with these crazy figures for how much that policy was going to cost and basically was just slammed for not having any credibility. They brought those guys in to then review and verify the McKinsey modeling. And then the department itself wrote the report. So they've really like massage this modeling together. And still, it's really explicit. And it's really clear what the government is doing, and who they're siding with.
Dan Ilic 38:30 I noticed the other last week there was a story about McKinsey employees being pissed off that there were being press ganged into doing work like this, but not not explicitly for Australia, but for to fossil fuel companies and for for bad actors on this on this on the same. Do you think these consulting groups will eventually stop doing this kind of work for the government?
Michael Mazengarb 38:54 I think I mean, for this this piece of work in particular, like the reputational damage the reputational risk that is there is quite significant if you've got your name your brand attached to what then becomes potentially sort of political modeling and political reports. You go look, it's not worth it. Like the brand damage that occurs is so significant that you know, it's probably not going to be worth the $6 million because they're going to lose out on other contracts and their reputation gets damaged.
Dan Ilic 39:24 But it is $6 million to do some maths that doesn't like if like it like if they wanted to live
Lewis Hobba 39:30 in a world where lying isn't rewarded but I don't know if we do Michael.
Michael Mazengarb 39:37 I mean I work in the the energy sector I write about energy all the time. A lot of my friends work in the energy sector. And we look at this morning you go look, we could have done a lot better than rustled up five of us we could have produced a million bucks each and done a lot better.
Dan Ilic 39:56 Is there like a website we can go to to try and A job to take the modeling away from McKinsey at a much, much more competitive price like, can we?
Michael Mazengarb 40:06 Well, that was something that interestingly, McKinsey was chosen to do this modeling, the CSIRO had actually also pitched to do the modeling. And this came out also in Senate estimates, they said, Look, we applied to the government, we would have done the modeling for the government. To CSIRO, it's gonna be some of Australia's best minds in terms of energy and climate. And they didn't pick them, they picked McKinsey, who Angus Taylor used to work for
Kirsten Drysdale 40:33 the government given given any explanation for that decision.
Michael Mazengarb 40:37 No, I think, you know, it was it was the CSIRO that sort of revealed that they had applied for it, they didn't want to really, you know, throw their, you know, the government under the bus because, you know, if you're in the CSIRO, you, you sort of pretty wary about how much control the federal government has over your funding. But, you know, we try and
Dan Ilic 40:58 find out, are they public servants out there that have done their own modeling, like, you know, in the CSIRO, what are the is the modeling done somewhere else, but it's like in a cabinet that no one can unlock and look at
Michael Mazengarb 41:10 it could be. The other thing is we have these bodies, like we have bodies, like the CSIRO, we have bodies, like the climate change authority, which still exists, but just basically sits dormant, that could be used to produce this type of modeling. previous governments have used treasury to produce this type of modeling, all of this modeling could be done in house in the government, or it could be done, you know, in a way that is done in consultation with the industry. But this route of modeling is really just sort of been a bit of a, you know, a message job from the government.
Dan Ilic 41:42 Oh, my God.
Kirk Docker 41:44 He said just that, is it just that the government gets so much money from these companies that they need it, or they actually think this is a better play for Australians, they genuinely believe this is a better play for Australians. What? I don't quite understand it still, it's still so confusing to
Michael Mazengarb 42:00 me. I don't know like, you know, it seems like you know, I sit there every day. And you look at the advances that are being achieved in wind, and solar and batteries and electric vehicles. And you think these are the technologies of the future, if you want to talk about technologies, not taxes, like these are the technologies that are emerging, and we should be investing in those. But yet, we're talking about carbon capture and storage. You know, the Australian delegation in Glasgow had the Santos, CCS irama in the official pavilion, like, I don't, and not to say like that they completely sold and, but it's hard to know, like, how they think this is playing out and what motivates them asides from maybe self interest.
Dan Ilic 42:48 It's interesting to say like, technologies like this are kind of being rolled out all around the world, like as in every single country that is beholden to fossil fuels, you see the same playbook being rolled out in every other place like carbon capture storage doesn't work anywhere yet. Every other country that is a big exporter of fossil fuels is trying it on as a way to placate their donors and to to keep fossil fuels alive another few years, but it's really just like a conceptual art sphincter in the ground like it did. It doesn't do anything like it. It's meant to capture gas, but no gas ever gets captured.
Michael Mazengarb 43:20 We have one operational project here in Australia that's out. In Gorgon in Western Australia that's been run by Chevron, it was years late, it's operating well below capacity, they they put hundreds of millions of dollars into this thing. And they can't get it fully operational because it's trying to store carbon under the seabed. But the equipment they're using to store it is getting clogged with sand. They didn't see that happening. But our one carbon capture and storage project is running at like half capacity.
Dan Ilic 43:53 When you're talking about carbon capture storage as one of the key elements of the modeling. I remember seeing a map put up on put up on Twitter, of all the places where we're going to store carbon underground, if you see this map, there's just large patches of blue where the carbon is going to be stored underground. and This Is Mythical kind of cave system. It's remarkable to kind of see that you're like, oh, wow, instead of like, instead of not putting that fossil fuel into the air, they're just gonna poison the earth, and like bury it under huge tracts of land. Deck surely doesn't seem to me any better than than chucking in the air?
Michael Mazengarb 44:33 I think, you know, I would like to have the confidence of someone who pushes carbon capture and storage because they're saying, Look, we'll just count this stuff under the ground and it will just stay there and I'll stay there forever. But like, we don't really know that much about what's going down underneath the ground like things like earthquakes happen the ground, the sort of geology is constantly moving to think that we can just put stuff down there and expect it to last for Ever is just a bit sort of, I think ambitious a bit, I think
Lewis Hobba 45:06 maybe your way if you if we want to try to like harness a very vocal like right wing group to end up sort of playing themselves, here's my here's my big play, you need to start linking to Q Anon, that carbon capture and storage is a secret government program to kill the lizard people. Now, once we get that in their heads, they're gonna be like, but the lizard we need the lizard people. And then we'll there'll be a save the lizard people campaign from Q Anon, which will end up meaning they are attacking carbon capture and storage, and then suddenly we'll have all of Q anon on the side of renewable energies.
Dan Ilic 45:45 Excellent. This is great. This is a great idea, Lewis I think you've cracked it and we all know Scott Morrison love Q anon he's got his best mate, which is these cute guy and he's out there. He's he's out there. Tell me. Tell him the state premieres. No, we should let it rip. You know these q&a on people they know what they're talking about.
Kirk Docker 46:05 I love it. I love that cute.
Dan Ilic 46:07 Well, on that note, that is it for rational fi big thank you to all of our guests this week. Have you got anything to plug cook? You can
Kirk Docker 46:14 ask that comes out in
Lewis Hobba 46:16 set a reminder, check your calendars
Kirk Docker 46:21 don't miss it.
Kirsten Drysdale 46:22 No got nothing on sorry, some hokey comp in Newcastle next week. That's about it. People can come and check you out. Tigers, tigers, mid target Miko
Kirk Docker 46:35 Johnny sagas.
Michael Mazengarb 46:37 So I work for renew economy, we write every day on climate energy electric vehicles. So if you want to get your fix on that news, renewal economy is your one
Dan Ilic 46:48 stop shop. Great. And Louis, we've got something to plug on January 29. We're going to be having our 10 year anniversary show at the Sydney Opera House.
Lewis Hobba 47:00 I've heard of it. I've heard of it. I'm very excited. We we have done one show at the opera house before in fact with Bob Carr,
Dan Ilic 47:09 I believe. Kirsten, Kirsten. Kirsten did that. All right. Yeah. That was great. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 47:15 I'm really excited about that. I assume the Playhouse I see. We're in the big theater.
Dan Ilic 47:20 I hope so. Play us all the drama theater. I'll take either one, but I know it's booked. I mean, I mentioned
Lewis Hobba 47:24 the concert hall put us in the concert hall. No,
Dan Ilic 47:27 put us in the opera house put us in the Opera Theater. Sure. Yeah.
Lewis Hobba 47:33 Big big one. Yeah. 1000 More people are listening awake now. Come on. That's half an opera.
Dan Ilic 47:39 Fill it. So agenda 29
Kirsten Drysdale 47:41 and three hemas Lewis will pay on someone's face on stage.
Lewis Hobba 47:47 It does. It takes in a very different quality when it's a man.
Kirsten Drysdale 47:52 I was thinking that I was thinking when I was watching that. This is so awesome. Because it's a visit to the lady. If this was a guy peeing on a girl's face. It just wouldn't feel the same. Something about squatting. I reckon. I don't really read Yeah,
Kirk Docker 48:07 you could do the talk, Louis. I could do the
Lewis Hobba 48:09 typing. I will do the something which is even worse, which is I'll bring my saxophone and play a cover of a heavy metal song.
Dan Ilic 48:17 That reminds me we should we should put James Valentine Fisher
Lewis Hobba 48:23 all the weird white guys who play sex.
Dan Ilic 48:26 Big thank you to all of our new patreon supporters this this month. Last estivesse J Smith Helen shorts Darren Reed Sharon Yoxall Peter kin and Jan Jan Williamson, Kate, Bill F Michelle law Shelby Stewart Toby strat man, Steve Steve Hutchison Deena airfree aunty, and a big thank you to a Tasha Shanna who said I forgot to read out her name the first time around. So thank you, Tasha Shana, for becoming a Patreon members. A big thank you to you Michael meson God who was also one of our longtime Patreon supporters. Also big thanks to Roadmaster Bertha Foundation, Lee constable and Jacob round on the Teppan yaki timeline. Until next week, there's always something to be fearful of. Until then, right
This is the 2nd Episode of the monthly spin-off podcast from A Rational Fear — Julia Zemiro Asks 'Who Cares?'
Each month for the next 5 months on the A Rational Fear podcast feed, Julia will be interviewing change makers, civic leaders, and people who organise their communities and claim their power to discover the secrets to making good things happen.
This month Julia chats with:
Corey Tutt— An Indigenous mentor and STEM champion. He is the founder of DeadlyScience, an initiative that provides science books and early reading material to remote schools in Australia. Tutt is the 2020 NSW Young Australian of the Year, and a recipient of a 2021 Eureka Prize, the premier awards for science in Australia.
Hayley McQuire — A proud Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton, Central Queensland and a passionate advocate for Indigenous social justice and First Nations lead education. Her roots are in Indigenous community media, vocational training and Indigenous Affairs policy. She was selected and served for four years on the Youth Advocacy Group for the UN Secretary General's Global Education First Initiative to support young people around the world to advocate for their rights to education. In 2019 Hayley became and Obama Foundation Leader Asia-Pacific.
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the Bertha Foundation.
Julia Zemiro 0:04 I'm recording my part of Julia's Amuro asks, Who cares on the lands of the gunman? Gara and Darwell people, sovereignty was never ceded. We need a treaty. Let's start the podcast,
Dan Ilic 0:16 a podcast about politics for people who hate politics. This is Julia Zemiro asks, "Who cares?"
Julia Zemiro 0:27 Hello, Julia here. And yes, once a month for the next five months on the irrational fi podcast, feed, I'm going to be having conversations about getting active and showing you you have powers to make change in the world, and talking to civic leaders from all walks of life to find out how they got active. This month on the podcast, I'm talking with two people who know a great deal about indigenous led education. We know education isn't equal, it's often expensive, and our state schools certainly need more support. But for Indigenous kids and adults, education can be woeful, and the system can be wonderful for them. So I'm speaking today to two incredible leaders in this field. First up, proud Kamilaroi man, Corey tut is an indigenous mentor and stem champion. He's the founder of deadly science and initiative that provides science books in early reading material to remote schools in Australia. He's the 2020, New South Wales Young Australian of the Year. And he also recently won a eureka prize. If you're not familiar, the Australian Museum Eureka prizes are the country's most comprehensive National Science Awards. And they are excellent across the areas of research and innovation, leadership, science, engagement and school science. I'm just going to give you a bit of a trigger warning here. Cory does cover some heavy topics him losing his best friend, some letting you know that now, I started asking him about these awards and and what they mean.
Corey Tutt 2:07 These awards are fantastic accomplishments. And they're great for making my head feel a lot larger than what it is the circumference of my head is growing 15 centimeters since I've won these awards, but no all jokes aside, these awards are responsibility to me to make them accessible all kids so that they, you know, one day can see themselves in the picture. If you ask majority of the kids I work with, do you ever see yourself winning Eureka prize or the Young Australian of the Year award? They would probably say to you No way. So my role and my responsibility now is to go to these remote communities go to these schools, be a good example show that these kids can be part of the picture and picture of science and be part of that. And if I'm not doing that, then that award is just a waste on me because I need to be responsible with it in including the next generation of deadly scientists.
Julia Zemiro 3:04 you've engaged with over 90 schools around Australia. And there's been a 25% increase in engagement in STEM related subjects. You've given 28 Deadly Junior Science
Corey Tutt 3:16 Awards now are a couple of 100 of those out now.
Julia Zemiro 3:20 What I'm always interested in is that we say that people don't care. We think that people aren't doing anything we know full well that there's lots of incredible projects happening all over the place. But with you, Cory, I know that with you, you're someone who had an interest in science to begin with. But how did you really connect to science as a young kid,
Corey Tutt 3:42 I didn't have the best life growing up, I'd experienced my father leaving my mum at age two. And that's enough to sort of for a lot of kids off the rails, I guess. At eight years old, I witnessed a fatal accident. It was pretty tough. And it meant that I was never really in one place for very long. I grew up in the Illawarra region of New South Wales and South Coast is where I was born. But I also spent time in tumby Bay in South Australia. And I also spent time mangonia which is in the central Tablelands of New South Wales. So I've really been everywhere man. So I put a lot of my energy into reptiles and animals and things that I'd find around the place. That's always a really good way to make friends is that if you pick up a blue tongue lizard in the playground or home, people want to talk to you about it because it's a pretty bizarre thing to do. Because I moved around a lot it was very very hard for me to to get any structure in my life as a kid and and probably affected me as I it probably affected me in one or two ways. I was never satisfied with just been the mundane day to day I was always striving to achieve my dreams and I was driven as a real as a young kid I was driven nearly never really fit into the, you know, the notion that, that I couldn't do things that I didn't put my mind to. I wanted more of my life and I was pretty determined that I wasn't, if when I became a parent, I was never going to be the same. I was always going to be I was always going to do the things that my parents couldn't do for me.
Julia Zemiro 5:20 But your granddad had a lot to do with your interest in reptiles and reading.
Corey Tutt 5:24 Yeah, he did. He gave me a book called reptiles and color. And that was published in 1984, which is consequently, eight years before I was born, but I got it in about 1998. That book in particular was pretty raggedy, by the time it got to me and it was, you know, it had another little boy's signature and I was like, maybe Happy Birthday Billy assigned, but I don't care. His name out, wrote Corey. That book was really important for me, because when I was chasing those Water Dragons, and and I was reading that they could hold their breath underwater for an hour and things like that, in that book, I would sit there with a little stopwatch, and I would chase war drags into dams. And I would, you know, I'd time it, make sure it was right, you know. But yeah, these were things that I did when I was a kid. And I learned how to read off these books. So, you know, when other kids were reading the Hungry Caterpillar, I was just reading science books.
Julia Zemiro 6:17 And did you know at that time, did you make a link that that was science? Or was it just something that kids did? Where you grew up? Was it an indigenous experience,
Corey Tutt 6:28 I don't think it was an indigenous experience or, or a science experience and such it was, it was probably me trying to contend with the bad things in my childhood and invest my energy into something that was positive. You know, a lot of kids will like me when growing up like we we sometimes grow out of it, some of us don't. And I feel like I was always connected to the culture and people.
Julia Zemiro 6:54 Is it true that a career advisor once said to you that kids like you don't go to uni, and they should stick to a trade,
Corey Tutt 7:00 I don't wish any ill harm or, or any bad wields his career advisor, he was just trying to help me, I think he, I think it was yelled, I'm going to give this kid a whack with a metaphorical stick. And that will be the thing that that drives him to do more. And it probably had the opposite effect. To be honest, when I sat across this career advisor, and I sat in this over, you know, this, this poorly designed chair that was, you know, had this poor fabric on it. And I looked across at him and I said, I wanted to be a zookeeper or wildlife documentary. And the third option was ABC sports commentator, because I thought it was pretty easy. And I could find the other two. I think at that moment, I felt very determined that I would not, you know, I would not take his advice, because I know if I, if I had worked in a trade, I would have been hopeless at it. And I really was desperate to become a zookeeper. And as you do you troll through social media when you're a kid, especially when you're a teenager, born in my time, which was MySpace, and Facebook. And when it first came out, and I saw this crazy woman with a rifle standing above a snake, and she was in this place called Boyup. Brook. And she was just, you know, a really nice lady who runs this wildlife sanctuary that that's just killing Snakes on a property. And I was like, Ah, I ended up organizing to go over to Rigali and Boyup Brook, which is 3885 kilometers from my house, didn't contact my mother or family members for three weeks. And I went over there and look, that moment for me, I, as soon as I got over there, I was introduced to this, this woman who was kind of older and her name was Norma, and she had a husband called Jim and his dog named Holly and Norma and Jim, were the first people in my life that had ever shown me love that was unconditional. But, you know, they were just proud that I was going in and working this wildlife sanctuary. And I remember that, you know, I didn't have even make toasts. To be honest, I couldn't even make you a cup of tea. And normally didn't judge me or anything like that. Normally, people would sort of laugh at someone if they didn't know how to do that. But she kind of knew that I, I didn't get shown a lot growing up, because why what how could I, you know, my mom was a single mom. And we were, you know, we were sort of moving around a lot. You know, she didn't learn those things. So how could she possibly teach me and how was he there? I was 16.
Julia Zemiro 9:41 So you've gone there all by yourself.
Corey Tutt 9:43 I've gone there all by myself. And yeah, I get a bit sad when I talk about Jim and omocha said now pass, but they were the first people that I ever met that, that didn't care. They didn't care about the baggage. I didn't care that I was from Dapto. They didn't care that I was indigenous. You know, they cared about me as a person, and from that moment from working at that wildlife sanctuary, and by the time I came back and started at narrow Wildlife Park, Jim and Norma sent me messages every single week until April last year, telling me how proud they were. They followed my journeys, they, you know, they rode the highs, and they stuck by me with the lows. And I will never ever forget what they did for me as a 16 year old and but you know, I fast forward and I'm, I'm back in narrow and I'm working at shore haven to
Julia Zemiro 10:35 how did you get that job? How did you know to find that we use looking through for jobs? Or was it a word of mouth thing
Corey Tutt 10:42 someone had, had bumped into me that worked at Taronga Zoo, and they were very keen to have me. But unfortunately, I lived in narrow, and I lived very, very far away from Mosman. And I, you know, I made the decision that it was going to be too hard because I had my red pays, but it wasn't like I couldn't drive up from now every day. So I applied for volunteer position at narrow Wildlife Park and Shoalhaven Zoo. And I remember the first day I had there, and I just come back from boy out broke, I'd come back from Western Australia, I had all this experience that, you know, I fought that I was, you know, not, I thought I was just really confident and I was really happy. And you know, it was easily the the most like it was the happiest morning in my life so far that I remember it because I got up at 5am I was meant to start at age, I got up at 5am I cooked a massive breakfast. I wore a button up shirt, which I was so proud. Like, I was just like, you know, for me, it was i i brought new shoes I you know, I had saved up to this was my first day as a zookeeper and the start of everything for me. And I remember I was sitting there and I was sitting under the, you know, under the walkway there and I was waiting for the head keeper to turn up and he turns up and he goes, Why are you so early? And I was like, because I'm keen. I'm very keen to get started, like, let's go, let's get into it. And he's like, no, no, no, settle down. And, you know, he, you know, him and I have friends now. But we had a we had a running battle. He often called me names, often, yeah, often told me that I shouldn't do zoo keeping and, and things like that. But, you know, again, I was determined to prove him wrong. You know, I was so determined to prove him wrong and get myself a zoo, a paid position and a zoo keeping uniform. And the day that the owner gave me my first narrow Wildlife Park shirt, I've still got it today in my cupboard. And because it was an our wildlife park back then, and it looked like Swiss cheese, and it had so many holes in it. I even had 10 spots because of how many holes that had in this shirt. And I was so proud of that. It was I've done it, you know, I've done it. This is the thing that it was it was my dream. I loved it. You know again, sometimes Julia that things happen and life can slip quickly, you know, change on it can change in a second then I'd had a best friend that had volunteered with the zoo. And he him and I started at the same time and he he eventually got kicked out because he he had sort of had some issues at the zoo and like it was the first time I'd met someone that was on my level that I was I was friends with and you know we we got along really well we actually got like got a similar tattoo on our left shoulder. You know we weird we're gonna move in together and because you know we're gonna do the zoo keeping thing and we had all these plans but then he had committed suicide and he had hung himself in a house that we're meant to move into. And
Julia Zemiro 14:08 sorry to hear that Corey that must have been a horrible thing to witness.
Corey Tutt 14:11 It changed everything for me. It changed everything for me and it was the second time in my life that I'd experienced death at a really young age and and not just you know older people actual young people dying and it hit me a lot harder than the accident that I'd witnessed when I was a kid because I was an adult now I was 18 What do you do when you're a baby face a 10 year old when you've you've lost your best mate and I think that you know the things I ignored at the zoo like the low pay rates the over hours we work the you know the things you have to deal with that, you know that zoo keepers have to deal with on a daily basis that aren't you know, there aren't glamorous, the zoo, the zoo life is not glamorous at all. Those are things that I decide that I, I didn't like that much anymore. I didn't have the motivation. I was struggling with my why, why am I doing this? Why was this my passion and you know, even seeing a blue tongue lizard just didn't you know, I get so much energy even now when I see a cool animal that I haven't seen in ages. And I lost that. And that is a really scary thing that is like losing, you know, it's like looking in the mirror and seeing someone completely different. I saw an ad in the the Illawarra mercury. I feel a bit stupid now talking about it. But I got in my best low suit, which was my year 10 formal suit at 18. And I got off to this guy's house and I rang up and he said, you've got an interview on Monday. So I went to his house. And he I walked in and I had a cup of tea in his eye. So you sat in Monday, and I like, what, what and I worked out quite later that I was the only person that applied. So I felt a bit stupid wearing my formal suit and to give the listeners a brief description of what my formal suit looked like. I was a massive Good Charlotte fan, where I had white volleys, white belt, black pants, white suspenders, and a white tie in a white hat. And it was a bit it was a bit of a good child. And so it's a bit of a punk. So I wore that to the alpaca
Julia Zemiro 16:22 interview and what was the job you're going to be a shear of
Corey Tutt 16:25 alpacas is no an alpaca handler.
Julia Zemiro 16:27 I handle up bright
Corey Tutt 16:29 James had been a bit creative with the title. Because he had had no like he had no people applying for this job. Wow. Anyway, we I get there and it's my first day. So the first packet that comes out, they show me how to put it down safely they go this is how you boil it down safely cuz you got to tie them down. And to show them safely. And I'm like, Oh, yep, got this. I've been feeding a formula crocodile for the last year and a half. Um,
Julia Zemiro 16:56 you know, thanks. I've
Corey Tutt 16:57 got I've got it. Yeah, it's gonna be fine. And little did I know that the first alpaca that I'll go and she would headbutt me in the face, and crack my cheekbone. And I'm crying like I'm bawling my eyes out, like trying not to cry, but I'm more crying but I'm fine. You know, James asked me if I'm right. And he could see my he could see my face, like swelling up. Little did I know that that moment with James would be my unofficial counseling where he, he was like the father, I never had in the sense that he was someone I could talk to that I was stuck sitting next to for 12 hours a day, in the car driving between jobs. And in time, time went slow. When when my best friend had time was going very, very fast. And he slowed it down for me. And I think that sharing saved my life. If it wasn't for James, I don't think I would be here. Like that's a really tough thing to comprehend. Because if I hadn't met him at that time, at that point in my life, would he have had the impact on me that he has? Probably not.
Julia Zemiro 18:05 When did deadly science come into play? When's that sort of starting up in your head?
Corey Tutt 18:10 When deadly science started, I was working as an animal technician at the University of Sydney and I started talking to these kids in Redfern and Waterloo. And we'll talk about any everything I would, you know, I'd show them some of the stuff that I was doing. I'll tell them about the researchers, I would show them on my iPhone, all this science stuff that you know was going on. And they were just so intrigued. They loved them. They were so you're and the moment that I was doing that I felt the love again that I had when I was at the zoo the days where I was so happy that I nothing could change anything for me like I was so in like I was so in the zone. And one of the kids said to me is how come I didn't get these opportunities? And this is like this is deadly. And this is science? How come I didn't get these opportunities. And, you know, I, I sort of thought about it. And then I started Googling remote schools and, and just I found out that our schools are just completely under resourced with STEM. And we naturally told Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids that sport and art are the only ways to be successful. And how about I just send you some books and this one school had 15 books in its whole school. And I ended up you know, going to Demyx and dropping down a k gets a grant of solid hard cash. And I purchased so many books that I could barely carry them out of the shop. And I sent those books at school. And I it was it was something in me that clicked because there was one school that that said hey, how about you send books to my school? My friends over here because we need more science books and more equipment and things like that. And I started a second job I worked at the handrolled pet hotels up at Duffy's force and I scrubbed and cleaned candles, I acted as a receptionist. So I probably act as a security guard at times as well. I worked really hard for a number of months I, I did things like, you know, jobs for mates, I sold some of my possessions. You know, I, I did things like that I worked extra hours. I think I sold my TV at one point to pay for these books. And then it was married and large. And actually, I met a friend, Dr. Karl. And he gave me some books. And then Mary and largers. Like you should set up a GoFundMe because people would people donate to this, you know, people like want to help you like,
Julia Zemiro 20:41 GoFundMe is such a great way to get something started. I mean, everyone's happy to chip in 10 or $20. And then if everybody does it, then you can really make something of it.
Corey Tutt 20:51 And yeah, little did I know why before like I was, I started putting it online, what I was doing, and I like at that point, I probably sent about 2000 books off, or so putting it online. And I, you know, I put this GoFundMe in place, and I was happy with just 500 bucks to be honest, because I was spending so much money on books and things. And I ended up becoming friends with this thing, this fella called Brian Cox on Twitter. And he was all right, like, you know, he's right. Yeah, he's nice. And he gave me some books. And I met him. And I didn't really know the protocol. I didn't coined Professor Cox or anything like that as a Braun.
Julia Zemiro 21:35 If you're not sure who he's talking about, it's Brian Cox, of course, from television, and him and I worked together on stargazing, and yeah, that was, that's what Twitter is for Cory, isn't it? You just go, why not just ask, he can only say no,
Corey Tutt 21:52 I gave him a blackfella handshake. And I'm not sure he was ready for that. But, you know, it grew from there. And I, I had this email come up on my phone, and I was like, and I remember really well, you have been nominated for Young Australian of the Year and I'm what, what the hell is that? Wow, I didn't even know what it was. And I ended up going and I sort of said to my mom, I'm like, you know, mom, I'd really like you to come with me, you know, to the award ceremony because I feel like you deserve to see your son and or your daughter, you know when saying worthwhile and and I wanted to bring it because I I just wanted her to I just wanted her to have a proud moment. You know, she's she hasn't always had the best and you know, and she came along and and Gladys read my name out. I went up i waddled up the stairs because I was very excited. I was very nervous. And I sat down and I handed my honor roll to my mom. I'm like, This is yours. And you know, I was gonna be honest, Julie, I was gonna have a couple of cheeky freebies and say, Wow, well done. pat myself on the back. But before I knew it, my Gladys Virgie Clinton had read my name out again. And she is like, and the youngest strolling is for New South Wales, Cory Todd, and it's like, I got up on stage and I'm like most boot shoes be kind to your mum. Yeah, and it was just like, my life changed from that moment.
Julia Zemiro 23:23 It's true that an award like an Australian of the Year young Australian, the it brings incredible opportunity, but baggage as well. Sometimes it's a big responsibility. And you say your life changed in what ways?
Corey Tutt 23:35 One, I had a camera in my face. When the time I got dragged. As soon as I got off stage, I didn't get to say anything to my partner had to deal with the expectation of this looming event where I was up against ash body, the world number one in tennis.
Julia Zemiro 23:53 What was another Australian of the Year? Well, she
Corey Tutt 23:56 was a finalist, she was the Queensland Australian of the Year and a finalist for the National one. And to be honest, I, I don't think I handled it as well as what I could have. But, you know, the the thing is, is that you only get to do these things once and I quickly learned that I could utilize my award and, and the trophy and stuff and I can go out to schools and I could put a bit of gaffer tape of my name, which sounds really bizarre. And I could let kids hold it and I could let them tell me why they should be the Australian, the and the answer is we're I'm kind of my mom. I'm kind to you know, my people in the playground. I, I, you know, I do the right thing. And, and these are the reasons why they deserve to be and there's the reasons why I deserve to be as well and everyone so
Julia Zemiro 24:46 lately, you said something before, it's very interesting. You said we often expect that Indigenous kids will thrive in sport or art. There's this notion that but that other stuffs too hard or beyond that. that must be met you sign. I mean, it's just a ridiculous thing to think, isn't it?
Corey Tutt 25:04 I remember I had a remote school once, contact me, and it was the teacher from that school. And I, you know, as I do I normally talk to the principal and I say, what do you need, and this principal turn around and told me that don't bother sending resources here, because our kids will never learn. And it's, you know, and I'm like, Why is this person in a job, and I had a quite a big extensive argument with this principle. Problem, or at least give these kids a chance, you know, lease, work with them, why try and work with them don't occupy a space where you are, you know, you are trying to mentor these kids into a future, but you will not accept resources because you don't think your kids deserve them. So it's never been easy. I've made mistakes along the way. Like, I've like anyone.
Julia Zemiro 25:55 I think if you don't make mistakes, you don't learn and at least it's worth trying. And stuffing it up sometimes, because, you know, it's pretty hard having an argument with a principal and I toured high schools doing Shakespeare in high schools when I was 27. And did two years of at different schools, you know, all over the all throughout the year, you know, driving it all van in all four of us and, and put up 200 chairs and do Shakespeare for kids. And, you know, you'd walk into some schools, and it's so funny, the vibe you would get from a head teacher or a principal would absolutely tell you what that school was about. And, yeah, I mean, some of the we just go, you know, and say hopeless, no, don't don't get any of it. You thinking, wow, well, we're here, we're gonna do it anyway. But let's surprise you. And always at the end of the show, always a teacher would come up and say, I cannot believe when you ask for volunteers, that that particular kid put his or her hand up, because they could do anything and you thinking, Yeah, well, maybe because they used to, they're in a new environment with new people.
Corey Tutt 26:57 So me also, like the T, like, teachers are great, they're worth their weight in gold, but they can quickly become burnt out. And I quickly found because of the lack of resources and support, and it's it flows down. So any of those teachers I actually have a lot of sympathy for. Because if you're burnt out that much, then it's taken a while for you to get to that point, because most teachers are starting off to make things better for our kids. And, and, you know, like, there was moments along the way, especially that after I won, you know, the the award that I had started a new job two weeks in, and I literally won that award, the second week, I was there. So all of a sudden, I was, you know, the highest achieving staff member within, you know, and this was like, you know, I'm really sorry, I can't do my job right now. Because I have to go and do this thing with SPS or deleting this ABC. And I love talking to the media, like I love it. Because I get to talk about these kids in the work. But then there was this expectation that I do my job, but also the other people in my year, especially at my employer saying, no, no, we want you to do this media thing. But we don't want to fund deadly science and we don't want to fund you. But we want you to do this media thing. And, you know, I think I've gotten better at enjoying the moment more. So when when I won this Eureka this time around, I was actually the calmest I've ever been. Because I knew that everything I've gone through to this moment right now has been for a reason. And now my reason is and my why is to help inspire these kids to be to be good people, and hopefully tomorrow be good scientists.
Julia Zemiro 28:48 Absolutely. Where's it at now? Deadly science. So what I suppose what's next for it? Or is there do you see an end and then you go and do something else?
Corey Tutt 29:00 That's a really tough question. But I like next to deadly science is that I've just hired two or three new people that, you know, I've only had, like, I've only had the one employee and that wasn't me. And I had to learn. I started paying myself, which is something that I never thought could be a thing. Yeah. Even though I was putting all this hours in, so I'm learning how to be a boss. Now I'm learning how to be the difference between being a caring boss and being someone that that needs to leave as well. And also someone that you know, let someone else take over the steering wheel for a bit because, you know, as a friend, Dr. Carr would say, micro sleeps can get you at any time. But for me, it's um, you know, I I'm starting to transition deadly science into getting more voices in so that he can, he can be a sustainable entity on its own, and I can focus on the good stuff I do. In cosmic vertigo with Carly noon and, and zooming the kids and, you know, just enjoying, like, when you do something like deadly science, there's three things that happen. You find your, you find yourself doing way too many hours, because you're so passionate. It's like being it's like having the latest Harry Potter book and you want to stay up and read as much as you can, but you're tired. But also you, you get an appreciation for what is out there. And also, the third one is that you burn out, you burn out very, very easily. And there's not many people that are going to pick you up when you burn out. So you need to support yourself with the people that can. And for me, I don't really want to be sitting in the seat of CEO in 10 years time. I want one of my deadly scientists to be sitting in there and I want it to be so good that it employs them. And they can continue to support the next generation beyond me and if I'm if I'm still around, and I'm sure I will be. I hope that I'm there to support them. And I'm there that I'm that person pick them up when they're burnt out.
Julia Zemiro 31:15 Thank you so much, Corey. Certainly 30 years of age already done so much. And yeah, I particularly love that comment at the end about burnout. You know, it's you can reach incredible heights in your work and in your life. And there's always going to be lows and in betweens, but burnout is a real issue. And when you work that hard off your own bat, you've got to look after yourself and put yourself first sometimes and I want to give out the lifeline number for anybody who might need it. One Three double 114 is a number if anything came up for you listening to that interview one three double 114 And that's a lifeline
Dan Ilic 31:58 what up Jay Z asked who cares? Sure, boy, Jay Z makes nice. No bad Jay Z jewelers zero. This is Julia zero asks, Who cares?
Julia Zemiro 32:08 Next up, I'm talking with Haley McGuire. She's a proud damsel and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton. She's got a passion for working with young people to be critical and active drivers in their own education ecosystem. Where Indigenous ways of knowing being and doing are embedded and tied to the aspirations of both indigenous nations and their young people. To drive this work. She co founded the National indigenous youth education coalition, which is a growing collective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to reclaim their indigenous rights to education. She's also an Obama Foundation leader in the Asia Pacific. But I started asking her about she was once a presenter at her local Mary radio station in Rockhampton.
Hayley McQuire 33:03 Yeah, well, actually, that was my first introduction to doing real I guess community, grassroots work. And, you know, as a millennial, I think we often get pictured as we don't even like to do phone calls. And that was definitely me. And so doing community radio forced me to actually speak to people, the under text message, and it's really built really foundational communication skills that I'm so thankful for.
Julia Zemiro 33:32 Did you have a good experience of education growing up?
Hayley McQuire 33:37 I think it was overall, positive, you know, education for, like, my family and for my parents was a priority. Because it was seen as that tool that we know that me and my siblings could use to, you know, support ourselves in the long run. But there are times when I look back on my educational experiences. And you see that, yeah, there are some things where he could see the inequity. And a lot of that has really come in hindsight, not so much when you're in the moment. Just little things like during my work experience, and in high school, and I wanted to be a teacher, I went back to my old primary school, you just see, like, the little differences in how kids are being treated or like the different expectations of Aboriginal kids. And that's not to say like there was malicious or any ill intent there. But yeah, I feel like there could have been things that were better.
Julia Zemiro 34:47 It's often said that historically, education for indigenous and Torres Strait Island people has been about assimilation and control. What is what's the state of it at the moment do you Think
Hayley McQuire 35:01 I think those, that legacy is still ongoing. You know, like, right now we're having a conversation about what we teach the next generation about the truth of our history, right? We have an education minister who was calling for a patriotic curriculum that gives a fair and that doesn't present a negative view of the past, because that might cause further indecision. But, you know, I questioned that completely, because, one, in first and foremost, it's about the experiences of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander students in the classroom. And this was an experience I had when you go into your history classroom. And you're told that Captain Cook discovered Australia that you're founded as a nation of convicts, and that's the Australian story. Well, that doesn't include, you know, Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people pre colonization, but also our fights for rights in a fair quality, fair society, land rights, all of the fight, everything that Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people have achieved in this country has been fought for by our, our mob, you know, and to say that, for us wanting to fight for freedom is presenting is not consistent with that view, or a patriotic Australia, I think, is really unfair. So we see that, you know, we see this, the way that the story that we want to tell ourselves as continuing a colonial narrative, right through to, you know, our measurements of success, you know, for Aboriginal touchdown, the kids, when you think about educational success, you think attendance rates, or school retention, those are just indicators, those aren't the markers of what a good quality education is, for our people, or how we see that, you know, if you've been fortunate enough to see me in my blood, it runs film, you'll see how like this focus, hyper focus on school attendance, and actually having those metrics map to then welfare payments, that will impact a whole family, this kind of control is still continuing. And it's continuing in a lot of different ways.
Julia Zemiro 37:29 Our education minister, Alan Tudge, is, is living in a kind of an era, like the conservative 50s with the way he speaks about this constant attention to patriotism, I mean, that I don't relate to that at all. It's like everything in the government at the moment, they're completely out of touch with the fact that we have to start doing things in a new way. We have to start seeing and I I can't understand why people can't get excited by that, instead of being isn't change awful. It's like it's some changes, good. And surely anything that is inclusive, and everything that is investigating, and being curious, again, about where we've been is a good thing.
Hayley McQuire 38:07 Yeah. And I feel like, there's so many opportunities that we have to actually be leaders on a world stage, we could be leaders on climate action on a world stage. You know, we could be leaders in investing in indigenous self determined nation building and, and systems and structures that are innovative, you know, like, the Aboriginal medical services, and the origins of those are innovative, they're innovative in providing primary health care. Even the ways that we think about, you know, indigenous education and some of the work that's already happening in this space around making sure Ling Ling learning is connected, the country is connected to place, it's grounded in a holistic view of the whole Well, being of a student. You know, these are this is innovation, you know, that's coming out of indigenous communities every day. But yeah, it's it's so unfortunate, that we seem to be stifling that progress for some kind of backward ideology. We're recording
Julia Zemiro 39:25 this just before cop, part of what those of us who do believe in climate change we'd like to see is, you know, joining the rest of the world in terms of calling for changes that have to happen in terms of climate and renewables, but in involved in that has to be an understanding of or isn't this now a time to also say, how do we now really connect with our history on indigenous people what we've done what we can be, and get that treaty and get a statement from the heart where we can be united like we want to be united?
Hayley McQuire 39:58 Yeah, well, I think this thing to which people might forget about that happened with colonization is that, you know, we had a learning system and knowledge system that came from country that came from observing country and how it changed how it worked over 1000s and 1000s of years, and that's then built our identity, our culture's our ways of being and connecting. And with colonization, we brought in western education system, Western forms of Parliament, Western sciences, which were disconnected from country, you know, and so when we look at the impacts that climate change has on country, the systems that we're working in operating in, in Australia, are fundamentally at the foundational level, disconnected, you know, and so, yeah, it's about learning that history, but also, we need to think about that actually, our connection to our environment, and our connection to land, and seas and our waterways, plays a part in who we are as human beings. And as people. As long as that, you know, disconnection continues, and it continues through the different systems that uphold like our current society and the way that society works, we're not going to make the change that we need, you know, so I think it's a whole, it's a cultural change, as well,
Julia Zemiro 41:39 when I listen to you speak highly, I just think how incredible would it be? How normal should it be? How right it would be to have 15 of you in Parliament today, reminding us of that, reminding us that this is where you're living now, this is what this is. And making us connect again, it's finding connections again, with this, as you say, this country and nature, and looking after her and and also undoing trying to well, we can undo a bit try to give back in terms of what we've taken away from your people. And in terms of the incredible harm we've done as well.
Hayley McQuire 42:22 We have some incredible representation inside Parliament right now. But yeah, I feel like there's, there's so many moms out there who are young and who are doing this work at the grassroots level, even though in Parliament, it would be great. But um, there is a lot of work happening. And I think some of the people that are leading the way in this space is definitely seed, and really Telford at the who's leading that first ever grassroots Youth Climate Action Group. So but that's just one example of many really, yeah,
Julia Zemiro 42:58 to drive this work you're trying to do you co founded the National indigenous youth education coalition. And that's a growing collective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to try and reclaim that, indeed, to try and reclaim I can't believe I have to say the sentence reclaiming indigenous rights to education, it's, it's so awful to have to even say that, that you don't have that. But what does that look like? How's that different?
Hayley McQuire 43:22 Well, I think the ultimate goal for us, in our mind is where we see a First Nations lead education system, you know, whatever that model is, or I mean, you know, we're still trying to figure that out. But basically, you know, in our current education, ecosystem, we have like a broad network of public schools, we've got independent schools, Catholic schools, why not? Why can't Why haven't we yet had support for a First Nations education system where, you know, local communities can actually think about how do they want to govern in deliver education on their country, one to preserve, you know, our cultural heritage, our languages and culture, however, that nation sees fit, but also to really invest in indigenous pedagogy that has been caring for this continent since time immemorial, you know, and I think at that level, there's so much that can be gained for all children to have access and opportunity to an education system that's being led by First Nations people. And you know, we often hear about like the importance of integration and you know, embedding Aboriginal tertia and perspectives into whole of systems or curriculum and yes, that's important, but we also need to think about the power dynamic. Mix at play. And through First Nations lead education system we're trying to make sure Well, we wanting to make sure that at that leadership governance level, that the power sets were first nations people in communities.
Julia Zemiro 45:15 My dad is French, and my mum's Australian. She made him overseas. And then we came to Australia. By chance, my primary school, my Ozzie primary school, had some French classes in it. So I did all my primary school in French. And I remember my parents being so thrilled that even though we weren't in France, I would be able to retain my French language. And it only occurred to me in the last few years. Why should I have the luxury of learning my language that is miles away on the other side of the world? And we weren't all as kids learning one of the many indigenous languages. I mean, it's it's so heartbreaking, Hayley. It's so heartbreaking, that that, that that was available in the 70s. And Greek school was available for kids on a Saturday. Yeah. And you couldn't learn an indigenous language anywhere. And we're lucky to have people like Stan Grant's father who, you know, tried to, you know, got that like that his language back and fought hard to make that happen. It's the inequity discontent, because, you know, you would you're thinking of that wave of migrants needed that support, but indigenous people needed that support, too.
Hayley McQuire 46:29 Yeah, and it, and it's like, that's the thing, I think, the principles around that, like, of course, you would want all young people to be able to retain that sense of self and, and connect to who they are, you know, but that same opportunity has just never been fully given to First Nations people at like, at a systemic level, I should say, you know, there has been like that grassroots movement, you know, and innovation, you know, that community members have fought for, and I think that's the great thing about the national indigenous youth education coalition is that we do get to inherit, you know, like, the activism that came through, you know, when they had a few Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander schools set up, you know, there is more, I think, public, yeah, acceptance of these rights, like you're demonstrating yourself, Julia, but it's that next is that next level now that I feel like us as young people responsible for and you know, for Aboriginal, especially young people, you know, were responsible for passing down this longest continuing culture in the world, while also facing down really complex, global challenges, like climate change, that, you know, are threatening our cultural heritage sites, or, you know, like globalization and just the tensions that that brings, or different changing kind of technology, like all these really hard issues, and then we have to think about it within the ways that this Australian government continues to treat our people, we're operating in a really complex environment, but I feel like I'm very fortunate that we've got, we stand on the shoulders of giants, really, there seems
Julia Zemiro 48:37 to be a common theme to that it's, it's your generation and down that are having to do the heavy lifting. And I for one, just want to keep saying to people, I'm here to help, like if you need sandwiches made, or you need some faxing, done, because that's my era, but don't ask me to send any complicated emails. But I mean, you know, I feel like you're just a beautiful speaker. It's I'm so heard you on many, many different podcasts like this. And, and I love it when you say that we need a stronger educational dialogue in this country. And I would certainly say that for non Indigenous education as well. I think they're kind of getting it wrong. I think that's sort of losing traction, like what are you making people for the future? How you making people for the future? And indeed, this indigenous way in this indigenous way of looking at things is actually more progressive would be more useful?
Hayley McQuire 49:28 Yeah, I think it's funny you say that like, and, again, like, I completely agree. I've been able to do some work with learning creates Australia, which is a growing alliance of different businesses, educators, you know, education providers and policymakers across the country who are wanting to connect together over what is that future of learning in Australia? And that's, yeah, that's been really positive and we've made sure that we've centered you know that first nations self determinations. And sovereignty is part of that piece of work. But really, it's it's so fundamental, you know, I feel like sometimes, and I'm, I've only been a parent for five years now. But I feel like, as you become a parent, too, you want to try and outsource things as much as you can. But you know, we can't get we, we can't look at education the same way where it's something that we outsource to the States or to the state, really, we really have to think about our young people. And that future that they're going to inherit, like, like I said before, is what the situation of Aboriginal touch on the young people is, all young people are facing a really complex future, and we don't even know what the future jobs are going to look like, or what's the future society is going to look like? And so we have to think about, well, what are those core values that we want all young people to inherit? What if we think about, you know, our future generations, like, six, seven generations from now? What do you want that society to look like? Because, really, that's what our knowledge systems do, is they connect us to those people in the future that we're not going to meet? You know, how do we? How do we want to tell them about ourselves, but also what we hope we want them to be able to? to do? You know, like, that's why I feel like education is just so fundamental, and also quite beautiful in but yeah, we are operating with in a system that came out of, you know, the last industrial revolution, revolution, you know, like, it's 150 year old kind of model. And when we look into the future, well, is this Is it adequate? You know, yeah,
Julia Zemiro 52:07 Is it adequate guy I was looking at, you know, in general, in high schools, you know, you're doing your English, Mathematics, Science and Technology, you'll do your human society in its environment. That's one of them, Personal Development, Health, Physical Education, creative arts, languages, if you're lucky, vocational education and training, geography, you know, where's the critical thinking in that, you know, where we teachers already talk about how, because my mom was a teacher, she was a language teacher, and teachers, you know, 2530 years ago, talk about how they could do their subject. They could do this subject, but they could also, you know, go off track and maybe do other bits do something real like they might do civics or they might do politics, or they might do how Parliament work at Parliament House work. So and now there's a sense that you're really quite boxed in now you are you really have to concentrate on your, on your subject. And there's, there's also no time there's way more admin now as well. And the Teachers Federation is constantly talking about pay rises, teachers haven't been their pay hasn't increased in so long, and, and yet, during the pandemic, I would have thought this was the time when everybody would have looked at teachers and gone off. That's what they do. They're incredible.
Hayley McQuire 53:23 Yeah, I feel like teachers should be. Yeah, valued just as much as we value our health practice practitioners in a way. And, you know, I think, yeah, it's, it's so you're so right, in terms of just like, those are the common things that we hear about, you know, the crowded curriculum, or, you know, the additional stress that educators have put on da. And I just think to like, taking a step back, like, you know, the type of inequity that is faced here, education system, too. We know that we got one of the most socially segregated education systems in the OECD. So the type of education that you're going to have access to, if you're from a low economic household is going to be completely different to those with wealth or who live in particular areas. You know, some of this comes through, you know, depending on you know, your situation, sometimes you don't even have that choice, over the type of education that you can give to your child. You know, those are really like, hard issues when you think about, like the importance of having a good quality, public education, you know, that's accessible to all young people and where teachers with the In that, you know, do you have a level of agency? And do you feel like they're being recognized in and rewarded? Yeah, I feel like subjects are a great way to explore content. But yeah, I think another issue that comes along is the pathway that we tend to put all young people on is towards a university pathway, which is well or bad. But when you get to those senior secondary years, there's a strong emphasis on like, your type of aches task, or you get the way that those are reined in calculated, a, you know, it's the system kind of maintaining itself. And so we need to also think about, well, how do we create broader metrics and broader ways of recognizing all the fantastic things that young people knowing can do? Like if they don't work in the arts? Or, you know, if they're a musician, or if they've done so much work for their communities? You know, how are we really recognizing that and giving currency, to the richness of that those experiences and knowledge is that young people have broader than just a, you know, a 99, on an ATAR.
Julia Zemiro 56:19 I know, I mean, I went to an acting school, you know, try that for all the acting schools got into one in Melbourne. And I was 24, by the time I got there, and the way they taught, I learned how to learn there, basically, because I finally got that, oh, you can learn by watching. Or you can learn by doing, or you can learn by it's not just all by reading and writing. And that's important. We don't just learn you got to do things if I physically don't do something. So, you know, should we be spending eight hours or six hours a day inside? Maybe that some of that time should be outside? What does the First Nations lead education system look like to you? Like if you're if you had your wildest dreams, and something wacky happened, like, I became prime minister and said, Yeah, we're making tertiary, secondary and primary free. Go for the army, the smart country, and I've gone highly Yes, here you go. Instead of spending money on submarines, you may have this money. And let's do something interesting. Is there a kind of a, a dream scenario to begin with?
Hayley McQuire 57:25 Yeah, well, for me, like, I always think about it in terms of, I think I've used enough time, I don't know if I'll reach the scope for my daughter, but hopefully my grandchild or great granny, but I do, I do want them to be able to go, like, my idea is that we'd have our own to rumble school on terrible country, and that the classroom wouldn't necessarily be the four walls and the chairs, like, yeah, that would be an option, but spending a lot of time on country where they can, I feel like just get getting that grounding of who they are as a charitable person, and like, the different responsibilities we have to country, I think would be the foundation of that curriculum. I don't think that I'd get rid of like, the school bell. I like full lunches, and recess and stuff like that. 100% Yeah. And like, you know, yeah, I just, I don't know why that's the thing, but get rid of the school bell. And I'd see it as more like, integrated with the community, you know, like, yeah, like, I'd see, like, Where could they be possibilities for shared space, you know, where community can where the school is vital hub, you know, of other community services. And, you know, like, there are great examples happening like the Murray school, they have health services run out of the school, or I'd like to see like communal, like libraries and, and that kind of stuff. But really, it's just something where there's not like that invisible wall, between the school and in the space that it's operating in. That's what I'd want to see and where all children but especially young, like Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kids, don't feel like they have to hide a bit of them, or they don't feel like they have to sacrifice. Like the best of them who they are, in order to succeed at school,
Julia Zemiro 59:34 but also to be bold and loud in it. I want to be bold and loud, like any other kid is and make noise in that language or make noise in my identity and not be told off because, you know, I'm an Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander kid doing that. Yeah, you know, there's a theory that you know, teenagers would be better off starting school at nine or 10am or later because they need the sleeping what are they in there at 7:30am doing for you know, whatever. they could start at 10. And finish at five. Because it suits the more you know, this is very western also idea about, well, you will if meet your means you're working hard if you're up at seven o'clock you're already in, then you're swamped. 20 laps. And you've done this and done that. And I really thought that COVID would be this incredible reminder. And people are talking about about I don't want to go back to how busy I was before what has busy even mean.
Hayley McQuire 1:00:27 Yeah. i The thing is, if it's if it can happen on Zoom, I'll be happy.
Julia Zemiro 1:00:36 Where do you see yourself? In the next 10 years? You know, you're, you're someone who's had the most incredible kind of you know, I mean, you're co founder of the of this indigenous youth education coalition co chair of learning creates Australia, and Obama Foundation leader in the Asia Pacific. Is there a job? Or is there a purpose, something that you feel like your pivot pivot if I can use that hideous COVID word? Pivot? Do you see you see yourself in a different position in 10 years time?
Hayley McQuire 1:01:11 Well, to use another COVID slang? Well, now more than ever, I've realized. Yeah, like in 10 years time, like, I honestly don't know, I know that by that time, I'd want. Like, I'd be out of the coalition and be run by continue to be run by young, younger people. But I think I would love to be able to play a role in I love to convene, and bring different people together around issues where, you know, multiple people aren't satisfied, you know, so whatever that kind of looks like would take shape. I feel like there's power in bringing yet different coalition's of people together. And I think that see, that's the only way forward, you know, Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I'd hope to be playing some kind of service type role in that area.
Julia Zemiro 1:02:10 Have you had mentors along the way that have been able to help? And are they hard to find?
Hayley McQuire 1:02:16 Yeah, I've had, I've had a few mentors. And actually, mentoring has been really important to me. And I've just been that weird person. i Well, my first mentor is this incredible Ratterree and one over a woman, Donna Marie, he's also the CEO of indigenous Allied Health Australia. And I remember seeing her speak once in it only took one time. And I think I was like, 20. And as soon as she got off the stage, I just bailed her up and said, Can you please mentor me? And then that's been about 10 years or so now? of mentoring. So yeah, I've had some really powerful mentors, but it's just been more of that informal one. So I've met someone and just, like seeing kind of how they think and Yeah, been been able to, to learn a lot from from a few people. Now.
Julia Zemiro 1:03:15 I sometimes have had mentors who didn't even know they were my mentor. You know, this is someone you admire, and they're in your frame of reference, or maybe they're not even, but you just go Bob cheedo? Yeah, okay. Yeah, you know, this sort of, you kind of align with their system of beliefs, I guess. And you think, you know, like I said, he might be a great lecturer, or might be a great teacher, or even just a work colleague, and you think, yeah, no, she wouldn't. She wouldn't do that she wouldn't do that. And they don't even know. And then I remember years later, telling them and then going, Oh, thanks. You could have come up. And I'm like, Ah, now this. Mentoring just has you say it's touching base with with her and being able to say, I'm thinking of doing it this way. What do you reckon? You know?
Hayley McQuire 1:04:00 Yeah. Yeah. And I've been really lucky that my mentors haven't just been for me individually, but they've kind of come in and mentored, like, a whole night crew. Well, we've been trying to think about strategy, you know, like, you're just volunteering their time to help with our strategic planning or like, help us understand a particular focus or topic, like I've been able to draw on those to really help set the foundations for the coalition as well, which is, I feel like, yeah, that's, that's also the best way to use mentoring is to it's like, it's like being able to draw on your own star advisory team to
Julia Zemiro 1:04:47 really love a star advisory team. Finally, you know, this podcast is called who cares? And I'm trying to get people to kind of care a little bit more in there. Every day life, and there's no data can seem overwhelming. And if you did it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you know, I mean, that's what that's what you're asking. But it's just saying, I guess, make a little bit more effort in your own life to challenge your own thinking or challenge your own habits or challenge, what you think is absolutely true. You know, that is the truth. And that well, is it? Because I also think that when we go to this next election, could it be December? Could it be March? Who knows? We don't know. But um, we're voting on lots of things. That way, we're not just voting on climate change, we're voting on how we want to be represented what we want to see. And I keep talking about the election as being like an exam people should study for, you know, you can't be going in there going, God, I didn't look anything up, I've got no idea who anyone is, you want to go in there and make good decisions about, you know, what, who you gonna vote for? And why. But in terms of this new way of looking at education, how can what can what can a person do? Like? What's the way do you start with your local community? Do you is it about donations, you know, I think everyone should be donating some money if they can, and be, you know, be smart about where you put that money, do something good with it,
Hayley McQuire 1:06:15 I'd say like, just think about, you know, education, to me is all about legacy, you know, like, you know, like you think about just even the different things that you get passed down to you within like a family kind of unit, it might be a particular meal that everyone cooks, or, you know, there's something that you do every time, you know, New Year's rolls around. Like, the what we teach, and the values we teach young people is a form of L legacy, you know, you hardly ever meet someone who can't recall their favorite teacher or can't recall a particular moment that they had at school. You know, education is just so powerful in shaping individuals and shaping our society. And so my call to action would be to look at, you know, how the who's going to invest in education, but what kind of education? Do you want an education that only serves to, that seems to be in service to some kind of political ideology? Or do you want to invest in an education that is caring about young people, and caring about young people's futures, because that is ultimately our future that we're, that we're all going to be betting on. So
Julia Zemiro 1:07:45 it's interesting, because when you speak of those traditions, you know, white folks love their traditions of having gone to this school, and I want my son to go to this school, and then my grandson will go to this school, you know, there's this sense of, you know, and there was some English background, whereas apparently, we're not allowed to celebrate the traditions and in your culture. And if yours are so important one, then why isn't an indigenous Torres Strait Islander? That's just as important to you clearly want that. So why don't you allow it in another? And in fact, why not maybe learn about it and be part of it. And I guess, you know, if they can be a Montessori school, and they can be a Steiner School, you know, you know, where people have said, I don't like the way things are done. So we want these separate kind of schools where they do different things where often it is a more experiential way of learning, actually going outside, be more, there's, there's room for it, I just, I really think we're at a point at the moment where we are going to have to do some things so differently, and the change will have to come faster, because it has to come faster. And it's just wondering if people have the courage to do it. And where do you get excited about stop seeing this downside of it? See the upside of it, you know?
Hayley McQuire 1:08:59 Yeah, I agree. I think this is the time where we can actually be asking the people who want to lead this country, what their vision is
Julia Zemiro 1:09:09 here and have one, why not have a vision, please have a
Dan Ilic 1:09:13 vision. Julissa Mira asks, Who cares?
Julia Zemiro 1:09:16 Yes, let's have a vision. Leaders with vision. So we want what we want a bit more than that. Thank you so much, to Haley and to Cory, for doing the podcast this number two out of six podcasts in the next few months, I really have been reflecting on this notion that we are going to have to make some very, very significant changes in terms of climate in terms of wanting to reconcile with the indigenous people of this country to education, you know, how can we look at change as a good thing? How can we look at change as a necessary thing? We have to make so many of them at the moment and Finding a way to maybe switch our thinking to the good that can come out of it, how it called bind us together another the things that will separate us. Anyway, onwards and upwards. Hey, see you next month. Thanks for joining me.
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G’day Fearmongers,
We have two special guests this week!
Firstly, from the International Intrigue newsletter this week, co-founder and editor, Jeremy Dicker. It's a great daily read. I highly recommend subscribing. Kind of like Morning Brew for #Geopol.
International Intrigue website.
We cover a couple of big internationally intriguing headlines from Albo's trip to China and why the US Department of Defense is buying a mining company in Nevada.
AND Guest #2. James Blackwell gives the Federal Court a spray about this week's decision that the Australian Government doesn't have a duty of care to Torres Strait islanders… and thereby... all Australians.
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Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the Bertha Foundation
Dan Ilic 0:04 Hello Lewis.
Lewis Hobba 0:05 Hello Daniel. How are you?
Dan Ilic 0:08 Oh good, but not as good as you look so he looks so tanned. So yeah
Lewis Hobba 0:15 yeah, me and my people we can very easily. It was. I had a week off. I hope you had a good show last week.
Dan Ilic 0:21 I was great.
Lewis Hobba 0:22 I'm sure it was not as good as usual I would imagine.
Dan Ilic 0:26 No, you're correct it wasn't as good we did miss a certain there was a shouldn't certain genres acquire that was missing from the program.
Lewis Hobba 0:33 Yeah, I mean, I just say the choir it's me.
Dan Ilic 0:37 I'm recording my end of irrational feet on Gadigal land in the Eora. Nation. Sovereignty was never seated, waited a treaty. Let's stop the shot.
Unknown Speaker 0:44 A rational field contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra, fed gum, and section 40 of our rational view recommended listening my immature audience.
Dan Ilic 0:57 Tonight the federal government commits net zero by 2050. By announcing existing policies Angus Taylor says it shows the government's commitment to recycling and economists say that the chances of hitting net zero by 2050 are about 5050 and Andrew lambing MP withdrawals an apology for the treatment of to Brisbane women, prompting Andrew lemmings dad to apologize for not withdrawing to create Andrew laming. It's the 29th of October and things are about to get spooky. This is a rational fear.
Hello, welcome to rational fee. I'm your host, former president of the walker Walker Gun Club Dan Ilic. And this is a rational fear the podcast that brings a little nihilistic joy to your existential anxiety. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. They caught a break at the start of their pandemic and just like COVID-19 Now they're everywhere from the feed vigia Rajon vija. How does it feel to be everywhere?
Vidya Rajan 1:58 It's good. I always wanted to achieve, like cosmic union,
Dan Ilic 2:03 and they've booked their first ever solo festival shows so you better go along and say it otherwise I'll give up comedy forever. From the chaser podcast. It's the overstretch. Gabby Bowles.
Gabbi Bolt 2:12 Hello. Yes. I have no idea if I'm any good at this still. It's been almost a year, and I still don't know.
Dan Ilic 2:19 Yes, I look. Finally you'll have the opportunity to be rejected by hundreds of people.
Gabbi Bolt 2:23 I cannot wait. I cannot wait. I have like the T's in a jar ready to go to sprinkle on all of my sorry notes.
Dan Ilic 2:32 And they fresh from holidays where he saw sunshine for the first time in 120 days. He's tall and tan, just like Barnaby Joyce's riding boots. It's Lewis harbor.
Lewis Hobba 2:42 That's right. Slip into me. That'd be good to be back. After. After a week off. I had a nice time I went to Greater Sydney. I went an hour and a half away. It's the furthest I've been away since about April, I think and it's nice in Greater Sydney.
Dan Ilic 2:58 How did you feel about Greater Sydney versus less Greater Sydney? What's what's your favorite? Where's your favorite place to be?
Lewis Hobba 3:03 Yeah, I mean, I live in Leicester, Sydney. I live in the potter city. There's just all like rats and cockroaches. I went out to to VOCA, which is a little bit north. Heaven up there. Dan. I saw I saw a dolphin and a shark.
Dan Ilic 3:18 Oh my goodness. That's the future. Coming up a little later on. We speak with Graham Redfin, from The Guardian about a true crime podcast series that highlights in gruesome detail the murdering of climate policy by Australia. But first, a message from this week's sponsor. This episode of irrational fear is brought to you by the camera modeling agency for when you need to put on a show. The Emperor says some wearing no clothes. Our plan
Unknown Speaker 3:43 for net zero by 2050 is the plan that I believe Australians want. Scott put it away
Dan Ilic 3:51 the camera modeling agency, the critics contact you if you've got nothing to show. This is our small handful.
Gabbi Bolt 3:57 Ours is getting boring.
Dan Ilic 3:59 This week's first fear billboards, folks, we've done it. We've done our billboard campaign has gone off. It's been quite a few busy weeks for me. We've raised $226,000. From your Yes, yeah. Have you I know you've been away, Louis. So you probably haven't actually caught up on what we've been doing on the podcast while you've been away for the last couple of weeks.
Lewis Hobba 4:24 I mean, I didn't listen, I'm not an idiot. I muted you on Twitter.
Dan Ilic 4:30 There are a lot of comedians who've unfollowed me on Twitter.
Gabbi Bolt 4:35 That's how you know you're famous Dan.
Dan Ilic 4:38 Yeah, yeah. So we've we've we've raised $226,000 from 2580 people who are very annoyed about climate action or the lack of climate action from our government. We've absolutely shattered through our initial campaign of raising $12,000 And now we're paying for three huge billboards in July. One is on the Glasgow expressway between the cop center, the cop Conference Center and the airport. And the other two, one is on shelters and road in in garter share Glasgow and the other is on Rocklin Road in Strathclyde. Glasgow. So we've got we've got three giant billboards coming.
Lewis Hobba 5:21 Did you get any like hot tips from locals on whether or not those are areas that were densely populated? ago? Or are you just you just hitting and swinging and missing? To be
Dan Ilic 5:30 honest, the Glasgow tower expressway is the big one. And that was sold into me hard by the out of home company. They said, Yeah, this is a pretty big one, right? Because the one I initially bought books for them was a real shitty one in a in a like a commuter cab.
Lewis Hobba 5:44 Yeah. I was chatting to my family last night. And now like all the dads billboard campaigns going really well. I'm like, Yeah, it's amazing. And because my parents live in Torquay, in Victoria, and I was like, there's been one in Tokyo for like, a month. And that was like, Oh, we haven't seen it. I'm like, I don't know where he's put it.
Dan Ilic 6:04 It's only Great Ocean Road. Like it's like, the main strip.
Lewis Hobba 6:08 Yeah, I guess my parents are getting out much.
Vidya Rajan 6:10 How long? How long is that one gonna be off? Can I go visit?
Dan Ilic 6:14 Yeah, you certainly certainly can. I think it's going to be up for the next couple of months. So that one was given to us was a was a gift from the outdoor company gawk. So thank you, GOC for that, so they'll get to see they're gonna run that for a couple months for us for free. They just want to be part of the action. But we've had some we've had some artwork rejected from the out of home company. So let me show you what we're running. Here's what we're running. We're running Net Zero ambitions by 2050. Australia. We're running the other one from from New York, which is cuddle a koala before we make them extinct. And the other one we're running is the apology where we said we're sorry that Australia's bullshitting on our emissions targets. But they rejected the bullshitting with the Asterix in the word because they said it's swearing. So we've had to replace the word bullshitting with a Scottish word could hovering, which is apparently a Scottish word for foolish talk. So it kind of makes sense. How Lovering pavered Hmm.
Lewis Hobba 7:19 Is this a drop bear situation? Have you been
Unknown Speaker 7:23 favored?
Dan Ilic 7:27 I don't know. Maybe we've been Haven. It's a good enough story anyway, I think I think it'll work. So yeah, it's really good. Anyway, look, this is something we don't often talk about on the podcast. Because as our revenue grows, we we have a thing where we pay the rent, we give 5% of our Patreon to seed mob. So this project, it's going to be exciting to give $10,000 to between two groups seed mob and Wang and Jinglu cultural custodians who are defending their ancestral land on, which is where Adani is trying to build a mine. So that's really exciting. So big thank you. To all those folks who've chipped in, we are going to fall asleep spend the rest of your money on making jokes between now and May. And we've also got our billboard today went up in Armadale in Barnaby Joyce is illiterate, there it is their net zero by 2300. And we've also got a billboard that went up in Kooyong. Now, we are not allowed to advertise anything political in that particular billboard. So we ran this one, hey, it's time to buy a standing desk because you're about to lose your seat. And with enough space there for someone to write whenever they want. Ah, you know, so that's that's potentially potentially but we don't want
Lewis Hobba 8:41 Josh there. That would be an option, wouldn't they should wouldn't that be awful?
Dan Ilic 8:45 Or if they wrote Louis, I know, Louis, you don't have a standing desk? No,
Lewis Hobba 8:49 that's true. That's true. I would love one.
Dan Ilic 8:53 I do have some news on that particular billboard, though. Someone has defected already.
Lewis Hobba 9:00 Didn't want to happen.
Dan Ilic 9:01 Did they have royally? Like kind of done a great job? Well, have they done? This is what they've done.
So for people who are listening to the podcast, instead of writing Josh after, hey, you Frydenberg in our writers at the very bottom of the artwork, so it says, hey, it's time to bystanders because you're about to lose your seat. Frydenberg
Vidya Rajan 9:35 grammatically, yeah, perfect. And it's so frightening. The handwriting is so beautiful.
Dan Ilic 9:43 Someone sent it to me and they said, We're two geriatric people and we tried to give it a go and we were too nervous to climb the ladder that we brought and I was like, well, that is amazing. The beautiful thing
Gabbi Bolt 9:56 about them the notebooks over We call it like the notepad.
Lewis Hobba 10:01 Yeah, but it's down.
Dan Ilic 10:07 This week's second fee follow the money in 2018, the world's largest fund trader, Blackrock said they'd no longer invest in companies that failed to demonstrate that they also serve a social purpose, as well as generating profits. Now, this is a big deal. They have 8.7 trillion in investment and you can buy a lot for 8.7 trillion. You could get 10 and a half wars in Afghanistan for that kind of money. Or a three bedroom house in Sydney. Look, it is a lot of money. This week at a conference in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, also known as the new castle of the Middle East, the CEO of Blackrock put his words behind green tech as the place where the next 1000 unicorns would be born. That is, private businesses worth over a billion dollars in such industries as green hydrogen, green cement and green steel in his mind, it'll make great money. fear mongers is Larry Fink, correct? The next 1000 unicorns gonna come out of these sectors vigia?
Vidya Rajan 11:02 Probably, I don't know, like, I think we're looking for so many things to save us. But I think what's really interesting is that he said that and then I think they invest in the Commonwealth Bank, and they are they're like, major shareholders. And then the Commonwealth Bank had a resolution about like, whether they should divest from fossil fuels. And then I think, and then Blackrock voted no. So they're saying they want to invest in climate tech, but then they're letting I mean, maybe maybe that is the scam though, because like, all the climate tech they're investing in is just fixed the problem. And so if it gets worse and worse, the tech becomes more valuable.
Lewis Hobba 11:39 Are you suggesting that these financial investors are serious about like, they're actually more interested in money? A group called who voluntarily called themselves BlackRock, BlackRock, viously, evil villain organization.
Dan Ilic 11:53 Yeah. Named after their father Cole.
Vidya Rajan 11:58 This kind of like, I'm like, Why do all these organizations like call themselves these cartoon villain names? It's like calling yourself like Mordor stone or something like that. And Enron, like, sounded like a robot that wanted to kill you. Like, it's all in the name?
Lewis Hobba 12:13 Like, yeah, give yourself a nice name like Facebook, and then you never do anything.
Vidya Rajan 12:17 Then you fool people for longer. And by the time you've done it, you're like, your mom's on there.
Lewis Hobba 12:26 I'll be buried. Has there been any climate unicorns at all? Has there been one? Surely not, right. I can't think of one.
Dan Ilic 12:35 And they're all
Lewis Hobba 12:37 like webs. They're all just websites. It's all just like, yeah, can burn. Like, there are all these people that just like, do it like making apps that kind of exist in like Microsoft Office and then putting them on the internet?
Dan Ilic 12:49 Yeah, it is totally. It's suddenly be able to scale right across the world, you know, in a matter of months. That's That's
Lewis Hobba 12:57 correct. KeepCup. They made a billion dollars.
Gabbi Bolt 13:00 They have a billion dollars. Have you seen how
Dan Ilic 13:03 Tesla is close? I
Vidya Rajan 13:05 think there's literally a website. That's like climate tech unicorns.
Lewis Hobba 13:11 And how many are there?
Vidya Rajan 13:13 Now? Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. There's quite a few. Too many people have a billion dollars, I guess. You know.
Lewis Hobba 13:22 Why didn't you ask for a billion dollars for your fundraising campaign? You could have been a unicorn.
Dan Ilic 13:28 I asked for a million and you got 20% It's very disappointing.
Lewis Hobba 13:32 The bad boy of Bilbo Chase failed a bad billionaire of Bill Bowles. That's Daniel.
Unknown Speaker 13:40 Is Treasury ever done any modeling on the economic costs or benefits of net zero? I don't think so. In the period immediately before that we had done cleaning quantum change modeling. I don't know whether it's for us, but we haven't done it. A rational fear.
Dan Ilic 13:55 This week's third fear Chris Evans is set to start in the prequel of Pixar Toy Story. This proving it's best to never have childhood memories so they can never be destroyed. The mangas is this prequel necessary? Do we really need it? Gabby?
Gabbi Bolt 14:09 Here's the thing about this prequel. It's called Lightyear. Right. And from that you think it's about the Buzz Lightyear we all know and love. But I think this is actually the first time we see a prequel outlining the reason for a fake merchandise pitch in an alternate universe. It's the story of a fake man who inspires the fake toy company who inspires the fake toy version of the same fake man. So it's not actually the story of the toy. I want to reiterate that it's the story of the actual astronaut Buzz Lightyear who at some point in his life, gets a toy deal. Wow. It's kind of like if we made a movie about I don't know, a Barbie. And then we made a movie about the person who inspired the Barbie, the woman who couldn't stand
Vidya Rajan 14:53 up straight because
Gabbi Bolt 14:56 and somebody said there's a doll in this
Lewis Hobba 14:58 barber Millicent Wallace.
Gabbi Bolt 15:01 So it was, yeah.
Dan Ilic 15:03 Good work. Does she have a feature film about her Louis
Lewis Hobba 15:07 soon? Not to my knowledge, but I'm sure it's on the way you need to pitch that.
Vidya Rajan 15:10 Quick. I was
Gabbi Bolt 15:12 thinking based on based on this story coming out this there's tons of prequels we can make now, like, all right, the fact that they need to be continuous with the original plot, irrelevant. Now we can make a prequel to Bug's Life and call it love actually, and all you see for 90 minutes is just like goo and stuff. It's conceptual. You know, you can make an origin story for legendary walking advertisement himself, Duff man, I want a tough man feature film from The Simpsons. That man has tales we don't know about. I also wouldn't mind an origin story specifically for the sleepy dwarf because why is he so sleepy all the time?
Dan Ilic 15:48 I've got some other pretty close police academy, police after school academy who needs help with maths? Yes. Yeah. Three Men and a zygote? It's Tom Selleck, Tom Selleck, without a mustache and Beverly Hills mop. Eddie Murphy plays a janitor going to do one last cleanup in aisle seven before retiring.
Gabbi Bolt 16:07 I also wouldn't mind a Furby horror film and I was gonna write that one down, but then I realized that a Furby horror film is literally just gremlins. It's just the plot of glare of Gremlins
Vidya Rajan 16:16 Disney's just cannibalizing itself like that snake the aura Boris. But, yes,
Lewis Hobba 16:24 now that's a show. Now it's human centipede, but snake.
Gabbi Bolt 16:27 That's actually the sequel to A Bug's Life. Yeah, I'm pretty cool all day. Actually. We have the sequel.
Lewis Hobba 16:33 The other thing was a lot. He has gotten harder. Yeah, in the transition. I weirdly from George Clooney. Well taught us man to Chris Evans. Also hot man. The animation has gotten a little harder.
Gabbi Bolt 16:45 Yeah, just when you think Tim Allen couldn't be any sexier. Yeah, Jim Allen
Dan Ilic 16:49 was the original Buzz Lightyear
Lewis Hobba 16:51 Alan, why don't you Yeah. Well, cuz he
Gabbi Bolt 16:54 thought he was hot. Easy mistake. Easy.
Lewis Hobba 16:57 Elon was Buzz Lightyear, I guess. Yeah. I didn't really watch movies growing up. So I have a lot of gaps in my knowledge. I just assume everything is George Clooney.
Unknown Speaker 17:09 is one of those people you just spoke about who writes horrible things online? abusing his own constituents taking
Dan Ilic 17:14 photographs of people women's underwear in public? Can you see that people see a double standard here a rational fear. Graham Redfin is a longtime climate environment reporter and his current employer has put that knowledge to good use. Together with Adam more than the environment editor at The Guardian Graham has made a new podcast series called Australia versus the climate which is a blow by blow reporting of how we got into this mess in the first place. He joins us now welcome Graham Redfern.
Graham Readfearn 17:42 Hey, Dan, how are ya $226,000 though, you're gonna need some kind of blind trust to money, amount of cash.
Dan Ilic 17:53 Well, people want me to people want me to continue the thing and I'm like, I don't want to continue. I don't want to keep raising money and asking people for money. But maybe I will start a blind trust when the election gets called. And if people want us to make electric election content, they can pay into the into the blind trust we'll call it porters blind trust, Proprietary Limited. It's good. We're gonna spend the money on good stuff we're going to spend the money on not any billboards, but we're going to pay for more video content. We've got a great stunt idea. And yeah, we will also be able to pay for everyone who comes on the podcast for next year, which is great. So you know except for your grand we're not paying for you
Graham Readfearn 18:28 know, I love how you took my flippin opening remark as a as a excuse to give me an actual answer to the question.
Gabbi Bolt 18:36 We don't know anything about that in this country.
Lewis Hobba 18:38 Just off the top. Every time we speak to someone who works full full time in in climate, either policy or activism in Australia. The first question I always want to know is like how are you?
Graham Readfearn 18:53 Yeah, I'm very tired. Especially after this week. I'm just generally tired and being honest being on this podcast with all you youthful. I mean, how do you do it? That's what I want to know cuz I'm done. I mean, maybe it's just the years I'm you know, I'm middle aged. Why tired? Uh, yeah. I've been doing this for almost 20 years now almost like on climate. Yeah, it's, I think you got to you got to put the time in. You got to put the time in because it's it's a really it is a really it's it's massively politicized and there's all sorts of misinformation there's a lot of denial. There's a lot of there's a lot of ways that that readers can get misinformed by this sort of stuff. And I think you need to spend a bit of time with the information before you as a journal before you can really feel you're not going to accidentally mislead your, your readers. You know,
Dan Ilic 19:47 it is really interesting listening to the podcast is so gripping and so intriguing. It is a real great primer for the cop 2016 Coming up, if you want to know everything that went wrong with Australian climate policy, spend four hours listening to this podcast and you will be up to speed. Putting it together. Graham, did you have to? Were you surprised at the kind of research you you found even though you've been kind of in this space for 1520 years?
Graham Readfearn 20:19 Oh, we find out a lot. And yeah, I mean, we've got four hours of broadcast material and about 35 hours not broadcasted. We we start our started three months ago. And I mean, I know I know some of the stories, but you kind of you got to start somewhere. So we start at the beginning, we're starting, you know, in the mid 90s. What is the Howard Government doing around climate change? We've got the Kyoto meeting coming up, what do the cabinet papers say about what Australia's position is, and then we find the people that were around at the time, and we look at the participant lists of the UN f triple C participant list for the Kyoto meeting, and we kind of got out, let's speak to that guy. Let's speak to that person, and we just start ringing them up. And so we couple of really valuable interviews was a guy called Roger Bill, who was the head of so the environment department in the Howard era, who helped to sort of write this thing called the Australia clause, which, as Clive Hamilton tells us in the podcast, if you don't know about the Australia clause, please don't get me to explain it. If you don't know what the Australia quote is, I will explain it. But if you don't know what it is, and you don't know anything about climate policy, and you can't, because it's it's the thing, that means when you hear Morrison and Angus Taylor, in the last few days, say we meet and be RTL targets, you know, the reason he can say that is because of what Australia did in Kyoto in 1997. So we kind of start there. And we go all the way through from Kyoto to the other big meetings like the failure of Copenhagen.
Dan Ilic 21:54 How did you get that guy? How did you get bail to talk like, because when he speaks in your podcast, his deed sounds almost proud of the diplomacy he did. And like, he was like, some kind of returning services person coming back from war, like he was kind of proud of the stuff he did, but in effect, it's kind of ruined everything. Well,
Graham Readfearn 22:15 it's not it's not my it, my job is to find the people that were in the room and ask them the questions that you would want to ask them and let them answer. And when that gets pulled out across four or five hours of a podcast, and it's got context around it, it becomes I think, really, really powerful. He's he was a long serving public servant. And he retired, I think, maybe eight or nine years ago, now, maybe a little bit longer. I'll find out where it was. He's an artist in Canberra and and rang him up.
Dan Ilic 22:48 That's amazing. That's amazing. And you've also got other folks in there, like head of Greenpeace at the time, and, and you also got Kevin Rudd on, it was really interesting to listen to Kevin Rudd pretend that he was trying to solve climate change. In episode two, when it came to Paris, it's fascinating when Kevin Rudd is talking about sorry, Copenhagen, here and trying to get all the countries to kind of come to a deal in Copenhagen and Kevin Rudd paints himself as this as his Savior to do that. But it's also at the same time when you listen to Ben Rhodes his book, and you listen to Obama's book, Obama and Ben Rhodes also paint Barack Obama as the savior of Yerevan. But ultimately, these two or three big egos kind of going trying to save this world agreement made the whole agreement fall apart.
Graham Readfearn 23:35 Yeah, the root story is remarkable, if only to hear Kevin Rudd attempt to corral the entire planet Earth in a room, which he said, was not big enough to swing a cat. The thing about the Copenhagen episode was that the this was a period where where Australia was in a position where it was it wanted to do stuff and what whatever you think about Kevin Rudd, and Penny Wong, who was also featured in the podcast, whatever you think about those people, they they did work really hard in Copenhagen, it didn't work. It's ironic really, that at the one time when the Australian government seemed really motivated to get a deal is the time when the rest of the world just can't, can't pull their finger out. We wrote We spoke to a guy called Andrew Higham, who's an Australian guy who went off to Europe and to work for the United Nations to actually write these, these deals, these protocols these agreements, and, and he, he said to us on it. When I got there, the first thing I was working on was Copenhagen, and it was it was six months away, but he said it was never going to be a deal. It was a mirage. He called it a mirage.
Dan Ilic 24:50 Wow. Oh god,
Lewis Hobba 24:51 that's nice. Yeah. Any prophecies on on Glasgow then?
Graham Readfearn 24:56 Any? Well, while we've been talking about We have the the official press release from at this No joke, the official press release from Angus Taylor his office. It says it says Angus Taylor will attend the opening week of cop 26 to promote Australia as a safe and reliable destination for investment in filling the gaps for investment. Gas, hydrogen and new energy technologies. So what Well, the thing about so Morrison's going to Glasgow, and he's not going with a front loaded 2030 target. He's just going with some projections, even even the projections are way below the kind of 2030 targets that the United States have got the Europe's got that the UK has got. So all I guess he can hope for is to come away unscathed. It will not though I don't think it's going to be a meeting that will deliver us anything that will get us close to what the Paris deal says, which is well below two degrees. There's still a massive gap, the UN released a report when it added up all the pledges that the different countries have put in. And he said, Well, you know, they're still way over two degrees. So it's going to be it's going to be very difficult. But you got to you got to you got to put the effort in you down. And I've just remembered by the way, there was a scene in Paris in the in the podcast. Yeah. When it's the only it's the only light comedian. I shouldn't say this, because no one will listen. It's only like, comedic scene in the whole in the whole of the series. But it's when it's when the Paris deal gets struck. And I go out to a nightclub in the evening, where I meet Dan Ilic. But I also I also get to dance with the with Christiana for Guerrero, who was the president of the cop. We exchanged some some shapes that night. But that that episode is sort of that takes us to the high of Paris and then explains what happened in Australia and what happened to these protocols in the years that went that followed.
Dan Ilic 27:13 Yeah, I love that episode, so much the way you laid that out for that car because it kind of laid out this interesting internal battle amongst Australian politicians, Angus Taylor, and and Bishop Julie Bishop, when they were kind of arguing over whether they should go for a two degree limit or a 1.5 degree limit. And Angus Taylor, of course, is hard right? faction is saying no, no, we're just gonna go for two degree limit. And then Julie Bishop grabbed the microphone and said, We're gonna go for 1.5 degrees and like committed Australia, almost unilaterally. I thought there was a real beautiful moment like, Oh, my God, that's so strange. Wow. We were almost like, you know, it feels like we're part of something usually doing something. Yeah. And then to see us kind of throw that away the weeks after Paris and go, Yeah, we're not gonna actually do anything about about Paris at all. It is it is such a roller coaster ride your podcast is amazing.
Graham Readfearn 28:05 It's why we hired a true true crime. Audio producer from the ABC to actually fully sounds
Dan Ilic 28:12 like it sounds like a true crime Podcast. I'm hooked every step of the way.
Graham Readfearn 28:17 You've got it. It's got this there is drama. It's there. In amongst all the square brackets, and the and the hours and hours of sort of meaningless meetings. There is a there's high drama, these meetings are where the the power base of the world gathers. And I think the moment where we have Penny Wong remembering being in a room in Copenhagen, with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, and she says to us, I never thought I'd be in a room like this. And what strikes her about it is that the people in this room could do anything that they wanted. They wanted to solve climate change right now. He could do it. And they didn't.
Dan Ilic 28:54 And what are they? What are some Tyler? Oh,
Graham Readfearn 28:58 yeah, yeah, sorry to spoil it for you. Yeah, I'm just catching up with the news from 2009. But yeah. But that those were the moments that we were really looking for, as well in the podcast to kind of get get get the details to prime people. So they know what happens at these meetings, because they are crucial, right? So get them to understand what happens at them, but also to sort of find the anecdotes that keep the drama going and keep the humanity in it. I mean, even even going back to Roger, Bill, Dan, who you mentioned, who was around in the Kyoto period. I mean, you know, he tells us when the meeting had finished, I went back to my hotel, had a bath, drank half a bottle of whiskey. I mean, it's unusual together public servants, sort of giving you that kind of detail. But
Gabbi Bolt 29:43 yeah, I feel like Scott's approaching cop 26 The same way I approached any and all group projects that university which is just kind of like turn up I guess I'm being made to do whatever the other people tell me to do and then walk away and then fail because I didn't actually do anything. thing. But the difference is when I do that repeatedly, I get kicked out of university. And when he does it, it's fine. He gets
Graham Readfearn 30:10 it, he gets to do it the Australian what he gets the Australian. And look can see just is, you know, if if I had a conceit AMITA it would have blown it up. Because that that was it's absolutely astonishing
Dan Ilic 30:25 vigia, I often see your tweets on climate change. Would you ever want to go to a conference of parties? What would you do that?
Vidya Rajan 30:33 Oh my god, um, I feel like I could only go if I was employed as a professional. I could live tweet the event. Like I think I'd like to do that. And just like subtweet everyone, they're walking around. Is that activism? Yeah. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 30:51 yeah,
Dan Ilic 30:52 that's probably sounds simple. It sounds professional.
Vidya Rajan 30:55 Yeah, like a large screen of the tweets to just appear after they've said some things that everyone can like, get your take immediately. It's just
Lewis Hobba 31:03 so like, you'd be almost like doing gogglebox or something.
Vidya Rajan 31:06 Yeah, or like making them into a moderating their performance. Yeah. What were you saying?
Dan Ilic 31:12 I was gonna say, you could actually get that job vigia to work a defect, because that is essentially cop copies a giant Google doc screen in, in like, little in meetings, upon meetings upon meetings. And it's this giant Google doc screen that all the countries are trying to add to and subtract to to get to a final resolution. It's like that's why they spent two weeks like rough two weeks basically working in a group document.
Lewis Hobba 31:35 It's so nice. You're here, Graham, because you're now the you now make to people in the history of the podcast that have been excited about the cop meetings. Yeah, but not the outcomes. But the actual meetings. Yeah, easily. Denzel Dan's eyes light up when he talks about a Google Doc. Yeah. Loves process.
Graham Readfearn 31:50 Yeah, yeah. Well, if you like process, you'll love a cop. But the fun the fun part of the of the Copenhagen episode with with Rod was was how he basically did not run with the process at all, and was trying to run meetings after like through the middle of the night. And then there was there's this moment that he recalls, there's a there's a moment that he recalls when he when he's trying to run this meeting with like India and China and some other countries, I might have got the country's wrong. And the Danes, the Danish Prime Minister, who was chairing the meeting, sort of walks out in India and China are trying to get this whole process to slow down. So they're like looking at him going, oh, yeah, we can solve this now, because there's no chair. So Kevin Rudd says to us on the podcast, he says, Well, I said, Well, my good friend, the Danish Prime Minister has asked me if I will now chair this meeting on his behalf. And he hadn't asked him to do that at all, it was just really making it up, just to try and keep the thing going. So there's process and then there's making stuff up to try and keep the thing on the rails. It was a pretty that's another sort of really interesting moment.
Dan Ilic 32:58 Graham, thank you so much for coming on. And telling us about this podcast is truly an incredible bit of work, having listened to all of it now. It's just it is, if you've never if you want to deeply understand the reason why we are where we are, you could definitely listen to this and you can have a good time listening to it, which is great. It's really entertaining. It's
Graham Readfearn 33:21 it's a five part series. It's on the Guardians full story, podcast feed, each should have its own feed by next week. Please listen and share talk about it's also on Spotify, also on Google podcasts on the house, but it's with Adam Morton, lots of superstars and amazing audio production team.
Dan Ilic 33:38 Is it going to be on Netflix? It sounds like a good.
Graham Readfearn 33:41 Let's talk about it down. Let's make it happen.
Lewis Hobba 33:44 We can Dan can fund it. He's got a lot of money. I mean, yeah,
Graham Readfearn 33:48 you got 26 grand, you're just flying around.
Dan Ilic 33:52 Yeah. I've already spent I've already spent $70,000. I'm gonna pay myself back first, because, well, I've got some bills to pay your debt. Before we go. Gabby bolt, you're going to see us out with a song.
Gabbi Bolt 34:08 Yeah. Now that things are opening back up again, I'd like to just remind us all of the experience that may not be universally shared. In fact, this might be a bit of a nice joke. But I'm back where I'm originally from, which is, you know, the crazy, amazing enriching place of Bathurst. There's restaurants, lots of restaurants that you get dressed up for, and I made I miss restaurants, but more than restaurants. I miss the mysterious figure in the corner of most restaurants, and this is his story.
How many renditions of Matt Colbys brother will make you one To fuck me how many times will I have to say that this next song is for you? Yeah What are the chances that we'd be together in one place that this town employs well dressed Calvin Klein other boys to play
you don't know my name but that's okay to ask. I'll give you a fake. I don't know your name because I don't want to. You're in love lately because I try to be the embodiment of culture. But here is the big Gotcha. If you stripped me of my man bond my stone box in my suede hat on just the same as the next slide. So please don't take away my sixth string about some falsetto.
I will spend half of the evening playin strictly Ed Sheeran repertoire anyone like a bit of time arrives? Because if nothing else, white people request surreally Oh Lenny
I will tell you that I learned guitar purely from my waist to songs and snorting coke. You don't have to know how I went broke paying for a teacher 10 years and I still can't play a fuck barcode. I will see real chill until you get five bucks on my espadrilles you're lucky they weren't my RM Williams I have nailed the art of making easy some sound hard playing Riptide the Lila and a bit somehow I'll still draw the line at break like if you asked me for that song I swear I'll throw up in my mouth I can maybe swing US version of case but from this string come on consoles of course there is
as you guys know I'm self taught
what fucking Bob Dylan up here
what is no one see that I could be the next big since Jeff Buckley. There's a man who appreciated depth. Gonna be fucking famous and then you have to know what my name is. No more restaurant gigs where my art is bad. You will be fucking sorry when I
Lewis Hobba 38:19 feel the punch line coming in.
Dan Ilic 38:22 It was well done. Fantastic. That reminds me my favorite Justin Hazelwood joke and he does this thing where you guys quick Jeff Buckley impression and he's like
Gabbi Bolt 38:35 oh, they're brutal.
Dan Ilic 38:36 Terrible, terrible. That is that is it for irrational fear. Big thank you to geballe vigia Rajon gray and red fin. Louis Hobart. Do you guys have anything to plug?
Vidya Rajan 38:45 Yeah, I guess if you're in Sydney, you can now buy tickets for looking for Alibrandi at Belvoir, which I adopted.
Dan Ilic 38:56 Yes, I would definitely go sit
Vidya Rajan 39:00 next year and it's also coming to Melbourne but those tickets are on sale at the Sydney tickets are on sale.
Lewis Hobba 39:06 Yeah, I'm told what can you give us?
Vidya Rajan 39:09 I'm sure once allowed.
Dan Ilic 39:10 What was it like to work with Marlena Makita I mean, it was pretty hands
Vidya Rajan 39:14 off. But she wrote me a really lovely letter like um, yeah, it was great. She liked she liked a good time.
Dan Ilic 39:23 I had my I had my motion picture debut in Yeah, in in heresay day if you remembered how sad Yes, people doing talks. There's a full shot, a full frame shot of me clapping going in my skull.
Lewis Hobba 39:42 And occasionally, Danna brandy.
Vidya Rajan 39:46 Yeah, that was all done. I'll try and put that in. I
Gabbi Bolt 39:52 enter stage.
Vidya Rajan 39:56 Yeah, like that. Like that. Like someone walks on like you
Dan Ilic 40:01 Speaking of sequels we don't need that's great, Vijay. Congratulations, Gabby. Do you want to plug anything?
Gabbi Bolt 40:08 Yeah, I have a comedy show. Finally, in Sydney from the 16th to the 18th of December. It's called I hope my keyboard doesn't break and I've accidentally Macbeth myself with the title because now that I've called it that I have a feeling everything will break i a microphone today. So yeah, tickets are on sale for that through laugh at a lockdown.com.au. And also, yeah, because of the Moosehead award. I'll be taking that same shirt and Melbourne Comedy Festival.
Dan Ilic 40:32 Yes. Me picking up. Done.
Gabbi Bolt 40:35 Thank you, Lewis.
Dan Ilic 40:37 How about you anything like
Lewis Hobba 40:38 peace and love? You know that our friendship Graham.
Graham Readfearn 40:42 I've done this podcast and that's called Australia. It's on the full story podcast feed on the guardian. I also write a weekly column for The Guardian called temperature check where I do fact checks on climate stuff that silly people saying sometimes not silly people say so I do a bit of that. But please, everybody read The Guardian. It's great. It's free to
Dan Ilic 41:02 big thank you to the birther foundation rode mics Jacob round on the Tepanyaki timeline. Big thanks to everyone in our Discord big, big thank you to everyone who chipped in to Joe keeper. We're going to be having some fun with that over the next six months. So thank you so much. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Oh, next week. The next sick episode two of Julie's MIROS asked who cares is coming out. So we'll be kind of grilling me taking a break next week. But Jay Z will take care of you next week. So thank you very much. We'll see you next time. Bye. Oh,
We talk about Billboards, Australia being a bad actor on the world stage, meddling with the IPCC reports, prosthetic limbs to be used for COVD19 injections, Squid Game in China, and Donald Trump's new social media platform.
Dan Ilic 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation. Good evening not Louis Dylan good eye Dylan
Dylan Behan 0:07 where's where's Louis at? Is he at one of those triple Triple J parties hanging out with Amy shark is he's too well, we got to make her we got to be at the comedy coalface while he's off partying. You said that last week? Yeah,
Dan Ilic 0:19 that's what he's that's what he's doing this week. He's offered parties because he's got the week. He's actually holding holidays probably with Amy shark. His girlfriend Amy shark.
Dylan Behan 0:30 Puppy not giving him paid leave is doesn't deserve it.
Dan Ilic 0:34 He is away on leave this week, but it's okay. We've got home Brian Lewis. That is Dylan Bane. Welcome Dylan Bane.
Dylan Behan 0:40 Yes, normally hobo Paul Shaffer an irrational fear today I'm hobo Louis harbor.
Dan Ilic 0:44 How about Louis, how about well, man, I've had an absolutely massive week in the out of home buying billboard media. We're talking about it a little bit later on. I'm recording my end of irrational feet on gadigal land and the ordination. sovereignty was never stated. We did a trade eight Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 0:59 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks cambro. Gum, and section bought you a rational view recommended listening by emerge your audience.
Dan Ilic 1:12 Tonight New Zealand's official wizard lost his job turns out he got fired after developing a few bad habits and invited me Joyce and system nationals won't be pressured into backing and net zero target by 2050. Saying Nobody puts us man babies in the corner. And with Halloween just around the corner. party goers wishing to dress up as Matt Canavan urged to not go in cold face. It's the 21st of October, and we've committed net zero billboards by 2030. This is irrational fear.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald Daniel and this is the show that fights fire with fire which turns out to make things a whole lot worse. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. Our first guest is one half of the ladies guide to dude cinema podcast. Timeout magazine calls her self deprecating and irresistibly likeable. Well let's say that it's Alex Jay.
Alex Jae 2:18 Hello, I suck but I'm really nice. They go Oh, well, it's so good.
Dan Ilic 2:24 After 100 over 100 days of trying to quell his students in zoom meetings are next fear monger has battled his way back into face to face combat in the real life classroom of life. It is comedian and teacher harijan
Harry Jun 2:37 hey, yeah, and I'm coming out swinging detentions for everybody.
Dan Ilic 2:42 What are you doing to prepare to code go back to the classroom Perry?
Harry Jun 2:45 Oh, lots of drinking. But that's pre class.
Dan Ilic 2:47 I think that's an idea of what I'm looking
Harry Jun 2:51 forward to is going face to face with the kids that have been mucking around over zoom. Just like you know, they just like being at the zoo and poking a tiger and not realizing that the zookeepers gonna stroll in and open the cage so
Dan Ilic 3:03 let's say and he's the king of where he clips and home brand Louis harbor. It's Dylan Bay and you know get a coming up. We're gonna be asking Alfa among us, what will it take for them to join Trump's new social media network? But first here is a message from this week's sponsor.
Rupert Degas 3:21 You live in a fast changing world. Today's Attorney General is tomorrow's backbencher. accountability is something that can only exist if you can see something to count. When you need a sense of mystery for your big pot of money, put your blind faith in orders blind trust, because whoever is paying off a public person's legal bills should remain private, at least until after the next election. borders blind trust is sort
Unknown Speaker 3:49 of program should keep going in Australia essentially
Unknown Speaker 3:52 forever.
Rupert Degas 3:53 terms or conditions don't apply. If you're a member of the Liberal government. Check the PDS for details. No really, please check because I couldn't find any detail when I love.
Dan Ilic 4:03 Hey, guys, in this week's first few it has been quite awake. Last week, we spoke about what would happen in New York City when we put up billboards. And I'd actually didn't believe it would happen. I don't know if you saw it at 945. A whole bunch of billboards went up in New York City shaming the Australian government action on lack of action on climate change. We did that there was all of us. So thank you very much for chipping in to make that happen. It's kind like a space launch. Like you just do a countdown to 945 and just kind of hope that it appeared on the webcam. It was a really exciting period.
Alex Jae 4:40 It's just crazy. Congratulations. That's amazing.
Harry Jun 4:43 You must be so stoked.
Dylan Behan 4:46 Also, congratulations for getting every Ozzie I know in New York together in one place to look at my social media was full of it. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 4:55 Did you see a lot of Australians like in on social media Yeah.
Dylan Behan 5:00 Ron, I know he lives in New York all my friends were down there. Admittedly, they're all TV people who probably know you too. But, but yeah, my feed was full of amazing footage from Times Square. It looked incredible.
Dan Ilic 5:10 Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. It's so good. It's so good. And now my friend Russell Crowe tweeted and said, I should get on Jake Tapper saying Jake Tapper, his producer reached out. It's like, Hey, you want to go on the show? And right? Yeah, show us thanks, Russell.
Dylan Behan 5:32 Don't forget Studio 10 dan, that was an even bigger privilege and I'm sure yeah, that's
Dan Ilic 5:37 it last Monday. Yeah, they had me on and then you know, by Ryan was hosting and he's obviously a big climate denier. It was really funny experience. Like it was really funny spirits calling like God calling into the studio 10 of his own. And all the technical directors and the producers were like, Oh, hey, Dan. It's great to have you on it's such an amazing thing that happened. Oh my god, that was incredible. It's so good to have you. And then it's like how Aidan Yes, it's the technical director here just incredible effort in new and senior mana. And then like by ride is like, yeah, mate. But if we're gonna if we're if they're gonna buy a call, we're gonna sell it. How come you're not in China doing it? Right? How can India testing on you in India and China protesting about it might well, yeah, and see, you don't say people in China protesting do yeah. And there's a good reason for that.
Harry Jun 6:37 You could generate so much electricity just from the wind that just the wash that went over his head?
Dan Ilic 6:43 Oh, man, it was wild. And yeah, it was just one of those weird things where it was two guys who weigh out of their depths on the issue. Anyway, it was great. Anyway, billboards aside, this is a reason why we did it to shame the Australian Government into action. And 945. At that point, Scott Morrison wasn't going to go to Glasgow by 245. He put out an announcement saying, Yes, he was going to Glasgow. Let's have a quick listen to that.
Unknown Speaker 7:11 first of those is overnight, I confirmed my attendance at the Glasgow summit, which I'm looking forward to attending. It's an important event.
Dan Ilic 7:19 Now that's bullshit, he would have confirmed that 1055 All right. Well, the reason why we put out these billboards was to kind of shame the Australian Government and the lack of climate action. And there was this incredible article that came out today to say that senior government officials and lobbyists have been in the IPCC trying to change the way language is written in the agreement, or, or, or references in the IPCC final text. A senior government official rejected, largely the uncontroversial conclusion that most important steps to reduce greenhouse gas was to phase out coal fired power. The Australia also asked the IPCC scientists to delete a reference to analysis of the role played by fossil fuel lobbyists and watering down climate action. And then this is a lovely bit of language that said Australian officials tried to water down language around the Green Climate funds, which is a gigantic fund where poor nations take money out of to kind of mitigate the risk against against you know, climate disasters to say oh yeah, there's other ways you can mitigate you don't need a fund to mitigate Oh my god, this is crazy. This is this is like evil villain shit going on right here and it doesn't surprise you at all that Australia is doing this fear mongers.
Harry Jun 8:33 No Look, do you know what it reminds me of when I was in uni and I had a group assignment with one other dude. And it was a 6000 word essay and I wrote the whole fucking thing. And then the night before he comes in is like all I've got a couple additions and I want to I want you to edit and delete some stuff. It's like, you weren't here the entire time. What he told me they can't take credit for this. You started a bit, James, I hope you're listening. I fucking hate you, man.
Alex Jae 8:59 James, fuck you.
Dan Ilic 9:02 James dad just did just James didn't work. A defect is that way.
Dylan Behan 9:07 So Australia is basically trying to walk water down the memo of the conference or just the conference. Generally,
Dan Ilic 9:14 there are a few bad actors. So Saudi Arabia, yeah, Australia and Japan. They're the three major companies that are trying to throw lobbyists at the situation.
Dylan Behan 9:22 Have they done this at other conferences? Does Australia turn up at like the anti child trafficking conference? Can we have more child trafficking in this memorandum? Can we push like, what the
Alex Jae 9:34 hell I'm not surprised that we're downplaying this at all because I think being like downplaying things is in Australia's blood. Like my dad is Australia, right? And his favorite thing is downplaying how much money he puts into the pokies to my mum, everything in our blood, do you know what I mean?
Dylan Behan 9:55 It's not just those countries down I was reading the article and supposedly Argentina has taken offense at the word Meatless Monday
Harry Jun 10:05 oh how it's alliteration guys
Dylan Behan 10:08 know that what's next going to be gets Taco Tuesday
Alex Jae 10:11 What? Never but that
Dan Ilic 10:13 is funny Argentina the one of the world's biggest exporters of beef and the gauchos Do they have a Gaucho as president? Is that is that there is that their problem there?
Dylan Behan 10:24 No idea what you're talking about. Listen
Alex Jae 10:28 to me you take this one doing
Dylan Behan 10:32 I know all I know is this steely? Dan album Gaucho.
Dan Ilic 10:36 Gaucho is an Argentinian cowboy.
Harry Jun 10:39 Oh, I thought you were saying gout like the medical condition show and I was like the amount of rot they've got there's probably a lot of gaps
Alex Jae 10:47 in your reality TV Yeah.
Harry Jun 10:49 Yeah, sure. That sounds sick. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 10:52 Yeah, after a glass of red wine I also have a Gaucho it's not pleasant, irrational fear.
Unknown Speaker 10:57 Russia, India and China accounted for 40% of global emissions. Do you think there'll be similar people in your position in those nations or the EU? You know, maybe for those nations a rational fear
Dan Ilic 11:09 this way second fear. The fidgets spinners prosthetic arms are all the rage on a Facebook group called Victoria sell your stuff? Matt posted this ad prosthetic arm left or right using this for COVID vaccinations best water under a winter jacket to disguise your good arm available in various skin colors registered express delivery what is going on here is there now an arms race amongst anti vaxxers
Harry Jun 11:36 gerawan I I looked at the prize very curious 15 out of box like that's pretty much money yeah, and you know we say like when things are expensive it costs an arm and a leg but now I know exactly how much
Alex Jae 11:53 I reckon was having or whatever that guy's name is Roger or whatever for a Melbourne I think he's just I can just someone just like super overestimated how many people will suddenly want to like experiment with rubber fists during lockdown? Yeah, he's got like, he's got a huge surplus of everything.
Dylan Behan 12:11 What if it does turn into an arms race? What if so many people antivaxxers were prosthetic arms that then everyone has to get the injections in that bomb? And then what if everyone was like bombs? That's just we're all just it's just going to turn into Dirk diggler territory. Basically.
Dan Ilic 12:26 It's a slippery slope. It's a slippery slope. I love this. This is actually from mentone educational.com.au. They're a Melbourne based company. You can actually buy this if you work in a hospital training facility. And here's that here's the description. the realism of this advanced Veni puncture and injection is truly amazing. The soft flexible fingers are molded separately with extreme attention paid to every detail right down to the fingerprints. Flexi on of the wrist helps students maintain manipulation skills. They're replaceable skin rolls is the veins of palpated and discernible pop is felt when entering the veins well
Alex Jae 13:07 my second theory absolutely stands that is a product restriction for a rabid fist have ever seen one and I've seen many obviously
Dan Ilic 13:16 it says under normal use hundreds and hundreds of injections may be performed before the veins or skin need to be replaced complete replacement kits are available is used and a five year warranty This is great news for junkies
Harry Jun 13:28 yeah yeah you got to get the practice in it's about you know refining the chops get that aim up I can't believe I what I really liked was he stressed that it's available in various skin colors like when we're fighting for diversity and representation I'm not sure this is exactly what we were looking for all the different skins are
Alex Jae 13:51 frontline
Dan Ilic 13:52 Yeah, I really enjoyed that too. was what is right it says like the initial description is um beige also available in dark skin
Alex Jae 14:05 I live like somewhere on the ad it says like like recommended that you wear like a long winter jacket to like hide it from the nurse and I can't remember the last time I got an injection through a jacket.
Harry Jun 14:18 Yeah. hold you down and
Alex Jae 14:24 eventually bloody cashmere is killing
Dan Ilic 14:28 the ad said the headset to do that to to hide your good arm. Why are you hiding a good arm? Should we die?
Harry Jun 14:36 Do you know what would have been a better than they should have sold? Like a really oversized coat and then a full mannequin that sits on top of your shoulder like this? Yeah, you know what I mean? Like that's, that's more effective.
Dan Ilic 14:50 You took about two little kids on top of it. Yeah. And the one below is the one that's already got the vaccines. There's also a bit of a story going around about on on Instagram there are these fake digital vaccine certificates that can be loaded onto your digital wallet that have been advertised on Instagram, from a cut from a company called fake card au. This sounds like a pretty good racket like for a 10 year old who knows how to use Photoshop? Is this what the new is the new idea to get into the bar is it
Harry Jun 15:27 just I was so disappointed in the preview of the on the actual ad it look like it was done in Microsoft Paint or even the Instagram story tool? Yeah, I couldn't have done that you're trying to sell a product, but make it look good.
Alex Jae 15:42 It's just got like stickers on it. Instagram font to
Harry Jun 15:47 handle like
Dylan Behan 15:51 hard to believe Instagram, promoting something unhealthy.
Alex Jae 15:59 body image issues come from. I just like to say Nice try, because that has nothing on the forgery I used to do with my mom's signature in your tend to get off. So classy. Yeah, I've got some notes. Yeah.
Harry Jun 16:16 Did you ever do that? I would get a pen that was a bit out of ink. And then like kind of like scratch a bit, gentlemen, like, genius. It's about the little embellishments that Yeah,
Alex Jae 16:29 make it authentic
Dan Ilic 16:30 hesitate. Do you say your fair share of forged signatures?
Harry Jun 16:34 Honestly, I reckon I've approved 99% of the four signatures like Jonah, I don't even share
Alex Jae 16:44 a fallible system.
Harry Jun 16:45 I mean, the whole point is you have to see the first actual authentic parents signature to be like, that's what it looks like. But we're taught I teach like 200 kids a year, whatever. I'm not going to be going back to my file, like Oh, the L is a bit curlier than normal. Now going on the Easter show, mate,
Dan Ilic 17:01 Mr. Johnson, I have some queries about your signature that was developed over the last three years. Exactly. A friend
Dylan Behan 17:07 of mine in school, learned to forge the teacher's signature perfectly, and then would add in his sick notes with the teacher signature. And the teacher would never know.
Harry Jun 17:19 Yeah, that's a step beyond Yes. So Instagram, whoever's making those certificates, you got to step it
Dan Ilic 17:24 up, and that man now is Christian quarter.
Dylan Behan 17:30 Allegedly,
Unknown Speaker 17:32 allegedly. When the Prime Minister arrives in Glasgow in a fortnight's time, will he tell the meeting electric vehicles within the weekend? batteries to store renewable energy are as useful as the big banana and the big prawn. And renewable energy targets are nuts. It's just simply not many eyes on
Unknown Speaker 17:53 my left morphia is rational this week's
Dan Ilic 17:55 30 year Netflix grid game is a hit in China but here's the problem Netflix is banned in China How the hell is Netflix taking off in China Harry john I just
Harry Jun 18:09 love I love the fact that a show that's so transparent about criticizing capitalism is just hit the biggest business booming in China and they're like oh my God, we hate capitalism but let's fuckin make some money boys like fired up. And I feel like I did read the article it said that the government's really upset that people were you know, circling around their little firewall there and they're trying to take some kind of action against that piracy and I can think of one really entertaining way they could do that. Like just you know, rally them all up in a room that's it like and the reward can be a lifelong subscription to any VPN of your choice like
Dan Ilic 18:55 I you saying that China's already doing this in shinjang province
Harry Jun 19:02 Come on. Yeah, they know this shit.
Dan Ilic 19:04 I think it's so funny because the article goes on to say that if it was actually legal in China it would be completely ripped apart by sensors Yeah, since the sensors like strip screwed game have any meaning whatsoever. Yeah.
Alex Jae 19:22 It's just a nice show about friendship. Really? Yeah,
Harry Jun 19:25 models they play marbles and then he goes on a camp and as far
Alex Jae 19:29 as I love has a lovely time. I have to say guys, I'm so sorry. This is really embarrassing, but I do I do know how China has been watching square game. What happened was, it was actually made China and I used to date for a while and I gave my Netflix love. Totally forgot and I'm so embarrassed
Harry Jun 19:49 Alex. You know how? I know once
Alex Jae 19:54 you move on, you just want to forget And anyway,
Dan Ilic 19:58 you know how it is dating. billion people and then
Alex Jae 20:03 like this admin you have to go through after it is too much too much
Dylan Behan 20:08 I understand why it's popular in China though because all the characters are in debt right? This is the thing this is why they're all in the battle royale type thing. Well of course everyone in China is going to relate to this they've all lost all their money to this real estate company. evergrande
Dan Ilic 20:25 Yeah, yeah, this is the list of the story of high highly good well to do Chinese people they're worried
Harry Jun 20:33 that they'll think it's a documentary and it's well over
Alex Jae 20:38 right in this
Dylan Behan 20:40 I just named one of the main characters the boss character looking like Winnie the Pooh and then everyone
Dan Ilic 20:47 and finally to say is that Donald Trump is set to launch his new social media network is called truth social fear mongers what is one feature you'd like to see on truth social.
Alex Jae 21:00 I would like to see him just go full ball on truth social and just make it an only fans and I'm not proud to admit this but I would pay for that I would absolutely paid for that.
Dan Ilic 21:13 But if it was, it was Trump it would be called only 10s
Dylan Behan 21:19 Trump said one of the reasons he's setting up the social media platform is because the Taliban is all over Twitter so I think what he needs to do is get the Taliban on truth social
Dan Ilic 21:31 media even though they've got a community they can move right over
Dylan Behan 21:34 Yeah, but I did read that they're actually this is the first step he is going to be launching a subscription video on demand service so I reckon we get irrational fear on there What do you reckon
Dan Ilic 21:47 this cuz we're being silenced. We're being silenced. I can tell you how we've been times you know, I tried to put a billboard in Times Square with the rational field logo on it and they said yes
Alex Jae 21:59 cancel cancel culture is going to
Dan Ilic 22:03 they said we could only do it for 10 minutes I said I wanted an hour
Alex Jae 22:07 like we need more money like I don't have it I'm being silenced
Dan Ilic 22:11 yeah that's that's how America works. I looked into the privacy terms and conditions and that the bottom there is a address Can you guess what town truth social is going to be based out of? Florida? Bay Palm Beach Florida. Nailed it. Yeah,
Alex Jae 22:32 that's awesome. Everyone over 60 and no one under
Dan Ilic 22:38 it is destined for just boom it's it's just it's there it's ready ready to go just move the demographic over.
Dylan Behan 22:44 Well, given how good they are qR coding they'll be all over how to put this on their smartphones surely.
Dan Ilic 22:51 That is it for rational fear this week. It's a short one, but a good one big thank you to Harry john, Alex J. and Dylan Bane. What would you like to plug
Dylan Behan 22:59 news fighters or news fox news? news fighters, not fighters, some people. My podcast I was going to cover Christian Porter this week, but I don't want to get sued for defamation. So tune in. For all the latest on Melrose Melbourne's Freedom Day which is happening Friday tomorrow.
Dan Ilic 23:17 Excellent. harried you don't like anything?
Harry Jun 23:19 Yeah, I am doing a show a comedy show for FBI radio called the past notes, which is a school based comedy show where I interview guests sharing juicy stories about school and I've also got a stand up comedy show on the fourth, fifth and sixth of November. You can find all that if you look up Harry Jordan comedy, J un or get on all socials.
Dan Ilic 23:41 Excellent and now how is that how's that that comedy show on FBI going he's got a pretty good pretty good convener yeah yeah
Harry Jun 23:48 he's he's great he's pretty famous Russell Crowe knows him it's I'm hoping to get in exchange
Alex Jae 23:56 or a blog or anything I Yes, I've got a podcast called the ladies guide to do cinema that I co host with back childhood we watch all the movies that do to have told us we have to see and I've also got a comedy shows coming out for the same festival Harry's in the life out of lockdown festival I'm on the 11th 12th and 13th of November with Daniel towns and Luke ag
Dan Ilic 24:16 ah excellent painful on that one up anybody good Hey, and I want to plug something to please go to Apple podcasts and leave us a review we we had we had Joe Hildebrand on last week. We made fun of him to his face for half an hour but a lot of people who don't normally listen this podcast listened in and really complained about Would you like me to read what out because they faster faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster. When it gets to three star, the Hildebrand circle jerk. And then it goes to one Star News Corp paid comedy. You have Joe Teeth scrubber on your show. You're the teat of News Corp all caps, but also ergy Yeah, we say rude words, but we are live voting Corp shill rats. If I could vote, I would vote. News Corp rats mouth and you might get a good rating daddy Rupert spend money on you? Yeah, one star that was from a guy called Greg's penis.
Alex Jae 25:24 That is a perfect one star review. I love that. It's nonsensical. It looks like there was a lot of quotation. Just beautiful.
Dan Ilic 25:32 I mean, I'm pretty sure Greg's penis has already signed up to truth social so there's never gonna be logging on to go to Apple podcasts and give us a review. If you regularly listen this show we'd love to hear from you. And also a big thank you to all of our new Patreon supporters. We've got 15 more we lost five last week. I think Jeff caught it because of Joe said some some good turnover and abatement Sean g Russell Wyden Kerry James hiring a deal and Debbie Jeffrey Jody Fitzgerald, Mary joy Roy, Amber rubber D'Ambra, Karen advertsing, john sharp and Luanne Cotta, Michelle Dinah Fannie Fitch, Alex tight and Trudy council A big thanks to red Mike's and the birth of foundation and of course Jake brown on the tepanyaki timeline. Big thanks to you my fear mongers appreciate you joining us for irrational fear tonight.
Harry Jun 26:24 Thanks for having us.
Dan Ilic 26:26 Until next week, there's always something to be scared off.
We talk about the ins and outs of out-of-home media buying in the USA, ICAC, anti-vaxers trying to claim segregation — and we spend a good 40 minutes trying to understand why News Corp is trying to save the worldwith the promotion of climate action, when they've been such a malignant force for successive governments implementing meaningful climate policy for so long. To help us break it down we speak with the Editor at Large at the Daily Telegraph — Joe Hildebrand.
This podcast episode is best described as … chaotic good.
Hope you enjoy, let us know what you think in an Apple Podcasts review.
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Good evening Lewis. How are you? I'm
Lewis Hobba 0:05 really good, Dan. Yeah, great.
Dan Ilic 0:08 Is there anything happening interesting happening in your world? You know, anything?
Lewis Hobba 0:11 Well, I mean, I'm free. We're, we're afraid and we're day four into freedom. I'm sitting here right now in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills, and air on all houses around me are parties. Now I don't know exactly how many people are there. I can't say for sure it's under 10. But it is it's, it's kicking off.
Dan Ilic 0:31 Hang on a second. Is this why we're recording one hour earlier? So you can go to a party at
Lewis Hobba 0:36 100% 100% dead. I've been in lockdown for 109 days and so have you if you think no, going out every night this week. You're an idiot.
Dan Ilic 0:47 I'm dedicated to my audience. Man, I gotta get this podcast out. I'm recording my end of irrational fear on gadigal land in the eora nation sovereignty was never seated. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 0:57 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks cambro COMM And section body or rational view recommended listening might emerge your audience.
Dan Ilic 1:10 Tonight experts claim that news cops new green campaign is just manipulating its audience use cope says it's all part of their gaslit recovery. And Peter Dutton cancels a morning team for LGBT IQ. I defend stuff angering officials, we have too many events already done and explained, including a brunch for African gang awareness. And New South Wales has reached Freedom Day with its residents relishing the opportunity to start spreading COVID again, it's the 15th of October and we're going to Broadway baby this is irrational fear.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former premier of New South Wales Dan Ilic. And this is the show that laughs at doing it. You're doing your own research. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. She is a woman who in her professional life has to deal with members of the public calling her just another clown from the ABC. But Joke's on her because in her private life, she's a trained clown. It's Angela huapi. Air. Hello, and
Unknown Speaker 2:18 what a warm welcome
Dan Ilic 2:23 to honk the horn or something What's going on?
Ange Lavoipierre 2:26 I'm always honking the horn in my brain. And if you can't hear it, it's because you're not listening closely enough. Yeah, yeah, I'm Beloved. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 2:35 And he is a proud military man who has made dad jokes. He's stuck in trade. I'd get into pull my finger if I could, but he's in Walker Walker. It's Dane Simpson. Hey,
Unknown Speaker 2:42 I'm an untrained clown by the way so
Ange Lavoipierre 2:52 much more dangerous.
Dan Ilic 2:54 You don't need any accreditation to do this job. Let me tell you, Dane, what a great couple of years you've had you like get like skyrocketing up on the on the comedy charts in Australia.
Unknown Speaker 3:03 Yeah, it's been crazy. I love it. I'm loving every part of it. Everybody's getting around having a mad laugh at some of the silliness of my family, particularly my dad. And also he thinks he's a superstar now because he's he said my jokes. And so he's always he comes to my shows and he always ends it with if you think that's funny, come and see the real thing and he's
Dan Ilic 3:32 and he's a man for legal reasons, has nothing to do with his podcast is merely here as a guest every week. It's Louis helma.
Lewis Hobba 3:39 Yes, it's me Lewis. How about the ghost that haunts irrational fear.
Dan Ilic 3:45 Coming up, we speak cwis News. kobs most progressive Lieutenant Joe Hildebrand about just how he's rupert murdoch saving the planet. But first here is a message from this week's sponsor. This Sunday, it's the biggest decision in Australian climate politics history, bigger than starting the emissions trading scheme bigger than axing the emissions trading scheme bigger than implementing their renewable energy targets bigger than canceling the renewable energy targets bigger than creating the Department of climate change bigger than dismantling the Department of climate change bigger than starting a mining super profits tax they get an ending of mining super profits tax bigger than setting a sunset date for old coal plants bigger than trying to use taxes to keep those old coal plants alive you get in the High Court ruling any environment minister has a duty of care to Australia's children bigger than the environment Mr. Saying fuck you High Court I'll kill those children if I want to. Here's three new coal mines much, much much bigger, much much bigger than the size of the barrels the Nets get their pork in this Sunday, the National Party will gather to vote on whether or not to agree on. net zero by 2050. Like the rest of the fucking world will the National Party dare to do the bare fucking minimum for once? Or will they do whatever their mining donors want to help them stay in power for another 36 months and ruin the entire fucking planet for you? Every one for ever. This Sunday a decision bigger than Barnaby sperm count the national party room showdown a donation will buy your whole seat but you'll only need the edge. There ain't no party like a national party because the national parties don't adopt new policies. Really looking forward to Sunday though what are you guys ready You guys excited about Sunday? That is really funny.
Ange Lavoipierre 5:27 As a journalist, I have been previewing this moment for the last 10 years of my career about to happen is about to happen is about to happen. So I'm really looking forward to finally being right.
Dan Ilic 5:41 This week's first well this week's first view let's get stuck into it we made it a Broadway baby billboards I got to Time Square. Now to two weeks folks is a long time in podcasting last week we had a special edition of the podcast with Julie's amuro I don't think two weeks ago we were actually going to go to Broadway Louis Can you remember with what was happening two weeks ago I don't think we actually were talking about it absolutely
Lewis Hobba 6:04 not. I couldn't even dream of going to Kmart on Broadway shopping center I was so far away from from Broadway and what because you and I talked about it after the podcast two weeks ago like we should get on Time Square and then you sent me a message today like we get we will never be able to afford that and I don't quite know how you have
Dan Ilic 6:24 well it's been amazing because we have 1800 people chip in so much money now we've got about 150,000 in the Indiegogo and what's incredible is I reached out to a contact of from mine at fusion when I used to work in America and I said you guys know anyone Do you know anyone that buys ad space and in Times Square? And she said he sent me back his contact and this woman has done the most incredible deal guess how much it costs for an hour on the biggest billboard in Times Square anyone? grant
Lewis Hobba 6:57 prices I love that
Unknown Speaker 6:59 like you know if it was me, I'd be handing out flyers you know, like I'm still stuck in that age that that's what got me brah
Lewis Hobba 7:09 How much does it cost to advertise on Darryl McGuire's clay shooting facility in walga
Unknown Speaker 7:17 I bought my house for like a shilling you know right like it's crazy prices here welcome
Dan Ilic 7:24 shilling That is great. What is that in metric?
Unknown Speaker 7:31 I feel like I've got to do the math in my head you know when you're watching squid game and you need to do the math in your head how much the money they're making Yeah,
Dan Ilic 7:39 on on squid game I really appreciate that when you type into Google How much is it? Yeah automatically feels 25 million won in in Australian dollars. Oh yeah, Google knows these questions are coming. Yeah, so it costs it costs for an hour $100,000 so I couldn't afford an hour also I'm like financing this out of my own tax money that I have saved and my own house deposit. So I'm hoping I'm just hoping the Indiegogo arrives in three weeks so it's what we've done is we've bought 10 minutes of of screen time doesn't make sense on square How did you like
Unknown Speaker 8:19 you can't go to a supermarket and go now I just want one slice of bread like how'd you do 10 minutes This is crazy.
Dan Ilic 8:29 It's exactly like that time because time on advertising is like a fruit shop the longer it like sits on the shelf it starts to go off so the prices go down and down and down and if you book like pretty if you want like a spot tomorrow it's cheaper than if you book like three months in advance
Unknown Speaker 8:43 is here's what you don't know is my show didgeridoos he flashed up for one second and that cost me $1,000 It cost me a house cost me a walker Walker house
Lewis Hobba 8:54 Oh my god you're selling a lot of tickets in New York
Dan Ilic 8:57 how many shillings is that
Ange Lavoipierre 8:58 the I feel like then once you've run down the piggy bank a bit you could move into subliminal advertising and just
Dan Ilic 9:06 I should I should have done that. I should have done that anyway we've been getting some great press from all around the world. I was in the Daily Mail this week but my favorite stories from
Unknown Speaker 9:16 you said I've been getting a great press and then you went on to say Daily Mail which is
Dan Ilic 9:24 well I was so excited because in the in the title for the Daily Mail actually use my name they said Dan Ilic did this usually they just say some bloke did this going up I've like gone up a level
Ange Lavoipierre 9:34 you also got promoted to being controversial comedian, I noticed
Dan Ilic 9:39 is nothing more controversial than buying out of Home media space. That is that is very controversial. You know, no one's doing billboards anymore. Yeah, my favorite bit of press though came from pod save the world. We're on pod save the world this week. I'll play the clip and yes, there's a Obama's White House. Ben Rhodes and I will extremely good friends. As you can tell, by the way he pronounces my name.
Unknown Speaker 10:03 I got this buddy in Australia is going to Dan Ilic. Forgive me, Dan if I if I just butchered your last name, but Dan's a hilarious guy, and he hosts a podcast called rational fear where we got. So he reached out to me after one of our Australia said, No, no, he's the guy that put the plaque near the McDonald's, where Scott Morrison, the prime minister was alleged to have, you know, shot himself. And so he said, the latest thing that a bunch of Australians have done and I think there's overlapping circles with Australian world owes is they started like this kind of crowdfunded effort to just take out billboards in like places like Times Square, just like whacking Scott Morrison for his climate record, or like at a Glasgow in you know, just internationally pressuring the guy. So it's like that this has evolved from the plaque at the McDonald's to like a billboard in Times Square. It's it's a good thru line. What's your buddy's name again? Dan? I like okay, Dan.
Unknown Speaker 11:02 We're doing this in real time. We're building the coalition Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 11:08 Very positive the world view of the world I would be thrilled to work with him. Yeah. With scammers or murder. Yeah. Or any British
Dan Ilic 11:17 listeners want to wanna have some fun with Boris Johnson I say yeah, yeah, my name is Dan I like it's good to be running the show today.
Ange Lavoipierre 11:26 I think it's probably better actually.
Unknown Speaker 11:30 Yeah, it couldn't be worse it could have been I licked in so you're
Dan Ilic 11:36 yeah well, when I used to do kind of Lewis and I used to work on kind of worms and when we did that dico used to call me Danny lick and yeah, it was so anyway, so tonight well actually the billboards are going to be coming out actually before this publishes so for folks on the stream you're about to see the world exclusive of what the billboard in Times Square looks like. So are you guys ready to say this with us? Yeah. All right, here we go. So what we've got is we've got our a classic Australia net zero by 2300. This has got a bouncing kangaroo with flames on fire. It's incredible animation. That's going to be take up a whole city block in New York City. We've also got a great Australian government against humanity. AD, which is great, including to to flop This is during a deadly pandemic former commission to fix the problem by building a gas pipeline. And then the next flop says as carbon emissions reach forward in 16 parts per million the most urgent thing to do is approved for new coal mines in one month. On one of the corner billboards we've got a ad for a fake Comic Con, but instead of Comic Con, we've gone with Cali con, its special guest Matt Canavan, winner of best called cosplay 2020 and on the other side we've got a missing persons ad. Morrison last seen doing nothing answers to scomo and mykolaiv the chaser have have authored a billboard as well they sent me some artwork, which is this one called a file dump goes to Glasgow and you may have seen you may have seen this floating around people have been tagging him in tagging me in it all week it is this ad from Shaun Marsh visit Australia we're rich in sunshine wind and climate denial which is great so there you go. That's that's what some that's what's coming down the line so the biggest billboard in New York City that's fantastic you
Lewis Hobba 13:33 need to just film it for the 10 minutes and then put it on loop on YouTube so it looked like it was for an hour
Dan Ilic 13:41 well it's gonna be a three minute 20 loop people will be able to say it three times All right, let's get into the second fear I CAG vs ibac and what are some of the greatest hits of ik
Ange Lavoipierre 13:53 Ah, there's too many dimensions this is the thing I've been very effective over the years so in case anyone at all ever missed it, which just seems so distinctly unlikely but here we go. So Gladys berejiklian of course had to resign earlier this month and that was because we found out she was being investigated over the famed clay pigeon target establishment in walga Dane Simpson represent and so now that associations there forever now I'm so sorry Dane don't
Unknown Speaker 14:27 but it's it's actually well known that if you date anyone from woolgoolga we will take you down with us we do not go down if we are ever in trouble we are like your comment your comment this flame this ball of flames is now bigger with you people it's brilliant
Dan Ilic 14:45 Dana sorry and Stan had don't have you been to the walker Walker clay pigeon center. What's it No, no, I've
Lewis Hobba 14:50 never been it's just for international High Roller here. It was really expensive.
Ange Lavoipierre 14:53 It's really it's it's really well fitted out. There's like there's a little fountain like it's Should
Unknown Speaker 15:01 you also you introduce me as an Aboriginal man What do you think I'm going to be welcome at this clay pigeon place if anything it's dangerous for me to go like they might mistake click clay pigeon for me you know they like I'm hearing clear of this place now what
Lewis Hobba 15:16 welcome Olga means place at many pigeons
Unknown Speaker 15:20 It is a place of many crows is what they sort of have been building their foundations on in Walker Walker for such a long time now but one of the one of the elders from this way uncle Stan grant SR which is obviously staying grants dad has been talking about this for so long that Walker Walker means place of many dance or to dance intoxicated Lee with the spirits which is so so cool but what I find funny is that he put this out there I don't I don't use stories and this is only recent in the past like three or four years and somebody in the comments on the newspaper actually wrote you can't just come in and change tradition and blowing my mind
Lewis Hobba 16:09 Yeah, I will thank you for that correction I've been I've been I've been shooting my mouth off about place for many crows for a long time I've been wrong for a long time so apologies to all the people
Unknown Speaker 16:18 everyone has even on the walker City Council's like boards memos and stuff it's got like a little crow that's the logo so it's it's a it's something that's deep embedded in the walker Walker culture so it's only just recently that uncle Stan grants been August and grants been talking about it for a while, but it's only been adopted and starting to change in the last couple of years which is us hoping
Ange Lavoipierre 16:41 it comes up at AIPAC so there is I really think that that would be well here's my thing. Okay, so I have reached the conclusion that no one gives a shit about corruption allegations, like correct me if I'm wrong, but I am yet to find anyone who truly gives like an emotional shit I'm not talking about like, Oh, you know the story about the resignation or like getting to like re talk about Gladys and Darrell which, you know, is wonderful fodder for FM radio. You know, I'm talking about actually caring about alleged corruption. No one minds the main headline here so here we go. It's gonna blow you away. It's beautiful. Upon a Victorian Labour Party electric officer has told a corruption hearing he was ordered to buy 1000s of dollars worth of stamps with taxpayer money. And we wonder why it's not getting people hot under the collar. Like spam so quick. I can't even think of what it like maybe pet rocks, but at least that would be kooky. Like what if it was 14 $100 worth of firecrackers then? Maybe we could. Like I think they've got to they've got to watch
Dan Ilic 17:58 $800 worth of sex workers. The sexier headline here Yeah, this is this I mean, that's classic classic Labor Party fair though. That's very different. literally anything
Ange Lavoipierre 18:07 that stands like corruption has become less sexy. alleged corruption has become less sexy. Let me be
Dan Ilic 18:15 I CAC is so boring. Like what would make it more fun? What would make ipecac more fun Dan?
Unknown Speaker 18:21 I know what it is I call it and this is sort of describes the difference between aicok and ibac is if because I cakes a little bit more stronger you know like they if they come after you I catch myself you know what I mean? That's how you remember and if you if it's the other one then I back you to get out of the allegations. That's how
Dan Ilic 18:47 Yeah, I think you know, I think you know, question time itself is pretty childish, I think why not extend that childishness to like a squid game scenario put all the politicians in an arena with like Hungry Hungry Hippos? You know,
Ange Lavoipierre 19:01 I think they need to do more of like a traditional broadcast approach to this whole thing like recognize that they're in a competitive media environment, right on some drag queens to talk about the fashion crimes in the room.
Dan Ilic 19:13 Like it's a knockout it's a no calf of politicians. This is what we want to say.
Ange Lavoipierre 19:18 We want to see them fight maybe like you know, spend a couple of hours talking about pork barrel in short, but then move on to some actual pork recipes, you know.
Dan Ilic 19:29 Now on aicok, it is time for the physical challenge.
Lewis Hobba 19:34 If it was like Ninja Warrior, and at the end of instead of a million dollars cash, it was a paper bag with $14,000 worth of stamps now I'm watching.
Ange Lavoipierre 19:42 Yeah, totally. I just don't think that explored all the options. I think there is a way to really reengage the Australian electorate in the important work of these anti corruption bodies, but I just don't think they're going the right way around
Lewis Hobba 19:54 it has gogglebox ever watched I CAC.
Unknown Speaker 19:59 Rational fair For all of those still upset Gladys berejiklian has resigned this might be the remedy for you. life sized cardboard cutouts of the former New South Wales premier have been put for sale online. Apparently they are sold out
Unknown Speaker 20:13 you're listening to a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 20:16 This week's that the a small Sydney coffee shop was targeted by an anti vaxxer following the New South Wales health rules in New South Wales. This coffee shoppers received quite a swell of support now the barista and dresser cares 28 was working alone in the cafe when a man arrived and started abusing her saying you're walking implicitly into segregation after yelling at her the man walked away and he said he was very powerful and urged his visitors urged his viewers not to visit the cafe down is segregation the new black
Unknown Speaker 20:56 is at Vax is like the new black is that that's probably it for like, because it's so crazy that they are talking about a country that was actually segregated you know, and it wasn't even that long ago like we're not even reaching into that fiery history since 1967. Obviously the referendum giving Aboriginal people rights and being recognized as as real people and it's so nuts that somebody would just go Yeah, not same thing. Like that's crazy to me that the
Dan Ilic 21:29 government like oh, and also like you being anti Vax is actually a choice. Like that's Yeah.
Lewis Hobba 21:36 Yeah, like that. Yeah. And
Unknown Speaker 21:37 that the, you know, the government's going to, I don't know, go in and start like taking their kids. You know, like, that's a really dark part of our history. Yeah. A stolen generation happened to a race of people. And then just somebody who decides not to take the vaccine goes now I can relate to them. Like that's crazy to me. And I just absolutely blows my mind. I genuinely think that people really need to, like and don't get me wrong, I do understand I get that they they feel like they are mistreated. But to me it's a crazy that someone can just go on I've made choices. And now there's consequences for my choices. Since when did someone bring this in? You know, like it's Yeah, that's how the world works, idiot. Yeah,
Ange Lavoipierre 22:25 you can have too much empathy, right? You can have wet you can have too much. I mean, like, I understand what you went through and you're like, no, you're trying for empathy.
Unknown Speaker 22:40 Yeah, we've we've did some horrible things to some particularly like Aboriginal people but which which is what he's sort of like linking to but to a lot of different cultures in Australia so it's weird that that's the angle that he's decided to go down I'd be picking a lot more lighter topic if I was
Dan Ilic 23:00 here. Yeah, it's like on an iodine genocide versus getting a little NATO to put that on the scales you know, let's weigh that up here.
Unknown Speaker 23:09 Why aren't people with pimples on television more like that's where he should be going with it. You don't like
Lewis Hobba 23:18 that there was an anti Vax mom who started the yellow stars on to her kids. Oh he says heavy stuff totally like it's it's so it's between Yeah, the the like racial segregation ties and then he just like, if you are ever looking for sympathy for your cause, get the fuck away from these topics like you are you cannot as a white person sit there and I mean, it's just it is infuriating and horrifying stuff. But I will say on a lighter note that what I because that cafe, obviously, after the anti vaxxer had the big grand, the cafe went wild, filled with positive reviews, lines around the block everyone posting videos about how they were going to. So I would just like to say if there are any anti vaxxers who would like to have a rant about this podcast, we would welcome it. And if you can do it in a public place as possible. We would really appreciate it as we love subscribers.
Dan Ilic 24:15 Let's say Hang on a sec now 10 News caught up with this hashtag a very powerful anti vaxxer let's just see how mighty he is. Here we
Lewis Hobba 24:23 go. Reaching boiling point and anti vaxxer blows off steam at an innocent barista. Hang on a sec. I know we're about to get into the heavy stuff but let's I it's been a while since I've watched commercial news and full hat tip to all the puns in that first to set in like I made it's just good to
Ange Lavoipierre 24:47 piggyback as well because I don't know that like innocent barista. Like how can we know that for sure like that's really don't know what I'm already on. God is what I'm saying.
Dan Ilic 24:59 We need it. Calculating an icon for cafes. That doesn't mean
Unknown Speaker 25:03 that I'm gonna hand over my medical private information of whether I'm vaccinated or not vaccinated to buy a cup of coffee
Lewis Hobba 25:10 fresh security vision revealed his face for the first time today. And we tracked him down the man who are Hang on a second. You must be kicking himself for not wearing a mask after that. It's like oh, you know, they can track me down.
Dan Ilic 25:26 Very powerful. He looks like he looks like Louis hobas child he
Lewis Hobba 25:29 can't look like white supremacist to me. I don't I don't like it. On his dorm claims he's now sorry.
Unknown Speaker 25:39 Do you regret what you did? Absolutely wholeheartedly there's a right way and a wrong way to go about disagreeing as
Ange Lavoipierre 25:44 Hang on a sec. Hang on a sec. This is this is exactly how I would apologize when I was 15 I apologize when you're a teenager and you've been caught and you don't mean it and you're being like forced to apologize. Like it's like the child version of a court order. Like if you it's like I am so sorry for what I do. Maybe I'm being cynical,
Unknown Speaker 26:08 emotional reaction to what 20 plus moms have been locked away in our home for being completely healthy last time I checked
Lewis Hobba 26:16 It's not the first time John's publicly expressed his views regular rants or online social media streams the government
Unknown Speaker 26:23 ain't ever gonna give us back out right Hang
Unknown Speaker 26:27 on a sec Yeah, he's he's he's wearing a backwards hat I just needed to bring that up that's like if you want to be taken seriously don't do the Pucci you know arrange no one respects that dude at all.
Lewis Hobba 26:45 also given that this week the government has given back the right together is this age Paulie?
Ange Lavoipierre 26:52 like super concerned about accuracy right like its accuracy one of his core values? I'm not sure I don't know.
Dan Ilic 26:58 Yeah, neither away
Lewis Hobba 27:00 it's this has been brewing for some time having to stop Hang on a sec. Let's just take note he did say brewing. reading them all the way through it never stops. But gentlemen,
Unknown Speaker 27:15 I'm feeling very convicted today to do the right thing and send a heartfelt apology to the community and to other baristas that may have come into tracks with my anti vaccine sentiment the
Ange Lavoipierre 27:25 feelings no thick I love and I am going to borrow from this man. The casual apology like whilst apologizing to one member on every other member of that group may be offended. Apologize to roadwork is everywhere you know.
Lewis Hobba 27:46 If you did by me Feel free to watch this clip back anytime.
Unknown Speaker 27:55 Community statues Unfortunately, the whole ordeal has left a bitter taste in the mouth of bitter, bitter taste bitter taste,
Lewis Hobba 28:07 bitter taste building to Iran as well I reckon we're about to I reckon we're about to hear a bunch
Unknown Speaker 28:13 on froth in it you could sell them so looking forward to opening up and then that happened that it was just like devastating.
Unknown Speaker 28:23 But business was heaving this morning.
Dan Ilic 28:27 Perhaps stood out by some encouragement don't doubt
Lewis Hobba 28:32 that it counts.
Dan Ilic 28:33 It's I'm I'm waiting for a better latte than never is that gonna come?
Lewis Hobba 28:39 Inside state parliament.
Unknown Speaker 28:41 That community responded and has responded I encourage every member here to order a coffee from this cafe.
Lewis Hobba 28:47 Dom's also got some ground to make up with his family ground ground count. I reckon he felt like a weird sentence.
Unknown Speaker 28:59 It was like it ever
Lewis Hobba 29:01 the drama, but would he do it again?
Unknown Speaker 29:04 Let's just see what December one looks like for us, Australia, shall we? Steve had
Ange Lavoipierre 29:13 a dress like I resent to him, like addressing the nation as a whole, like the like, okay, Australia, like, come on. How do we work out how powerful he is.
Dan Ilic 29:24 And people in New South Wales named Dom have a real complex about running the state so you know, don't don't
Lewis Hobba 29:31 ask as a radio professional. You got to respect that taze. You know what I mean? Let's just see what's happening. We'll just say where I am on December 1, you like, I gotta be honest.
Unknown Speaker 29:44 It's the chocolate on top.
Lewis Hobba 29:49 Really, because again, trouble cafe he know.
Dan Ilic 29:54 If you've been following along with this podcast for a fair few years, you'll notice the trend where we mock the most Powerful news organization in the country whenever they feel their pages or airwaves with climate denial. It's kind of fun. It's like low hanging carbon emissions. It's really easy to do. But it's this week you might have seen front cover celebrating how Australia could be the number one in the new global economy the new green and gold. Joining us to explain what is going on is friend of the show who once said that Greta tunberg was the worst possible advocate for climate change, which is why he thinks he can do better himself is the former co host of Studio 10 and current ravey lefty latte sipping learning of health straight. It's the editor at large of The Daily Telegraph Joe Hildebrand. Welcome Joe.
Unknown Speaker 30:40 Hi, welcome now Can I just say you goddamn millennials, you're just never happy if you're pitching. Rupert Murdoch, he doesn't know anything about climate change on The Daily Telegraph. And everyday this beautiful 16 page wraparound saying that climate change is real we got to get to net zero. Here's all the ways we can do it. And then what do you do you just Bichon mind Simo and now you're picking
Unknown Speaker 31:06 up the small bars. local park and I cycled around on your little fixes and pretend that you're exercising
Lewis Hobba 31:18 yeah that's the pack that's the pack of having done the right thing for two decades
Unknown Speaker 31:24 we were just waiting for the right time.
Lewis Hobba 31:28 Well you missed it. It was three It was 30 years ago.
Unknown Speaker 31:32 Everyone knows that nothing real happens until the Scots get involved
Dan Ilic 31:37 now Joe Joe Don't be too funny otherwise we at the risk of humanizing you then canceled you did mention a 16 page wraparound and I did pick up today's Daily Telegraph and I'm really excited to say just what is wrapped around it oh yeah 16 months interest free from Harvey Norman Interestingly though 16 months interest free is actually the Nationals position on climate action so they take any take any interest for 16 months Okay, what is going on here? Like what is truly happening here now you are the the official poster boy for this whole initiative? What does it feel like to be a shill
Unknown Speaker 32:18 to start call Firstly, when you held up that front page I thought we were going to be talking about terrorist talkfest now that's the story
Dan Ilic 32:26 yeah you know that's the thing about News Corp they love they love freedom of speech except when terrorists are talking
Unknown Speaker 32:32 we are being funny like that I guess course old fashioned you know sour sour in your mind but you know if you're a terrorist well maybe not. I was actually thinking writing a column you know in defense of the Taliban well maybe you know, I did the one column I always wanted to write was in defense of corruption because you know surely you know look look look look at the world again
Unknown Speaker 32:58 No, the no terrorist Lives Matter hashtag. I think I think that's important and I think the cutlery supplies at the RSL that matters and now now we're just talking about it flippantly it's
Dan Ilic 33:12 jo jo has it's been it's been three minutes Joe has not answered any questions
Ange Lavoipierre 33:19 like round in this three minutes and we have covered in the podcast so far like we got the cutlery I didn't
Unknown Speaker 33:29 like people criticize down McGuire but the cutlery at the walker RSL is second to none is genuinely
Dan Ilic 33:35 like when you bought when your boss says when your boss says to you, oh, Joe, can you please get a wheel out this new campaign to help News Corp greenwash its image like how do you feel about that? What do you say? Obviously you said Yes,
Unknown Speaker 33:46 I'd say yes. And I would say we did a pretty good job. I mean, if you have a look at it, this isn't just wash. This is polished. This is Sean. You can't come to a holiday. What most people don't understand. It's been 10 years when jeans at our news companies he changes position or whatever. And then we change our position, which in fact is the position we always had. But you guys were just so disagreeable that you'd never even got credit for
Unknown Speaker 34:19 a 16 page no ads not even here. Yeah, you call it you say we're doing it for money or doing it. There's no accident. We do it all for you. We put it in nice little words. We'd love to be pictures so you can understand everything. And in what did you cop? criticize? I mean, honestly, what's the poor fella got to do he's sitting there in New York.
Dan Ilic 34:40 allowed to live is a daily show you've got two articles have you on on on that double page spread in today's paper? Well, only one's got a photo though. How come you didn't put your photo on the other one. But he's he's wondering let me just read it. Let me just read out one headline here. Solar costs a costly exercise says Gina Reinhardt, Jane and Ron Hart says the most the cheapest possible power in the world is a costly exercise and this is the opening paragraph Joe in your prime the pro climate change article you've got here. Australia's richest women woman Jenna Reinhardt is warning that rushing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without proper costings could imperil fam a family farmers and cost taxpayers billions in subsidies there's no there's no mention in this article about the billions of subsidies the general gets.
Unknown Speaker 35:29 Well firstly, that article was written by our far right national environment reporter David Mills so I can't wrap for him but if you're okay yeah, look for his work in the Adelaide advertiser you will say this guy is arriving like Hey mate, Andrew bolt looks like look like Tim Flannery. It's disgusting and I'm trying to distance myself from him as we speak
Dan Ilic 35:51 we haven't distanced himself very well because you're you're both of your articles are on either side of his article like that's gonna talk to you to talk to your layout persons
Unknown Speaker 35:59 it's difficult for people to get their heads around but my article is the one underneath my name and the giant picture of my head that's how we differentiate them and and also we're not i'm not sure we may be pro climate change I think I thought I think you mean pro action on climate change but in fact we're not even that because we're
Dan Ilic 36:20 pro climate action fair and balanced. Yes, fair and balanced likes like our friends at Fox News. So tell us why is this position rolling out Joe? Why Why is why now a few months out from a federal election is this position in News Corp the most powerful newspaper company in Australia rolling out right now why
Unknown Speaker 36:41 cuz you asked us to you. You keep going on about and then we give it to you.
Ange Lavoipierre 36:50 Are you taking requests now that you're doing things because other people in Australia asked you to? Is that like a
Unknown Speaker 36:59 Joseph Walton GoFundMe page?
Dan Ilic 37:06 So what kind of priority Joe what kind of priority is this new campaign is your zero emissions campaign like well, what kind of priorities News Corp taking with
Unknown Speaker 37:15 it was a 16 page wraparound on Monday's newspaper how much more priority do
Dan Ilic 37:22 amazing 16 pages
Unknown Speaker 37:25 pocket there weren't even any ads on it because we do you guys were talking about that too. Even though you've got your little gaps in your Sleeping Giants and you're mad I think which is saying oh withdrawal advertising until they realized that the only way to get money is to embrace action on climate change. price action on climate change.
Dan Ilic 37:48 Joe Joe, Joe, we're not attacking you personally. But what are you doing this? Like, what when when they came to you and said could you be the face of this? What did you say?
Unknown Speaker 38:04 I said I said sorry come again.
Lewis Hobba 38:07 You No.
Unknown Speaker 38:11 Oh, I get and I said yeah, yeah.
Dan Ilic 38:18 This is this is like it's so strange. Like, for years, Murdoch papers have done irreparable damage to climate action to Australia. Inc. Going against all the policies that successive Australian Governments have put in championing for dismantling those policies. And then you think 16 pages will do the trick. Do you think 16 pages will save the world?
Unknown Speaker 38:42 Well, David, I would argue with a few of those heroic assumptions, the drivers overwhelmingly endorsed Kevin Rudd in 2007. He doesn't seem to remember that these days, as much credit for it. But certainly The Daily Telegraph in the Australian firmly endorsed his prime ministership, in the lead up to the election as all newspapers do, and they editorialize in favor of one candidate or another one party or another. So that certainly happened. And then when the Kevin Rudd was rolled by the greens, when when the greens actually were the ones who knifed his emissions trading scheme in the senate alone,
Dan Ilic 39:25 did they just do that by themselves? That wasn't that wasn't the right of that wasn't the rise of the Labour Party.
Unknown Speaker 39:33 I'm glad I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. So So firstly, the rise of the Liberal Party. No.
Lewis Hobba 39:42 Climate change show it's such an absolute
Unknown Speaker 39:54 climate change the right you
Dan Ilic 39:56 need to fly these job because you're drowning. That's what I want to ask you. Is this kind of a ride across the news club Empire is is all of news club gonna embrace this this whole move to net zero emissions?
Unknown Speaker 40:09 I do not know. We are a FREE and independently spirited organization which values editorial freedom and so yeah which
Lewis Hobba 40:17 is I feel like Johnny Depp weed Barnaby Joyce just off camera
Unknown Speaker 40:31 way All right. Free and impartial organization now is something that all they examine all the metro editors so the editors of the major Metro dailies decided upon in a an editorial board meeting so
Dan Ilic 40:50 independently decided to go along this mission that which is terrific but he never say the same headline on the front page of any news cope newspaper ever you never say like all these court papers all around Australia never run the same front page ever. They don't do that.
Unknown Speaker 41:06 That's because I haven't had one written by me before. I could even do the same one I just hit crazy, those Queensland's I just go and do their own thing. It must be written by Jeanette young.
Dan Ilic 41:18 Well, here is a here's a great clip from Sherry moccasins book launch earlier this week. Joe love your thoughts on this is Tucker Carlson until he about climate change. One of your one of your colleagues in America
Unknown Speaker 41:29 shares point about the international scientific community but clowning itself and degrading its own moral authority. These are the same people and these are the same governments who when COVID finally has will use their moral authority to impose a global warming regime on the west. And that is absolutely the plan. They say it constantly. And in order to do that, they're going to need people to believe that there is such a thing as scientific consensus, and that their point of view is an expression of that consensus. And what we've learned in the past two years, and I'm trying not to use profanity at your air, but that's that's not true. It's bs actual, that these are political actors using the residual respect that people in the West have for science in order to get what they want politically. And once we know that it's impossible to unknown.
Dan Ilic 42:19 So Joe, what is your colleague mean that what are what are scientists who are investigating climate change? What do they want to do? They want to run a country? Is this what he's saying?
Unknown Speaker 42:29 I'm not I'm not sure. I'm trying. I'm busy trying to unknown that. I don't know precisely what he's saying. But I don't really care how many sees whatever he wants. Yeah, we are. We are,
Dan Ilic 42:46 Joe. Joe, I know you've got a job, you got a family. I mean, Jenny, you got to get a job as
Unknown Speaker 42:56 my opinion and say whatever I like Tucker Carlson has a job in which he can express his opinion and say whatever he likes sharing my job.
Lewis Hobba 43:04 But don't some of those opinions need to be checked by like facts. As a journalist,
Unknown Speaker 43:11 by the way, I believe that legally defensible position of an opinion is an honestly held opinion based on the valuable facts.
Lewis Hobba 43:22 Theoretically, you could put legally any opinion in a newspaper. I'm just wondering whether or not you should put all opinions
Dan Ilic 43:30 also jo jo
Unknown Speaker 43:32 million monkeys and a million typewriters.
Dan Ilic 43:36 And can I I don't think it's, I don't think it's understanding or hyperbole to say, at this point in time, in the time in the history of the world, we're at a serious rule point where everybody needs to use their power to see meaningful reductions of climate emissions of greenhouse gas emissions and meaningful leadership to make that happen. The folks that News Corp get behind do not do that. They are bad actors. Why? Why don't you use your power to help these folks really align with what needs to actually be done.
Unknown Speaker 44:12 I'm leaving an editorial series that just launched with an unprecedented ad for a 16 page wrap, all of which outlined, the actions that Australia can take to get to net zero and how beneficial it would be for the country. We're following that up and have followed it up with a series of multiple double page spreads, splashes across all the metro mastheads that again, reinforce all the opportunities that come come to Australia by embracing netzero and tackling climate change and reducing carbon emissions. The series is ongoing, it is ongoing indefinitely. Our partners and countries ongoing
Dan Ilic 44:55 indefinitely. I thought you said as a limited series. You're only gonna do a bunch of
Unknown Speaker 44:59 minutes. I was limited
Dan Ilic 45:01 Oh I must have missed a master mistake
Unknown Speaker 45:04 I know it's it's going it's going for it's going for no no but News Corp Australia it's not even news it's going for at this stage about 29 years until 2015. going right up to Glasgow throughout Glasgow. We have we have contributors ranging from the Australian Conservation Foundation the World Wildlife Fund. Got an update from Adam bank in the pipeline. One from my space Yep, yep, you heard it here first. And I think we're ready
Ange Lavoipierre 45:41 for flowers to like get any of these people to participate or were they just up for it?
Unknown Speaker 45:46 No that knocking our door down there absolutely knocking our door down we broke Chris Bowen launching the Australia Institute's report. I mean, now we've got 24th Mark Carnegie I don't know what sort of people you're worried about we've got all these guys on board who are saying this if you if you're saying if you're saying that we also should silence anyone who disagrees well that is something that so Roger or anyone who believes
Dan Ilic 46:13 I couldn't help notice Joe Wallace I couldn't help notice Joe while this campaign launched, Alan Jones was harsh it was in quotes in hospital is that for a reason at all?
Unknown Speaker 46:25 Yes rupert murdoch shot his yeah he cut his brake cables on the way out any I don't I'm not sure if Alan Jones is even a columnist in the paper anymore but um but again I don't I don't understand I don't understand the logic that we do we do this we do this thing we bring out this series that outlines in full technical detail and again How am I doing this is the normal job. But hang on a minute. You used to employ Alan Jones or that you still let this person speak? I don't
Lewis Hobba 47:07 like if you knew someone if you knew someone personally who had been wrong for their whole life, and then suddenly completely changed their opinion but you'd been sitting there going I know who they are now I'm right and you're why this person and not only were they wrong, but they were telling everyone else this wrong fact and then suddenly they just pivoted it didn't bother to go Joe I gotta be honest sorry I was wrong for so long. like to just do a pivot and then a gaslight and be like no we always thought this like it's you got to understand the handbrake that you put Australia on with absolutely no warning and like not even not even a little sorry for all of the bullshit like nothing
Unknown Speaker 47:44 like thank you for noticing Louis I have always been right. And I always say I've always said exactly the same sorts of things that we're saying now in this series you can look at anything I've written anything I've say said on Sky or on radio.
Dan Ilic 47:59 I've always had gratitude and gratitude Berg is a terrible advocate for a lot because
Unknown Speaker 48:03 that's why that's why I'll have to come along she makes it she makes it look silly and ridiculous I mean, jumping up and down I mean I don't want to join the pile on against credit because she's a kid but the cult worship of grown adults who should know better who think that this is gonna somehow persuade middle Australia or country and regional Australia that this is the way to get on board that's that's madness. They're writing
Dan Ilic 48:29 kids because kids become adults Joe and and she's she's 19 she's across the science I've seen her talk I've listened to her speak she's pretty incredible.
Unknown Speaker 48:37 I don't wanna have a god I've been I've been the why the why to get people on board with tackling climate change and hitting the boys and zeros to tell them about the opportunities that are there and to tell them about the jobs the economics not to jump up and down and say
Lewis Hobba 48:59 like copyright infringement you just saying well the rest of the world has been saying for so long, it's like
Unknown Speaker 49:06 the rest of the world has actually been focused the rest of the world and if you look at a lot of the a lot of the coverage and a lot of what's been said previously, the rest of the world and many other media outlets have been focused more on the catastrophic catastrophic consequences of inaction or if you want if you want to actually persuade people and you want to get people on board, I think you offer the more carrot and less stick I'm just a positive guy. What can I say? More capitalistic,
Dan Ilic 49:34 you know like, like, like, you know like mortgage to redo your home with with with solar panels. That's a good thing to do.
Unknown Speaker 49:44 Yeah, we're doing a lot of that you should read the campaign. It's really good.
Dan Ilic 49:50 It's an editorial tubers who came on the show a few months ago, Joe and Saul's an incredible brain when he said to me said, you know, News Corp. Got to run this campaign. What do you think of it? I think I said I think that's a great thing because it actually does hit into middle Australia. It is the folks that do by the Daily Telegraph to read the rugby pages only. It is an incredible vehicle for the one with a round with the ball with the with the thing. It is incredible. It is incredible resource for folks, everyday Australians, and it is really important vehicle and a platform to tell the truth. I just guess everyone's baffled as to why you're telling it. Now,
Unknown Speaker 50:36 right? If you confuse you can read a soul Griffis plan on how households can save enormous amounts of money on their power bills in Saturday's Daily Telegraph or your favorite news quote paper wherever you live in Australia. So Griffith is a proud partner of mission zero.
Dan Ilic 50:50 Joe, thank you so much. You're gonna jump in and
Unknown Speaker 50:56 just like chatting to Joe is the conversational equivalent to untangling headphones and it's like
Unknown Speaker 51:10 everything you want, everything you ever want has done everything.
Unknown Speaker 51:13 rotten. I can finally hear that Cheers. But I've got to like, Listen, I'm not into that. Yeah. Beautiful.
Dan Ilic 51:21 Thank you for coming on and letting us ridicule you to your face. We really appreciate it. You're always extremely generous.
Unknown Speaker 51:32 There's no planet Bay.
Dan Ilic 51:34 We go. That's it for our show tonight. I want to thank all of our guests tonight Angela papa. Dane Simpson Lewis Halbert. Joe Hildebrand What would you like to plug and
Ange Lavoipierre 51:45 Oh God, I know it's gonna get the chance. Um, I've got a comedy show coming up at Sydney. It weirdly it's happening again? factory theater 11th 12th 13th of November. It's called spiders Follow me. There will be no spiders in the show. I can't contractually guarantee that but it's not likely there's going to be so many of us that probably get afraid and run away anyway. Factory theater 11 1213 spot is calling me you can find it online.
Dan Ilic 52:14 Dan Simpson well you want to play
Unknown Speaker 52:16 I've got my new show coming out. Did you read doozy I'm going to be Perth, Adelaide Melbourne all around Google me check it out. I'm all over the telly doing all these different shows as well as check it all out it's awesome also, Louis looks like youtuber Tom cardi and I
Lewis Hobba 52:35 are quite good friends that I've grown this mustache in his honor.
Dan Ilic 52:38 Oh there you go. Joe Hildebrand I not quite sure what you want to plug but what would you like to blog
Unknown Speaker 52:45 Oh apparently this campaign that the newspapers are doing called mission zero sounds real about it. But there's this thing called climate change apparently is really bad so we should get on board.
Dan Ilic 53:01 It is and they are taking it very seriously. And you can actually sign up to their email newsletter I've actually done that myself. So I went to the news corp email list and it's not under the AMPM it's not under what the buzz it's not under breaking news alert you have to scroll all the way down Blair report go pass go pass Sydney confidential go past the beat the bookies email if you want to skip that email list, it's not the real estate section. You can't sign up yet to that sports news update then go past the true crime Australia email list you don't want that's not the one you want. You definitely don't want to sign up to the divine report. That's not the that's not the one you want to sign up to go past. Extra cover a whole email all about cricket. And then at the bottom, you will see mission zero newsletter. That's the one if you're interested in climate change, the greatest moral problem of our generation, you'll want to scroll all the way to the bottom of the news corp email list to sign up to that one. So
Unknown Speaker 54:05 I want to see what she had to say.
Dan Ilic 54:10 Joe, thank you so much for joining us on rational fear again. I always enjoy having you on Big thanks to Rhode Mike's Patreon. Our Patreon supporters the Bertha foundation. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Good night.
Introducing the new monthly spin-off podcast from A Rational Fear — Julia Zemiro Asks 'Who Cares?'
Each month for the next 6 months, Julia will be interviewing change makers, civic leaders, and people who organise their communities and claim their power to discover the secrets to making good things happen.
This month Julia chats with:
Mark Kelly — The instigator of the 'Vote Tony Out' campaign. Hear this incredible story of agitation, and organisation. To get rid of one of the most malevolent actors in Australian political history.
also we hear from
Sally Rugg — Sally is one of the best brains in change making, and community building in the world. A long time activist, campaigner, and leader in many movements, but most notably she helped lead Australia through the complex, and emotionally traumatic fight for Marriage Equality.
If you enjoyed this please drop us a review on Apple podcasts:
G'day Fearmongers — On the podcast this week we chat with Kylea Tink — the new independent candidate for North Sydney who is running in the lower house at the next federal election. Who is she? Why is she running?
Also comedians Ben Jenkins,Diana Nguyen, Dan Ilic, and Lewis Hobba dissect Scott Morrison's COP cop-out, plans to assassinate Julian Assange, and Diana decides to run for the Northern Beaches electorate of Mackellar.
NEXT WEEK: You'll hear our new spin-off show "Julia Zemiro Asks Who Cares?"
CHIP IN TO OUR JOKEKEEPER: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jokekeeper-shaming-australia-s-climate-inaction/x/1681048#/
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Good evening, Lewis. How are you?
Lewis Hobba 0:06 Hello, moneybags. How are you?
Dan Ilic 0:08 Well, let's not talk about that yet. We're gonna save that for the show. But Louis, we might by happenstance have a few more listeners on the podcast this week. I don't know why I don't know why. But for people who've never heard the podcast, Lewis, so what? How would you describe it?
Lewis Hobba 0:24 It's a great question, Dan. I would describe it as there's chitchat. There's news, there's climate change. There's interviews. But mostly it's a fundraising campaign. We're essentially take your money. There are people here who are saying you're talking about important issues, you're talking about climate change? Yes, sure. That is a smokescreen. At the end of the day. What we want is cash, cash, cash, cash, cash.
Dan Ilic 0:48 It's true, it's true. We want your cash head to patreon.com forward slash irrational for you. And the other thing we want your money for you hear about in a second, we should let people know that this is the kind of podcast where eventually we discover who gets murdered. But at the end of the season, and this show, you know, we were 130 episodes in. It's a long game. It's a long game. Yeah, that's
Lewis Hobba 1:10 right. Much like a true crime podcast. It has been going on too long.
Dan Ilic 1:13 I'm recording my end of irrational fear on gadigal land in the ordination, sovereignty was never seated. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 1:20 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra COMM And section body or rational fear recommends listening my image your audience.
Dan Ilic 1:33 Tonight with Australia coming out of lockdown Scott Larson says he may not go to Glasgow as he has more important picnics to see back at home and Prince Andrew has been served with a sexual assault lawsuit in the United States. The prince was quite accepting of the latest developments saying no sweat and after information leaks that the CIA considered killing Julian Assange for leaking information. Mike Pompeo asks for options to have himself assassinated. It's the first of October and this is the podcast that Nancy Pelosi calls the best podcasts in Australia. This is a rational feeling.
Welcome to rational fi I'm your host former professional singing kebabs Dan Ellis and let's meet our female guest for tonight. She's the queen of corporate comedy on LinkedIn and she's probably considers herself a little bit snotty judge for yourself from this note cast is Dinah Newman. Hi welcome welcome Diana.
Diana Nguyen 2:36 Welcome thanks for welcoming and I welcome myself
Dan Ilic 2:40 you could just do it you want to take over here and welcome Ben Jenkins deadly very good to you know from the checkout when the week the fade you also might know him as your friend in the group chat who's always talking about how great it is to be sober in the pandemic. It's the intoxicating but not intoxicated, then Jenkins Welcome back. Hello.
How is sobriety going for you Ben.
Ben Jenkins 3:03 It's you know, it's I don't know, I don't know if you guys have ever done a stint of sobriety. But one of one of the things that like it's very good, but one of the things that they don't tell you is that you can't be drunk I'd say that it's a major drawback
Lewis Hobba 3:25 getting on board until I had that factor now it's a no Yeah, no,
Ben Jenkins 3:28 they put it in the fine print. I'm
Dan Ilic 3:30 I'm drinking right now. He kind of stumped me. And he's a man I haven't actually written your intro Louis. I've had a big day sees a man Lewis
Lewis Hobba 3:37 he's a man that's it. That's all I get unbelievable. But you know what? an upgrade on the boy I used to be.
Dan Ilic 3:46 I still enjoyed introducing Craig rocastle last week his former chaser boy now chaser, man. He loves it. Coming up. We're gonna be talking with Kylie Tink the new candidate for North Sydney. It's very excited, independent candidate. But first, we're gonna message from our sponsor a real sponsor. Well, sort of it is us. We've actually got a new spin off show starting once a month here on this feed hosted by a very famous Australian. Have a listen. Here's the trailer
Julia Zemiro 4:14 Hello Julia Zemiro here, and I've got a new podcast about politics for people who hate politics. Australians have any confidence. I know look, sometimes reading the news can make me feel powerless. So I started asking my friends. Does anyone care? I found out a lot of people do care what started as a fight for justice. Today's protest is proof it's not working. We have to do it. We've got to see change. I also discovered what happens in Canberra affects you but here's the amazing thing you can affect Canberra. I'm feeling more powerful already. Once a month on the irrational fear podcast feed. I'll be asking Who cares? In my new podcast, Julia Zemiro asks Who cares? I know I'm some kind of marketing genius. Some of the folks I'll be talking with, you'll know and some of them you won't. There'll be from all walks of life making a difference in ways big and small. I want to excite you to listen, talk, think more about the choices we actually do have, and how we can get active and learn just how powerful we can be. We have an election coming up. And I want us to know a bit more about what's happening out there so that when you go into vote, UK, so grab your megaphone and yell, what do we want another podcast? Why do we want it only once a month for about six months?
Dan Ilic 5:37 Thank you. There you go. Jay Z here at first on next Thursday, we're going to be taking a break and Jay Z is going to be taking over next. On next Thursday's podcast. All right. This week's first year, Scott Morrison has decided he won't go to the most historic global world leaders meeting in his tenure. That is the cop 26 conference Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. fishmongers. Why weren't Scott Morrison go to this very prominent event?
Ben Jenkins 6:06 Like what's he going to do? If you if you had the opportunity to like because it is always good to turn up to Glasgow and eat shit, and like he deserves to eat shit. He shouldn't be eating shit. But if you had the option of not eating shit, you take that one right? Like
Dan Ilic 6:25 but isn't eating shit in Glasgow more exciting than eating shit here in Australia?
Ben Jenkins 6:29 I mean, I don't know man, I gotta tell you. I would say the only thing that I'm enjoying about this entire Prime Ministership is how much this man fucking hates being Prime Minister it's honestly the only thing that's keeping me sane is like one person having a worse time than a lot of people in lockdown and it's Scott Morrison. I shouldn't be glib because obviously a lot of people are doing a lot harder than a you know somebody is who's got millions of dollars and and and absolute job security due to a stunning lack of opposition. But like honestly, this man, like, got to wanting to be Prime Minister for all the kind of bells and whistles and sashes and nice trips and conferences where you get to wear cool clothes and carpet and red jackets. Yeah, and he's just picked the worst time in modern history to have this job for somebody for somebody you like and you write down like that's what he just wants to be whatever the prime minister or crew equivalent of just kicking back in Hawaii is he always wants to be doing and so he just goes to Hawaii does does
Dan Ilic 7:41 the meme the main is true though the main kind of rings true that Scott Morrison does nothing like everything he does is at the last minute just as everything kind of gets to a crisis point so he can mess up handling that crisis. Everything just seems to be like, Oh no, someone else will worry about it until it becomes a void it really it's like the buck stops with him with everything but he's kind of forgotten that other people that like he needs to look after stuff as well. It's such a strange environment fame today, but I
Ben Jenkins 8:09 do I do have like something that approaches but is not sympathy for him in in in this because like, like I say any other time in the time that he's been active in politics. That is that is the status quo. That is what you do, you know, passing the buck. Yep. And, and just putting it off, and just waiting for it to go away. Like 99% of problems. I'm not saying they should be solved this way. I think it's bad to solve this way. But politically, that has actually never been that much of a problem. And it's this guy's Mo. And like I say he's just picked VA one time in history where that looks incredibly bad.
Lewis Hobba 8:47 Kind of like if you look at the end of say, like Julia gaylords Prime Ministership, at the end of it. She was friends with Rianna now at the end. He's gonna be friends with what Peter Dutton that is a bad dinner.
Ben Jenkins 9:01 Yeah. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 9:04 It's so interesting that even sports people are saying they're not going to go to the lodge, or go to kirribilli to have their photo taken with him anymore. It's such a very strange, like, go free. And hey, I'm also also on this story. A comedian wanted to buy one billboard but ended up running a welfare program for the neglect neglect to that sector. I don't know if you saw this story. So yeah, so we're in the last week on the podcast, you would have heard us talk about trying to raise $12,000 to put a billboard in Glasgow.
Lewis Hobba 9:34 And for the record at the time, I thought a bit greedy. I was like, Alright, Dan. Look. I've been on this podcast every single episode since it started and we haven't seen $12,000 in 10 years.
Dan Ilic 9:51 Yeah, No, we haven't. I haven't. But anyway, so I ran this Indiegogo campaign. I put the post out six o'clock on Monday, and I should have known it was going to go off. You know, when we when we spoke about on the podcast, we published the podcast on Friday. We mentioned if you want to find out about this, find out about this this project to make sure you join the email list and over the weekend, like I said 123 but 30 new people signed up to the email list. And I was like, well this actually might, this actually might be a problem like we actually might
Lewis Hobba 10:28 wish I've never pressured for success.
Dan Ilic 10:32 Let me tell you exactly All I want to do is pay this invoice and go to bed. I thought I've run glue as you and I ran a Kickstarter campaign or Indiegogo campaign for rational feedback in 2014 we were trying to raise $50,000 and it took a month to rise. Well I got through this Indiegogo I managed to raise 50,000 in like two days Yeah. And now it's up to 112 $112,000 so but I've got a new plan so I'm pivoting the whole campaign to cold call that joke keeper and we're basically spend a whole stack of money on billboards Yes, but a whole bunch of money on comedians who have been out of work to produce sketches for the for for the election coming up so it's a war chest to roll out for the election. It's like satire if the ABC didn't run it like the ABC is is hold on Saturday but you don't actually have to say anything with it. So it's like a Saturday you can actually have a point it's really doors you don't have to answer you'd have to talk to Becky as
Lewis Hobba 11:38 a as a current NBC employee I have nothing to do with the billboard campaign but I do think it's great and obviously it's a bit complicated on the podcast but I'm not involved.
Dan Ilic 11:46 Yes and Louis I want you know, you're not gonna get a single sentence. So
Diana Nguyen 11:51 I'm just struggling struggling
Lewis Hobba 11:57 pays me now the podcast gets behind me. Louis, what do you want
Dan Ilic 12:04 to get paid 100 bucks a week from the podcast? Or do you want a job on national radio?
Lewis Hobba 12:09 Honestly, that's a difficult decision right now.
Dan Ilic 12:13 So anyway, we've got these billboards to make Dave you guys got any thoughts about what billboards we should put up like ideas for climate change oriented billboards to make fun of the climate policies of the Australian Government
Lewis Hobba 12:24 What about since the temperature is rising the whole we make the billboard but the whole thing's like a mood ring. That changes color as it gets warmer. Right? That is great.
Dan Ilic 12:36 I love that. Yeah, that's good.
Ben Jenkins 12:39 What about an ad for fantasy?
Lewis Hobba 12:42 Oh, that's interesting. That's interesting. Your soft drinks Coca Cola.
Dan Ilic 12:49 This isn't a Hamish and Andy podcast,
Ben Jenkins 12:51 delicious beverage that that that people can buy in stores and I think people would enjoy seeing that on a billboard to remind them that beverage Yeah, I may have missed the break. I just heard bill boys.
Lewis Hobba 13:05 They're supposed to be Australian Australia represent Australia so maybe it should be something like dirt cheap furniture, you know, like, just see if he can do here's the dirty guy if in fact, isn't the dirty Guy istockphoto is that the truth? Yeah, the dirty guy who you could buy the dirty guy
Dan Ilic 13:22 man you would know this because you would have done this for the checkout right? Surely.
Ben Jenkins 13:25 Actually. No, I stole this fact from James Colley because he did it on growing and I'll do it again. Yeah, he was a he's a stock photo guy and he and he he has a pipe in the stock photo he's got a pipe in his mouth and when you when you know that because they photoshopped the pipe out because they didn't want to be associated with pipes for Advertising Standards, but when you know that he has a pipe you can't you realize that's one of the unsettling things about the image that it's it's got a lack of pipe.
Dan Ilic 13:56 I'm gonna be looking out for the Photoshop pipe. In the next time I drive past the 1000s of durruti billboards
Ben Jenkins 14:02 you'll crash your car Daniel it's mesmerizing. Diana Do
Dan Ilic 14:05 you have any ideas for what should go on these billboards we're making around the world?
Diana Nguyen 14:09 I was thinking like Corey my bush or something helped quarry the bush. Oh.
Lewis Hobba 14:17 Have you? Have you considered approaching Lara bingle I know that when Scott Morrison was in Hawaii Lara bingo was one of the first and obviously most important people to tweet out where the bloody hell are you Scott Morrison in the bushfires? Which is great stuff from her.
Dan Ilic 14:32 I reckon really interesting I think Lara
Lewis Hobba 14:35 bingle you know I think I reckon obviously she's she's got the money now she we can you know we don't need to pay too much. And I reckon she do it I reckon she would do it she seems like they kind of I reckon that would be up her politics
Ben Jenkins 14:48 All right. I want to pitch something to you guys. I want to pitch something to you guys listening listening. larvae angle on a beautiful beach. reminiscent of the of where the bloody hell Yeah, 2006 way I can find, but it's a beach. That's all it's all it's all ruined by climate change. Okay. There's the waters, the waters yucky man is
Dan Ilic 15:11 had been Have you been reading? Everyone who's replied to me on Twitter with a teardrop in their name is that reading all right.
Ben Jenkins 15:21 So she's there and it's not a nice looking beach. And what's that in her hand? It's a beautiful bottle of fat. And the coffee just reads
Unknown Speaker 15:40 that's a matter for the Queensland Government.
Unknown Speaker 15:42 I mean, that's a matter for the cranium. That's a matter that all rise with other premiers and Chief Ministers. That's really a question to the premium. That's a matter of I'm happy to take up with the other premiers and Chief Ministers
Dan Ilic 15:52 a rational fear. Hey, second fit this week. So a report came out on Yahoo News that said that the CIA had planned to Is that a
Lewis Hobba 16:01 joke and their opponents?
Dan Ilic 16:04 Well, you know what, here's the thing. Here's the thing, BuzzFeed news is stopped doing news and Yahoo News. So there was a gap and said, We need another ridiculous person to take over the news. Let's be that let's be the new wacky news person but they're doing journalism again. Yahoo's actually doing real journalism. So they had this report that said that the CIA was actively developing plans to kidnap or assassinate WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange during his London Ecuadorian embassy stay. This is very, very strange story. Like this is absolutely zany stuff. This is from the Trump administration. Mike Pompeo, all these guys who benefited from Julian Assange, the leaking material, all of a sudden wanted to kill him. Why was
Ben Jenkins 16:53 that? Yeah, well, they had the material.
Lewis Hobba 17:05 Like, I know that killing people isn't funny.
Dan Ilic 17:07 But no,
Ben Jenkins 17:09 it is going.
Lewis Hobba 17:11 It is pretty like can you imagine working in the CIA, it does feel like they get to the seat, they get to assassination pretty quickly, pretty often. And it would be quite fun to be in all of their meetings. And you imagine there's just one guy, he's maybe called Steve. And they're just like, sure, what are we gonna do about what are we gonna do about Julian? And Steve's hand just goes up, and everyone just goes, shoots right? Here come, Steve, what are you What is
Dan Ilic 17:36 this? I think the best course of action here is to terminate, like, Yeah,
Ben Jenkins 17:40 we do. Alright, moving on. Secret Santa.
Dan Ilic 17:47 Santa to
Lewis Hobba 17:48 say, listening. Anyone else on point? This is the break that comes through. It's like, what should we do with Steve and Steve's? Like, Oh, no.
Dan Ilic 18:01 I need to be I need to be taken out of the picture.
Ben Jenkins 18:06 I do get the feeling that there is some assassinations, which really are just to like, let the whoever the writing CIA Steve is set to just get it out of their system so they can get some work done. Oh, yeah.
Dan Ilic 18:18 I mean, I think this is like when they retire as well. They can have a conversation with someone while I was the guy had to guess. You know, I, I press. I press go on that email. Yeah.
Diana Nguyen 18:28 I've got like a board of how many numbers of people they've killed, like, you know, like a boy's room?
Dan Ilic 18:35 Yeah. I really enjoyed this quote from the former counter intelligence officer saying, Yeah, when Trump took office, there was a fundamental change. Nobody, nobody in that crew was going to be too broken up about the First Amendment issues. I was like, well, they got. Trump later was described as saying he was just spitballing. He was actually one.
Ben Jenkins 19:02 Look, if you're discussing a problem with the CIA, like, you're gonna spit both of them, right.
Lewis Hobba 19:09 It's like, have we considered running some sort of billion dollar? I don't know, drug importation scheme that we can blame on someone you know, of course, is the classic Should we just kill
Dan Ilic 19:21 spitballing
Ben Jenkins 19:22 but it's a classic for a reason. They're
Lewis Hobba 19:24 also in terms of wacky schemes to do with Assange. Didn't he have a wacky escape plan?
Dan Ilic 19:30 Oh, yeah, there was rumors that he was going to escape by Russians in Erlangen a van or something right. Yeah.
Lewis Hobba 19:35 And there was like it was like a classic, a classic sort of Ocean's 11 situation where he was gonna, they were gonna bring in like a package that was gonna be in a really big bag and then he was gonna have to kill him.
Dan Ilic 19:48 I think they tried that, but the bag had a hole in it. There was a WikiLeaks.
Ben Jenkins 19:55 Do you remember the footage that that ironically leaked out of the Ecuador. An Embassy of Assange trying to learn to skateboard.
Dan Ilic 20:04 Didn't Pat Moran doesn't like that as though
Ben Jenkins 20:07 he could have Yeah, somebody sent him a skateboard. I need
Lewis Hobba 20:10 to say I said he might break his neck.
Dan Ilic 20:15 Sir, if we, if we sent him a skateboard, it's a very dangerous, very dangerous.
Ben Jenkins 20:22 Yeah, it's great. It really reminded me because he's he's just trying it in a room which is quite a small room. And it really reminded me of me trying to learn to skate in my bedroom, but you just can't do like you can't do one wall and then you turn around and do the other one. Yeah, I mean, if you if if what you currently need in your life right now,
Dan Ilic 20:42 man, I feel so bad. If you feel sorry for people living in the Ecuadorian embassy, and then people below the Chilean embassy, they would have been very annoyed with the sound. Yeah, you know, I always thought like a great escape plan would be because Julian Assange is so iconic. You know, he's an iconic looking man, and you could dress up 1000 people to look like Julian Assange, and swarm the Ecuadorian embassy and then disperse. That's really yeah, it's classic stuff that
Lewis Hobba 21:08 end in 1000 guys who look like CIA agents, and then you'll never know who killed him.
Unknown Speaker 21:14 Rational fear
Unknown Speaker 21:15 we're not going to achieve net zero. In the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities. In
Ben Jenkins 21:21 Australia trying to go for net zero emissions is like a 10 year old boy who thinks he's Superman and jumps off his parents room. He doesn't have the technology and he's going to fall flat
Unknown Speaker 21:31 on his face, your fear is rational.
Dan Ilic 21:35 Next out, this is a warning for people who live in the seat of Fowler an immigrant is moving to your suburb to buy a house. Yes, last week it was announced that Kristina Keneally is moving to Fowler to kick out somebody else so that she can run for the lower house. This is a very strange story she's leaving a perfectly fine senate seat to go to a perfectly hard working Lower House seat like why would Kristina Keneally want to move to the lower house at all die?
Diana Nguyen 22:02 Well the house is cheaper probably from the northern couple of more houses in the West Couldn't you
Dan Ilic 22:11 that's true that's true. This is a strange story because you know the labor they're always pretending to be authentic and genuine. And they want to be seen to be doing the right thing by the people that they represent including removing event maize woman from running in that seat with somebody who has never had a connection with that so how do you how do you say as a as someone all that maize heritage How do you feel it
Diana Nguyen 22:37 I feel a bit redundant. Vietnamese people shouldn't do anything at Australia I think that's what they're trying to say. What it's showing is that there is a kind of tokenism when Asians are needed and I guess with the Labor Party in this case, the Asian female Vietnamese politician was it was a immigrants from America female to represent the lower house so disappointing. disappointing.
Ben Jenkins 23:05 I did see them trying to sort of like you know, when somebody sort of it's usually happens on Twitter where they sort of try a line out and they're like yeah, that's rubbish sorry. I saw him sort of trying to be like well actually we're talking about to immigrants here quite roundly went Shut the fuck up and they went right
Lewis Hobba 23:27 we didn't get to assassinations give us that
Dan Ilic 23:31 like saying alibi even step up and going well, you know, and playing that same line, just like well, you know, she's an immigrant. You know, we got we got to embrace this story.
Ben Jenkins 23:40 Yeah, it's funny, like, I know why they can't do it. Well, like I know what the conventional wisdom why the convention wizard says I can't do this. But like, it's so funny the way that like, labor especially has to tie themselves in knots to not just say the truth, which is like, this is all factional. And there's like so much shit going on. That's complicated behind the scenes, that this is just how shit works. And it shouldn't work this way. And it's terrible that it works this way. But let's not pretend that that's not how it works. And instead of having to do these like crazy contortions, to make it seem like it's like a just thing. That
Dan Ilic 24:13 was the real story, Ben, in terms of the senate factions, what happened up in the Senate that meant that Kristina Keneally got booted out Yeah,
Ben Jenkins 24:19 my understanding is that because of factional maneuvering, she got bumped to the third place in her senate ticket which is not a safe place. So there was actually there was actual danger that she was going to lose her upper house
Dan Ilic 24:30 seat is that right? We're gonna ask our next guest
Ben Jenkins 24:34 she got done over in the senate internally from labor and so they're trying to shift it to a to a safer seat in the lower house. Potentially also because she at least might harbor leadership ambitions. And you know, there there are people in the party that really that really writer I mean, I do think that's one of the funny things about this whole story that like, all her defenders are like, well, she's actually an incredibly savvy, political All right and then you look at how she's handled this whole thing and it's like watching someone trying to fix a fucking watch with bricks and that's like it's like oh man if she could bring this like political mouse against the the liberals that should be unstoppable like yeah there's not a lot of skill on on display here even if that's like the mercenary reason you're saying, Oh, we should fuck over this young woman because you know we're getting we're gonna get this incredible heavy hitter in the way that she's conducted herself even like on those terms is an impressive row and
Lewis Hobba 25:30 Barnaby Joyce was asked about why they weren't going to rein in like the COVID conspiracy theorists. And he says like, Whoa, we need the votes. And yeah, and you were like, Oh, he said it and it caught the whole thing down. Everyone was like, Oh, yeah, okay. I mean, obviously that's right, that makes you
Dan Ilic 25:50 sad. Is that the same approach that you take to when Barnaby says oh, well, you're gonna say whatever the government says. That's right.
Lewis Hobba 25:58 Whatever they got in place yeah, that's why he is supporting Barnaby Joyce I think he's right talking giovanelli is
Dan Ilic 26:05 john angla on the YouTube says media beats up on Canadian vs two ignores the greater problem of gender and diversity in the coalition well this is true the coalition isn't as diverse as labor that's for sure die would you What would you do to increase gender and diversity in the coalition?
Diana Nguyen 26:22 Well, I think there's a no go for the coalition I'll just say right but I was just gonna say Dan like you've raised all this is money I could run as an independent if you know you could
Dan Ilic 26:34 this is a great
Diana Nguyen 26:39 yeah, we could
Dan Ilic 26:41 say what say Dad I would say do whatever gender run gender run it gets
Diana Nguyen 26:45 off the Northern Beaches. I would just love to be there.
Ben Jenkins 26:55 You could there's gonna be a house in Scotland is gonna be available it's only accessible by boat.
Lewis Hobba 27:01 I I've lived in Sydney for I don't know 10 years I don't know where is Scotland Ireland? pittwater.
Ben Jenkins 27:09 Scotland Ireland is? Yeah, Tim Pete what it is it is an island it's not in Scotland. So one out of two ain't bad. But yeah, it's it's it's just fairies there and bam.
Dan Ilic 27:21 You need the new nickname for Scott Morrison is Scotland Ireland because yeah, that's in Scotland.
Lewis Hobba 27:27 Maybe instead of going to Glasgow for cop 26. You can just go to Scotland I've visited clearly what else? What do you want?
Unknown Speaker 27:36 a rational fear. The French have always liked to stand a bit aloof from was Anglos. We've never had the kind of intimacy with the French good friends and all that they are. They're not family, a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 27:55 She's North Sydney's new, independent candidate and it's going to be an exciting race. According to her LinkedIn, she's a successful business operator and NFP, campaigner tenacious, intelligent and compassionate. Well, you know, according to us, that sounds a bit arrogant, don't you think? Please welcome to the podcast Kylie tank. Welcome, Kylie.
Kylea Tink 28:15 Thanks, Dan. I thought you were gonna tell me it sounds like a dating profile. Actually, I think.
Dan Ilic 28:21 Well, no, it actually does sound like a dating profile. Anyway, this is your next six months is dating and electorate. How's it going? Has anyone caught your eye?
Kylea Tink 28:30 I'm actually gonna say it's been a bit of a roller coaster. It's been a hell of a ride, not expecting it to be as amazing as it adds. It has been, you know, we launched only last Saturday. So we're 10 days into a campaign and already we've got, you know, hundreds of people walking around the North Shore electoral in a pink t shirt that says, team Tink, which is kind of bizarre when you're the Tink and you're looking at all these people walking around with your name on them. So it's um, it's actually starting next week, Diana I just wanted to say sorry Dan McKellar is looking for an independent camp. McKellen's up Palm Beach.
Diana Nguyen 29:07 I'm actually from Melbourne. Hi.
Kylea Tink 29:12 Christina. From independent as well, which city? I am Ben Ben. Sponsored by fan. Yeah, is that correct? Yeah, that's right. Then I am running for the seat of North Sydney, which is me. Funnily enough on the Northern line.
Dan Ilic 29:31 Yeah, it's slightly north. Who are you?
Lewis Hobba 29:34 Who are you taking down Kylie? Who are you hoping to take down?
Kylea Tink 29:37 I am running against a gentleman called Trent Zimmerman, who is you know actually is a really really nice guy. I've met Trent a number of times he's just seems to have this issue where he's completely ineffective because he's a government backbencher. And so actually has less power than anybody else in the parliamentary system. So he talks one way he is a climate advocate and you know his has spoken a lot about Protecting the Great Barrier Reef, but then when legislation comes up in the house, he actually voted against it. So we've he's a bit confused.
Dan Ilic 30:07 It's something that a lot of the people in this climate independent movement talk about, they say, you know, well, the good guys are good, but they vote the same way as the bad guys. So Who the hell are you, Kylie? and How dare you try and vote against the good guy?
Kylea Tink 30:20 Thank you for asking, Dan. That's a good question. Isn't that what Lewis said earlier? Actually, Dan? Well, if you believe the media, according to a newspaper article recently, I'm the problem that the government has, at the moment people like me interview, a little bit tired of waiting for middle aged men to get it right. And so we're deciding to stand up and actually call it out and say that we actually think Australia can be and do better. So if you'd told me 18 months ago, that this was what I would be doing, I would have laughed almost as hard as I've been laughing, listening to you guys waiting to come in. But here I am. And I just couldn't be more on it.
Dan Ilic 31:03 This is a big ask. And it's an extremely stressful process. How did you come to the conclusion that you wanted to put yourself through this process over the next six months? really seriously,
Kylea Tink 31:14 I there was a moment for me last September, where our Prime Minister came into the state of New South Wales, and said to the public, if New South Wales would not build a gas fired power station in our state, then the federal government would build it, and they would use federal electronic money to do that. And this kind of ding went off in my head. And I just thought there's something wrong with this, you know, like New South Wales doesn't want it, but the federal government wants to build it, what's going on here. And then the next morning, I heard Mike cannon Brooks from Atlassian, came out and said that the Prime Minister saying that to our country was the equivalent of him going to work the next day and telling all of these programmers, they could only work with an abacus. And it was like, somebody dropped a cat in my lap, I suddenly went, Oh, that makes so much sense. You know, like, this doesn't make business sense. What our Prime Minister wants to do is illogical and irrational. So I think that's when I first decided I had to stand up and say, because I have been a successful businesswoman. Dan, thank you very much. This isn't good business. So yeah, that's when I decided it was time to go into politics.
Dan Ilic 32:22 That same catalyst is the same for a lot of folks. I mean, this is, in particular, for me, I started to go, what the hell is going on when, during a pandemic, that the group of people that get together, the National COVID, committee commission, get together, and they decide the best way to handle the pandemic is to build a gas pipeline? Like I'm not a doctor, but it doesn't quite make any kind of sense, also, and I was so enraged after six months. And of course, these of course, no, Greg Hunt was looking at his emails in that six months, because he was like, Oh, no, the National COVID committees got it sorted out. But it's just crazy to think that and just really, just, like I
Ben Jenkins 33:03 say, we try to play out, it's very easy to snipe from the sideline, we
Dan Ilic 33:12 don't know, we don't know, the gas pipeline can fix it. Yeah, that's true.
Kylea Tink 33:16 You know, what I think it is, the problem is that we've got, to me that's an approach of, you know, we've got a government that's obsessed with still selling VHS cassettes, when the rest of the world is live streaming or listening to your podcast, you know, like, they just don't seem to want to step into this new century. And that's got multiple issues for us, you know, not only for our, for our kids and their kids in terms of the world that they'll be growing up in environmentally. But economically, Australia stands to get left behind, you know, we should be Excuse me for a minute, but we should be a renewable superpower, we have more natural resources in this country, than any other country on the face of the planet. And yet, we still want to hang on to that little brown rock and pass it backwards and forwards in Parliament. So we can do better. And I think it just takes normal people like us to stand up and say, you know what politics is about the people, not the party. So we're taking it back.
Dan Ilic 34:11 Carly, tell us a little bit about your history. How did you get to this point, like, how did you get to the point you're like, you know what, I've done enough. I want to ruin my career, and go into politics.
Kylea Tink 34:22 So I think I'm a born campaigner, actually, Dan. So I'm one of four kids. I grew up in a small country town at Northwest New South Wales called coonabarabran. coonabarabran is very excited because at the last census, their population grew from three set 3000 to 3001. And we got to change the signs as you come into the town. So it's a great little town that hasn't moved a lot. And it has a really strong culture that when you want to get stuff done, you lean in together. You know, that's how we had the tennis courts built. That's how we got the youth center built. So I grew up in an environment where I just knew that if you wanted to make the place better, you just had to find the right group of people to work with to make that happen. So, over my career I've worked in areas as diverse as domestic violence advocacy. I've worked in tobacco control. I've worked in sun protection. I've worked with the HIV AIDS community. I've worked with kids in immigration detention centers and young Australians doing it tough with mental health. I've done a lot of work in Canada you
Dan Ilic 35:19 sound you sound already you already sound like a young Australians. Do I get tough? Ah, that's correct day. That is good. Good. That's good gear. You'll be doing that on a current affair in no time. I
Kylea Tink 35:29 had that long before I was. Thank you very much. All right. Yeah. But no, my probably one of my most amazing experiences for I was the CEO at a organization called the McGraw foundation for six years where I went in just after Jane passed away and because I really respected Jane and I wanted to see the idea that she had had come to fruition. And I just had this six year experience of you know, we were five nurses when I went there. And by the time I finished we were 100 nurses, the Sydney pink test had been born and all these things that people said couldn't be done had suddenly been achieved. So I think for me that that's fundamentally what drives me I love that question. Why? And then the extension of it of why not you know, why can't we do it differently? And to me, that's what's pretty amazing about campaigning at the moment Actually, I'm running amazing group of volunteers we're a community organization and we're standing up against some pretty big machines in the form of the parties but people are joining us you know, they they're coming out and saying we want to be counted to so I don't know where this will go honestly, guys, I just think that it's a bit like your billboards if you can do something that disrupts the conversation enough that other people stand up and take notice. I think that's a pretty amazing thing to have the capacity to do so I'm all for your billboards down and if you want to put a billboard in the North Sydney electorate saying we've looked from Ada Zimmerman and can't find Trent anywhere where is he on the environment I will back you into doing that all the way.
Dan Ilic 37:04 Well, you know, he looked Kylie I technically on the lead to support any candidate, but I am allowed to the right others so you may find you may find billboards but of me attacking transit women, but I won't be able to actually support support you and
Ben Jenkins 37:21 also also saying, you know, maybe some choice things about a delicious orange beverage.
Dan Ilic 37:28 Fanta. Hang on, would you believe we lost Lewis for one second? Let me just call him. He had a blackout. Blackout. He's in the car. True story. Lewis did you have to adjust to leave the podcast because we started to get political and you were just worried about losing a job at eBay.
Lewis Hobba 37:49 Right. This is going to cost me a small amount of money. I've got to go.
Dan Ilic 37:56 What happened? Where did you go the whole?
Lewis Hobba 37:58 My father has lost power. I've just been I thought it was misused. But there's a whole three wide blackout. I've just been meeting my neighbors for the first time.
Dan Ilic 38:07 I tell you what, if Kylie was a professional politician already, she'd say, Well, this is the problem with coal power.
Lewis Hobba 38:18 I feel nervous. I don't know what I'm going to stream. I've already started deciding based on a coconut going bad. That
Diana Nguyen 38:26 was mean. That was me last week with the earthquake. I was like, this is it. We're done.
Dan Ilic 38:32 Well, Kylie, thank you so much for joining us on irrational fear. And thanks, everyone for joining us. Do you guys have anything to plug Diane? I do want to plug it
Diana Nguyen 38:39 in, right? Yeah. If you're a snorting fan, I've got a podcast called the snort cast. And if you know Kiana Reeves I'm still chasing him. So please bring him my way.
Dan Ilic 38:50 And you're also raising money for a climate project who you're raising money for.
Diana Nguyen 38:53 Climate for change is doing an October fundraiser. They're raising $300,000 and Ambassador one of our ambassadors do Lucy they're actually on live right now they're raising Kobe's 300k. Sorry.
Dan Ilic 39:05 Excellent. And we are supporting climate change too. We've given them a billboard. So if you want to go to climate change, and and by that billboard, you can decide what goes on it. Ben, do you wanna plug anything
Ben Jenkins 39:15 I have a podcast called free to get home that I do with with Louis's radio partner, actually, Michael, where we go through classifieds and find ones to talk about I'd say that too bad plug for it, but really, there's no other way of putting it that's the shot.
Dan Ilic 39:32 Can I say it is a show that does talk as it quite like in the first five minutes incessantly so just be aware of that report is always filled with fans know freedom good home is one of the funniest podcasts in Australia it is an absolute Kak make sure you listen to it. So is the snort cast. And Lewis Sam Do you wanna plug anything you wanna plug like Australia.
Lewis Hobba 39:55 Candle lamp I'd like to windmill uh huh
Dan Ilic 40:09 Kylie Tink Kylie, what would you like to plug
Kylea Tink 40:12 I would like to plug everybody getting up and listening to you guys every week because I think it's good for the soul but also for people to really think about where they stand on the issues that we've had so much fun talking about tonight, you know, these are their big issues and it's our turn to stand up and make the difference when it comes to them. So get involved to get out there and don't just accept the status quo.
Dan Ilic 40:33 Thank you very much, Kylie. Really appreciate it. Big thanks to rode mics our Patreon supporters Jacob round. Also if you want to support Joe keeper who is keeping us alive head to rational fear.com or Indiegogo or anywhere on social media to find the link to Joe keeper. You know, we've only made 10% of our target for Joe keeper we still need $900,000 today. I want to thank our Patreon supporters, Karen Oregon Courtney James Julie Woods Jeremy shavon Claire Fran Miro, Matthew Damo, Paul Alistair Adam KB, Chris Ks and Claire and Dan ziffer also became a Patreon member this week so big thank you to all those new Patreon members. big thank you to you for listening. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of good night. Oh yes. Next week. Listen to Julius amuro. asks, Who cares? That's the first episode
This week on the podcast we talk with Craig Reucassel about his new film Big Deal. A documentary about how big corporate money has infiltrated politics in Australia. It's a great chat. See where Big Deal is screening near you.
On the podcast this week we do a shallow dive on the Nuclear Submarine deal, and give it one ping only.
We release a never before seen internal corporate video from The Liberal Party that shows us how they've fixed their woman problem.
Refuse to go to the Met Gala with Nicki Minaj
Heath Franklin takes us on a tour of all the Picnics he's been to this week.
And we chat with Stephen Horn from South Africa's equivalent of Juice Media — Politically Aweh! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1GT1_L1P0E
Fearmongers:
Heath Franklin Nina Oyama Greta Lee Jackson Lewis Hobba Dan Ilic + An interview with the South African Juice Media "Political Aweh!"
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Good evening, Lewis.
Lewis Hobba 0:05 Hello, Daniel. How are you?
Dan Ilic 0:07 I'm really good. I'm really good. Because earlier this week, I had a bit of a viral hit.
Lewis Hobba 0:13 I know I saw it on it on every available platform, and I watched it on all of them.
Dan Ilic 0:18 Did you just say just to make sure it did translated across platform? Yes.
Lewis Hobba 0:23 Is it shit on Twitter now? still great.
Dan Ilic 0:25 It's pretty, it's pretty shit on Tick Tock. It has to split up across a couple of clips on Tick Tock. If you didn't see it on Monday, I did my own 11am press conference for COVID and it went viral. Yeah. Now I've done because so many people have seen it. I 250,000 people have seen it. Does this mean I now have to do this every week, Louis.
Lewis Hobba 0:46 Yeah, I'm afraid so. You have to do it until you get investigated by CAC and then you have to come up with a reason not to.
Dan Ilic 0:54 I would love for this podcast to somehow make it into like I CAC or set an estimate senate estimates is the one you want.
Lewis Hobba 1:00 Yeah, there's everyone's been for federal I CAC I want a podcast I CAC I want to drag the whole layout to start with Rogan and work my way down.
Dan Ilic 1:09 I am wanting to do it again next Monday and the Monday after so but I want to sponsor because so many people have watched it. The next one's gonna be just as good. Like if if you're a sponsor out there with deep pockets and you want to pay to be in my libertarian press conference. drop me a line. Get in my DMS.
Lewis Hobba 1:25 Yeah, Dan, the new Tick Tock guy. I cannot wait to see you at the next anti Vax conference.
Dan Ilic 1:30 It's gonna be huge. Yes, the TIC Tock guy, of course, you know, he's got COVID right. him and his father have both got COVID Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 1:39 it is. I mean, it's one of those like, predictable but sad situations.
Dan Ilic 1:43 Yeah, if it wasn't so serious, I'd make a whole bunch of jokes about it, but I'm not gonna I hope they are COVID free soon and he can get back to doing what he loves doing best predicting the numbers of COVID I'm recording my end of irrational feet on gadigal land in the eora nation sovereignty was never seated, we need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 2:04 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks cambro COMM And section 14 our rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 2:18 Tonight in a landmark deal with the US and UK Australia is set to get nuclear submarines the prime minister said we're at the front of the queue and we should have the summaries by Christmas. And Phil geishas is finally released his findings from the Brittany Higgins sexual assault cover up investigation at the top recommendation is some nuclear submarines. And Scott Morrison has committed Australia to net zero French submarines by 2050. It's the 17th of September and be careful what you shoot at most things in here. Don't react well to bullets. This is a rational fear. irrational fear.
Welcome to rational fear. I'm your host former French Navy contractor Daniel itch and this is the podcast that gives you some floaties as the ship is sinking all around you and tonight we have got some great fear mongers to jump in the water with us. He is famous for impersonating one of Australia's most well known criminals so it's little wonder he is massive in New Zealand. It's the legally funny hate Franklin, get a get a Hey thumb. Have you been missing travelling between New Zealand and Australia to do lots of gigs there?
Heath Franklin 3:29 I actually missed the first three weeks of Sydney lockdown because I was doing a five week tour of New Zealand. So yeah, coming back here and go from sellout shows to homeschooling.
Dan Ilic 3:41 As brutal for the Aygo and she's Australia's favourite purveyor of bodily substance based humour on Twitter. But these days she's so busy writing multiple TV shows at once is Nina Yama. Hello, Nina. I mean, you are so busy writing jokes for proper TV shows. Will you ever go back to come jokes on Twitter? Oh,
Nina Oyama 4:00 well, you don't know what kind of TV shows I'm writing. Dan. Do you know the other day on the TV show that I'm working on which is for Disney. They said there were too many comm jokes. And that wasn't even my episode. Okay, that was someone else's. And we had to do a composite where we took out all the comm references.
Lewis Hobba 4:21 I didn't even know the Mandalorian could come.
Nina Oyama 4:25 Yeah, baby Yoda um, he was making snow angels out of the calm it was that we got in a lot of couples so they vetted that, again, not my episodes, so I'm actually not even the most disgusting person in the writers room, which is weird and rare, to be honest.
Dan Ilic 4:39 I mean, you can imagine Disney would love a bit of come in some of their shows like frozen would be great because he could, you know, make make a serious comment about IVF then that's a great thing to go today, right there.
Lewis Hobba 4:49 And just before you're coming, let it go.
Dan Ilic 4:55 And he's the man that people call the Jaime splake of public broadcasting just as funny. Just as smart does the same job but a fraction of the price it's
Lewis Hobba 5:03 it's actually I wish that would show you but you know what I actually get you know how everyone in like in showbiz, no matter where you are, you always have like you're someone who is a friend but who is a professional enemy. And you're always you always find out that the job he just missed. They got it for me at the moment. I've been getting a lot of jobs that Andy Lee has rejected because it's not enough money. Let me tell you the things here Jax are the most profitable things I've done in my life.
Dan Ilic 5:31 I'm looking forward to the new show on CHANNEL SEVEN, the 50
Lewis Hobba 5:35 it's only ABC can afford.
Dan Ilic 5:39 Wow, excellent. Hey, coming up, we speak to the person behind the South African equivalent of juice media. And we'll ask him what is Afrikaans for shit fuckery. But first, we have a sponsor segment and we have a special guest with us for the first time to talk us through our sponsor segment. Please welcome to irrational fear credibly Jackson. Welcome, Greg. Hey,
Greta Lee-Jackson 6:00 hi. Hi, Dan. Hi. Hi, everybody. How are you going?
Dan Ilic 6:04 This is very unusual. I feel like this is turned into like a studio 10 segment where we kind of
Nina Oyama 6:12 record now which ones
Dan Ilic 6:19 as well as being one of Australia's funniest comedy performers. You are a corporate video director. And this month, you had to do a job that you never thought you really had to do. What was it? That's right,
Greta Lee-Jackson 6:28 that's right, you know, in comedy can not really be sustainable sometimes. So you got to dabble in a bit of directing. And a lot of the things are directed corporate videos. So you know, sometimes when a paycheck is involved, you have to work for the enemy dead, you know, if, especially if they're looking for advertising expertise, you know, it's like you like one day you might tweet about how mining is destroying the planet one minute but then you know, Rio Tinto comes along and offers you some coin you're not gonna say no to push their agenda via video.
Dan Ilic 6:56 But I was just gonna say bhp going Oh, climate, climate sensitive. They want to sponsor this show. We'd be we talked to them.
Nina Oyama 7:02 They actually maybe I should do the thing that Christian porters during the day, which is just not sponsored, but not talk about it, you know, just say,
Greta Lee-Jackson 7:11 Fine, you have no idea where it's coming from fair enough. No.
Dan Ilic 7:15 And great. That actually, that actually ties into your corporate video.
Greta Lee-Jackson 7:18 Yeah, I just want to share a corporate video I shot earlier in the year. It was a very big deal for the government at the time, but we haven't been able well. I say we they haven't been able to release it for a while because it needed some like legal edits. Like oh, like like, I guess disclaimers needed to be edited in according to legal advice. So it was all aboveboard and now they finally the libs are finally able to release it. And it's pretty exciting stuff now that now that it's all aboveboard, I'm really excited to show you this thing because it's kind of wild with all the disclaimers that were edited in. Yeah, I guess the libs just want to reclaim the female vote that let's just put it that way. Because that's
Nina Oyama 7:56 not the only thing they want to reclaim that female. I don't even know what that means. That sounds really nothing anyway.
Unknown Speaker 8:05 In March of 2020, the women of Australia made it clear that they wanted things to change, fed up with the lack of government action when it comes to gendered violence. Many marched to Parliament House to demand the Morison government listen to what they had to say. Well, the good news is we did here's some of the many changes the Morison government made that will benefit all Australian women. When former liberal staffer Brittany Higgins went public about an alleged rape in a ministerial office in 2019. The Prime Minister listens to Brittany
Dan Ilic 8:34 after his wife clarified it to him using his daughters as a theoretical example,
Unknown Speaker 8:38 and immediately ordered an inquiry into which members of his office knew about the alleged incident to the right people can be held accountable.
Dan Ilic 8:46 This report was June June 2021. It has now been suspended before it could be completed due to legal advice.
Unknown Speaker 8:52 When a historical rape allegation against Christian Porter was made public. He was immediately stood down from his position of Attorney General and leader of the house.
Dan Ilic 9:01 Christian Porter has been reinstated as acting leader of the house. And in
Unknown Speaker 9:05 2018, the Morison government commissioned the respected work report, which made 55 recommendations towards how to improve women's safety at work.
Dan Ilic 9:14 The Morison government voted against 49 of the 55 proposed recommendations including changing workplace laws to ban sexual harassment and for employees to have a duty of care to take meaningful action to prevent sexual harassment from happening.
Unknown Speaker 9:25 We've caught a gone not gone, the Prime Minister created a new women's task force to tackle these problems. Head on the Morison government looks forward to making the behaviour of blokes like Barnaby Joyce, who resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister due to sexual harassment allegations. a thing of the past.
Dan Ilic 9:43 Barnaby Joyce is once again the deputy prime minister. He's also been appointed to the women's task force
Unknown Speaker 9:49 because the Morison government looks forward to the future. That's why we're holding the women's summit in September of 2021 with a prime minister will definitely be listening to what them Many speakers will have to
Dan Ilic 10:01 say Scott Morrison appointed himself as the main speaker the women's summit, Brittney Higgins was invited last minute by third party.
Unknown Speaker 10:08 Ladies you asked for change and you
Unknown Speaker 10:12 got it not technically true. The Liberal Party put your blind trust in us supported by Diana
Dan Ilic 10:17 royal am for rational for your camera. That was very good grettir well
Heath Franklin 10:22 done some fantastic voicework to
Dan Ilic 10:26 that pace was actually supported by Dinah Ryle. And she is a fan of irrational fear. And this is the first comedy sketch we've dubbed the irrational fear as part of our joke keeper package. So if you are a person who loves irrational fear, loves the sketches we make you want to see a sketch made that you know, you can't quite articulate how angry you are. Maybe we can do it for you. We've got a team of people to do it. Jump in my DMS throughout the week, and we'll see if we can get you a sketch mode as well. So big thanks to gretta. And big thanks to Diana Ross. That was great. grettir irrational fear
Greta Lee-Jackson 10:59 is horrible. But we also need to put things into perspective. There are 8 million citizens who don't have a choice in how they spend their free time. That is no way to live.
Dan Ilic 11:08 Your fear is rational. Alright, this week's first fear now It was announced this week that Australia is getting nuclear submarines a trilateral agreement between America, the UK and Australia. It's called orcas, which Boris Johnson has actually said it's quite an awkward name and I agree it should have been called or sac which is a more appropriate name for a dildo shaped boat filled with seven. Scott Morrison declares that orcas pact is a forever partnership so that nuclear submarines are basically the grownup version of BFF bracelets. The French government expressed complete disappointment. They felt like they were deceived by Australia after Scott Morrison acts the $90 billion submarine contract. Australia cheated us a French official said what are we your spouse
Heath Franklin 11:55 and then he hits someone nearby with a baguette until they've arrived fell off.
Nina Oyama 12:00 Then you have to do the accent for the rest of the podcast.
Dan Ilic 12:04 Jean is a big announcement historically a prenup now that now during these hours,
Nina Oyama 12:08 there was 16 people on the live stream and now there's 50
Dan Ilic 12:13 there's actually 18 it's going
Lewis Hobba 12:20 to complain
Dan Ilic 12:22 that during these big announcements historically, like presidents have like a habit of bestowing grandiose nicknames upon the leaders. They're meeting like Do you guys remember when george bush met with john Howard and called him the America's deputy sheriff in Asia? Well, Joe Biden also had a nickname for Scott Morrison. This was it.
Unknown Speaker 12:43 Thank you over to you, Mr. President. Thank you Boris and I want to thank that fella Down Under. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Mr. Prime Minister. I am honoured today to be joined by to America's closest allies Australia United Kingdom
Dan Ilic 13:09 forgetting Scott Morrison his name now should Australia be offended by this. What do you what do you think fear mongers?
Heath Franklin 13:16 Let's face it Australia went through a period where we read through Prime Minister's pretty quickly you know what I mean? It was like characters or Game of Thrones. It's like I'll learn their names if they're still around in a few episodes time, you know what I mean? So he's like, just placeholder that's what they do with Australian Prime Minister snatches insert name here has been a great friend of our country for blah blah blah.
Dan Ilic 13:37 I particularly enjoyed the good on your power. I like the power of the editor. There was a most
Heath Franklin 13:43 here tussle Scotty Yeah, I'm certainly gonna get all the submarines together to meet up and just touch in with each of them. Somewhere in an ocean somewhere just and then I
Nina Oyama 14:01 think you think Joe Biden would know Scott Morrison's name because he goes to America quite a lot. He goes to Hawaii whenever anything goes wrong.
Lewis Hobba 14:11 It did really seem like he just like Scott Morrison just showing him he's really good finger painting of a submarine. It's like,
Heath Franklin 14:19 yeah, little fella foot down and we're gonna put that on the fridge with the rest of your homework.
Dan Ilic 14:28 I mean, when you think about a nuclear submarine Nina is the easiest and safest way to get to Hawaii undetected. So this is this is perfect for Scott Morrison.
Heath Franklin 14:35 Can you imagine how excited he is to have his photo taken on the submarine? all afternoon, Genie Genie Genie I'm gonna get on the submarine. I'm gonna go through the door and the top and I'm gonna get the captain's hat and I'll be the periscope. Summary summary. Just calm down might have a little snooze. Summary In summary, yay.
Dan Ilic 15:00 This way second fear Nicki Minaj wasn't at the Met Gala because they were only allowed vaccinated people to attend and so she was absolutely furious that she was discriminated against now the vaccine sceptic tweeted to 22 million of her followers. My cousin in Trinidad won't get a vaccine because his friend became impotent and his testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married. Now the girl called off the wedding. So just praying to make sure you're comfortable with your decision. Now, I should point out that none of us here on the podcast are doctors but Nina Yama. What do you think is going on here?
Nina Oyama 15:34 I just love Nicki Minaj. And I love the way she's just a troll. Like she just knows how to stir up controversy. I don't know if you know this. But after she tweeted that, Boris Johnson went on, like into a press conference and basically said he'd never heard of Nicki Minaj. But he'd heard of this other doctor called Nikki I can't remember their last name. And then Nicki Minaj then responded to that with a voice message, imitating a British accent saying that she went to Oxford and is friends with Margaret Thatcher. And it was very funny. Like I just she knows how to respond. I know it's part of our machine, but I'm extremely here for it. The other thing, though, I reckon, aren't going to cousin's best friend is a liar. Because American men will say anything to get out of breaking up with a woman like they don't know how to do it because they don't know how to communicate properly. No offence to everybody in this podcast. So what I reckon I already was like, Oh, it's the vaccine like he was due to marry this woman. And then he was like, no, it's, it's a vaccine. It's made me unable to have children. Sorry. And then that news got back to him. And I just cousin which got back to her.
Heath Franklin 16:38 So you reckon he's he's two weeks out from the wedding. And he's just panicked. And he's like, I don't want to be here. And he's just got another pair of pants and stuffed it down the front of his pants. She's walked in and being like, What are you up to? And he's like, oh, balls are swollen from?
Nina Oyama 16:56 Yeah, it's like when he yells want to get rid of boys. And they'll be like, Oh, it's female stuff. It's female stuff. He's like, Oh, my balls as well. You don't want to hear about it.
Lewis Hobba 17:04 Also, we cut the guy trying to get out of PA.
Nina Oyama 17:07 Yeah, exactly.
Dan Ilic 17:09 I'm pretty sure swollen bows are really strong indication of an STD as well. So maybe he was just using that as a slight excuse to get out of the wedding perhaps?
Lewis Hobba 17:18 Yeah, it definitely like the first comment underneath that was like the most like done. It was like going that guy's got chlamydia. And like, once you start to start seeing that decision tree in reverse, like a guy's engaged, but he has chlamydia. And he hasn't gotten it from his fiance. So he's gotten it from someone else. Now the woman has gone. Why do you have such big balls? And he has two decisions in that moment. One is to say I've cheated on you two weeks before the wedding. Or the other say the vaccine gave me giant balls. Now I don't know this man. I don't know him at all. But I can see a world in which he made the decision that he obviously made in which now Nicki Minaj is telling everyone that chlamydia is COVID
Dan Ilic 17:57 she's telling 22 million people there are people in in Australia are talking about on the podcast
Nina Oyama 18:03 started beef with Boris Johnson like she started beef with a world leader. That's next level shit. I'm nothing but respect for my my prime minister, Nicki Minaj.
Lewis Hobba 18:14 Also, do you say that Trinidad and Tobago released a statement today saying we've literally gone through all of the people who have reported to any medical stuff and no one in Trinidad Tobago has come through with big bowl so this is just this is just made up of
Heath Franklin 18:29 doctors out there with rules. Everyone
Lewis Hobba 18:35 that scales with a tiny little scales underneath every man and we can say the balls a normal,
Heath Franklin 18:40 full blown national ball audit across a
Nina Oyama 18:46 double check. I will say though the Pfizer vaccine apparently makes your boobs bigger for like six weeks so I was like well maybe that's like what happens to guys is that you just get like a bit of testy cleavage going on. And that like subsides but
Dan Ilic 19:01 if any testy cleavage was like an appealing thing to kind of show it and flesh out in public you know oh you know you Bowlsby
Nina Oyama 19:10 normalised testy cleavage you guys know
Heath Franklin 19:15 normalise being vaccinated and having big balls as well.
Dan Ilic 19:19 Yeah, you can have big you can have big balls and you can be vaccinated These are two things you can have at the same time Let's not make a mistake here.
Nina Oyama 19:26 Also isn't having big balls like a good thing like whenever you do something that's like really brave everyone's like Oh, they got big balls. Look the balls on that person that so bit like isn't that a compliment?
Dan Ilic 19:35 You can look he has big balls. You can call the later of another country little fella. You can do that. She got big balls. Yeah, ironically,
Heath Franklin 19:42 ironically, lying to your fiance two weeks out from the wedding ism display of tiny little bowls usually
Nina Oyama 19:51 hidden in this scenario like if you were had big balls, wouldn't they be full of more sperm and therefore make you more fertile. Besides As a job,
Dan Ilic 20:03 coach, we need to call Anthony Fauci. We need to get him on the line.
Nina Oyama 20:05 I think Nicki Minaj if you do want to be taken seriously, she should just put a doctor in front of her name because I think like, that's what a lot of rappers do like Dr. Dre, you know, they just make it up just she can do it. This is just so big, just
Unknown Speaker 20:21 irrational fear. They publicly linked the Coronavirus vaccines to impotence Prime Minister, how concerned are you? I'm not familiar with the work of Nicki Minaj
Unknown Speaker 20:31 I'm actually British. I was born there. I went to university there. I went to Oxford. You're listening to a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 20:41 This week's third fear as he said well soars past its 70% first year vaccination target the state was allowed some freedoms including a picnic. Yes. Fully vaccinated people outside of LGA of concern can now gather in groups of five outside and have a picnic. Hey, you banged up for this you bang up for a picnic?
Heath Franklin 21:00 Oh, I got up me when I was first told by Gladys that our treat was going to be picnics. I was like boo Gladys, picnic sock
Nina Oyama 21:07 data was like making sorry
Heath Franklin 21:11 Don't you dare they are the best. I
Nina Oyama 21:13 prefer a champ.
Heath Franklin 21:15 After school we all chomp curly whirly double so yeah, the only really Trump combo is started with the curly whirly because it's intense and then come down the curly Willie methadone is always the
Nina Oyama 21:26 net worth 99 cents and they're like oh my value Oh Dan, you forgot to mention that one of the sponsors of this podcast is is beach big chomp Kelly really combo that anonymous
Dan Ilic 21:40 I'm actually just rocking like having Haitian dinner on the podcast Lewis and I don't have to do any work this year. I
Lewis Hobba 21:46 wasn't allowed chocolate as a kid. I don't get any of these references. If you're typing
Heath Franklin 21:50 Sorry, my mic if you care objects down the line for Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 21:53 thank you, Kara baguette. Oh, Caribbean non dairy milk as blue chips.
Heath Franklin 21:58 Delicious. I remember having not clusters.
Nina Oyama 22:04 Granola is that these
Dan Ilic 22:05 are all items you could probably have at a picnic case. Would you think this is a fine reward having a picnic? Or is it a bit bullshit?
Heath Franklin 22:14 Well, I can say at first I was like burgers and picnics are garbage. You're on the ground like a dog, you know? Or you're on a picnic table. And if you're in the middle of the bench have a picnic table. The only way to get out is like backwards like a scuba diver off a boat. Just kind of Hey, and you know there's nowhere to put your drink down. It's like there's the meats too cold. The salads too hot. It sucks. You know, someone spilled passion in the sky. None of it's gone. Right, right. But after about eight weeks lockdown and Sydney I've similar pigments.
Nina Oyama 22:47 Differently different views of picnics, hate because I'm like, Oh, I'm gonna go I'm gonna like play cards with my friends. We're gonna drink cocktails out of like a picnic basket. Or you're like, I'm like a dog on the ground. With the wrong people.
Heath Franklin 23:03 Oh, picnics with garbage. But now now. It's like getting a chance to leave the house. I mean to picnics, I'm super into picnics.
Lewis Hobba 23:09 This Saturday is going to be bananas. Like this is the first Saturday you can have a picnic in Sydney. The weather is looking pretty nice. I've never heard more people know exactly about the weather on a certain day. Everyone's like, it's looking good. It's fighting up. I don't like here's what I would say. If you are a thief, or a robber, or a burglar, Saturday's gonna be your day. No one is going to be in their house from 10am to 8pm. Go and take all those cheap TVs that people bought from Harvey Norman and lock down while you can you can absolutely clear out the entire city of Sydney.
Dan Ilic 23:43 I've actually paid several young men on Fiverr to go down to open spaces to already pre sit where I could possibly have a picnic. So I'm really looking forward to that going down and you know, taking my pick of the picnic places,
Lewis Hobba 23:59 huh? Oh, Dan, you're in bond. I and people haven't been following restrictions there anyway, have they? Oh,
Dan Ilic 24:04 no man. People have been picnicking for Yeah, weeks here. You know, actually outside my window. I can see often people picnicking in the medium strips like they're there. People come out of their houses to have lunch in the median strip. That's what folks do here. Yeah, nature
Nina Oyama 24:18 is usually where the buyers want to touch some grass. Dan, just let him do it.
Heath Franklin 24:25 What are you saying we're not allowed to have picnics here because I've been having picnics all week. I've been nowhere
Lewis Hobba 24:30 on Monday, but this is the first Saturday. Oh yeah,
Heath Franklin 24:33 no. I work in the arts. I've got nothing else to do. I've been picnicking just everywhere. There's all sorts of picnics I went to I was like one at two picnic blankets already. And then I just had made out of picnic blanket material because I'm tired of carrying them around.
Lewis Hobba 24:49 Actually such a boon for big blanket. If you're in the game, you get ready to party level on your house.
Dan Ilic 24:55 Just set a level of convenience side digit level of convenience that verges on genius as
Heath Franklin 24:59 your bring up a titan company and just buy buy buy buy stocks get into Titan now because it's gonna be messy.
Nina Oyama 25:07 I feel like all my friends have gotten into crocheting so they've just made their own cute little blankets and they get to show them off and Instagram them and I'm, I'm happy for them, you know?
Heath Franklin 25:16 save you save your energy for yarn bombing hipsters bow. Wow.
Lewis Hobba 25:21 The word yarn bombing in a really long time, man back in my day. That was the only war you experienced the great yarn bomb of 20 2010
Dan Ilic 25:32 went off so slowly. Hey, Sam tillison beatniks that also went on,
Heath Franklin 25:35 I went to a goth themed picnic. They had a cool table that looks like a coffin. But that turned out to be a funeral. I joined a random picnic. I was in between picnics. So I bought like a big one litre type of hummus as an icebreaker. I just walked up to some strangers. And I said, Hey, it looks like you're a brochure of a picnic and they all cheered and high five me and just slid on here. And then I went out, and I bought a convertible because a car with a roof is just a car. But a car with no roof is a mobile picnic. And so now I can picnic on the way to the picnics. I also tried to share our picnic, but the trolley wheels kept getting caught in the grass. And I ended up burning one of my friends pretty badly with a stack of porn and chive dumplings. I was also getting a lot of three and four person picnics. So I set up an account on Tinder, Grindr and Bumble Just to fill out the numbers. my avatar was a photo of a corner operated barbecue and the profile just said no sex, just picnic stuff. I went to a nitpickers picnic where we set up a picnic and other people's picnics and pointed out all the little things that were wrong with their picnics. Alright, I had a vote on picnic where I met with the other four lions, but we weren't sure of forming Voltron constituted a sixth person. So we just decided to play it safe. But then it was just a bunch of robot lions sitting in a park drinking rose. I
Nina Oyama 26:53 understand that reference, because I'm not a fucking nerd.
Heath Franklin 26:58 See you later. You're also not 40 I was having a picnic and I saw a neo nazi picnic close by forming and then an Tifa picnic set up next to them as some sort of like cancer picnic. And I thought this is gonna get really ugly, but it didn't because picnics are very calming down. They're very clean.
Nina Oyama 27:21 I really thought the payoff was going to be better than that. Hey, waiting to be like, mine camping chair or something.
Heath Franklin 27:40 These are all saves you guys. Like you know what I mean? to do an old golden slam tribute picnics. Yep. Which is where I went from an English picnic to a French picnic to an Australian picnic to a Japanese picnic to an American picnic. And I just dominated each picnic.
Nina Oyama 27:58 And then you did it and then you drink out of a trophy.
Dan Ilic 28:01 Did you do a Shui?
Heath Franklin 28:02 I didn't do I didn't do a shoe we know that I am but there's only three people that have dominated all five picnics. And I went to a Josh frydenberg job keeper picnic, which was an absolute disaster. He was like I think 40% of the food cost actually the 60% cost a different amount and also very both ancestral shoes because when we look What are you talking about? Josh? You don't even know numbers, you moron. And you can guess it was there I guess it was there. Jerry Harvey Harvey helped himself but then we were like boo, Jerry Yellow Dog put it back. And then I looked over at Specsavers plate, and they had 19 million Australian sausages. Despite posting profits for the designated period, and you wrote
Nina Oyama 28:50 that it's improvised
Heath Franklin 28:53 off the time I get it. You've shamed me into not doing it anymore. No.
Lewis Hobba 29:06 One was a real low I'm sorry. Sorry. Hey, all the rest of the moral highs
Nina Oyama 29:09 now I'm loving this picnic material more than I love actual picnic material which is taught
Heath Franklin 29:15 how to have a drink every time you hear the word picnic. That's my advice. By the end of it, you'll be dead and you won't have terrible jokes.
Nina Oyama 29:24 Oh, come on. Nick he's just barely better that's what I've
Dan Ilic 29:30 done let Nina bully you. Come on.
Heath Franklin 29:32 Let's go. I went to a Met Gala picnic. Actually, we couldn't sit down because if it's ridiculous one of my mates put two surfboards in a king single fitted sheet and then got in and then six shot afterwards. One of my other mates winners a letterbox phasmid which is where you see a letterbox you think it's a normal letterbox and then you got to put letters in it and it moves and it turns out it's my brand and dressed as a letterbox. Then I did another another friend who did like a schnitzel origin story costume and lay down it's a mistake and then rolled around of some bread crumbs. And I think it's safe to say that she misunderstood the assignment. And I myself for the Met Gala picnic put myself into a sequence neoprene cowl zone, which was dragged in by a pantomime Pegasus. I also went to a no no core pirate metal album released picnic. If you're
Dan Ilic 30:33 wondering if you're just joining us, you're listening to the picnic podcast on the picnic Podcast Network. You want us to hate Franklin giving a list of picnics he's been so in the last four days. He's currently been to quite a few if you want to hear check out the podcast or rational fi.com continue hate you
Nina Oyama 30:51 know he's this does go for four more hours right
Heath Franklin 30:54 this? Yeah, I spent a lot of time thinking about picnics. I did a lot of research.
Dan Ilic 31:03 What other techniques have you been to hate?
Heath Franklin 31:05 Well, as I was actually talking about the Norwegian deathcore pirate metal album release picnic when I was interrupted, which was really scary at first, but actually metal heads are really nice people. And there was a salad there that was quite nice. And I got the recipe
Nina Oyama 31:18 I went to picnic to I went to a picnic where it was as the only girl and there were the rest of them were all straight guys. And it was called a picnic. It was called the irrational fear podcast.
Heath Franklin 31:36 I'm sorry. I talked about picnics out a few more but one. To one I had a picnic. Nicki Minaj his cousin's friend. The whole thing thinking I was sitting on a beanbag, but it was not Nicki Minaj his friends. Balls I was sitting on his balls the whole time.
Dan Ilic 32:00 Oh my God
Heath Franklin 32:01 just before the way
Nina Oyama 32:02 and that was the key Minaj picnic
Heath Franklin 32:07 picnic Minaj tribute ball sec. Pitney
Dan Ilic 32:10 was there like it was a like a highlight. Did you have your favourite picnic? Because what is the one of the lists that you wanted to share with us?
Heath Franklin 32:16 That will be good picnics, but like he might offence picnics are more versatile than I first thought. And I've also when I'm scrolling for about a week so I'm losing my mind.
Nina Oyama 32:30 I actually went to a picnic and I'm the food was all like, jumbled up like it was all like meshed into each other was so crazy. Because it was brought in a total basket case. I'm trying to I'm just trying to bat with the best here.
Heath Franklin 32:48 See, picnic materials not as easy as
Unknown Speaker 32:57 this is a rational view.
Dan Ilic 33:00 This way, one of our Patreon members put a clip on our Discord. And it was a juice media style honest government ad from South Africa. It was really funny. It was informative as about the ways and means that the South African Energy Department go about extracting fossil fuels. It reminded me of another country let's have a listen to it.
Unknown Speaker 33:19 Come to the country is still planning to build new coal power stations, even though the banks pull financing and the courts often won't get your project started with a bank. Just remember, Nelson Mandela said, it always seems impossible until it's done. We shouldn't have too much trouble here. The simple truth is so that's when people don't really care about climate change. They too busy worrying about wildfires, droughts, dirty air and during cancer. The massive explosion caused a large fire they're giving us a cancer they're giving us all the sicknesses come to a country so in love with coal, it's literally everywhere. charcoal, my favourite flavour the rest of the world would have dirty coal but here in Santee, our coal is clean code because we spin a fairy tale story about how we can capture coal pollution and yes Africa remasters and capturing and get this. People believe it like they believe our excuses about loadshedding even though renewable energy could have solved the problem like this, so don't delay. Call today Come and dig up oil, gas and coal in South Africa and hurry while stocks loss. There isn't much of the country. We haven't sold off yet.
Dan Ilic 34:49 The God now that was so great, like most of those things in South Africa, you could have just replaced with Australia. I mean, sure. Nelson Mandela. We don't have one of those. You can Replace every shine worn but everything else is pretty similar. It comes from a satirical outfit on YouTube called political our way. It's one of its creators is Steven horn. Welcome to rational fear, Stephen.
Stephen Horn 35:11 Hi, Dan. Thanks so much for having me. And hi to everyone else.
Dan Ilic 35:14 It was really great like Naina hate Lewis and I have been making satirical comedy in Australia for 15 years. Or Nina hasn't maybe 1010 years. No,
Nina Oyama 35:25 no. Little baby in high school making satire.
Dan Ilic 35:33 And I think the point the point is, like, when you watch a clip like that, like so many things, and then I'm like, Oh, my God, that just could be Australia. Do you? Do you find it funny that there's a country on the other side of the world that is like going through the exact same shit you're going through?
Stephen Horn 35:48 It's very funny, and it's very relatable as well. I think that it just goes to show how across the board, these politicians aren't taking the climate crisis seriously. So that was that was our vibe is just to throw light on that. And I didn't I might be mistaken. This is just coming to my head right now. Did you guys also have a coal plant that like blew up or something?
Dan Ilic 36:10 Yeah, in Queensland about six months ago called plant
Stephen Horn 36:15 that one in our video.
Heath Franklin 36:18 From the telegraph.
Dan Ilic 36:19 Yeah, no, it's perfect. Like it was like it was like this. The perfect analogy is like phox, South Africa is just Australia on the other side of the on the other side of the world.
Stephen Horn 36:27 I guess that's why so many South Africans went to you guys, maybe you guys will start coming here? I don't know. Yeah, I was just gonna say that that power plant that they started when then the dupion consilio are two of the biggest coal power stations in the world that they started building clearly when they already knew that they're going to have to shut them down pretty much once they completed because of the climate change stuff. So they took but they took years and years over. It was I don't know, thumbtack this but it feels like about 10 years overdue, or at least five. And, you know, billions of rands over over budget. And then the week it gets launched, it blows up.
Heath Franklin 37:10 challenges the challenge especially
Dan Ilic 37:16 now you sure it wasn't blowing up from an eco terrorists blowing it out? Or is it inside job,
Stephen Horn 37:21 perhaps they beat the running gag when we were setting up this episode, we're going to have my co writers kg Mojave user is a really well known South African comedian. He just like brought it right back for us as like, you know, like, myself and some of my other colleagues on the show who are like quite close, like climate, you know, conscious He's like, but like, Guys, we have a lot going on here. Like to give some perspective, you know, South Africa is not Australia in in many other respects when it comes to unemployment, poverty, inequality, racial difficulties that still enjoy after apartheid. So you know, gender based violence, there's a lot going on, that's kind of the running theme. So that became a theme we pulled into the video is like, South Africans don't care about climate change, but actually, like we are feeling the effects. So it was playing with that and and kind of like trying to make people also like irritate people enough to go out and protest. It's like, they're not going to share this video, like fact climate change kind of thing.
Lewis Hobba 38:20 Steven, and I, what is it? What's the like, media coverage of climate change, like in South Africa, because a big problem in Australia is essentially that, like 70% of the news media is dominated by one company, you may have heard of it. It's News Corp, headed by Rupert Murdoch. And they up until a week ago, didn't believe in climate change. And all the papers basically reflected that. Is there any kind of coverage of it in South Africa?
Stephen Horn 38:44 So there is, it's getting better? It has, it's definitely not anywhere near where it needs to be. Like, given the severity of it, and the fact that our country is heating twice as fast as the planetary average. We've got droughts, we've got all these kinds of issues. I mean, for me, it's soda way. Yeah.
Nina Oyama 39:04 Feels like this feels like a first date. And we've immediately just started bonding over our shared trauma. Yeah, you guys are closer cuz we're both back.
Heath Franklin 39:17 Arms reaching across the Indian Ocean touching each other being like, let's go out together.
Stephen Horn 39:24 We nearly like I live in Cape Town, and we nearly ran out of water like not so long ago. It was like global headlines. And so I can't quite fathom how fast we all sort of moved on from that. Oh, it rained, but will it rain next time?
Dan Ilic 39:37 Oh, this is this is I think the point where we're at now. You know, two years ago, we had catastrophic bushfires rip through Australia like huge bush Pfizer mill, a billion animals died a billion animals that is tonnes of symbols. And that was many people thought, well, this is going to be the moment where Australians go well, we should probably do something about climate change because it Fact. And regrettably, the COVID pandemic has kind of wiped that off the table for the meantime, but it's still still lives large in people's brains. Most of the people in the elections want to see climate action happen. But there's a lot of institutional things getting in the way of that happening. Do you feel like a lot of people in South Africa want to see climate action?
Stephen Horn 40:18 I think that we discussed this on a series we did before because we've done climate quite a lot of climate coverage. And we do get this argument that people like going but why are you talking about this? That doesn't seem like a priority. But actually people who don't have a voice rural people who are the majority of the country don't, you know, don't have the necessarily use the language of climate change, but are experiencing the effects. And so we tried to highlight that and on a previous episode, we did we had like the kind of Greta thunberg of South Africa, an amazing young activist called they are committee Topher who told us about her family's like farm, like where she's from in the Eastern Cape where they are struggling to grow food, and like this is real problems happening right now. And so, yeah, I think that South Africans want to see action. But there is an awareness problem. And I again, like like you were talking about the media, we need a lot more media coverage of it.
Heath Franklin 41:14 Have you guys tried putting chaplains in schools at all?
Stephen Horn 41:20 We had about eight zero chaplains or something.
Heath Franklin 41:25 I don't know how many chaplains we need to keep throwing at the problem. But we need more chaplains
Dan Ilic 41:31 a segue to our shooting shady policies well known in Cape Town that's good. In the clip that I've just played afterwards you talk about this protest. It's going to be happening next week, the uproot the DMR a protest what is that protest all about?
Stephen Horn 41:44 Yeah, so uproot the DMR is a is a movement that's kind of draws its name. It's inspired by that hashtag uproot the system protests, which are global in nature, and are being, you know, pushed by the global climate climate movement. And so it's like our localised version, which takes aim at the DMR II, which is the Department of mineral resources and energy, and this government department, you guys, you would have seen this, Dan took it upon themselves to kind of retweet our tweet of our video which criticises them for not doing enough about climate change and Mythbusters fake news. So it's essentially like blowing the whole thing up like massively so we're like, thanks, guys.
Dan Ilic 42:29 They they shared your video and tonnes of people will now know who you are, because of that,
Stephen Horn 42:34 literally skyrocketing it into the stratosphere. So we're so grateful. But yeah, so that that's
Dan Ilic 42:43 Taylor retweeted our coal keeper campaign, that would have been great if Angus Taylor retweeted a cold caper campaign to say it's fake news. Congratulations, that's that's you can buy that kind of publicity that takes you ostensibly extensively, your energy minister is an influencer for you. Yes, yes.
Stephen Horn 42:59 He's on our payroll. And
Dan Ilic 43:04 now, the idea is that you want to get rid of your enemy energy minister convinced the Prime Minister get rid of the energy minister, is that right? Do you think that is? Is that a possibility of happening at all
Stephen Horn 43:13 very complicated politics and then against behind the scenes and but you know, our energy minister is is kind of part of the ruling party's top top brass so it's a long shot but that's kind of the point of the campaign is to say to our president sir Rama poza Look, we need green renewable energy clean energy and we need more it's not only just about the energy it's also about kind of a justice aspects and and mining and pot of pot you know, what I thought would interest you as as well hugely on that side of the world is there's a different part of the clip I don't think he showed it but it's it's the three step land extractor process so we invent we have this like product that comes in and it's like, you know, get your Get your copy now. And it's an invitation to fossil fuel companies and mining companies to come and extract resources and fossil fuels here in South Africa, supposedly because we don't care about climate change. And and that that part of the video, that three step process where we show how the government or the the the, the ministry has has kind of almost, you know, colluded or they support these mining interests, you know, so that one area and the wet and the wild coast of South Africa, a beautiful, pristine environment where local communities, you know, want to like they have they have the connections to the land. And they found that as areas and they want to promote ecotourism and that kind of thing. They have been fighting to keep their land, but government's been putting so much pressure to actually push through a mine a titanium sands mining deal with an Australian company called the mineral resources limited. So if you look them up, they are so your mining companies are out there trying to like extract what they can get out of this
Dan Ilic 44:58 Westerners. This is like a Western Australian miner he's a complete cowboy. He had some time in jail for fraud or something. And now works now has a shell company that works out of out of South Africa to like rip apart rip apart the wild coast of South Africa. Yep,
Lewis Hobba 45:14 looked at if you start yelling at everyone from Western Australia who's done some prison time, you're gonna be angering a lot of Western Australians.
Stephen Horn 45:23 Already Yeah, already kind of feeling the heat from some veiled threats from the Ministry. But one of the crazy things is like the one of the crazy things they did is like in South Africa, you have to get our environmental laws are actually quite good. It did, but they don't always get like adhered to. But one of the things is you have to get community buy in, you know, to go ahead with a kind of big project company project in your backyard. And so what is like a parrot lizard, apparently what's happened and what we documented in the video, they literally basked in people from outside the area to come and register themselves as living in that area and voting in favour of the companies like exploit exploitation. So it's kind of crazy stuff like that. And that's why we just knew we had to do this video because there's a lot going wrong that needs to be sorted out.
Dan Ilic 46:11 Steven, thank you so much. If you want to watch that video, it's gonna be in our show notes or please head over to irrational fear.com and we'll chuck it in the newsletter as well. Good luck with political airway. Thank you so much for joining us on irrational fear.
Stephen Horn 46:24 away away. Thank you Have a good one.
Dan Ilic 46:26 Big thanks to all of our guests tonight. Louis harbour ah Franklin Nina Yama or so Gridley Jackson, do you guys want to plug anything hates you wanna plug anything?
Heath Franklin 46:34 Yeah, I want to plug picnics. Because the thing to do? Get out there get into anyway.
Dan Ilic 46:42 NATO Yama. What do you wanna plug?
Nina Oyama 46:45 Ah, um, what question everything. I was on it last week. And it would be nice if he watched it.
Dan Ilic 46:53 It's a good show. I watched it last night. It's really really funny. Lewis turn up like anything.
Lewis Hobba 46:57 Nothing from me, dad.
Dan Ilic 46:59 Steven, what do you what have you?
Stephen Horn 47:01 I guess just politically aware. So check us out on YouTube and to spell aware which by the way is South African word meaning Hello or acknowledging someone? It's a W eh? politically away? Please subscribe.
Dan Ilic 47:14 Now Jude juice media has a term of a coin called shit. fuckery is there a is there an Afrikaans version of shit fuckery.
Stephen Horn 47:21 I had to ask my Afrikaans colleague because I'm not fluent, unfortunately. But he gave me He gave me folker a Afrikaans word for shitters and when I looked at the definition because it's interesting at cactus stock recei is feels like what we have here sometimes which I think is the like a sheet of Christie a caucus. C is a government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state. That's it you guys so we have
Lewis Hobba 47:56 a second day.
Dan Ilic 47:59 We're gonna get married. Big thanks to rug Mike's the Bertha foundation of Jacob brown on the tepanyaki timeline. All of our new Patreon supporters this week Belinda noble from communicators to Claire max Nicholas LAN Michaud, who's running for the Senate Gaya sorry Arnold Maureen Chuck Helen, Lindy Cobb one Danny Peter Webster, Mary Anna Hendren, and some guy named George just signed up off the basis of the 11am press conference. He wants a special shout out the next 11am press conference a big thank you, George. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of good not. And what we'll do is I'll leave you with last week's 11am press conference so you can have a listen to it. Thanks a lot. Okay, thank you. Thanks, everyone. Okay, great. First of all, can I say how pleasing it is to hear so many people in this apartment block, yell at apartment number two, for playing Arctic Monkeys do I want to know on loop at 3am last night, it is so pleasing to hear everybody join in with a collective Shut up. That's really important. And please, we want to see more of that behaviour in this apartment block. So thank you for that. As of 8pm last night, we have seen three new episodes of Ted lasso, and two new episodes of what we do in the shadows. Those episodes had already existed in the community and we are just catching up to them now. So what we want to do is be able to see more of those episodes sooner, but we realised there is a limit to how many streaming services people can sign up for. But as a little treat, there will be more episodes of succession for those who persist longer than the two week trial that binge is offering currently. So that's something to look forward to. For everyone that's on being as is a health advice. We have been going to the toilet a lot more often. But please can I just want to remind people if you are doing a number two, please Please close the door after you to avoid airborne contaminants affecting the living space. This is a real issue. So please, please keep that door shut. Okay. For lunch today, it will be a spinach and tuna salad, as is the health advice. I just want to stress here, I just want to stress that it can be tempting to order a Portuguese chicken chilli chips and solo combo from the local shop and have it delivered. But he is he did that's fine in normal times, but it's not conducive to the long term sustainability of someone that's been in lockdown for over 10 weeks. Okay, you just can't keep that up. So tuna and spinach it is today. Now, can I say? On the weekend? We did witness about 12,000 people down at Bondi Beach just a few blocks from here. But the numbers haven't at 9000 those people were from the Daily Mail and Channel Nine taking photos of everyone else. So please, if you do have to go to bond I beg please wear a mask. So you aren't identified by Sydney confidential. Okay. All right now we'll take your questions. I've got some here from Twitter, climate patriot. Why have I never seen you in the same room as Jon Lovitz, and David Mitchell well, climate patriots, this is an offensive question. Okay. And I'm not going to answer it. Okay. Mary wiper. What time does Dan Murphy's open? look across most LGs it's some it's 9am to 8pm. But there are some LG A's that do it differently. So Guilford randwick, North Ryde, you're looking at 10am opening in mosman. It's a different closing time. 7pm. And they do that because you can't trust rich white people. You give them an inch, they take a mile and they build a hedge around that mile and no one's allowed to walk there. Okay. Gary Moore, why do we put an extra x in anti vaxxers? Look, Gary, that was a decision taken at national cabinet. The federal health minister wanted to put three x's in there triple x, as is he's wanting the premiers. We just thought one was enough. So we met halfway. That's one of those. There's two in anti vaxxers. Okay. Hopefully that answers your question. Guido to saldi. What is the philosophical significance of girdles theorems. Look, we I think we all know how good it was a brilliant thinker, but I wasn't a mainstream thinker. He had a lot of gaps. In his theory, it's safe to say his his theories have more gaps than a block of Swiss cheese. So that's that. Wilker last what's for lunch? Like we said in the briefing, spinach and tuna Wilker that is the current plan. Taking the best advice from health there. Okay. Kim Fitzgerald, why is there air? Look him?
The air is here, Kim. Okay. We're committed to air. And can I just stress there are some in the press who say we should get rid of you, you know, get rid of the air get rid of the virus, but that's not going to happen. Okay. Areas necessary for life. And the current advice from health is that we must make err, mandatory. Okay. Thanks, Kim. Peter credit when asked do you scrunch or fold? Look, it is a tough question. And the advice currently is to do whatever you can do in front of you. There is research still being done. Currently, we're doing both we scrunching and folding. But if all you have is the ability to scratch them scrunch. If you're waiting for someone to teach you how to fold, we don't suggest that at all. Stretch now. You can learn to fold later. Okay, now is the time to scratch. Okay? You can't be fussy about scrunching or folding. Alright, Miss Wolfie wolf asks, Are we there yet? No. All right. Thanks very much, everyone. Thanks very much. Thank
Dan Ilic 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation. Good evening Lewis. Hello Daniel. How are you? I'm well I'm well and I just want to say a big sorry to Jane Kara who was gonna join us for this show. But she had a computer glitch and can no longer join us. And this is the second time that she's been ousted from irrational fear thanks to computer glitches. I don't know exactly what's going on there.
Lewis Hobba 0:26 I don't know one doesn't want to hear.
Dan Ilic 0:29 Someone can't handle the truth Bill Gates can't handle the truth. Hey, Louis, remember when I when I found out that we were on a list of best podcasts in Australia and we were 97 I found out I'm on another list this week. I'm in the in the watch list. I'm in the top 500 most influential tweeters on climate change. I'm between shell and the United States Department of Energy. Do you have any idea where that puts me?
Lewis Hobba 0:59 Like between 304 137/37
Dan Ilic 1:01 influential person on Twitter according to coordinate this list slightly above the IPCC and the climate council?
Lewis Hobba 1:14 Yeah, having you in between those two? I don't know if you've seen that that new KFC burger where they like invert the fillets and the feeling is instead of putting the good things in the middle they put the two chicken fillets as bread and they put the feeling in the middle yes you you're in the middle you're the little bit of lettuce you're the healthy decision as to unhealthy chicken fillets killing the world on the other end.
Dan Ilic 1:38 That's right and it's you know, on the put it another way, like on the beat you don't want in your chicken burger. Yeah. I thought that was really fun. Hey, I'm recording my end of irrational fear and gadigal land in the yard nation's sovereignty was never ceded. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 1:57 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks. Canberra. Fan COMM And section body or rational view recommends listening by image your audience.
Dan Ilic 2:10 Tonight America asked whoever the last one out of Afghanistan is to please turn out the light and Scott Morrison came to Sydney to give the headline address at the safety for Jenny and the girls brunch summit. And Western Australia records Australia's biggest ever surplus. Even that can't justify $7 flat whites. It's the 10th of September 2021. And we're all out of Kmart plates. This is a rational, irrational
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former wag Dan Ilic It is great to have your company let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. I I was gonna introduce Jen Kara, but I won't because she's not here. So instead, I'll introduce Blair to laser laser laser is one of the most effective climate activists. She co founded 350 dot org. And she was also at a very special news called function 18 years ago, which we're going to talk about a little later on. Welcome Blair to irrational fear. Thank you. Great to be here. And he's been labelled as a COVID crisis actor. Does this mean he's eligible for best new talent at the Lucky's it's the host of the dead dead society podcast. It is comedian Mitch garling. Mitch, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. You have had quite a wait place. Take Lewis and Blair through it. What happened this week? Well, look,
Unknown Speaker 3:36 it was pretty crazy. It was pretty crazy. First of all, I love the idea about best new talent for the lucky that is great, I will write that down.
Dan Ilic 3:45 I've got some bad news and leggies has been cancelled the last two years, you know,
Mitch Garling 3:50 you might have just tried again. Or if maybe if COVID hangs around for a bit longer. I'll go 2022 logos or 2023, something like that. But essentially guys, what happened was is there was a bunch of videos going around of patients in the hospital was filmed and released by New South Wales health that these people that had COVID checking in on them saying, you know, don't obviously don't get it. That's a that's a big one. But it's like just checking in on them really. And apparently one of the guys looked like me. So I started getting a lot of hype. So people people went into my acting star now profile and my name and my Facebook page and ran with it. And yeah, I copped a lot of abuse over the last 10 let's say 10 days now.
Dan Ilic 4:40 So just just to clarify you're not in a guy called a sama who lives in Western Sydney
Unknown Speaker 4:47 zero COVID zero sama you know it's not assignment not don't have COVID never had it have been COVID tested twice. I don't know if that if I need to prove that I definitely don't have it and not, not pretending to have it either is the biggest thing, I think.
Dan Ilic 5:08 I mean, are there any benefits to being labelled as a COVID? crisis activity cost in more COVID crisis things like you know, the boom industry?
Lewis Hobba 5:16 meaa letting you sign up?
Unknown Speaker 5:20 I think we get a I think as like, it's a bit of a, what's the word as like a benefit friends of Gladys kind of thing? I think we get out October 16. Instead of Mitch, have
Lewis Hobba 5:32 you? Have you found out any way to contact the person who you're supposed to have been? No, I haven't. I've
Unknown Speaker 5:38 literally was thinking about that today. Because now now that things have changed from your piece of shit to you guys should get together. That is actually such a good idea.
Lewis Hobba 5:50 This is such a weird 2021
Unknown Speaker 5:54 Yeah, and there's only a certain amount of people that will even appreciate the photo of human eye together. But I'm gonna hit that like that. That group thing. I love it.
Dan Ilic 6:06 This is a Netflix sitcom. We're waiting to happen. This is great.
Unknown Speaker 6:10 This is your 20 2021 version of that perfect strangers. We'd like Bronson Pinto. Do you remember that? Like the so now? I've absolutely I thought that was gonna hit. I thought that
Dan Ilic 6:23 coming up later, we're gonna chat with bear plays about News Corp, and how they moving from a climate change denier to being a climate change action hero but whose benefit before then here's a message from this week's sponsor.
Unknown Speaker 6:35 There's only one airline that can fly you to vacation in Hawaii while your home is ablaze. There's only one airline that can fly you to discover your family's history on the other side of the world, while families at home are being made history. And there's only one airline to help you secretly see your loved ones in another city when everyone else is only allowed to travel three miles from home. Fly the entitled skies were tone deaf headphones are complimentary. Oh good, are you very good. You're the best Prime Minister ever. The only airline where you don't have to put your seat up if you don't want to, in titled airlines direct flights now available from Canberra to a place where they filmed the White Lotus.
Dan Ilic 7:24 This week's first fear guy Sebastian apologises for posting a pro vaccination vaccination campaign to his Instagram but refuses to apologise for angels brought me here. I would never tell people what to do when it comes to what they put in their body Sebastian said in an Instagram post. At the same time Sebastian's wife immediately deleted several posts of her own telling people that they should be putting nature's way vitae gummies in their bodies. I don't know I've done my own research here. And according to several sources on the internet nature's way vitae gummies are incredibly delicious. Sophie mangas has guy Sebastian, let us down here, Mitch garling. Look,
Unknown Speaker 7:59 I'm not sure if he's let us down. as such. I think there seems to be a lot of questions about like everything here. We're talking about guy we're talking about jaws a lot of this. These two seem to be coming up. But the problem that I have is that once again, no one is giving any respect to nosy no one has bought at any point. No one has even asked how he's doing what he thinks. Does he take vitamins? Yeah, we don't know.
Lewis Hobba 8:29 Yeah, yeah. He's sitting there going. What about me? I was the first thing I did, Mitch, at the moment I saw the guy's Russian story. The first thing I did was go straight to nauset Instagram just to see if he'd made any comment. He's a Instagram is like, genuine pure country dat energy. It's just like he is he is my new truck. He is a roast lamb. He is the shape that I was writing for the last three years before I turned it into this first lamb
Dan Ilic 8:59 guys video did have a strong kind of hostage feel about it. Like he really felt like he was being held hostage by a whole bunch of his his fans for promoting vaccines. Yeah, I mean, he said in he said in this video, and I think it's interesting. There are personal circumstances that everybody has to consider when it takes the vaccine. So what are these personal circumstances it is so hard to kind of even fathom what those personal circumstances are. Things like belief in science big stuff. Actually, I feel like that's it because he's a large part of his audience are really hugely Christian and there's like all these rumours about about stem cells and foetuses being used in these vaccines. And that's the personal circumstances just say it decide guy put it out there. Exactly. Let us know how crazy you
Blair Palese 9:51 are. If you're gonna, you know circle around trying to not nail it down one way or the other. You know, the apology after for the apology. The apology seems largely confused at the end of it.
Lewis Hobba 10:04 It's actually so amazing because he between this and the apology had to make for being like Scott Morrison's, sort of show pony for the announcement of the funding for performing artists. It's now at a point where most Australians are more familiar with these public apologies than his songs.
Dan Ilic 10:22 Yeah, I really liked I really liked his 920 19 apology. Yeah, he's 2022 apology tour is pretty good.
Lewis Hobba 10:29 When there's the award for Best compilation of public apologies. He's absolutely going to ramp that in.
Dan Ilic 10:36 I'm really enjoying what man with the dominant klore on YouTube has said, what happened to not getting advice from some guy on the internet?
Unknown Speaker 10:45 There's that whole thing going around that he's patient zero anyway, because of the the Instagram photos of him in Wuhan in late 2019.
Dan Ilic 10:55 Oh my God, is this is this true?
Unknown Speaker 10:58 Yeah. So it's kind of a it's kind of interesting. Like, I mean, now the now the anti Vax stance kind of makes sense. It's like you don't want to ruin your own work. Yeah, you're not wrong about that video.
Lewis Hobba 11:12 That photo that this is talking about? Like it's obviously it's incredible. But that the it's so good the captions that he puts on it, uh, so perfect. It's him in we're in Busan. And the caption is, he's like, so great to be here. Beautiful word hon. I showed it ate some strange things. Hashtag big things coming. I did it. Well is incredible. That is incredible. He is patient zero.
Unknown Speaker 11:40 Wow. irrational fear is horrible. But we also need to put things into perspective. There are 8 million citizens who don't have a choice in how they spend their free time. That is no way to leave. Your fear is irrational.
Dan Ilic 11:53 Now remember when Scott Morrison and Greg Hahn said that Australia was at the front of the queue when it came to ordering the Pfizer vaccine. Well, linked emails have shown that the Pfizer Pfizer reached out to the government in June last year saying hey, Australia, we've we've got some jabs. Do you want any and then Greg hunt and Scott Morrison rushed to do a deal. Five months later, five months later, in which time the UK in the US got in front of us five months. Now admittedly, it's a bit of a process because Pfizer wanted to be paid in US dollars. So Treasury had to work out just how many commuter car parks I would have to convert to buy the vaccines. See mongers from the front of the queue to the back of the queue. I'm beginning to think that our leaders are not very good at their jobs.
Lewis Hobba 12:41 What do you think? Well, Dad, I mean, the Liberal Party over the last what 20 years has been very adamant about not wanting cue jumpers in this country. And I do think that you got to give it to them. I really have put their money where their mouth is
Dan Ilic 12:54 they leading by example. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 12:57 you can't help but wonder if any normal person had failed that badly at their job. And yet they're still in there. You know, not just one The Little Miss major mistake. 1000 people dead after the next but still in there. No accountability.
Dan Ilic 13:13 You can't we can't get rid of them. We can't get rid of them for another few months. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 13:17 the health minister or the health department just comes across as a almost as a bit of a player or they come across as a bit of a fuck boy if I'm being honest. Like if you look at it, it's like, you know, they they got Pfizer interested, they hooked them in. Then they left them on red.
Dan Ilic 13:34 Now negging now negging Pfizer.
Unknown Speaker 13:38 And then five months later, they come back when there's no better options, they come back and they're like, where are you at? Like, come on. Now.
Dan Ilic 13:45 Come on. Just a little prick. Just little prick. Come on. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 13:50 You have a question mark message at 3am in the morning. He's Pfizer up like that.
Lewis Hobba 13:55 Their defence is kind of like everyone's a hindsight here or we could all do it and there is like 5% of that that is true. Like I do remember when they were talking about the vaccines and everyone was talking about like one one company is going to make billions of dollars here. And every like non health experts non government experts were everyone was like man, if I've got 100 bucks I'm chucking it in like one medical company here just to say just so no one quite knew who was gonna win. So there is a degree of that like shore in hindsight we didn't know but also the idea of just like not showing up to a meeting with the one of the world's biggest companies when you knew that a vaccine was on the way that 95% of it is so dumb
Dan Ilic 14:37 pandemic when when that's the that's the bloody job.
Unknown Speaker 14:41 The only way and you know when you think this would be a good thing, why not throw us some effort at all three and then see which one sticks on the wall?
Lewis Hobba 14:51 That's actually what they should have done play. It's just gotten a few professional gamblers. We're really did that in Australia. Yeah. Pfizer is in lane one. madona is in lane two. Yeah, just got Bruce McAvennie to call the whole thing would have been gripping.
Dan Ilic 15:06 Yeah rather set up the National COVID Coordination Committee, which basically started a gas pipeline. They should have just got sportsmen to give them advice. Yeah, looks like guy, you know, I know we're paying them $2.50 AstraZeneca we're paying $1.80 to come through madona coming through and $4 ad
Unknown Speaker 15:27 considering some of the advice that you can find online. Getting advice about vaccines from an X 40 player is probably Alright, like that's better than getting Tommy's wife or something, which seems to be the thing that happened at the moment.
Lewis Hobba 15:42 The response from Scott Morrison is like, there's no greater sign that someone has fucked up and hearing a politician say, we're not looking at the past. We're looking at the future. Like you sent a Google Alert for that sentence. Every time someone has said it. Just like
Dan Ilic 15:59 that person should be fired. Yes,
Lewis Hobba 16:01 it should be fired. That is a fireable offence that sentence
Unknown Speaker 16:05 rational fear that's a matter for the Queensland Government. I mean, that's a matter for the premier. That's a matter that all rise with other premiers and Chief Ministers. That's really a question to the brilliant, that's a matter of I'm happy to take up with the other premiers and Chief Ministers a rational theory.
Dan Ilic 16:19 Now we're going to play Hang on a sec. I'll play a video if you want to chime in simply say, hang on a sec, and I'll stop the tape. This week's Hang on a sec comes from the Prime Minister's Instagram, where he's wishing us all I guess a you okay Day. Happy? Are you okay?
Unknown Speaker 16:33 Are you okay? Are you okay? Day is that reminder, not just for today, but for every day for us to check, you know each other. We all have those moments, hang on a second. He's
Dan Ilic 16:45 like really leaning over us in this point of view. Like physically, he is dominating this screen, he is looking down on us like we're a little child asking for some more soup. And in a second, he's going to lock us in a room and send us to our room that's very imposing here.
Unknown Speaker 17:00 We already started to think the best of him. And now he looks like some sort of like, sleep demon or something just over the top of me.
Dan Ilic 17:07 I feel like this angle, I feel like I've just been punched by Scott Morrison. And now he's asking me if I'm okay. Like,
Lewis Hobba 17:15 if you're listening on the podcast, imagine that someone has put a phone on the on a table at probably bellybutton height. And then as has leaned over ominously towards the camera, kind of like a scene from the BFG. And like, This man is about to blow a trumpet of evil dreams into your ear and you're never gonna wake up happy again.
Unknown Speaker 17:37 Dude like that he got three seconds in before it looked like he definitely checked a script of some sort. Yeah. If you know it's an IU ik de video. Surely, when you say it, okay, for the second time, you're going to be like, I'll remember that. I think I'm going to remember what these sentences about. Like, it's the first Are you okay? You're like, Oh, yeah, he kind of the find that in almost. But it was the second one where I was like, he wrote a check to that just he checked a script. For sure.
Lewis Hobba 18:08 If he was doing this for ANZAC Day, and on the second day, he'd gone like bland black day, he would have done it.
Unknown Speaker 18:16 We all have times when we really need someone to ask us that question. Give us that invitation to be able to share how we're feeling. So that can help us get through. So ask today, ask every day, check on your mates, your family, your friends, those you work with. Or sometimes it's just seeing someone who might be in a bit of a stress
Unknown Speaker 18:34 and you've got Hang on a second. A bit of stress. Let's talk to Brittany Higgins about stress and how she's feeling this week. I'm sure we'll get to that shortly.
Lewis Hobba 18:47 Yeah, also just going like, you know what it's like when you your family are in a bit of distress. But you separate it from borders. So you just you hire a jet at the taxpayers expense. You pop over and you say your family and you ask them Are you okay? And you should do that every day. I mean, become Prime Minister because it's very easy.
Unknown Speaker 19:08 You pick that up and just ask them Are you okay? too? We are as a country it's what I like about our UK day it's something very Australian
Dan Ilic 19:17 no other no other no other people from any other country have ever checked on that the welfare yeah the thing that will Anderson always goes on about mate ship being uniquely Australian the whole principle Oh, there aren't any other countries in the world that have friends that doesn't exist is so uniquely Australian major
Lewis Hobba 19:37 Spanish a famously solitary people.
Dan Ilic 19:41 Also like he likes this about you okay? Because it's also something the government doesn't have to pay for.
Unknown Speaker 19:49 It's also very like, in terms of Australia, like, I know, it's a very serious thing and it's a great thing that it exists but half the people that I know that ever say are you okay like It is it's it's ironic like it's never it's never genuine. So I don't know it's hard to it's hard to to believe this guy when I know he has a history of being not genuine.
Unknown Speaker 20:11 He pretty much Edison it's hard to believe this guy I could have I could have just stopped there Blair and I mean at least to be fair,
Dan Ilic 20:23 well, you have to remember the interim is Scott Morrison is an ironic Prime Minister, like everything he's done is basically I run everything, everything from the very start of putting his hand around Malcolm Turnbull before he rolled him to say, Oh, this is my leader. I'm ambitious for him.
Lewis Hobba 20:41 If Scott Morrison today said, Malcolm Turnbull attacks, thank you okay. That would be the single funniest thing he could ever have.
Dan Ilic 20:55 Fun, funny and sad at the same time.
Lewis Hobba 21:00 We shouldn't be a diaper bullying but you would have to give a pass to that.
Dan Ilic 21:03 I get away with it too. I don't have that number in my phone. But if I did, I'd call him right now to get him on the podcast to find out if Scott Morrison has sent him an IOU Okay, text.
Unknown Speaker 21:13 I okay, day is the day for Scotty to write some roles that like he could. He could reach out to out to Malcolm or he can wait what was that the guy that he the guy that he stood on his lawn when the guy had just received again? Standing on his lawn and he ruins that guy's lawn? Maybe? Maybe not you like high day text? There might be nice.
Unknown Speaker 21:33 Having a woman the woman with a goat on the chain dad after the bushfires, we forced him to shake hands with him. Right How are you coping right now? Have you got a house yet? You know, things like that?
Dan Ilic 21:46 Yeah. Oh, just check in on anyone who's on narrow or Christmas Island.
Lewis Hobba 21:50 Dan, are you okay? Day is not classically now ruin. It is. It's just it doesn't cross. It doesn't cross the waters like that. Anyway, okay.
Unknown Speaker 22:01 I hope so. If not, there are people there who can help you. But it's not me.
Lewis Hobba 22:08 When he asked, Are you okay, and tried and tried all with all of his mind to sound like a human being. It made me feel like the uncanny valley in animation where things are like, to to human to be fake and to fake to be human. It was real. That was the uncanny valley of questions
Unknown Speaker 22:26 when he said I hope so. It's like, are you okay? I hope so. And it's like, oh, that's Scotty that's so believable. It is it's the was that Mars Attacks. It's the lady with the the the alien the dresses up as the lady in Mars Attacks and tries to fit in and everyone's like, Oh, I think something's off here. That's what is happening right now. I'm sorry that my references a sell off tonight.
Dan Ilic 22:51 Taxes one of my favourite films of 1998 it was really, really good, really good,
Unknown Speaker 22:55 you matter a great deal. And so it's important that we know if you're okay.
Dan Ilic 23:01 That's a bit sinister there. It's important to know if you're okay, that feels like that's coming from the AFP more than anyone else.
Lewis Hobba 23:08 We've read your emails, we know you're not okay. And we're sending the AFP around to check on you.
Unknown Speaker 23:13 You're listening to a rational fear.
Unknown Speaker 23:17 Put back in place, especially with reopening and people going back to pumps and stuff, we will be looking at what contact tracing looks like in the New World Order.
Dan Ilic 23:29 After years of denying that climate change exists, and constantly backing governments whose sole focus is to extract as much coal as possible out of the ground. The baddies in Australian media, aka News Corp. Going to do an about face at least for a couple of weeks and support net zero by 2050 targets up until about cop 26. And reportedly these editorials are going to be led by friend of the show Joe Hildebrand to find out whether these bullshit or not it's a real privilege to have Blair police here is the managing editor of climate and capital media and is one of the most effective climate campaigners in Australia. And 18 years ago Blair Yeah, you were at an event that was meant to change the game on climate for News Corp forever.
Unknown Speaker 24:18 Again, 18 years ago, sitting in a in a room with a lot of journalists and others activists, all the activists were invited, of course, pretty cheap lay of the land there not much on offer in terms of cost centre, good coffee, but a big announcement about this thing called one degree. And one degree was all about how to keep the planet at one degree of warming or less and all the things that newscorp was was going to commit to to reduce its emissions. And I remember sitting around next to people and everybody kind of looked at each other saying, Is this a good thing? This is possibly a good thing. These people are evil. Is this a good thing? Come to find out 18 years on Guess what? another announcement this time it's net zero. That's the catchphrase of this century and 2015 or less, by the time, you know, 2050 rolls around, you could pretty much do absolutely excuse the French jack shit, and it would all still sound relevant to net zero by 2050. So, you know, my theory is that News Corp is given lessons to Scotty from announcements about how to use announcements just as a way to keep people slightly off kilter and confused why you continue to trash the planet with more information about climate denial.
Dan Ilic 25:27 So why are we hearing about it? Now? Why is it being publicised in databases,
Unknown Speaker 25:32 right, this thing called cup 26, coming up in November meeting, there's one country in the West, that is the ultimate bad guy. And guess what, it's Australia. So I think there's just a little bit of an attempt there to try and paint themselves green. Right in maybe, you know, share drinks on opening day Rupert and Co. With the whole the big kind of big names that are there on the first day, there'll be kings, they'll be queens, there'll be president still be you name it, there'll be there. Rupert probably just wants an invite.
Dan Ilic 26:04 Is that is that is that as cynical as it gets? Like Rupert, actually, you know, wants to go to Glasgow, in November,
Unknown Speaker 26:10 probably, you know, the guy hates to miss a big event. buys him space to keep doing exactly what he's doing. Because says one thing does another. He's been doing it for 20 years on climate. So what would change about that?
Dan Ilic 26:25 Do you think we'll say any kind of movement from news Colbert? Or in in this space as a good actor at all? Absolutely not. Well,
Lewis Hobba 26:34 he said, Is there any chat like I you The thing about nice copies, like, you know, obviously they they run their own race, and then you'd say it with something like the like the like the Kevin Rudd election, they will come a point where they realise that they can't keep backing a losing horse to publicly and then right at the last minute, just to like, try to keep people on board. They'll make the switch, and they'll be like, Ah, you know what, Kevin Ryan is actually a really good guy. And then six months later, we'll stop
Unknown Speaker 27:01 to think that rupert murdoch would do that before Scott Morrison, but it's possible.
Lewis Hobba 27:06 Yeah, but I mean, like, is it? Is there a point where like, 80% of Australians want action on climate change? They're like, there is just a point now where like, the only people who don't want to are currently on staff at Sky News. Well, and the last standing fossil fuel company, yeah. And is there a chance that like, they just realising that they're starting to look so stupid now? Is there any chance of that at all? No. I mean, I, I kind of knew the answer, but I think it bothered me and maybe, maybe it does, I hope for a better world
Unknown Speaker 27:35 worth noting in the New York Times article that there is a staff member who's quoted about it, who will not be named because fearing for his life, you have to kind of look at it that way. Right? So if on staff, they've analysis, this big thing, and the staff at large are not allowed to say whether they think Well, yeah, it could be good, but might not you know, you could get shot for less at News Corp. So you know, it's not looking good.
Dan Ilic 28:00 I want you to know, Blair, that is absolute lies because Joe Hildebrand himself has replied to a text when I said when you can come and talk about the climate thing come on irrational fear. Again, he said, Love to love to we're gonna get Joe to random to talk about what he's called. The three articles and East Coast get a right.
Lewis Hobba 28:21 He didn't say whether it'd be for or against.
Unknown Speaker 28:27 Other other lines in the New York Times, there's a phrase that said, we're going to change and explore the depths of this very complex issue. Two years ago, the language was, its fraudulent in its a damaging cult, the climate movement, which is it it's hard to know Well, that's
Dan Ilic 28:48 a lie because nothing in the Daily Telegraph explores in a thing in any depth. Demo just want to extend a Sydney confidential and say Asha Gunzburg with a shirt off. That's all I want. Yeah. Quite frankly, Who wouldn't?
Lewis Hobba 29:01 I would I bet they've done like a pretty in depth expose I on the Nadia Bartell plate saga. I've been checking. I reckon I would have done a full double page spread every day.
Dan Ilic 29:14 We're seeing exponential rise in carbon and an exponential rise in the sales of Kmart plates.
Lewis Hobba 29:22 investigating the climate change effects of cocaine. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 29:25 I'm more interested in cocaine capture and storage solutions.
Unknown Speaker 29:31 I'm just hoping that from all of this, perhaps I could get some work as like a climate actor. I don't know if I don't know what the roles are. Like I could, I could play like a slightly deeper bit of water or something. Well, Mitch,
Dan Ilic 29:48 unfortunately for you News Corp. Who are the climate activists actors who pretend climate change isn't isn't isn't happening is changing their tag. So normally, you could just go walk into Sky News and say oh, Climate change
Lewis Hobba 30:00 is rubbish. Maybe you should just do a self tape, a self tape audition for a variety of different crisis actor roles. Hello, my name is Mitch galling. I'm here from Star now. My next role will be school shooter. Like Hello, my name is Jolene I'm five foot 10 and now I'm going to do victim of climate change and you know screaming rain as the fire bands just do it just set yourself up for the whole gamut of options look and
Unknown Speaker 30:29 that will help with range like that will show a lot of range like there's not I don't know how many people in Australia are able to do that kind of contrast of like, I'm I'm water I'm also fine. Like there's different. The great thing about the climate change climate crisis actor is that right now we're all acting method.
Lewis Hobba 30:49 Really good.
Dan Ilic 30:50 We are Stanislavski eating this shit.
Lewis Hobba 30:52 Yeah. Steppenwolf for the climate change play.
Dan Ilic 30:55 Hey, Louis. And you remember a few months back June when we were performing in Newcastle we imagine what do we like if Alan Jones all of a sudden became a climate action hero and actually started writing articles for endorsing climate action. I'm not saying that irrational fear forced this change from an idea. idea? quite clearly.
Lewis Hobba 31:23 I can't I really hope to have to see that it's gonna be as natural as Scott Morrison's Are you okay? I think we can all agree that climate pollution is an acute problem. Watching Alan Jones do fit, like talk about getting rid of emissions down. It would be like watching Johnny Depp in the pistoletto video.
Dan Ilic 31:48 Yes, ah, emissions need to come down. Because, Oh, God, it'd be very hard for him to do very difficult. Blair, you know, you have been doing this for so long. And you have got a good standard show. Right. Thank you. Thank you for all of the work that you've done. For so long. And if you would, in your heart of hearts be generous to News Corp for just one second. That's impossible. You know, what if? What if where they are going to be a good actor? What would it look like to you? Like, what would you like to see them do if if they to make good on this idea that that they've put forward
Unknown Speaker 32:36 is there is only three things that banner headline across every paper, we were wrong. Movement Murdoch, at the cup opening ceremony, I was wrong. And I sacrificed myself to all the planet or do whatever you must with me. At this point I've done I have no single human has done more damage than I have. So I offer myself up. And that's what I want. I want his hand on the platter.
Dan Ilic 33:11 onstage at Glasgow say, Hello, I'm drivemode I was wrong. Here's this Tesla charge I'm gonna put it in my chest and let Laughlin run the country
Unknown Speaker 33:22 got really bad for a second that went from a went from like, I want a print on the front of the newspaper to like, just like a public murder like but but I'm so i'm i'm not saying I'm not
Dan Ilic 33:41 different a different a different stration martyrdom may with river murder. Climate matter. That's what we like to say. That is it for irrational fear. big thank you to our guests. Bear Blair please Mitch giling. Lewis, how about what would you like to plug folks? mityana plug something?
Unknown Speaker 33:58 Oh, yeah, thanks for having me on guys. Much appreciated. I'll be not pretending to be a COVID actor for the foreseeable future. And I've got a podcast called dead dad society started. It's like a bit of a therapy group in the form of a podcast, I started it when my dad died. So I just have people on that have lost parents or lost, you know, sisters, brothers, or even just, you know, crazy, crazy things happening in their lives that maybe you might need a bit of therapy. I am not trying to be a therapist in any way. It was more than I just wanted to. I think I was wanted to get my own stuff out and was good to hate people.
Dan Ilic 34:35 And if you pay on Patreon, that's a whole cheat. That's much cheaper than a therapist. Yeah, it's quite nice, actually the other way round. Out giving Yeah, really. Thank you Mitch. Blair, what would you like to play?
Unknown Speaker 34:50 Well, climate and capital media, keep an eye it's free to sign up and read what we got going and it tracks the kind of trends on climate and the opportunities. So if you're looking at what What you can do how you can invest and what you need to know about the issue it's all there and with cop coming up now's the time.
Dan Ilic 35:07 Great Louis Do you want to plug anything?
Lewis Hobba 35:10 No dad just get out there stream guys Sebastian he's had a rough way.
Dan Ilic 35:16 Get some nights his way via gummies into your
Lewis Hobba 35:19 absolute nature's way. The only way really with the
Dan Ilic 35:26 tagline A big thanks to the bursar foundation of Jacob round on the tepanyaki timeline I feel for him he's got to edit this together. Mica from rode mics and a big thank you to Patreon supporters another bumper week of Patreon supporters joining up to enjoy the show. Grandmaster to sweet is back sky King has joined up Darren Nash Curtis Jackson, Stephen Joseph Louise mechel Vogue is joined up a big media consultant who I've worked with in the past comedy director Casey Anning has shot signed. She's a big deal these days I've convinced him to come on the show, Louis. She's gonna come on. I love Casey and Andrew Paddington, and also a brilliant animator and illustrator Adele K. Thomas, who has been a longtime listener on the pod has also signed up if you want to support what we do here at irrational fear, go to patreon.com forward slash a rational fear. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Good night. Oh, and next week we got hate Franklin, and you know Yama, so come back next week for them.
And our big interview is with Saul Griffith — Entrepreneur, engineer, scientist, energy, expert, MacArthur Fellow (Genius) and now he's adding on more.
Fed up with the inability of politics to meet the moment of the climate crisis, heading into COP 26, Saul is trying out a new title Political Heavyweight.
It's an inspiring chat about the possibility and the pathway to electrify everything.
Dan Ilic 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation. Hello, irrational fearlessness Daniel. It's here. This is one of our semi monthly spin off podcast from irrational fear called the greatest moral podcast of our generation. So don't freak out if it sounds a little different. Just enjoy the ride. This is my co host for Bloomberg, longtime climate change industrial complex worker. lindo. Lynn. It's been a while,
Linh Do 0:23 Dan, it's been so long you've changed in lockdown. What is time?
Dan Ilic 0:28 I know, my hair is definitely out of control. But thankfully,
Linh Do 0:31 people can't see us. It's the dream. Otherwise, they could tell that we haven't been outside and you know, months on end, we're looking a little bit pasty.
Dan Ilic 0:40 That's okay. I live by the beach. So I've got a nice tan about me. Now in this podcast, Lynn and I look at a few climate stories from the previous month and I have a conversation with someone who's doing great work in the climate space. This week's chat is one of my favourites is with one of my heroes, Saul Griffith, who is inventor, scientist, engineer energy nerd. He's writing policy for Biden and trying to get the US and Australia uncouple from fossil fuels and go completely electric with renewables. Do you know much about Saul's work? Lin?
Linh Do 1:08 Yeah, I do. I don't know if I call him a hero, though. But the work he does is truly amazing. I think you know, one of the coolest things about our semi monthly, you know, again, what is time is that we get to interview super smart people and get them to give us all the answers in a way that's super digestible.
Dan Ilic 1:24 Yeah, great. And in a second, we're going to be chatting with another one of those kinds of people from wallaby David pokok about his new climate campaign with the sports community, the cooldown, I'm recording my end of the greatest moral podcast of our generation on gadigal Land of the eora nation,
Linh Do 1:38 and I'm on orangerie Land of the call and people's
Dan Ilic 1:41 sovereignty was never seated. We need a treaty. Let's start the show. Despite
Unknown Speaker 1:45 global warming, our rational fear is adding a little more hot air with long form discussions with climate leaders. Good.
Unknown Speaker 1:57 This is called Don't be afraid the heat waves and drought
Unknown Speaker 2:01 greatest mass extinction tomorrow we're facing a manmade disaster podcast, climate criminals. All of this with global warming and that is a lot of it's a hoax. Book, right. A small roll podcast about generation. For sure.
Dan Ilic 2:22 Okay, let's rip straight into the climate news. First cab off the rank the cooldown this week, climate activist and former wallaby rugby union superstar David pokok has launched a brand new campaign to get climate action on the agenda of sports loving leaders. Joining us now is David pokok. himself. welcome David. Hi, Dan Lin. Thanks for having me. It's great to have you here. Yeah. Congratulations with the launch of the cooldown. What's the reaction been like so far?
David Pocock 2:49 Thank you. Yeah, it's it's it's been positive. So far, we've got I think over 360 athletes from 30 plus sports have put their name to this calling for the Australian Government to really up their up their game on climate action. You know, this is something that the majority of Australians are concerned about and want more action. And yeah, I think it's it's everyone's responsibility to be talking about it more and to be pushing for for action at the national level. Yeah, this
Dan Ilic 3:18 is great. It's like you, you have so many ears and hearts attached to kind of that community, this sports community. It's so great to see them pushing for action themselves as a community. Do you think this will be attractive to these sharks loving Scott Morrison?
David Pocock 3:36 I hope so. I mean, I think the thing you know, the last 10 years of climate policy in Australia, and just how insanely politicised, it's it's been, I think, we often lose, lose sight of the fact that this is something that's going to affect every aspect of our way of life as Australians, including the sports that we love. And yeah, as an athlete. When you talk about things outside of your, your sport, you open yourself up to all the usual criticism to stay in your lane. You know, shut up, mate, stick to sports,
Dan Ilic 4:13 literally stay in your lane. Yeah.
David Pocock 4:16 And, you know, in the face of something like climate change with, you know, worsening extreme weather events, making things life a lot harder. Sport probably isn't the most, it definitely isn't the most important thing. The thing, the thing we're saying is athletes is that, you know, we are people who have families, we have kids, we are part of communities, and we love this country, and we want to see a thriving future, trying to draw the people's attention to the fact that this is going to affect sports and it is already affecting sports, you know, a part of Australian life that people love and as you kind of alluded to, we see we see politicians you Using sport for their game, because they know how much it resonates with us as a country. Yeah,
Linh Do 5:05 yeah, one of the things that I definitely remember growing up in Australia is, you know, half of the new segment is dedicated to the sport to beat like half of the newspaper, you know, the fact that it's always the sports bit as well. We never spend that much time focusing on climate. What do you think, I guess will be the difference with some of these athletes speaking out about climate to reach new audiences? How do you think that's gonna make hopefully some impact?
David Pocock 5:30 Yeah, our hope is that it really helps normalise climate action. As I said, it's such a political issue, which shouldn't be, you know, the politics should be about which, you know, policies as a party, you want to get Australia to this sort of netzero future, not whether or not we should get there, or how much it's going to cost. So I think really trying to say to people that as Australians, we love it when we're punching above that weight. You look at the Olympics, the Paralympics, you know, you see Ozzy's winning medals. And we lie.
Dan Ilic 6:07 Are you trying to say that climate action is a race? David? Can I say that to race?
David Pocock 6:14 And I'm saying it's a race. And I'm also saying that we're running dead last.
Linh Do 6:19 Sometimes it feels like we're not even in the race. And I have to admit, I spent a lot of this morning thinking back to the Steven Bradbury moment at the Winter Olympics. And I'm like, well, maybe, maybe, you know, we're about to slip in at some point. Is that going to happen? But
Dan Ilic 6:32 I don't I think that analogy is terrible. because it implies that all the other stronger countries fall over. And we need
Linh Do 6:41 to be mercenary.
David Pocock 6:43 I mean, you're spot on here. This is we're running dead last and we're refusing to even play by the rules. So we all we all know, we need to do better than that. We can do better than that. And that's maybe the other thing that's that's missing from the debate in Australia is you hear politicians talk about are the costs of action. But one note, talking about the cost of inaction, which you know, hard to even comprehend, if you believe scientists, but then also the opportunity for Australia, where the sunniest, windiest country in the world, it's insanity that we aren't a renewable superpower already. Or Well, on our way to becoming that. So I think it's, you know, it requires a real change in mindset around the debate, this is an opportunity for us that we have to take, because, you know, as Australians, we love places like the Great Barrier Reef, and you know, other just incredible parts of this country, the danger,
Dan Ilic 7:46 even even from a sport focus, Dave, like, you know, kids playing soccer in the middle of the day on a weekend is going to be extremely difficult in a few years, particularly in places like Western Sydney, like it's the heat islands that are going to be attracted around school zones around tarmacs around around playgrounds, like being being a young athlete is going to be harder than ever, like it's going to be so difficult your brain capacity, loses capacity as carbon dioxide fills up the atmosphere like these things, that these things are just going to be really, really hard to do in the future. Like, like, sport has a lot to say like, I don't feel like I don't feel like you have to say much, you know, you can say look for the longevity of our of our of our children's future or the longevity of sport in general. Like we need proper climate action
David Pocock 8:38 official. One of the one of the guys who's signed the letter and is really leading on this is Pat Cummins are the best fast bowlers in the world.
Dan Ilic 8:49 He's gonna stand outside and out in the sun for so long.
David Pocock 8:52 Well, you know, he grew up he got to start playing cricket in Penrith. And you know, scientists are saying that places like Penrith are hitting towards towards 50 degrees Celsius days in summer. Like, try playing a summer sport where you're standing outside all day and 50 degrees Celsius. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 9:11 in 2018 Penrith was was the hottest city in the world. Yeah.
David Pocock 9:16 You know, this is this is real, it's here. And, you know, there's a long list of how it's already affecting sport from early retirements of the Australian Open bushfire smoke, forcing a number of events, cancelled, relocated. And then, you know, the thing that probably to your point about kids is probably not front of mind for most people is the effect that this is going to have on regional community. Sport is such an important part of life. You know, it's where people can come together. And we're already starting to see some of those sports clubs, really struggling to afford their premiums which are going up due to flooding. And then in the, you know, in the recent drought, there were a whole whole bunch of regional grounds that were just too hard, like they couldn't water them, they rock hard, they're too dangerous to play. So you can't use those grounds and all these things that we, we, you know, you don't really think about when you hear someone talk about climate change. But you know, the increasingly real and you read the latest IPCC report and you know, the type of action, we have to we have to be upping our game.
Linh Do 10:23 Yeah, and I think these everyday consequences are just the reminder that sometimes an IPCC report can feel a bit abstract until you boil it down to here's this activity you love doing that you might not be able to do in a couple of years time. What would you say to all of our listeners in terms of how could they may be raised and start this conversation within their communities sport or otherwise? Because you know, it's not the normal thing that people expect anyhow, tips? Well,
David Pocock 10:50 have you just launched the call down, I'd say you can, you can head to the cooldown of Comdata. You and join and sign alongside your favourite athletes, but then, you know, in a day to day thing, this is something we should be talking about as a community and should be on the news most nights, this is something that we're going to have to adapt to. And, you know, if we if we act really strongly as a country and show some international leadership, we can avoid some of the worst that is to come, should we should we not act? So talk about in your community, and then obviously, the politics, you know, all this individual action doesn't add up too much, unless it's galba. Politics. So get hold of your local politicians. And then you know, we've got an election coming up, vote, like vote for your future vote for the future of your kids find a find a candidate who is going to make decisions in the best interests. And that may be an independent. Yeah. And if there isn't someone, consider rallying around someone or running yourself. This is just it's so important that we we begin to take action soon.
Dan Ilic 11:55 David, on the political question, will we see in the future national teams not going to the lodge or not going to kirribilli house to spend time with the Prime Minister for a Photoshop with the harbour in the background? Is that something you can see in the back in the future? for national sides deciding to make a call on climate and say, No, we won't, we won't be part of Scott Morrison's photo,
David Pocock 12:17 we're seeing climates, you know, start to really gain, I guess consciousness around around the world when we look at businesses and climate risk of standard factoring. You know, we, we this really interesting push in the UK around legislating eco side as a crime, you know, to me that really points to people are increasingly going to say, no, that's not that's not good enough. And we aren't going to support or associate ourselves with companies, individuals, leaders, who aren't taking this seriously. So it's it's not unimaginable
Dan Ilic 12:58 question about your community, you're building and the letter and all the signatures you're getting, what happens next?
David Pocock 13:05 I guess it at the moment, it's really trying to show support for strong, bold, ambitious climate action in Australia and try and trying to normalise the debate around that. Guess the second thing is trying to push this idea of everyone having to be part of this. Yeah, I think there's been one of the real failures, in my mind of the sort of climate movement or people who want action is there's, there's almost sort of this, this purity tests in a way like if you if you fly, you have no right to be saying that Australia should be committing to Boulder climate action. And you see it like if you ever if you ever post something on social media, trolls,
Dan Ilic 13:51 troll troll trolls on Twitter saying, oh, how many kids do you have? kids and I can't get off set my car. I can't get off set by electricity. I don't own a house. But if I did, I'd electrify everything. So you know
David Pocock 14:03 what? So you know, there's that there's your you're not perfect. So how can you even talk about this? Then the other thing is, is like maybe you're just a dumb rugby players probably had way too many concussions? What the hell do you know that? It's really those two things is, is one pushing for good national policy. You don't you don't have to be perfect to do that. And to you don't have to be a climate scientist to want a Livable Future. You've just got to listen to the climate scientists. And you know, what we've seen through COVID is that when we actually listen to these people who've spent their lives trying to understand these things that most of us can't even, you know, get our heads around
Dan Ilic 14:43 things. That's because we've had to
David Pocock 14:46 turn out better than if we just ploughing on our own course. So why aren't we listening to climate scientists?
Dan Ilic 14:56 Well, David, thank you so much for joining us on the greatest model podcast of a generation and Thank you for all the advocacy work that you do for climate and the environment in general and social justice in sport, because it actually has a tangible, meaningful effect. And it's great to see you, you're doing so much, Dan, and thanks for really hearing you bring to it, I really appreciate it. It can be really hard time. So it's great to know, if we're in the same room and asked you to pull my finger. That'd be great.
Unknown Speaker 15:26 Thanks, David, for you listening to the greatest moral podcast about generation
Dan Ilic 15:33 pretty interesting when you're facilitating, you know, a whole session on sport and climate in Sport, Sport climate soon, like, what are you bringing to that, that conversation for that conference coming up at the end of September,
Linh Do 15:46 it's so much of what Dave was sharing, right? We have so much elitism. Unfortunately, in the climate movement. Sometimes you have to be perfect before you can say something, or you need to have three PhDs and all of the different hard science areas. But it's that recognition that the more we talk about, if climate is going to be impacting everyone, then everyone needs to figure out exactly what that means for them, their sector, their community, whatever that looks like. And helping those individuals take action in a way that makes sense. So this sport positive thing actually came out of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is the same body that governs the Paris Agreement. And it's that recognition that if you know, if you counted the membership of some sporting clubs around the world that makes up a small country equivalent. So what would happen if you know Manchester United came on and declared a bunch of different climate targets, both for their grounds, the way they operate their team, and you know what they encourage their fan base to do? So I think it's just taking climate a little bit like what we're doing with this podcast right outside of that Walgreens realm.
Dan Ilic 16:52 Yeah, that's so interesting, because people look up to those brands, they look up to those teams and whatever their teams are doing. Now, they'll they'll also do that as well. That's such great position, like positioning those brands in a place of leadership and climate action is is really powerful. It's, it's not unlike if Australia was a good actor on the world stage and climate. We could also be a leader and encourage others to do good things on climate as well. So
Linh Do 17:19 yeah, reputation matters. And I think where you lead your reputation and your voice as well, again, it's super important. Again, I think back to do you remember a couple of months ago, runout, I was at a press conference, I think it was and there was a bottle of coke there and
Dan Ilic 17:34 replaced it with water,
Linh Do 17:36 with water. And obviously for me, I was like, Oh, my God, it was still a plastic water bottle. But it's that recognition of if you're going to be a top athlete, why would you be promoting that kids essentially drink sugar, and then the impact that that had on, you know, the stock value of Coca Cola for the next, you know, couple of days is just that indicator of the signal that the sports community or other communities could be sending to their fans?
Dan Ilic 18:01 Well, I want people listening this podcast, I'm drinking a cup of tea, so I can't wait for the stock value of what am i drinking? majority to go up
Linh Do 18:09 to go? Wow, exactly. Positive brand Association. That's what you are top influencer.
Dan Ilic 18:14 I think because we had a special guest, we've probably run out of time for the climate news. I think there's one thing we have to do. I think there's one thing we shouldn't mention those the ACF survey, which just came out this week, which is incredible. They found that every single electorate, Australians want climate action, that's amazing. 60% 67% of voters believe the government should be doing more to address climate action, including majority in all 151 National states. This is this is such a huge survey. This is amazing. And it's
Linh Do 18:43 the narrative that we haven't been hearing, right, we've been hearing that this is something about, you know, regional communities versus inner city like, specific people. But actually, every single community wants climate change, and maybe what action they want looks a little bit different. But the direction that everyone wants to be heading in is definitely the same. We need
Dan Ilic 19:04 to know the difference between the city and the regionals is negligible. It's like 3% difference like sick, it's in the 60 something's percent it's like so when Michael McCormack or other nationals say, well, you people in the cities, you don't understand what was actually you people on the regions also
Linh Do 19:18 understand and want more or less exactly the same thing. Um, I think this would be really cool if it could be overlaid with real estate.com You know, when we're browsing property, aspirationally not because we can afford anything, but we can figure out you know, what community should I be living in? If I ever want to spend all of my time changing my neighbor's opinion, or spending time in my little bubble of you know, pro climate action people, this is how I want to live.
Dan Ilic 19:42 We're all moving to the seat of God. I believe in Australia, which is about the size of Germany. So
Linh Do 19:48 ya Love it. Love it. Lin.
Dan Ilic 19:51 I want to talk about cop but we're kind of running out of time this podcast. So let's next month let's talk about cop. And because we'll be about a month out from cop starting. It'd be great to hear from you. Where Australia is heading into into carbon? I think we'll probably know more by then as well,
Linh Do 20:04 we definitely will. I mean, fingers crossed that it's even going ahead. There's been actually a call over the last couple of weeks that maybe we should postpone the conference. Again, if countries in Europe, particularly emerging economies, the countries that will be most affected by climate change can't be there because of the COVID vaccination rollout situation globally.
Dan Ilic 20:23 Well, that is a frightening thing to think about. Thanks, Lynn, for joining us again on the greatest moral podcast of a generation. We'll see you next month can't
Linh Do 20:28 wait.
Dan Ilic 20:30 And right now we've got Saul griseus great interview I did with him earlier this week. He is an absolute brain and as you can hear, in my interview in your brain taking over as you're catching up, I'm a little bit too excited. I'm a little bit too excited little
Linh Do 20:44 waiting you fanboy.
Dan Ilic 20:49 My guest on this episode of The Greatest moral podcast of our generation is Saul Griffith. He's got a lot of titles in his life entrepreneur, engineer, scientist, energy expert, MacArthur Genius Grant winner is now adding one more fed up with the inability of politics to meet the moment of the climate crisis heading into cop 26 soul is trying out a new title, political heavyweight. He's a man fully charged and ready to steamroll his way into any politicians office he can with a unique style of lobbying that can only be described as bad cop bad cop. Soul hopes to shut politicians into action with a big kick in the ass. so gracious. Welcome to the greatest moral podcast of our generation.
Saul Griffith 21:30 Thank you, Dan, very much. I'm going to excuse you for embarrassing me with the genius comment because that was the best intro I've ever heard. From Polonius.
Dan Ilic 21:42 Well, man, then my next question is, is it awkward follow up. You know, I've only spoken at once before I've seen you speak to lots of groups in online forums. Dare I say you seem a little dangerous, if not a little unhinged. Is that a fair assessment?
Saul Griffith 21:57 That's just we've had a pandemic for a little while and the long hair and the beard resembles the unabomber is purely Coronavirus, side
Dan Ilic 22:05 effect. All right now the audience that listens to irrational fear. They're pretty smart. They've lived with the climate action journey for over a decade. So I want to talk with you about big bold ideas. First of all, I'm kinda want to start off with personal responsibility. You know, in the climate activist world, there's kind of a policing around the language around personal responsibility. There are a lot of folks that say that personal responsibility isn't the problem, the whole notion of the carbon footprint was kind of designed by the fossil fuel industry to kind of put the onus of climate action on the user, are
Saul Griffith 22:36 they right? I'm very sympathetic to the argument that there was some conspiracy and denial from the big fossil companies, and that it's their fault. But I don't think we should allow ourselves to not understand our role in it. I find it peculiarly interesting that we have divestment campaigns from Peabody coal, or from bhp or from the direct producers of fossil fuels, but we don't have divestment campaigns for Toyota, or Ford. Because they're those corporations. Even though 2% of the world's emissions go through an engine that Toyota built or an engine that Ford built, we don't really want to blame them, because it's just too close to our own personal driveway. So I think the the sort of failing of this logic, can be saying that why draw the boundary at the machine, the machines that dig the fossil fuels up instead of drawing the boundary for the machines that we own, that burn the fossil fuels? That's it, I think it's not easy. It is still today, not easy for an individual person or household to like, have all the solutions and and be a perfect upstanding citizen. But I would like us to recognise that, you know, we just done the numbers for the US and it's very similar in Australia. About 42% of all of our emissions are decisions that are made around our kitchen tables. If you include our small businesses, it's about 65 or 70%. Because around around your kitchen table, you decide what fuel goes in your car, you decide what fuel heats your house, what fuel heats the water in your house for your hot showers, you decide what fuel cooks your food, and you make your similar choices in small businesses, what runs the small business, heating and cooling systems and do they use petrol or electric so we actually have a shocking and surprising amount of power and in some respects, collective responsibility. That's not to blame us all for not making the right decision. Because, again, you have been doing a tonne of this work in the last few years, but like, still not quite economically irrational decision for a household to go fully electric and fully decarbonized you feel have to be in the very wealthy or the Zealot category. This might be it why there's Tesla lovers and Tesla haters, because the Tesla is this solution for the point 1%. The reality in 2021 is it costs you 10 or $20,000. More for the electric car than the gasoline equivalent for a few $100 more for the electric induction and fancy cooked up instead of the natural gas one, that $1,000 more for the electric heat pump heating systems. So as long as I like to think that if you can, if you can afford an Audi or Mercedes, you're playing a fucking hypocrite, because I could just make you could just have buy a Chevy Bolt electric or Toyota electric and, and the other things with the extra 20 grand you spent on your Mercedes. But for the rest of us, it's still a year or two or three away where the electric car production gets big enough that they're cheap enough that the batteries get cheap enough for the side of the house that the solar still gets cheaper and cheaper. But we're right on the cusp now.
Dan Ilic 25:59 I feel that myself. This year, I bought my first car in 20 years. And I bought a secondhand bought a secondhand car but I was really looking into an Eevee I don't have any garage or any way to plug it in and house. But at the same time I was like well maybe I can get an event you know charge at the Westfield or wherever we're down the beach where I where I live. But still just the price is just maybe 20 grand a little more than what I could afford. But I can feel like this car that I've got now is going to be the last internal combustion
Saul Griffith 26:32 you definitely want to make bumper stickers that are this is this is my last guzzling piece of shit.
Dan Ilic 26:39 Let me let me write that down. Do you mind if I put that on the irrational?
Saul Griffith 26:42 Not at all. I'd also like you to make one that's like my heat pump is hotter than your gasoline.
Dan Ilic 26:50 One No One says that sincerely sorry.
Saul Griffith 26:53 But you know the reality now in Australia. I had these numbers yesterday. The it's the upfront cost. That's the problem, which is this is part of the reason I'm trying to get in there and to your point kick political butt is if I was driving a mid sized Australian car right now, at Dollar 50 a litre it's about 12 cents a kilometre. In the if I did an Eevee a mid sized Evie. Charged off the electricity grid test cost me about seven cents a kilometre. And if I was charging that, Evie off my rooftop solar, it's one or two cents a kilometre. So you would get that money back, it will just take you five years. So what we really need is financial instruments to help everyone afford this future. And that's the type of thing that you need federal governments to help with.
Dan Ilic 27:47 And this is nothing new, like federal governments have been doing this for things in the past.
Saul Griffith 27:50 Oh, absolutely. You know, and the one way of looking at this for an economy is this giant real estate, one of these games, because we have such explicit economic policy focused around on helping people afford the suburban everything. The house, the home, and we sort of around writing all their mortgages that has precedent that was actually really began, curiously enough under Franklin D. Roosevelt, when the Great Depression had caused 20% unemployment in the US in the 1930s. Much the majority of the jobs were lost in the regions and they were construction jobs that were lost. And they realised they needed a stimulus package that would put people back to work in the States. So the US federal government invented the 25 year mortgage, it wasn't the thing before then before that the reason a lot of people lost their homes in the Great Depression is they had a five year mortgage with a balloon payment. When you get to the end of the five years, you either had to come up with all the money or renegotiate. So everyone lost their money, lost their homes, because and that was a great scam if your brain scan anyway. Imagine like, I actually think about it this way we think about great inventions of the 20th century and how much they change their life.
Dan Ilic 29:09 No one ever talks about the mortgage,
Saul Griffith 29:10 the mortgage, like changed, everything changed the patterns of urban development. And so is the whole thing how we do schools, like everything was on it. And actually, the more even more interesting piece of that history is that it was based on the car loan that was invented by a guy called Alfred P. Sloan. Because Henry Ford was very religiously conservative and didn't believe in usury or charging interest on your car. So you had to buy your gold on. You had to give Henry Ford your paycheck for 18 months and then he'd give you the car. Right Alfred Sloan came along said Well, I know you want the car today, why don't you just give me your paycheck for the next 18 months. And GM after that went from 10% market share that's 60% market share over forward in like three years. It's completely flipped the market. And it was that model of you know buy now. Pay Later that that became the the model of the interest rate in the US. Basically that means that the US government is subsidising and giving infrastructure quality financing to the household. So the suburbs are infrastructure. So we need that kind of thinking because we've got to upgrade all of our homes to decarbonize.
Dan Ilic 30:22 Now it sounds, it sounds like we're really close, it sounds like there's like only a few years in it in terms of when decarbonizing our homes is going to be more expensive than it becomes the only kind of option because it's far less expensive. How long is that runway? Like how long have we got before the tipping point is where we're putting in sustainable homes becomes much more efficient, much more cost effective than the business as usual,
Saul Griffith 30:47 the really interesting political problem of your question is, it's a little bit longer than the timeline, we have to keep our global temperature on it to you, there's an easy way to say that there's a concept in academia called committed emissions. That is, you bought a car last year, you just told me that car will emit it has a committed emissions for next 20 years is burns petrol, somebody who bought a natural gas power plant last year, that power plant will commit emissions for 35 years, etc, etc. The machines that exist on the face of the world today will emit enough carbon to take us to 1.8 degrees. So that's why you hear people say we should retire cold early, because they're the worst emitters. And maybe that'll bring us down to 1.7 or 1.6. You still end up in this situation where starting tomorrow, no one can ever buy. petrol or diesel car, again, instal coal plant natural gas, if you want to stay on that very rapid path for one and a half ish degrees, so that obviously we you know, the world only created about 2% of the vehicles last year were electric, that's not nearly enough, right? That's not 100%. Because we want everyone to buy an electric car tomorrow, the industry isn't even at scale,
Dan Ilic 32:07 we're stuck straight, like it needs to happen, strategies
Saul Griffith 32:10 haven't straight away, but at best with a wartime level of effort. And that's like really heavily investing in our industries to make all the solutions you can imagine maybe it's starting in about 2024 2025, like, we spent three or four years really full on.
Dan Ilic 32:25 Great. So all we need is like another six more catastrophic weather events to get us engaged into doing something great.
Saul Griffith 32:33 What I'm trying to say is like, but now that you can see that the economic shift, in the end, we really think about Australia as if I could loan you the money in 2022, or 2023, to buy the two, two electric vehicles to replace the two cars in your driveway, electric heat pumps, your hate electric heat pump, water heaters solar roof, a big one battery on the side of your house, you would be saving a few $1,000 a year on all your energy costs. But I'd have to loan you at that point 30 $40,000 more than you'd otherwise be spending to do it. The crossover point where it's cheaper at like, not only when you're using it that when you go into the store to buy it is probably more like 2027 2028 we wait until then we've blown through too many emissions to hit any of the targets you want.
Dan Ilic 33:24 So a lot of folks who kind of criticise your work, they kind of say, well, masks is fine. But the reality on the ground in terms of politics is different. How does that change? So how can you see that changing?
Saul Griffith 33:41 Well, I think you don't change reality. And still you start changing the storyline and you start using some characters as well as sticks, right? And we've really only had the stick narrative for what to do on climate for the last 50 years, which is stop this stop that no, and largely it sounds like we're gonna rip your middle class existence away from you, and you'll live in a cold, small house with a bicycle?
Dan Ilic 34:07 Well, it just depends where that house is, if it's in Sydney, I think I could live with that, that'd be fine.
Saul Griffith 34:15 I don't think that's going to work for everyone. So I think you can now tell with a reasonably straight face that, you know, we should be able to give people an even better existence they have now with cleaner air by largely just substituting out electric machines for Walker fuel burning machines and for riding with electricity. So now governments have an optimistic story that they can tell. And you can show that it's going to create more jobs than it destroys by a big margin and you can share now that the economics are going to work for the house the now the economics may not work in 2021, but they're going to work in 2025 if we make the right policy choices now. So you got to got to we need genuine leadership in the in the tradition of like what political leadership really means.
Dan Ilic 34:59 Okay, All right. Don't get too excited about leadership.
Saul Griffith 35:04 What? You know, if you have no hope you can have no hope you have, you have to try and lead these horses to water and help them discover that leadership for themselves.
Dan Ilic 35:16 You're in Australia has been living in America for 25 years. Is that really? What's it like to kind of come back to Australia and be kind of around this kind of leadership we have here versus the Biden administration from I know, I understand you doing some work for at the moment? What's that? What's that kind of disconnect? Like,
Saul Griffith 35:33 you have to also understand that I went through two Bush administration's and a Trump and Trump administration. Yeah. I'm sympathetic to republicans and some of their traditional conservative ideals, but I'm not sympathetic to crazy unwarranted wars, and whatever trumpism is,
Dan Ilic 35:52 I believe Trump ism is a policy based on names.
Saul Griffith 35:55 I mean, that's, I think politically, I'm saying I'm probably a centrist swing voter, to come back to Australia, it a few things, it strikes me that it's way more corrupt here than it was when I left 20 years ago. That is, like just as shocking, the nepotism seems to have been dialled way up, or maybe because I left when I was 19, or 20. I just wasn't old enough to be the benefit of a lot of nepotism yet, but I'm sort of I'm seeing it now. I'm a bit worried about the trend. For sure, we seem to have gotten the civil service. And so I think we used to have a really strong civil service here that really believed in the country and and what was best for the country. And I think we've eliminated a lot of those institutions. That gives me pause for concern. I think the best best government happens when they are well advised by unbiased independent organisations. And I think that's historically what the Australian civil service did on climate I think were doing terribly across the board. So I don't have to point a finger at any particular party here. No one's doing a great job. I am helping the White House and the buyer administration on as I describe it, hand to hand combat with the natural gas industry and and trying to figure out what climate policy you can do. And so I've been watching from the inside a lot of the the three and a half trillion dollar spending bill and the trillion dollar infrastructure bill and watch that sausage get made have introduced electrification legislation with Senator Martin Heinrich and have been doing work with Senator Sanders and Schumer just really helping them with the numbers and making that up and what sensible policy having seen it from the inside the US the collection of Biden policy is not yet sufficiently ambitious to avoid two degrees. So you'll hear a whole bunch of announcements and everyone will declare success but as an engineer and climate nerd, I can add up the math and the commandments are not yet commensurate with the reality but it's a huge step and then ambition brings more ambition. So here's the thing and we helped the the this administration alone, like we are on the cusp of this transition where the economics get better on the good side on the on the Luke Skywalker side and they get worse on the Darth Vader side. The fascinating about Australia is we win first week, the be the luckiest country if only we wish to be the cleverest country. We have the mildest climate we have compared to the US we have high cost of retail electricity we have high cost of petrol we have high cost of natural gas that's basically because very big small population big countries spread out or geographic displacement
Dan Ilic 38:51 of everyone so
Saul Griffith 38:52 and then we've already Wait You know, if you wanted roughly that what ROMs was success you'd you need this country to exist Australian rooftop solar policy, Norwegian or Californian electric vehicle policy, and South Korean or German building heating policy heat very heat pump centric. If you could create that country that country wins. And so as Australia at least as one out of three, if these other two we would you know shooting competitor like five years before America, we would we can do it. And we
Dan Ilic 39:30 what's what's preventing those other two what is like absolutely preventing, you know, he pump policy and car policy as
Saul Griffith 39:37 well that he policy is pretty good everywhere here except for Victoria, who were really clean to natural gas for heating homes, that there are even state programmes in Victoria that are improving so I think we're totally trending in the right direction. The Australian vernacular building vernacular embraces what's called a mini split system which is a reversible it can heat your house, it can cool your house It's economic. So we kind of on the right track. There, we just need to make sure that we never let a new home be warmed, painted with natural gas going all the way electrically on electric vehicles. I think its culture was fragile white male egos, and just the lack of visceral experience of electric cars that is screwing our electric vehicle policy but
Dan Ilic 40:26 so well, if if we haven't if I have an electric car, it'll ruin the weekend. I'll have no more way. If you don't have an electric car, you'll ruin all weekends. Reva in perpetuity Yeah.
Saul Griffith 40:39 But yeah, I've now owning my fifth electric car. And I own four in the US I bought a used Nissen in dV 200 which is like a Nissan LEAF extruded upwards as a as a minivan. It's obviously six sexy car and I love it. When we drop it. It's dropped them in school in it because it was a like a showroom demonstrators as a giant electrical plug on the side. The trauma isn't on my shoulders. I
Dan Ilic 41:09 mean, this is this is your kids, where they go to school in San Francisco
Saul Griffith 41:13 Bay, like here in Austin. In America, we had like the first few electric cars we had could barely do 100 miles and that was an inconvenience. And occasionally we'd be stranded by a highway. But like the last electric car we had in the US was a Chevy Bolt that we leased. It was extraordinarily cheap to own and operate. It had a 290 mile range, which is 450 kilometres ish. And we never even went close to exhausting the battery. We could drive to the mountains go skiing. So the future has arrived. We just haven't let it arrive in Australia. And I don't think enough people would have had the experience. I love this guy on the internet. There is like taking coal miners for drag races. And then Tesla.
Dan Ilic 42:00 Daniel Blakely, he's been on the show, we've had him on irrational. You can. Daniel, thank you. You're doing God's work. He'll be pleased to hear that he should dress or asked me to take you for a ride when locked down?
Saul Griffith 42:11 Absolutely. You know, well, actually, he's a curious thing. So I'm actually totally I speak carburetors a native tongue and like I sort of part of me, black belongs at summernats. So I'm a little sympathetic to this. I earned some pretty cool vintage cars. There in America. And in Australia, it's the same the putting a battery on the side of your house is enormously expensive, because you have to pay the permanent costs and the regulatory costs and it has to be fireproof, and all that stuff. And so you're spending 13 $100 a kilowatt hour for 10 kilowatt hour battery. So it's like $15,000 for this thing. I can buy a $15,000 battery and put it in my 1916 one Lincoln con continental and we'll have five times the capacity of the battery on my house to house so I'm really into this idea that your luck your your vintage Hot Rod toys,
Dan Ilic 43:01 becomes the better
Saul Griffith 43:02 Yeah, even better in Australia is like, Yeah, and I live near the coast and like everyone in Australia since I left has bought a jet ski. And I hate jet skis, I have my father's philosophy that jet skis should be absolutely legal, you're just not allowed to turn them on until you're a mile off. Sure. Because the noise is intolerable. But electric jetski turns out to do an hour of full throttle, which is what you can do with their 10 when they've got about a 40 litre gas tank, it native data 100 kilowatt hour battery, which would be about a $12,000 battery. But then your jetski is your house all battery all your toys become your thing.
Dan Ilic 43:42 This is a dis absolutely genius idea for getting around regulatory red tape. It's fantastic. And if any, if anyone's like my brothers, they've got a jetski, a motorbike, a second car all sit in the garage doing nothing if put batteries and all those
Saul Griffith 43:58 geeky powers. See you then take the battery out from the budget for the household, which is like the practical budget which is fine. Yeah. And you get to put it in the toy budget which is irrational.
Dan Ilic 44:13 Alright, so we spoke a little bit about your two different approaches, you know, the the political approach. Let's talk about the bottom up approach. Like you told me we were talking about these people now want to talk about middle class parents who've got a house and have got all the toys. What would you say to them about kind of their own personal responsibility? What should they be looking at to kind of get on this electrification chain training? I
Saul Griffith 44:35 think a little bit of this question we answered earlier like what is the schedule you have to do this? I think we imagine that we all have to be perfect tomorrow. Right? But what none of us can be perfect tomorrow. And the average water heater lasts about 12 years the average heating system split system last 15 years the average car last 20 years in your driveway. You know Your average roof last 20 years. And so I don't, I don't think we need to be incapacitated with guilt, we just need to understand that we should be preparing and saving our money. So every time we make one of those consequential infrastructure of your life decisions, and there's a small number of them, were ready to do it electrically. Or if you're about to buy a new house, take out a little bit of extra on the mortgage and retrofit that house. So it's all electric at that moment. And that's how you'll get the cheapest finance and you'll be on the right path. So I think it's, you know, for the average punter, it's recognising that you are part of the politics. If you ask the government collectively, to help enable this, the government will make the regulations make the costs drop, the government will help the industries expand, they're making the right things and the contract the ones that mean the wrong things. So become political. And then prepare to just make sure you know that the bumper stickers are all true. My heat pump is better than your furnace. My This is my last petrol powered car and prepare to like retire them. No, no, no, the
Dan Ilic 46:09 bumper sticker is this is my last gas guzzling piece of shit. That's what I used to speak carburetor. Now
Saul Griffith 46:14 I speak electrons, volts. Yeah. And I think that's, I think he got it said the expectations are reasonable. And you probably won't get every household on that plan. But you know, if we do realistically need to get 80 90% of households on that plan, the challenge for that really, is not so much for the top 20 30% of households that will be able to afford it. There's enough disposable income. I think, if you're really honest, the big, big hard problem here is, you know, the low and middle income homes where it's a real stretch, they're going to need and they probably don't have perfect credit scores, etc, etc. So I don't really see a solution other than the government stepping in to help with various finance products and rebates and incentives to help everyone get there because it's the it'll be the ultimate issue if only the richest 20% of people can afford this solution. So the political risk is we'll make it a wedge issue, the political opportunity is for the party that figures out the right set of policies, the electorate will go there because it means they're going to have cleaner air in their house, they're going to have cleaner air in the suburbs, they'll have safer children now. And you know, the future will be saved the week all over the weekends.
Dan Ilic 47:33 Well, the Australian Government is very well renowned for giving money to poor people and never asking for it back. So I think I think I think it'll be totally fine with this government.
Saul Griffith 47:45 Yeah, I think, always a challenge to the storyline here. And it's just the fundamental chain challenge for the solutions to climate change. They they all cost less to operate in their lifetime, but they all cost more upfront. That's why you have to figure out institutionalised systems for making affordable for everyone. And that's why I gave you those analogies that the car loan and the home loan.
Dan Ilic 48:07 Let's talk about grids for a second Professor Hilary bambrick. On my patreon asks, so many barriers are put up against residential including proposals to introduce feed in tariffs. Do you think suburban micro grids are the way to go instead? if so how can we get there? residential solar, she's talking about
Saul Griffith 48:24 you even more than residential solar. So imagine that I electrify your home professor, and very likely you go from using, again, I actually have the numbers at my fingertips, about 13 to 14 kilowatt hours per day, the average Australian household, if you electrify the 1.78 cars in the driveway and you electrify all the other loads, they'll need about 34 kilowatt hours. So two to three times more delivered electricity to the household. That's if you're doing 80% of your vehicle charging. So the number your mileage may vary literally in this case, but we're going to need two to three times more electricity to live it. There's some good news about that, that means the cost of distribution grid will go down because it's putting more electricity over largely the same network. But we're not really gonna make it all work unless we've deployed as many batteries as we can on the House side. So that's enabling the cars and the household battery, even the appliances and other heating systems to act as storage.
Dan Ilic 49:25 Is that kind of the metric like as many batteries as we can like is that this is kind of when you think about building a house do you like look under the floorboards and go there could be a good spot there for Yeah, we
Saul Griffith 49:34 just finished building your house in San Francisco, which I'm going shortly going back to the US to sell because we found out that living in Australia is NASA. And but we went to the extent that we made all of the heating systems into storage so we can or two days of heat for the whole house in the basement and five days of hot water in the basement in large storage tanks. That was my is much much cheaper than battery storage, we also have a battery on the side of the house, we have a 20 kilowatt solar system, which is enormous we, we did that because we're designing for the winter minimum, not the summer minimum. So that really so we will be nearly golf during the whole year and because we were building new houses, some feel easy to do all that. So you definitely need very, you know, I call it greed neutrality to, to conjure the ideas of net neutrality, which is old packets of data are equal on the internet, you can't prioritise one or the other. I think we need great neutrality in Australia. So it doesn't know whether you are origin any energy or Jane Smith. in Cornwall, you get treated the same with your electrons, the solar success stories, and everyone he knows it and there's rooftop solar is proliferating. The literally the cheapest electricity in the world is Australian rooftop solar six cents per kilowatt hour after financing, because it's installing at 95 cents a watt and being financed at 5%. It's crazy. To put that in perspective, the average cost of electricity in the US grid is about 20 cents Australian, the average,
Dan Ilic 51:14 whoa, that's like more than three times,
Saul Griffith 51:17 yeah, the average, the average cost of Australian electricity is 25 cents a kilowatt hour.
Dan Ilic 51:23 So our normal electricity is like five times more expensive,
Saul Griffith 51:28 and then your rooftop size of salt. So really, and they know that the grid operators will complain Well, if we have too much rooftop solar, then we're not going to balance the grid at noon, because all of it it's on and they will have under voltages and over voltages. And they're going to give you all of this reason to not do this project now. And we're writing a memo, which is Australian electricity market operators currently writing these rules, it's doing it I don't really know. But it does not seem to be going in the right direction. We have to be writing these rules now that anticipate there'll be two electric cars and every one of those driveways, the electricity demand is going to go way up. And we need all of those assets to be allowed to play in the electricity market in order to be able to balance this solar and wind heavy grid. It feels weird that AMD is doing that
Dan Ilic 52:13 they're usually really good on this kind of stuff. And it seems like a departure from the narrative that they've been kind of building upon over the last year. Do you know what that is?
Saul Griffith 52:22 I think you're fine. By no means are emo doing the worst in the world. They're doing okay. But there are certainly players putting their thumbs on the scale want to say it sold say I'm politically neutral. I'm Stanford. Bad agents politically, who are putting their hands heavily on the scale, favour locking in coal and natural gas as the source of that greed, also, while preventing you from having electric cars, because it's pretty clear that that's how you make this all work out.
Dan Ilic 53:00 Yeah. Doesn't that make you incredibly frustrated to be in this country and seeing that happen? I'm really circumspect
Saul Griffith 53:06 because I've been in this game for 25 years, and I've seen every country fail hugely. And I'm watching the country that apparently we're all thinking is doing great. Fail a little bit right now, the US is doing pretty good, but not great on this stuff, right? And they don't even have a national energy market operator in the US. It's like left up to the state. So you have a hodgepodge of insanity. And you're in California, pg&e is anything but a good agent. And they basically have them an outlet, so you're not the worst in the world. And emo has done some good things, I think their sandbox programme so they could run some of these experiments was good. But now is just the time to declare the future is coming, we can see it. Right? The problems everyone wants to be technology neutral and still have like, but maybe hydrogen or or tadpoles, or guinea pigs will we see the argument about tech, we know which technology is going to win at this point, given rooftop solar is going to be electric vehicles, it's going to be batteries of every kind, including thermal storage. And then the problem is load management because Australia gets to the finish line first because we have the cheapest rooftop solar in the world. We get to develop all the technologies that tie the grid together and then we get to sell that as technology to the rest of the world because we go first I know let's shoot ourselves in the foot and not have that success story because interest large lobby groups with special interests.
Dan Ilic 54:26 Now is it true I read I read in the Washington Post profile you've got yourself a thermal storage in your backyard you got a six foot hot tubs you should a hot tub so
Saul Griffith 54:35 I could tell my own solar instead of I don't even I wasn't even going to wait for them to take my net metering. I decided to take all my rooftop solar and make a hot tub to help me with my arthritic joints.
Dan Ilic 54:51 So you actually you don't put any energy into the grid. You just kind of hate the hot cheapest
Saul Griffith 54:57 storage I can do is just take in you know any Aren't you I've got a little simple control system. And anytime I'm over producing, dumping, if the, if the car gets plugged in to charge a charge the car car is not plugging up.
Dan Ilic 55:11 Great. And what does that run? Is it like a little Raspberry Pi, or you got a stroke betta system?
Saul Griffith 55:16 Actually, there's a little, you can buy a little Wi Fi enabled plug that just goes over the electric plug. And then there's a pretty fabulous open source set of software called home assistant.io. And you can, you can make it sort of, even with my terrible levels of programming ability, make it work good enough.
Dan Ilic 55:35 I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to kind of that thermal storage. When you say that's thermal storage, other than being used as a hot tub? Can you can you reconvert that storage into electric, or I just know that I'm gonna want to have a hot tub today. Alright, so I want to ask you a quick question about, you know, your work and trying to be as effective on the largest scale, you can be with the other lab, you know, out of San Francisco, you know, it's just a group of really dedicated people doing interesting things. But you've worked at such high levels with that small group of people. Did you ever think, you know, our main my mates in San Francisco would be able to have this kind of effect across so much from our little office in San Francisco?
Saul Griffith 56:21 I didn't. And I think actually, this year has been really educational to me, because I've pretty much spent my whole life in. I'm a tech nology person, and then work on things I believe in and care about. And so we've done a lot of impact in big solar and big wind and hydrogen oil and a lot of things and air conditioning systems. But this year, he's a funny story for years. So when I was marrying my wife, before we were married, I was like a political climate is not heading in the right direction if it was, like 2007 or something. And like, if the world isn't moving in the right direction by 2020, can I become an eco terrorist? Because like MIT PhD, I understand infrastructure systems all week, I can build robots that couldn't make it and stuff, pipelines and coal trains and the whole thing and she's, you know, 2020 was years and years and years away at that point, she said, No, no, you absolutely, that's fine. If we haven't done enough action by then. Anyway, 2019 came around. And obviously the world hadn't done enough. I was like, hey, wifey. If I become the plumber next year, and she said, No, you have an 11 year old and a six year old, why don't you take the year off to do politics and see if you can work inside. And the lesson is actually quite beautiful. How much done you can get with volunteerism is really amazing. And then, with our experience in the US, we started an organisation called rewiring America with a an entrepreneur colleague, and we sort of built this lobbying organisation as though it was a tech startup, I think there was some good lessons there. And that was the right thing to do. But the real lesson is impactful. And I think I want everyone to hear it is like, if we hadn't showed up, large sections of the climate policy wouldn't have been written. There was no one in that swim lane. Like what the people don't. What we don't recognise is that in most Western governments, we've guarded the civil service. And policy has to come from somewhere policy doesn't get written by a civil public service very much anymore. Policy gets written by whoever can afford to show up, you know, afford to show up. It's the natural gas industry, and it's the oil industry. The only other people can afford to show up can afford to show up because they're free, or they're volunteers or they're passionate. And so we've had an outsized impact with a tiny, it really does feel like the, the rebellion from Star Wars, tiny set of poorly dressed people with what the equipment has been out of fight toe to toe with the most powerful lobbying industry in the world, natural, US natural gas industry, and we've won a few battles. And I just, we just need to do that on global scale. Like, you know, there's absolutely no fucking reason at all to be optimistic about our trajectory on climate. Except for what my mother says to me, and I kind of really believe that she's like, the middle class parents have awoken from their slumber and they're angry because you're screwing their children on like, I actually feel like there's a whole bunch of dad bods. And like, you know, finally hippie mamas who are just like ready to fucking rumble now. And I just want them all to feel fully engaged and like, you know what, you only need three of you to show up to a city council meeting, and you can change the rates, the electricity rates, we just got it. We've got 150 years of regulations written for fossil fuels. We got to undo it all in five years, and it's going to take an army of like People with a few spare hours from the middle class showing up to the right hearings becoming a voice, you know, everyone writing to their local members like, honestly, I want pro I we want electric vehicle charging in this parking lot and in front of the school and next to the church and we want this, we want that and then show up to the meetings and make it happen. Like the army that needs to be built in one or two years here is the army in the middle. That's been unheard of in this debate. so far.
Dan Ilic 1:00:29 This is the so called quiet Australians. Is this what you're talking about here?
Saul Griffith 1:00:32 It might be it could, it might be exactly what I mean. Anyway, my kids in the sixth grade at the at the local public school, which is just your magical public school looks like it was built in the 1950s. In the Australian, you know, it's it's 100 yards from the beach. It was amazing. The term assignment last year was design a sustainable house. And, you know, my son being my son tells us the my boy, I've got to take a project into the school tomorrow. It's got to be I don't want to do it at all. And I go well, okay, well, we have to do something, you got to build it. So what do you want to build? He's like, Well, can we do a floating city? Because really, I don't like cars that much. And they kill all the wombats and I love one beds. And then like, we killed me for sure. Why don't we just have no suburbs and we just build a floating city. And then we sat down with your calculation. As it turns out, if you build 12, giant 12, Hindenburg is four times bigger than Hindenburg, you could leave all of the suburb of sorry, we made a car. And it was, you know, duct tape and, and knock of pain. It was awful, but kind of cool. And I was really proud that he had this concept and the boldness to go and deliver this weed thing. Anyway, as we're, we go to drop him off, and you got to help him carry his UFO in the class. And every single other you could tell every single other project had hundreds of nervous parent now is engaged in it. And they weren't perfect architectural models of exactly the house that they currently live in with solar cells on the roof, chicken coops and electric cars. Yeah. And it told me something really profound, like I will absolutely go with you and, and having a sustainable Australia, but it needs to be in the house that looks a lot like the house I currently own. And it needs to have cars that are shaped like the cars that I currently own. And you know, okay, we'll have it all out a chicken coop?
Dan Ilic 1:02:34 Are you trying to say there's a lack of imagination? No, I
Saul Griffith 1:02:36 actually think we've got it really good in the quiet a stranger quiet because they've got it really good. And they don't want you to take a really good way. And we can't sell a climate we've had such a successful cultural war and campaign on the negatives that will happen to Australia, if we went for solving climate change, as opposed to you know what, I can give you that chicken coop, I'm going to give you an even bigger solar system than you think. And there's going to be two shiny electric cars, and you'll save money. And there'll be an extra $2 million in the 2 million jobs in the economy because Australia has such prolific renewable resources and such low population density that we are the natural foundry for the world. And instead of exporting black rocks, we should export crushed red rocks in the form of steel, which is what we used to do, and we should not give away our bauxite at a you know $100 a tonne, we should make it into aluminium and make $1,000 a tonne. And if we do that, you know, we can in fact be the luckiest country like there is no country as well set up to solve this problem. And I think because we are the luckiest country, we also have a little bit of moral responsibility to show the world that it how it can be done and be the good news story. Right? I just desperately would love gold at Glasgow. Right? We want to win all the fucking Olympic medals. Except for the one that counts. Oh, hang on. Before we told you guys
Dan Ilic 1:03:59 go I was want to share with you this. This video I made
Unknown Speaker 1:04:02 a message from the quiet Australians. Hi, i'm john citizen of the quiet Australians. You may have heard of us or maybe not. We're very quiet. For too long. We've almost been silenced. But no longer. It's time for us to speak up. Roughly speaking. Why do we play? Well we believe whatever it's politically comedians believe in. This includes economic growth at all costs. dispatchable coal power franking credit credits, quarterly tax cuts, trickle down economics, fracking, land clearing and getting refugees locked up indefinitely, like Jesus would have done. Also, if you can't afford to see a doctor, you should die. Public Education shouldn't be privatised. So should the army and we believe that politicians are undervalued and underpaid. Why are we so glad you asked because no one would want to be advocating pursued like this, but the quiet Australians aren't alone. We've got the backing of the silent majority is Matt Ryan Terry's Jenkins, president of the solid majority
Unknown Speaker 1:05:25 Thanks for that glowing endorsement to raise the quiet Australians were so quiet. It's almost like we don't exist.
Dan Ilic 1:05:38 Now let's talk about cop quickly. We've got a couple of minutes left. And I just wanted to get your position on cop like, what would you like to see happen for Australia's climate ambition, a cop?
Saul Griffith 1:05:49 When we say a couple of things. So I read the 30 494 pages of the IPCC AR six report. And because that's the kind of thing I do, I read the footnotes. And what's really distressing is the two best scenarios is B, one 1.9, SSP. One 2.6, the technical nicely scenarios, they both model in more negative emissions mid century than is probably economically or physically possible. So even our best case scenarios, as presented by the IPCC, are now kind of unrealistic. So the urgency is even more urgent than you think. Because very likely those negative emissions won't come in to say that day, we shouldn't be banking on it the way that the politicians who go to cop will be banking on those emissions. So if you asked me for best possible outcome for cop 26, would be and I think it's, it's not impossible. And I actually think you could nearly get everyone here to make this possible, you have to believe it's not it's possible until proven otherwise. But like, Scott Morrison goes, when it gets around his turn, to speak, which will probably be lost because everyone's already thinks we're hopeless on this issue. He says, You know what, we have been hopeless on this issue. You know, what, we have been responsible for more than our share of emissions. And we've been a prolific exporter of coal and LNG for so long that we sort of have a burden. But you know, what I've looked at this, and I've had my best people look at the economics for Australian households. And we've had it backwards. We've not been embracing the future because we've been scared of losing our coal industry. But what I now know to be true and understand is that every Australian household will save money and will have a healthier citizenry and will save the prolific costs, what the money every dollar you save in the house, I will save $1 in the healthcare system, because we won't have children with asthma because they growing up in our home heated with natural gas or using natural gas stuff. And I promise to you the world that we do that by 2030 because that's possible in Australia. And we will electrify our households the vaccination against climate change is electrification. And just as we did with our lockdowns, we went hard and we went early, and we're gonna go hard, and we're gonna go early on climate, as well. That 10 years will buy us enough time that we will invest in our industry because we are the exporter of note of iron, aluminium, uranium, copper, we're going to add to that lithium, silicon, other precious metals. And we will more than pull our way in the 2030 2040 period, as we decarbonize our whole export industry, which will be doing the world a service because we will be providing you with the green metals that will help you rebuild your electric infrastructure that solves climate change ahead of even the most ambitious schedule under the ssps and that is a believable story that is an achievable outline.
Dan Ilic 1:09:05 Wow that was that was great Did you if you written this up in like Comic Sans double space font for Scott you're gonna give it I was going
Saul Griffith 1:09:12 to write it in Sharpie on a n cap all caps on a piece of paper and put it in front of the teleprompter. So that is possible right and that is what we should be doing and it is in fact good for everyone it's good for us it's good for the households it's savings in the suburbs jobs in the region's it's, it puts us back in the good graces of the world's nations for not being a planet fucking hypocrite. So until that doesn't happen, I want to believe that that's the outcome. And if Australia did that, you've already seen it right Germany and there's a whole bunch of car companies will eliminate petrol cars by 2035 then became 2030. And then England's like alright, 2025, right. So ambition is gonna begin More ambition if Australia could come up and say, You know what, President Biden, that was pretty good, but we don't know what serious looks like in this battle. This is serious. This is, you know, we got more to lose than you we have the Great Barrier Reef, right, we we know, it's written into the name of poetry, Sandow and country land, you know, rugged mountain ranges. And it's tough and it's hard. And we're going to get tougher and harder than anyone else with climate change. So I want you to step up to the ambition level that we just set, and we will lead the world and we will show you how to do that. The electricity market rules that make this possible, for example, will will run that experiment for the world. That is what we can do and that is what I want. And so right now I'm largely just offering myself to all political persuasions to help them you know, I've done the numbers and the research and I can show them the rigorous analysis and, and, you know, try to win some hearts and minds with PowerPoints. I know it didn't work that well for Al Gore, but it's got to work on one eventually, right.
Dan Ilic 1:11:04 Yeah, yeah. Well, so I don't want to hear your your backup options for cop 26 because I'm so bored by the best possible scenario. Thank you so much for joining us on greatest moral podcast of our generation. I followed your work for about 15 years since when I was on hungry based researching, you know, Mark unipower back in the day so it's a real honour and a privilege to have you on my podcast all those years later. straight back it was super fun to thank you
Unknown Speaker 1:11:29 for your listening to the greatest tomorrow podcast about generation
Dan Ilic 1:11:35 saw Griffith there was a great conversation. I really liked it. I don't know if you could tell. I really enjoyed that conversation. super smart guy tried his best to get politicians all over the world to bend towards science. Now you can learn more about soul because you got a book coming out October 12, electrify and optimists roadmap to our clean energy future. It's going to be published by MIT Press. So October 12. Put that date in your diary. Give yourself a reminder to get a copy of electrify should be able to get it we're all good books are sold Big thanks to Roe marks the birth of foundation lindo and of course, Jacob brown on the tepanyaki timeline. He is a master craftsman. He is the reason rational feet always sound so top shelf. Thank you very much, Jacob probably the reason why we are ranked 97 in the best podcasts in Australia. Soon we're going to be 95. And when they change everything for us, please, if you do enjoy these chats we have on the read is more a podcast of our generation and irrational fear. Head on over to our Patreon. We're currently sitting at about 2000, which is great, that covers the costs but I would love to start, you know, earning money from this myself and you know, making this my full time job and also employing a whole bunch of other people as well to work on including comedians and producers and video people and social media people. This is going to be a great enterprise once we hit that $10,000 mark. So please head on over to patreon.com forward slash a rational fear. Also, you know what's great about it is if this becomes my full time job, I don't have to take a job as a management consultant and nobody wants that. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next Friday for a rational fear hate Franklin is going to be on that show. So it should be fun. Bye
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Dan Ilic 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the Bertha foundation. Good evening, Louis. Good evening, Daniel. How are you? Oh, man, I'm okay. You know, it's um, you know, I didn't wanna bring it up, but I can't not bring it up. It's day 69 of lockdown in Sydney. 69.Lewis Yeah.
Lewis Hobba 0:17 All right. Yeah. And you can eat out for two, but not three, because that's a breach of the COVID condition.
Dan Ilic 0:24 Yeah, that is true. Hey, I'm pretty excited about this show, because we've got a couple of quite a few great guests. But also, we might even hear from you and Billy Joel, a little bit later on. That's exciting. Sure,
Lewis Hobba 0:37 yeah. Look, listeners of the podcast of the last month would have had that one of my many lockdown crises was buying keyboard, a piano for children. And let me say this Dad, I can you imagine a world in which an adult who decided to learn piano would quit after a short time? Is that a thing you could imagine would only end up doing it for a week. Obviously, that's not what happened to me. I've been very diligently practising every day, but unless a man unless a man may have just played for like three days and then quit.
Dan Ilic 1:06 We can't wait to hear you play Billy Joel's Vienna at the end of the show. So stick around for that. Please don't. Please don't Oh, you could just skip the end. It's a podcast. by recording my end of irrational fear on gadigal land in the eora nation sovereignty was never seated. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 1:21 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra COMM And section 40 of our rational view recommends listening by image your audience.
Dan Ilic 1:34 Tonight Joe Rogan is diagnosed with a Delta variant and COVID-19 his next podcast will offer the virus some advice on how to become the alpha and Australia Post. We'll suspend parcel pickups for four days due to having 500 staff self isolate. The pause in the service is said to cost the company as much as several Cartier watches and trade Kelly is reportedly not upset that he's receiving unsolicited phone calls from 1000s of people he texted on behalf of Clive Palmer. He's upset that those people are using 5g phones. It's the third of September 2021. And it's the 69th day of lockdown. Nice. This is a rational fear, irrational
thing Hello, welcome to rational fear. I'm your host former Joe Rogan experience Dan Ilic. Let's meet our female guests for tonight. Our first guest was one of the very first people to come watch a rational fi live at the FBI social back in 2012. Since then, he's gone on to be one of the most successful musical theatre performers this country's ever seen. It's Rob Mills, he Mills thanks so much for having me on the 16th day of Sydney's lockdown it's good to be here.
Lewis Hobba 2:54 I love the way that intro daddy implied that somehow meals he coming to our podcast is what spurred his success.
Dan Ilic 3:01 Well, that was my next question is music How did watching irrational fear all those years ago inspire you to become so successful?
Unknown Speaker 3:09 Was the what not to do? I think I loved it. I've loved it from day one. I'm so glad that it's still going to show because I think it's it's so it's so fun and reverent and, and very thought provoking. So congratulations to you guys.
Dan Ilic 3:25 The way you say that you're talking about Yeah, I feel like you're talking about irrational fear. Like you're hoping to book us into an old person's home so you know it's great.
Unknown Speaker 3:34 I mean, if they'll have you allowed anyone in at the moment my dad said that Dan he his son, the gates locked in the in the zone the gates are locked at
Dan Ilic 3:44 the moment. And she's done more home delivery to celebrities houses than a doordash worker in double Bay. It's the Rockaways herself is Julie's hero
Unknown Speaker 3:53 Hello everyone. Oh exciting. It's like we're at each other's houses I'm beside myself.
Dan Ilic 4:00 We're gonna talk about this later on. This is what we do for self care now we just you know, get our friends on the podcast Yeah. But Julia you're more than a friend you're a you're a Patreon member of the show you're a paid up supporter,
Julia Zemiro 4:12 I have a Patreon I you know what I didn't even know what a Patreon was had to look it up I didn't quite do but they did they get it wrong as a patron. I don't understand. I've got a couple of patrons. I've got indigenous x and I've got bread Goldstein's film to be buried with and you Dan, because I love you and I also got irrational fear out Louis and your good self came to the Adelaide cabaret festival a couple of years ago bits rose. We wanted more politics in cabaret, because I don't know. It seems like a really good place to have politics and cabaret. Not just songs about you know who you're not in love with anymore. And you were amazing. It was so good. You just so fulfilled the brief. Thank you.
Lewis Hobba 4:52 I do remember Julia. We're about 30 seconds into our show after our short deadline cabaret festival. One there was a guy in the back In the room, and he stood up, and he flicked a feather bow around his neck. And he said, That's not a cabaret. And then he laughed. And it was one of the greatest moments of my life. I love controversy. It's one of the top two storm outs we've had an irrational fear shows in its history was the first one. It was splendour in the grass. We were doing a show. And it was like day two and a half. And everyone obviously is just has been on whatever it is for so long. I people actually come to the tent splendour in the grass to like chill for a moment. And we started doing jokes about politics. And someone literally just stood up in the crowd in the middle screamed at us. Oh, that's good.
Dan Ilic 5:46 That's excellent. I totally forgot about that. And, of course, our last few motors Louis harbour. Well that Louis. Sorry, I skipped my intro a little later on. We're gonna be talking to Lee and man show who's going to be starting her own political party so she can run for the Senate. But will she get enough people to register? That's the big question. But first here is a message from our sponsor this week, Harvey
Unknown Speaker 6:09 Norman is giving $6 million dollars of job keep her cash by Kadena huge huge, huge public pressure as all my credibility went out the door during a pandemic our profits increased by half a billion dollars selling furniture electrical and bedding $13 billion worth Not to mention $22 million dollars in free job keep no strings attached. But we're kidding. Oh 27% of it. Wow, that $6 million $6 million that the government can spend on car parks or sporting sheds and swing electrodes in the hope that the Australian public will lose interest in the hobby normally, speaking of interest, we've kept $16 million interest free. Australia has been telling me to go Harvey go Harvey go fuck myself. And that's what I've done just a little bit.
Dan Ilic 7:06 My instruction was we need a few more cuttings in that sketch, and that will really sell early. What's the limit that you can have in escape? It depends on how many Patreon supporters we got. So we had a few more this way to come in so we could afford a few more cuttings. This week's first few coalition MPs want more school chaplains to help children suffering mentally due to alarmist climate activism? Yes, there are a few there are a few MPs in the Liberal Party who decide that apparently, you know, climate change and get up and extinction rebellion, really robbing children of hope when it comes to climate change. And the solution to that is more school chaplains. See mungus Is this the solution? Julia?
Unknown Speaker 7:53 Andrew, I think you're the one robbing the young people of Hope you're your party. Now. Look, I looked up Andrew Wallace and him and I both theories. And we're about a year apart. We're about the year apart. I say this because he talks of growing up in the 70s and 80s as I did with the threat of nuclear annihilation, so he knows exactly what he's talking about. And I can't just say that I think the thing that the thing with the threat of nuclear annihilation, he was still a button that someone had to press that you could close a door and you could lock it. Yeah. Climate change you can't get away from it's literally right there. So I think it's a bit different. I don't think it's the same. And rebirth in Aries for you. You know, he's always a little impulsive. He might be on the cusp. She might be in your Taurus. Anyway. But no, I think chaplains won't be helping what have happened to social workers. What about him? The good counsellors could bring a school counsellor in to chat to kids. It's not
Lewis Hobba 8:50 Yeah, it's wild. I like did you guys have school chaplains? Now I went to a normal school.
Dan Ilic 8:56 I went to a Catholic school. So we had we had brothers, priests, nuns, Jesus, you know, where the whole thing you know,
Rob "Millsy" Mill 9:02 went to public school Louis, and we didn't have anything we had. Who was who was often my mom. So like, Oh, that's what you get into public school. Yet someone's mom growing up, right?
Lewis Hobba 9:15 They should raise funds for more mums, just
Unknown Speaker 9:19 the support. There's a lot of people doing that in the pandemic, right. There's a lot of people locked down and just making babies that's only doing
Lewis Hobba 9:25 well by my partner's obstetricians. She's been delivering the baby boom. So she's been. She's never been busier. What a social what a social service. Jeez, that's extraordinary. Hi, look, we're all doing good whack Julia. We're all we're all doing important stuff. Well, maybe some more than others. But
Dan Ilic 9:42 I'm just pleased to hear that there's going to be another breed of baby boomers coming through to lock me out of the property market.
Unknown Speaker 9:50 I think Andrew Wallace needs to come down. I went to the climate change March, the kids did in the domain. They were extraordinary. They were there. I remember making little videos saying, you know, you can't be afraid of the word activism. You know, we're out there, you're allowed to get out and have a voice. You're allowed to join your lab to listen People to People talk. This is just such a scam. It really made me cross. When I read this, I picked up the newspaper and I throw it across the other side of the room.
Dan Ilic 10:19 know, it's interesting the comparison he makes to nuclear Armageddon, but we're actually facing as you said, we are facing Armageddon moment. And when it comes to kind of the global warming in terms of atomic bonds worth of energy, the sea is absorbing an atomic bomb words of energy, like a Hiroshima bomb, word of energy every second, that's the ocean. The ocean is dissolving that energy. So we're actually we're actually it's it's happening. It's just happening very slowly.
Unknown Speaker 10:48 Excellent stat.
Unknown Speaker 10:50 If that's if that's a real that's an excellent stat. I'm like, that's a good stat mainland. Someone made it. I made it, like put it out there. Yeah, you got you got it. You got it.
Lewis Hobba 10:59 And that's why kids are scared. You know, and I think that there's nothing better to do when there's a Hiroshima bomb per day than just have a little pray. Have a little pray and just pray.
Dan Ilic 11:12 What a great slugger to have a little prior. Right all the way every time. It's the plan.
Lewis Hobba 11:19 I think we need to get a gas plant in every school. I feel like that, you know? Yeah, every school gets a gas plant. And then the kids can just look at it and know that they will die, but they'll have a very brief moment of employment. get kids to stop squaring off Rakoff. Miss, you know, yes. Come on. We did have a chaplain at our school, and I was not religious. My parents were so anti religious, they wouldn't let me sit in any religious classes throughout my entire education. So they pulled me out of all classes, the shovel that we had gone to a school down the south coast well in Shillong in Victoria. And so everyone there was a surfer and our chaplain was a mad surfer. So I reckon he actually like, though I if there's if I can put my hand up for one chaplain, and one chaplain only was the one at our school, who I reckon would be the first guy on the picket line, like out on the in the domain in the protests just being like you putting her rashtra we're in one of our oceans. I want to go surfing, unless the surf gets better for it, so
Dan Ilic 12:22 he might be for it. There was also another cool surfer who, who could surf the waves of the Dead Sea. His name is Jesus. He could walk on water, he didn't need a surfboard. He was
Lewis Hobba 12:35 hanging 10 commandments baby.
Dan Ilic 12:41 Like, so I feel like sometimes these Christian groups speak on behalf of Christians, regardless of whether actual Christians believe them or not like the Australian Christian lobby came out last week, to say that to Colin supporters to not fear death, and instead push the state governments to end the COVID-19 lockdowns like this is what the ACL said like this is the same people who basically put the country through enormous pain but to have a marriage plebiscite. Okay, marriage privacy. It's the incredible hypocrisy of that anyway, I, I thought I would resurrect no pun intended, an old group that I'm the executive director of to send a message. On behalf of all of those people. I represent a message from the Australian lapsed Catholic lobby. Today, I'm Dan Ilic, the executive director of the Australian lapsed Catholic lobby. And I just want to say that as the group that represents the largest sector of Christians in Australia, lapsed Catholics, we think the only way to give hope to children for their future is to take meaningful action on climate change. And statistically The only thing that will harm children more than climate change is an exponential increase of chaplains in schools. So please, when it comes to emissions, net zero by 2030 and when it comes to chaplains in schools, gross zero by 2021. spoken and authorised by Dan Ilic for the Australian lapsed Catholic lobby camera. All right this week second fear Craig Kelly has been sending text messages to pretty much everyone in the entire country. I don't know if you've seen this people 1000s of people will ever Australia's been getting this text message. You can never trust the liberals labour or greens again. Authorised by Craig Kelly united Australia party click on this link to follow I know whatever what happens you click on that link Have you any of you received this text message yet? Fear mongers lawyers, you've
Unknown Speaker 14:30 got it? Yeah. Can I quickly jump in Louis. I know you've got this but my candidate really liked Tom and I'd like I've been I've been booty called by Craig Kelly. And this is very light tones.
Dan Ilic 14:46 I mean, it's fair to say your booty call days are over there behind you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally. I'm in a very committed relationship. Yeah. Is there a politician out there that you would you know exactly. Probably not Yeah, you probably would never send it to me but Penny Wong does it for me.
Unknown Speaker 15:05 I definitely get received one from her no problem I turn except if she booty called me I would just want to sit quietly on a couch somewhere and just nurse a little glass of rose a and
Lewis Hobba 15:16 I feel like you wanted a skald you go tell me I've done something wrong.
Dan Ilic 15:24 That's funny. Yeah, I
Lewis Hobba 15:25 got mine. I got my butt. Obviously. I got mine because I sign up to all of Craig Kelly's email list. I I love it. I love to hear
Dan Ilic 15:34 your news. urina you and his telegram group to to download to get some in in hydroxychloroquine of course. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 15:41 yeah. I'm on the I'm on the waitlist for ivermectin. Absolutely. I'm the first through the door. You know if you can take ketamine you can take ivermectin. I've been training but I've been training for horse level drugs my whole adult life.
Dan Ilic 15:55 Now, here's the thing, apparently, you know, everyone's up in arms about this. And they're they're taking it to achma acuras had hundreds and 1000s of complaints about this text message. But apparently, political parties and charity groups are exempt from the Do Not Call register and are allowed by law to send it to you. It's under the Act called the spam act of 2003. The spam act of 2008 basically legitimises it we've got we've got on the Facebook who's deserves better is watching us on Facebook right now the Craig Kelly's electorate hello yes
Unknown Speaker 16:29 well done. I came into Hughes you doing very well. Yeah, I am. I got mine on a Saturday and I was like, come on, mate. That's a bit early anyway, I just I did reply get fat just in case he got it.
Dan Ilic 16:40 So this this kind of story is moved a little further down the line. So Ben Eltham who is a journalist at the new daily he said on Twitter Look, here is Craig Kelly's mobile number. This is the number send him a text if you like. And Warren mundane SPS board member put out a tweet rage fighting him saying you are a C word what a disgraceful human being you are. Now when I read the article, that was Cray that Lauren Monday was going to take a break off Twitter for calling a journalist to see what my immediate reaction was, well, you know, journalists can base a words I'm sure. I might as well go and have a look at this story. And when I saw the story, I was like, no, no. Ben Eltham is a national hero. That's fine.
Unknown Speaker 17:27 I wish I'd gotten found and I would definitely have sent him a text. But yeah, that is quite. I mean, do people think sometimes before they tweet, I mean, that's quite something to have said that. I mean, did he not think he's on a board?
Dan Ilic 17:43 It was a it was a wild tweet, like totally lashed out. Changing your mobile number is easy these days. My dealer does it all the time.
Lewis Hobba 17:52 I'm gonna get a new message from Craig Kelly just being like guys new number save this one is Craig. Some crackers shit coming through this. I got I've got heidrich I try to crash the car. Yeah, make sure you get your orders in before nine. The new curfew is doing a real hard one for
Unknown Speaker 18:11 somebody. Okay, peace, human rights in the circumstance that appears to be the opposition party, Labour Party, the National the greens, your fear is rational.
Dan Ilic 18:24 Alright, this week's third here, like we said at the beginning of the show, you know it's day 69 lockdown in Sydney. You know it's or day blend tea blouson of lockdown in Melbourne. I can't I can't remember. This kind of stuff is taking its toll on everyone and Rob Mills emails. You are in Victoria,
Unknown Speaker 18:43 Victoria, and Victoria now. We've been almost a whole year in lockdown. So
Dan Ilic 18:50 how are you feeling mentally? How's it all going? What would you have some tips for us to deal with lockdown. This is time round down.
Unknown Speaker 18:57 I have some tips. I saw this. On the internet the other day, it was an isolation wellbeing checklist. So I'll just run through them. It's pretty it's actually really simple. Number one, shower very important to medication if you need it. Three drink water. For a clean one thing or one space in your house.
Dan Ilic 19:16 I have to say that that is a great tip. I cleaned up my entire office this afternoon and I was ready to go. I was like you know I'm pumped to write something now made me feel really good.
Unknown Speaker 19:27 Clean space, clean mind. Next 10 something like 10 to something growing or living to have a pot plant that you can look after. Be mindfully present to maybe it's a song or a sound, a sensory feeling something that you see or, or spiritual practice. Reach out to a human outside your home. Do one thing to get your heart rate up. Do one thing that you'll be glad you did later. Do one thing just because you want to and get in at least one good laugh. I this thing is really it was like the simplest, most beautiful checklists. You are And everyone loves a list who doesn't love love ticking off the list?
Unknown Speaker 20:03 Can I add you know what I'm missing? I'm missing swimming in the ocean. Well, you know what, go with me. If you have a really cold shower for about a minute, and I mean you, you you Yelp and you'll have a lot of that going on but I felt amazing this morning after a minute under the cold shower. Man who put a spring in my step. I felt like I've gone for that quick, deep.
Unknown Speaker 20:25 Yeah, it is the greatest cold showers in the morning hot showers at night.
Dan Ilic 20:29 Every time I imagine mosey in the shower, I have to go have a cold shower. That's kind of my therapy
Unknown Speaker 20:38 I've been doing I've got regular I've got regular check ins with different friends at different times during the week we just check in go Hey, guy, we have a zoom for half an hour. And so we don't talk about COVID all the time. We usually try and watch a film or something and then debrief so we just talk about the exciting show or film.
Dan Ilic 20:56 I've got a surprise for you Julia right now we're gonna settle in and watch Robin Hood's from Disney the animated feature. So kick back, relax. What were these crazy kids get up to enjoy? Is it the moment Russell Crowe member we know the animated one the good one did you do?
Lewis Hobba 21:17 Something involving Russell Crowe was not the best of anything. Not in my present. Come on my
Dan Ilic 21:22 I was up early this morning at 4am. And I said I said on Twitter, I should go to bed or Russell Crowe replied No stay up and work. So I'm gonna stay up and work. All right now it's not for Hang on a sec. Right around the country. They're locked down freedom fighters being arrested by the cops in a crackdown to stop the kind of protests that we've seen kind of spring up. Occasionally over the last few weeks. There's a bit of a new trend to as these freedom fighters being arrested by the cops, they like to livestream their arrests because I don't know maybe some kind of self assurance thing that they're not alone, I guess. Anyway, here's a great one from this week. This is from Monica Smith, who is a major figure in the conspiracy theory lockdown world in Victoria. She runs reignite democracy Australia. This is her getting arrested and her live stream. Here it is.
Unknown Speaker 22:15 I've just been pulled over by the cops. Probably because I'm outside of my five K's but um, hang on a sec. She's outside of the five K's. Do you know why she's not scared? Because she wants to audition for survivor. She is absolutely bald. Bald and you should watch that audition type. It's pretty bad. No wonder she didn't get in.
Dan Ilic 22:35 Is that legit? Is that legit?
Unknown Speaker 22:37 Oh, yeah, it's there. And it is really quite a terrible audition. I mean, I wish I had I could have gotten my hands on her and gone mate. Come on. Look up presents, buddy. Relax. Get in there. And she keeps saying I think I'd be good contestant maybe I wouldn't maybe I wouldn't if I got to the end. Well, then I deserved it. I mean, she makes no sense whatsoever. So yeah, but she was she was gonna try and get into survivor. She says she would have had a very good social game.
Lewis Hobba 23:01 Oh, now she's an invented her own version, which is just COVID so she just walks around in ignoring all the roles and buying it off life.
Unknown Speaker 23:09 Yeah, just fine. And so I just thought I'd put the live stream on just in case. That was stupid. Oh, hang on a sec. Hang on. Hang on a sec. I'll see you believe in seatbelts beat up believe in a jab. Okay. She's not even moving. Okay, she gets
Unknown Speaker 23:34 out. moment we need to have a chat to you. That's our motto. informant. So I need to place you under arrest for that. Okay. At the moment you're under arrest for incitement? You guys been following me in my reporting? centre.
Unknown Speaker 23:50 Hang on a sec. Look at that lower jaw that real? Oh my god. Mom,
Unknown Speaker 23:58 me What you doing?
Dan Ilic 24:01 The question have you guys been following me? Yeah, they're the police and they're pulled you over to arrest you for incitement? Of course. They are. Yes. They have been following you like how they know everything about you put everything up on Facebook.
Unknown Speaker 24:15 Yeah. Isn't it possible that she's actually they'd like, yeah, we'd be following the live stream. We love it. We just want to get your autograph because
Lewis Hobba 24:23 we really think you should have been on survivor hard.
Unknown Speaker 24:26 She's auditioning for something again, that's for sure she has she moved back just to get little a camera readjust as well so that you understand that comment.
Unknown Speaker 24:37 Please share this video as much as possible. Monica Smith.
Lewis Hobba 24:43 Hang on a sec. I guess the haggis is sort of Monica Smith like just using yourself in the third person is using a lot the media
Unknown Speaker 24:52 they will know Marty Smith. on her website she describes herself as a self Describe journalist.
Dan Ilic 25:01 Well, exactly. That's exactly who are a lot of these people describe themselves as self described journalist that says that I am so I am. I am. Anyone with a podcast can become a self described journalist like us. I just said it makes it sound like more of a lunatic. So, yeah, she's self described. So then it gets weird sometimes because you know these protesters, they start to kind of make sense in their own kind of way. Here's one from Queensland about the potential truck blockade in the Gulf Coast. But then it turns into something much, much more. Hey guys,
Unknown Speaker 25:42 just a quick video down the beach. I'm going to make a quick because I keep talking and I run out of time, so
Dan Ilic 25:52 he's running out of time because he's on tik tok. So there's like a two minute limit that's running out of time. If he just not
Lewis Hobba 25:59 done that intro, he did save 10 seconds like
Unknown Speaker 26:02 word economy crosspoint to max Egan, and he went down and had a look, he couldn't see a blockade on the like south of Goldie. But he did say that there was no, I gotta make
Lewis Hobba 26:14 sure we know who makes that again is friends with Monica Smith. Yeah, he rolled out who max Hagen is.
Dan Ilic 26:22 Come on max agan auditioned for the greatest alien bakeoff, didn't you? Yeah. I'm gonna Google him and see who he
Unknown Speaker 26:30 got the traffic coming northbound. So it could be there. It might not be it might say on Google Maps, it's saying there is some sort of blockage there. So maybe it is maybe the media is just blocking it all out.
Lewis Hobba 26:41 Hang on. Hang on a sec. He literally said he went down and looked and it wasn't there. And now he's like, it's definitely not there. I've seen it's not there. But maybe the media is blocking the media can like put up a screen and hide a blockade? Is that what he thinks the media is like an invisibility cloak from Harry Potter.
Unknown Speaker 27:02 I've just googled max again. He's got great videos such as we can't let them get away with it. And the universe had a bigger plan for me. And is this what the Great Awakening really is? So Max said no. Yeah, Max word.
Unknown Speaker 27:15 With Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts and stuff like, Can we are we sure we can trust these politicians? Are they just playing both sides?
Unknown Speaker 27:27 Nothing rather than Pauline Hanson are on the same side. So also, yeah, did I know they technically politicians, but they're not. They're not
Lewis Hobba 27:36 apologists.
Dan Ilic 27:39 Just like did Malcolm Roberts and Pauline Hanson he's idea of who our politicians and who, who they shouldn't be trusting. And all of a sudden, it should be. No wonder these people don't know what to think anymore. He or
Unknown Speaker 27:53 she was the one that told the blockade to move on for people. For the people, you know, and I get it's inconveniencing people, but they were all inconvenience. So you know, I think having the power in our hands was a good idea. But are we really sure we can trust these politicians? I mean, are they just playing us? I mean, Malcolm Roberts, I mean, I really liked them. But the more time goes on the more or less, the less I trust them like, tricky, tricky from in Brisbane, a friend of mine, he's
Dan Ilic 28:23 Oh, hang on, hang on, hang on, not shaky, not tricky. Mills II remember tricky. Oh, man, I wouldn't put a pass someone named melzi to know someone called tricky, that's for sure.
Unknown Speaker 28:36 Pauline, and she didn't want to talk about conspiracies since he said is this being as used as a front to bring in a surveillance state? She's I don't wanna talk about conspiracy. So you know, why wouldn't if she knows about it, then why won't Why don't you say anything about it? Because I've heard her in in senate talking about agenda 21 and stuff. So can we trust these people? Are they just playing us? What's going on?
Unknown Speaker 29:01 Is he doing a bit lucky? Like, I feel like I've seen someone do this about someone like I feel like he's so good at what he's doing right now. But he's legit, right? This guy's
Lewis Hobba 29:12 if you close your eyes, he sounds like there is a very wonderful comedian who does impressions of these people called Greg Lawson. And the only the only version of this I've actually ever seen is Greg Lawson's version. And I've never really seen the real one and I just need to say if to Greg Lawson or anyone who has a chance to speak to him. Now I realise how good his impression is like, this guy sounds exactly like fucking Greg loss and it's why lead
Dan Ilic 29:36 dead on that is so that is so perfect. That is Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna do that from now on.
Unknown Speaker 29:42 I don't trust him at all. And Craig Kelly, he's the one that posted fine that brocade has gone ahead. And if this hasn't gone ahead, can we trust this guy to you know what I mean? I've noticed he's joined up with Clive Palmer. So, you know and bangs on about ivermectin. Yeah, sure. ivermectin. But, but yeah, so
Lewis Hobba 29:59 I met him. Yeah, I mean we all know it work so move on.
Unknown Speaker 30:02 But I'll keep you posted about the Truckee blockade. I don't know what's going on and if it's going or not going, but there's definitely no confirmation so yep,
Unknown Speaker 30:10 hang on a sec. who's who's watching him just to check in on his, his ramblings like he's the trucking blockade update who's going? Who? Lucky we got some eyes and ears on the ground. They're lucky like it's it's taking two minutes now of him rounding disease. Nothing's happening. Okay, besides that, who's yours who's using his
Unknown Speaker 30:33 irrational fear? What is shotput mean to your talk? Everything. I'm gonna go into Brisbane normally 44 years of age. And after this country logo anzacs did shut up with Scott Morrison. This is a rational fear. Our next
Dan Ilic 30:54 guest joined us last year to talk about changes to the environment protection Biodiversity Conservation Act. And as part of as part of her role at the Australian Institute. Well, she's had enough of being in a think tank and now she wants to be in a do tank. She's running for the Senate next election in a new party called the local party. The only catch is will they get enough people to be able to register. Leanne Michelle, welcome back to irrational fear.
Unknown Speaker 31:19 Thanks, Dan. Thanks, Julie. It doesn't really matter. Because I'm a self described politician. So say I am so I am. I'm under your election. Yeah, thanks.
Dan Ilic 31:33 This is a big deal. What's happening right now the federal government is wanting to rush through changes to change the way the laws work. So the parties need not not 500 members, but 1500 members to register for a local party. You're registered. You've got 500 members, but the question is, can you get 1000 more members so you can become a federal party? We just lose Leanne, on that one. I'm back. Back. lands back.
Unknown Speaker 31:58 Okay, great. Oh, what happened there? I had to wait so long for you that you are dealing with the free folk of Tasmania. And we've got little boxes for like, no,
Dan Ilic 32:13 I'm sorry. Sorry. We had you on the line for half an hour. We used all of Tasmania's bandwidth during that time. I'm so sorry.
Leanne Minshull 32:20 No, I'm joking. We are. We've got a blackout, though. But I'm going to pick up on your question. Yeah, that's just gonna plough on. So we did. We made a party, the local party, it's a height as a hybrid. It's a network of independence. That's what I was looking for. So we've got the good things, all the good stuff about being independence, but put it into a party structure. So you've still got the advantages of all of the parliamentary privileges that you get back for having a party. Right. So you
Lewis Hobba 32:48 like the IGA of politics?
Unknown Speaker 32:50 Exactly. Where your local grocer, we actually launched just before the state election in in Tasmania, they called a state election four days later, and so we couldn't get registered. So I'm hoping that history won't repeat itself because it is a bit strange going out there and saying, I'm going to run for the Senate. If you're not above the line in the Senate, if you're not a party, it's almost impossible to get elected. And at this election, the sixth seat in Tasmania will be between Jackie Landis' office manager, Eric kuebix. Because he's third on the ticket. And me if I can get myself above the line, so only Tasmanians can help vote Eric out. But everyone in Australia can help them get us above the line by joining the local party. So I can have a really good crack
Dan Ilic 33:36 is a really interesting way of framing that show there are plenty of people particularly You know, I think you could find 1000 ABC employees who would become members of the local party to get rid of Eric a bit. Well, let's quickly talk about the local party. What is the ethos? What do you stand for?
Unknown Speaker 33:55 Well, as I said, what we're trying to do is to change part of the structure of party politics. So at the moment, I don't think anyone would argue that it's toxic. It's pretty misogynistic. It's distant. It's very much an insider's club. And I try to make it local again. And we're doing that by having rules of the party like every member gets every elected member gets a conscience vote on every single piece of legislation. So there's no party line to follow. Because I think what we need at the moment are politicians who can speak their mind and vote their conscience, not just follow a Tiguan that someone gives them in the morning
Dan Ilic 34:33 is a kind of a it says it sounds like a con like a party of independence. Is that is that is it
Unknown Speaker 34:39 is it is but what holds it together and why we decided to go down this route, rather than just go for independence is that the party system is really entrenched in Australia. And I think we've got to do more than just get a few independents in, although I back getting them in. We actually hope that this starts to change the way that party politics is done, so that it's a killer. To deal with people who want to come and govern and have some overriding principles that hold them together. And the people who are getting this are the young people, it's particularly men, and it's men sort of 55 plus who I've talked with you about this, and they find that they just don't get it. They don't get that we actually have agency over the way that our political system works, and that we can change it. And all we have to do is choose to change it. And the thing that holds the one concept that binds all of the people together, all of the elected representatives, when we get them together, is that they have to hold to citizen juries a year. So you have to make decisions for your community in partnership with them. Not in consultation. Like if I make a decision about what happens in the house. I make it in partnership with my husband. I don't set up a consultation process. Yeah. So that's what we should be doing as politicians and it's what we should be demanding as communities and Australians. You guys were talking about Craig Kelly before, so I clicked on the link because I got the text. Took you the anti Vax stuff. Yeah. What time did you get it? What time did you get it? Ah, like, Yeah, he was pretty cool than me too. Sorry. Yeah, I clicked on it and went through the anti vac stuff. But the actually the important thing about that is because the got the rules have been changed. They've put it through labour and liberal voted for it. And they sort of fast tracked a lot of the normal parliamentary conventions as well. And they're doing it just before an election. Like it just sucks. Like if you really want to change it, change it after the next election. But anyway, one little rule I kept for themselves is if you've already got somebody in Parliament, then you don't need to have 500 members. What exactly Thank you, and that's so you can
Dan Ilic 36:49 lose memory you can like lose members and still maintain your spot.
Unknown Speaker 36:54 I don't I don't reckon the Northern Territory country Liberal Party who've got 500 members just quietly. That is such hypocrisy.
Dan Ilic 37:01 I've never I have no idea that that
Unknown Speaker 37:04 was a rule. That's just crazy. What that is why Clive Palmer has gone along to Kelly and said, Hey, mate, do you want to be the head of my party? Because he's already in we instantly gives karma party status. Wow. So they didn't change that rule. They left that one in surprisingly and Kara how many is he got? I remember when Cory Bernardi left parliament, although for the liberals and he or whoever he was with, and he started up the Australian Christian lobby, and he was a party and he had no members. And how I know this is because one of my friends stole my iPhone one day and signed me up to the Cory Bernardi fan club.
Dan Ilic 37:43 Yeah, I joined up to the freedom emails to Leanne and I think they were about I think they published like four emails in a year. They gave up
Unknown Speaker 37:54 anyway yet. So that's how she did it is. That is crazy. So this is why I think we need more than just a few good independency thing. It's also by the way, I mean, I you know, I am running for the Senate. If I can get the membership numbers in but the senate the part of the house of parties, basically, you can't get in, it's very hard to get in as an independent. So
Unknown Speaker 38:14 who knows? What How can we help? How can we help you? How can we help Leanne? How can we have Yeah, can
Unknown Speaker 38:19 we tell everybody to go to the local party dotnet and join up? It's easy. All you have to do is be overwriting have to be registered to vote, and you can't be a member of an existing party. That's it. And I won't even send you four emails a year. And do it or have to be Tasman. Yes. This is the beautiful part. They'll see every person in Australia who would like to help me the throne, Eric a bit at the next day. Come on, it's too good. By just signing up for our membership.
Dan Ilic 38:52 There's a lot to be said for getting regular folks who aren't professional politicians in the past. Yes. I mean, yes, do Yes. Let's let's remember Ricky Muir. We all made fun of him when he first got him because he was part of the motoring enthusiast party he got in and a quirk of quirk of like, voter preferences. But he was one of the best senators that we ever had in the Australian Parliament. And it was incredibly who's incredibly progressive, thoughtful, and always, he was always on the on the correct side of every judgement in his mind.
Lewis Hobba 39:19 He was like one of the people who was like, here's my thought, here's my stance, and then people would come to him and go, Hey, here's what were you thinking you'd go? I've heard I've listened to you. And I've changed my mind. And you're like, Where's this is this basic humanity? humanity just wrote on that ticket. Where's the where's the humanity?
Unknown Speaker 39:39 He but also, you know, he say something like Helen Haynes is a midwife and worked as a nurse. And I mean, it's people who've actually had lives and no real people and understand what it means to suffer and not have enough. And all those guys in suits, they don't get it. They do.
Unknown Speaker 39:59 Get it everyone I think goes it most people go into parliament wanting to do something good. I think the party structures to people up and I think people stay there too long. I've worked as an advisor before, like 1012 years ago. I've got the best experience now to get to Parliament. I am a publican so there it is Leann
Dan Ilic 40:26 Landy should die should wait. So Barnaby Joyce goes there so you can get go. What about Leanne's pop? You know when they go What's on the menu? is climate change on the menu? Actually, we've got a menu made up Barnaby. We've got several choices including net zero by 2030. It's delicious. You're lovely. Leanne, thank you so much for joining us. Some people can check out the local party. And and we'll put the link in the show notes as well. So thanks so much for joining us and good luck on your journey.
Lewis Hobba 40:59 Thank you. I'll get off before it blacks out. No, stay
Dan Ilic 41:02 with it. Stay. Oh, she's gone. Stay with it. I was gonna say stay with because we got a very special thing to end the programme tonight for weeks. Lewis harbour has been talking up his ability to play Billy Joel's Vienna is a lockdown project. He's been you know, to our you know, it's great to have Mills he and Julia on to music aficionados. And so we've been waiting for weeks to hear Vienna by Billy Joe as played by Louis harbour here on the podcast that's good.
Lewis Hobba 41:32 Confident that's a confident bit of work right there already. To be beautiful I in all the years I've done irrational fears the first time I've actually had fear is fucking melzi
Unknown Speaker 41:47 I mean, I look i don't i'm all i'm not missing out. I tell you what Rob will be he picked tonight. I mean, he knew that was a nice so he's in
Dan Ilic 41:57 touch the keyboard. Without further ado, here is Lewis Hello, lane, Billy Joe's Vienna.
Want to say a big thank you to all of our guests tonight. Rob Mills emails. Julius mirror. Leah menschel for the local party. Big thanks to rode bikes, and our Patreon supporters. Safford chrissa faccin Mary, Robin McLaughlin, Cam Amos, Steven James, the Linda Barrett, Sara raid, Kate golden. Nathaniel say, we had so many new Patreon supporters this week. Big Thank you. It really helps us keep the show going. This is great, Louis. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's a gold medal. I've turned around in my chair. Yeah. Do you guys want to plug anything before we go? Julie do wanna plug anything? I'm not doing anything. Not really. Thanks. Rob Mills emails, you wanna plug anything?
Unknown Speaker 43:28 I'm not doing anything because I'm in the arts. But I'd like to put by I'd like to plug my girlfriend's podcast is doing about the Paralympics called. Apparently it's really good. And also the other one is the Paralympics. What's the Paralympics? I've cried about million times this fall. It's amazing. It's pretty great.
Lewis Hobba 43:45 Anything, not just piano lessons. is beautiful. It was it was just a lovely weather when the show was really good.
Dan Ilic 43:55 Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Goodnight.
Ross Noble from The Ross Noble Podcast joins us from hotel quarantine in Perth for his A Rational Fear debut. As a result the podcast this week is about double the usual length, with double the jokes. Also joining Lewis and I is long time fearmonger Alice Fraser who managed to fit us in her gruelling 15 podcasts a day schedule.
On the menu this week:
Sea Snakes are having sex with scuba divers.
OnlyFans going back on their prudish promises.
The AFP's April Fools Joke gone wrong.
The ACT and NSW government are fighting over poo.
Disrupting the two-party system in Australia to get meaningful climate legislation at the next election with Simon Holmes à Court. He pops in to tells us about his Climate 200 campaign. It's
Be sure to buy one before we go to hell, or court, or jail. Who knows? Maybe you'll be allowed to travel to Mexico if you wear it in your DFAT meeting.
Cheers
Dan Ilic
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Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Good evening, Lewis. Hello, Daniel. How are you? I'm good. I was doing some work for the show this week and I discovered a list about podcasts. And we are in the top 100 podcasts in Australia.
Lewis Hobba 0:18 I would love to know what the title of that list is. We just wish were a little bit better.
Dan Ilic 0:26 Can you guess what number we were on this list?
Lewis Hobba 0:29 I mean, out of 100 I we were we in the nervous 90s? Yes. Schedule just scraped in
Dan Ilic 0:40 97. We had 97 on this 197
Lewis Hobba 0:45 everything rides on this podcast. If it's good, we could be you know, getting down to number one, if it fucks up. And this is to our beautiful guests about to join us if you fucked this up. To 100 we will come for you.
Dan Ilic 0:58 Hey, I've got a new idea for our Patreon members, I thought the next 10 Patreon members who gave us 50 bucks a month I've got this thing for the election that I'd like to do, which would be to put up plaques around the seat of cook saying on this spot during a national crisis. Scott Morrison did nothing. And I just we just really wonderful to have these plaques going much like the plaque we put out the front of engadine McDonald's commemorates Scott Morrison pulling his pants at the 2003 subarray Grand Final. But this one I thought, well, if someone gives us 50 bucks, we'll put their name on it as well to dedicate it to them.
Lewis Hobba 1:32 If someone gives us $50,000 Can we do a marble statue of just a man doing nothing? In a Hawaiian shirt? dropping a hose? Yes, yes, we'll put it we'll put it up
Dan Ilic 1:42 in Sutherland Shire, so everyone can go and pay homage to it. So that's it for Patreon, head over to patreon.com forward slash irrational fear and drop us 50 bucks and we'll put your name on a plaque too. I'm recording my end of irrational fear on gadigal land in the eora nation sovereignty was never ceded. We need a treaty. Let's start the show
Unknown Speaker 2:01 on rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra and gum and section audio or rational view recommended listening by immature audio.
Dan Ilic 2:14 Tonight, Australia's richest performance the wiggles will go broke if they go work. That's according to Matt Canavan writing in the Australian which hasn't turned a profit since 1964. And damning reports from a Catholic media organisation reveals priests in the US and the Vatican on Grindr, meaning they're receiving much more than the body of Christ and contrast released a brand new ad that depicts a world where Australians could fly internationally again. It's been so successful that it's made every shareholder cry. It's the 27th of August 2021. In a jig that DVD of the croods this is irrational fear.
Hi, welcome to rational feet. I'm your host former premier of Tasmania. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. She is the host of three podcasts and a guest on many more. She's a zinger slinger and a banjo swinger. It's Alice Fraser Welcome.
Alice Fraser 3:15 Hello, Danny ledge pleasure to be here. I mean, I'm here where I've been since lockdown began two months ago, but psychologically I'm with you.
Dan Ilic 3:25 And he's the non sequiturs non sequitur stuck in a room without any toys at all. Yes, he's in hotel quarantine. And pastor Ross Noble. Hello. Hi, how are you? fairing in in lockdown quarantine again, Ross.
Unknown Speaker 3:39 You know what I cannot be doing with these people that just go like, Oh my god, I'm locked up inside. I've done it. Now. This is what I did two weeks in hotel quarantine. I've done four weeks quarantine in my own home, as well. Yeah, I know some people struggle with it. But you could not find a human being more more equipped to deal with just being in a room that's just in their own. Family like it's one of those things where if I if I didn't have a wife and two children, I would literally just do this. I do this all the time. Why? guesting on people's podcasts? Yeah, pretty much. I mean. I know not everyone can just just beat people out.
Lewis Hobba 4:27 Yeah. Dan literally just has like a Google Alert set for Canadian in quarantine. And as soon as he said he's like, Hello, I noticed you have literally nothing else to do. Coming up. comes up on the app. This little thing where you put your thing in? alert all podcasts? Yeah, you're like, would you like to check into this hotel? Yes. Would you like to check into irrational fear? inevitably? Yes,
Dan Ilic 4:51 yeah, we've had more guests on our inner from hotel quarantine than the COVID safe app. It's actually found people with COVID And finally he's the Uptown Girl of podcasting. It's Lewis Nova.
Lewis Hobba 5:03 Hello. Yeah, that's right. I mean, boy, for a person who had never listened to Billy Joel until about a month ago, boy, but I listen to a lot of Billy Joel in the last month. It's something about the sort of dad level emotion that is really appropriate for lockdown. Like it gives you a hint of emotion. It's like a memory of emotion but doesn't actually make you feel anything which means you're in no danger of bursting into tears in public. Forever Billy Joel song. Oh, well, I'm so glad you asked I if listeners of the podcast would know that. A few weeks ago in a bit of a lockdown panic. When I ran out of things to do. I bought a children's keyboard and decided to learn piano. And so I the song I picked because it just happened to be on a random shuffle playlist at the time was Billy Joel's Vienna. So now that's probably my favourite Billy Joel song.
Unknown Speaker 5:54 Could I put forward as a challenge that you do? That you play the Ultravox classic Vienna and you work your way through all of the songs. When you get out of the quarantine party, you could do that? Sure.
Lewis Hobba 6:12 Just to Vienna.
Unknown Speaker 6:15 You never live yet you never the Vienna show in Vienna. And you go directly up against old Andrea, are you? Yeah. He's always bothering people in Vienna.
Lewis Hobba 6:31 I would love to be the guy that takes down ratio.
Alice Fraser 6:34 For every person that remove bothers there are 10 old ladies for whom he is the pinnacle of their sexual enlightenment. It's funny isn't
Unknown Speaker 6:41 it is because when an old lady dies at a real concert, to more grow in their place?
Lewis Hobba 6:50 The Andre Hydra
Unknown Speaker 6:52 but how good is how good is Renu? The fact that he managed nobody since Kevin Brody Wilson managed to infiltrate Australian petrol stations.
Dan Ilic 7:04 Like you can line up at a post office and there's like Andre rieu on DVD like who is buying Andre telling you
Alice Fraser 7:12 a friend of mine did contact juggling with you know those glass balls and he would do that basking in, in markets and the number of ladies who approached him to come and do a strip show as the Goblin King from the labyrinth. I feel like Andre was incredibly high, like put disproportionate. So I would say that Andre Rio is that for the postmenopausal demographic he has that moment of sexual awakening
Unknown Speaker 7:40 What are you've hit on there though right which and I'm sure this is all news to you. You'll know this right? But the the guy that did the the glass ball manipulation was a guy called Michael Moore Shen
Lewis Hobba 7:55 we all know emotion
Unknown Speaker 7:58 So Michael motion was the guy that was behind Bali and was doing all the stuff with the with the balls and that and that now makes me happy to think that like basically he is a Michael motion impersonator and he's getting the legs even even more shed even though the fact he was the most highly skilled. Glasspool manipulator. I don't think that's enough to get the ladies
Lewis Hobba 8:25 You're the best in the world at the only and you're the also the only person who does it. It's not necessarily that impressive.
Unknown Speaker 8:33 Well, Alice's friend does it. He's out there trying to where where does he do this class ball manipulation?
Alice Fraser 8:39 It is a markets busking. It seems to work it seems like David Bowie in the labyrinth is the equivalent of Princess Leia in the Star Wars for that generation. That's the moment of suddenly realising extra hands on an old lady's body.
Dan Ilic 8:56 Coming up on the podcast, we have Simon Holmes accord he's popping by to tell us about a cunning plan to short circuit party politics in Australia. We'll ask him if he's actually Clive Palmer in disguise. But first, here's a message from this week's sponsor. At the Australian Government, we know that coal powered electricity plants are running out of time. On one hand, they're old, expensive, and make climate change worse every minute they run. But on the other hand, the coal industry also provides critical baseload donations to the LNP. So that's why we're launching colpi. We're spending $7 billion a year to keep coal powered polluting clunkers running way past their use by data. That way the LNP can get more donations from the coal industry to stay way past our use. by date, the government could invest in new wind, solar and storage, but renewable energy is to claim to give us donations, coal keeper, a reliable source of donations at the cost of only $400 per household per year. And everyone's existence.
This week's first fear in Great Barrier Reef news sexually frustrated sea snakes are making scuba divers potential mates. Yes, a study from the Macquarie University has confirmed the reasons why sea snakes and the reef sidling up to divers and wrapping themselves around their fins and licking the water around them is because the males who have poor eyesight mistake scuba divers for females sea stakes a female Angus does this make you less or more inclined to go diving on the reef? Ross?
Unknown Speaker 10:32 Well, I mean, what an excellent excuse. What an excellent excuse. They're going for the old filthy Magoo tactic aren't really blind. I've made a terrible error. Oh, I'm so sorry. I seem to have been tangled myself. It's a me too nightmare.
Alice Fraser 10:52 continental is just a very simple form of Braille. I wonder what just two dots I wonder what? No, thank you. Please stop
Unknown Speaker 11:06 because.dot.in Morse code that's s, isn't it? So? s so it would just be a mix the sound of air coming out,
Lewis Hobba 11:20 like the sound of a regular snake and they're like, well, I'm a snake You seem to be a regular snake. Let's make this work.
Alice Fraser 11:26 I find this really positive and hopeful that even though I mean the sea snakes are saying they have bad eyesight all the scientists are saying the sea snakes have a bad eyesight. I'm not gonna put words in the mouth of the sea snakes, but the sea snakes are clearly attracted to the divers, even if they have bad eyesight. I feel like this is a positive sign that sea snakes like a bit of junk in the trunk. Like wetsuit fetish. quite quite high on the high neoprene.
Lewis Hobba 11:55 Yeah, who knew? Who knew I personally, as someone who has been in lockdown for about three months, I've never wanted to scuba dive more I just want to be touched.
Dan Ilic 12:07 This is interesting here it says the males tend to flick out their tongues. However, the most striking behaviour occurred after 13 incidences where males rapidly chased divers underwater when they swam away. A researcher said females don't do any chasing. They do the flaming during mating. So swimming away from a male snake is mimicking courtship behaviour. I don't think I've actually felt more in common with the snake ever. This is incredible.
Alice Fraser 12:32 This makes me feel like I get it. I feel a real burden of responsibility now to sort of educate female sea snakes about taking control of your own sexuality and going after what you want. I'm not sure that I am equipped to fully communicate with sea snakes on such complex matters is good sent
Dan Ilic 12:49 the rate well, so interesting about the research has said they suspect the snakes chased after divers after they failed a mating attempt. So the divers themselves are like sloppy seconds. They were just like, get there like a rebound person. It's clear that the most approaches to divers were males who'd lost contact with females that were pursuing. Oh my god, imagine, imagine how sad you are being a diver, you know, realising that
Lewis Hobba 13:12 you're not the number one choice? Yeah, it also just sounds like kind of the beginning of the El incel movement.
Alice Fraser 13:21 ancl movement.
Dan Ilic 13:24 The comments of that mirror article, there's one there from three days ago from a guy called Jonathan Wilder. It said, I was a scuba, I was scuba diving with a friend in a black wetsuit, and a seal became very interested. It was funny at the time, but it was a large animal.
Unknown Speaker 13:42 Well, if somebody it's an old joke, but you know if the he could somebody comes out of the water, what's up with your diving gear, a blue seal? You can't get a snake are rational fear. If it
Unknown Speaker 13:57 bites you what would it do? That would kill you? They're much more venomous than then a cobra. Right? Yeah, they're more of a cobra much more. Right. So so people are going swimming again, right? Your fear is rational.
Dan Ilic 14:12 This week second fear. If you listen to last week's podcast, we spoke a lot about only fans, the website that allows horny people to pay money for sexy people to show them sexy bits so you can get off and move on with the rest of their day. Well, the very next day, only fans made an incredible shocking announcement they said they were not going to allow any sexually explicit content. And they were going to demand users verify their identities with government IDs, which completely ruins the entire business model for how for very horny secret agents. Of course, users and creators have made millions of dollars on this platform and they totally flipped out and now as of today, only fans totally black back flipped on their plans to make themselves a model of decorum. So fear mongers was only fans right to backflip on on this on being totally frigid Alice
Alice Fraser 15:00 I want to talk about only fans and Pornhub. I want to talk about the whole porn industry over the whole last month because much like when you use a thing that you just bought on stage as a prop, so you can write it off on tax, I'm seeking to provide a reference point for future curious explorers that will explain my search history. And boy by researching this piece of satirical news for a long time, actually, I don't watch internet pornography, I'm not against it. In principle, I just think a lot of it is mainly geared to a very specific taste, which is to say people who are very turned on by very bad acting. And my dealer of choice for that is the Fast and the Furious movies. But it has been well.
Unknown Speaker 15:40 I mean, you can level a lot towards them. They sent a car in this space on the last one.
Unknown Speaker 15:51 When the car went off the cliff, and the plane comes in and is grabbed by a magnet. They're not in that car. They're in a green screen booth, and you genuinely believe that again.
Alice Fraser 16:07 Don't get me wrong. I am an advocate for the Fast and Furious movies. The scene in which Jason Statham rescues Vin Diesel's infant child in a baby seat, and he puts noise cancelling headphones on the baby. So it doesn't hear him killing all the people is genuinely one of the more emotional filmic experiences of my life. It's very moving that he decides Jason stage. She's like, I shouldn't be paying you for that on only fans.
Unknown Speaker 16:34 I should do that. Actually. I should do like, what is it the MSR is that what they call yourself in a bit with Jason Stephens stories. Anyway, sorry, sorry, I interrupted you different.
Unknown Speaker 16:56 Only funds,
Alice Fraser 16:57 it has been a bumper month for the adult entertainment industry. I did think about saying a banger month, but that sort of felt a bit forced and artificial. wakawaka That's what she said. First, okay. First Pornhub a couple of weeks ago launched their controversial classic nudes series. So it was sold as an interactive guide to some of the erotic art that can be found in major museums around the world, to which some of the major museums around the world objected, in particular that fitzy did not like porn hubs use of Titian's 1538 masterpiece, Venus of Urbino, as the basis of a pornographic reenactment, with the amateur adult couple known as my sweet apple. And it's a very divisive series, because the people who who like their pornography a little bit mucky, thought that this was too pretentious. And then art art history majors thought it was too inaccurate in its use of egg tempera. Then, of course, only fancy alternative to the big hubs for those who like their sexy pictures locally sourced from individual vendors, like the Boehner version of a farmer's market announced that it would be dropping adult content from its platform, not because it was being prurient, but because some payment processors threatened to withhold payment processing. And therefore, people wouldn't be able to get paid like the ancient Greek play lysistrata in which the ladies of the plot go on a sex strike to achieve a political goal. But the opposite of that if ladies were banks, and six was financially financial processing software. Of course, when only fans announced that they were going to pull out on the one thing they're famous for providing only a very small sub niche of people felt positive about being less egregiously caught blocked, and then the ones who did enjoy it had to have it explained to them that this would mean no more cut blocking content. And then they also joined in on the condemnation and then only fans has walked it back they found a payment processor who's willing to process payments, so we can all continue continue to masturbate as usual. And by usual, I don't mean to suggest that there's any normal that we should be
Dan Ilic 18:58 done yuck my yum Alice Thank you.
Lewis Hobba 19:00 My yum is in the Uffizi museum.
Alice Fraser 19:04 I think just Ross nobles impersonation of Jason Statham has revealed new depths to my sexuality that I could hit the to not suspected. So thanks for that.
Unknown Speaker 19:14 I would strap yourself in because I'm gonna directly after this, I'm gonna strip naked and recreate Rodin's the thinker.
Dan Ilic 19:28 And that is for Patreon members only so make sure you
Lewis Hobba 19:34 when they said, Oh, we can't do it because of the banks. I was just like the temerity
Unknown Speaker 19:41 bank. Have you seen anything that you've done? 1000 years since Jesus kicked you out of the place, were you thinking ever since then it's been bad, bad and now these people do
Alice Fraser 20:00 idea that any money is too dirty for a bank.
Dan Ilic 20:05 I'm worried about I'm worried about showing some cookin bowls there. But we should definitely try and get someone want more money out of that dead woman.
Alice Fraser 20:14 thing for the banks to pull the plug on this kind of content is just sort of dreadful given that a large proportion of their sort of day to day. One person income is just from overdraft fees, which is to say finding people for being poor.
Lewis Hobba 20:29 I do like that idea. I'd love to say the Commonwealth Bank had that was like which bank, the bank bank. The Commonwealth Bank has been exposed in one scandal after another.
Unknown Speaker 20:41 So you've probably heard about the banking Royal Commission, another banking scandal this week, Westpac has agreed to pay $1.3 billion for 23 million breaches of money laundering laws. This is a rational view.
Dan Ilic 20:55 This week's third fifth the AFP spent two months on an elaborate April Fool's joke that never went anywhere. We've got a wacky sense of humour. They sent an email around canvassing ideas a couple of months out of out from April Fool's. And they, they were wondering, asking the staff like, Hey, guys, how can we participate in April Fool's in the email they sent me and they said, Please keep in mind when brainstorming sensitivities in public opinion at the moment, and please consider how each of your ideas may be perceived. It's almost like they knew that this was actually going to have a FOIA request when they sent this email out. Now, according to the FBI that was published in the Crikey, one of the all that whole bunch of the ideas were blacked out, except for one, which was a parody of the infamous Canberra hot air balloon, the sky whale, except they're going to Photoshop it and put a whole bunch of surveillance cameras on each of the nipples with a little AFP cap and call it spy whales. Fear mongers is this creepy alien like creature with videos or camera cameras attached to it? would you would you appreciate this joke from the AFP, Louis?
Lewis Hobba 22:01 No. I mean, obviously, you don't want to add the AFP doing bits, you know what I mean? Like, that's, that's what I like. It would be lovely. If he started a podcast you like No, just stay in your lane. Just keep bugging Ace team or whatever it is that you do and stay out of the joke at the job business. So
Dan Ilic 22:21 two things happen after this came back they went and they the base pay people sent it to somebody in government and the government to check on it to see if they liked the idea. And it came back and they said we'd want to pitch it to them. Because someone internally at the paid thought spy whale had a bit of a negative connotation. So they changed the name to see us I wail which is a really terrible joke. It doesn't even doesn't even make sense. So they checked to the ICT government. The government said no. And the email got sent around the AFP to let people know and they said oh, we just got the sky well concept approved from our end, but when it rates the government advised us due to rules, regulations and copyright issues, we weren't allowed to do it. sadface I don't know anything about rules and regulations. But I do know something about copyright regulations. The Spy whale is perfect under satire and parody law is something we would do all the time. It's comedians. However, CSI wale is a really shitcan and just wouldn't even pass.
Lewis Hobba 23:24 The one thing I do have sympathy for. And I won't say there's done entities very often about acio. But um, it was just a draft. You know what I mean? Like, this never got to final it's never got to approval. And not all of us if someone started reading our drafts could be like, none of us. None of us have perfect first draft.
Dan Ilic 23:46 But Louis spy was pretty good CSI were was a terrible revision, terrible revision. I mean,
Alice Fraser 23:52 I absolutely have to agree with Louis harbour here. I'm adamantly against the current trend in news to give us pre news, sort of guessing what the news is about to be rather than actually telling us what may or may not be happening in the world. So I feel like this is an example of that of just saying a thing that might have happened but actually didn't happen. And we should all turn out faces from the spy whale and move on to the broad future. For me.
Unknown Speaker 24:19 I have an alert on my phone for any what I like to call blink news. And a ship any form of floating dirigible, I'm all on board.
Lewis Hobba 24:34 You know, Ross, I, I actually, you have left a legacy at Triple J that has caused me some real distress, and it is blimp related. That was it. The Nana? Do you want to explain this was many, many years ago, long before I worked there. Ross did I think he did a summer and I actually remember listening to it.
Unknown Speaker 24:54 The idea was just that I decided that it'd be it'd be a bit of a love to do some radio. So myself rasiak is what we were doing. We did for a couple of years where we deliberately went in over the Christmas holidays when the building was empty. And the bosses are Triple J, basically when you just do what you like. So we took that on board as like, yeah, we, we had this thing we I said that it's impossible to break an egg with your buttocks. And I was just joking. But it turns out, it's impossible to crack an egg with your ass. So we had people ringing in with eggs up there are, we are alive. We have live chickens in the studio. I brought in some some of my pants. And we sent four sets of pants around Australia. So like we said, Come to the studio. So bloke set up the studio. And he said, I'm driving to Sydney. So we set one set of pants that way. And then we'd have meeting points where people were meeting up in town squares to exchange the plans. In two weeks, we got four sets of pants fully around Australia, both directions up north and back onto Tasmania and back. So yeah, it's not it's not commercial radio.
Lewis Hobba 26:09 But I think whoever I are, when I first started there, my boss at the time, who's now no longer the boss, but he I think he was the boss who was there when you were there. And he loved that he loved that idea. So like nothing we could do, would ever make him as happy as that idea. And we would sit down and we would pitch him these ideas that we had great ideas, and he would look at it and be like, Can you make it a bit more like pants around Australia? Like, there's no pants? And this idea?
Unknown Speaker 26:38 I know he is he is the mistake that you made you were pitching ideas. Just think it do it. And are you talking about the nano though we got a flu or nanner interspace or something we Yeah, we had a cardboard cutout of an old lady that somebody's stolen from a mobility shop. And then we divided it up into sections on the website so people could download a full size jigsaw of an old lady printed out, put it together themselves for a graph themselves with the Nana. And then we got the original Nana structure to helium balloons. Let her go in the middle of Melbourne, and then got the listeners to ring in. We had a map and we were spotting out as she flew across. And a lot of people falling off a lot of people because obviously it's not very environmentally friendly. really sure. The plastic Nana into the sky. But yeah, so we had a lot of people very angry because they thought she was going to end up in the mouth of a whale. But
Lewis Hobba 27:43 being humped by an ale
Unknown Speaker 27:46 ended up she landed in New South Wales, we put our address on it and the later we got it back so far.
Dan Ilic 27:55 Hey guys, Mel Lewis, should pitch mode your original ideas. He's gone. Now the legacy of
Unknown Speaker 28:02 that just think of an idea. Let it come out of your head and then act on it before before anyone has a chance to say no. That's the way to live your life. Rational fear this is a rational view. Things have also ended up a little bit dirty
Dan Ilic 28:18 right now we're going to play Hang on a sec, I'll play a clip of video if you want to comment to say Hang on a second, I stopped the tape. This week's Hang on a sec comes from the AC t in New South Wales COVID update press conferences now It all started with john barilaro earlier in the week this week claiming the traces of COVID were found in the miraculous sewage treatment plants. And he blamed those traces on people from Canberra making their way to the south coast. So naturally, the ICT Chief Minister Andrew Barr was asked about asked about it multiple times. And he quite frankly appeared to crack the sheets
Unknown Speaker 28:50 and COVID fragments found in the silvija merimbula. There's some speculation that canberrans are to blame. But can I
Unknown Speaker 28:57 just say that the sign interpreter did the most magnificent signing of poo coming out and being dispersed?
Lewis Hobba 29:06 Yeah. And also the face she did. It was like it was it was gross. She was like, Oh, this is yuck. No, I know where the search fragments have come from it. I mean, there's this
Alice Fraser 29:16 Hang on a sec. I think what we need here is some sort of large surveillance thing that has maybe some sort of oversight over the whole region. Some sort of CSI
Dan Ilic 29:32 skywire with nipples, cameras attached to nipples,
Unknown Speaker 29:36 how much shit is going to be spread all over the area. If you've got a full size wheel.
Alice Fraser 29:44 Full Size wear with a black light just over the Australian Capital Territory.
Unknown Speaker 29:50 Live in New South Wales so it's just as likely to be from New South Wales. I don't think the series detection is quite that sophisticated to be able to tell whether it's a cam there and Or someone says,
Lewis Hobba 30:01 Hey, I think we need we need a sewerage some ellia smiliar i going this this COVID Oh, that's, that's good. That's New South Wales terroir,
Unknown Speaker 30:16 I would recommend to anybody in the AC t now, you know, you get those little flags that you get on fancy cheeses to particularly firms to stick the little thing in there and hope that it lasts all the way down.
Unknown Speaker 30:32 JOHN has directly pointed at the AC t as the cause of that. What is your response?
Unknown Speaker 30:39 JOHN, does john know something about the poo that other people died? I didn't know that from I mean, he's got scientific evidence that can back it up, but it's camera poo. Okay. All right. But I mean, seriously, I just
Alice Fraser 30:54 I love the rage, like the simmering rage that he has to address himself to this question is truly astonishing. I will go as someone who's not particularly enjoying this weird state versus state, tenor that the recent COVID update coverage has has taken, I sort of agree with him, but he's, he's furthering this.
Unknown Speaker 31:15 I love the fact that Daniel Andrews is. I love it. I love the fact that if you look at all of the people who are sponsored, like I'm in the climbing, if you look at all the people who are sponsored by North Face, they've got a very particular look. And yet, he is the most prominent face of North Face. All of these, all of these incredible world class climbers don't even come if you said, you said who's the face of North Face but Andrews in it. These people have claimed since they were tiny, and he's, he's done a lot. He can't even go downstairs. He cannot even go downstairs.
Dan Ilic 31:55 He should get Gladys berejiklian jacket for the about face that we
Lewis Hobba 31:59 did. He climbed a ladder of like, Oh, you know, politics is a ladder. He's climbed something. I don't think North Face are going for metaphors when I was thinking I was gonna metaphorically go into Korea. Korea is just a jacket for you.
Alice Fraser 32:24 It's waterproof. It's fire resistant. It's extremely powerful in an emotional communication.
Dan Ilic 32:30 Joining us now on irrational fears a friend of the show. He's one of Twitter's favourite energy nerds. It's Simon hams accord. Welcome, Simon. Thank you very much. Great to be on again. Now, Simon, you're this week, you've launched quite a compelling idea to imagine Australian politics without the major parties calling the shots. My question is, are you working for Clive Palmer?
Unknown Speaker 32:53 I wonder if I've got the same strategy. Certainly different intentions.
Dan Ilic 32:57 Yeah. Tell us about this big idea that you launched this week.
Unknown Speaker 32:59 So this week, I launched climate 200, which is an organisation that's trying to get us out of the stalemate that we are in Australian politics right now. So we have been stuck as you all would know, without climate policy in Australia, really, for about 20 years. It's been a political football. And it's been arguably, we've gone backwards from where we were in with Kevin oh seven. That was probably the high point of Australian political climate policy. We've seen in the last few years, the the massive opportunity with strong climate independence. So zali steggall, Helen Haynes, before that, Cathy McGowan, Andrew Wilkie. We've seen, we've seen a parliament where strong crossbenchers can make a difference. Now they won't have ultimate impact on politics until they have the balance of power. But as we head into the next election, we have, I think it's a once in a generation opportunity for independents to hold the crossbench. And in that situation, they will negotiate for strong climate policy.
Dan Ilic 34:04 That's a really compelling idea for particularly for people who want to see climate action in Australia. And I think that is a lot of Australians. That's something like 80% of Australians want to see meaningful climate action. But where what is the reality of that, like, how many seats are going to be fragile enough to kind of lend themselves to climate independent and independent, where climate is the centre of their of their of their policy? Yeah, so
Unknown Speaker 34:29 it's crazy close at the moment, you need 76 seats to to have a majority government in Australia, and that's what the coalition has right now. They also have Craig Kelly, and Bob catters vote for Labour to win the next election outright, they would need to win eight seats and even then, well, I don't know how much faith can we have that we will have a strong climate policy when when just last night and this morning if they public that they voted for fossil fuel again and again. So
Dan Ilic 34:59 yeah, a prayer In the beetaloo Basin gas in in Northern Territory, that is insane. It's like labour talk a big game, but they can't they never ever followed up with actual action. Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 35:08 mean, just this morning there was a bill. There's it's turns out that our export finance organisation in Australia's export finance organisation has been funding fossil fuel projects overseas. Wow, there was a motion put up by an independent advisory Stegall to get to release the information on which which projects were funded and tell us more about that programme. And both labour and the coalition's voted that one down. So we we need as that we had that amazing period back in 2010 to 13, when labour was in minority government with with some strong strong crossbenchers. I don't know if you know, many people will remember Rob Robach shot tiny Windsor, Andrew Wilkie and Adam bandt formed a strong crossbench that Laban worked with, and they develop the carbon price, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which is still going great guns arena, which has done so much good work bringing in renewables into Australia. So we've we've seen that the major parties when they're forced to deal with the crossbench. And even at the end of the last parliamentary term, the was the crossbenchers, that brought in the Medi vac that brought so many sick refugees back from medicine a row back to Australia. So we've seen that it works. And we are so close, just three more independent three more zali steggall, Helena and Haines type. And we wake up on election morning after election with a different country.
Alice Fraser 36:30 So I saw a question before which I would like to ask you, which is how do you know which independents are just saying whatever they will say, to get a vote and how can we hold them accountable? Is there any way we can sort of attach a maybe some sort of electrode testicle so that once they're in power, we can we can hold them accountable by pressing some sort of Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 36:52 The thing is, wait, the thing is, we know that the major party candidates or incumbents are not accountable to their community. They first and foremost always go with with the party line. I mean, were they your your Trent Zimmerman, or Josh frydenberg or Dave Sharma, you've got the same voting record as as Craig Kelly, George Christiansen Matt candidate, right? They they all vote the same way. So whereas if you have an independent, they are absolutely accountable to their community, if they don't live up to their community's expectations, they are absolutely out next time and they know it they listen, first and foremost, the community, not to any party whip.
Dan Ilic 37:33 So what is the feeling out there in different electorates that might be open to the idea of an independent? what's the what's the Zeitgeist like? What do you what do you feel like people are
Unknown Speaker 37:45 saying, Yeah, we're really inspired. We were really inspired by so Cathy McGowan, the independent member for in die, who was two terms, three terms, and then and then handed over to Helen Haynes. At the last election, I think the first ever independent independent transition. She She ran a forum at beginning of this year and had people from 78 electorates around Australia turn up to reform our code getting elected. And a lot of those communities have gone on from strength to strength they've formed. You hear all around Australia, there's voices of Mackellar voices of human voice, our voices of Kooyong, often these these voices groups, and they were they are very strong, where they found a good candidate, we will step up and help them they've got to do the hard work, they've got to raise most of the money, but we'll be in there helping them with strategy and helping them with the necessary finances to come up against the incumbents.
Dan Ilic 38:39 There's a lot of these groups out there as you say that there's rarely any independent name attached yet there's really a candidate name attached to it. How soon do you think candidates will start appearing like it has an actual game stop popping up?
Alice Fraser 38:53 takes a while for a Thunderdome to play out?
Unknown Speaker 38:58 Yeah, and that is that is going on there. There are some some communities are doing public forums in here and they've got they've been trying to run a forum COVID kid shutting it down but a forum where we're five candidates will get up in front and the community will pre select them in so open pre selection. Others are talking interviewing but look think of think about wearing the last time there was such a strong local campaign there was voices of wieringa there was a vote Tony out campaign people wearing the T shirts around town there was times up Tony there there were about five or six different groups who all were fixated on the same thing which was replacing Tony Abbott with an independent and once it was that they had a real head of steam. And they had article in the local paper talking about all these things. And Sally Stegall reading the paper one morning saw that and went Hang on. That's me. I could I could do that. And and so it's a bit chicken and egg you're not going to get a mean they're not they're not many solly stickers out there in Australia. There. There there. There are plenty of You know, there there, there are dozens of people like that who have got the whole package, but they're not going to stand up until they know the communities behind them. They've got a funded campaign. And they they're risking a lot to stand up in front of an incumbent
Dan Ilic 40:15 leaving the the candidate candidates are waiting to see momentum first before they jump in, and kind of thread ahead of the ring.
Unknown Speaker 40:21 I think you'll you'll start hearing more of these coming around about the October time frame. Right critics
Dan Ilic 40:27 of the plan would play probably say you're just going to take seats away Utah take votes away from labour and the greens and probably just give the LMP another term could you live with yourself with that ever happened? Simon?
Unknown Speaker 40:38 Look, I we will only run in strategic sets. And strategic sites are ones that are going to tip the balance in favour of climate action and integrity. I can't at the moment imagine that that the greens or or labour would lose too much out of this strategy. Think about Karen Phelps. Actually, Karen Phelps in her bio action sheet, they managed to convince a whole bunch of labour and greens voters to change their vote and put Karen first and it got her in in the by election. We did some analysis recently, that if, if just 1100 labour voters had put Karen in front of the libs, then Karen would have got back in. Right so things can be so finely balanced
Dan Ilic 41:20 1100 that is that's such a such a small number. That's like a Ross noble preview for a comedy festival shot.
Unknown Speaker 41:28 Yeah, no. politics are so finely balanced right now.
Dan Ilic 41:38 Great. Well, Simon, thank you so much for joining us on rational fear. Just quickly, a little bit of interesting climate news that happened today was that a whole bunch of bush bushfire survivors won a huge legal stoush with the New South Wales Government now the New South Wales Government. Now the New South Wales EPA has been ordered by the courts to actually do something about climate change. Is that Yeah, that was that was incorrect. That sounds credible. Shouldn't the EPA already been doing things about
Unknown Speaker 42:02 climate change? Yeah, well, well, it was it was the very first time it's a landmark case work. First time that Australian court has ruled to force a government agency to to take to take action on climate change. They've they found the agency failing to perform its statutory duty to address climate change. And what's what's great is that they compelled the organic they compel the EPA to follow its own legislation. So we don't need any new laws. Please join them. No, this is this is an interpretation. You can start you can start or you rather, you must start tomorrow. So this is this is it.
Alice Fraser 42:39 It's really hard to force specific performance in law. So that's an really landmark case.
Lewis Hobba 42:45 It's incredible. Imagine how long you could do your job before someone was like, I'm gonna get a job to tell you that you should start doing your job like,
Dan Ilic 42:54 this has been sweet. I've been getting paid for 40 years. Is it possible get the same court to get the Minister for emissions reduction to start reducing emissions?
Unknown Speaker 43:03 It wouldn't, wouldn't wouldn't be good. But look, it was only about two months ago that the environment minister was told by a court that she had, she had a duty of care to children, and she's appealing that decision. She She is taking her back to back to the court to say no, I do not have a duty of care to the future generations of Australians
Lewis Hobba 43:21 that Cruella de Vil.
Unknown Speaker 43:24 Yeah. Yeah. Well, so Susan, Susan, Susan w slay Yes. You know, used to be we used to have one escena name and now is has to because the numerology worked out that way, but
Dan Ilic 43:36 very unfortunate initialization. Gosh.
Unknown Speaker 43:42 Yeah. So so they're they're appealing that at the federal level, but hopefully, in New South Wales, I hope that Matt Kane is smart enough to to make it very clear that he's not going to go and ask the EPA to to appeal that decision. Yeah, let's hope New South Wales does the right thing. And it's Yeah, great, great start to finally get the courts to compel our government to do its job.
Dan Ilic 44:08 Yeah. Well, Simon, thank you so much for joining us on irrational fear. And big thank you to all of our guests tonight. I was Fraser Ross noble Louis harbour. Well done that was a great show. Do you guys have anything to plug Alice to unplug anything?
Alice Fraser 44:19 Yes, I have a weekly podcast called the gargle, which is a satirical news show with no politics. I also have a weekly show called tea with elsewhere have difficult conversations with interesting people. And a monthly show called The last post which is a satirical news show set in an alternate dimension all of which can be found@patreon.com slash Alice phrase.
Dan Ilic 44:38 Tea with Alice is really great this week with comedian Craig quartermaine. friend of the show, Ross
Unknown Speaker 44:42 if you have anything to plug, I do. Yes, I have these my podcasts called Ross normal podcasts myself and Ed Cavalli, and we were supposed to be talking about, we're supposed to deconstruct music videos. Well, we've done 32 episodes, I think is now we have yet to finish talking about shanaya Twins that don't impress me much.
Dan Ilic 45:07 But we have a lot of Jason and Jason Statham on that podcast.
Unknown Speaker 45:11 There's a lot of stuff and there's a lot of stuff a lot of Nicolas Cage. And we've, we started a new feature by accident or barrel chat, where we talk extensively about barrels. And then I'm gonna be in. I'm in Perth coming up. I can't really see why I'm here. I'm on a bit of a secret on a bit of a secret which I'm working on this thing which I've already talked about. While I'm here
Lewis Hobba 45:38 is it succession
Dan Ilic 45:41 gonna be the independent member for PERS in the next election this
Unknown Speaker 45:46 is gonna be Mrs. Margaret River. Jordan reverses says, you never hear about Yeah, but I'm not but I'm doing a short I'm doing a short the because one of the one of the advantages of the fact that I'm now in Perth working on this secret thing, so I'm putting on an extra show. So the Regal in the next well, what am I recording it? Just Just look at the website. It'll be on there. It's the only it's the only stand up comedy show in Australia in the next six months. Come and see it if
Dan Ilic 46:22 it's your live comedy. Go see Ross noble, I hear his grapes. Simon Journal Club climate 200
Lewis Hobba 46:29 Yeah, we started a fundraiser for climate 200 we've had over 300 people donate so far. That's 100 to many Simon clothes and another
Unknown Speaker 46:37 route where we're gonna have to change the name to climate three, the climate 2000 but please go to climate 200 dot com.au and find out some more about us. And if you can donate That's fantastic. Even you know, $5 shows that people behind the idea. And even if you hop on hop on Twitter and retweet all your friends and nudge all your friends, we're going to make a real difference in the next election.
Dan Ilic 47:00 Louis when it's
Lewis Hobba 47:02 done nothing to me, Dan just I'm just at home alone all the time. So
Unknown Speaker 47:08 you're not gonna plug anything. I forgot something. If it's a nature documentary. It's on YouTube. It's called. It's called the unnatural history show. With Ross noble, all of the animals. All of the creatures in it are fictional. They're all they're all like puppets. And yes,
Lewis Hobba 47:30 that counts as my plug. That's my plug. I'm plugging Ross navels up.
Alice Fraser 47:33 Yeah, I take my plug back. I'll plug that to that sounds great.
Unknown Speaker 47:36 Oh, not to hit you on YouTube. If you like. If you like Labyrinth, you'll probably quite lately. Big
Dan Ilic 47:43 Big thanks to Rudd marks the birth of foundation our Patreon supporters we've got some new Patreon supporters this week. Zaphod john Anglada Stuart E. carb Megan Sheila. Artist mass Dixon has actually doubled her contribution. So thank you, Miss Dixon. Awesome. Remember, if you become one of the first 10 people to subscribe to Patreon this month at $50 a month, you'll get a little dead dedication to our scomo parks that are going out across the state of cook. So please jump on our Patreon for 50 bucks a month until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Good night.
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Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation. Grey Lewis. Good afternoon, Daniel. How are you?
Dan Ilic 0:08 I'm, well I'm well. I spoke to somebody this week and they said they are desperate to hear you play the piano by Billy Joel on your piano. They want to hear it. Is there any way we can hear it tonight?
Lewis Hobba 0:21 Tonight? Yeah, absolutely. Of course. I'm so ready and so good at hitting me letting people who say that piano takes us to learn I radiance. It's taken me two weeks and I know the piano. That's it. It's that simple. Oh, I
Dan Ilic 0:39 said about a friend to mention. I said, Man, you're just an overnight success. One day, consider the case.
Lewis Hobba 0:44 Well, I'm sorry, I'm ready to pay to mention you know, I'm ready to get asked and put some leather pants on. I can do a lot of parody songs as well. I can do a lot of good parodies of Billy Joel's Vienna. I've got 10 or 15 great parody songs all about different German towns. Good stuff.
Dan Ilic 1:05 Excellent, weird owl pub. They will call you from hell just eliphalet will will l L. I'm recording my end of irrational fear on gadigal land in the eora nation sovereignty was never seated. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Rupert Degas 1:19 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks. Canberra COMM And section 40 of our rational view recommends listening by image your audience.
Dan Ilic 1:33 Tonight Alan Jones undergoes a major knee reconstruction after doctors say he's been leaning too far to the right. And Australia purchases 1 million finds of vaccines from Poland. We ask does the government put too much faith in polls and in order to prevent COVID outbreaks Queensland deploys 100 soldiers on the New South Wales border. Yes, Australia has its own Delta Force. It's the 20th of August 2021. And this is a rational fear.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former president of Malaysia Dan Ilic. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. She smugly moved to Adelaide before the pandemic and she's still smugly there. It's the smug co host of the award winning just the GS podcast. It's Rosie Waterloo.
Rosie Waterland 2:29 Daniel I wish I was still smugly there but I moved to Melbourne the day they went into lockdown. As we were driving into the city, they announced it at the presser so I'm not so smug anymore, my friend.
Dan Ilic 2:47 Oh dear, and he's simply too handsome to ever consider being the host of a podcast but here we are. It's the other co co host of the award winning just the Jews podcast. It's Jacob Stanley.
Jacob Stanley 2:57 Hello Dan. Funny I can be smug. I'm in Far North Queensland. I dodge all of the lockdowns but I'm just I'm not rubbing it in anyone's faces. I'm really not.
Dan Ilic 3:08 Have you considered serving your state and getting down to the border to prevent New South Wales people from getting across the border? I
Jacob Stanley 3:14 think they've got it under wraps without my help. I would be a hindrance I'm sure.
Lewis Hobba 3:19 On the first time like Queenslanders have been going like Build that wall just
Dan Ilic 3:28 and he's fully vaccin ready to play sax? Move that piano over? It's Louis harbour.
Lewis Hobba 3:33 Now dude, bring the piano in. I'm throwing I'm throwing my I'm throwing my saxophone away in my constant search for like, because we're what nine weeks into lockdown now. And pretty much every two weeks I try to buy a new thing to keep me occupied. So two weeks ago was a piano. I learned a song this week. One of those like muscle pounding guns. muscles. So I got that on Monday. And
Dan Ilic 3:59 the ones that make it look like you're you're gonna learn how to you're gonna like get your jerk off muscles really strong.
Lewis Hobba 4:04 Those ones the ones gonna shake weight. They're like I don't know if I can say that. I can say the brand. This isn't like a theragun but like a cheap knockoff theragun from Amazon, and they're amazing. They're really good. Yeah, right. They usually use if you go to the gym, but obviously all gyms are closed. So I'm just using it mostly on my weak bones now.
Dan Ilic 4:26 I feel like this lockdown. I'm doing the same kind of thing. I'm just buying stuff to fill the void. I bought a wetsuit the other day. I haven't used it yet, but I've lived all my life. I don't know how to surf, I'm gonna buy the things that you need to do the surfing. So the wetsuits been hanging out there for you know, four days I've yet to go surfing. Do you have a surfboard? No, I got
Rosie Waterland 4:54 five days ago. I bought $300 rollerblades and I haven't used them yet. So I feel Yeah.
Dan Ilic 4:59 Oh great. Rosie and I we could we could go sporting do sporting things together. Coming up later we are going to be talking to the leader the greens Adam band will ask him why did the greens vote against the cprs on repeat until the year 2050 revolves around but first, here's a message from this week's sponsor
Rupert Degas 5:18 in 2021, bhp is getting rid of fossil fuels and focusing on sustainability of our province. Our profits are fragile and we must do what we can to save them. And experts warn that our reputation will soon face a tipping point for an activist shareholders from which it could never recover. That's why we're selling our coal, oil and gas assets. So some other company can bravely ignore the problem of greenhouse emissions production that will continue unabated regardless, that bhp we believe the only way to clean up the planet is to wash your own hands first. We're doing it for our children and our children's children. Your children ours there'll be inheriting the profits. Yeah, bhp open cut and running.
Dan Ilic 6:15 This week's first meet Now you may remember a Danielle bregoli. She got famous in 2016 when as a 13 year old she went on Dr. Phil and threatened to bash her mom outside the studio. She was the cashew outside girl. A few years later, she started performing hip hop under the name bad Barbie and she totally blew up. Well she turned out bad baby. Sorry, Bad Bad, bad bad. Well, earlier this year, she turned 18 and a few days after she turned 18 she got herself an only fans account and how long fair mungus do you think it took bad baby to make a million dollars? How long do you think it took bad baby to like a million dollars in her only fans account? Six months? No. Six hours. She broke the record for only fans. And she made a million dollars. She's now set to buy a $4 million house in Florida fear mongers. Is this the answer to how young people get on the property ladder? Rosie?
Rosie Waterland 7:14 I truly think it is I consider her an enterprising Gen Z Gen Z feminist on par with Malala Youssef side she's really grateful representing for young women and you know what she mentioned in an interview with variety yesterday. Yes, she's big enough. Now she's getting interviewed by a variety that she's looking to buy a house in Florida in cash. Because she knows that Florida is a tax haven
Dan Ilic 7:41 yet. This is incredible. reading this thing she's she's actually got the money smarts to back it up and she lives in Los Angeles is putting all of her stuff in Florida, so she doesn't have to pay tax genius. Incredible.
Rosie Waterland 7:57 And example to young women everywhere.
Dan Ilic 7:59 Louis, have you ever considered starting an only fans account for yourself?
Lewis Hobba 8:04 Yes, yes, I have Dan. Of course. It'll just be mostly me naked playing Billy Joel's Vienna. And I really do think there's a market for it. Because I've heard that baby's music. It's actually quite good. Like she's she's genuinely, I thought she'd make money on that. But the only fans angle didn't say coming. I mean, yeah, good on it. Why not? Do you don't have you checked out the only fans specifically Rosie, do you know what sort of stuff she's doing?
Rosie Waterland 8:29 I look, I can't say that I've had the chance to partake. But she does say that she doesn't do anything that she's uncomfortable with. It's mostly just scantily clad. Little Boomerang videos and photos. But you know what? All power to whatever she wants to do if she if she's making cash. Good on her.
Dan Ilic 8:49 Jacob, are you backing bad baby in here? Look,
Jacob Stanley 8:54 Sara Lee do so disagree with what she's done with the platform since she got her platform except for the fact that I just don't love the idea that there'll be a bunch of kids out there who want to emulate her by turning to a lack of crime in their youth so that they can end up on a show like Dr. Phil, and then launch themselves into the stratosphere as she has done so it feels icky to me.
Lewis Hobba 9:16 Yeah, I prefer the old method of spending a life in like organised crime and then making your money by selling it to underbelly to just do over and over and over. Yeah, exactly. It's a tradition. Yeah, the old school way. crime.
Dan Ilic 9:35 She makes a stack of money outside of only fans to she looks like she's got a $2 million product placement deal with her bad baby videos. she earns $40,000 per post on Snapchat. And Wow, she's she's she's looks like she's mentored. She's got so many cars. She also sounds rosy. She sounds like she actually might be a really good parent because when it comes to exposing kids to bad messages in her own music She said this, even cardi B. She turns off WAP when her kids come around.
Rosie Waterland 10:08 I personally think warp is an inspiring song. But, you know, that's just me. I mean, I do like that recently a judge in a court who had a very naughty young girl in front of her while sentencing her said you don't want to end up like the cash me outside girl, do ya? And the video of that ruling went viral and Danielle bregoli saw it and paid that girl's fine and said to the judge, you know what, I earn more in a year than you'll ever make so so I think she's looking out for the kids TV. Oh, man,
Dan Ilic 10:44 I've been doing Patreon all wrong, I should have started. Speaking of Patreon, if you want to support the podcast, you can go to patreon.com forward slash irrational fear. There aren't any nerds. But I tell you what, for our Patreon only subscribers, we will have a picture of Louis in his underwear.
Lewis Hobba 11:07 Reverse idli fans, which is where you and I promise, if we get enough money to keep our clothes on.
Dan Ilic 11:16 lucrative endeavour. Yeah, I actually have I actually have an only fan. So if you go to my only fans, you'll see one picture up there. I think it may. Without a beard, I put it.
Lewis Hobba 11:28 I want to see you in that wetsuit, baby. Let's do it.
Dan Ilic 11:32 That's gonna be the second picture.
Unknown Speaker 11:35 I'm mustering the face case, she wouldn't get out my face. Either. I'm breaking down her door, she's breaking down my door. I don't stop. So I started seeing that. I ran out four times in one day. And because probably back every time, this is a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 11:53 This week second fear in Serbia. a caveman who's been living in a cave for the last 20 years has come out of his cave to get the jab and encourage others to get the jab to before going back into his cave. In the words of the caveman. And when he was asked about anti vaxxers he said the virus does not pick it will come here to my cave to I want to get all three doses including the extra line. I urge every citizen to get vaccinated every single one of them. Now fear mongers. How can a caveman who's got no contact with the bottom world have more sense than people that spend all their time reading Facebook and telegram messages from Craig Kelly.
Jacob Stanley 12:30 It's what he lacks in internet connection he easily makes up for in common sense. 20 years ago when he departed from society. It was common knowledge that vaccines were good and diseases were bad. And he's just maintained what we all used to know. But a lot of us seem to have lost our ways. And I'm very excited that he's the one to be sharing this message because I think he might be the one who can win over the hearts and minds of the people of mullumbimby because he's a white guy with dreadlocks. love nothing more than that. So he's bound to get their attention and he may be able to get through to them.
Dan Ilic 13:07 You know, I've called a lot of anti vaxxers cavemen and I'm really sorry for that now. They have clearly caveman or above anti vaxxers it is absolutely disgusting on my behalf. I feel so sorry.
Lewis Hobba 13:20 This caveman Do you know if he's like staying across the world broadly? Like, what was it kind of like, we just needed to tap you on the shoulder and let you know there's been this big outbreak. Oh, by the way, the Chicago Bulls cleaned up in like the next few days. Bill Clinton is no longer someone that we like, like how many things did he have to learn from the live in the early 90s
Dan Ilic 13:42 wait till he finds out and learns about a guy called Donald Trump and his he found out about the pandemic because he like once a month goes to the supermarket. And he didn't like once every so often goes to the supermarket. He didn't know what was happening until he went to the supermarket and saw everyone wearing masks. And that's how that's how he found out about it. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 14:05 I hope this supermarket that he goes to once a week is LD and that his cave is just filled with the weird shit from the middle aisle. Yeah, this cave he knows nothing about the modern world. But he does have like a fishing line and very weirdly shaped pillow and a bunch of
Dan Ilic 14:25 and you know what? If you're living in a cave, that's exactly what you need.
Jacob Stanley 14:32 He every single one of the articles found it necessary to point out the fact that he's got a bathtub that he uses as his toilet. So there's every possibility that yes, he picked that up in the middle while
Dan Ilic 14:45 probably they do sell bathtub sometimes. No I watched the video of this guy and he's got really beautiful eyes like he's He's good looking caveman. Huh?
Rosie Waterland 14:59 Oh, are you thinking Maybe to the cave. Maybe Maybe he needs an only fans. four feet of marble that holds you up up high in this chamber of humanity who would you? Your time has expired. I
Dan Ilic 15:25 think you want to join the party at Parliament House with your own political body. Think again. Soon it's gonna be easier than ever to keep parties out of Parliament who aren't already registered as a party. Yes, the Morison government introduced a party registration integrity bill. New parties will no longer require 500 members to register, they'll need 1500 members to register. And new parties won't be able to use a name that's similar to existing parties names. For instance, you couldn't use the word liberal labour or the greens even if you spell labour correctly, or the greens party was about vegetable consumption. You couldn't do that. And you're not allowed to register a party with annoying vexatious or frivolous names. fee mongers with an election coming up has thrown a spanner into the works for any of you who've may have considered starting your own party this election, Louis? Well, I
Lewis Hobba 16:11 mean, I'm curious, I'm just sort of going back through previous names to figure out who like, what about, say like the sex party, would they have stopped the sex party getting through? Do you think
Dan Ilic 16:20 it could be a frivolous name? Yeah, like sex can be frivolous? Sex can be frivolous. Yeah. I was thinking about like, like, wouldn't you be would like the totally normal party? Would that get through? Like, if you were like, Whoa, we have a very serious palette with I'm gonna start a party called the very serious party, would they count that as frivolous?
Rosie Waterland 16:39 Well, I guess I mean, you know, how tuned into politics. I am Daniel. So I had to ask my partner Caleb about about what this story actually meant. And he explained to me that a big part of it is not trying to like tag on to someone else's name. So like, they can't get above you on the ballot and confuse people. So you can't kill yourself like liberal too, because then people might get confused and vote for you thinking they're voting for the liberals. Yes.
Dan Ilic 17:06 Oh, this is what happened to the Senate election some time ago when the Liberal Democrats got in and they were first on the ballot. And that's how we get some idiots in the Senate.
Rosie Waterland 17:15 Well, that's what Caleb said. Caleb said, but only idiots would have teach Liberal Democrats. And I said, Ah, would they though, because I probably would have done the wrong thing to maybe this is a solid rule. It may not be entirely democratic. But there are some people who would just look at that and go, Oh, that word looks familiar tick.
Lewis Hobba 17:36 It should be we should start trading every political party name, like sort of Instagram handles, they should be like, there's like liberal liberal 69 like liberal compound. And then they should be like, Liberal Party official. And so you know that that's the real well, yes. But if they need to bluetick the party names. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 17:58 I just think like, would it be nice if there was a Labour Party actually spelt labour correctly? And they were? Well, actually, if anything, there's more frivolous name is labour spelt without a you?
Lewis Hobba 18:08 Yeah, maybe I'll start a party this next election called I'm putting the EU back in labour.
Unknown Speaker 18:15 That's it. Oh, rational view. So I think we just have to live with Gladys berejiklian is absolutely right. We just have to learn to live with this disease. And we can't continue indefinitely in this stop stop life. Your fear is rational.
Dan Ilic 18:33 We've got a very special guest this week in irrational fear. It's the leader of the greens, Adam bed. Adam, welcome to irrational fear. Hi there. And First things first, why did the greens vote against the cprs? In 2009? Well,
Adam Bandt 18:47 what? voting for a carbon price. We did it for it. We got one up 2010. We got it up. And then the liberals and rupert murdoch and the fossil fuel industry came and tore it down.
Dan Ilic 19:02 So we did have one. Adam, where did the greens stand on this? On this party integrity bill, registration integrity bill, the greens was registered, were registered off the back of 500 people in Tasmania, will you be backing the government's party registration integrity bill?
Adam Bandt 19:18 No, we don't like it. And it comes as a package of measures that does not just what you've spoken about, but also starts to put a bit of a handbrake on third parties that want to get involved. And clearly that's aimed at groups like get up and so on, that the government doesn't like so it starts to restrict their activities a bit further. And I think there is a place for smaller parties and independent voices in the in Parliament. And, you know, we'd meet the thresholds, but we don't think it's right. So we're opposing it. And there's a number of other crossbenchers who are with us on that and we're hoping that the opposition will join us.
Dan Ilic 19:54 Do you think it will get in Do you reckon label will back it in?
Adam Bandt 19:58 I don't know. I don't know. And I The I think there's every chance we can stop it. In the senate at the moment things hang on one vote a lot. And if labour decides to join with us and oppose things, often sadly, that one vote is Pauline Hanson in many instances. And so like putting your faith in working out what her party is going to do on it is not a great way to run a country. But that's that's where we're at at the moment until we kick her out at this election, but so i'm not i'm not gonna predict it. But I'm, I think there's a good chance it's not gonna.
Dan Ilic 20:30 So if we kick her out of this election, and then change the law, so she can get back in I like it. Now, there's been a lot of talk about climate change this week. I mean, we hear so much about it, I'm sick of it, is it over?
Adam Bandt 20:45 Certainly not. And it's gonna go for a while. And yet the talk over the last couple of weeks has not been good. And it's another, you know, I don't I don't know what happens what what the metaphor is for after alarm bells, alarm bells ringing
Unknown Speaker 20:59 loudly,
Adam Bandt 20:59 you know, sign, I don't know what the next level is. And we're sort of running out of phrases to say what the scientists are doing. But they're basically saying, look, we're gonna, we're kind of got until the rest of this decade. And if we don't fix it, then potentially climate change becomes a runaway chain reaction, and we can't rein it in. And that's what worries me. And that's what's been occupying people this week.
Dan Ilic 21:20 I really did enjoy the scientists using code read, I think, quoting a few good men is the best way to get people's attention. That was very, very good. Now, it's only 73 days away until we are at COP the Conference of Parties 26 in Glasgow, the big climate talks. I know you're not in government, Adam, but what would you hope this Australian government takes as a national target heading into cop
Adam Bandt 21:47 75% cut our pollution by 2030. That's what has been the independent climate targets panel has said we need to do that, to do our fair share to limit global warming to one and a half degrees. And you know, above one and a half degrees, Pacific Island countries start to become uninhabitable. Right? You know, we start to see droughts that previously happened infrequently start to happen twice as often. So to do that, according to the scientists, we need 75% cuts. And you know, I didn't think I'd be in this position of saying, Boris Johnson is doing something good, but Boris Johnson is doing something good. And like we're now in this situate like he's, they're talking about nearly 70% cuts on air pollution by 2030. And Joe Biden in the US has come in and more than doubled their or effectively doubled their cuts to over 50%. And meanwhile, we're stuck with Tony Abbott's emissions targets of 26% by 2030, which are which are just woeful. So you've kind of got this situation at the moment where you've got Boris Johnson, Joe Biden and the greens on one side in Australian politics and the others, basically saying, Oh, no, look, everything's fine. We don't need to change our way.
Lewis Hobba 22:55 The only more depressing thing about Tony Abbott's climate change is Tony Abbott's gosh
Dan Ilic 23:03 oh my gosh, that's right. Yeah, they do it a podcast I totally forgot to listen to this week. Lewis
Lewis Hobba 23:14 god no. I'm doing everything I can at the moment to like minimise the things that make me feel angry and sick like I'm whatever nine weeks at the Sydney lockdown I don't need I don't need to choose to listen to Tony Abbott. Now that I am not forced to.
Dan Ilic 23:30 If you want a if you a if you want a good discount
to code Tony to get 20% off your next mattress and take it away Peter.
Lewis Hobba 23:48 Apparently apparently the Introduction Music is a banjo. He just turns on a banjo for a while it's pretty well.
Dan Ilic 23:55 What are they anyway? That could be better if it was a jeweller.
Adam Bandt 24:00 And no disrespect to you guys. But I think you know john Howard gets invited on 730 and Tony Abbott start his own podcast.
Dan Ilic 24:10 Adam ban only serious leaders get invited to come on podcast. So hey, look, I interviewed Chris Bowen today Chris Bowen is the is the shadow Environment Minister and in the same breath he gave this he gave this speech about Labour's cop targets what he would love to see not only the Austrian government had to cut it, but in the same breath, he said we need to put aside petty politics. And then at the same time, he said the greens don't have a transition plan for for workers in fossil fuels and they can't be trusted. I told him, I'm I'm pretty sure that's pretty sure that's wrong. Was I right and telling him that Chris was right and telling Chris Bowen that he was wrong.
Adam Bandt 24:48 You're correct. I mean, I've introduced the bill to establish a transitional authority to ensure that we have a phase phase out of our coal fired power stations in coal mining In a way that looks after the workers in communities in those regions, and I've, I've actually travelled around to coal communities around Australia to basically walk in, you know, the greens are here, we want to phase out coal, but we want to have a discussion with you about how we do it and held public meetings at the, you know, lift muscle group workers clubs and head guys in, you know, high vis vests with arms folded and sitting down the front glaring, and it's all the way through the stage. And they come up afterwards and they say, look, you know, it's done. I agree with everything you say, but you're the only you're the only ones who are actually being honest with us about the need for a transition.
Dan Ilic 25:34 Louis and I did a show at the hunter. Two months ago, I've been up in Newcastle. And it's so interesting talking to folks after that show, because, you know, they know, they know that fossil fuels is going to have a sunset time, they're just waiting for someone to put in the solutions to get them the next career. It's really strange.
Adam Bandt 25:53 We've sent down really badly in this country, right, like we've seen transition happen and just come in slam communities. But we've also seen that done reasonably well. You know, the car industry was a really bad example, that they just shut it down overnight. And all of a sudden, people lost their jobs, and they didn't have anything secured and move into. But we know this is coming, right and the people in these areas now what's coming. So we can say let's make this the place that we are going to create green steel and build green hydrogen, let's make it an energy and a manufacturing power base. It's not it's within our weight to do it.
Lewis Hobba 26:27 Yeah, as I say, it was really interesting when we were doing the irrational fear shows in, you know, climate, vulnerable communities, particularly communities that have a lot of fossil fuel industry. And we will be chatting to them afterwards. And so many people would say, like, no one is more guilty. They has this more sense of climate guilt than me. They're like, I go on the ground, and I know what I'm doing, but pays for my kids I get this is my life. It's what my parents did. And and the things that they like, I've got like, I couldn't have more solar panels on my roof. I couldn't have hobbies, having shorter showers, like everything I do in my life is about trying to mitigate this. But I also just don't feel like I've got a way out here. Like it's sort of what they would call the sort of golden handcuffs of that industry.
Adam Bandt 27:10 And that's up to us to do it. Right. That's what government is for government is about saying, here's the change we need to make. And we've got to look after people along the way. And the good news is like in those places in New South Wales, in Queensland, like in many of those areas, there's a lot of sun, there's wind, we could actually use that to create electricity that we then use to create other products. And we could be creating zero carbon steel here in Australia, zero carbon products to sell the risk, zero pollution or other products to sell the rest of the world like we can start doing this stuff. But we we just we just need government to do it.
Dan Ilic 27:47 Speaking of people getting in the way, I've been hosting the better futures forum this week, Adam and Matt Cain said at the forum, he said, if if you're if it gets in the way of climate action, get out of the way. He's a liberal minister, who was he talking to you? They
Adam Bandt 28:02 are most of the Liberal Party. And he also said, you know, this is your opportunity send a message by voting and I couldn't agree with him more though brains. Gonna be doing our rights for us. But thank you very much,
Dan Ilic 28:17 man. Well, I didn't let me ask you like if you could pick anyone to join you on the back bench could be from any party. Let's play a bit of fantasy back bench here. Who would you pick?
Adam Bandt 28:28 So they go on the back bench?
Dan Ilic 28:29 Yeah, you're on the front bench? Yeah. Or the front.
Adam Bandt 28:31 Okay. Joe Fitzgibbon put him on the back bench. And then
Dan Ilic 28:44 I lost bone about Matt canes quite about getting out of the way. And I said to Chris, that's a pretty decent sledge against Joe Fitz given, isn't it?
Lewis Hobba 28:55 Like how what, how worried should we all be Do you think at about the fact that that doesn't really appear to be any sort of effective? Major opposition, obviously, there's the greens in their their parties, but in terms of a you know, whether it's liberal labour, the big two, neither of them seem to have any kind of desire to make any real changes or whether it's desire. They don't seem to have the spine for it.
Adam Bandt 29:18 Well, this is what worries me is that we've got you've got the United States President Joe Biden, saying the climate crisis is an existential threat. You've got Boris Johnson and his government saying we've only got a short period of time to act. You've now got the United States, which is supposedly Australia's biggest and closest allies, ally, publicly speaking, saying Australia's targets for 2030 are not enough. We need to do something about it. And while the rest of the world is saying, waking up and listening to the alarm bell saying, right, we've only got a short period of time to turn around, and they're actually trying to do something about it. We're trying to hold them back. And it's a real real worry and like the grains are in there, trying to hold Scott Morris into account honestly, the end of the Scott Morrison government and the next election i really really do like he's the the climate deniers, they are increasing inequality in Australia and we've got to kick him out. But it's getting pretty hard to try and put the pressure on them and hold them to account when the others Labour's fighting with them to open up new gas fields in the beetaloo. Right, we should be keeping it all in the ground. And working out how to transition away from not working out how we can open up these new gas fields in the Northern Territory. And in those gas fields in the Northern Territory. There's about seven years worth of Australia's pollution there. So hearing, I'm glad that you know labour starting to take a small step towards the side of science. But what we really need to do is put the asset on Morrison in the lead up to that climate summit at the end of the year so that he goes there and joins Joe Biden and Boris Johnson instead of hanging out with Saudi Arabia and Russia, which is where we are at the moment,
Dan Ilic 30:57 some of my favourite liberal democracies. Well, thank you so much. It was absolutely great to have you join us, Adam. Appreciate that. A big thank you to all of our guests tonight. Jacob Stanley, Rosie Waterloo, Louis harbour and Adam bandt. If you got it God's got anything to plug Jacob.
Jacob Stanley 31:14 I suppose we should mention a little podcast, Just The Gist podcast you can check out just the gist podcast we release new episodes weekly ish. We share crazy wild true stories in a very easy to digest way so you'll be able to remember all the cool details and then share them at a dinner party.
Rosie Waterland 31:35 That's the first time he's ever done a plug. Good job. just comes naturally.
Dan Ilic 31:43 Rosie you wanna plug anything?
Rosie Waterland 31:45 Um, I guess I will also just say plug just the just oh and follow Jacob William Stanley on Instagram get his own account.
Dan Ilic 31:53 Oh, yeah. He's gonna get his money going. Outside go level cashola coming at him. Van. Would you like to plug anything?
Adam Bandt 32:03 Yeah, the next election is going to be really close. chance to kick Scott Morrison at bright brains and I will go now seem frivolous. And lastly, firelight Shawn walk.
Lewis Hobba 32:17 Yeah.
Adam Bandt 32:19 Funny, funny guy. And model my look and my glasses. My
Lewis Hobba 32:25 Ah, yes. All right. Adam, are you guys internally, you guys would be much more tuned in than we are you guys taking predictions on when the election obey? Yeah,
Adam Bandt 32:37 based on the based on New South Wales and the current rate of vaccination rollout, probably going to be the start of next year. But you know, Scott Morrison, I think he does think he's the chosen one, I think is every chance to do tapings he can pull it off. He's here we'll do it.
Dan Ilic 32:53 All right, well, I guess I guess it goes slow on vaccinations is this that's probably the wrong message this big thank you to rode mics our Patreon supporters. The rubber chicken comedy hub in South Melbourne has become a Patreon supporter, Maureen Morgan Simon nevel a new Patreon supporter, someone called Peter is a new Patreon supporter, Michael Madsen gubb from New economies joined us as a Patreon supporter, someone called m Gryphon. Thank you all so very much. And please head to patreon.com forward slash rational fear. We're trying to get some more money in so I can pay for an assistant and someone to teach. Until next week. Oh no, Louis, can we do you have the piano nearby?
Lewis Hobba 33:38 Ah, honestly, it's gonna it's gonna be a bit of a clusterfuck I feel like we should let everyone go. Everyone he has much more important things to do that what do you plug a piano?
Dan Ilic 33:50 I'll tell you what, next week, we're gonna hear Lewis play the piano.
Lewis Hobba 33:53 Okay, I'll try to set it up. Otherwise you just watch me use my Thera gun.
Dan Ilic 34:01 Thanks very much. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Good night.
Dan Ilic 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation. Good evening, Lewis. Hello, Daniel. How are you? I'm, well, I I like the rest of our listeners want to know, how are you going with Billy Joel's Vienna?
Lewis Hobba 0:14 I, I've just rushed home from work. And I had five minutes to spare before the podcast started. And I just had a quick practice. And I can get from the very start to the very end in a fashion.
Dan Ilic 0:28 Oh, wow. Like, like still with stops and starts or you know, going, Okay.
Lewis Hobba 0:33 I would like if you heard it, you wouldn't be like, Oh, it's Billy Joe, you know. But for a person who hasn't touched the piano since he was five. It's functional. Like, if you knew the song, you heard me playing it, you would probably go. I reckon that guy's playing Billy Joel's piano.
Dan Ilic 0:50 Well, also, a lot of people don't know really, Joseph. It's one of the more obscure village owl songs I thought I was, I thought I was well across the oeuvre of Billy Joel. But I had never heard of Vienna till last week.
Lewis Hobba 1:03 This is exactly why I chose it. You see, because if I chose Piano Man, and I'm at a party, and here we can have parties again. And there's a piano there and I sit down and I start going there, then everyone look at me and go that guy and he knows one song, and it's piano. Whereas if I stop playing the piano, they like no one in their right mind would only learn Vienna, this guy must be a pianist because it must be the 1000 songs he knows. So it's all mind games. You know, the next one is they're going to want you to play piano like but don't worry. You're not going to go to a party until 2015. So it's totally fine. Well, much like Billy Joel I already resent piano and
Dan Ilic 1:45 a big shout out to all our new Patreon members dissuade now I'm just gonna read them out usually I'm doing at the end of the show these days, but I want to read them out because I've got some we got some good ones. Simon nevel Mars page MCAT Sharon pates Diane Swan, Stacy Smith, Lindsey Jenkins, Alex Turnbull is chipping in on into our Patreon now which is great. And also I think Greg hunt is chipping you know now on our page because someone by the name of baby w comm pumpers 69.
Lewis Hobba 2:17 I like this he gets the actual porn star Greg Hahn accidentally like
Dan Ilic 2:22 it's so messed up the widow baby w come number 69 is giving us 10 bucks amount of config thank you to all our Patreon supporters you can hit to patreon.com forward slash
Lewis Hobba 2:31 irrational fears I was just gonna say a big thank you to all the come pumped
Dan Ilic 2:35 family. big thank you to everyone related to come up pumped the 69 I'm recording my irrational fear on gadigal land in the urination sovereignty was never seated. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 2:46 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, camera, fed gum, and section body or rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 2:59 Tonight Rianna is now officially a billionaire and like all billionaires the singer is planning to head into space to open a diamond mine in the sky and Australia is ranked last among 200 countries for its action on climate change. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says it's not a race and the AC T goes into lockdown after one positive case proving that the camera bubble can be burst by a little prick. It's Friday the 13th of August what's got to drop first these COVID cases or Donda? This is irrational fear.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former premier of Queensland Danny let's let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. And now, since breaking out as a Best Newcomer nominee, the Perth Comedy Festival he's been forced to work at the chaser and the feed is net domina. Thank you for having me. Now net what's the worst thing about working for the chaser? The sexual advances watch. These often referred to as the Lebanese Australian Louis Theroux, but don't try to pigeonhole this young Walkley winner. It's Marty smiling. Now, Marty, how many former channel vape presenters have walkways? Is it just you in Java? That's a yes,
Marty Smiley 4:20 Java won a Walkley Award for his deep dive into bone smoking.
Dan Ilic 4:30 And he's often referred to as the next Billy Joel. It's Louis Alba.
Lewis Hobba 4:33 Thank you so much. Yes. The 55 key Piano Man, my piano on the piano boy. It's like I'm doing a gritty rabid of the piano man. I'm the son of piano.
Dan Ilic 4:44 Soon we get stuck into this week's fears. But first here is a message from our sponsor. Homeless series
Unknown Speaker 4:50 finale of Palermo lots of things are really heating up.
Unknown Speaker 4:56 Mr. Morrison it's with regret to inform you that the snow is On fire, you need to do something.
Unknown Speaker 5:02 Now I've always said, I've got a plan. And the plan is the plan. It's a planning plan that's been planned. I've always said that will David Attenborough and the Earthlings be able to stop the missions in the time? Now you Listen here, Scott, we've
Unknown Speaker 5:18 only got a couple of years left until the point of no return. The numbers are just not looking good.
Unknown Speaker 5:24 Well, that's great, then we can blame the collapse of the earth online, or will they suffocate themselves and every other living creature in a toxic soup of stinky greenhouse gases?
Unknown Speaker 5:37 Everything is dying, Mr. Morrison, and you're doing nothing.
Unknown Speaker 5:42 I'm not going to do anything that will cost jobs and the most of risk jobs are those on the boards of fossil fuel companies that all need after I lose the election in eight months time. I've always said that. I find out and this the potentially last ever series of the show, but jumped the shark up to the red now songs.
Unknown Speaker 6:15 Planet Earth is recommended for mature audiences. It contains strong six themes as the whole globe gets royally fucked.
Dan Ilic 6:26 Yeah, there you go. Production date production display.
Lewis Hobba 6:31 Who's ready for fun?
Dan Ilic 6:32 Yes. The IPCC dropped their latest report this week and it was not the feel good event of the year we were promised. And the unsurprisingly bleak report basically means the earth is fact we factor and we're still fucking it. And if we would have a chance to continue as a species as in to keep on fucking each other. We need to stop fucking the planet ASAP. Fear mongers, how has the IPCC report impacted your wake net?
Nat Damena 6:58 Well, it seems like every like climate change report that comes out is like worse. It's, it's worse, and also stating the same thing over and over again, which is there's a problem. No one's ever offering any solutions.
Marty Smiley 7:16 That they just tell us it's bad that it's getting worse. And as Dan described to me at a time, it's fun.
Nat Damena 7:23 Well, I read the article today. Let's say we've got to keep the temperature of the earth below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030. Otherwise, there'll be unpreventable damage to the but the article also said, If we can't do that, we'll do 1.6. And if we can't do that, we'll do 1.7
Marty Smiley 7:41 I did say that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Lewis Hobba 7:45 You think they've already given out Li look? 1.5 is the dream but we're aiming for three?
Nat Damena 7:49 Yeah, they're moving the goalposts. Yeah. Like, it's like if I said, Look, I'm going to try and eat one packet of Mac and chase tonight. I'll try the two if not
Dan Ilic 8:00 three, it is yeah, sorry. It is. It is interesting to see how this is being kind of, you know, dealt with this week across the political spectrum. I don't know if you saw the same day as that report came out the young liberals in the AC t were holding a fundraiser in Canberra, where they auctioned off a lump of coal from the Adani Carmichael mine. How much do you think a lump of coal from the Adani Carmichael mine would go for at a young liberal fundraiser? How much do you think I went for?
Unknown Speaker 8:32 Oh, god $500 It's a good question. I don't know the price of a lump of coal and I
Unknown Speaker 8:39 feel terrible about
Dan Ilic 8:40 this. Yeah, this is a very john Houston gotcha moment here. A very couldn't explain the cost of a GSA in a cake. Now these lumber coal went for 20 $600 someone paid $2,600 for a lump of coal from the Adani coal mine. Just to what I own the greens
Nat Damena 8:58 to be fair, like we do live in a world where people pay over $6,000 for bags of air from concerts.
Marty Smiley 9:03 Well, yeah, like you know, Justin Davis like the water balled or he left on stage, like I would pay a lot of money for that lump of coal that scomo had in Parliament House. I mean, that is iconic clump of coal, that one straight in the poor.
Dan Ilic 9:18 Isn't that quite indistinct from an other bunch of lumps of coal, you'd have to get it signed and authenticate a certificate
Lewis Hobba 9:24 to all lumps of coal look the same to you their age lump of coal is a snowflake beautiful and individual.
Lewis Hobba 9:37 it's funny, like the only positive if the climate change report for me was that it bumped my lockdown panic down a pig. Like 12 weeks into Sydney lockdown, I'm losing my mind my anxiety never been worse. And I'm like, well, this is the worst thing that will ever happen to me. I'm like, Oh, that's right. I'm gonna burn in 10 years. That's actually was
Marty Smiley 9:59 some Who has been caught in a climate change disaster? The New South Wales floods of this year? I can't tell you guys it's it's a very scary thing to be caught in. And I can tell anyone listening at home, you know, you don't want to be in the situation I was in. I was stuck at an Airbnb that cost $200 a night to be there for a week. And I was caught in a town that I would never want to spend more than
Lewis Hobba 10:30 48 hours in, you know, Barnaby Joyce is always like, we don't know the cost of climate change. Marty should be like 200 bucks a night.
Dan Ilic 10:39 We do know the cost we do know that we have to have the numbers and a written a custom delivery as well. So boring.
Marty Smiley 10:48 Actually cannot I mean, this is maybe a bit wrong, but floods are by far the most boring disaster. Like is it slowly encroaches. But it takes ages for the water to subside. I would go down there each day to see if I could leave over the bridge Saqqara, john to Richmond back into to New South Wales to the city. And and you know, I would go down 10 centimetres, it's it's not it's not fun.
Dan Ilic 11:14 This is that that is that is a big, big claim for a man that's currently in his 48th day of lockdown in Sydney. It's so strange and the Australian Financial Review the same day the report came out they ran an opinion piece. This is the headline for the opinion pace. It's called the headline ran. It said high quality Australian coal is lowering global carbon emissions. They ran it right and it was written. It was written by a guy called Paul Flynn and I checked out, I checked out who Paul Flynn was the opinion pace was part of the CEO and managing director of Whitehaven coal,
Marty Smiley 11:54 like, Oh, god, oh, God, we need extinction rebellion back is is what we need. We need big stunts. We need people back on the streets. And it's a bit it's a bit difficult at the moment. I like what he's
Nat Damena 12:09 doing. You know, I want to see people put a positive spin on global warming away to see about all the tissue and get out, organise a press conference and go up and say, Look, global warming, it might look bad, but it's delivering fresh clean water in Africa, one iceberg at a time.
Lewis Hobba 12:28 Like the people who I worry about the climate changes, the fire firefighters, you know, there's always like, there's stories of the one or two firefighters who get bored throughout the summer and go on lighter fire. Yes, that let's be like that. They'll never have to do that. Again. All I have to do go home and run the dryer for 24 hours like you can start a fire for the next 100 years.
Marty Smiley 12:52 Dan, would you be into doing a sort of extinction rebellion style santia you have done a lot of stunts in the past and your comedic career. Would you be interested in say building a boat? And because you've been letting people know about climate change for some time now you are a sort of NOAA of Australia. I see you as a character within the Australian political scape
Dan Ilic 13:17 Marty I think boatbuilders is a boom industry. I think there's gonna be I think for where we live in Sydney. I think boat building is going to be the future people living on boats as a future and Marty dare I say when there's a flood I will have an Airbnb on a boat you can rent out.
Lewis Hobba 13:35 Well, if there's one thing it's funny that the Australian Government has actually invested so much more in like building boats and submarines then in climate change. They're spent like $43 billion on a never ending submarine programme. And they're just like, we're not gonna fight climate change. We're just gonna make sure we can put us all of Australia underwater when the time comes
Marty Smiley 13:54 with being governed by preppers. That's Scarborough's. That's the thing. Basically.
Nat Damena 14:01 scomo doesn't look like a prime minister. He looks like him in his wife owner budgerigar farm in North Queensland. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 14:09 A 100 or two year old bedridden woman has been ordered to prove her date of birth or have a pension cut off calls and emails to send a link with
Dan Ilic 14:20 a rational fear. This week second fed national MP George Christiansen will not run for the for the Nationals after the next election in order to spend more time with these WordPress. Yes, George Christians. So there's going to start a pro freedom website in the style of Judge report. I don't know have you ever seen the Drudge Report? It's just like this terrible looking website that just has links to other websites and I don't know if you know anything about the internet. There are quite a few other websites that do that job very efficiently. So Eva has some competition. Currently, the nation first.com.au website which is his website is And it needs a password to exist. But before it went down the new daily check it out. And it said, out of the 31 links that were displayed on the websites homepage 30 are from news articles from America. The 31st article was a link to a blog that Mr. Christiansen had published in January asking former US President Donald Trump to issue a pardon to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and saying it would be a blow to the deep state.
Lewis Hobba 15:31 But he does something that isn't necessarily terrible. It's still for insane reason. Isn't that like Australian culture to just take something from America from America. But also, I love that he's
Dan Ilic 15:43 saying we blow to the deep state and George Christensen is part of the deep state he is. He's in government, he is literally a nationals party.
Marty Smiley 15:55 person is like, the next election in his mind is like, I'm already out. I am no longer a politician.
Lewis Hobba 16:03 It's like, such a like, the that approach is so like the the guy at school who no one liked, because he in his belief at Parliament, everyone is hanging out together except him. He's like, this is Barry's a group of people. That includes everyone but may
Nat Damena 16:24 feel like he wanted to start like a right wing podcast and couldn't figure out how the buttons worked
Marty Smiley 16:30 outside a bunch of links that it's got interesting blogs, there's so I'm gonna tell this and blogs are dead. It's like using Alta Vista to do your searches online.
Dan Ilic 16:41 He would be better doing a right wing podcast now. I think so. You mean you guys run a podcast? How hard is it to actually have your own podcast?
Marty Smiley 16:49 Incredibly, yeah. It's very time consuming. I'd say that. I mean, it's very easy if you don't want to do a good job. Yes.
Lewis Hobba 17:00 That's how we've always been running it. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 17:03 It's what other kind of content Do you reckon we can expect from this? This Drudge Report style? George Christian did some websites some travel reports of Southeast Asia? Yeah, maybe some recipes.
Marty Smiley 17:14 I'd love to see like a news breakdown with him with the whip, like called the whip. You know, it's just sort of crack at his way through Conservative News.
I want to say like a Watchmojo top 10 movie death that made you cry. I'd love to see Christian says listicles 10 ways you know you're a liberal. Maybe a photo gallery to his favourite lumps of call.
Dan Ilic 17:42 Big Johnny day on YouTube says parenting tips.
Lewis Hobba 17:49 Yeah, he could go daddy, blogger, plays dog use the phrase George Christensen, Ed Daddy, and the same thing.
Unknown Speaker 17:57 I know how George's mind works. If you start prodding the bear, you're going to make the situation worse for us as a complement. When you've got a thin margin, and start giving reasons for byelection a rational fear,
Dan Ilic 18:11 this week's third fear it's safe to say the New South Wales the health minister is a major hazard. Yes, Brad hazard this way caused a bit of a ruckus. Please
Lewis Hobba 18:19 get out, get my
Dan Ilic 18:21 podcast, Brad has added this way caused a bit of a ruckus in Sydney Southwest when during the daily COVID-19 briefing, he said this
Unknown Speaker 18:29 configurable, I think, probably something in the order of 90 95% a very high percentage of people are complying. And we're seeing that in places like Fairfield. They've made such a difference there and brought the numbers down to such a low level. I want to thank the people in Fairfield. But there are other communities, other people from other backgrounds, who don't seem to think that it's necessary to comply with the law and who don't really give great consideration to what they do in terms of its impact on the rest of the community.
Dan Ilic 18:57 While there are people from other backgrounds other than being from Fairfield one when my dad came out to Australia from Fairfield Hey, Tommy, life was tough back in the face back. That's why he moved to a craft fair mungus what background is Brad has on talking about his
Marty Smiley 19:19 zoom backgrounds? Is he is he gonna go at PayPal in their offices? Are they choosing the wrong setting? Was that what's going on? I can't imagine who he I mean, why does it he just say it you know libs. Always. You know, we are who we are was just sad. just name it may
Nat Damena 19:42 be amazing, like going on to Twitter and like saying like the response to this clip and everybody being like, well, what is what does he mean by that? What does he mean? He's being racist? That's what he means by Yeah,
Marty Smiley 19:55 there was no question from the press gallery. Someone would just ask Sorry, you being racist right now in a press conference about health.
Lewis Hobba 20:07 You know, talking about French au pairs, it's brown,
Marty Smiley 20:11 wild allegations and of course the mayor for Canterbury Bankstown said it was a bit of a low blow. He wasn't happy with it either. either. I will say, I did get sent a video. Yeah, and my cousin in the West when this all began, and it was one of our liberties brothers on a horse riding his way through the Main Street. Bankstown. So, look, you know, maybe there is some things that the community is doing, but I don't think we should be targeted or singled out for it.
Lewis Hobba 20:42 But I honestly think if every one was on a horse, if every Australian I actually think that'd be the like, we're all socially distanced, you can't get close. You wouldn't need a mosque. If every single Australian had a horse. No one can punch a horse if they're riding one. Sir.
Dan Ilic 21:02 Marty, I didn't watch the Olympics last week, but I didn't see any of our cousins from Lebanon in the dressage. Yeah. There was a bread hazard later on winter, kind of rub salt into the wounds and continue on with his diatribe
Unknown Speaker 21:18 here in New South Wales with people we're just a small element, small group who have caused these problems if they would just behave themselves and have an element of decency towards the rest of the community. We would sort this problem out.
Dan Ilic 21:31 There's nothing more decent than writing down the middle of Bankstown on a horse it's totally fine. We're bringing joy to the people I don't know what he's all about. And decency. Why Why is all of this talk about decency? You don't need to like lay down a coat on the on the on a paddle for a lady to cross the road these days. Yes,
Marty Smiley 21:53 kept a bond that we're trying to have a gangland war out here and there. We've got a lot of restrictions that are getting in the way at the moment. So maybe think about that before you start singing.
Lewis Hobba 22:03 Honestly, like I know that the New South Wales Police are so crazy about gang warfare, like regardless of how big or small it actually is, but can I just say I feel like if all of the gangs once again, we're on horses. I know I'm harping on about this but I'm saying give give every gang a horse and a lance. Yeah, take it back to the full jousting days. They would not be an Australian member of the public who would not be on the side of the gang like it should be like Australians love and Italian gang bed hydel Lebanese gang, gang, they'd all be mad for a host gang.
Marty Smiley 22:39 We should get you on the VR team for some of the most prominent gangs. Good Lois. emerged as a good man for the community this
Lewis Hobba 22:51 protests like people always chanted hos cops, get those animals off those horses. Just be like, put those Lebanese on those horses. get around this. No justice, no peace officers for the Lebanese.
Dan Ilic 23:14 That is it for rational view tonight. big thank you to activate Mati body smiley, Louis, all that. What would you like to plug plug folks Marty in that way
Marty Smiley 23:21 out? Yes, please. As I said, we do have a podcast. It's called house warming. We record it right here in this room actually in our share house. And it's about renting and all the woes and miseries that go with it.
Dan Ilic 23:36 And you've had some really famous people on there you've had like, lots of ex smiley,
Marty Smiley 23:45 a chap called Daniel Sloss. We had Linda Mariano this week, who revealed that she used to snap still snacks from Louis unbelievable. I
Lewis Hobba 23:53 just saw that clip a second ago. I'm like, because Linda Mariano if you don't know her is literally the nicest person I've ever met. Like she's so kind and generous and wonderful and interesting and brilliant. And the fact that for the last four years she's been stealing my snacks has changed everything I've known about her and the ones you gotta look out for this one on the horse. Lewis Would you like to plug anything? No, Dan, nothing for me.
Dan Ilic 24:24 I want to plug a podcast called irrational fear. It's really great. Make sure you head to the Patreon and chip in so we can pay for it assistant. So it's patreon.com forward slash irrational fear. Big thanks to road Mike's Patreon supporters both the foundation also Jacob round on the tepanyaki timeline Rubin day guests and also Robbie McGregor. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Good night.
We are joined by the orphans of satirical comedy shows past. From the Roast, and Tonightly, Jazz Twemlow joins us to plug his new Amazon Prime sketch show. And from The Feed, and At Home Alone Together we have Vidya Rajan to plug nutritional yeast. Then there's me Dan Ilic and Lewis Hobba — you know us already.
Lewis Hobba 0:01 Happy Friday dad. And I'm glad you told me it was Friday because I have no idea what day it is.
Dan Ilic 0:08 Well, I there's a, there's a store in Bondi that has the number of days sydneysiders have been locked down, plastered upon it. They take their menus, and they make a giant giant gribbon numbers. So the currently is 41 days we've been in lockdown. 41 days, Louis, and void. It just still feels like day five to me. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 0:27 well, I've been on a little holiday for the last week. Pretty cool holiday, obviously, just staying at home and going insane. And I was trying to think about what like what I could do to pass the time while I was here. And so I was taking inspiration from the movie Groundhog Day, because that's what we're living in. And I was like, What is he doing Groundhog Day to like, you know, improve his situation in. In the original version, he killed himself, which is not what I've always done, decided to do the thing where he learns to play piano. Remember how he how he plays? So yeah, so what have you learned? What have you learned one song? Yeah, five days ago, I bought a piano and, and I'm learning to play a song on it. And I've never played piano before. I'm terrible at it. And that's how I'm passing my time.
Dan Ilic 1:13 What's the song you're learning to play?
Lewis Hobba 1:15 Well, I'm learning to play Billy Joel's Vienna, which if you know the song is really difficult. It's so like, it's not a beginner's pace. It's a stupid, it's a foolish thing that I'm doing. But I won't rest until I learned that song.
Dan Ilic 1:30 So next week at the end of the show, you're going to play Billy Joel so yeah,
Lewis Hobba 1:34 well, I'll play you some version of it. They're like play G major. Mike. I'm just making noises. Yep,
Dan Ilic 1:43 yep, I'm recording my end of irrational fear on gadigal land in the eora. nation. sovereignty was never stated we need a treaty. Let's stop the shop.
VO 1:51 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks cambro COMM And section body, or rational fear recommends listening by immature audio.
Dan Ilic 2:04 So not Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston has been charged with allegedly concealing sexual assault abuse, which plays his way to becoming the Attorney General by the year's end. And hungry Jack's founder says Australia should learn to live with a virus just like they've learned to live with a whopper. And the whole state of Victoria is gone into its sixth lockdown due to an outbreak of smugness. It's the sixth of August 2021. And with more breaches than an airport holiday in this is irrational fear. irrational fear.
Hello, webinar rational fee. I'm your host former Olympic skateboarder Dan Ilic. Let's meet our fee mungus. For tonight, she's casually been a guest on everybody's satirical comedy shows over the last little bit won't be long before she has her own buy shares in Vidya Raja because she's gone to the moon.
Vidya Rajan 3:01 Everyone, happy luck.
Dan Ilic 3:05 Happy lockdown Vidya How is Victoria lockdown how's Victoria is lock number six lockdown for you.
Vidya Rajan 3:09 You know it's we're about six minutes in and this is probably dissipating.
Dan Ilic 3:18 And he got his start performing at irrational fear. Now he's has his own la dee da amazon prime Shar from the Mass Effect. It's jazz tremula
Jazz Twemlow 3:27 Hello, my boss actually is going to the moon leaving us all behind. That's very, very kind.
Dan Ilic 3:35 And it's a man who doesn't have a Netflix deal just yet Louis harbour
Lewis Hobba 3:39 no Short but sweet and accurate that introduction? Yeah. 100% accurate.
Dan Ilic 3:45 Coming up a little later on the show. We'll get on the booze and Barnaby Joyce but here is a message from this week's sponsor.
VO 3:50 Tuesday the 10th of August is senseless night. each household is required by law to fill out the online form. So the Australian Bureau of Statistics can collect data on the makeup of Australia and to see if the NBN is working in your area. It then gives that data to the federal government so they can build critical services like car parks, sporting facilities and hospitals in coalition seats, regardless of what the data says. The senseless, providing scientific data to the Australian Government so they can willfully ignore it. Authorised by a bunch of glittering idiots in camera.
Dan Ilic 4:22 All right, this week's first year Sky News been banned from posting on YouTube for a week after posting COVID denial videos. According to YouTube's three strikes in your out policy. Sky News is peddling at least three videos of misinformation about COVID My question is only three short like anyway, fee mongers awake without Sky News. How will our uncle's cope? Oh well, I
Lewis Hobba 4:47 cuz I said I've been on a little break from work over the last week. So I've basically read no news over the last week. So I'm so excited to find out from this podcast. What's been happening Fingers crossed. Some good stuff.
Jazz Twemlow 5:00 This feels like good stuff. If I'm totally honest, there's even less news for you to not read now, so you're gonna save even more time you're not doing stuff. That's great.
Dan Ilic 5:09 Yeah, that's right. There's at least one brand of news that is is banned from YouTube Vidya. How do you how do you feel about Sky News taking a break from YouTube?
Vidya Rajan 5:18 Well, I think this is just gonna galvanise the uncles to start their own channels if they aren't. From my experience of uncle. They're about like one bad night away from becoming YouTube radicals.
Lewis Hobba 5:31 He was crazy. I did sort of have a look at some of the stats about the viewership that they do have online like because we all everyone always says like Sky News. Who cares? no one watches it like this guy. And he's orthodox a joke. You know, 50,000 people something like true, worse than breakfast television numbers like really, like, almost as bad at this podcast, like almost insignificant. But they do do quite well online. So it is it is pretty massive for them. I'm sure they are. I wonder what they'll like whether this will change anything in the future football
Jazz Twemlow 6:01 really start like an outsider's outsiders channel now. It's not on YouTube. If I count more outside, can you pretend to be anyway,
Lewis Hobba 6:11 I like to imagine the Sky News will eventually just be a town crier.
Dan Ilic 6:15 Just what every good uncle should be doing for a job. You're absolutely right, Louis, their numbers are tiny on TV. And they do get millions of hits online and over the last three years have been really pummeling the YouTube channel to boost it to make sure they make the most click Beatty stuff. And Sky News has become like the top of the funnel for laundering misinformation for all of kind of the news corp Empire. So I don't know if we all remember where we were when Sherry marks and told us about the Wu Han lab theory with all the authority of a Facebook post written by divorce dad. I don't know if you you were there. I remember seeing again, you're absolutely not sad, crazy. We
Lewis Hobba 6:51 still don't have all the evidence on that, Dan.
Dan Ilic 6:55 But the great thing is, you know, the way they want why she did that was that so other news corp networks can pick up that as saying, well, we didn't say it but look at Sky News in Australia, they've reported this, and so they can point they can point to something wacky and zany that the people in the colonies have done to kind of justified telling the story to their other millions of people. It's It's It's awful.
Jazz Twemlow 7:17 I love the I love the defence of like, well, we're just putting stuff out there you know, we're providing but it's just not you know, it's like sort of it's someone saying like, Oh, it's weird. My Channel telling people to eat cyanide has been taken down like where's the barrel? And so we don't need balance on that. We don't need balance on that. It's pretty clear.
Vidya Rajan 7:34 I was back in Perth recently where my family is and one of our other friends slash uncle's has completely gone down that that rabbit hole. Wow. have you dealt with it? Well, I mean, I had to you know bite my tongue and be respectful because of like, you know, hashtag brown family vibes. But um, it was it was actually very disappointing to me because I was like, you know, half these people like white supremacists and you'll literally like they don't they don't like you. You're not on their side. But also it was like Shouldn't you be spending your time like policing your daughter's sexuality or something like what what are you doing? Back to the classic? Yeah, nothing vibrant uncle should be falling for this but I think they are
Jazz Twemlow 8:15 to become an uncle when you is because it seems like so tied to that specific relation. Like if you fall down like a queue and on hold or something and you don't have any any nephews or nieces? Do they spawn as soon as you become an uncle? If you fall prey to the ideas or is it you're the uncle first and then the idea is it seems so specific to that. But I think
Vidya Rajan 8:39 now like like Daddy, anyone can
Lewis Hobba 8:43 just choke me uncle is the new, the new. He's gone full on call.
Dan Ilic 8:51 I went through some comments about this story on The Daily Mail and I found some great ones. I thought I'd share them with you. This one is from line in the sand from Vero Beach United States. Your poor country is turning into Korea. Hmm. I'm pretty sure you mean North Korea but i think you know, we kind of get the point we kind of
Lewis Hobba 9:08 like point that Yeah, you guys are doing some great boy bands. You've got a really good mobile phone company. Like congrats
Dan Ilic 9:15 looks like really turning this thing around. won an Oscar recently. Cut the crap from Sydney Australia says no surprises there. Social media big tech have been booked burning for ages. I know that's not true. Look, we can say what you want about Amazon destroying the book industry but they didn't really do any burning. That's terrible. This is this one here from Louis from Sydney. Anybody just anybody who thinks this is good? It's completely clueless and uninformed. Soon we'll have just one government news source and we'll be told what is happening and it will fit the government narrative. Louie from Sydney has obviously never watched Sky News.
Jazz Twemlow 9:56 The one news who does feed the government narrative is gone. It's all Got a narrative now? That's great.
Vidya Rajan 10:02 Has Kevin Rudd reacted to this? Because I know this is like this wakes him up in the morning so,
Dan Ilic 10:08 yeah, this is this is gonna be this is this is Kevin Rudd bait. This is Kevin Rudd back. This is this is like a tweet. This is a thread for Kevin Rudd, where did I have it? Yeah.
Lewis Hobba 10:17 I have been following Kevin Rudd some tweets though, because I just curious because it is so easy to let me say this, like at the start of the pandemic, some friends and I were like, Who do you think would be the best Prime Minister that we've ever had right now? Like, who? And we were like Kevin Rudd, like the guy is the guy never sleeps. He says, like obsessed with detail. Like he was a nightmare. And everyone hated him internally, but like, he's the guy you want right now. But he was also like, pretty unlikable and smug by the end. So I was really curious to see what happened when he started to get a little bit of like positive press, and everyone's like, oh, he did the Pfizer jabs and old uncle calves back. And then but he hasn't, he's been really restrained on Twitter and he has not gotten smug and he must be killing it.
Dan Ilic 11:04 I don't know if you were out and about last weekend, like me, I was driving around trying to find a place to do some exercise, but it's really hard because there were cops everywhere. It was very difficult in Sydney to kind of do anything. Lastly again. And I have to say though, when it comes to lockdown protesters, the Melbourne anti lockdown protesters have they've been doing it a while they're really practice that their whole sovereign citizenship bullshit. Whereas in Sydney, the anti lockdown sovereign citizens haven't done the rating. They haven't kind of learned enough about the Magna Carta to pull off being a sovereign citizen. I've got a clip here. Let me play it for you. This is from a Sydney pro locked down protester who's been pulled over by the police. My under arrest are free to go. And committed events.
Unknown Speaker 11:49 What's the offence, sorry, what's the offence? unsecure light drunk for the Australian flag, and
Dan Ilic 11:54 also it is obviously a potential COVID which we're trying to figure out if you want to provide it. I think you're making a comment to say that you haven't committed the offence and we'll accept that. If not, then it's up to you.
Unknown Speaker 12:04 This is a sad day for Australia, the Anzac guide for this flag. And now you're penalising or attempting to and if you do this, this will go down in history. This is 74,000 people are watching live. Now we're talking about, we're talking about
Dan Ilic 12:22 it. If you're going to point your camera at a cup, just don't show them the screen. I love that the cost said you've got one person you'd like to have one person watching.
Vidya Rajan 12:37 I mean, yeah, the enzymes did die for my right to inflate my engagement.
Jazz Twemlow 12:44 I love how they use that phrase. They fought and died to sleep. So we could do something they've what they didn't fight and die so you could fight to die. That's such an inversion of what they were going
Dan Ilic 12:55 and also I mean, Tim Schafer makes a good point on YouTube, the anzacs died for England, which is absolutely correct. Let the flag that we fought under was actually
Lewis Hobba 13:04 and also they were a lot of masks. Because they had a pandemic. Yeah, and there was gas, you know, like they knew the health risks.
Unknown Speaker 13:18 Gladys berejiklian in New South Wales have been the gold standard when it comes to responding to the virus can you still describe New South Wales as having a gold standard response? This unfortunately is the state of disaster or rational fear.
Dan Ilic 13:33 This makes second fear Professor Gilbert, the CO creator of the Oxford AstraZeneca jab has a Barbie doll made in her own it's very inspirational. That's pretty amazing stuff. jazzy got a question for you. Are there Barbies that we can use to prepare kids for real world adult life when other Barbies well? I
Jazz Twemlow 13:49 mean yeah, this this It feels like the pendulum has swung too far the other way I mean, he used to be kind of happy playtime and my little pony and now kids are being told they have to you know invent a world saving vaccine when they become an adult I think it's a bit bit much like week what about you
Dan Ilic 14:04 know just too much precious
Jazz Twemlow 14:05 yeah just prepare them for what's coming like you know out of work actress still waiting for the government arts rescue package Barbie like to something that kind of destroys the illusion and creates the you know, break makes them less innocent by the time they're a full full adult or I thought oceanographer who has to clean up discarded Barbie plastic from the ocean Barbie. That's another one. Also called don't throw another Barbie on the shrimp. That was what I thought you could call call it Yeah, just do some some just original kids toys. They'll just prepare kids. For the for the trials and depression of adult life think it's either too innocent or that's just aiming too high. somewhere in the middle would be the would be the sweet spot, I reckon.
Lewis Hobba 14:49 Yeah, you're so right, because they've gone from unrealistic body expectations. Like you need to have this really thin neck and no genitals to unrealistic career expectations. Yeah, I found a spot chief that
Dan Ilic 15:04 I like to think of I was given a best new talent Loki Barbie I would be in a different place right now as a kid. Wow. Yeah, you take it a bit on Home and Away
Vidya Rajan 15:11 wondering what the Bratz dolls are marketing at the moment cuz they've always been like this CD. Yeah the bad ones are they like you know anti Vax bread and yes sausage like bread is what's happening
Jazz Twemlow 15:26 well that's the other thing is like this this Bob is very pro kind of one side of the story like what seems to be excluding all the people who you know think that the virus isn't a real thing like where's q anon who's we're falling down in internet hole Barbie or you know any of those ones as well. And weird uncle Ken, Ken has become an uncle
Lewis Hobba 15:47 just in Australia flag.
Vidya Rajan 15:50 Flashing is fine with his one view. Fear.
Unknown Speaker 15:56 Now look, I'm a member of a religious community. And my pastor knows what's going on in our church community. Because that's the responsibility of a religious leader to actually to protect the integrity of your faith community,
Dan Ilic 16:10 a rational fear. This week's third fear greenhouse gases released by New Zealand's dairy industry have hit an all time high according to the latest data, fear mongers finding cows are going to bring us all down how do we fix this video?
Vidya Rajan 16:24 I do not know. I just always love when the cows come into the global warming debate because I kind of forget like I focus on the call and then and then it's like no other thoughts are a real problem. a delightful way for humanity to go like I feel like taken out by cow farts like some genetic modification they're trying to do to the gut so that the thoughts on as powerful which you know, I'm sure would be popular in many markets. But um, yeah, I have no idea. I'm just just fascinated that these cows will bring us down and for meat and dairy I guess I switched your nutritional use recently. So I feel like I'm you know, not to be worth but I'm doing really well. Sorry. kind of work over something attritional. Yeah, I don't want to work up on you. But yeah.
Lewis Hobba 17:15 I don't even know what that means. Because she's substitute. Mm hmm.
Unknown Speaker 17:20 Wow.
Dan Ilic 17:21 Do you do do you make your own cobs? Is this What's going on? No, no, I'm
Vidya Rajan 17:25 just trying to cut down dairy. You know?
Jazz Twemlow 17:28 Was it the the president of federated farmers who was saying, you know, telling us to cut agricultural emissions is virtue signalling, and it's like, as if, as if we're trying to like save the planet so we can brag about it like who we virtue signalling to like Pluto? Like who's like with its virtue signalling, if you want to kind of save the planet, the reason you do is to stop the world ending and so like calling a neurosurgeon like virtue signalling for saving people's lives, like he must love himself. It's really not the intent is good, I think. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 18:02 I'm a big fan of the brain are you
Dan Ilic 18:07 that jazz, like the big this, the best thing about that quote is like, if you can imagine that quote, in a New Zealand accent, then you don't have to take it seriously. That's what's great about it. So New Zealand to go off on some Vici singling crusade to shut down the agricultural sector to say, hey, we've reduced type of emissions. It hasn't solved anything. Hey, don't even take it seriously. It's great, shall we call us right off,
Jazz Twemlow 18:28 but you call us a bunch of latte sipping lefties. But by drinking lattes, we're actually helping the industry so to share.
Unknown Speaker 18:38 government made a list of the Top 20 marginals in order to allocate taxpayer money to projects in coalition seats and the community. Did you see that? I can't hear any other questions. You're shouting at the top of a rational fear what Australians are getting a more Carfax
Dan Ilic 18:54 we're gonna play. Hang on a second. Now, I'm gonna play a clip from the week if any of you have a comment, yell out, hang on a sec. I'll stop the tape. You chime in and we'll keep rolling. This hang on set comes from the Deputy Prime Minister at question time this week.
Unknown Speaker 19:06 I like I like going to the movies and I can't I can't read. I can't remember how it is how to do the IV either. But yeah, how is the IV a little bit the Labour Party got out by the advocator? Yeah, great. The great thing.
Jazz Twemlow 19:22 I mean, there's no joke. There's no joke here beyond like, What a weird movie like what a odd segue and reference just to pull out such a sheet part. Because that's such a long way to go. to like, bring up the water needed.
Vidya Rajan 19:40 If you say insult, it's a good thing to advocate.
Dan Ilic 19:45 This is what Albanese should be doing advocating and we don't say enough of Albanese advocate.
Vidya Rajan 19:51 He could do more.
Lewis Hobba 19:53 Yeah, it's funny that in, in within this allegedly drunken ramble. All he managed to do was say quietly thinks about how I actually didn't even bother trying to really possibly to try to get to I was just taking you know the fact that he was hammered on Well, you know, yeah allegedly probably habit.
Vidya Rajan 20:10 Yeah. compose a poem like you know a aviators from with advocator and advocate Alberni sees alliteration. Like, I just feel like maybe he helped his kids with poetry.
Dan Ilic 20:26 Barnaby Joyce, the bush poet is the deputy prime minister.
Unknown Speaker 20:30 The great ideas, man, the great ideas, man striped. All right,
Lewis Hobba 20:36 hang on a second. And he's mixing he's getting all mixed up now, isn't he? He's been to say a few. He's one of those dads who's gone to sleep on a Friday night watching one film, and he's woken up watching the castle. And he's like fire out. Howard Hughes is really slipped one minute he's a millionaire next minute. The fact that airport stealing his house.
Jazz Twemlow 20:56 I remember a movie was the Terminator, the Terminator. And the musical numbers at the end. were fantastic. Now I think I think you've seen a film or a TV
Dan Ilic 21:06 show called The West Wing in the press. The President did great governing like alderney's he does great.
Lewis Hobba 21:14 Up Prime Minister regime is sick, the leader of the opposition on a point of order, hang on a sec. You know, like I'm watching a parliamentarian or what Barnaby Joyce in particular but any politician just be hammered that publicly. He reminds me of those those old posters that people used to buy uni where it had a different spider's web on all the different drugs like all want to see Barnaby every day of the Parliament sitting. I want him to come in and be like, it's masculine today, fellas, and then we all just get to see what happens.
Dan Ilic 21:48 This is Yeah. Barnaby on Ba ba ba on. Tequila. matavai on vodka. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 21:54 just barley on MDMA just being like, actually, although I fuckin love you, mate. I really I fucking love you. I love you and I'm sweating but that's just usual I fall in love.
Jazz Twemlow 22:03 I've seen The Aviator and I can tell you we can all fly right now.
VO 22:09 I'm supposed to bring out the on weirdness. The I'm weird.
Vidya Rajan 22:13 What? What is he saying? Um, weirdness, or own weirdness. Like what is he saying?
Dan Ilic 22:22 Is my tra weirdness is kind of like omnipotent is that the thing?
Vidya Rajan 22:30 is omnipotent? I'm weird. Oh, God, why
Dan Ilic 22:32 Omni weirdness? I don't know. why
Vidya Rajan 22:35 don't why are they all convinced they're gonna coin a catchphrase. Yeah.
Lewis Hobba 22:41 Yeah, going back through the history of Australian politics, like, how many of them have managed to coin a really useful catchphrase that stuck around
Dan Ilic 22:48 conga line of sockos was the only one I can read that was that one will always tell statistics data test
Vidya Rajan 22:54 data Keating thing or
Dan Ilic 22:56 did I was kidding. Yeah.
Vidya Rajan 22:58 No kidding. It's not gonna happen.
Jazz Twemlow 23:00 So why why do you try and counter Barbies fumble and reach for a weird movie by then also just coming up with something that makes possibly even less sense. Like it's it's a I've done what the like an extra layer of an own goal is but it's like I'm goal ception at this point. It's very confusing.
Lewis Hobba 23:21 It's just a game of soccer where right at the start they always turn around they never face each other.
Dan Ilic 23:28 Like it would have been just great if he came out and called out the obvious like Barnaby is clearly blowing 1.0 here like that's what you really need to nail it down.
Vidya Rajan 23:36 Was it confirmed that he was drunk?
Dan Ilic 23:38 I don't think it I don't think it is ever good
Lewis Hobba 23:42 It's so weird that there are no cops of breathalysers in Parliament for some reason.
Dan Ilic 23:48 Yeah, you don't walk far you get the great thing about the bar is that it's a walking distance and a driving
Lewis Hobba 23:53 well I in before my like last job that I had one of the last jobs I had before I started working in Telly was working as a barman at Victorian Parliament House.
Dan Ilic 24:04 No way really. I
Lewis Hobba 24:05 didn't know. Yeah, yeah, I was a Victorian Parliament House barman for about 18 months. And yeah, just watched and I had to sort of like sign an NDA. All this like you know, let's talk about what you say in there.
Dan Ilic 24:17 It's a sign an NDA, you're breaking an NDA right now I'm
Lewis Hobba 24:20 allowed to say I worked there I just can't tell you all the people I so fucking each other.
Dan Ilic 24:30 That's for the Patreon members. point of order. The deputy prime minister has the kulacz no should continue on there. Great.
Lewis Hobba 24:41 So, so he's hammered. Elbows tried to stop him on a point of order. And the point of order is on weirdness. So like, why would you just stop him? He's like, Oh, it's on. I'm the point of order. I'm going for his own weirdness. And I like that sort of point of order. Back to Barnaby. And the first thing Barnaby says when he gets the issue is like Weird mumble that now I get under that.
Jazz Twemlow 25:05 Because now he knows he can get away with it if on if on willingness isn't a legitimate cause, well, if I've got free licence to say whatever wacky shit I want, I'm just gonna let loose. It's great.
Unknown Speaker 25:15 You're never going to get anything constructed by him. But he did have one bright idea before the other the other day. $300 per jab $300 per jab. I think that was just your ID. I think that was just your It
Dan Ilic 25:30 was so strange. It's like It's like, easy trying to have a goat the idea it's actually probably a legitimately good idea to get to put in there. It's so weird. It's good
Lewis Hobba 25:40 because so many people think it's a good idea. I like hey, Sue, like, that's a great idea. Heaps of other countries are doing it. It's working all over the place. And he's like, you know, this guy who I just called the advocator, which is obviously a great thing. It's great guys had a great idea. And let me tell you, it was just his idea. Just he's a genius, a genius.
Unknown Speaker 25:59 Nice resume he sees and I think we might as well leave it there. Whilst he was asked about alternative policies they need to be alternatives to the issues laid out in the question.
Dan Ilic 26:11 I don't know what the question was. That is it for our show. Tonight. big thank you to all of our fear mongers Vidya Rajon jazz twemlow Louis harbour and myself Dan knowledge Do you guys have any plug vicentina plug anything I
Vidya Rajan 26:26 have nothing to plug follow me on Twitter for deranged lockdown takes
Dan Ilic 26:32 a very good time. Vidya is exemplary on Twitter for deranged lockdown to eggs. I've been living off them for the last little bit. Jazz twemlow Do you really think
Jazz Twemlow 26:41 I've got the Yeah, the show the moth effect. Episode Two is coming out. Tomorrow, Friday at 11 episode ones already? Yeah, check that out too. It's very deep and weird.
Dan Ilic 26:54 Louis, do you really have to do anything to play?
Lewis Hobba 26:56 No dad, nothing at all. If anyone has any tips on how to play piano very quickly, very well. Hit me up play slide into my DMS on Instagram. But otherwise no, I'm pretty clear.
Dan Ilic 27:07 I'm looking forward to that next week to see getting a taste of where you're at. big thank you to rode mics our Patreon supporters Lance Whitford naurelle fi hen Cassandra Bennett Joe Pittman, Ashfield Sam McLean lane steed, Robin with a Y Margot Laura and Ben cook. We had so many people sign up this week. Thank you so much. It makes a huge difference. JACK makes thanks to jack brown on the tepanyaki timeline. The folks in the discord including Maddie Parma adds Killian and P McNeil. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of good night.
On this week's podcast we invade the suburbs of South West Sydney, Dissect Channel Seven's Olympics Coverage, find a missing lotto ticket and interview Alan Jones after he's been kicked out of News Corps Newspapers.
Thanks for listening — if you enjoy the show please chip in to our Patreon so we can afford to get a production assistant this year. We also need a budget to pull some great pranks during the next election, just like our #EngadineMaccas's plaque which got a mention on Pod Save The Word this week. (43:20)
Lewis Hobba 0:00 are you? Ah, great, Dan. So good. The tanks are on the streets, Daniel.
Dan Ilic 0:08 Yes, we're talking a lot about that a little bit later on. I'm excited. I can't wait. I can't wait for the tanks to roll past my house and bond I though I doubt it. We have a Patreon Louis and I tell you what I want I would love a few more Patreon people to join us because I don't know how you feel about this, Louis. I want to hire an assistant.
Lewis Hobba 0:30 Really? Yeah. I mean, I know I've said this before but have you considered paying me at any point?
Dan Ilic 0:36 No, no, I would never already pay you made as called the ABC I pay you fucking four cents today. So I'd
Lewis Hobba 0:43 like five cents a day.
Dan Ilic 0:46 So please, if you listening to this and you've been a longtime supporter, we absolutely need a few more dollars in our patreon@patreon.com forward slash irrational fear so we can hire an assistant that's going to cost a couple 100 bucks a week so please get us up get it cheap in so we can make this a little bit easier.
Lewis Hobba 1:06 What sort of tasks can I be expected to do
Dan Ilic 1:08 Daniel I've written out a whole list I've got a list of it's from graphic design to publishing to putting the videos on the internet to getting the web getting the website so it there's a whole bunch of things that I need a production assistant for so please patreon.com forward slash irrational.
Lewis Hobba 1:22 I was just thinking of applying just to see if I could kind of make a scratch out of this podcast.
Dan Ilic 1:29 I'm an equal opportunity employer. So I'm happy to happy to get any kind of sex past as my assisted. I'm recording irrational fear on gadigal land in the eora nation sovereignty was never seated we need a treaty. Let's start the show
Unknown Speaker 1:44 of rational fear contains naughty words like bricks. Can bro COMM And section bought you a rational view recommended listening by immature audiences.
Dan Ilic 1:57 Tonight in the band Robert Smith defamation case Ben Robert Smith launches another stunning attack on the character of Ben Robert Smith. And the New South Wales Government is allowing singles in Sydney to nominate a friend to visit their homes in lockdown in what they're calling a singles bubble, which is a much better name than the original Minerva
Voice Over 2:14 do. And anti vaxxers learned the true meaning of protests is the virus you spread along the way. It's the 30th
Dan Ilic 2:21 of July 2021. And I've hope you've applied for your paratype pesos. This is a rational fear, irrational.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former mayor of East town Dan Ilic. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. She is one of Australia's most loved comedians, who is definitely now a serious actor from the internet and the FX series Mr. inbetween it's Natalie Tran. Hello, what in general is intriguing? What is it like being a serious actor now? It's very serious, and it's very successful. And it's Jay Todd. Yeah, it's difficult.
Lewis Hobba 3:08 I would like you to talk more about the craft if you can also the work, the work and the craft.
Dan Ilic 3:13 That's another podcast list. And next our next be manga has written for Dolly Cleo bride to be Vogue woman's de l girlfriend magazine. They haven't shattered the glass ceiling. No, they've polished the glass floor. It's David Smith. Hey, thank you for having me. Welcome to the sealed section. And our final female UNGA has a moustache of a sex space, but a heart of gold. It's Louis harbour.
Lewis Hobba 3:36 Thank you. The dream, obviously, is to eventually get a moustache of gold. But until I start making some money somehow, I guess I won't be able to afford
Dan Ilic 3:46 shipping to the Patreon forward slash irrational fear. Yet, Louis, as a stretch goal, I think I'm the statue of gold. Coming up, we are going to be interviewing the one and only Alan Jones. Believe it or not, yes, he has been dumped from us court papers. So we'll talk to him. But first here is a message from this week's sponsor.
Voice Over 4:08 irrational fear you're sponsored by the National Vaccine rollout. Already 13% of adults have been vaccinated in just one year. At this rate, we'll be ready to open up to the world just in time for the Brisbane Olympics. The National Vaccine roll gone things come to those who wait or live in another country.
Dan Ilic 4:28 Yes, this week's first fear the army has been called to help New South Wales battle COVID-19 oh my god fear mongers. Isn't this what the Cuban people want to happen?
Natalie Tran 4:43 I think if people are going to protest and act like their freedom has been taken away from them, I want to see their freedom be taken away from them. I want it to be justified. And to be honest with you, I don't know if you guys how you felt but when I see people break I mean, I think I would be full on dictator I'm for it. Go crazy. Do it.
Dan Ilic 5:01 Natalie Tran the people's premier 100%
David Smiedt 5:06 I'd be up for the forecast of the village people to be honest, I want them I want the Navy. I want I want them all. I want them to lock up the bastards and at the end do YMCA and that'll be that'll be a people's movements I can get behind.
Lewis Hobba 5:20 As I say it is strange because suddenly like none of the cases in New South Wales have really been from people on the streets until the protests. So it's not like they're, they're reeling in the tank so that you can stop people from going to a bookshop. It's like, clearly directed at those like few 1000 idiots. It just feels like even though we're all angry at them, it feels like such a fucking overreach as usual. It really does. Four
Dan Ilic 5:45 days ago, Deputy Commissioner Gary warboys said that they're there, there's no chance that the military would be called upon. Now that just proves two things. You can't trust cops. And you can't trust a guy called Gary who spells his name with two hours. Two hours is shifty, Gary. Well,
David Smiedt 6:00 he's also you know, he's coming up against his mortal enemy, Gary Brad boys. So you have to be careful about those guys. You know, they've got a reputation abroad.
Lewis Hobba 6:10 It's like if you live in New South Wales, and you're like, you know, my problem with this. It's not enough of a police state. Like, could we just add one more level of insane, heavy handedness? That'd be a delight. That's certainly what I've been missing since the lockdown.
Natalie Tran 6:26 What just to play devil's advocate, because I am a dictator. I had a I had a look over things. And I saw that the fine was increased, I think from 200 and something up to 500. Is that correct? As part of this whole, like, thing, and I had a look at what other fines were. And I had a look. And you can apparently get fined about $344 for fat arming, which is when you leave your arm hanging out of a car window when you're driving. If you're crawled, yeah, if you're pulled over and you're driving a vehicle, and it's considered that you're not in control, and this can also include wearing thongs when you drive that can be $457. So in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's that bad. If that makes sense that you could you know, it's not that but I think you have to take things into consideration. You know, you have to put things in context.
Dan Ilic 7:19 Yes, spreading a deadly disease around to the rest of Australia is only worth about driving a car with songs with
David Smiedt 7:29 me, which is a phrase I'll be taking away from this podcast with joy in my heart, Natalie. Yeah.
Natalie Tran 7:34 Well, Marissa is going obviously no one who wants to rat out anyone. But does anyone who knows someone who is pushing the rules to the limit? Or does anyone who knows anyone who is breaking the rules?
Dan Ilic 7:42 Only people I see on Twitter who are who are taking photos and putting it on on Twitter going look at these people at the beach evenly distanced apart. They're terrible.
Natalie Tran 7:51 I'm just curious. I don't know. I'm curious. Obviously, I don't I think it's an overreaction. But I am curious to see what reactions need to happen for people to stop because the numbers are going up. And I think if people really genuinely feel that this lockdown is so terrible. And let's face it in Sydney, we've had a wonderful ride compared to the rest of the world. I'm just curious with it. Yeah, we've had protesters come out as though it's the end of the world. I do want to see what they need to feel scared or to feel like to take this seriously.
Dan Ilic 8:23 Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's so I think, you know, the mixed communications from the government or just had didn't help. I think the failure of the federal government to secure those vaccines and do a proper rollout from 18 months ago, absolutely didn't help. And that is just true. What we're saying now is a true testament to the failure of the federal government to actually delivering something that they should have been on, like, we're talking about a federal government, who when this fucking thing started, developed a board of people with fossil fuel executives on it, and they decided the solution to COVID-19
Voice Over 8:57 was to build a fucking gas pipeline. Sorry, I just want to get that out again. Yeah, I just want to make that clear.
Lewis Hobba 9:04 I do think obviously, I know I've talked about this on a previous irrational fear, but I do think if we are going to use the army, and it is going to the army is going to be a solution to getting rid of you know, this COVID situation. What it needs to be is every able bodied man or woman who can hold a gun 100% like the hunter with German. Just Just AstraZeneca and h1 just walking through that protest. It's like a dumb, don't come down. tranq gun tranq gun, every single one of them. Yeah, that's what I mean. Bring it on, man. Let's see it. I want to see the world go crazy. Yeah,
David Smiedt 9:41 I am looking forward to the army marching into Bondi and trying to tell them apart from the personal trainers who also wear a lot of cameras.
Dan Ilic 9:51 Yeah, I think that's important. I kind of don't mind this idea. Like imagine ANZAC Day in a few years at the parade. In this middle. I've
Voice Over 9:58 gotten the Battle of pan I still get tremendous ADHD every time I drive past a muffin break. I just want to stick up someone's nose. And you know, we say we say every ANZAC Day at the going down of the Sun lest we forget to order enough vaccines Oh, it's all terrible. What a What a horrible
Lewis Hobba 10:20 that's like the end of every segment on this podcast. Oh, it's so terrible.
Natalie Tran 10:24 Well, no, I just realised I just realised this cuts to me sounding like I condone army rollout. No. Yeah, it's just an absolute mess.
Lewis Hobba 10:33 Unfortunately, that's um, you're on the record now.
Dan Ilic 10:37 And can I say net? Welcome to irrational fear.
Unknown Speaker 10:42 The police horse cops are clenched fist to the face of fiery anti mock down protests. There were false charges that have been approved. A horse, which I haven't done a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 10:58 Our second fear for tonight, David Smith, you have a concern that CHANNEL SEVEN is relentlessly mining the Olympic medalists for tragedy.
David Smiedt 11:07 It is annoying, they've gone from fear mongering to tear mongering. So it can be the moment of someone's some young athletes life they've trained for years, or longer. In many cases, they've beaten someone by hundreds of a second. They're standing there with gold radiating from their chests. And the first question is, how do you think your Nana would feel? Remember your Nana, we died from brain cancer? How would she feel about this? Why not? I just have a moment of joy. Why can we just have that moment of joy in the current climate? It's really starting to shoot me.
Lewis Hobba 11:49 I think it's Yeah, it's fair enough. Like I think it's like, if you're a good commentator, I feel like you want to build that narrative. In the lead up, you know, you want to be like, and it's obviously incredible. They train every day. Plus, of course, she lost her Nana last year. It's been a really tough year, of course, with the COVID. And in a lot of different things. And then when they win, just shut the fuck up. It's like at the end of like rocky to when when rocky wins. They didn't go up to rocky or like, your wife nearly left you How did that feel? You know, like, we got that in the later that was the first to film so that at the end, we could just enjoy that he finally won.
David Smiedt 12:22 If you if the writing is strong enough that you say you've created a beautiful narrative within with a with a perfect climax to it. It's just like someone walking out of a movie picking holes in the continuity.
Dan Ilic 12:37 Dave, I think you're absolutely right. And Louis, you are too I think the narrative is very important. And one thing you learn with narrative writing is that you don't want to go to too big too early. And which makes me think what are these commentators going to say when they have to commentate the Paralympics next week? Oh, yeah, absolutely.
David Smiedt 12:56 You know, and the condescension that should be an event in itself. How are you? How are you gonna roll that into that?
Lewis Hobba 13:08 I was watching the the surfing the first. Well, that was pretty much all the surfing in the first few days of the Olympics. And oh, and right, who's the Australian surfer Inc, absolute legend, incredible surfer. And his big story is that he suffered a really bad brain injury when he was surfing in 2015. Never thought he'd surf again had to basically teach himself to walk. And then like a few years later had was winning, like his first competition back in Australia won and it was one of the greatest moments in sporting my sporting life. Why? You? Wow. And obviously, when you like the amount of when I was watching him in his first hate, took him about 20 seconds. And then like, of course, he's recovering from the brain injury in 2015. I'm like, Yeah, all right, got that. But then it was like five times the heat. And then it got to the final and honestly, they didn't even talk about the safety they just like remember that brain injury? It was six years ago like we've been called.
David Smiedt 14:03 Tony give me a little an amuse boosh of tragedy. I'm fine with that. But then just give me seven courses of glory after that. That's what I'm watching for. Natalie, do
Dan Ilic 14:18 you think people do you think the commentators are going too far with mining tragedy? Oh, guys, I haven't watched it. I haven't watched any of the Olympics.
Lewis Hobba 14:28 natalina dictator thinks they haven't gotten fired up. But interesting point.
Natalie Tran 14:31 I didn't believe in flags. No. I watched the opening ceremony. That was about it.
Lewis Hobba 14:39 You thought they weren't marching in time to get it together?
Natalie Tran 14:42 I was like, it's not sad enough. It's not Can I get a goose there? I'm I've watched the highlight. I'm so sorry. I'm just not uh, I got it. Yeah, I should watch it.
Dan Ilic 14:51 I was watching the opening ceremony too. And I I was just wondering, I TGC that all that tap stuff is like we had tap stuff in our opening ceremony. Every show derivative of Sydney two pounds It's
Natalie Tran 15:03 so good. And I really I was watching it and I thought oh is tapped acting a Japanese? Did I not know that it was tied to Japan and then my dad called me the next day and he said, I didn't know tap dancing with Japanese. It's something that they've done like,
Lewis Hobba 15:19 No dad. It was invented in Newcastle with the tap dogs.
Dan Ilic 15:24 That sounds right. Doesn't that sound right? Exactly. I texted one of the tap dogs during the ceremony and I did text him I said this is very derivative.
David Smiedt 15:36 Can I just say though, on this subject of the Olympics that I do want to I think it Kelly McCown deserves to be a national hero.
Dan Ilic 15:45 I've got that I've got the exact same reason for that. Let me let me play the video right here. Here we go. Oh, would you
David Smiedt 15:50 like to say to your mom and your sister for now. She is not on a postage stamp. By the end of this week, I'll be writing a very stern letter.
Dan Ilic 16:04 I think I think when you win a gold medal, fuck air is totally appropriate and she will be broadcasting and
David Smiedt 16:09 now our swimming team has both an F bomb and the CBOE which is pretty, pretty amazing.
Dan Ilic 16:18 Louis, when you did like broadcast or training at Triple J, did you learn about like hard facts and softex? Like,
Lewis Hobba 16:24 you know, well, obviously, then they don't train you at Triple J.
ALAN JONES 16:29 Right? Yeah, they
Lewis Hobba 16:31 just let you go and set the wolves upon you. But you do we do have this thing that well, it's funny because yes, we were told about hard forks and soft forks. But that's in like, it's this ephemeral thing where, particularly with songs, there'll be songs that are like, Fuck you, I fucking hope you die. And that is categorised as a hardback, where if it's like, I fucking love you. It sort of gets considered a soft fuck. A few years into me working there. We had like a training day with someone whose job it is to like, like an editorial policies person or whatever. And we said to them very stern and very like, Well, obviously, there's the hard fork and the soft fork. And they're like, that's all bullshit. That's not real. I don't. Like that's how we've been operating for 40 years now. Like, now that doesn't exist. There's no such thing as a soft fork. I'm like, Oh, well. This guy comes in. This guy comes into the office every day and tells us about like, I brought it home to my relationship.
Dan Ilic 17:34 It's a guy from the swearing lobby party who's been lobbying for hard facts and soft facts and like, Hey, guys, I recommend the swearing freedom lobby. I'm just letting you guys know you can totally say it. It's like, don't worry about it. It's gonna play Kaley one more time. Here's Kaylee one more time. Rational fear. What would you like to say to your mom and your sister for now? a rational fear. This week's third fear a woman unaware she had $39 million lottery ticket in her purse for weeks. Natalie, you found this story? What scares you about this one? A couple
Natalie Tran 18:11 years ago, I read an article about how Australia I think had 12 million unclaimed lottery tickets. And what I don't like about it is there's actually a window that closes so if you have a lottery ticket, and you don't claim it within a certain period of time it closes in the United States. Yeah. So it's different the United States where well, they can't just put it on hold for you then. But in the United States, they'll hold it for a while. But just so you guys know in Victoria, I think it is six months in New South Wales. I think it is. Six years last I read so we're slow on closing more than just but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're slow on a couple of things. We're behind Victoria. But isn't that interesting? So if you're going to lose a lottery ticket, lose it in New South Wales. More importantly,
Dan Ilic 19:01 if you're going to buy a buy a lottery ticket, buy a lottery ticket in New South Wales.
Natalie Tran 19:06 Well, she was carrying it around with her. I mean, there's, you know, to be said to how people feel about you entering lottery or gambling in the first place, but imagine carrying it around your purse for that long just carrying that much money around your purse.
Lewis Hobba 19:18 I reckon I buy like, maybe like two lotto tickets a year. I reckon. Like just for fun. And, and the fear of losing the ticket is so strong, that I only buy them online now. Because then I know that I'll always have like the email telling me that I've won. I would just like the I just know that I'd be the story of like, and fell away in the wind. Like, no fucking way. I'm not going to be that guy.
David Smiedt 19:46 Yeah, I'd be that I'd be the six year six years. Two days guy. I love that.
Dan Ilic 19:55 Oh, David, congratulations, but bad news. You're 48 hours. But I know a guy in the ministry maybe we can figure something out. But tomorrow night's numbers are gonna be six for you left to ask the TIC Tock guy for the numbers. He turned out What are you right?
Lewis Hobba 20:18 What an incredible and predictable fall from right?
Dan Ilic 20:22 Where we're talking about the tick tock guys a circle committee on Tick Tock who gets to quote unquote guess the numbers of the numbers of the new cases in New South Wales every day for about a few weeks until he was caught out. And then was one of the latest of the protests of the vaccine protest last week. And he got up on stage at the town hall with a megaphone to proclaim himself as the people's premier. And people cheered like he's really really led into this moment.
Lewis Hobba 20:49 You know what actually bummed me out more way more so than Tick Tock guy who, basically I didn't have time to have any feelings for before he was. But was the loss of egg boy. Yes. Sweet Sweet egg boy PETA Lola
Dan Ilic 21:02 on on YouTube just said that he's rational figure discussing boy. Isn't that a sad thing? We lost an Australian this week.
Lewis Hobba 21:09 We lost the hero. We lost like for a boy a man who? Like, well, a man a boy, an egg boy, he's got more eggs. And boy. I mean, what? What an incredible, you know, I have a photo with a boy up on my Instagram. I love that boy.
Dan Ilic 21:27 Yeah, we tried to get him on irrational fears so often back in the day,
Natalie Tran 21:30 I'm just looking at the comments and Tim has written he was doubting the rapid testing. But I also agree with Tim's comment as well that egg boys a kitten is allowed to be dumb.
Dan Ilic 21:39 I think that is absolutely true. That's why I was talking about redemption. You know, he's like, you know, 21 I think there's enough time for a boy to kind of write his wrongs.
Natalie Tran 21:48 Yeah, and actually forgive people, especially during lockdown periods. And especially people who come to fame online. So they spend a lot of time online, that they fall into rabbit holes. I think that's very understandable.
Dan Ilic 21:59 Did you fall in any rabbit holes when you're growing up online, Natalie? Deep, deep in the rabbit hole.
Lewis Hobba 22:06 Okay, the dictator we say before?
Natalie Tran 22:08 It's me, egg boy. Tick Tock guy. We hang out every week. It's great. I'm so proud. I'm so pro army. I'm pro everything. I'm here.
David Smiedt 22:23 I fallen into the rabbit hole. It's a bit mean, but I do love watching people deniers of the science struggling to say epidemiologist then it just brings me such Friday joy. I cannot find a word for the Germans was terrible.
Natalie Tran 22:44 What did he post? Exactly? I know I had a glimpse of his bio that was in a screenshot and it was talking about frequencies that were good for healing.
Lewis Hobba 22:51 He was like chatting to tick tock guy egg boy and tick tock guy. It's definitely Tick Tock guy. We're hanging out at the protest. Like, like Hank, like, Oh, I see. Yeah, no egg boys all in. Oh, he's he's finally cracked. God. I don't love myself for that.
Unknown Speaker 23:11 Rational fear did Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison shit himself. McDonald's. Kudos to the Australian people for keeping this thing alive that Scott Morrison who's kind of a pretty creepy guy. Anyway, in 2019 this one so viral that a street artists put up a commemorative plaque a rational fear.
Lewis Hobba 23:31 Yeah, the next big story, obviously, is that Alan Jones has been kicked off his Daily Telegraph column after a long time still has this guy news show, of course. But we're thrilled that now it's freed up a little bit more time for him to join us on irrational fear once again. Good Alan, welcome to rational fear.
ALAN JONES 23:47 Good morning, everyone. It's good to be with you.
Lewis Hobba 23:49 I was wondering what you say about news court's decision to drop your columns from their papers.
Voice Over 23:54 Can I just say this is disgusting. This is exactly why more people trust those insolent Yahoo's irrational fear than the Daily Telegraph.
Lewis Hobba 24:01 Well, I mean, to be fair, that's been happening for a long time while you were printed by them.
Natalie Tran 24:05 I know. It's disgusting that I'm now on a rational theists podcast and I'm not getting paid. The editor of The Daily Telegraph said that you're no longer resonating with readers. Well, I can
Voice Over 24:15 absolutely confirm that they're no longer publishing my column. But I categorically deny that I wasn't resonating with readers. For starters, The Daily Telegraph was printing in such small text now I can read that properly without a magnifying glass. And we all know that the people who by the Daily Telegraph can't read so calling them readers in the first place is like calling the sceptre Judi reigns who watch the ABC viewers we all know they should be called lard. Hey dribblers if the Daily Telegraph just made the text bigger and more colourful, it would resonate you know like those other stories they have about the 16 months interest free on bedding electrical and furniture from Harvey Norman. Guy Harvey, all like on Sky News precisely. You know, I say something that a child with a journalism degree who couldn't get a job in journalism That summarises it and puts it in big font and underneath my carefully curated pocket square, best dress mat and television. Mr. Jones, how
David Smiedt 25:08 are you coping with the Sydney lockdown on your palatial country estate?
Voice Over 25:12 Well, let me tell you, it's extremely stressful for everyone on the farm. It's been at least a week since Joe Bailey came around and gave me a shave and a massage. And Alberto is always popping his head into the studio.
David Smiedt 25:24 Wait a minute, the opposition leader is going to your studio at your country home.
Voice Over 25:29 It's the nightmare given to one of my guests, Alberto. He's always eating all the other animals food. It's a bit like the Alp.
Natalie Tran 25:36 Very funny, and which proven fact do you disbelieve more COVID-19 or climate change?
Voice Over 25:42 Well, that's a very good question. You know, ever since now, valine has stopped sponsoring my show. It's safe to say I'm warming to global warming.
Lewis Hobba 25:51 Elon Ray Hadley said you're encouraging protests like the ones we saw on Saturday. What's your response to that?
Voice Over 25:56 We'll raise right? These are my people and my people are angry because I told them to be angry. They're also well educated. And if there's going to be a champion of the uneducated, it's me. Ray also said half of what I said is very well researched and a half of it isn't and that's by design. two wrongs don't make a right but if I'm wrong, I'm a big enough man to a minute if accuair and a panel of Supreme Court judges compelled me to have you had your AstraZeneca AZ no thank you it's poison. I however am booked into get my first job as AC. ac as nuclear is releasing a new lockdown playlist on Spotify. I've asked my assistant to record it on cache and I'm gonna sit down with Alberto would listen to it. Both sides I NB have AC agenda. Anthony clear is the best medicine that this country needs right now.
Lewis Hobba 26:42 Ellen, thanks for joining us on irrational fear.
Voice Over 26:44 It's good to be with you.
Natalie Tran 26:45 Oh, sorry, guys. I just noticed I think Dan's been on mute this whole time down. I couldn't hear you asking any questions.
Dan Ilic 26:51 Oh, that's okay. You guys did a really good job. Well, that is it for a rational fee. A big thank you to all of our guests tonight. Natalie Trent David Smith. Lewis. How about you guys who think the plug Natalie, you want to plug anything?
Natalie Tran 27:03 Oh yeah, I've got a podcast called This American Life. It's smaller. But if you guys check it out, I'd really appreciate that. There is
David Smiedt 27:13 not a plug but I would love to give a shout out to the staff at the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse working on the front lines and helping people through cancer at this incredibly tough time. You guys are the true heroes.
Natalie Tran 27:25 Well, Jesus, let me do mine again. Oh, God, like David, you go first. If you're gonna do that, that's just bloody hell.
Dan Ilic 27:36 So David, David, you've you had food you had cancer? How does it feel now?
David Smiedt 27:44 I fully I am fully recovered. And thanks to the people I just mentioned. Sorry, I should have said earlier that you never know when to walk in with the camera. That's the problem. I'm glad you're better. Yeah, I'm 100% Yeah, I didn't know I did a festival show about a go finding chemo. So just so you know, my take it out. Is it online anyway? No, no, it was just a little kind of it was mainly for the people who treated me and then they all started bringing their friends and then I found nurses are the best stand up audiences on the planet because they are the darkest motherfuckers we have a brain.
Dan Ilic 28:22 Lewis you're gonna flag anything?
Lewis Hobba 28:24 No, I'm on a little break from my other work right now. And I literally am doing nothing like Oh, that is
Dan Ilic 28:31 what an absolute delight.
Lewis Hobba 28:33 sure if that's what you want to call it. Let's call it a delay on the losing my mind.
Dan Ilic 28:39 Yes, no, it is. It does suck. It does suck indeed. A big thank you to our Patreon supporters who pledged this month john Hannah said Georgie Cowen someone could I rain? also a big thanks to our friend Tim D'Souza who's been on the podcast before he upped his rate. So thank you so much. It's really great. Please, if you want to support us head to patreon.com forward slash irrational fear so we can hire an assistant. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Good night. Oh, and sorry. In case you haven't figured it out, we we had to cancel our Melbourne shows that we're gonna be great.
Lewis Hobba 29:16 I like putting those up on Instagram being like, can't wait to see of Elvis.
Dan Ilic 29:23 I put it up once and then didn't worry about promoting it ever since because I was like, that is no good. I have very low confidence will be allowed out of the state for that.
Lewis Hobba 29:32 I'm actually so bombed. I can't wait to get to comedy Republic. It's such a beautiful place. And I really am excited about doing shows there. So hopefully it happens sometime in the next decade.
Dan Ilic 29:42 Thank you very much comedy Republic for having us. We can't wait to go down there until next week. There's always something to be scared. Have a good night.
On the podcast this week: Sami Shah makes his case to be the new host of Q+A.
It is compelling.
We also dive into the ethics of the guy who got both the Astra Zeneca vaccine, and the Pfizer vaccine, and look at how the Australian Government is trying to do the numbers to delay UNESCO's decision to put the Great Barrier Reef on the endangered list.
Close the hatch, and have your skittles ready with fearmongers:
Dan Ilic 0:00 Get a Louis Hello Daniel. How are you? Look I'm well I have. We've had about a month off this podcast because thanks to Coronavirus, several shows have been cancelled and I want to I want everybody to know I decided we should start the podcast again to sell our Melbourne shows. Because we have Melbourne to Melbourne shows on sale for the middle of August and today, they will also cancel congrat
Lewis Hobba 0:23 we should just book shows that we know we can't sell just be like,
Dan Ilic 0:28 yeah, where are the ends? Where the MC j?
Lewis Hobba 0:31 Yeah, like through the MCG in early August.
Dan Ilic 0:34 I did it for a comedy festival prank which would be to actually book like a conference room in the MC j and only do three nights during festival and then order some gigantic billboard saying Dan illage mc g three nights only. And when you turn up you have to go up to the like the members standard. I mean like this.
Lewis Hobba 0:54 Yeah, yeah, I gotta do that. So more show up more cancelled shows which is great. But really good to be back then.
Dan Ilic 1:01 Yes, it is good. Yes, I'm recording my end of irrational feet on gadigal land and the eora nation. sovereignty was never ceded. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 1:09 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks cambro
Unknown Speaker 1:16 COMM And section 14, our rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 1:22 Tonight the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony is hours away. But critics are saying that it's a mistake to allow delta to perform. And Jeff Bezos flies into space to feel what it's like to no longer be the richest man on earth. And it's got Morrison regret saying that the vaccine rollout is not a race when clearly it is the race that has stopped the nation. It is the 21st of July 2021 and this is the podcast that unifies the entire world. This is irrational fear.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host former Queensland premier Dan Ilic. Let's meet our female guest for tonight. First up is a Melbourne man who is quite satisfied with the gold standard containment of the Coronavirus in New South Wales. It's Sammy Shah How you doing everyone? I'm quite quite loving this lockdown life that we've already presented with I've decided that's the approach I'm taking everyone is taking it I'm gonna be the weirdo who loves it it's gonna be my brand that's my that's my
semi locked in shot. Next is a Sydney stand up comedian. He was definitely okay with not being able to do gigs to earn money is Jenny tiaan Hi. Yeah, I'm
Jenny Tian 2:42 also in lockdown at the moment. I'm the opposite of Sami. I have been dying here. I've been doing a haircut tutorial off tic Tock and now it looks like I've got like three. One. My hair looks like a decorative rug, honestly.
Dan Ilic 2:58 Well, I'm glad you said that. Because finally our final guest while in lockdown allowed his girlfriend to cut his own here. It's Louis hava.
Lewis Hobba 3:05 Yes. And look at these beautiful results. Obviously, the hair on the top of the head I think is actually pretty good. The moustache which you can see on the podcast, so let me describe it to you. Yeah, and everyone loves it. No, no. 100% definitely no one calling me a sex pest or sex tester Jason. Descriptions like 80s PE teacher, which is essentially the same thing.
Sami Shah 3:29 It's very 70s German porn star was definitely got a vibe there is to get a moustache. We're like if you walk into a car dealership, they give you the white band band. Like clearly you this is your calling.
Dan Ilic 3:48 We're better for it for having you here. Louis. Thank you so much. Hey, I don't know if you folks noticed this. But while we're on hiatus for the podcast, irrational fear made it into the New York Times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. During um, during the break when the government put out their ad for the Coronavirus campaign, the scare tactic ad, the one that used that use matrix green, no one uses matrix green anymore, but they insisted on using matrix green to scare people in getting a vaccine. I made a parody of that and put it up on a rational fear. And we got into the New York Times well done. Well done, which is huge.
Lewis Hobba 4:25 Yeah, no one buys newspapers anymore.
Dan Ilic 4:30 Tragic consequence there our sponsor for this way. She was a 39 year old non essential graphic designer who was merely eight months away from being eligible for a Pfizer vaccine. And yet, she refused to enrol herself into St. Joseph's College. Let's be COVID-19 together, turn 40 sooner or be the son of liberal party donors. spoken by someone who never be held to account from the either hold a syringe to BB and gamma. Brilliant. Thank you. Thank you. The same in the original ad that really Got me was that they just made it so easy to rip and parody. It was it was a parody proof. It was like a parody. Open slather because they had no voiceover over the top of it. And you can rip it and add your own voiceover. I encourage everybody to do it. It's easy to do. Yeah, I mean, I saw that I thought it was the real ad. Are you any closer to 40? Jedi? Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's precisely Yeah.
Sami Shah 5:29 Am I the oldest person here today? Am I the only one over 40? Actually,
Dan Ilic 5:33 are you the only one vaccinated?
Sami Shah 5:35 I've had one round I got I got one round of AstraZeneca. So I've had the first round of Astra. And by the way at the reaction, like I was shivering and shaking and like it was Yeah, it was very much what you know, this is like one o'clock in the morning when I'm lying in a puddle of my own sweat. I was like, maybe the anti vaxxers have a point. The next morning, I was fine again. But yeah, I've had one round so I'm still not Delta proof. But I'm a little bit closer. Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 6:05 I'm not 40 obviously I still work at Triple J. They'd put a bolt in your head when you hit 40 I I'm one round Dean as well. So I'm bad people. No, I'm fine. I'm fancy as hell.
Jenny Tian 6:22 So one round in five. were late. Everyone getting Pfizer's?
Dan Ilic 6:28 I'm the only one out here in Bondi Beach note vexes.
Sami Shah 6:31 What's going on? You're in ground zero. is basically dry humping patient zero of the new Delta out. You don't have a vaccine. Well, this
Dan Ilic 6:43 is the first story for today is Sydney man who's received his fourth dose of Coronavirus taxane. He's doubled up he's done the AstraZeneca and the Pfizer. This is last week. 34 year old Tom Lee got to lots of vaccines over the last month. Jenny, do you think this is fair that this guy's has gone and doubled, doubled up his vaccines? You know,
Jenny Tian 7:05 what I think is really genius about it is that the what the way he did it was that he just hung around vaccination centres basically. And then just went and like, ask people and then he managed to get him. So I reckon he's kind of a genius.
Dan Ilic 7:19 I think this is probably a good strategy for everyone. Just to look,
Sami Shah 7:23 this is very much how most comedians start their career as well. You just got a club and you hang around until finally they're like, Alright, do you want to get on stage in fact, is also how most ABC employees start their career. How I got mine by just going to hang out with God or they got embarrassed gave me a job. So if that works in Australia for these two industries, it makes sense it would work for everything else in the country as well. You know what, I'm gonna start hanging your curability just roaming around kirribilli waiting to be the next pm eventually you will get embarrassed and make me pm.
Dan Ilic 7:57 I was thinking about this today, Sammy, I was thinking Chief, I reckon I would have been a really awesome Prime Minister. 18 months ago, I could have foreseen all of this and put in a bunch of shit. Rather than read to fix Coronavirus before I got this bad before.
Sami Shah 8:14 This is exactly like when you watch the Winter Olympics and you sit there and those Olympic skiers are going downhill bobbing and weaving and you're sitting at home on your couch or the remote going on. Please, I could do better than that. Semi gravity does most
Dan Ilic 8:28 of the works. Gravity doesn't work. Of course you can. I'm a short man. I'm a short heavyset man. I've got I've got gravity on my side brother.
Sami Shah 8:38 saying let's give Scott Morrison the benefit of the doubt clearly, he's doing the best he can. And it is it is ablest to make fun of someone doing the best they can, with the best they can is just that.
Lewis Hobba 8:50 Definitely was he was just looking. He wasn't the Prime Minister. He was just there. Then he was third in line and two he Bradbury's way like it he 100% followed this.
Sami Shah 9:01 It was like the movie The death of Stalin but with none of the cleverness, intelligence. Ravi das personality, not a political savvy or any of those things, as he was nothing like the movie death of Stalin.
Jenny Tian 9:16 Unless in the movie, he went over to the UK to get like a DNA test and find his ancestry.
Dan Ilic 9:26 Or the Death Star the story I saw death of Stalin at at the Sundance Film Festival but I had 100 idea.
Lewis Hobba 9:33 I had an edible unvaccinated
Sami Shah 9:44 I saw this story right now this bond guy scum story on vaccine anti vaxxer data. I saw the death of Stalin in Cannes Film Festival while having an edible. Were you wearing thongs and running up to the manboobs flapping in the breeze.
Dan Ilic 10:02 Sammy, it was Sunday. It was
Lewis Hobba 10:06 one day So Dan will be Sundance and on your grey live out drain.
Dan Ilic 10:13 I had an edible before the show and I was having a great time and I was laughing my head off. But none of the Americans in the audience were enjoying it as much as I was. And then during the q&a, I decided I said to myself, Oh my, I love Armando Iannucci, I've got to go meet him and and he and I got down to the second or first row and at the Sundance Film Festival, and after QA, I was so stoned that I walked out, Damon said, Amanda, and then I can't remember anything I said something about being a satirist to you and I was satirise, but I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure it was just a jumble of fucking consonants and vowels. And
Sami Shah 10:59 anyway, I'm on our Patreon subscribers. I just say for the record
Unknown Speaker 11:06 as a politician, the vaccine rollout in
Dan Ilic 11:09 Australia is a shit show. It is just a mess. And Scotty from marketing has got to take some of the responsibility for it. That was exactly the point I was making just about a rational fear exactly the point. Our second fear this week is who will replace Hamish MacDonald on q&a. Yes, Hamish MacDonald has quit the ABC said no more. And he's now kind of back to the project where he came STEMI Have you got any ideas about who may replace Hamish MacDonald on q&a?
Sami Shah 11:39 I mean, there's who should replace him and then who will replace him? Right. Well, two separate conversations. The first thing is I do know that announcement I know that announcement very well, which is when they say he's moving on to other projects. It means the ratings in work out the way we were hoping they would we're going to not continue his contract. We might even end his contract early. And we're going to make it sound like it's all his decision while the real people whose fault it is that the show is no good and basically unwatchable. Who are the producers and executive producers on the show will continue on their contracts getting the salaries that they will get it again, anyway, fuck off. Poor Hey, Mitch, because it is not his fault. It was a shit show. And he was hosting a shit show. But regardless, he's gone. Here's why. I think you want to know my honest opinion other than myself, and I genuinely think I do a fine. Good job.
Dan Ilic 12:29 Sammy, this is my pointer. Well, I want to hear you say I want to hear you give the case yourself. Ah, all right. Here's the fucking
Sami Shah 12:36 right, let's fucking do this. But it's a debate show. In the end q&a is a debate show. And believe it or not, but I was a world class debater growing up in high school. In university, I paid my way to university, not to prostitution the way young man does. I did it to debate competitions. What kind of world class nerd Do you have to be to be a debater? Who pays his university fees? Using the money and winning to debate that was me? All right. Go on. These kinds of shows which due date have been so bland, so utterly boring, so lacking in personality that the hosts were interchangeable with planks of wood and wood had the exact same low ratings? I'll do it. I'll make it funny. I'll call bullshit when butcher is said I will fact check people do we revisit regular diligence that never happens? And at the same time, encourage good conversation? How many times do you watch q&a? And the conversation is about to get spicy, too. People start arguing and then the presenter goes, Okay, we don't have time for that. We want a viral clip on YouTube and we can comment on Twitter about cutting the conversation short. The hackers job is just making sure everything's as black is a cream. No, fuck off. Let me host the show. But no, they never gonna do it. Then I'm going to give it to me. Give to Nicki and Louie. We're going to give it to anyone with a vaguely interesting you know who's going to get the show. It will be Spears, it will be fucking David Spears, who's the only person who can make Anthony Albanese look at Nick. He's so fucking dumb. All right, and he's going to be the next presenter of the boring show on Australian television history. Wait until the ratings go completely into the toilet. q&a
Jenny Tian 14:32 that was so beautiful. I'm so inspired.
Sami Shah 14:37 I need this much semi. Yeah, imagine meeting one of those beautiful rants on television. You're like I'm pretty sure we got guests to talk. You're This show once by the way, I turned it down three times. Show one time I sat next to Jim Jim molan. That's right, and who's unfortunately now very tragically been diagnosed with cancer. And I'm not making fun of him at all for that, but I will say that he had the worst breath I've ever smelled on being when sitting next to him. Every time he spoke, I had to lean back in into my seat so that the breath would walk past the present.
Lewis Hobba 15:28 What is that a intubating? Is there any rules against that? Or is that quite a good tactic sort of
Sami Shah 15:33 tactic? That is that is basically that the blackout said he was well versed in
Lewis Hobba 15:40 if, if we're taking the lurking approach, if we think that lurking around somewhere is what gets you the job, someone should whoever wants to hush. It should look back on Monday nights. His wife or whoever is currently logging on Monday night. I don't know what shows, but just move it back there and whoever's currently hosting it 830 on a Monday give it to them.
Dan Ilic 16:00 I've got a plan. I can get into the building. I can do some working every day. Yeah, I'll take the leftovers no dignity. Jenny, do you have any ideas about who you'd like to host q&a?
Jenny Tian 16:13 Dude like after hearing Sammy talk I'm just like wow, I had no idea that was like so much that went behind it and into it I am team Sammy like all the way that's that's my final decision. I haven't considered anyone else. I haven't seen any other candidates but I've been moved.
Dan Ilic 16:30 I think giving it to somebody who wants it is a good idea is a good first step
Sami Shah 16:35 that's been believes it I career so far is trying to get up to host q&a and they refuse to give it to him. Now Ronnie just being cruel. They give me give it to everyone in Australia, but valida Lee.
Dan Ilic 16:46 Well, I know that you know Wiley, Dali and Hamish are represented by the same agency. Maybe they're trying to do some kind of swap crazy swap here. That's interesting.
Sami Shah 16:55 Oh, look, it's I think he would be amazing. I think if he got it because of how polarising he is. That alone would drive viewership numbers up. Because you would either people who like Walid would watch it people just like what do you hate? Watch it, but they'd watch it regardless. And also Yeah, he conducts debate. Well, I think he's more interesting. And you get more personality out of it. He me, she's an amazing journalist. And way but they need to revamp the show. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who's presenting it. If the show is still present, like structured the same way it will be boring.
Dan Ilic 17:25 I agree. I think heimish is one of the best brains in journalism in Australia. Like he's so yeah, he's so good. And I think there is fundamental problems with with the show itself. Yeah. That's the fundamental problem. Yeah. Can you believe they moved in? Why would you move it off on a rock star rock step Monday night that's been there for 20
Lewis Hobba 17:44 years. It's crazy. Like if you whoever made that decision should be should be going back to the project. Like it's crazy to me.
Dan Ilic 17:53 I really like this from Tim Schumer on YouTube. He says friendly Jordi should host a q&a.
Sami Shah 18:00 Yeah, get the use of it. I'm not saying I wouldn't watch it. Wouldn't you watch it?
Lewis Hobba 18:04 Yeah, I wouldn't be very compelling. No. No, I like myself. No. But I didn't watch
Sami Shah 18:11 it anyway. So they did not watch it. But yeah,
Dan Ilic 18:14 all right. This week's third theatre, this might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The coalition believes it has the numbers to stop the Great Barrier Reef is being in listed as in danger from UNESCO. So what's happened is over the last month, the UNESCO has decided that the Great Barrier Reef is going to be listed as in danger. But to stop that from happening, the coalition government has sent Susan lay the environment minister on a seven stop whistle stop tour eight days to talk to every ambassador to the UN for various countries to try and prevent this from happening. It's like why why are they doing this and not sending our health minister to go and get Pfizer vaccine? Why? What it's what benefit is there to try and get a whole bunch of people to not vote that the Great Barrier Reef is in mortal danger when it clearly is dying before our very eyes. fee mongers. What do you think about this, Jenny?
Jenny Tian 19:09 I think it's quite hilarious that they've decided to send her on this trip over a plane and she's supposed to be the environmental minister.
Dan Ilic 19:17 Yeah, why don't why don't they send her over zoom like everybody else? Yeah. Yeah. No, it's it's quite, it's quite astounding to kind of see the kind of other people that they're talking to. And Australia's trying to shore up votes in the UN with the likes of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and the Maldives and Mali and a whole bunch of other countries that are extensively bad actors. And
Sami Shah 19:42 why don't we just do what we normally do in the situation in which every country normally does this situation is you go to narrow and you give them $25 and a can of pineapples or whatever, it is a bribe narrow these days, and they just vote in your favour and then as a result, you get why you have to go to seven whole other Countries ought to
Lewis Hobba 20:01 actually do what we've historically done with the UN which is just wait for them to tell us about committing human rights abuses and then say we don't care.
Dan Ilic 20:10 This is why it's so amazing that the this government actually cares at all about the, the kind of threatening of the Great Barrier Reef at all, according to you, and why do they care about this and not care about our gross human rights abuses? Like
Jenny Tian 20:23 Well, I've got a theory I reckon it because the thing is, they're just kind of like delaying it till later. So it's like they're just putting in a lot of effort right now to basically procrastinate like you would if it was like a big university final assignment and they're like, we're going to just take a look at it at the last minute
Lewis Hobba 20:43 or the dream would be to kick it down just long enough till after the next election. And then if they kind of like well if we when we deal with it if we lose someone else's problem,
Dan Ilic 20:52 but that's exactly what they're doing so they actually putting off the vote they actually tried to convince the UNESCO to put up the vote to 2023 so that's exactly what they're doing Louis is the on parity. Fuck I hate I hate that.
Sami Shah 21:10 politician using these. Her travel plan for the eight days. This is a legit thing. This is this. These are places she went to over eight days. So it was Budapest to Paris, Paris to Madrid, Madrid back to Paris, Paris to Sarajevo, Sarajevo back to Paris, Paris to Maldives via Oman, Maldives to Australia
Jenny Tian 21:33 to the ground is that the film around the world in 80 days?
Sami Shah 21:39 Just around 30 countries 80 days but like that, that is basically a lot of air miles to get together to destroy the Great Barrier Reef which leaves a really good job of doing single handedly
Lewis Hobba 21:52 Can I say if the Maldives if they as like a group of island nations who are sinking if
Sami Shah 21:59 they
Lewis Hobba 22:01 vote against this, like that is that is the biggest cellphone you just got. No, no, this has got to be the sort of this is gonna be the only things you care about. Like you're going under.
Dan Ilic 22:14 Yeah, the boundaries is literally a nation built on top of a coral reef voting against their entire interest. Yeah, oh, well, we're all gonna die.
Lewis Hobba 22:27 So the thing is, now that there are so many different options as to how, you know two years ago was definitely climate change. Now it could be anything.
Dan Ilic 22:36 I'm speaking of Coronavirus and other diseases destroying Australia I don't know if you saw this the the unfortunately the the Australian Grand Prix has been replaced with something else. This November. Milburn's biggest event is set to blow you away like COVID clearing your social calendar strapped in to witness all the action at Albert Park racetrack like birds mating. JIRA ticket to see Lakeside drive lit up with a groundskeeper riding a lawnmower in the distance and catch all the action off the track with the colour and movement of the Melbourne cities Falun Gong practitioners. Melbourne is set to be silent this November. The Australian non pray a ticket will buy you a whole seat. But you'll only need the edge or probably no seat at all because the grass is going to be pretty nice. Now that's much better. Good these right now I'm praying. Alright folks, well, I don't know if you saw this. But Jeff Bezos went into space and and he went up and he went down. He spent like four minutes in space. And he floated around and threw some Skittles around when he got back down the hill at a press conference about that journey. And he actually gave a shout out to a bunch of people about his time in space. I want to thank
Unknown Speaker 24:11 every Amazon employees and every amazon customer because you guys paid for all this. So seriously, for every amazon customer out there. And every Amazon employee thank you from the bottom of my heart very much.
Dan Ilic 24:28 Does that does that make me wait you want to throw up as it makes as much as it makes me wonder?
Sami Shah 24:33 Do you remember the instal those booths in every Amazon factory where it was like a solitary space booth where you could go inside and you could cry or scream or pee into a bottle or whatever? and Amazon employees do when they when they get a moment alone. That booth is filled with just Amazon employees ripping their own skin off their bodies right. Your rage that matters embody a midlife crisis more. I have been divorced getting together.
Lewis Hobba 25:06 Did you ever consider getting a divorce cowboy hat?
Sami Shah 25:09 No. For some reason I had just enough dignity to stop myself from doing that. I did go blonde. So I got older. But yes, clearly there I had enough.
Lewis Hobba 25:18 The best case, like if you were to try to like present that in the best possible case, if you would like to go back in time you like guys in the future, there's going to be a new world. And you will be like, there is a man who started a bookstore. And then he went to space. People like, wow, I should keep reading. Maybe then. took out the edges of that story. It could be quite nice.
Jenny Tian 25:43 And why don't rub it in Jeff Bezos, like oh my goodness, those four minutes though when he was in space, I reckon was the best four minutes of the Amazon employees lives they were like finally a break.
Sami Shah 25:56 simultaneously. I get to pay finally. What's the achievement he didn't go any higher in space than anyone's been before? He it wasn't a commercial flight that now we can all afford to do. It was a very rich man buying a rocket and going up in this space for four minutes. Every Russian billionaire Petro craft has probably done that at this point. We just don't know about it. Like what exactly was the achievement here?
Jenny Tian 26:30 I mean, I think the achievement was that he got to have a massive press conference where he said fucking to all his employees.
Dan Ilic 26:39 Paul Ford, who is the who was the founder of postflight studio in New York, he tweeted, I never thought I'd say this day the day when space was made uncool.
Lewis Hobba 26:51 The other part of that press conference, I don't know if you watch the whole thing that you know how there is the like this the effect that they talk about when astronauts go up into space and they see the Earth from space. Yeah, down. And they're like, their mind is blown. And they understand that position in the world no
Sami Shah 27:07 borders and
Lewis Hobba 27:09 Rodas people. And clearly when he came down, he had been told by someone in like public relations to say that and I don't think he experienced that at all. But you get where he like Trump's out this line we'd like literally no feeling behind his eyes. He's like, I really learned about all you saw out there was more opportunity for slaves.
Jenny Tian 27:38 He was just like looking over at Mars like alright, that's next. Let me conquer that now.
Lewis Hobba 27:42 Yeah, ocean out there. I wonder if there's any employees, I can underpay in there?
Sami Shah 27:48 Where is the challenger style explosion disaster when you need one. I mean, really, that's the only thing. A loose bolt here rocket can take that take out a teacher who got onto a rocket but for some reason Jeff Bezos gets the lucky rocket that doesn't explode mid flight. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 28:06 I know. I agree with you, Louis. Like Dave, he did say that. And but if you look at the footage that I don't ever see, I kind of remember anyone looking out the window. Like, the footage was like of them getting out of their seats, throwing Skittles at each other them high fiving doing a selfie. And in four minutes, you don't have time to contemplate the universe and existentialism, but you don't you just don't have time to do that. And they spend like three minutes to like jumping around and hang hanging out with each other.
Lewis Hobba 28:33 And also, as I like content creator, imagine the pressure of that, like you're going All right, we've got one take one take. And we have spent a lot on this. You are not a professional actor. We've given you three tasks, we need to get all of those for the content. So don't fuck this up. And it would be so possible to ask you on the way back, Johnny, like, Did we get it? Do we get it?
Sami Shah 28:55 I'll do is I think you make a very good point. I had not thought about this, but I think the space trip for just baby by Jeff Bezos was faked. I found on a soundstage in Hollywood, using Stanley Kubrick when he was still alive. Only now seeing this footage, the entire thing was faked.
Jenny Tian 29:19 Right That's why he looks so robotic when he's saying all of that it's actually just artificial intelligence. Right? That's it's been done like all that motion capture.
Dan Ilic 29:28 Yeah, Jeff Bezos was replaced by Alexa.
Sami Shah 29:35 Alexa has a lot more personality than
Dan Ilic 29:39 a strange they were called they call themselves astronauts and not like prime plus members. I thought that would have been a better Well, that is it for the show today. Thank you so much to our fear mongers, Louis harbour, Jenny tiaan and semi shards if you guys got anything to plug, genuinely. Look, I've got nothing going on. I mean, Sammy What do you want to play?
Sami Shah 30:04 Oh look if lockdown ends then August 7 I'm doing assure the company republic in Melbourne hmm appraisal of my here's what's gonna happen I know shows that
Lewis Hobba 30:20 I have
Sami Shah 30:22 what I have now is appearing on podcasts for free people like my face enough to give money to my Patreon go to patreon.com slash Sammy Shah and to $7 my way and you'll get a tonne of awesome free stuff and and I won't cry as much as I do most nights exactly Jenny
Dan Ilic 30:39 Do you have a Patreon you
Jenny Tian 30:40 want to plug I don't have Patreon nor I die I'll donate to Sammy is or donate to
Dan Ilic 30:48 Jenny town has got an excellent Tick Tock what follow her Tick Tock it is sensational. It's really really good. Really funny.
Jenny Tian 30:54 It's at nom nom Jenny, my Instagram is Jenny underscore tn and once lockdowns over I'll be back doing stand up again.
Dan Ilic 31:01 Yeah, excellent. Louis. You got anything to plug?
Lewis Hobba 31:04 Yeah, I'll tell you what, I do a radio show every day. It's a Triple J coldharbour. and hang at the moment. Obviously a lot of our listeners are usually people who drive home from work. I don't know if you've heard of that going on. It feels quiet out there. So don't forget if you're out there listening flick all the radio three Say hello. You'll be one of about four people listening.
Sami Shah 31:27 Also Lewis will be doing circles have your neighbourhood in his wife van trying to pick up kids. Please feel sorry for him and put your child in the van.
Lewis Hobba 31:38 Can I say Can I just say on that? First of all good idea. But there was in like radio gossip. There was this story going around about Kyle and Jackie. And like all obviously there they have a lot of ideas that get to it. And then there's the ideas that I have that don't get to imagine what those speak. So there is one apparently that is the case. They had this idea where they would set up with parents to lower children into a van using lollies. And if the kid got into the van, the parents did not win money. If the kid said no and didn't get into the van. They won like 20 grand Oh my god. I think
Sami Shah 32:28 I think they should replace q&a which is that that's what q&a should be is politicians and media commentators luring kids into bands
Jenny Tian 32:38 like that. How do you know that may you've done your research
Lewis Hobba 32:45 I need to know all of the TV ideas that are based on people who look like Sex Criminals so I know what
Dan Ilic 32:52 I want to double up. big thank you to rode microphones and our new Patreon supporters Georgie cow and Irene Gary Gleason Daniel MC Carrie Rama Adams wha is a Patreon supporter, Laughlin Hatfield rose Allman we are off the we're off this sweet sweet money feed from the birth foundation. So please join us on patreon.com forward slash irrational fear chip in there until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Good night.
Here is the live recording of this month's two regional shows in climate vulnerable cities — Newcastle and Bega!
This is an edited super cut of both shows, if you'd like to see/hear the full unedited shows you can watch the video on our Patreon. Where you can support us for as little as the price of a coffee a month.
June 5th — Newcastle
Kirsten Drysdale (Reputation Rehab) James Pender (Sammy J) Lewis Hobba (Triple J) Dan Ilic (Can Of Worms) Georgina Woods (Lock The Gate) + DJ Dylabolical (The Chaser / Newsfighters Podcast)
June 13th — Bega
Mick Neven (Melb. Comedy Festival) Gabbi Bolt (Tik Tok / The Chaser) Lewis Hobba (Triple J) Dan Ilic (Hungry Beast) Scott Ludlam (Former Senator) +DJ Dylabolical (The Chaser / Newsfighters Podcast)
Our next live show is on June 24th in Sydney — it is SOLD OUT!
So the next show after that is at Comedy Republic in Melbourne August 14th!
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Today Daniel is here the host of irrational fear the podcast you're listening to right now. This is just to let you know that we you're about to hear a mishmash of two of the best live shows we've done this month, we went to Newcastle, and we went to bigger to do shows roughly about climate change in very climate vulnerable areas. And the first show you're gonna hear is our Newcastle show. And let's face it when you're doing a show about climate change in coal country, the audience may require some warming up. You decide.
Unknown Speaker 0:32 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra COMM And section audio, or rational view recommends listening by immature audio. Tonight hitting
Unknown Speaker 0:45 $1.1 million, the average price of a Newcastle home has hit parity with the average cocaine habit over Newcastle nice.
Unknown Speaker 0:54 And Scott Morrison has gotten in trouble for saying our vaccine goal isn't a race, of course a leader of a country that's coming 100 and fifth in the
Unknown Speaker 1:01 world would say that. And Newcastle is the seventh biggest city in Australia. And just like camera you have trained now.
Dan Ilic 1:12 It's June 5, called Environment Day and live from New causes between nobodies head and the sun to the old genus tower.
You're absolutely right, Louis, these people have never heard our show before. All right, welcome. This is the rational V, I'm your host, former gas turbine Daniel ej. And this is the podcast that kind of rips in the news and drills down on climate change. It's a bit like q&a, but people are actually watching, which is right. And tonight we're in Newcastle, which is terrific. On tonight's show. We'll look at lessons learned from the upper hunter byelection. We'll learn how we can carbon offset our partners that work in mining. And we'll ask just how many drinks Do you need to have to pass a bulk up? Let's meet our female guests for tonight. He's the number one comedy video editor as in he's the first and the oldest comedy video editor in Australia from the chaser to nightly and the news fighters podcast. It's still in vain. And he's a part time human rights lawyer and full time clown. He's one of the writers and performers of semi Jays playground politics. It's James panda. And she's recently was the star and executive producer of her own TV show and gave birth halfway through production. She is doing it all for the writings its reputation rehabs, ghosts and draws dial wasn't all true. And she's a self described hypocrite who is on the frontlines of climate action unlock the gate but lock it back up again real quick because it's locked the gates Gina woods and as soon as he started surfing this year, our final guests became the number one radio DJ in Newcastle. I assume you're from Nova Kasserine FM
Lewis Hobba 3:15 that's Yeah, no, thank you. I'm thrilled to be here in New Orleans. It's great. Yeah, we found out that the other bit of microphone talking I do the radio show is now the number one drive show in Newcastle. And it was a huge surprise to me, because I have very soft hands. And I just didn't expect to be taken into via violin over Catherine's but I'm fucking thrilled to be here. Yeah. All right. But first, a word from our sponsor.
Unknown Speaker 3:38 We understand there's been some confusion about who is eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine and who votes labour. That's why the federal government is clearing up the confusion with job seeker. Job Seeker tells you when the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will be made available to groups most in need of protection first, and Liberal Party donors. These vulnerable communities have been identified by medical experts and focus groups. group one includes people who are at increased risk of being silenced by kancil culture, like journalists who haven't asked any questions, cab drivers and divorce dads with an axe to grind on Facebook group to priority access will also be given to people working in critical services such as residents of marginal electorates, sharks fans, coal industry professionals, and men with law degrees who went to university with current or former Liberal Party cabinet members. If you're not listed in groups one or two, keep checking job seeker to see when other groups of people will be eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine like women's scientists, union members, and Tom Ballard, who will definitely be last on the list job seeker helping those who are more on Team Australia than others get a COVID-19 vaccine first whenever they fucking Arrive authorised by someone anonymously to give us plausible deniability. Should
Unknown Speaker 5:03 it all go to hell camera?
Dan Ilic 5:05 All right.
Sometimes I like to think we're winning the hearts and minds for climate justice in this country. Then I realised Oh, no, no, that's not that feeling. That's not the feeling of hope that's barely um, and the reason why we're here in this room in Newcastle is because it's important because ironically, when it comes to climate justice in Newcastle, you're at the coalface. Yeah. I was waiting for that one. Yep. Now we're gonna be talking a little bit more about the upper hunter election by by election a little later on. Now, the media was saying how labour was distraught to lose the upper hunter seat seat they haven't held in about 100 years. That's like saying, I'm distraught. I'm not an NBA player who can fly. Like labour, we're never going to win because labour forgot to stand for something. Now, the rest of the hunter, of course, is about to be turned into a fracking mess with more pipes coming out of it than Ben cousins. And much like, much like a liberal minister at a camera bar that guest live recovery is going to come upon us whether we want to or not. So I can't.
Lewis Hobba 6:19 Honestly, it's quite shocking to me how few of you have heard this podcast. I really like yeah, it's not gonna get better. I really need you to prepare yourself for an hour that
Dan Ilic 6:35 did say on the poster, an hour of jokes about the C word. Anyway,
Kirsten Drysdale 6:40 I've got to say when I was coming in a lady walk past and she like, pushed her restaurant booking back because she said, I've just walked past the Playhouse and there's a nice play on. I think I'm gonna go and see it. Sorry, lady.
Dan Ilic 6:54 Anyway, I think we're losing the battle when it comes to communicating about climate change. And I think we, I think because we're communicating badly. We're up against the carbon lobby when it comes to climate denialism. They have developed one of the most sophisticated weapons ever made boomers on Facebook that print names and put them in local shops. Now, this is the number one threat to climate change everywhere in this country. The environment doesn't stand a chance. On our side, we've had NASA the CSI arrived, David Attenborough and Avatar. And quite frankly, we can't compete with Microsoft Word Art. Look at that. These photos I'm showing you from a recent trip through country New South Wales, for the people on the podcast. This is a Henry Lawson poem about a bushfire and in curly Microsoft Word out above it says someone forgot to tell Henry Lawson in 1911. It was all caused by climate change. And you know what? They're absolutely right, because the first mention of climate change in an Australian newspaper wasn't until 1912 a whole 12 months after in the Sydney Evening News. Now Can anyone guess the number one font for climate deniers in New South Wales? Can anyone guess? Comic Sans Comic Sans very good. Excellent. Very good now Yeah, she's head of the group. Have a look at this one here. This one is a petition to stop a solar farm in both red and blue text, you know, trying to get some labour and liberal voters getting some bipartisanship here. Notice no green text on this one. I thought that was good. All right. Here's another one. This is from an A new farm a gift shop. It says that in 1939 there was a big bushfire that they called Black Friday, which is enough for this person to be convinced that the government was lying to us all about climate change because of bushfire happened once about 100 years ago. Now, the majority of it is in climate change. But as you can see here, they've mixed it up with some Tahoma and some full time use rotten Times New Roman as well, but they have reserved some Comic Sans for some particular words including ignorance and climate counts. Now the author did get a bit biblical towards the end ditching the Comic Sans and instead going for all caps. James is someone who's had some religion in the in their life. Could you please read out the the all caps as the author intended,
James Pender 9:19 and yet today we are being told by our leaders that this is the new normal.
Unknown Speaker 9:26 This time is right now we have been brainwashed into believing that the gospel of the new religion is cluttered.
Georgina Woods 9:36 I have had the opposite experience though Dan of handing out flyers about climate change and saying to people, this is where the water is coming to the water is coming. The water is coming and feeling very much.
Dan Ilic 9:46 It's a very biblical down there to build a boat. I love this man. In the bottom it says only this time it has a new and new and dangerous name and a global religion but behind it, the altar has been built, and our gullibility is about to be offered upon it. And then they've gone and undercut their entire argument by putting a Bible quote underneath. We says, none of the wicked shall understand, but the wives shall understand. And I don't understand why finally this The other thing you're gonna see around regional New South Wales here is Alan Jones articles. I call them articles but they actually are pids because you're not allowed to call them journalism because they don't have any facts. And so you're gonna see plenty of this around regional New South Wales. Also, here's another old favourite for people who can squint they put up Dorothea Mackellar has sunburned country as if they will, because there was a flood or a fire once and it was indicted. makellos palm. That's argument enough as to the climate change has always been around.
Unknown Speaker 10:51 How come they don't do that thing we all used to do in primary school where you like put a tea bag over the paper and make it look lighter up to the edges.
Dan Ilic 10:59 This one looks like the irony is I think this one's been up there. Like through 10 bushfires. It's, it's very faded. So what do we do about it? Well, friends, I've got a couple of things tonight to share with you. I've rewritten Dorothy makellos sunburnt country and and I've printed it out in Comic Sans. And I'm going to read it out to you now. And some of you will be able to take a copy of this home. I love a sunburn country. Not one of constantly ablaze with weather anomalies increasing to our scientists amaze. I love a sunburn country. Oh shit. It's on fire again. We put it out last answer send back the water cry. I love a sunburn country with once in 100 year floods now occurring monthly, we're neck deep in that they're getting bigger and more often these climate change events Sky News can go fuck itself. They're larger and more frequent. Are we corrupt? Like she fuckery County limp leaders need to accelerate just transition rather than holding on to power to boost their superannuation attenuation. So go out and tell your friends that life as we know it is fact unless we ditch our fossil fuels this lucky country's adult.
Unknown Speaker 12:14 And there is one more thing I've made for you. And that is, this is like you've moved the end of Oprah to the start.
Dan Ilic 12:22 Well, Yo, I gotta get my shit out of the way. I've made a fake op ed, here it is. Look at this. This is a fake Alan Jones op ed. He's basically repenting.
Alan Jones 12:34 I'm about to do something that I've only ever done once before. I'm about to admit that I'm wrong. The only other time I've done this is when I declared the chest was the best musical to come out of the brain of Tim Rice. And we all know that's wrong. It's jesus christ superstar incontrovertibly so. The I was wrong about chess as either they have this. Here we go. For a very long time. I used to think that climate change wasn't real. I used to think that like an ethnically 2021 Christmas album, it just wasn't happening. I used to think that the fossil fuel companies and funded my show were on struggle straight and doing it tough. And those on the land were begging for handouts, and so called compensation because their farm is now open pit mine were a bunch of winners who took two sucking off the teat of the working man if I can use that expression. But much like the 2001 Wallabies back end as evolved. And I know this is not to be true. It's wrong. If I could put all of my previous climate change denialism in a chat bag and throw that to say I would, but that's wrong, too. And we get stuck around a dolphin's neck and they die for watch, trying to unravel a bag of bad opinions to shape discourse and policy in an attire for an entire country. One metaphor
Dan Ilic 13:44 the revelation came to me when an parlane bow valine chose to go to new direction for marketing and no longer sponsor my TV show. It was in renewable energy giant national solar energy group stepped in with the help of their money, it became clearer than ever that humans were causing climate change. It's clear that we need to stop all additions of alien life and electrify everything with national solar energy grids renewable energy, it's clear we need to draw down emissions as fast as we can. It's also clear that this government needs to prevent me from being such a powerful position to influence policymakers in this country. Instead of paying billions for fossil fuel subsidies that are killing the planet. The Defence department should build a time machine that will allow a cold blooded assassin like that will build been Robert Smith on lightning huge to go back in time and strangle me to death with a big strong athletic hands before I endorse Tony Abbott as prime minister. If we can do that, then we just bought save the planet. And if we can't do that, take an insurance italiaanse in order to protect your home and contents insurance. For the worst his mother died she can throw your wife Allianz peace of mind when Mother Nature is on a period. Mother Nature The only other woman worse than Julia Gilad on Ellen Jones
Thanks very much everyone, and you can take a copy of that home with you. If there's any left outside as you leave, but if you register on the website, you'll get a free one as well in next week's email. All right, alright. Ladies and gentlemen dealing rational fear. Fear is rational. Alright.
Dylan Behan 15:33 Alright, DJ diabolical se with some wacky clips. Let's get the show on the road. It's great to be here in Newcastle. Now I don't know if any of you heard but there was a thing called a byelection on here recently. Has anyone anyone heard about this? Anyone know about this? Anyone? like hearing about the by election? But actually, I didn't think it was a by election because according to john barilaro, it was actually a horse race when we weren't just in the race. We've led over why like a good bloody racehorse.
Unknown Speaker 16:04 Now's not the time to change, change the jockey mid rise. You can't just replace the jockey The horse is broken.
Unknown Speaker 16:11 What the hell does that mean? What the hell jumbo? is john barrel IRA just wishing he was at the rice track, instead of on the campaign trail? Or is his brain only capable of holding like a single metaphor and he literally compares everything to a horse race? Like what does he do when he goes to his kids swimming Carnival? Well, Billy may the best horse win. But Dad, I mean, you're human son, not to me. You are. Yes, but if you haven't heard nationals candidate, David lizelle was out on the on the upper Hunter was right. And being the electorate talked on my research. I read that it's the electorate with the highest proportion employed in mining in all of New South Wales, which meant that john barilaro steady state nationals leader made sure to remind us during the campaign, just how much he and his party support call.
Unknown Speaker 17:10 The results minister I've actually had more mines approved in the two years since taking on the portfolio. Our track record is supporting coal, a berejiklian barrel era government and liberal National Coalition I'll use the word calling that one thing to say behind
Unknown Speaker 17:31 powering your economy. Yes, that is literally a glue a grown man yelling at a coal train like is a four year old total opportunity he just saw Thomas the Tank Engine.
Unknown Speaker 17:47 black suit makes me cough ups not that yes, the Nationals love coal. This is the message they wanted us all to take away the Nationals love cold. I love cold so much that being a video editor I put together a little montage of how much the Nationals love and support coal and coal miners into the future let's let's see how much they love.
Unknown Speaker 18:11 New South Wales deputy premier john barilaro has called for national referendum or plebiscite on nuclear energy john barrel Laura has long championed the benefits of nuclear power, mining and nuclear energy is should be part of Australia's economic future that low energy future
Unknown Speaker 18:27 The only political part of the sickens head up on this issue is the National Party. National senators earlier this year in Canberra drafted legislation allowing the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in nuclear power. And the man who chairs today's nuclear parliamentarian roundtable was the Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, if you seriously
Unknown Speaker 18:48 want zero emissions, if that's what knocks you out. If that's what blows your hair back. Well, then nuclear path is where you're gonna have to go and we should start looking at nuclear. Do you think within 20 years they'll be modular nuclear reactors in Australia? I think it's a very good chance that
Unknown Speaker 19:02 it is a cheap, reliable source of energy national parties 100% behind this and we hope our coalition partners will follow us.
Unknown Speaker 19:10 Yeah, that coal miners the National Party is 100% behind nuclear. Bobby a good time to go down to the TAFE and learn how to mine uranium if you can find a type that hasn't been sold off at a loss. Yes, that's our deputy federal nationals later Bridget McKenzie there at the end saying how much she loves nuclear. And one of the reasons she said she loves to clutter is it's so much so much better than all those pesky windmills, have a look.
Unknown Speaker 19:35 If you put some nuclear power into this mix, we'd be losing a tiny percentage of the landmass that's currently on the wind farms. And we'd be able to use that for farming and a whole lot of other industries as well.
Unknown Speaker 19:48 You hear that the deputy leader of the roll party the Nationals, I don't think she's ever seen a shape paddock full of wind turbines before in her entire life. Also, Bridget I don't think you'll I think you'll find sheep crazy is wanting to put nuclear actors out in a backpack or on a rooftop. And also, Matt Canavan, who is in that story is in the montage before he reckons nuclear is really safe to those dangerous renewables.
Unknown Speaker 20:13 Overall, nuclear has been an incredibly safe technology. People die installing solar panels on roofs. The greatest energy accidents in the world have always involved petrochemicals which are inherently volatile, and we're talking about getting hydrogen root which is a very flammable and dangerous chemical.
Unknown Speaker 20:31 Yeah, last I checked, there's no HBO miniseries about people installing solar panels on roofs. And speaking of hydrogen, which he mentioned there at the end, hydrogen has also been in the news a lot lately, Scott Morrison has made it his new favourite technological buzzword for when he gets cornered by the rest of the world into talking about how we're going to have to get to net zero as you know, eventually, eventually, eventually don't I won't say windows please, please stop asking. In fact, Stormer loves hydrogen so much. He was he was name dropping out repeatedly back in April, in the days around joe biden's virtual climate day summit Have a look. Our ambition is to produce the cheapest green hydrogen in the world,
Unknown Speaker 21:14 that one of the most important targets that Australia has, is to be able to produce hydrogen at $2 a kilo. Mr. President in the United States, you have the Silicon Valley. Here in Australia, we are creating our own hydrogen ballots. And when it comes to the hydrogen valleys we can be developing all across the country.
Unknown Speaker 21:36 Yes, hydrogen Valley's also the name of the worst timing polar album. So it's comparison is having a bromance with hydrogen. Why? Well, you'll be surprised to learn that it's because our government is arguing that hydrogen made using coal and gas can still be cold clay in hydrogen, aka blue hydrogen, because you know, we'll just use carbon capture to turn it clean, I guess. It's totally a real thing. Carbon Capture works. Change the subject, speaking, speaking in which he is his Angus Taylor, on trying to argue blue hydrogen is clean hydrogen to a friend Kelly on ahran breakfast in April and Well, it sounds like he was going a bit blue in the
Unknown Speaker 22:17 face. And you've announced this week. $540 million for new hydrogen hubs and carbon capture and storage at the hydrogen hubs. A lot of people have been asking hear me here on this programme is a green hydrogen or hydrogen made with fossil fuels?
Unknown Speaker 22:35 So it's not made by the fossil fuel industry. So I'm not declaring why I'm asking it wasn't made with fossil fuels are made with renewable energy.
Unknown Speaker 22:42 The point that may make when they're asking that question is we can't possibly make anything from fossil fuels. Well, you know what, if it's zero emissions, it's fine. That's the point. It's got to be clean. fuels and how do we make it zero emissions? It will be made with anything that allows us to reduce emissions is blue. Hydrogen that can be done with zero emissions is green hydrogen, it can be done with zero emissions. You know, we made a lot of horses in this race.
Unknown Speaker 23:10 Horses again, get some new metaphors. Oh my God. That interview was such a cluster shambles. Angus Taylor went on Facebook and commented bad job Angus. Of course, one of the reasons in fact, probably the real reason that Scott Morrison loves hydrogen so much is well it can keep his millionaire mining mate magnate mates rich and we can keep digging up coal for another 50 years. But also it can make trucks got burned.
Unknown Speaker 23:38 I mean, hydrogen can be used to drive vehicles. I mean, up there in the Pilbara at the moment. They're putting him in the mining trucks. Yeah, let's
Unknown Speaker 23:45 put let's put hydrogen flammable hydrogen in vehicles because it works. So well. Last time, Dan, play the clip. go well. In conclusion, if you're saying well, who cares? We're doing the best we can we can't do any more than to get to zero emissions and help stop climate change in this country. But let's just let's just let's just look over the ditch to New Zealand and see what just didn't return promised at the Earth Day summit back
Unknown Speaker 24:16 in April. No fossil fuel subsidies part of New Zealand's four action points one price carbon to make climate related financial disclosures, mandatory three in fossil fuel subsidies and for finance adaptation.
Dan Ilic 24:36 And that's how you win a bloody horse race. Yeah. rational. Your fear is rational. It's kind of a theme throughout irrational fear and the greatest moral podcast of our generation where you have all this technical technobabble and it comes down to something so simple, how good is to send data so good, man? Well, yeah.
Lewis Hobba 24:58 I want some New Zealand has all those people falling off their solar panelled roofs. Well who'll be laughing then actually eating her words? Yeah.
Dan Ilic 25:07 Now, George, you out Newcastle local here. What was the most interesting thing to come out of the upper hunter byelection for you?
Unknown Speaker 25:19 Well, I have a slightly different take from Dylan I suppose because there was a lot of you know, headlining about coal. But in actual fact, what the National Party did during that election campaign was cancelled. The coal mine that was proposed and proved on the Liverpool Plains promised they'd never be any open cut coal mining at dark rock near Aberdeen, promised to set up an expert panel that would manage the structural adjustment of the region. You know, in the event of coals, coal exports declined and invite unions and community advocates to take part in deciding how that rolls out. And we won the by election, and then the Labour Party subsequently just tear itself completely to pieces because they didn't think that they were protocol enough during the election campaign.
Dan Ilic 26:00 Wow. Did people have the upper hand to think that we're voting for the greens?
Unknown Speaker 26:05 Well, I think it's fair to say that if the Labour Party had done the series of things that the National Party did, you know, to curtail the mining industry and plan for structural adjustment. The reaction I think in this sort of tabloid press probably would have been slightly different that they they get a different sort of treatment on it.
Lewis Hobba 26:21 So were you a member of lock the gate who would vote national
Unknown Speaker 26:26 there are many people in the lock the gate movement who vote nationally in fact, I've spoken to farmers who have you know, locked on against a resource extraction projects who also hand out how to vote cards for the National Party and find it harder find it harder to you know, to change that than they do to go and get arrested fighting mining projects.
Lewis Hobba 26:47 Yeah, right. Right. I mean, I guess based on that election Yeah, they're absolutely spot on in situ on the stock mining boat national. That makes complete sense.
Dan Ilic 26:57 Ladies and gentlemen, James panda. Hello. Diane
Unknown Speaker 27:04 says as Dylan just said, the National hunter byelection and as john Boyle our I said the nationals are back baby, and he's rider guests. But when you've been in power in the upper hand for the last 90 years, it's fair to say you're not only back if you've never gone away, have you to be clean labour last were empowering the upper hunter in 1931. And in 1931, the Labour Party still referred to itself as a Communist Party. Hitler was an unknown artist from Austria. Andrew Boldt hadn't been invented yet so while the loss for labour in the recent byelection as we've already said was a bit unexpected. I've got some ideas to help out labour in the hunter. So I'm going to go through 10 things that can help labour when in the hunter number one way more vests. Nothing says vote for me for 90 consecutive he is like a smart vest. I reckon. JOHN barrel already knows it and that fighter, so I just tie flies. Look at them. This is one PC getting shit done in your electorate. Where is this open neck shirt so you can buy from labour candidate Jeff Drayton says I'm busy appearing before I care. The electorate says no. Number two more jobs brothers are rockin nothing screams success like the John's brothers together they oversaw the most successful era in rugby league Andruw Jones famous for taking so many pictures that became a rugby league and multiple was Matthew Jones is famous for his rich Reagan character who continually called for the game to bring back the beef. I think now labour needs to harness their talents. Imagine Joey Jones on the dealings handing out how to vote cards. going door to door imagine rage Reagan advocating for return to call labour values. Like labour legend Ben chifley in his evocatively titled stump speech, bring back the chief. Perhaps short or long bow there but let's just say John's brothers and labour ladies and gentlemen unstoppable. Number three branch sacking labour needs to get serious about the brand stalking. They can't just keep hoping people will vote for them. They need to start breeding labour voters. Luckily, one thing we do know is that jobs fact the way through Newcastle in the 1990s, which means there's a whole lot of elite illegitimate children out there and given most of the routes probably happened post a 97 Premiership those kids are at voting age. So let's sign them up for Labour baby. Idea number four build a beat something every week Cody in Australia has a big something What does the hunter have other than big unemployment and a big problem with institutional child abuse? to sin if library to when they need to promise to build something big, not that. No, not a gas fired power station. We're in Newcastle. What about a big nuke? Just point the nuclear bomb mccampbell and Mikey demands or using to get rid of Gosford idea number five, get rid of Gosford let's be honest go city's a shithole odroid for anyone to get rid of gossip. I don't care how All I know is do we really need Gosford? The Central Coast Mariners and the bluetongue beanfactory are not reasons to keep a town are the number six sign over kastri and more labour candidates need to be seen saying the word Nova kastri and I don't know how the fuck that means Newcastle person, but it's a cool word. Number seven embrace the ban on a serious note ladies and gentlemen labour needs to embrace the ban on everyone's lips. Okay, and now I don't mean the ban on coal fired power station. I mean the ban on any further albums that involve Daniel Jones and Luke Steele in their co lab drains drains more like nightmares. Am I right? I am right okay.
Unknown Speaker 31:00 Adi number nine is a little bit easy. I'm running out of ideas at this point. If Should we get a minister for Semyon if Joe Fitzgibbons can lead the Labour Party to a new generation of glory? We need some less divisive portfolio making them in a surface me on swap the call for a cask of wine, then at least the inner city sir Chardonnay drinkers might actually listen to what he has to say. ID number 10. Ladies and gentlemen, keep doing the same thing later persist with a pro renewable pro climate change platform while failing to sell the benefits of a renewable economy to the workers in the fossil fuel sector. Sure, this strategy is probably not going to work. But the genius of this plan is if they commit to losing long enough sea levels will rise and wipe out the entire hunter region. So that labour can start with the remaining voting population that will probably believe in climate change because they will have seen it wipe out their whole family. And if we're lucky, there'll be some survivors from the descendants of Jeremy jobs and they'll lead the Knights to a Premiership again. Newcastle wins the hunter wins and most importantly, labour winds stickier
Dan Ilic 32:14 than other Katherine's on our panel, do any of those inspire you to vote labour Minister for simians great idea? Absolutely. put myself forward.
Lewis Hobba 32:25 Yeah, as a as a visitor. What's wrong with Gosford? Yeah, what
Dan Ilic 32:30 is wrong with gospel? Really? You've never been?
Unknown Speaker 32:35 He has been to coffee if you drive through Gosford that's
Unknown Speaker 32:39 it there's a central coast Newcastle thing it's it's you know it's it's a little cousin.
Lewis Hobba 32:45 Yeah, I fucking hate him. I'm desperate for calls. I'll say anything.
Dan Ilic 32:55 Now Melvin's recent COVID outbreak has meant that a whole bunch of music festivals have been cancelled, including the replacement for the group in the move, fresh produce, which is real shame because music festivals are where some of our biggest and brightest ideas come to light at these festivals. A few years ago, we did a show at splendour in the grass and we asked some punters there just how they would solve the rift between Israel and Palestine. In the results, were pretty interesting. So I'm asking people for solutions to big problems. How do we fix Israel and Palestine
Unknown Speaker 33:28 with ketamine? Lots of ketamine. As a matter of fact, I had this discussion. I'm not even fucking joking.
Unknown Speaker 33:36 On the motherfucking, with the whole world peace to get the United Nations in a room, a lot of the finest ecstasy in the world will be so all the leftover food that isn't even explained to those people
Unknown Speaker 33:52 just get on MDMA and forget to live a democracy. Or what if I told you that Israel had a terrific democratic government?
Unknown Speaker 33:59 Well, we all know that's not true because the Ibis group in Washington, what do they call the Ibis group?
Dan Ilic 34:07 What's your message to Benjamin Netanyahu? I don't know who he is my friend. What's your message of Benjamin Netanyahu? I'll say get brown chicken. Either one way, I'm sorry. But one of them has to be asking people to solve big problems. So I got a question for you. I've got a really big problem. What is it? Red Bull hurts my heart. told me the softball and a brother of how to be broken but there was also some sort of soul drawn on my lips. Now. How do we fix this? He said that they go for several months. Sorry, he wants Israel and Palestine. The two countries they should have splendid. Rufus just pumping 50k system on the fucking gaza strip out It'd be peace lamanites What's your message to Benjamin Netanyahu? Who's to state they use a two state solution for Israel and Palestine and the five state solution. Benjamin, Prime Minister of Israel, you need to dance under the grace and rule 10 and we will just we will look off the old days when is fully the wrong place us?
Lewis Hobba 35:39 Why do you think that is? pretty fucked?
Dan Ilic 35:51 I knew we should have opened with Israel gear on Twitter. I'm gonna put that on Twitter, because I'll get cancelled. That's why Yeah, it was on national broadcast that was on SBS at some point and we get so you know, it's on SBS. So no one watch no one you get mobile watching it on Twitter this everyone Kirsten dries down.
Unknown Speaker 36:25 Hey, guys, so look, I just want to start by checking in with everyone you know, how's your climate anxiety guys? pretty bad. Yeah. Yeah, it sucks. I get it. But try being may try being married to a coal miner. Well, technically, he's a diesel mechanic. But when I'm not letting my cognitive dissonance get the better of me. I call it what it is. He's a diesel mechanic who works on a coal mine, fixing the machines that dig up the call or maintaining the washing plant that sorts the coal or repairing the pump that stops the tailings dam from spilling over and polluting the surrounding waterways with toxic effluent that's a byproduct of digging up coal. My husband's the latest in a long line of miners that stretches back in his family a dozen generations all the way to Cornwall, which is where coal was invented by Captain Cook. That sounds like a lie. And it partly is. But this here is literally a book tracking my husband's quote, ancient mining family name and heritage as far back as the 1500s. It's a great grade. Although if I had known before we got married just how many murders were in the bloodline. I may have reconsidered this union. Anyway, until not so long ago, this was a perfectly honourable way to make a living, fucking kancil culture. The thing is, we're not idiots. We care about the future. We've got two kids who we love very much. Actually, if I'm being totally honest, we've got one kid we like. The other ones a bit like, take it away. My point is, my husband's job causes our family an increasingly intolerable amount of moral anxiety and makes my efforts to live a carbon neutral lifestyle really quite challenging. Put it this way. A return flight from Sydney to Melbourne puts out about 0.2 metric tonnes of carbon. My husband brings about that much carbon home and coal dust each week. Our sheets look like we've had a threesome with a chimney sweep. When you want to carbon offset a flight you literally just tick a box and pay like $2 for me to carbon offset my husband, I'd have to plant a rainforest, build a wind farm and braid predator and birds here every single day for the rest of my life. Like I sign up to 100% green energy, I ride my bike, I marching rallies, I do Earth Hour, but then my husband goes to work and repairs the overheating torque converter on a D 11. Caterpillar bulldozer and I'm back to square one. What can I do? I love the guy. He's understandably hesitant about quitting his job when we've got a mortgage and two small children to look after. And I'm understandably hesitant about encouraging him to when I'm about to go back to uni because working in the media has hardly made me a reliable breadwinner. Most of my work these days is doing most of my work these days is doing unpaid guest spots on my friend's port. You're getting paid
Lewis Hobba 39:22 for this. The applause some of them haven't heard of.
Dan Ilic 39:30 I mean, up until yesterday, I thought there's only going to be 40 of you were born. I'm so relieved. Now you're definitely getting paid a profit.
Unknown Speaker 39:37 Look, as soon as something comes up that he can jump to he will. In the meantime, I just have to do whatever I can to offset the damage. I've had some success. When we first started dating my husband drove a VA Commodore ute. I was like, dude, I work at the ABC. You can't drop me off in that thing. They'll think it's a terrorist attack. So we traded it in for Much less thirsty VW Golf. Sure it was emasculating to go from driving a high octane petrol Australian musclecar to a diesel German hatchback, but it was worth it knowing the pollution wasn't anywhere near as bad.
Unknown Speaker 40:17 Then the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal broke. And we realised he'd cocked himself for nothing. Well, not for nothing by cover story that I was dating a dental technician from the Central Coast held up a lot longer than it would have otherwise. And look, I've had other ideas. You know, I thought we could set up a GoFundMe page to support him while he re skills. But then I realised it's only socially acceptable to ask your friends for money to fund your overseas holidays, and not to help you leave an industry that's destroying the planet. Okay, then I thought, okay, like pivot pivot. What about sex work? Like for him? Not me. Know, there must be people out there who are into sort smeared. 42 year old men operating heavy machinery, you know, like, no king gets shamed these days. But then his only fans account got shut down because it just looked like he was doing horny blackface. And then I thought, and look, I know this might sound a bit crazy, but just stick with me for a moment. What if the government took some of the money from the massive profits mining companies of my digging up the nation's natural resources, and used it to help retrain the workers in those industries so that ordinary people stuck in these jobs could move on to something new, ideally, something that didn't require them to have chest x rays every two years to screen for black lung, which is not just a joke in Zoo lambda. It's a real thing. But then I remembered we are currently ruled by mouth breathing troglodytes, who would rather return to harvesting whale blubber than admit that maybe just maybe in the year 2021, one of the wealthiest and most highly educated countries in the world could find something a little bit smarter to do than digging up rocks, especially when the mining companies are going to cut and run the moment called becomes economically unviable. Which should be any second now. So anyway, having run out of options, I'm left with no choice, Chris, honey, I love you. But the only way I can truly offset you is to offset you probably shouldn't have ended. But that was the
Lewis Hobba 42:39 that was the saddest ending to a comedy bit.
Dan Ilic 42:41 I want you to know 23 cents of each ticket is going to go to carbon offsetting. Chris tonight, so thank you for that. Do you have general club? I know that's a facetious pace for this show. But is there a Is there a serious anxiety about about this?
Unknown Speaker 42:58 Yeah, absolutely. Like it like everybody gets that kind of moment. Probably every day where you go. Who's gonna end and like for us? It's very, very, very close to home. Yeah, yeah.
Lewis Hobba 43:09 I mean, I remember when you started dating your now husband, and you and I were working together in Maharashtra, the IBC. And I remember when you told you like, I was a coal miner. We were all like, oil. Well, well, you were you were a heroin junkie. Yeah, it was fun. Everyone was like, get him to her to a needle room. I'm like, absolutely. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 43:36 I mean, I've also been to your house and you've got a lot of nice stuff. So there's like, why am I doing working at ABC?
Unknown Speaker 43:44 It's also like yeah, they call it the golden handcuffs because it's you know, it's not like it's a poorly paid job and it but it is hard to jump away from something when you don't have something to jump to like, you know, we're having to take a pay cut, but there's got to be something to go to.
Dan Ilic 43:59 Is that what you think about working with ABC? Do you have golden handcuffs are
Lewis Hobba 44:03 those plastic handcuffs from a toy shop? They're very cheap. And they're they're actually quite easy to break, zip ties and you all love where you're also like, No, do me. All right, Lee.
Dan Ilic 44:17 I won't yuck. Your next guest has been trying to get people to move to a just transition to a Fossil Free future for the last 15 years. So it's safe to say she's a little tired. So please welcome Gina woods.
Gina, thank you so much for risking it and coming in sit on a panel of comedians and smart asses to talk about climate justice. It's really wonderful. First of all, you you describe yourself as a hypocrite and a failure. But isn't it in your interest that no one moves from fossil fuels so you can keep your job
Unknown Speaker 44:58 It's very true. I have I do think about that. And I, it's, it's a hit, I'm willing to take, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make go on to the doll queue become unemployed. If we could actually do this,
Dan Ilic 45:11 what do you call yourself a hypocrite and a failure? Like, why is that hard to identify every day getting up and look yourself in the mirror?
Unknown Speaker 45:19 Well, I guess it's kind of hard, but failure because I have have literally been in, you know, strategy meetings, and you know, this sort of talking to other environmentalists and kind of going, like I've been working on, you know, calling the hunter and climate change for 20 years. Like, that's still a really, really big problem, you know, it hasn't really gotten that far in all that time. So that's, that's why failure and hypocrite is really something that the that kind of ends, you know, of the world like to talk around and environmentalists because we use computers and we, you know, might drive cars and because we are all, you know, entangled in this, it's, it's, you know, we're not on the other side, we're not not part of this society. Kirsten knows it really well, like, and I think this these are so brilliant, really to illustrate that. It's not like an s&m thing, coal miners aren't aliens. People use stuff that uses fossil fuels. And I am one of them. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 46:15 Are you going out with a coal miner as well? No, but you know, I'm not ruling it out. Well, tonight, we have a lonely coal miner in the audio come on down. activist once a husband, it's a new TV show. Coming to SBS to you can have full custody of the Doug kit that you guys didn't have that. I'm just an activist standing in front of a coal miner. When we spoke earlier this week, you said I get it. You want me to explain the weirdness in the hunter. When you say that, like what is the weirdness in the hunter?
Unknown Speaker 46:53 Well, I mean, I suppose the weirdness really is this sort of exaggerated idea that people have about what it's all about. And it's sort of people from the outside the raging? Go, it's a moonscape, you know, which is kind of puts the nose out of joint to the vignerons and you know, people who kind of, you know, a farmers and tourist industry, because actually, it's very, very beautiful place. It's not a moonscape at all, and it's much
Lewis Hobba 47:14 better the Gosford stay down, Gosford,
Unknown Speaker 47:19 and you know, there's others who say the mining industry is not important at all, you know, it only employs 2% of people around the country. But in actual fact, that's a really, really large amount of people here who rely on it for their livelihoods. And that's, that's real. And so that's the weirdness is just sort of competing kind of sweeping statements about what it's all about,
Dan Ilic 47:37 do you have faith that there's going to be what we all hope for, which is a just transition and a fast transition in the next few years.
Unknown Speaker 47:47 I wouldn't describe it as faith. I mean, I'm very excited by some of the stuff going on now part of the 100 jobs Alliance, which is a sort of collaboration of environmentalists and unions to try and just sort of break this taboo of talking about what the region is going to do once the coal export industry declines. And that has really changed things a lot. So I'm excited, rather than kind of hopeful or faithful, I
Unknown Speaker 48:09 suppose.
Dan Ilic 48:10 When you're going by toe to toe on your, on your battles on the ground? How do you kind of keep an eye on the big picture? Like you're in this podcast, rational fear, we talk to a lot of climate leaders who are all focused on the macro, but you're very much someone who is now in the trenches in the pits for one for a better word, like, how do you kind of keep that eye that vision of the of the major goal whilst you're whilst you're going toe to toe with people here?
Unknown Speaker 48:39 I mean, that's pretty tricky. I guess. Like don't, because the big picture is really awful. And you can't really, you know, this is a comedy show. So apologies for bring down the tone. But
Lewis Hobba 48:51 Kirsten already talked about a divorce. So we're at rock bottom.
Unknown Speaker 48:56 Yeah, I mean, you just have to do what's in front of you. And, you know, I actually try not to read stuff about climate change much anymore, or watch the films and all that stuff. I don't, I don't engage. I just,
Dan Ilic 49:05 I just do what's in front of me. There's something to be said for the language that's wrapped around climate change, like, a lot of it is of the station and full of jargon. And but is the reality? Is there a simpler reality behind all of these huge words? Like we've got so many layers of bureaucracy, all talking about climate change, but we're talking about it in this crazy language that you never heard of before?
Unknown Speaker 49:34 Yeah, I mean, there is the reality. And I think one of the things that really fucks us up on this is that we've got this sort of really quite primary straightforward problems of rivers drying up and, you know, huge storms and big holes in the ground with no plans to fill them and you know, a huge workforce, very well paid jobs, not quite sure where they're gonna go in 20 years time, but it's all kind of obfuscated and clouded into this sort of language. have, you know the voluntary land mitigation access policy and approved methods for assessing air pollution and an American submission on this new period of public hearing? Yeah, so it's like, my job is like explaining the government to people and trying to sort of bridge that gap to say, well, when they say, you know, strategic release framework, what they mean is, they're going to be putting out new areas for coal exploration, you know, out west,
Dan Ilic 50:23 I like it was James said, He's switching off because he negotiated the TPP and has worked in The Hague. Like, now, I've got PTSD. So and how do you cut through that bureaucratic jargon to kind of make a simpler case like there's a simpler, there's a simpler world out there that many of us want to understand want to be part of. So how do you make that case?
Unknown Speaker 50:47 Yeah, I mean, I think you always have to bring and this is what I'm saying about the big picture, you have to bring it back to things that people understand and they see right in front of them. And that's why, you know, what matters to people in the hunter is the the pollution in the air and the effect that the industry has on the river and the dislocation of rural villages. And that's really immediately what people are seeing. And that's and that's where their hearts lie.
Unknown Speaker 51:09 in researching for this gig actually saw that the sea wall fell over in Newcastle. Is that to do with mining, or is it
Dan Ilic 51:18 the same old same? Oh, the Stockton Yeah, dude. Yeah, it's really well, there was a coal mine right on the beach at Stockton. unrelated to the, to the erosion that's happening.
Lewis Hobba 51:31 Wow. Breaking News, irrational fear Saturday night.
Dan Ilic 51:36 George fuses? Do you have a sense of hope to keep you going? Like, what what drives you to keep working in this space?
Unknown Speaker 51:45 Uh, well, I mean, I, there's a lot of people who live with the impacts of mining who I have worked with, you know, for all the time I've been would love the gate, which is eight years or so. And they, you know, they have no choice. They kind of stuck there. And I owe it to them to continue being being there for them, essentially. And, you know, it's, it's, it's really, it's wonderful work. It doesn't. It's very, very rewarding.
Lewis Hobba 52:10 That's all I could say, tragically, you probably have a longer career than coal miners. Oh, God. Yeah. Sorry, Kirsten. Sorry. Yeah, that's good. It's actually good news. And we just want to be forced to become unemployed. You know, we don't want to volunteer and come unemployed together. And we'll just solve the whole problem by everybody
Unknown Speaker 52:30 becoming unemployed, universal, basic income. Now, I actually wanted to ask George, because I have done a few events with George in Newcastle, and I find you don't want to embarrass you, but I find it incredibly inspiring, but also incredibly intimidating and terrifying. And I would never, ever fuck with you. And like, bit like you would have been involved in some really like heated confrontations at some of the like actions that you've been had? And are you ever scared when people are really in your face? Or do you just like really get off on that?
Unknown Speaker 53:04 At protest actions, I don't tend to get scared. No, I kind of get scared before. And then after. And then when you're there. It's just it just all flows like you're just in the moment? And have you ever been in a situation where you've actually felt like you're actually physically in danger? like someone's going to hit you or anything like that? No, I'm now have, I have been in situations where that's happening to somebody very close by. And actually, that was a forest protest. And a very dear friend of mine put his body in the way of the axe that was chopping down the tripod that my friend was sitting at the top of, which was, you know, see what i'm saying, man? It wasn't me. I was just a witness. But um, yeah, I mean, it is, I guess, it's protesting is a way to bring to the surface a lot of these contradictions and challenges and so it doesn't really provide any answers. It's just about questioning. It's just about bringing things right up close with people and going well, is this actually a good idea?
Unknown Speaker 54:00 And what about when you're in the room with people, you know, politicians or people from mining companies, you know, really high powered high profile people? Do you ever find yourself intimidated? Do you intimidate them?
Unknown Speaker 54:13 I don't know. I might. What am I good. If you want to hear this story, one of my best stories from last year, which was a difficult year for many people was having a stand up argument with Stephen galley, the head of the minerals Council in New South Wales in New South Wales parliament. And it was because he sort of walked casually past man sort of said hello, Georgina, and I just sort of, you know, I don't want to talk to you Is that a thing and and he had to go at me for not being nice to him and and I just lost it. I was gonna say this on tape. This is just for all of you. I was just sort of like, Is this just a job for you like this isn't just a job for me. I'm not just going to clock in and clock off and say, get a Steve you know, great to see you. This is actually life, you know, life affecting stuff for people that I work with, and I can't just put it all aside and, and pretend like I'm just a professional, so not a politician.
Dan Ilic 55:12 Well, George, if you ever get stuck, you could probably always just become Chair of Newcastle University. Chancellor, Chancellor. I'm hoping that posts will reopen again quite soon. Everyone Georgina woods.
Lewis Hobba 55:41 Try standing up is this it's something that I was just saying to Dan, when we got in here. I've never done comedy up before.
Dan Ilic 55:48 really unusual. It's an unusual situation. James James also said that and I maintain it's because you're the two tallest people
Lewis Hobba 55:55 look up at anyone. I feel like a small town lawyer out of there. It's always fun to try to pivot out of climate action back into comedy. So stick with me. I want to talk not about the climate, but about the vaccines. Another big topic. All right. Yeah. One more applause Hello. All right. All right. I don't know if you've heard but the COVID vaccine rollout is going very badly. Right now Scott Morrison couldn't organise a syringe on the set of Trainspotting. By the end of March, he planned to have 4 million people vaccinated and they just missed that target by 3.4 million. This week, the government revealed that hadn't vaccinated aged care workers and they didn't even know how many aged care residents had started getting shots as anyone who had been vaccinated just by asking that question, I know more than the government about vaccine rollout. But in times of crisis, I think it's very important to take the government's lead and instead of looking at what we can do, start looking at who we can blame. Let's start with the labour leaders. We all know Dan Andrews is crawling out of his hospital bed at night, throwing away his fake back brace and creeping out to sprinkle COVID under the beds of Melbourne's children. The media are obviously also to blame. Health Minister Greg hunt got very angry at the media for saying that all the people who were nervous about getting the AstraZeneca vaccine could wait until the Pfizer arrived. He said the media were promoting vaccine hesitancy the media were directly quoting Greg hunt. And that really Paul's pissed off Greg hunt, who is a Greg hunt.
The government is also very angry at boomers who have developed this vaccine hesitancy for those following at home. Yes, this is the same vaccine hesitancy the government refused to stop Craig Kelly doing. Craig Kelly fans, what the fuck? Are we in silence?
Dan Ilic 58:32 Big queuing on Viber?
Lewis Hobba 58:35 Oh, interesting. Okay, let's explore that as we go on. Wow, fuck, I didn't say I've never met somebody like Greg Kelly. It's so crazy. But actually, I think that the vaccine hesitancy problem is actually quite easy to fix because boomers stopped trusting vaccines because they believe anything they read on Facebook. So what I have done is I've prepared some Boomer friendly messaging that you can write on your own Facebook wall at any time to make boomers get their second job quicker than their second home. Yeah, that's right. I know what you own. Well, you know what else you gonna take away from me? Come on. Alright, here we go. Here's the things you can write on your Facebook wall to get famous to take the vaccine. Tell them the vaccine doesn't insert a microchip. It inserts an audio book about Graham Kennedy written by Peter fit Simon. A vaccine is just an extra hot coffee. Tell him it's an iPad. Tell him it's a painting by an indigenous artist. Tell him it's a funny tea towel. Tell him the vaccine is a mountain by tell him the vaccine is a low risk family photo. Tell him it's a podcast with Annabel Crabb. Tell them that vaccine would like to hear a story about an old neighbour who recently died. Tell him the vaccine agrees that the two years of high interest rates in the early 90s was the greatest hardship generated ever five. Tell him it's a BBC drama. Tell him it'll make Netflix easy to use. Tell him it's a carport. Tell him it's a second fridge. Tell them it doesn't use American words like diaper and store. It uses Australian words like nappy and shop.
Now, we all know that would 100% get the vaccine roll out back on track. Weirdly, that is not the approach our Prime Minister is taking. though. You might have heard this news yesterday. He's calling in the army. Yeah. Yesterday he announced in one of his trademark announcements that the new head of the National Vaccine task force would be Lieutenant General john frewin. If caught I don't know who he is either, but he's a Lieutenant General. Head of the army. If calling in the army to fix his problems, sounds extreme. Keep in mind, Scott Morrison loves to play with his army men. When he was the Minister for border protection. He called in the army to stop the boats. Then once the boat once the army had done that, he made himself a little boat shaped trophy, saying I stopped the boats. I don't know if anyone in the army got a trophy. They may have got a small participation boat. Personally, may I love the idea of getting the military to run a vaccination campaign. It's intimidating but fun. Can never quite get a read on what's going on. defence. Craig Kelly not okay with military on the fence. burners. He came around. Applause we all love. I stick with me try to stick with you if I wasn't begging but thank you.
Dan Ilic 1:02:17 Will you be closing with Gosford
Lewis Hobba 1:02:21 backless wood carving? So here we go. Now stick with me on this army thing. Okay, because I actually think it's a really good idea, right? I would love to see people's faces. When they look up to see Ben Robert Smith walking through the streets, threatening to kick anyone who won't get the vaccine out the us with a prosthetic leg is caring for some reason. All right. I knew when I asked you to stick with me that I would be losing you and I don't care. Why I stopped with the army. The Air Force involved. I want to say fighter jets dropping syringes into aged care facilities. I want to say retired veterans pull their old rifles out of the closet, toss away their bayonets, a fixer Pfizer and go back on the road john judge will fight the anti vaxxers on the beaches of Byron Bay. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be, and then we'll blame the cost on Kevin Rudd awesome. Look, I get why Scotty calls up to fans anytime he's on the defensive. People trust the army and they're already on the payroll. But I really think there's another group on the payroll who are being criminally overlooked when it comes to helping the vaccine roll out. These people live in camera in a building paid for by taxpayers. They're getting taxpayer funded training every day. I'm talking about the Australian Institute of Sport. Now. The prime minister said that the vaccine rollout wasn't a race. Well, right now we have hundreds of perfectly trained athletes for an Olympics that probably won't happen. So let's put them to work and make it a race. First of all, no one knows more about experimental drug treatments that test the vaccines on them. They put things in their bodies that would stop our doctors have a locally produced vaccine that prevents COVID and is also untraceable by the anti doping authority. We store them in the call room used to a climatized l winter Olympian. Then we're on to the AI SS gold medal standard vaccine logistics. This is quite a plan. So come on the journey. All right. An Australian weightlifter lifts boxes of vaccines off the shelves then carries them to a javelin thrower, who hurls individual vaccines across the warehouse. 100 metre medley relay team will swim vaccines across the state of Tasmania, while the rest will travel in short shorts of marathon runners as they jump off to remote corners of regional Australia. The syringes passed like a relay baton from the marathon runners to the power walkers if they encounter any anti vaxxers of high jumper will frosty flop over them gracefully. Ah, Rachel Victorian centre will contain PPA from the fencing team, and one Greco Roman wrestler. Their job is to pin down vaccine hesitant burgers while our welterweight boxes strap on latex gloves. And instead of giving a left jab to the face, give an Australian a right jab and using the power of the AI si predicts we can have the nation fully vaccinated by the end of the week. Then all we need is to get Nicky Webster to sing a closing ceremony and get all the athletes back to camera for an athlete village level fuckathon. If Scott Marcy needs any more convincing, I promise when that's all over, and everyone agrees that athletes have done their job perfectly. He can get get a little gold medal that says he did it all himself
Dan Ilic 1:06:18 but didn't rush up. big thank you to DJ de la koliko Jay senda gusta Drysdale Georgina was
Unknown Speaker 1:06:27 also a big thank you to Isaac ash and then everyone here at the Civic Theatre in New Castle. Big thanks to Ryan mock the Bertha foundation go YouTube token Jacob brown to the tiffin Yaki, Tom Landry Diogenes, Virginia guy by name.
Dan Ilic 1:06:41 Until next time, there's always something to be scared of. Good. Hi, Dan Ilic here back again. That was Newcastle. And as you can tell by the end of the show, they were very much on board with what we have to say. And I should let you know if you want any of the things that I was talking about. In my section of the podcast where I do Alan Jones and Dorothy Michela sunburned country. Well, you can download them from the irrational fear newsletter. So go to WWW dot irrational fear.com. Give us your email address, and then we'll send it out, we'll send out the Dorothy Michela in Comic Sans, and the Alan's the fake Alan Jones article you can print off yourself, to put up in your regional shopfront window, we'd love to say that and please, please put it on Twitter or Facebook or email me back a picture of your Alan Jones or Dorothy McKellar, paste it up in the front window of your local shop, we'd love to see that. Before I play the biggest show. I just wanna let you know that we will be coming to Melbourne on August 14. So make sure you put that in your diary. Right now though, here are the best bits of the bigger show.
Now regional Australia How is what is the best way to beat climate denialism or to communicate the real climate facts in regional Australia?
Mick Neven 1:08:07 I think one of the ways you gotta you got to understand the way people communicate in regional Australia here I think one of those ways is a bumper stickers. And so instead of a lot of bumper stickers, you know, I replaced the fuck off we have full and with fuck off way full of too much carbon. I also
Lewis Hobba 1:08:28 like put one a tiny little bombas so you could shrink them and put them on each one of the mice that are plaguing us on the back end of every little mouse millions of spreading the message.
Gabbi Bolt 1:08:40 I think if you're going off like what my regional town where I grew up, how information spread there the most efficient way. town gossip. Like I feel like if you say something like Oh, so and so so and so so and so slept with a solar panel.
Lewis Hobba 1:08:55 You should tell the hairdresser he fucked us all the time. Don't tell anyone
Gabbi Bolt 1:09:03 Ciara solar panel. Every single person in the region.
Dan Ilic 1:09:08 It was the best sex I've ever had. Well, Gabby, you know the people here in the southeast of the continent have suffered pretty horrendous things over the last 18 months. bushfires the promise of the notion recovery fund that hasn't turned up in a city lifting podcasts coming in to do a podcast where you guys have suffered. I'm really sorry. Gabby, is there a bright side to anything that these people have been through?
Gabbi Bolt 1:09:38 Ah, well, I've brought this Sesame Street Style song. I found one that I think you might like.
Lewis Hobba 1:09:46 Can you guys hear that out the back? Yeah. Cool. Can
Gabbi Bolt 1:09:50 I have a little more in the phonebook? We can cut this out of the podcast. Cheers, john. Thanks. Anyway, you might not have Have a million bucks might not have the cats and dogs might even have your shoes and socks squad. At least Scott shook your head might not have a good next step. might not have time to take a breath. might not have any fuckin house left, but at least Scotty. He says Don't you know that I don't hold a hose? Um, no, that's not for me. Unless we're referring to a wall, but it might have promised us some relief. might have said, Hey, whatever you need, and he might pop on over to Hawaii, but he can cuz he shook your hand. Spin solo. I never said that.
Unknown Speaker 1:11:00 I resent that.
Gabbi Bolt 1:11:02 But I disagree with the premise of the question. Yeah, it's gone. Well, actually, Jen told me that bushfires are in fact bad. And until she said that to me. And she also said that How would you feel about girls died in a British fire. I really hadn't heard of that in perspective. So I decided to deal with the bushfire crisis by praying we never got another one and I feel way better. Thank you so much, Jen. He gaslights enough to start another fucking fire. I can't believe he's still in after such a failure. I can't believe he even got enough to tourism Australia might not have a fucking clue. My thought for me or you any might spend all this time protecting. But at least Scotty shook he might not possess any empathy might not uphold governing policy and he might not know how to run the fucking country but at least Scottish. The Scottish Well, he tried to that he stole your hand and then lied to you, but he will say he shook your hand.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:26 Thank you, everyone. Hello, hello. Hello. Yes, I'm the DJ normally. officially known as hobo Paul Shaffer, Dan Ilic. I do run a little podcast called news fighters, where I play funny clips and talk about them and I look we've hung a lot of shit on Scott Morrison tonight. So I just thought I'd keep it going. It's great to be back here in Vegas. I actually grew up on the south coast. Here I am there I am having my fifth birthday at the bega cheese factory. Here right here I am. Here Kubina public school there I am from 1986 What happened?
Lewis Hobba 1:13:08 Okay, the slideshow going I'm loving
Dan Ilic 1:13:11 the jugs more about Dylan's childhood. This is a this is actually this is your therapy session.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:19 And of course look, you know growing up in and around cobargo as I did have to say nothing brought me more pride than watching the news last year. And I saw this happen
Unknown Speaker 1:13:30 during the fire ravaged town of cobargo. a firefighter refuse to shake the PMS hand. Scott Morrison heckled in cobargo now you know, welcome your Parkway.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:45 Yeah, Scott Morrison. They're inventing the social distancing lack of afterwards, believe it or not, Scott Morrison refused to believe that this angle was actually directed at him.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:56 Scott Morrison today says he doesn't take it personally. I don't take it personally. I just see it as a sense of frustration.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:04 Maybe you should take it personally. Everyone hates you turned up for a photo op in the middle of a catastrophic tragedy. What about the words? You're not welcome here? You fuckwit fuck off my Do you not understand? Anyways, we are we are here to applause there Hang on a second.
Lewis Hobba 1:14:29 As a religious guy who is also obsessed with shaking hands. I wonder how he feels about the fact that like God immediately after they sent down a plague that prevented him from touching it might have been assigned. Don't touch me. Stop doing it, Scott. Alright, fine. I'll send you a fucking bad plague stop doing
Unknown Speaker 1:14:46 but we are here to talk about climate change. That's the theme of the theme of tonight. And within an election around the corner Scott Morrison has been out on the world stage in his his heart, his heart to finally answer some annoying questions like when the hell is Australia. gonna commit to net zero emissions? And isn't he nailing it? Our goal
Unknown Speaker 1:15:04 is to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible. And preferably by 2050. Australia is on the pathway to net zero. Our goal is to get there as soon as we possibly can for Australia, it is not a question of if, or even by when for net zero, but importantly, how
Unknown Speaker 1:15:21 what a lack of Imagine if you're you have this kind of lack of commitment in your relationship. Honey, we been engaged for 12 years, when are we going to get married? Well, dear, it's not a question of if or when we get married. How about when soon as we possibly can, preferably by 2050. And when it comes to the house, Scott Morrison says, technology is the ticket. The key to meeting our climate change ambitions is commercialization of low emissions technology. My point about this, though, comes back to technology again, as why we're investing in Priority new technology solutions to our technology investment roadmap initiative, the answer is technology, not taxes. Yes, sir. is saying technology, not taxes, great technology, what kind of technology? There's lots of great technology out there. Is he talking about electric vehicles, solar batteries, pumped hydro technology is the coalition talking about let's have a look,
Unknown Speaker 1:16:18 nuclear energy should be on the table as part of Australia's energy future. It's the finding of a parliamentary committee. The Federal Energy minister Angus Taylor, meanwhile, says the government's more than willing to consider nuclear power. You
Unknown Speaker 1:16:29 know, I'm being told that Scott Morrison actually supports nuclear power. It's just he knows it's too difficult to sell politically, if you seriously want zero emissions, if that's what knocks you out. If that's what blows your hair back, well, then nuclear power is where you're going to have to go and if
Unknown Speaker 1:16:45 we are serious and progressing towards net zero emissions, I think it's almost certainly that we'll need to have some form of nuclear power here to try to achieve that.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:54 Yes, Senator Matt cannon national senator, Matt Canavan there, and he reckons nuclear is really safe. actually have a look.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:01 I have a role. Nuclear has been an incredibly safe technology. People die installing solar panels on roofs.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:07 Yes, but I can't remember there being an HBO miniseries about rooftop solar panels. But it's not just nuclear. Don't worry. There's some other technology scammers keen on
Unknown Speaker 1:17:19 our ambition is to produce the cheapest green hydrogen in the world that one of the most important targets that Australia has, is to be able to produce hydrogen at $2. a kilo is the President in the United States, you have the Silicon Valley. Here in Australia, we are creating our own hydrogen ballots. And when it comes to the hydrogen valleys we can be developing all across the country.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:45 Yes, hydrogen Valley is coincidentally also the name of the second worst King gizzard and the lizard wizard side project. The reason our government if you're wondering where this sudden obsession with hydrogen comes from, did a bit of research and it turns out that they realised they can they can get away with calling. They can call it clean hydrogen or blue hydrogen, even when it's made by burning coal or gas, thanks to this thing called carbon capture and storage is not new technology. Isn't that going well? Which the best I can figure out this kind of thing where Scott maybe has more insight into this kind of works out like I think if you fought and then plan to ceiling, the ceiling cancels out the fog, is that Yeah, is that basically Howard's showing me that if he just didn't fire to begin
Dan Ilic 1:18:30 with coming upstairs or if he fought in a jar? Oh, I put it in the ground. That's carbon capture storage. perfectly. Well, the technically, if I did it, it'd be me. Thank catches. Yes. But the extending analogy to coal plants. Is that right, Scott Ludlam?
Unknown Speaker 1:18:47 Suddenly This is on me. Yes, Scott. This is your this is your analogy. You have to land this.
Unknown Speaker 1:18:54 Anyway. Energy minister Angus Taylor loves hydrogen. Here he is on radio national talking about blue hydrogen until he's literally blue in the face.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:04 Is it green hydrogen or hydrogen made with fossil fuels?
Unknown Speaker 1:19:15 It wasn't made with fossil fuels are made with renewable energy.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:18 The point that many make when they're asking that question is we can't possibly make anything from fossil fuels. Well, you know what, if it's zero emissions, it's fine. That's the point. It's got to be clean. fuels. How do we make it zero emissions he will be made with anything that allows us to reduce emissions is blue. Hydrogen that can be done with zero emissions is green hydrogen that can be done with zero emissions. You know, we made a lot of horses in this race.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:46 That interview went so badly that Angus Taylor was later caught on Facebook saying bad, bad job, Angus.
Dan Ilic 1:19:53 But the other thing that was a very nice joke for this audience.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:58 The other the other reason Morrison loves hydrogen aside from the fact that will keep his billionaire coal mining magnate mates happy is that it can make trucks car perma.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:08 I mean hydrogen can be used to drive vehicles. I mean up there in the Pilbara at the moment they're putting him in the mining trucks.
Unknown Speaker 1:20:15 Yes, let's power some vehicles of flammable hydrogen. Let's see. How did that go last time we tried that. Let's have a look here. Oh, there we go. There's some there's some nice flammable hydrogen there in the Hindenburg. Nice and blue. I think if it wasn't black and white, sorry, a bit too soon for Hindenburg jokes. Anyways, in conclusion, the Australian Government is kicking the can down the road on climate change, not setting targets and trying to sell us dirty and dangerous unproven technologies. But if you think we can't do any better than this one, maybe we should just have a little look across the ditch to see what's
Unknown Speaker 1:20:46 happened knows fossil fuel subsidies part of New Zealand's for action points, one price carbon to make climate related financial disclosures, mandatory three ind fossil fuel subsidies and for finance adaptation.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:06 Now that's a prime minister who can probably get a handshake.
Dan Ilic 1:21:15 fame is New Zealand appear to be doing a lot better than us in many circumstances. Why is that?
Unknown Speaker 1:21:25 Scott crazy thing to be famous for. She's got a green climate change minister. Like there's a there's an interesting example. Sorry to be the Ernest one sheet,
Dan Ilic 1:21:39 this is why you're here.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:40 I'll be really quick. All right, and then these guys can carry on. You've got I think, a very different political culture. It's not saturated with rupert murdoch publications. And you've got a green labour Alliance where people are actually decent to each other. They show up at each other's press conferences, they support each other. It's not perfect. There's plenty of problems there. But I just think that political culture is very different to hear
Lewis Hobba 1:22:01 that actually sounds like more of a fantasy than Lord of the Rings. From a New Zealand perspective, as well, yeah. And they get along, and they all live in holes. In the coalition there they have hobbits I've seen Oh, thank God. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:19 I think one of the big problems. And I'm not totally familiar with the New Zealand political climate at all, but I just think you can't steal from the Treasury and govern the country at the same time. It's like, one or the other. Right?
Dan Ilic 1:22:36 Make it's your turn. Give it a crack. Yeah, everyone McNab is rational. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:45 Hello, everybody. What we're doing, of course, is we're talking about climate change. And if you look at a lot of what we're saying is pretty negative. And you think, well, how can we have hope for the future? And so I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little bit by letting us understand how we can have hope for the future. And if you do need to, you need to be optimistic and you need to be positive. And if you want to learn lessons on optimism and positivity, look no further then the quality over leadership because they have turned optimism and positivity into an art form. Okay, because they don't they don't call it being bribed by the fossil fuel industry, do they? They call it a political donation. And they call it a natural transition from politics to the Board of Rio Tinto and Anglo American. I say that that's positivity, isn't it? They don't call it they don't call it they don't call it a colossal waste of taxpayers money on soon to be useless infrastructure that we don't actually need. See, now they call it a gasoline recovery. Right, that's positivity. That's optimism. And we need to take that onto ourselves as we move forward into the future because yeah, like climate change is happening and the planet's heating up, which is bad, but if you've ever watched your done your laundry on a 45 degree day it drives like that. That's positivity. That's like yes, the polar ice caps are melting. But that also creates more room to play footy and cricket. Okay, yes, the sea levels are rising, which is bad, but the more the seas rise, the less room there is for bushfires. So that's positivity, maybe too soon, as well as positivity Scott, this is what we're trying by. No, I think maybe we should lose the term bushfire because there is a lot of negative connotations attached to the word bushfire. I think maybe we should progress in future and we should just call it like free range barbecue. like seven houses will last in today's free range barbecue. Oh, They just got a little bit overexcited they didn't. That's nice. And and you know, like, they do say that. We were you know, though one in 100 year fire events are going to become more common and we're going to see them like one one in 184 events are going to happen every five or six years, which is not great. But on the positive side, it is an opportunity to get more volunteers and people contributing to their community. You know, we're looking at the positives I was evacuated on Ash Wednesday, on Black Saturday, I spent six hours patrolling my house doing our amber patrol. And you know, the 2019 20 fires, I inhaled a lot of smoke. And like, How lucky am I that I'm only 46 years old, but I've already been through three one in 100 fire year. And I'm only 46 I can feed hates Boring. Boring, you know, like if you saying that, you know insurance premiums for fire insurance are going up. It's too expensive to get fire insurance which you which is bad, but on the positive side that just encourages self sufficiency, doesn't it? Well, you know, pennies for insurance when you can have a fight and go might stick with me.
Dan Ilic 1:26:28 Make a promise should have warned you. Many of this crowd have recently been through an extremely traumatic event. I'm moving on from Yeah, moving on. I don't know if you I should
Unknown Speaker 1:26:40 have told you. I'm moving on from the fires. I've watched the news. I think I was evacuated last Wednesday. Climate change. Worst case scenario we need to be positive right. And we don't want to I don't think we should call it the total collapse of civilization as we know it. We should call it a digital detox. Like it's not going to be a brutal fight for survival in the toxic wasteland of a planet that we destroyed through greed and stupidity. Right It's an opportunity to learn new skills. Exactly like your spirit. Like if you just pick you out or you're sitting around the front that have you ever thought about killing someone
Unknown Speaker 1:27:34 while you get on board because like and just so everyone's aware, right? I am now going to talk about killing someone but I'm doing it in a sense of positivity. I don't want you to think it is murder. Right don't think of it as murder Think of it as resource management. Being positive because you never know there could be some climate change disaster could happen before we know that no one predicted like the the permafrost is melting, releasing methane into the air which could suddenly react with all the carbon dioxide and create a thick band of smoke around the entire planet blocking out all the light from the sun every living thing on earth smothering to death, humanity starving no Lauren order anymore, and it's just me and another dude. And a can of peaches. Don't say well, if I want to eat those peaches, I'm gonna have to kill this guy. When he comes at me with with a ninth or ninth century Viking battle axe that he's looted from the home of a mediaeval weapons enthusiast. But luckily, I've got my replica US Marine K bar combat knife. Okay, so he comes in swinging the axe, I duck under it, grab his arm and just jam that knife up under his ribs like real close. You look into his eyes. You just see that shock. He's like, Oh, he's got me. Give that knife a twist. You feel that hot spurt of blood run down your arm. This thing that's in his heart. He's dead. He goes limp, drops the axe and you're up close looking into his eyes just watching his soul start to leave his body. And then with his last dying breath, you guys,
Unknown Speaker 1:29:10 I just I just
Unknown Speaker 1:29:14 I just wanted to feed my daughter. Enjoy heaven decade. When you drop into the ground and your sheep that knife you grab that canopies you tear the top off and you're stuck with your bare hands. You're shovelling peaches in your starving mouth. You've got blood and peach juice just dribbling off your chin and you have never felt so alive.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:55 Obviously I haven't given that a lot of thought. It's a well, it's just something that popped into my head when I was trying to be optimistic about the future.
Dan Ilic 1:30:16 How do you folks stay optimistic about the future? How do you keep your optimism going? where we are right now? I mean, Gabby, maybe I'll start with you, your, your 25 year young person when I wants to be optimistic? Oh, you know, I'm alive. We're here. Well, we're not when I was 25, I started my journey in terms of kind of climate action and trying to try to make the world a better place. How do you feel about it? Like, how do young people keep up?
Gabbi Bolt 1:30:38 I feel like, well, if we're talking about my very sheltered bubble of social awareness, we laugh at anything, that's crap. And that tends to just work. It doesn't. So we just laugh at terrible, terrible things.
Lewis Hobba 1:30:54 I think it's always good to keep in mind when I'm in a low point about the future of the world. And even though the current of the world is to remember that eventually, all people will die. And they are the ones who are really responsible. And that's what that's what helps me sleep at night is knowing that my grandparents are already gone, and thank God. They will never they'll never have to experience what you might have to experience. Yeah, no, my sweet grandparents who I loved but who are gone will never have to say the horrible things that I'll say my future. Yeah, yeah, I stay optimistic. Yeah, I think we've fulfilled the assignment
Unknown Speaker 1:31:31 that, you know, I think one cause for optimism, from my point of view is that as a 46 year old, I've really had the best years that I could possibly have. And whatever happens now is just done a bit. You know, I've lived a good life up
Dan Ilic 1:31:47 to now it's all peaches from Hey, mate. Can I get the vaccine then if you don't want it? I actually know I want to go back to Bali, at least one. So I'll be taking.
Gabby, the budget was about four weeks ago. And in that time, you've had time to process who the winners and the losers are?
Gabbi Bolt 1:32:14 Yeah. That's the preamble. We wrote because I wrote some a month ago. Yeah, I mean, look, there are real. No, there are no, there are some winners in the budget. I don't know if any of them are in this room. Or in this state, except for Parliament House. But I've written a song about our views in the budget. I wrote it for a little gang called the chaser who now pay me to be stupid. This This song is about the budget. everyone's favourite subject to sing about. I don't care what's in the budget. Because Murdoch says it's fine. The sky said battlers loved it. And so did Channel Nine. It's my fault that I'm unemployed. So now all my time is free. Everyone's a winner. I'll accept the AVC sorry, Louis. Murdoch back the budget. That's all I need to hear. I can relax and turn my brain off watch the footy with a beat. The country's bouncing back today. There's no way we could fail. Unless you've come from India, then you can go to jail. There's money for our billionaires because they're so oppressed. But if you're on job seeker, then they'll send you Robo debt and forget funding inquiries into indigenous dance. But I do hear that there's cash involved towards some come proof desks.
Dan Ilic 1:33:48 That one was wrong. We're lucky I guess I just remembered we're in a council chambers.
Gabbi Bolt 1:33:53 Clean your surfaces everyone clean your surfaces. Were lucky in this country. We survived the COVID plague and our budget will reflect the sensible changes that were made. So you do not get to whinge and whine about what is being paid. Unless you're over 35 or prefer your grandparents alive or if you're in public education or a victim of house rental inflation or if you want churches to pay tax little one day get a Pfizer vaccine in the healthcare sector award effector or in the centre link online. Don't worry, because Murdoch says it's fine. Yeah. Thanks. I apologise for the come desktop.
Dan Ilic 1:34:40 Our next guest has worked at the highest levels at the Australian Parliament striving for climate justice. Now he's just one of you, you know, living and working in eurobodalla Shire. Despite his name being Scott, he's here for the long haul. It's Scott.
Scott, do you um, do you It shouldn't be a name. Have you considered calling yourself scout lard? Really? We just said that okay, no. What's your next question? I know you moved here in 2018. Has anything major happened since that time? pretty quiet? No. Was it like you know packing you packed up your life in person you move to this place. Why did you choose this area to move to? I,
Unknown Speaker 1:35:26 it reminds me that Southwest TWA. And actually, it reminds me a little bit of Taranaki and New Zealand, dairy country and misty and gorgeous. But I came here more or less at random to write a book, little writer's retreat a couple of years ago, and just had all my stuff moved over. And so now you're stuck with me? Oh, that's okay.
Dan Ilic 1:35:43 And so were you here during 2019 2020?
Unknown Speaker 1:35:46 Not here, here. But out the back of tobacco that 20 Kay's from tobacco. Wow, the little town that we are so very proud of where that footage was mostly taken.
Dan Ilic 1:35:55 Do you know a few of those people in those clips? A little bit? Yes. But the whole country knows them now. What are those folks like what you know, the people in those clips? Like I think
Unknown Speaker 1:36:05 it's a it's a very down to earth place. It's surprisingly it. I mean, it's this beautiful kind of crossover of Palmer and prayer prayer flags. This whole district is just really interesting, culturally crossover country.
Dan Ilic 1:36:17 Yeah, yeah. When you were going through the bushfires, like how did you What was your story at that time, like how what happened here
Unknown Speaker 1:36:25 are supposed to be so many buddy stories in just in this room. So as probably not super special. But we were awoken about 4:35am, New Year's Eve 2019. And just evacuated as quick as we could get out of our place and sheltered in the Roma for a couple of days and spent the next six weeks I suspect, like many people down here, just dodging fires. So we evacuated four times as and ended up with the thing around us on three sides as terrifying.
Dan Ilic 1:36:55 As someone who's being part of the most powerful force in Australia. Well, not necessarily in government, but someone who's been in power. And I didn't know, you know, I missed that whole chapter of my life. Did you expect when when you're going through that thing to do that moment Did you expect are in a moment, the federal government is going to do something and we'll be looked after,
Unknown Speaker 1:37:20 we were all hoping that Morrison would helicopter in and try and shake people's hands. That's what everybody in this district was really hoping would happen. A
Dan Ilic 1:37:31 couple of people were laughing I see him
Unknown Speaker 1:37:34 harshly judging Morrison because we've since found out that he wasn't actually shaking hands. He was laying on hands and healing people with prayer. And I think if we'd known that at the time, it would have made all the difference. Not at all creepy or weird. For you.
Dan Ilic 1:37:48 What was the biggest disconnect of that moment? For a few who's you know, you've been part of Parliament, really? And you're in this moment? Did you? What What were you going through in your head
Unknown Speaker 1:38:00 disconnect is that people have been predicting this for at least 20 years, Ross Garner wrote a thing, 20 years or 15 years ago saying by the 2020s will be observing this, this is going to be a reality. So the disconnect is that we have seen this thing coming. And it's hard to pretend to be surprised. It's like being surprised by a snail creeping up on you. You know, we've seen this thing coming for an awfully long time. And now it's here.
Dan Ilic 1:38:25 Yeah. When you saw you were living through the experience of this government's inaction. What surprised you most about that moment?
Unknown Speaker 1:38:38 I was surprised they were so utterly flat footed, like before, he remember that rancid little TV ad that they put out with him kind of striding back in with the army and they've ripped a bunch of money out of disability funding, and suddenly there's going to be cash everywhere. I felt like for a unit that is basically completely in hock to the coal and gas industry, and that people have been predicting this is going to happen for decades that they would have been a little bit more prepared and at least had their lines straight. But they had absolutely no idea what to do at the guys in Hawaii. Do you have something funny to say?
Dan Ilic 1:39:09 No, no, no. I asked you Scott. You shouldn't feel like you need to be terrifying.
Lewis Hobba 1:39:15 I promise I'm not here to hurt you. Scott. was really hoping you could lighten the mood. Yeah, no. And I was wondering is yeah that's how the people came to say a fight. No, I was wondering if you knew Scott Morrison personally because you don't know him personally. Because it's so strange to me because I felt like we the previous Prime Ministers even though I have disagreed with them. I have been out ago I can see why you wanted this job. I cannot understand why the fuck he wants this job. Like, do you have any insight as to why he actually wants to be prime minister doesn't seem to have any joy from it means any sort of direction for it that he's
Unknown Speaker 1:39:54 doing God's work. He was called to it by God. Sounds Mantega. It sounds man. But that's why why
Lewis Hobba 1:40:02 do you think that's that's legitimately? Because now that he's been cold? Is he waiting for like the next coal to tell him what to do? Like? What's going on?
Dan Ilic 1:40:11 to manage your timezone? I think that would be a more appropriate job for flashing lights.
Unknown Speaker 1:40:20 No, nothing, you would ask the same question, why does this bag of custard want to be the Prime Minister? Even the religious thing doesn't quite land, like is that really his caper? Because he's doing a shit job even at that. Get him.
Dan Ilic 1:40:38 So when when the when the feds didn't turn up, and then people were left to their own devices. What did you say that
Unknown Speaker 1:40:44 was people helped each other people. People lend each other generators, people were hooning, around in Utah, putting spot fires out people just bought us food. They were folk coming out of bermagui, who were just doing enormous stuff in this big kitchen, and then just shuttling it out to where people needed it. Water got delivered. So it's all the mutual aid stuff, all the beautiful bottom up stuff was what actually happened.
Dan Ilic 1:41:10 Does it surprise you that there's no kind of support for those kind of groups, even if the government's gonna outsource this sort of support to these grassroots groups? How have you been to support these groups?
Unknown Speaker 1:41:22 There's a little bit landing now. And I think some of some of that stuff is getting a small amount institutional backing, but it's, you know, came too late, obviously, for last year. The main thing if we can learn anything from last year is that the kind of groups doing that incredible stuff do get backed up and supported.
Dan Ilic 1:41:39 We've seen stories over the last six months about this notional $2 billion and half of it being delivered war where is the winner? No Show of hands who got some of the $2 billion buddy for the podcast listener. There is a person with their hand up how much should you get? Red Cross for a really really good Red Cross for good people. And Salvation
Unknown Speaker 1:42:10 Army and they've put money the Red Cross in put me into the actual pods and the government is supposed to hire for we had signed over $10,000 Red Cross money the government
Dan Ilic 1:42:28 Wow. Wow. So that was that that's a charity plugging the get with a government fell down.
Unknown Speaker 1:42:33 There was a lot of that. Yeah, institutional charities but also just these networks of people who just had to do what needed to be done.
Dan Ilic 1:42:41 God, it's um, anyone else got stories of this? They want to share this moment of kind of?
Lewis Hobba 1:42:50 That's what you're here for. Scott tell a joke.
Dan Ilic 1:42:53 Well, Scott, plugging the incongruity of the Australian voter, after seeing whatever everything we've gone through, and seeing how labour doesn't really have a Climate Action Plan themselves, how does the Australian voter heading into election season how should they vote to see meaningful climate action?
Unknown Speaker 1:43:18 I'd say don't wait till elections roll around. I reckon that's the first mistake that we're going to make. If we hang around until an election at the time of Scott Morrison's choosing, like we just we lose another. I don't know what six to 12 months of waiting around tapping our toes, it's time to riot, like it's actually time to take a bit of power back.
Lewis Hobba 1:43:41 This is the opinion of former senator Scott Ludlam. Yeah. As a as an employee of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, distanced myself from the riot against the government comments. But I support Scott's ability to say that
Dan Ilic 1:43:58 that's real courage. Yeah, that's what they've been
Lewis Hobba 1:44:03 fucking suing us every week. Give me a break.
Dan Ilic 1:44:08 So with with when we say don't wait another six months, what what do you mean by that?
Scott Ludlam 1:44:14 There was some really courageous crew up on the roof of Andrew constancies office earlier in this week. There are school strikers in his town who've been rebelling for at least two years that I'm aware of like a really courageous crew. There's extinction rebellion chapter just flared up here and that has got a long way to run. I'm not saying like when the election comes around, check and see who's paying their bills don't vote for people who are cashing checks from Santos and the resources sector. That part's really simple, but we simply cannot wait for long enough for elections to come around. And there's so much beautiful stuff going on like in this district. Big Cheese not even as a joke or as a punchline are talking about circular economy right across the whole valley, like in a serious way. Just spend a couple hours reading this stuff. They're not fooling around. Yeah, like, if government is way, way back and the community's ready and businesses ready, then let's just get on with it and not wait for these clowns.
Dan Ilic 1:45:10 We are the leaders. Right.
Well, Scott, thank you so much for joining us on irrational fear welcome. Sorry, I was so earnest the thinking you know, that's, that's the, that's the job of this section. Just to top off your earnestness where we have a lot of Patreon supporters. So to fund the show, we've got a few in our front row here tonight, which is great. We're gonna be giving half of our Patreon tonight to the Women's Resource Centre, Baga. And the and the other half. We're gonna be giving the other half to the extinction rebellion legal fund. So that's about that, you know, that's, that's some good money going their way. So hopefully, hopefully, it's not exactly
Lewis Hobba 1:46:00 they can commit some more crime
Dan Ilic 1:46:02 is to pay their legal bills and their legal bills. Well, thank you very much. God loves
Unknown Speaker 1:46:09 a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 1:46:15 Now, Gabby, it's become evident that Scott is finding it difficult to show any kind of leadership and when he does, there's always someone behind the scenes who is incredibly powerful in his ear.
Gabbi Bolt 1:46:25 Yeah, I'm actually I was a bit of a fly on the wall recently at a parliamentary karaoke party. And he actually he got up to sing quite a bit of an elton john banger, actually, but it wasn't quite the lyricism that I was like, everyone kind of does things that like he actually sing the lyrics quite well. So I thought I'd just reenact what I heard that fateful evening at the parliament Terry
Lewis Hobba 1:46:59 Great, well, he Gabby, I'm really gonna have to actually host the party now. Any open phones? Good.
Gabbi Bolt 1:47:17 Hey, kids, learn from my empathy consultant. Turns out all that I have to say is I find these guys repulsive. I won't say a thing about how I will propose real change. But if I tried to cry, maybe no one will notice anything strange. Cuz I stand up for women when they need me, but are only the ones I like to January and the girls on the road, so my relatives could really even do I haven't name names. I mean, I'm not to blame. I couldn't have suffered testers right. But I didn't want to know why. Just Jenny and the girls. We can sing in this venue. Good. Well, then we'll write little karaoke over are ready. You know what to do?
Dan Ilic 1:48:40 expressional Thank you very much. irrational. guest tonight, Dylan, Bain and Gabby Bo Lewis, Tama MC Devin, Scotland them. I'm Daniel, it's me. Thanks to ride Mike's the Bertha foundation Patreon supporters Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Goodnight. That's it. How good was that to live shows all in one podcast. Don't say we don't give you anything for nothing, because we give you lots for nothing. Speaking of that, if you want to pay for some of the stuff you're getting for free, please jump to our Patreon patreon.com forward slash irrational fear. We need all the help we can get. We're almost off the end of our Bertha fellowship money, which means we're going to be desperate for more Patreon supporters to support the podcast. So if you want us to keep making podcasts and meet keep making funny memes to keep making sketches online, please go to patreon.com forward slash irrational fears getting more important because we've got the election coming up. You know someone's going to do it. Please hit us up patreon.com forward slash a rational fear. Also, I want to say a big shout out to Jacob brown on the tepanyaki timeline, who smashed this best bits of these two shows together. Despite Having COVID-19 Yep, absolutely champion if it very sick boy but managed to pull it off. So thank you, Jacob round. Really appreciate it. He's a bigger boy and he couldn't even come to our show in Baga which was an absolute shame. We would have loved to laugh with him there but his mom came. And that was good enough. It was like it was like having it was like I was gonna say I was like having close relative of Jacob brown there, but that's exactly what it was like. Anyway, thanks very much. Until next week, doesn't we suddenly be scared off goodbye.
Once a month on the A Rational Fear podcast feed with publish a Greatest Moral Podcast Of Our Generation podcast. These are long-form chats with climate leaders from all walks of life. This month I bring you two conversations with a couple of comedians whose work and energy around climate justice has inspired me for years.
🌏 IN THE CLIMATE NEWS SECTION:
Linh Do and I also chat with energy journalist and fellow Bertha Fellow, Antonia Juhasz about the Dutch Court ruling that Shell must cut their emissions to meet the Paris Agreement targets, and how shareholders of Chevron and Exxon are forcing those companies to reckon with their own carbon footprint.
🎙️FEATURE INTERVIEWS:
The Juice Media's Giordano Nanni, who's Honest Government Ads reach millions and millions of people on-line. He's one of Australia's most influential YouTube creators on issues that matter.
and Rod Quantock. Rod is no strange to Australian comedy fans. From his early stand up days at The Last Laugh, to his work on TV shows like Australia You're Standing In It (yes, and Captain Snooze).
Rod dedicated the last couple of decades to doing comedy about climate change . He is the guy who inspired me to start A Rational Fear as a vehicle to bring more people to the topic of climate change in an accessible way. The conversation with Rod Quantock is a little …. depressing but it's worth hearing his point of view as a guy who has been active in this space for a long time…and is tired.
Dan Ilic 0:00 Hello, hello. We've got two great interviews for you today Giordano from the juice media and also rod contact. But before we do that, I just want to acknowledge I'm on gadigal land in the eora nation,
Linh Do 0:10 and I'm on the lands of the war Andriy people of the Kulin nation.
Dan Ilic 0:14 All right, let's kick it off with the climate news despite
Unknown Speaker 0:17 global warming, or rational fear is adding a little more hot air with long form discussions with climate leaders. Good. This is called Don't be afraid the heat waves and droughts greatest mass extinction tomorrow we're facing a manmade disaster podcast, climate criminals
Unknown Speaker 0:43 ration all of this with global warming and a lot of it's a hoax. But write a small podcast about generation for short,
Dan Ilic 0:54 now listen, before we get straight into the climate news, I want to let everybody know that we are doing live shows in Newcastle in Vegas for a rational fear we're also going to Melbourne but a little bit later on. We are performing June five in Newcastle where we'll have James panda from semi j cursed and dries out from reputation rehab in Hungary based Louis harbour or so from Triple J. It's basically people used to be on hungry based it's gonna be a base mini reunion. It's gonna be fantastic. And also James benders from the Rodney John's half hour adult TV show that I still do on channel 10. Also, we've got Georgina Woods who is from lock the gate, and DJ diabolical from news fighters. It's going to be fast, funny, it's going to be like q&a on crack. We're going to be talking a lot about the hunter. So if you are in New Castle and you want to come along, please do. It's going to be great. We've released tickets have already started to sell. I think we've sold 20 or 30 tickets already amazing. Yeah. And we are trying to work out also workshop that you can be at Lynn where we do some kind of digital main workshop where we can teach people how to make names on the internet.
Linh Do 2:03 It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be this funny thing where we're meeting offline in real life in person. things on the internet. This is how all right digital activism starts. It's actually not on the internet. So get excited and get tickets.
Dan Ilic 2:16 So yeah, do follow a rational fee on all the social medias and we'll let you know when that workshops gonna be but during five at the Newcastle Civic Theatre, get your tickets details are in the show notes. All right, huge week in a climate news this week, we could talk a bit about bravest losing their water licence to to create the Galilee coal mine, which is pretty funny. You know, it's very, it's good comedy to say these guys going ahead creating a coal mine. But we weren't because something has wiped that off the slate. And we are very lucky to be joined by Antonia yuhas, fellow Berta fellow to talk to us through some of the biggest news happening in climate probably ever.
Linh Do 2:55 Antonia, thanks for joining us. We just woke up to this excellent news. But tell us more Spain. Good bad, what's awake? Is the fossil fuel industry being having?
Unknown Speaker 3:04 No I'd say it's been a really, really knock their heads together, run over them with a tractor drag them behind the wheel of the car kind of kind of kind of weak,
Dan Ilic 3:18 dragged him behind the wheel of an electric car, probably a new f150 lightning maybe.
Unknown Speaker 3:25 Now I think they're gonna I think it's like data behind a car that's puffing out a whole lot of polluting exhausts that make them suck it in or making the rest of us do it and hold them accountable before it kind of we
Dan Ilic 3:38 all right, and now we've had a couple of huge rulings by shareholders and by court. Let's walk us through just quickly. What First of all, let's start off with shell in the Netherlands. Shell is being forced to slash its pollution by a Dutch court.
Unknown Speaker 3:51 It's a massive ruling. So the Court upheld that companies have a requirement under the Paris Climate accord to essentially meet the standards of the Paris Climate accord and that it runs contrary to the guaranteed human rights guaranteed to European citizens, for Shell to destroy the climate. And so shell must change its practices so that it doesn't destroy the climate and the ruling order the company to nearly have so by 40% cut its emissions across its entire supply chain its entire chain production chain within less than 10 years so by 2030 45% cut in emissions from counting not only its own production and exploration and refining and transporting of oil and natural gas, but also what its suppliers contribute to emissions and what its consumers contribute to emissions. When So we're talking scope one, scope two, scope
Dan Ilic 5:02 three, the whole thing. Indeed, wow, that's such a cool thing. Like, it's so incredible that this this fossil fuel giant is kind of being pulled together like this by a regulatory body. And I guess the Netherlands is so progressive in places like in kind of areas like this, or like, how do they get to this point of kind of forcing shell to do this,
Unknown Speaker 5:23 they're saying that in signing the Paris Climate accord, nations have created essentially have agreed on a moral norm. And that moral norm is that the world cannot be warmed beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. And that not only our governments accountable to that norm, but with this ruling, so to our companies, so that there isn't, there isn't an international body that exists to regulate multinational corporations. And that's what the what the court is also saying is, it is the obligation of the company to adhere to the norms of its home government. And the agreements that that government has signed, including the Paris Climate accord, and including human rights accords, under the European Union, for the case of shell and the Netherlands.
Dan Ilic 6:15 This sounds like it's gonna be a great day for Australian corporates, I can see shell moving their headquarters to Canberra, where Australia will provide sanctuary for companies like shell to keep the learning at the current levels.
Unknown Speaker 6:30 I mean, it I wonder if that would solve the problem. Certainly what would not solve shells problem is to move its operations from one place to another. So for example, the courts really clear that wherever the cuts come from, Shell has to achieve a 45% reduction. So if shell moved all of its operations to Australia, it would still have to meet this obligation. I have no idea what would happen if it moved its headquarters.
Dan Ilic 7:03 Also, let's talk about Exxon and Chevron quickly, as someone who's covered this space, how you feeling about shareholders kind of holding these two companies to account this week,
Unknown Speaker 7:12 all three events happened with Exxon's annual shareholder meeting, Chevron's annual shareholder meeting shells, court ruling all happened on Wednesday, May 26 2021, it's a day that's going to go down in infamy for these for these oil companies. Shareholders at Exxon got two seats on the board, for activist shareholders that want to force the company to act to be more aggressive on climate and to address the climate, to do anything on the climate. And over at Chevron shareholders force the company to have a much more aggressive accounting on how its emissions impact for climate and to try and reduce those emissions.
Dan Ilic 7:52 I see you as someone who's covered this energy space for ever, how do you feel about a day like this? And what does it mean to you?
Unknown Speaker 8:00 It's a day of reckoning for the oil industry, it's saying I, you're going to have to shrink your footprint that the climate crisis is real, it's been accepted, there are costs associated that people across the spectrum are not going to take so they're not going to accept any longer. And that's those impacted by the harms. That's investors, that's policymakers that financers finance years. So that it's it's a it's a statement from everyone who suffers the consequences of these of the company's continued continuing to operate, without any concern for their impact on the climate or unwillingness to respond to their own knowledge about their harms on the climate that will not be accepted anymore, that the costs are too high. However, when measures the word cost,
Dan Ilic 9:00 yeah, and environmentally, socially, financially. It's so fascinating to see how the world is moving to this direction. But there are a few rogue states like Australia who are still accounting for emissions in a way that is only financial and can't, can't measure this for long term strategy for long term value creation. And it's so disheartening, being in this country to see the leadership of our country not even considering this not even blinking, putting in more gas when the rest of the world is getting out rapidly.
Unknown Speaker 9:30 That's the thing is like talk about rogue actors. There's no more rogue actor than Exxon, there's almost no more rogue actor than Chevron. There's almost no more rogue actor than show. And what each of these events is is an attempt to say well, you may want to be robot but we're gonna hold you to account so for example, this is basically trying to get at it from from every angle so if the view late you then the court will hold the company to account if The courts and the governments will hold the company to account then the shareholders. Well, if the shareholders won't, then the lenders will if the lenders won't, then you know, like, and that's what's happening is that basically, you know, this has been building over decades of organising and activism and demands to try and get at this problem at every single way, because you're talking about the world's most powerful and wealthy wherever they used to be companies, and the world's most powerful and wealthy countries, which are many of which if they remain, if they if they continue to tie themselves to fossil fuels, they won't be either. So the companies are no longer the most powerful companies when I used to write about when I wrote my book, the tyranny of oil, the world's most powerful industry and what we must do to stop it in 2008, it was the world's most powerful industry. It's not today. Yeah, it's not the case anymore. And that is going to happen to the governments too.
Linh Do 10:54 So I guess I tried to do the other thing that for me kept coming up with all of this really great news overnight is like sprint One, two and three emissions. Do you mind just like telling us? What aspect three missions for listeners that might not be aware?
Antonia Juhasz 11:06 Oh, I hope I can. So let's say scope. Creep missions are the emissions that are burned by the consumers of fossil fuels. So those are the emissions that come when we drive our cars and aeroplanes fly. And companies have tried to say that that's not their responsibility. It's they've used the argument that tobacco companies use, which was, well, we know that our product is harmful, and we know that it hurts people. But if you want to drive it and you want to fly it, then that's your fault.
Linh Do 11:36 Like it's an argument that the NRA has used a lot as well, right. It's not guns that kill people. It's the people that use the guns. And I think fossil fuel companies have definitely gotten away with that, too. People just find the coal. I mean, how widmet responsibility Campbell,
Unknown Speaker 11:53 exactly. And similarly misled the public about the content, what they knew to be the consequences of that consumption, right. So the companies knew the consequences of that consumption decades ago. And that's part of the shell case that that the plaintiffs are arguing is that shelah has known for decades, the harms of this of consumption of its product, and helped mislead the public about that and did not act accordingly on that information. And so it also is part of similar to the tobacco argument is that consumers actually didn't know it. They were misled about what the harms would be about consumption. And now the companies with the shell ruling are being told, actually, you have to account for that, for that consumption. And also, that's what Chevron is saying it what its shareholders are saying to the company is we're going to require you to account for that consumption as well.
Dan Ilic 12:46 Thank you. And Tony, you has fellow Berta fellow. Thank you, Lynn and Dan, looking at? Look, I think that's enough common use, but there's what I want to leave you with one other singling? You know, our minister for emissions reduction, Angus Taylor. He favoured, he was asked on three a W by Neil Mitchell. If he drives an electric car. What do you think his answer was?
Linh Do 13:07 I mean, even though you think you've been his job description, he probably walked around the answer and told us all something a little bit depressing. It's not that he's riding his bike everywhere, but he's driving a guzzler
Dan Ilic 13:18 that he made it absolutely clear. And he said, I am not driving an electric car as if he's never going to drive an electric car.
Linh Do 13:26 He's just waiting for self driving cars that maybe that's what he meant, you know, if we give him like the smallest molecule of DNA.
Dan Ilic 13:32 Yeah, he says I live in regional New South Wales and drive us to huge distances every year 60 or 70,000 kilometres, so I need something that can handle hard roads and distances. He drives a Ford Everest, which is a five cylinder car which pumps out 225 grammes of co2 equivalent per kilometre. That's a can of coke of co2. Every kilometre Angus is putting 70,000 cans of coke worth of co2 in the air every year. This what the Minister for emissions reductions should be doing is offsetting. He's just putting a gas plant physics 100 million dollars where there's no money to be found. Also, he did this on the same day, he kind of came out on the same day that Joe Biden was riding around in a brand new Ford f150 light being Ford's brand new electric ute, the biggest truck in America, the most popular car in America. Joe Biden launched it with Ford last week and just the optics at the same time, Angus guy No, I'm not gonna there's no way I'm gonna drive an electric car that said Joe Biden guy here is the most masculine electric car you could possibly get today.
Linh Do 14:44 Here I am driving it and I don't know for any of our listeners who have been to the US obviously pre pandemic times, but they cause a way bigger than any of our cars. You know, like these are huge monsters if we can make one of those vehicles electric. Pretty sure I guess Taylor might be eating his words. Very saved from breakfast.
Dan Ilic 15:01 That's it for the climate news. We've got two super great interviews for you today. First of all we've got Giordano from the juice media. If you don't know the juice media here is some of their work. Hello,
Unknown Speaker 15:11 I'm from the government with an important message as we enter the third decade of the 21st century things are going fine overall, the Amazon is fine half of Africa is fine. So is the Arctic Indonesia angry even Greenland's on fucking fire? I mean, fine. Scientists have coined a new term for this stage of climate change were entering with but unlike the previous stage, which climate scientists called listen to us, or we might be fucked, where fact is happening and in your lifetime. This is thanks to us wasting decades, pis farting around at climate summits with non binding emission target while handing up subsidies to climate criminals attracting renewables, and generally not giving a shit that rising co2 levels are about to trigger what scientists call feedback loops. a feedback loop is the scientific term for when a species uses its own ignorance to screw itself and everything else around it so hard that its own planet tells it to get foe some people are already experiencing where facts such as these Pacific nations facing rising sea level who recently back to Australia to please stop burning coal to which Australia responded get fat,
Dan Ilic 16:18 really funny stuff. always makes me laugh juice media stuff has so much cut through would you say Lynne?
Linh Do 16:25 Yes. And every time I see it on, you know, like, scrolling through social media. I always think it's sort of real. And so I was like, No, no, no, no, no, no. There's some genius behind this. It is satire, because it's just so on point with whatever's topical. At that moment in time,
Dan Ilic 16:39 Joe, Joe and juice media have long been champion climate conversations through the comedy they make on their channel. Another person who has been champion climate conversations is a legend called rod Quantock strain comedian been around forever. I did a panel with him in 2008. And I remember him saying something well, I'm throwing out all of my material and just focusing on climate because there's nothing else to talk about. And I thought, Oh, my God, that's incredible. That's, that's so interesting. And that's almost that's probably why I started a rational fear. So I should let you know that rods conversation is a little more depressing.
Linh Do 17:18 So it's very sober about the reality and the facts. And you know, I guess it comes with working on something for well over a decade. But um, when he wants to cracking jokes, still funny. But yeah, this work is not easy. And I think we need to just give people at times the space to feel all their emotions.
Dan Ilic 17:33 Exactly. So you can feel despair, which is an emotion with radcot.
Unknown Speaker 17:38 You're listening to the greatest moral podcast about generation
Dan Ilic 17:44 jordanna. Welcome to the greatest model podcast of our generation. Awesome to be here. Thanks, Dan. Does that feel too weighty a weighty title on your shoulders to be part of the greatest moral podcast in my generation? It definitely yes. But I'll do my best to live up to date an absolute fan of your work for a decade. Ever since the early juice wrap news days. It's so it's so thrilling to kind of see you grow and blow up and ultimately become self sustaining. And I, you know, I don't know how you feel about this word, very successful. But it's a thrill to kind of sit down with you and talk through your work and talk through your process for what is essentially enlightening the world in a in a funny way. Oh, man, I appreciate that. That's very, that's very kind. Thanks. First of all, you are a historian. How does your background as historian inform your comedy? Do you think?
Unknown Speaker 18:46 I mean, you know, I, whenever people ask me these kind of questions, I don't know how sort of beep to go. And, and sometimes I ask myself these questions as well. Or I think, you know, the simplest way of, of answering is that studying history really kind of like makes you think, what are some of the big picture frameworks that you have to apply because whenever you talk about history, it's really important to sort of put it in put things in context, you know, of the, of the of the of the year, the year, in the decade during the century, and then ultimately, humanity in this whole journey that we're on. And so that's studying history has really helped me to kind of like, juggle all of those perspectives to think about the really big timescales, and also the very small timescales, because that's where it really gets exciting when you can bring those two things together. Yeah. And then you go click, oh, my God, this is where we're at, oh, my God, I didn't know. And a lot comes from that feeling of, oh, wow, we're living in a really historic time. You know, when people say that, we've got a saying that I often invoke, history is happening. Meaning, you know, history isn't something that's just in the past. It's something we're living through right now. It's just that we don't see it. We just think our history is something in the past and right now is the present. But, you know, in a decade from now, people will look back and see this as as history and so, well, what are we going to do about that? What kind of history do we want to leave for people in the future, so I often often don't think of myself as a historian that looks at the past but a historian that looks at ourselves from the future,
Dan Ilic 20:05 though that's, that's kind of that's exactly kind of what I was thinking about when I was thinking about your work. Your work is so detailed, and it's filled with minutiae. And I wonder, what will historians think about the work you've created? You know, 30 years time? Do you ever think about that? Do you feel like do you feel like you're, you're, you're almost like breadcrumbs for future historians to kind of understand this time better?
Unknown Speaker 20:27 I don't know. I've never thought of it that way. But, you know, I think future historians will have so many fucking bread crumbs. You know, I just I really pity future historians because, you know, with the, with the arrival of the internet and social media, I mean, like, how do you even keep track of the archives of the future will be shit shows.
Dan Ilic 20:48 Future historian coming across q anon and trying to understand why Q and S Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 20:51 no, and then trying to go through H n forums. And yeah, yeah. It's Yeah,
Dan Ilic 20:57 tell me jordanna what is shit fuckery.
Unknown Speaker 21:02 Should fuckery is is a word that kind of, I don't know, materialised itself. I don't even remember when. Because I think I was just trying to search for a word that kind of tried to even get close to the level of corruption, ineptitude, arrogance, fucking betrayal of basic, you know, morality and human rights that this government upholds on a daily basis here in Australia. And that word just came to me, you know, as in, you know, sort of a vision. It was like, yeah, that kind of gets pretty close to it. And I don't think when I first used it in one of our honest government ads, I thought it was anything special, but people really kind of latched on to and went, Wow. Yes, that's what it is, you know. And so I was like, Okay, I'll keep using it. And now it's become like a something of a sort of something that people will associate with us quite a bit with the honest government ads that
Dan Ilic 21:50 not only you I have seen it now sprinkled through the Zeitgeist. Yeah. Have you seen it leak out outside of the media world?
Unknown Speaker 21:57 Yeah. Occasionally, I see a pop up that someone had a sign at the march for justice in Canberra. They added campy should fuckery in front of it, which I thought was very nice addition. kudos to them. But yeah, every now and then I see it pop up. Yeah. Yeah, some people wear wear the T shirt, they go through customs or arrive in Australia, we're in the department of shit fuckery Petia, which I think and then they post that on Twitter, which I think is quite brave. And you know, so every now and then I'd say coming up, which is nice. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 22:23 I find this time we're in is really interesting, because we're at a pretty crucial time in history and human history in that. I think there's enormous humour about how we are not dealing with climate change. But it's incredibly sad at the same time. In Video, historic historian hat, aren't they? How do you think future generations will feel about the kind of delay we're having right now on climate action?
Unknown Speaker 22:48 Yeah, I think it's gonna be brutal. Yeah, I think it's really, it's going to be, it's going to be horrible, the, you know, the, the way that the weight of his that history is going to put on our generation, collectively. And, you know, I know that, you know, some people say, yes, we're, you know, we're, we're, we're doing something and we're saying, and we'll speaking up and everything, but, but collectively, you know, the graters of the future are going to be they're all going to be greater than the future. They're all going to be stuff with us. And rightly so. I mean, that is one of the reasons that I think, you know, we talk about climate so much is, is that feeling of nausea? Really, that comes with Oh my God, is this really fucking happening? are we really doing this, like, This can't be happening, and I already feel angry. And so many people feel angry today. So I can only imagine how that will be amplified in the future. If we don't at this point, now, take a different path. Because Okay, you could say that 10 years ago, there was still you know, uncertainty, blah, blah, blah, all that sort of stuff. And, you know, we we gave the deniers so many opportunities to really sort of prove that the point that you know, there wasn't a need to act urgently. And now now now that's No, we've done it. We've wasted those decades. Okay. But now we're really have to fucking do it. And we're still not because mainly because of, of the government that we have. I mean, so many sectors of Australian society, the market industry, business people, entrepreneurs are just moving ahead. They're saying, fuck it, let's just do it. And the rest of the world is doing it as well. We're literally becoming a Lego just getting to the point where it's, it's not even funny anymore. It's actually pathetic. It's
Dan Ilic 24:18 pathetic, and it's demoralising. And, you know, to hear these government delay tactics at the federal level so blatant, like coming out and saying stuff like, you know, the guy. Oh, yeah. Well, we now we know it's real. We know we would got to do something about it. But we're going to do it with technology. Oh, and the technology is not there yet. But it will be soon. So just give us another few decades of using fossil fuels.
Unknown Speaker 24:42 Yeah. I mean, there's that element of it that that is just on its own is already fucking irritating. But then there's the other flip side of it is that there are so many opportunities that we could be embracing right now which could absolutely secure the future of of Australian manufacturing. jobs, which in turn then spills into society and our education, healthcare, or are these sort of things which could be powered by Australia becoming a renewable energy superpower, we everything is laid out in front of us. I've just been reading Ross ganas book superpower, which I really recommend, actually, I'd want to talk about it a bit more in some of the podcasts coming up. And it's just heartbreaking. The opportunity is that we're not taking which could be benefiting Australia so much, especially rural and country, Australia, which ironically, was where so many of the Liberal Party or liberal National Party seems to win a lot of seats. So it does, you know, it's it blows your mind anyway.
Dan Ilic 25:37 Can you remember the first time you took notice of climate change or the lack of climate action as an issue that you're really passionate about? You want to communicate through through juice?
Unknown Speaker 25:47 I'm all it was before juice. I think we started the juice me to channel 20,008. I think for me, it was when I was an undergrad uni student at GW a and I heard David Suzuki came and Kevin talk. He spoke at Winthrop Hall and he gave this amazing talk, which was quite a catalyst and a turning point. And then I had a lecturer at uni who was who introduced me to sort of on the sly, gave me books and said, I'll have you read. He was actually a South African. And he said, You've got some really great writers here. But you know, they're not very celebrated here. So he gave me a book by john Pilcher, he gave me a book hidden then a couple of others. He gave me the Gaia theory by James Lovelock. He was a bit of any sort of revolutionary kind of lecturer that kind of tried to radicalise he did you know, he really look at your say, exactly. It's all his faults. And those are kind of some of the texts that, you know, I read when I was quite young, probably 1617. And that kind of really imprinted on me that that issue being being of urgency? I don't know, I've just yeah, it's just been a constant theme, really. And then when we started juice in 2008, and retinues, in 2009, I think one of the first episodes we had was about climate. So it was really, very, pretty much the the thing that we were spoke about, from the very beginning, I think,
Dan Ilic 26:56 for you, like, out of all the things you've done on climate, do you have one that stands out as the thing that you're like, this is the market climate statement that we've done so far?
Unknown Speaker 27:06 Yeah, we did. We did a video about the fires towards the end of the deadly tragic bushfires that we had here in Australia. And I feel like that really kind of tapped into, from where we are at now with, with climate without government's policy, which is kind of this really interesting, and sort of also, you know, terrifying approach to Colombia, which has been for years denying and delaying and obfuscating, and then all of a sudden, with the bushfires, realising that that's not going to cut it anymore. And then skipping the part where we say, Okay, let's do something about it. Skipping that, and going straight to our Well, we're gonna have to adapt and build resilience. And this is just a reality. And we have to accept and it's like, what the fight what happened to the step in between that motherfuckers, you know, sorry, I get really upset about this.
Dan Ilic 27:46 I know, this, this is the podcast to get out of that place.
Unknown Speaker 27:50 And I feel like that that video really kind of captured that moment quite, quite accurately. And we had a great response from a lot of people, a lot of climate scientists and climate communicators also took notice. And we had a lot of sort of response from them. And one of them was Michael Mann, climate scientists from the US who was visiting at the time for a sabbatical. And he and he, when he came down to Melbourne, we met up and we, we hang hung out, and we really kind of connected and we spoke a lot about climate should fuckery and you know, and he was really keen to help out with he's kind of become like a de facto adviser, and he's come back on the podcast a couple of times. So that was a real kind of catalyst. But we've done so many, there are others as well. But that was kind of the one that I feel like I'm most proud of, let's say yeah,
Dan Ilic 28:32 as are you gonna say he's become kind of a de facto father figure. Yeah, at the rational fear, we did a similar thing we made like a 12 minute explainer about the constant delay tactics and how the fossil fuels engaged in politics in Australia is basically responsible for getting rid of every single leader who ever wanted to do anything on climate actions. And there was I remember sitting on the beach at Bond I sitting with ash falling on me and just texting people saying we need to make a video we need to get this going. texting
Unknown Speaker 29:08 you made a great video about this. I remember. I don't remember the name but I had a really good
Dan Ilic 29:13 Yeah, Tim mentioned that Tim mentioned voice to narrator It was a car Schlegel wrote it and, and we just put it together and I was really good. Are you gonna do more collaborations of that? And so Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. We'd love to sorry. I'm gonna take over because, you know, things like things like that cost money to make. Yes. Do you know anything about making online content? Right, yeah. So the podcast is kind of the focus of the book because it's cheap. So economic wise, it's a very loaded to the podcast and I can start paying the kids start paying people give them more money, because that was really good. And then some more of a few roughly listening, where should they go to support you? They know, podcasts. Now. Gee, do you have a theory about comedy and change? Do you have a Have an encompassing theory about you know, if you can make people laugh, do you might actually better change things? I don't know, I
Unknown Speaker 30:06 just do it because it feels, I don't know, comes naturally, as this way of kind of expressing anger and frustration and comedy is a way of doing it that sort of doesn't leave us in a in a sort of a puddle of inaction and sort of the press of, yeah, just inaction paralysis. You know, I feel like laughter takes away fear and emboldens people. And it makes us feel like laughter is also kind of like, it's a really unifying element. Like when we laugh, it's like, we both get that thing, you know. And so it kind of creates a sense of a shared sense of identity of like, yes, this is shit. But we both know, we all know that we're in a situation. And that that can't not be positive for change. Because once you have that kind of group identity, once people understand what should fuckery is, and they bond around concepts or ideas or understandings, you would expect that to, to, to lead to change, but I mean, yeah, I've never theorised that. But I would, I would say, Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 31:05 Do you ever find yourself galvanising? Your audience around a particular issue and getting them to do things they do? Figure out dude, cuz you got such powerful audience and you've got such a clued in audience smart audience and you know, that it's huge. Your your footprint online, do you ever figure out, you know, do you have a drive them to actions?
Unknown Speaker 31:26 We have we have occasionally? Yeah, I mean, you know, we depends on the topic, really, we did a we did a video, for example, about the anti encryption legislation that ended up being voted through by both Houses of Parliament. Surprise, surprise.
Dan Ilic 31:39 They're listening to this podcast right now.
Giordano Nanni 31:40 Yeah, great. Good job. There was a senate inquiry submission process where you could submit comments, and so we may easily thought, hey, let's, let's get people to submit comments to this senate inquiry, and then maybe they'll have taken notice of what people are saying. And I think we draw something like 17 or 18,000 submissions to that, you know, that means one example and and, you know, all of those submissions are completely fucking ignored. You know,
Dan Ilic 32:06 so what you saying is democracy?
Unknown Speaker 32:09 Yeah. You know, we do we try, and we know, we do push, you know, if there is anything that people can do, or you know, that we feel like there's something practical, we, we sort of encouraged that, you know, but I'm never under any illusion that you can change things with petition or, you know, Senate submission, they're all good things, and we need to do them. But there's no illusion that that's what you know, at the end of the day, we've got to vote, the shitty government out, that's, you know, an elected better one. So I feel like that's really where it counts is in the electoral. And at that point, you know, and all along the way, there are decisions that we can make, you know, to, to lead to that outcome. But that's, that's the, that's the real aim of the videos that we make a few your your videos are incredibly well thought out and very values driven.
Dan Ilic 32:54 Do you ever have political parties tapping on the shoulder and go, Hey, Joanna, I want to do something about this issue that we would love you to do this to do to help us with this thing?
Unknown Speaker 33:07 Not really. Let's see, a lot of people think that that's what happens. A lot of people sort of say, yeah, I've had a lot of people saying, Are you paid? You must be paid for by the greens, or sometimes by the Labour Party? For some reason never by the Liberal Party
Dan Ilic 33:21 degrades can afford your production.
Unknown Speaker 33:23 But no, I mean, no. I think everyone kind of, I feel like the parties that that would want us to do stuff feel like you know, that we already produced content that sort of supports the the policies and there's no need to waste money on it
Dan Ilic 33:39 yet. So Clive Palmer, if you please draw down a couple of million dollars to do some pro Galilee basin content. Have you ever heard from people in the corridors of power about how your work may inform the decisions that they're making?
Unknown Speaker 33:53 No, no, not at all. I'd love to I'd love to be a fly on the wall when some MP or senators watching one of our videos, but no, I've haven't actually no. I mean, that's the dream, right? The dream
Dan Ilic 34:03 is to have someone go factory that Jason's done a video of this. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 34:09 I'm pretty sure Susan Lee, environment minister said that when we did a video about the jabber on trees, and we kind of focused on her on her role. I'm very surprised that she hasn't seen that. So I'm just gonna have to imagine it. Somebody did an FOIA request for the juice media. They said, Can you send us all this? Because there was a whole discussion. I don't know if you remember a little while ago, the government sort of started sending us emails about the use of the government logo. Well, they call that a logo I was calling was called a Coronavirus. They just they like corporate motherfuckers it's our logo. And I'm like, What? Okay, anyway, so they call it a logo and they wrote us a letter saying, just come to our attention that you know, you're using our logo in your videos, and we concern that these could be mistaken for real Government Communications in which I nearly spit it out my coffee because I thought it was hilarious. That's, that that's all it takes to confuse real government policies with Data is just the logo. Is that Is that all? It is? Is that how close we are to sort of the reality here? What does it say about the policies? So there must have been a lot of communication going around that that issue before somebody launched the FBI. And it was quite interesting seeing the conversations that's as close as I've gotten somebody, somebody said, in response to the video, which caused this email to be sent out to us. They said something like, Oh, I, you know, this is this must be the latest wave on social media. And it was someone in the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, I can't remember who, some staffer, and so we put that up on our banner. The next the next wave on social media, I suspect this is pretty much department a Prime Minister and Cabinet Australia government. I
Dan Ilic 35:42 mean, if you're doing a comedy festival show, that is a great slogan to put on your poster.
Unknown Speaker 35:47 I put it up there. It's still there on our Twitter banner, it's Yeah, but if you don't know the backstory, you might not know what that is. That That explains why that's up there.
Dan Ilic 35:55 Now, can you give me a bit of a rundown of your of your work process, like, from ideation to creation to publishing? Like, what does that look like? You know, in terms of your ways of working, how do you put the enormous of what appears to be an enormous amount of content out every year?
Unknown Speaker 36:12 cocaine is usually the first. Just kidding. Yeah, like, I mean, you know, we don't put out as much content as a lot of other creators pretty much not nearly as much as you put out, or others, you know, in the same. So I've kind of the process that I've gone for is like, I mean, or I mean, like you guys are the chaser and the shovel, and friendly jordiz. You know, whatever the you know, there's, there's, there's very a lot of very prolific commentators on politics, I've kind of gone, we've got a young family, and I'm past the point where I can sort of just smash it out every week or every second week. So we've kind of gone for like, okay, cool, there's a lot of people commentating on stuff on the fly, like as it comes out. And I kind of see that even though we don't know each other personally. So first time we've met, I've met James from the shovel, once, you know, you know, we have a little bit of like, a camaraderie, we're part of a team that's kind of like working individually, sometimes, you know, we cross paths, but generally, we're kind of like working on a similar goal. And I've kind of thought, well, everyone's taken care of the here and now and like, you know, stuff comes out people onto it, you know, straightaway, I'm going to focus a little bit more on sort of broader picture, pick up some issues that get lost along the way, or that maybe aren't as time, you know, sensitive. So we put out a video every month, sometimes two, but usually one and a podcast, you know, so that's, that's the timeframe, the longer time frames, the work process is I spend most of that time just reading and researching and, and talking to people, you know, really experts in, in the fields, everyone discuss, just thinking about, you know, how to approach this topic in a way that's really going to cut through, once the video is written. That's the hardest part. And then that's when the sort of the fun part starts, you know, we will record it. Lucy is my partner does the voice for the for the video. So we get into the booth. That's always fun, because we've got to try and do it between nap, the junos naps, and, and Lucas play play dates and stuff. So that's, that's dance and other dance. And then we get our actors in Zarya and Ellen. And that's always a fun time filming. And then I edited it in a couple of days, maybe three, four days, sometimes with the help of a couple of VFX brands who helps out with VFX. And then we put it out. So that's that's the process really.
Dan Ilic 38:19 So the production doesn't take up your living room for too long a time I get it, you know, you've kind of worked it out. So it doesn't, you know, take up your life.
Unknown Speaker 38:28 That's right. Yeah, it takes up about a day or two of the month or you know, longer if we do a couple of videos. And then then the rest of the time this room where we were chatting and it becomes like a playground a rumpus room, you know? Yeah.
Dan Ilic 38:42 Now, what do you think is the power of subverting a government? What do you think is the secret sauce there? Why do people why are people attracted to that?
Unknown Speaker 38:53 I don't know. It's irreverent. It's it usurps the voice of this of this government. And I feel like you know, if this government is just has just done so much to erode public trust and confidence, and, and it's just always mincing words and beating around the bush and not really coming, coming in and being honest with people about what it's doing, you know, the rhetoric and the bullshit really is just, it's just a constant charade, really trying to conceal the reality of the policy. So I feel like it's the reason it appeals to people to impersonate this particular government probably all should government's, is that it's just cathartic. It's like a fuck Imagine if that's how this government spoke. Yes, yes, there are pieces of shit but at least they're honest about it. I feel like that would remove the most annoying part of the government this discover that we had at least then they're honest, you know, there's something there's something Qatar they can kind of therapeutic about that I
Dan Ilic 39:56 think what I'm hearing from you is a smart staffer would tap scope. On the shoulder and said, Actually, we should put out an honest ad that way juice media won't have anything to complain about.
Unknown Speaker 40:06 It will put them out of business. Yeah. Thirdly, actually, I'm scripting in a video about the electric vehicle policy at the moment. And I've got a line in there. I'm not I'm not sure if I'll use it, but it's something along the lines of, you know, introducing our future fuel strategy. The acronym is ffs, and then the next slide is like, no, that's not a joke. That's part of our strategy and put satirists out of business faqeer the chaser and the shovel and Alice government and she hates, you know, I love the fact that even their acronyms are satirical as like ffs, you know, but yeah, no, they totally should definitely not, not do that. It's very effective. But you know, the I hate I hate this government and its policies, but that what they do is actually very effective that they're very consistent with their with their obfuscation.
Dan Ilic 40:54 Now, honest government ads is a format you've been doing for some years. Now. Can you remember the first one you did? And you went? Aha, this is a great format. Yeah. And I'm now I'm going to rinse and repeat.
Unknown Speaker 41:05 We used to do a series called rock news. And we finished that in 2015. And after that, I had this decision to you know, like, Well, what do I do? Do I go back to university? Or do I try and keep doing this YouTube thing? You know, we had no Patreon support at the time. So it was like, you know, do I want a job? Or do I want to be unemployed? That was the basic decision. And I chose the latter. And I'm really glad I did that. But the immediate challenge that I had was like, Well, what am I going to do now we've done rack news. That series was very successful, but it really relied on the collaboration with Hugo, who was the rapper. And so I didn't feel comfortable continuing that didn't feel like that was what was special about that collaboration was the two of us. So although Initially, I thought maybe we could continue, but in the end, I realised I needed to figure out something else. And I experiment with a couple of ideas. I did a few different things. Why
Dan Ilic 41:52 did that fall apart? was it was it just hard work? And just a lot of work?
Unknown Speaker 41:57 Yeah. I think, yeah, definitely. It was, I think we got ourselves into a situation where it became not pleasant to do it anymore. You know, I feel like you know, all projects have have all collaborations have that. That window, you know, in which they you have this amazing productivity and you know, things work and then and then they don't and I think for Hugo especially, he wants to do a lot of other stuff. He has got he's incredibly talented guy. And I mean, you should see him do live shows and freestyles is it's kind of really impressive. And he wanted to do a lot more of that. And he didn't have enough time because we got ourselves into this situation, which was we had a contract with RT Russia today to produce content. So we were on a on a on a schedule, and the Russians were quite, you know, strict about you know,
Dan Ilic 42:47 if you miss a deadline with the Russians,
Unknown Speaker 42:50 there was a guy who was always CCD now emails cool, called Vladimir. And we had a joke that that was proven that your CCD and all the emails,
Dan Ilic 42:57 I forgot, I forgot you had a ship with Russia. So
Unknown Speaker 42:59 yeah, that was another fun thing that happened. Yeah. I mean, that's a whole I'm happy to talk about it. But that's a whole other thing. After after we finished that show, I you know, I was kind of like, what am I gonna do now and had a few different ideas that I tried out. And the third video that I made, was, was a video was a US government at Christmas time. Or at least, I can't remember who the minister was. But they, they pressured UNESCO to remove Australia from the sort of the areas that had been that are under threat from climate change, including the barrier reef, and we got UNESCO to just sort of erase it. And so it's kind of like a typical, like Band Aid solution, let's not fix the reef, so that it's not endangered list, especially UNESCO to not put them on the endangered list of places, you know, and it had an amazing response, like people really loved it. And there was no actor involved. It was just Lucy, we, I think we did in the day, you know, I wrote it. We had a couple of beers, we wrote it, we recorded it, I just pasted a few images together. And the format really resonated with people. And initially, I thought this was, this was, this would be one of the things that we'll do here at the juice media, but people loved it so much. And I realised pretty quickly that we could do so much. I mean, just the Australian government alone provides us so much more material that we can deal with. But then there's other shit governments, you know, I mean, we're constantly getting emails from people in Brazil, and in Canada, specifically, Alberta, in the UK, in you know, so many places, India, that people are saying, like, please, can you make something about, you know, the Ukraine or Hungary, I mean, the list goes on. And I realised and then we could do once about past issues. I mean, I would need three or four lifetimes to, to do all the videos that I would like, you should see my list of,
Dan Ilic 44:33 you know, play list and get your data so my money guy just made his Patreon.
Unknown Speaker 44:37 It's not even money, it's time you know, it's that that's the thing it's, that's the limit is, is more time. So it's more like actually more than money. It's like if you're a talented writer and researcher, you know, and you want to help write stuff, get in touch that would help more
Dan Ilic 44:53 if you're if you're a brain ready to get exploited. Yeah, trail money. Well, I don't think that's out of the question. I'm a very collaborative person. And we've got a Discord server now and comedians who want to be part of a restaurant, chime in with jokes and help help help write the show and give up ideas. And you've got a very thriving conversation about shit fuckery that's happening around Australia. That's a real thrill. You know, I'd like to see all these folks in a virtual writers room. participate. And I don't think there's anything wrong with getting extra brains in because this stuff is hard to do. You know, it's very difficult to do and can be very draining. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. When you started you were a young man. That's right. It's true. Yeah. Let's talk about it for a second. We've both worked for state broadcasters. I've worked for zero in the past. The broadcaster of Qatar and you've worked for it. We've worked for brutal regime. We've worked for broadcasters, yes. Yeah. soft power, they like to call it soft power of hard power. Yeah. How did you find that experience? And what did you do you have any feelings about it now?
Unknown Speaker 46:04 Yeah, look, I mean, it. Yeah, it was a fascinating experience. It was a really good learning experience. It really forced us to really be organised. And you know, and you know, even though I kind of sort of talked us down a little bit earlier, I think we did a pretty good job actually, of rising to the challenge. It was pretty complicated show that we did rap news. I
Dan Ilic 46:22 don't know if any of your listeners remember it. Absolutely. Incredible. early days of juice media. incredible stories wrapped in the night, you know, the news wrapped? Yeah, but incredible guest performances from people like Julian Assange and yeah, other folks.
Unknown Speaker 46:37 Yeah, we are Noam Chomsky and a few others. Yeah. I, it was a really interesting experience. And you know, we weren't, we didn't go into it, naively thinking, Oh, this is just wonderful. We were quite aware of the implications. And, in fact, we didn't sign up, we didn't agree to sign up with it straightaway, they approached us very early on, I think it was like 2010, after we did the very first videos about Wikileaks in 2010, which really helped a lot of people to understand what was happening, who what Wikileaks was, who Julian Assange was, in the very early days in 2010. And so they approached us then, and they were like, oh, would you like to do it? We'll you know, we'll get you to do a show. We'll give you a show on it. And we were like, Yeah, thanks. Like, you know, we really wanted to build our own independent name and brand and voice. And so we didn't want to be absorbed by this giant that which then would just, we would become an arty show. And then they would then maybe spit us out. And then we'd be like, well, that's gone. You know, we want it to be a separate thing. So we said, Yeah, maybe. And then 2011, they were like a new producer, would you know from it would be like, are you still keen? Are you interested in our maybe? And then eventually, in 2013, we said yes. And we then we negotiated for about a year, there was that most hardcore fucking negotiation that I had with, with these Russians about the terms of the agreement, and we were like, really, really strict that it had to work for us, because they were like, Oh, we want a video every they wanted like a, you know, a video every two videos a month, and we're like, You're insane. And we can't do that. And then we're like, okay, video every year. And we're like, we can do 10 videos, because we need time off as well. And then we need full editorial independence. Like, we don't want anyone telling us what we can and can't say the only thing that will censor is the swear words. And you know, we hadn't we had we even negotiated that we would be able to upload to our YouTube channel first, you know, so now let's enter them afterwards. That's a huge day. Yeah. So like, you know, we really kind of like, and we were quite ready to walk away from it. Like if they said they didn't want that they weren't okay with it. We were like, Oh, that's sorry, we're gonna leave it then. But they agreed to all these terms. And, and I have to say to the credit, like they're really respected all of those times, especially they editorial independence, I think everyone thinks that when you work for RT, or possibly AlJazeera, that you're like, you know, there's some person telling you what you can and can't say, or removing words. Actually, the funny thing is, I've had, I've had that happen with Western NGOs that have that I've worked with who've really kind of tried to bully us into what we could and couldn't say, and I've said to them, you know, I'm not going to name them. But I actually said to one of them, I was like, you know, this is fascinating. I've worked with it, you know, Russia's state television, and yeah, over two years, and we never had anyone telling us what you're telling me now over the
Dan Ilic 49:11 argue I've had more editorial, I had more editorial freedom at AlJazeera than I ever had at the ABC. Let's fix
Unknown Speaker 49:20 Yeah, let's say something. Yeah. Then Okay, maybe it doesn't even say anything bad about the ABC. But it definitely blows away a lot of the stereotypes that we have about some of these, you know, they've got a call it a soft power. let's not kid ourselves. There's a reason that Artie was interested in. What we're doing is because we're putting out a lot of videos that were critical of us imperialism of US foreign policy, and also domestic policy that was the focus of rap news. So it definitely served the purpose. But it also helped us because what it did is it allowed us to quit our jobs. I mean, I was working part time at uni, and that contract was coming to an end and Hugo was teaching he was teaching he was an English teacher. And it allowed us to fulfil our dream which was to be full time creators, you know? gave us a. It gave us that freedom, you know,
Dan Ilic 50:03 would you ever do a collab? Now the US government's change? Would you ever do a collab with US government? Say on the on the green New Deal or something like
Unknown Speaker 50:12 that? Or do you mean with the Biden government? No, no, definitely not. Yeah, I would. That would be the surest way to destroy all the goodwill and independence and the value of the brand that we've created. The I totally know. I mean, like, you know, sometimes if we're going to support what governments are saying, we did a video about the Coronavirus. Last year, just as the pandemic was kicking off, it was mid March. And there was so much confusion, I'm sure you remember, it was like, is it? You know, what, what do we do? Do we, you know, do we wear masks? We wear masks? You know, do we do we take it seriously, don't we? What do we wait, you know, we put out this video, which basically, you know, helped really governments to put out this man, in fact, we put up before the government was able to come up with its own coherent communication strategy. So sometimes we we help governments, you know, in that regard, but I'm not
Dan Ilic 50:58 many would argue that they still trying to come up with a coherent communication strategy. Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 51:01 Yeah, totally. But Sorry, I was just gonna say with with RT, you know, one of the little stories that I think maybe some people appreciate it, but so I think so many people just kind of went under the radar. When we signed up with it, we kind of really realised we'd never spoken about Russia, we've never really, you know, they've been mostly about Australian and US politics. And we were like, okay, now that we're working with RT, we have to talk about Russian politics. So we're very conscious that by entering into this agreement, we also had to turn the critical eye and satirical eye towards them. So we created the Russian character at a time there was a lot of persecution of LGBT people in Russia, probably still is, but at the time, it was a real issue in that there was a prominent, prominent in the media and persecution also of Greenpeace activists up in the Arctic. So those are the some of the issues. And then about two months after we signed this fuckin agreement, Putin invaded Crimea, and we're like, Fuck you, man. Like, seriously, like, now, we can't not talk about this, you know, and I think a lot of people who thought who think that by signing up with it, the juice media was like compromising itself, kind of have to look at that episode that we put out because it was, you know, we impersonated Putin. And we created this character, Russian character who was an RT reporter, and we totally ripped into Putin and RT and, and made and cetera, satirised. You know, Russia's peaceful, so called, in inverted commas, the invasion of Crimea. So yeah, that was, that was some of the stuff that we did to mitigate our concerns around working with this propaganda arm of Russian government was to actually Okay, we'll do this. But we're not we're gonna make Saturday and make fun of you as well. So I feel like it was that was our attempt to balance the two things. And obviously, you
Dan Ilic 52:43 feel safe being here in Melbourne. I live far away from from the heavies of Russia?
Unknown Speaker 52:51 Absolutely, I would have been a different story and respect to people who you know, who do the job that we do in countries where, you know, we've seen these comments, it's like, fuck man is someone made that video here in Malaysia or in India? You'd be gone, you know. And that's, that's always worth remembering that the that the freedom that we have in this country to to do this is a wonderful thing.
Dan Ilic 53:09 Yeah. I made a way the bloody Hawaii video on Manus Island, and I got I got deported deported from Australia. Good as good as it wasn't the other way around. Which is possible. In theory,
Unknown Speaker 53:27 I guess. I mean, there are Australians locked up on Christmas Island as we spend Britain can strip your citizenship if you have a dual one.
Dan Ilic 53:35 Yeah. Oh, are you excited about you know, Dutton sending out cease and desist letters and, and threatening people with defamation? Oh, well, I'm just disappointed that I haven't received from you. What's the best? What's the best postal address for that? Most people would have said, You know, I haven't sent one either. I've met someone who has sent them to people on Twitter who said remotely defamatory things about Peter Dutton on Twitter. Are you kidding me? I know. Yeah. What a thin skin. I remember the first time I made a kind of government ad like government ad parody would have been 2006. It was a where the bloody hell are you parody? Right. And I got a cease and desist from Gilbert and Tobin, who are tourism Australia's lawyers, saying that the music that I'd use was exactly the same. But it wasn't because I got my music commission to be a sound alike. And so they asked me to pull it down. Idiots. They asked me to pull it down off my website, and I said the only similarity between my music and your music is the word now, because it was now Nanana. So I said, I've done a do version, a whistle version and a crazy frog remix version. And I've republished that. So you know, it's, um,
Unknown Speaker 54:47 and what happened in the end? I never heard from him again. But if I see you didn't cease and desist, no, I kept publishing, right.
Dan Ilic 54:57 But that was the first time that I went on. There's real power in using the tools of propaganda. Yeah against the propagandists. Oh, totally. Yeah, no, absolutely. And they're scared. You know, they're scared enough to send you a letter. Yeah. As a 25 year old kid. That was super exciting to me. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 55:16 Yeah, totally. Yeah. It's also a reminder that we have really shit copyright laws here in Australia. We don't have a fair use. I mean, in theory, that there is a fair use, exclusion and the Copyright Act, but it's never been tested in court, in court. So I found that about this when we got letters from it wasn't from the government for this. It was from the the writers of the john Phantom song, the voice, right, which we got Julian Assange to parody. So we changed the lyrics. And we've got, you know, we didn't change the music, but we got it. We rerecorded it. So it wasn't the actual song. And we got a session session musician to, to sing. And I just thought, this is this is a parody. It's it's obviously modifying it, it's obviously, it feels the definition of parody. It should should work
Dan Ilic 56:01 under satire and parody. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 56:03 Like you would think so. But because of the shitty, untested, fair use clauses here, the publishers were able to sort of put pressure on us and say, Well, you know, we don't agree, we don't agree that that's Saturday, and then what the will the only response you can have is, I will see you in court. And, and, you know, I was like, ready to do it. And I was like, is anyone going to take this on? Because this would be a great. This would set a great precedent, you know, for testing the Fair Use clause in the Copyright Act. Absolutely. In a very public one.
Dan Ilic 56:31 Yeah. Now, if that happened again today, would you go to court?
Unknown Speaker 56:34 Yeah, I mean, I think so. I mean, somebody's got to fucking do it. And you know, as long as you've got a good as long as you've got good backing and you know, because you can't afford it yourself, you've got to have shorter
Dan Ilic 56:44 beer. Yeah, surely I feel like this is a Kickstarter campaign ready to go go fundraising campaign ready to go to test this thing called?
Unknown Speaker 56:51 No, totally. And it was high profile because it had Julian Assange was impersonating john Farnham. We even got john Farnham he even like said, Yeah, I'm cool with that. It was it was the publishers, you know, they're the gatekeepers that kind of didn't didn't quite see the humour of it kind of thing. So I remember that clip. Did
Dan Ilic 57:07 you end up seeing the system that when did you end up taking that one down?
Unknown Speaker 57:10 No, we didn't. But we had to pay them. We had to give them the all the revenue from the video. So we kind of got hijacked by them, you know, and I thought, well, this is sucks, but it meant the video stayed up. You know, that's a Would you say that's a low price to pay. Or I think it's a ship price. Like I shouldn't pay anything for it. But we didn't have anyone. You know, I reached out to people and no one was really keen to take it on. So I was like, what are we gonna do? Yeah, I'm not gonna spend the next five years of my life trying to scramble up pennies to fight a copyright
Dan Ilic 57:40 thing. Giordano? Thank you so much for the work you do. Thank you so much for the smarts and the funnies over, over a decade's worth of work through grettir a great privilege to have you on the greatest moral podcast of our generation and to do it inside the inner sanctum of where the magic happens inside the bunker in the volcano. Yeah, we live undisclosed location in a Melbourne Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 58:05 Yeah, no, look, it's been a real pleasure. Thanks for thanks for taking the time. It's, it's like I said, we're part of like, a bit of a network a bit of a family. Yeah, exactly. So
Dan Ilic 58:14 a comedy come out. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 58:15 sounds really nice. And I appreciate it. And I can't believe that it's been 10 years. It's, yeah, I always started doing this as a as something fun and something that might be you know, something to get a bit of a release and was been a bit of a class clown. So I thought it was like, you know, something to sort of keep that, that alive. And it's, it's a privilege to be able to do it. You know, and thanks to you also, for the work that you do with irrational fear. You know, really, I think we're all helping in some small way to unfuck things. So
Dan Ilic 58:45 that's beautiful. And that's, that's now my personal quote. JOHN Fox thinks juice media. Thanks, Jay. Well, that was your dad. What do you think of Joe Dad? I
Linh Do 58:54 love it. I love when someone's like, awesome on video. And then like also in podcast, as well. So like, I understand how these juice media videos get made.
Dan Ilic 59:03 Yeah. Giordano, I had the privilege of you know, we recorded that inside your danos house in his studio, where he records every single one of those fake
Linh Do 59:13 magic happen. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 59:14 yeah. And he's got this. He's got this green screen, he rolls out for it. And there's cards, there's like, kids have got like crayon drawings all over the walls. It's just amazing. So it's a very homemade scrappy operation. And he but he has so much rich. Love it. Next up is rod contact. He's an absolute legend. But like we said, it's a little depressing. So I understand if you switch off, Rod, first of all, thanks very much for joining us, the greatest model podcast of our generation. To invite me not just anyone gets to come on this is this is a podcast where we talk to climate leaders from around the world, just for you know, half an hour or so about, you know, leading people in climate and I can't think of anyone better to talk to than right now during comedy festival season then yourself. I remember Doing a panel with you about satire and politics at the Paramount of Riverside theatre sometime I know probably 2008 2009, with which the great drum pinda organised. And I remember you saying one line that really stuck with me ever since. And it was that you have changed the entire way you do comedy, in that it's all about climate change, because there's nothing else to do jokes about. And I thought that would be the great place to start. because ever since you said that line, I've been feeling exceedingly guilty about the kind of jokes I'm telling, and have progressively made them mostly about climate change. You're
Unknown Speaker 1:00:36 a good man, Dan, you're a good man. Talk me through that journey. In 2007, I got what used to be called the Keating, a Australia council fellowship, which I had a choice of doing over one year or two years part time, and I chose to two years. And the idea of that programme was that in 2008, I was going to be 60 years old. So I thought what I wanted to do was a project that looked at the world. From the day I was born until 2008. It wasn't autobiographical in any way, it was just to look at how the worlds evolved over that time. And I'm a very literal person. So I did it chronologically. And around, I got to 1973 I think it was the great oil shock. And I realised then that we were extraordinarily vulnerable to problems with oil, particularly running out of it. But I also started to see references to climate change. So I got really interested in that. And I have an extraordinary admiration for science, my hobbies, generally reading about science or mathematics, and neither of which I can do that I can read about them. And as I read about it, and I just read about it, and I just read about it, I just saw that it was an extraordinarily overwhelming problem and existential threat, which is now you know, in a within a year or so I worked out that we're heading for those six major extinction. And in 2008, I really thought well, what you got to do is tell people that the climate is changing, and it's a really big problem. So it wasn't
Dan Ilic 1:02:35 an eight that was that seems as as not not so long ago. That seems like a time before this kind of reach desired. Guys, you were very much ahead of your time. And I think for talking about this, you know, within the general population, you said your impression
Unknown Speaker 1:02:50 of that. And it remains what it was then it's just another item in the news. Okay, it gets it gets overwhelmed by Prince Harry going back to England, gets overwhelmed by buddy Franklin's groyne and flubs here. And very few. Very few commercial interests, in their news coverage have mentioned climate change as a factor in weather disasters,
Dan Ilic 1:03:20 98% of Australia's foreigner might have gone extinct, but there was a footballer that passed in a dog's mouth. So it's actually really focus on that.
Unknown Speaker 1:03:29 I've stopped blaming anybody or mad I blame the people who know when deliberately obfuscate. But the other side of it is that it's not just climate change, it's a systemic problem. It's the way we live, and it's the way we consume. And it's the way that the propaganda of capitalism keeps lulling us into thinking that infinite growth is possible on a finite planet. And so there's no I've given up, we're gonna we're gonna have a mass extinction. It's going to become unlivable in parts of Australia in the very near future, because nobody's doing anything, even the countries like Germany or, or and I think of another one that might be doing something and not doing enough. And because really, what you have to do as a policymaker, in dealing with climate change is you've got to say to people, you've got to have less. And politics is really based on telling people they can have more. And the first person that says you've got to give up your V eight Holden for a car that just go and doesn't go. Those people are not happy with the idea of transitioning to a low carbon economy. And we now probably have to reduce our economic output by more than 10% a year to reach any sort of feasible goal by 2030. And that's just not going to happen. So I'll look into why I still do stuff about climate change. Nobody wants to hear it. So I don't get many bookings.
Dan Ilic 1:05:09 Well, that was my that was my question like, how did you? How did you feel when you made this kind of commitment to do this back in, you know, oh, eight? How did you feel about the rest of your comedy career?
Unknown Speaker 1:05:23 Well, look, I've always done stuff that's been, as Andrew bolt labels me, I've always been a far left comedian. Most people aren't interested in politics, people don't know enough about politics for you to make really sophisticated jokes about it either. I remember I was doing a show many years ago about, well, just about politics in general. But a woman came up to me after the show, and she said, I love your shows, because it means I don't have to read the newspapers for a year. And that's what I do. I mean, it's probably what you do you read things that the general public don't read, you follow stories, and issues in a way that people who go to work nine to five, and then find the cheapest cocktails in central Sydney, don't have time to do. So that's what I did. And because of, you know, personal issue for my family's health, I don't get to get out much anyway. So I just tracked myself down this horrible rabbit hole, which I'd never really wish I'd never gone down. And at the beginning, back in 2007 2008, when I started introducing climate change, and the Limits to Growth into what I was doing, I really did think it was just a matter of telling people. And I chose, I'm not a writer I've made I never write a show. So it's difficult for me to paint a 10,000 word essay about climate change, although I've tried,
Dan Ilic 1:06:51 I don't know about that, right. I've been to plenty of your shows. And I can see the amount of writing you do during the show.
Rod Quantock 1:06:59 my hard drive, I got a terabyte of stuff on climate change everything from a wonderful programme that David Attenborough did in 2006, on climate change, telling us exactly what I've been telling you now, never shown in Australia, and nobody paid any attention in the countries where it was shown. And then I saw all these scientists who are writing popular articles in magazines and newspapers. And I thought, well, that territory is pretty much covered. And it doesn't seem to make any difference. And I, one of the things I thought at the time is you can't, you can't change people's minds in five minutes. And you can't even change their minds in an hour. If you really, really need to get them to commit to understanding what you're talking about. And very few people do that. I look, I know. Like, I've made a few climate change friends over the years who share my despair. But we've stopped talking about it to each other. So it's got to that level, I mean, I still need to make a living. And if I'm going to go and talk to people, I'll talk about climate change and peak oil. And you know, the fact that 96% of all animals on the planet now today are either humans or the animals they ate. It said, we have so overshot the limits of the planet. And there's just no way back. So, look, it's really distressing. I had a time there about six or seven years ago, when I thought, Well, look, this is the problem. All the people I talked to and you know, you don't buy tickets to a show that you're tech What are now about so that people who can, you know, down the path. But what I saw was a lot of great, good, wonderful people who were basically giving all their spare time, and a lot of their personal wealth to trying to transition to a carbon neutral economy. And I knew it wasn't going to happen. And I knew they were wasting their time. So I tried to redirect their energies in if you like, not into changing the global economy, not into changing the Australian economy, not even changing the Victorian economy. But to find ways to live sustainably within small groups, which is that's the future that's what's going to happen. And if you can't live sustainably within small group, if you remain dependent on the system that's crumbling, you going to die is just going to die and the next pandemic. I had a job at Melbourne University for two years back in 16 and 17, I think, as a research fellow, and I did a lot of following, and I did a lot of researching. And I sort of got to the point where I didn't want to know wedding more. I knew too much But I did produce, it's not finished ever, I've never get finished because I'm not a writer. But I did produce a long form document, which included predictions for the period 2018 to 2030. And one of the things I predicted in that back in 2017 was a global pandemic, viral pandemic in 2023. Now, why, well, if you do the reading, you don't have to be, I'm not a genius. I'm just somebody who reads a lot and has, particularly my admiration for the scientific method is overwhelming. But it's like everything that humans do, and has a has a dark side with that prediction.
Dan Ilic 1:10:47 What What were the steps that led you to that prediction? What were the things that you concluded that, you know, 2023, roughly, would be when a global pandemic would have?
Unknown Speaker 1:10:56 Well, this was, I can't remember when SARS was. But there had been a number of diseases which had passed rapidly the mainly because of aeroplane travel that had passed rapidly into a global environment. And so I, you know, I read about that, as one of the problems we faced and the literature I read just said that this is going to happen, it's going to happen very quickly. And there will come a strain, which is COVID. And there'll be worse than COVID to come. Because viruses are very clever. So it just, I apologise for being three years out. But for anybody who who did the work that I did that perceived logical conclusion of where we were heading in terms of these things. And then other things like, you know, they bushfires of last year, I sort of left that a bit open in terms of when it would happen, but I knew that was going to happen within a few years as well, because that's, you know, the great thing about science is that you stand on this on the shoulders of giants. And each little increment that you make, to their understanding can then be you can project in ways that you can't project with the financial market for in Germany can take a gamble on saving at Amazon stock to buy. But in terms of climate change, it's a very simple equation, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes the temperature to rise, and the more you put in, the higher the temperature will go, which changes the whole weather patterns of the globe. And it also, much more slowly changes the patterns of oceans. So do you might remember the group called 350 dot org? Did you ever get
Dan Ilic 1:12:54 to see a dog started by Bill McKenna?
Unknown Speaker 1:12:57 That's right. And it was 350 was the maximum amount of co2 in the atmosphere before we hit a tipping point?
Dan Ilic 1:13:07 350 parts per million? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:13:09 Now, it turns out that that was only a sort of nice round number to call something, you know, if you wanted to run an organisation, I mean, you know, 312 point five.org just doesn't matter. So it was an approximation. And they were wrong to think 350 parts per million wasn't a problem. But they had to start somewhere. And now I didn't look I've stopped looking, but we're probably close to 420 parts per million at the moment of historic or certainly in terms of human evolution, a historic baseline of around 280 parts per million. So we're so far over the scale. And you can see, you know, with the floods that you have in Sydney, and people in Queensland have experienced it in the cyclone on the other side. And now they're bushfire alerts in South Australia today. It's just gone crazy. The weather's just gone crazy. And if you live near the coast, don't. I mean, that's all I can say. But you know, those things of rising sea level, which come with thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of ice caps, and so on. Those now we're pushing salt water up into rivers that never had salt in them before. And they're pushing salt into arable land that didn't have salt on it before. And, you know, it's no mystery, you know, no accident that the Romans when they conquered somebody salted the land, to make sure that no other people could use that land to build an opposition to the Roman Empire. So it's everything. It's just everything. So, you know, I like I have days where I, I think I shouldn't talk to people about this. Because what's the point of fatal knowing? Is it better to just eat, drink and be married? But it's something that, I think certainly, I remember an article by Andrew bolt, I don't really have any more press, he gives me an ulcer. But he was talking about Tim Flannery talking about sea level rise of a metre by 2100. And the line he had in it was trading 100, long after we'll be dead. Was that lack of any empathy for generations yet to come? And you saw it? Again, I did read a bit of Bob during a pandemic, and you would have saved ended America, people saying, Well, the only people who die are old people. And Andrew bolt actually had a statistic that said, the average length of stay of an elderly person in a care home is nine months. So really, what's nine months with less on your life, when you write your nine terrible, so let's keep the economy going. And these are the people have to pay the price for the younger people. You know, if you stand in the way of a man and these profits, he'll crush you. And that's what's happened with the climate debate.
Dan Ilic 1:16:11 This is a really strange kind of attitude to have. It's only really realised that conservatives, the only thing they're conserving is their money. But that's the only thing.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:24 Very strange word to use for them. But say these are the people who are buying bunkers and fortresses in New Zealand. These are people who think they can buy their way out of any problem.
Dan Ilic 1:16:34 This kind of does this speak to your your idea of living within small groups, as opposed to on your own or in the big systems earlier?
Unknown Speaker 1:16:44 My there are people who literally do live on their own. And I'm sure there's, you know, 10s of 1000s of them around the world who have chosen that path. And they've been I did look at the sort of utopian sort of 6070 ideas of communes, but they never lost because people are people. And that, that's the overarching problem. The if, if I die, or when I go, I shouldn't say if we haven't died, I want to have put in the Oxford Dictionary of quotes. Rod Quantock said, the problem with people is they're only human. And that's the problem is people you know, we were malleable, where we've got why oregano crackles and breaks. And, you know, we just started there. There's no other species on the planet that has such a diversity of mood, temperament, and, and lust and greed and the seven deadly sins. You just never see a greedy lion. You see a lion, they've had enough to eat and they go to sleep. So we are the problem. And it's been a battle. It's a philosophical battle that goes back to the very beginnings of humans, the battle to understand where we sit in all of this, and what our obligations are to each other and to the surrounds. And the one book I always recommend to people is a book by a guy named Daniel Quinn, who wrote a book called ish my L. and ish, my L. My buddy had too much that, that Ishmael is ends up being a sort of psycho Socratic Socratic dialogue between a captive gorilla and writer who's sort of wondering why the world's fact and should he try and fix it or button he do. And it's a dialogue about humans place in nature. And Quinn draws a line between two ways of living with the advent of agriculture. Basically, prior to that people did live in small groups, they didn't fight much because everybody knew everybody else in the working group had a way of dealing with people that like Aboriginal people laughed at, in their sort of traditional way of living. They'd laugh at people who did things I disagreed with the humiliation with laughter, replacement head ways of dealing with it, but what agriculture did, first of all, it formalised the ownership of land and prior to that nobody owned anything, they shared it with everything else. And then it developed systems to protect their ownership. Because an acre of land given over to crops can support a lot more people than 10 square miles of the equivalent amount of crops. Population started to aggregate and accumulate and grow. And then of course, you needed hierarchies because there were people in that community that you never saw that could come around and kill you tomorrow. So there were systems of law and systems and politics and higher Rocky and, and of course religion came into it. So there just was that time when we went from being part of nature to trying to control nature. And that's what we've done ever since. You know, I live next door to people will ask growing up. He used to he used to back in the lawn. Like as I go out, and rather than rake the leaves, I'd actually vacuum them up. And I made a blow up. Yeah. air conditioning is another way of how we've tried to control nature. I mean, everything we do is to keep nature at bay. It's just it's a place that frightens and terrifies us. And but it's also a place to exploit. And we've done that, you know, to the ultimate peril of the planet. It's really sad. And look, I at different times, I tried to float above at all and try to be that wise fool that looks down on you all it goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, look at you silly little Lance. But your cat, you're in it, you're part of it. And so as I said, I don't put any much more time into studying these things. Because I'm only learning what I already know. I'm not being arrogant with this. But I think the one thing I bring to what I do always is some sort of intellectual honesty, I suppose. And I've always tried. Yeah, there came a time in my comedy career not very, not done. Not really, since the 60s, have I done comedy that autobiographical. I'm not interested in my relationships as a public event. I've not interested in my family. As a public event. I'm not interested in lots of things as a public event. But I'm interested in public events as something to talk about. And I've finally got to the point where I realised that comedy is a tool.
Unknown Speaker 1:22:06 And that it is a privilege to be able to get up in front of now six people but what used to be five or 600 people and talk to them using comedy as as sort of sugarcoating about things that are really important.
Dan Ilic 1:22:23 When you were doing climate comedy. What was what made you feel the best, like when you were doing the comedy? What what kind of gave you a sense of either progress or change or achievement. Can you remember a moment?
Unknown Speaker 1:22:39 Not a moment I as I said, I talked to the converted. So in one way, it was a safe space for me to do this up. But I used to do corporates, I used to do corporate stuff before they woke up to me. And I did of all things I did a conference for plumbing suppliers. Right? So I talked to them about water and climate change. I talked to them about urban fabric and climate change. I talked to them about plastics and climate change. I talked to them about it. And like I think I'm a reasonably good comedian. And I did make them laugh. But I did make him think and a few of them did come up to me afterwards and talk to me about it, and are great. So, you know, it would have floated out of their mind by now I'd imagine. But in that moment, they did get the feeling that you've done something positive and good.
Dan Ilic 1:23:36 Did you ever did you ever think when you started doing climate comedy that you could make a difference?
Unknown Speaker 1:23:41 Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I, I my first thought with it all is as I said, you can't change people's mind in five minutes. You can't change people's minds if I told that the the extraordinary flooding that you've had up there in the last few weeks is contributed to by a large degree. And I would think within a week or two scientists will tell us exactly what proportion of that rain was generated by climate change. Just doesn't add up for people until it even if it hits your own door. I mean, I've seen people in America standing in the rubble of you know, Katrina or hurricane Harvey or those things saying I don't believe in climate change. And they're the same sort of people who say I don't believe in the Coronavirus. It's just too difficult. So, so I thought the only way to do it is in some sort of long form way and making it personal. realise there's nothing like a live performance or television never there particularly in terms of comedy never carries that extraordinary feeling that an audience and you as a performer get from being in the same room. But yeah, all I do now, fortunately, is I scared they Okay, I used to get bookings in high schools. And I did do a primary school, which was great fun, but I did a high school be 10 or 12 years ago now. And my mother contacted me afterwards. And she said, we have Dare you tell my son, we're all going to die. And I thought at one level, well, somebody's got to tell him, but at the other level, What right have I got? But I've tried to hide people. Well, it's a it's a,
Dan Ilic 1:25:32 is it? Is it people like this that discourage you from doing it? Or is it? Is it something else?
Unknown Speaker 1:25:38 No, like, what do you what discourages me is that even if the whole world turned around today, it's over. Just, it doesn't matter how much you cut carbon emissions with 400 and say, 20 parts per million today, and it goes up, you know, it seems insignificant, but it goes up two or three parts per million every year. And it just rockets along, you know, and, and, but there's a lag, there's a lag between the molecule of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere, and in its capacity to fully express the energy it's catching. So that's quite a lag, it's, and getting carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere is short of some technological miracle, which I can assure you will never appear, it's going to take 1000s of years to get the climate back to what it was, and then many, many 1000s of years for life to evolve in that new stable climate. And by then there's probably going to be another Ice Age. So you know, we had one shot at what's called the Holocene, the Goldilocks era of life on this planet to only geological period and four and a half billion years that has said, a stable climate at this global average temperature of 13.7 degrees Celsius in the history of the planet. And it just turns out that it's ideal for humans, we are the size we are, we are the shape we are, our metabolism works the way it does, because of this climate that we have. And the the way we ate the way we lived, everything is based on that underlying stable temperature. And you know, each degree it goes up Mira, you said something earlier about how many species have gone extinct? It's, you know, it's 100 a day or whatever. People don't know, because we still don't know everything that there is in nature. And a lot of it, we'll never know, because it's already gone. And we didn't notice it was there in the first place. So So I've had this sort of moral ethical dilemma as to what right do I actually have to tell people that this is going to happen, and there's nothing you can do about it. And I've tried tried really, really hard to find what you can do about it. And I came down to small groups of people living away from other groups of people, particularly people with guns, and existing sustainably.
Dan Ilic 1:28:25 13 years ago, Rod, you inspired me to do more comedy about climate change. Sorry, Dan. Now, and now I'm inspired to go join a commune. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:28:36 No, that's a pleasure. But look, clearly there are things that maybe keep kept talking about. But do you think your pessimism stems from you know, what
Dan Ilic 1:28:46 you've learned plus where you are in your life? No, no, no, because I because I feel like I feel like without that said, A disrespectful, I've got a few more. I've got a few I've got a bit more of a longer runway ahead of me that you do. So I have to remain hopeful.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:00 Yeah, no, no, I understand that. It's not, I'm not pessimistic in the sense that you mean it and not being in any way superior to anybody else. When I say this. I'm just being realistic. And my one regret is I have a credible curiosity. My one regret is I won't be around to see what happens. On my land level. I don't want to be that at the other level. And I don't know whether it's an I told you so attitude for quite sure. But, you know, what we're looking at is in geological terms, were looking at something never happened before that one species has managed to change the entire nature of the planet. In a very short space of time. I mean, literally, but 1750 the beginning of the Industrial Age and the burning of coal From that time on, we have managed to destroy most of what's valuable. You know, I personally feel sorry for as David Attenborough because, you know, how could you do a show about nature when there's no nature left, but are made and you can see and him something that what I have is that hope, or hate the word Hope you're hoping for something stupid. But anyway, that hope that, you know, something, you say, may trigger a switch that that makes changes. But yeah, you know, so I've put, I'll put my life and soul into this for the last more than 15 years, I suppose now, not disappointed because I didn't have a lot of faith in humanity to begin with. And that's, I suppose the problem and that came out of part of that research I did for the Australia council fellowship. I was born in 1948 1948 was a year that Israel became a nation at the expense of the teleste Indians. That is still a Festering Wound 73 years later, 72 years later, or whatever it is, 73 years later, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was declared that year, that's my not a jot of difference. Velcro was invented in 1948. And that has revolutionised the shoe industry. But there was that period, just immediately after the Second World War was in a way that most devastated but most optimistic generation, my mother lost her husband in the war and married my father, after the war. That was when things like welfare came in, in England nationalisation of industries, a genuine attempt to reward the ordinary people who'd suffered through that war, with a share of the good life that was coming, you know, and the average manager of business made seven times more than the average worker in that same business today, they make I think, it's more than 70 times on average do earns real wages haven't gone up for 3040 years or something. And yet the wealth of the wealthy is so concentrated that now I think three people now own half of the wealth of the world. And that's not what my parents invested their lives in achieving. And the 60s was that their children rebelled against consumerism, and they rebelled against, obviously, the Vietnam War. But they had ideals which have been crushed out of favour now they've, and it's been done at an industrial scale, though, the use of propaganda, marketing, PR, psychology, you know, there's not a toy in the world today that isn't designed by psychologists, you know, everything is is aimed at your behaviour, everything you think and do is harvested in some way, by somebody who could then just press particular buttons in new that you will respond to. And I think last time I read the lady need eight data points to work out your sex, your race, your income, level, your age, and God knows what else. And you know, you know, I'm you know, I'd like everybody else. If you don't turn up, you turn off your pop up blocker, you suddenly start to get things that seem very interesting to you, because they deliberately they're because they're interesting to you. We recommend this people who'd like this also like that, and
Dan Ilic 1:33:54 yeah, there was a there was a case of that story in the US where a local target sent a teenage girl, a whole catalogue on baby stuff. And her parents found out and because the target knew that she was pregnant before she did.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:12 Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, so how do you know when, when the traditional media is so corrupted, when politicians are corrupted, when the internet only takes you where they know you're opposed to where you want to go? And they everybody's a prisoner now, they know too much about us. And, you know, they're Freud. I blame Freud at all Freud felt upset enough.
Dan Ilic 1:34:50 Row rod, thank you so much. I really appreciate the healthy dose of realism that you've given us. The greatest moral podcast of our generation, gender, Have a more positive forum generally a more hopeful podcast, but not this one. You know, you've restored the balance show today. Let me ask you as someone who I look up to, and it's been a mentor of mine, and what do you think I should do with my comedy skill set? Well, with what I have to offer, do you think I should even bother continuing? Or is there something else I should be doing? Well,
Unknown Speaker 1:35:26 look, I guess it comes down to the fact that you'd need to, you need to think you're doing something. And so I mean, I, you know, without getting to mutually backslash B, I really admired you because of the path that you've taken with your comedy. So lucky. I haven't given up in the sense that I don't continue to try and talk to people and make people see what's going on. But as I said, you know, you can now wherever you live, we go to the Bureau of Meteorology, or the CSI row, and I'll tell you how much rainfall you're going to get in 20 years time. I'll tell you how, how much the average temperature where you live, will go up in 20 years time. It'll tell you, I used to think Tasmania was the place to go. But Tasmania is future isn't great. So I, I recommended What was the name of it. So southernmost town on the southern island of New Zealand, but I told too many people about real estate prices have gone up. So I want to go there. Look, there are places but where you are isn't the place. You know, if you're in a high rise building that depends on air conditioning, and mechanical ventilation, and a lift, you're not going to stay there, you can't live there. You can't expect, you know, the pizza delivery boy to climb 18 flights of stairs to give me a paycheck because he can't be bothered going out to buy the ingredients, or everything, just everything will be different to what it is today. And, you know, to get people to understand that is, you know, it's an important first step. And that's why I did the thing, the Tim jam, I really tried to make it personal. And that's why, you know, I'm gonna tell you what you should do or how to do it. But it's about making it personal. It's about taking it away from you know, polar bears will become extinct the ice capsule now, it's not personal to people. Everybody's got a DVD of David Attenborough standing next to a polar bear. And that's all they'll ever know about polar bears. And I'll always have the DVD if they if they ever want to see a polar bear. I forget who said it, but like I think it was it was a science, climate scientists or science communicator or activists who said people are gonna start really caring when the footpath start melting. Yes. Right in
Dan Ilic 1:37:55 the town you're thinking of I think that's Invercargill. Yeah. McCargo it's, it's got the best name in New Zealand Invercargill. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:38:04 Lovely and it's a little town and very, very remote. I keep telling people in small country towns if they've got an ANZAC Memorial with a cannon in it, clean it up and pointed back down the road towards Melbourne because when people start fleeing is a last resort anyway. And if
Dan Ilic 1:38:21 we saw that we we saw that during the pandemic is a pandemic hit the cities Iran hit the countryside. Yep,
Unknown Speaker 1:38:28 absolutely. And toilet paper that make your own toilet. Oh, yeah, there's an idea. I've got to never worked out a way of monetizing my concerns but but maybe
Dan Ilic 1:38:43 you could do a masterclass on how to make toilet paper. So that online
Unknown Speaker 1:38:47 Yeah, please don't use poison ivy if you get stuck.
Dan Ilic 1:38:52 Rod, thank you so much for joining us on the greatest moral podcast of our generation. It's always it's always even though you may you may think you're being a realist for me, it was absolute joy. Good idea. Bless you then bye. And that's it for the greatest moral podcast of our generation. big thank you to the Bertha Foundation, road mics, all of our Patreon supporters and also please come along to our bigger shows and our New Castle show and later on our Melbourne and Sydney shows. June five in Newcastle June 13 and bigger June 24 in Sydney and July 10 and 11 in Melbourne. Of course inshallah, I mean, who knows what Melbourne's gonna be like,
Linh Do 1:39:34 we don't want to be in town state potentially either. It's a time so. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 1:39:41 I mean, this is we are recording this on Thursday, Thursday morning. Do we know how long the press conference is gonna be? Is it going to be locked down? What's your bed?
Linh Do 1:39:50 Having come from like, what was it 112 days of lockdown last year, five days is nothing. So that's what it takes. Five days versus 100.
Dan Ilic 1:39:58 Thanks for listening. Thanks. subscribing. Let us know how you feel about this podcast on iTunes with a five star review or four star, you know, whatever. Thanks a lot, fiver
Kurri Kurri Gas, Empathy Gap at the NDIS, Mice are coming to Sydney, and Kirsty O'Connell is pumped about this weekend's by-election in the Upper Hunter.
Amy Remeikis. Andy Saunders. Kirsty O'Connell. Dan Ilic and Lewis Hobba.
This week's podcast takes you flash points for disaster around the world; India, London, and Clive Palmer's office.
Indian authorities are clamping down on criticism against Prime Minister Modi, banning critical hashtags and throwing people in jail who tweet against the PM's response to COVID19.
So at only a small personal risk to himself, Anuvab Pal unleashes his thoughts on Modi this week's podcast rather than broadcast them on twitter.
Also UK Journalist and host of Course Correction podcast, Nelufar Heydat, uploads her concerns about a new NHS COVID Vaccination Passport App, that will divide the UK into the jabs and jab-nots.
And Dom Knight from satirical comedy outfit The Chaser, brings to light one of Clive Palmer's more recent failings. A proposal for a coal mine less than 10km from the Great Barrier Reef has been rejected by the state government.
We also discuss how A Rational Fear can get some of that $19686 per minute in fossil fuel subsidies. (Spoiler: We can't, please join our Patreon ) — oh and God pops by.
Unknown Speaker 0:00 Rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, camera, and gum, and section body, or rational fear recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 0:13 George Christensen shocking announcement that he's leaving politics is eclipsed by the shocking revelation. He's only 42 years old. And in Canada pledges to cut its carbon emissions by 40% before 2030, which is huge if Trudeau and Victorian Government has introduced a new tax on electric vehicles. Tonight we'll teach you how to convert your Tesla to a Model T Ford. It's the 30th of April 2021. And now milkshake brings all the boys to the yard of their own volition. This is a rational fear irrational
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host the ADHD enabled dickhead Dan Ilic. This is the podcast that takes the toughest topics and breaks them open like a pink lunchbox filled with USB sticks. Joining us on the podcast tonight he's been writing and performing satire for so long it's too late to change to something more lucrative like fossil fuel extraction from the chaser it's dumb night. Yes, preferably a fossil myself now
Dom Knight 1:17 but I did try to change careers but I failed. So hello.
Dan Ilic 1:21 And this is an Afghanistan born British journalist who speaks English Farsi, Hindi and dari. But this is her first time speaking Australian from Doha debaters course correction podcast. It's nella Hidayat.
Unknown Speaker 1:34 Hello.
Dan Ilic 1:37 That was a very honourable attempt. And finally his half torso, half legs, but all heart It's Louis Alba.
Lewis Hobba 1:46 That's right. It's a very strange heart that is really leg shaped at the bottom.
Dan Ilic 1:52 Coming up a little later on the grind and event pal joins us from Kolkata to shed light on whether Prime Minister Modi is the best Indian Prime Minister of all time, or the greatest Indian Prime Minister of all time. But first a message from our sponsor.
God 2:06 Hi, I'm God, also known as Yahweh, the Lord Jehovah. And in some circles, Jenny, you may remember me for being the father of Jesus, the guy who was murdered by the mob when the local authorities claimed his safety was the responsibility of the seats. Now I just want to clear a few things up. Your Prime Minister Scott Morrison claimed that I came to him in a vision. And I said quote, Scott, you've got to run for Prime Minister. Well, that's not how I remember it. I remember hearing to him and saying Scott, you've got the runs. And if you don't make it home, you'll have to stop it and the dean McDonald's. I'm glad we could clear that up on the record. And remember, folks love one another. Although I understand that's more of an inner city a dinner party cafe. Greene's thing to do. Oh and buy my book is big, and it's a best seller.
Dan Ilic 3:12 All right, this week's first fear Clive Palmer's proposal a bit of cold nine near the Great Barrier Reef has been dealt with a blow saying the project is not suitable. The problem is not suitable is Clive Palmer's whole brand dinosaurs on a golf course not suitable replica of a titanic the never sailed not suitable spending $60 million on a spoiler campaign to steal votes from labour not suitable paying people who work in his nickel refinery, not suitable dome in a world where coal is king, aka Queensland. How did Clive Palmer lose out to the environment on this one?
Dom Knight 3:47 Well, it's a funny thing. I mean, I gave his holiday for the central Queensland mine came because few years ago Clive read about a Danny he read about all the years of objections. He read about the terrible environmental disaster or the ruining of the groundwater. And he just went home with Tim Tams. I've got an idea for a minute and this is where we are today. I was confused because, look, one thing that Queenslanders do not do is object to mines. You know Queensland has approved coal mines, like they're rejecting coming motorists from New South Wales. I love the coal as though with King Wally Lewis or a ship condo at surface like this is their thing. But then I remembered that Clive Palmer ran in the last election he spent was a $40 million or something I think even though $6 million 0.6% of the vote. This is in Queensland, so they've just Labour's just gone not know Clive, we hate you. You're the one man. Look, if Twiggy first proposes a coal mine Gina Rinehart Daryl summers could prefer Richard PC to get it up but Clive is the one guy who is saying no do not because they don't like Carl that is don't like Clive
Dan Ilic 4:52 urich and Clive is the liability for his own coal mine.
Dom Knight 4:57 I think so. net niloufar If you know Clive Palmer he's he's kind of like the Australian prototype for Donald Trump. except he's actually a billionaire. He was there for about three years. He turned up in a Rolls Royce. And then eventually we got rid of him big time. Yeah, billionaires in politics, it turns out don't mix. So well.
Nelufar Hedayat 5:15 No, it's shocking, because the wide and varied history of the UK has proven not to be not true. I mean, look at today's news, right. So today, we've had calls for Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister to be investigated because he didn't like the former Prime Minister's Theresa Mays wallpaper. He's accused of like spending 1000s and 1000s of pounds doing up number 10 with donor money. And you know what, one of the things that I really find true in the UK is we use the word crony to mean corrupt because we just we don't seem to be able to say corrupt. So there's accusations of cronyism, but this sort of idea of like billionaires coming in, it's I mean, I'm gonna say you got that from us. I'm just gonna say
Lewis Hobba 6:00 the fact that Boris Johnson is gone, you know what I mean, at number 10. And the first thing that I really need to put on this whole place is my personal taste. The idea that his arrogance extends so far that he can go look at this hair. Now imagine the decision I'll make on this wall.
Nelufar Hedayat 6:18 No one's gonna say that Teresa Mays like got the eye on the interior design world, right. But at the same time, he's absolutely shameless. And because he's been baseer, because I'm sure this feller is and kind of walking up with a Rolls Royce or driving up whatever the Rolls Royce, he gets away with it. There's something about politics in a developed world where if you have a personality, people are like, Oh, he's just like us. He's just like us. It doesn't matter if his ancestors are Turkish royalty, or whatever he must be. And it's that sort of gaudiness with which they kind of approach politics that that that means that they can get away with it. it's astounding.
Dom Knight 6:53 I love the Boris Johnson story and I love that the Prime Minister the UK during one of the world's worst pandemics has come out. Well, we better decorate for we can do anything else.
Nelufar Hedayat 7:03 When did you make that decision? Like when 2000 people were dead 20,000 people it's astounding to know that this is something that you know he had time for as well as having a baby. Also, he's
Lewis Hobba 7:12 such a he's such a like giant teenager that you like, how expensive is it just to buy a Reservoir Dogs poster that you're playing?
Unknown Speaker 7:24 The first order of business is to tear down these fluid delays and then put up some racing cars.
Dom Knight 7:32 I love I'm sure Boris and Clive were going everywhere. But I mean, Clive. Yep, see, right. Clive is so ridiculously flamboyant. But at the same time, he is a serious coal miner. He does all this kind of stuff. And this this proposal, the central Queensland mine was an absolute doozy guys. I mean, I had a look at it. And you know how Adani was 160 kilometres from the coast. This is 10 Yeah, 10 kilometres from the barrier. It is on the coastal floodplain, it's an open pit mine. So whenever it rains, the water just gonna wash straight onto the roof. It's extraordinary.
Dan Ilic 8:05 And I love how I love how the government said no at a state level. But then the central Queensland coal company spokesperson said, I think there's still a pathway forward to get this going.
Nelufar Hedayat 8:18 Around the world, like here in the United Kingdom, like Australia has quite a reputation of being a vanguard of being at the forefront of like climate action. And like, you know, banning plastic bags and working on all this stuff. And that's kind of Yeah, we don't know there's a billionaire coal man wandering around trying to absolutely decimate the barrier reef like why are we hearing about this? This is insane.
Lewis Hobba 8:40 Our current prime minister now will just say walked into parliament holding a lump of coal yelling that it wouldn't hurt people like people, these people are
Unknown Speaker 8:51 holding stuff. I mean, snowballs, climate change.
Dom Knight 8:56 We found out this week that he likes touching people to heal them in kind of a Christian way. So the two things he likes touching are people who don't want him to in coal. That's what we're dealing with at the moment,
Unknown Speaker 9:06 are rational fear.
Unknown Speaker 9:08 By believing someone in social media has its virtues and values, to connect people in ways
Unknown Speaker 9:15 those weapons can also be used by anyone a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 9:21 That brings us to the second fear of the week, Australia's biggest doll Blodgett is receiving $19,686 a minute in welfare and that's the fossil fuel industry. Yeah, if you think $19,686 a minute is a lot of money. Well, it is. It's it's kind of more than the Australian government spends on the army. That's more than the Australian government spends on the Air Force. It works out to be about $10 billion a year we could have. We could have 10 more ABCs for that kind of money or at least one ABC that pays Louis Well yeah, finally,
Unknown Speaker 9:52 someone plays I
Dan Ilic 9:55 mean, this is this is great like wasn't one of the biggest plays in the local industry, Exxon Mobil They make $30 billion a year over four years and yet they pay zero tax. So fear mongers let me ask you this, how can we this podcast get some of that? $19,686 a minute?
Nelufar Hedayat 10:12 Well, we can definitely start off by holding these lumps of coal you said.
Unknown Speaker 10:18 Now,
Dan Ilic 10:19 maybe I'm gonna put some recruit oil on my face and turn up in oil face, that'll probably get some sweet sweet dollars. Yeah, do we, if
Lewis Hobba 10:27 we just start digging, like if we just go in the backyard? And like, I reckon they might be called a gang and just like, get like get the dog in there, the dog can mine. How small does the dig have to be before we start getting some of those subsidies?
Nelufar Hedayat 10:38 Well, the closer to the barrier reef, the more likely we are to actually
Dom Knight 10:44 just hit out on that we'll just head out on the roof, go out there on a surfboard and just start literally drilling into coral. And money will fall from the sky.
Dan Ilic 10:54 Now this is actually a generous kind of kind of calculation from the Australia Institute, this $10 billion figure, the IMF did a calculation a few years back that put the cost of health care and the cost of the environment as factors with inside that subsidy. And the number is way bigger. It's like 29 billion US dollars a year in subsidies. It's just mind boggling now. Now you're outside of Australia. On your podcast cause correction. This week, you speak with former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gilad about her time in office and her attempts to bring the emissions trading scheme to Australia. What did you learn about Australia's climate politics? Speaking with her,
Nelufar Hedayat 11:33 actually, that you guys are no better than any one of us, which is quite nice. Actually. Like I said, I mean, around the world, Australia does have a somewhat forward thinking view of climate action. And I don't know where this comes from, because it's blatantly a lie.
Unknown Speaker 11:48 Yes, yes. Yeah. Great.
Dan Ilic 11:52 It's so surprising that you say that because like ever since 1997, the Kyoto Protocol, we have been absolute, malignant assholes when it comes to the international negotiations,
Dom Knight 12:03 your highest per capita emissions.
Unknown Speaker 12:05 I mean, Whatsapp group.
Nelufar Hedayat 12:09 Europe, well, we're not Europeans anymore. Oh, got that. Wow, that just gonna pop that control for later. Now. When we spoke to the Prime Minister, she was very, I think, you know, having lost the election because of her vote because of her carbon tax. It just felt like she had experienced what it's like to be at the forefront of change in that it's awful. Many of the people I've interviewed in my life Malala Yousafzai, Twin Peaks, astronauts, politicians, all types of folks have always kind of had this veneer of like, I'm a Changemaker thing is gonna be great. But on course correction, Judy Gilad just lays it out. And she's a woman. Let's say that let's put that out there. She's a woman so people are less likely to trust her when she says things. So we got into it. We really got into the to the nub of the issue. And yeah, it's a bit disheartening to think that a the messaging is all absolutely shambolic when it comes to climate change, and be that we're gullible enough to fall for it, because we want to believe in the good news, right.
Dan Ilic 13:13 One of the things you said one of the things you said in that episode, which is really interesting was Julia kind of put the case that maybe the ETS was a hard thing to do. And even though it got torn down, it was still a worthy thing to do. Because it makes whatever comes next. Yeah. And the
Nelufar Hedayat 13:30 person, she's a good leader, when it came to the climate bill, when it comes to ETS, she absolutely did all the right things, and she knew she was going to get banned for it. I can name I know, I can't, I can't name a single leader in the world except obviously the benevolent the good and the great Narendra Modi, who would do something along those lines of putting the nation putting something that's idealistic above herself.
Dom Knight 13:53 You say that, but have you heard what our prime minister said this week in joe biden's Climate Summit, because this is impressive. This is impressive thinking it's creative. And I'm very proud of him, he managed to talk about the great carbon emissions that we have the moment all the reductions that we've made, he managed to exclude both the emissions on our exports and on our imports. So Australia's climate emissions look great if you don't count the stuff we dig out of the ground, or the ones that are you know, burnt, making things that what we import, which is every single thing that we have, it's like going to the pub and saying, Well, if you don't include all the BS that I drank, important in my body and the export of vomit at the end of the night, I'm actually sober to drive home.
Dan Ilic 14:41 No, that's it like if you don't understand that's, like
Unknown Speaker 14:46 none of the trick.
Dan Ilic 14:47 None of this is true. None of this is tricky. None of this is hard. It's like it's fake accounting. One of my favourite things that was said though, was by your prime minister now. Boris Johnson, I think get a message for the whole world. When he was talking let me play a bit of that it's vital for all of us to show that this is not all about some expensive politically correct green active bunny hugging or however you want to put it I'm not even with bunny hugging you know what I'm driving at? You know what he's driving at? He's no he's it's not about Bernie hacking.
Nelufar Hedayat 15:24 reputation of these United Kingdom's is what he's driving out funny hugging Mother of God I really just flattened by that. I mean that man represents my life. Like he is the person that we thought was best fit.
Unknown Speaker 15:43 This is a rational view.
Dan Ilic 15:46 This week's third fear international travellers in the UK will be asked to show their COVID vaccination test status with the NHS smartphone app. It's the same app that people book their NHS tests on. For me, it's it's problematic as the NHS app is only available for people in the UK, if they want. If they want international people to use it. They should use an app that everybody else uses like Tinder or something, you know, you got the Vax swipe right away, you go off to your baggage collection. Now what other problems do you see with this NHS passport?
Nelufar Hedayat 16:15 So first of all, Michael Gove, he's kind of looking after this sort of thing. And we've got Mr. Wahby, who's in charge of the vaccination effort and trying to sort all of this stuff out, they have not come together in a consensus or a unified voice. So we literally don't know what's going on. In fact, the Guardian Today reported that the cop COVID passports that we thought were essential for going into pubs, just for quick payments of mates, or to restaurants is now being annexed and moved away into a different app into a certificate. And then there's going to be a passport, that means that you can go to some European countries, but only if you're wearing a yellow hat and holding a song. Here's my thing with all of this is COVID has shown us like just it's just been an absolute eye opener in terms of the haves and the have nots and how we have in the global north chosen to divide society. It was obviously a big raucous around the world a couple of weeks ago, when it's been proven that most of the vaccine 80% of the vaccines in the world have gone to the global north. And that's why you end up with situations that may or may not be happening in India right now.
Dan Ilic 17:15 Finally, finally, the term global South makes sense for Australia. It's like yeah, we're now in the global south. We're not getting any vaccine.
Unknown Speaker 17:24 Welcome to that. Not so, good club.
Nelufar Hedayat 17:26 One of the main things that I'm concerned about is this holiday home loophole. Right. So if you have a holiday home, you can like bypass all the queues, all the lines, forget the bureaucracy that has to come with this thing not to mention that I could probably just pick up a piece of paper, stick a sticker on it and call it a passport myself. Like there is no thoughts, no foresight, no nothing going into this and it's going to create an absolute storm of it. When it comes to student holiday time
Dom Knight 17:55 versus dad's been using that as a reason versus dead Ben jaunting off to Spain or something to his holiday house. Yeah,
Nelufar Hedayat 18:01 it's a Stanley I can't remember his name he Hanley Stanley Stanley is a legend. Not Not Not a good legend. So much of it going on in the UK. But But you know, we have a different lexicon for it in the global north in Europe. We don't call it corruption. We don't call it misplacement of public funds. We don't call it ineptitude. Within the public service. We say it's a Bumble. We say, mommy huggers, we say that it's it's all gonna be all right on the you know, on the night and all this kind of chat. So so I don't what I what I'm really terrified of is that we're going to stumble into another situation where people are going to pay the price for government ever. And that's what's happening here with this
Dan Ilic 18:46 pen. And mostly it's those people who still have got a Nokia 3310 because you know, the app doesn't work on that. Yeah,
Nelufar Hedayat 18:53 I know. I you know, I think your Tinder Tinder thing is good shout out. And if Michael Gove cabinet ministers listening right now, I would like you to think about this as a sensible option because your NHS app is actual shite.
Lewis Hobba 19:05 So you're asking for Michael Gove to get on Tinder. Is that what you're officially putting on the record?
Unknown Speaker 19:11 He'll do well,
Dan Ilic 19:12 on next we speak with an event pal from India. But before we get to him, the ABC sports reporter Jared code has a podcast and I was a guest on it. And I promised to run an ad for that show.
Lewis Hobba 19:21 Speaking of cronyism, that's
Unknown Speaker 19:25 incredible.
Lewis Hobba 19:29 This is staggering. No one
Dan Ilic 19:33 here it is.
Unknown Speaker 19:34 Hello, Norman here. This is an ad for the get Jerry on podcast, a podcast and interviews comedians, where they come up with fun and silly ways to try and convince Jerry Seinfeld to come on. Unlike me, Jerry can't be bored so it's not going to happen. But it's fun to listen to these idiots try. Whether it's standing in a park with a sign begging a quarantine Daniel suas to go on the pod or pointless Billboard at a Sydney train station. This pod is doing all it can to get Gerry's attention. And I can tell you they are so far off, Jerry is more likely to take a call from me at this stage. So subscribe to the get Jerry on pod now, someone Seinfeld's agent finally responds, asking how many listeners they have, they won't have to lie like they have to all the others. Now back to our rational fear of feeling Gary would have if he knew this podcast existed.
Dan Ilic 20:29 Now, you may have heard things that go into shit in India, but I'm not talking about the arrival of the British. That was some time ago, India's COVID cases are climbing fast. And they've hit a new global record with over 350,000 new cases per day this week with official numbers saying that around 2000 people a day are dying. But the real numbers are probably much worse. Joining us to agree with the official numbers or face arrest by Prime Minister Modi is the great and EVAP How can I innovate? What's
Anuvab Pal 20:56 it like where you are? Everything's perfectly fine. Nothing wrong at all. Just a tranquil tranquil day in India. Some people are saying that they watched a new release in the theatres just before we had the lockdown. And that release was King Kong Vs. Godzilla. And a lot of us could identify with what happened to the cities in and, and looking at those cities. People were saying, Yeah, this is a perfectly reasonable place to live. And that's how we're living right now. So So basically, we're in a Hollywood movie set, and it's everything else you hear is an exaggeration. It's made up. Just give me one second, I'm just going to turn down the surveillance camera. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now we can have a conversation. Yeah, we're all gonna die.
Lewis Hobba 21:56 so considerate of Modi to give you a volume button on camera. And that's really,
Anuvab Pal 22:01 it. You know, it's one of those things, we stopped our exports from China. So a lot of our technology isn't working, right. So as I'm just getting past that loophole by being able to turn this down, I can just tell you how bad things were just one quick example, which is, I mean, I leave the news for all the grim, morbid stuff, a petty criminal, a thief in the Central State of Madhya Pradesh, who was an expert thief, he was very good at stealing small things like car hubcaps. Lots of random steel equipment, like he was an expert, decoyed he stole a large shipment of vaccines. And he returned it with a note in Hindi saying, I'm sorry, I didn't know. These were vaccines. So even petty criminals are stepping up to do the job for the Government of India. We're in a condition where basically, I'm turning to my high school group to see if we can help each other and I hate my I read the day before I was telling my wife how the whole a bunch of third treat, you know, scumbag bastard. Now we see each other's lives. So rule is, I guess never dis your high school friends. Because even if you hate them, they'll come through when the government doesn't.
Dom Knight 23:17 I would like to thank Anna Bob's classmates signing up to the Patreon.
Unknown Speaker 23:20 Yeah.
Dan Ilic 23:23 I mean, that would be great. I know. There's a big audience in India and a vibe. So please tweet about this. Now lections are still happening in the in the state of West Bengal with around 17,000 cases per day. Still, how does one responsibly campaign to get elected there?
Anuvab Pal 23:40 Yeah. So I'm in the city where there's elections today, in central Calcutta. It's one of the phases where Calcutta is the capital of Western goal. Yeah, elections are going on. Now. I was curious to know what why an individual would come out and attend an election rally. In the middle of this right. We're in the middle of 40 degrees heat, and you are a very poor Indian person working on a farm. If you go to listen to an election rally, you're going to lose a day's work. So why would you why who in their right mind would go and listen to political speeches in the middle of this. And then I found out in true Indian fashion, there's bribery involved. So you know, one of the age old things were very good at cricket and bribery. So what they give you is they give you 500 rupees and a packet of biryani, if you go and attend these speeches, and to be honest, I would go for 500 rupees and a packet of brownie and it doesn't even matter which side you're listening to really,
Dan Ilic 24:38 what is 500 rupees worth in in dollars. How
Anuvab Pal 24:42 do you get a Coca Cola and I don't know a sandwich of some kind. But the point is, that's how you get crowds you know, and it's something we comedians should learn from. When you know we play to empty houses at the end of COVID you know, some biryani and because you're looking at these pack crowds and the media is like What the hell? Why the hell would you do this? that problem? I have no answer for I mean, you'd have to ask. Or once again, the cameras back on again are fantastic Prime Minister Modi. Every scholarly answer philosophical Hansen, Prime Minister Modi. I could do that in 3434 languages if you'd like.
Dan Ilic 25:22 I'm speaking of the hat, the very handsome and the render birdie at Facebook has banned the hashtag resign Modi. Why, why? Why can they? Why can they prevent Narendra Modi from having hurt feelings but not prevent genocide in Myanmar?
Anuvab Pal 25:34 You know, one of the things that Prime Minister Modi has understood about history is that if you constantly Forget it, then you can repeat it. And to everyone, it's new, you know, that's the thing. So, if you hadn't had the Nuremberg trials, then if you ever had something like Nazi Germany, again, people be like, Whoa, what is this? This is amazing. What is this? You know, so But if you don't, if you don't have regret, shame, if you don't ever say I'm sorry, you can keep going. You can keep doing stuff. And there's a new narrative that's, that's coming out from the government, which basically says, forget the past. Let's all worked together, forget the past. Now, the past was about six minutes. So that's a really good way to think about forget the guys lying here, this is dead. Forget
Dan Ilic 26:25 about the future now that that word help us. And speaking of the past this week, Australia is closing its borders to India. Now the rate of infection per capita in India is because it is so huge, the rate of infection is about the same as Italy and the United States and the UK about 200 per million. It's almost it's almost like there's something different between the people of India and the people of the UK and USA, but I can't put my finger on it. And in fact, do you have any idea why Australia is trading India so
Anuvab Pal 26:55 differently? It's an age old thing. It's an age old thing. It's been going on for 1000s of years. The Americans are in denial of it. And you know, all know what I'm talking about. It's the big word. It's cricket. Basically, you know what happened? I mean, some show some people that five people that follow cricket in the world, probably know that the Indian cricket team beat everyone in Australia, if they get away, they might do it again. So why not just ban everyone? Other people are saying racism, I don't think it's racism. I really think that's what it is. They just don't want these 11 people to get there again.
Dan Ilic 27:32 I think I've got a picture of two cricketers flying internally in India. This is them on a domestic flight, David Warner, and Kane Williamson on a flight internally in India. It's like the only people who have got these guys or four people on the podcast. They're dressed head to toe in hazmat kind of suits. They don't even real hazmat suits. They're like dust certs that painters wear and they've got masks on. And that's about it. Like it's not even not even a real, not even a real kind of hazmat suit.
Dom Knight 28:01 Well, the news have just come through this evening that, in fact, to Australian cricketers have found a way through the blockade or you've got to do you've just got to fly to Doha, do the tests in Doha and then come back from there and oh, and also be white and rich?
Unknown Speaker 28:18 was very, very well.
Dom Knight 28:19 I don't know who it is. They haven't been identified, but I suspect that Steve Smith and Dave wanted just sandpapering through the rules.
Lewis Hobba 28:26 Yeah, the other the other only other alternative is if you get cast in the new Thor film,
Unknown Speaker 28:32 as well.
Dan Ilic 28:33 Yeah, at this point, there are so many Hemsworth they could create their own cricket team. I think there is a thing that is 11 and Swiss brothers,
Unknown Speaker 28:40 then I might watch cricket. I mean,
Nelufar Hedayat 28:44 we should look into this Australia.
Anuvab Pal 28:48 I did see somewhere that your prime minister said he wasn't going to give a special claim to Australian cricketers to go back. And, and I think that there's good reason for it. Because, given some of your leading players spend so much time in India, a couple of them are in Bollywood films. They've done their own romantic comedies here. I just recently saw your former captain in a chewing tobacco commercial, I think they'll have a harder time proving their Australian credentials.
Dom Knight 29:14 I think if you'd seen one of Brett lays a Bollywood movies as I have, you would close the borders permanently. No restraints ever again.
Anuvab Pal 29:22 Now there you go. Tom probably knows more about Bollywood that I do. I was three minutes of that film. And then I did not watch cricket for six months. So I don't know if you've sat through it. You're a better Indian person than I am. So.
Dom Knight 29:34 Well, one question I have for you on a verb is about these numbers. And we mentioned that the rate of infection is looks on paper like the West but I talked to my wife is Indian. And she said, Look, no one believes the numbers. Both because they can't possibly catch everyone because there's slums. Things are doing really badly there. But also, people just think the government is changing the numbers. Is that the sense you get on the ground there?
Anuvab Pal 29:58 Yeah, I mean, look, there's small discrepancy. sees the just the tiny factor of 100 is the lie. So saying one, basically, numbers 100. So if you can work out what that equation is, from the lie to the actual, you'll be fine. And this goes back to an old indian thing that we have. And maybe it has something to do with being in a third world country, maybe something to do with a complex about not being rich enough as a country that people always say, you know, never, never, like, accept blame for anything. Because, you know, we have this phrase in India, where the where the prepositions are messed up, and the phrases it will come on you. It can be inappropriately translated in the West. But what they really mean is, and I don't mean to intrude on anyone's private life here, but what they really mean is, you will be blamed for it all. So you know, if say, India is reporting a million deaths, everyone be like, Oh, my God, look at India million deaths, India. And it's, it's, they teach us this in high school as well, just if you've done something wrong, don't admit it. Otherwise, it's just going to come on.
Dom Knight 31:06 He said, Prime Minister, Scott Morrison Indian.
Anuvab Pal 31:11 This The thing with the COVID COVID thing. And we did this at the last wave as well. Basically, if you don't admit, it's going on, it's not happening. And we solve Indian family conflicts that way as well. If we suppress it long enough, one or the other party will die after really resolve the problem, but what's happening is now India has a lot of good data scientists and the want to tell the world the facts, right. They want to you know, they have we have brilliant scientists, we have brilliant civic society, people who studied abroad who want to give people the reality. And what the government is saying is that these are made up numbers to make India look bad. So that's the new thing that's going on. Because it's not a pandemic. It's a fashion show, and you cannot look bad.
Dan Ilic 31:52 I want to thank you for joining us on irrational fear. And I hope you don't get arrested because of this podcast. Like so many of your country, people have been arrested for tweeting things about Modi on Twitter. So thanks. Thanks so much for joining us on irrational fear.
Anuvab Pal 32:06 It's my pleasure by the way My name is not about Paul, this never happened. But I wish you guys wherever you are. Good luck.
Dan Ilic 32:15 That's it for the show tonight. big thank you to Dom night nella had died and Louis harbour and an EVAP How do you guys got anything to plug? Don't you wanna plug anything?
Dom Knight 32:23 I'm doing absolutely nothing other than this has been wonderful.
Dan Ilic 32:27 What would you like to plug
Nelufar Hedayat 32:29 in podcasts out right now across all reputable podcasts? Sure. Which is Spotify, Apple podcasts and Stitcher and all of that. Please listen. It's really good. I'm in it could
Dan Ilic 32:37 cause correction. It is very good. All check it in the show notes. Louis, you want to plug anything?
Lewis Hobba 32:41 Oh, you know what, actually, yeah, for the first time in the history of this podcast. I actually have launched a new podcast in the last few weeks. Yeah, it's called simply the jest. It's from our radio show that we do on Triple J. It is though, like most insane stories, that Triple J listers which might not mean much to you know that. They're basically like a bunch of beautiful, psychotic wild grumps. Every week, we give them a topic and anyone in the country can call in and tell their story very quickly. And we hear about 20 and then we pick our favourite one and it is Darius
Dan Ilic 33:18 Lewis and I have shows coming up in Vega and Newcastle. Stay tuned for that. And we've also got a show coming up in Chippendale sometimes, which just got moved this week, which is fantastic. big thank you to rode mics, the birther Foundation, our wonderful Patreon supporters, Jacob brown on the tepanyaki timeline. The incredible Rupert Degas for his incredible God voice over at the stone at the start of the show. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Goodnight
Thanks to so many of you who made it out to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival on the weekend. We had an absolutely cracker show from start to finish
💉 We covered the vaccination rollout. 🥔 Peter Dutton suing people on twitter for defamation. ⭐⭐⭐ Bit Clout and reputation on the blockchain. 🌏 The highjacking of the Climate Change Authority and Turnbull's sacking from the NSW Zero Emissions board. 🤴 Prince Philip's death. 🏄♀️ Netflix's new reality series set in Byron Bay: Byron Baes. 🎹 Gabbi Bolt does songs about climate change, incels, and empathy consultants.
It was a great show — I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed performing it.
On the podcast this week, we grab an e-meter in both hands and audit the accounts of Scientology in Australia. We rip into the Government missing the vaccination target, and ask ourselves is being a tradie-cum-stripper an essential worker?
Also Gina Rinehart, Australia's most successful climate action delayer and funder of misinformation, has released a joke book (sic). Even though a super from SkyNews Australia said she's the author, it looks like, for all intents and purposes, a collection of memes she stole from my Dad's email account.
Make sure to follow this week's fearmonger panel on social media, and book a ticket to their comedy festival shows.
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Good evening Lewis.
Lewis Hobba 0:05 Hello Daniel. How
Unknown Speaker 0:07 are you?
Dan Ilic 0:08 I'm well I'm well and a big Hello to all of our new Patreon supporters Louis Sam. You know how last week Lewis was a record breaking week for our Patreon supporters?
Lewis Hobba 0:18 Of course I've already bought a Tesla put a new wine cellar in the rental. I've really been dining out
Dan Ilic 0:27 Well, it's thanks to Dave like this week is even more 14 new Patreon subscribers big thank you to Trey Ryan Christie Osborne Professor Hilary bambrick from the climate council previous fear monger on the show Lisette Salah Vich Eleanor booth Dylan Joel Matt Smith, Joseph bass, Jacqueline Flynn, Jared Van Dijk travelling Gilmore, Megan Villa just signed on just moments before we started the broadcast more expensive from the climate collective. Carrie, who is only signing up for Gabby bolts she insists that you know where she insists we're okay. That Gabby bolt is the real star of the show.
Lewis Hobba 1:00 That's fair. That's absolutely fair. We'll still take the money. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Dan Ilic 1:04 Yeah. And speaking of Gabby bolts she's going to be performing at our Melbourne International Comedy Festival show. April 11. We're Amelia weekend a little bit of why we've sold over 100 seats, which means there's still 150 to go because I booked this big book the biggest the festival.
Unknown Speaker 1:21 No One
Lewis Hobba 1:22 No One books comedy more than awake out there. Now. That's true. That's true. That's true.
Unknown Speaker 1:27 Relax.
Dan Ilic 1:28 Yeah, you know, I have a theory like if we only sell like 150 seats in the 250 seat venue, we can space everyone out and say it's COVID safe.
Lewis Hobba 1:35 Anything's a sellout in 2021.
Dan Ilic 1:37 Speaking of sailing out I did a TVC this month you might have seen me on TV. Sorry about that. Sometimes you got to make money. I'm recording my end of a rational view on gadigal land and the Euro nation sovereignty was never stated. We need a treaty. Let's start the show
Unknown Speaker 1:51 rational fear contains naughty words like bricks,
Unknown Speaker 1:55 camera, fed COMM
Unknown Speaker 1:58 And section body. A rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 2:04 Tonight we finally unblocked this sewers but London parliament is full of shifts and Australia has missed its COVID vaccine by 85%. The country has messed up this much since landing on the beta gallipoli's and southeast Queensland comes out of a three day lockdown wild northern New South Wales narrowly avoids an outbreak of blues and roads. It's the second of April 2021 We ain't no fools. This is irrational fear.
Welcome to rational fi. I'm your host former Australian Financial Review senior political operative Dan Ilitch. This is a rational fear that podcast that takes the scariest news stories of the week and unwisely laughed in their face. Let's meet our fear bunkers for tonight. Thanks to Brisbane locked down our first guest can now spend less time doing stand up comedy shows and spend more time with his beloved ride on lawnmower. Zooming in from southeast Queensland. It's Mr. hotspot himself cry quartermaine wangi.
Craig Quatermaine 3:09 Good evening, everybody. And yeah, don't don't talk about
Dan Ilic 3:15 Renee, you're right on lawn mode. Here we we need. When you first got a ride on lawn mower, did
Craig Quatermaine 3:21 you think God I've made it? I did not want it in any way. And I did not want this amount of grass. And there's something that happens when you're in your late 30s. And you look around and I modal that and this is just this free pride. Yeah, I just became obsessed. I became one of those guys. That World War Two barbecuing mowing your lawn. And I've got two of the three of them.
Lewis Hobba 3:44 Are you part of the Facebook group? The Australian lawn enthusiasts group?
Craig Quatermaine 3:50 No,
Lewis Hobba 3:51 no, I'm not. I'm gonna send you this link. I followed them like three years ago for some dumb thing that we were doing on the radio. City. Yeah, I grew up. I grew up in the country. I grew up on a ride on mower. But I don't I don't need it now because I realised that they suck and it's work. So I'm trying to stay far away from that life as possible. But you should get involved with this group. It's passionate. I get
Craig Quatermaine 4:15 it. I completely feel it absolutely is one of those things. I never, I could never become one of those guys now. It's it's trying to figure out how I can do an entire acre without backtracking.
Dan Ilic 4:28 It's like, welcome back to the largest loans of Australia podcast. Our next guest has just hit a milestone of 8000 Twitter followers. Was it her charm, her stand up success or maybe it was her constant tweets about the Suez Canal? It's Kirsty women.
Unknown Speaker 4:45 Hello.
Kirsty Webeck 4:46 Hey going,
Dan Ilic 4:48 Kirsty Welcome to the 8000 Club. How does it feel to have 8000 Twitter followers? Oh,
Kirsty Webeck 4:54 it's an immense amount of stress. I think it would be rivalled only by Craig having to manage that amount
Dan Ilic 5:03 Finally, it's the man that all young up and coming radio broadcast as a calling the ever given of Triple J. It's loose.
Lewis Hobba 5:11 That's true. I am I am too big and no one can get rid of me.
Dan Ilic 5:18 Coming up a little later on, we'll be giving Kemal a call. After years of research, he's finally gotten the answer to why so many people are so unkind and the answer will surprise you. But first, here's a message from our sponsor.
Unknown Speaker 5:30 The rules of federal parliament are changing from April 1 to 2021. Some behaviour will now be quietly condemned, whether that's accidentally quote, assaulting a silly drunk girl, or just whacking on a desk. The consequences of your actions could now be enforced with serious thinly veiled threats. Like you could lose your portfolio, lower the chances of pre selection, maybe, or possibly even getting a telling off by a state premier. That's why the Prime Minister's Prime Minister for female complaints is introducing knob keeper. knob keeper provides relief for your upstanding member. No keeper supports noms with fully paid leave, so you can spend more time with your family if you still have one before coming back and fulfilling your promise to the Australian people while collecting $200,000 a year. Or your fully paid leave can be used to brief a team of lawyers so you can sue a trusted journalist who never mentioned your name for defamation. But remember, if you're not sure whether that upskirting photo or dick pic is appropriate. Check with Jenny first Julie has a way
Unknown Speaker 6:41 of clarifying things.
Unknown Speaker 6:42 Nope. Keep a helping hand for our big swinging decks authorised by irrational fear on behalf of the Australian Government camera.
Dan Ilic 6:50 First year this week, Australia has missed his targets for vaccination. Now, I'm not saying that they've, you know, injected everyone in their eyeballs. No, the state and federal governments have only vaccinated 600,000 people missing the target set by the pm some months ago, or 4 million, which is basically missing it by 85%, which is huge. The federal government is updated the target to 4 million by the end of April. In order to achieve that they'll need to do the equivalent of 121,000 shots a day. And with music festivals cancelled, there's still even less opportunity to double up with other drugs a fear mongers, how can the government made the hit goal of 4 million doses by the end of April Louis? Well, I
Lewis Hobba 7:30 mean, first of all, I think anyone who's ever listened to this podcast knows that we were pretty in glass houses when it comes to laughing at someone from the doing 15% of the expected job. I want to be very clear in that as an Australian, I think we can all relate to that achievement. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 7:49 Do you think this is going to embark? Do you think this is going to big up the government in the eyes of regular Australia? Because
Unknown Speaker 7:55 like, Oh, you
Dan Ilic 7:56 know, they're blogging on the blog? Yeah, I totally.
Lewis Hobba 8:00 I think they'll just be like, why didn't you get to formulate it? They're like, Oh, I might as long weekend. We knocked off pretty early on Thursday. We'll be back Tuesday. But you know, Tuesday's a short week, so really, we're looking at maybe April 12. And I think most people can look at that and go sure I can I back that.
Dan Ilic 8:17 Kirsty's is a big concern for you not being able to get the shot sooner.
Kirsty Webeck 8:21 Not necessarily for me, but I think someone should get it.
Unknown Speaker 8:27 Like give it
Unknown Speaker 8:28 give it to someone bleeding hearts over here. Give it to someone.
Kirsty Webeck 8:32 I reckon, though, that what they need to do is train up all of the musicians that are out of work at the moment get them given the jabber out
Lewis Hobba 8:41 everyone who is supposed to play blues fest retrain them as a as a as a nurse or doctor.
Unknown Speaker 8:46 Absolutely.
Kirsty Webeck 8:47 I know. Well, I mean, they could go to medical school for eight years and they'd be right up.
Dan Ilic 8:54 Craig, you're in the you're in the hot spot of of southeast Queensland. You need three cases. How are you coping?
Craig Quatermaine 9:01 I couldn't be further away from everyone. So it's pretty good. It's not that bad. Queensland Is This Really? I'm from Western Australia. Queensland has is very, we had aggressive exception. The case of you know, they hear about the stuff Oh, we got to wear a mask. I can hear right. And then that's it. That's as far
as been great. And, but it's just interesting for me, because, yeah, they're still not giving them out. We're trying to lift it. I mean, it's amusing for me. I ran 10k yesterday. I'm in pretty good Nick. But just because I'm indigenous and nearly 40 you get the vaccine before any of you Oh, the fucking it's hilarious. As far as getting up vaccinations, I don't know maybe you got you got to show a certificate or something like the only way you can watch married at first sight is if you get the jab awesome shit like that, but just Yeah Is that like that
Lewis Hobba 10:03 I actually loved that idea, Craig. I think if you told everyone that it was lip filler, instead of like, this is the Pfizer lip filler and then you just like we just need to test it out on your arm and then once it's Think of it as Botox but for your for your bicep.
Unknown Speaker 10:20 When you were in politics, a group of male politicians who called themselves the swinging digs sought to block your career aspirations.
Unknown Speaker 10:28 I believe it was big swinging decks. So there was obviously an overexcited imagination on the part of some I would suggest a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 10:39 This week second fear ladies look up your tradies because they could have rabies or worse COVID-19 in perhaps the most Australian of COVID-19 stories, a Gold Coast trainee who works part time as a stripper, most recently at a hinge night in Byron Bay has been linked to the Queensland hospital cluster that sparked the lightest lockdown. You know, he's actually updated his routine he now plays performs to Joe caucus hit you can leave your mask on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I've got two shakes of the head and 111 sympathy nod from
Lewis Hobba 11:14 Kirsty you have no way of physically keeping us at this podcast and I will walk
Dan Ilic 11:19 I will walk. It's easy to blame the NBN and Smokeout is easy. I reckon if Kemal wasn't coming on a little bit later, y'all would have walked the mongers. stripper trainees essential workers, Craig.
Craig Quatermaine 11:35 I think so. I think they're a bit of it's really really because this isn't the thing my mom was supposed to come up and visit. And this guy being like, this is the whole scare that stopped. Because Yeah, mums in a late 60s. She was supposed to come up and because of this case, she didn't make it into Queensland. She's gonna stay out in Victoria. And it's well, not because she skated COVID is because she swore he can't get a lap dance.
You got it. The thing is, you hear the in here stereotypes and you hear all these sort of ridiculous stories. Then you spent one night in the Gold Coast like yeah, this makes sense. It's totally
Dan Ilic 12:17 The tradie has such this iconic stranglehold on on on Australian culture. Do you think this has done any damage to the icon of the tradie? Kirsty?
Kirsty Webeck 12:27 No, absolutely not. Like, if anything, the part of the story that I'm most fixated on is that he went to visit his nana, And I'm like, He's a good boy.
Dan Ilic 12:41 I didn't know that step out of the story.
Kirsty Webeck 12:43 I think if anything, he's, he's increased. The standing in the community. Definitely, in my opinion.
Unknown Speaker 12:51 I love him.
Lewis Hobba 12:52 As with all COVID things, it's always funny until it's not. But it'll be interesting to see what happens with the Byron Bay outbreak because I don't know how much time you spent around there. But trying to get them to wear masks is going to be it's going to be like feeding a toddler vegetables like it is going to be one of the toughest challenges in human history.
Dan Ilic 13:10 If you told them that wearing a mask was cultural appropriation though they'd probably do
Lewis Hobba 13:16 if you connected it to an Indian headdress, American headdress rather. That's right. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 13:20 Everyone in Coachella is wearing masks, man. Everyone's got its traditional Navajo dress.
Craig Quatermaine 13:25 I believe you're digging the boots into people that have just been robbed Xavier Rudd each pair of pricks. They've been through it.
Lewis Hobba 13:38 We've only had 20 chances a year for the last 20 years to catch up.
Unknown Speaker 13:45 To it Robert he resigns from the table ministry for breaching ministerial code and 2018 set 200,000 Rolex watches from a Chinese billionaire he's a parliamentary speech written by a property developer is $38,000 for home internet and says my bag when he incorrectly blamed cyber attack for centerlink going down last
Unknown Speaker 14:02 year. How does this bloke get more responsibility in your shop
Unknown Speaker 14:05 when someone does a good job like that
Lewis Hobba 14:07 they show that they can take on responsibility if they can get things done for Australians
Dan Ilic 14:11 a rational fear this week's third fear in Scientology news. Now apparently Australia's become a tax haven for this Church of Scientology. It enjoys its tax exempt status in Australia whereas in other countries like the UK, it actually has to pay tax. So the Australian arm of the not for profit church between 2013 and 2019 has made a profit of $65.4 million. Which is insane. The church makes a profit of about 30% more than companies and Australian stock went on the Australian Stock Exchange. When it comes to purchase Goa. It is made $102,000 per church goer whereas the Catholic Church has only made 5600 per head. Now the total assets in Australia from the Church of Scientology totals $326 million. It kind of makes sense. Now with all these celebrities coming here to make these films, I guess fishmonger's, to what extent does this make the Church of Scientology appealing to you, Kirsty? Is this exciting for you?
Kirsty Webeck 15:12 Yeah, I find that today after I. Allegedly, they will be claiming that they're putting all that money into properties in which they can carry on their religious teachings. And I just want to get inside those properties. But there'll be paralysis. I want to see what's happening in there. Yeah, I want to swim in the infinity pool.
Dan Ilic 15:40 I don't know if you saw there's a photo of the headquarters in chatswood. in Sydney, it used to be a campus of the University of Technology, Sydney, but now the Church of Scientology is bought, they bought an entire university campus and turn it into their Australian headquarters. It's, it's incredible.
Lewis Hobba 15:58 I think, like the big difference when you start thinking of the Catholic Church in Scientology, apart from things is, I think, you know, you look at all of the money that the Catholic Church has. And so obviously, there's a lot of bad and let's all just accept that in pocket. But if you're looking for the positives, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of songs, there's a lot of art, you can go and see some sculptures you can pop into, you know, you can go to Rome and wander around and have a look you like, they're ostentatious with their wealth in a way that you can go, I can see where my money's going. Whereas I feel like Scientology missed that trick. I would love to be able to go and see the you know, the modern version of DaVinci. David, where it's just a tiny little statue of Tom Cruise with his dick out like this. There's room out there. I feel like they jumped
Craig Quatermaine 16:47 on surveillance equipment.
Unknown Speaker 16:51 That's their art. Yeah,
Craig Quatermaine 16:52 they don't have any big gold statues. I'm with Jesse though, as far as a Korean. Why not? What is a struggling comedian like myself? Why wouldn't you sign up with sites? I think they take less than most managers. argue with the results.
Kirsty Webeck 17:10 Let's get them to produce our Comedy Festival shows in 2022. Take it from there. But
Craig Quatermaine 17:24 as far as religions go, let's be honest, it's not the weirdest one name,
Unknown Speaker 17:28 the latest one, like
Craig Quatermaine 17:34 underpants is a dude that rose after three days is like, Well, you could just keep going, in a perspective that all of these religions are like 2000 years old. That's hilarious to me. Anyway. If you're looking for a look at the capital gains in Scientology, fuck it, why not?
Dan Ilic 17:50 They actually like looking at this article actually structured like how Google and Facebook and apple or offshore their money, they give out loans to the other international arms of the business and then they charge almost like franchise fees and licencing fees back to the other parts of the business. And so you kind of got this aggregate it's like Australia is a place where there's like this storing the wealth of the entire church. Because other tax other tax jurisdictions mean that the tax the money will go to go to tax will go to governments.
Lewis Hobba 18:22 It's proposing a heist. Alright, let's
Dan Ilic 18:30 do Hang on a sec. Now. Now this week's Hang on a sec comes from Sky News Australia. Apparently,
Gina Rinehart has launched a joke book. Yeah. I'm gonna play the news story. At any point you at any point you want to chime in just say Hang on a second, I'll stop the tape.
Unknown Speaker 18:49 They say laughter is the best medicine and mining magnate Gina Rinehart has wants more of it to be shared
Lewis Hobba 18:55 these little bits of Hang on a second. Yeah, well, what does like before we even get to the insanity of this idea? That introduction makes no sense. She's not a doctor. So to say laughter is the best medicine. Like what why is that even an appropriate introduction for a mining magnate? I'd have thought like, you'd have gone something like every comedians looking for the gold and dug up heaps of it or something you don't I mean, like, I haven't really thought about it, but I wouldn't have gone with medicine.
Craig Quatermaine 19:24 I love that. exactly the point where you stop that she looks like a witch.
Unknown Speaker 19:28 Sort of bits of
Kirsty Webeck 19:30 humour to hopefully bring some smile to faces.
Unknown Speaker 19:33 She began gathering jokes and stories for friends in hospital. Now they've been put together into a book to bring moments of joy to those who need it. Most people in this book
Craig Quatermaine 19:43 in jumping on to St. Jude have done the corporate
Unknown Speaker 19:53 How much does it pay?
Unknown Speaker 19:56 Ridiculous
Kirsty Webeck 20:03 Look, I would have been seated. I wouldn't have done a set.
Dan Ilic 20:06 Craig, you would have been one of the prime candidates to do the corporate as a former person who worked in the mines themselves Surely,
Craig Quatermaine 20:12 Luke Okay, so I have taken dirty mining money several times. But in my defence when I did feel guilty about making money of digging up my ancestral home, I bought myself a really nice pair of shoe mining gigs and Wi Fi so much. And it's after seeing this video and seeing whose presence and that is basically a junket. And that sky, I'm pretty confident would be the only people reporting on it because they own half of that station. I can't even imagine what the hell DMC got paid just to turn up and do that. And they're just, it's just because you grind their bones to make you bread doesn't mean you know how to make kids laugh
Kirsty Webeck 21:06 as a man died, but I think they have left us with things that are highly relevant. today.
Unknown Speaker 21:12 It's a project close to her heart. Dina Reinhardt's Cambodian daughter's design the book cover,
Lewis Hobba 21:18 hang on a second. Where is this journalist currently because it seems to be like she's in an empty pub. Is that is that the launch?
Craig Quatermaine 21:26 I think that launch just the journalist and Gina Rinehart and an empty pop Sky News for all the money and everything they have pumped into it. All of their journos in regional state so if that's in Perth, or wherever it is, a lot of images vj so it's just the journalists and their cameras. She's probably filming that herself. Yeah, yeah.
Dan Ilic 21:45 Yeah, Louis you
Lewis Hobba 21:46 don't don't try to make me feel sorry for a Sky News journalist.
Unknown Speaker 21:50 I'm not trying to
Craig Quatermaine 21:54 sign up for evil pricks
Unknown Speaker 22:00 the magic of technology connecting speakers and guests. Those from Parliament House the Royal Flying Doctor Service and pest Polly attending virtually to share their favourite journalistic
Dan Ilic 22:10 so the Royal Flying Doctors, journalists, people in Parliament House and pest Polly, the the the polkadot that
Lewis Hobba 22:21 like pill company,
Unknown Speaker 22:23 yeah, what was what?
Unknown Speaker 22:23 What?
Dan Ilic 22:24 What's going on over here? Why is this valley logic
Lewis Hobba 22:27 a joke, but I imagine she's when she just be one of their biggest customers. When you have a lot of pills to clot. You need to constantly be updating your pill collection. It's incredible.
Unknown Speaker 22:37 And quotes
Unknown Speaker 22:38 if you want something, said ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.
Unknown Speaker 22:45 Yeah, guess say laughter is desperate.
Lewis Hobba 22:48 is Gina plugging this officer? Oh, she's just literally gone on like Wikipedia jokes. She's stolen them she had you wouldn't you'd be failed for this at university?
Dan Ilic 22:56 No, she absolutely has. And she's like taking names from people's emails and put them in the book. Like, there's one in there saying, with a mum pointing to a girl say, Listen here, little girl, if you got to stop lying, otherwise, you'll become an ABC journalist. Like that's, that's one of the jugs of the book. They like right wing ship posts, put in book form to give Cambodian children some joy.
Lewis Hobba 23:19 And that that that Jabba the ABCs really gonna bring a smile to the face of someone in hospital
Unknown Speaker 23:25 in an era of political correctness,
Unknown Speaker 23:28 keeping warm and enjoying the laughs I mean, who doesn't need a laugh right now? Seriously, Gina
Unknown Speaker 23:33 is a woman of the world literally. And she's a great friend and I just admire
Lewis Hobba 23:39 Hang on a second. Where does Bronwyn Bishop think the rest of women?
Dan Ilic 23:45 Definitely not the world. What? Whatever planet whatever Roman bishops from.
Lewis Hobba 23:52 I was born in a helicopter flying from Melbourne to jalon. So I was not really off the world. I was up the sky.
Unknown Speaker 23:59 profits from jokes and joys are going to the Cambodian Children's Fund shine awards, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and country Women's Association. Gabriella palla, Sky News.
Dan Ilic 24:12 And you can get a copy of that book from somewhere. And that helps all those kids good on them. That's very good.
Lewis Hobba 24:20 I mean, like, do obviously all the money that goes to the kids, the better but how much do you reckon that money? How much do you think that book will make compared to how quickly she could have just given them the money? It's gonna make like,
Dan Ilic 24:31 yeah, it's gonna make like 600 bucks. Like that's, that's all it's kind of like, I tried to look for a link to buy the book and you can't get the link anyway. Like, maybe she's trying to sell it, you know, to her workers or something. I don't know.
Lewis Hobba 24:44 Gina needs the Scientologists to manage this book distribution.
Dan Ilic 24:48 Do you guys have your own jokes for a genuine heart stroke book? I've written a couple. Knock knock. Who's there? 200 200 Whoa. 200 Korean workers on board. Five Seven phases working 84 hours a week at $16 an hour to build Roy Hill iron ore mine.
Lewis Hobba 25:07 I feel like you could you could get brevity if you just like funniest joke tax.
Unknown Speaker 25:14 Rational fear
Unknown Speaker 25:18 is Kamala coming up next.
Unknown Speaker 25:20 Yes he is.
Dan Ilic 25:21 Could you ask him to smile so we can save a lot of people may have thought that that was in terribly bad taste we'll have one. This is a rational fear. Joining us now is a man known to irrational fear diehard fans. He is Kumar Welcome back to irrational fear Kemal
Kamahl 25:35 Thank you. Glad to be with you.
Dan Ilic 25:38 Now, last week, during some press for Dancing with the Stars Dara summers lamented that he had Saturday wasn't on TV anymore because of cancelled culture, which meant you couldn't get away with good, clean fun. Then a guy on Twitter john Patterson published a clip from Hey, hey, have yourself being bullied and it went absolutely viral on Twitter. You're huge on Twitter. Now you love Twitter. What did you make of that clip and seeing that old footage again?
Kamahl 26:04 Well, it doesn't take much imagination to work on it was it was a bully. It was humiliating and degrading. Given that the week after I was paired up at Carnegie Hall to do my second project. It was it was I don't know whether the President intent intended insult. But yeah, you know, it could have been a little kinder, I thought,
Dan Ilic 26:34 what did you think when you kind of saw this thing going around again?
Kamahl 26:37 No, I look what what really happened is that when Harry Connick Jr, appeared on the show, and and there was a cartoon with a which came out the next state CHANNEL SEVEN turned up, wanting to know what I thought of escape. And, and they wanted to know if it was great. That's not really a manipulator, who is racist, I am more racist than Hey, Saturday, meaning in the real sense, I was brought up in Malaysia as a Sri Lankan, Malaysian born, Sri Lankan. And we had prejudices and racism of our own. And I mean, they, the whiter you are, the better you are, the faster you are, the worse you are. In fact, my family stopped me from playing cricket because it was the sun would make me a doctor. But we have weird kind of prejudices in Asian countries as well. So the I think, maybe the reason I mean, I'm trying to work out why it was necessary for them, to humiliate me. And I think it was a form of a tall poppy syndrome, because it was my second concert there. And I think I told them that Bob Hope was going to introduce me. And yeah, it was it was trying to their way of dealing with the tall Poppy, and especially a black hole. Perfect.
Dan Ilic 28:03 Yeah, I I noticed Darrell summers has never performed at Carnegie Hall.
Kamahl 28:07 Not even once. I don't know. But then, on the contrary, I think he's a he's a very, very talented man. I, you know, I really don't know. Because at the moment, there have been all sorts of negative and positive comments in there where there was a lady with a programme manager of a radio station, said that, you know, why, what the past that I was talking about, because I was being outed. Every time I appeared on the lily pad. I don't know who this person is, but particularly and she's the programme manager. I mean, that that's, that's rubbish I. I had a wonderful time on the big day out. And Sahara Herald was in charge. And my friend did duck pond put me on there year after year for nearly 90 days. So we are getting this weird reaction to this.
Unknown Speaker 29:02 Yeah,
Dan Ilic 29:03 I remember watching high as a kid and seeing is a lily pad. I think lily pad was an amazing part of your career.
Kamahl 29:13 Find out who this lady is. You can't tell me obviously he never attended it. Maybe or maybe he was. You know, I think we I'm getting sort of crazy flames in at the same time. There was one. There was a guy. He said I'm 32 years old. But we did Oh, my mother is still hot about you. wonderful, beautiful. Very funny. Well,
Dan Ilic 29:43 you should have seen Kirsty WebEx tweets when she found out she was being she was going to be on the show with you Kemal Kirsty, do you have anything to say to
Kamahl 29:53 you? Ah,
Kirsty Webeck 29:54 yeah, I'm a huge fan Kemal and when I told my parents I was coming on the panel. Cast with you. They were adamant that I was to tell you that they're massive fans and they've loved every single thing you've ever done.
Kamahl 30:08 Well, you know, I think I think a bigger head, they have good taste anyway, they're particularly in having a daughter like you. Jim, you know, I really, you know, the thing is, in a way, this has been a, you know, sort of a disguised form of blessing. I mean, I've I haven't had this much reaction, positive 90% percent positive in my 86 years of not 86. Yeah, I'm 86 years old now. But I started doing this 64 years ago. And yeah, it's it's amazing.
Dan Ilic 30:50 64 years in showbiz and still going that is such stone cow. That's really great.
Kamahl 30:57 It's a good taste of the Australian audience. Come on,
Lewis Hobba 31:00 I can I can I ask. Like I because I didn't, I didn't get a chance to watch it. When it was on it was not really in my, not quite my time. But watching watching that clip that I did say today, last week was horrifying. And I could only imagine what it was like for you to see it again. And to think about all of that again. But what did you if you don't mind me asking? Well think about like when Darrel summers apologised. Did that? Because obviously you would have known him for a long time. What did you think of that? No,
Kamahl 31:31 I mean, I suppose you know, he was the host of this show. I mean, he could have, you know what i what i didn't mind so much. They they, they hit him in the face with a powder with a white powder. But what they disappoint me more than anything else is the fact they didn't bother to make a little bit of a question. That's what I was doing next week in New York. With with the doing a show for the second time. I don't know whether it's a tall poppy syndrome, or what it is that? I don't know. So that's, I'm more interested in that than being hit in the face, really. But I wouldn't have my mind in taking the hit, provided the game, you know, balance that with generous reporting. Sorry,
Craig Quatermaine 32:20 it's Craig here. I grew up in Canada in the East Kimberley of Western Australia, you were the first brown guy I ever saw on TV as well, just being an Indigenous Australian, it was just nice to see someone different on that show. That was the only thing we could watch because we had one channel. And for you to go through all this right now. I'm really interested to know that are you surprised that people are shocked that there was racism? in those periods where you're on TV? Isn't that reaction that most amusing part?
Kamahl 32:50 Look, racism or prejudice of any kind, you got to be careful if you ever saw the movie South Pacific, you know, we are not born racist that they you know. But I think we have to be carefully taught, and we believe a lot of things that are untrue. You know, we, we as human beings, we grew up believing the earth was flat. It took us years and 1000s of years to find out it is a sphere. And similarly, there are a lot of things. Let's say, you know, in politics and religion, especially religion, there are 4000, or 404 and a half 1000 religions. But there's only one God and I have my own view of what it is. And at the end of the day, what really matters is truth. To be true to yourself, I mean, even if you have to tell a few fibs, but be true to yourself. Hello.
Lewis Hobba 33:56 Sorry, we're all just taking a moment to think of ponder your words of wisdom, be honest commodity.
Craig Quatermaine 34:01 Iconic, this is a huge part of me that still like I feel like it's an impression. I feel like it's not really you. But yeah. It's just such an iconic voice. It's crazy to be talking to you.
Kirsty Webeck 34:13 I was just thinking about all the people have told lately.
Dan Ilic 34:18 Come on. Thank you so much for joining us on irrational fear. You've always been a great part of our show from episode one. You.
Kamahl 34:28 By the way, by the way, what what do you consider a rational fear? What can I be afraid of?
Dan Ilic 34:35 Well, the rat the name irrational fear stems from the idea that media is making are scared of things all the time and often all the wrong things and irrational fear is a name that implies that there is something you should be scared of the media is not talking about, which is what things we talked about on the show, which is mostly climate change. That's the big thing that we talk about.
Kamahl 34:54 I mean, I think we should all be afraid of untruth, not the truth
Unknown Speaker 34:59 disinterment
Kamahl 35:01 Yeah, misinformation. Yeah. Anyway, thank you for having me on
Dan Ilic 35:05 Kemal. It's great to be with you. Do you do you have any? Do you have any shows coming up? You want to plug?
Kamahl 35:10 Yeah, in fact, there's kind of an anniversary. Pull up doing like to those two shows one day apart, and it's it's nice to have retired senior citizens. So I'm looking forward to that. I can't tell you exactly what it is. It's two shows. When is it? Two days apart?
Dan Ilic 35:34 Excellent. A big thanks to all of our guests for tonight. Craig quartermaine Kirsty werebear. Can Louis harbour Do you guys have anything to play? Craig we get to do any Comedy Festival shows coming up.
Craig Quatermaine 35:45 Sorry. Yeah, no, that's the only reason I'm here bro. Cuz I got nothing to plug. No, that's not true. Um Yeah, just keep an eye out. I've got a new show called historically accurate. planed, Earth runs and Sydney runs in Melbourne runs and they've just all come unstuck because the COVID about the show is called historically accurate. It's my latest style. I'm very very happy with it. And yeah, it's that the cow it's gonna
Dan Ilic 36:12 watch. Kirsty way back What did you got to plug you've got a few shows coming up?
Kirsty Webeck 36:16 I do indeed. So I have a show called Tucker sikhi opening on April 6 in Melbourne for the comedy festival and it's it's 14 shows from the sixth to the 18th and it's on at 6:10pm each night comedy Republic come along. Also follow me on social media I'm really good at it.
Unknown Speaker 36:43 I remember
Lewis Hobba 36:45 Craig when you came to tazzy with us for Triple J and did some comedy and your clip that you did was so successful that they basically like did they did they take it down a
Craig Quatermaine 37:00 million views ABC comedy went under and so did my my video I just I really just got it back.
Kamahl 37:06 Yeah, yeah, so I blew up. You're kidding me tucked away if I may and inject something slightly sobered. Are you prepared for it Kaffir come out. These are the few words that sustained Nelson Mandela for 27 years in prison. Its support called Invictus goes something like this out of the night that savage made black test pit from pole to pole. I thank whatever gods may be For my on conquerable. So in the fall, lots of circumstances, I have not went not quite allowed. Under the bludgeoning of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath or tears, Looms but the Horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds and shall finally an upgrade. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments to sprawl. I am the master of my fate. I am the exception, my soul.
Dan Ilic 38:22 That was amazing. Thank you so much Kemal. Thank you so much, Craig quartermaine Thank you so much. cosi WebEx, thank you so much, Louis. How about we've got shows the Melbourne Comedy Festival April 11. Big thanks to rode mics, the birther foundation Patreon supporters. The discord crew for Jackson ideas that I had it goes Big thanks to Dave bluestein Kate Holdsworth Killian David. Voiceover this week from Bronwyn Morgan Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. And come out. Do you have a catchphrase? You want to end the show on?
Kamahl 38:51 What was that?
Dan Ilic 38:53 Why people so I
Kamahl 38:55 know why so many people are doing. Many people are doing Thank you very much, but Right, right. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of.
On the podcast this week, we talk about the Prime Minister putting journalists on notice for asking questions, Dark Mofo's Big F Up, and BoJo dumping ScoMo via telegram over Australia's lack of action on climate change.
On this week's podcast we hit the UK and Australia's slide into authoritarianism, and ask Steve Keen if Mattias Cormann's appointment to the OECD will mean anything meaningful for climate action globally.
Unknown Speaker 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation. Hello Daniel, how are you?
Dan Ilic 0:06 I'm well I'm well, I couldn't help but notice before as we come on, Mike, you, you're doing some vaping on the side there. Have you got a vape sponsor? Can you get a vape sponsor for the show? I
Lewis Hobba 0:16 thought I would get that in just before the cameras started rolling. Yeah, I would say it's my shameful habit. I had no idea that this I was actually walking behind a guy who was smoking today, and I was vaping and he was smoking and he was like five steps in front of me and obviously 10 years behind me, but a few steps in front and he was blowing smoke and it was coming back as always inhaling my vape was inhaling his smoke and I thought, yuck
Dan Ilic 0:46 Well, it's just one more thing to rag on you about you vapour. It's very exciting. I'm not ragging on our new Patreon supporters, though, because we've got some killer new ones. It's another record another week of seven new Patreon supporters. JOHN Miller, thank you for joining up fright bat became a fright manga Thank you. Oliver Kadett, Chris ebbeling Jason Halladay Brooks Santa Hugh Donaldson, thank you so much for supporting us on Patreon. If you want to support us on Patreon, go to patreon.com forward slash irrational fear. Now we're only a few weeks away from our Melbourne International Comedy Festival show Louis April 11 at the Melbourne Town Hall. I'm really excited about it. I can't wait to get to Melbourne. I can't wait to enjoy the festival.
Lewis Hobba 1:25 Yeah, me too. I also saw on one of my weekly forays into Twitter that you are begging for guests, which I always which makes you feel very relaxed about the
Dan Ilic 1:36 situation. No, that's not that's not true. I was after a suggestion for a big climate change name to join the show and I booked one. We've got Simon Holmes accord joining us he's mega brain on energy and climate. He knows all about the juiciest truth bombs about how Australia is missing out on the it's brand new green energy revolution. So he's going to be our interview guests which is fantastic. That's amazing. Yeah, it's awesome. Sami Shah Alice Fraser, James Colley who is the head writer the weekly and grow and transfer you and I and also Gabby bolt is due on a soundstage to for her only Melbourne show she is going to be an absolute mega star Gabby bolt. So you it's going to be one of those shows. You'll go. Oh, you know, I saw Gabby bouldered an irrational fear at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival back in 2021. Before she became an absolutely massive
Lewis Hobba 2:21 Yeah, plus that we can see if we can get some of that homes are caught money on the Patreon.
Dan Ilic 2:26 He is a patron subscriber he's a he's a Patreon supporter, so he already does
Lewis Hobba 2:31 amazing he goes by Patreon.
Dan Ilic 2:33 probably good. For more go to comedy.com Today you look for a rational fee. I'm recording my end of irrational fear on gadigal land. In the eora nation sovereignty was never said we need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 2:44 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks cambro
Unknown Speaker 2:51 gum, and section 40 of
Unknown Speaker 2:53 our rational fear
Unknown Speaker 2:55 recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 2:58 Tonight Scott Morrison's response to the march for justice was the worst example of public tone deafness since meatloaf played at the AFL Grand Finals. It was so bad that Jenny asked him to imagine if he was a single dad. And for publicly diminishing his reputation Christian Porter announces plans to sue himself for defamation. And another COVID case confirmed in a Sydney quarantine hotel as usual. Melbourne says that we're doing it months ago. It's the 19th of March 2021. I'm spending my last job paper on lollies This is irrational fear.
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host, former Duke of Edinburgh Dan Ilic. And this is the podcast that takes the week's toughest stories and gives them a big hug. Only if they agree to it. Let's meet our fear mongers for the podcast this week. He's taking some time out from his gruelling hotel quarantine regime of looking out the window. It's Australia's favourite will Anderson look alike. It's Adam Hill.
Adam Hills 4:05 Not the hotel quarantine that had a case this week. Just want to point that out.
Dan Ilic 4:10 Well, how are you? How have you been spending your time Adam?
Adam Hills 4:14 I'm writing a children's book. So that's great most of my time. And being that I'm alone in a hotel room you can imagine what's taking up the rest of my time.
Lewis Hobba 4:24 children's book just like where's Wally, but it's one man alone a hotel's theory.
Dan Ilic 4:29 There is again
Adam Hills 4:31 I'm on my third draft and I'm really worried when I handed in the editors are gonna go well, we got really dark all of a sudden.
Lewis Hobba 4:39 Because I write episodes of play school, and, and every now and again, if things are not going well in your life, you can sometimes read a first draft back. I had to do one there was teaching kids how to like ask for help from a doctor that were ever sick. And I read it back. I literally had Humpty Dumpty falling off a wall and screaming in agony that he's shattered his legs Oh, where was I last night like that is Blake Lewis. Anyway, they ran it traumatised kids
Dan Ilic 5:06 and she's been busy auditioning for SBS his insight but didn't manage to get the top job what she sabotaged from within it's the feeds Alex Lee.
Alex Lee 5:15 Hello and yes, I was I was the perfect hosts. How is
Dan Ilic 5:22 the Fed going, Alex?
Alex Lee 5:23 Great. Yes, just in case for all of your baffled listeners. We made a comedy series about me trying to audition to be the new host of insight and failing miserably and you can watch an SBS on demand.
Dan Ilic 5:36 And finally, he's Elaine main. Sorry, he's a lane not main talking machine. It's Louis harbour.
Lewis Hobba 5:42 That's very straight. Do you know i speaking of being not main I'm also not lame. I put up I put on 10 kilos in the last year. I'm jacked.
Dan Ilic 5:50 So you've gone from looking like you've come out of Belson to looking like you're signed up for chadwicks. That's not too bad for you.
Unknown Speaker 5:57 deep knowledge of modelling.
Alex Lee 6:00 Writing diet Lewis
Unknown Speaker 6:03 recommends,
Lewis Hobba 6:04 I probably would have put on 20 kilos if it wasn't for the joule.
Dan Ilic 6:09 Coming up Maverick economist Professor Steve Cain joins us to talk about Mateus Coleman's appointment to the Secretary General job of the OECD what it means for Australia and climate action. Will we see him use less planes in favour of a chopper. But first, a message from this week's sponsor?
Unknown Speaker 6:26 Hi, I'm Nick Fuller. As New South Wales Police Commissioner, I love stripping down with others. But gaining consent can be a confusing process. That's why we've developed a new app to help men with important careers feel safe at night. If individuals have developed relations to a point where undergarments could be heading in a southerly direction, it's important to document the consent of each party before the engagement of horizontal proceedings. Simply take out your service New South Wales app and scroll to the sexual consent form. You and your sexual participants simply tick the boxes for the style and duration of sexual intercourse. Also note if applicable, which private high school participants attended. So we assign the most appropriate legal response should we even need to then simply sign on the screen or use a finger on the fingerprint reader. If one of your participants is too drunk to sign, definitely don't coerce them, or just place their finger on the fingerprint reader. They'll never be able to prove otherwise, then and only then can sexual intercourse proceed at a location of your choice. There is currently a 15 person limit per sexual event per household. But this will relax as COVID rules change. Now, this is important. If any participant changes their mind, it won't be automatically updated by the app. But we're assured by the Boston Consulting Group that this will be addressed in a future upgrade. So when emotions are running high, remember now app no wet. This has been a message from the New South Wales Police. Thank you.
Dan Ilic 8:01 Yes, no after no after that line courtesy of the Guardians name. And so I saw it on Twitter and I had to steal it with consent. Of course, there was his tweet, I'll share it in the show notes. Yes, this week's first fear this crazy consent app. Now the start of the day, the New South Wales Police Commissioner was floating this idea about an app to get a whole bunch of people to jump on this app to engage with swapping consent over an app to kind of quell rising sexual assaults. So it's just something that normal, you know, adults would use to swap consent before during the day. But by lunchtime, he was resoundingly made fun of on social media, and the New South Wales, police commissioner McFaul had to retract the idea saying these on radio,
Unknown Speaker 8:41 to be honest with you, the app could be the worst idea I have in 2021. But the reality is in five years, perhaps it won't but if you think about dating 10 years ago, this sort of concept of single people swiping left and right was a term that we didn't even know you know,
Dan Ilic 8:57 Mick Foley might have appointed I didn't had no idea of consent until he actually floated this whole the idea of an F v mongers. Is this a good idea? Alex?
Alex Lee 9:06 I think that was the one correct thing. He said that it was absolutely the most insane idea he could have thought of like, it's the kind of idea that you you know, you might whisper to your wife as you go to sleep and she goes, Okay, that's enough bedtime or like, something you put on the subreddit of shower ideas, but to be the New South Wales Police Commissioner, and to put it out there in the public is so crazy. And it was just, you know, after what has been a really awful few weeks, you know, for women in Australia just to display that level of ignorance about how consent works, how sex works, what the actual issue is, like, it really like bordered on not being funny, despite the many ways that it is hilarious that he said that out loud to people
Dan Ilic 10:00 I just like the constant like, backpedalling he did over the last two, like lunchtime hours on radio. I really enjoyed that. Adam, what do you think?
Adam Hills 10:09 I mean, okay, apart from the bass, like there's two ways to approach this the realistic way in the funny way. And the realistic way is, I think, if someone can force you to have sex, then they can force you to consent on an app. If someone's if someone's able to force you to do one thing, they can force you to do another thing. So that takes away the idea of the app being effective in the first place. But secondly, he also said this might be the dumbest idea I have in 2021 as if he's leaving it open for something dumber to happen.
Do you know what I mean? He's like, I don't want to call it yet. Because there's a whole bunch of months left in this year. This could go anyway,
Alex Lee 10:49 he's gonna come back next month and say, Okay, that was stupid. It was stupid to suggest an app for sexual consent. It's a robot Okay guys, sex robot and you tell the robot at all times whether you want to have sex or not. Okay, that's it. That's the good idea.
Lewis Hobba 11:06 It does make you want to sit in with a full a brainstorm session like Alright guys, it's the boys in blue blue sky thinking let's do this thing. What are we getting called? on thinking hansy crush? Who's that? Who's up there?
Dan Ilic 11:19 I've done some research on iOS there's nothing like it but Google Playstore is a bit more of a wild west. Let me show you a couple weeks and have a look at some of those reviews. Yes to sex is an app he says check out these reviews out of rubbish I couldn't get past the first page not even select my gender and it is on friendly web keep asking for locations thumbs down
Lewis Hobba 11:41 you like the bedroom I'm in the bedroom Yeah.
Dan Ilic 11:48 Person yes just six yes five stars Rakesh Yes, he
Lewis Hobba 11:52 was six that's a fun doing it.
Alex Lee 11:56 Very looking forward to now I downloaded this app to be getting some sex. Yeah, I've maybe it's like a way for bots. Like there's so many sex bots out there. Maybe yes to six is like a dating site for bots.
Lewis Hobba 12:11 And select which images in this square have. You know what I'm talking about?
Dan Ilic 12:16 There's even one code only? Yes is yes. And this one actually uses smart contracts. It uses Ethereum blockchain. So anyone with an aetherium account or aetherium will be able to verify how horny all the other people are all around the world at once. Unfortunately,
Alex Lee 12:29 anyone with an Ethereum account, has never had sex and never will.
Unknown Speaker 12:37 What's your response to the call fleece speech
Unknown Speaker 12:39 last night
Unknown Speaker 12:40 I would like to start impeaching has to be given I've got to go in a couple of minutes because I have an international call that I have to attend to irrational fear.
Dan Ilic 12:52 This week second fear one of the things people in the UK are known for is their stiff upper lip, you know their grin and bear it attitude. But that is drastically changing. British MPs have voted in favour of a bill that increases police houses for cracking down on power protests that are annoying. Yeah, it's a 307 page bill, which must have been very annoying to read. Other things. It says it's going to do incredible fines for damaging statues, like for three months to 10 years in jail. For instance, police will have the power to tell one person protest to stop shouting and could impose noise limits and have start and finish times for protests as well. It's basically ushering in a whole new era of authoritarianism. You know, when I think of annoying, loud mouth leaders that don't come anymore, more annoying than Boris Johnson, which is ironic. Adam, you live in the UK? How are you taking this?
Adam Hills 13:46 This is something I've been following for a while. So when COVID hit, you know, the government brought in a whole bunch of rules, including, you know, how many people could gather publicly, there can't be any more than 30 people, all that kind of stuff. And remember at the time, I think labour, the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn was in opposition and said, Yeah, okay, let's have a time limit on this. let's let's let's not have a law that could go forever, that stops people protesting, and then 12 months down the track, it's kind of come to fruition, but the idea that it's not just if it's annoying, if you inconvenience anyone, if you put someone you know, if you affect someone's ability to go about their business, that's the whole point of a protest. If you're not being annoying in a protest, you're throwing a fate.
Dan Ilic 14:32 And some of those extinction rebellion protests for 2019 felt really festive, you know, it felt like they were they were like, you know, it was parade it was Carnival with a existential attitude. Really, it was
Adam Hills 14:45 part of a bigger thing that and this, this happens, you know, this is the thing that happens in times of a pandemic, in times of a crisis, government introduced laws and a lot of those laws aren't lifted at the end of it. Right. And I think we've talked about this on the last leg in London. We've got to our slogan, why Make sure they don't keep the shady shit.
Dan Ilic 15:02 Have you seen a lot of examples of where sunset clauses haven't been put in place for loans like
Adam Hills 15:07 this? I mean, there's just little sneaky things like even the fact that, you know, Melbourne went into Melbourne had a five day lockdown, what, three, four weeks ago. They've come out of lockdown, but they're still not allowing international arrivals. Which is why, you know, I know this because I tried to get into Melbourne, and I've got a quarantine in Sydney, because there are no international flights coming into Melbourne at the moment. And it's just a little sneaky. It's not an infringement on people's human rights. But it's just a little sneaky. There's a similar thing going on in China that I read today where the Chinese government has said they will only accept foreign arrivals if they've been vaccinated with the Chinese vaccine.
Dan Ilic 15:42 Right? Wow. Well, that's pretty good. I mean, you can get that pretty easily. They just, they knocked off the Pfizer vaccine. So it's cheaper, it's easier to get you just get on Alibaba.
Lewis Hobba 15:55 The the I remember when the extinction rebellion protests were happening in the UK, though. That's one thing. I think we actually talked about it on the show, that chief of the Met, came out and complained about a tactic that extinction, extinction rebellion protesters were using when they were getting picked up by the cops. And he made a request that they stopped doing it. And it was that they were going floppy. anytime they grabbed them, they were going there was the head of the man and his name was says Steven something. And essentially, there was a press release saying so Steven has asked you to stop being fluffy. And it was one of the all time great press releases.
Alex Lee 16:36 That's a great tactic. My son does that. Like all his limbs tend to liquid if you try and put him in his highchair. I'm gonna ban it. I'm gonna tell him it's against the law now,
Dan Ilic 16:47 but in a court of law is going slumping annoying. Is it annoying enough to get 10 years in jail?
Lewis Hobba 16:53 I think that there is a box for that on the consent app. If it doesn't work out.
Dan Ilic 16:58 Adam, this is pretty interesting. Like, from your perspective, how is all this playing with the current protest at the moment for this poor woman who was abducted by a police officer? Like how how what's the sentiment, like in the UK about these laws being passed? Well, I
Adam Hills 17:13 mean, you know, a lot of a lot of this. A lot of this has happened since I've been back in Australia. But I mean, it's, there's a word that's thrown around a lot. And it's one of those ones. It's almost become a marketing advertising term. But I think it still stands it's optics. It's the optics, when a woman is kidnapped and murdered, on the way home walking home in the middle of London, and then a peaceful vigil is held, and the optics are police kneeling on the backs of women who are holding a peaceful vigil about a woman who was murdered by a police officer, you can see how that looks terrible. And I think it's not just in Britain, if you know everything that's going on in Australia this week, with Scott Morrison's dealing with with, you know, claims of rape of sexual harassment and all that kind of stuff. It's it's, it's kind of worldwide. I mean, wasn't it? wasn't his his response to say that we didn't, there are protests happening and we're not shooting anyone. And aren't we great?
Dan Ilic 18:08 Yeah, that that's the next thing I want to talk about is isn't that that was such a crazy thing that happened earlier this week. As Monday is 1000s of people and myself included, marched across cities around Australia, all about gendered violence and inequality. Scott Morrison decided to use very loose words in question time noting that the protesters were lucky they lived in Australia because protests in other countries nearby were met with bullets. Talk about kind of lowest common denominator, fear mongers should should women feel grateful that tempt the authorities would piglets, shirting women, Alex?
Alex Lee 18:43 It seems like they weren't given that courtesy in the UK in their protests, basically. But no, I mean, it was, it's just sitting low, like you said, the very lowest bar for your government that you are not shooting protesters and then asking for credit for it. And the reason it is that is because he's not doing anything else, like he offered to go and to, for the women to come into his office and meet with him the organisers of the March, and they said, No, like, the very least you can do is come out and see all the women on the street and see what we're asking for. And he wouldn't even do that. And so, you know, all he can give him the only thing he could think of to give his government credit for and the way they've handled this is that they're not shooting people. And you know, that government can mobilise very quickly like I This isn't funny at all, but I you know, I read how after the the sexual assault of Brittany Higgins, the government very quickly moved forward, the date of the cleaning of the of the office that took place in so they so there's evidence of that that they it was due for a clean on Monday, they moved it to a Sunday. Like they can act very quickly if they need to, and if this is the only thing they can do to address this issue that, you know, hundreds of 1000s of women are asking for. It's it's, it's more than depressing.
Dan Ilic 20:08 And and when you when you when you said optics before, kind of remind me of that moment, Alex, you just mentioned how he invited the protest organisers into Parliament House. It's almost like he hasn't read any news about the kind of safe space that Parliament House has been for women over the last
Unknown Speaker 20:26 few years. It's like people want to be.
Dan Ilic 20:28 Yeah, exactly. Very strange. Louis, has this been the kind of friendly banter you've been doing on drive on Triple J?
Lewis Hobba 20:35 Yeah. Right. That was flume. Anyway, feel unsafe, give us a call. Blake, like, you know, obviously, we do a very dumb and silly show on Triple J. And so you know, we keep it pretty dumb and silly. But there are days obviously, where it's very hard to do that you guys would all know that you've all worked in jobs where you get paid to be dumb and silly. And there are days and there are weeks when that feels like you are going counter to the issue or that you are your silliness is I don't know, the wrong noise to be making and this week, it did feel like that to be honest, it was a it was a really it was a really difficult week and to say their response, do you just like oh, that's fine, I'll be silly they're gonna pay attention and then they don't like hire out man like this is it's just it's very, very bleak to say that response and just to say not no movement whatsoever from the people who need to be listening.
Alex Lee 21:33 Yeah, I do think it's so I did get a bit of perverse pleasure in reading the tweets from men who went to the march but just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that there were there was a lot of like, just here at the march just in case anyone wanted to know a man at the march and there are a lot of women coming up to me saying thank you for being at the March the march so just keep that in mind everyone.
Lewis Hobba 21:57 I really saw quite a lot of people who like mosques in the stories and then the masks off when their photo went on the grid. You can see the whole
Alex Lee 22:11 they should have sought match at the match which is just like a flashing sign that said I'm one of the good ones
Dan Ilic 22:19 Well, I don't know if you heard the full clip of Scott Morrison question time he said much worse and I'm very surprised the media didn't pick it up.
Unknown Speaker 22:25 The Prime Minister as
Unknown Speaker 22:27 it is good and right mr. speaker that so many able to gather here in this way whether in our capital or elsewhere, to do so peacefully to express their concerns and their very genuine and real frustration
Unknown Speaker 22:42 This is a vibrant liberal democracy Mr. Speaker not far from here. Such marches even now are being met with bullets not here in this country
Unknown Speaker 22:51 members on both sides
Dan Ilic 22:52 now these women or people if we can call them that and I'm asked my team and we can are lucky they went crushed by tanks Mr. Speaker, we have tanks we can do all those fine Phillies marching today. And I'm pretty sure I can say that should count themselves fortunate. We don't send them to offshore detention. Mr. Speaker, we've got plenty of women there shorts against international law, but it's fun. I was quite happy to meet these women in my office in Parliament House, just them with me surrounded by men with guns. There's no safer space. Mr. Speaker, the member for Kingston is warm. I've had empathy training. I could if they wanted me to give them a massage, Mr. Speaker, calm them down, listen to their concerns. And I would have told them like I'm telling you, we all know when it comes to holding an investigation of a member of the National cabinet that Samantha for the states, Mr. Speaker and I would have been quite happy to explain that to those hysterical girls organising them after that today. And I'm definitely sure that's fine to say I've got hysterical girls of my own Mr. Speaker. Just shocking can't believe he said that kind of a labour.
Adam Hills 24:05 It's hard to believe that that his original statement came from someone who came from marketing slogan I'm not as bad as Pol Pot isn't.
Dan Ilic 24:21 next guest is one of our favourites on irrational fear. He's a maverick economist to tells it like it is I assume because I'm not smart enough to know what he's actually talking about. It's Professor Steve Cain stave Welcome to irrational fear. irrational mode after
Steve Keen 24:34 we're one of those experiencing for the last few months reading economics.
Dan Ilic 24:38 I bet I bet Now look, as an economist of regard, you kind of get into these incredible places like the OECD. So I wanted to pick your brain about the Mathias cormann appointment. You know,
Lewis Hobba 24:49 can I use my prop in really quickly before you get stuck into ICD and just say that I don't know what the day is.
Dan Ilic 24:57 Yeah, so embarrassing, but
Lewis Hobba 24:59 I just want to just Want to put that out there?
Alex Lee 25:01 You know how you find it really hard to focus on talks for long periods of time Louis removed that check. And pretend I made a joke about OCD. Okay.
Dan Ilic 25:19 I enjoyed it. Oh, yeah. So let's go back. Let's go back to the bare bones here. What is the OSI OECD and and how is Mateus as Commons appointment? significant?
Steve Keen 25:37 Yeah. So the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development was once called the rich man's club had about 20 nations and it mainly America and and Europe. And now it has about 3738 nations. And it's lastly there was quite a progressive Mexican leader, Angel guaira. And he was quite in favour of non orthodox thinking on economics, particularly after the OECD completely fluffed it back in 2007. When in their economic report for to the middle in June 2007. Their chief economist said what a fantastic year 2008 was going to be, which is gonna have an economic recession, it was going to be a book. So after that Angel established what's called the new snake, which stands for new approaches to economic challenges. And that led a lot of progressive thought into the OECD, which is how I managed to get past the past the guards at the gate. And, and, and now, Angel had been there for three terms, 15 years, which is extremely unusual. So they needed a new replacement. And nobody on the planet thought that anybody from Australia had a chance because if any part of the planet is burning, it's burning it up. It's Australia and climate change have become a major focus of the OECD in the last seven the last half, half dozen years. And lo and behold blow was down with with a Saharan wind. Matthias Korman wins the ballot, which was quite remarkable, a tribute to Australia's capacity to play the numbers game. And now a man who's in the playing numbers is leading us in something which is deadly serious, which is the amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants we're putting into the biosphere. And we've been putting up modly many, many environmental organisations will concern that the OECD is lead on climate change resumed go massively into reverse under corpsman, and now we're gonna find out one way or the other.
Dan Ilic 27:39 Now, do you? What's your instinct on this? Do you think corpsman is going to be a good faith actor in the US and push the OECD on climate action? And therefore push Australia to be more progressive on climate action? Or do you think his words are meaningless? And he's just going to play the same game that he's always played?
Steve Keen 27:57 categorically? I'd say yes to that question. Sorry. Yeah, I think he's gonna he's gonna stuff the place up. But if you read his statement about it, he talked about how we needed to go guaranteed normal growth, with safeguards for human rights and environmental concerns. And so everything is the environments in the background, forget about that, you know, let's get the growth going first, and the environment could take care of itself, which it will do, it will take care of us as well. So I'm, I'm thinking will push us five badly backwards, and we'll be there. We'll go from leading on the issue to being reactive. So I'm putting me down as a sceptic of him, not climate change.
Dan Ilic 28:40 And the OECD, you know, it has this big mandate to promote policies that had some sort of economic and social well being for people all around the world. How powerful are they in terms of shaping what goes into agreements, like what we'll say caught in a few months time? Well, that's
Steve Keen 28:56 the only organisation which has the status of a nation when it goes to the mediflow. cope and so on. So there's, you know, there'll be 40 countries plus the OECD. So it has really
Dan Ilic 29:06 it's got like a nation status.
Steve Keen 29:09 Yeah. It's so it gets a seat on the board, which is unusual for an international organisation only they've got to take a backseat and do it in the backroom. The OECD is both in the back room and the front. But frankly, speaking, of course, it's the major countries that carry the the weight of the whole thing so America dominates Germany second, and and China and Russia bringing up the rear. But it does make a difference. If you have an organisation which was enabling non orthodox thought, critical thought about climate change and economics to be heard. And suddenly you've got a guy who's reading from a copy of Samuelson then I think it's a major step backwards.
Dan Ilic 29:48 And you actually you've been presenting recently to the OECD and you had a very strange moment where the Australian permanent ambassador to the OECD as soon As you came on the conference calls to talk, decided to take his camera offline. Despite him actually being part of the conversation, he turned his thing turns
Steve Keen 30:09 himself off when I was turned on. Yeah, that was not promising. I was talking about what's called modern monetary theory.
Dan Ilic 30:17 I can only guess that he he either either didn't care for you to say or to he really enjoyed what you had to say so much that he had to he needed a bit of privacy. What do you think? It was?
Steve Keen 30:29 The Tobin situation angle I haven't heard before and I'm not gonna go anywhere near it. He's, he was quite, he was invited to be discussing to Stephanie Kelton presenting arguments about what's called modern monetary theory that says the state doesn't need to borrow money from the public doesn't need to text to spend, it's got its own capacity to create money. And that's how it finances itself, and so good on him for being a discussant. But if you look at the comments on YouTube, what people had to say there about his comments where I've been pretty spot on, basically, he just trashed everything. Stephanie had to say because he fairly obviously hadn't listened to what she was saying in the first place. He's He's, he's a conventionally he has a PhD in economics. He wrote his he lectured at the A Anu. So he's got all the mainstream credentials that I have been attacking for the last 20 years of books like debunking economics, and I think he is going to basically say, to, to call it to calm and, you know, let's let's get it back on the straight and narrow. Let's go back to the good sound economics. Well, good sound economics got us into the stink in the first place. So I'm not hopeful about where the OC is going to find itself. And I think it's not quite as bad as appointing Donald Trump before a pandemic. But I think it has similarities.
Dan Ilic 31:48 Well, I, I'm pretty the way you kind of frame it, I get very kind of despond because he always say for a lot of people is this black box that is so powerful. And yet, you know, there's little we can do about it, when it comes to getting the right people in there to affect the right kind of change. I wonder, like, who are our allies in the OECD in that regard, like who are the who are the champions of climate action in that, in that, in that organisation that we should be kind of following
Steve Keen 32:16 on doubleview group called Naik, which stands for new approaches to economic challenges. That's the that's the progressive element inside the OECD. And then you've got every every country, which is a member, and there are 37 countries, every country has an ambassador, so called. And the ambassadors funnily enough, once they're appointed, they act under the auspices of the OECD, rather than their own countries, so they can't be recalled by their own country, they have to be removed by the OECD itself, there are about half a dozen to a dozen, I think the Irish rep for one is very good, the Mexican rep, there's some people who are supporters of the critical attitude towards what we're doing to the environment. But like most of these organisations, they're very much driven from the top down. And people are very loath to step outside the consensus. So if you get somebody at the top like Coleman, who proves to be somebody who will carry you know, a lump of coal into the, into the proceedings and, and talk about good economic girly men. Then we can see the OECD go quite substantially backwards, all white and say, I've got a feeling the climate might decide to intervene and say, you might not take me seriously, but I do.
Dan Ilic 33:29 Yeah, that is the worst situation we could possibly hope. Do you guys have any questions for Steve, before we wrap up?
Alex Lee 33:36 I mean, I guess I always think that our Well, you know, Mathias common he was, you know, he is toeing the party line. But this is the point where he's not part of the government anymore. He's acting off his own steam. So like, what is the justification? Do you think for this kind of black rat? fuckery? Like, what's he getting from this? Like? That's what I always want to know, with people like that, like, what's in what's in it for you to destroy the planet like? Yeah, is it just a Cush? Is it just a cushy job for him? Or do you think that there's something else going on?
Steve Keen 34:14 Well, it's certainly a cushy job as part of it. I mean, he he is a green mentioned international character, I think was he's Belgian by birth. He speaks about four or five languages. He was in Europe until his early 20s. So he's in that sense, he's an international persona, and that's a strong thing in his favour. Probably a major factor why I think that they put forward anybody else like, Who's that bloke used to be Attorney General Christians, somebody I don't think he would have gone down all that well. But Coleman certainly has a an establishment that says he'd be laughing with you here with me. I think it's a it's a major status thing for himself, relocates him back in Europe. It's all sorts of massive positives of music. First small slide. When it comes to what he's doing, I think most of these people are genuinely sincere. They really believe they're doing the right thing by the by the current climate in what they're doing. And I know economists like William Nordhaus. So I think we'll actually, I hope to see tried for eco side at some stage, given what he's done about climate, but he genuinely believes he's doing good for the climate. Now, Coleman will probably think of imposing economic discipline, and standard rule of law is all that's necessary, and he's doing the right thing. It'll be quite sure he's doing the right thing. So so they actually believe that you know that there's sincerity? I don't question it. But the funny thing is, I had a school teacher once who gave me a great insight of sincerity, we were having a class discussion about some politician fighting like crazy amongst ourselves school, the school days, and one kid pipe gun, or at least he's sincere. And the hospitals here and our teacher who normally just let us run, Riot chirped up and said, Don't override sincerity. The most sincere person you'll ever meet in your life will be the maniac chasing you down the road with an X tronic.
Unknown Speaker 36:09 A very big x
Steve Keen 36:11 is the biggest x humanity's never seen
Adam Hills 36:14 if Alex's question is, what's, what's in it for Mathias cormann? My question is what's in it for the Australian Government?
Steve Keen 36:20 That's huge. And I think that's a really important question. Because Australia's been on the nose internationally, it's actually been called out by a couple of international organisations for how badly it's behaved on climate change. And this is a way that the country which is deservedly criticised as the greatest legged on the planet now has a voice at the head of the table. So I've got a feeling that's a major reason why he was in there. And that's why I'm particularly we got to the position, mate, you, you keep us from being under attack.
Dan Ilic 36:50 Man, just for a period here, I was really excited about how Australia was the pariah internationally, but like to see that we've now got some cover because of Coleman actually hurts me a little bit. I, I worked at the 2015 cop and I did a show every night about the winners and losers of the cop negotiations in Paris. And Australia was always number one, two or three of world actors at the Yeah, in the negotiations. And so I was one of those things where it's like, well, maybe 2021 maybe this next cop coming will be a little different. And there'll be enough international pressure to turn us into a good actor, but fuck now it seems that that's gonna be harder than ever.
Lewis Hobba 37:32 You know, they say about cost in a cab.
Unknown Speaker 37:39 They made
Dan Ilic 37:42 Thank you, Professor Steve Cain. Really great to have you big thanks to all of our guests. Adam hills, Alex Lee Lewis haba and we got anything to plug Adam you got to plug anything?
Adam Hills 37:51 Yeah, go on Melbourne International Comedy Festival coming up and some shows in Canberra in Sydney.
Alex Lee 37:56 Alex Lee got some the plug. And my Dungeons and Dragons podcast. Dragon friends is also doing comedy festival but it's sold out. So who cares?
Lewis Hobba 38:06 For dragon friends is your beautiful water bottles. Would you like to tell everyone about that?
Alex Lee 38:10 Dragon friends, that's freedom a good home and I completely distanced myself from that.
Dan Ilic 38:15 Oh, yes, I saw those water bottles on Twitter and I kind of mentioned them on this show. Louis, you got anything to float?
Lewis Hobba 38:22 Yes, Dan, a rational fear the live show on the 11th of April at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Dan Ilic 38:29 And you've listeners of this show. If you use the code podcast, you get a big discount which is great. Steve Cain, you want to plug your Patreon?
Steve Keen 38:37 Yeah, Patreon on patreon.com slash Prof. Steve came to me gasbag about the idiocy of mainstream economics. I'm giving away free software at the end of the month by the way package called Ravel. So have a look at that and see what you think.
Dan Ilic 38:52 Not a concern tab. That's an unusual choice. Big thanks to rod Mike's the birth of foundation our Patreon supporters please join us on Patreon so we can keep making this show big thank you to killing David David bluestein, Kate Holdsworth, Rupert Degas and Jacob round on the tepanyaki timeline. Don't forget to come to our Melbourne Comedy Festival shows Until next week, there's always something to be scared of good night.
Once a month on A Rational Fear on the podcast feed we present a different kind of show:
Greatest Moral Podcast Of Our Generation is a long form conversation with a climate leader from around the world.
This month Dan Ilic talks with Ketan Joshiis one of Australia's great thinkers on energy, climate change, politics and technology. This is a great wide ranging chat about all those topics.
Unknown Speaker 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Hello, Lynn.
Linh Do 0:05 Hey Dan. Longtime no chat.
Dan Ilic 0:06 I know I know we took a summer break a siesta over summer, but now we are back.
Linh Do 0:11 We are back. 2021 still feels like 2022 not gonna lie still working from home
Dan Ilic 0:17 not 2022 but 2020 as well, is that what you meant by two?
Linh Do 0:22 We actually still in 2021, I had clearly been very optimistic, projecting myself into the future.
Dan Ilic 0:27 Now for those who are new around here. This is the greatest moral podcast of our generation. It's a monthly long form chat with leaders on climate action from around the world. It appears right here on the irrational fear feed and this week. I'm very excited about this conversation. Lin you haven't heard or you haven't heard it yet, but I can't wait for you to hear it. It is with mega energy climate nerd technology brain katan Joshi, and he is like my favourite person about climate and the environment and technology on Twitter. Do you follow him?
Linh Do 0:58 I do follow him. And I recommend people ask me the question of Oh, how should I engage on climate? I'm always like, so this this guy. This is like how do you follow him? Sometimes he tweets about Norway because he lives there now. But like 90% of the type of climate and like good stuff,
Dan Ilic 1:14 that Firstly, I guess we should get the climate news out of the way I'm recording my end of the greatest moral podcast of our generation on gadigal land and the eora nation what whose land are you on?
Linh Do 1:23 Lynn wonderland of the well wandering people of the Kulin nation,
Dan Ilic 1:26 sovereignty was never ceded. We need a treaty. Let's stop the shop.
Unknown Speaker 1:29 Despite global warming. irrational fear is adding a little more hot air with long form discussions with climate leaders. Good.
Unknown Speaker 1:42 This is called Don't be afraid the heat waves and drove greatest mass extinction. We're facing a manmade disaster, podcast, climate criminals.
Unknown Speaker 1:57 ration
Unknown Speaker 1:59 all of this with the global warming and a lot of it's a hoax book, right, a small
Unknown Speaker 2:03 podcast about generation for short, all right,
Dan Ilic 2:08 let's get stuck into the climate news. So the last couple of months, I guess there's been a hell of a lot of it. Let's just do some highlights recently, I reckon. Despite everything, the federal government, you know, supporting gas supporting fossil fuels, it looks like they can't even do that properly. I don't know if you've seen this piece by Reuters is a great scathing opinion piece, basically saying Australia's energy policy is in such disarray. While they are trying to support fossil fuels and completely negging on renewables, they haven't even managed to support fossil fuels enough to keep Exxon from closing their oil refinery in altona. In Melbourne 2020. There were non oil refineries in Australia, but now there's only two for the whole country.
Linh Do 2:51 COVID really did impact clearly a whole bunch of different sectors. And it's so funny, right? Because we definitely say the Australian Government is one of the biggest supporters of fossil fuels all around the world, to the point where the European Parliament is about to vote on something soon to punish polluters, I a people like Australia, it's, you know, we're being punished for internationally, but back home, still not doing a good job. And
Dan Ilic 3:11 that's incredible. And you know, who's next after the EU, apparently, Japan is going to import is going to be doing some climate tariffs work as well. But of course, it is a bit more of a tension there because Japan is a much bigger trading partner with Australia than than the EU is But still, to have the EU, implement tariffs and then Japan implement tariffs. And Kerry is now talking about implementing tariffs from the United States. So all of our biggest trading partners are going to be punishing us for not acting on climate.
Linh Do 3:40 We're so wedged in that we're not even quite in a corner anymore. And we're not even really in the picture in the game, you've essentially got the four biggest economies in the world saying, Hey, we're gonna do stuff on climate businesses that operate here, we're going to respond, what are you doing Australia?
Dan Ilic 3:53 You may remember Around this time, last year, there was going to be talk about a gas powered recovery from COVID. And things like that. Well, let me tell you, the a mo the organisation that basically is the industry body for running the energy in Australia ran a workshop with a whole bunch of stakeholders floating how a gas powered by gas, lead recovery is going to work. And it turns out that half of the stakeholders described it as completely not useful. Which is extraordinary to see. So you know, this, it's so interesting to see how the government has come through and said, We want to do this gas powered recovery. But the industry's like, Nah, that's really shit idea. We're not gonna do any of that.
Linh Do 4:36 Well, when your normal friends aren't even willing to back You're right. I recommend you can't keep calling them your friends anymore. And we definitely are saying it's the biggest owners of fossil fuel. So like a GL and whatnot, some of the finance, like none of them want to touch any of these projects.
Dan Ilic 4:50 Yeah, it's really interesting, like two thirds of the participants in the AMA said that they would prefer to do make Australia a hydrogen superpower and that's pretty exciting, too. Know, the industry is like more buoyant about climate action than the government is.
Linh Do 5:06 Yep. The Australian Federal Government has more than one pickle to deal with at the moment. Hey, so maybe they are slowly going to be so wedged in that they're gonna have to start responding. Was
Dan Ilic 5:14 that a pun Lin? were you telling you, it took me about a certain kind of pickles is a small one. Excellent. Last month at the National Press Club, the pm actually stated a preference for a movement to 2050 target. insiders next week, Catherine Murphy said that she totally believes that scomo would love a net zero by 2050 target. But and he would totally sign the liberals up if it weren't for the National Party. Apparently Canada enjoys a holding him back. And it's so strange to see like if the liberals and the coalition take those people away from from their party and they do sign up to a net zero 50 target then that would almost be more progressive on climate than labour. It's so it's kind of it's this strange games like labour does want to show their cards and be aggressive on climate because they'll get attacked by the coalition. But the coalition deep down I've only got like three or four troublemakers that are holding the rest of the party ransom.
Linh Do 6:06 Again, you think that as Prime Minister of Australia, you might be able to do something on climate but it's clear that this like coalition that they've got going on is it's still a coalition. Each house feels like strange bedfellows at this moment in time.
Dan Ilic 6:18 I don't know if you saw this story, and New Zealand's chief environment advisor has said that we need to up the ticket prices for New Zealand flights to prevent tourists from coming to New Zealand.
Linh Do 6:28 When he first saw the headlines, I couldn't tell if it was some sort of nimbyism and some sort of luck. We've like sorted out COVID no one come here. But then I read the details. I was like, ah, interesting. It's actually a really good step, I think and it helps embed some of the learnings that we've had over COVID. Right. The Travelling is a privilege, not a right. And if it's a privilege, how do we actually pay for it when most of the world never get to fly anywhere?
Dan Ilic 6:50 I mean, it's pretty interesting that they have this chief environment and advice for a New Zealand the cool quote is controversial though it may be I'm in favour of putting off some people from coming to New Zealand. I just don't believe the idea that the number of international visitors to New Zealand can grow and grow and grow without limits. I just don't believe that it's credible. All right. So if a higher price for the privilege of flying to New Zealand, put some people off good.
Linh Do 7:12 I reckon that makes sense. Because you know, what if travel is now all about experiences, and all of that sort of stuff, the more rare and precious you can make something like the more people want to be instagramming about it. So if there's not a million Instagram photos from New Zealand, but only a couple of 100,000 they just gonna get far more traction. I'm all for this idea.
Dan Ilic 7:30 And Lin Brisbane might have some stiff competition for the 32 Olympic Summer Games.
Linh Do 7:35 That's right. And I'm pretty keen to head to Finland, not just for Santa Claus, but also the coldest town in Finland. A pretty cold country is keen to harness the 2032 not Winter Olympics, but Summer Olympics because you know, climate change is heating the world up.
Dan Ilic 7:48 Here's a little taste of there being video.
Unknown Speaker 7:54 Coming soon,
Unknown Speaker 7:55 what a great video. I
Dan Ilic 7:56 mean, they did show volleyball beach volleyball being played in the snow, do you think there'll be ready in time to get rid of that snow for the 2032 Olympics?
Linh Do 8:04 pretty optimistic. What's the difference between snow and sad, you know, small little particles, I can say if we don't tackle climate action, Finland, they're going to be the hearts of the next Olympics.
Dan Ilic 8:14 You know, it's really interesting, rational fear we made a sketch, like 2014 remember when Sochi hairy
Linh Do 8:21 head of the time
Dan Ilic 8:23 derivative in Sochi held the Winter Olympics and they ran out of snow in Russia. Like import they like would stockpiling snow for four weeks before and then they would try to make snow but they couldn't get enough snow. Anyway, so are we at irrational fear. We made a video for Queensland holding the 2038 nuclear winter games.
Linh Do 8:46 You're basically your profit. The International Olympic commission should bring you on board as a staff member they should do away with their voting system and just have to predict where it will the Olympics will be held in the future.
Dan Ilic 8:58 You don't want to do I'm going to fly in the video sketch to the end of the interview with Qatar joshy. So you'll you'll hear it in the podcast but also I'll add the link in the show notes so you can watch it later. Right now though, I'm gonna play you my conversation with Qatar Joshi.
Unknown Speaker 9:11 You're listening to the greatest moral podcast about generation.
Dan Ilic 9:17 Our next guest on the greatest moral podcast of our generation is one of the most gifted science communicators that we have in Australian media. crotons writing is funny, sad, and it cuts through with clarity. He doesn't mince words, and he never misses his targets, of which there are many. And I hope we get to talk about all of his targets on this podcast. It could turn joshy Hello, Tom, thanks for joining us on the greatest moral podcast of our generation.
Ketan Joshi 9:41 Hi, it's good to be here. Yes, we will just list all of my enemies
Dan Ilic 9:46 one by one. Let's start off with we started off with
Ketan Joshi 9:51 That's a hard one. If you want to talk about what I've been reading about over the past few days show
Dan Ilic 9:56 Yeah. What have you been reading about?
Ketan Joshi 9:58 Um, I've been reading about Bitcoin.
Dan Ilic 10:02 I'm so glad I'm so glad you brought this up because I want to ask you questions about NF T's and how artists are going to ultimately destroy the Earth.
Ketan Joshi 10:13 Okay, so do you want for your listeners? Do you want like a rundown of what the basics of this whole thing?
Dan Ilic 10:18 Yes plays. This is one of the one of the topics I wanted to pick your brain about. Because let me just let me just kind of flag with you. I have been dabbling in NF T's I've been trying to buy artwork from Australian comedians. And I've lost about 200 bucks plugging money into Ethereum wallets, and then trying to get a theory and wallets to connect with platforms to buy NF T's and it just hasn't worked. But I've been thinking about, as, I don't know, if you realise this kitten, but when you've got a podcast about climate change, it's not incredibly profitable. So I've been trying to figure out ways to take the sketches we do an irrational fear and monetize them with ease. At the same time fully realising the irony, the irony that I could be making things worse for the planet. So please enlighten me as to what the hell is going on with NF T's and intellectual property and how that intersects with climate change.
Ketan Joshi 11:15 Yeah, okay. So there's a lot of like, this is actually a little bit like climate change in that there's people trying to explain it through through analogies and metaphors, I'm going to try and avoid that because you know, it get you kind of, you just end up swimming around in like, you know, mixed metaphors. And it's very confusing and scary, basically, the way I've always understood, so I so just a bit of background, I used to work at the CSI role, specifically in the data science part of the business called Data 61. So we did, we actually did a bit of stuff on blockchain technology, and its various uses. And it's described as a distributed ledger, which is basically imagine you've got an Excel spreadsheet on your computer. Imagine that that spreadsheet replicates across 1000 100,000 computers at the same time. So if you put the word pou into a cell in your Excel spreadsheet, that would who appears in 100,000, other copies instantaneously, right?
Dan Ilic 12:11 Oh, so it's just like Twitter, great.
Ketan Joshi 12:14 That is distributed ledger. So it is, it is a pretty fancy way of doing especially and because copy of it is replicated across so many things, then if one person makes a change to it, then it's sort of copied across. So with that means there's a high level of trust in this, there's no single authority that you sort of have to rely on. Now, Bitcoin sort of operates on similar technology, right? You have this distributed ledger, but what you do is they've taken that technology and tried to make a currency out of it, that means you have to have something, some challenge to get value from this currency, you can't just kind of randomly distribute imaginary tokens of currency. So what they came up with is, well, what we'll do is create a process that is incredibly hard. And by making it so difficult, what happens is it takes some amount of work to acquire one of these coins, a Bitcoin, and it's called proof of work. That's the name of it. That's the name of the technology. And the best way I've seen it described is, imagine if keeping your car idling 24 seven, solved, the imaginary Sudoku is that you can exchange for heroin.
Dan Ilic 13:29 So you said you were gonna get into metaphors. But that is a very accurate metaphor, I enjoy that.
Ketan Joshi 13:35 It is my one loud metaphor. And I'm gonna spend it on that one on that tweet, because it was fantastic. So basically, to win a Bitcoin, you have to generate as many random numbers as you possibly can, it takes a lot of computational power. And that amount of computational power increases, because you need to actually have a balance between who is winning this currency who's winning these tokens, and the amount of computational power that's in the system, which means the system actually adapts as you get more and more computational power, which means basically, bring it all together, it takes more and more energy to get the next coin. Yeah. And so what you end up with is the situation in, you know, all of this sort of technology aside, you end up with this reality of you have these vast, vast quantities of server farms, sitting there just like buzzing with noise and hate just spinning out as many random nodes as they possibly can to get as much of this currency as they can. So it's called mining, they call it Bitcoin mining. And so when you see things like Bitcoin consumes as much energy as this particular country, it's because it does, like it takes that much literal, physical electrical power to run these computers to generate these transactions. Every time new coins are discovered. It takes even more How to get to the next point, right? A bit more. Yes, yeah. And so all of these dynamics, I'm simplifying, because I'm simplifying all of these dynamics very, very heavily. But the basic consequence is that by design, proof of work, and Bitcoin requires a lot of energy. So if you want to change that, if you want to change it from requiring a huge amount of energy to requiring not much energy to change the design, and actually there are people working on this, right. So there are different ways you can prove, you could introduce difficulty without having the difficulty being that you just consume ludicrous quantities of energy, right? You can have other forms of difficulty, right? There's different types of these things called proof of stake, for instance. So how many bitcoins that someone already have in their virtual wallet or something like that, right? reading into these, there's actually some hope, essentially, that you can have these things, not consuming world melting amounts of energy.
Dan Ilic 15:55 So what you're saying is that we could possibly fund this podcast by selling bits of it, and also not destroy the Earth at the same time.
Ketan Joshi 16:04 Yeah, so so it just that brings it back to what you were describing earlier, which has been described as like crypto art or non fungible tokens or NF T's very inaccessible names, basically, it's generating the serial number of a unique piece of work. So it can be a tweet, or it can be a piece of art or whatever. And that serial number is stored on a blockchain right, which means it's, it's on that spreadsheet that's replicating across a trillion billion different computers, which means when as soon as you generate it, you put you put the serial number you put this tweet is owned by Tom joshy, he paid 100 bucks for it. It's this sort of very highly trustable system, right? Which is, which is pretty good, right? Like this is something that is obviously a lot of value to artists is to have a more discreet, like almost like copyrightable sense of ownership for the art that they create,
Dan Ilic 16:55 to deal in the digital space where you create something and it goes up and you hope it goes viral. But there's no monetary gain from anything. Speaking as someone who has gone viral so many times if I had one cent for every time I've gone viral, absolutely be able to buy a new car. But
Ketan Joshi 17:13 yeah, I mean, this is what people have been trying to do with like, you know, when you see a viral tweet on Twitter, and below it, someone's written like, you know, here's my SoundCloud or whatever, like, please send me some cash. Like they'll put the code off the link there and say, can you please just help fund my you know, getting through university?
Dan Ilic 17:30 Whatever Katon? I don't know, if you realise you are. You're just outlining my business plan. So that's exactly what we do on irrational fear. We will we will go viral. Usually, this is this is no, this is no secret to irrational fear listeners. But we will create a sketch put it up on Twitter and I will write who made this. And then right underneath it, I made this subscribe to the podcast.
Ketan Joshi 17:57 So this is a real source of frustration. And like Bitcoin, it raises this fundamental question. And it's not it's not limited to Bitcoin, it's actually something that the whole energy and climate world is facing. right at this moment, which is basically is this worth it, is what we're doing worth it. So is the value that you get from copywriting. And paying for a piece of art worth the X number of kilowatt hours that was required to process this transaction. And crypto operates on a slightly different system to Bitcoin. It has the same fundamental sort of proof of work system, but it's slightly more efficient. Because you're not playing this random number game. It's actually it's actually going through this process where a whole bunch of different transactions get bundled, bundled together, it's still relatively high consuming, right, like it's still a relative decent amount of energy. And I was just looking at this one chart this morning from this website called Digi economist, and they look at the power consumption for the thing that runs crypto on NF T's which is called aetherium. Yeah, and it's it's still pretty high, you know, it's not quite as high as Bitcoin. But, you know, like that, there is still sort of some options for bringing that down. Yeah. But fundamentally, there is still this really, like almost really hard to solve problem underneath at all, which is that it requires a lot of energy. And of course, the problem with consuming a lot of energy is that we live in a fossil fuel world, predominantly fossil fueled world. Yeah. And to consume a lot of energy. You just have to consume a lot of fossil fuels.
Dan Ilic 19:32 Yeah, I've seen so many, countless numbers of vice documentaries about warehouses in China and, and orders crammed with AMD RISC chips that are all like mining Bitcoin. And there's like dude with their shirts off like plugging like plugging cables here and there. And then and then there's on the other side in rich countries like Iceland. You see these, these stories about Bitcoin factories that are built in Iceland in real Cold air is to use the natural cooling of the of the environment to to mine Bitcoin and using geothermal technology to kind of power these, these Bitcoin mining factories, but it's such a, it's it's such a headache like you're just like, you know, you, you think one thing is going to save the planet but ended up just completely destroying it.
Ketan Joshi 20:23 This is this is why this is why I kind of got sucked into it a bit because there's actually nothing really like it. There's nothing where the ratio between how much energy it consumes. And to be honest, it doesn't really seem to have clear societal benefits, right?
Dan Ilic 20:40 Yeah, you've got all these or you got all these like blockchain edge Lords who were talking about how Oh, you know, we're only at 00 point 3% of what we've explored with blockchain. I think it's gonna have exponential growth. I'm like, well, that's so much more energy
Ketan Joshi 20:56 efficient thing. Good.
Dan Ilic 20:58 Yeah, it doesn't seem seem good.
Ketan Joshi 20:59 Yeah. Well, it's actually worth mentioning the the renewable versus fossil energy thing, because something you hear a lot is basically, that Bitcoin miners will hunt out the cheapest and most surplus energy, right. So, of course, you know, renewable energy has gotten a lot cheaper over the past decade, wind and solar in particular. But what we're actually seeing is that there isn't surplus wind and solar, wind and solar being deployed and very carefully managed ways around the world, such that they do what they're meant to do, which is displace fossil fuels, instead of just sort of feeling this like rising addition of Bitcoin mining demand, and then leaving the fossil fuel system as it is like, that's not a good thing. That's not a good outcome. Yeah. And so what they're actually drawn to is hydro, in particular. And in China, what you find is that there are hydro assets that aren't particularly well interconnected into other parts of China, which means they have potential output, if so, reservoirs that are sort of like full Yeah, that they could never, they could never really set that could that is way more than local demand, right? So the logic of Bitcoin miners as well, we kind of just, you know, we like, flow into those into those bits of surplus and consume that. So, you know, it's like, it's not really changing the situation at all. And it's not quite how that manifests in the real world. Yeah, because what is happening is that every part of the renewable energy world that is like stranded or surplus, what we're finding is that we actually need to connect it up to the world to start displacing fossil fuels. I mean, China is a particularly great example of where there's a lot of coal happening. So those renewable assets need to be going towards displacing fossil fuels. So if they're stranded, that's not a good thing. And to lock them into being stranded by saying, we'll give you a revenue stream, from your surplus from from mining Bitcoin is basically diverting that action to link it all together, to start pushing down on fossil fuels. Yeah, that's not a good thing. And then, on top of that, this is whole push within the Bitcoin mining community to actually specifically use fossil fuels so actively and consciously seek out fossil fuel mining operations, so so oil and gas, and to say, well, you guys, through the process of extracting oil and gas from the ground, you get this thing where methane leaks from these sites, right. So what they do is either they just let it let me think seep into the atmosphere, which is extremely bad. Or they burn it off, which is slightly less bad. This is all in the process of extracting fossil fuels, which eventually get burned. What is the logic in actively seeking out fossil fuels in that case, so So what they're saying is like, well, because all of this waste product, all of this waste me, young, these mining sites will either be released or burned, we may as well just burn that burn that waste to mine Bitcoin. So fine, you can see these videos, and it's not a secret, you know, they're very sort of open about it. You see these videos of like these shipping containers at oil and gas fields. And they'll just slowly pan the camera around from like, you know, this sort of classic like oil drilling thing, you know, they've got like the big weight on one end. Yeah. And they'll pan they'll pan around from that oil drilling thing to this shipping container that's buzzing, you know, like, like, it's full of Hornets. And it's full of like LED lights. And it's a little seven farm that's mining Bitcoin, because they're taking the gas, but they're still burning gas. And, yeah, when you burn gas it creates it creates greenhouse gas emissions. So the net impact of what they're doing is, it's either nothing or it's worse because when you look at the websites of these companies, they're like, Look, we're actually doing this to help the optics of the fossil fuel industry, the venting and flaring problem of methane at these sites has been under has been the subject of criticism for a long time. In you know, Biden's administration, the US is like we have to crack down on all these like waste methane issues at these sites. So the Bitcoin miners come in and they're like, don't worry about the waste. Just burn you can just burn the fossil fuel to mine Bitcoin and it's actually an environmental benefit.
Dan Ilic 25:27 Has anyone? Is anyone seriously trading off that though? Is anyone seriously putting that in a press release saying that, you know, hey, you know, where the where the do Gooding oil company that's flaring off our methane to mine Bitcoin?
Ketan Joshi 25:40 Yeah, it's not just the companies that are sort of, you know, offering this as a pathway but like the, like these massive giants like Ecuador. So, you know, Ecuador being the state owned oil company here in Norway, where I live. They, they have been investing in this because they're like, we're actually we're actually solving the problem.
Dan Ilic 26:04 I never thought I never thought I'd say this, but I can next year I will heading out to election i can i can just say Scott Morrison saying we're going to have a Bitcoin led recovery. A blockchain lead recovery.
Ketan Joshi 26:15 Oh my god. Yeah. So I mean, actually, you know, they're actually awesome. I saw a tweet yesterday like another another Norwegian oil and gas company announced their intention to sort of invest in Bitcoin not not specifically using methane to generate it, but to just did they taking the cash that they have, and just investing in Bitcoin, with some weird promises about using stranded renewable energy assets, but no clarity on what they mean. Yeah. And someone you know, someone tweeted at like all the Australian oil and gas companies like Woodside HCl and origin being like, Hey, guys, why aren't you doing? This is a great idea. So so to bring it all together? Yeah, basically, what I've been been finding out is that, first of all, it contains a lot of energy. I think people sort of know this, like they've seen it in articles, you know, they've read about all the comparisons. That's a little mystery. But with Bitcoin mining, in particular, there seems to be this like energy pushing them towards fossil fuels. And it's because what they are drawn towards is not zero emissions power, they are drawn towards cheap stranded power. And oil and gas mining operations actually fit that bill really nicely. Demand for fossil fuels is going to decrease very significantly. And so if these Bitcoin miners step up and say, well, don't worry about all the, you know, people not wanting your fossil fuels, will take them, the price of those fossil fuels will drop very significantly due to due to the fall in demand. And they will probably be there to be like, well, don't worry about your coal mine, your gas mine, your oil extraction thing, we'll just take that energy that you're extracting, and use it to mine Bitcoin. And they can kind of say, Well, you know, they'll sort of like frame it in this like tortured logic of, we're actually doing an environmental benefit. But really, they're monetizing the this sort of side this like waste stream from the fossil fuel industry. So anyway, I've written a sort of very long post about this, because I think it's actually a very nice summary of a relatively important debate that we're all having, which is like, how do we manage energy? You know, do we live in like a high energy world, low energy world who gets it? How do we connect up renewable energy? How do we figure out what to do with fossil fuel companies? Like do we congratulate them if they're doing something that sounds vaguely like it's environmentally beneficial? Or do we remain critical of them? All these questions are really big and important. I'll publish that pace. Probably later this week. I'm not sure when this podcast will go out. But if anyone wants to read three to 4000 word, rant for me about this. I don't know why you would want to, then yeah, it'll be published soon, we'll be able to buy it an open seat on IO as a nifty question. Yeah, I mean, the crypto art thing as well is is an interesting cultural comparison, because Bitcoin is just full of libertarians. Yeah. You know, plenty of whom are not particularly influential types are right. Yes. Yeah. And so well, yeah. And also, you know, also not particularly open minded towards, like collective climate action and like government regulation, fossil fuel companies and things like that. But then, like, the art community is very, very different. You know, like, it's really, of course, it's a lot of environmentally conscious people, people who you would sort of think are a lot more into like climate action and environmental justice and things like that. And of course, you see a very different reaction. Now you see a lot of backlash from with In the arts community against the sort of like, I guess, the excesses of this, but then there's also a lot of people who are like, well, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Because if we can really bring the energy consumption down, the concept is really sound and really beneficial for a lot of people who would like to get paid for the stuff that they're doing. So there is some work, you know, to try and rescue I guess, to try and cleave it away from the Bitcoin libertarian world and into this like, basically like a useful technological tool to help artists get paid.
Dan Ilic 30:33 I think that's where that's where I am right now, as I create, I like thinking like, you know, how, how do we use this to get paid, but how do we also not not destroy the Earth at the same time? I think it's really interesting that you kind of mentioned that, that the oil industry, the fossil fuel industry, are using Bitcoin as a delay tactic, considering they are the kings of delay tactics and your your book in your book windfall. It's just, it's just like 400 pages of delay tactics. I think I think that some, I think one of the one of the things I love about your writing patterns, is just how clear it is, and how often you return back to first principles all the time, I really appreciate that. Like, I think you whenever you talk about coal, you kind of talk about it, how it's just the sunlight trapped in a rock, or you're always talking about climate change, about how the government is slowly trying to kill its citizens. And one of my favourite motifs is an idea how you, you kind of return to again and again and again about how it's just a handful of powerful individuals that are responsible for the position that we're in. And one of the things one of the, my, my favourite senators in the book is about house when you're articulating Australia's last decade of climate action, and he said it was squashed into the boot of a callous few lately protecting their own manufactured realities. It's such a when you when you kind of write like that. And when you return back to first principles, the obfuscation kind of floats away. And you're kind of left with this bare naked truth as to kind of the position we're in and the absurdity that the Australian Government is in is in, in particular, where what have you learned by moving to Oslo? And looking back at Australia?
Ketan Joshi 32:17 Yeah, this is this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently, because what is happening this year is this global environment, this like sort of global climate meeting in November called cop 26. Conference of Parties, it was meant to be the it's the sort of the five year check in. And it was meant to be last year 2020, obviously, delayed due to COVID-19. It may not even happen this year, if if the vaccination stuff goes slowly. So that means that the whole world kind of stands up in their podiums and says, Well, this is where we're at with climate change. And so that means Australia also stands up and says, this is where we're at, we're checking in, it's been five years, six years since the Paris Agreement started. And that means the sort of trapped world that every country has been living in, you know, looking at their own climate politics.
Dan Ilic 33:16 What are you trying to say every country has their own version of the camera bubble?
Ketan Joshi 33:20 Is that what you're trying to say? Yeah, basically, essentially, yeah, this is something else that's actually become very clear is that as I have existed Australia's timezone, it's actually pretty tough to get people to think about different countries, when they're when they're really sort of into their own in their own particular area. I mean, maybe I think maybe America might be the worst offender of this, because they sort of, there's a lot of things that happen in there that they treat is like the first time that it's
Unknown Speaker 33:46 like, no, no.
Ketan Joshi 33:48 Many of these things have happened elsewhere.
Dan Ilic 33:50 Yeah. And the matrix is early in the metric systems, the big one there, I think.
Ketan Joshi 33:54 Yeah, absolutely. But what what Australia is going to is finding out this year and what we'll what we're only at the very start of, and will become more intense as the year goes on, is that a lot of things have become saturated, and because they're saturated, people get people lose their sensitivity to how bad and horrific The situation is. So to give you an example, in the UK, in the past few weeks, this coal mine that was proposed is called Cumbria. And it's like this. On the scale of UK is coal mines. It's it's relatively big, right? Because coal mining in the UK has declined over the over the past century, to almost nothing. There's a couple of really small ones. And of course, coal fired power generation in the UK has also declined to almost nothing. It is functionally no longer really playing a role on the grid in the UK. This coal mine has been proposed. It's an underground coal mine. I was looking at the discourse around it, and it's Intense right like this, the local council, the UK Government, climate activists, investors, the debate on this one Coal Mine is just like this really, really launched focus. And I was looking at it and I was like, hmm, Gee, I wonder how that coal mine compares to like Australia's current, like list of planned coal mines, so nonoperational coal mines in Australia, but the ones that are sort of at various stages of like, you know, getting towards operation, and I put it onto this chart, which is basically looking at the number of mega tonnes of output of coal per year from each coal mine,
Dan Ilic 35:39 will I need to get it? Well, I need to get a skew bag for the rest of the Senate.
Ketan Joshi 35:45 Well, I'll try not to describe it too vividly. But basically, it's like this tiny little red dot and like Australia's planned coal mines, several orders of magnitude greater. I found that really stunning, right? Because it's not like the level of outrage and emotion within Australia's leadership within political circles is is equivalently larger than the level of outrage at this one tiny planned coal mine in the UK? And of course, like, the reason is obvious, right? Is because that plant coal mine in the UK is new. It's like a new unfamiliar thing for UK people to go, Oh, my God, a coal mine. Are you kidding me? Like, why? Why are we building a coal mine? That's bonkers. Like we, you know, we're holding, we're hosting cop 26 at the end of the year, and you're building a damn coal mine. And then, you know, you look at Australia. You know, just to give one single example, though, is this amazing? This is amazing court case being brought against the Australian Federal Government, on the grounds that expanding a coal mine, expanding a planned coal mine. And just the expansion of this coal mine dwarfs the magnitude of this coal mine in the UK. And, and like, that got some attention that this court case being brought by a group of teenagers, but it didn't get anywhere near the magnitude of attention that the Cumbria Coal Mine is getting in the UK, and its saturation, right? Like, it's just like this, you know, it's not like people don't care. It's just that if they were to care by the same order of magnitude, then they wouldn't be able to function as human beings, right? Like the like, you just you would be so overwhelmed by how much you should care about, about like the production line of new coal in Australia. Yeah. And the other thing that's worth noting is that this production line of new coal extraction in Australia, is globally very, very significant. There was this report last year from the International Energy Agency that looked at the coal production in different countries. And they're like, Look, there's a few countries in the world that are just going to be the engine of new coal production in coming years. And Australia is one of them. There's other countries like Indonesia, actually, Germany is up there, as well, because Germany really seems to be big on coal mining is a couple of others. I can't quite recall from the report, but Australia is basically a key player. Right? And oh, and sorry, of course, China, it but China uses a lot of the coal that it produces, right? It's not a big net exporter. Australia is one of the countries that actually supplies it to elsewhere in the world. So that is really the sort of the key thing that I felt looking back on Australia, because it's this barrage, this daily barrage over new things, that because it obviously becomes extremely difficult to maintain outrage about because it's just so proportional II, massive in Australia, and compared to other countries where, like the UK, for instance, where the horrific stuff still happens, but it happens more frequently, which means which lets you have the emotional capacity to go, oh my god, and you call mine and talk about this. Whereas in Australia, you get this phenomenon where like with coal mining, for instance, you kind of have to concentrate all of your feelings onto one symbolic example, like the Carmichael coal Adani, coal mine, Donnie.
Unknown Speaker 39:13 Yeah, yeah.
Ketan Joshi 39:14 Yeah, it's like the only way you can emotionally manage because if you were to spread it equally across all the coal mines planned in Australia, you would never have the you would melt into a puddle. The brain capacity. Yes. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 39:27 It's one of those things like to communicate it you need just like a very simple emoji and the stopper Danny thing really symbolises that and even though stop Danny's actually stopped everything happening in the Galilee basin. That's kind of that's kind of in the Galilee basin is filled with hundreds of cold coal companies all vying for the coal underneath underneath the Galilee basin. Yeah, Ben Adani is the easiest Danny's like this Dinis, like the signpost that we all rally behind and even when they change the name to bribe us, we still you stop it down because I don't know, I
Ketan Joshi 40:00 just use the all of the wrong things that are done in the past. I treat them as a completely new company. So that's basically why I write the way I do in a sense, because I, because I always want to. I want to try and describe things in a slightly different or literal way. We often rely on shorthand to talk about this topic, because of course, like it's just a, it's just a weird new complex sciency, you know, economic like, Techno political thing. Yeah. So if sometimes you just sort of read describe what you're talking about in a slightly different way, then it just resets that emotional exhaustion,
Dan Ilic 40:43 it almost makes it sound, you know, climate action, and going carbon neutral sound completely achievable as well. Like, I think one of the one of the things you constantly mentioned in your book is, is like you re, you return to again, and again, is saying that no, even if one molecule of co2 equivalent is stays in the ground, that's great. You know, like, when you when you put it down, when you put it as my noodle is that you like, Oh, yeah, shit, yeah, that's what this is all about. It's about keeping the stuff in the ground,
Ketan Joshi 41:12 that sort of links it back to renewable energy in my own advocacy of renewable energy, because we can confirm that, you know, grids are finite. Like, if you if you have 100, people demanding electricity, and then you know, 50 of those people get it from wind and solar, whereas they otherwise would have got it from coal and gas, then that's an emissions reduction, we can confirm that this, oddly enough, was actually almost controversial last decade, like this is something you know, wind and solar were kind of treated as like a sideshow of like, Oh, you know, they're there. But they're generating so randomly that we don't really know they're there, whether they're reducing emissions a lot. It's kind
Dan Ilic 41:50 of strange. Like, I feel like there's a couple of conversations happening at different levels of government in Australia with that is still the case, like in federal government, you have a whole bunch of right wing conservatives who who kind of have that same, it's still that same dialogue, that same conversation, whereas a lot of other conservatives are kind of kind of on the renewables train at a state level. And you kind of see the shift in mode in conversation, the main, if you will, that renewables aren't reliable is kind of disappearing.
Ketan Joshi 42:23 Yeah, I split it in the book, I split it into three sort of categories, right. One is price. One is like grid security or reliability, and the other is emissions. And so it's just been this three pronged fight to prove that, like, renewables can perform those three functions. And so, in each of those three, the balance of discourse has been in exactly the wrong direction. Like you had this, like, you, I'm sure, you know, your listeners will recognise this is like whole decade of like, renewables are too expensive, that no one can afford them. And of course, what we what we're discovering now is that the majority of price falls and electricity prices in Australia, I'd usually to renewables
Dan Ilic 43:03 renewable energy. Yeah,
Ketan Joshi 43:05 won't last forever, of course, but it's actually it's pretty damn good that that's happening. The next thing has been grid reliability. You know, South Australia had its blackout. And then suddenly, everyone was like, Oh, see, you know, wind and solar cause blackouts. And now we're realising that strong to this one.
Dan Ilic 43:20 This was really fascinating. In your book, you spent a lot of time dissecting the 2016 blackout in South Australia, why did you just disband? Why did you decide to spend so many pages dissecting? What was it five seconds of grid problems in Australia?
Ketan Joshi 43:37 My long suffering editor actually convinced me to pare that down the book actually would have been substantially longer.
Dan Ilic 43:46 And I say, as a reader, I really enjoyed it. It might have been my favourite part of the book.
Ketan Joshi 43:51 Yeah, because because it was the it's actually my favourite. No, sorry. It's my second favourite part of that. But my favourite part is the community and issue pot, which maybe we can come to later. Yeah, the mismatch between reality and discourse that was the greatest, I think it has had the most noticeable impacts on the way energy policy happens in Australia. So back then back in, like sort of 2016 2017 the narrative was like, if you build more wind and solar, it's gonna cause blackouts. I promise you it's going to cause blackouts. What was happening is that a lot of wind and solar was being built because it was incentivized under the renewable energy target, and blackouts, grid stress were increasing, because climate change is happening and heat waves are becoming more intense and longer. bushfires are impacting parts of electricity infrastructure like transmission lines. And that means there's more more stress on the grid. And coal, coal and gas fired power stations are getting older and less, they're becoming more susceptible rather to moments of great stress. So all these moments were like heat waves That just blatantly worsened or intensified by climate change, causing calling gas plants to basically shut down or power lines to get wrecked. Those were all blamed on wind and solar, because they were like, well, CCC hypothesis has been proved, like we told you that the presence of wind and solar would cause all these problems. This has actually changed somewhat since then, what we're going to see now is over the next few years in Australia, it's going to shift away from a narrative about renewables and towards the closure of coal and gas fired power stations, right? It will initially be mostly about coal, because there's this phenomenon that is about to happen in Australia's grades where coal simply loses its profit, profitability, wind and solar are so cheap, as a fundamental of the way they operate in that you don't have to extract the fuel that they use, you get it from the atmosphere and space, then coal simply can't compete. Because it's more expensive, you need to dig a hole out of the ground and transport it. This is without a carbon tax, without any, you know, without any form of carbon pricing essentially, in Australia at all. So this, this is something that's going to accelerate. And what is going to happen is that these companies that operate these, these, these power stations will say, this is really bad. All of our coal fired power stations are going to blip offline, and it's going to cause chaos, there's going to be blackouts, there's going to be price rises, because renewables, wind and solar will not be able to pick up the slack. So it's sort of an extension of that of that debate from like, sort of the mid 2015 onwards, that wind and solar can't provide reliable power, but it's going to be it's not going to be used as a reason to attack wind and solar. It's going to be used as a justification for keeping coal plants running longer.
Dan Ilic 46:55 And that means for subsidies. Yeah, yeah.
Ketan Joshi 46:59 Yeah, this is my prediction. I think that this is the way it's going to go over the next like one or two years. And you're already sort of starting to see some signs of it like is in what we what we know, for absolute Sure, is that Australia will not align to ambitious, strong climate targets, unless it's shut down shuts down its coal fired power plants before they're set to retire. Because every coal plant has it has a date on it, that it's like it that it retires. And you can put those dates into a spreadsheet and say, if they run to that day, what are the emissions? And then you can say what emissions Do we need to be under to align with climate targets. And of course, letting those coal plants run to the end date means we blow past our carbon, we emit way more than we should, if you were to sort of assign a 1.5 degree global target to Australia. So there's just no there's absolutely no escaping that math. And think back to last year, where a coal fired power station in New South Wales called Adel a relatively big one is usually close in 2022. For very, very close, right, like this is this is right around the corner. The reaction from the government was initially, we have to keep this open. We need to extend its lifespan for another five years. That did not go down particularly well, because the even the owners were like, I don't think we can do that. It was just the quantity of government money that would have been required. It was it was beyond the pale even for that. So then they said, Look, what we think is that the the owner of that coal fired power station should be forced to sell it to someone who will agree to keep it open. And Australia's government like toyed around with that idea for a while it didn't work. And the latest that we saw was Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor standing up in front of the cameras and saying, Listen up energy market, you have been very naughty. This coal plant is due to shut down very soon. And we feel that the replacement capacity hasn't been put in place. So we so we are threatening to build a 1000 megawatt gas fired power station as a punishment. Because you've been so naughty, and you haven't built you haven't replaced the capacity of this coal fired power station, that we're going to build another fossil fuel power station to replace it as punishment. So you can so what the reason is, is because
Dan Ilic 49:27 the gas the gas powered recovery is blackmail to keep the coal industry going. Is that what you're saying?
Ketan Joshi 49:34 Ah, look, it's confusing. I can't quite follow your logic if the gas fired recovery. But essentially, essentially, the The reason I bring this up is it's actually a really nice example of how big the absolute key debates This is really extremely central to Australia's entire climate issue is shutting down coal fired power stations before For them in to retire. When a coal plant when a coal plant reaches its retirement date, the government can't even handle it shutting down on its minister.
Dan Ilic 50:11 It sounds it sounds like the government is so sick, like absolutely sick. Like it's that they've got an illness.
Ketan Joshi 50:19 Yeah. So so this is what I this is kind of links back to what I mean when I say like saturation, right? Because such a such a bad situation of like, they can't even handle the absolute baseline basic starting point of this issue, to control emissions to where they need to be controlled to that. You look at the way it's covered stuff like this. And people it's like, almost like people just don't want to and when I say people start I mean, I mean, you know, I guess like the bulk of like coverage in like News Corp and like large media outlets, you know, they sort of almost can't deal with how bad the situation is. They sort of like cover it like, yeah, I guess Hey, let's go up and suggested 1000 megawatt gas fired power station, environmental groups criticised it. Yeah. Next one, let's move on. Yeah. And it's like, if you can imagine the, I guess, like trying sort of related back to COVID-19. And the tone of like, emergency not not just from Australian citizens, but from media outlets to you know, the sort of really, those this air of like, this is an actual emergency and it needs to be treated as such. You know, bad decisions were criticised as, as such, you know, that, like it didn't really matter, that people would be seen as being too biassed in favour of saving lives from the impacts of COVID-19. They did it anyway, because they felt is journalists, you know, it was their sort of duty to serve the public interest and criticise bad policy decisions on the grounds of protecting the lives of people vulnerable to the impacts of this disease. The very same logic of like, well, the government ought to be criticised on the grounds that they're allowing the emissions of the substance which causes harm to human life doesn't really come into play. And it's frustrating. Another good example is actually, the next biggest sector of Australia's emissions is transport. Australia, you know, it's just a lot of cars, a lot of big cars, not as much public transport as they could be in big cities, not as much active transport like walking and cycling as they could be in the big cities. And consequently, Australia has very high transport emissions, even relative to the population. The upside is that decarbonizing transport is just as much is just as feasible as power, right? Like we have the technology, you know, bicycle hills, like ebikes, public transports, electric vehicles, electric buses, all these sorts of things, long distance transport as well. There's a lot of different options available. Australia could start now very easily on decarbonizing transport, and a few months ago, this long awaited plan came out from Australia's government and it was just this huge struggle they just like, we're not gonna bother, like we're just going to electric vehicles will probably eventually get cheaper, right? That's that's completely in arguable and they're sort of looking at that they're sort of holding that and going, Hey, look, you know, electric vehicles are gonna get cheaper. So why is everyone panicking. And of course, the reason that we're panicking is that you need to put some force into the system. Yeah, make it go quicker
Dan Ilic 53:35 to make go quick, because we're running out of time. And I really enjoyed, I really enjoyed that kind of attitude that I saw on Twitter from a lot of conservatives like see, we don't need to help the sector, the sector is going to sort itself out. And then, of course, two years ago, when there was an election going on, you had mykhailiuk cash, gay trainees are gonna lose their use and lose their weekends if labour has its way. It's such a peculiar fact up argument, that it just makes my head hurt so bad. It's incredibly frustrating to see that some states treasurer's, like in South Australia and New South Wales, are even considering putting a tax on on a vase. Like why would you want to put an economic disincentive to buy an Eevee at this juncture,
Ketan Joshi 54:24 this is a very sort of salient problem to me, because, you know, I live in Oslo, in Norway and Noy has, you know, easily leads the world and the deployment of electric vehicles, but it's actually really interesting when you dig into the policy mechanisms that we use, right? So it's this really fine balance between at the very start, you have relatively strong incentives for abs, but you actually need to need to go through this process is Evie start filtering into the fleet of private vehicles in a country, you actually then need to kind of flick it the other way around a little bit and start to rebalance. The level of like taxation, so things like, there was this great interview with the head of the Norwegian electric vehicle Association where she talks about the fact that of course, every single thing that people do has some impact on society. So even using a private vehicle, even if it's electric, you know, that has, you need to use a road. To do that there's infrastructure that must be maintained, you pay a toll when use certain road tires emit particulates, that sort of thing. But there's also benefits relative to a combustion engine vehicle, of course, there's no air pollution in the greenhouse gas emissions is quieter, there's less air pollution, all that sort of stuff. So you need to then have this balancing act of like, don't let ABS be entirely excluded, because there are some impacts from usage of a private vehicle or, you know, most of the activities, of course, that humanity that like people do in cities as well. And what has happened in those states in Australia, is they've just mucked up the order quite badly. So they've started, they've started with the strict, like, you know, they started with a disincentive. And then they're like, we'll get to the we'll get to the step one, after we've done Step six, like so. And it's like, no, that's gonna Of course, that decreases the deployment of electric vehicles. I interviewed the head of the Norwegian Navy Association about this. And they're like, you just kind of see like the look on their face. It's like squinting at you like, they're like, why are you doing this in precisely the wrong order?
Unknown Speaker 56:36 That's crazy.
Dan Ilic 56:37 So you are a prolific tweeter. And your tweets are some of the most enjoyable tweets, particularly around energy and environment. Probably, I would say the best Twitter person to follow if you want if you're into environment stuff. One of my favourite tweets was you publishing a story from the Australian and it was like a bad a KPMG report. And he said consequences of mining now considered major threat to mining says, say miners, and for me, that was probably the most underrated tweet of 2020 and should have should have got far more tweets than the 43 retweets I got. I don't know when you hit 20. Do you think? Do you think this is definitely gonna be a 43? Or this is definitely gonna hit 500? Like what what was going through your mind when you hit tweet when you hit tweet on that one?
Ketan Joshi 57:22 I never, I can never tell the my often my crappiest tweets send out the most popular and my best ones end up the least appreciated.
Dan Ilic 57:30 And one of my I think I kind of made a connection today is like there was some data pulled together by KPMG, which made me think about today's big energy news story about the federal government spending $9 million on consultants to work out how best to subsidise the gas industry. And those consultants weren't KPMG. And clearly, Boston Consulting Group is happy to come up with different kinds of information for the game. Yeah,
Ketan Joshi 57:58 it's actually I intend to write about this one right about this one, too, because it's a really, really fascinating story. And it's great work from the Australia Institute for for, you know, having that scoop and sort of getting those documents that tell them, my writing is split into two halves at the moment. One is one is, you know, sort of renewables focus, like grid energy technology stuff. And the other half is actually critique fossil fuel industry critique. And also like in general sort of climate plan critique, because what we're seeing a lot of is, is not just fossil fuel companies, but many other companies, is sensing the change in the wind and going, Oh, okay, well, we need to come up with a climate plan. What do we do? You know, like, do we, we need to reduce our emissions from a company, you know, whatever the company is, and you've got this whole spectrum of like, really, really good ones, where people are very, you know, very consciously recognise that their environmental footprint. Actually a good example of a good one is Google, surprisingly enough, I fully expected them to go for, you know, greenwashing crappy plans, but they've got a fantastic plan where they, where they match, they actually turn their data centres into demand matching for renewables. So it actually helps ease the integration of renewable energy. So bad one, isn't actually there was a really good article last year, I can't find it, because I needed to write my thing. But it examined Boston Consulting group's own net zero plan. And what they, and they have this, you know, with every one of these netzero plans, what happens is you get this really sort of like, flashy media thing, where it's like, Look, you know, here's another one. Here's another company, you know, showing that they're sort of caring about climate change. And often these are actually really good signals, these netzero plans, so they do hit they do do some good in that everyone's kind of watching this happen, and they're going like, Oh, fantastic, you know, now we now we need to do it. But then the next step after everyone kind of agrees that we all need to do this is to dig into the details of that plan and say, well, actually you need to improve this particular thing. Boston Consulting Group did this really interesting thing. And then zero plan where they don't really change the number of flights that they consultants take very much. They kind of just fill it in with offsets, right. So this is either like planting trees, or having a technology that sucks carbon carbon from the air. Those are the kind of the two types of offsets, they call them natural technological offsets. There's a lot of controversy around both with with the tree stuff, obviously, you need to actually have something that removes carbon permanently. Obviously, we got it from the ground, we've got it from deep underground. And if you kind of just have it on the surface, in a tree or in the soil, very unstable, re released back into the hemisphere. There's also some controversy around you know, there's a lot of projects that are sort of sold is like, we're building this we're planting this tree specifically because you paid us to do it. But of course, that tree may have been planted anyway. So it's not additional, there's no additionality is the word. Carbon removal has a lot more hope going for it. But it's it's a long way off. And then often the promise of carbon removal just get to us. As like, you know, we'll just continue burning fossil fuels, because we recommend like 2049, someone will just have this amazing technology that will just suck all the carbon out that we've spent 29 years releasing, it's like
Dan Ilic 1:01:09 the same, the same, the same kind of false promise of carbon capture storage, just like Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we've got these two, we've got these two plants, and we think they're working, but we're not quite sure, but they don't really work. But we'll just say we've got them. So it means we don't have to do anything for another 15 years.
Ketan Joshi 1:01:23 Yeah, and I often often produce these charts with like, here's how much they've released. And here's how much they've captured. And it's just like a ridiculous. visible, we've got to like squint at your laptop or phone. So So BCG offset their flights, you know, show instead of saying we're gonna figure out a way to fly less, they just said they just call it in with trees, and they will just continue, will largely continue doing what we're doing. But it will just have we're just commentaries and it's like, okay, that's actually that's actually not a particularly great thing to do. Because it's not reducing the amount of carbon that's being added to the atmosphere, the planting of trees is probably a good thing. And it certainly helps. But then you can't have that as the thing that you're relying on, you actually need to reduce your emissions as well. Yeah. So bcj were on my radar last year. And then there are a lot of companies that work is enabling for the fossil fuel industry without actually being specifically digging up fossil fuels themselves. Of course, the other category is like public relations, like marketing, advertising, things like
Dan Ilic 1:02:23 that, I was gonna say Can Can could could be CJ possibly lower their carbon emissions by not working for the Australian Government and working out how to burn more fossil fuels.
Ketan Joshi 1:02:34 You know, it's not captured in their annual report, like you won't see, here's a list of our clients. You know, here's Exxon Mobil, here's the Australian Government, blah, blah, blah, you won't see that sort of stuff. And there's a lot of actually really good groups. There's one in Australia called calms declare, there's another one as well. I've completely forgotten the name. But basically what they
Dan Ilic 1:02:51 thought of another one called a podcast declare as well.
Ketan Joshi 1:02:55 Oh, yeah, yeah, I've seen I've seen that Twitter account. Yeah, it's good. I mean, like this is basically, this is really important stuff. Because I think to some degree, we underestimate the impact of particularly advertising. You know, like consultancies, obviously, play a pretty big role in this sort of stuff. Like you can see the impact there. With BCG in the Australian Government, their marketing and advertising is going to become a much much bigger thing as decarbonisation moves from like grid stuff, like, you know, huge wind and solar farms out in rural areas, and into our homes. So like cars, you know, the type of stovetop that you have decisions that you make around like, where you put your money, you know, like which super which super funds, you put your money and that sort of thing. All of this is actually becoming way more individual. And so marketing and Mass Communication are going to be really, really big things this decade, the I was just tweeting this morning about the gas industry, they they really don't want people building new homes without connections to the gas network. The more people choose not to connect their new home to gas, the less value their infrastructure has, and it's freaking them out. Because you know, induction cooktops work amazingly well. You don't fill your home with fossil fuel protected like you don't know burning a fossil fuel inside your damn heart.
Dan Ilic 1:04:12 You're not putting me in your house where you live.
Ketan Joshi 1:04:16 There's an interesting side issue right equity of course, like I've been a lifelong renter,
Dan Ilic 1:04:22 you and I are similar in similar positions where like it'd be all well and good to be able to do renovations to place we live to have an induction stove top to have electricity beaming from our rooms to our homes and doing all these ones and having a having a Tesla in the driveway. First of all, I've got to get a driveway. And yeah, so like to do all these things when you're when you actually don't have the power to do any of that yourself. If you're not a homeowner, that's a very different game to play. As a consumer myself, I try to make choices that are that thoughtful like a carbon offset my car even though I even though I'm totally aware of the nature of carbon offset, it still makes me feel good.
Ketan Joshi 1:05:10 No, it's certainly something that you should do. I mean, like, as long as they're, as long as they're like high quality, you know, as long as they're verified, and that you are in a situation where you can't afford to purchase an electric car, or, you know, you live in a certain spot where you can't live your life without, like, it's not feasible for you to walk or catch, you know, use a bicycle or catch public transport. And in Australia, of course, there are many, many, many instances of where that's the case for most people, then I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with deciding to try and do some other action it doesn't need doesn't even have to be an offset, you know, you can like funds like a community solar organisation, or you know, you can you can purchase greenhouse electricity, like, there's a bunch of different things that you can do, that don't have to be a one for one emissions cancelling thing that really helped a lot. This is actually a really important point because the debate between individual action and like systemic regulatory action on climate change really rebounds between these two things, and people just get caught up in this rebounds, right where they just like getting buffeted around like, Oh, my God, I feel bad for not doing too much in my life that I don't know I don't feel bad at all. Because it's the corporation's you know, that should be doing it. Oh, no, I feel bad again, Oh, my God. Like, don't let yourself be emotionally battered around by this by this constantly shifting focus, right? Because
Dan Ilic 1:06:28 as you say, as you say, you should feel good for doing something good, you should feel good because you didn't put molecules in the air. So that's that's exactly
Ketan Joshi 1:06:35 right. So so the actually, the gas industry is a really good example of this. Because there's a dimension, right, there's a spectrum, where we actually get more room to make the to make emissions, lower emissions decisions in life, because of regulation, right. So the example I often use is, I live here in Oslo, I cycle my kid to childcare. But I only do that because somebody fought to get bike lanes in Seoul. And this is actually a really recent phenomenon. And Oslo suddenly, in the past few years, that bike lanes have become ubiquitous in the city. And if they weren't there, I would not be doing this, it freaks me out, I would probably be driving a car. And if I didn't have the option to drive an electric car, I'd probably be driving a fossil fuel car. Because I need to get my kids to childcare. And so it's the I've made a decision. Like I could still drive a fossil fuel car if I wanted to. But the reason that I've made the decision, this lifestyle change is because somebody fought in Oslo's council to get this like option available to me, with the gas industry as well, they are looking at marketing and advertising campaigns to get people to have gas in their homes, because it will impact regulation, because they want like a body of people out there who will stand up and say, I like my steak when it's cooked by fossil fuels. And I don't like my steak when it's cooked by electricity from those wimpy wind farms and like they need that their to be able to say, Well, I want this state government to introduce a policy where they're not going to allow the banning of gas connections, for instance, and this is happening in the US, entire states are creating these things called ban bands, which is basically Yeah, this is wild. So they're banning the banning of gas connections. That's such
Dan Ilic 1:08:24 an American thing. That's such a magazine.
Ketan Joshi 1:08:26 Yeah, similar thing is actually happening with plastics. So there are pre emptive bands of plastic bag bans, where they say you're not allowed to stop people from using plastic bags. single use single use plastic bags, because that's too much of a of a, you know, it's impinging on the freedom of whatever it really you know, of course, it's there to produce the to, to protect the petrochemical industry producing the raw materials for those plastic bags, right. But it's a growing trend, and they need and they need widespread public support. Because these are all really local issues. Now, particularly with gas network stuff, they're going to be really local issues. So they need people to be like having warm feelings towards their warm feelings towards gas and gas connections. And you can tell I've obviously been doing a lot of reading and writing about about the gas industry. But it feels kind of relevant, you know, because Australia's doing its whole gas fired recovery thing.
Dan Ilic 1:09:26 About a year ago to get the gas industry we're putting together events with influences to make people feel good about gas. So they had these wellness influences doing yoga and meditating next to a gas fired fireplace where they were breathing in me shade and particulate matter. In the sake of wellness to kind of sell gas to a whole bunch of you paid Evans types.
Ketan Joshi 1:09:51 They cited some studies where they said that looking at a flame creates psychological wellness and therefore You shouldn't be putting gas in your home. I'll give you another example, that some, you know, it's sort of within COVID, because it's sort of relevant. Last year in America, this council in California was looking to implement a ban on new gas connections, and the gas lobby in this area, threatened to bus in protesters, and sent a message saying, if you go ahead with this, what we will do is busing protesters to protest your your attempts to ban gas connections. And that that is going to spread COVID-19 in your in so they specifically used
Dan Ilic 1:10:43 weaponized COVID-19
Ketan Joshi 1:10:44 respiratory disease as a threat to force people to have the option of having another respiratory illness from having gas burning inside your home with inadequate ventilation. So, like, you can tell why I've been so obsessed with this particular like, you know, phenomenon around the world, because the gas industry starting to get pretty dirty about this stuff, right? Like they're getting really, they doing like, do you remember sort of like the old coal PR stuff from like, the 2010s? You know, where they would do like ads, you know, with a lump of coal spinning in like, you know, bright light and that sort of stuff? Yeah, yeah, they would, they would do all these, like, you know, filthy astroturf things and get like, you know, dodgy operators to come in and do PR. So like, all that sort of coal stuff from the 2010s to get the gas industry starting to kind of do a bit of, that's a really significant thing, I think we can actually prepare ourselves a bit for it, by knowing how all of these things are gonna go and kind of knowing how they operate. And that's why I write about that stuff so much, because I want to be like, Look, we know, we can actually predict very reliably what's gonna happen here. And so watch out for it and don't fall prey to the, to the lines of reasoning that they'll they'll be using.
Dan Ilic 1:12:05 Yeah, we actually made a parody on irrational fear of the little black rock, I think was gonna call it was called magical Black Rock is saying, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let me play that parody for you. Now, hang on, here we go.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:21 This can provide endless kinds of environmental destruction. It'll create carbon emissions, respiratory disease, and more waterfront land than ever before, delivering more than 50 million people the motivation to move from their countries to ours, it creates jobs for 1000s of machines, built by people all over the world. due to falling demand. It's the cheapest it's been in over a decade, but consequences of using it will still look expensive. Because if we use it as fast as we can, our world will look just like this little black rock. Whatever is good for humanity. This shit is the opposite.
Dan Ilic 1:13:02 A guy that was that was 25th. September 7 2015. Yeah,
Ketan Joshi 1:13:07 Yeah, Yeah, I will. I'm certain we'll get a you know, long, slow focus on gas bottles, you know? Yeah, I know the well, the wellness, the influences stuff is the is the modern version of that of that little black rock.
Dan Ilic 1:13:23 I think it's gonna be the steak. It's gonna be cooking the steak, that'll that'll be the one that gets
Ketan Joshi 1:13:27 this. There's actually a few. There's a few partnerships that the gas industry does with I think it's like, some cooking shows in Australia. Is it Mastership? Like I remember which ones, but they do like, they get like, you know, the chef's from those shows to be like, Oh, no, I always cook with fossil fuels.
Dan Ilic 1:13:44 It makes sense. Master chefs, Master chefs set up is all guest stars, I've noticed and lasted over them. So it's one of those things where it's like, Wow, look at that. Look at that naan bread being like, completely blown out on that guest. It's really incredible. I should really let you go. Because you know, you're a busy man with the world to save. And I'm not. But I do have questions from a couple of my Patreon supporters. Susan from Patreon asks, What are your thoughts about the most likely power sources for the aviation industry over the next 50 years?
Ketan Joshi 1:14:16 Yeah, this is actually one of the this is really one of the toughest areas to sort of talk and think about with with climate action, because it's another one of those areas where you have to think about the potential of technology not not like what what it currently is. Because there's just no alternative to jet fuel. Forget for transporting people across oceans, across land, obviously, you can, people can travel along the grounds in a high speed train or a car or whatever. But across oceans ships can't really do it. The electric ships really, actually progressing a little faster than I thought there's a few really great electric ferries here in Norway. actually do surprisingly large distances already. But you know, it takes a lot of resources and materials to make the batteries for those things
Dan Ilic 1:15:07 I saw mask mask was going to stop building fossil fuel powered ships in 19 2030, I think
Ketan Joshi 1:15:14 there's some good stuff going on. And actually around this hydrogen, hydrogen is produced from a bunch of different you can make hydrogen from budget for things, but you can make it from electricity, which you can generate from renewables. And when you burn hydrogen advance cleanly, it just produces water. So it's actually a pretty, pretty good option, but you just need to develop the technology to to make engines that run hydrogen. And it's an option for planes as well. But the challenge for both batteries and hydrogen is basically energy storage for planes is that they post pretty heavy and they're both hydrogen is volatile. And so you need to have, you need to have the technology to store it in a plane safely. Batteries are far heavier. So you need to have the balance between the weight of the plane and the weight of the battery,
Dan Ilic 1:15:59 what we can do is to charge their phones before going on a plane and then plug it into the plane. And then passengers can use their energy
Ketan Joshi 1:16:08 may not last very long. Yeah. I mean, I guess it really just makes sense that, um, transporting people through the air requires a pretty wild amount of energy. What is more likely to be the best pathway for aviation is keep going, we'll let technology keep developing it, but cut off the excess of usage. And so a lot of that is actually business travel, a huge, huge proportion of total flights around the world. I think it's like 30 to 40%, I can't quite remember the exact number I need to check it is from business travel.
Dan Ilic 1:16:39 I was really grateful. Two weeks ago, I had to do a presentation in Canberra. And I was quite thankful I didn't have to go. And I could do it over zoom to seven important people in Canberra. And I could just do it from my bedroom where I am right now. And I was like, Well, you know, the only thing I've got to do is put on a tie. And I'm ready to go. And, you know, I think we've all been in COVID times that, that telecommuting and you know, stuff like video conferencing can replace a lot of that unnecessary travel.
Ketan Joshi 1:17:05 Absolutely. And the other problem, of course, is is frequent flying. So it's people who people who fly way more than you and I would ever fly. And that is also a pretty large proportion. And the problem here is course is that airlines understand that this is a very large proportion of their revenues, people who fly when they don't really need to, or really, you know, like not this isn't, you know, stuff when they're going on holidays and stuff. So this kind of overlaps with the business thing of like, you know, a crazy melting group when I haven't have a meeting and they just fly their people, you know, from New York to Los Angeles to have that meeting.
Dan Ilic 1:17:35 Yeah, maybe instead of having a gold and platinum, they should have like, brown level, you know, you've got it should gold to brown. Yeah, yeah,
Ketan Joshi 1:17:44 this is actually this is actually a sort of proposal is to have like an incentive programme for infrequent dragonflies are very nice to get rid of marketing incentives for flying essentially, which which will cut off a very large amount of demand. And of course, that would be a politically fraught thing down the line. The airlines would not be a very happy with this approach, particularly Not now.
Dan Ilic 1:18:08 One of our discord, community members adds rights. You read a lot about technology replacing coal plants with wind and solar and phasing out IC engines in favour of electric this leads to two questions. will this happen quickly enough? And even if they get replaced with renewables slash electric inside of 15 years? Is it enough? Or do we need larger systemic changes? I don't think it's, I don't think it's a quick question.
Ketan Joshi 1:18:37 Quick, I'll give you a quick answer, though. I mean, you need systemic changes to reach that rate of change, there's no doubt about it, you need to have systems in place that intervening in what may have previously been thought of as like relatively free markets. So what actually goes links back very nicely to the coal closure thing, because the owner of a coal plant won't shut it down early, unless you force them to. And to get that 15 year time frame, that's actually going to be a really, really tough systemic deep change to make. So the other side of it, of course, is that simple replacement isn't sufficient, you actually need to push down on the demand side of the equation to so that's I mentioned active transport and public transport for, it's actually a really nice example of where you need to reduce the demand for the usage of vehicles. So people own a car, but they don't use it as much as they normally would. That is also climate when right. So this is actually a really tricky thing to sort of wrap your head around because we often conflate machines existing and the use of machines. China, for instance, is actually building a fair few new coal fired power stations, but they're using them less than less. So obviously, it's not, you shouldn't be building new coal fired power stations, that's extremely bad. But keep in mind that they also use them less and less because competition from renewables is
Dan Ilic 1:19:54 increasing. peeping Neil on the discord also writes, what does he think about direct Technical intervention to reduce co2. And he says, technology solution trees won't cut it, he says. So yeah, the idea of reducing co2 with the technological device, how far away is that,
Ketan Joshi 1:20:14 on the scale that we need to this, you've got to, you've got to sort of split it out into two categories. One is getting rid of everything that's already been emitted. And the other is dealing with stuff that we're about to or that we, that we think we almost certainly will emit. So so so of course, if you ask a company like shell, they'll be like, yeah, we're not going to decarbonize very quickly, there's still a lot of admitting that we're going to do. But if you ask, if you look at if you look at ambitious climate plan, there actually is still some emissions that are gonna happen. So you know, I don't know, like a rescue helicopter, filled with jet fuel that you need to save someone from hanging off a cliff, she'll have some carbon emissions that you want to you want to remove. So and then, of course, this is historical emissions. And there's a lot you know, what are we up to last year, you know, 36 Giga tonnes in that in that single year of carbon dioxide. So not not all greenhouse gases just come with oxide. We currently last year, we removed 0.04 ish. Maybe missing a decimal point there. But you get to the proportions.
Dan Ilic 1:21:18 It's like, I don't know why I'm laughing like it's one of those things where it's like, I shouldn't be laughing. I should be being very angry. But it's a sad laugh. Yeah, I think that's what irrational fear does.
Ketan Joshi 1:21:30 What, what, what I think is actually a really important argument in favour of carbon removal is is actually a justice question. So the burden should be on those who have done the most emitting over the past century. And that's North America. That's Europe, and Australia, Oceania, some degree, all of these sort of three chunks of the world that have done a lot of historical emissions. So not the yearly amount. But if you look at the atmosphere as a stock, it's like a bucket of stuff who's contributed the most of that bucket of existing stuff that's in the atmosphere? That I think that's important. I think that's a justice question. And so shouldn't be led by fossil fuel companies, though,
Dan Ilic 1:22:05 do you think it'll get to a point where, you know, 50 years down the track, the global community will be saying, well, historically, when the rich countries need to start mopping up their historical emissions, and really paying for it, this kind of exporting mass exporting of co2 equivalent from countries like Australia, which we build out riches on, is suddenly going to be the biggest Achilles heel that we have politically in the in the, in the world.
Ketan Joshi 1:22:31 Yeah, the problem, the problem there is that Australia actually doesn't have particularly good carbon storage opportunities, somewhere like Norway has actually has really good carbon stored opportunities just for sequestering underground. There's a lot of sort of existing, like oil science offshore here in Norway. And so they're sort of trying to get ahead of the curve and and offer it as a, you know, business to say, well pay us and we'll and we'll, you know, we'll take your ship full of capture carbon and store it on the ground. And there's two sides that one is the one is the bad side, which is that fossil fuel companies may use that activity as justification for more emissions. And there's the good side, which is that we actually need to remove carbon from the atmosphere, because for the same reason that we don't emit, in that we need to reduce the stock of this substance in the atmosphere that that traps heat on Earth. So you've got to maintain both in your head at the same time, same time. Yeah, in that something good is going to be misused. It's going to be used as a delay tactic to keep the fossil fuels burning. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 1:23:34 It's a Tom, thank you so much. Look, I it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. I've been a fan of yours for ages. And it's really, really great to get all nerdy with you. I think about two years ago, I went on a bit of a journey to try and learn as much as I can about this space. From my very small kind of comedy point of view. And it's in your one of the first book people that people turned me on to and haven't regretted following you on Twitter, and
Ketan Joshi 1:24:02 I love your work. I of course, I've been really enjoying the particularly like the, of course, like the fossil fuel industry, when you skewer them through through that comedy work. It's really fantastic. And it just, it just fills me with not a lot of things when it's dry these days, and sort of the dark humour of that is just fantastic to me, and makes me feel really happy. So thank you for that.
Dan Ilic 1:24:23 Well, thank you. Well, without people like you, doing the hard work and writing the great work that you do, then I've got nothing to read to make jokes about. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:35 GM, the greatest moral podcast of our generation. Welcome to Brisbane.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:40 capital is seven Queensland and bid city of the 2038 nuclear winter games thanks to industrial growth at all costs. Queensland is live life to the extreme and there's nothing more extreme than our weather. But every Cyclone has a silver lining last year Brady Denise From Ian, chalky Philippa good true Tiffany Melinda Shiro Rochelle and Dave Neely made space for new stadiums and sporting facilities and now we're ready for re rebuilding again. With the southward spread of Deva southeast Queensland now has the lowest rate of denki fever in all of southeast Queensland. But don't worry if you do catch it some of the best funded doctors in Australia just over the border in New South Wales, thanks to rising sea levels. in Brisbane, everyone shares waterfront views with some of the most ancient and deadly locals around it's now even easier to take a boat to the Great Barrier Reef Memorial oilfield it's just been refurbished and moved into the habit of speaking of water, the water wars of 2025 are a thing of the past. We now have a roster. Clean water will be available to farmers Mondays and Tuesdays coal seam gas miners Wednesdays and Thursdays residents on Fridays and theme parks on Saturdays Sundays and public holidays. But going wild can work up an appetite grabber by two weeks, literally just a bite. Queensland supermarkets now have round the clock military God ensuring the orderly distribution of rations and thanks to the Queensland government's banana buyback scheme, the cost of bananas is no longer than others. You know what they say? Queensland beautiful one day of the year otherwise by the Campbell Newman reeducation facility
True to form, A Rational Fear, takes a look at week's scariest news. Catastrophic ecosystem collapse, Gerry Harvey's JobKeeper bonus, sexual assault allegations in Canberra, and Schapelle Corby on Dancing With The Stars have all been loaded into the ARF canon and ready to be shot into space.
Dan Ilic 0:00 Hi this is just a little content warning that this episode of irrational fear will cover issues of sexual assault.
Unknown Speaker 0:06 This podcast is supported in part by the birth of foundation
Dan Ilic 0:10 Hello Lewis. Hello Daniel. How are you? I'm well I Well, I want to be a big thank you to new and returning Patreon supporters we have our Patreon supporters have gone away and have come back, which is really exciting news for everyone.
Unknown Speaker 0:23 I can understand the first part The second part is a real mystery.
Dan Ilic 0:27 No, I know. A big thank you to Gus MC, no Danny rate and pate Lola, who have all joined up in Patreon this week. big thank you to everyone. How are you, Louis? You okay? Oh, I'm alright. And I mean, it's been a bit of a week. It's been a bit of a week. That's why we're here. Well, we'll kick off. I'm recording my end of irrational feet on the land of the firewall. sovereignty was never seated. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 0:52 A rational fear contains no to words like bricks cambro COMM And section 40 of our rational view recommended listening by immature audience.
Dan Ilic 1:05 Tonight, Attorney General Christian Porter has heard rumours that he's taking a short leave of absence but doesn't know any specifics and CHANNEL SEVEN costs repel Coby in Dancing with the Stars because March operate was unavailable and the UN chief demands Australia ends its deadly addiction to coal by 2030. In response, Scott Morrison broke into the UN chiefs house and stole his VHS recorder and sold it for a lump of the good stuff. It's the fifth of March 2021. And no journalist has ever asked me about this podcast. This is irrational fear.
Hello, welcome to rational fear. I'm your host, former Duke of Essex. Danielle it's irrational fear is the podcast that holds your hand for the scariest forest of news. And we're doing it this week. So let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. She spends her days wading through the rubble of trouble from the camera bubble. It's Amy ruminococcus.
Unknown Speaker 2:10 That's a very nice way of putting it I wade through the piles of shit. That's my job.
Unknown Speaker 2:15 That's what I do.
Dan Ilic 2:15 Amy, how are your rage levels as of today for this one?
Unknown Speaker 2:20 Oh, I am incandescent with rage. I don't think I'd screen burn it all down so often in my life, and that was this Monday. So you know, it's been going great.
Dan Ilic 2:31 And he's one of Australia's most prolific comedy creators. He quit journalism for the stability of comedy. It's Adams wha Hello, Adam. And he regrets about leaving journalism after a week like this.
Unknown Speaker 2:41 It was a wise decision wasn't it? Yeah, I I'm exhausted and I'm not even involved in any way. So I kind of mentioned how you feel me? Um, yeah, full on.
Lewis Hobba 2:54 It's lucky you got out Adam, you would have been joining the mob of media bullies.
Unknown Speaker 3:01 do realise I was the lightweight among journalists. I used to write show business journals.
Unknown Speaker 3:05 That is one of the nastiest pits to be in show business journalism. I wouldn't I wouldn't want to come across you. alley Yeah, I've
Dan Ilic 3:15 been on the I've been on the nasty end of a paid afford clip on a current affair where he he said Daniel, which I've never heard of him.
Unknown Speaker 3:24 On Twitter. I don't think we've had any interactions. And then just one day I discovered I was blocked on Twitter and I was like, can you even eat? Are you bored?
Dan Ilic 3:32 And our final fearmonger is considering becoming a celebrant, I've already booked him to officiate my funeral. It's Lewis haba,
Lewis Hobba 3:38 allaudin. I tell you that I actually did drunkenly consider becoming a celebrant?
Dan Ilic 3:43 Well, I think you should I mean, you're told you're handsome. You're good with a voice.
Lewis Hobba 3:47 Thank you. I mean, I don't think that any of those are relevant qualifications to sell celebrando wedding, but um, because I get I'm sure you guys get this as well. If you talk into a microphone professionally, you get asked to emcee every wedding. Like I've emceed more weddings and I've attended. And occasionally people do pay me to DJ so I could add celebrate, then I could literally be the whole wedding.
Dan Ilic 4:10 Coming up ecosystems all around Australia and the Antarctic are suffering huge levels of decline, and are on the brink of collapse. joining us to discuss which ecosystem is likely to be last and where you should be building your eco doom. bunker is climate counsellor, Leslie Hughes. But first a message from our sponsor. It's the Harvey
Unknown Speaker 4:29 Norman swimming in money sale. There's so much money with drowning in profits up 116% sales up by $462 million. As a bonus, we're keeping job keeper that's right $22 million from the government to help struggling businesses during the pandemic The only thing we're struggling to deal with find space to bottle this excess $22 million tax free interest free no cashback the savings are huge. And Harvey Norman, if you're me it's the Harvey Norman Swimming in money sale. All cash just got a
Dan Ilic 5:07 bit of long tail out in that one. This works Firstly, the Attorney General Christian Porter claims he is innocent of any allegations of sexual assault in 1988. He was adamant that the allegations that he himself hadn't seen were completely false. It was an extraordinary press conference this week, Porter claimed that no one put to him the allegations ever. I think what he meant to say was I hadn't seen or heard anyone putting the allegations to me because the Attorney General you had a radio a mouse or pick up a phone from the hundreds of journalists trying to put the allegations to him, then maybe he would have he also had the gall to suggest that the media were trying to quote ruin his life, forgetting that someone's life was literally ruined. Worst of all consequences for Porter is that it would he would have to step down for politics and go to work in a law firm for four times the money that he's on. Now. It's a bit like Schrodinger is Korea inside his a box, and you're not quite sure whether the career is alive or dead. And the only way to find out is if you open the box, but No way. No one wanted to open that box, not even a series of successive prime ministers. The job is very important to him. After all, the twice divorced Porter only has his job. It's not like he can quit to spend more time with his families because they don't want to be near him. It was a very, very strange press conference, indeed, fear mongers what were your strangest moments from this remarkable presser? Amy, let's start with you.
Unknown Speaker 6:31 I mean, it does have to be said straight up. But he does absolutely deny it even happened at all that there was any sort of consensual relationship between him and the complainant. And he just says it doesn't it hasn't happened at all. And I have to put that out there for legal reasons, because this is a live legal issue. He has already said that he is trolling through social media and news stories and like for defamation, so he denies everything. The most extraordinary part of the press conference for me apart from some random memory of a bowl of prawns that he mentioned, he remembered from the 1988 night period in question from the complainant was that he basically said that he would be if this was independently investigated, or there was an independent inquiry, he would be the first person in history to have to disprove something that never happened. And to me, that was extraordinary, because that's the basis of every not guilty or denial plea that's ever been made. You're just you're saying it doesn't happen. That's that's part of it. If you saying it doesn't happen, then you you are asked to explain your side of the story. It's not unique. And then when he went on to say that the basically the rule of law would collapse, if he was asked to, to go through some sort of other inquiry. Because you know, anyone could make any sort of allegation and it would immediately ruin a MPs Korea, which again, is not true. You have independent inquiries all the time in the sports world, in churches, in schools, in businesses, it's not an either or situation.
Dan Ilic 8:19 Deadline deadline. If you say when he said if he stepped down, it would be the end of the rule of law. That was quite a quite a very strange line. Like I think we all remember when the pope retired, Catholicism disappeared. I think it's the same sort of thing. Same sort of logic He's going for there.
Lewis Hobba 8:37 It is what it sort of had this like vision that if a man is ever actually or a politician has ever actually convicted of a sex crime, the next day, it's the Thunderdome.
Unknown Speaker 8:47 True, yes. But like that. The the other point, though, is that we're not even talking convictions. This is not going into a criminal court. It can't. The complainant has passed away, they passed away before they made an official complaint, they withdrew it before their death. There was never any formal interview process. The police literally cannot investigate this, there is no way that they can. So this is never going to a criminal court. The only way you have to test whether he is fit to sit in the ministry is an independent inquiry, which has to be called by the Prime Minister. And he's not even being asked to to do resign. He's just basically being asked to maybe step aside while this inquiry is carried out, which is something that happens all the time. It's just It's extraordinary that we've now reached these peaks of just it's going to burn down democracy and the rule of law. If we look into this any further and the fact that the government is just picking up that line and running with it and the Prime Minister is pretending to be a passive bystander. He's like, Oh, well, you know, the police have had this I there's nothing I can do and people believe it. is extraordinary to me.
Dan Ilic 10:01 It's such it's such a passing of the buck again of all kinds of responsibility like this is exactly the scomo playbook. It's like, it's not my problem. It's somebody else's problem. It's not our problem. It's not our fault. It's not my responsibility is just continually passing the buck 730s Laura tinkle made a point that back in the olden days that some people had shame and that politicians would resign that over the slightest smell of impropriety. I think one of the one of the ones that sticks out in my mind was Peter reef, like having a massive scan around Peter rates telecard card, which is his telecom card that he gave to his son that his son racked up 40 or $50,000, with a phone calls on I don't even know how you could do that. And that almost brought down the government, but like nowadays, politicians are just sticking around, they're sticking to their guns, and tough in and out yet until they pass through. What do you think is what do you think's driving this trend
Unknown Speaker 10:56 going back to you know, like, you know, times when people just resigned over almost nothing, there was a resignation because someone took a Paddington Bear toy into Australia without declaring it and paying tax. There was a resignation because an MP brought, you know, he imported a colour television and he put down that it was a black and white television. So we didn't pay the proper amount of tax on that. And he resigned over that. Like, it's just we've gone from that to a point where we have had sports rights. And we've had, you know, questions over Angus Taylor's involvement in like, you know, certain other projects, then we've had bullying allegations during the Liberal Party leadership skills like the many many Liberal Party leadership skills spills. Then we've had the handling of the Brittany Higgins allegations and now we have a rape allegation. And we've still got a prime minister saying I don't hold a hose or an acquire inquiry. It's just insane to me.
Dan Ilic 11:55 I think I don't hold a hose is going to be the meme of his tenure. That will be the symbol of his entire Prime Ministership. Adam, what do you think about that
Unknown Speaker 12:05 idea? Yeah, I agree. I remember there was a time when people resigned. I think they probably started a lot. They stopped resigning around 27 to 2018. I remember. I think so. Barnaby Joyce, he left the legendary Liberal Party National Party in 2018. I think that was the last resignation. I can remember really, the Al Franken who was the Senator, I remember it was 2017 that he was removed. There was a accusation that he forced a woman to kiss him. And then he he demanded an investigation into himself and I think seven other women came forward. And so he resigned. Right now you've got Andrew Cuomo, he's not going anywhere on three women have come out accusing him of sexual harassment. Trudeau three times just photographed in blackface. Attorney General of Virginia, Mark herring, blackface again. All those people that are holding firm and I think it's, you know, we can blame Trump, but I think it actually goes back to Boris Johnson when he there was a you know, a number of scandals that he was involved in that just didn't touch the sides with him. It's something about those guys that just they just huge hide. Don't care what you think. Kind of love, love the fight. You know, Boris Johnson had multiple affairs. He doesn't admit to how many children he's got.
Dan Ilic 13:28 That's a great start. That is that is I don't hold a penis mate. That is
Unknown Speaker 13:34 totally fine. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 13:35 it's obfuscation right there. There was an article in nine papers today that said scomo praised Porter's gutsy performance is scomo the world's most powerful drama teacher Adams. Well, yeah, he
Unknown Speaker 13:48 like he takes the acting really seriously because it you know, as we know, the child actor and the Vic said back in the day, and
Dan Ilic 13:55 do people know this that he was a child actor in a Vicks vapour drops ad when in the 70s and 80s? I didn't know that. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 14:04 yeah. We're struggling to find out which ad it actually is. It's kind of hard because you know, he's got a kind of a fat ball kid in any of the kids with hair and how do you kind of pick out scomo? There's a, I can see the tricks of the trade that he's using, you know, when he was talking about the Jenny thing the other day, and he was saying that when Jenny had talked about it with Jenny, and you know, Jenny said, think about it if it was one of your daughters. He thought he was in a Ken Loach film that when he was doing that, he was really searching for the meaning and he was like, really loading those pauses, you know, you've got to be a lovey to know like, shit, he knows and he when he's standing behind people talking, you know, they've discussed the talking points beforehand. Yeah. And it's almost as though his lips are moving like he's kind of and he's kind of getting a little bit impatient with that. They're not delivering the lines. Was he would have, and you know, he kind of he kind of does he, you know, in his smoky, horrible way he he's a, he's a strong performer, whether you like him or not he kind of just he, he holds up, he keeps holding up despite the evidence being against him.
Lewis Hobba 15:19 I hit that before that performance, I think that he does with the pauses, is very reminiscent of a genuinely ANGRY DAD when you're a child. Like, I think when you're getting told off by a dad, and you can, and he yells at you, and then there's a silence that grabs you as a as like, everyone remembers that being yelled and like that. But the problem is that he started to double up on the same performance. So there was there was this one where he did that was like, come on, you know this. And then there was the exact thing from a year ago where he does the same performance. But the point of this point A year ago was that he's yelling at journalists, because like, this problem is all over the place. Women are getting raped, and we're not listening to them. And you're like, Ah, you're these performances are really now clashing.
Dan Ilic 16:06 Yeah, yeah, it's not that's not the tone we need for this particular point of view right now.
Unknown Speaker 16:11 You get out of the text and you get another take if you don't get it right. Well, I ended up
Lewis Hobba 16:17 doing we've got that one.
Dan Ilic 16:19 Scott's always got another dose up to get to show he can always try it out again. There. That's it. Yeah. Amy, I want to ask you this. I don't know if you're across this. But I saw that Porter could possibly have his fate decided for him by the EEC, by the time the next election rolls around, because because of a whole demographic shift from Wi Fi to Victoria, the IEC is planning on abolishing Potter's seat of peace. Do you? Is this the most Is this the most humane way to put Porter down?
Unknown Speaker 16:46 I don't know about that. It is a very live issue for why politics at the moment whether you know Porter's seat will exist. And it's going to be very interesting from a purely political viewpoint of how much political capital he still has in the wha branches because usually when this sort of stuff happens is the heavyweights get to move into somebody else's safe seats and that person ends up resigning. So you see those battles happen, you know, kind of everywhere I'm in labour went through one in Victoria, when Melbourne had a whole bunch of you know, re selections in terms of where the boundaries were going. And that sort of thing. There was a lot of shuffling around and who got to go where cray
Dan Ilic 17:27 cray Kelly Hughes is looking pretty attractive.
Unknown Speaker 17:34 I think you'll probably stay in who there was some talk at the time that you might want Julie Bishop's old seat and that he was making a move for that even back then because it's a much, much safer seat than his is. But it really is going to depend on how the next couple of weeks, months, like play out. And when you're talking about Morrison's performance, and I refuse to call him scomo because that is a nickname he gave himself. It is a marketing day. You cannot allow the man to just create like the man, the myth, the legend with a nickname he gave himself. So we need to like you know, move on from the scomo talk. But he performs mostly for the televisions and those pauses for the grabs. He just wants the TVs to have a neat cut of him saying he's very profound statement, cut one, cut two, boom, that's all anybody hears from the prime minister and everyone moves on. Because I think if we remember about politics, one of the key rules is that you don't want people thinking about politics because if you think about politics, you'll begin to pay attention to what the government's doing and if you're doing that you will probably vote them out. He doesn't want you thinking about it. He wants you just ignoring it. going oh, that's just a Canberra Parliament bubble thing. Move on. How about them Sharky,
Unknown Speaker 18:59 what I was talking about with the pauses was the was the in the in the my daughter's thing. He was trying to tap into an emotional place there to show us that he was human. And in doing so just look worse than normal. I thought I thought that I thought he was actually trying to go a little bit too far. And being a child actors when I was little child actors. They don't develop into proper actors that they retain. It's like, really two dimensional kind of truth that they search for. It's and it's on the nose.
Lewis Hobba 19:30 I imagined. If we ever go back and find that big sad, it'll just be some kid coughing desperately at a young Skomer going. I don't know how to explain
Unknown Speaker 19:44 that's a metaphor, the Queensland Government. I mean, that's a metaphor, the cranium, that's a matter that I'll rise with other premiers and Chief Ministers. That's really a question to the premium. That's a matter of I'm happy to take up with the other premiers and Chief Ministers a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 19:56 Let's move on to our second fear this week, as mentioned at the top of the show, There's a new wildcard entry for Dancing with the Stars chapelco rb, which makes me ask the question have TV producers run out of genuine Australian stars now, fear mongers. We're going to call Chappelle a star here. Who else should be given a crack at Dancing with the Stars? I've got a small list. I'm Ned Kelly. George Pell. My Brian brown still alive. Maybe we could get him on Dancing with the Stars.
Lewis Hobba 20:25 I like I like Chappelle on Dancing with the Stars. But I think it should be kind of like a 90s. Right. Like she should just throw down three pills. And then the episode goes for 12 hours. We just say how long she can shuffle.
Dan Ilic 20:38 This is really sad for not ignited graduates. I've always thought I thought not a graduates graduating not and now now have to go and commit some extremely drastic crimes of essays so they can get cast on the show.
Unknown Speaker 20:49 Like, let's remember though, Pauline Hanson was a star on this show, after she had, you know, got out of jail after she was, you know, wrongly convicted or expunged or whatever, they ended up staying there. And before she was back in politics, we ran out of stars a very, very long time ago. I mean, I just, I think we went through, we went through whoever was in neighbours and home in a way that wasn't a hands worth and then I think maybe they dug up some like, you know, people from Better Homes and Gardens. Then they went through some like, you know, I don't know the block contestants. And then they were like, oh, who else who's coming out of jail now Pauline Hanson?
Lewis Hobba 21:29 Yeah, but the reality TV pipeline now is this kind of like an Etch A Sketch, where you try to walk out of maps and you accidentally walk onto the block. And then when you leave and all of a sudden you're on X Factor, and you
Unknown Speaker 21:43 are in Paradise and then you're stuck in that island and you find yourself into Viber and then you just go like, you know, putting out a raft somewhere and it's I'm a celebrity Get me out of here and it's never ending Dante circle, like reality TV.
Unknown Speaker 21:57 What about the lie the cost of insiders? Phil curry on dancing and dancing stars definitely. Pay to watch that. Actually. I would pay me
Dan Ilic 22:08 a remake us on Dancing with the Stars. There you go.
Unknown Speaker 22:10 Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I would, you know, probably dropped some really unfortunate swear word and then just get voted off and then just go straight into my next reality TV show.
Unknown Speaker 22:22 And you're dancing with your mobile phones. You're watching him at all times.
Unknown Speaker 22:25 Yeah, yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 22:25 am. I'm just like, do you see what the fuck they've done?
Dan Ilic 22:31 Adam, you're an executive producer of many TV shows. Is this some? Is it appealing to you to cast Chappelle in something?
Unknown Speaker 22:38 Do you know what i like? I saw si s Australia. Oh, and I watched that with interest has done a channel seven show. I think I've watched the last you know, decade. And I really liked it and Chapelle I was very sceptical of when she came on but she was so lovely. She's a very sensitive, nice person. And that's how she came across anyway. And she won me over I was actually a little bit moved when she got voted out. I mean, she was terrible as if she shouldn't be anywhere near near, you know, she shouldn't be running 10 kilometres with a backpack on and no
Unknown Speaker 23:16 one should.
Unknown Speaker 23:18 And she, she, she was she was okay. So she's not gonna be any good at dancing. She'll be fobbed off in the first week. But you know, she'll be swayed about it and, and and take some money. I definitely think it was a brother did it.
Unknown Speaker 23:36 They seize writable view.
Dan Ilic 23:39 Turning now to activate close to this podcast heart, the end of the world. A groundbreaking report has just been released to COVID-19 ecosystems around Australia, our major threat of collapse that is deteriorated so badly. They're unlikely to recover a bit like my older brother's hairline. It's never coming back. And I feel like I'm missing. One of the authors of the report and longtime friend of the show is Professor Leslie Hughes. Leslie joins us now. Thank you, Professor Hughes for joining us. Hi, Dan.
Unknown Speaker 24:07 Great to be here.
Dan Ilic 24:08 So 19 ecosystems doesn't sound like a lot. But when you see it mapped out across the continent, the way that the report has it, it feels like the whole of Australia is it is in peril is an imminent collapse period.
Unknown Speaker 24:21 Well, in some cases, yes. The the ecosystems as you can see on the map in the paper go from right at the northern tip, right down through the continent, right from east to west, and then down to Antarctica. They're spread out all over the place. Some of them are ecosystems that are really well known, like the Great Barrier Reef and others will be ones that most people haven't heard of, but they're all in trouble.
Dan Ilic 24:47 The ones that people haven't heard of, do they need some kind of PR campaign? Is that something that we can help out with?
Unknown Speaker 24:53 Yes, I guess, I guess so. I mean, some of them aren't quite as spectacular as the Great Barrier Reef for Or the Murray Darling Basin, but they're all in trouble. They all have species that are disappearing, they all provide services to to our health and well being. In some cases, they've been in trouble for a very long time. Whereas in other cases, the the evidence of decline has been quite rapid and quite recent,
Dan Ilic 25:19 were the ones that the evidence of decline has been rapid, like, what are the ones that have kind of, you know, fallen over pretty quickly?
Unknown Speaker 25:26 Well, we've, we've seen things for coming back to the Great Barrier Reef, you know, in the last five years, we've had three major bleaching events from from underwater heat waves. And that's resulted in about 50%, of loss of all of the corals on the Great Barrier Reef, if you think about a reef system, you can see it from space, it's more than 2000 kilometres long, and we've lost half the corals. That's a pretty major event. And it's actually happened, you know, in geological time, very, very rapidly. And then a couple of years ago, for example, just over the space of a couple of days, we had massive fish gills in the menindee Lakes, as a result of, of drought and heat and loss of water, with millions of fish dying in the space of two or three days. So some of these things can happen really, really fast.
Dan Ilic 26:17 What does this kind of collapse mean for Australia's ability to feed itself to kind of, you know, provide agriculture for itself and as an agriculture nation?
Unknown Speaker 26:28 Well, indeed, to the ecosystems that we mentioned in the reporter, the Murray Darling waterways, and the Murray Darling sort of what we call riparian vegetation, which is the vegetation around the river. Over the last few decades, there's been a massive decline in rainfall. And on top of that, of course, we're removing lots of that water for irrigation and for urban uses. And those two things together, together with you know, runoff of nutrients and sediment from from agricultural fertilisers are really destroying those ecosystems. And the Murray Darling Basin is where we produce a third of our food. So when when you've got those ecosystems that are so intricately intertwined with our life support system in in, in the form of our food security, there's there's some really serious things going on.
Dan Ilic 27:23 And it sounds sounds dire. Like it sounds like there's nowhere to go.
Lewis Hobba 27:27 Is there any positive to look at it? Can we eat the fish from them and in the lake? So can we take the bleached coral and use it to decorate Byron Bay? airbnbs?
Unknown Speaker 27:36 Well, yeah, you can't eat bleached coral. And I guess you'd have to get to the fish pretty fast before they poisoned us. So there's always some creative things that you could do with that destroyed ecosystems, but it would be better to do something positive to to stop and then reverses decline.
Dan Ilic 27:55 Is there an ecosystem that's thriving right now? Is there a place in Australia this like, hell yeah, this
Unknown Speaker 27:59 is great.
Unknown Speaker 28:02 You know, I can't think of one
Lewis Hobba 28:05 goddamnit Leslie.
Unknown Speaker 28:08 I'm sorry. I mean, if you think back to the black summer bushfires, for example, the amount of area burned in those fires, is about three times the size of Tasmania is about 20% of our eucalypt forests, but that summer, so you know, that's just the East Coast and a bit of Western Australia.
Dan Ilic 28:26 I was just saying, I'm in jervis Bay right now. And we've been driving up and down the south coast. And it's a hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kilometres. It is just recovering forests. And it's so stark to drive through these places that you're I remember seeing on the news a year ago, thinking wow, like this is just this is just so epic, the amount of bush land it was burned over that summer, and it's only kind of recovering now. And I'm just thinking about all the wildlife that has gone missing, particularly over that strange, dark period.
Unknown Speaker 29:00 Yes, one of my colleagues at the University of Sydney estimated that around about 3 billion vertebrate animals that's birds, mammals and reptiles probably directly perished in the fires and of course, many more would have died of starvation and predation afterwards. So but look, the eucalypt forests that you've been driving through are recovering, they'll they'll You know, they're fairly well adapted to to fires, but they're really different thing about that summer's bushfires is that we had massive fires go through rain forests, the Gondwana rain forests that the don't burn, usually. We had some a few years ago in the Tasmanian World Heritage Area that killed trees that were 1000 years old. So what we're seeing with with climate change, increasing the severity and intensity and frequency of these fires, is places burning that have never burned in the last 1000 years.
Dan Ilic 29:57 With with this word that you've just kind of realised It's a big job to kind of kind of categorise every kind of ecosystem in Australia and put it kind of put it through the that that filter. How did this this job kind of come about? How did this piece of work get built?
Unknown Speaker 30:16 Well, there was a workshop down in Canberra at the Academy of Sciences in 2018. That brought a number of us together to talk about what we called ecological surprises. And a number of people spoke at that conference, including myself. And when the people at the conference got together afterwards, we sort of sat around and thought, Well, look, we really should write something up. So that that this, what's been talked about at the conference can be on paper and disseminated beyond these walls. And so really, for the last couple of years, that paper has been put together, more and more people came on board who are expert in particular ecosystems. It's been a massive job, there's a massive amount of data and references in this paper. But finally, to all of our great relief, it was published last week.
Lewis Hobba 31:04 I mean, given that there's, you know, 19 ecosystems, we've got the Great Barrier Reef in there, one of the most famous in Australia and the world, we still can't get anyone to do anything about that. The most famous one that we know generates billions of dollars of tourism, there's still nothing they can do about that, let alone the other 18, when you get together with your group have made these discoveries, what's the mood?
Unknown Speaker 31:32 It's a good question. I think anybody that works, both in environmental conservation and climate change, and I work in both of those areas, kind of gets pretty used to being depressed about it, or and most of the time, you know, you get you do get you do have to get hardened to it, which doesn't mean that you give up and stop going. But nothing much surprises you anymore, you know, we sort of expect the worst. And on occasion, when we get a small victory, we celebrate that. But generally, they are small and fleeting victories against a backdrop of really extraordinary loss. But I mean, the alternative is to just crawl under your donor and ignore it and hope that it all goes away or gets better. And really, that's not really an option for most of us.
Dan Ilic 32:22 I'm glad it's not an option for you lately. That's
Lewis Hobba 32:25 great. A lot of
Dan Ilic 32:29 you last time we hung out was in Paris at the climate talks. You are a representative on the Intergovernmental Panel for climate change. We're heading into cop 26 in Glasgow, first of all, what is what is cop 26 gonna look like in this kind of pandemic situation that we've got? Is it gonna be face to face?
Unknown Speaker 32:52 Look, we don't know. I mean, I guess with the vaccine rollout, especially in places like the UK, which is seems to be going pretty well, I think we would hope that it would be at least partially face to face. Of course, the Glasgow meeting was supposed to happen last year and didn't happen at all. So there's another year down the track and emissions keep going up. I think one of the really major things that will be different about this year, whether it's in person or not, is the fact that Joe Biden's administration has put climate change front and centre. So that's given an enormous boost of hope, going forward. And I think that the atmosphere in Glasgow this year, will be very different to what it might have been last year under the Trump administration. So whether it's in person or not, that's a really important difference.
Dan Ilic 33:44 And I don't want to kind of put you on the spot here. But what do you think Australia is going to take to Glasgow, do you think Australia is going to be a better actor than it has been at previous conferences of parties?
Unknown Speaker 34:00 Well, look, you've just been talking earlier in the podcast about this government's ability to just sort of soldier on unchanged regardless of extraordinary scandal, the government's attitude to climate changes is also an extraordinary scandal. But they've proved thus far to be able to sort of tough out all sorts of things. So my prediction would be is we'll go to Glasgow with no further level of ambition, then we took to Paris despite all evidence that that is not enough. I'd love to be surprised by that.
Dan Ilic 34:39 Like even with Europe in the UK standard, think about financial penalties for in tariffs on count on high carbon countries. Do you think that'll change what we take to Glasgow at all?
Unknown Speaker 34:52 Well, it might do in fact, I think that's probably the only thing that will turn this government around to being a better player in this space. You know, if places like the EU, and the US start to impose carbon tariffs on countries like Australia who are not pulling their weight, then we will have to change because we are so reliant for our economy on on our trade. So, you know, it's sad that we should be dragged kicking and screaming to that position when Australia has so much to learn from renewables and green manufacturing,
Lewis Hobba 35:30 it does seem like Australia has two options. One, that option, the smart one to Jenny starts to care. And
Dan Ilic 35:41 it's the battle for Jenny,
Unknown Speaker 35:42 you know, we should put it to Scott that his his kids and grandkids are going to live hopefully into the next century. And if we, if we carry on the way we're going with three degrees or more of temperature increase, that is pretty much an uninhabitable world that those kids and grandkids are going to be inheriting. So if he really does care about his kids, if anybody cares about their kids and future generations, they should be absolutely as passionate about climate action as I am.
Dan Ilic 36:15 And Leslie, as part of this big bit of work that you've released this week, you've kind of put together a bit of a scheme called the three A's a way that people can kind of do their kind of get involved with their own action in meaningful ways. What are the three eyes?
Unknown Speaker 36:33 Yeah, we wanted to put forward a sort of a framework of hope going forward, we didn't just want to catalogue the problems, and so many of these sorts of papers do. So the first day is awareness, you know, and that's what we've been doing with is raising awareness about the true extent of the trouble with Australian ecosystems are in. The second is anticipation. If you can anticipate future decline, hopefully, you can get in and do something about it before it happens. And the third eye, of course, is action. And what we do in the paper is for each of those ecosystems, we outline a series of management actions that if implemented, would help halt and possibly in some cases, reverse the decline. Of course, most of those are local actions that address things like habitat clearing and over allocation of freshwater and that sort of thing. But on top of all of that, is the global action that we need on climate change.
Dan Ilic 37:31 If I was not a generous person, I'd asked you why. There wasn't a fourth a Angus Taylor, why wasn't that on the list?
Unknown Speaker 37:39 Well, Angus Taylor gets the prize for the most Orwellian named ministry, you know, the Minister of emissions reduction that is wanting us to put in new coal fired power stations, you know, it does beg a belief
Lewis Hobba 37:53 he's absences. The fourth is is kind of a whole it's a it's an A Paul.
Unknown Speaker 37:59 Very good.
Dan Ilic 38:01 That's it for rational A big thank you to all of our guests, Professor Leslie Hughes
Unknown Speaker 38:05 Adams. Well,
Dan Ilic 38:06 Amy remake of St. Louis harbour, have
Unknown Speaker 38:07 you got anything to plug?
Dan Ilic 38:08 Amy, do you wanna plug anything? No,
Unknown Speaker 38:11 just speak to your MPs just be loud and angry and not at me and social media. Like just take it to the people who represent you. It's the only way you're going to get action.
Dan Ilic 38:22 atoms. Why do you want to plug anything?
Unknown Speaker 38:24 Nothing to plug then? Which is a relief, isn't it?
Dan Ilic 38:28 It's very good, Louis. How about what are you plugging?
Lewis Hobba 38:31 Nothing, Dan. on the radio show, you can listen if you like, but
Dan Ilic 38:35 yeah, no big deal. Leslie Hughes, what do you have anything to plug?
Unknown Speaker 38:39 I'd like to plug the climate Council, which is working very hard. And they're now in our eighth year to inform the Australian public about climate change.
Dan Ilic 38:48 And for the kids who are listening to this, ask your parents about what the climate Council is and how it was formed. It was this incredible story over a two week period where where one government department got shut down and the cabinet and the climate council came together with a whole bunch of public donations. And it was absolutely remarkable, very inspiring stuff. Amy, on a personal note, thank you for your hard work this week. It's been so fun watching you on Twitter, and heartening to see you at the coalface of such a very difficult story and helping all of us on twitter in particular channel outrage as to what was going on. So thank you. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 39:28 thank you for listening.
Dan Ilic 39:29 Big thanks to red marks the birth of foundation our Patreon supporters Jacob round on the tepanyaki timeline Rupa degasser He's incredible voice Kelly and David Payton all the discord crew. Until next week, there's always something to be scared of good night.
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G’day Fearmongers,
There’s only 48 hours left of this election — soon our national nightmare will be over.
On the podcast we’re joined by the hosts of the new media and cultural podcast, Lamestream. Scott Mitchell and Osman Faruqui are a couple of smart media operators who have been inside big corporate media, and politics, and know lots about how the sausage is made.
In this episode we chat about how the fourth estate has covered this election. Right wing vs progressive ecosystems, and how the major parties are trying to reach younger audiences.
ALSO for lovers of wacky news clips — Dylan Behan has given us his Australian election edition of News Fighters.
Cheers,
Dan
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We're back, just like Facebook news, and just like Facebook we're giving out money to Australian publishers (if we feel like it). If you're a major publisher of news content and want some coin, hit me up at dan[at]arationalfear.com, or if you're an Australian Treasurer giving away pre-election grants for towing the party line, hit us up too, we'll say what ever you want, it may come across as sarcasm, but we'll give it a go.
On the podcast this week, we examine Facebook without news, we dob in some dole bludgers, we celebrate WA Opposition Leader, Zak Kirkup, conceding before he's run and election. Also we interview Omri Marcus, the creative director of Israel's only progressive party, Meretz. Omri gives us super interesting inside look of how broken Israel's unicameral system is.
Bertha Announcement 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the birther foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Hey, Louis, how are you? Well, Dan, how are you? Excellent, excellent. We've got a whole bunch of new Patreon supporters this week. I want to give them a big shout out James Smith, who is a fellow board member at FBI radio with me, we started where were we started a rational for you. Thank you, James Ben Gittens, Rob Bartlett and Louis. Next week marks the first anniversary of us starting our Patreon. And we had we started with the goal of being able to pay for our editor, which is we've done which is great. Now like to see if we can get enough patrons to pay for a holiday No. To pay for drugs, no, no, no, to pay for a video producer to help us make videos with us. So if you are into what we do, please chip in on the Patreon you you may you may remember, back in 2014, we ran a possible campaign and we raised $50,000, to make 13 weeks of digital video content during the elections. And we spent every single cent of that
Lewis Hobba 1:05 was great. It's doing that. It's the first time I've ever had a chance to go bankrupt. It was a
Dan Ilic 1:09 thrill but it was like, Well, we've got this money, we need to spend it on making content on the internet. That's a good investment. Well, it's election season coming up and it would be great to do the same. But you know, video is way more expensive than audio. So if you've thought about becoming a Patreon supporter, now's a good time to chip in for as little as you like. $1 or $3. We have some guy paying us $500 a month, which is ridiculous. Big thanks to David Okada for that. Are you ready to start the show? Lois?
Lewis Hobba 1:34 I'm ready, dad.
Dan Ilic 1:35 I'm recording my end of irrational feet on gadigal land and the Euro nation's sovereignty was never ceded. We need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Unknown Speaker 1:42 A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks can rub gum and section 40. a rational view recommended listening might emerge your audience
Dan Ilic 1:55 tonight as an independent Craig Kelly says he will vote on his conscience. However, Kelly understands the word conscience means con science. And the first of April will say job caper increased by just $25 a week Scott Morrison hopes everyone on the program will enjoy his April Fool's Day joke. And at an International Women's Day event, Scott Morrison reflects on bungling the biggest scandal to come out of camera as a husband and as a father. It's the 26th of February 2021. We have struck a deal with Facebook. This is irrational fear.
irrational fear I'm your host disgraced former elite athlete Dan Ilic. And joining us tonight as some incredible fear mongers. He grew up komova in order to foster a look that says former scout leader but instead of cutting it off to he settled for a look that says reformed murderer. It's the CO creator of Ronny Chang, the international student and co host of the sweetest plumb Declan Fay, thanks for joining us.
Unknown Speaker 3:04 I'm very sad if I hadn't known you were going to mention it I would have kept it it's gone. You know, when people went a bit strange during the lockdown when Melbourne hit that second lockdown, I thought I need to set a goal for myself. And I set a goal to grow a comb over and it's really hard to get it to get all the way across.
Dan Ilic 3:25 My uncle has a comb over and you look just like
Unknown Speaker 3:30 well, it combination of a lockdown not much natural light plus the comb overhead started to make me look like a very ill old man. And then my partner said to me at one stage, she said I'm just unconcerned. This is having an adverse effect on our relationship. So decided it had to be show it's going
Dan Ilic 3:52 and our next guest has over 2.5 million likes on Tick Tock. We can't wait to ask her. What is Tick Tock? You may know her is how to delete one for the purpose of us boomers here on the podcast. We'll call her Emily Johnson. Welcome.
Unknown Speaker 4:05 Hi, everyone. Thanks for having me.
Dan Ilic 4:07 Now what is it like to be one of the most influential people on tik tok in Australia?
Unknown Speaker 4:12 I mean, I don't think I'm influential. I think I'm, I'm just the anti troll of tea talk.
Dan Ilic 4:19 And finally, it's a man who has yet to receive his free care. It's Louis harbor. Honestly,
Lewis Hobba 4:25 I wake up every morning I run downstairs like a kid at Christmas. And I say Qian
Unknown Speaker 4:29 here today.
Lewis Hobba 4:32 Nokia. I mean, frankly, if it haymitch Blake can't get me a Kia.
Dan Ilic 4:37 Who can? I emailed Hamish Blake throughout the week and I said thanks for doing the show. Sadly kid didn't give us any cares. And he said Oh, that's interesting. They sent me three so
Declan Fay 4:48 it's gonna be harder for you to get one because key is have tried to go cool that they used to be the dorky family car that the guy would be like look if you can't afford a kind of toy or maybe you want to see the key He'd say it like kind of like you know he was showing you a dirty nappy but during the Australian Open they all kind of really cool and the ads are like they sort of the old doing like spins and kind of burnouts have tried to rebrand them. That's me.
Lewis Hobba 5:14 I'm a bad boy on the bad boy. Family wagon.
Dan Ilic 5:19 A very rich,
Lewis Hobba 5:22 I'm dangerous. I break down emotionally. I'm just like,
Dan Ilic 5:27 you're a guy that says I can do I can do burnouts with six kids in the car. Let's
Unknown Speaker 5:31 do it. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 5:35 Coming on the podcast, we talked with the creative director of one of Israel's longest running progressive parties, and we'll ask him what's it like to know you're going to lose another election? But first, here's a message from our sponsor.
Unknown Speaker 5:45 This episode of irrational fear is brought to you by mykhailiuk caches dumping a dove ledger hotline if you know someone who is earning hard earned money from taxpayers and is refusing to do their job. Just call one $800 blood Joe
Unknown Speaker 5:59 mykhailiuk cashes dog ledger hotline. Yay. Hi. I saw a man taking tax payers money and completely refusing to do any work. Yes. Do you have his name and a job? Yes, his name is Scott Morrison. He's the Prime Minister. He just gives all the jobs to the state premiers to the it is so unfair. Someone who actually wants the job could be doing the job heaps better. Right and what's your name? My name yet? Anthony L. Albert sneezy.
Unknown Speaker 6:34 One 800 dove ledger because there's nothing more Australian than dubbing in your mates.
Dan Ilic 6:41 Well, first fear it is sponsored related, but it's not exactly sponsored content. The government has announced this week they're going to be god damn heroes and increase the job seeker payment by $3 60 a day. Ah, good. Oh, that's almost a cup of coffee in a capital city. The government is establishing also establishing a hotline to dobbyn unemployed Australians who refuse job offers. Now this does not bode well for me. I had perfectly good reasons not to go on Celebrity Big Brother in 2012. I just don't have to explain it to my mom, and centerlink fearmonger Have you ever had a job offered to you that you didn't want to take Dec? I mean,
Unknown Speaker 7:19 I've worked in the entertainment industry. So every job I've had to take a look. Take at some stage. I've done numerous jobs I didn't want to take anytime somebody rings you know what the you know what the big job is? It's not actually like a company offering it to you. It's when your mate rings and said are I just could you just help me for a few hours tomorrow move house. And you know that that few hours is you know, you know that that stretching into 678. We're going into 12 hours it's akin to can you pick me up from the airport, it's the two greatest pressures you can ever put on a friendship that's actually
Lewis Hobba 7:56 a great like, mate for the doll would be a great scheme. Pick me up the airport helped me move house. All that like I need someone to help me move a fridge. Any of those things. Can you pick up a six pack for the party and just farm them out to door to door workers.
Unknown Speaker 8:18 It's actually perfect because this government is obsessed with those kind of Ozzie mate ship things. So if they put in a thing, where you suddenly get extra on your doll, like work for your mate on the dole, people would absolutely love that. But you could imagine imagine Scott Morrison just coming over that.
Dan Ilic 8:37 Emily, have you ever had to take a job you didn't want to take?
Unknown Speaker 8:40 Yes I did. After uni I was in a job network. And they got me to work at Kohl's. It didn't last very long. I remember I was in the deli it actually locked box myself in the deep freezer with a forklift. And I kind of stood there and I was like it's Tom believe.
Unknown Speaker 9:01 Were you driving the forklift?
Unknown Speaker 9:03 It was one of those. I don't even know what it's called. It's like a pallet jacks. His head controls to move it around and I'd maneuvered myself into a corner.
Dan Ilic 9:16 So I worked at Franklin's which is another supermarket of a bygone era. And I remember being so driven to tears after every shift like if I if someone if my boss dumped on me for not turning up to work through this, this this phone call I don't know what I'd say. What do we explain to settling that it was crushing my soul and I didn't want to do it anymore. is can I please have $3 60 extra day
Lewis Hobba 9:39 a lot of my like uni work was at a wider a lot of Italian restaurants in Melbourne. And the rumors are true that people who run them. They like having a cash business for whatever reason. If I had a dog, dog, man, I'd be in the ground like I'd be wearing concrete Yeah,
Dan Ilic 10:03 I CTU president Michelle and Neil among other people are really concerned that this could be open to exploitation Can Can you see how this this Domino logic could be exploited on your own nefarious needs?
Unknown Speaker 10:14 The government have been so fantastic at handling any kind of administration or bureaucracy if people are on centerlink I can't see this going wrong at all like Don't you think that after Robo debt after kind of multiple inquiries into this after all this stuff that Emily that wouldn't you just stay away from any kind of administering this?
Dan Ilic 10:36 Well maybe Robo debt that's their new job maybe Robo debt is is on to the dole a phone call now so they they've been repurposed because every robot needs a job. When you call up you actually have to talk to Alexa. Dobby
Unknown Speaker 10:54 isn't so much a job but I did when it's the on the same day that they announced it and they had that thing that you just said that robots to it centerlink to employ robots to check on admin or doll budgets. And it was the same day that Daft Punk retired. Well, that is a very odd career trajectory.
Dan Ilic 11:15 Yeah, man I just want to dub on my worker he's a he quit because he couldn't stack harder, faster, taller.
Unknown Speaker 11:22 Very good. Very, very good.
Dan Ilic 11:25 What other hotlines Do you think this government should actually invest in? Maybe mishandled a scandal hotline, press one. to reflect on an issue like a father press two, to reflect on an issue like a husband press three to reflect on a scandal like a shocking fan?
Lewis Hobba 11:43 or any of the politicians to answer it and it could be like an anti phone sex line. Like anytime you're horny and you want to make sure you're not horny. You just call like the government and just immediately This is a huge boner killer just like Oh, God. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 12:00 irrational fear here with the hungry Jack's drives for continued as a vehicle lifted trial of black rubber. It's understood the driver ordered a soft serve ice cream and hungry Jack's, but when they didn't have any he was angry and did the burn out.
Unknown Speaker 12:16 This is a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 12:18 This week, second tier Facebook likes it looks like it's bringing news back to the platform, which is a complete shock to D radicalize boomers who are just adjusting to reading to the news on the printed page. Again, I don't know about you, but I've actually felt better. In the case of my Facebook feed. No news is great news. My friends from school, have kind of stopped posting about Pauline Hanson and instead posting about gardening and that is a net win for me. If you are confused as to what this whole thing is all about what is going on here, the winners and the losers. We've got a bit of an explainer on how the media bargaining code works put together by one of the Friends of the podcast.
Unknown Speaker 12:54 So why isn't there any news on your Facebook news feed? Here's a quick explainer by me rupert murdoch left 10 on general of the news corp and assorted Expeditionary Forces. Now, Mark Zuckerberg owns a website, Facebook's and Google owns a website called Google. And their websites owns the data of all Australians who use which means they know what you want before you do. They're really good at selling advertising. I own a newspapers that are really bad at selling advertising. And those newspapers own the Australian Government and the Australian government makes laws. So one day on a whim, I thought Geez, Louise, we're bad at selling ads. Not everyone wants 60 month interest free deals for electrical computers, furniture, bedding and flooring from Harvey Norman. Some people want magnetic lashes meggings of make your bum pop and other bullshit. We have no idea. But then I said to myself, Rupert, you own a perfectly good government. It's just sitting there doing nothing. Maybe you can get them to force the blokes with the websites that are good at selling ads to give us money. Then I call the government to my house by private jet made them pay for it. And I said hello government man. I forget their names. I've had a lot of staff turnover lately. If you still enjoy being the government, can you do this? And they said we do still enjoy being the government boss. Yes. And yes, we can do that. Now the websites that are good at selling ads have to by law, give me money. And the best part about it. Googles and Facebooks give the money straight to me tax free and we wouldn't have it any other way of why start paying tax. Now, some journalists would say, oh, that there's no way to guarantee that money will be invested in new journalism. Well, none of those journalists work for me. I don't hire journalists. Oh, and news is coming back to your Facebook feeds very soon. Mark said to the government, he only wants to pay us money if he feels like, well, I respect that. At the end of the day, Facebook, Google and I all agree that we're not going to pay any money to the Australian Government. Because why would you? There are a bunch of cowards.
Dan Ilic 15:39 So how do you folks feel about this? Emily, how do you feel about news coming back to your Facebook feed?
Unknown Speaker 15:45 I'm ecstatic. I was devastated when it was all gone. What? Cuz it's, it's a part of what I do like to go like shuffling through the comments section for that. Perfect, like bigoted Bogan from Queensland, going off about you know, come out and be that rock and move and I'm like, this is gold for me.
Dan Ilic 16:07 See, it's actually fuels your work. You're missing it because it actually the comments actually a fuel for your your creative over?
Unknown Speaker 16:16 Yeah, and I mean, people like to turn a blind eye and say that Australia is so progressive this and that. It's like, take a look at the comments section on Facebook. That's Australia, right there.
Lewis Hobba 16:26 You're warming your hands on just the garbage fire of democracy. I mean, I don't the only the only person I know who posts on Facebook is Dan. Really, it's the same as getting a text from Dan I'm
Unknown Speaker 16:40 having. It was very peaceful for a few days. Like I kind of know that eerie feeling when you're at school, and you were like, nine in year 10. And the senior kids were away for some reason. And it's like there's this kind of eerie calm hangs over everything. And you know, it can't last you know your place in the pecking order. You know, your mommy's gonna start tagging you instead of cute cat photos from 10 years ago all over again. It was this. I really liked it. I won't be going back there. I don't need to I don't need to see that been fired for a while. But
Dan Ilic 17:16 there are many there are so many other platforms. You can harvest comments from what is it about Facebook comments that you can't get from other social media because
Unknown Speaker 17:24 it the the audience on there that I'm not trying to bash on people, but it's like the common people. Like everyone's just like random uncle or whoever that has an iPad plugs onto his Facebook. Like, that's the sort of information as well, so they're not very exposed to the media. So they just ate it up. Yeah. And
Dan Ilic 17:48 you know, in 2016, when I hitchhiked from Hobart to Airlie Beach for the election and interviewed people in the car on the way. And I had to say people at the top of the country at the bottom of country were all heavily into Facebook and all got their information there news from Pauline Hansen's Facebook page. She was the main she was the main purveyor of information for that like that didn't didn't pick didn't follow any of the news service. They'd followed Pauline Hanson to get the news. And it's like, it's so strange. Like this is such a force. It would be such a shame to have that back, cause I mean, Facebook has been renowned for destroying democracies around the world, can I just do something right? Protect our democracy shut themselves down for the good of the country.
Lewis Hobba 18:29 It wouldn't wait. Everyone's deed stopped going down. It was a bit of a kick. There was like a sense of popularity contests as well, like, the people who got taken down were important. And if you're if you remained you were a loser. If you had a Facebook page that reported to us, and you were allowed to like, what that said is you don't matter. No one is down to you. No one is listening to you. It was it was interesting, because people go Ah, I guess I'm still up. I guess I'm irrelevant.
Unknown Speaker 19:01 It's the equivalent of the podcast that I do. We a couple of times have been worried about defamation, just because of things you say on the spur of the moment. And I asked my partner who is a lawyer and who has worked in defamation law, she would listen to it and I'd say what do you think is this defamation and she'd say, technically it is but people will need to prove a large reputational damage and there's no way that your podcast qualifies as that.
Lewis Hobba 19:31 Like a legal burn from a partner
Unknown Speaker 19:36 there's no way to come back from it. It's you know, it's it's it's equal parts relief in equal parts of devastation.
Dan Ilic 19:44 I really loved the week before Facebook Banned on Facebook, the top 10 posts that we're getting the most engagement top 10 over performing posts were Seven News seven news abc Bittu dot csps. The chaser abc news Seven years and then the next week the top 10 posts were the tuna tuna, tuna, tuna tuna the chaser, the chaser metoda Penrith Panthers.
Unknown Speaker 20:13 We will have consumers who will miss out on accessing quality news journalism.
Lewis Hobba 20:18 We understand that ICT Hill, Queensland Hill, South Australian
Dan Ilic 20:23 dementia Australia's kids cancer project and bowel cancer Australia will be in effect a rational fear. Third fear for the weak opposition leader Zach Kirkup has done a candid interview with the West Australian in the lead up to the Western Australian election basically basically conceding the election, two weeks out before the election date. This is the headline splashed across the West Australian today. I accept 2020 is not my time, which is what I say to myself after I've pitched irrational fear to every TV network in the country this year. So theme mongers What do you think of this strategy Lewis to come out there and say basically, I'm gonna lose
Lewis Hobba 21:00 in a couple of weeks. every politician does this in every election. It's just that this is the only time you believe it like that. Australians love the underdog. So before every election, everyone is kind of going no, I guarantee I'm going to lose. It's the opposite to every country. And I it's one of my favorite things about Australian democracy. No one wants you to believe in them. And and we shouldn't and then eventually disappoint us. We're like, well, we shouldn't have believed in you too big to begin with. But this is the first time someone has said I could I don't think this is my year and the like, but no one does.
Dan Ilic 21:31 Emily, would you vote for Zach with a phrase like this?
Unknown Speaker 21:35 Oh, I think it is. It's good. Like, reverse psychology. I've been like, you know, I'm not gonna win. Like you should pity me. Pity vote me.
Lewis Hobba 21:43 Yeah. It's like a person, like the person who studies hates in year 12. And then goes, I haven't studied and so the exam like Oh, did I do? Well, I don't know. I didn't even try.
Unknown Speaker 21:53 I didn't find it. Interesting. I mean, my two thoughts on this was one is that I follow politics. I'm pretty deep in politics. I've gone down some dark political rabbit holes on social media. I didn't know that. The opposition leader in Western Australia was cold. Zach cook up until you sent me this article. I swear to God, and Zach. No one's gonna win with the name Zack Kirkup. It sounds like the kind of noise you make when you're choking on something.
Dan Ilic 22:25 Yes, yeah. The most famous West Australian should really run for this job. Hot Dogs should be running for the liberals. As a leader, hot dogs could get us get people's votes, election up light. I mean, it takes the pressure off, that's for sure. I mean, everything's kind of a nice surprise. Oh, we gained a seat. Not bad. You remember when I said it wasn't our time. But look, we did better than we thought. The current status is Labor has got 40 seats, liberals have got 13 so labor is pretty much entrenched. There. There's absolutely no way they're gonna move that he said this on a podcast earlier today. I'm throwing myself on the barbed wire so I can get as many of them across the fence as possible. Why is he Why is he even running? Oh, why is why is that cookie
Unknown Speaker 23:14 even running? It sounds like he's actually kind of getting off on it. In a way. He's getting a kind of mild sexual thrill over how badly he's gonna look.
Unknown Speaker 23:24 Bad. Tell me about that.
Dan Ilic 23:27 One great clip of the week, I just want to play for you now. It is, it is a woman getting the first COVID-19 vaccine sitting next to Scott Morrison.
I just love that. The woman at Scott Morrison osuna do Viva vaccine, he does the pace on she tries to the pay sign. And then they move her hand around to the RPO sign. Then he immediately grabs her and tries to stop her from doing anything for the cameras long after it's far too light for those images that go viral. An incredible image for this week, that was the most perfect better visit.
Unknown Speaker 24:18 The only way the only way that would have got shared more was if he hadn't grabbed it even a tiny bit harder and she had actually died as he grabbed. Can you imagine that's what I felt like she's quite frail. She's just had an injection. Everybody knows you don't want anybody within kind of 10 meters of you when you've had an injection. And he just wraps her up I really because she looks quite frail and her fingers are quite sort of, you know, they're just she's quite old and I just really worried for her she felt after he grabbed her.
Dan Ilic 24:51 This is a really interesting moment this week because all the leaders of the major parties were all meant to get their vaccine at the same time. That Day after this. So what Scott Morrison did was he called a press conference the day before everyone was meant to get it together, just so that he could be the first actually staged up this entire moment in a week where, you know, three liberal staffers are accusing, accusing somebody of sexual assault. Do you think this is a good look for a prime minister be grabbing an old lady Emily,
Unknown Speaker 25:25 no way, I mean, shit. And the thing is like it was the whole sorority bolted. And now you just look like a total like aggressive creeper. And he's always grabbing people's hands, he can't stop reading people's hands. Twice.
Dan Ilic 25:42 That is so true. I totally forgot about the bushfires where nobody wants to shake his hand. And everyone has had this aversion to Scott Morrison. And he's really forcing himself upon the electorate in a very literal way. The other part
Lewis Hobba 25:56 of that story it to put into context, why he was looking so confused that this that he was grabbing your hands, is she did a follow up interview later on in the day. And they were like, they said, How was it to get your injection with the Prime Minister? And she said, Oh, the Prime Minister wasn't there. And then I said, No, the man next to you was the Prime Minister. And she went, Oh, Oh, right. Whoa, oh, I didn't realize that that they sent me around. But I didn't know who he was. And so she had no idea who this strange man grabbing her hand was?
Unknown Speaker 26:28 Yeah, who did she think he was?
Dan Ilic 26:34 In her in her defense, she still thinks the Prime Minister is Robert Menzies. So
Unknown Speaker 26:42 this is a rational view.
Dan Ilic 26:45 Joining us now is the creative director of merits one of Israelis, most left parties. And he's, he's kind of only a few weeks out from election. So we thought we'd take the moment to try to understand what is Israeli politics all about? Omri Marcus. Thanks for joining us on irrational fear.
Unknown Speaker 27:02 Oh, sorry, I know that you will explain to me what all is well.
Dan Ilic 27:12 Hoping that you could tell us, you know, Australian comedy podcasters in less than a sentence. You know, what, what, how does Israeli politics work?
Unknown Speaker 27:22 Well, it's not that much of a difference from your system. It's also a correlation that is based on a couple of parties that are building a coalition and choosing the Prime Minister. And but it's not working that well in Israel. So for the last two years, we've been going to vote four times this is going to be the fourth round of elections in less than two years.
Dan Ilic 27:48 Wow, you you have more elections than we have prime ministers. That's incredible.
Unknown Speaker 27:52 I know and department um, we are also similar in the fact how important our labor parties are. And we are actually nurses, not one of the leading a left wing parties in Israel, we are the only Labour Party in Israel, and which is kind of like it's a pity when we're around 16 or 1717. A party's we are the only left wing Liberal Party. It's a dying species. It's us and the dinosaurs.
Dan Ilic 28:22 So how do you I mean, how do I how do you try to cut through to kind of change people's minds on on politics in a place like Israel?
Unknown Speaker 28:31 Well, listen, the only way we can win is that if they will switch the system from voting into raffle. So when
Unknown Speaker 28:42 you're you must be an inspiration to your followers. You're more of an inspiration than the state labor puts the state opposition leader in who said he's not going to win, and no one should vote for him.
Unknown Speaker 28:57 Yeah, well, I'm thinking that maybe there is kind of like a world pandemic that is happening to labor parties, that it's not like they feel like it's not the year even though you know, everything is collapsed. and still they are not able to show that they are the alternative. But you're so limited resources, we need to think outside of the box of how you can stand out among you know, 17 other parties out there. And we came up with a lot we call what we are mostly working on using free media. So we are creating a lot of standards and gimmicks. So we will be noticed. Our first campaign was about a we put a campaign on Tinder and we're a team of 80 of our supporters switch their profile pictures into a our slogan, which is you can count on us. We won't run away the morning after you remember your aggressive slogans and then we did the night thing where we put on a Amazon boxes of people where they used to get their boxes. And we put a nice sticker of us saying, you know what you're getting with us. And so everybody that got their Amazon package got it with a sticker of us on it saying you know what you're getting. Last week, we did something very nice. We put on the Billboard on the highway main highway in Israel, we put a picture of the Minister of Education with his mobile phone number with his extra mobile phone number thing. You know, he's so proud about what he was doing this failing clown. Give him a call. Tell him what you think about his work.
Dan Ilic 30:43 And did you hear from him? If he got any calls?
Unknown Speaker 30:47 He tried to call us but his line was busy most.
Unknown Speaker 30:53 Omri, can I can I ask you honestly, what is your IP? Obviously, it's very funny what you're saying. And there's obviously a strong element of truth to what you're saying about your party and your role in the in the politics of the area. But what what is the aim for your party? Like when you get to this fourth Election Day in two years? What will you be happy with with the result? Well, there
Unknown Speaker 31:18 is about that. underneath it, we won't get into the parliament, which is four seats. And if we will get into the parliament, that would be a huge victory. For me. It's, it's very easy for me to say because you know, we are supposed to be much more dominant, but it is very middle age and times and very dark era. And we are hoping at least to get into to the parliament in order to show the alternative. armory, what
Lewis Hobba 31:50 are the like, what's the what's the main issue? Do you think that you wish your party could could connect with like in Australia, for instance, like climate change is a baffling one. All center parties, all right parties, everyone. No one wants to anything about climate change? The only people that want to do it are the sort of further left parties. what's what's that sort of issue for you? Well,
Unknown Speaker 32:11 I know where we are standing about climate change. But this is because we are the only party that actually published a political platform with our ideas. So I can't really tell you in comparison, the topics, you know, it's a false round of elections. So I don't really expect to change anyone's mind. It's very identity politics is very dominant, and people knows exactly what they are in favor of and and everybody minds is very set. So my goal right now is just to keep my audience motivated, and to try and bite the other sides on painful places. So they would kind of like to get some new audiences but it's going to be marginal the amount of new audiences that you will get.
Dan Ilic 33:00 Have you thought about Red Hat's with the text make Israel reasonable again?
Unknown Speaker 33:06 Oh, yeah. Finally, you're asking, we did open a merchandising store with our with products because our goal is to do something very emotional. So we did nice socks with the one of them is written on it left and on the other one is written not left. And we did one a condom with our logo on it saying you will fill us for sure. And we did an umbrella thing this is not rain, what you are having all kinds of, you know, things like that.
Dan Ilic 33:35 How does it feel to know that is the whole political party looking to you to come up with ideas so that you know that they can get into parliament? Have you? How do you feel about that?
Unknown Speaker 33:45 It's it's hard Actually, it's quite. I would prefer to discuss serious topics in depth and to have a serious discussions but it became such a circus that you kind of like you need to stand out and buy we should check out our zoom call advertisement of cats, because obviously left wing liberal as they love cats, so we did a zoom call off cats trying to explain why you should vote for our policy. And I'm quite depressed because I would really like to have a serious political issues on the table and have a discussion about it. But unfortunately, that's not the situation.
Lewis Hobba 34:32 Omri I've never heard of a political party having a creative director. What's your background? Where were you before you were with this party?
Unknown Speaker 34:40 Well, it's it. I'm the creative director for the campaign. I'm not a great party, but it's a double campaign. For me. It's my first one and my last one. I'm a comedy writer in my background, but I'm doing many other stuff like developing TV formats. All around the world in dating shows in China and game shows in India. And I'm doing a lot of projects with a very dominant Australian comedian named Dan edit which word is very popular down on there.
Dan Ilic 35:16 And I'm so popular, we got 10 people viewing the live stream right now. People 10 people have chosen to tune in to this conversation.
Unknown Speaker 35:26 Now you can tell them about the crazy shit that we've done together done. like Trump impersonators, a conference in south by or the other stuff that we do owes to the United States that we did with the writers of The Simpsons and Family Guy and some other crazy stuff. It's part of Robert
Dan Ilic 35:47 Murray's armor is this magical convener of comedians in a global space. He's, I Omri invited me to this conference in New York City when I was working in America. And I said, Oh, yeah, I'll go prepare a little presentation about Comedy and Comedy and how comedy can change people's minds and blah, blah, blah. I've got that presentation. I do it lots of different places, I'll probably go presented to 200 people get a sandwich and go home. And I turned up and it wasn't 200 people, it was 30 people in this boardroom. And those 30 people were the presenters and showrunners of every Tonight Show around the world. That was very similar, like john oliver. And I was like, holy shit, this isn't. This isn't like some jerks turning up to hear somebody talking about comedy. This is like, this is like the power supplies of comedy. I was like, I was completely blown away. I was like, What the fuck am I doing? Get this read?
Unknown Speaker 36:39 Dan, then there's a reason he didn't tell you that it was gonna be all those people from all those popular comedy news shows, because your brain would have exploded and you would have had a small stroke beforehand. So it was actually in your best interest in your welfare. No.
Dan Ilic 36:58 We did. We did have some lovely sandwiches. Thank you. I'm ready for that.
Unknown Speaker 37:02 Hey, Omri, can I ask we are labor but you've talked about the problems of labor parties across the world, our labor party here. Our Federal Labor Party suffers from a few issues with its with its image, and with a lack of sense of humor about itself and a bunch of other things. What do we have to pay you to come out here and sort out the promotion of the Australian Labor Party?
Unknown Speaker 37:29 Wow. And since you know, you're on the other side of the world and right now to jump on a plane. That would be the challenge. If you have done I think Dan knows everything that I know. And he's one of the most creative people that I know is, as the head of the fan club have done in Israel. I think they can. Service Okay, Omri. So
Unknown Speaker 37:50 now I'm working this out so we don't have a picture of you here. We just have a graphic. Are you sure you're not Dan Ilic doing an accent with a rich with a recording of his voice just praising him across a 12 minute interview.
Unknown Speaker 38:05 And I can confirm nor deny.
Dan Ilic 38:09 I think we should wrap it up there. That is it for rational play a big thank you to all of our guests. Thank you Omri Marquez from Israel Emily Johnson from Tick Tock Louis harbor From where are you from Louis? The radio the radio. Declan Fay from podcasts renowned. Do you guys have anything to plug Declan would like to plug anything? No, it
Unknown Speaker 38:29 was a year. I mean, every white guy says this every day every few minutes but please listen to my podcast. It's called this way this plum or if you like fiction podcasts. I wrote one last year called crossbred about a Christian hip hop group that kind of blows up. Have a listen to that. I like that. That's my favorite thing.
Dan Ilic 38:46 That's a really fun, excellent narrative comedy podcast. Emily Johnson. What would you like to plug? I mean, I
Unknown Speaker 38:52 guess you can follow me on tik tok. If you have kik talk, do I delete one? I'm always responding to filthy racist comments. With skits or something hilarious hopefully.
Dan Ilic 39:05 And Andre, what do you what would you like to plug?
Unknown Speaker 39:07 Well,
Lewis Hobba 39:08 okay,
Unknown Speaker 39:09 vote for merit. Oh, and I want to say to my family in Australia, we're waiting for you over here.
Unknown Speaker 39:15 Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 39:16 Nick. You've only family in Melbourne.
Dan Ilic 39:19 Well, you're gonna have to wait till I get the vaccine then I'm sure they'll fly over. Louis, how about you anything the flood?
Lewis Hobba 39:24 I feel like I should plug my radio show since you forgot what I do every day. It's on Triple J it's called hover and you can follow us on Instagram at not harbor and hang official. Dan if you'd ever like to listen. That's what I that's where I am when I'm not here.
Dan Ilic 39:38 It's marvelous. Thank you to read Mike's the birth of foundation jackin round of the tepanyaki timeline. This episode of rational v has bits and pieces contributed by Rupert Degas. brodmann Morgan Killian, David. Amanda Buckley ads paid Lola sheepy and everyone else in our Discord server Until next week, there's always something to be scared of. Good night.
Unknown Speaker 39:55 This episode of irrational fear is brought to you by mykhailiuk caches dumping a dove ledger hotline. If you know someone who is earning hard earned money from taxpayers and is refusing to do their job, just call one 800 dole bludger
Unknown Speaker 40:09 o R. Is that the old one to dolvin? obliger? Yes. A lot. dovin obliger Yes, come on Darryl. Darryl, who I think we need some more information there. We'll go on set last week after the job keeper thing ended off with him his job back at high five for three hours a fortnight in the bugger refused aerelon job seeker denied. Was he applying for the job? Well, I reckon he would have advertised it you haven't advertised to the job then? No, then the tax department would not right. So what are you gonna do about it? You're gonna ring him and tell him that he should take it that maybe I could I have your full name and contact number. Click to hang up you actually need to press the red button not say click Oh, thanks.
Unknown Speaker 40:51 One 800 because there's nothing more Australian than delving in your mates.
This week we're throwing the spotlight on Dylan Behan's News Fighters Podcast — it's another satirical comedy podcast from Australia. If you like A Rational Fear, you'll love News Fighters.
Dylan Behan is one of the best comedy editors in Australia, he's worked on every great comedy TV show over the last 15 years, and now he's turning his brain to making an incredible podcast and YouTube show.
Last night at Giant Dwarf we had an absolute cracker of a live show to celebrate our 100th episode of A Rational Fear.
Chris Taylor opened all of The Queen's excel files. Alice Fraser tip toed through the mindset of billionaire Elon Musk. Yumi Stynes graciously examined what Eddie McGuire's departure from Collingwood really means. Hamish Blake tries to monetise the Australian Open in ways we've never quite thought about. Lewis Hobba defends Crown Casino in Sydney. Gabbi Bolt proves she's not related to Andrew Bolt. Dan Ilic (me) tries to explain why we should have seen Craig Kelly coming. And Tom Lowndes from Hot Dub Time Machine holds the whole thing together.
I hope you enjoy it — it was one of the best live shows we've ever done!
(Shout out to new Patreon member Shaun who signed up on the night!)
LINK TO PHOTOSHOP TEMPLATE FOR LIBERAL MEME: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ld2208nr7uzz2tu/LIBERAL_MEME_dotEXE.psd?dl=0
Unknown Speaker 0:00 This podcast is supported in part by the Bertha Foundation.
Dan Ilic 0:04 Hey Lewis, welcome to rational fear. Oh my goodness, you're so lovely 100 episodes. Very good. You know what I like about this? This is great doing a live show in the middle of a pandemic. It's fantastic. It's great marketing. I'm
Unknown Speaker 0:20 hoping not the middle.
Dan Ilic 0:24 three quarter time.
Unknown Speaker 0:25 optimistic.
Dan Ilic 0:28 I just feel like when people get COVID from here that everyone was how did you get it all went to this podcast. It's got to be bottom three ways to get we have Patreon supporters. I just want to thank our latest Patreon supporter Ben Waller is chipping in for 10 bucks a month. big thank you to Ben. It is great. I understand. We have a couple of Patreon people here. Who from Patreon is here. Yes, thank you. Very good. enjoy that. 20% off. Excellent.
Unknown Speaker 0:56 I do two for one ticket. You
Unknown Speaker 0:58 two for one tickets. 50%.
Dan Ilic 1:02 We do 20% Yeah. Anyone out there starts getting any fucking ideas. We are recording irrational fear on the land of the gadigal in the urination. sovereignty was never seated. Wait a treaty. Let's stop the show.
Unknown Speaker 1:23 irrational fear contains no two words just like bricks. Bricks can rob Finn and section. A rational fear recommends listening like
Dan Ilic 1:35 my immature audiences. Tonight Eddie McGuire denies his racist adding he made the trainings ran on time. The World Health Organisation says Coronavirus is unlikely to have leaked from a lab and a devastating blow to conspiracy theorists to listen to facts. And Pauline Hanson calls for the swastika to be banned. It'll dilute her brand. It is the 11th of February 2021. And welcome to the Super Bowl of Australian satirical comedy podcast. This is
excellent. Welcome to rational Fie. I'm your host, former president of the Collingwood football club Dan Ilic. If you're new around here, this is the podcast that takes the saddest stories the weeks and makes jokes about them. Because let's face it, if you didn't laugh, you'd cry. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight. He's the actor award winning creator of our pride and the actor award losing head writer of at home alone together from the chaser. It's Chris Taylor.
Unknown Speaker 2:44 Thank you very much.
Chris Taylor 2:46 Great to be here, so you win some you lose some very disappointed not to be nominated for the Golden Globes. But Nautilus Holy moly, so
Dan Ilic 2:54 I feel good. And in 15 years old, she was expelled from boarding school, which is the only qualification you need to join this show. She's one of Australia's most loved smart asses. It's yummy Stein.
Yumi Stynes 3:06 Thank you for having me. You know, I've been reflecting on getting expelled from boarding school. For the last 20 years. I was like, fuck those guys. That was really unfair. And then just recently I've gone. Yeah, it was a beautiful.
Dan Ilic 3:18 Welcome. It's good to have you. And 11 years ago, we crashed the VIP section of a Comedy Central Party in New York City to meet john oliver. Then our next guests managed to get a job replacing john oliver on his very own podcast. She always gets what she wants to tell us.
Alice Fraser 3:35 So happy to be a dad.
Dan Ilic 3:37 Did you crash tonight? Or did you get a ticket?
Alice Fraser 3:39 I wasn't invited. I put that in your script.
Dan Ilic 3:42 And our next guest tried to move from Melbourne to Sydney while the state borders were closed, which turns out to be just as challenging as moving from one part of Sydney to another part of Sydney. It is heimish bike.
Hamish Blake 3:55 Fresh out of the tunnel fresh out of the tunnel.
Unknown Speaker 3:59 Lovely to meet you.
Dan Ilic 4:00 And he's co hosted over 100 episodes of a satirical comedy podcast, and he's yet to see a cent. It's Louis harbour. Did you say I've co hosted over 100 episodes so I did I made a mistake. Yeah, like well, you guys only too late. Sorry, the 100th episode was weeks ago. That's like you make your mistake, but this was gonna be recorded on a Thursday.
Unknown Speaker 4:28 Yes, I didn't realise this was on tonight. I told all of my friends to come tomorrow. That's why
Dan Ilic 4:38 we recorded this on a Thursday every Thursday for 18 months. I'm sorry. It's what we're what we had an on deck for the first time in ages. It's DJ Tom. A little later on, you'll meet our musical guests Gabby Boldt. She's really big on Tick Tock. But first here is Message from this week's sponsor
Unknown Speaker 5:02 in recognition of leadership change at Collingwood football club. McDonald's is celebrating some of the menu items in producing the McGuire burger spineless chicken fillers in a better protected in a milky white been worth Extra Mile Jeremiah this much source it's guaranteed to leak no matter how you handle it with grill marks painted on relax. It's a little joke. The mediocrity McGuire is basically a good burger but never meant to give anyone that shifts. The next time you visit a McDonald's
Unknown Speaker 5:42 ask for the McGuire
Unknown Speaker 5:45 tastes like Yarra water
Unknown Speaker 5:46 never cancel, just not on the board anymore. For online ordering, just go to burgers and highlight the tag that says mee mee mee mee mee
Unknown Speaker 5:54 I recommend it to everyone.
Dan Ilic 5:58 Well, folks, it is Yes, thank you. Robbie McGregor there, folks, it is 2021 which means we could have an election this year, or we could simply not do and say we did which seems to be the coalition's policy strategy at the moment. Australia's elections kind of like booty calls, they spring up on your the last minute ruin your weekend plans. But if you're lucky, you'll get a sausage. And there is anticipating brewing for booty call 2021 you can see the signs already there already knife shortages in Canberra. It's also very strange, very strange. 2021 labour is so scared that the coalition will bully them on climate change. They're desperate to try and do less on climate change. And the Liberal Party is so scared that the nation and the world will punish them for doing fuck all on climate change that they're desperate to do just the bare minimum on climate change. It's kind of like a pissing contest, but the contestants won't piss. They won't even unzip their pants but insist on building new coal powered toilets. But who said bipartisanship was dead? Here we go. I think there's one thing both parties have their sights on and there is the member of Hughes. His name is Craig Kelly. Now if you think
Hamish Blake 7:14 I mean if you listen to the podcast, huge cheer went up in here but we don't we don't have the audience mics so you can't really hear it.
Unknown Speaker 7:25 Stick around.
Dan Ilic 7:28 Now if you think he has the look of a flustered director of a furniture company that's gone bankrupt, you're right. He's literally the flustered director of a furniture company that's going bankrupt. Now everyone is annoying to cry because he's kind of like the drunk uncle at the Parliament House Christmas party. He wanders around the backyard, telling you unverified bullshit to anyone who listened stuff like the US Capitol insurrection was a hoax,
Alice Fraser 7:56 Neo fascists and Marxists engaged in a highly coordinated false flag operation.
Dan Ilic 8:00 And environmentalists started the black summer bushfires.
Yumi Stynes 8:05 I wonder if any of those arrested extinction rebellion types trying to fulfil their prophecy
Unknown Speaker 8:10 and renewable energy will will drown kids by making
Hamish Blake 8:15 swimming lessons more expensive, some parents are going to be unable to afford them. The result being less children having basic swimming and water safety skills, placing them at greater risk of drowning. That is actually spot he's got a boy.
Dan Ilic 8:33 Yeah, you can tell him she's done more than 100 podcasts.
Unknown Speaker 8:37 One baby tomorrow night you're gonna be
Dan Ilic 8:42 back in 2016. He even attended a commemoration of Croatia's Nazi allied fascist government the MDH and then proceeded to say this occasion
Chris Taylor 8:53 on behalf of the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is now in Japan, I impart you to greetings and good wishes on the occasion of the celebration of April tin to you and all Croatians in Australia and those in Croatia.
Dan Ilic 9:08 Not necessarily the best thing. The Australian Ambassador then got pulled into the Croatian parliament to explain what the fuck was going on. I assume the ambassador just put a picture up of the Prime Minister eating an onion and said sorry, we don't know. It's very strange. Now it is. It is a there's a very few things that a politician will get cancelled for in Australia. But being fascist isn't one of them. It turns out spreading lies about COVID on social media is the last straw now over the last year. Craig's Facebook and going he's when I've gone on Sky media. He's just been spreading information misinformation about COVID. All over the place. He's been saying that mandated mass for children is his child abuse. He's been alluding to the anti Vax conspiracy theories about Bill Gates, he's been promoting disproven and unproven COVID-19 treatments like the anti malarial drug hydroxy chloroquine and in the victim, which is actually a horse de wormer. It won the prize for removing parasites something that scomo might like to win a little later on if we removed some parasites from his own party. Kelly even went on celebrity chef and problematic kendal's podcast paid Evans's podcast for an hour and a half. I just spoke bullshit about conspiracy theories. Now I listened to it, so you didn't have to any he said a whole bunch of stuff. That wasn't news. But I think Pete broke some news.
Unknown Speaker 10:30 Very wise words and very truthful words, Craig.
Pete Evans 10:34 It looks like I'm going to throw my hat into the ring and join the political movement and see speak. See what see what happens from that. I had no expectations when you sit in a big room or Western at the back of the room where you can see everything.
Unknown Speaker 10:50 I'll give you a tip.
Dan Ilic 10:52 I don't think that's why you sit in the back of the room.
Hamish Blake 10:56 You're on at the back like my daughter is when she's driving the car.
Dan Ilic 11:03 Folks, do you have any tips for Pete Evans as he heads into the world of politics cities
Hamish Blake 11:07 I feel like he's nailed his slogan there. expectations that will
Dan Ilic 11:16 be a good time to down to just Evans know.
Chris Taylor 11:21 The Evans party for people who think Pauline Hanson is far too sensible.
Alice Fraser 11:25 I reckon seven minutes in Evans.
Chris Taylor 11:29 They should only put a candidate in barn by surely like
Hamish Blake 11:34 surely I'd like to see someone come out there because you know, political slogans or like they often just like you know, hey, we can do it or you know, whatever, you know, like jump on board or for a progressive turn. I'd like to see him get defensive because he knows everyone's against him like a slogan that says something like you're the fucking crackpot.
Just in your fucking weird. dead on the front foot. Spray paint if you're listening, and I know you do.
Dan Ilic 12:01 None of this would be a problem if Craig Kelly was just your uncle, but he's not. He's an MP with a huge social media presence that is actually bigger and more powerful than the Prime Minister's own social media presence. It's worse than letting your uncle loose on Tinder. Craig's already swiped far right? It's terrible. After the PM, was asked about this at the National Press Club last week, he was there to see if he's going to do something about Craig, this is how scomo replied,
Unknown Speaker 12:26 You don't get to create Craig Kelly.
Unknown Speaker 12:29 He's not my doctor, and he's not yours.
Unknown Speaker 12:34 He's pretty happy with that one is
Dan Ilic 12:38 Spoken like a man you
Unknown Speaker 12:40 are in the room to laugh.
Dan Ilic 12:43 But after a brief confrontation with Labour MP Tanya plibersek, in the halls of Parliament House, there was a big announcement in Canberra. Of course, Canberra fucking loves announcements that the Prime Minister pulled Craig Kelly into his office and gave him a dressing down now. Sorry, if I've given you a visual of Craig Kelly dressing down there. I'm really sorry about that. FEMA has any idea about what that conversation with scomo and Craig Kelly, and the office was all about or what they said to each other? You gotta say sorry. Oh, come on.
Yumi Stynes 13:19 Up. It's time to time get out there and fucking say sorry.
Hamish Blake 13:24 Just a bit of like, double check. You don't actually my doctor are making all these gags in the press guy and they're going well, but you're not actually.
Alice Fraser 13:34 Actually the thing about homoeopathy is the list. I'm your doctor, the more I'm your doctor.
Unknown Speaker 13:42 He only
Dan Ilic 13:42 got him off Facebook for a very short amount of time. It lasted 36 hours.
Hamish Blake 13:50 That was a that was a scomo enforced ban. It wasn't a Facebook enforcement.
Dan Ilic 13:54 No it was like steady six hours I wonder if he was just like look Okay y'all Facebook I'll introduce you to tick tock and then it was just cry just like punching buttons for 36 hours
Hamish Blake 14:07 it does scream a bit of like that's it no screen time for a week. Daniel
Unknown Speaker 14:12 spreads misinformation
Unknown Speaker 14:17 All right, well, all of that
Hamish Blake 14:20 you really think about it after that.
Chris Taylor 14:24 I was just glad he did you know he also was banned from only fans.
Hamish Blake 14:28 No, he wasn't. VPN and you guys addressing New Zealand
Dan Ilic 14:37 now actually happened to have a recording of of what went happened, what happened in that office, but I can't actually play it for legal reasons. So I've had to do a dramatisation for the day das, who does a lot of the voices on this show plays Scott Morrison but because there are so many Hollywood shows and movies happening in Australia right now. There are no actors I could get in Australia, they're all booked. So I have to go to Hollywood to find the best commercial How to Play cried Kelly.
Unknown Speaker 15:06 cried cry, just come in and sit down and play on your iPad for 20 minutes then I'll put out a release that you can repost on Facebook. Okay? Ah, great start date. Great One hydroxychloroquine now, sorry, Mike. Thanks to the billion forex in the fridge. Please use my desk. It's four metres squared from everyone else in the office. You're amazing. pfriem shibo you're a believer. Yes, Mike. That's right. Mainstream are where the votes are. But voters like the Sharpies. I like the Sharpies. Godspeed. I wish right you're that deep state might might there is no deep state. When times was in charge. It was Peter. You're friends with the deep state you make TV with the deep state trying to silence me. I have freedom of speech. Craig now I'm not silencing you. But Shut up. Now you're free to say whatever you want to after the election when you act like a goose I look like a good this year. I'm having a no goose policy. I'm gonna stop the geese Have a look at this. What is this a turbo that's right Good boy. And what does it say? I stopped the guy you can read well that's good. Now I'll get you one of these with your face on it. Great wines trophy face get good now only if you quiet and stop posting rubbish Now give me one good reason not to drop you from Hugh's Facebook friend hi char tape from n guy Dean make dogs Vladimir Oh gee below mice is no type you did it. I have deniability for Facebook stream.
Unknown Speaker 17:11 Battery dead I'm sure pad.
Unknown Speaker 17:15 your iPad is dead. Well charge it and you can pick it up tomorrow from PETA. Yes. Really good judges in there. Only if you're a good boy, Craig. galley. Good boy. Good boy.
Unknown Speaker 17:30 Great. Come
Unknown Speaker 17:31 back tomorrow. fudge rose. That's a bloody good idea might now Fuck off.
Dan Ilic 17:40 That's Gilbert godfried everyone.
Chris Taylor 17:46 A high profile impression a very good impression
Dan Ilic 17:52 that he's the thing we shouldn't actually be surprised about Craig Kelly at all because we have known this was gonna happen from the very start of Craig Kelly's career. If the bankrupt furniture store wasn't a red flag, perhaps this line in Craig Kelly's maiden speech should have been over the years I've packed my head into many rugby Scrum. Although no doubt some would say maybe one Scrum to me.
Right now, with more about how we keep our politicians more accountable. It's Gabby bolts Aaron getmyboat
Gabbi Bolt 18:35 I've actually never done a comedy said before. That's true. Sir. Please pity me.
What the Australian Government needs is a Karen a crop chop nitpicking Nightmare on the parliament floor. Because as someone who used to work in retail, I've seen them leave a nasty email about how I am supposed to do my job. But when you need a Karen most that's when they vanish. Like on Craig Kelly's COVID Facebook posts that nowhere to be found. But if Karen was feeling ill and doc said try this radical, untested pill. Well, I'd bet 10 bucks she'd take his licence down. You hear tales of Karen's far and wide, getting barista sacked because they put too much which cream on my triple mocha frappe. You see Karen's demanding manages in your average grocery store. So where are they when they need to see the biggest manager of normalised caring culture in politics They've gone on for too long getting people fired for weightless go to redirect their attention to when national intervention I can give you Craig Kelly's email address normalised Karen culture in Parliament's when people act irresponsibly on the job. Call them out with the same fervour as a teenage fast food worker who had the audacity to get your order wrong.
Unknown Speaker 20:55 The microphone
Unknown Speaker 20:58 now,
Chris Taylor 20:59 thanks for having me down. This is a genuine treat to be part of the hundreds I think me and Alice within part of the very first ones. And it's amazing that it's had this run like cereal didn't eat get close to 100 a teacher's pet not trying hard enough. So no, it's great to be here. I'm gonna talk about the Royals. Now without wanting to conform to social stereotypes, I was reading the Guardian this week.
And there was this bombshell report about how the Queen lobby to have the Lord changed to keep the details of her personal wealth hidden. So basically, the UK Parliament was trying to pass transparency laws so the public would know exactly how much the monarchy spent of public money, but the Queen's lawyers, I think she was raped by Rudy Giuliani. They, they managed to overturn the law so we don't know how much he spends and what on That is, until tonight, ladies and gentlemen here the john Doerr theatre, I have the official list of the royal families expenses, which I'm more than happy to share with you tonight. Now just for background, the Queen gets an annual salary it's about $97 million a year fair $97 million taxpayer money. She's also on job keeping. Prince Charles's annoyance. With one woman he doesn't want to keep her job. So he then in no particular order other palaces expenses for the last financial year. 40,000 pounds on Uber Eats usually uneaten because Nando's in London still don't do very, very pheasant. It's downhill from that was
Unknown Speaker 23:00 over 100 episodes that must be like your 70th pheasant, Joe
Chris Taylor 23:05 Welcome to 71 80,000 pounds on getaway cars at the annual Royal Variety Performance. Anything to avoid small talk with Susan Boyle afterwards 50,000 pounds racial awareness training for Prince Philip. Unfortunately, his tutor was Eddie McGuire. Progress was slow $1 million retainer for elton john to keep him pumping out new versions of candle in the wind.
The principle of one decades ago 200,000 pounds on developing a new dating app especially for Royals. It's like Tinder but only let you match with cousins. 4 million pounds. legal fees for Prince Andrew two pounds media training for Prince Sandra 600,000 pounds lobbying the Commonwealth of Australia to get Holy Moly off the air. 2 million pounds on an ambitious pay a lot this one ambitious paid project of the claim to crossbreed horses with corgis to create her ultimate spirit animal. The hoagie her intention was to create kind of cute fun sized horses the size of a Corgi, but what she ended up with instead was grotesque corgis, the size of a Clydesdale. All of them were discreetly put down except one which was kicked around Megan Markel out of the country. 15 million pounds on the upkeep of antiquated buildings and relics from bygone eras such as Hampton Court, Sandra Nichols And Mark record 6000 pounds paid to the actress who plays Diana on the Netflix series The Crown for her weekly recreations of the Ballymena scenes, performed for the whole family's enjoyment every Sunday after church. That's just for my wife. We love this.
Unknown Speaker 25:23 Now
Chris Taylor 25:25 50,000 pounds sexism awareness training for Prince Philip. Unfortunately his tutor was at McGuire. Progress was slow. 6 million pounds on bribing gamebirds to fall to the ground pretending they've been shot during all the prince Philip's shooting and they keep planes in even when they've served for dinner later on their amazing commitment to the row.
Dan Ilic 25:49 What sort of game birds Chris maybe like a pheasant grouse?
Chris Taylor 25:56 All right. 100,000 pounds on TV development. This one's quite weird. See after the success of its a royal knockout, Prince Edward spent all of last year developing royal Ninja Warrior. There's also a royal maffs, which is basically this Charles and Camilla dry humping on a beach for an hour. JOHN Howard called it the romantic fieldwood hit 50,000 pounds on training for Prince Philip in how to exit a long reign with dignity. Unfortunately, his tutor was Eddie McGuire. And finally 17 million pounds paid to lawyers to make sure the public never gets wind of the secret that the woman who lives in that massive palace might actually have a bit of coin. I mean, sure the face is literally on all the money But please, let's not ever jump to conclusions that our hands are on as well.
Dan Ilic 26:56 What would you like to know about how the Queen actually spends her money? It's weird because it's weird that she tries to hide it because it's not like we don't know she's rich.
Unknown Speaker 27:10 It's such an expensive hobby.
Dan Ilic 27:13 I'd say most everyone who goes to London The first thing I do is go to her house.
Hamish Blake 27:19 In the middle of town Yeah. And look at the jewels. The crown. What's the
Dan Ilic 27:29 LSU LSU you spend a lot of time in London you've lived there you live with the queen?
Hamish Blake 27:35 What's the craziest thing you saw blood cash on?
Unknown Speaker 27:40 Keeping Prince Philip alive?
Dan Ilic 27:43 27 do you think you know Australia should be paying royalties to the Queen based on us using her picture on the money we have?
Alice Fraser 27:50 Look, I think we all have an agreement in Australia which is that we're going to become a republic eventually when she dies. Like we're just going to be polite until she dies and then we're not going to have Charles on our money
Chris Taylor 28:00 or do you think she's really shitty that everyone taps now and we don't use money? Is she lobbying the credit card companies to get a face on that as well? Actually
Hamish Blake 28:07 the visa dove is way more fancy. Is it the MasterCard? What's the hologram beauty products? The hologram on the visa okay all right. But you know like sometimes you're gonna net banking and it will go like you spent this much this month on like health care or like you know, utilities I would like like the real specific breakdown for the quaint like the just the bits of the real weird stuff. I don't think we know like a break us a lot to keep the house and the horses and stuff like that's obviously expensive. But you want weird stuff like you want to know if she bought VR? Or like, just got just dumb stuff. I don't know. But all the purchases past 10 o'clock. 10 o'clock like do I am
Chris Taylor 28:54 Jean session on eBay.
Alice Fraser 28:58 Uber Eats order.
Hamish Blake 28:59 I would like to know the breakdown on that.
Alice Fraser 29:00 Yeah, I want to see the map of the person driving round and round trying to figure out how to get in.
Dan Ilic 29:04 Yeah, she just she
Chris Taylor 29:06 walked out to the gate to pick it up personally. is a servant have to bring
Hamish Blake 29:11 it up. Nice. I think it's still leave and go. No, no, we won't be vaccinated. leave and go.
Dan Ilic 29:17 Do you think they have to pay for Netflix to get the crown?
Hamish Blake 29:22 I mean, there's gotta be some role.
Dan Ilic 29:25 And is that where royalties comes from? Yes.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Yumi Stynes 29:43 All right. You all know what happened, but I'm gonna run you through the facts. Anyway. Yesterday media personality Eddie McGuire stood down as Collingwood football club president after 23 years on the job. He was sad. He was fucking sad. his resignation speech which went for 15 minutes and was mostly a lengthy self congratulating listicle of what he has achieved contain no real apology, although an apology was actually what was needed. So this resignation from yesterday morning was the lightest in a cascading series of events. The event that led to yesterday's resignation was an open letter calling for his resignation. Prior to that event, the event was the leak of a commission report on the culture of racism at the Collingwood football club researched and written by indigenous academic Professor Larissa Behrendt. Now, the event that led to the commissioning of that report was complaints of racism by former Collingwood star player Heredia Lumumba. So we're four links up the chain before we get to the hero of the story, surprise, surprise, it's not Eddie McGuire. So Geraldo Lumumba started playing for Collingwood, 2004 as an 18 year old. His background is mixed race, Congolese and Brazilian and he speaks fluent Portuguese, he's black, he's handsome, and he's a shithead football player. But even though he was charismatic, fair and really popular with fans, and as I mentioned, a shithead football player. His career at Collingwood stalled when he started calling out the racism that he saw is endemic to the culture of his own club. And it was then that he started to be frozen out of leadership positions ostracised by the people in charge, and had unfounded whispers of madness and mental illness from his own club amplified by a complicit media. Lumumba left Collingwood in 2014 after 199 games. Now coming here tonight, I didn't really want to talk about how to Lumumba and Eddie McGuire because talking about racism for anyone who's experienced it is actually never comfortable. I also do want to talk about it because I don't follow football. So if you ask me some stats, I'm not gonna be on a budget. And I didn't want to talk about it. Because every time I'm actually confronted in the real world by racism, I actually get like a physical, almost spidey sense, tingling in my lower back that it's sort of like a queasy, unpleasant feeling. And sometimes the feeling comes before the mental processes can catch up. I attended a talk a few years ago by American philosopher and activist Dr. Cornel West, who came to Australia. He's a Harvard professor and a black man. And what he said like he said a bunch of cool stuff. But one thing he said I've never forgotten. It was something along the lines of I'm still overcoming my own racism. I'm still learning. I like everyone else. I'm a product of the world we live in. And he's like an old man, he's 67 years old. And that actually made me feel better. Because I'm imperfect. I'm still learning and we all are. Like, imagine, okay, imagine you're on the street in your own suburb, and a stranger comes up to you and asks if they can borrow your phone. She's a 35 year old white woman. And you're like, yeah, sure I use my phone. But what if she's a 35 year old white woman who's really skinny has dirty hair is scratching herself and wearing head to toe tracksuit, in mid summer. Would you still let it use your phone? So we're always kind of casting value judgments on people. It's not necessarily always racial. It's based on how they look all the time. We do it all the time. It's just really tough. If you're copying it because of something that you can't help so you can't help your heroin habit. But you also really can't help the colour of your skin and it's infuriating when that's how people judge you. So I thought, things that I thought were okay, five years ago, I realised now I'm not okay. And I'm guessing that in another five years, I'll look back at the year me now and cringe at how unworthy I am. I am still learning. But is Eddie.
I've always been super interested. It's like my hobby. Watching the way that people who are racist are blind to their own racism. It's almost cute. It's like a toddler wandering around. Like I'm the kind of where they are. And if it's pointed out to them, their first response is pretty much always defensiveness, they get really upset. And I get it. And I'm so interested in this reaction. And the flip side of that is the people who see racism first. Always the people who experience it the most and the worst, which is why indigenous people are often at that intersection of racism and a bunch of other prejudices that make their experiences way worse than you or I could imagine. And this is not my hobby. Like it's not talking about race. Islam is really, really thankless when people talk about that day that Nicky winmar lifted his shirt and pointed to his black skin. I know, you know, that moment. They're describing an iconic moment that was turned into an iconic photo, which has been immortalised as an iconic statue. But they're forgetting, I think that when Mark himself said to the photographer who took that iconic photo, I appreciate that you've changed my life. But for me, I'm having to embrace possibly one of the worst days of my life over and over again. So when he did that he wasn't having a great time. And every time he sees that he's taken right back to that moment of being booed, and having horrible things, shout out to him. Talking about racism, as I said, is thankless. You have to convince people first of all, that it exists. And when I say people, I mean, white people, and trying to convince white people that racism exists is sometimes like convincing people in the dark ages that they're breathing something that it's real, it's called oxygen. It's a sound like what are you talking about. And then you're expected to prove your own credentials by explaining your own experiences of racism, which is not only painful, but it feels like if you start nominating and isolating and describing single incidents, you're in danger of leaving behind hundreds, sometimes 1000s of times that racism existed, but was so micro so unremarked upon that it was very much like the air we breathe. So if I were to try and well really to try very hard not to try and find parody between my experiences and bombas. But if I were to try and dig into, say, the first time that I was called a chink, a nip, a jab or a goog, I might leave behind the times that I was expected, as a seven year old Australian to apologise for World War Two. Or by trying to explain how being Asian has happened, my career, my or my love life or my earning capacity, I might accidentally minimise the hundreds of death threats that people have made against me over the years. And for what have they made those death threats is an interesting question. And I think that anyone who's ever had many people threaten to kill them. They have sat with the why, for quite a long time. And I think if I had to distil The reason why I inspired hatred in enough people that they would send me murderous and quite descriptive and detailed death threats, then I think that the reason I could fairly say was because I did to question the manhood and authority of a white male or authority figure as a non white person. Eddie McGuire, by the way, is the guy who said Adam Goodes should do the promotion for King Kong. And when Heredia Lumumba called him out about it, he said, This is what Lumumba said himself, people made it very clear to me that I'd done the wrong thing that I'd thrown the president of Collingwood under a bus, almost making him out to be the victim. So whether we've grown as a nation and learned from this painful saga is going to be shown in the post Collingwood Korea of Eddie McGuire. Because usually, I've seen it enough times I can predict it. When the shit goes down. The brown person gets blamed. And the white person goes on to have a great career in politics.
Dan Ilic 38:44 Have a letter that went out Monday and then he got the step down on Tuesday. That's right. Yeah. That must be feel pretty powerful for that moment.
Yumi Stynes 38:52 Did it feel good, but I don't want people to confuse his resignation for cleansing of the entire football culture that made him thrive.
Dan Ilic 39:01 Yeah. Do you think this is kind of a you know, this is a very public moment for Eddie McGuire. But do you think a lot of organised organisations all around the country are looking at this going Fuck, we need to fucking clean up as sharp.
Chris Taylor 39:14 The worry is they'll do the reverse because this sort of all came out as a result of them deciding to launch an investigation into the culture. I want I'm nervous that some companies might go well it doesn't turn out well when you do that. So maybe we're just sort of keep mom
Dan Ilic 39:28 Yeah, which is a shame because I don't I think if that the release of that report had been handled better like their release the fuck up was saying this is a proud day. This is a shameful day and we're gonna work on it. I don't think maybe we would be in that situation with like, Oh shit, we shouldn't even look at it. But they're on the on the backfoot from the get go because that report was handed to them in december two months, and it took ages for it was leaked to an investigative journalist and then they were gonna leak it they were trying to get ahead of the story. And fucking nothing ever goes well when you try to get ahead of the story.
Chris Taylor 40:00 So How bad is it? Like you mentioned the Adam Goodstein, which was just horrendous, and unpardonable. I can't believe he survived that. And the thing that brought him down was just a slip of the tongue. And he's like, made a dress
Unknown Speaker 40:11 dress. Like that's
Yumi Stynes 40:12 not what brought him down. And I disagree with you, Louis. I think like saying it's a proud that I think it was just like, he was trying to say, I'm proud that we're doing something about this. No, he's just playing with words, saying that that's what's brought him down. It's it's 23 years of races, leadership that's brought him down.
Unknown Speaker 40:28 I certainly wasn't saying that's what brought him down. I was just saying in terms of the release of the report. I think, like, I just Well, I mean,
Chris Taylor 40:36 that the media fixated on Yeah, way more attention than warranted, given the history of the background of that report.
Alice Fraser 40:44 I sort of feel sorry for these guys a little bit, because they got away with it for so long. It's like every week you robbed the bank, and then all of a sudden you get arrested and you're like, I was wrong the whole time.
Dan Ilic 40:57 I think Ben, Ben Lowe had a great tweet today about it. He said, If entitled white women who complained to the manager or Karen's, I think Australians can agree entitled white men who feel that their true victims of systemic racism, and now it is do you think this is gonna change leadership power vision of operating around
Yumi Stynes 41:19 the country? If so? I don't think so. But I think when people are racist, they don't know they're doing it. Most of the time, they're unaware. So I think No, and I think also, as usual, the brown person in the room is always the minority in this country, unfortunately. So when Lumumba was creating problems, and putting up quote, fingers there, the solution that's easier for the white guys in charge is to nominate that guy and go, let's get him out. He's a troublemaker which has happened to me. Shut your mouth, get her off the TV, she's creating problems, it's easier to just not have them on stage.
Dan Ilic 41:55 Can we talk a little bit about that for a second? That moment on Studio 10, the infamous moment where you were saying some very truthful things about how Aboriginal people have lower life expectancy and stuff like that. And Kerri Anne Kennerley went you were talking about the truth, learning, getting Australians to learn our truth about Australia Day. And what's really powerful moment there were and there must have been so confusing for you at that moment to kind of go well, I'm just saying some very, very truthful things.
Unknown Speaker 42:24 Just fax guy.
Dan Ilic 42:26 What are you yelling at me for and how do they seem to have this employed my life for a month? Yeah,
Yumi Stynes 42:30 that one was okay. I've been through other sheet storms that are way worse, at least with that one. I knew that I hadn't said anything wrong.
Dan Ilic 42:41 As I've had a 15 year career and I've made some very bad things on television that I'm very not I'm not proud of and thankfully no longer exist. Thank you for talking about this tonight.
Unknown Speaker 43:03 Hello,
Alice Fraser 43:04 let's talk about money. I'm gonna do my verbal exercises first for talking about money. short sell seashells with a stacked deck on the stock floor. And the deck that she stacks is shorted for sure. Let's all stop GameStop stock stacking up in the GameStop shop. Bobby Bitcoin back to stock of pickled crypto, how many stocks of pickled crypto did Bobby Bitcoin back.
So this month marks month that we all found out a short squeeze is not just a pelvic floor exercise. People honour it if you don't know the GameStop story people on a Reddit board took exception to some big hedge fund guys short selling a bricks and mortar game shop called GameStop sparking 1000 hot takes about the little man taking back the power from the big man by corruptly manipulating the market in the way that is traditionally reserved for those too big to fail in those too big to jail. It was nice to watch hedge fund managers, managers scramble and it was an excellent example of how a system which is constantly jerking itself off with its libertarian money based meritocratic purity purity rhetoric really collapses when the people join in. I don't want to spend too much time explaining the stock market because I want to give a chance to the 1000s of young men who love explaining the stock market.
currently doing so online This is their one opportunity to tell everyone about their kink when people won't just tune out and nod politely. But it's such an old move that it was so celebrated. I think we can all agree that the perfect vengeance against the accountably at the against the unaccountably wealthy is to pour money into the systems that enrich them. As we all know Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor so they could pay rent to the rich. This is called a stimulus check. So these Reddit guys, these mostly young, mostly men who like to think of themselves as V from V for Vendetta or the Joker, because they lack imagination. They became the ultimate news cycle fertiliser despite the fact that they're basically a bunch of guys with nothing better to do using their spare time and spare money to upvote cool seeming memes with cash. Speaking of which, co founder and CEO of inspiringly innovative and astoundingly overvalued electric car company Tesla. Elon Musk has recently stirred the stock markets by using the imaginary money he's made from people thinking his company will make more money than it will to buy into bitcoin, the most imaginary money. He talked about it publicly before, during and after the transaction while declaring that he couldn't talk about it because it might move the stock market, which it promptly did. This is the rhetorical technique of negotiation where you say what you're not going to do while doing it. Like I won't call my esteemed opposition, a dirty cop quote with a barely legal mistress. Saying what he's not going to do while doing it is Elon Musk's fourth favourite thing to do after his third favourite thing which is saying what he is going to do while not doing his second favourite thing, which is investing money in revolutionary moonshots like firing a car into space or putting chips in monkey brains while being defended by a certain kind of guy who loves to tell me about how wrong I am about Elon Musk. while simultaneously missing every point I'm actually making. Look, Elon Musk does some great stuff. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see a sci fi nerd do well, you can't. He can't help admiring musk for his ambition. He basically single handedly gave a cash boost to the incredibly expensive enterprise of hardware prototyping in a world where it's much cheaper and easier to stick with iterating software good on him. Also, if this goes well, there are potentially world changing implications for a lot of the technology he invests in and takes credit for so maybe my issue with him is mostly aesthetic. And I don't mean aesthetics in that his head looks like it's made of meat and then all our heads are made of meat but his looks like it's more made of meat. He's JC he's a man of binaries. He's a man who's simultaneously very inspiring entrepreneur operating at a leading edge of science so far ahead of the time that he's either a business genius or a very successful performance artist. It's It's just that he's always in the news for doing something either extremely cool and futuristic, or undeniable, lead dystopian, and probably both. The moral of this story is money. Men be money Manning changing little for real people while smugly congratulating themselves on being the revolution. One of the richest men in the world buying big into an untraceable unregulated currency that can't be taxed is not a cool rebel movie. It's the beginning of a James Bond movie villain storyline. It is the wild fantasy of nerds who wish they were brave enough to be assholes. Elon Musk is a baby's idea of a grown up in the same way disrupting the market by throwing your collective collective Reddit weight behind a troll ship post investment is the equivalent of critiquing social media in an eight great paragraph Facebook posts in the end it's all about ethics in video game stock market journalism Thank you
Dan Ilic 48:30 podcasts on the way here and they said Elon Musk and move 20% of the of the cryptocurrency market just by tweeting something that's incredible
Hamish Blake 48:39 if I can
Alice Fraser 48:43 thing is that like Bitcoin as a as a concept is like this idea of this, you know, blockchain whatever, blah, blah, blah. More than 50% of the Bitcoin mining capacity is controlled by China, the most worrying government
Unknown Speaker 48:57 honestly, the last few weeks, I've been so happy to not have any money it's the first time in my life I've been like thank Fuck, I'm poor. And I don't have to care about any of this.
Hamish Blake 49:09 I mean, I know this is this is not new news for anyone but like the whole point of Bitcoin is it's like decentralised and there is no 100 Bitcoin you can call it a complaint. There's no head office, which is a bummer because on our podcast on any podcast, five years ago, I bought two bitcoins for $900 each way and they were like a funny thing to own. And just like I've made this investment, they made this investment and then our web guy Jessica's really, really understand how to do it, he lost them, he lost the passwords. And you can't call up or write them a letter to go. I know everyone saying this, but I really had some Bitcoins. And we have two out there which are worth 120, grand, Old Joe, and we tried to hypnotise jazz to get because he's like, hop on and then only maybe books anyway and we made him sit in the studio with a hypnotist. As the best we got was him in a trance like state going capital B i t capital C. Hashtag one two, maybe exclamation mark. And so yeah, we've awesome except I'm kind of glad they stayed last because it is funny that we've lost 100 because we tried to sell them The only reason we found out last is we tried to sell them when they're at 15 $100 going well, they never get any higher. We wanted to buy a convertible drive through a carwash and we wouldn't have been the guy
Dan Ilic 50:31 that cashed out
Hamish Blake 50:33 three grand on its way to 120 grand because we wanted to drive an old Ford Capri through
Dan Ilic 50:40 a car wash. There's a guy there's a story of in the UK of a guy who's trying to get a hydraulic Yeah, get up find a laptop in a in a tip. Yeah. And he's got 120 million pounds of
Hamish Blake 50:54 Bitcoin everyone's just like Ivan's hoarding them not holding them. Like, locked up. It's like this big, like virtual Fort Knox that's out there when no one can get in and everyone's like, no one's selling.
Alice Fraser 51:09 Well think about it being untraceable though is it leads to criminal behaviour like that man who has Oh, sorry. Yeah.
So there was there are these Wi Fi enabled penis cages that you can do? Yeah, sorry. Yeah, sorry. So so you know, some people like to have strangers or friends tell them that they can't jerk off? Sure. I've been asked me if he if I do that for him. And I said, Please don't sexualize me not wanting to fuck you. But apparently this man has hacked in and locked people's penis cages and asked for Bitcoin ransom in order to unlock their penis cages.
Unknown Speaker 51:48 On a plus note, remember a golf Ed said out of bankruptcy.
Hamish Blake 51:53 My wife is always like, what are you doing this? I always have a paper clip just need to pick the line.
Alice Fraser 52:02 If you need to, if you need to incentivize remembering a password, can I suggest
Hamish Blake 52:08 to get a Wi Fi enabled one. I mean, if you're gonna start with a famous guy, just start and just go gently into it.
Dan Ilic 52:19 Before we head to a short intermission, many people have asked me one question in the lead up tonight. About Gabby, Gabby, she led to Andrew Poe and I said well, I don't know maybe maybe Gabby could answer this question.
Gabbi Bolt 52:32 My whole life has been building to this moment. My dad will be proud. He's not Andrew my dad's not Angie. Anyone like a samba? Let's get one thing straight. I'm not related to my dad always said he's a part of the Dutch bolts. I don't know how much of that is true. But even if I were I would treat it like a curse and sprint to the nearest courthouse to be disowned. It really makes you wonder what his actual family think is Christmas or disaster when he opens his mouth to speak. I guess what I am saying is easy to digest when you treat him like a drunk uncle, unless like a journalist. Because at this point, all I can really do is love because if I don't love ice cream, how did we let it get so far? How did we let it get so extreme? We have racist and rapist apologists becoming mainstream opinion columnist just another fuckin morning in the Murdoch machine. Thank you. We're gonna play a game because I was too lazy to write a second bus and dad gave me four days. So all the following things that are racist relative of mine has said it a Christmas dinner or an Andrew bolt headline. I didn't plan who would answer these questions. I felt like I just let the room feel it out. Cool. Facts no longer count in climate debate. We're gonna get along great. This game is great. Why I'm leaving Melbourne for gorge
Hamish Blake 54:24 Hey, Miss Blake. Andrew,
Gabbi Bolt 54:29 just yell bolts cuz that's also my family. So just give it a nice song. And true. All right.
Unknown Speaker 54:36 Yes. And it was also Yep, that was public.
Gabbi Bolt 54:39 Calm no pills jail diary is a revelation. Yeah, it'd be a bit rough if that one was my relative. Gabby Holy shit. You need to get your life together. You can't just keep on playing gigs with people you don't know and making no money at all. Speaking of is this paid
I would be funny if that one was Andrew but that was actually my relative
Unknown Speaker 55:14 it's so him to be black.
Gabbi Bolt 55:17 Definitely Andrew Jesus Christ by Well, anyway, this one's a bit hard. Okay, so it's really hard I've really blurred the lines between my family dinner and a public headline so just really listen out. Why do elderly Australian men get in jail?
JOHN everyone, you could all work for News Corp.
Unknown Speaker 55:48 Cuz at this point
Gabbi Bolt 55:49 all I can really do is laugh cuz if I don't laugh I scream. When publications often twisted tales the centre right the one for human rights becomes extreme. Because now that ethical media is dead. The Twitter newsfeed every day feels like a bullet to the head just another fuckin morning in the Murdoch machine. Though I know it's easy. Thank you to love it'll off as comedy. I know if I defended paedophiles publicly. I'd be slammed on my socials, I'd be out of a job. So how can he do it and still be paid at the top? Because it's not just fault. He is simply one cog in the misguidedly marvelled Machiavellian massively Marshall million dollar Murdoch machine.
Dan Ilic 56:52 Just want to say thanks to the Daily Telegraph for reviewing this show. Really glad that you're here. All right, welcome to second half irrational fear. We're about to kick it off. So, of course, you know, to pay our exorbitant bills. We need to run another sponsorship ad, so let's take it away sponsor.
Unknown Speaker 57:12 Standby for an announcement about announcements from the Commonwealth of Australia, the federal government to secure the COVID-19 vaccine football Australians is what we hope you picked up from the news this week. We haven't yet but we announced it. How good would that be? Just like the $2 billion national bushfire recovery fund that only existed in your brain the moment we announced it now that science and not to mention getting the arts industry back on their feet with a Coronavirus stimulus package that we haven't delivered. That was a really good announcement. We did it ages ago. Guy Sebastian was there. And he looks at the federal government announcing things because doing things is the state's responsibility as my son was being crushed, because I have to read these ads to stay alive regardless of my own political opinion.
Unknown Speaker 58:06 very rational.
Dan Ilic 58:09 Very good. Excellent, excellent. Now I don't know if you folks saw this today, the Minister of Health, Greg hunt, was on ABC News breakfast this morning talking about the vaccine rollout. When Michael Rutland seem a pretty simple question about why the Liberal Party was using the Liberal Party logo on the announcement about the Commonwealth Government vaccine rollout. Anyway, have a look at this. Greg hunt wasn't very happy with that Christian
Hamish Blake 58:36 break up when you announce the very welcome 10 million additional doses of Pfizer on your social media channels last week. Why did you feel the need to attach a Liberal Party logo to an Australian government announcement?
Unknown Speaker 58:49 Well, in fact, we made the Australian Government announcement as the government with the Prime Minister. wrong views I've not
Unknown Speaker 58:56 ever know
Dan Ilic 58:58 why I'll finish I'll finish if you let me. Because we predicted that you seem to be the most exercised of any person in the Australian media about this. So I was elected under that banner, multiple members from across multiple parties do that. I'm a very proud member of that party with a great heritage and tradition in Australia. And that's part of the Australian democratic process. So overwhelmingly, we do these things as the Australian Government on a particular channel. There's no problem with identifying entirely appropriately within the rules, the origins and heritage of that under that banner under which we were elected
Unknown Speaker 59:39 by the Australian Australian government announcement who paid for the vaccine.
Unknown Speaker 59:45 Let us draw a clear distinction here. I know this is an issue for you. In many ways. You identify with the left you do this a lot and I respect No no,
Unknown Speaker 59:56 no I I
Unknown Speaker 59:59 find that appealing If I'm asking you exercise about what he's
Dan Ilic 1:00:03 doing he doesn't identify you with the left arm exercise you should be open about that I'm open about my origin wow now the liberals kind of do this kind of stuff all the time I don't know if you remember during the bush fires they put out a video saying that the deployed the army this was about three months into the bush fire so everything was already burnt out. So that was really good. I'm I don't know about you folks. I'm okay with this. I don't mind dead but as long as they put their logo on every single achievements that they do, I've made a few social media posts they can do to get started. Here we go. Liberal Party secures Australia's largest dose of national debt ever. Labour Party secures women's change room for liberal electorate despite not having Women's rugby team. This one's good Liberal Party steals money from poor people using robot that makes lots of arrows. This one's a little off the game but still I like it Liberal Party use the AFP to investigate Greg hunter for liking a tweet from BB w comm pumper 69. And we never heard about it again. And if you're listening to the podcast, you can go to the show notes and download a template where you can do your own.
Alice Fraser 1:01:16 That was such a weird interaction. And not just because of the fact that it was super weird, but because he was all like talking
Chris Taylor 1:01:23 about the company.
Alice Fraser 1:01:26 Because he was obviously trying to turn it into a culture war thing. But he was using this like super loaded, like my heritage, the heritage of the Liberal Party I identify with, like it was really as though they'd done something racist.
Dan Ilic 1:01:40 Yeah. It's always good to hedge your bets, I think. Yeah, it's just nice to see the liberals trying identity politics for once.
Chris Taylor 1:01:48 I mean, as someone who knows Michael Rowland, he is actually one of the least lift people. Like it was Kerry O'Brien, fair enough, like this is genuinely insidious. And it's following a pattern. It's sort of borrowing from trumpism, where when they know they've done something wrong, there's strategies to attack the media straightaway and to discredit the media, and I hope the electorate see through because it's really, really bad.
Dan Ilic 1:02:10 Lewis is someone that works at the ABC who's got a full time job you want to come in.
Hamish Blake 1:02:17 You do identify with that. That particular station, which there was a squiggly triumvirate into twining,
Alice Fraser 1:02:26 I think ABC has a proud heritage.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:33 well established,
Dan Ilic 1:02:35 I feel much more comfortable with you guys doing this. Well, folks, this is the 100th episode of irrational fear. It's pretty great. I think it's actually 100. Second, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. So hopefully, you will just be a little bit self indulgent. We started this show at rational fi in 2012. because there wasn't a place to do jokes about the news and climate change and provide a new platform for voices. This show we kind of put together on stage for the very first time at the FBI social, which was a small room, not unlike this in the King's Cross hotel. And we streamed it live on FBI radio back in 2012. It was really great. And you know, from there, we've done lots of great stuff we sold at the Opera House a few times we've had sellout tours around the country. Barack Obama's National Security Adviser came on the podcast and slam Tony Abbott. And that made news which is fantastic. And it's been a lot of fun. You know, the reason why we made this is so we can all show off and show how smart and funny we are.
Alice Fraser 1:03:39 Can I say when you brought me onto the show the first time I'd never done satirical comedy before. And last week, I was on the BBC News Quiz. So
Unknown Speaker 1:03:47 you're right.
Alice Fraser 1:03:51 For a large portion of my career Thank you dad
Dan Ilic 1:03:53 extensively the show's done a lot better for everybody else's careers.
Yeah, I
can't believe we managed to get DJ Tom loud. Tom, Tom, DJ, don't come to our first sponsor shows now Tom is like the most in demand DJ in Australia.
Hamish Blake 1:04:15 HIV jam, right.
Dan Ilic 1:04:19 This is the whole point in this show works because people come together to make it happen. And it's been such a great little platform for loads of folks. Dylan Bane, who's in the audience. There he is. He's dealing is usually the the chafer of the show. He pulled together this video with some folks who have been a part of the show over the years, so
Chris Taylor 1:05:25 I'd like to sincerely congratulate damage on these wonderful podcasts.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:31 The burns and stuff the British stop
Dan Ilic 1:05:33 knockout breeze here.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:34 Sorry, I
Unknown Speaker 1:05:35 can't be there tonight about currently on the set of new Thor movie.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:42 I'm not informed, but I was hoping to speak to Chris Hemsworth about
Unknown Speaker 1:05:46 playing me and a biopic of mine of my life because
Unknown Speaker 1:05:49 I think you'll agree with the resemblance is uncanny. Good night, Danny. Congratulations
Unknown Speaker 1:05:54 on 100 episodes of convincing telling,
Unknown Speaker 1:05:58 pushing, cajoling, massaging, insisting and otherwise asking nicely for every unemployed comedian and or semi employed comedian and or semi comedian to appear on your podcast
Unknown Speaker 1:06:10 on a paid on 100 episodes and the only admin for one almost have been shaped his podcast
Unknown Speaker 1:06:17 and live show has done what all satire does, which is fundamentally change political economic reality and fix
Unknown Speaker 1:06:25 all the problems.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:26 I remember eight years ago, climate change was a bit scary. And the internet was incubating in embryonic. All right, but fast forward to today. 100 episodes later, congratulations.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:36 Everything is much worse. That's just dumb. Sorry. That's not how I am wanting that to come out.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:42 I'm just so sad that this is going to be the last one because like, the news is pretty slow at the moment. Not really anything to discuss, but he's hoping something interesting happened soon.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:55 I don't actually accept the premise of your celebration. If I did, I totally gratulations I would say
Unknown Speaker 1:07:01 what an incredible lucky country we are to have comedian lucky working but of course, it's all
Unknown Speaker 1:07:07 gossip and innuendo. So can't say any of that. You know, in talkback radio,
Unknown Speaker 1:07:12 we love hearing stories about Ozzy battlers people from struggle street who against the odds have had a go and managed to achieve something. And when I think about battlers, I think about Danny like an irrational fear. Despite all the challenges in front of Dan, he's managed to make irrational fear a success, and they've now clocked up 100 shows in a very real sense without this show, I wouldn't be where I am today, which is in a maximum security facility with a satellite orbiting the planet right now for I cannot be on the earth any longer.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:46 One guest appearance by me made possible but for a kid partly out of tangent. With a really stupid name. Dan, you don't go down good. My dad. Good. Now if you want to have more, you got another but a warning. Since the success of at home alone together, nothing's gone up. It's gonna cost you at least 10 bucks.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:08 Anyway. You know, keep up the podcast for some reason.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:11 Yeah. Have a
Unknown Speaker 1:08:13 very happy 100 celebration.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:15 Huge. Congratulations. I'm so proud of you.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:18 Well done. Congratulations, guys.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:21 You're a special little man. Congratulations.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:25 We love you.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:38 Thanks very much.
Hamish Blake 1:08:41 Like I know a lot of you know that I'm pretty hard hitting political guy. So I hope you have enjoyed the hors d'oeuvres and he's been really kick the head off a topic here. It is a real honour. It's a real honour to be on the show. Thank you Dan. Thank you Reverend honour to share the stage honour to be here on the 100th and you know i i don't even think that I just you know left my total last minute or anything like that. I was waiting like on a production line just looking at all the news of the week coming past just looking for the one with the hair in it looking for the one that I could grab. And I got the big one yesterday. I don't know if you guys have been watching the tennis but they've gotten rid of lines people did you know people say that it's done yet yeah. Thank you just said a bit louder for the audio no one else got one of those. Yeah, it's being stolen off is a COVID thing I think so not as big as Kim. Yeah. I've actually got more so we do need to get past because it's not actually a huge service COVID thing they just using the laser now they using Hawkeye Hawkeye live. It's called and they've got so when it's a fault or out it's a record voice that's yelling fault or out. But the talk is they're not bringing the lines people back. The robots are doing such a good job. That now there is a few dozen stern faced middle aged people in broad brim hats, who are very good at seeing when things are a little bit off who don't have a job? And yeah, I know what, and they're walking around the tennis and they'd have to do. I mean, I could probably just go they can probably look at people to see if they're a metre and a half apart and go 1.49. But it's not a and it is a bit like when supermarkets replaced checkout people with the robot checkouts, it's the same thing that's going on with lions people. Yeah, a couple of minutes sad. And then they didn't do the thing that they do in the supermarkets, which is they forced women, they forced the people to banks to teach you how to use the robot that was stealing its job. And I had to go Yeah, and so as you can see, it's very easy. And I'll shift so I didn't do that. That was a biggest kick in the pants. I haven't done that. However, however, that's the human cost. So there was a sad part of the story is actually the real information that came out. This is the bit that I grabbed out of all the clippings that I had on the bed and was like yes. It's it's made the news because there's a little bit of a devil in the detail here. So the maker of Hawkeye. This is the first time I've ever done research of insomnia. And he's the director of tennis. Bam. figurado. Right. He's done it with the agent, The Sydney Morning Herald. He says he's excited because with this technology that detects out and fault and you can get it to yell out using a robot voice. He said we can make it yell anything. He's like, you know, do you guys know about mp3 files? It doesn't have to be out and he doesn't he's like that's just Dennis telling us to do that. We This is these exact words because we can even make it yell Rolex or Kia. Like we can make it yell the sponsor when it lands out or it's a fault. It's a fucking cash Bonanza. All right, so I know it's one of those weird moments where you go hang on a sec, is you know, don't you know totally there's money involved in the game. Definitely the players aren't just out there because I love tennis and channel nines just showing to us every now because they thought we would be interested to see what the best tennis players are doing. Now there's a lot of cash it's been a crazy commercialism makes us sad because we're losing one of the traditional values of the game, which is people on the age yelling out and you know, curiosity yelling at them. It was like a science teacher versus like, you know, Daniel Wheeler back at my school and you know, the brand or the science teacher, so we don't have any more. Money has crept in manuscripts in and I know that makes people sad in sport. But here's we're gonna put all my cards on the table. I spent 15 years in commercial radio and television. I am trained to see opportunities. This is what we do. This is our bread and butter. I'm a fucking ninja at this. Have you heard the triple m football call? The bowl is sponsored. The stats sheet is sponsored. They don't even call them stats they call them hard Yeah, cuz
jakka does the stats so they go how many hot jackets have they made? That's the stat I can't believe we're still saying
here's the thing. Here's the thing there is I think there is a visit there's an issue though out and fault and negative terms like if your Rolex Okay, you don't want if something bad happens, you don't wanna be associated with that. So first step that I will give the geniuses is if Kia is in charge of it, you make the you make the fault call you make it a competitor lands out. It's the Hyundai Elantra is full of faults. If it's an alcohol on your Rolex you have tag while you're out rageous Lee bad value I don't want to tag on a Rolex let down by watch the Rolex but I think that's small potatoes as we say in the commercial biz. Out fault. Who cares? let you know someone else can have those if care and they are the main sponsor. If you really want to own this. have come up with an idea. Now Louis, I know you're going to get a free laptop. Previously. It hasn't happened. Well, I have asked many times. Yeah, but you've been sloppy because you didn't use brand names. You've got that ABC Wi Fi Well,
Unknown Speaker 1:14:43 yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:14:43 I will.
Dan Ilic 1:14:44 I will get fired if I mention a brand name.
Hamish Blake 1:14:47 I thought that might be the case. My friend. I please mentioned here so much against you a car.
Unknown Speaker 1:14:55 He could I just jump in Could it be Land Rover
Hamish Blake 1:15:00 Why don't we start with the keyer? And we're gonna work our way up from there. I mean, we'd love to start listening from now. Okay. All right, he's, here's the thing, if there's one area that we can change that is boring, a little bit confusing in tennis, it's a scoring. No one knows what goes 15 1510 then how many is a guy, no one knows. No one knows. He won't miss it. No one. From now on, Louis, this is our freight, we want to hear this here. This man loses pitch to you about what you can do with the scoring. Okay? So instead of having the numbers and the games and stuff, it's all related to chaos. So love the score of zero. That's just walking that we call that walking now. You don't have a car. So you're it's the absence of cases. And you don't want to you want to you want to get past that. That was that would be a nightmare. And so the idea is you're building your care as the game goes on. So I know the old system was confusing, and this is a little confusing, but 15 Now we call wheels. Okay, he's on wheels. 30s engine 40 chassis, okay. Which is I don't know. I think it's Jesse.
Dan Ilic 1:16:25 Tennessee, Tennessee is French. So it's Jesse.
Hamish Blake 1:16:28 Jesse. That's so funny. So you're building the car. Oh, you only got the exterior of the body to go. Except so if you win the next point, you have a full Kia. However, for the 40 all because chassis chassis. In the old system that was juice in the new system, that's exterior options. Okay. So you get to players locked in exterior options. If you win the next point, you get metallic paint. Right? Then if you win that you've built your care Okay, so you've won one case for that equals a game as the set progresses. This is where it gets a little trickier. You name it sounds like game one game two. He's won three games he's won four games you don't say that anymore because there's no money in that. You now refer to each number of games corresponds to the ascending order of the key a range Okay, so if you just get good I know. If you've just won one game that's the Zippy and reliable key to that's the very capable Kia Rio then you go to the key of Serato The key is sell toss the key is potage. The sixth game is the luxurious Kia Sorento. And then if the set does go to the seventh game, that of course is the seventh carnival. And then you have won the set which is a collection of cars. So now you've now got a collection of cars. If you win the game, that's a fleet for the fleet. You don't win the game. Do you want to play the keys through the championship? Of course we just change that terminology. You've won the dealership like that's now what you win. And your opponent has to drive away no multiply.
Dan Ilic 1:18:02 Okay? It wasn't confusing. I think we all understood that.
Alice Fraser 1:18:17 You did not think I could find tennis more boring. And then you made it about cars and math.
Hamish Blake 1:18:25 Imagine you know that. One of the other big guys locked into Sorento. I mean
Dan Ilic 1:18:32 imagine a country he wouldn't even fit in the Sorento
Hamish Blake 1:18:36 that's just eat for those at home I'm doing the money symbol with
Alice Fraser 1:18:42 all this from Novak Djokovic throat punching lines person within
Hamish Blake 1:18:46 an hour or driving around. Now you're gonna love it. Can
Unknown Speaker 1:18:51 I just say I as I as a long term AVC employee that was so yeah. I felt I felt like I was learning a different language. therapy. Yeah, no, I thought I'd hide it but I loved it.
Hamish Blake 1:19:07 You'll learn to love it. Just say a few times and it just rolls off the tongue. I'll get you on to some.
Dan Ilic 1:19:26 Speaking of love, Gabby bolt has got one last song for us before we wrap up the night. Gabby.
Gabbi Bolt 1:19:32 Thank you. It's funny. Actually, I'm from Baptist. Note that got the word deserved. Which is it just means basically, I without a pandemic. I also just haven't seen people. Just my life but I have a tick tock account,
Yumi Stynes 1:19:47 which is
Unknown Speaker 1:19:48 Yeah, look. But
Gabbi Bolt 1:19:54 I have more followers than my hometown. So thanks. But basically, I I've been in the public eye and I'm not at all used to that. And so when I post online, sometimes people like to talk to me. And so I've written a song to thank those people. It's called Love Song for an in sell. And in parentheses, I think I'd get on with your mum. Yep, it's only downhill from here. Recently, the internet has become my new abode. And every time I put up a political post, I see something that catches my eye. A retweet from the sweetest can I've got three little words that he goes and stays referring me to all of his money to someone to look up to. But john,
would you bang. ignoring the fact that's not relevant, and ignoring the fact I'm greatly I've reached in bed and ignoring the disgusting sentiment, instead of a simple abuse of my autonomy. He could have tried to set the fucking scene for me. Tell me how we'd meet Tell me how you would treat me. But since you aren't, give me the courtesy. I'll do what must be done. I reckon we would meet on the street. You can call me from your bus stop seeing you would be surprised when I in fact, say hey, I'm super flattered that you want to see my rack denied asked you to take me on a date. I'll leave it I'll do it and I'll say, Hey, could you pick me up round eight. And you'll say you can't drive. That's why you're at a bus station. So I broke up to your house, which is an overstatement because your house is your mom's and you live in her basement, or wait with your mom for a while in the hallway. She seems real sweet. It's a shame her son is an ashtray. regard a potent or it complements well with your sweat at the door. And as we leave for an evening I've been looking for. I remember you've picked the menu and the menu and the seating. I stole that line from Hamilton. Please don't sue me. When we take to our chairs amongst the popcorn he and I asked what kind of film I'm in for. not surprised at all to hear it's by Tarantino. As we watch the list of all the films you've seen, though, you do go on to say that representation is not important. And diversity has ruined all the things you enjoy. And I feel unsafe. But for narrative sake, we have to get to that base. And we dim the lights down though. Well, actually, they're off. Oh, basements, not on the same circuit board. Even in the dark, your chest hair really just shines through. And I'm giving you all
Unknown Speaker 1:23:42 and you're crying.
Unknown Speaker 1:23:51 Really.
Gabbi Bolt 1:23:53 It's been a bit of a dig. I shouldn't be a dick, even in a hypothetical. So I hold you. You say your sexual performance is one of your biggest fears. You treat women like they're objects to distract from the fact you're probably bad at sex. And while I'm empathetic, I am not an idiot. I grind my stuff and run the fuck out of the basement. But I stopped to talk to your mom. Because honestly, she seems fun. But she doesn't seem to know. There's a sickness that exists within cyberspace most diagnoseable in patients who hide their face, hey, look around. It could be one of your mates who told me I shouldn't have opinions and to know my place where it's going good. My first mistake Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:50 That makes me feel way better. So as a woman if
Gabbi Bolt 1:24:54 you wish to share a point of view, be aware of the shitstorm that awaits you in the Reddit. forums in the Twitter hashtags in the YouTube comments, tick tock do it. The Facebook feed in the email junk box in the Insta DMS and in the post once I was doxed and
Unknown Speaker 1:25:13 taking account happy to
Gabbi Bolt 1:25:26 but none of that matters. He already rated me as six.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:55 Fantastic.
Dan Ilic 1:25:58 And now to talk that I did I spent 15 minutes trying to work out where do I put the so
Unknown Speaker 1:26:12 sorry.
Dan Ilic 1:26:14 There's so good Gabby, Gabby.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:20 Actually I forgot the words on purpose.
Gabbi Bolt 1:26:23 Because the words on purpose,
Alice Fraser 1:26:24 never apologise to being better than Louis.
Chris Taylor 1:26:29 You'll be apologising old.
Dan Ilic 1:26:34 Everybody, Louis is actually talking to someone else last night about the show and they're like, Oh, hey, Mitch, Mike's gonna be on it. I'm like, yeah, I'm following you. And they're like
Unknown Speaker 1:26:46 you now. I'm so
Hamish Blake 1:26:53 glad I got him before. Just on behalf of the Father. Wow, it feels great.
Dan Ilic 1:27:08 I wish the show was tomorrow like I thought. Now as a Victorian who lives in Sydney, I've always kind of felt like Switzerland in the Sydney Melbourne debate. I think they're both great. You know, Melbourne has the third and the 40. Sydney has the beaches and the beauty, but it was always one trump card that Melbourne had to play. When it came to its victory over Sydney hidden in a little laneway was a secret spot called crown casino.
Now as long as Sydney didn't have a crown casino, it would always be Melvin's poor cousin. Everyone knew it. It's all anyone talked about up here.
Unknown Speaker 1:27:47 Why don't we get a crowd? Where can I
Dan Ilic 1:27:52 go if I want to gamble and eat at restaurants that already exists pretty close by? Well, you could go to star casino I'd say the crown the city can never be king. And then, like a white knight riding in on his glimmering super yacht, James James Packer, he built a new crown right here. It would Herald a new dawn of subtle sophistication. Right here in the Emerald City. I'm talking a hidden tucked away
Unknown Speaker 1:28:33 22 hectares of land and almost impossible to spot 75 for casino and all owned and run by a family business. The Packers for a moment, Sydney was the happiest place on earth. And before I even got a chance to take my call Melbourne friends to barang or over a hit night of gambling.
Unknown Speaker 1:28:59 I find out
Dan Ilic 1:29:00 the crown can open in Sydney. Apparently some intern who calls himself a former Supreme Court Justice suddenly decided after an 18 month investigation, the crown is unsuitable to run a casino
because crown Casino in Melbourne has a long history of money laundering. Melbourne isn't that typical? Not only does it have the better restaurants it's
Unknown Speaker 1:29:27 better at money laundering.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:27 If I have to if I want a money launderer, I have to drive 10 hours down the U
Dan Ilic 1:29:34 turn my drug money into chips. It's outrageous. You know, Ban someone for money laundering. Remember last year when Westpac accidentally forgot to mention 19 point 5 million transactions of money laundering but gave
Unknown Speaker 1:29:47 them a little fine.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:48 No one went to prison. It was an accident. It was 19 point 5 million accidents. We crown only made one mistake one little money laundering mistake. Oops.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:04 has no
Dan Ilic 1:30:05 one's organised the junket for a triad gang to dump profits of crime for over a decade.
Look me in the eye and tell me I haven't done it.
Honestly,
telling crown they can't operate money laundering casinos. It's like telling Asha Gunzburg he can host TV. It's what they were born to do. Without crown jobs will be lost. Can you imagine the layoffs in the triad gangs?
Unknown Speaker 1:30:36 I want to be the
Unknown Speaker 1:30:37 guy at suddenlink who has to tell
Unknown Speaker 1:30:38 a hitman he can apply for a job caper. Not only will people not be able to launder money, help people gamble.
Unknown Speaker 1:30:46 Are you telling me people can just gamble on their phones?
Unknown Speaker 1:30:51 anytime on literally
Dan Ilic 1:30:52 anything. fashioned book by holidays that a travel agent. I bind my porn at a sex shop. And I like to gamble in a giant penis shaped building.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:07 I don't want to gamble on a machine that fits in my pocket. I want to gamble in a big machine filled with coins like a robot leprechaun. I'm worried about what will happen to the beautiful barangaroo if crown can open its casino. Usually when you're not allowed in a Sydney building. It's for a normal reason like it has cracks and it's about to fall down.
Dan Ilic 1:31:33 Right now in Sydney there is a 75 storey money laundering cop just sitting there. I mean, what are we gonna do with an empty building for the fucking crowd on top of it? limits the options or you rent it to crown lager is a bigger crime than money laundering.
What are we gonna do literally rented out to like
Unknown Speaker 1:32:03 a royal family. The closest
Dan Ilic 1:32:05 Australia has to royal families the Hemsworth hay barn house is nicer than barangaroo. If this nanny state won't let James Packer open his money laundering factory, I do actually have a few ideas of what we could do with the empty space. Now your average Twitter teardrop will tell you that it should be used for public housing or COVID quarantine hotels.
Unknown Speaker 1:32:26 How about this? It's got a lot of CCTV cameras. Big Brother house.
Unknown Speaker 1:32:35 If you think Crown's reputation is too bad for a TV network to film Big Brother. Keep in mind they used to film in a dream world.
Unknown Speaker 1:32:48 Just saying the standards low. Okay, it's not right to be brother. I hear your groans maybe another show Ninja Warrior right across the casino floor. The first person to jump over the jewel of the Nile swinging around a roulette wheel roll Snake Eyes crack open the vault and swim through a billion dollars of laundered money wins $50,000 the rest of the money goes to crown.
Dan Ilic 1:33:09 I don't like that idea. I
Unknown Speaker 1:33:10 got more. We all know that James Packer and Mariah Carey are well and truly over. Maybe it's not too late to rewrite the divorce. So Mariah gets barangaroo imagine
Lewis Hobba 1:33:22 Mariah Carey living alone in
a giant tower for the next 30 years. While the giant facade slowly decays one day and intrepid explorer wandering through the heat wasteland that was once Sydney machetes through the IV branches that have overtaken crowns revolving doors to find Mariah in rags. sauntering the empty hall singing All I want for Christmas is you while she minds eating a sumptuous feast off the empty plates in a deserted note.
Unknown Speaker 1:33:58 Yes, it
Unknown Speaker 1:33:59 is an excellent idea.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:02 But it's not as good as money laundering.
Lewis Hobba 1:34:06 Just like crowns should be allowed to launder money just like they do in Melbourne. I'm sick of Sydney being number
Unknown Speaker 1:34:12 two.
Lewis Hobba 1:34:12 Do you know that New South Wales isn't even the state with the most amount of poker machines in the world? Guess what number we are? The two you know who number one is Nevada?
Unknown Speaker 1:34:24 First the store wins
Unknown Speaker 1:34:25 the rugby league and now this
Dan Ilic 1:34:27 crown casino simply must be allowed to operate in Sydney. I mean they even let Western Australia have a crown casino that's a state where you hit a jackpot anytime you dig a hole. Sydney doesn't pick up its game Soon. Soon. We'll have nothing I mean, we'll
Unknown Speaker 1:34:44 have one casino but what do we Hobart
Unknown Speaker 1:34:50 we've already lost the curse ship business.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:52 Don't take away our culture.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:57 We need a friendly place with a carpet. That reminds you of funky fruit funeral parlour
Unknown Speaker 1:35:02 with lighting that
Unknown Speaker 1:35:02 says What time is it? Who cares? And a car park full of family waggons with the windows down just enough for the kids
Unknown Speaker 1:35:09 to breathe. I hope personally I don't see the day when there's a real estate agent out the front of barangaroo auctioning it off, and if I do 2.2 billion is actually not a bad price for an apartment, Sydney. So thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker 1:35:37 patreon supporters
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