WEBVTT - The Late Debate | 19 May 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:07.680 Late Welcome to the Late Debate. Well, thanks for joining 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:08.520 us on the Late Debate. 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.799 I'm James Macpherson with Freileitch and kel Richards coming up tonight. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.680 Fans of the newest NRL team mistakenly by memberships in 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:19.840 a very different kind of club. 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:21.599 Will explain that to you a little later. 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:24.560 Plus, when we look at the papers, the Albanezy government 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.000 looking at ending power bill rebates but wait until you 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.319 find out what they're going to spend the money on, 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:34.360 and warnings that drought in Victoria is set to send 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.760 dairy and meat prices skyrocketing. All of that when we 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.080 get to what's making news tomorrow. But first is the 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.760 Albanese government heading for war with the Trump administration over 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:50.440 DEEI policies. Now everyone knows Trump has shown an absolute 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.920 disdain for woke policies. He's called them ridiculous and radical, 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:57.800 especially when it comes to the military. And if you're 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.320 any any doubt about what the trumpet aministration thinks about 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:06.080 woke policies, well have listened to US Defense Secretary Pete hegseath. 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:14.760 We are leaving warkness and weakness behind. No more pronouns, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:22.400 no more climate change obsession, no more emergency vaccine mandates, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.039 No more dudes in dresses. 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:26.760 We're done with that. 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.800 So what will the Trump administration make of our military? 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.600 Where DEI policies are as common as car key. Take 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.600 the Australian Submarine Agency as an example. They're charged with 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:44.679 securing Virginia class nuclear subs from the US. Now have 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.480 a look at how they run their agency. Here in Australia, 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:53.320 the acasa's diversity and Inclusion policy requires the appointment of 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:57.560 senior leaders as diversity Champions focused on the culturally and 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:04.560 linguistically diverse lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual, neurodiversity, 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:10.000 First Nations, disability and mental health, and women and gender. Now, 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.440 US defense contractors have quickly ditched to DEI policy so 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.520 they can deal with the Trump administration, but not the 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:22.400 Albanesi government. Finance and Public Service Minister Katie Gallagher said 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.040 the Labor government is absolutely committed to diversity, inclusion and equity, 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.800 no matter what the cost. She told The Australian Today. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:35.040 The Australian people voted at this election to comprehensively reject 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.880 a coalition platform that was built on the politics of 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:42.520 division and imported policies from overseas. Label will continue to 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:47.480 govern in the interests of all Australians, she explained DEEI 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.840 would continue. Kellen Freyer, it seems to me that the 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:56.600 Albenezi government is endangering US on two fronts. Firstly, DEI 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.160 is not smart in the military. I mean, no one 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.560 on the battlefield asks your pronouns before they shoot you. 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.200 But second, the US is our major ally. 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.600 We're in a what a three hundred and sixty billion 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:12.640 dollar contract re orcus and submarines. This is not the 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.800 way to indea the Trump administration to ourselves. 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.760 And if this labor government thinks that the Trump administration 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.720 will not crack down on Australian die policies, then they 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.160 are wrong because our universities have already lost up to 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.200 six hundred million dollars in grants from the US government 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.720 because of their DEI policies, and that is simply going 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:36.080 to happen with the military. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.400 As well well. 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.000 I went to the White House website and I looked 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:45.520 up what they require and the Trump administration quote requires 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.120 federal contractors and subcontractors. 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:49.440 That sounds a lot. 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.840 Like people dealing with their military to comply with what 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:57.640 they call our civil rights laws and that means the 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.600 de EYE laws getting rid of all of that because 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.000 they say that's discrimination. 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:02.320 And then in the next. 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:08.320 Paragraph they require quote strong affirmation subcontractors will not engage 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.040 in DEI. Now, how does Australia get around that? I mean, 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.480 we've got it. We have not just a policy, an 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:18.240 official policy locked in in which we say DEI is good, 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.560 We're doing DEI and they've got an official policy saying no, 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:23.680 you won't or we can't deal with you. How do 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.720 we even deal with the American military Lockheed Martin, for example, 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.320 Lockheed Martin ditch DEI. We have a policy of DEI. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.240 Do we have to say to Lockheed Martin, I'm sorry, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:36.760 we're not buying any more F thirty five fighter jets 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:38.400 because you've got the wrong policy. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:43.000 Lockheed Martin and Boeing have got subsidiaries here in Australia. Yes, 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.480 And so they're trying to work out they've ditched DEI 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.359 in the US, what do their Australian counterparts do and 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.120 is it going to affect their relationship with the Trump administration. 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.720 Here's the other thing I find incredible about this. 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.600 The Australian submarine agency, established in July twenty twenty three 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.400 with the intent of dealing with the Trump administration, has 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.240 in its short life span, a terrible record when it 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:09.760 comes to culture and morale, with senior officers having been 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.839 reported to resign on mass because of senior leadership issues. 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.000 There are one hundred and one government entities surveyed. They 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:21.200 published their results in terms of workplace culture the ASA 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.800 and they've got, you know, champions for diversity, for LGBTQ, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:29.560 for women, for neurodivergent people, for First Nations people. They 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:34.400 reported the second lowest overall well being and support of 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:37.880 one hundred and one government agencies. They came in tenth 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.960 last when it came to communication and only fifty nine 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.359 percent of people working at the Australian Submarine Agency with 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.360 all of their diversity champions, only fifty nine percent were 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.479 willing to describe it as a good place to work. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.279 It's almost like the more diversity champions you have, the 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.360 less appealing that workplace is for potential employees. 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.400 Because the diversity, the equity and inclusion agenda is all 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.479 about dividing people along the lines of race, gender, immutable 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.760 attributes and what that does in a workplace is it 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.960 will eventually rip colleagues apart because all of a sudden, 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:15.600 you're not being judged on your merit. You're not being 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.520 judged on how well you perform a job. You're being 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.480 judged on who you are as a person, things you 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.240 can't change. Now, what kind of culture would that create 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.760 in a workplace where it's not your actions that are 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:33.160 being evaluated, but it's aspects of your identity. And then 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:37.080 imagine the toxic relationships that flow from that, the envy. 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.400 I would feel so annoyed if I knew someone next 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:42.599 to me was going to get the promotion over me, 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.239 or get a better job just because of their skin 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.039 color or something silly like that. 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.760 Yeah, and we know what happens with di DEI is 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:55.000 what gave us Kamela Harris as an election candidate. So 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.240 we know it doesn't work. Talking about elections. Let's cast 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.520 our minds back to me the third. It's only two 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.400 weeks and two days ago. That could have been should 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.440 have been the energy election, and the Liberal Party could 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.920 have run a really powerful we are going to cut 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.960 your cost of living by cutting down the cost of energy. 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.560 But because they very closely resembled in that campaign, Ruth 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.720 Park's much love character, the muddle headed wombat. They had 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.200 nothing like that. Muddled about nuclear, didn't even try to 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.200 sell their nuclear policy, muddled about energy policy. Now, sadly, 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:32.120 having been demolished in that election, they are still muddled. 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.920 They still really don't know where they're going. Their coalition 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.000 partners or would be partners that thats have already said 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.440 we're dumping that zero, and well the that's dumped that zero. 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.160 The Liberals dither about nuclear now. Joe O'Brien was the 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.160 man who helped to draw up the nuclear policy and 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.600 sell the nuclear policy, and now he's the deputy leader of. 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.000 The It's Ted O'Brien, you said Joe Joe on the 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.560 ABC Good Guy. I did buy cannection with the career 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:57.480 out with Joe O'Brien. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:58.440 But it's Ted O'Brien. 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.880 He's here as my submedit. He's excellent. Ted O'Brien was 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:03.680 the man who did that. 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.560 Now he is the deputy leader of the Liberal Party 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:09.520 and he doesn't sound all that clear. 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:10.080 Have a listen. 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.720 Are the National saying to you that in order to 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.120 get this agreement together, you'll have to commit to a 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:17.080 nuclear policy. 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.840 The Liberal Party has already made it very clear what 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:22.520 our approach is, and that is we need to be 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.560 listening to the Australian people. We'll be looking at the 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.840 evidence of the data also as it comes in, and 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:34.320 together we will be drawing conclusions and formulating policy. That's 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.360 the approach that Susan has rightly laid out. 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.560 Ted Ted, Ted, Ted, I mean that's not even the 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:42.560 muddle headed wombat. 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.920 That is the waffling wombat. That's really terrible. 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.120 And listening to the Australian people, I've got a better 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:51.160 idea tech. Listen to engineers, because engineers will tell you 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.040 if you don't drop NED zero, the system won't work. 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.640 I interviewed on my radio show an engineer who explained 0:08:57.640 --> 0:08:59.920 to me the way the grid works is the out 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.520 put in the input have to just about balance, so 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.360 the amount of energy being generated has to eku all 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.440 the load, and the load varies, whereas with renewables it 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.400 peaks early in the afternoon when there's not much load, 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.079 and then the load peaks in the early evening when 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:15.679 there's not much from renewables. 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.040 He said, you can't make it work in engineering terms. 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.400 Now I understand Chris Bowen doesn't understand that that baffles him, 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:24.959 but somewhat in the Liberal Party's got to understand. 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:26.720 Well, I've got to say the deputy leader of the 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.760 Liberal Party who we heard from just there, that is 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:32.240 the worst ted talk I have ever heard in my life. 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:33.680 I'll tell you who does make sense. 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.160 So Chris Ullman was speaking to Peter Kredlin earlier this 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.800 evening about just what a mess the energy policy is 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.080 if the Liberals continue down this track of net zero, 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:43.640 have a listen. 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.720 Unfortunately for the coalition along the way, they're going to 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:51.400 tear themselves apart on this on a policy position, because 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.600 clearly the Nationals, or the large part of the Nationals, 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:55.720 have a different view to the Liberal Party. I assume 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.679 now they'll spend the next three years fighting over this. 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.320 It's from a Liberal point of you, what will be 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:06.280 required to try, without succeeding, to hit net zero will 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:11.720 be permanent COVID level intervention in your lifestyle. We've only 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:13.040 just begun. 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:14.559 To see the tip of this iceberg. 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.520 Here's my big problem with what the Liberals are doing 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.360 at the moment. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding them, but they're 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:22.920 talking a lot about we're trying to work out why 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.679 we lost the election and we're going to adjust our 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:26.960 policies accordingly. 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:27.480 Now. 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.400 I may not be naive Freer, but this to me 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.360 seems exactly the wrong way to go about establishing your policies. 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.360 What they should be working out is not what we'll 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.840 win them an election, but what's the right thing to 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.160 do for the country. And so they're saying things like, well, 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.560 we can't dump net zero now because having run with 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.679 it since Scott Morrison introduced it as a policy, it 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.160 would be inconsistent to walk away from it. 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.480 Well, if it's wrong to persist with net zero, then 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.000 admit your inconsistency. Do what's right. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.760 Another argument they've said is that well it will cast 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:04.040 us Australia as a global pariah if we ditch net zero. Well, 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.080 you know, there's plenty of nations, including the United States 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.560 of America, who seem to be doing pretty well having 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.440 cast aside net zero, and damn the consequences in terms 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.760 of reputation. I think the Liberal Party need to search 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.440 their souls, not about what's going to make them electable, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.960 what's the best thing for the country, promote and communicate. 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:26.559 That well and then see what happens. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.840 But this well, what can we do to try and 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:32.760 curry favor with people, regardless of whether we agree with 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:33.200 it or not. 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.040 On principle, is the wrong way to go. 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.680 Policy making, according to the polls, is part of what 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:42.920 lost the Liberals the last election. When you follow the 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.920 pulses and just go what do the people want, turns 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.400 out you end up valueless, You end up not standing 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.160 for anything, and as soon as you get any pushback, 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:57.160 you backflip, which makes the original policy even worse. And 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.480 so the Liberals, if they do want to come back, 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.640 pick a position and defend it and bring the Australian 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.040 people along with you. For some of the greatest political 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.400 reforms in our country, they haven't happened because politicians looked 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.800 at the polls and found that Australians wanted a GST, 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.640 that they wanted serious tax reform, that they wanted to 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:23.319 end the waste. Those things were often extremely unpopular, demanding 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:27.040 politicians to make real decisions and cast a vision for 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.920 this nation and then make the argument. And I think 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.000 that is what people are so afraid of now. They 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.240 want to know people are on their side before they 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:37.520 even put policy out there. 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:39.560 That's not how good politics work. 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.400 They're going to throw it a positive idea because it's 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:44.559 easy to be negative about the LIPS because they've fallen 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.199 apart and they're fraying continue to freight at the edges. 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:48.880 It would be fairly. 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.760 Easy to say, we can defend own nuclear policy by 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.400 proposing dropping the moratorium on nuclear science as a moratorium, 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.360 a ban on nuclear science in Australia and banning any 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.000 type of science a silly if they say, we're not 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.959 proposing that that we build half a dozen nuclear power stations, 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:10.000 just drop the ban on nuclear science. You can justify 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.880 it on the basis that it allows Australian universities to 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.680 set up nuclear science departments and it allows them to 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.920 train people ready for ORCUS. Now you could put that 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.360 up in the Parliament embarrassed the government, embarrassed Chris Bow 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.679 and you'd have to oppose it and you'd actually get somewhere. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.320 There are positive things they could do and they ain't 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:29.760 doing them. 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.240 They ain't doing them at all, and it's going to 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.120 be a while, i think free before we find out 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.120 what they're going to do, because they don't know at 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:36.559 this point. 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:38.600 And the thing that no one really wants to take 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.760 into account is the impact this is going to have 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.040 on the Australian people. China's building two new coal fire 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.000 power plants every week while we are shutting ours down 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.600 and the people who will ultimately pay the price for 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:53.960 that are Australians. But moving on now, the AFL world 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:58.360 has been absolutely shattered by the heartbreaking news that one 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.160 of their great players at Selwood, who played eleven seasons 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.160 for the West Coast Eagles, has tragically taken his life 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.480 over the weekend. He was just forty one years old. Now, 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:14.400 suicide in and of itself is always a tragedy, but 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.920 this is made even worse by the fact that his 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:22.040 twin brother took his life just three months ago, and 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.840 in researching for this I also found out that he 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.680 was just one week away from doing a charity run 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.120 in his brother's honor to raise money for mental health 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:36.000 and suicide prevention. So it is absolutely heartbreaking. Now an 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:40.400 internal study by the AFL Players Association has found that 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:44.400 the numbers of former players seeking mental health support has 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.240 increased by twenty three percent in the last year and 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.200 has doubled in the last three years. Now it is 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:57.200 an absolute tragedy, and of course suicide no matter what 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.560 the circumstances are is tragic. But in this case, when 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:04.640 you see two suicides in one family in such a 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.440 short period of time, it really makes you wonder what 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.800 more can we do to be supporting these people. And 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.000 it does raise the idea that suicide can often end 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.160 up as a social contagion, where if you see someone 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:21.480 who's committed suicide in your close network, suicide then becomes 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.680 more prevalent within that group of people. 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:24.320 We see it in. 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.240 Schools, in communities and in families as well. 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:30.240 You're right to say it's an absolute tragedy. The cell 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.840 would family legendary in the AFL. If you don't follow 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.800 the AFL, you just need to know that family, four 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.560 young men, all of them absolutely champion footballers. If we 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.080 can go back to the photograph we showed earlier of 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:47.080 the funeral, Adam Selwood, who just took his life most recently, 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.600 is pictured there speaking at the funeral of his twin 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:54.520 brother Troy, who had taken his life in February. So 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.760 a lot of people are concluding there's a social contagion 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.840 part to this. And Andrew bolt Out colleague wrote a 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:05.120 brilliant article in The Herald Sun over the weekend talking 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:07.560 about the fact that typically we don't speak about suicide 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.640 at all, partly because of the social contagion issue. 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.080 We don't want it to be encouraged. 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.240 But he made the point that maybe we need to 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:21.160 have a conversation about just the damage suicide does, and 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.400 typically we don't talk about it because we're trying to 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.720 spare the memory of the departed person. But Andrew Bock 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.480 made a good point, what about the lives of those 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:35.000 who are still here, who are so devastated by this, 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:38.480 and some of whom do end up going down that 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.920 same route. We need to talk about the devastating consequences 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.040 of suicide, that it's not a noble way out, it's 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.840 not a brave or courageous thing to do. It has 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.920 devastating consequences long after that person has gone. 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.840 There was a study done in South Korea which showed 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.720 that in a family where one person who committed suicide, 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.280 another person was three times more likely to commit suicide 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.080 then a family that had lost someone to some other 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.600 course of death accident and illness or whatever. So, in 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.000 other words, it does work like a contagion. It does actually. 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:11.000 Trip the idea. 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.520 See there would be people for example, who would look 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.520 at something like euthanasia legislation and misreaded or misunderstand it 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.320 as saying, oh, well, our society has said suicide is 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:23.639 a way to deal with the hurts of life. So 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:25.560 we need to do two things. We need to persue. 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:27.879 We need to help people with who are hurting, who've 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:29.600 got the hurts of life. We need to be there 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.400 beside them. The community has to do that. That's why 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.960 the AFL having a special round on this could really 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.200 help if they are there and they're. 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.120 Supporting their AFL family. 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:41.280 And the second thing is we need to make it 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.320 clear of the whole community suicide is not a solution. 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:46.800 If life is hurting, it is really bad for you, 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:49.800 that's terrible. We feel for you, we want to be 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.280 there for you and help you, but suicide is not 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:53.320 one of the options. 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:55.840 And the other interesting thing here is the AFL is 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.000 starting to talk a lot more about the mental health 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.560 of players. They they do have unique challenges. You've got 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.160 young men who are earning an absolute fortune. They are 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.560 feted as gods, but it's a pretty short career in 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.119 professional sport. You know, you start as an eighteen year old. 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.920 By the time you're thirty, you're washed up and then 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.280 all of that adulation, all of that profile, it's gone 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:20.600 overnight and you haven't even lived half your life. 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:22.359 You've got to figure out what do I do now. 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.640 It's not that surprising that many AFL players have suffered 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.320 from mental health issues. So the AFL and the NRL 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:34.000 and other sporting bodies do need to do something to 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.600 help those young men. Hey, if you're struggling with mental 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.000 health issues or you know someone who is, don't forget 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.240 Help is only a phone call away. There's the Lifeline 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.720 number on your screen, and so make use of Lifeline. 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.920 They're a great organization who provide help to a lot 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:53.800 of people. I'll tell you what else is being promoted 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.280 as a help to people, and that's medicinal cannabis, which 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:02.960 was legalized in this country in twenty sixteen. But shocked surprise, 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:08.959 it's being prescribed at an alarming rate. The explosion of 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:15.600 prescriptions for legalized medicinal cannabis for things like insomnia, anxiety, 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.960 and chronic pain is just quite shocking. There's data from 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:24.440 the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency that found eight doctors 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:30.600 had each issued ten thousand prescriptions for medicinal cannabis. In 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:36.160 just six months, one doctor had issued seventeen thousand prescriptions. 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:41.399 That's a prescription every four minutes, every working day for 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.080 medicinal cannabis. If you think that's shocking, it gets worse. 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:51.119 One practitioner had issued prescriptions for nine hundred and fifty 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:55.879 nine thousand cannabis products in just one year. A nurse 0:19:55.960 --> 0:20:00.199 issued thirty one thousand prescriptions in twelve months, and on 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.760 and on it goes fray up. I understand that some 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.120 people have been really helped by medicinal cannabis. There's many 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.040 anecdotal stories from people saying, look, this really made a 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:11.800 massive difference. 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.320 I was in chronic pain. It really helped me. 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.160 But there are a lot of people accessing this now 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.479 legal drug. You have to start to ask is this 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:26.800 being dispensed like Lolly's to people who really it's less 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.840 about chronic pain that can't be treated any other way, 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.360 and it's a way for people who want to access 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.080 cannabis to do just that. 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:38.040 Well, some people maybe getting medicinal benefits from this scheme. 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:42.440 I suspect others maybe getting financial benefits from these schemes. 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:44.679 I mean, where do you find this many people to 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:50.280 prescribe that much cannabis. To one pharmacist is prescribing over 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.760 two six hundred doses a day. I can't imagine that 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:58.640 they're seeing two six hundred people a day. That would 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.879 be physically impossible. Well, yet they're prescribing all of this. 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:04.760 So it does make you wonder what's going on here. 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:09.400 But my deeper question is how are they no restrictions 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.280 around the number of prescriptions. 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:12.320 You can order? 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.400 Because I presume this stuff is all tracked, and if 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:19.040 someone is prescribing thousands of doses of cannabis per day, 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:21.200 surely that should raise some alarm bells. 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:25.040 Kel Oh, yes it should, And there is a doseyge 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:28.240 gissue involved here. When it was first proposed, I interviewed 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:32.359 on radio a psychiatrist who'd worked with legalized cannabis in 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:35.280 New Zealand and he was advocating it here, and I said, 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:40.320 do people get high on legalized on medicinal cannabis and 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.160 he said they shouldn't. If you get the right dose, 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.880 it should have a calming effect, it should treat seizures 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:51.200 or whatever the problem is, but you should not get high. Now, 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.080 my worry is the people who are prescribed prescribing it 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:56.920