Speaker 1: Nine Podcasts.
Speaker 2: Hello, this is Neil Mitchell. This is what I think.
Speaker 2: My weekly podcast of editor of Opinions, which sits with
Speaker 2: my weekly podcasts of interviews. That's each Tuesday, Neil Mitchell
Speaker 2: asks why, and each Thursday we post my views of
Speaker 2: the world. This week, Fatherhood, loyalty, World War III is
Speaker 2: a trifecta for you and a bit more. I also
Speaker 2: want your comments on the issues in your life that
Speaker 2: the world is perhaps ignoring Neil dot Mitchell at nine
Speaker 2: dot com dot au or any comments at all. First,
Speaker 2: very gradually, a huge change is unfolding behind the scenes
Speaker 2: in our world and our lives. Loyalty is dead. It's
Speaker 2: not just dying. Loyalty is dead. It was once considered
Speaker 2: a great human attribute, along with honesty and modesty and empathy.
Speaker 2: Not Now, loyalty is gone. If you're loyal, you're viewed
Speaker 2: as a bit of a mug, anachronistic at the best.
Speaker 2: Now I've done one of my one man research efforts
Speaker 2: on the millennials and gen Z workers in my orbit.
Speaker 2: To a person they said they had absolutely no loyalty
Speaker 2: to their employer. To a person they said they would
Speaker 2: change jobs, walk out the door at a moment's notice.
Speaker 2: If something better came along for them. As a big change,
Speaker 2: Boomers may well be the last generation that has loyalty
Speaker 2: to the company. Now isn't just about the availability of work,
Speaker 2: it's an attitude behind the change. These generations seem to
Speaker 2: have grown with the belief the boss will only screw you.
Speaker 2: Perhaps they're right. Individual managers might be okay and decent employers,
Speaker 2: but in the end, these people argue, the further you
Speaker 2: go up the tree with the boss, the less they
Speaker 2: are likely to show loyalty. Several of those I surveyed
Speaker 2: said to me, they'll dump me at a moment if
Speaker 2: I'm of no use to them or less use, So
Speaker 2: why should I be loyal to them? Now? You must ask, though,
Speaker 2: if loyalty disappears in the workplace, does it become tarnished elsewhere?
Speaker 2: Is the loyalty still in marriages or relationships? Is the
Speaker 2: loyalty to family or friends? If loyalty is discarded as
Speaker 2: an attribute at one level, it could be discarded at others. Now,
Speaker 2: I agree loyalty should be earned. That's fair enough, but
Speaker 2: it can also be an expectation, and a reasonable one. Nowadays,
Speaker 2: there's more likely to be a debate about the right
Speaker 2: to disconnect and the payment of overtime. I can see
Speaker 2: why I find a bit sad. There are also political
Speaker 2: implications to this. Emerging generations are far less likely to
Speaker 2: show political loyalty to one party. There'll be a mass
Speaker 2: of swinging voters out there waiting to be seduced at
Speaker 2: each election. It's already happening. Of course, the damn politicians
Speaker 2: haven't helped. Politicians have always changed teams, usually with a
Speaker 2: large dose of self interest. After this election, the recent election,
Speaker 2: just days after being re elected as a National Party representative,
Speaker 2: Senator Jacinta Price changed to Liberals. She wanted to be
Speaker 2: deputy leader, missed out, so she changed now or missed
Speaker 2: out with the Liberals, now a Green senator. During the
Speaker 2: Cox has gone from Green's to Labor. She was also
Speaker 2: burnt in a leadership ballot, and her ex mates are
Speaker 2: leaking against her. Somebody has leaked a private text from
Speaker 2: Senator Cox saying Pauline Hansen was quote and effing retard
Speaker 2: and effing retard unquote very nice, but not much loyalty
Speaker 2: from the person who received it. Now, all this has
Speaker 2: happened before. Jackie Lamby went from Clive Palmer's party to
Speaker 2: her own, but having two within days of being elected,
Speaker 2: in my view, that should be it. They're not electors individuals,
Speaker 2: particularly in the Senate, I reckon they change party, that
Speaker 2: should be it. Out of the Parliament, have a new
Speaker 2: by election or in the Senator new appointment. No mucking around.
Speaker 2: You show that sort of disloyalty. You change parties. I
Speaker 2: think you're effectively donning the public. Whatever the reason, good night, sunshine.
Speaker 2: Footballers have got very little loyalty. NRL and AFL players
Speaker 2: jump around clubs for a dollar, and who can blame them?
Speaker 2: Some even play with one after apparently agreeing to go
Speaker 2: to another, and the next season the kids have to
Speaker 2: change the numbers on their guernseys because they see their
Speaker 2: hero suddenly wearing different colors. Elon Musk is no longer
Speaker 2: loyal to his buddy Donald Trump, though perhaps you can
Speaker 2: see why. In the supermarket brand loyalty seems to have
Speaker 2: been eroded. Price and quality more important now again, fair enough,
Speaker 2: but it's a trend, the shop around strategies building. That's
Speaker 2: a positive, but e roading loyalty in all areas of
Speaker 2: society erodes. Trust. Without trust, we undermine the way we live.
Speaker 2: In fact, think about it, the only place loyalty really
Speaker 2: survives is amongst supporters of particular sporting clubs. They will
Speaker 2: follow teams for sixty years which have never had a premiership,
Speaker 2: never had the ultimate success. I know I did it.
Speaker 2: I still do. Am I stupid or loyal? I was
Speaker 2: hoping this work. I could report that our Prime minister
Speaker 2: was awake, he was over his election hangover. But he isn't.
Speaker 2: He's still asleep, apparently willing to commit to nothing. Look,
Speaker 2: if he's not asleep, his head is so far in
Speaker 2: the sand you can only see the souls of his
Speaker 2: feet sticking out. Have a look at this list of
Speaker 2: things that he seems to be trying to ignore. China,
Speaker 2: defend spending, the Middle East, social cohesion in Australia which
Speaker 2: is crumbling, the energy dilemma, balancing renewables with cheap available power, mining,
Speaker 2: cost of living. Now, I thought he dodged all these
Speaker 2: in the election is just too risky, But here it is,
Speaker 2: and he's there for at least six years and he's
Speaker 2: still dodging. It's a pity. He could be a reforming
Speaker 2: prime minister. He doesn't have to worry about the politics
Speaker 2: anymore for a long time. He could be one of
Speaker 2: the great prime ministers. But he'd better get back to work,
Speaker 2: and get back to work soon. Have a listen to this.
Speaker 2: Here's one heir being ignored. This is the British Prime Minister,
Speaker 2: Sir Keith Starmer. He is putting the country on a
Speaker 2: war footing, his words, a war footing. He is developing
Speaker 2: Britain's defense capability and doing it very quickly. That's what
Speaker 2: he said in a speech. It's scary stuff, although he
Speaker 2: was talking about Europe, not the Pacific necessarily. If he
Speaker 2: is right, this would throw the world into turmoil and
Speaker 2: touch us. The British Prime Minister. Here he is.
Speaker 3: We are moving to war fighting readiness as the central
Speaker 3: purpose of our armed forces. When we are being directly
Speaker 3: threatened by states with advanced military forces, the most effective
Speaker 3: way to deter them is to be ready and frankly,
Speaker 3: to show them that we're ready to deliver peace through strength.
Speaker 3: I can announce today they're going to build at least
Speaker 3: six new munitions factories in the United Kingdom, generating over
Speaker 3: a thousand jobs. We will build thousands of new long
Speaker 3: range weapons in the United Kingdom to boost European deterrence,
Speaker 3: supporting around eight hundred more jobs. We will defend our
Speaker 3: homeland by investing in our air and missile defense to
Speaker 3: better protect these islands. We will create a hybrid Royal Navy,
Speaker 3: blending drones with worships, submarines and aircraft to patrol the
Speaker 3: North Atlantic and beyond.
Speaker 2: As I said, scary stuff, but he sounds like a leader,
Speaker 2: a leader who is rightly worried about the world. And
Speaker 2: what does our PM do? He didthers when he was
Speaker 2: warned by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that we are
Speaker 2: not ready for war or the talk of war on
Speaker 2: we should be, he attacked the messengers. Australia's defense spending
Speaker 2: is approaching two percent of GDP, Britain's heading to three percent.
Speaker 2: We're aiming at two point three percent by twenty thirty three.
Speaker 2: The United States saying hang on, hang on, you need
Speaker 2: a lot more than that. More like mister Alberanizi has
Speaker 2: waffled on this. He says, the goal is to give
Speaker 2: Australia the capability it needs, whatever that means, and we
Speaker 2: know what it needs. But he stopped short of that
Speaker 2: three percent target. There's no question and they keep saying it.
Speaker 2: But there's no question the world is in dangerous times.
Speaker 2: China is rumbling, Trump is unpredictable, the Middle East threatens
Speaker 2: to spread. Russia is increasingly dangerous. Even the Prime Minister,
Speaker 2: mister Albanzi admits these are tough times with any waffles
Speaker 2: when he's asked what he's going to do about it.
Speaker 2: Australia was unprepared for war back in nineteen forty one
Speaker 2: the Second World War. We escaped all that by the
Speaker 2: skin of our teeth. Times have changed. We won't have
Speaker 2: time to build up the military. One's tensions do erupt
Speaker 2: Look the simple view, the very simple way to put it,
Speaker 2: Australia is unprepared to defend itself or add much to
Speaker 2: its defense. Point one point two. The relationship with the
Speaker 2: United States is unpredictable. Some say we cannot rely on
Speaker 2: them for military help if needed. Zero point three. China
Speaker 2: is becoming more belligerent by the day. The region is tense.
Speaker 2: We are not ready and what makes it worse, our
Speaker 2: leaders are not even talking about it. Part of the
Speaker 2: underlying problem for Australian What I'm talking about is we
Speaker 2: don't understand China, or if we do. We have no
Speaker 2: idea how to handle the country. This isn't I'm talking
Speaker 2: about the Chinese people here, I'm talking about the Chinese
Speaker 2: Communist Party. You put this together. China has no concern
Speaker 2: for basic human rights. China executes more people secretly than
Speaker 2: any other country in the world. China has little respect
Speaker 2: for human life. China makes no secret of the intention
Speaker 2: to regain Taiwan, even if that requires invasion. China is
Speaker 2: an international bully member. The ship's circumnavigating Australia. China has
Speaker 2: a massive military force and huge industrial machine behind it.
Speaker 2: China cannot be trusted. We've seen that, and I repeat,
Speaker 2: we don't understand the country. Here's a little bit of proof.
Speaker 2: This is from a Chinese born Australian, Chang Lai. I
Speaker 2: interviewed her on my podcast this week. Neil Mitchell asks
Speaker 2: why that's available posted now. It's fascinating stuff. She is
Speaker 2: an Australian citizen, but was still arrested in China and
Speaker 2: locked up, tortured as well, locked up for more than
Speaker 2: three years on trumped up spying charges. She was brutalized
Speaker 2: physically and psychologically. She says it was so bad that
Speaker 2: at one stage death looked more appealing. She believed she
Speaker 2: was seized to send a message to the Australian government
Speaker 2: from China saying, look, we can do this sort of thing,
Speaker 2: and we will, because you've been asking diffy or questions
Speaker 2: about where the COVID virus began, was it Wuhan, was
Speaker 2: it in a lab? What happened, which, of course were
Speaker 2: reasonable questions for world safety. The Chinese didn't like them,
Speaker 2: so it was a tactical piece of intimidation to arrest
Speaker 2: Chang Lay And she says, this is what she says
Speaker 2: about China and the dangers it presents and what we
Speaker 2: can do about it. And where are we now in
Speaker 2: the relationship between the two countries.
Speaker 1: I think we're probably at a turning point. We're a
Speaker 1: lot more alert aware, and I just hope we turn
Speaker 1: that into action, into more understanding.
Speaker 2: See what is the ultimate danger to Australia from China?
Speaker 2: I mean it's not invasion. It might be economic control.
Speaker 2: What is the ultimate danger to Australia.
Speaker 1: You don't think the economic control is dangerous enough. I mean,
Speaker 1: if we can't be ourselves, we may as well be
Speaker 1: living in China. I mean, where do we draw the line,
Speaker 1: if we can't tell them off in Canberra, in Parliament,
Speaker 1: in our own Parliament house.
Speaker 2: Have a think about it that this is a person
Speaker 2: who understands the culture. She grew up in Australia but
Speaker 2: lived in China for more than a decade. She knows
Speaker 2: the system, she knows the people she suffered at the
Speaker 2: hands of people who consider human rights irrelevant. We need
Speaker 2: to listen to Changli and others like her. Look, we
Speaker 2: need trade with China, we need their money, but one
Speaker 2: day we're going to have to make a choice that
Speaker 2: may stop flowing anyway. We do not need what she
Speaker 2: describes as the invisible prison of economic coercion. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 2: mistake some seem to make is to believe this country
Speaker 2: China is our friend. It is not, and it never
Speaker 2: will be. Of course, China state control media pumps out propaganda.
Speaker 2: They're spis that operate in this country, step up their
Speaker 2: underhand work, and they bully and intimidate. Well, at least
Speaker 2: they can't ban me because they already have. They won't
Speaker 2: like what I'm saying here, and they'll be well aware
Speaker 2: of it. They can't ban me, they already have some
Speaker 2: years ago. I play to travel to Shanghai to broadcast
Speaker 2: about the emergence of the city there. I knew a
Speaker 2: number of people who lived there and worked there, and
Speaker 2: it's sort of half west half east, fascinating place. Well,
Speaker 2: I didn't get there for months. Chinese officials told me
Speaker 2: my visa was on the way. It never appeared. They
Speaker 2: never actually said no, wrote it, never refused it. It's
Speaker 2: the way they work. They just ignore it. And I
Speaker 2: wasn't allowed in because I was a critic and the
Speaker 2: one time I have been to China before they got
Speaker 2: on to me. It wasn't long before the Olympic Games.
Speaker 2: I was threatened. I was in Beijing and I'd arranged
Speaker 2: to broadcast from Tineman Square to the whole program from there.
Speaker 2: We had approval and permits and letters and everything saying
Speaker 2: it was all okay. Well, the night before we were
Speaker 2: due to broadcasts there that aside, it wasn't okay. We
Speaker 2: were told permission had been revoked. Why no explanation? When
Speaker 2: no explanation? Who no explanation? I said, well, okay, I'll
Speaker 2: get my producer to Justin Smith, to go down call
Speaker 2: In on his mobile live from Tieneman Square. The message
Speaker 2: came back Oh, yes, you can do that, but he
Speaker 2: will be arrested. So discretion was the better part of valor.
Speaker 2: We didn't go. But that's how they view something we
Speaker 2: see as sacred to democracy, with all its faults. A
Speaker 2: free media is part of our lives and part of
Speaker 2: our freedom. In China, it simply does not exist. Oh actually,
Speaker 2: and he's another one. To top off the reasons not
Speaker 2: to trust China. The United States has established its reported
Speaker 2: this week the Chinese cranes on their waterfront have been
Speaker 2: fitted with suspicious communications devices which are remotely accessed. They're
Speaker 2: calling him spy cranes. An eighty percent of the cranes
Speaker 2: on the docks in the US A Chinese made a
Speaker 2: massive electronic spy network. Well, in Australia we've already restricted
Speaker 2: Huawei phones. TikTok is is on the edge, TikTok is dodgy.
Speaker 2: What about the Chinese cars? Who knows? We're getting millions
Speaker 2: of them on the roads around the world, and a
Speaker 2: lot in Australia, many many brands of Chinese cars. They
Speaker 2: all got a little secret communications devising them. I doubt
Speaker 2: it very much. I doubt that very much. But the
Speaker 2: point is with China do not trust them. Do not
Speaker 2: trust them A couple of quick little items. Here's an idea,
Speaker 2: and i'd luck your views on this. If you're a dad,
Speaker 2: or you contenue to be a dad, or if you're
Speaker 2: a mum for that, if you're a parent. Neil dot
Speaker 2: Mitchell at nine dot com dot I reckon we need
Speaker 2: to establish a system of dad lessons. Now it's not
Speaker 2: lessons on how to tell bad jokes or embarrass the kids,
Speaker 2: genuine lessons on being a father on parenting. This goes
Speaker 2: to the heart of pretty serious issues domestic violence. For one,
Speaker 2: one third of men admit they've used a form of
Speaker 2: intimate partner violence. That's just a horrifying figure. But the
Speaker 2: similar research has shown that having an affectionate and a
Speaker 2: well understanding father was a strong preventative factor. Now it's
Speaker 2: a complex area, but to simplify it, both parents are crucial.
Speaker 2: Women tend to have better parenting instincts than men. Men
Speaker 2: generally want to do the right thing, some don't know
Speaker 2: how to. They've grown up with a remote father, often
Speaker 2: working too hard to help with the kids and their
Speaker 2: attitudes to life. I think parenting classes would be invaluable.
Speaker 2: Some will already exist specifically for men, but not enough
Speaker 2: expand them. Start from the very basics. You can't control
Speaker 2: the right to procreate. You can't stop people having babies
Speaker 2: are going to be bad parents, but you can help
Speaker 2: people cope with the massive responsibilities of kids once they've
Speaker 2: got them. So, Dad, classes, what do you think? Neil
Speaker 2: dot Mitchell at nine dot com dot au. More evidence
Speaker 2: this week onto something else that horrendous anti Semitisms building
Speaker 2: around the world. In the United States, they've recovered just
Speaker 2: recovering from the murder of a young Jewish couple at
Speaker 2: a social event, and as that's happening, we have a
Speaker 2: lunatic with a homemade flame thrower attacking Jews for just
Speaker 2: being Jews. And here in Australia, the undercurrent of anti
Speaker 2: semitives and builds. The universities are turning themselves inside out
Speaker 2: about whether they should actually be fair to the Jewish
Speaker 2: people or not. I don't believe there's even discussing that.
Speaker 2: And this one of Melbourne's main good health festivals that's
Speaker 2: called the Mind Body Spirit Festival. Mind Body Spirit Festival.
Speaker 2: A practitioner, a counselor who has been to that festival
Speaker 2: featured at that festival for about ten years, has been
Speaker 2: banned at the last minute because she's Jewish. Sharon Tale
Speaker 2: is her name. A qualified kinesiologist, she runs stress management
Speaker 2: workshops and all sorts of things, but banned because people
Speaker 2: objected to her presence because she was Jewish. And that
Speaker 2: after a pro Palestine smear campaign, a campaign by the way,
Speaker 2: it accused her of taking part in genocide, a totally
Speaker 2: offensive and nonsensical thing to say. A Melbourne professional, probably
Speaker 2: a bit of a hippie by a sound of accused
Speaker 2: of fostering genocide by mostly anonymous Zealots, and she gets
Speaker 2: thrown out of a legitimate festival she's worked out for
Speaker 2: ten years. That really is proof of the dangerous wave
Speaker 2: of anti Semitism. And it is obscene. So where are
Speaker 2: our leaders? And speaking of obscene, the US sounding more
Speaker 2: like a rogue state under Donald Trump. This under Trump's
Speaker 2: changes on transgender people and gender changing surgery, the FBI
Speaker 2: is put out an appeal set up a hotline for
Speaker 2: people to dab in hospitals and doctors. It says this quote,
Speaker 2: we will protect our children and hold accountable those who
Speaker 2: utilate them under the guise of offering gender affirming care.
Speaker 2: Still quoting from the FBI report tips of any hospitals, clinics,
Speaker 2: or practitioners performing these surgical procedures on children, and it
Speaker 2: gives a hotline number. Now, Look, I agree to the
Speaker 2: extent that gender surgery on young children can just be wrong.
Speaker 2: Too early, it's wrong. Treating children with gender issues is
Speaker 2: not wrong. Surgery, though, is irreversible and dangerous, but encouraging
Speaker 2: people to dob in doctors is ridiculous. If this is
Speaker 2: a big enough problem, they should require several levels of
Speaker 2: second opinions and second guessing before it's done. Set it
Speaker 2: up as part of the health bureaucracy. Look, it's an
Speaker 2: awfully complex and sad part of the human condition, but
Speaker 2: the FBI should not be in the middle of it.
Speaker 2: They should use their time tracking terrorists and lunatics who
Speaker 2: think it's okay to shoot a dozen children sitting in
Speaker 2: a classroom. That's it. Neil dot Mitchella nine dot com
Speaker 2: dot au too quick remind us mushrooms are very much
Speaker 2: on the agenda at the moment because of the trial
Speaker 2: of the woman accused of killing three relatives with poisonous mushrooms.
Speaker 2: On my podcast, listen, Neil Mitchell asks why there's an
Speaker 2: interview from some months ago with a mushroom expert. Now
Speaker 2: we're not talking about the court case directly, we're talking
Speaker 2: about fungi and how it can change the world. So
Speaker 2: if you're thinking mushrooms, and many are, it's fascinating. And
Speaker 2: on the podcast this week, as I mentioned Chang Lei,
Speaker 2: the Australian citizen brutalized in a Chinese jail for three years.
Speaker 2: She is one of the most cheery, resilient people you'll
Speaker 2: ever hear, really after what she's been through at various times,
Speaker 2: not just in China. Cheery and resilient. Neil Mitchell asks
Speaker 2: why available now next week as well? On the podcast
Speaker 2: if you've been scammed, if you're worried about being scammed,
Speaker 2: don't miss this. Scams are costing the average of Australians
Speaker 2: tens of millions of dollars a year. Here is something
Speaker 2: you can do about it that'll be posted next Tuesday
Speaker 2: six a m. Neil Mitchell asks why