Speaker 1: Nine Podcasts.
Speaker 2: This is Neil Mitchell. This is my view of the world.
Speaker 2: But today I want to talk about a glimpse of
Speaker 2: hope for the future. I want to talk about the
Speaker 2: voting age. I want to talk about your safety. I
Speaker 2: want to talk about Anthony Albernizi and his hangover. An
Speaker 2: obvious hangover. And I've received a very well thought out
Speaker 2: argument from a listener which I'll explain in the feedback
Speaker 2: later which continues Neil dot Mitchell at nine dot com
Speaker 2: dot au. First safety, let me just ask you about
Speaker 2: several places around Australia. Let me put these in front
Speaker 2: of you. Gawla, South Australia, Oyster Bay, New South Wales,
Speaker 2: camp Hill, Queensland, Northland, Victoria. What unites them well? Each
Speaker 2: has been the scene of appalling violence this year, usually
Speaker 2: by young people carrying machetes. There have been various as
Speaker 2: well over the past year, one in particular in Western Australia.
Speaker 2: The point is that although Victoria is the center of
Speaker 2: attention for machete attacks, and rightly so, this curse is
Speaker 2: spreading and will spread. There has in recent years been
Speaker 2: a quantum lip in the level of violence used by
Speaker 2: young criminals and the weapons they carry. The brawl with
Speaker 2: machetes at Northland shopping Center on the edge of Melbourne
Speaker 2: was quite horrifying. A busy Sunday afternoon, family shopping areas,
Speaker 2: young thugs attacking each other with these weapons. We're lucky
Speaker 2: nobody was killed. This is the level of open violence
Speaker 2: that we've got to police allege. What was happening was
Speaker 2: a pre arranged brawl. Now imagine that if, as alleged,
Speaker 2: a bunch of young thugs arranged to meet with these
Speaker 2: weapons and fight in a crowded shopping center. No, that's
Speaker 2: not the first time. There have been frequent such incidents
Speaker 2: and in fact killings in machetes in Victoria in recent years.
Speaker 2: The north Owned experience prompted the Victorian government to bring
Speaker 2: forward a ban on machetes. It was political window dressing.
Speaker 2: It was a knee jerk. They were forced to it
Speaker 2: so they appeared to be doing something. The policy is
Speaker 2: badly organized, badly thought out. It is something that now
Speaker 2: desperately needs federal involvement for several reasons. One, this type
Speaker 2: of violence is spreading around the country with the machetes. Two,
Speaker 2: what is the point in banning machetes in one state?
Speaker 2: If you cross the road, cross the border, you can
Speaker 2: buy another one. Three. It's complex. A ban like this
Speaker 2: is no answer in itself. Four Today, as the man
Speaker 2: kicked in throughout Victoria, I got online. I found I
Speaker 2: could easily buy cut price, reduce price machetes at other
Speaker 2: Australian states. They are offering cheap deals. The Albanezi government
Speaker 2: needs to wake up from its orgy of self congratulation
Speaker 2: at the election result and get into this as a priority.
Speaker 2: States have got various ideas like searching people at any time,
Speaker 2: anybody anytime with one of those metal detectors a Wand
Speaker 2: what about locking up all knives in all shopping centers
Speaker 2: so they can't be stolen. And if there's a ban,
Speaker 2: it needs to be national. If there's a ban, that's
Speaker 2: got to address into net sales. If there's a ban,
Speaker 2: police must be given all the powers they want to
Speaker 2: find and deal with people using machetes, broader search powers
Speaker 2: that are probably essential, like wanding. As I said, you
Speaker 2: can stop anybody anytime and run a wand over them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's dramatic, but we need dramatic. I've spoken to several
Speaker 2: people who are widely experienced in this area. They believe
Speaker 2: the ban is a waste of time. They say, you
Speaker 2: can't ban every bread knife, which is almost as dangerous.
Speaker 2: And one experienced person said to me, you don't think
Speaker 2: armed robbers go to the shop to buy a legal
Speaker 2: gun and then go out and hold people up. These
Speaker 2: machetes are black market, they're stolen, they're not bought by
Speaker 2: kids at the local shop. Now, okay, it's good to
Speaker 2: reduce the number of machetes in the community. After all,
Speaker 2: why do you need them in a suburban streep. It's
Speaker 2: also true that when John Howard reduced the number of
Speaker 2: firearms in the community, death by firearm drops significantly. But
Speaker 2: if firearm's not the same, it's more deadly, it's less
Speaker 2: broadly needed. This, like much of what's been happening in
Speaker 2: Victoria the moment, it's a dog's breakfast. It's all over
Speaker 2: the place. It needs sensible coordination. It needs that on
Speaker 2: a national basis. They look around the country, bring the
Speaker 2: ideas together, bring what's worked together, and implement it nationally.
Speaker 2: It also needs to get to the base here of
Speaker 2: who's using the weapons and why, address the problem before
Speaker 2: it begins, and there needs to be tougher punishment if necessary,
Speaker 2: although there's no indication that would work. And really, some
Speaker 2: of these kids are released on bail regularly. The accused
Speaker 2: people in the north Land atrocity, some of them are
Speaker 2: on bail again within ours. Let's face it, some of
Speaker 2: these younger are capable of trying to outrun police in
Speaker 2: a stolen car. We've had fifteen year olds doing two
Speaker 2: hundred kilometers an hour down public streets. If they're capable
Speaker 2: of that, they've got no fear of punishment, They've got
Speaker 2: no fear of consequences. Prime Minister, this is a crisis emerging.
Speaker 2: People have already died. This needs broad federal intervention right
Speaker 2: across the country. It needs more than the incompetent fiddling
Speaker 2: which is the way of government in Victoria. This needs
Speaker 2: fresh ideas, fresh legislation and a national approach, and it
Speaker 2: needs it now now this pretty broad agreement. Australia's got
Speaker 2: huge problems and a dysfunctional system of political management. I
Speaker 2: found an answer, and in the process I also heard
Speaker 2: something really really refreshing. I heard a person who was
Speaker 2: once a political lobbyist telling me it is time to
Speaker 2: change politics forever, and telling me further that much public
Speaker 2: debate about everything has been polluted by an obsession with
Speaker 2: climate change and the political dangers of climate change. She said, One,
Speaker 2: if politicians are authentic and just told as it is
Speaker 2: rather than spinning, the world would be a better place
Speaker 2: and the electorate has sufficiently grown up to handle it. Second,
Speaker 2: she said, climate change is real. Let's hear. There's no
Speaker 2: point arguing about whether or not it's man may what
Speaker 2: we should be doing. He's looking at how we cope
Speaker 2: with it, how we protect people, how we help people,
Speaker 2: how we make sure the country's got enough to eat.
Speaker 2: These words came from a person called Emba Germano. She's
Speaker 2: a third generation farmer in rural Victoria. She's of Italian
Speaker 2: heritage and you can tell it. She's passionate about her
Speaker 2: arguments and she loves farming. She's managing director of a
Speaker 2: company called I Love Farms, which is basically the family farm.
Speaker 2: And she was the first female president of the Victorian
Speaker 2: Farmers Federation president for four years. Have listened to what
Speaker 2: she has got to say. I interview her on my
Speaker 2: podcast Neil Mitchell asks why which is available now in
Speaker 2: the usual places. First of all, climate change, Emma Jamano
Speaker 2: lives it. She's a farmer. She sees it, and she's
Speaker 2: seeing drought at the moment, droughts so bad the rive
Speaker 2: in fact been farmer suicides. She doesn't debate whether climate
Speaker 2: change is man made or not. She debates than need
Speaker 2: to cope with the floods and the droughts. This is
Speaker 2: what she said.
Speaker 1: Like anything, if humans use something and there is a
Speaker 1: byproduct that is waste, we have to be conscious of
Speaker 1: what happens with that waste. So we should just as
Speaker 1: a matter of course, be trying to be more sustainable
Speaker 1: all of the time. That's fine. I mean whether or
Speaker 1: not you you know, you increase the you export your
Speaker 1: emissions to other countries. Let's be frank, you import the
Speaker 1: renewable energy stuff so that Australians can pay, you know,
Speaker 1: triple and increasing prices for their energy, whether or not
Speaker 1: that actually fixes climate change. I mean, you don't have
Speaker 1: to be a climate scientist to understand the economics of that.
Speaker 1: So again, if we know that these events are happening
Speaker 1: more often than what we think on average they should,
Speaker 1: and when I say events, I mean fire like bushfires, floods, drought, whatever,
Speaker 1: then why are we not actually investing so much more
Speaker 1: resource into resilience around that, whether that is ensuring that
Speaker 1: a local community have the capacity to put out a
Speaker 1: fire when one starts, whether that is making sure that
Speaker 1: there are watering points infrastructure so if there is a drought,
Speaker 1: that farmers have watering points that they can go to.
Speaker 1: These are the things that we should be talking about
Speaker 1: and investing in, but instead all we do is argue
Speaker 1: about whether or not climate change is real, whether or
Speaker 1: not we've gone too far.
Speaker 2: All of that fair point. Emma Jemano also argues that
Speaker 2: the spate of regional suicides are prompted not just by
Speaker 2: the drought. She says the bush has been forgotten for years,
Speaker 2: dodgy roads, poor health services, unfair to axation, and she
Speaker 2: wants somebody to recognize that. Well, good luck more, but
Speaker 2: she wants people to see the opportunities to do things
Speaker 2: like sell more overseas to make our own food supply
Speaker 2: more secure. She says, we're facing shortages of crucial foods
Speaker 2: if we don't wake up. And this is where she
Speaker 2: strikes a nerve. Politicians talk climate change because they are
Speaker 2: wary of its political power. They focus on short term
Speaker 2: problems and well offering expensive bribes rather than answers. Emma
Speaker 2: Jemano believes they should just be feed income and if
Speaker 2: they were, much more would be achieved. Not only could
Speaker 2: the public handle the honesty, they would embrace it. This
Speaker 2: is what she said.
Speaker 1: People are often not frank, and we don't often know
Speaker 1: what goes on behind closed doors. But my frustration is
Speaker 1: that you might disagree with what I say, but you'll
Speaker 1: respect me for saying the thing that I believe to
Speaker 1: be true. I think authenticity is so unbelievably missing in
Speaker 1: public leadership and in politic in Australia, and most Australians
Speaker 1: why they don't care for all of the details they
Speaker 1: can see. You know, Australians are so good at picking
Speaker 1: bullshit and we need more people will who will say
Speaker 1: the right thing irrespective of what the political costs might be,
Speaker 1: because I think if we all started doing that then
Speaker 1: we would get better outcomes rather than well, we'll say
Speaker 1: the thing that won't cost us too many votes, or
Speaker 1: will say the thing that will buy us the most votes,
Speaker 1: and we get the answer wrong. You're on the high
Speaker 1: way to nowhere. When that's the attitude.
Speaker 2: She's right, you know she's right. I know she's right.
Speaker 2: The politicians probably know she's right. What she doesn't see
Speaker 2: is she could be the person to do it, and
Speaker 2: s she says she might consider going into politics, probably
Speaker 2: with the Liberal Party, possibly as an independent, which with
Speaker 2: her outspoken, down to earth manner, would make her a
Speaker 2: real attribute to public discussion. I reckon the public would
Speaker 2: welcome it. I reckon the politicians would not. For the
Speaker 2: sake of the country, I hope she makes the move
Speaker 2: to politics for the sake of herself, for the sake
Speaker 2: of the and she's a very likable person. I hope
Speaker 2: she doesn't. I fear the system would crunch her, it
Speaker 2: would disillusion her. With a few years, she'd be back
Speaker 2: to digging potatoes, which I hasten to add she does
Speaker 2: so very happily. She loves getting her hands dirty. I'd
Speaker 2: just like to see her getting her hands dirty helping
Speaker 2: what she says is still the best country in the world. Sometimes,
Speaker 2: and this is such a time, I despair for the
Speaker 2: discussions promoted by academics in this country. I just don't
Speaker 2: get this one. Here's an example reported by the Australian
Speaker 2: newspaper this week. Essentially, the argument is being put that
Speaker 2: Australia is built on a myth and the public has
Speaker 2: been brainwashed into making heroes of our soldiers, the newspaper says.
Speaker 2: Professor clear Right from Victoria's Latrobe University says ANZAC history
Speaker 2: and memorials have been intentionally promoted to create what she
Speaker 2: calls a cult of forgetfulness. A cult of forgetfulness now,
Speaker 2: according to the newspaper, she's described as brainwashing a campaign
Speaker 2: to recognize the centenary of World War One. On the
Speaker 2: other hand, she says, we have this cult of forgetfulness
Speaker 2: about the way Australia was settled and what happens to
Speaker 2: First Nations people. She points at spending by John Howard's
Speaker 2: government on the centennial of World War One as part
Speaker 2: of the brainwashing, and says the timing was cynical given
Speaker 2: Australia was beginning military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. She
Speaker 2: also wants this is underlying it wants greater recognition for
Speaker 2: the frontier wars between white settlers and First Nations people
Speaker 2: in this country. She says Australians have been trained to
Speaker 2: remember only certain valor of certain soldiers in certain wars.
Speaker 2: Now she got a bit of a point on the
Speaker 2: frontier wars they're largely unrecognized. I mean, ask any school
Speaker 2: kid about it, they probably wouldn't know. And that's wrong.
Speaker 2: Two thousand to five thousand European settlers died, the indigenous
Speaker 2: toll was much higher. So big, No, he knows what
Speaker 2: it was. It was a violent and at times disgraceful
Speaker 2: part of our history and that should be recognized. But
Speaker 2: there is no need to tear down what is a
Speaker 2: very key part of our country in the process, and
Speaker 2: that's our involvement and our actions in other wars. Beginning
Speaker 2: at Gallipoli, extraordinary acts of bravery unfolded there, not from
Speaker 2: professional soldiers but every citizens who went to war. Yes,
Speaker 2: there's a myth. Heroism is often built around myth, and
Speaker 2: there is a truth to the argument that this has
Speaker 2: helped to define a country. A frontier wars should be
Speaker 2: better understood and the War Memorial has started to do
Speaker 2: that in the Galleries Gallippery and the acts of Australian
Speaker 2: soldiers that any war should not be demeaned or undermined,
Speaker 2: and to suggest some plot by John Howard and his
Speaker 2: team to brainwash the people into forgetting the frontier wars
Speaker 2: and recognize heroic acts in World War one, and to
Speaker 2: use that to justify modern military action as a step
Speaker 2: too far. I doubt any government would be so cynical
Speaker 2: or disrespectful to those killed. There's a superb book called Gallipoli,
Speaker 2: written by a good maid of mine, the late Le's Carline.
Speaker 2: It is meticulously researched. It's a history book written like
Speaker 2: a novel. It's accurate and Liz was a beautiful writer.
Speaker 2: It doesn't overdramatize their heroism or create fake gods of war.
Speaker 2: And it's one of the best selling books in Australian
Speaker 2: history for good reason. I'm sure Professor Wright will have
Speaker 2: read it. If not, she should. And one last point,
Speaker 2: please remember this myth that she's talking about was based
Speaker 2: on the death of thousands of people their relatives. Even now,
Speaker 2: relatives from all wars still grieve those lives lost. These
Speaker 2: words this approach has the potential to her A couple
Speaker 2: of quick things I mentioned last week, why the far
Speaker 2: sun folding in Victoria affects the whole country further proof
Speaker 2: Victoria and just as background, Victoria's got twenty five point
Speaker 2: six percent of the country's population. It's responsible for almost
Speaker 2: one quarter of the economy. The country's economy today. The
Speaker 2: head of Santos says Victoria does business like North Korea.
Speaker 2: The head of the Business Council says its policies hold
Speaker 2: back investment. Another leading business and says Victoria is in
Speaker 2: recession while the rest of Australia is not. The West
Speaker 2: Farmer's boss says it's hard to justify investment in Victoria.
Speaker 2: The ANZ Bank says it's more expensive to do business
Speaker 2: in Victoria than anywhere else. You put that together, crucial
Speaker 2: part of the country, Victoria is on the ropes because
Speaker 2: of inept government, overspending and an inability to see reality.
Speaker 2: The Treasurer Jacqueline sion she can barely count. At times.
Speaker 2: She sounds close to a literate so I said last week.
Speaker 2: She jokes and laughs her way through this and doesn't
Speaker 2: the disaster that's coming. Victoria's debt is going to be
Speaker 2: close to two hundred billion dollars in a few years.
Speaker 2: That will hold back the entire country. And when a
Speaker 2: business leader like in Victoria to North Korea and says
Speaker 2: the state is in recession and the rest of the
Speaker 2: country is not, that should be ringing alarm bells loud
Speaker 2: enough to wake even the hungover or Beenezi government. And
Speaker 2: as I said, they still seem hung over. They had
Speaker 2: a great victory, a massive opportunity. At the moment, they're
Speaker 2: just not turning up. And I'll tell you what if
Speaker 2: you want to focus the mind on this issue. A
Speaker 2: poll for Saint Vincent de Paul says two out of
Speaker 2: five Australians will be unable to afford to use the
Speaker 2: heating this winter. Half the country says we'll be struggling
Speaker 2: to pay bills through the winter. There's yet another focus
Speaker 2: for Elbow. Now onto the feedback. Neil dot Mitchell at
Speaker 2: nine dot com dot au. Remember anything you want to raise,
Speaker 2: not just issues I've raised, any interview you want to suggest.
Speaker 2: I was grizzling last week about grammatical errors that I
Speaker 2: find real bugbears really get under my skint, like saying
Speaker 2: should of instead of should have. Well, this one from Troy,
Speaker 2: who wanted to share a couple of his One that
Speaker 2: annoys him is unique. He says, I frequently hear people
Speaker 2: say something is very unique. Unique means one of a kind,
Speaker 2: there are no varying degrees, and he has a go
Speaker 2: at meat. The number of times I hear you talk
Speaker 2: about people losing demerit points when they commit a traffic offense.
Speaker 2: You don't lose points when you commit a traffic offense,
Speaker 2: you acquire them. Losing demerit points is a good thing,
Speaker 2: and he's quite right. Then there's this from Costa and
Speaker 2: this isn't something I've raised, but we might look at
Speaker 2: in the future. From Costa, why shouldn't the age of
Speaker 2: voting be adjusted to fifteen? Kids really don't have a say.
Speaker 2: It'll give them some responsibility. They see more things than
Speaker 2: adults do. Their input would be vital. I do notice
Speaker 2: South Australia's elected a twenty one year old senator. I
Speaker 2: think kid's probably a been too young to vote at fifteen.
Speaker 2: In fact, those at Adien don't seem to have a
Speaker 2: great deal of interest in either to those well even
Speaker 2: up to their fifties. Finally, from Lawrence, a very well argued,
Speaker 2: lengthy message I can't read all about well. He wants
Speaker 2: me to hold a future forum. It's a good idea,
Speaker 2: a future forum. He's worried, but it gives me a
Speaker 2: shopping list things he's worried about. He's worried about unfitted
Speaker 2: spending by governments. He's worried about population, growth, about the zealotry,
Speaker 2: around renewables, about growth in the public service, about inadequate defense,
Speaker 2: about a more violent society which we were we were
Speaker 2: just talking about, he says in part I won't go
Speaker 2: through his whole argument. That's very good, He says, the
Speaker 2: political class no longer runs the country on the basics,
Speaker 2: but on a crusade. The financial whole will be enormous
Speaker 2: in three years and worse in six probably the earliest
Speaker 2: will see any chance of a change of government. Our
Speaker 2: little country with vast wealth in the ground is a
Speaker 2: great peril. Well put. Thank you, Lawrence. Wish I could
Speaker 2: read all of it. And if you look at his
Speaker 2: shopping lest you'd have to say, hang on, we've just
Speaker 2: had a little election. Do that really achieve anything? The
Speaker 2: answer is no, not on your nelly. Neil mitchellat nine
Speaker 2: dot com dot you remember the podcast Neil Mitchell asks,
Speaker 2: why is available now? Emma Jumano, the campaigning farmer. I
Speaker 2: think you'll find her controversial but inspirational too. Next week,
Speaker 2: Cheng Lai, the Chinese Australian woman locked up in Beijing
Speaker 2: for years on trumped up charges. She has extraordinary insight
Speaker 2: into where we're headed in our relationship with China. That's
Speaker 2: next week. Neil Mitchell asks why in the usual places