full

Episode 472 - The Liberal Party is Fatally Wounded

Topics:

In this episode, hosts Trevor (Iron Fist), Scott (Velvet Glove), and Joe (Tech Guy) discuss recent events and pressing issues. They begin with a review of the recent election, where Albanese was unexpectedly returned with an increased majority, the implosion of the Greens' vote, and the prolonged impacts on political dynamics including coalition balance and the future of the Liberal Party. The conversation shifts to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, describing the Israeli government's brutal actions and the global community's response. The team also delves into superannuation tax changes, emphasizing the impact on balances exceeding $3 million and addressing concerns about taxing unrealized gains. Additional discussions touch on the inequitable distribution of wealth exacerbated by policies during the COVID lockdowns and the call for higher taxes on the rich. The episode rounds out with reflections on the media's portrayal of these issues and a plea for more active and just policies.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:59 Election Wrap-Up and Analysis

20:07 Superannuation Tax Discussion

29:44 Taxing the Wealthy: A Socialist Perspective

30:11 The Gaza Conflict: A Deep Dive

36:04 Media Bias and Public Perception

42:22 International Reactions and Sanctions

55:46 Advocacy and Interviews: Voices from the Ground

01:01:33 Economic Inequality and COVID-19

01:04:38 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

To financially support the Podcast you can make:

We Livestream every Monday night at 7:30 pm Brisbane time. Follow us on Facebook or YouTube. Watch us live and join the discussion in the chat room.

We have a website. www.ironfistvelvetglove.com.au

You can email us. The address is trevor@ironfistvelvetglove.com.au



Transcript
Morgan:

We need to talk about ideas, good ones and bad ones.

Morgan:

We need to learn stuff about the world.

Morgan:

We need an honest, intelligent, thought provoking, and entertaining

Morgan:

review of what the hell happened on this planet in the last seven days.

Morgan:

We need to sit back and listen to the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.

Trevor:

Well, hello, dear listener.

Trevor:

We are back the Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove with a full cast of characters.

Trevor:

I'm Trevor, the Iron Fist over there in regional Queensland on the screen.

Trevor:

Scott, the Velvet Glove.

Trevor:

Welcome back, Scott.

Scott:

Thank you.

Scott:

Good day, Trevor.

Scott:

Good day, Joe.

Scott:

Good day listeners.

Scott:

Hope everyone's doing well.

Trevor:

And Joe, the tech guy with us again, evening all.

Trevor:

Yeah, so we're back.

Trevor:

It's been a couple of weeks.

Trevor:

Uh, what's on the agenda?

Trevor:

We'll be talking about, um, well, since Scott hasn't been with us since the

Trevor:

election, we will do a bit of a wrap on the election again, uh, and the long-term

Trevor:

effects or consequences of that election.

Trevor:

So we'll go onto that, uh, bit about, uh, Gaza of course, and the latest atrocities

Trevor:

that have been predicted and are just, are inevitable, but keep happening.

Trevor:

How's the world responding to that, uh, superannuation tax?

Trevor:

Um, Scott, we'll get onto that one.

Trevor:

You should be across all that.

Trevor:

I would've thought maybe

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

I don't have it over $3 million in my superannuation, but, you know.

Scott:

Okay.

Scott:

Do you not?

Trevor:

You're sneaking up there, so No, I'm not sneaking up this.

Scott:

Thanks.

Scott:

It's, um, anyway, I'll talk to you about it.

Scott:

Once you get talking to it.

Scott:

We, we get to that one.

Scott:

Okay.

Trevor:

So, um, yeah, so we'll see how this episode goes a

Trevor:

little bit under prepared.

Trevor:

Dear listener, I have stupidly signed up as a chairperson of a large body

Trevor:

corporate, uh, on the Gold Coast.

Trevor:

And man, oh man, is it a job and the emails have just

Trevor:

been flying into my inbox.

Trevor:

And they're long and lengthy and complicated and I dunno

Trevor:

a lot about what's going on.

Trevor:

And boy, boy is, is it taking up a lot of time?

Trevor:

So, um, podcasts over the next few weeks might be a little bit

Trevor:

sketchy until I get a grip on this role, so we'll see how we go.

Trevor:

But, um, anyway, back to, um, we'll kick off with, uh, Scott, your general

Trevor:

election thoughts, you want to just, uh, you just wanna riff on, on the election

Trevor:

and, and the performance of everybody.

Trevor:

Any thoughts?

Trevor:

I was

Scott:

surprised that Albanese was returned with an increased majority.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

I honestly thought that he would get back in, but only with the

Scott:

support of the Greens or the teals.

Scott:

Um, the Greens vote has collapsed and they are finished now and I, hang on.

Scott:

No, they're not.

Trevor:

Listen, didn't you listen to my previous episodes?

Trevor:

Yeah, I did listen to it wasn't that

Scott:

bad.

Scott:

It did.

Scott:

Listen to your previous episode, however, the.

Scott:

The whole point is that we've got a preferential voting

Scott:

system in this country.

Scott:

Now, what they relied upon was that they relied on the a LP coming third to them.

Trevor:

Yes.

Scott:

But this time round they came third, which means the liberals actually

Scott:

preference the a LP more than the greens.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

And that's where the uh, that's why they collapsed in

Scott:

the House of Representatives,

Trevor:

though the vote didn't actually collapse.

Trevor:

Just No, it didn't

Scott:

actually collapse.

Scott:

The vote.

Scott:

The vote.

Trevor:

It was enough of a little trigger to rearrange things to

Trevor:

have a collapse in the like.

Trevor:

Yeah,

Joe:

I know number.

Joe:

It's one those things, 13% of the votes overall.

Scott:

Yeah, I know.

Scott:

They, they, the actual vote didn't collapse.

Scott:

Okay.

Scott:

That's why they've held up, they've held their own in the Senate and they've,

Scott:

um, what's the word I'm groping for?

Scott:

Nah, it's all gone.

Scott:

It's just, um, they've held their own in the Senate and they've

Scott:

now positioned themselves that they can, you know, they've.

Scott:

The coalition vote has fallen across the whole lot and the, um, the

Joe:

liberals has fallen.

Joe:

The nationals, I believe, have the same number proceeds as they had before.

Scott:

Yeah, that's right.

Scott:

But the coalition was basically headed by the liberal party.

Scott:

The, the National Party were allegedly the junior party

Joe:

and now they've got more mps.

Scott:

Yeah, I know they've got, well they haven't got more mps. They've still got,

Scott:

um, uh, they've probably got more mps as a percentage of the party, but they are

Scott:

still the minority party of the coalition.

Trevor:

Yes.

Scott:

And.

Scott:

The way they've been behaving over the coalition and everything

Scott:

over the coalition agreement.

Scott:

It makes me think that, um, David Little proud thinks that he's now

Scott:

the senior boss of the coalition rather than the junior party.

Trevor:

It's certainly a tail wagging the dog.

Scott:

Oh God.

Scott:

Yeah, it is.

Trevor:

Mm.

Scott:

You know, um, because they will not walk away from seven

Scott:

government owned nuclear reactors.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

You know, they're convinced that's the right, right way to go.

Scott:

Well, you know, I think the, I think that the liberal party has, has

Scott:

recognized that they lost the election, not principally because of the, um, not

Scott:

principally because of their support for nuclear power, but in large part

Scott:

to their support for nuclear power.

Scott:

The other thing was Dutton was a, he was wholly ineffectual.

Scott:

He opened his mouth and just shot himself in the foot every time he did.

Scott:

And Jane Hume has paid the price for that in the.

Scott:

In the redirection of her, of the new shadow cabinet.

Scott:

She's lost her position there because of the, um, working from home debacle.

Scott:

But, you know, I don't believe it was entirely her.

Scott:

I think it was probably more him than anyone else that said,

Scott:

this is the way we should go.

Scott:

And what we're hearing though is that everything, it was very much a

Scott:

top down leadership that everything he said went, was the way it went.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

And that was the result.

Scott:

Um, I was pleased to see he lost his own seat.

Scott:

That was good.

Scott:

Not nearly as pleased as

Trevor:

Joe.

Scott:

Exactly.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Not nearly as pleased as Joe, but you know, it's just one of those things.

Scott:

I was very glad to see that he left.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Um, so he's out of the way now.

Scott:

Um Mm. And we don't actually, we don't actually have, um, a history

Scott:

of former opposition leaders writing books though, do we?

Scott:

It's basically prime Ministers.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

I

Trevor:

don't know, but

Joe:

um, so which consulting firm is he gonna end up at?

Joe:

Yeah,

Scott:

well he will end up somewhere.

Scott:

He will end up doing something.

Scott:

Now I imagine that he will try and follow his mate, Scott Morrison into some sort

Scott:

of consulting firm for the military.

Scott:

So he can play the big tough man, but then he could also, he may well

Scott:

have lick, he may well have licked enough asses and that sort of stuff

Scott:

so he can end up on the, uh, coal in the, in the coal company somewhere.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Um, just good.

Scott:

Oh, he might even end up working for Gina Reinhardt.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

You never know.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

You know, because she was certainly his, she certainly loved him.

Joe:

Or, or maybe ambassador to, um, America,

Trevor:

you know.

Trevor:

Well, that would require a future.

Trevor:

Liberal government, which I think is gonna liberal

Scott:

government.

Scott:

I think that we are not gonna see that for at least nine years, I would've thought.

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

Let's talk a little bit about that because uh, KO Samari is a

Trevor:

sort of a pollster commentator.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

He's got some very interesting stuff, actually aren't.

Scott:

Yeah.

Trevor:

And there was an article in the Australian Financial Review, so things

Trevor:

to consider long term about how does the liberal party get back into power.

Trevor:

So the next election won't be till 2028.

Trevor:

Uh, well if it goes the full term by then another 700,000 Gen Z voters

Trevor:

will have joined the electoral role.

Trevor:

And the coalition doesn't get many votes outta that mob.

Trevor:

No.

Trevor:

They only get one in five.

Trevor:

I wonder why.

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

Funny that.

Scott:

And how many boomers are gonna die between now and 2028?

Trevor:

Uh, quite a lot.

Trevor:

And yeah.

Trevor:

Uh, by 2028, only 25% of enrolled Australians will be baby boomers or older.

Trevor:

So the demographics are just working against, uh, the liberal party.

Trevor:

And, um, so on that election, May 3rd, uh, the coalition lost at

Trevor:

least 12 seats that they didn't even have on their danger list.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

So electoral commission says a marginal seat is one

Trevor:

that's held by less than 6%.

Trevor:

Um, and at the next election, labor will be defending only about 20

Trevor:

seats that are deemed marginal.

Trevor:

So that's only a quarter of their mps will be in marginal seats.

Trevor:

If liberals at the next election managed a uniform, 6% swing.

Trevor:

Then they'd pick up just 16 extra seats, restoring them to where they

Trevor:

were prior to the last election, and that's if they got a 6% swing.

Trevor:

But, um, the way the demographics are working with Gen Z, hating them, and

Trevor:

their only constituency, the baby boomers dying or through dementia, unable to vote.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

Um, where are they gonna get these people from?

Trevor:

Oh, and that would be a 6% swing, uh, which is, which be a huge swing.

Trevor:

That's just to get them back to where they were prior to the last election.

Trevor:

Um, the last time there was a swing of more than 5.5% was in the

Trevor:

1975 election when Malcolm Fraser got 7.4 to defeat Goff Whitlam.

Trevor:

So 6% swing would be extraordinary, and that would only get them back to where

Trevor:

they were before this last election.

Trevor:

So.

Trevor:

They're looking at at least two election cycles.

Trevor:

But you'd have to say, with the demographics working the way it is, there

Trevor:

has to be some complete remodeling of the liberal party to have to be under

Trevor:

some fundamental cataclysmic change in what they do to, to turn it around.

Scott:

You know, it, you're very, you're very right there.

Scott:

There have been a few liberal women that have been actually actually

Scott:

hitting the airwaves lately.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

And they are starting to say through very gritted teeth that

Scott:

perhaps it's time to embrace quotas.

Trevor:

Mm.

Scott:

Well, I just think that you've gotta actually look at the history

Scott:

of quotas and that sort of stuff.

Scott:

Now, the a LP almost to themselves apart over quotas.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

But they did implement them.

Scott:

They did swallow the, they did swallow the bad pill and everything else, and

Scott:

they implemented them and now they've got 57% of their members are women.

Scott:

Um,

Trevor:

you know, the, the liberals is, the women they get

Trevor:

are as, as nutty as the blokes.

Trevor:

Yeah, I know.

Trevor:

They, they're, so, I don't think it's so much the gender is, is they managed to

Trevor:

just then find the nutty women to take up the places who possibly have to be

Trevor:

even more nuttier in order to overcome hurdles of, so gender's not gonna cut it.

Trevor:

I No, I know it's not possible.

Trevor:

It's policy that has to cut it.

Trevor:

And they are, so the problem is you, they're going

Joe:

to vote for Senator Price because she's a woman, black and indigenous.

Joe:

Yeah.

Trevor:

But they've got the same problem as the Republicans where

Trevor:

the, the party faithful who are involved in pre-selection.

Trevor:

Completely mad.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

And that's what's happening in the liberal party branches.

Trevor:

They're completely mad in there.

Trevor:

They're more radical than their poli than the politicians.

Scott:

Oh yeah.

Scott:

They're not

Trevor:

going for, they're just watching Sky News and getting high on that stuff.

Trevor:

And so they're not gonna vote in moderate, they're not gonna pre-select moderate

Trevor:

candidates so that it's un it's gonna require some sort of change in liberal

Trevor:

party membership in order to change that party, which isn't gonna happen.

Trevor:

I, I, I can't imagine it happening.

Scott:

Well, it's like one of those, those things, you know, you've gotta, actually,

Scott:

there was a woman that, um, was from the liberal party and that sort of stuff.

Scott:

I can't remember who she was, but she was a lady that tried to set

Scott:

up a. Women's liberal movement.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

I can't even remember what the name of the organization was, but she

Scott:

said that the average Australian voter is 37 years old and a female.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Whereas the average liberal party member is 73 years old and a male.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

You know, it's just that, um, even when I was there, which is a few years ago now,

Scott:

you know, it was very hard to find anyone that didn't have completely gray hair.

Scott:

Mm. If they had hair at all.

Scott:

You know, it's just, um,

Scott:

I don't know what the hell they're gonna do.

Scott:

They've gotta do something.

Scott:

Otherwise you, I know, Joe, you don't have any hair.

Scott:

Um, if he did, it'd be great.

Scott:

Yeah, exactly.

Scott:

It's, you know, I just dunno what the hell they're going to do,

Scott:

but they have to do something otherwise you could end up seeing.

Scott:

The Labor party governing the country for years yet, and that's not good for anyone.

Scott:

You know, you've gotta have, you've gotta have a decent, credible opposition

Scott:

that you've gotta have something that's worth throwing rocks at.

Trevor:

It's, it's gonna have to be a new party.

Trevor:

That liberal party will cannot reform.

Trevor:

It's, no, it's imp it's like saying the Republican party could reform mm-hmm.

Trevor:

It's beyond reform.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

And so it will have to be a complete collapse of the next

Trevor:

election and the remnants of the, um, the moderate, the teal type people

Trevor:

saying, uh, let's create a new teal party, which will attract liberals.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

Or maybe because labor has moved so far.

Joe:

Right.

Joe:

They become the right wing party.

Joe:

Uh, and we have the greens as the opposition.

Joe:

Yes.

Trevor:

That's one another way, but there's a certain segment

Trevor:

who'll just never be satisfied with those socialist labor.

Trevor:

I, I'll think they're, well, yes, left wing,

Joe:

they'll be voting for the crazy rightwing nut jobs, won't they?

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

And of course, all the while, people like Peter Dutton, uh, not Peter Dutton, um,

Trevor:

Peter Credlin and um, Tony Abbot, Tony Abbott are all working along in the Hmm.

Scott:

In the shadows.

Scott:

Trying the shadows, trying, trying to

Joe:

drag them further, right?

Joe:

Yes.

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

It's,

Scott:

it's, I just, if you're given the job of

Trevor:

fixing it, you, you look at it and say it's impossible.

Scott:

It's one of those things, I don't know whose idea it was to actually

Scott:

coax Ja Nampa Jim Price out from the National Party over to the liberals.

Trevor:

It was, uh, Tony Abbott.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

That doesn't surprise me.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

And I have heard that before, now that I actually think about it, but that.

Scott:

Made zero sense whatsoever.

Scott:

All they did was just piss off the National Party.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

And

Trevor:

you know, these people genuinely believe she was an extraordinary talent.

Scott:

I know that.

Scott:

But you know, she, she was okay.

Scott:

She had, she had a win on the, on the Constitution, but that's it.

Scott:

You know, that's all she actually did.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

You know, I just don't see that She was brilliant.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

No, far from it.

Scott:

She wasn't anything spectacularly brilliant.

Scott:

She was,

Joe:

she was gonna be R Musk, she was gonna run the Ministry

Joe:

of Government Efficiency.

Scott:

Yeah, I know.

Scott:

Which would've been absolutely ridiculous.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

A Timo Doge, perhaps.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Timo Doge.

Scott:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah, yeah.

Scott:

Because they called it, they called him a Timo, uh, Republican, didn't they?

Joe:

Well, I know that, um, suss and Lee was the team who, Liz Truss.

Scott:

Who is this?

Trevor:

Uh, she was the team of Liz Trust, so a chief version.

Trevor:

Oh, Susan Lee.

Trevor:

Gotcha.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Gotcha.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

You're actually, you're actually saying it the way her name is spelled Susan.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Sus, yes.

Scott:

Gotcha.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Um, it's, yeah, I know she was the team of Liz Trust and

Scott:

everything else, but she know, um,

Scott:

yeah, having heard her speak and everything else, I think to myself,

Scott:

maybe she's not as big as nut as, as you originally think, but then, you know, I

Scott:

just dunno what, I just dunno whether or not to trust her because she certainly

Scott:

seems to be saying the right things.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

But she's not got a strong position in parliament, you know, uh,

Scott:

apparently a number of her, at least two of her votes came from senators

Scott:

that have since lost their seats.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

So now they're, now they're down to it's one all, isn't it, on the, on the numbers.

Scott:

So if that idiot.

Scott:

God, what was his name?

Scott:

The fourth.

Scott:

So, so

Trevor:

she got the support of three liberal senators who are retiring in July.

Scott:

Oh, they lost their seats or something like that?

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Yes.

Scott:

Anyway, they, they only, they only managed to vote in the election

Scott:

because they only managed to vote in the leadership ballot because they

Scott:

currently have their seat, but they, she, they are losing their seats in July.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Now, I don't know how they're losing their seats, whether they've lost

Scott:

their seats through the election or whether or not they've hit

Scott:

retirement age or what have you.

Scott:

I couldn't tell you.

Trevor:

Yeah, it must be, it must be 'cause of the change over from this vote.

Trevor:

It doesn't take effect till July.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

It doesn't take effect till July.

Trevor:

But they still voted in the Yeah, that's weird, isn't it?

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Well they,

Scott:

they were, they're allowed to vote because they were allowed to vote because

Scott:

they were the members of Parliament.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Now, I'm not sure what happened with Bradfield, but, um, has

Scott:

Bradfield actually been declared yet?

Trevor:

I, uh, in my notes, that's what I've got.

Trevor:

Um.

Trevor:

So then, but the liberals lost bradfield by 40 votes.

Scott:

And so they did actually lose the seat, did they?

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

Which, so

Scott:

Nicola, Nicolette Bowles got that seat.

Trevor:

So back in 2016, which is not that long ago, nine years, they

Trevor:

held it, the liberals 71 to 29 Mm. So, um, it was their safest seat

Trevor:

and nine years later they lose it.

Trevor:

That's incredible.

Trevor:

Amazing.

Joe:

It's, that's 'cause of all that dark money that, um, climate

Joe:

2000 or whatever they're called.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

Of funneled into the seat.

Trevor:

No, Joe, it was because they didn't go hard enough to the right.

Trevor:

Oh, sorry.

Trevor:

Didn't represent true liberal values.

Trevor:

The people didn't know what they were, they were labor polite Joe.

Trevor:

That was why they fought, that's why they failed.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

Um, talking of retirement, did you see, I think it was the courier fail did a

Joe:

big thing about how Dustin is on 300 grand a year for the rest of his life.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

Which I was very surprised that they were sticking the knife in.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

They'll do that occasionally when it doesn't matter.

Trevor:

So Yeah.

Scott:

Really he is on 300,000 a year for the rest of his life

Trevor:

because he's, uh, been in Palmer quite a long time.

Trevor:

So he's one of the 1 24 years.

Trevor:

Mm. He sort of benefits under a scheme that's stopped, so it's not as generous.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

So, yeah.

Trevor:

I think Albanese iss another one who's on the same sort of scheme probably.

Trevor:

And there's not many others left who are.

Trevor:

No,

Scott:

exactly.

Scott:

'cause the new ones that have come in have to have actually had

Scott:

to, um, what am I trying to say?

Scott:

They have, they've got to go onto the same sort of system that the rest of us are on.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Which is basically a defined.

Trevor:

Well, an accumulation fund rather than a, an

Scott:

accumulation fund rather than a defined benefit fund.

Scott:

Yes, you're quite right.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Well, while we're talking about funds, Scott, shall we fast

Trevor:

forward to the superannuation tax?

Trevor:

Yeah, sure.

Trevor:

So the federal government is hoping to pass a bill to impose a 15% tax on

Trevor:

Super balances higher than $3 million.

Trevor:

That's gonna affect about one in every 200.

Trevor:

Savers.

Trevor:

And if you watch Sky News or read the Courier Mail Yeah.

Scott:

They're all losing.

Scott:

It's gonna

Trevor:

be the end of the world.

Scott:

Yeah, I know.

Scott:

They're all losing their minds over it.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

Um, I don't really have any sort of problem with it.

Scott:

The Greens want to drop it down to 2 million bucks and all that sort of stuff.

Scott:

What?

Trevor:

The Greens wanted to drop it to 2 million.

Trevor:

I never saw that.

Scott:

Did they?

Scott:

Well, that's one of the things that actually been, uh, I've heard

Scott:

from one of the, one of the things I was listening to a podcast.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Apparently

Scott:

they wanted to 2 million bucks.

Trevor:

They thought 3 million was, was,

Scott:

oh, too generous?

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Yes, yes, yes.

Trevor:

That makes sense.

Trevor:

Sorry.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

They, they thought it

Scott:

was too generous, so they wanted to drop it down to $2 million.

Scott:

Okay, that makes sense.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

I would've thought that if you wanted to actually do that, what

Scott:

you ought be actually arguing for is you drop it down to 2 million

Scott:

bucks, but you've gotta index it.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Because now $2 million is something that we can only dream of right now, but.

Scott:

If you're 18 years old and you're starting work and you've got just

Scott:

the superannuation contributions going into your account mm-hmm.

Scott:

And you do occasionally top it up just a little bit, just a little, then you

Scott:

end up, then $2 million is not something out of the realms of possibility.

Trevor:

Mm.

Scott:

But if you have it $2 million today and you index it, then that wouldn't

Scott:

be a problem as far as I'm concerned.

Scott:

So that's a criticism

Trevor:

that this, that this limit is not indexed.

Trevor:

Exactly.

Trevor:

It's always open to any parliament at any time to say, we'll start indexing it.

Scott:

I know, I, I understand that, but the Labor Party said they don't

Scott:

want to index it, and I dunno why.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

And at some

Trevor:

point down the track, they could put in indexing.

Trevor:

So, you know, the whole thing about superannuation.

Trevor:

Well, the other part of it, of course, is that it's going to

Trevor:

be on unrealized capital gains.

Scott:

Yeah.

Trevor:

So if a value, if for example, you've got a, I don't know.

Trevor:

A, um, a wheat farm, um, in your superannuation fund or, or something.

Trevor:

Maybe a large property or something like that.

Trevor:

That's, um, I was gonna say, 2 million isnt actually that

Joe:

much for up

Trevor:

three.

Trevor:

3 million.

Joe:

3

Trevor:

million.

Trevor:

So, yeah.

Trevor:

So you've got an expensive property in there, and you are

Joe:

a large farm, I think would be 3 million.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

And you are renting it out perhaps.

Trevor:

Um, so you've got a large asset which increases in value and you

Trevor:

haven't sold it, but it's, you know, it's, it's increased in value.

Trevor:

You're gonna be taxed on that increase even though you haven't sold it.

Trevor:

And people are saying, well, that's unfair because these poor people

Trevor:

may not have the money available.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

To pay the tax bill and might have to find the money somewhere.

Trevor:

Crime sell their assets might forced to sell.

Trevor:

The whole point of superannuation is it is a little haven where you

Trevor:

put away enough money to provide you with a comfortable retirement.

Trevor:

That's all that you're supposed to be able to put in there.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

And will give you tax advantages if you do.

Trevor:

And it's supposed be something that will provide an income

Trevor:

stream for you in your retirement.

Trevor:

So if you're stupid enough to put in, or greedy enough, or inflexible enough

Trevor:

to put in a large inflexible asset into a, into a system designed to provide

Trevor:

you with an income stream, don't go crying that the, uh, you've been taxed

Trevor:

on something where you haven't actually, where, where you're short of cash.

Trevor:

Because the idea of the scheme is to provide an income stream.

Trevor:

So, um, I. So, yeah.

Trevor:

Similar

Joe:

things been going on in the UK with talking about farms.

Joe:

Mm. Where farms were exempt from inheritance tax.

Joe:

Right.

Joe:

Uh, but it was only farms worth over a couple of million pounds.

Joe:

Mm. And all of the farmers are up in arms come Yeah.

Joe:

Protesting in the streets.

Joe:

And really, it, it's, it's wealthy businessmen who've bought themselves

Joe:

a hobby farm as a way to hide money away from, um, death duties.

Joe:

Yes.

Trevor:

For the majority of Australians, the vast majority are

Trevor:

putting the supers in shares and other collections of various mm-hmm.

Trevor:

Assets, which are easily sold to pay tax bills.

Trevor:

And the vast majority are not getting over 3 million.

Trevor:

And so this is a bunch of whinging for people who have got.

Trevor:

Lots of wealth tucked away in a tax haven with unusual,

Trevor:

uh, assets, uh, stashed away.

Trevor:

So don't put it in super if you can't be flexible with it.

Trevor:

And you've got over 3 million.

Trevor:

So, well,

Scott:

I just think mix it up a bit.

Scott:

They've gotta actually look at why they've put the money into super.

Scott:

Mm. You, I think they've actually tried to get around it and that sort of stuff.

Scott:

They've tried to actually make it so that they can pass it on to the next

Scott:

generation and all that type of thing.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

Um, in the chat room, uh, Allison said Bradfield has not decided

Trevor:

yet, so everything we said about that, but asterisk with a maybe.

Trevor:

And, uh, David in the chat room says politicians hate indexing.

Trevor:

There would be no Bracket Creek with tax if there was indexing,

Trevor:

but they love to do tax cuts.

Trevor:

Same thing applies to the proposed superannuation changes.

Trevor:

Okay.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

I suppose they might actually end up sort of at one stage, at some stage saying

Scott:

once they, once the average superannuation ends up at around about 3 million bucks,

Scott:

they might actually say, well, we're gonna increase it to $3.5 million or Yeah.

Trevor:

Or 4 million

Scott:

bucks.

Scott:

You never know.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

So, um,

Scott:

but I would've thought that, um,

Scott:

with this change and everything else, it's going to actually slow the amount of

Scott:

money going into superannuation because if you're looking like you're gonna

Scott:

end up at 3 million bucks, you've then gotta actually work out, is 30% still

Scott:

lower than your current income tax rate?

Scott:

Tax rate?

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

If it is lower than your marginal tax rate, you'll still drop it up.

Scott:

But if it's higher, then you're gonna think to yourself, well, I don't

Scott:

need to actually do that anymore.

Trevor:

You gotta remember this is 3 million per person.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

So for couples mm-hmm.

Trevor:

60 million we're really talking, they can accumulate together 6

Trevor:

million before this kicks in.

Trevor:

So yeah.

Trevor:

Uh, that's also to be taken into account.

Trevor:

Um, here are some pertinent numbers.

Trevor:

Um, so as of December 31st, 2024, so we are really talking here where

Trevor:

you've got an asset that can't be sold to meet a tax liability.

Trevor:

'cause it's a large inflexible asset that's gonna be in a self-managed

Trevor:

superannuation fund of some sort.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

Because industry managed, you know, normal superannuation funds are,

Trevor:

um, people's accounts are your usual shares and a bit of cash and, and

Trevor:

maybe interest in, um, infrastructure projects or things, but all sort of, um.

Trevor:

Share-based type assets.

Trevor:

So, but in self-managed super funds, that's where people put, um, will

Trevor:

try to put, uh, expensive paintings and, um, holiday houses, uh, uh,

Trevor:

at Torkey or something like that.

Trevor:

So, uh, so those self-managed super funds, um, uh, they account

Trevor:

for, there's only, uh, let me

Joe:

see here.

Joe:

Well, if you're saying there's one in 200 people that's 10,000 Australians.

Joe:

Yes.

Joe:

Not many.

Scott:

It's really not.

Scott:

It's not, you know, it you just listen to Sky News, then it's the end of

Scott:

the earth, but it's not, you know.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

I think the only people that might be losing the sleepover

Scott:

is people like Gina Reinhardt.

Trevor:

So, so your standard super, um, there's about 4 trillion in that.

Trevor:

Your special self-managed super funds has got 1 trillion, but, um.

Trevor:

94% of people are in the regular funds.

Trevor:

Well, only 6% are in the self-managed funds.

Trevor:

So, so

Joe:

6% of people have 25% of the assets

Trevor:

in super.

Trevor:

Correct?

Trevor:

Yep.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

In these large self-managed funds, that would be the typically ones at least 20%.

Trevor:

Mm. Yeah.

Trevor:

So, um, uh, where are we here?

Trevor:

Uh, so really we've got a case where self-managed super funds have been taking

Trevor:

advantage of the generous rules mm-hmm.

Trevor:

To move substantial wealth into self-managed super funds.

Trevor:

And the whole idea of it should be put enough in there that your average Aussie

Trevor:

can have a comfortable and enjoyable retirement and anything beyond that.

Trevor:

Um, too bad.

Trevor:

Anyway.

Trevor:

Uproar, well,

Joe:

you, you probably want to be aiming at the top 10% of.

Joe:

Whatever.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

Anybody who's in the top 10% bracket of income, superannuation assets.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

You probably want to be looking very closely at taxing them.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

Yeah, I agree.

Trevor:

Sounds very socialist, but that's the way that it system should work.

Scott:

Mm.

Trevor:

Gaza I think we should talk about Gaza again.

Scott:

That's so bloody depressing.

Scott:

What's going on over there.

Scott:

It's just clearly,

Trevor:

Joe, you've been reading mainstream media, so

Trevor:

you've heard nothing about it.

Trevor:

Um, Scott, what's your thoughts on Gaza?

Scott:

Oh, I think the Israelis are just behaving so brutally.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

You know, it, six months ago I said I think the Palestinians have had enough.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

You know, why do you hate the Jews so much?

Scott:

I don't hate the Jews, it's just, um, I just think to myself

Scott:

that they have behaved so.

Scott:

Appallingly badly towards the Palestinians that all they've

Scott:

done is they have created the next generation of Hamas fighters already.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Because these young boys that are gonna grow up without any parents,

Scott:

because they've both been blown apart, they're gonna get adopted by Hamas

Scott:

and they're gonna get told from day one that you are an orphan because

Scott:

the bloody Jews killed your parents.

Scott:

And that, you know, Palestine from the, from the river to the sea shall be free.

Scott:

And it's just a,

Scott:

I just cannot believe that the Israelis cannot see what they're

Scott:

doing, that they're just creating a new generation of Hamas fighters.

Joe:

Once, once you wipe out all the Palestinians problem solved.

Trevor:

See your theory there.

Trevor:

Scott relies on those children growing up.

Trevor:

Whereas they drop bombs on them and assassinate them as they're playing

Trevor:

in the dirt streets, outside the tents that they've enforced into.

Trevor:

So the Israeli theory would be, these kids are not gonna grow

Trevor:

up and become terrorists because we're gonna kill 'em all or starve

Trevor:

them all and they'll die that way.

Trevor:

So that's, that's the theory they're working on.

Trevor:

Um, really what we've got to now in the world is, is just the world's eyes have

Trevor:

opened up to, to, um, the whole sort of racist, genocidal state of Israel.

Trevor:

Um, when before we maybe didn't look too closely and we thought,

Trevor:

oh, liberal western democracy, uh, Savage Arab Muslims, uh, sympathies

Trevor:

lie with, uh, the Westerners and I.

Trevor:

Now after all this, there's an enormous tide has turned against

Scott:

Israel.

Scott:

Well, I find it, um, somewhat amusing actually, that you've got, um, you've

Scott:

got the Canadians and the British and the French and everyone else are

Scott:

actually saying that, um, you've actually gotta, you've gotta pull your head in.

Scott:

You've gotta stop killing so many Palestinians.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

I would find it, I, I find it very hard to believe that

Scott:

they weren't aware of everything that was going on 18 months ago.

Trevor:

Do, do you

Scott:

know,

Trevor:

I reckon these people are so goddamn stupid, like Penny Wong and,

Trevor:

and that mob, like when, right at the beginning when Israel said, oh, RA

Trevor:

is, uh, full of Hamas, uh, operatives.

Trevor:

And they said, right, we're withdrawing aid for ra.

Trevor:

You know, I think they're that stupid.

Trevor:

That they actually believe it.

Trevor:

I don't think these people have a lot of time to actually get, get

Trevor:

briefed about news that isn't fed to them by, um, a very narrow funnel of,

Trevor:

of, of intelligence that they get.

Trevor:

So I just, I, anyway, um, what have we got to say?

Trevor:

Like, last time we spoke about Gaza, we were talking about the impending

Trevor:

starvation because on the 2nd of March, we're now on 2nd of June,

Trevor:

so three, four months, a hundred percent of Gaza, uh, is now at risk

Trevor:

of famine according to United Nations.

Trevor:

Um, so there was a total siege from the 2nd of March and on the 19th of May, a

Trevor:

few hundred food trucks were allowed in.

Trevor:

For 2 million plus people.

Trevor:

So they have been starving the poor people of Gaza.

Trevor:

And just in the last day, basically they released some food to these

Trevor:

people at these, uh, designated spots.

Trevor:

This one was the Raffa Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Distribution Hub.

Trevor:

Basically a spot that the Israelis determined in some dusty, um, part

Trevor:

of the world, set up a bunch of gates and said to the Garzas line up

Trevor:

here for a measly fraction of what your entire population requires.

Trevor:

So, as described in this tweet, Israel purposefully starves people, forces

Trevor:

them to come to a single crowded spot to get a bag of flour, and then

Trevor:

guns them down in broad daylight.

Trevor:

Shot dozens of people.

Trevor:

Who are in those lines.

Trevor:

And David Shoebridge, the Green Senator, says this regime kills

Trevor:

people queuing for aid after forcing them to choke points by starvation.

Trevor:

And he says, we must end the two-way arms trade and introduce

Trevor:

sanctions and free Palestine.

Trevor:

So, so

Trevor:

they're starving.

Trevor:

A small, minuscule amount of food is allowed in, and then

Trevor:

they get shot for lining up.

Trevor:

It's just unbelievable.

Trevor:

And,

Scott:

uh, it's terribly, terribly cruel.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

It's,

Scott:

it's just,

Scott:

and you see nothing of this in the mainstream news.

Scott:

You can pick up

Trevor:

that fucking courier mail.

Trevor:

There's nothing in it.

Scott:

Because it doesn't fit with their proprietor's worldview.

Scott:

It's one of those things like, I just don't understand.

Scott:

Like, um, I saw a, uh, thing just on Instagram just recently.

Scott:

It was a Jewish actress who is saying Hitler has turned a, has made us, right?

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Hitler, no.

Scott:

Hitler has no, uh, sorry.

Scott:

The Jewish, the Jewish government has made Hitler, right?

Trevor:

Yes.

Scott:

You know, because everything that Hitler was saying is exactly

Scott:

what the Jews are now was exactly what the Israelis are doing.

Trevor:

Israelis, yeah.

Scott:

You know, now it's not the Jews, it's the Israelis, which is a

Scott:

very different sort of thing to say.

Trevor:

Yep, yep.

Scott:

And you know, it's, it's

Trevor:

the Zionists.

Trevor:

I mean, there are some Israelis who, um, have a conscience.

Trevor:

A small Yes.

Trevor:

It seems a small fraction of the population.

Trevor:

It seems the majority of the population is, is, um.

Trevor:

It's still in favor of what their government's doing.

Trevor:

Um, actually on, on that score, I've got a clip here by M Shier who's been quoted on.

Trevor:

Various things.

Trevor:

Professor m Shyer.

Trevor:

Um, so I'll just play this clip 'cause it's relevant to what we're saying.

Trevor:

I don't

Mearsheimer:

see any evidence that there's an uprising in the Israeli

Mearsheimer:

public, uh, against the genocide.

Mearsheimer:

Uh, there are lots of protests in Israel, but those protests have to deal with

Mearsheimer:

the hostages, uh, and relations between the IDF and, and uh, uh, the government.

Mearsheimer:

But they don't have to do with stopping the genocide.

Mearsheimer:

I mean, you wanna file all of this under the Nazi ification of Israel.

Mearsheimer:

That's where it should be filed.

Mearsheimer:

This is a country that's gone completely off the rails, and the more that you

Mearsheimer:

see it in operation, the more it looks like the Germans, uh, under Hitler.

Mearsheimer:

This is just hard to believe.

Mearsheimer:

We're talking about eradicating all of the Palestinians and Gaza murdering them.

Mearsheimer:

This is, uh, hard to believe this is the sort of things that Germans did.

Mearsheimer:

It's supposed to be never again.

Mearsheimer:

I don't see any evidence that people in Israel, uh, believe

Mearsheimer:

in the principle of never again.

Mearsheimer:

Certainly when it applies to the Palestinians and people in the

Mearsheimer:

West are hardly lifting a finger.

Mearsheimer:

This is a categorically reprehensible

Trevor:

when you see polling done of the views of people living

Trevor:

in Israel as to approval or disapproval of what's happening.

Trevor:

Some pretty ugly statistics of the level of approval for the

Trevor:

wiping out of the Palestinians.

Trevor:

It's pretty darn ugly.

Trevor:

Um, yeah.

Trevor:

Um, when we do see news, it's, it's massaged.

Trevor:

So typically, say the, uh, New York Times would have a headline, I.

Trevor:

Israel seeks to clear much of Northern Gaza warning of dangerous combat

Trevor:

to come, which should really be.

Trevor:

Israel seeks to ethnically cleanse Northern Gaza, warning

Trevor:

of more mass killing to

Joe:

come.

Joe:

You saw of the whole, they've just permitted another or legalized 30

Joe:

new, um, enclaves in Palestinian land.

Trevor:

Uh, the settlers in the West Bank?

Trevor:

Yeah.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

Well, some of it was the West Bank, but there were other

Joe:

places as well, I thought.

Trevor:

Right?

Trevor:

Yep.

Trevor:

Uh, not surprised.

Trevor:

Did you see that documentary by, um, AU Thoreau?

Trevor:

Not yet.

Trevor:

I've been looking for a copy of it.

Trevor:

It shouldn't be hard to find.

Trevor:

It's, they're out and about.

Joe:

Okay.

Joe:

I, I did get the BBC documentary that was taken down.

Trevor:

Right.

Joe:

Did

Trevor:

it

Joe:

get taken

Trevor:

down?

Trevor:

Did it?

Joe:

No, not that one.

Joe:

There was another one.

Trevor:

Right.

Trevor:

So the thru one's very interesting where he is talking to the settlers and, um,

Trevor:

it's just damning the words that come out of the mouth of these

Trevor:

settlers, um, as they're just, uh, those settlers are a breed apart.

Trevor:

Yeah, yeah.

Scott:

You know, they are utterly disgusting people the

Scott:

way they treat the Palestinians.

Scott:

I've seen

Joe:

it kind of reminds me of the white South Africans.

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

It's very dehumanizing view of,

Scott:

of the, of the, of the, of the humans.

Scott:

It's, yeah.

Scott:

I. You know, I saw something on, um, last week tonight, which is just a comedy

Scott:

show and everything else, but they're actually talking about the way the, the

Scott:

way the settlers treat the Palestinians.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

You know, they were throwing, they were throwing empty beer bottles

Scott:

outta their windows smashing down.

Scott:

Um, so they'd smash on the courtyard where they were just

Scott:

meeting and that type of thing.

Trevor:

Mm

Scott:

mm It's really bloody crook what they're doing.

Trevor:

But then idiots will tell you, oh, Israel is a democratic state.

Trevor:

They allow the Palestinians the right to vote.

Trevor:

But that's only the Palestinians Palestinians that in the,

Trevor:

the main territory of Israel.

Trevor:

Israel, where they are outnumbered.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

And if they, so they're allowed to vote because their num,

Trevor:

their vote doesn't count.

Trevor:

But all of the people in the West Bank and the occupied territories,

Trevor:

they don't get to vote about.

Trevor:

The group that is occupying them and controlling them.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

So, you know, even, um, uh, Frank was sort of arguing, oh, but you

Trevor:

know, Israel's a democratic state.

Scott:

Oh

Trevor:

fuck off.

Trevor:

Like that's not a proper democracy.

Trevor:

And um, it just doesn't, I don't care if you're a democracy.

Trevor:

America's a democracy as such and commits atrocities around the world just 'cause

Trevor:

you're a democracy, um, doesn't mean anything anyway, but, uh, I've digressed.

Trevor:

Um,

Joe:

it's all right.

Joe:

It won't be a democracy for much longer.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

The US this is,

Trevor:

yes.

Trevor:

Um, well,

Scott:

it certainly looks that way, doesn't it?

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Yeah.

Trevor:

But you know, the New York Times will do a, a headline

Trevor:

aid deliveries, begin to reach garzas after days of delays.

Trevor:

Un said about 90 truckloads of supplies, blah, blah, blah.

Trevor:

Significant influx,

Scott:

90 truckloads is bugger all compared to what they actually need.

Trevor:

Whereas someone like the BBC says, um, uh, only, no, actually

Trevor:

that's a different headlines, but another one had a headline.

Trevor:

Only a hundred trucks have entered Gaza after 11 weeks of total

Trevor:

blockade and eminent mass starvation.

Trevor:

That's what the New York Times headline should be, or UN says Gaza

Trevor:

in cruelest phase of war as 9,000 trucks worth of aid ready at border.

Trevor:

So this is trucks sitting there, 9,000 ready.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

God damn Israelis are starving these poor Palestinians.

Trevor:

So, mm-hmm.

Trevor:

The really, you know, we are now in the dystopian world where the onion

Trevor:

with its headlines is factually more correct than the New York Times and the

Trevor:

onion headline was, Israel Warns Gaza still harboring hundreds of doctors.

Trevor:

Because they, they are targeting doctors, dear listener.

Trevor:

They actually target medical workers and their families.

Joe:

Did you

Trevor:

see that

Joe:

link I sent you?

Joe:

Uh, I looked at most of the links you sent me, Joe, the, the Belling cat one

Joe:

where they, uh, where they analyzed the audio from the ambulance shooting

Trevor:

Yes.

Joe:

Saying that, um, yeah, basically from the audio they analyzed because

Joe:

you can hear the crack of the shot and then the bang of the gun.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

And you can tell time the difference because the shot goes so supersonic

Joe:

as it goes past whatever's hearing it.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

And the gun travels.

Joe:

Yeah.

Joe:

The sound from the gun travels at 300 meters a second.

Joe:

And so they're saying.

Joe:

That there were no shots from the audio fired back in the

Joe:

direction of the Israeli troops.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

All of the shots were fired in the direction of the ambulance.

Joe:

Uh, and, uh, just talking about the rate of shots and said basically they

Joe:

just opened fire and, and didn't stop

Trevor:

the, the, the evidence is such, it's, it's, it's just not controversial.

Trevor:

Mm. The, the worst of the atrocities that are happening are, there's

Trevor:

no rational ability to sort of discount what's going on it.

Trevor:

We all know what's going on, and just Israel denies doesn't cut it.

Trevor:

It's, there's so much video evidence, um, by all sorts of people, including

Trevor:

the Israelis themselves, that the level of this atrocity is not in question yet.

Trevor:

Barger rule is being done by the west, and in particular our week.

Trevor:

So-called Leftwing Australian government.

Trevor:

So Ban easy.

Trevor:

Well, he has actually said something just

Scott:

recently, but it's, it's not enough.

Scott:

Cheap words are cheap, Scott.

Scott:

Like, yeah, I know, but what else?

Scott:

You know, it's, he was asked by a, he was asked by a journalist, do

Scott:

you think it's time for sanctions?

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

And he said, well, what do you want me to sanction?

Scott:

And he said, well, I don't know.

Scott:

Well, I just don't think anyone knows the answer to that.

Scott:

I would believe that Hugs ACT's probably got the right, he's probably got the

Scott:

right, he's probably got the right idea where I just think he should have,

Scott:

um, he should end or military sales and everything to Israel right now.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

And then after that, you should actually start to sanction some of the members

Scott:

of the Netanyahu government and members of the military high command too.

Scott:

You know, I just think you've gotta start by doing that and then after that you

Scott:

can work out Okay, is that gonna work?

Scott:

No, it's not gonna work.

Scott:

So let's move on to the next line of sanctions.

Trevor:

Like, it

Scott:

doesn't matter.

Scott:

I just think that

Trevor:

it doesn't matter if we don't trade a single grain of wheat with Israel.

Trevor:

No.

Trevor:

We still ban sales of everything in imports of everything.

Trevor:

It wouldn't matter if our trade was zero with them.

Trevor:

It's obviously something, but we, we should just be

Trevor:

initially saying, oh, think we

Joe:

buy a lot of useful military tech from them.

Joe:

Yeah.

Trevor:

So we should stop that and we should, we should stop,

Trevor:

um, you know, Israeli citizens as, for example, from traveling.

Trevor:

So there's all sorts of things we can do.

Trevor:

We can declare that if Netanyahu ever steps foot in the country,

Joe:

he'll be

Trevor:

arrested, uh, will follow what the IIC is, but then the

Joe:

Americans will invade.

Trevor:

Yeah, well they probably will, but that's what we should say.

Trevor:

So that's weak of, it's one of those things.

Trevor:

I just think weak of albanese and weak of that report, I.

Scott:

Netanyahu is, he can't really travel anywhere though in, in any of

Scott:

the Western countries that actually said that they will actually abide by

Scott:

the, the direction of the international criminal court, haven't they?

Trevor:

Uh, there's a mixture of different groups who have said they'll arrest

Trevor:

him and others will say they won't.

Trevor:

So,

Scott:

okay.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

So, um,

Trevor:

you know, Albanese, it's outrageous that there'd be a blockade of food and supplies

Trevor:

to people who are in need in Gaza.

Trevor:

People are starving.

Trevor:

And the idea that a democratic state withholds supply is an outrage.

Trevor:

I have an issue with this where it's like, uh, only democracies

Trevor:

are capable of morality.

Trevor:

Like, anyway, um,

Trevor:

one thing I will go back to is just on this reporting of it, I've mentioned, um.

Trevor:

Oh.

Trevor:

And so Albanese came, comes out with basically, it's outrageous

Trevor:

that there's a food blockade.

Trevor:

People are starving, we're not happy.

Trevor:

And Sky News, Shari Marxen says, prime Minister's comments lasting

Trevor:

Israel as it attempts to bring home more than 50 hostages is outrageous.

Trevor:

And yet another case of rising anti-Israel sentiment according

Trevor:

to Sky News host Sha Marson.

Trevor:

So this is the shit that is on Sky News and is being fed to our

Trevor:

boomers every bloody day of the week.

Trevor:

Crap from a woman like that.

Trevor:

Oh, for God's sake.

Trevor:

Ah, and I've got friends who quote that woman on all sorts of issues.

Trevor:

Ugh.

Trevor:

It's embarrassing for them.

Trevor:

It is.

Trevor:

Meanwhile, the A, B, C is not much better.

Trevor:

When it comes to Gaza, so this was an interesting article, um, John JE

Trevor:

blog by a guy called Richard Bean.

Trevor:

He's an academic and data scientist.

Trevor:

You'll see what the data scientist aspect is in a moment.

Trevor:

So in Decem, so this is him writing.

Trevor:

In December, 2024, I presented an analysis of more than 400, 450

Trevor:

interviews concerning Palestine and Israel on a b, c radio, national

Trevor:

Breakfast since October 7th, 2023.

Trevor:

So a bit over a year.

Trevor:

And, um, a couple of months during that period, the host,

Trevor:

Patricia Vallis, um, was the host.

Trevor:

Hey Scott, are you typing away?

Trevor:

I, I'm just.

Trevor:

That's got all you, I could just hear a lot of typing, but anyway.

Trevor:

Or clicking mate?

Trevor:

Clicking, clicking house.

Trevor:

Oh, okay.

Trevor:

Um, I was

Scott:

clicking, which is my fault.

Trevor:

Sorry about that.

Trevor:

Um, where was I up to?

Trevor:

So during that period, relative to Palestinian guests, um, there

Trevor:

were a lot more Israeli guests featured in those 14 months.

Trevor:

Um, um, since Sally, Sarah took over on the 16th of

Trevor:

December, there've been 90, uh,

Trevor:

he just says, oh.

Trevor:

During that period of, um, Patricia Corvallis, uh, Israeli

Trevor:

guests were featured more than twice as often as Palestinian

Trevor:

guests during the 14 month period.

Trevor:

So a two to one ratio.

Trevor:

Of hearing from Israeli guests as opposed to Palestinian guests on our A

Trevor:

B, C Sally Sarra took over in December, there were 93 interviews on the same

Trevor:

subject, and there were 33 Israeli guests, but only 12 Palestinians.

Trevor:

So just sheer numbers in terms of guests, completely biased in favor of

Trevor:

the Israelis over the Palestinians.

Trevor:

And as he says here, that, um, another concerning aspect is the,

Trevor:

what's going on there, Scott?

Trevor:

Uh, no.

Scott:

What are you doing, Scott?

Scott:

Smashing the place up.

Scott:

I just bumped something off my bottom of my desk, so I just

Scott:

leaned over to pick it up.

Scott:

Is that okay?

Trevor:

Yeah, that's okay.

Trevor:

I'm, I'm looking at this, uh, just sounded like you were.

Trevor:

Cooking on a wok or something?

Scott:

No, I'm not cooking anything.

Trevor:

Okay.

Trevor:

Back to this article, um, the repeated invitation of guests,

Trevor:

um, from the Washington DC based foundation for defensive democracies,

Trevor:

a think tank that effectively acts as Israeli government front group.

Trevor:

So, um, a lot of that happening at the same time.

Trevor:

But what goes on with, um, the host reaction when a guest mentions an

Trevor:

Israeli genocide is usually to interrupt and mention that Israel contests this.

Trevor:

So this has happened five of seven times, but this does not occur when a

Trevor:

guest alleges similar conduct by Hamas.

Trevor:

So the A, b, C has not been consistent, um, in its approach to it.

Trevor:

So, um, and, um.

Trevor:

So he's saying it's a breach of their rule of impartiality.

Trevor:

If it's good for one, it's good for the other.

Trevor:

In partic in this particular case, the evidence of a genocide is overwhelming

Trevor:

and following the weight of evidence in this case requires the A, B, C to

Trevor:

revisit or revise its policy of having hosts constantly interrupt guests who

Trevor:

state that Israel's conduct is genocidal.

Trevor:

Scott, do you think if a guest is on the A, B, C and a guest says, blah,

Trevor:

blah, blah, blah, blah, and the genocide that Israel's, um, causing ear and

Trevor:

Gaza blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, should the host jump in and say, uh,

Trevor:

Israel denies it's, uh, a genocide?

Scott:

No.

Trevor:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

It just is.

Scott:

I just think that it is, it is genocidal what they're doing.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

You know, it just, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a

Scott:

duck, or it's a bloody duck.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

So, as far as I'm concerned, I think that Israel should be called out

Scott:

for behaving in a genocidal way.

Trevor:

We've reached that point, haven't we?

Trevor:

Where, oh,

Scott:

I don't think there's any other way you can look at it.

Scott:

Set it.

Scott:

So it is genocidal, you know, they're, they're deliberately targeting men, women,

Scott:

and children, and they're killing them.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

And you know, it's, um, they appear to be targeting doctors too, which

Scott:

is something you did say before.

Scott:

Now I heard a story on what have been on the A, B, C they were talking about, um.

Scott:

No, it was an American podcast I was listening to.

Scott:

I couldn't remember which, which podcast it was, but I think it might have been,

Scott:

um, anyway, it'll come back to me.

Scott:

They were talking about the, um, a doctor found out that his entire family had

Scott:

been killed by a bunker busting bomb.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

And he had nine children that were killed and his wife was also killed,

Trevor:

uh, while he

Scott:

was actually trying to

Trevor:

w worse than that.

Trevor:

Scott, she was a pediatric pediatrician.

Trevor:

Yeah, she was a pediatrician.

Trevor:

And he was a medical person.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

He drops her off to work.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Goes back home to look

Scott:

after

Trevor:

the kids.

Trevor:

Bo bomb lands on him and the kids, nine of them kills all of them except for

Trevor:

one kid who's incredibly badly injured.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

And the bodies are taken to the hospital where the woman works and she is.

Trevor:

Trying to identify her deceased children who are

Trevor:

in such a state that they're basically unidentifiable.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

Uh, can you imagine?

Trevor:

It's just, can you imagine?

Scott:

It's one of those things that you just can't imagine.

Scott:

It's just so bloody cruel.

Trevor:

So

Trevor:

that's the sort of targeting that's going on.

Trevor:

And, and so our A, B, C, you know, not much better than

Trevor:

Bloody Sky News for that matter.

Trevor:

Now, there was a great interview that they did with NASA Mny, a

Trevor:

Palestinian spokesman, and, um, the A b, C. After initially publishing

Trevor:

it, pulled the interview probably due to pressure from Israeli lobby.

Trevor:

And this is.

Trevor:

We'll see how we go.

Trevor:

We'll play a bit of it.

Trevor:

Um, this is the interview that, that, um, is no longer available on the

Trevor:

A, B, C 'cause somebody deemed it inappropriate, but I reckon it's superb.

Journalist:

Our is NASA mash president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network.

Journalist:

Good afternoon, nasa.

Spokesman:

Good afternoon, Kat.

Journalist:

Now the Prime Minister has delivered what some would say

Journalist:

are his strongest comments to date.

Journalist:

What is your reaction to what you just heard?

Spokesman:

We welcome the Prime Minister's stance in his language, and I would

Spokesman:

say to him it's 596 days too late.

Spokesman:

We're on day 597.

Spokesman:

Of what the International Court of Justice said was a plausible genocide.

Spokesman:

What we've got is world leaders now perhaps scrambling

Spokesman:

to clean up their legacies.

Spokesman:

He talked about Israel as being a democracy.

Spokesman:

This is not a democracy.

Spokesman:

It's a rogue apartheid genocidal state headed up by a war criminal.

Spokesman:

It's time for Australia to do more than just talk about words, but to put things

Spokesman:

in place like sanctions, like ending two-way military trade and counseling

Spokesman:

our contract with Albert Systems that killed Australian aid worker, zombie

Journalist:

francon.

Journalist:

Okay, so just on some of the things that you're calling for

Journalist:

there on the, on the trade, uh, this is a highly contested claim.

Journalist:

The government insists that no weapons are ex have been exported to

Journalist:

Israel, uh, in the last five years.

Spokesman:

Well, we don't accept that.

Spokesman:

Uh, we've seen evidence presented by David Trubridge and the Greens,

Spokesman:

Michael West Media, et cetera.

Spokesman:

Earlier on this year, we saw a weapon in the hands of an Israeli minister in

Spokesman:

Gaza that was manufactured in Queenan.

Spokesman:

Uh, Australia is complicit in the weapons trade in supplying

Spokesman:

in supporting this genocide.

Spokesman:

It's time for us to end two-way military trade

Journalist:

with respect to, uh, sanctions on Israel.

Journalist:

We know that Australia hasn't signed up, uh, to that

Journalist:

statement over, uh, the weekend.

Journalist:

The Prime Minister says it's because the statement was by members of the G seven.

Journalist:

Is that fair?

Spokesman:

What's a G seven statement?

Spokesman:

There's nothing stopping us from going out on our own.

Spokesman:

There's nothing stopping us from, uh, like-minded countries.

Spokesman:

Joining Spain said some stuff.

Spokesman:

Canada was part of that G seven, and we've signed on with, uh, Canada.

Spokesman:

Previously, Australia needs not to be the last country to enact sanctions

Spokesman:

against this rogue apartheid state.

Spokesman:

Mm-hmm.

Spokesman:

We need to do the right thing.

Spokesman:

We, we took a leadership role in apartheid South Africa.

Spokesman:

We can take a leadership position in apartheid Israel.

Journalist:

We heard there, uh, that the Prime Minister said that he spoke,

Journalist:

he communicated his concerns and his criticisms to the Israeli president

Journalist:

when he was most recently in Rome.

Journalist:

Is that a step that you welcome?

Spokesman:

Well, the reality is Israel hasn't listened.

Spokesman:

Our foreign minister urged Israel to show restraint in the very early stages.

Spokesman:

We've called upon Israel.

Spokesman:

Israel's not listening.

Spokesman:

It's a rogue state.

Spokesman:

It's time to treat it that way.

Spokesman:

And that includes sanctions.

Spokesman:

It includes recalling our ambassador, expelling the Israeli ambassador, and

Spokesman:

ensuring that that fugitive Benjamin Netanyahu, that fugitive war criminal

Spokesman:

is held to account in the Hague.

Journalist:

What are your observations of the internal pressures that the

Journalist:

government is facing over this?

Spokesman:

I don't imagine there's that much internal pressure.

Spokesman:

I mean, we welcome former ministered husick, uh, commentary over the weekend.

Spokesman:

The a LP has had a very strong position on Palestine and it's

Spokesman:

held back for whatever reason.

Spokesman:

Perhaps it's been the Israel lobby, which we've seen to be

Spokesman:

impotent at the, uh, last election.

Spokesman:

It's time for the a LP to lean in to a more just position to

Spokesman:

the elbow, quote unquote, of old.

Spokesman:

It's time for Palestine to be free from the river to the sea.

Spokesman:

He knows what that means.

Spokesman:

We know what that means.

Spokesman:

It's equality and humanity for all people in that geography,

Spokesman:

not just the Jewish people.

Spokesman:

No supremacy.

Journalist:

NASA a Apart from doing interviews and advocacy work through

Journalist:

public uh, media, what more will you do as president of the Australian

Journalist:

Palestinian Advocacy Network to further your cause and your campaign?

Spokesman:

Look, we're working with various, uh, advocacy

Spokesman:

groups, but also unions we're,

Trevor:

that was most of it.

Trevor:

I thought he spoke really well and for the people who were just listening

Trevor:

and not watching that, um, showed images of just people lining up and

Trevor:

just scrambling for food and images of disaster and all the rest of it.

Trevor:

And there just is not enough of that.

Trevor:

The A b, C creates a great interview like that and pulls

Trevor:

it 'cause somebody complained.

Trevor:

There we are.

Trevor:

That's the state of the world that we're in.

Trevor:

Who poor?

Trevor:

Who would've complained?

Trevor:

Israel lobby would've said, oh, he said from the river to the sea.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Trevor:

Now he gave an explanation of what he's saying that meant

Scott:

Yeah, he, his explanation made me feel a lot better because

Scott:

when he said, from the river to the sea, I first winced at that.

Joe:

Well, I was gonna say it's been used in a different context.

Joe:

Mm

Trevor:

mm But he gave it a context that he gave it.

Trevor:

And you know, at the end of the day, I thought it was an interview.

Trevor:

Well worth listening.

Trevor:

And the fact that it gets pulled criminal, that's how I be seen.

Trevor:

So, so yeah.

Trevor:

So there we go.

Trevor:

Um,

Trevor:

um, there we go.

Trevor:

Gentlemen, I think that's enough for this podcast.

Trevor:

You got anything else?

Trevor:

You wanna get off your chest?

Trevor:

Yes.

Trevor:

You need to press to each other.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Joe:

I've just discovered, um, a former trader, London trader called Gary

Joe:

Stevenson, who went to London School of Economics, went talks with university,

Joe:

studied economics, uh, and he's a big proponent for taxing the rich.

Joe:

And he's a very, uh, well spoken advocate.

Joe:

I mean, he, he definitely sounds like, uh, he came from

Joe:

the, the rough side of London.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

Um, a and you know, he's very wealthy now having traded, uh, in

Joe:

London for six years or something.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

Uh, but arguing really, uh, was it 20?

Joe:

20 trillion, 20 billion, I can't remember.

Joe:

It's a huge number, uh, of government cash was handed out during COVID Lockdowns.

Scott:

Mm.

Joe:

And, and none of it went into the pocket of the average person.

Joe:

So where did it end up?

Scott:

Mm.

Joe:

Because the government does have, doesn't have it.

Joe:

Mm. And he's arguing that it went into the pockets of the rich, uh,

Joe:

and basically saying, uh, the, the additional wealth that these people

Joe:

have is forcing up asset prices.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

And most people's asset is their home.

Joe:

Uh, and that's why, uh, the, the earnings to house price ratio

Joe:

has shot up around the world.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

Is because the wealth is concentrated in more and more

Joe:

people, in more and more up the top.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

And they're using it to.

Joe:

The, the top

Trevor:

is buying, is getting cheap access, is getting access to cheap money.

Joe:

Yep.

Joe:

And they're using it to buy assets.

Joe:

Buy assets Yep.

Joe:

Including housing, which is forcing the price of houses up.

Trevor:

Yep.

Trevor:

Yep.

Trevor:

If you're getting money at a percent or two mm-hmm.

Trevor:

You can buy assets that are returning 4% and you're happy days.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Joe:

So he is very, um, eloquent.

Joe:

Mm-hmm.

Joe:

And, um, Christian Guru Murthy, who's a Channel four presenter, ways to

Joe:

Change the World is the podcast, but it's also up on YouTube as a video.

Joe:

Uh, and Gary Stevenson is, is the person I heard.

Trevor:

There you go.

Trevor:

Dear listener, check that out.

Trevor:

A recommendation from Joe, the tech guy.

Scott:

Mm-hmm.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

You sounding very bossy there, Joe.

Trevor:

I'm, I'm sounding bolshy.

Trevor:

No, Joe's sounding very bolshy.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

Yeah.

Trevor:

I'm taxing the

Joe:

rich.

Joe:

Absolutely.

Joe:

I'm a socialist.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

Which is fine.

Scott:

You know, it's just that, um, it's one of those things.

Scott:

I just think to myself that unless the wealthy actually start to understand

Scott:

the lessons of history, then I honestly believe you could see some

Scott:

guillotines being Yeah, absolutely.

Joe:

If, if they, and I

Scott:

think that Elon Musk would probably be the first, that they

Scott:

would be head in the United States.

Joe:

Well, that's why they're all headed to space.

Joe:

'cause apparently guillotines don't work in space.

Trevor:

There we go.

Trevor:

Anyway, on that note, we'll be back next week.

Trevor:

Talk to you then.

Trevor:

Bye for an hour, and it's a good night from

Joe:

me and it's a good night from em.

Trevor:

Good night.

About the Podcast

Show artwork for The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove
The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove
News, political events, culture, ethics and the transformations taking place in our society.

One Off Tips

If you don't like Patreon, Paypal or Bitcoin then here is another donation option. The currency is US dollars.
Donate via credit card.
d
dave slatyer $200
general thanks especially tiananmen episode , plenty to reconsider and the Episode 440 - Venezuela's Election
C
Colin J Ely $10
Keep up the good work