Boonta Vista - EPISODE 93: Electile Dysfunction

Episode Date: April 8, 2019

Andrew, Lucy and Theo are discussing the impending Federal election campaign, the Budget and the uncertain future facing Friend Of The Show Tony Abbott. *** Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista *** Merchandise available at: boontavista.com/merchandise *** Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista iTunes: tinyurl.com/y8d5aenm Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/s?fid=144888&refid=stpr Pocket Casts: pca.st/SPZB RSS: tinyurl.com/kq84ddb

Welcome to Puente Vista episode 93. I am Andrew, I'm here coming at you from a Victorian country town on a sunny Sunday morning. I guess daylight savings has just stopped being a thing playing nature's greatest prank on my children, who got up extra early. Which is really what you're after. And of course here with Theo. Hi Theo. Hello. Usually we've got something like nice to say about the number of the episode,

but 93, it just, it's just plain sucks. I think we need to get past this number as soon as we can. Don't like it. Don't care for it. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It's. It's. It's. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's not a th. It's not a th. It's th. It's th. It's th. It's not a to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thea. thoo. thea. thea. thea. thia. too. thia. to to to to thi. to think we need to get past this number as soon as we can. Don't like it. Don't care for it. It's not a good number. It's nothing interesting about it. Well the song the classic song what is love by Hadaway came out in 1993. Okay, okay, then. What about Mariah Carey's Dream lover? That's a great song. That is a good song. How we what's what's with the encyclopedic knowledge? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? Okay? the? the? the? the? the? the? the? the? the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. to to to to to to th. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. the thi. the the. the the the. the the. the the. the. the the. the. thi. thi. thi. thi. It's not. That's a great song. That is a good song. How are we, what's, what's with the encyclopedic knowledge of pop songs released in the year 1993 specifically? Let's not get into it. Room Shake the Room. DJ Jazz Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Great track. And of course we have with us Lucy. Now, number one, hello Lucy. Hi. Number two, I think that Lucy might have to very suddenly leave at some point midway

through this episode. Would you like to explain why that is the case? It's because we're in the trivia championships of Trivia Hawaii. It's very exciting. Is this like... There's a thousand dollars. A thousand dollars up for grabs. Is this like the finals of all of the pubs in Hawaii that are doing trivia or just the one

pub that you go to? No, there's like a league. So we've been playing like four nights a week because we joined the season six weeks so we played four nights a week for the past three weeks and we made the last spot in the finals and I'm very excited to completely lose at the end of it. It could be a come from behind victory though. Could be a wild story. We're the underdog story right now and it's only two of us. Everyone's got them six teams. That's just too much knowledge but I think. thi thi tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho the thi thi the the thi thi their their their their thi their thi their thi their thi thi thi their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their thi. thi. thi. thi. te. teat teat teat tea. tea. tea. tea. tea. tea. teat tea. theat. the. the. the. but I think that's a disadvantage. That's just the people to argue with you, way too many opinions. Whereas you can just you can get it wrong a lot quicker. Yeah and I'm a girlfriend so I can be like I make the decisions

am I right? The bloody husband's always wrong. Yeah but then if it's wrong you can also be like oh sorry yeah, sorry yeah just a girlfriend. Exactly. Also, I'm sorry about the large whipper-snipper noise outside my house, which is, it's Saturday in Hawaii. It's just constant. Everyone's gardening all the time. Well, it's a very lush climate. It's very lush.

Everyone needs to mow their lawn more than once a week. 24 hours a day. Mm-hmm., normal more central. So we thought we thought it might do a little catch-up on what's going on in the old world of Australian politics. Someone complained at us. They were like, hey why are you guys just talking about what kind of porn you can get on VHS? I thought this show was all about all about Australian politics and we were like, oh yeah,. Right. Oh yeah. I think I think like sometimes we find it a little hard, a little hard to stay too tuned

in when it's just so dumb, so dumb so much of the time, you know. It's very dumb. It's not much fun either lately. Well like we've we've kind of spoken about this before. There really is with, I believe the 85th Parliament of Australia has just risen for whatever break they're on the post-budget break, with the expectation that an election is going to be called soon, then the government will go into caretaker mode, and I feel like there has just been this overwhelming sensation of the 85th Parliament as led by Prime Minister, I'm doing scare quotes that you can't hear on the microphone, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, there is just this air of inevitability that

he is not going to continue to be the Prime Minister for very long. No. The Liberal government has just been like a series of train wrecks and with every by-election and every state election, they get worse and worse results. The only, I think the only state election, maybe since, I could be totally wrong here, but maybe since Abbott got in, it seems like the only state election that hasn't turned Labour was New South Wales because they suck so bad. I think so, that sounds right.

Worse state. Oh, quite a truly. We got a letter about this. If you would like to get into it. Please let someone to provide the content. I'm trying to I'm trying to look at this letter, but Gmail is helpfully playing me a presentation about it being their 15th birthday. So thank you so much for that Google. Now we did on a previous episode we sort of talked about the New South Wales election and I was saying I think from the outside people

need to have a bit of perspective about a, how cooked New South Wales elections are in general, New South Wales politics are and also the Labour Party is really shit there, and even the Greens are really shit there, and it's just a big shit sandwich. But we did get an irate letter from a friend of the show, Rowan Taylor, who writes, not usually the type to harang someone over a bad take, but I cannot let your anti-New South Wales spray in the tribbing episode come unremarked. What was it called, Tribbon on a Prayer?

Tribbon on a Prayer. I think there's a bonus. You can go back to bash New South Wales, I really do, and hell it's largely deserved, but the most politically cooked. Sure, the New South Wales coalition government has done a bunch of things that make folks like us apoplectic. For example, lockout laws and banning virtually everything except for torturing greyhounds, but they came into power on a massive infrastructure platform and went all in. Everything is delayed as fucked but that's kind of what happens with infrastructure. At the end of the day I want a government to do shit even if I hate it. Kind of sounds like you love them

Ron, you know what I'm saying? Not really. They are also kind of moderate compared with the standard for the coalition these days. One example being the energy minister actively calling out and embarrassing the climate denialists at the federal level late last year. Geez, even David Mara agrees with me on this one. Why don't you marry David Marr if you? I could go on but I actually don't really care because that's not even what I'm mad about. No, what has really motivated me to write in is the suggestion that New South Wales is worse than Queensland. All right. All right. Get ready to defend Queensland, Thea. Queensland, a state entirely populated by parochial right-wing shitlords

with minds addled by the oppressive humidity. A state that spawned the volcanically cooked Joe Bielke-Peterson, Pauline Hanson, Bobcatter, and Steve Dixon. How can you stoop lower than that? All right, I'll grang you that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we that we have that we have that we have that we have that we have that we have that we have that we have that we have that we have that we have that? All right, old grangy that we have Mark Leitham. But no, you must retract this take. I just can't deal. Cheerio, Rowan. Look, I mean, Rowan's got a lot of good points.

And is he technically correct? Sure. But is he morally correct? No, and I'll tell you why. New South South wo, th w w w w w w w w w w w th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th thoom-a-a' thoom-a' tho th th th th th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. to the. toea. toea. toea. toean. toean. toean. toean. toean. toea. toea. ta. ta. ta., and I'll tell you why. New South Wales is the state that contains the city of Sydney, the worst place on earth. I don't really know what else I can say about it. I will say Brisbane versus Sydney is a clear, I mean there's a clear loser there and it's Sydney. Absolutely. We've got the... And look, Sydney's got some great stuff too. But I really feel like this is some some real Stockholm Syndrome speaking from from Rowan. Thank you for the letter. You are correct and I

I will see you in hell. Yep and if there's one thing we know for sure it's that both the cities of Brisbane you are correct and I will see you in hell. Yep, and if there's one thing we know for sure, it's that both the cities of Brisbane, well the entire state of Queensland and the city of Sydney are both going to sink through the earth's crust into the hell that is no doubt awaiting both of them below, and you guys can talk about it there. Straight to hell. The rapture will come and take about one half of the people in Canberra. The news will take six days to arrive in Brisbane via Coercilent. How do you say that word by the way? I mean he bent on for this... He said it was. And I was like that's a cool word. Andrew play the tapes back if he could. All the folks we're just going to play back several hundred hours of the podcast. the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. to the. It's to to to to to to to toe. It to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. It to th. It th. It th. It's th. It's the. It's the. It's the. It's the. It's the. It's thea. thea. thea. thea. thea. the thea. the news. the news. thea. thea. the. All folks, we're just going to play back several hundred hours of the podcast,

until we get to this point. But look, you know, we're always ones to gracefully accept criticism, and we will take yours on the chin rowing, you're right, Queensland's disgusting, it gave us, what's his name, George Christensen? Disgusting. Still, he's just still hanging in there Yeah, phrase around in Bobcata the whole deal Malcolm is Malcolm Roberts a Queenslander he is yes, yes, Malcolm Roberts just all the worst shit stains on the national discourse besides say

your New South World's politicians like say Tony Abbott, Mark Latham, yep, a lot of the Scott Morrison, a lot of the worst ones although you could definitely say that like those two groups are divided into two sort of separate but equal types of shit stain where the type from Sydney are like the lifelong careerist private school boy you know wealthy elite born to rule and this goes for both the labor and the liberal parties these are all people who have you know come from the university of Sydney and all the labor and the liberal parties. These are all people who have, you know, come from the University of Sydney and all the boys club shit and the university

politics and people whose brains have been absolutely nuked on this stuff for decades. So they're kind of awful people because a lot of the very awful things that they are doing, they're doing very deliberately, they're very aware of how bad they are, they're doing them in an incredibly calculated fashion. Whereas all of the politicians that come down from Queensland with their brains cooked by the sun and the humidity turned into a pile of hot stew, hot Shepards pie in their skulls.

Those people don't seem to be in control of their faculties at all? They don't even seem like they have the ability to tactfully hide the worst elements of the sorts of people there. They're just blasting left, right and center. Yep. Yep. It's just mostly right. So the worst shit firing out of them at all hours of the day. So there's one thing we can agree. It's the places. T the places. T. T. the places. the places. If the places. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. the. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. the the the the toge. the the the the the t the te of the day. So there's one thing we can agree, it's that the places that me and Lucy are aren't as bad as those. Hmm, definitely. Unless someone yells at me online again for apparently saying that no racists come from Victoria, in which case I did not say that. Definitely did not say that. So on that note, you know, it, it seems as though the budget has just been delivered, which it sure has.

Been delivered in a big smelly sack. We got to talk about the budget, apparently. Apparently that's what this podcast is about. Apparently the thing. Well, what I was going to say, like, besides, you know, some of the more odious stuff in the thing. Well what I was going to say like besides you know some of the more odious stuff in the budget itself, it seems like the approach that this extremely unpopular government has taken is we are just going to drag out being flogged at a publicly flogged at an election as long as we can.

so they've been kind of mainlining money into things that they've just been pork-barreling stuff. They've been, I feel like I've seen a lot of ads for government departments which are like very, very clearly just advertising for the government itself. Yeah, there's some stuff with the like the Australian Tax Office I believe I've seen posted around where it's like, they're like, they're like, they're they're just just just just just just just just just just just just like, th, th, they're just just just like, they're just just like, they're just just just like, they're just just just like, they're just just they're just just they're just they're just they're just they're just they're just they're just they're just th, th, thi, th, they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just they've just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just, they're just, they're just just they're they're they're they're they're they're th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, like, thi, they're just thi, they're just they're just like, there's some stuff with the like the Australian Tax Office I believe I've seen posted around where it's like we're making things simpler and easier and everyone goes yeah I hate tax returns. Well yeah, they're like doing these ads which are just for a government department that says the government is getting on with the business of cutting red tape

and making things simpler for businesses to do, which are like just a conservative government's talking points, and then at the end they say the tax office. And it's like why the fuck do you need to run an ad saying that. There is no actual reason to do that beyond being pressed by the government to trumpet Literally their job to do whatever it is that is in the law. Yeah, and it's, well it's one thing to say like, for example, to announce a specific thing to say, hey, we have completely changed the way tax returns work. Like when, you know, however long ago was, that they introduced like e-tax and doing your taxes online and that sort of stuff. I can imagine that being a thing that you would want to announce to the public at large

and say you now have a much, much simpler option of doing this that doesn't involve you having to go to an account and spend $500 or whatever. But they're not doing that. They're just saying, less red tape. Which is, yeah. Just what Scott Morrison loves to say. So that all seems kind of bogey to me. But yeah, I mean, so that's what we've had in the run-up to the budget as they refused to announce an election. And then we've had the budget, which in turn seems to essentially be the de facto launch of election

to the thethey refuse to launch an election. I think there was a lot of expectation about the election being announced this weekend, which has not happened as we stand on the 7th of April. But at this point, the election is likely to be the 18th or the 25th of May. So we're really like, we're not, we're not far away. This is, they really have to like start spinning things up on this and the, like you said, the budget is really their vehicle for for doing it. And I feel like they've really narrowed down on, of course nothing that will legitimately help people or anything like that, but just simply things that are easy digestible tax breaks. Punishing the poor.

Tax breaks for the middle class, which is always richer than me. When will I be the middle class? That's right. And I think like the way that you could describe the budget coming into it is that it is not, it is not, I think it should be said, it's probably nowhere near as bad as the last budget, as far as just spitting on the poor, as it's been pointed out for the lower middle class. That's right. Like in the last one, there was just nothing for the lower middle classes, and now we have just very very rudimentary very very kind of there was some like pharmaceutical benefits cheaper to go to

the doctor type stuff really yeah that's right but they're trying to do two things at once right they're trying to provide tax relief quote unquote tax relief it's always horse shit but of course the tax relief is going proportionally to the higher end of town but they're also trying to push the message of being back in the black right and I'm sure we will talk a fair amount oh about this right which as well as it's horse ship but if we take just for a, these two things as being legitimately true, right? So if you take the in parallel tax cuts and being back in the black, the money therefore has to come from somewhere, and of course the money as always is coming from social programs. And so it's really a bizarre, weird budget

that's trying to be everything at once. And of course it will be nothing because they're not going to get in. Yeah. Which I do wonder with that sort of stuff, how much, yeah, how much would they sort of be calculating? You know, we can announce all of these types of measures, or we can just say, hey, we're going to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give to give their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, to give they sort of be calculating? You know, we can announce all of these types of measures, or we can just say, hey, we're going to give everybody everything that they want on the assumption that they're not going to be re-elected,

and that they're not going to have to actually carry out any of those things. Yeah, I mean, all of being pointed out by people that are much smarter than us. It's all like being a single family court dad and telling your kids, oh look if your mom would come and let you stay with me, we'd be going out for ice cream every night, we'd be eating pizza you can stay up late. Yeah, I was gonna buy a Nintendo 64 but it's not gonna happen.. Let me let me play a small clip here a very small clip of Scott Morrison, Prime Minister Scott Morrison making very clear what your choices are this election between a coalition government led by him or a Labour government led by Bill Shorten. You vote for Bill Shorten. You vote for Bill Shorten.

You vote for me, you're guaranteed Bill Shorten. You vote for me, Scott Morrison's Prime Minister, you guaranteed me. You vote for Bill Shorten. Just incredible stuff there. If you vote for Bill Shorten, you are guaranteed to get Bill Shorten. If you vote for me, Scott Morrison, you are guaranteed to get me. Just why would you say that knowing that the whole country sees your party as ridiculous in terms of changing prime ministers? Like you'd have to know the irony of what you're saying, right?

Yeah, you are guaranteed to get this person. It's like you, do you, do you... Literally, you took the job from somebody else. Yeah post election doesn't even and of course what does that mean like what does he mean well you're guaranteed to get Bill Shorten? Well I think I think the majority at this point the majority of the liberal parties ability to kind of campaign against Labour is simply Bill Shorten is bad. Bill Shorten is bad and he wants to kind of campaign against labor is simply, Bill Shorten is bad. Bill Shorten is bad and he wants to do lots of bad things. It's to the extent where like in like the Australian, they had a piece running from somebody who was like, Bill Shorten has a two-point plan to destroy Australia. Oh yeah.

And like I think Bill, Bill Shorten himself like tweeted a photo, like a screenshot two-point plan to destroy Australia. Oh yeah. And like I think Bill Shorten himself like tweeted a photo like a screenshot of that article and was like I don't remember putting this in our budget plan. Bill Shorten will replace your wife with a union rep. Yeah it's um so it's it's kind of ridiculous because you know there was the front page of the courier mail, which is a Rupert Murdoch owned thing. And I think traditionally what kind of happened was that like, Rupert Murdoch papers would, would make a big thing of trying to like, um, pick the, pick the winners of elections and back them so that they could then say, either, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the winners of elections and back them so that they could then say

either see we have some kind of influence over this or see we are always correct in our prognostications about this stuff so that they could be seen to be you know correct and influential and that sort of stuff. They seem to have totally given up on that, much more so than in previous years and have just gone whole hog on the pro-government propaganda. Australia needs Tony every year, over and over again. Iconic image. So they have this front page.

Let me paint you a picture if we can. Imagine if you will, a big green highway sign like you would see if you're driving around Australia. With budget 19, Australia at Crossroads, there are two signs. There is one above that says, reward! And it's pointing to the right, indicating that you should go that way. It says first surplus in 12 years. Biggest tax cuts since Howard, four billion dollars to get state moving. Queensland holds path to victory. way. It says first surplus in 12 years biggest tax cuts since Howard, four billion dollars to get state moving. Queensland holds path to victory and underneath there's another sign pointing to the left and it's all rusty and

shitty looking and it says risk. Somebody has spray painted a dollar sign over the S. Somebody shot it four times for some reason. Yeah somebody who shot some holes in it and it says beware, next to a Labour Party logo be where the the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the. the. the. the. the. the. Queensland theat the. Queensland the the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their th. Queensland. Queensland. th. th. Queensland. th. the. the. Queensland. the. the. the. the. the. the. thean. thean. thean. thean. thean. thean. tean. thean. thean. thean. thean. thean. thean shot some holes in it. And it says, beware, next to a Labour Party logo, beware left turn, $200 billion tax has it ahead. And then the lead on this says, Budget back in the black and nation back on track. As Treasurer warns, Labor will slam breaks on economy. So they're really just, just carry a mortar

for the for the Liberal Party here and in a way which is which is very very literally just repeating the Liberal Party's talking points about the election uncritically and without any examination of the idea that the nation is back on track? What the fuck does that mean? Like by so many measures, you know, how many years has it been since the minimum wage has gone up? How, you know, far out of whack with the cost of living are wages that don't rise and housing prices are out of control in a lot of places and there aren't enough jobs for all the people applying for them and all those sorts of things but

apparently we're back on track so it's all good. Also how many years since a labor government has been in right so if they're saying they're back on track part of that... You've been running the show for a long time for almost a decade what do you think that means the show you've been running the show for almost a decade What do you what do you think that means? What are you like we've done shit for 10 years, but now it's gonna be good again Now it's this guy and the other one Well, this is the classic thing with liberal parties though is that over the last decade is Being in power? And insisting that anything that's not going well is due to decisions previously made by the Labour Party. Right, the Labour fuck up the economy and we inherited it.

Yeah, so even like, you know, eight years after that point, they're still saying, oh, well, this thing's bad because of the Labor Party. Kevin Rudd came in and he destroyed the economy and they've just never recovered. Those women came in and trashed the joint. Am I right? Remember that one? Classic. Right, classic. But yeah, so some very, very unapologetic, you know, carrying water for the Liberal Party there, I have a feeling that that's what we're going to see a great deal of during the election campaign. And like I was saying before, we're even seeing stuff from before this point where they've essentially been doing, you know, but de facto election campaigning as it is, including there's a piece here that former Greens MP, was an MP or Senator Scott Lodlam? Senator?

Senator Scott Llund? Senator. Former Green's Senator, Scott Ludlidlum, wrote a piece about the recent press conference that Scott Morrison held on Christmas Island. And so this was the thing where, if you recall, I can't remember when or if we spoke about but basically, um, with that whole Medevac bill thing, which we did talk about, the whole Medevac bill thing, where the government insisted that if people were able to be airlifted from a country where we are paying for people to be kept so that they can't apply for asylum in Australia, if people were to be airlifted from that country to, like, you know, military hospitals or otherwise in Australia to get treatment that they can't thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi the the the their the their the their the the their the the the the the, the, their the, their the, the, their their theate. their the. their, their, their, their, their, their, where, where, their, where, their, where, their, where, their, where, where, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their thi. thi. thi. the, the, theateateateatea.ea.ea. theauuuiiia.eauiauia. tha. tha. tha. ththat country to like, you know, military hospitals or otherwise

in Australia to get treatment that they can't get on that island, that all those people would come into the country and there would be a massive flow of asylum seekers by a boat again and everything. And Scott Morrison announced we're going to reopen Christmas Island, which had been closed, to cope with what will undoubtedly be a massive influx of refugees because of what Bill Shortens saying he wants to do. So they put $180 million into upgrading a bunch of the security at Christmas Island, and then the government paid to fly a whole bunch of journalists out there, so that Scott Morrison could stand in front of the detention center and say, we're reopening this because Bill Shorten and Labor are bad,

and they want asylum seekers to come and rape your wife and take your job down at the dick-sucking factory. And then the reporters went home and reported on that and then they just closed Christmas Island again. Is that basically the essence of it? I think so. Yeah so they haven't included any of that money that they spent in the budget. They haven't included any money in the budget for keeping Christmas Island open. So clearly they never actually had any intention of like reopening the center and continuing to run it. 100% just a 180 million dollar racist press conference.

And that's the kind of economic management I like to see. The liberals, they're good economic managers. That's why you got to vote for them. They're extremely good at it. They save all that money of course by never raising the new start allowance. 25 years. 25 years. Really the same amount of money for 25 years. Well I mean it's it's indexed or whatever isn't it. So they go, ah, we'll give you 50 more cents this year. But they are giving people a dollar fifty a week to help with the energy cost burden. So I think the energy thing, so it's all wrapped up and sorted with a little bow on it. But as I pointed out initially that didn't apply to New Start recipients. So the people that that most needed this pittance that shouldn't exist in the first place

would not receive it until a whole bunch of people yelled at them and then they went, oh no, they will. So they're very much in control of the situation I think. But there's tax breaks for people on 50 to 90,000 dollars so you know who can say if it's good? Absolutely. Simultaneously they're removing the top most tax bracket in 2024 which will be nice so that if you're on... sorry this is the tax bracket between 45,000 and 200,000 is being just all collapsed to 30% instead of people thi. Instead of people earning like 180,000, the thi. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, th, so, so, thi. So, thi. So, thi. So, thi. So, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. So, some, so 45,000 and 200,000, is being just all collapsed to 30% instead of people earning like 180 or being on 37%. So there's just gigantic tax breaks for the people in society

that need it the most, removal of the progressiveness, whatever may be left over in our tax system, and just bring it all down so that the wealth will eventually trickle down to nobody. Well, yeah, as we all know, that A, it doesn't work at all, but like, this is the shit that doesn't make any sense in terms of constantly being so focused on tax cuts because number one, like absolutely all evidence that is not provided from like an IPA type thing tank shows that just doesn't do anything. But like none of the money ever moves downwards. It just gets hoarded. And yeah like when the country continues to

grow our population continues to get bigger, our infrastructure continues to age, so the best and smartest thing that you could do is to say, well what if, get this guys, what if in five years, we just got rid of like a third of the government's revenue? Yep. Sorted. People love paying for roads themselves, I guess. I can't wait. Is that what the Libertarians World would be? Like you just put in a fund for the road?

I think the Libertarians World is like that story we saw in America where Dominoes was sick of like all their drivers driving over potholes so they got little crews to go out and fill up the potholes. I think they just see that and then possibly just want to expand that to maybe the whole country. Yeah I think I think the hardcore libertarian view of that sort of thing genuinely is like you know when you see libertarians online where like people talk about funding for schools and shit like that and they go Well, I don't have kids so why should any of my money have to go to paying for schools? And I'm not sick at this exact moment. Yeah, and I'm not sick right at this moment. So why should any of my money go towards, you know, paying for hospitals and shit like that? With the obvious answer being, well, because we live in a society if you would like to not get robbed by roving bandits of psychotic teens, maybe have schools for them and all that sort of shit.

But yeah, I think I think the libertarian theory is that you would live your life completely unmolested by government interference and an thxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.. And th, and th, and th, and th, and th, and th. And th, and thii. And thi. And thi. And, and thi. And, and I, and I, and I thi, and I their, and I their, and I thi, and I'm they. the the the they. And I they. they. they. they. the they. the the the the the the the the the the thi, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I th. And I th. And I the th. And I th. And I th. And I'm, and I'm thi, and I'm the. And I'm the. And I'm the. the thei. thei. thei. the the the the the the the that you would live your life completely unmolested by government interference and taxation and all that sort of stuff. And that you would be so rich, you would be so rich from living off of your big brain and your individual merits and exceptionalism. Because obviously all these people think that they would be, you know, billionaires from their innovative, like three-dimensional anime body pillow printing techniques. Well, they're billionaires from their Bitcoin investments which have now totally destroyed the Fiat currency system.

As expected. As expected. Is there? What the fuck was that noise? Fiat currency system. As expected. As expected. Is there? What the fuck was that noise? Thought I could just hear a grandfather clock going off somewhere in this house that I made. What is that? Anyway, do you smell toast?

Always. I always smell toast. But yeah, I think the theory of these people have is that if there was no such thing as government interference, taxation, regulations, and all that sort of stuff, that all of these people who all consider themselves massive geniuses because they're smart enough to be a libertarian where you're a big dummy means they would all be millionaires and they could choose how they distribute their massive wealth. That I think in all of these situations their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their massive wealth, that I think in all of these situations all these people are assuming that they are very, very successful custodians of their own

future and all that sort of thing. And all the poor people and the homeless people who are very angry are not a problem even though there's no money to pay for a police force. Well, those... Well, yeah you can pay for your own private security and those people can just fucking die anyway because apparently they weren't, you know, they weren't ingenious enough. They didn't have anything of value to contribute to the world that they're living in, and you yourself will use your millions of dollars in body pillow income and Bitcoin investments to then, if you're like, well, I only take one road to the local Mad Max style marketplace, so I will just personally pay to have that road done, and then I just won't go anywhere

else. Right, but if there's no funding for children's schools, where are the libertarians going to meet their girlfriends? Hmm. Excellent point. Just asking questions. Yeah, if the government's not building. Excellent point. Just asking questions. Yeah, if the government's not building playgrounds in local areas, then where are they going to drive by? Yeah, where are they going to drive by and ask them what they're up to?

Well in a world with no police there will also be no restraining orders, so... So... and no age of consent. And if you ask me, that's what the real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real real problem that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's the real problem, the real problem, the their problem, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, well. their, well. their, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, their. their, their, their. their. their, their. their. their. their. their, their. their, their. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. theateateateateate. their. their. they're their. their, that's what the real problem is, these repressive laws about. My girlfriend's into really mature anime, so you know, shouldn't she be able to decide which 40 year old, 40 year old unemployed guys, your dates. Anyway, back to the budget. So like we were saying, the budget has basically been the start as pistol on the on the election campaign which has also still not been announced. I can't wait. There was a there was an article which kind of tickled my fancy this week which was let me just hit you with this one. So Melissa Price, who is the environment minister, who seems like one of the most just,

just incompetent, dip shit motherfuckers out there politically. She's like so out of a depth and has been given a portfolio in which like the government clearly wishes they could just scrap the whole thing So she's incredibly foolish yet but her department has Has like a bunch of grants to give to local areas for you know environmental initiatives and stuff like that and? areas for you know environmental initiatives and stuff like that and liberal MP Chris Kruther who represents the electorate of Dunkley so so her and Chris Kruther both got together and made a series of videos in which they went around to and visited with groups in

Kruthers electorate of Dunkley and announced the tens of thousands of dollars that they were distributing to these local groups in Dunkley which is an ultra marginal electorate and they posted all this online on his Facebook page saying here we are to announce all these grants that we're giving to these local groups, tens of thousands of dollars each, here they are. And a bunch of people went, that's weird because the applications for those grants haven't opened yet. Hmm.

It's interesting. So, um... Usually you apply for these things and they're judged on merit and then the money is handed out. Well, the liberals love merit. But they probably just removed the red tape around that process and gone straight to the end result. Yeah, which is great.

That's efficiency removing red tape. So yes, a liberal MP has announced tens of thousands of dollars worth of grants to community groups before applications have opened in emerged in Senate estimates. This is from the Sydney Morning Herald. Labor Senator Christina Caneley on Thursday to told the hearing that the Facebook page of Dunkley Liberal MP Chris Kruther in post which have since been deleted said he and environment minister Melissa Price had announced grants of up to $20,000 to three groups under the community's

environment program. The $22 million program was announced in early March, however officials from the Department of Environment and Energy told estimates that guidelines for the program have not been released and applications will not open until mid-year. The department's assistant secretary, Steve Costello, said that while MPs and candidates were consulting with their communities to determine which projects would be shortlisted for the grants, the program, quote, is not open for applications.

There is no successful grant under that program, because the money is not appropriated, and there has been no application process, he said. Mr. Krutha retained the swinging electorate for the the the the th of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the th. the th. the the the th. the the the th. th. thi. the the the, th. th. the th. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th.. th. th. th. th. the, the, the, the, the. the. thean. tean. tean. te. te. te.e.e.e. te. te.e. te. te. te. te. t.uther retained the swinging electorate for the liberals in 2016 with a tiny 1.4% margin, but a redistribution means the seat is now notionally labor and may be decided by a handful of votes. Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham told the hearing that Mr. Kruther was clearly indicating projects that he has committed to supporting in terms of getting grant applications. That's how that works, right?

That's totally how that works, is that when you are supporting a local group which would like to eventually apply for a grant when the applications are open, what I like to do is go down and announce the final figure that they absolutely will be receiving. Yeah, so what I would like to do is go and get in front of all the cameras and I can stand here next to the person receiving the grant and we can print out like a novelty-sized grant application and sort of stand behind that. And just sort of like, you know, we can just get a nice photo up with the grant application that comes before the judging process that comes before the money going out, I think. Yeah.

Very legit. That's all I'm saying. Whether he misworded his Facebook post in that instance, I don't know, Senator Birmingham said. Senator Cannelly asked why Ms. Price somehow got herself in three videos announcing grants for a program in which the applications haven't even opened. Later, Senator Birmingham said he had been advised that in no way did the minister make any announcements or funding commitments herself in those videos were published. So I like to just totally leave someone else holding the bag.

This was followed up by a post. This was followed up by a post in which they were saying that the Prime Minister had been asked about this in Parliament. So the PM forced to defend MP who announced grants before applications open. Labor asked the government in question time if it was appropriate to announce the awarding of funds when the program hadn't opened. Melissa Price said the government had not announced any money and the trip with Kruther related to quote expressions of interest for the program and he had invited her quote to speak to a number of really good local

community environment projects. But Labor's environment spokesman Tony Burke then read from a media release issued by Kruther, which quoted the minister and announced funding to four community groups in Dunkley. If no announcements under the program had been made, why does the minister appear with quotes in the media release and is in videos with the announcement of $10,000 in Frankston, $7,500 in Boggy Creek and $10,000 at Downs Estate, he said. Each of these announcements are accompanied by a video with the Minister present. How can it be that she claims that none of it ever happened when she's quoted in the media release

and is personally in the video? Price again said that the announcements related only to an expression of interest. The opposition leader Bill Shorten said, Prime Minister, your minister is saying one thing, the member of Dunkley is saying another. Who do you believe? Scott Morrison then said that he believed, quote, both members are passionate about the environment. God damn.

So, what a master. It's true, true political wordsmith. Oh, very, very good. And that's the end of that one. It's just dusting his hands. Turning finger pistols and everyone. Puckin nailed it. Oh, god damn.

And like, I definitely think that something that's really come out of having all of this additional exposure for Scott Morrison is that he's really fucking bad at this. Oh yeah. Anything that is not just that he cannot just explain away with like a single sentence slogan. He just totally fucks it. He just absolutely ruins it. We do of course have another issue, which is, I think, go on. Hold on, I think Lucy's gone.

I think. Man talk now. I think Lucy's got a trivia. Boys, boys, boys. We could say what we've been thinking the whole time. So here's, we have a bit of sad news. This is from the Sydney Morning Herald, from Michael Cosial. Diabolically bad polling. Tony Abbott facing 12% swing against him to lose his seat.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, that's it. You hate to see it, don't you? You hate to see it, folks. So from this piece, internal Liberal Party polling is quote, diabolically bad for Tony Abbott in Waringer, according to senior liberal sources, with the former Prime Minister facing a 12% swing that could sweep him out of his blue ribbon seat. But with Prime Minister Scott Morrison poised to call an election any day, the Liberal Party

is increasingly confident of a positive or neutral result in New South Wales by regaining Malcolm Turnbull's alt-seat of Wentworth and even winning Lindsay from Labour's, rocked by the disastrous state election loss last month, Labour hardheads now hoped to hold steady on 24 federal seats in New South Wales. The labor loss in Lindsay could be offset by victories in the South Coast seat of Gilmore or the Strathfield seat of Reed. A very senior New South Wales liberal source said the Wentworth was quote, looking good and liberal candidate Dave Sharma was tracking well, but the same source said polling

was quote diabolically bad for Mr. Abbott in Waringer against independent challenger Zali Stegel. The former Prime Minister faces a swing of about 12% the size of his current margin. It should be noted that we talked about Tony Abbott a couple of episodes ago in a piece which was like a it was a long read from the Sydney Morning Herald where someone sort of accompanied him on a weekend as he was going around doing his extremely weird campaigning you know where he just stands woodenly at the train station and confronts people as they get off. I'm Tony Abbott. It's the weirdest style of campaigning.

If you follow his Twitter account and he posts all these pictures of his campaigning and it's all literally just like him standing in the middle of the highway with a sign at dusk, you know? Like, some kind of weird scarecrow out there. Just standing in the middle of a forest with his arms hanging limply directly down. Just hoping someone comes by. So yeah like the some of the stuff that they talked about in that piece was that like he basically doesn't think that like anti-liberal voters exist. He thinks that if somebody doesn't want to vote for the liberals, then they must have never voted for the liberals. And anybody who has ever like talked to him and disagreed with his position on policies is

essentially is essentially just an activist. Are you back, Lucy? Someone's just come on the line. Huh. This is strange? I'm going to ignore that. I'm going to ignore the miss- I think it's safest to ignore the stranger. Safest to ignore the ghost on the line. I'm sorry that is me it's not a stranger. My internet just shit itself but I'm going to go to trivia just thought I'd make sure my thing was uploaded that we had already announced that Lucy was gone and it was time for boys chat. Boys are there any words of wisdom you'd like to leave us with?

Can you give me some words of wisdom? What's some trivia I should know before I leave? That the hit song Boom Shake the Room by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince was at least in 1993. We talked about this. Okay cool. Thank you so much. No worries. Well let us let us send your new way with the collective positive energy of the podcast and all of its beautiful listeners. Thank you so much. We would very much like you to win. Bring that trophy home. I will bring that trophy home and a thousand dollars. Bring five hundred dollars. Imagine that I'm like the old Indian dude from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom saying bring back bring back to us Bring back to us Uh-huh

Boise, poise, boy, bye. Hey. So yeah, Tony, I have an extremely weird guy. All of his terrible polling, basically doesn't believe that anybody who disagrees with him is real. Um, that anybody who disagrees with him is real. And like, what perplexes me about this whole thing? So in that article, they're talking about Dave Sharma, who ran against Karen Phelps, when former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull quit, upon being turfed out as leader. He resigned from his seat, forced to buy election.

The local electorate just absolutely stomped a mudhole to use stone called Steve Austin's parlance, stomped a mudhole in the arse of the Liberal Party and installed local independent Karen Phelps. Now Karen Phelps is very much of the same mold as Zali Stegel, which is that people are acting like because she's an independent, she's some sort of, you know, progressive voice, solely due to the fact that she, you know, acknowledges that climate change is a concern. But other than that, she's a rich lady. That's about it. She's a rich, rich white lady in a super rich electorate in one of the richest parts of Australia Made a fortune off of chicken

Not it's not true Stegels is a chicken brand for any international business get yourself some steggles chicken nuggies No, in fact she is a former o' former Olympian, a former Olympic like ski jumper, or some shit like that. But yeah, go and read Zali Stegel's Wikipedia page if you would like to get mad about somebody just being extremely rich and having one of the most privileged upbringings you can imagine of a family who decides to move to Switzerland so that their star daughter can spend more of her spare time ski jumping you know that that type of shit anyway so so people like to act as though these

independents are progressive or like particularly progressive but they're not. They're both just rich ladies who thinks that tax rate should be lower. They just also acknowledge that climate change is real. Because they don't want their hyper expensive coastal real estate getting swept away. And plus if it becomes too hot, she's got nothing to ski on. What's she going to ski on. What's she going to jump on? What's she gonna ski on? It doesn't make any sense. Gotta go back to the chicken money. And in both of these cases what what kind of does my head in personally and maybe

maybe you've got like some kind of counterthought about this theo is in both of these cases you have Karen Phelps in Wentworth which is which is again like a blue-ribbon, a blue-ribbon liberal seat, which I think had been a liberal seat since Federation. Again, very, very, very moneyed area, as evidenced by Malcolm Turnbull, the merchant banker living there in his big mansion. You also have Tony Abbott's seat, which is also a, you know, one of the expanses of coastal New South Wales with some of the most expensive real estate in the country. And more so in the case of Tony Abbott, you have a person where finally his local electorate is fed up enough

with the fact that he just, you know, has completely evidence that he has no intention of representing his electorate's interests on a federal level or he hasn't been pressed to do so in any way in decades. He just goes out there and says we should build more coal power stations. And I don't believe that climate change exists. And gay people are the same as pedophiles, and just all the sorts of great positions that you would like. So in this long read, they were talking about how local groups had been starting

to get together and say, hey, we're fucking sick of this guy. He's a clown, he makes us all look terr- and the the the the the the the te te te te te te te te te te te te t get together and say, hey, we're fucking sick of this guy. He's a clown, he makes us all look terrible and he doesn't care about representing our interests at all. And for a lot of people, this culminated in Australia's postal survey on same-sex marriage, where Tony Abbott's electorate recorded a yes vote of 75%, which apart from being one of the highest in the country is also just an absolutely crystal clear majority of people in your electorate saying this is what we want this to be. So Tony Abbott after saying all through his horrible campaigning about this stuff that you know they were approaching it in good faith and whatever the outcome was, members would go and

they would vote in favor of what their electorate said and then him and Scott Morrison and a bunch of other people just abstain from voting rather than voting according to what their own electorate had said. He just walked out of the chamber rather than having his name against a yes vote in history books. So apparently that was the point at which it was kind of the breaking point for a lot of people in that electorate is that that was clearly a thing that a lot of people there felt passionately about and in the end their voices didn't count for anything, you know. Majority of people in that electorate said this is this is this is th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi-a, thi-a, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their their their their their their the, thean, thean, thean, thean, thoooooomoomorrow, thean, their their their their their their their, their th't count for anything. You know? The majority of people in that electorate said this is what we really want, and their elected representative went in there and recorded no vote.

So they didn't even get to have a saying in the end. So all these people are sick of this. There's a whole bunch of anti-Toni-Abbot sentiment in that area. There's groups like selling, you know, vote Tony out t-shirts and toat bags and people are getting this kid all around in the electorate, which, you know, as far as sentiment goes shows you that it's not even about people being super excited about someone else. They're excited about just getting him the fuck out of that. They care more about getting rid of him than they do about whoever it is that's replacing it. Yeah. And the thing that gets me the most is why are all these people these electorates kind of only just realizing this is a thing you can do? Tony Abbott has been the member there for like 25 years or more. He's done fucking nothing for anyone there the whole thi th th th th th th th th th th th th th. th. th. th. th. th. thi th. thi thi tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th who th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho to tho to thoooo thoooooo thooooo thoo tho tho tho tho tho thoott has been the member there for like 25 years or more. He's done fucking nothing for anyone there the whole time. By all accounts, the entire

time he has been an absolutely rabid culture warrior who has only ever been interested in putting his own views forward and seemingly has absolutely no interest in what the people in that electorate think. And so now that this has happened with Karen Phelps, all of a sudden all these people are saying, yeah, yeah we should be getting smart independence to run so that we can vote for somebody who isn't this person. It's like, did you guys just fucking figure out that you can do this? Can I, can I offer two opinions on this then? Absolutely. So number one

I believe that the people in these in these electorates are largely people who spend about four hours each morning checking their blue chips and going, ah, my blue chips are down. Every day my blue chips, they're going down. And as far as they're concerned the liberal government has done well for their blue chips. They've they've the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their blue chips are their blue chips are down their blue chips are down their blue chips are down their blue their blue their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are their blue chips are their blue chips are their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips. their blue chips. their blue chips. their blue chips. their blue chips. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their blue chips are down. their their blue chips are down. their their blue chips are down. their their blue chips are their blue chips are their blue chips are their blue chips are down. their blue chips are their blue chips they're going they're going down and as far as they're concerned the liberal government has done well for their blue chips Right, they've gotten more chips than they had under under labor, right? So it's good to have more blue chips And that by itself just solely as a reason put that in a black box don't worry about schools. Don't worry about roads, don't worry about hospitals, right? Blue trips go up for them is such a large issue, it's such a predominant issue that they're, you know, 1980s, stockbroker, reptile brains are so barnacled onto that it overrides everything and only now, has it sort of started to become clear that perhaps there are other things that exist such as the world which is rapidly becoming a uninhabitable hell world, right? So, yes, I believe that they probably should have done this this long ago, but perhaps the impetus

wasn't fully there to push them over the line to go, oh, this is actually absolute chaos, right? Like, because I think now what we're seeing from the Morrison government particular. And perhaps not just from the, from the Abbott government, you know, I don't, maybe, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their their their thee.e.e.e.e.s, theiii.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e. their, their, their, because I think now what we're seeing from the Morrison government in particular. And perhaps not just from the Abbott government, you know, I don't, maybe this swing wouldn't have happened if Tony Abbott was still in. I'm not sure, but I think now even even the most blue chip devoted person would be of the opinion that the coalition government is absolute chaos and it's not getting better it's only it's only getting worse. And they can't nothing nothing that happens is happening by any kind of design. That's right they can't vote for labor you know of course so here is you know former Olympics skier and chicken magnet.

But second of all, my second point is, what the takeaway from this should be for the Liberal Party is that seat should be their to hold for the next 30 years that society exists. Right? Like that shouldn't, this shouldn't be going to an independent. This should be a liberal seat for the rest of human history, right? And it's only by their absolute, insane ideological causes. And devotion to, like you said, the culture worryness of it all, that they are losing this seat. They shouldn't be losing this seat, right?

This should be a Liberal Party seat forever, and that's what it's come to, I believe, that they are so bad that they are losing these seats. Yeah, I think that that is very valid and like I think you can kind of see the, you can kind of see this government tearing at the seams like especially the coalition. You can see the coalition starting to tear at the seams, which is they've invested so deeply in all of their like very right-wing culture war stuff. You still have this big right wing of the party that is convinced that the only way for this government to win is the base, the mythical base, which is, you know, like religious, very right-wing

stuff, anti-environmental stuff. Anti-science. Anti-science, anti-environment, anti-intelectual. It's very much like trying to push for a lot of the same lines that the Republicans have been going down in the states for decades, just the pure like rhetoric of anti-electual, anti-intellectual, anti-elete, anti-academic, all of this sort of stuff. So that kind of doesn't matter where something's coming from or why it's coming from there or any of that, or what the end result is supposed to be, if it is being proffered by any particular source, they are against it.

So there's that whole factor of it, but also they are so obsessed with all of that stuff, that like you're saying, they have these electorates in inner cities, in, like you saw how they got wiped out at the Victorian election. But you have these electorates in inner cities, in you know, these these blue ribbon seats in New South Wales, places like that, where, like you said, these are people who want economically, fiscally responsible read, you know, cutting taxes and cutting social services

kind of stuff. That's what these people want. But they don't want all of the wingnut stuff that goes along with it. They don't want all of the super homophobic stuff and all of the super transphobic stuff and all of the really regressive, reactive stuff. So there's a lot of people there who are, like you said, getting to the point where they're just just just the the their their their their their their th. th. their th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi, thi, thi, thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi. And, and thi. And, and te. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, tto, to, to, to, to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. stuff and all of the really regressive, reactive stuff. So there's a lot of people there who are, like I said, getting to the point where they're just saying, I just can't vote for this anymore. I just can't in any kind of good conscience vote for this anymore. You also get the people looking at it and saying, well, if you're meant to be the family values party, then what's with, you knownemy joys having his affairs and like all of all of that kind of stuff all the examples of generally a barren behavior from

the most senior people in party anyway and then you look at the junior party in the coalition the nationals and they are finally at a point where all of the people in like rural electorates are looking at it and saying well we vote for the nationals, the nationals prop up the liberal party vote, and the liberal party never does anything for rural areas. The entire thing is either the nationals rolling over to whatever it is that the liberals want them to do, or the other half of the time, it's the nationals rolling over in favor of like irrigators

and miners and like Gina Reinhart and giving all of the richest people who've made their money off breaking the backs of farmers and minors and people who work in country towns, it's just giving those people whatever they want. So all of those people, all of all of that massive group that is traditionally kind of propped up the coalition vote, is just deserting them now. They're all often voting for One Nation and Bob Katter and Clive Palmer and like the Fishers and Shooters Party and every fucking wing nut group that is popping up out there now because all of those people are just an alternative to them. They're

all people who are saying oh well we're all still nominally right wing but we're not we're not the big institution that has been putting our boot on your neck for the last 20 years. Yeah and and also we're slightly more racist so you might find a good spot here and all they have to kind of and the coalition kind of looks at that and go well we got to get more racist. We're a little bit less shy about the racism. Yeah and so you know I mean it's I genuinely think it'll be really interesting to see what happens because it certainly

seems that by all accounts there is a whole section of the core of the Liberal Party, the right wing of the Liberal Party, that every time that there is another election where they get absolutely curbstombed for their super weird right wing fixationsations and fetishes that they say, oh, well, that's just evidence that we didn't go far enough. That's evidence that we weren't being right-wing enough, we weren't being, you know, reactive and conservative enough and we need to double down and go even harder. And that hasn't been working for them. Every election they go harder on it and they lose more votes and then they go harder on it and then they lose even more

votes. It's very, you know, circling back to that Tony Abbott piece where, you know, they were talking about the polling, his polling being a 12% margin. It was like 17% of the last election. He had a 5% swing against him, but he doesn't look at that and say, where did those votes go? To him, it's fine. He won, he's correct. It's just all activism, you know, and he says in that long read piece

when they talked to him about, you know, disaffected liberal voters who finally want to vote against the liberals for the first time and he says, nope, those people were never liberal voters. They're all just people who are, you know, dissenters and activists and everything. In his mind, there is no conceivable reason that a citizen could disagree with him about policies. So anyone who disagrees with him is automatically an activist. But he's not asking any questions about, where is this discontent coming from?

Why is the core of this electorate that I've held so strongly for so long? Why is it just continually eroding? Is there anything that's a problem? Is there anything I should change? No, it's all just double down and go even harder. So I guess it'll be really interesting to see what will happen because within the Liberal Party

itself there is over the last, I don't know what, five, six years there has been this constant push and pull between the more moderate wing that wants to say we need to sell ourselves to the center of Australia, which is where where the more moderate wing that wants to say we need to sell ourselves to the centre of Australia, which is where the votes are, generally speaking, versus the other one's saying we need to push even harder for this mythical base. So you know, if they lose the election, there's going to be massive gnashing of teeth and wailing and trying to figure out what happened between the quote unquote moderates and the right wing.

Oh, it's going to be a blood bath. But then, by the same token, I mean, look at the New South Wales election, the labor party didn't win like they were expecting to, and the liberals got back in, but the nationals got fucking trashed. The nationals had like 10 or 15% swings against them everywhere. And that is apparently giving a whole bunch of them feverish nightmares because they're now extrapolating this to a national scale, which would, I guess, theoretically come close to wiping the party out? So the big question is what's going to happen?

Will there be a split between the nationals and the Liberal Party? Will there be a split within the Liberal Party itself? Because the one thing that they have not been able to show over the last 10 years is any ability to hold it together in any kind of way and all move together in one direction. Yeah. It's a coalition in sort of name only, especially in the last couple of a couple of years. So I think the moral of the story is if you see a wild Tony Abbott on the street just thinking about do not give him an onion because he will lose the skills to hunt for himself. It's very true. It's very true folks.

So there you go, that's kind of our take on where we are approaching this election, maybe within the next week or so, one will be announced. It's very hard to tell whether they're trying to go for a long election campaign and drag it out, or make it short so they have as little ask as time time time time time time time time time time time time as little the time as their as their as their as to to to to to to their little time as possible to keep fucking up absolutely everything like they do. So we'll just have to wait and see. As always folks, if you have enjoyed the show and would like to support us and would like to get an extra bonus episode every week, you can head on over to Patreon. to the Patreon.

to the bonus episode. And, you know, then we'll see in the bonus zone where we do our bonus episodes but until then we'll see you next week thanks for being with us and bye bye the