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Episode 351 - Morrison's coup d'état

In this episode we discuss:

  • Scott Morrison's secret swearing in to three ministerial portfolios
  • Make that 5
  • More Revelations to come?
  • A Coup?
  • Secret plan
  • But Absolute Power is not a problem
  • Urgency is not a problem
  • Spreading the risk 1
  • Spreading the Risk 2
  • Do we have a deputy Governor General?
  • Resources Portfolio
  • Albanese
  • Littleproud
  • Barnaby
  • Karen Andrews
  • Josh Frydenberg
  • The Governor General – any fault?
  • Twitter Comments
  • Tribalism kicks in
  • The Courier Mail Comments
  • The Australian Comments
  • S.64 of the Constitution
  • What Morrison will say
  • Hillsong whistleblower: more secrets emerge from the Till on the Hill
  • Amazon
  • Trump and The Documents
  • Lockpickers
  • Opening Arguments
  • From Vox
  • Trump and The Fifth
  • Barilaro-State government overseas offices are waste of money

Mentioned in this episode:

Website

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

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We need to learn stuff about the world.

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We need an honest and intelligent thought provoking and entertaining review of

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what the hell happened on this planet.

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In the last seven days, we need to sit back and listen to

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the iron fist and the velvet.

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Yeah, I talking to Joe and I said, Joe, a few days ago.

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I wasn't sure what I was gonna talk about in this podcast.

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And a few things happened.

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Well, Trump things happened, met Trump.

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I thought that'll be good.

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And then Morrison with this whole FIEs going, holy smokes, the listener, what

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the last couple of days, what a real moment in Australian political history.

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I think so we've got lots to talk about and it's all very interesting.

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And you know, in the lead up to the last election Twitter was just on fire with

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with people just going for Morrison and just, just spewing out hatred for the man.

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And it all inquired after the election and Twitter was sort

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of like this different zone and.

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I have to say that it returned to the good old days in the last 48 hours as

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people have gone nuts talking about what Morrison did that we've found out about.

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So yeah, this is the iron fist in the V glove podcast.

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If you are in the chat room, say hello, and we'll say hello to you.

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I'm Trevor.

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Okay.

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The iron fist with me, Joe, the tech guy as always.

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Thanks Joe evening.

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All.

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Mm.

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So we're gonna talk about Morrison and, and just what he got up to with these

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secret ministries and the response from politicians and from the public.

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It's gonna be quite interesting to listener because as you know, I subscribe

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to the career mail and the Australian, and I can therefore read the comments section.

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And why would you,

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just, why would you inflict that on yourself?

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Because it's important to get out of your bubble and just to check on

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what's going on out there and it's gonna be as good as YouTube comments.

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I'm sure.

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Yeah.

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So we'll get to that and we'll probably get onto a bit of Trump and who knows what

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else we'll get onto if you're in the chat room, say hello, John's in the chat room.

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Hello, John.

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All right.

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Well, Joe I did have a little subheading in my notes about Scott

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Morrison's secret swearing in to three ministerial portfolios.

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I've just gotta update that.

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Make it five to five.

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Yes,

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I did hear these rumors.

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Yeah.

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That's probably it in terms of the number of ministerial appointments

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and you know, what we are yet to find out is what decisions he

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made in those portfolios will.

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There's one important one that we'll get onto in relation

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to a gas field off Newcastle.

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But yeah, dear listener, this is 16th of August, 2022.

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So just a couple of a day or so after it was revealed that Scott Morrison had

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insec being appointed to five portfolios as a minister and they were health

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finance, home affairs treasury and industry science industry, and resources.

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So looking at all that right.

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Health is one, finance is one home affairs, treasury.

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Yeah.

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And then industry science and resources.

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So in secret Joe and the rationale for this was that it was awkward times

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a pandemic was hitting the world.

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Decisions had to be made hard and fast and quick.

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What if the health minister for example, got sick and there was an urgent

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ministerial decision that had to be made and the health minister was sick.

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Well, wouldn't it be great if say Scott Morrison was already in place

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as a health minister and he could seamlessly make the decision that Greg

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hunt could not make on his sick bed.

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And therefore the government would continue to look after Australians.

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Joe, that seems to be the rationale or have I missed something?

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Well, you saw the comment that actually before COVID came in, he'd

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already been secretly sworn in.

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No, I didn't see that.

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Yeah, I'm sure it said somewhere that one of the, at least one of

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them he was sworn in before COVID

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started.

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Mm.

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I didn't see that, but okay.

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Let's just go back assuming they're all post COVID.

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The rationale is that that things could be so desperate that you need decisions

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so quickly that you wouldn't have time to

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to, to go to the governor general and ask him to appoint somebody else.

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It's just ludicrous.

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Like it doesn't take long to appoint somebody as a minister.

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I mean, what you would do is you would say, Hey, we need a plan

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B here in case Greg gets sick.

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Whoever his assistant minister is or somebody make sure you go to all the

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meetings meetings and be ready to assume his power, if necessary, keep your phone

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on at night in case we need to ring you, you know, that's, it doesn't take

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long to have a swearing in ceremony.

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I, if you are

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That level of government you've got AFP stood outside your door anyway.

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Yes.

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So you don't need your phone on the AFP will come and knock.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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But, okay.

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And if you accept that, that's wrong.

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My thinking there that somehow there's a problem with that, that, that

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waiting 12 hours for a new minister.

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Isn't good enough.

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Why keep it a secret?

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Why not tell everybody, Hey, this is what we are doing.

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We are appointing extra ministers because the

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press would've crucified him.

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oh, no.

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Wait, the press is in his pocket

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anyway.

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Yeah, it just does not make any sense at all.

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The only way this makes sense.

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If you decide that Scott Morrison is just a sociopathic.

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NELA maniac with an unbelievable ego who who'd ever think that I can't believe it.

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Yeah.

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With a Messiah complex.

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And who's just a screaming little grub and has no regard for democracy

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or for the rule of law, then it all makes perfect sense, but there's

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no way you can look at this.

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If he's an honest operator and find a rationale, that makes sense.

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He's just a corrupt rub is what he is.

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Look,

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I, I think the reason was he was worried that the the rapture was going to happen

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and he needed to be able to make sure that when all of his party and all of

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his cabinet got raptured and he was left behind that he would be able to put

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processes in place.

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Yes.

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That, that, that could be, that could be an explanation.

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So, you know, if you were worried about.

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People dropping like flies in a pandemic and the wheels of government

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grinding to a halt because people are in their sick or deathbed.

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So you're trying to build in some plan B plan C plan D.

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What you wouldn't do is, is delegate all of this extra power to one person.

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Like what if Scott Morrison gets sick, then all of your plan BS

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suddenly fall over, cuz you,

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you pointed get sick.

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He was protected by the blood of Jesus.

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You have to remember that

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this is where it just, there is nothing in here that people can hang their

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hat on and try and make sense of this.

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The idea that, oh, we are worried about people getting sick.

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We need to spread the risk.

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Oh, we'll spread the risk by delegating plan B to one single person.

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The prime minister, Scott Morrison.

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And not tell anybody about it doesn't make sense.

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It certainly looks shady, doesn't it?

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Yeah.

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One of the things about this is that the the health minister let me just see here,

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I'll try and get to some of these notes.

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I've, I've sort of rattled through some of the stuff I wanted to say, but so, so this

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all became, this has all come to light because of a book that's come out plagued.

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I think it is something like that.

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And there was an extract from the book printed in the, so for those

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of you who don't subscribe to the Australian, I'll read you what the book.

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Says or part of it, which will give you a bit of a flavor of,

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of how this book is written.

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Apparently the author is a mate of Scott Morrison's.

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So, so anyway, this is what was printed.

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Some of what was printed in the Australian, which is a kind of an extract

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from this book plagued by Simon Benson and Jeff Chambers published by Panera press.

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Here we go on March 18th, COVID 19 was spreading internationally and

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in the, in Australian community Australia's daily case numbers

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were running in triple digits.

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The pace of the virus was accelerating and with vastly more serious

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measures likely to be required.

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Morrison was worried that even national cabinet might not always

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be able to act quickly enough.

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He and hunt had been considering a drastic measure invoking the emergency

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powers, the so-called trumping provisions under the little Nolan section 4 75.

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Of the biosecurity act, which would empower the governor general

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to declare a human biosecurity emergency a declaration under section

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4 75 gave hunt as health minister exclusive and extraordinary powers.

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He and only he could personally make directives that overrode

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any other law, not bad and were not dis allowable by parliament.

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It's hell of a section.

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He had authority to direct any citizen in the country to do

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something or not do something to prevent spread of the disease.

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Well, here's the clue.

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Dear listener.

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How do you think a guy like Scott Morrison would feel knowing that

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his health minister has more power than he is, has more power?

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Oh yeah.

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That's that is where this all starts.

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Dear listener.

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Is the idea that as prime minister, you would've a health minister with such

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power and the power is given to the health minister under this section 4 75.

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So personally, I think this is where it all started, where

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Morrison was feeling shit.

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I don't want, I don't want Greg hunt to have more power than me.

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And, and he concocted this idea of becoming a joint health minister.

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So he wouldn't lose in a power battle with Greg hunt.

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And I think that having done it once he thought and got away

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with it, mm-hmm , that was easy.

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And then he thought, no, I'll do it again.

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And again and again and again, cause he just felt good being

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appointed minister for everything.

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And he thought to himself, Hmm, this could become in handy.

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If I have a dispute with one of these ministers.

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I can say, oh, by the way, I'm also a minister, which he did do

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at one point, we'll get to that.

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But you know, that I reckon is, is how this thing starts.

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So, but he wasn't taking a minister

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salary.

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Well, imagine if he'd been claiming all five ministerial salaries as

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well, do we know that he wasn't?

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Well, no, we don't.

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Yeah, maybe he was.

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Yeah.

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Maybe that's why he was doing it.

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Yeah.

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I think this is power thing to start with.

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I I'll reading on from this extract Morrison knew that if he asked the

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governor general to invoke section 4 75, he effectively would be

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handing hunt control of the country.

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If they were going to use them, Morrison wanted protocols set up as well as a

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formal process to impose constraints.

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The protocols required the minister to provide written medical advice

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and advanced notice of his intentions to the national security cabinet.

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So Morrison wanted protocols.

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Sort of slowing the minister down.

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Let's just pause, Joe.

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I mean, do we really want a section 4 75 that gives such

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power to a health minister?

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Maybe that section should give it to the prime minister in the

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first place or or to like cabinet?

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My concern is that it can't

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be overridden.

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Mm.

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It seems a pretty silly section on the face of it.

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Yeah.

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To be giving such enormous power.

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I, I,

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I understand emergency powers, but usually you have some form of oversight.

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Yeah.

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Even if it's to second guess and they say the courts can disallow

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this or the courts can do whatever.

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Yeah.

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It's it seems a section that's very broad and consequently, very dangerous anyway.

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So Morrison wanted protocols, which would require the minister pro to

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provide written medical advice and advanced notice of his intentions.

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Well, his whole thing in this is we need to act quickly.

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I need to be appointed as a health minister, meanwhile, he's dreaming up ways

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of slowing down Greg hunt, if he needs to mm-hmm anyway, however, Morrison wasn't

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satisfied feeling that there needed to be more checks and balances before any

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single minister could wield such powers.

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One option was to delegate the powers to cabinet, but attorney general Christian

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PO's advice was these powers could not be delegated and could reside only with the

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health minister Morrison, then hatched a radical, and until now secret plan with

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Porter's approval, he would swear himself in as health minister alongside hunt.

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Such a move was without precedent, let alone being done in secret.

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But the trio saw it as an elegant solution to the problem.

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They were trying to solve safeguarding against any one minister having absolute

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power Porter advised that it could be done through an administrative instrument and

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didn't need appointment by the governor general and with no constitutional

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barrier to having two ministers appointed, to administer the same portfolio.

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I trust you, mate Morrison told hunt, but I'm swearing myself in as health minister

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too, which really means I don't trust you.

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I don't trust you.

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Yeah, exactly.

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He's such a language warning.

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In this episode, dear listener, he's such a cunt.

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It would also be useful if one of them caught COVID and

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became incapacitated hunt.

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Not only accepted the measure, but welcomed it, considering

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the economic measures.

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The government was taking and the significant fiscal implications and

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debt that was being incurred Morrison also swore himself in as finance

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minister, alongside Mattias Corman.

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Apparently by the way, dear listener had no idea that this happened until

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he read about it in the paper just the other day, he wanted to ensure

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that there were two people who had their hands on the purse strings.

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So that's, so if he didn't

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know that meant that he wasn't doing sign off for these things, it meant

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that he also had equivalent access.

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So that was less controlled, not more control who who had.

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So if two people were finance minister and either of them

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could sign off on purchases.

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Yep.

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Not it wasn't, both of them had to, it wasn't an end.

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It was an all.

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Yeah.

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Which meant that there was less control, not more control

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over the purse streaks were

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there, you know, ministers appointed.

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Not knowing Scott Morrison is also appointed as a minister and

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they could be making completely contradictory decisions about a matter.

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And in fact, that is what happened as we will find out about these gas fields.

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And, and the question

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is, so who wins if they're both ministers?

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Exactly.

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And the same rank.

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Exactly.

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It's a recipe for just disaster in case I forget, you know, Morrison's

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obviously gonna leave Palm at some stage.

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He's scratching around looking for some corporate appointment somewhere.

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Nobody in the corporate world is gonna touch him with a barge pole.

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Cause he's useless.

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And now after this, there's, there's no way he's getting a job on a

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board anywhere except Hillsong.

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He's gonna end up a preacher.

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That's his only avenue left to him is his running, but he

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was at Margaret courts church.

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Wasn't he?

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Yeah.

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That's where he'll end up as a religious preacher cuz nobody else will touch him.

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If you're in the chat room, say hello, Brahman's there Landon.

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Hard bottom is there.

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Hi Landon.

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What's his,

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Background before parliament?

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Does he actually have any skills?

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Scott Morrison?

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Oh, of course he was,

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Tourism.

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Tourism is, yeah.

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Got sacked from that.

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Mm guy's got no skills at all.

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Oh, so anyway, that's how it kicked off.

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I reckon, I reckon he couldn't stand Greg hunt having more power than him.

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That's where it all started.

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And once he got down that road, like a crack addict, he couldn't help himself

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and kept going back for more hits so, there's a guy called let me go back

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to the beginning of my notes now.

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I mean, Twitter's got some great stuff happening there.

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I'm really enjoying it.

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Some funny stuff.

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There was a tweet from Scott Morrison back on the 19th of August.

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I'm not sure what year that was.

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Must have been.

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Anyway.

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It said if labor wins, we won't know who is running the country,

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let alone, who is finance defense or foreign affairs minister.

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Mm-hmm we're at the point where this coalition government, nobody

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knew who was various ministers idea.

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Okay.

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Don's hit the chat room.

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Good on you and Chris as well.

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There's a guy called Ryan Little former chief of staff comms, director

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to labor leader, deputy prime, and to a deputy prime minister treasurer.

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And he's a partner at principal advisory is well connected in the labor party and

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he says, Word from furious libs tonight is that there will be a lot more coming

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out on Morrison in the coming days.

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Apparently he made a gob smacking number of decisions across portfolios.

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He was sworn into captain's hill.

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That'll be interesting cuz we really only know of one decision so far, which was

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to do with the gas fields that we'll talk about, but there he's sort of claiming at

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this point that he didn't really do much.

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So it'll be interesting to see.

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He didn't do much as prime minister either.

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He didn't an older hose.

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Yeah.

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Ah, Aku day guitar Joe mm-hmm French for stroke of state also known as co

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or overthrow is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers.

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Typically it's an illegal seizure of power by a political

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faction rebel group, military.

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Or a dictator, many scholars consider Aku successful when the usurers sees

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and hold power for at least seven days.

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He's well, he's how powerful under than that.

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Isn't he, he's getting perilously close, but you know, it's, it's a seizure and

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removal of a government and its powers.

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Well, I guess it's just some of the powers of a government.

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This is a little, little mini COO DeTar by a dictator here.

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Who's grabbed power illegally.

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Well, isn't illegal.

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The governor general appointed him, but corruptly it's

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Yeah.

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There's questions about that.

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Isn't they?

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Yeah.

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A as to why the Gigi was buying into it.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Moving on my notes here.

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I've got.

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So he was worried about hunt having absolute power and he

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was wanting to put in checks and balances, but absolute power.

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Isn't a problem.

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So as Paul Bonno said

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he could have withdrawn Greg Hunt's commission at any time.

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Like if hunt went crazy with whatever decision he was making,

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he could have just said, yes, sack stop making decisions right now.

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And I'm gonna replace you.

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So you, you know, if you didn't like what he was doing, you could have

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just sacked him as health minister.

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You didn't need to appoint yourself as, as an additional health minister.

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I've already said in terms of.

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It wouldn't take long to appoint a replacement.

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You could literally do it within a couple of hours.

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If you wanted to.

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What he should have done was have a series of assistant ministers ready, willing,

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and able, fully briefed attending all of the relevant meetings and told to keep

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their phone on at night in case the main minister got sick you know, spreading

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the risk by appointing himself as the alternative on these five different

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ministries, wasn't spreading the risk.

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It was concentrating the risk plan.

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B was all around Scott Morrison.

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That's not spreading the risk.

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And here's the other thing, Joe?

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I don't think anybody's mentioned it.

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So I should do a tweet about this and hope it goes viral, but you know, the

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idea is that Morrison could step in.

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If one of the ministers got sick, that's the idea.

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Morrison couldn't remember if he's a minister or not.

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There was a, okay, because he's quoted in the, in the radio when the

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the radio interviewer today said you know, mentioned the three portfolios

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that he took on and said to him are there any other, it was Ben Fordham.

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Are there any other portfolios you assumed?

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And he said not to my recollection, Ben, so this guy couldn't remember

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if he wasn't in a, in a portfolio.

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So you could have had a position

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couldn't remember, or couldn't remember, you could

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theoretically have had a situation where home affairs minister got sick with

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COVID and they all sat there going, fuck.

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If only we'd appointed somebody else as a minister.

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And Morrison would be there.

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Yeah.

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If only we had forgetting that he'd appointed himself because

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he can't remember the portfolios that he was appointed under.

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It was, well,

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he can't remember who

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doesn't want to admit to, but this is the argument you're saying that you

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were spreading the risk that you are at.

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This was your plan B and you and your own admission.

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Couldn't even remember if you'd been appointed to a portfolio or not.

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How, how, how useless would that be?

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You could have had a guy there appointed and he wouldn't even remember.

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Ah, he's interesting.

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One Joe.

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Mm-hmm I mean, all of this hinges on the governor general appointing somebody.

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Yes.

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Do we have my deputy governor general?

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We have the queen mm-hmm , that's what I was thinking as well.

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So she, she

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can replace the governor general

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whenever can't you.

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What if the queen was sick?

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She's.

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You know, one, one of the risks in this, Joe, it seemed to me, was it's

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all reliant to part of this process is you need the governor general to

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be fit and healthy, to to appoint

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someone.

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What are the odds of the queen and the governor general

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being sick at the same time?

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Wow.

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One of the odds and Scott Morrison appointing himself to five ministries,

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but I looked it up Joe, according to Wikipedia anyway, and this seemed

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quite reasonable cause I Googled, do we have a deputy governor general?

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Wasn't sure what the process was.

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And the governor general is formally appointed by the Monarch of Australia

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in terms of letters, patent issued by the Monarch at some time during

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the reign and countersigned by the then prime minister, when a new

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governor general is to be appointed.

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The current prime minister recommends a name to the Monarch who by

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convention accepts that recommendation.

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So.

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If you were to replace the governor general, cuz you incapacitated, it would

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require the prime minister to recommend the queen who would then appoint the

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governor general to replace them a vacancy occurs on the resignation, death

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or incapacity of the governor general.

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A temporary vacancy occurs when the governor general is overseas on official

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business, representing Australia, a temporary vacancy also occurred in 2003

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when Peter Hollingworth stood aside.

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Now section four of the constitution allowed the queen to appoint

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an administrator to carry out the role of governor general.

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When there is a vacancy by convention, the longest serving state governor

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holds a dormant commission, allowing an assumption of office to commence.

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Whenever a vacancy occurs in 1975, labor prime minister Goff, Whitlam advised the

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queen that sir Colin Hannah, then governor of Queensland should have his dormant

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commission revoked for having made.

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Public political statements.

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So there you go.

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A deputy is effectively the longest serving state governor at the time.

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So, so the governor general is that fair enough?

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Yeah, that sound fair enough.

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Had the governor general becoming incapacitated.

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Hopefully somebody had figured out who the longest serving state governor was

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and told him or her keep the phone by your bed in case we need you urgently.

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There we go.

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What are they saying in the chat room?

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You guys are going off in there.

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So, Greg Blackshaw, what's the chances of a 96 year old woman being sick and

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Don to happened and Don to well made.

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We say God saved the queen okay.

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Alright, so let's move on to.

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The resources portfolio.

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So one of the portfolios that Morrison secretly SW himself into

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included the resources portfolio.

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Okay.

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So at a stretch you might say needed emergency powers at hand for health

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mm-hmm and another stretch you could say, well, there's a lot of money involved

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need emergency powers at hand finance, but resources gotta make some quick

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decisions on mines because of the COVID

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crisis.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Yeah.

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That

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cold's not gonna sell itself offshore.

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This one, it could a bit LA I think this was the last one that he took on.

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So the, the other min.

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Keith pit.

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Was it Keith Pitt it's Pitt, I'm just not sure of his first name here.

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Let's just say Clinton.

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His father's eye.

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Yeah.

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Pitt has told colleagues he was kept in the dark and shocked to learn of

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the prime minister's secret powers during discussions with him in

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his office in late 20, 21, over a controversial oil and gas project.

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So what happened to your listener is off an offshore oil and gas

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project off of Newcastle pit.

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Who's a national and the resources minister wanted to approve it.

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And Morrison was worried about losing seats to green policy,

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loving people in the area.

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So he actually wanted to stop the project.

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And so.

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Some green loving people.

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It was Nies.

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Yeah.

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Well, that good point, Joe, thank you for that.

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So, so essentially pit wanted to move with head with the proposals

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with the approvals Morrison did not.

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And it was during this process when he was presented with a range of options that

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the then prime minister revealed to Mr.

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Pit, that he Morrison was secretly sworn in as the minister could

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make the decision himself.

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So basically told pit I don't care what you think.

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I'm the minister as well F off mm-hmm so in June yeah, so obviously the mining

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company, I think it's B pH energy.

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In June they launched a federal court challenge to that decision.

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And I bet their lawyers are just scratching their heads now because

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having found out like they were just wanting to review the decision as being

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a bad decision under judicial review.

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And now they've found out all this stuff.

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It's gonna be a very, very interesting case where you've got one minister on

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the record as wanting to approve the project and another minister on the

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record, not wanting to, to knock it back.

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Very interesting case that's gonna be.

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Well, and we, we know that Scott's coal fonder in chief, so I'm

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surprised he was turning down.

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Yeah.

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Natural, natural resources, because he could see some

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votes in that particular area.

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Yeah.

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Mm-hmm oh boy.

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And in the chat room, they're talking about an IAC and how

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this proves the need for that.

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That's for sure.

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What are, what are politicians.

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Saying about thisI said that while he was running a shadow cabinet Morrison

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was running a shadow government and he described Morrison's actions

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as tinpot activity that we would ridicule if it was in a third world

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country Nash would ridicule it anyway.

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National's leader.

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David Little proud, said he didn't know of the former prime minister's

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actions, despite him being a minister in the Morrison government.

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This is pretty ordinary as far as I'm concerned.

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Mr.

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Little proud said, if you have a cabinet government, you trust your cabinet,

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unless you've got a messai complex mm-hmm Joyce only learned, but don't forget

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Jesus intervened and made him prime minister.

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Yeah.

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Yes.

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Lord

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works.

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If you believe that, and maybe you believe that you are fit to do whatever

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you like.

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Yeah.

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If you believe that I've got a bridge to sell you, or I've got a ministerial

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portfolio for you to sign up for Joyce, didn't know about it until pit found out.

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It's a, that Joyce says, I don't believe in a presidential form of government.

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If you don't like cabinet ministers, there's a simple solution.

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You sack them.

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I mean, this is a very good point.

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It it's this move towards a presidential style of of government,

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which is not how we work.

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No, it's a cabinet form and it relies on the members of parliament voting

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for their prime minister and, and then the cabinet running the show.

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Mm, talking of voting for the prime minister mm-hmm I found out the 1922

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committee in the UK is all of the back benches in the conservative party.

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And what were the, what was the 1922 committee again?

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So they vote on who is going to become the next prime minister.

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So who's the leader of the party.

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Ah, okay.

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In that rundown thing that we were talking about, and it was only

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back benches, not ministers, it's only back benches, not ministers.

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Ah, that's interesting.

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Okay.

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Karen Andrews, former home affairs minister, she's calling

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on Scott Morrison to resign.

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She said I had absolutely no knowledge and was not told by the

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PM the prime minister's office, nor the department secretary.

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This undermines the integrity of government, man, you'd be pissed.

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I mean, it's not easy to, to scramble your way up in.

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To become a minister of government.

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And to find out that this asshole has silently secretly shuffled his way in to

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be a K minister, you would be so angry.

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I would be

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the ABC understands that home affairs secretary Mike Zulo did not know

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Morrison had been sworn in as minister for home affairs and the highest

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level of Australia's intelligence agencies were also not aware.

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According to the chaser

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home affairs is the most powerful person isn't he it's, they it's the most powerful

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position.

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It's got plenty of power in there.

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Chinese just says Barnaby.

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Joyce reveals.

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He also secretly took up home affairs.

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Boom, boom mm-hmm Josh.

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Friedenberg only discovered today.

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But Scott Morrison had secretly assumed the treasury portfolio and is said

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to be deeply disappointed in quote.

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Yeah.

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Yes, but he was so pissed.

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He didn't know what was going on anyway.

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Yeah.

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Allegedly, was he a big drinker?

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Was he?

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No, just the governor general, Joe, lots of people saying there's some fault here

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by the governor general and I'm interested in the chat room opinion on this one.

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So the governor General's basically run the line that as a governor

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general, I do what I'm told and I did what I was told to do.

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Thank you very much.

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And no, you don't do what you're told.

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Well, what do you think the governor general should have done?

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The very least made it public.

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Mm.

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But wouldn't that risk having an activist, governor general, like isn't this governor

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general supposed to be more or less a public servant, like all the other

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public servants who somehow knew what was going on, who you just remained quiet.

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No, he's he's he's the cutout,

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right?

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He's he's the, the pin that stops it becoming a dictatorship.

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Mm he's the reset switch.

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He's

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he's just ceremonial figure Joe.

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His job, his job is to do what he's told by the prime minister.

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He don't authority is he?

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He's the reset switch in case we have an author authoritarian government.

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Oh, I don't think he

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is.

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He, he should have, maybe he should have kicked it up to Lizzy.

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Mm-hmm

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. Here's what I see what she says.

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I think personally, this is my current position.

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I might change my mind on this.

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John in the chat room says, what's the point of a gigg if he can't say no.

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Well, I think he could say no.

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I, if, if I think if I was governor general, what he should have

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done is said, I'm not doing that.

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Particularly when he found out after the first one that wasn't publicized, like

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maybe didn't know when the first one that it was gonna remain secret, for example.

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So, but I don't think it's his role to publicize it.

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I think he should have resigned.

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And then when everybody said, why are you resigning?

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He should have said, I was asked to do something that I am unwilling to do.

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And you need to ask Scott Morrison what that was and that's how it could come out.

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So I think that would be the way he should do it.

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Because I don't think we want an activist governor general.

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It's not good.

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Cause it's a problem once before and it should be just purely ceremonial.

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So, yeah, John says, I, I, I think

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it's, it's more than ceremonial.

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I think it it's supposed to be so that we don't get a power grab from

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any prime minister who wants to make themselves dictator for life.

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But if, but the whole point of governor general is does the prime minister

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have the confidence of the house then?

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Yes.

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Do whatever the prime minister says to do.

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And if you don't wanna do it, then just resign.

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Like, and that's what he did.

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He have the confidence for the house on that?

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Well, he was the prime minister.

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Would,

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would he have the confidence of the house?

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If the house knew that he was trying to.

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Double dip.

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Yeah.

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Well, while he is prime minister, the governor general, I think just

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has to, so, so if he decides to grant himself power of yeah.

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President for life mm-hmm , if he's got the confidence of the parliament,

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the governor general should just grant

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it to him.

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No, the governor general should say, I resign.

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I'm not doing it.

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Find somebody else and then say to the press, I've resigned

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and you need to ask him why.

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And, and, and that's how it should be handled.

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I think so.

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Yes.

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The governor general can do something.

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All they can do is resign.

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If something is not right, I don't think he should get involved in.

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And, and

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by resigning that just passes the can down to the most senior.

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Well for start

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governor, doesn't it, it stops it.

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Say, for example, he'd resigned in this case saying he'd said to

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Morrison, no, I'm not going to do this.

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I resign.

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Then people would've said, why are you resigning?

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And he would've said, ask Scott Morrison.

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Why, if he won't tell you, I'll tell you, but you ask him first and Morrison.

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Would've had to say, it's because I wanted to secretly appoint myself

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as as an extra minister minister and people would've said, what the fuck

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and or hell would've broken on this.

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Like, and okay.

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The governor General's out of a job, but that's, that's, that's

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all your power is I think.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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Will you disagree on something, Jay?

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There we go.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So I still think he should resign now in disgrace because he didn't resign

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back then as a matter of principle.

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Who's Scott.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Yeah.

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So what are the Twitter atti saying?

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Things like, so you're telling me we had a botched vaccine rollout

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and no rats, despite apparently having two health ministers.

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We had two health ministers, Joe, and not one of 'em could get on the phone

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to Pfizer and organize stuff, you know?

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No, I know.

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Remember when I was saying, why didn't somebody call us,

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Kevin Rudd had to call for us.

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That's who it was.

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I knew

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somebody had called.

Speaker:

Ah,

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yeah.

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But the reason they hadn't called Pfizer was because that would admit

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they made a mistake in the first place.

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Yeah.

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Yep.

Speaker:

That's I still wanna know what happened about the manufacturing,

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the mRNA manufacturing

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over.

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Why that didn't happen.

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I think we're doing it now.

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Aren't in Victoria.

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Are we?

Speaker:

Yeah, I think I saw something.

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That's the question.

Speaker:

I saw something just the other day that Victoria has now got some laboratory up

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and running, making that vaccine now.

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Cause

Speaker:

I that's, yeah, it wouldn't have saved us back then, but it would save us for future

Speaker:

pandemics.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm somebody in Twitter said everyone's down on Scamo but his empathy

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coach did tell him to try putting himself in another person's place.

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Mm-hmm . Mm.

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Did he feel more empathy for his peers then?

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I don't know.

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What else we got here?

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Journalists?

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What did they know?

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What did they hold back prior to the election?

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And there doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence of journalists knowing what was

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going on except the author of this book.

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I mean, the book came out on Tuesday today.

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Mm-hmm I mean, the manuscript must have been typed and ready months ago in order

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for it to be printed and published.

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Like he, unless this was

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the last minute update.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

He almost certainly had to know prior to the election and sat

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on it until his book came out.

Speaker:

It'd be interesting to know what other journalists might have known about this,

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if any of them sat on the information.

Speaker:

Hmm.

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I quite like the pretty clear now the real reason that John bar Laro

Speaker:

with withdrew from the New York trade commission to roll last month.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Was because he discovered Scott Morrison was already in the

Speaker:

role.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

That's another thing Barara we might get onto that as well.

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Mm-hmm mm.

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Kirin Gilbert asked the former prime minister, Scott Morrison, whether he

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wished to respond to today's revelations.

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This was yesterday I think.

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And Morrison said, no, haven't seen what has said since leaving the job.

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I haven't engaged in any day to day politics since the

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man representing the secret.

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He's electro.

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Yes.

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Hasn't engaged in any day to day politics.

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Who's Bridget McKenzie guy who wrote the book is a partner of Bridget McKenzie.

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She one of the politicians.

Speaker:

Oh, I recognize the name, but

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it's hard to keep track of them.

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Peter just says,

Speaker:

yeah.

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Senator the honorable Bridget McKenzie, right member of the nationals.

Speaker:

There we go.

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Senator for Victoria since 2011, according to 20.

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According to Dr.

Speaker:

Sheep person on Twitter.

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Benson is a partner of Regent McKenzie, right?

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So depending on what you're reading, whether it's Twitter, the guardian,

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the ABC, or the iron fist velvet glove chat room, RSS feed and RSS feed.

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Most of what you would be reading would be complete outrage at what has happened.

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And you would think to yourself, well, clearly everybody despises

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what has happened, everyone.

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The average Australian is no out appalled by this action.

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And we all think the same.

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Don't we and dear listener for my sins, as you know, Using the

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money provided by the patrons.

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I subscribe to the Korean mail and the Australian.

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And so I looked at some of the key articles regarding this issue and

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scroll all the way to the comment section at the bottom where the

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fellow subscribers you're Australian.

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I am well, my fellow subscribers made their comments and it's quite frightening.

Speaker:

Dear listener.

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I mean, we look at America, if you, and we're gonna talk about Trump and the

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latest fiasco there with the confidential classified documents that he kept in a

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store room at the bottom of a golf club.

Speaker:

And we Marvel at how the Trump supporters go, nothing to see here.

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Everybody did it.

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Obama did it.

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They've all done it.

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What about Hillary's emails?

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That's nothing, nothing to see here.

Speaker:

There's a lot of what, what abouts?

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Yes, indeed.

Speaker:

A lot of what abouts and we think to ourselves smugly crazy Americans,

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at least we're not like that.

Speaker:

Well, there was one of the articles in the Kerry mail headline was Scott Morrison

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reacts to secret portfolio appointments.

Speaker:

Anthony Albanese seeks legal advice.

Speaker:

And I have to say that the articles and editorials in both the cur mail

Speaker:

and the Australian have been pretty neutral to almost criticizing Morrison.

Speaker:

So this is not a case where the career mile or the Australians sort

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of reporters and editorials have really come out in favor of Morrison.

Speaker:

I'd say they've really reported the facts.

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And if there's been a commentary, it's kind of been slightly negative

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on Morrison saying, what the hell.

Speaker:

So, so that's from the, the writers and the, and the editorial,

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but in the comment section.

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So in response to that article at the time I looked at it, there were 845

Speaker:

comments, and you're able to sort them in terms of you know, most recent or

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you can sort it by the most liked.

Speaker:

So I sorted these comments from the most liked to the least liked.

Speaker:

And I'm gonna read some of them to you because if I had to read them, then

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you're gonna have to listen to some of it.

Speaker:

Actually, before I go on, Braman says, yes, it's interesting that no

Speaker:

one really wants to defend Morrison.

Speaker:

Even the current libs efforts have been pretty half-hearted.

Speaker:

And it seems that the difference between America and Australia is that Trump's

Speaker:

been able to infiltrate the Republican party with so many of his people that in

Speaker:

order to maintain their position in the Republican party, They've had to tow a

Speaker:

Trump line and to get their pre-selection they've had to, to tow a, a Trump line.

Speaker:

And I don't think the same dynamic is working here in the liberal party.

Speaker:

I don't think people are looking at it going in order to keep my

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position in the liberal party.

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I need to be somehow pandering to a Morrison infection.

Speaker:

So I think that's the difference there in terms of the politicians and the players,

Speaker:

but in terms of the general Joe public, who are my fellow subscribers here's

Speaker:

some of the comments more concerned about Morrison taking on too much responsibility

Speaker:

than elbow who takes responsibility for nothing, 122 likes, Hey elbow, stop

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worrying about the last government and tell me where my $275 power bill cut is.

Speaker:

You said you were gonna reduce my power cost by $275 per year, but

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now they're going through the roof.

Speaker:

Five exclamation marks.

Speaker:

Don't tell me, you've been telling porkies again, 119 likes for that commented.

Speaker:

What would a communist like Albanese know about the Westminster

Speaker:

system hundred 16 likes for that?

Speaker:

Although I thought you were on holidays, please get back to delivery your promises

Speaker:

and stop pandering to the greens and unions we are in for a toid time hundred

Speaker:

and five likes if elbow ever turned up.

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I'm

Speaker:

sure that toid is the word that they're looking for.

Speaker:

If elbow ever turned up to work and read the briefs, he might have noted

Speaker:

that there was a pandemic on in the last two years of Schmos reign and

Speaker:

foreseeable that a key minister could be incapacitated due to COVID 19, so

Speaker:

needed some under step in quite right.

Speaker:

Not to advertise the fact as unnecessary fear in difficult times.

Speaker:

The ALP on the other hand, lead by instilling unnecessary fear as that way

Speaker:

you can control people absolute rubbish.

Speaker:

And could these talk a big game, deliver donut clowns actually do the job they

Speaker:

were elected to do instead of continual childish whining and nasty PED Inness.

Speaker:

It's the Biden script yet again.

Speaker:

And how has that worked out for him?

Speaker:

Absolute joke that this has even talked, but deflects from the

Speaker:

fact the Herald heralded plan ALP is still on the design shop.

Speaker:

102 likes for that.

Speaker:

I'll keep going.

Speaker:

These are good, poor old elbow only worries about the Westminster

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system of government when it involves the liberals nationals.

Speaker:

Yet he is okay with the blatant dismantling of the Westminster

Speaker:

system in Victoria 98.

Speaker:

Elbow.

Speaker:

We are more worried about putting food on the table, paying written mortgages,

Speaker:

getting petrol to do the family things.

Speaker:

So just get on with it please.

Speaker:

97 likes.

Speaker:

Meanwhile in Victoria, one bloke has been personally running every

Speaker:

portfolio very badly and crickets chirp in media land 95 likes

Speaker:

how accurate is that allegation?

Speaker:

I don't think it's correct at all.

Speaker:

Facts have nothing to do with the comment section.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Of news, obviously masters, not only was he doing his job, but

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he was on standby to do others.

Speaker:

Meanwhile, his replacement is totally lost in is either out of

Speaker:

Australia or on holiday 94 likes.

Speaker:

There's a lot of comments about holidays here.

Speaker:

A lot of people going bagging on about Albanese being on

Speaker:

holidays and electricity.

Speaker:

Is elbow actually back in the country for a change.

Speaker:

How long has that been now?

Speaker:

Three months or so any chance we could get some movement on this plan or are

Speaker:

we going to get more of the standard labor distract, divert and deny 93 likes

Speaker:

So that was a carry in the Australian the story was the

Speaker:

headline Morrison's secret moves.

Speaker:

I'm swearing myself in as health minister too.

Speaker:

And again, I did the same thing and this was the most liked comment sound

Speaker:

strategy for extraordinary times.

Speaker:

I am so grateful that Scott Morrison was PM.

Speaker:

During this time 120 likes aren't you so grateful.

Speaker:

Thank you.

Speaker:

PM Morrison.

Speaker:

Australia was one of the best performing countries during the COVID crisis.

Speaker:

I will never forget the image of him walking away.

Speaker:

After declaring Australia had chartereds borders, looking like he had the weight

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of every Australian life on his shoulder, labor calling his decision, a racist one.

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This decision saved many Australian lives.

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I thought he didn't.

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I thought it was the states that closed the

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borders.

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It's like creative writing exercises.

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It's, it's a parallel reality that these people live in.

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Now.

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It is.

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I challenge you in the chat room to write a pro Morrison piece, put, put

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satire in it so that we know it's not with you, but can you match the,

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can you match the feeling of these

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people?

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It's pose Laura, isn't it

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what's

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pose Laura again, pose.

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Laura is there's nothing you can Ize about a creationist that a

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creationist hasn't said it for real.

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There you

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go.

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There's nothing you couldn't Ize about a Morrison supporter that

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hasn't been said, but a Morrison

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supporter hasn't actually said yet

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we okay to keep going with this.

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I'll just because this is instructive to listener.

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Like it's a huge segment of our population that is not only saying nah, but is

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also saying nothing wrong with it.

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Nothing to see here.

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Not only

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nothing wrong with it, he did, right.

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There are a number of comments, which, which talked about if they were not

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supportive of Morrison, they were actually critical of the lockdown itself.

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So here's one, for example.

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The parallels that are continually drawn with the Spanish flu in the

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response of that time, when COVID was never as dangerous, nor as untreatable

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are deeply concerning, it appears that it was basically panic stations

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from very early in the pandemic.

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And that explains so much of the overreaction and abuses of power at

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state and federal level level cannot see myself reading the book after reading

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this article, the hubris of our so-called leaders is depressing and their inability

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to consider the consequences of the decision they make, even more of a worry.

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So it was really rather than criticizing Morrison specifically was kind

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of like, well, they were all just overreacted to this pandemic and this

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was just a sign of that overreaction.

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What else have I got here?

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I might skip through a few cuz I can feel your pain.

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What have it's only as bad as a cold remember?

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Yeah.

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Chris says, this is Chris's one he's.

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He could be a contributor to the Australian.

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He in the chat room, he says Morrison.

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He turned up, he took what he could.

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And we thank him for opening up the cracks.

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Let's see.

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He complaining about health, the health medical, or chief health officers.

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He's one sensationalist headline, sensible and prudent steps

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actually described Morrison was a very good PM in this crisis.

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58 likes.

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The biggest mistake Scott Morrison made was to give these unelected so-called

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health experts so much power, 46 likes.

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And this one, the last.

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If this had been Alban easy, he would've taken six months off due

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to the effort required even to think of preparing a plan to do something.

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Remember he said the PM only had two responsibilities.

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There we go.

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Did he?

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Yeah, the vaccine and the lockdown or something I think is what easy.

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See, had two jobs to do.

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And he failed at both.

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Look, there you go.

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I think that is frightening, but not surprising.

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And there are Morrison supporters out there in the public seems that his

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MAs support in the parliament on the conservative side is not really there.

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It seems like even the commentariat on sky news and in the Murdoch press are

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not really going to go into bat for.

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Yeah, but

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I bet you the

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hell song crowd.

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Yes.

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That's that's about it.

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That's all he's got left.

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His options of appearing on a board somewhere surely have completely sunk.

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So, alright.

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I dunno if you wanted somebody who didn't actually do anything,

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but was a conduit into the

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corridors of power.

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Mm.

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But, but he shafted so many people in there.

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Yeah.

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He, you wouldn't think he could actually deliver you any lobbying effectively,

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cuz people might do the opposite.

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If Scott Morrison asked for something, I would've thought even amongst these former

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colleagues, he's burnt so many bridges.

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So it's hard to imagine him being on any sort of board.

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All I can see is, is in a church as a preacher, that's all he's got left.

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He'll probably stay in the job.

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He won't probably won't resign cuz he wants the money.

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What else is he

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gonna

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do?

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Yeah.

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When does he get his pension?

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Has he been in for long enough?

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Apparently though his pension as former PM is not nearly as good as some of the

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previous ones cuz he's entering into the parliament was quite late, so right.

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It's not quite as lucrative as some of the other ones.

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John says he's he bets?

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He's gonna resign.

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I don't know.

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And Brahman's happy that my comment reading is over, right?

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Yeah, Morrison's gonna say, and I think he has come out.

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There was something he put on released a statement on Twitter, which basically

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was saying it was extraordinary times.

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We had to do extraordinary things and I did it for my people and leave me

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alone, which ignores all the things that we've already said about it

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was a, even if your purpose was to spread risk, There's no need to do

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it in secret and appointing yourself.

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Isn't spreading the risk.

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It's concentrating plan B on one person.

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And it's just a, a major erosion in our democracy.

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Like when people talk about constitutional crisis, Joe, and they talk about 1975 in

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Whittman, we haven't reached 1975 levels in terms of crisis to our democracy.

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But it's getting close as the, as, as one of the key moments

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in our political history.

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I would've thought

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was that really a constitutional

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crisis?

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75 or

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this?

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Yeah.

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I mean, he, he, he sacked the government and went to a general election.

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Right?

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So he returned, he returned the power to the people.

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Yes.

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Whereas this was Scott Morrison grabbing the power for himself.

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Okay.

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So you reckon this is bigger than 1975.

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Is that what you're saying?

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I, I think this is the exact opposite of

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1975.

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Yeah.

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Well, which is bigger though.

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You're a, you're a surprising advocate for activists go generals.

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It's it's a good joke.

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I hadn't picture for this.

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So

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yeah, I, I that's the only value I see is stopping dictatorship grabs.

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Mm.

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If you look at the rise of Hitler to power, he was elected as prime

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minister effectively of, of Germany, and then he seized power from there.

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Mm.

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And so the question is what's to stop that happening over here.

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Yeah.

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And, and if we have a governor general who happily goes along

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with the prime minister, because he has the confidence parliament and

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just grants him whatever he wants.

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Well, he shouldn't like, that's my point though.

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I'm not saying he should, he should just resign.

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So that we all find out about it, but I don't think he should act you, you don't

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think he should and assume powers you're

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MIS misbehaving, right?

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SAC?

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No, let's call a general election.

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No, it's interesting.

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Some of this stuff is to do with convention.

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Like I don't think the constitution refers to a prime minister at all, for example.

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So probably not.

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Yeah.

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So you know, our laws in this sort of, part of the legal territory are a mixture

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of the constitution and also conventions.

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So you know this and we've

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seen what happens with Trump, with conventions.

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Yes.

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It used to be that gentlemen would respect conventions, but respect for

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conventions has just disappeared.

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So, you know, section 64, Which is the section of the constitution where,

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you know, the, the governor general sort of appoints people to act in the

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executive, you know, doesn't say anything about, well, of course we should tell

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people when we do that by publicizing it, you know, it's just a convention

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that you don't do this in secret.

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And ah, it'd be interesting to see whether this has any effect

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on the Republican sort of debate.

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People will be talking about the role of the governor general in

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this and what would the role be of the president in a Republic?

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And I,

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I did notice the comments were saying that effectively an IAC

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could act as the oversight body.

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Mm.

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And therefore, if there was a.

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Genuine concern.

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Yep.

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Even if the, the governor general is a figurehead, he could take that to IAC.

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Yeah.

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Refer to IAC, resign and refer to I to IAC would be mm-hmm

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yeah, that would be a solution.

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Yeah.

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So anyway, maybe when we draft an amendment to the constitution,

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when we become a Republic, at some point, there will be an extra

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line in there that mightn't have been considered before, where they

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say, by the way, when appointing ministers, it has to be publicized.

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And perhaps they can only

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be one minister.

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You wonder how many conventions actually need to be written down and ratified?

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Yeah.

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Like turning over your tax returns.

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Yes.

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You,

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you heard by the way he lost that part of the battle.

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Mm-hmm where at this point, the latest court decision was forcing

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him to, he has hand them over.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I dunno what appeals he has from that point.

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Well, where is that?

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If who knows in the chat room Broman says re Morrison's pension, you'll be

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pleased to hear that he's not eligible for the older, more generous scheme.

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He can only get the standard accumulation scheme that was implemented

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for Poly's elected after 2004.

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Yep.

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John says maybe hill song CFO in Scotty's future.

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Yeah.

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And that would be a good thing.

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If you got a job in Hillsong, it would help it crash even quicker.

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Actually.

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We've got something about Hillsong let's let's talk about Hillsong.

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Oh, the whistleblower.

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Mm.

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This is very interesting.

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This is from crikey.

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If you're not subscribed to crikey, dear listener excellent

Speaker:

publication, highly recommended.

Speaker:

It's not that expensive.

Speaker:

Natalie Moses was employed at Hillsong from March, 2020 to mid-June this year.

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In that time, she worked at the very heart of the hill song enterprise.

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The getting of money Moses was involved in raising donation revenues,

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increasing donor engagement, making grand applications and managing

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income reporting critically.

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She had access to board papers, minutes of meetings and resolutions for several

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hill song entities stretching back around 10 years, documents, documents, documents.

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By the time her employment was suspended and her email access was cut.

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Moses had downloaded some 40,000 confidential files.

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According to federal court records by the end of June hill, Sal's most sensitive

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secrets had passed into enemy hands.

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Crikey does not know Natalie Moses, but those who do tell us this, she is

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incredibly smart, highly experienced, very intelligent and analytical and a

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hundred percent ethical, which makes

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you wonder what

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was she doing there?

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Why hill?

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Exactly.

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but boy, if we could have planted somebody in hillside, it sounds

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like the perfect person mm-hmm

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She was probably the only person who was ever gonna be able to work it all out

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and speak up because she's the only staff member who has ever worked in depth across

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both the finance and governance areas.

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This would've been necessary to pull together all the pieces of the.

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Sources tell her she has substantial experience in the

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charity in corporate sectors.

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It appears to have quickly identified when something was not right.

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So, she was sacked and she is going to court over sort of,

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whistleblower protection sort of action, wrongful dismissal.

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Yeah.

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Something like that.

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But I think some sort of whistleblower protection type of thing as well.

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So she, in her statement of claim outlines irregularities in the transfer of funds

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from Hillsong Australian entities, and it started with concern about $10,000.

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That was to be passed to people, seek to establish a Hillsong church in Romania.

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Moses warned her boss that overseas transfers of this ilk could not happen

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under legislation covering notfor profits in Australia, the funds are eventually

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paid via a us based hill song, entity, thereby avoiding Australian regulations.

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And this sounds like, Chaplains in schools.

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Yeah.

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It's real illegal.

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So you just send it to the

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states instead.

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Yes.

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Find a different way of moving the money from there.

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Moses, according to the statement of claim, briefed Hillsong directors on the

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need for better compliance of Hillsong 18 notfor profit entities in Australia.

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And it goes on to say, they've got lots of businesses in us, jurisdictions

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like Texas and Virginia, where there's very little demand for transparency.

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Moses has identified a lot of risks with mingling money from different

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pots, and she warned that it might be fraudulent to offer tax deductions

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on donations to building a hill song facility at festival hall.

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And she warned that it was unethical and illegal for the Hillsong board

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to use tax deductible donations to cover the church's 9 million deficit.

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How did they end up with a 9 million deficit when I get so much money?

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E either by building new infrastructure.

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Mm.

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Or, or it was some blown out

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for various schemes.

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Yeah.

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Given away to cronies.

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Now so she's claiming this treatment, a whistleblower, she painted a picture

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of favoritism and CRO cronyism.

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She was alleges in her statement of claim that as she revealed her findings

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to Hillsong's senior ranks, she was told to quote, come up with a story in quote,

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that would be acceptable to the AC C.

Speaker:

So what now she, in her statement lays direct responsibility at the

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door of Hillsong's directors, which is about Brian Houston and 10 others.

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And in summary Hillsong I've got some problems because somebody essentially

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so deep in the organization with so much knowledge downloaded, 40,000

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documents, Australian charities and something or other, yeah.

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Notfor profits, I think

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AC C, C, C.

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It's probably at the beginning of this article, but I might have the

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it's the, the charities are regulated.

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I

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think that's one of the regulators.

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What else I got here?

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Yeah, that's the main thing saying hill song in a lot of

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trouble, a lot of documents.

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Somebody who knows what's going on intimately, who's really smart

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and really pissed at Hillsong.

Speaker:

It sounds like a recipe for disaster for hill.

Speaker:

Hopefully those

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documents are in the hands of ATO.

Speaker:

Mm.

Speaker:

I would think so, hopefully.

Speaker:

Right.

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What are we up to in timewise and,

Speaker:

and possibly AFP if there's, mm, illegal activities,

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all sorts of different groups.

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Although I

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somehow a AFP, if they're deeply in bed with the liberal party, I

Speaker:

wouldn't be surprised that they're also deeply infiltrated with evangelicals.

Speaker:

Mm.

Speaker:

I dunno, dunno either.

Speaker:

All right.

Speaker:

Just before we get onto Trump if you work for Amazon you know that after every

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hour of work at Amazon, the computer tos.

Speaker:

Comes up with a thing on the screen for a 32nd break.

Speaker:

And it tells you to have a mind moment of positive affirmation for 30 seconds

Speaker:

every hour when you're working at Amazon repeat these phrases during each expansion

Speaker:

of the circle, even in chaos, maybe they could use it for a toilet break instead.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Well, you do this while you have your bottle there.

Speaker:

Now these are for people working at a computer at Amazon.

Speaker:

Repeat these phrases during each expansion of the circle.

Speaker:

Even in chaos, I can feel peaceful.

Speaker:

I notice the good while socially distant.

Speaker:

I am emotionally close.

Speaker:

And so Amazon recommends repeating those phrases as a 32nd timer counts down

Speaker:

on your screen and then back to work.

Speaker:

That's good.

Speaker:

Joe Trump and the documents.

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So dear, dear listener, extraordinary events in America.

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I, what you're talking about were the former president.

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He, he was in the right.

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Yeah.

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FBI basically rated Largo and took a whole heap of boxes, which

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totally unfounded because you know, his lawyers had handed

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over everything they'd asked for.

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Yes.

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So it turns out that he took a whole bunch of documents and the national

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archives knew the documents were missing and said, Hey, you took a whole

Speaker:

bunch of documents, hand 'em back.

Speaker:

You can't keep those, like, these documents belong to the people, not you.

Speaker:

And this was due to law past following Nixon, I believe.

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It was around then.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Basically the presidential records act says anything that the president

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does says or signs during his time in office belong to the people to go

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into an archive so that whenever it's declassified people can go through

Speaker:

and see how the president acted during

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his time.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So they knew things were missing and said to him, Hey, cough up.

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This stuff that's missing.

Speaker:

And so apparently they sent some stuff back and they were looking

Speaker:

through it and they were going like, there's some classified stuff here.

Speaker:

And also, I think it was really obvious that there was some thing missing.

Speaker:

Like I think now I was listening to opening arguments on this.

Speaker:

If you want the full details.

Speaker:

I think almost to the extent where maybe they received boxes labeled 1,

Speaker:

2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10 . And they were able to say, Well, we at boxes four, five,

Speaker:

and eight . So they managed to go to a judge and convince a judge that there

Speaker:

were further documents, which were classified documents, an activist judge.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

Come on and seemingly relating to nuclear secrets as well,

Speaker:

which really got people worried.

Speaker:

And and so then they, and they basically said to him, you need

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to send us these documents.

Speaker:

And they basically said, oh, we've sent you everything.

Speaker:

And they knew that they hadn't.

Speaker:

So they gave him every opportunity to produce the documents.

Speaker:

And they said, well, just do it quietly.

Speaker:

We will, we'll come there with plain clothes.

Speaker:

We'll do it during hours.

Speaker:

And in, in ways that people won't know that the FBI is doing this

Speaker:

so that to save you embarrassment and he just wouldn't agree.

Speaker:

So he then just They just pulled the plug and pulled the pin and, and got

Speaker:

a a subpoena or whatever you call it to, to enter the premises yeah.

Speaker:

Warrant and to do it.

Speaker:

So took away all these documents and now people

Speaker:

thought, and, and again, it was undercover till I think he went on the record.

Speaker:

Yeah.

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And, and yeah, I know he said they took his passport, but there's

Speaker:

nothing in the cuz there's a list of documents that were taken.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

It's gen yeah.

Speaker:

It's generic, but yeah, not so generic that a passport would

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be in there and not written

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out.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

One of the documents was quite possibly was information about

Speaker:

the French president Macron.

Speaker:

So that was just documents relating to a manual.

Speaker:

Macron was kind of what it was.

Speaker:

So that's interesting.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm, . So anyway, they've rated that and they're gonna look at it.

Speaker:

And people have said, well, well, he said he declassified everything.

Speaker:

Therefore he didn't have classified documents.

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And apparently it doesn't matter.

Speaker:

These are documents of a nature that even if you say they are declassified, which

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the argument isn't gonna work anyway.

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But even if you were to accept that, that they were declassified, they

Speaker:

still have to be stored correctly.

Speaker:

And he literally had them in just a store room in one of the basement

Speaker:

areas of the Largo golf resort complex.

Speaker:

He lives in with the guy doesn't live in a regular home.

Speaker:

He lives in a private golf club.

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There's all sorts of servants and people.

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So

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Largo was a private mansion that he converted into a private club,

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right.

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For tax reasons for tax reasons.

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Yeah, of course.

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Yeah.

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And part, part of the tax exemption he got was that he wouldn't live

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there for more than 40 days a year or whatever the number was.

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Right.

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So it was a small number of days a year.

Speaker:

Yeah.

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And the fact that he's fully in residence, apparently the local city or whoever he's

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pissed about it.

Speaker:

Probably, basically they reckon that he owes them tax

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because it's now a residence.

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It's not a private club.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So Joe the lock on the door, like apparently Trump put out a picture

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of the lock on the door, trying to emphasize the security that he'd taken.

Speaker:

And it was just a really simple lock that you wouldn't use to lock your

Speaker:

bicycle up at a railway station.

Speaker:

And you were describing to me before we started, you've decided

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on an interesting hobby, Joe, what, tell the dear listener what you're

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doing in his spare time with locks.

Speaker:

Oh lock picking.

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So lock picking is a recognized hobby which requires manual

Speaker:

dexterity and, and visual thinking about what it looks like inside

Speaker:

an intellectual rigor mm-hmm yes.

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And

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so, so don't poo poo at Trevor

Speaker:

. Well, it's, it's more

Speaker:

It's quite scary when you look at it, when you, when you know what

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you're looking for, how easy it is to pick a lock and how easy it is

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to not even need to pick a lock.

Speaker:

Quite often there are insecurities either in the way that the doors are put on or

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in the way that a lock is built, that allows you to not even need to pick

Speaker:

it.

Speaker:

So you've got a transparent lock mm-hmm yeah,

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I don't know how well it'll show up.

Speaker:

Mm.

Speaker:

Put in front of your face.

Speaker:

Might.

Speaker:

Yeah, but

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there's a double sided.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Transparent lock.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Where you can see the inner workings and as you learn to pick, you can

Speaker:

see it move inside and that allows you to get a feel for everything.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So can, can you actually unpick that lock now or you need more practice?

Speaker:

Oh no, no.

Speaker:

I can do both sides of that.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

I also bought some cheap padlocks from the dollar store

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or whatever they were, so yeah.

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Okay.

Speaker:

That, that little one.

Speaker:

Yes.

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Chinese one.

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Yep.

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With a, so normally you use what's called the tension tool and then you

Speaker:

use a pick mm-hmm and you don't even need attention tool with this thing.

Speaker:

You literally just scrub it a few times and it'll pop open.

Speaker:

There you go.

Speaker:

So a cheap lock that looks still relatively sturdy.

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It would take you some cutting to get through that.

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Yes.

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I can pop that open within 10

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seconds.

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Joe's lot picking services.

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there you

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go.

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Do, yeah.

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A, a well built lot would take a bit longer and a bit more skill.

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Yeah.

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But you think a $10 lock from hardware store is secure and

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a, a cheap look like that.

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There's another thing let's see if I can.

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Yeah.

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There's, there's a bit of play in there, right?

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These are only held together by little metal spring.

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Right.

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And you actually force something down the inside of the barrel.

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There mm-hmm, pops the spring thin bit of metal and it pops the screen.

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Right.

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And you don't even need to pick the lock.

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And my guess is that whatever was securing Trump's secret documents,

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you could probably SHM it like that.

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Yes.

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And pop it open within five

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seconds.

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Yes.

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Yep.

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So incredible state secrets of America regarding nuclear codes.

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Hidden in the basement of a building that's full of staff, ERs, waitresses,

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all sorts of people wandering the halls.

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Any Mossad or Russian or Chinese spy.

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They've probably got a copy of all the documents already.

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They've probably copied them in the last couple of months and, and

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they know exactly what's in there.

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It wouldn't surprise.

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Would it?

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Yeah.

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What you'd hope given that the secret service are yeah.

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Protecting that place that there's at least some rigor around who's

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hired.

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Yeah.

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So apparently it seems that they know that the authorities seem to have known so

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much about where to go and what they would find that there could be a mole in the

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Trump organization, a well connected one.

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Certainly, it sounds

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like the Republicans are freshing about that at the moment.

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Mm-hmm and I, I think people are pointing the finger at Jared Kushner.

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Apparently he got 2 billion from the Saudis for some undisclosed reason.

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So mm-hmm, that would be interesting.

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I hope I live long enough to find and hear all of the secrets that

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come outta the Trump presidency.

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And now also the Morrison prime ministership

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you know, some of the stuff that's gonna come out about Trump, we

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will just shake our heads out.

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Well,

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is it 50 years before records are declassified?

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Oh, I was

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kind of hoping it might be 30.

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I might, I might last long enough.

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I don't know.

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Yeah.

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So, oh dear.

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So what have we got here?

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So it's the Trump story.

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In summary, I think I don't need to go through all of the sections

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in that it's in the show notes.

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If you wanna read about it Melania or melanoma did I write melanoma?

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Did I,

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No, no, no.

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John Z said a mole.

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Oh, Melania.

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Yes.

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And I said, melanoma.

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Yeah.

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People are joking that because that if who's his former wife who was IVA IVA

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and she was buried in some nondescript part of his golf course again probably

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for a tax reason, cemeteries probably make give you some tax deduction.

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I would've, thought's one reason why.

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Mm.

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Right.

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What else have I got here?

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And what's the time?

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8 55.

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We can't go two hours, Joe.

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Like last time, that was just an endurance for people.

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I think I was testing the friendship with people on that one.

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Opening arguments as a podcast.

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If you wanna know more about that Trump stuff, it's very good.

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And, mm, of course he had a couple of other things happen because he's

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being investigated because on the one hand he was overstating the value

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of properties in order to get loans against them, this your wasn't it.

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And on the other hand for the same properties, he was understating

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their value for taxation purposes.

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So it seems like there's trial over that, which has got him in a lot of hot water.

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And I think that's the one where he was pleading the.

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Refusing to testify on the basis that it might incriminate him.

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And he's on the record in the past as saying, why would anybody rely on that?

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Just tell the truth.

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And you'll be fine, obviously guilty if you, you know, if

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you maintain your silence.

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But I think it

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was about a president.

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He was saying that as well.

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Mm.

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So, that's what he's up to.

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And there was one other thing that got him as well.

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He had bad news.

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There's a third thing for Trump.

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I just can't remember what it was, but might have been about, oh, being

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forced to produce his taxation records.

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That was the other one right.

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He lost a round in that battle as well.

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It's been a bad week for the Donald, but look, he's gonna run again

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if he can, because I see in the chat room John says Trump running.

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He will see it as his best defense to will these legal actions.

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If he can.

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When the president, he believes that he

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can't get prosecuted as president.

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Mm.

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So for sure, he'll run and Joe, he's half a chance of winning if he, if he has a go

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well, there's concerns about the whole voter suppression laws.

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If it's done in key states, of course, there was also the opposite of that,

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which if you remember, was the very people who wouldn't take vaccines are

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the Republican voters in swing states.

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Right.

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So they might have died off.

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Is that what you're saying?

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Right?

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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There's it will be interesting in the next election to see how many voters

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actually remain in those swing states,

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right?

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Yep.

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Demographic shift.

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Mm.

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The other one was the Kansas.

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Yeah, abortion.

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Yes.

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Mm.

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So

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the, at the attempt to change the constitution of Kansas to allow abortions

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or to, to ban abortions, sorry, to allow them to ban abortions, which

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at the moment is unconstitutional.

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And they were saying that the 20, 20 elections they'd

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doubled the usual voter turnout.

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This one, they have, I think, quadrupled the usual voter

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turnout for this referendum.

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Right.

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And it was 60% I believe, against changing the constitution.

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Mm.

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So Roe V.

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Wade or the case said there's in the constitution power where the federal

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government can prevent states from passing laws that stop abortion.

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The recent decision said, no, Roe V Wade's wrong.

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There's nothing in the constitution about abortion.

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Therefore, it's up to the individual states to decide what

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laws they want for their state.

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And people are worried that Kansas would be one that would legislate to ban

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abortions and surprisingly strong turnout.

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The other way, surprisingly strong, progressive turnout.

Speaker:

So the John Barro affair is like Scott Morrison, where these people

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just treat us like shit because they think they can get away with anything.

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And he wanted a, you know, new south Wales government was creating this plum

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job for a trade commissioner in the us had an excellent candidate appointed

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and he engineered for that appointment to be done by the premier effectively.

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Rather than the process that was there.

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Apparently there was already a trade job in Los Angeles.

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Mm.

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And somebody was in that post and he said, no, no, no, that's not good enough.

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It needs to be in New York.

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Mm.

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They closed down the Los Angeles trade position.

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Mm.

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Created this new one.

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Yep.

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And, and apparently he was saying, when it was created,

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oh, this is my retirement job.

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Yes, basically.

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Yeah.

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And they had a candidate, a lady who was very, very well qualified,

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like a really long CV of roles that were ideally suited for this

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versus John Barro who has nothing.

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And of course they told her, no, sorry, the process we're going through,

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you're no longer doing it that way.

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All bets are off.

Speaker:

And then they did a different way and appointed him like just scandal this.

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And I think I mentioned what a waste of money.

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This would be having a state based trade commissioner in an overseas posting.

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And there was an article in the John Ew blog where John Menard do when he was

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ambassador for Australia in Japan, found himself having to sort of deal with

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different state government agents who are in Japan, in these sort of trade roles.

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And basically saying they did nothing, they achieved nothing.

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It was a complete waste of time having a separate state based trade commissioner.

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And that to me makes a lot of sense.

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So I shouldn't even have the job in the fir, you know, let alone just

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get the right person, but just don't even have the job in the first place.

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Right.

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It was, it was a German posting.

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Wasn't it?

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It was, yeah.

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Yep.

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A plum job.

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Well, Joe, I'm gonna, my voice is starting to go, so I'm gonna call it

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quits cuz an hour and a half keeps us outta the shark tank I saw then and hard

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bottom was in the chat room earlier.

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And so we've got through that and yeah, we got through the Morrison stuff.

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It was good to return to a bit of Morrison bashing.

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No doubt.

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Next week, I would think there'll be a lot of evidence about decisions

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that he made using these powers.

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Like the gas fields one and what a mess, what a, what a mess that is going to be

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and shame on anybody who goes big deal.

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These conservatives who claim that.

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The liberal national conservative forces are, are the only ones who

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can properly run government in the way it's supposed to be run.

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They just,

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do you have any squash matches

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coming up?

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Do I have any squash matches coming up?

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No.

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Right.

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Tony right.

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Maintain.

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Doesn't play squash.

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Oh, is it

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not?

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Oh, was it badminton?

Speaker:

I thought you played something.

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I played squash, but right.

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Maintain doesn't play squash.

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Okay.

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But I'm just interested to hear

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his.

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I will let you know, even he, I don't, you know, I don't know.

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I don't know what people, I don't know.

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Cause when I was reading some of those Australian comments, I was channeling

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right wing Tony a little bit in my mind.

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so anything's possible.

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But shame on anybody.

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Who's going to excuse what happened there in any way.

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I mean, our democracy is all about.

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We know who we are voting for.

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We vote for them.

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We put them in power, they are accountable for what they do.

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We know who did what.

Speaker:

So then we can decide whether we vote for 'em again, or vote them out.

Speaker:

And any form of unnecessary cloaking, hiding secrecy, totally unnecessary.

Speaker:

And you know, this, those comments in that section are an example where those people

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were faced with the correct facts, the stories and articles they were reading.

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I give credit to the Australian and the Korean mail were pretty straight

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factual accounts of what had happened.

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They weren't led into these people were not led into into these crazy positions,

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by the framing done in the story.

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They've they've read the story and they are so tribal they're

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so brainwashed they're so.

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Lacking an understanding of, of what good civics is in our society.

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They had no proper understanding of what a breach of something important.

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That whole thing was.

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So it's a bit frightening.

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You just can't say, oh, I wish these people could read more widely and

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then they'd know what's going on.

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And they wouldn't think that way that they they'd read the facts and

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they'd come to a crazy conclusion,

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but people who vote right wing tend to be more authoritarian.

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Yes.

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They believe that the people in power are correct and should

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do everything that they need

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to do.

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Except if it's labor and power, obviously.

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And it's dictated Dan being authoritarian.

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Well, yeah, this tribalistic,

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John says they didn't read the story and that's quite true.

Speaker:

Ah, lots of people just read the headline.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

Speaker:

Even the headline.

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Morrison secretly appointed without telling people should be enough.

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It should be enough.

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I think we need, if we get rid of religious instruction in schools,

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there should be more on civics as to what's important in terms of our

Speaker:

democracy and and also just critical thinking and, and also learning

Speaker:

how to critically evaluate, use headlines.

Speaker:

Yes.

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And, and read through the propaganda.

Speaker:

So mm-hmm, , it's yeah, a worrying development, the

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comment section in that paper.

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So anyway, I'll be looking at it through the week and and I will subject you

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all to a bit more next week, perhaps.

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All right.

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Well, that's enough for tonight.

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Thanks for listening.

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Talk to you next week.

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I'll go on.

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Say goodbye, Joe.

Speaker:

All right.

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The Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove
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