Episode description

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Dan is eating his way through Melbourne's cafes — so this ARF is recorded face to face from Stupid Old Studios.

Is a cracker covering Labor Climate Catastrophe, the dance moves of the Finish Prime Minister, the Murdoch's suing Crikey, Russia's new ad campaign and #DadVsAdani

Fearmongers include:

Kirsty Webeck
Sam Petersen
Alice Tovey

Host Dan Ilic

Interview Guest: Ben Pennings 

See more about Ben's campaign against Adani below. 

SUPPORT BEN PENNINGS CAMPAIGN:

#DadvsAdani

Adani is after the suburban family home of Brisbane dad Ben Pennings, suing him for $17m in the Supreme Court for peaceful protest action. They even followed his wife and kids around. Support #DadvsAdani to protect the freedom of all Australians.

Donate to the legal fund - https://tinyurl.com/yc5zwxkn
Post your own photo - https://tinyurl.com/mr2dar5p

🤑 CHIP IN TO OUR PATREON https://www.patreon.com/ARationalFear
📨 SUBSCRIBE TO OUR EMAIL LIST: http://www.arationalfear.com/
🎟️ SEE OUR NEXT LIVE SHOW AT THE FESTIVAL OF DANGEROUS IDEAS: https://festivalofdangerousideas.com/program/secretive-australia/

Dan Ilic  0:00  
G'day, Dan Ilic here. Guess what? We're in Melbourne. Yes, it's very exciting. Just letting you know before we start the podcast we've got a big live show coming up at the festival dangerous ideas at carriage works. It's a huge show all about how Australia is the most secretive liberal democracy in the world so we could potentially go to jail. It's very exciting. On the panel, Damian Kay from the New York Times Emma shorts from crikey Kate McCann from the Sydney Morning Herald, David McBride, former Australian defense lawyer and turned whistleblower he is joining us and of course, Lewis harbor, and myself who are renowned, secretive people we don't know anything about us. So that's what's so exciting about the show seven senses of timber in Sydney. I'm recording my irrational fear on the land of the orangery in the cooler nation's sovereignty was never seen it we need a treaty. Let's start the show.

Simon Chilvers  0:46  
A rational fear contains naughty words like bricks, Canberra, fed gum, and section 40 of a rational view recommended listening by immature audiences.

Dan Ilic  0:59  
Tonight after months of turmoil Qantas is apologizing to his customers by offering a $50 gift voucher The only catch is it's only redeemable on Qantas and it will be delivered to you by Qantas baggage handlers and Lachlan Murdoch is suing crikey for defamation after they allege that Fox News was somehow responsible for the capital rights. Meanwhile, anyone who reads the Murdoch press is asking what's a Crikey. And after a disastrous interview on insiders that crudely sold out his colleagues for a few extra staff Barnaby Joyce is declared patient zero for Foot and Mouth Disease. It's the 26th of August and we refuse to quiet quit this is a rational fear.

Welcome to rational fear. I'm your host disgraced celebrity chef Dan Ilic. And this is the podcast that takes the worst news of the weekend. It just sucks it down like a word is original. Let's meet our fear mongers for tonight that their cabaret queen with a sharp tongue and adult implement. Please give it up for Alice Toby Hello as well. Why do you carry that doll implement around with you everywhere you go.

Alice Tovey  2:09  
Oh, you know what they say carry a doll implement. I think that was Tim Ferguson's comedy. That's good to be here on pocket size Louis this week.

Dan Ilic  2:17  
Yeah, that's it. Yeah. CO hosting the show. How do you feel?

Alice Tovey  2:19  
I feel good. It feels right. I'm coming for triple date. But J next, Louis, if you're listening or someone

Dan Ilic  2:24  
has to be in the demographic, a Triple J they're a producer podcaster and purveyor of the souls of the guiltiest idiots around from the confessions of the idiot. Sam Peterson,

Sam Petersen  2:36  
thank you so much for having me on clip myself.

Alex Dyson  2:41  
Why are you down carrying around these confession? Everything

Sam Petersen  2:43  
goes all the way down by the instrument that we spoke about before? Yeah, no, it does it. I have to now go on Reddit once a week and look up for online confession. But I have to go through about 100 to get to those four. So a lot of stuff that I don't bring to the podcast is the worst sort of stuff that could possibly have a domain today. And I'm reading through a lot of that. So

Dan Ilic  3:03  
can I propose the confessions of the idiots up late?

Sam Petersen  3:07  
I don't think anyone could handle it. And they're a business

Alex Dyson  3:08  
genius with a master's degree in fine laughs It's Kirsty Wait.

Sam Petersen  3:15  
Did you get stressed?

Dan Ilic  3:18  
me because I went through a couple of your old tweets this afternoon. I thought this was a genius idea for a TV show. Tell us a little bit about help. I'm a celebrity. Get me in there.

Kirsty Webeck  3:31  
Oh my gosh, it's such a bad idea. But the pitch is that you get a bunch of celebrities and that's in inverted commas, like Australian style celebrities. And they're in a really long queue. Places that are famous for long queues, or songs or Mama's seen

Sam Petersen  3:51  
before and after the show.

Kirsty Webeck  3:53  
Especially after and they've just got to find their way to the top of the queue basically. It's a dreadful idea but I'd also absolutely watch it

Sam Petersen  4:01  
I love it. I love the comments when any of those shows where anything like that goes on all the comments are who and you'd like to get your following like Carrie big morning going who every time she posts

Dan Ilic  4:12  
what I resent is someone who's had profile for some time anytime a news article comes up about me on the Daily Mail was like this guy did this. This guy was on TV once. There's like a new a new TV celebrity. They're like Derek fuckface. Coming up later, we talked with Ben Pennings, a climate activist who was trying to save the world was sued by Danny for $17 million. We'll ask him does he think it's worth saving the world? But first, here's a message from this week's sponsor. The Australian Labour Party is finally in charge. But don't worry conservatives. We're not here to shake things up. Good governance means more of the same but different, more of the same petroleum exploration but not on Sydney. It's North Shore in the southern Ocean, more of the same destruction of sacred sites and song lines, but not for iron ore, for gas.

Anthony Albanese  5:07  
whatever our differences in political parties we share a love for coal seam gas drilling.

Dan Ilic  5:13  
And yes, we know it looks like we've rushed into passing a bill on climate action. But don't worry, it's weeks Pearson won't change a thing. The Australian

Anthony Albanese  5:22  
people voted for change, and we intend to give them nothing

Dan Ilic  5:27  
Australian Labor, same suits, different types. This week's first fit is brought to you by our sponsor, the Labour Party more of the same. Now despite the end of the world being linked to fossil fuels, Australian Labour Government has just opened up a new petroleum exploration of the waters of Victoria, Tasmania. And energy companies are already saying, Hey, we should relax and the best straight operation is just going to be more of an artisanal approach and that they're just going to be drilling enough oil to ensure local apothecaries have enough scented candles. So I think that's a good a good thing. Yeah, fear mongers. This is a decision that is clearly at odds with our own climate targets of fuck all, which is at least better than what we've had, which was no fucking targets. I was Toby, how do you reconcile this decision to go drilling in the Southern Ocean?

Alice Tovey  6:16  
I think it's fantastic. I love the government's approaching the 2030 climate target the way that a teenager kind of approaches housework when their mom's busy and out of the house. They're like, Oh, darling, take the chicken out of the freezer. And then you realize it suddenly, seven years later, you've been playing Mario Kart named just microwaving the shit out of this

Dan Ilic  6:33  
cheat? Yeah, delete those paddles that you can put the pedals for a cardiac arrest. Oh, my God. Yeah. It's just it's quite, you know, disconcerting. Like I think I tweeted something like, let the disappointments begin. We've had four good weeks of hope. And now Everything's fucked again.

Alice Tovey  6:55  
Surely, and it's just adding to all the carbon capture and storage stuff that they've announced as well. So basically, they're kind of like big tubs. They're meant to like take the carbon and fuck it off elsewhere, which is great, but it's kind of just climate Reiki at this point

Sam Petersen  7:12  
could they be born with billboards? Or I'm thinking you're the billboard

Dan Ilic  7:16  
look let's just say billboards fix cars climate change last time probably will fix climate change carbon I just whenever that's when that stuff did have it. I think like that. That was my attitude was just Yeah, it's like, Guys, I fix climate change. I've done

Kirsty Webeck  7:37  
it. It's beautiful to watch. It really was a skeptic. I didn't think that you do it with the billboards. And then you did What do you mean like in New York? Or yeah, I didn't I didn't think you'd solve climate change with

Sam Petersen  7:48  
I don't think it was like we didn't actually go through with the bill. We thought we'd take the money and

Kirsty Webeck  7:54  
go through with it. I just I was like, surely that won't solve the problem. And then it did.

Dan Ilic  7:58  
Corrected fix the problem and that's why we can now explore for patrolling.

Alice Tovey  8:03  
And her pamphlet she's just seen.

Alex Dyson  8:08  
The Guardian reporter Peter Hanim tweeted this incredible graph from the RBA today, saying that to meet our net zero targets our colleague exports have to drop before below 100 megatons a year before 2050. But the RBA has done the projections on the current policies. And that line is just kind of soaring up into the sky. The RBA is like hey, you think interest rates is bad? Where do you see these megatrends? Go?

Sam Petersen  8:36  
Anytime I see any sort of graph now all I'm thinking about it's flattened back. It's all I've known for a very long time.

Dan Ilic  8:43  
That's it that's that would actually work. Yeah, climate action as

Sam Petersen  8:47  
well. The Financial Times.

Alice Tovey  8:50  
I love the idea of you looking at a pie chart being like two rounds.

Sam Petersen  8:55  
will never work.

Alex Dyson  8:56  
This week. Second fear putting the prime in Prime Minister news now footage of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin dancing in her own home was late and criticized by many sectors of the world's media including Nigel Lythgoe saying it was a brave performance but she won't be coming back next week. Santa was sober everything I'm sure a lot of people don't know who that guy is. You know he's just a British judge. Look, I tried I tried my career would have testament that is actually true. Even held a press conference to say hey, what's what's the big deal? Get over your big babies. Meanwhile, footage of elbows scowling a beer at a gang of youths gig was praised in large sections of Australian media except of course, Sky News. Now firstly, we back you're a renowned, joyful person. Does this kind of behavior mean our leaders are now going to have to dance like everyone's watching.

Kirsty Webeck  9:52  
It would seem that way. I mean, Sanna Marin is like a young person having a nice time and having a life and she's got Got a job? Like sorry for having a job.

Sam Petersen  10:05  
Thank you for finally apologizing

Kirsty Webeck  10:08  
on her behalf. But then, you know, like just isn't Jacinda are doing like a DJ as well like, Well, I'm not going to tolerate that no music in New Zealand please. And then also the thing with elbow like he says Australia's Got no culture, we've got a culture do a show we make. So

Dan Ilic  10:26  
to be honest, isn't that the one thing that prevents me from running for Prime Minister's like I cannot handle the pressure of sculling appear at every fucking event, I just won't be able to do

Sam Petersen  10:35  
it. Why did it tradition, I don't even understand why people think that's so cool to be able to drink fast as a prime minister or sports as well. And all goes

Alex Dyson  10:43  
back to Bob Hawke when he was at Oxford, right? And he scoured the Jaguars. If you go to Oxford pub, in Oxford, there's this mural of Bob Hawke and his yard glass and it's less plaque that says Bob hawks set the record for scaling the

Alice Tovey  10:57  
must be some kind of prime ministerial training program to Skull beer, you think so?

Kirsty Webeck  11:04  
They receive a manuscript that says in this role now you'll be required to scope beers in public and kill the environment.

Sam Petersen  11:15  
I was just so perplexed by the whole thing, and like people tweeting the elbow thing, I was like, Oh, I don't I didn't really see why it was so impressive or something to celebrate the drinking really quickly and everything. I was like, are we still here?

Kirsty Webeck  11:27  
Yeah. It's sort of depressing. Just in the, in the whole context of like, Australia's drinking cult. Yeah. And that's been under the microscope a little bit lately as well. Yeah. And it's just it's such a weird badge of honor. And then I think the contrast between how that was dealt with as well. And then everything that's going on with the Finnish Prime Minister, too, is it's just really interesting. Yeah. I mean, there's obviously some gender stuff at play, but also just our drinking culture and the way that we salute that kind of behavior. Like, he tried to beer and it's like, yeah, great. I'd like to see effect some social and political change.

Sam Petersen  12:03  
A few hours later elbow, or go to the gang have advice for everybody.

Kirsty Webeck  12:09  
He's like, Well, I'm too hung over now.

Sam Petersen  12:13  
He's doing it himself. Although that that whole thing, but also like that she had well, she I don't know if she volunteered to get a drug test or something as well. I think it was because

Dan Ilic  12:25  
she didn't do it. She said, she said, I've never done drugs. I haven't done drugs in my childhood. Y'all get over it. Yeah. And I think that's so

Kirsty Webeck  12:31  
crazy. I think she ended up doing it. The media reported that she tested negative, right, she ended up having to bow down to the pressure, like whether or not that's true, but that's what the media was reporting yesterday.

Sam Petersen  12:40  
So we can say allegedly after.

Kirsty Webeck  12:45  
And then when the dust settled on that, then there was suddenly this photo of the two women kissing at another party. Yeah. And the finished flag and yeah, and I mean, I might be the wrong person to comment on this. But that looked like a bit of wholesome fun.

Sam Petersen  13:03  
We love getting talking about that on twitter.com.

Alice Tovey  13:06  
You and I cursed you can't run for politics. There's too many photos of us kissing hot chicks.

Dan Ilic  13:13  
In 2025, you know, society will change that will become acceptable. And we know that will be your poster. That will be let's be running. All out on the open. You can say that now you can say yeah, we've done all that. All of those pictures are on Facebook. Go get them from 2003 They're right there ready for you? Yeah, yeah,

Kirsty Webeck  13:36  
we don't really have the skeletons in the closet anymore. Do we? We've just got the skeletons on google.com readily available. You can find every bad thing I've done in my life right there. Yeah,

Sam Petersen  13:46  
I love I love mates at Ruby each other on Facebook when there's like an old post and then one of them bumps it up to the top. I'm so sorry.

Dan Ilic  13:55  
I already do counts like me and Run Twitter Delete on your Twitter. Oh,

Kirsty Webeck  14:01  
I haven't I absolutely need to. Now that I've admitted that I haven't on this podcast, like I definitely have a busy night ahead. Scrubbing and cry.

Dan Ilic  14:14  
You know when Facebook says Do you remember this memory and so often will come up now I'm like, I don't remember saying that at all. Yeah, I don't necessarily think about that about sandpaper.

Sam Petersen  14:24  
You said some horrific.

Kirsty Webeck  14:26  
Most of them were true.

Dan Ilic  14:31  
Most of us here, big Twitter heads. I don't know if you caught the vibe on Twitter on Tuesday when the Solicitor General was about to release their report about the Scott monastery that Scott was monitoring. Scott Morrison ministry stuffed and did you did you see? The blue drips like baying for blood? And then the legal drips are like hey, just relax. It was I actually I actually caught a promo from Channel Nine for it.

Unknown Speaker  14:58  
But most anticipated There's a document drop in Australia political history. Actually it's more like a PDF from the most senior more official in the land. I'm actually more of a public servant who knows a lot about the law Solicitor General will release the Morison ministry manifesto. It's actually analysis as Scott Morrison broken the law. Not really has he ruined democracy as we know it. It's certainly unconventional Catster juicy gossip midday on Tuesday, she posted a top 10 the Solicitor General's Morrison ministry manifestor analysis could check a strap threat maybe but ticket will buy you a whole seat but you'll only need the

Dan Ilic  15:49  
Well that sounds very unsafe I recommend against it. Very good. All right. This week's third day the billionaire versus the blog Lachlan Murdoch is suing crikey for defamation. This is just exactly the kind of behavior you'd expect from a dog Kim came from Frankie covered the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill in DC he'd alluded not my name mind you that the Murdoch family might have something to do with allegedly claiming they have some undue influence on certain section of the conservative media. And then Murdoch you know, sent crikey, some legal letters, crikey, then publish them and put out an ad in the New York Times saying that, hey, come and get us You dog. Lachlan Murdoch seen the opportunity to shut down a subscription news website? That wasn't his own set? All right, I will. So now where does this leave? Crikey, surely everyone that was already going to subscribe to them has subscribed, and they've got enough money. Well, they're gonna burn a bunch of money to kind of fight Lachlan Murdoch, Sam Peterson you run a subscription media business. Do you have any tips for cracking?

Sam Petersen  16:53  
Absolutely. Always take on the Murdoch. idea. I take them on a monthly I love I like to say bad word about the Murdochs I think they're wonderful. I think we can all agree with that. I would never say anything bad about them. They could

Dan Ilic  17:06  
they could potentially invest in podcasting.

Kirsty Webeck  17:11  
And what about those salacious rumors that you were spreading about Lachlan before we started

Sam Petersen  17:15  
recording? Allegedly. I know that you've recorded them on your phone you're always recording, always recording. But it is i i find it so sad that they've taken on crikey because a lot of other publications at the time in America were publicizing a lot of things as well. And it was just crikey that they took on for defamation because it's different in Australia with defamation law. So they're taking on crack. And I think it's so sad for independent journalists who are trying a subscription based site because you know, podcasts obviously, for me, they make a lot of money. Absolutely wrong.

Kirsty Webeck  17:48  
That's why That's why I keep blackmailing.

Sam Petersen  17:52  
But it is it is so sad with subscription services, because you're obviously not making a lot of money out of it. And they're going after kind of a small fish that they could go after so many other people, but they're for some reason going after the most Ozzie subscription service ever. Crikey.

Dan Ilic  18:06  
Yeah. And I mean, I would love to be sued and then have to declare bankruptcy because it's just so much pressure to keep continuing

Sam Petersen  18:14  
to get that content out.

Dan Ilic  18:17  
So Daniel, is actually going to instigate a motion for a judicial inquiry for greater media diversity and make media organizations responsible for the truth and material that they purvey including penalties to match. This is the next movement in this whole campaign. And this scares me all of a sudden having to justify everything in this podcast. Yeah, but it's truthiness. Oh my god I'm

Sam Petersen  18:38  
Richard you'll find just say a legend heaps I'll do anything about content is I'm so happy that Kirsty actually records everything but it is it is so sad though that you have to be so careful now about about everything I mean, you know it's not it's not political correctness gone evidence. It's that awful thing of just going are like friends of mine who are comedians that worry about things that said three years ago or something or you know everything there is this fear now I think with everybody posting things, making sure it's right and there is a bit of like that could be a really good thing with a lot of outlets like when Daily Mail and stuff, but there is I think there has to be accountability but going after crikey.com Seems like a bit of a stretch.

Dan Ilic  19:20  
Yeah, you have to prove that he was defined by crikey well you gotta prove that crikey had any influence

Kirsty Webeck  19:28  
Yeah, I love that that you have to be able to prove that it's everywhere except for the intent Western Australia now isn't it that they changed the rules so that you've got to be able to prove that yeah gonna damage your reputation trophy

Alice Tovey  19:39  
ante and is that why they can do such funny headlines

Kirsty Webeck  19:43  
and be the kinds of people that will be suing over this stuff like have little to no reputation? For first prove that you had any kind

Dan Ilic  19:55  
by quite frankly, for me as a bit of a small fry person I would love for someone To define me because it seems to be always easy because you can easily cushy if you define me we'll go halves in a settlement. You give me a million dollars I'll give you 500,000

Sam Petersen  20:14  
I'm represented by twitter.com. Dan she's got 305 pulled up all this old stuff.

Kirsty Webeck  20:27  
I'm making it up. I don't care. I'm ruthless.

Dan Ilic  20:31  
In a second, we're gonna be talking with Ben pinnings. But before we do that, we're going to play hang on a sec. Hang on a sec, is where I play something on the internet. That's real. And you chime in and say Hang on a second. I'll stop the tape. This week. Take on a sec is a real promotional video from Russia. AKA the country Russia. They put it out through the Russian Embassy in Spain on their Twitter trying to convince people to move to Russia. Right this is hang on a sec. I'll play it tell me when you want to chime in to say Hang on a second I stopped

Unknown Speaker  21:01  
this is Russia delicious squizzy viewed

Kirsty Webeck  21:15  
i Okay. Yeah. Firstly, that was a Yeah, it's a major Yep. A major yuck but I was actually

Dan Ilic  21:23  
something orange and gelatinous on top of what could be maybe a stack of pancakes

Kirsty Webeck  21:30  
Mnemic whatever it is, it's not working at its best but it was more the next slide that I was going for beautiful women

Unknown Speaker  21:37  
beautiful women Yeah,

Kirsty Webeck  21:39  
look I'm I am an expert on beautiful women actually. And as far as I'm concerned, they are two small children

Alice Tovey  21:50  
there is a Britney Spears lyric I'm not a girl not yet a woman no those are definitely not women. Young girls the only

Kirsty Webeck  21:57  
girls yeah very young

Dan Ilic  21:58  
it's not it's not quite right maybe you know let's not forget English is their second language.

Sam Petersen  22:05  
Even for like any advertisements, like even when they're doing like an Australian advertisement in Australia, they have to go through so many processes and it's it's a train minute or something Queensland gets upset they have to go on to kind of have trains the Deaf just use very young girls that are not and not gone back and change

Kirsty Webeck  22:21  
what Dan saying about like English being a second language like a draw card of you moving to a country because it's got beautiful young girls. Yeah, well, I can see now children are lovely. Yeah, it's still not a draw card. Even if it's an English thing it's like but what I'm not moving there because there's two sisters frolicking and

Unknown Speaker  22:41  
women cheap gas

Dan Ilic  22:49  
this price the prices were having gas I'm like maybe maybe I could spend maybe I could spend non festival season in Russia.

Sam Petersen  22:57  
It just looks like a lot of stock footage. It just looks like they've gone through like Shutterstock and it just found heaps of footage all at once. Nothing looks like it's been shot for this ad.

Alex Dyson  23:06  
Yeah, I mean admittedly I've never been to Russia No, I can't actually this could be this could be faked that's

Alice Tovey  23:12  
actually julong sold I'll move to history

Kirsty Webeck  23:23  
What's the thing we have to keep when we want to stop oh gosh I go fish oh okay well now that I've interrupted the rich history creating summers we

Dan Ilic  23:39  
Yeah, this is gonna be in the history books. Part of it guys jump up. Be a part of the good

Unknown Speaker  23:48  
world famous literature unique architecture. fertile soil

Sam Petersen  23:54  
emphasize stop hang on a sec stop that's actually my drag name I haven't decided

Unknown Speaker  24:08  
TriCity and water Hang

Alice Tovey  24:09  
on. The bathtubs a bit of a stretch it's going a bit hotel and then kind of into horror movie with the ballet feet and the next shot and very

Sam Petersen  24:17  
milky in the bar here. That will be Goldberg

Kirsty Webeck  24:22  
that's a missed opportunity to say it's cheap milk as well. Even milk

Dan Ilic  24:26  
there's a reason why this water is cheap. It's not processed right out of it.

Sam Petersen  24:31  
And also cheap electricity which is

Alice Tovey  24:33  
just got canned. I've also never seen a more beautiful board woman in my goodness.

Dan Ilic  24:39  
That was realistic. She'd be having an iPad

Unknown Speaker  24:44  
belay cheap taxi and delivery drug dish traditional values. Christianity,

Sam Petersen  24:54  
hang on a sec not not a huge draw. To get you to a country

Kirsty Webeck  25:00  
I'm for the cheap guests stay for the Christianity

Dan Ilic  25:03  
All right I think the next one could be great for Canadians

Unknown Speaker  25:08  
no canceled culture this is your chance

Sam Petersen  25:14  
a lot canceled culture I think a lot of good

Kirsty Webeck  25:19  
Russia can't say anything anymore because if you're already canceled

Sam Petersen  25:28  
not gonna deal right?

Kirsty Webeck  25:29  
They're impervious to

Unknown Speaker  25:33  
vodka economy that can withstand 1000s of sanctions

Kirsty Webeck  25:42  
but he's so funny that's the funny thing

Sam Petersen  25:48  
it does sound like a joke

Dan Ilic  25:51  
but a whole world thanks just feel like this would be the perfect home for Scott Morrison. This is perfect for Australia.

Sam Petersen  26:02  
Get it up here. No straighteners trying to give up what am I talking about? Bloody hell what is that are you in the know the way the buddy campaign like that had such like iconic moments were on a beach and even though it's a very old ad now it was just so iconic the way they did it and the tagline and everything I love that that was the love that's gonna be my ringtone

Unknown Speaker  26:35  
economy that can withstand

Dan Ilic  26:39  
what I love about that is

Kirsty Webeck  26:44  
like such an emphasis there like you have no idea how many sanctions just keep coming.

Sam Petersen  26:51  
Sorry, buddy. No cancel Kochi,

Unknown Speaker  26:53  
calm canceling. Winter is coming.

Alice Tovey  26:58  
I know that the Song of Ice and Fire or whatever the case is a little bit too far. Yeah, it's

Sam Petersen  27:04  
very creepy motion. Yeah. The end.

Dan Ilic  27:09  
I mean, typically winter does come every year. So you know, maybe it's the season. And I found that

Kirsty Webeck  27:16  
I could up the ante by saying the nuclear winter is coming.

Dan Ilic  27:24  
we interview guest has been accused by one of the world's biggest coal companies of trespass intimidation inducing company insiders to breach contracts by leaking sensitive information and irrational fear. were accusing him of being a badass, please welcome to the podcast Ben pinnings. Now been for over a year, you've been fighting this case with a Danny, for people who don't know, can you give us that as a quick summary of your story?

Unknown Speaker  27:50  
Yeah, well, I was one of the more prominent people in the stopping Arnie movement. And a couple of years ago, yeah, they decided to try and Sue myself. They, yes, believe I cost them 600 million. They're suing me for 17 million. They followed my wife and kids around, they applied to the court to raid our house. They've done all the dirty tricks in the book. And two years later, it's still going.

Dan Ilic  28:13  
It's so extreme. You've been you've been fighting this for two years. How has it taken? How has it taken a toll on your own health?

Unknown Speaker  28:21  
Should? Yeah, it's been. It's one of those things you don't want to say it's had too much toll on my health and my family, because you don't want to scare other people off, you know, being ratbags. But yeah, it's an unusual case. You know, there's been nothing like this in Australia for 2030 years, you know, in the ICT, it's illegal, but all the other states in Australia, it's legal to have this sort of court case. You know, lots of parts of the US and Europe, you're not allowed to do these sort of court cases, but it's legal and Queensland are down. You're going for it and they're going hard. And I'm I'm copping it Wow.

Dan Ilic  28:54  
Danny said that they you know, you cause them $600 million worth of damage. First of all, well done. Well done. That's allegedly, allegedly. Okay. That's a word we've said a lot. Tonight. Yeah. Everything. How was how was your court case proceeding and like when you know, how can folks help?

Unknown Speaker  29:14  
Well, yeah, it's gone two years, you know, I've raised or the community has been great, like people, you know, know what to do when a billionaire bully. This dude's the fourth richest person in the world, like is worth 150 billion. It's just ridiculous. And he's going after me to make me bankrupt and, you know, get my family home, etc. But there has been, you know, 910 1000 people have donated so far, about half a million bucks. But in the legal world, half million bucks is nothing. Yeah, Dan, you've obviously spent millions as well. So unfortunately, yes, I'm going to have to raise half a million bucks again, which I'm going to be launching pretty soon asking, you know, community members to put in which they have so people hate bullies. And unfortunately on the end copping it but there's been Many, many, many, many, many 1000s of Australians involved and stop at any moment. And of course, we've had an impact and being quite successful. And the Adani coal mine, which was going to be massive is now you know, small and all the other mines that were proposed for the Galilee basin are very unlikely to get up. So it's been a very successful movement. But obviously they want to make me pay and they don't like me and don't like me for good reason. But people should be able to be peaceful protesters and you know, play up and campaign for our health and well being and then have kids.

Dan Ilic  30:32  
Yeah, no, absolutely not even peaceful protesters fucking cause some trouble,

Sam Petersen  30:36  
Billboard billable one

Dan Ilic  30:40  
been what is the benefit of them wait and spending all this time and money? So I don't use it? Is it just to deter others from doing the same?

Unknown Speaker  30:47  
Yeah, it's it's hard to know. But yeah, we believe it's the tactic. So yeah, there's galley blockade, which I was known as a leader of and other organizations have been, you know, focusing on the banks and the contractors and the insurance companies and the engineering firms and really trying to convince them not to get in bed with a really, you know, dodgy company like Adani. Adani says we've been very successful, but they're blaming me individually for it. Like I'm one of many 1000s, even though I was one of the leaders there, they've picked someone to make an example of and that's me, and they haven't done it half assed and is a really big case, lots of money, you know, lawyers at 10 paces, it's, you know, I've got five lawyers, and that's nothing they've got tensile is, you know, lawyers, that costs a lot of money. But it has to it's, you know, there's precedent involved as well, like these sort of cases are called slap suits, which is strategic litigation against public participation. And yeah, what they want to do is scare other people. So it's really important that the case is one and precedent isn't set. But you know, the whole legal system like I got to be careful what I say I'm not allowed to inverted commas disrespect the court. But I don't believe these cases still exist. They're an affront to democracy, but they do exist. It doesn't happen very often. So it's very important. We went up not just for me and my family, but for the political freedom of all Australians, I suppose.

Dan Ilic  32:14  
Ben, have you thought about trying to, you know, use a bit of canceled culture on Gautam Adani, you'd gone through his old tweets seen a picture of your dad's party or something.

Unknown Speaker  32:25  
I will sit here and bite my tongue, because I'm in the middle of a court case with regards to what as you can imagine, when someone fucks over your family, it's very easy to get little revenge fantasies in your head. I won't specify those. But it's, you know, it sucks. This guy has just recently overtaken Bill Gates to be the fourth person, richest person in the world like having $150 billion. And, you know, saying what he's doing to provide for poor Indians, that is appalling. And it makes me sick, what he can get away with. It makes me sick, what multi billionaires can do, but Australia does have more political freedoms than many other places in the world. You know, if I was in India, God knows what would have happened to me, given the current close relationship between Gautam Adani and the Prime Minister Modi there. So, yeah, it's important that we do stand up and play up and do the best we can to resist, you know, why don't in my view, or climate crimes,

Dan Ilic  33:21  
what is the particular peculiarity of the Queensland court system that allows them to do this?

Unknown Speaker  33:27  
Well, it's everywhere in Australia apart from the AC t. So the AC T has a more progressive government with the labor and greens there. So these types of suits aren't legal there, but every other state, they are, like the last big one was in the 90s, against Bob Brown and some of his mates with the pulp mill there. And the good news about that is that case took six years, and ultimately, the timber company lost and they went bankrupt. So that's not going to happen with Danny but it could be two more years that I'm in the Supreme Court. So I'm in the Supreme Court in the next few days. And yeah, it's half a day in court fighting over what in my head as a civilian is ridiculous stuff. But ultimately, it's important because it affects other people over time. And you know, we do want to protect the freedom of people to get engaged in politics more than just voting going out there and civil disobedience has been so important for so long and a lot of our rights have come because of that and we need to protect it

Dan Ilic  34:26  
Yeah, well Ben, good luck How can folks help you out?

Unknown Speaker  34:30  
Well look out on Facebook Twitter and all the other places in the next few days you'll see a hashtag dad Versa Danny on the dead so he's a suburban dad in Brisbane have cut the kids and a cut the step kids in a small business and, you know, a mortgage and all that sort of stuff. And, and ultimately, it's really important because I'm just an average person, in many ways, and it doesn't just affect me like it's, you know, what it's affected with regards to my wife who's never been, you know, pretty much to approach stayin alive. It's not her thing. This is messing her life around. It's messing my kids lives around by but, you know, kids who have been paranoid that they're followed by investigators because they were followed by investigators. It's pretty sad disgusting stuff. That's that's happened. And it's not good that my family has copped it. It's not good that I've copped it. And yeah, it's important that we fight. So you will see some prominent Australians taking photos of themselves with a hashtag and all that sort of stuff. Pretty much share it around donate if you can. It's going to be in the media. You just look up or down in court case and you'll find my aging mug and

Dan Ilic  35:41  
well then I'll definitely tweet a picture. But we're going to change the hashtag it's going to be DadBod Versa Donnie.

Unknown Speaker  35:48  
Well, yeah, so I'm trying to go to the gym to minimize that one. But it seems like the yes gravity in the sands of time like beat the gym for some reason.

Dan Ilic  35:57  
I will make sure we put all the information in the show notes. Well, that is it for rational fi big thank you to Alice tovi Kirsty Weaver, just Sam Peterson and Ben, thank you so much. Let's get to the plugs. Our Sweetwater plug,

Alice Tovey  36:08  
hey, so I'm going to be in Launceston in a few weeks doing a few shows or otherwise just go to Alice toby.com and see what I'm doing and film filling out yes, I've just made

Sam Petersen  36:18  
for some great things about it. Oh,

Alice Tovey  36:21  
you're so sweet. I'm Yes, I have a film out called hands. So look at festival programs that'll be coming out eventually.

Dan Ilic  36:27  
Yeah, so I

Sam Petersen  36:29  
have a podcast every week called Confessions of the idiots. It's very fun podcast and I've got a live show happening on the seventh of October in Melbourne with Australia today on Missy Higgins Jess Perkins and of course Dave Lawson will be there my pretty much another co host will be there as well and maybe Sophie to hit you know and the Oliver Clark will be there as well. The two golden tonsils of Australia yours Peter Hitchens episodes Yeah. Sorry. It's such a beautiful person I suppose in the world. So yeah, conditions of the idiots on everything. Because your way back.

Kirsty Webeck  37:00  
I'm all over the interwebs I'm under my name. Curtsy way back on all social media platforms could really use a boost on tick tock.

Sam Petersen  37:10  
To go, Oh, you did a great sort of Zagami what else?

Kirsty Webeck  37:13  
Did it do go on podcast. A week ago, that was very, very funny. And also, I'm working on a new show for a national tour next year. So Kirsty wibit.com is my website and you can sign up to my mailing list there to find out where I'm gonna be and how funny I'll be.

Dan Ilic  37:29  
And Ben, where can people find you?

Unknown Speaker  37:30  
Find me on Ben pennings.com or just search for Danny court case and you'll be able to see all sorts of media things and yep, help out as you can.

Dan Ilic  37:38  
Alright, chip in. Big thanks to everyone for joining the show tonight. Don't forget we've got our Fody show on the 17th of September at Carriageworks. Huge show. Big thank you to Jacob round, who did the incredible sketch production tonight. Rode mics our Patreon supporters and we're we're recording today stupid old studios big thank you to them. Thank you guys. All right. Until next time, there's always something to be scared of.

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