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