Nine Podcasts. Hello, this is Neil Mitchell. Welcome to My View of the world, my weekly view of the world today. How the devil would destroy the world. Perhaps why it's time to seriously reform the health system and we've been trying for years. Elbow, he's woken up. The hangover's easing, but it's not not all good news. And football sports reporting has become a blunt sport. We're in the era of the football shock jock, and I say that as
one who was often accused wrongly of being a shock shop. Anyway, take it as you wish. Why can't we just celebrate the game a bit more rather than sniping at some of the idiots who play it and run it and your comments Neil dot Mitchell at nine dot com dot are you actually Let's start with sports. Sport was once called the toy shop of life, a diversion, a place to release passion, to relax, a place of unquestioned loyalty. Even when your team was read thrashed, you supported them.
There's a sense of tribalism about following a team, and we probably need that more than ever. The world is too divided and cynical and bitter. Thank you social media. Sport theoretically at least addresses that. With Australian football, rugby league, cricket in particular, you go along with the mate who supports the other side. You watch the game, you stir each other up. You don't come to blows, you gon't have a drink later and analyze what happened. Soccer not
so much. At times we build walls between opposing supporters. But then soccer, in my view, has got a cultural problem, which is proven by some people who should know better, supporting people lifting, letting off flares in the crowd. Generally, though, Australian sport's a healthy thing, so it saddens me to see sports reporting, particularly on Australian football, focusing so much
on aggression. I was sports of the ASI newspaper for four years a lifetime ago, and although we reported them politics and the power plays, our main role, we remembered was always to highlight the sport, to celebrate the sport, the great tennis matches, the Cliffhanger test cricket, brave football
of any code, world records. Now, particularly around AFL football, there are so many different panel chat programs, postgame, pre game, midweek they're scrambling for attention, and some have decided the way to get attention is to turn into a footballing shock. Jock Cane Corn's in particular, the former South Australian champion, great player. He's trying so hard. Well, he's trying too hard. He's been lured to Channel seven from Channel nine because
of his hard line commentary. That's fair enough. He needs to balance it with more praise and more direct enjoyment and love of the game. Sometimes seeing his mates will jump on the smallest issue and try to develop it into outrage when there's no outrage below the boy crying wolf. When there is outrage, go for it. But if you see everything as outrage, nobody's going to believe you when you say it. Korns has not lost the plot at
this stage, but he's in danger heading that way. He's even been banned by a number of clubs and han a run in with Luke Beveridge, the foots Graate coach football commentator. Sports commentary should point out the problems that should of course expose and discuss the dramas, but let's talk more about the game and the people who are not in trouble. I think this shock jock approach and sport will wear thin. There's nothing wrong with robust debate, but there is a danger when you continue to go
looking for debates that don't exist. Mostly people are doing that to match their image. Too often, some seem to try to live up to the hype around the commentator, not the beauty of the game. There's a massive problem in Australia's health system. It's a problem which is hurting people, delaying treatment, aggravating pain and suffering. Now I'd like to say this is a new and developing problem. The sad thing is it's not new personally. I've been screaming about
it on radio for thirty years. Various politicians have tried and failed to fix it. And but Kevin Rudd said the buck stops with me, or was this two thousand and seven, the buck stops with me on health? He had to give up. He failed on that. The latest reports out of Victoria should shock her, but they don't. Hospitals, it's reported, have been falsifying records to meet targets set by governments. Northern hospitals been named, but my sources say
it is not unusual at other hospitals. You simply chop a few minutes off the time it takes to get a patient from ambulance to emergency department. Bureaucrats are happy, the government's happy, everybody's happy, except the patient and the doctor. It is a fraud on good medicine. This was first exposed in Sydney, believe it on sixteen years ago. Sixteen
years ago, and it's still going on now. Of course the politicians are in are now outraged, and they're going to be outraged until everybody forgets about it and we go back to the fraud. This is Victoria's Health Minister Mary Ann Thomas being shocked and amazed. Have her listen to it.
I want to get to the bottom of it. I've also asked the question why who's benefiting funding is not tied to any of these performance indicators.
Nonsense. If she didn't know, she's the only one in the system who didn't know. Now, maybe they're doing this for the right reason, but it's still a dodgy way to go around business, or it's only a symptom of the disease as well. There are huge problems in emergency departments and hospitals. It's not unusual for patients to wait twenty four hours in emergency before getting a bed. It's not unusual for them to wait hours before being seen once they've been triached. It's not unusual for people to
be treated by overwork staff in the corridors. It's not unusual for ambulances to wait hours with patients because the department is too busy, which of course means an ambulance off the road. What else is going on in health? Kids with serious problems I'm told of waiting months to see psychiatrists, by which stage the damage is pretty much done. In Queensland, in Cans, a distraught woman lost her brother and partner to sudden death within weeks of each other.
She's been told to wait four months for any counseling. Four months it will be too late. Hospitals are full bed block. They call it largely because elderly patients has got nowhere else to go. Staff struggle to get patients into beds, perhaps even in the wrong wards to treat. Whatever the illness or the problem is, there's a new focus now. The focus is not on fixing it, but on making the figures look better. Doctors tell me they've been told to be aware of the targets and data
is being fiddled to match the times. It's bureaucratic garbage. Doesn't fix the problems, it fudges them while patients suffer. I've heard of elderly patients at the end of life, unable to get to bed and having to die in the corner of a busy emergency department with their families around them. I've heard of mental health patients waiting days in emergency, some walking out. On top of that, you've got to wait weeks to see a GP and even further,
none of it's knew. The crisis has been there for years. It is nationwide. The federal election did nothing to address it. I'm an elbow showed us his Medicare card every five minutes, which is not much good if there are no doctors to see. We need several things here. We've got to fix it, and we need several things. We need a full summit. Talk to the doctors, talk to the nurses. Listen to them. They have ideas to improve the system. Nobody wants to listen to them. Talk to the patients,
find out what's really going on on the ground. Talk to the bureaucrats who are trying to make the dollars squeeze. I mean, they're probably not doing the wrong thing. They're just trying to do the best thing by everybody. The state federal duplication in health is absurd. It's wasteful, bureaucratic mess. Sort that out sought, the training sought, the resources. In Victoria,
hospitals are literally falling down. The Royal Melbourne, one of our major hospitals, is held together with chicken wire, has been for years. In New South Wales, private hospitals are closing, which puts more pressure on the public system. There is an urgent need for action, but it's been urgent for years, is not it? Starting point? With all this fudging of data going on, the health ministers, federal and state should
get together and conduct an information raid. An information raid arrive unannounced at a hospital one day, no media, just a team to look at the figures that haven't been massaged, the real figures. Talk to people, get a genuine grassroots idea of what's going on. That'll be a start, but they won't like it. But they want to take TV cameras with them for a start, for a photo opportunity. And second, the politicians are part of the con in government.
They prefer to see fudge figures. They want to pretend everything is terrific, even when blind Freddie can see it is not. What it is is a long running, life changing, life threatening, massively expensive, inefficient disaster. That's your health system. Never think about this for a moment. You want to use the internet. That might be for fun, might be for work, might be just some information to settle a debate. You sit down at your computer. Before you log on,
You've got to do three things. One put in a password that's okay. Two your face must be recognized by the computer. Three you provide your finger. Now you meet all three criteria, you're online. File one, go away, no access. Is that an assault on freedom? I wonder the scambuster I interviewed on my podcast Neil Mitchell asks why reckons we need to do it. That interview is available now in the usual places, and his argument is this, the Internet can be evil, can also be good, but it
can be evil. It's littered with scams that hurt good people, scams at fun, terrorism, amongst other things. It is basically unpoliced, and he says this is the way to begin policing it. This is what he told me. His name is Ken Gamble, his company is IFW Global, which is a cyber security company that operates internationally. This is what Ken Gamble said.
There needs to be better policing on the Internet. There needs to be more regulation around people using services online. Ultimately, there should be some sort of national identity. I think we all should be identified by our face and our fingerprint.
Oh you should national identity card.
Yeah, that and that identity then accesses your use of the Internet and everyone that uses the Internet. Because the Internet was set up to create freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of everything, you know, and that was the whole purpose. And of course criminals have now used it for nefarious purposes. So I think there needs to be a lot more regulation around the Internet moving forward into the future where it has to be policed a lot more because no
one's policing the Internet as a whole. Nobody. There's no national or international global law enforcement agency that it's policing the Internet as a whole. And that's the problem.
Just just flush out that idea on the card. How would that work? You'd need an authority to use the Internet.
Well, you know, it's not a bad idea. But of course people will argue, well, that's that's an invasion of privacy where you people want to be free to do aver they like. But when you're dealing with the amount of crime that's online, and there's always going to be people that will never agree. That's the problem. We live in society where people enjoy their freedom, they don't want to be having to put their fingerprint into access to
the Internet. But I think that there should be I would love to see most self personally, based on everything that I've seen, I'd love to see when you log into the Internet to use the Internet, that you're identified, that your face and your fingerprint. Just like when you go to a crypto company and you buy cryptocurrency, they have to identify your face and your fingerprint and they have to identify you and in order to use cryptocurrency. So why should it be a different to the Internet.
You should be identified in order to use the Internet and get access to all of those services. It's a simple identification of who you are when you log in, your identity is logged in. Of course it can be exploited, but it would be a good start. Probably never could be implemented, but I think that's one way of starting to enforce the law when it comes to Internet and actually regulating the use of the Internet. That's the only real way.
Now my dubt it will happen, but something needs to be done. Billions are scam from innocent people each year. The internet's a huge part of that. Australia is the number one target because we are decent, trusting people. That's nice that we're decent and trusting, but it makes us a target. Artificial intelligence is growing and making it more difficult. There was a version of Anthony Alberanezi recently supporting some investment plan total fake and now this is a little
bit frightening. The reports circulating that if you ask chat GPT AI, if I was a devil then I wanted to destroy a generation? What would I do? If I was the devil and I wanted to destroyer generation? What would I do? The AI answer effectively, it says, well, do what's happening? Do things like undermine critical thinking, promote instant gratification, break down family relationships, flood media with bad messages,
think influences, and exploit the dependence on technology. That's scary stuff that AI has identified these things and second that they're really describing life and the addiction to devices through clever algorithms. Chat GPT is really describing most online use and effects as the work of the devil destroying a generation. Now. I know people said the same thing about television in the mid nineteen fifties when it started. We learned to live with it, we managed it, but it wasn't as
insidious or as evil as what's going on here. Potentially evil anyway. I asked Australia's best known adolescent psychologist, doctor Michael Kargrigg about this. He said, with the kids that he deals with, some use AI as a very constructive, superb tool for innovation and self expression, but he said it can also deepen social isolation, expose them to harmful content, and even expose them to cyber bullying through deep fakes. He said, there needs to be much more understanding of
our eyes, capabilities and risks. Now. I don't know that restricting online access at work the nets here to stay, but I agree with Michael kat Greg we need to be taught better skepticism, restraint, caution. We need to be less trusting of everything we read and see online. Even the videos can be totally deep, fake, dangerous and destructive. If a generation is not going to be destroyed, they have to learn to be skeptical. That's sad. It's very sad,
but it's essential. Well the quick things swrap up and remember to keep in touch. Neil dot Mitchell at nine dot com dot you Neil dot Mitchell at nine dot com dot you. I've thought for a while Free to Wear TV had to change and change dramatically. The threat from streaming services is huge. Now. The signs are there this week that the change a level change is stepping up. First, reports that some of the huge salaries have been cut
back for presenters on Free to TV. I've got no idea if those figures or the reports are right, but it makes a bit of sense. Second, two long running programs of going been acted, The Project on Channel ten and Q and A at the ABC. Now I've appeared on both of these. I think they have something to add to the world. They did have, but neither was rating well. The being counter set up not worth it. Both programs started with fresh ideas, good ideas, a different idea.
The Project then became self righteous and a bit woke. Q and A became unrepresentative, predictable, a bit boring, run out of legs. That's a pity. But what matters now is what comes next with those shows. They used a lot of staff. They're expensive to put to air. If the stations now go really cheap and give us reruns of Mash or Forek Corners or whatever, it's a step back.
If they find a new, fresh, stimulating idea for news driven Australian content that actually relates to people, well, Hall Lulia, we need it also. Elbow Anthony Albaneza. Your Prime minis he's awake, he's waken up from his post election hangover and he wants a summit on productivity. That's a good idea. Productivity has been a problem in this country for years.
The Prime Minister says lower paid workers should be paid more, and we'd all agree with that, but investors must get their fair whack too, because if there's no investment, there are no jobs. It's a delicate balance. You need increased productivity mixed with a fair share to all. That's the answer to it. Let's see our seriously years and whether union aggression and corporate greed can be sufficiently controlled to
allow genuine gains in productivity. The other thing he's done since waking up is imposed sanctions on two right wing Israeli ministers. Israel's angry, but the two the security ministers from the Finance minister, now face travel bands and having their assets frozen. Countries involved in this Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom. It's a hardline approach to a very complex problem. And the claim, the allegation is
they've incited violences to against Palestinians. Well, the sanctions may be right or wrong. Australia has got a right to do it. But it is reported we did not inform our major ally, Israel's major ally that it was happening. We didn't alert the United States. Now, if that's true, just clumsy, it's clumsy diplomacy. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the sanctions do not help the attempts to get a cease fire. He's reminded Australia not to
forget the Hamas atrocities. Very good point, and he said, do not lose sight of who is the real enemy here, And that's a very fair point. If we didn't inform the US, it was just stupid. Oh and speaking of stupid, Greta Tunberg and her boat her crews to Gaza with some medical supplies. It was a stunt, a simple but clever stunt. I not to summon. The media described this as an aid ship. Well, it did carry a tiny
amount of aid, but it wasn't about that. It was a stunt to draw attention to the Israeli strategy in Gaza, and it worked. The Israelis were right to call it a selfie ship. It was all about promoting something, promoting a cause, but many fell for it. If only the world was as simple as Greta sees it, we'd all stop fighting. Nobody be starving, nobody be dying, nobody be suffocating. Wonder when she grows up, will she be embarrassed by her naivety or proud of her international fame. We need
young people with the fire and her belly. But I think maybe Greet's fire has become a little bit too all consuming. There's not much logic in there. That's it. Quick email. I won't read all from Craig. His son's been the victim of a tax office scam. As we were talking about earlier, there a lot of is around. I got a scam warning to be aware of scams, then asking for details. Craig's son paid a lot of
money he thought was going to the taxman. Well, the banks managed to get a little bit of it back, but not most of it. Craig has written of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer telling him how difficult it was to deal with the real tax office over this, and nobody is willing to help. He says the system is flawed, and I agree with him. Many times you get scammed by anybody, you're on your own, you get very little help, and with the tax office, you'd hope
they'd be different and help work for us. Neil dot mitch Uel at nine dot com dot are you talking about scams? My Tuesday podcast is available now. Neil Mitchell asks why. As I mentioned a moment ago, one of the world's leading scambusters explains how bad the scams are, how they work, and what you need to do to protect yourself. Neil Mitchell asks why available now?