You're listening to a podcast from news talks it B. Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio. It's time for all the attitude, all the opinion, all the information, all the debates off now the Leighton Smith Podcast powered by news talks it B.
Welcome to podcast two hundred and sixty eight four December four, twenty twenty four. Nick Cator who has made numerous podcast appearances over the last six years, and there were discussions we had on radio starting in twenty thirteen through to the end of twenty eighteen. Nick is a journalist and writer, essentially an analyst and commentator. He's a mixture of all. His life has undergone some restructuring in twenty twenty four.
I've seen him on Sky News all around Australia. I've seen him on Sky News from Romania, from London and some other places that I failed to remember. Now to include him before the end of twenty four we had to pick a time and date that suited us both. So a few days ago, on the eve of Thanksgiving, we connected in New York and the idea from my perspective was to target Australia from different perspectives. With the underlying intent on information for would be migrants or immigrants
from this country. So the discussion ranged through problems facing Australia, power supply being maybe the most important, which meant including nuclear power, politics obviously, education, housing, race relations, anti Semitism, health and hospital care, and that gets even more discussion after the interview, the ten most dangerous cities and other matters, and finally we've finished up with well having a bit of fun expense of the media. As usual, it was
a relaxed and interesting conversation. But first years ago I tagged Aukland Transport as the best example New Zealand has of the administrative state, and it proved to be a correct description. The term administrative state to me means essentially unelected bureaucrats making the rules rather than elected representatives of the people. So in New Zealand that means our single chamber of Parliament and local councils, members of which can
be held accountable by the voting public. Now, in one of those coincidences that I thrive on, I can provide an even better definition of the administrative state. Roger Kimball is a thinker and writer who I admire yesterday I read an article that he wrote a couple of days ago, and it was called what is the administrative State? And here is part of what he wrote. The administrative state is that quota of political power that covertly fills the vacuum left and this is very important, left by the
failure of the legislative branch to discharge its obligations. Two things are critical. One is the displacement of sovereignty. No longer are the people sovereign. The bureaucracy is. The second critical thing is the covert nature of the enterprise. The question what is the administrative state can seem difficult to answer because it's not supposed to exist in the first place. You know it only by its actions. You can't look it up in the statute book, much less in the Constitution.
The very fact of the administrative state violates any number of constitutional norms, not least its being a sort of fourth branch of government when the Constitution provides for only three. Well, that is restricted more to them and not so inclusive
of us. However, the points are still relevant. The shadowy nature of the administrative state helps to explain why it is so hostile to free speech and by the same token, why it tends to be receptive to the deployment of censorship and police power to achieve its ends and stymy the ends of its critics. That's why the rise of the administrative state goes hand in hand with the loss of public confidence in society's guiding institutions. Talk of democracy
is ever on their lips. Swat teams, prosecutor abuse and lawfare are out on the street for all to see. The bottom line, the age of the administrative state is, at the same time an age of declining legitimacy in the foundational institutions of civil society. That last sentence is applicable here as as well as anywhere. Little further on, he says, I have not yet answered the question posed in my title, what is the administrative state? A friend asked me that in the course of our conversation about
my column last week. He said, isn't it possible that the administrative state, like its scarier sounding cousin deep state, is just a polysyllabic synonym for state for the complex activities of government in a complex, technologically advanced polity. Maybe the administrative state is just an invention of right wing conspiracy theorists who find goblins where there are only harmless bureaucrats. Now, Roger Kimball's response to that was, well, it can be
reduced to this conspiracy theorist. And that's a phrase that is wheeled out when the aim is to end, not further the conversation. The problem is not conspiracy theories, but conspiracies in fact. It's a line we should all remember because we can use it probably frequently. The problem is not conspiracy theories, but conspiracies in fact. Now, in case
you're wondering why this, here's the answer. Yesterday, Auckland Transport will be surgically changed to restore democratic control for transport issues in Auckland, according to the Transport Minister Simeon Brown. He and the Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown declared that they were taking back control of Auckland Transport by stripping the unpopular council body of its policy, strategy and planning functions
and moving them to the Auckland Council. Wayne Brown said having at focused on running the buses, trains and ferries is what they should be doing, declaring it to be a very good result. Simeon Brown said the existing transport governance model in Auckland is falling short of meeting under statement, short of meeting the expectations of the government, Auckland Council
and most importantly, Auckland is themselves. By returning decision making power to elected representatives, we are enabling Aucklanders to directly influence the transport policies that affect their daily lives. That is true in how should we say principle, All we have to do is get off our butts and make sure that we're heard. And I know a lot of people up till relatively recently attempted to do that and
basically got nowhere. And I've mentioned stories in the past of people who've told me of presentations they made to at at public meetings only to get dumped on. Now after the mail room, I've connected a couple of different issues, three in fact, but connected issues remedical, nursing and health, and I recommend that you don't miss them now in a moment. Nick cater Leverx is an antihistamine made in Switzerland to the highest quality. Leverix relieves hay fever and
skin allergies or itchy skin. It's a dual action antihistamine and has a unique nasal decongestant action. It's fast acting for fast relief and it works in under an hour and lasts for over twenty four hours. Leverix is a tiny tablet that unblocks the nose, deals with itchy eyes, and stops sneezing. Leveris is an antihistamine made in Switzerland
to the highest quality. So next time you're in need of an effective antihistamine, call into the pharmacy and ask for Leverix l e v Rix Leverix and always read the label. Takes directed and if symptoms persist, see your health professional. Farmer broker Auckland Layton Smith Nick Cata has been on the podcast on numerous occasions over the years. He is a very good friend of the podcast and a good friend of mine. And it's great to welcome you back because we have not spoken this year and
it was time to rectify it. And here we are talking to you via your phone, which of course some is locked into Sydney and you're in New York. What are you doing there?
I'm here for conference by the International Democratic Union, which is an organization of conservative parties from around the world, including the National Party in New Zealand to get together and discuss conservatism and how to win these battles. So that's what I'm here for mainly, and also to visit a nuclear power plant plant in Toronto or in nearby Toronto in Ontario, which is one Australia could look at as a possible model. But I think we're going to come to that later on.
We yes, we will come to that later. Very good. So how was your quote a slip?
Well, I don't know whether this is too much chit chat for early in the podcast laden, but they, you know, they always think that you can tran you can change the flight in an hour and a half having arrived in America. I don't know why, because it takes you an hour and a half to get through the passport cure alone. It'll reclaim your badget anyway. All up, they gave me nine hours in Dallas Airport, which is not a bad airport, but it is an airport.
Airports are airports. Yes, Indeed, what would you say was the biggest problem or if you want the biggest problems confronting Australia, because every country, it seems now has some issues.
Yeah, and we have plenty. It's hard to put them in order because they're all big. But I would say a top of my mind at the moment is economic management and the fact that we've been living off two decades really of mining boom and getting pretty lazy and not doing the things which we have to do to keep our economy competitive Keith. Amongst those is productivity. Productivity
has gone backwards. And then on top of that you've got the rise of the green lobby, particularly the Green Tape and now Black tape, which is the indigenous legislation and is things you have to comply with, which means that it's almost impossible to start a new mine or drill for gas in Australia, and that of course is the like blood of our economy. So I really do fear for the place, particularly as this starts to kick in in the next ten years.
Hasn't it already started well either.
The thing about these mining investment decisions is that there are at least a decade or a decade and a half to come to fruition. So I think it is the next generation that are going to feel it. There'll be fewer opportunities for them because we don't have that pioneering quality to us anymore, and particularly the legal institutions have become very very woke, very you save the planet sort of a focus rather than looking at the law. So you know, mining deals are held up for a
long long time if they get through at all. Luckily, there are still companies that are prepared to fight and go through that process and hope that perhaps we can get a government that can smooth things out and really accelerate investment in this country in the right things.
How big is DEI in Australia Now, it's pretty big.
I don't think it's quite as in say the States, but I see in the States where I am at the moment, is you say, where things are turning pretty quickly. You know, there's a big backlash. I saw Walmart only yesterday dropped a lot of their DEI policies. So companies are beginning to drop them, and I think they will
in Australia. But they certainly They certainly do drive appointments in big corporations, which means you're not necessarily appointing on memic or pointing on some quality about them their gender or the color or race or something. You know, and it's big in universities, of course, so it is. It's really entrenched, and I think we somehow have to get beyond that thinking and go back to the idea we just want the best people for the jobs, or the best students going to university.
What a surprise I heard a little earlier this morning, a bit of conversation with I missed. I missed a lot of it because I was getting in the shower, but a conversation with a guy whose name I seem to recall as being Jimmy Starbuck or something very similar, who has taken up the caudule, and I don't know his methodology, but has had huge success in destroying DEI in companies, and a lot of the companies that provide
the DEI service are closing down. There was one in particular where the woman said, we're just we're just being wiped out. We can't I've got to close the doors. I can't. We can't get any work. And that's because of because of this guy. Now, my name for him might be slightly wrong, because I know it's it's it sounds a bit fanciful, but it is a fanciful name. I'm sure it's Starbus. I'm not sure about the Jimmy anymore,
but you get you get the picture. So there is a growing success in pushback on the EI in America. Now my question then becomes, that's where it came from in the first place, so and then and then rippled out to the rest of the world, including here, of course, is it going to be automatically does it automatically follow that the collapse in our countries?
Well, pretty this way late, and I'm pretty confident now we've reached peak woke. I wouldn't have said that six months ago, but I am now. And you can see it in the States with DEI, as you say, and they have been well. Two material things have happened in the States. One was the Supreme Court decision I think it was last year that overturned the preferential treatment for on the grounds of race in university admissions and positive discriminations they call it. So that was a material thing
which shook up the inniverse. The other thing, of course, is Donald Trump. You know, it matters a lot who your president is and who your administration is run by, because they can pull the levers and order a whole lot of things. And there's talk of Trump defunding American universities if they carry on with their DEI policies. So that's happened here and there's definitely a feeling and people are writing about it quite confidently that this is peag woke.
The SAME's true in Australia. Two things happened there. One is the Voice referendum, which happened at the very date November fourteen last year, the day of your election. Of course, we voted sixty forty against an Aboriginal voice to Parliament.
And although that was a referendum on a specific constitutional proposal, people really took it really as a referendum on woke and it's had a big effect and people are being more confident to speak out about things that they might have thought, well, get them into trouble eighteen months ago. So it has been a change in the climate. And again with the Albanesi government in trouble and the Pospulity Coalition government think things are changing.
Can you think of one CEO of a of a decent sized company who has taken a stand against it from the beginning.
In Australia, Yeah, I'm racking my bones now. Well, I suppose somebody like Gina Reinhardt, who's the well the the owner of Hancock Search as the big mining and pastoral company. She's Australia's richest woman. She's been strongly against it from the start. But because she's she's not not a listed company.
You know, I think when you have a listed company, the dynamics are different, and you know, you start having to buy by all sorts of rules from the stock market about how you should run your company and how you should report. So it'd be very few, if any publicly. I mean, I know some privately voiced concerns about it, but yeah, I think it'll come though later, because you see the backlash every time they take a woke star stance.
It was a massive backlash against WARS last year when they decided they weren't going to sell any Australia Day merchandise. It was a serious drop in sales for them for a short while there and they had to basically come very contritely and say, look, we regret that decision. So there is a backlash now, and you do see it when they try too hard in the DII area.
So two things. Then, going back to the only person I can think of and I did interview him a couple of years ago. It was Jerry Harvey. Oh yes, and basically Jerry said screw you, yes, as far as that was concerned. But there is a guy who is very wealthy, very successful, a mind of his own and doesn't rely on the support of anybody that matters for
his company to keep being successful. So he's got the he's got the courage from from a couple of areas, but I would suggest it comes from deep down inside him where he has been successful and all sorts of things over the years. He's just yeah, and he's just confident exactly.
And their chain of stores, having normand chain is very big in regional Australia. That's a big part of their market and it would resonate, you know, that sort of down to earth, no nonsense attitude resonates there. So I think it's what's good for Jerry's sense of the sense of sanity is also good for his business.
Like that of sense of sanity, and of course some having Ormonds is big here too. So is there anything else that you would put on the list? Well, there must be of matters confronting Australia that are causing grief.
Well, I think that, and this lies behind the DEI woke nonsense, is really a lack of conscious pride in the country anymore, an understanding of who we are and what we are. And this is manifesting itself in the dreadful Jewish hatred which has erupted and been allowed to flourish. And the government has been very weak on that and
that's not helped at all. You know, we've had only last week a serious attack on a Jewish residential area in western Sydney, Eastern Sydney, sorry area you would know very well, and cars were graffited with obscene graffiti about Israel.
One we set a light damage was committed to buildings and the most alban easy, the alban easy the Prime Minister could do, was to come out and say this is disturbing, like if you couldn't think of a more limp, weak adjective to describe a dreadful hate crime like that which had struck fear into the Jewish community who feel under threat. And so I think that that breakdown, what we're seeing with the anti seminism is just part of
a broader breakdown of the social fabric. A lot of confidence and pride in who we are as a nation. That's very I find that very troubling and in the long term I think that's very bad for the country.
Alban Easy is arguably one of your biggest problems, if not the biggest. There's been plenty of criticism, but across this side of the Tasman, of course, Luxen has been on the receiving end of some pretty vicious commentary of late.
The question is the question is going to be extend that last comment of it because we have been going through just in the last few days, ever since the so called harker in Parliament, we have been going through some pretty critical times with regard to discussion and there are things that there are things that need to be said that are not really being said well enough at least to deal with the issues that are at hand. And you've got yours, We've got ours, but they are
all race based. Now you can't claim, of course, that there is anything to do with immigration as far as the Mary contingent are concerned. But when it comes to the anti Semitism, there has been a substantial amount of that here. It is a case of in its time it was confronted a case of allowing the wrong people
into the country. The last time that I recall that you had something like that in the eastern suburbs of Sydney was back in the let me think sixties and seventies, when Yugoslavia broke up and the immigrants that came into the country brought their problems with them, and there were buildings set on fire, there were bashings, and I think they might have even met a death or two.
Yeah, well, and I think but much of that I think was violence and tension between ethnic groups estentially, particularly the Serbs and the Croats in that case. So now it's quite different. What you're seeing is people bringing their troubles from around the world, bringing their dated, historical grievances to this country and wanting to fight them out here. And I say, well, you don't do that, and we
should have be very clear. If we just have much more clarity from our Prime Minister and other leaders, that's sorry. That part of the deal about becoming an Australian citizen, about coming to live from Australia, as you leave those things at home. We don't do historical grievances here. We just treat everybody as an equal. If you become a citizen, you have the same rights as every other citizen, whether you've been here five minutes or five thousand years in
the case of originals, the longer. There's no difference, and we cannot be reltigating historical grievances here in Australia.
All right, So I've got to bug out. I've got a challenge for you. Then you can say that you can even apply it to immigration and testing and what have you. But people will say whatever they want to say, whatever they think should be said to get them where they want to go. Let them settle down a little bit, and before too long there's enough of them to create the issues that we're now witnessing on your side in this case more but here as well. So what do you do with it?
Well, you do it by reinforcing what a normal patterner behavior is here, by having people in authority make it very clear, unambiguously, which what sort of behavior is unacceptable in this country, and having a police force and adjustive system that when things get out of hand, is prepared to come down hard. That's not been the case in
this country with the anti semitism we've seen. It's not been the case with the Palestinian demonstrations which have taken the streets, and particularly in Melbourne where they've been enormously disruptive. They managed to disrupt the opening of a Christmas display at Myers. You know, kids that come along to see you know, Santa and on display in the windows of Myers, and the Palestinians that come to protest and shut that
down for some ridiculous reason. That's fine, but at that point the police need to step in and say you're not authorized to do this. You're not authorized to intimidate people. If you want to demonstrate, you have to seek permission and approval. You can't just do it any place, anytime. But they're not doing that. There's a two tier police system going on here. They take a very very softly softly approach when it comes to anybody from an ethnic background.
I gues the police just don't want to get into trouble, but they're not prepared to enforce the law as it stands, let alone. You know, the kind of hate laws we've got do not get enforced. So you can have Palestinians as you did here on November night last year, two days after the attacks in Israel protesting on their steps of the Opera house, saying gas the Jews, or if you listen to the police, they say no, they're actually saying,
where's the Jews. I don't know that there's much difference between those two chants as to which is most going to intimidate the Jewish community in this country, indeed, anybody who thinks that it should be a haven for people who just get along, regardless to their backgrounds. But there was not enforced. I don't know. I certainly saw no
arrests as a result of that. There might have been a few, but there weren't a parent and then and then most recently, well last week, you know, you had this, as I say this, terrible anti Semitic violence in the
eastern suburbs and no police press conference. We didn't see the police commissioner get up and say, look, I'm going to come down on a ton of bricks and we're going to get to the bottom of this, and we're going to set up strike force whatever or whatever, none of that, which was remarkable contrast to what had happened only two or three days before, when the police held a number of pressure conferences in one day to champion, the fact that they arrested Alan Jones, the radio host,
on what are relatively low order charges if they're proven. But of course he was a great name. They wanted to get him on these so called sexual abuse allegations. An eighty three year old man. They make a big fuss about that, but not about anti Semitic violence. It's just a feeling that the police force are not focused on their role in life, which has enforced the law. They're being sidetracked with other agendas.
Well, we can match that we've had a very weak please force for a lengthy period of time. It starts at the top under a labor government. It was very poorly led. And we've only just recently, in the last week or so, we've only appointed a new police commissioner. And we'll see how things go new police commissioner under a new government and maybe, just maybe they'll do the
job that they are supposed to do. And let me just add actually, because I think it was only yesterday, as we record, a few days before before this is released, that the police announced the commissioner announced. Let me back up here a minute. Police headquarters was in the middle of the city up until fairly recently when it moved to I don't know whether you know Pons and me, but it's just on the fringe of the CBD on the outside, really okay, And that meant that there wasn't
a central city police presence. Now, they used to have a small police station done on the waterfront. They closed that down and ever since then, for a variety of reasons, we have had nothing but trouble in the city with violence, killings, robberies, et cetera. Now that go back to what I started with. They announced a new police station for the inner city. That in itself is an indication that somebody with some intelligence is now in control.
Yeah. Yeah, but you've got to have a police presence. It's kind of pleasing, one oh one, isn't it. It's unlure.
Just to give you an idea, a friend of mine who lives on the thirty second floor of an apartment in the city watched when try to think how long ago, but let's say at least a year ago. Last year anyway, there was a there was an assault, a murdering, a murderous assault on a building site and he just watched it from his window. Now I'm what I'm keen to do is to try and convey to New Zealanders who are leaving in their droves and will probably continue to do so to move to Australia as to whether or
not they're making the right choice. Now, I could ask you straight out, is it the right thing? Is it a good thing to do? Is Australia still the place of hope promised land for others? Or would you suggest otherwise?
It's relative, isn't it? But I think it definitely is a place of hope. It's a place that compared to other Western countries, I think puts a check on a lot of the extreme kind of progressive moves better than others in most countries. In most cases we've got a much stronger media, of course, and a more balanced media in the sense that we have in newspapers and television stations, at radio stations from right across the political spectrum. Really, so we are in that sense, I think strong, and
we have you. The fundamentals are great. The economy is still going well. House prices of course are ridiculous and it's very hard to buy a home, and part of that is immigration, which we could come and talk about that. There's been far too many migrants been admitted to Australia in the last three years, and surprise surprise, has put a pressure on housing prices. One of the factor is driving on housing prices. So there lots of issues here,
but I'd say that there's still opportunities. And if you go to regional and rural Australia, which is where I love spending more of my time than ever these days, then you do find people buying larger, normal, sensible, pragmatic, hard working people and they haven't got much time for the elites that are trying to run our lives.
Where's your preference.
In terms of the country Australia. I love the northern rivers of New South Wales, but I'm happy to travel anywhere, particularly it's warm. But yeah, I just find you don't have to get far out of the place and suddenly
it's a different atmosphere. You know, it's a people. You know when you I was in Broken Hill, for instance, working on a story on energy when on the day of the US elections, and because we were all listening to it, and I went out in the evening and chatted to people in the pub, and you knew instinctively that they would be very comfortable with the Donald Trump victory. As in teed they were. You didn't have to tread
on eggshells and say which side were you supporting. You just know that they'll take that view because you know, they're very much like Trump's people in the States. They're no nonsense, working people who want to make a living and want to make the world better for their their families, you know. So that's the sort of people who tend
to go for Donald Trump. I think common sense, yeah, yeah, definitely common sense and the elite, which I'm increasingly just calling them the elite because that's what they are, and Trump calls them the elites in the States. A really small, sort of select group of people when you boil it down. But they're just they're very good at talking, aren't they.
They're very good at fancy words and making arguments and building narratives, and they can drag you with them, or they drag some of the population along with their nonsense if you're not careful. But they're not the majority, and in the end, they talk nonsense and often, you know, because they're up there in the clouds, they're talking theory the whole time. On things like energy policy rather than the practical aspects of it, the engineering and aspects of
energy policy. Know, they're talking in high fluting theoretical.
Terms, and this is a good place to introduce something else. Momentarily, question which would be in and don't think about it too much, just shoot an answer. Which would be the most dangerous city in Australia, Which would be the least I.
Think the most dangerous, well, if you're talking about crime, would be Alice Springs without a doubt. And then allied to that, there are a lot of towns and cities on the fringes of central Australia where there are large Aboriginal populations have equal problems, particularly youth crime. And then after that I'd say, off the Melbourne major cities Melbourne without a doubt or Brisbane actually is a very high rated crime in Queensland.
All right, you're ready for a surprise, Yeah, go on. I pulled this detail off last night intentionally because no, no, not at all, just for my own interests sake, And then when I saw it, I thought, no, I'm going to include this, So I'm going to work from ten back to one. Yeah, the least, well, the least most dangerous of the ten coffs Harbor second, Darwin third, yes, third,
Alice Springs. I wrote down, I wrote down some of the some of the reasons, some of the reasons that were given domestic violence in Alice Springs, substance abuse, et cetera. Next surprised me. Number seven Hobart. Then then came Sydney at six, Brisbane at five, Perth at fourth place. In fourth place third is Melbourne. Adelaide is second. Adelaide is the second most dangerous city in Australia according to this survey. And first of all, you never guess it, so I'll
tell you the Central Coast. Now I wouldn't call the Central Coast a city, but they've included it as such, gang violence and drugs being the most the most prominent. But the Central Coast, which is between basically between the northern Sydney, just to make it simple, up up to Gosford and a bit beyond.
Yeah, well, yes, actually the Central Coast doesn't surprise me. But it's got a lot of a little welfare pockets. There were a very high number of people on welfare and people are doing it tough.
But yeah, So moving on, education has been a problem in both our countries. Education in Australia I think has maybe had the biggest problem because you've got states playing parts. What has happened COVID disrupted of course a great deal, but what's happened to education overall? Do you think since we got released from jail?
Well, as you say this big hangover from COVID, there are all sorts of problems with mental illness to put a broad brush answer on that, and children lowest, low school attendance rate, like a lot of kids are having trouble getting back to school, so that's a problem. But we continue to see every year, every year when we get the latest scores and that plan scores and the piece of scores, you see a further decline in standards
relatives to other countries. We continue to go backwards because I think New Zealand does actually and this is despite the fact that we've had massive increase in investment investment per child in schools at both private and public schools, and that's been going on really for at least fifteen
or twenty years. You know, we've been a reduction in the school in the pupil to teacher ratio, so more teachers for fewer pupils, and in a great investment in school buildings right up and down the country, some of that funded by the federal government, but none of that is actually rood outcomes. So we've got to ask what's going wrong or what are we doing wrong? How do we fix that? And there's a massive continues to be hemorrhaging away from the public schools towards private schools.
What would your what would your first answer be to a question of what would you do to overcome the issue that you've just arrived at.
I think you're going to address teacher training, really, because they're spending in our four years I think to get it qualified as a teacher used to be only one year, and now they've made it four years. And the teachers, I think, are getting diverted with a lot of things that are not really core curriculum. You know, they're not they're not They don't come in every morning thinking what are the first three most important things I've got to
do today? Obviously reading, writing, and arithmetic. They don't seem to have that clarity. So I mean teachers, my experience, most teachers are very good, very conscientious people, but they're being diverted and also by imustration as well. But we
have to get them back to square one. And there's a very interesting initiute which I came across going on in one Christian based school in Newcastle where they've actually decided they're going to train their own teachers rather than see them go to university and get them back after four years, they're going to train them on the job at the school and they'll get an academic component to
that provided by another college. But basically it turns it from a university academic degree into an apprenticeship, you know, like learning on the job, and that's really I think what teaching used to be. So I think taking this out of the universities and making the education for teachers more practical and focused on the basics would help. Plus changes to the curriculum are the big things. I think.
What religion is the school.
It's a Christian school that's I'm not really certain it's on I visited a place I'm trying to think of them that name of it, but it was very very well run and very good non denominational Christian school. It's very popular. They have a big waiting list to get into it. And it's always the sign of a good stool and waiting lists, not just from Christian families, but from others who've just heard it does a good education.
I went to a religious school for a couple of years that I'm thinking I'm in high school. The teachers were trained at school. It was a combination, you know, it was an apprenticeship situation and they'd learnt And we covered this off in a previous podcast over this particular issue.
They learnt on the job like an apprenticeship and with an overseeing authority that was not always there but was keeping an eye on things, and I think it turned out some well, as far as I can tell some pretty good teachers.
One thing it does later is it gives them immersion in the classroom very early on in their training. So they will learn pretty quickly whether that's for them or not. You know, they will know that they've got a chance to get out of it if teaching is not quite what their cup of tea, instead of doing four years in training and then finding out. So I think that's one very good practical aspect of teaching teachers that way.
I'll tell you something of interest. At that school, there was the son of a person in the media, the man trying to think of his name. He was the manager of TWGB and Sydney when it was in Phillip Street, So this is back in the sixties and he was sent there because his father knew the school's reputation. Now other matter that's causing a lot of trouble here and at both ends of the enterprise is healthcare and hospitals, or hospitals and health We have a great shortage of
nurses and doctors. We were told a couple of days ago that we were getting I think fifty new doctors coming to the country. I don't know. I don't know the circumstances at this point, but we have had a short shortage and they are still leaving the country, and most of them would be going to Australia, but not all.
Well, this is a problem the world over, actually late, and it's rute. The underlying problem is we don't have enough people anymore. You know that the population population growth is declining almost everywhere in the world. It's below replacement rate in almost every country in Asia, for instance, as it has been for some time in New Zealand and Australia. So you know, it just is not such a large supply of skilled migrants, or even unskilled migrants for that matter.
So we're going to find it harder and harder to sort of make up for our own lack of training enough doctors and teacher and nurses by just importing them. That's going to be harder. If I remember to focus hard, if I.
Remember correctly, you did a piece on that. Didn't you procreate.
Or or perish? Yes, I mean, yes, it is. It is a massive change that nobody's talking about, and it's been going on for probably sixty or seventy years. You remember that that famous book, The Population Bomb in early seventies. Yeah, well it was very at the time, it was the best seller. He was concerned about how the population was going to explode and we were all going to start because it'd be too many people. Well, actually the opposite
is happening. It's taken a while for that to filter through into overall population numbers because we're getting older, you know, thanks to medical science, we're living longer. But now populations in places like Japan have started to decline, have been declining for some time, in say Hungry and in Korea, which has one of the lowest birth rates in the world,
and India surprisingly is below replacement rates. So all these places we thought were going to provide keep producing human beings and training them up to provide our doctors and so forth, und well, it's not going to happen. So we have to at some point to come to terms with that.
Seeing that you've done the work on it. When you mentioned India not replacing the population, is that a bad thing? When you consider the number of people who live in India.
It's probably not a bad thing. But you have to be able to adjust to it eventually, you see, because we still need productive people in the workforce, making things and earning money, especially as people get older and you've got a larger number of people or the higher dependency rates they can you know, the number of people out of the workforce because they've grown too old compared to
the ones that are in it paying the taxes. So that if it happens too rapidly and we're not prepared, we haven't improved productivity, for instance, and learned how to make things better and smarter with fewer people, then it
is going to be a problem. It'll come through in all sorts of ways, and what I understands happening in injury is they've still got a slightly higher birth rate in the south of India, so there's a big migration from the south to the north, which is where most of the industrial production is carried out.
Speaking of productivity, we've had a problem with productivity for as long as I can remember on this side of the tasma is AI possibly the answer.
I'll reserve my judgment on that.
That's a very diplomatic answer.
I just have to put my hand on the out and say I just don't know, and I can't even I can't even bluffin unswer on this one. It's too to say. It is fascinating, it's exciting in some ways, quite scary in others. But I think we're all just learning to work out what it can do. I don't think anybody really knows what its overall effect is going to be on productivity. Will it replace journalists? For example? I tend to think not, because sure I can get
Ai to write an opinion piece for me. I could say, write an opinion piece from a conservative perspective on this topic, and it will spew something out, which is you've probably got fewer spelling mistakes in the device rushing it off. But it's just not something slightly not there's no humanity in it, there's nothing to surprise you, there's nothing quirky, you know, it's I don't know that I'll ever overcome that.
And my example of this is the drum machine. If you remember in them, when would it be in the in the eighties when electro drummer machine started to replace real drummers and you listen to those songs and you think, no, you know, when there's an electric drummer, sine when there's a real drummer. Even now you can tell a difference. It's got no life in it. So I don't know, that's not that's not a very comprehensive look at the whole thing of AI, but it is a way to see I think as far as we.
Know well, I asked somebody once whether AI could be hijacked, because it would be very hard to tell. But if it was, what could it be? What could it be trained to do? What attitudes could it be trained to introduce without anybody really knowing? And the answer was along the lines have not never happened. And I think that was a very bad answer, because if you're going to talk about AI, it's a major it's a major breakthrough
simpy in itself. Its usage can be abused like so many other aspects of development of life without question for me.
Yeah, I think that's right now. So well, the jury's out, I guess latent.
Yeah, okay, do you want to sit on the jury? That's the question now. You mentioned at the beginning that you were going up to see a nuclear a nuclear development.
Yeah, a nuclear power plant up in Ontario, a place called Darlington, which is very interesting from an Australian point of view as a kind of technology we should be looking at. But it will be the third nuclear plant I visited this year. Actually, because the whole debate is hot, hot it up in Australia. You now have the opposition, the Coalition, going to the next election with a policy
to lift the moratorium on nuclear powers. You know, we can't have nuclear power in Australia, it's illegal and the bata's really rolled on very quickly on this. Most people, I think, if they're not in favor of nuclear power, they're certainly in favor of considering it as part of our mix because they know how much trouble we're in with energy, and younger people in particular don't have the
same hang ups over nuclear for instance. They're not obsessed with Three Mile Island and churnobil in the way that the baby boomers are. So yeah, it's a live debate in Australia and I've become, i suppose, quite an advocate for nuclear power. I'm now quite convinced that it is what we need to do in Australia and probably in New Zealand. Actually, to be honest, I think there's less pressing need for it there for a number of reasons.
One is that you've got a lot of water and a lot of hydroelectricity.
Well actually, actually you'd be surprised. A few months ago we were very close to having blackouts instituted on us and if it had got there is one private electrical engineer who has had a lot of exper in this country. Everyone knows who I'm talking about because he's been a
guest on the podcast on a number of occasions. He has experienced from all over the world and he is pretty much a leader in the field, and he thinks that New Zealand's electricity supply is in very very grave danger and there's some well it's being kept alive at the moment my importing coal from Indonesia.
Dammit, well, there you go. There's a problem for you. But I think, yeah, the thing about it is we also need to bear in mind that our demand for electricity is increasing and will continue to increase. We've already mentioned reason part of the reason why that is, and that's AI and computer storage, which has become massive pusher of growth for energy demand across the world because that demands such large amounts of electricity to store data and
to process AI, exponentially higher than normal computing. There's a new data center actually just a few kilometers up the road from me and Sydney drive past, and it is the scale of it is massive, and right down the side of it there is big it's probably about a seven story high building you're can imagine, which is just full of computer storage with these great air conditioning pipes running on the outside because they need to be kept
cool the whole time. And they have diesel generators installed as part of the thing, so that the normal electricity supply goes down, they'll kicking diesel generators. So yeah, New Zealand needs to be prepared for that because without data storage and AI facilities close to the user, you can't rely on this from overseas, you're going to be in trouble.
So that's one good reason why you probably should be looking at a new solid source of power like nuclear and with the new small modulary actors which I'll be looking at in Canada, they may be a good solution for parts of New Zealand away from the big cities.
Yes, I would think so, and I think more and more people are realizing how desirable it's going to be. Now, maybe we should end up with something that's near and dear to both of us, and that's the media. Let me give you a very quick brief on here on the situation here. New Zealand's media is in trouble. There have been a lot of job losses and they continue, and there are mergings and there are foldings, and it's
not a good thing overall. But I've declared in different circumstances that I have little sympathy for some of them who are losing their jobs because of the stand that they've taken over a lengthy period of time now, and
that is a stand of lockdown on subject matter. And if you deprive, if you deprive a very large section of the community from having their being able to read matters that concern them, that they're interested in your newspaper or on your television screen or wherever it might be, then it serves you right because this has a this has become a campaign against climate change, against COVID matters, et cetera. And you have the same in Australia, but you don't have the same restrictions.
No, well, no, generally that'll be true. But it is about we have a very competitive, beautifully competitive media system, now more competitive than ever. I mean the barriers rentry are much lower, but the amount of competition is much higher. So you have to change your model. And that that's been happening in Australia. It meant some most media companies have had to slim down, become more efficient, be what they're doing, look at what they're doing, work out how
they can do it better. So in that sense, that's been happening probably for twenty years, but increasingly in the last ten years. And what you've seen is that companies that do adapt are surviving and will thrive, and those who just stick by the old model, won they'll go out in the back door. So it's capitalism really, it's raw capitalism in the end, the fundamental thing you put
your finger on it. Unless you provide people with something they can't get elsewhere that's really precious to them and valuable, they're not going to put their credit card across across online and pay for the content because they'll just suck up yours and other free content along the same lines quite easily. It's very easy to pick up commentary from
the left for nothing but good solid conservative commentary. Well we should be we should be asking people to pay for that because it's valuable to them, and we are increasingly know The Australian now is behind a pay wall. It's very hard to yeah, and quite rightly so, I mean I write for the Australian and they do send me a small rebiddance every every month, so that's that's important you. I mean, if you're a chocolate factory saying you decided, oh, we don't want to put our chocolate
behind a paywall, you'd be nuts, right. So it's the same with news, but the quality of that news has to be good and reliable and trustworthy. Otherwise you won't be able to build a business out of it. But there is there is a way out in the other side. I think New Zealand's abiding problem is the size and the size of the market. It's it's very difficult to make something work on that scale.
Yeah, and I think there are more people who would agree with you now than I would have in the in the past. But there's a sector of the of the media that I want to raise with you, and that is journalism in the essay form. And you write for You've been flitting about quite a bit lately. Actually, you've expanded your environment. You write for The Australian. You are writing now for Quadrant magazine, which has undergone management
change and an overhaul. I don't know that I've seen your name too many times in Spectator though.
No, I haven't writen for Spectator for a while. It's just time, really, I'd love to. It's a great publication, but Quadrant. I should, at a matter of disclosure, say that the editor of the new editor of Quadrant is my wife, Rebecca Weiser, So my opinion of Quadrants altered by that. But it is a very it's been going since nineteen fifty six. It's a very very solid publication that's always been firmly aligned on the size of side
of free. It started out the Cold War, you know, fighting the communist nonsense, and now it's fighting the woke nonsense. So but it drives debate a lot and helps influence the debate, and I'm very committed to Quadrant to see it expand and grow to a new audience. And I'm very happy to write for it because to write those longer form pieces, you know, it allows you to do more in an article than you will just in a
normal newspaper column. And this is a lot of that stuff around as you know, I mean on substack also right on Substack, and that's a thriving environment now for really good journalism as well as.
I've watched it expand over here too in the I've had two substect writers on the podcast in the last six months.
Well that's I mean, that's the way forward, isn't it. For a country like New Zealand. You don't have the barriers for entry in that you've got to fire up a printing press, but you can reach a reasonably size audience on there and you have nobody's sensors here. Really, you know, there's nobody your sense of yourself. You're your own editor, and the readers decide whether you're you're worth reading or not, and whether they're going to pay for you or subscribe to you in some other way and
keep the thing going. So Substacks, you know, Substack and other sort of similar platforms, I think a great success. And I think, you know, as we've been talking for some time, I think there is great scope to have one of the Australian digital networks like ADHTV, which I'm attached to, really start growing its market in New Zealand too. Whenever we run something on New Zealand on eighty h you know, now and then I might interview somebody yourself.
Even we get a huge pick up in audience, and most of that from your side of the tasmum because there is a hunger there. So there are ways around this. I mean, I doubt if you're ever going to have a competitive center right newspaper come out daily on the streets, but that's not the way people consume news. For instance, yesterday, only yesterday, when I arrived in Dallas and I had nine hours to kill at the airport. You wouldn't believe how hard it was in an airport, a major airport,
to find a printed newspaper. I did find one eventually.
Which one was it?
Well, I got the I got the Wall Street Journal in the New York Times and the Dallastribute is at the local Dallas paper and they cost me between them, they cost me fifteen US puck. That's clearly not the way most people consume the media. Now I'm just some old fogy who likes to sit down and turn pages.
Well, I joined you in that. And one of the privileges of being in Sydney at any given time is to take coffee and a cave or breakfast in a cafe where there's usually a bunch of newspapers to read for free. There's still four newspapers in Sydney.
Well yeah, I mean, and the Australian. It finds its print edition is very important to its business. I mean it's costly, Sure, it's costly, but the market for it isn't going away because I think there's something there's just something different about the way you consume news from a
printed newspaper from online. And one of the big things is that you come across unexpected things in the printed newspaper much more frequently that you come across anything unexpected and online where you tend to go down a channel and look at this and then a related article maybe you turn the page and you'll go, oh, that's interesting.
You know.
I didn't know that, you know. So yeah, I think they're going to be around for a fair bit longer. I wouldn't like to say how long, but they will.
Be indeed, and that draws us I think to a close. It has been has been a pleasure. Well, having a chat.
Exactly a joy is ever. And as I'm in the United States, I should wish you happy holidays and happy Thanksgiving. But more than that, you know, thanks again for all you do on your podcast over the years late and it's one of the ones that I've always got on my regular search when I go to listen to something at the weekend. So keep it up.
It's going to run a bit longer. So there is this one more thing I wanted to clarify though you mentioned ADH. Can you just tell everybody what ADH is?
Yeah, eighty h stands for Australian Digital Holdings and it's really a startup television station that began online and through and up about three years ago and is just really now beginning to take off. We've got some new studios, for instance in Sydney which used to belong to Channel nine where they used to do their cooking shows. So there's actually a whole kitchen at one end of the studio which we cover up and a sort of a
smell of stale food. It's quite an unusual place, but it's a probably a quick studio, and it shows the fact that the old networks like nine are now struggling and then closing down facilities, and people like us are snapping them up because our audience is growing and we're finding ways to make them work online and we've got great plans coming up for twenty twenty five. So eighty h Television if somebody wants to check it out. My
show is called Reality by Ites and it's it's online too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you.
Can get it. I see that the lead personality is still the same, hasn't changed.
Who's the guy? It may just be our websites out of date. Alan Jones was with it, but he had, as you know, health issues and he's he hasn't been broadcasting for p a year or so, so we've got a whole news stable of people Christmas. It does a regular show. He's a former radio presenter. Here myself, Daisy Cousins and anyway worth checking it out. I think I'd be very surprised if you didn't find something worth watching on there, even if it's not my show.
I'm sure I can say comfortably. Actually I can stay comfortably. Your show is worth watching, so appreciate it, Thank you, and I wish you were merry Christmas and a much better twenty twenty five. I don't care how good this one was. I want next to you to be better. Yes, let's hope, Thanks late and all the very best, missus producer. It is one of the better days that we've had this season, so you must be feeling fantastically.
Flesh Laton. I always feel fantastic, but today is the icing on top of the cake, isn't it beautiful? Let's hope there are many more of these days to come.
Exactly, why don't I lead this week? Just for a change, It's no wonder to send her a durn labeled David Seymour an arrogant prick. David Seymour is a conviction politician, which makes him a great politician as he relentlessly fights for what he believes in. While a Dern believed in government controls, Seymour believed in individual freedoms. Personally, I have a love hate relationship with David Seymour. I love it when he fights for what I believe in, such as
the Treaty Principles Bill. I hate it when he fights against what I believe in, such as his use in Asia Bill. He is a great ally to have, but he also makes a ruthless opponent. Despite that, I preferred David Seymour over Chris luxm because, as a conviction politician, Seymour is willing to tackle what really matters and doesn't pussy for. Like Luxan, David Seymour joins the ranks of
what Ramesh the Kerr calls creative disruptors. Creative disruptors are people like Trump in the US, Maloney in Italy, Milay in Argentina, Polaver in Canada, and Farage in the UK. Creative disruptors are the only kind of leaders who can successfully wage war on woke. The Treaty Principal's Bill is to New Zealand what the First Amendment is to the United States. It's all about equal rights and freedoms for
all citizens, regardless of skin color. In fact, this issue is so important to me that I will vote for the act Party if they end up being the only party willing to die on this hill. Soldier on, David Seymour, We're with you on the Treaty Principle's Bill.
Leyton Tim says, thank you for your interesting and enlightening chat with David Seymour with regard to the Treaty Principal's Bill, I have to say I haven't been a fan of mister Seymour since his stance on the COVID vaccine. But not everyone is perfect, and he has redeemed himself lately with his backbone under relentless pressure from the activist class,
gutless politicians, and the activist legacy media. But I repeat myself as a National Party activist for nearly forty years and now in exile, I'm extremely disappointed in the current leadership at both political and organizational levels that are too focused on not creating offense and being labor light in case they get off side with someone for a so called Christian Luxen has weak on issues that middle of the road Christians and non Christians alike are concerned about.
Why Luxon and others are afraid of standing up for one standard of citizenship and for standing up to issues such as the transgender nonsense is beyond me. It was a winner for Trump. Your semi regular retired National MP corrrespondent was again on the money with his letter last week. I believe National needs to look across the Tasman and see how Peter Dutton has been differentiating the Coalition from Labor and see what happens when you stand up for something.
I'm of the opinion that Dutton will be Australian Prime Minister in twenty twenty five with the Labor Party being a one term government. I could go on, but that will be a letter for another day. Please keep up your excellent work late and I wish you, missus producer and your family all the best for Christmas.
Ensure your break.
It's lovely.
Thank you, Tim, Tim appreciate it very much, and likewise to you from Rick. It was very small print. I may stumble enjoyed your interview with David Seymour today. Last week I sent the below letter to Luxelm. I'm sure that you will like it, and I'm happy for you to read it out if you wish so, without having actually read it. Let's read it out, High Prime Minister. Oh, not formal enough. I am appalled you are tolerant of a small minority of married activists that are taking over
our country. They do not represent real Marie Kiwis. What happened in Parliament was appalling and should never have been allowed. These clowns do not speak for Mary and they certainly do not speak for me. Man up. These radicals are destroying our beautiful country and you, sir, are allowing it. You are being wimpy at best. You are making and allowing these racist people to divide New Zealand, and you are making the majority of Kiwi's become unnecessarily racist. This
is evil. I have been informed by a person who had to clean up the mess on a number of rail stations as a result of this protest. These activist Maris have no regard or respect for property belonging to the public or anybody but have or anybody but have trashed it with them rubbish and beer bottles. I have seen the photos just outright vandalism on the stations where
they have been sleeping as well. They don't care. But what is more important is the government does not care, and the media is feeding us rubbish and not telling us the truth of what is really going down. Highways being blocked and people people's cars being poked with their flags, etc. Prime Minister, wake up, we'll remember the next election. Just as an aside, you are saying that there are two classes of Kiwi's Mary and non Mary, and the mary have
special rights. That is racism, separatism apart eid.
Wake up.
I don't want to live in a country like this. From Rick, she'd say it as he feels.
Later, Nicki says many thanks for your podcast this week with David Seymour. Great timing for those of us who intend to make a submission. First up, I disagree with David's ambivalence on our country's name. In our circle, we're off and found correcting the news media on their use of out here are New Zealand, we shout into the abyss. The second is his term fucker putiah hey fucker butanga Heyfukaputanga was the Minority Northern Chiefs Initiative which was never ratified,
nor did it prevent further into tribal warfare. It was superseded by the treaty five years later. Third, the representation question MMP is in Therefore race based seats are out both act in New Zealand first or in general agreement. Perhaps National could grow a democratic spine. Lastly, David's expressed a view that the National Party has more important things to worry about, like the economy, than correcting fifty years of mistruths, which resulted in the establishment of the co
Governance Partnership. Thee for cultural engagement. Is this political expediency towards the next election or satire? New Zealand's EWE already have a seventy billion dollar economy of their own. Perhaps it is time they contributed corporate bracket taxes and refunded extortionate engagement fees that would aid our economy. Aren't we all equal citizens under the treaty and not partners in our constitutional monarchy? What is it called when welfare becomes wealthfare?
Interesting times? Says Nicki.
It is interesting times all over. Change of subject from George editing Nuclear and New Zealand just doesn't go together. Quote unquote so says Paul Beck, New Zealand Herald at twenty eight eleven twenty four. The question of whether it was appropriate to establish a nuclear waste facility on a site without notifying neighboring property owners is valid. However, for Beck to say that we should shun anything nuclear is
simply folly. Nuclear technology plays a significant role in modern medicine, including some cancer treatments and in providing scans for diagnon nosing a raft of medical conditions. The development of this technology in recent decades has saved many lives and has delivered the quality of life to countless patients which would not have been possible otherwise. Current research in nuclear technology is also providing solutions for future electricity needs as demands
for more capacity grows worldwide. Some will agree that anything nuclear should be avoided at all costs. So are we to bury our heads in the sand and deny ourselves the considerable advantages of technological progress? Or shall we get over our irrational paranoia of all things nuclear? George, I think I agree with you wholeheartedly pretty much. I'll tell you what bothers me elsewhere in this podcast. I've may
mention of people leaving the country going to Australia. I am concerned that the country's IQ is dropping like a rock at the moment.
Leighton Stephen says, thank you for interviewing David Seymour for yesterday's podcast. I gave act my party vote because I wanted them to deal with this chaotic situation with the treaty. However, David lost more than a few points from me when he stated his ambivalence about the name of this country. It has been New Zealand since the time of Abel Tasman. It was not the British who named the place, and to even contemplate changing the name at all is not acceptable.
The name of a country is the label of its soul. It is not something to be flippant about. While I have a lot of respect and regard for David, his las a fair attitude towards the name brings into question his commitment to his other policies. I enjoy your podcast, says Stephen, thank you.
He lost a few points on that commentary. We got more mail on it, but we can't read it all. You know, there is a thing called bracket creep. It's usually applied to Texas. Tried to say this to him. I'm going to try and do it better now. But there is this thing called bracket creep, and if you're not aware of it, you get robbed. You know what I'm talking about, bracket creep inflation and you find yourself moving into higher tax brackets. Same principle with this, you
will allow whatever creep it is. In this case it's racial creep. You're allowed to get a foothold, and before you know it, you're moving up the latter at a rate of knots. And that the longer you wait, the more difficult it is to rectify, as we are finding out now with the Treaty Principles Bill. Now from Allen. Now, this is actually written to me and separately to his
own address to David Seymour. I want to congratulate Layton allowing David a lengthy, yet succinct, informative opening statement overview of salient points of New Zealand's constitutional history and podcast to sixty seven. David's comprehensive answer was both informative and apt.
Unlike Layton admitted at the end of that answer, I believe all of us listening learnt at least a few facts previously likely unknown that's opening set the scene through a uniquely interesting podcast discussion, being catalyst by the introduction of the Principles of the Treaty of Whiteangi Bill twenty twenty four to the New Zealand Parliament by Coalition Partner Act.
Whilst I suggest an alternative viewpoint see copy attached to my submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee hearing of submissions on the Bill. I commend you both on providing a most useful discussion session to listen to. But you get the picture. By the way, Allen's a lawyer.
So.
Knows what he's talking about.
Well, not all lawyers, do you know? That's not that's a that's a whole lot of pot. I've got a reflection on Allen, but not all lawyers do.
Leydon Brett, this is a lovely.
So of them become judges even still don't.
This is my final email and a lovely one to finish on. Brett says warm wishes to you both as you remind us another year will soon have passed in the lives of yourselves, guest contributors and listeners alike. Before I get further taken over by life's challenges and happenings that I may forget one simple task. I wish you a very merry Christmas and most happy New Year. Have a great, adventurous and rewarding year to come, a present which you get to unpack every day of your lives.
You are indeed wealthy people in the journey and rich tapestry of life. Are wealth shared with those lives you touch upon and touch upon you. As I keep saying, Brett, it's nothing to do with me.
I just.
Sworn in every now and again. Well, I feel touched for both of us, and Brett.
Says, by the grace of God, go I and us all have a wonderful break. Brett, thank you so much. It's really lovely of you. And merry Christmas and happy New Year to you too.
Think you have a lovely break. We got a three months off or something? Or am I mistaken?
You don't want three months off? You You'll be champing at the bit after about four weeks.
You think, Okay, So we'll see you next week, Yes for the grand Final, Absolutely, yes, Tony astall look forward to that. Now. This segment comes in three different parts. We start with part one, which was a press release on Tuesday, of this week from ACT ACT is warning that new standards of competence for registered and enrolled nurses will distract from individual patient needs and make it harder
to attract and retain nurses. The role of the nursing count is to protect the health and safety of the public and ensure nurses are competent and fit to practice, but new standards of competence set to be implemented on January twenty will veer the nursing profession badly off track, according to the ACT Health spokesperson Todd Stevenson. Stevenson goes further, Once upon a time, being a nurse was a matter
of having the right skills and a kind heart. Now we're asking nurses to have the correct views on the Treaty of White Hangi and to make assumptions about patient's needs based on their ethnicity. The six planned pillars of competency for registered nurses are Mari health. Example, nurses must use terrao and incorporate tikangamari into practice. Number two Cultural safety. Nurses must be able to describe the impact of colonization
and advocates for cultural and spiritual health. Part three A word that I can't pronounce going to get plenty of criticism from it. I haven't come across it before, but I'm going to. I'm not going to buger it up, so to speak. So it comes under the heading basically of communication. Example, nurses must use culturally appropriate communication in
all interactions. Part four Evidence informed nursing practice. Nurses must support far our choice of alternative therapies, such as the use of wrongeye as herbal remedies and massage and spiritual healing. Number five. People centeredness. Nurses must integrate relational and FOCKERPAPA centered care to meet the needs of people and parno and leadership is number six. Nurses must support the constant assessment and improvement of sustainability practice or practice says so.
Back to Todd Stevenson, rather than seeing patients as people with basic humanity and individual needs, nurses are being told to focus on their patient's ethnic identity. Clinical needs are sidelined in favor of a focus on the treaty, cultural safety,
and even spiritual concerns. According to Stevenson, I have been contacted by nurses who are bewildered by the standards and are concerned they will be required to take extensive additional trainings when they would rather focus on improving individual nursing skills. You have to wonder how we're meant to attract overseas trained nurses when our bespoke local standards send the message
that their skills and experience are not valued. Here on Monday, I wrote to the Minister of Health asking that he assess the impact of the proposed competencies. In fact, during the election campaign, Act propose giving the Health Ministry power to override decisions of regulatory authorities like the Nursing Council if the Minister believes those decisions go beyond what is necessary to protect public health and safety. Now that's the end of the Act release, and so do Part two.
Now this was and by somebody I know quite well, a friend of mine in fact, and it was published a couple of days ago prior to the Act release. And it is entertaining in and of itself. And so it begins. The first week in November promised a lot. On the Tuesday, the liberal women of America were going to show men that they would reclaim the right to abort their babies at any time and place they wished.
And the educated elites on campus and in the media were set to prove that lies told often enough constitute the truth, so long as they are told by the right people. By Wednesday, according to smart people, Donald Trump would be holed up at marri Lago with his idiot savant newby Elon Musk, licking his wounds and sharing hamburgers with RFK Junior. On Wednesday, my grandson would turn two and receive a bright red fire engine to add to his collection of trucks. It was going to be quite
a week. Unfortunately I missed it. On Monday night, Nature sent its silent assassin to visit me. Sepsus arrives invisibly and without warning. By Tuesday, I vomited fourteen times, to the point that water came back out of my mouth as quickly as I tried to sip it, and nausey appeals couldn't get past my pharynx. Being a male, I lay down to let it pass. It didn't. On Wednesday, I crawled to the room where my cell phone sat on its charger and tried to alert a political junkie
friend that I couldn't keep our date. To pore over the entrails of the election as planned. The text read, have hav she waited for more? There wasn't any more. The cell phone lay on the floor, and so did I. When the building valet staff, concierge, and ambulance crew arrived, they spread me out like a starfish and bared my chest for the cardio version machine, as if none of this had anything to do with me. I collected snippets of conversation for clues as to the scene taking place.
Let's get the catamine in quick. Tell any one who needs to know we may not make it in time. Ain't going to die on our watchman, one of the ambulance bros said, reassuringly, No way, bro, not no way, no how. His fellow bro replies, they write rap lyrics in their spare time. I thought, then the good part.
I'm looking down at this person who looks a lot like me, who was lying prone on a Stanley Kubrick or George Lucas spaceship set while I give increasingly frustrated directions, as if being the actor, a cameraman and director is too much of one person to handle. The set is great, though, and the transition to the next scene is seamless. Now I'm looking down at myself, traveling at the speed of a sushi train through dry white mist, illuminated by a strong light. My face is serene to the point of
being dopey. I'm never serene. I have a moment of anxiety, wondering if it's true that finger nails and toenails continue to grow after you who cuts them. The light goes out. When I woke, my best friend was holding my hand. She looked at me as though this time I'd gone too far. I peered through a forest of catheters and tubes coming out of my neck, my arms, and my chest. Beeping monitors competed with each other for attention. Apparently, the
first words I said were that ketamine baby. My daughter arrived from Australia, my son from Nelson. My grandson loved his fire truck, but the siren was driving them mad. Removed the battery. I suggested you were dead on arrival. She replied, don't do that again. The cliches are all true. Then we get into the parth that's relative. The cliches are all true. Nurses are angels. They come from the Philippines, India, Asia and the Pacific Islands with ready made smiles on
their faces. We pay them nothing. The young doctors travel in threes, visiting every four hours to read the charts and hypothesize about the meds and their dosage levels. I doubt if one of them is over thirty, working fourteen hour shifts, carrying the weight of hundreds of sick and dying people on their shoulders. The administrative bureaucracy, of course, lets send down. I could write a list. So that
was my November. In Michele Wellmeck's latest novel, Annihilation, the French health bureaucracy separates health from humanity until end of life care becomes a punishment subservient to systems. This inspires the establishment of a volunteer group called CLASH, the Committee
for Liberation from Assassination in hospitals. They rescue people in the dead of night and return them to the people who love them after a week in recovery, listening to the fog horn snoring and the obsessive recounting of a dying man's life as he searched for a version of himself that he could accept. At the last I was lying in bed, desperately seeking a snatch of sleep, when a marry woman visitor to the ward decided to conduct a telephone conversation in terreo at full volume, as if
she were in a shopping ball. It lasted an hour and a half, barely two meters from my curtained bed. On his next ward rounds, I told my brilliant young Chinese doctor about clash recovery. I mused, relies equally on the spirit as it does to the body. In order to preserve my spirit, I intended escaping. He nodded his head and smiled. I'll need an hour or so at the end of my rounds to write you a discharge and arrange a meds. Back home and feather bedded comfort
fussed over like a visiting celebrity. I feeled at a call from a friend in Sydney. What's it like on the other side, he asked. I assured him that it is painless and peaceful. The pain is on this side. My political junkie friend brought me up to date with a presidential election. A mass sociogenic hysteria had broken out among liberal women, causing them to cut off their hair and gather in lakeside mobs to howl hysterically at the moon.
Four year cruise packages were being offered to Democrats, allowing them to stay away from America until the madness had passed. Mark Zuckerberg, who had banned Donald Trump from his social platforms in twenty twenty and fed his sights with false information from the state intelligence community, had gone down to mare Lago to kiss the new monarch's ring. It had been a clean sweep. The pain is on this side, as I said, but for the woke allergic majority, the
pain has eased a little a I Faber. If you want to copy it for yourself and share it round, it's worth it, I reckon Ai Fabler, substack, help yourself. It's free, and it's a true story, and it covers more bases than he intended to in the first place. If you go back to I haven't finished yet. But if you go back to the list of the pillars that they're installing as of January twenty, you can see that at least fifty percent of them. Well, I'll let
this follower tell the story. Because I sent that release, the act release, to Ai Fabler, I said, would you care to comment on it?
Please?
I didn't know what he'd say, but I suspected this is late in my experience during an extended period in ice you followed by recovery in a four patient ward was that the majority of nurses were from the Philippines, India, Asia and Pacific Islands. Without exception, their competence and devotion
to patients was exemplary. Shortness of staffing, particularly at night, meant that nurses had an informal agreement to cover for each other in neighboring ICEEU rooms, and sometimes Philippine staff or Indian staff would call to each other in their own language to attract attention under urgency, but would always advise the patient in English as to what was happening. I was never conscious of my ethnicity being a factor
in any treatment, no matter how sensitive that treatment. There may have been reference to my ethnicity in the record of my NHI number, but never on any records of treatment. During my period of stay. I never encountered a Mari nurse or doctor, but did observe the treatment and expectations of married patients and visitors, which I would rather not
comment upon. The Nursing Council list of expectations has no relevance add all to the health, safety, or cultural well being of eighty five percent of patients who have no desire to be addressed in terraea or to be treated with reference to so called Marii custom. And he finalizes with this sentence, which is most important. Further, it would be a burden on dedicated staff of other ethnicities who have been trained in Western medicine and put their faith
in itslutely regards. Make of it what you will. It's just another example of this country going inch by inch, step by step in an undesirable direction. At least that's my take. And that will take us out for Podcast two hundred and sixty eight. We shall return in a few days with podcasts to sixty nine, the last for the year, and it's got to be a great discussion
with Tony Astral from Antoine's Restaurant. As it was that is no longer so in the meantime, the only thing left to say is if you'd like to, if you'd like to contact us Latent at newstalksb dot co dot nz or Carolyn with Y at newstalksb dot co dot NZ as I say back in a few days. Until then, thank you for listening and we'll talk soon.
Thank you for more from NEWSTALKSB listen live on air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio