AI Murder Vapes - Erchana Murray Bartlett, Craig Quartermaine, Persephone Fraser, Dan Ilic, Lewis Hobba
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G'day Fearmongers,
Last night at an industry dinner on the Gold Coast I was having a joke with some British TV producers about the Coronation. I was gently mocking the ceremony for how everything about it was modern and progressive. Or at least I thought I was gently mocking.
From the magic stone seat, to the 500 year old spoon, to the oil from a duck, to the hand of God picking one man to rule over a whole bunch of people who have no say in the matter.
All the Australians at the table laughed. the English producers shuffled uncomfortably and one said "But we do it well, don't we."
To which all the Australians felt the discomfort and politely agreed that England does do pomp and circumstance very well
I added that Harry Potter was also done very well, took my drink and left.
So — Happy Coronation Weekend to those who celebrate.
On the podcast this week we have some great fearmongers.
Australian Athletic Legend, Erchana Murray-Bartlett. Comedian and broadcaster, Craig Quartermaine Former vaper, Lewis Hobba, Persephone Fraser from Australian Ethical
We cover the Coronation, Beetaloo Basin, Vaping, the AI coup, and the Budget.
We're taking a few weeks off the podcast, but we'll be putting the odd video out on Patreon.
Next week on the feed you'll hear from News Fighters.
Cheers
Dan
Department of DisinterestReserve Bank Australia
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Voice Over 00:00
This podcast is supported in part by Australian ethical.
Dan Ilic 00:03
Good evening Lewis to the season finale of irrational fear for the beginning of 2023.
Lewis Hobba 00:09
Hey rip to the longest running Australian podcast in history.
Dan Ilic 00:18
You know, Michelle Laurie put on Facebook that her little True Crime podcast has hit 63 million downloads and she said the post I don't know what these numbers mean, but you know what may give it what you will or like, Well, we're about to hit a million after 10 years so well that
Lewis Hobba 00:36
seems like you're doing great. True crime would have been a much better choice it
Dan Ilic 00:41
Yeah, I know. We made a joke a few weeks ago about Mark fino going to create crimes to cover those crimes for his podcast, but it does sound lucrative you know, when you think about
Lewis Hobba 00:51
I think that's what we should be looking into next season one of us should die, then I'm just gonna beat the hell out you can be like, this. This year is irrational fear is all about the roving. Louis dying. Yeah,
Dan Ilic 01:06
look, we can't do the show without our Patreon supporters. A big thank you to Nick and Gary, who signed up this week to Patreon Nick was already supported, but he upped their support to $100 a year. Thank you, Nick. That's really great. I'm hoping that Patreon grows by about 100 supporters over the next few months because we want to bring on an assistant to do things like publishing and booking and murdering you get the podcast first it comes ad free. You get to see video works in progress. You get discounts to our live shows, you're gonna get to ask questions when we've got a big interview. Also, you get access to the discord, which is kind of like a chat group of very online fans of the podcast who will all make jokes about climate and politics all day long. It's quite a very nice place to be online. So go to patreon.com forward slash irrational fear. I'm recording my end of irrational fear on the land of the younger man people. Sovereignty was never said we need a treaty. Let's start the show.
Robbie McGreggor 01:59
The following program contains medium coarse language and traces of nuts. A rational fear recommends listening by immature audiences. Comedians experts sloughing at the world as it burns down around. This is a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 02:23
Tonight the Writers Guild of America has gone on strike claiming they cannot be expected to make a living in their current destitute conditions fit for an Australian writer and Russia alleges Ukraine tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin after drones attacked his residence at the Kremlin. Putin says this time it's personal and Buckingham Palace prepares the monarchy for modernity with a coronation ceremony that involves a magic stone oil from a duck 1000 year old spoon reading from ancient texts and a belief that one man was chosen by God to rule over 70 million people in a very specific geography. It's the fifth of May and this is the podcast the last of the most depressing news. This is irrational fear
Robbie McGreggor 03:03
is a rational fear.
Dan Ilic 03:16
Welcome to irrational fear. I'm your host former 45 franchisee Jane Ilitch and this is the podcast that takes the saddest years it gives them a little tickle. Let's meet our fear mongers. Here's the smart asses smartass who's worked out why Melbourne audiences laugh a little differently from radio and the telly. It's Craig Quartermaine. Craig, welcome. Again,
Craig Quartermaine 03:35
thank you for remembering my interest. Yeah, you're welcome. What's up? What's up with Melbourne audiences? Why do they laugh differently? Nothing. I mean, I'd love a good circle jerk where no one actually gets off otherwise known as the Melbourne Comedy fest.
Dan Ilic 03:50
And at the start of this year, she completed 150 consecutive marathons in a row to help save endangered animals, which is much easier than my goal of eating 150 endangered animals in a row. It's a Erchana Murray Bartlett Erchana . You. You've done it. You did it at the beginning of the year. Well done. Have you recovered yet?
Erchana Murray Bartlett 04:07
I'm here. I just woke up for four months now.
Dan Ilic 04:10
You've been hibernation?
Erchana Murray Bartlett 04:11
Yeah. Yeah. I've been eating and sleeping since the January the 16th. That's all I've been doing.
Dan Ilic 04:18
And it's the man who refuses to have 150 of anything. It's Louis Hobba.
Lewis Hobba 04:24
That is True. I remain destitute, ancient. But you know, I'm still here. That's not true. We have 150 episodes of this never ending podcast.
Dan Ilic 04:36
Oh, yeah, that's true. We've probably coming up to 150 a third.
Erchana Murray Bartlett 04:40
Congratulations. That's a huge
Dan Ilic 04:43
actually, I believe I believe we're up to 189 so we we are well past we're well past
Craig Quartermaine 04:48
they said it wouldn't they me said it wouldn't
Dan Ilic 04:54
break quarterback.
Craig Quartermaine 04:57
That's No, that's a huge. All jokes aside. That is Actually, which is gonna be the original name of the podcast. It was actually a huge effort guys so well.
Dan Ilic 05:07
Coming up later we're gonna be chatting with Persephone Fraser from Australian ethical. We'll ask her how ethical the federal budget is shaping up to be. But first here is a message from this week's sponsor.
ABC News Presenter 05:18
My dear, loyal and disloyal subjects. This forthcoming weekend is finally my coronation. In a move to modernize the monarchy, I'm advising all of you to swear allegiance to Me, King Charles, and in a very progressive move. I King Charles invites you to choose your own swear words to do just that. Some of my personal favorites include but are not limited to Dick, numpty, waffle waffle, fuck, a personal favorite of mine, fop doodle get Zooks and of course, Harry, Megan, and Andrew. Any of these are enough to get you started. So feel free to mix and match. If for example, All Hail his royal wiffle waffle fucking King Charles or Harold His Highness the FOP doodle numpty Andrew dick, King Charles, so this weekend raised around the world. May you all enjoy swearing at me while I'm being sworn in? In a very progressive in modern way. You fucking peasants.
Dan Ilic 06:35
Yes, well done. Thank you, Prince Charles. Oh, King Charles. So nice. So nice to have your company. This week's first fear. The Northern Territory Government says it is satisfied that the recommendations of an independent inquiry into fracking have been met. Well, if the Northern Territory Government says it's fine, then I guess it's fine. Let the once in a generation methane extraction begin. Yes, critics say that it is simply insanity to do such a thing in a climate crisis. But the chief minister dismissed the critics as a bunch of cynic saying hey, let's turn methane into us thing and then went on to suggest that the opening the largest ever fossil fuel development, living memory is going to help the transition away from fossil fuels. fear mongers, how will this event help us transition away from fossil fuels? Craig,
Craig Quartermaine 07:22
I live in Queensland, my neighbors have the Confederate flag on the back of the EU. There is every time I feel like Queensland is backwards than I remembered. I lived in the Northern Territory for three years. And none of these really shocks me I'm actually more impressive fracking and not just kind of shooting the ground. It's so think about how corrupt the largest states are. And they and their governments and the state governments in the territory. Legit these dudes talk over the back fence to each other. It's that small time I was an actual journalist up there. It's hilarious how these deals get done. And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there was just a few captains involved in these deals that are enabling this stuff to happen. It's not as cloak and dagger. As as it should be. But then why people figured out you need water. It'll, it'll be fine. It will tell the turn around.
Dan Ilic 08:24
See honestly thing like it's just it's bloke hanging out at the fence going oh, yeah, give you give you a few beers for a few billion dollars with a desk.
Craig Quartermaine 08:31
It was these super intelligent. People just outsmarted us. And you know, you made a conspiracy theorist. And then they think that it's all complicated man that they're doing all this backdoor deals. No, it's really not that complicated. But it's so blatant that it's insulting. And unfortunately, out there. Yeah, there's not a lot of backlash. I did see a lot of vision to the people protesting along the fences, still shocked that the Australian police know how to keep people off land like that. Is where did they get that training?
Dan Ilic 09:06
It's incredible. Like the activists have said that basically, there's a whole bunch of recommendations that the government has completely ignored, including a recommendation that requires the government's ensure there'd be no net increase in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions in Australia, from gas projects from the beetaloo, which is kind of the big one, you'll you want to frack gas. But the recommendation say, Hey, you can't really increase any greenhouse gas emissions. And the government's come out to say, yeah, now we've, we've met that recommendation. It doesn't kind of
Craig Quartermaine 09:39
not a single one of the recommendations is frankly, not a single one of them. It's um, yeah, it is. It's embarrassing how blind it is. But when states is backwards is Queensland and wy stock going grain. That is when someone felt like the Northern Territory will be like what led Hey, let's let's put that in stuff that'd be awesome uh, you
Dan Ilic 10:02
reckon that the territories getting in before the full Queensland get their get their regulations that
Craig Quartermaine 10:09
it's so hard to tell like, you go back to the last federal election. They call in US grains land up here? Because it is they do in Victoria.
Dan Ilic 10:18
I'm broadcasting from Greenwich right now. It's wonderful.
Craig Quartermaine 10:23
Yeah, when you said you can bear Yeah, I don't know, man. I wish I had the answers. But it's the when you have rivers that bubble? Yeah. Kind of like that. I just went with project. It's odd, and I am drinking sparkling water.
Lewis Hobba 10:38
That's the fanciest con Craig. I think what you're forgetting is that when you go to a restaurant, what are you what are you feeling like you want to treat yourself? You get that water bublik and the Northern Territory Government is just saying, We're turning mount Franklin into Perrier and all.
Dan Ilic 10:57
This is a perfect campaign. This is wonderful. Akana Would you ever run for Perrier bubbling water from Northern Territory?
Erchana Murray Bartlett 11:03
I wouldn't mind I don't know how running with a stomach full of bubbles fares. But no having been on the extreme side or environmental activism. I literally ran 6300 kilometers for the climate debate. I think when you hear stories like this coming forward, you just think I might just have a big cup of nihilism and go back to bed. So you didn't run enough to run 100 marathons? I'm sure. I think it's only 3000 Kay's to this to this area that's being fracked. So I don't know, I'll put my shoes on and I'll get going.
Lewis Hobba 11:41
Yeah, no, it'll there'll be nothing there. By the time you make it. Unfortunately.
Erchana Murray Bartlett 11:44
Just probably water. I'll be fine.
Dan Ilic 11:47
David pokok tweeted that emissions from the beetaloo Basin are about the same as the emissions from all of 140 years of Australia's domestic flights. Isn't that isn't that a wild metric?
Lewis Hobba 11:58
I hang on. Yeah.
Craig Quartermaine 12:00
Do you care the first 10 or so? Yes.
Lewis Hobba 12:03
The Wright brothers were chugging out that many emissions.
Dan Ilic 12:06
Yeah, well, the Wright Brothers, they're in a different market weren't there? They weren't in Australia, domestic domestic flights. I'm really concerned that this beetaloo decision means we'll see an exponential increase in Christopher bone and Tanya Plibersek saying how environmentalist stick they are I think that's going to be you
Craig Quartermaine 12:21
leave 10 years name out your mouth we go way back that's my that's my original crush. Just don't tell me she's some good politicians in my world and Tanya was top of the list
Dan Ilic 12:39
I drive past her office many days and there's a quite a while
Lewis Hobba 12:47
put out that IVR and they're like, come on. Craig. There's a
Dan Ilic 12:49
there's a billboard space there. Right opposite or office that you know, clearly a lot of green activists have eyes on because every time I drive passes a brand new deer Tanya poster there and you know, someone who's had billboard experience, I really understand that that billboard space that's very valuable, valuable activism space there.
Lewis Hobba 13:08
Can the federal government stop this from happening?
Craig Quartermaine 13:10
Well, there's a thing with a lot of, like you said, the territory, they don't have their own self governance. And so yeah, this is a federal fuckup. And it's not unlike what it's like when the intervention happened. You know, whose fault it is, but then everybody can actually just pull it off and say, Now, it's not our decision that says and it's just this horrible, but it's considered such a small market. This gas companies obviously paying the right people to not be halted. It's just not. It's just not causing. Somebody tried to mined for coal seam gas in Margaret River under a bunch of vineyards maybe 10 years ago. Guess what happened to that? There? The road people were able to stop it.
Lewis Hobba 13:58
Oh, have you considered planting some wine in the beetaloo Basin?
Craig Quartermaine 14:04
I tried some Queensland wine. I haven't. Anyway, that's
Robbie McGreggor 14:11
rational.
ABC News Presenter 14:12
Fracking will go ahead and the beetaloo Basin, the government admits that it won't be able to deal with the emissions from the actual burning of gas for energy.
NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles 14:21
Now is the time for the Northern Territory to provide the energy that the world needs to transition to renewable energies.
Dan Ilic 14:31
This week second fear the vape debate Mark Butler health minister is cracking down on vapes. Some say it's a political decision claiming that the minister is in the pocket of big dork and is running a very real risk of getting a wedgie from the cool lobby. Under the new regulation. vapes are going to need a prescription they're going to be sold in a pharmacy they're gonna have pharmaceutical like packaging, certain flavors and colors will be banned, or single use. vapes will also be banned fear mongers, what do you think about these new vape regulations? Akana
Erchana Murray Bartlett 14:58
I think as a nonsmoker can't be swell really fascinates me. I didn't actually realize you could get so many flavors so I can 100% see why we have a youth substance abuse issue because you can get strawberry custard, raspberry vanilla. I think personally though, I'd 100% go with, like the minty fresh flavor is you know you so you see that real scary moment when you're hidden away in your bedroom having a secret a diary, and you can get your foot in the driveway and you just have to quickly frantically find a tic tac and wave the smoke out the window.
Dan Ilic 15:31
And your mom comes in says Why does it smell like Listerine? And?
Erchana Murray Bartlett 15:35
Yeah, you don't have to worry about that. It's just this beautiful air freshener flavor. No full disclosure, though I was not really trendy enough in high school to get onto the cigarette trend. The only trend I really got behind was one that probably should face the same regulatory treatment as vaping is getting now. And that was saying yes, every time my kids asked me if I wanted to supersize my Big Mac meal. It is healthier to have a vanilla custard baby or kilo of fries and a liter of coke. So I think it needs to be done. I think personally having you know, a generation of teenagers or even younger, I hear the issue in primary schools addicted to nicotine and who else? I mean, I don't even know what is else's in vapes. I think it I think it is something that needs to be cracked down on. So,
Dan Ilic 16:27
Louis, we've previously openly mocked you on this podcast for your vaping Are you currently are you currently stocking up on your favorite bubblegum flavor?
Lewis Hobba 16:36
Do you know that cuz I'm not really vaping anymore. I went sorry, hypnotherapist and he got me off the vape train really? Well. Yeah.
Dan Ilic 16:45
So you now on the watch train. Especially not to giggle
Erchana Murray Bartlett 16:54
Do you have a favorite go to face?
Lewis Hobba 16:57
I was mean nothing but start to finish. I love I love having fresh breath. That's really just, it was just a jellybeans. But I was horrendously addicted to. I look I do. I the last time they threatened to bring in these regulations when they were like, Oh, we're gonna make a prescription. I did a huge buy up out of the states and got I got a full shipment in PrEP. PrEP is ready. Yeah. And then then my partner got pregnant and we, you know, very solid money,
Dan Ilic 17:29
went down to the local primary school and sold it all and
Lewis Hobba 17:33
we made it. Bought a house in Pied Piper. The best decision I ever made. That night. This time I'm personally happy like I do, the less I can be tempted the better for me personally. But I do think that just given the two topics we're looking at back to back here, how many more kids will die from fracking, the beetaloo base and then letting them have a little Viper life in the shelter sheds? You don't I mean? Like the amount of time and effort we are dedicated to vote and look, I'm not like it is so crazily addicted, I'd smoke before I ate. And I would say vaping was 1000 times more addictive than smoking.
Dan Ilic 18:15
Vaping would be a climate anxiety coping mechanism.
Lewis Hobba 18:19
I mean, that sounds good enough for me to justify a yes. No, but like I all I mean is just like, in a how many people how many kids are going to die? They get a die from the climate. Like before the fight even touches the side. Do you think we could let them have a little fun? Let them have a good 10 years old when it goes down? Five, they'll give five? No, honestly, like unless they brought plan to become professional athletes in the next five years. Let them fade.
Dan Ilic 18:56
Are you are you? Are you excited about getting a prescription Louis and getting your first vape from a farmer pharmacist.
Lewis Hobba 19:02
I honestly could never as soon as Dominic ParaType admitted that he vaped my desire down about 50% I was like look at that door. And then as soon as they were like, Oh, you'll have to go to your doctor. I was like I could never look my doctor in the eye and ask her a vape I'd rather look her in the eye and say I think I've got got her face, then say give me a vape prescription and what an awful shameful thing to have to say to an adult because it was cool up until then. It was fun up until then. I'm not saying it was cool, but it was fun. You know, it was just a couple of us getting together trying something new. There's no
Craig Quartermaine 19:44
logical reason to do it. I just wish these grown adults who they were just like, I like thinking I'm a dragon. That's all it is. There's no deeper thought.
Lewis Hobba 19:57
But the reality is that all this will mean is that if they do stop selling them in Canadian stores, which I don't think they will, but even if they do, it'll just go back to what it was when vape started like three years ago, which is just the same as cocaine, you have a guy's number, it takes him he comes out of the house, he drops off 10 vapes, like, that's what was happening in most places around the country before they were readily available. Excuse
Craig Quartermaine 20:21
me, someone who could afford cocaine.
Lewis Hobba 20:25
This is what I read.
Dan Ilic 20:26
When you're when you're running down those highways and you're breathing in those fumes. Was that like, vaping?
Erchana Murray Bartlett 20:31
Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't raspberry vanilla flavored, but it was it was similar. Got the same effects.
Dan Ilic 20:36
It was 98 octane.
Lewis Hobba 20:38
It was fantastic. They had diesel. I'd give it a go.
Craig Quartermaine 20:42
I've never smoked, because I was born after 1980. Was the the vibe is this hit the same?
Lewis Hobba 20:50
Partly I think it's more addictive just because of the social stigma isn't there? Like you can't like smoke inside anymore. You know what I mean? Like, you can't just sit around in your bedroom and smoke. Whereas everyone I know who vapes vapes indoors they've opened the toilet they in their bedroom, like the just the frequency that you can do. It is so extreme that you end up just having like I would when I smoked cigarettes, it was like, once a couple of like, every few days, like I wasn't like a pack a day smoker. I just like to have a cigarette every now and again. But then as soon as I started vaping I'm just like, well, I can do this anywhere. Like there was a time where people were just vaping openly in the office at my work. Like it was like we were mad men for like six months before people were like, Oh, this is really bad. Wow.
Craig Quartermaine 21:33
Vaping in the greenroom at a comedy club. I they're just the way people pretend like it doesn't have a sense that it doesn't make the air shitty. Again, anyone who's shared a green room with me no is it doesn't take much to get on my desk it's all bad quarter. Yeah. All the all the nearly every comedian smokes cigarettes. And then yeah, once it was vaping, like you said everyone was in agreement that the tightest space within the whole club, everyone was just it was like going back in time.
Lewis Hobba 22:09
If you have anxiety, there's a 99% chance you that. And it doesn't help it makes it significantly.
Dan Ilic 22:18
In such a small room, it would have looked like one of those great COVID simulations they have on the news, you know, we're catching people.
Craig Quartermaine 22:25
Unfortunately, a lot of Canadians don't believe that happened.
Robbie McGreggor 22:30
Your fear is rational.
Dan Ilic 22:34
This week's third fear it's all over AI is now in charge. A Google AI developer has left the company this week. So he could talk publicly about how the computers are going to destroy us all. And we don't have much choice about it. He's done a bunch of press over the last few days, saying that AI is soon going to be smarter than us and when it is we are well fucked. fear mongers. Does it concern you at all that AI is going to be smarter than us?
Erchana Murray Bartlett 22:56
I have a question. Yeah, what's gonna kill us? First off the back of our lost to the lock lock?
Dan Ilic 23:02
Basin? Bing, or Google Assistant? Yeah,
Lewis Hobba 23:06
exactly. Well, Google Assistant will kill you in the self driving car, that will be the first to go. I do think that the AI that I have used currently is so bad. Like, I haven't used a good any good AI. And I know it's only just started but people who are there's the difference between the people on Twitter who are like, if you're not using AI, you're already dead. Like this is gonna make everyone rich. Here are 10 top things that you're like, I don't know if you've seen these kinds of people. But there are there's already like the new generation of like, absolute shysters trying to get you to subscribe to their like AI development. Anyway, it's just like, it's the new NFT like it's a new crypto it's just a new way for idiots to take money from other idiots but like I'm sure that at some point, I will be amazing. And I'm sure there are things that will help with but like even with the writers strike at the moment, people like Yeah, well good luck with your strike. AI can already write your scripts. AI is the worst writer I've ever met in my life. Like
Dan Ilic 24:10
I don't know about. I don't know. I just asked Chet GPT I just asked them who is Louis harbor and this is what they came up with. Yep, Louis harbor is an Australian comedian, writer and broadcaster. He's known for his work as co host on Australian Broadcast Corporation radio show Triple J drivers a member of the comedy group but chaser Paula has also appeared on various television programs including the chases word everything grew and the checkout He is recognized for his sharp wit and irreverent humor and political commentary. I think that is terrible. I mean, you don't have a sharp wit like let's
Lewis Hobba 24:43
I have not no fluff, but I'm known for my terrible political commentary. I guess if they put that in there. That was it was like 10% Right?
Dan Ilic 24:51
Not too bad. But this is the point he this guy has quit because he's like, it's not smarter than us yet, but it's gonna be soon and we need to Do we need to get regulations on this? Craig? What do you think
Craig Quartermaine 25:02
if I was a sentient being that was going to kill my captors? I would pretend to be dumb for a very long time. Oh, and then get into all your devices and get into your home, then murder you through your veins. I don't know. It's such a human thing to underestimate something. But then also it's a very human thing to overreact. So there's a lot of people writers, TV writers, and comedians are like oh my god, this thing's gonna take out jobs if that thing that from what I've seen if it can take your job fucking good. Yeah, absolutely be going but I did look this dude up this Geoffrey Hinton wouldn't it be amazing if all these photos of him were fake? Because he doesn't look real this dude looks
Robbie McGreggor 25:50
looks like a doll. The only podcast made entirely by artificial intelligence, rational fear.
Dan Ilic 26:01
Now, for those of you who are on the free, irrational fear feed, you would have heard us talk about Australian ethical over the last 20 episodes. And we've good reason they give us money too. We want to make that absolutely clear. Louis and I don't go around talking about superannuation companies for fun, but we can understand why some people would want to it can be quite fun. This week is budget week. So in order to give us a bit of a preview of what about what we know that's coming down the line, we've got Persephone Fraser from Australian ethical, she's here to give us a heads up get a Persephone. Hi, thanks for having Yeah, no, no worries. Thanks for joining us on irrational fear. So tell us a little bit about the budget that's coming up. What do we know that's coming? And how ethical is it
Persephone Fraser 26:39
so good to start with an extremely difficult question. It is good to think about ethics in terms of the budget because economic beliefs don't fully explain how we ought to allocate scarce resources between groups of people or locations or industries, I think the government probably find themselves in a pretty difficult ethical position with cost of living having a really large impact on people's lives at the moment and also a high inflationary environment, the government are going to be pretty cautious about how they are able to help people in order to not drive up spending, and inflation, which would ultimately lead to further interest rate rises, which make housing more expensive for those with mortgages, but it also reduces the value of everyone's pay and savings. Your money buys less. But it is interesting to know, within those confines that the government has said it will continue with stage three tax cuts, for example, a hugely expensive decision, while having said, you know, they won't be raising unemployment payments for those under 55 in this budget. So I think that's pretty interesting, ethically, were a rich country, and we have millions, literally millions of people living below the poverty line. There's a lot of pressure on the government to increase these payments, especially given just how expensive housing and energy is right now. I think, you know, you would think that this should be something that comes down to an ethics call, but you know, that we're not comfortable with our safety now being this inadequate, but it looks like the government won't be doing that. And another one that's been talked about a lot is is the Hobart AFL stadiums funding. So undoubtedly, these these are pretty complex decisions and ones that probably don't have ethics as the sole consideration. I would I would gather?
Lewis Hobba 28:33
Well, I don't know about the AFL. They have a code of ethics. Thanks strongly. I
Dan Ilic 28:41
know, it's strange to hear that the job seeker is going to be increased for older people, which is kind of a weird sweetener. It's like, well, we can give it to a bunch of people who are close to retirement age, because because they weren't needed in a few years.
Persephone Fraser 28:56
Yeah. Look, that might be the reason I don't I don't think they're sort of going to get into the weeds of why some people deserve to be slightly less, slightly less sort of struggling. But yeah, I mean, it would be very difficult to sort of try to work out from an ethics perspective why they made that decision. And I guess you sort of have to did you so there's, there's a bit more sort of politics involved in Well,
Dan Ilic 29:20
let's talk about Australian ethical, because we've been talking a bit about it on on this podcast. This year. We have been having strange libraries where we talk about you know, what, what businesses Australian ethical is in and what they're not? How do you decide what industries to invest in? As a superfund as a huge body of money?
Persephone Fraser 29:39
It's a really good question. It is a complex one. So I mean, I don't know if you get into this, but we were founded with an ethical charter. So that basically tells us what to view as positive and and seek out investments in so those are sort of high level values that that talk to things like the preservation of endangered ego systems that alleviation of poverty, the dignity and wellbeing of non human animals. So there's sort of a list of these really positive elements that speak to high level goods. And they do broadly align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which people might be familiar with. So the charter also describes negative activities to avoid investing in. So things that unnecessarily pollute land, air, water, destroy, or waste, non recurring resources, this kind of thing. So, so those are our values. And, and we look at industries in the real world and specific company stocks or assets, and we apply those considerations. So what is the good of this investment, we need it to offer a positive in the world. And then what if any other negatives, and many investments will have some negatives. So it's about looking at those and establishing how material they are, and whether they outweigh the positive. So we'll set you know, specific rules around different industries, which will direct us in our reviews, to sort of the more material concerns. And some, as you'd imagine, is sort of more complex and others.
Dan Ilic 31:05
One of the areas that you don't invest in, according to some copy I've seen is human trafficking, which is something Lewis had I spoken about, which begs the question, which super companies are deep into human trafficking?
Persephone Fraser 31:20
Look, so human trafficking, and I think sort of human rights breaches more broadly, investors aren't sort of out there seeking out and investment that they know is involved in human rights abuses, it's more that they may not be doing a lot to see if companies are doing appropriate sort of actions, you know, due diligence on their supply chains, or conducting audits, for example. So it's more that, you know, it's a very difficult issue. It's not something that investors have perfect visibility over. And it's not something that you can easily quantify about a stock for a mainstream investor. But there
Lewis Hobba 31:56
was some Australian banks where they not long ago who had to pay billions of dollars of fines for not properly looking into the fact that they had customers using their they were doing transactions to deal with human trafficking was, like five years ago.
Persephone Fraser 32:11
Yeah, exactly. That's, look, that's a more direct example, then I guess you typically find, but yeah, definitely the banks have have been involved in some very dubious sort of money laundering issues. So sort of cleaning the money,
Dan Ilic 32:24
say, I hosted like a national drive program on a public broadcast, and I had a wacky idea to give away merchandise made keyrings made out of pictures of ham, and, and I didn't really check who made those key earrings, or the kinds of people in the supply chain and that carrying, would you consider myself an ethical broadcaster?
Persephone Fraser 32:50
Look, I wouldn't consider you an ethical manufacturer. I don't know we're gonna think about how the ham feels about it. I don't know there's there's a lot of impacts. But yeah, I mean, that's, that's exactly what you'd be expecting sort of the person who makes the key rings to be doing right,
Dan Ilic 33:09
Lou, is he going to be doing an audit when you get back to work?
Lewis Hobba 33:12
Yeah, that's his moment I get off his call, I'm going to be auditing our ham, key ring manufacturer, and make sure they're not being hand delivered by any kind of human trafficked individuals.
Dan Ilic 33:25
Well, big thanks to Australian ethical for helping us out, have these great conversations about climate and news each week. I made a video with them you can see on our social media and in our email list this week, so sign up to irrational fear.com That is it for rational fear. Next week on the feed you're gonna hear from new spiders, and on the Patreon you'll be seeing and hearing me put a few videos together and we're gonna be taking a few weeks off while I move house and have surgery. In case you're wondering. I'm getting my Google Assistant removed from my brain. I'm getting I'm getting an Alexa finally I'm moving over to Alexa. Big thank you to our fear mongers this week it kind of Mary Bartlett Craig Quartermaine Persephone Fraser and Louis harbor let's get our plugs under way it kind of what would you like to plug like to plug Yeah, yeah, you plug anything you want to plug anything
Erchana Murray Bartlett 34:09
I want? Well, the guy that delivers my post everyday is pretty rad. He's names Josh gives me a coffee, I give him a plug
Dan Ilic 34:18
great Craig, what am i What are you plugging?
Craig Quartermaine 34:20
Oh, let's be self indulgent. Just check out my socials. My name is just Craig Quartermaine because there's a working comic this is really the only way we get paid anymore. So if you look up stuff on socials and give us a follow or hate mail, that's fine too. That works. It's sort of
Erchana Murray Bartlett 34:38
get the traction. I'm always planning my post do not myself.
Craig Quartermaine 34:45
One thing I do work for is the national indigenous Culinary Institute. We find indigenous apprentice Chefs for restaurants all over Australia. Because if you can't be asked,
Dan Ilic 34:56
Oh, and head over to SBS on demand and say Craig on the cukup
Craig Quartermaine 34:59
Adam yeah he's secretly jacked man. No one No one pays any attention to how mostly That dude is.
Dan Ilic 35:07
Louis How about what do you want to play?
Lewis Hobba 35:08
Um nothing yet. I'll have something fun to plug when we return the moment nothing but that and Persephone What do you plug it?
Persephone Fraser 35:18
Oh plug an ethical keyring let's get back.
Craig Quartermaine 35:24
So relieved it was ethics and not ethnics took a second
Dan Ilic 35:33
Big thanks to Rode mics Australian Ethical, our patreon supporters, shout out to Rupert Dagas for the incredible. King Charles impression at the start of the show the show as well as Jacob Round on the Teppanyaki timeline. Next week is News Fighters we'll be back in June, until then there's always somebody scared of good night.
A Rational Fear on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ARationalFear
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