Boonta Vista - EPISODE 112: Dole Bludgeoned

Episode Date: August 20, 2019

The whole crew is reunited to take a look at the Australian Media's recurring obsession with demonising welfare recipients and their tendency to believe any boss who claims he can't give away jobs that pay a million dollars a year. As always, check out our friends at the Australian Unemployed Workers Union online (http://unemployedworkersunion.com) and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ausunemployment) *** Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista *** Merchandise available at: boontavista.com/merchandise *** Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista iTunes: tinyurl.com/y8d5aenm Spotify: spoti.fi/2DBCXGA Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/s?fid=144888&refid=stpr Pocket Casts: pca.st/SPZB RSS: tinyurl.com/kq84ddb

The cashless, welfare card joke. Centerling claims it's impossible to use it for alcohol, cigarettes or withdrawing cash. But that's a lie. Dull recipients know it. The government knows it. So taxpayer money continues to be wasted on smokes, grog and gambling. Nine news tonight. Welcome to Buente Vista, episode 112. I'm Andrew and I'm here with my friends waiting in line at Centilink.

And it's gonna be a while. Smokes, Grog! Pokeys! The fun stuff! Can't have it! Hi, Lucy. Oh, that was an unpleasant opener. This is the media in our beautiful country. I'm also joined by Theo. Hello, Theo. Hello. How are you today? I'm nice. I've got my, I've got my number, it's up on the board,

but every time the number on the board changes, it just jumps to a different random number. So I don't know. Oh, no. Um, where I am in the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. I th. I am. I th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm that. I'm that. I'm that. I'm that. I'm that. I'm that. I'm th. I'm that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that was. That's that was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I was. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that. I that's. I that's that's that's that's that's th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm th. I'm that's that's that's th. I'm th every time the number on the board changes, it just jumps to a different random number. So I don't know. Oh no. Where I am in the line, I feel like I'm perhaps in Purgatry. I don't remember dying, but it could have happened. Memory's not what it used to be. And I'm all the way back from the united starts, I believe the tale's pronounced. And here, and here, and here, to to to to to to to to to to to the to their their their their their th. th. th. thi thi, thi, thi, thiole, thoom, thoom, thoome, thi. thathea'er's thoome, thoome, thoome, thoom. thoom. I'm thoom. tho, I'm tho, I'm tho, I'm tho, I'm tho, I'm tho, tho, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. the. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toe. toean. thean. thean. thean.'s pronounced, and here to claim his welfare benefits is Ben. Hey, I did it.

You did it. I did it. I really did it. A lot of people said I couldn't. And I did. I've been saying you couldn't do it the whole time. You were actually one of the loudest voices in that group of people, but here I am. Take that group of people, but here I am. Take that.

Take that, doubters and haters. Yeah, hey, haters, you're on notice. And by the way, jealousy is a disease. Get well soon, my good bitch. Get well soon. Well, that's nice at least to wish them well. It's nice at least to wish them well. I hope you have a swift recovery and you're surrounded by friends and family. True, it's this hard time. The best revenge

is a life lived well as your enemies die of the cupling disease jealousy. Yep. I've had that. Very IBS heavy disease. Oh dear. And of course what's the what's the worst disease of all? It's to be a dull bludger. Dramatic music. I really thought you were going to drop a stigma. I don't have anything at the moment. I feel like they used the like dodgy tradies music on that one. It was like the same dodgy tradie. They've got a limited library of scary noises. Well, when you think about it, dolebludges are like government-funded dodgy tradies. Wow.

That is so true. It's bad use of our our our our our our our our our our our our our our our their their their their the street with cameras. I would like to just challenge a claim that they made in that clip where they said that the only one that the taxpayer money was being wasted on Grogg and Smokes. I'm gonna misattribute a quote to the late John Lennon, the time you enjoy wasting, not wasted time. You know, it's not really wasted money if you really wanted those cigarettes. That sounds spent well to me. That's true.

So of course, for the benefit of any international listeners, you may be asking yourself, what the fuck are you saying? You keep saying, dull bludger, which if you are not from here, probably sounds a lot like a nonsense phrase. It probably sounds absolutely ridiculous. It probably sounds like something a Dutch person would call a part of a bicycle. Oh, dear. Oh no, myle-bladger is broken. Oh, need a new dole-bladger for my kindenwalk. I must go down the canal to get a new dole-bladger. They famously all speak English, but there's just that one word that... There's no phrase for it. You can't translate that.

You know how you say, uh... Why is the Italian now. Why is the Italian? Why is the Italian now? Just the one accent, I know. None of us can do a Dutch accent. I think that's clearly the accent. Oh, mama my, my doll bludger. My little bludger.

My dog bludger. My canals. Oh, dear. So look, the doll bludger, the the tha accent accent accent accent accent tha... the d' the d' tha- tha- tha- th- th- th- th- th- th- th- th- th- th- th- th- th- th- thuadaduaduaduaduaduaduaduad-. I, th- th- I th- I th- I th- I that. No. No. No. No, I, no, no, no, no, no, no, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-dungut-a-dun-a-dull-a-a-a-dull-a-a-dull-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-bludger, the doll-bludger myth is of course very similar to the welfare queen archetype from the United States. It's very gendered over here, isn't it? Yeah, I think the welfare queen term is very gendered and it's funny because before that it was all very male-centric until in the the mid-70s people started using the term

welfare queen because it was coined apparently either by George Bliss of the Chicago Tribune or by Jet Magazine in articles Battle Lady called Linda Taylor. Taylor was ultimately charged with committing $8,000 in fraud and having four aliases, which is pretty cool. She was convicted in 1977 of illegally obtaining 23 welfare checks using two aliases and was sentenced to two to six years in prison. During the same decade she was investigated for alleged kidnapping and baby trafficking and is suspected of multiple murders. Not as cool. Not as cool. But Ronald Reagan then started using the term throughout

his 1976 presidential campaign and it was it was basically meant to be an illustration of let's see female welfare recipients engaged in behavior counterproductive to eventual financial independence such as having children out of wedlock, ewe, gross using welfare money to buy drugs, wink, or showing little desire to work, oh my god, all the worst qualities, having sex and fun and not being that into going to your job. Desire to work as a fucking made-up concept. As a corporate psychopaths have that, not being that into going to your job Desire to work as a fucking made up concept as a corporate psychopaths have that and nobody else It's not real. It's it's that extremely Instagram Getting getting on my hustle. You never see me at the club. I never see you at the bank where I do all my business. I'm down there yelling by the tel the club. I'm the the the the club. I'm the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the you at the bank. At the bank where I do all my business. I'm down there yelling buy and sell into a phone right next to the cashier.

Yep. What I like to do is go down and I withdraw $20,000 in cash and then I walk over to another window and I deposit it back into my account. And that's business baby. That's big money ball of business. Oh, God damn. So, at the start of this month, a very bad morning TV show named Sunrise. It's what you watch when you are a psychopath. I used to work with, well yeah, I worked with him, but I also used to live with a guy for a while who would wake up at like 6 a.m. every day, put sunrise on and start punching cones in his dressing

gown. Oh my god, that is psychopathic behavior. And? Inhumane. And drinking schooners of like white cask wine. I think this is like one of the few ways that weed can give you a mental illness is like that's that's how you become a violent sociopath. Yeah very much and yeah and then he would go to work in his office job so oh my god worst kind of person worst kind of person the worst of both worlds. Yeah worst kind of person. The worst of both worlds. Yeah, worst kind of person. Not a welfare recipient. So this guy would get up every morning and watch Sunrise and just pump this shit in his brain on his like 55 inch TV in a small bedroom.

Oh. Just get a real image of this. Like the saddest thing I've ever heard. Like standard definition. Just, just every inch of his vision being taken up by Sunrise as he blasts cones before the sun is up. This is every sunrise viewer. Yeah. This is not an outlier. All audience. So in this segment, sunrise referred to new figures that show just how many

dull blood, this is a quote from them, just how many dull bludgers are trying to take advantage of the welfare system. They were basing this off figures released by her treasured minister for employment skills small and family Michaelia Cash. Small and family. Yeah that was what I thought when I read it. It's like, hmm. Are we, are we, of course this. A. A. A, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th. This is a th. A, th. A, th. A, th. This is a th. Just, th. This is a th. This is just th. This is a th. This is, that is a that is, that is, that is just, that's, that's, that's, that's, th. This is just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just just, th. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. A. I, the th. I, th. I, th. I, th. I th. I tho. I th. I tho. I th. I tho. I th. I tho. I th. I Cash. Well, small and family. Yeah, that was what I thought when I read it. It's like, hmm, are we, of course this government would separately recognize businesses that are run by family.

Well, because the small business is up to, what is it, 10 million dollars in value or whatever? Or like less than 15 people or something? To me, that's a small business. That's maybe a large, tha tha tha thi th, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's, that's that's that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that's that's that's th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. that's thi. that's that's that's that's that, that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that, that's a small business, but to others, it may be, yeah. Yes, maybe a large business. Me, me who's used to doing big ball of business down at the bank. 10 to 15 million dollars a year? That's small business.

Small business to me. 20,000 in, 20,000 out every single day. That's right. But these figures don't actually tell us anything practical about dollar bludges. What they do tell us is that 78% of Newstart recipients, so Newstart being unemployment benefits, have had their payments suspended at least once. Now, most people would look at that and think maybe there's something wrong with the system itself. It seems like an unlikely thing that everyone's done.

Yeah, if the overwhelming majority of people in a system are all doing the wrong thing and all violating the rules and everything. So payments are suspended when new start recipients don't meet obligations for receiving new start such as searching for jobs or showing up for interviews. On the basis of the figure 78% have had their payment suspended at some point, Sunrise took away from this that dull bludges are taking advantage of the system. God damn! Had the worst people in the world, the advantage of the system. God damn tall bludges. Had the worst people in the world.

The enemy of the good Australian. The enemy of the entrepreneur, as we all strive to be. So there's some pretty obvious problems with this. As the guardians Josh Taylor pointed out on Twitter, it takes about five minutes to find people who can tell you that Centelink suspends people from payments for the most the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the worst, the the worst, the worst, the worst, the worst, the the the the the the the world, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the world, theaugheaughea thea thea thea thea thea thean thean thean thean thean thean thean thea thea the of the the the Josh Taylor pointed out, on Twitter, it takes about five minutes to find people who can tell you that Centelink suspends people from payments for the most minor of reasons and very often incorrectly. So we're looking at a piece in junkie here,

that said that people have described having their payment suspended after traveling to see dying relatives, even after informing employment agencies, that this was the reason they were missing meetings. People have been suspended for running five minutes late to job interviews due to public transport faults and people have been suspended due to administrative errors that were no fault of their own. So our friends over at the Australian Unemployed Workers Union, the the cutest union, the Australian boo-wooo.

Asked people to tell us, they said, Tell us about a time that your new start payment was unfairly suspended. I think it's the police coming to take one of you away for welfare fraud. Ah, no! No! You. Anyways, continue. Come out with your hands up, Lucy. So we had some replies here from people like friend of the show Mark Tripodi who said,

I watched as a woman burst into tears as she was breached for being five minutes late to her appointment. She had called ahead to tell them that she was running late, but they said, that's not good enough, and she was traveling on the bus. And the good thing about this is, um, Centrelink has never made anyone wait. Like the universe has never happened before. Not like us all here at the DMV of employment. No, but we deserve this for whatever, you know, moral failings or whatever. It's because the soul is bad. Yeah, that's true.

We've got bad soul and it's terminal. We were born in the shade of the light light of light of light of light of the light of the light of the light of terminal. We were born in the shade of the light of heaven. And because of that, we deserve to be flagellated for our sins. Government mandated flagellation. I'm flagellating right now. I wish you wouldn't. Also, uh, Xerox cliche posted on Twitter got suspended twice. Both times I informed employment agencies before thel-trivailing. to to to to to to to to to to th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And the, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, th, the, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, the the the the the the the the th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, that, that, that, that, that, that, the, the, thea', thea', thea', thea', thea'- Twitter, got suspended twice. Both times I informed employment agencies before traveling to aid my dying father.

The second was organizing affairs during and after his death. I got told it would be fine and then they cut me off twice. The crime and punishment welfare model is a demented inefficient scam. Melissa says, I was suspended for not attending an appointment that I had attended. And Tom replies... The general experience. I've definitely had that exact experience. You went to the thing and they're like, suspending you for not going to the thing. I also remember one suspension I got was they booked me and job appointment in a random country town in Victoria that I had never

heard of for no reason. That was like four hours out of Melbourne. And they canceled my payments. Yeah, you've got to be willing to travel to where the work is. That's right. Normal stuff. It's what the Prime Minister says, you know, yeah, sure it might be four hours away from where you live and you don't own a car. But hey, that's fine. You gotta have a go. Gotta have a go to get a go. That's right. That's right.

My favorite, oh sorry. I was just going to say that Tom has replied to Melissa. I was suspended for missing an appointment. The letter for the appointment came one day after the appointment and there was no other communication received. My favorite one and probably the deepest most like Brazil irony is the ones where they've been suspended for not attending an appointment because they were attending a job interview. Yeah. And they like the amount of time you hear from people yes I specifically reached out and told them that this would be the case because that's what you're supposed to do and they're like no you have to come to the

appointment. Or you have to or people do it and they go okay and then it doesn't get recorded properly and you get suspended anyway. Almost as though, much like the whole robo-debt thing, that the point is, A, just to punish people for daring to be on this system in the first place. And again, like the robo-debt thing, that rather than say, hey, we're actually going to administer this system full of human beings trying to actually live their lives with any sense of dignity, instead what we'll do is we will automate the entire thing with like no room for any margin of error or anything like that and put the obligation back on to people who are having their welfare payments, suspended and all that kind of thing, and then they say, oh, well, it's up to you to prove to to to the to the the to the their to their their their to their their their their their their their their their their their their their.. suspended and all that kind of thing.

And then they say, oh, well, it's up to you to prove it, and we're going to make that really hard for you as well. Great system. Can't see any glaring floors in it. No fault. So Sunrise got slammed for this. People went, I think we can, we could adequately call it ape shit. Yeah, we can't. Yeah, sure. I was going to say hogwild, but...

Okay. Anybody else got any other animal-based types of nuts? They're going bare-heavy. They really lizarded out on this one. Okay, so this is from MSN. Sunrise's Natalie Barr forced to apologize for saying, Dole Bludgers are trying to take advantage of the welfare system on live TV. Sunrise host Natalie Barr has come under fire. After she introduced a badly worded segment. You hate when the words have been arranged poorly. The segment accused old bludgers of taking advantage of the welfare system. The Channel 7 Breakfast Program news reader was forced to issue a public apology.

We're sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh sorry. Oh I hated that so much. Oh I hated that so much. After being inundated with backlash from viewers on Wednesday morning over the ongoing New Start debate, Barr was introducing a segment about new government figures showing it almost 80% of recipients who had their payments to spend in the last year when the, quote, mistake occurred. Mmm. The segment sparked a furious backlash from viewers with thousands of

comments on Sunrise's social media accounts like, you're disgusting. Every review they have conducted shows that overwhelmingly welfare recipients are doing the right things. I'd rather hang out with doll bludges than anyone who works on Sunrise and have much more integrity. Another added, you horrible people. My daughter in law was suspended when she was very sick, in hospital and in and out of consciousness. That she was suspended didn't make her a bludger. It was lifted as soon as she was well enough to arrange a medical certificate. The program was also slammed by a well-known journalist Juanita Phillips and Samantha Maiden

over the segment. Who wrote this? You should be ashamed of yourself, ABC News Reader Phillips tweeted. Miss Maiden added, this is rubbish, Centilink clearly suspending payments for all sorts of ridiculous reasons, punishing vulnerable people for no good reason. Perhaps look into that too. But I responded to the pair's tweets with public apologies. Isn't it weird that out of the thousands of people who either have been personally affected or know something about this and have all replied to say this is not the experience that actually happens, that the only people that actually got a response here were the other two people from media organizations. Interesting choice. We had coincidence, I think.

We made a mistake today Juanita. We're sorry for it. I've apologized. It shouldn't have happened. Bar tweeted. Someone replied, don't you even read the script before you read it out on there? That's when you say, this must be a mistake. I'm not reading this. So the big obvious problem with Bar doing an apology and saying we're very sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm this. It this. It this. It this. It this. It this. It this. It this. It this. It this. It this. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's this. It's. It this. It this. It this. It this. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's this. It's this. It's to to this. It's the the the the the the to the to to to the to to the to the to the to to the the the to the the the the the the the th th doing an apology and saying we're very sorry. We're sorry about this quote-unquote mistake is that it took about five seconds for people to immediately dredge up like the previous 40 segments that they've done from the last couple of years about doll bludges and the new the new breed of doll bludges

like this is a kind of doll bludging super soldiers it's worth pointing out that they didn't actually take the tweet all the story down and it's still there and there was no official sunrise sort of follow-up on it either as far as like when I last checked they just left it there because we report and you decide I think that's true people decided which means the circle has been closed that's right you know it's a perfect system I'm just dusting my hands and walking away so um the guardians Luke Enrique Gomez went away and looked at the actual numbers that were being quoted by Michaela Cash and Sunrise, and found that more than 120,000 people who

had their payments suspended last financial year were later found by their job agency to have had a valid reason for not meeting their obligations. According to the data, isn't that weird? Job agencies are full of hideous vampires. They're full of evil people. And this is part of this that like, I think this and the cashless welfare card stuff, the aspect of this that people who claim to care about, you know, government waste and everything don't seem

to take into account is how much money gets poured into these job-active providers. That do nothing. And it's supposed to cost something like $10,000 per person to administer the cashless welfare cards. Imagine if you simply gave the person enough money to live so that they could end up getting a job. I did. Sorry, did you mind that back? So you want to... I'm sorry. It was a crazy, it was a crazy theory. I take it back. So you have money and the person needs money. I don't understand what you're doing in the middle there. What I would suggest, we introduce several layers of bureaucracy and conditions.

Means testing, metrics. I love it when someone tests my means. Lines on a graph that go up and down. Drone spy network to make sure they don't smile during their day-to-day life, because that means they're misspending the money. What we need to do is we need to harvest a bunch of their turds as they pass through the pipes. We need to test them to see if they have, if they're the good welfare cheat or the bad kind of welfare cheat that does bongs or one of the other ones. I hate it when they're doing bongs on When they're doing bongs on our dime.

If we could tell from the stool sample that they got anything better than just tasty cheese, they're definitely abusing the system. We, we need the figures suggest that about one in five people who was temporarily cut from income support except that they had a reasonable excuse for missing an appointment or compulsory activity. The data showed that of the 744,000 participants on a flagship welfare to work scheme, last financial year, 581,000 had their payments suspended for failing to meet their mutual obligations. After changes introduced in July last year, welfare recipients have their payment automatically suspended when their job agency records them as not meeting a mutual obligation. The providers do not have discretion and must issue a suspension.

Providers would previously contact the job seeker and prepare a report for Centilink which would impose a suspension or penalty. Under the new system, there has been a 70% increase in the number of suspensions, with job seekers having their payments temporarily cut off 2.3 million times in 2018 to 2019. Yeah, once again, it's pretty hard to take away from these things that there is anything other than just the intention of punishing people for being on the system in the first place and yeah like like with RoboDad, like with so many other things in the world of finance like like debt collectors and all that sort of stuff. So much of it is about just bludgeoning people with excessive bureaucracy and saying the onus is on you to prove that this is not actually the case or that this is not your

obligation to pay all of this money or to even get this this measly little pittance that we're offering you. And I think the idea is that hopefully most of the people will just be crushed by it and give up because if you get you know slammed with a big robot debt thing that is like hey you have to find me pay slips from six years ago at a job that didn't record your hours properly and all that kind of thing otherwise you owe us $5,000 and a lot of people just don't have the the time or the resources or the ability to put together that whole thing and would probably just go, I guess I just have to accept that I got to pay you this money.

I also don't see how the takeaway from this for, you know, sunrise or whoever else that's covering it is not that like, understand that the vast vast majority of people on welfare are in-between jobs are deserving of that welfare are not fraudsters you know that that's all that's all understood and yet you know the out of those figures there something like three quarters of the people on it have had their payments suspended which is possibly time that they are literally going without eating, without fuel to get to places, without money for the

bus, all that sort of stuff, and look at that and go, hey, maybe our reporting requirements are totally fucking onerous and ridiculous, and there's something wrong here with what we're making this vulnerable section of society do. But no, that's not it at all. What we need is, they need to go and get a good high-paying job like the rest of us. I got a job from my dad in the media and look how I turned out. You worked totally for that job.

And you can do it too. And there's so many high-paying jobs out there. This is the same. There's so many. You just have to choose it, you know? You just have to envision it, put it on your vision board and it'll be yours. Well, as Ben Shapiro said over the last week, if you have to work two jobs just to make ends meet, that's actually your fault for accepting a job that didn't pay you as much money as you wanted in the first place, forcing you to accept a second job. So what you should have done is never accepted the first job in the first place. And then whatever happens next. And solved. Whatever happens next.

Then you get a billionaire to fund your media organization with dark money, and then you're rich, you're fine. I'm still hanging out for those co-brother payments. Yes, please. Daddy Blikey. Yeah, there's so many jobs out there where you can make so much money. Like apparently all these jobs that the lazy Australians are turning their backs on where they could be making $17,000 a week.

And so you just walk right off the street and you say, hey I would like this job and they say fantastic. Here is like $850,000 a year. Yes. And if... If we were to believe Alexis Carey from News.com. That's the August institution. Why wouldn't we? Yep. So she is done one of our favorite kinds of articles which is one guy says one thing. Why wouldn't we? Yep. So she is done one of our favorite kinds of articles, which is one guy says one thing and you somehow spin an entire article about that and project all kinds of insinuations onto like entire industries and segments of the economy. So in this case, she says, "'Ozys are turning their backs on $17,000 a week trade-y jobs, boss claims.'"

Now, the last little boss claims there is doing a lot of lifting in this story. Doing some very heavy lifting. Also, sorry, when I saw this headline, I thought, this doesn't seem right because... I remember this a different way, and it was because when they tweeted it, here's what their their they they're what they're they're they're what they're they're they're they're they're their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their this is this doesn't seem right because I remember this a different way and it was because when they tweeted it here's what they're here's what they said young Ozys are turning their backs on jobs with salaries of up to $17,000 a week because they're too lazy to put in the hard yards. Now was that was that in sort of single quotes as if it was paraphrasing someone or was... I'm not th., there is an apostrophe, but that's in the word there, so that's clearly correct. No, no other, no other quotes here just says that $17,000 a week, well, lazy. I have some good news for you, Theo. The first sentence of this article reads, Young Ozzies are turning their backs on jobs with salaries of up to $17,000 a week

because they're too lazy to put in the hard yards. That's according to Sydney man Ryan Graham, who was owned a commercial flooring company for around 10 years. Too first name having, mother-fucker. He said that young Australians were abandoning lucrative trades altogether while the few who did apply for roles regularly quit soon after starting. That's always a thing in these stories isn't it? Yeah. I've hired all these people and they keep quitting. They keep quitting. See now what happens is I walk around and everywhere I go there's assholes. Yes. every person I talk to. Every person I talk to treats me like a need. They don't give me what I want.

It's very strange. I want an odd coincidence. The problem has become so widespread, the 42-year-old has sponsored foreigners to fill roles in the past. But he said a government clamped down on the sponsorship of foreigners for his trade has left him in the lurch. There's a quote from him here, everyone you see on a job side is Brazilian or English or Irish or Argentinian. They just love working, he said.

Oh, those people love to work physical labor. Goodness. And of course, the very to work. Those people love to work, physical labor. Goodness, and of course, the very similar Brazilians and English and Irish and Argentinian people. He goes on, people complain that foreign workers are taking Australian jobs, but we've had 15 guys over the last two years that haven't lasted more than a week. I interviewed one guy for an hour who was there for 10 minutes before he walked off the job. Australians don't want the job. They'd rather do something easy. I'm just going to forward a hypothesis here. See how this goes with you guys. Maybe the only people

that can stand to be around this mothucker for more 10 minutes. Are the people whose visas depend on it? Hmm. It's weird to know if you sponsored someone's visa that they wouldn't immediately leave your job. That they're like, oh no, now I'm actually just, I have to be here or else I have to leave the country. Yeah, just generally speaking, if you've had 15 people in two years who have refused to work for you for a whole week, it's actually because Australians are lazy. Just to clarify, Andrew, he was offering these people upwards of $800,000 a year and salary, is that what I'm to understand?

I feel like that's the impression I've got. Well, that's certainly what he's saying the headline. Let's dig a little further into these the the the the the the the the the the th years years th years th th th th th th th th like that's the impression I've got. Well that's certainly what he's saying in the headlide. Let's dig a little further into these details. He said it actually cost Australian businesses more to hire foreign workers but that is usually worth the investment. Quote, you know they're going to turn up and do the work because they don't have mom and dad to look after them he said. And I gotta tell you guys, I do love having my mother and father and my job. Mother powders my bottom. My mom picks me up from work every day, brings me a little lunch. Daddy puts me in the high chair in the break room and feeds me my lunch. I am burped before all of my big meetings. He said the massive problem, in scare quotes,

which affected all trades in the country. I don't know how this flooring guys. I th the massive problem, in scare quotes, which affected all trades in the country, I don't know how this flooring guy happens to know that every trade in the country is affected by this. Well, they all hang out together, so, you know. So, check this out. The flooring guys have their ear to the ground. Huh? He said the massive problem was so severe he often didn't bother to advertise for vacant roles as he knew there would be little interest from local job seekers. Quote, it's pathetic really. We grew up and worked hard and we were really

excited to get a job as a tradesman. Now, no one wants to work hard. Growing up, I'd be working six or seven days a week for 20 years. Obviously that's an ex- Growing Up. Growing up. You remember how when you're growing up it takes 20 years and you're working seven days a week the whole time? Oh, don't I ever? But now, everyone's just, uh, fortnight now, please. And so on. The older workers who aren't working as hard would make an average of $3,000 to $4,000 a week. But if you want to get in there and work hard, younger guys can average $7,000 to $8,000 a week. Jesus Christ, what a load of horse shit. It's hard work, but who wouldn't want to work hard for that?

Now let's all cast our minds back to the headline for a second. Everybody if you can, please enter your mind palace, sit in a reclining chair and then pull up a large 3D rendered headline about how much money. All these Australians are Australians are Australians are Australianaaaaaaaaaustsaustsaustsaustsaustsaustsa. thiaiaa. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thia. thiol out out out out out out. th. th. th. to get out out out out. thi. thiol out. to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get to get th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It. It's. It. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. to to to to th. to th. to th. to th. to to th. to to to to to to to to to to that to to to to that to that thi. thi. th. th. to Australians are turning their backs on. He said he knew of one contractor who on good weeks made $17,000 between him and his apprentice who probably took home around what he's saying is that anyone off the street can instantly become set up with a flooring business, you know, the tools and the skills and everything, you just have it. Also, I'm trying to form a holistic picture of this process in my mind.

So they go to someone on the, you know, down the street and they, and this lady says, oh I'd like my floors done, please. How much will that cost? Oh, um, about $17,000. And how long would that take? Oh, about a week? Just one week, $17,000. And she says, yes, please. Thank you. I would like to continue with this immediately. So, um, so yeah, all of these Australians, turning that back on, all of these $17,000 a week jobs, uh, which this one guy heard of one person who sometimes in some circumstances could make $17,000 a week between him and someone else. It's also weird, isn't it, that he has all of these young guys who need to get a start

in his industry and they don't want to stay there for that long despite the fact that if you run the place you can make $17,000 and then peel a thousand dollars of it off and give it to your apprentice. On a good week. You know it's the best time. There's something interesting about this as well is that it appears that Mr. Graham, Ryan Graham had exactly the same problem in 2016 when he spoke to the Australian Financial Review. Oh, he didn't.

We can't find Ozzie's to work here because they don't want to do the labor. They're lazy. We've sponsored three Irish guys, one English guy and one American guy because when we hired local guys, most people quit after a few days. Wow. That's interesting. It just seems like there's a real common denominator with the problem that thoom. thoom. thoom. thoom, thoom, tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, to, thi, to, thi, thi, too, too, thi, to just, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, to to to to, to to to, to, to, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, too, too, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. the thi. thi. thi. too. too. too. too. Oh, too. Oh, too. Oh, too. Oh, there's a real common denominator with the problem that you have in my dude. I just got a real asshole problem. He's just having a really tough go of it.

Hmm. He says the problem is young guys see that and want $17,000 straight away, but you've got to work three to five years to be able to make that money, he said. I feel like there's a lot of really fluid stuff happening with the money here. Sometimes it's the older people who aren't working that hard can make $3,000 to $4,000 a week. If you're working really hard, you can make $7,000 to $8,000 a week, but also this guy's been doing it working seven days a week for 20 years. But also the absolute outlier case of one guy is $17,000 in a week. It's almost as though the amount of money you can make is entirely down to a whole bunch

of completely discrete individual factors. Like say, how much money your piece of shit employer is giving you. But they ran out of room in the headline, Andrew. The headline's only so long. You've only got so many words. And you've got to sell the sizzle. You've got to sum it up in a way that's going to fit in the tweet, fit in the headline. That's true. It's not her fault.

This week, a new Department of employment employment survey revealed 45% of Australians struggled to recruit staff in 2018. Around 60% of employers trying to fill lower skilled positions, so we're already not talking about what this guy is talking about. So we've started, the whole first half of the article has been, hey, all you lazy pieces of shit are refusing to take this big wheelbarrow of money that I'm begging you. I'm begging you to take this money. Please take this $17,000. But then the lazy young people are doing a massive bong hit and then they're saying, no I hate hard work and

they show up on the first day and the boss says, the boss says, now the first th th th th th th th the the the the the first the first the first the first the first the first the first the first the first the first the first the first th. th. the first th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the big th. th. the big th. the big thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi no, I hate hard work. And they show up on the first day and the boss says, The boss says, now the first thing you're going to want to do, and they go, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let me stop you right there. Do? See you later. And then they blast out of the work site on their wheelie sneakers. And they go have a British chap. That's right, that they got from their welfare of course. So yeah, around 60% of employees trying to fill lower skilled positions, which is not people who've spent

three to five years working in the highest paid trade in the country, probably, reported issues such as a lack of qualified or experienced applicants, job seekers who were quote, not interested in the occupation or work conditions, and those lacking employability and personal presentation skills. I'm wondering if the people they couldn't hire for a lack of qualified or experienced applicants. I wonder if that's the kind of thing where, you know when you're going past like, you know when you're going past, like, you know when you're going past, say,

a takeaway shop and they've got to sign up for a sandwich hand? And they're like, minimum three years experience, to stand in this takeaway shop and assemble sandwiches for customers. Yeah, and just generally speaking that thin that tho people talk about, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you're the to, you're to, you're to, to, to, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, a take, a take, a take, a take, a take, a ta, a ta, a ta, a ta, a ta, a ta, a ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, just generally speaking that thing that a lot of people talk about of, you're just trying to get a job and you don't have experience in this particular thing, so they say, no, we won't hire you because we might have to say, tell you how to do the job, we'll give you the slightest bit of training, instead of milking you for all your worth. I'm wondering, and, and, and, and, and, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thus, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thri, thri, to to to to to to toooan, toooooooooooan, toeaa'a'a'a'a'a'a'a, thi, th slightest bit of training instead of milking you for all your worth. I'm wondering, and you know this is shame on me for trying to connect the dots here to some sort of larger

societal policy problem, but I'm wondering whether the lack of qualified or experienced applicants, which seems to be number one with the bullet on their list there, has something to do with the dramatic and constant cuts that we make to the TAFE system? to do with the dramatic and constant cuts that we make to the Taf system? Yeah, to the education system, to the Taf system. When nobody wants to be a fucking apprentice anymore because it's just horrible and we don't actually fund it anymore and we just keep shitting on Taf repeatedly until the whole thing folds? Well, and one of the things, I mean even for industries like vinyl and flooring and stuff like this guy was talking about, the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th th the th, th, th, th, the the the thate thate system thate system thase things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things things taste system system system system system system system system system system system system system system system system taste system things things things things things things things things things things thane thane thane th thane th th thane thane thane thane than thattea thattea thattea thate thate thate thate thate an thate an ta tape system, tape system, tape system, tape system, tape system, tape system tape system, even for industries like, you know, vinyl and flooring and stuff like this guy was talking about, the general thing with those, any trade industry is a lot of the time you have to go and do an apprenticeship first, and that generally lasts for, what,

several years? And usually you get paid below minimum wage? Is that correct? But the experience. But you get the experience. Get the experience. But imagine the exposure, you know? Hmm, can get paid an exposure.

Yeah, so I mean for a lot of people, I know people who, as adults, have wanted to, like, change careers and go into a trade. But the problem is, if you are an adult, you know, if you've got a family or you're trying to pay rent and shit like that, then it's basically impossible to say I'm going to commit to working for less, like working a more than full-time job for less than minimum wage for several years before I'm suddenly able to earn a lot more money. Which is why I think, yeah. you, you you you you you you you you you you, you, you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if to, if you, if you, if you're to, if you're to, if you're to, if you're to, if you're to, if you're to, if you're to, if you're to, if you're to, if you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if you, if you, if you, if you're th th thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, th I am suddenly able to earn a lot more money. Which is why I think, yeah, generally speaking, like you're saying, the other, I think a lot

of the time the kind of intended model for trade people is that you're supposed to, like, you're supposed to either quit high school or at the end of high school, you're supposed to say, I'm not interested in higher education, I'm going to go and get a to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, to, the, to, to, to, to, to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and, th.e, and, thr-s, and, and, and, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, so.....e, and, and, and, so..e, and, and, so.e.e.e.e.e.e, the, the, the the the the the the the the, so, soa, so, some, some.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e.e. And, the the the the the the the the th school you're supposed to say, I'm not interested in higher education, I'm going to go and get a trade, and you're meant to basically immediately leave school and go and do an apprenticeship while you're still young enough to live with your parents, and have them be the ones who put you up and feed you while you're working for less than minimum wage on this particular job. But they're saying, but they're they're they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, but they're saying, they're saying, they're they're they're tho, th., thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, th're saying that he wants them to not have mom and dad look

after them. That's true. So they're supposed to be, I believe, just born already in the trade and then grow up 20 years working six to seven days a week. Yep. Just a lot of conflicting information. It's almost like in the Australian media, you can just say anything. You can just say whatever you want.

You can just say anything. You can utter a single sentence to a reporter and they will say, you know what? You make a good 800 words out of that. And we can publish this nationally. Yeah, what is the news element of that story? Like, oh, this is some guy's opinion. I have friggin lots of opinions, and no one's ever writing stories about him. I mean, you are, technically.

I'm writing stories about them. Sure. I gotta write them myself. Why isn't some fucking person who is slowly dying on the inside working at news. Who profiling my thoughts on how lazy young people are. This is very reminiscent of one of the last times they did this, which was when, in an article completely devoid of any context, they're like, the CEO of Muffin Break thinks millennials are too lazy to work for free. Yep. Yep. And that was, one was great as well well because the whole premise of that was like,

hey, you've got to be willing to do a whole bunch of like unpaid work and come in several hours before your shift starts to start setting up and all that kind of thing. Because that's what you've got to do to get into the industry. The industry being serving pre-made muffins at mall kiosks. To boomers that don't realize there are better options around them. Look, I'm not going to hate on the muffin-break muffin. I think they're pretty good. You're going into bat for the muffin-break muffin?

It's the coffee club of muffins. When was the last time you went to a muffin? I'd no idea. Just every time I get one I'm like, it's a pretty big muffin. This sounds like a thing that's happening often. It's not a thing that's happening often, Theo. How dare you? Every week. Andrew's daily muffin break.

You go down and see your best made at the muffin break. He's 19 years old, the only reason he became assistant manager, because he comes in four hours early every day to prime the muffin machine and he does it for free. Every day he's on his grind. Andrew sits down at his desk. Someone comes around and taps on his cubicle wall and says, hey you got that and Andrew says don't even talk to me until I've had my muffin break muffin. Until I've had my muffin break muffin and my half liter of diarrhea inducing coffee. Yeah, that's your grand-sized chai latte. Oh, God, I hate chai. Oh.

90% full fat milk. I'm often sipping. I'm often sipping something and I think, you know what this needs more of? Clove. Could I get some more cloves in this? It's put right in there. So employment minister Michaela Cash said, we have an economy of opportunity and employers are screaming out for workers who are eager for a job. Oh, shut up. The Morrison government strongly believes that the best form of welfare, what is it folks?

It's a job. It's a job. It's a job. Wrong, idiot. The best form of medicine? Well, that's not getting sick in the first place. That's right. The best form, the best form of welfare is just easy access to bootstraps by which to haul yourself up. Because you know people want, they don't want help, they don't want a living wage, they don't want to be

able to afford their medicine. They want bongs Andrew. They don't want to pay, they don't want to pay their medicine. They want bongs, Andrew. They don't want to pay, they don't want to pay their electricity bill. They want dignity. They want the dignity that comes with a hard days work at a real job. Now it would be a shame if we started poking around the edges of how people who are working in jobs are doing in the current economy. Whoops, let's accidentally do that now. And we all know that there's they they they they they they th they they th they they they th th th they they they they they they they're they're th they're th they're they're th th they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're to pay they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they they're they're they're they they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're they're to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to tho. to the. current economy. Whoops, let's accidentally do that now. And we all know that there's more jobs than job seekers. There's just so many jobs. Thousands of jobs are just pouring out a big funnel of cash onto people as they say,

no, yuck! I hate money and employment. So this is from 9 News Queensland about a new survey revealing shocking figures. to showing shocking figures this morning on household budgets with a survey revealing hundreds of thousands of families are struggling to make ends meet. Let's go live to nine. Political reporter Chris O'Keefe in Canberra. Chris, good morning to you. People are filling the pinch and of course low wages growth is being blamed. Good morning George. Well it's interesting that 40% of people the people th th th th th th th th th th th th th. th th. th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, revealing, th, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, thi, revealing, revealing, revealing, thi, revealing, thi, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, revealing, th shocking, th shocking, th shocking, thi thi thi th shocking, revealing, th shocking, th shocking, th shocking, th shocking, th shocking th, th, thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi, revealing, revealing thi, revealing thi, revealing thi, revealing to to thi, the to the the thi's to the to thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-re-rea' thi-sberra. Chris, good morning to you. People are filling the pinch and of course low wages growth is being blamed. Good morning Georgie, well it's interesting that 40% of people surveyed said that they spend every cent they earn every month. 25 said that they'd struggled to come up with three and a half thousand dollars in an emergency. Now this is a six month survey conducted by M. E. Bank and it shows. th is a th is is is a th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. Well, th. Well, th. Well, th. It's interesting. th. It. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to........................................................ M.E. Bank and it shows even though the government has pushed through its tax cuts, people are feeling less and less financially secure.

Now one stack over the past year just a third of households reported any pay rise at all. Now this isn't something Scott Morrison will be all that happy about but what's another alarming figure is that older Australians are struggling to keep their jobs. Unemployment for people age 65 plus has jumped almost a quarter or more than than a th th financially in th financially in th th th financially in th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th thus thus thus thi thus f thi thus fc-a the the the the tho-a tho-a tho-a thus. th th th th th th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th th. th th th th th th th th. th. th th. th. th. th. th. th th th. th. th. th th. th. th. th. thi thu thu te te to-munne te te te toguuu-s te te tou-s te te te thuu-s thu-s thu-a-s to keep their jobs. Unemployment for people age 65 plus has jumped almost a quarter or more than a quarter in just 12 months. So Georgie it also shows that less and less older Australians are retiring too. Hmm. That weird. God I feel like I'm not used to hearing the Australian accent anymore. It's a good to hear it on the news. I feel like that one's

particularly dire. Yeah so yeah it turns out that even for all the people who are working full-time jobs their wages are not going up and they haven't for years and everybody's just spending every cent of their paycheck and payche and I particularly liked the surprise of their paycheck, them paycheck to paycheck. And I particularly like the surprise of the absolute shock that most people... Most people couldn't just magically produce three and a half thousand dollars in an emergency if they needed it.

And, uh, but they've been pushing through all these tax cuts, Andrew. Why haven't the tax cuts? Where are the tax cuts Andrew. And why haven't the tax cuts been working? They should, it's weird because I've been outside, I've been out under the blue sky and I've been licking my finger, holding it up in the air and just waiting for some of that economy to start trickling down, nothing. I've been out there with my bucket. Not even a trickle. But'm out there with my bucket waiting to catch a trickle of money coming down. Because if I was to understand correctly, cutting taxes for all those top earners was going to mean that they were freed up to just employ way more people and raise everybody's wages.

Give us money. Much like how when they cut penalty rates for people working on the weekend, that we were all going to see a big injection of money into the economy somehow. Oh, you know what, actually, it's funny that you say that. Going back to Ryan Graham and his article in 2016, he was specifically quoted this article because he said that the tax cuts that he was getting from the government in 2016 He was not going to put into employing more people Cool he said we will probably pocket more money. We really don't want to be spending we want to grow by another mill or something and I just like to keep it at that Fucking hell like literally, he just he said it just said it. We will probably pocket more money. You fuck. Just gonna keep it. Oh, great stuff there from Ron Graham. But, um, so you may be asking yourself, what is the government planning to do about, you know,

maybe prompting some wage growth? And the answer is that they are setting up a new dynamite forensic lab to catch welfare cheats. Let's take a quick listen to this video about the federal government's new digital forensics lab in Brisbane. Also from 9 News, Queensland. I should point out out both of these side by side 9 News Queensland. Yep. So out both of these, side by side, 9 News Queensland. Yep. So the one that says everybody's even having a really hard time in their normal full paying jobs. Let's have a quick listen here. to fair fraudsters are on notice with the federal government going high tech to catch them out. It's launched a new digital forensic lab here in Brisbane as Queensland takes out top

spot for the most number of dull cheats. It looks like something out of CSI. This digital forensic lab full of high-tech gadgetry and cyber specialists, focused on catching welfare cheats. $174 billion worth of welfare and related payments. That's a fair about of money for organized crime to come after. So just to know there, that is MP Stuart Robert, who is well known for just being fired from the ministry over and over again for a series of

hugely embarrassing blunders. Two first names again. Stewart Robert, he was the guy who, he was the guy who when he was defense minister, he went to China without telling anyone in the government and then took a series of private meetings with the Chinese business officials and then took a whole bunch of Rolexes from them and bought them back without declaring them and handed them out to different senior members of the government. Wonderful. To which ASEO said, thank you very much for taking these things we haven't had a chance

to look at and putting one on the wrist of like the Prime Minister and all the other senior members of cabinet. Also it's probably a bit overlooked in this video full of ridiculous stuff but the fact that he just puts forward the concept that organized crime somehow have a massive, significant, ongoing welfare scam in progress. He just places that out there with no evidence, and it's not challenged. It's just sight unseen, there it is. Wonderful. Beautiful. Yeah.

And I feel like if there's something that's a very, very common theme with any and all conversations about welfare fraud in Australia. It's that no matter how many times we have this conversation, it always comes back to the same thing of, oh when you drill into it, the actual number of people who ever get like caught, prosecuted, like charged and and convicted of, you know, conducting some kind of welfare, some manner of welfare fraud is so Incredibly small compared to say the number of employers who are committing wage theft Or the number of companies that aren't paying any taxes whatsoever? Anyway, let's go on here. The lab has been specifically set up to gather digital evidence on those using computers, even encrypted phones to commit fraud against Centilink, Medicare and child support services. The multi-million dollar lab is

only the second of its kind in Australia. The other facility in Canberra has already helped jail criminals like Mohammed Omar who claimed 370,000 through the National Disability Insurance Scheme for disability services he never provided. If you're saying you actually went to job interviews in location A, B and CIC, but your devices says you're in cans and Port Douglas having a great time at the taxpayer's expense because you defrauded them for some money, you might have some difficult answers to, we should say difficult questions to answer.

But it's not just individuals the government is cracking down on, this high-tech lab will also crunch the large volume of public data generated each day in a bid to detect and catch organised crime gangs. That sort of lab forensic ability is going to be crucial to actually combating organized crime. Is there any evidence that there is any kind of? Well, we have disparities here about talking about individuals on welfare and then pointing to someone who was convicted of defrauding, like providing a service that he didn't provide and which was about organized crime. It's almost like this is just the forensic labs that the

Australian Federal Police already operate. But Lucy, this is going this may be, may be, um, make you, make you the to make you to make you to make, make you to make, make you to make, make you to make, make, to make, to make, to to to to be, to be, to be, to be, to be, to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be the the to to the the the the the the the the to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a to be a the. the. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. Wea. We have a their to be a the to be a to be a to be a to is just the forensic labs that the Australian Federal Police already operate. But Lucy, this is going to, this may make you sound like a bit of a fool here. When they were talking about that, they had the weird, like, do-doo-dood, like cyber noises going on. It just came in on the wire. That's where you got that information. And also, we don't have the visuals the visuals visuals visuals visuals, but imagine this man but in like black silhouette and then that portrait

is being placed on like a, like maybe a rotating blue globe or something like that, or it might even be green, like the matrix. So basically that's why this is good. Well, imagine if you will, say, a man in a balaclava sitting at a computer. And he's holding a pistol up to the screen. Because code on the screen, it's flying around. Yeah, are you worried now? Now, Andrew, I'm a bit of a tech head. A bit of a techy boy. So I, when I watch this, I thought, oh, I can't wait, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, to to to see, to see, to see, to see, to see, to see, to see, to see to see to see to see to see to see to see to see to see to see to see to see to see to say to say, to say to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to say, to see to see to see to see to see to see to see to see tha, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thioli. tho. tho. thioli. thiologe, thi. thi. thi to say, to bit of a tech head. A bit of a techy boy. So when I watch this I thought, oh, I can't wait to see the technology they're using. I just love this stuff as a tech boy.

See the technology that they'll be using in this state-of-the-art facility for catching cyber thiefs, defrauding welfare. And here are some of the ways that they're catching welfare fraudsters. They're looking at raw hex starter in notepad plus plus on the screen. Looking for strange numbers. Yep. They're placing a hard drive in an anti-static bag. Oh got him. Got him. Yep. That's evidence. They're pulling, that's evidence. They're pulling a hard drive out of a server. Did the server belong to a welfare queen perhaps?

It's very impossible. You know all the, all the welfare frauds. They get home from the TAB. They've just blown all of their welfare cash from the cashless card on... Smokes and grogs. And they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they go. And they goa. they goa. they they goa. they they they they they they they they they th. they they they thoom. thoom. thoom. thoom. thoom. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. the. the. the. the. thea. thoerer. thoer. toea. toea. toeauuuuoooooooooooooooooooooooooererer. toe. toe. on smokes and grog smokes and then they go home and and they fire up their BSD server and it's time to start to start committing crime. They're rejecting a compact flash card from a digital camera. This may contain some photos of crime. This photos of my grog and my smokes.

They're looking at curvy lines on a cyber attack threat map, flowing from China to USA. That's the Australian welfare fraud. They're wiping a hard drive. They're wiping a hard drive. So probably, yep, you need to get rid of the anti-evidence. This contains not evidence against somebody and we need to wipe it. They're moving a mouse. Just disembodied.

Where to? Just on the spot. Zoomed in, no screen visible, just little circles. They're passing a hard drive in an anti-static bag from one person to another dramatically. I would guess that when they're moving that mouse they're probably dragging a file from one folder marked unsolved case into another folder that says solved case. And finally they're looking at curvy lines on a cyber attack threat map flowing from Japan to Indonesia.

Those hot spots of Australian threats. A lot of welfare crime going on in Indonesia, guys. That's right. And it's somehow related to Australia. So it's good to know. You can just say anything. Just say whatever you want. Say anything, it's fine.

And of course, while all of this, while all of this effort is going into making sure that we don't accidentally give any money to someone to live with, God, imagine that, imagine you just gave someone money. Now, luckily, there are organizations looking out for the most vulnerable people in our communities. Now, one of those that you may recognize is the big issue. The big issue is a magazine that's, that people sell on street corners, that kind of thing. So I think it is generally people who are struggling with homelessness, all types of things. But basically, the concept as I feel that the concept, thi people people people thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, that, that that that that that that that that tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, th th th tho, th th th tho, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that that the, that that the, that that the, that that theeeeeeean, that that thing. So I think it is generally people who are struggling with homelessness,

all types of things. But basically, the concept as I feel that we all understood it until very recently is that people are given these magazines and that they then they put on the bright yellow hive is the big issue vest and they sell them in crowded areas and cities that kind of thing. Sort of as if you are like an employee working at a news agency or something like that. Yeah, yeah. You show up and you sell stock and at the end of the day they pay you some money. You probably get like superannuation out of that, you know, rights and all that sort of stuff. Yep, so everybody had kind of been looking at this I think for a long time as, oh yes, this is a mutually beneficial arrangement that helps people and gives them a source of income,

and that is good. And so recently, somebody, somebody tweeted on Twitter, the place where you do your tweets. One of the best places. One of the top 10 places to post the tweet online. The other is BuzzFeed. Yes, it's probably number one, really. So DJ Rob Stepp has tweeted the big issue is about one thing, forcing

the poor and vulnerable to jump through hoops and humiliate themselves in order to earn even basic necessities. This has earned a reply from whoever has been running the social media at the big issues account who replies every vendor who sells the big issue is choosing to work rather than take a handout. So already, receiving welfare, bad. Vendors purchase magazines with their own money, and sell them for a profit, earning their own income,

essentially running their own business. Now this, this kind of quickly prompted a response of, wait, what the their own income, essentially running their own business. Now this kind of quickly prompted a response of, wait, what the fuck? From pretty much everyone who said, what? If homeless people want to sell the big issue, they have to save up enough money to pre-buy stock from you in order to sell it? They went on to explain, the big issue is a not-for-profit organization and a social enterprise. Vendors pay $4.50 for a magazine and sell it for $9, earning a profit of $4.50.

The $4.50 their spend goes back into producing a magazine and providing support for vendors. And I think a lot of people saw this and said, hey, that does not sit right with me at all. But this isn't a sign that the big issue of weird neoliberal pyramid scheme, Andrew, it's that you've got to spend money to make money. That's true. That's business baby. So true. You've got to to to take tak to tak to tak tak tak to tak tak to tak tak tak to tak to to tak the $ tak tak tak the $ the $ tak the $ the $ the $ the $20 the $20 the $20 their the $20 thak thak that $20 that $20 that $20 that $ $20 tho $ $ $ $20 tho $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their th th th th th th th th th th th thak thak that $20 that $20 that,000.50,000.50,000.50,000.50,000.50,000.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.5.00.00.00.00.00 thek thek've got to spend money to make money. That's true. That's business baby. So true. You got to take the $20,000 out of the bank and you've got to walk two windows down, slam it down on the counter.

You're going to make a deposit and do a business, you say. Little flex of spittle going into the ripier's face. Yep, it's a great economy that we're living in. You got to love it. You love to see it. It's fully functional. Everything's working fine. You got to spend money to make money, you buy low, sell high. Mm-hmm. That's all my knowledge. That's basically all you've got to know. So far. Well, yeah, it's simple. It's simple. It's simple my knowledge. That's basically all you've got to know. So far. Well yeah, it's simple. It's simple as ABC. To get into the economy and start doing business. Start doing big brack. Just give it a go. Just give a go. You will therefore. Give a get a go. Get another go. If you've got a go, you will find a go and you get to keep it. Hmm. Hmm. Have a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get a go. Get another go. If you've got a go, you will find a go and you get to keep it.

Have a go, get a fair go. Give that fair go back and that is redeemable for one or more goes from the government. Hey, for every two goes you've got in your hand, that's a go in the bank. Simple system, it works. If you give one go, you will receive two goes of lesser value from the government. So that's cool. Folks, that's a, that's an hour. That's a whole hour. So it might be time for us to wrap it up, I think. Thank you for being with us. And thank you Ben for returning from your mystical journeys around the world. Did you find Bigfoot? We did not. We bought a lot of

Bigfoot related art. Which, okay, so this is actually genuinely amazing to me. The last time I was in America by myself, I, when I stopped off at some horrible like, Ben, like, to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, Ben, Ben, that, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, thin, thin, that, that, Ben, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that me. The last time I was in America by myself, when I stopped off at some horrible tourist t-shirt selling shop in beautiful weed, California, they had these like fridge magnets of Bigfoot that were drawn in a way that made him look absolutely fucking insane and I was like, oh, I should buy one of those for George, that be nice and I did and then this time we stopped at an antique store somewhere in like Oregon and they had a little corner with a bunch of bigfoot merch and it was the exact same artist and I was like oh that's pretty cool but they also had a little bio sheet about well the people that make these and it is a

husband and wife team. The guy was some sort of production designer or production artist or something on the films, the, like the live-action Flintstones movie, Deep Blue Sea, and another one. So he gave that up to become a professional fish taxidermist. And then he has become a full-time Bigfoot artist. And like some of the the shit that they're selling are fucking amazing. We got like an air freshener in the shape of Bigfoot. George got a sticker that is like Bigfoot holding the American flag and oh fuck it's just saying like come and take it or

something at the bottom but my absolute favorite of all of these was that there was that there was one where it is essentially the Calvin pissing on something sticker, but instead of Calvin, it's Bigfoot, and he is pulling down his fur to reveal his ass so that he can piss, and he's pissing on the words non-believers written in comic sands. Yes. It's the single most powerful piece of art I've ever seen in my life. But yeah, apparently one guy and his wife, I guess, doing the West Coast most prominent

Bigfoot art. Truly wonderful stuff. So that's it for us this week, folks. If you would like to get an extra bonus episode every week, you can head on over to Patreon.com, slash Punta Vista. If you would like to say, I don't know, buy a shirt. You can go to Buntavista.com slash merchandise. But if you don't want to do any of those things, you can just come back and let's do another episode next week. And we'll see you then. Bye bye. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Bye.