When whispers of controversy bubble to the surface, it's time for a deep and honest examination. This week, the airwaves crackle with tension as we scrutinize the AFL's drug policy in light of Andrew Wilkie's unnerving claims - are players manipulating the system? As China opens its doors once more to Australian wine, I mull over the bitter taste of past trade disputes and ponder the future of our local vineyards. Amid these debates, we pause to honor the memory of Les Tweddyman, whose departure leaves an irreplaceable void in the hearts of those he uplifted.
Our discourse then ventures into the political arena, where the vote on the Indigenous voice to parliament in South Australia raises eyebrows and questions about race's role in governance. You'll hear firsthand of my own confrontation with mortality and how, through it all, the promise of a Balinese retreat looms like a balm for the soul. But it's not all solemn contemplation; join us as we let loose to the twang of guitars and the tales of honky-tonk legends. Together, we'll recognize the power of music to redeem, with songs so potent they could make even the devil stop and listen.
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Speaker 1: Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the Pete
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George Show version called called. This was this week or
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the week that was, so just a little bit of a plug here for me
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, mate Colin. As you know, colin Lilly like his music and
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appreciate his time when he gives me time to have a chat to
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him. He's just, on Friday, released a new single which is
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playing, called Honky Tonk Southern Skies, which you can
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get on all the platforms and YouTubes and all of that, but
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we'll play it loud and proudly at the end of the show. So this
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week we have quite a few little topics to talk about. And the
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first so we're going to talk about the AFL drug policy, if
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you're into the AFL, but it's a bit more than just AFL, it's
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something that I'll talk to in a fair bit. Then we've got the
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China lifts wine tariffs and the repercussions of that, because
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it's not as simple as people think it is. And then the South
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Australian voice and the joke that's become South Australian
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voice and the joke that's become so if you're a first-time
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watcher, listener, because this show only goes live and there's
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a replay. We don't edit this one , but we do make it all nice and
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sound pretty for our podcast, which you can go and subscribe
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to all of that at petergeorgecomau. But we're on
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all the platforms, uh, spotify and apple podcast, these are. I
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have radio um, amazon music, so we're on all of those and you
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just search the pete george experience and you'll get this
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show. So let's get into the first
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topic and that is the AFL drugs policy which has now come to
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light during the week last week from Andrew Wilkie, who's a
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member of parliament, independent, in federal
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government and in Australia we have a thing called
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parliamentary privilege where you pretty much can say what you
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like and not be prosecuted in any way, shape or form. And
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during the week, andrew wilkie brought up about, uh, how the
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afl is using their drug policy at the moment and basically what
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happens is if a player goes out and goes to a party and has
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drugs, what he now does is he goes to a private doctor. The
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doctor says yep, you've got drugs in your system. I'm going
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to give you like a medical certificate to say that you
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can't play footy this week. And what that does is that stops
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them from being caught in competition and there's a lot of
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ramifications for that. And if the afl catches them three times
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. They're out now if it's getting snipped off by a private
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doctor, not happy about that. Because think about it in the
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real world, and I don't call sport, which is an entertainment
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, the real world. So, with that in mind, think about your job
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and what would happen if you turned up to work and said I've
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had drugs, I don't want to work today. I don't think it would go
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down too well To the point where if you're a minor not as in a
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person under the age of 18, but a minor in the mines, you were
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drug tested and alcohol tested every shift and if you turn up
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at any sign of alcohol or drugs in your system, you will be
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sacked, because most of the guys are casual and it's a zero
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tolerance, zero, zero tolerance of drugs and alcohol in your
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system when you're working. And it should be no different for
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the footballers. You know they carry on and say that they're
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role models and everything. Well, role models don't really
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promote the use of illicit drugs , and if I hear another person
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say they're recreational drugs, you're a goose, absolute goose.
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They're illegal and they should not be used and they should be
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not classified a recreational drug, because a recreational
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drug means that they are, to me, legal. So the AFL need to really
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look at this and how they do it. Uh, waiter or water, depending
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which school you came, came from they're the governing body that
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looks after pretty much all sports and they do random
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testing. So if you get caught by them, it's normally, uh, four
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years and sorry, there's something flying around, so it's
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um, it's just something that um, I just think that the afl start
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to lose their ways on a few things, but sticking with AFL,
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because I know Les Tweddyman from AFL days and he's a friend
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of my mum's. My mum knew him pretty well.
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Passed away yesterday, age 76. Passed away yesterday, age 76.
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And what Les did for the disadvantaged youth and the
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abused youth is something to behold, and I think pretty much
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everybody was happy when he was given the Order of Australia for
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his work with underprivileged kids and even the homeless, it
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didn't matter what age they were . Les was pretty good. So
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condolences to his family and all I'd like to say is thank you
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, les, for doing the work that you did and bring it out in the
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open like you have, and well done on a life that will leave a
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legacy. So, vale Les Tweederman. So now you know I'm not the
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healthiest of specimens and I've been patching myself. Hang on,
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I'll take this off these little fellas and they've helped me get
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me back on my feet and they basically juice up your copper
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peptides and all that kind of stuff and stem cells and a whole
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heap of stuff. But what I wanted to talk about is that they've
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got me to a point where I can go and mow the lawns and everything
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once again without nearly dying every five minutes. So the good
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thing about that is I've come across an Australian company
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that make sunglasses. Now these guys are down in Talabajara,
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which is just a small suburb in the Gold Coast, and they are
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called gidgieeyescom. Now, I highly recommend you go and get
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them. They've got basically a safety glass in them and they're
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really comfortable, really light , and I just thought I'd give
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them a shout out. I got these at Kent Suttlery out at Stanthorpe,
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if you go to the equestrian shops. They're designed for
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equestrian riders, but they're there for everyday use Super
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light, super great and, yeah, happy to happy to wear them.
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Pretty sure, they may be made in china, but they're an australian
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company and let's support australian companies as much as
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we can. So this is um. So this is going to lead me into
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our second topic, which, if you don't know, if you're around the
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world and you're watching this replay or listening to the
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podcast, in 2020 or 21, during the pandemic, our Prime Minister
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of the time, scott Morrison, questioned where the Wu flu
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started from and basically he said to China come on, let us
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know what's happened. And instead of letting us know what
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happened, they put tariffs on a lot of our product and main two
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wine and beef. Their wine sales to China were exceptionally good
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. They loved their wine and then they slapped tariffs on to the
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point where it was pointless the Australian growers sending wine
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to China. They didn't outright ban it, but the tariffs were
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that high that you know, absolutely ridiculous,
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ridiculous. So what does this mean for Australian winemakers?
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And A it means we've got a lot of juice here in Australia which
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is good in some ways but not good in others. But I get sick
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and tired of the press saying that the Australian winemakers
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have now got a billion-dollar industry to sell into or they
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can get their billion dollar, because I think it was close to
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a billion dollars that we were exporting. Well, the hard thing
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in the hard reality of a tariff like that being dropped on um
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winemakers or a country of winemakers, is that you may have
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had a billion dollars, that you may have had a billion dollars
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in sales, but now that billion dollars is gone it's been a
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couple of years, so the void would have been filled by other
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countries, probably Spain, america, who else is it? Maybe
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the French, maybe, but there would have been quite a few
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people benefit from the tariffs being put on Australian wine. So
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bear with me, I just need a drink.
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So, consequently, the Australian wine market has become a little
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bit stagnant. Yes, it's good that the tariffs have come off,
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so it means that they can at least try to market into the
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Chinese market once again. However, I don't think it's
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going to be that simple, with the Chinese being the Chinese.
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So what I think will happen is that, even though the tariffs
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are being, lifted and I don't know what the Australian
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government has given them in return.
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But I can't see them selling much wine to the Chinese market.
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I think they'll still dig their heels in. I can't see them
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selling much wine to the Chinese market. I think they'll still
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dig their heels in. It's like the same thing that happened
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with our lobsters the Chinese were just letting them fly over
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and then refusing them because they had some sort of disease or
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whatever. A lot of our animals are the cleanest in the world.
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Disease or whatever, where a lot of our animals, um, are the
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cleanest in the world. So, yeah, so that's the china tariff lift,
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and I just think it's a farce. Shouldn't have gone on in the
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first place. Um, and now it's just got to be a joke for the
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Australian. But the flip side to that is they went out and
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actually found new markets. So it's not all doom and gloom. So
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it's pretty good to see that they used a lot of initiative.
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See that they used a lot of initiative.
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And the final bit of all what's happened during the week is the
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South Australian Voice. Oh, I spelt that wrong. We'll get that
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down quick and we can change that real quick. You watch this.
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You watch this Got to love StreamYard with their banners.
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Bang, there we go. So the South Australian voice.
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So what is all of this about? Well, back in October last year,
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the Australian people voted for an Indigenous voice to
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parliament and it was going to be put into our constitution
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parliament, and it was going to be put into our constitution and
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the and then the people had the choice to vote it in or vote it
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out. And that's one of the things about the Australian
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political system and our constitution that we have the
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final say on it. And if you'd like to learn more about
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Australian politics, you should do the right thing and subscribe
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on YouTube and give us a like and all that kind of stuff,
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because I'm doing a series on about how Australian politics
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works. There's a lot of people that I
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listen to overseas and they don't have a clue. They're like
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deers in the headlights when it comes to our politics. So I've
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got to be doing that. Like these in the headlights when it comes
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to our politics, so I've got to be doing that. The first episode
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of that comes out on Monday, the 1st, so you'll be able to listen
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and watch that. So, basically, what happened? It was 60-40,
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pretty much all around the country, except for the place
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that's 10 minutes outside of Australia, which is Canberra.
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They voted for it to go in, so it was never going to get up.
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People in Australia don't like the Constitution being tampered
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with and when you put race into the Constitution it gets a
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little bit dodgy and, as you've listened to previous episodes,
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my great-great-grandmother was Aboriginal, so it's neither here
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nor there for me. So, with that in mind, the 60-40 no to having
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South Australia put one in place , their own little voice, which
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basically means that if there's a new bill or anything, they
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have to run it past them. They don't have to listen to what
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they have to say. There's no obligation, but there is an
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obligation. Basically if they turn around say no, you've got
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to take that into consideration. So they went and elected the
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people to be the voice of to the Parliament for the indigenous
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people of South Australia, which which is a southern state here
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in Australia. They what's the best way to put it? They did the
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vote I think it was last weekend and there's 25, nearly 26
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registered Indigenous people in South Australia. So when there's
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a vote like this that costs money. The Australian Electoral
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Commission gets involved because they manage all of our voting
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systems here and I'll be explaining that in a couple of
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episodes of the government thing . So they went to all of this
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part and parcel. They nominated all these people and just on 10%
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of the population voted. Now, some of the reports are
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that some of the people that are now the voices to Parliament had
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six votes, some had one, some had none. So it's a farce, none,
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so it's a farce. And what I encourage is that the Indigenous
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people, peoples of the world, if you're in a position to run for
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politics, run and be the voice of Indigenous people, like the
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11 that we have in federal government now Lydia Thorpe,
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jacinta Nappajima-Price, linda Burney, and there's a whole.
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They're the main ones that I know of, but there's a whole
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heap of them. So, once again, a Labor Party and I'm sorry to go
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down this path, but a Labor Party has not listened to the
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people, gone against the people, wasted money and they're going
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to have a voice, but from what I have heard, it's going to take a
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while for the Liberals, which is the opposition, to get in the
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power in South Australia, but once they get in, they'll revoke
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it, I think, because we can't have a country split on race. As
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far as I'm concerned, that may upset people. I know it'll set
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up a couple of people that I'm friends with, but that's my
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thoughts and views. So, um, yeah, so that's roughly
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what's happened during the week. Um, from a personal point of
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view. Um, I have had a little bit of a scare with the heart,
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but I can't find anything wrong with it. I had my chest pounding
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like it was just about to jump out of my chest, but I'm all
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good now. Made the lawns, done all that kind of stuff, we're
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heading back to Bali, and that's going to be another series that
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I've got to do before we head off, on how to successfully get
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through a great trip in barley and we, and so there's a few
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tricks that you need to do to make A arriving there very easy
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and B getting around very easily . So we'll get into that as well
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. So that's the show nuts and bolts of it all.
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I haven't, I've got to fire up Colin again. He should come up
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in a sec. Here we go with Honky Tonk
00:21:31
Southern Sky but, as I said earlier, make sure you do those
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three things Like subscribe and click the notifications,
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notifications and follow us on Facebook twin or X is now it's
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called and on Spotify, apple and all that kind of stuff. And,
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until next week, have a good week and, as I always say, when,
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when you wake up, always be the best version of yourself. And
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let's finish this show and have a good listen to Colin Lilley.
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Honky, his lips, everything was forgot.
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Speaker 2: Gotta roll with the punches. Money don't grow on
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trees. Jesus begging on the corner and the devil do what he
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please. The day I heard Buck Owens, I got down on my knees
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and surrendered to that great honky tonk, honky tonk southern
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sky. When I found my first saloon I thought it would be my
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last, but the sins of the Father helped me To drink away all my
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past. When you find the needle, you get lost in the stick. No
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one ever thought a soul like me Would ever find my way back.
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We'll be right back. The day I heard Hank Williams, I got down
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on my knees and surrendered to that great honky-tonk,
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honky-tonk southern sky. We've got to roll with the punches
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Smiling on broad trees, jesus begging on the corner and the
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devil do what he please. The day the devil heard Loretta land, he
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got down on his knees and surrendered to that great
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Honky-tonk southern sky. You.