Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome to the Lowy Institute. I'm Sam Rogovine. I'm a senior researcher here and director of digital at the Lowy Institute. I'm filling in for executive director Michael Fully Love today who's in the US on Lowy Institute business. Michael sends his apologies and I know he's sorry he can't be here for this occasion. Ladies and gentlemen, it's our pleasure today to host Senator Richard Di Natale at the Lowy Institute. Earlier this year the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it would be, quote, difficult to imagine the foreign policy landscape in Australia today without the Lowy Institute. We treasure that reputation which comes from many sources. One of them I think is that we jealously guard our status as a non-partisan institution. There is no Lowy Institute view of the world. The research we produce comes from a variety of viewpoints and every day we host a vigorous policy debate on our web magazine The Interpreter. We are open to various viewpoints and most importantly we subject all of them to scrutiny. As of today the Lowy Institute will have hosted three party leaders in the last six months and Richard Di Natale is the second Greens leader to speak here. Whenever a party leader speaks at the Lowy Institute it's an important day but just to add a little bit more gravity to Senator Di Natale's remarks today, a little frisson if you like, I want to remind you of a piece of history. There's been a lot of talk over the last week or so and I'm sure you've heard about whether Labor might in the event of a hung parliament form a coalition with the Greens in order to govern. Labor has dismissed that possibility though many wonder what would actually happen if Mr Shorten's alternatives were another term in opposition or maybe a new election. It's worth remembering that in 1998 Germany's social Democrats led by Gerhard Schroeder defeated Helmut Kohl's centre right government in a federal election and went into coalition with the German Greens in order to form government. I wonder if any of you remember which cabinet portfolio the Greens leader, Joschka Fischer, held in Schroeder's cabinet. It was foreign affairs. Ladies and gentlemen Dr Richard Di Natale is leader of the Australian Greens. He was elected to the federal parliament in 2010 and is the Greens' first Victorian senator. Prior to entering parliament Richard was a GP and a public health specialist. He worked in Aboriginal health in the Northern Territory on HIV prevention in India and in the drug and alcohol sector. Senator Di Natale will speak for about 30 minutes after which I'll be back to moderate the Q&A. So ladies and gentlemen would you please welcome Senator Richard Di Natale. Thanks so much Sam for that very generous introduction. I want to thank you for the invitation to speak here today. I want to thank the Lowe Institute as well more broadly. It is a great honour to be speaking here today. Let me also acknowledge my parliamentary colleagues David Shubridge, potentially the next member for Grainla, Jim Casey. I'm not sure if there are any other parliamentarians in the room but acknowledge them as well. I want to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Aura Nation as the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I want to pay my respects to their elders past and present. Now when I first came to the leadership of the Australian Greens just over a year ago I made it very clear that we needed to repair the relationship between non-indigenous and Indigenous Australia, people from the world's oldest surviving culture. We're now moving through a process of constitutional recognition but it is our view that this should be one step on a pathway towards recognising sovereignty and ultimately to achieving treaties. Now the challenges that we face as a nation are truly global. Climate change, resource scarcity, growing inequality, conflict, the mass displacement of people. In order to meet these challenges we have to have a global view. We need to move away from those old polluting industries of last century that are destabilising our world. We need to move towards greater regional cooperation and where we demonstrate real leadership in addressing these challenges. Over the course of the Abbott, now Turnbull government, we've heard a lot about the threats to our national security. The government's gone to great lengths to counter the threat of violent extremism. We've seen the cancelling of passports of Australian citizens, the implementation of new national terrorism threat advisory systems and we've seen billions of dollars poured into the funding into our national security agencies. We of course recognise that violent extremism is a threat to Australia and it's a growing issue globally to which we have to respond. But all of the evidence suggests that the greatest gains will be achieved by addressing conflict and extremism at its source using diplomatic channels to pursue a global response to a global problem. And on that measure I think the government hasn't achieved what it could have achieved. But it's biggest failure. The Abbott Turnbull government's biggest failure is its pigheadedness in refusing to acknowledge that global warming and all of the things that flow from that poverty, scarcity of resources, instability and the conflict that it creates represents a much bigger threat to our national security. Now don't just take our word for it. John Powers, a US Iraq veteran and advisor to the Obama administration has said, in the security world decisions are made by careful evaluation of risk and climate change is the mother of all risks. Now in the US this is a consensus statement. It's not controversial. The Department of Defence has openly declared global warming and urgent and growing threat to our national security. We've got the Pentagon, we've got NATO member states and the G7 all taking seriously the threat of global warming and the threat that global warming poses to national security. We've got Dr Chris King at the US Army Command who put it this way, we aren't prepared for 100-year war and that is the scale and breadth of what climate change presents. History confirms that nobody knows how to win 100-year war. Now compare that to the Australian government's 2016 defence white paper which barely mentions global warming and certainly doesn't identify it as a threat to national security. So while you've got top brass in the US being issued with directives to make global warming a priority, you've got the Australian government with its head in the sand. In a recent interview President Obama said that ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States. Climate change is a potential existential threat to the entire world if we don't do something about it. Now of course this isn't to minimise the threat of ISIS but it is a recognition that global warming left unchecked is a direct threat to our very existence. And it takes a hell of a lot of courage to make a statement like that when the fight against ISIS is front and centre in the minds of many governments and their citizens, particularly in the US. But leadership requires courage. Global warming is a threat multiplier. It exacerbates drought, famine, displacement, food and water scarcity and disease. As again the President of the United States said, this makes every other problem we've got worse. That's above and beyond just the existential issues of a planet that starts getting into a bad feedback loop. Now we're already seeing drought stricken farmers in North West Kenya fighting each other for water and cattle. We're seeing environmental changes, fuelling violence and military conflict in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. We've got climate crisis in rural areas and destroyed farmland and coastal zones that are pushing people into urban drug wars in Brazil and Mexico, all documented. We've got a study published in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences that says that extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was mostly, most likely due to global warming and that the drought was a factor in the violent uprising that began in 2011. This is the future if we continue on the government path of inaction on global warming. This is the future that we face. Yet there we were on the first day of an election campaign with the Prime Minister saying that having an ambitious climate reduction target would reduce our leverage in international obligations. Well, what nonsense? What a remarkable revelation, completely misunderstanding the way those global negotiations work. And having been in Paris, I can tell you when those negotiations were occurring, we are an outsider in the global climate movement. We've chased off foreign investment in clean energy and we've reduction targets that would keep us as the worst per capita polluter in the world, tied with that wonderful climate champion Saudi Arabia. Now, we realise that setting ambitious targets sends a signal to the global community. It says we're serious about transforming our economy. And to do that, we need to have serious targets. So we have a science based target of 60 to 80% reductions below 2000 levels by 2030. And we want to get to net zero emissions by 2040 at the latest to avoid the fast approach in tipping points, which President Obama talks about from which there will be no safe return. So this isn't just about preserving our environment or transforming our economy. But as the American Defence Forces said, it is about preserving a national security as well. The impact of global warming is going to fundamentally change the character of our foreign relationships. The science is crystal clear, we have to keep global warming to below two degrees, preferably below 1.5 degrees to avoid catastrophic climate change. And to get this done is going to require an unprecedented commitment. To fail on this front means unprecedented global and regional instability. Of course, here in Australia, the cost of forging ahead with those new coal mines is that we drive our neighbours in the Pacific from their homes. And we've had the President of Kiribati, who said clearly what we are talking about is survival. It's not about economic development. It's not about politics. It's survival. And last year, the Kiribati Government purchased 20 square kilometres of land in Fiji as a backup plan for food security and possibly even relocation of its citizens. That's the future we're talking about. And yet in the midst of that, what did we see from our immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott? We saw them caught out joking about the desperate situation of Pacific Islanders whose very existence is threatened by global warming and rising sea levels. When Minister Dutton said that time doesn't mean anything when you've got water lapping at your door, we had a really rare insight. It's away from that careful language that characterises international diplomacy. But it was a rare insight into how our leadership actually treats our closest neighbours. Earlier this year I was able to visit the Great Barrier Reef and saw the devastating coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef and of course the areas of Tasmania's ancient wilderness destroyed by unprecedented fires. I live in a rural community where people are telling me all the time how rainfall patterns have changed dramatically over their lifetime. I've got colleagues in the medical profession who have shown me how advanced spread of some vector-borne diseases is climate related. But one of the most worrying things of course is that modelling demonstrates that global warming will usher in an unprecedented displacement of people and a refugee crisis. As Patrick Sykes recently noted in Foreign Affairs, for this one there will be no tyrants to blame and the migrants won't be escaping war. They'll be fleeing nature, specifically the ocean and they'll have no home to return to. Some people might actually take issue with the fact that Patrick Sykes says that there are no tyrants to blame. When you see what happened to Australia's climate laws, which were described by the International Energy Agency as template legislation when you saw the repeal of those laws, the only country in the world to undo strong action on climate change. It's hard to agree with the assessment that no one's to blame. Now our global treaties don't accommodate people fleeing natural disasters. They don't accommodate those things. And we do think it is absolutely critical that there are global diplomatic efforts to establish an international agreement on how to respond to people displaced by global warming. We have to ensure that those global diplomatic efforts take place. And in Australia, the Greens advocate for a special form of humanitarian visa for people who are displaced by global warming. That will be the future. Unfortunately, though, here in Australia on this issue, the debate seems to be stuck in another century. As I said, I was in Paris last year for the signing of the climate agreement. And what struck me most was that Australia's political establishment is lagging so far behind foreign governments, the business community, civil society in realising the huge economic opportunities that exist with the transformation to the clean renewable energy economy. By world standards, we're a wealthy, well educated society. We have massive, massive research potential through many of our institutions, the CSIRO. In fact, the two agencies that the Greens helped establish with Labor in the last parliament, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. We have the potential to export that technology to the rest of the world, not just to countries with large rural populations, for example, in rural France, the US, China, etc., but also to those millions of people around the world who don't have access to a centralised grid. And it's a bit like what's happening in much of the developing world where you're seeing technology leaping over fixed telephone exchanges to mobile phones. Australia can help those countries without access to power to leap over expensive, last century centralised grids to a much more autonomous, clean energy, micro grids, smarter grids. But to do it, we've got to support those institutions that allow us to export that technology. And we have both the government and the Labor Party committed to stripping a billion dollars from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and to prevent it from using capital grant funding to fund those projects. One of my key priorities going into the next parliament is to work with the next government to reap the potential that Australia's energy exports and technology transfer hold for the new economy. Now, despite the Pentagon's prescience about the risks of global warming, the same can't be said for its understanding of the way U.S. foreign and defence policy have contributed to greater instability in the world. The U.S. along with Australia, as its partner, has time and time again failed to learn from its mistakes. We are their biggest backers with Australia the only nation to have joined the United States in every major military intervention in the past century, both world wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq. Our unfailing support for the U.S. means that Australia has been complicit in the horrific consequences born as a result of these foreign incursions. The situation in Iraq, for example, is a horrifying deadly testament to this. And you've got George Bush, who led the world, including Australia, into this conflict. And it is a decision that is now seen by most credible analysts as one of the most grievous, strategic disasters in modern history. A conflict that we opposed right from the outset. The violent decade-long occupation which followed shattered Iraq's social and economic structures, it ignited long-dormant sectarian tensions that have contributed to a regional reign of violence by Islamic State. The brittle institutions of Iraqi governance were bombed into existence by the United States and its allies and they now threaten to collapse entirely. Extensive research has illustrated the link between foreign military occupations in places like Iraq and the rise of extremism. In the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks and throughout the war on terror, U.S. occupation was linked to increases in mortality to displacement and poverty, creating fertile ground for recruitment into extremist groups. It's a conclusion that's backed up by intelligence organisations around the world who have confirmed that the 2003 invasion of Iraq helped grow a new generation of radicalisation. Unfortunately, and despite clear evidence of the horrific consequences of U.S. foreign incursions, the U.S.-Australia alliance remains the primary influence on the way Australia relates to the world. In failing to pursue a more independent foreign policy, we renounce our ambition to be a confident 21st century nation and in doing so we undermine our own national interests. By following the U.S. into those airstrikes in Syria, we contribute further to destabilisation in a region torn apart by an illegal invasion in 2003 and we make Australians less safe as a consequence. Though the Prime Minister's reluctance to commit further troops to the conflict in Iraq and Syria in December 2015 might show a departure from the usual script and we absolutely welcome that, our troops shouldn't be there in the first place. We would be much better served by a strategy to combat extremism with inclusion at home while supporting global efforts to cut off financial and personnel support to Islamic State. Instead, we've blindly followed the U.S. into yet another conflict with no clear strategic objective and without really pausing to ask the question, whose interests are we serving? The integration of our foreign and defence policies with the interests of the United States extends to their presence on Australian soil. We've got ground stations places like Pine Gap which have supported a regime, not at all transparent, around drone assassinations in any country in which the U.S. chooses to conduct them with the resultant civilian casualties. Now despite the stifling bipartisan consensus and unquestioning consensus around the U.S. alliance, raising questions about its benefit to Australia and the world is hardly a radical position. As former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser has argued our military and intelligence capabilities have become ensconced within the U.S. military infrastructure to such a point the two have become blurred. We've become so enmeshed with America's strategic aims that we jeopardise our own future security and important bilateral relationships in the region. And as former Australian Ambassador to China, Stephen Fitzgerald has reflected, goth wetland at the time enraged Washington when he spoke out publicly against the 1972 Christmas bombings of Hanoi. But I quote, like it or not, in the end America accepted his reframing of relations. It is right to question the benefit of the alliance and to review it so that it is something that serves the Australian national interest and the global interest. We're now looking at a whopping 17 billion dollars allocated to acquire F-35 Joint Strike Fighters which have been described by a number of people within the establishment as, I quote, a failure waiting to happen, an embarrassment and all sorts of other colourful language. We've also got over 50 billion dollars plus on 12 now potentially nuclear powered submarines and another five to six billion on the weapons that support them, which is the largest procurement program in this nation's history. It's a massive dividend to the arms manufacturers and it comes sponsored by the Unity Ticket Labor and Liberal, the increased defense spending of 2% GDP. And we've got to recognise that this comes at a massive opportunity cost. This is billions of dollars that we aren't putting into schools, into hospitals, into a central infrastructure. Yes, we do support the modernisation of Defence Force capabilities. For example, the purchase of up to six submarines to replace the Collins Class capability. But we also believe that defence policy should be about keeping Australia and our region safe and stable, not using defence policy as a substitute for industry policy. The difference between buying six submarines and 12 is equivalent to funding the National Broadband Network short for. Just one of those submarines, just one of them, could be used on foreign aid to massively increase our contribution. The difference between buying 72 Joint Strike Fighters or smaller tried and tested aircraft could deliver transformational investments to make our cities more resilient to climate change. So we don't support a mandated 2% target. We think there needs to be a national debate. Remarkable that one of the biggest increases in government expenditure would go through without a debate about whether that's a wise investment. We don't accept the fact that defence spending is a sacred cow. How is it that we can have enormous scrutiny on our health and education budgets and yet we can have so many procurements within defence that don't meet basic objectives. So we believe in a defence force that protects Australia not one that serves to substitute as industry policy and not one that serves the interests of a foreign power. Where Australia could be a leading voice in the on the global stage is in the global nuclear disarmament movement. But here again we're held back by our unwavering support of the US Alliance. Both the 2009 and 2013 defence white papers referred to Australia's reliance on Washington for extended nuclear deterrence. The former Australian ambassador to the US, Dennis Richardson, even made a submission to the United States Congress nuclear posture review calling on them to explicitly confirm that they would come to our aid if our security were threatened. In his words he wanted to be sure countries like Australia do not need to develop their own nuclear weapons. Australia has repeatedly refused to rule out nuclear weapons use instead emphasising the security benefits of nuclear weapons. It's among the most active nuclear allied states seeking to oppose and undermine moves through the open-ended work group on nuclear disarmament toward a much needed nuclear ban treaty. This kind of dangerous position not only undermines Australia's safety but that of the world. And we isolate ourselves with this stance. There's real progress being made towards the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. It's happening right now. The humanitarian pledge which recognises the need for nuclear weapons to be explicitly prohibited under international law was supported by 127 countries at the Vienna conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons in December 2015 but Australia was not one of those 127 countries. No state or international body could adequately address the immediate humanitarian emergency or long-term consequences caused by nuclear weapons detonation. The only way to protect against the horrendous impacts from nuclear weapons and nuclear war is to abolish them once and for all. And yet our tight-knit alliance with the US makes us more prone to those dangers rather than having a more independent foreign policy. As former Prime Minister Fraser described it our relationship with the US has become a paradox. Our leaders argue we need to keep our alliance with the United States strong in order to ensure our defence in the event of an aggressive foe. Yet the most likely reason Australia would need to confront an aggressive foe is our strong alliance with the US. It is not a sustainable policy. That from the former Prime Minister of the country. Of course it doesn't have to be this way. An independent and confident Australia is possible. One that respects international law and that protects human rights. When our leaders stand independently when they show courage and articulate a clear vision we've shown that we can punch above our weight in the world. Australia's stand against the Japanese whaling industry is one example. We had civil society and government coming together with clarity and conviction. It's evident in Australia's successes at the United Nations Security Council under foreign ministers of various political stripes including the current Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's leadership of a key resolution regarding access to the crash site of MH17 and the emergency aid to civilians caught in the Syrian civil war. If we can bring the same tenacity that we did to these circumstances and to our broader foreign policy there will be enormous benefits for Australia, for the region and for the world. Underpinning this independence and courage must be an understanding that we cannot shirk our responsibilities in the world. We've now got the government vying for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. I have to ask what is the point when we regularly throw our own human rights responsibilities out the window? What kind of leadership could we possibly offer when we don't have our own house in order? We only have to look at how Australia's been at work in our region to see this in action. Look at the behaviour of Australia towards East Timor around our maritime boundary and utterly reprehensible accusations of bugging cabinet rooms of the East Timorese government under the cover of a foreign aid donation. Instead of advocating for those people who are imprisoned indefinitely in West Papua we funded groups such as Detachment 88. They are the very same police force that have been accused of human rights abuses of harassment and torture and extrajudicial killings of the West Papuans. In exchange for Sri Lanka's help to prevent people seeking asylum from leaving their shores we gave their secret police military equipment like those white vans synonymous in Sri Lanka with the enforced disappearance and murder of its citizens and of course actively undermining UN attempts to investigate human rights abuses and war crimes. We're currently in the midst of an unprecedented retreat on our commitments to human rights asylum seekers on foreign aid on global warming on clean energy investment. A confident Australia would understand there is a better way to welcome people seeking asylum in this country. Instead of denying people freedom and safety in offshore detention camps instead of trampling over basic human rights the treaty commitments we've made driving people to such despair that they are self-harming we are talking about five-year-old children who put a rope around their neck and self-harm because we have a policy that at its core says we will harm innocent people in an effort to send a message to someone else. Now that is a line that a civilised society should never cross. Sadly that is a bipartisan policy. There are ways through this mess. We spend billions of dollars continuing to keep people in those hell holes offshore despite the fact that we know they are both now in crisis. Next year the government will spend approximately four hundred thousand dollars for each man woman and child held on Nauru. We're not going to see an increase next year to Australia's humanitarian intake despite the biggest global flow of refugees since World War II. It just takes a bit of leadership. We close down those camps we spend that money helping people rather than hurting them. We create legitimate pathways through the UNHCR so people don't feel the need to go on to one of those leaky boats. We also understand that the root causes of instability could be addressed through a properly funded international aid program instead of gutting it to the barest bones. It's why we've announced our commitment to increase foreign aid to 0.7% by 2025. It's remarkable that we're having the debate here because in the UK again a bipartisan consensus on that 0.7% target and under successive governments Labor and Conservative alike that target has been enshrined in legislation. They've met that target at a time when Australia has gutted its foreign aid budget by over 11 billion dollars since 2013 plunging our aid investment to a shameful 0.22% of GNI. It's the lowest level of international aid funding since records began more than 50 years ago and it's an indictment on both the coalition's attitude towards the world's most vulnerable people and indeed we haven't heard from the Labor Party about whether they will restore that funding. Let's remember that the coalition cuts built on the 5.8 billion dollars already implemented under the former Labor government and when asked last year on the ABC about the restoration of those cuts the shadow foreign affairs minister Tanya Plibersek said that Labor certainly wouldn't continue with the aid cuts that are scheduled by this government. We need to hear an ironclad commitment about whether the Labor Party will restore that huge cut to foreign aid. A confident Australia would have a clear vision not just for our own clean energy economy but for that of the world. There are great opportunities for an Australia that capitalises on this vision as one of the sunniest, windiest countries in the world with abundant space. We can lead the transition to a clean energy powered future right across the globe. A confident Australia would have a head of state that was actually an Australian, someone of merit not just there because of their birthright. We've now got three leaders in this country all of whom support a republic at least in name. We've got state and territory leaders declaring their support. There is more momentum now than ever before and leadership would mean turning this talk and this support into concrete action real steps towards becoming a republic. It is within our power to use our relationships around the world to protect human rights, to reduce inequality and in the process to create a safer and more stable world for everyone. Australia can be a more confident, a more courageous country. We have the smarts, we have the economic strength and we have the decency to do so. Unfortunately that's just not something reflected in the policy priorities of either the Prime Minister or the opposition leader. When we focus on violent extremism to the exclusion of the security threat posed by global warming. When we rush to follow the United States into Iraq and Syria but fail to demand a clear long-term strategy with clear objectives. When we window dress at the Paris climate conference but at home slash the renewable energy target and scrap the world-leading price and carbon we fail to live up to Australia's great potential. That has to change. Thanks very much everybody. Thank you. Senator, thank you very much. Those remarks were thoughtful, broad, deep. We have about 15 minutes for questions now. I'd ask you to just you know come up with some some interesting questions of your own. Please state a question, not make a statement or a speech of your own. Let us know your affiliation if you have one. I'm conscious of the fact that climate change was a major part of your address and I hope some of the questions do address that. Since it's not my specialty I'm going to start by focusing on something else. It occurs to me that if I can be bold enough to speak on behalf of the so-called foreign policy commentariat of which I'm a member I think the common criticism of the Greens is that they don't take real politic seriously enough. We live in an anarchical international system in which states ultimately have to secure their own look after their own security and it's clear now that Asia is becoming the new cauldron of great power competition in the world. Yet in your remarks you said almost nothing about US-China tensions. You didn't talk about China's determination to impose its will in the South China Sea and maybe even ultimately China's ambition to displace the United States as the foremost regional power. I think it's to the enormous credit of the Greens that it's always taken the threat of nuclear weapons seriously and you reinforce that today in your remarks. But it seems to me if we do take nuclear weapons seriously we also have to wrestle with the realities of great power competition and come up with some ideas about how we can manage that your response. I suppose just to respond to the focus on the speech on climate change I mean the emphasis really was to try and give force to the argument that we need to start treating this as a national security threat hence the focus on that issue. No one would argue for a moment that the issues in the South China Sea China's some would say aggressive incursion into that area that it's purchasing well it's effectively gaining territory is a huge problem in the region. The question for us is as a nation is how are we going to mediate our way through one established superpower and an emerging one and is it in Australia's national interest to be so clearly aligned with the US when it comes to that issue and I know that people I think you talked about the foreign policy establishment I think there are different views about how we should respond to that particular threat. I think that on this issue that Wiserheads must prevail that we need to look at the issue of arbitration if necessary. We've got avenues through which to do that and it seems to me that we have not pursued aggressively enough the option of arbitration and a diplomatic resolution to that specific conflict. It seems that the response has been largely focused on the the military response and international law exists for a reason there are ways to be able to prosecute a case through those processes and I think that should be Australia's focus but yes of course like many people we have we have major concerns about the conflict in the South China Sea the specifically the Spratly Islands now becoming a real cause for concern and a cause for concern in the region. But I would posture that I don't think anybody has the you know a clear response about how Australia should respond to that threat. Now from the floor please this gentleman here please wait for the microphone other side right there. Thank you Senator. I suppose I'd like to question which is sort of touching on global warning but it seems that global politicians really haven't addressed the elephant in the room which to me is the exponential growth of populate world population. We've seen 30% growth in population in the last 20 years to over 7 billion people if we assume that continues as the way it is will be probably in 2050 somewhere around 9 to 10 billion people in the world. A lot of the issues you talk about around global warming really are just sandbagging the tsunami of population growth. What policies do you believe worldwide politicians need to make to address this issue because if we don't address it all of your all of the global warming the scarcity of land etc are going to cause us major problems. So I suppose the first thing I would say is it's very important to consider the equation around impacts of population as a function of population and consumption. Those two things go hand in hand and if you look at per capita emissions it is countries like Australia that far exceed many other developed countries. So let's not just accept that it's simply a function of population it's a function of both of those things. However population is still an important part of that equation. Most international demographers would suggest that population will peak towards the end of the century at about 9 billion and that ultimately the reason for that is that with increasing development in low income countries will see fertility rates decline and that's the history of developed countries for many decades. In terms of how do we try and address that issue globally I think the single biggest response is the education of particularly women who are denied an education in many low income countries and giving people an opportunity particularly young women who are denied an education has been shown I think through development to be the most effective intervention. Once you give somebody an opportunity for future employment in an environment where they may have been denied that previously it has a significant effect on fertility rates and so that brings me straight back to foreign aid. We can't foreign aid is so critical in issues like global population and ensuring that we start to address that issue more fully. It's absolutely related to the issue of refugees and asylum seekers and I know that having spoken to a number of organisations who work in this space the great need for greater foreign aid investment in Syria at the moment and how critical that is in terms of addressing the movement of peoples. It is fundamental to everything almost everything I've talked about during during the speech and so if Australia was going to do anything as a global citizen it would be to increase its foreign aid budget and to ensure that we have programs that allow women in low income countries to get an education and employment opportunities that they're currently denied. Thank you. Alex Oliver at the front. Just wait for the mic Alex. Thank you Senator for very thought provoking speech. We have a public opinion program here at the Low Institute which has been running for 12 years now and one of the most consistent findings we've had throughout that 12 years is a very strong support for US Alliance and at any one year we find that more than 90% of Australians are overall in support of the Alliance and when we drill down further into the reasons for that they say that paradoxically we would have to spend more on our defence without the Alliance and that the Alliance makes us safer from pressure from countries like China. I was just wondering if you could comment on that because your thoughts about the Alliance and withdrawing from it would seem not to have much public support at all and what has been seen as a cornerstone of Australian security. So just to be clear I mean I have been critical of our blind adherence to US foreign policy and the terms of the Alliance is currently understood. I think it's really important to make that point. In any relationship I think if you have two parties who respect each other and where there is a maturity within that relationship then the obligation should be on Australia to be able to speak up against mistakes that are made by the bigger partner in that relationship. So I'm being critical of the terms under which the Alliance seems to operate in a very bipartisan way. Now I think we need to redefine the terms of the Alliance. I think what we need to do is to have a debate in this country and it's just remarkable you can't debate this stuff anymore. There is this stifling bipartisan consensus that simply to even raise questions about the nature of our relationship with the US the current terms of the Alliance is somehow it's heresy. Well it wasn't always that way and you know as I said Goff Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser hardly bastions of well at least in Malcolm Fraser's case of leftist radicalism you know this is this is I think a very thoughtful response to what is a great paradox for us. What we need to have is a debate about what the purpose of our defence policy is. Let's have an open acknowledgement that what we are saying is we don't have a defence force if what you're suggesting there is that Australia's defence force is simply an arm of the US defence force and that our capabilities are so entwined that Australia would have no prospect of responding to a conflict on its own. Well let's at least be honest about that but that's not the debate that we're having in this country at the moment. We like to have our cake and eat it. I think it's also important to recognise as we heard earlier the growing influence of China and what does our relationship with the US mean in terms of the emergence of China as a superpower we should have a debate about those things. I mean we had the incursion into Iraq followed by well most recently in Syria I think we spent five minutes in the Australian Parliament talking about it before we signed off on sending troops to Syria. Five minutes. I mean think of the debate when we had 48 hours talking about Senate voting reform we had five minutes talking about the incursions here and now I'd like to hear those arguments being discussed in Australia's Parliament. I'd like to hear the contributions of people who have different perspectives on these issues. We just don't have that at the moment. There is no national debate and part of the problem is that we have as I said this bipartisan unquestioning consensus at the moment which I don't think serves us well because we don't have a discussion about what is the purpose of our defence force what is the relationship with the US is it I mean is our relationship with the US so tied into defence strategy that what we actually have is effectively the arm of the US defence force. I mean they are questions that as a parliament and as a nation I don't think we spend enough time reflecting on. This gentleman Sorry the gentleman Yes the black jacket Thank you Thank you Senator first off whether we all agree with all your positions or not one thing you do bring is a very measured and calm tone and detailed tone to debate which isn't always true in all of our politicals so President thank you for that. If I could however follow up on the point about China in the South China Sea you emphasise the importance of arbitration and yet China has repeatedly and categorically ruled out any jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice or the applicability of the United Nations common law of the sea in that in that area doesn't that go to the moderator's point about a lack of real politic as to what actually goes on in that area. The second part of the question then would be you've questioned in some depth the nature of the US the benefit to Australia of the US alliance but then also seem to go on to severely question the size of Australia's own defence spending. It would seem to me that as you just said can't have your cake and eat it too you've either got to have one or the other admittedly you would argue we don't need both which is the current situation but if you question the alliance independent spending on defence might become even more important might it not thank you. So on the first point I mean again having read the contributions of various people to debate around the South China Sea I haven't seen anybody come up with a clear position about how to navigate our way through that. I just don't think there is an obvious one and at the moment it feels like the choices are very binary and it's either back the US which goes to much deeper questions about that relationship or trying to find our way another way through that conflict. On the second point I suppose it comes down to questions about the nature of our defence force defence capability and so on and again I'll go to that point we had a two percent commitment on defence spending one of the most significant contributions when it comes to government expenditure at a time when we told about the debt and deficit disaster again not a scary of debate and if there's anything that we can do through our presence here and certainly in the parliament is to start raising questions about those things and to raise questions about the very nature of what our defence force is there. Let's have an open debate about whether the Australian defence capability exists simply to supplement our relationship with the US or at the moment we're being told that we're doing both and by your own words it seems that you don't think we can do both. So let's at least have a debate about those things and we haven't had a debate or a discussion or any meaningful contribution from either side of politics major parties they're just it's one of those issues you simply can't talk about there was a time when you could and as I said it's not just me that's questioning that relationship I've returned to in a former prime minister Malcolm Fraser who's raising these issues and I think they're legitimate questions to ask and as a nation we should start having that conversation and we're simply not doing it. We have time for one final question Scott Lowe undecided voter and potential green voter but undecided on that you laid out your policies very clearly on a range of social environmental issues and on foreign policy I noticed that one of your colleagues recently spoke with what I would describe as enthusiasm for taking advantage of low interest rates and cranking up the national debt so could you talk a bit about your position and your party's position on that question? Sure Well we've got again it's a very I think it's a it's a very mainstream position many economists will that we've spoken with have said that now is precisely the right time to invest in productivity building infrastructure and we can talk about what that looks like and ensuring that there's a sound business case for those sorts of investments but obviously public transport clean energy and so on would all fit the bill now the time to do that is at a time of low interest rates we have very low interest rates at the moment our view is that we do again as has been suggested by a number of economists borrow money because we know we'll get a better return on that on that borrowing if we invest it sensibly and there is a massive infrastructure deficit in Australia at the moment a massive infrastructure deficit because we have governments continuing to ignore the need for infrastructure spending and that's part of this silly debate we've got into around debt most again mainstream economists say if you are investing for productivity building infrastructure that should be off-budget create a separate lineup we're not talking about recurrent spending here we're talking about spending that will bring in a greater return than what we invest so it should be off-budget we've said that we could certainly invest up to 50 billion dollars we've had an inquiry Peter Wishwilson our finance spokesperson has been touring the country talking to economists talking to regional communities about the sort of infrastructure that's required we can we could borrow up to 50 billion dollars we wouldn't affect our triple A credit rating and provided we do it on sound business case rather than pork barrelling which is sometimes where this debate gets unfortunately caught up in then what we'll actually do is produce a return on that investment so it's a very simple proposition off-budget invest for productivity building infrastructure make sure there's a sound business case and really start addressing that infrastructure deficit ladies and gentlemen would you please thank Senator Richard Dine-Tarling thank you all for coming the Lowy Institute's absolutely determined to keep foreign policy at the forefront of the national debate during this election look out for our notes in your email inbox about future events during the campaign and also keep your eye on the interpreter for regular coverage of the election campaign whenever foreign policy touches on the national debate thank you very much for coming


All this month get any smartphone 32-gigand under for 50% off regular price at Appalachian Wireless. Better service, bigger savings, that's today's Appalachian Wireless. While supplies last, two-year agreement required. The operating cost of a county jail can become burdensome on a county budget. The greatest expense for the Floyd County Detention Center is its medical cost, an expenditure that not only gets inmates healthy but can potentially save their lives. The biggest majority of the inmates that come in here are withdrawing from some type of drug or alcohol and have neglected their health some for 20, 30 years or more. So when they come in, you know, our first thing that we want to do is to withdraw them safely and then get into the chronic care. A lot of hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure, liver problems and some of that stuff can be quite costly. Although medical cost is this facility's greatest expense, you can't put a price on people's lives. Floyd County Jailer Stuart Holbert says his inmates are more than just numbers of the crimes they commit, they're people. The medical is, you know, number one of what I have to deal with.  We want to try to keep everybody as safe and, you know, and keep everybody alive. We've done a real good job the last several years with actually with the medical cost. It usually runs about 160,000 a year. You know, the majority of these people are good people. They've made mistakes and that's one thing we've got to remember. I mean, these are human beings that we're dealing with.  These people are human beings and that's, you know, we want to try to take care of them the best we can. Holbert went on to say that if his inmates' medical needs are taken care of after they detoxify, they can experience what it's like to feel good without the drugs they've been on. Reporting from Pristinsburg for EKB News, I'm Shawn Allen.


I think I think what I'll do is we're left. Okay. Okay. Hey friends before we jump that you're watching behind in scenes behind the scenes divine intimacy radio part two with jordan berck overcoming addiction and and things like that us porn addiction But um before we start the show I want to tell you about one thing only and that is that The 2020 abalus summit has opened up 100 seats We were basically sold out We opened up 100 more seats because we're doing it in a larger venue than we initially planned So it's going to be on spirit to warfare Bishop strickland will be there father rippiger father denis mcmanus. It's cathleen beckman, etc Uh, so if you want to do that it's till i 15th through the 17th this summer coming summer spiritualdirection.com forward slash events. It will blow your mind. I promise by the rippiger is going to talk about um authority and spiritual warfare and help lay people understand What their participation can and can't be Father mcmanus was is probably the best speaker i've ever heard in my life And I know a lot of good speakers. So it's really going to be something special. So, uh, July 15th through the 17th 2022 at catholic university of america Uh spiritualdirection.com forward slash events, okay Raid jump into the show Yep, we're good. Ready to go mark. Is it go? This is dan and jordan berck. Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio radio haven of rest Your hermitage of the heart very good your monastery of the mind where we what you think since i'm sitting I normally produce it. You think I've heard it about 120 000 times. I know it by now Right, right, right. So your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw near to the one Who has all the answers to our brokenness and that's what we're talking about is broken That's jordan the first show we did jordan shared a lot of his testimony of falling away and what led to that and then His reversion and we kind of covered that not in depth but a little bit And today we're going to shift and this show we're going to shift a little bit To talking about his ministry but before we do that I want to I want you to talk to parents And I want you as a wayward kid who was you know, you were breaking our hearts So I'm just it wasn't easy for us, right But as a wayward kid, I want you to just talk a few minutes to parents Um, maybe tell them what stuffy and I did right if there's anything we did wrong that we you would Think we should have done better And what they can do to help a child that's gone off the rails, right? Well, I've told you some of this before I mean the best thing That y'all did for me that when I when I look back and try to analyze all of that and go through it as painful as it is um One of the the thing that I zero in on most Is the firm foundation that you guys had set Would in faith and and just like the rules that you had as Parents, yeah, right I think The easiest way I can explain that is when someone is wayward like I was wayward when someone is lost like I was lost Lost is probably the most apt term It's the world is spinning especially when you're in pain and you're being crushed The world is spinning and you're lost and you don't know what where am I gonna go and in my case I'd been burned by so many people, you know, and I'd burn I'd burn bridges myself and and cause damage in relationships And I needed a firm foundation to stand up. I needed some direction And so that firm foundation that y'all had created in the faith. You're solid in the faith It's like this is what we believe. This is how we live. This is what we're doing. These are the rules There was no capitulation But there was always open arms. What do you mean? No capitulation and always open that's a really important combination of things, right?   It's it's it's I mean, what is the love of the father What's the love of christ? Why do we as catholics we know that there is a purgatory before we go to heaven? Why? Because we're not perfect. Yeah, we can't enter heaven and embrace christ the way that we are until there's a purifying Right and whether you choose to purify on earth, which I hope you are and I know I'm trying right or you know purification through purgatory It's like god wants you there. Yeah, but you have to be clean Yeah, but I just theologically though. I want to challenge some of the language you sure. I'm a bit.  But the closer quarters are for you when you're right with the Lord right that's a better way to say and it doesn't mean that You're perfect because you didn't post conversion. You were not perfect. I'm still not perfect, right And and you've even had a few dark days. Yeah, even one that surprised you not too long By the grace of god few and far between. Yeah Yeah, so it's not you know the prodigal son I mean that's hopefully how we treated you right well, certainly we did it was shared it in the last show Was we did not condemn you we through we basically Rejoiced in you coming back. You thought we might condemn you. You thought I might fire you Right and frankly I would have you would have been right to I was considering right actually because you're working at a Catholic ministry and living contrary to the faith Right, right, so but god be praised. I didn't have to do that. Okay So Now so that's good. I just wanted parents to hear that be constant Don't capitulate don't we always say we don't fund sin, right? So we never provide any structure for sin, right? We if if you're going to live a debauchers life, we don't provide housing, right? We're going to live a debauchers life We don't fix your flat tire even if you don't have the money right walk to work But we're here any time you're willing and ready to turn your life over to god And and we of course we would help you in very dire circumstances But what a lot of parents do that I think is very destructive in these times is they try to protect their children from their The consequence of their sin, right and we didn't even do that after you revert it, right? Right, which is interesting because we both said he has to feel the full weight of what he did in his sin We provided of course work and we encouraged you. I also had to prove myself that this wasn't some false You know reversion sure is a very real thing because you have to you you would hope that Whoever it is in your family was wayward you would hope that that person would come back But you you still have to say okay. Yes come come.  Staying clean like what's going on. Let's have a conversation right which is right and that's how it that's how it should be So let's turn the corner now because that was cool. I was a lot of fun to go through all of that I hope it wasn't too painful for you. I'm used to it at this point Give my testimony like 5,000 times right So now let's talk about your ministry So you you started getting right and I think you said you had a fascination with what you learned at the treatment center for pornography addiction You had a fascination what you learned at the treatment center Which began then you so talk about how the harder thing emerged where folks can find at do the harder So primarily it's on instagram at do the underscore harder thing do the underscore harder and that yeah Someone took the actual the name but that's okay, and then I have a website with resources that we can get into later That's just straight up do the harder thing dot com. Okay. Um, so yeah, so I was really fascinated. I had gone through um Bethesda day one they tell you This is going to be four days treatment center treatment center. Where's that at tennessee? So if they want to find oh amazing recommendation 100 recommendation. They're not catholic What what's interesting is so it's christian based but they I remember one of the class one of the days They said yes, we're going to go through this uh prayer exercise It's actually called lexio divina. We took it from the catholics There's some catholic elements there and I didn't you know, I wasn't as theologically Educated as I am now and I'm still learning but I didn't never caught on to anything weird when I was there that I can remember So nothing contrary So if anyone's wondering it seems like they're totally squared away. They're not trying to convert you to protest No, no, no, no, this is it's all like hey, this is how we help and this is where god is walking through So Going through the does the day one they say this is going to be these four days are going to be 100 hours The equivalent of 100 hours of intensive therapy intensive And it was intense. So it's impatient. Yeah. Oh, I stayed there for four days with a group of other guys And it was a large group of 60 men and then we broke down into groups of like six I think so we was a lot of individual care It was incredible and still friends with those those men to this day. We still check on check in on each other So taking a lot of the principles there that I was I've always been fascinated with cognitive function. Anyway So learning that stuff and then getting out and continuing to see healing So I went to a 12 step program, you know Pretty much all of the 12 step programs are based off of AA's 12 steps They may change with the name and maybe la and maybe sa and maybe whatever N a but it's all the same principle. So yeah, just for people who are listening narcotics anonymous Alcoholics, right sexaholic synonymous, right, right, right Uh, but there was I kept there was things that were kind of grinding at me and and some of those not all of them But then some of them I couldn't figure out what it was. I'm sitting there and I'm going through the process I'm reading the books. I purchased all these other books on addiction. I'm just going because if I'm gonna do this I'm gonna I'm gonna do this period. Yeah, and I have my daughter You know, it's like I need to be the father that she deserves like this. I'm going beyond all in whatever's beyond all in That's where I'm going. Yeah So in conjunction with the faith also studying addiction Ted talks and reading these books on psychology and all these other different things Uh, so 12 step groups multiple 12 step groups and then finally a celebrate recovery, which was fantastic Celebrate recovery is a christian based A. A essentially a is not I'm using that as a general term. They you they speak of higher powers to right. It's not focused Yeah, and uh, I actually talked about this on on milo show But the biggest issue that I had and I'm not knocking Just so people are aware. I'm not knocking these but I I believe that language is important This is one of the things that I've kind of learned in my studies and where one of them says Hey, my name is jordan and I'm powerless against lust The other one says hey, my name is jordan and god has helped me battle through this Strut it's rightly ordered. It's more it's it's more accurate to scripture. Right. Yeah, it's rightly ordered It's not putting power where power doesn't belong that sort of a thing right And I think that's a huge makes a huge impact. So say it again the differences So the difference is so the the this is just the one I went to I know I have some friends who are still in AA and they love it But the one that I went to Said hey, my name is jordan and I'm powerless against lust Right, right the difference with celebrate recovery. See our was hey, my name is jordan and by the grace of god He's helped me struggle through or helped me travel through whatever the language is Uh through focuses on god and his power and strength right not on your broken right It's rightly ordered. It's still it's still Identifying the brokenness. It's still saying that I need god in order to get through this right, but it's not saying I'm powerless against this thing as if you can't take any action that's going to help you to get precisely And in my own strength that may be powerless against it But it's important to note when you know the truth Of christ that he he grace sufficient to the day, right? Yeah, he wants to give you What you need to overcome whatever that temptation is that day Whatever the brokenness whatever the bro you need to be healed Grace sufficient to the day. Yeah, we know that to be truth So if that's the truth then we need to start treating these struggles with that truth, right? And so through all of that I just found Even cr was great It was a great next step And I there was other groups I was a part of as well that I don't quite remember at the time or at the moment But I noticed they were all lacking something And so what I started doing was okay, this works really well for me from Bethesda these three four things Okay, cool these three or four things from cr work really great for me. These things work really great Okay, let's combine those and then now since at that time I was full on into writings on the saints and the council of trend and the catechism all the catechisms Let's take aspects here because there's a lot of gold. There's a lot of really good helpful material there and understanding What you're going through and on top of that finally Taking what I've learned about the very minor things that I've learned about Neurophysiology or physiology You know all that kind of stuff neural pathways You know some psychology and combining all those things And I was able to eventually create a five-step action plan That's proven to be pretty effective at least from what people have told you called an immediate action immediate action Right. So after the break when we come back, let's jump into The immediate action plan and we'll also talk about people, you know where folks can find it So this is Dan and Jordan Burke divine intimacy radio and we'll be right back after the break So, um, okay. All right. This is great. This is great caffeine is my friend today I did sleep better last night. Okay Ready to roll and your market said go welcome back to divine intimacy radio This is Dan and Jordan Burke today. Stephanie's off gallivanting at a theology of the body Conference learning that great wisdom from st. John paul's second And we're talking about sexual addiction porn addiction and recovery The this is the second show Two and if you want to find all the shows eventually you'll find them out on spiritualdirection.com And then also they'll be aired on ewtn radio, which we're grateful to ewtn for that And you can find jordan and his information out at do the harder thing underscore Do the same instagram do the underscore harder thing do the underscore And then uh, and then the website is just do the harder thing So the any resources that we talk about going forward you can find them on on the website Now on your website, they have to like create you have to put in their email to get the resources You can't so here's the deal. Um, I I do this because I'm so passionate about setting people free There's no money involved. I make these resources and put them out for free Especially on these ones if you're if you're worried about, um, your identity or whatever I've tested it. You can put in fake emails. You can put in fake names to download the resources it But you do ask for an email so you can give it it's just the process of of how the website has download setup And you have to email them the Resource it is better to put in your actual email So you'll get you'll get the resource you'll get a link immediately But it's better to get your email because if you lose the link it will email you the resource as well So you have it in your email, but I don't I don't have an email list. I don't do any of that stuff I'm just just the way that my website is set up That's how that's how it works. Okay. Yeah, great So but you you asked how did I get into this and and I don't want to skip over that before we get into the actual resource But so studying through all these different things And learning and finding these methods that helped I started having conversations with people just out of the blue And I think it was Providence where God is saying hey, this is someone who needs to hear what you're going through So I'd have a friend come and say, hey, you know, I heard you going through all this stuff What's going on and that brutal honesty that I I came with to y'all with I used with everybody And I would tell them And almost every time they would kind of pause there would just be this What's going on and there'd be this kind of moment of silence And they'd say, you know, I've been struggling with porn for a long time as well And it was just this this these beautiful moment and it happened So many times I was like, well look like I'm sorry I I know your struggle clearly Um, this is what I'm doing and it's been helpful and you know, hopefully it helps you too You know, it's interesting just this side note. I don't want to get off track, but Were a lot of those comments from people who are would would call themselves traditionalists No, at that time, I really didn't have any traditional I was going to the latin mass at that time, but I didn't really have any I was just general catholic connections. Just general people connections Even people from the old the church I was going to Yeah, and just people that I knew from the police force or whatever like it was just kind of all spectrums of people Yeah, I've heard and I don't have any data to back this up But that it actually Father Ripperger I think it's talked about that for whatever reason there's certain aspects of traditionalist culture and I you know, I I put myself in that realm as well that A lot of there's a lot of problems with porn and with guys and and even though They're faithful, right and usually devout There's a lot of issues there. I could theorize but I think that'd probably be another another show show. Yeah so I noticed this trend of helping other people and I was so interested In the process and of course again like healing is a continuous thing You constantly have to work at healing and you constantly have to be on guard I've used the analogy like you may have closed the door But at some point the enemy's going to come and try that handle. He's going to he's going to wiggle the handle and see Always. Yeah, is it is it open? Is it unlocked? Are you really free? Right. Did you unlock? Did you leave the door unlocked? And by the way, when does he do that? Whenever you're at your weakest I in general, whatever you're at your weakest There's some acronym, right? So yeah, so I guess we can get into the to the action plan, but it's halt is the more common acronym use which is Hungry angry lonely tired and then bored would be added on there as well. Yeah, but so now we're jumping into the resource So through the process of helping people I I started creating these resources mostly for myself So I had easy access here compiling these easier cheats Right, exactly And then I started giving them out and then do the harder thing came later Which we can get into But so this what I'm about to read from I call the shedding blood is the title It's called the immediate action plan. Where does shedding blood come Hebrews 12 for Which is in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood So don't be a wuss. You're not going to get over the sin. Listen. I read that and it was so impactful It's this this it's like, okay That's the standard. Nobody overcomes any pattern of sin Halfheartedly bottom line if you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood You ain't trying hard enough. You're not trying hard. Yeah, I'm like, okay. If that's the standard I'm all in so it's called shedding blood immediate action plan immediate action plan because these I believe are steps that you can Immediately take right in order to start overcoming. So tell them what it is. Number one By far is utilizing blocking and accountability software. I still use covenant eyes to this day Any device that I have that has a screen has covenant eyes and I have multiple people Who are my accountability partners?  It's it's a phone call. It's a text message It's you're there's no getting around it. Awesome. So you're blocking it and and and I have to stress the accountability is a must A lot of people men and women because they both struggle with this We'll try to just do the blocking software. It's not enough. You can't do it alone It's it's accountability isolation is the is the is the playground of the devil And you you have to have community to help you get free. Exactly. And by the way, that's just Spirit to life generally, right? There's there are no lone wolf christians who are true disciples of jesus period, right? Um, so number two is what you mentioned and I call it learning your triggers So halt hungry angry lonely tired And this is just really analyzing when are you most tempted? Because it's different for different people if I had a dollar for every time I told people Hey, what time what time of day this is I don't remember where I learned that but what time of day Is there is there a trend there? Then that like people the light bulb turns on so before I forget I want to point people So we're we're going to keep talking about your resource But on apostoli va.org. We have an overcoming habitual sin. Yes, and I have a long section on this exact thing Where what are your triggers and what's your escape route?  He and I have the same heart. It's all free Right. We're just trying to help you get free And it's overcoming habitual sin. There's an overbit coming habitual sin worksheet. Why don't we put this resource there too? We can do that. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Keep going and currently So we will be on apostoli va.org. You can also get it like I said on do the harder thing dot com Um, so number one is removing the drug Removing access to the drug as best as you can the inebriation of whatever it is right? It's I tell people They don't have a a and a brewery for a reason, right? You have to remove You can't you can't you can't try to start healing if you if you have an open portal next All right, just not so they don't have a a and a brewery Yeah, and then the second one is analyzing the way that you're gonna know worse.  It's anonymous in a porn shop, right? So then the second one is Analyzing your weaknesses and where you're most likely to be attacked So I've been trying for a long time to finish this book I just haven't had time but if you think about it in military tactics, and I don't want to lose people here But you have a camp someone's attacking it. Where's the weakness and all this is learning your triggers is simply Okay, they got through that wall. What is that wall? Okay, if that why is it there right if that wall is for a lot of people social media Scrolling late at night. That's a super common one. That's a weakness You need to get rid of it and you need to fortify. Yeah, okay and now expect an attack from another side What's the other tech that's all that's learning your triggers? That's all that is and I go in the in depth into this in a video on on my instagram somewhere Number three is sacraments. So reconciliation in the Eucharist as often as possible I know someone who too told me if it wasn't for daily Daily mass they would have never overcome that was the strength They knew that that was the strength that they needed to start overcoming That that is super important and by the way, this is structured in in such a way that We you know, I'm really heavy on reconciliation But what's important is you have to have a firm purpose of amendment otherwise What is that firm purpose of amendment is? Saying I have sinned going to confession saying I have sinned But if you go and you confess but you have no plan to not go back for that same thing You're I just did a show with father Matthew on the father Matthew McDonald You're essentially committing sacrilege. It's it's abuse of the sacrament So you have to have some sort of plan which is a firm purpose of amendment This is my choice my plan to not try my hardest to not do this sin again The beauty of this which I didn't discover till later. I think it was total God movement is number one and number two Could number one is certainly could act as your firm purpose of amendment to start with You'll as you grow and progress you'll have to learn different ones But that's just so we're talking about the immediate action plan From do the harder thing right and we covered which points so far one two and three So uh blocking accountability learning your triggers sacraments and the number four, which is really important is mortification Uh, a cease life of a ceaseless, right? So basically self-giving self-denial purposeful In order to subjugate your lower nature your flash to your intellect and will that's it exactly Start denying yourself as often as possible whether it's cold showers fasting You know, I just did a thing on fasting a lot of people weren't aware of that You know traditionally you're supposed to fast for meat every Friday. Yeah, you know, it's a basic one That's really easy to start when we do it in our household Wednesday and Friday. That's the that's the more traditional Or for the back. Yeah, historical, you know Those different denying of self as you said whenever you can subjugate your flesh Your lower nature to your intellect to your will into your will It's you're going to have a significantly easier time So the intellect is formed in what's true writing good The will chooses what's true writing good And the your lower nature follows and it actually becomes an instrument of redemption instead of slavery, right? Sorry, go ahead.  I choose to do what's true and then your lower nature follows and facilitates that and what's fascinating is that our bodies Respond to this in a lot of ways because when you when you are frequently watching porn There's a there's a process there You have some sort of trigger and it reinforces and you create a neural pathway. This is like there's there's science to back this You create a neural pathway So now you do this enough whenever you have a hard day at work when you inebriate with pornography or alcohol Or food or whatever it is You've created a neural pathway so that every time you get stressed your body goes. Oh, hey Wait a minute We know how to relieve this and it seeks that inebriation So when you are subjugating your lower nature to your intellect and will it By the nature of what you're doing helps break those neural pathways and rebuild new Properly formed.  There's one more go real quick prayer because nothing else matters Yep, that's it. What's the best book we've ever written on that, uh, which yours are Into the deep right well, we got two good ones now. Yeah into the deep and then uh, uh, I'll fonds the gory's that you just yeah, it's a great means of salvation Prayer great means of salvation. Easiest one to get into is into the deep. All right. Tell them how to find your stuff We got to wrap it up. Uh, is this the first or the second? This is the second second Okay. Yeah, do the harder thing dot com instagram do the underscore harder thing Right, and then we mentioned the possibly va dot or overcoming habitual sin I think we're going to put these two shows and maybe some more out on a new mini course for just pornography Awesome. All right. Well, jordan. It's been great having you on the show And uh, hopefully it's been I know of no doubt a big blessing to our listeners So until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole an entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our lord jesus christ Amen Awesome. So


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out landscape. Is there a way to get that portrait in the file? Like there was three and then the next. Thank you. I thought it was me. No, it's a civic plus thing. I'm working with Tammy on that. It sort of happens randomly. I also, when I was making the packet was being driven crazy by that. I don't know why it's spit out. And yeah, it's a weird toggle that we should be able to change, but it wasn't working on Friday. So I will be continuing to, I have to, yes, figure out what else is going on there. But yes, sometimes it's landscape no problem. And then other times it chooses portrait without me wanting it to. So thanks for indulging me. And I'm sorry if I brought up any. It's fine. I agree. All right. So I think we're done with the open discussion business items. And we've got four executive session topics. We'll come back to consent. Take the motion. We approve the consent agenda. Thank you, Ethan to have a second. Thanks Kendall. Any further discussion about consent agenda? All those in favor of approving consent, please say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Okay. Motion passes five zero. Reading file. Board member comments. Can we get anything to comment about? Is the reading file is only to comment on anything in the reading file, right? Not necessary. You can comment on anything. Anything? Okay. I just have this is, this is your, your public to be heard optional. The perfect. First of all, I want to thank staff for the budget reports. Awesome. I know a lot of work that goes there. All of the costs. Thanks. I mean, that's great. It's going to keep me busy reading that for a while. Thank you. The first narrative was fantastic. The second question I had was in relation to the public comment that we had earlier, is I know that Alan Martin Drive was upgraded for truck traffic. Was Sandhill ever upgraded for truck traffic? Just a question. I'll have to get back to you. Anybody else? Gracie. Um, I did just want to, sorry, I work phone. Sounds like a cursor you're on. I can neither confirm nor deny. You know, with various comments in the past few months, I wanted to point out in the, I believe it was the October newsletter, there was a link to the Vermont Department of Health for free Narcan kits. I know I went and ordered my own two kits and testing strips at home. It was also, I believe in our last select board packet. And also, if you go to the website and under the circles for payments, parks and rec, um, there is a scroll bar and there is a link directly to the Vermont Department of Health opioid overdose prevention resources there as well. So I just wanted to make mention of that in case anyone is listening, who would benefit from additional information. I got mine too. Yep. Follow the link in the business news. Well, I guess I really take a different tact. I just want to thank all the town employees for all their hard work and wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. All right, okay. Second to you. Anybody else? All right. So now we need to, we're gonna, we got a bunch of executive session motions to make. Is there four of them? Is that my, there's four topics or three reasons to go into executive session. There are four reasons. Four. Okay. There's three reasons. Okay. And potential action. Okay. I've lost my, all right. So I move the select board enter executive session to discuss the negotiation or securing of real estate purchase or lease options in accordance with one VSA section 313A2 and to include the town manager and deputy town manager. Thank you, Don. Thank you, Ethan. Any further discussions? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. We both say nay. Motion passes 5-0. I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss, what I said to stop, sorry, to discuss the appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer or employee in accordance with one VSA section 313A3 to include the town manager and deputy manager. Thank you, Don. Do I have a second? Okay. Thank you, Ethan. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. We both say nay. Motion passes 5-0. I move that the select board make the specific finding that general public knowledge of contracts replaced the town at a substantial disadvantage. Okay. Thank you, Don. Thank you, Ethan. Further discussion? Favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Both say nay. I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss contracts, pursuant of one VSA 313A1A and to discuss the negotiations or securing a real estate purchase or lease options in accordance with one VSA section 313A2 to include the town manager and deputy town manager. Okay. Thank you, Don. Thank you, Ethan. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Both say nay. I move that the select board make the specific findings that general public knowledge of contracts replaced the town at a substantial disadvantage. So you can skip that one. Because we've already done that. We've done that motion. So I can apply to two topics. So I don't need to do the second part of that one or I do? Yeah, that's fine. You can skip that. Get both of them. Okay. So we've covered all of the VSAs. Types of topics that we're going to discuss for agenda items that will be discussed. And we will hopefully be coming back to make a motion later, but we won't. So we'll rejoin the meeting online. But have a good night.


So, we're here with Pireta and Hai. So, who are you? Well, welcome. I'm Mario Daria. I'm the head engineer in Pireta. We are a company based in England, Teddington, near London. And we do conductive textiles. Our sort of mantra is that we don't use conducting ink. We don't make conductive fabric. We make fabric conductive. And that's exactly what we do. We create conductive patterns on virtually any kind of fabrics. It could be synthetic, natural, stretchable, woven, knitted and non-woven. We are really not limited to the composition of the fabric. And our pride is in a few peculiar points. One is that we don't change the handle and drape of the fabric. It really feels as if there was no conductor printed on it. The stretchability is preserved. There is no difference in the stretchability of the fabric. There is no limitation. In this process, we create thin metal coating at the fiber level. This allows us also to keep the stretch and the breathability of the fabric. There is no interposer layer. And if you look here, this is an example of how we can stretch the fabric without losing conductivity, without losing connection. So there's a thin layer of something. There's a thin layer of metal. What kind of metal? At the moment, we are using copper with a passivation of silver. But we are not really limited to those materials. If required, we can use any material, even gold or harder, more noble materials. Our patented process is based on the creation of a catalyst layer that allows the creation of this conductive layer, of this purely metallic conductive layer. And it is this conductive layer that allows us to have quite another unique feature. We can solder directly on it. We don't need to use low-temperature soldering. So this is common lead free solder with a soldering iron. And the connection is really strong to the point that the weakness is the fabric itself. So if I try to rip this off, what I will ruin is the fabric. And the soldering will still be intact. So how do you put the metallic stuff into the fabric? The process is a five-step process. It is a printing process where we deposit chemistry on the fabric which creates a catalyst layer. And then the fabric is immersed into a bath which coats the fibers of the thread which makes the fabric into a thin layer of metal. So it's a purely metallic layer that with a wet chemistry process is applied at the fiber level. So then you just use it as any other kind of fabric to make the garment? Yes. We can apply this technology at any step of the process not just at the plain fabric stage but also at the finished garment. We have examples where we applied that on a glove. So this was printed directly on the glove. So the glove was both Aziz already stitched and the technology was applied to create conductive trucks which with these conductive, with these tilt-tilt switches we can have sensing to some extent on the fabric. So what team do you have? Well, we are a start up, the team is not big but it's definitely good. This is Ian Russell Hello. I'm Lars Cicio. CCO. So that means... Cheap commercial officer. You're making this into a huge commercial success. We hope so. Early days for us early days but yeah that's what we're trying to do. We're here seeking development partners, joint development partners it's it is early days for us as a business but we've got a strong team and we've got strong backers so yeah we are we're seeking partners who can help us produce the next generation of wearable products. So what kind of partner do you need? Is like Nike, Puma or what? What are you thinking? Yeah sports, power, all medical devices, consumer electronics, there are a large number of brands who are looking to produce wearable products that are based on textiles so moving from either componentized products that you might wear on your wrist to products that are truly wearable garment type products that can be functionalized and made intelligent with with e-textiles. And what do you do? Well in here I am the engineer so it's my duty to a bit create the patterns, create the demonstrators, I'm in charge of the hardware of the design and of the software and of the mechanics part. So what happens when you put in a washing machine? Does it just pull off the fibers? No it's perfectly fine. Really? Yes, we run some tests and we did not find traces of the metal of course the washing process wears the fabric as it wears the coating. It's like after a many washes the collar on your shirt will fade or but it is that kind of wear that happens but it does not fall off the fibers. It remains functional, remains conductive. The bond of the metal to the fibers is very strong, it's very robust so in terms of stretch cycles and rub testing and washing it's a robust process and the conductivity, the functionality is retained. There has to be some issues right? What's your issue? Do you have any issues? Well we like we like to think that we really overcome a lot of the hurdles and of the limitation of other conductive on-fabric technologies. What's the other technologies out there? Well you have conductive thread and conductive inks. Conductive thread you will need embroidery it's besides being a slow process it can get very expensive because there's a lot of thread that needs to be put down. Difficult to solder to it. Printed conductive inks you generally need some sort of plastic interposer layer because the ink sits above the textile it's not inherently stretchable so we've spoken to customers who've tried both of those alternative technologies and they're not satisfied with them and you can see why because they have a fundamentally they have a negative impact on the performance of the fabric. You don't have any negative impact on the performance? No the fabric is left fundamentally unaltered it keeps all the breathability and stretchability. There is really no fundamental change the only thing that you see is that there is a collar and that is printed. Maybe the only drawback is that it's not transparent. Yeah so what are you showing on your video? Is it a demo? It is a summary of what we've said until now. So have you shown this before? Yes we have been to a couple of other events usually in UK because we're a UK based company. You don't sound like a UK based. Oh I'm joking I don't know. I'm Italian my accent may sound like Italian also right? Pireta he comes from a Latin name is the name of a butterfly is called the the glass swing butterfly because we add functionality without having those obvious feeling of adding an extra layer to the fabric so Pireta is actually a Latin name that's hence the name. So what's going to happen? Because it's great to be able to solder stuff on it that's very important right? It makes life a lot easier. Then you can have a higher performance kind of things. You can have all the sensors you have in a smartwatch on your clothes. This is actually out of commercial components. There is nothing there's no component in here that you wouldn't be able to buy yourself. What we provide is the interconnect. The important thing is there's a whole trend in the industry to support the movement of these wearable technologies from as I said enclosures and boxes into wearable textiles. So sensors are evolving into stretchable conformable sensors. Batteries are developing so they're conformable and stretchable. The key thing that is missing is a good interconnect technology and that is the piece of the puzzle we we provide. An interconnect technology that doesn't affect the fabric that allows the fabric to remain breathable stretchable retains the handle and drape. So how many of the other components will be flexible? Flexible battery are you interested or? We are definitely interested in flexible battery and flexible electronics. This is just an added element to our to our technology. Our fundamental aim is to create a truly wearable technology.  So the one you have here you said was copper it seems to be a fit your so why don't you have it in your nice suits right now how far are we from the you having cool prototypes that are like wearable well there is really no limitation in that I just we just have not put the suit under the machine and printed with it so it's just like a week or what you have everything you just need to start making prototypes you want to do that with with the partners yes exactly that's not our we want to be led by customers we don't want to be producing products we're here to provide the process to enable our customers to produce those great products that's what we're trying to do all right cool so looking forward to uh this changing the whole world right it's happening okay cool