Jan Fran Has Issues - Ep 7 - Election Cheat Sheet with Amy Remeikis + Alex Morris

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Jan Fran Has Issues…with Election Questions. We speak to political reporter Amy Remeikis from the Guardian, and Alex Morris from the Australian Electoral Commission, who answers how you can make your vote count while drawing a dick on the ballot. ✏️🍆✅ 

Also, join Veronica Milsom, Mark Humphries, Gabbi Bolt, Lewis Hobba, Dan Ilic, Sami Shah and Paul McDermott for 10 Years* of A Rational Fear. June 4th Sydney Opera House. (*Runtime approx. 90min)!

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TRANSCRIPT: 

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
This episode is supported by the jib Foundation.

Unknown Speaker  0:05  
The Election Race is heating up with a new poll showing labor and the coalition and neck to neck the fate of Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese is in the hands of the women of Australia and many unsold on either I would describe women as being angry. What would you have done differently in the last three years if you had known that so many Australians were holding a grudge? Oh, I think I could have certainly been more sensitive. It is traditional for the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition to give their final major addresses of the campaign to the National Press Club. Prime Minister Scott Morrison becomes the first prime minister in over 50 years to not give such an address. We wish him well on Saturday, as we do our speaker today. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, why is everybody laughing? Jan fram has issues breaking down the election on issue at a time brought to you by a rational fear.

Jan Fran  1:01  
Why is everybody laughing Laura tingle. It has been a very, very funny week. And welcome, everybody to Jan Fran has issues the podcast that breaks down the election one issue at a time. How's this week been for you, Daniel? Jen, I've gone from extremely stressed to extremely calm. But now I'm back in the stressed out category. So yeah, you're a swing voter. You're dead, right? I am a swing voter.

Unknown Speaker  1:29  
Yeah, well, you're certainly not the only one that's for sure. On today's show, by the way, because the election is just around the corner, we are on the final countdown, we're going to do something a little bit different. So we've asked you guys to give us some questions. And we're going to get those questions answered. And we're going to do in two ways. So we're going to be talking policy, first of all issues. You know how we love to talk about issues on this show. We're going to be talking all of your policy questions with Guardian journaux Amy ramakers, who is an absolute garden when it comes to policy stuff around elections. And then we're going to talk about the practicalities of voting actually getting into the booth, what happens, how to do it? What if you get COVID, all of those sorts of questions. And we're gonna do that with Alex Morris from the Australian Electoral Commission. That's on today's app. And then next week, we're gonna be talking about how the election was faked with qn on himself, so it's gonna be great. We're gonna save the best philosophy

Unknown Speaker  2:29  
because we're not doing any big issues on the show today. We're going to be taking issue though, with something that happened over the course of the week. And the thing that I have chosen to take some issue with is Scott Morrison, tackling a child a child have a listen.

Unknown Speaker  2:57  
I don't think that was the actual science thing. We actually got a State of Origin clip there. By mistake. Yes. It was not as bad as what we've made it sound are we the media that is sensationalizing the realities? We've tried not to do that. We've reached the pinnacle of our careers. We are the fake news.

Unknown Speaker  3:17  
We've gotten through so many episodes without being fake news. And we trip at the final hurdle, just like Scott Morrison tripped on that rugby field. Let me let me put this into context. scomo was out playing a game of soccer. I think it was with some young kids on the campaign trail. And he accidentally and I want to stress it clearly was an accident that he tackled this young kid to the ground. Little kids have had it too good for too long, Jan. They need to be brought brought down to size. Well, specifically the Shin Shin height, at least Scott Morrison. Well, it's you'd be pleased to know that Luca, who was the young boy that got tackled, he's got he stood up and he gave the pm a bit of a high five. But yes, you know, it's only been a few days since Scott Morrison called himself a bulldozer. We didn't think it was a literal thing. And it is basically the event that sparked a million names. Exactly. That's right. That's right. So that's one thing that happened on the campaign trail this week.

Unknown Speaker  4:15  
Jam has issues. So as you guys know, we love talking about issues on this podcast. Over the past few weeks, we've covered housing, we've covered foreign policy, we've covered cost of living, but I know that the election is is right around the corner. It's almost D Day, Dan. Yeah, I mean, we certainly haven't covered where to get a Veggie Sausage for democracy, sausage people out there. So we need to definitely cover that. Well. There are some just really important things that we need to you know, we need to just get across before we head to the polls. They are of course all issues based so we did put that question to you guys. If you have any questions about policies, shoot them our way and that you did. We're very grateful certainly did so this

Dan Ilic  4:59  
cuz I just kind of like a cliff notes of the last three years of issues so you can understand every single issue in about half an hour. Yeah, if, if that is even possible. And then, of course answering your questions, we have Amy ramakers, from The Guardian, who has been live blogging, their selection, so she's totally fine and has not sustained any brain injuries. Welcome, Amy. 

Amy Remeikis  5:23  
Thank you. Thank you. I mean, I'm not sure if I would say I've sustained a brain injury or just compounded the one I have from covering parliament. But here we are. Here we are, indeed. Without any further ado, let's jump right in. Our first question comes from Esther McMahon, and this is her question for you, Amy. Hey, Jen. My name is Esther. My question is about the coalition's promise to let me take 50k out of my super to pay for my first house. Can you tell me how it is different from the first home supersaver scheme that the government has already been doing for a year where I can take up to 30,000? Out of my super to pay for my first home? Good question. They sound like quite similar policies, what is the difference here, the difference is a stir on the face of it is the Super Saver policy allows you to put extra money into your super account where it will accrue more interest and grow quicker than it would in a bank account. So you can put up to an extra 30,000 tax free, get a little bit more interest and then hopefully grow your house deposit faster than you would in a bank. What the coalition is offering now is to actually use your super balance to add towards your home loan. So it's 40% or $50,000, whichever is the greater figure. And you can then use that towards your house deposit. But you have to put it back. Allegedly, when you sell the house down the track along with any capital gains. That's the main difference. One is that your money that's growing in interest in a super account. The other is it's your money from your super balance, but has to be put back. There are issues with the government's latest one, according to economists, because you do miss out on some of that growth, for $50,000 Probably won't actually even cover the fees and things that you have. And there are fears that it's going to lead to a further bump in house prices, because it's open to absolutely everyone. Wow, that's very clear. Thank you, Amy.

Dan Ilic  7:28  
Can I use that $50,000 to go to the Hilton and just live there live there for some time? Well, the government also allowed you to take out $20,000 during COVID. So you could have gone to the Hilton, if you could show that you were in economic distress. But given the numbers of people who actually took out money from their super during the pandemic, it would be very surprising if there were many people under the age of 30, who actually have $50,000 in their super account at the moment. Wow. A very, very good point and staying with the topic of housing. We have another question from Susie Wakefield. This question is not about the coalition's policy, but rather Labour's Suzy, take it away. What happens if you enter the Labour's sharing home loan policy where they pay? I think 40% What happens if you can't reach your repayments? Can the government take your house away from you? Thanks, Amy. What happens if you can't make your repayments and labor has put in 40% of the cost of your home? Do you have to have Jim Chalmers come over?

Unknown Speaker  8:36  
That's exactly a member of the Labour caucus then moves into a room in your house? No, that is not what happens. Jesus Christ, that's better just taking the house coming and living with me, mate, just take my hat off. You come home and there's Tony Burke or Shane.

Unknown Speaker  8:55  
Or you go over movies now?

Amy Remeikis  8:58  
No, that is not what happens. So the way that Labour's housing policy is it Shared Equity, so you still have to go to a bank and get a loan. So basically, what labour is saying is if you want to buy a $650,000 home, because that's how much houses cost in your area, but you can only get a loan for 450 or 500,000 is that the government will essentially cover the remaining part of the loan that you're unable to get from the bank. And basically just kind of give it to you as sort of rent free money until you sort of sell the house. So pay them back or refinance them or pay them back or start earning more money and go over the cap and can pay them back. So if you couldn't make your repayments, the bank would probably end up taking your home to be clear, and that's how it sort of worked in other equity sharing things. It's no different from a normal mortgage in that sense. However, there are safeguards in place if you

No, we have the you have the usual safeguards if you lose your job, because you will need some sort of like income insurance that goes with this mortgage insurance, you the home cannot, it's not eligible for this scheme if you don't have just everyday insurance. So if it's flood or fire or something, then you become an eligible for the scheme if you have not insured your home. And if you decide to sell or you know, something happens, you've got two years with the government to work out what it is that you do. So if you've got to move, and you're no longer able to live in the home, which is one of the rules you've got, you've got a little bit of leeway there to say, Well, I'm moving for this reason, this is why it's happening. If you start earning over the $120,000, I think it is, you've got about two years to work it out with the government over how you buy them out from that equity. If you die and you haven't paid off the house, and you've left it to your kids. And your kids don't over that cap. Again, they can work out over the next couple of years with the government to how that Shared Equity works out. But labor is sort of saying we imagine that people will have paid off a big chunk of their loan, or in fact paid back the government for the equity that they're putting into the house by the time that they do they do pass on. And that's how it's worked in state schemes like Western Australia where it's been around for about 30 years, Victoria and indeed the UK. Wow. Well, two years is quite generous, because you'd only spend about one year of that on the phone to Centrelink. So that will

Unknown Speaker  11:35  
work out. All right. You have a year to sort that out. Yeah, it is also only open to 10,000 people as well. So you have to check if you're eligible for that one. Wow. Well, that is quite an unlimited number of folks, isn't it? Yeah, I think that's been the big criticism of Labour's policies that it is only 10,000 places. Not a lot when you consider how many people are struggling to get into the housing market. Alright, let's move on. We've got our next question. We're moving on from housing entirely. This question comes from Gemma from purse. Hi, Jen. Gemma in Perth lucky podcast. I was just wondering if any of the political parties have any COVID policies. I'm on chemotherapy, so I'm severely immunocompromised. And also I have a two year old who isn't eligible for vaccination. I'm feeling really abandoned at the moment by politicians, especially in Perth, because COVID is rampant right now. Okay, thanks there. Gemma, I know she's really going through it at the moment. And thank you so much for your question, Gemma, because I think that there would be a lot of people who are in that same boat, we've got 10s of 1000s of cases of COVID. Right around the country. I know we want to think that it's over. I really want to think that it's over. It's not it's still around. And I think the most vulnerable amongst us are really kind of feeling the pinch here, including Gemma. So COVID On the campaign trail, Amy? Haven't heard too much of it. What are the policies? No. And Gemma, I just yeah, it must be terrifying for anyone who has immune compromised as going to the shops and taking your life into your own hands, especially since everybody just kind of dropped the mask mandate. So massive, massive sympathies. And if you can still wear a mask in those essential shopping areas, just you know, just do it for humanity. It just makes sense. But anyways, COVID has not played a huge role in the election campaign, which is kind of crazy when you consider how much dominated our life for the first two years of this government. Not to mention both leaders were out for it like only a month ago. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But it did actually pop up on the campaign on Wednesday where Scott Morrison was asked about it. And that's because we have had more deaths in the first five months of this year than we did in the last two years combined. So more than four or 5000 people have died of COVID. This year, it's working out to be about 45 people a day, are dying from COVID Each day in Australia. So Scott Morrison was asked about it. And he basically gave the same answer that we've been hearing that this is living with COVID and we are sick of governments in our lives. And he actually used quite interesting language, where he moved into that Freedom Party area where he was talking about people dying with the COVID rather than people dying of COVID. He is gone. The we're not getting governments in your lives anymore. We're not going to have any more lockdowns, we're not going to have the daily press conferences. We're just going to get on with it. And everything that we have done over the last two years has allowed you to get on with it. So that was a pretty blunt answer from Scott Morrison on Wednesday, Anthony Albanese was also asked about it, and he had a little bit more sympathy. He also said like you know, there is high vaccination rates, which is true for the first and second doses not necessarily true. With the third dose. We're kind of lagging behind in that fourth

Unknown Speaker  15:00  
doses aren't even eligible or open to eligibility for everyone at the moment, which is another problem as we head into winter. But Anthony Albanese said if he wins government, he would actually just like to convene a national strategy. So we have one moving forward. So we all know when we're getting third and fourth doses. So we all know what's happening. Well, it's sounds like a good idea to have a national strategy, something that might have been missing over this two year period.

Unknown Speaker  15:28  
leaving it up to the states. I don't think it was getting those job apparently, you know, no, no, it wasn't, you know, he just get the army involved a little bit earlier. That's the only thing he would do differently, apparently. So just an army officer and everybody's home, they get the vaccine. But you know, back in summer, we were taking wickets during the pandemic, and now we're in football season. So we're taking goals in the pandemic. Yeah, we're tackling with the pandemic, we're playing with the shock ease with the pandemic. It's, you know, it's all moving on. So, Gemma terrifying? Yeah, exactly. I think the long and short of it is that

Unknown Speaker  16:06  
the politicians or the major parties anyway, labor in the coalition don't really want to be talking about COVID. By the sounds of it. We're living with it. That's what's happening. And that seems to be a bipartisan strategy, albeit with some slight differences on either side. So take care of yourself, Gemma, that's, that's what I'd say. All right. Our next question comes from Kate. She is from Victoria. And this is her question. Well, to me, but also to you, Amy. Hi, Fran. My question is, what are the teeth that an independent federal ipecac would have? Will it take years to investigate an ex pm and his cabinet before Republic loses faith that the delay in cost and what penalties can be employed, applied? Jail, monetary barred from border to drop? Love to know. All right, the taste? Yes. Important question. It is? Well, I mean, if we're talking about the policy that the government has put forward, the coalition has put forward doesn't have a lot of teeth wouldn't actually be able to investigate most of the scandals that we heard about over the last Parliament wouldn't be investigating MPs, it would essentially just be looking at, you know, public servants would be done behind closed doors. It's, it's the biggest criticisms of it is that it wouldn't actually do anything. No, we wouldn't actually see anything different than what we're currently seeing it and Scott Morrison can bang on about the fact that it's 367 pages or whatever. But it was not tabled in Parliament. The government's won. Definitely gummy, not not with teeth,

Unknown Speaker  17:46  
or gums No.

Unknown Speaker  17:48  
Which one has the Trumpers. The crossbench has put through a integrity commission which proposal which has chompers. They're saying that everyone should be able to be investigated that they'd be open hearings, that that the independent investigators actually they get take referrals and they decide what they look into. But the independence crossbench proposal for an integrity commission does have teeth and that is looking at, you know, jail and fines. But it is important to note that integrity Commission's do not make findings. They do not decide whether you are guilty or innocent. All's they do is put together a brief of evidence and then give it to the Department of Public Prosecutions who then decides whether to lay charges and take it to court? Yeah, so the short answer is that, yes, it you could end up in jail. That's not for the commission to decide that's for another department to decide. But what penalties if any, can the commission apply? Or are they there just to make recommendations? Amy? Yeah. Do you do like do you get like a scratch and sniff sticker? If you know if you're really terrible or something?

Unknown Speaker  19:04  
I mean, that's kind of what you get. Now you just get a bit of a sniff around everything that's happening and go, Oh, we don't like that.

Unknown Speaker  19:11  
The Commission probably wouldn't be have penalties, because then that would take away from what the commission actually does, which is investigate labor have said that they want one with teeth and that they would support what the independents were putting forward. So they want something that is more meaty that what the government is putting forward. I'm not really interested in the penalties in the independence one I'm more interested in how many pages is it more or less? And are we talking a4 pages? How is how small is the font? Is it a scroll I imagined could be ascribed things that I find really amusing about the fact that he's like it's 367 pages, is that that climate will see that they took to Glasgow was about four pages.

Unknown Speaker  19:56  
I think that that was written on the back of a coaster

Unknown Speaker  20:00  
a lot on the back of a napkin. Yeah. Okay, we've got um, one last question for you. I mean, I think this one is, is a really important one. So we're gonna shoot it over to Nico from Melbourne. Nico, what's your question? Why is John Howard still alive?

Unknown Speaker  20:16  
Nico that is a very good question. I don't know if Amy Rebekah's has Brain Juice for this one. I also just love the tone in which Nicole asked that question. very fatigued, very tired. So obviously we do not wish death upon that anybody. We don't I don't know why John Howard is still alive, whether it's those daily walks that he took just generally staying hydrated and looking after himself, or whether there's been any sort of dark deals done at crossroads. I cannot answer that point. But he is still alive as he is still campaigning and he's currently trying to get Josh Frydenberg elected in Kooyong Ami. He's still alive because he walks in a tracksuit, every morning still, you know, that's what he does. He gets around. He does his morning walks, physical exercise. Sometimes I think people stay alive just by sheer grudge power to like just wanting to outlive other people. So

Unknown Speaker  21:19  
that's what drives me as an Eastern European spy is keeping me alive.

Unknown Speaker  21:25  
Yeah, he just be still. I think he's just happy that he's just holding on to Keating dies before exactly that's just a race between the two of them saying like you will come to my funeral. What I would really like to see is the Liberals wheel out Robert Menzies just like exhume the body get him around to some swing electorates. Weekend at Bernie's. We

Unknown Speaker  21:45  
definitely do not wish John Howard harm. Please do not send me lots of letters. Jaren Henderson? Yes, please don't slide into our DMS about that. It was just a joke. Question. John, May you live a long and comfortable life good on you. And Amy, thank you so much for joining us and answering all of our listener questions in just the exceptional way that you can. Anytime we've just got a few more days to get through and then I'm just drinking all of the tequila in the world.

Unknown Speaker  22:13  
Can I just ask you on the 22nd of May? Do you go someplace to have your brain wiped? So you can fill it with like new stuff? Well, you know what, I'm not sure if we'll have a government on the 22nd of May. So that'll probably be delayed until we work out who's won the election? I'm sure it's on the PVS.

Unknown Speaker  22:32  
Jam Fran has issues.

Unknown Speaker  22:36  
That was Amy ramakers, a journalist from The Guardian talking us through all of your policy questions. We did promise as well down that we weren't just going to talk about policies we were going to talk about the practicalities of voting Dare I say the nuts and bolts and pencils of voting? The don't draw a dick and balls on the ballot of voting. I think Alex will have something to say about that. But let's let's ask him about that for sure. Yes, let's ask him Alex. The Alex in question is Alex Morris from the Australian Electoral Commission here to answer all of your questions regarding Dixon bowls and various other practicalities so welcome Alex

Unknown Speaker  23:17  
nuts and boats and you went straight for Dixon bowls. She's Jen, I

Unknown Speaker  23:24  
get this one out of the way I had the pleasure of tweeting a C and a the AC Twitter account told me yes I can draw a dick and balls as long as the intention of my vote is clear. I just want to get that on the record is that yes that wasn't in fact me that answered your question Dan's

Unknown Speaker  23:40  
fantastic as long as you've number j boxes correctly that's every box in the house ballot paper one to six but the line one to 12 below the line for the Senate. Yes, you can draw what you like but

Alex Morris  23:51  
over 100,000 people to staff our polling places and to count the votes one of them might be your auntie or your uncle or your nana. You got to think about whether you want Nana looking at that. Well you're not going to be signing it What about like a nice little message to the to the counter saying Good job. Keep counting. You know, look, that's always lovely. Just so long as you again you don't identify yourself that's that's the whiskey Ron here. Okay, do you person reading this take regular blank breaks and drink plenty of water. Thank you. It's good advice. I personally just want to encourage people to vote in the right order just to make sure that their vote is clear and concise. And I know that we're saying that you can draw a bunch of things around it. Just don't do it properly. Get it in there, baby. That's my hot tip for Saturday, Jan Fran the Wowza from down on that just said no.

Unknown Speaker  24:40  
Please don't mess with democracy. This is because Jen Jen grew up in Lebanon. She's very she's you know, she's nervous. She's nervous about democracy. Well, actually funny. You mentioned that because the Lebanese election was just last week. And yeah, it's a shit show. So you know, we've got a pretty functioning democracy down here. I'm constantly reminded of that.

Unknown Speaker  25:00  
come election times around the world. But let's get cracking. We're talking practicalities, we've got our first question. It comes from Jessie in New South Wales. Hello, Jen. My name is Jessie. And I have a question about voting, which is, will there in my lifetime, be online voting? Because I just think about the whole process. And it's so extremely analog and old fashioned feeling, which is just more and more at odds with like, the way the rest of the world is thinking. Yeah. Interesting. That's a good question. Thank you, Jesse. What do you reckon Alex? Far out? Well, Jen, I think it's interesting that we sort of started by talking about an overseas election. We're a world leader in terms of election security, election, transparency, election integrity, and something that we can all actually be really, really proud of. And part of that is that we have this like analog pen and pencil and paper or pen and paper, if you want to bring a pen process that is heavily scrutineers. If we were to consider electronic voting, and this would be a matter for the parliament to consider. It's not something they see can like snap our fingers and make happen.

Unknown Speaker  26:17  
But we would need to be able to ensure that if an electronic system were brought in, that it could replicate that level of integrity of transparency. And it's not something you'd want to sort of bring in at the last minute or you know, to go a bit course you don't you don't want to half assed this stuff.

Unknown Speaker  26:35  
You want to put your full OS into it. And really make you want to full asset.

Unknown Speaker  26:43  
Cheeks. Okay, do you occasionally see overseas things like, you know, claims that elections have been stolen or have been fraudulent. In Australia, that's just not possible because of all of the levels of scrutiny that are applied. So you've got your scrutineers, you've got every ASC staff member signing a declaration of political neutrality. And everything that we do is subject to all of this scrutiny. And you just want to make sure that if there's an electronic aspect brought in, that it's capable of that same level of scrutiny as well. Yeah, I mean, just hearing like the last US election, just all the conversation around the Dominion voting machines and the other voting machines that don't work and things like that, and voting machines breaking down. I can't imagine if we entrust the same people who put the NBN together to do our voting that it would go so swiftly. That was a slightly longer answer here, Alex, but to answer Jesse's question, no, we probably won't see online voting maybe in our lifetime, even though that does seem a bit crazy to me. Maybe? Are we waiting? Are we waiting for the technology to develop? Maybe? I mean, realistically, probably, yes. Jesse did fails as well, in her lifetime. I don't know how long Jesse's gonna live. So that that does

Unknown Speaker  28:00  
make it difficult because it couldn't be 99.

Unknown Speaker  28:04  
Under the pump, I would never threaten Jesse, we think this is cool. All right. Let's go to our our second question. There. It's from Julie. So Julie, kick it away? What's your question? Hi. My question is about the Senate.

Unknown Speaker  28:17  
I'm thinking of voting below the line in the Senate, because I don't particularly want to vote for one party, I think I'd rather vote for individuals. So number one to 12. And my choices will obviously be split between the parties. Just wondering how significant it is to do that, is my vote. Gonna make more of a difference? If I go above the line? Or if I do go below the line and choose the individuals? Does that only really come into play?

Unknown Speaker  28:50  
You know, if it's a close call, and they have to start counting preferences. I'm a little bit confused. So any light that you could shed on that would be fantastic. Thanks. Okay. Thank you for your question, Julie. Essentially, how does one make their vote count in the Senate hours? Hey, just another easy one, then. It sounds like Johnny's actually kind of answered her own question here. So she wants to vote for individual candidates rather than parties or groups. That's what we'll overland ridings for so so long as your number at least one to 12 the load line, you are having your say. And it sounds like she prefers specific candidates over maybe the way the party is grouped? That's fine. Go for it bloodline. If you just want to vote for parties above the line, at least one to six and you're good to go.

Unknown Speaker  29:37  
And is it more significant? If you do vote below the line? Like does your does your vote?

Unknown Speaker  29:42  
Count more? Does it give the parties a bit more information about who you want? Does it affect preferences? What's the key difference between voting above or below the line in terms of your vote? Every vote has the same level of significance. So you know, we've all everyone's vote weighs the same that's sort of a basic principle.

Unknown Speaker  30:00  
with democracy, all it is is that you are saying. So if you vote above the line, a party has a list below the line of candidates in a particular order. So it might be apple, orange pear or something like that, to use the sort of fruit based example we use in the Education Center. You might decide that you like pear more than apple, orange. So you want to vote below the line for pear first. And if you're in New South Wales, you got tons of people below the line. Do you get any fill out below the line correctly? Do you get a certificate or something or a sticker? Yes,

Unknown Speaker  30:30  
I know it's a huge number. I think Anthony Green has done the research on this. And it's only a very, very small percentage of total voters that do this. There is actually a risk here as well. Because if your number every box, like the more boxes, there are the number the more numbers you gotta remember, there's a chance that you might be number one numbering, skip a number of European number, it won't make your vote completely informal in the Senate. But your vote does stop at the point where you stuff are gone. So it's slightly risky, a little bit more risk with voting below the line. Actually, I got a message from John Rooney, the Olympian. Thank you, John, for sending in the message, which was exactly about this issue. She said she had no problems voting in the House of Representatives take but the Senate card was so different because the abbreviations of each party above the line was so hard to decipher. She didn't even know what party was necessarily available to vote for. And she hardly knew any of the state representatives that were standing in for the Senate and what they stood for. And, you know, what their what their Gambit was, she was sort of much more focused on the local candidates for the House of Representatives. So she kind of just flagged that as like, this is less of a question and more of a comment. Just be aware when you're voting in the Senate. Also, Gian had a problem because she didn't go 12345 She awarded gold, silver and bronze.

Unknown Speaker  31:50  
really messed that up.

Unknown Speaker  31:52  
That was that was the other issue. Thank you, Gian. Alright, let's go to Gina from Victoria. She's got a question about voting and COVID, which is still a thing. Here's her question. Hey, Jen, just a question about voting. I tested positive for COVID This morning, which is Tuesday. And I've applied for a postal vote, because it's open till tomorrow evening.

Unknown Speaker  32:15  
I'm in regional Victoria, though, and a little pop up came up in my dress in saying, Hey, we might not get the papers to you in time, go to a pre poll station, if you can. Clearly I can't do that. I'm just wondering, what do I do if the papers don't get here? I really want my fake account. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks so much. Bye. Oh, Jaina. Hopefully the papers get there. I know there'd be so many people in genius position as well. Because as much as we'd like to think that yeah, COVID Not a thing. It definitely is a thing. So to the people who who have gotten COVID This week might get COVID tomorrow. What do they do, Alex? This is this is a tough one. We're answering a lot of questions from people in Janice position today. First of all, I've heard that sort of force before that, that sort of COVID throat voice, it sucks. I hope you get Jaina because she Gina tested positive before six o'clock on Tuesday night, she is eligible for a postal vote. As she said, she's not eligible for telephone voting. Anyone that tests positive after 6pm on Tuesday night is eligible. Now what we started doing this week is printing out postal votes at our local divisional offices and sending them out through Express post rather than batch producing them in Sydney or Melbourne and sending them that way. There's a good chance by the time that you're listening to this, that Jane has received her postal votes in the mail. And her vote will still get back to us in time because we do have 13 days after Election Day to receive the postal votes back from voters as well. That's something that we always wait for during the count. So there is time for Janice to do that. In terms of witnessing you need you need to post record to be witnessed. If you don't have a housemaid or a partner or someone that can in your place that can do that for you. You can consider sort of a contact free witnessing thing the same way that you do with food delivery. So you know, pop your poster right on the doorstep, have someone come witness it, sign it, and then cast your vote. So I hope that helps Virginia. The other thing I will say is

Unknown Speaker  34:17  
there's a difficult situation for a lot of people who might be in a situation where look, if you don't get your postal vote, you might not be able to vote on the day. We do send it out. We don't just blanket fine people. We do send you a letter going basically, hey, doesn't look like you've voted. Can you please tell us why? And obviously, I was in COVID isolation, I wasn't able to make it to a polling place is something we would absolutely consider. Well, I had a friend actually who just texted me this morning. I like she got COVID on Sunday. So we're recording this podcast here on Thursday. She got it a few days ago on Sunday, and thought that she would be able to use the phone system but looks like she can't and now has to kind of scramble to apply for a postal vote and hope that it gets

Unknown Speaker  35:00  
It's hearing time before Saturday. So she's she's a little bit miffed about about that, and kind of texted me in a flurry. So ask the person see this question. I said, Well, funnily enough, we've got someone on the podcast and just a few hours. What do you have to say to that? What else to say to that? I would love to be able to say, look, yeah, we can extend this to everyone. The eligibility for the phone binding, and it's been rolled out as a serious emergency measure, the legislation actually, like automatically expires at the end of the year. So it's not something that we'll be offering in future, as the parliament makes a further call on that, but the legislation is super, super strict about who is eligible. And it does relate to that, you know, testing positive as at a certain date. So, again, for anyone who is in that situation, I do feel for you,

Unknown Speaker  35:49  
though, it's one of those things where like, there are people at every election who encounter medical emergencies as well, there are people that go into labor, and I don't mean to political party, I mean, you know, childbirth, and hospitalized and can't make it there are people that have heart attacks. And there are people for whatever reason that can't vote on the day. And we're not just like soulless automatons who are just going to send you a $20 fine for not going we we do understand that their life gets in the way sometimes and we're happy to consider those circumstances. Okay, our next question comes from Aisha in Queensland. Hi, Jen. The state of my electorate is considered very safe. It's never been lost to labour or not for many decades and is currently held by key government minister. The margin they won by last election was 20 to 12%. Which I only half understand how that works. So does that mean that they got over 50% in the first round of preferential voting? Would voting for this a minor party then throw my vote away when they see it is so safe? At the end of the day? I'd rather much rather labour to get in. Okay, there's incumbent Queensland. I didn't want to vote for my minority party. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker  37:04  
Oh, no mas questions.

Unknown Speaker  37:07  
Okay, so I used to live in a very safe seat that's never been lost. To labor. The margin that was one at the last election was 12%. What does that mean?

Unknown Speaker  37:17  
I tell you what, these are some amazing questions. Your listeners have gone above and on. They're pretty good at they shout out to you guys. Yeah, yeah, I've only got dumb questions from Twitter. No, fair, fair. That's what we get on Twitter as well. No, good, positive. Alright, so what I will say here, 12% is the difference between the winning candidate the second place candidate, so it's in this place, it's a relatively large margin. There are big ones. It's possible that the candidate in that seat and I don't know which side it was one on first preferences, which, which means that at the very first count, that candidate got 50%, plus one of the vote, that's it, they went. With that said, we still distribute preferences and do a full count in every seat, every one. Anyway, around two thirds of all the house seats for the last election, were ultimately decided on preferences, so no candidate 50% plus one at the first count,

Unknown Speaker  38:12  
in terms of having your say, though, or wasting your vote, first of all, no such thing as wasting a vote, let's be really, really clear on that. Your vote always matters every vote in every race, no matter how safe the seat always matters. Because any party that wins more than 4% of the vote, any party or candidate I should say, is eligible for election funding. And that's based on how many number ones they get in the first count, whoever you whoever you put as your number one, and assuming they hit that 4% threshold is eligible for a bit of money from the agent base. See, and that affects funding that affects that party's capacity potentially to campaign in your seat in the future. Yeah. So that that point of her question of what voting for a minority party, then throw away my vote if the seat was so safe? I think if I can just jump in here. No, if you want to vote for a minor party because you think they best represent the interests of your electorate. Go ahead and do that. That's the simplest way to think about it. When you walk into the voting booth, what do you care about? And who is going to represent those interests, the best for you and your community and ultimately the country. I follow Senator Matt Canavan on Twitter and he loves minor parties, any party to do with mining big into it. Hey, I've got a question from Twitter. This is from Andy leach one of my followers on irrational fear. He says ACS public comps are second to none no notes question. Will you get a long break after Saturday? Alex? Look not until the council over so we kind of swapped one big job for another on Saturday night. So six o'clock Saturday, we now have to count

Unknown Speaker  39:49  
cheese upward of 30 million votes. So House and Senate ballot papers will need to be counted with 13 days after the election for all the posters to come in. And that's not just from Australians wallets for

Unknown Speaker  40:00  
I'm Australians, but it's from Australians overseas as well. We've got people voting overseas and postal votes coming back through diplomatic mail. Thank you d fat for that.

Unknown Speaker  40:09  
So there's a lot to be done. And the AC will be declaring results. Look for the next few weeks probably.

Unknown Speaker  40:18  
So yeah, he never sleeps. I'm hoping to have a bit of a break in around June, July. And we'll say 2024.

Unknown Speaker  40:28  
Well, no break for you. Oh, I'm having to have a break at the end of the at the fall of democracy. That's when I can have a break.

Unknown Speaker  40:35  
Well, no break for Alex sadly on Saturday, but let me tell you, you get a break from this interview. Now we're going to let you go because I know that you have so many things that you need to do in the lead up to Saturday and presumably for some weeks to go after that. So good luck. My pleasure and happy voting.

Unknown Speaker  40:54  
Yeah, I'm Fran house issues. So great to chat with Alex Morris, one of the brains behind the Twitter account of the AC who knew we had this online relationship going all this time. Look, it tell you what they're one of the biggest issues in this election is housing prices. And this week's sponsor is a brand new government scheme to get young people into their new home. The Morison government is serious about the future of Australians. That's why we're introducing hole seeker. Australians will now have the opportunity to access $50,000 of their superannuation to buy their first bunker. I'm all in on the side of those who want to buy a hole with hole seeker live out the rest of your life hiding 10 meters underground from whatever catastrophic shitshow the world is hurtling towards who cares what 50k might grow into in 30 years time? Will there even be banks in 30 years, or a job to retire frog or air. With hole seeker your children and their children's children can feast on canned food or share oral histories about the outside and develop innovative ways to drink their own pee. While the earth witnesses an apocalyptic nightmare of biblical proportions? It boosts their ultimate retirement incomes, because they're investing in their own home the best investment anyone ever makes. No matter if you're a first bunker buyer or buying your third investment bunker sign up for whole seeker and vote for the coalition if your main concern is the cost of living on this planet. I believe buying a home is the best economic decision that you can make authorized by oh my god you can't be serious. How far can you kick this can down the road before it all comes crashing down Canberra.

Unknown Speaker  42:40  
I think that might be the most comprehensive climate policy.

Unknown Speaker  42:46  
Yeah, at least is keeping Australians safe in our home.

Unknown Speaker  42:50  
Here's the thing Jen. We've literally got so many holes from all the coal mines we've already created. So which is least start leasing those. We're halfway there. Whole keeper. That's the one big thank you to Jacob Brown and Rupert Degas, and Killian, David for that sketch. Thank you guys. And thank you guys for listening to what is the penultimate episode of Jan Fran has issues we have only one more to go because the election is on Saturday. So next week. I mean, I would love to have a crystal ball or what pull the crocodile or pull the octopus or whichever animal predicts election results these days. I don't know who it is, Can we can we for next week? Perhaps try to get the Prime Minister of Australia or an A really good impressionist of the prime minister of reckon I can plan Bay might be where we end up landing, but hey, I'm totally fine. We're gonna have an election washed up show depending on how the cookie crumbles over the next day or so over the next week or so potentially. And we'd love you to join us on the last episode. As always, before we let you go though, get out there and vote my friends Saturday. It's gonna roll on by pretty quickly have your say number the boxes correctly. Have your sauce so and you know I hate sounding earnest. But we've got a pretty good democracy going in this country comparative to some other places in the world. Trust me, I've been there. So as long as you know how to count to 75 We should plays a big thank you to our Patreon supporters F and K media Alex Morris Amy remake is killing them Rupert Degas Jacob round. Also big thanks to you, Jan and big thanks to me as well. I'm going to pat myself on the back. I do such a great job of this podcast, which is not much at all. Also big thanks to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation where Jen and I are recording this podcast.

Unknown Speaker  44:39  
And remember to vote rationally

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