THE CLINKApproache production for the record.
Don't try and make you uncomfortable for the record. You ain't try and world down stuff for your right.
For the record.
Lab on me going all the way way for the record. Ain't trying to link, No trying to waste stuff for the record, for the record, for the for the record, for the rate, for the record.
For the record.
Don't try and make you uncomfortable.
Right, Welcome to the Clan Season seventeen. Thank you to everybody who continues to download our wonderful podcast. I'll tell you what, it has been an amazing season to date, and we are doing something very different today.
I want to say a big shout out.
Four K one g up here in Townsville myself and today I have a co host, my traveling buddy, my business buddy, the man that has walked with me together. We are walking through this journey and it's a journey that we're both very passionate about and that is making a difference in community, especially with our young people. We came up here on Sunday and we're invited up here by a fantastic organization that works extremely hard with young people up here whom are under privileged troubled, struggling through whatever it may be, through home life, DV, addiction. There's so much that we'll go into and unravel through today. But welcome Jeremy. Thank you very much.
Brother.
It's been an honor on this journey to do this with you, and I'm proud of what we're achieving.
Thanks my brother, And yeah to one oh seven point one or four K one G, which is the Murray.
Radio station up here.
Thanks for the leadership of d Eli that gave us the spot to to record this. But you're right, brother, you know here on on Bindle Country or wook Aruba Country.
It's been a journey, you know.
A little bit different to the conversation we had several months ago when I first stepped on the Clink podcast with you, But this time it was a lived experience that we were embarking on. As you mentioned, an incredible organization gave us the opportunity to come to Townsville to work with kids through the Alternative Education Program. And these you know, these are young people that come from all walks of life, as you mentioned. You know, some were learning difficulties, some were just behavioral issues, some you know, coming from really disadvantaged demographics, and you know, the word disadvantage probably doesn't do justice to it. Sometimes I don't like it. It makes us feel fucking safe in our you know, you know, in our humble homes. But the reality is, and we've seen it, is that the issues here are poverty based. And in this lucky country, poverty really shouldn't have a place, but it does.
I'm going to be straight down the line on this one. This has been a fucking emotional rollercoaster, you know, So let's.
Take it back a bit, and Jeremy, I am going to break this down.
We were approached the end of last year by a wonderful organization. I'm just gonna identify a particular woman. Her name is Mel, That's all I'm going to say. And why we can't we can't mention these organizations, and we'll explain why during this conversation. There is a lot of bureaucratic bullshit, a lot of politics, and a lot of things that unfortunately could jeopardize these wonderful humans out here who am doing such amazing things up here. And you know, the media has portrayed Townsfall to be this horrific place of crime and the youth are out of control and we'll send in our wrap.
The hit squad and the.
Media have blown it out of fucking proportion by miles, Like, look, let's not be in denial of there is a problem up here. There is a huge problem. But we have spent since Sunday. It is now coming up to Thursday. We haven't stopped from sun up to sundown. We've done pretty well. Is just sleep, eat and repeat.
Yeah, I mean we haven't even slept that much.
No, it's been very broken, unsettled, and we've pretty well come out of a cyclone floods our own families at home with no power, and we took a voluntary opportunity to bring ourselves to Townsville with the support of this wonderful organization who does amazing things through providing clothes, food, education, listening, love, support.
Like I could just go on safety. Safety.
Yeah, these young people walk through the gates and in many cases, you know, we don't know, like, but you know, for some of these kids, they walk from hell into safety and it is you know, for however many hours of that day the school operates. They know they have a safe place.
But once it is, isn't it's I spoke to and I'll just call her Auntie.
I won't identify exactly who I'm talking about. She'll understand and know when this is heard.
But I sat on the floor with an elder Auntie today and we had a yarn this morning, and you know, it's it's really heartbreaking. We've spent two days with these young people in different sort of workshops around.
What they do.
It's been phenomenal, so rewarding to watch the way that these young people, and we're talking about twelve to seventeen year olds that embraced us. I thank you all. If you're listening to this, any of you, you are amazing. Be proud of yourself. Keep believing in as Jeremy and I spoke of. You know, you just got to dream, visualize, dream, and chase it because you are so much better than what.
You are portrayed to be.
And people, you know, it doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter, just fucking be you.
Yeah, And I think I think that's one of the beautiful parts about that school that we went to. But you know, the multiple facilities, you know, because even the street university that we attended today, it gives young people permission to be them and a.
Big shout out to the Street University. We can, yeah, we can basically we can identify them.
Yeah, the Street University, Townsville, which is part of a you know sort of it's one of I think ten or fifteen different campuses around the country, the Street University, which is a great initiative, an initiative of change because you know, speaking to the brother there that runs that Scotti, I think his name was Yes, that's correct, but you know, he was telling me it's only been in operation for a couple of years, that's engaged with over a thousand kids or young people, and in that time there's been a definitive reduction in crime and their factual evidence that this program up there at the Street University, in collaboration with some other amazing deadly services, is engaging with kids and it really engages with them on the basis of you know, sort of dealing with drugs and alcohol and volatile substance misuse, which has been identified by some of the kids that have been brave enough to talk to us openly and candidly.
That that's a problem and that's been an issue. And so we talk.
About, you know, a program that is really giving a safe space for young people to come and just be free to be them.
When you say that the openness of showing their vulnerability and honesty, I really have to commend some of the young people that we engaged with. They didn't know us nothing, you know, they embraced us. They basically we're so happy, I guess and refreshed to see men like us with a story that we have, and they treated us no diffult like it was just like we were instantly accepted. And having them come up and say excuse me, I just want to say thank you. You really had an impact. And then sharing certain things which you know, respectfully, we just won't talk about and we can't in honor of the children the young people, I don't think it's right of us to discuss that.
Yeah, I mean some powerful conversations, but like you know, two young men that I spoke to this morning, you know, I've I've got a real gripe. You know when I go into these places and often you know, they see us as people of authority, and so their first instinct is to call us hey, sir, hey, And really it really fucking burns me. Brother, Like I don't want to be called sir. You know that it reminds me of what you know, the command that police officers as demand of you. And I said to these young fellows is that you don't know me anything like you don't know me, and respect is something that should never be demanded. That respect should be earned. And if I earn your respect, then that's an incredible privilege. And then you know there is a two way respect that goes on because if I earn your respect, you also respect me. But I can't I can't command it, I can't demand it upon you. And these young these young fellows were so their ears were so wide open because I wrote on the wall at the Street University that if we if we can't listen, then our kids can't be heard.
Yeah. Yeah, I've seen that, bro, and I've actually we both put it up on our stories and I thought that was so powerful. You know, it just has such an impact, those.
Words, and you know that now will be read by so many of you, by every by every young person that walks in there, and even every adult, because every adult needs a reminder.
Just because the kids are making noise, it doesn't mean they feel seen. And one of the big things that we're seeing in this in this town. You know, it's pretty idyllic, you know, like when you think about the Strand and you walk along the esplanade there, it's pretty beautiful. It's palm trees, it's you know, it is the gateway to the great barrier around this is This.
Town of Townsville is absolutely gorgeous.
It's stunning. You know, there's so much beauty to it. And as we've discussed in the last few days, it goes town it's fucking soulless.
I mean it's tragic. I mean, you walk up to the main city, there's no one any.
You walk up the main street and there are boarded up businesses, There are empty shops, there are broken windows, there are empty spaces. It really feels like someone sucked the soul or the heart out of this the place.
Really.
I mean, we know that the cowboys, you know that they're a big part of the heartbeat of this town.
Let's let's just touch on that for a second, because we went for a wander the other night, and I'm not going to lie, I've not personally seen such a beautiful stadium. It is stunning. It is something that just looks like every kid's dream.
Yeah, I mean Country Bank Stadium is the stadium that every North Queens and kid, you know dreams of putting a key a footy on a tee and being able to kick it over the post, like like our incredible brother JT. But it's it's the pride of it's the pride of the town that place.
What's the good of having such a beautiful stadium with a great training facility. But get around it, there's so much poverty and so much hardache. Campaign like the contrast between the two. You know, you walk on those papers, you walk across that bridge, you stand there in awe, you're looking at JT's statue and you're respecting and appreciating a fantastic athlete and a great role model for the community, you know, and then you walk away from it and it just instantly goes back to that soulas that darkness that it's it's just there's.
No other way to describe it.
It's I mean we were told, you know, that's that's where a huge amount of homelessness and you know, people that are affected by mental health, you know, are setting up their camps and you know this is the trail of tragedy, you know, or the you know, the tragic trail that is so present in a in a really small town. But you know, one of the saddest parts for me is always poverty, the conversation of poverty, because you know, poverty affected your life as a young kid, poverty affected my life.
Poverty still exists.
And you know our media that they they love the word, you know, so low socio economic It makes them feel fucking safe and fancy. But the reality is, let's get to the point, is that there is poverty that is driving the root cause.
And this is not like.
Poverty is unbiased, sure, aberaging on Trustralia, on people more heavily affected by the poverty. But the reality is poverty is unbiased in a town like town here that low low, you know, unemployment rates are pretty high.
You just look, let's just throw the cards on the table here.
Let's look at the diversity within the school, like you know, that holds one hundred and four or one hundred and nine students I think it was, and I think a capacity. Whilst we were there, we sixty two to sixty four over the course of the two days. Now within this small space that this fantastic school.
Is working. Its magic is just this. You've got to see it to believe it.
Really, you can't really put it into words. Just the diversity of young persons who are there. It is such a mixed bag. Yet yet they're all in the same boat.
Yeah, I mean they sit on the same floor together, they eat together, they converse together. You know, these are kids that come from different worlds, but their worlds collide inside the safety and the sanctity of you know, this alternative education place. And you know, it crosses every demographic right because you know, there's there's young boys, young women, there's you know, kids that are exploring all facets of their identity, both sexually, you know, and how they how they present. But you know also you know culturally, you know Pacific Island, tors, straight, Aboridinal, you know, Anglo Australian. You know, it's it's pretty well represented across the across the demographics. And then you have a mix of teachers that come from all walks of life. And then every classroom are supported by a social worker.
And that's a really.
Beautiful initiative because you know, tragically, you know, one of the one of the greatest challenges that the education of young people effaces today is that you know, so many, so many teachers burn out because of the social pressures that teachers are, you know, that's put on teachers and that they become have to become social workers. Often many teachers don't get in the way of you know, into the world of education because they want to be a social worker, they want to be an educator. But they find themselves, you know, spending forty percent of their day, you know, like they're dealing with the pressures that live outside of school. You know, they're responsible for the education of our children between nine and three every day, but they're dealing with the tragedy of what happens at home.
That's a better say, But what about also too when they go home to their own families, husbands and children, and you know, like we talk of how we're feeling right at this moment, we've been so emotionally invested, and you know people are going to say, oh, you know, you you don't You've got to emotionally detach from this sort of stuff.
All of my.
Attitude to you is fuck up because at the end of the day, if you're not one hundred percent committed to what you're doing. When it comes to this sort of stuff and not emotionally connecting, you shouldn't be doing it because if you think it's just a nine to five to go in there and get paid, that's not the job for you. You cannot be genuine unless you are totally invested in what's going on. And I look at you, and I know you said to me to unstairs, Bro, you look tired, jose Mate, I'm shot.
You're the same man.
And we're dealing with not only what we've taken on here, what we're processing, what we are now downloading and putting into this podcast now to give you the listener the truth. And this is why we're doing this, is because the truth needs to be told. And let's let's just let's just jump back for a second, because I.
Think this is important.
We come up here because the media put up that there was massive issues up here with troubled youth. They needed a hand from some strong people who have lived experience to be able to come and try and connect with our young people. Brother, can I can I ask you what what's your opinion of this media portrayment of an emergency of youth that they need to fucking fund a whole heap of coppers and send them up here with a hit squad to run through doors and you know, absolutely just terrorize families and throw kids into a shitty place called Cleveland. That mind you, these young young offenders. And look, we're not here saying that it's okay. There's consequences for actions.
We all know that.
But there's a way of dealing with things, and there's a way that shouldn't be. What we can tell you is the way that these young people are being treated and how they are treated locked up is disgusting.
When you're an adult and they short staff, naturally, they lock the jail down. You do time.
You could be there for a day, two, three times. Whatever you're in your cell, you don't get out. It's hard enough as an adult to process that. You're talking about.
Twelve year old thirteen forteen year.
Old boys and girls who already are traumatized and broken, who are just left in cells. The place smells like piss, it stinks like shit. It is absolutely riddled with just you know, fucking diseases that shouldn't be. That it's an unsafe and an unclean place. They have this beautiful oval. They don't get to use it, like they have these education programs that aren't even delivered because there is a lack of staff. But yet their first thing is to lock these kids up.
Through them in there.
And you know, for the listener, let's we haven't actually been inside Cleveland this trip. We haven't been afforded that opportunity, which is totally fine. But you know, I have been into Cleveland on a number of occasions, you know, in the last well not in the last two years, but certainly I was spending a fair bit of time doing some work at one point up there. I have seen the reflections of the words of people that, you know, we're brave enough to sit down with us and talk to us about this place. But you know, the tragedy of this is that we keep seeing these statistics that you know, even today, as early as today, New South Wales had a news article that you know, the incarceration of young people was by twenty percent, and it's almost said like a celebratory statement. I mean, yeah, I mean, like the fuck, like, no, not one prison sentence that you did that I faced, or anyone I know actually made or contributed to making us or them a better person. In fact, these places hit like a hammer and fucking ingrain trauma into you deeper and deeper every day. And segregation destroys humanity because as humans, we are meant to engage, We are meant to sit together. And when you have segregation in you know, and you are put in isolation, it is so traumatic.
Let's just talk about that for a second.
And I want to talk on the fact of our young Indigenous that are incarcerated there, which is which is quite high.
Let's not let's look better around the bush. I think it's eighty percent.
Well there you go, so eighty percent, and we know that they're already struggling to lock them in a cell. The mental trauma that they would be.
Enduring is not okay. He's not okay for anybody. But I just specifically want to just touch.
On that with our first nations because I mean, statistically around the country.
We see a lot of trauma and a lot of suicide come from that.
Yeah, I mean look around the country. I think our rates are about seventy eight percent of the population in all juvenile detensions around this country are made up of Aboriginal trustrail on people. I think in the Northern Territory, at one point last year, one hundred percent of the kids incarcerated were black, and when you go across into Wa it doesn't decline that much more.
So, what we do know.
Is that statistically, Aboriginal Toro austrail And kids are five times more likely to be sentenced than a non indigenous kid for the same crime. And so what we you know in this narrative of an incarceration nation, is a narrative that is fucking very true when that is the alternative in this lucky country. And I keep saying this because Australia is coined as a lucky country and for some people it is lucky, but not for everyone.
Yeah, I have to agree with that.
And look, and don't get me wrong, I fucking love Australia.
Oh mate, We're blessed.
We live in a beautiful, beautiful place, you know, where we were not struggling from war.
We don't sort of have We do have poverty, obviously, but we don't have the poverty levels of some of these war torn countries where you know, like you just couldn't imagine. But people are living and.
They're smiling, and they're getting up every day and finding a way here. I just think that the way that things are portrayed, the things that are put into the media, and how it's actually delivered is so far from the truth. Once again, there is no denial that there is an issue up here with youth crime, but there's no denial that that's anywhere in Australia.
Yeah, I mean we I mean, you flipped me an article today about you know, a tragic story about you know, four young girls in Upper Kumera, just up the road for me and yourself on the Gold Coast that you know, one.
Critically injured in the stolen car.
It was a conversation yesterday that I had is that you know, this will never leave you.
Yeah, this was a very That's why I sent it to you because it was a very very relevant.
Yeah, I mean, it doesn't leave you, you know, whether it you know, as a young person, whether it be you know, the death of you know a friend who was on a motorbike and fucking flies up the road and you know, lays it on the side and his head hits the back of a park car and you know pretty much you know, takes his head off as a young kid, or you know, sort of a couple of young kids. I remember walking past Manley West Public School when I was you know, maybe twelve or thirteen, and a few of the brothers. They pulled up in a stolen car and for whatever reason that day, I didn't jump in it. But the car only got two hundred and fifty meters up the road, up you know, up to Condomine Street, and they wrapped the car around them.
You know, I heard it. I ran to it.
I was the first one there and then had to run away from it because you know, I wasn't involved in the car, but I didn't want.
You know, I didn't want the fact that well.
There was there was repercussions for you even going to assist, wasn't there. Yeah, police try and you know, pinging on you that you were involved in the car when all you were trying to do is actually assist in some way.
And what can you do though?
And it doesn't it It destroys your life like death destroys you, you know, and you know, tragically, both you and me have you know, we've been confronted with it, you know, time and time again, over multiple you know, whether it's through tragic accidents, whether it's through suicide, whether it's through murder. You know, like it's like it's fuck, it's it's it's a tragedy. And you know, like as humans, we're meant to love and care for each other, and.
It destroys you.
It takes a little bit from your heart every time you know, something like that happens. And you know, for these young kids that we were working face to face with, you know, that was the big thing that is trying to flip the script on this is having real life conversations that I think yesterday I said that if you can't say it, you'll never see it.
If you can't see it, you'll never be it.
And you know, that's a big part of the narrative of what I want to tell these kids is that you know, it's never too late to change your life around, or turn it around, or change the trajectory of your life. I believe that you and me are both living proof of that. You know that as you know, forty year old old men, you know, fifty.
Year old I love the way you said that forty year old man. We've been telling everyone were almost fifty, which well we are. Let's let's be honest.
Yeah, I mean I'm closer to let me tell you, I'm closer to fifty that I am forty. You look at Yeah, I'm actually older than you, especially a couple of days with you like my age.
Yeah, you want to try fucking hanging around with this play mister add on steroids.
Yeah yeah, Yeah, it's like a tap dancy party everywhere I go.
Yeah.
But you know what I really want to say this, Jeremy and I really organically came together on this project, the wonderful organization, And once again I'll just use this lovely lady's name and thank you.
A big shout out to you, Mel. You have gone over him above in.
Every possible way to make sure that we were accommodated. We got here, you know, through the flood, the cyclone.
You know, everybody just went out of their way.
So we need to really say thank you because the appreciation goes so far and above for the efforts.
Yeah, I mean, we also can't we can't not acknowledge the young fellow who you know, became a diehard listener of the Clink podcast.
You know what I think today was.
Today was a really fucking special day for that young follow because like a lot. You know, even though it was Mel who put this together and orchestraate it brought it all together.
We'd love to mention his.
Name, but he is a young person and we we are going to respect here on this.
He knows who he is.
He does know who he is, and you know, he became a massive fan of you and as a result, you know, drove it to Mel.
Mel became fascinated with the stories.
She heard our story where our young and as a result, you know, as a result, this organically turned into an opportunity. And so from that, from that very point, today was a great, great celebratory experience because you know, for those that don't know, Simo is a rap extraordinary. You know, in fact, I'm now calling him eminemed.
Out two versus and a chorus.
He can put some beats down and he can lay some bars. And I'm not talking about the picnics that we've had every day. But the reality is, did you actually think that that was all right? Seriously?
Like I'm being straight up, like straight up, was it okay?
Because you are that is your gig, that's your jam, you are a music man, and like, yeah, I.
Just have such deep respect for anyone that can that can that can sing into a microphone. So because when you when you're faced to rap or whatever, you sing whatever, you very vulnerable because there's nothing, there's no holes back like you're being recorded. So you know, I have a huge amount of respect for it. And the fact is that we were telling a story for the young people, you know, like and that was it, you know, for this young fellow next to you. I didn't necessarily, you know, at first care to even listen to the words that you were saying because I was so enthralled with the happiness on his face. I mean, this young fifteen year old kid was being heard, he has been listened to, he was being loved, was we were paying attention to him, you know, and there was so much pride in him. And you know, for me, yeah, sure, I've made a living as a musician, as an artist, you know, collective, you know, as a poet. You know, when I was locked up as a kid, I was you know, I was a rapper because I was too embarrassed to say that I was a poet. But the reality is is that you know, like the sadness and the trauma and all of those things, they they give us the ability to betic expressionists.
I'm actually excited and just quietly.
Guys, we left our last workshop today and as a little moment because this young man that he's really doing well and he's got his life on track. He's a role model as far as I'm concerned for the younger mob.
He's a passionate artist.
And we were like, what can we do, you know, what can we do to make him feel special? Anyway, Jeremy is an amazing musician with his ditch and his flute just phenomenal.
Anyway, we got in there and I said, let's lay.
Some tracks down, let's get let's get the ditch, we get the flute, and then the gentleman there who was looking after the mixing and everything started putting a beat behind it. Next minute was sitting in there and I reckon ten fifteen minutes, we'd written out what three to four verses and a chorus that you know, was all relative to why we're here, and it just it was like it was meant to happen in the way it didn't. It just flowed and look like I say, for for us, it was an honor. It's a pleasure, and I think it'll sound fucking great and it's called for the young'uns. So that's we even got a title like shut the Gates Mate. It's ready to send out to Spotify and Apple. Absolutely, you know, so it was pretty deadly.
You need to be able to record some did wed amazing, you know, and put some flute onto it. But not only that, you know, be a parting gift too, because you know, these guys that are dedicating their lives to the young people at the Street University in the studios, teaching the kids to write beads, teaching them to express themselves. You know that they're searching for samples. So to be able to go in there and provide them live samples of my music and say, brothers, just use.
It, which he did openly, openly, just gifted that to them to be able to have and that that right there is from you know, a professional or.
Person is phenomenal.
Yeah.
I mean, at the end of the day, I just want to see these kids shine. I want to see these kids win. And you know, there's this is the thing is that you know, the beauty of the way this organically came to life. Mother, Is that sure? The alternative education platform was part of the reason why this came to life.
But we came up on our.
Own terms and you know that a part of me is very grateful for that in a way, because we've been able, we have been able to dictate the terms of our engagement. As a result of that, you know, sometimes when I'm contracted, which you know is quite common, you know, for me to be contracted to consultative work in remote communities or remote parts of Australia, there are caveats to my engagement, absolutely, and you are restricted to what you can and can't do and see exactly right, But we've we've funded our trip and it hasn't been on the funding, you know, terms of someone else.
And it meant that we had a free reign.
It meant that we could engage with the school and ensure that we gave value to the young people at the school. But it then also meant that we could engage with everyone in the community that was brave enough to sit with us. And you know, this is this is a little bit harder to talk about because there is a lot to be heard.
There's a lot of voices that need to be heard up here.
But unfortunately there's a lot of gatekeepers that are keeping people quite holding their jobs over their heads, making them feel uncomfortable that if they were to speak out that there would be repercussions. This is just like we've seen it firsthand. And we had sat down with several amazing people. These people had information and stories and truths about what is truly happening here in Townsville, so informative, some you know just wow, quite quite hard hitting stories that really needed to be heard.
But then the moment we open.
Up that dialogue and that opportunity for them to be here right now in studio, we did have a goal that we wanted to lock down at least three prominent guests that could bring a lot of value to why we're here and have a voice on such a you know, a big platform of you know, nearly five million downloads here at the clink, we really felt the pressure of these beautiful people because when that time came for them to be invited onto the show, it was almost like a red light of oh, I'd love to, but I yeah no, And it becomes the gaggled. Everyone's muzzled, they're not allowed you. The truth can't come out. And this is a major issue, and here we are the beauty about Like what Jeremy was just saying is there is nobody muzzling us. There's nobody shutting us up. There is nobody telling us what we can and can't say. So I just want to speak on behalf of We have definitely the fact of what we're talking when we're speaking of these were amazing people that had the courage to want to come on but felt that if they did that it could.
Yeah, I mean jeopardize their family, employment, their family and the community. And this is a really daunting thing, right because in an apparent demographic democratic society where people should be able to have their own opinions, they've been they've been they've been told no, that doesn't align with the organization. So now you're not allowed to think like that.
As a massive political movement around it. And it all comes down to funding, right, because.
School, we lose the funding and you're sacked. Yeah.
But you know, here's one of the biggest things, right I've spoken about, and this is very directed at first Nations people as as you know, sort of an ambassador for Nations, you know, advocacy around the country and around the world, you know, because I've sat on you know, the Declaration of Human Rights for First Nations people at the United Nations is that that policies do not fit us correct, that the boxes that you need to tick for your funding does not work. In fact, the only fucking box that I've ever seen a First nation person fit into is the coffin that you bury them in as a result of your failed policy. And that to me breaks my heart because if we if we're not brave enough to start delivering policy that is designed by the voices that need it the most.
And this is the.
How can we ever break the silence? So we talk about survivors and survivors speaking.
Up, you know what I mean, break the silence?
How we we have a government you know here in Queensland this is talk. You know, David chris a fully he shut down the Truth telling and Inquiry and so this truth telling inquiry that was established for First nation voice to be spoken about about the true history of this country he's shut down as one of his first liberal commitments. You know that we you know, and as a result, you know, all right, so what we've got we've got a state that's not interested in the truth. Well, what's become very apparent up here in Townsville. To me is the truth is not necessarily what they want, no, and that is that is the facts.
And you know, we have this ability to be able to deliver the truth. And I am so grateful that we've been able to come up here. And as Jeremy said, we're obliged to know one. You know, we're up here on our own. We're not getting paid to be here, We're not contracted to be here. Yes, we have built and are building something amazing that we're going to take nationwide.
Jeremy and myself, we have a vision, we have.
A belief, we know what we have will work, and we are networking with some amazing people and a big shout out to all you orgs out there that we.
Connected with up here.
We truly cannot wait to have that opportunity to continue the growth and the positivity around what we want to deliver and help community with and it goes far and wide. The biggest thing, and I'll say it again and we're going to keep saying, is the fucking silence here in Townsville is fucking disgusting from a point of view of what people can and can't say, because they feel threatened and intimidated by the bigger people, the people that are making the payments every week to their accounts, the gatekeepers of each organization that's too fucking scared that they may lose funding if some truth comes out.
Yeah, I mean, look, it would be devastating.
Even organization that was delivering a frontline service was defunded as a result of an opinion because the opinions because people a fucking egos getting the way right, we're missing the point that this is about frontline delivery service for addressing the social concerns of this town.
Correct.
And you know, one of the biggest things as well is that you know that let's be straight, like I live I live on the Gold Coast. I've got family in Townsville. I've got family on Palm Island. I've got family all up in North Queensland. The narrative of the social media around Townsville is fucking racist. Yeah, you know, like the racial prejudice that exists in this town. That is, Oh, it's okay to say whatever I want on that platform, and that's it. Look, I'm not I'm not I'm not discrediting the fact that you know, if your house has been broken into, it's sad because it's an incredible invasion of your privacy, disgusting, it is, it's ship they're like people, it's not okay.
So I'm not condoning it.
You know, these kids are not criminals, Brus. They're not trying to make an earn. They're not These kids are just hungry.
And this is the thing, and I think what people need to realize is we have been out there in these fucking red zones.
We have been in the trenches. We have walked it at night, we have put ourselves out there.
We have spoken to people on the streets, We've spoken to the security guards, We've had to engage with fucking watching police go around like they're fucking anyway, not having any get on that bandwagon.
But the bottom line is this is fact. What we are saying. This is no bullshit.
And the beautiful thing about it is no one's going to fucking silence us about it.
It's wrong.
Well you know, I'm going to refuse to be so you know, I guess the beauty of the of the of the life that I.
That I live today, Brus.
You know, like being able to you know, deliver artistic murals and insulations and public speaking is that you know, everything I speak is my own opinion.
It's my opinion, right why should it not be?
And and I'm not I don't have to adhere to you know, an employee, because I employ myself. But the one thing that I won't stay silent on is that if there is a way to fix a problem, So if there is a solution keyword, because there.
Has to be solutions.
And right now, I look at the social media outlets here that surround the townsvill local you know, community, there's frustration and rightly so right like people people deserve to be you know, because cars have been stolen.
They're just written off.
Like these kids are not doing what we were doing, which was stealing a car.
This is not like Sydney Sydney in Melbourne where you're getting a hottie and ram raiding, or you're getting an ATM, or you're using the car to pull up and go and running on a bank and jump a bank counter, or you know you're ram raiding tobacconists or country road again or whatever the fuck have we did. This is not the crime that we're talking about where it's just the crime is it's petty. It is petty chrome Like, don't get me wrong, there is times there where there has been some very serious crime, and let's not be fooled, but this happens everywhere the way that it's been portrayed up here, and who they're blaming and saying that is the issue and the problem. It's not the true facts of what's actually taking place up here. It's, as far as I'm concerned, it's a political agenda. And they just made it look like it's an absolute shit fight up here. Send in a fucking hit squad, put it all over the news, make it all look pretty.
We've cleaned it all up. Blah blah blah blah.
Lock this boke up, that kid, This kid kicked in this door, ran through this family's house, Like, fuck life.
Yep, what have you done? Locked up four or five people? Yeah, I mean you haven't fixed a solution of you know.
Have you?
What have you done about the problem?
Yeah, you haven't given a solution, right, Like, so incarceration, well that's a wonderful solution.
And to lock them up the way that they're locked when.
They're going to rebel even worse when they do get out because of the fucking amosity that they're going to have, because of the way that they've been treated. They fucked up. Yes, there should be consequences here.
It is right.
The receivitism rate in this country is fucking putrid. You know, the chances that if you've been incarcerated as a juvenile, I think it's about forty percent fifty percent that you'll end up in an adult for a prison.
I thought it would be a little bit higher, you know, as.
An as an as a First Nations person, if you've been incarcerated, I think it goes up to seventy eight percent or something, you know, around eighty percent, you know, but the recivitism rate is seventy percent. Once you've been incarcerated, the chance that you're going to be going back is around eighty percent. There's only twenty percent chance that you're actually going to survive once you get out. If we look across at the difference in Scandinavia, where they invest into human life, right they have it. They have a three I think between a three and seven percent recivitism phenomenal because if you get incarcerated there, they build the capacity of the individual if you are a.
Literate, they help you learn to read and write.
They give you the load of the life skills that you require to be a law abiding citizen. Enough absolutely feel like you're an underprivileged, fucking scum that's struggling to keep clothes on their back and food in their belly. Like, you know, like, let's not let's not be blinded by the reality. This organization that we've had the privilege of being up here and working with is just phenomenal. They have a kitchen, they serve these beautiful young kids. They may and we're talking about completely broken young.
Souls that may. It brought tears to both O.
We're both dads, we're both very passionate dads, and we're both being those children that we have worked with. Now, the smiles and the joy of them being in that compassionate, safe place, and let's emphasize that word safe, it's just next level.
You could see the.
Shoulders drop, the frowns start to come towards the end of the day because they knew that they had to go back to face what is just so traumatic for them, you know, Yeah, Okay, they can have their clothes washed if they need clothes they provide them with clothes, especially for the young women.
They're able to assist them in the set cities.
Which is I think a fantastic thing. The young men can you know, speak up and get help. Their bellies are full. But is that enough? Like you've said before, and the whole time we've been up here, the services that are required during the day are here. There is services here, and they're doing a bloody good job.
But there is enough services that from five that's where I am, there is nothing.
So you know, the door is shutting. These kids have got fucking nothing, that's right.
The sun's setting and all they're thinking about is fuck, I've got to go home to this ship, or where's mum and dad or where's you know. And as we've talked about, especially in community, the wonderful grandmother's out there that are raising their children's children, you know, and they've got like as we know we know factually from being here and also you as a man who's lived in around community, they've got four, six, eight, ten, ten children and they're raising from all their own children.
Our grandparents are trauma. They're trauma fatigued, bro trauma fatigued because it's been trauma. It's been a traumatic life that they've had to live to get to becoming an elder. And that's in traumatic, you know, seeing what's happened to their children with alcoholism or drug addiction or incarceration. And then it's even more traumatic that now their children are not even living that they have to raise their children, and so they're not getting the joy of being a grandparent where you love and you care, because they're having to raise their grandchildren because of this ingrained dysfunction and this generational trauma which is driven by generational poverty, you know, and this is the heartbreaking thing that I've seen the tears fall from grandmother's eyes because they just don't have the energy.
Strong, strongest people.
Honestly, I just to everybody out there that's raising your grandchildren and your great grandchildren, we love you, be proud and if you hear this, you are the super women of this world, because you know they are. It's like I understand, there's pops and ends and credit to everybody out there. I mean, my own father and my mother are raising two beautiful young girls at seventy something years of age that they're taking care of that we're in foster care and in some terrible, horrific positions.
Now I get that personally.
I see what it does to my dad, you know, and he won't give up on these young young girls because they deserve better. We talk about, you know, just community. Grandma's like, bruh, there they are. They are the glue.
They are the glue. But unfortunately they're fading, right they are, and.
Their respect for them is going out the window, like the young people because of let's touch on the fact too, that yes, there is a nice problem up here and we're talking, you know, eleven twelve year old kids roaming on ice, and it's very prominent up here that.
It's like it's getting worse.
That that side of it is very real and very sad, which then affects the home life. Disrespect, you know, honesty. They're not being who they need to be to their grandmother or they're raising mother, whoever's there to do the best they can for them.
I spoke to a young family, a young couple, not family, but a couple of young kids. You're young people yesterday in the classroom during the break we'll have a lunch. I was like, you know, how bad are the drugs in everyone, Like there's drugs everywhere?
Is that? How hard is it to get yarndie or marijuana? You know, gunja it's so easy? Yeah, how hard is it to get ice? So easy? You know?
And that's you know, the devastation of fucking methamphetamines gurge in our society, you know, like i'ves we grew up in in Redfern or in the city of Sydney in the nineties. You know where this you know where the heroine epidemic is u.
Wirst you'd see them as in the gutter on the not or Parol Spiel and somewhere down a lane way.
But the atrocity of the crimes being committed by people that are sleep deprived, you know, gassed up on.
Gear, schizophrenic, psychotic.
It's it's it is frightening and that as a society, if we don't call it out because it has to get here somewhere, I guarantee you there is not it's not been cooked here in Townsville.
It's been brought up here, you know.
And the thing is that the only way to get it out is to stop bringing up And I know it's easier said than done, because drugs. There are a scourge on society everywhere, and you know on the bottom feed is feet on it, you know, but you know the thing is the bottom feet is feet feed on selling it to the.
People that are dying as a result of it.
You know, like it's it's just it's fucking frightening that we are going to lose a generation of people as a result of drug addiction, and that this is not just something that you play around with, you know, like it's poison that is actually taking lives because they're the crimes, right, the crimes that have been committed by the people that are fucking high on methamphetoma.
Their whole thought patterns are just fucking not even They're like they're numb in the brain. Their reactions are just go, you know, hyper sensitive, fucking boom, it's on. You know, they see a flashing light where on we're getting a chase, next minute, boom, Okay, it's all over the news. Two three, four, young teens in a stolen car, crash into a house or hit a pole and one dies.
Like things like this.
It's becoming, yes, a lot more common, and it's unacceptable. The crimes that are being committed through these induced I guess psychosis, which that's what it is, isn't it broad on from drug addiction. But the whole thing is is, yes, it is a national problem, but you know, the age that it's being fed to and the generation that's coming from it.
Is just sad. Bro. Yeah, I don't have an answer for it, you know, because.
Well we don't, and we're not here to give answers because we can't. What we're here to do is find solutions and ways of I guess finding a better way and finding a vision.
That is one of the positive.
Here's the thing is that we've been so open and honest ever since we got here. Oh that we can't fix the societal issues in three days. And I don't think anyone was under the illusion that we are you know, the you know, the be all and end all to you know, all the solutions back, you know, and we came up here and said, just let us have a look at it.
We'll give you our opinion. Well here's our opinion. Is it right now?
That there's a lot of fucking conversations happening, but no one's actually addressing the problem. I can tell you a couple of ways that these kids would thrive and you would see a reduction in the crime one. Anybody that has jobs that could employ young teenagers. Go to Street University, walk into that door and say that I want to give some kids. A couple of kids an opportunity in a panelty to shop, give a couple of kids a job in a mechanics place. The kids that's stealing cars, they want to learn about cars, We'll give them the opportunity. The other thing is if they are if they are damaging the walls or doing the graffiti, employ them, get them, you give them, give them a job. Not only that, but just like you know that there's lines that have been drawn painted on the roads, you know, get the kids into into line writing in all of these different things. You know that the kids need purpose, the kids need employment, the kids need money.
You know, here, up here, I'm seeing a too hard basket and it's fucking overflowing.
Yeah, I mean, but that's that's the easiest option, right because then we can say too hard, too hard, too hard. The government problem, the governments problem. The government, Well, guess what. Government has never fixed poverty anywhere in the world. The only thing that will fix poverty is people because people go, I've had enough, but we can do something about it. But the other part of it is is right now, you know, with everything that we're giving up for in Brisbane, you know, with the Olympic Games and whatnot, you know, there's about to be a huge influx of people. What they did down Sydney, they'll clean out like Redfern, Glee Waterloo place, sent them all the kemps and tweed and everywhere.
That's what I mean. What happened.
They put big fences up so people couldn't look down Everly Street. They send everyone on the North coast, Yeah, but you know or out west. And then they said, oh we we fixed the crime problems of Redfern.
No you didn't. You picked it up and put it out in Western Sydney.
You picked it out and put it and you know, so like the reality is is that right now with you know, like I think the Singapore you know, Singapore Military I heard is about to send two thousand people out to Townsville. You know, you've got an increase or influx of people doing training and everything out here. You know that there's a lot of economy being spent in bringing people here well as a return of investment, while don't you invested into fixing some of the social problems in your local area where you're bringing all these people into Yes, it's a little bit of logic behind it, Isn't it Like the realization of what needs to happen to what is.
Happening is so far fetched.
But you know, the reality is is that somebody with some fucking brains and somekhunas and some finances needs to back themselves and say I have a solution, you know, and here it is. I'm going to invest I'm not going to wait for the government to fund me. I'm not going to wait for anybody else but create a cohort of change. You know, collective minds will create a collective movement. You know, if the shopping centers are getting you know, bashed that you know, you know, if there's violence around it, who's look, who's got the security contracts. Let's give some kids some jobs. Let's get them accredited as security officers, let them, you know, start looking after the place. I remember when there was a new building like it was built, you know, right up in cans and they were having some problems with some of the homeless mob up there, or you know, with some of the crime.
And things like that.
And I said to them, why don't you give some people some jobs like common sense? And all of a sudden, the crime stopped happening in the car park because as First Nations people, we take a pride of place, you know, and we say to the nephews and the nieces and the cousins and the aunties and the uncles, don't go mucking up here. This is where I work, you know, and people respect that, you know, like this where I live, this where I work in the backyard.
Yeah, and all of it.
But right now, nobody's given these kids a chance, you know, and the moment they've got ten you know, sort of historic records of you know, criminality on their record, all of a sudden you're telling these kids and oh, you can't have a job here now because you're a criminal.
No no, no, no.
I'd like to actually look at to the fact of we are around lots of mining. There's plenty of money out there, plenty of good jobs. Why are they not doing skills and up skilling these young people whom are seventeen eighteen coming into nineteen, which is people that we've been around, even into the twenties that we've met, Why are they not these services providing tickets and allowing them to be upskilled to go into these pathways of the minds, earn good money, you know, have that discipline of structure getting up every day, like there is so much work and it's not far from here, Like there might not be much in town, but on the outskirts of town there is opportunity.
But they get shut down.
Yeah, it's you know, because opportunity is not even something that is in the vision of the kids, you know, So like having an aspiration to go off to the mines is not even a conversation they're afforded at home.
Fucking started because it should be.
And you know what, actually, let me just put this in perspective, so I won't say her name. There was a young woman whom we we're both introduced to yesterday, whom has been in and out of the girl's home.
She come up and spoke to us, a.
Bit of a dominant, strong young woman, youngish but very you know, strong in her presence. She was telling me herself her dad works in the minds, and her dad worries about her, you know, but she's she takes herself to the police station. She does this, she does that, and she does it all on her own. Her dad worries because he's away working for the family. Now he's my point, her dad's away working in the minds.
Exactly what I've just said.
So why is there not more opportunity given to people in this township first nation people, non first nation people to help them up skill because it is not cheap and it costs thousands of dollars to get your tickets to even hopefully get a foot in the door, But.
It is more expensive to incarceraate a kid. Ah, it's ease.
It's fucking piece, you know, like honestly, like I think it's it's something like it's something exhabited.
I don't even know the figure.
I think it's seventy six hundred and six hundred and seventy thousand dollars per person per young person incarcerated every year.
So if you give me ten.
And give me six and a half million bucks, I'll show you what I do with these kids. Yeah, you know, it changed their lives forever. That's I'd expose them to. You know, One love, second, boundaries. Third opportunity. Fourth, here's here is an open care, a blank canvas to dream. Whatever it is that you are brave enough to dream, we can make happen. Yeah, you know, and they're four things. But that's six and a half million bucks. You so right now, Cleveland haspacity of one hundred and four kids, that's what. Mathematically, what's that? That's sixty million bucks. That's a lot of fucking money, you know, that's sixty million bucks. And I guarantee you there is no return of investment in sixty million bucks.
You know, imagine the change that you could make with that and those numbers, the reduction in those numbers in that center by having somebody back that and actually physically fucking put funding into something that's constructive.
That will work.
And the beauty about it is there's people like ourselves who are out here.
Who believe in what we do. We know we're not going to change everybody. Look, it's impossible, but.
If we can change the life of a few that then changes the life of many, then that, right.
There is a success.
I always said when I started the clink, if I could save one life, that would be worth doing. You know what, I mean and we're well beyond that. It's something that I feel that we as a society need to start to really accept that there is better ways solutions.
We've just got to start as a collaborative work together.
I think that's the biggest thing about like and as we continue to explore this journey, because this is just the first of many where we walk in the worlds of the wounded, and this is the first of many, but we we just keep this narrative of you know, we set about our business or you said about your business with the Clink podcast to change one life or to save one life. And we know firsthand from the conversations that have been fed back that you've affected many. Every time I stand on stage or create an artistic you know, sort of portrait of a landscape of an environment, it creates a conversation. And you know, the countless you know, lives that I've been able to affect change in as a result of the work that I do is an incredible privilege. And there's I don't take it for granted. I don't take it for granted the impact that the work has that we do, and I never will I you know, speak of it in my family, you know, just at you know, at I really say to my kids, I hope you realize that the absolute level of privilege that you live in as a result of the work that I do.
And it's hard work, because you are a hard working man. And I've seen it with my first my eyes, my head.
I like, yeah, And so I think that we, you know, like the kids, you know, my kids need to know like that, you know, the level of privilege that's afforded as a result of the work that I dedicate my life to. And I think this is just you know, simply the beginning, you know, like once upon a.
Time when you feel when you recorded the first of.
Your Clink podcasts, I don't think you could have ever anticipated the depths and the level that it would grow to. And I think this is it, you know, walking in the worlds of the wounded, you know, is something we're on our first journey. We've done four days into it. I think it is the first of many experiences. I'm you know, you know, tragically we've caught it all on on on our phones this time. Yeah, I think, but this is a series that we need to tell that this is something that people need to visually be able to watch and not just listen to. And I think that's the that's the the evolution of the journey we're on right now.
And look, you know, before we wind this up today, I have to totally agree. And you know, from here on out we are on a mission. We are on a journey and to any organization out there that would like to reach out to us, we are open to any gal any dialogue or any conversation whatsoever. You know, Jeremy touched on that first episode of The Clink. I had a dream and you've been really strong about, you know, giving our young people vision of dreaming. I had a dream, I made a pat that I would be the best at what I was doing and The Clink would be the best podcast in Australia. Whether you choose to agree or not, that's your own opinion and I respect that either way. But I know what I bring to the table, what we bring to the table, what every guest that has come on here has brought to the table. And you know, Townsville, we are here to help Australia.
We are here to help.
We love you, Townsville, and we want to say a massive thank you to all you young mob, keep believing in yourself. Remember the words that we had, the conversations, the lasts, the moments that you shared with us, because we are forever grateful that you entrusted us in those conversations and know that you have our contacts. We are reachable and we will be back to the staff. You're doing an amazing job to the community. Pick your fucking act up.
One last thing. One oh seven point one four K one G. Thank you for the ability to use your studios. You've been incredibly grateful in terms of letting us use these facilities.
Thank you, Mob, beas Big.
Love, Pod Shape, m Sideways Surf always. Thank you for being beside me on this journey. We can't do this without you. And to you the listener, thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. It is a different one, but there will be more of these in each season.
Jeremy and I.
Will be definitely working very hard to bring change and I can guarantee you we're not stopping. Thank you everyone out there, Stay safe and always remember being the best.
Don't try and make you uncomfortable for the record. You can try and world and stuff for your fort record lab on me going hard the way for the record, ain't trying to Lenk, No, trying to waste for the forged, for the rate, for the regged, for the reg
