His Royal Virus👑🦠

Keep Charles away from Mummy.

Mar 27

NEW PODCAST OUT NOW: Click your favourite player to listen or add the RSS Feed to your player of choice:

🤑PATREON TARGET: █░░░░░░░ 13%

Thanks to you, we’re on the way to covering the cost of making this podcast.
So far 13% is covered by Patreon. Help us meet our target of covering 100% of our costs. Chip in here to support the funniest and smartest brains dissecting the biggest problems facing our world.

🎙️NEW PODCAST

Recorded at our homes over Google Meet — pumped through the RØDECaster™ Pro — into your ears at home — slowing the spread one pun at time.

This A Rational Fear brings together voice actor Rupert Degas, comedian Bec Melrose, international health student Dr. Jazmin Daniells, New York City broadcaster Brad Blanks and as a special treat comedian Kirsty Webeck comes by to delight us with 5min from her cancelled Melbourne Comedy Festival show.

Cheers from my home.

Dan Ilic

(00:00) — Preamble, thank you mums.
(01:04) — Start.
(02:00) — Introductions.
(03:07) — SPONSOR: Robbie McGregor Reads Mark Latham’s Tweets.
(05:04) — Coping with Corona.
(08:40) — HRH Prince Charles interview.
(10:30) — Private School Principal Delivers Social Distancing Rules.
(12:00) — THEY INCREASED NEWSTART!
(17:22) — Health worker Dr. Jazmin Daniells.
(29:50) — Who is the COVID-19 Commission?
(32:14) — An Aussie in New York Brad Blanks.
(40:37) — Kirsty Webeck Stand Up.
(46:32) — Credits
(48:00) — Newsfighters

Stay at home — and listen to this.

PLUG:

I’m on the Board of FBi Radio. It is where I started my career as a broadcaster, they give a platform to the artists and creators in Sydney. They play tonnes of Australian music, 50%! They even gave a platform to create the first A Rational Fear way back in 2012 — but they rely on supporters and donations to keep going. Right now COVID19 means all the fundraising events they had planned have been wiped off the map — so please if you love Sydney music, arts and culture give to FBi Radio. Donations are tax deductible

Isolation Nation.

We have a moat and we're not afraid to use it.

Dan Ilic

Mar 20

NEW PODCAST OUT NOW: Click your favourite player to listen or add the RSS Feed to your player of choice:

Hello Fearmongers,

This week on the podcast we fired up Google Hangouts and waded deep into the COVID-19 petri dish. We have a fresh new podcast for your sanitised ears with 2019 Eureka Prize winner, Dr. Darren Saunders, comedian Rose Piper, muckraking digital video editor DJ Dylabolical, raconteur Lewis Hobba and me Dan Ilic. Plus, comedian Bec Melrose performs her favourite 5 minutes from her (cancelled) Melbourne Comedy Festival Show.

PATREON (go on, you can chuck in $3):

So far Patreon only covers 6.25% of the cost of making A Rational Fear — if you enjoy our videos and the podcast chip in here.

And since our Melbourne International Comedy Festival has been cancelled, perhaps pop your ticket refund money into our Patreon. This week we’ve doubled our Patreon subscribers! Thank you especially to Lewis’ Mum who became a Scaremonger level patron. When you become a Patreon subscriber you get extended interviews, longer sketches, and even a video of the podcast.

THANKS TO:

Jacob Round for the edit and mixing this mash of sound, Rupert Degas for his incredible Tony Blair, Donald Trump and Morgan Freeman, and please give to FBi Radio for keeping Sydney music, arts and culture alive.

Yours in fear,
Dan Ilic (sending air kisses from 1.5m)

(00:00) Preamble.
(01:40) Start.
(02:50) Introductions.
(04:27) Sponsor: Visit the 90's.
(06:22) The 3rd week of Coronarama.
(12:28) Dr. Darren Saunders gives some COVID19 answers.
(26:40) Alan Jones on the Coronavirus
(29:10) Bec Melrose does 5min of her cancelled MICF show.
(35:50) Wrap up
(36:47) News Fighters

We're living in the first 5min of a disaster movie.

COVID19 — The Prequel

Dan Ilic

Mar 12

NEW PODCAST: Click your favourite player to listen or add the RSS Feed to your player of choice:

G’day Fearmongers —

This week’s podcast is a good one. With guests Chris Taylor (The Chaser), Bridie Connell (Tonightly) and friend of the show, Professor Hilary Bambrick, from the QUT School of Public Health and Social Work talking all things COVID19. Plus the “notional” National Bushfire Recovery Fund.

We want to do a weekly podcast to keep all you self-isolating folk entertained, but we need support. If you enjoy A Rational Fear, jump on our Patreon and chip in $3, so we help our guests wipe their bums (we pay in apocalyptic toilet paper).

Our GIFs to you :

What Scott Cam was thinking while Michaelia Cash justified his $350,000 fee (for doing one appearance and four social media posts about the apprenticeships scheme).

Scenes from Sydney’s Coronavirus madness — firstly a man’s reaction to when a woman coughed on him as a joke:

In times of crisis Australians are renowned for helping out our fellow mate —

And are we in a disaster movie? Here’s a scene from Thailand with gangs of monkeys fighting over food scraps, because there are no tourists around to feed them.

But THIS GIF makes me BELIEVE we can overcome all of this and solve the Coronavirus and the Climate Crisis:

MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL TICKETS:

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is still going ahead — If the Grand Prix is going ahead so are we damn it! There’s no better way to combat the fear of contracting Coronavirus 19 than wilfully sitting next to a group of strangers mocking the hell out of infectious agents. If we make enough jokes about it — COVID19 will cancel itself.

As the maxim goes “The Show Must Go On In Personal Protective Equipment”

🎫 GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

We’re only doing one show, and will probably sell-out, because our audience embraces chaos. (If you buy tickets, you’ll be able to refund them in the event of cancellation)

PATREON

Thanks to our first bunch of patrons who are subscribing as fright-mongers at $3 a month: S.C, T.H, P.M, and our very first Patreon subscriber and old Dramac alumni, Guilia Polito! This week Patreon subscribers get access to an extended chat with Bernie Sanders (Rupert Degas).

☕ CHIP IN TO OUR PATREON HERE: https://www.patreon.com/ARationalFear

THANKS TO:

Jacob Round for the edit and mix, Rupert Degas for his incredible Bernie Sanders and Prince Harry, and FBi Radio for keeping Sydney music, arts and culture alive.

Yours in fear — Dan Ilic

Serious Corona Virus Prepping & Super Tuesday got Berned.

Need toilet paper? Print this email.

Dan Ilic

Mar 5

Click your favourite player to listen or add the RSS Feed to your player of choice:

G’day Fearmongers —

I’m writing to you from my home, in self-quarantine for a virus known as freelancing. I haven’t seen anyone in months. I did manage to get a couple of rolls of toilet paper before the panic buying really set in.

I have rolls to spare. Make me an offer.

danilic

Neo-liberals.

March 4, 2020

In the meantime, Prime Minister Scott Morrison always has the best advice — in these viral pandemic & toilet roll barren times Scotty says — “Make ‘em a Curry”

A Rational Fear@ARationalFear

ScoMo always has the best advice for when there's a toilet paper shortage:

MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL: APRIL 6th

We are doing one show only at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, 8.40pm, April 6th, at Melbourne Town Hall. 🎟️https://bitly.com/ARF_MICF

Great line up of smart people and usual gang of idiots.

Patricial Karvelas (ABC RN)
Alice Fraser (The Last Post / The Bugle)
James Colley (The Weekly)
Bridie & Wyatt (Comedy ARIA Winners)
Lewis Hobba (Triple J)
DJ Dylabolical (Newsfighters)
and me, Dan Ilic (On LinkedIn looking for something to put here)

Patreon

We’re going (semi) pro — if you enjoy the podcast, and the videos we make like Who Is Responsible For The Australian Bushfire Crisis? narrated by Tim Minchin. Please chip in so we can build up to creating 1 podcast a week and 1 live show a month and 1 video a month. All of this is expensive and we need about $10k a month to make it happen. Currently A Rational Fear is built with favours from smart people with great hearts, but I’d like to make those hearts cold and offer them money from time to time. So please if you enjoy our work chip in.

Thanks for listening —

Cheers

Dan

A Rational Fear@ARationalFear

Prices like this won't last. Get in on the ground floor. #coronavirusaustralia #covid19australia 🎟️bitly.com/ARF_MICFd

PODCAST CONTENTS:

We lost the show! Well, I lost the show. Always eject the disk properly people! It was a good one Christaan Van Vuuren, & Madeline Stewart came into studio. Thanks to them, I’ll get them on another time soon.

But we still have a podcast from all of the pre-taped content:

(00:00) Housekeeping
(03:30) Sponsorship announcement: Local Newspapers.
(05:25) We speak with journalist Asher Wolf about how people with vulnerable immune systems are taking coronavirus seriously.
(10:30) And we speak with progressive comedian Francesca Fiorentini about the wash up of Super Tuesday and the way forward for Bernie Sanders' supporters.
(17:50) Credits
(19:00) Newsfighters on Coronavirus

VIDEO: Who is responsible for the Australian Bushfire Crisis?

Presented by Tim Minchin.

Dan Ilic

Jan 21

G’day friends of A Rational Fear,

The 2019/2020 summer bushfire crisis has been stressful for Australians everywhere. Not knowing what to do in times like this can be paralysing. Even if you can’t hold a hose it’s important to do what you can, not matter what your skills are. So with some extremely talented people, A Rational Fear presents: Who is responsible for the Australian Bushfire Crisis?

Big thanks to everyone who came on board to make this happen over the last 3 weeks. Especially Kara Schlegl who is one of Australia’s most erudite writers. She has written an introduction to the video and included all of her research below.

Dan

Researched and Compiled by Kara Eva Schlegl
Additional research and fact checking: Simon Holmes à Court
Special thanks to Dan Ilic, Alex Gabbott, Maria Yanovsky, Ena Markovic, Matt Perrott, James Colley, Scott Ludlam, Tim Minchin, Simon & Katrina Holmes à Court & Dick Smith.

Introduction

I was driving home at 3am, after my team and I finalised the edit of this video, and a government ad came on the radio advising that extreme water restrictions are now in place, due to the severe drought currently afflicting NSW.

I don’t know about you, but I’m furious. Furious that we are governed by people who will instruct us to have shorter showers, and at the same time, will allow Australia’s mining sector to consume over 20% of our freshwater supply every single year.

I’m furious that our government will pour billions of dollars into the mining sector, but refuses to pay even minimum wage to the firefighters who put their lives on the line for us every bushfire season.

In December 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison ran a campaign of deflection, telling the Australian people that the unprecedented bushfire crisis raging across the country had nothing to do with his government’s inaction on climate change, saying that emissions reductions in Australia won’t make a difference to the climate.

The truth is, taking action on climate change isn’t limited to emissions reduction. Taking action means heeding the warnings, and investing time, money and influence into preventing the worst from happening, and preparing our country for oncoming disasters.

Our governments didn’t take action on climate change, and now, in the words of NSW RFS Firefighter Darin Sullivan, ‘we’ve gotta deal with it’.

I hope this document, and the video it accompanies, gives us a better understanding of the circumstances that led to the 2019 - 2020 bushfire crisis, and inspires us to help prevent it from happening again.

- Kara

Research & References

The Link Between Climate Change and Bushfires

The Garnaut Climate Change Review; Final Report, Ross Garnaut, 2008

CSIRO Bushfire Research, 2020

The Facts About Climate Change and Bushfires, Climate Council, 2019

AR5 Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, IPCC report, 2014

‘This is Not Normal’: Climate Change and Escalating Bushfire Risk, Climate Council, 12 November 2019

Climate change will hit Australia harder than rest of world, study shows

“Australian bushfire danger under changing climatic regimes” in Greenhouse: Planning for Climate Change, T. Beer et al. 1987

CSIRO Warns of Serious Bushfire Risk, The Canberra Times, Tuesday 15 Dec 1987

Full list of Fire and Emergency Chiefs' recommendations to Federal Government

VIDEO: Darin Sullivan, Firefighter/NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union @ Wollongong Protest for Action on the Bushfire Crisis, 11 Jan 2020

VIDEO: Former Fire Chiefs Deliver Climate Change Warning, SBS, 14 Nov, 2019

Debunking Myths;

How Rupert Murdoch Is Influencing Australia’s Bushfire Debate

The truth about Australia's fires — arsonists aren't responsible for many this season

Debunking the myth that the Greens caused the bushfire crisis: An interview with MLC David Shoebridge
Factcheck: Is there really a green conspiracy to stop bushfire hazard reduction?
VIDEO: RFS Fire Chief Interview - The window for Hazard Reduction burns is shrinking

Bushfire Inquiries, Royal Commissions, and Expert Recommendations to the Federal Government

A Nation Charred: Inquiry into the Recent Australian Bushfires, House Select Committee, 2003

Bushfires in Australia, Prepared for the 2009 Senate Inquiry into Bushfires in Australia, CSIRO July 2009

Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission: Final Report, 2009

On Bushfire Disaster Preparedness and Response in Victoria, Australia, following the Ash Wednesday Fires 16 February 1983; Report of the Bushfire Review Committee, April 1984

Indigenous innovation could save a billion tonnes of greenhouse gases

I tried to warn Scott Morrison about the bushfire disaster. Adapting to climate change isn’t enough | Greg Mullins

Our land is burning, and western science does not have all the answers

Complete Lists of Inquiries;

Learning from Adversity: What Has 75 Years of Bushfire Inquiries Taught Us? Conference Paper 2014 (51 Bushfire Inquiries, from 1939 - 2013)
Bushfires in NSW: Timelines and Key Resources; NSW Parliamentary Research Service, June 2014 (Incl. Bushfires List and Inquiries from all states)
Major Bushfire Inquiries - Federal Senate, 1939 - 2010
Bushfire Reviews and Inquiries; Victoria State Government, 1939 - 2013

Federal Government Response to Bushfires and Inquiries

A national disaster

Morrison's government on the bushfires: from attacking climate 'lunatics' to calling in the troops

Australia fires: PM admits mistakes in handling of crisis

Scott Morrison's biggest failure in the bushfire crisis: an inability to deliver collective action

Watching our politicians fumble through the bushfire crisis, I'm overwhelmed by déjà vu

"Now Is Not The Time To Discuss How We Ignored Decades Of Warnings That This Would Happen" (Satire, but accurate)

We have already had countless bushfire inquiries. What good will it do to have another?

Liberal Party division explains Morrison's muted crisis response

A classic case of kicking the can down the road

Scott Morrison Once Scolded Ex-Police Commissioner for Going Out to Dinner During Bushfire Crisis

History;

I had to come to see for myself: Prime Ministers, Natural Disasters, and the People

Black Saturday ten years on – what did we discover?

Australian 'Black Saturday' bush fires response was 'inadequate'

Government acting on Black Saturday report

Australia: Government culpability in 2009 Victorian bushfires

The Federal Government & Climate Inaction

Scott Morrison says the government is acting on emissions. Is it true?

Coalition gets a miserable 4% on climate change policy scorecard

75 Out Of 77 Government MPs Wouldn't Give Us Their Views On Climate Change

Behind the smokescreen, the Coalition's stance on climate change hasn't changed | Greg Jericho

The Nationals have changed their leader but kept the same climate story

Aus Institute: Cost of climate inaction $130b per year

Climate inaction weighs on Australian CEOs

Climate change impact on Australian economy may force RBA to buy coal mines, power stations

Chronologies;

Global Warming and Climate Change: What Australia Knew and Buried, Maria Taylor, ANU Press, 2014
Australia and Greenhouse Policy- A Chronology, From 1861 - 1997

History;

Bob Hawke, the environmental PM, bequeathed a huge 'what if' on climate change
Twenty-five years of Australian climate pledges, trumped…
Cabinet papers 1994-95: Keating's climate policy grapples sound eerily familiar
In Australia, climate policy battles are endlessly reheated
The renewable energy train is unstoppable. The NEG needs to get on board
How government inaction fuelled Australia's renewable energy boom

Important Documentation;

Industry Commission Report: Costs and Benefits of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Vol 1 & 2, Inquiry commissioned by the Keating Administration, 1991
The Cabinet Papers: 1994 - 1995, Keating Administration

The Federal Government & the Fossil Fuels Industry

Global Fossil Fuel Subsidies Remain Large: An Update Based on Country-Level Estimates, IMF Working Paper, May 2019

Fossil Fuel Industry Donations to Australian Political Parties, Market Forces, 2019

Behind closed doors: Australia pushes reputation as world’s leading fossil fuel dealer

Dirty Power: Big Coal’s network of influence over the Coalition Government, Greenpeace, 2019

Australia fires: The government is clinging to coal as the country burns

Billionaire Mining Magnate Andrew Forrest hosts election fundraisers for Scott Morrison AND Bill Shorten

Coal Production is on the Rise in Australia: IEG Energy Atlas, 2019

'Twiggy' Forrest clarifies climate stance after $70 million bushfire donation

Adani Carmichael Coal Mine;

Our Fight: Stop Adani Destroying Our Land and Culture

Why Adani's planned Carmichael coalmine matters to Australia – and the world
Adani coal mine a step closer with Environment Minister endorsing groundwater approvals
Why does the Carmichael coal mine need to use so much water?

The Adani mine was a key factor in the government's election win. Now what?

Adani coal mine approval hailed by federal government

Will Adani be the 'ice-breaker' for six more proposed Galilee mines?

Queensland extinguishes native title over Indigenous land to make way for Adani coalmine
Indigenous challenge to Adani mine agreement dismissed by Federal Court
Indigenous People No Longer Have The Legal Right To Say No To The Adani Mine - Here's What It Means For Equality