'Over the top' - Lucy Zelić slams the length of sporting icon's AFL ban
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Lucy Zelich is with me as she is every Wednesday afternoon. We've been speaking throughout the program about Warwick Capper, who's been banned for five years by the AFL. And Peter Ford has described him as a, quote, idiot. But Peter Ford's also questioning whether a five-year ban is a little bit over the top. When he was having a conversation, I didn't realise this, but he does run a brothel, apparently very successful. He made a suggestion that somebody who was serving drinks would be a good worker.

And he was overheard in the conversation. Is it over the top, the five-year ban? Of course it's over the top. I love Peter Ford, by the way. I think he's great. I'm not going to reference his term and call Kappa an idiot. That's his right if he chooses to call him that. But I think he's absolutely correct in his assertion that it is well over the top. I mean, we literally have elected officials who are calling for more regulatory support for sex workers. It is a legal issue.

industry and depending which state you're in, they kind of vary in terms of their classifications. But Alex Greenwich, who is a Sydney MP, he was calling for more protections and the decriminalisation of it. The Greens have a sex work is work initiative, which is a two page document on their website, which talks about protecting sex workers rights.

Over in South Australia, Greens leader, this was just in April, Greens leader Tammy Franks put forward a bill in the upper house to decriminalise sex work with certain elements of the bill permitting infants up to the age of 18 months, this is legitimate,

to be within a brothel because it could support working mothers. I mean, this stuff is absolutely insane. I don't agree with any of it. I think it's a joke and I do not support decriminalising sex work. I don't think that any situation that provides women the only pathway of sex work being a viable job...

I don't think that that's something that we should endorse or encourage, but our politicians are doing that, right? So the AFL's decision to ban Kappa for five years over a comment he alleges he made in private, at which someone overheard,

about a legal industry in this country is just embarrassing. I mean, and this coming from the mob, they're now the morality police, are they? They've got a three strikes policy where a player can get caught doing drugs and all they're going to do is slap out suspensions. This from the group that actually kind of, you know, hid the fact that

that about 100 AFL players last year received secret immunity from the Code 3 strikes drug policy, according to club medical officials. This from them. All of a sudden, they've got a moral compass about this. Give me a break. Five years, that's a joke. We're almost out of time. There's been some new research that's been released suggesting addiction to gaming and smartphones...

is starting earlier than we thought. Oh, it's really quite devastating, actually. So this was quite concerning because we've always assumed that this is something that only kids kind of in the teenage years have access to. But a report from Macquarie University revealed that children are spending up to nine hours on their screens. Nine hours a day. And the study surveyed 2,000 kids...

ranging from year four to eight, right? And 4% of these kids showed signs of clinical or subclinical internet gaming disorder. That young. That young, Clinton. I mean, come on. We don't need big daddy government to tell us that social media is harming our children. We know this for a fact. So I didn't need Anthony Albanese to say, right, we're going to ban under 16-year-olds from accessing social media or...

the internet in certain instances. We know it's doing harm. Parents, please, I'm telling you now, get your kids off their screens and away from social media. It is up to us to govern that as well because kids are smart and they'll get around the government rules when they do come in. Lucy, it's always a pleasure. Thank you so much, Clinton. I want to play this one last time. I'll be back next Wednesday. Lucy returns every Wednesday afternoon for Straight Shooters. News is next.