#183: Scott Yung on running for parliament & why he’s the right person to represent Bennelong

Scott Yung is the Liberal candidate for Bennelong. He grew up in Sydney, raised in public housing by migrant parents, did great at school - and years later, he ended up working for me at Yellow Brick Road. Now, he’s running for federal parliament, putting his hand up to represent the people of Bennelong.

We sat down to talk about where he comes from, what shaped his values, his time in business, and why he’s stepping into politics. If you want to know what he stands for - and why he thinks he’s the right person to represent Bennelong - this one’s worth a listen.

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Authorised by S. Yung, Liberal, Eastwood

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, Mike Boris, and this is straight Talk. Mentor Plus
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(00:23):
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me and the team are here. Hit the link in
the bio and I'll see you inside. Scott Young, Welcome
to straight Talk.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Mate, Mark awesome to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Thank you for the opportunity, little candidate for ben Long.
So mate, you've got it. You're up against it. The
odds are probably in favor of the current labor sitting member.
You've got the media against you. Unfortunately. You know it
is sort of rating Alban Easy much better in terms

(01:04):
of his performance as relative too. He's counterpart. That's done.
It feels like to me like everything's against you in Benolong.
How do you feel?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Look, it's not easy. Every day I count my blessings
as well, and the gratitude to be you know, the
Liberal Parties candidate in Ben Along. In saying that, I
mean it's you know, it's I certainly enjoy being the
underdog as well. You know, when you're not the local
member and when you're the candidate, you don't have as
many resources as them. You don't have the office, you

(01:36):
don't have you know, all the staff that they're that
they have as well. But can I just say it's
an honor getting out there. We have a great group
of volunteers that believe in not only Liberal Party values,
but I think values such as equal opportunity and long
term prosperity for Australia. And we've mobilized a lot of
people that I think weren't interested in politics before that

(01:58):
are now and see the genuine opportunity to make a difference.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
So we'll just explain to me where Benlong is. I'm sorry,
just explain the sea to Ben Along. So let's give
me the northern position access. You know, where it covers,
what it covers it off, I know it covers right,
but it also covers you know, traditionally Hunter's Hill, which
is John Howard's seat. Where does Ben Along covered today?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
With all the new boundaries well, ben Along Mark starts
at the very top around Macquarie Park and Eastwood. It
goes through Ride North Ryde, West Ryde down through Putney
in Gladesville and then now it extends to after the
redistribution last year through to Hunter's Hill, Woolwich Lane Cove,
Greenwich Riverview and Chatswood West Saint Leonard's being some of

(02:43):
those suburbs as part of ben Along now right, And.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
So if I could just go back a little bit,
a little bit of time, because you don't need to
go back too far with you because you're only thirty
I think thirty two. You're the same age Jimmy, So
you're a young fella, so you don't have that many
years to go back on. But Young's obviously Chinese surname.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
So what's the deal with your parents where they come from? Mark?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Dad's from Hong Kong, mum's from Shanghai. Dad came here
in the seventies. I think he started school, he in
primary school when he was nine or ten years old,
and mum came he in the late eighties, leaving China.
And they're both very grateful that Australia has given so
much to them. Growing up, they worked really, really hard.
So my first home was in public housing, in one

(03:33):
of those tall gray public tenements in Waterloo. And look,
I just saw them working really hard, going to Patty's
Market Flemington in the early hours at six seven am,
setting up a stand there and selling children's education books.
So always witnessed them working extremely hard, just like your
just like your father Mark. And I saw them build

(03:54):
that into a bookshop and then that into a tuition
business as well. That's still running by my older brother
in her Ful today.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
So your dad being from Hong Kong and your mum
being from Shanghai, does that mean you speak both Mandarin
and Cantonese.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Look, in the beginning, I only spoke Shanghais and Cantonese,
but over the years I've decided to also learn a
bit more. Mandarin sort of picked up just naturally as well.
So I speak Mandarin, Cantonese and Shanghaie's that's.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
All you speak. The three Chinese, let's call them dialects.
And because Cantonese is the what they speak in Hong Kong,
Shanghai is where they speak in Shanghai, and Mandarin is
the broader Chinese China, China has brought it national language Mandarin, Yes, basically.
And so you and your parents, so you lived in

(04:45):
one of those housing commission what we called howsos when
we're kids, one of those house places in Waterloo, the
apartments usually their apartments. Your mum and dad were working
at the market selling books, education books, children much like that.
Why did they pick education? Is that what your dad
did when he was in Hong Kong or something?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, look, Dad, I think knew a guy called Jim
Coronius who was actually a great I think publisher of
those a Coronious series, so many back then would have
done some of their work books. I think he was
an incredible, incredible hard worker as well. So I think
he took Dad under his wing a little bit, and Dad,
before you know what, he was sort of getting my

(05:25):
dad to distribute a lot of those books. So, you know,
my dad thought maybe to be a decent idea to
go to Patty's Market Flemington to start selling those books.
And even when we had the bookshop set up, I
think it was in multiple locations, it moved around a lot.
That's why as a young child, I think we moved
around eleven times. But the book shop started in the
La Kember and.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
I'm stumbling around something whereabout the legam but near the station.
Do you remember? You probably do young with.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
I was I wasn't born yet, wasn't I wasn't born yet.
And then it moved around Mark to Kingsgrove, to Bardwell
Park and eventually to Hearst Fall. But dad and Mum
works hard, so she would be manning the book shop
throughout the throughout the weekday and then Dad will be
driving around to as far as Orange to driving a
truck around to take the books to schools to sell

(06:13):
to kids at lunch. So he'd be driving sometimes three
hours there and three hours back just for that one
hour window during lunch to sell books to children. But
I think that's how it started.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
As in Elinka, traveling salesman so to speak. Absolutely, yeah, yes,
And you've got to get to the places who are
going to buy the books. That just means you've got
to have the books in the back of your truck
and you've got to go to those places. Yes, and
pretty much have to. You know what you don't need
if you don't sell.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Absolutely, that's right. I remember going to the markets with
my mom and dad. I think as a six seven,
eight year old and I'd always ask my mom how
much did we make at the end of the day
on a Sunday at Patty's Market, Flemington, and then like,
if it was three hundred bucks, it was a pretty
bad day. But if they say six hundred, it was
always good and we'd go out for a family meal
at a restaurant afterwards.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
So how many eager brothers this.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Is I've got. I'm the middle child. I've got an
older brother and a younger brother who three boys. Three
boys gave mum a lot of havoc.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
So I imagine, so that you went to school, where
did you go to school?

Speaker 2 (07:13):
I went to school at Sydney Boys High School.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
That's high school. About primary school.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
I went to Kingsgrove Primary Public School, Bexley North Public
School and then eventually Herschel Public School, So changed schools
around a lot. I used to feel really nervous changing
school every time, but I think looking back, I think,
with the benefit of hindsight, it allowed me to build
some of those social skills, which I think and communication

(07:38):
skills as well, and I think they're so important for
our next generation.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
As well, so you've got to you're born here, you've
got a full loss the accent, you're educated here, did
you were you when you're a little kid, Especially in
primer school, we used sort of socially where that you
were different to the other kids. In other words, was
in much of a cowater Chinese kids, children from Chinese
parents in the schools you were.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
At, yeah, fifty to fifty mark, Like I think at
Sydney Boys High it was a selective public school, so
certainly there was a lot of Asian background kids that
were there alongside me. But when I first started off
school in Kingsgrove Public School in Bexley North, it was
overall very very multicultural, had friends from all backgrounds. At
the end of the day, you just think you're an

(08:23):
aussy like everyone else. But then you start hitting recess
and lunch, and when they're taking out their sandwiches, you're
pulling out all the sort of Chinese food, the rice
and the bock choi and the little meat pieces, and
you're eating with a with a spoon and they're eating,
you know, with their hands, and you're thinking, oh, it's
a little bit it's a little bit weird. It's a
little bit awkward, and you do want to conform as

(08:43):
any young person might. So I started bringing the tele
sandwiches every day to school.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
And the views that Mum made me in the Tilla sandwiches.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Absolutely, I just felt really felt really awkward to be
able to take out all the rice and everyone's else
is just sitting in their seats having a sandwich. So
Mum certainly helped with that, took on the feedback. She
didn't listen to me much when I was young, but
very grateful in the end.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Probably what was happening. And then Scott was ill, probably
thinking of themselves. My god, I wouldn't mind having to
taste of what he's having, and instead you went and
turned out them. They tell us sandwiches they're probably I
don't know. From my point, I'd rather be what you
were eating, because I had the same sort of thing
going through school. Like you know, we often ate food
from whatever we cooked the night before or whatever it

(09:27):
was cooked in the house some night for and it
could be anything. It could be from egg plant to
all sorts of things. But I my friends at my
school because I went to a school like Kember, but
a lot of friends at my school, actually wanted something,
wanted something what I was in and because I actually
found it was a bit weird, I thought, why do
you want? Why do you want that? But I was

(09:49):
always happy to share it. It's a funny thing when
you're growing up in environments where not everybody is the same,
but young kids want to be the same. You just
want to be the same. So what did you do,
like apart from getting in a tele sandwiches, did you
start to feel as though that you conformed with things
like sport? Did you start to get really interested in, say,
you know, local sports, maybe Kenry Bankston when you're at Bexley,

(10:10):
kings Grove, that sort of area.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
What did you do well? Mark? I know you're a
big Roosters fan, and I remember coming up to your
Sydney UNI as a young eighteen year old and I said, Mark,
I know you're a Brewsters fan, but I'm a Dragons fan.
But I'm still a big fan of you.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, Dragons fan.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, Saint George, big, big Saint George supporter, Red visa
part of me. But look, as a young kid, I
was always into the footy. Everyone was playing touch, whether
I was six on six or you know, twenty on
twenty in big good school. That is yeah, yeah, at school,
even as a young kid, and in high school as well.
I was a skinny Asian kid playing for high Sydney
Boys High, and you know we'd be smashed by Joey's
one hundred and twenty to five our fourth grade, our

(10:46):
first grade, sorry versing their fourth grade. But always loved
the footy. He always enjoyed it. And yeah, love the footy.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
So you're off to Sydney Boys as a progressive school.
What they mean by a selectives grocious A selective school,
I should say, meaning that meaning you had to get
certain grades to get into that school. You have to
win your way into Sydney High. Sydney Boys High and
the City Boys High is a GPS school as one

(11:14):
of the I think it is too sure as one
of the six or seven GPS schools. So it's sort
of up there. But there's no school fees. It's free
if you get selected. And you know, there's this sort
of aura around the Chinese kids, and a lot of
Chinese kids seem to outperform the other boys. And I

(11:34):
want to ask you, do you think it's because of
a cultural thing within your family or within your community
that someone like you were able to get into City
Boys Hid. It's not because you just you don't have
to be just bright. You have to know your topics,
you have to learn stuff. What was the culture in
your family such that you ended up at Sydney Boys High?

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Look absolutely Mark, Like, I think the family business turned
from a bookshop into a tuition business. So my dad
personally tutored a lot of the kids. I was one
of his students, So I can't take it. Yeah, that's right,
So I can't take any credit for, you know, going
to Sydney Boys High. In fact, it's so important for
the family marketing that I do get a good result.

(12:18):
I've become a testimonial for the small business that my
parents were running. And I think at the end of
the day, I think if you put in the effort
to know your topics, to study the questions, you can
get a good result. I know it's a bit sort
of a you know, juxtaposition, but I think every Australian
child actually should have the opportunity to have a quality tutor.

(12:40):
I think, you know, classroom sizes when whether they're between
twenty or thirty, it's a lot of it's a lot
of kids, and I think a lot of kids do
that need that one to one support or just smaller
group classes as well. But unfortunately, not every not every
student gets the opportunity to do that. So that's why
I think equality of opportunity through education is extremely important.

(13:03):
But I think, going back to your question, a lot
of Asian background kids, Chinese, Indian, Koreans, I think their
families really value education as well, so they obviously put
their kids through a lot of additional learning after school,
which I think is a good thing, but going to
Sydney Boys High as well and finishing up I think,

(13:24):
with the benefit of hindsight, I think whilst academic education
is important, I think it's so important that we also
teach our kids financial literacy, coding, public speaking, and life skills.
Life skills like resilience and teamwork. I think if kids
learn how to work with each other more, when they
grow up, they know how to work with each other better.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
It's interesting that you know there's a perception I think
that the Chinese community can afford the tuition, when in
fact you're saying to me that now your mom and
dad work the the proverbial lo in their businesses, to
build their businesses. It's not like you're sort of dripping

(14:07):
a gold as a kid. There's probably just as many
boys and girls of Asian background in the background, et cetera,
who do really well at school and do really well
on HC and get into university from parents who have
nothing but just decide that they're going to sacrifice them

(14:29):
as much as they can in order just to give
their kid, or their children or their children are really
good education. Education which gives you opportunity, sits at the
top of the tree when it comes to a lot
of cultures. What did you learn from just watching your
parents try their best to get their sons into a

(14:54):
better position than they were relative to when they first
come into this country. What do you learn from that?

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Yeah, look what I see in my mum. For example,
she'd work so hard at the bookshop and then it
was a cheting school after hours as well. She'd finish
up at eight pm, get home by eight thirty. She'd
set me some homework for after school. But I remember
even before her having dinner, she sit me down and
go through some of the questions I didn't know. And

(15:19):
that was already between eight thirty to nine thirty. She'd
do that routinely on most days in the week, and
I always appreciate that about my mum. Looking back now,
it was a bit stressful as a kid.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
But do you think I want to go with my mates? Yeah,
or I want to get on I presume you had
the phones around at the time, with the mobile phones.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
I think there were mobile phones, but I didn't have
one my parents. My mom was a tiger mom. Love
her to death, but she's a tiger mum. So look,
i'd always be sort of getting the audit at about
eight thirty. Have you done your homework? Which questions don't
you understand? So Mum would always be investing her time,
no matter how tired she was, into ensuring that she

(15:58):
did her best. And as someone who runs my own
education business now, so we do tutoring and also public
speaking for young kids as well. I see a lot
of parents come in and sometimes they don't come from,
you know, find completely financially comfortable positions, but something that
they don't cut back on is their children's education. They're
really invested, and that's why I think every person should

(16:20):
have that opportunity in saying that I really admire parents
that take time out of their work, whether they run
their own business or whether they're a young professional, they
really sit down. They really make that time for their
children as well. And it's not easy. You know, a
lot of the parents don't necessarily have a easy relationship
with their kids. I think it's always a challenge to

(16:41):
do that, but they always try their best. They sit
down after work to help their children out with literacy
and numeracy and even public speaking, to watch their kids
rehearse some speeches.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
It seems like your mum, without sort of trying to
put to me labels on it was relatively speaking, compromising
in relation to what needed you needed to do in
order to be successful just at school. You know, whatever
you do after that's up to you to some extent,
but to be successful at school in order to have

(17:14):
an opportunity for down the track. And it looks to
me like that uncompromising characteristic maybe an important ingredient for
opportunity to be available to kids. And I wonder if
as any that rubbed off on you. I mean, I mean,

(17:35):
you come across a really nice guy, You're really well presented,
and I should declare I've known this guy for a long, long, long, long,
long long time. In fact, he worked for me, but
as a young man, very young man, probably twelve ten,
twelve years ago. I don't know how long ago it was.
It was a long time ago. But one of the
things I noticed about you is, and I'm not here
to give you wraps, but you're on compromisingly nice, respectful,

(18:05):
well mannered. But at the same time, your content is
very good, well researched or well rehearsed. Even you're very polished.
Do you think that is that something that you think
your mom is sort of instilled upon you, or is
that something you decided to become as a result of
watching what your mum tried hard to do.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
I think I'm the well madded and respectful side, you know.
I try to do my best. I think in our
sort of Chinese culture, it's also very important to respect
to elders. But I think respect is very very important.
My mom's very Buddhist. I think it's just important to
bring empathy to everyone, whoever they are. In saying that,
I'm grateful that my mum gave me a lot of
grit resilience going through those hours of work late at

(18:49):
night on the weekend, if I'm not doing four to
six hours of studying, you know, I'm in the shits.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
During holiday period too.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
During holiday periods, I've been doing four to six hours
or studying every day, And you know, that builds a
lot of resilience, It builds a lot of concentration, and
I think, you know, I think it's about finding the
right balance. So I think children need to be children.
They can have the opportunity and should have the opportunity
to play. But at the same time, I think to
have that resilience and to have that grit and to

(19:19):
be able to solve problems and learn how to think,
I think is also very very important.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Learning how to think meaning what, yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
I think With a lot of the problem solving questions
that I had to go through, there was a subject
called general ability back in the Selective Schools test, for example,
and they'd ask you questions about which one is the
odd one out, you know, and certain questions that really
sort of strains your thinking. But I always found that
looking back, you know, you really have to just concentrate,

(19:49):
think about how you think about things to solve a problem.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
And do you think you're a politician now, but do
you think that you can take any of those things
that you've learn from the efforts that your mother made
in relation to your education, if we just zero in
on that, and also that any of the things that
you observed from what your parents, both parents did in

(20:14):
order to get you in a position to do these
things that you would take into politics.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Mark, I'm very passionate about education
and I actually think on top of a quality education
at school, parents can make a massive impact. So, you know,
my mum obviously dedicated a lot of time. She familiarized
herself as well with some of the content that I
was going through. And ow mum doesn't speak English well,

(20:40):
she does her best. But where she can with maths
for example, and some of those puzzle questions that she
could look at with diagrams, she'd help. She'd do her
best to help me. And you know, what we run
in our education business is also now sharing with parents
how to best connect with their kids, how they can
play a role with you know, their homework and their

(21:02):
activities back at home. So I think Australia more broadly,
I think you can explore ways where they can help
educate the parents to educate their kids, and I think
that makes a big difference because kids go to school,
you know, nine to three pm. But outside of that,
in school holidays as well, I think that's where parents
can make that massive impact.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, and it's a relative impact relative to those people
who aren't doing it, because at the end of the day,
you know, one of the things that kills me in
this country is that we forget we are, every one
of us competing every single day with everybody else. And
I don't mean that in a bad way, but we
are competing. We're competing for share of real estate, for
share of voice, for share of everything. And it's a
relative game. And a lot of people want to sit

(21:44):
back and complain it or want to be the same
and want us all to be this some of and
by the way, some of the political parties are about sameness,
you know, and to somebody said that sort of verges
on socialism from my point of view, or even getting
closer to communism where we're all the same. Now you're
coming from your parents come from a country which is
a communist country, and there are a lot of migrants

(22:07):
in this country in fact, and you're electorate who have
left that country to come here in order to have
a better chance at improving their lot. They don't want
to be the same. They want the opportunity or they
want opportunities from Australia, from the Australian government, from the
Australian system to make us them have a better life

(22:31):
relative to what they would have had back in China
for example. I'm not peaking on China particular, but just
for example, how important is that to you and your
electric how important.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Is that to the people in your electric well. I
think the people in Benlong are aspirational. They want to
be able to achieve their goals if they work hard,
whether it's putting their children through a quality education, being
able to start their own business. And for a lot
of young Australians, they want to know that what I'm
starting now can lead to more job opportunities. And if
they're in university, for example, they're working hard at a cafe,

(23:00):
they know that they can save up to buy home.
So I think, you know, everyone should have the equal
opportunity to get ahead, but I think reward for effort
is also equally as important, because if you work hard,
you deserve to get ahead. That's very, very important and
I think also as well, when we look at it
look Australia more broadly, I think it's you know, and

(23:22):
you're very big on personal development, mark and health and
all round of that. But I think for every for
every Australian person, they should be able to reach their potential.
And I think you can only reach your potential if
you're able to be in an environment where you work
you can grow. It's not about being at home and bludging. Surely.
Of course, there are a lot of Australians out there

(23:43):
who can't help themselves, and we need to help them.
But if you have the opportunity to grow, get out there,
work hard, you know, take work experience if you can't
get paid. And I think that is so important.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
And you see you did the high school study it
you went off to university.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
But you said you I went to UNSW. So that's
when I first met you, Mark at the quad at
UNSW and I came up to be in the quadrangle
the quadrangle, Yes, so I came up to your Mark.
I knew you from what was I doing there?

Speaker 1 (24:12):
It was I doing a talk out there was something
do you remember.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
I think you're an adjunct professor aw Mark, But was
I speaking?

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Did you hear me speak or something?

Speaker 2 (24:19):
I didn't hear you speak. I just saw you from Afar.
I was about fifteen meters away. I was coming out
of the Quadrangle Cafe and by then I was already
a massive fan of you and a bit of a
man crush kind of thing. And I remember watching a
video on you, Mark. It was on YouTube, and you
were giving a seminar in that video, and you were
talking about confidence building as a young eighteen nineteen year old,

(24:42):
where your confidence often fluctuates. You talked about building confidence
by having the right intentions for other people. So when
you think of someone or others beyond yourself, that's when
your confidence grows, as well as having that righteous intention.
It was one of your videos, Mark, so came up
to you and I said, Mark, Mark, you know, would

(25:03):
I be able to work for you? And you actually
gave me advice that you said, Scott, I think it's
better that you actually go work at a big four bank.
You'd learn more. And I said, Mark, you know, thank
you for your advice, but one day I'd still love
to come back and work for you. You know, I
really love the fact that you know, you're someone who
has come from punch bowl, works so hard, built Wizard Home,

(25:24):
loans to and you know, and you sold it for
so much. But it's a testament to your hard work.
And I think so many people out there appreciate your
story of hard work and humility as well. And so
I took your advice went to work at Westpac Bondai
Beach as a teller. I was terrible at balancing. That
probably makes me look bad, like I'm bad with money,

(25:44):
but I was there for six months and it was
actually then I joined the Liberal Party and I met
a candidate called David Coleman, who was on the board
of Yellow Brick Road Correct And after dawknocking about, you know,
two thousand homes, I wasn't counting, I said to David,
you know, do you know Mark Burris Is. Oh yes,
I do, he said, And I said, can you get

(26:05):
me a job at Yellow Brick Road And so he
called your then CEO up and Matt Lawler, I think,
and I think I was placed in a team. And
on my first and second day I was tasked to staple,
to file and to scan. I told her all my friends,
I got the job at Yellow brick road, I said.

(26:26):
And then but on the third day, I remember my
manager telling me that there wasn't a role for me.
And I just said to my manager, well, you know what,
I'd work for free, or just work for free nine
to five. Count me in. And then they took me
on board doing that, and I was grateful for the
work experience, and before you know it, I was I
wanted to be the world's fastest stapler, filer and scanner

(26:48):
for the next eight weeks and it was so nice.
You know, my manager came up to me afterwards and says, hey, look,
we're actually going to pay you for all the work
that you've done and we're going to have you on board.
And from there I was so grateful. I am so
grateful to have worked at yellopper Crode for three years
and ten months.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
It was one of the word for Morello. Did you
work for Andrew? Andrew was there at the time.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
Morello is a great guy.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
Was he there at the time?

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Absolutely, he was your head of business development.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
So we around two thousand and nine or something like
this is the period we're talking about. Third he was
there for ten years. So he started in two thousand
and nine, I was just trying to remember that the periods.
And David Coleman, of course is the Member for Banks,
Member for Banks. Yeah, the current Member for Banks actually
got a very slim margin to David, very very slim margin.
The great he's a shot of minutes foreign affairs, a

(27:38):
great politician, like so dedicated. He gave way private enterprise
working private enterprise, and he was a big atriever, like
a very big achievement. He was at chanl right for
a long long time and he's just dedicated his life
to looking after his constituency, constituency out of the Banks

(27:59):
area completely. And there must have been a fair bit
of inspiration or motivation you got from David.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
And I still do. Mark. I think he's someone who's
so hard working. A piece of advice he gave me
when I was a nineteen year old door looking for
him is he said, Scott, I don't know anyone who's
successful that doesn't do a good job one hundred percent
of the time. So I always try to do a
good job on hundred percent of the time. And in fact,
an incident happened when I was volunteering for him. He

(28:26):
asked me to go do something and it was meant
to only take ten minutes, but I took twenty and
then he said to me, you know, you've got to
be efficient. So I think being efficient not only just
working hard, being efficient being focused getting outcomes rather than
just putting in the time is extremely important.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, and so I forgot about David Common, And I
shouldn't say that because I'm a great I'm a huge
fan of David Common, by the way, And so you've
had some experience with David Comman as well, like you
know what the hard age of politics can look like.
In like expertial, you're trying to get re elected or
in your case, you're trying to get elected, but trying
to get reelected. And it's sort of down to basics.

(29:08):
To me, from what I can see, it is about
door knocking. I've been watching your campaign. It's about being
everywhere as much as possibly cannas as long hours. People
want to see you. They expect who is Scott Young
And that's one of the reason I've got you on
the show, because people know who's Gott Young is. You know,
you walk around and shaken hands with people. But the
idea of this show is to be able to show
people who individuals are who come on the show, and

(29:31):
people would like they want to know your backstory, but
you don't get a chance to do that when you're
on the Huskings trying to say we'll vote liberal, or
this is what I stand for, or hello, what's your business?
You know I'm from your local area. It's hard for
you to spend any time with anybody. Do you think
politics is I don't want to use the word shallow,

(29:51):
but it's a little bit ephemeral in that you never
really get an opportunity to convince someone why they should
warm to you, as opposed to just being polite and
well manted and shaking the hand and being prepared to
do the work. They never really know whether or not

(30:11):
what Scott Young's values are. And our values come from
how we grow up, our mom and dad, the school,
we went to, the university, we went to the influencers
we had in our life, and off the back of that,
you know, you get ten or so values about life.
And you've talked about you know, people having opportunity, you're
talking about education, you're talking about hard work, their values,

(30:34):
and for some reason in this election, we haven't heard
about that. You know, I know that. You know, the
TV stations haven't been getting Scott up there to talk,
but the TV stations have been getting up done and
they've been getting up Albanize. They have been getting up
banned from time to time. And you know others, you know,
you know, Angus Taylor's been up there, et cetera, as
has a Jim and Jim Charmers. But we've never I

(31:01):
don't think we at any one stage I've heard in
a broadcast sense apart from this show, I think, but
in a broadcast sense, people talk about where their values are.
Where do values sit for you? And what do you
what are your values? What are some of your values
at least relative to what voters might be looking for?

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah, one hundred percent, mark, I mean, just before we
talk about values, if it's okay. I think politics and Australia,
in fact, I think the overall climate can improve. I
think there are so many as an aspiring representative. I
think in our in our current atmosphere and culture, there's
there is negativity. The media is constantly watching what you're

(31:41):
saying and what you're doing, and they could they could
turn into something that's that's that's quite negative. In fact,
but at the same time, and.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
You don't get a chance to defeat it either.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, because I mean there's there's you know, I mean
that the media is so big, that's why they do
play such an important role in our democracy. And in
saying that, I mean that most for most part, I
think politics is positive. You meet the best people in
the community. But you know, I've just come from early
voting and I've got some people and some of my

(32:11):
opponents they're volunteers just filming me, and it's almost like
you can't you can't completely share everything. So that's what
I want to bring to politics, to be able to
just be myself put my ideas out there, which is
so so important.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
So you're saying, like some honesty and openness, some.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Honesty and some openness, and to embrace someone for who
they are. Everyone's got their strengths, everyone's got their weaknesses
and flaws, but you know, this is who I am
as a person. And I think going back to values,
I think what my father showed me was the importance
of hard work and grit and resilience. And I think
for mum as well, she taught me the importance of

(32:49):
a compassion, integrity, and also empathy to always be able
to put myself in their shoes, and as a Buddhist
as well, you know, one of our sort of core
principles is that there is suffering for everyone, no matter
who you are. So it's important to just be able
to empathize where their positions are. And they're largely values

(33:10):
that shape I think how I dictate my life, and
I often ask I get asked about a lot of
questions as well, and sometimes if I can't make up
my mind about something, I go back to those values,
and I think taking a middle ground is also a
very very good approach.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
So, so like, what is it like that when you're
on on the on the road, so you know, you're
walking through somewhere in your electorate, and someone walks up
to you and says, look, I'm a burrhus I live
in West Ryde. I live and ride. I live in
West chats Chatswood, West chest Chatswood West just West is

(33:47):
part of Electric and I'm a small business owner. What
are the sort of questions they ask you? What are
they what are they looking for? They just want to
say hello.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Well, I think one of the first things I asked
the mark is you know what's what's important to you,
and I do share with them. I'm a small fish
in a big pond. I might not be able to
get everything done, but you know what can I best
advocate for you on? And you know, for many people
that don't have any challenges, they're happy. But for a
lot of people they are also going through. You know,

(34:16):
for example, thirty thousand small businesses have closed over the
past three years in your electric or across the country.
Across the country. But when you walk around West Ryde
and you walk around certain suburbs, you see businesses closing
down as well. You see the full lease signs popping
up for new tenants that they're looking for. So I
think the main thing is to listen and also just

(34:37):
show empathy. People also understand, and I think people do
that one person can't change everything, but they appreciate your listening.
They know that you know you will work your hard
hardest to be able to advocate to what's important to them.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
So what are some of the things that they are
That's what are some of them just happy to say
all I own as you say, they're doing it k
And they're either rustle on liberals or rustle on labor
or whatever the case may be. You may not change
their position, But what are some of the other individuals
saying in your electric leg that, let's say, small business owners,

(35:14):
what are they sort of indicating to you they frustrated
with regulatory environments, They're frustrated with the council, They're frustrated
with interest rates. What are they what's bothering them? What's
bugging them?

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Small business owners are doing a tough mark.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
You know.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
First of all they're spending is the amount of spending
they see from their customers is down. Coffee sales have dropped,
so revenues are down. Revenues are down. And on top
of that, so many people that want to start their
own businesses have to go have to wait a long
time to go through approvals, councils and bodies. And by
the time they open up, their least free period if
they're lucky, which is three to six months, is already over.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
So part of the period of the least where they're
not paying any rent, that's right where they were trying
to keep have no expenses, which is a period where
you want to make get a bit of revenue if
you can. Because that sort of goes straight into the
bank account. But during that period they spend most of
the time just getting through the hoops that's regulatory hoops.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yes, absolutely, So it's not easy for these people. And
on top of that, a lot of them share with
me the challenges around hiring, training and retaining. It takes
time to train up a barrister, it takes time to
train up a reception and before you know it, after
six months that all the effort and time that they've
put in that employee has left now, so it STAPs
productivity out of the business. I mean, I think so

(36:29):
many Australians right now are talking about the cost of
living crisis, and so many people are talking about having
less money to spend. I think as a country, we
also want to focus on how we can become more productive,
how we can make the most of each individual for
them to reach their potential, but to also produce more output.
And I think small businesses, which is a big creator

(36:50):
of jobs in our country, can do more to also
see that small business that are empowered so they can hire,
train and retain their staff.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
It's funny we keep talking about the cost of living
in Australia, which is extraordinarily high relative to it was,
say three or four years ago. But we think we've
never seen a talk about the cost of running a business,
which is also extraordinarily high. If we look at the
cost of running business today relative to the cost of
business running a business three years ago, it's through the roof,

(37:21):
like it's just through the roof, but the amount of
revenue they're receiving has not gone through the roof, so
you know, revenue is down. Cost of running the businesses
up now. I know it's a it's not quite as
cute a word as or a phrases cost of living.
The sort of rolls off the tongue as easy for
the newspapers to write about it. We never seem to
see anyone talk about the cost of running a business.

(37:44):
Rent staff, staff turnover, staff, education, staff retention, super cost
of goods coming into the business, marketing costs, cost of websites,
all the other stuff you've got to pay for it.
There's licenses, good law. You're paying licenses everywhere, like you know,
Microsoft licens licenses for your website, with licenses for your apps.

(38:06):
There's licenses everywhere. Why is it that Australian the Australian narrative.
Does it do you think does not talk about the
cost of running business?

Speaker 2 (38:20):
What is that? Look Mark, I don't know, and I
think Australia can have more potential.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
I think we should have more conversations about this.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
I think we should have more conversations about this because
small business owners aren't just doing it for themselves. In fact,
they create jobs for people who live locally or not
to take those to take on those roles. They stimulate competition,
which is extremely important. That's why I love what you
do Mark with yellow brick Rode, creating competition for people

(38:48):
to seek out the best line, not just directly go
to the banks, but going back to small business. I
think we need to have more conversation around it. We
need to be more ambitious in making Australia the small
business capital of the world. How do we have more
incentives for people to start businesses and how do we
have more incentives for small businesses to also grow once
they hit certain milestones.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
For example, Well, so your leader Dunton has recently announced
the instant right off being a thirty thousand dollars if
Liberal get elected or the Couldition gets elected. I noticed
in the last budget that the Albaniezer government actually got
rid of the instant right off, which they then but

(39:32):
they since then have reintroduced it because obviously it was
very unpopular. But apart from you know, allowing someone to
be able to write off thirty thousand dollars or fifteen
thousand dollars or whatever, whichever party you're going for, you know,
for buying an item, you have to buy that item
in the first place. You have to have the money
to buy the item in the first place. So it's
one thing to have the money. It's one thing to

(39:52):
get the tax siduction, but it's another thing to have
the money in the first place. It's not that easy,
that's right. What other things could governments be doing for
small business owners to encourage them to start up a
new business, encourage them to keep staying the business instead
of you know, vacating the business, leaving some vacant premises,

(40:14):
losing all their staff, losing all their customers. What of
the things do you think get and what sort of
stuff gets discussed with the Liberal Party and the coalition
and relation to helping small business owners.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Well personally, Mark, I think one of the biggest challenges
with small businesses is cash flow, and I think cash
flow is very very important. So I think for a
lot of small businesses they often see delays and payments
being made from big businesses. So we want to ensure
that you know, if you're a big business, perhaps there
is a length of time for you to pay your
bills to also pay the small business as well.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
We should tease that a little bit, Scott, because what
you're saying here is that a small business has to
pay his staff member, say every week wherever fortnite, you
have to pay your rent yep once a month. But
let's say you're selling something to a big business. You're
a small business. You're providing a service, you're selling a
product a big business. A lot of times the big
businesses are so big then they say, yeah, our payment

(41:11):
terms will pay you in ninety days. So you have
a gap. You're paying your costs either weekly or fortnightly
or monthly, yet your revenue that you've produced a product
or service for is not coming in for maybe ninety days,
sometimes undred and twenty days. So therefore there's a cash

(41:33):
flow mismatch for those business owners. What would the government
sort of talk about would your government if you guys
got elected as a government, would you be considering sort
of pushing big businesses to change their payment structures and
their payment terms.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Well, Mark, I think our party, the Liberal Party, is
the party for small business with a party for a
reward for hard work and also aspiration. So in saying that,
I mean my person small views are that we should
review it because, like you said, whether it's ninety days
or one hundred and twenty days, that places a lot
of strain on small business owners and during tough times,
they have to put in their own cash, they have

(42:12):
to leverage off their mortgage, they have to take out
loans just to make ends meet, to make sure that
they can keep running their business. So this is something
old personally definitely advocate for.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
You were prosecuted, and because that's really interesting too, because
you made a point that most of these small business
owners actually going to borrow money against the home or
gun borrow get an overdraft. The problem is at the
moment we've got extraordinarily high interest rates, like really high
interest rates, and we've had them for a long time.
And that's like, if most people think our small businesss

(42:44):
are they doing well, well, most of them just make
it living. They do it because they love it. You know,
they're not They're not all multimillionaires.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
And they work seven days a week.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
They're all the time. They don't take holidays. They're the
last person to get paid in the business. I mean
they pay everyone else. They're the last person to take
an in money. They usually don't take regular money. They
take it in lumpy amounts when it comes in, but
they don't take regular amounts, So therefore they're having regular
stress when there's no money coming in. You come from
a family which was selling books and education tools, and

(43:16):
if the money wasn't coming in, you would probably know
about it in the family. You just talked about three
hundred day verse six hundred on a Sunday. That makes
it a huge difference to your family. How the harmony
in the family is only on one Sunday night you
might be going home having some eggs on toast. On
the other Sunday night, you might be going out to
a nice Chinese restaurant with your brothers, your two brothers.
But that's stressful, and I'm glad you're raising this sort

(43:38):
of stuff because I really get frustrated when I see
nothing in budgets from the prevailing government that even talks
about small business owners. It doesn't even talk about them.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
It's not good enough.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
No, it's not good enough. And I'm hoping I'm hoping
that doctor Jim Chalmers are listening to this because it's
not good Jim, It's just not good enough. You know,
small business owners employees seventy percent of every single person
in this country that's employed. So small business owners collect
the most payroll tax. Small business sorry, small business collect

(44:14):
the most pay tax. In other words, they pay the
most wages because they have the most staff. Therefore they're
collected the most tax, which they become tax small business
owners become tax collectors for the government. They collect all
the GST for the government. They've got to submit it
to the government. They're going to do returns, you know,
special returns, and tell the government how much they collected.
They're the proverbial tax collector for the government. Yes, I

(44:38):
just don't know why politicians don't say, let's do something
for the small business owners. Like you know, one of
the things I often thought about is why wouldn't a
small business owner who collects a certain amount of tax
and employs a certain amount of people and pays a
certain amount of superannuation to make sure that when people
retire they're not going to be dragging on the government's
pocket with pensions and stuff like that. Why does the

(45:00):
government sort of say, you know what, there's a reward
for that. And the reward is going to be you know,
your company's income tax rate, if you collect so much taxes,
is going to be reduced by one percent something, that's right.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Anything, and then small business owners have that confidence, whether
it's getting big businesses to pay them in a shorter
period of time or getting that you know, that tax
cut incentive. It allows them to feel confident and allows
them to employ more people, to invest in more marketing,
to invest in more product innovation and development, become more proactive, production,

(45:33):
become more productive. That's right. And I think that would
give a lot of small business the confidence to grow
and speak. You're talking about our treasurer. I think what's
so important for Australia is not only not only to
think about wealth redistribution, but to think about wealth creation.

(45:53):
I think you know, there's so many initiatives being rolled
out just to almost say before election time, we want
to buy your vote, we want to buy your vote.
But you know what, I think the Australian people respect
Mark the fact that they respect someone with a long
term vision to think about how do we create more
prosperity for Australia and for everyone and that includes backing

(46:14):
small businesses.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
So if the Coalition gets in, how important is ben
Along as a seat for the coalition to win this election?

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Mark? Ben Along is the most marginal labor health seat
in the country.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
What does that mean?

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Well, it means that you know, the people have been
Along play an important role in choosing who who their
local member becomes is. So I think it's very importantly close.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
Is it very close between you and like in terms
of what the polls are saying. I mean we talk
about lakers that just you need a one percent swing
or do you need a five What sort of swing
do you need to get liberally into that seat?

Speaker 2 (46:55):
Well, last time we lost the seat by two thousand votes,
Adam how many? And I think it was about one
hundred and twenty or so thousand voters? We lost by
two thousand votes. But I think the people have been
Along are intelligent. We've got young professionals, students, small business owners, seniors.

(47:17):
They know what's best for them. They know they want
strong economic management that not only helps them alleviate the
cost of living for the short term, but builds prosperity
for the long term. The people have been along know
that we're hitting one trillion dollars worth of debt for
the first time in our country's history, and that more

(47:38):
than ever, it's so important to think about wealth creation
and not only redistribution.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
That's an important point. That two points there, and the
first one we were to touch on is the debt.
You mentioned that dur Electric does think about this, but
I haven't wanted to do. People just go, yeah, well,
that's the there's always going to be government debt. I
can't really manage any of that. I can't control any

(48:05):
of that. I'm just going to be interested in what
I'm doing. And therefore the trillion dollars just sort of
drops off the conversation. I mean, media has made a
big thing of it, and it should be a big thing.
And like, trillion dollars of debt for this country means
as a percentage that is allocate to every single person
in the country. You know, if we've got twenty five
million people here, that means we all owe a feel

(48:25):
out of money. It's not that hard to work out,
but for some reason there seems to be I don't
want to say the word apathy. I think it's probably
more confusion amongst voters that they think, well, I don't
control that, I can't influence that. It may or may
not affect me. I don't really know how it's going
to affect me because I know the government's not going

(48:45):
to tap tap on my shoulder, say, you know, might
put up your two hundred thousand dollars worth or wherever
the number is. I know that's not going to happen.
So how do you get that point across? What do
you do about that? I mean, do you keep talking
to people about this issue or do you just at
some stages say no, I'm going to try and do

(49:07):
something that's going to help you specifically miss the voter.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Well, I think the first thing that we need to
enrich our democracy on so I think what makes our
democracy fantastic mark and again, you know many countries, communist
countries don't have this is the fact that our democracy
is at its best when there's a high participation rate.
And also, you know, because we want people going out
there voting and casting the votes in the appropriate way.
But at the same time, when people go to the

(49:34):
ballot box, when they vote, they are well informed. So
I think, more than ever, I think political parties need
to ensure that we keep the Australian people educated that
it's not only about short term fixes, it's about a
long term game. How it affects people's children and grandchildren
as well. And that's why when I'm going out there,

(49:56):
I'm speaking of voters about the one trillion dollars worth
of debt that we're hitting and more than ever, I
mean you were talking about twenty five million people paying
off that debt. I mean that's a lot of our
future generations paying off that that because we have an
aging and retiring population as well. So I think it's
important to get the message out there mark for the

(50:16):
long haul as well.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
And you said the other point you made was as
opposed to just considering redistribution of wealth, let's think about
creating wealth first, Yes, and then sure we should redistribute
some of that wealth because there are some people who
just don't do so well and unfortunately they just have
a disadvantage, and we don't want to see anyone disadvantaged

(50:38):
and you come from one of those backgrounds, so you
wouldn't want to see anybody living in that sort of
situation either. But before you can redistribute, you need to create, yes,
and creation of wealth is about being productive. Productivity In Australia,
unfortunately we have had one of that. We have one
of the lowest productivity growth. In fact, we go back,

(50:58):
we need to find we're a decline for many, many
years in a measure against all the other OECD countries
in the world, which is ridiculous. Do you think that's
because we've had it too good for too long? You know,
we've got great resources and you know we've been able
to rely on our resources boom over the years. Do
you think that's the reason. Why are we being what

(51:20):
do we why are we in the productivity decline? Where
do you think of it?

Speaker 2 (51:24):
I think Australia does have it very, very good. And
you know, I think those the saying good men create
good times, good times create weak men. And I think
it's so important that we think about how we can
actually build for the future. So when you're comfortable, when
we're comfortable, I think as a person and as a country,
we don't grow, and I think growth and comfort don't coexist.

(51:46):
So I think now that we're hitting one trillion dollars
worth of debt, now that families are paying more for
their bills, I think this is a time for our
country to just pause for a moment and think where
can we go for the future? How do we boost productivity?
And in fact, in Australia we talk about the other
side likes to talk about Made in Australia so much.

(52:07):
But you know what's good about Australia, I think compared
to the rest of the world, mark is the fact
that we do have a decent minimum wage compared to
the rest of the world. We want to constantly lift
real wages. In fact that hasn't been great over the
past twenty five years is the fact that how do
we build certain sectors up, not only in small business,
but the technology sector, the tech sector, our edgey tech,

(52:29):
our med tech. Australians are very intelligent people. How do
we become the technology powerhouse of the world.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
And technology obviously increases productivity big time. It's one of
the big factors in terms of increasing productivity of just
about every business. Edge you tech is an interesting one
what do you mean by edge you tech?

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Well, I think there's so many innovative ways running my
own education, small business. I think there could be so
much more tech out there that help children and families.
You know, we have very standardized testing systems overall in Australia,
but imagine having adaptive testing at each which means that
we look at each child based on their levels and

(53:13):
they sit through certain questions based on their abilities so
they can improve and learn at their rate.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
So the child you do themselves relative to themselves as
oppose to everybody else, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
And I think that actually helps them out. So if
your child that's excelling, you know, you can be doing
harder questions based on the adaptive testing, but if you're
falling behind, then you can be allocated questions and help
that can help you improve at the rate that you
need to as well. So there's a lot we can
embrace with technology. I think a lot of teachers out
there spend tremendous amounts of time with administration, with unnecessary

(53:49):
admin They tell me about it all the time, But
imagine we can help them mark. Imagine we can help
them also quantify some of the things they're doing without
them having to manually do it. I think that's important.
So it helps teachers out, helps students out, but it
also helps our economy out when it comes to investing
in technology such as edgu tech as well.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
So if you get voted in as the member for
ben Loong, the Liberal member for ben Long, how does
the parliament work? I mean, does Peter Dutton no, dabd
You'll congratulate you. And even if the Liberal Party don't
win overall, what does that mean for Scott Young? Does

(54:31):
that mean that you have any say in parliament? How
does it work? Because you know you'll get in you're
a member. But let's say Liberal don't win enough seats
so they don't form government. Let's say Labor forms government
with the Greens. What cans Scott Young do then? As
the Liberal member for ben Along.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Well, First of all, if I'm blessed enough to be
chosen by the people bet Along Mark, the position never
belongs to me. It belongs to the people and the
community that might choose me, that might put their faith
in me. And it's so important I think, And what
I dislike about politics at times, there's a lot of
fighting and I don't think invoting in fighting and also

(55:15):
fighting in general, the blue side versus the green side
versus the red side. And I think politics when you
go home and you've spoken hundreds of people every single day,
you go home and you go why do I do this?
And you want to help people, so you go, well,
how do I find common ground to help as many
people as possible? So if I am blessed enough to

(55:35):
be chosen by the people of Benolong, I will think
what's the common ground for Benolong? Out of all those
thousands of conversations that I've had, how can I best
advocate for them? And I think for the people of Benolong,
it's the equal opportunity to get ahead, whether it's starting
their own small business, buying their own home, or getting
a quality education. But again I think that's underpin by

(55:57):
building a stronger economy only thinking about redistribution. Of course,
we have to help those that do need the help,
that are vulnerable, but we got to think how do
we build a more prosperous Australia for everyone? And I
think also there are so many people that come from
different backgrounds, different cultures. We want one Australia with our
Australian values of ensuring that we look after each other,

(56:21):
a quiet sense of patriotism, and I think that what
that's what brings our country together.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
So I read an article the other day. I just
want to clear clarify for the sake of this conversation,
you're not a communist a.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Mark. Seriously. I find it an absolute joke. And you know,
I used to get offended by it when people call.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Me because Chinese, I think you're a communist.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Well, I think it's I think it's borderline racism, you know,
just because I've got an Asian face, so my parents
have come from China and Hong Kong. They call me
a communist. And can I just say, you go to hundreds,
if not thousands of events, you meet all sorts of people,
you take all sorts of.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Photos, and you grew up here and you went to
school here.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
I was born here, grew up here. I'm a proud Australian.
And something that I always say to our multicultural communities
is that we're proud of our culture, committed to Australia's future.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
That's interesting. You know a lot of people wouldn't even
know it, but like the thought of communism in Hong Kong,
especially when your dad was growing up in Hong Kong,
is like the most ridiculous thing, because I've been Hong
Kong many times for work back in when I was
in the law firm, and people from Hong Kong are
the most capitalist, business minded money makers that I think

(57:40):
I'd ever met anywhere in the world. And Shanghai, by
the way, if anyone for anyone who's been that city,
like it is mega, mega capitalist. I know it's a
communist country, but it's like, you serious, are these dudes
so good at making money? And there's not a there's
not even a sceric of communism in them. And but
I did want to ask you that question because I

(58:02):
have heard some people say that about you because of
you look Chinese and your surname's Young y un g.
So what your first name? Scott? You went to Sydney Boys, Hi,
you spent your junior years and schools around, you know,
like Ember and Kingsgrove and all those other sorts of places.
The bullshit that people throw around during these elections. You're

(58:25):
a young man. Have you got your point? At any stage?
We thought what the hell am I doing this for?
Like I'm getting barbs left, right and center. I didn't
deserve this. I didn't deserve that. All I want to
do is serve my community. I mean in your community,
being the whole community. I don't mean your Chinese communit.
I'm talking about the Banlong community. Do you ever think
of why am I doing this?

Speaker 2 (58:45):
Mark? You know some of those comments, and I just
want to be open and even vulnerable here. It does
hurt you at times when people call you all sorts
of things, such as the communists stuff. I'm a proud Australian.
I love this country so much. I feel like I
don't I shouldn't even have to be saying that to
justify it. But there are times where you think, you know,
why am I copying all this? There are times where

(59:07):
you think, you know, my mum's probably getting comments as well,
but you think, but I know that at the end
of the day that if I am successful, I can
advocate for policies that help the Australian people. I think
one policy can change their lives of millions of people,
and that's why it's worth it. That's why it would
be an absolute honor to serve. And if I ever

(59:30):
get their mark, I'm lucky enough to be there, and
I realized I can't make a difference, then I'm out
of there. Then I'm out of there because you can
also make a difference, just like you have done in
business with Wizard and Yellow Brick Road. But I think
at the end of the day, you're in this to
serve people. You're in there to find common ground, to
advocate things effectively so that people are better off. And

(59:52):
if I realize I can't do that, then I don't
think it's worth it.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
I think pologies can be an extraordinarily frustrating game. Will
if you win, you get an office that they pay
for an office or something like that. Somehow you get
government or give you a compensation because you have to
have an office. If do you welcome people to come
knock on your door and visit you right now? Do
you have an office now?

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Right now?

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
We have a campaign office you have to rent as
a private sort of thing. But if you become the
city member, you get an office they give you. The
government must pay for an office because you know your
constituencies need to know where to go to visit you.
Would is you're an open door type policy person.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
I think it's so important to be able to be accessible.
That is very, very important. And at the end of
the day, whoever is elected, they're the ones who you know,
tax payers money is being invested in to their local representative,
whether it's the office, whether it's staff, whether it's the
local MP salary. So it's you owe the Australian people.

(01:00:51):
You owe it to your electorate to work your hardest
for them. But I think whilst working hard is one thing,
getting results is another. So I think it's so important
to think how will you get those results? How will
I lobby shadow ministers or ministers or the leader all
the Prime Minister in getting results for my electorate. I

(01:01:11):
think you've got to be relentless about it. I think
you got to be smart about it. And that's what
I would love to bring if I was ever given
the opportunity. And if.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Someone's considering voting for in Benlong for either Labor Greens,
do you have a Green member?

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
There?

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
There is a Greens candidates, but no tells Green Greens
candidate a Labor candidate if you're an independent. Outside of
the Greens, there are I think a total of eight
of us A candidates, one from the Liberal Party, Labor, Greens,
and the rest I think are in emense right. So
I'm one of the constituents of Benlong and I'm considering

(01:01:51):
who I'm going to vote for. Why would I vote
for Scott Young Well?

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
I think politics again, is not about fighting each other.
It's about finding common ground to help as many people
as possible. My first home was in public housing. I
went to quality public schools my whole life. I think
every Australian, including those in Benelong, I should have the
equal opportunity to get ahead. And I think in politics
you can find common ground. So if we have equality

(01:02:18):
of opportunity to ensure every Australian child has equality education,
Australians can own their own home and retire comfortably. And
if they can pursue their aspirations and succeed in it,
whether it's small business, whether it's a young person's career.
I think that is underpinned with a strong economy. And
I think again, I'd like to be as one of

(01:02:40):
the youngest candidates in the country. I think about the
future Mark and I think about how we can actually
have long term policies around the economy, around education, around
small business where it can help people not only for
the short run, but for the long haul.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
They're their lofty ideals, you know, and politics is hard
to achieve lofty ideals because you know, even if you're
in government, you've got your own party to deal with,
and you know, and probably other things might get prioritized
ahead of you your lofty goals. So I guess if

(01:03:20):
I'm a voter, I would say, okay, so that's great,
sounds good, But are you a fighter?

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
I'm an absolute fighter.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
A you're going to fight for it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
I will fight for it. I'll fight to the death
mark for the people of ben alone. You know, I
see why, because it's not easy. I think again, in
my principles and how I was raised as a Buddhist,
I think it's not easy to be human in general.
Everyone has their challenges and when I talk to many
people in Benelong, many are going through challenges, but all

(01:03:53):
you know, want their lives to get better. And that's
why I'm in it. You know. At the end of
the day, Mark it's much easier running my own education,
small business. You can control your team, you can control
the climate of everything. But what makes it worth it
is knowing that there is a potential to advocate for
policies that make our community better.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
It's got young. Good luck mate, Thank you, thank you Mark,
Thanks for letting me be Jets.