Coincidence Or Corruption? Uncut with Punter’s Politics

Today, we’re joined by Konrad Benjamin, the voice behind Punter’s Politics. Punter's Politics is on a mission to cut through the political spin and convince everyday Aussies (or punters) that politics actually matters. Konrad is the guy with the blonde mullet known for calling out corporate power, and using satire to make us understand and give a shit about what’s going on in the world of politics. Today we wanted to speak about political issues affecting young people, independent vs legacy media, housing and of course, gas. 

We chat:

• Konrad’s career switch from being a teacher to being a content creator
• Some of the less obvious ways that the government can be in bed with corporations
• The controversy around Aussie gas that is being given away for free
• How the media can skew your perception of political things
• Coincidence or corruption?
• Why Konrad doesn’t think you should cheer for a political team like you do for a sports team
• Why politics shouldn’t actually be complicated

You can find more from the Punter’s Politics website 

Punter’s Politics instagram 

Punter's Politics Podcast

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Hosted by Britt Hockley & Keeshia Pettit 

Produced by Keeshia Pettit

Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford

Recorded on Cammeraygal Land

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode was recorded on Cameragle Land.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of Life
on Cut.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm Brittany and I'm Keisha, and today we have I
don't want to say a left field guest.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's maybe a little bit of a left field guest.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
A few months ago, I vibed on the podcast an
Instagram page and a person and their name was Punt's Politics. Now,
believe it or not, punt as Politics has a real name,
Conrad Benjamin. And I don't want this to offend you. Conrad,
but I didn't actually know your name. I just in
my head referred to you as punt as Politics.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
All the time.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
I was like, oh, have you seen Punt's Politics blah
blah blah blah. Anyway, you have a name, It's Conrad Benjamin.
And the reason I vibed punt A's Politics a couple
of months ago was because I just came across it
the same way many people do. It's quite a big
influential page. There's a YouTube, there's a podcast. But Conrad
teachers politics in a way that is so palatable and interesting.

(01:04):
I think there are a lot of people who, especially
younger people, who want to know about politics, but don't
necessarily have the interest in politics. Now. I think that
that is a big difference. I personally want to know
who I'm voting for and why. I want to know
about the policies, but I'm not overly interested in politics
as something that i'd ever want to go and study.

(01:24):
I do it just because I know it's going to
affect my future. Now, the difference with Punda's politics is
he does it in a way that is full of satire.
He calls out the bullshit, but he teaches you what
you want to know, but hold your attention. And I
think that that is why he's cutting through. He calls
bullshit on the corporate power. And I found myself watching
his videos from start to finish, which was the difference

(01:46):
with every other bit of political information that I have
ever consumed. It wasn't somebody just speaking at me. It
wasn't jargon I didn't understand. And I think that comes
down to the fact that he's young, and he was
a school teacher, and I just think he found his
niche and that is why we wanted to talk to
him today about some of the issues that are affecting
everyone the whole nation. But younger people in particular and

(02:07):
some of the things that are driving up our prices
in Australia. We want to talk about gas in particular. Now,
I don't want to lose your interest. I do not
want to lose your interesting gas because it is actually.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Very very interesting what is happening here in our own country. Conrad,
Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
Wow, thanks for the very kind introduction. It's okay if
you don't know my name. Most punter on the train
as I was catching it here from Neui, he just
puts his hand in his should's like yeah, punter, and
then he kept walking and I was like, it's fine.
It's weird when people do say oi, Conrad, because then
I'm like, oh, that person must listen to the podcast
or something. They're like beyond the Instagram. But yeah, I

(02:43):
feel so warmed hearing that intro and that you fellow
punters are also like not into politics, because I don't
believe you should be into politics.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
I actually love politics and I've been engaged in politics
for a long time, but this more recent kind of revelation,
I guess, so over the past probably two years, I
once heard and I want to talk to you about
this today, that we should all be swing voters, that
should actually be more about policy than about kind of
like this tribalism style of politics. And that really changed
a lot for me, because it was when I realized

(03:13):
that I tended to lean a certain way in terms
of ideology and values, but a lot of the time
I actually didn't know what the various policies were and
why we were being affected in different ways. And frankly,
I'm going to have to ask you to explain the
gas industry for dummies, because I.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Have next to no clue.

Speaker 5 (03:31):
The only idea that I have about that is because
I did research for this particular interview.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
So I feel really on the outer of stuff like that,
and I think.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
That that's how a lot of people feel about politics.
They're just like, that's a bit too complex. There's all
this jarg and there's all these people talking about things
that I don't understand, and I.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Feel really out of the fault. But before we get
into any of that, we would love.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
To know you're accidentally unfiltered your most embarrassing story. And
as someone who has a beautiful mullet, who is a
bit on the punt of.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Themselves is embarrassing.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
I live every day with a mullet.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
That is your embarrassing stories my hair.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
I'm want to trim that and just text that to
my wife, beautiful mullet. I came home with this haircut
because I was like, maybe this is my last round
of the mullet. You know, it's just a haircut for
the punters.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Did you have it for your wedding? Even I wouldn't, No,
wife's letting that happen.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
It definitely not. I came home and she couldn't look
at me. And it took. It takes a few days.
So anyway, old clip that beautiful mullet. I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
That's his tagline for the real Food.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah. Yeah, I have a story that my wife wishes
I wouldn't tell, but I think it's the best one
I got. So my wife and I were traveling for
a few years around there were a little bit We're
in Turkey and it was washing day and we went, oh,
let's well we wait for it to like wash. We'll
go out to this beautiful restaurant or whatever. We'll go
to a nice place. You know, well on tightening the

(04:52):
purse strings, but you treat yourself. You treat yourselves. And
we're like, we're in Cappadocia with all the balloon beautiful stuff,
and we're like, all right, let's go to a nice
restaurant like low tables, cushion everywhere. We're like evil, sit
outside at the front. It's a beautiful view. Anyway. I'm
sitting this in their meals, calm and we're eating, and
this bloke walks past with his wife and he just
kind of looks at me, and then he double takes
and then he just starts going off at me. I

(05:13):
don't know what he's saying Turkish in Turkey. I don't
know what he's saying, but he's saying something. And I'm like, well,
like what, like what's going on? And you know, Food's
just calm and sitting there. And then this other bloke
looks at me and says he's upset that you've exposed yourself.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
And I'm like, what for were you're sitting the naked?

Speaker 3 (05:33):
I know?

Speaker 4 (05:34):
And I look down and my left nut has dropped
out because it's washing day. Stoped out of what my shorts.
You had no clean underwear and it's a low table.
So I'm kind of sitting.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Cross legged and it was just flapped out, and it was.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
Just dropped out, and it was so warm that there's
no cool breeze to kind of remind.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Me, ID have giant nuts or very short shorts. I
don't know which one.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
It is short shots and sitting quite low. And so
that was and I managed to get through the story,
which is good, This is good for my wife. I
didn't I haven't mentioned the words ball sack, so she said,
don't say that.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, my testicle had.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Escaped my gentleman's vegetable.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Had I loved There was only the left one though.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, it's like on the s side.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
So how quickly did you rectify it? And did you apologize?

Speaker 4 (06:34):
The guy had gone and so I quickly slipped him
back in his home.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Well, that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
You sit on the ground. You sit on the ground
there so you have to be cross legged.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
And this was a few years ago, so short shorts
were in. I was wearing quite hot shorts when board
shots were a little bit above the kneed. They're back
below the knee, now.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
You know what're you were actually really lucky because I
think that they will put you in prison there for
indecent exposure.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
That's not a joke. I think a girl went to
prison recently for dancing on a flag pole.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Yeah, so if you're walking around, rolling around with your
night out and.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Anyway, thank god to hear.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
Yeah I made it.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Look you are.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Pretty big in the content world now, but it wasn't
always the case. You are pretty new to it. You
were a teacher beforehand. Talk to us a little bit
about that part of your life and what made you
end up leaving to take this different career because all
of a sudden, just doing a YouTube and an Instagram
and be like, hey, my career is going to be
now online talking about politics is very different from being
a teacher.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
And did you ever have short shorts with your ball
exposed as well?

Speaker 2 (07:35):
You'd be.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
In prison. So yeah, hopefully no ex students are listening
to this. Yeah. I was a teacher probably five or
six years and I just got into it. My dad's
a principal, and you kind of go into the world,
you see, and the way you get used to like
eight weeks, nine weeks off a year holiday, went into
the corporate world for a little bit. When I can't
do this, I need slightly more time off. My wife

(07:57):
was a teacher at the time as well. We were
both teachers and so so I taught for a little bit.
But I think it's such a restricted, down the line
environment where there's so many rules obviously for everything you.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Like, you can't get your balls out, so many rules,
so many rules. I guess you like, they tell you
what to teach, right, there's curriculum, so I guess yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
Yeah, And I mean it takes a toll a little bit.
I enjoyed it enough, it was. It definitely was an
interesting job. There's some upside of like teaching students connecting,
like engaging.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
And what were you teaching.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
I was teaching just the mix of a whole bunch
of stuff. So I taught a bit of like Civics, incisions,
ship economics like Grade ten was pretty good bit of
PE because if you can't do teach, if you can't teach,
you teach PE. So I taught a bit of PE and.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
I did teachers listening right now.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
But I liked economics, like I really liked that because
I think that explains the whole political landscape. And as
I taught more economics, just basic stuff to kids, I
was like, oh, this explains a lot, and I think
the moment where I kind of began to transition into
doing what I'm doing now is teaching a class of
year ten students and just teach us. You don't have
time to prep you just wing it. That's what you do.

(09:09):
I was pretty good at winging it, and so I'd
open the textbook. All right, do an assignment. What's it
going to be, let's find out. In the textbook there
was a table with sustainable economic goals and ranking Australia
based on how well we're doing, and clean air, clean water,
women in the workforce, corruption, you name it, we rank it.
In that moment, I'm like, oh, politics is pretty easy.

(09:30):
We literally have a report card and it's out there
for everyone to know. So I was like, all right, kids,
this is twenty seventeen, it's twenty twenty. Give us the
last five years, pick a metric, rank it, write a
report card for the government. We'll send our letters off
to the government. The kids assignments came back and I
kid you, not, on every single metric that they chose transparency, corruption,

(09:50):
clean water, environment, deforestation, women, whatever it is, we went
backwards and they were like given D grades F grade,
being like you went backwards on this.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
I'm sept from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty, did you.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
Say, yeah, last five years? So some did from twenty
twelve to twenty twenty, some did twenty to twenty twenty,
just a five year period, just a five year period.
I was like, whatever you can get the data for,
and I'd help them sort of find that data because
it's out there. It's it's listed on heaps of websites.
And that one kid puts up his hands like, sir,
do they know this? Does the government know that we

(10:23):
are going backwards on everything and not just slipping like
catatonic on some rankings, And that was the moment where
I went home and I was like I said, I
was like, I'm gonna send a letter to my local MP,
and I was just saying, what do you want me
to tell them? Here's your results, What would you like
me to say? Would you really like me to be

(10:44):
honest with these kids and say it's because you know
that this is happening, but you're working for large corporations
and this makes them money.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Especially because you're Hey, I'm an employee of you, I'm
an employee of the government, and I'm trying to teach
these kids how bad you are?

Speaker 4 (11:02):
Pretty much, I'm teaching civics and citizenship and economics in
a subject, and I'm trying to teach them with the
importance of democracy and all these sorts of things and
how governments and we can improve. And I didn't get
a good response back.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Did they respond?

Speaker 4 (11:15):
It was like one of these copy paste sort of oh, yes,
like we are making progress in like they clearly didn't
engage with it. I'm like, no, no, Do you want
me to tell them that you're bought out, that you're
sold out, that you don't work for us? Is that what?
Because that's what explains this. It explains this When you go,
how are we subsidizing companies that lose money deforesting koal
habitat they lose money, We pay them to make woodchips

(11:39):
out of old growth forests and stuff like that. What
explains that? Because we're not making money for it, Because
then you can say, at least we make money for it.
It explains it because they have corrupted the political process
where politicians are beholden to them and not us.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
So were you having these discoveries at the same time
as you were teaching, Like, were you learning alongside the kids,
and that was what you are, your own kind of inspiration.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
And I guess in a way, but like I.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Say it, why I inspire myself? Did you?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
I guess had you had that interest at that level
and that depth before this particular assignment where all of
these kids had brought and you got to lay it
all out in front of you.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
You know, you've had thirty kids that have gone back
five years.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
You're like, oh my god, actually this is a huge
problem that you might not have maybe subconsciously realized it
was the issue.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
But like that, would you say that.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
That assignment was a really defining moment for you where
you're like, wow, I need to go and do more.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
That was the moment where I realized I had to
go do more. But I was probably six months to
a year ahead of discovering this, going Okay, I've got
to teach some levels of civic engagement, which is politics
on the very basic level. And when you have to
simplify it to year ten students, you realize, and this
was my realization with the kids. Politics is simple. When
politicians stand up there and tell you, oh, it's complicated.

(12:49):
You know, we got sovereign risk we can't do all this.
It's on purpose. They want it to be boring, complex,
make you zone out. And so when we check it out,
when we punters go arts to boring and I get it,
trust me, I get it. That's when the corporations sidle in,
send in their lobbyists and get the politician to rig
the rules for them, and that means that they leave

(13:11):
us holding the bag. We pay more taxes. We pay
for the environmental damage they cause. We pay, so, you know,
the deforestation and the water pollution that has increased on
those rankings. Who pays for that? We do. We our taxes.
When we have to pay for that environmental spill or
whatever they've done, whatever the company did, the asbestos in

(13:31):
the whatever that's recently come out. Who pays to clean
that up? We do? And they these corporations essentially tune
in when we check out.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
You speak about a lot of the ways that you
know they're kind of in bed together, and I know
that it would be hard to give examples of that
aren't potentially risking defamation.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Or oh no names, Yeah you can, but.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Being the producer of this podcast, I'm going to be
slightly more careful.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
What are some of kind of the overarch ways that
these big corporations are in bed with the government.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
It's three things. It's not as simple as just money.
So the easiest line is, well, they buy them out,
and they do until you look at the numbers and
you go, well that politicians are cheaper than a house
in Newcastle. You can buy off a political party for
the grand sum of sixty grand. I just raised seventy
five thousand dollars to employ a lobbyist and seventy five
grand to put billboards up around Australia. I can raise

(14:24):
sixty grand, but I guarantee it won't change anything. And
I can give it to these political party but it
won't change anything because it's not just money. It's money,
media and mates. They're the three pillars and one's a
little carrot. The money is just like, hey, here's a
bit of money, and we'll buy you off that way, and.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Then like money, we're going to give it to you
as a political donation. You can use it however you wish.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
Correct. They just donate out of the goodness of their
heart and expect nothing in return. So then bad business decision. Yeah,
Like everyone instinctually knows that money has strings, and yet
politicians stand up there every single day and say it's
just they just like me and they just want to
support the cause the democracy. Yeah yeah, yeah, they love demo.

(15:04):
So that's the little carrot they give. And the other
perverse incentive that they have is the revolving door. So
staffers and politicians, I don't think anyone really wants to
be a politician. If you're a career politician, what you
really want to be is a lobbyist. And how you
become a really good lobbyist is become a politician. Make

(15:25):
all your friends, make all these mates in parliment house,
like Mark McGowan, Chris pide Scotti, Morrison now a weapons lobbyist, right,
he set up the Orchest submarine deal, became a weapons lobbyist.
So you've become a politician to make five hundred k
year or whatever lobbying.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
Can you explain, just for those playing along at home,
including myself, what's a lobbyist?

Speaker 4 (15:45):
So a lobbyist is someone who is going to the
government saying, hey, I think you should do this. Hey,
you know it would be really great. You should give
us half your guests for free.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Kind of like a consultant within the family.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yeah, so you can work for a company and your
full time job will be to wander around Parliament House
and just talk to politicians and say, you know, it
would really help us if you change this law, rigged
this rule, put in this loophole.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
There's a I was just trying to google. I couldn't remember.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
There's a brilliant movie based on a lobbyist, a female
lobbyist that is like the most prime example of what
they do.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
And it's it's such a great movie. It's based on
a real story. It's called Miss Sloan, you know, with
Jessica Chastein. I think you've vid this. It's so good.
Have you not seen it? You need to watch it.
It's a real story. She's a gun lobbyist in America.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
But it's a brilliant anyway, for anyone that is interested
in it, it's amazing.

Speaker 4 (16:36):
Yeah, so that's mates the Lobbyist. I will put that
on my to watch list. And then the last one
is a massive stick and this is the thing that
actually controls everything. This is what they'll whack you with
the corporations if the politician doesn't do what they ask
you to do. And that's media. They own the media,
the corporate media. They both own the media. Billionaires. Kerry

(16:57):
Stokes one billionaire, owns Channel seven. Murdoch we all know
he owns the rest of the media and the world's media,
so they own it.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Another TV show to me.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
Yeah, Succession the documentary. And then also corporate media gets
its money from corporate sponsorship, so there's certain incentives to
not report on something. So the thing that maybe this
is the same way to gas. The thing that blew
up my platform was talking about how Australia gives half
of its gas away for free to foreign corporations that
don't even Australia, that most of them don't pay tax.

(17:30):
That outraged me. I was like, how do people not
know this?

Speaker 5 (17:33):
Is?

Speaker 4 (17:33):
This is insane, Like, we own the gas, it's my gas,
it's your gas if it's in the ground in Australia,
it's all of our thing and the government needs to
go get money for it for us if they want
to sell it. And I was like, how do people
not know this? And that's when I made my first
Instagram reel, which was about how Kata made seventy billion
from their gas and we made two billion.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
So I think, let's like now that we're at the
gas because that we're going to get into that later,
but we're here.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Can you just set that up.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
Just pretend that people listening now have zero idea what
you're talking about. They know nothing about gas, they know
nothing about who buys it, where it goes, what we're
selling it for.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
You can check this by me if I look lost that.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, good on you guys for
wanting to talk about gas. But I do think that
this whole thing built my platform. Ossies actually care about
this because we know, ingrain deep in our soul, that
we are loaded as citizens, because we have every mineral
under the sun. We know that we should be rich.
But I don't feel rich. I'm not getting a dividend

(18:32):
from the government. I don't get free university education. I
don't have a two trillion sovereign wealth fund like Norway does.
We don't have that because all our resources we either
sell them at a really piss week royalty. Now a
royalty is just them paying us for our coal, gas
or whatever it is. So corporations say, jeezu, Australia, that's

(18:54):
a lot of gas you've got there. I sure would
like to sell it and make a butt ton of cash.
We as Australian, with our government as our negotiator, say
all right, give us x amount. That's called the royalty.
We get in Newcastle, we get a nine percent royalty
on the coal. They're paying us to get the coal
and they sell the coal. I think that's a joke.
I think nine percent is too low. But I'll even

(19:16):
let that slide. Because we have a butt ton of
gas and we're giving half of it away for free.
We don't get any royalty on it. So anyone can
buy our coal. And generally in order to buy our coal,
you have to dig it, get it, pull it out.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
And pay for it and pay for it.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
And the royalty is kind of low because we want
to be like, okay, we want to like make it
easy for people to get There is a number where
people would stop digging it, and for some people that's
a good thing. Maybe we should move away from coal,
but there's also a number where it's probably too low
and they're just making it. We're just suckers giving this
stuff away for free. So with gas, it's you know,
we use it a lot for energy mainly, and they

(19:55):
have to like drill into the ground, frack it, do
a lot of environmental damage, get it, then they process
it and then they sell that. So it's a foreign company.
Most of these cartels are foreign companies, so Impex is one,
but they're Japanese owned. Some of the Japanese government even
owns impacts. They actually get a lot of their gas
for free. So they drill it, do the environmental damage,

(20:18):
take it, process it, sell it to other countries in Asia,
making money on our gas. But they didn't pay us
for the gas.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
But how is that possible?

Speaker 3 (20:28):
What agreement has our government set up or what do
they have over us? Because the first thing you think
of is, well, they've obviously got something for us. Otherwise,
why would we give away our precious minerals for free.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
So here's how it happened in Australia. It comes back
to media and mates. Those are the two pillars of
how did this happen? We should be the wealthiest country
in the world. Katari citizens don't pay tax. I pay tax,
You pay a lot of tax. Guess who doesn't pay tax?
Impects the Japanese owned cartel that got the gas the

(20:59):
free centa. Another gas cartel doesn't pay tax. We pay tax,
they don't. But it comes to how did this happen?
How did we allow this? Because who pays for the
environmental damage when it's finished and we go, hey, this
turns out there's les poisoning people. We better try and
fix that. We're the ones left on the line for
that ultimately if the cleanup doesn't happen as well. But

(21:19):
how this one happened was every resource minister, the politician
in charge of our resources and making the rules. So
governments make the rules to say yes you can get it,
no you can't. Every resource minister, barb one, I think,
since like the ninety nineties, has gone to work for
the mining and gas cartels.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
So what that you say that it's I guess allegedly
a bride.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
It's saying, hey, like, do this deal with us now,
and then we're going to look after you personally in
a couple of years.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
Well, coincidence or corruption, I'm meant to legally say it's
a coincidence. It's a coincidence that the person who made
the rule called the PRRT patrolling Resource rent tax. We
don't need to go into that. That's where they try
and make it confusing. The person who made that rule
is now a gas lobbyist.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Well, coincidences are less coincidences when there's a pattern.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
And boy, oh boy, is there a pattern. So like
the Premiere of Wa, he just went to go work
for three mining cartels. Mining is huge in Wa. And
when you're the premier or you're the resource minister, you're
the person that made the rules for these companies. And
if the government made the rules to benefit us, their
profits would be a tenth of what they're making. But
we would be all be rich. Australis citizens would be rich.

(22:31):
But since they made the rule that benefited them, I guess. Oh,
turns out we just got a sweet cushy job pays
probably half a MILLI year. I don't know they're getting
paid with They're getting paid.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
A lot well most of other countries.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
And I saw you speaking about Alaska in particular, just earlier.
Alaska gives their citizens back dividends from every sale of
their minerals. Oh, I don't know if it's particularly just
gal it's oil.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
But we as.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
Australians, correct me if I'm wrong, receive nothing from any mineral.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
That we sell.

Speaker 4 (22:59):
No, we do. We get royalties for different minerals, So
different minerals have a different royalty. So the critical rare
earth minerals that Albo just did a deal with for Trump,
I think that royalty the payment for the staff is
like two to three percent. Yeah, col In Newcastle's nine percent.
Colon Queensland. They've just done a better deal. Their government
did a good thing and they upped the royalty. That's

(23:19):
so they get more money than New South Wales does
for their coal. Gas is a whole other thing. Turns
out something different. So they have another rule which results
in half the gas being given away. Free gas drilled
offshore in the ocean pays the PRRT, which turns out
hasn't collected a cent of royalty to date and we've
given billions, I mean billions out So how does this happen?

(23:43):
Media and mates, resource staffers, ministers, they all go to
work for these companies and then the media. Kerry Stokes
owns a gas mine. He's an investor in a gas mine.
Now will Kerry Stokes put me on Channel seven to say, oh,
he got an exemption for some reason, some special rule
written for him so that he can sell he's on
shore gas at a lesser rate. Overseas or whatever it is.

(24:05):
You want me to believe that it's just a coincidence
that you own a media company with a massive stick
to say to the government, if you don't do what
we say, we're going to run millions of dollars of ads.
And that's what happened to like Julia Gillard and Kevin
rd back in the day they floated a mining tax.
I think they passed a mining tax, and the mining

(24:25):
cartels through millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, just propagating
to destroy the government. So this government elbow, he's too afraid.
He's afraid of Rupert Murdock. He's like, oh no, like
and every prime minister is a good reason.

Speaker 5 (24:39):
You know, he wants to win totally, but he also
wants to keep the people who are underneath him in
a job.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
And like I think sometimes.

Speaker 5 (24:45):
When we talk about these things, and we talk about
the way that the media can actually skew your perception
of something, we often assume that the people doing it,
you know, you think that they're just evil, but really
they're just trying to protect their own And I'm not
saying this oone should be the citizen, but my point
is not Oh, they're actually trying to do the right thing.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
I'm saying that as humans, we want to.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
Protect our first circle, you know, our closest circle first,
and then the people that extend from that they're no different.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
But it's just it's such.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
A problem when the leavers they're able to pull, are
able to impact so many different people, and they're still
protecting that inner circle first.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
I think what you're pulling out is and what I'm
always trying to point out, I'm never wanting to say
what some people say and I see in the comments
they're evil, They're a joke. They just want to hurt us,
and that's what they think. We're done. Politicians think we're
stupid and they say, you know, you listen to them
propagandas and say the Labor Party just wants to destroy
the working family. No, they yeah, I'm going to get

(25:42):
up in the morning and say, how can I destroy
the working family? No, but there are a set of
incentives that are in front of them. Yeah, we're the
easy choice for our prime minister, no matter who it
is is. If I piss off this massive industry, I
might not win the next election. And I just want
power that's my game. All this is what is power.
And if I don't piss them off, they'll give me

(26:04):
one hundred grand. I'll take the one hundred grand and
maybe a job, and I won't do the hard thing
that risks my job. So it's a set of incentives
that I'm just trying to say I don't I don't
hate any politician, but I don't trust the politician because
of the incentives. And when the politician goes to work
in the industry they made the rules for I call
it corruption, they call it business as usual, they call

(26:26):
it politics. Regular punters want it to stop. So that's
kind of why I do. What I do is to
essentially say to punters, focus on this and everything else
will fix itself.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
And this is what I hate.

Speaker 5 (26:38):
You've actually just completely outlined it. For me, it's not
the individual. It's the fact that the incentives are able
to be there. We should have rules where they are
not able to be incentivized. Yes, to pull a lever
that could impact so many people, because the human condition
is it's natural to protect yourself and protect your own
first and worry about oh, I could lose my job

(26:58):
or the people underneath me could lose my job if
I do this certain thing, which is actually correct, it's
better for the country if I do this thing. I
hate the fact that we have allowed ourselves to get
to a place. And I mean, if we're seeing this
just to the utmost extent right now in America, where
there are able to be so many incentives to corrupt people,
you're but.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
An incentive and a rule of different things.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
There are rules against having incentives, there are rules against
payments and bribery. There really don't work because an incentive
doesn't rely on a rule. An incentive there's just something
personally that's like, I know, if I do it, it'll
allow me to get there, but we have rules against it.
It doesn't mean that they're ever going to stop. You
still know that they're there. There's still going to be
a carrot that's dangling in front of you. And I
think that that's the issue, is how do you get

(27:41):
around having the incentive? And I don't know if that
is possible Until somebody grows a set of balls.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
You'll always be playing whack a mole, like against the loopholes.
They're loophole hunting, that's the game. But when we see
these obvious corruption of interest, the obvious incentives where we go, Wow,
if I was a politician, I could do the hard thing,
a thankless hard task, maybe lose, or do the easy
thing that everyone's done before me, and just get the

(28:10):
sweetest weapons lobbyist job. Scott Morrison ever allegedly allegedly.

Speaker 6 (28:16):
No, no, he does, he does work for like Dye
Maritime is the company that anyway, I won't go into that,
and I can do what everyone else has done, and
I can earn double what I was earning as a
Prime minister.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
We can look at that and go, we can clearly
stop that. We can make a rule to stop it.
And politicians will come to me in the bag and
they'll treat us like idiots, and they'll treat me like
I get what I get when I meet some politicians
or the political nerds out there. It's complicated, like it's
really hard, Like it's not as simple as you're saying.
And I think my whole platform pushes against that. It
is bloody simple. There are obvious things that we can

(28:53):
see are broken, and it's not hard to say, if
you're a politician, how about you don't go work in
a job, go be a teacher, Go be a bricky,
go bloody, work at a coffee shop, do something else
if you're finished, because they'll say, oh, what will our
politicians do. If you're that useless and you can't get
a job after politics, then I question why you're in it.

(29:13):
We can easily say stop it, don't do it, and
we can pass rules that at least get rid of
some of the big incentives and then deal with the
next challenge that you're talking about. Yeah, they'll find another
loophole and when we do, we'll pass another rule.

Speaker 5 (29:25):
Another thing that affects so many of us around our age,
and even younger than us as well, that they seem
to have a personal incentive has to do with housing.
And I know that you speak about this all the time,
and again it seems so obvious to all of us
that the people who are in power are able to
make rules that directly benefit them.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
But housing is a particular way that they do do it.

Speaker 4 (29:48):
Yeah, well, they own like some politicians own seven houses.
So like there is Peter Dunn, Well his stuff was
in a blind trust. Us was in a trust. I
always on my podcast when a politician comes on and
I can look up what they own, what assets they have,
and I'm always like, oh, three houses, good for you
must be nice, excellent. And when Peter Dutton, obviously he

(30:11):
wouldn't come on the pod, but I looked him.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
He knows you're looking up.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
It's like I'm screwed, but he's not because it was
in a trust. And the crazy thing about this register
of interests is that I've asked many politicians what happens
if you breach the code, like you don't declare something
like you've got shares in I'm telling you there's one
thing I came across one politician, Barnaby Joyce's son who
was five years old, bought shares in a mining company

(30:37):
before it got a contract coincidentally from the Pentagon and
the Australian government.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
But that's inside of training.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Apparently it's totally fine and legal, because.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
That five year old should be in prison.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
I mean it's inside training. So I don't know how
you I mean, i'med around it.

Speaker 4 (30:54):
Yeah, all this stuff is perfectly fine and legal, like
that's these are the rules. And I'm saying, obviously, change
the rules. And yeah, politicians like housing is the big one,
Like what's the incentive what's the personal incentive when you've
got three investment properties to pass rules that will curb
your house price growth.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
How have you gone about, I guess, putting yourself in
the room. How have you gone about having conversations with
people who are actually able to make some sort of
change in this area.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
Like politicians. Yeah, it's interesting. Some politicians will engage with me.
Others will be championing what I'm for, the policies I'm wanting.
The problem with politicians is they're so good at pretending
to care like when you talk to them. The problem
with politicians is they're really nice people and they're really personable,

(31:46):
and you get chatting. I was at the Midwinter's Ball
with all the politicians to swindle myself a ticket. I
was at a table with Bridget McKenzie, who's like pretty
on the right side of politics, very conservative Nationals. She
would disagree with everything I'm saying. She's totally for giving
away gas for free. She has no peep about that.
We're getting along like a house on fire. We're just

(32:06):
having a good old chat.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Because you have to be extremely charismatic and have the
gift of the gag to be a successful politician.

Speaker 4 (32:13):
Yeah, and they are, and so they're so good at
being like, oh, like I hear you. Ah, he's so true.
It's something we're looking I'd one Chris Bowen like top
dog poll for energy on the pod and the I
want to hit him with the gas. Hey, grisboll why
are we giving our gas away for free?

Speaker 2 (32:28):
End up going for a beer? Mate?

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Love you going and working for him?

Speaker 4 (32:34):
Yeah, And he just gives this like fandangled excuse I
we're doing more than the previous government. They give their
talking points. Part of their job, if you're a major
party politician, is to just political maneuver their way out
of tricky situations where they can maintain the status quo.
I'm here with noisy punters like okay, stop giving guys
away for free. They're like, yeah, no, we hear you,

(32:55):
Like we get it. The play Yeah, if you're a politician,
playbook guad deny, pretend it doesn't exist. Last night problem
is totally fine. Next playbook is say are you going
to do something about it? Do nothing? And that's what
they're really good at, and that's why all the stuff
I talk about comes back to policy over party. Don't
vote for one person just religiously vote for policy and

(33:17):
change the incentives make them. And this is benefit of
having such a large platform. I'm showing how popular these
policies are. So politicians if they do want to step
out on a limb and go, oh, is it popular
to go against my big donors? What maybe it is?
And they can maybe do the hard thing knowing there's more,
there's more incentive over here, knowing that it's a popular policy.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Well, that's something that we mentioned at the start.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
But it's a reason that I really liked your content
and something that Keisha and I do personally. We've discussed it.
But why you say that everybody should be a swing voter?
So just talk to it a little bit more. Explain
what you mean when you say we should be a
swing voter, because I feel like that's what we have
always done, it's what I will always do.

Speaker 5 (33:55):
Well, I actually put my hand up and say, I've
only ever voted in one direction. I've been very open
about what direction that is. And it wouldn't take anyone
long to figure it out.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
She's pro Trump, but I knew it. It was the
Maga hat.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
I got to get rid of that red hat.

Speaker 5 (34:10):
But like a really big part of me actually is
starting to understand that I think I was a little
bit skewed by certain media in the you know, particularly
in my younger years, where I thought one party was
evil and they were corrupt, And I'm actually starting to
realize that in some ways they're equally as bad as
each other. And you know, it might only be the

(34:32):
rise of particular independence that are.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Able to shift the needle.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
I'm not sure, but why is it so important that
we don't focus on well, I've always voted this way
and therefore that's or maybe my parents vote this way
and that's why I vote for this particular party. Why
is it more important to actually focus on what they're
doing well.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
I don't think you should chair for a political party
like you chair for a sporting team. It doesn't matter
which players come and go. You're just like the lion,
like let's go. I'm always focused on we agree more
than we disagree, and that's my starting point. Doesn't matter
which side of politics you are on. Nine out of
ten Izzy punters don't want to be giving their gas
away for free. The only ones that are any that

(35:15):
are the ones on LinkedIn who work for and they're
like the punda's politics sucks. I'm like, cheers mister x
On because he works anyway. They're the people, and so
I've always said policy over party. Look at the policy
and you can find man. Someone should probably put that
on a T shirt.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
Maybe you gotta this would have been a really good
superman you pull.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
You should have busted my five dollars up shop shirt.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Open it up there.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
Policy there we go. Policy over party. Sorry about bumping
the microphone there, because I think and I think our
generation and coming generations we're so bread consumer rists that
were just like, if that shop doesn't have what you want,
go somewhere else. Don't be loyal. I'll say this until
I meet these iPhone people out there.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
Me he's looking at me when you text me this
morning and it came up green, didn't cancel me.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
I don't judge people.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Get back on the train and go home.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
So at the risk of being excommunicated from this lovely chat,
I would say, don't be that. So when I'm actually
to take a wild little tangent here, I'm actually an
iPhone guy in my heart. I have a MacBook Pro.
They're the best laptop you can get, especially for video editing.
The power is unprecedented. And I used to have an
iPhone until they just never updated anything and nothing was new,

(36:35):
and you got the new phone, but it was the same,
and I was like, I'm sick of this. I want
a bigger displayer. I want God forbid. I don't want
to nerd out here, but I want my phone to
fold in half.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
Do you work for Big Google or Big It goes
and gets a job?

Speaker 4 (36:49):
And this is but I use a Galaxy podcast.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Responsored by Samsung. Metaphor does make sense.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
So I'm trying to What I'm trying to do in
this analogy is say I love Apple, I just think
they can do better. I think they should have a
phone that folds in half because I want one and
I think it's awesome, so I'll just go buy that.
And yes, I have less friends because of it. Everyone
thinks I'm uncool. I'm lucky to get on podcasts like
this because iPhone is cooler, It's nicer and better in
some ways.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
Yes, but you're gonna be happy to swing back to
the iPhone once they release it.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
I will be the first in line when they release
a better phone than the one I've got now, Yes,
like I guarantee, and that's what I think we're more
attuned to in politics. I will vote for anybody, no
matter who the party is, no matter what they do.
If the party that stands up says this revolving door
of jobs for mates going in and out of politics
to industry, I'm going to block that. I'll bloody vote

(37:43):
for you because there's lots of care about in politics.
I'm here to try and make it as simple as
we bloody can, because I don't think you should have
to pay attention to politics. We employee what's called a politician.
That's their job. They should be doing all the politicing
and I can go surf. That's what it should be.
But they've sold me out, so now I've got to
come in from the surf and go pay attention to

(38:04):
check their homework, make sure they are working for me.
And my pitch is, if you can fix those loopholes,
then I can go back to not paying attention to
politics because they're back to working for me. And the
best way to do that is to not vote, not
vote religiously without looking at how your politician votes and
whether the thing you care about they don't just say

(38:25):
something about it, they do something about.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
It that's really powerful.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Well that's the grab.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
I don't know if it's powerful or you've zoned out.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Because no, I was trying to google a stat to
add in.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
But because when I'm talking politics, it's this dance of
like no, no, no, too political, like bring it back, bring
it back there. All my friends their eyes just glazed.
I'm like, no, no, you've gone too far.

Speaker 5 (38:49):
No.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
I was actually trying to google some of our Australian
tax statistics in relation to the rest of the world,
but I didn't get the answer I wanted, so I'm
not going to go there. What impact do you think
pun a politics is having, because you have grown pretty astronomically,
I'd say it's been. I mean, I remember when I
started following you. I think I had more followers than you,
and now I'd love a shout out on your podcast

(39:12):
because I'm joking, but it's been really great to see
because obviously the cut through that you've had with somebody
like me, who is just the average punter, you've had
through with everybody. Have you seen an actual impact yet?
And I guess what is the impact that you were
hoping to have.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
I'm hoping to just take the Aussie punter that we're
told ozsies aren't political, but the rise of my platform
shows we are. Politics is just having a winch with
your mates about something that you want to change.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
I think we say ossie's aren't political. I think because
it's never been put onto a level that makes us
want to consume it or makes us want to understand.
And it goes back to what you said earlier, where
it's always been made to be extremely boring and very
multi layered, like an onion. You need to peel it back,
very complicated. Oh, you'd never understand it. We were brought
up in a generation hands up where it was like

(40:00):
you voted for who your.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Parents voted for.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
I remember the number of years in a row from
the moment I turned eighteen where on the day of
the election, I would go to my parents, I'd say, Dad,
who am I voting for? What boxes am I ticking?
That's what I would say for years because I didn't
have any comprehension or understand and understanding at all. And
I don't want to blame teachers, but not teaching, but

(40:22):
the curriculum right.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
Don't even prepare material.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
But we weren't taught it at school.

Speaker 5 (40:27):
We also used to have the social etiquette that it
was rude to ask people.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
It was rude to.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Ask people like, you know, their values and that kind
of thing.

Speaker 5 (40:35):
You're that our grandparents' generation, even to our parents' generation,
it was genuinely.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Considered to be a rude thing to ask someone how.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
Much you earned, whereas now how much you're making.

Speaker 5 (40:45):
Yeah, I feel as though there is a lot change,
Like there is a lot changing in our generation. I
think that we're probably the first generation to really start
having these conversations and not make it awkward, because I
feel as though they only benefited from that.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
They benefited from.

Speaker 5 (40:59):
People not having conversations about where corruption might be or
where media might be overstepping. And I guess it's alongside
the rise of social media where people like yourself were
able to have an opinion, whereas previously with legacy media,
with traditional media sources, they weren't able to because you couldn't.
You know, they've got all these deals, They've got all
these extra companies, like it's all intertwined.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
We just weren't educated because we didn't have accessibility. We
exactly what Kisha just said it was legacy media. So
you got the information that they wanted you to have,
and then that was it. And now we have a
bigger understanding of what is in our own backyard.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
Yeah, and the way they frame it is deliberately boring. Oh,
Susan Li said this, and so and so said that.
Who cares like it's so it's sport, but it's boring
and they I think it's a deliberate framing of the
legacy media doing that because that checks us out. So
they'll kind of shame us for not being engaged in politics.
They'll kind of be like, oh, well, you should be

(41:56):
an informed citizen and know who to vote for. We
don't pay attention to the politics that we're told is
politics because it's pointless. These infights that we're seeing that's manufactured.
They're pretending to disagree on something. And I'll put a
thousand dollars of my own punt of money that non't
neither labor nor liberal, the two majors will ever stop

(42:17):
giving our gas away for free. I'll put money on that.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
How long is that contract? Do we know?

Speaker 3 (42:23):
Like, how long have we said for this current contract
that we're going to be giving this gas away up
for renewal.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
So the excuses are always really complicated. So they will
tell you our sovereign, resent god, we've got contracts. You
can't change the rules in retrospect. Bullshit. We can do
whatever the hell we want. If we're getting ripped off,
it's called a government, it's called a democracy. If we
all decide stop it, we can pass the law, change
the rule, they can stop it. And that's honestly as

(42:50):
simple as politics is. And when we can engage on
the politics that matters. I do think osis are actually political.
I do think that when you seeing at the barbecue
and someone brings up house prices, that's politics. When someone
brings up groscy prices, that's politics. Inflation politics, all of
that is politics. And it doesn't have to be this way.
When I have an eighty thousand dollars hex debt, idiot,

(43:14):
I have to pay off. My dad got two university
degrees like I have. But for free right, it doesn't
have to be this way. And when we realize we
can change the rules, politics is as simple as that.
So what I'm trying to do on my platform is
help people realize politics doesn't have to be complicated. You
don't have to put in too much effort. Once every
three years, pop your head up, pick an issue you

(43:36):
care about, make sure the politicians votes for that, and
here are some tools to help you not fall for
their BS. Because they're a BS factory, their job currently
when they're getting paid by corporations is to put up
a smoke screen to confuse you so that they can
keep doing what they're doing for their corporate donors. And
I'm trying to what my goal is is to cut

(43:57):
through that BS so regular punters can see it for
what it is, can see who to blame and what
to do about it.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
I guess we know what you want to do for
the average punt. So it's just an education and an
interest and you get people to try and voice their
opinion more to get change. But what is the actual outcome?
What do you want to see change with policies and
with the government. And I guess having said that, do
you think the answers are sometimes oversimplified? Do you think

(44:24):
sometimes I know it's easy on Instagram to say this
is our gas problem, we're giving it away, let's just
stop doing that. That seems like a very simplified answer,
what do you think can actually be a tangible, feasible change.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
The short answer is anything we want. And this is
where we will be dismissed because I am offering simplistic
solutions to simple problems, and they will tell me it's
more complicated than that. And that's just not my job,
and that's not your job. That's not like you've got
actual jobs you have to do. You are not like

(44:58):
people when I say, oh, well, you know what policy,
how would you modify the PRT to collect resources while
still incentivizing incentive in long term contracts from foreign investors.
It's not my bloody job. There's a bunch of whole
political nerds out there that can take the premise of
what we're essentially saying as a democratic population saying Norway's

(45:19):
got two trillion dollars now three trillion dollars of wealth
that they turned their oil into, that they are now
the richer citizens in the world. Give me that and
that is a simple solution. Yes, getting there's complex, but
we have people smart, far smarter than me, to work
out exactly how it's done. I think my role is
to tell everyone that this is possible, and when they

(45:39):
try and talk down to you and try and disengage
you from the political conversation and dismiss you. I'm here
to say no, piss off. I'm here to remind people
what is possible in a democracy. And that's why I
point to other countries. That's why I point to historical examples.
My dad went to UNI for free. I'm sort of
reminding people of this. And I think if enough people

(46:02):
can just believe that we will engage with politics so
tiny bit more intentionally, and then the politicians won't get
away with the stuff they're getting away with.

Speaker 5 (46:09):
Do you know what I think is a really good
example of this, though, is the whole sixteen year old's
being banned from social media. The government came in and
said we're going to do this as of this day.
I think it's this month actually, and.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Then they said tech companies, you need to work out
how about it. Yeah, So it makes a best question
like if.

Speaker 5 (46:26):
We were to bring in a rule that impacted these things,
they don't even have to figure out all of the solutions.
The companies that are currently benefiting from it may have
to figure out solutions. And it just makes me put
my hands in the air and say, well, if you're
able to do it for social media, like why aren't
you able to do it in other ways?

Speaker 4 (46:40):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean that's the best example. The government
somehow managed and who knows if it will work or not,
but they're totally fine with passing a law that probably
won't work, but we're going to signal hey, social media
cooks people's brains. How about we don't let it happen
to kids. Yes, it may not work or not, but
they did that because the big corporate media Murdock machine

(47:01):
they hate social media because that's the competition these billionaires
over here. So Murdock's like yah yah baned social media.
Government's like, oh we can do that. Done yet gambling
ads on TV. I was teaching at school, kids come
after me, state of origin or I put fifty on
the on the Marines and I was like, cool man,
good on you, well Queenslander.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
But also we've seen the government over and over be
able to change the rules when it suits them, and
even like the UK. This is an example that comes
to my mind right now. The UK has seen a
mass exodus of millionaires, not even millionaires, but I guess
just just the average punter as well. Leave the UK
to move to the likes of the UAE so that
they don't have to pay tax.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
This has been happening for the last couple of years,
and so the UK is like, fuck, we're losing huge
amounts of tax now because all of these high earners
are like, screw you, I'm going to go make my
money work for me elsewhere. So now they're going to
change the law and have an exit tax.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
Yeah, you're right, they can change the rule.

Speaker 3 (47:57):
Yeah, I guess my point is the government can pull
that rule out of their buttthole when they need to
change it to suit them.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Well, this is not even that hysterical for hextets.

Speaker 5 (48:05):
It used to be that if you left the country,
I think, sorry, if the timeframes are not right, I'm
pretty sure it was nine years. I'm a dual citizen.
My hex stet was like I think at the top
it was like sixty five grand or something like that,
and I remember thinking I could go live in the UK.
I'm a citizen. I could go there for nine years
and I don't have to pay back this sixty five
thousand dollars debt. They changed the rules because so many

(48:26):
people were doing it.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
And so Now the people who go over who are either.

Speaker 5 (48:29):
Dual citizens or they're able to work in a different country,
they still have to pay the hex set off.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
So having people kind of realize what you've said, this
can happen. Yeah. Sure, some rules will pass and they
might not work, they might whatever, but they can pass
a rule instantly and having people realize that and remember it.
Politicians will always say it's too complicated, or it's too hard,
or it's too difficult when they don't want to do
it and they want to keep status quo. There's nothing
simpler than banning gambling ads. Really bloody simple, not allowed

(48:57):
on TV anymore. The n end of story. I'll out
on sport any more. End of story. The end. No
loophole's there. You just can't do it. Do you see
cigarette packets on the Wallabies Jersey? No, but you see
gas giants santos on the Wallabies Jersey. You can stop
this stuff anytime. You just have to remember. And when
they tell you we can't, they're lying to you.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Conrad, we could talk to you forever, but we have
to go. Thank you so much. If anybody wants to
go and find out more. Conrad has like hundreds of videos, shorts, reels, YouTube,
so many videos that break down what might seem overly
complicated elsewhere. And I think I still will say, and
I say to everyone, use media literacy. You don't have

(49:38):
to believe everything Conrad says. If you want to go
and figure out if what he says has truth to
it or not.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Still do that.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
We say that to everybody, like just tag us, but
we do like and I think that that's really important.
We do that with every guest that we have, and
I think that that's important more so than ever when
you're talking about news, politics, any any information. I never
want people to that, oh, we heard it here, it
must be true. You're always so important to go and
do your own research and then decide which way you're

(50:06):
going to swing. But I do find your information for
me pretty invaluable in breaking down some of the complicated things.
So I do want people to We're gonna link it Instagram.
You've got a YouTube, you've got.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Podcasts, the platform I'm on, linked.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
You got to share. You got a billboard. The billboard
was great.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
Yeah, it's all that.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Well.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
I really appreciate being able to come on because I
think politics is more simple and definitely don't. I'm with
you, you shouldn't be listening to some idiot on social media.
I'm pointing at myself right now to get pointing. Yeah,
I'm like, I shouldn't be doing this because I'm not
an expert in these sorts of things. I'm just a
regular punter, literally reading articles and trying to understand it

(50:48):
as best I can and talking to people. And I'll
always cite where my info's coming from so that you
can at least go, oh, really, half the gas for free?
Where's it coming from? You can see the link there,
follow the link. Definitely, don't take my word as gospel.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
But but you've done your research.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
But someone's got to do it, so here I am.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
Yeah, thank you so much, men and people.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
Cheer, cheers, puts