# The problem with Australian politics! Craig Laundy on Energy, AI and Australia’s Next Crisis

An episode of [Straight Talk with Mark Bouris](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1572546872), 2 Mar 2026, 1 h 00 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/1c4759f0-81fc-4f35-85d1-b305004fc1e8/761faec4-d2d3-4758-aad5-b401003a1a92/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=573776d2-4dbd-4f2f-a825-b305004fc1ef

Craig Laundy joins me in Las Vegas for a direct conversation on business, politics and legacy, from the Bulldogs’ resurgence to the Laundy family’s investment in 2GB. We unpack the future of Australian politics, the role of AI, economic pressure points and what it takes to build long term impact across generations. Join my exclusive Mentored+ community: https://mentored.com.au/become-a-member/ Claim $500 Bitcoin with OKX SMSF. SMSF trustees: Successfully sign-up your SMSF and get verified for an OKX SMSF trading account. Deposit $5 and receive $500 worth of Bitcoin. Eligibility requirements and T&Cs apply. Book a 1-1 call with the OKX SMSF team today for guidance. Offer ends 31 March 2026. Join the Facebook Group. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Greg Lawndi wald a straight talk mate like I've been.
[0:03] Speaker 1: I've actually been one of these. You've interviewed Dad and
[0:05] Speaker 1: I sat in the background. You gave me a wave,
[0:07] Speaker 1: I think. But now now I'm the main man. You
[0:09] Speaker 1: are the main man, mate.
[0:10] Speaker 2: Well, of course we're here in Vegas and if anyone
[0:13] Speaker 2: doesn't know, the curtains pull, but we're looking across the
[0:16] Speaker 2: strip there and hasn't been here. Maybe he was the
[0:19] Speaker 2: Bulldogs you won last night, which is it was a
[0:22] Speaker 2: nail bite, thank god. Yeah, Crichton saved the day like
[0:26] Speaker 2: a massive care captain, courageous captain, courageous like literally in
[0:30] Speaker 2: extra time over time they call it here.
[0:33] Speaker 1: Yeah, just with the guys we came out, he said,
[0:35] Speaker 1: how did your team go? So we won an overtime
[0:37] Speaker 1: over just what they understand over here.
[0:39] Speaker 2: And the Bulldogs have bought quite a big group over here.
[0:43] Speaker 2: And of course the Lownde family or the Lorndy brand,
[0:47] Speaker 2: I might say, is the sponsor of the Bulldogs. What
[0:51] Speaker 2: was the effort like in terms of getting everybody And
[0:53] Speaker 2: I'm hearing stories like you put on a family night
[0:56] Speaker 2: for the parents of the players.
[0:58] Speaker 1: They did a great job. And you know, Aaron Warburton
[1:01] Speaker 1: in his time. They used it as a you know,
[1:04] Speaker 1: a reward for a couple of really good years. They
[1:08] Speaker 1: brought a big contingent of staff over to say thanks,
[1:11] Speaker 1: and it was extremely well reus sod But the way
[1:13] Speaker 1: they looked after the players and their families, you know,
[1:17] Speaker 1: the itinery. I didn't go to a lot of it,
[1:20] Speaker 1: because there was a lot of it, but I spoke
[1:23] Speaker 1: to the players and their families and they just had
[1:25] Speaker 1: a fantastic time. They made a real family experience. And
[1:30] Speaker 1: the best part is Mark, we're the family club. You know,
[1:33] Speaker 1: Peter Moore days. You know, this was the family club.
[1:37] Speaker 1: We're back there again. And you know, I had Dad
[1:40] Speaker 1: and all of our family here. That's how we roll nowadays.
[1:44] Speaker 1: That's where we've got back to and that's where we
[1:47] Speaker 1: want to stay.
[1:48] Speaker 2: That's very interesting because you know, I do remember the
[1:51] Speaker 2: bill Frog days a bit more back in the late
[1:54] Speaker 2: eighties or probably before actually before long before that, but
[1:57] Speaker 2: they sort of ended towards I think in the early
[1:59] Speaker 2: nineties or something. But you know, you had the hughes As,
[2:03] Speaker 2: the Moor's, the Mortimer's, lots of and it was a
[2:08] Speaker 2: family deal. Everybody was always involved in everything. The Laundes
[2:12] Speaker 2: have sort of brought that feel back into the joint
[2:14] Speaker 2: and then looking after the players and the families because
[2:17] Speaker 2: you know, like you know, these days, ave got a
[2:18] Speaker 2: lot of Islanders play in our teams, like fifty four
[2:20] Speaker 2: percent of players and oral today Islanders and they are
[2:23] Speaker 2: very family orange, absolutely, and it's important.
[2:26] Speaker 1: And Gus is important. Yeah, you know, Gus and Dad.
[2:31] Speaker 1: They're the great double act. You know, Gus will go
[2:35] Speaker 1: and talk to the family concerned about their young bloke.
[2:39] Speaker 1: And you know, at fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years of age,
[2:42] Speaker 1: we're identifying these kids as you are at the Roosters
[2:46] Speaker 1: and bringing them into our system. Cam Serral though his
[2:50] Speaker 1: system now at first grade level is replicated at under
[2:54] Speaker 1: fifteens at Harold Matt's s G Ball President's Cup. You
[2:58] Speaker 1: know it. It is just diametrically opposed to what we
[3:06] Speaker 1: signed on to in day one and what we see
[3:10] Speaker 1: now and then you can't forget, you know, Adam Drewsey
[3:12] Speaker 1: and John Curry and the board you know largely, but
[3:17] Speaker 1: those two personalities in particular are unbelievably passionate. John handles
[3:22] Speaker 1: the community side of things. Adam is you know, if
[3:25] Speaker 1: he's not the smartest bloke in the room. He's in
[3:27] Speaker 1: the semifinals and he's just brought a whole new dimension
[3:30] Speaker 1: to the way we do things at Canterbury.
[3:33] Speaker 2: I remember sitting down at this time last year with
[3:35] Speaker 2: both Gus and Adam, having a coffee with them across
[3:38] Speaker 2: the road at the Winn Hotel, and Adam was telling
[3:42] Speaker 2: me about the importance of artificial intelligence. Most of who
[3:44] Speaker 2: don't realize that. I think Adam is like a major
[3:46] Speaker 2: shareholder in a company called Quantum.
[3:48] Speaker 1: Here him and him and his best mate through and
[3:51] Speaker 1: he found founded and it is it would be one
[3:53] Speaker 1: of the preminent a major shareholder now. Is Woolworths worse
[3:57] Speaker 1: only because they've brought them out over time because Adam
[4:00] Speaker 1: and his partner did all the work for Willis and
[4:03] Speaker 1: Wowors was smart enough to identify early that this guy
[4:06] Speaker 1: knows what he's doing.
[4:07] Speaker 2: He's got a few other clients sitting in Quantinum too,
[4:10] Speaker 2: huge big names.
[4:11] Speaker 1: Telstra Colinwealth Bank, you know Brian Hartzer who used to
[4:14] Speaker 1: run Westpac that does our family banking. You know, runs
[4:19] Speaker 1: his health side of his business. You know Peter Tonner
[4:21] Speaker 1: Channel nine, which we'll talk about. I'm sure as we
[4:24] Speaker 1: go through. This is his chair, which is the is
[4:27] Speaker 1: the chair of Channel nine. So I mean he's surrounded
[4:30] Speaker 1: the church on. Yeah, he surrounded himself with some extremely
[4:34] Speaker 1: intelligent people, not by chance, you know, by choice, and
[4:39] Speaker 1: he's just a very switched on operator. So when you
[4:42] Speaker 1: look at that whole.
[4:44] Speaker 2: Cultural peace in a club, that family piece and making
[4:49] Speaker 2: sure everybody feels like they belong to something, then you
[4:51] Speaker 2: overlay that with artificial intelligence. Well let's call it sort
[4:55] Speaker 2: of the smarts. That's probably the best formula you can
[4:59] Speaker 2: get the mean ultimately, and Canterbury, you know, they struggled
[5:04] Speaker 2: a few years back, were struggling for a long time
[5:06] Speaker 2: and really I think they really struggled after the more
[5:08] Speaker 2: period for a long time just to re identify themselves
[5:12] Speaker 2: as what they were best for, best known for.
[5:14] Speaker 1: Plenty of people try to bring it back. You guys
[5:17] Speaker 1: bought it back.
[5:18] Speaker 2: You then you know, I noticed you shipping everybody out today,
[5:21] Speaker 2: like you're not letting no one's allowed to stay, which
[5:23] Speaker 2: is a good thing to be honest with footy players.
[5:26] Speaker 2: They know the young blokes and you've got to send
[5:29] Speaker 2: them home. You've got to get them home and get
[5:30] Speaker 2: them back to the normal environments.
[5:34] Speaker 1: Of course you do. You have you have to play
[5:35] Speaker 1: next week. We have the next weekend off, don't you
[5:37] Speaker 1: know We've now got two weeks off. You've got two
[5:39] Speaker 1: weeks after. We've got a week off because we've played here,
[5:42] Speaker 1: and then we've got to buy. You got to buy
[5:44] Speaker 1: as well. That's actually a good thing. Yeah, so I
[5:47] Speaker 1: think so do you? Coach thinks so? But I think so?
[5:50] Speaker 1: Was it worth it? I mean it was. I mean
[5:52] Speaker 1: there's not only effort involved in getting him here. There's money.
[5:56] Speaker 2: It's expensive exercise and obviously Cannby is a has a
[6:01] Speaker 2: great sponsor, but it's also a pretty wealthy club that
[6:04] Speaker 2: they've got a good league club, etc.
[6:06] Speaker 1: You know, they do well. It was definitely worth it.
[6:09] Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I got asked by a journal
[6:11] Speaker 1: during the week and Peter Orlandis, who's a very switched
[6:15] Speaker 1: on operator, had made some comments about taking it elsewhere
[6:20] Speaker 1: if you want to crack the US market, and I
[6:22] Speaker 1: spend a lot of time over here. Now, if you
[6:25] Speaker 1: want to crack the US market, I don't think you
[6:27] Speaker 1: come to Vegas because there's so much going on here.
[6:31] Speaker 1: If you want to actually get the US market interested
[6:34] Speaker 1: and eyeballs on it that aren't Australian's visiting. I think
[6:38] Speaker 1: you take it to a city that's got something to offer,
[6:42] Speaker 1: but not everything to offer, which Las Vegas does. So
[6:45] Speaker 1: what comes to mind you need at this time of
[6:48] Speaker 1: year here it's cold and right now in New York
[6:52] Speaker 1: it's twenty inches of snow bruising. Yeah, so you basically
[6:56] Speaker 1: need an NFL town, an indoor stadium that you can
[7:01] Speaker 1: convert to have a Rugby League field, but with something
[7:05] Speaker 1: to offer tourists. But also there's not a lot else
[7:08] Speaker 1: on the town. So New Orleans, for example, would be
[7:11] Speaker 1: a cracker. Now, if you're the only game in town
[7:15] Speaker 1: that week, you know you're a chance of getting us
[7:19] Speaker 1: eyeballs to actually go and watch. So in the longer
[7:22] Speaker 1: term strategy, I know this is a five year plan
[7:25] Speaker 1: to dip the towel in the water. I think they
[7:27] Speaker 1: have to look at taking it away from the circus city,
[7:31] Speaker 1: which is a lot Las Vegas, where everything goes on
[7:34] Speaker 1: here every not it's mental here it is mental, And
[7:38] Speaker 1: you take it to a town where there's plenty plenty
[7:40] Speaker 1: of stuff for tourists to do from Australia that come,
[7:44] Speaker 1: but where it's the only game in town right now.
[7:47] Speaker 1: This is the sweet spot. So we've only got basketball
[7:50] Speaker 1: going on. Baseball's finished, NFL's finished, So.
[7:54] Speaker 2: The UFC is on the weekend, Boxing is on the weekend.
[7:57] Speaker 2: Is fighting this weekend.
[7:59] Speaker 1: They're going through it. But in another city around America
[8:03] Speaker 1: this weekend, you would be the only game in town.
[8:06] Speaker 1: And if you are serious about getting us eyeballs on
[8:09] Speaker 1: the game, I think they have to branch out and
[8:12] Speaker 1: take it elsewhere. And I presume you Tom the chairman.
[8:15] Speaker 1: I've had a whisper. Yeah, you had a whisper.
[8:18] Speaker 2: So okay, let's just talk about Craiglarn for me, because
[8:21] Speaker 2: I mean I did talk to your dad a long
[8:22] Speaker 2: time ago, and it was a great interview.
[8:24] Speaker 1: I loved having an interview with your dad.
[8:25] Speaker 2: I'd put him up there with Harry Triggobovs in terms
[8:28] Speaker 2: of interviews, but particularly being able to interview an older
[8:31] Speaker 2: man who's, you know, hasn't always had it as easy
[8:35] Speaker 2: as everybody might think they have it.
[8:37] Speaker 1: You know, he's he's a tough bastard.
[8:40] Speaker 2: He's grinded through, like years and years of hard decisions
[8:44] Speaker 2: and you know, probably intolerable periods. You know, everyone looks
[8:48] Speaker 2: at him today going how many pubs you guys got
[8:50] Speaker 2: in portfolio?
[8:51] Speaker 1: We run over one hundred now over one hundred.
[8:53] Speaker 2: So they probably go wow, you know, but they don't
[8:56] Speaker 2: realize whether where your dad started or probably your grandfather started. Yeah,
[9:00] Speaker 2: let's go back to Craig Laundy. You onet of three kids,
[9:04] Speaker 2: four four daughters to four, so.
[9:05] Speaker 1: You're the oldest so that I know, Stuart, I know you.
[9:07] Speaker 1: But have you got two sisters then? Jenny Ellen justin
[9:10] Speaker 1: two sisters? Right? So where did Craig Lawndy sort of
[9:15] Speaker 1: grow up? And what's the deal. We're a Straffield family
[9:19] Speaker 1: so which was dead center of the sea to read,
[9:22] Speaker 1: which I'm sure we'll get to we will, but yeah,
[9:25] Speaker 1: we're third generations Straffield people. You know. My grandparents used
[9:29] Speaker 1: to go back there in between selling pubs and rent houses.
[9:33] Speaker 1: My father and mother bought there. I was born at
[9:36] Speaker 1: the Twin Willows at bass Hill. I lived there for
[9:38] Speaker 1: short periods. Basil is your grandfathers grandparents? Yeah, they built
[9:41] Speaker 1: that opened at nineteen sixty four. I lived there for
[9:44] Speaker 1: a short period. I actually fell in the pool, lucky
[9:47] Speaker 1: to be alive. The housekeeper saw me going wow yeah
[9:50] Speaker 1: and grabbed me out, otherwise would have drowned. And it
[9:55] Speaker 1: scared the shit out of Mum and Dad so much
[9:57] Speaker 1: so that he rang and made his who was a
[9:59] Speaker 1: real estate in Stratfield and said find mere house, and
[10:02] Speaker 1: he brought a house the next day. So we moved
[10:04] Speaker 1: to Stratfield in nineteen at nineteen seventy, nineteen seventy one,
[10:09] Speaker 1: seventy two, early seventy two, and I was there till
[10:12] Speaker 1: two thousand and six.
[10:13] Speaker 2: Things do you remember one of the I recall this
[10:16] Speaker 2: living out there, but I'm pretty sure it was bas
[10:19] Speaker 2: Hill because there's just a little bit further from where
[10:21] Speaker 2: I was. But the driving there was a driving theater
[10:23] Speaker 2: right next door to us. It's now Basil Shopping.
[10:26] Speaker 1: I love that driving we used to go.
[10:28] Speaker 2: You put them on the wind the window, one of
[10:31] Speaker 2: the windows up and did Mom and dad a going
[10:32] Speaker 2: by the fish and chips and they put on the
[10:34] Speaker 2: front seat because those days the sea was just a
[10:36] Speaker 2: bench and me and my brother and sister we used
[10:38] Speaker 2: to sit over there and we'd be we'd.
[10:40] Speaker 1: Be like seagulls pull the chips, taking the chip.
[10:43] Speaker 2: It was the best thing. And Mid always have a blanket.
[10:45] Speaker 2: Mid always fall, so I don't remember what movies I saw.
[10:47] Speaker 2: But it was a big that was a big night
[10:49] Speaker 2: out Basil Driving theater.
[10:51] Speaker 1: It was I remember it like it was yesterday. Did
[10:54] Speaker 1: you used to go there? We occasionally, but I remember
[10:58] Speaker 1: it was so good, so good. So and then you
[11:01] Speaker 1: went to school? What do you go to some pats?
[11:03] Speaker 1: I went to del Monte for Monte in Stratfield Ben
[11:06] Speaker 1: some Pats and some Pats and then over to Joey
[11:08] Speaker 1: So then o Joey's. And then when you finished school
[11:11] Speaker 1: eighty eight. Yeah. So after the school, though, what did
[11:13] Speaker 1: you do? I went to University New South Wales yep,
[11:16] Speaker 1: did an economic commerce degree commerce screen. Yeah, the university's
[11:19] Speaker 1: I'm an accountant by trade. I just never practiced it
[11:22] Speaker 1: other than the family. So especially you majored in accounting
[11:25] Speaker 1: and finance. I did economics and finance, minored in accounting
[11:28] Speaker 1: minded account Okay, so why did you go to politics?
[11:32] Speaker 1: Where did you go and work for your family for
[11:33] Speaker 1: a while? I worked for dad for twenty three years.
[11:36] Speaker 1: And then in two thousand and seven, Scott Lurch, who's
[11:40] Speaker 1: a great made of mind president of the AHA, very
[11:43] Speaker 1: shrewd individual, rang me. He said, there's a guy you
[11:46] Speaker 1: need to meet just been elected. His name was Mike Baird.
[11:49] Speaker 1: He said, I think you you and Hay would get on. Well,
[11:52] Speaker 1: he's the first politician at that stage I met. That
[11:55] Speaker 1: was my age. I thought politics at that stage was
[11:57] Speaker 1: for older guys and lady and I got I struck
[12:02] Speaker 1: it off, struck you know, we got on and my
[12:06] Speaker 1: bed being the new South Wales premier former Liberal Party.
[12:10] Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and good friend still today and him and
[12:14] Speaker 1: Karen and his family. We had his daughter work for
[12:17] Speaker 1: us up at the Crown Plaza at Terregull. You know,
[12:20] Speaker 1: we're very close to these guys. And Mike said to
[12:24] Speaker 1: me something that ended up being prophetic at the time,
[12:27] Speaker 1: but he said in twenty eleven, twenty twelve, he said,
[12:33] Speaker 1: you know this is in you politics, you just don't
[12:35] Speaker 1: know it yet. And then I got that riled up
[12:38] Speaker 1: with the Gillard government that I rang him and said,
[12:41] Speaker 1: you know, if I did this, would you be in
[12:45] Speaker 1: my corner and I'll never forget it as long as
[12:47] Speaker 1: all have He said, Buggy your corner, I'll be right
[12:49] Speaker 1: in the middle of the ring with you. And he
[12:52] Speaker 1: supported me very strongly. John Brogden, who is a former
[12:57] Speaker 1: opposition leader and some Bat's boy and hour was trying
[13:00] Speaker 1: to talk me out of it, and when he couldn't,
[13:02] Speaker 1: he said, Okay, you've passed the test. How he gave
[13:05] Speaker 1: me a great hand through my pro selection because I
[13:08] Speaker 1: had to join the party had never been a member.
[13:11] Speaker 1: Was very different to what most politicians are because I
[13:15] Speaker 1: came from the real world and I needed their help.
[13:18] Speaker 1: John Brogden white Beard. Then it became great mates with
[13:21] Speaker 1: Gladys through the journey, and my chief of staff ended
[13:26] Speaker 1: up bening. Gladys's chief of staff Neil Harley, was very
[13:29] Speaker 1: instrumental in guiding me as well. And yeah, I just
[13:34] Speaker 1: just got into it by accident.
[13:37] Speaker 2: And you came in under your first assistant ministry or
[13:41] Speaker 2: you know, your first ministry was, as I recall, No, no,
[13:46] Speaker 2: I'm recalling a different period. I'm recalling when you were
[13:49] Speaker 2: sitting under Arthur Sinnadinas.
[13:51] Speaker 1: Yeah, and industry innovation, innovations. And were you ever in
[13:56] Speaker 1: the minister of a small business. Yes, that's where I
[13:59] Speaker 1: ended up, small Business industrial Relations. I asked you to
[14:02] Speaker 1: do a bit of work.
[14:03] Speaker 2: I did some work and we ran a task force
[14:06] Speaker 2: did which was interesting at the time and particularly given
[14:10] Speaker 2: where everything's ended up with AI because we ran the
[14:12] Speaker 2: Digital Task Force and now you know, we're trying to
[14:15] Speaker 2: work out how we can get Austrains become.
[14:17] Speaker 1: More digitally savvy.
[14:19] Speaker 2: Savvy and now, of course, AI, if you don't do
[14:21] Speaker 2: a you're in trouble. So to about savvy. But if
[14:26] Speaker 2: what how did you become close to Malcolm, close to Arthur,
[14:31] Speaker 2: et cetera.
[14:32] Speaker 1: So does it work? Yeah, it's sort of. It comes
[14:36] Speaker 1: down to personality. I, as a backbencher, was quite outspoken
[14:42] Speaker 1: on a few issues. I would call them common sense.
[14:45] Speaker 1: I mean, you look at what happened in BONDI. You know,
[14:49] Speaker 1: tragically at the end of last year, Section I don't
[14:53] Speaker 1: see the Racial Discrimination Act is probably where I first
[14:56] Speaker 1: stood up and said, no, hate speech is not good.
[15:00] Speaker 1: And you tiny Abbot, the Andrew Bolt case had gone on.
[15:05] Speaker 1: He'd lost under section eight and see Abbot and George
[15:09] Speaker 1: Brandis vowed to as an election commitment change that. And
[15:15] Speaker 1: I thought that was wrong. And I stood up and
[15:17] Speaker 1: I said this is wrong. And it was the first
[15:20] Speaker 1: time I spoke in party room. You know. I went
[15:22] Speaker 1: down there and thought, I don't know what they all do.
[15:26] Speaker 1: And my Dad's always taught me stay at the back,
[15:29] Speaker 1: be quiet and listen and learn. But I couldn't listen
[15:33] Speaker 1: any longer. I had to speak because I had one
[15:35] Speaker 1: of the most multiculturally diverse seats in Federal Parliament and
[15:40] Speaker 1: hates beach sucks and you see what it brings. And
[15:45] Speaker 1: we've seen that play out, and I just put my
[15:47] Speaker 1: hand up. And it was that point that I sort
[15:51] Speaker 1: of came to the attention of someone like Malcolm. You
[15:55] Speaker 1: know Arthur. You know, Arthur rang me. He's such a
[15:58] Speaker 1: good people person. Arthur he rang me and he hadn't
[16:03] Speaker 1: met me, you know, he got to know me a
[16:05] Speaker 1: little bit through the pre selection, but he said, what's
[16:07] Speaker 1: your story? And we had a good chat and he
[16:10] Speaker 1: and I remained very good mates today. And I had
[16:14] Speaker 1: the fortune for me, misfortune for Arthur. I was his
[16:18] Speaker 1: junior minister when he got crook. He got cancer, yeah,
[16:22] Speaker 1: and he went off to fight that and Malcolm didn't
[16:25] Speaker 1: want to reshuffle, and he spoke to me and he said, look,
[16:28] Speaker 1: can you handle this, And he said I don't want
[16:32] Speaker 1: to reshuffle, and I said I will step up. And
[16:36] Speaker 1: you know, Arthur, God bless him, gave me the go
[16:39] Speaker 1: for your life and I got to run the portfolio,
[16:43] Speaker 1: which is a huge portfolio and so important and so
[16:47] Speaker 1: forgotten about. Although I do think Andrew Charlton is the
[16:53] Speaker 1: great hope of the side on the labor side of
[16:55] Speaker 1: the fence. I don't cheer them on the labor side
[16:59] Speaker 1: of the fence, you know, I hope they go well.
[17:01] Speaker 1: But I'm obviously a liberal man. But someone like Andrew Charltman,
[17:04] Speaker 1: who comes again from the real world when the politics
[17:07] Speaker 1: first thing came back to the real world, who's now
[17:09] Speaker 1: in this space of innovation, industry and science. You know,
[17:14] Speaker 1: he's a very shrewd mind. And it's that stuff with
[17:18] Speaker 1: AI which is now the buzz word. But how is
[17:21] Speaker 1: that going to change what the Australian economy looks like?
[17:25] Speaker 1: The answer is hugely how does government respond? You know,
[17:30] Speaker 1: do they regulate and kill it? Hopefully not? Do they
[17:34] Speaker 1: put guardrails in place? Hopefully yes? But you know, with
[17:40] Speaker 1: those sorts of minds around the table at this point
[17:43] Speaker 1: of the electoral cycle, when the Libs are at this
[17:46] Speaker 1: stage nowhere to be selling, you know, it's those minds
[17:50] Speaker 1: I point to and hope that they holds way.
[17:53] Speaker 2: I mean, one of the great things that Malcolm Malcolm
[17:56] Speaker 2: may not have been the greatest politician of all times
[17:58] Speaker 2: in terms of understand any people. But he definitely is
[18:01] Speaker 2: one of the smartest guys that's evented politics in Australia.
[18:06] Speaker 2: I mean, he's extremely smart.
[18:08] Speaker 1: I remember so when there were there were bombings, they
[18:11] Speaker 1: bombed a Christian church in Egypt, a Coptic church and
[18:16] Speaker 1: Orthodox Coptic Orthodox. And we went to Annandale and I
[18:20] Speaker 1: was the Minister for Multiculturalism and I went with Malcolm.
[18:24] Speaker 1: We're standing in the church pew at the front, and
[18:27] Speaker 1: the stations of the Cross are around the wall. Okay
[18:31] Speaker 1: as a tyke, as a Catholic yep. So we see
[18:35] Speaker 1: those and he leans over and I'm standing, what next
[18:37] Speaker 1: to you? Wisher was on me here? He said, Ancient
[18:40] Speaker 1: Egyptian is such a magnificent language. He goes, look, that's
[18:45] Speaker 1: all ancient Egyptian on the stations of the Cross. He
[18:48] Speaker 1: knew that. He knew that, and I thought, how the
[18:51] Speaker 1: hell do you know that? He was just a cut
[18:55] Speaker 1: above high level of knowledge. Oh that's the stuff that
[19:00] Speaker 1: would come out when he didn't mean it to come out.
[19:03] Speaker 1: He was just and he is today. He's a good man.
[19:06] Speaker 1: Him and Lucy are great friends of Susie and mine
[19:10] Speaker 1: and will Bury till the day we die. But he
[19:14] Speaker 1: just sadly got hacked down for no reason. And coincidentally
[19:20] Speaker 1: a guy came into our box last night, how sweet,
[19:22] Speaker 1: and he said, I'm a great mate to Pleader Thatton
[19:24] Speaker 1: and I said, he goes, but he said, don't hold
[19:26] Speaker 1: that against me. I said, are you kidding? That's as
[19:28] Speaker 1: a great mate of mine. And he put him on
[19:30] Speaker 1: the phone and he couldn't the guy couldn't believe that
[19:33] Speaker 1: that's not good mates because I was good mates with Malcolm.
[19:35] Speaker 1: And I said, you don't understand publicans in politics. You know,
[19:39] Speaker 1: we get on with everybody. We may have ideological Australian differences, yeah,
[19:44] Speaker 1: but well not in politics, Mark, It is Australian. But
[19:48] Speaker 1: in politics they hold grudges and they hold them for lifetimes.
[19:52] Speaker 1: They come up through the system, they're on different sides
[19:55] Speaker 1: of the ideological fence. They're in the same party technically,
[19:59] Speaker 1: but god, and they hold a grudge. But that's what
[20:01] Speaker 1: we need.
[20:01] Speaker 2: That's why I think we need more real people than politics,
[20:05] Speaker 2: and particularly out of business, like just generally speaking, not
[20:07] Speaker 2: only in pubs but in business. You can't be enemies
[20:09] Speaker 2: with anybody, No, because I mean, and it's a sort
[20:12] Speaker 2: of a little it's a funny thing because right now
[20:15] Speaker 2: we're in the middle of the drama in the Middle East,
[20:17] Speaker 2: and you and I have been probably watching this on
[20:19] Speaker 2: not at the same time, on CNN and Fox News
[20:22] Speaker 2: and whatever.
[20:23] Speaker 1: What's going on in the Middle East. It's happened right.
[20:24] Speaker 2: Here whilst we're here, the whole you know, the whole
[20:27] Speaker 2: breakout in the Middle East. And one thing about Trumps
[20:31] Speaker 2: interesting to get you to reflect on this.
[20:32] Speaker 1: You don't mind.
[20:34] Speaker 2: On one hand he'll hammer someone, but literally within days
[20:39] Speaker 2: he's willing to do a deal, just just just to
[20:42] Speaker 2: settle it all down. What do you think of that
[20:45] Speaker 2: sort of process. Look, he's not my cup of as
[20:50] Speaker 2: a personality. Yeah, you know, I get what he's trying
[20:54] Speaker 2: to do. And you've got to understand that US politics
[20:57] Speaker 2: is very different to Australian politics because they have executive government.
[21:00] Speaker 2: So he's pushing the boundaries every day here, using executive
[21:05] Speaker 2: government to bypass Congress and the Senate. The midterms and
[21:09] Speaker 2: both those houses at the moment are in his favor.
[21:12] Speaker 2: The midterms I think will prove a great challenge in
[21:14] Speaker 2: November for him.
[21:15] Speaker 1: Yep. Especially you look at some of the outer cycle
[21:20] Speaker 1: elections that have gone on in the States, and you know,
[21:24] Speaker 1: I keep an eye on it over here here because
[21:27] Speaker 1: we've got a place here now and we spend a
[21:29] Speaker 1: bit of time here. But if you look at what's
[21:32] Speaker 1: happening here in the outer cycle elections, you know, you
[21:34] Speaker 1: would swear he's not hiding nothing. However, because of executive government,
[21:39] Speaker 1: I don't think they can really curtail things like that's
[21:44] Speaker 1: happened in the last forty hot hours. I mean, there
[21:46] Speaker 1: was all from Congress yesterday. This is a war, therefore
[21:48] Speaker 1: it should come to Congress. He's basically given them the
[21:51] Speaker 1: middle finger and said, no, buggy you. This is Michael.
[21:55] Speaker 1: And whether you believe he's right or wrong, he's decisive.
[21:58] Speaker 1: And this is the business background of him. I think,
[22:01] Speaker 1: you know, the art of the deal is go hard,
[22:04] Speaker 1: prove that you are in a position of strength, and
[22:07] Speaker 1: bring the other term to the table and then negotiate.
[22:09] Speaker 2: And that's sort of what the way he sort of
[22:12] Speaker 2: processes everything.
[22:13] Speaker 1: That's what it says. Mean.
[22:14] Speaker 2: I don't think he really cares for their life or
[22:16] Speaker 2: it doesn't like someone. That's his default, I think, But
[22:19] Speaker 2: it sort of works.
[22:20] Speaker 1: I agree. You know, again I preface it by saying,
[22:25] Speaker 1: you know, he's not my cup at tea, but you
[22:27] Speaker 1: can't argue that the art of the deal mentality that
[22:32] Speaker 1: he brings. You know, it's worked in most stuff. It
[22:36] Speaker 1: hasn't worked in Ukraine and Russia. And I think the
[22:39] Speaker 1: main reason that's the case he's putin is exactly the
[22:42] Speaker 1: same sort of personality. You know. I met a fund
[22:47] Speaker 1: manager in the UK a couple of years ago and
[22:50] Speaker 1: he came up with a great one liner, you know,
[22:53] Speaker 1: putin it was thought had the second best army in
[22:56] Speaker 1: the world. It turns out he's got the second best
[22:58] Speaker 1: army in Ukraine, you know, because he doubted the resolve
[23:02] Speaker 1: of the Ukrainian people and their armed forces and he's
[23:07] Speaker 1: playing a huge price for that. But he's got manpower
[23:09] Speaker 1: on his side. He keeps conscripting and sending young kids
[23:13] Speaker 1: sadly to their potential demise.
[23:15] Speaker 2: So if that as a backgrounder, and also if we
[23:21] Speaker 2: just recall Malcolm's initiative of let's I think he called
[23:26] Speaker 2: it the Innovation Nation, Yes he did, he did, called
[23:29] Speaker 2: the Innovation Nation, but we're talking about twenty eighteen around it.
[23:32] Speaker 1: So in Lisa National intervens Innovation and Science agenda was
[23:37] Speaker 1: the technical policy position.
[23:39] Speaker 2: Way ahead of his time. Because today that's a deal. Yes,
[23:44] Speaker 2: back then, it was hard to spread that word, hard
[23:49] Speaker 2: to distribute that idea because that idea was probably ahead
[23:53] Speaker 2: of where everybody was thinking. You know, I mean, I know,
[23:56] Speaker 2: I got involved in the task Force, which is part
[23:57] Speaker 2: of us being more innovative and trying to digitize Australian
[24:01] Speaker 2: businesses small businesses and also trying to protect the consumers
[24:04] Speaker 2: around that sort of stuff.
[24:05] Speaker 1: But it's it was ahead of its time. Now we're
[24:09] Speaker 1: in that period.
[24:10] Speaker 2: We are definitely in that period because we keep talking
[24:12] Speaker 2: about productivity in Australia and productivity is causing us to
[24:17] Speaker 2: causing the reserve being to put in low productivity is
[24:19] Speaker 2: causing reserve being to put up in gust rates. We
[24:22] Speaker 2: need to be much more innovative in this country. Therefore,
[24:24] Speaker 2: we can become more productive innovative in that, you know,
[24:27] Speaker 2: like let's get machines to do things that people can
[24:30] Speaker 2: normally do and redeploy people into other jobs or retrain
[24:33] Speaker 2: them then redeploying the other jobs. We need to be
[24:36] Speaker 2: much more globally competitive, which we're not big corporations aren't innovative.
[24:42] Speaker 2: Innovative because the regulatory environment, it's a lot easier just
[24:45] Speaker 2: to say, let's just protect our profits and pay our
[24:47] Speaker 2: dividends and everyone's going to be happy and no one's
[24:50] Speaker 2: worried about taking a risk because the innovation requires risk.
[24:53] Speaker 2: Malcolm was not adverse to taking risk. He understood that
[24:58] Speaker 2: we need to become the innovative nation and you could
[25:00] Speaker 2: see place like Singapore surging it the Singapore Dollar hours.
[25:05] Speaker 1: We're at where he's coincidentally, he's young Black Alleges is
[25:09] Speaker 1: based and when comes and he's working in that innovation side,
[25:14] Speaker 1: and we need to be doing that stuff. And so.
[25:19] Speaker 2: Why do you think it was unsuccessful? Relatively speaking? It
[25:22] Speaker 2: was the right idea road concept. Why do you think
[25:25] Speaker 2: at the time around two thousand and eighty it was
[25:29] Speaker 2: unsuccessful in being sort of expressed and people sort of
[25:32] Speaker 2: grabbing hold of it, like the media for example.
[25:34] Speaker 1: I don't think Australia was ready to hear it. And
[25:37] Speaker 1: I think what's played out? You know, I've always thought
[25:42] Speaker 1: Australia takes the lead from the US. It's normally ten
[25:46] Speaker 1: years behind. So what's ended up playing out in the US?
[25:49] Speaker 1: I mean, we're here in Vegas. You can walk down
[25:52] Speaker 1: and book a car to pick you up that doesn't
[25:55] Speaker 1: have a driver that drives you around those streets. They're
[25:58] Speaker 1: geo fence. Okay, there's Google are in this up to
[26:02] Speaker 1: the nines. But they've got a business called Weymo. Yeah, Wemo.
[26:05] Speaker 1: And so you look at these at these businesses Navidia, Apple, Microsoft,
[26:13] Speaker 1: you know, they were nothing like they were in two
[26:15] Speaker 1: thousand and eight and as they are today. And it's
[26:19] Speaker 1: it's that sort of lead and the buzzwords. But then
[26:23] Speaker 1: I'll flip the coin in a minute on you here, Mark,
[26:25] Speaker 1: because it's another great challenge for government, but it's it's
[26:31] Speaker 1: it's now front and center of mine because AI is
[26:34] Speaker 1: actively now replacing people to do certain things. It's only
[26:40] Speaker 1: minial tasks at the moment, it will become far more.
[26:43] Speaker 1: I mean, you're a legal firm, if you're a paralegal
[26:47] Speaker 1: listening to this podcast today, be aware, get ready to
[26:52] Speaker 1: these things. These AI is coming and will take the role,
[26:57] Speaker 1: will take over the role that you play. But the
[27:00] Speaker 1: flip side then for Australia now and again one of
[27:04] Speaker 1: the great minds that Malcolm has, he could see this
[27:09] Speaker 1: is the power consumption that data centers that power all
[27:15] Speaker 1: of this are going to take, and the pressure that
[27:18] Speaker 1: we'll put on the way that we've decided to go
[27:21] Speaker 1: in Australia on power supply. Here we are, We're in Nevada. Okay,
[27:27] Speaker 1: I've got a place in California. California is the most
[27:30] Speaker 1: democratic state in the US. They are democratic in terms
[27:34] Speaker 1: of Labor Party in Labor Party, so left learning, most
[27:38] Speaker 1: left learning state in the US. They are reopening actively
[27:43] Speaker 1: right now, mothballed previously nuclear power stations to power data
[27:49] Speaker 1: centers because they can't sustain the power consumption required into
[27:55] Speaker 1: the future by the way they've gone with green energy.
[28:00] Speaker 1: And this is the thing we don't know the unintended
[28:04] Speaker 1: consequences in inverted commas of what this great leaped forward
[28:10] Speaker 1: in artificial intelligence and innovation it will require to be
[28:15] Speaker 1: powered and the way we've gone in Australia. I can't wait.
[28:20] Speaker 1: I mean, you want to see, you know, in terms
[28:22] Speaker 1: of when is the Liberal Party back in the game?
[28:25] Speaker 1: Thirty No, it's when the lights don't go on. Well,
[28:28] Speaker 1: I'm thinking twenty thirty. It's when you come home and
[28:31] Speaker 1: you can't turn your air conditioning on. In the middle
[28:34] Speaker 1: of summer because you're in a brown out or a
[28:37] Speaker 1: phased black hair out. That's when the Liberal Party are
[28:40] Speaker 1: back in the game. Sadly in my mind at the moment,
[28:44] Speaker 1: because we are going down a route of national lunacy,
[28:49] Speaker 1: a resource based country that is closing and mothballing coal
[28:54] Speaker 1: fire power stations, not reinvesting in them. And gas. Yeah,
[28:57] Speaker 1: and we'll not evening no new gas, no, no, there's
[29:02] Speaker 1: reservations all down the eastern seaboard of Australia. You know,
[29:06] Speaker 1: gas is obviously you know they say it's the transition
[29:11] Speaker 1: to renewable energy. Bullshit. It's the future of where Australia
[29:16] Speaker 1: needs to be if we want to have what we
[29:18] Speaker 1: always had. You know, we've always had high paid you know,
[29:23] Speaker 1: award jobs in the manufacturing space historically. And why have
[29:29] Speaker 1: we done that Because we've had low taxation rates and
[29:32] Speaker 1: low power so businesses could prosper and business could could
[29:36] Speaker 1: compete internationally. They've now put every high paid wages you
[29:41] Speaker 1: know are there still, but every other input cost has
[29:44] Speaker 1: gone up and you can't compete on the national stage
[29:47] Speaker 1: and that gives us a massive disadvantage. What do you think?
[29:52] Speaker 2: And I'm not in a bag labor because I'm talking
[29:54] Speaker 2: to a liberal guy. But why do you think labor's
[29:57] Speaker 2: not embracing this stuff? I mean, is it ideology? Again,
[30:01] Speaker 2: I point to a guy like Andrew Charlton. It is ideology,
[30:04] Speaker 2: but someone like him that comes from the real world
[30:08] Speaker 2: and from the New South Wales right of the Labor
[30:10] Speaker 2: Party and the most sensible labor governments we guess in
[30:14] Speaker 2: this country are right leaning labor governments right right of
[30:19] Speaker 2: the labor center, which is the left of the Liberal
[30:22] Speaker 2: Party predominantly sort of the middle. Yes, Chrismins, Yeah, Chrismins,
[30:27] Speaker 2: great example, you know, Daniel Murky Christmins.
[30:29] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great examples of being sensible centrists. And
[30:35] Speaker 1: you know, you know, these are the guys that you
[30:38] Speaker 1: hope make their way through. Jason clair Tony Burke, you know,
[30:43] Speaker 1: Andrew Charlton. These are the guys that are coming that
[30:47] Speaker 1: if labor are to be successful. And I don't wish
[30:50] Speaker 1: them bad luck, you know, if they're the government of
[30:53] Speaker 1: the day, I wish them every success because of the
[30:55] Speaker 1: government of the day exactly. And we're Australian. But these
[30:59] Speaker 1: guys are good thinkers, good people, good hearts and good
[31:03] Speaker 1: minds and they're the guys that need to come through.
[31:07] Speaker 1: And you know, Michelle Roland another great example member for
[31:10] Speaker 1: Greenway and a good friend of mine, you know, eminently sensible.
[31:15] Speaker 1: You know, these are the people that you know Albo
[31:18] Speaker 1: has surrounded himself with at the moment. I mean, he's
[31:21] Speaker 1: risk averse, he's interested I think in tenure, not policy,
[31:26] Speaker 1: which is going to be you know at some stage
[31:28] Speaker 1: he's going to flip on that because the Libs will
[31:31] Speaker 1: get more competitive under Angus. But you know, these are
[31:34] Speaker 1: the people that I know that I hope step up
[31:37] Speaker 1: over time and continue if we are to have labor
[31:40] Speaker 1: governments to allowing businesses to embrace AI, but to allow
[31:45] Speaker 1: them to rely on power sources beyond renewables, because I
[31:49] Speaker 1: don't think we can survive without traditional power.
[31:51] Speaker 2: If you're the chair of the Economics Committee now and
[31:54] Speaker 2: the Reserve Bank Governor was sitting here fornever let's say
[31:57] Speaker 2: the Reserve Bank Governor's sitting there and you've got the
[32:00] Speaker 2: treasure of Jim Chalmers sitting there together, what would be
[32:03] Speaker 2: one of the things you'd be saying or asking and
[32:07] Speaker 2: relentlessly asking in relation to what's going on for our
[32:11] Speaker 2: crime Because like, you know, mate, you come from Stratfield.
[32:14] Speaker 2: Your parents, you know, at some stage when they were
[32:16] Speaker 2: first had your kids, had a mortgage and you know
[32:20] Speaker 2: they had apartment. They're doing their best, but they've got
[32:21] Speaker 2: to pay the rates and the interest rate in this
[32:23] Speaker 2: recup's going up or they it looks like they're going
[32:26] Speaker 2: to keep going up, and they're worried about putting the
[32:27] Speaker 2: four kids through school.
[32:28] Speaker 1: Blah blah blah, usual stuff. How do you build?
[32:32] Speaker 2: What would you be saying to the Reserve Bank governor
[32:33] Speaker 2: and to the Treasurer at the same time, because right
[32:37] Speaker 2: now you get the Reserve Bank government. She's not going
[32:39] Speaker 2: to say much about the government. The treasure is not
[32:41] Speaker 2: going to say much about the Reserve Bank. If you've
[32:42] Speaker 2: got in the same room at the same time, what
[32:44] Speaker 2: would you say to as chair?
[32:47] Speaker 1: So if you share the economics minue, which I have
[32:49] Speaker 1: had the honor of being, I know that you are
[32:52] Speaker 1: a member of the government of the day. The question
[32:55] Speaker 1: that she won't be asked that she needs to be
[32:57] Speaker 1: asked is what role is government spending playing in creating inflation?
[33:04] Speaker 1: That is the question that needs to be asked. Well,
[33:08] Speaker 1: given us the biggest percentage of GDP that we've had
[33:10] Speaker 1: since like I don't know, and only only going to
[33:13] Speaker 1: get bigger. Yeah, I mean you know this this you
[33:15] Speaker 1: know Albo wants he center piece to be childcare. You
[33:19] Speaker 1: know at at preschool and childcare. It's another ends in waiting.
[33:26] Speaker 1: I mean, the Ends was a fantastic scheme. It will
[33:30] Speaker 1: outstrip Medicare, that the health spend within the next decade.
[33:35] Speaker 1: In this country, we keep rolling out under the labor government,
[33:39] Speaker 1: you know, national welfare programs with no future thought on
[33:44] Speaker 1: how you fund them. I mean, my great hope is
[33:47] Speaker 1: that Angus now becoming leader of the Liberal Party has
[33:52] Speaker 1: some time, another very smart mind, has some time to
[33:57] Speaker 1: surround himself with people and think about the next twenty years.
[34:01] Speaker 1: I mean the problem with Australian politics is electoral cycles
[34:03] Speaker 1: are three years. Yeah, too short. The thinking needs to
[34:06] Speaker 1: be the next twenty and you know what does that
[34:09] Speaker 1: look like for power? What does that look like for tax? Water? Bos?
[34:12] Speaker 1: Look for water yet water, drice, salpetton. In the world,
[34:16] Speaker 1: you know, where is the long term infrastructure spind I
[34:19] Speaker 1: mean I'm not a verse elbows now looking at fast
[34:23] Speaker 1: rail and everyone's criticizing him because this chestnut keeps being
[34:26] Speaker 1: brought up every five or six years, but it should
[34:30] Speaker 1: have been done twenty years ago when it would have
[34:32] Speaker 1: been ten percent of the price that we will now
[34:34] Speaker 1: have to pay to do it. I mean, you come
[34:37] Speaker 1: down here mark to the US, you look at their
[34:40] Speaker 1: road infrastructure and you compare it to what we've got
[34:43] Speaker 1: and you think, how the hell do we survive? You know,
[34:46] Speaker 1: they've got eight lane freeways going right across this country
[34:50] Speaker 1: which is basically the same size of Australia, just not
[34:55] Speaker 1: bound by one side predominantly like we do in Australia
[34:58] Speaker 1: the Eastern seaboard. So the long term thinking what does
[35:02] Speaker 1: tax look like? You do you broaden the GST? And
[35:05] Speaker 1: if you're broaden the GST, how do you sell that?
[35:08] Speaker 1: Do you make education you said it the mortgage and
[35:11] Speaker 1: paying the school feest? Do you make education tax deductible
[35:14] Speaker 1: so that if you want to reinvest in your children
[35:16] Speaker 1: in a private school you used to get it, You
[35:18] Speaker 1: used to get a recation. Do you want to make
[35:21] Speaker 1: that tax reductook? Do you add dental to medicare? I mean,
[35:25] Speaker 1: have a blank white board, you know. My advice to
[35:29] Speaker 1: Angus for the two cents from the cheap suits have
[35:32] Speaker 1: a white board and come up with things that are bold.
[35:37] Speaker 1: Be bold and be brave. And if you want to
[35:40] Speaker 1: have tax reform, you know, if you want to add
[35:42] Speaker 1: the GST to food, okay, make the tax free threshold,
[35:46] Speaker 1: take it from eighteen thousand and seven hundred and fifty
[35:48] Speaker 1: dollars to fifty thousand dollars so that people aren't adversely impacted.
[35:55] Speaker 1: They pay the GSD instead of paying income tax, and
[35:58] Speaker 1: they pay as a spend. Yes, and these these are
[36:02] Speaker 1: the sorts of things that have been missing. But why
[36:05] Speaker 1: are they doing it? But gy, why are they doing it?
[36:07] Speaker 1: But because they govern from the day there, from day
[36:12] Speaker 1: one of being elected. Their whole goal is in three
[36:15] Speaker 1: years time, the next elected. That's the sad state of
[36:18] Speaker 1: Australian politics. That's the reality of the sad start of
[36:22] Speaker 1: Australian politics. And you know, albo As I said, you
[36:26] Speaker 1: know that Daniel Molino, the Assistant treasure I see on
[36:30] Speaker 1: the host plus board, industry super plays a massively important
[36:34] Speaker 1: role in Australia. And I said to Daniel Molina, you
[36:37] Speaker 1: have the chance. Now you know they've presumably got another
[36:40] Speaker 1: two terms because of the size of the majority. Be
[36:44] Speaker 1: bold govern come up with some vision. Okay, beyond social welfare,
[36:51] Speaker 1: which is where they tend to default to. What's the
[36:55] Speaker 1: you know, what is the benefit? Jim Chalmers step up.
[36:58] Speaker 1: You know, it's not all about an expenditure. What's tax
[37:02] Speaker 1: reform look like? What's productivity reform look like? What does
[37:06] Speaker 1: tax incentives to create productivity?
[37:09] Speaker 2: Well, he actually said the last election that there are
[37:12] Speaker 2: is two things productivity and tax reform.
[37:15] Speaker 1: And he had the round table. We're at. The round
[37:17] Speaker 1: table was the people that actually operated small businesses. You
[37:20] Speaker 1: had the boss of cosbaa you know who, I don't
[37:23] Speaker 1: even know who he is. He's not about blood, but
[37:25] Speaker 1: he doesn't operate a business hundred percent. You know, put Jim,
[37:29] Speaker 1: don't have the large ess of I don't know what
[37:31] Speaker 1: a cost to fly them all there and have them
[37:33] Speaker 1: go to one of your marginal seats, Get your marginal
[37:37] Speaker 1: seat holder who's a worker, to put twenty small business
[37:40] Speaker 1: operators in the room and sit and listen to them
[37:43] Speaker 1: and say what are the issues? What can we do
[37:45] Speaker 1: to help? That's where Malcolm was good. Malcolm would come
[37:49] Speaker 1: out to marginal seats. You know, he catched the train
[37:52] Speaker 1: as Prime minister to Burward in my seat I'd meet
[37:56] Speaker 1: him at the station, I'd take him right through all
[37:58] Speaker 1: the small businesses and he'd say, how can we help?
[38:01] Speaker 1: And that's the sort of thinking you need to do
[38:03] Speaker 1: as a retail politician. The sad thing is in politics
[38:06] Speaker 1: and Australia, the people in authority are the owners of
[38:10] Speaker 1: safe seats, not marginal seats. Ah, that's the problem, you know.
[38:14] Speaker 1: And therefore they don't have to talk to their electrics.
[38:17] Speaker 1: There's no risk. They're electric. It re elects them no
[38:21] Speaker 1: matter what happens. So you know, the real workers are
[38:24] Speaker 1: the marginal seattholders. They're the ones that have the connections
[38:27] Speaker 1: to small and family business operators. They're the ones that
[38:30] Speaker 1: could put people around a table and talk to Jim
[38:32] Speaker 1: Chalmers and say this is what we need you to do.
[38:38] Speaker 1: When's Craig Lorning going to come back onto politics, No
[38:41] Speaker 1: he's not. He's going to cheer. He's going to cheer
[38:44] Speaker 1: both sides from the sidelines, and there are good people
[38:46] Speaker 1: in both names. But he's going to influence, you know
[38:51] Speaker 1: when when asked for advice, If he's asked for advice,
[38:53] Speaker 1: he'll give his two cents worth.
[38:54] Speaker 2: Well, let's just well, given that, then let's talk about
[38:58] Speaker 2: the latest and lot of topic that you guys have
[39:01] Speaker 2: invested in. I mean, by the way, the Lornde family
[39:04] Speaker 2: buy hotels at fifty million, you know that's not unusual
[39:09] Speaker 2: for you guys to do that. You've just bought the
[39:13] Speaker 2: radio stations from nine to so nine radio And I
[39:16] Speaker 2: was talking at Matt stand last night, the CEO of
[39:19] Speaker 2: Chaneral nine. He said it was a great deal. I
[39:21] Speaker 2: don't mean a great deal. It was done in a
[39:23] Speaker 2: really good way. It was a really good transaction for
[39:26] Speaker 2: both sides of the both sides of the fence. It
[39:30] Speaker 2: was written down in the books for lesson you paid
[39:32] Speaker 2: for it. What are you guys thinking about? What's your
[39:36] Speaker 2: sort of strategy the Laundi family, what's the strategy around owning?
[39:40] Speaker 2: I think it's two PR TBL six, PR C GB three,
[39:45] Speaker 2: A W four BC four.
[39:47] Speaker 1: There's a whole heap of Queensline Perth, Melbourne, Sydney. There's
[39:50] Speaker 1: other stations in each state too, right which they lose
[39:53] Speaker 1: out to other people at the moment. There's a a
[39:55] Speaker 1: whole heap of digital bandwidth that comes with it that
[39:58] Speaker 1: you can create stations. But what's the strategy. The strategy
[40:04] Speaker 1: is they were great assets that we bought them at
[40:10] Speaker 1: a cap rate. You know, that is far better than buying.
[40:15] Speaker 2: A hotel, we believe, because when you buy a hotel,
[40:19] Speaker 2: you could be buying on a two or three percent if.
[40:22] Speaker 1: You want it. If it's an icon, you could pay that.
[40:25] Speaker 1: If not, it's six and a half seven six. Yes,
[40:28] Speaker 1: this was a ten percent return. Yeah, you know, but
[40:31] Speaker 1: then you're adding the back end synergies. We think we
[40:34] Speaker 1: can run the back end through the costs of not
[40:37] Speaker 1: being listed. So I'll give you one example. You know,
[40:40] Speaker 1: they have to do a full independent audit every year.
[40:45] Speaker 1: It costs a fortune to do. We don't have to
[40:48] Speaker 1: do that. They have to produce results within two days
[40:51] Speaker 1: a month end. I need them in aden days, I
[40:55] Speaker 1: said to the financial controller that's coming across from nine
[40:58] Speaker 1: to us. Harry Is is coming across with us. I said, mate,
[41:02] Speaker 1: if I don't need the results within two days, if
[41:04] Speaker 1: I know them within eighteen days a month end, he said,
[41:07] Speaker 1: that'll save me one person. I mean, this is how
[41:10] Speaker 1: you look at the you're going to be the publican
[41:13] Speaker 1: you're going to be. We're in the mitia. We are
[41:16] Speaker 1: in the back end of this. You know, how do
[41:18] Speaker 1: we run this more effectively than a listed business will.
[41:21] Speaker 1: Then you've got the added benefit. You know, we don't
[41:25] Speaker 1: take over all my first I've been a two JB
[41:28] Speaker 1: four or five times since the announcement. I've burned it
[41:31] Speaker 1: to four BC three r W. Dad's burned a three
[41:34] Speaker 1: r W, Dad's been a six PR and Perth. We've
[41:37] Speaker 1: met all of the staff everyone and introduced ourselves. We
[41:41] Speaker 1: will be walking through these businesses on a regular basis.
[41:46] Speaker 1: You know, Matt Stanton has a huge business to run.
[41:49] Speaker 1: Matt Matt banas the Group nine Group Channel nine. He
[41:53] Speaker 1: can't walk through those businesses. This is the only Mordia.
[41:57] Speaker 1: This is a diversification play for us and makes a
[42:00] Speaker 1: lot of sense because we think we can add back
[42:02] Speaker 1: end synergy cost savings. But also I've already met with
[42:05] Speaker 1: the sales director, Brian Lovely Guy. I took a list
[42:09] Speaker 1: of the twelve hundred businesses. If you don't mind now,
[42:13] Speaker 1: I didn't know it was that many that the Laundy
[42:15] Speaker 1: Hotel family spends money with, And I said, that's who
[42:19] Speaker 1: we spend money with, who advertises with your network? Why
[42:24] Speaker 1: because spending money like with Carlton Brewery to his brewery
[42:27] Speaker 1: Aristocrat gaming here, you know, should be a two way street.
[42:32] Speaker 1: You know, we will go. I will take Brian with
[42:35] Speaker 1: me to meet those people. Gil McLachlin, Tab Cork, Tapcork.
[42:40] Speaker 1: We're their biggest private customer.
[42:42] Speaker 2: You know.
[42:42] Speaker 1: Tabcorp advertised with two GB. I don't think they spend
[42:46] Speaker 1: enough with two GB with three outws leverage. Yeah, we
[42:50] Speaker 1: sit with them and we work with them on how
[42:52] Speaker 1: we get them to spend more promoting our business while
[42:56] Speaker 1: we promote this, how we make it mutually beneficial that
[43:00] Speaker 1: the business thinking that we're hoping to bring to it
[43:03] Speaker 1: and make that ten percent.
[43:05] Speaker 2: So what we're looking at is, on one hand, the
[43:08] Speaker 2: economy is a scale, which is you know, being able
[43:10] Speaker 2: to reduce costs where you can by sharing facilities and services. Essentially,
[43:15] Speaker 2: that's a cost reduction which should actually increase the profit,
[43:18] Speaker 2: which means you get a better return than what you
[43:20] Speaker 2: bought it at. That's one, but two on the on
[43:22] Speaker 2: the on the revenue side is being able to because
[43:25] Speaker 2: you know, you know the people that you mutually deal with,
[43:30] Speaker 2: you know, they might be able to be prepared to
[43:31] Speaker 2: spend a bit more money absolutely with two GB, which
[43:35] Speaker 2: that's advertising, which increases the top line which should open
[43:38] Speaker 2: up the gap.
[43:39] Speaker 1: So in other words, your gross profits should get better,
[43:41] Speaker 1: one hundred percent better, and what and who's going to
[43:45] Speaker 1: run the show. So we've We've got Tom Loans to
[43:49] Speaker 1: see So Tom's going to stay, He's going to stay.
[43:51] Speaker 1: Bryan's director of sales. We've got Harry the financial controller.
[43:55] Speaker 1: You know, we're backing the management saying we're taking on
[43:58] Speaker 1: three hundred and thirty staff here. We've got to employe.
[44:01] Speaker 1: You know, I had a journalist. You know, there was
[44:03] Speaker 1: all this story about who's going to buy it and
[44:05] Speaker 1: how they're going to slash and burn if it's private
[44:08] Speaker 1: equity for example, which is what they normally do, how
[44:10] Speaker 1: they make it. I need to hire thirty eight more
[44:13] Speaker 1: people to actually stand this business up by itself because
[44:17] Speaker 1: Channel nine operate the back end of this thing at
[44:19] Speaker 1: the moment. So I'm doing a deal right now. We've
[44:22] Speaker 1: done the sales terms. I'm now working on with my
[44:27] Speaker 1: sister and brother in law and dad, with our lawyers
[44:31] Speaker 1: and Channel nine's lawyers on a shared services agreement because
[44:35] Speaker 1: we're going to need some help from nine for the
[44:38] Speaker 1: foreseeable you know, within six to twelve months. It's going
[44:42] Speaker 1: to take us to stand this thing up on its own.
[44:44] Speaker 1: So there's a lot of detail that's actually being worked
[44:47] Speaker 1: on over here in the States. I'm spending most afternoons
[44:50] Speaker 1: on zooms with lawyers and accountants trying to work out
[44:53] Speaker 1: how we get all this done. But that's the goal,
[44:56] Speaker 1: is to run it under a family umbrella. You know
[45:01] Speaker 1: David Coleman, he lost his seat at the last election.
[45:04] Speaker 1: The member for Banks love him, great man he is.
[45:08] Speaker 1: This is his bread and butter, the Merdier space he's
[45:11] Speaker 1: consulting out on on wellst.
[45:13] Speaker 2: We don't realize, by the way, he was at nine Yeah,
[45:15] Speaker 2: formerly worked for nine Yeah, and he was on my
[45:17] Speaker 2: board actually at the little Bit for a number of
[45:19] Speaker 2: years and I worked with him.
[45:21] Speaker 1: He's a very good operator. And he rang me the
[45:23] Speaker 1: day that the deal was announced and he said, you
[45:26] Speaker 1: know what, he said, this makes sense, He said, they
[45:29] Speaker 1: don't see it yet, but this business under family ownership
[45:34] Speaker 1: and the networks that you've got and the connections, this
[45:38] Speaker 1: makes sense. And you know that's that was really encouraging.
[45:43] Speaker 1: We thought it. But when someone like David, as knowledgeable
[45:47] Speaker 1: as he is in this space says it, it's.
[45:49] Speaker 2: Nice to have it reinforced and he's a and he's
[45:52] Speaker 2: the sort of guy. He's another super smart guy.
[45:56] Speaker 1: And I think I said to David at the time,
[46:00] Speaker 1: I had you in mind to talk to post beating
[46:04] Speaker 1: it down on digital opportunities moving forward? Now is he said,
[46:09] Speaker 1: I'm consulting tonight, said, but my relationship with Matt Stanton
[46:13] Speaker 1: now is that good and strong that I'm sure I
[46:15] Speaker 1: could go to that and say, do you mind if
[46:17] Speaker 1: I get David to consult to us too about opportunities
[46:20] Speaker 1: for the business moving forward? So do you do you
[46:23] Speaker 1: see the.
[46:27] Speaker 2: Laundy radio assets, which is what they're now going to
[46:30] Speaker 2: be referred to as from one may as political influence
[46:35] Speaker 2: because you know, the two GIBI and three W in
[46:38] Speaker 2: particular have had a fairly liberal bent.
[46:42] Speaker 1: And I don't see that. I don't see that changing
[46:45] Speaker 1: because that's what is that more? Is that more the
[46:47] Speaker 1: broadcast itself? Is that more the host personalities? That so
[46:51] Speaker 1: you know, I use the term. You know a journal
[46:53] Speaker 1: asked me this question, the same question I said, why
[46:56] Speaker 1: would I buy a dog? And then bark myself. You
[46:58] Speaker 1: know that's that the show and the beauty of these
[47:02] Speaker 1: networks is they are they are the subject of the
[47:07] Speaker 1: host's point of view and ultimately the listener's point of view,
[47:12] Speaker 1: because it's talkback, it's calling, it's talk So a host
[47:15] Speaker 1: may go into a morning or a breakfast period afternoon
[47:19] Speaker 1: night with a set point of view, but the calls
[47:23] Speaker 1: that result from that point of view, when expressed could
[47:26] Speaker 1: well be changed, you know, by the callers, and the
[47:30] Speaker 1: host could change their position on the spot in real time.
[47:34] Speaker 1: And that's the beauty of talkback radio. I said to
[47:36] Speaker 1: a journal you know, he said, when did you start
[47:39] Speaker 1: listening to talkback radio? I rocked up at the Twin
[47:41] Speaker 1: Whelows Hotel bottle shop in nineteen eighty nine as a
[47:45] Speaker 1: casual to work a casual shift of a nighttime there
[47:49] Speaker 1: while at UNI for pocket money, and Stanza Marnik was
[47:55] Speaker 1: on the raiderstand and I'd never heard talkback radio. I
[47:59] Speaker 1: always listened to me and the person going out on
[48:03] Speaker 1: the shift had the radio. And in the five minutes
[48:06] Speaker 1: it took to balance the float, to count the till
[48:11] Speaker 1: and cash him out and cash me in, I listened
[48:15] Speaker 1: to Stanza Mark for five minutes. I was cooked. It
[48:19] Speaker 1: was just crazy. You did not know what was going
[48:22] Speaker 1: to happen next, And you know, that's the beauty of
[48:26] Speaker 1: talkback radio and that our challenge, Mark is how we
[48:31] Speaker 1: take it? You know at that stage at eighteen, for
[48:35] Speaker 1: me I was a music listener. I would have been
[48:38] Speaker 1: Kyle and Jackie, oh fodder. How do we take the
[48:44] Speaker 1: talkback listening? Murdier now the market from the thirty five
[48:49] Speaker 1: plus age range, and how do we use digital? You know,
[48:55] Speaker 1: steps and Lawrence is here recording this. He's going to
[48:58] Speaker 1: be a command in this. How how do we use that?
[49:01] Speaker 1: You know? The access to podcasts? There was one launch
[49:04] Speaker 1: this week from to GB mark my words, it was
[49:09] Speaker 1: Mark Gyer, Mark Levy. Obviously the plays on the marks.
[49:14] Speaker 1: But these sorts of platforms we have access to, how
[49:19] Speaker 1: do we use them to access new listeners.
[49:23] Speaker 2: In terms of sport, Nine obviously owns the football rights
[49:27] Speaker 2: and rogul leeb rights and other rights. But they'll presumably
[49:32] Speaker 2: they'll win the next lot of rights. Probably have to
[49:35] Speaker 2: pay a bit more if landy'says his way, but they
[49:38] Speaker 2: and the Nine Radio Group which is now the Laundry
[49:41] Speaker 2: Radio Group, has always shared in those rights. In terms
[49:45] Speaker 2: of content and talent, What were you guys better do
[49:49] Speaker 2: if going forward? Because obviously you're not going to go
[49:50] Speaker 2: buy the footy rights, So no, although some sharing arrangement.
[49:55] Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I can't imagine this hasn't come up yet.
[49:59] Speaker 1: I've thought of it as you've posed it. I can't
[50:02] Speaker 1: imagine with the strength of the relationship we're building with
[50:05] Speaker 1: Matt that we wouldn't be, you know, side by side,
[50:09] Speaker 1: you know, like a mutuality. Yes, it's been sitting with
[50:13] Speaker 1: them and saying, you know, we're here to do the radio.
[50:16] Speaker 1: You know, the a f L and the rugby League
[50:18] Speaker 1: is extremely important to the radio business. You know, what
[50:21] Speaker 1: does it look like the other thing for Matt and
[50:25] Speaker 1: we we work this out during the process. You know,
[50:29] Speaker 1: Stan as it currently sits doesn't suit license venues, and
[50:34] Speaker 1: we've got some strong ideas, particularly my brother in law
[50:36] Speaker 1: Shane has strong ideas on how we could make that
[50:41] Speaker 1: fit for purpose. Once that happens, you know, the rugby
[50:47] Speaker 1: league rights into licensed venues becomes an interesting arena for
[50:50] Speaker 1: Matt to think about as well, potentially. But you know
[50:54] Speaker 1: this is all water still, you know, yet to go
[50:57] Speaker 1: under the bridge. Yeah, this is future stup.
[50:59] Speaker 2: But I guess you're saying is you've thought of these things, yes,
[51:02] Speaker 2: because I think the perception is out there amongst people
[51:05] Speaker 2: who don't know you and Arthur, et cetera. But the
[51:08] Speaker 2: perception is out there or the public gun is what
[51:10] Speaker 2: the hell they're doing buying radio stations, what they know
[51:12] Speaker 2: about it? And I think one of the reasons I
[51:14] Speaker 2: wanted to get this podcast done and it's great and
[51:17] Speaker 2: I really appreciate you being able to do this while
[51:19] Speaker 2: here in Vegas, but I thought it was also timely
[51:22] Speaker 2: and to do it with you like live straight off
[51:25] Speaker 2: the footy match. But what they don't realize is you
[51:29] Speaker 2: guys have done the homework on this and all the
[51:31] Speaker 2: synergies it exists that you're talking about. You know, the
[51:34] Speaker 2: pub's venues for sport are venues for sport, and it
[51:38] Speaker 2: is mutually valuable for nine for you to cross promote
[51:43] Speaker 2: what they pay they're going to pay money for and.
[51:45] Speaker 1: Matt's work that out. So I mean, you deal with
[51:48] Speaker 1: it through these processes. Mark, You've been in many of them.
[51:52] Speaker 1: You know they are listed. They need to use an
[51:54] Speaker 1: investment bank, yeah, an advisor, an investing advisor. We don't
[51:59] Speaker 1: need to do that. But the reality is this thing
[52:03] Speaker 1: took me four months to do. Dad, myself, Shane and
[52:07] Speaker 1: Danielle and I four months to do the part I'm
[52:11] Speaker 1: proudest of. It never looked because as a family we're
[52:15] Speaker 1: very tight knit and we just stick to our knitting
[52:17] Speaker 1: and don't talk publicly often. But also what I said
[52:23] Speaker 1: to the investment bank in mid January, we got to
[52:26] Speaker 1: a point where and I said this bluntly to Michael
[52:31] Speaker 1: from Jeffries, you need to put Matt nine in a
[52:35] Speaker 1: room now. It's come to a point where this needs
[52:39] Speaker 1: to be him and me. Why do I building a
[52:42] Speaker 1: relationship to get this done? Two days later that was done.
[52:47] Speaker 1: That meeting took an hour and a half. It's fair
[52:50] Speaker 1: to say Matt had no idea because we try to
[52:54] Speaker 1: stay as under the radar as we can of the
[52:57] Speaker 1: breadth and the depth of our business and the relationship
[53:02] Speaker 1: that we could form with him, and the value add
[53:06] Speaker 1: we could provide to nine moving forward. But he knows
[53:11] Speaker 1: that now. And I saw him like you did last night.
[53:14] Speaker 1: You know, he's a straight shooter. I've enjoyed dealing with him.
[53:18] Speaker 1: We've got this deal done, but there are many more
[53:20] Speaker 1: things that we I think we will do with them.
[53:23] Speaker 2: Or mayn't understand his numbers brilliantly, and he said to
[53:27] Speaker 2: me last night it was actually a good deal for
[53:29] Speaker 2: nine and I don't think he is necessarily talking about
[53:31] Speaker 2: the price. I think he's talk about the future and
[53:36] Speaker 2: he did mention so the sharing arrangements, the sharing arrangements.
[53:40] Speaker 1: But also Mark, you know, he's it become very apparent
[53:44] Speaker 1: through the process. There's three hundred and thirty staff involved,
[53:48] Speaker 1: and we've now met them all. And it's fair to
[53:51] Speaker 1: say the relief that it's now going to be family
[53:55] Speaker 1: run and that no one's going to be sacked was
[53:58] Speaker 1: that's a big year. And Matt got that. Matt said,
[54:02] Speaker 1: you are the logical place for this business to go,
[54:06] Speaker 1: because Matt wanted to look after his people, you know,
[54:09] Speaker 1: and that that is a great trait for a CEO
[54:13] Speaker 1: to have. It's not often reported on the financial press
[54:16] Speaker 1: because you live and die by numbers, but it became
[54:20] Speaker 1: absolutely apparent through the process that you know, if we
[54:24] Speaker 1: were to take over, we would not only not sack people,
[54:28] Speaker 1: we'd need more people and you know, employing people. We've
[54:31] Speaker 1: got now over three thousand staff Mark in the lawn
[54:34] Speaker 1: hotel business. You know, employing people is something that we've
[54:38] Speaker 1: been doing for four generations now in our family. It
[54:41] Speaker 1: takes guts to do it. You've got to back yourself.
[54:44] Speaker 1: You put your family home on the line, as you
[54:47] Speaker 1: said earlier, the mortgage, the school fees, all these considerations.
[54:51] Speaker 1: But for a big CEO to identify early and then
[54:57] Speaker 1: have the chat with me and say, you know what,
[54:59] Speaker 1: this is the logical place for this business to go.
[55:02] Speaker 1: He you know, we explained our vision, we shared our vision.
[55:05] Speaker 1: He bought in and I can't see this, you know,
[55:08] Speaker 1: not having a good relationship moving forward. And he's a
[55:12] Speaker 1: happy over the moon, you know, Dad. You interviewed him
[55:16] Speaker 1: and he juts back in time in a lot of ways.
[55:20] Speaker 1: He remembers stuff that happens sixty years ago better than
[55:23] Speaker 1: what happened yesterday. Who is eighty he's eighty four, almost
[55:26] Speaker 1: eighty five. But he has this saying he's only said
[55:30] Speaker 1: it a few times, and I don't know if he
[55:35] Speaker 1: says it to the other kids, saying, I have a
[55:37] Speaker 1: on the oldest boy. He comes from a generation where
[55:40] Speaker 1: the oldest boys raised differently to the others. Old school, Yeah,
[55:45] Speaker 1: old school and hard. Right. I've been raised hard and
[55:49] Speaker 1: my brothers and sisters, I hope they listen to this,
[55:51] Speaker 1: have gotten easy run. But sure, easy run. But he
[55:58] Speaker 1: has said this only a few times, but he said
[56:00] Speaker 1: it when we got the deal done. He was sitting
[56:03] Speaker 1: with him and he chokes, and I'm going to choke
[56:06] Speaker 1: telling you this. He looks at me and he said,
[56:08] Speaker 1: I wish my mum and dad could see could see this.
[56:12] Speaker 1: And that's his benchmark he has fought for. He lost
[56:18] Speaker 1: his dad at twenty nine. And I'm now choking up.
[56:21] Speaker 1: He's lost his dad at twenty nine. How you spent
[56:24] Speaker 1: the last what's that sixty six years? No, too many,
[56:29] Speaker 1: fifty six years trying to make his dad proud without
[56:35] Speaker 1: ever having the chance to have his dad tell him
[56:37] Speaker 1: he's proud of him. That's amazing. I'm blessed because I've
[56:41] Speaker 1: had the chance to have my dad. You know, when
[56:43] Speaker 1: I was elected to parliament, became a minister, I had
[56:46] Speaker 1: him there. And he tells me often, not as often
[56:49] Speaker 1: he probably could again that generation that he's proud of me.
[56:53] Speaker 1: But I have him at eighty five. He lost his
[56:56] Speaker 1: dad at twenty nine, and you know the gravity of
[56:59] Speaker 1: this radio purchase for him, how proud he is. It's
[57:05] Speaker 1: as good as you get. When he says, I wish
[57:07] Speaker 1: mom and dad could see this.
[57:09] Speaker 2: Wow, I mean that's I mean, I just think what
[57:12] Speaker 2: you guys are doing, you know, in your sponsorship of
[57:14] Speaker 2: the Dogs and you know, the assistant helping the dogs
[57:17] Speaker 2: build this fantastic family relationship and culture and the organization
[57:22] Speaker 2: and taking your family and actually doing this with two
[57:24] Speaker 2: GB and all the other radio stations and you know,
[57:29] Speaker 2: trying to keep it in a good place but improve it.
[57:33] Speaker 2: And the honesty you've just shared with us today. Actually
[57:36] Speaker 2: you have to tear something very interesting great with just
[57:39] Speaker 2: watching you. Then I remember your dad when I did
[57:42] Speaker 2: the podcast with your dad, right towards the end when
[57:44] Speaker 2: he started talking at his family, he got quite emotional,
[57:47] Speaker 2: as you have now. And as they say, the apple
[57:50] Speaker 2: doesn't drop far from the tree. And I really appreciate
[57:53] Speaker 2: your time, mate, Thanks, it's been brilliant. Actually I really
[57:55] Speaker 2: appreciate time. But I appreciate your honesty, but your ability
[57:59] Speaker 2: to explain things which are reasonably complex, but you explain
[58:04] Speaker 2: things in a publican's way, the way you.
[58:07] Speaker 1: Would at the pub or in retail politics and retail polity.
[58:12] Speaker 1: And I've always said this, burning a politician is very
[58:15] Speaker 1: similar to burning.
[58:16] Speaker 2: A public And bring back Craig Laundy, we our camera
[58:18] Speaker 2: bring him back. I want him back, and you know
[58:21] Speaker 2: what I know, I hope running a talkback radio station.
[58:23] Speaker 1: I sent a memo out to the staff, Dad and
[58:25] Speaker 1: I did on the day we took over, and I
[58:28] Speaker 1: used my son, Charlie, who's a great wordsmith. I know Charlie.
[58:31] Speaker 1: You know Charlie, and he helped me pen it because
[58:35] Speaker 1: he's a far better wordsmith than I am. I got
[58:37] Speaker 1: him to put in the term in the middle of it,
[58:40] Speaker 1: and Lawrence would have seen it. First time caller, longtime listener,
[58:45] Speaker 1: long time listener, first time caller. And I signed off
[58:48] Speaker 1: the memo by saying, longtime listener, first time owner. And
[58:53] Speaker 1: that's that's the mentality we take in anything we do.
[58:59] Speaker 1: I know we've talked hubs and radio today we're in
[59:02] Speaker 1: other businesses, but you know, it's that mentality. Family business
[59:08] Speaker 1: is at our core. And and you get it. You've
[59:12] Speaker 1: done it, and which is why we've got on so
[59:15] Speaker 1: well for a long time now. But it's it's such
[59:17] Speaker 1: a thrill to be with you today. I can't believe
[59:20] Speaker 1: that you asked me to do it, Are you serious? Yeah?
[59:23] Speaker 1: I got I got a real thrill that you asked
[59:26] Speaker 1: me to do this, because I find as a privilege.
[59:28] Speaker 1: I got surprised you agreed to do it, particularly in Vegas,
[59:31] Speaker 1: because I no, no, no, it's it's it's it's such
[59:33] Speaker 1: a it was a thrill and honor. You've got such
[59:36] Speaker 1: a great following, and you do this so well, and
[59:39] Speaker 1: it's very relaxed and comfortable to open up to you
[59:42] Speaker 1: because we're friends and I respect you and what you've
[59:47] Speaker 1: done so made. I'm thrilled to be here and it's
[59:49] Speaker 1: in Vegas and dogs one last night, so what could
[59:52] Speaker 1: possibly go wrong? You can't get any better. Thanks, mate,
[59:55] Speaker 1: appreciate it. Good on your mark. Cheers mate,

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