Victoria added 22,000 bureaucrats since 2014. Here's the cost with Jim Penman

The only growth industry in Australia is bureaucrats. Net increase of 28 per day.

Victoria alone, 22,000 bureaucrats extra. We weren't short back in 2014, that's for sure. If you actually took the money, these extra bureaucrats, and there were already too many, you could actually have 20% more doctors, 20% more nurses, 10% pay rise to every doctor, nurse, policeman, and teacher in the state. What the government should be doing is taking our money, which I don't mind them doing, and putting it onto useful services. If you look at GDP per capita, the average income that Australians get, it's going down. It's been going down for 4 years. And this is actually worse than it seems, because what's actually happening is that more and more wealth is going to the wealthy and less and less to ordinary people. And the people who are most vulnerable are being hurt by this dreadful, dreadful government that we've got.

So welcome to the Conversations with Jim podcast, and now it's that time of month for the— of the year again for his newsletter. A lot of stuff here to cover, so we're gonna get straight into it as well. So Jim, first item here is the Birthrate Crisis coming out in October.

Yes, it's very exciting. That's just next month, and we're doing a big, big tour. I'm actually going to be— we've hired one of our top PR consultants, and I'm going to go over there myself, um, and do talks, and I'll do podcasts and so forth. I think this is really topical because people are panicking all over the world. Birth rates are going down. They don't know why. They say it's money. It's not money because bonuses and the rest, bad bonuses, do not work. I'm the only person, I believe, that has the answer to this, what you can do in terms of your behaviour and in terms of what science can do to solve this problem. So it's a solution.

That's pretty big, though, because you don't like travel. For those who know you, you don't like travel.

I hate travel.

You hate travel. So to go physically to the US is a big deal.

And not only that, but next week I'm actually going to China. to visit our labs over there. We've got some really good people working on some of this stuff in China. So that's going to be an ordeal. I don't like travel, but I'll do it for, for my research project, for the book.

I'll do it. Yeah, because the idea, for those who don't know, obviously, you know, we want to get Jim on some big podcasts, and you can't really do the big ones remote. So if there is some opportunities up in person, like some really big ones like Chris Williamson and things like that, um, we want to get Jim on there. So if you do follow his podcast or anything suggest Jim as a guest, but he will be hopefully over there once we can arrange some things once the book comes out. And obviously going to China next week to see your labs would be good as well. We do have a pre-order link which we put in there as well where you can sign up to the mailing list too. Now, next one here is AFD winning in Germany, which we've been talking about during the week.

Yeah, it's interesting actually. I'm not a big fan of the AFD. I think they're too friendly to Russia.

Yeah, that's a big— yeah, that's it. I learned that.

To me, I don't understand why the AFD of all Is actually pals with Russia, because considering what Russia and Germany have done in the past, it's an odd sort of—

I think it's more for energy than anything else.

But they look like they're going to control a state, which is Saxony, which is a major German state. And that's going to change everything, because all the other parties are ganging up against it. But when you've got half the seats or close to, it's very difficult to exclude you from government. Because then you've got the right-wingers and you've got the Greens all trying to work together. They can't agree on anything. So, but the thing, one thing I do like about the AfD is they are concerned about birth rate. They are concerned that Germans are dying out.

Yes.

And therefore, from that point of view, they're fellow travelers. I don't always agree with many of their policies, but in that sense, we're on the same side.

Yeah, well, they nearly got close into last time, and then obviously they got the Christian Democrats and some other people formed and went. But in this one, Saxony, Chris—

They do these broad coalitions of anybody but the AfD, even though they have completely opposite policies in so many ways, which basically means nothing's getting done. I think in the end they've got to accept them into power because what usually happens too when these parties come into power, they tend to moderate, as Meloni did in Italy. I mean, she's so-called ultra-right, you know, fascist ascendant party, but actually she's governed quite well and, you know, adopted pretty reasonable policies. A little bit tougher on immigration, which I think is a good thing.

Yeah, well, the CDU, the, the guy they're running only got 18%. Obviously Merz is the CDU, he's a chancellor.

He's really on the nose.

Yeah, so I think it's a really big thing. But what about overall? Like, I think for me, the major parties have made this problem, I think, in a way. Like, they haven't listened to people. They keep ignoring the issues because they're afraid of being called maybe racist because if it's anything to do with immigration. Like, it's obviously— these are a symptom of what's been going on, right?

A lot of it's the difference between the elites and the ordinary people. The elites have very different views of what should go on. I mean, elites, generally speaking, like immigration. And why not? If you're an employer, You want lots and lots of low-cost workers. If you're a civil servant, you want more people coming to the country that you can administer. I mean, elite people and the left wing, the woke people are saying, oh, let's open our heart because we're so wonderful. We love everybody. So the right and the left can all agree in the elites. But ordinary people see their cultures overrun by people with very different values. And that is a problem. Some people make very good immigrants. We've got wonderful Chinese, Indian immigrants in Australia which really fit in very well. Other groups are a little bit more problematic, especially those who come from very poor countries which have got a lot of violence. And then you get people with machete murders and so forth. So that is a big difference. In every country, the elites are in control, but popular voice says, no, we're not as keen on that as you are. And people like the AfD and Pauline Hanson and others speak Well, that's exactly right.

And they're saying things which the other parties won't say because they're afraid of being called, you know, racist or whatever, right?

So you don't think— like, you have a situation in England right now where people are coming in, are coming across the Channel in boats, and they put them up in hostels and they pay for them at government expense, and they just stay there and stray around and wander around the towns and everything else.

Yep.

People don't want that, but then the courts get to go, oh, according to this treaty, you can't send them back because they might be— we know perfectly well they're economic migrants. I mean, send them to Rwanda, I don't care. Send them to Sudan. If you, if you, if you come to this country and we don't want you, why should we look after you? Why should we pay for you? Especially when you can't afford to provide enough services for ordinary people in the country. Like, um, in England, the, the medical service is, is completely overburdened.

The NHS, yeah.

And yet they're bringing in lots and lots of people who've got right to use it who don't even belong in the country. So why don't you just kick them out and send them somewhere else?

Yeah.

Elite culture is just too soft and it doesn't reflect what people are really thinking. And that's a big problem for all governments.

Yeah, and actually not even calling it a problem in the first place I think has been the big thing. And the people who have been calling it out, like obviously Hanson over here and you've got Farage over there, for example, they're obviously going to have the benefit of it too as well.

That's right. I mean, Trump, for example, he's a pretty awful president from every point of view. He's corrupt. He's taking masses of money. I mean, he's doing all kinds of bad stuff. He's undermined democracy. At the same time, he's the one leader that actually has done what everybody was promising, which is basically close the wall. He stopped people coming in. And some of what he does is very brutal, especially kicking out people who've been in the country 25 years and they've got children and grandchildren who are American citizens. So you can disagree with a lot of things that he does, but he has actually stopped mass illegal immigration, and for that, people appreciate it. If he could just have some decency in other ways, I think he'd be okay.

But he also says what he thinks. And the word with Trump, you always hear, he's authentic, right? He is who he is.

Just like Pauline Hanson. They say she hasn't changed. She's been rambling on about the same thing for decades. She's consistent on message. She doesn't adapt with the winds. I don't know if she'd make a great prime minister or anything like that, but you know what she stands for.

Well, she's genuine, and that's who she is. She's not trying to You know, to cater to any base specifically. She says what she thinks, if you like it or you don't. And I think that's what people want from politicians now, to actually hear what they actually think, not a political answer. And you can tell— I don't know how much radio you listen to, Jim, but I listen to radio and you hear a Liberal or Labor politician on there and everyone after on the talkback will say, he didn't answer one of your questions, or she didn't answer one of your questions. And I think people just want a question to be answered now with a yes or no and a bit of truth in it, and they don't do it.

So yeah, people are always saying, Jim Penman, I'd make a terrible politician because I'll say what I think.

Well, maybe that's maybe hey, maybe that's the way it's going.

I don't want to go into politics.

I know you don't want it because it'll take you away from it.

It's a mug scam. I'd much rather be in business and just spout off a lot more fun.

But I think it's cutting. But I think people want a bit more transparency and authenticity.

Appoint me, appoint me president with with total powers for the next two years. I'd take that one.

Need a dictatorship.

Clean up, clean up, clean up. Just temporary dictatorship. You know, they used to have in Roman history, they used to have a temporary dictator for a year, and he could do whatever he liked. He could fix everything up, and after that he just goes independent, private. But that's not a bad idea.

So one-year dictatorship.

Appoint me Prime Minister? No, but temporary one-year dictatorship? Yep. Sack half, two-thirds of the public service and do other things like that too.

Absolutely. Now the next one I've got here is the 7-Eleven on the defensive.

Yes.

Do you want to talk about that?

Interesting. Yeah, they— I've been, I've been quite vocal about the fact that they take people's business off the franchisees, a million-dollar business they built 10 years with all the goodwill And they come along and they say, okay, you're finished. And they say, we've got to buy it. No, not good enough. Got to buy it. Not good enough. Got to buy it. Not good enough. Okay. All right. Lock the doors and we'll take it back to the company store. To me, that is outright theft. And I found it outrageous. And I think it's utterly spineless of our government that they can't do anything about it. It's no different to going in with a gun and stealing $1 million. As far as I'm concerned, it's evil. Now, I've been saying these things. So, 7-Eleven write to me and say, these you've got to stop making misleading statements. And I said, that's okay. Tell me what's misleading. Is it not true that you are doing this? That you're taking back these stores and running as company-owned stores? If it's not true, and you are going to compensate them fully, then tell me, and I will make that clear. Otherwise, please explain what's misleading about what I'm saying. So now they've written back and said, we're going to come and have a talk to you. Okay, so you can't put it in writing. What are you going to say to me in person? Are you going to threaten? What are you going to do? So I'm looking forward to setting up an appointment to talk to these guys.

Yeah, so yeah, to be clear, we had a legal letter actually. It was a legal letter from their lawyer. From their lawyer. You responded very— you responded literally what you said to the lawyer with that, which is there. They didn't obviously respond, but they were very— I thought they were smart arse in their email to us. I thought it was quite outrageous what they did. Maybe we put it online, maybe we don't. And then, I mean, there's 7-Eleven. They've reached out to you for a meeting, which is obviously in person, so There's a big difference.

They terrify their franchisees. Their franchisees are scared of them because this is a big, big powerful legal company. I'm not scared of them. I know they're a multi-billion dollar company and Jim certainly isn't, but let's face it, I'm experienced with these things. I have in-house lawyers. I understand libel law very, very well. If you say something that's factually correct, you— they haven't got much of an avenue to attack you with, so I'm not scared of them.

Well, the thing for me is there's been so many stories on A Current Affair, so if anything was— that was in wrong, you'd be going for defamation because Australia's got very big defamation things. And the other thing as well is that, um, you asked for in writing or for a response about what's going on here, and you won't get a response.

Yes, they tell me that what I'm saying is incorrect, and I say, what is incorrect? What I've said is that you've taken their business off them. Is that not true? Do you intend to pay them compensation? If so, tell me that. Show me you're going to do it, and I will completely react. And I'll say, no, I've now been told You've given back these people. You've given multiple millions back to these people who've had their. I am now. I'm now completely satisfied.

Yeah, and we'll retract our statements, which is what you said.

We'll retract them. Yeah, we'll do a video. I'll say at the time that was correct. I didn't lie because that's what I've heard. That's what they told you told.

We had a franchise. They tell you literally as well.

Yeah, so that's what I've been told. So I've said based on what you have said in public yourself, I'm basing it on that. Now, if you change, I will change too.

Absolutely. So they want to have a sit-down with you, so hopefully we can make that happen, and hopefully it doesn't get too fiery. So I might just have to go in the background just to sort of referee maybe a bit, but I'm hoping we, um—

What I'd love to be able to do is to be able to film it, but I guarantee they won't allow it.

They definitely won't allow it because they won't respond to us in writing. And I would love to do that because it'd be awesome content as well, but I think that's obviously the reason why they want to do the meet in person, because they don't want—

They don't want anybody to know what's been said.

Exactly right. And look, I'm sure there's another— I'm sure they've got their side, but Let's hear what they have to say. So that is going to happen. I'm sure we're going to have a— it's going to be interesting, interesting thing.

But they haven't set up a time yet, so I don't know.

No, but you've been really responsive. And, um, but I am—

I am not dropping this. I think it's outrageous. I have actually told to— I've been talking to some of the French ex-franchisees, and I said to them, if you're interested in taking a lawsuit to sue 7-Eleven, I will look at providing finance.

Wow.

Now, in other words, it's one of those things where you pay the lawyers and if you get a settlement, you get money back.

Yep, yep.

But I'm actually seriously willing to investigate that possibility, so you don't have to be scared.

Well, let's see how the meeting goes. Hopefully it goes cordial and hopefully it goes okay. I'm interested myself to see it, but yeah, it's gonna be very interesting. They're obviously the biggest— they're actually the biggest franchise in the world based on units. I think 7-Eleven is actually number 1. I think we're like 25th or something. Anytime Fitness is 20th, they've got 6,000 franchisees, and 7-Eleven's number 1. So I think, um, it'd be interesting.

We're the biggest in the southern hemisphere.

We are.

Which is not difficult because they're mostly in the north.

We are. But I think, um, yeah, this is going to be an interesting sit-down if that happens, and I'm very, um, looking forward to it actually. So let's, let's see what happens there. Next one here is Australian per capita GDP in decline. So I will say for people as well, if you're not following Jim on Instagram, follow him because He's been reacting to all these videos with Albanese and stuff, and they've gone mega viral. So jump on there and check them out. But you want to talk about that one?

Australian government's very fond of saying our GDP is going up. Yeah, it's going up for one reason, because we're importing hundreds of thousands of new people a year. If you look at GDP per capita, the average income that Australians get, it's going down. It's been going down for 4 years. And this is actually worse than it seems, because what's actually happening is that more and more wealth is going to the wealthy and less and less to ordinary people. So ordinary people are seeing their incomes go down.

We paid more in 2021, basically, essentially before COVID and it hasn't recovered at all.

Yeah, yeah. And the people who are most vulnerable are being hurt by this dreadful, dreadful government that we've got in Australia in general, but particularly in Victoria.

And you've mentioned a few things here, so let's talk about them, obviously. So dot points here: ever-rising taxes including the CGT that penalise entrepreneurs is the first one you got there.

Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, look, basically we're taking enough tax already. We've got enough tax to do everything we need. It's just it's being wasted. But you'd rather stop wasting it. You want to just charge more and more. Look, not all taxes are bad. I'm not against taxes. For example, something like a property tax, land tax, is actually a fairly good tax because it actually pushes people to use their properties better. So there are forms of taxes that are quite positive. But something like capital gains tax is very problematic because as an entrepreneur, You have to take risks and you know that you could well lose everything. But if you know that if you succeed you get a tax benefit, it compensates for the risk. Otherwise you're saying just do the real safe stuff. Australia isn't going to prosper if everybody's scared of failure. You've got to take risks and I know that as an entrepreneur. So capital gains tax, getting rid of that is a very, very bad idea for economics. There's other taxes that are a lot less damaging. I mean, look, land tax I mentioned, congestion taxes, that you have to pay more if you're going to go on a freeway.

As London has, yeah.

That's a good tax because it actually— those who want to travel pay a bit extra, but they move a lot faster and you reduce pollution and all the rest of it. So there are kinds of taxes, or parking taxes, which means that you get charged much higher taxes, fees for parking in the city. And you— enough so that people actually— there's always car parking spots available. It's called smart parking. There's all kinds of ways you can raise money that are not damaging. In fact, some of them can even have positive elements to it. But capital gains tax is a really bad one.

Obviously, one you know about personally is obviously the red tape as well. And all businesses— whenever we do a reaction video with this one, we get a lot of traction with that one.

Red tape is is absolutely shocking, and I see it on so many levels. The degree of red tape is rising. We see it in the terms of franchising. The franchising code's an utter dog's breakfast. It's all sorts of just difficult, technical, technical, hundreds, massive, massive disclosure documents which nobody reads. I've had 2 franchisees ever told me they've read the disclosure, that you've got to go through all this Elaborate process, and yet when you do something like 7-Eleven comes along and steals businesses off of these guys, million-dollar businesses, nothing, nothing. Sit back and do nothing. That's okay. That's a multi-billion-dollar corporation. But these stupid, stupid regulations which do nothing. I've said again and again, a simple way to do that, to solve this, would be to survey every franchisee every year at franchise expense and post the result. How difficult would that be, for heaven's sake? And then anybody.

Bad franchisor, yeah.

If anybody was a bad franchisor, without naming any particular names, then they'd be blasted and every potential franchisor would look at them and see the results and see the comments and not go there. And every franchisor would have an incredible incentive. Little simple things like that which cost the government nothing, not interested. Anything that makes tens of millions of dollars a year for lawyers, We want it. Who are you looking out for? Not small business, that's for sure.

Absolutely. And obviously zoning laws as well, building regulations too. And a big one that's happened with, um, a lot of the changes to the housing is that the state governments are losing a lot on stamp duty because no one's moving now. So they're actually like 20-30% less in, um, uh, stamp duties and stuff now, which has been interesting with a lot of these changes coming in too.

It's, it's a dog's breakfast. And weirdly enough though, it's the one way the Labor Party is better than Liberals. Because the Liberals want the property prices to go up. Actually, I read The Australian, which I generally like, but every time the property market goes down, they say, oh, terrible, terrible, people lose. Yeah, they're losing it, but if you have cheaper houses, people can afford to buy them, and eventually, if you do it properly, you can have lower rents. That's what you want. You do not want house prices to go up forever.

The problem we've got is that people we treat as an investment, massive investment class in Australia. The banks are— 70% of all banks' loans are in real estate.

That's right.

So it's an investment vehicle in Australia, and that's the problem we've got is we've created this market in our economy.

The thing about it, you have strict zoning laws and you have incredibly terrible zoning regulations, all of which are designed to push the cost of property up. Think who gains, okay? Who loses? Renters, because renting becomes too expensive. People who want to buy houses because they can't afford to buy, young people. Prices are double what they should be if you didn't have these stupid regulations. I'm just basing on what's in America and so forth. Now, people who are buying their own house, just one house, they aren't really affected one way or the other because if you own your house, it's somewhere that you live. And if you ever did want to sell out, you buy another place, but that's cheaper too. The only people who are losing are people who've got multiple properties. And we're not talking about big chunks. We're talking about maybe 5% of the population. So why is it that the needs of the 5% who are the best and most affluent in the country are looked after so well by the government? Government loves those people, want to look after them traditionally. But the 95%, who cares?

Do you think the older generation and the boomers have then screwed over the next generation?

Well, in a sense, if the older generation is the one that is voting for zoning restrictions and labyrinths and building codes, yes. And they have. But I mean, I'm in that generation. But look, I've done well out of it, for heaven's sake. We bought this property here and my house next door for $2.8 million. I've got a— compared with inflation, I've probably made about $5 or $6 million in gains.

Hmm.

Now, I don't really care because I live there and I work here. So I don't care what it's worth. If I wanted to borrow money, it'd be good. But I don't anyway. So what's the problem? Yeah, but yeah, I just feel sorry. I just feel it's terrible. We've got a government that is really, really obsessed with working for these well-off minorities, not looking after the needs of the great majority.

Well, when politicians are so heavily invested in property as well, how can they make a decision which is going to then destroy that or hurt their own investment? And that's the big problem we've got as well. If you look at Nick McKim, a really outspoken Greens minister, 5 properties.

Yeah.

Mehreen Faruqi, 3 investment properties. These are the Greens people who try and champion they're on the smaller, the smaller side. They're not.

Oh, the Greens are the worst.

Tony Burke, 6 properties.

The Greens are the worst elitists of all. Greens are the ones that say, let's make university education free. So here's a group of society that's doing really well, that gets a government-subsidized education so they can make higher salaries ongoing. They can become lawyers and financiers and civil servants and all that. secure, well-paid job, and then you get the brown population who are doing really poor. So I know, let's have a way we can take more money from those who are in need and give more resources to those who are already well off. That's just obscene, it really is.

And then you've also got here lunatic Greens, which we've just— we'll segue into that. So obviously with electricity prices, and obviously that's been a whole schmozzle in Australia, how much we pay for, um, power compared to—

We pay, we pay double as much for our power as they do in America on average. Double. Why? Because the stupid Greens regulations and the attempt to solve global warming in Australia, which is completely insane. But it's worse than that, because not just the fact that you're paying twice as much for your power, everything you buy is affected by the price of power. So if you double the price of power to business, it might be— you might like to think the business is just going to swallow that, but no, what they're going to do is to raise their prices. So everything that you buy, whether it's bread Milk, everything you end up paying more for. Everything that you purchase goes up because of the fact that these green regulations push up the price of electricity. If you go to the supermarket, they've got to keep the lights on, okay? That costs money. If you charge them more, double, they're going to charge you more.

And we've got incompetent fools like this Chris Bowen, like, you know, $6 million for hosting a Pacific Green Energy Summit or whatever he did, right? $6 million, like, just for what? And then obviously traveling around left, right, and center on all these junkets and summits, and it's crazy.

It infuriates me. You know, you have a look at what they're doing in Nepal. Now, we have had, what, thousands of people die from floods. 1,000 plus, yeah. You know what, there's a lot of energy, a lot of money going into Nepal, but you know what they're doing? It's all for green development and stuff like that. So they'll spend this much money on all this greeny stuff, but something like sirens and things to actually give people warnings so they wouldn't die from floods, oh, that's too trivial, that's unimportant. We're interested in saving the planet. We don't care about a few thousand Nepalese.

And the worst thing that happens now is any disaster or anything— like, I've even heard climate activists saying, oh, the more potholes is due to global warming, or the roads are getting hotter. And any single thing now, they try and link it to, to global warming to try and make their case, right?

If we can do anything— and I suggest anybody who really thinks it's an issue should go to the Copenhagen Consensus and look what they do. And what they do is they say, how much— where can you spend money to help people the most, especially the most vulnerable and the most needy, which these greenies say they care about. And, and, and solving global warming comes about 20th. There's other systems like vaccination and bed nets and stuff which are orders of magnitude better ways to spend money.

Yes, it's a joke. And then the other one here you've got is obviously rising level of debt. Obviously with the, um, the changes now with people buying less houses, it means less revenue for the state government as well in Victoria. So they've got to—

I don't know how they're going to cope with that one. No, because they want to spend more and more and more, but the taxes are going to go down. And of course, as you continue to cripple the economy, that is going to affect it all. So all they can do is take more and more taxes and higher taxes. And the more taxes they take, of course, the more it's hurting the economy. It's a descending spiral of doom.

What's the solution for it then? Like, next government comes in, for example, I'm hoping it's not Labor. Like, what can they actually do?

They can cut back on the red tape.

Right.

I see it in every area. I see it in franchising. I see it in building. My wife's a property developer. I see it in tourism. I see it in every area of the economy. This is more and more red tape. And what they do is these people who are running the country and the state are economically illiterate. They simply say, oh well, we want to have this. I'll give you an example, okay? This is a very small thing, but every now and then somebody contacts me and says, tell me about your policy about equal opportunities for women.

Yeah.

Okay, now I don't reply to that because these bloody people are parasites. I don't want to make their life any easier. The fact of the matter is most of my department heads are actually women at the moment, but they're not there because they're women. They do— they're there because they do such a great job. But if you've got to take it literally, what they've got is I've got to go and sack a woman to put a less qualified man in her place Because he's— she's the wrong gender. How obscene is that? And it's, it's bad either way. I will simply put the best person into the job. So these people are just parasites. I will not help them. I will not do anything for them.

Well, speaking of parasites, you've also got here, the only growth industry in Australia is bureaucrats. Net increase of 28 per day.

Yes, that's right.

It's a lot.

Victoria alone, 22,000 bureaucrats extra. And we didn't— we weren't short Back in 2014, that's for sure.

Absolutely.

And, and if you, as I said before, if you actually took the money, these extra bureaucrats, and there are already too many, you could actually have 20% more doctors, 20% more nurses, 10% pay rise to every doctor, nurse, policeman, and teacher in the state. What the government should be doing is taking our money, which I don't mind them doing, and putting it onto useful services. But more and more bureaucrats whose only function is to gum up the economy and to worsen our standard of living is not a good investment of our time. And more and more debt, so we pay more and more interest. It's just getting worse and worse. It's getting worse by the day.

Plus the wages some of these people are on is crazy. Some of what they get paid in these positions is nuts. You know, $500 grand, $700 grand.

Oh, look at roadworks. Our roads are full of potholes. Now if you look at the way they do it, anybody can see why they're full of potholes. Because when they go there, you'll see the whole— everything's done up. You'll see 2 or 3 people with signs. You'll see mostly people standing around doing nothing. And they'll be there for weeks. Okay. What are they achieving? Now, if you had a simple system, for example, you had something that was, say, contracted out, no union labor, just efficient private enterprise. You allow a system where they have traffic lights that could be automatically done by AI. to control the flow of traffic. You don't need people on signs paid the same as school principals. You should have a simple system like that. Now, if you did that, if you took the money from employing those extra people and put it into fixing the roads, we'd have no potholes. They'd fix them all overnight because it'd be so simple, and it would cost less than it's costing now to have good roads than it does cost to have roads that are falling apart. It's just because they are so inefficient in everything they do.

I think it's crazy. And, you know, and then 98% of people who put a claim and get denied— like, I just think it's just nuts. You know, you've got people smashing rims. One of our franchisors smashed her car and got $4,500 off her own cost.

Yeah, the actual cost, it's not— the cost to ordinary people in terms of damage to cars is quite extraordinary. And this isn't— we don't mind paying taxes to do useful work, but to do it wastefully and inefficiently so you can't even do it properly at all, that's a terribly bad thing.

Absolutely. Next one here you've got is, even the ABC is concerned regarding Jim's charmers on positive growth.

as well. Yeah, well, considering the ABC is basically a spineless lackey of the left-wing government, basically controlled by the left— most left-wing woke people in the country, um, I think it's extraordinary that even they having a go at the government now. It's become so obvious these people are so utterly incompetent. Why on earth we pay, oh, what, $1 billion a year to the ABC? All I can say is, if you really— if the woke left of the country want their own media outlet, I've got no problem at all. I'm in favor of freedom of speech. Whatever problem is asking us to pay for it.

And what, what I find interesting is Jim Chalmers' arrogance when he puts out his ex-post and stuff. He gets roasted. Like, people just see through it and say— when he goes, we've created more jobs under this Labor government than whatever, and everyone says NDIS, NDIS, right? Which is true, they're trying to class it as a private business, right?

But the concern I've got is that generally every bureaucrat they put on is a job gained.

Absolutely.

But they're parasites.

They are.

No, not all of them. Not all of them. You do need an efficient an uncorrupt public servant to do crucial important things. You know, clean air, clean water, that kind of stuff. Of course you do. But what they use them for is useless.

And all these consultants as well and all these things. But Jim Chalmers, the concern is that generally the person who's the Treasurer is seen as the second in the 2IC, right, or the next person to run as Prime Minister. And I think it's how he's trying to put out propaganda which he knows is not true to try and push the government's cause, I think is ridiculous.

It's very frightening for a country of, what, 26 million people They have those in charge who are so economically illiterate. They are so shocked that when you actually do everything you can to discourage people from owning and renting out houses, you really, really, really try to stop them doing it, make it really expensive and difficult, and then rental prices rise. What do you expect to have happen?

Hmm.

You reduce the supply of a badly needed thing. You try hard to reduce the supply. Rents go up. What else could happen? If you were in 3rd grade doing economics, you should be able to work that one out.

I do find it funny sometimes when people say, what does a mower man know about the economy? I think I say, well, what does somebody who's done a doctorate on Paul Keating know about running the country's finances? Clearly not anything, right? So he doesn't have— you know, the guy's the treasurer of the company. It's like Katy Gallagher is the same person. Like, these people are literally incompetent. They don't have any background in these things, and they're running ministries and they're running the Treasury. Like, it's nuts.

They actually, and this is one of the problems too, of course, they think that somebody who runs a business doesn't know anything about the economy. But who knows more about the economy than the business owners who've got to live within it? If you're trying to work out how a particular tax would affect business, you ask people in business. You don't ask somebody with a PhD in sociology. It's elementary. You ask the people who know.

Well, Jim Chalmers got off the airport recently, there's footage of this online, and an old gentleman went up and said to him, stop spending money, you wanker. You're spending too much money. Basically called him out for it, and obviously he took it. But I just think the quality of the politicians we've got at the moment is quite a concern. The next one you've got here is One Nation in Victoria. Now obviously, we've got an election coming up end of November. Obviously One Nation has announced candidates and things like that. What would you sort of say about them sort of rising up and how's that going to shape the election?

Well, um, you can't— they can't be worse than Labour, and they certainly couldn't— would be better than the Greens. Um, but I don't have confidence in them as a governing party. I just don't. You, you— what you see of their politicians— and I, look, I do have respect for Pauline Hanson. At least she's, she's on, she's on target. She doesn't change her mind. You know what she stands for. got a respect for her. And she's actually run a business too. None of the front bench in the state or federal government has ever run a business.

No.

So she at least understands what it's like to be in that situation. At the same time, the quality of the candidates are pretty ordinary. They have different views. You don't really know what the party stands for. And there's some good people there, but I'd be concerned. I think Liberal Party has a lot stronger Has greater depths of ability. But my problem with the Liberal Party is they're in favour of ever-rising house prices, and they'll do everything they can to make prices go up.

Absolutely.

Which is not good in the long run. It's not good for renters, it's not good for anybody.

Well, it's shown that in the voting, because like, um, in James— I think James Newby got back into his seat in Brighton. Obviously Brighton was designated for— Middle Brighton— for those activity zones for up to 6 storeys, right? And as you can imagine, the people in Brighton protesting left, right, and centre, and they obviously voted him back in. to obviously stop that. So I do think Liberals aren't going to do anything with that as well.

Liberals are actually the word— very bad.

And with the, with the Labor as well, I think, um, what do you think is going to happen then at the election? Obviously when they come to the close and do more of that, but do you think it's going to be—

obviously, um, it's going to be a hung parliament. Yeah, I don't think anybody's going to have majority. Um, Labor with Greens, I don't think they're going to get a majority, and I can't imagine anybody going to gang up with it. I can't think One Nation— I think most likely what you're going to get is some kind of a coalition. I know Liberals say it won't happen, but what else can you do if you don't have a majority?

And I think also the, um, what you said before, though, the candidates of One Nation is probably their weak spot, is that these, these candidates, they feel rushed and they feel forced. But in saying that, a lot of the candidates they do put up are business owners in the community. So most of the people who are running have some sort of small business ownership, or they're known in their community and actually live in it as well, which I think is a big thing.

Well, I think they'd be better than Labor, but I think some kind of— even though Liberals are against this— some kind of a a coalition bringing some Liberal competence in, but some, some core One Nation policies might be about the best you could hope for. I'm standing for the Libertarians, as you know. We basically want to have, you know, we want to get rid of zoning and bureaucracy and red tape and all the garbage that goes on and have a more efficient functioning government. I think that's by far the best policies. However, I don't think we're going to be able to control Victoria after the election. I'm just going to do my best to push in that direction.

I think David Lindrick does a great job. He gets a lot of media attention and he seems to be, um, really good at dissenting voice to the Labor government.

Yeah, he's a good guy and he actually— they actually bat. If we could get a few people especially into the Upper House, that would be very, very helpful.

Our next one here is you've got some book suggestions. So you've got Branson: Behind the Mask by Tom Bower.

Yes, I've read a lot of what Branson's written. He's, he's a very impressive writer. He's very, very good at PR, all his stunts and the things that he says. But basically, behind the mask is really interesting. The guy's a— he's on and on about green causes. He's so green and environmental. But my goodness, the things that he does. He flies around in his private jet. He doesn't even fly first class on the airline. That's too pedestrian. He uses his flying— his private jet to fly around. preaching about how everybody else should, should, you know, pull their belts in and do better. He lives in this luxurious lifestyle in the Virgin Islands where he's a tax exile, so he doesn't have to pay British taxes and stuff. I mean, I think he's a, he's a greenie hypocrite, quite frankly.

Yeah, you got that written in here.

Well, I don't have a lot of admiration for him. He's not particularly— I, I admire people like, um, James Dyson, for example, if you want to talk about a British entrepreneur. James Dyson is wonderful. He's an amazing guy who's made terrific stuff.

Do you think Branson's a groanie for the PR aspects of it?

Oh, he probably believes it. He's always been very lefty. He's into smoking dope and stuff in his younger days, probably still for all I know. So I think it's good for his image. He's terrific at PR. I give him that. He's very, very good. All these balloon flights and stuff, which is insanely dangerous, but it gets him attention. And he's good at speaking. I just think I don't admire that.

Bit of a hypocrite, yeah. And then the one here you've got is Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow.

Yeah, it's interesting actually. He's a very interesting character. Very upright in his personal life, family life and so forth. Devoted father, devoted husband. Very close to his wife. Personally speaking, great guy. in a lot of ways. As a business tycoon, the things they did were very, very questionable. They would do things like they'd pressure the railroads not only just to give them lower rates for shipping their oil, but they would actually get the railroads to actually pay them, Standard Oil, for stuff shipped by the opposition. And so they would just wipe out the competition. Now often they would buy them out. But basically they just crushed them.

Hmm.

So what he did was very ruthless and he became very unpopular for a time. But what Rockefeller has also done is formed one of the best foundations for charity in the world. And things like dealing with hookworm, with yellow fever and so forth, they've done incredible things. Best estimate is they have saved tens of millions of lives. Tens of millions of lives. Possibly as much as 100 million people are alive or haven't died because of what the Rockefeller Foundation did. Now, if you can put that in perspective, someone like Hitler, with all his exterminations and wars, probably killed about 40 million people.

Mm-hmm.

So what does— what do you think of somebody who's actually saved that many lives? So I would balance that against questionable business practices. I'd say overall, this guy was probably a pretty good thing.

Yeah, he's a pretty, um, ruthless businessman. I've listened to a bit of stuff on him, some podcasts and stuff.

He was ruthless and he was dishonest too. They lied all the time about what they did. But you got it back. It's like someone like Elon Musk, actually. Now, Elon Musk's a fairly ordinary character in some ways. Some of the stuff he does makes me cringe. He really does. But this is the guy who's got open space for humanity.

Everyone's got flaws, and I think people are complicated.

And people— you look at Bill Gates. I mean, what the Gates— what's— I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft. I get so frustrated by some of their software. But at the same time, you know, look at what he's done with the Gates Foundation. I mean, he's done incredible things. So you've got to balance people out.

Yeah, people are complex. People— there's people who've got, yeah, multiple sides to them for sure. The next one you've got here is The Gripper by Robert Harris. What's that one about?

Well, it's a story. It's written by— as if it's like his autobiography. So it follows historical pattern quite accurately. Agrippa was the man that brought Octavius to power as Emperor Augustus. He was the general that won the Battle of Actium, for example, which defeated Mark Antony. So it's his story. And it's interesting too because they don't sanitize him. They treat him like what he was, a citizen of Rome in the 1st century BC. And some of the stuff they did was pretty gruesome, but he just writes it in a very matter-of-fact Like, they, they, when that, when they got control of the city initially, when, um, Octavian and Gruber got control of the city, they decided they need more money to pay the army. So they said, okay, where's the best money? Let's go to the people who've got it. So they actually put a proscription list of all the wealthy people in the country, in the, in the city. So about 100 senators and about 1,000 knights, and they put a public list and he said, you get these people, we'll give you a reward for killing them.

Oh, wow.

So they basically robbed, wholesale murder of the leading citizens so they could grab their money. That's the kind of stuff these people did. And they described another situation where they— it's just very— another situation where they captured some people and they would torture them and then crucify them. It was just very matter of fact.

Yeah.

Without any trace of squeamishness, which is interesting. It's very gripping reading.

Yeah, a brutal time. Brutal time. I can imagine it would be as well.

But it gives you a bit of an idea how a person like that might have thought.

Massively good insights as well. Obviously, Birthright Crisis and Biohistory as well coming up. And that's obviously in large part with the fall of the Roman Empire is where you come up with that as well, for people who don't know.

Yes, that's right. People are puzzled as to why— I've always argued about why the Roman Empire collapsed. Gibbon said it was because of Christianity. That's just rubbish. It really is. For all kinds of points of view, but I think I know why. I've got a theory that explains it, and it's the same thing that's happening to the modern world. Interesting thing, there's one difference, is we have potential to change that because understanding neuroscience and the role of dopamine and understanding epigenetics and so forth, we have a chance to understand what's going on and we have a chance to fix it. And that's what Birthrate Crisis is about.

Perfect. So birthratecrisisbook.com, there's a mailing list there. Anyone on that will get first dibs on the book when it comes out. Of course, I will also say this. We do a lot of stuff on TikTok with Jim with Q&As about birth rate, and we have a lot of people asking him questions and saying things to him. Jim will respond to you. So if you've got a specific question about birth rate, please make sure you leave a video if you can, and then Jim will respond to it as well. Thank you for listening today as well. We appreciate your time and making sure you get a Birth Rate book as well. birthratecrisisbook.com. Sign up to be notified as well. Thanks, Jim.