Episodes
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My guest today is Ian Fletcher who is one of the leading academic critics of free trade in the United States today. Ian is on the advisory board of the Coalition for a Prosperous America and is the author or co-author of many books including Free Trade Doesn’t Work, The Conservative Case against Free Trade, and most recently Industrial Policy for the United States.
https://prosperousamerica.org/advisory-board/ian-fletcher/ https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/author/B003BDMOEI
We discuss among other things:
- Who is going to be in charge of trade and industrial policy in Trump 2.0
- What the impact of Trump trade policy on Australia is likely to be
- What trade and industrial policy means for the USD and for currencies
- How industrial policy can be done poorly and how to avoid some of the downsides
- What Australia's trade policy should be like going forward - How to determine what goods you need to produce locally and which (if any) you can be comfortable importing
And much more
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My guest today is Aimee Terese a well-known online political and social commentator x.com/aimeeterese .
Aimee is Australian although she is not particularly well known in her homeland. However, she does have a prolific following on X and is influential in online right circles in the United States and elsewhere.
Today we discuss:
How she sees herself and how her political views evolvedIf X didn't exist what she would doThe interaction between the online right and the mainstream media and the general publicSex differences and how they play out in politicsCensorship, cancellation and the free pressWhether many humans actually want truth Her views on religionAnd much more.
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Missing episodes?
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Today I speak with Avik Roy who is a US conservative commentator, activist and founder of the foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity https://freopp.org/team/the-freopp-founders-avik-roy/
He has particular expertise in health care reform and has advised Mitt Romney and other Republican Presidential candidates in this area.
He has also been a prominent critic of the national conservative movement in the United States and was instrumental in pulling together something call "The Freedom Conservative Statement of Principles" found here: https://www.freedomconservatism.org/p/freedom-conservatism-a-statement
We talk briefly about health care in the United States, how concerns about Obamacare did not feature as much in the most recent Presidential election as they have in the past, and his view about what the appointments of RFK Jr and Jay Battachaya mean.
We then get in to national conservative v freedom conservative debate. His views on JD Vance, Trump and some of the key areas such as trade, foreign policy and immigration, where NatCons and his freedom cons have different approaches, and whether this is all just a rehash of what Disraeli and Gladstone were debating in the 19th Century.
Hope you enjoy.
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Andrew is a Senior Policy Analyst in Trade Policy at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC. Used to work for the British and American governments dealing with foreign policy and trade issues for many years.
We discuss:
Who is actually going to be in charge of trade policy under Trump 2.0?What trade policies are likely to be actually implemented?What will be the likely trading relationship between China and the US in future?Will Australia receive or need an exemption from any new trade policies?What should Australia's trade policy be going forward? Should we implement tariffs on China?And much more.
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Interview with Simon Hankinson - Senior Research Fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation
How much of a focus immigration now is among think tanks in the US Capital and how much this has changed since the pre-Trump eraWhat Trump's policy is likely to be with respect to legal immigrationWhy Tucker Carlson seems to like The Heritage Foundation rather than other DC think tanksHow diversity, equity and inclusion programmes undermine US foreign policyAnd much more
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Jordan and Dan catch up Among other things we discuss:
- Reactions to immigration restriction speech by tech entrepreneur Matt Barrie
- Why the major parties in Australia aren't doing anything about mass immigration even though Kier Starmer and Justin Trudeau are making statements, at least in theory, saying numbers must be cut dramatically
- Why ABC Chairman Kim Williams and the mainstream media in Australia remain clueless about the new media environment
- Why are single women not voting for Trump unlike other demographic groups and what to do about it
- Why the reaction to the synagogue attack in Melbourne largely avoids the real issue of immigration
And much more
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Gregory R. Copley is a strategic analyst who for over half century worked at the highest levels with various governments around the world.
He currently serves as President of the Washington-based International Strategic Studies Association and is editor-in-chief of the online journal Defence & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy. Born in Western Australia, he Member of the Order of Australia and is the author or co-author of over 35 books. Further information found here: https://www.strategicstudies.org/issa/GRCbio.htm
We discuss:
How he ended up in Washington DCWhy has detailed in-country knowledge been degraded and what it meansHow does one strike the balance between covert operations that a state needs to conduct to secure its interests and what its nations citizens should be entitled to knowWhat should Australia's trade policy be with the United States and China going forwardWhat lessons the Normans can teach us todayWhat should Australia aspire to be as a nation in 50 yearsAnd much more
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My guest today is Dr Gordon Menzies. Gordon is an Associate Professor in Economics at the UTS Business School in Sydney.
He has had an illustrious academic career. Amongst other things he received his PhD from Oxford University and is a former economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
In 2021 he published a book “Western Fundamentalism – Democracy, Sex and the Liberation of Man”.
We discuss:
Whether “liberalism” should be compared to a fundamentalist ideologyHow he now feels about the economic liberalisation of the 1980s in Australia in which he was deeply involved at a policy making levelHow economic liberal thinking has influenced modern relationship and has changed their natureWhat is wrong with the view that ever-increasing social, economic and sexual freedom will lead to greater happinessThe problem of viewing traditional social institutions and customary restraints as simply individual choice within an overall liberal frameworkWhether there is cure for liberal fundamentalismAnd much more.
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Gray Connolly is a Barrister-at-Law in Coram Chambers in Sydney, Australia. His practice is mainly in constitutional law, public law, as well as corporations and resources law. Gray has advised the Australian Government on national security and public law matters.
Gray served previously as a naval intelligence officer in the Royal Australian Navy in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, East Timor, and the Middle East, including service in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gray also periodically writes on national security and governance matters from a conservative perspective. He keeps a blog at “Strategy Counsel” and his Twitter is @GrayConnolly
Wide-ranging discussion befitting a man with such deep and broad knowledge about so many things. We cover his political development, Ukraine, Middle East, China, Big Australia, and how close we are to our modern day Caesar crossing the Rubicon.
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Virginia is a former ABC journalist and now freelance writer based on a farm in southern NSW where she lives there with her husband and four kids.
She is a regular contributor to The Australian, author of soon to be published book “All Mothers Work”, and founder of www.parentsworkcollective.org.au
She recently spoke at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship in Sydney where we met. In this interview we discuss:
How we can improve the image of motherhood in the media, why this is necessary, and how this might be achievedWhat a sensible pro-natalist / family policy looks like and how we need to make parenting less of a heroic undertaking than it currently isWhat she makes of the "tradwife" phenomenonWhat single professional career-minded women do and don't understand about motherhood - pros and consWhether she considers herself a feminist and her views on Simone De Beauvoir, Betty Friedan and othersAnd much more
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I speak with UK academic Dr Daniel Pitt about his recent book on Post-liberalism and the Future of Conservatism. We discuss among other things:
The situation in the UK today and why, despite having many erudite and interesting intellectuals, journalists, podcasters on the right, British politics is such a basket case at the momentHow British conservatism differs from conservatism in the new worldWhether and how liberals and conservatism should cooperate?Why Australia does not have the same intellectual tradition when it comes to "conservatism"What "national conservatism" actually means and how it differs (if at all) from past versions of conservatismWhere "red toryism" and "blue labour" are now What a post-liberal and future conservative future looks like.And much more.
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My guest today is Tim Andrews is Director of Consumer Issues for Americans for Tax Reform based in Washington DC.
He was previously Executive Director of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance is or has been on the boards of a host of free market think tanks globally including the HR Nicholls Society, and the Australian Libertarian Society. He previously ran the very successful Friedman Conferences in Sydney for many years.
We discussed:
The current mood in Washington DC and how people are reactingHis interpretation of Trump policy framework and whether it really differs from the previous Reagan centre-right Washington ConsensusHis views on Ukraine war His views on immigration and his personal experience with the Cronulla Riots in SydneyOur long standing argument on trade policy and why he still is in favour of free tradeWhether if any of his policy positions have changed since Trump rise in 2015. How the Trump presidency could go wrong and whether the current national conservative moment could in turn followed by a more libertarian moment in due courseAnd much more.
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Jordan and Dan catch up to discuss the US Election (with joy)!
Among other things we discuss:
Why Gen X and Gen X swung strongly behind TrumpHow Trump 2024 differs from 2016What the new coalition of Tech Bros (Elon, Theil, etc), Media Bros (Rogan, Tucket, etc) , Health Bros (RFK Jr, etc), and Thinking Bros (JD Vance, Vivek, etc) make the MAGA agenda stronger and more durableHow the Australian mainstream media and the political class still don't get itHow the UK political class are especially cluelessHow it could all go wrong and right over the next 4 years -
Interview with Hon John Ruddick MLC has been a Libertarian member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 20 April 2023. He is the first member of that party to be elected to the NSW Parliament.
Before entering parliament Ruddick was a long-standing member of the Liberal Party and prominent proponent of reform. He is the author of a 2018 book "Make the Liberal Party Great Again". In this episode we discuss:
How The Libertarian Party plans to influence the Liberal Party of Australia in a similar way that the Greens influence the Labor PartyWhether open primaries for selection of leaders and representatives can work in AustraliaWhere the libertarians differ and agree with the Trump programme on trade, immigration and foreign policyWhether libertarianism is in conflict with the nation-state -
We interview noted Australian liberal economist Dr Alan Moran about his recent piece in The Spectator regarding the unprecedented demographic decline Australia and other nations are experiencing.
We discuss amongst other things:
Causes of this decline and possible carrot and stick solutionsWhat the true economic costs of raising kids is and how this should be compensatedWhy treasury forecasts with population have been so wrong and whether economics has treated demographics seriously enoughThe problems of baby bust happening at the same time as mass immigrationWhether neoliberalism is in part responsible for the decline and whether current policy setting need to be readjustedWhat a Trump victory means for trade and liberalism generally The Spectator piece here: https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/10/can-subsidies-help-australians-make-more-babies/ -
Dan Ryan, Executive Director of NatCon Australia and Jordan Knight, Founder of Migration Watch get together for regular catch-up:
We discuss among other things:
Thoughts on recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) event in Sydney which we both attended - pros and cons, best and worst speakers, etc.The high end arts and culture style of ARC - pros and consThe extent to which national conservative themes were touched on by speakers on stage (not much) but which were discussed at length by many attendees on sidelinesHow real threat to US and West is descent in to South American politics rather than Cold War or WWIIHow battles of the future less about ideology and more about demographyThoughts on upcoming US election and what it means for Australia -
We speak with Isaac Stone Fish the founder and CEO of Strategy Risks - a business intelligence firm focusing on geopolitical risk.
He is the former Beijing correspondent for Newsweek and worked in China for many years. Amongst his many other current roles he serves as a contributor to CBS News, is an adjunct at NYU's Center for Global Affairs and has positions on the Atlantic Council and the Council on Foreign Relations
He is the author of America Second: How America’s Elites are Making China Stronger (Knopf) and lives in New York City.
https://www.isaacstonefish.com/
https://www.amazon.com.au/America-Second-Americas-Elites-Stronger/dp/0525657703
Among other things we discuss:
What US-China relations would look like under President Trump or President HarrisHis book "America Second" and the history of influence peddling by former senior American officials in ChinaKey issues such as Xinjiang, Taiwan, TikTok, Telsa, China and US Tech entrepreneursWhat a more ethical and sophisticated approach for companies "engaging" with China should look like -
We speak with UK academic Dr Kit Kowol about his newly released book, "Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War"
We discuss among other things:
Why did British public vote out in a landslide Winston Churchill and the Conservative Party in 1945?How might the United Kingdom and the British Empire have been different if the Conservatives had won in 1945?Lord Beaverbrook and how his realist views were reflective of a significant part of the Conservative PartyOther myths about WWII and the early post war period that should be discardedBook available here:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Blue-Jerusalem-British-Conservatism-Churchill/dp/0198868499
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We chat with Jillian Spencer a child and adolescent psychiatrist based in Brisbane.
In April 2023, she was stood down from her job as the senior staff specialist at the Queensland Children’s Hospital for raising concerns about gender interventions for children. Since that time, she has spoken out in the media about her concerns which led to further allegations of breaching the Code of Conduct. She remains suspended from her job.
We discuss:
How she became increasingly concerned about "gender affirming" treatment in AustraliaWhy the Australian gender clients have ignored the Cass Review in the UK which recommended against puberty blockers and gender affirming care What explains the increase in the number of kids presenting with gender dysphoriaWhat she has learnt about her colleagues and her profession, people generally, and about herself during this processHer recently released paper criticising the Queensland Gender Service evaluation (which essentially dismissed the Cass Review) can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10398562241280351 -
Regular catch up between Dan Ryan and Jordan Knight Among other things we discuss:
CPAC and Quillette functions we respectively attended, their pros and cons, and to what extent they these existing organizations get NatCon and the new rightThe recent admission by the Assistant Immigration Minister that migrants to have provided only "marginal economic benefit" to AustraliaA discussion of some of our respective media appearances, NatCon podcasts guests, and articlesWhether Australian governments are really implementing any serious change on immigration and whether they get the new reality at all on tradeThe various ways the immigration system is being rorted and how bad things are with illegal immigration in the United States - Show more
