Month: September 2021

Greg Barns SC is the Spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance and author of Rise of the Right: The War on Australia’s Liberal Values (2019).

Admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1986, Greg has been very vocal against human rights abuses and has called for Australia to adopt a Bill of Rights to protect both its citizens and journalists who are tasked with scrutinising governments. He continues to practise as a barrister, lecture in law at RMIT and write for various publications.

In this interview we discussed the erosion of human rights by powerful executive governments in their desperation to respond to Covid-19. Importantly, Greg stresses that the decline in human rights we are witnessing in Australia started long before and pandemic.

‘OPEN YOUR CHURCH’ is the bold cry from Christian pastor, Jesse Newman from Eternity Church in Iowa, USA. Jesse is an Aussie who grew up in Queensland, NSW and Victoria and is dismayed at the lack of courage displayed by Australian churches.

In this interview he delivers something Australians don’t often get – outside perspective – and we currently are looking very weak indeed.

We covered the police and governmental response to Covid-19 and the binds it places on churches because of the way their faith clashes with vaccine mandates, extended lockdowns and any form of segregation.

The Hon. John Anderson AO, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia now hosts an incredible podcast where he hosts guests such as Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Dan Crenshaw, Prof Stephen Hicks, Helen Pluckrose, and so many more.

We talked about many things but unfortunately ran out of time before I could get to the second part of my questions which we will hopefully cover in another interview: how he chooses guests, what makes a good interview, the monetisation of podcasting…

Since recording Australia has announced the acquisition of United States designed nuclear submarines. National security was a pressing concern of John’s in this interview and I suspect he would be pleased after the submarine announcement.

Dr Cameron Murray is an expert in environmental economics, corruption and property markets. As a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Henry Halloran Trust at the University of Sydney, Cameron’s PHD on the economics of corruption reveals how endemic and emergent it is to the human condition, which explains so much of the Covid-19 response we are seeing around the world today.

Most startling about this interview was his game theory experiments testing and demonstrating corrupt behaviour emerging through social pressure and group/tribe dynamics. In conversation we analysed social conformity to lockdowns through the lens of his research findings.

I particularly enjoyed exploring the manipulation of groups and how politicians and other leaders take advantage of populations.

His book ‘Game of Mates: How Favours Bleed the Nation’ will ‘open your eyes to how Australia really works’.