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UK Column Member Rachel — In Conversation with Brian Gerrish | UK Column Interviews · UK Column Radio

0:08
We hope that a few people will listen into this.
0:11
Rachel, a little bit of an introduction.
0:14
It is that you got in contact with a column.
0:17
First of all, what about two years ago?
0:20
Is that right? It was August 2000.
0:24
Yeah. Well, to August 2024, so.
0:28
Oh, OK. Right.
0:29
Yeah, yeah. And we have done an interview
0:33
before which I'll link him with this.
0:35
This is really just a chat. It's, it's Sunday morning, early
0:39
Sunday morning for me. I've lost track of where it is
0:44
for you now. Where is it for you?
0:46
Where? Are we?
0:48
It's 8:10 in the evening. Yeah, because because you're in
0:52
Australia and it's very warm and hot there and it's cold and
0:55
rainy here. So we've set the scene.
0:57
But you'd had some amazing experiences through COVID and
1:01
lockdown and that's really where we got chatting and we have been
1:05
in touch. But you were keen to to have a
1:07
chat again and so here we are. So I'd like to say to you how,
1:13
if I may, how is life in Australia?
1:16
And yeah, is it? Yeah, life, yeah, life in
1:21
Australia is good. Always loved Australia.
1:25
And as you know, when I visited the column, I was living in New
1:32
Zealand and then we decided as a family to relocate back to
1:38
Australia because it it's a different way of life in
1:41
Australia and to New Zealand and it's more laid back.
1:46
The weather's better, however, it's very humid.
1:48
It's been 33 today. And yeah, we've lived in
1:54
Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and decided to give Brisbane a
1:58
go this time. So it's all new again.
2:01
We moved here in April last year, so we've been here around
2:06
what, 8 months? Right, OK, brilliant.
2:09
Well, look, we're not going to directly go over old ground, but
2:12
I am going to say that you know what, what you had to say about
2:16
lockdown in New Zealand was pretty amazing and it was
2:19
obviously a tough time for you and made, made a big impact on
2:23
you. I've never been in my Navy time.
2:27
I, I did get to a lot of places around the world, but I never
2:30
got to New Zealand or Australia. And your comment there that
2:37
Australia is a lot more laid back than New Zealand.
2:40
Just talk about those differences a bit.
2:42
Then what? What, what makes New Zealand a
2:45
bit more up, uptight or straight is that is that the British is,
2:52
is that still the British? No, it's, it's amazing the
2:57
differences really. The cost of living in New
3:00
Zealand is off the scale, literally.
3:05
There's a lot of I can, I could see, you know, we lived there
3:08
for eight years. We moved from Auckland to
3:11
Hawksbury. And yeah, it was just so.
3:17
So I can't even tell you how expensive, like $20.00 for a
3:22
block of cheese in New Zealand, which is around 1415 lbs.
3:31
And the property is so expensive.
3:36
That was one of the reasons actually, we moved from Auckland
3:40
to Hawkes Bay because of the house prices in Auckland were
3:43
just, you know, we both had great careers, but yeah, just
3:47
out of reach. Yeah, just the bills, you know,
3:54
the utilities and taxes and everything was just, yeah, it
4:00
was just phenomenal. And having resided in Australia
4:06
prior to moving to New Zealand, it was a big shock from going
4:11
from Australia to New Zealand. I remember our standard of
4:14
living dropped drastically. You know where where in
4:18
Australia? You can do so much here, Brian.
4:21
Like you'll go to the beach and there's phone chargers there,
4:25
there's showers, there's facilities for families, there's
4:30
dog bags for for the dogs. And it's just a real different
4:37
way of life in every way. When I say laid back, people are
4:42
happier here and I think people are happier because, well, at
4:47
the minute, you know, people are still in certain areas of
4:55
society thriving. But I do see decline in other
4:58
other areas as well. In my sector of work, I've seen
5:06
a lot of AI takeover and my sector of work is recruitment.
5:11
Yeah, it's scary. You can just see the decline.
5:15
You know, we've not been in Australia for eight years, but
5:19
you know, there's been a lot of changes.
5:21
I've had my first interaction with Thought Thought Crime.
5:26
Brian, I got a fine through the post for having a laptop on my,
5:34
sorry my phone on my lap. It was taken by a a surveillance
5:42
camera. What?
5:43
What, you were driving or something?
5:45
Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to dispute it
5:48
because I don't use my phone when I'm driving.
5:51
I've actually got Bluetooth in the car and there's a photo of,
5:55
of the phone on on my lap. But there's, you know, my, my
6:00
fingers are nowhere near it or anything.
6:03
I don't know why it was on my lap.
6:04
I can't recall why it was on my lap.
6:06
All I do know is I weren't using it because I used Bluetooth in
6:11
the car. So it was a bit of a shock and
6:14
the fine is absolutely phenomenal.
6:18
I've got it here. There's there's the photo of the
6:22
car and me. Well, I see it and and there's
6:25
the the phone. Yeah, I see it.
6:27
Yeah. Yeah, infringement noise, but it
6:31
says on here alleged offence driver use mobile phone.
6:40
Well, I'm not using my mobile phone.
6:43
Apparently in Brisbane it's illegal to have an A mobile
6:47
phone anywhere on your body in the car.
6:51
I rang, I rang the sorry. Go on.
6:54
Well, from my brief glimpse of the photograph, it looks as
6:57
though the phone is on the seat by your leg.
7:02
Yeah, well, it's hard to tell. It does look like it's on my
7:06
lap, but as you can see, my hand is on the steering wheel.
7:12
I'm not using the phone and the fine is $1251 and the demerit
7:19
points are 4, which is really high, so I'm going to dispute
7:26
that. Going to look into that a bit
7:29
more. But I did have an interesting
7:30
conversation with the lady at the transport office.
7:39
I mean, if I had a glass, if I had a bottle of wine on my lap,
7:42
does it mean I'm going to drink it?
7:47
So. But it but it is it is thought
7:50
crime, isn't it? You know it.
7:52
Is that's exactly what it is. Yeah.
7:55
That's the first thing that came to my mind.
7:58
And I've never received anything like that.
8:01
And I was like, wow, so you take photos of people in the car when
8:08
they're driving? Yeah, Oh well.
8:10
Well, this has been going on with UK for a very in a very
8:14
long time with all the cameras on the bridges, particularly
8:17
over the motorway. Personally I always drive with
8:21
the sun visor down because although OK, it's not always
8:28
fully down. You might have it part part of
8:31
the way down but it it does significantly obstruct the view
8:36
into the windscreen from those high level cameras.
8:40
Yeah, I mean, you know, fair enough if I'd been pulled over
8:44
by the police, if I was using my phone, but they're actually
8:47
photographing you while you're driving.
8:49
It's just like, wow, that that's blown my mind to be honest,
8:52
because I've experienced it myself now.
8:55
Yeah. And and you mentioned to me
8:57
earlier that that just as here in UK, you experiencing people
9:03
who were fractious. Yeah, yeah, People are on edge,
9:14
but they may not know why. I think it's all an internal
9:19
thing, Brian, and dare I say it, a spiritual thing, that the
9:26
world is so fragmented and divided on so many issues,
9:32
whether it be politics, exopolitics, what's going on in
9:37
different countries. It's just unbelievable.
9:40
And the, the way for me to get through it is to look at things
9:44
logically and research. I don't, I don't believe
9:50
anything that that's told to me. I question things, you know,
9:54
because you have to, you have to delve back into history to see
9:59
why these things are going on. Yeah, this is absolutely true.
10:05
The other thing which has been in the press in UK, and I'd like
10:09
to know what you think about it, is the is stopping children
10:13
getting onto social media. And actually there's just been a
10:17
headline, I think it's today or might have been yesterday in UK
10:22
press saying, well, Keir Starmer is now considering doing the
10:27
same. And to me this is so
10:30
significant. It is.
10:32
It's already happened here in Australia under sixteens are not
10:38
allowed access to social media. Now that was brought in, I
10:42
believe in December. Now like I say, I like to look
10:49
at things logically and research.
10:52
Now for me having, I'm, I'm a mum and I as a mother should be
11:04
left to watch my child, what they're doing on social media at
11:13
a certain age. I, I, I actually had those
11:17
discussions with my daughter when she was around 13.
11:20
When you upload a photo, your friends aren't just going to see
11:23
it, It's going to be their friends, you know, and so on and
11:26
so forth. And then when you look for a
11:28
job, you know, they're going to look at your social media
11:31
profile and things like that. So, you know, I had a really
11:34
good in depth conversation with my daughter about social media.
11:39
Now for me, it's not up to the state to decide what a child
11:48
does or doesn't do. I mean, for me, if the
11:52
government is going to intervene, why can't they
11:55
intervene with pornography and all the dark things you know,
12:01
that they should be looking at, not the parental role.
12:08
Yeah, I think, I think that's a really good point.
12:11
And of course, they never go into those those areas they
12:15
always talk about child protection, but areas where they
12:18
could make a difference, they don't, they don't get near.
12:22
Yeah. And that and that has divided a
12:25
lot of families here as well. Another thing to divide people
12:31
you know, Does the state do it or parents?
12:35
Yeah. So presumably some parents agree
12:38
with you that it should be a decision for the parents.
12:42
And others say, Oh well, it's a good thing because the state is.
12:46
Yeah, It was good to see. There has been a lot of
12:50
pushback, you know, on that issue.
12:54
Don't know where that's going to lead.
12:56
But, you know, it is heartening to see, you know, that people
13:01
are like, well, I'm a parent. I'm not going to be told what my
13:06
child. Yeah.
13:08
What What about Australian politicians or any of them
13:11
challenging it? Or are they all united with
13:14
government policy? That's a really good question
13:21
and there is, I'm not sure if he's an MP or senator, so please
13:26
don't quote me on his position within government, but I know
13:31
there is one. I think he's called Senator
13:33
Babbitt and he is a voice of reason.
13:38
He, he is very vocal on social media about where he thinks this
13:46
government is leading Australia. And yeah, it's a good voice of
13:51
reason. Is is a is a good one to follow?
13:54
Yeah, yeah. Well, well, that's good.
13:57
I, I mean, it's going to be interesting to see how it pans
14:00
out here if they attempt to push this through.
14:03
But of course for for me, rather than protecting children from
14:09
the bad stuff online, what the government is doing I think is
14:13
making absolutely sure that youngsters, particularly
14:16
teenagers who are learning are not going to get access to any
14:21
other material than the formal news channels like the BBC or
14:28
whatever it is. So they don't want children
14:31
using social media because children might learn that what
14:35
they're being told and taught through the official system at
14:41
school and college is not necessarily the truth.
14:44
So you want to block them from that.
14:46
That's what I think they're doing.
14:48
Yeah, we, we can speculate on agendas, etcetera, but you have
14:56
to, because you could also look at it Brian, that they're
15:03
wanting the young people to get used to using a digital ID to
15:06
get on the Internet. Yes.
15:09
You know, if you take the things away that they enjoy doing and
15:13
then when they're 16, they have to sign up for a digital ID or
15:19
when they're 18. Yeah, that's a very, that is a
15:22
very good point, a very good point.
15:26
And somebody a few days ago sent me an e-mail pointing out that
15:31
there's an app which has now been created in UK where
15:36
youngsters are going to have to use that app or will use that
15:39
app in order to get their exam results.
15:43
And that would, that would seem to fit that model, wouldn't it,
15:46
that that you're training youngsters to use this stuff.
15:50
Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, the young
15:53
ones are have been brought up digitally.
15:58
There's no two ways, you know, locally, my daughter was in the
16:05
middle of that, but the younger ones now they're just they've
16:10
they've got an iPad at age 3 and exposed to so much.
16:15
And this is where we go as well. You know, I do see that, Brian,
16:20
you know, that some parents appease children with, with, you
16:25
know, digital products, you know, to keep them entertained.
16:29
Yeah. It's, it's, it's a big debate
16:32
for sure. Yeah, absolutely.
16:35
Another question for you. You're you're there in
16:37
Australia, you've still got a bit of an accent.
16:42
It's never going to go. No, well it shouldn't because
16:46
I've I've always no accents around around UKI think they're
16:51
fun your. Identity.
16:53
Yeah, the reason I said that is because obviously if you talk to
16:56
somebody in Australia, they know pretty quickly you're a, you're
17:00
a POM, so. Oh, absolutely.
17:03
You've got, you know, you're looking at the world as as you
17:07
are and you've got huge concerns about what's going on.
17:10
You've experienced some horrible stuff during the lockdown thing.
17:13
When, when you get into discussion with Australians, are
17:18
you the, are you the wacky Brits or are, or are Australians
17:25
starting to also starting to sort of sense that something's
17:30
wrong? How, how easy is it for you to
17:33
connect with people who are also waking up to use that expression
17:38
in in Australia? That's a brilliant question
17:43
because we've had such a transient lifestyle living in
17:47
Australia, New Zealand, back in the UK, back to New Zealand.
17:50
But you know, I've had to adapt. I've had to learn to adapt to,
17:56
you know, certain ways of life and different cultures and
18:00
everything. I have noticed that where we are
18:04
here in Brisbane, we're in suburbia again and it's very
18:11
insular. It's I couldn't tell you the
18:14
names of my neighbors. However I tried to correct that
18:19
at Christmas. In fact, I did correct that.
18:21
I took, I baked some brownies and I went next door on a
18:26
mission and I think it was Christmas Eve and I went next
18:30
door and I banged on the door and introduced myself.
18:35
And the lady next door is actually Scottish.
18:39
And she's lived. And she's lived here for, I
18:44
think she said about 20 years. And then so I left the brownies.
18:48
And then 10 minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
18:51
And she brought a box of chocolates.
18:53
And I said, I'm really, I don't want to offend you, but I don't
18:56
give to receive. You know, I wanted to bite
18:59
brownies and everything I said, but, you know, you're welcome to
19:02
come in and have a glass of wine.
19:04
And she came in and it was really surreal.
19:08
She just burst into tears, right?
19:12
And I sat her down and I got her a drink.
19:15
And, you know, Christmas can be a tough time, you know, for.
19:19
Everybody what what did, what did sort of what had triggered
19:23
her? The fact that you'd take in the
19:24
trouble. To the kindness.
19:26
Right. The kindness, yeah, she she
19:29
said. It's gone and it made her cry.
19:33
Well. So that was quite a poignant
19:38
conversation. And then I meet people at the
19:41
beach, I've met people at work, I've met people, I've been on
19:47
groups on various social media and met people and talked to
19:53
people about what is going on. And the the the weird thing is
20:01
when you start doing that and opening new channels for
20:04
yourself and being. Authentic.
20:09
You know, I've met some wonderful people and I have got
20:11
a story which is quite sad that here in Australia there seems to
20:18
be a tiny house movement going on, you know, whereby people are
20:23
renting land in rural or remote locations and putting a caravan
20:31
on there or tiny home on there or a motor home.
20:36
And I met a gentleman who was actually from South Africa and
20:40
we had a lot of conversations and I went to visit him and he
20:43
was located at Glasshouse Mountains, which is a
20:46
spectacular place, about an hour's drive out of Brisbane.
20:51
And I met, I went to meet him and he had some land and he had
20:57
various, the land was gorgeous. Brian, it was so gorgeous.
21:03
He'd got a little lick in the middle and he was doing a veggie
21:07
patch and getting chickens. And he had, I think when I went
21:13
first, I visited him a few times.
21:15
He had a, a lovely family. We're actually originally from
21:19
the UK, living in a modular home and a caravan on the on there.
21:25
And there was other caravans on there and they all have their
21:28
own allocated segment of the land.
21:33
And we kept in touch for a few months and I went to visit him a
21:36
few times because I wanted to, I suppose, test the water on maybe
21:41
getting a tiny hole. When was it?
21:43
I think it was about October time and I was due to visit him
21:50
and I received a text and they said please don't come tomorrow
21:55
And I was like why are you OK? Is everything OK?
21:59
And he said, oh, the council have been and I've been and the
22:03
police and they've shut the land down and they've given him a
22:08
massive fine. And it was it was destructs that
22:12
was his livelihood and he wanted to help people.
22:16
And I've heard a lot of those stories, but that then I
22:19
experienced just seem to experience these things, Brian,
22:23
because I put myself out there, you know, and get to meet people
22:27
and and see what's going on in society.
22:29
You know it's important. Yeah.
22:32
And it and it is true that people who are trying to live
22:38
you could say an alternative life or a life outside the
22:41
mainstream system, they are absolutely being targeted and
22:46
penalized. Yeah, all the zoning laws have
22:48
changed and things. Yeah, you know, that's happening
22:51
in UK. So that that's, that is, you
22:53
know, sad that that's happened to him.
22:57
So you, you're painting a picture really of, of a similar
23:01
situation with people in Australia to UK, just to come
23:06
back to the lady saying to you, the kindness has gone.
23:10
I I thought, wow, because my big thing, and I've felt this really
23:14
strongly over probably the last three Christmases, is that the
23:19
atmosphere of Christmas. Is gone.
23:23
Has gone now I am as old as I am.
23:27
So part of it, I think to myself, you've got to be a bit
23:30
careful here because when you think back to, if you think back
23:33
to when you were a child even. It was so different.
23:36
So different to my mind, as Christmas got close, there was a
23:42
sort of peace came that that didn't mean that everybody was
23:48
happy because Christmas has always been, you know, difficult
23:52
time for people, particularly people living rough or on the
23:55
streets. But there was Carol singing and
24:01
people did come around either organized or sometimes it was
24:06
children singing carols. And I just remember there was
24:10
this piece. And OK, I've lived most of my
24:13
life in the South of of England, so Christmas is not
24:19
automatically with snow, but if there was snow at Christmas, it
24:23
just added to it. And there was this peace
24:27
descended. And in recent years I've just
24:32
thought it's all changed. Christmas is not like Christmas,
24:38
but also this, this peaceful. The atmosphere is gone.
24:42
When when your lady said the kindness, I'm thinking, yes,
24:46
she's right, because the atmosphere is gone and the
24:49
kindness has gone as well. It's all been replaced by
24:54
increasingly horrible LED flashing lights.
25:00
So. So you might have had a house
25:06
festooned with them. I've.
25:08
Opened up a whole new conversation there because I'm
25:11
going back to basics, Brian. I've bought a record player, ACD
25:15
player. I've changed my car.
25:17
I don't want an electronic mess. I want a manual old.
25:22
Car. Yeah, well, yeah, this is really
25:26
good. Just finished the lights.
25:28
I, I absolutely. Now you see more and more houses
25:32
festooned with lights and more and more blue lights, which I've
25:37
never liked because I don't think they ever look right.
25:40
You know what, a Garland or something.
25:42
So as the technology is increased in the light
25:46
department, so the atmosphere of Christmas is lessened.
25:50
And it's, it's quite clear now that the idea of, of Christmas
25:55
being some form of Christian celebration, that's just
25:59
complete nonsense. It's gone, yeah.
26:03
I mean, yeah, I remember being at primary school and we'd make
26:07
snowflakes. We'd have a little Christmas
26:10
party. It was watch Christmas movies,
26:13
you know, it was all my. Well, I don't like to use the
26:17
word magical because of the connotations with.
26:20
It now but. But it was, it was special, you
26:24
know, Christmas time when I was a young girl and I remember it
26:29
with from memories definitely. Yeah, I know it's, it's very
26:34
interesting. And I think in my mind it's it's
26:38
being very cleverly wiped out by an agenda which is.
26:44
Yeah, absolutely. It's so insidious.
26:47
You don't notice it until you look back.
26:50
You know, just a little things like I went to a non
26:54
denomination school, but we still sang the Lord's Prayer at
27:00
assemblies and still celebrated harvest festival and visited
27:06
church and things like that. That's all gone, you know, and I
27:10
didn't notice it so much until I was like, oh, don't they do that
27:16
in Australia? You know, don't they do, you
27:20
know, harvest festival and things like that?
27:23
But as you know, as an immigrant, you don't question
27:29
things because it's you assimilate to a new culture and
27:33
way of life, you know? So you you've mentioned
27:38
interesting word there, immigrant immigration and you
27:41
are one. I am.
27:43
You are obviously. Well, not now.
27:45
I'm actually a New Zealand citizen.
27:49
Or an Australian citizen. No, I'm a New Zealand, I'm a
27:54
Kiwi. Well, I'm a dual citizen.
27:57
Living in Australia. Yeah, so Australia and New
28:02
Zealand are very closely aligned with their.
28:05
So if you're a Kiwi, you can work and live in Australia and
28:09
vice versa. They have reciprocal immigration
28:13
and healthcare and things like that.
28:15
OK, well what what I was going to ask is other migration in
28:18
into Australia has been pretty high over a large number of
28:23
years. So Australia is a society from I
28:27
think the way a lot of older Brits might remember it, you
28:32
know, which is predominantly white society, Crocodile Dundee
28:36
and all the rest of it. It's it's it's changed huge
28:39
amount. What about people who are are
28:43
also immigrants to Australia from other countries, maybe
28:48
Asian countries? Are you finding that any of
28:52
those are awake to to what's going on with the policy?
28:56
Wow. Maybe I can make it easier for
28:59
you because here in, in if for us locally, for the UK column
29:04
team locally, if you want to get an easy opinion from somebody
29:09
who's come in from another country, you just hop in a taxi
29:13
and they might be, you know, Romanian or Bangladeshi.
29:17
And you can invariably start a good conversation with them.
29:21
And, and I've got to say that if you talk to one who's
29:25
established as many of them are, so they will say, well, actually
29:28
it's my parents who came here and I, I, I, I was born in UK.
29:33
They are also getting very concerned about the way they're
29:36
seeing the country go. Yeah, it's funny you say that
29:40
because you just made me recall a conversation I had at the
29:44
beach. I was walking our dogs and there
29:49
was 3 elderly gentlemen actually having a discussion about
29:53
immigration that I overheard while I was walking.
29:57
And I actually joined in the conversation.
30:00
All I can say is, Brian, from my own experience of being an
30:04
immigrant, it's a very, the process that we went through
30:10
just to be transparent, you know, we had to have a full
30:14
medical, all the family, we had to, to have certain criteria and
30:23
points for our roles as well. Any family history of disease,
30:32
illness, they checked your bank accounts, your funds, you know,
30:36
everything is your, your police checks go back.
30:40
I think it's 10 years. So it's a highly involved
30:46
process going, you know, from initially from the UK to
30:52
Australia, it took months and months.
30:55
So, and as an immigrant, I think I've got a voice to say, you
31:02
know, we've been in New Zealand and on Australia and you do have
31:07
to assimilate into society and involve yourself with their
31:13
culture and values and everything.
31:16
And it's sad to see that they call it diversity.
31:23
I think is the is the word that you know, for example, in, in my
31:35
job in recruitment, I have come across people who are unable to
31:40
talk and communicate. They've had translators with
31:44
them at interviews and things like that.
31:46
So there are issues. I thought to myself, well, if
31:50
you can't communicate, how, how do you how do you expect you're
31:55
going to get a job where you have to communicate?
31:58
How does that happen? I don't, I don't understand
32:02
because it's like setting someone up to fail.
32:06
How are they going to support themselves and their families,
32:09
you know, if they can't basically meet the criteria of
32:14
communication skills? So I for me, you know, if I, if
32:20
I look at UK or I look, you know, across other European
32:25
countries or even America, we see the same sorts of policies
32:29
coming in making the, having the say.
32:31
Those policies have the same effects in a country, whether
32:36
it's Germany or France or Italy. There's a creeping unification
32:42
of the policies that come in through the government, which
32:45
they're not shaping not only work and professional society
32:51
but also communities and how people relate to each other.
32:56
And yeah, I'll go back to our previous conversation with that.
33:00
It seems to me just like, you know, when in 2020 everybody was
33:07
in lockstep, so they're in lockstep with policy such as
33:12
digital ID, the CBDC's. Everybody's becoming more aware
33:16
of that now. Yeah, they all the Five Eyes
33:20
nations, Canada, Australia, UK that that they're all following
33:28
the same policies and implementing the same things.
33:30
And, and, and we should question that because again, it comes
33:35
back to culture and ethics. And you know, as AI consider
33:43
myself well researched now and aware and the things we should
33:49
be questioning is what is the purpose of governments?
33:55
Because there's so much overreach now that it's never
34:01
ending. Where does this end?
34:03
You know, we have to question that.
34:05
Yeah. Is government the servant of the
34:07
people? Or is it?
34:09
Or is it the ruler of the people?
34:11
This is the key thing, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
34:14
Yeah, and it's the same with gun laws and things like that.
34:19
And we all know an unarmed populace is not a threat, you
34:26
know, and that that's a fact, not a nice one to digest.
34:32
But common sense says, you know that.
34:37
Why are they bringing all these gun laws in and why are all
34:41
these shootings happening? What is going on?
34:44
Yes. It's true.
34:46
You know, it's, yeah, for me, I mean, as my experience of
34:55
government as a young woman growing up and travelling the
35:00
world, I used to be a flight attendant in my young years.
35:03
I don't know if I've told you that for Virgin Atlantic, Yeah.
35:08
There was no overreach that never interfered in my life.
35:12
Now it's never ending. And it's like, wow, how, how how
35:16
was all this happened? And it's, it's something we
35:19
should all be discussing and talking about and debating about
35:24
because history says the governments were there for the
35:29
infrastructure, you know, to take care of the roads and, you
35:36
know, and then taxes were implemented in the First World
35:39
War, which was a temporary measure.
35:43
Which has. Never gone.
35:43
We all know what happens to temporary measures.
35:46
It's never. It's never where we are now.
35:48
Yeah. Yeah, a creeping.
35:51
It's mission creep, isn't it? Mission creep by whatever hands
35:54
the control of the state has crept, ever become ever greater.
36:00
But it's a very slow process. Well, it's speeding up now, I
36:03
think. Accelerating is the word the
36:06
World Economic Forum. Yes, absolutely.
36:10
And and the good news about that is the fact it's accelerating
36:14
means it's easier for people to pick up that these changes are
36:17
happening. Yeah.
36:19
Yeah, but I do. I don't think people are
36:21
grasping what these changes are going to do.
36:26
No, they don't Unders. Yeah, they don't understand the
36:28
real dangers. Yeah.
36:30
So we've still got a job to do, Rachel.
36:33
Especially with the youngsters. This is.
36:36
Yeah, yeah. This is where we need to educate
36:40
youngsters on, you know, how you know it.
36:45
Technology is, it's like anything, Brian, isn't it?
36:49
It can be used for good or nefarious, you know, if you look
36:55
at the Internet, you know, you can do your research and
36:57
whatnot, but we all know that there's bad things on the
37:00
Internet If you if you wanted to go down that road, such as
37:04
pornography. And I'll just reiterate my point
37:07
there again is educating our children on that and the dangers
37:13
of, you know, social media and things like that.
37:16
That's what us as mums and dads should be doing and we should
37:21
be, we should be going back to basics.
37:24
You know, not everything should be digital.
37:27
You know, family should be sat around having dinner, talking
37:31
about the days, you know, back to basics for me, as I said, my
37:37
life's changed, Brian. I've, I've got a record player
37:40
now I've got ACD player. I've changed my car.
37:43
I've changed my life because it's it's an intentional thing
37:48
because I've realized that, you know, I don't want my music on
37:53
Spotify where I subscribe and get music.
37:57
It's a never ending cycle of renting a subscription.
38:02
I want to own my music. I want to own, you know, the
38:08
things that have like ACD player and a record player and it and
38:13
it comes down to privacy as well.
38:15
I've learned. But just the other day when I
38:18
was talking to the transport lady for Queen for Queensland
38:23
government, she sent me a link and I had to agree.
38:26
I can't remember the wording, but it was something about my
38:30
privacy was if I clicked agree, my privacy was not going to
38:35
happen. You know, it was going to go to
38:37
all these third parties. And I was like, and I rang her
38:40
back and I said I'm not going to click on agree.
38:43
My privacy is everything to me. So I'd rather do it analogue.
38:52
I said, can you send me something through the post what
38:54
I can, where I can fill in the form And that's what they've
38:58
done. So it's just I'm making myself
39:02
more aware and I'm not trying to be awkward.
39:05
It's my privacy. It's my life.
39:10
It's my integrity. You know, that you're
39:14
compromising if you're saying that I've no privacy.
39:18
What does that mean? Who?
39:19
Who's the third parties in this agreement that you've got?
39:23
And what, what are you going to do with the data that I send?
39:26
Are you going to send my age? What crime I'm supposed to have
39:30
done? And, you know, it's quite scary,
39:33
Yeah. But challenging in that
39:36
relatively simple way is very powerful.
39:38
And of course, if a lot more people did it, it would cause
39:42
huge problems across the system because all the agencies, tax or
39:47
local authorities or social services or education, they're
39:52
all trying to use these systems to to log data.
39:56
And if you challenge in that way.
39:58
Yeah, I was thankful that I actually got to speak to
40:01
somebody, you know, because we all know what it's like when
40:04
you, you know, you normally ring a government department and you,
40:09
you've got all these options and you put on hold forever and it's
40:12
difficult. But I was thankful that the lady
40:16
understand, understood. And, you know, she, she was
40:20
really sympathetic. You know, she understood.
40:24
Not only where I was coming from.
40:26
And it's. Yeah.
40:28
And another lady knocked on the door and they were doing a
40:33
survey. I can't remember what the survey
40:36
was. And she was stood at the door
40:37
and she said, oh, can I come in? I'm just doing a survey.
40:41
And I said, excuse me, no, this is my home.
40:44
I said I don't want people knocking on my door.
40:46
I'm working and also my privacy is everything and I really don't
40:51
want to do a survey. Thank you.
40:53
And and her face was like what she was, she was just
40:59
incredulous that I'd questioned her knocking on my door because
41:03
it's a normal thing for her to do.
41:05
I don't want that to be normal. I don't, you know, for people to
41:10
invade your privacy in that way, you know, if you.
41:13
Absolutely understand that. Definitely understand that.
41:17
Yeah. Rachel, it's coming up to the
41:20
top of the hour, which is what we're allowed to say.
41:23
So I, I, I'm going to oh so. Much more to talk about.
41:27
I got my book out for you. Oh, did you?
41:30
What? What else have you got there?
41:33
OK, so I'll run through this quickly.
41:38
So I on my pre previous interview we discussed when I
41:47
went to Wellington and I yeah, did a book I've also got just
41:58
going to show you quickly. Can you guess whose book this
42:01
is? So it must be Bob Moran's book.
42:06
Yeah, I got that last Christmas for a present, so that's nice.
42:13
So here it is. Yeah.
42:19
The truth, and I'm just going to show you a few.
42:27
This this is your book you've switched to Now for the
42:30
audience. Yeah, this is.
42:32
The These are all the quotes that you took from the people at
42:35
the big protest. Yeah, yeah.
42:41
So, so sorry, Rachel. You're telling us that that
42:44
book's finished now? Yes.
42:47
Right. Some quotes from the book.
42:50
The first signature is mine. Good.
42:56
And it was on the 17th of February 2022.
43:02
And I wrote when law becomes injustice, resistance becomes a
43:06
duty. And yeah, I mean, it's some some
43:17
of the comments is let's go so poignon and and raw Brian, you
43:27
know, just to read this book again and and look at it and
43:31
there's so much love in it. And Rachel, bless you.
43:35
Keep going with you all the way Nakuna Hirani liberty and
43:43
justice, freedom through Christ. We've got never fault.
43:50
This is for our children, for their future.
43:52
We will go on. Hold the line.
43:55
Love the atmosphere, love the people.
43:59
Bless the warriors of freedom for standing for all of
44:02
humanity. Love always winds.
44:04
Stay strong for our babies. Freedom is a choice.
44:11
Choose freedom. Love our tamaricki.
44:16
I've got the long pages from the Maori gentleman that I told you
44:22
about, that wrote about his ancestry and history and, oh,
44:28
there's so much in here. Yeah, it's it.
44:34
Yeah, it's. And one of them says let me be a
44:37
mum. And the demonstration itself or
44:42
the protest itself was in, where was it?
44:47
Wellington, In Wellington. Wellington.
44:50
Yeah. Well, maybe you need to, you
44:52
need to start another book now. You've started your life in
44:55
Australia, which is, you know, would be something like thoughts
45:00
of the present day. Yeah, I mean, I've got lots of
45:04
photos as well. You know, I met a cello player
45:11
there who played the We had a music tent.
45:13
There was a woman's 10A baby 10, an admin 10 food tent.
45:19
It was like a village, Brian, that was functioning with tents
45:29
and everybody got to know each other and every.
45:32
It was. Yeah.
45:33
I can't even. Yeah, begin to tell you about
45:36
that experience. But I don't think all of that
45:43
passion and enthusiasm, I, I don't think it's sort of
45:48
evaporated. I think it might have
45:50
dissipated, but all the people who were there are now their own
45:56
little islands talking to other people out in society.
46:01
Yeah. You know, I, I think a lot of
46:03
people think, Oh yeah, but it's all over.
46:05
I don't see it like that because more people I talk to, the more
46:08
people I sense who are, who are awake or have woken up more.
46:14
And we just, we just need to keep pushing.
46:17
Absolutely. And as we, we said, it's the
46:20
youngsters we need to be focusing on, I think, you know,
46:25
educating them on, you know, their sovereignty and their, you
46:32
know, individuality as well, you know, whereby you're not labeled
46:40
as something, you know, there's so many labels now with
46:43
children, you know, ADHD and autism and I, there's so many
46:53
acronyms. I can't even recall them.
46:55
But I think it's sad, you know, they never had that in at
46:59
school, you know, when I was young labelling children with,
47:03
with, with these things, you know, as far as I'm concerned,
47:07
you know, nothing is A1 size fits all.
47:10
You know, school's not A1 size fits all.
47:13
Everybody has their own individuality, whether it be a
47:16
talent, you know, they could be creative or musical and we
47:20
should be nurturing that because that's what makes us human.
47:24
That's. What makes us this is where the
47:25
regimentation of schools is, you know, it creates a lot of the
47:30
problems. I, I agree with this, but we've
47:33
also got the situation where there are an increasing number
47:39
of children who've got difficulties that we've never
47:42
seen in the past. And, and one of the things going
47:46
on at the moment is of course, nobody wants to talk about this.
47:49
I, I know that I've got to guess now, but I'm going to say about
47:53
four years ago there was a teacher told us that in, in the
47:57
South Wales primary schools, close to 50% of the children
48:03
that got some form of issue, whether it was autism or ADHD or
48:08
whatever it was. And that that wasn't a label,
48:11
that was just sort of a label put on that these children had
48:15
problems. And so school teacher was
48:18
telling us about this and she also said, and we, the staff
48:22
have been told we mustn't talk about it.
48:25
So all the questions about where are all these children with
48:29
problems or, you know, issues or they've been damaged in some
48:34
way, where they're coming from, we're not allowed to talk about
48:37
it. Yeah, I mean, I do remember
48:41
there was a group of young boys that this was when I was at
48:46
secondary school. It's just made me recall
48:50
something. When I was at secondary school,
48:53
there were a group of young men, sorry, not boys, young men who
49:03
weren't very academic. And I remember, I remember them
49:11
being segregated in A room and I remember being very uneasy about
49:19
it because they weren't particularly disruptive.
49:26
They were just not academic. But they got segregated from
49:30
certain classes in A room and I used to sneak in and talk to
49:37
them. Well done.
49:37
I don't know why, it's just it just didn't sit well with me.
49:42
My my feeling on things like that is that I suspect that
49:47
those boys would have been young men, would have been the sort
49:52
who would have adapted to apprenticeships or starting to
49:55
do physical things and then still ultimately heading towards
50:01
skills, but they would have been hands on skills instead of
50:05
sitting in a classroom having lessons.
50:08
Yeah, I mean, I wasn't an academic at all.
50:15
I really struggled, you know, to get some results because I just,
50:21
I felt as a young girl and as a young woman, I just didn't
50:27
resonate, you know, with certain classes and things, you know, I
50:32
just, it just didn't do it, do anything for me.
50:36
And I really, really struggled to see those boys segregated.
50:41
For whatever reason. That was the only thing I came
50:44
across at school that sat uneasy with me.
50:47
I mean, I remember the teachers being, you know, really loving
50:53
the work, and it showed, you know, I love drama, believe it
50:58
or not. Yeah.
51:02
Yeah. Yeah.
51:04
My classes. Yeah.
51:05
Yeah, I've got to say I need to go because I not only have I got
51:10
UK column news for tomorrow to get going on, but I've also got
51:14
a video which I'm desperately trying to finish editing so I
51:19
have enough on my plate today. No switching off for you BJ.
51:23
Well, I, I, I'm trying to do that more, but there's still,
51:27
there's still a lot of stuff for me to do And I, I actually enjoy
51:31
working from home because it gives you the rest of both
51:35
worlds. But yeah, there's quite a bit
51:38
that I, I need to get done before tomorrow morning.
51:40
So I need to say gently I probably.
51:44
Should Yeah, we've been on for a good hour or so and I've just
51:47
wanted to show you that I've still got my badges and my
51:52
lovely water. Bottle.
51:55
That you kindly gave me. And yeah, I mean, there's so
52:00
much more I could talk about. Well, you know, Rachel, I'd, I'd
52:05
love to talk to you more and, and also, you know, if, if you
52:10
were encouraged enough to do a regular slot talking about, you
52:15
know, what's going on in Australia, that that would be
52:18
fantastic. So why don't we, why don't we
52:23
say I, I will send you an e-mail or whatever and maybe get
52:28
together again and have a little bit more of a, just have a
52:32
private focus discussion on what, you know, what you might
52:36
like to do. But I, I would love to be
52:39
getting more because during lockdown we got lots of news
52:43
from Australia and, and New Zealand and there were lots of
52:47
people talking to us and, and a lot of that's gone quiet now.
52:51
And you know, so I'm. Keep that dialogue going.
52:55
Yeah, I think so, yeah. And, you know, there are things
52:59
that I want to do. You know, I'm going to continue
53:03
with the tiny homes and also start a book group and things
53:09
like that. Yeah, there's just so much to
53:13
talk about, Brian. I've got, I've got so much
53:16
paperwork here that I haven't even showed you and we haven't.
53:20
Yeah, you have a think about what you've got and we we have
53:24
another conversation and and we'll let's have a talk about
53:27
that. Instead of doing it for an
53:29
audience, we'll do it with a view to how we could present it
53:33
or, you know, how we could cover the issue.
53:36
Yeah, absolutely. As I say, I think we're both
53:40
aware that it's all happening in the Five Eyes nations.
53:43
And so you know, we're very closely aligned with what what
53:47
is going on with policies and things like that.
53:50
And they're just doing it in different words and ways and
53:54
giving it different terminologies at the minute and
53:57
finding different ways to do it so.
54:00
OK, that's fine. Rachel.
54:02
It's been really great talking to you.
54:04
I have some other work to do today, not least because I've
54:07
got Auk column news coming up tomorrow, but it's been really
54:11
great to catch up, love to have another conversation with you,
54:14
deeper, deeper conversation about what's happening in
54:18
Australia. So if you're up for that, that
54:21
would be really good. But I've really enjoyed our chat
54:24
today. It's been been great.
54:27
Yeah, likewise, Brian. It's great to catch up again and
54:31
there's so much going on. I don't think we've really
54:35
scratched the surface. But yeah, I'll keep in touch
54:39
with UK column and keep up the fantastic work that you do and
54:45
hopefully we'll speak again in the near future and wish you all
54:49
well in these trying times. In a trying 2026.