The Karl Stefanovic Show

00:00 Hey, what have you got there, your little bangle? 00:02 Yeah, it's a little thing. What have you got? 00:03 Show me that one. 00:04 It's a cross. 00:04 Oh, is that a little Jesus thing? 00:06 Yeah. 00:08 Mine's a Bulgari. 00:09 That's my religion. 00:11 That says everything about you and I. I've got a cross here and you've got Bulgari. 00:16 Yeah, and whatever this one is here and then there's Louis Vuitton one. All presents from the wife. 00:22 I thought maybe you'd have to start hocking stuff off. 00:26 You know what? I picked up a bloke from the financial review for an interview. 00:30 Yeah. 00:31 At that Channel 9 building. I saw your car park still there. 00:37 And a bloke came over to the car like just wandering down the footpath... ...and he was like, oh, g'day mate. 00:42 Oh, big fan. When are you getting back on? 00:44 And then the guy from the Finn Review was like, oh, did you pay that guy? And I was like, you know, we're not all...we don't all...we don't know. I didn't pay that guy to show up and tap on them. What sort of a loser would do that? But then I do get around with the three bangles and the nice watch. Where's your watch? You had to hock it. 01:01 these productions aren't cheap when you're paying for it yourself. 01:04 I know. 01:06 I feel good about it. How do you feel right now? 01:10 Um, not as bad as I, I, I would have imagined people would think, Oh, he's crushed. He's crushed. There are people rejoicing and stamping all over the death and the ashes of both of us. That's for sure. But, um, let, let them, they've got very little joy in their heart, those trolls. So let them have a little dance and do a little spell. 01:29 Um, It's also...it crossed into my life too. There's just threats and there was death threats... ...and there was letters left in my office explaining... ...if you ever do anything on any platform we'll kill you, we'll hunt you down. 01:42 Now, I know these people are lunatics, but what if just one of those lunatics has a weapon? Do you ever think about that? 01:49 Yeah. I mean, it's been very real. 01:52 What is the assassination culture? 01:53 Yeah. 01:54 All these loons feel empowered that they can go and take out a CEO of a healthcare company in America on the streets of New York. And then there's women lined up that are fans of the guy that shot a guy in the back of the head. Mm-hmm. 02:08 So we're living in a very strange society. Those people are taught by other loons all through the education system. Everyone's this big fake thing of like, you know, everyone's got the... We need to get back to a normal... Like, let's get back to normalcy first and then we don't mind a little extreme. We've all got extreme mates. I know you and I have a... Actually, we're probably our mates' extreme mates. LAUGHTER But some little ebbs and flows are great for fun. But we need to be based in some sort of correct assumption of what life's all about. 02:45 We can't be having all these extremes. 02:48 It's outrageous. I don't expect or want anyone to feel sorry for us. 02:52 I know I do. I don't mind a little bit of it. 02:54 I don't mind a little bit of it. 02:55 I don't mind a little bit of like, bless. Thanks. 02:58 I don't want to talk far off and out every person. 03:00 But there's no time for it. We've got to get on with it. There's reality. And I thought it was genius when I got sacked from I think the first job that you came out and you registered the name of our company together. We were going to do something. I was overseas and there was a lot going on and then I see this headline. 03:18 You would have known that's him. 03:20 No, I just thought the guy is a freaking genius. Yeah. And I thought, actually, that could work. It could. 03:27 It could. It could. It could. So I thought maybe a better title would be The Uninspired Unemployed. 03:36 You're rolling off the coattails of those other kids. 03:38 No, no. So that's why I stopped it and I thought actually we are pretty inspired and we actually have to get on with it in our own employment. 03:45 My wife said to me, you seem more excited. I do feel like invigorated. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like when someone comes and rattles your whole life... 03:57 And then it was very jarring at the beginning and then you have to make financial decisions. The guy at the financial review was like, why didn't you just sell some cars? I was like, oh, yeah, I'm going to fire sale a whole heap of cars and what's that going to do? Nothing. 04:10 And just on that, because I reckon that there's a reality to it all, there's mixed emotions and I reckon there's probably a lot of people out there who lose their jobs, right, and they go through this process. 04:23 But talk me through that mental, you know, anguish that you felt when they finally said, you know, and I've seen your doco series and I've seen the behind the scenes and I want to explore that with you because it really resonated. It's like, holy shit. 04:38 I've actually been working at a place for 30 years in the same job for 21 of those years. And I'm like, I don't have that to go. And so there's elation that comes from that. There's relief. And then there's reality. What was the reality like in dealing with your wife and the closest people? 04:56 She was good. 04:57 Bruno, my manager and sort of right-hand man in everything. 05:03 He was great and I did feel for him when his... ...I said, my wife said, how's Bruno? I said, yeah, he's going good. And she said, well I've spoken to his wife and he's projectile vomiting and crying. 05:12 And I thought, oh shit. 05:15 He's a different sort of man. He's a beta male. That's fine. There's alpha betas. There's the whole alphabet. So I rang him and I said, bro, you said you were okay... ...but your wife told my wife, you're vomiting and crying. And he went, oh for fuck's sake. And I said, listen... 05:31 I'm glad that my wife told me that. I don't want you crying. I said, you're taking it worse than I was. But he also had no income as well. So he lost his job. 05:39 And there's a reality to that when you get that news right. You're expecting. I think you spoke to me and you've been wonderful all the way through. Always. My whole life. 05:48 I'll look after you. You look after me. 05:49 There was a reality in that conversation that you had and you were thinking, God, the banks are going to call. And no one's going to feel again in all seriousness. 05:57 It only matters to me and my family. I'm not looking for the violin at all. But the bank call was refreshingly surprising. They couldn't have been better. Because I've always thought, oh, these guys are assholes. When you're at your worst, that's when they kick you. Step, step, step. That's what I thought. It was like a jail yard pile on. 06:16 But they were great. 06:19 Everyone was good. Friends came out of the woodwork. You probably got better friends than I do, but my friends are offering like bags of money. Do you want a million dollars? Do you want this? What do you need? I said no. I was like, no, but thank you, but no. The mother-in-law was coming forward. I'll give you everything I've got. I was like, I know I look flashing it all around and pissing all the money away, but we actually have got quite a good investment portfolio, property portfolio, company shares. 06:44 ...but you can't liquidate that. And I'd just spend about three million dollars on renovating holiday homes... ...and some other big monster I'm building out in the mountains. Oh boo hoo, poor Kyle. But that was part of the ten year plan. I was one year into the ten year plan. And then due to someone's bad mood that all fell apart I'd imagine. I'm not sure why. Still don't know the real reason. Won't speak to Jackie until she's finished with her court proceedings. 07:11 But yeah, I almost don't care why anymore. Like I was very why, why, how, what, did I do anything? Look, reflection, all this stuff. 07:20 And then I thought this is just someone's bad mood. Everyone around me assured me. All the staff that were a trench that I employed... 07:29 And then other people resigned. Women resigned from the radio station to come and work for me. And I thought, oh that's remarkable for such a horrific bully in the workplace... ...that all these people want to come and work for me. 07:41 So you've got to remind yourself, oh that's right, I'm not a bully. So I'll say what I think but I certainly don't push people... ...into things they don't want to do. 07:48 You know, everywhere we travel with The Karl Stefanovic Show, we hear the same thing. It's hard to employ people in Australia. It's way too hard. Rising costs, thousands of pages of fair work rules, edge cases everywhere. They're like the flies. It's so annoying. Even trying to do the right thing, you're one step away from doing the wrong thing and who pays for it? No wonder people are fed up. It's almost like they don't want you to hire anyone anymore. That's why I like what the team at Tanda has created. Aussie built software that handles all of that complexity, rostering, payroll, HR, and fair work compliance. 08:27 Tanda takes care of it all and makes it easier to be an employer. So if you've got employees, check them out at tanda.com.au. 08:39 You won't regret it. 08:40 So what I did admire about you and I wanted you to give me the ball play here on when you decide to go up against a listed company legally, because that's, I mean, it's expensive, but deep down there was a truth there that you wanted to pursue and you wanted to right a wrong. But it takes, I don't care what anyone says, it takes a fair bit of courage to legal up. 09:07 Well, I am quite a righteous person but I'm also happy to change my mind... ...if given different information that I don't have. But I knew this whole thing's a ruse. Like they've taken advantage, they've struck while the iron's hot, they've... ...Jackie didn't resign or I think maybe they've got a technicality there... ...where from her lawyer they had something where she's refused to work with me. 09:32 Now, where that's all come from, I don't know, because two weeks before that, Jackie was on the veranda. We were all chain-smoking during the ad breaks. 09:41 And she was like, oh, I'm not doing that Besties podcast anymore. And I was like, oh, why not? And she went, I'm just not doing anything I don't want to do anymore in life. My therapist said that I should, you know, I'm a people pleaser and I should be pleasing myself. And I was like, oh, good on you. She said, well, what am I getting out of it? And I was glad because I was thinking, great, because the management had been telling me, we're paying her $10 million a year and she's telling all the stories on her own podcast, not even on our network. What the fuck's going on? And I was like, well, I'm not dealing with that. That's your issue with Jackie, not mine. So everyone would come to me as if I was the traffic cop of the Kyle and Jackie O show, but no one would ever talk to her. 10:15 And everyone's like, oh, they're very hard to deal with. I'm very easy to deal with. But you ask my team anything, you get an answer within 24 hours at the most. 10:25 But Jackie was not the same sort of experience. 10:29 Behind the scenes when you're like you're looking at your legal options. Like this is so people who haven't been through this kind of pressure. 10:37 It's horrific really. The things that the opposition say about you. 10:42 So I've got a good team. My litigator was the one that actually penned the deal. So I've got an entertainment lawyer who I've had for 30 years. 10:51 He's semi-retired now, based mainly off the money he made from me and the movie The Castle. 10:57 Maybe The Castle was the bigger one. Well, I don't know about that. You should get the calculator out. You might surprise yourself. 11:04 And so he's sort of done the deal over the years. We've thickened it up, thickened it up, protected it. And then he suggested this litigator do the current one because it was such a big, long deal and you've got to anticipate that. ...you know, changes into the future with, you know... ...even just the way media is provided these days. Like, who would have known that ten years ago? This is what we'd be doing. Sitting here in some fucking tin shed. 11:31 Putting some podcast together on a shoestring budget with two failed media giants. 11:38 What's that? I can't imagine being failed with anyone more than you, my friend. Me neither. Pierce Morgan's also out there. Oh, Pierce is doing all right. Yeah, yeah. 11:46 I got a call from Alan. 11:48 But I haven't hit rock bottom yet, so I haven't gone over. 11:53 But he's been lovely. Everyone has. Got a call from Pauline, got a call from the Prime Minister, got a call from the Premier. Plenty of business types have reached out. 12:05 I was a little bit excited when I heard that because when they got rid of me, they were like, we had to do it to protect you. How unprofessional. Do you want to get it? 12:14 I mean, we've got time. This is the medium. 12:17 Sorry, it's me gangster, mate. Do you mind if I just... Yeah, I get it. 12:20 Sorry, mate. 12:23 I'm doing a podcast with Carlos. Can I call you back? 12:27 Ask him if he's got any cash on it. 12:29 Hang on, what did you say, Carl? Carlos, no, if you've got a bag of cash. Cash, cash, cash. Cash. 12:34 Fucking oath, let's go. 12:42 What do you want to buy? 12:45 I'll ring you later. What do you need, brother? What do you need, brother? Nothing, nothing, nothing. I'm on the straight and narrow. 12:51 Of course we're on the straight and narrow. 12:53 But the thing is, bro, it's like... 12:56 Hang on, let me turn it off. Go on. 12:57 But when you actually do, when you decide to, you know, back to this, you're taking on this listed company. You don't know the ins and outs of the legal world. And you'd be sitting at home going every five minutes, I've got to hold on to this. And there is a right here and a right path for you. But with all the noise going on. 13:17 Well, I insulated myself around. Like my wife at one stage said no more press conferences in the driveway. She said it's a bad look. I'm out there and she goes I know you missed the press... ...but stop going out there and talking to them. 13:34 I just thought you can't make a deal with someone... ...and then pretend that what you paid them to do for 30 years... ...and promoted and made plenty of money off all of a sudden... 13:45 without any discussion is now atrocious behaviour that needs to be fired. 13:52 And I'm still so surprised because I even said to my lawyers, I said, what happens to someone who can't afford to fork out $2 million up front in escrow accounts prior to any legal activity? I had to pull $2 million out of the bank and put it in their account before I could even have a meeting. These are high-end, silky, extreme rain men type lawyers. 14:15 And they said, oh, well, those people just get squashed. And I was shocked and I thought I really stupidly thought... ...the legal system could handle anyone on anything. But if...like I know what this job entails and I knew that I was right... ...and that they were wrong, regardless of how the court sees it. This was a bullshit story. But the normal person, like if this was just... ...if I was myself without this wealth and without this sort of access to money and lawyers... 14:45 corporations just squash you over. So it doesn't matter. I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with lawyers putting those contracts together only for someone to say, oh, it was gross misconduct, you're fired. And then I have to go to battle. And I was like, this legal system isn't... I know you hear it all the time, it's not fair. But from every aspect of it, it is not fair. Whether I can pay for it or not pay for it. It's designed to squash the little person down, down, down, down. And in this case, I was the little person. 15:13 I think that that is something that completely and utterly resonates with me because I've had the same feeling. It's like, okay, you and I can get on the phone and we can get great litigators. And that's a privilege that comes with working hard and getting paid great money. But for me it was like, what actually, what happens to the person in the media or the person in any corporation who does just get shown the door and there's no recourse for them? There's absolutely nothing they can do. 15:46 Zero. 15:48 It showed a glaring hole in the legal system. 15:55 And you can get like a free... ...you can get one of those like no win, no fee guys. 16:01 But that doesn't inspire. 16:04 I just thought the whole thing was dodged. And the things that their legal team were saying about me... ...they're going out in the press going, oh, when he sees what we've got on him... ...he's going straight from the penthouse to the shithouse. I thought, who's this fucking Gronk? I'll bash him if I see him in the street. These people have got no idea. And they're like, oh, that's just a... And now they want my affidavits to use against Jackie, which I said I don't want you to. 16:29 And they went to court and now they're going to use my affidavits. I was defending myself against ARN. They're now using that against Jackie in their settlement. The whole thing is... 16:41 It's disgraceful behaviour. And you know what? They would have been much better doing in the beginning. This is what happens when I thought we were in a partnership with these people. I wasn't an employee. We were like contracted. 16:50 My company and their company and Jackie's company together in a three-way. Not that sort of noose of three-way. But like that was the business. And why not say, hey guys... 17:02 ...behind the scenes here we're having some problems like... ...if we want this to continue we're going to have to rethink this whole thing. There was no discussion of that. It was just out with the old management that made the deal. Bring in the new stick bashers from Channel 9... ...that have never worked really in radio... ...except for maybe when they were 15 they answered someone's phones. Stan Zemanek in the 80s. That's not really a programming genius if you ask me. 17:30 I think they've just been bought in to wipe out the thickness and all the expense... ...and they'll just take the brunt for all of the redundancies... ...and then they'll probably end up getting flicked as well. 17:41 I've spent 20 years living in the city, but these ringer's western boots, they bring me back to my roots. Years on the back of horses and out in the fields north of Cairns. You know this brand means a lot to me, built by patriotic Aussies, for Aussies who love this country. It's more than clothing, It's a lifestyle. Built for hard work on the farm and even harder work in the studio. Get 20% off your first purchase with the code CARL20 at ringerswestern.com. 18:15 I thought about this that maybe you and I should start a little fund for media people who just get fucked over. 18:21 Just media people? Isn't that a little bit lovely? 18:23 Well, we'll start at media. 18:24 We'll start at media and then we'll branch out to other areas. 18:29 I wouldn't mind funding my own bank account first. But then I thought, I'll have to do it down the track. 18:37 It's good intentions. No, I do. This is me. So you're still thinking like a rich man, which is nice. No, that's not the case, let me tell you. I saw you gallivanting all over Europe, it said, and it said in one of the magazines that you left your wife at home. She was furious. 18:52 Yeah. 18:52 But I was speaking to you and your wife both in Europe at the same time and looking at the magazine thinking, these are the people that cause trouble. 19:00 Yeah. All the liars and the carry-on. But this is why people are losing faith, you know, in modern communication. And if it's from one of those magazines or it's from big organisations. 19:11 Well, I saw the other day, I was laying in bed on the weekend. Picture this. Me. 19:16 Do I have to? 19:17 Undies. Right? And the briefs, not the trunks. Yeah. Give it a bit more. A bit more. 19:24 So I'm watching TV and it was the day Elon Musk became the trillionaire. 19:30 So I'm watching Sunrise Weekends. I don't mind it. They're a little on the left side. But they had both of the hosts on there and two pundits. Some bird from Canberra and some other bloke from Melbourne. That type. And all of them were... I was so surprised because it was the first trillionaire and he'd done all this and it was all from the space and all the Teslas and all these robots and all these things this genius has put together. 19:54 And they were jealous. They didn't like it. They were like, oh, how many zeros does one person need? Oh, that could feed the whole world. And I thought... Where's the joy for what the guy's achieved? Have you seen the old photos of Elon? This guy's behind the eight ball and I'm not talking about the fun stuff with the bikies. I'm talking he wasn't a looker. 20:15 He had all the thinness and he was a geek. Elon must a lord now. He's got all these children. 20:23 Sure, I like the family unit. It doesn't work out for everybody. 20:27 But at least someone should have said... Good on him, you know, like what an achievement. But they were all jealous and it was revolting to watch. And I thought that's mainstream media. These people that are supposed to be sort of just telling us the news are all on their jealous of Elon Musk, all because they've been twisted by Facebook news. 20:47 The guy is a proper baller no matter what way you look at it. No doubt about it. He hasn't built anything in relation to all that stuff, but you know it's going to come because he does actually build shit. And that's Starlink. I mean, God, what a good sponsor Starlink would be in Australia. 20:59 Well, they're coming here. I mean, you just put it on the roof of your car and I can go podcast my way. 21:05 I can drive the Udenadada and stop and do a podcast on the side of the road. 21:08 It's brilliant. Plus what he's done to help out the Ukraine people. But no one, you always just hear, oh. 21:15 I only read in the paper like last year, Tesla's down, everyone's burning the dealerships. Four months later, I read record Tesla sales, the biggest EV sold in Australia. And I was like... 21:25 Only a month ago in that same newspaper they were saying it was down in the dumps and what a dud buy that would be. I was like, I've now got to watch Al Jazeera, CNN and Fox News to guess what the real story is and that's outrageous. 21:40 And this is why people are curating their own sources now and why at this point I think in the media life cycle... It's changing so quickly. 21:53 And you've started your own business in the middle of that. And I have. Pierce did it a couple of years ago. How's he going? Incredibly successfully. 22:00 Whose boat was that you guys were on over there? People didn't like that you were on a boat. And I thought, fuck off. Listen to what he's saying. 22:05 Who cares that he's on a boat? I was only on the boat for like half an hour. Because I was dry reefing. He even made out you were on the boat for six weeks. Because I was dry reaching about my bills and shit over the side. And it was in port. 22:18 Ha, ha, ha. 22:20 No, but he was so unbelievable to me. 22:23 But he was just giving a speech home. 22:24 He's a good egg though too. And I don't agree with everything Pearce says either. Sometimes he goes on and on. 22:28 Then he came out and bagged Elon last night. He does whatever he wants to do and he says, you know, the finger. And people didn't like when I gave the finger. It's like we can just do what we do. 22:38 I saw that finger. They're still pixelated out in the newspaper. Still so horrible to do that that they've got to pixelate it out in the newspaper. Like grow up. The worst thing is... You're allowed to lie to everyone, but you've got to pixelate that out. It's so dumb. My mum got a T-shirt made. Did she? 22:55 She's never going to wear it. 22:57 She wears it. Does she? Yeah, mum's progressive. 22:59 Put it up on the screen. 23:00 And she's very proud. 23:01 Hang on, what do you mean? 23:02 Progressively follows you or a progressive lefty? 23:06 Progressive in terms of freedom of speech. 23:07 Oh, right. I thought you meant progressive as in purple hair, one of the great unfuckables. 23:11 Maybe she's in the regions. They have a lot of purple hair in the regions. As you know, they get a little... 23:14 It's not tolerated. 23:17 That behaviour, not tolerated. 23:19 I know. How is this business coming together? There's a myriad of ways you can do it. We chose to build our audience with nearly 200,000 subscribers now on YouTube. We've got a base. We've launched individual shows. Because you can't get big interviews. It's hard for me to get big interviews every week. So you build up the shows. Oh, so you fill it up with people like me in the middle? Well, obviously you're a big guest. 23:39 What happened to the military soldier? 23:43 Ben Robert Smith. 23:43 Yeah. 23:44 So I'm talking with Ben Robert Smith. I think... Well, I've secured him. 23:49 So do you want to do it together? 23:51 What? 23:52 I've secured him. 23:54 No, not another one. Go on. 23:57 You can have Barnaby. How am I going to eat? You bring Barnaby and that fucking dog. Prove the dog's real. 24:03 How's Barnaby's missus? Tell him the ABC, you're banned. 24:07 You know, I saw them. I mean, Vicky is a legend. No, she's a legend. 24:12 She tells me stories about how Barnaby had to build the driveway when he gets back from Canberra. He's got to, you know. Because of all the waters? 24:21 Yeah, all that stuff. Anyway, she's a legend. I saw Barnaby. He was flying out overseas just last week. And I ran into him and he's like, mate, he's having a beer at the lounge. 24:31 And he's like, mate, you know, Jesus Christ, it's... I just, get me a beer. 24:40 Listen, anyone that's ever lived on a farm, that's how you speak to a farm dog. This isn't a Chinese crested powder pasta. 24:47 That's how Vicky speaks to him. 24:48 Yeah, well, that's how they need to speak to him. It's Barnaby. 24:55 I've got a lot of time for Barnaby. Yeah. And I've had a run-in with Barnaby. I've watched myself on TV on John Oliver, one of those John Oliver shows that I was... It was the Johnny Depp story. Puss in boots. Johnny Depp. Because he wanted to kill Johnny Depp's dogs and I was like, bro, I get the bio problem, but you don't tell a man it's his little Yorkie terriers. That's coming across like a flop. 25:16 No, no. 25:16 But I did understand why, but I just didn't like the threat of killing a man's dogs. 25:20 I didn't mind it. I mean, those little dogs. 25:23 Johnny was staying at my mate's house. He's staying at Dewan's house. 25:25 Yeah, yeah. 25:27 And I felt a bit like, oh, a bit on Johnny Depp's side because he's staying in my mate's house and they're little cute dogs and Barnaby's purple. We'll euthanise those dogs. We'll euthanise them. 25:37 It's a biosecurity issue, mate. Look after Australia first. Anyway. The funny thing is that. 25:41 enough, I had all this problem with the RSPCA at my farm. They were showing up in like the SWAT gear. We've heard you've had cruelty in animals. And I said, is Barnaby behind this? Because I wouldn't be surprised. Anyway, there was no cruelty in animals, but there was this weird goat. And the RSPCA guy had a laugh. I had a goat that used to piss in its own mouth and then blow itself. 26:01 Now, I said, now, is that cruelty? It's cruelty if I was selling tickets, but this just does it on the barn floor. That's going to get cut out, isn't it? No, it's not. 26:11 We've got no responsibilities for anyone. Get a video. 26:13 Alfie, get the video of the goat. Actually, no, that might be bestial. 26:16 You can put it on your show. 26:18 Thanks. The irony of all this is that in, like, episode four, I interviewed you in this podcast series, The Carl Sevenoamick Show. Yes. Just for those who weren't aware. 26:29 And you told this story about how you had hired a what? What? You know, in the cross, you hired this person to sexually please you. Oh, prostitute. Yes. 26:46 Oh, the transsexual prostitute. Now you've got it. 26:48 Yeah. So you told that story about how you. 26:50 We've all been there, Carlos. 26:52 Look, it's not my cup of tea and whatever gets you through the night. 26:56 See, I used to say to my grandma too, that's not orange juice, it's tang. And she'd say, it's the same thing, try it. 27:03 Yeah. 27:04 Tink, tink, tink, tink. 27:05 I don't think it is the same. Tink, tink, tink. That's not orange juice. Tink, tink, tink. 27:09 Tink's not the same thing. 27:11 Anyway, so you told this story and, you know, even at nine some of the people messaged me and said, that's a great interview with Kyle. They obviously didn't get to the end where you upended this person you'd hired. 27:29 Excuse me, excuse me. Yeah. 27:31 She was a beautiful Asian woman, looked like a woman. She ended up being only a half a woman. 27:39 Hey, I'd already been blown by the time I realised. What am I going to do? 27:43 Get all weird about it? 27:45 What I'm saying is it's funny the stuff that gets you sacked and that doesn't. Oh, that didn't get me sacked. Got me sacked. Not in the end. My thing got you sacked. 27:53 No, it didn't. You know what I mean. 27:54 You rooted a tranny in it. You got sacked. 27:56 No, no, I'm not going to go into it. I'm not going to go into it. 27:59 The thing that got me sacked. 28:00 I told you, stay out of Thailand. I thought the thing that got me sacked was not as bad as the thing that got you sacked in the sack. 28:08 Well, listen, they're completely different stories. How do you segue that together? It was like a crocheted blanket. 28:14 Yeah, but it was still a blanket. 28:16 It was. It kept us warm. 28:18 You knew what I was saying. 28:19 I do. Listen, you get paid. I think what happened to you was... 28:25 I'm reading between the lines, but were you letting them know that you mightn't be back next year? Was there some chat about that? Because did they just try and kick you while they could to save money? I don't know. If you're a journalist, you can't pick and choose what stories you like and don't like. I watch... current affair stories all the time and like I resonate with some of them I watched the spotlight episode where Liam Bartlett who didn't wasn't nice to poor Aunty Pauline but he was very good with showing all the atrocities with what's happening to make the electric cars in Indonesia like that was horrific but I don't have to agree with everything these people say but you should be able to shine the spotlight or talk to anyone about anything 29:06 Yeah, and I think the rules around that have changed a little and there are pressures that are brought to bear. 29:13 If Packer owned Channel 9, all this bullshit, bean counting, left-wing, purplehead rubbish, it wouldn't run the agenda. The truth would run the agenda. 29:23 At the end of the day, I believe personally that all the coverage of what happened to me ended up platforming in a much more significant way than my original interview. So if you're going to get in some kind of, you know, ethical discussion or debate about it, surely the amplification, you know, it's the Streisand effect is worse than, you know, what transpired initially. 29:48 And then you go and then have a look at Zimbabwe. 29:52 Did you hear it? Sorry, it's a segue. I knew I lost him. I lost him with media debate. You did it. You did it. But when you said Barbara Streisand, yesterday in the American Congress hearing of Dr. Anthony Fauci, it came up that he had mentioned that she had all these sores on her buttocks. 30:10 I didn't see that. What's that got to do with the COVID? But you know what about Streisand? She's got nothing to feel guilty of. 30:19 No, that's right. Well, Hinch smashed it too, didn't he? Did you hear that? Hinch, yeah. 30:24 Because she's got nothing to me guilty. Oh, sorry. Are you doing a song reference? Of course. I'm sorry. Do you not know Barbara Stokes? How old are you? 30:32 Barry Gibb? You must have had a lot of work done. I'm going to need it. I look older than you. Yeah, but you look good. 30:37 You look good. No. Tell me. Your show is launching. 30:41 August 10. 30:41 I saw that you're giving away. 30:43 You're going to pay. We're not doing it for free like you. 30:46 No, but we're launching a paywall as well and we've got unique content behind the paywall that we've been filming as well for the last six months. 30:52 Well, I've made enough money to run the thing for three years. Already? Already. We haven't even started yet. You are joking. We're into the tens of thousands, which is not like your numbers, but mine are paying. They're expected to pay. 31:02 But you're also giving away houses. 31:05 I can't compete with that. 31:06 Well, I did claim that once we get to the 200,000 mark, we'll start giving away houses. 31:10 Did you claim? 31:10 No, we will. Bars of gold. When we get up to the 200,000, that's $20 million profit a year. It's like a Boys Town lottery. Exactly. But I said to my guys, how did Adrian Patelli become a billionaire by just doing all these contests? I said, we've got a show every day, a four hour, six till 10am show, music, I'm paying the music, royalty fees, news, current affairs, sport, all that, same as the radio show, but no ads and no censorship. 31:40 Unless, of course, it's contempt of court. 31:43 Yeah. 31:43 Because I'd rather not go in the clink. 31:45 Okay. And so on that, how closely are you attached still to ARN? Like more attached than I am? Zero. 31:54 No. They've got out of the deal that we did, I own 100% of the business. They own none of it. They've got a 19.1 rev share after the first 3 million profit that I make each year. 32:06 So we'll make sure that that's wound down. It's very expensive to operate. Plus there's my generous fee. 32:13 You get a generous fee. 32:14 Of course. Now what was interesting to me, which I haven't discussed with you yet, is I've had a few big-name type financials from around the world, different places. You'd know a few. 32:27 ...that have contacted me to say, we do the mathematics on this, right? If we invested some money into this, what's to stop this platform... ...becoming my show in the morning? Carl Stefanovic drives you home in the afternoon. Ray Hadley comes out of retirement next year and does the midday... There's nothing really stopping that. Our network. Our own network. Because some of these people came to me and said with their little scratched out pencils that we do this right, you can make more profit just off my show than the entire radio network, which I did take great delight in. 33:01 No, I'm just – It's a different – Yeah. 33:03 It's a whole different – You can turn anything that you are creating now and we're the same into an all day, all night by acquiring other podcasts or other media. Sure. And there's no extent. And then KS Live is what it's called. 33:16 Now – KS Live. We could bookend this thing. 33:21 Yeah. 33:22 You have to sell that place a noosa and give me the money. I have to invest in. No, we'll get people to invest in this and we'll just turn this. 33:31 Why do I have to sell noosa then? 33:32 No, it's only teasing. I was just throwing that in as it gives a gag. How did you know? 33:36 I didn't get your Barbara gag and you didn't get the gag everyone else got. 33:38 How did you know that I'll have to sell noosa? I didn't know anything. 33:42 I like that place in this. Is it for sale? 33:43 No, I'm not letting go of anything. I'm working hard. I'm driving forward and I feel energized. So do I. And you know what? The Australian people who I've been out in Rockhampton doing net zero stuff. I mean, these people are getting absolutely... What's net zero stuff? Are you into that bullshit? No, I'm not into it. You're against it. Yeah, so there are literally families being torn apart by one farmer saying, I'll have a wind turbine. and take the 50 grand a year or whatever it is and batteries are being put in everywhere. 34:07 145 grand a year rent for each turbine that costs $26 million each to buy. It has a 20-year run on it and it doesn't even make a return on its money. And it looks disgusting everywhere you go over these beautiful hills. 34:22 And then when they stop after 15 years, somehow someone's got to come in and pick up. What are you going to do with it? I agree. So there's a lot of Australian stories that I'm keen on telling and that's what I'll be out there doing. I've got no time to look back. Like I am just marching forward. 34:37 You know what I'd like to ask, Story, and you're probably the person to do it. Where do the old whores go? When they've retired being a lifelong prostitute, where are they? 34:48 Have you ever seen any? 34:54 Okay, maybe I'll keep that for my... Listen, I thought it was... To me, the mind boggles. Yeah. Where are they? 35:00 I think we can definitely do something together in a network, but maybe not on the same... Get the fuck out of here. Get out of here. Good luck with everything. 35:08 Let's go and have a cone. No, mate. Oh, fucking hell. You still won't do a cone.