The National Conservatism Institute of Australia Podcast

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: Whe...

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 Arabi...

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 interv...

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 moment How British conservatism differs from conservatism in the new world...

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...

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 Trump How Trump 2024 differs from 2016 What 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 durable How the Australian m...

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...

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 solutions What the true economic costs of raising kids is and how this should be compensated Why treasury forecasts wi...

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 cons The extent to which national con...

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 Counc...

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...

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...

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 right The recent admission by the Assistant Immigration Minister that migrants to have provided only "marginal economic benefit" to Australia A discussion of some of...

I speak with social commentator Bettina Arndt - who famously started off as Australia's first public sex therapist and "the person most strongly identified with Australia's sexual revolution", but who has now become a controversial critic of modern feminism. Among the topics we cover: Bettina's family history, why that shaped her view of the world, and how she and her father were very much at the...

We speak with well respected Australian liberal academic, Dr William Coleman about Australian Federation in 1901 and Australian nationalism more generally. Our discussion centres around Dr Coleman's book, "Their Fiery Cross of Union - A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914", which is critical of federation project and many of those involved. Topics we cover include: Wh...

We interview former NSW Police Minister Carl Scully who together with Assistant Commissioner Mark Goodwin are the authors of an important new book "The Cronulla Riots - The Inside Story". We discuss: - What actually went on in December 2005 and how the true significance of these events has been misunderstood - How the aftermath and revenge attacks were far more serious that what took place on Cron...

We interview Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) www.cis.org and a nationally recognised and influential expert on immigration issues in the United States Among other things we discuss: What exactly is going on in Springfield, Ohio and why it matters more than whether cats and dogs are being eaten What problems the US has with illegal immigration that...

Interview with academic Dr John Lee, senior consultant for the US Dept of Defense and former national security adviser to Australian Government. Among other things we cover: 1. Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers upcoming trip to Beijing 2. What Australia's trade and investment relationship should be like with China 3. How Xi Jinping doesn't really differ that much from his predecessors 4. Ideology...

Regular catch up on contemporary issues between Jordan Knight, founder of Migration Watch Australia and Dan Ryan, Executive Director of The National Conservative Institute of Australia.

My guest today is John Roskam who is the the former long-time executive director and now senior fellow of the Institute for Public Affairs (IPA), a well-known centre-right think tank based in Melbourne, Australia. He writes a regular column for the Australian Financial Review, which he has done for over 20 years. In this episode we discuss: How the philosophy of the Institute of Public Affairs has...

Interview with Gerard Rennick, Senator for the State of Queensland, Australia. Always interesting chatting to Gerard who is, whatever you may think about particular policy positions, a very authentic guy and has given a great deal of thought to where Australia is going. We cover issues such as (a) how government decisions actually made both in Australia and internationally (b) what explains why go...

Dr. Samuel Gregg is the Friedrich Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research. He is a moral philosopher who has written and spoken extensively on questions of ethics in public policy, jurisprudence, and bioethics. He has an MA in political philosophy from the University of Melbourne, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in moral philosophy from the U...

Dr Gary Johns is a former minister in the Keating government. In his post political career he has been deeply involved in a variety of public policy matters impacting on Australia. Among other things he has been a regular columnist for The Australian, Commissioner of the national charities regulator, and the author of many books including "The Burden of Culture" and "The Charity Ball". He is the f...

Matt Canavan, is a senator for the state of Queensland. In this episode we discuss, among other things: What exactly should our trade and investment be like with China and more generally? How his thinking of foreign policy has changed since Iraq War? Why the "Washington Consensus" has changed but how the "Canberra Consensus" has not His views on mass immigration and what should be done including b...

Campbell Newman is the former LNP premier of Queensland and also served as Lord Mayor of Brisbane, the only person to have held those two roles. He is also son of Kevin and Jocelyn Newman who both respectively served as Ministers in the Federal Government. In this episode we discuss, among other things; Why his parent originally voted for Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and how politics changed...