Simon Holmes à Court: Beyond Political Parties
Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
Josh Szeps
4.5 • 905 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2024
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Could independent politicians kill off the two-party system and make politics more accountable?
At the last Australian election, a decade of conservative government rule was brought to an end thanks largely to a wave of so-called "teal independents" supported by Simon Holmes à Court’s organisation.
The son of Australia’s first billionaire and the heir to generations of influential politicians and businessmen, Simon Holmes à Court has become one of the most significant figures in Australian politics. His political revolution has challenged the status quo of the two major political parties and allowed communities to wrestle back power from institutions that don't represent them. This is a fascinating, wide ranging chat with a brilliant mind.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Gahe, humans. Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas, and here's a dangerous idea for you. |
| 0:06.9 | Do we need political parties? Do they serve our interests? Is it better to work inside the political |
| 0:13.4 | system or to blow it all up and try to find a way to empower and to fund independence who can indeed topple governments. Today's guest was |
| 0:24.7 | fundamental in the last change of government in Australia. His name, the Homes of Court |
| 0:31.1 | name, is well known in Australia because his father was the first ever billionaire. They come |
| 0:36.7 | from generation after generation of extremely influential and powerful, |
| 0:40.1 | wealthy figures, not just here, but back in the UK before Australia was even settled |
| 0:45.5 | or invaded, as the case may be, by Europeans. |
| 0:49.8 | And Simon Holmes at court, he's a brilliant guy in his own right, has an extraordinary tale to tell about his relationship with his billionaire father and the consequences of his father's untimely death. |
| 1:02.8 | And what Simon did at the last election was not single-handedly, he's very bashful about it and he's very bashful about his financial |
| 1:15.2 | role as well as his motivational and cultural role in creating the landslide that happened |
| 1:21.1 | in Australia at the last federal election. So with all of that being said and all of that throat |
| 1:25.8 | clearing aside, he's basically the most |
| 1:27.6 | important figure in Australia in creating a wave of centre-right independent, mostly female |
| 1:35.4 | candidates who swept aside the Conservative governing coalition after almost a decade in power |
| 1:43.5 | by targeting them on a few vulnerable issues. |
| 1:47.1 | Climate change where voters felt there was inaction, women's rights, where voters felt |
| 1:52.1 | there was a kind of a tin-eared deafness towards the need to get real about sexism |
| 1:57.5 | and indeed even sexual assault and harassment in Parliament House. And corruption. |
| 2:02.5 | Not so much the old-fashioned corruption of bribing politicians to do your bidding, |
| 2:07.8 | but just the slightly sleazy everyday corruption that we've gotten used to. Australia did not |
| 2:13.4 | have a federal anti-corruption body to oversee that everything was clean. These candidates, |
... |
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