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

We hope that a few people will listen into this. Rachel, a little bit of an introduction,

is that you got in contact with a column, first of all, what about two years ago? Is that right?

It was August 2000. Yeah, wow. To August 2024.

Oh, okay. Right. Yeah.

And we have done an interview before, which I'll link him with this. This is really just a chat.

It's Sunday morning, early Sunday morning for me.

I've lost track of where it is for you now. Where is it for you?

Where are we? It's 10 past eight in the evening.

Yeah, because you're in Australia, and it's very warm and hot there, and it's cold and rainy here.

So we've seen, but you've had some amazing experiences through COVID and lockdown, and that's really, really got chatting.

And we have been in touch, but you were keen to have a chat again. And so here we are.

So I'd like to say to you, how, if I may, how's life in Australia?

And yeah, yeah, life in Australia is good. Always loved Australia.

As you know, when I visited the column, I was living in New Zealand, and then we decided as a family to relocate back to Australia, because it's a different way of life in Australia to New Zealand.

It's more like back the weather's better, however, it's very humid. It's been 33 today.

And yeah, we've lived in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and decided to give Brisbane a go this time.

So it's all new again. We moved here in April last year, so we're in here around what, eight months?

Right, OK, brilliant. Well, we're not going to directly go over old ground, but I'm going to say that, you know, what you had to say about lockdown in New Zealand was pretty amazing.

And it was obviously a tough time for you and made a big impact on you.

I've never been in my Navy time. I did get to a lot of places around the world, but I never got to New Zealand or Australia.

And you'll comment there that Australia is a lot more laid back than New Zealand.

Just about those differences a bit. What makes New Zealand a bit more uptight or straight?

Is that the British? Is that still the British?

No, it's amazing the differences, really. The cost of living in New Zealand is off the scale, literally.

There's a lot of, I could say, you know, we lived there for eight years. We moved from Auckland to Hawks Bay.

And yeah, it was just, I can't even tell you how expensive.

Like $20 for a block of cheese in New Zealand, which is around £4.15.

And the property is so expensive. That was one of the reasons actually we moved from Auckland to Hawks Bay

because of the house prices in Auckland. We both had great careers, but just out of reach.

Yeah, just the bills, the utilities and taxes and everything was just phenomenal.

And having resided in Australia prior to moving to New Zealand, it was a big shock from going from Australia to New Zealand.

I remember I standard of living dropped drastically, you know, where in Australia.

You can do so much here, Brian. Like you'll go to the beach and there's phone charges there, there's showers, there's facilities for families,

there's dog bags for the dogs. And it's just a real different way of life in every way.

When I say lay back, people are happier here. And I think people are happier because, well, at the minute, you know, people are still in certain areas of society thriving.

But I do see declining other areas as well in my sector of work.

I've seen a lot of AI take over and my sector of work is recruitment. Yeah, it's scary.

You see the decline, you know, we've not been in Australia for eight years, but, you know, there's been a lot of changes.

I've had my first interaction with thought crime, Brian.

Really?

I got a fine through the post for having a laptop on my, sorry, my phone on my lap.

It was taken by a surveillance camera.

What were you driving or something?

Yeah, yeah.

And I'm going to dispute it because I don't use my phone when I'm driving. I've actually got Bluetooth in the car.

And there's a photo of the phone on my lap, but there's, you know, my fingers are nowhere near it or anything.

I don't know why it was on my lap. I can't recall why it was on my lap.

All I do know is I weren't using it because I use Bluetooth in the car.

So it was a bit of a shock and the fine is absolutely phenomenal. I've got it here.

There's the photo of the car and me.

Well, I see it and there's the phone. Yeah, I see it. Yeah.

In French, no, it's, but it says on here, alleged offense.

Drive a use mobile phone. Well, I'm not using my mobile phone.

Right.

Apparently in Brisbane, it's illegal to have a mobile phone anywhere on your body in the car.

Right.

Sorry, go on.

Well, from my brief glimpse at the photograph, it looks as though the phone is on the seat by your leg.

Yeah, well, it's hard to tell. It does look like it's on my lap.

But as you can see, my hand is on the steering wheel.

I'm not using the phone and the fine is $1251 and the numeric points are four,

which is really high.

Yeah.

So I'm going to dispute that, I'm going to look into that a bit more.

But I did have an interesting conversation with the lady at the transport office.

I mean, if I had a glass, if I had a bottle of wine on my lap, does it mean I'm going to drink it?

Yes.

But it is thought-crime, isn't it?

It is. That's exactly what it is.

Yeah.

That's the first thing that came to my mind and I've never received anything like that.

And I was like, wow, so you take photos of people in the car

driving.

Yeah. Well, well, this has been going on with UK for a very, you know, very long time

with all the cameras on the bridges, particularly over the motorway.

Personally, I always drive with the sun visor down.

Yeah.

Because, okay, it's not always fully down.

You might have it part of the way down, but it does significantly obstruct the view

into the windscreen from those high-level cameras.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, fair enough if I'd been pulled over by the police if I was using my phone,

but they're actually photographing you while you're driving.

And it's just like, wow, that's blown my mind to be honest, because I've experienced it myself now.

Yeah.

And you mentioned to me earlier that just as here in UK, you're experiencing people who are

freshness.

Yeah.

Yeah.

People are on edge, but they may not know why.

I think it's all an internal thing, Brian, and there I say it, a spiritual thing, that the

world is so fragmented and divided on so many issues, whether it be politics, exor-politics,

what's going on in different countries.

It's just unbelievable.

And the way for me to get through it is to look at things logically and research.

I don't, I don't believe anything that's told to me, I question things, you know, because you have to.

You have to delve back into history to see why these things are going on.

Yeah, this is absolutely true.

The other thing which has been in the press in UK, and I'd like to know what you think about it,

is the is stopping children getting on to social media.

And actually, there's just been a headline, I think it's today, or might have been yesterday, in UK press,

and well, Kirstalmer is now considering doing the same.

And to me, this is so significant.

It's already happened here in Australia.

Under 16s are not allowed access to social media now.

That was brought in, I believe, in December.

Now, like I say, I like to look at things logically and research.

Now, for me, having, I'm a mum, and I, as a mother,

should be left to watch my child, what they're doing on social media at a certain age.

I actually had those discussions with my daughter when she was around 13.

When you upload a photo, your friends are just going to see it.

It's going to be their friends, you know, and so on and so forth.

And then when you look for a job, you know, they're going to look at your social media profile and things like that.

So, you know, I had a really good index conversation with my daughter about social media.

Now, for me, it's not up to the state to decide what a child does or doesn't do.

I mean, for me, if the government is going to intervene,

why can't they intervene with pornography and all the dark things, you know,

that they should be looking at, not the parental role?

Yeah, and I think that's a really good point.

And of course, they never go into those areas.

They always talk about child protection, but areas where they could make a huge difference.

They don't get near.

And that has divided a lot of families here as well.

Another thing to divide people, you know, do the state do it or parents?

Yeah, so presumably some parents agree with you that it should be a decision for the parents and others say,

oh, well, it's a good thing because the state is...

Yeah, it was good to see there has been a lot of pushback, you know, on that issue.

I don't know where that's going to lead, but, you know, it is heartening to see, you know, that people are like, well,

I'm a parent, I'm not going to be told what my child, yeah.

What about Australian politicians? Are any of them challenging it?

Or are they all united with government policy?

That's a really good question.

There is... I'm not sure if it's an MP or sex senator.

So please do quote me on his position within government.

But I know there is one, I think he's called Senator Babbit.

And he is a voice of reason.

He is very vocal on social media about where he thinks this government is leading Australia.

And yeah, is a good voice of reason, is a good one to follow.

Yeah.

Well, that's good. I mean, it's going to be interesting to see how it pans out here if they attempt to push this through.

But of course, for me, rather than protecting children from the bad stuff online, what the government is doing, I think,

is making absolutely sure that youngsters, particularly teenagers who are learning, are not going to get access to any other material

than the formal news channels like the BBC or whatever it is.

So they don't want children using social media because children might learn that what they're being told and taught through the official system at school and college

is not necessarily the truth. So you want to block them from that. That's what I think they're doing.

Yeah, we can speculate on agendas, et cetera.

But you have to because you could also look at it, Brian, that they're wanting the young people to get used to using a digital ID to get on the internet.

Yes.

You know, if you take the things the way that they enjoy doing, and then when the 16, they have to sign up for a digital ID or when they're 18.

Yeah, that's a very good point, a very good point.

And somebody a few days ago sent me an email pointing out that there's an app, which has now been created in UK,

where youngsters are going to have to use that app or will use that app in order to get their exam results.

Yeah.

And that would seem to fit that model, wouldn't it?

That you're training youngsters to use this stuff?

Yeah, because the young ones have been brought up digitally. There's no two ways.

You know, locally, my daughter was in the middle of that.

But the younger ones now, they've got an iPad at age three and exposed to so much.

And this is where we go as well.

I do see that, Brian, that some parents, a peace children with digital products to keep them entertained.

Yeah, it's a big debate for you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Another question for you, you're there in Australia.

You've still got a bit of an accent.

It's never going to go on.

Well, it shouldn't because I've always had an accent around around UK.

Yeah, the reason I said that is because obviously if you talk to somebody in Australia,

they know pretty quickly you're a, you're a poem.

Absolutely.

You've got, you know, you're looking at the world as, as you are and you've got huge concerns about what's going on.

You've experienced some horrible stuff during the lockdown thing.

When, when you get into discussion with Australians, are you the, are you the wacky Brit?

Or are Australians starting to also starting to sort of sense that something's wrong?

How easy is it for you to connect with people who are also waking up to use that expression in Australia?

That's a brilliant question.

Because we've had such a transient lifestyle, living in Australia and New Zealand back in the UK, back to New Zealand.

But, you know, I've had to adapt, I've had to learn to adapt to, you know, certain ways of life and different cultures and everything.

I have noticed that where we are here in Brisbane, we're in Suburbia again.

And it's very insular, it's, I couldn't tell you the names of my neighbours.

However, I tried to correct that at Christmas.

In fact, I did correct that.

I took, I baked some brownies and I went next door on a mission and I think it was Christmas Eve.

And I went next door and I banged on the door and introduced myself and the lady next door is actually Scottish.

And she's lived there for, I think she said about 20 years.

And then, so I left the brownies and then 10 minutes later there was knock on the door and she brought a box of chocolates.

And I said, I don't really, I don't want to offend you but I don't give to receive.

You know, I wanted to bake brownies and everything.

But, you know, you're welcome to come in and have a glass of wine.

And she came in and it was really surreal.

She just burst into tears.

Right.

And I sat her down and I got her a drink.

And, you know, Christmas can be a tough time, you know, for everybody.

But what did sort of, what did trigger the fact that you take in the trouble to go on it?

The kindness.

Right.

The kindness.

Yeah, she said it's gone.

And it made a cry.

Well.

So that was quite a poignant conversation.

And then I meet people at the beach.

I've met people at work.

I've met people.

I've been on groups on various social media.

I met people and taught people about what is going on.

The weird thing is, when you start doing that and opening new channels for yourself,

I'm being authentic.

You know, I've met some wonderful people.

And I have got a story which is quite sad that here in Australia,

there seems to be a tiny house movement going on, you know,

by people are renting land in rural or remote locations

and putting a caravan on there or tiny home on there or remote to home.

And I met a general man who was actually from South Africa.

And we had a lot of conversations.

And I went to visit him and he was located at Glasshouse Mountains,

which is a spectacular place about an hours drive out of Brisbane.

And I went to meet him and he had some land and he had various.

The land was gorgeous Brian.

It was so gorgeous.

He'd got a little lake in the middle and he was doing a veggie patch and getting chickens.

And he had, I think, when I went first, I visited him a few times.

We had a lovely family.

We're actually originally from the UK living in a modular home and a caravan on there.

And there was other caravan on there.

And they all had their own allocated segment of the land.

And we kept in touch for a few months and I went to visit him a few times

because I wanted to.

I suppose test the water on maybe getting a tiny home.

When was it? I think it was about October time.

I was due to visit him.

And I received a text and he said, please don't come tomorrow.

And I was like, why are you okay? Is everything okay?

And he said, oh, the council have been and have been and the police.

And they've shut the land down.

And they've given him a massive fine.

And he was, it was distraught because that was his livelihood.

And he wanted to help people.

And I've heard a lot of those stories.

But then I experienced, I just seem to experience these things, Brian.

Because I put myself out there, you know, and get to meet people.

And see what's going on in society.

You know, it's important.

Yeah. And it is true that people who are trying to.

Live, you could say an alternative life or a life outside the mainstream system.

They are absolutely being targeted and penalized.

Yeah, all the zone in lots of change and things.

Yeah, you know, that's happening in UK.

So that is, you know, sad that that's happened to him.

Yeah.

So you're painting a picture really of a similar situation with people in Australia to UK.

Just to come back to the lady saying to you, the kindness has gone.

I thought, well, because my big thing, and I felt this really strongly over probably the last three Christmases,

is that the atmosphere of Christmas has gone now.

I am as old as I am.

So part of it, I think to myself, you've got to be a bit careful here,

because when you think back to, if you think back to when you were a child,

I was so different, so different.

To my mind, as Christmas got close, there was a sort of peace came.

That didn't mean that everybody was happy, because Christmas has always been, you know,

difficult time for people, particularly people living rough or on the streets.

Yeah.

There was carol singing, and people did come around, either organised,

or sometimes it was children singing carols.

And I just remember that it was this piece, and okay, I've lived most of my life in the south of England.

So Christmas is not automatically with snow.

But if there was snow at Christmas, it just added to it, and there was this piece descended.

And in recent years, I've just thought it's all changed.

Christmas is not like Christmas, but also this peaceful atmosphere has gone.

When your lady said the kindness, I'm thinking, yes, she's right,

because the atmosphere has gone, and the kindness has gone as well.

It's all been replaced by increasingly horrible LED flashing lights.

Yeah.

So it's failed.

Sorry, you might have had a house festooned with it.

You've opened up a whole new conversation there.

So I'm going back to basic spray, and I've got a record player, a CD player.

I've changed my card.

I don't want an electronic mess.

I want a manual old car.

Yeah, this is really good.

Just finished the lights.

I absolutely know.

You see, more and more houses festooned with lights, and more and more blue lights,

which I've never liked, because I don't think they ever look right.

You know, what a garland or something.

So as the technology has increased in the light department,

so the atmosphere of Christmas is lessened.

And it's quite clear now that the idea of Christmas being some form of Christian celebration,

that's just complete nonsense.

It's gone.

Yeah.

Yeah, I remember being at primary school and we'd make snow flicks,

and we'd have a little Christmas party.

It was watch Christmas movies.

You know, it was all, well, I don't like to use the word magical,

because of the conversation with it now.

But it was special, you know, Christmas time when I was a young girl,

and I remember it with form memories, definitely.

Yeah.

It's very interesting.

And I think, in my mind, it's being very cleverly wiped out by an agenda,

which is...

Yeah, it is.

Absolutely.

It's so insidious.

You don't notice it until you look back.

You know, just at little things like, I went to a non-denomination school,

but we still sang the Lord's Prayer at assemblies.

And still celebrated Harvest Festival and visit it to things like that.

That's all gone.

Yeah.

And I didn't notice it so much until I was like, oh, do they do that in Australia?

Do they do Harvest Festival and things like that?

But as an immigrant, you don't question things,

but this is...

Yes.

You assimilate to a new culture and way of life, you know?

So you mentioned interesting word, immigrant immigration, and you are one.

I am.

You are.

Well, not now.

I'm actually a New Zealand citizen.

Or an Australian citizen.

No, I'm a New Zealand.

I'm a Kiwi.

Well, I'm a Jewel citizen.

Living in Australia.

Yeah.

So Australia and New Zealand are very closely aligned with there.

Yeah.

So if you're a Kiwi, you can work and live in Australia and vice versa.

The reciprocal immigration and health care and things like that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, what I was going to ask is other migration into Australia has been pretty high over a large number of years.

So Australia is a society from...

I think the way a lot of older brits might remember it, you know, which is predominantly white society.

Crocodile Dundee and all the rest of it.

It's changed huge amount.

What about people who are also immigrants to Australia from other countries, maybe Asian countries?

Are you finding that any of those are awake to what's going on with the policy?

Wow.

Maybe I can make it easier for you.

Because here in...

For us locally, for the UK common team locally, if you want to get an easy opinion from somebody who's come in from another country,

you just hop in a taxi.

And they might be in Romania or Bangladesh.

And you can invariably start a good conversation with them.

And I've got to say that if you talk to one who's established as many of them are,

so they will say, well, actually, it's my parents who came here and I was born in UK.

They are also getting very concerned about the way they're seeing the country go.

So...

Yeah, it's funny if you say that because you've just made me recall a conversation.

I had at the beach, I was walking our dogs and there was three elderly gentlemen actually having a discussion about immigration,

that I overheard while I was walking and I actually joined in the conversation.

All I can say is Brian, from my own experience, have been an immigrant.

It's a very...

The process that we went through just to be transparent.

We had to have a full medical, all the family.

We had to have certain criteria and points for our roles as well.

Any family or history of disease illness, they checked your bank accounts, your phones,

everything is your police checks, go back, I think it's 10 years.

So it's a highly involved process going from initially from the UK to Australia.

It took months and months.

So, as an immigrant, I think I've got a voice to say, you know,

we've been in New Zealand and on Australia and you do have to assimilate into society and involve yourself with culture and values and everything.

And it's sad to say that the college diversity, I think, is the word.

That, you know, for example, in my job in recruitment, I have come across people who are unable to talk and communicate.

They've had translators with them at interviews and things like that.

So there are issues, thoughts myself, well, if you can't communicate, how do you expect you're going to get a job where you have to communicate?

How does that happen?

I don't understand because it's like setting someone up to fail.

How are they going to support themselves and the families?

Well, if they can't basically meet the criteria of communication skills.

So for me, you know, if I look at UK where I look across other European countries or even America, we see the same sort of policies coming in,

having the same, those policies have the same effects in a country, whether it's Germany or France or Italy.

There's a creeping unification of the policies that come in through the government, which then are shaping not only work and professional society, but also communities and how people relate to each other.

And yeah, I'll go back to our previous conversation with that. It seems to me, just like, you know, when in 2020, everybody was in lockstep.

So they're in lockstep with policy, such as digital ID, the CBDCs, everybody's becoming more aware of that now.

Yeah, they all, the five eyes nations, Canada, Australia, UK, that they're all following the same policies and implementing the same things.

And we should question that because again, it comes back to culture and ethics.

You know, as I consider myself well-researched now and aware, and the things we should be questioning is, what is the purpose of governments?

Because there's so much overreach now that it's never ending. Where does they send?

You know, we have to question that.

Yeah, is government the servant of the people? Or is it the ruler of the people? This is the kind of thing, isn't it? Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's the same with gun laws and things like that. And we all know an unarmed populist is not, you know, and that's the fact.

Not a nice one to digest, but common sense says, you know, that why are they bringing all these gun laws in and why are all these shootings happening? What is going on?

Yes, it's true.

You know, it's, yeah, for me, I mean, as my experience of government as a young woman growing up and traveling the world, I used to be a flight attendant in my young years, I don't know if I told you that for Virgin Atlantic.

Yeah, there was no overreach. They never interfered in my life. Now it's never ending and it's like, wow, how, how was all this happened?

And it's, it's something we should all be discussing and talking about and debating about because history says that governments were there for the infrastructure.

You know, to take care of the road and, you know, and then taxes were implemented in the First World War, which was a temporary measure, which has never gone.

We all know what happens to temporary measures.

Yeah, it's never, it's never gone.

Yeah.

We are creeping, it's mission creep, isn't it?

Mission creep.

But whatever hands the control of the state has crept ever become ever greater, but it's a very slow process.

Well, it's speeding up now, I think.

Accelerating is the word the world economic forum.

Yes, absolutely.

And the good news about that is the fact it's accelerating means it's easier for people to pick up that these changes are happening.

Yeah, but I don't, I don't think people are grasping what these changes are going to do.

No, they don't understand, they don't understand the real dangers.

Yeah, so we've still got a job to do, Rachel.

Especially with the youngsters, this is, yeah, yeah, this is where we need to educate youngsters on, you know, how, you know, technology is.

It's like anything Brian, isn't it?

It can be used for good or nefarious.

Yeah.

You know, if you look at the internet, you know, you can do your research and whatnot, but we all know that there's bad things on the internet.

If you, if you wanted to go down that road, such as pornography and I'll just reiterate my point there again is educating our children on that and the dangers of, you know, social media and things like that.

That's what us as moms and dads should be doing.

We should be going back to basics, you know, not everything should be digital.

You know, families should be sat around having dinner, talking about the days.

Back to basics for me, as I said, my life's changed, Brian.

I've got a record player now.

I've got a CD player.

I've changed my car.

I've changed my life because it's an intentional thing because I've realised that, you know, I don't want my music on Spotify where I subscribe and get music.

It's an ever-ending cycle of renting a subscription.

I want to own my music.

I want to own, you know, the things that have like a CD player and a record player and it comes down to privacy as well.

I've learned just the other day when I was talking to the transport lady for Queensland Government.

She sent me a link and I had to agree.

I can't remember the wording, but it was something about my privacy was, if I clicked to agree, my privacy was not going to happen.

You know, it was going to go to all these parties and I was like, and I rang her back and I said, I'm not going to click on agree.

My privacy is everything to me.

So I'd rather do an analog.

I said, can you send me something through the post where I can fill in the form and that's what they've done.

So it's just, I'm making myself more aware and I'm not trying to be awkward.

It's my privacy, it's my life, it's my integrity, you know, that you're compromising.

If you're saying that I've no privacy, what does that mean?

Who's the third parties in this agreement that you've got?

And what are you going to do with the data that I send?

Are you going to send my age?

What crime I'm supposed to have done?

You know, it's quite scary.

But challenging in that relatively simple way is very powerful.

And of course, if a lot more people did it, it would cause huge problems across the system.

Because all the agencies, tax or local authorities or social services or education, they're all trying to use these systems to log data.

And if you challenge in that way, I was thankful that I actually got speak to somebody, you know.

Because we all know what it's like when you normally ring a government department and you've got all these options and you put on hold forever and it's difficult.

But I was thankful that the lady understood and she was really sympathetic.

She understood totally where I was coming from.

And another lady knocked on the door and they were doing a survey.

I can't remember what the survey was.

And she was stood at the door and she said, oh, can I come in?

I'm just doing a survey.

And I said, excuse me, no, this is my home.

I said, I don't want people knocking on my door.

I'm working and also my privacy is everything.

And I really don't want to do a survey.

Thank you.

And her face was like, what?

She was just incredulous that I'd questioned her knocking on my door.

Because it's a normal thing for her to do.

I don't want that to be normal.

I don't, you know, for people to invade your privacy in that way.

I absolutely understand that.

Definitely understand that.

Yeah.

Rachel, it's coming up to the top of the hour, which is what we're allowed to say.

I'm so much more to talk about.

I got my book out for you.

I did you.

What else have you got there?

Okay.

So I'll run through this quickly.

So I.

On my previous interview, we discussed when I went to.

And I did a book.

I've also got.

Just going to show you quickly.

Can you guess those books, please?

Oh, it must be Bob Renn's book.

Yeah.

I got that last Christmas for a present.

So that's nice.

So here it is.

Yeah.

The truth.

And I'm just going to show you a few.

This is your book you've switched to now for the audience.

Yeah.

This is the book.

These are all the quotes that you took from the people at the big protest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So.

So sorry, Rachel, you're telling us that that book's finished now.

Yes.

Right.

Some quotes from the book.

Yeah.

The first signature is mine.

Good.

And it was on the 17th of February 2022.

And I wrote when law becomes injustice, resistance becomes a duty.

And.

Yeah.

I mean, it's some, some of the comments.

Is let's go.

So coinion and raw Brian, you know, just to read this book again and look at it.

And there's so much love in it.

And Rachel, bless you.

Keep going with you all the way.

Who now here, Annie, liberty.

And justice freedom through Christ.

We've got.

Never fold.

This is for our children for their future.

We will go on hold the line.

Love the atmosphere.

Love the people.

Bless the warriors of freedom for standing for all of humanity.

Love always wins.

Stay strong.

For our babies, freedom is a choice.

Choose freedom.

Love our Tamariki.

I've got the long pages from the Maori gentleman that I told you about.

And that wrote about his ancestry and history and.

Oh, there's so much in here.

Yeah.

It's it.

Yeah, it's.

And one of them says, let me be a mom.

Yeah.

And the demonstration itself, all the protest itself was in.

Where was it?

Wellington.

Wellington.

Yeah.

Well, maybe you need to start another book.

Now you've started your life in Australia.

Which is, you know, would be something like thoughts of the present day.

Yeah.

I mean, I've got lots of photos as well.

You know, I met a cello player there.

We had a music tent.

There was a woman's tent.

A baby tent.

An admin tent.

Full tent.

It was like a village Brian that was functioning in.

With tents.

Yeah.

And everybody got to know each other.

And it was.

Yeah.

I can't even, yeah, begin to tell you about that experience.

But I don't think all of that.

Passion and enthusiasm.

I don't think it sort of evaporated.

I think it might have dissipated.

But all the people who were there are now.

Their own little islands talking to other people out in society.

Yeah.

You know, I think a lot of people think, oh, yeah, but it's all over.

I don't see it like that because more people talk to the more people.

I sense who are awake.

Or have woken up more.

And we just, we just need to keep pushing.

Absolutely.

And as we said, it's the youngsters we need to be focusing on.

Yeah.

We need to be able to educate them on, you know, their sovereignty,

and their individuality as well.

We're not labeled as something.

The so many labels now with children.

ADHD and autism.

And the so many acronyms that I can't even think of.

I can't even recall them, but I think it's sad.

They never had that in school.

When I was young, labeling children with these things.

As far as I'm concerned, nothing is a one size fits all.

School's not a one size fits all.

Everybody has their own individuality,

whether it be a talent, they could be creative or musical.

And we should be nurturing that.

Because that's what makes us human, that's what makes us.

Well, this is where the regimentation of schools has,

you know, it creates a lot of the problems.

I agree with this.

But we've also got the situation where there are an increasing number

of children who've got difficulties that we've never seen in the past.

And one of the things going on at the moment is,

of course, nobody wants to talk about this.

I know that I've got a guest now.

I'm going to say about four years ago,

there was a teacher told us that in the South Wales primary schools,

close to 50% of the children that got some form of issue,

whether it was autism or ADHD or whatever it was.

And that wasn't a label that was just sort of a label put on

that these children had problems.

And so the school teacher was telling us about this.

And she also said, and we, the staff, have been told,

we mustn't talk about it.

So all the questions about where are all these children

with problems or issues or they've been damaged in some way?

Where are they coming from?

We're not allowed to talk about it.

Yeah, I mean, I do remember there was a group of young boys

that was when I was at secondary school.

It just made me recall something.

When I was at secondary school, there were a group of young men,

sorry, not boys, young men, who weren't very academic.

And I remember them being segregated in our room.

And I remember being very uneasy about it,

because they weren't particularly disruptive.

They were just not academic.

But they got segregated from certain classes in a room.

And I used to sneak in and talk to them.

Well done. I don't know why.

It's just, it just didn't sit well with me.

My feeling on things like that is that I suspect

that those boys would have been young men,

would have been the sort who would have adapted to apprenticeships

or starting to do physical things.

Still ultimately heading towards skills,

but they would have been hands-on skills

instead of sitting in a classroom having lessons.

Yeah, I mean, I wasn't an academic at all.

I really struggled to get some rid of,

because I just, I felt as a young girl and as a young woman.

I just didn't resonate with certain classes and things.

I just didn't do anything for me.

And I really, really struggled to see those boys segregated

for whatever reason.

That was the only thing I came across at school

that sat uneasy with me.

I mean, I remember the teachers being really loving the work.

And it showed, you know, I love drama.

Believe it or not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Drama classes, yeah.

I've got to say I need to go, because not only have I got UK column news

for tomorrow to get going on,

but I've also got a video which I'm desperately trying to finish editing.

So I have enough of my plate today.

No switching off for you, B.J.

Well, I'm trying to do that more,

but there's still a lot of stuff for me to do.

And I actually enjoy working from home,

because it gives you a lot of both worlds.

But, yeah, there's quite a bit that I need to get done before tomorrow morning.

So I need to say gently, I probably should.

Yeah, we're being on for a good hour or so.

I've just wanted to show you that I've still got my bag here.

And my lovely water bottle.

That you kindly gave me.

And, yeah, I mean, there's so much more I could talk about.

Well, you know, Rachel, I'd love to talk to you more.

And also, you know, if you were encouraged enough

to do a regular slot talking about, you know,

what's going on in Australia, that would be fantastic.

So why don't we say I will send you an email or whatever

and maybe get together again and have a little bit more

just have a private focus discussion on what, you know,

what you might like to do.

But I would love to be getting more.

Because during lockdown, we got lots of news from Australia and New Zealand.

And there were lots of people talking to us.

And a lot of that's gone quiet now.

And, you know, so I think so, yeah, yeah.

And you know, there are things that I want to do.

You know, I'm going to continue with the tiny homes

and also start a book group and things like that.

Yeah, there's just so much to talk about, Brian.

I've got so much paperwork here that I haven't even showed you.

OK.

Well, you have a thing about what you've got.

And if we have another conversation and we'll,

let's have a talk about that instead of doing it for an audience.

We'll do it with a view to how we could present it

or, you know, how we could cover the issue.

Yeah, absolutely.

As I say, I think we're both aware that it's all happening in the Five Eyes nations.

So, you know, we're very closely aligned with what is going on with policies

and things like that.

And they're just doing it in different words and ways

and giving it different technologies at them and finding different ways to do it.

Yeah.

OK, that's fine.

Rachel, it's been really great talking to you.

I have some other work to do today,

not least because I've got a UK column news coming up tomorrow.

But it's been really great to catch up.

Love to have another conversation with you.

Deeper, deeper conversation about what's happening in Australia.

So if you're up for that, that would be really good.

But I've really enjoyed our chat today.

It's been great.

Yeah, likewise, Brian, it's great to catch up again.

And there's so much going on.

I don't think we've really scratched the surface.

But yeah, I'll keep in touch with UK column and keep up the fantastic work that you do.

And hopefully we'll speak again in the near future.

I wish you all well in these trying times.

In a trying 2026.