Gary Johns was the federal Member for Petrie from 1987 to 1996 and served in Paul Keating’s cabinet. He also served as an Associate Commissioner of the Commonwealth Productivity Commission 2002-2004. He is a regular columnist for The Australian newspaper and author of many books. He joined me to talk about his new book, “Your Body Belongs To The Nation”.
You can win a FREE copy of this new book worth $24.95, autographed by Gary Johns, if you’re a subscriber to my YouTube channel. I’m giving away one a day to a random subscriber, so head over there now and subscribe to be in with a chance.
WATCH the episode with special guest Gary Johns on “Health Laws & Lobbyists” one segment at a time below, and please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below or on the videos on YouTube.
Gary Johns grew up in a traditional Labor family and attended a radical leftist University. He left the Australian Labor Party because free and independent thinking led him to conclude leftism was generally nonsense. His perspective began to shift when he started reading more widely and it all made sense to him.
In the 1980s there was a body of economically rational people in the Labor Party, something that’s a lot rarer now. He realised we can’t wish away our welfare state, but have to work with it to maximise benefit and minimise harm from it.
We discuss the gradual demise of the great Australian sense of humour and its replacement by outrage reflexes, such that satire and sensible debates elicit the angriest of public responses.
Although he was very disciplined when in the parliamentary Labor party caucus, once kicked out of office he ruffled many feathers by exercising his average citizen’s independence and expressing his opinion.
Enjoy this segment and some frank opinions without the political correctness. In the next segment below we talk about the role of government and Gary John’s new book.
