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Punter Konrad and Punter James play the blame game to reveal exactly who's behind your biggest bills - from Adani dodging $400 million in Queensland courts to Santos secretly driving up your mortgage and energy costs, plus the phone company scam that's been stealing an extra month from you every year.

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This week, Konrad and James expose how foreign corporations like Shell made $127 billion in Australia while paying virtually zero tax, reveal the governments hidden gambling connections, and host the first-ever Puntermon Battle between two economists who can't agree whether mass immigration or property speculation is destroying Australia's housing market. Featuring - Economists Leith van Onselen & Matt Grudnoff 

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Leith's Notes
"The first chart in this article shows why demand side policies never work as they just feed higher home prices:" https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/05/australians-snookered-by-mega-mortgages/
"Even if we changed NG and the CGT discount today it wouldn't do squat for the rental market as the volume of migration would continue to overwhelm supply, driving vacancy rates lower and rents higher. Sure, building public housing would help and is worthwhile. But that would cost many billions and would merely be taken up by new migrants (this is happening now in Melbourne). We simply cannot build enough homes or infrastructure to keep up with demand. We don't have the capacity. Therefore, the only solution is to go back to pre 2005 levels of migration and ensure that it is focused on skills the country actually needs. We need quality, not quantity. As long as policymakers continue to pump immigration, the rental and infrastructure crises will continue. Nothing can be done on the supply side in any reasonable timeframe to change this fact.

Matt's Notes

I claimed that over the last 10 years the population has increased by 16% but the number of dwellings has increased by 19%
Population data comes from National, state and territory population. Click on the “Population and components of change – national” towards the bottom of the webpage. In the spreadsheet that downloads we are looking for “Estimated Resident Population (ERP) ;  Australia” (this is column L in the spreadsheet). 10 years comes from March 2015 to March 2025. The numbers are population in March 2015: 23,745,600. Population in March 2025: 27,536,900. The formular for calculating the percentage increase is (Mar-2025 – Mar-2015)/Mar-2015.
Dwellings data comes from Total Value of Dwellings. Click on “Table 1. Total value of dwellings, all series” towards the bottom of the webpage. In the spreadsheet that downloads we are looking for “Number of residential dwellings; Australia” (this is Column AT in the spreadsheet). 10 years comes from the increase from March 2015 to March 2025. The numbers are dwellings in March 2015: 9,511,300. Dwellings in March 2025: 11,320,300.
The quarterly dwellings data only goes back to Sep-2011. But the housing crisis really started in the early 2000s. So, to go back further I use census data. If you compare the 2001 census with the 2021 census (latest census), population has increased 33% and dwellings have increased 39%.
Population and dwelling data for the 2001 census comes from 2022.0 – Census of Population and Housing: Classification Counts, Australia, 2001. In the downloads tab click on the first data cube “Australia Classification Counts 2001”.
Click on the first spreadsheet called “Aust_Age.xls”. This has the population number at D110 in the spreadsheet. The population is 18,972,350.
Click on the 14th spreadsheet is called “Aust_Dwelling Location.xls”. It has the dwelling number at B15 in the spreadsheet. The number of dwellings is 7,810,352.
Population data for the 2021 census comes from Population; Census. At the bottom of the webpage click on “Data table for population data summary”. The population is 25,422,788 (D20 in Table 1 of the spreadsheet).
Dwelling data for the 2021 census comes from Housing: Census. At the bottom of the webpage click on “Data table for Housing data summary”. The number of dwellings is 10,875,248 (J17 in Table 1 of the spreadsheet).
You now have the population from both 2001 census (18,972,350) and the 2025 census (25,422,788). You also have the number of dwellings from the 2001 census (7,810,352) and the 2025 census (10,875,248).
Rent and general inflation figures all come from the Consumer Price Index, Australia.
I claimed over the last 10 years general inflation (CPI) had increased 33%, while rents had increased 24%.
Both figures come from the bottom of the webpage at the CPI website linked above, called “Table 7. CPI: Group, Sub-group and Expenditure Class, Weighted Average of Eight Capital Cities”.
The rent numbers come from “Index Numbers; Rents; Australia” (column BC in tab Data1). I actually compared Mar-2015 (109.2) to Jun-2025 (133.7). This gives a 24% increase. But to compare with the dwelling data I should have compared March-2015 (109.2) to Mar-2025 (133.7). This reduces the increase to 22%. But as I was arguing that rent prices hadn’t increased as much, this helps my point.
The general inflation numbers come from the same spreadsheet as the rent numbers but are at “Index Numbers; All groups CPI; Australia” (column EC in tab Data1). Again, I compared Mar-2015 (106.8) to Jun-2025 (141.7) to get 33%. But I should have compared Mar-2015 (106.8) with Mar-2025 (140.7), which would give 32%.
I also claimed that over 25 years general inflation (CPI) had increased 103%, while rents had increased 115%.
These figures are from the same columns as the rent (BC in tab Data1) and all groups CPI (EC in tab Data1) data from above. Except instead of comparing 10 years, I went back to Mar-2000 (62.7 for Rent and 69.7 for CPI) and then compared this with Jun-2025 (135.0 for rent and 141.7 for CPI). Again, for consistency I should have compared them both with Mar-2025. This would have meant the general inflation increase would have been 102% (rather than 103%), and the rent increase would have been 113% (rather than 115%). This doesn’t make any difference to the points I was making.

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This week, Konrad and James review Labor's new housing policy, we discover why a random group of truckers and childcare workers might be better at fixing Australia's problems than our politicians, and reveal how much money Konrad's made selling cameos to buy influence with politicians.

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This week we expose how supermarkets are deliberately confusing punters with dodgy unit pricing, we reveal our celebrity cameo strategy to guilt-trip Prime Minister Albo into attending our Political Fundraising Gala, and uncover a massive scandal where the Northern Territory's top environmental regulator was secretly working as a lobbyist for the very gas companies he was meant to police. 

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This week, Konrad and James expose how America's biggest tax-dodging corporations are crying to Trump to pressure Australia into scrapping our new laws that force them to publicly reveal where they pay (or don't pay) their taxes. Plus, we break down the red flags to spot online gurus who might be full of BS, and we Announce the HOST of the Punters Gala Dinner (It's Osher Günsberg), Finally we watch Trump throw a proper Karen tantrum when an ABC journalist dares to ask him about his dodgy business dealings.

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This week Konrad blows the lid off explosive emails that were buried - showing how regulators (that are meant to look after us punters) covered up a mining industry lead poisoning scandal. Plus, another scare campaign, a $1.8 billion Robodebt payout (while no one in power actually faces consequences), and the knock-back techniques used by the politicians dodging our invites to the Political Fundraiser. Shoutout to Funky Pies Bondi for helping to sponsor the event!

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In our brand-new segment, pollies get just 60 seconds to pitch their best ideas to punters we’ve pulled straight from our DMs. First in the Punt Tank is Allegra Spender, pitching a capital gains shakeup. Will she get a Punt or a Pass? Plus, Labor’s so called transparency gets shredded, and Qantas cops a fine (but is it enough to pep up the punts??)

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Konrad scores a last-minute ticket to Canberra’s Midwinter Ball and spills the tea - from selfies and schmoozing to corporate sponsors buying access. Plus an alleged Labor insider who we'll refer to as Punter D. reveals how fundraising really works, we unpack the media’s ‘death tax’ bait, break down Bob Katter’s wild political manoeuvre, and finish on a high with a pep-up for whistleblowers.

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Think calling yourself a centrist makes you sensible? Economist Richard Denniss says it's actually the greatest con in politics - a trick that lets our leaders dodge hard decisions while serving powerful interests. We break down how 'radical centrism' keeps the status quo alive, and how punters can see through the smokescreen. Plus, we've got fundraiser updates, and a call out for your cheap ways to look rich ideas... give us a good one and we might get you on the pod.

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This week Konrad and James unpack a few of the wildest moves Aussie politics has made recently - from Konrad becoming a Karen, to Labor quietly letting PwC out of exile after it sold government secrets to Big Tech. Plus, a spin tactic Konrad had used against him… and how you can use it to your advantage.

Grab your ticket to the lobbyist fundraiser - rollout of release:

Wednesday 20th Aug: Patreon subscribers
Thursday 21st Aug: Mailing List subscribers
Friday 22nd Aug: All other punters

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