Why Naomi Simson is fearful that people don't feel like it's worth having a crack anymore.
Simson is the founder of Red Balloon and co-founder of the Big Red Group.
In this conversation, Naomi breaks down how she built a business that now delivers an experience every 16 seconds to small businesses across Australia and New Zealand.
Simson also delivers her unfiltered assessment of the recent federal budget, arguing that too many changes implemented too quickly will cripple business confidence during an already challenging period of technological disruption.
Search Straight Talk with Mark Bouris to listen to the full episode.
🌐 People of European descent were never the majority. Even at their demographic peak in 1900, they accounted for just over one-third of the world's population.
European population decline: World War I and World War II didn't just cause staggering immediate loss of life; they completely altered the demographic trajectory of Europe for generations.
Intense poverty and devastation restricted family sizes—this is exactly what demographers look at when tracing Europe's relative population decline.
The impact unfolded in waves:
1. The Immediate "Hollow Years": The sheer scale of young men lost between 1914 and 1945 created massive deficits in the reproductive-age population. In demography, these are known as "hollow years."
For example, after WWI, France and Germany had a severe deficit of men in their 20s and 30s. This meant millions of families were never formed, leading to a massive drop in the birth rate during the 1920s and 1930s.
2. Economic Destitution and Uncertainty: The economic devastation was multigenerational.
The Interwar Grind: After 1918, Central and Eastern Europe faced hyperinflation, the collapse of empires, and then the Great Depression.
When people are struggling to buy bread or find stable housing, they delay marriage and have fewer children.
Post-1945 Infrastructure Collapse: Entire cities, industries, and agricultural networks were flattened.
While Western Europe recovered faster due to initiatives like the Marshall Plan, Eastern Europe faced decades of grueling economic stagnation and rationing under Soviet control.
3. The Acceleration of the Demographic Transition: While the world wars and poverty artificially depressed European growth, they also overlapped with a natural structural shift.
Europe was the first continent to undergo the Demographic Transition Model—moving from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates.
As urbanisation increased and childhood mortality dropped, the economic necessity for large families disappeared.
The economic trauma of the world wars essentially accelerated this shift, turning what might have been a gradual stabilisation into a sharp decline relative to the rest of the world.
While Europe was struggling to rebuild, populations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America began to boom later in the 20th century as modern medicine and sanitation reduced mortality rates there, widening the gap even further.
However, white people have never been the majority.
People should not become wealthy from NDIS. .
“Key figures in the Gillard government, who founded the NDIS, have gone on to chair union-backed super funds that are the biggest financial winners from the disability scheme.
In the largest transaction in NDIS history, a firm co-owned by more than a dozen industry funds turned a $28m investment into a $360m payday in just four years.
The firm, IFM Investors, used its “private equity” division to buy over 80 per cent of the largest NDIS plan management company, Adelaide-based My Plan Manager, from founder Claire Wittwer-Smith in 2019.
Documents obtained by this masthead reveal IFM forked out $26.8m in cash to a former special ed teacher, who had started My Plan Manager (MPM) in 2014 after leaving a job at the National Disability Insurance Agency.
At the time of the buy, IFM Investors was chaired by ex federal Labor cabinet minister and one-time ACTU boss Greg Combet.
When IFM sold MPM in 2023, Mr Combet had left. But former Labor cabinet minister Lindsay Tanner had joined as a director.
IFM Investors is ultimately owned by industry super funds including Hesta – chaired by former Labor health minister Nicola Roxon – and Cbus, whose board is led by ex Labor treasurer Wayne Swan.
All four were ministers under Julia Gillard, who founded the NDIS.
••••••••••••••••••••••
Disabled people should not be treated like commodities.
The fact that NDIS companies can be sold for millions of dollars shows that the scheme has been set up in a way to benefit grifters and not disabled people.
It should as no surprise that superannuation funds are involved in this grifting as they have a long established track record in grifting fees from poor working Australians.
Nor should it come as no surprise that the Labor party are behind this grifting.
Hiding behind their faux bleeding hearts are multimillionaires deceiving taxpayers of hard earned tax dollars and disabled people the proper support they need.
And don’t forget the money Superannuation funds pour into foreign owned renewables.
https://t.co/PeAaJW2pjF is the only party prepared to stop these rorts. Sign up today.
Understand this: The movies and shows about the crucifixion have been tame when compared to what He actually went through.
Even The Passion Of The Christ was forced to hold back a little in order to avoid an X rating.
Crucifixion was, and still is, arguably the most excruciating death someone can experience.
The night before in Gethsemane, He was sweating blood. This is known as hematidrosis. This would have caused His skin to become extremely sensitive, thus making the beatings to come even worse.
The fear He felt was the beginning of His feeling the weight of our iniquities being laid on Him.
Yet - in this moment, He didn’t demand that the Father take it from Him. He only asked for the cup to pass Him over if it was within the Father’s will.
Up next came the Cat of Nine Tails, or a Roman Flagrum. This was a weapon with long leather “tails”, each embedded with sharp bones and metal.
He was flogged 39 times as Jewish law mandated “40 minus one”, because 40 was said to kill a man.
This flogging wasn’t like being punished by your father’s leather belt.
Every strike tore flesh, every strike exposed muscle. Every strike exposed nerve endings. Every strike tore flesh to the bone.
This would be like getting struck with razor blades over and over again, leading to hypovolemic shock from blood loss.
Oh, and the crown of thorns? These weren’t rose thorns. These were thorns which were 2-3 inches long. Beaten into his skull.
These thorns would have pierced his skull, tripping the trigeminal nerve, thus causing unimaginable pain and even more blood loss from the dozens of head wounds.
At this point, extreme nausea and dizziness would begin to set in.
What came next? Carrying the cross. Which weighed around 300lbs. This would be like carrying two full kegs on your back.
Splinters and wood grating against the open flesh on His back. And He had to carry it 650 yards, or close to a half mile.
Imagine carrying a log on your back after being skinned alive.
Up next? He was nailed to the cross with spikes 5-7in in length. Piercing His wrists - this no doubt pierced the median nerve, causing extreme burning sensations up and down His arms.
A spike was driven through his ankles - severing nerves and tendons. This would have felt like standing on broken glass every time He pushed Himself up in order to breathe.
He suffered for 6 hours.
His chest muscles collapsing, making every single breath a fight for life.
His shoulders were dislocated, His arms stretching unnaturally long.
His heart was struggling to pump blood.
He was extremely dehydrated, His lips cracking.
His heart more than likely literally ruptured from the stress.
And on top of all of that, He had to feel a separation with the Father for a period of time in order to REALLY bear the weight of our sin.
He took up this burden for ALL sin before Him, and ALL sin which came after Him.
HE DID IT ALL FOR US.
To free us. To defeat sin. To give us a pathway to the Kingdom.
Every sin we commit is exactly why He had to do it.
And the real kicker? He knew what was coming when He rode into Jerusalem … and He didn’t turn around. He kept going.
For us.
“This is the greatest betrayal in English History” -Godfrey Bloom on the Monarchy
King Charles just proved he’s Britain’s MUSLIM King on Easter Sunday.
No message for Christ. ZERO defense of the faith he swore to protect.
Another fed-up Aussie with a message for our Prime Minister.
Most of us are sick and tired of the direction this country is heading under this lack of leadership.
How much longer will we tolerate it?
Save Australia! 🇦🇺
We don't need more sellouts in office, we need real leadership.
Politicians must serve the people and this country, not their donors or their egos.
Time to demand better. 👇🏽👏🏼