[00:00:04] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West, you are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show.
[00:00:21] Happy to have you along my fellow American Sam Bushman Liberty Roundtable Live at Freedom Fest folks are doing back to back interviews with so many people it is crazy, but we dig it that's what we live for is hardcore talk radio, hardcore news the network refuses to use, in your face videos, not so in your face that we want to argue and fight.
[00:00:41] But in your face in that we challenge your thinking, right? Freedom is the right to tell people things they don't want to hear. Freedom is the opportunity to spread the word of liberty. Freedom is saying, you know what, don't hurt me, don't take my stuff, just leave me alone. We've got a guy with us who thinks a lot that way. His name is Topher Field and he's from Australia and he has been on the front line of the COVID con for quite some time and he's been Australian and world renowned for it.
[00:01:11] Welcome to the show, sir. Well, thank you, Sam. I really appreciate you having me on. Tell me about how this all started there. You're just living your life as an Aussie. Well, you're having a great time. The world's good. Yes and no. So I became a political commentator back in 2009. Okay. I was doing it. I became one in like 93. Okay. All right. So for reference, YouTube was two years old when I started being a YouTube political commentator. Okay. And so there was no business model. There was no, this was just an outlet for me. This was a way that I just sort of expressed myself. Sure.
[00:01:40] And I continued to treat it like a hobby. I had other jobs. I was, you know, blue collar, worked in a warehouse and then ultimately moved into television production, TV ads and corporate videos and so forth. Was that an upgrade or a downgrade? It was a downgrade. Sure. It was my dad's industry. I'd learned the more from him as a teenager and I should have stuck with the forklift driving. It was way more lucrative. And when you're off, you're off, right? Correct. Because when you do this stuff, you're never off. Yeah. They wouldn't let me take the forklifts home with me to keep moving pallets around. Yes, sir. Okay.
[00:02:07] And when I, when I finished work, I was gone, but a long can COVID and I'd built a following of a few tens of thousands of people across my social media platforms by then. And was that primarily Australian? Yeah, very much so. No, primarily Australian. I was deep in the weeds of technical issues, things like irrigation water management for the Murray-Darling Basin, which is a big irrigation. Wow. Okay. I was deep in the weeds of technical stuff, as well as defending the right to freedom of speech and speaking out against climate change nonsense that was various carbon emissions trading.
[00:02:36] Well, when I came to Vegas, I decided on climate change, but it's hotter than heck. It is pretty warm. I'm just teasing. I don't believe in the propaganda either. But even as an Australian, I'll give you that it's pretty warm here. Sure. It certainly is outside. So I'd been just bumbling along doing that stuff. And then COVID came along and I picked it pretty early as, as a complete overreaction. None of us knew at the time that Melbourne was going to become the most locked down city in the world. We beat everybody. That's not a championship you want to win, but we won it.
[00:03:04] No one knew that early on, but I could see that the reaction did not match the data that was coming out. By March, we had really good data out of Italy, Sweden, and Israel that showed us the age stratified and subdivided by comorbidity data that we could see who we needed to protect and we could see that it wasn't dangerous to the rest of us. So I began to speak out just saying, hey, guys, this is nonsense. We started the whole two weeks to flatten the curve thing, the same line they used over here. And it was the minute they added the third week to that. I went, hang on.
[00:03:34] Hey, hang on. Propaganda going on here. I'm drawing the line. So I didn't even support the two weeks. Yeah. Look, I supported it resentfully. I said, well, the logic, there is some logic to it. I get it. Yeah. You first want to trust them. Yeah. The problem is they can't be trusted and that's the real issue. If they could be, you'd be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I knew they couldn't be jumping around in politics too long. Yeah. And you can't trust these clowns. Yeah. They're dishonest. They're immoral. Whatever they can do to control your life, they will. Yeah. Yeah. And they certainly proved that through this process.
[00:04:04] So I hope we're smart enough worldwide to push back hard next time. Well, this is literally why I'm on the tour that I'm on is to say, guys, you know, I'm not an American. I have no right to talk to you and tell you what's going on in your country. But can I make an observation? You can. And you don't have a right to tell us what to do, but you have a right to provide your input just like everybody else. This is America, baby. Welcome to the country, sir. That's true. There is in America. The problem is that there is too much 1984. I heard that. And there is not enough 1776. Amen to that. Right. 2026. Let's bring back the 1776. Correct.
[00:04:34] There are far too many people coming into America saying the problem with America is you need to be more like Europe or more like Australia or more like the UK. You know what I want to be? More 1787. 1787. Okay. You know what that means? So that was the, that was when the first, uh, I do. That was when they put together the constitutional convention. Yes. Thank you. Uh, they basically created a more perfect nation. Yes. If you will, at that time. More perfect union. We don't claim it's perfect. Yeah. But yeah, it's a more perfect union. I just called it a more perfect nation to kind of clarify for you. But yeah. Yeah.
[00:05:03] And the idea is that we are separated with checks and balances vertically and horizontally with a goal to make sure no one gains too much power. No one gains the system. Yeah. And it's different because we don't look to government. We look to God for our guidance and for our sovereignty. Yes. And that's unique among all nations. But I want to, I want to pick that up because you did write it is unique among all nations. And this is why it matters because if it gets lost here in America, there will never be another country founded on these sorts of principles. I agree. This is the, this is the fundamental message that I have.
[00:05:33] So these checks and balances, these separations of power, the intention is to limit the power of government. And you're an American. I do that. Yes, sir. Government, right? Yep. But here's the reality. The only thing that actually works long term to limit the power of government is the people reaching the limit of their obedience. I agree. Because the checks and balances are important. The, the, the bill of rights, it's important, but if the people don't bring it alive through their actions. That's why they say liberty has to be watered with the blood of patriots from time to time.
[00:06:02] And every generation has to do that all over again. It's not passed down in the blood. Like this heritage is beautiful. It's amazing. Sure. But it has to be acted on. It has to be earned over and over again. And so this is, this is my message. I bring a story of civil disobedience. I bring a story of what I call the spirit of 1776. I'm an Australian. 1776 is not my personal history, but your ancestors set this example for you. Yes. And your personal history is a history of liberty. It is like everyone else has this battle, right?
[00:06:30] And in America right now, my fear is that on your current trajectory, there will not be a 500th birthday for the land of the free. I understand. And the land of the free is the land of the free because of the braids. And we look at that and we think we're talking about soldiers fighting overseas and that's admirable courage. And I'm not discrediting that, but actually the courage that is needed right now is for people to fight for the constitution, for the bill of rights, for the separations of power, right? For the God-given sovereign. Correct.
[00:06:59] For God at the center. For our rights to be God-given. These are fights that need to be had in the courts, that need to be had in the public square, that need to be had in your culture, and they need to be won. Because if they're not, if we don't see a radical change in American culture, then you're going to lose that heritage. I agree. So let's talk about your disobedience story. Sure. You didn't really intend to start out being disobedient, right? Everybody wants to, you know, do what's right, do what's good. I was an embarrassingly good boy.
[00:07:27] I cringe to think what a good boy I was for the rest of my life. Okay? So I, you know, I grew up conservative Christian family. My dad's a pastor. My granddad was a pastor. I was a goody two shoes, followed the rules. You know, I had my little issues here and there along the way growing up and dabbled in this and that, but really nothing at all in any way serious. And so when COVID came along and I was then invited, because I was the only public figure speaking up from the very beginning, someone organized the very first protest against the lockdowns. Emergency Declaration.
[00:07:56] So we had, we had an emergency declaration that gave the premier dictatorial powers. The parliament ended up being shut down. So no one could hold him accountable. No one could question him. No one, he just could do whatever he wanted. And protest was made illegal. Now I'm not someone who's been protesting all my life. I've barely been to any. But I think if there's one time you need to show up to a protest, it's when the government says you're not allowed to protest. That's right. That's a pretty big red flag in my view. Sure. And for us, it has five points to the First Amendment all over it. Yeah, correct.
[00:08:23] And so I accepted this invitation to speak at this, the very first anti-lockdown protest. And I wrestled with it. I've got to be honest. I, you know, this wasn't some heroic moment of unquestioned courage. I was really nervous. I nearly backed out of it. I knew that if I actually followed through with it, my life would never be the same. And we all hope to be the courageous one. We all hope that we have what it takes to be the main character of every movie is always the one that shows truth, right? It's human nature.
[00:08:53] Yeah. You read the Bible. Every single hero of the faith in the Bible was actually basically standing up against civil authorities. Read the Bible from cover to cover. That's right. Standing up against, yeah. And that's why I tell you that it's a worldwide context, right? Yeah. Yeah. America's a leader in it. I get it. And America's story is unique. I got it. Yeah. And our looking towards God is unique. I got it. Yeah. And it is an example to the world. And if we fall, we're in real trouble worldwide. I agree. But it isn't just our story. What we should be doing, our greatest export should be the Constitution, sir. Yeah.
[00:09:23] So I wanted to believe that I had the guts to be the courageous person, but I didn't know yet whether I did. And I'm sitting in the car driving for an hour. It's one thing to think about it. It's another thing to pretend. You're gone, buddy. And I end up parked there and I've parked the car and I'm looking across at a bit of park land and there's already the police. They've already swarmed in. They're already waiting for us. And I knew if I get out of the car and I walk across that street and I identify myself as being with the protest, my life will never be the same. I don't even know if I'm going to go home tonight. They might arrest me, lock me up. Who knows? It could take weeks or months before I can get bail.
[00:09:52] Like, I just don't know. And I wrestled with that moment. But I knew that if I turn the car around and I drive home, I will forever know that I'm a coward. And I wasn't willing to live with that knowledge. So what I actually did was I grabbed my phone and I started a live stream on my Facebook page and I watched as the number of viewers on my Facebook page climbed. And I knew by the time the number was up. What were you saying? You're in your car saying, hey, hey, hey. I'm saying, hey, I'm here at the protest. I'm going to head across there shortly, blah, blah, blah. But what I was actually doing was waiting for that number to hit a thousand people watching live.
[00:10:22] Because once that number hit, I knew if I turn around now, everyone knows I'm a coward. So I bullied myself. I love it. I bullied myself into actually getting out of that car and walking across that street. And I live streamed the entire protest. By the time I got home, there were over 100,000 views on that live stream. I got an avalanche of hate. The hate, the vile hate that entered my inbox that day. But the hate always comes fast. The love comes a little more slowly.
[00:10:50] Over the following days, I had so many people reach out to me saying, thank you for being a voice of reason. And then the hate forgets about you. The love doesn't as well. Correct. And it's been a really beautiful thing. So that was the beginning of 18 months of hell. All right. So did you get arrested? Not that day. The police didn't know what to do. This was the first one. No one knew what to do. Yeah, sure. But that was the last time that we had a protest without people being arrested. And ultimately, we had armored vehicles in the streets, people being shot with rubber bullets, mass arrests. They would just surround us with forces and riot police.
[00:11:18] And kettle everybody and just take us out one by one and arrest us. People were getting hospitalized, beaten up, broken bones. Rubber bullets were causing... Yeah, because you don't want anybody to die of the COVID now. No, that's right. Just kill them with... That's right. We're going to beat them to death to save their lives. You know, and during my keynote tomorrow... The irony of that's interesting, you know? Yeah. I play some footage of some of the speeches that I gave at the protests over those 18 months in my keynote that I'll be doing tomorrow morning here at Freedom Fest.
[00:11:46] And there's this real tension inside of me where I find it very hard to watch that because it brings back all of the fear, all of the trauma, all of the emotion. I got friends being hospitalized. The leaving home time and time again. I've got... I had a young son and my daughter was born partway through... My first daughter was born partway through all of this madness. I'm leaving home time after time, not sure if I'm coming back. And I don't say that to be melodramatic about, oh, my life was in danger. But am I going to end up in hospital?
[00:12:16] Am I going to have a broken bone and disillusioned? Am I going to be able to care for my children? I understand. All of that. And... Do you have a wife? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. All right. So she was at least able to... She was on board and she was really amazing. And we had this moment. So if I fast forward... What's her name? Her name's Edwina. Shout out to Edwina. Let's go. Good work, sister. We had this moment towards the end where I knew the police would be coming for me soon. They came to my house regularly to threaten me. And I would just always tell them basically to beat it. I was polite. But, you know, one of the...
[00:12:45] Again, I'll be showing this tomorrow where they came to my door and they said, do you have a reason to be attending these protests? And my flat out reply to them right there in that moment, not premeditated, was yeah, because it's a human rights violation that we're locked in our homes. And they got out of there as quick as they could. You could ask them if they have a reason not to be at it. You guys have a reason not to be there? I didn't think of that. Because I really think I've got a list of the reasons why I shouldn't be there. But I reached a point where I wasn't sleeping at all. And this was a combination of things. Because I was one of the only public figures early on,
[00:13:15] I had a lot of people reaching out to me to share their stories. And so every day my inbox, my Facebook messenger, et cetera, would be full of people's really, really heartbreaking traumatic stories. And at first I was confused. Why are you telling me about how lockdowns are destroying your life and your marriage? Because they don't have anywhere to go. That's exactly what I came to realize. I'm like, I can't help you. And then I realized they're not asking me for help. They're asking me to listen. And they're asking you to identify. And they're really trying to tell you that what you do matter. That's what they're really trying to tell you.
[00:13:42] And so what I did was I committed myself to replying to every single person on the same day that they messaged me. Wow. Because I didn't want them to go through another evening, another night, thinking that no one had heard. And no one cared. Sure. And no one cared. And so that's what I was doing until 3, 4 in the morning. And then I'd crash into bed. And I started drinking very, very heavily. It was just a coping mechanism. I was hammered by the time I went to bed every night. And then I would wake up at first light as soon as the first car door closed on the street two hours after I crashed into bed.
[00:14:12] Because I was afraid that this is them coming to my door to smash the door in and arrest me and probably break a few bones while they're there for good measure. Sure. And so I was heading towards just being a complete nervous wreck. I was on my way to a breakdown. And I went to my wife and I said, listen, I'm not coping. And she's like, yeah, no kidding. I can see that. But, you know, I couldn't talk to you about it before. But if you're ready to talk, let's talk. And she said something really challenging. Her patience is astounding. And she said to me, you haven't done what you promised. And I said, what do you mean? I keep my promises. That's a little deeper, buddy.
[00:14:43] And she reminded me of the day I proposed to her. And only a good wife can make this happen to people. Well, the day I proposed to her, before I actually popped the question, she knew I was going to ask. But I said, there's something you need to know. I expect that I will go to prison for my work someday. And that wasn't me. That wasn't bravado. I wasn't trying to show off to her. But I could see the direction our government was coming in. I understand. I know myself. And I'm not going to shut up. And I'm not going to back down.
[00:15:09] And so I said to her, I said, if you say yes to marrying me, you're saying yes to that day when it comes. And her reply in that moment was, just make sure I know who to call. And then I asked the question. She said yes. And she reminded me that day. This is 10 years later. She said to me, you haven't kept your promise. I don't know who to call. And so I sat down. I went straight to my computer. And I sat down. And I wrote a full document. Yeah, buddy, a big old piece of humble pie. It was an actions-on document. What to do if I disappear and you don't know where I am?
[00:15:39] What to do if I'm hospitalized? What to do if I'm killed? What to do if I'm arrested? And so forth. Here's who you need to call. Tactical actions-on document. And she emailed that to herself. And then we printed a few copies and hid it around the house and made sure that she'd be able to have access to it. And can I tell you, I slept like a baby that night. I love it. Okay. And it wasn't because my circumstances changed. It was because my relationship to my circumstances changed. I felt like I was ready.
[00:16:09] My wife was ready. So they did come for you, right? They came for me less than a week later. And how did they go down? It actually was remarkable. I owe a debt of gratitude to a young lady by the name of Monica Smith. So she was one of my fellow protesters. She was out there in public wearing all the slings and arrows. And they arrested her about a month and a half before they arrested me. And what she did was remarkable. The reason they were arresting people was to put bail conditions on us. To stop us from being able to protest, being able to organize protests. And to send a message to the rest. To speak out of line. And to send a message to the rest. Sure.
[00:16:38] And so most people were so keen to get out of prison that they would just accept whatever bail conditions. Yeah. Not doing that. They came after her with some really egregious bail conditions. She had to delete all of her past posts and her website and everything else. She was never allowed to speak out against the government again. It was basically the bail conditions. Yeah. And she looked at that and said, well, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to agree to that. And they said, well, we're going to put you in prison if you don't. She said, fine, put me in prison. They said, well, you're going to have to get the jab if you're going to prison. She said, well, I'm not getting the jab. They said, well, you're going to have to go into solitary confinement if you want to take the jab.
[00:17:07] She spent 21 days in solitary confinement. Wow. Before a judge finally stripped the bail conditions back to a level that was actually somewhat accepted. And she signed them at that point. Good for her. Now, not only was that. Let's go, Monica. Yeah. That was a phenomenal act of courage on her part. But three weeks later when they came for me, they did not try and play that game. They had a minimal set of bail conditions that I was quite happy to sign and be out the same day. So Monica not only went through an incredible thing and showed an incredible amount of courage for herself,
[00:17:37] but I actually believe that she is personally the reason why I didn't have to go through. And my fellow Americans and people around the world, especially those people in Australia, understand this principle. If you cave, they win, and then they make conditions harder for Topher after she went through it. If she stands tall, and if Topher stands tall, and if we stand tall, they're going to have to back off. Because what happens is when you get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 50, 100, I can keep going,
[00:18:08] protesters who stand tall and don't cave, you send a message to the rest that won't cave. And what they run the risk of is that we become greater than them numbers-wise, and now they'll lose everything. Okay, understand that principle, people, because that's the key to the exercise. And she just proved it, sir. And can I share with you a story that I think is just one of the most powerful stories? So one of the lessons of this COVID era was the power of the invisible hand.
[00:18:36] And we know the invisible hand in economic terms, but it's actually very real in social movements and in cultures. And so what we had was a decentralized movement. There was no single person they could take out that would mean the protests would start. They were arresting organizers every single week, and then other people would just step into their place, knowing full well that they were volunteering to be next on the list. And that's where heroes are made, my friend. There was this incredible moment that happened where we were building momentum. We had tens of thousands of people coming out to these protests.
[00:19:06] And the government was so desperate to shut us down. They were using armored vehicles. You know what a bear cat is in America? You drop them off. Yes, uh-huh. So they were driving bear cats through the streets with anti-terror police who were hanging off them. And they would jump off the side of these moving vehicles and run down and tackle any protests they could get and start beating them with the butts of their rifles, which were loaded with live ammunition, by the way. They never actually used live ammunition on us, but they certainly had it there with them. And they would just literally beat the crap out of anybody they could get their hands on.
[00:19:34] And so what happened on this particular day was that we were pursued out of the city, and we ended up taking refuge at the war memorial just outside of the city of Melbourne. And we stopped there. And there's no central decision-maker. This is kind of a hive mind at work. But everyone kind of just went, yeah, this is the place. This is where we're going to take our stand. This is where we're going to find out what our fate is going to be. Are they going to shoot us? Are they going to – what's going to happen? We're standing here. And there was a gentleman by the name of Rukshan Fernando. He's a phenomenal guy, and he's a Sri Lankan-born Australian.
[00:20:04] And he was streaming everything, and he had really good equipment. And he's just a beautiful man who did a really good job. And he shoved his camera in my face in that moment. And he said, Topher, tell everyone, why are we here? And I just had this little moment of inspiration. And I said, we've come here to appeal to our ancestors and to the freedoms that they fought for and gave blood for. And we are losing those freedoms. And I'm not going to stand for that. And neither are all the other people here. So we're going to defend at home the freedoms that they fought for overseas. And that streamed down and went to hundreds of thousands of people. And it was a beautiful moment.
[00:20:34] But then two hours later, the police lined up like a firing squad and just began launching rubber bullets into everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what governments do because they're out of control. And it's us. We're the people, not only in America, but around the world that need to stand up. And there's more of us than there are of them. What we need is courageous people that stand together for sacred causes. Yeah. Understanding our ancestors did this before we did. We're carrying on their legacy. What would you do?
[00:21:03] Topher, I want to talk more, but we're out of time. So I'd love to get a hold of you. Have you back on my show later when we've got more time. Yeah. We'll make that happen. In the meantime, promote your speeches tomorrow. Okay. So tomorrow at 10.05 on the main stage here at Freedom Fest. I'm sure the video will come out for those of you that can't be here for that. But also at topherfield.com is where you'll find all of my stuff. If you go to the documentary tab, you can watch my documentary completely for free. It's right there at topherfield.com on the documentary tab. No S, just feel the D. There's only one of me. It's won 14.
[00:21:32] I wish there was fields and there was more of you, my friend. It's won 14 film awards around the world, including being given the best libertarian ideals award here at the Anthem Film Festival a few years ago. So go and check that out. If you realize now that you didn't know how bad it got, how crazy it got in Melbourne, Australia, would you do me the honor of just going and watching that documentary? Topher Field, thank you for your time, my friend. Good work. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, that's a wrap. This is Liberty Roundtable Live. God save our constitutional.