Shark Tank's Steve Baxter: “A soldier with a glue gun can build a drone in 45 minutes.”
4/22/202640 min
Australia is facing a defence reality few are talking about.Former soldier and investor Steve Baxter joins Karl to break down what modern warfare actually looks like — and why Australia isn’t ready for it.From drone warfare and battlefield “marketplaces” to space technology and defence innovation, this episode goes inside the systems changing war in real time.Why are we falling behind? Why aren’t we investing in our own capabilities? And what happens if we don’t catch up?This is the conversation Australia needs to have.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSteve Baxter· Guest0:00
If you're using a million dollar missile to take out a $20,000 drone, then you've got a problem regardless how rich you are. I think the Australian government should just come out and say, "If you're a bank and you don't back the businesses that power Australia, you lose access to the deposit guarantee system." If you're preferencing things that hurt Australia, why should we pay for that? And there's a leaderboard for Ukrainian units. Young men in combat with a bit of a competition to try and win. You get these points, then go back to the store. Instead of using actual money, you can then use in-game currency to buy more drones, to destroy more equipment, to buy more drones, to get more equipment.
Karl Stefanovic· Host0:26
Are you making this up?
Steve Baxter· Guest0:29
No.
Karl Stefanovic· Host0:29
This is blowing my mind.
Steve Baxter· Guest0:31
All right, let's go.
Karl Stefanovic· Host0:31
Steve, thanks for your time. If we were to sit here over the next hour on Shark Tank Australia, where would you start?
Steve Baxter· Guest0:39
Oh, well, thanks for having me, Karl. Um, Shark Tank Australia, I, I think I'd be pitching something around energy, liquid fuels and, and some really common sense solutions, which I think, you know, you know, in a financial investment sense, you could make a fair bit of coin out of.
Karl Stefanovic· Host0:53
Have you been shocked by what we've seen here over the last couple of months?
Steve Baxter· Guest0:56
I've been shocked that we're shocked. I mean, it, this is all so predictable. Uh, lots of people have been warning about it for, for decades, to be honest. Um, so the only, the real shock for me is that, is we're that shocked about it. It was, it was bound to happen at some point. I think we're lucky that we only have a sort of potential inbound liquid fuel restriction and, and we don't have export restrictions, which we might get, God forbid, if we get into some sort of conflict and we actually get blockaded, which seems to be the word of the, the week, blockade, so.
Karl Stefanovic· Host1:22
You come to this with a fair bit of experience. Um, you served the country. Tell us about that.
Steve Baxter· Guest1:28
Oh, yeah. So