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I'm Mike Boris and this is Straight Talk.
Well, it's my great pleasure to have the one and only
Harry Trigboff on Straight Talk.
Oh, I'm very happy to be here.
Thanks very much for coming in, Harry.
So my father, the Chinese merchants got mad at him
that he made so well and they didn't
and they made false declarations
and they put him in jail.
And so he got a visa to come here.
And that's how I started here.
I could only succeed.
Because I worked very hard.
And the people that I had worked very hard.
I was lucky that I found all those people.
You're still working.
I'm still working.
At 91 years of age.
What is it that drives Harry Trigboff to keep doing this,
even though he's a multi-billionaire?
Why do you keep doing it?
I looked upon the business as a family.
So how can you leave your family?
How can we solve the housing crisis?
How can we solve the housing crisis in Australia?
And if you wouldn't mind reflecting for a moment on immigration,
what would you say about those two issues?
Well, it's my great pleasure to have the one and only
Harry Trigboff on Straight Talk.
Oh, I'm very happy to be here.
Thanks very much for coming in, Harry.
Harry, I'm amazed.
I saw you walk up the stairs to come in here.
The way you walk, the strength that you put up,
you put your one foot up,
you put your other foot up,
you put the other very well.
Most people at your age and, you know, you're 91 this year, I think.
Yeah, I was 91 this year.
How do you stay so fit?
What is the deal?
Two reasons, two reasons, right?
Very good doctors.
Right, very good doctors.
And the second is I have four people with whom I do exercise.
Professionals, right?
Because otherwise, I wouldn't do anything.
It's very interesting.
So about 15, 10, 15 years ago, my daughters thought I should get a lift in the house.
But these professionals, they like the steps.
And I go up and down three times.
So I do quite a lot of exercise with them.
So do they get you?
Well, that's interesting.
Can I just talk to you about that for a second?
Because I'm actually quite curious about that.
Do they get you ever to hold light weights and do any weight?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you do some, you know, a little bit of exercise with weights.
I know you, I don't know if you still do, but I know you used to walk down on the promenade
Do you still do that?
We walk now in double bay.
Indigo, right round and come back.
Have you been doing this all your life?
Intercontinental, yeah.
Have you been doing this all your life?
This sort of exercise, yeah.
And what about food?
I don't eat much because I think that's better not to eat too much.
So I eat very simple food, always very simple food.
I'm okay, like, you know, I don't have any pains or anything.
You don't have pain when you wake up, for example?
There's something wrong with me then.
I'm much younger than you and I get pain when I wake up.
So I better start thinking about simplifying my meals.
Do you mean when you say you don't eat much, you mean you eat three meals a day or?
If I eat three meals a day, I eat a small breakfast,
a bigger lunch, and very small dinner, hardly anything.
And I never had much dinner anyway.
In my life, I never.
My wife never cooked dinner once.
That's good for her.
First wife, second wife, they didn't cook.
And I should say that I'm sad to hear that your wife passed not too long ago.
And thank you for coming in on that.
It was a big shock, yeah.
You see, she had dementia, but she was very strong.
And she had it a few years, but she was quite good, you know.
She forgot a bit, but like you could take her out and she could listen to people and talk a bit.
But then she got this cancer.
And that cancer is terrible cancer.
It starts growing very slowly, but then it goes very fast.
And that's what happened to her.
And she had no chance.
So really, she had dementia, but she never suffered much from that.
And it was very quick.
After we found the cancer, within two months, she was gone.
Well, what's it like to live with somebody with dementia?
And she was singing Elvis Presley two days before she died.
She liked Elvis Presley.
She sung his songs.
I don't blame her.
I like Elvis too.
He's one of my favorites.
What's it like, Harry?
To live with somebody with dementia?
And how do you, what are the issues?
I mean, do you feel sad that she doesn't remember something?
Yeah, she was very upset when she found out.
And then after a few years, they told her not to drive anymore.
She was a very good driver.
But she was very cautious then.
And they told her, now you drive too slowly.
So they stopped her.
Anyway, that's one thing she missed very much.
She lost her independence.
So clearly, you've got an accent, a small accent, still an accent though.
Where's that accent come from?
Where were you born?
Where was I born?
I was born in a place called Dalian now.
Before it was Dai Ren.
But they took me.
But they took me.
But they took me.
But they took me.
They took me away when I was one year old.
So I don't remember at all.
Which country is that in?
All these, afterwards I lived in Tianjin.
But all these places are very much connected with Australia.
Because that's where they import the iron ore.
Russia imports the iron ore from Australia there.
Russia imports the iron ore from Australia there.
Russia imports the iron ore from Australia there.
Russia imports the iron ore from Australia there.
Yeah, from Australia.
And when I was there, iron ore was not that important.
But because they didn't have industry.
What was important then is that they used to import wheat from Australia.
And I used to go to the port and watch them take bags of wheat on the shoulder
and onto a horse with a cart.
I used to enjoy watching it.
One of the things I liked.
Now, you're not Chinese.
You were born in China, but you're not Chinese.
I'm definitely not Chinese.
Where were your parents from then?
How did they end up in China?
So there was the First World War.
And my father didn't feel like going to fight in the Russian army.
So he put lice in his hair.
And then they wouldn't take him because he would spread it in the barracks.
Now, his two uncles, they fought in the Russo-Japanese War, 1905.
And they brought him to China.
On the way, he met my mother in Siberia.
And he married her.
He was from Ukraine.
At the time, they called it Russia.
If you asked him where you were born, he would say Russia.
He wouldn't know Ukraine.
He didn't know a word of Ukrainian.
I don't know a word of Ukrainian.
But met my mother, and he brought her to China.
Now, his story is very, very interesting.
He didn't know a word of Chinese or a word of English.
He knew Russian and Yiddish.
You know, Yiddish is the old...
But he had to make a living, so he ran all over China, looking where he should settle.
And he decided Tianjin.
He had a little shop.
He managed to pay rent, but not much more.
And then the war broke out with the Japs.
The Sino-Japanese War.
The Sino-China...
No, this is the Great War.
The Second Great War.
The Second World War.
Second World War.
The Chinese fought them.
So, the Japanese took all the British who controlled commerce, put them all into camps.
And there was nobody left to deal with the Japanese.
And I remember this already.
Because now we're talking 1941, 42.
So, I was already eight, nine years old.
I remember how he got all the little Jewish bankers.
I mean, you know, you wouldn't think of them as bankers, but they were little bankers.
And he collected money from them, and he went to the Japs.
And he told the Japanese, now, you brought the goods here to China.
Because China had no manufacture.
And now, the purchasers, you put them into camps.
So, you can't sell.
Now, I will buy it from you.
So, they laughed at him.
He said, don't laugh.
Give me 10% of what you brought, and I will borrow it from my people and pay you money,
And after that, he made millions.
Because he was the only buyer they had.
And they were sending the goods to him, and he was selling.
And he did everything.
All kinds of things.
Bought this, sold that, everything.
Built that, everything.
After the war, the Americans had nothing from China.
So, he came to them, and he said, look, I...
Because he collected lots of things that he used to go to Macy's.
You know, the big Macy's, big store.
And told them, look, I'll sell you the goods nobody else has.
So, the first shipment was probably worth 10 times more than the next one.
And so, he continued.
So, everything was going very well.
But the Chinese merchants got mad at him that he made so well, and they didn't.
And they made false declarations, and they put him in jail.
He was in jail for one year.
That was very unfortunate.
Because that was the year when he could have sold things.
And he was unfortunately in jail.
I was a child, and my brother was bigger, but still a child.
And so, he got a visa to come here.
I was on the visa together with the parents.
So, I come to Darwin.
I still remember the face of the young Australian official there.
And he looked at me.
He never saw that visa for three and only one here.
And he's a child.
So, anyway, he looked at me.
And let me through.
It was up to him.
Now, so we came here.
My brother was with me.
And that's how I started here.
I went to school.
I went to Sydney.
You came to Sydney from Darwin.
I came to Sydney.
I came to Sydney.
And my brother and I asked, where is there an hotel?
So, they show us a pub.
They say, you see?
Where did you stay when you were in Sydney?
Where did you live when you first came here?
I stayed with a Jewish butcher.
So, I had very good food, excellent food.
And I stayed for three years here, yes.
Harry, can I ask you a question?
I'd like to ask you this question.
Leaving China and the life you had in China, what was the most obvious difference from
there, that life, and then living in Sydney when you got here?
What did you notice as the big differences?
So, Shenzhen didn't have a beach like we have, Bondi Beach.
So, I looked at all those brown bodies there.
They're not Chinese.
No Chinese at all.
At that time, there were no Chinese there.
I looked at them and I thought, very different, right?
Now, when I went to school here,
they told me if I could play football.
And I looked at the big fellows and I was small.
I mean, now I'm smaller still because I'm growing down.
But I was still small.
I said, no, I can't do it.
So, they wouldn't accept me.
But father gave money to my brother, so we had some money.
He went to back in New South Wales then, West Bank.
And he said, look,
help my brother to get into Scots.
And they took me after that.
In Bellevue Hill?
That's where I went.
I told them, look, I can write nice history essays.
They said, no, no, no, we want football.
But after they heard of money, I was accepted.
He said, maybe you want to be border.
I said, no, no, no.
They didn't like dripping, so I said, no, no, no, I don't want.
You should explain dripping.
A lot of people don't know what dripping is.
You should explain what dripping is.
Because a lot of people don't even know what dripping is.
They don't know what dripping is.
A lot of people don't know what dripping is.
I'm looking at the young producer over here.
He does not know what dripping is.
Explain what dripping is.
I just know it smells badly.
Because everything got cooked in dripping.
Dripping were the drippings of the fat that came off lamb or cows.
And instead of butter,
we used to do our cooking in dripping.
And then sometimes if you didn't have a lot of money in your family,
you put the bread into the dripping.
Yeah, that's right.
With some salt to fill you up.
So it's just fat and bread and salt.
And that's what we went through for a long period of time.
We had it in our house.
Because I'd like, or like you, the smell was so strong.
Terrible, terrible.
But they hated it.
In boarding schools, they would have been doing it for sure.
Oh, for sure they did.
Especially in those days.
Did all of a sudden,
you mentioned that when you applied to go to Scots
and they thought about you playing football,
which at Scots College is rugby union.
But when they realized that you didn't want to play football,
but they noticed that you had access to money
or at least your father had some money.
Did that teach you a lesson about money?
Did it tell you something about money,
how a place like Sydney operates?
Well, so I was lucky that father had some money.
I gave it to them.
Well, paid my fees.
Anyway, it was very good.
And the butcher was very good.
So I was very happy here.
Now, many people said when they came here,
they were not happy with the boys.
Well, I was very happy.
Because I found boys who were similar to me.
And we were very big friends, you see.
But unfortunately,
others come here,
they don't know how to mix with the right people.
You have to mix with the ones who want to be your friends.
Did you learn English?
Could you speak English before?
We studied in English.
Also Russian I know very well.
Because towards the end,
there were very few people left in Tianjin.
All went wherever they could.
So I studied Russian well as well.
So the ones who came from Tianjin where I come from,
we know Russian and English perfectly.
Harry, can I ask you a question?
Because I remember,
he was an old client of mine many, many years ago,
He was also born in China in Harbin.
I think it was Harbin.
But he grew up in Shanghai.
Why did a lot of Russians end up in China?
What were they running away from?
I know the story in your case,
it was your dad didn't want to go to the war.
But was it everybody the same reason?
There was civil war in Russia for many years
between the Tsarists and the Communists.
These people were caught in the middle.
And in China, they lived like kings over there.
And it was very funny because they had no money.
Everything was so dirt cheap.
They all lived very well.
René Rivkin and all these people, yeah.
because a lot of people won't know this
or won't remember this,
but given where your dad was,
if we go back to early 20th century,
like 19, whatever it is, 15, 16,
in Russia was the Bolshevik Revolution in 1919.
That's why they all ran away.
First the Menshevik Revolution,
then the Bolshevik Revolution,
where they got the Tsar and the family.
These are the days of Rasputin
and all those sort of great stories.
So what you're saying is that…
You didn't need a visa.
No problems like here.
My father sat in a boat,
and he was in Harbin.
And then that's the…
The Chinese never recognized him as Chinese,
never gave him anything,
and never took anything.
That's how he lived.
And how big was the Jewish community
in those parts of Russia?
Like, for example, in Xinjiang,
Was it a big community?
But it was a very good community, you see.
Like, we had a Jewish school
and building for the aged people.
Very strong connections.
That's why when I came,
I was very active in the Jewish schools,
because I went to Jewish school.
So I thought that was very important.
When you came here,
you went to a Christian school,
which is Scott's College.
Well, there was no Jewish school.
No Jewish school at the time?
Not at that time.
Because obviously there is now in Sydney.
Which one did you start in Sydney?
There was a small one in Bellevue Hill,
Which period now we're talking about?
Because I came as a child,
then I went to Israel,
then I came back.
So 1960 I came back here.
I started to build soon after,
and then a lot of Hungarians came here,
and they were very good Jews too.
So together we built a lot.
The one that I'm talking about is Mariah.
It's a very big school now.
Yeah, down in Waverley there
or the back of the Central Park.
And then we had Masada in the North Shore.
And you actually were one of the original,
let's call it philanthropists,
behind putting together Mariah College,
which is a great Jewish school in the eastern suburbs
at the back of the Central Park there.
So you went back to Israel from Australia.
When I finished school.
When you finished school, yeah.
Because my father couldn't get permission to come here.
They accused him of working with the Japs now.
So he said, of course I work with the Japs.
If he comes to my shop, I sell them.
But it wasn't fair.
It was all wrong.
And in the end, he was acquitted.
Canberra got some ideas that he was…
He really was nothing.
But it affected him.
That's the big problem.
So once he came to Israel,
he was no longer the same
as he was in China.
What do you mean?
Because he said, why did they do it to me?
I never did anything wrong.
And I used to tell him, father,
you didn't do anything wrong.
So it made them even more mad.
So don't worry whether you did wrong,
Do you think that,
but do you think Harry,
he was sort of like,
maybe word is a strong word,
but traumatized from being in jail?
He couldn't forget that he did nothing wrong.
I said, of course he did nothing wrong.
And they couldn't care less if he did wrong or right.
They want money, no?
And it was the reason you went to Israel
and he went back to Israel,
is the reason for that is because you wanted to…
Well, he came to Israel from China.
And he made textile manufacturing.
That was always his dream.
He wanted to make textiles.
He wanted to be in the smarter trade.
He sent me to England, to Leeds,
and I'm a textile engineer.
Yeah, I'm a textile engineer.
Now, they taught me music and I can't hear properly.
My eyes are superb, my ears are hopeless,
but I learned music.
I had three teachers.
The teachers were all bad.
There were no good teachers for me.
We're talking about a violin.
I had three pianos.
So, he opened that factory.
At that time, business in Israel was hopeless.
They were very left-wing, very socialist.
There was nobody with money anyway, so it didn't matter.
He was probably the richest man in Israel
with very little left to China.
Because you see, when you have real estate,
that's the worst thing you can have
if you leave the…
If you have to go.
Because you can't take it with you.
Gold is the best.
Diamonds is good.
You put in the pocket.
But real estate is the worst.
It stays there, right?
Anyway, the Chinese, they welcome me
and they show me the…
We look at the buildings he built and left,
and oh, they're very excited.
The house where we lived is now heritage,
and they open it for public to come,
and they charge them fees to see.
It was one of the best buildings.
Hong Kong Shanghai Bank boss used to live there.
Then we bought it.
So when he went to Israel,
and you being a textile engineer,
is that something you studied in London,
or where did you study?
Yorkshire, Yorkshire.
You studied textile engineering?
Studied in Yorkshire, yeah.
And that's to be a rag trader?
That's to be in the rag trade?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And what was your dad making?
What was your dad making?
What type of clothing?
But suits or fabric or what?
Fabric, fabric, fabric, yeah.
And did he want you to be in the same business?
That was his dream?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So then Australia writes me a letter and says,
Who in Australia wrote the letter?
Well, they wanted me back.
First they didn't let…
Then I said, but you know,
I'm already finishing here.
Well, you can't come back then if you don't want.
So I say, what do I do?
They say, you go to the home office.
So I go to the home office and I show them the letter.
Oh, they say, you can stay here, Harry.
So I finished my studies.
Everything is right.
Then the home office comes to me and they say,
Harry, what do you want to do now?
I said, I want to think about it.
They said, think?
So I go back to Israel.
And when did you decide to come back to Australia?
Now you're back in Israel.
So then my father brought also my brother to Israel.
And my brother didn't fit Israel.
He lived a few years and couldn't talk the language.
Actually, he talked Hebrew better when he came back here than when he was…
I don't know, something in his mind.
He couldn't speak Hebrew properly.
He couldn't speak Hebrew properly.
He couldn't speak Hebrew.
He didn't fit there.
So I started arguing with him and with my father and this and that.
And my mother was a very quiet woman.
She said, look, this atmosphere is not good.
I sent you when you were a boy to Australia.
So my mother tells me also, you go back to Australia.
After a bit of problems, they accepted me back.
I tell them I'm Australian.
They say, how are you Australian?
I said, because I lived here for over three years and I was a junior.
Oh, but we have no records of you being here.
Well, I don't know.
So they're bureaucrats, you see.
They make the law.
You go to your headmaster.
If he says you went to school, then you're Australian.
So first I couldn't get in.
Afterwards, within a month, I became Australian, you see.
And then, so you're now back in Australia.
You're a textile engineer.
How old are you now?
How old am I then?
I was then maybe 27.
I think, and I'm very happy it happened, he gave a bit of money to my brother for sure.
But he gave me enough to buy a cottage, say, in Willoughby.
But instead of buying a house, I invested.
So I had a milk run and I had a-
You were a milkman.
You were the milkman then.
I got a guy to do it.
But you bought the run.
I bought the run.
And I became a partner in a taxi.
And I bought four flats in Dulwich Hill with big mortgages.
And I invested very well.
Made probably 20% return.
That was very good.
On the other hand, there was no capital gain in those days.
You bought, sold after five years, still the same.
But it was very good investment.
And I got a job in textiles.
I get a job in textiles and I tell them textiles is no good.
Our machines are old.
Our market is small.
And in Asia, the wages are low.
So I told them textiles, rubbish.
So with that attitude, they were quite happy to see the back of me.
Who were you working with?
You're not working with someone like Joseph Brenda or someone like that, but who were you?
Joseph Brenda and I, we were big friends.
But because he studied in Geelong and we are about the same age.
We would have been together if we were here.
If Joseph was still here, yeah.
He passed away last year.
In the end, I bought his block of land where he had his factory and all that.
Because I could fight the council so I could buy it.
Otherwise, I couldn't buy it.
But so I said it's rubbish and I went away.
And then I had a friend, Tommy.
And Tommy tells me, Harry, we should build flats.
He was from Israel but originally Hungary.
A big friend of mine.
So we were very lucky that the chief landing officer of ANZ was in Bondi Junction.
They were training him.
So he looked at me and he said, Harry, if you reach the roof, I'll give you money.
If you don't reach the roof, you can go.
His name was Rex Davidson.
Nobody remembers him.
But he was all powerful in that bank.
And in the end, they paid him off because they couldn't control him.
So he gave me a bit of money, you see.
So it was very good.
And so I got a bit of money and I built.
And at that time, many people sold their textile businesses here in this country.
And they came to me and they would buy from me four flats, six flats.
And so I sold little blocks of flats.
And I always sold them as soon as I finished them.
So I finished them.
I put tenants in them.
And I had to buy them.
Then there really were no builders for flats.
They had builders that could build huge flats, big ones.
That's, you know, land lease.
Small ones were very little.
So what I did, I saw that the subcontractors had commercial brains because they survived.
So I took every subcontractor and I said, now you will be a builder and you will build that block.
That block, four flats.
And you will be a builder and you will build that.
And I realized that the workers had to have permanent employment.
The problem was that because all of us were building these days,
all of us were building these little blocks of flats,
they would build a little block and then they would lose the job.
And I made sure that my people always had work.
Yeah, so you could give them continual work.
And they always stay with you then.
Even sometimes maybe not so good, the block, but doesn't matter.
That became very useful when we had fight with unions because they stuck by me.
Because they knew that if they were with me, they'd get jobs.
If they were with them, who knows?
And so unions were very rough in those days.
Much rougher than now.
Now they're gentlemen in comparison.
And they were very rough.
But my people stuck by me.
We had no problems.
Did you mostly get foreigners, like people from other countries,
to be your subcontractors or to do the buildings for you?
Or were you getting Aussies?
They were all kinds.
They were Italians and Greeks.
Yeah, foreigners.
People who would just want to make some money for their family
and have a good security.
My main man was a Scotsman.
Scots, they're clever with money.
He worked with me and his son works with me,
worked with me and his grandson is with me.
He's retired, but they are still with me.
So what years are we talking about now, when you were doing this?
Well, I started in 1960 and never stopped.
So because I remember, and I mentioned this earlier,
but in 1977, I was 21 years old, maybe 22.
And I was married, my first wife.
And you met my son from my first wife earlier.
And we had just had a baby.
And I was very young to be married.
I was very young to be married, but it doesn't matter.
And I needed to buy an apartment, a house apartment.
And you had a block of apartments for sale,
just built, brand new, in Port Hacking Road, Sylvania.
And I remember what was attractive to me was three levels, walk-ups,
no lifts, car parking underneath.
I could buy an apartment.
I think the apartment I bought was like 40, maybe $47,000
or something like that.
But you lent the money to me.
Not you, Meritan lent me the money, this company called Meritan.
You lent me 90% because I couldn't borrow the money from the bank.
When did you start to decide that I'm going to lend money to people
to buy the buildings that I built?
Where did you get that idea from?
So when I started to build, I thought that my big problem would be to get money.
To do the building.
That was in my mind.
But I soon found out that the big problem were the councils.
And they're still the big problem.
It didn't change.
Bigger houses, of course.
But so going public was a waste of time.
I went public, but it was a waste of time because, all right,
they could get me money, but I could sell very well easily.
So I saw the problem was that the people had no money.
They all wanted my flats.
But they didn't have money.
Especially, I started to build a little bit in surface paradise.
That was worse than here.
Especially those days.
Also, we had no Chinese here.
Later on, they came, so that was easy then.
So I decided to give them money.
So I used to borrow money, because I didn't have much,
and give it to them.
Give to the buyer.
But not for a long time.
A year, two years.
And till today, I have very few bad debts.
But I only gave it on my blocks of flats.
Because those ones, I built and I knew them.
Because we also have problems afterwards with how good the block is as well.
And so it worked very well.
Works till today.
Now especially, now.
Now I have to give 50%.
I give money to people.
Because Chinese have stopped being big buyers.
They are now selling.
And they are selling because of things in China.
Nothing to do with us.
So you need even money more.
But because the councils don't approve,
the councils don't approve anything fast,
I have a lot of money.
Because I would love to build more.
But I can't get approval.
So when did you really start to kick off hard, though?
Which period in your life, was it maybe the 70s or 80s,
did you really start to say, hang on a minute,
I can do a lot of this.
I can have more than one or two sites at a time.
For example, Bonner Junction,
when you did the Merit and Apartments in Bonner Junction.
When did you start to realize,
I've got something big here?
You see, the Americans came.
And Citibank said different.
Because our banks never had money.
They have no money.
And Citibank said,
we have money and you can build.
So we should go together.
And so that's when Ellen Bond and I and others suddenly grew.
Nobody heard of us before.
But then what happened,
I mean, I didn't even hire a lawyer.
I just signed it.
Got the mortgage, got the money.
They put in a clause there that said that I have to repay on demand.
If they needed money, I had to repay on demand.
It doesn't matter how good my property was,
they had to pay on demand.
So I went to them and I said,
yesterday I was a tombstone.
You say you need the money?
They said, we need the money.
So, of course, I had money that was not in mortgage to them.
So I started building more.
Now I say, you're so clever.
You go finish them.
Harry's not fair.
Now then, I said, look,
you give me the money to finish,
and I will pay you every day as I sell.
Every day I sell, I give you the money.
Oh, and they say, we'll give you 7%.
I said, no, no, no.
You give me nothing.
I'll just give you the money that I pay,
and that's enough.
They tried to get some of my money from ANZ,
and ANZ threw them out.
They said, nothing to do with you.
So I finished with ANZ.
With City Bank as best friends.
They gave me $2 million.
At that time, it was a lot of money,
because they thought that I was definitely broke.
But I paid them every day.
And then after that, I was lucky that I took them to court
And they now don't allow to write pay on demand.
That's now finished.
Because I said, you can't do that.
You're in trouble.
So I mean, I'm 0.1% of you.
You're in trouble.
But what's interesting about that, though,
is your strategy or your tactic was to put them in a position
that they can't complete the job.
Because you're the builder.
And the only way out of trouble for them is to be patient,
And to sell, you have to finish first.
So that was quite clever.
Because you think they're much bigger than you,
They've got nothing without you.
I mean, they're not going to appoint an administrator
who's going to try and find builders and carpenters
and bricklayers and plasterers and stuff like that.
I want to talk to you about your trades.
Meritan probably is, I dare say this would be the case,
you are more than likely the largest apartment builder
in Australia over the last 20, 30 years.
Would that be right?
And part of your...
You said right at the very beginning that one of the things you did
was make sure that your trades, your tradespeople,
who were all different types of nationalities,
were always certain that they were going to get work
no matter what happens.
Today, is Meritan still that same model?
Is that the same model?
Would it be fair to say then you have with you businesses,
bricklayers, painters, plasterers, carpenters,
who have probably been with you 30, 40 years?
Different generations.
They're family, yeah.
But we have to remember one thing.
We have a problem.
Not we, the whole world has a problem.
These guys who were so terrific with me,
their children were not necessarily so good.
And they always, like my father,
they wanted him to stay in the business.
The girls succeeded actually better than boys.
Well, they can't lay bricks, but they hire bricklayers.
But we have a problem with that.
And that is not only with Australia,
not only with Australians or new Australians,
but the Chinese have the same problem.
Their kids that grow up here are not necessarily like the fathers.
Well, why do you think that is?
When you say is it because, not spoil,
but they just lead a different life?
They're different here.
So we have to value very much these migrants that come here
because they are still the same as were with me.
It's their children already that are here, born here.
They are not the same.
Maybe not as hungry.
Not as hungry, yeah.
And is it because in Hungary,
is it because they don't have the same ambition maybe?
What do you think it is?
Well, they are different, you see.
The ones who came in with me, they are the same as I am.
They think the same.
But these new ones, some die, some not.
So it's a worldwide problem.
I wouldn't mind examining that because I've got four kids too
and I often think myself a similar type issue.
Do you think it's because they think to themselves,
I look at my father or your children look at you
or their children, your tradespeople look at their father,
their mother and they say,
I don't want to have to work that hard for my life like my parent did.
Do you think that is, because I don't care.
Majority don't want to work that hard.
And do you think it's also because they think that maybe
their father or their mother missed out on a lot of things in their life
and they, because you're still working.
I'm still working.
At 91 years of age, I know you are still looking at sites
and you're still putting up new sites and you're as energetic
and as active and as probably enthusiastic about continuing.
You don't need to.
You don't need to do it from a financial point of view.
You could stop tomorrow.
It doesn't matter.
It won't change your life.
Why do you keep doing it?
What is it that drives Harry Trigubov to keep doing this
even though he's a multi-billionaire and doesn't need banks anymore,
doesn't really need anything?
You've got nothing to prove.
Well, I think that I looked upon the business as a family.
They were like my family.
The people in the business.
How can you leave your family?
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Can I ask you this, Harry?
I mean, you've been married twice.
You've had two marriages.
Do you think that that type of attitude that you're talking about,
that the business is my family,
that's what I love the most,
can that create a problem in your relationship?
You see, my first wife,
I married her in Israel.
She was in the army.
So she didn't know what the world was about.
I'm a young fellow.
I already had women that were very important in my business.
So I used to go out with them.
But I always came home and had dinner,
little dinner that I had.
Not one day did I miss.
She was not confident.
I think she was a very nice woman.
And she found the boyfriend she had before me.
And that boyfriend married a sick wife,
and they were sick,
and they had nothing.
And this and that.
That's what she found.
She wanted to go back there.
She felt better in Israel.
Well, thank God she stayed here.
She didn't go ahead with the boyfriend.
And the daughters are very good to her.
She lives in a very good apartment in Bondi Beach.
So she's looked after.
She never wanted to marry.
She never wanted to marry again.
And for seven years I was between the wives.
For seven years you were a single guy.
And then I married the second one.
But she unfortunately just died just two months ago.
So that's what happened.
But do you think that when,
because some people will look at where you are in your life,
and younger people especially,
they say, wow, I'd love to be a billionaire.
And then obviously there is a lot of ingredients involved in becoming successful.
One of which is sacrifice.
And people around you have to sometimes participate in that sacrifice.
Like I personally know exactly how it works.
And sometimes when we're young, when I was young and I guess when you were young,
we don't realize we are asking other people to make sacrifices as well.
What would you say to these young people?
About sacrifice and effort?
I could only succeed because I worked very hard.
And what does that mean?
Seven days a week?
And the people that I had worked very hard too.
And the ordinary workers, we all worked hard.
We had one aim in life.
I mean, unions came and they never dented us at all, nothing.
And they were a big problem.
I mean, the councils to get things through like with your house you see here.
I get them through.
But that's a lot of effort and the right people to do it.
And I was lucky that I found all those people.
They all fit together.
In one part of the jigsaw.
There's always a different part of the jigsaw.
Because I've often wondered, how does Meritan manage to get approvals
for sometimes really difficult sites ahead of everybody else?
For example, Bondi Junction.
Bondi Junction now got lots of high rise going up.
But you were like the first big high rise there.
I mean, I can see there's one or two other ones now coming through.
But I'll give you an example.
Bondi Junction you talk about.
So I wanted to build there.
And I built on top of the railway and on top of the buses.
So you can imagine it's a problem site.
The guy who sold it to me, nice fellow, he's an architect.
He started explaining to me the problems.
He felt that he had to warn me.
I said, don't worry, I said.
If I thought there were problems, I wouldn't touch it.
It was just before the Olympic Games.
I went to the minister of the Olympic Games.
And I told him, listen, you got a problem that you need to finish that block
before the Olympic Games.
He said, I have a problem.
I said, so prove it.
So he went and he stamped it and I built it.
I found him a reason to...
Because he had powers over all the councils, over everything.
He had to get everything ready for the Olympic Games.
He needed accommodation for the Olympic Games.
But Harry, do you think...
As an example, right?
But do you think that's because...
Is that because one, it's logical, makes sense, I get that.
Two, you went to the right person who has the power to override councils
or make the decision instead of council.
But how much of that is because of Harry Triguboff's forcefulness?
Harry Triguboff, you've never been shy.
You often say in the media what you think, even though maybe not popular
or somebody won't like it.
As far as I remember, you've always been this way.
How much of that Harry Triguboff's forceful nature...
By the way, have you always been this person?
And how much of that is important in terms of convincing somebody
to make this decision?
Because if Harry Triguboff walks in and says to the prime minister,
look, Anthony Albanese, we need you to do this because we don't have
enough housing, they will listen to you.
If you say, I'm coming to see you, they'll say, oh,
Harry Triguboff's coming in, so we better listen, okay?
How much is that?
How important is that part?
Now, you see, sometimes the council has land and he wants to sell.
Very often he sells it to me because he's sure that I'll build it.
But the other ones, he doesn't know how good they are or what's better,
so he prefers me to them, which is one sort of thing that happens.
So you build a reputation as someone who gets something completed.
So that's important.
Also, I always watched which council has good bureaucrats.
Because if you have the wrong bureaucrats, they'll sink you.
The problem with that is they don't last.
So you have to be fast.
The good ones don't last?
Because they change them.
It's not because they're good or bad.
That's the way it goes.
They change them.
So you have to pick the good councils and you have to move fast.
How do you know who's good?
Of course I know.
How do you work that out?
I mean, do you go to lunch or dinner?
I give them a chance.
I tell them to prove it.
I built in right council for 35 years every day.
Every day I built for them because they were good council.
And you got to know everybody.
They know who's sensible.
So I go to surface because easy council.
Yeah, I was going to ask you about surface.
What's the difference between Gold Coast to surface paradise and, say, let's say Sydney
in terms of councils and everything else for that matter?
People there want development.
People in Sydney, the older ones, don't want development.
You mean the residents?
Whoever lives there.
Because they are doing okay here the way it is.
And surface, they think they should be bigger.
See, they have all these dreams of becoming big.
So it's much easier.
They have the same dream as I have.
But here, we have more and more old people.
And they are the real problem because they are happy.
They don't want change in Sydney.
They don't want anyone to change their little life.
They're happy the way they are, yeah.
And councils, unfortunately, are voted in.
So councils have to listen to everybody.
So the problem is that the councils are voted in.
And they, when I talk to them, they listen.
They don't say a word.
They say, Harry, what you said is.
Harry, what you said is perfectly right.
But if we approve it, we'll lose the seat.
We'll lose the votes.
So I say that aldermen shouldn't have the right to approve because they're not doing
it for the good of the country.
They're doing it for the good of themselves.
So therefore, they shouldn't approve.
That's what I say.
So who should approve?
The state government?
The people of the state?
The people of the state?
The people below their councillor.
Below the aldermen.
The non-elected person.
And I say if the bureaucrats approve more, they should be given bonus.
I was with Tigers.
You know the football?
You're talking about the West Tigers.
I looked at Tigers and I said, there's one way to win.
I came to them and I said, no.
If you win, each one of you gets a thousand dollars.
pounds, it was pounds then. We were the best teams. Comes some Greek fellow and he wants
to be involved. So I said, all right, you'll be involved. We've been last every time. But
I mean, that's an extreme case.
No, but it makes sense. You incentivize people to do things to get the right outcome.
Can I just talk about the West Tigers? Because most people don't realize that Meriton was
a sponsor of the West Tigers for a long time and you've been involved for many, many years.
Why was, originally it was the Tigers, why did you, before they merged with West, but
why did you, what was it that got you involved in looking after the Tigers or being involved
with the Tigers? Because you weren't born there, you didn't live there, you lived in
Well, so I told you that I was in Wright for 35 years. Wright is very close to
Belmain. So I don't, I just liked them, I don't know.
go on the jobs and I listened on the radio that time. There was no television. I listened
on the radio and I liked to listen to how they were explaining the, they were very good,
the guys that explained the game. So I got sucked into it.
And then, and because you, and I think Dawn Fraser may be involved with the Tigers as
She was very friendly with me, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And because it seems like to me, like all the big clubs now in New South Wales
and Queensland and to the left.
To the left of the six in Victoria. They all have some very successful person who sort
of sits in relation to that club. All the clubs, the more successful clubs have. Did
you used to go, I recall people telling me you used to go to the games, but did you used
to go to the games? The West Tigers games?
Watch the, go and watch the game?
Yeah. Look, I had no time to run a club.
Besides that I don't understand anything, which is even worse. Could learn. But so,
I gave the money and that's all I did.
These people you talk about, they understand the game,
they love the game and they devote a lot of time.
That's what I don't have.
So, Harry, can you just talk to me for a –
I just get some advice from you about –
well, maybe advice that we can hand over to the government.
How can we solve the housing crisis in Australia?
We have a shortage of housing.
And if you wouldn't mind reflecting for a moment on immigration.
Both of us come from immigration environments, my family and your family,
and I'm the first person to say wonderful for immigration.
We love to give everybody a chance here in Australia.
But what would you say about those two issues, housing supply and immigration?
See, you get Albanese and he says,
I want over a million houses.
But that's where he stops.
How is he going to do it?
It's not a matter of stamping a plan.
That's only the first stage.
Now, you take the buildings I build now,
they take five years, ten years, because they're huge.
And there's many stages.
you have to work out how am I going to do it.
there's a lot of people that want to buy.
That's no problem.
They have to buy.
There's nowhere to live.
So, it's very easy.
But for instance, I'll give an example.
I went into housing where it was prefabricated houses.
I did – no, it was very good business.
But then I made more money on units.
So, I stopped doing it.
So, I said, well, why don't we go now in prefabricated house?
Oh, they say the banks don't give money.
So, here's now – see, it's not only the councils that are at fault.
I say the banks are more at fault.
APRA, more at fault.
See, I made mobile homes.
That's the word I was looking for.
Mobile homes is what I did.
I bought a caravan park.
And I saw these very dilapidated caravans coming to sleep the night.
I said, that's not the way to do it.
I will put mobile homes.
And those people lived there like in the flats.
They lived for many years.
They were very happy there.
But then I stopped.
And now they won't give the money.
For instance, it would help a lot.
And they – I don't know.
They don't look at ways to assist.
They have their rules now.
The problem with rules is they were made a long time ago.
Probably they were clever once upon a time.
You know, just a year ago, I had a heart attack.
And I come to the doctor.
And he tells me, Harry, we'll try to fix it.
If you live, you might be with a wheelchair.
I said, you do your best.
They fixed it within two hours.
I was taking the medicine, which was out of date for my body.
It's the same as their plans are out of date for today's requirements.
Nothing wrong with the medicine he gave me.
I lived for a long time with that medicine.
But then the body changed.
Real estate is the same.
They have to face up to the new things.
You're saying we should modernize in Australia.
Modernize the rules.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because it changes, you see.
It's very hard even for me to build these big developments.
Because from the time I start to the time I finish, things change.
For instance, today.
It's quite easy to sell bigger apartments.
Like bigger inside, you mean?
Because old people own a house.
So he has no problem of money.
He sells his house and he buys.
He doesn't want two bedroom unit.
He wants four bedroom unit.
In three bathrooms.
But that's a change, you see.
If I come and I say.
I have to change this or that, that's a huge problem.
As long as they stick to the rules, then they're right.
And if I stick to reality, that's irrelevant.
He says that's his rules.
Now if we want to work that way, we will not succeed.
I personally think that we as a nation are very clever that we manage such a huge continent
with so few people.
I think we're very clever.
Every time I go to surface, because there I go out into the countryside very quickly.
I can't imagine it, how we manage so well, it's so huge, so big, to bring electricity,
to bring water, to bring roads, to bring all this.
But you can't be half clever, you have to be clever.
And you have to adjust and be clever and do whatever is necessary at the time.
Do you think they should stop immigration?
Do you think we should reduce immigration?
Do you think we should reduce immigration number?
We need more immigration.
Because if we have no migrants, it's very, very difficult.
I can't even imagine how we do it now.
So I say that we will collapse because you see, life is so difficult in so much of the
world that everybody would love to come here.
Not to destroy us, they just want to come to live here.
It's a good place to live.
So if we want to run it, we must bring migrants.
But when I talk to them about that, they say, ah, you know, we have problems with visas,
we have problems with this.
I say, yeah, I know.
I know better than you with visas.
But we can't find reasons for not fixing it.
Because we must fix it, otherwise we will not run it.
The Chinese are wonderful migrants.
But if we bring many of them, they will take over.
Forget about fighting.
Because they are all young.
Now we have many Australians who are old.
They will live longer.
So there you are, as one example.
So we have to bring various types.
Now I like East Europeans very much.
Because they know how to work.
They are well-educated, and they will be good.
I think South Americans are good, too.
But we can't just depend on one lot.
Of course, Chinese are the best.
They have money, and they work, and they study, and they're young, and all this.
But we can't depend on one type.
And I mean, if you talk about Vietnamese or a guy from Taiwan, they are still the same
There's no difference between them.
So we have to just...
We have to just make sure that we have all kinds.
And they themselves want the all kinds.
If they love themselves so much to be Chinese, why did they come in the first place?
Because we have a better way of life.
So I think what you're saying is that in order to solve this housing problem, housing crisis,
it's not about reducing immigration.
It's about getting the right mix of immigration.
But it's also about making sure that everyone gets in the room somewhere together.
They've got to get those people in.
People that make decisions about planning and governments.
Probably some developers as well.
To tell them the reality of how this all works.
But the problem with developers, it's in their nature.
They like to build.
As a group, they like to build.
But where is the money?
That's their problem.
Because things change in the world.
Now, who could think that we would have to pre-sell?
He bought the land believing it would be okay.
But how can he pre-sell 100 units?
Which is what the banks usually require to do.
Now they require.
But we never heard of that.
They pre-sell, he says.
So that's why cottages are doing this.
They're doing better.
Because cottages, he only has one.
The guy who builds units must have 100.
And he might have to pre-sell 50.
To get production.
I don't mean to build a few units in double bay.
That will not solve his problem.
That will only use the grandmother's money.
But that's ... And like Reserve Bank, she goes ... She's very big stickler for rules,
which is ... I'm sure she's right.
But first of all, the rules may not be even correct then.
Who knows what they are?
But you try and shift it.
She says, that's the rules.
What do you want me to do?
Like that 2% to 3% inflation.
She's saying, unless we have inflation between 2% and 3%, I have to keep the interest rate
And I often wonder, is 2% to 3% right?
Or maybe 3% to 4% is better.
Or why can't we just ... Because if 3% to 4% ... Why can't we just ... Because if 3%
to 4% was the inflation rate ...
We'd be a lot better.
Then our interest rate will come down.
Which means it makes housing more affordable for everybody because they can now borrow
So how do you start this, Harry?
Who is it that starts this process off?
Because Albanese gets up and says, I'm going to talk to all the state premiers and we're
all going to make a decision.
We're going to build 1.2 million houses in the next five years.
We're nowhere near it.
Because at the end of the day, he doesn't build them.
The premier doesn't build them.
Someone like you build them.
And other people, new people build them.
Different to you, but let's say it's anyone else, they have to borrow money from the bank.
And they want to borrow money from the bank and the bank says, you've got to do pre-sales.
And then the pre-sales means you've got to get people to commit.
And a lot of people won't commit because they can't get ... I'm not going to commit to buy
something from you before you've even built it if I've got to pay you 10% now and I've
got to pay you the balance in two years.
If I can't get a loan approval, if I can't get a pre-approval from the bank.
So it's a bit of a ... it goes around one big circle.
So where does it start?
Who starts this conversation?
Is it Matt Common from CBA, the boss of CBA?
Who starts this conversation?
Who's the person?
Who should it be?
In my opinion, it should be the government because they can change the rules.
CBA can change the part of the bank.
I don't know if he wants to change, but say he does, he could ... he should change.
That would help a lot.
I say it's the government with their way of approving and accepting things and then the
But it's together.
One without the other can't do it.
So that tells me, Harry, that we won't have a solution.
Because not everyone's been brought into the room at once, I don't think.
So therefore that tells me that the actual will of the government doesn't exist.
They say things, popular, sounds good.
You need to say this, Mr. Prime Minister.
You need to say this, Mr. Treasurer.
That's their advisor.
But there's no follow through.
If you decide to build a building, you've got to follow through.
You've got to have all the team behind you.
You know, brickies, everyone's got to follow through.
Because everyone's got to be ready.
Everybody's got to be ready.
And as soon as you say go, they go.
The government's got to be the same.
Do you ever get asked by ... has Albanese ever called you?
I went once with Rudd.
Rudd had a meeting with his advisors, and I was there.
And I look at poor Rudd.
One guy says this, and the other guy says that.
And the other guy says ... and he sits there and doesn't know.
So he wanted to bring Oprah.
Because she would bring American tourists.
I said, Rudd, listen to this.
Go to the airport and see how many American planes you have, and how many Asian planes
So Oprah has no chance.
They don't come here.
You have to go after people that come, not the ones who don't come.
Chinese and Indians and Japanese.
I told him, but I mean ... but he has everybody telling him different things.
Too many advisors.
And they advise for different reasons.
To please him, to please themselves.
Who knows why they advise?
So who ... you've seen lots of prime ministers in this country.
I mean, you can go back as far ...
Well, I had problems with Howard as well.
But who is the best prime minister you think we've ever had?
Well, Howard's very good.
He was a good all-rounder.
He made a mistake at the end, so you know.
Because he didn't believe that ...
He didn't believe that Australians couldn't pay high rates of interest.
I told him, they can't, look.
But anyway, he did a terrific job, I think.
He was very good.
And he was a good type of a fellow, like he got on with everybody.
I hope that Dutton will get in.
He seems to be okay too, but still hasn't got in yet first, but we'll see.
But we need somebody that's definitely different.
From whatever there is now.
That's not because they're nice people, not nice people.
They just stick to the rules and there are no rules written for 20 or 50 years ahead.
There's no rules.
You have to make them yourself.
Harry, you've recently, which is pretty unusual, you've done something pretty crazy.
You've had a book written.
Is it like a biography of your life?
Is it about your life?
What's the name of your book?
I just wrote the book.
It's just arrived from China.
What do you mean it's from China?
You had it printed in China.
And why did you decide to do this?
Why did you decide to do this now at your age?
Do you want to set the record or for your grandchildren?
To write the book when I'm young, it's too early because it's still a long way to go.
Because I'm at the right age.
I'm at the right age so I can write the book because I've done most of it.
There's not much left.
So it doesn't matter.
Now the main thing is that I find the people that will continue.
That's the main thing.
They seem to want, which is very important.
Now, so this was the right time and I thought that some people always ask me, Harry, how
How can we make it?
So I wrote how I did it.
So if they can do the same way, well, they'll be all right.
So the book gets published or is being released in December this year.
It's called High Rise, Harry.
It's like a big thick book.
Is it easy to read?
Is it easy to read or is it-
Very easy to read.
Very easy to read.
And it's about your life story, how you made it.
What sort of things that you did.
So what one or two things would you say to some ambitious young man or woman who just
wants to make it?
What are the characteristics that Harry Trigubov used to become successful?
They must go into the right field.
Like I was in textiles and I pointed out 70 years ago that it's rubbish.
So it's no good wasting time there.
Somebody will do it.
Then you have to work hard.
Because if you work hard, there's a chance they will work hard.
But if you will bludge, they will bludge more.
So you won't last.
Then I think it's important to collect the people around you who have the same ambition.
If they don't want to succeed, then you won't succeed.
They have to all succeed together.
It's a joint effort and they must get on with each other.
That's very important.
So if you can do all that, then I think you have a chance because there is always demand
So you have to find out where is the demand and you go there.
So you feature in the book.
You talk quite a lot about women.
How important are women in business in terms of your success?
Like where do you, a lot of people don't, especially us older generation, we tend not
to have dealt with women that much because that's just the way society was.
But in your case, women have been very important in your success.
What would you say about that?
Women at that time didn't have.
They didn't have high education as a group.
I'm not talking about academics, they're not with me, they do something else.
And they had families.
So when I had a milk run, I remember we used to deliver five, six bottles of milk at night.
So they had big families.
And they were responsible to bring up the children.
They had this responsibility.
Which was very, very important.
And I found that they would try their best and stop at nothing to succeed.
They wanted to succeed.
That's why I like them.
The women today and the men, they are much closer together to what they used to be.
In those days, they were very, very different.
But I've always admired the women.
Because they are very, very different.
Because they had common sense.
If you talk to her, I'm talking the ones in the beginning, right?
They had common sense.
It was very easy to talk.
I found very easy for me to talk to them.
And I think that they are very important now.
And I look forward and hope that they will succeed again.
Because, as I say, it's easy to succeed.
It's easy to succeed.
It's easy to talk to them.
Harry, you're 91.
And God willing, you'll live to another 20 years.
But maybe in 10 years, you might want to decide to retire.
Who's going to take over your empire?
At present, I have two people who are quite good.
You're already running a succession plan.
And I want them to come up with ideas and do what they can.
Because in our company, people always came from within.
It's not that I went and I picked up somebody there, here.
You're not headhunting.
You don't go headhunting.
You watch them rise through the ranks.
And you select from your own people.
But I understand the business.
So you have succession plans.
You have succession plans.
How many years have you been doing this for now?
Succession plans?
Or is it just more recently that you've decided to-
Well, not many years, maybe three, four years, but continue.
How is it that Harry Trigubov is so confident about his longevity?
Like it doesn't even seem like something you think about.
Like it's like you think you'll live forever.
Or do you sometimes think to yourself, well, maybe, you know, it's, you know, I'm going
to, you know, it's the years are going by, I got so many Christmas left, you know, so
So when I started, they laughed at me.
They said, I didn't know building.
I said, I don't know building, you're quite right.
But I'll pay the bill.
That's what I know, very good.
Now I'm very lucky.
See, the body gets old.
You take my ears.
They were never good, they're hopeless now.
You take my eyes, always very good, very good now, same.
The eye doctors, they can't believe that they're so good.
So getting old doesn't mean that all of you gets old.
So just as I could build without knowing how to build, but I got the right people, I believe
A few more years.
A few more years.
Hopefully more than a few more years, Harry.
I want to interview you again in a couple of years time.
And what do you reckon is your, I mean, you've built a lot of buildings.
What is one of the fondest memories of a building that you built that you feel very fond about?
You know, maybe, is it World Square for example?
Or is it the Bondo Junction stuff?
Or is it what you're doing in the Gold Coast?
Where do you have the fondest memories of, say, a building that you really love?
Well, I think it's really, really important to us to have a building that we really, really,
What I love the most is when I solve problems.
That's what I love most.
I will tell you how I solved that problem.
And they make me problems all the time.
So that's what I like the best.
Not the actual structure.
The problem with the actual structure is today this is the best, tomorrow that's better.
They get better all the time.
So that's very nice to see, yes.
But I like to solve problems.
Which is one of the examples you gave is the Bondi Junction problem, building on top of
a bus depot and a railway station.
Probably no one else could, or maybe someone else could, but no one else really wanted
to take on the problem.
No, they wouldn't think of it.
And that's where you excel though.
You say that when someone else doesn't want to do something somewhere, I will do it.
And I can solve it.
That's what I love.
That's what you love the most.
That's what I love.
So in terms of, let's talk about investors.
They want to buy some property for, they'd like to buy an apartment, okay?
Where would you say for young Australians would be the best place to invest in today?
I always say in a pharmacy.
See, people get old.
The doctors get better, so there's more medicine.
The government always pays.
Become pharmacist.
I like pharmacist.
What about property though?
Where would you, where would they buy real estate?
Where would you sell it?
Say, go buy an apartment for good investment.
Real estate is good, but to build is very complicated.
Especially today.
They made it complicated.
Well, the system.
But would you say, because I mean, we were talking earlier on outside, but Gold Coast
looks like it's not the same as it used to be.
Gold Coast used to go up and go down and go up and down.
It was a bit, lots of variations.
Gold Coast seems to be one of your more preferred areas right now.
Because I say that my main problem are the councils.
And the councils there in Brisbane as well are much easier to work with.
Because with these fellows here, you don't know what they'll do tomorrow.
Come up with crazy ideas.
They don't seem to think about the consequences.
The idea might be all right, but there are consequences.
So Harry, last question, and I really appreciate your time today.
What do you want to be, and maybe you never thought of this, but what do you want to
be remembered for?
I mean, what do you want to, one day-
I'm not really worried what I'm remembered for.
I say, I was never like Malcolm, he said he wanted to be-
He wanted to be the prime minister.
I never wanted to be anything.
Malcolm Turnbull.
I just wanted to do my job and that's all I did.
And are you happy with, if you look back now, do you reckon you've done a pretty good job?
I'm very happy with what I did.
So you're the happiest you've ever been, sort of, within reason?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm very happy, yeah.
You'd like to be able to run a hundred meters flat out, but I mean, other than that, given
Yeah, very happy, yeah.
That's, you know, not many people can say that.
Not many people can say that.
Because, well, as I said, when I started to build, I couldn't build.
When I'm old, I can't do many things.
But as long as I can do the important thing, forget about the rest.
Nobody can do everything.
That's what we should all remember.
You have to pick something where you are good at, which is important.
That's your answer to success.
Don't try to be good at everything.
Because nobody can be good at everything.
But you have to be good at the important thing that only you will know when you work.
Harry Trigubov, I want to thank you for sharing your wisdom.
I want to thank you for actually sharing your time here, to be frank with you.
And mate, good luck with the book, High Rise Harry, out in the bookstores in December 2024.
Thank you very much.
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