James Thompson
speaker
987 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 18 Aug
James Thompson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 2.
Appearances
That's probably the best way to think about it.
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Shall we finish with one from Kai, which I think is interesting?
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Did you catch the news about Daniel Grollo declaring personal bankruptcy following the Grocon collapse?
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It really highlights how brutal the commercial construction business is, operating on razor-thin 2% to 3% margins while carrying 100% of the liability for project delays, legal disputes, and supply chain spikes is a recipe for disaster, and a single major project going wrong
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like Barangaroo Development in Sydney and Grocon's case, can send everything sideways.
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What strikes me most though is the family dynamic.
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When the Grolo empire was split back in 2012, Daniel took 100% of the high liability construction arm while the rest of the family held on to the safe income generating commercial real estate holdings.
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Looking back, it almost feels like Daniel was set up to be the ultimate bag holder for the toxic high risk side of the family business.
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Yeah, it's a shocker.
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Was Daniel sort of set up to fail?
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I mean, it's the high-risk part.
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When you get it right, it can pay off.
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But, yeah, the problem is you've always got to look for the next bit of work.
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Yeah.
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And it strikes me in construction that when the music stops, if the music stops, you know, if suddenly you can't get that next bit of work, that's when things get dangerous.
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That's why people...
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bid on these razor thin margins because they they just can't afford for the the music to stop yeah it's a national problem though i mean we're really down to for big projects there's only two or three large construction contractors because it's just such a crappy business everyone else has everyone else has abandoned it
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We need to have a, and I know the construction and engineering sector have talked about this for a long time, just better risk sharing.
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The 100% of the risk can't be carried by the construction company.
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It's got to be shared.
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Showing 701–720 of 987 · page 36 of 50
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