Well, here at the Topher Project, I work very hard to help you to cut through the crap and make sense of the nonsense as the world changes around us.
And one story that I want to go deep into and will be doing in this interview with John Adams today is the story of the 1975 pedophile tapes that were broadcast on our ABC at taxpayers’ expense back in 1975. This might be a slightly longer interview than my normal because there’s a lot going on here. Not just the fact that 50 years ago our taxpayer-funded broadcaster was essentially advertising pedophilia. I’m not going to play the actual tape in this video. Those of you that want to find that, you’ll find that on John Adams’ page, Adam’s Economics. I’ll put the link to that in the description. I won’t be playing the tape in this interview. But it certainly amounts to advertising for pedophilia that was being broadcast on our national broadcaster. But then comes the cover-up. Not only the cover-up back in 1975, but what appears to me to be a cover-up that is enduring to this day. And in fact, it is only because of my guest today, John Adams, tenacity and curiosity that this recording has even come to light because the ABC have previously lied about it being destroyed when in fact it was not. This story is quite a rabbit hole. So, buckle up, get comfortable, grab yourself a cup of tea, and settle in for my guest today, John Adams. John, thank you for joining me here on the Topher Project.
[From video] Thank you, Topher. [End video]
Now John, this is a story that for a lot of us, I mean, who are in this game, we’re in political commentary, etc., we were aware that something had happened back in 1975, but the vast majority of Australians were not. That is a long time ago now. So, can you tell us a little bit about the 1975 era? What happened? What was broadcast? And why did it cause such a ripple? Why are we still talking about it 50 years later?
[From video]
I would be happy to. Now, one thing I want to say too is that in your introduction, you said people in politics are actually aware of the 1975 tape. The reality is that most people are not aware even in politics. And the only reason why I was able to learn about the tape was because Gerald Henderson wrote a number of newspaper columns for the Australian newspaper. And back in 2015, there was, I think I was just going through the Australian newspaper website and I saw one of his columns. I decided to read it. [End video]
I’m sorry to interrupt my interview with John Adams. My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and this is what I do. I bring you stories that matter with perspective that helps you to make sense of the nonsense and cut through the crap. This is an extended interview with John Adams. And the deeper down this rabbit hole we go, the crazier it does become. And the tragedy is this is not just a historical issue of something that happened in 1975. What this points to are problems and crimes that are happening very much today and victims that are still being created to this very day. We’re going to get into more of that later in the interview.
If you appreciate what I’m doing here at the Topher Project, as serious as this story is, and it kind of feels a bit weird for me to say, “Hey, help me to keep this going in a story like this.” But I do need to say that because I do want to keep going and bring you stories like this one. You can support me a couple of ways. You can buy a coffee via the button that is at topherfield.net. Or if you haven’t checked out my books, DVDs, and merch, you can do that. I have books on civil disobedience. “Good People Break Bad Laws” being a key slogan of mine, and that is exactly what John Adams has done in releasing this tape. There’s also “Good Christians Break Bad Laws,” which is about the theology of civil disobedience. There’s my DVD documentary of Battleground Melbourne if you haven’t seen that. And everything you buy, as well as my t-shirts and a range of designs in t-shirts and hoodies, everything you buy is going to support me as I keep the Topher Project going and keep bringing you vitally important, life-changing, really Australia-changing stories like this one in this interview with John Adams.
[From video]
He refers to this 1975 tape about pedestry um and that was sort of interesting because I never had heard that before and I didn’t know what it really was about. And it sort of, you know, that column stayed in the back of my mind for many years, and in 2023 I just decided to go and approach the ABC and I said, “There’s a column here from 2015 that talks about this recording. Do you have it?” And they said, “We do.” I said, “May I have a copy?” And they basically go to the archives department, sign what they call a personal use release form, which is a series of legal conditions to get the tape. Yeah, pay some money and then you get the tape. So I got the tape and, to be honest, I didn’t actually understand. So, even though there was a description in 2015 in a newspaper column about the tape, I didn’t actually know what I was listening to. I didn’t actually understand the context of what was happening in terms of 1975.
So, it’s only until you hear the tape do you actually understand that this is a very significant piece of media. It’s probably the only recording in mainstream media in Australian history where they are actively promoting pedophilia. I remember the first time I heard this, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. In the 1970s, there was a very big push around decriminalization of homosexuality, and mixed into that movement which was obviously pushed by center-left individuals was this push around pedophilia. There were lots of people across the western world US, UK, Australia trying to normalize pedophilia as part of this gay rights movement. This recording by the ABC, hosted by Richard Neville who wrote a book in 1970 called Power Play in which he also admitted having sex with an underage girl in the UK was significant. He was in his late 20s; she was about 14. So, he basically was on the record saying that he engaged in pedophilia himself. And so it just so happened that he went on to promote this concept through this radio interview.
What was happening in New South Wales, in particular, was a chronic pedophile network that was spanning all the way from Newcastle through Sydney to Wollongong. For those that don’t know, I actually live in Wollongong, and one of the most notorious pedophiles in the state’s history comes from Wollongong. It’s a guy called Tony Bevan; he was the Wollongong Lord Mayor in the 1960s. Then one of his successors was a guy called Frank Arkell, who was the Lord Mayor from 1973 through to 1991. He was also a pedophile. The Wood Royal Commission, which happened in the 1990s, mentioned Bevan and actually named a number of pedophiles. They referred to Bevan as evil because he was not just a pedophile, he was a pimp.
So, you had this massive um criminal network across the state um that was that was actually engaging in in pedophilia. And um for those that have heard this famous uh speech by Senator Hefan in 2015 talking about um you know coverups in terms of judges and lawyers and uh politicians etc. Uh he made a reference to a boy brothel called Castellas. So, you had this massive network of pedophilia happening across New South Wales. You had this boy brothel in terms of Castellos. you had um the police taking money to protect pedophilia and this was in fact established in the Wood Roll Commission.
So, you had a lot of people doing a lot of really evil stuff in the 1970s. Um and some of it was for pleasure, some of it was pushing a political agenda particularly around homosexual rights. Um and then obviously in that context we have this uh recording uh um that happened in the 14th of July 1975 that that that was hosted by Richard Neville um um and and three pedophiles and a teenager and and in that recording they basically describe um you know what they do, why they do it, how they do it um and it is the most explicit um description of pedophilia um in the in terms of Australian history and um and yeah and so um for and and you know after I received the obtained the recording and you know I thought about there’d be a right time to release it and particularly in the context of the Epstein files um and how you’ve got um you know and obviously Jimmy Savile BBC and you have this you know all of these scandals around elite pedophilia around the world and you know um that narrative has really um taken hold in western countries that there is something nefarious going on at the top end of society particularly with children. Um so I thought given that context 2025 is probably the right time to um talk about the tape. Um yeah and and we started talking about it about a month ago on my YouTube channel which is called in the interest of the people. [End video]
So this is something that I’ve heard a lot in my time as a political commentator. I’ve been doing this for 16 years and throughout that time I’ve had people continuously coming to me saying, you know, why don’t you talk about the the pedophiles that are really running the world and running the country and I’ve got to admit it’s something that I’ve brushed to one side. It just seemed it it didn’t seem credible. It didn’t seem like it could have uh much real substance to it.
And yes, are there individuals who are pedophiles? Of course there are. Unfortunately, that is true. And are some of those people in positions of power? Yes, of course some of them are. But the idea that there was some sort of a coordinated effort just seemed too outlandish to me. But I have to eat my hat here and say, well, what’s been revealed from these 1975 tapes and what I’ve now come to understand out of what came out of the the Wood Royal Commission and what we’re coming to understand now, as you mentioned, the Epstein situation, so much more. It really does seem that even to this day, pedophilia runs a lot deeper in high society and amongst people in positions of power than what most of us in including people like myself who do try to pay attention to the world, what most of us have previously recognized.
One of the things that concerns me that’s really come out in your work as you’ve begun to talk about this is the apparent attempt by the ABC. We don’t have certainty yet as to whether this was done in ignorance or whether this was a a malicious attempt, but to deny the existence of the tape. They did this repeatedly. Can you give us a bit of the background in relation to the ABC and their statements in history around their claims of whether this tape even still existed?
[From video]
Sure. So, yeah. So, so you have a series of statements that happened in 1975 and then you had some activity in the Australian Senate in 2016 and 2018 by Senator. So, last week um and and here’s a big revelation that that really shocked me last week.
Um, so, so if your audience doesn’t know, I published the uh tape on my look, we started off on YouTube on the 13th of October, which was two Mondays ago. Uh and then within four hours, uh the tape was taken off YouTube. So I reposted, uh the the whole recording on X. Um and we’ve had over 230,000 views on X. Um so so people can go look and you know uh they can look at it there. But in the in the subsequent days, Gerard Henderson uh contacted me and we had a couple of phone calls and um and obviously as I said before that the how did I learn about the tape is is through one of his columns. So, and he shocked me and he said he never heard the tape. And I said to him, Gerard, you’ve been writing about this for 15 years. How is it possible you you never heard the tape and you’ve been writing about this? So, you know, he said he based his columns on newspaper articles.
And one of the reasons why he said to me that he never chased the tape was because in 1975 the ABC said publicly that the tape had been destroyed. Um, so so, so I thought that was quite, you know, extraordinary that that and again I Um to be completely upfront, I haven’t found any specific source or reference to that claim that the tape had been destroyed in 1975, but that’s what Henderson tells me. Now, the Abetz’s situation in 2016, 2018 came from Gerard Henderson. So, he provided a file um of newspaper clippings about this issue to Eric Abetz and Eric Abetz asked some questions in 2016 and 2018.
Now, the reason why I’m confident this is not an accident about what the ABC did with the parliament was because in 2016, Eric Abetz asked the ABC point blank, would they be prepared to offer the Australian people an apology for promoting pedophilia on the radio and they basically, and they said on the record, they do not apologize for the broadcast. Um, and that was a response to a question of notice back in 2016. And then, when there were further questions in 2018, um, the ABC said, quote, there the ABC has no record of the interview. And it’s like, well, how could there be no record of the interview when I was able to get the tape from the ABC?
So, now in the last fortnight, um, this issue’s been raised again in the Australian Parliament by Senator Malcolm Roberts. Um, and the new managing director, um, basically said he, you know, he doesn’t know how the, um, incorrect response was provided to parliament in 2018, um, in terms of that there’s no record of the interview. But I mean, I mean, he basically, he wrote a new letter to parliament saying that, you know, the official, um, you know, the official position is that the ABC does have the tape. So, in 2025 they found they did have the tape, uh, and that was only after I was able to write to the federal minister basically saying that the ABC had engaged in a deliberate cover-up of the whole situation. Um, and parliament now has been, um, correctly informed.
However, uh, you know, Topher, if I or you lied to parliament or to the police or courts, we’d be in a lot of trouble. But when the ABC deliberately, um, you know, doesn’t apologize for promoting criminal misconduct and then, and then lies about it or they just say, oh well, sorry, it was some sort of clerical error. I mean, and that’s why, um, people have lost confidence in the mainstream media because you see this double standard. You see a lack of accountability. People want the truth, um, and they don’t feel that the mainstream media is giving them the truth and that’s why they come to listen to you. They come to listen to me. Um, uh, and obviously they’re looking for people who they can trust. Um, the ABC on this occasion has again shown itself to be, you know, not only, um, well again promoting criminal misconduct, um, promoting dangerous ideas in society, but obviously those people on that tape talking about pedophilia, um, those men, you know, were evil monsters who created a whole bunch of victims across Sydney, and in terms of other parts of New South Wales.
Um, now, as we go forward, um, in the story, there is a hunt as to who are the people on the tape. Um, and, and, you know, I just had some communication with John Ruddock’s office in the last couple of days and they have received an email from a member of the public who says that he’s a victim of pedophilia from the 1970s. He knows exactly who those individuals on the tape were. Wow. Um, and that’ll be interesting to see if we can identify those people. And obviously now in relation to Fred Nile, Fred Nile took a recording live on the 14th of July 1975. The following day, uh, on the 15th of July, he provided a copy to the Newsweek to the police minister several weeks ago. Yeah. And we’re waiting to see if we can get a response from the police to say, well, did they investigate? Did they not investigate? Um, were these predators taken off the streets or did the police allow these people to continue to roam around and cause more havoc? [End video]
Well, this is very much a developing story, but it is developing because of what you did in actually bringing this tape to light. Now, you mentioned earlier that in order to get the tape, you had to sign some conditions around personal use only, etc. Now, there was word that the ABC had actually, I’m led to believe, and please correct me if I’m wrong, had essentially threatened legal action or sent a legal letter to you trying to get you to not release the tape publicly. And like you’ve said, it is available on your account. I would suggest only those with strong stomachs go and check it out. I began to listen to it and I had to turn it off after only a few minutes. Uh, there’s certain things that I just don’t need inside my head. So, I’m very grateful that it’s on the public record and that it’s been revealed, but it’s not recommended listening to, to be quite honest. Uh, but it’s such an important thing that you’ve done. And it seems to me, if my information is correct, the ABC actually tried to threaten you out of publicly revealing this tape that they had claimed didn’t exist.
[From video]
Yes. Yes. So, what happened was, 24 hours prior to publication, so on the 12th of October, I put out a statement on social media saying that I was going to break the legal agreement with the ABC and actually publish the tape. Um, and we were going to publish it at 5:00 on the 13th of October. Um, and then, and then, so basically, with our recording, Martin North, my co-host, and I, we did a five-minute sort of introduction to the recording. Uh, and then he prepackaged it up. We uploaded it into YouTube, and at 4:58 on Monday the 13th of October, I look. So, I’m literally in the car driving to pick up my daughter from her dance class and I get a text message from a lawyer at the ABC saying, “Please refer to our email that we’ve just sent to you.” Like, literally with 120 seconds left to go on the clock. And so now, um, I had no physical capacity to respond to the email or to stop the publication of the tape. And my co-host, who lives in England, um, he literally was walking the dogs in the morning, so he wasn’t anywhere near his computer. So that’s why the tape went live.
But basically, they said that they own the copyright, which is factually true. They haven’t given me consent to publish the tape, which is correct. And they said that I’ve signed a form agreeing that I would only use it for personal capacity, which I did. They said that if I breached the agreement, this would be a very serious matter. They would seek injunctive relief through the courts and they would have me face financial penalty for any uh costs or damages that were awarded um uh you know that would award against me in terms of any litigation.
So, yeah. So I mean a couple points on that, Topher. The first thing is, if they were serious about an injunction, uh, why write to me with 120 seconds to go on the clock? They could have gone on Monday morning to the court and they could have, you know, sent me a formal letter saying, “Well, we’re seeking a court injunction. Don’t do anything because this matter is now before the courts.” So, they never did that. Now, at this point, now that the genie is out of the bag, and so, while we have published it in terms of various forums, a lot of people have now copied the tape that people put on Rumble and Bit shoot. People have put parts of the tape on Instagram, etc. So, it’s out, it’s out there now. So, um, my view is that there’s no need for injunctive relief because what’s the injunction going to achieve? So, um, so, basically I don’t see any possibility of, in some form, of injunctive relief by the, uh, by the ABC.
So, I mean, the ABC may have a course of action if they want to sue me for breach of copyright, but on the other hand, um, they said on the public record that the tape doesn’t meet current editorial standards and basically they were never going to use the tape again. So, um, I don’t think that the ABC can claim loss of financial revenue, um, or in terms of financial loss. So, generally, when you breach copyright and you seek to sue, you’re suing because someone’s made money off your work. Well, one, we didn’t make any money off the work. Two, we said publicly this is we released this because this was important to advance the public interest. [End video]
It is in the public interest. Absolutely.
[From video]
Um, and, and, yeah, and in terms of the third element, I don’t see how the ABC can claim they’ve lost any money in this action. So, so even though I received this legal threat, um, all I can say is it’s been more than a week and a half and I have yet to hear anything further from the lawyers of the ABC or any independent counsel representing the ABC. So, um, now it is possible they still bring some sort of legal action against me. Sure. Uh, but, but, you know, um, one of the topics, Topher to that I think has really gripped a lot of Australians, particularly in the post-COVID era, is corruption. Um, I mean, when you start to look at, um, what are the main topics that people are concerned about, uh, and whether you look at published polls, if you look at surveys for example, the Australian National University or other published polls trust in government is at record lows. Trust in the media, trust in big business, trust in the ruling elite has collapsed.
Um, so, you have this formal data, and then when I talk to people informally, a lot of people think that we have entrenched corruption in Australia, um, and that we don’t actually have even though we have a democracy the ability to influence public events. Um, and because a lot of people are frustrated with this whole situation, once we did our first show in our new season on YouTube, and our first episode was called Australia’s Secret Pedophile Tape, I had actually asked the ABC in an email if they would release me from the conditions I signed. They said no. Then I, um, under federal law, the Federal Minister for Communication has the legal power to direct the ABC to publish content on their digital platforms if it’s in the national interest. So, I wrote a formal letter to the minister and I encouraged my audience members to write to the minister as well. Uh, within a few weeks, she wrote back and basically said that she would not intervene because she respects the independence of the ABC.
Um, so, having gone through this process and just basically seeing roadblock after roadblock, whether it’s, um, you know, parliament or the minister, or the ABC, the real intent of what they wanted was just to keep this piece of history buried and for the public not to be informed about what the real agenda is all about. And so, because I, you know, I genuinely believe where that corruption is happening right throughout the government, and when I say that I say that as a, you know, as a former public servant, as someone who’s served in federal parliament as an economic adviser. So, you know, I’m not someone from the outside throwing stones. I’ve been inside the system. I know a lot of the characters. Um, I know that our political system is not working. Part of it is incompetence, part of it is politicians being out of touch, but you do have a massive amount of corruption happening inside the government as well. Um, and because I can see this in real time, I just said to my, like, you know, um, I just got frustrated. I just said to Martin, “We’re going to publish the tape,” um, and whatever the consequences are, I’ll face them on the other side. Um, and here we are. [End video]
It’s an extraordinary story and, you have done an enormous public service and I thank you for it. It’s been done at considerable risk to yourself. As you say, there may yet be some legal repercussions, but I can tell you that I won’t be the only one, but I certainly will be making a lot of noise about it if the ABC chooses to spend our taxpayers’ money on lawyers trying to pursue you for releasing something which they so obviously tried to cover up.
But I think there are two big stories here for me. One is obviously the fact that it happened in the first place and that particular social movement. That particular social moment was on the back of the sexual revolution, the late 1960s and into the 70s, the rejection of social conservatism and the nuclear family values of the late 1940s and 1950s, the immediate post-war years. People really were pushing boundaries and trying to promote every single possible agenda, and unfortunately, as you’ve revealed from these 1975 tapes, pushing pedophilia along with everything else. But more recently is this cover-up. And 40 years later, in the 2010s, for the ABC to be stating that the tape doesn’t exist, or to say that it’s not in the public interest why not 40 years later? Surely we can have a conversation. Now it’s 50 years later, as you’ve done what you’ve done today and this month, and surely we can have an honest conversation about what happened. And yet it seems that that’s still not possible.
John, you’ve got a couple of things in the works. You’re waiting on responses from the New South Wales Police regarding what happened back in 1975. You are waiting on, I’m guessing, John Ruddick MP’s office regarding this individual who claims to know the identity of the people in the tape, and you’re waiting on the ABC to see what they’re going to do. What do you see as the next steps coming out of this? What do you hope to see and what were you hoping to accomplish by putting this tape out into the public the way that you did?
[From video]
Well, okay. So, I mean, very interesting question in terms of what was my objective. Now, Topher, I find it instructive that you said that you could only listen to a few minutes, but you couldn’t go any further. My strong position is this: if you want to conquer evil, you need to be able to understand what it is, and you need to actually understand who those individuals are that commit that evil so that you can fully understand the practice, the risk, and then obviously try to mitigate it.
So, Australia has had a massive problem with pedophilia going back some time, and pedophilia is not a historical issue. Um, for example, in terms of the last 12 months, we’ve seen a state MP in New South Wales being convicted for rape Gareth Ward MP, former member for Kiama. And that’s someone who I actually know. When I first got into politics back in 2005, I joined the Liberal Party at the University of Wollongong, and one of the people who was there on the day that I joined, who helped me join, was Gareth Ward.
So, I know about him and his history. Then you’ve got the former member for Pittwater, who’s also been charged for pedophilia, someone called Rory Ammon. While this tape represents a situation from the 1970s, there is a story that’s been brewing in New South Wales for the last 10–15 years. Some of it’s on the public record like Gareth Ward and Rory Ammon, but then there’s a whole other story that I’ve been told by multiple people that speaks to a morally corrupt political organization in the Liberal Party, but also systemic corruption. That other story I haven’t said anything publicly yet. Obviously, that comes with a lot more defamation risk because we’re talking about people who are alive who have done certain things over the last 10–15 years, and it talks about using sex as a political weapon, using it as a form of control, in terms of being able to initiate people into a political process and then control them for the rest of their political career. So, we’re talking about some really dark stuff historically and also contemporary.
My strong view is that you’ve got to hear it to actually understand what you’re dealing with. Whether it’s for me, or obviously now that tens, hundreds of thousands of people have listened to it, a lot of feedback I have received is people didn’t understand the depth of the problem until they actually hear these people boasting about raping a three-year-old boy. The fact that anyone could do that, number one, but then two, put it on the public airwaves again, for example, only in the last few weeks when I was in federal parliament, I played it for Malcolm Roberts. He said he would not have believed the story if he couldn’t hear it with his own ears.
And now, because of the Stephens allegations, Fiona Barnett, or some of these other allegations that have been swirling around for the last 20–30 years, even if you go back, Topher to the 1970s, there’s a documentary maker who has been making a documentary in New South Wales about the pedophile stories from the ’70s and ’90s. He’s interviewed about 40 victims, 25 on camera, and he said to me that even back in the 70s, people didn’t believe um in terms of what the victims were saying then, and then in terms of the current time, people say there’s a lack of evidence. Um, you know, people have different motivations for making these allegations. So, there’s always a reason why you can’t actually believe it. um um and that these allegations are not true or they should be dismissed.
But this tape is so damaging because it’s it’s a confession on the record. Um and there is no conspiracy theory. They they openly say it um on the ABC airwaves. Um and I think this is a very cultural this is a significant cultural moment because the establishment can never uh put these allegations back in the box um because because again um it is just so open um that it is undeniable what happened 50 years ago. [End video]
Well, John, this is potentially the biggest story to break this year and and possibly even for for even longer. It cuts to the very heart of who we are as a country and who we are as a society. What we will tolerate uh from a criminal point of view, but also what we will tolerate from our public servants as you’ve so so well uh articulated during this interview, the corruption, the cover up, all of that. I want to say personally a huge thank you to you for the courage to put this out there the way that you have and take the risks and give you my commitment for for what it’s worth. But I know there will be a lot of others as well uh that should anyone come after you for what you’ve done, we will certainly be making sure that you have the best possible support and help in that fight because I think you have done an enormous public service to Australia.
So, from me personally and I’m sure from all of my viewers as well, I want to thank you for what you’ve done and thank you for telling us your story here on the Topher project.
[From video] Thank you very much. [End video]
Thank you for watching. That was my interview with John Adams of Adams Economics. I’ll put some links into the description of this video so you can find him and follow his work. As he said it, it is important for people to know what’s in these tapes. I find it very difficult to stomach. There are things that I don’t want in my head. I’ve got young children of my own. Uh and the thought that there are people that can do that to their fellow human beings is is almost beyond me. However, I think John has done a very important thing by releasing what he has. And he’s right. We do need to face evil and in order to understand it and be able to stamp it out and to recognize that this isn’t just a historical issue. This is still going on to this day.
My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and I’m 100% viewer supported. So, if you appreciate that there is someone doing this kind of work and bringing these kinds of interviews, then please support me by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And also check out my books, DVDs, and merch at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.
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