\u2018Disgraceful\u2019: Families told to surrender backyards<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t trust the government. They\u2019ve really come down on me,\u201d Portelli said on The Karl Stefanovic Show.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, I think once you start making a bit of noise … you\u2019ll find the system cracks down and they don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had regulatory issues to ATO issues, and I just can\u2019t handle it. I\u2019m just like, I just don\u2019t feel comfortable having all my eggs in one basket in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey froze my accounts, couldn\u2019t pay my wages, couldn\u2019t pay staff, couldn\u2019t pay my bills. They just froze it all and my accountant said he\u2019s never seen anything like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
<\/p>\n
Adrian Portelli has opened up about why he has left Australia for Dubai.<\/p>\n
The Melbourne-born entrepreneur said the decision was painful because he still believed Australia was \u201cthe best country in the world\u201d, but argued it was punishing ambition rather than rewarding it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate when they\u2019re chasing away success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re frowning upon ambition, when we should be celebrating it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The broadside comes as Portelli continues to expand his business footprint in Australia, with his second discount petrol station due to open in Adelaide on October 2 as part of his growing LMCT+ empire.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Karl Stefanovic interviews Adrian Portelli.<\/p>\n
Portelli said he had originally planned to move to Italy before ending up in Dubai, which he said had proved the right fit for his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to Dubai has been a massive eye-opener,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really want to go to Dubai, but it\u2019s a place that works for me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stefanovic agreed Australia risked losing more young business people under the weight of recent capital gains tax changes, saying many would simply pack up and leave \u2014 and Portelli agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy worry is we\u2019re going to, and we have featured on the show already, so many young people are just going to leave,\u201d Stefanovic said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung entrepreneurs are going to pick up and leave the country, which is exactly what you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Billionaire Adrian Portelli has moved to Dubai. Source: Instagram<\/p>\n
Portelli backed that view.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are chasing young entrepreneurs, very talented…Australia\u2019s got excellent skilled entrepreneurs here and just in the Middle East, we\u2019ve lost 130,000 Australians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese aren\u2019t average people. These are people of wealth and success that are moving, they are fleeing \u2013 and then we’re replacing them with people that are dependent on the government and taking resources away from Australians that need it. It\u2019s quite sad.\u201d<\/p>\n
The billionaire also reflected on his upbringing in Melbourne\u2019s St Albans, saying he came from a working-class family where both parents worked hard to keep food on the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mum worked two jobs. My dad had a full-time job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it because it\u2019s made me the person I am. We grew up with my parents instilling good values in me and my two sisters. We worked hard. We grew up surrounded by them working hard to keep food on the table and bills paid. They always put us first, so I\u2019m very grateful for my upbringing.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Self-made billionaire Adrian Portelli had humble upbringings.<\/p>\n
Portelli said time spent living alone in Los Angeles also helped shape him, recalling how difficult it was being overseas without the support of family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was just living … when you\u2019re in a country by yourself, you don\u2019t have the support network of your family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember calling my mum just crying because I was just like, \u2018Oh man, this is horrible\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said there were times he did not know how he would cover rent and bills, and remembered sleeping on the floor while getting by on discounted food.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot an apartment, and just not knowing how I\u2019m going to afford to pay the monthly bills or the rent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSleeping on the floor and eating food that I didn\u2019t want to eat because it was on special. It was a difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portelli said the experience gave him a lasting sense of gratitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you know what? All these times shape you to what you are now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve instilled these values in me where I\u2019m grateful, no matter what position I\u2019m in.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In a statement posted to Instagram, Portelli implied he had considered running for high office<\/p>\n
The interview follows Portelli\u2019s fiery social media posts in August confirming he had relocated to Dubai after planning the move for three years.<\/p>\n
At the time, he said the move had been declared to the Australian Taxation Office and denied it was tied to pressure over new gambling reforms that could hit LMCT+.<\/p>\n
He later took aim at the cost of living by posting a photo of Australian scotch steak bought in Dubai for just over $20, asking how local beef could be as cheap, or cheaper, overseas than it was in Australian supermarkets.<\/p>\n
Portelli has also flagged political ambitions, saying he wants to help \u201crun the show\u201d and hold the country\u2019s leaders accountable.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralians deserve better and we should never be afraid to demand better from the people entrusted to lead us,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Portelli has launched a fresh spray at Australia, declaring he\u2019s fled to Dubai because he no longer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-896252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}